The PCT calendar for May and June was potentially huge with 10 and 11 races. Given that two C2 races were entirely ignored in May, and one is still missing from June, we'll still stick to one period ranking per month. And the overall one, of course. Let's go!
Period Ranking: May
Nakhon Ratchaisma Trophy and Olympia's Tour got zero love from PCT teams this year, so there are 8 races left in this month. Two PTHC classics, one C1 classic, two HC and C1 stage races each, and one C2 stage race.
Let's start with the classics. The lowest scoring one-day race there was - obviously - Dunkerque. Benoot picked up the 80 points for the win, making Philips the highest scoring team with 83 points. Sauber and HelloFresh were next, 14 and 15 points down only, thanks to some good depth results.
Cheshire was won by PT rider Theuns, so Benoot as runner-up was the top PCT rider again. And Philips the top scoring team, getting 132 points - 40 more than Sauber this time. It was a really bad race for PCT in general, though, with all other teams being below 20 points!
At least we had three decent PCT scorers in Arenberg - but Lierse obviously outshine all the others, winning the race with Gamper! Their reward are 186 points, while Crabbe and Amaysim shouldn't be too unhappy with 102 and 94 respectively, either.
Philips were the best classics team this months overall, but usually it's the stage races where the biggest points are awarded. Definitely not in Faso, though - the race only has a C2 rating, and PCT can't send their strongest riders. Crabbe's 62 points from the three days in Africa are a nice yield, though. Bralirwa got 33, while Amaysim and Minions share 3rd place with 26 points each. The biggest points in this one went to CT teams, though, unsurprisingly.
The other three-day stage race on the calendar took place in Chile - and was won by Aular, narrowly edging out Areruya and Padun. Biggest points therefore for Binance - 146 to be precise. Xero got 117, and the depth experts from Kraftwerk went home with 104 points in their bags.
The Tour de Romandie was twice as long, but there weren't exactly twice as many points on the table. Good old Rein reigned once more, and so Zara scored a nice 223 points, while Padun - once again beaten by close to nothing - had to be content with 2nd. Popo4Ever got 176 points - not too shabby, either. Amaysim in 3rd place only just went above 100 points.
So, onto the HC stage races then. Although two days longer, the Osterreich Rundfahrt didn't yield this month's highscore - not even #2, actually. Lierse's 268 points - mostly due to Oomen's win in Austria - are only this month's third highest score for one race. Still, they'll surely happily take those points. Haig only came 5th in the GC, but Amaysim still were the only other team scoring more than 200 points. Runner-up Shikai's Voyagin are next, just two points ahead of Crabbe who had huge stage and jersey success there with Manfredi.
But what did happen in Norway that we have the two highest scores of the month up there? Well, Minions did not only win the race with Dennis, they also took 6th with Brown, and the (shared) points jersey including a stage win with Kalaba. All in all, they head back to Bermuda with 325 bananas - hopefully they can carry them all. The second team scoring will there - 295 points - were Cedevita, who won a stage, the U25 and the team standings, and also finished with two riders in the Top 10 (Pogacar in 5th and Borisavljevic in 8th). Big, fat points. Red Bull follow more than 100 points behind as 3rd best team.
But overall, we had a close race in May. The Top 3 teams are within 18 points, and even the Top 7 are just 65 points apart. Lierse scored 534 points, with Cedevita and Crabbe completing the podium. Lierse moved up to 3rd overall after this month, behind the ever dominant Amaysim and new runner-up Binance. HelloFresh dropped three spots, not doing too well this month. Zara also joined the Top 5.
HelloFresh actually was amont the worst teams this month - only three other outfits had a lower score. Actually, like the Top 3, the bottom 3 are just 18 points apart as well, but for Volcanica, Assa Abloy and Trans this definitely isn't what worries them most - their scores reaching from 109 to 127 probably are. Overall, this made Assa Abloy drop one more spot, now sitting second-to-last, just above Project: Africa. Indosat aren't looking good, either. Strava and Crabbe were the other bottom 5 teams after the month of May - the latter two however only with a small gap to Gjensidige.
