One reason for our relegation might be the fact that we had 10 non-maxed riders in our roster this year. Four out of them were loan-ins and have returned to their home teams, while we loaned out two riders - which means that we now have a total of 8 own riders who took another development step this year.
This in turn is rather good news for the future, even though it currently doesn't look quite as bright as it could have. Let's take a look at the current and new "versions" of those riders!
Gino Mäder 4 -> Max (Stage Race)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2021
69
75
70
73
72
74
75
64
67
64
70
67
74
2022
69
77
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
64
70
67
76
Gino was the first Swiss talent we signed in our inaugural season, and after a PT year on loan with Generali, he now returns as a fully developed rider.
He looks very much like a slightly weaker version of Colin Stüssi (Team Puma - SAP); especially his puncheur capacities are a bit lower. Because of this as well as his rather poor acceleration, he's unfortunately not really predestined to be our future GC leader. He'll however be a very important domestique in stage races; even more if there's a TTT.
If we can find some extra sponsor money, maybe we'll work on some of his weaknesses in the future, as it'd be a pity if there was no more "real" Swiss stage racer when Patrick Schelling starts to decline after the next season. That would probably not be smart in terms of optimizing the budget, but it would be great considering the focus on Swiss riders.
Szymon Rekita 4 -> Max (Stage Race)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2021
71
56
61
77
68
71
71
62
69
69
62
73
76
2022
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Szymon joined us this year as a pretty experienced rider already, and thanks to a few PT wildcard races was able to gain enough experience for completing his development. He'll very likely be our TT leader next year, and as such should be among the CT's strongest contenders.
He's obviously not suited at all to bumpy races, but already this year he's shown his qualities in flat ones. He didn't get many notable TT results - which is pretty normal in PCT as a non-maxed TTer - but also tried his luck in a couple of breakaways. Let's do the same next year and win a few TTs, and we'll be happy!
Stefan Bissegger 3 -> 4 (Track-TT)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2021
71
66
67
73
69
73
68
60
70
71
64
70
72
2022
73
66
68
76
71
75
70
60
72
72
64
71
75
Max
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
After two years of development, Stefan - a 2020 signing - is slowly approaching his peak. The plan was to send him to a GT next season, allowing him to gain the required experience - well, he'll very probably do one, but unfortunately not wearing our jersey.
We went for the Track-TT path with him this year, allowing him to further improve his sprint. Besides becoming one of the top Swiss TTers - probably #1 after the 2023 season (and Dillier's second decline) - he's shaping up to be a great rider for breakaways on flat-ish stages, or one for late attacks. We're excited to get him back fully maxed for 2023!
Alexys Brunel 3 -> 4 (Time Trial)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2021
72
64
69
73
68
73
69
66
61
64
67
65
73
2022
74
65
70
76
70
76
71
66
61
64
69
66
76
Max
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Alexys' situation is very similar to Stefan's. Just like our Swiss TT talent, he'll now nead a PT loan in 2022 to reach his full potential. He'll be as strong a time trialist as Stefan, but we decided to focus slightly more on pure TTing this year, including some minor developments on uphill roads, too.
We'll definitely hope for promotion next year, as having two very similar riders on a CT roster in 2023 wouldn't be the best idea. But we'll let him fully develop next year and then we'll see where the road takes us!
Mauro Schmid 1 -> 3 (2x ClimberV1)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2021
71
70
71
67
69
74
69
69
69
72
71
73
65
2022
71
73
74
67
69
76
71
69
69
75
74
73
65
Max
72
76
79
68
71
78
73
69
70
79
78
74
66
Mauro is definitely the most promising talent we've signed so far - and he already proved it this year! He collected way more points than some of his more experienced colleagues combined - most often from breakaways.
Which is what we expect him to do next year as well. We're going the hills route with him - meaning that after two more years of development, he'll take over the role of lead puncheur from Gianni Moscon. He'll be as strong as the Italians on pure hills - but hey, look at the mountain stat, his potential sprint and acceleration, and you clearly see that he'll be quite a different rider. With this amazing skillset, he'll probably have a career-long fight with Marc Hirschi to be Switzerland's #1 puncheur. Patrick Müller is great on pure hills, too, but he can't really match Mauro's and Hirschi's overall skillset.
