Whereas most teams are waiting for the final month of the year, including two more potentially crucial stage races, September was one of the most important month for a couple of teams - those participating in the Tour of America, obviously!
But besides this one, we also had the final PTHC stage race, another potentially decisive race for some PCT teams. One C1 stage race, two C2 ones - and only 3 classics! Thereof two clashing cobbled ones in PTHC, though, so another important day! Let's take a look at how things went - covering the races chronologically for once, except for the "big one".
Given that the Tour of America is the biggest event for both PCT and CT, the scoring details are actually posted in the ToA discussion thread, so I can only do one writeup including all participants. You find them in the race discussion thread.
So, let's get started - how well did the teams do with the end of the season getting really close now?
First up was the C2 Tour of San Luis, a good mix of flat and hilly stages - very much like Euskal, but with a prologue to start off the race.
Only a single PCT team made the trip to Argentina - but for Podium Ambition, it was a worthwile one! And they did indeed get a podium, thanks to Norbert's 3rd place in GC! He also finished in the Top 8 in both sprint stages, proving his versatility. Norbert scored 50 points, with Perez adding 8 points from intermediate and final KoM standings (3rd), and Delgado getting a U25 point. 59 points for the Caribbeans, with 10+ PpRD always being a good outcome from a C2 race!
The next C2 race - the GP Plouay in France - had some more PCT participation, with 4 teams on the startlist. A flat-rated race with a bumpy finale, perfect ground for late attackers - or will the sprinters take it?
Once again, it was one for the baroudeurs - and one of the two riders surviving ahead of the sprinters was a PCT rider! Andersen could easily follow Dewulf, but was narrowly edged out in the sprint. Still, a great 2nd place for the ISA rider - and with Mraouni adding a nice 10th place, that's 45 points for the Argentineans and a great outcome!
ELCO had to settle with 1/15 of these points - yep, that's 3 points indeed, which were scored by Niu, finishing 17th. And that's still 3 points more than the two other PCT teams scored, with local team Ekoi and the Belgians from Lotto leaving empty-handed.
What's the most extreme jump you can do in PCT in terms of race category? Surely from a C2 classic to a PTHC stage race! That's exactly what we do, moving to the Balkans International now. A race for the best hybrids - and a good race for PCT, with Areruya winning the race last year! Well, he was rather a PT rider disguised as a PCT participant, but alas.
And it was a good race for PCT again! At least for one rider, that is - Adam Yates! He really improved throughout the race - just look at his stage results (except for the flat stage 5): 23 - 8 - 5 - 4 - 1! The Brit improved on every single uphill stage, ending the race in the best possible way - with a stage win! And while he couldn't quite repeat Areruya's 2023 outcome, he still got a fantastic 2nd place in GC, scoring tons of valuable points for the relegation-threatened McCormick team! 203 to be precise - and with that amount, the Americans probably won't care that much about some lack of depth. With 4 Top 100 finishers, they still got some more points, scoring 211 crucial points in the fight for survival!
For the rest of the PCT teams, the race wasn't quite as spectacular. But Hirschi also showed his great potential in these hybrid races, finishing even ahead of MAL on the final stage. A 6th place in GC was his reward for good consistency - and had he not lost time on day 2 after an unsuccessful attack, even beating Areruya might have been possible... It's 106 points for the Sauber rider, with Azman adding a decent 34th place - 119 points overall for the Sammarinese team.
The fight for 3rd best was close, with the next three teams scoring 84, 78 and 76 points respectively. The biggest disappointment might be that Buchmann's UBS aren't even among them - nor are Stannard's everesting. Instead, it's Bralirwa taking the final "points podium spot". Meintjes couldn't quite get a top stage result, with a 4th place on stage 2 being his best outcome. 10th place in GC probably is also a bit below his expectations - but it's still 72 points scored by him. Plus 6 by Tesfatsion, finishing 4th in U25 (and in the Top 100 GC-wise). Plus two more Top 100 GC results, plus some early U25 leading points for Willems - 84 points in total, as previously mentioned.
