Here we are with the second half of March.
There was just Volta ao Algarve(C2HC), Tour de Beauce(C2) and Himmerlandt Rundt(C2) left, with the last one being our only win goal.

We had both Duggan and Elijzen at Volta ao Algarve.
We were keen to ride a good GC, with Duggan if the hilly stage has an impact, and Elijzen if it hasn't.


Our dreams on the first scenario were shattered in stage 2 though, when Duggan lost time due to a crash.

Stage 3 was a hilly stage and Duggan got 71th, he was clearly suffering from the crash. Elijzen limited his time loss(2 mins) though.

The TT was made for Elijzen and he put in a stunning performance, by riding the winning time! In seconds, that is, because he actually came second, just a few hundreds of a second behind Haga.
This is the worst for a rider like him, who will constantly be wondering what turn he could've taken better so he'd have won.

In the end, he got 7th in the GC, which is satisfying.

Next up was Tour de Beauce.
We took a gamble by sending Moreno here, thinking Mt Megantic would've been heavy enough.
Was it a smart call? In the end, I'd say yes.

Daniel attacked at the Queen's stage and grabbed a quality 4th place in that stage.
He dropped back to 6th at the TT, but in the end, we can be satisfied, I guess.
Vingerling was also in Canada, but he disappointed, never even participating in the sprint for the win.

And at last, we had Himmerlandt Rundt, with the hilarious subname(at least in Dutch) ''Made in Aars''.
We had a winning goal here, and we hoped some sprinters would choose for Rwanda instead of Himmerlandt here. Well, that didn't work. Plenty of good sprinters were there, with some of them on a win goal too.

In the end, Vingerling only managed a 5th place. Still not bad, but we failed our goal.

Some decent performances in the 2nd part of March. I'm content.

April was a busy month for us. First up was Windhoek TT(C2), a TT in which we had Elijzen and Van Ooijen participating. Elijzen set a very strong 3rd time and we were quite happy with that.

GP Oudenaarde(C2HC) was next up, Lebris was a contender here, but didn't even reach the Top 30. Schoonbroodt was out best at 13th, which is quite a disaster since we have, for CT teams, a decent cobbles team.

Route America del Sur(C2HC) is an South-American stage-race where we sent Duggan and Gallego, our hills specialists.

Duggan did a very good job here, being very consistent and finishing in the Top 10 constantly. Sadly enough he missed a decisive breakaway in stage 5. Before that he was even 2nd in the GC, but in the end, he finished 6th, which still is somewhat nice, though.

Tro Boro Leon(C2) or ''The Hell of the West'' was next up. An unpredictable race in which we sent both our sprinter(Vingerling) and cobbler(Lebris). Sadly enough it was a break winning, and nobody of our riders was in it.

Tour de Bretagne(C2) was a major goal race for us. The goal was risky, to Top 5. We were not sure if we could pull it off, actually. We sent an insane team, with Duggan(GC) and Vingerling(sprinter) as leaders.
Vingerling took a magnificent win in stage 2, and took a few podiums as well.

But the real hero in this race was Timothy Duggan. Not only he took 2 podiums in the hilly stages, also he managed to win the whole GC for us!
Well done Duggan, well done.

To finish off April, there was Istrian Spring Trophy(C2).
We sent Duggan, and for the prologue, we sent Elijzen. Sadly enough, Elijzen disappointed, with only a 10th place. Still we had 3 TomTom riders in the Top 10, which is awesome. Bulgac was best with 4th.

No massive gaps were made in the hilly stages, and therefore Elijzen was able to hang on to 10th, while Duggan got 11th. Not the best way to finish off the month, but it has been a great one.

At the end of April, we were a stunning 2nd in the Conti Tour rankings, behind the dominant Vontobel! Definitely something we could be happy with!

May started with 3 classics, all very different ones.

Rund um den Eschborn(C2HC) was the first one. Gallego got in the break, and it was a very tight fight between the break and the peloton.

The break just stayed ahead and Gallego got a nice but bitter 2nd place. Vingerling sprinted to a Top 10 as well.
Criterium Hainlaite(C2HC) is a hilly race with a few cobbles as well. Our hills and cobbles teams were both present. Despite Duggan leading, Schoonbroodt was on top of his game and got a third place as reward, which is very nice.
Lincoln GP(C2) is the third classic in a row. A serious cobbled classic. Lebris was the leader and didn't disappoint.

