Here we go, the GT season is on! But while the Giro obviously had the biggest ranking impact by far, let's not forget the five PT classics also held this month, which we'll start the coverage with.
First comes the 3rd monument of the year, Paris - Roubaix. After a mediocre cobbles season so far, Gerts finally found his best legs to win the "Hell of the North"! With Van den Berg getting a Top 20 and Meeus another Top 50, that's 340 points for the men in orange!
Wisniowski may "only" have finished 3rd, but alongside a 13th place by Anderberg (and Top 50s by Potts and Laporte), that's still 254 points and 2nd place for Aker. Per's 2nd place plus Resell's Top 50 finish were enough for Carlsberg to end up 3rd with 245 points.
While quite some strong climbers were in Italy for the Giro, the GP Liechtenstein had a pretty nice challenge for plenty of others. However, finding the winner was easy: When Herklotz participates, Herklotz wins. 2/2 for the German this year, after Grand-Duché, and 268 points for the Pumas who also had Madouas in the Top 30.
Kudus was 2nd, and with the other Moser riders only getting minimum points, that's 196 points for the Czech team. PHL may have been disappointed with 3rd place, but at least they had Eenkhoorn in 26th and Polanc inside the Top 50 as well, so that's 179 points for Evonik.
Then another cobbled race, the first PTHC one of the year, Roma Maxima. Different category, but almost the same names on top - Aker won yet another race, this time with Wisniowski again. Anderberg (14th), Potts (20th) and Ariesen (28th) had a strong race again, with Laporte also cracking the Top 50. Another 212 points to their tally.
Tinkoff may have missed out on the podium, but with Kamyshev in 4th, Senechal in 8th and Sulimov in 13th, that's an amazing team result, rewarded by 165 points - almost a win's value.
The surprise rider of the race, however, was definitely Siric, who took a fantastic 2nd place, beating a lot of stronger pure cobblers - 125 points for him and Cedevita are the reward!
A sprinter classic was also part of the month - for about half of the teams at least, given that Veenendaal - Veenendaal was another PTHC race. Well, did I say sprinter classic? Not this one - and not for the first time.
Antonijevic overcame all the sprinters with his late attack, including cycleYorkshire's own sprinter Cullaigh, who finished 20th. Hansen and Ballerini added some more Top 50 points - 186 points in total for the Brits.
Sam was just as surprising in 2nd place - or even more, being part of the BotD - and brought ZARA quite a lot of points. Castrillo in 15th added quite a lot of points, too, and with Hesters taking the final scoring spot, that's 147 points for the Spaniards. Aker also got a podium finish with their fighter SKA, plus some more points by cobblers Wisniowski and Anderberg - 109 in total.
The final classic of the month was the first one of the Ardennes triple, Amstel Gold Race. It had an extremely close fight to the line, which was won by Gidich. 225 points for him, and 265 for King Power, as Chaiyasombat also took more than just minimum points.
We then have a very close fight for the 2nd best scoring team - 196 vs. 195 points. Runner-up Yates narrowly won this fight for cycleYorkshire, as no-one else was inside the Top 50. Lutsenko and Gazelle have to settle for 3rd, just like in the race - but Malecki (21st), Peters (30th), Konrad (31st) and Aleotti (41st) brought them very close to 2nd. Strong team result!
Let's just take a quick look at the outcome of these four classics, without commenting a lot:
Team
Classics
1
Aker - MOT
741
2
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
592
3
cycleYorkshire
578
4
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
535
5
Rabobank
517
6
King Power
489
7
Team Puma - SAP
485
8
Evonik - ELKO
471
9
Gazelle
426
10
Lidl Cycling
405
11
ZARA - Irizar
375
12
ELCO - ABEA
357
13
Cedevita
350
14
Binance
347
15
Grieg-Maersk
340
16
Polar
291
17
Moser - Sygic
276
18
MOL Cycling Team
274
19
Minions
269
20
EA Vesuvio
240
21
ISA - Hexacta
236
22
Amaysim Australia.com
167
Aker are clearly continuing to dominate the early classic season, scoring everywhere - with Tinkoff mainly capitalizing on the cobbles, and cycleYorkshire on non-cobbles. Detailed scoring per race follows in the full monthly overview.
But it's pretty obvious that the race having the biggest impact this month was the Corsa Rosa, the Giro d'Italia! And what a turn of events it was in the penultimate stage, with the pack simply gifting Shikai the GC win - but what was the impact on the scoring?
Well, it turns out that despite that last-minute GC loss, it wasn't an awful race for both Gazelle and Amaysim. They'd obviously have preferred getting the additional 125 respectively 60 points for a higher GC placing - but at least the two teams still came out on top of the scoreboard.
