It's the final big month of racing in terms of number of races in PCT, with 11 events taking place. Well, actually 10, with the Giro del Trentino being a non-event for PCT with 0 participants. So it's "split time" again, and we'll do it by categories as usual. With the higher scoring races - PTHC/HC - being the slightly bigger block, having 6 races.
Partial Monthly Ranking: C1/C2
The month started with a tough decision for teams with good TTers: Either the PTHC Deutschland Tour, including a decisive ITT - or the C1 Tour de Vineyards, including an important TTT. Plus three flat stages and a revamped mountain stage, now including some additional bumps.
Well, the teams of the strongest TTers aren't necessarily the division's top TTT teams, so the former preferred sending their top guns to Germany. And so, only 8 PCT teams found their way to New Zealand (the 2nd lowest value in a "true" C1 race).
Vineyards often had one team dominating, and so few PCT teams was an invitation for someone to do the same this year. ELCO gladly accepted, and easily took what will likely be the year's highest score in a "true" C1 race. They simply dominated the mountain stage, with Giannoutsos winning by almost a minute, Mavrikakis and Spanopoulos taking a Top 10, and Ioannidis and Agrotis a Top 20. Thanks to the 2nd place in the final TTT - missing out on the win by fractions only - this resulted in GC positions 1, 6, 7, 11 and 14 for these 5 riders. Kiriakidis also making the Top 30 is rather a sidenote - and ELCO winning the team standings an obvious consequence. Oh, and as if that wasn't enough scoring already, Giannoutsos also took the KoM shirt. Domination. And 315 points. The 3rd highest PCT score in 2024 to date. Hats off!
Just to underscore this domination: No other PCT team even scored 100 points (one CT team did, though). So, 95 points - less than 1/3 of ELCO's points - were enough for 2nd place. Which went to... Sauber! An expectedly bad TTT performance crushed their dreams of a GC podium, with Frankiny ending up in 8th place and Misbah in 9th. The duo were 6th and 8th in the mountain stage. Einhorn and Noia got them some stage podiums as well, the former from the stage 2 bunch sprint, the latter from the successful stage 4 breakaway. The Sammarinese ended up in 2nd place in the team standings, and all of this combined was worth the aforementioned 95 points.
Which is just two more than what Benetton got. A solid 4th place in the TTT was enough for Powless to claim 2nd place overall, after having finished 5th in the mountain stage. Xandri scored some points for 20th place in GC as well, with Bonello adding a U25 point, resulting in 93 points in total.
Next up was one of the cobblers' final chances to shine, with the legendary C1 GP Kigali awaiting them! A mostly flat race, but with some nasty bumps - including the cobbled one leading up to the finish line!
Despite the hilly rating, puncheur skills didn't matter as much as cobbles skills as there also is a roughly 1km flat cobbled section preceding the hill. And so, Gamper's steady attacking simply broke his rivals and he got clear. As a strong TTer, he knows how to perfectly pace himself, and he did that all the way to the finish line, getting a great solo win and 80 points for Lierse!
Benoot did however get really close, thanks to his superiority on the hills, but had to settle for 2nd place. Still a strong result, beating many stronger pure cobblers! 56 points are his and Sony's reward.
Kasperkiewicz' 3rd place wasn't enough to make Specialized the 3rd best scoring team, though - instead, ELCO as usually played their depth really well! Kortsidakis got a good 5th place, complemented by Boutopoulos in 14th, last year's winner Summerhill in 16th and Stavrakakis in 21st. That's 55 points for the Greeks.
The month's second C2 event, with the hilly GP Yekaterinburg making its comeback (now in summer), got a little more love by the PCT teams, with three squads making the trip to Russia.
Their success was moderate, though. Still, kudos to Sleen on a good 12th place, clearly not a rider you'd expect to still be there in the latest stages of the race! With the C2 points scale, that's just 7 points for himself and Tryg, though.
Prevar used to be a top puncheur. And while his uphill speed is still great, he can only keep it for a very short time nowadays - not enough to fight for the win. 17th place for him, 3 points for Popo4Ever. And a grand total of zero points for Tafjord, with their best rider finishing 33rd.
The final race in this block is the 6-day C1 Tour du Maroc. One for the pure climbers, with zero kilometers against the clock. But only one "big" mountain stage, so puncheur skills somewhat mattered, too. And three sprint stages, thereof one usually reserved for the breakaway. How did it go?
Well, the best PCT climbers seemed to have everything under control. Until they simply underestimated a CT rider, who eventually ran away with the stage win - and the GC. Hence, 2nd place was the best PCT could get.
But even that wasn't quite enough to get the highest team score. Instead, the only team with two stage wins got the highscore. Which was Team UBS, winning the first stage with Perera - 40 points for him. And then stage 4 with Godoy, who only trailed the GC lead by 2" at that time. But then he simply slept at the decisive moment on stage 5, losing 16" and finishing just 6th instead of a potential stage podium - 3rd place in GC only. At least he got the points jersey, so that's still a very solid 122 points for him. UBS also got minor GC and U25 points, making it a total of 167 points. If they should miss out on promotion, they definitely have a race with lots of regrets here.
