Ranking updates everywhere - obviously the one for CT can't go missing! Here are the results for August:
Period Ranking: August
5 possible races were on the CT calendar - and with two of them being HC stage races, there were some big scoring (or big failure) opportunities.
The first of the two races - Benelux - definitely was a banger - at least for Saber's Colombini. Once again, the Moroccan delivered big time, getting multiple stage Top 10s, 5th in the GC - and the points jersey. Vliegen added an 11th place GC finish on top of that - and the Sammarinese outfit left with 198 points! Which, by the way, is the 4th highest score of a CT team this year.
Caja's 54 points obviously look like peanuts compared to Colombini's, but it's not a bad result by any means. Konwa's stage 4 win and Sinkeldam's KoM jersey were the main contributions to that score. A 4th stage place plus shared 2nd in the KoM by Kaislavuo plus Breen's 17th place GC finish got them 41 points.
In comparison, Danmark was a disappointing race for the 3 participating CT teams - at least all of them did score. Oktal scored 32 points, most of them by Wippert. Air New Zealand headed home with 13 points from Gunman in their bags, while Ludvigsson scored 5 points for Tafjord.
Trentino - as expected - was much more to the CT teams' likings. And the happiest of them must be Jura, who took a stage win, the GC and the shared win in the points standings with Stüssi, alongside a 2nd place in the opening TTT - for a total of 132 points. McCormick had the GC runner-up with Warbasse, even adding another Top 10 GC with Kuss' 8th place - 102 points for the Americans. And almost another 30 points back, we have BWT with 74 points, mailny thanks to their TTT win and both Kozhatayev (6th) and Brändle (10th) finishing inside the Top 10.
After the race in Italy went not according to expectations at all for Tryg, they stroke back in their (secondary sponsor's) home classic, winning C1 race Frankfurt Eschborn with local rider Kanter! 80 points for them. 35 points went to Tafjord, mainly thanks to a rather unexpected 7th place finish by Boasson Hagen. Quicibal took 11th place and 12 points for Oktal.
Finally, another C1 race awaited the riders in Great Britain. The strongest CT representative was surprisingly De Luna, taking 5th in the GC - alongside a stage Top 10 by Losch, BWT scored 51 points. On the other hand, McCormick were rather disappointed by Warbasse only finishing 7th (and Boswell not doing much at all), but I know other managers who'd be happy to score 45 points in a C1 race... Last but not least, Air New Zealand scored 39 points, with Costagli finishing just outside the Top 10 in the GC, and Gunman taking 2nd in the KoM standings.
5 races in total - but racing just one of them was easily enough for Colombini to finish the month 50 and more points ahead of the competition! McCormick scored 147 points and are in second place, 15 points clear of Jura. BWT and Caja are the other teams getting above 100 points this month. Tryg and Tafjord got some good points as well, before we have a 30 points gap to Pas Normal.
We also had three teams ending up with less than 10 points - Eddie Stobart, Le Creuset and BNZ. Which definitely can't be good news for the latter's promotion ambitions.
The remaining teams all are within a range of just 33 points, with Bonduelle in 16th place scoring 26 points and Pas Normal on the other end in 8th place with 59 points. I guess that's what could be called a midfield.
Enough text for now, here are the numbers:
Bene
DK
Tren
Fra
GB
Total
1
Colombini-Adler Aalterpaint
198
0
0
0
0
198
2
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
0
102
0
45
147
3
Jura GIANTS
0
0
132
0
0
132
4
BWT Hyundai N Cycling
0
0
74
0
51
125
5
Caja Rural Cycling Team
54
0
51
1
2
108
6
Tryg - Gobik
0
0
15
80
0
95
7
Tafjord Kraft
41
5
3
35
4
88
8
Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller
0
0
59
0
0
59
9
Staffbase - BHP
38
0
14
1
0
53
10
Air New Zealand
0
13
0
0
39
52
11
Oktal Pharma - TotalTV
0
32
0
12
1
45
12
Podium Ambition
0
0
4
0
33
37
13
Glanbia
0
0
36
0
0
36
14
Bianchi - Panerai
0
0
24
0
11
35
15
Bordeaux Metropole - Euskotren
0
0
33
0
0
33
16
Bonduelle - Eesti Energia
0
0
26
0
0
26
17
BNZ-Superhero Racing
0
0
9
0
0
9
18
Le Creuset
0
0
9
0
0
9
19
Eddie Stobart
1
0
0
0
2
3
Full Ranking
The Top 3 are dead - long live the Top 4! Colombini have joined the race for the podium spots, trailing 3rd place by a mere 69 points now - and their Benelux points haul should have sealed promotion by now. They're more than 200 points clear of 6th place - any questions?
Up front, Jura have consolidated their lead, which now is 187 points - ahead of McCormick, who did enough to move past Glanbia again. 2nd and 3rd are just 57 points apart, though - but as mentioned before, the Sammarinese are luring behind them.
BWT has now moved up to 5th place, having a more and more realistic shot at direct promotion. They just missed out on the 1,000 points mark, totalling 999 points by the end of August. Even though the gap to 8th place is just 35 points (with 6th, 7th and 8th within just 3 points from each other!), the Luxembourgers have raced much less and have a clearly better PpRD than those behind them.
Switzerland, Ireland, San Marino and Luxembourg - the small nations are dominating CT this year, with only the U.S.A. representing the big countries up front.
Looking at the projections, we do have two more outside promotion contenders in BNZ and Tryg, but both trail the Top 8 by almost 150 points and will need a great finish to move up. And every spot gained could be decisive, as we all know that there are usually more than 5 promoting teams in the end...