The only questions we currently have concern on one hand his future wage, and whether we'll be able to bring him up to the next level on our own. We hope that the answers to both questions are positive - and then he'll already be a really important rider for us next year!
Robin Froidevaux 1 -> 3 (Track-Sprint, Hills)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2021
67
62
67
63
67
67
63
61
68
69
68
67
65
2022
69
63
69
63
69
69
65
61
71
72
69
67
66
Max
73
64
70
63
72
72
75
63
76
76
69
68
68
Being listed just after the team's top talent is a bit rough for Robin, as his potential skillset doesn't look great in comparison. However, we still think that he deserves some attention.
The initial - and to date current - plan was to make him develop into a good leadout rider, who doesn't fear speedbumps too much. We think that Robin is on a good way to get there - the big open question however is whether leadouts are really helpful. But even so, we believe that he'd be a good rider to send to flat C2 races as a PCT team (which we'll hopefully be again in the future).
Gergely Szarka 1 -> 3 (Track-Sprint, Hills)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2021
70
62
66
60
71
68
65
60
71
71
64
65
65
2022
73
62
66
60
71
70
67
60
74
74
64
65
68
Max
77
62
67
61
72
73
76
60
78
78
64
66
72
Just like Robin, Gergely was a stagiare last year and earned a full contract for the 2021 season - during which he was loaned out to BWT Hyundai. He looks to become one of those sprinters who are pretty averse to all kinds of non-flat roads - but we've seen this year that sprinters that are able to ride a high speed on the flat can be pretty successful.
He'd already be a really useful breakaway rider next year - the question is just whether we'll find a roster spot for yet another talent. We believe that he'll be a solid sprinter no matter what, and it'd be great to have him with us!
Jason Tesson 1 -> 2 (ClimberV1)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2021
68
63
68
60
70
69
64
60
69
71
63
65
60
2022
68
64
69
60
70
70
65
60
69
72
64
65
60
Max
69
69
76
61
72
73
68
60
70
78
70
66
61
After having been a Stagiaire two years in a row, Jason has now gained enough experience to get his first level-up. It's not much yet, but he still slightly improved his base skills.
On the long term, we can see him develop into a good KoM hunter, having a nice acceleration. However, it's unfortunately going to be hard to fit in a 24y.o. level 2 into a CT budget next year - but we're sure someone else will pick him up!
Overall, there are definitely some highlights this year despite having just relegated. With Gino Mäder, the first talent maxes out this year, which is something special. Mauro Schmid is a great talent which we're looking forward to see on the roads next year and in years to come, and with Stefan Bissegger, we have yet another talent who'll be among Switzerland's best once maxed out!
On the other hand, we'll have to see what we'll do with the non-Swiss talents - we're hoping to find a roster spot for most of them, but right now we definitely can't promise anything to anyone.
And this concludes our second-last official HQ post of the year. The final one will be the NC/WC review - and the NCs have been pretty successful so far, so stay tuned!
Agree Mader is not a long term leader but should have no trouble scoring well at the CT level. I really like Brunel, with his strong TT and solid HI/MT backed up by great Res, perfect for those combo races with TTs and a few hills or mts where guys like him can hang on.
Also pretty impressive depth in the development program.
Wow wow wow, the Jura time trial department definitely looks to be great in the future. That Schmid guy doesn't seem to bad either, and I believe Mäder will be a decent scoring option in at least CT already this season. Some mtn (or TT?) training next season (2023) might be interesting though.
Very nice set of riders indeed! My only concern with developing Schmid in this way is the low stamina, but I guess there's not a ton that could be done to fix that.
UU I definitely think that Brunel and/or Bissegger are TTers that could be worth spending some training on, given their rather solid Mo/Hi. I mean, Zmorka has often showed what can be possible for good TTers even in medium-difficulty stage races, so there's some potential for sure
Nemo TT future looks good indeed - but I guess that's only true if we can go back up to PCT in 2023. I'm afraid having lots of good TTers isn't really the way to go in CT with small roster and budget...
Mäder should be useful, yeah, but for 2022 we'll still need some kind of a "leader" if we can't keep Nairo (which will very probably be the case). He's definitely on the "potential training" list - although just because of his nationality. When being purely rational, that would be out of the question due to his mediocre backup stats.
WJ Until now, I felt like stamina was one of the stats having the least impact, besides maybe fighter. But with what cunego posted today, I share your concerns and am rethinking his development. Maybe go slightly lower in Mo and Acc but gain a bit of stamina? We'll see...
