In Benat Intxausti -----------> 1.6 million (From Barcadi) Dimitri Grabovski -----------> 600k (From Barcadi) Romain Krueziger-----------> 450k (From Becherovka)
Benat Intxausti 3rd in the individual rankings last season and among the top 20 climbers in the world has Joined the RBC team for the upcoming season, coming in on a big 600k wage and with limited racedays available to the team Benat is going to have to perform every time he hits the road this season with talk of him being targeted at the Tour of Vancouver could he provide the home team with a win? The Tour of Andorra is also being mentioned as likely. Dimitri Grabovski boosts are already strengthened Time Trialing ranks this year and with the added bonus of being able to negotiate hills and mountains well as well as being a powerhouse on the flat, Grabovski is likely to be a very important team member for the season and on 70,000 wage is cheap. Roman Krueziger another rider similar to Grabovski adding to our TTT squad Roman only commands a 60,000 wage as well meaning he is not going to be eating into to the cap space, Roman is likely to be a domestique to TT leader Kai Reus for most of the season.
I hope Intxausti can shine for you like he did for 2 in the 2 seasons he's been on the team! He got me 4th in a Tour de France with a very strong startlist and 3rd in the PCT rankings wasn't bad either . Grabovski & Kreuziger should serve your well too.
Perhaps we will meet each other if you go for a wildcard?
nacho63 wrote:
Wow a really great part 3 for you but I'm sure Intxausti isn't Dutch!
Yeah my bad:/ and well we needed a big leader to kick us up the table a bit so hopefully INtxausti will jump us there the TT twins should add a good bit of backup to that.
Kami wrote:
I hope Intxausti can shine for you like he did for 2 in the 2 seasons he's been on the team! He got me 4th in a Tour de France with a very strong startlist and 3rd in the PCT rankings wasn't bad either . Grabovski & Kreuziger should serve your well too.
Perhaps we will meet each other if you go for a wildcard?
That's the plan I hope he is able to reproduce his form it excites me that he could win in Vancouver from a role playing side of things maybe Grobovski and Krueziger there for the TTT too
And the Tour is our wildcard aim the other two won't fit in with our schedules.
In Zachary Hughes-----------> 50k wage (From Free Agency)
Only one signing today and it's one that makes me happy without being inspiring shall we say Zachary Hughes become our one and only Canadian signing of the transfer season the climber has a bit of Potential to improve yet and may even go out on loan if a PT team is willing take him (PM if intrested) and should form part of our Canadian core for years to come.
In Boy Van Poppel -----------> 150k wage (From Free Agency)
In Zachary Hughes -----------> 50k wage (To Good Energy LOAN)
Final signing of the season is Boy Van Poppel with a bit of wage left the team wanted to pick up a rider who could help us maybe scrape a point or two on the flat stages knowing leaders were going to be hard to come by at this point we wanted a kind of lead-out man in the making and here he is the final member of the team for this season. In other news Zachary Hughes will get a PT Loan at Good Energy to max out we thank them for this and look forward to his progress
The Final Team:
Right at the start of the window we aimed to build a top 5 side, IMO we haven't quite got there the aim for that is around 4500 points I think we should be nearer 3500 or in other words a top 10 most likely 8-10th finish though considering were we started from in 21st position a jump that high will be great though is it enough to achieve the needs of the sponsors and make the PT, I think our chances lay in the wake of SN's hammer.
I haven't followed PCT transfers in depth, but from what I can see that is a great reshuffle of the team, surely one of the best. You should be fighting for promotion, and if not definitely be very close whole season, however I wouldn't be surprised if you do
Great stage racer, awesome hilly double pronged attack and Reus to top it off. Great set of leaders. Awesome support by whole team, great team I think Boy will disappoint, at least at that wage, but as long as your leaders deliver it should be a fun season!
I can only agree with Alak, awesome rebuild and what i like the most is my favourite side, the TTT set up, you have great lineup for races against the clock. You are a bit weak in sprinting department though, but i hope you can fight for last promiton spot or something like that, good luck!
Btw. dont get too familiar to Grabovski, as you know you will sell him to Metinvest next year, right?
I wouldn't worry about sprinting. In my eyes this is a clear promotion contender, and most likely one of the favorites. Great depth and great leaders. Bellis should thrive with you having no sprinters imo (I see Poppel as best sprinter as having no sprinters)
Your hilly TTers should really get you good points
Well given all the disbandments, you were probably already the 10th ranked PCT team going into transfers, rather than 21st - but thats not to take anything away from your transfers. You've added a bit of depth and crucially brought in a top leader - so this season should be a lot more competitive for you.
