Nice to hear that your PC is back

Lets hope it works better than before

sutty: Well it worked perfectly fine up until the point that it suddenly couldn't start anymore. Now it starts perfectly

With the 2015-season coming on shortly we bring you a preview of how things look before the next season.

After the relegations and promotions were announced a number of riders changed teams due to various release clauses:

Rider	Not joining/leaving	Joining
Matthew Goss	Garmin – Sharp	Team Saxo – Tinkoff
Mark Cavendish	Garmin – Sharp	Vacansoleil - DCM
Tony Gallopin	Team Shimano	Team Saxo – Tinkoff
Bauke Mollema	Club La Santa (Caja Rural)	Astana Pro Team
Joaquím Rodríguez	Garmin – Sharp	Euskaltel - Euskadi
Rigoberto Urán	-	Tissot

As announed earlier this season the UCI decided to make som changes in which races would be included on the 2015-calender
Demoted to .HC races are GP Ouest France – Plouay, Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal and Tour de Pologne.
They will be replaced by Amgen Tour of California and Tour of Oman, thus expanding the World Tour to all months of the season.



Probably the weakest Astana team we have seen in many years, but with strong climbers like Mollema and Van den Broeck they should pick up enough point not to come in danger of relegation.

Cofidis had a brilliant 2014-season and this years tem looks even stronger after the addition of riders like Antón and Pinot while not losing their key riders from last season. Watch out – the French are back on the World Tour!

Not a lot of riders capable of winning here, but with Andy Schleck, Flecha and Appolonio the Australian based team still has a captain for every kind of race. Only time can tell if that captain is enough to survive...

Not quite as terryfying a mountain squad as last season, but still a very strong climbing team with Sicard really growing in to a star and Rodríguez looking for his perhaps last season at top level?

The overwhelming favourite for relegation. A good few second-rate riders, but they seriously lack a team leader capable of winning in the big races.

A strong hilly squad, but also a squad with certain challenges. Wiggins looks far from GT-winning level and despite of having the foundations for a great sprint train thay haven't really got anyone to finish the job. Much will be up to Gasparotto in the hilly classics if the Italian site are to get another WT-season.

Kruziger and Vanendert to take care of the hilly races and Greipel to take care of the flats have proven a solid foundation for the team the last few seasons and nothing much has changed this year. Not a WT-winner, but relegation seems unlikely as well.

Luis León Sánchez proved last season that he is ready for the role as captain, but in spite of having lots of strong riders the team could get in trouble for not having the main favourite for any single race on the WT-calendar. Not top-climbers, no top-punchers and no top-sprinters could spell a tough season where every point counts...

The second half of the WT-teams will be reviewed tomorrow.

A good idea to add races into the World Tour. But I think Montreal should stay on the World Tour Calender as it is 1 off only 2 Canadian races. They kind of go as a pair. You demote both or you keep both.

Jakstar: I see your point, and considered it in my decision process. I ended with this solution because I really don't like being forced to race Montreal (partly because it forces me to race three races at a time since I prefer racign T of Britain as preperation for the Worlds, partly because I don't really enjoy hilly classics that much). Still I felt that it would be harsh to completely remove Canada from the WT since a few of the Canadians (incl Ryder) have developed nicely, so I decided to keep one of the races and make the other one a high-prestige CT-race. At least for this season.

Edit: And a hilly WT-classic shortly before the WC's gives a good idea as to who the top contenders for the rainbow jersey will be...

Great news about that computer! California deserves WT! Not sure about Oman, but it'so February so there's room

Quick question: is it easy to edit what races are WT and not?

Ian: Choose Oman because I wanted a WT-race in february, didn't want another small Spanish stage race and kind of like Oman (while at the same time finding Qatar extremely boring). We'll see how the race turns out this year and maybe it will be different next season.
It is very easy. All you have to do is to change the "race category" in STA_race (there are several WT-categories so the easiest is to check which one you want next to one of the WT-races)

I see. Well now you tell me this its a good decision. It will be interesting to see how th World tour goes this season. (1 more thing to do at the end if my story's season, CHANGE WORLD TOUR RACES( only some)

Great previews

RadioShack is gone and so are a lot of the most terrifying members of the team. Still a strong team, but without the obvious GT-winner and a team that will get challenged on the cobbles this year as Boonen will be riding against Cancellara once again. Should still be considered a favourite for the overall WT-ranking, but this year they look like they could actually be challenged!


For a large part this is the same team that only just survided on the World tour last season. In the mean time they have lost both Velits and Tony Martin – their two biggest points-scorers, so Philippe Gilbert will have to find his old level for more than just the World Championships this year...

This is the main reason Nissan doesn't look unbeatable this year. Gesink has really started to grow into a GT-contender as are Kruijswijk and Kelderman. At the same time they once again have a cobbled-captain in Cancellara and should even be able to support Kittel better than last year. A potenial rankings-winner!

Both ISD – Ferrari and Ryder Hesjedal had a slightly disappointing 2014. Now they have joined forces to make amends. Along with Ben Swift and a decent support-squad they should be able to survive and might even be a contender for the Giro.

Things looked grimm for Riis's team for a while when it became public that he would have to do without Contador, but the Spaniard was quickly replaced by his main rival the last couple of years Nibali. And then they were fast when some riders didn't want to ride on Continental teams and secured both a cobbles-captain and a sprinter. Bad news for Troels Vinther, who had expected to lead the spring campaign.

Expecting Horner and Cobo to save the season doesn't feel like the smartest move. This could very well be the last season up here this time around...

A strong team though far from the level they have had previous years. Still Sagan, Henao and the rest should secure them some great results throughout the season.

The classics season rest on Ballan and Terpstra. Two very competent riders, that should get the team some valuable points in the cobbled races. The rest of the job seems to be up to Rigoberto Urán...

They have managed to keep a fairly succesful team together. And add Mark Cavendish on top. This could be one of the teams to watch in anything but GC's this season!

The presentation of Volvo - SAS will be made at a later time where both teh new jersey and main goals for 2015 will be made public.

Sad to see such a weak opqs

Dutch teams looking good

Team Sella Italia is weak
Also OPQS isn't too strong this year

Ian's being a bit pessimistic there.

Great to hear about the pc, hope that means more jerseys will be created also good luck for the new season, hope some big wins are coming up.

The Rider: Sometimes pessimism and realism isn't very far apart
For a statr I have now just finished the team jersey for the story and then I'll probably start making some single-sponsor jerseys in teh PCM13 size. And I believe I even have a few jerseys for other teams in this story, that I still haven't made public

Nice preview, looking forward to the next season, especially that you managed to take your story to 2015!

Nice preview indeed!

And Rabobank is awesome!

Gallopin!!!!