I can only agree, Meyer is a fantastic signing on such a wage, with his great skill set for PCT. He is basically a stronger Rabon, so i hope he should do very well for you, with careful race planning. Congrats mate!
After Travis Meyer was signed yesterday, many riders have been involved in transfers in and out from Risa - Ergon.
First of all, we decided to sell Christopher Sutton and William Walker. Sutton was one of our first signings and while he hasn't dominated in the CT, he has been a steady rider. His most remarkable performance in the Risa - Ergon shirt is probably from the pre-season Bay Crits, were he won three of the four races, and total, in the first year.
Walker joined us before last season and did a good job for us, being one of our most important riders. While we were very happy with his performance, we thought he deserved the chance to be an important rider in CT next season. Both Walker and Sutton signed for Compal - Merida, for a combined fee of 500,000.
Also going out, but not so permanent is Damien Howson and Rasmus Sterobo. Both the Australian and the Dane are brilliant time trialists, but they need a little bit experience in the PT to take that last step. Howson will ride for Venchi, while Sterobo will ride for Volkswagen - Andritz.
But there's not only riders going out...
Geert Steurs joins us from Quickstep. He was relatively expensive, with a 300k fee, but hopefully his experience will be valuable for us.
Press manager Svein Sveiobua has fate in the 34 year old rider.
Geert is a brilliant professional. Yes, he has his best years behind him, but he will be an important rider for us. He is supposed to be one of biggest helpers on the cobbles, but he is good enough to do something himself.
Geert Steurs | 34 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 65,000 Euros
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Also joining is the Australian sprinter Mitch Docker. He joins us on 600k fee from RBC Pro Cycling.
Sveiobua believes that Docker is a clear step up from Christopher Sutton and Jonas Aaen Jørgensen.
With Sutton being sold and Jørgensen released before the season, we needed to bring in another sprinter. Docker is a versatile sprinter. He's not the strongest in the flat sprints, but he is more than capable in getting over mountains and hills. Hopefully he can achieve some good results in the harder sprint stages.
Mitch Docker | 29 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 140,000 Euros
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With Travis Meyer we got a man capable of getting results in the hilly classics. Today we can present a man who we might see a lot of in the same terrain. Dane Christopher Juul-Jensen is a rider that loves a good, aggresive ride. He comes on 700k fee from Red Bull - Huawei.
Sveiobua is very pleased with the signing of his fellow Scandinavian.
There's many kind of riders. But the ones that everyone like is the aggresive ones. Christopher is a guy who I believe will be very popular amongst our fans, and cycling fans in general. In Risa - Ergon he will have the opportunity to ride for himself.
Christopher Juul-Jensen | 26 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 125,000
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While Juul-Jensen will be important in the hills, our next signing will be one of our most important guys on the cobbles. With Bianchi as our bike sponsor, we felt that we had to sign some Italians, and our first Italian is Matteo Trentin.
Matteo is a very versatile rider and joins us from Free Agency, on a 350k wage.
Sveiobua has high hopes for the young Italian.
We drooled on Matteo last year, but his manager wouldn't sell him then. At the moment he is our most important riders on the cobbles, but that may change later on. Matteo isn't best on the cobbles, in the sprint or on the hills, but his mix of abilities make us believe that he can do big things in certain races. Hopefully he will be a success in our team.
Matteo Trentin | 26 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 350,000 Euros
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And over the last signing we will introduce. This is a man who will be amongst our most important helpers in the sprints, David Tanner. Tanner joins us from Free Agency on a 80k wage.
Sveiobua is happy to have the Australian in the team.
Tanner is not a rider that will bring home big results, but he will be an important rider for Michael Matthews and Mitch Docker. Hopefully he can deliver them in the best possible position over and over again.
David Tanner | 31 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 80,000 Euros
Andreas Landa, Michael Matthews, Kenny De Haes and Vegard Robinson Bugge have all left the team. It was no surprise to see Landa leaving the team, but the departue of the three team leaders from last season came as a little surprise.