WJ Until now, I felt like stamina was one of the stats having the least impact, besides maybe fighter. But with what cunego posted today, I share your concerns and am rethinking his development. Maybe go slightly lower in Mo and Acc but gain a bit of stamina? We'll see...
[/quote]
The way that I see it, it should be easier to train MO in a fashion that makes up for the difference.
Really glad Tesson found another home and would love if he can reach his potential with you Huge fan of Schmid with that RES to stick him out from the other punchy climbers - will be a pain in our ass for years to come I'm sure. The rest of the talents are a really nice group to develop in-house to be your core for many years, and congrats on maxing your first 1>Max talent in Mäder, is a cool feeling
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
I'm a bit jealous at all that TT talent and of course Schmid should be great either way. I'm not looking forward to facing these riders in the near future
We know that we told you last time that our next - and last - official communication of the year would be about the national and world championships.
Well, the issue is - what do some bored team managers do while there's nothing else to do? Right - statistics!
More precisely, we took a look at all riders under contract with our team so far - including loan-ins - and at the points they scored so far. What we can say is that we scored a total of 5,047 points in our first three seasons, with the 2021 season being narrowly the highest scoring one ahead of 2020 (2,003 vs. 1,960). So, how were those points distributed among the riders? Here we go:
Rider
Total
2019
2020
2021
Theo Reinhardt
846
596
250
Gianni Moscon
842
459
383
Nairo Quintana
563
563
Fausto Masnada
349
183
Generali
166
Marco Guillén
303
303
Andrea Manfredi
263
105
93
65
Mirco Saggiorato
258
115
128
15
Cyrille Thièry
193
90
50
53
Tom Scully
179
179
Hermann Pernsteiner
158
110
48
Alfredo Balloni
108
108
Leonardo Basso
102
Repsol
62
40
Benedikt Mundle
97
70
27
Jan-André Freuler
94
94
Issiaka Cissé
93
34
59
Gino Mäder
74
37
37
Generali
Mikiel Habtom
63
63
Mauro Schmid
61
61
Manuel Stocker
58
12
13
33
Fabian Lienhard
58
Philips
52
6
Simon Pellaud
54
54
Thomas Boudat
39
Philips
Yorkshire
39
Stefan Bissegger
30
12
18
Szymon Rekita
26
26
Gian Piero Signorini
25
25
Max Walscheid
17
4
13
Pedro Merino Criado
11
11
Nico Brüngger
11
11
Emmanuel Morin
11
11
Robin Froidevaux
10
0
10
Pascal Eenkhoorn
8
8
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
8
8
Giorgi Tediashvili
8
8
Patrick Gamper
6
6
Gergely Szarka
5
5
BWT
Aaron Van Poucke
5
5
Alexys Brunel
5
5
Ioannidis Kiriakidis
4
4
Aimiliano Vila
2
2
Riccardo Minali
0
0
Alessandro Fedeli
0
0
Andrea Vendrame
0
Delvaux
Volvo
Brent Van Moer
0
0
Jason Tesson
0
0
Riders in italic are loan-ins.
Team names in italic are the teams the riders were on loan with in a given season
So, despite scoring massively less points than last year - not even half as many - Theo Reinhardt keeps the lead, but only because Gianni Moscon also did worse than in 2020 (even though not that much worse).
The German also keeps the record of the highest score in a single season, as new signing Nairo Quintana scored 33 points less this year than Reinhardt in 2020. The Colombian still jumps up to 3rd from nothing.
Next is Fausto Masnada, who we signed for 300k as a lvl 4 rider in our first season - and surprisingly, he got his best score so far back then! Which is a little disappointing, given that he rode the 2021 season as a maxed rider... Well, once again, the PCT level was probably too high for most of our riders. Hoping for better things to come in the future, though!
We only had one other South American besides Nairo on the team, and that was 1st season hero and team legend Marco Guillén! Riding for us for free, he set the bar for points in one season pretty high already, and was since just beaten by the previous three riders - with only Moscon scoring more than those 303 points more than once so far. Legend!
And then - finally - on 6th place we have the first rider who rode all three seasons in our jerseys. And - we admit this is rather surprising to see - it's Andrea Manfredi! We'd have thought to see Mirco Saggiorato's name here, but our Swiss veteran had a really, really bad first year after his prime - very likely the last one on the team.
