PT racing goes into its decisive stage - and while September will be the final big month of racing this year, August is pretty important for some teams as well! The GTs are over, the biggest points are distributed - but we still have some wide open races where every point can be decisive!
We had five races this month, combining for a total of 14 RDs - with three teams doing the full program. Two PTHC stage races, a PTHC classic, and two PT classics - and there was at least one race for pretty much every rider type!
Let's start off with what might be remembered as the weirdest race of the year. I'm talking about Deutschland Tour. A stage race for the TT powerhouses, with the decisive TT stage surrounded by 4 chances to shine for the sprinters. On paper.
In practice, it was quite a bit different this year. The reason for this is that the peloton left a gap to the sprinters on two occasions. 16 seconds in one case, not much to worry about. But a whopping 1'20" on stage 2, which had a pretty decisive impact on the final GC!
Well, to see Cedevita come out on top of this one isn't overly surprising, with the Slovenians having great TT depth this year. What's far more surprising though is that it was Enger who delivered their best result - he won the opening stage, wearing yellow and green for two days, delivered a decent TT - and thanks to the gaps ended up 2nd in GC, just 2 seconds shy of the win! 219 points scored by the sprinter, with Howson (14th) and Lammertink (20th) also getting a Top 20. Christodoulos, Groselj and Nareklishvili in the Top 50 as well, Penko and Craddock just outside. All in all, 309 points for Cedevita! Which is only 2nd place for them overall, but they were easily the best PT team.
The 2nd best PT team had their top GC rider in 7th place. It was a sprinter as well, Samolenkov is his name. With 4th, 5th, 9th and 2nd the Russian was the most consistent sprinter on the four flat stages, deservedly taking home the green jersey. And 7th on GC, as mentioned before. But what was key to Tinkoff's good score was their depth: Yatsevich in 16th, Zakarin in 17th, Dal Col in 19th, Goldstein in 22nd. That's 20% of the Top 25, great job! Vorobev got a couple of points as well with 40th, and all things considered Tinkoff end up with 271 points.
And finally, in 3rd place, we have the team of the GC winner. At least this name isn't surprising - but as mentioned before, Würtz only saved 2" on the sprinters. He won the ITT, and it was just enough to get the GC and 240 points. Grieg were the pure opposite of Cedevita and Tinkoff, though - with absolutely no depth. 4 riders made the Top 100, adding 8 points in total - so that's 248 for the Norwegians.
EA scored above 200 points as well, with just 2 more getting 100+ - but as previously stated, the highscore went to PCT this time.
The next chance in PTHC came soon after - this time for the climbers, puncheurs, hybrids, in San Sebastian. But some PCT dudes were too lucky (or smart), so the PT riders could only fight for 3rd.
Kinoshita took the final podium spot and 100 points for the Minions, who also scored 2 points by Quintana. An important result in the fight against relegation - but will it be good enough?
Valter then finished 4th, getting 90 points for EA Vesuvio, who also had Smit and Kirsch in the Top 50 for 2 points each. Yates, the fastest sprinter in the finale, ran out of gas and had to settle for 5th and 80 points, with Carthy just scoring 2 more for cycleYorkshire.
After getting beaten by PCT teams in PTHC twice in a row, PT teams must have been happy to be amongst themselves in the next two classics.
First came Les Herbiers, THE TT classic of the year. And who says TT has to say Würtz by now, with the Dane being the world's single best time triallist by now. And it's obviously no surprise that he won this classic in France. Korsaeth just got a Top 50 as well, with Hulgaard only taking minimum points - it's 240 for Grieg in the end.
The TTT dominators from EA Vesuvio obviously have strong individual TTers as well - with Wirtgen taking 3rd place, on s.t. with 2nd. The Luxembourgers also had Tanfield in 7th, whereas Hepburn was their worst starter in 14th place! Other teams didn't even have their leader that high up... This amazing depth was almost good enough for the win - they end up with 232 points, 8 points short of Grieg.
In his final attempt as a win contender, Phinney did the best he could behind the amazing Würtz - he took 2nd place. Campenaerts and Scotson both finished inside the Top 50, making it 181 points for MOL.