Time to get down some categories again, with the C1 Tropicale Amissa Bongo being next on the schedule. 5 days in Gabon, three days for the sprinter, surrounded by a prologue and an epilogue - two short ITTs, giving both sprinters and TTers a shot at a good GC result.
In the end, it was a really close fight between PCT and CT - but PCT kept the upper hand by a measly second. And bib #1 confirmed his favourite status, with Farantakis winning the race! After losing just 7" in the two TTs combined, 1 2nd place on stage 4 was enough to get enough bonus seconds for claiming the GC win! The Greek also took 2nd place in the points standings, and scored 139 points in total. But we all know ELCO, they obviously had a little bit more in store. Not as much as elsewhere, but a little bit still. Affini (15th), Christapopoulos (21st), Stavrakakis (25th) and Kiriakidis (30th) all got some GC points as well, and ELCO's 2nd place in the team standings added some bonus seconds for all of them. All in all, that's 166 points.
Next up aren't any other Top 5 GC riders' teams, though - instead, it's Zalgiris! Kopfauf had a great prologue, taking 2nd place - but the team's highest scoring rider was their sprinter, Adomaitis! The Lithuanian won stage 4, being tied for the GC lead after that stage - and ending up 7th in the final GC! But there was also U25 winner Kmieliauskas, ending up 13th, and Kopfauf's 17th place in GC was also worth some points. In total, Zalgiris scored 134 points.
Just 6 points down are the Minions! After 2nd place on stage 2, Kalaba took over the yellow jersey - only to lose it again the day after, though. Still, he managed to hold onto 3rd place in the final GC - which is 5 spots higher than their best man against the clock, Bjerg. Jiang and Brown added some small GC points as well for 26th and 29th as well (the former also taking 6th place in the prologue), adding up to 128 points for the men with overalls.
Only two teams then decided to join what must be the maddest race on the calendar, the C2 Tour du Faso. A completely innocent name for the toughest cobbled race in the world. But would participating even make any sense for PCT teams given the restriction for riders that can enter the race?
Well, I'd clearly say "yes"! Both teams came away with a PpRD average of around 15, one slightly above, the other slightly below. Which is a good value for a C2 race!
The slightly better of the two teams were UBS. They needed a good result after an awful Balkans race, and they got one. Their highlihgt obviously was Van Asbroeck's easy stage win on day 2, the sprinter stage. Sadly, he punctured on day 3 and had no chance of getting a good GC result (which would've been difficult anyway). Instead, Schäppi had two good days on stages 1 and 3, finishing in the front group twice - and ending up 8th in GC. Grand in 20th place added some points, with leadout rider Touze getting a point for finishing 7th on day 2, and Maciejuk getting one for 8th place in U25. 47 points in total for the Swiss.
However, the highest PCT finisher was - once again - Teggart. The Irishman got 6th and 7th places in the two cobbled stages, and ended up being the best ranked of a group of 5 riders. Which means 6th place in GC. 32 points for him (6th best scorer of the race). Habimana was the U25 leader after day one, but lost touch early on the final day, dropping out of the Top 25 and ending up 2nd in U25. Still 7 points for him. 3 are for Willems, sprinting to 4th on stage 2, and one is for Kuypers for 6th in U25. Overall, 43 points for the Rwandans.
More cobbles, please? Well, we've got two races left - and both of them are cobbled ones! And both of them even are in PTHC, and took place on the same day. Let's cover the Tour of the Battenkill first, the pretty hilly race in the U.S.
Usually, a podium in a PTHC classic should be enough for a PCT team to be the highest scoring one. Well, not this time. Instead, ELCO once again played their depth, definitely capitalizing on a weak startlist, but still doing an amazing job! Kortsidakis took a strong 5th place, with Boutopoulos ending up 10th. Stavrakakis was 17th, and Miltiadis picked up some Top 50 points as well, making it 134 for ELCO!
The best PCT rider however was a puncheur - well, one who's very capable on cobbles as well, obviously. And that rider is Benoot, who repeated last year's 3rd place in this race! With "only" Shiki Kuroeda adding some points - thanks to his 23rd place - Sony's 109 points aren't quite enough for the PCT highscore, though. Still, another outstanding result for them!