Next is the 3rd out of only 4 riders who wore our jersey all this time, and it's Cyrille Thièry. Definitely not a spectacular rider, but a solid scorer, unlike some of his compatriots who on paper should do even better... And no, we're not talking about Manuel Stocker, who's the final "full-time" rider - the only one of the who really always had a domestique role. Besides in two C2 races this year, where he did well - in the NC jersey, nota bene.
We won't go into much more detail, you can read the table on your own. However, we'd like to look in the near future, and what could happen with those scores. Theo Reinhardt and Nairo Quintana only have one prime year left - but if we manage to keep one of them in CT, he'd have decent chances of taking the lead for one year at least. He'll however face stiff competition from Gianni Moscon, who, due to being much younger, is most likely to set a longer lasting record total. On the long term, we expect Mauro Schmid - who scored a great amount onf 61 points as a neo-pro - to be really high up - if he develops as well as we're hoping for! We'll see - the next update on this subject should follow after the 2022 season!
WJ Sure, training 1 Mo should be cheaper than training 2 Sta. But training Acc from 78 to 79 would in turn be very expensive - not sure yet what makes more sense. Will closely follow the 2022 test results for sure
jandal I do hope Schmid will cause you all some headaches, yeah
Will see what to do with Tesson; given the massive wage cap cut, I guess his renewal chances aren't the highest...
quadsas Guess it's a matter of money... headaches aren't bad enough to give him away for free yet
red Yeah, the TT department should look bright in 2023 - if we can bounce back up and keep them all. Guess for CT it would be too much to have them all on board ^^
And Schmid... I'm pretty sure he'll do less damage than Pog, but I do hope he won't be that far off
With the Colombian National Championships being done, the NC season is now over - and it's time to update you on how our riders did these last few weeks. Here we go!
Austria
Only one participant in our Eastern neighboring country, but one with some potential of doing well! And indeed, after Hermann Pernsteiner had already taken second in a hilly race last year, he also was among the top contenders on this years mountainous course - but unfortunately wasn't quite able to win the race. 2nd is definitely a great result for him, but finishing 2nd in a row twice still hurts a bit.
As expected, he was far off the top in the TT, where he finished 18th out of 20 competitors.
Belgium
A new country for us, thanks to our two loan-ins from Gjensidige. And while they surely will be able to do well in their main disciplines in the future, the two youngsters were mainly participating to gain some experience. In the cobbled road race - a terrain none of them particularly likes - Brent van Moer finished 27th, while Aaron van Poucke was 64th, even beaten by some amateurs.
In the TT - the main strength of Brent van Moer - he got a good 10th place, while Aaron van Poucke once again struggled and finished 34th.
Colombia
While Colombia isn't the country with the highest number of participants, its density in good uphill racers is incredible. So it isn't that surprising that Nairo Quintana only finished 19th in the hilly road race.
He actually even did better in the TT, taking 14th place. No NC jersey for him for his final maxed season next year.
Eritrea
Sprinter Mikiel Habtom was our only participant in a hilly race - not his favored terrain for sure. He did well to keep up for quite some time, but finally had to let go of the strongest and finished 8th.
In the TT, he managed to sneak into the top half, getting 6th out of 12 participants.
France
Only one participant in the East, but four in the West, thereof one loan-in, one stagiaire and two "regular" riders. But definitely none of them suited to a mountain race; hence everyone finished in the bottom half. Our highest ranked rider finally was stagiaire Jason Tesson, taking 25th place.
Hopes were much higher in the TT - and our developing TT specialist Alexys Brunel indeed delivered! He was a bit lost in nowhere's land, a minute behind the next higher and 30" ahead of the next lower spot, but 9th place is nothing to scoff at for a level 3 rider!
Georgia
Lots of countries we don't have a historical link to; this time again due to a loanee. In a mixed hilly race, Giorgi Tediashvili finished 11th - which meant 2nd in the Georgian championships.
Much worse in the TT, though, as he only got 4th out of 4. Still, the RR is something to build up upon!
Germany
Although the roads were flat, it wasn't a race we had big hopes in - because there were some nasty cobbles on the nice flat roads. Hence, Theo Reinhardt wasn't among the best and only finished 19th.
