Given that there was no ranking update in February, we have a bigger one this time - for the sake of readability, it's still split up into two period rankings:
Period Ranking: February
7 races in February, including the triple header and the first monument of the year, Milano San Remo. Three teams scored more than 1,100 points, with three more between 900 and 1,000 points.
Isostar scored by far the most points in Portugal; 339 is a nice points haul for a PCT race, and one of the highest race scores this month. Copenhagen winners EA Vesuvio also topped Tour of Ukraine with 341, narrowly ahead of Isostar.
King Power dominated in Tirreno and did well in Paris - Nice and Ukraine as well. However, the top score in Paris - Nice was rather surprisingly reached by De Stijl, with 411 points. Grand Duché went to Moser (250 points), while Grieg did not only take the win in Milano San Remo, but with some additional depth points scored 333 points from the first monument!
EA Vesuvio, King Power and Isostar were the top teams overall, with there being an almost 150 points gap to ELCO - ABEA in 4th place.
On the other side of the spectrum, Team Puma - SAP didn't even score 400 points, some less even than Los Pollos. One important difference though, as one team used their leaders quite often, while the other didn't.
We also have a group within less than 100 points from 15th to 20th, so at least this month it was a very close race in the fight against relegation!
Por
Cop
T-A
P-N
Duché
Ukr
MSR
Total
1
EA Vesuvio
0
250
235
102
165
341
155
1248
2
King Power
0
30
438
294
67
305
98
1232
3
Isostar - Specialized
339
0
134
128
35
326
164
1126
4
ELCO - ABEA
106
45
145
292
208
0
185
981
5
Grieg-Maersk
141
105
276
62
40
0
333
957
6
Gazelle
61
5
309
300
93
54
81
903
7
De Stijl Cycling
151
15
151
411
52
0
96
876
8
Polar
0
175
124
126
63
182
205
875
9
cycleYorkshire
0
90
74
370
51
130
85
800
10
Team UBS
185
40
317
136
45
27
50
800
11
Moser - Sygic
0
65
161
93
250
160
40
769
12
Duolingo
0
140
262
70
35
64
145
716
13
Evonik - ELKO
16
0
61
381
143
0
45
646
14
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
110
55
136
40
37
0
250
628
15
Huski Chocolate
56
5
39
296
48
0
150
594
16
ISA - Hexacta
0
35
171
263
60
0
58
587
17
Aegon - Peroni
0
10
83
174
196
0
114
577
18
Aker - MOT
50
125
103
56
64
0
140
538
19
Zwift Pro Cycling
131
5
174
71
73
22
45
521
20
MOL Cycling Team
157
25
120
66
92
0
40
500
21
Los Pollos Hermanos
0
20
142
35
54
67
143
461
22
Team Puma - SAP
45
75
45
58
76
0
100
399
Period Ranking: March
Even one race more in March with 8 - and 5 out of them being one-day races. The standout scores obviously come from the stage races, though - and what sticks out most there are the insane 717 points scored by Los Pollos in Praha!
However, ELCO's 435 points in Nederlands are not that much worse - it's the second highest number we find this month, narrowly ahead of Aegon's 417 in PTHC race Vuelta a Colombia.
In terms of classics, Grieg scored even more points with their second monument win in Vlaanderen than in San Remo, while Tinkoff (Appia Antica) and Huski (E3) also got some PT classics wins. The top points in Macskako however were "stolen" by PCT team Carlsberg.
You may have noticed that Isostar were never mentioned as the top team - and still they top the month rankings! They were just rock solid everywhere and actually hold a 200 point advantage over Grieg and Los Pollos, ending up 2nd and 3rd! Tinkoff and Huski also had a 1,000+ points month.
at the botton, there's again a sub-400-points team - this time it's Zwift. They are over 200 points behind the next team, Evonik. But there are just 80 points between 14th (EA Vesuvio) and 21st (Evonik), so that was a very close race again!
