[PCT] Aegon - Lavazza 2015
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roturn |
Posted on 27-05-2015 21:18
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Needs to wait another 2 years though as Ahlstrand will max while Groenewegen won`t... ;( |
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roturn |
Posted on 02-06-2015 09:26
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The team has a nice start into the season with 1 classic as opener and two stage races already early on. Even nicer that one of those is already a wildcard race against the best PT teams in Qatar.
Down Under Classic
The season kicks off in Australia though with the Down Under Classic. As sprinter classic and HC rated a huge startlist is expected there. According to SN`s recent calculations our team is around 10th in the sprint races this season. We know that there are stronger riders around but getting a top10 here would be a nice start.
Therefore Dylan Groenewegen will get the best support. Not only the sprint support of Krieger (who could actually go for a top10-15 on his own) and Sbaragli is here. Also the engines of Vanmarcke and Nooytens will surely help, while last 3 riders might actually be seen in an attack: Thurau, Villella, Bovenhuis.
Goal Top10
Vuelta al Tachira
Who would have expected our team in this race 2-3 years ago. It needed a PT season to improve from zero to a nice mountain team. That said, the 2015 Vuelta al Tachira is for our talents.
We wouldn`t consider it wasted race days though as we still have some high expectations on them. Our young stage racer duo Fabio Aru and Daan Olivier will get a first chance of quite a few this season to show their talent as leaders. They are very similar and it`s unsure, who will be the stronger one. One of them should fight for a top10 hopefully with the other one not sitting up but also fighting for a decent GC. Both are in the U25 competition and we hope that one of them is able to win there actually.
With Alexander Krieger one of our long term talents, who is going into his 4th season with the team already, we hope to show something on the flat stages as well. With 4/10 potential sprint finishes he might not be the only sprinter here, but due to the race length hopefully not the best of the division.
While Pauwels should do great mountain support for our leaders and Nooytens being a nice support for Krieger on the flat stages, we hope to see the remaining 3 riders in some breakaways: Bazzana, Clement, Scheit.
Goal Top10 GC
U25 Jersey
Stage Win
Tour of Qatar
Our first PT race of the season and we can`t expect too much here. On the 5 pan flat stages we have a good option with Dylan Groenewegen. But it`s obvious that he is far from the top sprinters yet. So a single top10 would already be a success. The windy stages in Qatar need a lot of experience additionally to speed alone and with our very young squad here, we might miss this a bit.
That said we have 3 riders here, who could do well. Lucas Schädlich performed pretty well here in 2014 outsprinting our young sprinters and delivering an okay GC. We hope to see similar things this year. Main hopes though are on Martijn Keizer. Our team leader uses this race as preperation race for a long season. Surely his climbing skills won`t help him a lot here but he should do well in the short time trial eventually even securing him a top10 in the GC. Lars Boom as our most experienced rider will lead the young talents here and is our road captain.
Villella, Sbaragli, Frison and Bovenhuis are only here for learning from the strongest riders. Maybe we will see them in a breakaway attempt on one day.
Goal Top10 GC
Edited by roturn on 02-06-2015 12:09
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sgdanny |
Posted on 02-06-2015 10:24
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You've build a very nice team and will surely follow this team. Good luck and your lineups should bring some good points
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Ian Butler |
Posted on 02-06-2015 10:25
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Will be great to meet in Tachira
Lovely presentation. I decided to make a January Preview also, but hats off to how you did it |
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roturn |
Posted on 02-06-2015 10:30
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@sgdanny: I surely hope so. Nice to see you like the team.
@Ian: Just have seen your preview. Was a nice read as well and interesting to meet you in Tachira then. Even though I think your goals are very, very ambitious there. Had to look twice to see that Clavero even declined. So not sure, he can deliver you a top10 or even sprints at all. |
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Ian Butler |
Posted on 02-06-2015 10:41
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Yeah, our goals might be a bit ambitious for our starting month. But we won't be fixated on the results so much as to put in a good showing. If Clavero does his best to get in a good sprint, we'll be happy. Or if we play an aggressive role throughout the entire race, it'll be good!
You have to positive, you know
Also, getting to know the ManGame is still an issue. Once I get to know the MG Stats Matrix, I'll know to formulate goals better.
Edited by Ian Butler on 02-06-2015 10:43
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roturn |
Posted on 19-06-2015 23:14
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2 stage races and 1 classic were raced in the first month on the calendar and it`s quite accurate to say that we started slowly but improved with every raceday.
Let`s quickly start with the Down Under Classic. We wanted to start the season with a top10 but instead just made it into the top50 with Sep Vanmarcke. Our sprinters apparently still with problems to work together properly.
