It's a bit frustrating to see the dominance with a team you got for almost no money, while I've got to be happy with a victory here and there. Maybe I should just stop playing PCM
I love your concept of financial restrictions - but PCM just seems to be way too easy for you. They should introduce a Ripley-level. And even then, you'd dominate. Great stuff!
I was (un)lucky with picking up so many pot 7 talents, I don't think I did this well in previous careers. In hindsight I shouldn't have hired those top trainers, should have fired them all.
Yeah, I wasn't going to reveal it until the end of the season but this is going to be the last season, I planned and started the new season but gave up during the Tour Down Under, the team's just too good. After this story I'll finally uninstall PCM14. The end of an era.
@tomcat: Maybe, though I never returned to PCM 09 and I'll still have PCM 17.
August 2022: Eneco Tour
Race squad: Boicenco, Dallamano, Gasparetti, Masakadza, Moya, J. Sergienko
A prologue, a cobbled stage and a hilly stage are there to make a difference. We brought our three northern classics specialists as well as our Italian puncheurs and Moya. The prologue went to Howson ahead of Dumoulin and Phinney, our men lost between 14 and 25 seconds.
Jovanovic took stage 2, Myles was 4th. BMC's Davey Syx won a day later, before Bennett won the final two mass sprints. But only Jovanovic also scored on the difficult stages and easily won the points classification.
PCM believed the cobbled stage will end in a mass sprint so we had to make it difficult. We started by sending Jaffar Sergienko into the breakaway. Most difficulties were in the final third so we hoped he could survive until then.
But his own team mates weren't doing him any favours by pushing hard and tearing the peloton apart. 10 km out Sergienko was ahead alone by a minute. Masakadza was chasing him, he was only being pursued by Heubach, Vanmarcke and Spijkers as well as Boicenco, who was following the trio and then latched onto Vanmarcke, the best sprinter in the small group. Gasparetti and Dallamano had lost contact but were still ahead of a group of 14 riders including the best sprinters, while Moya dropped back, losing over 7 minutes, he'll try and get into the breakaway on the hilly stage.
Sergienko won 500 metres ahead of Masakadza, and Boicenco made it a triple, outsprinting the others. All six riders were awared the same time, which makes Spijkers the new GC leader. Gasparetti and Dallamano were 1'27'' behind, quite possible that superman Gasparetti can overcome the gap on the hilly stage. The group of 14 arrived another 20 seconds behind and it included a few riders we'll have to watch, like Singh and Izagirre.
The hilly stage 6 was difficult to follow, our riders were all over the place, though with small gaps. Not Moya, he was in the breakaway and he was the top favourite in the group. Only one rider really challenged him, Dante Borer, he'd attacked 20 km out, it took Moya 15 km to catch him, but then he easily beat him on the tough short climb to the finish line.
Gasparetti finished behind Izagirre and Singh and was happy to not lose any time to them. The same wasn't true for Dallamano who dropped to 10th overall. Masakadza was 18th on the day, he gained 20 on Spijkers and the other cobblestone specialists and that was enough to take the overall lead, 13 seconds ahead of Gasparetti and Spijkers. Sergienko and Boicenco did enough to stay with Spijkers and are 4th and 5th. And that was the final GC as well. Five riders in the top 10, four in the top 5.
1
Chionesu Masakadza
Aviva Cycling
2
Adalberto Gasparetti
Aviva Cycling
+00:13
3
Luc Spijkers
Team Katusha
+00:13
4
Jaffar Sergienko
Aviva Cycling
+00:18
5
Alexander Boicenco
Aviva Cycling
+00:21
6
Ion Izagirre
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
+00:26
7
Tjeu Heubach
QuickStep Team
+00:32
8
Sep Vanmarcke
Trek Factory Racing
+00:34
9
Ivan Singh
Team Sky
+00:48
10
Pierre Dallamano
Aviva Cycling
+00:50
Masakadza wins the Eneco Tour 2022, he's become a great rider, he just reached COB 84 and that's not the end for him. Sadly, he'll thus become another ex-rider we'll have a hard time beating. Heubach was bad enough, Veiby is a beast, Masakadza will become another one. Boicenco will lead the cobbled team next season and it's become clear he'll reach COB 85, too (currently 80).