Alakagom wrote:
I haven't followed PCT transfers in depth, but from what I can see that is a great reshuffle of the team, surely one of the best. You should be fighting for promotion, and if not definitely be very close whole season, however I wouldn't be surprised if you do
Great stage racer, awesome hilly double pronged attack and Reus to top it off. Great set of leaders. Awesome support by whole team, great team I think Boy will disappoint, at least at that wage, but as long as your leaders deliver it should be a fun season!
I think there's a few teams just a bit above us Bpost, Prio, Gazelle and then kind of our area with Puma and a few others, so we should be up there.
I think Bellis and Boily will probably struggle this year to be as good as usual as there's a few more top Punchuers such as Kelderman in the division. I am really happy with the support the team now gives compared to last season even down to Naud could make a results in a breakaway which is much better then last year. With Boy I don't really expect more then 10-15 points this season just signed him because I like his stats as a domestique for future season really.
Avin Wargunnson wrote:
I can only agree with Alak, awesome rebuild and what i like the most is my favourite side, the TTT set up, you have great lineup for races against the clock. You are a bit weak in sprinting department though, but i hope you can fight for last promiton spot or something like that, good luck!
Btw. dont get too familiar to Grabovski, as you know you will sell him to Metinvest next year, right?
Yeah sprints I feel are just too overpriced at this level unless you have a Ciolek, Vantomme I could of kept Vanderbiest but he had a great season last year and still only got 450-500 points if he has a slightly worse season then he's overpriced, happy to have Reus for the 50k less. The TTT is vital this year there's a few more TTT's in the division there could be a lot of free points to pick up there.
And Grabovski under transfer speculation 5 days after he Joins haha
Heine wrote:
I wouldn't worry about sprinting. In my eyes this is a clear promotion contender, and most likely one of the favorites. Great depth and great leaders. Bellis should thrive with you having no sprinters imo (I see Poppel as best sprinter as having no sprinters)
Your hilly TTers should really get you good points
Yeah Poppel isn't really a Sprinter though Bellis could make a result or two in really hard sprints he will struggle to beat Reimer or Demare.
SportingNonsense wrote:
Well given all the disbandments, you were probably already the 10th ranked PCT team going into transfers, rather than 21st - but thats not to take anything away from your transfers. You've added a bit of depth and crucially brought in a top leader - so this season should be a lot more competitive for you.
It doesn't sound as impressive 10th to 10th though SN and I am happy with the way it's gone Intxausti is obviously a big deal as he can hold his own a level above which is massive should we get promoted. The same with having Boivon, Hughes and Houle out on loan it should put the structure in place for a the team in the future.
Your team is really good and could come close to Puma given the right circumstances, but even if you won't quite get there, it can still be a Top 5 in the end.
The only problem is the lack of sprinters (and cobblers) so quite a couple RD will be rather useless for you.
It'll be vital for us that Demare and Felline challenge Bellis enough so that we can cover the Intxausti advantage over Nerz with the rest of the squad.
The team's biggest signing of the off-season Intxausti will lead the team in every race he rides this year and we hope he can do the home team proud by taking the Tour of Vancouver his big objective of the season.
Our star man returns David has been talked about in Canadian Cycling for the past 2 years as it's great hope a stage win in the Giro D'Italia last year only increased his popularity in his home country and he returns to his home countries team this year with added expectations on his shoulders.
Johnny started his RBC Career with a solid top 20 overall in the individual rankings last season with the highlight including the team win of the year in Plouay where he will be back again to defend his crown. The inclusion of Boily in these years squad has meant that both riders are able to cover a lot more races and this will see Bellis enter some races as a wildcard where you would not normal expect him to be.
Reus comes in on a swap deal for Sprinter Romain Vanderbiest, Reus is a proven PCT TT rider with an ablity to get over stuff bumps in the road leading to many high GC placings during the season usually and we think that Kai can achieve that for us as well as leading the team at Monterrey for the TTT
Ryan enters his 3rd season with the team on his lowest wage yet and will be trusted to carry out his super domestique role for another season of picking up top 20 while helping our chosen leader.
Roman joins our ever growing TTT squad his impressive range of hill and Flat stats should make him valuable even when there isn't a TT on route but when there is should also help him hold onto the pack to big up some good GC positions on the way.
Dimitri is a rider we fought hard for over the transfer window a TT rider who doubles up as a domestique in the Mountains and Hills his range of stats and similar to Roman's and thus make both perfect TTT domestique for Intxausti during the season.
Arriving from Red Bull - Huawei Florian was acquired as our top domestique for Inxausti during the season, though he doesn't possess the climbing skills of most top domestiques at this level his ability to TT especially well caught our attention and we hope to see him riding on the front during mountain stages this year.
