With four out of this month's 10 races being PTHC rated or higher, only 6 races were left for CT teams - but with three of them being C1/C2 stage races, quite some points were potentially at stake! Let's see how things went:
On the first day of the month, only 6 teams decided to make the trip to the Faroe Islands - despite the CT teams not having any clashes, unlike PCT. The flat classic Torshavn GP was on the menu - with a startlist of just 21 teams, maybe some room for surprises?
Well, kind of. Given his season so far, it was rather surprising to see Zariff make a Top 10, as he was the best CT sprinter, finishing 9th. 20 points for him and Simba Cement - not awesome, but definitely rock solid.
Willwohl's 13th place and 10 points are pretty much according to expectations, although Würth were surely hoping for a little more. And we continue cutting points in half for the next team, as Air New Zealand scored 5 of them thanks to Visser's 18th place.
Next up was the HC rated Arab Tour - 4 days in the desert, thereof three for the sprinters and a GC-defining one for the TTers. There were 6 open spots for CT teams - only 4 took the opportunity. And only 2 scored, with Euskotren and Zain leaving empty-handed.
The Turtles didn't get any standout result - which couldn't be expected given their lower-tier TTers. But they got some solid depth, with Nyoni, Cardona and Hamza finishing 21st, 25th and 30th respectively in GC. Which is worth 36 points in total.
Trans had the highest CT finisher, with Nareklishvili taking 18th place and 20 points - which also was the team's total score.
The C1 Euskal Bizikleta then was one for the puncheurs - but with the race being very popular among PCT teams, only 6 CT teams ended up participating in the Basque Country. Whereof 5, including the two Basque teams, managed to score, with only Cervélo (surprisingly) leaving empty-handed.
The highest scoring CT team got neither points for stages nor for the GC. However, Trans rocked the KoM standings, with Pibernik winning the dotted jersey, and Lecourt de Billot ending up 4th! That's 32 points for these two, plus 2 points for Govekar's 4th place in U25 - 34 points in total for the Slovenians.
17 points went to Ethiopian Airlines, 16 thereof scored by Vendrame, KoM leader after day 2 and runner-up in the final standings. And the final point by Goncalves, thanks to 8th in the KoM standings.
And 9 points were scored by home team Euskadi-Murias, thanks to Serrano's 16th place in GC.
Then it's time for a new race on the calendar! Not really brand-new, but the C2 Uppsala Classic indeed was a classic, a one-day race, in its first three years of existence. Now it has turned into the most important race of the year for the great prologue riders, being the "new USAPCC" with a prologue and three flat stages.
And guess what? It was a record-breaking race! Who would have thought that the Turtles' 224 points from Olympia's Tour would be beaten this year? Maybe in the ToA - but not in Uppsala! Still, it's exactly what happened - given that there was one really, really dominant team:
Simba Cement. They were expected to win the prologue, sure. By Schomber. Who didn't - because there actually was a nasty uphill section that nobody expected! No harm done for Simba Cement, given that oldie Dennis won the stage, with Schomber taking 6th and Kiflay 10th. They would end up 4th, 11th and 17th in GC. But they only just got started with the prologue: on stage 2, they even took a 1-2 with Page and Zariff! The latter also finished 2nd on day 3 - and won the GC! Zariff, Page and Dennis ended up 2nd, 4th and 6th in the points standings - and Simba Cement won the team standings. That's a lot. A lot of points - 239 to be precise, new season record!
So, what's left for the opposition? Well, for example a stage win! Minali got one on stage 3, and finished 3rd on the final stage. One spot higher and he'd have won the GC - now he had to settle for 2nd, plus 3rd in points. Altanzul also took a GC Top 10 - 9th to be precise - thanks to his 5th place in the prologue. And Ballersted got 2 points for getting one KoM point - all in all, a very solid 102 points for Zain-Omantel.
No outstanding individual results, but strong depth - that's the Turtles' recipe. Hamza was 2nd in the prologue, which was good enough for 6th in the end. Keough, still a decent prologue rider, got two Top 10 places from bunch sprints and took 7th in the GC, whereas Oka and Frame ended up 20th and 21st. Fisher-Black was 4th in U25, and the Turtles were 2nd in the team standings - adding up all of this results in a total of 87 points.
