Unlike PCT in particular, September was the final pretty busy month of racing for PT teams. The last mandatory stage race and up to three PTHC races were scheduled - however, none of the teams did all four races. Neither did we have a team only doing the PT race, so race days vary between 9 and 15.
With only three classics left - thereof a monument, though! - the current update probably already defines the big lines of the final ranking. We'll see how the gaps currently are, but I wouldn't expect huge moves in October anymore - so let's take a look at what happened this month, and what the situation is looking like!
With the Tour of Northern Europe, the potentially most important race came first. A race where historically all of cobblers, TTers and puncheurs had their chances. Last year, the TTers dominated the top of the standings. So the route was changed - with the result that we had no TTer in the Top 5 this year. Instead, it's the cobblers who swept the podium! So no better balance in the results as well, but it heavily depends on how the race is ridden - the final stage which looked like the potentially most selective one didn't do a lot of damage in the end. Just the TTers won't be happy with what is left from the TT - it's almost down to a prologue in the current route.
Whether it's the cobbles or the hills that matter, one rider doesn't really care - as long as the TT isn't any longer: Gerts was among the best cobblers and the strongest puncheurs here! He made perfect use of this skillset in what turned out to be the decisive stage 3 - not a selective cobbled stage by the looks of it, but it definitely was selective! Gerts won this stage with a good gap, held onto his lead in the ITT - and then easily defended the lead in the hills to get the GC win! He definitely was lucky that no gap was given on stage 2 - but sometimes you need to be lucky, and I guess it rightfully was Rabobank's turn here. The Dutchmen however weren't too lucky with scoring apart from Gerts - top talent Kooij was the only other rider getting some points, thanks to sprinting to 7th place on day 1, and then being 2nd in U25 for two days. In the end, it's 335 points for Gerts - and 377 for Rabobank. A big points haul for sure - but will it be enough?
Will it be enough? That's also the question Grieg must currently be asking after every race. Just like Gerts, Pedersen clearly benefitted from the route change and the highly selective cobbles stage - or was it just the pack sitting up and letting go of the Top 3? He won't care; he did his job on the cobbles by finishing 2nd, riding a decent GC - and then clearly overperforming in the hills! He even finished ahead of Gerts on the first days in the hills, and lost less than two minutes to the top puncheurs in the two hilly stages combined! Definitely a huge performance, that was rewarded by 2nd place overall and 254 points! But unlike Rabobank, they also had some nice depth: Abrahamsen in 20th, De Gendt in 29th, Ssabagwanya in 39th, Jansen in 48th and Van Gestel in 50th. And also 3rd place in the team standings. All in all, 358 points - and just a little less than Rabobank!
And we had yet another team above 300 points! Not Carlsberg with Per. Not Fastned with Vansevenant. Not Xero with Pidcock, the 3rd best individual scorer (and points winner). Nope. Guess who? It's EA Vesuvio! Wirtgen, who won the race back in the days where it was more TTer-friendly, did his job in the short ITT, where he won and moved up to 5th in GC. However, he - rather surprisingly - couldn't quite keep up in the hills, and lost quite some time, overtaking Senechal but dropping behind Vansevenant and Pidcock. 6th place in GC and a stage win - but that's "just" 172 points. Who else scored then? Well, for example Geniets, mostly thanks to a surprising 2nd place in stage 6, which was basically enough for 16th place in GC. Lampawog in 36th scored some GC (and stage) points as well - and the Luxembourgers won the team standings! Even with their cobbler Spengler not scoring at all (except finishing points), that's 302 points!
And then, PT's final stage race of the year. At least for the teams participating in the PTHC Balkans International. A 6-day event for the best hybrids - and it's obvious that both MAL and Areruya were back, the latter to defend his 2023 crown, the former to claim the throne back.