Here are the May scores:
Ches
TdR
Aren
Chile
Faso
Oster
Dunk
Nor
Total
1
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
0
186
80
0
268
0
0
534
2
Cedevita
0
0
15
63
0
146
0
295
519
3
Crabbe-CC Chevigny
8
41
102
28
62
177
6
92
516
4
Amaysim Cervelo
0
107
94
0
26
206
16
45
494
5
Minions - Subwoolfer
6
0
0
3
26
113
0
325
473
6
Zara - Irizar
0
223
0
0
0
154
0
93
470
7
Binance
2
52
8
146
0
135
43
83
469
8
Team Popo4Ever
0
176
0
99
0
74
0
44
393
9
Philips - Force India
132
34
0
16
0
56
83
0
321
10
Sauber Petronas Racing
92
52
0
43
0
40
69
0
296
11
Voyagin - Bird
0
71
0
3
0
179
0
26
279
12
Xero Racing
0
46
11
117
0
43
0
38
255
13
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
11
0
4
52
0
0
11
173
251
14
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
91
0
104
0
0
0
40
235
15
Red Bull Zalgiris
0
0
0
0
0
48
0
186
234
16
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
2
0
0
0
0
124
0
96
222
17
Bralirwa - Stevens
0
0
2
39
33
0
57
80
211
18
Strava
0
57
0
0
0
41
51
54
203
19
Indosat Ooredoo
0
0
0
0
0
31
0
163
194
20
Project: Africa
2
54
0
15
0
77
0
31
179
21
HelloFresh - Lampre
18
0
0
35
0
20
68
15
156
22
Trans Looney Tunes
18
18
4
0
17
0
5
65
127
23
Assa Abloy
0
0
0
0
0
84
0
39
123
24
Volcanica - Fox
0
0
0
0
0
75
0
34
109
Period Ranking: June
11 races were scheduled in June, but as you all know (at least those participating), La Tropicale has been postponed (but will be raced soon according to some rumors). So it's 10 races, containing a mix of all eligible categories: 3x PTHC, 1x HC, 4x (-1) C1 and 3x C2. With only four of them being classics, so it definitely was a month for the stage racers.
However, let's start with the least important races in terms of potential scoring, as usual. And no, the worst race wasn't the C2 classic - Monterrey TTT - as Project: Africa and Minions both managed to get some points. The former 25, the latter 10. No, the weakest scoring race of the month was Ras Tailteann, where only Zara managed to score 5 points with Miquel. Bralirwa left empty-handed.
But even the 7 day long Tour of Vancouver didn't yield as many points as Monterrey. O'Connor was the best PCT rider, making Amaysim the highest scoring team with 19 points. At least both PCT teams present scored, with Chumil netting one point for Volcanica.
Let's move up one level, then. Hanko Classic kicked off the month, and Coutinho had the best start of all, bringing home the race and 80 points for Assa Abloy. P:A with 62 points and Volcanica with 55 got some nice points, too.
While the first C1 classic was flat, the second one definitely wasn't. Apex Mountain was to be conquered up- and downhill, and Bennett did that fastest in a heartbreaking finale for runner-up Padun. Kuss took a great 3rd place for CT - more on that in the CT ranking update. Anyway, Xero went home with those 80 points, while Zara got some more depth to score slightly higher than Popo4Ever (62 vs. 56 points).
A race for the sprinters, a race for the climbers - with the one for the TTers being postponed, there was one for the puncheurs left. South Afraica saw a really strong Borges taking three stage wins (including the TTT) and the overall - 225 points for Indosat there, which was the second highest value of the month! Voyagin won three stages as well (1x Duchesne, 2x Kinoshita), leaving with 173 points. So no other team won any stages, but Trans had two riders in the Top 7 and went home with 150 points in the bag.