Promotion looks to be out of reach for Specialized anyway - but this was Barguil's race to lose going into stage 5, and he lost it. He won stage 2, taking over the GC lead - and then was just as inattentive as Godoy for some seconds. 2nd place in GC for him, 2nd place in points as well. He scored 155 points, which was the highest individual score, but with just Potocki getting a handful of GC points on top of that, the Canadians' 159 points are "only" good enough for 2nd place. Lots of 2nds here.
The surprise of the race was definitely a neo-pro winning a bunch sprint. Yes, it did happen - don't ask me how on earth that is possible. It was, and the winner was Trezise on day 3. These 20 points were the only ones he scored all race long, but still. Sony of course also had Leemreize, who did a great job claiming 7th in GC, plus obviously the white jersey on top of that. Carcueva ended up 13th, and Hayter 29th - with the latter making it a 1-2 in U25. Hocevar took 4th in U25, and Sony's 3rd place in the team standings also was worth some points. It's 105 in total for Sony, not a bad outcome if you don't even need to send any of your team leaders there.
So, let's do some math: We can see that one team made excellent use of this block, two more can be happy, another 8 weren't too shabby - but there were also 7 who failed to score a single point. To be fair, only one of them actually raced, but more on that later.
First things first, and first are ELCO with a big margin. Obviously, they got most of their points from New Zealand, but they also did well in Rwanda. It's 370 points for the Greek, definitely a job well done.
Next up are Specialized and UBS, PCT's highest scoring teams in Morocco. Both also got some points in Kigali - the Swiss surely less than expected, which is why Specialized win the battle for 2nd 210 vs. 195.
Sony and Bralirwa had the same scoring races, with the Indians scoring clearly better with 161 vs. 122 points. Given the riders the former had in Morocco, they should actually be among the "happy" teamns, not the "not too shabby" ones.
Also above 100 points are Popo4Ever and Ekoi, just below are Sauber, Benetton, McCormick and Lierse. The teams below 100 points all got their points from a single race each.
Then it's Everesting and Kraftwerk with still some decent points, 66 and 55 respectively. JEWA can be rather satisfied with their 32 points from Kigali, too, with Tryg's 18 points probably being a tad more disappointing.
ISA and Manada then scored 5 points each - pretty bad for the latter in particular, as they spent the 5 days in New Zealand to get almost nothing.
And then, 7 bagel teams: Zalgiris, Indosat, Llapi, Lotto, Minions, Podium Ambition and Tafjord. Only the latter even bothered racing, though - in Russia, with a zero-pointer in a C2 race probably not being their worst accident this season.
Here are the full numbers:
Team
Vin
Kig
Yek
Mar
Total
1
ELCO - ABEA
315
55
0
0
370
2
Specialized
0
51
0
159
210
3
Team UBS
0
28
0
167
195
4
Sony - Force India
0
56
0
105
161
5
Bralirwa - Cegeka
0
40
0
82
122
6
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
49
0
3
51
103
7
Ekoi - Le Creuset
74
27
0
0
101
8
Sauber Petronas Racing
95
0
0
0
95
9
Benetton Bimex Cycling
93
0
0
0
93
10
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
0
0
89
89
11
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
80
0
0
80
12
Everesting
47
0
0
19
66
13
Kraftwerk Man Machine
55
0
0
0
55
14
JEWA TIROL
0
32
0
0
32
15
Tryg - Eni
0
11
7
0
18
16
ISA - Hexacta
0
5
0
0
5
17
Manada Coyote
5
0
0
0
5
18
DK Zalgiris
0
0
0
0
0
19
Indosat Ooredoo
0
0
0
0
0
20
Llapi-Vita
0
0
0
0
0
21
Lotto-Caloi
0
0
0
0
0
22
Minions
0
0
0
0
0
23
Podium Ambition
0
0
0
0
0
24
Tafjord Kraft
0
0
0
0
0
Partial Monthly Ranking: PTHC/HC
The other part of the clash for the TTers was the PTHC Deutschland Tour. Four days for the sprinters, one and the GC (at least expectedly) for the TTers. And most of PCT's top TTers actually preferred Germany to New Zealand, having good chances for a strong result!
However, the wind didn't favour all of them. Actually just one of the TTers came through more or less as expected - and this was Bjerg! The Minion rode to a strong 6th place, which would have been perfectly reasonable even without the wind factor. And 6th place it was at the end as well, bringing home 101 points. Which made him the team's 2nd best scorer only, though! Because Ahlstrand definitely struck gold in Germany, winning the opening stage and almost doubling down on the final day where he ended up 2nd! Alongside 6th and 8th in the other two bunch sprints, he won the points jersey by one single point, scoring 111 ranking points! So that's 212 points scored by the two leaders, with Casillas contributing 2 more for his 96th place in GC, making it a whopping 214 points for the Minions!