After having won in 2021 and 2022, MAL indeed took the third title in the Balkans - making sure he remains the only multiple-times winner of the race! And he did so in style, by winning stages 1 and 3, and finishing 2nd on day 2. Two 5th places on days 4 and 6, the latter being almost an off-day for him, were easily enough to claim the GC win - and the points jersey on top of that! 381 points scored by the Colombian, an awesome performance! His teammates added a couple of points, too, most notably Blums taking 19th in GC. Three more Top 100 finishes bring Evonik's total up to 413 points - the year's 3rd highest PTHC score, right behind their own East Java performance. Will it be enough to bring the back in the podium fight - or even more?
Areruya had a pretty bitter pill to swallow; last year, it was him who won two stages, the GC and the points. This year, he had to settle for the stage 2 win - and only 5th place in GC! His race tactics on the final day were questionable at the very least, and instead of giving MAL a proper fight for the GC, he barely made the Top 10 of the day and dropped down in the GC. With 199 points, he still was the 3rd best individual scorer. And his teammates did a great job, too, with Khodayari (28th), Pomoshnikov (29th), Tesfaye Heyi (40th) and Martin (41st) all making the Top 50 as well! Two additional Top 100 finishers and 4th in team standings also brought some points, for 249 in total! Not what Xero wanted, but easily enough to keep their Top 10 challenge alive!
This year, some great climbers spoiled the puncheurs' party. One of them definitely was Morton. The Australian always finished with the first bigger group - and on the final day, he even took 3rd place, enough for him to claim 4th in GC! It's "only" 139 points (and 5th place) for him, but Romo added a good chunk of points as well, taking 20th in GC and the white jersey! Elissonde and Holmes got a Top 50 GC as well, and cycleYorkshire were the 3rd best team - 212 points for them, being the final PT team above 200 points!
And then, the PTHC cobbles clash at the end of the month. The Tour of the Battenkill in the U.S., a pretty hilly race, was a huge opportunity for Tinkoff to take a decisive lead in the overall rankings, given the really weak startlist.
However, they were pretty weak themselves, only being the 3rd best scoring PT team present. Instead, the winners were Carlsberg! They had one of the two top favourites with Per - and even though he was on a bad day, he still finished 4th. But the surprising top scorer for the team was Meiler, who took a fantastic 2nd place! Resell (13th), Cannister (29th), Matsangos (32nd) and Bolivar (41st) scored as well, making it a big 249 points for the Danes!
The race winner, though, was an even bigger cobbles legend than Per - former world champion Wisniowski! When he rode away with Per, he ended up being the only one of the duo being able to keep up the horrendous pace, and cruised to a great win! The last one at this level? We'll see - all I know is that Girmay once again had a great performance as well, getting 11th place and 32 points - making it 204 for Assa Abloy with the 2 points added by Taubel for his Top 50 finish.
And then, Tinkoff. When bringing 3 top cobblers, taking 3rd (Senechal), 9th (Sulimov) and 16th (Kamyshev) really isn't what you're aiming at, and the Russians can not be happy at all with this outcome. It's "only" 126 points for them - a score most other teams would be happy with, but will it be sufficient for them to hold onto the first spot?
On the same day, another PTHC cobbled race was held in Europe, more precisely in the Netherlands, with the Rheden GP. A much more flat race, one for the good sprinters among the cobblers.
And there's no doubt that Pedersen is the rider who currently combines the two skills best - by quite a margin. And indeed, the Dane easily won the sprint against his final rival, taking the 170 points for yet another win. Bohli also had a pretty good race, finishing 19th, and all of Jansen, Stokbro and Van Gestel got some Top 50 points as well (the latter taking exactly 50th place). 189 points for Grieg - will it be enough to definitely leave any relegation danger behind?
Whereas the name of the winner was no surprise at all, it was rather astonishing that the only rider being able to keep up with him - in a pretty strong field nota bene - was Theuns! The Belgian delivered his best result of the season, in what likely was his final race being competitive at this level - sprinting to 2nd place and 125 points! Jura didn't have any other rider in the Top 50, so that's the team's full score as well.
