The transferseason is over, our riders have been on training camps and some have come back quite a bit stronger, and thus we are ready for the first races of the season!
The calender writes January, meaning two races for us. And historically speaking, two big races for us.
Start
End
Race
Category
09-Jan
11-Jan
Tour of Tasmania
PT
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Age
Michail Mavrikakis
70
79
72
71
74
73
69
54
61
67
63
64
71
29
Ioannis Spanopoulos
69
77
75
72
73
72
70
54
60
64
66
62
73
30
Nikolaos Ioannidis
67
75
73
78
76
74
73
57
58
70
72
67
76
30
Ioannidis Kiriakidis
68
74
73
77
72
73
74
62
63
71
70
73
76
26
Alexandros Agrotis
71
73
70
72
74
71
73
63
65
68
71
70
73
25
Bryan Coquard
73
59
67
65
71
74
84
56
84
83
60
65
79
31
Georgios Bouglas
71
63
69
57
70
65
74
52
77
76
61
66
57
33
Georgios Boutopoulos
76
67
71
65
72
74
68
73
72
77
78
73
67
27
We enter the Tour fo Tasmania with a solid depth for the GC. We can't expect great things, but all of Mavrikakis, Spanopoulos, Ioannidis and Kiriakidis can - under the right circumstances, deliver a reasonably strong output, such as a GC top 20. If we land two guys in top 20 our goal is achieved.
We don't just want that though, we come here with Bryan Coquard to chase the first stage of the race, and with the likes of Boutopoulos and Bouglas we hope to form a leadout train that can delive Coquard within a realistic shot of winning the first race of the Pro Tour season, and claim the leaders jersey.
Expected Points: 125-175pts
Start
End
Race
Category
17-Jan
22-Jan
Tour of Qatar
PT
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Age
Bryan Coquard
73
59
67
65
71
74
84
56
84
83
60
65
79
31
Stylianos Farantakis
74
59
66
72
75
72
79
66
81
80
61
63
79
28
Panagiotis Vlatos
71
51
65
80
72
70
65
67
66
65
67
51
80
33
Ioannidis Kiriakidis
68
74
73
77
72
73
74
62
63
71
70
73
76
26
Georgios Stavrakakis
76
61
68
75
74
70
66
77
64
68
70
62
77
25
Pan. Christapopoulos
71
62
72
76
71
70
65
62
62
69
74
66
75
28
Anastasios Koumpetsos
73
67
72
56
75
72
78
58
75
75
73
71
56
28
Sarris Evangelos
68
63
65
68
71
68
64
68
69
69
68
71
69
22
With Coquard as a former winner of the race, and a big sponsor goal of the team, we come here with the best to our capabilities. Coquard has newly trained Farantakis as his primary leadout riders, and just behind the two we find Koumpetsos and strong man Stavrakakis hopefully forming a quality lead out setup.
For the final TT we aim to see if Vlatos, Kiriakidis and Christapopoulos can find some strength to deliver a top result. Stavrakakis also come with a reasonable ambition of doing well, and thus be a contender for the U25 competition.
Expected Points: 300-350pts
Overall Expections:
January is one of those months in which we have to perform, in order to get a good head start. We are not perfectly designed for Tasmania, but OK, while Qatar couldn't be a better fit (on paper). And because of that we aim to deliver a month of aproximately 400-500 points.
Last season we were a little bit scard of the relegation ghost, but proved to be well away from any danger, ending up 7th in the Pro Tour. This time we are taking another look at the relegation line, and try to spot strength, weaknesses and risks.
To do that, we need a realistic benchmark. Last season we expected the relegation zone to be somewhere between 4.600-5.000 points to survive, but in fact it proved to be even more difficult, as Duolingo relegated with a total of 5.062 points, and thus leaving Huski Chocolate on the right side of things with 5.109 points.
Last season we expected (before the season) to land at 5.075 points, which would have just narrowly kept us in the division with a margin of 13 points! Am I happy we were significantly stronger than that in the end! Scoring 6.150 points in the end means we shot a full 1.000 points off the target, which is very rare looking at our history of making these previews. Let's hope for another hit'n'miss in that area, and not the opposite direction!
Let's dig into the teams qualities and limitations below.