Slightly better then in the time trial, where he improved by one spot to take 18th.
Hungary
The only rider participating in the race was a rider loaned out to CT team BWT, but we still wanted to cover the race. And for a good reason, as it was a flat one - well suited for sprinter talent Gergely Szarka. However, the outcome was definitely unexpected - as our youngster took the Win and will ride the 2022 season in the Hungarian NC jersey! Congratulations, Gergely!
It was out of the question that he'd get the double, and he indeed was 5 minutes off the pace in the TT, taking 7th. But hey, who cares if you take the RR NC!
Italy
A hilly parcours was perfect for us, given that we have one of Italy's strongest puncheurs on our team. And indeed, Gianni Moscon was right where he had to be when the riders reached the final kilometer - but once again, we could see that he doesn't have the best kick and definitely not a high-end sprint speed. The win was out of reach, but he still finished on the podium, taking 3rd.
In the time trial, it was a final hurray for Alfredo Balloni, in his last race on his peak. And he was on fire, setting the best time when crossing the line - beating future TT star Ganna by more than 40 seconds! In the end, however, Cattaneo denied him the win, but he still finished on a great 2nd place! Two podiums in Italy - dear friends from Fiat, are we really that bad?
Liechtenstein
As it was already the case last year, Benedikt Mundle was unfortunately the country's only pro rider this season, and hence was automatically awarded the Win in both categories.
Poland
The hilly road race was just a warm-up for our only Polish rider, who was mainly targetting the time trial. Obviously, Szymon Rekita isn't really suited to such a course, and it showed. He finished 17th out of 19 pros.
In the TT, he definitely was up to his task, beating the previous leader by 44" when crossing the line. And unlike with Balloni in Italy, nobody was able to beat him - Szymon Rekita took the Win in Poland's ITT NC! Congratulations to the defending champion, well done!
Switzerland
Last (due to alphabetic order) but not least, our most important NCs. The hilly profile wasn't our favorite one, given that our Swiss puncheurs didn't really collect a lot of good results this season - and the worst of them clearly was Fabian Lienhard. But it looked like his motto was "Save the best for last" - and so, thanks to great help by Cyrille Thièry, he Won the race! That guy knows what needs to be done when you've got pretty much no chances for a new contract... Headaches upcoming!
In the TT, we hope to have a top contender in the future with Stefan Bissegger - at least if Dillier misses out like he did this time. But Stefan wasn't our best rider - instead, it was loan-out Gino Mäder, riding in Generali colours, who Won the race and will wear the TT NC jersey next year! Congrats to our two Swiss national champions - it's a first for us to win both NCs, and it's a good consolation after a rather mediocre season!
And that's it. In case you didn't want to read through all this text, here's the summary of our 2021 National Champions:
Gergely Szarka
Road
Benedikt Mundle
Road & TT
Szymon Rekita
TT
Fabian Lienhard
Road
Gino Mäder
TT
We finally decided to present the WC results in a separate post, so we won't be overloading this one too much. See you then for the really, really final official post of the year!
Now as the results of the 2021 WC are in, the 2021 season has definitely come to an end! As a final update of this season, let us take a quick look back at how our riders did across the pond!
We didn't have a participant in the first race - the B World Championship - as Hermann Pernsteiner was not selected due to the flat course not suiting his main strengths. So let's jump into the action with race #2:
World Team Time Trial Championships
We did have 4 starters from 2 nations in this race - but the win went to another nation. To a nation which in the near future will very likely select one of our youngsters - France.
Our riders unfortunately didn't have a successful day at all. Alfredo Balloni and Leo Basso barely cracked the Top 10 with Italy, why Switzerland - including Gino Mäder and Manuel Stocker - disappointed with a 13th place. However, in Switzerland's case the fact that Stocker even was part of the line-up shows that our home nation is lacking depth in terms of TT - a fact that will hopefully soon be changed by at least one of our youngsters!
World U23 Time Trial Championships
And that youngster obviously is Stefan Bissegger, who could even be found in the extended favorites' list, alongside his French "twin" Alexys Brunel.
Also part of the race was our youngest team member Mauro Schmid - not a specialist of the discipline by any means, and so the 41st place out of 48 participants wasn't surprising.
We could also see our loan-in Brent van Moer riding - although 7th looks like a good result at first, he'll definitely not be happy with it, being - on paper - the strongest competitor.