And while it was the last race before the second decline for Theuns, it was the final maxed race for Teunissen - given Tinkoff's scoring opportunities in the U.S., the Dutchman had to do well here, and he delivered! Teunissen won the sprint of the bunch for 4th place (a PCT rider managed to escape to claim the final podium spot). That's 90 points for him, and 92 for Gazelle, thanks to Giulietti getting a Top 50 result. Crucial points for sure - enough for the lead, and for the win in a month's time?
So, let's summarize. The best team of the month - and it definitely was a crucial month for them - are Rabobank! Thanks to the ToNE win and a very solid Balkans campaign, the Dutchmen scored 573 points in 13 RDs (PpRD of 44, 3rd best value) and narrowly won the month!
Had they always scored like this, Assa Abloy definitely wouldn't be the division's red lantern. They scored 558 points, just 15 less than Rabobank, and came pretty close to winning this month! Having spent 2 RDs more, they have somewhat lower PpRD, but still easily Top 10 material!
One team that almost couldn't wait for the final months of racing to come were Xero. The Kiwis indeed did a pretty good job, picking up nice points both in ToNE and Balkans - and totalling 550 points. Had Areruya done just a bit better in Balkans, they'd have won the month - not unrealistic at all. Maybe they'll win October, then?
It was a crucial month for at least one other team. They greatly benefitted from the cobblers dominating ToNE, but Pedersen also dominated Rheden, with the Danes totalling 547 points from these two races. Just 9 RDs used up - that's a PpRD of 60, definitely a huge result in their situation!
So the Top 4 were separated by just 26 points - then it's a 54 points gap down to 5th place. Where we find Evonik. Sure, Balkans was huge for them, but ToNE wasn't. And so, it's "only" 493 points; Top 5 in terms of points and PpRD, but probably not enough to properly enter the fight for the PT win.
Carlsberg ended up jsut 15 points behind Evonik, after a huge result in Battenkill. ToNE was solid as well, and with 478 points scored in 9 RDs they've got the 2nd best PpRD of the month (53).
Another 20 points down, we have Fastned, who got solid results in ToNE and Balkans, for 458 points in total. Followed by EA Vesuvio, who were strong in ToNE, but didn't do much in Balkans. Rheden was a decent race by Spengler, but with 413 points in 15 RDs, their PpRD isn't that great. The same holds for Lidl, another 40 points down, also spending 15RDs, just doing Battenkill instead of Rheden.
There's another cut after the Top 9, with Gazelle taking the final Top 10 spot with 313 points. 62 points behind Lidl - but still ahead in terms of PpRD, having done just ToNE and Rheden. Pretty much the same holds for Jura, just 2 points behind Gazelle; their disappointing ToNE performance was made up for by Theuns' great 2nd place in Rheden. Both teams also had Top 10 PpRD values.
A group of 5 teams separated by 27 points is next. First are cycleYorkshire, who must be a tad disappointed by their <20 PpRD, despite Morton doing pretty well in Balkans. The Pumas weren't overly successful in ToNE and Balkans, either, despite Gross winning the only sprint stage in the latter race. 278 and 273 points for these two teams respectively.
King Power then were the worst team spending 15 RDs - a score of just 254 points is a big setback in their fight for the overall podium. ToNE really wasn't good, and os their PpRD of just below 17 actually is the 4th worst of the month.
With Polar and Tinkoff, we have two other podium candidates scoring exactly or almost the same amount of points, with the former getting 254, the latter 251 points. In particular the Russians will be disappointed by their cobblers...
ZARA are next, taking 17th place with 214 points. The miracle they needed didn't materialize, despite Cosnefroy having another good ride in ToNE. But obviously not as good as needed.
For Cedevita, the question will be whether the 200 points they scored this month will be enough to definitely be safe. We'll see that in a moment. MOL definitely couldn't improve their situation, taking only 19th place this month, scoring 193 points.
And Aker's Top 5 hopes might come to an end, given that they only score 142 points - far less than most teams around them in the rankings. And Oxxo might slip down very close to - or into - the danger zone, after scoring just 124 points in September.
