Arab Tour surely was painful for some managers, sadly you were one of them as well. hopefully that kind of bad luck comes back again later to turn in some good luck in one of the remaining races
After a really calm - and once again rather disappointing - month with just 2 races for a total of 9 RDs, August will be another crucial month when it comes down to our chances to fulfill our sponsor's Top 5 goal in the PCT Team Standings.
Five races, 19 race days - only two months were busier with 20 and 23 RDs. Three stage races, two classics, including hills, TTs, cobbles - and the final TTT of the year. Plus our last PT wildcard this season - not counted in races or RDs. Let's take a closer look!
Aug 01 - 05 | Tour de Vineyards | C1
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Colin Stüssi
71
79
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
Fausto Masnada
71
77
76
73
76
75
73
60
63
73
69
71
70
Valentin Darbellay
69
77
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
64
70
67
76
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
Christoph Janssen
71
63
65
72
68
71
70
55
59
66
64
65
72
Scott Davies
64
68
66
69
67
68
68
55
61
68
63
65
69
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
We come to New Zealand with pretty mixed feelings. We don't have good memories of last year, where Colin Stüssi failed to even stay with some pretty mediocre climbers on the decisive mountain stage - and despite taking 3rd in the closing TTT, we failed to get a notable GC result.
This year, we bring both Fausto Masnada and Valentin Darbellay in addition to Colin; especially the former could make the difference with is punch if the stage is ridden in a similarly unselective way as last year. It's obviously a must that at least one of the three finishes in the first big group. And let's just remember that Masnada actually cracked the Top 10 two years ago - when it even was an HC race...
In terms of TTT lineup, this is the one HC/C1 TTT where we can't realistically target the win. The obvious reason is because our Top 3 are riding in Germany at the same time, so some PCT competitors should definitely come up with a better lineup. And maybe even some CT teams. But even though we don't know the full starting field yet, we think a Top 5 - both in the TTT and in the GC - should be doable, as we expect the other PCT teams participating in Germany to send their strongest TTers over there as well.
For the three sprint stages, we once again have Cees Bol on board. Cees didn't do well in his last couple of races - hopefully a month's break helped him to get back on track, as we really need some good stage results again!
Expectations: 3x Stage Top 10, GC Top 5 Expected points: 80 Best result so far:
- Stage: Win (Theo Reinhardt, 2021)
- GC: 10th (Fausto Masnada, 2021)
Aug 02 - 06 | Deutschland Tour | PTHC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Dylan Page
75
57
66
60
72
72
75
66
78
79
62
55
59
Manuel Stocker
75
60
65
69
71
73
76
59
76
77
65
65
71
Felix Stehli
67
66
69
62
70
69
68
62
69
69
67
69
66
Hugo Page
66
65
66
61
68
68
62
61
69
72
68
69
66
Gustas Raugala
69
65
65
68
66
68
63
54
58
64
64
71
69
After the Tour of Slovenia last month, this is the other race in that PTHC band where we first thought it'd be a good idea going to - and we no longer think alike. The PT competition is just too big to really get something out of this race - especially after we failed to sign a top-level TT specialist. We did intend to get one, hence we accepted this to be a Top 10 sponsor goal...
So we can't realistically expect big things from our riders in this race - our TTers will be too weak to fight for the top spots, and Dylan Page was already a non-factor in Arab Tour last month. In an even far stronger expected sprinter field, we'd be surprised to see him score - but we'd obviously love to be positively surprised for once.
GC-wise, we're hoping for Szymon Rekita to get a Top 20 spot, plus Stefan Bissegger and Alexys Brunel somewhere in the Top 40. The latter duo will hopefully score a handful U25 points as well - joining a breakaway and picking up some bonus seconds could do wonders in that respect.
Manuel Stocker basically is here to support Page (Dylan of course, but Hugo is here as well), but in Arab Tour he actually ended up being our 2nd best GC rider, thanks to his decent TT skills...
So, the goal will be to deliver a strong TT by all three specialists - and then avoiding any stupid splits like they happened in Arab Tour and Slovenia, where we lost more than 100 points combined like that. This won't happen here, given that we'll probably barely reach 50 points at all...
Expectations: 1x Stage Top 10, GC Top 20 Expected points: 50 Best result so far: n/a
Aug 08 | Clasica San Sebastian | PTHC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
Mauro Schmid
72
74
77
68
71
77
72
69
70
77
76
74
66
Giorgi Tediashvili
73
66
69
65
74
76
72
74
69
71
70
66
65
Felix Stehli
67
66
69
62
70
69
68
62
69
69
67
69
66
Cedric Bakke Christophersen
66
66
68
63
68
72
65
64
66
68
70
64
67
Christoph Janssen
71
63
65
72
68
71
70
55
59
66
64
65
72
Hugo Page
66
65
66
61
68
68
62
61
69
72
68
69
66
Gustas Raugala
69
65
65
68
66
68
63
54
58
64
64
71
69
This is one of two hilly PTHC classics on our schedule - the tougher one for sure. In hindsight, maybe we should've sent a climber here, but the recent history of the race rather features puncheurs on top of the rankings.
So we send our puncheur duo of Xuban Errazkin and Mauro Schmid, hoping either of them - or both - can get us a decent result here. Two years ago, we got a 23rd place - surprisingly not by Moscon, but by Basso. Both of Xuban and Mauro are far stronger puncheurs than Leo, so there's hope that we can in fact greatly improve on that result!
And even though Xuban is slightly stronger on the hills, the final downhill and the flat run-in should actually favour Mauro with his strong downhill skills, acceleration and decent sprint. On the other hand, he doesn't really like these very long races, so we'll see...
A Top 15 result would be great, but both in the Top 30 would already be a decent enough result for us this year.
Expectations: Top 20 Expected points: 20 Best result so far: 23rd (Leonardo Basso, 2021)
Aug 11 - 15 | Post Danmark Rundt | HC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Cedric Bakke Christophersen
66
66
68
63
68
72
65
64
66
68
70
64
67
Gustas Raugala
69
65
65
68
66
68
63
54
58
64
64
71
69
Another really important, another big race for us this month! A stage race decided by an ITT - but not only. And it's that "not only" that could actually come back to bite us in an ugly way.
Because we realized that we didn't send a puncheur here, despite the hilly stage 3. The results of the last couple of years suggest that this doesn't actually matter - with TTer Cosnefroy taking 2nd last year, and even winning this stage the year before. In general, the best TTers - and we think that our Top 3 should be among them, especially with UBS not picking this band - were in the first group, as long as they could ride some hills.
We like to compare Alexys Brunel to his compatriot Cosnefroy, so it's clear that we're hoping for him to be in the mix, too. The top spot should be reserved for Dunbar (if he can gap Zmorka et al. on the hills), but behind the Irishman anything might be on the cards. Stefan Küng should be a perfect fit for this race, too, even though he didn't do well in the hilly stage last year.
Stefan Bissegger can also hold his own on some uphills, whereas Szymon Rekita and Krzysztof Marchewka might be struggling a bit more. But we definitely do hope to have as many riders as possible in the scoring positions here!
And let's not forget about Cees Bol for the flat stages - and potentially even for the hilly one; if Cosnefroy can win that stage, Bol could be in the mix, too. And he's often done a really good job on tough stages, even some hilly-rated ones. But given the HC rating, we suppose the sprinter competition will be really fierce once again...
We're hoping to get at least one rider in the Top 10 here, and then get a strong depth result - potentially even better than in Arab Tour. On the other hand, if the lack of a puncheur should lead to us not caring about stage 3 at all, it could turn out being an awful race for us. Hence, our points expectation is rather conservative - it could be far higher, as shown in Norway, but also far lower if we get an Ukraine-style result... But if even Leo Basso could get a 15th place two years back, we think we should rather be hopeful...
Expectations: 3x Stage Top 10, GC Top 10 Expected points: 80 Best result so far:
- Stage: Win (Tom Scully, 2021)
- GC: 15th (Leonardo Basso, 2021)
Aug 17 | Chrono des Herbiers | PT
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Mauro Schmid
72
74
77
68
71
77
72
69
70
77
76
74
66
The final PT wildcard of the year unfortunately is one where we can only send three riders to - and not even our optimal lineup.
Stefan Bissegger and Alexys Brunel in the end got the nod, whereas Rekita will have to stay at home. In some way, it's a casting for this duo, to see who might really deserve some intense TT training during the offseason, and who might rather work on versatility.
