@redordead - I can smell it



Windhoek TTT
July 21, C1



This year we participate in not one but two dedicated team time trial events. While the event in Monterrey had rider restrictions, here in Windhoek we are free to bring our strongest squad, which includes every time trialist except Cattaneo. With thirteen teams at the start we are guaranteed free points again, though we obviously want more this time.

At the first timing point we took the lead but with some fast teams behind us we dropped down to sixth. Before the race we were lauded for our depth, so we should be able to gain time.

At the finish line we were put in the hot seat but were thrown out immediately by Cedevita. It turns out we did not gain any time and same teams who beat us at the halfway mark beat us at the finish line, including two continental teams. BWT even managed to win the race.

1	BWT Hyundai N Cycling	57'04
6	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 18

Tour of Slovenia
July 25 - 29, PTHC



A traditional race in our calendar, The Tour of Slovenia mixes hills with a time trial and team time trial. Dennis is the ideal candidate for the victory but competition in this PTHC race is always tough. Kalaba has at least one opportunity to sprint.

The Serbian took that opportunity with both hands but was still beaten by Farantakis, but a second place is not bad. The team finished a somewhat disappointing twelfth in the TTT but the gaps were relatively small, so the GC was not lost. Stage three was the first hilly stage, and our team got into trouble by missing the split. Kalaba chased like a mad man and brought both Dennis and Brown back to the front group.

The fourth stage saw bigger gaps with Dunbar and Wirtgen placing themselves a step above the rest. Dennis and Brown lost around two minutes and were on the edge of the top ten, with a podium not yet out of sight if they rode an excellent TT. Unfortunately they likely suffered from food poisoning in the hotel that night as I have no other explanation for their 55th and 70th place, with Brown even beating the team leader. They would finish twelfth and thirteenth in the GC, Dennis still ahead, which is far below expectations.

1	Tom Wirtgen	EA Vesuvio	13h31'23
12	Rohan Dennis	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 3'52
13	Nathan Brown	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 4'00
52	Luis Enrique Lemus Davila	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 9'59
91	Dusan Kalaba	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 13'56
101	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 15'05
103	Kazushige Kuboki	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 15'25
149	Jerome Coppel	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 24'16
162	Laureano Rosas	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 30'43

@Nemolito - Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes both. That's cycling.



Ninety-six riders have had the honor of belonging to the best cycling team in history. To honor them, we'll be going through the archives to discuss them all. At the end of each month, a group of riders is selected with something in common. Where were they before they became addicted to bananas? How did they do on the road? Where are they now? This adventure culminates in the introduction of the Minions Hall of Fame, where we honor our legends.

This month's group: riders with a unique nationality. We've had forty-two different countries represented within the team, of which the United States of America is best represented with seventeen different riders. Colombia comes next with ten, followed by Belgium with nine. However, there have been some riders with no compatriot to speak to, which ranges all over the world from small countries to cycling strongholds.

Laureano Rosas



Once upon a time there was a project to promote cycling in Argentina, which even dreamed of having a fully Argentinian team in the ProTour. Sadly the project folded after three seasons, but it is undeniable it has put some local talent on the radar of other teams. Our radar picked up Laureano Rosas, a time trialist and early lead-out, who won a stage in the 2017 Tour of America. He is currently on his fifth season on the team and is only beaten by Leandro Marcos in seniority. Scoring a lot of points is not really his task, but he is a very important element in team time trials. In his first season he almost won a stage in the Tour du Maroc from the breakaway, the season after he scored good GC in Barbados because of bonus seconds. In 2020 he managed to win the prologue in the Benelux Challenge, which also gave him a yellow jersey as souvenir. A salary dispute saw him terminate his contract at the end of the year, but without other options he returned on the same deal, continuing his services with the team for minimum wage. Over the years he won two TT National Championships and finished runner-up twice, so safe to say we got ourselves one of the best Argentinians in the peloton.