Obviously, the biggest scorer by far for Gazelle was Dombrowski himself - 4 stage wins, 9 days in Pink and ending up 2nd, 7 days leading the KoM standings and ending up 7th (plus 6th in points) - it's 968 points for the American! His teammates didn't contribute too much, though - in fact, nothing but GC points, 91 in total - so that's 1,061 points for Gazelle. Above 1,000 points without a GC win is pretty strong - although those 125 missing points must still hurt.
With the gap between 2nd and 3rd being smaller than between 1st and 2nd, Amaysim got pretty close, though. Unlike Gazelle, they didn't have just one "big" scorer - of course, Haig was by far the biggest contributor with 665 points. But Groves with a stage win, some other strong stage results and 3 days in the U25 jersey, plus Durbridge with another stage win, also contributed quite some points. Overall, it's 995 points for Amaysim, a great amount as well!
I usually don't really mention PCT teams, but: honour to whom honour is due. Because in 3rd place, although not officially scoring eligible, we have Xero! Bennett was as aggressive as ever, and was finally rewarded with 4th place in the GC, just 14 seconds behind Haig! Fouche even won a stage, and also took home the U25 shirt. And Pidcock almost cracked the 100 points with some strong stage results (and a day in white) as well. The Kiwis scored 827 points in total, huge race for them!
But you obviously want to know about the 3rd best scoring PT team, right? Well, it might be the lowest ever score of a GT winning team, as it's Polar! Shikai obviously is their top scorer, winning the GC and a stage, and also ending up 3rd in KoM. But 675 points feels pretty low for a GC winner. His teammates didn't add tons of points, either, with just Oldani doing a pretty good job thanks to breakaways. All in all, we get a total of 788 points for the Finns.
By the way, the other wildcard team, Jura, ended up 5th with 716 points - that's more than 1,500 points stolen by wildcard teams. Some managers will like this, others rather not.
The full details, including points per rider, will be posted in the Giro discussion thread - here are the Giro points for the PT teams:
Team
Giro
1
Gazelle
1061
2
Amaysim Australia.com
995
3
Polar
788
4
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
603
5
Aker - MOT
592
6
EA Vesuvio
577
7
ELCO - ABEA
506
8
ISA - Hexacta
493
9
Moser - Sygic
484
10
cycleYorkshire
457
11
Minions
409
12
Cedevita
387
13
Team Puma - SAP
387
14
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
354
15
ZARA - Irizar
333
16
Evonik - ELKO
318
17
Lidl Cycling
298
18
Binance
265
19
King Power
244
20
Grieg-Maersk
240
21
MOL Cycling Team
146
22
Rabobank
98
Most teams were somewhere between 300 and 500 points - with Rabobank surely having one of the worst GTs ever, if not the worst one.
Now, let's look at the full numbers for April. The Giro indeed did have the biggest impact, as Gazelle top the monthly rankings with 1,487 points! 9th in the classics, 1st in the Giro - and the best PpRD by far of 55, given that they did race neither PTHC classic.
But the classics definitely did matter as well, as Aker take 2nd place - after they also had a pretty strong Giro with 5th place. It's 1,333 points for them. In terms of PpRD, they're pretty much on par with Amaysim, though, who didn't race in PTHC, and ended up in 3rd place with 1,162 points.
Carlsberg only just miss out on the April podium - a good AKA performance in Veenendaal would surely have been enough - coming 24 points short and taking 4th place. Giro winners Polar round off the Top 5, with cycleYorkshire missing out by just 40 points. The Brits are the final team above 1,000 points, with 1,035.
Tinkoff are pretty much in no-man's land in 7th place, almost 100 points behind 6th, and 70 ahead of the duo of Puma and ELCO, separated by just 9 points. EA Vesuvio round off the Top 10 with 817 points.
And then it's getting stacked; between Evonik in 11th and Lidl in 17th, there are only 86 points! Even the Minions in 18th are just 25 points further behind - so none of these should be gaining or losing a lot this month.
The losers are below, though. Rabobank are obviously there, despite being the 5th strongest team in the classics (without PTHC!). It's just 615 points for the Dutch outfit - 3 more than Binance in 20th place.
Grieg had some more disappointing cobbles and only scored 580 points - with MOL being the clear red lantern of the month, totalling only 420 points.