4 CT teams then applied for the Benelux Challenge, leaving one spot open. And at least for one team, it was worth the trip - and even big time!
It was a huge race for Trans, taking 12th, 18th and 22nd in GC. Their best rider wasn't a cobbler - on the contrary, with Korosec ending up 12th, cobbles were pretty irrelevant in this race, whereas the skills on the hills were crucial! And Korosec definitely has those, taking 3rd on day 3. That's 51 points for him. And 21 for Moulingui. And 19 for Lecourt de Billot. Plus two more points for some teammates thanks to 4th place in the team standings, making it 93 in total for the Slovenians!
Team Würth had one very rare highlight in this race: Zepuntke winning something! He was expected to do that pretty often in C2, but it took an HC cobbled stage for him to really shine. The German found the perfect moment to attack on stage 5, riding to a great stage win! After having taken 3rd the day before, so it definitely was a good race by him - in terms of stage results at least. He still got some GC points by finishing 49th, scoring 45 points in total. Vangheluwe added some points for being 2nd in KoM after stage 2, so Würth got 47 points overall.
Hilcona couldn't quite match this, but thanks to Krieger's 2nd place on day 2 and 7th on the final stage, it's still 20 points for the Liechtensteiners.
The C1 Tour d'Andorra often attracts quite a lot of PCT's best climbers, and this year was no difference. 8 CT teams decided to join the fun as well, and at least some of them came home very happy!
First of all, Newton Foundation. It was one of the rare races where Jorgenson faced some real opposition. And while he failed in Eritrea, he showed a huge performance in Andorra! He got a strong 4th place in the opening stage, followed by 5th on the second MTF stage on day 3. Thanks to another 4th place in the MTT, he moved on the provisional GC podium - and confirmed a great 3rd place in the final stage! Which obviously meant another easy U25 win, and also 4th in points standings. 99 points for Jorgenson, who also won the team standings with his teammates! Who also got some GC points, with Lopez ending up 22nd and Pronskiy 29th. All in all, 118 points for the Americans!
The very last day of the race was a huge one for Ethiopian Airlines. They did not only win the stage with Chamorro. Grmay, who also was part of the breakaway, made it a memorable 1-2 for the team! And GC-wise, the Ethiopians also got a decent score, with Chamorro, Penasa and Grmay ending up 17th, 19th and 20th respectively - no other team had 3 riders in the Top 20! In the end, it's 57 well-deserved points for them.
Spark probably were hoping to be at least the 2nd best CT team here, but they had to settle for 3rd. Bennett definitely did a good job, taking 9th, 7th and 8th in the first three stages. But 29th and a huge time loss in the MTT crushed his hopes for a high GC, where he had to settle for 9th. Still a good result, but 31 points probably are below expectations. At least, Karatsivis added two more points for 4th place in U25, making it 33 for the Kiwis.
Now, you surely would like me to give you a summary of what happened this month. And I'll happily do exactly that, so let's go!
Unsurprisingly, the Uppsala Classic alone was enough to win the race. Which is what Simba Cement did. Besides the Swedish race, they "only" scored 38 points - which would still have been a Top 10 this month - but with Uppsala it's a total of 277 points in July. Having spent 11 RDs, that's a huge PpRD of 25, congrats!
The Africans really crushed their rivals this month, with only the other podium teams even getting half of these points. And it was a very close fight for 2nd, ending up 150 vs. 147. In favour of Newton Foundation! Jorgenson's huge performance in Andorra was decisive, as the Americans only scored 32 points in Uppsala, their only other race of the month. They'll still be happy with that, as 16.7 is the 2nd best PpRD of the month, so they easily continue cruising towards promotion.
Trans got really close to Newton, but didn't quite make it. Still, they should be delighted in particular with their Benelux output. Arab Tour and Euskal also were decent at the very least, and a total of 147 points with a PpRD of 10 is very good - in particular considering they only raced in HC and C1!
