We're halfway through the season... Well, even further if we look at the calendar, but because we're having more race days in the later part of the season, now is the time to say we've reached the mid-season. To celebrate this, we will announce we will hand away Snoo Awards at the end of the season, to the riders of our team! Reddit users may vote for all riders in several categories, which will be fully announced later.
In anticipation for these awards, Reddit users have voted on who would win the awards, should the season have ended at the end of June. Here are the results:
There’s no way looking past Winner Anacona so far, apart from the Costa Rican Mountain Classic he’s been exceptionally consistent, earning our team around 100 points. Even though there were doubts about his acceleration talent at the start of the season, he has proven our fans wrong by being probably the best climber behind the unbeatable Valls and Penasa this season. A complete contrast to Anacona in terms of consistency is Mikayil Krasnoperov, who has shown both signs of brilliance (Langkawi) as well as moments of suffering from his severe handicaps (Andorra). He’s still worth around 75 points for us, so there’s certainly nothing to complain about.
Coming in between them is Ismaël Kip, our only stage winner so far. Apart from that however, he’s shown very little. He’ll have to come up with something better if we still wants to be in the top 3 at the end of the season.
Three young loanees in our team this season, in which Valio – DeLaval’s Jesse Kaislavuo certainly stole our heats with his continuous attacks. The Finnish rider even scrapped up one point along the way – hurray! The result is somewhat surprising, as both Turchi (15 after a successful break) and Darbinyan (4) earned more points that him. Clearly the TV attention Kaislavuo received must’ve contributed to this poll’s result. Or did Valio fanboys rig this vote? Who knows.
Stage race stage/Classic of the season
Spoiler
Tour d’Andorra stage 1 - 52%
Vuelta a Tachira stage 2 – 37%
Tour de Langkawi stage 5 – 11%
The first stage of the Tour d’Andorra ended with a brilliant 2+4 finish by Winner Anacona and Mikayil Krasnoperov. Despite historically having shown to be a weak attacker, Anacona attacked along with our eternal rival Valls, while Krasnoperov waited for the opportunity to escape from the peloton near the end of the mountain. This stage was the base of the third place finish Anacona would get in the final GC. Krasnoperov sadly collapsed in the longer stages, and ended up 13th. The voters favoured this race over our Vuelta a Tachira stage win, with comments saying this result in a C2HC race is more valuable than a C2 victory.
Coming in third is the 5th stage of the Tour de Langkawi, in mountainous terrain in which the team took charge all day and Krasnoperov finished in the group behind race and stage winner Valls. This result proved to be decisive for Krasnoperov’s second place finish in the GC.
A very clear winner from this poll here. Coming in as one of the only cobblers who can survive the hills, expectations were very high for Bob Schoonbroodt in Belgium. However, a 13th place certainly wasn’t where we expected him to be.A botched attack near the end might’ve caused this sudden collapse. Therefore we are still expecting great achievements from him in the Tour of the Battenkill and, especially, in his home race: The Tour du Benelux.
Second and third are two other races in which we didn’t perform either, however, the expectations were much lower. In Costa Rica we only managed a 46th place for Alexis Vuillermoz, despite having sent both Anacona and Krasnoperov here. In Bayern we sent a huge sprint train, but in the end our only bright spot was a very decent TT from Haijun Ma.
On a more positive side – no important crashes for us so far! Let’s keep it that way, shall we?
Victory of the season
Spoiler
Ismaël Kip – Vuelta a Tachira stage 2 100%
Not a big surprise that Kip is in pole position to win this award, since he is our only stage winner of the season so far, already on our second race day. Set up with a train that consisted of two climbers – Vuillermoz and Manfredi – Hersony Canelon took charge in the final bend and set off our Dutch sprinter beautifully.
Despite having this race showcase our teamwork perfectly, we are certainly hoping for more contenders once the season is over!
Calm before the storm in August for Reddit, in which we will have 8 more C2HC race days. These races will decide with how much confidence we will enter the final two months, which includes the Tour of America, in terms of our rather unexpected promotion battle.
