If there's an update for PCT, well, no reason to not have one for CT as well! We'll just do one period ranking for the 3rd division, though, given that there were "just" 9 races!
Period Ranking: June/July
Although 3 C2 races seems like a lot, it's just half as much as the 6 C1 races covered in this update - and they all were "just" classics. But for once, let's just handle the races chronologically.
So first goes the June straggler, La Tropicale. With PCT dominating the race, there wasn't much left for CT teams. Jura did best, thanks to Rekita's 7th place - 40 points for the Swiss outfit. Tryg scored 33 points, mainly with Kanter and Frison, while Podium Ambition took 3rd place with 29 points with Vanderpool's 9th GC position.
Then came the Torshavn - Uppsala clash. Tafjord came out lucky on the Faroe Islands, with cobbler Breen taking a nice 5th place and the team taking the short trip home with 42 points. Saber's Colombini scored 31 points, and Kanter got 9 points for Tryg. A good outcome mainly for the former two teams.
In the meantime, we saw some Serbian domination in Sweden, with Rajovic winning Uppsala and BNZ getting much needed 50 points. Matthews led Pas Normal to 2nd (36 points), with Wippert's 3rd place alongside 15th from Yzeiraj brought Oktal 35 points.
Then came another C1 stage race with Arab Tour. Tafjord mastered those 5 days best from the CT teams, with Bertilsson bringing home the stage 2 win and the points jersey - 58 points for the Norwegians. The legendary Quispe led Colombini to the win on stage 4; the Sammarinese ended up with 41 points. The Croatians from Oktal had to leave quite a big gap, following in 3rd place with 18 points, mainly due to Valgren's GC and Wippert's stage results.
The C2 Isle of Man ITT then was party time for Jura, with Rekita taking the win and Marchewka finishing 5th, a result that was worth 73 points. Erdenebat (4th) and Roe (8th) scored 40 points for BNZ, while Bordeaux with Mottin (2nd) and Oktal with Sterobo (3rd) both took 36 points.
And to complete that C1-C2-C1 sandwich, we'll take a look at Vineyards. Glanbia easily came out on top of that one, with Talansky finishing 7th and Brandt 15th - very solid 64 points for the Irishmen. Jura scored just about 1/3 of those points, mainly thanks to a 3rd place in the closing TTT and a 2nd place from Mäder in the U25 standings. The 23 points for the Swiss were almost matched by the 21 scored by Staffbase, who won stage 4 with Van Dijke.
Onto another sandwich then, starting with the C1 TTT event in Namibia. BWT had already won the C2 event in Mexico, and were indeed able to double up in Windhoek! 100 points flat for the Luxembourgers, just what they needed to keep their promotions hopes somewhat alive. Glanbia also did well to take 4th place and 45 points, with McCormick's 7th place finish being worth 30 points.
Betonexpressz GP was the second C2 sprinter classic this month - and the second one won by Rajovic! That's another 50 points for the Kiwis from BNZ. 40 points go to... Oktal, who had two additional scorers besides 3rd place finisher Wippert. Meanwhile, Tryg end the race with the 35 points for Kanter's 2nd place.
And last but not least, Andorra. Climbing! And one climber is definitely on fire, punching way above his weight almost the entire season - Talansky! Stage win on day one, obviously augmented with the yellow and green jerseys, and eventually a 7th place GC finish - 83 points for Glanbia! Caja Rural and Air New Zealand did well, too, scoring 10+ PpRD - the former thanks to consistent stage results and a 5th place GC by Alarcon, the latter thanks to a stage win, KoM and 15th place GC by Fabbro.
And that's it. What does all of this look like in pure numbers? Well, Glanbia basically crushed their opponents, scoring a 260 points without racing that much, actually. That's 70 points more than Jura, who spent 5 RDs more... Just to relate, there are 73 points between 2nd and 8th, confirming a dominant month of the Irishmen.
Tafjord round out the July podium, scoring 172 points, with Oktal and BNZ tied for 4th at 156 points. BWT, McCormick and Tryg are the other teams above 100 points.
