With 9 races for PCT teams, we're just above the threshold that would make a single monthly ranking list readable, so let's do the classic split by categories once again:
Partial Monthly Ranking: C1/C2
Is there a better way for sprinter teams than to start the month with a sprinter classic? Well, starting the month with two sprinter classics - at least for those having two of them at hand. Because the C1 Torshavn GP clashed with another flat classic, so most teams had to make a choice.
For example Benetton, who sent Afewerki to Latvia. But that didn't stop them from winning on the Faroe Islands, with level 1 rider Onley achieving a huge upset and getting a fantastic win from the breakaway! I'm sure it won't be his onley career win, but it definitely was his first one - even if it was a huge surprise, he'll happily take the crown and the 80 points associated with it. And to make it an even better race for Benetton - I don't know any fitting superlative - El Sabbahi sprinted to 5th, making it 116 points in total for the Sammarinese! Insane!
2nd and 3rd places however did go to the sprinters - and to pretty good sprinters to say the least! Ewan, who will certainly not be happy with his teammates misjudging the breakaway, took 2nd place and 56 points. Ahlstrand got 3rd place and 46 points for the Minions.
3 PCT teams then made the trip to Sweden, for the "revamped" Uppsala Classic. 4 days instead of an actual classic, with the profile being one for the prologue specialists and the sprinters. Like the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in previous years, just with reversed stage order.
Given the C2 limitations for PCT teams, hopes for GC scoring from the prologue were pretty low. But Mareczko still had a pretty decent prologue, and then went on to gaining some bonus seconds by finishing 7th and 8th in two bunch sprints - which was enough for 13th overall and 11 points. Verwilst got 3rd place in the KoM standings, adding a couple of points as well - in total, 14 for Lierse.
And 14 also was Tafjord's total score, with Kaislavuo getting all of them. He was tied for the KoM win, that's where his points came from. Sony got all their points from the U25 standings, with Hayter, Van Dijke and Alben taking 2nd, 3rd and 6th - for 9 points in total.
One of the most awaited races by the PCT climbers is the Tour d'Andorra. Despite only being rated C1, it always attracts lots of great climbers, and this year was no difference.
What is clearly different from others years, though, is to see Reis performing! A rider who was often labelled a failure, or a broken rider, somehow suddenly performs as would be expected by his skillset this year - and he actually won the race! And after finishing 2nd and 3rd on the first two MTF stages, and then winning the MTT, it's definitely a deserved GC victory - which had the points jersey as a bonus on top. His teammates didn't to anything worth noting, so his 185 points are at the same time Benetton's score.
The lack of depth points also pretty much holds for 2nd and 3rd place. Oomen, seen by many as the logical winner of the race, started pretty well by taking 3rd on day 1 and then winning stage 3 and taking over yellow. But he rather surprisingly lost the jersey in the MTT stage, and was far too passive to have a chance of getting it back on the final day. Still, 2nd place in GC and points, 138 points for him. Van Gils took 23rd in GC and 3rd in U25, netting him 7 points, so that's 145 for Lierse.
Olivier was the other top favourite, and indeed, he had an awesome start by winning stage 1 and finishing 3rd the day after. But he lost contact on stage 3, where he finished 4th - and then even lost his GC podium in the MTT. 4th in GC for him, plus 3rd in points - 120 points for the Dutchman. Carcueva got a point for finishing 29th overall, and Hayter one for taking 6th in U25. 122 points for Sony.
So, let's summarize these four races. Winning two of them definitely was a big deal, and indeed it results in 1st place here. Thanks to the month's biggest surprise - Onley's win in Torshavn, and obviously with Reis' big win in Andorra, Benetton win this category with 328 points.
Next up are Specialized, mostly thanks to Meurisse's huge performance in the Basque Country. 248 points for the Canadians.
Then we have two teams tied for 3rd, with Lotto getting most of their points from Euskal Bizikleta as well, whereas Sony scored in all four races. Both end up with 175 points.
The final Top 5 spot goes to Lierse with 166 points, closely followed by Ekoi with 162, then Tryg, ISA and Minions with 155, 149 and 148 respectively. That's 7 teams within just 27 points.
Indosat then are the final Top 10 team with 133 points, followed by Everesting, totalling 125 points - the final team above 100 points. And all others clearly below.
Because next up are Popo4Ever, 60 points further down, scoring 65. UBS, Sauber, Llapi, Zalgiris and Kraftwerk scored 40+ points. ELCO, Manada, Bralirwa, Tafjord and JEWA are between 10 and 20. And McCormick and Podium Ambition don't even make the 10 points mark.
