After 3 races on 3 continents, number 4 continues the series, as we finally arrive in Europe! The first major test for a big part of our squad - the climbers, the TTT lineup, and our new lead sprinter - with plenty of possibilities to either succeed or fail.
The pretty bumpy stage 1 was one we were hoping for Marcel Aregger to do well, given his allround skills - and he didn't disappoint! We were unable to keep things together - stopping Schlegel on the hills is a tricky task though - but our Swiss sprinter was best of the rest, which meant 3rd place of the day! A podium to start his journey with - well done! By the way, Fausto Masnada was very attentive, too, and even sprinted to 7th place - his 3rd Top10 finish in 4 stages so far!
Stage 2 then was the only "true" sprinter stage, giving Aregger the opportunity for a second straight podium finish - but it wasn't to be. Before the stage, we received a call from the organizers that they had selected Aregger to be "the 4th best sprinter" of the day, meaning interdiction to participate in the sprint! Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about this stupid rule this year, but there's hope it'll be gone for next season... The only good news of the day was Gino Mäder taking over the white jersey, with previous leader Gall losing some time.
Onto day number 3 then, the first TTT of the year - and the longest one contained in a stage race all season long. So everyone knew there would be some big gaps - with our goal being to get our team on the right side of those gaps. And the boys clearly delivered - beating Glanbia, one of the presumed main rivals, by 51 seconds! The other team we had on our Top3 list - besides ourselves - was McCormick. And while the Americans did well, they were 36" down as well - stage win, yellow jersey, and 1-4 in the GC! A great day for the team - and what a great foundation for our three climbers to step into action the next day!
Jura GIANTS on their way to dominate the TTT!
Stage 4 was our first mountain stage of the year, and we were looking forward to see our new mountain goat Colin Stüssi in action! And indeed, he seemed to feel pretty good, attacking on the second-last climb.
But from there, it was pretty much a disaster for us. He was caught, and both he and Gino Mäder inexplicably were unable to keep up with the pack on the descent! From our climbing trio, only Fausto Masnada was left up front - never would we have expected such a scenario!
At least Stüssi made it back, and did some work for his Italian colleague - the world turned upside down - but soon ran out of energy. And it looked even worse, as Masnada was looking tired and almost got dropped - it would have been an absolute shocker to lose all of our climbers - all of them Top20 of the division on paper - on the same day.
But Fausto Masnada somehow found some final ounces of energy, allowing him to not lose any time, and taking 10th of the day - the final position of the first group. It was a stage we will remember, but clearly not in a positive way. We haven't been able to find out yet what happened to our climbers - especially Stüssi - on that day, but it wasn't something good for sure! Masnada at least managed to limit the damage, taking over the GC lead ahead of Antunes - but the team was down after this day nonetheless.
Day 5 then was one to rest for the top climbers - but they still had to be attentive over the two late hills. We were again hoping for Marcel Aregger to make the cut and then sprint to the win, but it was definitely a harder task than on day 1. And indeed, the finale was too tough for him, with stronger puncheurs finally fighting for the stage win. Fausto Masnada didn't really join the fight for the win, but still sprinted to a respectable 7th place, easily defending yellow. And moving up to 4th in the points standings.
Second mountain stage of the race then on the final day, and we were clearly hoping for a stronger performance by our climbers than two days before. However, it wasn't to be, same horror-show especially by the Swiss duo Colin Stüssi and Gino Mäder. The latter got dropped early on, the former a bit later and then rejoined the pack - but both performed some levels lower than what we do - and have to - expect from them.
But at least Fausto Masnada kept his calm, managed his energy well and followed the important moves. And in the end, he even had enough left in the tank to take 5th place of the day, gaining some time on his direct rivals and winning the GC! While the two other climbers disappointed, Fausto Masnada seems to by flying these two first months of the season, taking 2nd already in Hong Kong and now winning the Volta a Catalunya - congratulations!
Colin Stüssi actually had a pretty strong finish as well, taking 12th on the stage - ahead of Larry Warbasse, Vasyliv or Tachira winner Ablenado - and 10th in the GC. Which is a good depth result; had the names be the other way round, we'd be talking of a great race. But this way, we're still disappointed by our new designated stage race leader - who did a nice job supporting his teammate, though.
And Gino Mäder? He was completely anonymous all race long, but still finished the last stage inside the Warbasse group, taking 23rd place. In the GC, this was worth 17th place - a good result for sure, but still less than expected due to the big TTT cushion. And he missed out on the white jersey, taking 2nd behind Revard - not what we were expecting from him.
We were also hoping to win the team competition, but for this our three climbers would have needed to perform to their expected level. They didn't, and so we only ended up 3rd. At least some points, but not satisfying nonetheless.
All in all, it's obviously a fantastic result by Fausto Masnada, winning only our 3rd stage race in 4 years! He has been fantastic this year, compensating both for Moscon's and Stüssi's weaknesses, and he definitely keeps us in the promotion race! But it's also a slightly bitter taste that remains, with a lot of "what if"s. It still feels like much more would have been possible - but well, we can't win it all. And in contrast to other teams, we are in the extremely lucky situation that we can still win a stage race even though two of our leaders don't deliver - what a great team we have!
Fausto Masnada winning the GC in Catalunya!
February Roundup
Catalunya was our only race in February, so the month is already in the books. While we expect to lose some ground to teams doing a lot of cobbled races during this period of the year, we should be the highest scoring team in Catalunya, yielding a bit more than 20PpRD if our calculations are right. This is what we'll need to get and stay high up in the rankings, and the two first months of the year have been great in that respect!
We'll do more races in March, not all of them being as well-suited as e.g. Hong Kong and Catalunya - but we're hoping to get some more high-scoring races! We'll also have our first goal race of the year - stay tuned for the soon-to-come month preview!
MacC I guess you were right I think you're the only team who could send a clearly stronger lineup than we have, and I expect you to beat us on some other occasions
DarkWolf Thanks for the wishes of good luck - it definitely took more luck than expected to win the race!
I hope Chaves will get some nice results later in the season, really a shame how poorly he performs at times...
lief Indeed, Masnada has been fantastic, but as you say, there are some "if"s especially concerning Stüssi and Moscon. As you say, the former probably was (mis)treated as a domestique, but the latter was just plain bad so far. Time to turn things around!
Btw, great to see Schlegel so aggressive and finally getting some nice results in Spain
red Yes... and no. Obviously, the win is most important. But in C2 races, with pretty low points available only (I'm still missing the C2HC category tbh), and especially if you send pretty much your strongest possible team, "just" taking the win is not really satisfying points-wise. Especially if 3 of the race's stronger climbers are in the Top4 after the TTT...
It was always clear that with PCM there was no way of keeping them all on top, but it was still painfull to see.
If it had been an HC race against really strong competition, I obviously wouldn't complain - and there a win is also worth a lot more. But the CT climbers' field isn't *that* strong tbh, so I still was hoping for more. But if I'm not mistaken, we're around 25PpRD, which is massive for C2 (despite the new points scale), so yeah, I should stop complaining
After two successful yet calm months to start the season - 7 and 6 race days in Januar and February only - we'll now try to get the train rolling in March. We'll participate in four races, accounting for a total of 14 RDs. Two stage races, two classics - we've not been successful yet in the latter category, so it's time to start scoring there as well!
