It was the first test for our cobblers - and as expected, the result wasn't too exciting.
We did however get some TV time. The plan was for one of our cobblers duo to try something - preferrably to get into the break of the day. Or to attempt a late move.
Well, we then made another rookie mistake: to put all of our eggs in one basket. Not one, but both of Jake Stewart and Jan Sommer joined one of those mid-range attacks which never, absolutely never succeed, and whose sole reason is - getting TV time. We would have preferred some more promising moves, but to be honest - a top result was never realistically on the table in this race.
Jan Sommer chasing the front group that already included Jake Stewart.
They were obviously caught and neither was able to follow the decisive moves (we'll never know if they would have been without spending too much energy prematurely), and we were expecting a zero-pointer. But while Sommer indeed ran out of gas, Jake Stewart saved enough energy to hold onto 21st place, scoring the expected 5 points. Even after his extra-effort.
So while we didn't quite follow our game plan, the result was satisfying enough - and the way we got those points (missing out on an even higher score by just one spot) gives us some hopes for the upcoming cobbled races!
It's always fun when other people are telling you how you should feel about your team
It's fine - I guess I really overreacted because of that final TDU stage (which I still think is a shame for an otherwise great race by Paez). Let's hope we learnt our lessons then
Sometimes it makes the frustrations more nuanced though...
Awesome team for the Tirreno! I think a "top" result is very likely there. Also fun to see if Larsen can actually get a good result or two here. The prologue could be fun for him atleast.
Indeed, very happy with Tirreno so far
Frustrations are just part of the game - but starting a season with two frustrating races (even though TDU was nice apart from the last stage) after an already very frustrating season just isn't that motivating...
Have to agree that Tirreno will probably be the most fun to watch! Basically every stage should give you some fun dynamics to watch.
Please take as many points away from our CT counterparts in GW!
Looks like the sprint stages might be the only ones we don't really care about, but indeed fun to see the team so far If only they did that last year (tbf Schmid wasn't trained, guess that really makes a difference in PT races).
Will see what we can do in GW, won't refuse some points
January wasn't really kind to you, but as long as Schmid shows some of his PT magic in his ranking races as well you should have a strong season ahead of you!
The 2nd out of 4 cobbled HC classics on our calendar was another one where we didn't have big hopes. Too many cobbles, too little difficulties - not the greatest terrain for our best cobbler.
But we still wanted to light up the race, and we did! This time, we sticked to the initial strategy, so it was only Jan Sommer attacking. First, he attacked to join the early breakaway - the group was however caught with 60km left.
He then tried again, even initiating the move this time:
Jan Sommer having some fun in Belgium
This move lasted even less time than the first one, but alas, we got our TV time. All eyes now on Jake Stewart for the finale!
What a shocker for us then when Jake wasn't even in the front group of 33 with 35km to go! He was just awfully positioned when the split happened - another throwaway race, and the season's first zero-pointer for us...
...but wait! Unlike the DS, Jake didn't throw in the towel yet, and passed one exhausted rider after the other! He actually finished 16th - which is worth 10 points, twice as many as we expected!
What a great fight by Jake - he just leaves us wondering what could have been had he simply paid a little more attention in the decisive moments of the race... But we happily take these points anyway.
Race Review | Tirreno - Adriatico | PT
Unlike the cobbled races, this one was a sure zero-pointer. Just because it was a wildcard race. We were here just for fun - and we did indeed expect to have some fun!
And indeed, the fun started right on day 1 - as one of our riders really had some redemption to do for last year's bad results:
Niklas Larsen on his way to the hot seat in the prologue.
Larsen led the race for quite some time, before eventually slipping down to 4th. As much as we would have loved a podium - the top 3 simply were stronger, both on paper and on the road. So this part of his redemption tour was just fine. And by the way, Fabio Christen finished 11th, taking the white jersey on day 1!
But what we were mostly here for anyway was the hills! We really wanted to see how Mauro Schmid performs against a PT competition after his intense training camps. He did pretty well!
