It's almost a week since we had the last races of the year - apologies for the (unexpected) delay, but now it's here - the final ranking update of the year!
Just like the PCT teams, CT had Emilia and the Züri Metzgete left to race on the final day - but with reversed scoring expectations.
And indeed, despite 5 teams participating in Italy, none of them managed to score even a single point. Bordeaux got closest to the Top 30, with Rochas finishing 32nd - close but no cigar.
But CT's highlight on the final day was Züri Metzgete anyway, with the best CT puncheurs meeting one final time this year. But we've already seen last year that this "new" (not so new anymore) course isn't really something for the pure puncheurs, rather for punchy finisseurs.
Wackermann is exactly such a rider, and he won the race last year - only to come back and make it two in a row! A late attack got him a great solo win and 50 points. With four more riders in the Top 20 - Pacher (12th), Iturria (17th), Tatarinov (18th) and Lafay (20th) - Bordeaux scored a grand total of 65 points!
2nd place went to A. Paret-Peintre, also a rider who is tailor-made for such a race - or vice versa. 35 points for the Frenchman and Ekoi. And it was a pretty French podium anyway, with two French teams and as many French riders, given that Morin took 3rd place for Hilcona. The Liechtensteiners also had Grmay in 19th position, scoring 31 points in total.
And now it's time - for the last time of the year - to look at the monthly standings.
After a solid Sun Tour and an awesome Bizikleta, it's absolutely no surprise to see Podium Ambition topping the October update! Even though they didn't perform as well as expected in Zurich, their 238 points are enough for 1st place - by a mile. And their 21.6 PpRD average is top of the month as well - by a tiny margin, though.
Because Würth also had a pretty great month - obviously mainly thanks to their Sun Tour success. 128 out of 148 points were scored in New Zealand, the rest in Switzerland - 148 points in 7 RDs is 21.1 per race day on average, the 2nd highest value of the month. Will it be enough to keep Bordeaux at bay, though?
JEWA also land on the podium, mainly thanks to their Sun Tour performance as well. This should easily secure their overall podium, despite Podium Ambition doing really well this month.
The Turtles were tied for 3rd in the October* standings, but scored just 1 point in Zurich versus 15 by JEWA - hence they end up 14 points short of 3rd place. But still 3 points ahead of Crabbe with 117 - with the latter getting the 3rd best PpRD value in October, 16.7.
Had Gjensidige finished 6th in every monthly update, promotion would probably be a formality. But we've seen them further down more often than not - at least they end the year on a rather high note. Despite leaving their top TTers at home, they had a decent Sun Tour, and Eiking had a relatively good result in Zurich (4th), given that he's not really a great finisseur. And who knows, maybe then can still gain a spot or two with the score of 102 points?
In any case, it's more than Ekoi got, with the Frenchies ending up with 84 points. After a disappointing Sun Tour, they did well in Euskal and Zurich, continuing their strong late form. Which might lead them to PCT, who knows...
Babymetal have also upped their speed in the last couple of months, after a pretty bad first half of the season. 8th place for the Japanese, scoring 71 points in October. One more than Bordeaux, who got 65 of their 70 points from Zurich.
The final team in the Top 10 is Tafjord - but only just, as their 56 points are just one more than Simba in 11th place. For the former, these points could still be crucial, whereas the latter are set to finish outside the Top 10 anyway.
Adidas got close to the Top 10 for once as well, scoring 50 points; most of them thanks to Gradek's surprisingly strong Sun Tour GC result.
It's then a slightly bigger gap down to Hilcona with 37 points, most of them scored in Zurich. Which is the contrary of what Air New Zealand did, as the Kiwis scored all of their 34 points at home.
In 15th place, we have Manada - yep, that's really low for a promotion contender, with KHJ unable to pull off a great result in Zurich. But 23 points is still one point better than Stela-Vita, whose 2 PpRD average is pretty bad for a Top 5 team. But they won't care, the impact on the final rankings shouldn't be huge.
Saeco and Strava are the final scoring teams, getting 13 and 12 points respectively. Caja didn't race at all, nor did the defunct Mercatone Uno squad.
Here are the full scoring details for those who are interested:
The one table you've all been waiting for - the one table that decides on goal achievement, and obviously on next year's division (barring disband promotions)!
After being relegated from PCT last year, Crabbe obviously took the right learnings from their failure - and bounced back in style, by winning the 2023 CT title! Congratulations!