Here's the full table:
Pos
Team
Tor
Eus
Upp
And
Total
1
Benetton Bimex Cycling
116
27
0
185
328
2
Specialized
28
171
0
49
248
3
Lotto-Caloi
0
150
0
25
175
3
Sony - Force India
12
32
9
122
175
5
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
7
0
14
145
166
6
Ekoi - Le Creuset
0
45
0
117
162
7
Tryg - Eni
0
115
0
40
155
8
ISA - Hexacta
56
93
0
0
149
9
Minions
46
102
0
0
148
10
Indosat Ooredoo
0
81
0
52
133
11
Everesting
0
74
0
51
125
12
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
24
0
0
41
65
13
Team UBS
0
0
0
59
59
14
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
52
0
0
52
15
Llapi-Vita
33
14
0
0
47
16
DK Zalgiris
11
31
0
0
42
16
Kraftwerk Man Machine
41
1
0
0
42
18
ELCO - ABEA
20
0
0
0
20
19
Manada Coyote
6
12
0
0
18
20
Bralirwa - Cegeka
16
0
0
0
16
20
Tafjord Kraft
2
0
14
0
16
22
JEWA TIROL
4
7
0
0
11
23
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
6
0
0
6
24
Podium Ambition
0
4
0
0
4
Partial Monthly Ranking: PTHC/HC
The second part of the sprinter clash on the first day of the month was the PTHC classic Riga - Jurmala GP in Latvia. A pan-flat profile, perfectly suited for the sprinter teams to control the race and set up the sprinters.
Well, in theory. In practice, one rider managed to sneak away and win the race. But behind him, it was a feast for the PCT sprinters! Coquard displayed his great skills once again and won the sprint - for 2nd place, though. Still, that's another bunch of important points for him and Manada, 125 to be precise.
3rd place and 100 points then went to Vesely and Zalgiris, whereas perennial overperformer Afewerki claimed 5th place and 80 points - with Benetton even scoring 82 thanks to the legendary Quispe's 38th place. Definitely a huge race for PCT, who had 7 riders in the Top 10!
Next stop: United Arab Emirates! The HC Arab Tour is a yearly highlight for the division's top time trialists - in particular those who only are skilled on pan-flat roads and can't handle some major inclines.
However, this year there's no difference between both kinds of races - as with Zmorka gone to PT, there's just one TTer who clearly thrones above the rest: Dunbar. As expected, he easily won the stage 3 ITT and hence the GC. 198 points are his huge reward for this performance. Arif Prayogo added another 10 points for 28th in GC, with Doull and Firdaus just narrowly making the Top 50. The latter got two bonus points for 6th in U25, bringing Indosat's total up to 220 points. 55 points per day, not bad.
But it was actually a very close fight for best scoring team! With 2nd and 10th in GC, plus a stage win, Howson, Cataford and Kulikovskiy led Sony to 215 points, just 5 less than Indosat! A great race for the Indians as well, who are looking pretty much unstoppable lately.
And yet another team cracked the 200 points in this race, with Beniusis and Kmieliauskas taking 5th and 6th for Zalgiris. The latter dominated the U25 standings, and the Lithuanians ended up being the 2nd best team (behind another big cycling nation which is Greece). 204 points for Zalgiris.
Back to flat classics then, with the PTHC Philadelphia International Championship awaiting the riders! The first flat PTHC classic of the month was a great race for various PCT teams, would they achieve similar things in the USA?
Well, even better actually - this time they got the win! But it wasn't Coquard (14th), nor Ewan (15th) who beat the PT sprinters - no, it was a man who seemingly loves to compete against PT teams this year, having won several bunch sprints in wildcard races already - Aniolkowski! He doesn't have a particularly flashy skillset, but he often has great positioning and timing, which matters most, and brought him the win here! With Varga in 25th place, and Lutsyshyn and Manamalage making the Top 50 as well, that's 181 points for Popo4Ever!
We didn't have 7 PCT sprinters in the Top 10 this time - but still half of the Top 10 spots went to PCT. Next up was Liu in 6th place - but Benetton outscored Lotto with Afewerki in 7th and Quispe in 16th, totalling 76 points! Lotto got 72, thanks to Drizners getting a Top 50 as well.
Besides any race involving sprints, the Benelux Challeng probably is one of the most unpredictable races on the calendar. A prologue, sprints, hills, cobbles - it's a race that has seen various types of riders winning in the past. 6 days in the Benelux states, with the HC points scale attracting many of PCT's top riders.