An stage 2, Andres Paez stayed with him even on the final kilometer, bringing Mauro into a fantastic position - and the latter rounded off the great team work in the best possible way:
Mauro Schmid winning stage 2 of the Tirreno - Adriatico!
After Paez got his first win on stage 2 of the Tour Down Under, Schmid now did the same in Italy, edging out Evenepoel on the line! First PT stage win for Mauro (and only his 2nd career stage win), what a way to kick off his season! And by the way, Paez finished 7th, so a really great result for the team - accounting for... zero points, sadly.
Sadly, the stage was surprisingly unselective, and so Mauro still had a lot of time (and ranks) to make up in order to get a Top 10. The next stage, ending on a fast downhill, would have be a perfect chance to double down - sadly Mauro wasn't positioned well enough and "only" took 8th on day 3. But this stage was much more selective (with Paez and Aebersold making the front group as well), so our two puncheurs were 10th and 17th after 2/4 hilly stages.
Mauro then changed his strategy for the final two days - instead of risking to miss out due to bad positioning, he decided to control things right from the front - which made things look pretty similar on days 6 and 7:
Mauro Schmid leading the peloton on the final 500m both on stage 6...
...and stage 7.
However, it wasn't the winning strategy, either. Maybe he could pull this through with another little bit of training - but this year it was just other riders capitalizing on his work.
On stage 6, Schmid dropped all the way down to 13th, so that really was a bad move. He did much better on the final day, though, taking 3rd place and another stage podium - and moving up to 6th place overall! Just 2 seconds short of 4th place, though, so what could have been had he timed his stage 6 move a bit better...
But we don't want to complain. We were here to have fun, and to learn. We achieved both. We got a stage win, a 3rd place, a Top 10 GC result (plus Paez in 14th place!) - and Mauro did learn a lot about how to spend - and not to spend - his energy.
Furthermore, Mauro ended up 4th in the points standings, tied for 2nd in the KoM standings (with Roman Holzer taking 4th, just 2 points behind Mauro!), so it was a really good race overall. One of those races we would have needed last year to stay up - but also a race that gives us hope that we could be in for a pretty fun season in the PCT hills!
January wasn't really kind to you, but as long as Schmid shows some of his PT magic in his ranking races as well you should have a strong season ahead of you!
Yeah, Tirreno definitely gives me some hopes He will surely have his weaker races as well - in particular the long classics, where he could be hit or miss - but I'm hoping for some really good results for sure
Schmid looks indeed pretty scary for the races where it does matter, I sure don't look forward to having to face him most of the time with Madouas And a solid result by Stewart in KBK, curious to see what he can do at Le Samyn today!
Schmid looks indeed pretty scary for the races where it does matter, I sure don't look forward to having to face him most of the time with Madouas And a solid result by Stewart in KBK, curious to see what he can do at Le Samyn today!
Well, I'm not looking forward to always facing Madouas, either Guess it's going to be quite the rivalry, in particular in a certain kind of races (in the other kind I'm not looking forward to facing Awezama ).
But yeah, he looks promising indeed. He better does given the amount of money we already pumped into his post-max development
Stewart can do very well in some races and be anonymous in others - he's in that range where performance (not even potential, because that's always there) heavily depends on startlist and profile. Samyn and also Macskako should be favorable; Luxembourg as well in theory, but lots of things can go wrong there... So yeah, hopefully some more points by him
The first of two mandatory cobbled stage races this year (the final one being the wildcard ToNE) - although often that just seems to be an alias for "lottery". Those races can go either way, more than any (or most) other.
Still, we believed that with local hero Jake Stewart we brought a very well-suited rider to this races - he's got the sprint to fight for bonus seconds, the punch to survive the stage 2 hills, and of course decent cobbles skills to (mostly) hang onto the big guns. He was - once again - supported by Jan Sommer.