The Chiarello signing was definitely key for this in hindsight, with the Brazilian scoring more than 50% of his team's points. Chiarello is about to decline, though - and looking at the team's age structure, a lot of work will need to be done to get the team ready for PCT! All riders are either 31+, or still U25 eligible - there's clearly something missing for a bright mid-term future. Will their manager find the right screws to turn once again?
The final race actually had some impact on the podium spots - not on the teams taking them, but on the order. In the end, 2nd place goes to... JEWA Tirol! Given that they're a newly founded team, the Austrians had a sensational season, and in the end reached the Top 5 spots pretty easily.
Berhane obviously was their key rider, but Degenkolb was an important scorer as well. Both of them will decline again, though, and are unlikely to be "leader material" in PCT - we'll see how their manager approaches the upcoming transfer season!
And we have yet another new team in 3rd place, with Stela-Vita! The Albanians were on track for 2nd place for most of the year - even taking over the lead intermittently - but on the final day of the year dropped to 3rd. It's 1,400 vs. 1,404 points against JEWA - close, but it doesn't really matter. It's just the unofficial "Best new team" title that was at stake, but who remembers that one even just one year later...
Unlike the Top 2 teams, Stela-Vita won't need to find a replacement for their top scorer soon, with Kamberaj - who simply had an amazing season - being only 29. Villella and Goos will however decline, and so will Lampaert as their 2nd best scorer - quite some work to do for them as well!
These are issues the 4th team doesn't really need to care about currently. After a great final month, Podium Ambition still miss out on the podium, but they reach their main target of the year - promotion! And they do so with plenty of young riders, with just one single rider about to decline. Bright future ahead?
Well, the present didn't look great for a major part of the year, with especially their top puncheurs often getting disappointing results. But Lagane turned things around in Euskal Bizikleta - rewarding himself and his teammates with the well-deserved promotion! With 1,332 points, they even end up just 68 points short of the podium, proving that a CT season isn't a sprint but a marathon, where fighting until the end is extremely important!
The final team to earn automatic promotion is... Tafjord! The Norwegians were expected to finish inside the Top 5, but just like Podium Ambition they were struggling quite a lot this year, only to bounce up in the end! 1,221 points were enough to get this final Top 5 spot.
But whereas the current roster was good enough to just reach the required Top 5 outcome, some changes will definitely have to be done to the roster. Lots of riders - Garby, Breen, Bertilsson, Eislers, Hoem, ... have already declined or will do so this offseason, so transfers will not just be about getting PCT-worthy leaders, but also replacing some of the current ones. Definitely no boring times ahead!
Other teams might be gutted to finish 6th and narrowly miss out on promotion - but for Ekoi, this 6th place must feel like a huge win! Two months ago, they were lurking around in 14th place, before jumping to 8th after a sensational September, and now even gaining two more spots in October! They ended up with 1,160 points - which is just 45 points more than 9th place, so the rankings are really crowded in this region!
Although they couldn't secure an automatic promotion spot, history shows that it's almost sure that they'll still be going up due to disbands in the higher divisions. But whether they do or not - with riders like APP, Teuns, Gall or Russo on board, they have some great scoring options no matter the division they'll participate in!
On the very final day, Strava got overtaken by Ekoi (by just 15 points) to drop down to 7th place - whereas they even were in 5th place at the start of the month! Without any cobbles left for Gaday and Owen, their scoring opportunities were rather limited - but even 7th place has to be considered a good performance, given their lack of top-level CT leaders on other terrains!
Even Strava could get a spot in PCT next year - but they'll likely have to replace some of their ageing stars anyway. Roglic, Poljanski, Kreder or Bouhanni were already on the decline and will find it hard to do well even in CT next year, so this looks like a busy transfer period incoming as well.
Manada end up another 18 points down, totalling 1,127. With all the hilly races left in October, they actually should have had some good hopes of jumping up instead of falling down - but they slipped down from 6th to 8th in October.
But unlike other relegated teams, they declared this to be a transition season right from the start, and with only 6 maxed riders on board, it's actually a great result to even get this high up in the standings! Marin definitely was the key rider for this, but KHJ and Lemus Davila did a great job as well. KHJ will decline, sure, but many other riders continue their development and should have some higher scoring potential next year - another attempt at bouncing back?
We are still missing one team that was among the top favourites for the division title. A team that only ends up 9th - 45 points behind 6th place and an almost sure disband promotion spot, 106 points behind direct promotion.
We're obviously talking about Gjensidige. 9th place - definitely not good enough! There's definitely some bad luck in there - but I dare to say also some subpar planning. Although it couldn't be known beforehand that e.g. depth was so far more important for TTTs than previously - and hence Van Moer RDs in TTT races were basically wasted. It couldn't be known that pure puncheurs basically got another downgrade this year.