GC Riders
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
R. Carapaz
0
400
M. Giannoutsos
258
300
M. Mavrikakis
210
225
I. Spanopoulos
257
200
Total
725
1125
Having swapped out William Chiarello and his ~700 points with Richard Carapaz is obviously going to hurt. However, the training of Giannoutsos makes us believe that he can take a small step in the right direction to cover some of the lost. With an expected level of 400 points from Carapaz, and some small changes to Mavrikakis and Spanopoulos to better represent their chances in the 2023 calender, we come up with an expected scoring level of just above 1.100 points.
Compared to last seasons 1.429 points we have to expect a little bit less. But not devastating. Hopefully we now also know the strengths and weaknesses of our riders a little better so the planning have been somewhat perfected. The reason for the limited adjustment to Giannoutsos despite training, is made from the idealogy that his loss of U25 points will hinder him in scoring f.e. 400-500 points.
Puncheurs
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
C. Koretzky
567
400
A. Miltiadis
191
100
C. Kastrantas
198
100
L. Vincent
115
75
A. Vila
67
75
Z. Soulious
90
100
Total
1228
850
The puncheur section is by far the category with the biggest loss. The main reason for this being the decline of Clement Koretzky. He already dissapointed us ever so slightly last season, and with his lower stats we expect that to drop even further. Still 400 points is expected, which is at the level of Carapaz, and better than any of the other riders so far.
Another reason for the expected "downfall" of this category is the amount of racedays not spent to perfection due to other riders' need of development. A lot of solid scoring opportunities for Vincent, Soulios, Vila and Miltiadis have been lost in the efforts of bringing Evangelos, Boutopoulos, Christapopoulos, Agrotis and Koumpetsos to the next level. This is an issue we will have to address better in the upcoming season.
Due to the thematics of above we don't expect a lot of great things from Vincent, Vila and Miltiadis. Soulious is somewhat represented to his qualities and thus we expect him to perform slightly better than last season. Kastrantas is often performing around 200 points, but we can't really defend expecting such performances, and last season it was mainly due to a freak 5th place in Grand-Duché. Miltiadis also takes somewhat of a drop as his main scoring came from winning a stage at the Tour de France, which he won't be able to replicate with his current planning.
With the same riders as 2022 represenation we will see a drop of nearly 400 points. Given that we didn't have Soulious and Vincent last season but rather Morin and Lafay however, this can be reduced somewhat to 300 points.
TimeTriallists
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
P. Vlatos
327
200
N. Ioannidis
122
250
I. Kiriakidis
359
250
P. Christapopoulos
0
100
Total
808
800
The timetrial department of the team is somewhat similar to last season. Panagiotis Vlatos scored 327 points last season, and with his decline we expect less. 200 points should still be a reasonable expectation, that could go slightly higher if he performs in a few key races. What brings us back to level is the training efforts of Ioannidis and Kiriakidis aswell as the development of Christapopoulos.
The reason why we still expect the same, however is that the loss of U25 succes from Kiriakidis can no longer be calculated into this category, and we had an enormous amount of points from this category due to his GC succes. Also we haven't been able to really maximize the potential racedays of Kiriakidis due to race clashes, and the aforementioned rider development.
We have enhanced our expectations to Ioannidis to the double of what he performed last season, which was dissapointing, but have then diducted 100 points from Kiriakidis despite being trained as we don't see 350 points as a realistic benchmark for riders of his sort. Whether or not Christapopoulos can reach 100 points is probably also a little bit optimistic as his planning isn't perfect either.
Sprinters
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
B. Coquard
1512
1200
S. Farantakis
329
500
G. Bouglas
151
100
Total
1992
1800
Into the sprint category we really need to keep up the pace in order to survive this season. Last season Coquard proved to be an amazing fit scoring more than 1.500 points. We cannot expect the same level of performance this season, so we have decided to lower the expectations to 1.200 points. The potential for bigger gains is absolutely there though which was seen also in Caleb Ewan, Fernandi Gaviria and Matti Manninen who all scored above 1.200 points last season.
What is lost from Coquard is almost re-claimed by Farantakis, and while this is somewhat of a wild guess from a backup rider we do think it should be possible to tweak the planning to his gains, especially given that most rivals at the same level or above should not get to ride against him a whole lot. Main sprinters at his level like Manninen, Groenewegen, Dainese, Ping Hsu and Samolenkov showed that is is not impossible to reach those numbers, but whether or not a 2nd violin can is more debateable, looking at riders like van Poppel, van der Sande, Bol etc. - The reason why we decided to up him anyway is the combinatin of sprint and TT/PRL quality that might see him pick up a bit here and there as a GC bonus result.