At the bottom, Eddie Stobart only scored 20 points, with Bonduelle in 18 place getting 49. Then it's pretty close, as within the same range (29 points) we go from 18th all the way up to 11th. The fact that it was close might be the best news for Bianchi, as their promotion ambitions likely took a serious hit this month, finishing 3rd to last.
But you can look at all those numbers yourself - here they are:
Trop
Tor
Upp
Arab
IoM
Vine
Wind
Bet
And
Total
1
Glanbia
0
0
17
0
34
64
45
17
83
260
2
Jura GIANTS
40
0
0
18
73
23
15
0
21
190
3
Tafjord Kraft
7
42
26
58
2
0
0
28
9
172
4
Oktal Pharma - TotalTV
25
0
34
21
36
0
0
40
0
156
5
BNZ-Superhero Racing
0
0
50
0
40
1
15
50
0
156
6
BWT Hyundai N Cycling
0
0
8
0
20
0
100
0
5
133
7
McCormick Pro Cycling
22
0
19
6
8
0
30
14
24
123
8
Tryg - Gobik
33
9
23
7
0
0
0
35
10
117
9
Bordeaux Metropole - Euskotren
0
0
14
15
36
0
0
0
24
89
10
Colombini-Adler Aalterpaint
0
31
8
41
0
0
0
5
0
85
11
Staffbase - BHP
0
0
3
0
19
21
10
24
0
77
12
Le Creuset
6
0
9
0
0
19
0
0
42
76
13
Air New Zealand
0
1
0
2
1
17
0
0
50
71
14
Caja Rural Cycling Team
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
12
54
68
15
Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller
0
0
36
0
0
0
0
19
7
62
16
Podium Ambition
29
0
5
0
6
0
20
0
0
60
17
Bianchi - Panerai
19
0
7
1
0
2
0
24
0
53
18
Bonduelle - Eesti Energia
1
0
10
15
0
17
0
6
0
49
19
Eddie Stobart
8
0
0
8
0
4
0
0
0
20
Full Ranking
So, what's the result of this overall? On top, there's no change, as Jura's advantage was big enough to fend off Glanbia's charge - for now. But the men in green do move up to 2nd place, at McCormick's expenses. However, while there are 150 points between 1st and 2nd, there are just 50 points between 2nd and 3rd. Moreover, Glanbia and McCormick have an almost identical PpRD - and are projected to finish within 23 points of each other! Jura are still projected a bit higher, but their PpRD also took quite a hit in July.
While the Top 3 are in a great position for promotion and are likely to indeed end up on the first three spots at the end of the year, Lahcolombini-Sabler are looking really good for 4th. Even though they're less than 100 points clear of a non-promoting spot, they've used up 15+ RDs less than Bianchi and Oktal, who trail by 74 and 84 points respectively.
However, these two teams are currently projected to finish 8th and 9th, with all of BWT, Caja Rural and BNZ having a stronger PpRD ratio. But we all know that in the end it's about real points, not virtual ones - all we can say is that the fight for 5th is looking really, really tense!
At the bottom, Eddie Stobart aren't able to gain any ground - not only are they trailing Podium Ambition by almost 100 points, they also have by far the lowest PpRD. The Caribbeans however also have quite a margin to make up if they are to overtake Le Creuset - who in turn are 70 points behind Staffbase.
From the large midfield, Tryg are most likely to still enter the promotion race, as their projected score isn't that far off the main contenders'. Let's see what those numbers look like at the next update - for now, here are the current ones:
We don't have tons of changes in the Top 10 - as in PCT, two new riders were able to enter, with logically two others dropping out.
On top, there will be no way past Lahcen Saber. Even though he only raced and scored in Torshaven this month, he's still more than 100 points clear of 2nd place. And on 2nd place, we have probably the biggest overperformer of the division - Andrew Talansky! The U.S. American scored 123 points this month alone - which is pretty much half of his team's points! His 375 points will be hard to match for anyone.
Talansky's rise from 4th to 2nd made Vegard Breen drop one spot, but 333 points are still a good score and should see him finish inside the Top 10 no matter what.
Ian Boswell also dropped one spot and will be eager to finally resume racing; the same holds for Fausto Masnada who stays in 5th place.