But in the end, it's a rider that probably no-one had on their list who dominated the race. Harrison is one of these random sprinters whereof there's a plethora in the pack. Not particularly fast, not strong on the hills, not even that strong in prologues, with some decent cobbles skills. But this was HIS race, no question about it. He won stage 2, taking over the yellow jersey. He won stage 6. And in between, he got the most important thing right: not getting dropped. And he even added a 3rd and 6th place to his tally. 2 stage wins, GC win, points win - 298 points, the 2nd highest score a PCT rider got this year to date!!! For someone having scored less than 60 points prior to this month, not bad!
However, that wasn't all by any means, as the rest of the team also contributed more than 100 points! Russo took 2nd on stage 3 and finished 16th in GC, 43 points. Owen even got 10th in GC, 48 points. Sanogo, Chokri and Mraouni all in the Top 50, too, and the squad ending up 2nd in team standings, a huge haul of 416 points for ISA! Yes, it's PCT's biggest score this year, more than 80 points above Manada's Juarez performance.
But there were still quite some points left for the rest. In particular for Sony. OK, they scored almost 200 points less than ISA, but 232 is still a great outcome. Cataford with a pretty surprising 3rd place in GC (and 3rd in the prologue), Howson with the prologue win, Benoot and Van Dijke 25th and 26th in GC (with the latter taking the white jersey), plus some more minor points - as mentioned before, that all sums up to 232 points.
No other team above 200 points, but two got pretty close. With Benetton having the edge over Specialized, 192 vs. 183. The former had a surprising Vliegen taking 6th in the GC and a huge stage in on day 3. The cobbles were very unselective in this race, which is more than underlined by El Sabbahi, ending up 11th in GC. Durbridge also contributed some good points by taking 2nd in the prologue - and that's 192 points scored by these three riders.
Last but not least, a PTHC stage race - and for once, one where a PCT rider was supposed to play a big role. Because the Tour of Slovenia had a 50+km ITT, plus some hills. And a TTT and a flat stage.
So, perfect terrain for Dunbar. And indeed, he did what he had to do in the hills, holding onto the front group - to strike in the closing ITT, where he finished 3rd. Thanks to Würtz losing time in the hills, this was enough to end up 2nd in GC, scoring 167 points in total. Indosat also had Abdurrahman in 21st and Canty in 26th, and combined with 3rd place in the team standings, the Indonesians scored a great amount of 217 points.
Harrison all over the place this month - also in Slovenia, where he won the opening stage! But they also got some good points from the GC, with Sendeku (24th), Martinez (25th), Ferreyra (30th), Andersen (31st, 3rd U25), Dlamini (41st) and Sepulveda (47th) all making the Top 50! 130 points for them, continuing their high scoring!
The final team above 100 points were ELCO. They didn't get any outstanding stage result, but consistency was key. And consistency brought Ioannidis a strong 10th place in GC, with Spanopoulos taking 17th. Kiriakidis (40th) also got a Top 50, with ELCO scoring 101 points in total.
5 races, lots of points at stake - let's get an overview:
The clear winners of this block are ISA - Hexacta - with a really nice score of 709 points! They didn't do Riga - Jurmala, but otherwise only Philadelphia was below 100 points - probably their biggest disappointment of the month. Solid to great scoring in Arab Tour, Slovenia and especially Benelux, for the clear top position.
But Benetton did a great job in this block as well, getting more than 50 points out of every single race. 536 points scored by the Sammarinese, completing their really great month.
Things got somewhat closer in the fight for 3rd place, with Sony - thanks to great HC racing - getting the edge over Indosat, who did a great job in Arab Tour and Slovenia. 487 vs. 467 points in the Asian duel.
Back to Europe, where we have Zalgiris taking the final Top 5 spot. Riga and even more so Arab Tour were their high-scoring races. The Lithuanians got 397 points, which is more than 50 more than ELCO, who also had a good Arab Tour and a decent Tour of Slovenia. 345 points for the Greek.
Popo4Ever, UBS and Kraftwerk are next, with the Ukranians winning Philadelphia, the Swiss doing well in the UAE and the Germans scoring decently in UAE and the Benelux. 279, 262 and 242 are their respective scores.
The fight for the final Top 10 spot was fierce, with 3 teams within 4 points, and the next not too far away, either. In the end, Specialized came out on top, totalling 218 points - ahead of Tafjord with 215 and Lotto with 214.
Manada on 206 aren't far down, neither are Podium Ambition with 197 or the Minions with 183. JEWA are a bit further away with 164 points, followed by Bralirwa, Lierse, Tryg, Llapi and Ekoi. Sauber and McCormick got less than 100 points, Everesting not even 10.