The main reason why Rekita isn't here of course is due to Mauro Schmid needing to get as much PT experience as possible this year, to reach his full potential. He won't be competing for top spots obviously, but experience is all that counts for him.
Two years ago, we got a Top 20 finish in this race; with performance variance having become much lower now, we doubt this will be possible this time - but we wouldn't be against a positive surprise, obviously!
Expectations: Top 30 Expected points: n/a Best result so far: 18th (Alfredo Balloni, 2021)
Aug 20 | GP Kigali | C1
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
72
67
74
65
76
73
74
80
77
76
64
67
70
Giorgi Tediashvili
73
66
69
65
74
76
72
74
69
71
70
66
65
Nejc Kosic
71
57
65
60
72
68
65
76
58
62
77
66
60
Felix Stehli
67
66
69
62
70
69
68
62
69
69
67
69
66
Cedric Bakke Christophersen
66
66
68
63
68
72
65
64
66
68
70
64
67
Hugo Page
66
65
66
61
68
68
62
61
69
72
68
69
66
Scott Davies
64
68
66
69
67
68
68
55
61
68
63
65
69
Gustas Raugala
69
65
65
68
66
68
63
54
58
64
64
71
69
And yet another crucial race for us - the last time of the year we'll meet all the division's top cobblers!
It's obviously another target race for Edward Theuns. Pretty long cobbled sections and an uphill finish - what else would he need to get a great result once again? Well, we already expected him to do well in Dunkerque, where he failed - but he won't fail twice in a row, will he?
Giorgi Tediashvili and Nejc Kosic are his standard support cast, with the rest of the teams consisting of talents once again. We'll need some more depth on the cobbles next year - and potentially a new leader - but we hope this lineup will be successful once again!
As seen in Dunkerque, anything can obviously happen, but another result outside the Top 5 would be disappointing, period. And Top 5 means 36 points at least, so hopefully our expectations aren't too far off here.
Expectations: Top 5 Expected points: 40 Best result so far: n/a
With Vineyards, Denmark and Kigali, that's three races with pretty high expectations - with the two PTHC ones being pretty much "wildcards" once again. We just don't like this category yet, not having any PT-worthy leader bar Theuns currently.
There will also be the Tour de l'Avenir, where we hope to get a first impression of the route soon - we have paired up with Team UBS this time, with four riders per team riding for Team UBS - Jura! We'll keep you up-to-date on that topic.
In total, we expect to score 270 points this month, corresponding to a 14 PpRD average. We said it before, we expect the last third of the season to be our weakest - this relatively low expected PpRD therefore isn't really surprising. But we're obviously hoping to do better; we probably even have to do so again, if we really want to have a chance of reaching our Top 5 Team Standings sponsor goal...
Nemo Well, we rather had quite a bit more bad luck in Slovenia for now, so we better get a ton of good luck then later on... Not very optimistic on that, though.
Should have a chance for some good results it looks like with all the TT kilometres this month, and even when there's not Theuns has a chance to shine again in Rwanda. San Sebastian even looks like it could be a decent scorer if Schmid and Errazkin (at home) can get a double points finish?
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
We didn't really know what to expect from this race that could potentially go either way for us - a total disaster, or a fantastic outcome.
What we definitely didn't expect though was what happened on stage 1. Already hit badly by a random split in a flat stage in Arab Tour, our riders definitely didn't learn their lessons from that incident - and the same happened to us on day 1 in Slovenia. 6 riders were on the wrong side of a split, losing 90" - basically the end of our dreams of the optimal scenario. What a bummer to start the race...
At least Stefan Küng and Alexys Brunel made the front group, leaving us with some GC and U25 hopes - but even the team standings were basically gone - just due to some stupid poisitioning strategy.
Subpar results continued right on stage 2, the TTT. We brought the 6th strongest team, with a shot at a Top 5 - but ended up 8th. Not a disaster for sure, but below expectations once again, especially considering the time loss of 21 seconds. But it definitely could have been even worse.
Jura GIANTS on their way to 8th place in the TTT.
Day 3 then finally was a pretty good one for us, with Xuban Errazkin even being among the stage favourites. However, the Spaniard launched way too early and dropped back to 10th. But Fausto Masnada jumped in to save the day, sprinting to a good 5th place!
Furthermore, Valentin Darbellay (20th), Stefan Bissegger (21st), Alexys Brunel (28th) and Stefan Küng (32nd) all finished high up as well - the only sad point about this stage was that officially a gap was given only after the first 103 riders...
Fausto Masnada and Xuban Errazkin both finishing in the Top 10 of stage 3.
Stage 4 was even harder than stage 3, and so we were hoping to a) get a similar team result as on day 3, and b) actually get some gaps in our favour for once.
Well, we have to say that the team strategy on that day was far from optimal. In fact, Alexys Brunel, our main hope for GC and U25 at this stage, was dropped early for a reason we haven't identified yet. He would only have needed to finish in the 2nd big chasing group to take over the white jersey - and quite a lot of similar or weaker uphill riders actually were in that group. He even dropped out of the U25 Top 10, throwing some good points out of the window. Valentin Darbellay was also unable to follow quite some similarly strong or weaker climbers - his lack of punch may have held him back there. Sadly, Stefan Küng also missed out, not having good enough legs and/or positioning. He was 20th in GC after this stage, which still was a decent outcome for him - but he could have been in contention for a Top 10 in an optimal scenario.
In terms of stage results, Xuban Errazkin also didn't have the best legs to finish 24th. On the other hand, Fausto Masnada was even stronger than the day before and was in contention for the win - however, Bernal just was too strong. Penasa and Mas also were slightly stronger, but it was still a good 4th place for our Italian allrounder!
Fausto Masnada sprinting to 4th on day 4.
At the end of day 4, Fausto Masnada was 18th on GC, Stefan Küng was 20th. Xuban Errazkin (32nd) and Valentin Darbellay (50th) were inside the Top 50.
Especially Masnada's position actually hurt - without the unnecessary stage 1 time loss, Fausto would've been tied for 6th in GC after the hilly stages...
The goal for the closing ITT was to somehow defend Küng's Top 20 position, keeping Masnada inside the Top 30 and Darbellay in the Top 50.
And we actually achieved these goals! While missing out on a decent stage result - our highest placed rider was Szymon Rekita on a pretty disappointing 27th place - the riders relevant for GC performed rather well. Especially Stefan Küng really did a good job, taking 35th place - and moving up to a pretty good 16th place overall! Fausto Masnada's TT result - 116th place - might look bad in itself, but with the insane TT depth in the field that was expected. It was still good enough to only drop 8 spots, to 26th. Valentin Darbellay's 81st place was good enough to gain 5 spots, to finish 45th. Xuban Errazkin sadly lost his Top 50 spot by 7 seconds - a pretty awful result after finishing 17th the year before. The same gap he now had would actually have been enough for 20th place last year - just a sign of how incredibly strong the field was this year... Alexys Brunel failed to get back into the Top 50, as expected, but at least picked up the final scoring U25 position, which was 8th place.
Szymon Rekita on his way to an early best time - later on slipping down to 27th.
All in all, we got a rather solid scoring outcome - mostly thanks to Fausto Masnada's stage results, also resulting in a 5th place in the points standings. Still, we have to mention that without the inexplicable stage 1 time loss, he could have finished 12th in the GC... It was already his 2nd major failure on an "easy" stage this year, after he basically even gave away the GC win in South Africa...
But as we said, this could've been a disastrous race if every split played out against us - it turned out being an average outcome with 79 points, even a tad higher than the (low) expectations of 60 points. It could have been quite a lot better in an optimal scenario - but Ukraine showed us that it could also have been far worse.
In general, we take note that TT-heavy races are mainly for PT teams with their incredibly stacked lineups, so we have to be content with what we got. Of course hoping to be more successful in the few remaining TT-heavy PCT races.
The latest ranking update will come when the current numbers are published, but we think we did fairly well this month - despite having quite some bad luck with splits/gaps in both races. Which we think is a sign of quality for our team - despite some failures, we're still able to score rather well.
jandal We'll see. In Denmark, a lot depends on how many riders we can keep in contention after the hills - it could be a great race, but it could also be the contrary. Germany has a TT, true, but not even a Top 20 is guaranteed for a 79 TTer in that field, which would be almost unthinkable in a PTHC mountain race with a 79 climber...
