Just in time with the Post Vuelta / Pre Tour de France rankings update for the Pro Tour teams.
But it`s more than the Vuelta, easily. Fleche Wallone and Liege Bastogne Liege are included to end the Ardennes Week.
Rund um Köln, Riga Jurmala and Colombo Classic add for the one day racecs alongside stage races in Scandinavia and Norway for couple of PT teams and then the full PT Tour preperations in Suisse and Dauphine. So lots of points on the board to shuffle the rankings a lot before the Tour will obviously do the same afterwards.
Vuelta a Espana
Taaramae won the Vuelta and is the highest individual scorer and obviously this delivers Aker as well the top of the team list.
Tinkoff with a nice team performance led by Kritskiy following in 2nd almost passing the 1000 point mark.
Gazelle, Festina, EA Vesuvio and Repsol fought for the final podium spot point wise with Madrazo securing it for Gazelle alongside the win in the team competition, while Bongiorno/Kastrantas scored huge for Festina bringing them surprisingly high here, Kudus having a decent GT performance for Repsol and EA Vesuvio`s Godoy taking the KoM win, which is already the team`s 2nd GT KoM this season with the chance to make the perfect triple in the upcoming Tour de France.
Also with decent races and more than 500 points for Aegon with the GC trio Olivier/Keinath/Velits, who all landed inside the top 20 and runner-up in the team ranking, SPAR with Denifl and eBuddy with the overperformance of the race that delivered Brambilla far above some stronger riders closely to the top5 overall.
At the bottom Podium Ambition the only team with less than 200 points.
The last PT ranking update leader Puma with 244 points only lost quite a bit on the teams behind, which makes the rankings more exciting again.
Team
Vuelta
1
Aker - MOT
1667
2
Team Tinkoff
979
3
Gazelle
698
4
Festina - OAKA
624
5
EA Vesuvio
593
6
Repsol - Netflix
584
7
Aegon - Lavazza
543
8
SPAR - Siam Cement
520
9
eBuddy
501
10
Isostar - LimeBike
383
11
Bennelong - Mitchelton
362
12
Moser - Sygic
345
13
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
337
14
Grieg - Maersk
309
15
Evonik - ELKO
286
16
Farfetch Pro Cycling
275
17
Generali
258
18
Team Puma - SAP
244
19
T-Mobile
244
20
Fablok - Bank BGZ
242
21
Air France - KLM
231
22
Podium Ambition
115
Other Races
The main points might have been given ini the duo of Suisse and Dauphinee but some teams really performed in the Ardennes and PTHC races as well, which making it a nice scoring balance througout the rest of the races.
Indosat for example scoring 912 points in 3 classics, which is simply stunning. Bakelants in LBL and Fleche Wallone alongside huge scoring in Köln by Kristoff will see them jump a lot in the rankings.
Air France with Eddy the Boss, EA Vesuvio with Gastauer, Aegon with mainly Groenewegen in Köln as De Bie did not show up a lot in the Ardennes but also Gazelle, Evonik, Fesina, Fablok, Isostar, SPAR or T-Mobile had a nice triple PT classic run early on.
Coming to the PT stage race duo Suisse/Dauphine.
Grieg takes the crown in Switzerland as Phinney was having a nice prep for the Tour here. Farfetch, Bennelong, Tinkoff coming closest with Festina and Gazelle also scoring well.
Dauphine then was taken by home rider Sicard and Air France making him a bet for the Tour as well next to Phinney.
Bennelong as well doing very well here just like Generali, Gazelle, Evonik or Puma. In especially the sprinter stages will be reminded for quite some time with Evonik smashing those.
PTHC saw 4 events of which Bennelong has a great Scandinavia Open Road with Grieg, Farfetch doing well, too.
Norway then goes to Generali closely beating Podium Ambition while the classics were topped by Vesuvio in Colombo and Moser in Riga.
The total is taken by Air France scoring well in most races actually but it`s close as Bennelong is just 2 points behind. Taking in the Vuelta would give them the win of those two even though there is simply no beating of Aker then.
Grieg and Indosat also with less than 100 points behind them having a great month.
Vesuvio, Genrali, Gazelle, Farfetch, Aegon and Evonik the other top10 teams in those races having nice balance througout.