Georgios Bouglas scored 151 points last season, and 100 this season might be over the top to be honest, but he does have a decent amount of racedays spread across the season in which he also gets to ride for himself. Whether or not he will actually participate in sprints is a big questionsmark, but he only need one good result for that 100 point benchmark to happen.
Cobblers
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
G. Karatzios
157
100
M. Kortsidakis
128
150
G. Stavrakakis
132
150
G. Boutopoulos
153
150
Total
570
550
The cobbled department of last season was hardly anything to talk about, until the very end where Karatzios got his good result, and catapulted him into the "lead" role. We expect something similar this season than we got last season, only that Boutopoulos wasn't actually with us last season, so in overall terms we should see an increase in results.
Stavrakakis have developped well, and now posses a threat in multiple races, also including timetrials - and in Chrono d'Arenberg in particular. He should also do alright for a while in the Tour of Northern Europe even though the hilly stages are too much for him.
Georgios Karatzios has declined and we no longer expect anything from him. 100 points might even be too much, given that he is also not riding a lot. One decent result though should see him pretty close to that. Both Boutopoulos and Kortsidakis will get a combination of their own chances aswell as riding leadout trains, so there might be a little bit of a gain here and there outside of the cobbles too.
Domestiques
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
A. Koumpetsos
50
100
S. Bester
192
100
A. Agrotis
39
100
S. Evangelos
0
75
Total
281
375
We don't have nearly as many helpers as last season with riders such as Kelly, Delco and Nsengimana out, but they also didn't really deliver big points averaging around 75 points pr. rider. This season we have upped the quality significantly with Koumpetsos, Bester and Agrotis all pretty capable riders. Sarris Evangelos will ride a lot, so we expect him to get a similar outing as the 2022 riders, but mainly from completing races.
Koumpetsos is a nice hybrid rider with a pretty strong physical package leading me to think he could be interesting in a couple of finals throughout the season. Shaun Nick Bester scored almost 200 points for Isostar last season, and while we do think highly of him, I don't see it being viable to expect that much. He is however the most likely domestique rider to score a decent amount of points. He should do fairly well in Tour of Northern Europe and have a couple of races where he's free to take the attack option. Agrotis can possibly get a few U25 points here and there in his final dash from maxing out.
Conclusion:
Collecting all points across the categories see us with an expected scoring potential of aproximately 5.500 points. This is significantly higher than the below 5.100 points we expected last season, but also quite a lot below our actual output from last season. And the reasons are fairly simple. The loss of Chiarello, combined with the decline of key riders like Koretzky, Vlatos and Karatzios can't simply be covered by development and training.
With 5.500 points last season we would have been 15th, 450 points clear of relegation. We are happy to take that position this time aswell. Top 10 requires something like 6.000 points, maybe more, so we don't think it's a realistic aim this season. Especially given that one of our target areas - GC races with decent climbing TT riders seems somewhat overbooked and we lack a true leader in both cobbles and hills. We need to look elsewhere for points, and in order to get a good result we have to claim close to - or above 2.000 points from sprints, and then make use of our solid climbing depth.
As always. Feel free to comment on our thoughts of the team.
Edited by SotD on 28-08-2023 10:18
As told via PM, I thought it would've been smarter to train Farantakis +2 sprint, but great team building anyway. Your moves starting with Joel Yates were straight robbery
I did come a little bit to my sendes :-) Otherwise Farantakis wouldn’t have been trained this season at all, but rather 79TT Ioannidis and 75MO/78TT Kiriakidis :-)
Croatia14 wrote:
As told via PM, I thought it would've been smarter to train Farantakis +2 sprint, but great team building anyway. Your moves starting with Joel Yates were straight robbery
Robberies normally has me invovled in them, so no suprises there
Croatia14 wrote:
As told via PM, I thought it would've been smarter to train Farantakis +2 sprint, but great team building anyway. Your moves starting with Joel Yates were straight robbery
Robberies normally has me invovled in them, so no suprises there
Hehe, don't think it was bad though. You got 400 or so K from the swap didn't you? I mean from selling Yates.