We'll mostly do C2 racing again - 7 of our 9 first races this year are C2 - so we expect to be competitive at least in those 3 races. Especially one rider finally needs to step up - and he'll get the opportunities to do so!
Mar 02 - 05 | Jelajah SKL (C2)
Spoiler
The first race in March is one of the most special stage races in the calendar - a prologue and and epilogue framing a flat and a semi-selective hilly stage. To make things a bit more tricky, the flat stage has a bump close to the finish as well - it's a race that can go in so many ways! Let's see who we send to Asia for this race:
Rider
Hi
Spr
PRL
Rider
Hi
Spr
PRL
Marcel Aregger
71
78
78
Panagiotis Karatsivis
68
64
67
Gabriel Chavanne
64
76
82
Alexandros Matsangos
68
61
67
Krzysztof Marchewka
60
52
77
Christoph Janssen
63
59
69
Noam Cohen
65
77
57
It's pretty obvious that Marcel Aregger will be our main hope for the GC here - as he's decent to strong in all required disciplines! He's obviously a sprinter, but one with strong prologue skills. And he's already shown this year that he can even sprint for the win in rather easy hilly stages - let's see how he fares as our clear team captain!
However, he'll share the burden of doing well in the short time trials with others - first of all, Gabriel Chavanne! We're stoked to see his debut for us in this race - the only race of the year where he's even got two chances to do well! And if he should claim the prologue win, who knows if he won't suddenly be able to keep up even over the hills...
Krzysztof Marchewka is here for the TTs as well, while Noam Cohen will target the sprint stage - intended to lead out the sprint for Aregger, but he also has the speed to get a result for himself.
The squad is completed by our three youngsters, who are here to learn and help.
Expectations: Top 5 GC, 2x Stage Top 5
Best result so far: 12th GC (2020, Fabian Lienhard), 2x Stage 3rd (2021, Alfredo Balloni; 2020, Tom Scully)
Mar 06 - 11 | Vuelta al Pais Vasco (C1)
Spoiler
Next up is our 2nd C1 stage race of the year. The first one went really well, even though not everyone was up to their task. With a TTT involved here, and expecting some strong competition, we'll need everyone to deliver here. We'll rely upon the following 7 riders:
Rider
Mo
Hi
TT
Spr
Rider
Mo
Hi
TT
Spr
Gianni Moscon
73
79
66
59
Erick Rowsell
74
69
73
61
Fausto Masnada
77
76
73
63
Leonardo Basso
67
72
72
71
Marcel Aregger
64
71
68
78
Christoph Janssen
62
63
69
59
Krzysztof Marchewka
64
60
77
52
From this lineup, it's clear that we won't be competing for the overall win - not even remotely. Instead, we're here for stage results, be it from breakaways or by fighting against the best. The TTT will set us pretty far back; although we have some decent to good support from Krzysztof Marchewka, Erick Rowsell and Leonardo Basso, we also have more "weaker links" than in Catalunya last month.
With the mid-length TT in mind, as well as the pretty long final climb on stage 5, Fausto Masnada - our high flyer of the year so far - should be our GC candidate as well. He also belongs to the TTT core, so he'll himself take responsibility for a not-too-bad position after the first stage.
Gianni Moscon hasn't accomplished anything notable so far this year - be it on longer or shorter climbs. We clearly expect him to fight for good stage results here; with his great energy stats, he should actually be able to do so. But he should already have been in previous races this year...
Finally, Marcel Aregger is again present to participate in potential bunch sprints in medium difficulty stages - which we expect to be stages 2 and 3. It's a gamble to send him here, but he showed some strong signs in Catalunya already - why not here?
Expectations: Top 15 GC, 3x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: 32nd GC (2021, Gianni Moscon), Stage 8th (2021, Gianni Moscon)
Mar 21 | Coppa Placci (C2)
Spoiler
Our first goal race of the year! We selected it full of confidence, having done well here previously. However, our feelings aren't that great anymore - let's look at the lineup to find out why:
Rider
Hi
Acc
Res
Rider
Hi
Acc
Res
Gianni Moscon
79
73
77
Manuel Stocker
65
77
73
Fausto Masnada
76
73
75
Gabriel Chavanne
64
76
76
Mauro Schmid
74
75
76
Panagiotis Karatsivis
68
70
70
Leonardo Basso
72
69
73
Alexandros Matsangos
68
68
67
Gianni Moscon won this race two years ago - when it was also one of our goal races. But you know by now how our Italian lead puncheur has been doing in January. He gets Pais Vasco to warm up this month, but now in San Marino he really, really has to be ready! In a very bumpy and strength sapping race, he's got everything it takes to succeed here - he "just" has to do it!
In case he should once again not be up to his task, we also bring Fausto Masnada. He's not as strong a puncheur as Moscon, nor does he have the same physical strength - but he does have one thing by now: self-confidence! It's his first classic of the year, so he doesn't share the negative vibes of his compatriot - maybe that will save us if the latter still doesn't have his punching legs?
Mauro Schmid is mainly here to gain experience - but why not try a long-range attack? The same holds for Leo Basso, who clearly has the stamina it takes for such a move!
Manuel Stocker and Gabby Chavanne are here as fillers, to help out as long as they can - just like their young colleagues Panagiotis Karatsivis and Alexandros Matsangos.
Expectations: Top 5
Best result so far: Win (2020, Gianni Moscon)
Mar 30 | GP Izola (C2)
Spoiler
Given our first (unsatisfactory) experience with this race, we actually thought that we wouldn't come back to Slovenia. However, having a rider who might be well-suited to this profile, we're giving it another go - those are the riders striving for success in yet another C2 classic:
Rider
Hi
Spr
Acc
Rider
Hi
Spr
Acc
Marcel Aregger
71
78
77
Gabriel Chavanne
64
76
76
Mauro Schmid
74
69
75
Panagiotis Karatsivis
68
64
70
Leonardo Basso
72
71
69
Alexandros Matsangos
68
61
68
Noam Cohen
65
77
76
Christoph Janssen
63
59
66
The race hasn't been overly selective in its first two editions - slightly more last year than in 2020 - and we hope that it will be even less this time around. If the race indeed ends up in a bunch sprint, we're hoping for Marcel Aregger - once again - to deliver our top result!
But we also think that Mauro Schmid should have some decent chances of keeping up with the front, being our best puncheur present and having strong resistance and acceleration. Our Swiss youngster or Leo Basso could also well try to join the breakaway - where we should be allowed to participate in, given that we left our top puncheurs at home.
In the improbable case we should even be able to build a sprint train, there are also Noam Cohen and Gabby Chavanne - both of which could also enjoy some breakaway experience. The same holds for our level 1 trio, who are really racing a lot this year.
Expectations: Top 10
Best result so far: 11th (2020, Gianni Moscon)
All in all, you can spot almost everywhere the name of Gianni Moscon in the "Best result so far" line, and he'll be back in most of those races. We would like to improve on the past best results everywhere we didn't win yet - especially in the GC positions in Jelajah and Pais Vasco. But the most important race is clearly Coppa Placci, where any Top 5 result would make us - and the sponsors - happy!
Our first C1 outing of the year went really well, and while expectations were slightly lower for the 6-day race in the Basque Country, we were still looking for more success by our (by far) best performing rider of the season, Fausto Masnada. And for our highest paid rider Gianni Moscon to finally do something useful.