After puncheurs and TTers, the cobblers got their classic as well, with the East Midlands Cicle Classic.
And once again, the World Champion was unbeatable! Wisniowski won yet another race in what's a truly outstanding cobbles season for Aker! Anderberg (18th) and Potts (24th) added some good depth points, with all others outside the Top 50. 290 points for Aker, striking back in the title fight!
It was another great result for Grieg as well - not in the title fight, but in the fight against relegation! Having often been very disappointing on the cobbles this year, Pedersen took a strong 2nd place, with Tiller (19th) and Stokbro (28th) getting strong results as well! 221 points for Grieg, making it a Norwegian 1-2!
But unlike in the race results, the Scandinavian teams couldn't quite make it a podium sweep in terms of scoring. Instead, Gerts' 4th place was complemented by Van den Berg in 20th, Meeus in 22nd and Kalf in 34th - 183 points for Dutch outfit Rabobank!
Last but not least, another PTHC race. The three-day Irish sprinter festival Ras Tailteann. And it was a sprinter festival, without any doubt - just not for the PT sprinter. At least not for the (on paper) strongest ones. The three highest scores going to PCT is another proof of how weird PT sprints are this year.
The most consistent PT sprinter was Cullaigh, who finished 2nd, 5th and 7th in the three stages, which was enough for 3rd in GC and points. 174 points for the cycleYorkshire sprinter - and for his team, as none of his teammates scored any points.
Gaviria was one of the absolute top favourites, being among the Top 2-3 sprinters in the world. He finished 8th, 4th and 3rd, at least showing an ascending form curve. The race probably stopped too early for the Moser man, who ended up 5th in GC and points. 130 points for the Colombian, with Moser also getting a handful points for Bonnamour's 42nd place and four Top 100 GC finishes. 145 points for the Czech team.
Philipsen was almost a solo scorer for Polar; after completely failing on stage 1, he improved to 6th and 2nd on the other days. The reward was 6th in GC and points, plus 2nd in the U25 standings. 136 points for the Belgian, with 3 other riders getting a Top 100, making it 142 points in total for the Finns.
So, let's look at the full points for August now.
3 races, 3x among the Top 3 teams - clearly, it was a big month for Grieg! They scored over 200 points in all of their three races, and deservedly win the month with 709 points! Divided by just 9 RDs, this gives an amazing PpRD average of 78.8 - this must be a huge step out of their relegation misery!
EA Vesuvio were pretty strong as well, rocking the TT races, doing well in the Basque hills - just paying their lack of cobblers in East Midlands. It's a clear gap to Grieg, with the Luxembourgers scoring 577 points. With 11 RDs used, that's a PpRD of 52.5, which is #4 this month.
The next three teams then are within just 30 points of each other - with the fight for 3rd being decided by just 5 points! 3rd are Polar, who did every single race in August, doing particularly well in Germany, Chrono des Herbiers and Ras. It's 530 points for the Finns, although their PpRD of 37.9 is "only" good enough for 6th.
Missing out on the podium by 5 points are Tinkoff, who did great in Germany and pretty well in East Midlands and Chrono. 525 points for the Russians (and 2nd in terms of PpRD), whereas Cedevita - another team with 14 RDs used - are 5th with 500 points flat. Deutschland Tour was their outstanding race in August, with Chrono very solid as well.
It's then a gap of more than 100 points down to 6th, where we find cycleYorkshire - the 3rd and final team doing all the August races. Besides Ras, they struggled to score big, resulting in a pretty mediocre 28 PpRD average.
Then it's 4 teams separated by just 5 points to round off the Top 10! Aker, who didn't score much besides Midland, are 7th with 336 points. Two points down, we have the Pumas, doing OK-ish in their home race and in San Sebastian. MOL are the first team doing just the 3 classics, scoring 333 points and the 3rd best PpRD after Phinney's final race of the year in France. Carlsberg round off the Top 10 with 331 points, doing well in East Midlands and OK-ish in Ras.