I'm not sure you would have landed more from your spaniard. I definately couldn't
It has been quite a while since we last updated our HQ with info, which isn't like us. The monthly updates haven't been kept uptodate, and instead of spamming the HQ with old race situations we'll instead keep our statistical focus of our season expectations.
Prior to the season we expected to end up witt 5.500 points, which would have kept us safe last season, and with a reasonable expectation level at around 15-16th in the Pro Tour standings. A lot was on the shoulders of Bryan Coquard and our aging stars of Clement Koretzky and Panagiotis Vlatos. And our depth naturally. Let's give it a look as to how things are shaping up after the first Grand Tour of the season. This is usually a good spot to calibrate data, to ensure we get a somewhat realistic meassure for the endgame.
GC Riders
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
Exp. PPrD
Actual PPrD
Proj.
Dif.
R. Carapaz
0
400
6,9
9,5
551
151
M. Giannoutsos
258
300
5,1
15,1
892
592
M. Mavrikakis
210
225
3,5
2,6
171
-54
I. Spanopoulos
257
200
2,9
1,9
132
-68
Total
725
1125
621
Before the season began we mad an evaluation of our GC riders, and came to the conclusion that we had 4 pretty similar riders in terms of scoring potential. The biggest potential was with Carapaz at estimated the double output of Spanopoulos - obviously knowing that factors like planning, breakaway luck etc. plays a major role. All sums seemed somewhat realistic in terms of last season output, trainings etc.
Richard Antonio Carapaz are so far well on his way to scoring a respectable amount of points. He's currently just short of 100 points, but with his calender that seems very solid. Especially his 9th place in Portugal was a good benchmark for us, where Liechtenstein was slightly more worrying, but not much. As Carapaz are yet to ride a Grand Tour his numbers are not quite calibrated yet, and he could well end up closer to 300 points than 400. Not much of an issue though, when we move on.
Miltiadis Giannoutsos had a wonderful season so far with his recent career highlight, finishing 5th in the Giro d'Italia. But he also proved very strong earlier on when he picked a surprise 2nd GC in the Volta ao Portugal. Our Golden Boy has made significant progres up to a level where you could claim an actual breakthrough into the international scene. Having already scored a massive 550 points he alone will claim half the initial expected level. He still has a Tour de France left, which should give atleast another 100 points, even if he doesn't ride in any spectacular fashion. The projection is relatively high, however and it seems more likely that he will finish at around 700 points.
Both Mavrikakis and Spanopoulos are somewhat below the expected level. For Spanopoulos this isn't that worrying as his best races are in the final half of the season, but he needs to show that he's one of the leaders. Mavrikakis had a solid Giro d'Italia, but have otherwise been dissapointing. It's not realistic to see him break the 200 point barrier.
Overall the category are looking very solid, and while we cannot expect to shatter the roof by +600 points like currently projected, we do expect to easily overtake the expected 1125 points.
Puncheurs
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
Exp. PPrD
Actual PPrD
Proj.
Dif.
C. Koretzky
567
400
7,3
2,5
136
-264
A. Miltiadis
191
100
2,1
2,0
92
-8
C. Kastrantas
198
100
1,6
1,2
75
-25
L. Vincent
115
75
2,1
6,0
216
141
A. Vila
67
75
2,3
0,6
19
-56
Z. Soulious
90
100
1,8
3,8
212
112
Total
1228
850
-101
Despite having great depth we didn't expect big things coming from our hilly department. Partially because of our Band Selection, and also because of Koretzky's poor performance from last season and his decline of stats. Still we expected a reasonable outing from Clement Koretzky. Something that hasn't showcased - at all. He is currently banking 69 points having raced half his RD's. Fortunately 21 of his 55 RD's was during the Giro d'Italia, so taking this race out, he's a bit better off, so we don't expect him to finish 260 points below the season expectations. 150 is very likely though if he doesn't deliver a very solid ardennes campaign.
Miltiadis and Kastrantas are close to the expected level, and having both ridden close to half their calender, it looks relatively safe that they will both end up in a decent area. But not covering any of the Koretzky losses.
This looks much more solid from Leo Vincent and Zisis Soulious. Both unfortunately having very few racedays to actually benchmark. Between the two they have ridden a total of 16 RD's, but have also banked a combined 65 points which is very very good. Both are on the way of helping Koretzky a bit, but both also have to ride the Vuelta a España, which isn't going to help the projection.
