The 2024 season has started and little was heard from the Genii Hyundai N Cycling's boss - ivaneurope. Well, he's been monitoring the team's performance during the month behind the scenes as he had to deal with some issues. Unfortunately (if you've seen the images) the Argon 18 frame has failed to pass the homologation process and the deal fell through. For similar reasons the team will be racing with the 2023 jersey for this season as the team failed to submit the new one. Giant, BWT and Ionos have agreed to support the team one more season with talks with potential new sponsors will be conducted throughout the season.
Now, onto the recap of the first month. Our first race back in the CT was Gisborne GP where we got only 4 points courtesy of KHJ's 16th place. While this was largely forgetable race, the next race - Tour Down Under, was far more productive hunting ground for the Danish puncheur. A 3rd place in Stage 2 got him in race win contention and he only needed to hang on against much stronger competition from the PCT riders and direct challengers from the CT teams like Boswell from Glanbia. But he did rise to the occasion, took the lead in Stage 5 with only 2 seconds ahead of Boswell which proved to be just enough for the overall win - the team's first Stage Race overall win since Giro del Trentino in 2018 where Petar Panayotov won.
With the dust settled, the team got 156 points which were enough for 8th place in the team standings. We've only spent 14 RD as this time we were looking for a more balanced calendar. PPRD wise we have 11.14 which gives us a projected total of 1560 points, but that is if the current trend continues, which could go either up or down.
Very decent start to the season for you, and some really nice planning in there as well, especially those sneaky points in the Isle of Man TTT. Congrats to you Ivan as the team has been built really quite well for consistent scoring throughout the season. Let's see if it continues, as Genii are one of the teams, as you note, which is hard to predict the finishing position.
Luke Rowe - the 34 y.o. sprinter will join the team this season