The next 4 teams are rather close together as well - but more than 60 points behind the Top 10. King Power scored 266 points, mainly thanks to a strong East Midlands, whereas Moser will be disappointed with Gaviria's result in Ras despite it being the best scoring race for them by far. 254 points for them, followed by Rabobank with 250. Gerts did well, Grosu did nothing - sadly a repeating pattern this year.
Minions are rather close to this block as well, scoring 237 points (almost half of which by Kinoshita in San Sebastian). Rounding off the Top 15 are ELCO with 195 points - nothing to be enthusiastic about, though.
ISA follow 10 points behind, having done all races but San Sebastian - and also having a sprinter on strike in Ireland. That's the 3rd lowers PpRD this month with 15.4. Evonik had a bad San Sebastian with Lopez, picking up just 167 points this month. Amaysim - also just doing the three classics - are 7 points further down, after a strong result in Chrono des Herbiers.
ZARA scored 144 points across 4 races - with their highscore being 58. Having spent 11 RDs, they have the 2nd lowest PpRD of the month with 13.1. Followed by the worst team in that regard, Lidl, who only scored 140 points in 12 RDs - making it 11.7 on average.
Binance weren't much better off, though, collecting 138 points this month, less than 20 per race day. Finally, Gazelle take the red lantern in August with 123 points - but having raced only 4 days, they actually still have the 10th best PpRD!
Here are the full numbers for August:
Team
Deu
SanS
Chr
Mid
Ras
Total
RD
PpRD
1
Grieg-Maersk
248
0
240
221
0
709
9
78.78
2
EA Vesuvio
216
94
232
35
0
577
11
52.45
3
Polar
159
39
149
41
142
530
14
37.86
4
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
271
0
113
141
0
525
9
58.33
5
Cedevita
309
20
125
20
26
500
14
35.71
6
cycleYorkshire
46
82
65
25
174
392
14
28.00
7
Aker - MOT
31
0
15
290
0
336
9
37.33
8
Team Puma - SAP
128
84
82
40
0
334
11
30.36
9
MOL Cycling Team
0
35
181
117
0
333
6
55.50
10
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
27
0
30
174
100
331
12
27.58
11
King Power
0
0
51
150
65
266
7
38.00
12
Moser - Sygic
0
23
41
45
145
254
9
28.22
13
Rabobank
0
0
28
183
39
250
7
35.71
14
Minions
50
102
30
55
0
237
11
21.55
15
ELCO - ABEA
89
0
46
60
0
195
9
21.67
16
ISA - Hexacta
69
0
27
45
44
185
12
15.42
17
Evonik - ELKO
0
40
20
107
0
167
6
27.83
18
Amaysim Australia.com
0
2
133
25
0
160
6
26.67
19
ZARA - Irizar
12
34
58
40
0
144
11
13.09
20
Lidl Cycling
6
0
51
30
53
140
12
11.67
21
Binance
0
0
15
102
21
138
7
19.71
22
Gazelle
0
0
20
103
0
123
4
30.75
Full Ranking
Another month - another leader change! And actually even a new leader - with Polar jumping from 3rd to the top, being the 4th different team to lead the standings after EA, Aker and Evonik. The Finns currently are at 6,600 points, having spent 167/180 RDs, which is a PpRD of just below 40. With 9 of their 13 remaining RDs being ToNE and Battenkill, however, it remains to be seen how many points they can still add!
And their PpRD actually isn't as good as the next three teams' - places 2 to 4 actually are separated by just 81 points, and all have a PpRD above 40.8. In 2nd place, we have Vesuvio at 6,494 points - 106 less than Polar, but with 8 additional RDs to spend. Balkans and ToNE are their remaining stage races - and while Valter should participate in the former and be pretty competitive, scoring well in the latter might not be easy.
On the other hand, Aker should be looking forward to most of their remaining races. Amezawa could be a good fit for Balkans, Anderberg and likely Wisniowski as well will love the opening TT in ToNE and Arenberg, Mohoric has some hills left, and Wisniowski obviously has Rheden as well. The Norwegians do already have the best PpRD - 41.7, almost one point better than the others - and the most races left to do of the Top 4 teams. They may have dropped from 2nd to 3rd, but they still remain a big title favourite!