This was more or less also visible in our first wildcard race: The Tour of Qatar. Being a race for the best sprinters we surely did not expect to get a couple of results here. Though we never joined the breakaway and never even participated in any of the sprints. A 20th by Davide Villella was the best result here on the flat stages.
That said our only goal here was a good GC due to the short time trial on the last day. It was about Martijn Keizer here and he wasn`t too far off. 8th in the time trial in a PT event is not too bad. Same for Schädlich in 16th. GC wise this results in a 12th and 20th for those two and Lars Boom as 32nd. So only 2 spots off our goal, which is okay.
As I said above, our team improved over the month. As final race we have the long going Vuelta al Tachira. It was the first time that we went into the mountains that early in a season. As goals we had a top10 in the GC with another decent GC by the co-leader as also the U25 jersey and a stage win.
So let`s see what the team has done.
It started with 3 flat stages where Alex Krieger proved to be ready for a successful season. While he picked the wrong sprint train on the first stage resulting in a decent 8th, the second day delivered a huge result. Picking the winner`s wheel here, he sprinted to his first ever career win. Big result for him and the team as it`s always nice to get the first win coming early. On the next day he struggled a bit again and finished as 6th. Only other sprint was on the 5th, where he finished outside top10 as 14th, one spot behind breakaway rider Scheit on this day.
But the mountain were a great showing by our team as well. While in the first two stages, the top riders gained some time and breakaway riders got a gap to the rest, our riders kept calm and trusted Serge Pauwels, who told them to just ride their race and they will improve.
How right he was! On the mountain stages our duo was climbing well except for one off-day by Aru. So Olivier slowly climbed into the 5th position and the U25 lead, while Aru got up to 7th and 2nd in the same ranking.
The last stage was an interesting one as it had some smaller hills instead of longer climbs. Serge Pauwels, who showed a great support race before as last rider left in the mountains, attacked early and was in the successful breakaway. He finished only as 8th but more than 3min ahead of the peloton. Aru and Olivier again were concentrated and followed the big attacks. This way both defended their GC positions. And even better Pauwels climbed up to 13th, which makes this race a huge success. All goals here were completed and it`s good to see that our young riders will perform well when the team leaders aren`t there.
Screenshot of the Month is an obvious one.
Alexander Krieger celebrating his first ever career win in Tachira Stage 2 |
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roturn |
Posted on 20-06-2015 09:12
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The 2nd month of the season and we have 4 races including our first team goal race. In general we hope to take the strength, we have shown in Tachira, into the next races and perform well throughout the whole month this time.
Bayern Rundfahrt
Despite not being a German team any longer, we still have a big relation and also a couple of Germans in our team. So it`s no question, that we decided to send a strong squad to the Bayern Rundfahrt including 4 Germans.
Our leader though comes from the Netherlands. Lars Boom was already 9th here in 2012. And even though there is a tougher climb now on the course, he is aiming for about the same. Finishing outside of the top10 in the GC would be somewhat disappointing as he used to love those hilly/time trial races.
Thurau and Pauwels are his main support and in especially 1st should be up there as well with Boom for the hill finish.
In the sprints it`s all about Tachira stage winner Alexander Krieger in his home race. Though we can`t expect him to take another stage in a HC race. So it`s about getting as high as possible.
Schädlich hopefully does well for a good result in the ITT, where he should belong to the best, while Dumoulin can also go for a result there. Scheit and Bovenhuis are going to learn here and will be of nice use in breakaways.
Goal Top10
GP Kigali
Rwanda has a new race on the calendar. The GP Kigali offers lots of hills and cobbles and will be our first test on important terrain in 2015 and so we send a strong squad here.
Sep Vanmarcke showed to be competive in cobbled races and even though there are a few better riders in the PCT, he should still be able to fight for the top5 and podium here and there or in best case even win.
Sven Nooytens also top10`ed in last years PT cobbles and so should once more be of huge value for our leader and stay with him until the end. Behind him we lack a bit support with the leavings of Ballan and Grand and Boom can`t race all cobbled classics. So it`s Sbaragli, who needs to step up and be our next best cobbler. All others are just for the early phase of the race.
Goal Top5
Volta a Catalunya
The Volta a Catalunya is our first goal race of the year and so it`s also the PCT debut of Keizer in 2015. The goal here says top5 and this should be possible but on a course with almost 47km of time trialing, we surely hope for more. After being 2nd here with LL Sanchez on PT level last year, we have good memories for this race.