To replace them Risa - Ergon has signed the following:
Guillaume Levarlet | 30 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 135,000
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Levarlet will be our leader in the hilly races, alongside Travis Meyer.
Kristoffer Skjerping | 22 years old |XP: 3.61 | Wage: 50,000
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Kristoffer is a young Norwegian, actually our only Norwegian signing. He is looking to help Levarlet and Meyer on the hills while he develop further.
Mikhail Kochetkov | 24 years old |XP: 3.57 | Wage: 50,000
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Kochetkov joins us on loan from Children of Chernobyl Foundation p/b Nemiroff.
And good to know Meyer will stay in touch with Australia before joining Oz next season Will follow you closely, some lovely riders and team could stay up with the right planning.
It's definitely a nice looking team. You shouldn't be safe from relegation, but hopefully some good race planning will see you survive. I definitely hope Levarlet can perform according to his stats and help you to stay up. With Meyer and Juul-Jensen as well for the hills, there's no doubt you've got great depth there.
Trentin will also need to perform well, hopefully he makes the most of the cobbles and his combined stats for the hills, cobbles and sprints. That should at least make him a threat to anyone in those classics and races. Guess you can't expect too much from Docker, but the odd top 5 should be doable.
Viking: Haha, yeah I saw your name pop a few times
The Rider: Well, Matthews was sold to get in Levarlet. Matthews didn't score very good last year in CT, and with relatively poor help, I just couldn't see him score big in PCT.
tsmoha: Haha, if Meyer joins you next season I hope it is because he was so good for me in PCT and not that I relegated...
ember: Absolutely not safe from relegation, but I'll hopefully manage. I certainly hope that Levarlet will do good, if not I will struggle hugely...
This team shouldn't fear relegation and instead it should lie around the middle. The transition of the team has developed quite fast and Trentin will be hard to ignore. Since most PCT teams are focusing on mountains, you will have an easier time in the hilly races.
After three and a half month with many good races and honorable mentions, Mitch Docker took Risa-Ergon's first win as a PCT-team on the second stage in the Tour of Romandie, at the end of april. A win that was followed up by a brilliant performance by Matteo Trentin in the 5 Jours de Dunkerque, where he won the first stage and overall, in a thrilling race.
Going into May, and the French race, the Norwegian-Australian team found themselves on safe ground, but down in 22nd place on the rankings.
I've never been unhappy with our results. We have never been poor, expect for the mountain-races that we've been forced to do, but let's face it. We are a team of outsiders.
, team manager tastasol said to me, the best cycling journo in the world, Per Mandagsfjord.
Following Trentin's performance in France, and recent performances in Viana do Castelo and Scandinavian Open Road Race, the team could see themselves higher up in the next ranking update, if they continue to score points on a good basis.
I'm glad that we got ourselves a little breathing space, just now, but we're constantly looking over our shoulder. We are expecting a battle to end of the season. Of course, we would hope to land a secure mid-table position, but I'm not sure if I believe it.
The Scandiavian Open Road Race, a win goal for the team, close to home soil, ended with three Risa-riders in the top-11. Guillaume Levarlet, who has struggled to deliver since he arrived from Aker-MOT before the season, enjoyed a somewhat better day, which ended in a eight place for the French.
I've to be honest. Guillaume was brought in to be a leader, a rider that we could rely on getting us repeating top 10, and better. So far, he haven't brought his A-game. Travis Meyer hasn't been fantastic either, but he has always been there. Of course, you could say that's because of Travis's good sprint, but that doesn't change the fact that Guillaume has something to prove in the upcoming months.
Perhaps his biggest test, and of the biggest test's for the team is the Volta a Portgual. The race, which should suit an allrounder perfectly, can prove to be the most important race for Risa-Ergon to secure a place in the PCT.