Appia
GORC
Praha
Col
Ned
Macs
RvV
E3
Total
1
Isostar - Specialized
165
30
257
87
293
167
205
185
1389
2
Grieg-Maersk
208
0
268
0
66
205
351
86
1184
3
Los Pollos Hermanos
83
37
717
0
119
95
58
53
1162
4
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
289
0
248
0
99
80
175
193
1084
5
Huski Chocolate
87
0
147
110
139
111
190
268
1052
6
Aker - MOT
144
0
120
0
151
215
180
123
933
7
cycleYorkshire
132
29
163
0
72
109
240
152
897
8
Aegon - Peroni
75
0
67
419
98
83
71
61
874
9
ISA - Hexacta
55
0
118
197
283
45
50
56
804
10
King Power
84
20
79
0
122
114
116
229
764
11
ELCO - ABEA
40
0
156
0
435
40
45
45
761
12
Polar
119
38
269
5
64
83
111
59
748
13
MOL Cycling Team
196
0
65
0
104
132
84
164
745
14
EA Vesuvio
40
74
152
0
252
50
45
70
683
15
Team Puma - SAP
50
0
70
63
348
40
46
57
674
16
De Stijl Cycling
50
0
248
135
65
45
60
66
669
17
Gazelle
98
5
90
0
162
80
126
97
658
18
Team UBS
95
4
187
0
113
81
104
71
655
19
Moser - Sygic
40
0
50
218
188
40
40
40
616
20
Duolingo
67
18
162
0
40
97
164
57
605
21
Evonik - ELKO
124
0
50
0
135
133
84
77
603
22
Zwift Pro Cycling
45
2
40
0
152
40
45
45
369
Full Ranking
So, what does that mean in terms of overall rankings? Well, given that only one team was in the Top 3 in both months - obviously it was Isostar - they also scored most points in these two months. And given that they were already on the top after January, they have only extended their gap - to a whopping 839 points after just 3 months!
King Power are up to 2nd - one measly point ahead of EA Vesuvio! But also Grieg and ELCO are within 60 points of 2nd place - given the gap up front, it's a ridiculously close race for the spots behind Isostar!
However, if we look at the race days used up, we see that Isostar also tops the class in that category - and while the projections still see them winning, it's only by a margin slightly above 100 points! And the race for the win suddenly looks pretty wide open - especially given that we're yet to race the GTs!
Los Pollos are still very much clear of the relegation spots for now thanks to their insane Praha performance, as well as some more Mighty Matti Magic, while Tinkoff are also looking stronger than predicted for now.
At the lower end of the list, Zwift are already more than 300 points behind Team Puma - SAP - who in turn trail Duolingo and Evonik by 160+ points. Let's see if they can make up some ground in the GT part of the season!
MOL currently are on the final relegation spot, but Team UBS aren't ahead by much, and have used up more race days. The projections also see Moser, Huski and Gazelle ending up in the "risky region", let's see how that unfolds!
In terms of improvements, Grieg have made a big jump from 14th to 4th, with cycleYorkshire also gaining 9 spots in these two months. MOL and Aegon losing 8 and 7 spots respectively went the other way. Plenty of time to fix this, though!
Who else but Taylor Phinney could top the rankings? He has never finished worse than 2nd in his four stage races so far, winning three of them. But having raced already 18 out of his 32 race days, it's also sure that he won't be getting any big points from GTs, rather repeating last year's strategy of dominating the shorter races.
His probably biggest rival for the individual crown, Silvio Herklotz, is one of very few riders not having scored one single point so far - simply because he hasn't been racing yet.
Instead, we currently have Bryan Coquard in 2nd place. The Frenchman is also having a massive season so far, with the win in Nederlands being worth 353 points - the 2nd highest individual score ao far behind Manninen's 467 in Qatar.
In 3rd place, we have double monument winner Mads Pedersen, who obviously has those standout results in San Remo and Vlaanderen, but also two second places in Appia and Macskako. Rounding off the Top 5 are Ewan as currently 2nd best sprinter (yes, indeed sprinter, not leadout!) and Sagan as strongest puncheur. Gaviria and Manninen are very close, though - which currently makes it 4 sprinters in the Top 7. We can be pretty sure to see this changing as we move towards the GTs, though!
Two good months for us - as it should be with a lot of suitable races. Great to see us all the way up at 4th place and that we are building a gap to the bottom teams. That will be needed once the GTs start.
Isostar obviously way out in front, but I don't think the title race is over yet. They have used a lot of race days and also a good amount of Phinney's race days, so I imagine some teams might be able to close to the gap later on.