Next up is the team that just lost its record for the highest CT score this year, the Turtles. Scoring 87 points in Sweden laid the foundation for getting a Top 5 this month, and their Arab Tour was the best of any CT team. Torshavn and in particular Benelux were really bad, though, and so their PpRD isn't exactly great, just tied for 7th best. But for a team that targets a Top 10 finish, not a bad outcome.
Which also holds for Ethiopian Airlines, who scored just 3 points less than the Turtles, 129 vs. 132. The final stage of the month must have been their biggest highlight with that 1-2, but Uppsala was decent as well. 5th place - 6th considering PpRD - is their well-deserved reward.
We have one team left above 100 points, which is somewhat in between the Top 5 and the next chasers. Zain-Omantel scored 102 points - exlusively in Sweden, with their other 4 RDs resulting in zero points. Still, that's a 12.8 PpRD average, 4th best of the month.
Once again, some mixed feelings for Würth. 7th place isn't bad, and in particular Zepuntke finally winning a stage must have given them some morale boost. But with 5.8, their PpRD is only the 10th highest, so it doesn't look likely they can close the gap to the promotion spots. 69 points scored by the Germans.
With 63 and 61, Duvel and Gjensidige are close behind. The Belgo-Chinese only raced in Uppsala, giving them a great PpRD of 15.8, so they can't be unhappy with the month. And Gjensidige can easily afford a somewhat lower scoring month; it's still the 9th best PpRD for the leaders, so probably not that much lost.
Then we're already down to 38 points, which is Spark's score for 10th place. 10th doesn't sound bad, but it's likely not enough to seriously threaten the current Top 5. But we'll find that out later.
Euskotren with 37 and Glanbia with 33 points aren't far off - but for the Basque team, it was another really awful month. Having spent 17 RDs - the most of any CT team in July - they only got a 2.2 PpRD average, far away from what would be needed to fight for promotion, or even for the Top 10. Opposite feelings for Glanbia, who just spent 4 RDs and have a PpRD of 8.3, easily Top 10.
22 and 21 points are the scores of Hilcona and Genii respectively - in particular for the latter this could be painful, as they are still involved in the fight for promotion. Thanks to this not being a very RD-heavy month, they should still have a shot, but we'll find out very soon.
Cervélo, Euskadi, Air New Zealand and Babymetal all scored less than 10 points - not much more needs to be said about that. Instead, let the numbers speak:
Pos
Team
Tor
Arab
Eus
Upp
BLX
And
Total
RD
PpRD
1
Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh
20
0
0
239
0
18
277
11
25.18
2
Newton Foundation p/b Zwift
0
0
0
32
0
118
150
9
16.67
3
Trans Looney Tunes
0
20
34
0
93
0
147
14
10.50
4
SEE Turtles
4
36
0
87
5
0
132
16
8.25
5
Ethiopian Airlines
0
0
17
55
0
57
129
13
9.92
6
Zain-Omantel
0
0
0
102
0
0
102
8
12.75
7
Team Würth MODYF
10
0
0
12
47
0
69
12
5.75
8
Duvel-Tsingtao
0
0
0
63
0
0
63
4
15.75
9
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
0
0
0
43
0
18
61
9
6.78
10
Spark Team NZ
0
0
0
5
0
33
38
9
4.22
11
Euskotren - Pays Basque
0
0
4
12
0
21
37
17
2.18
12
Glanbia
0
0
0
33
0
0
33
4
8.25
13
Hilcona Racing Team
0
0
0
2
20
0
22
10
2.20
14
Genii Hyundai N Cycling
0
0
4
17
0
0
21
15
1.40
15
Cervelo Test Team
2
0
0
7
0
0
9
10
0.90
16
Euskadi-Murias
0
0
9
0
0
0
9
8
1.13
17
Air New Zealand-Alfa Romeo
5
0
0
2
0
0
7
6
1.17
18
Babymetal
0
0
0
2
0
4
6
9
0.67
Full Ranking
With some teams still having more than 50 RDs left, a lot of things can obviously still change. But something that's almost impossible is that our current Top 2 would miss out on promotion.
