February is done and it's time for PT update #2! A much busier month this time with 7 races: Roma Maxima, Tirreno - Adriatico, Paris - Nice, Classique du Grand-Duché, the Cheshire Cycling Tour, the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT and the first monument of the season, Milano San Remo. Three stage races, a TTT and three classics means plenty of chances to move up, and plenty of chances to fall. The teams have now used between 30 and 40 race days, so the PpRD column is starting to tell us something. Same as last time I will start at the bottom and work our way up to the top.
At the bottom we find Ekoi - Renault with 547 points, down 2 spots from last month. Only 359 points in February, and 14,39 points per race day is now the worst in the division. Emiel Verstrynge took the mountain jersey in Tirreno and Kevin Vauquelin was 2nd in the youth classification in Paris - Nice, but there were no big results anywhere. Last month I asked if 20th was their best position all year. Right now it's starting to look that way.
Just above them though Los Pollos Hermanos on 565 points, only 18 points ahead of Ekoi. 319 points is the lowest February score of any team, and they drop from 17th to 21st. The Grand-Duché was the best race with Sergio Higuita 9th and Juan Ayuso 12th, and 6th in the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT gave another 90 points. They are already 239 points behind 20th, so the bottom 2 are starting to drift away from the rest.
Last month I said they needed to wake up before the classics, and they did! Aker - Ab InBev were dead last with 103 points in January, now they are 20th with 804 points. 701 points in February is the 9th best month in the division, and their points per race day has more than doubled from 11,44 to 23,65. The Cheshire Cycling Tour gave 211 points with Hampus Anderberg 3rd on stage 2 and 5th overall, and Nils Eekhoff adding 66 points. Cedric Bakke Christophersen won the youth jersey in Tirreno, Giovanni Carboni was 11th in Paris - Nice and Jefferson Alexander Cepeda was 2nd on stage 4 and 2nd in the mountain classification there. Last place in the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT is the only thing to complain about.
The other team that needed to wake up, Fastned, also did. They climb from 21st to 19th with 811 points. Mauri Vansevenant was 4th and 5th on the last two stages of Tirreno and ended 4th overall for 159 points. In Paris - Nice they won the team classification, and stage 7 was a Fastned party with Lennard Kämna 2nd, Michel Hessmann 5th and Ide Schelling 6th. Vito Braet took the mountain jersey in Cheshire as well. 678 points in February, a massive improvement on January.
Going the other way, cycleYorkshire drop from 12th to 18th with 852 points. Only 475 points in February, and 23,67 points per race day is now the 4th worst in the division. Gabriel Cullaigh was 8th in San Remo, Nicholas Schultz 6th in the Grand-Duché and Thomas Gloag won the youth jersey in Paris - Nice, but nobody scored more than 91 points. Last month Cullaigh wore the leader's jersey in Qatar, this month the best they managed on a stage was 2nd, from Nicolo Buratti in Paris - Nice and Davide Ballerini in Cheshire.
Gazelle move up 1 spot to 17th with 887 points, and that is even with the 15 point penalty from Qatar. 664 points in February, and this time it is not a one-man show. Lukas Kubis took 80 points in Cheshire and was 12th in San Remo after getting boxed in during the sprint, while Andreas Leknessund was 7th in Paris - Nice. 224 points from Paris - Nice and 181 from Cheshire, so this time they scored in more than one race.
Polar drop 1 spot to 16th with 899 points, but together with Indosat they have used the fewest race days in the division, only 30. Egan Bernal won stage 6 in Paris - Nice and took the yellow jersey, lost it to Kudus the day after and then fell off the podium in the final TTT. 4th overall and 2nd in the points classification still gave him 259 points. Edoardo Zambanini was 8th in the Grand-Duché, and Andrea Bagioli was still out front with 500 metres to go in San Remo before ending 17th. So close!
Xero Racing climb 4 spots to 15th with 945 points. Thomas Pidcock was 2nd on stage 3 in Tirreno and ended 5th overall, Ivan Romeo was 2nd in the youth classification and Xero won the team classification. 317 points from Tirreno alone. Add Joseph Areruya 5th in the Grand-Duché and 4th in the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT and you get 716 points, the 8th best month in the division.
Hunter Valley Cycling are 14th with 974 points, up 2 spots. And what a day they had in San Remo! When the sprint fell apart on the Via Roma Kaden Groves found the gap and won the first monument of the season. An Australian winning a monument for the Australian team, it doesn't get much better than that! 315 points from San Remo is the best score by any team in the race. Jack Haig 8th in Paris - Nice and Michael Storer 10th in Tirreno added 96 and 77 points.
Specialized take a big fall, from 6th to 13th with 988 points. Only 464 points in February, and 17,19 points per race day for the month is not good enough. Tom Wirtgen won Tasmania last month, this month he only got 21 points. Javier Romo 7th in the Grand-Duché was the best result, and Pascal Ackermann was well placed in San Remo before running into the back of Dainese in the sprint and ending 11th. 5th in the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT gave 105 points, but they need more than that.