Vineyards looks like a big scoring opportunity, but we need to make use of that situation first. And yeah, Theuns being back into action in Kigali will hopefully bring us a decent result
red "Potentially", I guess you nailed it Up to the team to turn the "on offer" into "scored"
Another month is done - and it's the month where we finally lost the team standings lead again. Los Pollos simply were really strong in June, taking the lead not only due to spending more race days, but also due to scoring more points per race day than we did so far.
Still, whereas we were afraid at some point we'd even drop out of the Top 5 by spending only 9 RDs, reality still looks much kinder:
Pos
Last
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
4
Los Pollos Hermanos
2880
124
23.23
3786
2
1
Jura GIANTS
2535
115
22.04
3593
3
3
Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes
2534
123
20.6
3358
4
9
Indosat Ooredoo
2480
128
19.38
3159
5
2
Fastned
2370
119
19.92
3247
Yes, we did lose the lead. Yes, we do now have a pretty big gap to Los Pollos (which will only increase after Deutschland Tour and Post Danmark Rundt). Yes, the gap to 6th has become far, far smaller (212, as compared to 527 post-June).
But that's just part of the truth. The other part includes the fact that we now have the lowest amount of race days spent among the Top 10 teams. Whereas two teams had a better PpRD than us after June, there's only one left. And while there were five teams with a PpRD above 20 one month ago, only three are left.
Yes, some teams have really closed the gap, and are on an awesome roll. But all in all, it's still looking rather good for us to stay inside the Top 5. At least on paper.
Because reality also is that the last part of the season doesn't necessarily suit us best. We do still have 48 days of racing ahead - but at least one third of them aren't too promising for us. Deutschland Tour, Balkans, the hills.
On the other hand, we do also have some races with a rather big scoring potential - our spreadsheet with the expected points currently sees us arrive at 3,155 points. Which is 5 points higher than a month ago, meaning we outscored our minimum expectations by 5 points, despite all the shenanigans happening. Not bad, but it might take another extra effort to seal that Top 5 outcome.
Given that we "only" expected 2,850 points for the season - a target we're just 315 points shy off with three months to go - we definitely exceeded expectations by far until now. This also shows in the rider summary which we'll see later - but first, let's look at the rider points:
Pos
Rider
Nat
Team
Total
15
Edward Theuns
BEL
Jura GIANTS
542
41
Fausto Masnada
ITA
Jura GIANTS
303
49
Cees Bol
NED
Jura GIANTS
252
53
Colin Stüssi
SWI
Jura GIANTS
236
57
Xuban Errazkin
ESP
Jura GIANTS
226
67
Szymon Rekita
POL
Jura GIANTS
205
82
Stefan Kung
SWI
Jura GIANTS
169
94
Alexys Brunel
FRA
Jura GIANTS
146
106
Valentin Darbellay
SWI
Jura GIANTS
122
153
Stefan Bissegger
SWI
Jura GIANTS
75
162
Mauro Schmid
SWI
Jura GIANTS
70
170
Krzysztof Marchewka
POL
Jura GIANTS
64
179
Giorgi Tediashvili
GEO
Jura GIANTS
52
258
Dylan Page
SWI
Jura GIANTS
24
285
Hugo Page
FRA
Jura GIANTS
19
289
Manuel Stocker
SWI
Jura GIANTS
18
394
Felix Stehli
SWI
Jura GIANTS
5
434
Cedric Bakke Christophersen
NOR
Jura GIANTS
2
435
Nejc Kosic
SLO
Jura GIANTS
2
436
Scott Davies
GBR
Jura GIANTS
2
452
Gergely Szarka
HUN
Jura GIANTS
1
489
Christoph Janssen
SWI
Jura GIANTS
0
490
Gustas Raugala
LTU
Jura GIANTS
0
Compared to last month, this table actually doesn't look great. Theuns dropped from 6th to 15th, we're down to 3 riders in the Top 50 (5 last month), and 8 riders in the Top 100 (9 last month).
But a good part of this definitely is due to the fact that most teams - and therefore riders - have now completed a bigger part of their race day allocation than we do. Of course, some of our riders clearly underperformed - most notably Bissegger and Brunel - but in particular our depth is still great.
Let's take a closer look at how well each rider did - or is doing - compared to his expected final score:
Rank
Rider
Expected
Actual
Trend
15
Edward Theuns
500
542
Completed
41
Fausto Masnada
250
303
Completed
49
Cees Bol
200
252
Completed
53
Colin Stüssi
200
236
Completed
57
Xuban Errazkin
200
226
Completed
67
Szymon Rekita
150
205
Completed
82
Stefan Küng
250
169
Off target
94
Alexys Brunel
250
146
Off target
106
Valentin Darbellay
100
122
Completed
153
Stefan Bissegger
250
75
Off target
162
Mauro Schmid
250
70
Off target
170
Krzysztof Marchewka
50
64
Completed
179
Giorgi Tediashvili
50
52
Completed
258
Dylan Page
75
24
Off target
285
Hugo Page
5
19
Completed
289
Manuel Stocker
10
18
Completed
394
Felix Stehli
5
5
Completed
434
Cedric Bakke
5
2
Off target
435
Nejc Kosic
20
2
Off target
436
Scott Davies
5
2
Off target
452
Gergely Szarka
10
1
Off target
489
Christoph Janssen
10
0
Off target
490
Gustas Raugala
5
0
Off target
There haven't been many changes since last month. Rekita and Stocker have now achieved their target - the former after having been clearly on target, the latter after a surprising GC result in Arab Tour.
Küng and Brunel both are still "orange", meaning projected to end up at 80% or more of the expected score. The former is now projected a little closer to the goal, the latter a bit further away. Bissegger is even "more red" than before, after two awful races - he's even projected below 100 points now, despite having the higher OVL than Brunel and Küng...
Schmid's projection is still unchanged, as he didn't ride. He and Bissegger are the only "important" scorers to be off target, with Dylan Page also being a rather notable one. The others are just helpers who weren't expected to score big anyway.
But 12 out of 23 riders have already achieved their points target, which is, well, a great achievement! What is rather worrying though is that none of those who haven't reached the goal yet are actually on target - so either a rider performs clearly better than expected, or he's below expectations. It looks like we've still got to learn something in terms of defining points expectations...
Generally speaking, we underestimated our stage racers - it looks like we found a pretty good niche for them, and our great TTT definitely helped them in many races. On the other hand, we overestimated our TTers, especially the B&B duo - who can by far not get as many U25 points as expected - and we probably also underestimated the impact of a generally stronger TTers field than last year.
But so far we're happy with what we've got - and it would be awesome if our riders actually were able to continue their way to achieve a surprise Top 5 team standings result! After failing the Slovenia Top 5 goal, and very likely not standing a chance of achieving a Top 10 in Germany, either, the team standings goal now actually looks like the most realistic one - not what we thought when committing to these goals...
Indeed, this continues to be a stellar season for you! I'm very optimistic about your chances of promotion, even if I agree that it can't be taken for granted yet. We have similar "low value" race days with Germany, Balkans and the hills, but what I would imagine is at least a podium, if not even the outright win, in Vineyards alone might be enough of a boost to carry you, with more good results along the way which we've come to expect.
Looking at the individual riders, it's good to have the Off Target riders almost exclusively among the riders with low targets Schmid and Bisseger hurt a bit, of course, but others handily make up for them. 8 riders between 41 and 106 really speaks to your savvy team building. Here's hoping it's rewarded with a surprise promotion (and that maybe I'll be able to join you there ).
Despite results drying up a bit recently, the first half of the season was so good that I think that has already made your team a very good bet for a Top 5 finish. It will need some very bad luck and some very concentrated high scoring from positions 6-10 in the table to keep you back in the PCT from here!
The race in New Zealand started on the 1st of August - national holiday in Switzerland! Our best case scenario to celebrate that day would obviously have been a stage win right on day 1 - and with Cees Bol we brought one of the top sprinters in a rather weak field.
Our main focus however was on the GC, where we brought all of Colin Stüssi, Valentin Darbellay and Fausto Masnada. And the rest of our TTT core, with our Top 3 racing in Germany in parallel, so we had Stefan Küng, Krzysztof Marchewka and Christoph Janssen. We weren't the #1 favourites with this lineup for once, but still #2 behind the other Swiss team, UBS.