Table, please? Here you are:
Pos
Team
R-J
Arab
BNL
Phi
Slo
Total
1
ISA - Hexacta
0
124
416
39
130
709
2
Benetton Bimex Cycling
82
129
192
76
57
536
3
Sony - Force India
21
215
232
19
0
487
4
Indosat Ooredoo
30
220
0
0
217
467
5
DK Zalgiris
100
204
61
0
32
397
6
ELCO - ABEA
0
157
43
44
101
345
7
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
54
44
0
181
0
279
8
Team UBS
0
142
52
0
68
262
9
Kraftwerk Man Machine
18
84
103
42
0
247
10
Specialized
4
31
183
0
0
218
11
Tafjord Kraft
81
0
124
10
0
215
12
Lotto-Caloi
43
36
63
72
0
214
13
Manada Coyote
125
47
0
34
0
206
14
Podium Ambition
0
0
155
0
42
197
15
Minions
0
126
1
37
19
183
16
JEWA TIROL
37
90
29
0
8
164
17
Bralirwa - Cegeka
0
0
133
0
0
133
18
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
93
37
0
0
130
19
Tryg - Eni
0
81
0
0
47
128
20
Llapi-Vita
0
30
34
8
46
118
21
Ekoi - Le Creuset
60
0
49
0
0
109
22
Sauber Petronas Racing
40
40
0
0
0
80
23
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
0
61
0
0
61
24
Everesting
0
0
5
0
0
5
Period Ranking | July
Now, what does this mean for the full month?
Well, it means a rare and pretty surprising win for Benetton! First in the C1/C2 block, 2nd in the PTHC/HC one, for a total of 864 points - congratulations! In terms of PpRD, their 28.8 average is "only" 3rd place, but it should still make them rise in the standings!
Just as surprising is it to see ISA in 2nd place, after their insane Benelux output. 658 points for the Latinos, almost half of these points come from one race. And with 37.3, they got the best PpRD this month by far, thanks to spending 7 RD less than Benetton. Which should be a good consolation prize for missing out on the July win by a mere 6 points.
3rd place then rather clearly goes to Sony, who racked up 662 points this month; the Indians also got the 5th best PpRD and should easily stay on track for promotion. Just like ISA, of course.
Indosat were just one spot outside the promotion zone last month, but their 4th place here - scoring 600 points - and the month's 2nd best PpRD of 30 could make them move up.
It's then an almost 150 points gap down to Specialized, the final Top 5 team. Top 5 sounds nice, but given that their basically the best of the midfield teams "only" with 466 points, it might be difficult to make huge jumps. We'll find out soon.
Zalgiris then are next with 439 points, scored almost exclusively in the "big points" block. Whereas Lotto in 7th had a far more balanced scoring pattern. With 389 points, they're still quite a bit behind the former two teams, though.
But behind them, it gets crowded. ELCO got 365 points, with their PTHC/HC scoring making up for almost 95% of their points this month. It wasn't an awesome month for them, but a PpRD of 19 still isn't that bad.
Popo4Ever even got the 4th highest PpRD, as they only spent 15 RDs. Combined with 344 points, that's a PpRD of almost 23 - things are definitely going in the right way for them lately.
The Minions are the final team in the Top 10 with 331 points, ahead of Team UBS with 321. These are the final teams above 300 points, by the way.
With 296, Lierse aren't that far away - but it's so close in this part of the table that their 12.9 PpRD average actually is the 5th lowest of the division! Maybe not so great news for the title fight...
Kraftwerk are 7 points down, and Tryg another 6 points. Ekoi are still pretty close with 271 points, taking the final Top 15 spot.
Then we're down to 231 points, which is Tafjord's score, ahead of Manada's 224. But with just 14 RDs spent, the latter still have the 12th best PpRD of the month... Podium Ambition then are the final team above 200 points, totalling 201.
JEWA, Llapi, Bralirwa, Sauber and Everesting are in the range between 175 and 130 points, with Bralirwa actually having a Top 10 PpRD thanks to racing just 8 days.
And at the bottom of the table, we have McCormick, having scored just 67 points, for an awful PpRD of less than 6.