Do you want some more drama in the title fight? Here you are - ISA were the 3rd best team! Owen had one of his better races here, getting a good 7th place. Chokri in 18th and Sanogo in 26th made it a good depth result as well, which was worth 85 points in the end.
The other race was much flatter - no surprise, given that it was in the Netherlands. It was one for the cobblers who also can sprint - one for Stallaert.
Well, not this year. The Belgian didn't have the legs, or didn't time it right. Instead, it was one of the division's new top cobblers, Gamper, who managed to ride away inside the final kilometers, and take the final podium spot behind Pedersen and Theuns who got away even earlier! That's 100 points for the Austrian and his Lierse team!
Unlike Battenkill, this race was pretty much dominated by the PT teams. And so, 54 points are enough for taking 2nd place mong the PCT teams. 54 points, that's ELCO's score! The Greek had Summerhill - in what likely was his final race for them - sprinting to 9th place, Edmondson finishing 20th and Affini taking 34th.
Stallaert only managed to get 3rd place with his team, finishing on a disappointing 11th place. At least, Teggart once again had a good race, and added some points with 18th place. Kuypers added the final 2 points with 35th place, making it 48 for Bralirwa.
So, let's summarize these races. You'd expect the PTHC races to have the biggest impact - and that was indeed the case, as the biggest points were scored in Balkans. However, the combination of Tropicale and Battenkill was the formula for success, and ELCO did that best by a mile. 357 points for the Greek, who also did well in Rheden.
Next up were Sony, scoring 224 points in these two races - followed by McCormick, who got all their 211 points in this block from Balkans. ISA and Zalgiris were close to the podium as well, scoring 208 and 195 points respectively.
The next two teams - Bralirwa and Lierse - were also pretty close, getting 175 and 172 points. Then it's a pretty big jump down to Minions and 132 points, with Sauber's 119 points being the last value above 100.
4 teams then were involved in the fight for 10th place, scoring 97, 92, 91 and 90 points respectively. Their names? JEWA, UBS, Podium Ambition and Benetton. Tryg next with 76 points, in between this "group" and the next one.
Because then we have Lotto, Everesting, Manada, Tafjord, Ekoi and Specialized separated by just 16 points, scoring between 59 and 43 points. Llapi, Popo4Ever, Kraftwerk and Indosat were the final four - the latter scoring just 8 points.
Here's the overview:
Pos
Team
SL
Plo
Bal
Tro
Fas
Bat
Rhe
Total
1
ELCO - ABEA
0
3
0
166
0
134
54
357
2
Sony - Force India
0
0
0
115
0
109
0
224
3
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
0
211
0
0
0
0
211
4
ISA - Hexacta
0
45
78
0
0
85
0
208
5
DK Zalgiris
0
0
61
134
0
0
0
195
6
Bralirwa - Cegeka
0
0
84
0
43
0
48
175
7
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
0
0
60
0
12
100
172
8
Minions
0
0
0
128
0
2
2
132
9
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
0
119
0
0
0
0
119
10
JEWA TIROL
0
0
0
54
0
0
43
97
11
Team UBS
0
0
45
0
47
0
0
92
12
Podium Ambition
59
0
18
0
0
0
14
91
13
Benetton Bimex Cycling
0
0
0
80
0
10
0
90
14
Tryg - Eni
0
0
76
0
0
0
0
76
15
Lotto-Caloi
0
0
0
0
0
20
39
59
16
Everesting
0
0
55
0
0
0
2
57
17
Manada Coyote
0
0
47
3
0
0
0
50
18
Tafjord Kraft
0
0
40
0
0
10
0
50
19
Ekoi - Le Creuset
0
0
48
0
0
0
0
48
20
Specialized
0
0
43
0
0
0
0
43
21
Llapi-Vita
0
0
0
0
0
24
8
32
22
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
0
0
8
20
0
2
0
30
23
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
0
0
5
0
12
0
17
24
Indosat Ooredoo
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
8
As mentioned before, you can find the full Tour of America review here. Let's just recall the PCT participants' points:
Pos
Team
Tour of America
1
McCormick Pro Cycling
655
2
Lotto-Caloi
454
3
ELCO - ABEA
411
5
Sauber Petronas Racing
238
So, let's look at the overall rankings for September. It's pretty obvious that the ToA participants also take the top spots this month. But in which order?