The plan indeed seemed to work out right on day 1, where our riders still showed great presence with 3km to go - only to decide not to participate in the sprint. A first bummer, and one we didn't have any explanation for. Well, Stewart still decided to sprint a little bit, and ended up 13th - so nothing lost, but far away from any valuable bonus seconds sadly.
Stage 2 was the one we supposed to be decisive for the GC, with a rolling finale. Perfect terrain for Jake. On paper, at least. In race, he seemed to just not feel well - he couldn't hold onto the first chase group (including the likes of Eekhoff, Lapeira or Kubis - riders he absolutely matches on this kind of stage usually). He led home a huge group of 20 riders, taking 11th place - not an ideal constellation, with 13th through 30th being on s.t. The positive point though was that Sommer made this group as well, so at least we now really had two cards to play!
Jake Stewart sprinting to 11th place, just missing out on fully closing that gap.
On day 3, it was redemption time, with another sprint finish after a hard start of the stage. We really expected Jake to sprint this time - but he cared even less than on day 1! Instead of trying to get some bonus seconds - aiming to at least secure a Top 15, and not risking to drop to 30th - he simply didn't care and finished outside the Top 100! Definitely not an attitude we liked here.
At least, our sprinter talent Fabio Christen joined the sprint, gaining some valuable experience already. He didn't quite manage to get some ranking points, finishing 11th, but it's still a rather promising result. By the way, Jan Sommer cared much more about positioning, being well aware of the implications on his GC position - he finished 20th on the day and moved up to 13th place in GC!
Fabio Christen in the mix on day 3, testing his legs against the strongest sprinters and cobblers.
So we had two riders in the Top 30 heading into the final stage. In principle, it could have been a promising one, including a hill whose final meters are cobbled - but that hill was way too far away from the finish line and we didn't really expect it to have an impact.
Our two cobblers stayed safe in the pack all day long, so it all came down to the final sprint of a big bunch - 61 riders in total - after a very unselective stage. And our riders got the message: they both were pretty well positioned - and both sprinted this time!
Jake Stewart and Jan Sommer both sprinting for bonus seconds!
And indeed - both managed to grab a Top 8 and hence some crucial bonus seconds! Jake finished 6th, getting 3", whereas Jan got the final bonus second! Which put them ahead of all the other riders they were on s.t. with before this stage!
And while we had some - more or less - secret hopes of getting a GC Top 10, the final result with Jake Stewart in 13th and Jan Sommer in 14th place is definitely a great achievement as well! Getting more than 80 points out of this race - a PpRD above 20 in a cobbled race! - is really amazing and is exactly what we needed after a relatively slow start to the season (ignoring some cool wildcard success)!
Just to put things into relation: We expected 80 points in total from the two "lottery" races - getting more than this in the first of the two already is clearly great news - and hopefully a sign of more great things to come from our cobbles duo!
Race Review | Le Samyn | HC
No respite - after a three-day break, the cobblers already faced their next challenge! Back in Belgium, Le Samyn awaited them. A pretty easy race on paper, but with repeated cobbling and climbing and - most importantly - an uphill sprint finish, we had quite some hopes for Jake to do get his first classic Top 10 for us!
For once, none of our riders was in the breakaway - and none of them did any of those mid-range attacks we don't really like to see. Instead, we saw some helpers close to the front of the pack, even taking turns. Which might be surprising at first, but given that the raze organizers had Jake as a Top 5 outsider, it wasn't that surprising after all.
There were plenty of attacks in the final 30 kilometers - but Jake didn't join them. Instead, Jan was always by his side, protecting him throughout the entire race (except for the final kilometers).
When there was a group of 9 getting away with less than 10km to go, it looked like we might have missed the decisive move - but Jan Sommer did a great job, contributing to bringing them back! So it all came down to the last kilometer... And under the red kite, the situation looked like this:
Jake Stewart in 7th position, with some gap to the Top 5.
It turned out that this gap was decisive - and at least for the Top 2, it actually was. And with 200m to go, Jake was still outside the Top 5 - or can you spot him here?
Per, Girmay, Wisniowski, Tediashvili and Jacobs - and where's Jake?