Saramotins was dominant here, but Lebris(in the back) is the runner-up.
A great 2nd place it was!
Sibiu Tour(C1) led us to Romania. The race has 2 TTs and some climbs, and the TTs made us go there, since Elijzen is even decent among the big guns.

It's safe to say he didn't disappoint. While a 8th place in the opening TT is good, Elijzen got us a win on a big level by actually winning the 2nd TT!
We sent Moreno for the mountains, but he didn't do much. Doesn't matter, we were mainly here for the TTs.
Vuelta a la Communidad de Madrid(C2HC) is a mountain classic, which are pretty rare. We used the opportunity for Moreno, and he did quite well, with a nice 5th place.
Bucks Country Classic(C2HC) was last up. The 5th classic in the month. This one was mainly for the sprinters, those that could take a hill decently, so we sent a strong train. Vingerling had a decent performance, with an 8th place.

After a relatively good month, TomTom is still 2nd in the CT rankings. Getting close to Vontobel, who had a bad month, but also feeling pressure from behind, with several teams getting closer to us.

June was quite full of races, which means there's a lot of points to get, ofc.

First one was GP Transfaragasan(C2) which, next to its extraordinary name, also has an extraordinary profile, finishing downhill after a tough mountain. That could be something for Moreno, who has some sprinting skills. Sadly enough the race was a disaster for us, after Moreno got dropped too early.
Vuelta a Guatamala(C2HC) got us all the way to South-America. Duggan and Moreno were there. Especially Duggan was pretty consistent and was heading for a nice GC Top 5, but unfortunately it all went wrong in the last stage. 14th GC was the best we could get, by Moreno.
Giro del Capo(C2) was kinda neglected by us, with Brus as our sprinting leader.

He did quite well though, even got us a nice 2nd place in a stage.
Gallego didn't do much when the climbs arrived, but Ghyllebert got us a good 4th place from a breakaway in a later stage.
The Barcelona Classic(C2) would be a nice sprinting chance for Vingerling, but unfortunately he struggled to find a wheel and only got 19th.
Oberösterreichrundfahrt(C2) is yet another C2 race. Both Duggan and Moreno were there, but beside a sprint to 7th by Brus, TomTom did practically nothing there.
To finish off the month, we had the Ster ZLM Tour(C1). A big home race in which we mainly wanted to show ourselves. Vingerling was here to sprint and the rest would just hunt for breakaways.
Vingerling showed he can't do much without a proper train, which is a shame but true. We didn't do much, to be fair.

It hasn't been a good month, and that was reflected in the rankings. We dropped all the way back to 7th in the rankings. It has to be said that the gaps are small, but still this is a big hit for us and our promotion chances.

July was a quiet month for us. Just 3 races, starting with a classic.

Isle of Man ITT(C1) is, as the name suggests, a TT. Given it's on C1 level, it wasn't going to be easy to get a good result.

Elijzen was our man here. He did have some trouble between the big guns this time, grabbing a 13th place, which is not exactly what we hoped for, but alright.

Tour d'Algerie(C2) was going to be a nice challenge for Vingerling, who recieved a strong train including Brus here. The first stage was already the toughest, and a break stayed away, destroying the GC chances of Toribio.
But the rest was all flat enough to become a sprint.

And Vingerling did really, really well, grabbing 3 podiums in total. He was runner-up twice, but didn't get us a win. Nevertheless, due to the bonifications, he got us a 4th spot in the GC too!

Last up was Tour d'Indonesia(C2) a nice hilly stage-race in the Far East, suiting the likes of Duggan. The first stage went very well, having TTT riders at 5, 7, 9 and 11th. Sadly, afterwards it went downhill, after Duggan missed a decisive split. Despite a good TT, he finished 33th in the GC, as our best finisher.

The month was pretty short so hard to judge, but I'd say it was pretty mediocre. Algerie got us a lot of points, but that's pretty much all we got. We're still 7th in the rankings though, so things aren't looking bad at all.

August was quite a quiet month for us, actually. With only 2 races for the team, we really had to score.

Well, we did score, but not sure if it's enough.

Cigar City Brewing Twilight GP(C2) is a cobbled classic with an extremely long name. Obviously we sent Lebris here, but we regret that we did not send Vingerling to this race.

It ended up in a weird unorganised sprint. We had 3 guys sprinting, but the best result was Lebris at 10th. Vingerling could've done better here, probably, but we counted on more splits.

