It’s a pleasure to showcase the first month of CT rankings, as teams competed across three continents, three race classifications, and 6 races to put together a strong month of hill classics and sprint races.
Down Under Classic only earned two CT scorers with Deutsche Windguard leading the way for the division with 26 points. Australia also featured the Great Ocean Road Race later in the month, with a surprising group able to get to the finish together ahead of some of the marquee sprinters. Simba Cement – Tanga Fresh and JEWA TIROL Cycling Teams took the greatest advantage there with 32 and 31 points respectively while DeNA Roadstars also found some points as the only three scoring teams in the division.
Australia was also the home of the Tour Down Under, the longest stage race of the month. The SEE Turtles found two top 10 GC results to lead the way with 90 points while Deutsche Windguard refused to be outdone with 13th – 15th in the GC. Karthago gaining 67 points should also deem the race a success for the new squad.
Two hill classics bookended the month for the puncheurs and climbers. Both races see Deutsche Windguard taking the points lead with 55 at Clasico San Jose and 39 at Hong Kong Challenge. Fincantieri – Grand Seiko earned 51 in Costa Rica with the first CT victory of the year since the PCT ranks earned the win at DUC. IESE Pro Cycling Team takes the 2nd best result in Hong Kong with 35 points. Air New Zealand-Prada shouldn’t be ignored with their 49 in San Jose as well.
The biggest race score of the month though comes from Mexico where the SEE Turtles gather 191 points from Circulo de Juarez. They take a whopping 148 point advantage over DeNA Roadstars who take a respectable 43 points from the HC sprinters fest.
Pos
Team
Jan
Down Under Classic
Clasico San Jose
Tour Down Under
Circulo de Juarez
Great Ocean Road Classic
Hong Kong Challenge
1
SEE Turtles
306
0
19
90
191
0
6
2
Deutsche WindGuard
230
26
55
76
34
0
39
3
Air New Zealand-Prada
109
0
49
0
36
0
24
4
Karthago
98
0
17
67
0
0
14
5
JEWA TIROL Cycling Team
97
11
29
0
0
31
26
6
Fincantieri - Grand Seiko
64
0
51
1
0
0
12
7
DeNA RoadStars
62
0
0
0
43
16
3
8
Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh
53
0
7
0
0
32
14
9
IESE ProCycling Team
48
0
0
13
0
0
35
10
THE ONE - Fox God
39
0
4
26
0
0
9
11
IncaLine Pro Cycling
31
0
14
10
0
0
7
12
Banco Vaticano-Valkyrie
20
0
0
0
0
0
20
13
Tafjord Kraft
20
0
19
0
0
0
1
14
Billstedt-Horn
12
0
0
0
12
0
0
15-D
The Cardinals
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
16-D
BikeNZ - Limonaad
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
17
Brandt Cycling Team
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
18
Euskotren - Pays Basque
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
19-D
Giovinco Foundation
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
20-D
Le Creuset
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
21
Parmalat - Croatia
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
22-D
Saubea
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
23-D
Team Trululu
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
24-D
Z2Z Dev Team
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Well, the individual races tell you the division rankings with no additional months to combine… but let’s take a closer look!
The SEE Turtles have their best January ever to take the CT lead with 306 points, scoring in each of their 5 races. Their 191 points in Juarez would have earned them 2nd in these rankings without any additional races. The Turtles surely know their PpRD will decrease throughout the season, but clocking in over 20PpRD for the month showcases just how many things fell their way.
Another favorite for the division was Deutsche Windguard comes through with 230 points and doubling any of their remaining competitors. One of the most impressive pieces of their month is that their lowest scoring race was 26 points. Great depth has ensured the debutant’s success and given them the 3rd best PpRD of the division.
Air New Zealand – Prada deserves some real praise as the final team above 100 points for the month. While not a MG historian, this stands out as the best January performance for the Kiwis and potentially their highest ever ranking in the CT standings. Three overall strong performances, but especially from Lutsenko are putting this team on the map.
Karthago and JEWA TIROL Cycling Team have to accept being just a tad under the century mark with 98 and 97 points. The newbies did so over 12 racedays while the JEWA TIROL boys took only 8. Still, points in the bank are always better than expected points from a high PpRD. With 9 months to go, JEWA TIROL can still be proud having the 2nd best PpRD in the division though.
The gap between 6th and 11th is 33 points, the same difference between 5th and 6th.
Fincantieri – Grand Seiko leads this crew after their victory in San Jose. Still the gaps between these teams are minimal so far with each of the teams in the group having completed 10 RD or more.
We skip down to 15th to highlight The Cardinals – the only development team to move off of 0 points. The MG universe will have to continue to wait for a development rider to earn their first point as they continue to learn from their veteran leaders.
A few teams will be very disappointed in the month without any points to show for their efforts. Parmalat-Croatia will probably be the team with the most questions having utilized 10 race days this January. Brandt will also reconsider their use of 4 race days while Euskotren – Pays Basque opted to avoid the January races all together.
More than a few of the division favorites for the individual title haven’t started their schedules yet, so the individual lead heads to a member of the top rated team so far.
Dylan Kennett leads the way on the individual rankings with a big result in Circulo de Juarez taking a 6th place in GC and a stage victory. His leadout, Atsushi Oka found his own way to a 2nd and 5th place in the stage results in addition to a strong GC result of his own. Together, the SEE Turtles sprint duo takes their results to the top of the rankings.
Of course, two from the Turtles must be followed by two from Deutsch WindGuard. Kamberaj nickel and dimed points in Mexico, DUC and TDU. Together, he was always finding his way near the front and takes 3rd in the first month.
Quita climbs his way to 4th as the premier puncheur across San Jose and Hong Kong. Two strong results might be even more important than a single victory for setting the standard moving forward.
El Sabbahi was an overperformer in most contexts at the Tour Down Under, but pulling together 62 points was a major victory for Karthago.
Standout recognitions head to Deutsche WindGuard for 5 individuals in the Top 20, SEE Turtles for 4 in the Top 10, as well as Air New Zealand – Prada and JEWA TIROL Cycling Team for 2 in the Top 15 each.
Pretty happy with that month, no races that really suited our team yet but El Sabbahi's performance in TDU still let us net a decent total.
Hard to tell where we really stand this early in the season. Don't expect to compete with SEE turtles, Deutsche or JEWA, while a lot of our rivals for the remaining promotion spots haven't really started their season yet. Especially DeNA and Banco Vaticano will have some sudden spikes when Powless and Cras start racing.
Appreciate the write-up Sean, and congrats on a great month yourself!
Came into the year targeting around 7th, and it feels attainable after a mixed bag January: DeNA and Banco will come up behind for sure with Cras and Powless, but some of the teams above can get pegged back.
Feel pretty good about the Kinoshita - Langellotti pairing. Whether Aquilani, Onodera, and Masnada can deliver will determine what our ceiling is.
Not cool to be lagging behind so much already, knowing that two of our best remaining cards, Pira and Stalberg have quite some concerns regarding stamina.
Cool to see many of the debutants doing well though.
Thanks a lot seancoll and congrats with a great January!
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