Alexys Brunel won't be satisfied with his 11th place, either. He definitely didn't have the best of days - let's hope he'll come back in better shape after the off-season break!
So it was Stefan Bissegger who had to save the race for our team - and he definitely did! Although we were dreaming of a medal, his 5th place is definitely nothing to scoff at - well done, Stefan!
World Time Trial Championships
Unfortunately, only one single Jura - Fiat rider got a roster spot for the ITT. Alfredo Balloni missed out in a strong Italian team, and Szymon Rekita's Poland unfortunately missed out on the race altogether. Maybe next time!
So, our only "hope" was Gino Mäder - not a specialist by any means. Still, the newly crowned Swiss ITT NC was the better of the two Swiss participants taking 32nd place (out of 48 participants) - which unfortunately mainly means that Dillier had a horrible day. Gino however did a good job not finishing last, beating mostly clearly better riders than him.
World U23 Road Race Championships
We had 8 participants in this race - including loaned-in and -out riders. Only Aaron van Poucke missed out on a selection - understandable for a pure climber.
With 3 team members, the largest sub-group of our team were riding for Team Switzerland. However, none of them being a good sprinter and hence a potential medal winner, they were rather riding for Marc Hirschi - who finished on a good 5th place. Stefan Bissegger was the strongest of our Swiss trio, taking 54th, right ahead of Mauro Schmid. Robin Froidevaux couldn't quite keep up with the pace and ended the race in 105th place.
Two riders were wearing the French jersey, but with the Grande Nation not having a clear-cut leader, everyone was riding a bit on their own. Alexys Brunel was France's strongest finisher in 24th - which was also the best result of any of our riders. Jason Tesson took 110th place.
Which is still well ahead of Brent van Moer, who had a horrible day with his team, as their main sprinter Philipsen didn't even participate in the final sprint. Van Moer himself took 137th out of 144 riders - the worst result of one of our riders.
A slightly better result for Giorgi Tediashvili, who was part of the mixed team of "Europe B", finishing 124th.
And finally, our strongest sprinter - loaned out Gergely Szarka - part of the same "Europe B" team, had to ride for Bosnian Siric, and finished the race in 43rd place.
As expected, none of our riders made a big impact - let's hope next year's course will be better suited to some of them!
World Road Race Championships
Final day of the season! This time, we had some sprinters at the start - but none of them were considered real contenders, either having a stronger teammate or being just too weak for the most stacked sprint field of the year.
So pretty much the only way to get a notable result for our riders was to join the breakaway of the day - which was exactly what Gino Mäder and Gianni Moscon did!
However, the breakaway did not survive - as had to be expected, and they ended up 120th (Mäder) and 59th (Moscon).
All others had to help their leaders, or try their luck in the final sprint. In the first category were Szymon Rekita (179th), whose captain Wisniowski took a great 5th place. It was an even better day for Germany, where Degenkolb however just missed out on the podium, taking 4th - supported by Theo Reinhardt, who finished 35th.
Mikiel Habtom then was Eritrea's number one sprinter, with Afewerki not getting green light for participation by his team, and Tewelde not even having a pro contract this year. However, our only African on the roster missed out on an early split, and so wasn't even involved in the medal fight. 105th surely isn't what he had hoped for.
So what's left? Of course, three more Swiss riders, meaning half of the national team represented Jura - Fiat (counting loaned-out Mäder in as well). And all three of them have decent sprinter capabilities, although the clear-cut leader among them was Manuel Stocker. However, just like Habtom he wasn't attentive enough early on and finished in the same group as the Eritrean, taking 100th place. Even worse for Cyrille Thièry, who actually loves such hilly races - but he had an off-day and only took 128th.
Who got the best result of our team them? Well, obviously THE guy who doesn't care about "normal" season races, but only about the big ones. Yeah, it was Fabian Lienhard, who dared to compete against the world's top sprinters and took a respectable 14th place - beating the likes of B World Champion Kemboi. Why only now, Fabian, why? We might get an answer next season...
This post definitely wraps up our 2021 season, which we leave behind with very mixed feelings. Stay tuned for the 2022 season - hope to see you again on our brand-new HQ thread then!
Gino Mäder 
Szymon Rekita 
Alexys Brunel 
Gergely Szarka 
World Championships Update 
