The bace of this is the same as the CT – PCT with 8 catagories, where 40 riders score points from 40 – 1, the same team can have more than one rider in same category but the 2nd will be reduced with a small factor, the 3rd even more, based on the assumption that they sometimes will be acting as an addition to the leader, rather that score points on their own. The system is describes in more details here : https://pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread....d_id=49015
PT is crème de la crème of MG, and in this case, a deeper insight to what is behind the ranking will come first, The “Tamipoints” itself with be hidden as i find if more fair and resonable to stick with just a ranking from 1 – 22.
COMPLEETE CALCULATED RANKINGS
1 Festina - Dexia
2 Team Puma - SAP
3 Aker - MOT
4 Moser - Sygic
5 Aegon - Lavazza
6 Vesuvio - Accumalux
7 RBC Pro Cycling
8 Evonik - ELKO
9 Tinkoff Sport Academy
10 Pendleton's
11 Wiesenhof - Andritz PTC
12 Hugo Boss PTC
13 Jayco - Cobra9
14 Spotify - Haglöfs PTC
15 eBuddy
16 Ayubowan! PTC
17 Strava PTC
18 Gazelle
19 Porto - Prio PTC
20 Iberia - Team Degenkolb
21 Project: Africa PTC
22 Nemiroff - ABBYY PTC
Sorry for not finish this and there by not making a subjectiv final ranking
Edited by Tamijo on 16-11-2017 08:19
Aegon has a good stabel dept in the squad, scoring points in bacically every Catagori.
The Sprint is Aegon – Lavazza’s favorite catagori, Swift the star with Groenewegen as a close 2nd, there is no doubt that this duo will cross the line first in many races. The only ? is do they lack a strong enough train against some of the other sprinter teams, to be the dominant factor.
De Brie could be amongst the top scoring punchers, but compared to other stars in his terrain he lack some of the final kick towards the line. He is rather hard to predict, but one of the rider we expect to do better than last season, where he was flopping a bit.
The last important card Aegon has is the stage racer duo Keizer/Dekker both great climbers and both with a ITT to match, but they both have some weak spots, preventing a GT podium prediction.
Overall the team has a lot of potent riders, with 10 riders scoring point, that is many in my system. Can also se them winning a TTT on a good day.
As I am sure everyone know by now, Aker – MOT decided to let go of super puncher Hagen Edvald Boasson during transfers. Definitely changing the team profile somewhat. The replacement Beltran (from Azteca – NBCSN) is in a different league, Aker – MOT will not be a dominant team in the Hill’s this season.
So what have we got instead this season, first and foremost a cobbled classics team, The newly acquired Trentin Matteo will be amongst the top scoring riders in this category, especially with the backup he has: Kristoff, Ringheim, Breen ect ect., Alexander Kristoff in his own right very dangerous on the (flat) cobble with that sprint.
Kristoff and Enger will be their top sprinters, with riders like Oss, Breen, Feillu and Cancellara to keep them up front when the fun begins. They should be able to take wins in many races.
In Stage races they have Guldhammer, Galta, Beltran with some fine backup, but they will struggle with weak ITT, can’t see them podium many stage races, more likely they will be fighting for top 10’s.
Overall the squad is very strong, hard to find many fillers here, I would expect to see them take more than a fair share of breakaway wins with so many strong 2nd tier riders. The team average is just impressive. And they have strengt in most type of races.
My calculation places them at 3th. Honestly I believe that is a bit optimistic, but I hope they can surprise me.
Ayubowan!, the first of the promoted teams in my preview, they promoted on the last mandate and you may expect them to be in relegation danger, but my calculations have found that they should be safe. With a few good replacements and skill gains. Most notable is the departure of Pinot and Gautier and the acquisition of Monsalve and McCarthy.
In Stage races and mountain the team has now fully developed Yates and Monsalve, two fine climbers both lacking a little when it comes to ITT, and not the best team to help only Carthy able to sit with them if the pace is up on a climb. Not directly bad but not top PT either.
In the hilly again a duo McCarthy/Bellis, McCarthy the stronger hill climber Bellis with the best finish. Again a terrain where the team can score points, but not at top PT level.
On the Cobbles the team got Baugnies with support in Chatarunga, in the sprint Petit with a few fine rider to lead him, but no actual 2nd sprinter.