The winner is... McCormick! The Americans, still sitting deep in the relegation zone post-August, sent a clear sign of life in what might have been the most important month of their season, scoring 866 points in September! With a PpRD of 32.1, they also were the best scorers on average, so really a huge win for them! Congrats!
The competition was afraid of the moment where ELCO would finally turn their PpRD into actual points - that moment was now. With 768 points, they were the only team more or less keeping up with McCormick points-wise, even though - having spent 5 RDs more - they were "only" number 3 in terms of PpRD. We'll see in a moment what that means for the title fight.
Lotto are another team sitting in lower midtable before the month, although not as much in danger as McCormick. They made great use of ToA to score well, getting 513 points - which is the clear #3 for them this month. Not quite in terms of PpRD, where 5 teams were better, but 19 is still a good average.
Sauber couldn't quite keep up with the others in terms of ToA scoring, and this also shows in their overall scoring. 357 points for them this month, which is 4th place, but in terms of efficiency, they were only #11. Still, these points should help them in the relegation fight.
The best of the non-ToA teams obviously were Sony, given that no other team could move past them compared to the non-ToA rankings. 224 points, and with 32.0 they were only marginally lower than McCormick in terms of PpRD. Which on the other hand is a realy proof of quality for the latter, given that ToA often leads to lower PpRDs... Anyway, Sony pick up the final Top 5 spot and should have confirmed promotion with this. Losing more than 500 points to ELCO however means they'll likely not be fighting for the title.
Next up are ISA with 208 points, then Zalgiris with 195, same as above. The former surely lost a lot of ground in the title race this month, the latter are confirming their midtable position.
Bralirwa and Lierse are next, in 8th and 9th place, with the latter scoring 19 PpRD despite complaining about the lack of team leaders in the late season. Guess it's not as bad as they thought, and another good result in the promotion fight.
Minions pick up the final Top 10 spot with 132 points, roughly 40 points behind the previous and ahead of the next team respectively. Nothing fancy, but another solid month.
JEWA clearly haven't thrown in the towel yet, taking 11th place this month, trying to still somehow secure their PCT spot for next year. For UBS, it was another month to forget, in particular with Buchmann disappointing in Balkans. And Jacobs not racing in the cobbles clash. Promotion gone?
Well, maybe not quite yet, with Benetton scoring even 2 points less - in between, we have Podium Ambition, who had another pretty good month. Had they finished in the Top 15 every month, they'd be in another position right now...
Speaking of Top 15, the final spot in there is claimed by Tryg, scoring 76 points. They are followed by Everesting, who had another concerning month with just 57 points and a PpRD of 7 - is that good enough to hold the league?
The same could be asked of Manada, who were in a better position so far, but with just 50 points out of 13 RDs they were really doing a bad job. Tafjord scored the same amount of points - they might have needed some more, though.
19th place then is for Ekoi, whose end of the season seems to be far less strong than the start - fortunately, they had already racked up lots of points before. The same is true for Specialized, taking 20th place with 43 points.
Llapi-Vita continue to struggle, with Popo4Ever also back to non-performing mode. Which sadly has been true for much of Kraftwerk's season as well, and just 17 points scored in September doesn't bode well for the overall rankings.
The final spot though goes to Indosat, scoring just 8 points - having only spent 2 RDs, though, in a cobbled race which clearly isn't their main focus.