While we will usually enter TTTs with high expectations, things were a bit different here, as we did by far not send our strongest possible lineup. 11th place with just above 30" of a deficit was therefore just fine on stage 1.
Stage 2 then was one we were eyeing for Marcel Aregger - but unfortunately our sprinter didn't have the best legs and was gapped early on. It was finally Gianni Moscon who delivered our best result on the day, taking 15th, and showing that he was up to his task in this race!
Unexpectedly, it was stage 3, which looked definitely harder than S2, where Marcel Aregger was right there for the bunch sprint! He unfortunately was boxed in between 3 Trans Looney Tunes riders, but once he broke free he sprinted to a very good 2nd place! Stage winner Kalaba would likely have been out of reach anyway, so we happily took that result!
Marcel Aregger claiming his 2nd stage podium of the year!
Halfway through the race, things looked pretty bright for us. And while Fausto Masnada didn't have the greatest legs on the stage 4 ITT, he still managed to limit the damage, moving up to 25th in the GC just a minute down on the lead. Everything looked to be possible for the final two stages with their hilltop finishes!
By the way, our best result of the day was claimed by Krzysztof Marchewka, who finished 17th. Not good enough though, finishing behind some way weaker time triallists.
Stage 5 then was the first day where we expected our puncheurs to really shine, and Fausto Masnada was even considered to be one of the stage favorites by the experts, but
CENSORED
Given our massive gaps in the GC, the plan was to send our strongest riders in the breakaway on day 6, to at least collect some KoM points and maybe have a shot at the stage win. But the riders didn't follow our plan at all, not even trying to do anything. Fauso Masnada at least was able to stay in the peloton this time, taking 9th of the day - which was totally pointless, though. Instead of chasing the KoM jersey and a stage win, all he got was 23rd in the GC.
Overall, it was a disappointing race, despite a nice stage result by Marcel Aregger. The puncheurs however were almost completely invisible and disappointed - for Gianni Moscon we have to say "once again", as it's his second stage race this year with zero points. Fausto Masnada unfortunately shared his compatriot's lethargy on stage 5, meaning we take pretty much nothing out of this race.
Having done well in our previous stage races, we can afford such no-shows from time to time, but if we want to stay in contention for the division title, we soon need to step up again! Looking especially at you, Gianni Moscon!
We entered our first goal race of the season - the sponsors were expecting a Top 5 finish - with mixed feelings. On one hand, it felt like the easiest goal of the year, given that Gianni Moscon won this race two years ago, and it perfectly suited his skillset. On the other hand, he's been the most disappointing rider so far this year, so we really weren't sure whether we could make that easy goal.
It didn't look too bad during the race, we were contributing a bit to the chase, with both Moscon and his backup leader and luxury domestique Fausto Masnada feeling well and pushing their teammates to work in the pack.
Unexpectedly, Gianni Moscon then tried a mid-range attack, together with Zordan. We expected him to easily drop his compatriot later on, given that the latter is weaker in pretty much every relevant skill. The duo soon caught up with the breakaway and eventually left them behind.
In the meantime, Fausto Masnada was apparently feeling bored in the pack, and attacked as well! But it wasn't a smart move at all, given that up front Moscon surprisingly wasn't even able to keep up with Zordan, or Hoelgaard - both clearly less gifted riders both on the hills and considering physical strength. It looked to be another proof of complete lack of form by our hilly "leader"...
Masnada actually caught up with him, but both were eventually caught by riders having been more patient and attacking from the pack. Despite both showing strong stamina and resistance in our pre-season tests, they were left behind by - on paper - weaker riders. While it's understandable that they couldn't keep up with Boswell, it's definitely incomprehensible that they both got beaten by Hoelgaard, Dyrnes, Pernsteiner, Zordan and Schultz. All of them are weaker than both of our riders, according to the MGUCI statisticians - it was just awfully painful to watch them fail today.
Actually, call 7th and 8th place a "fail" might be harsh, but given that Moscon should be stronger than 5 out of the 6 riders who beat him - and Masnada not much weaker, either - plus given that it was a sponsor goal, this race was a failure for us. What stings most in addition to being beaten by certain of those riders is that fact that our duo didn't cooperate at all, choosing one of the worst strategies they could. Each one was looking for his own maximum result, instead of seeking the best for the team - which should have easily been a Top 5 result.
Of course, we know that even a top-level rider can't beat every opponent in every race, but when you're among the Top 3 in a discipline, you should regularly get Top 3 results. Gianni Moscon has not even scored a single Top 5 result in 15 race days. Luckily for him, riders are safe during the season... But our sponsors have let us know in very clear terms that they weren't amused with today's race - and especially not with Moscon's obvious lack of form he's displaying since January already.
Gianni Moscon and Fausto Masnada both finishing behind Zordan and Schultz...
But to end this race review on a more positive note: Mauro Schmid, who did a good job helping with the chasing work in the peloton, was able to hang onto the first group, scoring another point with his 22nd place. If the present is disappointing - especially considering one rider - the future might look brighter.
Due to some organizational difficulties, the hilly classic in Slovenia was actually the second-to-last race of the month, instead of rounding off March. After having taken an 11th place two years ago with a strong puncheur, we decided to take a more risky approach by sending sprinter Marcel Aregger instead of our strongest hilly riders.
Given that we clearly weren't among the favorite teams with this strategy, we also got some freedom for attacks - which was our backup strategy. And it was perfectly executed, as both Panagiotis Karatsivis and Alexandros Matsangos joined the early breakaway.
And with 60km to go, Mauro Schmid went in the offense as well, taking his role as a "free rider" very seriously, too!
Mauro Schmid chasing the morning breakaway containing Panagiotis Karatsivis and Alexandros Matsangos.
But the peloton was too strong and too well-organized for the escapees to stand a chance, and so we had to play our main card anyway. Marcel Aregger was well placed throughout the race - but unfortunately missed the decisive move and didn't have any teammates left to help him chase down the attackers.
Still, despite starting from a rather bad position, he took 3rd place in the sprint from the pack - which was enough for 7th place overall. When he was still in the front group in the final couple of kilometers, we were of course hoping for the big upset, but we can by no means be unhappy with this result from a sprinter on a hilly course!
And with three more riders between 20th and 25th - Mauro Schmid (21st), Noam Cohen (23rd) and Leo Basso (24th), we showed that despite our lack of puncheurs this year we still have some notable depth! Given that we played it the risky way here, we are definitely happy to leave Slovenia with 20 points!
Marcel Aregger sprinting to 7th place.
Abhi We are definitely more than happy with Masnada's season so far - 2nd in Hong Kong and the win in Catalunya were huge overperformances by him! It's just the strategy in Placci that we weren't really happy with, but otherwise he had a fantastic season so far!
Unlike Moscon, obviously, who will likely be the reason why McCormick win the division, given that he should be sooo much closer to Boswell than he actually is...
It was brilliant too see our two youngsters taking part of the race up front, also making things easier for Aregger in the pack. 7th is not a bad result for a rider of his character, but obviously could have dreamt of more. He wasn't quite attentive enough to get a top result it seemed.
March in general was a so-so month, with Pais Vasco being really bad, Izola as expected or slightly better, Placci point-wise good but goal-wise a disappointment, and Jelajah being a great race where almost everything fell into place (review yet to come).