Bayern Rundfahrt(C1) was the teams second, but also the last race of August. It's C1 so definitely has a strong field, but we did send a strong squad involving Elijzen and Moreno. But the best achievement wasn't by either of those. It was a stage 1 break by Schoonbroodt, our loanee.

He was very dominating in the KoMs, resulting him in grabbing the KoM jersey for a day. Plus he nearly got us a solo win, but sadly enough the pack got it under control.
Moreno wasn't convincing on the stage 2 climb, sadly enough, probably the climb was not long enough for him.
Stage 4 was the next notable stage, Elijzen was here to fight against the clock. And he did really well, 4th against some very big names. In the end nobody finished high on the GC(Elijzen best as 17th) and Schoonbroodt couldn't bring home the KoM classification, but still, we showed ourselves.

At last, it was also the time of the year for the Tour de L'Avenir, but all we had was Reinders, who was a good leadout but did not really impress individually.

Sadly, due to not racing much, we did take a blow on the rankings. With a Top 10 goal and a desire to promote, it will be exciting times for the team. Take a look yourself:

			Team	Total
7	6		Azteca-NBCSN	1182
8	14		Siam Cement - Lenovo	1146
9	11		Sauber Petronas	1138
10	8		Evonik - Signal Iduna	1131
11	7		Team TomTom	1121
12	10		Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling	1058

We do have some races left though, to which we sent impressive squads, with plenty of leaders still having some races scheduled.
Most importantly, we got 2 stage-races left; Herald Sun Tour & Clasico RCN. We mainly have high expectations for Herald, to which we sent Vingerling, Elijzen and Duggan. We got to score a lot to have a shot at promotion, though.

So we want to wish good luck(but not too much) to our rivals, but mainly to our own riders. Hopefully we get a nice promotion battle, with Team TomTom ending up above the line, of course.

I thought it would be a good idea to make a special about the CT promotion battle. The teams at 7th – 12th are very very close to each other, and it is definitely worth a close look.
I got help from BikeX, who did the race by race part and a few other things.
In this special, we will be looking at every aspect of the promotion battle. As far as I know, every single one of these teams would really like to promote, and another nice thing is that every manager involved in this is very active in the MG forums.
Obviously we cannot know for sure how many teams will promote to the Pro Conti division. But after counting the inactive teams, we got to about 10-11 teams that will promote. This could as well be 12, or even 9 if a few manager make a big ‘comeback’. But assuming that every single one of these teams will make it is obviously not fun.
First we’ll have a look at the updated rankings, post-Herald(Thanks to The Rider), then there’s a Team by Team overview, including races to ride, and also ‘exclusively’ the schedules of the teams, with the line-ups per race. Obviously we’ll be reviewing those line-ups.
After that we’ll be looking at the situation in each remaining race, so which teams are participating and how important will it be for the rankings.
At last I’ll do a small, inaccurate, prediction. Hope you guys enjoy it

An interesting aspect to look at are the current, Post-Herald, rankings. Knockout was already updating them for you in private, but looks like The Rider did a great job by doing it himself, saving us some effort, and also including the remaining race days for the teams.
A lot has changed in Australia, with Evonik and TomTom moving up multiple places just like that, and Bank of Ireland seriously joining in on the fun.

				RD remaning
7		Evonik - Signal Iduna	1218	12
8		Team TomTom	1190	12
9		Sauber Petronas	1187	16
10		Azteca-NBCSN	1182	20
11		Siam Cement - Lenovo	1146	16
12		Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling	1144	12

At this point, the promotion battle is more open than ever, it seems, every single team could still end up 7th, but at the same time, everyone could still miss out on promotion. Very exciting.

7. Evonik - Signal Iduna

Evonik had a good Herald Sun Tour and therefore they look very well in the rankings now. Most of their points come from Geschke, his qualities seem to fit the CT perfectly, despite not excelling in the hills nor the sprints, mainly the combination of both.
After Geschke, there’s a big gap, which is filled up by a lot of second row sprinters and a flat beast(Stoltz), but for great point scoring in the next couple of months, we’ll again have to look at Geschke.
Geschke will lead the team in the three hilly classics that are yet to come, for Evonik. There’s a huge chance that he will grab a shitload of points for the team, but what if he doesn’t? Evonik will have a big problem if he doesn’t, especially considering they have no flat races left. For now we can just assume he does.

