Interesting that the season opening event is October 4th, before last season's racing finished and you secured promotion. Seems a little suspicious Really enjoyed the event though, great write-ups and love the stream of HQ content - makes me excited for the season to come Looking forward to watching you guys, should be a very solid team and of course your talents are looking good - especially Schmid, so happy you got him
Glad Tesson got picked up again btw - hope he makes it to maxed because he'll be cool, just didn't have space for him this year. Makes it two Xero alums with Habtom there too
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Croatia Thanks I hope the schedules suit them well - and I especially hope PCM20 loves Reinhardt as much as PCM18 did
quadsas Sure thing is we will suffer. But will it be because we're cursed, or because we're newly promoted? Depends on your perspective I guess ^^
knockout Well, I knew this clash would happen, but East Java is just too tempting, offering stage race points and costing just 2 RDs... I'm sure we'll be attacking in Switzerland - and hopefully Lienhard joins the breakaway party, too
jandal Well, promotion was pretty much secured way before But yeah, everyone would love MG to follow the RL schedule - except for those who have to decide on talents, maybe
I'm obviously happy as well to have Schmid And your two alumni should be able to do a good job - Habtom already this year, and Tesson maybe later on
The adventure begins! We're about to tackle our first ever PCT season - a challenging one, for sure! Before we'll be racing mainly in Europe in February, we'll take trips to Oceania and Asia (Middle and Far East) in January. Those races will mainly be for the sprinters, as we'll see in a second - but not exclusively!
Jan 09 | Down Under Classic (HC)
Spoiler
First on the list is one of the season's shortest one-day races - and even one we already did very well in last year! We brought home a surprising 4th place from Down Under in 2020 - can these guys achieve the same or even more this year?
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Theo Reinhardt
79
84
66
Emmanuel Morin
68
73
71
Mikiel Habtom
77
78
75
Robin Froidevaux
68
69
67
Manuel Stocker
76
77
73
Giorgi Tediashvili
64
70
71
Leonardo Basso
71
69
73
Brent Van Moer
58
65
73
Theo Reinhardt definitely comes back with great memories in his bag. His 4th place was the first of many great results - and he actually confirmed this performance in the other HC races he participated in.
While the leadout setup has slightly changed - Mikiel Habtom replaces fellow African Cissé in our roster - Manuel Stocker is still here to get the train rolling. While we don't expect a lot from the other riders - the race should be too short for serious breakaway attempts - at least Leo Basso and Brent Van Moer could help catching some escapees.
A great start would take away a lot of weight from Theo's shoulders already - let's see if he can get the momentum going early in the season again!
Expectations: Top 10
Best result so far: 4th (2020, Theo Reinhardt)
Jan 13 - 18 | Tour Down Under (HC)
Spoiler
We're staying Down Under for the traditional HC stage race season opener - and while the race is mainly for sprinters again, our top sprinter is joined by a few capable puncheurs targeting the hillier stages. Here's our lineup:
Rider
Spr
Acc
Hi
Res
Rider
Spr
Acc
Hi
Res
Theo Reinhardt
79
84
67
66
Emmanuel Morin
68
73
74
71
Thomas Boudat
79
78
68
74
Aaron Van Poucke
67
71
72
70
Fabian Lienhard
73
76
75
72
Stefan Bissegger
70
71
67
73
Cyrille Thièry
72
73
74
73
Giorgi Tediashvili
64
70
67
71
While Theo Reinhardt will again target the flat finishes - this time without a proper train, but as a double-threat together with Thomas Boudat in his debut race for the team after two years of loan spells, it's highly unlikely any of them will finish high up in the GC.
And with only two uphill finishes that both seem to be rather on the easier side, we didn't take our top puncheurs to Australia, either. Instead, we bring our aggressive leaders Fabian Lienhard and Cyrille Thièry, who we expect to attack on stages 3 and 5. We hope they'll get some freedom to do so, given that they shouldn't be among the top puncheurs in the peloton. However, both of them can sprint pretty well, and while we can't expect such attacks to happen or even to succeed, we definitely do have some hopes they will!