So we should be on-track for our promotion goal so far, but we don't have too much room for failure yet. Although that's pretty normal with only 27 days of racing so far, 10 or more less than most competitors.
April will now be the month with the second highest RD count all season long - 5 races accounting for a total of 22 race days! It is obvious that this kind of month can make or break a season - let's hope it will be the former!
However, with two of the races - and 9 RDs in total - being in the HC category, it's far from granted that we'll be successful, especially when looking at the lineups. But let's not beat about the bush and go straight into the details:
Apr 01 - 07 | Tour of California (C2)
Spoiler
In our 4th season, this is actually our first appearance in California! A race containing stages for all types of riders except the cobblers - and especially a mountaintop finish and a TT to decide the GC. Quite obvious who should lead us here, right? Well, not quite, due to race day restrictions... Here's our lineup:
Rider
Mo
Hi
TT
PRL
Rider
Hi
TT
Spr
PRL
Gino Mäder
77
71
75
76
Grzegorz Stepniak
66
63
78
72
Mauro Schmid
73
74
67
65
Noam Cohen
65
57
77
57
Krzysztof Marchewka
64
60
77
77
Manuel Stocker
65
69
76
71
Panagiotis Karatsivis
70
68
68
67
Gabriel Chavanne
64
65
76
82
We can unfortunately only send one out of our three stage racers here, and this time our hopes will be on Gino Mäder's shoulders. The idea behind this selection is that he's by far the strongest prologue rider of the trio.
On the downside, he's the weakest puncheur of them, and so we'll have to hope for the hilly stages to not be too selective. In the mountain stage, he might even keep up with the strongest if his legs are good, and then he'll hopefully gain some spots in the closing TT. We don't know what to expect from him in terms of GC, but we definitely do expect him to win the U25 standings!
But you can also see that the mountain support is pretty weak, with only Mauro Schmid there to support him. On the other hand, we might for once not be considered to be among the favorites, so there's hope our youngster will get some leeway for attacking.
Most of the remaining team is here for the two sprint stages, with Grzegorz Stepniak having his debut as our lead sprinter. Noam Cohen, Manuel Stocker and Gabriel Chavanne can all act as leadouts, let's hope they won't mess things up!
However, Gabriel Chavanne's main focus will be on the prologue, where he'll be the top favorite - no rider from both CT and PCT can match him (on paper) on these short stages against the clock. Krzysztof Marchewka should do well there, too, but will mainly be tasked with getting a decent stage result on the final day.
Expectations: Top 10 GC, 4x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: n/a
Apr 12 - 18 | Tour de Pologne (HC)
Spoiler
Yet another 7-day stage race - but this time two categories higher, in HC! 4 hilly stages, some of them pretty hard - we do have a rider who usually does well in those races, but he's unfortunately unavailable. Who else could do some hills? You guess it:
Rider
Hi
Spr
PRL
Rider
Hi
Spr
PRL
Gianni Moscon
79
59
70
Grzegorz Stepniak
66
78
72
Mauro Schmid
74
69
65
Noam Cohen
65
77
57
Panagiotis Karatsivis
68
64
67
Manuel Stocker
65
76
71
Alexandros Matsangos
68
61
67
Gabriel Chavanne
64
76
82
Indeed, our GC captain is Gianni Moscon. Having completely failed in his first two stage races of the year, the pressure is really high now. This time, he's on his own, without Masnada to salvage the race for us. He should like this course, and he definitely did last year, taking 7th place! If he can get close to that, we'll be entirely satisfied!
However, just like Mäder in California, his only capable domestique in the hills will be Mauro Schmid - let's see if that's enough. At least, we definitely shouldn't be carrying the weight of working in the peloton!
Again, just like in California, the rest of the team is here for the sprints - and the prologue. We have the same foursome consisting of Grzegorz Stepniak - being our lead sprinter in his home race - Noam Cohen, Manuel Stocker and Gabriel Chavanne.
The latter will again be the outright favorite for the prologue, given that there's still no-one in CT and PCT matching his prologue skills. Let's hope he transforms that into a leader jersey - it would be our first one on HC level!
Expectations: GC Top 10, 4x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: 7th GC (2021, Gianni Moscon), Stage Win (2021, Alfredo Balloni)
Apr 20 | Badaling International (C1)
Spoiler
We made the trip to China for the first time last year, after the race was relegated straight from PT to C2. This time it's in the C1 category, and we'll try to repeat last year's 6th place on a higher level - with the following riders on board:
Rider
Mo
Hi
Acc
Rider
Mo
Hi
Acc
Fausto Masnada
77
76
73
Alexandros Matsangos
68
68
68
Mauro Schmid
73
74
75
Gabriel Chavanne
58
64
76
Leonardo Basso
67
72
69
Christoph Janssen
62
63
66
Panagiotis Karatsivis
70
68
70
While he didn't agree on riding one of the 7-day stage races due to his otherwise heavy load this year, Fausto Masnada will at least be present in China - and lead the team. A mix of long climbs and a short uphill sprint to the finish line is just what he loves, and so we expect great things from him!
Once again, Mauro Schmid will be the main domestique, while this time also Leo Basso should be able to provide some help. The others are here for experience, or just to keep their legs going in Gabriel Chavanne's case. Another one of his target races will come later this month...
Expectations: Top 10
Best result so far: 6th (2021, Cyrille Thièry)
Apr 25 | GP Wallonie (HC)
Spoiler
Another hilly HC race, a classic this time - guess who's back:
Rider
Hi
Res
Acc
Rider
Hi
Res
Acc
Gianni Moscon
79
77
73
Alexandros Matsangos
68
67
68
Mauro Schmid
74
76
75
Noam Cohen
65
69
76
Panagiotis Karatsivis
68
70
70
Christoph Janssen
63
68
66
Gianni Moscon headlines the roster in yet another race - and for the 4th time this month, Mauro Schmid is the main supporter.
And the only one, given that the rest of the team consists of youngsters looking to gain experience at HC level, and of one more filler who agreed to participate so we could satisfy the minimum requirements.
What's for sure is that Gianni has to be looking for redemption here, as on a course that does suit him pretty well he did an abysmal job last year, finishing 127th. Even bettering that by 100 spots wouldn't be considered good enough, so there's some work to be done!
Expectations: Top 15
Best result so far: 16th (2021, Cyrille Thièry)
Apr 27 - 30 | USA Pro Cycling Challenge (C2)
Spoiler
April follows a clear pattern in terms of race categories: C2 - HC - C1 - HC - so obviously we had to end the month with another C2 race to complete the series. And it's one we definitely couldn't leave out, given that a short time trial will likely be decisive for the GC. Which makes our lineup pretty straightforward:
Rider
Spr
Acc
PRL
Rider
Spr
Acc
PRL
Marcel Aregger
78
77
78
Krzysztof Marchewka
52
64
77
Noam Cohen
77
76
57
Alexandros Matsangos
61
68
67
Manuel Stocker
76
77
71
Christoph Janssen
59
66
69
Gabriel Chavanne
76
76
82
On paper, Marcel Aregger should be our best bet, as he could get bonus seconds from the sprints AND get a strong epilogue result. However, sprints have been rather random lately, so we're not quite sure what to expect.
