Your 2023 FSA Directeur Sportif Winners Are…

Carrying on (slowly) with the season-ending festivities, now we transfer to the sweetest (and likewise most bitter) second of the Podium Cafe 12 months: recognizing the winners of the FSA Directeur Sportif! And to evaluate among the fascinating parts of this 12 months’s competitors as properly. I’ve requested the rostrum finishers to cease by in feedback and share their secrets and techniques with us. It’s their second to indulge in your glow.

Men’s Competition

It appears like I usually begin this dialogue with a have a look at how shut the competitors was, and will we actually have it get any nearer? Well, I assume till we get a one-point victory the reply will proceed to be sure. This 12 months, draisienne1000selle, helmed by Chabinho, defeated Zaidex by José Madureira Pinto by a mere 152 factors, with Champagne Masi’s Blues within the Bottle an additional 303 factors again. [The all time record is a Fignonian 9-point spread from the 2012 women’s comp, if you’re curious.]

Not solely are the numbers shut between the highest two, the groups themselves have an excessive amount of overlapping rider decisions, with the largest distinction being draisienne’s selection of each Yates Bros over Arnaud De Lie and Carlos Rodriguez. The fateful day that arguably determined the complete season was October 7, when the Yates Boys completed fifth and sixth for Chabinho, forward of Zaidex’s Rodriguez in seventh, a 250-point web achieve that accounts for the ultimate unfold. Blues closed exhausting with Marc Hirschi and Remco Evenepoel having robust finishes, and earned a really respectable third place with a hard-charging peloton of different FSA DS groups nipping at their heels. Your Men’s Competition Final Top Ten:

1. Chabinho, Draisienne100selle, 25,082 factors
2. zaidex, zaidex by josé madureira pinto, 24,930
3. champagne masi, Blues within the Bottle, 24,623
4. bouhanniRacing, Quelqu’un a les trimestres de Thibaut Pinot?, 24,344
5. JM21, Sport Club Sem Rodinhas, 24,261
6. Stefan King, Van Daert Evenepoel, 24,065
7. AnthoADR, Daghe Cycling Club, 23,905
8. Celestn, ”””24 and underneath – Celestin”””, 23,699
9. Jule, Mamie Nova, 23,663
10. PvdV, Pietje Pelle op zijn Gazelle, 23,555

None of this 12 months’s podium confirmed up close to the highest in 2022, so congrats on leveling up! And a shout out to Jule, whose Mamie Nova is making a second straight top-ten, and PvdV, who has Pietje Pelle within the high ten for the second time in three years.

Photo by JEFF PACHOUD/AFP through Getty Images

Women’s Competition

Big congrats to Rob Nicolai and Flyindustman for probably the most dominant victory in FSA DS historical past! Their 19,100 factors fell simply wanting the all time factors report, set in 2012, however the 1,759- level distinction between the highest two is much past the standard outcomes right here, which at all times come all the way down to mere tons of of factors, if that.

Ultimately, it got here all the way down to getting big returns on all of their costly hires — Kopecky, Labous, Persico, Lippert and even van Anrooij, with all however Persico enhancing on the performances that acquired them priced so excessive to start with. mpw5’s Rainy Day Women (nice title) rode Kopecky, Niewiadoma and Labous to a robust second, simply forward of Sastre08’s Imanoleta squad, and a charging pack all certain collectively. Check out the highest ten after flyindustman:

1. Rob Nicolai, flyindustman, 19,100 factors
2. mpw5, Rainy Day Women, 17,341
3. sastre08, Imanoleta, 17,292
4. andytheciderman, Roast Dinner Appreciation Society, 17,174
5. johnnysteeler, I haven’t acquired a clue, 16,902
6. ovesty, Lotta and the remainder, 16,641
7. Moncassin31, Pédale!, 16,635
8. dave.49, Dave’s Team, 16,203
9. iiturriotz, Iiturriotz taldea, 16,137
10. stubob, Kool n the Gang, 16,103

This is Rob Nicolai’s second high ten in three years, and identical for ovesty and iituriotz, who have been there or thereabouts in 2021.

Combined Competition

More excellent news for mpw5, who completed a extremely respectable sixteenth within the males’s comp to win the Combined title! Nothing too historic about their end, however a complete of 18 factors (including the location in each comps) is correct in there with a typical profitable whole.

1. mpw5, ♀2. Rainy Day Women, 17,341; ♂16.Waiting for Gaudu, 21,841
2. PvdV, ♀30. Pietje Pelle op zijn Gazelle, 14,826; ♂3.Pietje Pelle op zijn Gazelle, 23,555
3. andytheciderman, ♀4. Roast Dinner Appreciation Society, 17,174; ♂36.Roast Dinner Appreciation Society, 20,759

Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

Bargain Riders of the Year

Wondering what drove these groups to victory? Finding worth that… properly, typically plenty of folks noticed, during which case you needed to have these riders simply to maintain up. But actual greatness is in discovering hidden gems. Here are a number of circumstances for this 12 months’s high values.

On the lads’s aspect, Ben Healy will get my vote for finest discount, a two-pointer coming in who generated 1671 factors, topped solely on a per-point-spent charge by Felix Gall, the #1 one-pointer who bagged 1131 factors. At the highest finish of the size, 18-point discount Primož Roglič rode his regular stream of marginal beneficial properties to a 3685-point season, lower than 800 off full-priced Tadej Pogačar and barely 200 wanting second-placed Remco Evenepoel, who at 42 and 34 factors paid off fairly sufficient, however not just like the ski jumper.

Photo by Luca Bettini – Pool/Getty Images

On the ladies’s aspect, no person can high 1-pointer Cédrine Kerbaol’s per-point-spent haul of 1005, however there have been different terrific bargains increased up the chain, reminiscent of Christina Schweinberger’s 2004-point haul as a six-pointer, and Gaia Realini’s four-point value for delivering 1697 factors paid out. And after all there’s little debate on the high finish, the place 52-point Demi Vollering cleared the impossibly excessive bar set for her with a 5282 level whole… however that was a mere 900 higher than her teammate Lotte Kopecky’s sensible season, the place you would have spent thirty factors to haul in her 4386-point whole.

In our Men’s World Rankings, UAE Emirates stunned Jumbo Visma, nothwithstanding the latter’s grand tour treble, by taking the workforce competitors by 1250 factors. Belgium and France completed off the entrance of the nation comp, in that order.

In our Women’s World Rankings, SDWorx was each bit as dominant as you keep in mind, almost doubling up second place Canyon SRAM. The Netherlands took the nation title, although not and not using a problem from Italy.

*****

OK, your flip! How did your workforce work out? What strategic thrives or failures would you wish to share? What different tendencies struck you as fascinating this 12 months?

And how quickly will you be able to make your 2024 workforce? [Correct answer is “right now” even though functionally it will be more like February 1.]

Thank you all for taking part in once more this 12 months! And thanks as at all times to our glorious sponsor, Full Speed Ahead (FSA), makers of so most of the key elements to the 12 months’s nice victories. Remember how a lot sooner Jonas Vingegaard’s bike was on the Tour de France time trial? Yeah, they constructed that cockpit (beneath). Their wheels stay all over the place, underneath the FSA and Vision manufacturers. And I’m simply speaking street; their Gravel and MTB choices are simply as noteworthy on the highest ranges of the game.

Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images