Benelux Challenge
Squad
Maxime Monfort
Julien Simon
Bob Schoonbroodt
Cameron Meyer
Ismaël Kip
Haijun Ma
Varsham Darbinyan
Jesse Kaislavuo
In what’s probably the only race of the season in which we will have a top favourite, expectations will be very high for Bob Schoonbroodt in what’s (partially) his home race. Despite a weak Geraardsbergen-Bosberg performance, Schoonbroodt is the cobbler who will very likely lose the least amount of time on the hills from all the CT cobblers participating in this race. Therefore we are certainly hoping him to shoot up the rankings after stage 4.
Our biggest risk in this race will be Monfort and Simon not realizing that Schoonbroodt will be our GC threat here, making them not support him and causing Schoonbroodt to lose time on the other hilly stages. Our teamwork has proven to be exceptional however, so we are expecting this to not become a problem in the early stages.
We’ve also added both Cameron Meyer and Ismaël Kip to our roster, in our eternal hunger for points. Both are able to ride a very decent prologue and, should they survive the hills and the cobbles, they should have a shot at a stage 6 win in what’s probably one of the weaker fields in a C2HC race in terms of sprinters.
Grands Prix Cyclistes
Squad
Maxime Monfort
Julien Simon
Bob Schoonbroodt
Jean-François Camier
Emanuele Sella
Luc Turchi
Varsham Darbinyan
Jesse Kaislavuo
A lot of points up for grabs in this two-day stage race, so we certainly mustn’t fail here. Having three 75+ puncheurs, we should be able to get a top 10 no matter what, but the main question is who will be the one: Monfort and Schoonbroodt have been the best performers in these races so far, but with the “flatter” races in Canada and the flat finish in stage 2, will Simon finally step up and make it his time to shine?
What a great month of August we had. Despite Simon crashing out of second on the last stage of the Tour of Benelux, we celebrated two stage wins there, and a top-3 in Canada. This will likely bump up the team a lot in the standings. However, with 36 race days in September, this will be the month we will have to keep our loss in pprd minimal and get a good grip of whether our pprd is inflated, or we will end up in a direct promotion spot after all.
Paris Tours
Squad
Julien Simon
Lars Croket
Cameron Meyer
Jean-François Camier
Hersony Canelon
Kevin Seeldraeyers
September will start off in France. A 234km sprinters classic, the first one since the Great Ocean Road Classic, in which we didn't perform too well. The final climb will likely be too steep for leader Cameron Meyer to get a good position in the final sprint. Therefore we will see this as an opportunity to oil up our train for the Tour of America, and to see if they will perform there. And perhaps Simon can do something on the final climb for us, but he hasn't shown to like to attack before in this season. In short: Every point scored will be bonus points for us here.
Tour of Britain
Squad
Maxime Monfort
Ismaël Kip
Bob Schoonbroodt
Emanuele Sella
Haijun Ma
Varsham Darbinyan
Jesse Kaislavuo
Luc Turchi
If we've proven one thing this season, it's that our puncheurs can and will perform. Puncheurs that is, not puncheur. Due to Simon's wish to join the Tour of America though, Monfort will be on his own here. Despite being accompanied by Bob Schoonbroodt, this will mean we have to lower our expectations here. Maxime ended up fourth in San Luis, in what was pretty much the same race, so a top 5 will be a very satisfying result. We also brought Haijun Ma and our always inconsistant sprinter Ismaël Kip for the TT and the flatter stages, and will be looking forward to see what they can do in their free role.
Tour of America
Spoiler
Squad
Mikayil Krasnoperov
Andrea Manfredi
Julien Simon
Cameron Meyer
Lars Croket
Alexis Vuillermoz
Kevin Seeldraeyers
Hersony Canelon
Finally, after eight months of riding all around the globe, we made it to our dream race of the season - the Tour of America! Reddit users have been waiting for this day ever since selecting their riders, and we can't help but share that excitement, too.
