Well, we came out of this race in great manor really. I had no expectations other than somewhere between 100-150 points, and to keep Becherovka and Vesuvio as close as possible.
So ending up ~150 and ~250 points over them is really unique, and opens up the top 3 entirely.
Vesuvio should have the strongest setup in the final 5 races when combined, but the fact that Bewley can win in Praha, and the TTT is wide open means that things are definately not over yet! It is a thrilling experience to be this close in the top battle. No matter what position I end up having it has been a fantastic season in so many different aspects. The pace have been amazing, the level of general interest and interaction have been great, all my talents are finally developping, the Tour de l'Avenir was great (although I lost by a small margin), we have achieved all 5 goals and the list could go on forever.
So even when I'm nagging about my team not performing the way it should be, it is really in the area of pettiness when looking at the big picture.
Wow, i took a week off Daily and meanwhile whole TONE is done, with such a speedy and quality reporting, thanks matt, great work!
We continue our strong 2nd part of the season and again we were able to get a stage win from the stage race. What a show of power from Ignatiev in a stage7, this is his trademark beasty attack, i love it! Aprt from that some solid stage results from Zmorka, Nolf and our TTT lineup, so even with bad GC finish, we can be happy with outcome of this well designed race.
Big congrats to RedBull for the GC win with old chap Fab and also congrats to Good Energy for brilliant 3/3 with Guarnieri, what a leadout train he had!
First of all, thanks matt for reporting, great work!
Stage win for Ginanni and 6th for Kluge in GC is not bad. Regarding to sprints I´m not happy with AI decisions at all, again. With two better sprinters here, I didn´t enjoy to watch Guarnieri winning every sprinter stage.
Congrats to Smowz, nice to see good old Spartacus delivering once more
Thanks for the reports, they were great and detailed. Worthy of such a strong race! I've just caught up on them.
4th place is a phenomenal result as a PCT squad and given that VSB is not a time trialist at all. Those hilly results were weird but clearly his greater freshness after the cobbles combined with some good daily form to keep him in the race. Also Albert winning the mountain competition was unexpected but makes me happy.