Fortunately for the Mexicans, Moser had an even worse month, being the only team below 100 points. It might not be looking good for the Czech team...
But before we get to the full ranking, here are the numbers for September:
Pos
Team
ToNE
Bal
Batt
Rhe
Total
RD
PpRD
1
Rabobank
377
196
0
0
573
13
44.08
2
Assa Abloy
213
141
204
0
558
15
37.20
3
Xero Racing
292
249
0
9
550
15
36.67
4
Grieg-Maersk
358
0
0
189
547
9
60.78
5
Evonik - ELKO
80
413
0
0
493
13
37.92
6
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
229
0
249
0
478
9
53.11
7
Fastned
268
190
0
0
458
13
35.23
8
EA Vesuvio
302
38
0
73
413
15
27.53
9
Lidl Cycling
167
145
63
0
375
15
25.00
10
Gazelle
221
0
0
92
313
9
34.78
11
Jura GIANTS
186
0
0
125
311
9
34.56
12
cycleYorkshire
54
212
12
0
278
15
18.53
13
Team Puma - SAP
145
128
0
0
273
13
21.00
14
King Power
83
121
0
50
254
15
16.93
15
Polar
202
0
0
52
254
9
28.22
16
Tinkoff Team - La Datcha
125
0
126
0
251
9
27.89
17
ZARA - Irizar
186
0
28
0
214
11
19.45
18
Cedevita
138
0
0
62
200
9
22.22
19
MOL Cycling Team
111
0
0
82
193
9
21.44
20
Aker - MOT
70
0
0
72
142
9
15.78
21
Oxxo - Frisby
102
0
22
0
124
9
13.78
22
Moser - Sygic
76
0
9
9
94
11
8.55
Full Ranking
Neither Gazelle nor Tinkoff had a great month. So, what are the implications on the current standings?
Well, both lost some of their PpRD value - but Gazelle still did better and are back in the lead! The Dutchmen currently have 7,226 points, and with Japan Cup and Lombardia have two races left that should suit them!
But don't underestimate Tinkoff - the Russians currently are just 20 points down! They have exactly the same remaining schedule - which should speak in Gazelle's favour, but who knows... In any case, the final race will decide on the title win, which is a great situation to have!
As it stands now, we can basically rule out all other teams for the title fight - but not for the podium fight, obviously! Polar currently are holding onto 3rd place, totalling 6,911 points - but they're projected just 21 points ahead of 4th place! The fight for the final podium spot will come down to Lombarida, too, given that multiple teams - including Polar - only have that one race left!
Which might be Evonik's advantage. They have moved up from 6th to 4th - and are one of the few teams having still 3 races left in October. They're currently 175 points behind Polar - one MAL win in Canada or Japan, and they're the favourites for 3rd!
But beware of King Power! The Thai are 29 points behind Evonik, trailing 6,707 vs. 6,736. They only have GP Cycliste left besides Lombardia, so if they want to finish ahead of Evonik, beating them in Canada will be crucial!
These were the Top 5 teams - and chances are high that the same teams will be up front at the end of the season. Still, with a win in Lombardia, it's not excluded that Aker - losing one spot this month - could still make the jump! With 6,474 points, they're 233 points behind King Power - more than a PTHC win, less than a monument win. A Top 10 is pretty much safe, though.
Next up are the Pumas. Yes, in 7th place. And with a 450 points deficit, it's really unlikely they'll even make the Top 5, let alone getting on the podium. A Herklotz win in Lombardia could still move them past Aker - in particular given that they still got 3 races to do - but that should be the best they can still get.
On the other hand, Carlsberg are just 3 points down! It's going to be hard to go any higher, looking at their hills results, but who knows? Maybe they're due one huge result in the hills?
But it's more likely that Carlsberg will be overtaken by Xero. The Kiwis have already scored 6,170 points, which is just 80 less than Carlsberg, and they still have 3 races left. The Kiwis should end up inside the Top 10 - what a huge performace in the year after their promotion!