Interestingly, Evonik has a Top 15 rankings goal, which they can consider secured now, if you ask me.

Evonik does ride the Tour of Utah, but the lineup is shockingly bad and breakaways are pretty much the only thing they can hope for, I’m afraid. Not really a fault of the manager, it’s just that Utah has a lot of climbing, and the only one that can score points on hilly terrains is Geschke, who is not even there, and Vosekalns is the only one that isn’t awful at climbing.

Race	Category	Leaders(major point scorers in bold)
GP Montreal	C2HC – 1day	Geschke, Joeaar, Saramotins
Cauberg Classic	C2HC – 1day	Geschke, Joeaar, Saramotins
GP Yekaterinburg	C2 – 1day	Geschke, Joeaar
Tour of Utah	C2HC – Stage-race	Boivin, Vosekalns

Evonik looks good on the rankings at the moment, but a lot of pressure is at Geschke, who has to perform. And to be honest, Geschke is not a certain point scorer, unlike guys like Mendes and Rodrigues. It will not be easy for them, they’ll have to hope some of the hilly classics end up in a sprint.

TomTom is a very all-around team, but for the remaining of the season, they will only be leaning on their mountain and hills squad, which is of good quality, but might not be enough for them, considering their climbers and punchers are not top-of-the-league good, but just decent enough to score a bunch of points.

Something that makes the battle extra interesting for TTT, is that they have a Top 10 CT rankings goal. So even if they promote, they will want to finish in the Top 10. Having completed only 2 of their goals at this point, and not really seeming to make the other one, they’ll surely want to achieve the rankings goal.

TomTom does not have a lot of races left, but beside three hilly classics, there still is a mountainous stage-race left for them, the Clasico RCN, to which they sent a strong mountainous squad, but also Brus for the one flat stage. Vingerling and Elijzen are done for the season, which somewhat makes sense considering there are no races suiting them left, at least not for TomTom.
The late trip to Colombia could be key for them, considering their European rivals do not go there.
A weak point is that Duggan does not have any days left after TomTom’s home race, the Cauberg Classic, and that he will not race Zuri – Metzgete. Toribio will be leading TomTom over there, with Moreno possibly having a small chance in a sprint.

Race	Category	Leaders(major point scorers in bold)
GP Montreal	C2HC – 1day	Duggan, Toribio
Cauberg Classic	C2HC – 1day	Duggan, Toribio
Clasico RCN	C2 – Stage-Race	Moreno, Gallego, Brus
Zuri – Metzgete	C2HC – 1day	Toribio, Moreno

TomTom does have plenty of chances to score, but they will have to have some luck, considering neither Duggan nor Moreno will be the top favourite in their fields, and they could as well finish with empty hands afterwards. A lot will depend on Clasico RCN for this team.

Sauber is a very all-around team, having strong riders on every terrain. Their main point scorer is Zoidl, on 21th, who is a TTist and at the same time a good climber, he proved that at Herald, which has the best possible profile for a rider like him, but Zoidl is done for the season, and therefore we can’t expect any more points from him.

Just like TomTom, Sauber has a Top 10 rankings goal, giving the promotion battle another dimension. 11th could be enough for promotion, but they might still be disappointed with that, considering they would miss an important goal.

Sauber does have a load of races left in October, including both CT stage-races in that month, the Tour of Utah and Clasico RCN, both, as said, mainly about climbing.
With Alizadeh and Saggiorato, the team has some fine climbers, and the team sends the duo to both of the stage-races, in my opinion a smart move. Their sprinter, Awang, will most probably not be able to excel anymore, considering he only can in pan-flat areas, in which Sauber will not be riding anymore. For some reason he will attend the hilly GP Yekaterinburg, though.
GP Yekaterinburg has a lineup that would be a decent one for a flat race, but they barely have any punchers going to Russia. Odd lineup, probably a small mistake by the manager.

Beside the two stage-races, it seems that Sauber has a shot on Züri as well. Schurter is a good puncher and also a great downhiller, which could help him a lot in Züri, since it doesn’t end uphill.