Bjerg definitely wasn't expected to be the highest PCT finisher, though. Instead, Dunbar was expected to fight for the GC podium - which he missed out on by almost half a minute, finishing 7th only, right behind Bjerg. The weather conditions definitely weren't favourable during his ride, and obviously no teammate was strong enough to jump in. 7th isn't a fully awful result, but still a bad one, and 90 points isn't what the Irishman came here for. Nor did Nur Hasan come here for just 2 points by taking 7th on the final stage - clearly luck wasn't on their side neither with the wind nor in the sprints. Overall, it's 99 points for the Indonesians, with Arif Prayogo, Firdaus (8th U25) and Doull getting a Top 100 GC. Still more points than most other PCT teams could dream of.
The likes of Zalgiris (Beniusis, Kmieliauskas) or Benetton (Durbridge) definitely had some justified expectations of good scores, but they weren't lucky, either. Instead, it's ISA taking the 3rd best PCT score here. Ferreyra's 18th place in GC is a higher than expected result, but he had some luck with the wind (not as much as e.g. Christodoulos who ended up 10th, though!), so that's a good outcome. Harrison couldn't keep up his great form by any means, though, having an 11th place as his best stage result - scoring some points nonetheless thanks to a gap for the sprinters on day 2 plus some strong TTing. 34th place in GC for him, with five more teammates making the Top 100. And Andersen ending up 3rd in KoM. All in all, 62 points for the Latinos.
The revenge for the TTers came right after, with the HC Post Danmark Rundt being next on the schedule. This time, only 3 flat stages and an ITT - plus a slightly hilly stage. The question is always: hard enough to shake off the pure TTers or not? But well, who needs hilly stages anyway if some of the TTers simply don't pay attention in pan-flat stages, right? A lot of teams' dreams where shattered outside of stage 3...
But the obvious favourite was never in danger, neither on the flat days nor in the hilly stage. Dunbar didn't ride a spectacular race, but he did what he had to do - not losing silly time, and then winning the ITT! He did exactly that, and that was enough for another GC win and 195 points! And some more good news for Indosat, with young puncheur Yudha getting a rather surprising 2nd place in the hilly stage after a gutsy ride - which also helpded to finish 7th in U25. Gani got a Top 50 in GC, scoring some points as well - and Indosat's 3rd place in teams was also worth 10 points in total. All in all, 226 points for the Indonesians.
But wait, that wasn't actual the highest team score! Instead, the Minions managed to sneak by, led by a very strong Bjerg who was "best of the rest" in GC! 3rd place in the ITT and keeping up on all other stages left him just 5 seconds behind Dunbar, a great result, rewarded by 135 points. However, their other hero also scored almost 100 points - with Kalaba launching the race in a perfect way, by taking the win on day 1! He didn't quite manage to confirm this result in the other sprint stages - but by doing a good job in the hilly stage and the final ITT, he actually ended up 10th in GC! The short ITT was clearly beneficial for him, but you have to take your chances! 99 points for Kalaba, which makes 234 in total and 1st place for the Minions!
Then it was another fight GC podium vs. depth for 3rd place. With the better end for the second option and ELCO! The Greek didn't score a single stage point, but Kiriakidis and Christapopoulos were just as attentive as they had to be to not lose any silly time, and subsequently ended up 6th and 7th in GC! Niu and Spanopoulos formed another duo, but way further behind - in 47th and 48th. These four GC results plus 3rd place in the team standings were all the points ELCO scored - they can still be pretty happy with the outcome, though, given that they got 171 points in total!
Cataford's Sony ended up 13 points down, by the way, and then we had 7 teams between 117 and 138 points right behind - pretty crowded behind the top scorers...
And then, a last really big event for the sprinters! Three days with pan-flat stages in Ireland, that's the PTHC Ras Tailteann! And the PCT teams even had the numerical advantage over their PT rivals, with 12 vs. 8 teams.
But what they made out of this was pretty much unreal. Points-wise, the duel ended 1,625 vs. 699 - in favour of the PCT teams! Almost 1,000 points more than the PT teams, that's definitely a very rare sight. And who made the most out of it?
Well, the division's best sprinter. Not necessarily the fastest one, but the most well-rounded one. Which is Ewan. And boy, did he deliver! OK, he royally messed up stage 2, not even getting a Top 15 result. But as no other sprinter was truly consistent, it was enough for the Aussie to win the other two stages for taking both the GC and the points win! 303 points for Ewan, what a race! OK, his teammates didn't contribute much, with 6 of them ending up between 56th and 86th. That's 6x2 points, as you surely know - but 315 points in total are still easily the highest score of the race! Hopefully the team management somehow followed this race (and their great season in general)...
He might be the fastest sprinter of the division, but Coquard wasn't consistent enough to fight for the overall win here. After a 5th place to start the race, he also messed up his sprint on day 2. On the final day, it looked like he could take the stage win - but the slight incline tipped the balance in Ewan's favour. Still, a 2nd place there was enough for 3rd overall and 5th in points, netting him 157 points. But Manada also had some notable depth, with Jimenez Retana taking 28th place (plus 3rd U25), Huertas 41st and Rojas 49th. Plus three more in the Top 100 - and the Coyotes also got 2nd place in the team standings! All in all, that's 209 points for them!