Actually, we noticed in hindsight that he is there - we can just spot his front wheel on the right edge. But the next time we saw him, the picture was much clearer - and a pretty surprising and exciting one:
Jake Stewart crossing the line in 3rd place!
Indeed - out of nowhere, Jake suddenly surged to 3rd place, narrowly beating UBS' Jacobs for the final podium spot! What a fantastic sprint by our great Brit! Congratulations! And by the way, Jan Sommer also finished inside the Top 30, adding some points to his tally, too.
A podium in a classic is always a good result, at least it has always been for us. But this one still feels special. Yes, we do have two cobbled classic wins, and some podiums. 3/3 wins and 4/5 podiums so far were scored by team legend Eddie Theuns (with Tediashvili getting the final podium in a C2 race).
So today, we got our first cobbles podium in the post-Theuns era. With a 76 cobbler. That's quite something! It wasn't fully unexpected - we knew this race and Macskako suit Stewart really well - but a podium wasn't a given nor even an expectation by any means. Jake (and we) had this dream - and it came true! Great job!
We'll look into more detail what this means in terms of points when the ranking updates are here, but what we can say is that we outscored the (low) expectations of this Cobruary by far - just with Cheshire and Samyn. And Stewart has already reached his season target. This lets us hope for more to come! Maybe tomorrow already, when Sommer will ride the C2 Gent - Wevelgem?
Whereas two days ago Jan Sommer did an amazing job for Jake Stewart - who got a fantastic 3rd place in HC race Le Samyn - it was now his turn to lead the team, and to get everyone working for him. Our mandatory C2 races were selected with him as our leader in mind - and while not all races might suit him, we expected Gent - Wevelgem to be one of his best chances to shine.
A rather flat race - with no hills near the finish line - and lots of crosswinds usually favours the better rouleurs among the cobblers (with decent stamina as a bonus), and some sprint skills are always handy when a sprint of a small group is expected. That's pretty much what Jan brings. The race organizers honoured his skillset by putting him 2nd on the favourites list - no pressure, Jan!
However, we didn't have the right riders to work hard in the peloton - no single cobbler besides Jan, just talents gaining experience - and so we picked the best strategy for not having to take turns - breakaway. It was neo-pro Cameron Rogers who managed to join the BotD:
Cameron Rogers (bib 67) riding in the front group.
However, it was a very fast race, made hard by the chasing peloton - and so Cameron couldn't stay with the group when things got really tough. But the entire group was caught with about 30km to go, so he didn't miss out on a big chance.
Once Cameron was caught, Jan Sommer definitely had the freedom to attack. A first attempt wasn't fruitful, but a second attack over the top of the Kemmelberg did quite some damage:
Jan Sommer in a strong 8-rider group with less than 30km to go!
10 kilometers later, this group's lead had grown to 1'33", and it looked very much like the winning move! And even better news - Jan actually was the best sprinter in the group - meaning he had to be very much aware of attacks, given that some riders surely wanted to avoid going head-to-head with him!
However, there were no attacks - not too surprising given the heavy winds - with just two helpers dropping from the group. So they were 6 battling it out for the win - and it's pretty clear who had to sprint from the front:
Jan Sommer having to launch the sprint from the front...
You don't want to have the best sprinter behind you, so Jan had to take the worst position. But no-one managed to take him by surprise, and so...
Jan Sommer winning Gent - Wevelgem!
What a day, what a performance, what a sprint - what a win! Jan Sommer, race winner - that sounds pretty incredible, but it came true today! The proof:
Jan Sommer celebrating his first career win - in a Belgian cobbled classic! Insane!
What a couple of days this have been for us - first a really strong team result in Cheshire. Then a fantastic 3rd place by Stewart in Le Samyn. And now, a classic win! Yes, it is "only" C2, but it's still an amazing story - as always, when you get a homegrown rider to celebrate such a win! Jan will never shine on the biggest stage - he's not a future monument winner, we know that. And had we remained in PT, he would not have won a race this year. But our relegation led to this big opportunity in C2 - and what a way to take it! Big congrats, again, Jan!