The expectations are much more straightforward for Gabriel Chavanne, once again. He has three short ITTs this month, but this one probably is the most important, given that it will likely be GC defining! Krzysztof Marchewka might be in for a decent GC result as well, if he has the legs on the final day.
Sprint-wise, Noam Cohen and Manuel Stocker are here to support Aregger, with Chavanne being a backup leadout option as well. We know we don't bring a top sprinter this year, but Marcel already has two stage podiums to his name - why not add some more in the States?
Expectations: Top 5 GC, 3x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: 2nd GC (2020, Tom Scully), Stage 2nd (2020, Tom Scully).
Looking at our history, we see that most of those "Best result so far" riders are no longer riding for us - but there's definitely some hope that our current riders can do even better! As said before, it will be a season-defining month for us - let's hope things will go in the right direction!
SotD Yeah, I love to see them being aggressive when they get the opportunity Let's hope one of them ends up getting a surprise win or so somehow
Aregger has been doing fine so far tbh. He participated in most sprints, and performed more or less according to expectations - or even better
The 4-stage race in Singapore and Malaysia is one of the most special ones on the calendar - containing not a prologue OR an epilogue, but both! Obviously, our hopes were high especially for great stage results by our short TT star Gabriel "Gabby" Chavanne - and we were hoping for stage 3 to be raced rather slowly, so even a good GC result could be an option.
And indeed, the race started in the best possible way - with Gabby Chavanne winning the prologue on the Marina Bay circuit in Singapore! He was one second faster than a bunch of 5 riders - including top sprinter Keough or GC favorite Warbasse. Unfortunately, the rest of the team wasn't able to put in similarly strong performances, with Marcel Aregger losing already 7 seconds. Our sprint leader was our secret GC hope, but he lost some previous seconds to far weaker prologue riders already on day 1 - not optimal.
Gabriel Chavanne on the way to his prologue win!
But Aregger's main target was stage 2 anyway - a pretty difficult, bumpy finale, tailor-made for him. And indeed the stage was decided between the sprinters - unfortunately, though, Aregger was completely out of position when the sprint started. Marcel Aregger still proved to be among the fastest men, though, making a late surge to 7th - but we were hoping for him to get some bonus seconds and the GC lead.
We were still pretty lucky, though, as none of the Top 3 of the day were within reach of Gabby with the bonus seconds they gained, so we at least held onto the yellow jersey for one more day!
Stage 3 usually is the one separating the wheat from the chaff. However, in some years there's more "wheat" than in others - and we were hoping for at least Aregger to stay with the top guns. And why not Gabby as well?
Well, that last hope was in vain, as Gabby Chavanne lost contact on that rollercoaster part of the stage. He ended up 44th on the day, dropping to 29th - still having a small chance of getting a Top 25 result. Marcel Aregger on the other hand had a smart ride, keeping up with the best - unfortunately not having the legs to sprint for the stage win anymore, but he took 9th on day 3 and moved up to 8th in the GC, just 6" off the lead! With an epilogue performance according to his actual skills, even the GC win could be within reach - although the outright favorite for that was clearly Markus Kopfauf, who surprisingly also kept up with the first group.
In the epilogue, our first candidate for a good stage result was Krzysztof Marchewka. However, just like in the prologue, he failed to deliver a decent performance, finishing way outside the scoring positions.
So it was again up to Gabby Chavanne to get some points in - and again, he didn't disappoint! He took the hot seat - and one rider after the other dropped behind him in the GC, making him actually bounce up to 22nd!
A little later, Marcel Aregger was on the road - and he posted the exact same time as Gabby! While at first the timekeepers had him in 1st and Gabby in 3rd place (with some other rider matching their time), the final rankings saw them swap their position. However, both of them moved one spot down anyway, as Kopfauf took the stage and the GC win, as expected.
Still, a great final stage saw Marcel Aregger move up to 2nd in the GC, and Gabriel Chavanne win the points jersey - our first one since Theo Reinhardt took green in Amissa Bongo back in 2020!
As in Izola, we took a rather risky approach by not sending a true puncheur here - but once again, Aregger outperformed our expectations! With five stage Top 10 results - including a win and a second place - plus 2nd in the GC, plus the points jersey, we leave Asia with some really great feelings! Congratulations to this duo - and a wake-up call to the rest of the team, which was nowhere to be seen!
Marcel Aregger riding to 4th place - and 2nd overall - in the epilogue.
Gabby Chavanne taking home the green jersey!
March Roundup
Jelajah was by far our strongest race of the month - in fact, we scored almost 30 points per race day (117 in total)! On the other hand, the second stage race of the month - Pais Vasco - was one big failure, with not even 3 PpRD scored, and 6 race days of Moscon and Masnada wasted. Especially that fact hurts; we know we can't score well everywhere, but if we send two leaders and get close to nothing, that's definitely bad news.
Coppa Placci actually had a pretty good points return - but more importantly, we failed our first sponsor goal of the year. And it was the one race goal we thought would be easiest to achieve, so that doesn't bode too well for the future, either. Izola then was a decent race; we couldn't expect much having no "true" hilly sprinter on our roster, but Aregger filled that role as well as he could once again.
Overall, the months of February and March combined made us jump up from 6th to 2nd in the CT standings, just about 50 points behind McCormick. We currently have the division's highest PpRD value - but with races like Pais Vasco, that doesn't mean anything, and we clearly can't afford many such races if we really want to win the division!
Furthermore, what's really disappointing is Gianni Moscon's total score so far: He has done 15 race day so far, and has scored a measly 28 points from them - not even 2 PpRD is an unacceptable value for the team's highest paid rider! Gianni definitely has to step up - and he has to do so soon, as April has two hilly HC races in store for him!
On a positive note, Fausto Masnada is currently 3rd in the individual standings and he's mostly having a great season so far!
red Sure, I'll definitely take it if Moscon gets 2nd behind Eddy in Pologne and Wallonie
For our first participation in California, our GC hopes were on Gino Mäder. We obviously couldn't expect him to win here, given that some stronger climbers were present - and especially because of the two hilly stages, Gino's big weakness. On the other hand, he was the strongest time triallist among the GC rider, and so we expected a Top5-10 finish and of course the white jersey.
But for the first stage, all eyes were on prologue specialist Gabriel Chavanne, who has done very well recently in such races, taking 1st and 2nd in the short Jelajah TTs - but not this time. Gabby finished on a very disappointing 16th place - given that there are only a handful prologues on the calendar, failing in one of them really hurts. He actually wasn't even our best placed rider - that was Gino Mäder, being some fractions of a second faster and taking 16th. Which actually wasn't too satisfying, either, given that he finished behind Talansky or Warbasse. Krzysztof Marchewka (19th) and Manuel Stocker (22nd) finished in the Top25 as well.
Stage 2 then was the first of two flat stages - and for those we brought Grzegorz Stepniak to the US.
Unfortunately, he apparently hadn't quite arrived mentally by the time the sprint preparations took place, and he was way off the top spots. A fast finish still saw him end up 10th of the day, but that was definitely yet another disappointment - no stage points after two stages where we had specialists for...
Days 3 and 4 then were all about damage limitation for Gino Mäder, with both stages being hilly ones and our young leader being rather weak on that terrain - and moreover doesn't have a good kick, which can be important for avoiding gaps.