Very very pleased with the current State. We are still the best of the relegation candidates, so we have some room to mess up. But seeing that only Coquard is performing and he doesn’t have many RD, it could change
If anybody was wondering why i was very pessimistic about my chances to get into the top3 fight: Lecuisinier only has one more race left and we are currently in a relegation spot and I'm not even particularly surprised lol. Lets hope we get out of there quickly
Good to see us out of the danger zone for now even though we did use more race days than most teams.
Grosu barely having more points than Van Poppel tells a big story about his season. We would have been in a far better position had he been even just bellow the top sprinters.
This update isn't as woeful as I expected it to be, despite us being third to last among teams who will definitely spring upwards in a couple of months.
Debesay looks to have been instrumental in during cobbled classics time, being our umbilical cord to a possible salvation. We're very much under water in any case. The only good news is Eastman hasn't started his season yet. We can only hope he can prove to be more competitive than Bobridge and Van Stayen have been.
Expected drop in the rankings after a terrible February, but an astonishing March (mainly thanks to Praha of course) keeps us rather high in the rankings, and around 600 points clear of the relegation zone for now. Definitely still consider this a great start to the season.
Some not so great stuff from Manninen after winning Qatar to be fair, but with a decent San Remo for him and than stronger performances from the time trialists as well as an alright Zepuntke, we are still fighting to stay in the PT.
GT's will turn this ranking around pretty quickly I suppose, so it's time for Kelderman, Munoz and maybe even Abdul Halil to surprise me in Italy now.
This classics campaign feels like the start of a slippery slope for us rankings wise. I fear we need bigger points here to be a healthy team well away from the relegation zone. As it stands now, it won’t take much when the stage races come quick, as those will be races where we can’t expect big points.
Really hope I’m being too pessimistic and get pleasantly surprised as the season progresses
Surprise guys, I'm not disbanding! (unless you make me...)
Apologies for the massive break I took from posting.
Initially I lacked the time and needed some time off after another off-season full of overthinking, and once I got around to check the races up to and including MSR, well...those results didn't really lend themselves to commenting anything but pessimistic shit nobody wants to read.
So I gave it another try now with a fresh mindset of "that's why I have made a plan for everything", and while the rankings still look the most depressing I've seen in many years, at least there were good performances to enjoy.
I won't bring the race discussion threads back up for those few instances, so I'll just say it here: great KoM racing from Egger in Colombia to punch above his weight again, and finally some good shit from Demare in the Netherlands again, with a stage win and second overall!
I also loved seeing a loanee getting to wear a jersey with Bissegger in Praha.
Sadly TTs are even more random than we've been getting used to and Meiler is a waste of a captain role being in 77cob no-man's-land, so that's a solid 500k wage playing roulette every time they're on the road so far. We're due a big restructure in terms of both roster and long-term goals the next off-season anyway, and the spring races confirmed this even more than I feared.
Luckily, our schedule is heavily backloaded with Herklotz yet to start racing and Demare at five race days prior to the Giro, but the current standings also show we're just two more underwhelming races away from serious relegation danger at this point.
Everyone kept joking about how Herklotz is a near guarantee to win his races, but he truly has to be now for us to get out of this mess...
Thanks to all the guys reporting on the game and keeping the discussions lively in my absence! I'll throw myself into the Giro reports now and hopefully the racing there reinvigorates my passion to become a regular poster again!
I'm surely not done with this team no matter what if you got a space for me.
I also still need to say something on this rankings update
I'm very surprised to see us sit in second, because it felt like the last races before the update did not go very well, especially Praha and the hilly cobble races. I guess Gidich's win in Tirreno put us in a very good position before all of that and even if the top results were missing in the other races (except for Kasperkiewicz's 2nd in E3) my team always got away with a decent amount of depth points. Thanks for the update and all of the great reports I haven't commented individually on in the meantime!
February starts with Portugal. Didn’t go for this band. Lots of stages that look like they could suit Van der Lijke but don’t play out that way. Phinney wins – maybe Wirtgen could do ok in this race, but a bit touch and go on the final mountain stage. Perhaps a future consideration, perhaps not.
Copenhagen Malmo TTT – WIN GOAL
Ahh the tension. Wirtgen, Hepburn, Pelikan, Munton, Jungels, Tanfield, Pokala, Oliveira. On paper a very strong team, can we deliver?
