We're in September already, the season is almost done - but I'll still call this month the most important one for CT in 2024! Why?
Well, we had two C2 stage races, which only happened in two other months. We also had a C1 stage race, and a C2 classic. But most importantly: we had the Tour of America! And with more than half of the division participating in a race with HC points scale and just a handful PCT opponents, this was THE big opportunity for some CT teams to score really big!
The ToA scoring details have been posted in the race discussion thread, given that it's a big race both for PCT and CT, and so there's just one single writeup for all participants.
Here, we'll cover the remaining 4 races - thereof 3 in C2 - chronologically. Let's go!
The next race was yet another C2 event - this time a classic, the GP Plouay in France. A flat race with some bumps - perfect terrain for a fight between sprinters and attackers!
And it was the attackers once again who won the battle! And when talking of attackers, Dewulf isn't really the first name that comes into mind - not even the second or third one - but the Belgian somehow managed to drop all but one of his companions, and then win the sprint for another huge win for Duvel! No matter the team they bring to these C2 classics, someone always performs! And that wasn't even all - Hermans with 9th and Lyu with 18th place also contributed, bringing Duvel's total score up to 65 points!
What made the race even better for the Belgo-Chinese promotion contenders was the fact that 2nd place went to a PCT rider! So the 2nd highest scoring CT team were Euskotren, who had Hofstetter in 4th place, plus some depth points by Gougeard (14th), Pacher (24th) and Wackermann (25th). 34 points for the Basque team.
Tivani would have been the race winner - had the two attackers been caught. Now, winning the sprint from the bunch only meant 3rd place and 29 points, which is what the Turtles got from this race. Still far better than last year, though!
Two races in Africa are left this month - we'll start with the one that started first, the C1 Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon. Three days for the sprinters, but also two for the short ITT specialists, given that there was both a prologue and an epilogue, both less than 10km in length as per definition.
And it was a pretty good race for some CT teams! Most of all for Simba Cement, who only came short of the race highscore by 7 points! They had the perfect start, with Schomber winning the prologue. And they had the perfect stage 3, getting a 1-2 with Page and Zariff. The latter finished 5th and 4th in the other sprint stages - enough to claim the green jersey! The sprinters ended up being a non-factor for them in the final GC, but Schomber took a nice 6th place, and Dennis ended up 16th. Simba also took 3rd place in the team standings - and that's 159 points for the Kenyans!
GC-wise, the best CT rider wasn't Schomber, though. By just one measly second, Kennett missed out on the GC win! The Glanbia sprinter took 3rd places on days 2 and 3, taking over the race lead after the 2nd day already. He didn't do well on day 4, though, allowing Farantakis to get close enough to pass him in the final GC. Still, it was a great ride by the Kiwi, scoring 111 points. Sadly for him, Glanbia really aren't the TT force anymore they once were, so the Irishmen had almost no depth points - Oram was the only one adding some points thanks to his 24th place in GC. 115 points for Glanbia are a good result nonetheless!
And I'd say that 74 points are a pretty good score for a CT team, too. That's the score of the Turtles, who played their depth card once again. And indeed, 7 of their riders scored! Hamza was their top scorer, taking 11th in GC mainly thanks to his great 3rd place in the epilogue. But Oka (14th), Frame (22nd), Cardona (23rd) and Nyoni (28th) got a Top 25 result, too. Keough added some points for 4th place on day 2, and Fisher-Black was 4th in U25. Plus, the Turtles won the team standings, great job!
And finally, the "Cobble Carnage Festival" in Burkina Faso, given the innocent name "Tour du Faso". A 3-day C2 event - one that every rider who's not a cobbles specialist has nightmares of if he gets selected. Just 12 teams subscribed for the race - only Viana do Castelo had less participants. 93 riders started the race - only 53 finished it. I said, it carnage festival.
And who would be the obvious winner? The clear-cut #1 cobbler of the division, of course! Well, not quite. He misjudged a move on stage 1 - which in turn was the winning move for Moulingui! The Gabonese finished 2nd on day 1 - and did the same on the final stage, getting enough bonus seconds to take the overall win! He also ended up 2nd in points standings, and scored 109 points in total. But that wasn't enough for Trans - not by any means! Kolev added a 3rd place on stage 3 - which was enough to finish 5th in GC! Centrone (15th) and Peng (18th) also made the Top 25 - so did Lecourt de Billot, taking exactly that 25th place. 5 in the Top 25, that's obvious the team standings win as well - with a 2 minutes margin. 171 points for the Slovenians!