Aimiliano Vila haven't had a good season, but his situation is exactly the opposite of the abovementioned, as he has mainly ridden the GT in form of Giro d'Italia. His remaining calender is mainly one day races, which should atleast help him cover some of the lost.
Overall we expect our depth department to be on par, which means a lot rely on Koretzky to pick up the pieces. We expect to lose 100-150 points from this category, which needs to be covered by the GC department.
Timetriallists
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
Exp. PPrD
Actual PPrD
Proj.
Dif.
P. Vlatos
327
200
3,4
6,8
398
198
N. Ioannidis
122
250
4,1
2,6
157
-93
I. Kiriakidis
359
250
4,9
2,8
142
-108
P. Christapopoulos
0
100
1,6
2,5
158
58
Total
808
800
-3
For our timetrial department everything seems to be on track. Ioannidis and Kiriakidis are both below expectations, while Vlatos and Christapopoulos are above. The latter have had a solid calender so far, while the earlier riders are looking ahead for a better planner.
Vlatos had a great time in Praha, while also performing up to his level in the other races. This puts him in the seat of having another solid season. Currently it looks as though he could be close to 400 points. His calender doesn't quite help that as a realistic target, but another 300+ point season is definately possible with him currently bagging 135 points.
Ioannidis and Kiriakidis are looking forward to races like Tour of Lithuania, Scandinavian Road Race, Tour of Slovenie and Deutschland Tour. They only need to get it right once to be back in the saddle, and getting it right twice will put them well ahead of their schedule.
Overall we think we are in a good position to make our expectations, as we are almost halfway in terms of points.
Sprinters
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
Exp. PPrD
Actual PPrD
Proj.
Dif.
B. Coquard
1512
1200
30,8
26,3
1025
-175
S. Farantakis
329
500
10,0
2,2
109
-391
G. Bouglas
151
100
1,3
0,8
63
-37
Total
1992
1800
-602
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear... This category is a big mess for us this season, and we heavily rely on good performances outside of the sprints to cover some of the lost.
First thing first. Bryan Coquard is actually bagging solid points, just not in the races we are used to see it from. Last season he carried the team scoring above 1500 points, so we expected another good performance from him as the team around him had improved. We expected 1200 points as we didn't want to think 1500 was a new normal. Coquard is currently at 735 points, which is OK. It's below the benchmark, but it's OK. Especially given the races left, which includes 3 one-day races which he is a favorite for, so normally those would carry out 400-600 points. Deutschland Tour would probably also give 200 points, which would set him up nicely for around 1200 points in total - give or take.
However the mechanics of the season - recently suggested from Veenendaal - Veenendaal - show that we can expect anything from nothing to glory (Milano - San Remo). So instead of 400-600 points, we need to expect something like 200 points, and also 100 from Deutschland seems more realistic - if that at all! So around 1000 points (possibly even at best) is the current situation for Coquard.
The big worry is, however Farantakis. We came into the season with big ambitions that he would carry the team in races where top sprinters couldn't participate - but he has showed nothing like that. 500 points might have been optimistic, but he's currently looking to bag closer to 100 points than anything else, which could be disastrous! What could turn things around, is if he deliver a solid Tour de France bagging f.e. 2-3 stagewins. It's very likely that he is among the top 3 sprinters of the race. But we know that this isn't necessarily a good thing.
Bouglas is also a underperforming according to our hopes, but this is in the touch'n'go area which could be turned around very easily.
Overall we are looking to throw away something like 600 points from this category. We might cover some back, but half of that isn't even likely. We have red warning signs all over this category in our attempt to survive.
Cobblers
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
Exp. PPrD
Actual PPrD
Proj.
Dif.
G. Karatzios
157
100
3,0
3,0
97
-3
M. Kortsidakis
128
150
2,3
8,3
538
388
G. Stavrakakis
132
150
2,9
3,0
154
4
G. Boutopoulos
153
150
2,1
3,2
232
82
Total
570
550
389
Having just been through a very bad situation, it's always nice to make a quick recovery. We expected around 550 points in total from our cobbled department. As we are already above 400 points we can't possibly see a scenario where we don't make that goal. So far all 4 riders have made some pretty interesting stand-out results, while also still having a fair few racedays left - both cobbled, classics and some free of charge GC races.