Borislav Ivanov



Bulgaria hosted the 2019 World Championships, which included Borislav Ivanov on the team. The climber had been a part of Podium Ambition, the successor of a local Bulgarian project, for four years but had been traded away to notorious traders Festina. We paid some bananas to get him over here, mainly as support for Uran, but he had a skill for getting in the right breakaways. He finished fourth just behind the favorites in the penultimate stage of Vuelta a Colombia and took a second place on a stage and the mountains classification in Tour of California in 2019, breaking the 100-point barrier. He would be the best climber in Colombia in 2020, finish third on a stage in Lithuania and Bayern that same year, but gloriously won stage four in Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt and his National Championships to score almost 200 points. In his third and final year on the team, he won another polka dot jersey, this time in the Hong Kong Challenge, but did not score as much as previous years. Citing new challenges, he left for newcomers Oktal Pharma, where he continues to score points with an eleventh place in Tour of South Africa amongst others.



Metkel Kiflay



When our manager joined the commentary booth for the 2018 Tour of America, Mektel Kiflay caught his eye after a stage win in a long time trial. The Eritrean had always raced for African teams before this race, but at Reddit he gathered his first success. When the moderators decided to close down the team, we were quick to snap him up. He would be part of our elite team time trial squad which won the TTT in the Volta a Catalunya. The first rider to cross the line would inherit the yellow jersey, and that rider was Kiflay! Other personal glory occurred in the Tour of Pologne, finishing ninth on the closing time trial against strong opposition, and retaining the Eritrean National Time Trial Championships. He was renewed for a second season but the revival of Project: Africa, the team he had debuted for in 2014, came calling for his services. In a sentimental mood, he requested a transfer which we granted for a small fee.



Farzad Khodayari



With the few bananas we had left for the 2018 season, we decided to improve diplomatic relations between Qatar and Iran by signing Farzad Khodayari. He wasn't signed to lead us or score a lot, but his stats suggested a versatile domestique. His specialty was the often underestimated skill of downhilling, though it rarely decides a race. He was crucial in the Hong Kong Challenge, where his eighteenth place also helped us win the teams classification. He often finished in the top fifty for mountain and hill races, scoring a total of twenty-nine points. He was also part of our only big Grand Tour adventure, getting camera time with two breakaway appearances in the Vuelta and a decent sixty-sixth place overall. It was not enough to secure a contract renewal, but things did turn out for him in the end. After stints at ISA, Guave and a year on the local scene, he was signed to ProTour stalwarts Evonik. Again riding the Vuelta in a free role, he won the eleventh stage from the breakaway. Don't forget the team which gave you your debut, Farzad!



Nico Schinker



Luxembourgian Nico Schinker has a career of ups and downs. He started off in the local Accumalux squad, but only made the reserves of France Televisions the year after, and no one signed him up for 2010. Vesuvio-Accumalux took him back under their wings for 2011 and was part of their ProTour winning squad of 2012. He got a leadership role down in CT at Kenya Airways in which he did very well, winning the Trofeo Luis Puig, but the year after at Nordeus turned into a disaster. His sabbatical for 2015 was the year he caught our eyes when looking for unsigned sprinters who would be better than Tolleson, but he chose to race for TVM. Disappointingly released ahead of the 2017 season, we gave him a final redemption for 2018 as leadout for Drapac. Did he do well? He scored zero points, and he wasn't that crucial in the few times we did have a sprint train. His career almost ended on a high, losing the Luxembourgian Championships on a photo finish, but no jersey meant no contract.



Andrei Nechita



Andrei Nechita from Romania boasted long stints at respected teams such as Project 1l4i and Fablok, and landed with us in 2021 for his last hurray. He was brought in for time trial support, but had an underrated ability on the cobbles which he could use in select races. For instance, he took twelfth in the cobbled prologue of Baltic Chain Tour, but lost a good GC due to splits. In Chrono d'Arenberg, a race which combines both abilities, he finished a very respectable twelfth as well, especially considering the race is rated PTHC. These results made him our best scoring time trial specialist that season!