Expectations: Top 20 GC, 4x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: n/a
Jan 20 - 25 | Tour of Qatar (PT)
Spoiler
After the first race as a PCT team in the beginning of the month, here's another first: the first Pro Tour wildcard in team history! After team manager Fabianski was responsible for the TV broadcast in the last two years, he'll now take a seat in the team car and cheer for the following guys:
pull off some more good results:
Rider
Spr
Acc
PRL
Rider
Spr
Acc
PRL
Thomas Boudat
79
78
78
Benedikt Mundle
59
69
55
Theo Reinhardt
79
84
67
Stefan Bissegger
70
71
72
Mikiel Habtom
77
78
67
Szymon Rekita
69
69
76
Manuel Stocker
76
77
71
Alexys Brunel
61
64
73
This lineup shows we won just fly to the desert for fun. On the contrary; Thomas Boudat is a great prologue rider, and could get himself into a great position right on day one. He'll obviously not be among the top sprinters, but if he can snatch a bonus second here and there, he could be well placed for a great GC result!
He'll get the support of our new standard leadout train, consisting of Mikiel Habtom and Manuel Stocker. And Theo Reinhardt gets an opportunity to compete with the world's top sprinters as well - his role will probably only be defined after the prologue. If Boudat gets a good result there, even our German superstar will be supporting him; else he can go for some good results on his own.
Even if we won't get any points from this race according to the MGUCI rules, we bring a competitive lineup - but we're not neglecting rider development nonetheless. We bring our three time trial talents Szymon Rekita, Stefan Bissegger and Alexys Brunel to gain some experience - and to get a strong U25 result, of course. Flat beast Benedikt Mundle completes our roster for this race.
Expectations: Top 15 GC, 3x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: n/a
Jan 27 - 29 | Hong Kong Challenge (C1)
Spoiler
The final race of the month is one we unfortunately have horrible memories of. Hence, the goal is to erase them, and to show everyone we can do better! And these are the guys whose task it is to be at least somewhat successful:
Rider
Hi
Acc
TT
Rider
Hi
Acc
TT
Fausto Masnada
76
73
73
Alfredo Balloni
66
67
78
Hermann Pernsteiner
77
72
61
Szymon Rekita
61
69
77
Cyrille Thièry
74
73
66
Alexys Brunel
69
64
73
Mauro Schmid
71
72
67
Leonardo Basso
72
69
72
Yes, you're right, Gianni Moscon isn't coming back to Hong Kong after last year's disaster. The race simply doesn't suit his skillset well enough - especially not the 22km ITT. Which is why Fausto Masnada gets his first chance to lead the team, being both a really solid puncheur and a decent time trialist.
Hermann Pernsteiner is even slightly stronger on the hills than Fausto, but given his absence of TT capabilities, he'll do what he usually does best: be our leader's luxury domestique. And in case we get some more freedom than expected, Cyrille Thièry will happily take his chances for breakaway success. Leonardo Basso and Mauro Schmid in his first ever pro race will provide some further help on the sharp uphills.
On the other hand, we bring three riders just for the day 2 time trial; Alfredo Balloni will ride his first race for us as well, while Szymon Rekita and Alexys Brunel will come over straight from Qatar. The latter might actually have a shot at some U25 points - we'll see!
Overall, the goal must be to finish higher up than last year - which shouldn't be that hard to achieve, given that we only got a 32nd place in the GC - and didn't leave empty-handed only due to Gino's 8th place in the U25 standings... We definitely want more this time!
Expectations: Top 20 GC, 1x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: 32nd GC, 1x Stage Top 20 (2020, Gianni Moscon)
So, our first three PCT races are on the "middle levels", having neither a PTHC nor a C2 race on our schedule. The goal will be to get some solid results to get the safety counter ticking early on - let's see if we can get close to the target 14 PpRD this month!
Our first races of the year took place under the Australian summer sun - and they were mainly designed to be sprinter festivals!
First came the Down Under Classic - the shortest and maybe flattest classic of the year. Our leader Theo Reinhardt came here with a lot of confidence, having finished 4th last year.
And he was even able to inspire the entire team with his confidence, as they were all working for him from beginning to end. Unlike last year, they even formed a sprint train, with new signing Mikiel Habtom perfectly replacing Issiaka Cissé as the final leadout man!
Under the red kite, he released Theo, who was in an amazing position by then, taking over the lead and having a nice advantage on many of his rivals!