The final Top 10 spot currently belongs to cycleYorkshire, who lost two spots in September. The Brits now trail Xero by 24 points, but have one race less on their remaining schedule. And they can't even be quite sure yet of ending up in the Top 10 - even though their puncheur lineup is impressive!
But next up are Fastned, trailing by less than 100 points - and with Vansevenant in the shape he had earlier this year, anything is on the table in the three remaining races. He could win them all, or overextend himself and not score (much) at all. We'll see.
We then have two more teams with decent puncheurs at least, but both of EA Vesuvio and Jura GIANTS - the two teams swapped their places - after the formers' success in ToNE - would need a great performance by Mohoric and Schmid respectively to gain some spots. The Luxembourgers currently have 5,928 points, the Swiss are 72 points further down.
Where do you draw the line to consider a team already safe - or not yet? Well, I do honestly think that Grieg did enough this month to stay up, even without a lot of scoring potential left. The Danes now are totalling 5,723 points, which is 340 points above the relegation line. Of course, a monument win by the teams behind can still change things quite a lot - but Grieg are in 14th place, so 4 teams would have to move past them for them to go down. I don't think it'll happen.
In 15th place, we have Cedevita. With 5,604 points. Are they safe, too? Maybe yes, maybe no - likely yes, though. The three next teams have the possibility to overtake them with some good performances - and Cedevita only have Lombardia left. However, their Top 15 spot might be under serious threat.
Because Rabobank are on a roll; the Dutchmen have not only moved up from 18th to 16th place, they're just 82 points behind the Slovenians and still have 3 races left - potentially with some pretty good lineups. Of course, they also still could relegate if everything goes wrong, but lately they definitely were on the bright side.
Which clearly doesn't hold for Oxxo. Seriously, I never thought they'd be in danger given their 2024 roster, but they actually are. One of the main reasons for this is also the man who also has the task of definitely saving them now: Higuita. He isn't having a great season so far, but he still has two opportunities (I guess) to change that. Currently, Oxxo have 5,470 points - which is less than 100 points of a cushion to 18th place.
And in 18th place - believe it or not - we have Moser. The world's best sprinter and the current TdF champion going down to PCT? No way! Well, yes, it's possible. There's a real chance it's happening - Kudus will actually need a huge performance - potentially the win - in Lombardia to save them. Why? Well, because there's not much else besides Kudus and Gaviria, and it looks like despite both having a good season, it could just not be enough. Despite getting a score that would have been easily enough to stay up in recent years...
You'd also think that an incredibly stacked climbers/puncheur roster with Haig, Ardila, Amezawa and Almeida, complemented by Altur for the cobbles, should be enough to stay in PT. Well, it most likely won't. The Hungarian team only scored 5,139 points so far (which would have seen them on track in recent years, though), which is 321 behind the last safe spot. Unlike Moser, they at least have 2 races left, but they'll have to do an amazing job in Japan and Italy to still have a shot at safety.
For the bottom 3 teams, there's really no hope left, being 840 points and more behind safety. ZARA are the highest ranked with 4,630 points, but even getting 300 points or so more from ToNE as last year wouldn't have been enough this time. Lidl are another 200 points down, and Assa Abloy as the red lantern have only scored 4,195 points so far. As it stands now, they'd be the only promoted team relegating right away; 4/5 staying up would still be a great rate!
We already knew it - now it's a certainty: Silvio Herklotz will win the 2024 individual standings! He didn't race this month, either - but with his 2,427 points, he's still the only rider above 2,000 points. It's already a new record since the race day reduction in 2022 - and Lombardia, where he's the defending champion, is yet to come...
But whereas the title race is already decided - since the month of April with the Giro, to be honest - we're yet to find the two other riders on the podium. Egan Bernal has some good chances to claim 2nd or at least 3rd place, with 1,970 points - a great season for him in any case. But no more RDs left.
Mads Pedersen made a nice jump from 8th to 3rd, reaching 1,839 points this year - 171 points more than in 2022, which also was a great season for him (and where he ended up 3rd). He might even have a race left, I'm not quite sure, but definitely no perfectly suited one.