Dusan Kalaba



At the end of 2019 we needed to bring in new sprinters, and we were offered Serbian Dusan Kalaba, who had previously represented Isostar in the ProTour but not as lead sprinter. 550 thousand bananas and our baby Jay Major went their way, and we got our secondary sprinter. He is often used in stage races with flat stages, slightly hillier stages and races with prologues. In his first two seasons he was also eligible for the young rider classification, winning said jersey in Olympia's Tour 2020. He held the leader's jersey in Benelux Challenge and had a few top five finishes during the season, but his first stage win would have to wait another year. Again getting the races not attended by Vesely, he finished fourth overall (first amongst the under 25's) in Jelajah SKL with the white jersey, took a second and third place in Tour de Romandie, and four top tens including a second place in Tour de Vineyards. Finally he managed to cross the line first on the final stage of the Benelux Challenge, and would later win his national championships. At the end of the season he had almost outscored Vesely despite having secondary treatment. Safe to say we are very happy with his services despite interest from other teams during the off-season, as he continues to get more important assignments within the team for this season. Vuelta a Pais Vasco is quite hilly but the second stage had a slim opportunity for the sprinters, but our Serbian found his way on top of the podium nevertheless. In Baltic Chain Tour he won the final stage on his way to fifth in the GC. The second stage of Tour of Norway contained a slightly uphill sprint, but that was no problem for Dusan who also won the green jersey for his troubles. Tour de Vineyards, opening stage, boom. At this rate, he will finally earn lead sprinter status, and with many years ahead it looks like we needn't worry about sprints for the years to come.



Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg



From South Africa comes Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg. When he was younger he had to create his own Wikipedia article, and was unfortunate in the disband of the original Project: Africa, but we had faith in him being our best time trialist for the 2018 season. The previous year we had no one there so any result would help us get away from the relegation zone. He finished twelfth overall in Tour of Southland and Olympia's Tour and unsurprisingly won his national championships. A decent but uneventful season for him, but he turned it up a notch in 2019. He survived the hilly stage in Post Danmark Rundt and took a brilliant fifth place in the GC! Other highlights include a second place in the Austria time trial (only beaten by final starter Pluchkin), a second place behind legend Coppel in the Britain TT and prolonging his national title. Barely missing out on the individual top 100, he caught the attention of the revived Project: Africa, but remained on the team for another season and continued improving. A ninth place in the Windhoek ITT and Chrono d'Arenberg events, seventh in Olympia's Tour, eleventh in Arab Tour, and another South African jersey saw him finish just outside the top 100 again. By now he couldn't ignore the calls from Project: Africa. It would take a lot to drag him away from us, but 250 thousand bananas would do. His performances haven't been the same though, and he hasn't even scored a point as of the latest ranking update.



Florentino Marquez



Spain is a big country in cycling, but only one of them has worn an overall. It's not just someone though, one of their legendary stage racers Florentino Marquez. He won many races in the PCT and CT over the years, won a stage in Le Tour and La Vuelta, finished second in the individual PCT rankings and helped Los Pollos Hermanos to immediate promotion. He has a long list of teams which would recommend his services even though he rarely lasted more than a year. We signed him at the end of his career, far past the glory days and only in a helping capacity. He only scored eight points, with a thirty-seventh place in Pro Hallstatt Classic the highest finishing position, aside from his twelfth place in his national climbing championships. He did attack in the final stage of the Vuelta a Colombia together with Uran when everyone's GC was already doomed, helping the leader gaining a few GC positions. With no team signing him up for this year, it seems his legendary career will be over.