And indeed, he lost some spots on the final meters of both stages, but was smart enough before that to get himself into a good position, meaning he avoided time losses on both days, finishing 13th and 15th. After day 3 he furthermore took over the white jersey, which he'd hopefully keep until the very end!
By the way, our support cast was as weak as expected, with no-one being able to stay close to Gino. Mauro Schmid as our 2nd highest rider in the GC was 68th after stage 4 - but at least up to 8th in the U25 standings, which would be worth a point in the end.
On day 5, we had the second - and final - chance for the sprinters to shine. And this time Grzegorz Stepniak played it much smarter, taking Bennett's wheel at the very front of the pack!
And this turned out to be the perfect wheel - as Bennett actually won the stage. Grzegorz wasn't quite strong enough to get around the Glanbia rider, but he still finished 2nd - finally our first noteable stage result!
Grzegorz Stepniak (middle) taking 2nd place on stage 5.
But the most important day for the GC - besides the closing TT - awaited the riders on day 6. Or actually in the final third of stage 6, with an HC climb followed by a Cat. 1 climb - and then a Cat. 2 climb to the finish line as a dessert. The first real test for Gino Mäder as our GC leader!
And we can definitely say that he passed this test! From the GC favorites, Ablenado was the only one who gained some time on Gino, but he finished alongside Fabbro and Talansky on a good 6th place!
Unfortunately, though, despite there being a clear gap between Gino and Henao behind him, the timekeepers awarded even a lot more riders the same time, leading to a very tense situation on top of the GC! In fact, Gino sat in 4th, 9" behind race leader Fabbro, 3" behind Barta and 2" behind Warbasse - but just 2" ahead of Iturria and 4" ahead of Talansky. At least the white jersey wouldn't be in danger on the final day, with a 7 minute lead...
By the way, Mauro Schmid showed his best performance of the race, finishing on s.t. with Gino in 17th place, and moving up to 4th in the U25 standings!
Gino Mäder (white jersey) finishing 6th on stage 6.
So it was the closing TT that had to decide on the tour's winner. As said before, Gino looked to be the strongest among the top GC competitors - but with those tiny gap it would all come down to daily form.
And that daily form looked to be good, but not good enough at the checkpoint, where he was 2nd strongest of the GC favorites - behind Warbasse.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to change that trend until the end - while he probably beats the American in most TTs, it wasn't to be today. So Gino Mäder finished 6th of the closing TT, 12" behind race winner Larry Warbasse. The McCormick rider obviously had an amazing day, almost taking the win in this TT, and was a deserved winner of the Tour of California.
But hey, this still means that Gino Mäder finished in 2nd place! Not only did he easily take the white jersey as expected (by the way, Mauro Schmid finished 4th), but he exceeded our pre-race epxectations by far to finish on the overall podium! Great job, Gino!
Of course, if you're so close to winning a tour, it still hurts to miss out - especially given that we still haven't reached our goal of winning a stage race with a Swiss rider. Aregger took 2nd in Jelajah, Gino now ends up 2nd in California - the next chance to take the final step could come in America again, in the USA PCC rounding off the month!
But for now, we're glad to take home such a great result with one of our weakest climbing squads all season long - and we're looking forward to those races where we'll send our full firepower again!
Gino Mäder on his way to 2nd place in the Tour of California!
Our first HC race of the year brought us to Poland - home country of three of our riders. Unfortunately, we couldn't give Szymon Rekita the opportunity to present his TT NC jersey to the home crowd, given that the nature of the race didn't really suit his skillset.
On the other hand, both Krzysztof Marchewka and Grzegorz Stepniak were present - the former targetting the prologue, the latter going for the two sprint stages.
GC-wise, all eyes were - once again - on Gianni Moscon, who was yet to deliver a top result this year.
But on stage 1, the rider in focus was yet another one - Gabriel Chavanne, the (on paper) strongest prologue rider of CT and PCT combined.
After a true bummer in California, where he finished outside the Top 10, he did way better again - but unfortunately again missed out on the win, and even on the stage podium. 5th place was OK-ish, but definitely on the lower end of expectations.
Stage 2 then was the first day of truth for Gianni Moscon. And unlike in many other races this year, he was attentive all stage long, finishing with the top group. And not only that - he even just narrowly missed out on a podium spot, finishing on a very good 4th place! What a big relief for him and the entire team! It looked like Poland is just a race that suits him - after he finished 7th overall last year, he was on track for another good GC result, despite a mediocre prologue.
Stages 3 and 4 then were the big chances for Grzegorz Stepniak to shine! And boy, did he shine! Thanks to very smart positioning, he was able to fight for the win on day 3 - but not only fight for it, but take it home! Grzegorz Stepniak won stage 3 of his home race - this must have been one of the greatest days of his long and slowly running out career! Congratulations!
On day 4, he unfortunately didn't get his positioning quite right, placing himself at the very end of the long sprinters queue. Thanks to a very strong finish, he was still able to sprint to 5th place - two Top 5 placings out of two sprint stages was definitely more than we could have expected! And so far, we had 4 Top 5s out of as many stages, with Grzegorz Stepniak even taking over the green jersey on top of that - a crazy first half of this Tour de Pologne!
Grzegorz Stepniak wins stage 3 of the Tour de Pologne!
However, it unfortunately doesn't take long to tell the rest of the story. Starting with stage 5, Gianni Moscon was back to failure mode - and not only that, it was actually complete failure mode. We can underline this by the fact that on stage 7 he finished 157th out of 184 starters - and his final GC position was 119 spots worse than last year, which means 126th. 126th!!! With this he was only our third "highest" finisher, behind level 1 rider Panagiotis Karatsivis (112th) and Mauro Schmid (43rd), who at least tried something and finished 7th in the KoM competition and 5th in the U25 standings. Grzegorz Stepniak dropped to 5th in the points standings, after having worn the green jersey on stages 5 and 6 - but he still was by far our Man of the Race!
On the other hand, we have no more words to describe the "performances" of Gianni Moscon - it's just an incredible impudence and almost 200k of wage thrown out of the window. Or let's say half of that, as half of his season is over with an underwhelming 1.5 PpRD average scoring. No more comment.
Race Review | Badaling International (C1)
The race in China was hilly rated, yet contained quite a lot of climbing - so we obviously brought the one man who almost never disappointed on such a profile this year, Fausto Masnada.
However, first we saw once again our ELCO loan-ins in action, with both Panagiotis Karatsivis and Alexandros Matsangos joining the breakaway of the day.
However, as it happens most of the times in those classics, that move was doomed right from the start, and indeed they couldn't fight for the win. But nothing was lost for us, given that we were fully relying on our leader, who was well positioned throughout the whole race.
Well, unfortunately, that wasn't true when the real selection happened. The whole team was inattentive on the final big climb, and so all of them were caught out behind the decisive split. Fausto Masnada eventually managed to overtake quite a lot of the front group riders by the end, but his 25th place was still a massive disappointment - especially given that it wasn't due to weakness, but just due to a major lack of race understanding. The trip to China was worth one measly point, confirming the team's current lack of confidence.
We started April with the target of taking over the division lead, given the massive number of race days spent, but we'll have to be happy if we can hold onto 2nd place given the underperformances in the second half of Pologne and in China. Given that the next race - Wallonie - is another one with Moscon being our leader, hopes are close to zero to make some kind of a turnaround there...