He'll definitely end up ahead of Tom Wirtgen, though; despite his massive training, the Luxembourger actually ends up 70 points lower than last year, with 1,829 points. There were some blunders in his season, consting him quite some points - and Vesuvio maybe a Top 10 spot (which still wouldn't be mostly his fault, though...)
Lachlan Morton had another good race in Balkans, and ends his final maxed season on 1,812 points, just 27 behind the podium. Which is over 700 points more than in his two previous seasons, and surely a great outcome for a rider who was known to have some ups and more downs for quite some time during his career! Being the 3rd best stage racer - barring a Kudus win in Lombardia, that is - must feel very satisfying for sure!
Fernando Gaviria dropped down quite some spots, from 3rd to 6th, but he's easily the world's best sprinter. Just to compare: the Colombian scored 1,683 points - the 2nd best sprinter was Grosu, currently sitting in 24th place, with 1,050 points... To be fair, Coquard and Ewan weren't in PT this year, but Gaviria just was in a league of his own. Should he really go down to PCT?
David Per is the 2nd cobbler in the Top 10, even moving up from 10th to 7th thanks to a great ToNE and a slightly less great Battenkill result. With 1,609 points, he's even about 130 points better than last year - something you wouldn't have expected after a weak start to the cobbles season! He's definitely the main reason for Carlsberg's great run.
One of the major disappointments must be Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier. Failing to defend his TdF title hit him hard points-wise; whereas he scored more than 2,100 points last year, he got more than 500 less in 2024 and currently is only ranked in 8th place. And he'll surely finish even further down - most likely not even in the Top 10 - and not even as the highest scoring Evonik rider!
Because next up are Joseph Areruya and Miguel Angel Lopez. The world's best hybrids (barring Herklotz who's in his own category) are currently separated by just 8 points, with the Rwandan leading 1,557 vs. 1,549! Both of them should still have 3 races left with Canada, Japan and Lombardia - it will not only be the fight for being the world's (2nd) best hybrid, but potentially also for a podium spot! They're about 280 points behind Pedersen, and with 3 races left, both of them could definitely still land up there!
That's the current Top 10, whereof Kudus dropped out this month - but sitting just 8 points behind MAL, and with Lombardia yet to come, he could definitely get back in! Vansevenant in 13th place (1,501 points) surely has a good shot as well, and even Lutsenko (1,311) could make it with a great autumn!
This late in the season, big jumps aren't frequent anymore - so Gerts' jump up from 24th to 14th is still remarkable! Wisniowski also has recovered from his mediocre season start, and has moved up from 35th to 23rd.
That's all I'll tell you - I'll leave the rest up to the numbers:
4 more RDs and we can pretend this season never happened
I thought September was one of our better months, and yet it made very little difference to the overall picture. Our best rider being 70th in the overall rankings sums up just how disappointing the season has been, as both De Bie and Kemboi would have been expected to be in the top 50 at least.
Thanks once again for a great update Fabianski, looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season plays out!
I think we should be safe. But I also only think we will score minimum points for the rest of the season, so you can never be too certain.
In some way I think it's cool that some of the teams that had pressure on them have performed so well, like ourselves and Rabobank. It kind of resembles the desperation that also would have been there in real life, though you could probably say that it should have been more present for other teams as well.
Surprising to see the team with the TdF winner and a tider like Gaviria at the risk of going down and unfortunately it feels like Moser have a big ship to turn, after some more or less horrid results lately.
But especially with Lombardia, things might still change.
And what a thriller at the top. Couldn't ask for more. Gazelle should be the favourite, but one surprise result or one puncture might be enough to flip things.
Cool also to see Pedersen in 3rd place in the individual ranking. A great season for him. I think he's done for the season, if I remember correctly I think he has one RD left, but couldn't really fit him anywhere good (perhaps Arenberg out next season to utilize it better) and seeing the results, his calendar can't have been that half bad
Gonna go down to the wire here for our top 10 goal. Per did all he could and his season is done. Meiler's podium in Battenkill was huge and might be the difference maker. It was a very good month for us with very few race days. We made it count to keep pace without Balkans.