It's a race over eleven stages, including one long ITT and one hard mountain stage. It's something like the worst fit we could have. But we have to race it, it's that simple. When choosing between mountains or mountains, it's hard to make the right choice. Guillaume are our best climber, but we are not kidding ourselves, he's not great in the mountains. Still, an event over eleven days it's a large portions of our entire season. We felt that we had to send the strongest team we had. It would just be a huge gamle to come back from it empty-handed.
The Portugese race, which take place in August, is in a streak of six HC-races in a row, which will be ended with the Tour of Britain, after completing Volta a Portugal.
We still have most of our biggest race's left. We all know that this is were the points really are, so of course we want to be good in them. But first of all, we have failed three of our goals already. Therefore, our remaning goal, the Post Danmark Rundt, will be very important for us. And of course, the Tour of Norway.
The next month or so, it's basically a wild card month for us. We're expecting little in many of our races, we just hope that we can continue on the wave we're on now. The spirit in the team is very good, and they're just looking forward to the next race.
With only a few races left, Risa-Ergon have made a remarkable leap from the start of the season, where the relegation battle looked like the team's battleground, to being a outside bet in the race for promotion.
While team manager tastasol still prefer to look down the table, rather than up, it has been a great season so far for the Norwegian-Australian-squad.
- We're very proud of what he have achieved. We've been steady throughout the season, and I think the rankings shows that. To be ninth in the standings at this time, is a great achievement for our team, and something we want to build on for the future, tastasol says.
With Matteo Trentin, Travis Meyer and Christopher Juul-Jensen as the biggest stars so far in the season, the team manager have all reason to be satisfied with most of his signings before the season.
- Matteo and Travis have been great. Just so consistent, always up there. That's what you want in a rider. Ok, you could argue that Travis lacks a win or two, but I'm very happy.
Trentin on his way to victory on the first stage of 5 jours de Dunkerque, a race he also went on to win.
- Of course, Guillaume Levarlet, our biggest signing, has been a let down. He really should have done better, but seeing the quality in the PCT division, it's obvious that every good rider can't fit in that top 10. In many ways Christopher have taken the points that I was expecting from Levarlet, but he still have some races left to impress me. And he needs to, if he wants to be a part for this team for the years to come.
Going into the last part of the season, the team has 27 race days left.
The first eight of them will be the Tour of Britain.
- I'm very excited about that. Having recently moved out to Sheffield, to do some courses on leadership and so on, only for a couple of months, it's great to be able to meet the guys after that first stage.
- Some people, like you ignorant journalists, like to think that I follow the team around the world, but no, that's not the situation. I saw the guys at the Tour of Norway and Post Danmark Rundt before I moved over to Sheffield, so it's always nice to see them and get away from all that boring paperwork that the MGUCI gives us.
- It will actually be the first time that Meyer and Levarlet are doing a stage race together, and the only time they will, so I'm interested in seeing how that will work out. I normally prefer to pair them up with Juul-Jensen, but he needed some rest after Portugal. You could really see him struggle with his fitness there, so he surely needs some days off, in order to finish the season in good shape.
- It'll also be a strange one, considering that we haven't brought any sprinters. I hope to see the boys in an attacking mode. They certainly should, since I'll be around and watching it!
The squad for Tour of Britain: Guillaume Levarlet, Travis Meyer, Zakkari Dempster, Nathan Haas, Johan Fredrik Ziesler, Michael Olsson, Michael Vink and Calvin Watson.
After the British race, the squad will head for North America for the new stage race, over only two days, Grands Prix Cyclistes.
- When I saw this race, I just thought "yes, we are going there". It's close to a perfect race for our team, and we will field the same team as in Britain, with one exception. Levarlet will be replaced by Juul-Jensen, ensuring that we send our "hilly classics"- team in Canada. The race is probably to easy for a guy like Levarlet, but should be perfect for Meyer and Juul-Jensen, both riders with a good kick.
The last race for the season where Matteo Trentin is expected to be the main scorer for the team is the Rheden GP.