Here are the full numbers:
Pos
Team
w/o ToA
ToA
Total
RD
PpRD
1
McCormick Pro Cycling
211
655
866
27
32.07
2
ELCO - ABEA
357
411
768
32
24.00
3
Lotto-Caloi
59
454
513
27
19.00
4
Sauber Petronas Racing
119
238
357
27
13.22
5
Sony - Force India
224
0
224
7
32.00
6
ISA - Hexacta
208
0
208
10
20.80
7
DK Zalgiris
195
0
195
11
17.73
8
Bralirwa - Cegeka
175
0
175
11
15.91
9
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
172
0
172
9
19.11
10
Minions
132
0
132
9
14.67
11
JEWA TIROL
97
0
97
7
13.86
12
Team UBS
92
0
92
9
10.22
13
Podium Ambition
91
0
91
13
7.00
14
Benetton Bimex Cycling
90
0
90
7
12.86
15
Tryg - Eni
76
0
76
6
12.67
16
Everesting
57
0
57
8
7.13
17
Manada Coyote
50
0
50
13
3.85
18
Tafjord Kraft
50
0
50
8
6.25
19
Ekoi - Le Creuset
48
0
48
8
6.00
20
Specialized
43
0
43
6
7.17
21
Llapi-Vita
32
0
32
4
8.00
22
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
30
0
30
13
2.31
23
Kraftwerk Man Machine
17
0
17
7
2.43
24
Indosat Ooredoo
8
0
8
2
4.00
Full Ranking
Everyone (except their manager) knew it would happen - and it happened now: ELCO are the new leaders! And if they weren't already the big title favourites anyway, they definitely are now - totalling 3,887 points currently, they're projected to end up with 4,168 - almost 200 ahead of the rest! Definitely some good margin I'd say.
It's not like ISA had a bad month - ELCO just had a great one, and also had ToA. ISA now have 3,559 points - or 328 less than the Greek. Yes, they do have 6 additional RDs available, but the biggest scoring races are done - and they won't have any top contender for Tour of Japan. It looks like their road will end safely within the direct promotion spots - but most likely without this year's PCT title.
What about Lierse, then? Well, I'm sure that they have definitely achieved promotion by now, even if they may not want to believe it yet. But with 3,452 points, they've got a cushion of more than 600 points to 5th place, and even more to non-promotion spots. I hope you've got enough beer and pizza around!
The same holds for Sony; they're roughly 80 points behind Lierse, but have 5 additional RDs available and are currently projected in 3rd place - so the only open question is which of the Top 4 teams will not end up on the podium?
So then, the fight for the final direct promotion spot. And that's a wide open race between three teams. Knowing about ISA's confirmed (forced) disband, two of these three teams will race in PT next year. Which ones?
Indosat currently are in the pole position. The Indonesians have 2,850 points, and also have the 5th best PpRD with 19.39 (the Top 4 are all above 22.5, by the way). 16 RDs are left for them, with Japan and Emilia being their know participations (as per the HC band selection). And I'm pretty sure they don't want to miss out on the revamped Tour of Britain with Bagioli. But that leaves 3 RDs open, so I guess they'll end up with one unused RD, making Paris-Tours the obvious choice for their final race pick.
Team UBS, who even led the division for quite some time, still sit in 6th place. They had a big chance for moving up in Balkans, but didn't quite take it. With 2,809 points, they're 41 points behind Indosat - with one supplementary RD. They do have a pretty favourable schedule, including all the remaining PTHC/HC races (Tour of Japan, GP Cyclistes, Japan Cup, Emilia). Plenty of scoring potential for Buchmann and Godoy - and likely also Britain for the former, with 5 RDs being left apart from PTHC/HC.
The final team in the promotion race is - surprisingly for me - Benetton! They're just 10 points behind UBS, and were having a great season so far. Like Indosat, they'll do Tour of Japan and Emilia, probably bringing one of the top favourites for the former with the 2024 edition of Reis. Paris-Tours could be a good fit for them as well given their great sprint results - but what to do with the 5 RDs that are left? Probably Britain, but with far less scoring potential than their rivals. A Reis win in Japan could however be a big game changer for them!
Why am I not considering any other teams to be fighting for promotion anymore? Well, just because the gap from 7th to 8th is bigger than the gap from 8th to 15th. All of these 8 teams could end up anywhere inside this range - but probably not higher nor lower.
In 8th place, we currently have Specialized with 2,447 points - 352 less than Benetton. The end of the year should be rather pleasant for Meurisse, so they have some good chances to hold onto the Top 10. Tryg also have some good climbers and puncheurs, and with 2,373 points currently it's looking good for them, too.
