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Riders who deserve a chance at PCT-level

The title says it all, it's about rider who are over 23 years old, riding for a Conti team and who's deserve a chance at PCT-level.
I'll just sart posting about a few guys, feel free to add more.

My first pick is Roland Thalmann, a 25 years old swiss rider who just finished 9th on gc in the Tour of the Alpes, last year he also finished top 20 in the Österreich-Rundfahrt.

My 2nd pick is Jose Luis Rodriguez, 24 years old and from Chile. Ast year he rode for the now rather infamous SEP team, but he never had any clinic related problems. In 2016 he raced for the Centre Mondial du Cyclisme team, finished 9th on gc in the Giro della Valle d'Aosta, won the Pan AmericanU23 RR and the ITT and was a stagiaire for Trek, but aparently he declined to sign with them for personal/family reasons. Since then he has been NC, both on the road and in the ITT and in 2017 he dominated the Vuelta a Chiloé.
 
Some obvious names of riders struggling to make the PCT cut for several years now:

Arvid de Kleijn
Ben Dyball
Michael Freiberg
Chris Harper
Joshua Huppertz
Alexander Krieger
James Piccoli
Stephan Rabitsch
Jannik Steimle
Daniel Whitehouse

Apart from de Kleijn those riders have the problem that there's no PCT team in their country. Being French, Belgian or Italian is still helpful to make the cut.
 
Re:

Bye Bye Bicycle said:
Some obvious names of riders struggling to make the PCT cut for several years now:

Arvid de Kleijn
Ben Dyball
Michael Freiberg
Chris Harper
Joshua Huppertz
Alexander Krieger
James Piccoli
Stephan Rabitsch
Jannik Steimle
Daniel Whitehouse

Apart from de Kleijn those riders have the problem that there's no PCT team in their country. Being French, Belgian or Italian is still helpful to make the cut.

I agree with a lot of the menition. Especially Krieger and Chris Harper, don't understand what they are doing in the contential circuit.

Last year you could also mention the danes Alexander Kamp and Rasmus Guldhammer. Kamp is luckily now in PCT, but in my opinion he is world tour level. Paterski is also a class rider riding contential levels. Of course there is also Oscar Sevilla :D, who has the level but I totally understand why he has been racing where he has. Rob Ruijn i also never understood used most of his carrer in contential teams, being in the world tour when he was younger. He retired last year, but really didnt make any sense.
 
Re:

Bye Bye Bicycle said:
Some obvious names of riders struggling to make the PCT cut for several years now:

Arvid de Kleijn
Ben Dyball
Michael Freiberg
Chris Harper
Joshua Huppertz
Alexander Krieger
James Piccoli
Stephan Rabitsch
Jannik Steimle
Daniel Whitehouse

Apart from de Kleijn those riders have the problem that there's no PCT team in their country. Being French, Belgian or Italian is still helpful to make the cut.
With a couple of marquee riders that is a solid Pro Conti team. Alistair Donahue, Freddy Ovetts and Joe Cooper are some more names I'd add. Other than the names mentioned so far I'm not really up to speed with the European Conti circuit atm, but maybe Simon Pellaud or Wouter Wippert deserve another chance
 
Paweł Cieślik - 14th in Tour de Pologne and 15th in Tour of Austria last year (top10 in Slovenia the year before and again top20 in Tour de Suisse and Tour de Pologne 2 years before) has found himself at continental level this year after CCC had moved to sponsor a WT team and he didn't get a spot. There were people in Poland who argued he deserved the promotion to WT more than some of the old CCC riders who actually got a spot.
 
Vdovin, the guy from Lokosphinkx, would deserve a spot at Rusvelo. Much better than the average rider (in fact the team has a weird transfer policy, some more accomplished riders were gone and instead some very weak riders have been recruited)
 
Orken had a chance last year so he's Conti for what is a personal choice (not condemning his choice).
Dyball is the most obvious standout for me, he's always had good results in Australia and this year at Langkawi was impressive.