Theo Reinhardt taking the lead just after the red kite.
However, it turned out that the boys were a bit too enthusiastic, and launching the sprint that far away was too optimistic. The couldn't hold up his pace for the entire 1,000 meters, and so he lost one position after the other.
Finally, he crossed the line in a really disappointing 12th place. Pre-race, that position wouldn't have been unrealistic, but after the great work by the team and the amazing position on the final kilometer, the result definitely is a big disappointment.
Furthermore, no other rider was able to finish inside the Top 30, meaning that we only took 18 points from this race. Which is way below the target of 14PpRD. Not the best start, sadly.
-------------------------
But this obviously wasn't the end of the world, with just one race being done. On the contrary, we clearly saw that we should be competitive in sprints again this year, and so our hopes were pretty high for the Tour Down Under starting just a few days after.
However, unlike in Down Under Classic, the team decided to not support Reinhardt at all this time. We've got no idea why, but our lead sprinter was on his own throughout the entire 6 stages, which is absolutely inadmissible!
The only riders having a valid excuse for stage 1 were Stefan Bissegger and Giorgi Tediashvili, as they both joined the breakaway on that day. Especially Bissegger did really well, taking 2nd on both intermediate sprints and - most importantly - winning the day's only KoM sprint! He actually went on to wear that KoM jersey for three days, scoring valuable points that way.
But back to Theo Reinhardt. Without any help whatsoever, he was quite lost in those sprints. We don't know why, as he often did really well last year even from such situations, but after a promising start in DUC, his performance in the TDU sprints was really bad. Two 10th places were his best results - which is absolutely insufficient for a rider with a 260k wage. He knows this, and he'll work on his form to come back stronger later this year.
The pleasant - and inexplicable - surprise however was that he kept up over almost every hill in this race - meaning that Theo Reinhardt ended the race on 26th place in the GC, scoring 10 points. Underwhelming 10 points, we have to say, though. But with the randomness of this season's result so far, chances are he will stand on top one day as well.
At least, Stefan Bissegger scored some points as well. 17 points if our calculations are accurate, which make for a total of 27 points in this 6-day stage race. It looks like the predictions seeing us go down again were unfortunately accurate.
But this is by no means Bissegger's fault. Reinhardt's it definitely is, but even more we have to blame the rest of the team. Especially our "fighters" Lienhard and Thièry, who were incredibly tame (except for Thièry trying the impossible on day 5). When looking at the final GC, at least one of them could have easily taken a Top 10 as well, had they lived up to their attacking stats. They didn't. They better do something useful soon...
All in all, we're really disappointed by the season so far. Reinhardt looks like last season was just a ton of luck, and he lost all capabilities he showed back then - against more or less same-level competition, nota bene. A sprinter who isn't sprinting well, punchy fighters who aren't punching nor fighting - until now, we've got all the features of a relegating team. Let's hope this changes soon, else it'll be a really, really long season for us...
Certainly it's not how one wishes to start the season, but I'm certain your team will bounce back. And I guess Theo Reinhardt is just warming up for now.
After a very disappointing start to the season, it was a fitting coincidence that our next race took place in the desert. But besides the desert, it was a really special one, as we had our first ever PT appearance in Qatar!
Hence, no points were at stake, which was the perfect opportunity to try out some things. Just like having Theo Reinhardt and Thomas Boudat racing together - something that led to the latter not showing up at all in TDU... We wanted to see if that was a pattern, or just a matter of bad form.
The prologue was pretty inconclusive in that respect. Thomas Boudat was our strongest finisher - as expected - but the 20th place was pretty much at the lower end of our expectations. On the other hand, fellow Frenchie Alexys Brunel did a great job in his first ever race for us, losing just one second more than Boudat and finishing 24th. Which made him the 3rd best U25 finisher, with Stefan Bissegger getting a noteworthy 7th place in those standings.
With Theo Reinhardt losing 54" already, our pre-race assumption that Boudat would be our main GC hope was confirmed right away. Now we wanted to see if our German superstar would agree on working for Boudat, who's a very fast man in his own right.