On the other hand, Lotto were firing on all cylinders in ToA, so the question is how much they have left. The jump from 15th to 10th is still awesome news for them, so they're very likely safe. Having used up most RDs of the division (153), though, other teams will have an advantage in the fight for the lower Top 10 positions.
Minions, for example. Kinoshita should like the final month, even though he won't get to race Japan Cup. With 2,264 points, they're currently just 36 points behind Lotto and therefore the Top 10.
However, only 2 points down are the great winners of September, McCormick! They did indeed move up to 10th place after the ToA scores came in, but dropped down to 12th after the final races. Still, the jump from 22nd to 12th is a great one, and they're definitely clear of any relegation worries now. They even have a good shot at the Top 10, having the 10th best PpRD - and with Yates and Narvaez they also have a good duo for the final month!
But let's not forget about Zalgiris, who are just 38 points further down (with 2 additional RDs used up, though). We know their puncheur duo, and they could do some damage in October.
The last two teams in the Top 15 are Bralirwa and Ekoi, the latter dropping from 11th to 15th this month. Both should still have some good races left, though, with Ekoi probably being slightly stronger overall. Holding the division was the main goal for both teams anyway, so getting an almost sure Top 15 is already awesome news for them!
So then, let's start talking about relegation. I'd say that 7 teams are still more or less fighting for safety, whereas two teams will almost certainly go down.
We start with 16th place and Popo4Ever. Having scored 1,897 points so far, they have a good safety margin, being 340 points above the line. They're almost safe - but maybe still not 100%. Padun could get the necessary points in Japan, though - and he better does, as the puncheurs haven't been very convincing this year.
For Sauber, it might be the other way round. They won't have a big favourite in Tour of Japan, but the two hilly PTHC classics and Emilia could be some good terrain for Hirschi - plus very likely Britain, where they should also participate looking at their remaining RDs. And with 1,856 points, they also have a 299 points cushion, so not too much danger as well.
Next up are Manada with 1,771 points. Their fate definitely lies in the hands of McCarthy, who hasn't had a great season so far - about time to change it! They still are more than 200 points above the line, but with likely low scoring in Tour of Japan, they really need some points in the hills!
However, Manada still are looking pretty good - unlike Tafjord, currently sitting in the final safe spot, 19th place. The Norwegians have scored 1,611 so far this year. And that's 54 more than the first team in the red zone. Tour of Japan will likely be pretty rough for them, so they'll really need Ackermann, Dyrnes and Eriksson to step up in the final races - in particular the German should like the new parcours in Britain, though!
So we're heading into the relegation zone, with the final 5 teams. First up are Everesting. They haven't been overly lucky this year, and potential relegation is the result of it. They still do have a chance of staying up, though - Tour of Japan should be a decent scoring opportunity for Rodrigues (who failed quite often this year, though) - and then it's all about Stannard in the final races. He really should be able to get the points needed for Everesting to stay up - but can he really do it? With 1,557 points, they need to gain at least 54 points against Tafjord to stay up!
After a pretty good month, JEWA are just 5 points behind Everesting, totalling 1,552 so far. However, who should score for them? They'll need some breakaway success in Japan, as GC-wise they won't be a factor. They don't have any great puncheur, either, and the cobbles and the sprinter races are definitely done (apart from Paris-Tours for the latter). So it's not looking great - but hey, I wouldn't have thought they'd still have a shot by the end of September, so why shouldn't they surprise me once again?
The final team that could have a chance of staying up is Kraftwerk. Yes, indeed, they've fallen that low. No ToA boost this year, and so relegation looks like the most likely scenario. With 1,514 points, they're 43 behind Everesting and almost 100 behind safety. Who could safe them now? Masnada could get a Top 20 in Tour of Japan, but that's not enough. So Turgis will need to really shine in the hilly races - something he's done before, but this time he really has to do it. Can the Germans still avoid the drop to CT?