The race didn't have the perfect start we were hoping for, but still a decent one. Cees Bol actually was late to join the sprinters group, then launched too early, and finally faded to 5th. Not a bad start, and a result to build up upon.
Cees Bol (far side) narrowly missing out on 3rd place.
But well, Bol unfortunately couldn't hide that he is completely out of form. He did build up upon his stage 1 result - but in the wrong way. He simply increased his final rank from stage to stage, taking 12th on day 2, and 14th on day 4. Which is absolutely awful, given that a 76 sprinter was the 2nd best scoring sprinter, and that even a 69 (!!!) sprinter managed to get 3 Top 10 places in as many attempts... We have no clue what's wrong with Cees - and therefore have absolutely no clue what to do with him next year. Affaire à suivre...
So, that's the sprint stages checked off - now onto the sole mountain stage of the race, stage 3! Given that we had one of the strongest climber teams present, we contributed to the chase, and Christoph Janssen led the pack into that final ascent.
Later on, Fausto Masnada and Valentin Darbellay also took some turns ensuring to keep all attackers at bay - and eventually reeling them in.
At one point, it was even looking pretty great for Fausto Masnada, as he joined an attack by Lunke and Ranaweera:
Fausto Masnada joining Lunke and Ranaweera, followed by Schelling.
But in the end, it was a massive group of 21 riders battling it out for the win. We didn't play it very smart to be honest, with our riders dropping back to the middle of the pack ahead of the last kilometer. With none of them being great sprinters, we unfortunately were once again not in the mix for the top spots on the day; whereas getting some bonus seconds would have been crucial for a great GC result, we got none, and let even Schelling of our main TTT rivals pick up 8 of them...
Nonetheless, it was a successful stage for us in the global picture, with Fausto Masnada finishing 7th, Colin Stüssi 8th and Valentin Darbellay 20th - all of them in the front group.
Fausto Masnada and Colin Stüssi finishing 7th and 8th.
Heading into the stage 5 TTT, a lot of scenarios were still possible. The win was basically out of reach, though, unless UBS would have a bad day, or both their "front group" riders Schelling and Schir would be dropped. On the other hand, if we had a really bad day, even missing out on the GC Top 10 was on the cards.
In the end, it was a "good middle way". We couldn't win the TTT, as expected. This was still remarkable, as we had won all four previous C1/HC TTTs this season. We also lost out to Glanbia, who simply had the better TTT core this time, with our Top 3 missing. Sadly for us, they surprisingly had Main in the front group on stage 3 as well - and with UBS taking 1st and 2nd in GC with Schelling and Schir, plus Glanbia picking up 3rd with Main, this meant that there was no podium spot left for us. Which actually was the goal pre-race, knowing about our climbing and TTT strength. But we just failed to make the mountain stage hard enough to shake off the likes of Schir and Main.
And we didn't even get a podium in the TTT stage, which also was disappointing. Like last year, 3rd place on stage 5 went to a CT team. Last year that was us, this year the SEE Turtles had a great ride to "steal" 3rd from us. At least this didn't matter GC-wise.
We did however manage to take 4th place - thereby reaching our goal of beating Kraftwerk. Otherwise, we'd have taken just the lower Top 10 spots, and lost out on the team standings. Now, we won the team standings - for the 2nd time this year - and we took GC spots 4 to 6, with Colin Stüssi, Fausto Masnada and Valentin Darbellay, in this order. A special mention also goes to Stefan Küng, who did an amazing job of keeping up with the 2nd group on stage 3, which now was rewarded with 18th place on GC, definitely an unexpected bonus for us!
Jura GIANTS on their way to a slightly disappointing 4th place in the closing TTT.
So, what does that mean scoring-wise? Well, we missed out on stage podiums. We missed out on a GC podium - both were basically expected pre-race. At least one podium from the sprints, a TTT stage podium, a GC podium. None of these were accomplished.
But: We got a far, far better depth result than we imagined! We knew we had a strong climbing squad when the startlist was published - but we still expected to have a front group of about 10 riders in stage 3, with one or max two of our riders in there. Well, turns out we had all three climbers in that group, and thanks to our decent TTT result all of them ended up in the GC Top 6!
None of these spots yield really big points at C1 level - but all three of them combined are still worth more than 150 points! Adding the team standings win, plus the minor GC placing by Küng and the couple of stage points we got - and we arrive at almost 180 points in this race!
We had a points expectation of 80 in this race - but that expected value was defined before seeing the startlist, so it might seem far too low. Knowing the competition, we'd probably have set the bar at 120 points - but the final outcome is still far above, and gives us quite a lot of room for error in other races! It's definitely looking brighter again for our Top 5 sponsor goal - but we still have to keep on pushing!
But for now, we'll make a Swiss party with Team UBS - with the national holiday only a couple of days ago, there's a reason to celebrate anyway - and the race outcome gives us tons of other reasons, so let's party!
cunego Yeah, a lot of people seem to be optimistic about my promotion chances - after Vineyards, I guess I'm more positive than before the start of the month as well. Although it looks like at least one of your "low value" races actually could turn out to be one of the biggest scoring ones all year long So I guess the scenario with both of us going up just has gotten a bit more realistic after Vineyards and the first 3 stages in Germany...
I agree that 8 riders in the Top 100 (must be 9 now, with Darbellay surely making the jump after Vineyards) display our main strength, which is depth. Theuns probably won't even end up in the Top 20, so compared to other teams who even have two in the Top 10, our advantage is that no failure of a single rider (except for Theuns maybe) hurts us really a lot, but there's always almost someone there to compensate for that. I do like this kind of roster
Abhi I guess while we had some bad luck in Vineyards - especially with the sprints - we were also incredibly lucky with the rather low quality startlist - and I hope we can continue to make up for some bad luck that inevitably happens
Unlike the Vineyards crew, the Deutschland lineup didn't have to race on the Swiss national holiday on 1st of August, with the race starting the day after. A big party still wasn't scheduled, given that the riders needed every ounce of energy to at least have some minor chances to achieve something against the huge PT competition.
Whereas our main focus was on the ITT - with Szymon Rekita our main hope to achieve the unlikely Top 10 GC goal - the rest of the team was encouraged to try something in the form of breakaways.
Well, they didn't try on day one. Instead, it was sprinter Dylan Page - somewhere around 20th position in the sprinter's pecking order - who wasn't amused by teammate Bol's underperformance earlier that day in Vineyards, and wanted to show him how it's done.
Dylan performed surprisingly well, getting a strong 8th place in the first stage - 4 spots higher than Bol in stage 2 of Vineyards.
Dylan Page getting his season highlight so far - sprinting to 8th in a strong PCT field, even beating Coquard.
Dylan thereby ensured that we wouldn't leave Germany empty-handed. And it looked like this encouraging Top 10 spot in a world-class field actually was what he really needed to deliver his A-game.
And unlike "2nd-season-half-Bol", he usually gets his positioning right, just often struggles to transform it into a decent result. Not on day 2, though. Timing his sprint to perfection, he only was beaten by two riders, taking the lowest step on an all-PCT stage podium! 3rd place - his highest result of the year, and this at the highest possible level! What a sprint by Dylan!
With these two results, he exceeded our stage result expectations for this race by far - we were hoping for maybe a lower Top 10 result in one sprint, but now we even got a stage podium!
Dylan Page takes 3rd place behind Silvestre and our former talent Walscheid on stage 2!
After two far more exciting days of sprinting than expected, it was then time for the TTers to shine. And whereas it wasn't really likely that we would be able to meet our GC Top 10 sponsor goal, we still wanted our riders to give it all they had to at least get close to the goal.
And Norsgaard actually showed that a Top 10 was possible as a 79 TTer. But Szymon Rekita didn't have a stellar day sadly - not even at all. He only finished 27th - even three spots behind Stefan Bissegger! The latter did a decent job, finishing behind only a few comparably strong riders - and surprisingly even took over the white jersey, with top favourite Bjerg having an even worse day than Rekita! Alexys Brunel on the other hand didn't have good legs, either, only finishing 38th. That's 2 out of 3 TTers with a bad day - not exactly what we were hoping for. But luckily, thanks to Page's great sprints we didn't need to score all of our expected points - 50, by the way - via GC.