The race kicks off with a 5,2km prologue, which is likely two hundred metres too long for our main sprinter Cameron Meyer... But a good run afterwards may get him the leader's jersey after all. Cameron has gotten the full train here, in a dream world Simon-Canelon-Croket-Meyer, however Croket has proven to be stubborn before and go for his own chances. We are hoping he realizes that his recuperation will give him more chance in the later stages, and give his all for Meyer until then.
After that, it's time to hit the mountains. We signed Mikayil Krasnoperov with this race in mind, as a worse version of the always overperforming Ratiy, but we're likely not to see him do too well in the first mountainous stage. That said, we hope he can keep the time gaps small at first, and at least have a good position to try to go for a good final GC in the more brutal, yet possibly too long stages.
A TTT will give us even more time losses, as Cameron Meyer is our only decent TTer. Once again, it's a case of keeping the time losses low. After that it's time to hit the real mountains, and a mountain TT that looks made for Krasnoperov as stage 12. We will be having a good grip of what's possible in the remaining stages by then. Will his mountain stat give him the benefit of the doubt? Or will he lose time because of his weak riding on the flat and his poor substats? Only time will tell.
Should something happen to Krasnoperov, we always have Andrea Manfredi as a slightly weaker backup. With his young age he's more willing to take risks and will hopefully join a few breaks, either for contesting the KoM jersey or to gain some time on the GC ranks. A young rider jersey isn't too much of a stretch either, let's see what he can do!
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Julien Simon. Maybe not one of the hungrier puncheurs, he was mainly brought to assist Cameron Meyer in the sprints. However, with true puncheurs being quite rare in the ToA, we're interested to see if his uniqueness can give him a surprise result in one of the hillier stages.
Last but not least, Alexis Vuillermoz and Kevin Seeldraeyers will be the climbing domestiques that will likely be hoping to pull a "Kononenko" and end up high in the GC. Seeldraeyes will his high recuperation stat certainly fits this niche, and we are hoping for an attack or two from him in the later stages.
All in all, we have all the ingredients to rack up a nice amount of points... And all the ingredients to flop, too. We'll look at it at a day-by-day basis and hope our riders won't crack under the pressure!
Vuelta a Colombia
Squad
Winner Anacona
Maxime Monfort
Ismaël Kip
Jean-François Camier
Emanuele Sella
Haijun Ma
Varsham Darbinyan
Jesse Kaislavuo
Luc Turchi
Our HC debut! Participating in this race was Winner Anacona's wish when joining the team, so we are glad that the MGUCI gave him a wildcard here. We have no expectations for him in this brutal field, although we hope that he will show the jersey of Reddit a couple of times here.
As for the race itself, we have three mountain stages for Anacona and two short flat stages in which our sprinter Kip may shine. However, both racers are likely too "handicapped" to do anything in HC races. Therefore a top 40 in the GC and break may be the only way to score points. One again, no pressure here - we just want them to try their best and get some airtime.
Good luck in ToA! Probably you won't get too much in terms of GC with Krasnoperov, but if you are lucky you could get a few stage wins having riders suited for almost every stage.
As you say, you have an awesome PpRD at the moment, but it's likely to drop a lot this month, to put you in level with the rest of promotion challengers
Some very nice races you got in September, very tough races with high Risk/Reward.
God luck and fingers crossed ! will be interesting to watch how you and other CT teams will do in ToA.
Interesting month ahead. Looking forward to what Meyer can do at ToA. Can't comment on your other races though Paris - Tours though. A fun race. Simon surely a good option after his quite strong showing in Canada.
@Aquarius thanks Krasnoperov is so inconsistant that it hurts my head. I tested him a bit before signing to make sure he wouldn't be a flop and results varied so much that I still have no idea what to expect from him. But I enjoy this more than having a steady 78MO rider with no chances to fight the best climbers.
@Tamijo thanks! I'm a bit sad to pretty much have to carry the CT alone, as I don't think any of the top teams will be here (Yorkshire maybe? But looking at the race days left that's pretty much it). It would've been fun to battle and compare ourselves to other CT teams there.
@Tsmoha: You've been very generous to our team so far. Thanks mate and keep it up
September could be massive for you guys, and you could easily shoot right to the forefront of promotion - still very much in the battle, will be interesting to see how some HC and C1 trips with big hopes pan out for you.