On the other end of the table, Eddie Stobart have definitely lost contact with Podium Ambition, who are rather chasing Le Creuset now! It's still a 60 points difference between 17th and 18th, though. Getting further up will be tough, with Staffbase already more than 100 points away.
Looking at PpRD, the the Top 10 seem to be more or less set, with Oktal projected to finish more than 170 points ahead of Tafjord. The latter will be hoping to find something special to still stay inside, but it will be tough - moreover, Pas Normal are projected just 40 points behind.
Here are the full August rankings - enjoy (or not, depending on your situation)!
No doubt: Lahcen Saber is having an insane season! He'll need to do the same to give Colombini a chance to stay in PCT next year, but for now he's just flying. 639 points are amazing for a CT rider - that would be 10th place in PCT for now!
Andrew Talansky is still in 2nd place, but he might still be getting some competition to stay there. He didn't do well in August, and so Vegard Breen reduced his deficit to 26 points.
Colin Stüssi moved up from 9th to 4th, trailing the podium by just 17 points - with Lawrence Warbasse only 4 points further back, though. If no rider does something very special in America, Talansky, Stüssi and Warbasse should end up as the division's Top 3 stage racers.
Ian Boswell is by far the strongest puncheur, totalling 275 points - exactly as many as Max Kanter, moving up from 15th to 7th. Almost 1/3 of the latter's points come from his Frankfurt win.
Wouter Wippert and Thomas Boudat in 8th and 10th make it 4 sprinters in the Top 10, whereas Fausto Masnada - dropping from 5th to 9th - is #4 of the stage racers - or #2 of the puncheurs, having scored about half of his points in Catalunya and Hong Kong each.
Keough is the only rider dropping out of the Top 10 - but McCormick still have 4 riders in the Top 13! Would you call that a top-heavy team?
In terms of most notable gains, let's mention De Luna, jumping from 127th to 49th with his Britain performance, and Le Court, moving up from 146th to 81th also thanks to Tour of Britain - in her case, it's the KoM jersey making a difference.
3 race Days, 36 points isn't bad. That's Talansky finished except for GP Lugano so time for Mannion to rock ToA. One last crack at the Green Jersey for Bennett too
and of course always a shot at a TT
I hope we can hold on to 3rd !
We are still a team that exists, and this month almost skirted with the shadow of distance relevance via the KoM in Britain - but not enough to draw a mention in the races summary.
Plenty of pleasure to be derived from the fact our two best scorers (currently) are the two women riders I snuck into the game
The battle for 5th would be fierce and now the target is painted on our backs. The next 5 races will either make or break our season - as I've mentioned in my HQ post Kozhatayev's season is already over, while Brändle will only enter Zuri Mezgette which means that for Tour of America we've entered a really pedastrian squad which could be fatal for our promotion chances if the competition gets good points either here or in other races.
Still finishing 6-8th is also highly lucrative prospect.
Every time an update rolls around, promotion looks more and more certain. Still, I remain careful with the ToA around the corner. It wouldn't be the first time someone surprises to rake in big points, heck, Saber's season has been more than a miracle.
When the transfer window closed, I thought I had a more all rounded squad. But seeing as almost 80% of the points come from our big three makes you wonder how lucky I am.
Even though I still don't dare and claim my 4th place yet. I do dare claim Saber's win in the individual ranking. Lets hope he can put the cherry on top in the Herald Sun Tour.
We probably won't stand a chance trying to take a podium spot, and will just try to ride out our season in style. 5 races left and a 230 point lead to 6th seems like a big enough cushion.
The battle for 5th will probably only get spicier, can't wait to see how it ends. Good luck to all involved and may the best win!
Have to give Jura a shout out as Fab is too superstitious or too modest to do it. Looking pretty good for the division now. Think we needed a big Britain to put the pressure on. Our ToA squad is OK but will need a decent race just to keep the PpRD at projection.
Top heavy is how the team was built and patting myself on the back they are all from our primary nation. One of our original goals was to get promoted with all US leaders and that seems close now.
I can obviously be pretty happy with the current situation; being almost 200 points ahead of 2nd sounds good. And Trentino definitely was a great race for us - Stüssi's 2nd stage win of the year and our first ever GC win by a Swiss rider - check
However, ToA is luring, even for CT teams. 12 teams have used up less RDs than we have, and some of them - including the four other Top 5 teams - have confirmed their participation. Of those having used more RDs, Caja and Bordeaux could theoretically fit in ToA as well - so that's potentially 14 teams going to America! And yes, this means that we won't.
Instead, we'll be doing two HC races, Bayern this month, Morocco in October. For the ToA teams and for us, big points are on the table - but those races could as well be complete failures. Despite our nice advantage, a lot could still be possible - although I don't believe we'll drop out of the promotion spots now.
As said in the ranking update post, the race for 5th is very much open. ivan posted some insights about his ToA roster, and yeah, I don't really see who could score big GC points with Kozhatayev and Brändle out of it. Some of the chasers might have some better options there - I guess it should be an interesting race to follow anyway
More generally speaking, I still wonder how on earth Saber could score so many points - or how on earth he could be as bad as he was in past years. But getting a Top 5 finish - which I believe Colombini will - as a new team is amazing in any case, hats off!
I also like McCormick's leaders - 4 in the Top 15 means they all did a good job so far I guess. I myself have just 2 guys in the Top 20 - and there's definitely one leader I'm not even remotely happy with.
On the other hand, I have 8 riders in the Top 50, which is about 1/6 - which shows that Jura's depth probably is much better than it feels like. But yeah, you always want to get more than what you have, guess that's normal.
Good luck to everyone for the remaining two months - but not so much luck anyone gets past us, please
We didn’t do much this month for us to gain anything. Our big gamble is the tour of America. Hopefully we can perform and gain some positions back in the rankings
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
