2023 Power Rankings - Part 5.

Welcome to the fifth part of the analysis of 2023 Power Rankings, in which the 26th-30th placed teams will be investigated from Bolton Equities to Euskaltel.

Bolton Equities Black Spoke finished in 30th place, which, since I'm writing about them in mid-November, gives a kind of bittersweet aftertaste to their otherwise brilliant season. When I heard back in the day that they were going to be a Pro Team this year, I was thrilled, as an Australian/New Zealand Pro Team would be an amazing way to help the sport, but also feared that the jump would be a big one for them professionally and financially. Professionally they have reached the bar and the general level, Scott Guyton and his team have done an amazing job in getting the riders ready for every challenge... and despite this, they have not been able to maintain their sponsorship for more than one season, and not only have they lost their ProTeam status, but en bloc the team will be gone by December 31st.

However, I would certainly like to pay a lot of tribute to the team members, because they deserve it. Starting with George Jackson, who became one of the favourites of the cycling community in the last part of the season, both for his unique mullet hairstyle and his surprisingly fast legs. The sprinter from Wellington wasn't necessarily someone to really look out for in the first half of the season, in fact he didn't even have a really valuable record in the 2.2 races... Then we went to China and Malaysia in September, and the turnaround mentioned in previous episodes was completed, finishing in the top 3 in 6 of the 17 stages on Hainan, Langkawi and Taihu Lake, which, considering they included plenty of mountains, is a very commendable set of results. Jackson will be getting much more attention at Burgos next year, which, knowing his style, will have a positive effect on him.

Next up is Rory Townsend, who falls into the more traditional, classic one-day racer category, a sprinter like Jackson but who likes a hard race. Maybe that's why he loved the La Roue Tourangelle in 2023, which he happened to win in the slushy, rainy conditions, getting Bolton's first win of the kind that I personally caught my attention, saying that: “whoah, they're cooking”. Townsend stopped at wins here but didn’t stop with good performances. He finished 5th in the Druivenkoers-Overijse (another race full of attacks and chaos) and yet he also delivered top 10s in the Tour of Belgium and Charleroi Wallonie, he's a valuable rider, which Q36.5 noticed and secured his future until 2025.

Our third man here is Mark Stewart. The Scottish climber has success in some pretty special areas, winning the Tour of Romania last year and the Tour of New Zealand, and this year he did well in Italy, on the men's version of the lesser known Per Semper Alfredo, he was second behind Felix Engelhardt, and on the Industria third behind Healy, for example. This Italian streak was seen by Corratec, who desperately needed such a rider, they signed him for 2024, which was a very good move, Stewart can continue the work he started.

I still really hope that Logan Currie will get a contract from somewhere next year, the young New Zealander could be an extremely valuable domestique in the coming years, and I could imagine him in any World Tour lineup even now. (plot twist: after I wrote this part, Currie signed with Lotto-Dstny, that was kind of a genius move from both of them)

Equipo Kern Pharma took 29th place, where compared to last year there was a definite strengthening, maybe even a slight overperformance, which at the same time, I don't know how sustainable it is for next year, considering that their two riders with the greatest potential will leave in 2024.

It is difficult to list what Roger Adria did for the team, but one thing is certain: he put them on the map of cycling, and he raised the team to a very high level. This year, Adria has become an extremely confident one-day competitor, which is also proven by the statistics. He ran 16 one-day races this year, in half of them he finished in the top 10 - an extremely stable rider. The mid-mountain races go very well for him, and I have a feeling that he was only able to do this kind of results because, like Bonneu, he didn't have the additional help for it. He will be fine with Bora next year, though, the question for me is how many opportunities he can earn for himself. Seeing his results, his attitude - there will surely be an opportunity for this purpose, and I hope that he can prevail in the World Tour as well.

Behind him, however, it is difficult to highlight an outstanding person who really deserves big shoutouts. Jordi Lopez Caravaca was 2nd in the Tour de Taiwan, 10th in the Tour of Slovenia, supporting this with several top 20 performances in Spain, he can produce similar results next year. Pablo Castrillo arrived in the Pro peloton in the second half of the season, second behind Sepulveda in the final stage of Castilla y Leon, and then he carried this momentum to Burgos, where the 11th place in the GC was a wonderful result, he can be the number one competitor next year in Kern Pharma. Raul Garcia Pierna is the other valuable competitor who is leaving, he was top 15 in GC at Burgos and Slovenia, he is the one who, if he could strengthen himself a little bit more on the mountains, could be a very serious force in the World Tour as well – at Arkea, he will have a lot of chances to show this in 2024, since there is a lack of climbers as a speciality as such.