Sorry, more of the same, the full top 7, would have been top 8 had we not nominated our sprinter Rauls.
It was the variant with only two ascents of the Waseberg, but both inside the final 25 km, plus the medium wind was blowing from behind on the climb. We again did nothing more than set our riders on a free effort of 80, everybody riding for himself, no sprinting. We didn't just leave the peloton behind, we also caught and then left behind the remains of the early breakaway and three excellent riders who'd attacked earlier, Vanmarcke, GVK and Chris Christiansen.
Same story every year. These great fighters should have easily been able to keep up with our 80 effort, but they finished 1'43'' behind. And the peloton arrived 3'38'' behind. Tewelde's high FLA made him the winner, he was followed by Oakes and Moya. That's the second victory in Hamburg for Jani Tewelde, a direct copy of his first win.
Top 10: Tewelde, Oakes, Moya, Masakadza, Gasparetti, Denis, Dallamano, Vanmarcke, Van Keirsbulck, Alexey Piedels
Vanmarcke had a fine career, winning Flanders and Roubaix and the rainbow jersey, he doesn't need the Cyclassics.
August 2022: GP Quest
Race squad: Dallamano, Denis, Gasparetti, Krasnopjorov, Moya, Oakes, Tewelde, Van de Kamp
I guess by now it's worth celebrating not winning the GP Quest. This time we were passive enough and some sprinters were prepared to try riding without their trains. Specifically, Riofrio led out his opponents Leigh Ngata and Colbert Salaun, while we formed a train on the other side of the road. Without Rauls, though, he was ill.
It was only enough for Salaun to profit, he took the win ahead of Dallamano, Moya, Denis, Van de Kamp and Gasparetti. Riofrio and Ngata were 7th and 8th, followed by Oakes and Tewelde, only Krasnopjorov missed the top 10.
Top 10: Colbert Salaun, Dallamano, Moya, Denis, Van de Kamp, Gasparetti, Riofrio, Ngata, Oakes, Tewelde
Barguil (Astana) is back, and he was a tough nut to crack in France. Top stage racer Hayden (Sky) will surely hope to improve upon his disappointing performance in Le Tour. Katusha's Justino Aller (MON 81) was 10th in France, next in the list of favourites is probably Sebastiaan Pot (80), riding for Belkin, who got a wildcard. Adam Yates (79) will probably have to support Hayden. Nobody else has more than MON 78. So we can actually expect the Tour-Vuelta double from Blaesi, though his team mate Gazzola might be the toughest challenger, he's improved to MON 81. Thierry will also ride for the GC, because why not.
We set the tone by winning the opening TTT, Koloda crossed the line first. Stage 2 already finished on a small mountain, a wind of up to 70 kmph was blowing. This led to other teams choosing an extremely high speed in the finale, causing echelons, all our riders were on the wrong side of a split with about 50 opponents ahead. And what did they gain from it? Gazzola winning the stage ahead of Adam Yates and Blaesi, Thierry was 12 seconds behind with the rest of the favourites. To prove just how little I have to do now: After the split everybody just picked a free effort of 80, then I set the game speed to 4x, until the final climb started, where everybody was allowed to take it easy apart from our three top 10 candidates, who continued on 80. Then back to 4x speed and just watch it play out without further adjustments. A damn shame.
This rather random screenshot is the last in 3D mode of this story
Stage 3 was flat apart from two late hills, Aviva didn't pursue the breakaway, other teams did, but surprisingly the trio survived despite a strong headwind most of the way, Cousin took the stage. Mendez, Matthews and Barguil also gained a bit of time on our riders, Matthews is the new race leader. While Barguil's Astana rode a bad TTT on stage 1, 15th and 1'42'' behind, so a few seconds lost aren't a problem.
Barguil gained a few more seconds on us thanks to 2nd and 3rd place finishes on boring hilly stages which could only be won by Matthews from a reduced bunch sprint. Stages you have to play because a simulation would lead to time gaps. Next were a couple of mass sprints both won by Groenewegen.