Zepuntke was the out and out favourite for the race. But he didn't follow the race winning move on day 1, where he finished 41" down in the peloton. He then won the final stage - but didn't make use of his clear superiority on the cobbles to create a gap. And so, winning a stage and the points jersey (he also got some intermediate sprint points on day 3) was only enough to end up 4th in GC. With 70 points, he still was Würth's top scorer. But not the team's top GC finisher, as Nareklishvili ended up 3rd! He did join the day 1 move, where he finished 3rd, and just held onto the pack on the final day. 54 points for him. Shoutout to Heinrich, who won the U25 standings by almost 10 minutes and also finished 23rd in GC! Reinhardt's 6th place on day 2 was worth a point as well, and Würth also ended up 3rd in team standings. Overall, that's 138 points for the Germans! Will it be enough to bring the back into the promotion race?
With the dozens of punctures on the final day, a lot of riders can complain about bad luck. And so can Ringheim. He won day 1 after the aforementioned late attack, and might have had a shot at winning the GC as well - but he spent too much energy to get back to the front group after a puncture on day 3. So he "just" finished inside the front group - which made him lose the race to Moulingui, thanks to the latter's bonus seconds. Still, it's 2nd place in GC and 3rd in points for the Norwegian, who was the 2nd best scorer in the race with 87 points. Which also is Euskadi's final score, having no other scorer (Domene ended up 26th...).
Let's summarize these 4 races before taking a look at the full monthly update.
Winning 2/3 stage races obviously is a big step towards winning a block - and that's exactly what Simba Cement did! Plouay was a race to forget for them, but that doesn't matter that much after some huge San Luis and Tropicale scores. 326 points for the Kenyans - who definitely keep up their promotion push!
Team Würth also had a good month, scoring well in San Luis and Faso, and 252 points are a good result for sure. But will it be enough to join the promotion race this late in the season? We'll find out.
Trans are the final team above 200 points, scoring 213 - mostly in Faso, but also some double-digits in San Luis and Plouay. Right behind are the Turtles with 192 points, who participated in all four races, scoring more or less decently everwhere - just without a standout result.
Duvel and Euskadi also got more than 100 points, 146 points for the former, 129 for the latter. In particular Duvel can be happy with this outcome, as that should greatly help them in their fight for promotion.
It's then a big 60 points step down to Genii, Hilcona and Air New Zealand, scoring 69, 62 and 61 points respectively. In particular for the former it's quite a blow for their promotion ambitions - but the season still isn't over yet!
Euskotren only did Plouay, and they did pretty well - but it's still just 34 points. Gjensidige even a bit worse with 27 points, not great, but not a huge accident in their promotion fight. The same holds for Newton Foundation, who finish even behind Zain-Omantel, and alongside Babymetal. These four teams had 27, 25, 24 and 24 points - which is just slightly more than Spark with 20. The latter were certainly hoping for more than 1 point from La Tropicale.
The red lantern of the block are Ethiopian Airlines, scoring just 8 points from San Luis and Plouay combined.
Here's the full numerical overview:
Pos
Team
SL
Plo
Tro
Fas
Total
1
Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh
164
3
159
0
326
2
Team Würth MODYF
106
8
0
138
252
3
Trans Looney Tunes
19
23
0
171
213
4
SEE Turtles
22
29
74
67
192
5
Glanbia
49
0
115
0
164
6
Cervelo Test Team
157
2
2
0
161
7
Duvel-Tsingtao
35
65
1
45
146
8
Euskadi-Murias
42
0
0
87
129
9
Genii Hyundai N Cycling
36
0
0
33
69
10
Hilcona Racing Team
47
4
0
11
62
11
Air New Zealand-Alfa Romeo
28
0
33
0
61
12
Euskotren - Pays Basque
0
34
0
0
34
13
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
0
22
0
5
27
14
Zain-Omantel
10
5
0
10
25
15
Newton Foundation p/b Zwift
0
24
0
0
24
16
Babymetal
24
0
0
0
24
17
Spark Team NZ
0
19
1
0
20
18
Ethiopian Airlines
7
1
0
0
8
The Tour of America scores, as mentioned before, can be found here. So let's just recall the scores of the 10 CT participants, before we move on to the full September rankings:
Pos
Team
Tour of America
4
Newton Foundation p/b Zwift
403
6
Air New Zealand-Alfa Romeo
222
7
Cervelo Test Team
211
8
Zain-Omantel
192
9
Euskotren - Pays Basque
184
10
Spark Team NZ
154
11
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
147
12
Hilcona Racing Team
144
13
Babymetal
115
14
Glanbia
59
Despite not scoring overly well in their only race in the non-ToA block, Elosegui's sensational Tour of America win and the 403 coming with it are good enough for Newton Foundation to claim another month win! In terms of PpRD, three non-ToA teams were better, but with 18.6 the Americans still got a good value - and probably the division title locked up with this score!
