2023 Power Ranking - Part 3

Welcome the third part of the analysis of 2023 Power Rankings, in which the 36th-40th placed teams will be investigated from Thailand to France.

In 40th place, to my slight surprise, Roojai Online Insurance finished from Thailand, who has earned this very high ranking thanks to their versatility. For those who don't know, Roojai as a sponsor is a Jakarta-based insurance company, one of the largest in Indonesia and the region, who can support the team financially (in fact, I think if things worked really well, they could even field an Asian super team). And thanks to their French GM, they can field a truly international line-up for the races.

Lucas Carstensen is the cornerstone of this international line-up. The 29-year-old German rider left his local continental Bike Aid team to try his luck in Asia, and let’s be real here, it's worked out well for him. Carstensen is perhaps the most consistent sprinter on the Asian calendar this year, having won a stage in almost every stage race, be it .PRO, .1 or .2. This has been the best season of his career and, as he will be with the team next year, he is very confident that he will be able to maintain this form.

Mongolia has made rapid progress in the sport of cycling, and we'll soon talk about the man who made the country's first European transfer a few days ago - but now we'll talk about Tegshbayar Batsaikhan, who was defeated and finished runner-up in a huge battle at the Mongolian championships and who won the team's home race, the Tour of Thailand, immediately after a stage one breakaway to which the rest of the peloton had no answer to on the remaining days. He's an ambitious rider who is young, not afraid to attack at all, and hopefully he'll be riding in Europe soon.

The future of 7 riders is assured for next year, with the youngsters from home, Laos champion Phounsavath and the aforementioned Carstensen, joined by Greek Polychronis Tzortzakis - somehow I get the feeling that 2024 is going to be a very good year for them and I look forward to more positive results from Roojai.

The best team on the Asian Continental Tour, Terengganu Polygon CT, finished 39th. The Malaysian team has again this season very cleverly mixed local Malay riders with experienced foreign riders - and they have done pretty well.

One who deserves a special mention is Jambaljamts Sainbayar. The 27-year-old rider from Ulaanbaatar has been getting better and better every year, which has helped him secure a contract in Europe for 2024 from Burgos, which will be a huge step forward for him at all levels. Sainbayar has done well this year in those races where there was plenty of climbing but not a mountain-top finish, stages and races with 1500-2500, in special occasions up to 3000 d+ metres are his favourites. On the basis of these (as there are plenty of them in Spain), he will have a chance to either go for himself or to do some amazingly valuable domestique work. His involvement will be exciting, I look forward to seeing what he can do with this chance.

Jeroen Meijers is also worth mentioning as a positive contributor - the 30-year-old Dutchman is in his third season with the team and has definitely had his best performances this year - he won the Tour of Taiwan and has had several good performances in Asian races, the only slight problem with him is that he is not under contract for next year - his knowledge and complex skills would be sorely missed by the team.

If the team will exist next year, I definitely expect a good season from Metkel Eyob next to Meijers, I think the Eritrean climber has plenty of skills and positive jump in him, Anatolii Budyak had a better season last year, but I would be lying if I said that he didn't have the form for the second half of the season, if he keeps up this trend next year he could have a very positive season, and well Mohd Harrif Saleh, Malaysia's highest ranked sprinter. He could show that he still has gold in his legs.

38th place goes for a team that was in its first year of cycling, but they have already produced some excellent results and will certainly be aiming higher next year. I have to admit that I didn't think about the TDT-Unibet team as a serious contender before the season. Although Bas Tietema's squad was filled with some good Belgian and Dutch riders for their first season, and obviously the exhibitionist attitude of the management was reflected in the squad, I really didn't think they would be that good in terms of results.

Hartthijs de Vries has probably been the number one man this year. The 27-year-old Dutch rider has been racing for smaller Dutch continental teams, he moved over to Tietema’s team this year and hasn't disappointed - especially in the second half of the season. 10th at the ZLM Tour GC, 5th at the Egmont one-day-race, 6th at the Elfsteden Dutch race, are some of the results you would expect from him. He's staying on next year, moving up a category, so it's fair to expect him to move up a level personally.

The first professional win in the team's history came from 23-year-old Yentl Vandevelde in the opening stage of the ZLM Tour. The Belgian cyclist went into a very ambitious 177-kilometre breakaway with 4 other riders and with 1.5 kilometres to go, he went on a solo that no one caught, totally embodying everything that is in the DNA of this team. This, however, unfortunately did not earn him a contract, so to all team managers reading this: please, give Yentl a chance.

Another huge positive about the team is that several riders have achieved either stage top 10s or one-day top 10s in .1 races, and that kind of versatility can be very valuable down the road. Joren Bloem finished 8th in GC at the ZLM Tour, 9th at the Van Merksteijn Classic, Davide Bomboi was 3rd at Elfstedenrace, 5th at Van Merksteijn, and Martijn Budding was 6th at Ronde van Limburg and 10th at the Veenendaal Classic. All three will stay with the team next year and good things can be expected from Bloem and Bomboi in particular.

