March has come and gone, starting with a short PT stage race in Nederland and finishing with the 2nd monument of the season, this time in Belgium. Between these bookends we've had a PT cobble classic and 4 PTHC races. There has been some difference in race days used this month with some teams being present in 5 races while the team with least race days has been only present for 3 races.
Carlsberg - Danske Bank had a very good month with David Per winning Cheshire Cycling Tour and Ronde van Vlaanderen. Mattias Skjelmose Jensen helped the team with a good amount of points from Colombia and Alex Aranburu managed an ok result in Nederland. All in all a great month by Carlsberg scoring 1153 points, more than doubling the amount they had before the month started.
Another team that naturally had a good month was Grieg-Maersk. A very important month for a team tipped by many to be in the relegation fight and starting the month placed dead last. A total of 965 points over the month with Mads Pedersen naturally getting most of them even with a dissapointing Ronde. He is helped by Tom Bohli just chipping in points in every race he enters, and Nicola Bagioli doing quite well in Colombia. All in all a good month for Grieg, even though they might've wanted an even better one? The cobble season is quickly ending, and thus also their biggest scoring races.
Evonik - ELKO started the month very strong, scoring over 600 of their 917 points in the 2 first races, of course headlined by Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier winning in Colombia, and while the managed expected more from Miguel Angel Lopez in Nederland he still gave them some good points, combined with depth points from his team mates. Other than that the month was mostly about Alexandr Ovsyannikov scoring points in cobble races. This was enough to make Evonik the third best scorer of March
Cedevita started with a good result in Ronde van Nederland from Pascal Ackermann, then had close to a break (while still racing 2 of 3 races) before Ivan Siric won E3 and continued with good cobble results to close out the month. Considering that the biggest star of the team has not been racing this month I believe Cedevita should be quite happy about being the fourth best team in March with a total score of 876 points
Right behind Cedevita, actually just 1 point less, is Tinkoff Team - La Datcha. You can pretty much say theiy, løike usual, just are scoring points all the time. Considering we are in the middle of cobble season Florian Senechal has naturally been the teams best scorer with agressive racing in the cobble races. In Ronde Van Nederland they didn't really have a rider finishing high in the GC, but still got 140 points from the race while Pavel Sivakov did well in Colombia.
Rabobank has started the season very well and they continue doing well with a total of 874 points (only 1 point behind Tinkoff, quite a close month). Their bigget scoring race was Tour of Ukraine that all the teams over them ignored where Remco Evenepoel surprised most of us by winning the GC. A great race for him, after a bad Nederland. The rest of the points for the team this month (except for some depth points) has mostly been from the cobble star Floris Gerts, and then mostly from him having a great Ronde van Vlaanderen. All in all Rabobank continue to do well, and seems poised for a higher position than what most of us thought before the season
The team scoring 7th most points this month was Gazelle, the only team being present in all races this month. They haven't really had the big results, but as their team history shows they score depth points here and there and together with their stars that moves them up the standings. Mike Teunissen is naturally their biggest scorer this month with the highest amount of his points coming from Vlaanderen. But also a good team score in Colombia from Joseph Dombrowski and Giovanni Carboni helps. In Colombia they ended up being the 4th highest scoring team. In the end they leave March having scored 842 points.
Newly promoted ELCO - ABEA is another team with a cobble star helping getting points during March. Marcos Altur is the teams best scorer this month with good poitns in Belgium. Topping that up with Tomohiro Kinoshita and a team effort in Nederland and another good team score in Ukraine helps quite a lot. In the end ELCO scored a total of 748 pts this month.
Team UBS didn't get the biggest haul out of Nederland, but was the 3rd best scoring team in Colombia. This continued into a good effort in Cheshire before the cobble races at the end of the month got the team some good points mostly trough Johan Jacobs. His 3rd place in Cheshire together with Caio Godoy's Colombia is the biggest headlines of the month for UBS. Considering that there has been no racing from the teams biggest star this month I would say UBS management should be quite happy with 734 points this month.
cycleYorkshire started out the month with a great win from Simon Yates and continued with a good Colombia from Lachlan Morton. Then the rest of the month happened... Pretty much a no-show in Cheshire, E3 and Ronde (and an actual no-show in Ukraine and Franceville) makes a great start of the month a more "middle-of-the-pack"-month. Still for a team not focused on cobbles I believe they are quite happy with a total of 667 points here
The main score for Polar in March comes from a very strong Ukraine by team star Egan Bernal finishing in second. Combining that with Tao Geoghegan Hart giving depth scoring in the same race, Andrea Bagioli and Jay McCarthy getting nice points in Nederland and Enric Mas getting some points in Colombia it was all in all a nice month for Polar. A total of 648 pts (with 308 of those from Ukraine) is nothing to sneeze at
Aker - MOT is quite different from the other teams mentioned til now. They started the month slowly with a dissapointing Nederland and then not being in the next races. At the end of the month however they started scoring on the cobbles with Hampus Anderberg being the big name. His Franceville win being the big price! For Aker the total score for the month ends up at 631 points
Fastned ended the month with 569 pts, even tought I believe they expected more. Both from Mauri Vansevenant, who had just an ok Nederland, and Nathan Van Hooydonck who while he scored good points on the cobbles the team most likely had higher hopes for. Old man Taylor Phinney had quite a good Ukraine, that helped make up for that.