Martijn Keizer is the obvious decision here. With his mountain training he should be able to challenge the best in any PCT mountain stage and those seconds, that he is losing against some better climbers, he hopefully gains back in the time trials, which could even see him pass them as well. In all those stage races with a late time trial this year, we have hopes to play our TT card and take the win there with him. He should recover better than pure time trialists and this should give him the little bit extra.
Daan Olivier and Fabio Aru proved their strength in Tachira and here they have some freedom as well for decent GC`s. But the time trials aren`t suiting them that much. So they will mainly support Keizer and should form a strong mountain train here. Both will mainly help Keizer over the one semi hilly stage.
Alexander Krieger might only have one sprint stage here. But let`s hope this weakens the sprinter field a bit and gives him a chance to get a high result there.
Thurau and Pauwels are here for more support. First in especially on the hilly stage as best puncheur while Pauwels proves to be the perfect road captain.
Schädlich is another option for the two time trials, while Frison still has to learn a bit.
Goal Top5
Stage Win
Strade Bianche
Definitely our toughest race this months. The Italian HC classic should see a great puncheur field on the white gravel roads. Unfortunately those hills aren`t our best terrain.
Sep Vanmarcke hopefully can last long and try something with a mid stage attack. Same could go for Nooytens. Both though aren`t strong puncheurs and so we can`t expect them to perform at their best.
More hopes we have in our Italians Davide Villella and Alessandro Bazzana. Both know those roads a lot and are decent puncheurs. We hope to see at least one of those still there in the end trying to reach as much as possible.
Sbaragli and Marangoni will get a home ride as well, while Clement and Vandewalle have support tasks. In general we hope that one of ours is going to join the breakaway.
Goal Breakaway
Active riding
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tsmoha |
Posted on 23-06-2015 12:50
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Enjoying those previews. With Bayern (almost) and Kigali done, it's now time for Keizer to show what he's capable of achieving in the PCT.. Vanmarcke with the best possible result in Kigali (at least, as things went there), so in addition to Tachira, Aegon with a pretty pleasant start into the season, I guess.
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roturn |
Posted on 23-06-2015 13:01
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Indeed. DuC was horrible. Tachira therefore much better. Bayern a big low again but not absolutely horrible neither. So with Kigali being okay I hope the team is slowly pendling in the top 5 of rankings. At the end of March I want to be there and not leave it until end of season. |
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roturn |
Posted on 30-06-2015 10:25
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The month is already completely finished in less than 2 weeks time! We wanted to take over the good feel after Tachira to have a successful month. If this worked for us, you can check out below:
In Bayern we wanted to get a top10 with Boom. And while the race started as bad as the season opener in Down Under with an ignorance of the sprint, the 2nd stage was much better. Schädlich closely missed the TT win as 2nd behind Fiedler while Boom also got a nice result as 9th.
Stage 3 then ended in a disaster. A break was allowed to take this one and some riders in there moved ahead of Boom in the GC and never allowed him to pass them again. Not even on stage 4, the queen stage, where Boom was in a decent group 3min behind stage winner and former rider Luis Leon Sanchez Gil. Though also in a group including some of the breakaway riders. Surely we had hoped for a stronger ride here by Boom. That said, the team was awfully placed as all others finished far behind and didn`t give him the needed support.
On stage 5 we had something to celebrate again though, which made the race a rather successful one. Thurau, who wasn`t able to follow the very best before decided to join the breakaway. There he dominated the KoM`s moving into the mountain jersey lead. And as they were allowed to stay clear, he also was close to the stage win when he attacked late in the stage. But out of nowhere Porte was able to go around in the final meters. Surely the PT experience played out here for the Vesuvio rider. But not only did Thurau take this 2nd, it was also enough for the point jersey making it 2 jerseys for him. Boom as 11th very closely off the top10.
Thurau almost won the final stage in Bayern but rewarded himself with KoM and points jersey
Next up was the GP Kigali and our first cobbled test of the season. With Vanmarcke we want to shine in all of them fighting for the podium. Early on when the peloton saw a huge selection, Vanmarcke was up there. Unfortunately he lost the support of Nooytens at this point, but actually this was the season for all others as well including cobbled squad of Bpost.
The two strongest were clearly Summerhill and Vanspeybrouck who rode to the first two spots obviously. As next Vanmarcke was surrounded by the Gazelle dup Pozzato and Veelers. But he rode very smart and outsprinted them on the line for 3rd. This makes it a first podium for our cobbled star.
Vanmarcke outsprinting Gazelle to take the last podium spot in Rwanda
In the Volta a Catalunya we had our first official season goal. It was a top5 and with Keizer we were confident to get it done. Also we planned with a stage win here with an eye on the long TT.
