This was always going to be Areruya's race, so 2nd place alongside a couple of nice stage results is all I could've hoped for from Meintjes. Not the strongest on the final stage, I was a bit worried about Olivier there for a second, it was good enough. A Rwandan winner ahead of a South African on a Rwandan team, that's just lovely to see from our perspective. Pretty cool to see Nsengimana very active in breakaways, too, just as a cherry on top.
We amassed a fair amount of minor points here, too. 6th in the points and U25 classification (decent performance from Tesfatsion given that he has done a lot of work for Meintjes along the way), 4th in the teams classification and 26th, 34th and and 40th by Eyob, Ndayisenga and Tesfatsion. Not a huge haul, but it all adds up. Really happy with the race, and very nice reports as well, thanks for those sean!
Thank you all for the love on the reports - these have been some of the more fun to share although Theuns domination early in the season also deserves a vote in that category.
A true mixed bag for the SEE Turtles. Was fascinating to watch breakaway formation each day and see how we'd manage to slide riders in. S4 is one that will haunt us for a bit though. Trillini's puncture caused Duchesne and Ganjkhanlou to drop back and try to pace him back. Instead, all three ended up riding about 100km alone and mostly dead. It's not the only factor, but that could not have been a benefit to their energy in the final stages.
On the positive note, we basically expected zero scoring from this race and ended up with our 3rd best point tally of the year so far. It's not an impressive amount, but anything is better than zero. Trillini's attempt at a sprint on S3 was equally helpful as I thought he may not even go for it. A 5th place there was a huge overperformance and he is leaving the race happy.
Duchesne was planned to a be a GC leader here until we discovered just how strong the peloton would be. He adjusted well and I couldn't be prouder of his impact on the race the last few days. He probably should've given up trying to score the maximum points on the steeper KOMs and dominated the flatter finishes on S7, but he'll adjust in the future. Still, a huge result for him to find a way for an impact.
Our younger guys also represented well. Our S1 breakaway gang was massively successfully, putting Vermaerke into a scoring position in the KOM standings early in the race. He'd been trying to find his position in the team and his first points of the season are giving him some purpose. Ganjkhanlou is sad to be missing out on points himself after some great days in the breakaway, but our leadership has also seen his punch. He didn't expect to be as effective on the hills as he was and its bringing everyone some extra motivation to find their untapped talent.
6th from Penasa, 10th from Sicard, 23rd from Barta and 3rd in the Team Standings is not really bad overall. Congrats to Xero Racing for the win and to seancoll for the reports
A shame to lose a podium spot on the last stage due to bonus seconds - but still a good debut for Yates. A bunch of good stage finishes from him, Nur Hasan and Arif Prayogo certainly helps too.
Obviously not having hit the stage win but with a TT start, which is easily not Olivier`s best, it`s a great run towards the finish to come in 3rd. Only beaten by better allrounders and puncheurs even though the gap to Meintjes in especially wasn`t big.
Though, neither was it to Yates or Karlsson behind. Always up there in the important stages and a podium in GC is all I could ask for here.