And just to relate: so far, we had only one rider winning on cobbles - the legendary Eddie Theuns, scoring 3 wins (and 4 podiums). Jan is our 2nd rider to get crowned. And the 4th to achieve a podium (with the 3rd being Stewart two days ago). He's the 5th Swiss rider to win a cobbled classic after Cancellara, Spengler, Dillier (yes, I include Arenberg in the list) and Jacobs. And only the 9th Swiss to win a classic at all (highly expecting Hirschi to become #10 this year!). And it's even Switzerland's first ever C2 classic win (great thanks to Mre and Ulrich for the win list!), so that's not just team history he's just written, but also Swiss history to some extent.
We'll go into more details about the points once they're confirmed for February, but what we can already say is that the team (respectively Stewart and Sommer, our only two scorers this month) have exceeded the scoring expectations for the season already - great job, and hopefully everyone else takes an example of them!
After Cobbruary turned out to be a much better month than expected - we'll cover the ranking updates right below the March preview - we're now into more favourable terrain. At least in theory - after all, it's not going to be easy to perform better than Stewart and Sommer last month!
We're looking forward to three of our absolute team leaders launching their (official) season, with all of Schmid, Bissegger and Darbellay having a pretty important race this month. But let's take a look at the March races one by one:
Mar 05 | Strade Bianche | HC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Mauro Schmid
72
77
79
80
68
73
78
73
69
70
79
78
74
66
Andres Paez
73
72
75
77
68
74
70
73
58
73
76
76
65
68
Jake Stewart
77
62
67
72
68
74
77
73
76
76
71
67
68
70
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Stan Van Tricht
72
69
71
72
62
73
73
70
65
72
77
71
65
63
Joshua Golliker
69
69
72
68
66
70
69
65
66
61
68
76
72
64
Jan Christen
69
67
68
68
67
68
71
63
66
59
69
73
66
69
Bjoern Koerdt
70
63
68
64
63
66
69
68
63
63
69
68
70
63
Tactics
It's pretty obvious that this race should suit Mauro perfectly. Not too long, lots of repeated climbing, a short final uphill sprint, and - what makes this race really special - lots of gravel sections. There's pretty much nothing Mauro dislikes about this race.
We tried to put together a decent support squad - first of all with Paez, in one of the few races where they'll ride together. But all of Stewart, Delco and Van Tricht are also capable on the hills. We hope for as many of them to stay with Mauro late in the race, to help him save energy for the final dash.
The expectations are high - as in most of Mauro's classics this year: in C1/HC, we expect a Top 5 in hilly classics, knowing he is capable of doing more. He could also fail, but that risk is higher in longer races (although a mechanical can always happen).
So we're hoping for a kick-off similar to the one he did in Tirreno, and for at least one of his helpers to pick up some depth points!
Track Record
Best: 23rd (Xuban Errazkin, 2023)
Expectations
Result: Top 5
Points: 60
Mar 07 | GP Izola | C1
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Andres Paez
73
72
75
77
68
74
70
73
58
73
76
76
65
68
Gergely Szarka
77
62
65
67
61
72
73
76
60
78
78
64
66
72
Jake Stewart
77
62
67
72
68
74
77
73
76
76
71
67
68
70
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Stan Van Tricht
72
69
71
72
62
73
73
70
65
72
77
71
65
63
Nils Aebersold
68
69
71
72
60
70
70
70
60
63
69
68
66
62
Jan Christen
69
67
68
68
67
68
71
63
66
59
69
73
66
69
Bjoern Koerdt
70
63
68
64
63
66
69
68
63
63
69
68
70
63
Tactics
Whereas Strade Bianche is a perfect fit for Schmid, Izola is tailor-made for riders like Paez. Quite some bumps, but not too much climbing - and an expected reduced bunch sprint in the end.