Hallstatt could not beat those 225 points - pretty much a 1-2 would have been needed for this. But Madrazo and Bralirwa will surely be happy with the win anyway - 145 points for the Rwandans. Voyagin came closest with 116 points, taking 4th and 8th place. Sauber narrowly edged out Kraftwerk for 3rd (104 vs. 102 points), while no other team came close to 100 points.
So, only the three PTHC stage races left. Let's start with the middle one, as Tour de Suisse had the lowest high-score of those. Project: Africa came out on top - despite Berhane only getting two measly points! Instead, Seibeb and Cissé got a stage win each, with the former adding the KoM jersey on top of that - it was a total of 162 points for the Africans. Cedevita came pretty close with 151 points thanks to a very good depth result - in addition to Pogacar's 10th place. Choi was PCT's top rider in the GC, bringing Philips to 3rd place with 140 points.
If the three PTHC races form a sandwich, we had the ham now, let's go to the bread! East Java first - and with it Madrazo's confirmation that Hallstatt wasn't just a one-off, but he had indeed found his top form! Only beaten by Herklotz - but beating Phinney - he finished 2nd on stage 3 and in the GC, which overall was worth 193 points for Bralirwa. Cattaneo in 4th place had a great race, too, but Minions' 153 points are "only" enough for 3rd here. Just because Ahlstrand finally won a truly important sprint - and with it the first stage - and also went home with the points jersey. 155 points for Volcanica.
If East Java was bread, the Dauphiné then was bread and butter - at least for Cattaneo! The Italian won the stage 4 ITT, taking over the GC lead - which he lost again on stage 7, but still went on to finish 2nd overall! Minions' 247 points are the highest score of the month - and they were more than 50 points ahead of Gjensidige, who celebrate a stage win on the last day, and had three in the GC Top 21. 188 points for them, with Binance leaving with 152 points mainly thanks to a strong Aular.
So, what does all of that that mean for the month rankings? First of all, we notice that unlike in PT there actually were teams who raced in all three PTHC competitions. Aaaand - they take the Top 3 spots this month!
However, it clearly wasn't due to the PTHC races that Voyagin win the month. Their two highest scores this month come from South Africa and Hallstatt - the former alone was worth more points than the three PTHC races combined... So those 469 points surely look nice, but the RD price to pay for it looks pretty high.
Philips' strong races were the PTHC ones, with not many points coming from the others. They're just 23 points off Voyagin's mark. And just 6 points further back are Sauber, who didn't have the one outstanding race, but had a lot of consistent scoring.
Let's also mention Minions and red lantern Project: Africa, who with 427 and 421 points respectively are less than 50 points off the June high-score as well - with both skipping one PTHC race.
A big shoutout also to Bralirwa, who only raced 13 days this month for a total of 379 points! That's 90 points behind Voyagin, but 16 RDs less of racing - let's just call them mighty efficient!
We then have a pretty big chasing group - but another 80 points further down, starting with Carlsberg (299 points). In fact, the gap from 1st to 7th is almost as big as the one between 7th and 23rd...
So then, who's down there? The "Red lantern of the month" award goes to Crabbe, who only scored 79 points. But who only raced 14 days, so that at least partly explains the low numbers.
Next are Red Bull - a surprising name to see that low, but with just 17 RDs - thereof not many sprints nor TTs - not the biggest surprise as well. 118 points for the Lithuanians.
It's then even just 12 RDs - and surely longing for Amissa Bongo - for HelloFresh. But with 141 points they still got some good results here and there, although they surely expected more than 60 points from the Dauphiné.
Just 7 points further ahead area Assa Abloy - and it's looking like a contest for lowest RD, as they've just raced 8 days so far - Amissa Bongo will almost double that value... So it's not that far away from a 20 PpRD value, which is far higher than what they used to get so far!
And it's 8 RDs as well for Lierse, who therefore shouldn't be too unhappy with 157 points. East Java was a good race for them - Northern Europe would've made their scoring even far better, but alas they weren't eligible to score there...