Xavier Quevedo



We had just sold Carlos Betancourt for 850k, and needed a replacement. Isostar offered us Xavier Quevedo from Venezuela, whom we could sign for 750k. He was part of their promotion squad but not as leader, but scored almost as much as Betancourt nevertheless. Did he do better than the disgraced Colombian though? Not sure. He started off well with a thirteenth place in Tour Down Under, and finished twentieth in the TT-heavy Tour of Ukraine, and twenty-fifth in the PTHC Tour of Norway. At the end of the season he took a fifteenth place in Milano - Torino to take him over the 100 points threshold. He did not score as much as Betancourt but delivered less anger. It was not enough to secure a new contract and our puncheur woes were "fixed" by Claeys the year after. Quevedo went to Carrefour where he was actually decent in their relegated year, and won them the Trofeo Laigueglia and a stage in the Tour of America and Int. Österreich Rundfahrt. This season at newcomers Caja Rural has not gone to plan, not being a player in hilly races at all.

Deutschland Tour
August 1 - 5, PTHC



Get yourself a bratwurst, we're heading to Germany next. Avoiding most of the hills, there are four stages for the sprinters. The decisive stage for the GC is the time trial on stage three. Dennis and Vesely are outsiders in this stacked PTHC field.

Being an outsider in the time trial usually requires a very good day to challenge at the top, and Dennis did not have that. Seventeenth position is roughly where he should be according to the predictions, while we obviously hoped for something like a top ten. Fifteenth was also his final GC position while Brown finished forty-seventh.

Being an outsider in a sprinters' stage is not a bad thing. We did not have to worry about making a train and Vesely could easily use others to guide himself towards the finish line in first position. Now in the yellow jersey we obviously did have to do the work, Kuboki trying his best to help the leader but the Czech finished twelfth and lost the lead. Stages four and five saw us caught out by splits.

1	Mads Würtz	Grieg-Maersk	18h28'17
17	Rohan Dennis	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 51
47	Nathan Brown	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1'14
59	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1'25
83	Kazushige Kuboki	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1'49
88	Laureano Rosas	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 2'02
148	Daniel Vesely	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 5'18
164	Jerome Coppel	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 6'58
166	Jan Stöckli	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 7'51

Benelux Challenge
August 1 - 6, HC



If you are not a fan of mountains but of everything else, this is a race for you because we are in the Low Countries. Cobbles, hills and a time trial, an all-rounder will be victorious here. Unfortunately, we don't have any one of that caliber, so we will go out stage hunting. We are here because the manager gets overly excited when he sees his hometown hosting a stage departure.

Kalaba could target the prologue and the flat stages. His prologue was decent but not spectacular, and his positioning on stage two was too far back and he only finished eighth. Stuyven tried to get into the breakaway on stage three but never made it across, but Kalaba survived the hills to finish eleventh.

Stages four and five were littered with cobblestones but despite completely free roles for Sweeck, De Witte and Marcos, none of them did anything. Stuyven was the one going into the breakaway on stage five and collected some "mountain" points on his way. The final stage was flat so all focus on Kalaba once more. Having won the exact same stage last year, he did not miss his cue this time and ended the race on a high with a win.

1	Stefan Kung	Crabbe-CC Chevigny	21h03'28
60	Dusan Kalaba	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 16'30
88	Jasper Stuyven	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 23'08
91	Leandro Marcos	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 23'24
93	Laurens Sweeck	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 24'16
104	Mathias De Witte	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 27'17
113	Evgenii Tikhonin	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 30'28
122	Savva Novikov	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 36'49
127	Didier Merchan	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 38'34

@Nemolito - Chickens and bananas don't seem to mix well, but Bru is the top priority for next season.



Chrono des Herbiers
August 8 - 9, PT



We were invited to participate in the Chrono des Herbiers time trial event on a wildcard. The race is held over two legs but since we can't score points there's no need to delve into the details. Cattaneo is our best bet for a good result, Stöckli is here to gain experience and Coppel is on his farewell tour.

Cattaneo had a very disappointing first leg, finishing 50th at 2'30 from leader Phinney. The second day gave him better legs as he finished ninth at 1'16 from Würtz, for 29th overall at 3'34 from Würtz. Stöckli finished last on day one but beat Einhorn to finish second from last overall.