GC was a weird story anyway, with the peloton gifting the sprinter group a 1'20" advantage on day 2 - leading to both Silvestre and Enger in the Top 5 after the GC! And even though Page obviously was part of this group as well, we couldn't capitalize on it GC-wise, with our sprinter being one of the worst TTers in the field...
On day 4, our riders finally were able to kind of realize our team strategy, sending Gustas Raugala in the breakaway of the day. It may not have been the optimal choice in terms of scoring potential, with the Lithuanian talent needing another year or two to really be competitive, but he did his job as well as he could. He was able to pick up 3 KoM points, for 8th place in the KoM standings at this point. Maybe another attempt on the final day could make him climb up a bit?
However, stage 4 finally ended in a bunch sprint, as expected. And to our great delight, Dylan Page was competitive once again - really, really competitive! Barely inside the Top 10 with 100m to go, he again found the perfect timing to sprint to 3rd place for a second time - what a great race this turned out to be for him!
Dylan Page finishing 3rd again on stage 4!
Surprisingly, Dylan even took over the green jersey after day 4, being the most consistent sprinter in the first three attempts! The standings were really close though, and defending the jersey looked like a stretch - but it's still a great feeling to have the sprinter jersey in a PTHC race!
On the final day, we were even more aggressive than on the day before. With Felix Stehli and surprisingly Alexys Brunel, we had our two best puncheurs in the breakaway. The latter was just 48" back on GC, making a stage success rather unlikely for this group - but if they could go all the way to the line, it could have been a massive result for us!
But first, there were plenty of KoM points on offer. And surprisingly, it was Felix Stehli who sprinted for them - despite Brunel being the better hills rider, it was the right call, with Stehli having more punch. Felix won 3 KoM sprints and picked up other decent points - after the final KoM sprint of the race, it was clear that he would take the KoM jersey home! Sensational ride by our punchy sprinter talent!
Felix Stehli winning one of the KoM sprints on day 5.
The breakaway was eventually reeled in with 13km to go. Alexys Brunel was only able to pick up 2 bonus seconds underway, which wouldn't be enough for him to gain a GC position.
And it was even worse - despite the short distance to the finish line, all of the breakaway riders were dropped by the pack, with our Frenchman losing his Top 50 GC spot and his 3rd place in the U25. It even turned out to be a zero-pointer for him - disappointing for sure, but it still was worth taking the risk of joining the breakaway, with "only" 13 points at stake.
Onto the sprint then. But wearing the green jersey apparently didn't give a boost to Dylan Page - on the contrary, he seemed to crack under its pressure. For once, he got his positioning completely wrong, and never was in contention for the top spots. With 16th place, he even missed out on the sprint points.
But the stage result was clearly in his favour, as only Samolenkov was able to pass him in the points standings to bring home the green jersey. Dylan Page ended up on a shared 2nd place, being tied with Welten.
Dylan Page ending his day in green on a rather disappointing 16th place.
So, time to take stock.
GC-wise, the race clearly was a letdown. A 29th place just isn't good enough for a 79 TTer, with Szymon Rekita really disappointing for once. Stefan Bissegger finished one place ahead, in 28th, bringing home our highest GC result. It was a decent performance by him - but it still was our 2nd worst GC result of the year, after the Ukraine disaster. These two are the only stage races so far without us getting a Top 20 finish.
Bissegger's GC result however was somewhat upgraded by the fact that it was enough to win the white jersey for being the best U25 rider - only our 2nd white jersey this year, after Brunel won it in Amissa Bongo! He actually got more points from that classification than from the GC result, something we actually were hoping for in more races this year. Great job, Stefan!
For once, however, the GC riders weren't our main source of points. Adding up just Rekita's and Bissegger's points actually wouldn't have been enough to meet the 50 points target - with Brunel's lost points hurting a bit here.
But especially Dylan Page more than made up for a couple of missing GC points! Two 3rd places, an 8th place - plus 2nd in the points standings, what an awesome race it was for the fastest Swiss sprinter of the present! Having had a disappointing season so far, he definitely found his best legs now, and suddenly has some good arguments for why we should still renew him...
Renewing or not wasn't the question anyway for Felix Stehli, but after his surprising yet deserved KoM win, it's just the question how much we'll need to pay for him! He didn't score any other points here, "just" the points for the KoM win - knowing that's worth 32 points, this definitely is a big deal with our minimum expectations of 50 points!
We had won one single jersey - and two team standings - all year long, and now we just take two jerseys in a single race! It's these kind of races where luck turns in your favour that you need to capitalize on, and we sure did! We came to Germany expecting about 50 points - we got more than the double of that, basically getting the expected points for San Sebastian, GP Cycliste and Balkans as well! After just two races - and 10 race days - in August, we're already around 300 points, having expected 270 for the entire month!
So we believe this is the month where we can make a huge step towards promotion - and even if we shouldn't score at all in the remaining 3 races, August is already a big W for us!
red Hard to guess which 2022 PCT team was my role model in terms of team building and planning
With Bissegger now finally reaching 100 points as well, I have 10 100+ riders. Schmid should get there as well - but making it 12 like you last year will be tough. I already have more 200+ riders, though
Don't I look silly now for calling the Deutschland Tour low value race days for us Certainly big results for both of our teams there, not to mention your great haul in New Zealand. Still a lot in the air, but it's already hard to imagine that your promotion chances won't look better at the end of August than they did at the end of July.
It's a busy start of the month, with race reviews almost coming daily now! But this will be the last one for a couple of days, with our next race 5 days long and yet to start.
But here it's all about a classic. You know, we haven't been a classics team for quite some time. No classics win in our first year, then one per year in the next three seasons. 2020 was our best classics season so far, with a win and four more podiums.
But now we're in 2023, and now we do have a top classics specialist in Theuns. 6 classics podiums already, thereof 4 wins (3 by Theuns, 1 by the whole team). 7 podiums actually, if you count the wildcard Ronde van Vlaanderen in as well. 7 podiums, 6 on the cobbles - the focus has clearly shifted from hills to cobbles.
But we're counting on soon having a contender for hilly races again, too. So far, the best result in a hilly race was also by Theuns, in Wallonie - but we're working hard to make Mauro Schmid competitive next year.
Next year? Why waiting if he can already try this year? Mauro was our co-leader with Xuban Errazkin in the latter's home race, San Sebastian. I mean, really a home race, a day in the Basque Country for a Basque rider.
None of our leaders did anything of note in the first half of the race - nor did any of the other riders present, all of them being talents sent here to get some experience in a tough PTHC race. Ah yeah, PTHC by now is the only category we haven't achieved a classics podium in yet, with 7th in Roma Maxima being our best result so far.
But with 63km to go, on the steepest sections of the Erlaitz climb, there was some movement in the pack. We had Lopez and Borges attacking - and Mauro Schmid joining them! A pretty bold move, given that the two others still are some levels above him in terms of puncheur skills!
Mauro Schmid leading the attacking trio, about to catch the final survivor of the breakaway.
They were eventually caught - as was Kinoshita who immediately launched a counter attack. But Mauro Schmid really seemed to have great legs today, starting another move with just 20km to go!
Mauro Schmid on the move again!
The attack was neutralized as well, and so a group of 50 riders - including Xuban Errazkin as well, who had previously been dropped - started the final short hill together. Now it was just uphill, downhill, sprint - finish!
There obviously were attacks on this final climb - and to our great delight, Mauro Schmid was there again! We feared he might have overextended himself with his earlier moves - but apparently no, he really just had great legs!
Mauro Schmid well positioned in the chasing group.
The group unfortunately couldn't agree on working together to bring back Arndt, who had attacked on the climb - it wouldn't have been too hard to catch him, as the German isn't a strong downhiller, but thanks to the lack of cooperation among the chasers, he could bring home a fantastic win after a strong attack!
Behind, a group of 4 was fighting for the remaining podium spots, having a small gap under the red kite:
Mauro Schmid in the mix for a podium, right behind Kinoshita and ahead of Valter and Yates!
Yates was the big favourite to take 2nd place, so there were three riders fighting for third!
Mauro Schmid still in 3rd position with 200m to go!
Well, it turned out that the repeated climbing sapped too much of Yates' strength, and he surprisingly couldn't overcome the others. And so, this is what happened:
Mauro Schmid dominating the sprint for 2nd place!!!