The other teams below 200 points this month are Strava and - surprise, surprise - Amaysim. Indeed, the leaders did have a rather rough month, but at least checked off some C2 RDs from their calendar.
Here are the full June scores:
Han
Ras
Hall
Java
SUI
Dauph
Vanc
ToSA
TTT
Apex
Total
1
Voyagin - Bird
0
0
116
9
114
33
0
173
0
24
469
2
Philips - Force India
0
0
45
122
140
97
0
42
0
0
446
3
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
0
104
139
36
45
0
116
0
0
440
4
Minions - Subwoolfer
12
0
5
153
0
247
0
0
10
0
427
5
Project: Africa
62
0
61
0
162
18
0
86
25
7
421
6
Bralirwa - Stevens
36
0
145
193
0
0
0
0
0
5
379
7
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
15
0
26
0
0
152
0
106
0
0
299
8
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
39
0
5
0
46
188
0
0
0
19
297
9
Indosat Ooredoo
28
0
0
19
0
0
0
225
0
0
272
10
Binance
0
0
53
0
10
169
0
0
0
28
260
11
Trans Looney Tunes
0
0
5
0
0
53
0
150
0
26
234
12
Xero Racing
0
0
0
0
0
119
0
33
0
80
232
13
Zara - Irizar
0
5
18
34
105
0
0
0
0
62
224
14
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
0
102
87
0
0
0
0
0
34
223
15
Volcanica - Fox
55
0
5
155
2
0
1
0
0
0
218
16
Cedevita
0
0
0
0
151
0
0
63
0
0
214
17
Team Popo4Ever
12
0
12
50
74
0
0
0
0
56
204
18
Amaysim Cervelo
0
0
31
50
86
0
19
0
0
0
186
19
Strava
3
0
7
119
0
0
0
49
0
0
178
20
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
0
26
131
0
0
0
0
0
0
157
21
Assa Abloy
80
0
32
36
0
0
0
0
0
0
148
22
HelloFresh - Lampre
41
0
14
26
0
60
0
0
0
0
141
23
Red Bull Zalgiris
25
0
0
0
79
0
0
14
0
0
118
24
Crabbe-CC Chevigny
24
0
0
0
0
39
0
0
0
16
79
Full Ranking
So, let's finally, finally take a look at the full ranking. Without any surprise, and despite one low-scoring month, Amaysim easily hold onto a comfortable lead. 100 RDs done, 2,675 points scored - they're the only team projected to exceed 4,000 points this year. And they're also projected to finish over 1,000 points ahead of their rivals.
The closest rivals currently are 595 points down. Binance actually moved up one spot and are looking pretty good for promotion, too. Mainly because they've also got an almost 200 points gap right now.
And that gap is to the highest ranked newly promoted team - which is no longer HelloFresh. Zara moved up from 6th to 3rd, currently looking like serious contenders for back-to-back promotions! Maybe Taaramäe's last big achievement?
Lierse also have gained three spots and are now in 4th place - just 37 points behind Zara. And as the Top 10 team with the second lowest amount of RDs used, they're now projected to finish 3rd and actually achieve the long desired promotion!
One of the main promotion contenders are now sitting in 5th place, as Bralirwa lost one spot. They're trailing Lierse by some 60-odd points, and are actually projected to drop yet another spot... But it's incredibly close, as there are 8 teams projected to finish within roughly 400 points - from Binance with 3260 to Kraftwerk with 2856! The latter currently are only 16th, but do have the second lowest spent RD value of the division...
Teams who currently are inside the Top 10 but might fall short of the promotion fight are Sauber (6th), Minions (9th) and Voyagin (10th), all having used up some more RDs. Especially the latter actually look to be closer to relegation than promotion in terms of PpRD!