Cedevita are 12th with 1042 points, up from 14th. In Roma Maxima Ivan Siric attacked 6.4 km from the line in his Bosnian champion's jersey and nobody could follow. After three straight 2nd places in the race, he finally got the win! In San Remo he was the lead-out man for Jasper Philipsen, who sprinted to 3rd, and Siric still ended 9th himself. 186 points in Roma Maxima and 279 points in San Remo, the classics suit them well.
Indosat Ooredoo drop 3 spots to 11th with 1117 points. They won the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT 9 seconds ahead of King Power with 8 riders in the top 8, good for 250 points. Lachlan Morton was the other bright spot with 5th overall in Paris - Nice. Not much else to talk about though, Tirreno and San Remo gave only 76 points combined.
DK Žalgiris are 10th with 1163 points, down from 7th. 2 stage wins in Paris - Nice, Rokas Kmieliauskas on stage 4 and Lithuanian champion Venantas Lasinis on stage 7. Max Kanter was 5th in San Remo for 129 points, and 3rd in the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT gave another 140 points. A solid month with 662 points, but they are now 119 points behind 9th.
MOL Cycling Team climb from 13th to 9th with 1282 points, and Paris - Nice was a dream race for them. Kristoffer Halvorsen won stages 2 and 3, wore the yellow jersey for 2 days and took the points jersey. Then Merhawi Kudus took over. 3rd on stage 4 and into yellow, lost it to Bernal on stage 6, took it back on stage 7 and held on by just 7 seconds after the final TTT. 537 points from Paris - Nice is the second biggest score by a team in a single race this month. Add Robert Stannard 8th in Tirreno and you get 932 points, the 5th best in February. They have used the most race days in the division though, 40.
Bolt - Eesti were 2nd last month, now they are 8th with 1309 points. Only 570 points in February, and Fernando Gaviria, 5th in the individual rankings last month, did not score a single point. Barnabas Peak came from the back of the group on the Via Roma to 2nd in San Remo, 205 of the team's 240 points in the race, and Eriks Toms Gavars won stage 5 in Paris - Nice. But 34 points in Tirreno is not enough to stay near the top.
ELCO - ABEA are 7th with 1310 points, down from 3rd and only 1 point ahead of Bolt. They won the TTT on the final stage of Paris - Nice, and that moved Miltiadis Giannoutsos ahead of Bernal and onto the podium in 3rd. 275 points from Paris - Nice. Stylianos Farantakis stayed out of the chaos in the San Remo sprint and ended 6th for 115 points. Still a deep team, but 689 points is only the 11th best month.
Carlsberg - Danske Bank drop 2 spots to 6th with 1325 points. Cheshire was the best race with 211 points, where Mads Pedersen was 7th overall (A big dissapointment). Add 13th in San Remo and that is 162 points for the Dane. In Tirreno Gyasi Sulvaran was 4th overall going into the final stage but got dropped on the last climb, and Alex Aranburu ended 11th. 733 points is the 6th best in February, so not a bad month at all.
My number 1 prediction is starting to look a bit better! Assa Abloy climb from 10th to 5th with 1336 points, and 933 points is the 4th best month. Last month it was all Dainese, this time the points came from everywhere. Silvio Herklotz was 2nd in the Grand-Duché, William Blume Levy 4th in Roma Maxima, Elie Gesbert 3rd on 2 stages and 9th overall in Tirreno with Jaako Hänninen 7th, and Nikolaos Zegklis took the mountain jersey in Paris - Nice. Then Alberto Dainese was 4th in San Remo, and maybe unlucky after Ackermann ran into him in the sprint. Only 16 points to 4th place, and with 41,75 points per race day only King Power and Rabobank are better.
Last month I asked if anyone could stop them, and February did a pretty good job of it. Evonik - ELKO fall from 1st to 4th with 1352 points. 474 points is only the 19th best month in the division, so they will be happy they had that big January in the bank. Salem Kemboi was 2nd on 2 stages in Tirreno and Tao Geoghegan Hart 10th in Paris - Nice, but no big results anywhere. 39,76 points per race day is still 4th best, so no crisis yet, but they are already 384 points behind the leaders.
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team jump 8 spots, from 11th to 3rd with 1388 points. 1005 points in February, only King Power scored more. Matej Mohoric won stage 3 in Tirreno, was 2nd on the last 2 stages, ended 3rd overall and won the points jersey for 294 points. Florian Senechal was 2nd on stage 2 in Cheshire and 3rd overall, and Pavel Sivakov was 9th in Paris - Nice. Points in all 6 races they rode. Last month I said 29,46 points per race day was not great, now it is 36,53.
Rabobank are 2nd with 1506 points, up from 5th, and they scored in all 7 races this month. Remco Evenepoel was 2nd on stage 2 in Tirreno, took the leader's jersey and kept it all the way to the final stage, where Gidich beat him by 14 seconds. So close again, after missing out by 4 seconds in Tasmania. Olav Kooij won the opening stage of Paris - Nice, Clement Champoussin was 4th in the Grand-Duché and Maikel Zijlaard 10th in San Remo. Last season's great story continues, but can they catch the leaders?