Urko Berrade is the last positive element in this season, he was outstanding in the last two months, top 15 in Burgos, top 10 in Croatia and Slovakia, the work done by the newly arrived DS, the former great climber, Mikel Nieve, was already clearly visible into the life of the team.

2024 without Adria and Garcia Pierna will be interesting for the team. Antonio Jesus Soto and Marc Brustenga arrived to make the sprinter class a bit more varied, and 4 youngsters from the development team arrived, but it is very difficult to say what Kern Pharma's ceiling could be next year - I wouldn't be surprised if this year's 29th place would be over 30 for 2024.

28th place went to EOLO-Kometa, which will be Polti-Kometa next year, after a big comeback from the leading sponsor. The team has taken part in the Giro d'Italia this year, as well as in a lot of big races, and has actually performed to the expected level - but I am a bit uncertain about the future, as a lot of good riders will be leaving, although I think they have managed to replace them quite well, sometimes on a project basis, sometimes mano a mano.

There were two very serious MVPs at team level this year, one of them was Vincenzo Albanese. The 27-year-old Italian has had relatively few days of racing, with only 44 days to his name (21 of which came on the Giro), but he has been very consistent and has performed well throughout the season. It's hard to pick out any of his many achievements, but third place in the Giro di Sicilia GC, given that he's basically a punchy sprinter, is particularly brilliant, especially as the final stage was a mountain stage with 4000+ d+. The Asturian points jersey was an easy task for him, and although the stage win on the Giro didn't arrive, he had to be happy with 5 top 10 stages. He also had 5 top 10s in 5 out of 9 races in the Italian block in the autumn, at Bernocchi, he only lost to Wout van Aert, which admittedly is no disgrace. Next year he's got a one-year contract from Arkea-Samsic, and I have very mixed feelings about whether this whole thing can work. The French Cup races could suit him very well, I think he could ride there, but I can also see that the change of environment could be so big for him that it will prevent him from progressing further.

The other MVP of the season was the King of Zoncolan, Lorenzo Fortunato. For the third year in a row, the rider from Bologna has put in a solid performance similar to this year's, which has certainly been accompanied by a win every now and then. He showed his climbing form at the Gran Camino at the start of the season, where he didn't finish in the top 10 due to the TT, but he did so at the Tour of the Alps with a 5th place. The highlight of the season was clearly the Vuelta a Asturias, where he won a stage after a 20km solo, and then the GC at the same time. The Giro was quite awful for him, which he made up for a bit in Slovenia, and the end of the season was again a mixed bag. It was all so Fortunatoish, there were periods when he stood out, and there were also periods when he completely disappeared - this, if he wants to stand out at Astana next year, isn’t something he should do.

Who still needs to be mentioned… Mirco Maestri, the veteran Italian sprinter, had the best season of his career at the age of 32, he brought top 10 stage results from Turkey, Slovakia and of course from the Giro, Davide Piganzoli, the young climber showed his claws as he finished on the podium in the Tour de l'Avenir GC, as well as in the top 10 in the 2.Pro Tour de Hongrie, he will still be with the team in 2024, we will almost certainly see him in the World Tour field from 2025... and Davide Bais... Bais, who won a Mountain Top Finish at the Giro, Campo Imperatore in a quite surreal way, reaching the pinnacle of his career, and I think this may be his goal somewhere next year: to go to a breakaway at the World Tour and try to win something from there.

In 2024, both Fortunato and Albanese will leave the team, and they will be replaced by very good people. Jhonatan Restrepo can once again experience his flourishing at Polti, Manuel Penalver wants to have a better season on the sprint front, Davide de Cassan can be an absolutely perfect replacement for Albanese in the long run, and Double and German Gomez can be of great help to the team on punchy terrains. Complex signings for a complex squad, the future of Polti-Kometa looks promising overall.

Bingoal-WB finished in 27th place, where I don't think it was necessarily the individual performances that were the most important, but the team, as they were ahead of a lot of teams with outstanding franchise players.