Sure, in 2022 the bar was set at 1,315 points - but does anyone seriously think that Gjensidige would not manage to score 8+ points in 50 RDs? The Scandinavians still hold the lead with 1,307 points and are projected to end up at 2,033 points - which would be the 2nd highest value since the race day reduction.
Newton Foundation have clearly closed in, though, scoring more than 100 points more than the leaders. The Americans, totalling 1,245 points (enough for promotion last year), are trailing by just 62 points now. We can definitely expect these two teams to battle it out for the division title - and we'll see both of them in PCT next year, take it for granted.
For Trans, it's looking great by now, too. The Slovenians had another surprisingly high scoring month, and are in a great position to bounce back immediately. With 1,016 points, they're already above 1,000 points, and with 9.9 have the 3rd best PpRD average. They'll still need to continue scoring, unlike the Top 2 (who still will, obviously), but they're on track. Which for me is a surprise, I didn't really have them on the list. But well done so far, definitely!
The same holds for our new #4, which I barely expected to be Top 10 contenders. You see, you shouldn't take me seriously. Anyway, Simba Cement had a huge, huge month and have moved up from 7th place to an automatic promotion spot! With 976 points, they'll soon cross the 1,000 points mark as well, and with their 1,289 points projection could indeed be going up! But it's far from over, with a good third of the season yet to be raced!
After having dropped from 3rd to 5th last month, Duvel have managed to find some momentum again, and were able to defend that 5th place. Simba obvoiusly flew past them, but they overtook Genii instead. 899 points scored so far, 5th best PpRD with 8.99 - but their best rider with just a couple of RDs left. Will they manage to stay afloat?
Because despite having had an awful month, Genii are still very serious promotion contenders, in particular with some nice hilly races still left on the calendar. The Luxembourgers trail the Top 5 by just 32 points, which really isn't much.
Behind them, it's a 100 points gap to Glanbia, totalling 768 points. Which might look bad for the latter, but in terms of projected score the Irishmen are just 48 points behind Genii. However, it's more than 100 to Duvel, so they'll need to find some more big points.
Which clearly holds for all the remaining teams as well, if they still want to threaten the Top 5 - or at least get as good a position as they can, in case of potential disbands.
Würth are next, having held onto 8th place, and currently standing at 744 points. Not far behind Glanbia, but having spent 11 RDs more, for a PpRD of 6.95. And a projection of almost 150 points less.
Which looks even worse for Ethiopian Airlines in 9th place, trailing the Germans by 25 points and having spent another 3 additional race days. It's currently still a Top 10 projection, but with 4 teams being projected within 23 points that's not worth much.
The Turtles are one of these 4 teams who seem to be fighting for the lower Top 10 spots. 670 points scored so far, 49 behind Ethiopian Airlines, and holding the final Top 10 spot for the moment, after having gained 2 places in July.
Euskotren in turn lost another spot, dropping outside the Top 10 now. With 615 points, they're already 55 points behind the Turtles, and are also projected about 50 points behind. Can they finally turn things around, or will it end up being a really disappointing season for the Basque team?
Zain-Omantel had a strong month, moving up from 15th to 12th, and being one of the least racing teams so far, they could even have a shot at the Top 10 according to current projections. Which isn't the case of Euskadi, despite being just 5 points down - 583 vs. 588 - having spent 12 RDs more already.
The team having most RDs left - 56 out of 140, or 40% - is Spark. It's also one of the teams being the furthest behind their own expectations so far, as the Kiwis wanted to bounce back to PCT immediately. With 549 points, they're currently 350 points behind the Top 5. Their PpRD projects them to just get into the final Top 10, but the riders besides Bennett probably need to find another gear to actually get there.
Next up are Cervélo, the final Top 15 team, having dropped 2 spots. With 526 points, they're just 23 behind Spark, but having raced more, they're actually projected to stay in that 15th place until the end.
The bottom 3 teams then have quite some gap, with Babymetal following 155 points further down. Hilcona are almost another 50 points further off, and then it's another 50 to red lantern Air New Zealand. The last 3 positions might not be in their final order yet, but it will be difficult for any of them to still end up inside the Top 15.