Coppel is a two-time winner of this race, but his last win was eight years ago so no one expected him to do well. However, he managed to kick Zmorka out of the hot seat on his first ride, and finished 37 seconds from Phinney in fourth on the day! The press was hyped, the fans were supporting the massive upset, but the legs were only good for one day. He lost nearly four minutes and finished 53rd on the day, and 37th overall. A shame, but day one will be remembered by many fans for years to come.

1	Mads Würtz	Grieg-Maersk	2h01'00
29	Mattia Cattaneo	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 3'34
37	Jerome Coppel	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 4'16
71	Jan Stöckli	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 16'05

@Imladrik - Thanks! I try to be positive for every rider but sometimes that just isn't possible



Post Danmark Rundt
August 9 - 13, HC



Denmark does not have any high mountains, so the time trial is the decisive feature in the Post Danmark Rundt. However, they found some tricky hills for the riders to navigate, but that should no be a problem for a good Dennis. Kalaba targets the flat stages while local future star Bjerg is a contender for white.

The Serbian sprinter missed the mark on stage one, got boxed in on stage two and was a secondary protagonist on stage four. A sixth place in the last one is his best result unfortunately. As expected, Dennis survived the hilly stage three with ease, even gaining time on direct rivals. Stuyven went in the break that stage and finished ninth while helping his leader and scoring points for the "mountains" classification. Bjerg was dropped so his dream of white in front of the home crowd was gone.

So going into the time trial we were in a good mood. That mood quickly got dampened when Dennis passed the checkpoints, down on his rivals and not in the conversation for the win. He would finish 22nd on the stage, nearly a minute down. In the general classification he finished fourth at 22 seconds, which is disappointing given his lead before the stage. However, there were some positives. Brown finished tenth overall, and the team won the teams classification.

1	Benoit Cosnefroy	Zara - Irizar	15h00'26
4	Rohan Dennis	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 22
10	Nathan Brown	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1'02
32	Dusan Kalaba	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 2'23
58	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 3'53
70	Laureano Rosas	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 4'23
120	Jasper Stuyven	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 6'14
142	Mathias De Witte	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 7'28
177	Didier Merchan	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 17'30

Frankfurt Eschborn
August 15, C1



Frankfurt Eschborn is rated as flat. Sure, the end is flat, but there is a lot of climbing to be done before the finish line. Nevertheless, we bring Vesely as lead sprinter in the hope the tempo uphill is slower than a snail.

The pace was that of a super fast snail, so Vesely got dropped somewhere before the finish. Our only two riders surviving were Quintana and Stuyven. Not really fast finishers, but with most sprinters gone anything is possible.

Stuyven was close to the front and actually put down a decent sprint, finishing in fifth position. Quintana finished tenth. They managed to beat guys like Houle, Kennaugh and Ahlstrand in the sprint, some very fast guys who were torn apart by the mountains.

1	Max Kanter	Tryg - Gobik	5h39'58
5	Jasper Stuyven	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
10	Dayer Quintana	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
54	Evgenii Tikhonin	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 3'35
55	Daniel Vesely	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
57	Savva Novikov	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
82	Jan Stöckli	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 6'19
114	Alvaro Hodeg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 8'23
123	Felix English	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 11'30

We're almost at the end of August, but the rankings after the month of June have just been published. Apparently Coppel's recent performances have caused a rift in the space-time continuum. Everything that happened after the Tour of Slovenia is not included in this update, but the next one is schedule to be published on time in a few days anyway.