Karatzios showed spectacular things to finish inside the top 20 of Paris-Roubaix, Boutopoulos was 12th in Macskako Kerekparverseny while Kortsidakis have made some massive jumps getting 4th in Veenendaal - Veenendaal and 18th in Strada Appia Antica.
Stavrakakis is less visable but have his U25 bonus to cover some mediocre results. It seems realistic that all will end up pretty much as planned, and then we have Kortsidakis who is above allready. 400 points over is optimistic, but 100-200 points beyond the expected level is pretty realistic.
Domestiques
Rider name
2022 pts
Exp. Pts
Exp. PPrD
Actual PPrD
Proj.
Dif.
A. Koumpetsos
50
100
1,4
1,6
115
15
S. Bester
192
100
2,3
2,9
128
28
A. Agrotis
39
100
1,7
0,9
52
-48
S. Evangelos
0
75
0,9
1,3
109
34
Total
281
375
29
Only 4 riders have made it into the actual "domestiques" category which underlines how much depth we have covering the different areas. We probably could throw a couple of more guys down here, but they all feel capable of getting results, which have also been proven by several.
In this department we expected 375 points, and everything looks solid. We can't expect this department to save anything, even if a good result can catapult the projection in the air. This haven't been the case yet, and while all of Koumpetsos, Bester and Evangelos are looking to beat the evaluation, Agrotis can't recover the 50 point negative projection.
Our chance in this department lies with Besters Tour of Northern Europe, which could potentially give a decent outing, but for now we are happy to keep our figures as they are.
Conclusion
Looking at the numbers, and past them we get a data conclusion saying we are on track to keeping our goal. We expected 5500 points, and the current benchmark says 5833. So we are just 333 points ahead of our schedule. We are very happy with that given our horrible January month, which should have been one of our best.
Realistically we are going to lose more than we can gain due to our loyalty towards the sprinting department. Overall it seems realistic that we are looking at losing those 300 or so points, which basically means we are where we need to be - but only just.
We still feel confident, that we can atleast keep alive going into the very final stages of the season - whether or not we will actually survive is still a bit interesting. Looking at last season 5100 points would suffice, and we feel somewhat confident that we will manage that. If the baseline moves up towards f.e. 5300 points we might be in for an actual dog fight though!
I still don't have a good feeling for PT scoring, it's going to be interesting seeing the post Giro ranking. Your numbers suggest you'll be alright, so I'll trust that.
The 5k points is something I'm looking at for my own team as a baseline on whether I'll have solid chances to survive.
Definitely good to see that despite quite some Coquard failures, you're still on track for safety!
And thanks for these stats, I love to see them - I tried something similar this year as well, but I'm pretty sure my estimations will be far less accurate than yours
We're far from this level. So it's cool to see an insight in your calculations. With extra focus on Carapaz from our POV, I'm happy he can contribute some to the team
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
Greek/Cypriot cycling is thriving like never before. For 3 consequtive years the overall score have increased, from the original 2016 Record scoring season with 1340 points. 2019 almost matched that with 1335 points, but from 2020 the Greeks have not been looking back!
And 2023 could be well under way of another record season. Aproximately halfway through the season the greeks across all divisions are already claiming 2100 points, and while it does seem somewhat unrealistic to hit 4000 points like the data suggests, 3000 as a new benchmark is absolutely massive.
While the overall level of Greek cycling is on the rise, as is the level of individual riders. This season has given us two new Greek Heroes!
Ioannis Spanopoulos *HERO*
It doesn't come as a big surprise, that we see Spanopoulos as a new Greek Hero this season. He was remarkably close last year, ending his all time total on 499 points, just 1 points behind the category of Heroes.
Spanopoulos isn't having a great season like last season, but scoring 37 points is easily enough to climb the ranks. With a bit of luck, and some quality riding it is realistic that Spanopoulos could end up close to the level of Greek Gods. But it needs a better performance than what is currently shown.
Michail Kortsidakis *HERO*
Similarly to Spanopoulos it can be said that it does not come as a huge surprise, that Michail Kortsidakis would take another step in the right direction. Lacking 65 points before the season, we expected him to make it across the line at one point. Last season scoring 103 points indicated this.