Evonik are the final team still looking to really be in contention for the win. They had a poor month - but if Lopez can deliver the performance we're used to see in Balkans, and the other hilly races left, then Evonik should be a strong competitor for Aker! They're almost 50 points behind currently, but we all know that 50 points is nothing with PT point scales!
It's then a rather big - positive - surprise to still see newly promoted Cedevita still in the fight for a Top 5 spot - a spot they currently have! They've swapped places with the Pumas, with the two teams currently standing at 6,227 and 6,185 points respectively. The Germans do have a slight RD advantage - but it looks like they can't even take a Top 5 for granted this year!
But both of them should beware of the two teams right behind them, who have at least 10 more RDs yet to do. Tinkoff and Gazelle have swapped places, and both have a PpRD that's higher than the one of Cedevita and Puma. It remains to be see whether they can indeed take advantage of their additional RDs, though, as the gap in absolute numbers is actually pretty significant already - with Puma about 300 points ahead of Tinkoff and 400 ahead of Gazelle.
It's then another 100 points gap down to the final Top 10 teams, which still are MOL and cycleYorkshire who remained in their spots. And it's an even more significant gap in terms of PpRD, as both of them have 10+ RDs more already in the books than Gazelle.
Still, the Top 10 teams are looking pretty definitive already, as there's a 500 points gap down to 11th. In that 11th place, we have Carlsberg at 5,119 points, with the Danes pretty likely out of relegation danger by now; their safety margin is almost 700 points. Another newly promoted team doing really well!
Lidl are 170 points down, and have 2 RDs less to spend, and so might be slightly more worried about relegation risks. But it's still a margin of more than 500 points to the relegation spots, with the biggest scoring races behind us.
13th are the big winners of the month - making a huge jump up from 18th! Grieg likely aren't completely safe by now - but almost. 4,832 points currently, almost 400 points more than the new 18th ranked team, and PpRD-wise even ahead of Lidl. They had to deliver, and they did deliver!
King Power are just 5 points behind Grieg, and are even projected to challenge Carlsberg for 11th in the end. Sure, it isn't a comfortable situation yet, but the teams behind them are even worse off. And King Power have someone for almost every terrain, so whereas their season surely is disappointing, it shouldn't go completely wrong either.
Which is something we surely thought of the final Top 15 team as well - Moser. A team with Gaviria and Kudus shouldn't be fighting against relegation - well, they are. And their margin is just 250 points. What's a bit worrying: who should score for them in Balkans, ToNE and the cobbles of Battenkill and Rheden? They still have some Gaviria RDs left, which will be crucial for sure...
Things are looking even worse for Amaysim - another spot and another 100 points down. They still have a 134 points cushion - but that's not a comfortable one by any means. Even less so given that they have the 6th lowest PpRD of the division... A lot of responsibility will be on McCarthy's shoulders, who hasn't had a convincing season so far, though. So it might be the depth that could save them, we'll soon find out.
Amaysim's advantage is that the bottom 5 teams in terms of PpRD all are 1.4 points and more behind. ZARA are closest - but they're 121 points down, with 4 additional RDs already spent. The Spaniards have a 13 points margin on 18th place. It looks like they'll have to bet on Jakobsen and Borges, and maybe some Ovsya magic on the cobbles - we'll see if it can be enough!
With Grieg moving up, Rabobank are back on the first relegation spot. But despite Grosu's big failures, it's not looking too bad for them; as said before, it's just 13 points to safety, and they have 14 RDs more to spend than ZARA. They're also projected ahead of Amaysim - and if Formolo and Gerts can do well in Balkans and ToNE (if they do race, which I don't know but would expect), even a Top 15 finish might be manageable. But the first and foremost goal must be to gain at least one spot as soon as possible!
We still have 4 teams left - but there currently doesn't seem to be too much hope left for any of them. The gap to safety is 350 points and more for all of them - not impossible, but they'll have to step up for sure! ISA are currently 19th with 4,099 points. Great depth results in Balkans and ToNE - which they do have some candidates for - could be the key to make a miraculous jump. If any team can do with just depth and no top results, that must be ISA.
