It's always with mixed feelings when you spot a significantly better result a few seconds ahead. 10 seconds is the difference between 6th and 10th where Ioannidis takes the latter - Especially when there's then a 42 second gap to 11th. BUT, we expected worse, also from Spanopoulos who kept fighting pretty well and have 4 guys within 10 seconds behind him. It would obviously have been better for him to finish 22nd and Ioannidis 6th, but we can't have it all.
Kiriakidis slotted in at aproximately what we could expect. It wasn't due to his TT'ing that he finished 40th. A lot more could have been achieved if he would have climbed a bit better.
In the end we came away with a slightly better result than expected prior to the month. Just enough for us to see Slovenia and Arab Tour making up for the dissapointing underperformances of Torshavn, Benelux and Philadelphia. It was a month with limited expectations, but we only just met the expectations.
Big congrats to the succeeders here - luckily the podiums looks about right, and the top 10 isn't too shabby either overall. Comisserations to those who had similar riders to those finishing lower top 10-top 20 who just sat up and lost valuable points.
Nothing to do with Wirtgen here. Dominant, congrats SN!
For Würtz it more or less went as good as we could have hoped. To be beaten by Wirtgen and Dunbar in a stage race with hilly stages and TTs is the expected outcome. So a great result, in what has been a stellar season for him. Some race days left, but it's great to see the constistency of his performances. More or less always up there in the fight and just a key, key tider for us. Important points now to avoid dropping too low after a poor TdF.
TGH with an awful final TT. Luckily for him McNulty was just as bad so he managed to hold on to 4th spot. A good final race for him, the rest of the team was pretty poor.
11th probably the best GC result we could get here everything considered. With the amount of luck we’ve had in all races during this month I have nothing to complain about. Congrats to the winner and thanks for the reporting!
Not great, not awful. Overall slightly below expectations, because Küng failed big time yesterday. He finished 16 in GC last year, and now he's down to 39th, which I can't quite understand. Brunel even worse, not even getting a Top 50.
On the other hand, Darbellay finally had a good stage, gaining some spots to end up 16th. Top 15 would have been possible without yesterday's time loss, but alas... Maybe I'll go the "cheap" way and train his hill stat, might make him more competitive in these hybrid races.
With Setiawa in 29th, we still end up with an OK-ish score. But we're completely lacking the stage results, in particular from Szarka on day 1. Might be an idea to bring Schmid just for the hilly stages (and/or KoM) next year, at least if we can't finally get a top TTer.
Congrats to Wirtgen, dominant win as expected. Rather surprised to see Dunbar ahead of Würtz in the end, but I guess the bumps in the TT made the difference. Can't be mad at him stealing some points here
Thanks for the reports.
The whole team losing over ten minutes on stage four as they couldn't care less really shows the love of the AI for the team this season. Too much races like this, never the other way around. Congratulations to the winners and thank you for the reports, Abhishek
Obviously a much more selective race than we had been hoping. Highlight has to be Fred Wright taking 2nd place from the breakaway; maybe we need to look at bringing him in on a permanent contract. Thanks for the reports.
What a final TT from Dunbar! The previous stage being as selective was perfect for him being able to climb up onto the second step of the podium. What a privilege being able to battle it out with a rider as great as Wurtz for that spot, even though he lost a little time on the previous stage he had a great race. Wirtgen again untouchable, I think he is more machine than man at this point. Good to see TGH and McNulty doing really well here too.
Thank you so much for the wonderful reports, and congrats to SN if you’re around for Wirtgen’s dominance