Here are the full numbers - enjoy (at least if you did well):
Pos
Team
C1/C2
PTHC/HC
Total
RD
PpRD
1
Benetton Bimex Cycling
328
536
864
30
28.80
2
ISA - Hexacta
149
709
858
23
37.30
3
Sony - Force India
175
487
662
29
22.83
4
Indosat Ooredoo
133
467
600
20
30.00
5
Specialized
248
218
466
23
20.26
6
DK Zalgiris
42
397
439
23
19.09
7
Lotto-Caloi
175
214
389
23
16.91
8
ELCO - ABEA
20
345
365
19
19.21
9
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
65
279
344
15
22.93
10
Minions
148
183
331
23
14.39
11
Team UBS
59
262
321
20
16.05
12
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
166
130
296
23
12.87
13
Kraftwerk Man Machine
42
247
289
20
14.45
14
Tryg - Eni
155
128
283
18
15.72
15
Ekoi - Le Creuset
162
109
271
17
15.94
16
Tafjord Kraft
16
215
231
16
14.44
17
Manada Coyote
18
206
224
14
16.00
18
Podium Ambition
4
197
201
15
13.40
19
JEWA TIROL
11
164
175
23
7.61
20
Llapi-Vita
47
118
165
23
7.17
21
Bralirwa - Cegeka
16
133
149
8
18.63
22
Sauber Petronas Racing
52
80
132
10
13.20
23
Everesting
125
5
130
15
8.67
24
McCormick Pro Cycling
6
61
67
12
5.58
Full Ranking
Should we speak of a big shakeup? Well, at least there was quite some movement! And we have a new leader again!
After their great run - well, let's say, Harrison's great run, scoring pretty much half of his team points this month - ISA - Hexacta have now taken the lead, starting the month in 5th place! They outscored Lierse by more than 550 points this month and now total 2,758 points. And let's be honest: For me that's a huge surprise! I didn't have them on the list of promotion candidates unless Ewan does an insane year. Which isn't quite the case, but ISA's former main strength of having awesome depth is working really well again this year!
Lierse have dropped to 2nd, having scored 2,673 points so far. With 128, they're among the teams having spent most RDs so far - and while they still look to be on track for promotion as one of 5 teams above 20 PpRD, who will actually score now that Oomen is done with his season? Same for ISA, obviously - around 3,200 points are needed for promotion, so both teams still have some work to do!
Which obviously holds for Sony, too, with the Indians trailing Lierse by just 51 points now. With the 3rd best PpRD, they're still well on track, too - and some of the races this month could actually see them take another big step towards promotion...
Currently in 4th place, Indosat are in a great position. Which might sound a bit weird - in particular given that they have a PpRD below 19, which is only #6 of the division. But: Dunbar has 12 RDs left. And this month we have Germany, Denmark and Arenberg for 12 RDs. I don't have the startlists, but anything else than Dunbar participating there would be surprising. And so, despite trailing ISA by a little less than 300 points, I'd actually be surprised to not see Indosat in the lead by the end of August! And Bagioli in Lugano doesn't sound bad, either...
From 1st to 2nd to 5th - Team UBS' form isn't looking great lately. Benelux and Andorra were disappointing, and Slovenia not overly successful, either. Will the Swiss be able to get the turnaround? Still 12 RDs left for Godoy, and some for Buchmann as well - can they hold onto the Top 5 until the end, or will they miss out at the very end?
ELCO dropped from 4th to 6th, but are trailing UBS by just 65 points. And having 19 RDs more to spend - despite having dropped, the Greeks' PpRD still is the best of the division. They're projected to end up with 3,923 points, so there's some room for error - but certainly not too much, either.
The final team currently within striking distance of the promotion spot is Benetton, totalling 2,302 points, after their awesome month! Reis has already outscored his 2023 total by far, and still has some RDs left, and so have Durbridge and Powless - could they even achieve the big upset and get promotion this year? PpRD-wise, they're currently ahead of Indosat, and not too far behind UBS and Lierse...
Specialized managed to hold onto their 8th place, despite being overtaken by Benetton. With 2,119 points, they're more than 250 points behind the promotion spots. And they spent more RDs than most of the teams ahead, so they're rather leading the midfield than fighting for promotion. But we've seen it in the Benelux - one race and that gap can be gone!
Tryg dropped from 7th to 9th, but with 2,066 points are the final team above 2,000 points - and still on track for a Top 10 finish! The current gap to 11th is almost 300 points, and PpRD-wise they're also a point ahead.
But first, we obviously get to 10th, where we have another surprise team - Ekoi! They have dropped a bit compared to their best months, but holding onto 10th is a great performance. With 1,889 points, they're about halfway between 9th and 11th, so which direction will their journey continue in?
In terms of PpRD, Bralirwa look like the most dangerous competitor for Ekoi's final Top 10 spot. With 1,770 points, they're 119 points down, but in terms of PpRD we have a 0.2 difference - something that's clearly doable. Their stage race leaders have got similar amount of RDs left, but Ekoi have their "secret weapon" APP still with quite some racing left. Should be an interesting fight.