Team
Köl
FW
LBL
Sca
Nor
TdS
Rig
Dau
Col
Total
1
Air France - KLM
123
132
138
0
0
87
98
540
170
1288
2
Bennelong - Mitchelton
83
99
45
284
0
321
47
407
0
1286
3
Grieg - Maersk
77
40
40
199
122
657
0
114
0
1249
4
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
279
308
325
24
60
174
0
64
0
1234
5
EA Vesuvio
128
116
258
139
0
142
0
92
184
1059
6
Generali
50
68
174
0
229
147
0
390
0
1058
7
Gazelle
45
101
141
0
111
252
5
362
0
1017
8
Farfetch Pro Cycling
61
81
89
205
96
329
0
142
0
1003
9
Aegon - Lavazza
208
74
133
0
0
178
70
168
123
954
10
Evonik - ELKO
129
68
159
36
0
184
41
322
0
939
11
Festina - OAKA
140
90
211
72
0
274
0
74
42
903
12
Fablok - Bank BGZ
65
196
133
0
107
57
0
130
162
850
13
Isostar - LimeBike
96
176
112
115
0
211
46
55
0
811
14
Moser - Sygic
40
169
103
0
85
61
125
188
0
771
15
SPAR - Siam Cement
74
112
114
0
0
181
41
96
137
755
16
Team Puma - SAP
107
50
45
0
0
116
97
274
35
724
17
Team Tinkoff
72
77
45
18
44
376
0
56
0
688
18
T-Mobile
54
135
226
27
0
85
9
111
0
647
19
Podium Ambition
158
40
40
0
219
80
0
57
0
594
20
Repsol - Netflix
45
40
45
0
119
108
0
226
0
583
21
eBuddy
164
89
45
0
37
64
0
88
54
541
22
Aker - MOT
99
40
59
0
0
184
0
90
0
472
Full Ranking
But how does the picture look when taking all the races until now into the formulas?
Puma had ~350 points to Generali and another ~50 to Isostar.
At the bottom Farfetch had a gap of ~300 to Repsol and Fablok with Tinkoff and Podium Ambition just under the line with Indosat/SPAR/T-Mobile/Evonik just above.
Some teams were mentioned quite a bit already and surely have scored well lately.
To make it short! Puma has lost the lead. But it`s neither Generali nor Isostar actually, that jumps to the top. Gazelle coming from quite far down taking the steps from 6th to 1st. Their scoring in many races and a great depth in most races gives them a kind of surprising top spot after 2 GTs.
But also Generali has passed Puma, which is down to 3rd. But all 3 of them within 40 points, which is super close that far into the season. Herklotz for once not dominating this Dauphine probably the main reason as a better performance would surely have seen them still being at the top.
Air France in 4th also just 150 points behind and with a strong Tour by Sicard surely a potential leader in the next update while Isostar in 5th would need a few more points already dropping a bit just like Moser from 4th to 7th, while Aegon in 6th actually climbed a bit despite having quite a bad Ardennes triple not even in the top10 with De Bie.
Aker clims a bit to 8th while Bennelong, Festina and Grieg remain in the next spots unchanged but extending the gap to the bottom.
There Farfetch has passed the last team, which now is Podium Ambition. T-Mobile also dangerously low from 15th to 20th while Fablok and Repsol are the other teams below the line.
And actually there is now a gap of ~250 points to Evonik, which dropped despite the latest Dauphine and SPAR while Indosat and Tinkoff both climbed.
eBuddy dropped quite a bit but luckily had Brambilla`s performance in the Vuelta to still have a nice gap to the relegation area, which would have been much closer otherwise. EA Vesuvio in the middle of nowhere with chances to climb seeing Andy in the Tour.
Having a quick Tour de France startlist check.
Gazelle with Madrazo having huge chances to defend the lead while Air France (Sicard), Bennelong (Morton) and Festina (Lecuisinier) are main opponents GC wise and could climb a lot.
Puma needs a big race by Demare, Aegon by Groenewegen/Velits and Aker by Galta and Moser by Barguil to not lose too much on them.
Generali, Isostar surely not scoring as good on paper while Grieg/EA Vesuvio/eBuddy all might pass them.
At the bottom Podium needs Nelson to shine while Farfetch is having Monsalve, Repsol Alarcon, Fablok Wellens and T-Mobile the duo Guldhammer/Henao with Evonik for Lopez and SPAR for Denifl, latest might be best actually and save themselves, in especially as Indosat and Tinkoff are not very strong neither.
Individually Herklotz defends the lead but Taaramae is coming closer with a huge post Vuelta jump.
Spilak, Gesink, Boasson Hagen still up there with Kritskiy the next withe a big jump just like Bakelants and Sicard a bit further down.
Bewley as strongest sprinter/cobbler ahead of Ponzi as best puncheur next to Hagen while Grosu still is the best pure sprinter surprisingly.