Race	Category	Leaders(major point scorers in bold)
Clasico RCN	C2 – Stage-Race	Alizadeh, Saggiorato
GP Yekaterinburg	C2 – 1day	Ashgarzadeh
Tour of Utah	C2HC – Stage-Race	Alizadeh, Saggiorato, Schurter
Zuri – Metzgete	C2HC – 1day	Schurter, Azgarzadeh, Pranata

Sauber should be able to score quite some points in the stage-races, which will be crucial to them. If one climber disappoints, they’ll still have the other, and I can even see both getting GC Top 10s in both of the races. And if finished it up with a good Züri result, they’ll look good for promotion. But it will not be easy for them.

Azteca was looking very good until the Herald Sun Tour. Missing out on the race really hurt them in the rankings, and now, they have to score to secure promotion.
Azteca is fairly all-around, but mainly possesses good sprinters, having 2 very good sprinters in Farrar and Haedo. There are not a lot of sprints left for the team though, but this will not bother them a lot, considering they have a good climber in Ardila, and also a fairly all-around stage-racer in Marentes, who is in the Top 5 of the rider rankings.

Azteca has got some very important goals still open this season. They went very ambitious, with a Top 5 CT rankings goal. To be fair, I cannot see that happening anymore, but I suppose they’ll be happy enough with a Top 10 in this case. Another goal they have is a Top 10 at the Utah GC, which seems pretty doable in my opinion.
Utah appears to be an extremely important race for this team, considering they sent their 5(!) strongest riders to the race.
Next to Utah, there’s another mountainous race left for the Azteca boys, the Clasico RCN, which has lots of climbing and could suit Ardila pretty well.
Azteca does have a bunch of hilly classics scheduled, but I do not think they will score massively on those, considering their best punchers are 73HI, although both Parisien and Marentes are very all-around.
There is 1 sprint classic scheduled for them, which is a C1 race, the Philadelphia Classic, to which leading sprinter Farrar will go. If they manage a good result in Philly, that will give them a huge boost, but considering the level, it will not be easy.
Azteca does have a lot of racedays left, but only in a few of those, they have favourites riding.

Race	Category	Leaders(major point scorers in bold)
GP Quebec	C1 – 1day	Parisien, Ardila
GP Montreal	C2HC – 1day	Parisien, Ardila
Cauberg Classic	C2HC – 1day	Parisien, Marentes, Ardila
Philadelphia International	C1 – 1day	Farrar, Crespo
Clasico RCN	C2 – Stage-Race	Ardila, Rodriguez, Millan
Tour of Utah	C2HC – Stage-Race	Farrar, Ardila, Marentes, Millan, Parisien

Azteca has plenty of races left, but there’s a lot of pressure on the last two stage-races. If they manage to score well in them, they will not be in trouble at all, but if especially Utah turns out to be a fail, the only way they will be safe is with a shock result in one of the one-day races. The remaining lineups are quite strong though, so they should be safe.

After a good last month, Siam moved up to 8th all the way from 14th, suddenly being a big contender for promotion.

And that is mainly because of their outright leader, Vitor Rodrigues. He’s among the CT’s finest climbers and is leading the Continental rider rankings by a massive margin. He’s key in the promotion battle and will probably prove to be key in the upcoming months as well.
The 2nd Siam rider on the rankings is all the way down to 65th. Uugunbayar is a decent sprinter, who did however underperform a lot during the season, Oba is good against the clock, Poorseyedi is a good 2nd climber, but in the end there’s only one guy really bringing in the points.

Luckily for them, Rodrigues will be riding both of the remaining stage-races. Siam will enter both Clasico RCN and the Tour of Utah, and Rodrigues will be leading both, being a major favourite for both of the GCs. Obviously he brings a strong team of domestiques with him, Siam got a decent bunch of them. Beside leaning on Rodrigues, Siam’s punchers, Sayar and Ito, will attempt to get a few points in two hilly classics, but to be fair they’re not favourites for them, a Top 10 could be expected though.

Race	Category	Leaders(major point scorers in bold)
Clasico RCN	C2 – Stage-Race	Rodrigues, Poorseyedi, Sayar
GP Yekaterinburg	C2 – 1day	Sayar, Ito
Tour of Utah	C2HC – Stage-Race	Rodrigues, Poorseyedi, Ito, Sayar
Zuri – Metzgete	C2HC – 1day	Sayar, Ito

Siam will as always be leaning on Rodrigues, but he’s just so good and he will probably save the day for Siam Cement. If something bad happens to him, Siam is in big trouble, though.
I expect Siam, or Rodrigues to be precise, to grab a few great GC positions in RCN and Utah though, and if that happens, Siam will definitely be safe for promotion.

12. Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling

At last, there’s BoI, on 12th.
Bank of Ireland got a lot closer to the other teams after Herald, now being dangerously close to Siam. Mendes got them a GC win and Queen’s stage win after all. Mendes has played a prime role in BoI’s 2014 season anyway, being 3rd in the rankings, probably even up to 2nd at this point. Beside Mendes, there’s also Drapac scoring a lot of points, but we will not see him anymore in the remaining of the season. No flat races left for him, and he won’t be attending Utah(which has a flat stage) either.

With a bunch of hilly classics left, Mendes will again be the one leading. Obviously BoI will be attending as much hilly classics as they can, and since Mendes is by far the best CT puncher, I can safely guarantee that he will score BoI a lot of points, probably enough for promotion. Despite starting August as 12th in the CT rankings, BoI definitely has a good chance to get more out of that, and for me they look good for promotion despite their position on the rankings.
Beside Mendes’ hilly classics, Bank of Ireland doesn’t have many point scoring opportunities left. They do still have a stage-race to ride actually, the Tour of Utah.

None of their leaders goes to Utah though, but McConvey will be looking for as much as a GC Top 10, I think.
Getting a good result in GP Quebec could give BoI a big advtange. It is a C1 race, meaning it’s tough, but also meaning BoI could potentially score well there, with Mendes not being too shabby in C1 fields. Yet I think most points will have to come from the classics following on that.

Race	Category	Leaders(major point scorers in bold)
GP Quebec	C1 – 1day	Mendes, McConvey, Kelly
GP Montreal	C2HC – 1day	Mendes, McConvey, Kelly
Cauberg Classic	C2HC – 1day	Mendes, McConvey, Kelly
GP Yekaterinburg	C2 – 1day	Mendes, McConvey, Kelly
Tour of Utah	C2HC – Stage Race	McConvey, Hawkins

Obviously Mendes performances will be key to BoI in the promotion battle, but given Mendes has been the dominating force in the hilly races, I can see him bagging a lot of points, and possibly even one or two victories. BoI looks safe enough, as long as Mendes doesn’t let down.

Teams Present:

Azteca - NBCSN	Parisien, Ardila
Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling	Mendes, McConvey, Kelly

The Grand Prix Quebec is a race for the puncheurs. The riders will ride a circuit in Quebec starting and ending at the fortress including the 10% steep Cote de la Montagne. The only two teams that are part of our fetured battle and will take part here are Atzteca and Bank of Ireland. Considering the presence of PCT teams the chance of a high score for the American team is low, nevertheless, already here Azteca can overtake Team TomTom and Sauber before the final races when getting a rider in the top 15. Parisien ceratinly is able to do so on a good day and a not to hard race. Mendes as the best CT puncheur will be a bigger threat to the PCT teams.

Importance: 2/5
The expected concurrence is just too big for Atzteca to make a big difference in the promotion battle. Though, the team can still gain the needed points here to make up some spaces in the rankings, that's just how close it is. The same goes for Mendes, on a good day he can get Bank of Ireland already here some places up the rankings.

Teams Present:

Evonik - Signal Iduna	Geschke, Joeaar, Saramotins
Team TomTom	Duggan, Toribio
Azteca - NBCSN	Parisien, Ardila
Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling	Mendes, McConvey, Kelly

The route of the other Grand Prix de la Cycliste is very similar to the other one. The lap is around the university of Montreal and like in Quebec a hill of more than 10% incline has to be ridden, the Mont Royal. But one important difference is that the race finishes in the flat and it is rated C2HC. 4 of the teams in the battle brought strong riders here. With Mendes and Geschkes CT's number 2 and 4 and certainly the top favourites for a race are here looking out to give Evonik and Bank of Ireland a huge chunk of points. Also TomTom and Azteca have a rider capable of a podium result here.

Importance: 4/5
As this is a C2HC race CT teams have the opportunity to score a lot here. Four teams that have the luxury to expect a big result here are on the same time part of the battle for the last spots in the top 10. If the race is ridden hard with a lot of attacks and splits Bank of Ireland and Team TomTom will score big here, if it ends in a bunch sprint Azteca and Evonik will be the happy ones in the end.