With a relative young squad of many developing riders the team average is not impressive, there is not the best depth here, but they got some great fighter types Gallopin, Chatarunga, Turgis, and they need to get in those breakaway to make my prediction stick.
My calculation is rank 16, may be a bit optimistic so everyone has to work hard to survive regulation, it is every close but I think they will.
In transfer eBuddy let go of their 2nd scoring rider Henao, Instead they got top sprinter Grosu, and tempo rider Damien Howson, on paper making the team more fit for any type of race, but also weakening the climber setup some.
eBuddy is a strong climber team, with Gesink as a top leader and some strong support in riders like Brambilla, Aru ect., Gesink is a strong all-rounder, but you can fear he will have to fill too many tasks without the 2nd leader he had last year, to fill in the blanks. Might as well say it right now, my system was not able to catch how deep the climber squad is, (I need to change it accordingly next season), and the score we get is simply to low.
In the hill eBuddy will most likely depend mostly in Boswell, Gesink is a fine puncher but he will most likely be occupied elsewhere, and Boswell got the necessary acceleration to keep up on the shorter climbs. The hill team is fine, but not top PT level.
Top sprinter Grosu, on the other hand can handle a bit of hilly terrain if he needs to. The sprint team is fine with good backup in 2nd sprinter Van Poppel. The cobbles is not a strong side.
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The overall average of the team is very strong and they got some fine riders to go breakaway hunting. My system comes up with rank 15, but that shows my weaknesses, THIS TEAM COULD EASILY GO TOP 8-10
Evonik – ELKO made no major changes at the top in tranfers, but redused the team size some. Losing some debt, but got two strong coblers in Nooytens and Taubel.
Evonik – ELKO is the unusuel top team, with little to no focus on stage races and mountains, instead full focus on hiily and cobbled classics, topspeed on the flat and sprinting.
To keep a long story short a team of (MG)World famous coblers, punchers and a frightning sprint train. Van Avermaet, Van Stayen, Skujins and even Stoltz will spread terror in many a MGHQ that is for sure. The overall avarage of the team is also pretty good, a small but potent squad.
It is hard to imagine a team like this do a PT top 3, with no serious GT leader, but my calculation predict a result almost on par with last season.
Festina is every childs dream of a MG team, hard to say anything about them without sounding cheesy. After (team) Wikipedia had ruled the PT in 2013-2014 but then dissolved, Festina took the crown in 2015 with a relative narrow margin to Vesuvio, last year they won the PT with 25% more point that the team on 2nd Becherovka – Petrof (now Moser – Sygic).
In transfers they lost top sprinters Tzortzakis and Haller, and some 2nd tier tempo riders and climbers..
The teams major force is Stage, Mountain, TT, possibly the stronges in all of them, but they have lost some important depth in stage races compared to last season. In the puncher races Koretzky very dangerous with a combo of punch acceleration and an acceptable sprint, but here they are not at the highest PT top level, the same goes for sprinting (Coquard), great sprinter but lost his backup.
All in all a brilliant team with riders for most race types, and a strong average.
Will they win the PT again, YES most likely they will; can they dominane as last season, no if my estimates hold I don’t think they can, the top 3 (or 4) might be very close this season
Gazelle had their first PT season in 2016 finishing way above regulation danger at a very respectable 15th. Transfers have seen them letting go of aging puncher Monfort, and acquire some stage race debt in Ian Bibby.
In stage race the team is pretty strong led by Madrazo with a very fine backup, also very fine team for the hills, Ginanni the leader with help from many strong riders. The question is if it is enough with only limited options in sprint and on cobles, and no terrain with 2 strong top leaders.
Gazelle is another one of those teams, where my calculation tends to miss the debt of the squad in the mountains and hills, I assume that my ranking may be somewhat lower that what it should have been, this one is hard to predict it is very much up to Madrazo to make or break the season.
Hugo Boss qualified for PT as 3rd in 2016 PCT. Having a busy transfer making the team ready for the tougher competition at PT level. Notable rider they let go was Costa (Berg Cycles) and Kump (Isostar), instead they got some stronger replacement in climber Alarcon (Red Bull) and puncher Ponzi also strong climber backup Carapaz ( both formerly Kenya Air).
With these reinforcements they have a super team for the hilly races, and also I fine climber setup.
What we are missing to make it a top team, is TT ability in the stage races, and the complete lack of a cobles/sprint setup.
