Far too many races for one update normally. But due to several reasons including X-Mas and others, 2 ranking updates need to be posted in 1.
The race updates will come in 3 steps, C2HC+HC, C1 and C2 before the full update is posted with the most recent Uppsala being the final race included!
C2HC / HC
The biggest races include the C2HC Stage Race Eritrea as also the two classics Gent Wevelgem and Laigueglia in its debut.
Then also some teams went for Barbados and Geraardsbergen with more teams in Kuurne for the PCT challenge in HC.
In short, Carrefour was the best team in those top level races being up to 252 points, also being the CT`s top team in KBK and having a great Laigueglia and Eritrea.
Centovalli coming closest with the same strong C2HC events but then being the CT`s top team in Barbados. Reinhardt really is showing skills, in especially in the higher categories.
Other teams that did well were Carlsberg, mainly due to the Warbasse Eritrea win, Bralirwa due to Naesen in Gent and also decent in Eritrea and Philips with good depth everywhere, surely missing a bit in Eritrea when Keinath looked promising early on but faded heavily.
Lops Pollos Hermanos, Tryg, McCormic, BNZ and Europcar all above 100 points as well, mainly due to strong Eritrea performances.
Team
GW
Lai
Eri
Gbo
Bar
KBK
Total
1
Carrefour - ESPN
10
74
100
0
0
68
252
2
Centovalli - Fiat
1
78
86
0
55
0
220
3
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
15
37
165
0
0
0
217
4
Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes
82
0
98
0
0
0
180
5
Philips
49
33
75
0
0
22
179
6
Los Pollos Hermanos
18
0
24
66
0
61
169
7
Tryg - Ritter Sport
2
25
103
0
0
26
156
8
McCormick Pro Cycling
25
0
114
0
0
0
139
9
BNZ Cycling Team
50
42
17
0
0
0
109
10
Team Europcar
0
0
106
0
0
0
106
11
Eddie Stobart
7
33
44
0
0
0
84
12
Sauber Petronas Racing
8
2
63
0
0
0
73
13
Guave's Sunlight Cycling
21
0
46
0
0
0
67
14
Trans Cycling Team
24
29
13
0
0
0
66
15
Strava
13
17
7
0
0
0
37
16
Project: Africa
0
0
33
0
0
0
33
17
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
0
22
9
0
0
0
31
18
Nordica - Enel
8
11
8
0
0
0
27
19
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
0
9
10
0
0
0
19
20
Sotto il sole di Riccione
0
4
3
0
0
0
7
C1
Lots of C1 Racing. In total Centovalli continued with their strong run and here dominating the division with 165 points, coming from mainly the flat and TT events in Juarez, Jelajah and Uppsala. Philips following with a strong HongKong Challenge basically ahead of Tryg and January division leader Gjensidige.
Team
Vca
HKC
Cat
So
Rom
Jel
Jua
Apx
Sam
Upp
Total
1
Centovalli - Fiat
0
1
0
0
0
36
99
0
0
29
165
2
Philips
0
123
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
126
3
Tryg - Ritter Sport
18
30
0
0
28
0
0
28
2
0
106
4
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
0
1
36
29
0
0
9
0
0
27
102
5
Los Pollos Hermanos
0
0
0
0
10
0
36
7
36
0
89
6
Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes
32
0
0
0
4
0
46
0
0
0
82
7
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
0
0
10
24
0
0
0
0
0
45
79
8
Guave's Sunlight Cycling
6
13
39
11
0
0
0
0
0
0
69
9
Carrefour - ESPN
56
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
0
61
10
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
46
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
0
49
11
Team Europcar
0
0
39
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
39
12
Project: Africa
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
22
26
13
BNZ Cycling Team
0
20
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
22
14
Eddie Stobart
15
0
0
0
6
0
0
0
0
0
21
15
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
0
0
8
16
Trans Cycling Team
0
0
7
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
7
17
Strava
0
0
0
0
3
0
0
0
3
0
6
18
Sotto il sole di Riccione
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
19
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
20
Nordica - Enel
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
C2
Carlsberg wins the small race ranking and this even without doing well in their home race Herning. Instead they performed decent in both Colombo and Ras Tailteann followed by Nordice with a strong Ras only.
Team
Her
Col
RAS
Total
1
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
3
48
59
110
2
Nordica - Enel
0
0
102
102
3
Sotto il sole di Riccione
0
39
53
92
4
Strava
34
26
26
86
5
Centovalli - Fiat
0
33
51
84
6
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
0
26
42
68
7
Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes
24
20
19
63
8
Guave's Sunlight Cycling
11
0
37
48
9
Tryg - Ritter Sport
2
0
37
39
10
Philips
27
10
0
37
11
Carrefour - ESPN
33
0
0
33
12
Los Pollos Hermanos
9
0
20
29
13
Project: Africa
1
23
0
24
14
Eddie Stobart
0
22
0
22
15
Trans Cycling Team
10
0
12
22
16
BNZ Cycling Team
0
16
0
16
17
McCormick Pro Cycling
8
0
6
14
18
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
0
0
5
5
19
Team Europcar
0
0
0
0
20
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
0
0
0
Full Rankings
Doing well in the big races is always good and so it`s no big surprise to see Centovalli being the new leader of the CT division. They have a bit of a gap already but also a few more race days than the following teams starting with Philips and Carlsberg as also Carrefour, so a relegation triple from last season and obviously favourites for a direct promotion again.
Los Pollos Hermanos being the best of the new teams with Bralirwa also high up there in 7th below Tryg.
Gjensidige had an early season high but is now down to 8th already with a bit of a gap to the top but also a small gap to the later teams.
