Another poor run in this race, irrespective of the leader we bring. Top 15 was a minimum in this field I think, so we don't take.much back from here. Hopefully Benoot improves in the next races.
What a masterclass by Mauro! I obviously had some hopes after last year's great 2nd place (still unmaxed). But when seeing the startlist, well... feels stronger than the LBL one, at least not much weaker.
But Schmid really used his full skillset to get our greatest classic win so far - the first one at PTHC level (just PT and monument missing now :lol!
He obviously picked the perfect moment to unleash his fighting spirit, with his great acceleration giving him a nice gap over Higuita and Amezawa. Thanks to good Hi/Mo combo and strong resistance, he was able to keep that gap until the top.
Decent downhill skills then ensured he held a slim margin even after the end of the descent. His kick then made him jump away again under the red kite, with pure sprint speed and resistance helping him to get a huge, huge win! Last year, he outsprinted Kinoshita for 2nd, and now he wins the race with a well-timed attack, leading the race for the last 5km - guess it's hard to find some comparable success in team history, really a masterpiece!
And yeah, I was obviously hoping for him to do exactly this in MSR already, but back then there was some Pidcock dude who fortunately wasn't here today - pretty sure he could've won this one, too ^^
Thanks for the congrats, and thanks to jt for the report!
The top 10 is solid by Valter. Had hopes for even more when he was active at the front, but seems like it took a lot out of those active «too early». Happy he could land a top 10 from there!
A quiet race from Schlegel but in the end 18th is not too terrible of a result. That's around what he achieved last year as well. Thanks for the report!
Strange tactics (guess the team were really weak) and so 2nd is a fine result here. Now Areruya is back into hibernation and we have to tread water without him for a few months - we've made a perfect start over in Bordeaux at least
Very cool to see Schmid take that win, congrats Fabianski
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Was already fearing before the race, this would happen, then it happened and while in the end his strength still delivered a great 6th, I always feel, that without him initiating those long range attacks, the podium would always be possible.
So can live with 6th but ideally prefer seeing him a little less active and ride "smarter".
Cool win by Schmid here. Rare win against top level riders.
!