Simba Cement were the most efficient scorers this month, getting their 326 points with just 12 race days! A 27.2 PpRD average is huge in CT, and it should bring them pretty close to promotion!
Air New Zealand is a name we don't often see that high up - probably never before this year. The Kiwis scored 283 points, and even though their PpRD isn't great, a couple of really nice results should give them a morale boost for the final month - and the 2025 season!
Team Würth then are the 2nd best non-ToA team, scoring 252 points in just 10 days of racing. They got the 2nd highest PpRD and should have made up some ground on the previous Top 5 - will it be enough to launch their new programme in a new division?
Glanbia are the next ToA team - which might come as a surprise, given that they were the worst team in ToA by some margin. But the other block was pretty good, and so it's 6th place for them. Picking up the pace again - just in time or too late?
Euskotren had a strong ToA and didn't race much outside of it, so they actually still got a pretty decent PpRD. Probably not enough to move within reach of their season goal, but a ToA KoM shirt is already quite something.
By the way, Glanbia scored 223 points, Euskotren 218 - and the next teams had 217, 213 and 206 points respectively, taking the final Top 10 spots. They are Zain, Trans and Hilcona. Of these three, Trans can definitely be the most satisfied, as they scored all of their poitns in just 10 RDs, posting the months' 3rd best PpRD average - and likely securing promotion.
Then we have the next non-ToA team with the Turtles, scoring 192 points in 15 days. Gjensidige and Spark both got 174 points, being tied for 12th place - also having the exact same PpRD, racing 31 days each.
Duvel scored 146 points for 14th place, which isn't great, but not as bad as it sounds, either - given that they didn't do ToA. Babymetal did, and they're close behind in 15th place, scoring 139 points.
Another 10 points down are Euskadi, another non-ToA team, and actually getting the 5th best PpRD, scoring 129 points in 10 days.
And only then we have Genii, scoring 69 points in 8 RDs, and basically losing ground to all of their promotion competitors.
Ethiopian Airlines used up the least amount of RDs - which isn't a good excuse for only scoring 1 point per RD, though. 8 points for them, and the clear red lantern.
Here are the full September rankings:
Pos
Team
w/o ToA
ToA
Total
RD
PpRD
1
Newton Foundation p/b Zwift
24
403
427
23
18.57
2
Cervelo Test Team
161
211
372
33
11.27
3
Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh
326
0
326
12
27.17
4
Air New Zealand-Alfa Romeo
61
222
283
33
8.58
5
Team Würth MODYF
252
0
252
10
25.20
6
Glanbia
164
59
223
31
7.19
7
Euskotren - Pays Basque
34
184
218
23
9.48
8
Zain-Omantel
25
192
217
31
7.00
9
Trans Looney Tunes
213
0
213
10
21.30
10
Hilcona Racing Team
62
144
206
31
6.65
11
SEE Turtles
192
0
192
15
12.80
12
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
27
147
174
31
5.61
12
Spark Team NZ
20
154
174
31
5.61
14
Duvel-Tsingtao
146
0
146
15
9.73
15
Babymetal
24
115
139
28
4.96
16
Euskadi-Murias
129
0
129
10
12.90
17
Genii Hyundai N Cycling
69
0
69
8
8.63
18
Ethiopian Airlines
8
0
8
7
1.14
Full Ranking
I guess we can congratulate Newton Foundation for the 2024 CT title! With 1,934 points scored by now, and a gap of almost 400 points, there's no way any team can still catch them. The only open question is whether they can beat Jura's 2,158 points scored in 2022, the highest score since the race day reduction.
Otherwise, they did pretty much the same as the Swiss two years ago: dominating CT after an unlucky relegation. Well done - and maybe they can even get back-to-back promotions, based on their amazing stage race lineup?
We expected a big fight between Newton Foundation and Gjensidige in ToA, given that the CT title was at stake. But the latter had no chance, sending a pretty weak lineup and scoring more than 250 points less. And so, they're now 377 points down in the rankings, totalling 1,557 - and having spent two RDs more, being left with just 5. Still, they will definitely promote, which was their main goal.
And it's almost certain that the next two teams will ride in PCT as well in 2025. The first of these are Trans, who had another great month - and despite not doing ToA, they made up quite some ground on Gjensidige, only trailing by 74 points now! Can they even claim 2nd place in the end? With Sun Tour likely left for the latter, probably not, but we'll see.