The sprinters who came 4th and 5th overall had close to no depth results behind them. And even though Farantakis in 5th scored slightly more points than Enger in 4th thanks to his stage win (158 vs. 153), Tafjord still took 3rd place here over ELCO with 161 vs. 160. The Norwegians had 4 additional riders in the Top 100, the Greek just one, making up their final scores.
Finally, finally there was something for the pure puncheurs left this month. And most of them even had the choice: Italy or Switzerland? Tough uphill finish or one for the punchy sprinters? Both races had the HC points scale, and both had some big names participating!
Let's start with Milano - Torino, the one with the uphill sprint. However, it was a long uphill sprint. So long that the puncheurs with lesser climbing skills really struggled, while the more hybrid riders enjoyed the finale.
One of the division's top hybrids is De Plus, who just had his nose in front as three riders finished almost on one line. 3rd classic win for Lierse in one month, what an awesome streak they're having! And they won't really care that no-one else managed to score here, as these 140 points still are the highest score in this race.
Benoot was leading for most of the final kilometer, but didn't quite have enough left to fend off De Plus' decisive move. Still, a 2nd place for him and Sony is still a great result to stay in the promotion fight. Shirota even added 5 more points by taking 27th place, so that's 103 for the Indians.
3rd place then went to Van Niekerk, who faded a little bit in the end but still held onto the final podium spot. 87 points for ISA, as Cepeda Hernandez also got a Top 30 result.
Just across the border, in the Canton of Ticino, we had the GP Lugano. Well, actually not, but if you read the report you know about the geographical shenanigans. Anyway, with most of the notable hills coming early on, and the finish being after a descent, this race most often is one for punchy sprinters.
And 2024 was no exception (whereas 2023 was). And one of the division's best punchy sprinters undoubtedly is Lagane, who indeed timed his sprint best and got a clear win in the end! 140 points for Podium Ambition, hopefully giving them some motivation to keep their project going!
2nd place and quite a lot of crucial points then went to Narvaez, who also has a nice combination of skills in the hills and some sprinting. 98 points for him, 108 for McCormick who also had Rota and breakaway member Daniel in the Top 30. And with 172 points combined from the two clashing hilly classics, they were actually the best team in Milano and Lugano combined!
3rd place in the race and in terms of points then went to CT, with Edmondson's 4th place being enough for ISA to be tied for 3rd here as well, scoring 70 points. Which however is true as well for Specialized, who got 61 points for Meurisse's strong 5th place, plus 17th place and 9 points by the surprising Svestad-Bardseng, doing a great job after a long day out in the breakaway.
Let's take stock then, adding up all these big numbers!
And the biggest total of the block goes to... ISA! Ewan's awesome Ras performance got them more than half of their block score, but the hilly clash at the end of the month wasn't too bad, either. 588 points in total, surely a good return!
It was a slim margin to 2nd place, though, given that the Minions also did a really good job - mainly in Germany and Denmark, scoring more than 200 points in either race! And had Kinoshita done his job in Italy, they'd even have won the block...
Next up are Lierse, who obviously had two huge results in Arenberg and Torino, and with 527 points they're the only team to more or less keep up with the Top 2!
But ELCO won't be too unhappy with their result, either. 438 points is quite a bit behind the podium, but also 70 points ahead of the rest, so a good block for them.
Best of the "rest" were Sony, scoring 368 points, with three races above 100 points (like Lierse). That was just enough for the final Top 5 spot, with Indosat following closely behind - obviously Germany and Denmark were their big results, but they came just 9 points short of Sony in the Asian duel.
Also above 300 points are Tafjord and Benetton, the former getting an important result in the relegation fight, the latter potentially staying in touch with the (disband) promotion spots.
Zalgiris got almost 300 points and take 9th place, with Manada rounding off the Top 10 mostly thanks to Coquard. 267 points for the Costa Ricans.
We then have 5 more teams above 200 points, ranging from JEWA's 238 down to Kraftwerk's 201, the Germans taking the final Top 15 spot. In between are McCormick, Podium Ambition and Tryg.
Next up are Llapi, then Lotto, Popo4Ever and UBS, and finally Everesting as the last team above 100 points.
Specialized, Ekoi and Bralirwa scored 75, 73 and 68 points respectively - but that's still a good margin to our red lantern, which are Sauber in this block with only 29 points.