That leaves only 1 team, and they were only 9th last month. King Power are the new leaders with 1736 points, and 1276 points in February is by far the best month by any team so far this season. Tirreno - Adriatico was the King Power show with 4 stage wins! Chun Wing Leung won the prologue ahead of Filippo Ganna, Emiliano Contreras won the sprint on stage 5, and Yevgeniy Gidich won the last 2 stages and took the overall on the final day, 14 seconds ahead of Evenepoel. 548 points from Tirreno is the biggest single race score of the month. In Paris - Nice Brandon McNulty was 2nd overall, only 7 seconds behind Kudus. Add 2nd in both team time trials and Filippo Conca 7th in San Remo, and you get 51,06 points per race day, the best in the division, and a projected score of 9191. I asked who can stop Evonik, but the truth is who can stop the power of the king?
New month, new leader! Alberto Dainese takes over the top spot with 509 points after his 4th place in San Remo. Right behind him Remco Evenepoel jumps from 12th to 2nd with 479 points, and his 315 points in February is the second best month of any rider. Last month's leader Salem Kemboi drops to 3rd with 451 points, only 83 points from Tirreno this time.
The top scorer in February was Yevgeniy Gidich. He didn't score a single point in January, but 364 points from Tirreno takes him straight in at 4th. Tom Wirtgen is 5th, and the rest of the top 10 is Gabriel Cullaigh, Miguel Angel Lopez, Olav Kooij, Eddie Dunbar and San Remo winner Kaden Groves, who climbs from 43rd to 10th.
Just outside the top 10 it is very tight. Barnabas Peak is 11th with 311 points, Kristoffer Halvorsen 12th with 308, Merhawi Kudus 13th with 307 and Matej Mohoric 14th with 304. Only 7 points between them, and Kudus got all his points in Paris - Nice, while 294 of Mohoric's came from Tirreno. Going the other way, Fernando Gaviria drops from 5th to 16th after a February without points.
Rough month for us, although it was expected to be a tough one with the triple header and cobbles focus, but really unfortunate that the Siric block in MSR cost us a metricshitton of points that could prove very costly come end of year.
March is also looking quite rough for us with Nederland being the only race where I expect actual scoring in as everything else is cobbles before April comes in with the GT season kicking off!
King Power living up to their favourites tag with an insane month for them. At the bottom of the table it's looking tough on Ekoi and LPH which is expected.
Didn't get as much out of Cheshire as I hoped, but I guess the depth points came through for me there more than I realized, with Resell's GC position bumping us further especially. Tirreno was okay too and we mostly kept pace in our other races even if I hoped for more. Not looking amazing on PpRD, but I'm always going to prefer points in hand. We won't really know where we stand until after the PT classics season, which is still a while off.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
At least we've been able to stay within striking distance of 19th and upwards! Very obvious a month where I hoped for quite a bit more. Valter's start to the season has made me super worried. In that way, encouraging to see us be close to the teams above, but he needs to find his proper level. And quickly, please!
Not a disaster to be 11th in the month when 7 of those teams ahead of us had another race to score points from. We basically had a bad TTT race in Malmø, but other than that it was as expected. Another 50 points from that race and we would have been pretty much status quo. Very close between 3-8th still, so we need to make those extra points here and there.
To see so many sprinters in the top 20, and Farantakis not there show just how much better our season actually could have been though!
Good month for us thanks to great results from Siric and Philipsen. As long as two don't fall off a cliff we should be fine. King Power are looking good, but they haven't opened up a big gap just yet. The fight for the last safe spots might also be interesting.
Good month for us thanks to great results from Siric and Philipsen. As long as two don't fall off a cliff we should be fine. King Power are looking good, but they haven't opened up a big gap just yet. The fight for the last safe spots might also be interesting.
Overall, a good but unspectacular month for us. We're scoring consistently well, but missing out on the big results. Apart from Herklotz in Grand-Duché, we're still without a race podium this season.
Nice to see Dainese at the top of the individual rankings. He's spent a good chunk of his RD's, so the PrRD is not super impressive, but could have been a lot worse also.
Must admit I missed the Braet Cheshire KoM jersey, which is a nice bonus clearly.
That said, I feel like the month should have been closer to the double amount of points with Vansevenant likely being able to be closer to the win or podium and stage performances in TA and obviously also higher scoring in MSR was expected and same with Hooydonck in Cheshire.
It was a decent scoring position around mid table of the month but seeing my lineups it should be closer to the top5 in that period. Even more seeing the top teams were a lot better while the bottom teams just a bit lower, so the gap downwards isn`t that big.
PN only race, where I feel, that I got lucky with that final stage and some more points scored there.
I need more of those lucky events and a very high consistency in especially in the hill and cobble classics, where I am in need to higher my PPRD a lot.
Not bad (yet), keeping up with the pace, but it's hard to expect pprd continue to stay where it is now, but with divinity on my side everything's possible
The start of a long and slow drag towards relegation it seems, results sadly won't get too much better until Grand Tour season and by then it looks like it will be too late... Got to hope there's a few surprising results that keep us in the mix.
John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25