Simba Cement currently total 1,429 points - which is more than 300 points of margin to 6th place! So barring any major disaster, the Kenyans are going up as well! In terms of PpRD, they currently have an average of 10.9 - with the next team being at 9.1. So that should really not go wrong anymore!
So we get down to the zone where different scenarios are still possible. Currently, it's still Duvel-Tsingtao in 5th place; the Belgo-Chinese team have accumulated 1,214 points. But for CT teams, there aren't that many hills left, which is one of their favourite terrains. If they got an invitation for Britain, that could be great - if they have to do Sun Tour instead, it could be a rather low scoring race... Zurich should be good for them, though.
Genii in 6th place are 99 points down already - but they've got 5 additional RDs to spend. Given that no spots were available for Tour of Japan (with all 24 PCT teams going there), that has to mean they'll do both Britain and Sun Tour - in particular the former could therefore be a crucial race for them. If KHJ does well, it could end up being their ticket for PCT. Otherwise, they'll have to hope for a disband promotion spot.
But then we also have Team Würth luring just 13 points down in 7th place! The Germans would currently pick up one of the two certain disband promotion spots - but can they do even more? Guerreiro has been amazing this year, and Britain could be a perfect race for him - if he can go there. The team still has 11 RDs left, so the question is whether they do Britain and Sun Tour and have an unused RD, or whether they do just one of the stage races, plus the three classics (Paris-Tours, Emilia, Zurich). We'll find out...
Only 26 points further behind are Spark, currently totalling 1,076 points. It's currently unsure whether 8th place would also be enough to go to PCT, so they surely want to gain at least one spot in the final month! They already communicated that they'll do Sun Tour and Zurich - the latter could be a good race for them, but in the former they'd need some luck with sprints and TT weather conditions to score really well. Can they accomplish the mission and bounce back to PCT right away?
This surely was Glanbia's goal as well - but after Eastman's departure, there's really a lack of quality in their roster. Kennett is doing what he can do, but he can't promote them on his own. Still, they're just 99 points behind Würth, still having a shot - but with just 5 RDs left, they'd need an amazing final month. Britain for Boswell could be a good fit - as the Sun Tour would rather be something for the early Glanbia days with amazing TT depth. We'll see.
Could any other team still move up to PCT? As it currently stands, probably not. Euskotren, the final Top 10 team, are roughly 170 points behind 7th place and Würth, and unless they can race in Britain and do something really special, I can't see them going up.
Ethopian Airlines were the month's biggest losers, dropping from 7th to 12th. With 920 points, they're still just 14 behind Euskotren, though, so still within reach of a Top 10. Which also holds for the Turtles with 904 points - but while they have the depth, they might be lacking the top riders to get the big points in.
Behind the Turtles in 13th, we have a 70 points gap to Euskadi in 14th. With Serrano, Quevedo and Sterbini, they've got some good riders for the final month - but can they really score enough to move them close enough to the Top 10?
The same question holds for Zain-Omantel, who are 22 points further down, totalling 808. And even though they have still quite some RDs left, they might not have the perfect riders for these races. Well, Sirironnachai already had some good results, why not getting some more?
After the ToA, the final three teams are actually pretty close together - between Babymetal in 16th and Air New Zealand - who are still holding the red lantern - there are just 27 points now. And in between, just 2 points ahead of the Kiwis, we have Hilcona. So it should be a good fight for - or rather against - taking last place!
That's all for now. At least from me, as the numbers might tell you even more:
Well, the winner in CT is as clear as the one in PT - or speaking in proportions, even far clearer. Matteo Jorgenson wins the division with the amazing score of 891 points, and is clearly ready to take on bigger challenges next year.
George Bennett definitely did have bigger challenges in his career, but I guess one or two additional years in CT might be what he's hoping for right now. Still, he did have a great 2024 season, scoring 478 points.
Rok Korosec still sits in 3rd place with 411 points; I'm not sure if he's got some races left, but if he does, he might even be fighting for 2nd place overall.
From 72nd to 4th place - that's Inigo Elosegui! He had 58 points before this month, now he has 385, which is good enough for 4th place! So that's 1st and 4th for Newton Foundation in the current rankings - these two alone might have been good enough for promotion!
Dylan Kennett also made a jump, from 11th to 5th - which means that he'll very likely end up being CT's best sprinter of the year! He currently has 363 points, and with Zariff as the next sprinter in the rankings being 97 points down, Kennett should really make it over the line.
Ruben Zepuntke had to swallow another bitter pill in Burkina Faso, not winning the race he should have won. He still moved up from 9th to 6th, totalling 332 points, so it wasn't an awful season by any means. But definitely not the great season many expected, either.