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
Interestng gamble with ToA. I hope it will b as good a beet for you as it was for me when Anacona had a stint in the leaders jersey ultimately finishing 4th in the GC.
As for Colombia I hope you can take as many points from the PCT climbers as possible even though Anaconas 2016 doesn't hold many promises in terms of his ability to really battle on PCT level.
I normally dont like CT teams going for ToA because that is more often than not a bad business decision but your team is one that could benefit from the gamble. Lets see what Krasnoperov does this time
Team Reddit manager announces 2018 crowdfunding campaign as Tour of America torture continues
Vien, the infamous manager of the peer-sponsored Team Reddit, has announced a new crowdfunding campaign in order to compete in the 2018 MGUCI cycling season. All Reddit users are welcome to invest their money into the fully democratic team. The announcement was posted on /r/TeamReddit on March 18, and has since become one of the most upvoted comments of the subreddit, only losing to the many Gru memes that users have posted to cope with a disappointing Tour of America.
Reddit has ridden an invisible home race so far, with a 5th place for Cameron Meyer as their best result. “It’s clear that things haven’t been going up to plan for now. We will focus on breakaways and hope for the best", Vien posted. “Hang in there, cycling fans of Reddit!”
It is unsure whether Reddit will act in the PCT or CT next year, heavily affecting the ability for the team to sign the users’ most wanted riders. Reddit is currently in the top 5 in points per race day in the CT, which means they are likely to land a direct promotion spot, but the team will face a major blow once the Tour of America has finished. “We were obviously hoping to seal the deal in the US. However, promotion or not, our vision will remain the same: An international team with riders signed by our loyal Redditors which will be a serious PCT contender in 2019. If promoting means we will relegate immediately and not reach that goal, we are more than willing to learn from our mistakes and wait another year before we can shine”
You are not having a great race so far, and with your team being so good "on paper", you might struggle to get in breakaways. Won't deny that i'm a bit happy about your lack of performance in ToA, with your team being the most likely rival for the 7th place in the CT rankings But anyway i wish you some success in the second part of the race
That’s it. The final month. October is almost among us! Well, at least in the MG universe. A slightly disappointing September left us with mixed feelings: There’s a high chance we will promote indirectly, but with our leaders performing miserably in C1 and HC races, would we even want to? October will give us more insight on our chances on indirect promotion, and whether we are ready for it or not.
Colombian Venteaux
Squad
Mikayil Krasnoperov
Winner Anacona
Andrea Manfredi
Maxime Monfort
Jean-François Camier
Alexis Vuillermoz
Kevin Seeldraeyers
Aah, back to the mountains. A short trip for Anacona, who recently performed in the Vuelta a Colombia to prepare for this race (I hope? At least that’d be a good explanation for being invisible). If things go like all other mountain races so far this season, the race will end up in a 3-way battle between Valls, Penasa and Suaza, despite the latter being seemingly too lazy to ride most of the mountain races for some reason. Therefore the chances of winning this race are slim. However, the race’s length and profile are quite resembling to the first stage of the Tour d’Andorra (2nd, 4th and 13th). Therefore, our main focus this race will be to assemble the Sky train once again, and score a lot of depth points with Anacona, Krasnoperov and Manfredi.
Herald Sun Tour
Squad
Cameron Meyer
Haijun Ma
Maxime Monfort
Bob Schoonbroodt
Jean-François Camier
Hersony Canelon
Luc Turchi
Welcome to another one of our big gambles this season. The Herald Sun Tour is an interesting 5-day stage race that’s usually decided by the TT stage in the middle. Usually, that is, because if you think sprinters can’t TT, we sent Cameron Meyer here! With his very decent TT stat and potential bonification seconds, we hope he can position himself between the other TTers in the GC. And if that idea doesn’t work, we still have Haijun Ma as our overperfoming backup. With this race having a C2 status though, we’ll need to do more than well to cover up some potential losses in Poland. Results can vary from a top 5 for both Meyer and Ma to a complete flop, but hey, that’s what makes my team so exciting to follow!