For Llapi and Podium Ambition, it seems almost impossible to stay up at this point, looking at their roster and the races that are left. Llapi are about 280 points behind 19th place, but it'd take a Chiarello in his best days (or even better) and Kelderman performing up to his actual skills for them to have a slight chance.
And for Podium Ambition, they could surely have some more success in the hills - in particular looking at Lagane - but with 1,190 points scored so far, they're more than 500 points behind Tafjord - not even all teams doing ToA got this many points in September. Mission impossible - but still hoping for the best!
Nothing has changed at the top of the rankings. Eddie Dunbar still leads with 1,197 points, ahead of Caleb Ewan with 1,126. We said it last month already, Paris-Tours will decide on the winner of the individual standings - if Ewan wins the race, he wins the division.
Sam Oomen is looking pretty safe in 3rd place with 1,121 points, in particular given that Bryan Coquard (1,068) doesn't have any RDs left.
And then, there's still a big gap. Dann Olivier is next with 732 points, so he'd need to score almost 400 points in Japan to get a podium. The same holds for Rafael Reis and Adam Yates, following with 720 and 704 points respectively - the latter having made a big jump from 21st to 7th thanks to his great Balkans ride.
Stylianos Farantakis also made some good progress this month, moving up from 15th to 8th and ending up as PCT's 3rd best sprinter - which is absolutely fair I'd say.
Andrea Bagioli lost two spots, but with 667 points he's just 65 behind Olivier in 5th place and should have quite some races left - he could definitely get these spots back!
Patrick Gamper is the final current Top 10 member, after his great 3rd place in Rheden. He now has 665 points, and I suspect this might be his final total. Which makes him the division's best cobbler, 26 points ahead of Kasperkiewicz!
With the likes of Buchmann, Benoot, Meintjes, Meurisse or Hirschi less than 100 points behind, there could still be some movement in the Top 10 spots! By the way, Benoot (25 -> 14) and Hirschi (30 -> 17) are among the most notable improvers apart from Yates. But the month's King in that discipline obivously has to be Sosa, gaining more than 100 spots, jumping up from 128th to 26th thanks to his almost 400 points scored in ToA!
But for now, I'll stop writing and let you take a look at the numbers - have fun!
Top 10 is still within reach, Japan, Paris and Britain should all get us at least some points, with some good luck, quite a few even. The biggest wish is to have even one 400 point scorer, this is unusual for us
Thanks for the great write up as always. Obviously a huge month for us. Sounds like Japan and Britain will both have stacked starlists, Yates at the former and Sosa the latter, Feels like we had a lot of good bounces this month so nice our survival isn't riding on that continuing.
The top of the table is no surprise to me at all after ToA and September. Called it on the ToA thread. Was actually expecting a 100 more points for Elco from there
As for us, we're now quite safe with promotion, and it's only a question of whether we can move up from 4th in the final standings.
Great to see McCormick's eggs in the ToA basket hatch without breaking and they can look forward to another season in the PCT. Will be a great fight for the last two promotion spots and the last three relegation places.
ELCO had me worried for a second in the last ranking update, but they're safe again. Big congrats! For ourselves, it looks like we're promoting. I would've loved to put more of a fight for the title, but some poor performances left and right took that away. I guess we'll fight Sony for the podium. UBS and Indosat also deserve to go up.
What a safe from McCormick at the bottom! Glad they can stay in the PCT!
As always, thanks Fabi for these (slightly pressured ) updates!
I knew we had a fantastic month, but didn't quite realize we were this much up compared to the competition. I estimated 150 points up on ISA. Obviously this is the promotion sealed for us, but I wouldn't wrap up the title yet - by any means.
We don't have very strong races left - possibly good enough to defend ourselves, but not to beat the competition is my evaluation. But for the first time all season we are the ones not having more RD's left than the competitors, which feels a bit weird. 4 teams are set to end up 150 points or less behind us with their projected scores. This is meassured against our actual points though, which leaves an OK buffer. Only ISA is projected to score more in the final rankings than we have right now. Se we are mainly looking in that direction for now.
All we can do now is try to make the best possible Tour of Japan!