Not a good sign when the first mention includes an “only”.
A relief that the gap over Grieg did extend to 22 seconds for the finish, having only gone from 10 to 11 between checkpoints.
Looking out for Polar and Tinkoff now. Previewed as the other Top 3 favourites at the top, and with the possible advantage of going much much later in the running order.
But it’s Duolingo going level at the first check. A joint lead at the first checkpoint then, it’s a start…
Congrats to Aker for their limiting damage finish. Perhaps our finish wasn’t as strong as possible then. Nerves increase.
Polar moving up at the 2nd check. Eyes closed at the finish line seating area now.
And we’ve done it! Significant result to hit the goal. With 1 second in it, those training funds spent on Wirtgen’s TT increase have come in clutch there – and being the most achievable of our testing team goals, provide a good foundation to ensure next year’s budget doesn’t have too low of a starting threshold.
Kudos to Cunego59, excellent structure for a TTT report.
Paris-Nice
Not our strongest line up of the season. Alex Kirsch must face all the competiton largely alone. Jungels for the TT, Moser for the Sprint, and our younger riders fill the team otherwise.
Gunnlaugsson takes 19th in the TT opener. Jungels only the 5th best in the team, even beaten by Kirsch! Well at least that means Kirsch has gone well.
Moser takes over best result for the team with a 15th in Stage 3. Coquard looking good in yellow now, as he rightly should with the parcours so far.
Here we go though, a well placed Kirsch battling to 8th on the first climbing stage. This is a good sign for what is to come.
Stage 5 and Jungels has our first breakaway appearance of the season. Making up for a poor TT with some unexpected KoM point hunting! Tied for 2nd at the end of the day, didn’t see that coming. Of course that will drop as the race goes on.
Group 14-17 for Kirsch on Stage 6, no dream result then but par for the course.
The helpful stage preview for the final Col d’Eze TT confirms that – holding on to 14th overall today will be a good outcome. Surely Formolo can’t hold on for the GC victory?
So yes, happy to take that outcome for Kirsch all in all. Great battle at the top too, love to see Morton and Meintjes on the podium.
Cabrera takes 37th in GC and 6th in U25, feels like a nice outing for him.
Tirreno-Adriatico
A TTT opening in a stage race, surely we are all over this?
Yes, that’s the hope. The only change from the successful Copenhagen Malmo outfit is that Keagan Girdlestone comes in for Jungels – he has a good TT on him still and is much more versatile for the rest of the race.
Not quite the TTT day today though, the route feels too short to really reward lineup choice. We’re 2nd, 5th, or somewhere inbetween. Girdlestone does get the U25 jersey at least.
Top 10 for Wirtgen on a sprint stage! If this means an attempt at the Points classification, we won’t complain! More sprinters around on Stage 3 though, but Girdlestone keeps that jersey lead.
A painful stage for Wirtgen to lose 2-3 minutes on the Top 10 riders. Girdlestone punches upwards to make that group as well though. Nice to see former team legend Goos in there too. Really here we just see that the puncheurs came out to play more, and Wirtgen had poor form on the day to not stick with the best.
The following two stages are better for no further losses. We’d rather have Wirtgen higher than 12th, but Girdlestone 14th is fantastic. And Harry Tanfield went and got 3rd from the breakaway in a lumpy stage, who’d have thought it!
Terrible TT for Wirtgen to only finish 14th on the stage. Not a happy race, but at least a position gain for 11th. And GC wise Girdlestone is fantastic for 14th, 2nd U25. Stage wise though, here’s the benefit of having the TTT squad here. Many dice rolls for a good outcome, and Hepburn pulls off 2nd place! 8th for Oliveira too.
Classique du Grand Duche
The home race! Valter leads the hill squad, with Van der Lijke here too in case it doesn’t play out too hard. Outside chances though really.
Very intrigued to see Bax pushing the peloton, amongst others, at 15km to go. Both Ulissi and Valter sitting nicely. And still there with 3km to go, with a Valter attack attempt in between.
We’ve already shown the jersey well here in Luxembourg, and there’s a rider in 8th with a kilometre to go…
Well done Attila to take 6th! The sponsors are very satisfied with that. Super Sjoerd Bax in 14th, Ulissi 22nd and evidently Rucigaj was the 4th rider seen left near the end, holding on for 30th. 54th for Geniets as our best local rider. Van der Lijke in 129th suggests we can probably find a better use of RD next year.