The overall squad is fine with a few good breakaway options.
My calc. system says 12 well outside regulation danger,
My instinct would expect is to be ok or maybe a little high. 12-14
Formerly known as Pokerstars.com, the team finish the last season just outside regulation in 2016, mainly due to a brilliant season by John Degenkolb scoring 37% of their points.
In transfers the team has weakened some in the mountains losing 2nd climber Keinath (Vesuvio), Maybe also at least on paper a slightly weaker sprint setup, with Mohs/Lay replaced by Zabel/Criado, but with new replacement is a bit stronger over the hills, which could easily turn out to be a great move. The last interesting acquisition Maes a fine cobbler and also the fastest on the flat very useful in the sprint train.
The team has a top level sprint setup, but I fear that the reduced mountain squad might turn out to be a problem, especially if Degenkolb can’t keep up with last year’s season. Izagirre is the top puncher but not top at PT level. My calculation is Rank 20, let’s hope John can prove me wrong.
Jayco('z) formed in 2012 as Oz Cycling Project, entered PT in 2015 landing an impressive first season 11th. Right from the very beginning the team had a clear Australian focus, to this day very evident in the squad composition.
In transfers we saw them lose 2nd climber Penasa (from loan), Also the sprint setup was crippled some losing Matthew Goss (Indosat Ooredoo), many other changes was made most notably replacing Marcus Burghardt with Pieter Vanspeybrouck. All in all I see it as a slightly weaker squad compared to last season.
Jayco - Cobra9 has their strength in a multi terrain squad, they will undoubtedly make good points in any kind of race. Their force is top puncher Jack Bobridge, secondly Vanspeybrouck on the cobles and Luke Durbridge in the ITT’s, the two weakest terrain stage race/mountains and sprints will be the Achilles' heel to keep them out of the PT top level. Both Morton and Haig lack the power to make top results in GT and other top level races, and Lahcen Saber although improved a lot since last season, is a good sprinter but at PT level he will find it hard to get stage wins.
Formerly known as Becherovka - Petrof, Moser – Sygic ranked 2nd last season relying heavily on a massive scoring Sam Bewley, but also good results from Velits and Sagan.
In transfers the team had to let go of sprinter Leigh Howard without replacement. Otherwise they replaced a few climbers with others of more or less at equal quality, maybe adding a little to the mountain squad and weakening the hilly, but just minor changes. A lot of the core squad is unchanged from last season.
The team is super strong in most categories with Sam Bewley a dominator on stone and in sprints. Sagan a top 5 puncher with a good acceleration and sprint, Velits may not be a top PT stage racer but he has got world class backup in the mountains and from a generally very high level team.
My “calculation” places Moser – Sygic as 4th, that seem to be fair based on the fact that Sam Bewley had an unbelievable good season last year, and the team lost a top sprinter. It will be a close fight at the top, not surprised if they land higher, seem a bit more unlikely that they will get much lower.
Formerly known as VisitUkraine p/b Nemiroff, Nemiroff – ABBYY ended last season as PCT 7th, just an inch in front of Ayubowan!
In transfer they acquired Aleksandr Pluchkin (Metinvest-Dacia) as new top leader of the squad, definitely a strong all-rounder in stage races, a world class rider. They also acquired some additional strength in time trail, making the team a fine TTT squad.
Former leader Damiano Cunego was sold to Repsol – Honda, spending his last years at CT level, let’s hope he does well there adding further to his 63 all-time wins.(he need 4 wins to top that list)
The question is not if Aleksandr Pluchkin will make a lot of points, it is almost safe to assume we will end above the 2000 mark, the question is what else have they got, and that is not so much.
Some options in sprint with Vanderbiest, but not really anything on stones and hill’s at this level.
My calculation send them to the bottom, due to the lack of depth anywhere expect in mountains. Im not sure that is completely fair, but I am not sure it ain’t either. I will stick to it for now.
Pendleton’s (first year as Pendleton's Twicer) entered MG in 2011 after the team sponsor AON Global (2009-2010) gave in. Last season that landed 12th. in PT rankings.
In transfer the team added sprinter Jurgen Roelandts and backup Barry Markus, creating a sprint segment to the team, something they haven’t got last season. Otherwise the team is basically unchanged. This won’t make them a very strong sprinter team but it will ad the final dimention. The team has clearly improved compared to last season.