Numbers, please? Here you are:
Pos
Team
Deu
DK
Are
Ras
M-T
Lug
Total
1
ISA - Hexacta
62
54
0
315
87
70
588
2
Minions
214
234
2
92
38
0
580
3
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
117
202
68
140
0
527
4
ELCO - ABEA
55
171
46
160
6
0
438
5
Sony - Force India
0
158
0
102
103
5
368
6
Indosat Ooredoo
99
226
24
0
0
8
357
7
Tafjord Kraft
0
137
0
161
22
0
320
8
Benetton Bimex Cycling
34
132
0
148
0
0
314
9
DK Zalgiris
45
138
0
0
55
58
296
10
Manada Coyote
0
14
0
209
0
44
267
11
JEWA TIROL
59
130
8
0
41
0
238
12
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
58
0
0
64
108
230
13
Podium Ambition
7
13
61
0
0
140
221
14
Tryg - Eni
48
134
0
0
0
31
213
15
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
80
0
77
44
0
201
16
Llapi-Vita
38
40
2
85
0
17
182
17
Lotto-Caloi
0
29
6
123
9
0
167
18
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
0
61
0
85
0
0
146
18
Team UBS
37
12
0
0
70
27
146
20
Everesting
0
41
0
0
66
21
128
21
Specialized
0
0
0
0
5
70
75
22
Ekoi - Le Creuset
0
11
0
0
12
50
73
23
Bralirwa - Cegeka
0
30
2
0
5
31
68
24
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
14
0
0
0
15
29
Period Ranking | August
Lots of racing, lots of points scored! And lots of points scored in both blocks leads to the top spot overall - congratulations to ELCO for winning the month! They invested a lot - 24 RDs to be precise, the highest amount in August - but with 808, they definitely got a great return! With 33.7, they "only" got the 3rd best PpRD, but that's easily good enough to stay afloat in the promotion race!
The most efficient team of the month however were Lierse. With 607 points, they scored 201 points less than the Greek - but they only spent 14 RDs to get there! And their only 2 RDs in the "lower" block were spent for the Kigali win, so that's a pretty perfect program! 43.4 is an amazing PpRD, and this month could really remove any doubts about promotion!
Which under normal circumstances should also be the case for our current leaders, ISA. The Latinos scored 593 points, just 14 less than Lierse - but they spent 5 RDs more to get the 5th best PpRD "only". But circumstances aren't normal for them, sadly, and so another great month looks to be worth absolutely nothing in the end.
Next up are the Minions, missing out on the August podium by just 13 points! Which means 580 points scored, by using up just 17 RDs - with 34.1, that's the 2nd highest PpRD! If only they had been flying this high all year long...
The final team in the Top 5 - and above 500 points - are Sony. The Indians did race quite a lot to get there, but if you take 5th place with the 5th best PpRD (26.5), I guess that's a good result. At least a very useful one in the promotion race.
It's a gap of more than 100 points behind the Top 5, and next up are Benetton with 407 points. Having raced 22 days, their PpRD actually isn't even enough for the Top 10, so we'll see what that means for their sudden promotion ambitions.
One team definitely aspiring for promotion are Indosat, and the Indonesians are next in the rankings, with 357 points. 25.5 is the 6th best PpRD - but they'll have to hope that they can keep this up even after the end of Dunbar's season now!
Team UBS are another team fighting for promotion, and while the Swiss only lost 16 points to Indosat, they actually spent 8 RDs more - resulting in a PpRD that's barely Top 15 material! We'll see what that means for the overall standings...
Tafjord and McCormick then round off the Top 10, totalling 320 and 319 points respectively - a good result for these two teams both fighting hard against relegation! And it's a good one both in terms of points and PpRD, as they're Top 10 in both.
Zalgiris also are Top 10 in PpRD, but not in points, scoring 296. Which ses them narrowly ahead of Specialized with 285, with the Canadians even posting the 7th best PpRD of the month.
Manada and JEWA both are pretty close, too scoring 272 and 270 points respectively, but spending 15+ RDs which sees their PpRD below 20. The same holds for Kraftwerk on the final Top 15 spot, with 256 points.
Popo4Ever, Tryg and Podium Ambition all got more than 200 points as well, taking 16th through 18th. Everesting almost got 200 points, scoring 194 - but having spent 22 RDs to get there, they were actually the worst team of the month PpRD-wise!
Behind them in terms of points are Bralirwa, Lierse, Ekoi and Lotto, scoring from 190 down to 167 points. Sauber are clearly trailing and get the red lantern of the month, scoring only 124 points.
Numbers? Numbers!
Pos
Team
C1/C2
PTHC/HC
Total
RD
PpRD
1
ELCO - ABEA
370
438
808
24
33.67
2
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
80
527
607
14
43.36
3
ISA - Hexacta
5
588
593
19
31.21
4
Minions
0
580
580
17
34.12
5
Sony - Force India
161
368
529
20
26.45
6
Benetton Bimex Cycling
93
314
407
22
18.50
7
Indosat Ooredoo
0
357
357
14
25.50
8
Team UBS
195
146
341
22
15.50
9
Tafjord Kraft
0
320
320
14
22.86
10
McCormick Pro Cycling
89
230
319
15
21.27
11
DK Zalgiris
0
296
296
14
21.14
12
Specialized
210
75
285
12
23.75
13
Manada Coyote
5
267
272
15
18.13
14
JEWA TIROL
32
238
270
16
16.88
15
Kraftwerk Man Machine
55
201
256
15
17.07
16
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
103
146
249
23
10.83
17
Tryg - Eni
18
213
231
16
14.44
18
Podium Ambition
0
221
221
16
13.81
19
Everesting
66
128
194
22
8.82
20
Bralirwa - Cegeka
122
68
190
19
10.00
21
Llapi-Vita
0
182
182
19
9.58
22
Ekoi - Le Creuset
101
73
174
16
10.88
23
Lotto-Caloi
0
167
167
12
13.92
24
Sauber Petronas Racing
95
29
124
12
10.33
Full Ranking
The Top 2 of the July Rankings finished this month in reverse order, with Lierse taking 2nd and ISA 3rd. However, the gap in the monthly update is just 14 points - meaning that the Argentineans easily hold onto their lead! With 3,351 points, promotion should be a sure thing - and even the title might be within reach.