Our staff was looking at each other in disbelief - had Mauro Schmid really just taken a 2nd place in a PTHC classic???
Yes, he did!!! Having the best combo of downhill and sprint skills, and being a decent climber, he just had more energy left than the other 4, and converted that into an unbelievable, fantastic 2nd place! What a race, what a ride - what a rider!
We knew that this kind of profile is perfect for Mauro - some pretty tough climbing, a final downhill and a flat finish - but we didn't imagine that the first time it would play out that well would be in a PTHC classic with world-class competition! Well, it did - Mauro just delivered his masterpiece today, proving that he has gained enough experience by now to be ready for the next level. Wow, just wow... We're looking forward to next season - but already for the rest of this season, where he has just done half of his race days now!
Let's not forget to mention Xuban Errazkin, who selflessly supported Mauro for as long as he could, and went on to finish 33rd. That's just 2 points scored by himself - but we can't value his effort as a teammate high enough!
Our other riders failed to finish inside the scoring Top 50 position, all of them finishing outside the Top 100. But it sure was a great experience for them as well - knowing that a talent fully grown by the Jura school actually might achieve some pretty great things one day...
It's just 8 days of August done - and we have no clue what's currently happening. We had some bad luck a couple of times lately - but what we have achieved now in these 8 days is just beyond imagination, and by far outweighs all the bad luck we had so far! 12 race days (out of 19) are done - and we have already scored more than 400 points this month! Our season goal of 2,850 points - seen as being pretty ambitious by many - is now more than achieved already, and we still have 36 days of racing left in this season!
We're just enjoying the moment, not finding the appropriate words for this current "flow" anyway! What we know is that we now have 8 classics podiums this year - including the first one ever in PTHC!
cunego Looking silly? Yep, and so do I. We both were really lucky with our subtop sprinters - and you even had the right guy to capitalize on those weird gaps. And for once, I was even lucky with a KoM challenge - not the race where I expected it to happen
With San Sebastian also a banger race for us, promotion indeed is getting pretty realistic. Still a lot of races to be done, but I couldn't imagine a better scenario than what I'm just getting now...
The ITT classic in France was our final PT wildcard race of the year. And whereas we were there just for fun - and for experience - this year, we still took the race quite seriously, in an attempt of preparing for a potential mandatory participation next year. Which is looking more and more likely...
What we learnt is that our current top TTers are still lacking one or two extra gears to really compete for top results at this level. Despite only 3 riders per team being allowed to participate, our best finisher was only 22nd - Alexys Brunel. He didn't even have a particularly bad day (not a great one either, though) - that's just PT-level competition. A Top 15 could've been on the table with great legs, but maybe he saved these for the next participation.
Alexys Brunel on his way to provisional 5th, later dropping to 22nd.
On the other hand, Stefan Bissegger had yet another awful ITT day this year, getting only 36th. Mauro Schmid was our first starter, clearly here just for experience. In what will very likely be his only Herbiers start of the career, he managed to leave 4 riders behind, finishing 68th.
Luckily, this was just another "fun" race for us, as we wouldn't be happy with the outcome if actual points had been at stake. We'd surely have sent Rekita in this case, though - but we still gained some valuable experience with the riders who participated.
Race Review | Post Danmark Rundt | HC
Somewhat easier than the Tour of Norway, the race in Denmark was another one we had pretty high hopes on. We were a little unsure of what to expect, given that we didn't send a strong puncheur for the hilly stage 3 - but we were hoping that at least a couple of our TT riders would make the cut.
And we did have some big hopes on Cees Bol - at least after his first couple of races for us. We were sure he could do well here - maybe even on the hilly stage. But unfortunately, he once again didn't know it himself.
It's just looking like Cees has completely forgotten what sprinting is like. After the fantastic Giro d'Italia, he only managed a measly 5 Top 10 results in over 30 race days, and not a single podium. Denmark probably was a new low, with him not even being close to the Top 10 a single time: 15 - 22 - 31 - 18 - these are his stage ranks on the first four days. On all of these four stages, he was our highest ranked rider - which says it all about how really, really bad we were in the flat and hilly stages.
In addition, none of our riders even attempted to join a breakaway, so it was a zero-pointer until day 4. We also lost two of our TT hopes - Stefan Bissegger and Krzysztof Marchewka - on the hilly day 3, as they were on the wrong side of the decisive split.
But there was still some hope, as other teams were hit just as badly - and thanks to our depth, we still had three riders in contention for a good GC result: Szymon Rekita, Alexys Brunel and Stefan Küng all got the officials' favour by not getting a gap on day 3. So everything was possible for them on the final day.
And stage 5 then indeed was the perfect example of how a single stage can turn an awful race into a really great one!
Even though Szymon Rekita was the worst of the 79 time triallists on that day, it was still enough for 8th on the day and 6th in the GC!
Szymon Rekita taking 6th in GC despite being on a mediocre day!
Our 2nd best finisher on day 5 was Stefan Bissegger, who ended up right behind Szymon in 9th place. Unfortunately, this was only worth 28th place in the GC due to the stage 3 loss. He also came 4th in the U25 standings.
When speaking of U25 standings: The winner is... Alexys Brunel! After Tropicale, this was his 2nd white jersey of the year (and potentially the last one of his career). Unlike Bissegger, he finished behind a couple of similarly rated TTers, taking 14th of the day - but that was still enough for 8th in the GC!
Alexys Brunel completing the ride that brought him another white jersey!
In 25th place, we then had Stefan Küng - who lost out to most similarly skilled TTers (not as bad as Krzysztof Marchewka, though, who finished 29th). But Küng was part of the front group on day 3 - and his stage 5 performance was still enough for 10th in the GC!
So, let's recap. Our best stage result came on the final day - an 8th place. Clearly not what we expected, with Cees Bol being a huge letdown in the second half of the year. Contract negotiations might be rough for him in the end...
In terms of GC, however, we got another excellent result. Not quite as good as in Vineyards with 4th through 6th. But we also had three riders in the Top 10 - Szymon Rekita in 6th, Alexys Brunel in 8th, and Stefan Küng in 10th. Awesome!!!
Furthermore, Stefan Bissegger kind of salvaged his race with 28th place; he'd have ended up in the Top 10 had he been more attentive on stage 3, though. Krzysztof Marchewka (45th) and Cees Bol (49th) ended up inside the Top 50 as well - Bol's only points of the race are actually GC points, showing that the TT stage was his best performance of the week...
As said before, Alexys Brunel won the U25 standings, with a 1'33" margin. He was lucky that teammate Stefan Bissegger lost two minutes on day 3, as he would otherwise have won the white jersey - with that time loss, he only managed to get 4th place.
And to add even more points, we also were the most consistent team, winning the team standings for a 3rd time this season - just like in Vineyards at the start of the month! Favourites LPH having a single rider - eventual GC winner Zmorka - in the front group on day 3 gave us a good shot at the win, which our riders converted to a commanding win, gaining 39" on Indosat on the ITT stage!
So, looking at each stage individually, we had 4 bad ones and a decent one. But a stage race is more than just the sum of stage outcomes. And so, despite not having a single really good stage, it wasn't a bad race for us. Not at all. In fact, it was our highest scoring race of the whole year, even better than Norway and Pais Vasco! Even just the GC results would've made this race as successful as Norway - where we had some clearly better stage results and 4 in the Top 15!
But with U25 and team standings on top of that we scored close to 250 points in Denmark - not thanks to a single rider, but thanks to amazing team depth once again!
Congratulations to the whole team, who did the minimum required on the first four days, but delivered when it mattered!
It's yet another amazing result in a string of fantastic outcomes; we expected 80 points here, we got about 3x as many... Are we lucky? Yes, we are, we definitley have to admit. And this string of luck actually makes promotion no longer an unlikely option, but almost a certainty, which is absolutely amazing!
Ollfardh Not that many doubts left after Vineyards and Germany, even less after San Sebastian - and maybe 0.1% of doubt after Denmark!
Laurens Indeed, it is - thanks for the congrats! Feels great to have a homegrown talent getting such a standout result
Having a pretty long history in the MG world, the Rwandan race on the cobbles, finishing on the "Mur de Kigali", is a race probably every cobbler would love to win once in his career.
This was obviously the case as well for Edward Theuns, who clearly was one of the best suited riders on the startlist. Cobbles and hills, not many combine these two skills like our Belgian start does!