Teams Present:

Evonik - Signal Iduna	Geschke, Joeaar, Saramotins
Team TomTom	Duggan, Toribio
Azteca - NBCSN	Parisien, Marentes, Ardila
Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling	Mendes, McConvey, Kelly

The Cauberg classic is the second hilly C2HC classic of the same band shortly after each other. As the name indicates this race features the almost mythical hill Cauberg, famous from its appearances in the Amstel Gold Race. It's basically up and down all over stretched over several laps, with an finish after almost 190 km on top of the Cauberg. Being of the same band as the GP de Montreal we have the same teams represented here with almost the same lineup. Mendes, Geschke, Duggan and Parisien are the biggest hopes of the repective teams again.

Importance: 4/5
The same reasoning of giving the Montreal GP 4/5 is behind this. 4 of the teams that battle for promotion will face each other here with one of their leaders. It is possible to distance other teams in the leaderbord in a face to face battle on the roads of Holland. Only difference here is the uphill finish which could turn out in favour of the less sprinty puncheurs.

Teams Present:

Azteca - NBCSN

Farrar, Crespo

We are now already in the last month of racing. This is the second remaining C1 classic in which Azteca still will take part. Last year the race ended in a mass sprint, but with the Manayunk Wall in it, which reaches slopes of up to 16% a win of a puncheur can't be ruled out, especially as the finishing straight is uphill. Azteca decided to not send their puncheurs here and will turn up with a sprinters linup lead by Tyler Farrar. It's about to be seen if he stands a chance against the sprinters of C1 teams.

Importance: 1/5
The odds are low that Azteca will open October with a boom. Even if the race turns out to end in a sprint the finish is far from ideal for Tyler Farrar. To score a decent amount of points he needs to get into the sprint in a very decent position. Parisien maybe would've been the better leader here.

Teams Present:

Team TomTom	Moreno, Gallego, Brus
Sauber Petronas	Alizadeh, Saggiorato
Azteca - NBCSN	Ardila, Rodriguez, Millan
Siam Cement - Lenovo	Rodrigues, Poorseyedi, Sayar

The Clasico RCN is the first of two still remaining American stage races in the month of destiny. A race through the Colombian mountains. Out of 6 stages only one is flat, while the other ones contain big mountains, even if two are rated as hilly. The winner of this race is two expected to be a good climber. Four of the teams in the fight turned up here with one, of which Vitor Rodrigues, leader of the CT rankings, has to be mentioned first. But also Moreno, Saggiorato, Ardila and Rodriguez possess the abilities to get on the podium here. A lot will depend on their form.

Importance: 4/5
As this is a stage race, a lot more points are available then in the classics before and every of the four teams that is here will want to get a big part of it. The two teams that are not here, could turn out as the loosers of this race. Especially Siam Cement will try to get back to the others in the rankings after a month without racing and the other teams scoring points.

Route:

Teams Present:

Evonik - Signal Iduna	Geschke, Joeaar
Sauber Petronas	Ashgarzadeh
Siam Cement - Lenovo	Ito
Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling	Mendes, McConvey, Kelly

For the next hilly classic, four of the teams travel to Russia. A demanding course will lead through the city right at the border of Europe and Asia in the Ural mountain range and finish on top of a little hill. Due to two teams taking part in the simultaneously raced Clasico RCN their rooster here lacks a little quality, but Ito and Ahgarzadeh are still capable of a surprise. Bank of Ireland and Evonik bring as to all hilly classics their big promising point scorers Geschke and Mendes, who will be considered as some of the if not the biggest favourites for this race.

Importance: 3/5
Especially for Bank of Ireland and Evonik is this race very important, if they don't want to start the month worse than the four other teams who are racing Clasico RCN. But with Mendes and Geschke both teams can almost be certain of a lot of points coming their way here. For both stars this is the last race of the season, though. A lot has to be clear by now for Evonik and Bank of Ireland.

Route:

Teams Present:

Evonik - Signal Iduna	Boivin, Vosekalns
Sauber Petronas	Alizadeh, Saggiorato, Schurter
Azteca - NBCSN	Farrar, Ardila, Marentes,
	Millan, Parisien
Siam Cement - Lenovo	Rodrigues, Poorseyedi, Sayar, Ito
Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling	McConvey, Hawkins

The Tour of Utah seems to be a light variant of the previous Clasico RCN. 6 stages as well through the Beehive state, as well only one of them is flat. The mountainious and hilly stages though don't seem to be equally hard. However, the winner of this race will score more points as this is rated C2HC. It's the only race left in which 5 of the 6 teams participate. Except of Evonik and to a certain extent Bank of Ireland all of the teams will arrive here with a very strong squad. Siam Cement is bringing their king of stage races Vitor Rodrigues, Sauber is having three strong stage racers here, who all proved themselves already this year. Bank of Ireland has with McConvey a decent stage racer present as well and Azteca even brings their best five riders to this race.