But as we all know, MGUCI have decided to not renew ISA's racing license due to inactivity. Which really is a shame, given the great team they actually have - but success doesn't make you escape the rules. So we might end up with a PCT winner who doesn't actually promote...
Or will Lierse still overtake ISA in the final months? With 3,280 points, promotion should also be secured for them by now. However, the path to the title isn't obvious, given that they have spent 6 additional RDs, and with Oomen having ended his season, someone else needs to step up. But Gamper and De Plus just did, so maybe someone else can do the same?
Sony couldn't quite keep up with the Top 2 this month, but they weren't far off, either. A Top 5 this month was easily enough to stay in the promotion race - and actually even to improve their situation. They currently total 3,151 points, so they will easily reach the remaining points to definitely secure promotion. And just to say - the gap to 6th place is more than 400 points currently, so I guess we'll have an Indian team in PT next year!
ELCO did race quite a lot - and instead of seeing their PpRD drop further as expected by their manager, they actually improved it again! With 3,119 points, they're just 32 behind Sony, and also just 232 behind the leaders. The Greek will go back up, and even if their PpRD should slightly drop after ToA (which isn't sure by any means!), they're even still the favourites for the title, being projected more than 200 points ahead of ISA!
The Top 4 have PpRDs above 22.5, and they will most likely remain up there. So in principle, we only have 5th place left as the final direct promotion spot - and we'll definitely get a fight for this one!
And currently, it's Indosat holding onto that spot. The Indonesians lost one spot to the Greek dominators of August - despite having had a pretty good month themselves! With 2,842 points, their gap to the Top 4 is almost 300 points, and having spent the highest amount of RDs in the division, and with Dunbar being done with his season, it would take some more Bagioli magic for them to close the gap!
Instead, they might be rather worried by what's going on behind them. Team UBS have now dropped out of the Top 5, and are 125 points behind Indosat - but they have 8 additional RDs left. And Godoy/Buchmann looks like a pretty powerful duo for the final two months. The projections see the Swiss end up 37 points ahead of Indosat - so it definitely could go either way!
And to further spice things up, Benetton are just 8 points behind UBS, in 7th place! They're also 7th in terms of PpRD, though, having spent 4 additional RDs so far, but they're on a roll lately! Can the Sammarinese indeed claim a promotion spot? Amissa Bongo and Tour of Japan could be some pretty great races for them, so we'll see...
Let's just recall that as it stands now, a Top 6 position is needed for promotion, given that ISA will surely stay up there but are irrelevant for the promotion fight. So it's basically three teams fighting for the final two spots - who will have the best finale?
It's rather unlikely that someone else will join the fun. Specialized aren't having a bad season by any means, but 300 points to Benetton seems like too much of a gap to close, in particular with the cobbles season almost done. But the Canadians, currently totalling 2,404 points, can at least be confident to end up inside the Top 10, with Tryg trailing by slightly more than 100 points already - and having spent more RDs.
Behind them, we now have the Minions after a really strong month, as they move up from 15th to 10th place! With 2,132 points, they're trailing Specialized by over 150 points though, but it's still possible to close this gap.
It's also possible that they lose a few spots again, though, with Ekoi trailing by 70 points, but being projected just 27 points down in the end. Id's a similar Story for Zalgiris, who are the final team above 2,000 points, with 2,029 points scored so far. The Lithuanians could still have a shot at the Top 10 - just like Bralirwa, another 69 points down, but with quite some RDs left.
Popo4Ever then are another 100 points down (almost), with Lotto following 80 points further behind as the final Top 15 team. The Belgians also are the final team having a 14+ PpRD average (even higher than P4E), and unless they completely mess up ToA, they should also be safe.
Which probably should be true as well for Manada, who are just 60 points behind Lotto, and still more than 200 above the danger zone. But Coquard doesn't have much racing left, and they're still struggling to find other scorers, so they could still be at risk.
Definitely at risk are the final 8 teams. Tafjord had a good month, moving up from 20th to 17th, but they'll need to keep up their good scoring in order to be safe. With 1,561 points, they're 164 points above the red zone, and with races like Balkans and Tour of Japan - plus ToA for two of the teams behind - still pending, that's not a comfortable margin.
Remember the June update, where we had a three-way tie for 19th place? Well, it's almost a 3-way tie for 18th now! We have Everesting with 1,500 points, Sauber with 1,499 and Kraftwerk with 1,497! So yes, Kraftwerk have indeed dropped below the line, but are just 2 and 3 points behind the next teams! And even Tafjord aren't far away, as mentioned before.
Of these three teams, Sauber definitely have the best cards to stay safe, having a bit RD advantage - and a potentially big ToA score incoming, given the rather weak competition there! So if Everesting and Kraftwerk can't catch Tafjord, it's probably at most one of them staying up...