But already in the opening prologue we were close to this win. Only 1s were missing for our leader to take the opener and also Schädlich was just another second behind. But a 3-4 to start was great. The 2nd stage must have been disappointed for many as we didn`t get the expected selection of the top top riders. Most of them finished together in one group including Keizer, which obviously was good for us with his advantage against the clock. Unfortunately we lost Schädlich on this day though, who had to abandon.
The 3rd was the most crucial stage. It was rather hilly and this is the terrain we don`t like a lot. Though with the good team support of Aru/Olivier, Keizer did better than excpected coming in as 10th less than 2min behind the winner and only ~1min behind the first GC rider Machado.
The 4th stage again with the usual problem for us. Why you no sprint Mr. Krieger? In a field where even a win was possible, our sprinter and Tachira stage winner Krieger decided to not go for it (again). So we did have nothing to say here. Though it was just the waiting for the next stage. The long ITT and Keizer won it with a strong performance. So goal 1 done and he also moved into the leader shirt this way.
Keizer on his way to the ITT win on Stage 5
Unfortunately though he lost it again on the final stage, where others were just too strong. He lost ~1min again to them and dropped to 3rd, which still fulfilled our season goal. Plus his position here gave him 3 more points, which in the end also delivered the point jersey. Well done Keizer.
Unfortunately our other two climbers Aru/Olivier took a relaxed race here and couldn`t shine as much as in Venezuela finishing outside of the top30 which is not really good in that field.
Our last race in this month was the Strade Bianche and to make it short. Wasted racedays. Then again it was a HC must go. The division`s best puncheurs were at the start and also decided it. Our 3rd tier puncheurs Thurau/Villella/Bazzana though underperformed still and so a 30th was our best result from Thurau while the others weren`t even top60. At least Scheit joined the breakaway making it a nice race for the TV coverage. |
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knockout |
Posted on 30-06-2015 12:53
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Nice recap there!
Thurau with a great home race. It's always cool when a rider wins the KoM jersey in his home country but i completely overlooked that he also got the points classification. Rarely have i seen a race with such a close points jersey competition with only 10 points between 1st and 13th.
Schädlich and Boom with some more decent stage/GC results to make it a good race for you.
Strong performances by Keizer in Catalunya and Vanmarcke in Kigali complete a good month for your team with the only real downsides being Krieger's allergy for sprint finishes (perhaps he and Geschke should found a Self-help group )
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters!
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roturn |
Posted on 30-06-2015 13:01
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Yeah. Last year it didn`t annoy me a lot as this is how AI handles weaker sprinters even though as a player you could have gotten a couple of top5-10s anyway.
This year my team only did sprint in half their appearances maximum is just awful. In especially when you saw him winning against stronger sprinters. Then you would expect him to fight for wins against equal competition. Really not ideal. Hopefully this won`t be like this all season. Groenewegen tbf didn`t really start yet. DUC just sucked for him and Qatar was really far too strong. |
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roturn |
Posted on 01-07-2015 09:56
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After we reached our first season goal, the March comes with the next. Two goals are hopefully reached to make it a great start with 3/3. In total not less than 7 races of which only 2 are stage races though. It`s also the main part of the cobbled season, so with a big focus on this terrain, it`s a very important part.
Belgium Cobbles
This includes the three classics spread over the whole month: Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Gent - Wevelgem and E3 Prijs. We decided to send the same squad to all those, which also means, there will be no Lars Boom in this years E3 Prijs, where he won back in 2012 and finished high in 2013. Our clear leader is Sep Vanmarcke. Riding in his home races should give him the little bit extra motivation. He is supported by Sven Nooytens mainly but also Sbaragli, Bovenhuis, Bazzana or Villella are expected to do some work. With Bovenhuis our support should even be a bit better than in Kigali, which should see 3 nice performances by our team.
Goal Top 5
Kenya Mountain Classic
Next up is one of the toughest classics all year. The Kenya Mountain Classic has the same climb twice on the route, which should see the best climbers of the division heading towards Kenya for this torture. Obviously we did also send our best mountain squad to this race.
This means Martijn Keizer to lead our squad in the hope to get a top5 result in the end. He is well supported by Daan Olivier and Fabio Aru. While all of them have shown some great climbing already in this young season, as trio they reached our first season goal in Catalunya last week. While last two didn`t really go for their own result, it`s hopefully a better team result here. Keizer in top5 and the others around top20 would be a nice performance.
Goal Top 5
Tour of Ukraine
The Tour of Ukraine is a difficult race to predict. It`s similar to the Bayern Rundfahrt recently with 2 flat stages, a long time trial and 2 hilly stages. One of those is similar with a late uphill finish while the other one doesn`t look too tough but has a late bump, which might be ideal for attacks. In especially as the mid Cat.1 could exhaust a few riders.