ELCO are in a similar situation, with their top sprinter simply not delivering enough points this year. And sadly for them, their 2nd best rider is also a sprinter, who didn't deliver either. Nor did their 3rd and 4th riders, resulting in them being more than 400 points behind safety at this point. If the sprinters fail, could e.g. Stavrakakis become their saviour in ToNE? Or anyone else?
Whereas there might be some hope left for the previous two teams, the final ones probably are doomed. Minions are almost 600 points behind ZARA, and while Kinoshita could potentially bring them closer, winning all the races that are left doesn't look likely with how the season has been going. Could someone else jump in? Anything is possible, but not overly likely.
For Binance, there really is no hope left. Over 900 points to 17th place, with just 19 RDs left - hard to see a path to success here. Sagan and Kwiatkowski could still do some great things, but just "great" won't be enough. Can they still do amazing things? We'll see.
So we have three teams of top sprinters - Grosu, Ewan, Coquard - on the first 3 relegation spots. Gaviria isn't too far away, either. All of them have been far less successful than last year - clearly a pattern, but what does it mean for the next offseason?
He did it again - with his 2nd place in Chrono des Herbiers, Taylor Phinney took the lead in the individual standings, looking to win them for a 4th time in a row! He finished his season with 2,277 points - 12 more than last year, when he still was maxed! It's been an amazing season no matter what the final outcome will be!
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier, who is already on vacation, has dropped to 2nd - he won't endanger Phinney's win. But Silvio Herklotz certainly will! The German still has one race left, and he's 195 points behind Phinney. If he wins - as he always did this year - he'll take back the individual crown, supposing he'll not spend his final RDs in a PTHC race. He'll most likely do Lombardia, where he'll need a Top 2 to overtake Phinney...
Tom Wirtgen stays in 4th, despite doing a good job in Germany and Herbiers. He ends his season with 1,899 points - surely an amazing outcome for a rider who's only 20th in terms of OVL in the division!
Lukasz Wisniowski also continued his awesome run, adding another win to a stellar scoresheet in East Midlands. 1,822 points for him currently - and he still has a couple of great RDs left... Could even the individual standings win be on the cards? With a win in ToNE, why not?
The next three riders all retained their spots - but are far behind the Top 5. Joseph Dombrowski, Merhawi Kudus and Egan Bernal make it a very stage-racer-heavy Top 10, with Wisniowski being the only one in the Top 8 not having any notable climbing skills.
Mads Würtz has come pretty close, though, totalling 1,298 points and trailing Bernal by 44 points. Both should have a final race left this year. David Per rounds off the Top 10, just 28 points behind Würtz, but has more races left and could make it a really sensational season as well!
Haig is the only one who lost his Top 10 spot this month, dropping to 12th (behind Würtz, Per and Yates).
Würtz also is the most notable improver in August, jumping up from 28th to 9th, having scored 465 points this month! Otherwise, we have to go down to Enger (45 -> 31) and Samolenkov (67 -> 47) to find some Top 50 riders gaining more than 10 places.
As already stated in the team standings update, the lack of sprinters in the top positions is striking. Philipsen still is the best of them in 13th place, with Grosu (18th) and Gaviria (20th) barely making the Top 20. Enger (31st) is #4, ahead of Coquard (34th) - whereas Ewan is just #9, behind Groves, Cullaigh and Van der Lijke, barely ahead of Prasad...
Just to compare - last year, we had Démare, Ewan and Coquard all in the Top 10, which clearly explains why the teams of the latter two are in great trouble this year.
Going back in the bottom 5 was to be expected after the Ras shenanigans.
Yes, we do have Formolo in Balkans and Gerts in ToNE, but while Formolo should bring home some good points, ToNE has never been a great race for Gerts.
Glad to have the top 10 wrapped up now and with it, another sponsor goal. It's fun to see that at least in theory there are still 4 teams competing for the title at this point of the season.
Feels like a pretty bad month for us but realistically only san Sebastian was really bad. Herbiers is always terrible and Midlands was alright i guess.