EA Vesuvio went into this month with their sights on Ukraine, sending both their TT monsters there, and even with 297 points from it I believe they were dissapointed. Still Tom Wirtgen was the best scorer for the team this month. Lukas Spengler scored some points in the cobble classics, but considering his cobble stat I bet the team hoped for a bit more, not to talk about how Matej Mohoric did in Nederland... EA Vesuvio scored 554 this month, but it has been the worst month for the team til now this year
Xero Racing started the month with a stage win and 2nd GC from Thomas Pidcock getting them a big haul. The they had a break before being back for E3, Franceville and Vlaanderen with high hopes for Florian Vermeersch, where he just didn't deliver. They got some points, but not what they wanted from him. In fact, in Vlaanderen Pidcock scored more. 511 points for them this month, but 349 of those were scored in Ronde Van Nederland
Sony - Force India promoted last year and had a great February. In March they did not deliver the same scoring 490 points. Like with Xero they had their best scoring race in Nederland with local favorite Mick Van Dijke scoring well. For the rest of the month there was Alexandr Kulikovskiy and Leo Hayter in Colombia and then mostly participation points. My guess is that the team didn't expect a lot this month and goes away quite happy considering Nederland
Coming into the month Indosat Ooredoo was 5th and with only 478 points this month they will not keep that spot. Most of the points this month comes from a race in Ukraine by Eddie Dunbar and a good result from Colin Stüssi. Other than that there has not been a lot for the team this month with the main news being depth points in Nederland. Indosat is not made for cobbles, and that shows this month. My guess is that with the Ukraine result from Dunbar they are more than happy and just ready for the cobbles to end
Jura GIANTS has been by many (including their own manager) seens as one of the clear relegation candidates, and while they are not the worst scorer this month they are quite low with just 367 points. As with many other teams the month started on a high with a good Nederland. Kaden Groves likes the race and scored a nice amount once again, with help from other team members joining in with depth points. After that however... Highlight being Jake Stewart scoring 33 points in Franceville.
Team Puma - SAP entered the season as one of the PT favorites but March has not really been a month to remember for them. That is maybe natural when the big start dosen't race? Jonas Rutsch with a good Vlaanderen is the highlight of the month but other than that it is not a lot to write home about. 365 points this month is maybe ok for a team just waiting for races for Herklotz?
Another team that didn't have the best March is Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam. Patrick Gamper is a good cobble rider, but we saw in the races this month that he still has a little way to go before he can really challenge the big guns. Sam Oomen had an okay Ukraine and that helps a bit this month. Still, with only 337 points and the worst month til now the relegation zone is getting close for Lierse after a strong start
Second to last on monthly points we find a team that hasn't been riding a lot in King Power, in fact they don't have any PTHC points this month. That means that the team that started the month on 2nd has falled down the standings. Rasmus Tiller is the top scorers this month with a very good E3 giving him the most points. Other than that it is not a lot to write about for a team only scoring 283 points this month
Then we end with the worst team this month Los Pollos Hermanos. Not a team well known for their cobble skills, and that shows, specially with Sergio Higuita not really scoring well in Nederland or Colombia. 270 pts says that this is a month to forget for LPH.
That gives us this March
Pos
Team
Mar
Total
Ronde van Nederland
Vuelta a Colombia
Cheshire Cycling Tour
Tour of Ukraine
E3 Prijs
Franceville Classique
Ronde van Vlaanderen
1
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
1153
2244
111
152
146
0
177
241
326
2
Grieg-Maersk
965
1420
63
120
237
0
83
295
167
3
Evonik - ELKO
917
2009
199
418
72
0
61
83
84
4
Cedevita
876
1970
286
38
62
0
260
120
110
5
Tinkoff Team - La Datcha
875
2177
140
246
87
0
83
169
150
6
Rabobank
874
2529
97
0
0
318
67
142
250
7
Gazelle
842
1665
156
203
64
70
102
64
183
8
ELCO - ABEA
748
1984
169
0
0
193
147
0
239
9
Team UBS
734
1774
126
217
145
0
103
35
108
10
cycleYorkshire
667
1742
419
171
2
0
35
0
40
11
Polar
648
1748
154
54
42
308
45
0
45
12
Aker - MOT
631
1943
42
0
0
1
120
295
173
13
Fastned
569
1747
114
0
0
171
89
135
60
14
EA Vesuvio
554
1933
52
0
0
297
69
0
136
15
Xero Racing
511
1670
349
0
0
0
56
20
86
16
Sony - Force India
490
1453
239
127
24
0
55
0
45
17
Indosat Ooredoo
478
1787
90
0
0
308
40
0
40
18
Jura GIANTS
367
1073
213
0
0
22
51
41
40
19
Team Puma - SAP
365
1221
84
0
0
0
69
0
212
20
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
337
1441
57
0
0
60
111
60
49
21
King Power
283
1716
51
0
0
0
157
0
75
22
Los Pollos Hermanos
270
1110
61
117
0
0
47
0
45
Full Ranking
Looking at the total standings Rabobank manages to keep their position and looking at projected points they seem to ant to stay there, but in 2nd place we have a team really flying up the standings in Carlsberg - Danske Bank who goes to 2nd from 14th, just in front of Tinkoff Team - La Datcha who have 2 RD less.
