The PT is the only division with 3 rankings now as I was just able to update them post February before lacking enough time for the other two divisions.
So it`s just 5 races, Ronde van Vlaanderen being the only monument, Strada Appia Antica and Ronde Nederland for PT and Colombia/E3 for PTHC.
Directly into the mix of full ranking and race results this time.
Evonik and Festina swap their 1-2 spots. First had an impressive run lately with a great scoring in all races they participated including lots of depth points. Blythe for the cobbles showing up nicely with Van Stayen also doing great in Nederland.
Festina was okay here and there but they are no strong cobble team, and this period had too much of those.
Moser being the only other team above 2000 points already, which means being in the title run as well, though with quite a few more race days due to early PTHC. Bewley did well in the cobbles but he is no longer unbeatable plus Summerhill from PCT beating him here and there more often than in recent years.
eBuddy, ISA and Isostar all follow next not far behind neither but while podium looking achievable for now, the top is quite a bit away. That said, the GTs will mix it up anyway.
Same for EA Vesuvio, Puma or Aker in the later top10 with Grieg moving up due to the cobbles but so far Wisniowski couldn`t beat Summerhill and Pedersen too often isn`t in the first spots as co-leader. It might be hard for them to remain that high once the cobbles end. For now, the risk is working though.
Some teams with big steps are Tinkoff. Clearly their cobble run was strong moving up a lot from 20th to 10th, while Bennelong and Air France both from around top5 down to 12th and 13th!
Even worse for Aegon from top5 in January to 13th in February and now 19th and relegation zone. They join last years PT winner Gazelle, Volvo, cycleYorkshire and Indosaat. Except for last 1-2 it is very close though.
Individually Degenkolb back at the top. PCT wasn`t that well for him, but with ISA he is really giving them a great run lately. He even beats Bewley post most Cobbles, even though Roubaix soon might swap them again.
Lecuisinier drops down a bit to 3rd but still ahead of Taaramae as one big rival. Ponzi and Lopez follow with Bobridge and Kwiatkowski next as strong hybrids/puncheurs.
Grosu being the next best sprinter to finish the top10 with Sicard, Holloway and Coquard just outside.
I was afraid of it and the numbers are showing it now as well...back into relegation zone after not only co-leaders but also the leaders failed to score lately.
Groenewegen far off the GC being dropped in a race Degenkolb wins in the Nederlands while De Bie as best puncheur there just made the late top10 due to another no-show.
Cobbles never was a good scoring for me, but then not even top30 in PTHC when having a top10 cobbler was still disappointing, even more when he earlier hardly came into the top50-100 beaten by 2-3 other riders from my team regularly.
So far Olivier/De Bie/Hooydonck under their potential.
On the positive: Groenewegen not as strong as last year but still scoring well regularly, Praha Karlovy Vary hopefully being a better race soon and not having spent a lot of PTHC race days yet, so hopefully can pass some teams for safetly later as projections have me as 15th...
That's an interesting jump, but with 3 riders in the top 16 of the individual rankings we had to be in a good spot.
Gerts only 100 points shy of his total from last year. It will be really interesting if he can go on and get close to the 1000 points benchmark because having 3 riders in the team capable of scoring 1000 points during a season would be a really great place to start building the team for next year.
Good to see us up in the top 10, though it's very close in the middle there. Luckily we should at least have Roubaix and Praha for the next update, so think we should be able to hold us around the same position.
Thanks for the update, roturn. Hope your luck turns soon. Also certainly not used to seeing Gazelle so far down and also with a good amount of RDs used...
Dropping after this month had to be expected, although a huge result in Praha could bounce us back up - It isn't that realistic though with Vlatos more likely not making the top 10 than getting 5th or so.
On paper though it could be an interesting race with Vlatos, Coquard and Koretzky all there (The latter in case things gets difficult, which they won't) - and Ioannidis+Zoidl to hopefully get a bit of depth scoring. To land 200 points above Evonik CAN happen, but isn't likely.
Next month is another difficult one for us, with only Liechteinstein being a potential winning race. Bongiorno (who did nothing so far) is leading the Giro with us being nowhere in Roubaix and at most in the mix for a low top 10 in Amstel and Wallonie with Koretzky.
I hope we can stay close to top 5 after next month and hopefully bounce back into the lead during the month of may - After which we will only look downwards.
The pre-GT part of the season usually is my best part of the season but this year its going very well. The weirdest thing about it, is that i dont even have the feeling that my leaders overperformed a lot. Obviously Lopez was amazing so far but he already had two of the most favorable expected start lists on the schedule in perfect hybrid race Portugal and great clash Grand Duche. Van Stayen was underperforming before best-fit-of-the-season Nederlands. Blythe performed well without finishing on the podium anywhere. And Skujins was slightly underwhelming in races that dont suit him too well.
But my depth certainly punched a bit about their weight. I have 8 riders in the top 75 of the individual ranking and 15 of the 159 riders with 50+ points. Thats certainly a big part of the reason for being at the top of the ranking right now. Interestingly, none of my new signings is even in the top 10 of my own scorers.
Looking ahead, it is great to see that we already have big leads over some of the other (preseason) top 5 contenders. Generali and Gazelle are both nearly a "leader GT" behind us already. Both are surprisingly low right now though both should rise considerably later on. Puma and Isostar both have about half of that leaders GT distance which is very promising but we need to keep going. Festina and Moser still very close anyway so yeah. Will be interesting to see whether Praha would have changed the top of the rankings considering i have very little point scoring potential there.
Yeah, really not an amazing season for us so far, but our best races are still ahead of us fortunately. Top 5 overall is still possible for sure, but it will take some much more convincing performances and some better luck.
I can't complain about a solid Top 10 spot at this point of the season, with Herklotz and Demare only using 11 of their combined 77 race days so far.
The important part of their season is coming up soon, so it was important to keep the gap to the front 5 manageable while already establishing a lead over a team like Gazelle who can always come surging through the field with a rider like Madrazo.
I don't expect to ever catch up with Evonik and Festina, but that was to be expected, and they deserve to be up there. Moser can rely on Sagan to take over from Bewley soon, so that's a tough gap to cut down as well.
Behind those, I expect Isostar to remain ahead of us with regular Phinney and Mohoric scoring, so it seems like the #5 spot is what we are most likely to aim for this year.
To make that happen, Herklotz needs to outscore Dombrowski significantly and Taaramäe/Morton by enough to keep their teams at bay, and ISA/Vesuvio need to experience the other end of the sprinter lottery at some point.
I think all of those are realistic developments.
In terms of individual scoring, our young TTers Ganna and Cavagna look great so far, making up what Declerq lost lately.
Arndt got up to speed amazingly in Colombia and can hopefully take that motivation boost into the Giro to repeat some of those stage results and maybe aim for the KoM.
Not surprised to be in the relegation spots. Madrazo is back to his old ways, Teunissen keeps dropping way too early and the rest of the team is struggling to find breakaway and depth scoring opportunities.
I'm considering a ritual sacrifice of ten TT bikes to the cycling gods. Our luck needs to turn soon.
A drop was to be expected with no PTHC races this month and Praha not being raced yet. The gaps are getting bigger but it's too early to be too worried about our current rankings position. Looking forward to the Giro with Rafa Reis riding his first GT for us!
Not as high as I would like (obviously), but we aren't too far off with the worst section of the season more or less over for us, so hopefully this is the lowest we fall. Worryingly, a lot of teams I am not expecting to finish above are below us right now, so if they do move back up, thats not really a good sign for us either.
Hopefully the Giro is good for us, it'll need to be a Top 10 if we want to move up the rankings.