We send Lars Boom as our leader here in the hope to see another fight for the top10. In Bayern he missed it just by a tiny bit. He showed a great TT though and we hope to see an even better one here as it should clearly suit him even more.
In the hills he needs to fight surely against better riders but he has shown in the past to be able to go for a high result in those races.
He is supported by Davide Villella and Björn Thurau. In especially last one had a great season start and we hope to see him yet again very aggressive in breaks while both obviously are mainly to support Boom here. Dylan Groenewegen took a break after January but comes back here to fight for good results in the two sprint stages. With only 2 stages for the sprinters we hope for less competition here. Please don`t ignore them again. Dumoulin is another option for the long TT.
Goal Top 10
Duo Differdange
This is one of the races, that is suiting our team to 100%. With two strong time trialists in Martijn Keizer and Lucas Schädlich. While both have already proven their strength against the clock this season, it`s in especially the experience that might deliver us the win. Schädlich once was part of the winning duo in 2012 together with Kai Reus and our team should clearly be a favourite for the win.
Rumours are talking about a strong Karcher duo here as well as they have the division`s best time trialist in Jakob Fiedler. But just by the look of it, it was the obvious pick for our 2015 Win Goal.
Goal Win
Corsica International
The Corsica International is the second team goal this month. Martijn Keizer is our man for it and even though the time trial is really short, it should move him ahead of other GC riders. This is hopefully to defend in the last stage over a couple of mountains ending in a long climb. He struggled a bit in Spain against the very best but still proved his strength as 3rd. He should be able to reach the top 5 goal here with great support once more by Daan Olivier and Fabio Aru.
It`s only one flat stage. But due to the 3 race days only, we decided to send both our sprinters here in the hope to grab a stage win. Dylan Groenewegen and Alexander Krieger hopefully are able to perform well on the opener. Last but not least two more time trialists for the 2nd stage. Lucas Schädlich should be one of the favourites while Tom Dumoulin is another strong rider against the clock. Pauwels completes the squad and should once more prove to be a very valuable domestique.
Goal Top 5
Stage Win
Edited by roturn on 01-07-2015 09:57
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Ian Butler |
Posted on 01-07-2015 10:04
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Fantastic graphics! How do you do that, I wonder? |
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roturn |
Posted on 01-07-2015 10:18
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I used the PCM14 Armada Cards and edited them with photoshop. New Fonts, pictures, text etc. |
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Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 01-07-2015 10:39
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Really great graphics and whole preview, enjoyed reading it.
Good luck in March, you should have some great races ahead, especially with my favourite Duo Differdange or Criterium International.
I wonder how many race days will Keijzer have left after March? It seems like he is everywhere in early season with just 33 race days.
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roturn |
Posted on 01-07-2015 10:47
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Keizer only had Catalunya so far. Qatar doesn't count. So after March he has only 13 days used. So ~1/3 of his season.
Just from mind at least Vancouver and Andorra for sure.
Edited by roturn on 01-07-2015 10:48
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Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 02-07-2015 06:46
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Ah, i see, that Qatar wildcard probably confused me and some of his races are with little race days. Good luck with him in March!
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roturn |
Posted on 24-07-2015 09:11
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Win | Duo Differdange (4th, Keizer/Schädlich) | C1 | 4 | Top 5 | Tour of Vancouver (3rd, Keizer) | HC | 4 | Top 5 | Corsica International (4th, Keizer) | HC | 4 | Top 5 | Volta a Catalunya (3rd, Keizer) | C1 | 3 | Top 5 | PCT Team Standings | - | 5 |
All races with big sponsor goals are behind us already before the first half of the season is reached.
Obviously we had hoped for a perfect score of 4/4 but while Keizer succeeded in all the mountain races to make a top 5 appearance, the combination of our two strongest time trialists Keizer/Schädlich failed in the most suited race on the calendar.
The Duo Differdange saw a huge disappointment as our duo clearly underperformed by finishing only 4th.
All those results though clearly will see us scoring a lot of points as also the other races were quite successful.
Lars Boom had good results in Bayern, Ukraine and most recently in De Panne.
Vanmarcke did well in all the cobbled classics while still scoring solid as helper for Boom in De Panne.
So our last goal, which is the promotion goal, is still highly possible as the team is in a good position.
Only rider still lacking a bit is new sprint leader Dylan Groenewegen, who wasn`t able to really perform so far. He hopefully is able to improve in the 2nd half of the season as his scoring is definitely needed to guarantee the promotion spots. |
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