Thymen Arensman didn't race, and was overtaken by the three aforementioned riders, meaning he dropped from 4th to 7th, just one point behind Zepuntke.
Ruben Guerreiro gained 8 spots, and with 320 points has only 12 less than Zepuntke - the Portuguese might actually end up being Würth's better Ruben!
Richard Antonio Carapaz and Brent Van Moer on the other hand didn't race, and both lost 4 spots, dropping to 9th and 10th respectively. In particular KHJ or Msocon could even kick them out of the Top 10 in the end - we'll see.
Besides Elosegui, no current Top 20 rider gained more than 10 spots this month. But Lafay almost became a Top 20 rider, jumping up from 52nd to 22nd, after his ToA KoM win. And Ringheim cut his 54th position in half, being 27th now.
And here are the current individual standings, enjoy!
Not our best month. Still 8th and not far behind 7th is a good position. We need a strong Herald Sun and Zuri. Zuri I think will be good with Beltran and Yates. But I think we should be able to do well in Herald Sun with Scott and how he has been sprinting and also Marryatt in the ITT. Should be fun.
Good to see Bennett in 2nd in the individual. We will owe him a lot should we manage to promote into the PCT this season!
PPRD over 12 for the month and I lost a position *crying, screaming, throwing up*
yeah overall this was a very good month for us, but we just don't have a superstar and can't seem to make up the ground without a TTT. I expect another mid-range solid result at our final race and that we should be able to potentially challenge the 1000 point mark. Whatever position that puts us in would be totally fine.
Thanks for this Fabi!
This was defnitely one of our best months and when i look at the ranking i was kidna suprised to find us where we are now. If we could stay there this would be the perfect outcome after this season.
Also I have to say though i do critize Zepuntke a lot and he still is kinda underwhelming he still scored decently this year, just not as much as i hoped. Everything would have been easier then. On the other side we have Guerreiro who definitely was a huge W for us this year. Hopefully this will also last the final month.
Really happy to see Trans Looney Tunes and Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh both get promoted. Gjensidige and Newton were a lock for me before the season, so no suprises there.
Looks like a tight battle for 5th and other disband spots. Good luck guys!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
I knew we had a good month, but not this good. +25 PpRD is crazy! I'm not afraid to jinx it anymore - we're going up baby
Thanks for the monster update Fabianski.
Also, poor month for Ethiopian Airlines and Genii, but top 10 is still doable for the Ethiopians and Genii are still fighting for top 5.
On the other hand, a good month for the SEE Turtles, but not enough to advance. I guess the ToA still is very important to CT teams despite being 21 stages long?
@Laurens thanks! Looking forward to joining you in PCT
Lastly, congratulations to the other promoting teams: Newton (with the title as well), Gjensidige, Trans Looney Tunes, and also Duvel-Tsingtao (they should be pretty safe, if we include disbands). Good luck to the rest of the teams still fighting - it's going to be a thrilling ending to the season!
Thanks again Fab, consistently great write ups all season.
Herald Sun is a strong race for Glanbia to finish on but it looks like we have left it too late. The ToA just did too much damage, as we always said it would.
Let's hope a big haul in Herald Sun can do a miracle for us
Fab hit the nail on the head, the spring season was a disaster, and that's left us where we are, no matter the great TOA and San Luis we were way too far back
Thanks a lot Fab for the work!
The biggest level in the division feels! We're already at the same points that last season, but will probably finish at the same position, or even lower if we can't pull a great result in Zurich.
We already know that Paris-Tours was a zero pointer, and Britain won't probably be very good either. So all eyes on Wackermann and the last race of the season. His last maxed race also, so we're waiting for the triple!
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
This is a LOT LOT closer than we’d have hoped for in the penultimate update, looking at that top 5 team goal, particularly when it’s only really Zuri-Metzgete where we have a winning chance. Fingernails are coming off rapidly.
What an unmitigated disaster September was for us, there's no two ways about it. San Luis and Plouay should have in theory suited us quite well so to have come out of this with one solitary PpRD is a shocker. If you had told me at the beginning of the season that we'd go into October 14 points off the top 10 I would probably have taken it, but to lose 5 positions this late in the season really puts a different complexion on the whole year. The margins are very fine and it's possible we make a recovery and reach the top 10 after all but I can't say I'm too confident.
Anyways, congrats to all the managers who can already start planning for a season in the PCT, especially our African colleagues at Simba and our fellow newcomers at Duvel! And best of luck to those still fighting for something, be it for the last promotion spots or in that extremely close race to avoid the wooden spoon.
