7th season for our main sponsor Aegon and also the 4th year already for Italian co-sponsor Lavazza.
After 2 consecutive top5 PT seasons, the sponsors hope to keep this trend up and remain in the top spots of the highest division. One dream is to get a rider higher onto the GT board but they know it might be more long term than 2018 already.
Stevens Bikes, Unilever and newly Under Armour Nederlands complete our sponsor list while Snap Rentals from NZ apparently was just rumours ahead of the 2017 season but never had any sponsor commitments in reality.
The team itself has some long time or actually "from the start" riders. A special mention for our loyal riders:
Lars Boom is THE head of the team, no doubt.
Spoiler
Since the team start in 2012 our Dutch leader has been part of the team`s biggest success. The first year was already a promise of steady performances. 3 stage wins throughout the season, couple of podiums and top10`s in GCs, then the highlight his win in the difficult E3 Prijs and all crowned by the win in the Worlds Road Race. Couldn`t have been any better. Quite some time since his regular fights with the likes of Reus, Zabriskie, Rogers.
In 2013 it was hardly weaker. No big wins this season but four top5 GC results in stage races as also a 4th in his favourite race E3 Prijs speak for itself.
2014 was the team`s first PT experience and obviously the competition became tougher. The focus changed from time trials to hilly tours more or less. The GCs obviously dropped a bit but he remained a very regular performer being in several top20`s of PT GCs. Highlights probably his attacking in the Tour de France leading to 3rd in the KoM ranking but also finding a new favourite race on this level. The Tour of Northern Europe, where he finished on a fantastic 2nd in the GC showing his allrounder skills perfectly. The Worlds yet again proved to be to his favour when he won the TTT with the Netherlands.
It all didn`t help and 2015 saw the team in the PCT again and hence GCs were top10 results again and also the classics started to become his kind of races, which was impressively shown with the win in the Viana do Castelo. In a 1vs1 duel again dominator Summerhill. Experience won clearly.
2016 then the successful PT year and Boom was big part of it. 3rd in the Tour of Northern Europe. Almost as good as in 2014. But this year some more results other than the top20 GCs. 4th in Chrono des Herbiers and 6th in the Tour of Tasmania were big steps toward the team`s success.
Boom collected a nice palmares in his time with the team and now being 32 years of age, he slowly comes to the age of his maximum. Still he has an absolute guarantee to remain with the team in 2017 and will once again lead us and maybe even can celebrate the TONE win this year?
But he is not the only rider with us since the start.
Alexander Krieger and Thomas Koep musn`t be forgotten. Two of our self developed riders, who only had 2 years off each on loan.
Spoiler
2012: A nice promising start for Koep in especially. Wearing the U25 and KoM jersey in the Algarve and finishing on a strong 6th in the GC of his home race, Deutschland Tour.
2013: Both were loaned to a PT team. Krieger with RedBull, Koep with Vesuvio. Can`t be bad to learn from the very best, right?
2014: Stagnation years? Hard to say. Coming back from the PT loans but remain in the same division with bigger expectations now, there was hardly any results to tell from.
2015: Both at full strenght now but still stagnation it seems. Koep got the chance to find his form down in the CT division with Carlsberg but crashed in the Tour of Middle East when looking strong before. He never found back this form unfortunately. Krieger meanwhile more and more changed his role to a decent leadout rider instead of going for his own chances. Having good sprinters in a team obviously needs those kind of support riders!
2016: Back in the PT Koep was needed for the mountain races and actually rode all 3 GTs in one season. Pretty solid! But even more impressive that he finished them all in the top100! 52nd in the Giro, 72nd in the Vuelta and 89th in the Tour de France.
Krieger meanwhile also got a chance for himself in the CT and is coming back with a stage win and some solid results for La Poste.
Both are planned for 2017 as well being important support riders.
Maximilian Schachmann and Florian Scheit might be counted as long time riders even though this is only half truth really seeing their big gaps in between.
Spoiler
Main problem with both of them was the amount of riders in the first seasons and hence they lacked the race days needed for development. While Schachmann remained with the team all years, Scheit was actually leaving in the 2013 season completely after a disappointing 2012 sitting at home year.
Schachmann needed 2 loan years with other teams but came back with stage wins, the German Road Championship and a lot of experience.
Both are at full strength in the meantime and are important helpers for the team`s climbing area. That said, both have full support roles only with the team and hence might decide to leave when a team gives them a chance for better chances on their own.
Daan Olivier, Kristian Sbaragli and Davide Villella are our 3 talents from the "2nd generation" starting in 2013 with the team and since then remained. In case of first two even non stop without any loan deal in between.
Those 3 basically are the big future of the team as until today 2 of them can already tell about their GT stage wins or top10 GCs. Big things are expected by those and hence their future with us is guaranteed.
Regarding the full team it`s highly unlikely that many changes will happen this season as also our other top riders had decent or very good results in 2016. Those are supposed to be repeated or improved even, hence after finishing 5th in the PT rankings, we think it`s just fair to remain with our main core.
Instead getting 1-2 talents and/or a decent rider within our budget might be the way to go as meanwhile all our riders are maxed and hence we could use some future greats again.
Spoiler
That all said, this was my plan for almost every transfers and hence quite interested myself if I finally am able to fulfill this goal.
As said already, the team did a great job last season and hence we are very happy with the core. In especially since some of our top riders got down in their wage requests, which basically was necessary seeing some of the overpriced FA market wages.
What does this mean for the transfer season? Basically that our top riders won`t be considered to leave as they are our core to build around.
In the end you can obviously ask but the chance to get a positive answer is more or less 0%.
Some riders as you see below might have less bonds to the team and hence can potentially leave but surely most of them are staying as well.