I love to see an exciting title fight up top. Definitely one of the most open ones in years. For me, Aker definitely feels like a sort of favourite having a lead and an additional classic over us in hand and a schedule that feels a bit better for potential big points than ea and polar
From this point on, every remaining race feels like a key race in the title fight. I still think that ToNE might be the most important swing race left. Wisniowski is an obvious favourite there but others like Polanc can potentially do really well too and it can just be so random from one version to the next.
Balkans obviously is a big important race for us. And we almost need to win it again to stand a chance in the title fight.
Can't see any way of surviving this one, with both Coquard and Farantakis heavily underperforming. If they were on par, we would have probably steared clear of relegation, but without them - obviously not. Most teams who threw 1mio worth of wages down the drain is likely going down...
Huge month for us and a big step towards avoiding relegation. Should be under control now, but not a lot of great, great race days left, so hopefully the guys will continue to fight for the points where they are within reach.
The title fight is looking very intense. Aker the favourite in my eyes, but I'm expecting to go down to the last race of the season.
11th place at this point in the season is crazy. Seeing some of the teams we're ahead is also shocking. The funny thing is, I don't feel like we've overperformed that much to get there. Per has obviously been incredible. He's headed to a top 10 overall finish and potentially close to 1500 points. So that was obviously gigantic for us. And Galta also had a phenomenal early season with the Portugal win, though his cratering at the end of the Giro cost us a bunch of potential points too. Beyond him, AKA has punched above his weight overall, but not to a crazy degree. Quintana has been bad, Aranburu hasn't done much of anything, and Kamna has fallen off a cliff compared to last year. So our leaders as a unit don't seem particularly amazing.
I guess where we made a lot of strides this year was depth. Gregaard has had a phenomenal year soaking up depth points, and he's now at almost 300 for the year. Sureda had huge GT stage placings including a GT win. Over 200 points at $50k wage is awesome. Guys like Petrovski have also plodded away with minor scoring in ways I didn't expect. All of those combined is enough to get out of the relegation zone.
Also, I know everyone is theoretically affected the same, but it does feel like we've gotten lucky in that some of our weaker PTHC races have seen PCT teams taking a lot of the top points and not letting PT teams gain too much on us. Maybe I've been imagining it, but it does feel that way.
It's not over until it's over, but with 6 teams projected below our current points total, I think we're in really good shape for the last few weeks. Let's bring it home and put ourselves in a good spot for the transfer season!
Thanks for the update Fabianski!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Another big update! Thank you for the massive write up, Fabianski
And this will be a thrilling finale for us. Expect it all to come down to how we score in Balkans and ToNE. We really, really need to score well there, at the very least relatively well, meaning we're counting on Amezawa to be a rider in some kind of contention and not just ride passive in Balkans. And just like knockout wrote, it still feels like every race we enter from now on will be of massive importance regarding the title fight.
Wisniowski's season is sensational already, and we need to him to finish it in the same way, as he holds arguably the biggest key for us, with the ToNE and our GC ambitions there. Always struggled to get it right there, fingers crossed this is the season where it all clicks
For what feels like a poor month we didn't score too bad, but Deutschland was a huge let down. Not that it would have changed how I and everyone feels about which division we'll ride in next season.
Don't wish on any of the active managers to relegate, but sadly there still are five teams that need to go down. I assume the lowest four need a heck of an overperformance to come back into the survival race, so then it might be Rabo vs. Zara for the final spot, unless they both manage to overtake one of the teams above. Good luck to all fighting for the title or their top-10 or whatever spot, or battling relegation in this final month and a half.
And shout out to Cedevita on an amazing season after just promoting from PCT.
I knew that had been an awful month for us, but I didn't realise just how awful until now
Hopefully we should have enough of a gap to avoid relegation, particularly with ToNE, Japan Cup and Lombardia left for De Bie where we should outscore most of the teams below us bar King Power. If Kemboi can get a solid result in Moscow and we get lucky with the field in Battenkill then we may even be able to hold on to 12th, but at this stage 17th will do...
We take with great pleasure the top10 ranking position, as we are in a transition season. The cherry in the cake can be, if Phinney can maintain hes 1st position