Of course, there were also better and worse performers, but we will list the better ones here, starting with the Italian Marco Tizza. The Italian rider has brought plenty of UCI points to Bingoal this year, including top 10s in Industria, Finistere and Aulne, but also top 10 stage results in the stage races. Tizza has quite a varied and diverse profile, if he would be… let’s say 6-8 years younger he'd have World Tour teams lining up for him. With his contract with Bingoal lasts until 2025, I think he'll retire from there now, but he's certainly got 3-4 good years left at this level.

Let's continue with Lennert Teugels. Last year, Teugels was quite special on the continental level, he was brought to Bingoal from Tarteletto-Isorex, and he showed something this year that his miracle season last year (even if he did it in smaller tournaments) was no fluke. As for this year, he finished top 15 at the Tour of Britain, 12th at Polynormande, 9th at Muscat, spreading his good results and form over the year, which is the advantage of being experienced and having experience in what you do. He'll stay with the team next year (I think they signed a 2-year contract back then), so he can continue this kind of mission.

Alexis Guerin is also very much worth highlighting, with perhaps the most extraordinary win in the sport this year - he took stage victory in the Coppi e Bartali after a 116km breakaway and a 90km solo. Guerin is already quite an ambitious rider with a great spirit, he showed it in Sicily and Turkey this year - perhaps that's why it's such a shame that for age/other reasons unknown to me he won't be staying on next year and will be joining Philippe Wagner's Continental team - a setback in any case, it hurts me personally, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for him in the future.

Among the top 10/valuable results achievers, the 7th place of 23-year-old Louis Blouwe from Nokere Koerse is worth mentioning, Remy Mertz’s 6th place from Per Sempre Alfredo, and Luca van Boven (who I highlighted before the season and although he didn't live up to all hopes in his first pro season, he wasn't hopeless) 8th place from Aulne, but really, the strength of the team was that they had almost at least one top 10 in every race.

What's more good news is that for next year, the team has made some very valuable reinforcements to the few departures, Loic Vliegen will be very useful with his routine, Sasha Weemaes comes to the team after a wonderful last two months and can get a lot of good results in the .1 classics, and Davide Persico has been massively impressive during his stagiaire contract, so the full-time contract is fully deserved and I trust that he can reach his full potential here. The future is definitely positive for Bingoal.

Finishing in 26th place was Spain's Euskaltel-Euskadi, whose high ranking was due to a number of things - most notably their amazing .1 results, often having 3-4 or even 5 riders in the top 20, and finishing ahead of several very good teams who certainly had better and stronger franchise players.

It is strange and paradoxical that the Basque team had the best rider in a guy from Valencia, but Joan Bou was everything we expect from a top rider. After a slow start to the season, the climber built momentum with a 12th place in Asturias, then 11th in the Qinghai Lake Tour, 10th in Burgos and built his way up to Langkawi, where he capped off a fantastic season with a 4th place in the Malaysian mountains.

Of the youngsters, Carlos Canal is worth keeping an eye on, even if he won't be part of the team next year. The 22-year-old Spaniard is a terribly complex rider, he has a little bit of everything, and while he has shown it at a low level so far, it is totally understandable and visible why Movistar have signed him until 2025. If you look at his season this year, 2 top 10s in the first two races in Mallorca, 6th in the Gran Camino TT, he had a top 15 in a Belgian classic, a near top 10 in a French Cup hilly race, and was close to a top 15 in a high mountain stage at Langkawi. Canal is a brilliant prospect and I hope Movistar will bring out the immense potential in him.

Txomin Juaristi has had the season of his life, actually holding the front alone against the Vorarlberg-Glassdrive duo all alone at Grandissima, he very much secured his place among the top Euskaltel guys with his second place at GC and a top 10 stage at the Tour of the Alps, Antonio Jesus Soto was great at the start of the season, then faded away towards the middle-end, he could blossom again at Kern Pharma. And of course, the experienced Mikel Bizkarra-Gotzon Martin duo had a decent season again.

Next year, two huge reinforcements are coming to Euskaltel, Jon Aberasturi, about whom I still feel that he has the mojo to perform at a high level, and Victor de la Parte is about to return home, and this can generally have a good effect on the team's results. Overall, a decent season, and the same is expected next year.