However, on one hand they already have a good chunk of points secured, and on the other hand there clearly are some other teams who are looking worse off. Project: Africa have finally handed over the red lantern, but still have the lowest projected score. In last place we now have Assa Abloy, who have by far the lowest amount of RDs used up so far - 46 RDs left than then most active team! Still, their average scoring so far doesn't leave much room for hope, as they're one of just 4 teams projected to finish below 2,000 points.
Besides, P: A, the other ones are Crabbe and Indosat, with the latter actually projected to finish second-to-last. These four teams also are on the last four spots of the division.
Strava currently are on the highest relegating spot - but it isn't looking too bright for them, either. Only Volcanica have a slightly lower projected outcome. However, all of Gjensidige, Trans and Voyagin don't have the greatest PpRD so far, so we'll see what the rest of the season brings us!
Anyway, it's pretty difficult to make predictions with those huge RD differences. They reach from 69 to 115, which is the said 56 RD difference - so the most active team has raced almost twice as much than the least busy! It's rather safe to say that we'll have a much clearer picture after the Tour of America - but that one is in September, when the season is almost done...
So, there's still plenty of room for speculations, which is also great - feel free to post your thoughts!
While there clearly was some movement in the Top 10 during those last two months, one name didn't change: The name of the best PCT scorer. Jonas Ahlstrand is still up front, and his great East Java campaign greatly helped him to do so!
In fact, without those points he'd have dropped behind Sam Oomen by now, who's our new runner-up. Winning the Tour of Austria and doing a good job in Chile made him move up from 9th to 2nd - and he should still have some good races left.
The latter should be true for Jack Haig as well, who made a jump from 8th to 3rd - it's clearly the stage racing part of the season now!
Despite doing a huge job in Chile, Joseph Areruya only managed to gain one spot, leaving behind Joeri Stallaert whose favorite part of the season is mostly over.
Kristoffer Halvorsen remains our 2nd best pure sprinter, but lost two spots - staying narrowly ahead of Angel Madrazo (36th to 7th), who squeezes in between two sprinters, outscoring Fabio Jakobsen (3rd to 8th) by one point.
Tiesj Benoot (18th to 9th) and Orluis Aular (46th to 10th) round off the current Top 10 - but many strong stage racers like Cattaneo, Taaramäe, Guldhammer or Shikai are not far behind!
We have three new names in the Top 10, so as many had to drop out. Van Garderen is still in a good 12th place, while McCarthy dropped all the way from 6th to 18th. He'll be waiting for some more hilly races in the final two months. Sam Bewley dropped from 10th to 20th.
I always looked upon the teams praying for the TOA this time of year with pity… going to need some miracles stateside now
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We still have some race days on hand compared to the other teams around us but a reality check nonetheless recently. I do think we got shafted heavily in some races, whether that was due to poor planning or AI being finnicky this set of results is not acceptable, hopefully we can recoup some points and finish in the top 10, we need some form regained that's for sure!
Thanks for a well articulated and well written update Fabi!
A really good May for us followed by a fairly average June with a C2 race and a number of less favourited races.
Being up in 3rd right now is amazing but we are projected to drop based on PPRD. Need to ensure we score well in the next few months!
Our big guns Jakobsen and Taaramae both doing well individually with solid scoring from Conci too. Still expect more from our TT specialists but not looking too promising after the Arab Tour.
Thought we'd be a bit further up but i guess we were much further off the pace after the previous rankings than I remembered! A good two month period, especially June was great for our scoring. Hoping the team can keep up this momentum for the rest of the season. July won't be helpful in terms of scoring though, with two less than ideal races.
Thanks for crunching the number and analyzing them Fabianski!
We made a huge leap forward thanks to some amazing performances by Cattaneo. With some luck we might be in the promotion hunt but Cattaneo doesn't have that much left and Vesely isn't picking up points easily at the moment. At least it's a much better picture than the previous updates.
Let's start with the good:
- Amaysim deserves the first mention. Even if they were the obvious favourite, it's amazing (overused, I know) to have already wrapped up the promotion and title.