Andres has already shown in Down Under that he can perfectly handle such a finish, winning stage 2 there. So we're hoping for him to at least be in the mix, and then anything is possible.
If the race is very easy, we also send Szarka as a pure sprinter (who can handle some minor bumps, too). Otherwise, it's pretty much the same support squad as for Strade, except for Aebersold taking Golliker's spot.
The goal is to protect Paez as well as possible, and to give him the best possible position heading onto the final straight. Van Tricht would be the perfect rider to lead him out - and then, we'll take what we get. A Top 10 is the goal, but improving on our best finish so far (7th) would be nice.
Track Record
Best: 7th (Marcel Aregger, 2022)
Expectations
Result: Top 10
Points: 20
Mar 14 - 18 | Tour of Norway | HC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
69
80
73
77
72
61
72
73
64
71
77
Valentin Darbellay
69
79
75
71
76
73
75
77
64
67
65
70
67
76
Andres Paez
73
72
75
77
68
74
70
73
58
73
76
76
65
68
Gergely Szarka
77
62
65
67
61
72
73
76
60
78
78
64
66
72
Christoph Janssen
72
67
68
68
76
71
74
74
55
59
67
65
65
76
Gustas Raugala
72
70
70
70
75
71
74
69
54
58
65
66
71
76
Cameron Rogers
73
62
65
68
71
72
70
68
65
65
67
71
67
74
Jan Christen
69
67
68
68
67
68
71
63
66
59
69
73
66
69
Tactics
It's Stefan Bissegger's first race of the year - and it's directly his most important one! Given that there's no PTHC/HC-level pure TTer's race for him (we preferred Denmark over Germany), he will have to display some climbing skills to be successful here!
We do have faith in his uphill capabilities, though, as neither of the stages are very hard, and Stefan definitely handles more than just a few road bumps. Plus, he gets quite the support squad!
Most notably, Darbellay also launches his season here, and while he's primarily here to support Bissegger, he could also get a good result on his own. Paez can't TT, but he's a good puncheur, so besides supporting there could be two stage opportunities for him.
And then we obviously have Szarka for the two opening stages, hoping he'll be more interested in the sprints than in DUC.
To round off the roster, we send our next best TTers with Janssen and Raugala, hoping for the latter to play a decent role in the U25 standings as well. Rogers and Christen are mainly here to learn, and we're expecting points from neither of them.
Speaking of expectations, what are they? Well, Stefan should be a Top 3 TTer (given Zmorka's expected absence as per his schedule). All he has to do is following the top puncheurs on the two days after, and we hope he can succeed and get a Top 3 GC! Top 5 would be the minimum target.
Furthermore, one of our depth and support riders scoring would be great, we'll see what we can do!
Now, on paper this is a race that should suit us - and in particular Darbellay. But it's also a race that's been giving us headaches for years now. Why?
Well, Darbellay already tried last year - but he didn't actually try, he simply didn't care. And we're very much afraid that the same will happen again; in this race, Bissegger will clearly not be strong enough to keep up with the climbers on day 2. But history shows that you need either a great climber (we "only" have a good one) or a great TTer (we only have a "good" one as well) to be successful.
We haven't cracked the code yet, and we're unfortunately not very optimistic this year. We're sure that riders of Darbellay's level will do well - not because they're better, but because they've got a better leader. So the only thing we can do now is hope that Valentin finally gets some self-confidence and actually joins the climbers on day 2, instead of lurking in no-man's land.
Expectations sadly had to be put very low, so if all of a sudden we happen to find the right code, this could be a massive race for us. Most likely it will be a write-off though.
The Tour of Britain is a race we have great memories of. But back in the days, it had a TT. We loved it. It no longer has a TT. We no longer love it. But we still had to pick it, just for our two loaned-in Brits!
Initially, we also had some hopes, despite not sending Schmid here (the profiles just looked too easy for him). Paez is a very capable hills rider as well - but then we discovered that he only finished 30th last year. He might just be a little bit too weak to really be competitive...
If he gets going, we're sure he can get a Top 20, which must also be the goal. But he could also fail miserably, we just don't know what we can expect.