Course de Solidarnosc
Squad
Ismaël Kip
Julien Simon
Lars Croket
Emanuele Sella
Jesse Kaislavuo
Varsham Darbinyan
Kevin Seeldraeyers
Next up is a 4-day stage race in Poland, the Course de Solidarnosc. With most of the big guns in New Zealand, all of Reddit’s eyes will be on Ismaël Kip here. The “flat” race will be one of the final chances for him to prove he’s worth buying a sprint train for in the off-season. However, with the long stages and the many speedbumps on the road, chances of him actually performing are quite low. Therefore we hope he can get bonification seconds in a few of them for a good GC result, and rely on potentially decisive breakaways and secondary sprinter Lars Croket in the other stages.
A small sidestep to Asia then, for our final C1 race of the season. A weird race; two stages, one of them flat, and one of them mountainous. Team Reddit has decided to send a lineup that is capable to perform in both terrains: Meyer on the flat, and Anacona and Krasnoperov on the second stage’s mountains.
It’s obvious that with this many points available, we will be surrounded by much better teams. Our ToA and Colombia results certainly don’t promise a lot. Therefore, this race may be the final chance to prove they are worthy of a PCT leadership, in the case of a promotion.
Zuri Metzgete
Squad
Julien Simon
Maxime Monfort
Bob Schoonbroodt
Winner Anacona
Emanuele Sella
Alexis Vuillermoz
Jesse Kaislavuo
Luc Turchi
And if all these races can’t secure us a promotion spot… At least we still got our final race in Switzerland. A classic that doesn’t need much of an introduction: A lot of hilly laps, and a flat finish after a descent. The profile immediately draws the eye to Julien Simon, with him having the best hill/sprint combination of the entire Continental Tour. Due to his unfortunate last stage crash in the Benelux, his only good performance this season was in Canada, with a very similar kind of stage. Can he do it again?
And if Simon has an off-day, we still got Monfort and Schoonbroodt to make us proud. And even Anacona has joined here to make that final promotion push. No real finishing potential there, but if they can race to the finish line in a small group, a top result isn’t that much of a stretch. Bring it on!
The regular season has finished! As written in our mid-season update, this is the time where Reddit users may vote for their favourite moments of the season for a final time. So yeah, let’s take a look at the winners!
Rider of the season
Spoiler
Maxime Monfort - 89%
Andrea Manfredi – 7%
Winner Anacona – 4%
Not a surprise to see a winner by a clear margin here – Good old Maxime Monfort beasted through the second half of the season. With stage wins in San Luis, Britain, Colombia and the Herald Sun Tour, the latter giving us our first and only GC win, he was able to snatch a seventh place in the final individual standings. Needless to say he was the sole reason for a shock direct promotion spot for the team.
Andrea Manfredi also had a really nice season, though except his second place in Colombia he was mainly performing in the first half of the season, so recency bias may be to blame for the lack of votes here. The young Italian “used” his low puncheur ability to create significant gaps to attack in the bigger mountains. This especially proved to be successful in Tachira, in which he was able to bring the KOM jersey home.
Anacona was our second best rider in terms of points, but as expected with his lack of acceleration, he didn’t give us any wins. Consistency doesn’t bring you much in a fan vote – as is shown with the low amount of votes here.
Not a surprising result here either… Maybe these polls were a stupid idea? Well anyway, Valio – DeLaval’s Kaislavuo was already realty appreciated by our fans in the first half of the season, attacking furiously in his many ridden stage races. What changed, however, is that he started joining successful breaks in the second half, even getting a victory for himself in the Benelux Tour! Thanks for the amazing season Kaislavuo, and if you need a PCT team to develop further, you got my phone number
Our other loaned in riders proved to be fillers in the majority of the season. One successful break for both riders. We hope that the development was to their team’s satisfaction, and we will closely monitor them in the rest of our MG adventures.