But Kortsidakis have shown a remarkable progress already scoring 187 points this season, shattering his previous record of 139 points. His results in Veenendaal - Veenendaal, and Strada Appia Antica catapult him well into the Hero category to a level where we believe he will definately end up as a God sooner or later.
Miltiadis Giannoutsos *GOD*
At the very end of last season, our most promising talent - at the time 25 year old - Miltiadis Giannoutsos reached the status of a Greek Hero. Scoring a solid 256 points he was well on his way to stardom, and possibly God status in 2024.
The talented, and now 26 year old GC rider, didn't rest for long however and has shown absolutely astounding results throughout the season. With his 2nd place in Tour of Portugal in the early part of the season he proved to be a force to be reckoned with for seasons to come, but it was during the Giro d'Italia he had his major breakthrough on the international scene of cycling. Three times 4th on stages, and a very aggresive riding during the 3rd week saw him claim 2nd - margins away from the win - in the KOM competition. But he didn't stop there. He also jumped from 8th to 5th in the overall classification in the final mountainstage.
No Greek rider have ever landed a Grand Tour top 10 before, so to even claim a top 5 is a spectacular result that could stand as a monument for decades to come. From having 514 points at the start of this season to now 1058 is a huge jump, and his current 544 points is the 4th highest individual season result EVER from a greek rider. Only former superstar Georgos Tzortzakis and the Living Legend of Panagiotis Vlatos have ever beaten that. And Vlatos' record season is within touch. 552 points is almost guaranteed for Giannoutsos to beat - it will be very interesting to see if he can also overtake Tzortzakis.
Giannoutsos also moves up to 4th place as one of the most succesful greek riders in the history. Still quite a way of reaching the two aforementioned aswell as Charalampas Kastrantas, all well above 1500 points.
Panagiotis Vlatos *TITAN*
Welcome everone - The first and only TITAN! Panagiotis Vlatos!!!
With 135 points so far this season, Vlatos catapults his way into more than 3000 points, more than 1000 points more than Georgos Tzortzakis. Thus Vlatos stands tall above the rest looking down as the man to match. Not beat, but match.
From the current pool of maxed greek riders the only riders to even stand a chance of getting to that level, would be Stylianos Farantakis and Miltiadis Giannoutsos. Giannoutsos needs another 4 seasons of 500+ points, Farantakis even more.
It was a combination of 3rd in a stage of Paris-Nice and the overall 10th place in the GC of Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha that finally saw Vlatos as the Legend he so very much deserved to become.
Panagiotis Vlatos joined the game in 2012 securing his first ever point that season. The 2013 and 2014 seasons were both low scoring well below 100 points each, but then it started. Vlatos scored 112 points in 2015 still not fully maxed, and from 2016-2021 he has consistently scored between 325-550 points as one of the best timetriallists of his generation - only really beaten by the likes of Jerome Coppel, and in more recent years Mads Würtz - and obviously Taylor Phinney.
The 2022 season was a bit of a setback with only 182 points gathered, and while he has decreased in quality on his timetrial bike, it does not seem likely that he will end up below that this season. He could even break the 200 points barrier with both Chrono d'Arenberg and Chrono des Herbiers coming up later in the season.
Georgios Bouglas *FIGTHTING*
The fight to become one of the Greek Heroes continues for Bouglas, who started his decline this season.
Having a total of 461 points it would be a bittersweet feeling not to reach the goal. Only 39 points seperates him from the group of riders he absolutely deserves to be a part of.
Unfortunately he cannot get the points needed simply by completing races, as he has only 3 remaining races left. In both Riga and Moscow he is on domestique duties, and it's likely that he will score between 5-7 points from those races, so he needs a bit of a miracle to get there.
He does have 21 racedays to do so, as his final race is the Vuelta a España. It takes just one good stage for him to reach his target, but the competition is fierce, and the Giro d'Italia was not a good benchmark securing him just 11 points.
Tour of Tasmania
Tour of Qatar
Volta a Portugal
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT
Tirreno - Adriatico
Paris - Nice
Classique du Grand-Duché
Ronde van Nederland
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
Macskako Kerekparverseny
Ronde van Vlaanderen
GP Liechtenstein
Vuelta a Espana
Rund um Koln
Tour of Lithuania
Franceville Classique
Tour of Slovenia
East Midlands Cicle Classic
Riga - Jurmala GP
Balkans International
GP Moscow
Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec
R. Carapaz
S. Bester
