Could we be witnessing game on once again in the battle for #1 in the Continental Division? Wiggle scored more here than in their Missouri victory, and having picked up 828 points in the last 6 races, the gap to IKEA is now less than 300. Taaramae only has Duo Normand left, while Alarcon only has Herald Sun Tour. Ponzi still has 4 classics to come, while there is Franco Belge for Rowe. A good run of results for Wiggle now, and ...
In 3rd we have 100% Me nudging away from the rest, with UBS now back up to 4th ahead of SL Benfica. Milka move level with Petronas, while Lego are up into the Top 10. Pendletons are down to 10th, a return of less than 7 points per race day in Britain, but still have plenty of race days to come. Santander are now in 11th, while both Bimbo and Pokerstars are keeping themselves in the mix.
If the likes of Mercedes want to maintain their hopes, some strong results are now required - while rivals Tinkoff and Red Bull's Tour of America opportunity may become somewhat limited by Pellizotti.
Cillit Bang's victory here puts them up 2 to 18th, while teams classification victory pushes Bbox past 1000 points and ahead of Highroad, in the battle to avoid the wooden spoon.
1
Team IKEA - Bianchi
4469
2
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
4196
3
100% Me
3266
4
UBS - Annie Chun's
3069
5
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
3005
6
Petronas - Olympus
2966
7
Milka
2966
8
Bacardi - Colt
2936
9
Team LEGO
2900
10
Pendleton's Twicer
2899
11
Santander
2812
12
Bimbo Nutella
2778
13
Team Pokerstars.com
2703
14
Mercedes-Benz
2325
15
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
2292
16
Red Bull
2194
17
Team Telenor-SAS
2160
18
Cillit Bang - IT-Factory powered by the Moon X
1949
19
Vespa-Caffrey's
1856
20
Pirelli - Internazionale
1759
21
EL AL - IDF
1693
22
UniCredit
1544
23
Intesa
1410
24
Quiksilver-Kraft
1357
25
YouTube - Twitter
1354
26
Yamaha - Greenpeace
1281
27
Team Falcon-Husqvarna
1252
28
Bbox Bouygoues Telecom
1035
29
HighRoad-TomTom
931
Highlighting Wiggle's fightback, Ponzi is now up into 2nd in the Individual Standings. Albeit, on the same score as Alarcon - and in turn 1 point ahead of Ignatiev. Bellis is back into the Top 10, with Schumacher 17th, Rowe 28th, Swift 33rd, Mohs 34th, and Froome 35th.
So much to fight for with the rest of the season remaining.
My teams hopes
Lets start with Red Bull - we are having a pretty dismal (Siutsou notwithstanding) Tour of America so far - after having high hopes in the flat first week we are falling flat on our faces. Tinkoff are doing better - but as SN says you get the feeling Pellizotti will limit their progress in the tougher terrain. Given the chasm ahead of us it is looking bleak in terms of a top ten, which now looks an unrealistic target.
The battle for the CTour win
Lets move onto to the top - Wiggle are there in with a shout, which is great for them. The Ignatiev plan has worked pretty much - he may have got more points for entering Denmark instead of Channel Islands and Milano - Torino, but we will have to wait and see. But the real star has been Simone Ponzi. Cannot see him reeling in Rein Taaramae but being Italian may just give him a shout of a couple more upsets over Gilbert, Ginanni, Efimkin, Ricco et al.
100% in top 5?
I have to assume the 100% Me sprint squadron will be out in force at Vattenfalls and I can only guess which of their three is sent to Faso (actually I could look it up I know Blythe will be there). They could well finish in the top five again which is good considering they have struggled to get lots of really top results.
Protour promotion hopes?
Promotion - Wiggle DEFINATE and then....
UBS, Milka, Bacardi, Lego, Pendletons, Santander, Bimbo Nutella and Pokerstars are into the melting pot.
Milka and Lego have good solid hilly classics squads, UBS are not quite as strong but have solid claims in the Sun Tour. Bacardi have a couple of special Ricco self help blood booster bonus' (honestly Kami can you morally keep hold of this guy next year! ) and Pendletons' have Phillipe 'Please God get me out of the CTour' Gilbert.
What about the other three? Pokerstars may have some hope here if they produce a sprint special at Vattenfalls, Franco Belge and Faso. A couple of flat classics for them too. Bimbo Nutella and Santander may seem like outside shots but there is a small tour in Mexico which only has five squads in - both teams have fairly strong squads there too. Mind you Benfica have sent their climbers so they may suffer a la Tinkoff/Red Bull at America. Also Santander do have Cobo who is a pretty good classics rider, in fact JJ has been Santanders best performer all year.
There is a team I am beginning to rule out of promotion contention who have been up there all season - Mercedes. Who's star man Pozzato, has been a disappointment for a thread bare squad. The beginning of the season transfer problem has hung over them all season (as it has Lafarge).
Vespa - 44th Steegmans 384, 51st Ginanni 366 and in the low one hundreds Bososio 127. Biggest underachievers of the season? (then again Bettini has done pretty well!)