But still, if a team around Eiking, Lunke, Rojus and Van Moer only finishes 9th, something definitely went wrong. Having nine (!!!) level 1 riders definitely didn't help to get the best possible lineups for their races, but the outcome is still a massive disappointment.
Well, they don't even need to improve their roster a lot for next season - just adapt the planning in some cases, and hope for better luck. And for some of their talents to score some points every now and then.
There's one final spot left in the Top 10. 1,000 points were required to get there - and it's the SEE Turtles who got it! 1,004 points is more than 100 behind the Top 9, but it's enough for getting a strong result in their first year, congratulations!
However, a major rebuild might be needed already after their first year, with their Top 3 (according to OVL) all declining - Duchesne, Squire, Trillini. Alarcon and Betancourt as well. However, their best scorers - Hamza and Tivani - will stay at their current level, taking some weight off the manager's shoulders. Interesting times ahead nonetheless...
Bordeaux had a great final race of the year, but that alone wasn't enough to challenge the Turtles. With 965 points, they miss out on the Top 10 by 39 points - and in turn stay only 30 points clear of Würth, who had an even stronger final month.
Neither of them needs to worry about the near future - Würth even less so - which is a pretty great situation to be in going into transfers. Will one of them - or even both - be able to do enough to assemble a potential Top 5 squad in 2024?
Another 100 points further down, we have Simba Cement, finishing 13th in their first year. It's 814 points for them - more than 100 behind those further up, more than 100 ahead of the next teams.
After just 1 year, the will already need a major rebuild, though, having only 3 maxed riders below 30 years. And 14 riders declining in the offseason - clearly not an age structure promising a bright future. But their first year experience will surely help them draw the right conclusions.
Yet another new team in 14th place, with Hilcona scoring 695 points. Just like Simba Cement, they're in no man's land, with no team being closer than 100 points in either direction.
Although their situation isn't as dramatic as Simba's, they'll also have to rejuvenate their core. Their top sprinters Krieger and Havik will both decline, and Keizer clearly felt his ageing body this year, rarely being able to live up to his theoretical skillset. Quite some work to be done - but at least Morin should be a solid rider for the future!
Saeco are our final Top 15 team, at 524 points - a newly founded one as well. With their leader's core consisting almost exclusively of Italians - of ageing Italians, though. Aru, Trentin, Ulissi, Colbrelli all won't be "leader material" anymore next year.
But the good news is that the future is already there! If you thought that Gjensidige's 9 level 1 riders were a lot - look at Saeco! 11 riders have level 1, some of them being pretty decent talents indeed! But will the sponsors accept to spend two more years without too much scoring, or will they get some new leaders on board?
Babymetal got pretty close to Saeco, but in the end they ended up 31 points short. Verschaeve ended up being their best scoring rider, with Riabushenko rather disappointing - and local hero Arashiro not overly successful, either.
The Japanese also do have some good talents on board, though, and with only two riders declining they should be able to keep their core together. And to add some true potential CT leaders?
We're down to 17th place - and it's actually quite a tragedy that we see Caja Rural ending up so low. Finishing 7th last year, they were hoping for a disband promotion until the final day of continuation confirmations - well, they didn't get it.
Instead, they took a huge downfall. The potential is there - Serrano, Munoz, Quevedo, Ablenado... all of them great riders, but none of them doing really well this year.And now, most of their riders are about to decline (again), so it remains to be seen which direction the team will take this offseason...
In the fight for (or against) the red lantern, Adidas were able to hand over that questionable "award" in the final month! They still didn't have an awesome season, but avoided the shame of finishing last - and actually even got pretty close to Caja, ending up just 36 points behind.
However, their age structure isn't one of a CT team whose future looks bright, so they'll need to swap out some riders as well. They do have some talents - but they'll need some not-too-old mentors for these, who can actually score points as well.
And in last place - among the (more or less) alive teams - we have Air New Zealand. It's hard to say what went wrong for them - pretty much everything, probably. The good news is that things can't get worse next year - and the imminent major rebuild could also provide a good chance for them to turn things around!
As you see, Mercatone Uno are still in the rankings. They did score, but they stopped racing very quickly, which is a pity. But it also means that at least one CT spot will be freed up for a new, hopefully motivated team!
Well, we all know the winner, the dominator - William Chiarello! For his final prime season, he chose to take not one, but two steps down, to CT - only to dominate most of his races, winning the individual standings by a landslide and leading his team to promotion!