Nice to finally see Farantakis get the points he should. We had a pretty much perfect racing schedule for him - probably also more fitted towards him than his competitors had planned, so it hurt us a long way when he didn't perform. Atleast he managed to claw back. Now it's time to see if he has one last ditch of effort in Paris-Tours, while Giannoutsos is all about Japan, before we effectively closes our season with a 0-point-expectation race.
Obviously a great month for us with the points haul at ToA. We were lucky with the weaker field. Sitting in 10th at this moment is a dream to be honest.
Staying in the top-15 would be awesome and is our only goal left this season The projected 2050 points before the season is more than achieved, but I'll come back later to that in my HQ.
Still some nice fights for promotion and relegation happening right now. Best of luck for their managers!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
Thanks for the write up! Balkans was a disaster and we'll need Buchman to step it up for the remaining hilly races to secure promotion, but I definitely believe we have a strong chance.
Nice to see our performance at TOA pulling us back up to where we've been all season. We've never really felt threatened by relegation all year and look like we have a shot at jumping popo4ever to claim our usual 16th place spot.
We might not have a big favourite at Japan but we do send both Frankiny and Misbah so should be able to limit the losses to Padun there.
Then with 3 Hirschi classics left he has a shot at jumping into the Individual rankings top 10 still, just a shame he didn't have the RD left to do Britain as well. Fab's right that we are going, but Azman will be leading us there instead so we can't expect as strong a result from him, but will try to make up for that by letting Einhorn contest his final sprints of the year.
Thanks for another huge write up, Fabi! To be fair, it hasn't been huge for us as we keep falling in the ranks. Hopefully 15th is as low as it gets so we don't miss our sponsor goal right at the end.
Sad to most of the teams likely to join us next year in CT. Some tough schedules, especially for the teams that promoted. Hoping every team has their best luck heading into the final month - and that best results make the difference and not some flukes.
Sad to most of the teams likely to join us next year in CT. Some tough schedules, especially for the teams that promoted. Hoping every team has their best luck heading into the final month - and that best results make the difference and not some flukes.
Expected drop after ToA and losing ground in most races to both JEWA and Tafjord in September. I still think we have a strong bid to avoid relegation given we have Stannard or Rodrigues in all of our remaining five races. Given Stannard as already started the month with a win in Montreal I'm bringing my optimistic take for October, but with such short differences anything can happen. Good luck Bjartne and Blasing. May the luckiest of the three win
Again thanks for another extraordinary update Fab! Top notch, mate, thank you so much!
Thanks for another incredible update, always a pleasure to read!
No racing this month for us, so happy to see us just managing to hang on to 5th for the time being. Absolutely terrified of having UBS and Benetton breathing down our necks after missing promotion by 7 points last season, got a bad feeling that we might be in for a similar result again.
Both teams have some keys races left and should score well with Reis and Buchmann having good seasons so far - were really gonna need Tenorio to be somewhat competitive in Japan and then it’s all on Bagioli’s shoulders to do his thing. Good luck to Kaiser and BW.
What a month from McCormick! Yates doing so well is great to see. Lotto and ELCO doing really well too is good to see. Good luck to all who are fighting at the bottom to stay up - I hope you find the luck you need.
This is way more exciting than it should be. My heart is racing, just thinking about the few remaining races, and It didn't go any slower after reading Gustavovskiy's frightening message
Hopefully we can gather enough points to just stay over the line!
Good luck to my fellow strugglers
Amazing season from us, much better than I had expected initially. Even though the original plan was to gun for promotion, I had abandoned that to sign Ayuso. It still amazes me to be in the running for it all the same even when getting the talented Spaniard. I had forgotten to reply before Paris-Tours and most of Tour of Japan had been finished. But every leader of our team still riding before the end has set us up with a great sprint for the finish.
Powless still has Tour of Britain to go, and even after finishing in Japan Reis will feature on the final day. Excited to see where we stand before that however, ten points to UBS and give or take fifty to Indosat isn't a whole lot. But alot can happen in cycling, we've seen that already this year. Good luck to everyone still fighting for promotion or relegation and see you on the other side! Thanks for the great writeup Fabi.
