The 31 year old Canadian is going to prove a very useful option for both the cobbles and the hilly races, where he might be able to score a few points, but mainly will act as a great domestique for this level of racing. Furthermore he will add a lot of experience just like Farrar will and hopefully he will play a role in us gunning for promotion.

Vien wrote:
Farrar is a bargain, despite his age. Grats!

Booker wrote:
Echo Vien's point re: Farrar, stellar signing for that wage.

Interested to see the build you go for on your squad, as you mention the lack of emphasis on sprinting. Hopefully you're getting the riders you're looking for, and I'm glad we haven't been caught up in a bidding war, yet

Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Wage: 230,000

The Belgian Cobbles fanatic will be the team's main leader this season in everything that has the slightest touch of cobbles. GVK is one of the best if not the best cobbles rider in the CT this season and we are trying setup the best team possible around him. If we are going to be in the promotion contention this season it is going to be on the back of this beast.

The Swiss Puncheur will be our main captain for the hills this season, hopefully he can step up and prove that his wage is worth it, however with the increase in incredibly talented puncheurs in the CT this season he might not be the most successful this season, but we have our high hopes and will try to honor our goals.

The Canadian was one of the first names to be put on the confirmed list. Coming from our Canadian friends over at RBC Pro Cycling. He will act as one of Simon Pellaud's main helpers in the hilly races and potentially going to score well on his own accord when given the chance. I am very happy with the signing and the 30-year old should be one of the teams strongest forces this season.

A pretty good deal in my opinion, getting the Frenchie in from the strong Polish Fablok side, he will be the main cobbles support to GVK in the classics this season. Chances are he will go on and chase some breaks at some point too, and should be able to score himself!

Joining us from Evonnik-Elko, the Latvian will act as a useful domestique throught every imaginable terrain that isnt the mountains! In the hills he can do some initial work, he can be a decent helper for Farrar on the flats and can protect GvK in the cobbles races before they hit the cobbles. The fee might be a bit excessive but we are very pleased with what we got.

The Polish Roleur will be a usefull domestique on the flats while playing a role in Farrar's very lmited train. Even though he is in his latter years of his career and are pushing declines we are very pleased with getting him in on a deal from Aker-MOT.

The Russian puncheur will be Pellaud's main lieutenant in the hills. The Russian was cut from Tinkoff's roster going into the 2017 season, but we are more than happy to land this very talented rider for hilly races and we believe he will be a great help for Simon but he is a rider that will hopefully score well in weaker hills races that might no be worth Simon's time.

We possibly slightly overpaid for this American rider, but coming from one of our focus areas it was very important to sign yet another rider that can be prolific in races and please our sponsors at the same time. Finding himself without a contract for 2017 after not being able to get a new one with KAYAK, due to them disbanding, we were happy to give him a shot a year in the CT where he can either helps us promote or find his feet and get back up to a higher level.