Or could Zalgiris - currently trailing Bralirwa by just 37 points - enter the Top 10 fight? They have spent quite some additional RDs already, but their TTers should have a big month coming up, so don't rule them out...
Lotto and Popo4Ever then follow about 100 points further down, having scored 1,620 and 1,618 points respectively. PpRD-wise, both are slightly better than Zalgiris - and about 4 points higher than the teams currently in the relegation zone. So they're not completely safe yet, but it's looking rather good.
The Minions as the final Top 15 team - totalling 1,552 points - also have a margin of more than 2 points PpRD-wise, but now we're definitely getting down to the danger territory. Just like Zalgiris, the Minions should have quite some hopes for the TT-heavy races this month, and then we'll see where they stand.
Manada are next with 1,449 points, about halfway between the Minions and Sauber in 17th place. The Sammarinese's 1,375 are just 134 above the red zone - but with 107 RDs used up so far, they're among the least active teams, having them in 15th place PpRD-wise. But they first need to transform these additional RDs into actual points, otherwise it could once again be an uncomfortable end of the year for them. Which obviously holds for Manada as well.
Everesting still managed to stay above the line this month, despite another couple of rather disappointing races. They're currently at 1,306 points, 65 away from the relegation spots. They do have some PpRD advantage currently, but can they use it well enough?
Last month, we had three teams in 19th place - now we're down to 2. Tafjord were one of them, and they still are, right on the edge between staying up and going down. 1,241 is the current bar for safety - or relegation. No clue how ties would be handled at the end of the season, let's hope we won't get any.
The other team tied for 19th will be much happier to be there - with Kraftwerk jumping up 4 spots this month, being among the major winners! With the Tour of America approaching, their form seems to be rising - just in time, or just too late? We'll soon find out! But let's just mention that PpRD-wise, they're actually in 20th place, so they'll need to further improve...
JEWA also were among the 19th place trio by the end of June, and now they're just below, meaning in 21st place. They currently trail Kraftwerk and Tafjord by 56 points, with all teams having spent a very similar number of RDs so far. So they're clearly not out of it yet, but they'll need to improve as well!
Which also holds for Llapi-Vita, staying in 22nd place, with 1,118 points currently on their balance. The Albanians have the 2nd worst PpRD of the division - but it's less than 1.5 points from the last team projected to be safe. We'll see, for sure we won't write them off yet, either.
Nor will we McCormick, despite their abysmal month. After ELCO, they're the team with the most remaining RDs, having spent only 104 so far, and having left 56 - more than 1/3 of their overall RDs. With 10.36, they're currently projected to take the final safe spot - 31 points ahead of Kraftwerk. So they definitely can't just rely on that, but they'll need some great performances at the end of the season. With Yates having 12 and Sosa 36 RDs left (he only raced a single classic so far), there's definitely some great quality left for them - will it be enough?
Podium Ambition still are last in the rankings, but they only lost 30 additional points to the safety zone this month - maybe they'll still find something very special that could save them? It's unlikely, let's be honest - but just look at what ISA did this month... Lagane magic, why not?
No surprise here, with Sam Oomen easily staying on top thanks to a decent Tour d'Andorra. However, his 1,121 points - 219 more than last year - are his final score, as he's done with his 2024 season. Now all he can do is watch and see whether his teammates can complete the promotion challenge or not.
It's a similar story for Bryan Coquard, moving up from 3rd to 2nd, and totalling 911 points. However, the Frenchman still has one race (or 3 RD) left - and I'd bet it's going to be Ras Tailteann. If he can do a great job there, he might still overtake Oomen.
But would he take the lead in that case? Probably not. Because in 3rd place, having moved up from 8th and trailing by just 21 points, we have Eddie Dunbar. In his 12 remaining RDs, he should easily turn that 231 points deficit into an advantage over Oomen, and win the individual crown. Sure, you can't take it for granted - but I'd definitely be surprised if he didn't.
Caleb Ewan lost 2 spots this month, dropping from 2nd to 4th. He should have 6 RDs left if I didn't miss anything, so he still has a shot at taking the Best PCT Sprinter title. With 823 points, he currently trails Coquard by 88, which could be doable. But one thing is sure: One of these two will deservedly be the best PCT sprinter of the year.
Daan Olivier also dropped a little, just by one spot - despite doing well in Andorra. But Dunbar's scoring was just huge, and the Dutchman couldn't hold him back. Having just 6 RDs left - Japan or Morocco? - he'll most likely not be able to beat Oomen this year, but 732 points scored so far are good and could see him at around the same final score as last year (908 points).