Stage race stage/Classic of the season
Spoiler
Vuelta a Colombia stage 4 - 48%
Tour d’Andorra stage 1 – 36%
Tour du Benelux stage 5 – 16%
A CT rider winning a HC stage. That’s certainly something to remember. We only joined one HC race this season, which was Anacona’s home race, the Vuelta a Colombia. It took Anacona four stages the wake up and perform, probably inspired by Monfort’s stage 4 achievement. The puncheur joined the break and finished all alone. Once again the proof that being active on any terrain can bring home great results!
The first stage of the Tour d’Andorra ended in second place in this poll. The race showed some great teamwork, with a 2+4 finish by Winner Anacona and Mikayil Krasnoperov. Despite historically having shown to be a weak attacker, Anacona attacked along with our eternal rival Valls, while Krasnoperov waited for the opportunity to escape from the peloton near the end of the mountain. This stage was the base of the third place finish Anacona would get in the final GC. Krasnoperov sadly collapsed in the longer stages, and ended up 13th.
Last bur certainly not least – the sixth stage of the Tour du Benelux. Monfort and Simon finished second and third in an uphill sprint. Sadly, most of the result was nullified by a crash in the final stage. Hence why our fans may not have enjoyed this result as much as they should have.
Disappointment of the season
Spoiler
Tour du Benelux – 49%
Tour of America – 42%
Geraardsbergen - Bosberg 9%
The expectations for the Tour du Benelux were very high. Manager Vien described it as the only way to win a stage race this season. With his very decent ability to ride over both hills and cobbles, this was Schoonbroodt’s race to lose. Sadly, the cobbled stages showed no significant time gaps, making him useless for the final GC. Simon and Monfort took over though, with Simon being in second before the final stage. Sadly, he crashed, costing us almost 100 points. It was later revealed that the race’s roads may have been too narrow for a race of this caliber, feeding some conspiracy theorists. Was this a setup?
Coming in a close second was our Tour of America performance. We had one of the best climbers, puncheurs and sprinters there, but all of them proved to be a waste of 21 race days. Our bright pot was Alexis Vuillermoz, who got fed up with being disappointed, so he started attacking and got ourselves a beautiful KoM jersey. If we join the race again next season, I’m sure he’ll get a chance to repeat that performance.
Benelux wasn’t the only race in which Schoonbroodt slightly disappointed. Coming in as one of the only cobblers who can survive the hills, he was also a favourite for Geraardsbergen-Bosberg. However, a 13th place certainly wasn’t where we expected him to be. A botched attack near the end might’ve caused this sudden collapse. We hope he can redeem himself next season, despite facing better competition.
Victory of the season
Spoiler
Herald Sun Tour – 71%
Vuelta a Colombia stage 4 – 17%
Tour of East Java stage 1 12%
Of course, no surprises here. Monfort’s Herald Sun Tour was our only non-stage victory of the season. With a successful break in stage 2, he once again proved that attacking is the key. Haijun Ma made the victory taste even sweeter, winning the TT and finishing third in the GC. This was certainly a race to remember.
Monfort’s other breakaway win was already mentioned before. In third is Meyer’s C1 stage win in the Tour of East Java. He was able to do what he almost wasn’t able to do all season – he sprinted to first in a decent pack without any leadout. With big guns like Degenkolb and Ewan in PCT next season, he’s going to have to overperform to achieve this again!
And unless we win any shock NCs, this will be the end of the season on our HQ for us. Reddit users have already established their dream team for next year, hoping to sign as many of those riders as possible. Sadly, we are not able to share these with you at this time, but we can guarantee that Reddit will continue taking risks. See you around after renewals!
Congratulations to Kaislavuo being named Reddits Talent of the season. Well deserved! Time will tell if he will also take our Loan-out of the year award?#Legendairy#YourCyclingTeam
Paris - Tours though. A fun race. Simon surely a good option after his quite strong showing in Canada.
Krasnoperov is so inconsistant that it hurts my head. I tested him a bit before signing to make sure he wouldn't be a flop and results varied so much that I still have no idea what to expect from him. But I enjoy this more than having a steady 78MO rider with no chances to fight the best climbers.
But anyway i wish you some success in the second part of the race 
