I’ll start with a thank you to Nemo and a congrats to those who picked up stage wins here.
That wasn’t a bad final stage from Martin by any means. His slightly early attack may have cost him a Top 5 or better but 7th is a still a good result from him. Borisavljevic could have been smarter and not joined the break but ah well, good to see him try!
All in all, not a bad race for us and not a great one either. A couple of decent stage results for Avelino and a decent GC finish. Really need a miracle if we’re to stay in the division and this isn’t quite it.
Joseph Gosh Darn Iron Cojones Areruya, what a ride Absolutely love it, brilliant stuff and judging by some of the other climbers maybe getting more points than Bennett might have been expected to here Shame Padun was so strong and we missed out on white but wasn't expecting that either. 6th place here is brilliant and the manner in which he did it opening up the attacking was amazing to watch from such a young rider. Exciting stuff for us Thanks for the always entertaining reports and congrats to Repsol on what seemed to be a dope-and-cheating-free GC win for them, don't see that every day
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We came here for the GC win and we got it. Stage win + shared KoM gives also some decent points.
A shame Stage 3 went wrong for him, otherwise Points jersey could have been for him too.
I was scared he was leaving too many people to go away in the first part of the climb, but at the end he played it perfectly, no big acceleration, following other riders and using all the power in the sprint to make sure there was some gap to Padun.
Second GC win in this race in two attempts for Kudus in our team Great to see him return to top form after losing Japan to Bennett... and the Cyprus disaster
Jph, i highly doubt this is enough to recover all the distance you must have, after all, in September and October is basically only hills, and i don't have anyone for those races. Might get close to you with Zmorka having a few stage races coming up but will lose a lot in the final part
Monsalve got isolated very early there, which was far from optimal. Considering that, 4th isn't that bad of a result. A stage win + 4th place in the GC makes this a pretty good, but not a fantastic race for us. Unfortunately, I fear fantastic results is what we need in the mountainous and flat races, as we will lose ground to the teams around us in the hill classics towards the end of the season.
Congrats to Aquarius and once again thank you for the hard work Nemo!
Aquarius97 wrote:
We came here for the GC win and we got it. Stage win + shared KoM gives also some decent points.
A shame Stage 3 went wrong for him, otherwise Points jersey could have been for him too.
I was scared he was leaving too many people to go away in the first part of the climb, but at the end he played it perfectly, no big acceleration, following other riders and using all the power in the sprint to make sure there was some gap to Padun.
Second GC win in this race in two attempts for Kudus in our team Great to see him return to top form after losing Japan to Bennett... and the Cyprus disaster
Jph, i highly doubt this is enough to recover all the distance you must have, after all, in September and October is basically only hills, and i don't have anyone for those races. Might get close to you with Zmorka having a few stage races coming up but will lose a lot in the final part
I think the gap now is down to about 350 points, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it down to 200 points after Celtic Chrono and Kenya. Slovenie should be a pretty strong race for you as well, so it's not out of the question you'll be ahead by the end of July, especially as I'm not racing there. After that August looks kinder for you as well - I expect very little from Nakhon and San Sebastian with them being PTHC, whereas you should comfortably outscore me in Andorra (if there) and Arab Tour.
Even in September and October I'm not overly confident, there's enough cobbles and TTs to minimise my gains - and I'm relying pretty much entirely on Yates at that point. Basically I just need to hope Kudus runs out of RDs
Iirc Kenya and Andorra are Kudus last races of the season.
And well, i'm not counting on much cobbles score, not sure if Vanmarcke has hit yet 3 cifres this season.
My remaining races are:
Celtic Chrono (the 3 tters); Sakartvelo (my climbing domestiques); Kenya (Kudus); Slovenia (full TT setup); Mascskako (Vanmarcke); Andorra (Kudus); Arab (the 3 tters); Britain (¿Dunbar?); Deutschland (the 3 tters); Battenkill (Vanmarcke); Lithuania (??); Lugano (???); Bayern (???); Japan (???)
Basically my season is over at mid-september, though i have a heavy-tt schedule. If Zmorka keeps his early-season form and Kittel shows he has 81 in TT instead of 77. Actually looking it like that things look much brighter
Aquarius97 wrote:
Iirc Kenya and Andorra are Kudus last races of the season.
And well, i'm not counting on much cobbles score, not sure if Vanmarcke has hit yet 3 cifres this season.
My remaining races are:
Celtic Chrono (the 3 tters); Sakartvelo (my climbing domestiques); Kenya (Kudus); Slovenia (full TT setup); Mascskako (Vanmarcke); Andorra (Kudus); Arab (the 3 tters); Britain (¿Dunbar?); Deutschland (the 3 tters); Battenkill (Vanmarcke); Lithuania (??); Lugano (???); Bayern (???); Japan (???)
Basically my season is over at mid-september, though i have a heavy-tt schedule. If Zmorka keeps his early-season form and Kittel shows he has 81 in TT instead of 77. Actually looking it like that things look much brighter
Similar for Carthy, although he has Maroc left as well I believe. Vanmarcke is probably being outscored by van den Berg at this point, so that won't last
I have Celtic Chrono (Paillot), Kenya (Carthy), Nakhon (Kemboi), San Sebastian (Yates/Turgis), Andorra (Carthy), Arab Tour (Paillot/Kemboi), Paris-Tours (Kemboi), Britain (Paillot/Turgis), Balkans (Yates), Lillestrom (the 3 cobblers), Battenkill (the 3 cobblers), Lithuania (Yates), Milano-Torino (Turgis), Kigali (the 3 cobblers), Maroc (Carthy), Lugano (Turgis), Bayern (Paillot), and Emelia (Yates/Turgis).
So looking at it I expect it'll come down to just how big the scores you manage to rack up in the remaining TT heavy races. There's not really any potential huge scores (a la Jelajah or California) left for me, so I'll be lucky to make it to 20 ppRD the rest of the way for a total of about 4500 in the end - which may not be enough. Plus as you say, Kittel may start performing and you'll win at a canter
That was rather sensational! Padun will be so much fun to have in the coming years Laas also riding very well here in a support role, very good to see the team also trusts Padun as much as I do
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
Strange tatics on this last stage that cost us a better place. Still very happy with Aular performance.
That second place on stage 3 also a good result
Absolutely love it, brilliant stuff and judging by some of the other climbers maybe getting more points than Bennett might have been expected to here 
Shame Padun was so strong and we missed out on white but wasn't expecting that either. 6th place here is brilliant and the manner in which he did it opening up the attacking was amazing to watch from such a young rider. Exciting stuff for us 