Despite winning the Tour d'Andorra, Rafael Reis only gained one single spot, moving up from 7th to 6th. But he's almost level with Olivier now, trailing him by 12 points. And he's even got 8 RDs left, let's see where he spends them. The fight between Olivier and Reis could well be the battle for the final Top 5 spot in the end...
Unless Andrea Bagioli does more magic. The Italian dropped from 5th to 7th, but will certainly find some more races he loves in the final months of the year. And even if he shouldn't gain back any spots, he's already one of this year's revelations, and the reason why Indosat has a really great shot at promotion this year! (obviously besides Dunbar, but that's kind of obvious ^^)
Having a cobbler moving up this late in the season might come as a surprise, but it's exactly what Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz did. Thanks to the Benelux Challenge obviously, where he scored almost 100 points. With 593 points, he trails Bagioli by more than 70 and will have to look down rather than ahead. But it still is a good season for him regardless, being PCT's best cobbler by a mile this year.
Next up is Joao Rodrigues, holding onto his 9th place. Despite a disappointing Tour d'Andorra. With 564 points, he's just a tad more than 40 ahead of 11th place, so he'll have to fight hard to keep his Top 10 spot.
Tobias Halland Johannessen didn't race this month, resulting in a 4 spots loss, from 6th to 10th. He's trailing Rodrigues by just 13 points, though, and surely hasn't said his final word.
The only rider dropping out of the Top 10 was Buchmann, who's now 13th, but still within 50 points of the Top 10. So are Aniolkowski and Meurisse, who both gained more than 10 spots. So did Afewerki, moving up from 38th to 20th.
Which of course is nothing compared to Harrison's gigantic leap, from 157th all the way up to 15th! What a month that guy was having!
Now, go ahead and analyze the numbers as you want (by the way, if you want some precisions on a certain rider, just tell me) - here's the table:
Absolutely spot on, horrible month for us and with Oomen out of race days, we're in free fall right now. Thanks for the update and let's see if we can hang on to that top 10.
The 7th PCT ranking, moving up to 7th place, on my birthday April 7th. Truly is my lucky number a nice present to finish off the day. Getting that top 5 will need another miracle but we've done amazing things so far and it's bound to get exciting in the coming months. Thanks for the update, loving MG life right now.
This felt like a really good month and I'm glad we have gained two positions and seem to get further away from the relegation zone. Just a matter of keeping up the performances in the final months.
Exciting to see how the battle at the top plays out. Thanks for the update!
Obviously never good to trail the rankings and have Fab use the term "abysmal". But with Euskal as the only vaguely suited race on the calendar it wasn't a big surprise. It does confirm we are cursed in that race, it take some effort to be one of only 5 teams losing no time in the teams competition yet score just 6 points in the race.
Moaning aside, I am still optimistic, 5 of what I would have considered to be our 7 best races are still to come. We just haven't left ourselves much (any) room for error and a disaster from Sosa/Haller in the TOA dooms us.
Seems like the automatic promotion spots is down to a 7-way battle. Although I guess Benetton's big push shows what one good month can do.
Fab, thanks as always for the great update. Hopefully no more reasons for you to use abysmal about McCormick.
Never been this high and this close at this stage of the season in PCT. Never going to have a better chance any time soon either I believe! July was a huge RD month and to keep up the PpRD after this is an enormous achievement. Can't really single out any one reason for the good scoring with almost the entire team pitching in. Going ahead, Olivier has only one race left, and the TT boys have two. Most of the end season is on Benoot to pull us through, which might still be a slippery slope. It's good for now though.
I agree things are looking good for us, almost a 400 points cushion from the relegation spots. I would be frustrated if this goes wrong.
At this rate our goal of 2,050 points is coming in sight. Largely thanks to our sprint and cobbles team. Now it's up to Min/Quintana and Vakoc/Calmejane to rake in the necessary points.
The promotion race is also slowly starting to take shape. Obviously ISA with a great run in Benelux. And at the bottom I still expect a run from McCormick and Kraftwerk to get out of trouble.
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
Lets go Sony, time to finally unite the conglomerate in a single division!
Interesting that you wrote about isa being a surprise contender because for me they were one of the top favourites for sure. Generally feels like most big promotion favourites delivered nicely this year and are right in the mix
Thanks for another massive update in all three divisions!
It's gonna be a tight battle for promotion and an even tighter one against relegation. I'm still fine with looking at both from a safe spot (and in addition more than 400 points in front of 16th, make achieving our top 15 sponsor goal rather safe), though I have to second Fabi that it's surprising we're (still) in 10th. It seems like just scoring consistently (though not great) keeps us there. Now we want to stay in the top 10 till the end, too.
Interesting that you wrote about isa being a surprise contender because for me they were one of the top favourites for sure.