The transfers 2017 really aren`t expected to change the team a lot and only good opportunities will see some changes.
Just a weekend in for the MG transfers and a lot of movement happened. Well at least something.
First of all we want to thank George Bennett and Thomas Degand for their performances in our colours. Both are secured to leave the team despite their 2017 teams are not yet announced to 100%. But both asked for stepping down to PCT or CT to get more chances for themselves.
One unlucky result of the Bennett trade was the direct money cut by our new sponsor Snap Rentals from New Zealand. Seeing their main reason leave the team, made them stop immediately via a special clause and hence some money is missing now and will need to be found elsewhere.
On the positive though we are happy to announce a huge signing. Thomas Dekker will basically replace Bennett`s spot in the climbing area but in fact offers a lot more. He might be our most complete stage racer in 2017 and hence is expected to score valuable. He might be our oldest rider this season but this only proves his experience he can give to our younger riders.
This means we now have 3/4 of the best Dutch stage racers in our team, which is big news for our main sponsor of course. In especially after already having the best sprinter and in Boom also the maybe best allrounder.
Then we signed two young talents from our sponsor Nations each. Giulio Ciccone will be a good climber in future but also is going over shorter climbs decently. Hence could become an important piece for our climbing area. Taco van der Hoorn is the other young talent. He feels best on cobbles but also likely the fast races with lots of wind and echelons. Hence always good to have riders like this with a top engine.
Great to see you signing Dekker. Definately a big step up. Your team is looking increasingly frightening, and could well be an aspirant for the crown if all goes well. This free up some tactical room for Keizer aswell.
If I repeat top5 this would be huge success.
My team basically is as 2016 with maxed Groenewegen and Dekker minus Bennett. Better surely but not that much.
In the mountains this is still only just around 10th and not more. Of course gives me more planning opportunities for GTs but not extraordinarily well neither.
Imo the teams that have been ahead of me (Festina, Vesuvio, Becherovka, Aker) likely finish ahead of me again while Pendleton`s, Puma, Evonik really could be dangerous to pass me. So goal is top10 only.
If I repeat top5 this would be huge success.
My team basically is as 2016 with maxed Groenewegen and Dekker minus Bennett. Better surely but not that much.
In the mountains this is still only just around 10th and not more. Of course gives me more planning opportunities for GTs but not extraordinarily well neither.
Imo the teams that have been ahead of me (Festina, Vesuvio, Becherovka, Aker) likely finish ahead of me again while Pendleton`s, Puma, Evonik really could be dangerous to pass me. So goal is top10 only.
You sold a rider who scored 283points and replace him with a rider that will likely score 750 points. And you maxed a sprinter that scored 206points. He is likely to score 450-500 points.
So you added a likely 700-800 extra points. That would give you 2nd, easily last season.
I think you are a big favorite for a podium to be honest. I would probably swap Aker and Wiesenhoff in your evaluation of competitors also. Maybe Tinkoff should be added also.
Lots of my points came from GT breakaway/KoM competition.
Doubt Keizer can again go crazy in last 3 days of Tour or Olivier in last week of Giro.
Would be great if so, but even when I added 700-800 points, I fear the other two will be 300-400 points off again.
But in the end I never manage with numbers. More with where I can ride with what kind of rider.
Hence if you are statistically correct in the end, I don`t mind.
Second part of our transfer movements, which include a lot of our domestiques while the main leading core remained the same. First the announcement of teams of the last update. George Bennett found his way back home to New Zealand starting for the home team Xero Racing p/b Octagon while Degand is riding for VMP - Argon 18.
First of all quite a lot of riders have left us. This includes some of our long time riders, who now maxed this or last year and are looking for bigger chances. Florian Scheit will start his first full strength season now which is surprising seeing he was already part of the team in 2012. He should be a great domestique for Kraftwerk Man Machine or even get some chances himself. Maximillian Schachmann had a very similar way in his team and hence asked for a change. The former German National Champion is leaving to Berg Cycles into the PCT.
With Alexander Krieger yet another first season rider is leaving us and here it really was a pain to do this. We will follow his progress closely and hope to see him in couple of races and in future.
Also two Belgium have left us. Kristof Vandewalle wants to show his Belgium RR NC jersey in more races than we were able to offer him. Hence he goes into the lower divisions riding for the Belgium Team Telio Brussels. Last but not least Sven Nooytens is leaving for a 1-year loan deal only. He will be with our PT companion Evonik, which focus a lot more on the cobbled areas and hence should have more chances to ride in first parts of the peloton.
Having talked about the riders leaving here 2 more riders joining. First we are happy to welcome back Tom Dumoulin. The Dutch ITT specialist was already with us in the past and after a year off in South Africa, we really are fond to see him in our team again. The TTT`s were rather horrible last season and hence adding a specialist was needed, in especially after losing Vandewalle already.
Another signing is Marcel Barth. The reason behind this was similar as we needed more TT support and he is capable of diesel engine for us in those. Somehow though his manager did get a super deal for him, which might be called overpaid. Still we are happy to have found one more TT specialist in our focussed area.
Next up our last signings and loaned in riders, that will complete our 2018 roster.
Aegon
Lavazza
Stevens Bikes
Maxime Vantomme
Andrei Kunitski
Martin Velits
Xavier Zabalo
Jonathan Bellis
Aurélien Passeron
Valentin Iglinski
Christoff Van Heerden
Alexander Edmondson
Arnaud Grand
Youcef Reguigui [Loan]
Muhamma Afif Ahmad Zamri [Loan]
George Bennett
Hakon Frengstad Berger [Loan]
Martin Weiss [Loan]
Krisztian Lovassy [Loan]
Lawson Craddock [Loan]
German Anibal Orue [Loan]
Ryder Hesjedal
Jakub Novak