The second easy-ish mountain stage finished on a mountain just outside Estepona. Barguil won outright, 15 seconds ahead of 16 riders, including our three men Blaesi, Gazzola and Thierry, who now hold the top 3 in the GC.
The breakaway survived again on stage 9 – we still send a rider into pretty much every breakaway, but I won't always mention it if it's unsuccessful. This time it was Gerardo Zamora up against three better riders. Emin Vasilyev seemed to have made the winning move by attacking into the last descent. But the final kilometre was an extremely steep uphill ramp and though Vasilyev had the best HIL stat of the four riders, he couldn't finish it off and was 4th out of 4. Gilkinson beat Zamora and Martin Gomez. No time gaps among the GC riders.
Stage 10 was the first tough mountain stage. In fact, it wasn't too hard until the finale, when we faced a steep cat. 1 followed by a descent and then another steep final climb of 16 km, the Alto Hazallanas, with a short descent about 10 km from the top. The breakaway was caught on the penultimate climb, and then our captains were caught out by an aggressive Astana team. First Bardet launched an attack which we countered, but then Barguil attacked 5 km from the top. We rode a high pace, still with protection from Bejdiev and Brackstone, though Thierry was already trailing behind in another group. But we had to see other riders including Adam Yates and Hayden join Barguil at the front.
It was still a long way to the finish line, though. Brackstone helped Gazzola on the descent, Bejdiev pulled the group. And we could now set an effort of 80 going into the final climb. It took a while, but eventually Gazzola and Blaesi caught up to Barguil's group and our captains immediately attacked. Only Barguil was able to follow, but with 2 km to go he cracked. Gazzola was the strongest rider that day, Blaesi could just about hold his rear wheel. They crossed the line 40 seconds ahead of Barguil, Hayden finished 1'29'' down. Thierry was 11th, 3'10'' behind, he's now 6th in the GC.
The ITT a day later was a little surprising, Gazzola beat Blaesi by 3 seconds, our Swiss star didn't have his best day. Hayden was faster than both of them. Howson won the stage ahead of Hayden and Ormad, Brackstone was 4th. Barguil was 26th and lost just over a minute against both our captains. Gazzola is now leading Blaesi by 13'', while Barguil is 3'10'' and Hayden 3'19'' behind. Thierry was the worst performer in the top 20 and dropped to 13th in the GC, exactly 7 minutes behind Gazzola.
On stage 14 our captains once again lost time to Barguil, nearly a minute this time. It seemed unlikely his attack on the penultimate climb would be successful, the final ascent was so steep, you needed to manage your energy reserves. At least that was true for our riders, Blaesi and Gazzola couldn't go full speed up that climb despite conserving energy earlier. On the other hand, Brackstone won the stage from the breakaway. He was part of a 3-man breakaway which doubled in size later. He beat Santl by 17 seconds.
Stage 15 was also won by an Aviva rider, this time it was Bejdiev, Santl was 2nd again, though 4 minutes behind. Apart from that it was a disappointing stage. 230 km long, four very tough climbs... and in the end there was only one tiny gap among the top 10 riders. Blaesi gained 9 seconds on the rest. He looked certain to also take 3rd place and the time bonus, but he was beaten to the line by Boswell.
It was pretty exciting earlier, Hayden and Barguil had attacked with a few more riders and were ahead by up to 90 seconds. Thierry had to work for our captains and brought us back, the group swelled to about 20 riders and nobody wanted to attack into the headwind, that's why the finale was so tame.
Another mountain stage, another win for Aviva, another win for Brackstone. The final climb was long but pretty easy, Brackstone had to attack a few times to get a gap and even then it nearly came down to a sprint, but he had enough left in the tank to win by 14 seconds ahead of De la Cruz and Zakarin. As always, Barguil attacked early, but this time Hayden didn't follow and so we had the support of Sky in the chase. Barguil paid by losing 22 seconds to our guys and Hayden.