Pos	Last		Team	Total	RD	PpRD	Proj
1	1		Amaysim Cervelo	3026	111	27.26	4443
2	3		Zara - Irizar	2722	134	20.31	3311
3	9		Minions - Subwoolfer	2448	122	20.07	3271
4	2		Binance	2159	116	18.61	3033
5	5		Bralirwa - Stevens	2151	116	18.54	3022
6	4		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	2067	107	19.32	3149
7	7		Carlsberg - Danske Bank	1946	111	17.53	2857
8	8		HelloFresh - Lampre	1920	113	16.99	2769
9	12		Cedevita	1903	94	20.24	3299
10	18		Red Bull Zalgiris	1874	115	16.3	2657
11	6		Sauber Petronas Racing	1807	113	15.99	2606
12	16		Kraftwerk Man Machine	1794	100	17.94	2924
13	17		Team Popo4Ever	1766	105	16.82	2742
14	10		Voyagin - Bird	1698	129	13.16	2145
15	21		Indosat Ooredoo	1618	122	13.26	2161
16	15		Volcanica - Fox	1597	126	12.67	2065
17	11		Xero Racing	1582	99	15.98	2605
18	13		Trans Looney Tunes	1552	125	12.42	2024
19	14		Philips - Force India	1515	104	14.57	2375
20	24		Assa Abloy	1436	98	14.65	2388
21	19		Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	1343	96	13.99	2280
22	20		Strava	1272	116	10.97	1788
23	23		Project: Africa	1114	116	9.6	1565
24	22		Crabbe-CC Chevigny	1045	106	9.86	1607

Oh my. We've moved into the promotion spots, onto the podium, to third place. Even sorting on PPRD leaves us in a direct promotion spot, but the margins are small. We were the second-highest scoring team of the period, barely losing out to Zara - Irizar who are one spot above us but with considerably more racedays used. Amaysim Cervelo might run away with the title but the battle for best of the rest is getting very tense, and we're right in the middle of it!

Pos	Last	Rider	Nat		Team	Total
1	1	Jonas Ahlstrand	SWD		Volcanica - Fox	934
6	11	Mattia Cattaneo	ITA		Minions - Subwoolfer	661
23	31	Daniel Vesely	CZE		Minions - Subwoolfer	430
31	68	Rohan Dennis	AUS		Minions - Subwoolfer	345
55	71	Dusan Kalaba	SER		Minions - Subwoolfer	256
67	105	Nathan Brown	USA		Minions - Subwoolfer	216
143	123	Leandro Marcos	CUB		Minions - Subwoolfer	81
146	125	Laurens Sweeck	BEL		Minions - Subwoolfer	79
149	126	Mathias De Witte	BEL		Minions - Subwoolfer	78
167	151	Alvaro Hodeg	COL		Minions - Subwoolfer	62
190	329	Mikkel Bjerg	DEN		Minions - Subwoolfer	49
208	212	Kazushige Kuboki	JPN		Minions - Subwoolfer	39
226	206	Evgenii Tikhonin	RUS		Minions - Subwoolfer	32
227	241	Luis Enrique Lemus Davila	MEX		Minions - Subwoolfer	32
248	224	Felix English	IRL		Minions - Subwoolfer	28
263	498	Jerome Coppel	FRA		Minions - Subwoolfer	24
317	377	Laureano Rosas	ARG		Minions - Subwoolfer	15
330	308	Dayer Quintana	COL		Minions - Subwoolfer	13
406	378	Savva Novikov	RUS		Minions - Subwoolfer	5
452	451	Jasper Stuyven	BEL		Minions - Subwoolfer	2
466	450	Jan Stöckli	SWI		Minions - Subwoolfer	1

Our jump up the rankings is thanks to many riders but mainly Cattaneo, winning Tour de Vineyards and moving up to sixth in the individual rankings. Vesely's second place in Philadelphia moves him inside the top thirty, with Dennis just outside but also gaining spots. Our Big Three have finally made full use of their scoring potential, but it doesn't end there. Secondary leaders Kalaba and Brown also showed consistent performances and jump into the top seventy. The cobblers didn't race this period and Hodeg had little opportunities, but Bjerg moves up to tenth in our rankings due to white jersey bonuses. Further down, Kuboki and Lemus Davila increased their total, Coppel enters the rankings with twenty-four points and Stuyven doubles his total to two. Only Merchan and stagiare Hailemichael are yet to score.