In the end, it's 853 points for the Brazilian, which is even more than Saber's 2022 score that seemed to be almost unreachable. Well, who's next to challenge Chiarello's record (with the new points scales and race days, at least)?
Hats off for this great performance, congratulations on winning the 2023 individual CT standings - rounding off a nice (prime) career in style!
We have to go 320 points down to reach our #2 in the list. That's not to show how bad the others were, but just to show how great Chiarello was.
Because Xhuliano Kamberaj actually was great, too! The Albanian sprinter did a great job at all levels - C2, C1, and even HC. His reward: 533 points, and promotion to PCT with Stela-Vita!
It's another 135 points down to get to the final podium spot. And it was actually pretty close for that one - but in the end, Natnael Berhane stays up there, totalling 398 points. The year after his first decline still was a pretty good one - what's next for him? Staying with JEWA in PCT? Going back down to CT?
Next is Mikel Iturria, who got overtaken by APP but in turn moved past Sindre Skjostad Lunke, dropping to 7th. These two end up with 329 and 328 points respectively - and even that is just 70 points behind the podium!
Gabriel Marin in 8th place is just another 8 points further down - and the next sprinter already follows in 9th position, with Emils Liepins.
The most surprising name in the Top 10, however - at least given the previous updates - must be Christopher Lagane! With his surprising Euskal GC win, he ends up with 269 points, which is just enough for 10th place!
With two new names inside the Top 10, two others obviously dropped out - Gall fell from 9th to 11th, Degenkolb from 10th to 12th. Puncheurs Eiking and KHJ end up between 25 and 30 points behind the Top 10.
Lagane obviously has to be mentioned as the top improver of the month, gaining 32 positions in October! From 42nd to 10th, definitely an awesome performance! Liepins moved up 6 spots to join the Top 10 as well - not as impressive, but still among the top improvers.
We can also mention Tivani (27 -> 19) and - of course - Malori: The Italian's surprising GC win in Sun Tour propelled him up by almost 100 spots, from 126th to 35th!
And with that, we end the 2023 ranking updates. It was a pleasure doing them - a very time consuming pleasure, as I'll definitely admit. As a consequence, this is the final update I post in this form. I'm glad you enjoyed reading these updates, and I'm glad I was able to stick to this style throughout the 2023 season. But at least for me, it's time to move on to a simpler and less time-consuming form. Cheers - and enjoy the 2023 CT individual standings:
It's official! Despite a number of stumbles (looking at you January-March!) we rallied, dug in, and powered out way to promotion.
The additions of O'Connor and Canty definitely helped get us over the line, as we had hoped. Lagane may end as a Top10 rider but really didn't perform like it at all. A bit of training using out 4/5 Goals cash should help! AC just missing the Top30 as a TT/CB hybrid and unsung hero. We then had six more riders in the Top100! Something not seen for us since we first re-branded as T3A - oh and that included Jesus Roniel Marte, the Breakaway Goat!
Heaven knows how i turn this project into one capable of surviving in the PCT. But with 4/5 Goals, and goal points in the 5th, Cash money will not be the limiting factor!
What a season! The promotion battle was so intense for so long, and basically every team had a really stand out result. CT is such a fun division i will miss it next time around.
Massive thanks to the reporters of course. And the other managers. F*cking promotion! Oh it's so good after many years of pain and building this damned project. Bringing back the classic gifs as a celebration!
Congrats to our promoting teams, great season from all of you. Now its time to wait and see who besides the top 5 will promote also. Luckily we dodnt need to think about this with our rank.
Thanks to all reporters and helper for the season and also to my oponents for a ncie season!
Thanks Fabi for the next (and final) great update! Also congratulations to the Laurens, Blasing, Mantez, TMM and bjartne for promoting, though as Fabi pointed out there will be quite some work to do for most of you in transfers. For us 6th is indeed a huge success above pre-season expectations (and clearly above reasonable expectations pre-September).
Finally thanks to all my fellow managers for making CT the best division once again!
Thanks for the great writeup each month and the perfect summary at the end Fabi. I know how much work this is, thank you for doing it for the whole season!
What a premier season it has been! After transfers I had a good feeling about the team and thought a top 5 might be doable. But ending up 2nd is even better than expected! And all that while mainly signing guys that make sense for an Austrian team, Berhane being the only real exception. The core was german speaking haha.
Of course with Degenkolb and Berhane the two most scoring guys will decline. But we should have more budget to work with next year and I hope we can do something good with it. I have learned a lot this year about how the ManGame runs, how transfers work etc.