Wouter Wippert took a nice jump from 17th all the way up to 6th, pushing Larry Warbasse down one spot. Thomas Boudat and Colin Stüssi kept their 8th and 9th places despite some low scoring, while Luke Keough moved up from 14th to 10th. However, with just 100 points between 4th and 20th, a lot of movement is likely to occur until the end of the year!
Which also gives a chance for Chatarunga and Kozhatayev to get back inside the Top 10, as they are the two riders dropping out this month.
Besides Wippert, Rajovic and Bertilsson are two other sprinters with nice gains this month, the former moving up 24 spots (43rd to 19th), the latter even 153 places (196th to 43rd)! And TTer Rekita jumped from 69th to 23rd.
That's just a short summary - here are the full numbers for you to do all the statistics you want!
Quispe is indeed a legend. Thank you for noticing that, Fab!
I think, also keeping rd's in mind, that the current top-4 should be in PCT next season. Then, it'll be between positions 5-11 for the remaining 3/4/5 positions, depending on disbands in higher divisions.
We look like we'll be locked in 15th, even though Air New Zealand and Bonduelle had a tough montyh - and Staffbase passing us is far for impossible too, I fear that August will be a harsh come back to reality, as after a good Trentino, Benelux was a failure and Britains seems to look the same.
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
First, thanks to Fab for the great updates on the points here and in PCT.
July was never going to be a big month for us unless Keough went crazy and instead he did the Keough thing of being just good enough to be boring. Can't complain too much if he holds 4th best sprinter in the division (3rd if you are Keough's agent and believe Saber is cobbler). Andorra wasn't great but Kuss has been outstanding up until then.
Talanksy is clearly taking it very personally that I thought Warbasse was worth 300k more.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Colombini pressuring the podium given what is about to happen, although not sure how many race days Saber has left after that.
This month helped! We need to keep this rolling heading into the Tour of America and the final races of the season!
Erdenebat has some big opportunities for himself as does Vasyliv and Rajovic. Fingers crossed this form can continue into the final months of the season!
Quite a good period for us. We would be clear promotion candidates if we started the season the same way too, but it seems to late now unfortunately.
Nice to see Breen clinging on to a podium though and Bertilsson joining the top 50 list. They will be racing a little more so looking forward to what the future holds for them.
Nice to see Rajovic in the region of the individual rankings where he actually belongs. He'll probably be even better next season, if you believe what some have said about PCM22
Obviously not happy with this month. Sure, we're again 2nd in the period ranking, but this comes at a cost of 23 race days - and so we're clearly below the targetted 10 PpRD. Especially Vineyards and Andorra were just bad, while Arab and Tropicale could've been better, too.
Looking at that 150 points difference between Talansky and Stüssi really makes me wonder what we did wrong. This should rather be the other way round, tbh. Why does the former do well both in Vineyards and Andorra, while the latter does almost nothing, despite having some strong support? I'd be glad to get some ideas about what we need to do better...
As I said in my HQ, we're a good CT team, but we're by no means ready to take on PCT, unlike some of our fellow promotion contenders. Other teams already have riders who can score good points in PCT, we don't. Major or even full rebuild incoming I guess ^^
Congrats to Glanbia on another great period, and kudos to Colombini for keeping up their promotion push - although Saber is obviously THE dominant rider of the division, he scored less than 50% of their points, so it's clearly not just a one-man-show!
Sure looks like I could start thinking about life in the PCT. It's not great timing to be honest as my core team turn 50 this year,,,
We've ridden the Talansky wave which , as Ulrich hinted at, wasn't Plan A but he has only a classic left. Our ToA team is more set for stage hunting so the Herald Sun Tour is probably our last chance at major PPRD
Colombini really doing a great job and great competition for the promotion spots- just keep me out of it!
It's definitely getting a little too close for my liking here at the end.
With the team that I have I'm totally regretting my choice of going to the ToA. But hey ho, the cards have been dealt.
Saber only has the Herald Sun Tour left after a decent performance in the Benelux but an awful one in Kigali.
Definitely hoping to keep a hold of this top 5 spot. But nonetheless it has been an amazing ride this season and I'm happy that we've made it this far.
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