We're in a good spot in that we now are cleanly in the top 10 by PpRD and have almost 200 points on 11th place. The problem, of course, is that everyone around us has a much better chance of October success than we do given their heavy hitting puncheurs. We have to hope Aranburu either has a surprise result in Japan or Lombardia, or one of Herklotz/Areruya/Yates/Vansevenant have an off day and can't match us enough. Based on the routes, maybe Yates is the weak link there, though we have almost 100 more points on Fastned.
Definitely gonna go down to the wire! Will be exciting. Just hoping for 10th.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
The relegation battle is very different compared to last year when ~5100 points comfortably kept us in the PT. Now we have surpassed that and we are still not 100% safe. Mol looked sadly doomed at the moment but with their current score they would have also survived last year.
That Gerts performance in ToNE seems to have put us in a very good position, which was then solidified in Balkans. With slightly better results in Balkans we could have been sure of another year in PT, but things look pretty good anyway. Thank you, Mr. Gerts!
This month was cobble heavy and that is usually where Tinkoff shines. To outscore them and go into the last two races with a 20 point lead is a big (and very welcome) surprise.
Looking forward to the final showdown! On paper our chances are good, but Tinkoff has a bunch of capable puncheurs and climbers as well. If they start scoring big, we need to be ready to match them.
A season filled with incredibly bad AI on Oxxo's part put us in a very awkward position with two races to go. It should be enough for survival, but then again, a lot of things should have already happened (or not)
Thanks for the update! It's a great read as always.
The last period of races included a few that should've been great scoring opportunities for us but we left with almost nothing. Especially ToNE was extremely disappointing. It's a fitting end to a rather underwhelming season (Even if the scoring is still kind of okay). I'll probably have to make some bigger changes to my team in the offseason to get excited about next season.
Only Lombardia to go.
Our fate was sealed some time ago but plenty of interesting battles to follow throughout, not least the one for the PT crown! Two long-term teams with their time in the limelight but who is going to prevail??
Thank you for the update Fab! Always incredible work which makes it more enjoyable despite my team not getting the results I want.
The top of the table is no surprise to me as i started keeping closer track of it a few weeks ago but even then, its still an interesting two way fight for the top and a three way fight for third which both should come down to the wire where every point counts. Would have loved to be more in between those two fights but this month and especially ToNE needed to be brilliant and thus, all we have to fight for is third.
More interesting for me was the update for the bottom half of the rankings. MOL seems doomed at this point but the final relegation spot is still up in the air. Moser still has the chance to climb out of the dirt even if it will be tough. Curious if they can do so. Otherwise, having two top 11 individual riders (including the TDF winner) and still relegating seems very cruel
Weirdly, yet another month where we didn't race the PTHC stuff and thus have to live on scraps from the few races we do have decent riders at.
ToNE can be summarized rather quickly: sometimes it's really best not to be in the lead.
While it's encouraging to see our three sprinters approach paid off rather well this season, we surely lost all the points we gained from Groß' stage win by letting down Cavagna for the GC battle at his only remaining specialist race after we decided to drop Arenberg from our calendar.
In Balkans, we again managed the intriguing feat of not being part of a single breakaway despite not having a Top 10 puncheur OR climber present, and the race was set to be a disappointment until Felix Groß saved it AGAIN!
Another great stage win in a tight finish, this time against the breakaway, and at least this time we didn't have to nuke our entire GC hopes afterwards because of it.
Speaking of GC, to be fair to Zimmermann, his P14 is not bad against this opposition either. Cemazar added more points with second in the U25.
Madouas disappointed against bigger opposition than in the TdF, he barely even tried contesting his signature stages.
Overall, I can only repeat myself: I never saw us as a lock-in for a Top 5 regardless of how much Herklotz scores, so holding on to 7th would be fine already.