Tour of Ukraine – Goal Option
I think I picked Slovenia as the goal to pursue in the end but still a race to do well in with Wirtgen here; and can Girdlestone come close again to Tirreno form at any point again the season?
6th for Wirtgen on Stage 1 – behind the likes of Shikai and Haig, showing climbing played a good role – but Wirtgen couldn’t capitalise over the likes of Mano despite that. Nice 12th for Oliveira. U25 watch has Munton and Girdlestone 5th and 6th.
Super aggressive showing on Stage 2 to shake off some of the recent showings for Wirtgen. Stage 4th, GC 3rd, even ahead of Phinney now. There’s a chance! Oliveira fighting nicely to still be 14th in GC, Girdlestone not able to make up on the Top 4 in U25 though.
Once more not the finest TT for Wirtgen in 3rd, but it is enough to hold off Jack Haig for 2nd in GC by 1 second. That’s target hit then, beating Phinney remains a tall order.
Superstar of the month Keagan Girdlestone! 3rd on the stage. Leaping to 14th on GC, 3rd in U25. Oliveira 12th on GC, Pelikan 7th on stage. Yep, that’s a good day out.
Milano San Remo – Goal Race
Expected to be our best shot at a monument Top 10. Van der Lijke a former winner, but no guarantee he can be close each year. Let’s see. Valter going for it too and Girdlestone is here as well, at this rate perhaps he will lead the team!
Nice day out for Bax in the breakaway.
We win! We win! Ok, not the race, congrats to Pedersen, Sulimov and Nych for making the attack work. But Van der Lijke fights through from 11th in the last seen shot, to 10th on the line! Goal secured.
Ulissi 16th, Wille Smit flies our South African flag in 22nd this race, just the 37th for Valter this year.
Rankings
Yeh, there were a good collection of results there. Top scoring team of the month, lovely!
Better late than never season commentary spam
Strada Appia Antica. Enforced cobbles.
Could Valter make anything of the hills for much of the day? Nope, 129th. Teggart in 66th. Next!
Ocean Road
3rd in the sprint is certainly acceptable for Van der Lijke. Pity it meant 6th overall – although nice to see an Aussie winner. Great also to see alumni Afewerki in 7th.
Praha - Karlovy Vary – Praha
Time triallists assemble!
Well 3 of our riders beat Phinney in the opening ITT. That ought to mean something, not just 8th, 18th and 24th for Hepburn, Wirtgen, and Jungels. Better to do well in the other TT though, so let’s hope for that.
59th for Van der Lijke in the sprint, you love to see it.
What an absurdly amazing TT for Los Pollos Hermanos. Obviously not too happy with only 11th for Wirtgen, and the others way off, in one of the most lucrative TTs of the season. But have to accept that when hoping for results in the most broken of disciplines!
So 9th in GC and just a 10th in the sprint. I’ve had better trips to Prague.
Ronde van Nederland
Stage 1 remains one of my favourite stage designs, with the finish that offers something for the punchy sprinters. Naturally hope Van der Lijke can get in the hunt for bonus seconds, and later on do well in another of my favourite stage designs, Stage 3, where the opportunity is there for puncheurs to wear down the rest, if they take it.
Stage 1 delivers! Much back and for in the sprint and 2nd to Demare is a happy outcome. Even a time gap too, quite unexpected. All in on Nick now, with other good puncheurs in the team all faring badly.
Stage 2, uhhh, a rest. Yep.
Stage 3 and well done indeed Nick. Delivering at home, 7th on stage, 4th on GC, excellent. And while others in the team had an off race, nice to have Geniets in 25th and only missing out on U25 jersey on countback.
Then looking at some of the other cobbled races. How did Nelson Oliveira come 13th in E3 Prijs? A mystery for the ages.
Lampawog top scores in 44th in Hungary then attacks first in RVV. Good outing for the Fabian trained rider. 36th for Rutsch, more than the minimum points, hooray!
So 3rd in the Rankings after March? Excellent use of spring. Wirtgen in 8th, Van der Like actually scoring points and in 15th. Hero Girdlestone in 74th.