Importance: 5/5
Five of the teams are taking part at the Tour of Utah and on top of that it is an as C2HC classified race which means some extra points to ride for. For three of the teams (Evonik, Azteca, Bank of Ireland) this is already the last race of the season, motivating them to attack a little more, to go a little more in the red by trying to score the last important points. This is pretty open all of the teams can get out with the biggest smile of the race, with Siam Cement being the biggest favourites having Rodrigues.

Route:

Teams Present:

Team TomTom	Toribio, Moreno
Sauber Petronas	Schurter, Ashgarzadeh, Pranata
Siam Cement - Lenovo	Sayar, Ito

Finally we are there for the last race of the season for the CT, just outside of the Suisse capital Zürich. A hilly lap will be repeated four times before finishing on a flat road. "Metzgete" isn't as some might assume the name of the town in which the race will finish but an especially in the Alps spread tradition of the consumption of especially innards and bloody products after the slaughter of pigs. This offers of course great possibilities of making a metaphor for the last and deciding race of the race calendar. Three of the teams we wrote about will be part of the Metzgete all bringing one of their best hilly lineups, except for TomTom who are missing Duggan. Azteca, Evonik and Bank of Ireland with Geschke and Mendes are unfortunately already on winter break and will have to watch on TV what happens here and what that means for their final position.

Importance: 4/5
None of the teams that are here are the very top favourites for this race, but all of them can go for the win here, considering some of the bigger favourites like Mendes or Geschke aren't there. The fight for promotion is expected to be thrilling right to the end and possibly some changes in the rankings will still happen after this race and after this race the rankings will be final that's what it makes so important.

Obviously, I will end this preview with predictions.
I am actually pretty terrible at them though, so don’t take this for granted.

7.	Azteca-NBCSN
8.	Siam Cement - Lenovo
9.	Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling
10.	Sauber Petronas
11.	Team TomTom
12.	Evonik - Signal Iduna

Sadly enough, I predict Evonik as 12th and probably not making it. Geschke will be the one that can save them though, but he’s not a certain pointscorer. Evonik will have to be lucky. If Geschke can participate in a sprint for the win a couple of times, they might as well end up 8th.
On 11th, it is my own Team TomTom. Duggan and Moreno both have some racedays to go, but they will never really be favourites. With only 1 stage-race to go, things might be tricky for TTT. Finishing 11th would be really bitter considering their Top 10 goal.
Sauber is 10th. Just like TTT, they do not have outright favourites, but the combination of 2 good climbers will prove to be good in the 2 stage-races they still have to ride. A good Zuri performance by Schurter might finish it off for them.
BoI is 9th. They are a bit behind on the rankings at the moment, but there are a lot of hills to come, and they will do well there, I’m fairly confident of that. They cannot expect a lot of points in Utah though, but leaning on Mendes could be enough for 9th.
Number 8 will be Siam. Just like BoI, they are a bit behind, but with Rodrigues, they are ready to nominate both the RCN and the Utah GCs. They won’t get much out of the other races, but 2 nearly guaranteed GC podiums will get them enough points to safely promote, if everything goes well.
On 7th and the winner of the ‘promotion battle’, we have Azteca. Azteca has a bunch of races left to ride, and therefore more opportunities to score some serious points. The stage-race line-ups, and especially Utah’s, are insane and I’m sure they will score on them. Parisien’s solid stat combination could give them the couple of extra points in the hilly classics that they need, and a solid Philadelphia sprint would make promotion a certainty.

According to my predictions, a lot will change in the rankings, they’ll basically turn upside-down. But who am I to say that anyway.
At least it’s sure that the promotion battle will be exciting as hell, I’m sure we have a great 1,5 months up ahead!

Dippofix wrote:
Also, how will Lotto's disbandment affect this? Could all of the teams mentioned there promote?

Dippofix wrote:
Also, how will Lotto's disbandment affect this? Could all of the teams mentioned there promote?

tsmoha wrote:
@knock: Every team disbanding will affect every division eventually well, except of CT-teams, actually