nacho63 - I am very satisfied with the banners they really brighten up what was a pretty dull HQ

jt1109 - I am hoping that he can be a BIG saviour to our threat of relegation, only time will tell

Nice mix of Italians, Aussies and Brits.

But Cav alone won't save you from relegation. And I still wonder about Earle (I know your reasons for keeping him at that wage, but still..)

Good luck anyway. I will surely follow those Aussies' season.

Yeah not enough there to keep you up barring a minor miracle of a season from De Marchi or Pozzo where they score in the 500+ i'm starting to feel sorry for Cavendish but at least he can speak English instead of Bulgarian this year while he races all these "shit small races"

@jt - You mean Belarussian, though we would love to have him with us

@sutty - It's gonna be a long season for that team. I can't think of a scenario that sees this team surviving at all. Even that dreaded 30th place i think is on the cards for you. Voeckler still just makes less than zero sense as a buy, it's litteraly throwing money down the drain...
Though i have to say thank you because you made my survival job a bit easier

tsmoha, jt1109 and TheManxMissile - Just hoping that there is a major miracle on the way

It's ok, not everyone can have I winning team. Believe me, I don't either.

baseballlover312 - Thanks for the sympathy mate but its not my intention to get relegated, i have to hope my team does enough to survive

Of course! I meant it as encouragement with the previews you posted acting gloomy.

baseballlover312 - At the moment is it looking like we are firm favourites for the dreaded drop back in to the CT, so we have to be tough and show them all wrong

Challenge Accepted!
Sutty will need a huge race planning and lots of luck to avoid being last in PCT after this season. Actually I think there are 5-10 CT teams being stronger than this squad.

And this means quite a lot when seeing that there star signing of Mark Cavendish could potentially win plenty of stages and should be a top3 PCT sprinter this season. The Brit went for quite some wage though and pressure is high on him.

Other signings, that might do well in a couple of races are the climbers: De Marchi probably with the best chances to surprise here and there, while Pozzo, Lewis and Di Gregorio will struggle in the PCT. De Marchi neither a good scorer on that level.

The puncheurs are only under average just like their cobblers. Will be hard to gain any points there, which does also count to sprinters behind Cavendish. Cimolai and Opie are decent leadouts at least for Cav and even though the Renshaw-Cavendish combination sounds great, it`s not as strong in 2015.

Dave Zabriskie could deliver some points in time trials even though he is far from his best. Joeaar as well could get some low GC`s but even on CT level the competition was too tough at times.

A huge problem is the high age of the team. Not only lots of average riders at best. Also not many talents with a potential to become valuable PCT riders. The experience of Voeckler might help them though.

The biggest challenge for Sutty will be to reduce Cavendish` wage enough to keep him in next years CT team. Pretty sure last this year.