Boy kind of just arrives to give us a platform of a top leadout man for coming seasons not really expected to do very much himself this year despite his nice pay packet his all round ability convinced the team manager to have faith in his abilities in the future.
Armee found himself at RBC after a loan swap with Quickstep sent Hugo Houle the other way with the promise of lots of racing during the season and a chance to ride on his own in our weak 4 headed cobbled team we feel he could be a nice rider to have with us.
Rene arrives from newly promoted Ayoubowen! with a mentality to attack and great acceleration Rene will be given the freedom to attempt race winning moves with the hope one pays off.
Christian has been here since our first year in the PCT and continues his role as a domestique in the Mountains as well as a TT rider capable of some top 10's.
Rick arrives from Bpost to target top 10's in most TT he rides while that is his only real top ability he can also ride well on the flat to help team leaders or to chase breaks.
The Canadian national champion and top TT talent Alex is ready for another years development on the team we hope that David Boily can showcase to Alex and the other young riders that we can produce homegrown Canadian talent.
In what the management feel was a steal we picked up Nathan to satisfy our American Quota for the season, we feel he has great potential to become a top rider in the years to come.
Charles enters his second season on the team as a much more complete rider then the first though still some way off his final potential he should be a nice domestique to have around the team this year.
Final Squad
Already the team is being touted as a top 5 finisher with both the Mathematical Formula and know Tipster Roturn predicting a 5th place finish for RBC we look forward to a long a fruitful season.
Welcome to my usual mid-season review where all team results are listed and I rant about how the team is doing thanks for reading.
Ohh Well... Oh Well... How do I describe the up's and downs of the first half of this season. The first word that comes to mind is disappointment,
Intxausti was supposed to be a sure fire point scorer instead he seems to be more interested in giving me a heart attack, or a show stopping moment whenever he can even when all hope seemed lost on him he pulled the ride of the season in Andorra alone for 120km to nearly do the impossible. But why has he struggled normally the one reason I can come up with is I let him down with domestiques, in the fact I just didn't buy one and for that I have to apologize to him but oh boy has he been fun.
The hill wonders Bellis and Boily, Johnny B is a member of the I have haven't improved and everyone is going past be club at the moment which is why i'm actually quite happy with his results, Czech Republic aside were he was firing for 2 stages but forgot to try in the other three, he has been consistent again and is pretty much as steady a rider as their is.
Boily a home grown talent and in his first year at peak has yet to have a bad race for me in 4 outings he has top 11 in all of them, took 2 U25 wins, 2 stage wins and 2 top 5's overall when he's trained next year I am super excited to see what he can do.
Now on to me best rider so far Kai Reus, wow is all I can say I have never had a rider so good it being in the right side of splits every race there is a spilt if he is leader or not he is guaranteed to be there this combined with leading the team to it's first every win goal success has made him a managers favourite and with only 3 races left for the season I can't wait to see him go again.
The rest quick mentions to Nathan Brown for being a part of 2 stage wins and bagging his first top 20 overall , Alexandor Cataford for being involved in all our TTT wins same with Christian Meier, Rick Flens having his swansong season performing well in TT's, the consistent scorers of Grabovski and Krueziger with 5 top 20 between them their both doing a job for the team.
But the bad points:
: We Won't be Promoted bar a miracle
Could this be the end of RBC as stated at the start of the season it seems likely at the moment.
: We have 1 breakaway win this year and it was by are supposed leader
Must try harder I mean we have enough breakaway type riders
: We win nothing but TT's
One non TT stage win this year again mister Intxausti I guess that's what happens with no sprinter though I assumed we'd have at least a few.
: The manager is terrible at race planning
Some bone headed decisions and while on the subject why did you not pick up a mountain domestique you dope!
Things to look forward too:
: The goal Races
If things go well at Manx International (Possible), San Sebastian (More possible) and Denmark Rundt(I Can Dream) then the budget could look rather nice next year.
:Volta a Portugal
I like Boily chances of another top 5 here and he's gone well all year so far.
:Boivon and Houle
I can't wait for these two to be back it's the sub leaders where we are losing points and these two will plug the gap perfectly as well as the no sprinter gap.
Since it's the in thing to do at the moment here's are Stat Updates.
Amazingly included in the stats updates are a Tour de L'avenir stage winner and the Champ Elysees stage winner now I didn't think I would be saying that at the start of the year.
I'm sorry though, he had a whole year of experience go to waste by being part of a team where the sprinter didn't even bother sprinting
Some very nice talents, shame it will be a hard task now to promote as this would be a good year for you to go up with lots of 4.0 talents and the team looking very strong. Still a chance though!