MacC Definitely not always, but yeah, we can't complain about mountain stage race scoring so far. Don't talk about hilly races, though ^^
After we had a so-so scoring in our first HC race of the year - Pologne - our expectations weren't too high for our first HC classic. Nonetheless, the pretty bumpy profile should have suited Gianni Moscon.
But he obviously wasn't among the main favorites, so we didn't have to do any work all day long and instead went for some breakaway action again. And once more, ELCO loanee Panagiotis Karatsivis was the one joining the BotD.
And once again, that move led nowhere (except for Karatsivis ending up our 2nd highest finisher in 57th place), so all eyes were on Gianni one more time. And one more time, he failed to find a good position going into the final uphill, and with close to inexistent sprint skills wasn't able to gain any positions, either. Still, Gianni Moscon's 23rd place was our highest result this year, so he deserves a mention. Not an honorable one, though. Just remember that last year Cyrille Thièry actually made the Top 20, for a third of Gianni's wage...
Panagiotis Karatsivis leading the breakaway.
Race Review | USA Pro Cycling Challenge (C2)
Our third stage race of the month also was the third one containing a short time trial - and hence it was the third one where at least some of our hopes were on Gabriel Chavanne's shoulders. But not only, as the format of three sprint stages plus an epilogue was perfectly suited for Marcel Aregger as our GC candidate.
However, there must have been some issue with our communication of the race plan. Aregger actually was nowhere close to where he should have been to compete in the sprint on the first two stages, finishing 26th and 25th. So we insisted that all team members should please stay close to the front and bring Marcel into the best possible position for the sprint on day 3.
Well, it kind of worked. Two of his teammates indeed stayed close to him, and close to the front - but as the decisive moment to launch the sprint approached, they suddenly were gone! Aregger was on his own again, and looked to have once again missed the decisive move under the red kite.
But he launched just in time, passed one rider after the other, and ended up - 3rd! Marcel Aregger almost timed his sprint to perfection on the last possible occasion, taking a podium spot and precious bonus seconds! The latter made him surge to 12th in the GC, and being one of the strongest prologue riders up there, a Top 5 suddenly looked to be very possible again!
On the downside, Gabriel Chavanne wasn't one of the two sprint helpers - and even worse, he missed a decisive split, losing 1'42" in a completely stupid way and taking himself out of GC contention... So pressure on him was high to at least do well in the final stage, if he couldn't get any (expected) GC points...
Marcel Aregger sprinting to 3rd place on stage 3.
Given that unnecessary time loss on day 3, Gabriel Chavanne then was one of the earlier starters on the final day. And he looked to withstand the pressure, setting the best time. When Kopfauf, who beat him twice recently, finished two seconds slower, it was clear that Gabby had set a very good time.
As Marcel Aregger started his race, Chavanne was still sitting on the hot seat. Aregger did a good job as well, losing only 6" to his teammate and finishing provisional 8th. So Keough looked to be the last big competitor for the stage win - but the American had a horrible day out there, dropping even behind Aregger in the GC.
Finally, nobody was able to challenge Gabriel Chavanne on that final day - Gabby took his 2nd win of the season, and without his bad positioning on day 3 would have finished 6th or 7th in the GC...
Instead, Marcel Aregger once again had to salvage our GC ambitions, and he did so in a great way - finishing 3rd overall, just one second behind Scully in 2nd place (the Kiwi got the same result for us two years ago, by the way)! On top of that, we also finished 2nd in the team standings - mainly because Krzysztof Marchewka once again didn't perform to his actual skills, as we missed out on the win by just 2 seconds...
Gabriel Chavanne taking his 2nd stage win of the year!
April Review
April was a really busy month for us with 22 race days. It started very well with Gino Mäder taking 2nd in California, and it continued well with 4 stage Top 5 results in as many stages in Poland - including a win by Grzegorz Stepniak in his home race.
But from then on, it went quickly downwards, as especially Gianni Moscon once again just didn't feel like racing, finishing even outside the Top 100 in the GC - and being just our 3rd highest finisher... He did do slightly better later on in GP Wallonie, where he at least finished in a scoring position - but 23rd still wasn't what we'd like to see from him.
And for once, Fausto Masnada wasn't up to his task, either, as he missed a crucial split in Badaling and only brought home a single point. The downward spiral continued in USA Pro Cycling Challenge, where we got not involved at all on the first two stages.
But sometimes one stage is enough to turn things around, and that's what Marcel Aregger did. He ended up bringing home another GC podium, and Gabriel Chavanne added our 2nd stage win of the month on top of that. And that looks like a pattern - Gabby wins a stage, Aregger takes a GC podium; that happened both in Jelajah and now in USA PCC...
Points-wise, it clearly wasn't a top month. We barely scored above 10 PpRD, making our pre-month average drop by 3 points. Projections now see us end up below 2,000 points - let's bring that back up again!
On a positive note, we still were the 2nd highest scoring team this month - which led to us taking the division lead! We're currently 8 points ahead of McCormick, and that could be a close race until the very last day of the season!
In the individual standings, Fausto Masnada is still our top rider. He didn't race a lot this month and dropped from 3rd to 6th, but he still has a couple of races left to score some nice points. Marcel Aregger has been amazingly consistent so far, and now is up to 9th place, making it two Jura GIANTS in the Top 10!
And we have two more in the Top 30, with Gino Mäder moving up to 24th thanks to his great California performance, and Gabriel Chavanne gaining two spots from 29th to 27th with another stage win.
What's slightly concerning is that we only have 3 more riders in the Top 100, with Grzegorz Stepniak (47th), Gianni Moscon (60th) and Colin Stüssi (93rd). However, realistically only Szymon Rekita should eventually enter the Top 100 as well - maybe even next month where he's got an important race awaiting him...
While Fausto Masnada has been performing at a very high level in most of his races so far, we really can't explain Gianni Moscon's complete failure. He has even managed to lower his already catastrophic PpRD ratio even more this month - Pologne is exemplary for his collapse, as he went from finishing 7th in 2021 to finishing 126th in 2022... But fortunately, others have stepped up to compensate for all those lost points - and if we can keep that teamwork up, not only promotion, but even the division title should be possible!
Not even a top month, and still the 2nd best team That shows the level of your team.
No doubt that you will be in PCT next year, back where you belong!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
After we took a narrow lead in the division ranking by the end of April, we'll now try to keep and - if possible - extend it. Latter will be crucial moving forward, as our main rivals from McCormick will race Tour of America, which can be a high-scoring race if everything runs smoothly - and we don't race there once again.
Most of the weight this month will be on the shoulders of our uphill riders - and for the first time, we also expect some bigger points from our specialists against the clock. We only have stage races on the menu this month, let's take an in-depth look at our lineups and expectations:
May 3 - 8 | Tour de Romandie (C1)
Spoiler
The first out of three home races this year is our second goal race of the season. After having failed on fulfilling the Top 5 goal last year, the sponsors insisted on selecting the same goal once again - despite obviously having a weaker roster due to relegation. But we're still hoping to reach that goal this year - with the following roster:
Rider
Mo
TT
Spr
Rider
Mo
TT
Spr
Colin Stüssi
79
75
63
Szymon Rekita
58
79
69
Gino Mäder
77
75
67
Krzysztof Marchewka
64
77
52
Fausto Masnada
77
73
63
Leonardo Basso
67
72
71
Erick Rowsell
74
73
61
Marcel Aregger
64
68
78
After our climber trio already rocked the race in Catalunya, we're hoping to see more of the same at a higher race level! Despite an expected strong PCT competition, we believe that our TTT setup should be among the stronger ones. Szymon Rekita and Krzysztof Marchewka are here mainly for this one stage, and they proved in Catalunya that they can really pull hard in those races!