Guess it just shows my limited understanding of MG
Sure, they've got a world-class rider with Ewan, and his performance was always going to be crucial for their promotion chances.
But I think what really makes the difference is that they're pretty much the only team who actually manages to get big depth results time after time. With Pologne being the prime example - 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 22nd in GC, other teams also trying to play the depth card can only dream about this. The lack of another top rider besides Ewan (and maybe AvN) made me think they might be struggling - but when you've got depth and a crazy Harrison jumping in, it can still be good enough.
And I should actually know from last season what depth and some smart planning can do in PCT, but I apparently still underestimated it big time
Interesting that you wrote about isa being a surprise contender because for me they were one of the top favourites for sure.
Guess it just shows my limited understanding of MG
[...]
And I should actually know from last season what depth and some smart planning can do in PCT, but I apparently still underestimated it big time
Id say all of us have those blind spot for certain kind of team builds that we misjudge a lot. For me that are usually teams like yours or Tinkoff, those teams with a big time TTT team that get a ton of depth points that way. This year my PCT predictions look really really good so far with Sony, Lierse, ISA, ELCO and Indosat being my top contenders but don't look at my PT prediction or you will seriously question my understanding of the game.
Thank you for another tremendous read Fabianski. Especially with little racing for our team, it was a great recap of everything else that happened!
With just two race participations, this was the month for us to return to an average amount of race days compared to everyone else. And with that done, we're still both well clear of the relegation zone and have a shot of minimizing the number of places that we'll fail our Top 5 standings goal by
While Stallaert has only two cobble classics left, Meintjes has 18 race days to go across three stage races, so some really solid scoring potential, hopefully. We probably can't go higher than 8th or 9th, and there's still a decent chance that we'll even lose a few more places for sure. But that's a decently relaxed position to be in, which I'm perfectly happy with.
Weak month for us, with a couple of races where we had our top men ontending. Fortunately we're still hanging onto the relegation battle. August should be a slow month as well with a lot of race days without a proper leader so this isn't the scenario we were hoping to get (even if we're starting it ratger well).
Thanks for another epic update Fab. I don't have the time to read most of it and personally would prefer something shorter, but can't thank you enough for your commitment! These write-ups are really thorough and timely. Chapeau!
Good ol mediocrity even after a decent little month. Almost certainly as high as we are going to get, just hope things don't turn too sour to somehow end up in relegation battle once again
Man it's close down there. We just need to use the reminder of our race days very cleverly, then it might be possible to escape the relegation zone, but there are some very worthy opponents also wanting to stay up. This will be a close fight to the end.
Thank you Fabianski for the well written in-depth ranking text. I really really enjoy and appreciate it!
Big month for Benetton, what a performance it would be if they could promote. Hopefully any of the actual active managers takes over the first place from ISA of course.
Close race at the bottom still, wishing the best to everyone there
About time for me to actually comment on this one. First and foremost anoher huge credit for the awesome amount of work Fabianski! It's a joy to read, although it can be difficult to find the time to take it all in. I do prioritize to do it however and every time I'm happy that i did!
Not a great month for us, but we didn't expect it to be either. We expected 350 points and netted 365 points. Thorshavn, Benelux and Philadelphia was all dissapointing though and thus the month felt longer and more unsatisfying that it probably should feel. Slovenia and Arab Tour in particular was better than suspected even if those were in fact the races we had the highest ambitions for pointwise.
Being outside the promotion spots this late is not ideal, but we are pretty backloaded which hopefully helps us in the end. In fact I would expect us to be back around 3rd after the upcomming month where I have an expected score of 600 points. It might be a little bit too low to actually break into the top 3, but could be enough to be really close.
The issue for us is that, despite having great depth, none of our riders have really had a great season which is easily seen in the individual ranking. Not a single rider in the top 30. Looking at the rankings Farantakis atleast should be around top 20, and Giannoutsos also well inside the top 30. Both can still get there, but it is getting increasingly unlikely. So far we are being held up by an overperforming cobbled department, which have scored 675 points so far, which is already 125 points more than expected for the entire season.
Picking Tour of America will be make or break for us. We could clearly have landed more points by picking other races for Giannoutsos/Mavrikakis/Ioannidis to shine in, but it was a once in a lifetime chance for us to pick the race - unless it turns out to be a bust obviously
I'm really happy to see Lierse up so high, and I have my fingers crossed that this is the season where they will promote. It could be extremely close, though.
a nice present to finish off the day. Getting that top 5 will need another miracle but we've done amazing things so far and it's bound to get exciting in the coming months. Thanks for the update, loving MG life right now.