Well, no. Reinhardt insisted on participating in the sprints - and Boudat even refused to do so, not even trying! The rest of the team was invisible throughout the entire race, except for Benedikt Mundle who showed his aggression time and time again - to no avail, as (almost) ever before. Szymon Rekita also tried an attack, after delivering an underwhelming prologue. His attempt was in vain, though. Finally, Theo Reinhardt went for a few intermediate sprints, which at least gave us some more air time.
We've got no clue why neither of our sprinters had any team support at all - and why they didn't even try to support each other - but we definitely do not appreciate such behavior! It meant that Theo was on his own throughout the entire stage finales, spending way too much energy needlessly to position himself.
We didn't really know what to expect from Theo in such a stacked field, so we were delighted to see him among the most consistent sprinters, getting 4 Top 10 finishes out of five attempts! The best individual result he got was 7th, though, so while he was very consistent, there was no standout result that would have been needed to climb up in the GC or take a good spot in the points standings.
What especially hurt was to see similar or weaker sprinters like Pedersen or Stepniak taking stage wins - with slightly better positioning and decent support from his teammates, Theo could have been there as well.
And Theo Reinhardt also was our highest finisher in the GC - unfortunately. All the others were caught out by a split on the final day, with only our German rocket being up front. On that day, we were really happy we couldn't gain or lose any points at all... But it was still a valuable lesson learned by the team!
Most disappointing to see was however Thomas Boudat not appreciating his chances to get a decent GC result, and not even trying. We're pretty sure that Reinhardt's presence was the main factor for this - but he'll have to prove it later on. This constellation will only occur once more this year, in Paris - Tours, so we hope to get more out of Boudat than we did until now.
Despite not getting any top results, Theo definitely became Fernando Gaviria's nightmare on the final day - as you can see on the finish line photo, Theo "stole" the Colombian that one spot that would have been enough to win the GC. Coquard was the lucky profiteer - maybe he'll stop by and thank Theo one day
Theo Reinhardt finishing 8th on the last stage, inches ahead of Gaviria.
What is left to say after our PT premiere? Not that much, honestly. We wont remember it as a true highlight, but it definitely should have given back some confidece to Theo that even in a world-class field, he can deliver consistent Top 10 results. Which unfortunately isn't worth that much usually, but it's still a good baseline.
For the rest of the team: Please, finally wake up! The season has long begun!
Nemo Thanks. Not sure about Reinhardt, though. PCM20 doesn't seem to like him as much as PCM18 did - but well, maybe he can do better in a few C1 races.
DarkWolf Well, he'd better warm up soon, as he's already spent about 1/6 of his total race days...
knockout Thanks. Will have to see how our other riders do this year. Have to admit though that Lienhard was my biggest disappointment until now - and I have absolutely no clue why he's that bad Can't do more than giving him a free role in TDU...
After last year's disappointing performance by Moscon, we chose a different approach this year by bringing our best hybrid rider Fausto Masnada as our team leader, supported by our punchy super-domestique Hermann Pernsteiner.
However, the Austrian didn't seem to agree with his role right away from the start, as he was among the day's first attackers - and actually took the first KoM sprint! A great start for him and the team - and there were still enough helpers around Masnada in the pack.
However, not amongst them was Mauro Schmid, who otped for doubling our strength in the breakaway of the day in his very first professional race. That boy doesn't need any time to get used to this level!
However, he soon had to realize that he doesn't yet have the level to keep up with the stronger puncheurs. And - both surprisingly and extremely disappointingly - Pernsteiner had to let go as well, not being able to keep up with some clearly weaker riders up front! And not only this, but he went on to finish the stage with a huge gap - even the slightest hopes for a decent GC result were soon gone.
Our main focus however was still on Masnada, who easily kept up with the front group, very well supported by allrounder Leo Basso. The two fellow countrymen were our only team members to finish the stage decently - which in turn means that not only Pernsteiner, but also Thièry had a really disappointing day.
But in the end, Fausto Masnada made up for his teammates' failures, attacking into the final descent! And while he wasn't able to join a resurrected Beltran and Hong Kong specialist Slagter up front, he still brought home our first stage podium of the season, taking 3rd place! He even had a small gap to the rest of the pack - and indeed was awarded a 7" advantage over them. Great job, Fausto - first race day as a fully developed rider, first podium!
A side note: two years ago, in the C2 era of this race, he took 6th place on the same stage - and was only our 2nd best finisher, as Freuler won the stage back then...