Dominators will dominate. It was the case for Chiarello last year, it's Matteo Jorgenson's case in 2024. Adding another 99 points to his tally, he now has reached 765 points. And with 3 RDs remaining, he's only 88 points behind Chiarello's 2023 score - can he beat the Brazilian legend while still being at the start of his "real" career?
The rest of the division will be happy that the American will soon be out of RDs. Maybe someone will be able to score at least half of Jorgenson's points, we'll see. Currently, Richard Antonio Carapaz currently doesn't, having scored 314. Which is still enough for 2nd place, by almost nothing.
Because the next 3 riders are within 20 points of the Ecuadorian. First of all, Thymen Arensman, who almost scored enough in Andorra to move up to 2nd. With 310 points, he's currently "just" 3rd, though - but definitely another big promise for the future!
Brent Van Moer swapped positions with teammate Arensman, now trailing the Dutchman by two points. But he's the division's Top TTer by a mile, and that's not likely to change.
Rok Korosec gained another spot after a great performance in the Benelux Challenge, now totalling 294 points. Which is 20 less than Carapaz in 2nd, as mentioned before. The fight for the podium spots is on!
But the Top 5 aren't safe yet. Dion Smith dropped from 5th to 6th, but with a 42 points gap to 5th a lot is still possible. Also for Dylan Kennett, moving up from 8th to 7th, another 5 points down.
Kristian Haugaard Jensen will be looking forward to some more hills, whereas Ruben Zepuntke should have Kigali as his highlight of the month. With 226 and 221 points respectively, they do have a sizeable gap to 5th place, but not an unsurmountable one.
Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev lost one spot to Zepuntke and now takes the final Top 10 spot, with 210 points. No less than 4 riders are within 15 points behind him, though, so expect some more movement next time.
The most notable improver - the actual notable one inside the Top 20, actually - is Zariff, thanks to his Uppsala win. The Malaysian jumped up from 54th to 11th and now has definitely reached the scoring region where his manager wanted him to be.
Outside the Top 20, we can mention two more sprinters, with Minali moving up from 56th to 23rd, and Zhao from 49th to 27th.
And now, you can find your own special stories, as here are the current standings:
Was this my best month? No! Was it my worst... Absolutely not!
Huge congratulations again to Simba Cement for a great Uppsala! Its nice to just be in the running again for a top 10 - I think there are still two or three good major races for me left. If I can score well there, I can still challenge the top 10. Who knows where that will lead me - but I would love to meet that goal somehow after such a challenging season.
Uppsala looked alright on paper with 8pprd but it was a major chance , maybe our last one, to score big and we messed up our sprint game. I'd consider Glanbia's current position as our best potential finishing place.
As expected I would say this month was normal and not our problem. Our problem were the months before. Lets see what happens the next months and hopefully we can finish this year in style since top 5 we gave up already
lots to learn for us this year and plenty to note going forward into next year but losing out on a couple of FA late on really hurt usat the top end of the team and we've never really recovered the points from losing them
The race for top 5 is really close, but top 7 should be in the bank.
Also, Zariff has indeed met our initial expectations (of 200 points), but not in the way we expected. Let's see if he will actually win a stage in the last third of the season
O damn this has been a worse period than I expected, well at least we still have our spot and I didnt get outdone by Jasper I hope to see luck turn around next month! Awesome going in the top 3 as well We will see some exciting battles still in the top 10.
Kinda nuts how one big day in Andorra can change around our entire month, but what a result it was for us. Firmly in the top ten fight now, however the lack of potential upwards mobility beyond Würth means we're very much on the defensive. Still, it very much feels like we've been improving as the season progresses ans I'm excited to see how the rest of the season goes.
As in every year, the midseason is very hard on us. Next months began way better, so we'll have to see what we don next. And back on the hills, we might have our chances, even though they're harder than before.
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
Thank you Fab for all of the amazing updates! I’ve been a little absent recently, but these rankings updates are always ones I look forward to, and so helpful to see the state of play.
Caspi must be thrilled with that Simba turnaround, and Glanbia breathing down our necks as well will make this promotion challenge a very tricky one with a few calendar months left.
We will see some exciting battles still in the top 10.