Pre-season favorite Evonik - ELKO is also rising up the standings now in 4th right in front of ELCO - ABEA who are really doing well on few race days used. Another team rising is Cedevita in 6th, up from 12 when the month started
On the other end we have Jura GIANTS at the bottom, clearly in trouble, with Los Pollos Hermanos right in front of them. The a suprise team in Team Puma - SAP who are predicted quite a lot higher than 20th. The relegation spots are then taken by Grieg-Maersk and Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam. I would say it is worrying to see Grieg here considering that with Pedersen they most likely wanted to be much higher at this point of the season.
King Power is the team falling the most this month, going from 2nd to 14th. Other teams with a bad momentum is Xero Racing (going from 9th to 15th) and Fastned going from 8th to 12th.
With Rabobank topping the rankings there should be no suprise that Remco Evenepoel is the rider leading the idividual rankings. He follows up his great season start with winning Ukraine and manages to keep his position. We can just say that Evenepoel really has arrived in the mangame!
In 2nd place however we have a new rider who together with his team flies up the rankings. David Per has been the most consistent cobble rider topping it up with Vlaanderen. His results make him move past Eddie Dunbar even though he also had a good month scoring 240 points in his only race this month.
In 4th we have Thomas Pidcock, the rider who can score in any race got a 2nd in Nederland and picked up some extra points in Vlaanderen making him rise from 6th to 4th. Ivan Siric is another big climber (though not a climber, but you get my point...) going from 48th to 5th with his great victory in E3 as the main event
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier climbs (and he really climbs) into 6th with his Colombia win. He is followed by another rider really rising up the standings in Mads Pedersen. His team really need him to score well to stay in PT, and while 7th in the standings are good I believe they wanted him even higher at this point
The winner of Ronde van Nederland goes from 41st to 8th. Simon Yates only raced one race this month, but when you win it that helps your standings a lot. Tom Wirtgen also only raced once this month and was the big favorite in Ukraine. He didn't really deliver and thus falls 1 spot down after bing 8th last month
Filling out the top 10 is a rider not riding this month in Merhawi Kudus. He falls from 3rd but that is quite natural when you don't ride.
Outside of the top 10 it is mostly cobble riders rising up the standings this month with Franceville winner Hampus Anderberg coming in at 13th, Florian Senechal rising to 14th and Floris Gerts getting into 18th
In general a good month for the cobble riders and we are not really looking forward to April where I guess we will see another shakeup of the standings!
Figured that after Remco's win and yesterday's result we had a good shot at keeping first place. Crazy that Remco almost scored 1000 points already.
It will be interesting to see the situation after the next update. We could have a shot at keeping first place if Gerts finishes on the podium in Roubaix, but the Giro will be a question mark. We have Champoussin there, but it's hard to set up expectations for him. Anyway, this looks like it will be by far our best season in recent years, maybe ever!
So far things are coming along pretty well, and my three leaders seem to be somewhat working. 1) Training Farantakis 2) Altur 3) Kinoshita. So I’m happy with that.
Still we have 3GTs that will move us back quite a lot, so we need to keep it up.
4th reads a lot nicer than it really is. We had a ton of race days and a lot of those were slightly underwhelming. We also had a ton of Lecuisinier race days already. The projections tell a lot in regards to how we have to improve a lot and play catch up with some of the teams currently sitting behind us
Rabobank on fire! And with Champoussin in the Giro, it sounds like they could continue to do great. Feels like the path to the title beomes longer and longer for Evonik for every month, even after this kind of decent month
King Power kind of strengthening their position eventhough they got very few points, simply due to not having really bad races. Coming away with 200+ points from Netherlands and E3 must be considered solid for them.
For us, as I always do at this time of the season, checking the gap to the relegation zone... Happy to have a 500 points buffer down to the relegation zone. That's our priority for this year, and fingers crossed we can build and have a strong April from here. On paper we should, with all classics having either Anderberg or Valter in them. There is also the Giro for Groenewegen. If he can continue like he has started this season, we could even be in for a brilliant season
Thanks for the update and writeup. Remco is certainly having a great year. We had a good month with our secondary leaders performing well. We need Kudus to perform at the Giro to stay on track to remain in the division, but I'm hopeful at this point.
Happy to have a 500 points buffer down to the relegation zone. That's our priority for this year, and fingers crossed we can build and have a strong April from here. On paper we should, with all classics having either Anderberg or Valter in them. There is also the Giro for Groenewegen. If he can continue like he has started this season, we could even be in for a brilliant season 