Fausto Masnada taking 3rd place on day one.
-------------
On day 2, a 22km time trial was on the menu. For this exact purpose, we brought pretty much our entire TT armada, including Alfredo Balloni and Szymon Rekita. Unfortunately, despite doing a really good job - finishing 17th and 10th respectively - they didn't get any air time, so we'll have to wait for later in the season to hopefully show us some pictures of our best men against the clock.
Surprisingly, another rider almost took our best result on that day; even more than in Qatar, Alexys Brunel had an amazing day and finished just one second off Rekita's time, taking 11th place! No points on day 2, but a very strong team result with three riders in the Top 20 - yes, indeed! We're glad to see that our investment into time trialists is already starting to pay off!
GC-wise, our main focus obviously was on Fausto Masnada again. On paper, he matches Brunel's pure TT skills, and thanks to better resistance should actually even beat the Frenchman - but apparently his legs weren't the best after yesterday's effort. Although his 42nd place on the day is definitely within the expected range - although really close to the bottom - we were slightly disappointed to see him lose twice as much time as e.g. Brunel.
However, he still stayed inside the GC Top 10, which was a great situation for the closing day.
-------------
Day 3 saw no big obstacles on the way to the final and decisive climb. Unfortunately, none of our riders even tried to join the breakaway - meaning that Pernsteiner's effort on day 1 taking the first KoM points of the race was finally worthless.
Even worse - heading into the final climb, Fausto Masnada was completely on his own, with no teammate close to him. Meaning that especially Pernsteiner did an absolutely horrible job in this entire race, being completely useless for the team. Not a good start to the season for our favorite Austrian rider...
And it also meant that Fausto was quite far back in the peloton by the start of the uphill. However, he kept calm and slowly dieseled his way towards the front - where again Slagter and Beltran were too strong for him, this time joined by a very strong Kwiatkowski.
Unlike on day one, Masnada wasn't able to get a shiny stage result - but his 9th place means he did a good job of limiting the damages. After all the energy spent to get to the front of the pack, this definitely isn't a bad result. It also meant that Fausto Masnada finished the race on a great 9th place in the GC, and along with two good stage results even took 6th in the points standings. Leo Basso, after having gained some spots in the TT, dropped 4 places on day 3 and finished 25th - still some very welcome depth points!
6th was also the final place in the team standings - just about 40" off the podium and therefore some points. Stages 2 and 3 were really good by the team - stage 1 unfortunately wasn't. In fact, the 2nd strongest finisher on day 3 was Cyrille Thièry, being able to keep up with the first group this time. After his bad showing on day 1, he only finished the race in 40th place, 10 spots off the final point.
And our 3rd best rider of the day was... - no, neither Pernsteiner nor Basso, who both lost more than 2 minutes and were our numbers 4 and 5 - Mauro Schmid! Our youngster finished 4th of the 2nd big group - and actually moved up to 2nd place in the U25 standings! Which obviously is a great start to his career, and hopefully a sign of more to come already this year! Good job!
-------------
All in all, we are satisfied with the results in this race. Three Top 10 stage results is a great outcome - although we'd obviously have preferred a few spots higher than 9th and 10th. Masnada's 9th place in the GC is more than what we hoped for, and Schmid contributed a few points in his first race as well. If our scoring is similar all season long - remember that we set 14 PpRD as a target - we could have a realistic chance for safety. It won't be easy, though - and especially our three leaders Quintana, Moscon and Reinhardt will have to contribute many points! Masnada did what we expected from him in his first race - keep up the good work!
While the first two races Down Under were really disappointing, we ended the month on a decent note in Hong Kong. However, the first race in February will definitely be a bad one points-wise - maybe even a zero-pointer. More on that later.
By the end of this month, every rider on the team - except for our stagiare Tesson who isn't allowed to do so yet - will have raced at least once. Which means that after Theo Reinhardt had a disappointing month, our two other team leaders will have to put their cards on the table for the first time as well. To add some spice, Quintana's first race will already be a goal race!