@Nemolito - If we don't promote I'll blame it all on your jinx.
@jandal7 - Ulloa has a very good teacher though
@Laurens147 - The schedule is not that amazing but Bayern Rundfahrt should push us over the line hopefully.



Tour of Britain
August 17 - 21, C1



August concludes with the Tour of Britain, a race made for the hybrids. An early time trial is followed by three hilly stages, which makes this race perfect for Dennis, having won the very similar Tour of Norway. The sole flat stage will be courtesy of Hodeg.

As the flat stage is the opener, Hodeg had an opportunity to get in yellow. Standing out in a weak field, he opened the sprint at 700 meters and no one managed to pass him! His stint in yellow wouldn't last long as the time trial was up next, with Dennis finishing fifth. Special applause for Coppel for finishing ninth, and Brown also doing well in twelfth.

As the hills started in stage three, the pure time trialists were filtered out, moving Dennis up to third behind the Dunbar and Kämna. Brown unfortunately lost three minutes and a favorable GC position. On the next stage Dennis even attacked to finish fourth, and was now having the exact same time as Dunbar in the GC, but we got the yellow! Neither Dunbar nor Kämna, nor anyone else, made a real move on the final stage and with the tie breaking criteria not changing, Rohan Dennis wins the Tour of Britain!

1	Rohan Dennis	Minions - Subwoolfer	16h48'02
22	Nathan Brown	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 9'16
94	Jan Stöckli	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 26'02
104	Jasper Stuyven	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 27'34
110	Leandro Marcos	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 29'25
115	Laureano Rosas	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 32'08
117	Jerome Coppel	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 33'05
132	Alvaro Hodeg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 41'01

@whitejersey - Thanks!



Tour de l'Avenir
August 23 - 31, U23



The stars of the future usually shine their first light in the Tour de l'Avenir, a special non-ranking event for youngsters. Hodeg and Bjerg each won a stage here in previous years, but the expectations this year are lower. Merchan, Stöckli, stagiare Hailemichael and loanee Novikov ride on the combined Minions Cervelo team with Dinham, Jones, Porter and Turnbull from Amaysim Cervelo.

As a team of inexperienced riders (even for this field) without any real opportunities for stage wins, we were restricted to breakaway appearances. Jones was the first to show our jersey (Amaysim trading their jerseys for our overalls) on stage seven. Stöckli attempted the breakaway on stage eight and Novikov did so on the final stage. All of them were among the first to be dropped.

Dinham was the highest finisher on stage, 43rd in the time trial. Novikov finished 89th overall with all other riders outside the top 100. And that's fine, there's nothing at stake this race and all lads have gained valuable experience.

1	Matteo Jorgenson	Zwift Pro Cycling	32h51'20
89	Savva Novikov	Minions Cervelo	+ 35'46
124	Matthew Dinham	Minions Cervelo	+ 46'59
132	Mulu Hailemichael	Minions Cervelo	+ 52'18
139	Rudy Porter	Minions Cervelo	+ 54'22
140	Jan Stöckli	Minions Cervelo	s.t.
144	Didier Merchan	Minions Cervelo	+ 57'10
148	Taj Jones	Minions Cervelo	+ 59'09
154	Carter Turnbull	Minions Cervelo	+ 1h00'44

@redordead - It took a while but Dennis has come alive in the last months



If it feels the ranking updates are coming in quick now, you are not alone. It feels like last week the July updates puts us in third place and now the August update has been released. Can we maintain or position or, in our wildest dream, even improve further?