Wisniowski the best roleur/cobbler next to Bewley and Ewan up to 2nd best sprinter ahead of Groenewegen.
No changes in the rankings for us, but a good update as it was a potenially tough one. Big thanks to Stake Laengen for that with his performance in Tour of Norway and Scandinavian Open Road Race, and then of course the great team performance in Tour de Suisse.
The fact we weren't bottom until the TDF should be quite embarassing for the rest of the teams
I could almost call this season a success based on that alone, hopefully with a few chances still to go Ewan can fight for a Top10 Individual place. And good job i built in PCT cap moves for my planning so this inevitable relegation doesn't really hurt at all
We should've been first at this point if we wanted to contend for the title, as the Tour will kill all our hopes. Let's hope we can secure a Top10 at least then.
TheManxMissile wrote:
The fact we weren't bottom until the TDF should be quite embarassing for the rest of the teams
I could almost call this season a success based on that alone, hopefully with a few chances still to go Ewan can fight for a Top10 Individual place. And good job i built in PCT cap moves for my planning so this inevitable relegation doesn't really hurt at all
You weren't last because PCM decided it hated Cattaneo (until Suisse), Carthy, McCarthy and Monsalve, and knowing our luck so far this season you'll find a way to outscore us in the Tour
While I'm happier than I was at the last rankings update, it's still disappointing to be in 21st when teams such as Tinkoff and Indosat (who aren't a great deal stronger than we are) are over 700 points ahead of us in 14th and 15th. July could be a big month for us depending on how Monsalve and Carthy do at the Tour, and how Cattaneo goes in Herbiers - though on the evidence of their seasons so far I probably shouldn't be too optimistic.
What should hopefully work in our favour is having the most remaining RDs in the division, with decent scoring potential in all of them except the few cobbled races we have to ride. Monsalve has only used 8 RDs so far, and with him in Portugal plus Maroc, and Yates and Cattaneo still having RDs to use we should have a good chance of making up ground on the teams ahead of us - although so far PCM18 hasn't suited any of our riders except Yates and our sprint trio.
I think we should be able to outscore the remainder of the bottom 5, but can we make up 450 points on SPAR and Evonik or 750 on Indosat and Tinkoff to reach safety? I'm not convinced. Evonik and Tinkoff are probably the two weaker teams there in terms of point scoring potential from here on, but it seems a tall order. So a third relegation in 5 seasons looks inevitable - which is a real shame, as we should have been comfortably mid-table on paper.
The ranking looks even worse than i expected. This wasnt a season where i was with high expectations but being in the relegation fight is far from what where we should be. MVS and Skujins far below their expected levels. Now we have to hope that we can survive this somehow so that we can make new plans for the future.
Hmm, I actually thought I would climb a bit in the rankings, but 10th is OK at this state I guess... We won't climb much higher in the rankings than this, but atleast we should be well clear of relegation at the end of the Tour de France. Top 5 or indeed Top 3 as the goal said isn't going to happen though unless Coquard for some reason starts performing. He's at around 60% of his expected value, which obviously cost us quite heavily. Had he performed like he usually would we would have been 6th overall, with the ability to climb a bit further...
Anyway - it's really nice to see Gazelle leading the rankings. To have a versitale and in depth team doing that well is really cool.
Huge Vuelta for us, which brought us some very needed points. Seeing how Herklotz/Puma and Spilak/Isostar performed at the Giro, I hoped for nothing less than what we/Taaramae got, and luckily that seems to have given us some room looking at the relegation zone. Though, we obviously have few good looking opportunities thinking of points in the remaining races, but hopefully we can post some bonus points through breakaways and such.
There's quite a gap from Evonik and down, though, I suspect the Tour could change that with Monsalve, Wellens and Guldhammer/Henao all contenders for some solid GC placings and points.
Also cool to see it being this close in the fight for the title. Very difficult to say who is the favourite, and hopefully we'll have a close battle all the way to Lombardia
Didn’t expect to see Gazelle up top, but a welcome surprise for a great team. Absolutely stoked that we’ve managed to clamber our way out of the relegation scrap for the time being, I’d be surprised if we scored any points in the Tour so teams below are gonna close that gap. Race selections made for the end of the season were really risky too thinking that we’d be in the bottom three or so and would try and Hail Mary it so that could go balls up. Thanks for the update!
Our first PT crown battle ever. And it sure is a close fight at the moment.
I really hope that we somehow can turn this around and start getting some real points...