Or could JEWA still close the gap? The Austrians are close, too, trailing Everesting by just 45 points, so anything seems to be possible! Given that their best rider is a cobbler, though, they'll need to find some other ways to score big!
However, the big danger of Everesting and Kraftwerk isn't JEWA. It's McCormick. Sure, the Americans are still way down the rankings. But with 1,396 points, they're just 100 and something points back. We all know about the importance that ToA has for them, so we can expect a big lineup there. McCormick already are projected to end up ahead of JEWA, Kraftwerk, Everesting and even Tafjord, so that's definitely a big risk for the other relegation candidates!
For Llapi, there doesn't seem to be much hope left. They may be just 96 points behind McCormick - but having done 24 RDs more, and having just 20 RDs left this year, it doesn't seem likely that they'll reach the safe area anymore. Given their (sadly) confirmed disband, this will likely mean no additional disband promotion spot for CT (whereas the one for P4E is pretty sure).
Despite their great win in "Lugano", the situation sadly hasn't improved for Podium Ambition, who still are our red lantern, trailing Llapi by 201 points. Maybe they'll still manage to not finish last?
That's all I've got to say - now I'll let the numbers talk:
I wrote last month that I'd be surprised if a given rider wouldn't take over the lead in the standings. Well, I'm not surprised then, as Eddie Dunbar indeed is our new leader! He did his final three races of the year in August, and ends 2024 with 1,197 points - 121 more than last season, so the training paid off, but maybe not quite as much as expected. Will it be enough to take the crown? I also wrote I'd be surprised if he didn't.
Well, I might be surprised, actually - simply because Caleb Ewan did a stunning job in Ireland, scoring almost as many points in 3 days as Dunbar did in 12! And the Australian still has a race left - with 1,126 points currently to his name, he could still claim the individual title! The most obvious race for him would be Paris - Tours, where he'd need a win to edge out Dunbar - by 9 points in that case.
Sam Oomen expectedly dropped behind Dunbar - I didn't expect him to fall behind Ewan as well, though. Well, he did, and given that his season is done and dusted, he won't be able to strike back even if he's just 5 points down.
But it should at least be enough for the podium, as Bryan Coquard as the only rider more or less within reach - the Frenchman ends his season with 1,068 points, with Ras making the difference in Ewan's favour - won't score anymore, either. It was a close fight between him and the Australian for PCT's top sprinter, but in the end Ewan just did better in the tougher races.
Daan Olivier is still sitting in 5th place, and he's got one race left. Which will be the Tour of Japan, according to Sony's HQ. Unless he absolutely dominates there, it won't be enough to move up in the standings, but a Top 5 would already be great anyway!
But I'm sure that Rafael Reis will give him a proper fight! In his final maxed year, he's finally found some consistency, and he's been doing great so far! The Portuguese is currently trailing 720 vs. 732 against Olivier - will the Tour of Japan be the big showdown for the final Top 5 spot?
Or can Andrea Bagioli find some more magic moments in the final months of the year? The Italian already has 667 points to his name, so not much less than the two stage racers! They have the advantage of getting another potentially high-scoring stage race, but Bagioli should race 3 classics instead - with the right results, that can be worth just as much or even more! Will he make it two Indosat riders in the Top 5?
Even Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz could theoretically still get a Top 5; with 639 points, he's less than 100 points behind Olivier, and a PTHC classic win - not impossible at all - is worth 170 points. However, there aren't more obvious options for him, so I'd rather expect him to fight against being overtaken.
Stanislaw Aniolkowski, one out of just two new riders in the Top 10 (having moved up to 9th from 11th), is just 26 points down, and currently is the division's 3rd best sprinter - rather surprisingly I'd say! He's got 4 RDs left, let's see how well he can use them - staying inside the Top 10 is definitely possible, but not a given!
Which also holds for Xandro Meurisse - the other new Top 10 member, having gained 2 spots as well - even though the puncheur might still find quite some races to his liking. And he still has quite some RDs left to spend... But with 576 points, he can't take anything for granted - in fact, the gap to Aniolkowski in 9th place (37 points) is bigger than the gap to Bonifazio in 19th place (34 points)!
Rodrigues and THJ lost their Top 10 spots, but both are in this "chasing group", and both have at least one race left to fight back.
In terms of big jumps, we definitely have to mention Gamper, who obviously moved up a lot after his 250 points coup in Kigali/Arenberg! From 39th to 13th, well done! But Farantakis also had a good month, scoring more than 200 points, and jumping up from 33rd to 15th.
We find more "sprinting improvers" outside the Top 20, with Enger (36 -> 22) and Ahlstrand (43 -> 25), but in that region of the rankings any race win can be worth quite a good jump.
Next month, it will be particularly interesting to see if any of the ToA captains can make great use of these 21 RDs; in particular Giannoutsos could get close to the Top 10 (or even inside) depending on stage and GC results!
We'll find out - but for now, these are the current facts & figures:
Thanks for the update, hopefully I am not setting myself up for failure but I feel pretty optimistic. Despite my moaning elsewhere we have been racking up points in ToA, back of the envelop we are probably already at 150 points. To increase our PpRD we just have to be over about 240 points for the race, which barring a total eclipse of the Sosa, shouldn't be an issue. Plus other than GP Cyclists we should be competitive in every remaining race day.