And once again, he had some good legs, launching an attack on the penultimate lap:
Edward Theuns attacking in the GP Kigali.
However, the attack was neutralized - the group around Eddie was just too strong to be let go.
And unfortunately, he was really inattentive after being reeled in. First, he missed out on a move by Summerhill and Gaday. Then he didn't follow Stallaert - and in the end even missed out on a move by Debesay, Bohli and Daniel.
And unlike in other races, the former attackers weren't caught under the red kite. Theuns had to pay a pretty high price for messing up his positioning, as he started his final sprint simply way too far back to still fight for the win.
He did what he could, proving that his legs actually were really great - just his strategy wasn't. He caught all but three riders, therefore missing out on the podium in one of the best suited races all year long.
Edward Theuns had to settle for 4th place.
Sure, the three riders on the podium certainly deserved to be there, being strong cobblers and at least decent on the hills. But still, seeing how much time Theuns made up in the closing meters suggests that he could easily have won the race by just being more attentive, which leaves kind of a sour taste.
But well, we achieved our Top 5 target for this race - and we're clearly not in a position to seriously complain after all the huge results we got this month! In terms of the relation expectation vs. actual outcome, this was our worst race, that's for sure - but it also was the race with the highest expectations. And Eddie already has three classic wins this year, so we can't be mad if doesn't play it perfectly from time to time - we're more than happy to have him around!
By the way, none of our other riders was able to score, with Giorgi Tediashvili in 31st missing out on the points by roughly half a minute. Looking at some of the riders he left behind, still a good performance!
GP Kigali wraps up the month for us - and while the ranking updates will only be published in a day or two, we can definitely say that it was a fantastic month for us! We scored more than twice as many points as we expected, and were way above a 20 PpRD average - it's looking better than ever for surprise back-to-back promotions!
August probably was the most insane month in team history! We exceeded minimum expectations in every single race - just by one point in Kigali, but by factor 2 at least in all others! We had all the luck we were lacking in some previous races, and probably even more, to probably already secure promotion with two months to go!
And it's not like we were expecting extremely low scoring final months - and even if we did, we might still promote. Insane!
But before we'll likely get the party started in a month and a half, let's focus on the races that are left - there are some pretty nice ones in there, and even another home race! 17 race days in total, spent across 5 races - here are the details:
Sep 01 - 05 | Tour of Britain | C1
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
72
67
74
65
76
73
74
80
77
76
64
67
70
Mauro Schmid
72
74
77
68
71
77
72
69
70
77
76
74
66
Colin Stüssi
71
79
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
Fausto Masnada
71
77
76
73
76
75
73
60
63
73
69
71
70
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Felix Stehli
67
66
69
62
70
69
68
62
69
69
67
69
66
It's a similar pattern like in August - we start the month with a C1 stage race in an English-speaking country. And we're doing so having rather big hopes. Although fighting for the win unfortunately won't be realistic once again due to Dunbar being here, we're hoping that some of our TTers and/or climbers can get a nice GC result.
If the hills aren't too hard, Alexys Brunel or Stefan Küng could be in the mix. Szymon Rekita will only be there for the stage 2 ITT, hopefully making a valuable contribution for the team standings. For all three of them, this is the final race of the year by the way.
Then we have Colin Stüssi and Fausto Masnada. Both of them are strong climbers, with Stüssi being faster against the clock. Masnada, on the other hand, will have some chances to fight for bonus seconds, potentially making up for part of his TT losses.
There's also Edward Theuns, despite the lack of cobbles in Britain. We thought he might like stages 1 and 3 qutie a lot - hilly, with a flat finish. Stage 4 might be too tough for him, and stage 5 will be anyway. No GC points expected from him, but maybe some stage points for once?
And where the hills could be too hard for Theuns, we have Mauro Schmid, who just showed last month in San Sebastian that he's ready for the next step - is he ready for a win already? Not in the GC, for sure, but a stage win would be great - and not overly unrealistic!
So, lots of riders who could get some good results, covering lots of different possible scenarios - we hope at least some of them will deliver!
Expectations: 5x Stage Top 10, GC Top 5 Expected points: 80 Best result so far:
- Stage: 2x Win (Jan-André Freuler, 2019; Gianni Moscon, 2021)
- GC: 15th (Gianni Moscon, 2021)
Sep 08 - 13 | Balkans International | PTHC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Mauro Schmid
72
74
77
68
71
77
72
69
70
77
76
74
66
Fausto Masnada
71
77
76
73
76
75
73
60
63
73
69
71
70
Dylan Page
75
57
66
60
72
72
75
66
78
79
62
55
59
Manuel Stocker
75
60
65
69
71
73
76
59
76
77
65
65
71
Giorgi Tediashvili
73
66
69
65
74
76
72
74
69
71
70
66
65
Christoph Janssen
71
63
65
72
68
71
70
55
59
66
64
65
72
Hugo Page
66
65
66
61
68
68
62
61
69
72
68
69
66
Gustas Raugala
69
65
65
68
66
68
63
54
58
64
64
71
69
Again like in August, our 2nd race of the month is a PTHC stage race, the final one of the year. And it's really the one we don't expect much from - not yet.
Fausto Masnada was already here for us two years ago - where our highest GC result (by Moscon) was 26th. Clearly not something to be proud of. We're convinced that Fausto has what it takes to do better - but his best guess should still be breakaways.
Breakaways could also be a good option for Mauro Schmid, who's our co-leader here. But we think the downhill finishes on stages 2 and 4 could also be a good fit for him if it comes down to a reduced bunch sprint.
And we have Dylan Page for stage 5 - or potentiall stages 2 and 4 as well, if they're really unselective. Otherwise, we have a lot of talent in our team, but not much current firepower.
The expectation of 30 points shows that we really don't count on doing great here - any additional points would obviously be welcome, though!
Expectations: 1x Stage Top 10, GC Top 20 Expected points: 30 Best result so far:
- Stage: 2nd (Theo Reinhardt, 2021)
- GC: 26th (Gianni Moscon, 2021)
Sep 26 | Rheden GP | PTHC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
72
67
74
65
76
73
74
80
77
76
64
67
70
Giorgi Tediashvili
73
66
69
65
74
76
72
74
69
71
70
66
65
Nejc Kosic
71
57
65
60
72
68
65
76
58
62
77
66
60
Felix Stehli
67
66
69
62
70
69
68
62
69
69
67
69
66
Cedric Bakke Christophersen
66
66
68
63
68
72
65
64
66
68
70
64
67
Christoph Janssen
71
63
65
72
68
71
70
55
59
66
64
65
72
Hugo Page
66
65
66
61
68
68
62
61
69
72
68
69
66
Gustas Raugala
69
65
65
68
66
68
63
54
58
64
64
71
69
And the similarities with August don't stop, as our third race again is a PTHC classic! After an awfully long break of almost 2 weeks, though...
It will be a very special race for Edward Theuns, as it's his last cobbled race at maximum power. Sadly... But we hope he'll be even more motivated to get another top-notch result; with the race favouring the fast sprinters among the cobblers, this could definitely be possible!
As almost always, he'll get support from Giorgi Tediashvili and Nejc Kosic, with the rest of the team just here to gain experience.
Expectations: Top 10 Expected points: 50 Best result so far: 34th (Leonardo Basso, 2021)
Sep 28 | Milano - Torino | C1
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
Valentin Darbellay
69
77
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
64
70
67
76
Giorgi Tediashvili
73
66
69
65
74
76
72
74
69
71
70
66
65
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
Cedric Bakke Christophersen
66
66
68
63
68
72
65
64
66
68
70
64
67
Christoph Janssen
71
63
65
72
68
71
70
55
59
66
64
65
72
Scott Davies
64
68
66
69
67
68
68
55
61
68
63
65
69
Gustas Raugala
69
65
65
68
66
68
63
54
58
64
64
71
69
Now, the similarities with August finally stop, as there's no HC stage race - but a hilly C1 clash to end the month with!
We put less focus on Milano - Torino this year, after Moscon's departure; the Italian scored two Top 5s for us in recent years. But we still expect Xuban Errazkin to be pretty competitive, with the repeated climbing in the last part of the race definitely suiting him.
Valentin Darbellay may not be the best possible domestique for him, given his lack of punch, but he should definitely provide some help on the uphills if an immediate reaction isn't required.