I'm sorry though, he had a whole year of experience go to waste by being part of a team where the sprinter didn't even bother sprinting
Some very nice talents, shame it will be a hard task now to promote as this would be a good year for you to go up with lots of 4.0 talents and the team looking very strong. Still a chance though!
He might have the same next year unless I get one but his win for you in the TDF must have made up for experience x10000
And well with 7 spots open at the moment it's still possible but it's going to be very hard the good thing is my team will be really strong in PCT next year so wouldn't be all bad I guess.
So how on earth did that happen 1000 points scored from the end of August to the end of October, Intxausti hitting form, Bellis becoming Jaguar Bellis in Beijing and the team performance at Giro dell'Emilia making 3 riders in the top 10 in what became my best period ever in the man-game as we very nearly climbed all the way to 6th eventually finishing 7th after spending most of the year 10th+.
6
Evonik - ELKO
2923
7
RBC Pro Cycling
2876
---------------------------------------
8
Risa - Ergon
2754
9
Karcher-Adira
2595
10
Swedbank-PEAB
2444
11
Prio - Porto
2416
Just climbing above the promotion line against a battling Risa a Surprising Karcher and the ever Freighting Prio and Swedbank finally justified all the pre-season moves all the changes the clearout of Canadians not going to make the grade and the increase in foreign riders needed for points scoring
19
Jonathan Bellis
GBR
RBC Pro Cycling
653
27
David Boily
CAN
RBC Pro Cycling
569
37
Beñat Intxausti
ESP
RBC Pro Cycling
500
56
Kai Reus
NED
RBC Pro Cycling
344
It's going to be hard to ever overate 3/4 of my big 4 this season Reus secured me a win goal something i've never done before along with the TTT squad Boily was on fire nearly all season winning from the start to the end of the year and never underpeforming in a full season apart from the last race in Beijing and Bellis well Bellis had two good races the entire season but one of them will stay with me forever it can not be put into words how good he was in Beijing.
What Does the Future Hold
Rather then writing it's easier just to show sometimes
Rider
Nationality
Staying 80-100%
Ryan Anderson
David Boily
Alexandor Cataford
Antoine Duchesne
Guillaume Boivin
Hugo Houle
Nathan Brown
Zachary Hughes
Massive core of Canadians and North American's in Browns case just very happy with all of them most will make a Grand Tour Debut and it's going to be great to see how they get on and how much training I can put in each of them
Staying Unless Good offer 55-79%
Johann Van Zyl
Charles Matte
Patrick Naud
Benat Intxausti
Boy Van Poppel
Van Zyl is a talent I really like but he may make way for a better North American same Matte and Naud in certain circumstances, I'd love to keep Intxausti as a 2nd GT rider and Van Poppel is a guy I feel has a future as a top lead out man at some point but his wage may force him out.
Looking to leave but not fussed if stay 30-54%
Jonathan Bellis
Michael Torckler
Christian Meier
Kai Reus
Florian Morizot
Hmm Meier, Torckler are both just a bit too deep at PT level though Meier could easily stay for his mountains and TT ability then onto Morizot who's great at PT domestique level but if his wage is above 60k I won't want him I'm pretty sure, then the big decisions do I let Bellis have a year at PT at the moment I'm coming down on the side that it's just too high for him and he's just not capable of scoring the points and a transfer fee could turn Boily into someone who could or at least just make Boily a better rider, Reus came for one reason to promote us he's done that I'd like to see him leave even though he's a favourite now.
Looking to sell 0-29%
Roman Krueziger
Dimitri Grabovski
Rene Mandri
Rick Flens
Again Krueziger and Grabovski came to promote us they have done that and are great at PCT level but may struggle with the step up Mandri and Flens I'd rather have young Canadian/North American's in their place.
Who would have thought Canada would have their own PT team, really proud day for the nation and actually find it sad to see so many iconic riders set to leave, definitely think some should stay around
Good luck at reshaping the team for PT and I might stick around and see what you have to offer in the transfer season
Benat Intxausti 
Dimitri Grabovski 
Romain Krueziger
. Grabovski & Kreuziger should serve your well too.
Zachary Hughes
Boy Van Poppel 
I think Boy will disappoint, at least at that wage, but as long as your leaders deliver it should be a fun season!
Tour of Andorra
Corsica International
Tour of Romandie
Volta a Portugal
Johnathon Bellis
Monterrey TTT
Duo Differdange
Sander Armee
Rene Mandri
Michael Torckler
Nathan Brown
Johann Van Zyl