- Even if we misjudged a certain Scandinavian race, we scored incredible and are in the promotion fight again.
- We also did this in a limited number of racedays, so we're back into an average amount of racedays used, even looking better in the projected rankings.
- Sam Oomen
- Patrick Gamper
- Domen Novak
And the bad:
- Bonifazio, who is ever so ironically tied in points with that other major disappointment, Beltran.
- De Plus, just not scoring this year.
- A few races coming up that don't really suit us.
- Still not sure if ToA is a good idea in terms of PPRD
About where I expected us to be. We’re not on the ToA train, and will have to hope those around us that are don’t get too lucky.
We have had a fantastic last few races with all of our big riders stepping up. Dunbar has a very favourable race schedule for the remainder of the season with two of his favourite races still to come. If he can bag another 400 points at least and Borges + Howard can score a couple hundred each (+ inclusive of other depth points) we can definitely survive. We had such a bullshit start to the season, but now things have really started to turn around for us and we should be right in the fight for survival if we can continue on that trajectory.
A good June, an efficient one at least as Fab points out, compensates for a poor May. It's going to be very close in the promotion fight, but I remain somewhat optimistic, with our leaders still having some race days left. Silvestre can hopefully move up the rankings a bit, 5th (or 6th depending on if you include Bewley) best sprinter of the division isn't necessarily bad but could be better.
Tour of America is obviously the big unknown. We have a good amount of RDs left without going there, which I think could be beneficial. On the one hand, if a team from the top half of the rankings does Kraftwerk things, they probably instantly vault into the Top 5, but I think for many it may not be a great PpRD ratio.
Cool to see many of the promoting CT teams doing well. With both Zara and HelloFresh in the mix, someone might follow in LPH's footsteps, but that's still a long way to go. Tough to see Project: Africa so low, but I suppose that was to be expected with their team building strategy. Thanks for the update!
Didn't expect a top 3 in May. Although it was followed by a big low in June.
ToA is definitely something to look forward to, especially for lot of teams that are still in the running for promotion
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It's been a rough stretch for us mid-season, with some riders continuing to not live up to expectations. Guldhammer's comeback for the KOM jersey in Dauphine saved us from falling off the pace entirely, but I think we have a really uphill battle to promote at this point. I look at both teams above us and below us, and I'm not sure how we beat enough of them to stay in the hunt. We could end up a lot worse than 7th.
AKA's decline in scoring has hurt the most. I didn't expect him to be nearly and lucky as last season, but aside from a few sparse instance, he's been back to his 2020 self. No game change, no division change, no enormous change in planning. Just the luck of the draw and the will of the AI. I expected him to be at minimum a top 10 sprinter in PCT, and he's arguably not even top 15 right now. Looking at the difference between him and Enger is a little painful. As a sprinter, all of your few GC races going south can be catastrophic.
We're at the point where Guldhammer's season is pretty much over, as is Trentin's. If we have any chance of promotion still, it has to be on the backs of our puncheurs and Kamna. None of them have really stood out this year, although Kamna has overcome some bad days, and Aranburu redeemed himself a bit recently. Unfortunately, I just don't think it's enough to climb back up the rankings at this point, unless the teams around us are comparatively week on their remaining terrains. And I don't think that's the case.
Thank you for the awesome write up Fabianski!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
I obvoiusly looked at the points and rankings quite closely, and some of my own thoughts also have made it into the rankings post. But I thought I can still comment on the update
Amaysim is really doing a great job. Going down was rough, but they were able to keep a really strong core - and despite Haig not always delivering as expected, it should be an easy win for them. Some "lucky" points included as well, with breakaways and other overperformances, but if your entire team is pretty strong it's also more probable that those lucky punches happen to you.
Binance are having a very solid season as well - I honestly didn't notice them too often at the very top, but they're consistently scoring good points. Aular may be their only rider in the Top 30, but they have six more 100+ scorers (which is basically equivalent to be in the Top 100 right now) - despite Blythe surely not being as successful as they must have been hoping for.