We do however expect Szarka to perform well in the two first stages, hopefully getting some valuable points. Then we'll see what happens in the hills - Paez can surely be competitive, but he needs to actually care, and then to get his positioning right. Hopefully he's learnt his Down Under lesson by now!
Otherwise, lots of riders who could be aggressive, in particular Stewart or Van Tricht would be decent in a breakaway. We'll see; expectations aren't very high, but some successful moves could still make it a good race.
After his great success in Gent - Wevelgem, Jan Sommer is looking forward to the remainder of his C2 campaign!
Well, maybe not that much to this race. He's no puncheur by any means, and so even though the hills aren't too hard, this might be the cobbled classic that's the least suited to him.
But after all, he already has a win in the bag, so confidence is high - and why not get another surprise here? Reaslistically, though, we'll have to be happy if he gets any points at all...
Track Record
Best: 3rd (Giorgi Tediashvili, 2023)
Expectations
Result: Top 20
Points: 5
Summary
This month has two halves with very different expectations. We're hoping for the first half of the month to be rather successful - and if we really want to join the promotion fight, we definitely need as many points as possible in these three races!
The back half of the month consists of three more "shaky" races; we could score well if things work out in our favour, but we could end all of these three races without a single point. We definitely hope that the worst-case scenario doesn't materialize, but you never know...
All in all, we expect 265 points from these 19 RDs - which would be a pretty miserable PpRD in particular given that all of Schmid, Bissegger, Darbellay and Szarka will be racing. So we hope to get at least 20 PpRD again - after all, we shouldn't do worse in hills and TTs than on the cobbles, right?
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Ranking Update | Cobbruary
We've already said it in the race review - Cobbruary was a far better month for us than anticipated! 5 cobbled races, thereof 4 classics, and all of this with our top cobblers having 76 and 75 in their main stat.
And yet, we scored 240 points, which is a PpRD of exactly 20! We were the 8th highest scoring team this month - and it's not because we raced a lot, on the contrary, as there's only one team that has raced even less so far!
While we're about 400 points behind the promotion spots by now, we're still not too unhappy with the situation; the gap could be much bigger by now, and we believe that we can still close it in the next 8 months. So our situation is more or less as expected - at least we're no longer on a relegation spot.
And we've already talked about it, but let's just honour our cobbles department's performance so far - this is their expected vs. scored points:
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Jake Stewart
120
143
14.30
758
632%
Jan Sommer
50
95
6.79
333
665%
Total
170
238
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1,091
642%
Both have already achieved their season target; Jan has scored almost twice as many points as expected so far. Obviously they won't score according to projections, as they'll have many more less-suited races, but it's great news for us that we already got quite some value for our (relatively little) money in this department!
Lovely performances by Stewart and Sommer, as you say. Congrats on the win, maybe Sommer takes the mantle of C2 cobbles cheat from Teggart
Thanks Guess I'd still take Teggart over Sommer (if he was Swiss ), just because he climbs a little better - Sommer really is just for the (almost) pan-flat races. But I'll take what I can with him
I can tell you that for Sommer it felt like he just won Paris - Roubaix, OK?
I mean, it's the only level he can realistically target a Top 10 or even more, so I'm happy he just did this
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad | 
Jake Stewart and 
Jan Sommer joined one of those mid-range attacks which never, absolutely never succeed, and whose sole reason is - getting TV time. We would have preferred some more promising moves, but to be honest - a top result was never realistically on the table in this race.
Tirreno - Adriatico | 
Niklas Larsen on his way to the hot seat in the prologue.
Andres Paez stayed with him even on the final kilometer, bringing Mauro into a fantastic position - and the latter rounded off the great team work in the best possible way:
Cameron Rogers who managed to join the BotD:
Xuban Errazkin, 2023)
GP Izola | 
Tour of Norway | 
Tour of Ukraine | 
Szymon Rekita, 2023
Giorgi Tediashvili, 2023)