Stage 18 should have been won by Zamora, but he misjudged his energy reserves and the steepness of the final ramp on this hilly stage and ran out of energy 500 metres from the top, De la Cruz was able to overtake him at a snail's pace. For the peloton it was an uneventful ride, no time gaps except for Adam Yates, who lost nearly a minute but remains 7th in the GC.
Another day, another 2nd place, this time for Koloda. With his HIL 78 he should have easily won this last hilly stage, but the game had us fooled, the final ramp was a mountain, not a hill, that's the only explanation I have why Alfredo Fernandez (MON 76 HIL 72) won the stage by 25 seconds. Again, despite a few attacks, the top 10 remains completely unchanged.
Which just leaves the final obstacle, the Angliru. Because we want to win everything we sent Thierry into the breakaway of a dozen riders, rather than Brackstone. The Brit's KOM victory wasn't quite certain yet, but the none of the breakaway riders seemed to be any threat. While Thierry was 13th in the GC before the stage and could make it back into the top 10. He only had one real opponent for the stage, Pedro Morillas also has MON 78.
When the gap reached 12 minutes, IAM decided to chase, apparently to protect Sepulveda's GC position, he was 11th. Caja Rural helped a little, though their best riders had been behind Thierry even before the stage. The breakaway's lead dropped to 7 minutes, but IAM gave up and now nobody was doing anything. It took Bejdiev 10 km to break through the barrier of riders to pull the bunch with 36 effort. (That's not an exaggeration, by the way.)
Morillas shouldn't have attacked on the penultimate climb, his descending is terrible and Thierry caught up with him effortlessly. Morillas paid the price when he ran out of energy near the top of the Angliru, finishing 1'33'' behind Thierry. The first GC riders arrived with a gap of 11'42'', the lower placed riders in the top 10 were even further behind and so Thierry moved all the way up to 5th in the final GC!
We have to hand it to Barguil, he really tried to win the race with a long-range attack, early on the penultimate climb. His gap to Blaesi and Gazzola reached 2 minutes heading into the Angliru, but our captains had enjoyed good protection and were able to ride the brutal climb with a high effort. The gap evaporated and soon we saw him up ahead and 2 km from the top we'd reached him. The trio arrived together, Hayden lost 30 seconds, but his chances to climb onto the podium were slim anyway.
1
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Aviva Cycling
2
Werther Gazzola
Aviva Cycling
+00:15
3
Warren Barguil
Astana Pro Team
+02:38
4
Stanley Hayden
Team Sky
+04:01
5
Alban Thierry
Aviva Cycling
+07:31
6
Justino Aller
Team Katusha
+08:07
7
Nairo Quintana
Movistar Team
+09:07
8
Sebastiaan Pot
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
+10:57
9
Wilco Kelderman
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
+11:40
10
Adam Yates
Team Sky
+12:29
And there we have it, our second Grand Tour, more stage wins than we can count... ok, that's technically not true, I can count up to 7. We won all the jerseys, Blaesi took home three of them. So we earned our first ever GT points jersey, I think only the second in any stage race, after sprinter Biello's one outstanding race when he won 4 stages in a Tour of Poland.
Race squad: Dallamano, Denis, Gasparetti, Moya, Oakes, Sequeiros, Tewelde, Van de Kamp
With Gasparetti (HIL 84) and Oakes (83) Aviva had the two top favourites for the race. That's crazy. We gave our opponents a fighting chance and didn't ever attack. It basically turned into an uphill sprint of 75 riders, though our men were all at the front under the flamme rouge and six of them took the top 6, with Gasparetti celebrating his first victory on the World Tour, followed by Oakes and Dallamano.
Top 10: Gasparetti, Oakes, Dallamano, Van de Kamp, Denis, Moya, Salvador Andrinua, Bjorn Erik Öivind, Jungels, Tewelde
Race squad: Dallamano, Denis, Gasparetti, Moya, Oakes, Sequeiros, Tewelde, Van de Kamp
Forming a sprint train would be the smart choice in this flat finale. But since our opponents never do, even if they have team mates nearby, we didn't do it, either. Everybody was riding for himself, all on free effort, and all started their sprint 1.8 km out, just ahead of the two 90 degree corners.