To spam: Hayden Mccormick, Seid Lizde, Cyrus Monk, Marko Kump, David Per, Dusan Rajovic, Gage Hecht (probably could go WT soon though), Taylor Eisenhart, Johann Van Zyl, Martijn Budding, Atilla Valter, Xianjing Lyu, Eugenio Alafaci, Karel Hnik, Frantisek Sisr, Travis Mccabe, Andreas Vangstad, Vadim Pronskiy.
 
Re:

greenedge said:
Orken had a chance last year so he's Conti for what is a personal choice (not condemning his choice).
Dyball is the most obvious standout for me, he's always had good results in Australia and this year at Langkawi was impressive.

To spam: Hayden Mccormick, Seid Lizde, Cyrus Monk, Marko Kump, David Per, Dusan Rajovic, Gage Hecht (probably could go WT soon though), Taylor Eisenhart, Johann Van Zyl, Martijn Budding, Atilla Valter, Xianjing Lyu, Eugenio Alafaci, Karel Hnik, Frantisek Sisr, Travis Mccabe, Andreas Vangstad, Vadim Pronskiy.

Rajovic has been a victim of coming from a non-cycling nation. Has the speed to do well in U23 races, but his nation never participates. Would love to see a PCT team take a chance.

Agree Hecht may be on the WT soon, but he had a bad crash this year and is out for a while so may be 2021 rather than 2020.

Valter has a 2 year deal with the CCC Devo team (he races MTB so Olympics are a goal, something a WT team may not have let him focus on. Should be pro in 2021 on either PCT or WT level.

I'd be shocked if Astana didn't sign Pronskiy, after winning Valle d'Aosta last year and his Langkawi performance. He swapped Astana City for the Vino team, which means we won't see him at U23 Giro, but Astana will probably still sign him.
 
Many times being on PCT or above depends on nationality. The italian teams are filled of low quality riders based on nationality and pay-to-ride criteria.

I'd say Simon Pellaud deserves a chance in a PCT or above. I like his attacking style and it's actually a good rider. Good be a good fit for attacking teams. Holler as someone said also deserves a chance. Barta did not deserve to fall out from WT/PCT so soon. Harper deserves a spot with Orica.
 
Re:

Libertine Seguros said:
Markus Hølgaard
It's spelled Hoelgaard in Norwegian, as well. Normally oe is a substitute for ø internationally, but that's not the case here. The e in 'Hoel' is silent, so it's pronounced the same way as if it was written with just an o. The double a, however, is pronounced like an å. It's a weird language.

And I agree he's a good rider! :D
 
A rider worth mentioning would be Pierpaolo Ficara, already 28 years old and riding for Amore & Vita.
In 2017 he finished 12th on gc in the Tour of Utah and 7th in the PRO Ötztaler 5500, same time as Zoidl and Hirt.
Last year he was 5th in the Coppa Agostoni and finished 3rd in the Tour of Almaty after missing the first half of the season because of a pretty bad crash.
Recently he finished 7th in the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge and atm he's doing rather well in the Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc.
I'm not saying that he's the next ultramythical climber, but he seems to be good in hard one day races and could add something to the lesser Italian PCT teams, until now he never had any Clinic related problems.
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
A rider worth mentioning would be Pierpaolo Ficara, already 28 years old and riding for Amore & Vita.
In 2017 he finished 12th on gc in the Tour of Utah and 7th in the PRO Ötztaler 5500, same time as Zoidl and Hirt.
Last year he was 5th in the Coppa Agostoni and finished 3rd in the Tour of Almaty after missing the first half of the season because of a pretty bad crash.
Recently he finished 7th in the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge and atm he's doing rather well in the Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc.
I'm not saying that he's the next ultramythical climber, but he seems to be good in hard one day races and could add something to the lesser Italian PCT teams, until now he never had any Clinic related problems.
Last time that someone stepped up with "credentials" from that team he made a collection of DNF before returning to them and this year he looks again on the rise, one of the most suspicious team around.
 

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