- Some cobbles, some small hills and, but in general not to hard. With Matteo's sprint, I'm expecting him to grab another top 10.
Team for Rheden GP: Matteo Trentin, Geert Steurs, Johan Lindgren, Calvin Watson, Øystein Stake Laengen, Christer Rake, Kristoffer Skjerping and Mikhail Kochetkov.
While not expected to be main man, Trentin could also show himself in Risa-Ergon's next race, the GP Plouay.
Docker celebrating his second win in the Risa-jersey in Portugal.
- When I saw this race, I first thought of Mitch Docker. Mitch has had a great season, when he have been bothered to sprint. He isn't the fastest anymore, but he still has a good kick, and he can survive the hills on a very good way.
- If it turns out to be too hard for him, we have guys like Meyer and Trentin, so we should be able to deliver another solid performance.
The roster for the GP Plouay: Mitch Docker, Matteo Trentin, Travis Meyer, David Tanner, Calvin Watson, Christer Rake, Kristoffer Skjerping and Mikhail Kochetkov.
We continue with another three one-day events, with the first being the Milano-Torino, or Milan-Turin, as some of those silly english-speaking people would call it.
- On a tough hilly course, I saw this as a good race for the Levarlet/Juul-Jensen duo. I'm just crossing fingers, really.
The selected few for Milano-Torino: Guillaume Levarlet, Christopher Juul-Jensen, Nathan Haas, Johan Fredrik Ziesler, Michael Vink, Calvin Watson, Kristoffer Skjerping and Mikhail Kochetkov.
A similar team, with Ziesler being done for the season and replaced by Michael Olsson, will also be doing the Giro dell'Emilia, a few days later on a somewhat similar course.
In the meantime though, the team will also participate in Paris-Tours, where Docker is getting another chance to shine.
- Paris-Tours is really one of mye favourite races in the season. It's a late, traditional classic, and with some small hills to spice it up. It should be a mass sprint though, but we certainly hope that the hills will take out some speed of the fast men.
The chosen ones for Paris-Tours: Mitch Docker, Matteo Trentin, Nathan Haas, David Tanner, Michael Vink, Calvin Watson, Ken Sebastian Vassdål and Mikhail Kochetkov.
The penultimate race of the season is the Tour of Beijing, a stage race with five stages.
- Another tough hilly race, and another chance for Levarlet to show himself. I've to add that there is a planning mistake, so for some reason the best time trialists in the team have been sent all the way to China. Just a pity that the race doesn't have any time trials.
Everyone knows that you should finish the season in Asia, and Risa-Ergon are doing it style, with Japan Cup being their last race of the season. To round of the little Asian-tour at the end of the season, Travis Meyer will once again be trusted.
- Did we mention planning fail in Beijing? Yeah, this is worse. After looking over our papers (and there are so many of them here, thank you MGUCI), we realised that Dempster weren't supposed to go to any of these two races. The plan was to send Nathan Haas, but with their names being next to each other, a mix up have happened. Sorry, Nathan. That's the reason why we only used 43 of your 59 race days.
Last team of the season in the Japan Cup: Travis Meyer, Matteo Trentin, Zakkari Dempster (Sorry, Nat), Michael Olsson, Calvin Watson, Kristoffer Skjerping, Ken Sebastian Vassdål and Mikhail Kochetkov.
- Oh, and just a last remark. You may have noticed, if you have actually read this whole wall of text, that some names seems to go again. And that's correct. Calvin Watson, now rocking the Avenir for the race leader "soon to be world star, and Avenir-champ" Lachlan Morton, is actually racing every one of the nine remaining races. Fatigue is not a problem for that kid, who's racing the most race days for Risa-Ergon for the second year in a row.
As announced by the team on Twitter, both Risa and Ergon will end the sponsorship of the team for the upcoming season.
Now being deeply into the team's first season, the management has supposedly realised that the team will need more money for the upcoming seasons, money that Risa and Ergon couldn't provide.