Great to see Lierse finally get over the hump, congrats to them. Good to see Sony looking strong, Abhi's team building in the post-kelderman era has been outstanding.
Good update for us. 5th best this month without Olivier and with only 4 Benoot RDs is a great return. Still on track for the season goal. September is going to be a quiet month for us, so it's nice to have this buffer in the promotion spots.
Relegation keeps as tight as it could be. I guess Tafjord, JEWA and Krfatwerk are our real rivals for the final bit of the season, seeing that McCormick and Sauber should be well off after ToA. Hope you guys play your role and offer your place to a poor and confused elderly manager
Thanks for the great work once again, Fab! We drop slowly in the rankings and are out of the top 10 for the first time this season - and this trend will clearly continue in September. It's not unreasonable though, given we punched above our weight so far, but there's still some hope to get back to the top 10 in October.
Thank you so much for the update Fab, always a pleasure to read these enormous updates!
It looks like the top-4 is pretty set now and should be unreachable for all teams below. So happy to see Lierse finally going up, very deserved. Same for Sony. ELCO have been amazing all season, no surprises there. Along with ISA, four teams that have an almost annoying knack to score points even when they shouldn’t which is a testament to the team building and planning involved.
As for us, it’s nice to still be in the top-5 but we’ve got to deal with a UBS team with Buchmann and Godoy RD’s remaining and Benetton presumably with Reis in Japan to contend with. Even with a small points buffer, it’s beginning to look a little bleak for us with Dunbar wrapping up his season. Tenorio has a race left, and Bagioli has a few RD’s left too - they’re gonna have to do more of the same if we’re any chance to go up.
On the flip side, it’s very tight down the bottom. I hope McCormick can claw their way to safety via the ToA. Good luck to all in danger, never a fun place to be.
I agree that we're looking safe, especially with the potential ToA scoring in mind. With also McCormick and Sauber scoring big, it could be a nailbiter between Tafjord, Jewa, Kraftwerk and Specialized.
The promotion race between Indosat, UBS and Benetton is also cool to watch.
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
Sadly seems like we're out of the (disband) promotion race fully now but we've at least locked in the top 10 teams placement.
Next year is going to be interesting, even if I have complained about Meurisse being inflated as all hell in the wage department finding another top 10 scorer on that wage will be incredibly challenging for sure!
We started our end sprint way too late to have any hopes of promotion, but if we end up in the upper half of the division after the early struggles that would be amazing. Did not think Ahlstrand would be the best scorer for the team, but Kinoshita has some races in the final months to overtake him again. The five leaders in the top 65 of the individual rankings (finally) is good to see.
Couldn't have imagined a closer battle for those last promotion spots than this. Never expected to get here in the first place, when we signed Ayuso the intention was to build a team good enough to keep us in PCT. To be within 8 points of going up again is wild. I don't think we have what it takes however. Indosat has such a strong team it's difficult to think we could catch up over a 100 points in a month and a half so to speak. We still have atleast one race per leader to go which might be in our favor, Reis even has two left. But they would all need to perform, at the least just above our competitors which seems like a fever dream. Weird seeing McCormick fighting relegation, respectfully they should clear the gap. Good luck to everyone in the final straight to the finish and thank you for the writeup Fab.
It has taken me quite some time to get through this, as I wanted to read every single word. Once again a fantastic re-cap of the period. And obviously a very solid one for us, bridging our way into what seems to solidify our promotion aspiration.
Having looked at bit at the results and calender for this month it actually could be really close at the top. ISA seems to continue to score decent points and will probably continue to do so in Battenkill. Lierse have a good shot at scoring decent in Rheden, and have also scored OK in Amissa and is likely also getting a little bit extra from the GC. Sony is looking to be in a key position to win the Amissa Bongo, and placing two guys in the top 7. We scored well in USA, but could have scored even better. We are looking to score a bit in Amissa Bongo too - but could be well below our expectations. We also have a decent shot at scoring atleast something in the two cobbled races.
I think we are in a good shot at being 2nd after this month - and then we will likely drop to 3rd or 4th in the end, as we don't really have top races in october. We would need a killer in Japan to win the title. But it's very exciting indeed!
McCormick is going to catapult themselves into safety after their Tour of America. I wonder if it's enough to get a top 10 overall ranking.
Any chance We Can get a september rankings? No need for the massive work with writeup, but just so We know how tight things are in the title fight, the promotion battle and the relegation escape?
Any chance We Can get a september rankings? No need for the massive work with writeup, but just so We know how tight things are in the title fight, the promotion battle and the relegation escape?
They're scheduled for today (though a bit delay is always possible), but as I know Fabi he can't help himself and those will get huge anyway
I have not been able to keep myself updated since friday, but going by rough mental.maths, I'd say elco leads by 200-250 from isa with 4-6 extra RDs used. Lierse is around 130-150 points further back with us another 50 or so behind. Probably missed some of the depth scoring so better to wait for the actual thing
