We built one of the strongest, if not the strongest, TTT trains of the division, which should secure us most of the goals we set for ourselves at the start of the season, in especially the Monterrey TTT one. Only Wiesenhof comes close/is better than us on paper, having better leaders but not as much depth.
We brought in Dennis Van Winden and Elia Viviani as outright TT leaders, duo that should also take part to the Duo Differdange looking to achieve our top 5 goal that is looking very doable now, and will be even more next year with Sterbini maxed. Ghyselinck is also someone I'm very happy to have bought with only 70k wage and 350k transfer fee, but he has the ability to resist uphill and resist in very long courses thanks to his backup stats.
Besides that, we went after one of the top puncheurs in the division, Diego Ulissi, that should secure us a lot of points in the hilly classics, and that we already started to train in one of his strong points, top speed. He'll in fact receive an upgrade in his Sprint, going from the already outstanding 73 - for a puncheur - to 74, that should see him being even stronger than he is in restricted groups situations.
We then looked to secure a stronger cobbles squad, and I think we did that backing up our core of Taillefour and Jeandesbosz with our new cobbled leader Mike Teunissen, that should constantly be in the top 5 in the cobbled classics, and Edward Theuns, great classics super domestique, that besides his cobble, can count on a fantastic sprinter ability, and a great skill when going over the hills.
Last but not least, we brought in 4 stagiares that should develop a lot in the future and become some of our next domestiques. Ledanois will be a good domestique in the hilly classics, Vallee a good leadout with 78 sprint and acceleration, Beyer and Boudat two great "Track Sprinters" both coming from the track world. They max out at respectively 80 and 81 prologue, 77-81 and 76-74 sp-acc.
I'm happy about my transfer season and I only regret being unable to get a decent sprinter and a hilly domestique, both things that will be at the top of our priorities for the next season. We have a great core for a sprinter next year, now that Moser will be maxed and will be either our leadout or top sprinter even though I consider him too weak for that task.
I'm also not too sure about Van Winden, I avoided Yatsevich to concentrate on him because I was sure Oleg would go bananas over him, but that didn't happen and a CT team got him for only 10k wage more than Van Winden, which is an absolute bargain, could have also got Cornu instead of him but thought I could still get one between Dal Col and Malori so I scrapped him. But I guess you can't get everything right even in your second season, takes more experience to run a flawless transfer season.
Even considering those mistakes, I think we can still get close to a Top 15. What do you guys think?
Nah but seriously nice looking team you've built there. Will be interesting to see how Ulissi does against the likes of McCarthy or Roche, could really do with that one domestique more. I feel like you're also missing another TTT domestique, maybe around the 79 TT mark, even if the back up stats might not be great. Maybe that's just me though.
We built one of the strongest, if not the strongest, TTT trains of the division, which should secure us most of the goals we set for ourselves at the start of the season, in especially the Monterrey TTT one. Only Wiesenhof comes close/is better than us on paper, having better leaders but not as much depth.
We brought in Dennis Van Winden and Elia Viviani as outright TT leaders, duo that should also take part to the Duo Differdange looking to achieve our top 5 goal that is looking very doable now, and will be even more next year with Sterbini maxed. Ghyselinck is also someone I'm very happy to have bought with only 70k wage and 350k transfer fee, but he has the ability to resist uphill and resist in very long courses thanks to his backup stats.
Besides that, we went after one of the top puncheurs in the division, Diego Ulissi, that should secure us a lot of points in the hilly classics, and that we already started to train in one of his strong points, top speed. He'll in fact receive an upgrade in his Sprint, going from the already outstanding 73 - for a puncheur - to 74, that should see him being even stronger than he is in restricted groups situations.
We then looked to secure a stronger cobbles squad, and I think we did that backing up our core of Taillefour and Jeandesbosz with our new cobbled leader Mike Teunissen, that should constantly be in the top 5 in the cobbled classics, and Edward Theuns, great classics super domestique, that besides his cobble, can count on a fantastic sprinter ability, and a great skill when going over the hills.
Last but not least, we brought in 4 stagiares that should develop a lot in the future and become some of our next domestiques. Ledanois will be a good domestique in the hilly classics, Vallee a good leadout with 78 sprint and acceleration, Beyer and Boudat two great "Track Sprinters" both coming from the track world. They max out at respectively 80 and 81 prologue, 77-81 and 76-74 sp-acc.
I'm happy about my transfer season and I only regret being unable to get a decent sprinter and a hilly domestique, both things that will be at the top of our priorities for the next season. We have a great core for a sprinter next year, now that Moser will be maxed and will be either our leadout or top sprinter even though I consider him too weak for that task.
I'm also not too sure about Van Winden, I avoided Yatsevich to concentrate on him because I was sure Oleg would go bananas over him, but that didn't happen and a CT team got him for only 10k wage more than Van Winden, which is an absolute bargain, could have also got Cornu instead of him but thought I could still get one between Dal Col and Malori so I scrapped him. But I guess you can't get everything right even in your second season, takes more experience to run a flawless transfer season.
Even considering those mistakes, I think we can still get close to a Top 15. What do you guys think?
My reaction to your team:
Oh God. Is this guy in the same division as I am?