Pos	Last		Team	Total	RD	PpRD	Proj
1	1		Amaysim Cervelo	3500	126	27.78
2	2		Zara - Irizar	3115	146	21.34
3	3		Minions - Subwoolfer	2961	145	20.42
4	7		Carlsberg - Danske Bank	2540	137	18.54
5	4		Binance	2408	135	17.84
6	9		Cedevita	2406	116	20.74
7	5		Bralirwa - Stevens	2382	141	16.89
8	6		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	2271	120	18.93
9	8		HelloFresh - Lampre	2251	121	18.6
10	10		Red Bull Zalgiris	2096	135	15.53
11	11		Sauber Petronas Racing	2011	126	15.96
12	15		Indosat Ooredoo	1963	141	13.92
13	12		Kraftwerk Man Machine	1938	116	16.71
14	13		Team Popo4Ever	1880	114	16.49
15	14		Voyagin - Bird	1845	139	13.27
16	18		Trans Looney Tunes	1798	143	12.57
17	20		Assa Abloy	1776	113	15.72
18	17		Xero Racing	1736	109	15.93
19	19		Philips - Force India	1720	120	14.33
20	21		Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	1698	114	14.89
21	16		Volcanica - Fox	1613	135	11.95
22	24		Crabbe-CC Chevigny	1467	124	11.83
23	22		Strava	1329	133	9.99
24	23		Project: Africa	1259	127	9.91

We've remained third in the actual rankings and fourth sorted on PPRD. We have closed the gap to Zara - Irizar a little bit but Amaysim Cervelo is just out of reach. Cedevita seems our nearest rival even though they're only sixth, but they have a lot of racedays in hand. The gap to Carlsberg - Danske Bank is over 400 points but with eight racedays in their favor, and the gap to current fifth place Binance is over 500 points with ten racedays. We can afford some lesser results in the next two months, which will occur on the cobbles and hills, but it's too early to pop the champagne.

Pos	Last	Rider	Nat		Team	Total
1	1	Jonas Ahlstrand	SWD		Volcanica - Fox	941
8	6	Mattia Cattaneo	ITA		Minions - Subwoolfer	661
13	31	Rohan Dennis	AUS		Minions - Subwoolfer	603
21	23	Daniel Vesely	CZE		Minions - Subwoolfer	475
51	55	Dusan Kalaba	SER		Minions - Subwoolfer	301
58	67	Nathan Brown	USA		Minions - Subwoolfer	276
144	167	Alvaro Hodeg	COL		Minions - Subwoolfer	94
157	143	Leandro Marcos	CUB		Minions - Subwoolfer	81
160	146	Laurens Sweeck	BEL		Minions - Subwoolfer	79
163	149	Mathias De Witte	BEL		Minions - Subwoolfer	78
197	190	Mikkel Bjerg	DEN		Minions - Subwoolfer	57
223	452	Jasper Stuyven	BEL		Minions - Subwoolfer	43
226	208	Kazushige Kuboki	JPN		Minions - Subwoolfer	41
253	226	Evgenii Tikhonin	RUS		Minions - Subwoolfer	32
254	227	Luis Enrique Lemus Davila	MEX		Minions - Subwoolfer	32
271	330	Dayer Quintana	COL		Minions - Subwoolfer	29
279	248	Felix English	IRL		Minions - Subwoolfer	28
293	263	Jerome Coppel	FRA		Minions - Subwoolfer	24
308	317	Laureano Rosas	ARG		Minions - Subwoolfer	21
418	406	Savva Novikov	RUS		Minions - Subwoolfer	5
474	466	Jan Stöckli	SWI		Minions - Subwoolfer	1

Cattaneo lost two places overall but is still in the top ten, while Dennis shoots up to thirteenth after his win in Britain. Both have one race left: Bayern Rundfahrt will decide the individual title. Vesely has Paris - Tours to settle himself into the top thirty. Kalaba has one opportunity left in Bayern while Brown is our third GC pawn in that race, both could make the top fifty with a good result. Hodeg's Britain stage win puts him ahead of the cobblers and has sprint leadership in Maroc. Marcos, Sweeck and De Witte have Battenkill as only realistic but minor points scoring opportunity. Bjerg holds onto the top ten but might be challenged by Stuyven's late season surge. Further down, Lemus Davila or Quintana could make something of their co-leadership in Maroc and the season-ending hilly races.