The rest of the team is there to fill up the roster and to gain experience - nothing expected from them, although we're hoping to show our colours in a breakaway. After all, it's one of the very few races we're participating in for the 5th time in as many years...
Expectations: Top 15 Expected points: 10 Best result so far: 2nd (Gianni Moscon, 2020)
Sep 28 | GP Lugano | C1
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
72
67
74
65
76
73
74
80
77
76
64
67
70
Mauro Schmid
72
74
77
68
71
77
72
69
70
77
76
74
66
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Manuel Stocker
75
60
65
69
71
73
76
59
76
77
65
65
71
Gergely Szarka
75
62
67
61
72
72
75
60
76
76
64
66
70
Nejc Kosic
71
57
65
60
72
68
65
76
58
62
77
66
60
Felix Stehli
67
66
69
62
70
69
68
62
69
69
67
69
66
Hugo Page
66
65
66
61
68
68
62
61
69
72
68
69
66
One of the other races we've always participated in is one of our home races, GP Lugano. Unlike in Torino, however, we have never managed to be successful in Ticino, with a 13th place being our best result so far.
We're trying to improve that result by sending several riders who could be successful on this course. In case of a bunch sprint - like we had last year - Cees Bol would be our man. Sadly, while he still knows how to handle hills, he has forgotten how to sprint, so he might not be our main option...
In case the hills are more decisive than they were lately - or if there's a late attack - Mauro Schmid would be carrying our hopes. It worked pretty well in San Sebastian, so why not at home?
If the race is too hard for Bol but not hard enough for Schmid, Edward Theuns could be the perfect option for us. Pretty strong on the hills, and pretty fast in sprints. He has shown in Wallonie that he does like hilly races that aren't too hard - Lugano surely is one of these, too!
So, we're really hoping one of them can finally get us a Top 10 at home - and not another zero-pointer like in 2019 and last year!
Expectations: Top 10 Expected points: 30 Best result so far: 13th (Andrea Manfredi, 2020)
The first race of the month is the one we expect the highest amount of points from, with several ones of the other being potentially very low scoring races. Rheden will hopefully yield some good points, too - and we'd like to finally get a decent result in Lugano.
The good thing is that the pressure in terms of promotion fight is almost gone, although we surely mustn't stop scoring. Let's see if this situation can give some riders a boost now!
All in all, we're hoping to score 200 points this month - which would make us end up higher than last year's 2nd ranked team... Although that's a PpRD of just below 12, we can't take it for granted - and yes, we already said that last month... We won't refuse a similar outcome like in August, sure!
And by the way, when speaking of August - a ranking update will surely be posted soon!
Well safe to say promotion is now safe and probably 2nd place as well! Some great races lined up in September to put all doubts to bed and enjoy the final month.
Our final PTHC stage race of the year - and not one we had really big expectations in. We haven't been doing well in this category anyway, failing to perform in most of our target races. In this rather climbing-heavy races with many of the climbs being suited to punchy riders, we were hoping for Fausto Masnada to hold onto the top climbers for as long as possible, and for Mauro Schmid to participate in many breakaways.
Well, we didn't get the latter, unfortunately. The start of the race was great, though, with Mauro Schmid attacking in the final 20km of the stage, even winning a KoM sprint - but when he was caught, he was immediately dropped and lost 3 minutes. Actually a perfect situation for longer range moves - but it looks like our youngster was discouraged by this short-lived attempt, and never tried anything in the remaining race. We'll need to do some mental work with him for sure...
What about Fausto Masnada, then? Well, he did a pretty good job on the first stage, finishing 13th. However, it seems like more could have been possible, as he was badly positioned at the start of the final uphill, and so was gapped early on and only managed to overtake a couple of riders. The legs were decent, though, leaving us pretty hopeful for the remainder of the race.
Mauro Schmid winning a KoM sprint - sadly his only one in this race.
Day 2 had an easier stage, ending on flat roads. We were hoping for breakaways or for Dylan Page to be successful in a potential bunch sprint. Well, bunch sprint it was, success rather not. Dylan was our highest finishing rider, but a 68th place is an awful result after a complete no-show of our team.
Fortunately, stage 3 was much harder again - and again, Fausto Masnada did what he had to do. He isn't quite explosive enough to compete for the win in such a tough field, but another 13th place finish, inside the group of favourites, is a job well done. He also still was 13th in GC after the race's halfway point.
Fausto Masnada finishing right next to future (or already present?) superstar Pidcock.
Stage 4 was one with a tailor-made finish for Mauro Schmid, with the profile suggesting a reduced bunch sprint after a bumpy finale. The latter did indeed happen, but Mauro was not ready at all to try his luck, finishing on a really disappointing 35th place. No, stage results aren't our strong point this year, at least not in PTHC races.
Whereas stage 4 was too hard for Dylan Page - as expected, to be fair - we were hoping for him to shine, or at least get us some stage points, on day 5. And he was indeed exactly where he needed to be with 1.5km to go - just to leave his great position and get boxed in a little later... Instead of sprinting for the win, he only got 9th, which must be considered another disappointing result. And still not a single stage point with one day left...
Dylan Page (2nd from the left) only getting a 9th place out of this race.
The final day again had some really tough climbs and lots of KoM points on offer - and once again, none of our riders cared. The 6 non-climbers got dropped early, but at least the two others did a pretty good job. Although we'd still have preferred to see Mauro Schmid on the attack, he got a decent stage result with his 18th place - climbing up to 25th in GC, and 3rd in U25. Now, we kind of regret his attempt on day 1, as he'd likely have been able to even get a Top 15 without his big time loss. Between "full attack" and "full GC focus", he chose something in-between, which probably wasn't the smartest choice. But he's only 24 and has still a lot to learn - one of the reasons why we brought him to this race.
And what about Fausto Masnada? Sadly, he once again didn't find the optimal position going into the final uphill, as he was barely inside the first 20 positions. Hence, he was once again unable to follow the decisive attacks, although he might have had the legs to do so. He overtook a couple of riders, to finish 9th on the final stage - and 11th in GC.
Fausto Masnada got us another 9th place.
So, what did we get? Zero stage points, which sadly was the case in half of our PTHC stage races. With two ninth places, we were close to score at least some minor points - close, but no cigar.
3rd in U25 by Mauro Schmid definitely is a good achievement; there was never a way past Valter, but beating Pidcock probably would've been possible with the (finally pointless) attack on day 1. Podium is fine, though, and 25th in GC is as well.
A GC Top 15 was what we were hoping for, which is why we set our points expectation for this race to 30. Fausto Masnada easily achieved this goal, and with some smarter racing could have even cracked the Top 10. 11th place is absolutely fine, though!
All in all, we got almost 70 points from the GC results, plus a handful from Schmid's U25 result. Easily more than expected, and we're approaching ZARA's 2022 mark for 2nd place now!
Sponsor Update
As other teams are already unveiling their new sponsors or even jerseys, we thought it's a good moment to post some news, too.
It's now probably more than 95% sure that we'll be riding in PT next year - and it's obvious that back-to-back promotions provide a pretty big challenge for our sponsors. We had a CT-level budget last year, and we'll need to get some PT-level funding in 2024. It was always the plan to get to PT one day - only does it look to happen at least one year earlier than expected. So, what does this mean?
Well, we're glad to announce that our sponsors are able - and willing - to fund a PT team next year! So whether we indeed promote or stay in PCT, Jura GIANTS will be there for at least one more year! Behind the scenes, there are talks going on to bring another sponsor on board in case of promotion, but our primary sponsors will remain the same next year.
More news - potentially including a new outfit - will be communicated in due time - for now, it's great to know that the story goes on no matter what!
Abhi Yeah, I think promotion should indeed be secured by now. After Balkans, Xero might still endanger 2nd place, but given that neither Fastned nor Bralirwa got the outstanding results they would likely have needed to overtake us, I'm pretty positive we'll stay in the Top 5. Sorry to see Benoot doing some awful racing once again, though, no clue why he's so bad this year
Tour de Vineyards | 
Theo Reinhardt, 2021)
Clasica San Sebastian | 
Post Danmark Rundt | 
GP Kigali | 
Schmid and Bisseger hurt a bit, of course, but others handily make up for them. 8 riders between 41 and 106 really speaks to your savvy team building. Here's hoping it's rewarded with a surprise promotion (and that maybe I'll be able to join you there 
).
Balkans International | 