But let's take a look at the races one by one:
Feb 04 | Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (HC)
Spoiler
Believe it or not, but we actually had the intention to sign at least a decent cobbler during transfers. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, as especially the Quintana deal used up too much of our money. Hence, we once again participate in a cobbled race with pretty low hopes - but at least there is a tiny bit of hope. Let's see who will be tasked with getting at least a few points:
Rider
Cob
Hi
Spr
Rider
Cob
Hi
Spr
Leonardo Basso
73
72
71
Alexys Brunel
66
69
61
Mauro Schmid
69
71
69
Robin Froidevaux
61
67
68
Brent Van Moer
69
68
58
Aaron Van Poucke
60
72
67
Giorgi Tediashvili
67
67
64
Stefan Bissegger
60
67
70
Just like in every single cobbled race last year, Leo Basso will be our leader on this terrain again. His big plus is his amazing versatility - while he doesn't have an outstanding skill, he's really good everywhere. Especially his great stamina could make a difference in this almost 200km race. Last year, he was often able to stay with the pack until the end, even getting a 4th place once! In PCT, we'll be happy if he makes the Top 30, to score at least minimum points. The hills mid-race could be to his advantage - let's see.
Mauro Schmid is actually our second best cobbler, along with Brent Van Moer. Although we won't develop him the northern classics way, it will be a good exercise of bike handling for him - and who knows, maybe he'll surprise us again... Bar Basso, all riders are actually just here to gain some experience - which says it all about our ambitions...
Expectations: Top 30
Best result so far: n/a
Feb 22 - 24 | Tour of Ukraine (HC)
Spoiler
It's obviously the season of "Firsts", as we haven't raced yet most HC races, and none of the PTHC/PT ones at all. Tour of Ukraine is no exception. And while we don't have an overall favorite in our lineup, we think that these guys can absolutely go for some highlights in Eastern Europe:
Rider
TT
Hi
Mo
Rider
TT
Hi
Mo
Fausto Masnada
73
76
77
Brent Van Moer
74
68
60
Andrea Manfredi
65
65
78
Alexys Brunel
73
69
64
Alfredo Balloni
78
66
60
Stefan Bissegger
73
67
66
Szymon Rekita
77
61
56
Mauro Schmid
67
71
70
Just like in Hong Kong, Fausto Masnada will be our main GC hope in this hybrid race. It really looks to be a fully hybrid one, as we strongly suppose that pure climbing ability will come into play in the prologue. Which is why we also bring Andrea Manfredi, who loves such uphill races. Unfortunately for him, only the final few kilometers are really uphill - let's see what he can do!
For the hilly stage 2, it will again be all in for Masnada - but watch out for Mauro Schmid, who did a great job in Hong Kong finishing 2nd in the U25 standings!
The white jersey is definitely something we are eying here, as we bring not less that three U25 time trial talents. Alexys Brunel already had two great TTs so far, and he doesn't completely dislike some bumps. Stage 1 will however likely be too tough for him. Which holds for Brent Van Moer and Stefan Bissegger as well - but all of them have at least decent uphill capabilities.
Which is not the case at all for our two strongest time trialists, who are really here only for day 3: Alfredo Balloni and Szymon Rekita. Rekita already has a stage Top 10 in Hong Kong - let's see if he can further improve this result!
Overall, we think Masnada should again have a shot at a decent GC result - if stage 1 goes well for him. He won't have proper support for stage 2, but with basically just a final hill that should be OK. We'll happily take a Top 15, Top 20 would be OK as well. who we expect to attack on stages 3 and 5. We hope they'll get some freedom to do so, given that they shouldn't be among the top puncheurs in the peloton. However, both of them can sprint pretty well, and while we can't expect such attacks to happen or even to succeed, we definitely do have some hopes they will!
Expectations: Top 20 GC, 2x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: n/a
Feb 24 - 28 | Tour of Southland (C1)
Spoiler
After the disappointing results in January, there would be reasons to not look forward to yet another race in Oceania. However, with the puncheurs being in the GC focus, pressure should be less on our sprinters - can this make a difference? We'll see - but we definitely expect some good results from the following riders:
Rider
Hi
Acc
Res
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Gianni Moscon
79
73
77
Theo Reinhardt
79
84
66
Fabian Lienhard
75
76
72
Mikiel Habtom
77
78
75
Cyrille Thièry
74
73
73
Manuel Stocker
76
77
73
Giorgi Tediashvili
67
70
71
Robin Froidevaux
68
69
67
Finally, we have the first race of the year for Gianni Moscon. This race should suit him perfectly for multiple reasons:
- The hilly stages have a rather long uphill finish, where his bad sprint doesn't matter that much. Instead, his good mountain ability and great resistance could come into play.