With the addition of sprint, Pendleton’s is now a very all-round team. Only thing they miss is a leader with a strong TT, something that may prevent Dombrowski from taking those top GT result, they got Nibali with a good ITT but he is not between the best climbers.
The above small details aside this is a very strong team, with a little luck they may be one of the top teams this season.
My calculation say 10th, I’am quite sure they will end higher than that.
Porto – Prio entered MG in 2010 as Team Energie-Diesel, in 2014 they had a single season in PT and now they are back with a 2nd attempt.
In transfers they made the unusual but interesting decision to focus on getting tempo riders, making the team one of the strongest in TTT and ITT, adding Jacob Fiedler, Marlen Zmorka and Roy Goldstein.
It is very hard for me to come up with a qualified guess in this teams options, my calculations says rank 19, don't know how far a strong TT can take them, let’s hope that do better than that.
Project: Africa entered MG in 2013 at the time as MTN - World Bicycle Relief. Building a squad of mostly South African riders. Making it PCT 5th last season this is their first PT season.
In transfers the team sold of two climbers Ratiy (MOL) and Eastman (Azteca) to get the stronger Daniel Martin, as new leader for the GT ect., the team also acquired sprinter Georgos Tzortzakis
The team has some good debt but the lack of top stars in any terrains. Even top star Martin can’t be considered a top 5 candidate at PT level. My calculation come up with rank 21, something in that region seems reasonable.
RBC Pro Cycling dates back to 2012, entering MG as Alstom-BIC, form 2013 changing to RBC Pro Cycling. The team finished rank 16 last season.
In transfers the team have reduced the team size, we see a reduction in their puncher squad, losing Boily and Jensen, while they have improved on cobbles with Summerhill and sprint with Howard .
I think this will show to be a good move, instead of a semi good puncher section, they now got a top cobbler. My calculation says 7, that may be a little over the top but I think inside top 10 is a safe bet.
Spotify – Haglöfs entered MG in 2011 as Team Falcon – Husqvarna, a team with its roots planted in Sweden, but also with many riders from the Nordic neighbours. This will be the first year in MG’s finest division, promoting from PCT 6th.
In transfers the team have been added two leaders to the stage race squad, Abal and Wellens. Abal the stronger if TT envolved, Wellens with more punch. Not top GT leaders but on a good day.
At the cobles the have added Stallaert and backup Broers to a not previously existing setup.
All in all they have a good coverage with options anywhere, best in sprint and on cobles, I think they will make it and avoid regulation.
Entering MG in 2015 Strava have direct promoted every year so far, from CT 2nd in 2015, and from PCT 4th in 2016...remarkable.
This year they can’t promote and it is a fight against regelation, trying to get a stable foot at PT territory.
In transfers Strava have been very active, letting go of 16 riders to sign 13 new.
Before transfers Strava did not have any GT (stage) racer, that haven’t changed and will be their weakness.
They have acquired punchers Jan Bakelants (Bouygues Telecom) and Laurent Pichon (RBC Pro Cycling) to replace Anthony Roux (Xero Racing) significantly strengthening the team in the hilly races.
Also in the flat sprinter friendly races they have developed, replacing Sascha Modolo (Ferrero – Samruk) with a strong duo of Jacopo Guarnieri (Grieg – Eftel) and Kris Boeckmans (Bpost - Vlaanderen). Now having a good power and debt in sprints, backup by strong lead-out Lasse Norman Hansen.
On the cobble stones, they have let go of Jérôme Baugnies (Ayubowan!) and Damien Gaudin (Aker – MOT) only holding on to the weaker Sebastian Langeveld.
My calculations is Rank 17, I think that is a little optimistic with no stage racer and limited options on the stones, but then again the have surprised before.
Team Puma - SAP was founded in 2012, after some years in PCT the team was promoted to Pro Tour for the 2nd time after the 2015 season and then had a splendid 2016 ending 6th.
The team had a very silent transfer, letting go of just three riders and acquiring a single talent. The only important change was letting Maxime Daniel go, the 2nd cobbler after Blythe.
The team has a wide range of scoring options in every single type of race, making them a considerable danger if and when others are not at their best, that will prevent them from making it to the very top, is the lack of a top of the best GT riders, Herklotz is a good riders but can hardly see him pull a GT podium.
My ranking systems got Puma ranked 2nd, I think that is a bit optimistic and would rather see them around as 4 or 5.