So even though both companies wanted to continue their sponsorship of the team, new sponsors have been found, and will be announced in the near future.
Sources from inside the team tells me that the focus will stay very similar to the previous seasons.
The biggest news is probably that the manager has supposedly talked a company, in which he owns a few per cent himself, to sponsor the team. At the moment it's unconfirmed, but my sources have told me that NorSea Group is likely to be involved in the team for the coming years.
The manager, known for his passion for Norwegian cycling, haven't wanted to comment on these rumours, but it's believed that he is himself prepared to spend big money on the team, to take on the battle with the Norwegian, and Nordic, flagship, Aker-MOT.
Very interesting news! It would definitely be cool if you decide to go all Norwegian thinking of your sponsors, eventhough it will make it more challenging for both considering transfers, I guess.
Having two PT teams from Norway feels like one too much though, so please stay in the PCT! Our you tell me which season you will promote, so I can prepare for relegation
Definitely looking forward to see what sponsors you've decided on.
With the Tour of Britain visiting tastasol's new home town of Sheffield, the manager used the occasion to reveal the jersey and talk about the sponsors for the next season, after Michael Olsson brilliant second place on the opening stage of the British stage race.
As I, Per Mandagsfjord, revealed a week ago, both Risa and Ergon end their sponsorship with the team.
Instead it's Grieg Seafood and Eftel who will be the new main sponsors for the team, continuing with their Norwegian-Australian focus.
- We were basically just looking for more money. The times in Rogaland, the Norwegian county where both Risa and most of the management are from, are hard at the moment. The oil crisis meant that they couldn't deliver the amount of money we wanted. They have been very impressed with our efforts this season, and even though they wanted to give us a similar amount of money now, we knew that we could get more from other sponsors.
- With the oil industry being out of the picture, we saw to the fishing industry and we got a very good deal with Grieg Seafood. It is the Seafood company that will sponsor us directly, but we will mainly go under the famous Grieg name.
With Eftel as the secondary sponsor, the team confirmed their interest in the Occeanic cycling scene, but tastasol have also brought a new sponsor to the table, with NorSea Group.
- I saw last week that Mandagsfjord reported about NorSea, and I've to give it to him, he's just the best. That being said, it's not entirely true that I myself own a part of the company, as I sold my shares to my sister last week. I have tried for three years in a row to sponsor our team, so it's great to see them commit to Grieg-Eftel for the coming years.
- For me personally it was also important to get NorSea with us, simply because they lift our Norwegian profile. It's certainly true that we lack some Norwegian leaders. Kristoffer Skjerping took a great stage win in Tour de l'Avenir for our Norwegian team there, working with Aker-MOT, but we simply lack the big leaders like Edvald Boasson Hagen and Alexander Kristoff.
- There are a lot of great Norwegian talents coming up in the next years, so we'll have an even bigger focus on getting them this time around. I've also heard rumours that Edvald Boasson Hagen feels unsettled in Aker-MOT. I think it has been a shame to see him this year. He's a true champion, but he doesn't get the needed support in Aker. If he wants to start winning again, we would be more than welcome to have in our team. That would be a dream come true for us, and hopefully for him too.
Per Mandagsfjord,
Bikepro.net
Thanks to the_hoyle for his work with the jersey!
Edited by tastasol on 28-10-2015 18:58
Geert Steurs | 34 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 65,000 Euros
Mitch Docker | 29 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 140,000 Euros
Christopher Juul-Jensen | 26 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 125,000
Matteo Trentin | 26 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 350,000 Euros
Guillaume Levarlet | 30 years old |XP: 4.100 | Wage: 135,000
Kristoffer Skjerping | 22 years old |XP: 3.61 | Wage: 50,000
Mikhail Kochetkov | 24 years old |XP: 3.57 | Wage: 50,000
Michael Vink | 24 years old |XP: 4.00 | Wage: 50,000