At the very end Glanbia, Trans, Sauber, Nordica, Eddie Stobart and couple more only seem to go for places this year while also teams like Europcar must improve when supposed to move back up.
Individually Kelderman likely is the best rider in this division and takes the top spot for now but it`s very close as both Reinhardt and Baugnies are small surprises there. First clearly being a surprise due to his main points coming from HC events against far stronger sprinters while Baugnies obviously just had his best part of the year with lots of cobbles.
Then the stage racer duo Pinot and Warbasse closely fighting for the best climber crown, where in especially Ranaweera at around 1/3 of their points is a surprise on the negative.
Edmondson being the best puncheur behind Kelderman, while Katrasnik, Ndayisenga are higher than expected ahead of Moscon or Keinath, who were expected that high.
Wow, I definitely thought I had been sweeped out of the top-10 already, but for some reason I managed to hold onto the 5th place.
Of course, like roturn says, we already had most of our focus races, and also most RD's of any team here, so it's not like I expect to stay there until the end of the season. The little advantage we do have now is nice though, and is hopefully enough to hold onto the top-10
imo Bralirwa is the best new team so far, looking at their pprd. It's a bummer for P: A that Pinot didn't peform very well in Eritrea, but I can see him win many other races as well. Same with Sauber and Ranaweera of course.
I'm happy with a very solid 3rd place right now. It's still early, but our promotion push is looking good early on, and our competitors are pretty much who I would expect.
Overall, it's impossible to complain after the Eritrea win. Warbasse is really overperforming and most other guys are doing well too. I've already gotten more points from a guy like Gregaard than I would have expected the whole year, so I have to be happy with that. It's nice just to see so many Carlsberg microjerseys scoring on that list.
Only failure really is AKA. Having 4 sprinters ahead of him in the standings is kind of unacceptable given his current OVL in the DB. I wish I could say I think it'll even out eventually, but I'm really not optimistic. He has far fewer race days than his competitors to make it up even if he gets back into shape. Plus Bertilsson has done nothing anywhere except the one stage he won in Tachira. The sprints are a sunk cost at this point though - I know not to focus on them in the future, so I'll get whatever I get and hope that we can promote without that scoring.
I did not plan to utilize C1 or HC too much this year after last season's failures in PCT, but it looks like my main competitors are doing that very well. I have to wonder for instance if it was worth sending AKA to all these C2 and C2HC races given how random the sprints are. I might have been better off playing the lottery against PCT guys like Reinhardt has. He has taken a very sizeable points hauls there against tougher competition. In general, the guys near the top of the rankings right now are guys who have done well against PCT competition.
Very interested to see how these standings shape up in the next couple of months. Thanks for the update roturn!
Edited by baseballlover312 on 05-01-2021 13:05
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Decent points haul in February and March keeps us in 2nd. Can't complain about that. Kelderman moves up to the top of the individual standings and I hope he can stay there. Looking good for the season so far.
Great jump from Centovalli with the success in the races in this update. Carlsberg and Carrefour were always expected to be in the title fight, and now it looks like a 4-way battle. Three's a crowd, four's an overkill?
April has more races than March, including more Kelderman races and more CT cobbles, so we hope to keep up the promotion push. Looking forward to those races.
Wow, definitely didn't think we would ever top the rankings! The goal is to stay above 10 PpRD, as that's what should usually be enough for automatic promotion. And while we still were in March, the trend is going down; 20.9 in January, 13.7 in February, 12.7 in March. But with March being a huge month for us - 24 race days used - the 305 points we scored there are definitely nothing to scoff at!
And while Moscon hasn't used up a lot of his RDs, Reinhardt has, and so we will have to rely much more on Scully during the upcoming months. Uppsala showed us that he isn't ready to perform at C1 level, which might really hurt us later in the season.
On the other hand, Saggiorato had a great start into the climbing season, scoring much more GC and stage points than expected in Eritrea. And while Lienhard hasn't been in the breakaway even one single time, he has still scored more than 40 points already.
In general, the individual standings show the main difference to last year: there, we had a lot of Guillén, a little bit of Masnada - and that was pretty much it. This year, we currently have two in the Top 10, and five more in the Top 53. If a leader doesn't perform, someone else jumps in - as Mundle did for Scully in Sweden. If we continue like this, we definitely should be serious promotion contenders.
April will be much calmer for us, with just 4 one-day races, so some teams might catch up a bit. But it's clear that especially the 200+ points gap to 5th and below - with a similar number of RDs used - looks like a pretty comfortable situation!
Thanks for the update, roturn - will probably have to keep that one somewhere
Good job also to Pollos and Bralirwa, who both composed great teams starting from nothing! You're doing a brilliant job, when I compare that to my first season
And well done to Philips, Carlsberg and Carrefour, too - really looks like you could pretty easily bump up again. But I definitely wouldn't rule out Europcar and Sauber yet - especially the latter have done almost no non-mandatory races besides Tachira.
Projection still has us 12th so it's not cause for panic just yet, hopefully we can make use of our RD in hand, definitely feels like our season is still starting
Thanks for the update, roturn. Couple of no shows mixed with some nice results in C2 races, seems I have given GVA a bit too much credit but Bouhanni is doing quite okay. Hopefully we can score some more points once the early season mayhem has come down a bit.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Considering we have one of the lowest RD spent so far. We are really doing well!! Looking forward to when our races pick up again! I'm really happy with the season so far! And great to see Edmondson in the top 10 of the individual rankings as well! Hopefully we can keep it up!
I will just say apparently luck is not on our side these first few months. I hope this and the next few months will be much better and more productive.
They were really close in one of the stages in Eritrea but they missed a big opportunity.
Wow, already 200 points behind the promotion battle. We need a couple of good performances now to lift the spirit in the team, thank you sou much for the update roturn!