So I think we should hopefully be able to build a roster that can stay in the PCT and not start the elevator game!
Also congrats to all other promoted teams and especially to Crabbe for winning it. Chiarello was in another league this year, what a performance!
I had a lot of fun this first year as a new manager, looking forward for many more to come. With what I have learned, next year I want to really start/improve my team HQ.
Looking forward to a great season and thanks everyone for the good time!
Obviously a great feeling winning the division, especially after a turbulent transfer season. It was a gamble to paid off tremendously. Luckily the AI didn't take the mountain support into account, otherwise it would have been another story.
We did some last minute FA signings to strengthen the TT side and it proved to be decent which limited Chiarello's time losses in the several TTT's. Apart from our great leader, we had Liepins, Chatarunga and Edmondson who did great in their respective domains. Especially Liepins did surprise me tbh, I didn't envision a top 10 at the start of the season.
Congrats to Blasing, Mantez, TMM and bjartne! I'm curious how all these rosters will look in PCT Echoing the others, kudos to Blasing and Mantez constructing these teams in their first season. And ofcourse to TMM and bjartne with their local-oriented teams, it's something to be proud of!
It was a very competitive CT, especially taking into account that we had 8 new managers. I'm sure most of them will have an idea how to strengten their roster for the upcoming season.
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
We hoped that we would fight for top3, but in the end, we're just very grateful to promote.
Thank you for the ranking articles Fabianski, beautiful stuff as always!
And you're right in thinking we have some work to do in the transfer window unless we want to become a proper retirement home...
Congrats to all fellow promotees, you have done a brilliant job, in particular JEWA and Stela Vita. I take my hat off and bow to you debutants!
I will miss the CT division, but Im confident I'll see you all again in 12 months time
Been really fun to report for this division this year.
Really looking forward to seeing the promoted teams in PCT next year.
Real impressive season from Chiarello-CC Chevigny this year and how they build on that in PCT will be fun to follow, especially since Chiarello will nowhere near as dominant in PCT, but they have a pretty open slate to work with.
Same thing goes for Stela-Vita but Kamberaj has proven himself at a much higher level in the past and I think he will still pull great points in PCT next year.
JEWA has a super fun core to build around already with a nice talent pipeline as well, it will be super fun to watch how they replace Berhane as their primary leader though but most of the support is somewhat there already.
Podium Ambition is the team that I am the most excited to see in the transfers with their unique approach to building up their domestic talent first and I am excited to see if that will allow them to stay up next year.
Lastly Tafjord is a super fun team that has a lot of depth to work with already and with the promoting cap to work with they should be able to add some nice leaders to aim for survival.
Congrats to all the promoting teams. Well done.
And thank you to all the reporters and people behind this whole game. Amazing work once again!
Also, a special thanks to Fabianski for all of your work with the rankings. Great read, and also a bit sad for us. Seeing how we sh*t the bed this year.
Been a hell of a ride this year and couldn't be more thankful that I joined this community. Will certainly be looking forward to another year in CT and ready to fight for the top slots (now surely I'll find my way to the bottom)
1000 points was a personal goal for me this year, especially after how poorly I expected to do after pre-season rankings. Now I still failed on many of my goals except for team rankings, but I think there is much for me to be proud of this year.
Huge congrats to all our promoting teams this year - heading up a level in the first season is crazy to me so awesome job for Stela-Vita and JEWA. Very proud to see Podium Ambition move up too - now there is some Central/South American representation in all three divisions for next season with Los Pollos also crushing PCT. What a ride, can't wait for the NCs and WCs!
Chiarello with one of the undoubted great CT seasons leading Crabbe to a well-deserved title - congrats Laurens! Glad I didn't have the worst ratio of a promoting team being carried by a leader this year
And just brilliant stuff to see two new teams on the podium - it's really not an easy task and both Blasing and Mantez did great work this year - really looking forward to your PCT squads! And also happy to see two long-running teams coming back to PCT in PA and TK - congrats guys
The other Top 10 teams in particular made it a very interesting season and if all continue and can strengthen their squads it will be a hell of a CT next year between them and the relegating teams, not even thinking of potential turnarounds for the other teams and any potential newbies looking to follow JEWA and Stela!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Congrats on the ones who got promoted!. Season with ups and downs. Will have to rework my whole team but thats a story after the Championships! Thank you for all CT rankings report Fabianski!
The five teams that go up absolutely deserve it, so that's good. Big congratulations to the Crabpack for turning that relegation into an impressive division win!
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
we dodnt need to think about this with our rank.