Slagter had attacked before the sprint started and was slightly ahead, but faded after the last corner. Instead, his team mate Arredondo (SPR 61) came very close to winning, but Dallamano kept the lead to the line. Denis (69) took 3rd with a late surge, Landa (63) was 4th, the rest of the top 10 was ours, except for Pinot (61) in 8th. Odd that the better sprinters like Oivind (12th), Marreros (15th), Raggozzino (17th) and Koch (19th) couldn't make a dent, instead Arredondo was really close to beating the nominally far faster Dallamano.
Top 10: Dallamano, Arredondo, Denis, Landa, Moya, Gasparetti, Oakes, Pinot, Sequeiros, Van de Kamp
In case anybody was missing Krasnopjorov (who's reached HIL 80) in our line-up: He was racing and leading the Tour of Britain until he withdrew from the final stage. And he wasn't even injured.
September 2022: Road Racing World Championships in Sarrebourg, France
As always, I'll be controlling Team Britain. With a hilly course for the road race Jo Oakes has a shot at winning the title.
WC TT
Aviva's best time trial rider Brackstone (TTR 78) couldn't break into the top 10, he was 16th. Frech was 28th, Blaesi 36th. Victory went to Tom Dumoulin ahead of Howson and Arnold. It's the third title for Dumoulin (after 2018 and 2019) and the first podium for Arnold after he was 4th two years in a row.
1
Tom Dumoulin
Astana Pro Team
2
Damien Howson
Movistar Team
+00:08
3
Ennex Arnold
Team Sky
+00:26
4
Igor Murko
MTN - Qhubeka
+00:52
5
Duncan Barrow
Team Sky
+01:07
6
Taylor Phinney
Astana Pro Team
+01:07
7
Michael Ø. Linnet
SkyDive Dubai Pro Cycling Team
+01:23
8
Luke Durbridge
Movistar Team
+01:47
9
Fernand Stamper
Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise
+01:55
10
Clint Fowler
Orica - GreenEDGE
+02:12
WC RR
Jo Oakes is the new World Champion! The circuit in Sarrebourg contained one nasty climb, it had to be tackled seven times and the finish line was at the top. Oakes was among the group of pre-race favourites, behind Gasparetti, Mendez and Van Baarle, but he had one trump card his opponents didn't have: Ted Thiarra. A great rider with FLA 79 HIL 78, in top form for the race.
When we unleashed the duo with 8 km to go, Thiarra immediately produced a gap which the others barely closed before the uphill sprint started. Piton went early, still into a headwind, and Oakes followed his wheel for 300 metres before starting his own sprint. He easily left Piton behind, the Frenchman held onto the silver medal, Van Baarle took bronze, Gasparetti just missed out. All our other riders finished outside the top 30. So we ticked off another box, we won the rainbow jersey. A shame Oakes only has a one-year contract, but he can show off the jersey in Il Lombardia and the Tour of Beijing.
Race squad: Blaesi, Dallamano, Denis, Gasparetti, Krasnopjorov, Oakes, Tewelde, Van de Kamp
At the last second I decided Blaesi deserved a call-up to the autumn monument. His HIL 77 (which he can still improve) might seem a little low, but as you know he's an excellent allrounder, with high FLA, SPR, ACC, DHI, STA and RES. I even felt he deserved protection next to Gasparetti and the new rainbow jersey wearer, Oakes. Ok, actually, that's not entirely true, I thought I had told Tewelde to protect Oakes but he actually protected Blaesi instead. Our Tour-Vuelta-double winner looked very comfortable and so when I noticed my mistake, I kept the protection and made Van de Kamp look after Oakes.
As we approach the final climb, the peloton is still 50 riders strong. Our three protected riders move to the front of the peloton and increase their effort to 84 as they hit the climb. Oakes' fate is sealed when he's briefly blocked by his own team mate, Tewelde, who's done for the day. It causes a slight gap to Gasparetti and Blaesi which Oakes doesn't want to close, with Mendez on his rear wheel. Mendez attacks, Oakes tries to follow, but as I write once in a while, that never seems to work. Mendez bridges the gap to the duo ahead, while Oakes seems to crawl and still lose all his attack energy.
