Great reporting over many reports Imladrik! Well done!
Congrats to all winners, specially Knockout on the GC win.
I guess looking at that season we should've seen Rabobank winning something, congrats Alex!
As I wrote earlier, even though the way there is strange I love how the final standings ending up. We got the top 3 favorites on the podium but after them we got some fantastic stories with wildcard 4th, young guy in 5th, a random Norwegian in 6th. Whats not to like?
A huge thank you to Imladrik for great reports all through the race! The level of reporting remains tremendous.
This was the racing equivalent of 'touching your nose from behind your head' for Haig! At the start, if someone would've asked for my prediction (and yes, I know Heine did ) I would've predicted 3rd for Haig, as I wasn't confident he could beat Sivakov, given the season he had till then. However, Haig was clearly the stronger climber, especially in the final week. Such a shame with the time loss on a flat stage that we didn't get a head to head for 2nd place. Lecuisinier was clearly never in any real trouble, even with his own time loss initially. Big congrats to knockout, and this lays a great foundation for that championship challenge!
Coming to the rest of the team - Leemreize put in a huge performance to back up his good showing in the Dauphine. This was exactly the type of rides I was hoping for when training him in the off-season. Zmorka and Rekita both did their part to perfection in both the TT and the ITT, with Zmorka's win in the latter giving a great deal of satisfaction. Hayter's race kind of mirrored Haig, as he too lost huge time early on, but then scratched his way up to 2nd in the U25s. Hofstetter managed to get points on only one stage but it was always going to be tough given the startlist. Ulysbaev was a an able support for Haig on the climbs, managing a respectable GC position as well. Naveen became the first and only Indian to complete a GT as a non-wildcard rider, contributing to our 3rd place in the TTT.
In terms of results, we ended up with a decent haul from here to continue our attempt to escape relegation. The early misfortune probably made us lose a decent amount of points, which might be the difference between safety and relegation!
Leknessund with a bit of an off-day in the TT, but it doesn't matter as he still rose to 6th in the Tour de France GC. Great result for such a young rider with only 78 MO! This bodes very well for his stage racing future.
Thank you for the magnificent work, Imladrik!
And congrats to our deserved winner.
First of all, enormous thank you to Imladrik for being extremely high quality reports every single day! Reporting a GT is a huge undertaking and I really appreciate it. I've had some insanely busy weeks recently, but it's been nice to to take 10 minutes to read the reports and refresh my mind a bit.
Also, congrats to knockout for finally crossing off that long awaited goal of winning the TDF. In this startlist it seemed like almost a certainty, but still an amazing accomplishment. Unfortunately it does seems like the day of bringing a superteam and dominating points all the way through are diminishing in newer PCM versions. Lecuisinier definitely more passive than he should have been with all the breaks, and the scoring won't be as high. But still a very convincing victory to the world's biggest race, so congrats!
For us, what a race it was. The first week, it seemed like nothing could go right. Skjelmose was tumbling down the rankings on flat days, and it seemed like our team was aimless, with a few random domestiques finishing in the front group each day while our leaders floundered. But then, one huge break put Skjelmose in 2nd overall, and he locked in. It's clear that having that GC position turned the AI in his favor, and he didn't look back. A lot of luck in the timing of that for us, but I will take it.
Enormous race for Skjelmose in the end. The goal all along was white. But to wear the yellow jersey for three days is something I never imagined this early in his career pre-training. And then to fight as hard as he did to hold onto the GC is just as crazy. A top 5 finish overall, white jersey, stage podium, and multiple days in yellow is really a top 1% results for us here. And it's very encouraging for us too, to know that his low stamina is not a disqualifying factor in a GT like this where the mountain stages are relatively short in length. Feels like training him is a legitimate option again. And scoring wise, this performance seems like it makes relegation very unlikely.
The rest of the team was a little less active since we had an unexpected GC place to protect, but that's okay. Gregaard in the top 25 and Eg in the top 40 are nice depth results with TDF scoring. Rodenberg maybe disappointed slightly from what I hoped after his great beginning of the season, but he still routinely participated in the sprints with a few solid results. 5th on the Champs is nothing to sneeze at in a fairly strong field.
Thanks again to everyone who participated and made this race happen!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
) I would've predicted 3rd for Haig, as I wasn't confident he could beat Sivakov, given the season he had till then. However, Haig was clearly the stronger climber, especially in the final week. Such a shame with the time loss on a flat stage that we didn't get a head to head for 2nd place. Lecuisinier was clearly never in any real trouble, even with his own time loss initially. Big congrats to knockout, and this lays a great foundation for that championship challenge!
Great result for such a young rider with only 78 MO! This bodes very well for his stage racing future.