Tough times up ahead
I think my team could be as strong as some of the lower relegation threatened PCT teams that have posted their teams in here or maybe I am just overhyping my team too much
In my opinion, I think its a well balanced squad with clear leaders on all terrains. We have a strong sprinter in Selig, a decent HIL/COB in Konwa, a good climber and TT-ist in Rowsell, strong cobblers in Field and Turgot, a good hills trio of Delage, Dowling and Handley, a strong TT-ist in Christian and several good breakaway riders. Leave your own thoughts below.
I like your team Martii, no spots seem to be wasted, each rider has its purpose and most of them perfectly fit the focus. What I think you miss for promotion is a climbing leader, be it a puncheur or a stage racer, but with the depth you have in every field you might take points where you don't expect to
One thing I changed this year was copying the names from the DB and then just copying the whole thread title from the search function after I completed my search, no errors for once until I got to the stagiares part
I imagine you'll be lower mid table this season, Turgot and Field should score well on the cobbles, but they probably will struggle to get wins against the likes of Thomas and Drucker, I imagine you'll be getting top 5's and a couple of podiums out of them.
I think Selig could really do with being Maxed to be a regular threat for Sprint wins, knowing there are guys like Thorson, Guillen, Nelson and my own rider Salleh in the division I think the sprints will be very hotly contested this season and I'm hoping to see lots of exciting flat days.
Considering guys like Garby and Sella are in the CT then you will probably looking for breaks in the mountains and targeting KOM jerseys, same could probably be said about the hills considering how dominant Klemme should be and that I expect top 5's from my guys and I've got 4 guys better than your strongest puncheur, although admittedly it will be rare they all ride together.
Christian should be a strong TTist, he'll probably end up facing Stannard a lot though which isn't really to your advantage but he should get podiums and beat him on the odd occasion.
Sorry if that sounds more negative than you were expecting, I can see you picking up a few points everywhere, with the cobbles being your main source of points, but I don't expect you to be fighting for promotion or for the top 10. It does look a strong base for you to improve on for future seasons though, it would probably only take maxing Selig (and leadout man Last) and a strong Mountain or hills leader to turn the squad into promotion candidates.
I must admit that I do love how well you have stuck to your focus though.
Ste117 wrote:
I think my team could be as strong as some of the lower relegation threatened PCT teams that have posted their teams in here or maybe I am just overhyping my team too much
okay settle down there Ste, you have a nice team, but half of your mountain domestiques have shit flat stats and De la Cruz isn't like the best climber in the CT, sure he'll be fine in tours (similar to Novak for me last year), but im not sure he'll carry you to a top 5 placing. Also Guillen's flat stat is pretty bad, and there is a great sprinting core in the CT this year, I think he'll be solid, but not a top 10 rider like he was a few years ago.
the CT is much harder now than it was a few years ago, for example if someone had your sort of team in my first year in the man-game, they'd be set, but no so much anymore.
your team is good, but get off that huge high horse of yours
honestly Im not sure your team'll go very far, you dont have any world beaters in any terrain to say the least, but I'll second what Sammy said about your focus, the fact that you've stuck to it to such a T is fantastic
Edited by maxime86 on 20-06-2016 20:34
Ste117 wrote:
I think my team could be as strong as some of the lower relegation threatened PCT teams that have posted their teams in here or maybe I am just overhyping my team too much
okay settle down there Ste, you have a nice team, but half of your mountain domestiques have shit flat stats and De la Cruz isn't like the best climber in the CT, sure he'll be fine in tours (similar to Novak for me last year), but im not sure he'll carry you to a top 5 placing. Also Guillen's flat stat is pretty bad, and there is a great sprinting core in the CT this year, I think he'll be solid, but not a top 10 rider like he was a few years ago.
the CT is much harder now than it was a few years ago, for example if someone had your sort of team in my first year in the man-game, they'd be set, but no so much anymore.
your team is good, but get off that huge high horse of yours
honestly Im not sure your team'll go very far, you dont have any world beaters in any terrain to say the least, but I'll second what Sammy said about your focus, the fact that you've stuck to it to such a T is fantastic
Woah, high horse???? please read my post again and especially the last line. No need to take into negative energy like that!
So I guess I´m done for this transfer season.
I still lack a super leader in both Mountains and Hills(and of course cobbles ) but Byström is better then captain Hoogerland was last season atleast.
But its much up to Ahlstrand and his leadout friends to get a good season for us.
Ahlstrand will be awesome this season for sure, would say he is the best sprinter in the division. Löfkvist has a good MO/Hill combination and Martin Reimer will still be among the best punchers in the division, though Kump will outshine him I'm afraid
my only issue with your team is that you pretty much ocmpletely ignored sprinting and Mountains with your team
My team is a work in progress mostly, as I don't expect and don't want to promote. As I'm coming from CT, I didn't have enough of a base to build a good team in all categories in the first year already, but I'm confident I already did that for the cobbles and TTs, while hills, mountains and sprints will need some work next year.
I preferred to invest in those fields and scrap climbing and sprinting because they were too crowded for my liking. I could have definitely got a sprinter but preferred getting more depth in TT instead
Ahlstrand is going to cause me a lot of pain this season...
Your team looks quite nice though, Ahlstrand should bag you heaps of points and both Bystrom and Lofkvist are decent leaders too, plus your depth is amazing, think you'll be right up there at the top of the division.
) but Byström is better then captain Hoogerland was last season atleast.