But at least we have a two-against-one situation now as we reach the top of the hill. Blaesi is in the lead and at this point the better option with his DHI and SPR, Mendez might not realise that. So Blaesi attacks into the descent, while Gasparetti can stick behind Mendez.
This is looking very good. Blaesi is going full throttle, he won't be able to sprint, while Gasparetti's red bar is nearly full. But Mendez simply cannot catch the amazing Blaesi, so a stage racer is the first Aviva rider to win Il Lombardia! Gasparetti can easily outsprint Mendez for 2nd place... except he doesn't. I hit the sprint button with 1.5 km to go, but Gasparetti would or could not get past Mendez. Only in the last 100 metres he really starts his own sprint.
Had it been the sprint for victory I would have been very upset. But it wasn't, Blaesi scored this magnificent win for us. Our first ever monument!
Yeah, he can do it all. With a bit more training he can get to HIL 80 etc and could probably win Amstel Gold and LBL. Heck, with COB 70 he might even make the podium in the Ronde (if Veiby is out with an injury).
Race squad: Bill Blackwood (stagiaire), Gasparetti, Krasnopjorov, Moya, Oakes, Rauls, Tewelde, Van de Kamp
Our ex-sprinter Myles won the flat opening stage, Rauls was 5th. The first of the hilly stages was rather simple, with a flat finale. Myles was up there in the group of about 30 riders, our current sprinter Rauls took his rear wheel but disappointingly finished 4th, outsprinted by Ulissi and Mendez.
The other officially hilly stage was a bit more demanding with an uphill finish, though it's not very steep. Surprisingly, Mohoric attacked 5 km from the top and despite a headwind couldn't be caught again, he won 16 seconds ahead of Gasparetti, Mendez and Oakes. Hoem arrived 43 seconds behind with Krasnopjorov, Tewelde and Moya in tow, Moser and Van de Kamp lost a little more time. Our Dutchman had been part of the early breakaway, collecting 21 points and the mountain jersey.
Myles then beat Bouhanni and Rauls in the last mass sprint of the race, which hands him the points classification.
Some things seem so easy, others weirdly difficult. The final stage of the hilly Tour de Beijing has those brutal hills 30 km from the finish line. Van de Kamp and the rest of the early breakaway had been caught by then, but our Dutch rider did enough to become King of the mountains.
We had all our riders bar Rauls and an exhausted Blackwood near the front and set a brutal pace. And really for the first time in this career, in the very last race, we tried one of my fabled team attacks in the hope of claiming overall victory. Our six men took off and then relayed at 99 downhill and at 90 in the final flat kilometres, so fast that the group splintered.
And yet Mohoric managed to nearly catch them all riding solo. We still had three riders slightly ahead at this point, now Ulissi and Mendez caught up to Mohoric. Gasparetti left his last two team mates, Oakes and Van de Kamp, behind, they were caught by the Mohoric group, Gasparetti was still 45 seconds ahead.
But it just wasn't enough. Gasparetti won the stage 20 seconds ahead of Ulissi and the others - but not according to the time keepers, which saw the first 9 riders finish as a group. Oh well, the first WT race in a long time we didn't win.
We've just about reached the end of the road. I will summarise the season, then present the 2023 squad as well as a World Tour overview and some more stats and leave you with a post mortem, trying to explain why the career became too successful.
Season 2022: The final season summary
Well, what an amazing season from our team, may I remind everybody again that no rider earned more than 6,000 Euros per month. And yet we won the Tour de France and the Vuelta and Il Lombardia and the World Championships and a whole lot more. Had I recorded every top 10 result in my list of noteworthy results, as I did earlier in the career, it would have been a very long list. Thankfully, PCMCE has a nice summary:
As you can see, Blaesi also won the Velo d'Or, another milestone achieved. Of the 10 nominees, 6 were Aviva riders, here is the votes tally, also curtesy of PCMCE. (By the way, I abstained from voting):
What about my ultimate goal, which we narrowly missed last season, the WT teams classification? As I'm sure you already know, we won it, we crushed it, in fact. 2358 WT points! That's not so far off from the neare-perfect 2734 points my team Zualing scored in the World Domination story, where my 30 riders took the top 30 in the individual rankings. But compare the squads, especially the wages, in that story I spent 750k/month, this time it was only 150k. (Plus I increased the difficulty level from normal to hard.) Our old rivals Astana were runner-up with 1227 points, Aviva scored nearly twice as many.