- There's no TT.
- The clashing Tour of Ukraine should attract quite some puncheurs - pretty much all who are decent against the clock.
All in all, there's no excuse for last year's 2nd best CT puncheur to not deliver a good GC result. With Fabian Lienhard and Cyrille Thièry as his hilly support riders, we believe our lineup is strong enough to do well in a C1 race.
Had we known before the season that Theo Reinhardt would start the season on a rather low note in Australia, we might not have sent him to New Zealand. But well, here he is - and he brings his first-class leadout consisting of Mikiel Habtom and Manuel Stocker. A leadout that actually worked pretty well in DUC - except for the timing. If we get it right this time, Theo should definitely have his say in the fight for green!
Expectations: Top 10 GC, 3x Stage Top 10, Top 3 Green jersey
Best result so far: n/a
Feb 26 | Pro Hallstatt Classic (PTHC)
Spoiler
Again some "firsts" in our final February race - first goal race, and first race of our lead stage racer! Here's the full lineup:
Rider
Mo
Hi
Acc
Rider
Mo
Hi
Acc
Nairo Quintana
82
74
66
Hermann Pernsteiner
75
77
72
Andrea Manfredi
78
65
73
Mauro Schmid
70
71
72
Fausto Masnada
77
76
73
Emmanuel Morin
63
74
73
Mirco Saggiorato
76
72
70
Alexys Brunel
64
69
64
It's not only the first race of the year for Nairo Quintana, the same is also true for Mirco Saggiorato. However, while our team senior was our most valuable mountain domestique or even team leader before, he's now only number four, behind Andrea Manfredi and Fausto Masnada.
How we fancy our chances highly depends on how the race plays out. If we have a tough race right from the start, pure climbing skills should be most important - and Nairo should be among the stronger climbers in the field. If we have a lame race, however, puncheur skills and acceleration might matter much more - which could be another opportunity for Fausto to shine. Or can local hero Hermann Pernsteiner finally perform according to his skills?
Our sponsors are asking us to bring home a Top 5 result - which is pretty unlikely given the expected competition, but, depending on the race scenario and daily form, not completely unrealistic. Go for it, boys!
Expectations: Top 15
Best result so far: n/a
The team knows that we need to improve compared to January - and we think we've got some pretty decent chances to do so. All of our three team leaders (plus "semi-leader" Masnada) will be seen in action this month - which of course results in high expectations!
Congratulations on the results at Hong Kong! And good luck in February races! Although please leave something for a certain CT team in Tour of Southland.
This HQ will not be updated in the next few weeks/months(/years?). This is due to a complete lack of motivation after this season's results so far. On one hand the ridiculous sprint results (with last year's CT top sprinter Reinhardt not getting a single Top 5 result despite having even stronger support this year). On the other hand, the new team "leader"'s first race, which was the final nail in the manager's motivation's coffin.
Not a pleasant message to read. I hope a (little) MG break helps you in finding the motivation again, and your team starts performing a bit better soon.
I have to be honest with you, without that strange win in Viana do Castelo, I probably would've lost interest as well. It feels like the AI gets worse and worse each PCM version.
I am really sorry to hear that. And I understand perfectly how you feel. I've been there and I find myself again there. Although I am new and I only have a small sample of the game so far it looks more like gambling than management. I might be wrong and maybe I did not do things the right way, but I don't believe that and it doesn't eliminate the frustration.
I hope you'll find your motivation again. Until then, take a step back and do things that you enjoy. I know it's easier said than done, but it's what I do in such instances.
Really enjoyed the event though, great write-ups and love the stream of HQ content - makes me excited for the season to come 
Looking forward to watching you guys, should be a very solid team and of course your talents are looking good - especially Schmid, so happy you got him 
I hope the schedules suit them well - and I especially hope PCM20 loves Reinhardt as much as PCM18 did 
Down Under Classic (HC)
Tour of Qatar (PT)
Hong Kong Challenge (C1)
Can't do more than giving him a free role in TDU...
Tour of Ukraine (HC)
Tour of Southland (C1)