Then, it's a matter of not missing the decisive splits on the uphill stages, be it on the hilly stage 3 or on the grueling mountain stage 4 - which is where our hopes were killed last year. We hope that at least one of Colin Stüssi, Gino Mäder and Fausto Masnada can keep up on both days. And the good thing is that stage 5 should suit all of them pretty well, all being decent riders against the clock - and good climbers as well.
There's also Marcel Aregger for the two sprint stages; our veteran will hope to get one final big win on home soil, after having won a Tour de Suisse stage last year. Leo Basso might provide him some kind of a leadout, but is mainly here for the TTT as well. Which is the case as well for Erick Rowsell, but the Brit is also a good domestique for the mountains.
We know that there are lots of stronger climbers than Colin et al. in PCT, and so everything has to go in our favor if we want to succeed our goal this time. But if we fail, nobody could say that we didn't try - we can't send a stronger lineup than this one!
Expectations: Top 5 GC, 3x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: 7th GC (2021, Nairo Quintana), 2x Stage Win (2021, Theo Reinhardt; 2020, Andrea Manfredi)
May 12 - 14 | Tour of Chile (C1)
Spoiler
Back to South America, and back to some "hybrid" stage racing! We have mixed memories of this race from last year - with a stage win and a GC failure - let's see if we can at least improve on the second part with this lineup:
Rider
Mo
Hi
Spr
Rider
Mo
Hi
Spr
Fausto Masnada
77
76
63
Grzegorz Stepniak
56
66
78
Gianni Moscon
73
79
59
Noam Cohen
60
65
77
Mauro Schmid
73
74
69
Manuel Stocker
60
65
76
Panagiotis Karatsivis
70
68
64
Christoph Janssen
62
63
59
Indeed, we have learnt from the past and we've now promoted Fausto Masnada to team leader for such races. He did very well in another 3-day event, namely in Hong Kong, and with even more climbing involved here, we hope he has a clear edge on the pure puncheurs. We obviously can't expect another GC podium from him, but in an optimal scenario he might still claim a Top 10.
Gianni Moscon won stage 2 last year, and if he wants to start redeeming himself, he needs a similar result here! Or he should at least provide some great support to Fausto, but another no-show like in Pologne is unacceptable.
Once again, Mauro Schmid participates (almost) whenever Gianni is on the startline; he should be a valuable helper or even a hopeful breakaway rider - maybe with a shot at a Top 5 position in the young rider standings?
And while we have three riders for stages 2 and 3 and (maybe) for the GC, three more riders are sent to Chile for exactly one stage - the first one. Our sprinter armada is led by Grzegorz Stepniak, who is still on a high after winning a stage in his home race last month. Support should be provided by Noam Cohen and Manuel Stocker.
Finally, Panagiotis Karatsivis and Christoph Janssen are just here to gain some valuable experience - and maybe learn some Spanish, you never know...
Expectations: Top 15 GC, 2x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: 14th GC (2021, Nairo Quintana), Stage Win (2021, Gianni Moscon)
May 23 - 28 | Olympia's Tour (C2)
Spoiler
Finally, one of the big races for the TT specialists on the CT calendar - with not one, not two, but three stages against the clock in 6 days! From there, it should be pretty obvoius who will headline our roster:
Rider
TT
Spr
PL
Rider
TT
Spr
PL
Szymon Rekita
79
69
78
Grzegorz Stepniak
63
78
72
Krzysztof Marchewka
77
52
77
Christoph Janssen
69
59
69
Erick Rowsell
73
61
73
Panagiotis Karatsivis
68
64
67
Leonardo Basso
72
71
72
Alexandros Matsangos
67
61
67
We'll be heavily relying on our Polish fraction in Netherlands! Unfortunately, three of our best TTers are our top climbers, and we didn't want to spend 6 of their race days here - otherwise Szymon Rekita would have been the top favorite for this race. He still should be among the top contenders, but we'll have to limit our time loss in the TTT with a clearly weaker than ususal squad. Fortunately, it's only 18km long, so we don't expect huge time losses there. But Szymon will hopefully deliver on the first and last stages - and bring home his first big points of the year.
Krzysztof Marchewka is in a similar position, but on one hand he's a bit weaker than his compatriot, and on the other hand he's been mostly underperforming this year. If he races according to his actual skillset, he should be in for a Top 10-15 GC result as well.
Grzegorz Stepniak completes our Polish trio, and he'll try to fight for line honors on the non-TT stages. He'll clearly be our weak link in the TTT though, so the strategy will be for him to save some energy for the sprints there and be dropped early on.
Erick Rowsell and Leo Basso still bring some TT competence on the road and will try to help the team as well as they can, while Christoph Janssen, Panagiotis Karatsivis and Alexandros Matsangos are again just here to gain some experience.
All in all, a very top-heavy lineup - but given the rather short TTT, the ITT impact will hopefully be much bigger and so we should still be in for a GC Top 5. By the way, no Gabriel Chavanne here, as we felt like the 8.5km was already too long for him - maybe Kopfauf will start and prove us wrong?
Expectations: Top 5 GC, 4x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: 54th GC (2020, Tom Scully), 1x Stage 3rd (2020, Tom Scully)
May will be another big month for us - especially with our goal home race in Romandie and the first real TTers race at the end of the month. With the exception of Hong Kong, we didn't do too well in higher-level races so far, but stepping up in those will be crucial for our title ambitions!
Laurens Thanks But coming 2nd was definitely a matter of racing a lot, as several teams had a stronger PpRD average than we did. Still good to be on top of course, and I sure hope you're right about next year's division
Our contrasting strategies play out here as you aim for points at C1 while my leaders tend to focus on C2 so not at either of the C1 stage races. Our TTT team not showing at Olympia as we focus on the sprints, Didn't expect to be competitive in the GC there anyway as we also don't have a real TT leader.
Even with mediocre results it seems likely you will have a good size division lead by the end of the month.
Volta a Catalunya (C2)
Marcel Aregger to do well, given his allround skills - and he didn't disappoint! We were unable to keep things together - stopping Schlegel on the hills is a tricky task though - but our Swiss sprinter was best of the rest, which meant 3rd place of the day! A podium to start his journey with - well done! By the way, 
Fausto Masnada was very attentive, too, and even sprinted to 7th place - his 3rd Top10 finish in 4 stages so far!
I think you're the only team who could send a clearly stronger lineup than we have, and I expect you to beat us on some other occasions 
Jelajah SKL (C2)
Tom Scully)
Vuelta al Pais Vasco (C1)
Coppa Placci (C2)
GP Izola (C2)
Tour of California (C2)
Badaling International (C1)
GP Wallonie (HC)
Nairo Quintana), 2x Stage Win (2021, 
Theo Reinhardt; 2020, 
Tour of Chile (C1)
Olympia's Tour (C2)