Relegations and promotions: The trend had been downward for a while and it finally happened, BMC drops out of the World Tour. Just 99 points all season, though only 6 more would have been enough to overtake FDJ and remain in the top flight. Ag2r had been close to relegation before, but this time there was no avoiding it with only 30 points scored.
The top scoring PCT team was indeed SkyDive Dubai with 2706 prestige points from their 13 riders. However, there may be a bug in the code because the team still only has 13 riders, I wonder if the game will crash on me once P-N and T-A start. Only 17 prestige points separated Belkin (2452) and Garmin (2435), so the former joins SkyDive in the WT 2023.
The indiviual rankings are just as impressive. Hoang Doc Blaesi is the winner, again, something we never ever thought possible in this career. He won the TdF, he won the Vuelta, he won the Tour de Pologne, he won Il Lombardia and was 3rd in the Tour de Suisse. Altogether 699 WT points, enough to beat Barguil (619), who was 2nd in France, 3rd in Spain, won Tirreno-Adriatico, was 3rd in Pais Vasco, 4th in Catalunya, 10th the Romandie, plus 5th in the Fleche Wallonne.
And it's not just Blaesi. The next three riders are all Aviva riders, Frech (464), Gazzola (442) and Gasparetti (402). Oakes ends 8th, Kolk 9th, Masakadza 11th, Thierry 12th, Denis 13th, Dallamano 15th, Moya 17th, Tewelde 22nd.
Time to say goodbye to many excellent riders leaving us at the end of the season. Our top cobblestone specialist, Masakadza, moved to Team Sky. Jo Oakes and his rainbow jersey disappointingly enough move all the way down to the CT, only 5 teams scored less prestige points in 2022 than Radio Popular! Ouch! Old faithful Tewelde did not find a new team, another disappointment. Gazzola signed with our arch rivals Astana, Frech goes to Netapp. Sequeiros joins Caja Rural, Iniesta Mendez Nunez moves to Ag2r. Denis signed with Katusha, so did Grande, Dracke with Garmin, Moya with Movistar, Van de Kamp with Christina Watches, Bejdiev with Gourmetfein, Berhane with Tinkoff, Jaffar Sergienko goes home to Astana. Gerardo Zamora joins MTN-Qhubeka, but his brother Arnau was unable to find a new team.
And now the final update to our all-time top WT point scorers:
2022
Seasons
Total
1
Veiby
3
909
2
Tewelde
209
5
905
3
Blaesi
699
2
874
4
Denis
292
4
856
5
Jorgensen
2
846
6
Frech
464
2
763
7
Lammertink
4
603
8
Singh
2
564
9
Koloda
58
5
512
10
Sergienko
3
479
Tewelde had another fine season, but it wasn't quite enough to topple Veiby. Blaesi blazed into 3rd and with another season ahead would surely outclass everybody else. Emile Denis was part of a long line of HIL 78 puncheurs who don't look great on paper – like Maurits Lammertink and Koloda – but consistently scored well in the one-day classics. Frech had two excellent seasons, only Koloda disappointed a little, but he's staying at least another year, becoming our most loyal rider.
Since it is the last season, I also compiled a list of the top 10 individual seasons:
1
Blaesi
2022
699
2
Veiby
2021
545
3
Jorgensen
2021
501
4
Frech
2022
464
5
Singh
2019
442
Gazzola
2022
442
7
Gasparetti
2022
402
8
Oakes
2022
351
9
Denis
2020
340
Kolk
2022
340
We already completed all 15 goals last season, doing it again didn't feel quite as special. Though achieving top 5 results in all three races of the Ardennes Week wasn't a given, nor making the top 10 in San Remo.