Zara definitely are the team that surprises me personally most. With only Taaramäe and Jakobsen as PCT-level leaders, I saw them fight against relegation, and definitely not for promotion. But these two have been doing an amazing job, scoring already over 1,000 points combined! Mas and Conci had some highlights, too - but others will have to step up as well to indeed secure promotion. However, even staying up must be considered a success for newly promoted teams, and it's definitely safe to say that they will!
Other than that, I'm happy to see Braliwa and Lierse finally perform more or less up to the expectations, and both should have a good shot at promotion. Something I don't really think of HelloFresh - it sure looked great for them, and PpRD is still good, but I'm not sure that the final part of the season suits them as much as the first one.
Sauber is another positive surprise for me - they've had quite some overperformances so far, with especially Van Garderen regularly beating (on paper) stronger puncheurs. David also did a great job for them, and I guess their subtop climbers and puncheurs depth is also paying off.
Cedevita is another pretty big surprise for me. PpRD-wise, they're really close to the promotion spots - pre-season I honestly wasn't sure how they would even survive this year if Beltran didn't repeat his 2021 season. Well, he didn't (so far) - yet they're in the extended promotion race! I clearly didn't see Pogacar have such an amazing season this year already - and I'm not looking forward to facing a maxed Pog next year
Like for Sauber, their big depth in uphill races is paying off so far I guess - and if Beltran finally finds his mojo they'd even be promotion contenders this year...
At the bottom, there are some expected names, but I didn't see Assa that far down. Indosat are suffering in pure mountain races I guess, but as Eden pointed out Dunbar should have quite some good races still ahead.
Looking forward to the next update, but I guess we'll only see things settle a bit more after ToA.
Other than that, I'm happy to see Braliwa and Lierse finally perform more or less up to the expectations, and both should have a good shot at promotion. Something I don't really think of HelloFresh - it sure looked great for them, and PpRD is still good, but I'm not sure that the final part of the season suits them as much as the first one.
I wouldn't count us out just yet. Here's why:
We still have most of our PTHC race days in the bank with races such as Paris-Tours, Battenkill and Rheden GP providing potential massive points swings for us. We're relatively unfortunate not to get a stage win in Dauphine so I am fairly optimistic about our chances of snatching a stage win in a race like Lithuania if a break stick.
We also still have our biggest goal of the season in Benelux Challenge in hand where I think we will present one of the strongest teams in general there and I expect us to pick up a ton of depth points in the GC. Furthermore we have points to gain by having Potocki in ToMe where he can shoot for a top 10 GC finish which would net some decent points to add to our tally.
Other races that still fits our team well are races such as Kigali and Frankfurt Eschborn where we have multiple strings to play on, we do have a decent amount of hills races where Meurisse needs to keep up his strong performances from earlier in the year and a race like Bayern Rundfarth could end up being a complete crapshoot for us.
Our preseason goal was to finish top 10 and I think we're going to achieve that but I wouldnt count us fully out of the promotion race just yet, we could still snatch a disband spot if our fortunes swing but I do agree that there are more consistent teams in the mix at this moment in time.
We barely raced, and when we did, it was mostly mediocre. But the season is far from over, and wont even have to worry about ToA underperformances, should be shooting back up the rankings soon enough
As everyone looked a bit worried how we surprised everyone after first part of the season with the first place now you don't need to worry as we are slowly but steadily going towards CT devision.
You may have seen that the July PT rankings update is already out. You'll unfortunately have to wait for some more days of PCT and CT; while Amissa Bongo is now done, we're still missing Uppsala, Betonexpressz and Andorra from the July races, and I wouldn't like (mainly for formula complexity reasons) to leave all of them out for now. Given that August is almost halfway through already, it's more likely that we'll have a combined July/August update for PCT/CT, hopefully while Avenir is running.