Team
P-R
Giro
Lie
Roma
V-V
AGR
Total
RD
PpRD
1
Gazelle
159
1061
72
0
0
195
1487
27
55.07
2
Aker - MOT
254
592
78
212
109
88
1333
31
43.00
3
Amaysim Australia.com
48
995
50
0
0
69
1162
27
43.04
4
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
245
603
66
104
9
111
1138
31
36.71
5
Polar
45
788
169
16
16
45
1079
31
34.81
6
cycleYorkshire
40
457
154
2
186
196
1035
31
33.39
7
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
174
354
124
167
28
99
946
31
30.52
8
Team Puma - SAP
50
387
268
25
84
58
872
31
28.13
9
ELCO - ABEA
84
506
75
51
92
55
863
31
27.84
10
EA Vesuvio
40
577
81
0
69
50
817
31
26.35
11
Evonik - ELKO
134
318
179
0
0
158
789
27
29.22
12
Moser - Sygic
40
484
196
0
0
40
760
27
28.15
13
Cedevita
40
387
102
125
26
57
737
31
23.77
14
King Power
199
244
25
0
0
265
733
27
27.15
15
ISA - Hexacta
50
493
45
9
39
93
729
31
23.52
16
ZARA - Irizar
45
333
113
2
147
68
708
31
22.84
17
Lidl Cycling
39
298
80
87
52
147
703
31
22.68
18
Minions
45
409
45
20
82
77
678
31
21.87
19
Rabobank
340
98
40
0
0
137
615
27
22.78
20
Binance
124
265
91
0
0
132
612
27
22.67
21
Grieg-Maersk
141
240
40
85
24
50
580
31
18.71
22
MOL Cycling Team
145
146
75
0
0
54
420
27
15.56
Full Ranking
I admit that I didn't expect this to happen anytime soon - but EA Vesuvio have indeed lost their lead! After winning the first two months, they had to settle for 15th and 10th in March and April, and have now dropped behind...
Aker! 1st and 2nd in the last two months makes them jump to the top, leading the PT standings with 3,940 points and the highest PpRD (46.9). Vesuvio now are roughly 250 points behind, with 3,692 points - but still have a pretty healthy 300 points cushion to 3rd place.
The fight for 3rd is fierce, with only 16 points separating the next two teams. Unlike in the Giro, Gazelle - who make a big jump from 14th to 3rd - have the upper hand on Polar in the rankings. It's 3,342 vs. 3,327 - but Polar have 5 RDs more to race, and they should also have two more strong GTs upcoming with (likely) Bernal and Latour.
Then it's two promoted teams, with Carlsberg round off the Top 5 and Cedevita following in 6th. Both teams are above 3,100 points, with Amaysim in 7th being the last above 3,000.
However, the final teams in the Top 10 are all close to that mark, with all of them being between 2,950 and 2,989 points. Puma and Evonik are even just 4 points apart, with Tinkoff rounding off the Top 10. We should definitely expect the Pumas to make a jump next month, though! The lead might be too far away, even for Herklotz - but who knows?
Outside the Top 10, we alread have to speak about the fight against relegation. ELCO are looking safe now, but their 2,821 points are just 320 points more than the first relegation spot! They're surely not the first relegation candidates, though, and neither are cycleYorkshire and MOL, both above 2,700 points. Especially the latter should eventually find some momentum again when Phinney resumes (stage) racing - but when will this happen?
King Power are already quite a lot closer to that dreaded 18th place - and their 145 points cushion isn't huge to be honest. But there are still 3 teams below them on the remaining safe spots.
And from 15th to 18, we have 4 teams within just 34 points! ZARA round off the Top 15, but they must be feeling pretty uncomfortable, having the 4th lowest PpRD so far. Grieg are even closer to the relegation spots - after lots of TT-heavy and cobbled races nota bene! It's definitely not their year so far, and it's hard to find a reason especially for Pedersen's repeated failures.
On the final safe spot, we have Moser - who should have a Kudus GT upcoming, though. And in that unwanted 18th place, we currently have Lidl, who haven't really got going yet after a pretty important rebuild.
Among the four remaining teams, two are at least still more or less close to safety. Rabobank and ISA are about 200 points behind Lidl, and not much more behind the three other teams right ahead.
But for Binance and the Minions, it's definitely not looking great. They're the only teams below 2,000 points - knowing that the last safe spot is more than 500 points away must not feel good. Both will surely be hoping for some magic GTs as well!
No Wirtgen, no party for EA, as their Luxembourger dropped from 1st to 3rd. Instead, Giro dominator (except for the last mountain day) Joseph Dombrowski takes over the lead - with a good margin. His 1,518 points are currently unmatched - the bad news for him is that his season is almost over already.
Not the season, but the main part of it is also over for Lukasz Wisniowski, who has jumped up from 3rd to 2nd, totalling 1,136 points. Then, as mentioned before, Tom Wirtgen completes the current podium, being the last rider above 1,000 points.
With David Per, we have a second cobbler in the Top 5 - probably not the most expected name, but well-deserved after a great spring campaign. Jack Haig, moving from 42nd to 5th after a strong Giro, rounds off the Top 5.
Jasper Philipsen didn't race (or at least not score) in April, dropping from 2nd to 6th, whereas Chen Shikai made a big leap from 89th to 7th thanks to his Giro win.