However, next year... I don't want to be biased, but one of the best transfer seasons this season is of TDT-Unibet. If there was one thing they were lacking, it was the climber section... well that was almost completely remedied (at least at ProConti level) with Cedrik Bakke Christophersen and Zeb Kyffin, Owen Geleijn from Jumbo Development as a classics rider, Andreas Stokbro as a road captain is almost a perfect choice, Adam Toupalik strengthens the sprinter section, and then we haven't even mentioned the French signings. Brilliant, but that's what it takes to make it at ProConti level and I'm rooting for them next year.

Coming in at 37th and 36th are the French continental teams whose performances I have watched with great anticipation this year, as both teams have had plenty of commendable performances that have attracted the interest of ProTeams and in some cases World Tour teams.

We start with CIC U Nantes Atlantique, where Anthony Ravard, the Sports Director appointed for this year, has embarked on a very spectacular and in some ways successful youth project. The average age of the squad was just over 22, which is terribly young and could almost be considered a development squad, but still, the whole team was a perfect and independent unit on such a level that it is hard not to totally hoot.

The clear leader was Jordan Jegat. The 24-year-old Vannes-based youngster has spent the last 4 years with the team, but this year was the one where he clearly became a leader, and he has had several excellent results - 6th in the Tour de Limousin, 3rd in Le Polynormande, 8th in the Tour de l'Ain, and on top of that he has had several top 15 results in .1 races. What's really great about Jegat is that he can actually do well in one-day races with smaller hills and GC races that can include climbs - he can do well in both and can score important UCI points for the team. That team will be TotalEnergies next year, so I'll be rooting for them specifically in 2024.

Among the young riders, the racing of first-year U23 rider Noa Isidore is definitely worth highlighting. The youngster from Troyes finished the second half of his junior year very nicely, and it was in the period from June onwards that he really started to come up and pick up the pace in the elite this year, winning stages in 2.2 races, winning Eure-et-Loir in particular, and at the end of the year in Isbergues, he was already in the top 15 in a .1 race, so his progress is very stable gradual. Next year we'll see him in one of the French team Devo ranks (I think it will be AG2R), with whom he'll probably also be stepping up to World Tour level in 2025 - it will be interesting to see his development curve.

Adding to the versatility, the experienced Pierre Barbier finished 3rd in the Tourangelle, Mael Guegan 7th in the Isbergues, Nolann Mahoudo 2nd in the Tour of Brittany, but also, for example, Emmanuel Morin, mentioned in the previous section, one of my favourite Danish riders, Rasmus Sojberg Pedersen and Enzo Boulet all had top 10s in .1 races - and then I've almost listed half the squad.

Next year will bring big challenges for the team, with the departure of Nolann Mahoudo (Cofidis) and Sojberg Pedersen (AG2R Devo Team), in addition to the aforementioned Morin, Isidore and Guegan. The newcomers are okayish so far, not really something that would raise eyes to normal fans, although I secretly expect a good season from Canadian rider Matisse Julien and French newbie Clement Braz Afonso, and I hope they will live up to my expectations.

The team of St Michel - Auber finished in 36th place. They built their team according to an inverted principle of Nantes’s, a small squad, with a very experienced Sports Director, and this certainly brought them success this year, although this did not necessarily show in the number of victories. but in the top 10s, stage results, and in their attitude towards the whole sport.

Let's start with Joris Delbove, as the 23-year-old French rider is perhaps the best rider of the team in terms of price/value/results. Delbove definitely improved this year compared to last, especially in the last 2 months of the season. In the Limousin-Ain combination, he finished in the top 15 both times, and in addition, on Ain, he took the white jersey, which was a pretty serious achievement. We can remember him best from the Paris-Tours at the end of the season, where he got into the breakaway and stayed there until the end of the race. He was able to stay with the Sheehan-Askey-Johannessen trio and finish fourth - a very strong indication of what he can do in the team. He will stay here next year, but I think he could land a World Tour contract to his pocket for 2025 if he delivers such performances in 2024.

Another youngster who is also very talented, and whose talent was noticed by TotalEnergies, is Thomas Gachignard. The 23-year-old guy from Niort is a typical offroad competitor, even if he hasn't participated in cyclocross races for quite a few years now, since in the two main French cobblestone, mud, gravel, non-asphalt races, at Denain and at Tro-Bro Leon, he finished 9th. I think that's why Total signed him in the end, because with Sagan's departure, the classic squad needed to be strengthened a bit, and Gachignard is exactly the type of rider who can get to the front at any time on his better days.

I would also list here the riders who reached the top 10, at .1 races since there were plenty here too – the experienced Romain Cardis was the team's statistically best rider, top 5 in Cholet, top 10 in Morbihan and Loire Atlantique, and several top 15s were accomplished during his season, he was quite confident all season long and guided young inexperienced talents properly. Nicolas Debeaumarche was the breakaway king, there wasn't a race where he didn't have at least one attack, there were some that were crowned with success, he finished 4th at Vitré, which was achieved through a very difficult race, and this earned him a World Tour contract with Cofidis.

Next year they won't have an easy task either, there are riders who signed here from the World Tour and Pro Teams (Delettre and Cabot), but overall it seems that the team is weakening - I will be curious to see who will win the competition between the French Continental teams.