Talyor Phinney and Bryan Coquard both had a disappointing race this month (Liechtenstein and Veenendaal respectively), both conceding 4 spots in the individual standings. Nick Van der Lijke on the other hand had a pretty good Giro and a decent Veenendaal, moving up from 16th to 10th.
4 riders dropped out of the Top 10 this month; Polanc (12th), Ganna (13th), Ewan (18th) and Würtz (19th). Apart from Shikai, the most notable improver probably is Giannoutsos, jumping from 57th to 24th. And Herklotz from 47th to 31st - I just mention this so you'll remember next month where Herklotz previously was...
Thanks a a lot for the Update! As always it’s a brilliant piece of work with all the write-ups of different aspects.
Pretty solid period for us, punching above our weight. Still close to the relegation spots however, and with a poor period coming up we could be caught up in the troubled water soon.
For now we’ll be content with a midtable finish also in the projected ranking. Interesting to see us tied with Puma in that department. It’s funny how much a single rider will end up provoking differences in the team setups :-)
Well, we're still last after a decent month (compared to previous). Have not given up hope but realise it will be extremely difficult to gain places let alone get out of the relegation zone.
Ahlstrand's scoring put him in a reasonable spot in the individual rankings. Hoping Kinoshita can get in that top thirty next month though.
Under 100 points in a Grand Tour. That must be indeed a good candidate for the worst Grand Tour ever.
Despite winning Paris-Roubaix, Gerts is still notn able to break in into the top 15 at the moment which shows has average his season has been out of that race so far.
We are in the relegation zone, but we still have a chance to get out of it. Nothing decided so far. It's going to be quite a fierce battle to stay up.
We did great last year in April, and I had no hope we could replicate it starting the month this year, but we actually did. Super happy with that month, and especially the Giro delivery, eventhough it could admittedly have been even more points from there. The Giro was our best GT on paper this season, which makes the other two GTs quite a struggle, I suspect. Thus, I don't quite believe we're in the title fight just yet, but we've certainly put ourselves in a position where it could be possible, but it will take at least another great GT, which we can't expect, I'd say.
The podium fight we're definitely in, I feel, eventhough both Puma and Evonik probably will shoot past us with the Vuelta and the Tour done. Luckily, that's the distant future, for now, we'll just enjoy the moment
I've said enough about the Giro at this point. Besdies the ending there and AKA's bust last week, it was a really good month for us.
Galta would have looked really great with another 100+ points next to his name, but he's now outscored last years total by about 120 points already. On the grand scale, can't really complain. only Dauphine and Lombardia left for him though now, so he will fall quite a lot.
Per has also now outscored his total from last year by almost 50 points. That's a little different though since I invested so much into training him. He still has a few solid classics left though and should hopefully finish decently over 1000 points now. That's tremendous for our chances, and he's been our rock all year.
Points in hand are always better than points we hope to get in the future (as my week 2 Giro projections revealed), but we project pretty bad now. AKA, Quintana, and Aranburu are not going to stand out in these fields. The Vuelta will be telling. At this point we have to hope that GT's are kind of broken generally, and that allows a guy like Quintana to pull one of the stupid moves we saw and end up in the top 10 at the end. Also need sprint performances fom AKA there, and Aranburu needs to pick away at classics and stages, as we saw in Amstel.
This is gonna come down to the wire, but as I try to forget Giro week 3, I have to take some satisfaction in the luck we've otherwise had so far. Survival is still very difficult, but it's possible.
Thank you for the detailed update Fabianski! Always a true pleasure to read, though nerveracking to see the thread drop!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Weird month for us in a way. Basically every single race can be described as "Definitely not bad enough to complain but also slightly below what i hoped for". So i guess a pretty average month for us in total.
Ranking wise, we are in a fine position. Probably where we need to be when aiming for a podium challenge.
Not a good month for us, but I didn't expect it to be. That Roma overperformance really saved us as we would have been near the bottom this month without it.
Next month might be worse for us as the Ardennes are just slightly above minimum scoring races and another GT like the Vuelta isn't likely to bring in many points. I won't be surprised if we're outside the top 10 at the next update.
Thank you for another brilliant write up Fabianski
We're on the eve of our biggest race of the season, and points-wise we are doing very well on only four Herklotz RDs.
However, knowing his opposition now, I wouldn't expect even a successful Vuelta to net nearly enough points to dethrone Aker, keep EA at bay for long or be prepared for Evonik's assault at the TdF.
Luckily, we settled for only a Top 10 rankings sponsor goal this season, so anything above that is a bonus anyway regardless of how many of you predicted us on the podium or even better!
Thanks for the update! It’s a subpar season for us so far. It feels like the depth results come more randomly with this version of the game, which of course is not a good thing for a team counting on them.
Still not in the relegation zone, that's a positive. Feels like we are 400-500 points behind where we would have wanted to be. Some good results now recently, so hopefully we can grind out some more big results the next months.
