viking90 wrote:
Congrats in signing Joni Kanerva, I was looking at him a few times and maybe try to sign him,, but could not do that to you
I guess you would have fought so hard for him that I would have to give up anyway...

We have a bunch of new riders confirmed. One full-time contract, three stagiares and a loaned-in rider.

All the way from the Seychelles we have Ahmad Arissol who joins us as a very versatile helper with main focus on cobbles, flat and TTT's. We believe he will be a very valuable asset for us.

Oskari Vainionpää and Hiski Kanerva takes another year as stagiares. Both are likely to develop into solid helpers in time, but not quite strong enough yet to get a full-time contract.

Also as stagiare we have the very talented TT'er Raimondas Rumsas, who can't take a full-time contract just yet as he has to take care of his sick grandma.

From our Swedish friends at Spotify - Haglöfs we are joined by Marcus Faglum Karlsson for the year to help him develop. Marcus will get the chance to ride his own chance in mountainous terrain. He brings the number of Swedes on the team to 3 this season.

We went into the transfer season with a clear intent of strengthening the squad to b less dependent on Lo Cicero as I doubt we'll get by with everyone underestimating him again this season.

As we want to make a good showing in the Scandinavian races we quickly decided to go for a hilly leader to replace the aging prize bull that is Vastaranta.

Since we also have a decision to have a Finnish leader on at least one terrain we might be slightly weaker in the cobbles department but neevertheless we rejoice in the return of the all-mighty Kulppi and can't wait for him to show what he have learned these past two years from champions such as Boonen and Van Avermaet.

But let's go through the farm one section at a time:

This year we have sold our on paper strongest mountain mooh as we couldn't mak him function properly in the PCT and we didn't feel like purchasing another top bull for him to assist.
That means that whenever wwe seee a mountain it's breakaway time and hopefully this gang of riders are weak enough to b allowed away and strong enough to contest should the break be allowd to go, even though they all could do with a slightly better kick to finis things off.
It does bring extra joy seeing two Finns as well as two from our very first line-up getting the chance to impress on their favourite terrain.

			Mtn	Hill	Acc	Dwn	Age
	Gökhan	Hasta	76	70	60	62	27
	Sakari	Lehtinen	75	73	67	70	24
	Branislav	Samoilev	74	74	67	63	32
	Marcus	Faglum Karlsson	73	70	66	73	23
	Joonas	Henttala	72	67	67	71	26

Here we have the biggest new name on the roster in Cyrlil Gautier, who will take over the leadership after Vastaranta have passed his best.
Nevertheless Jukka will be given the chance when he feels he has the legs for it should he be there in the finale.
Supported by two home-breds in Paajanen and Lindau.

			Hill	Acc	Flat	Mtn	Age
	Cyril	Gautier	80	77	72	68	30
	Jukka	Vastaranta	75	76	72	63	33
	Paavo	Paajanen	75	69	69	71	28
	Philip	Lindau	75	66	72	69	26
	Ingvar	Omarsson	74	72	70	71	28

As last year the flat days will be crucial to us.
The star is still Ivano "Il Toro" Lo Cicero and despite the fact that he has more or less the same riders at his disposal as last year the train should be grow stronger with Manninen.
Matti will also get his own chances to lead by racing the flat days that Ivano can't go to. An important lesson for him before we expect to promote him to lead sprinter next season.
Both Ivani and Matti have a solid prologue giving them better chance to achieve a GC result in some of the flat stage races.

			Spr	Acc	Flat	Hill	Age
	Ivano	Lo Cicero	84	78	72	64	29
	Matti	Manninen	78	78	72	66	25
	Troels	Vinther	77	74	74	65	30
	Sami	Tiainen	73	74	71	62	28

Some times you just need to cross the plain as fast as possible and this is where these come into the picture.
Paillot have proven that he can do strong stuff on his best days, Pökälä will be stronge next year than ever before (though still no top contender) and Samuel is here to learn so he can take another step up next year.

			TT	Prl	Flat	Hill	Age
	Yoann	Paillot	80	80	70	71	26
	Samuel	Pökälä	77	76	70	71	27
	Samuel	Halme	72	72	71	64	26

This year our cobbled squad is bilt around another of the very first signings, who return after having learned how to ride these races from Boonen and Van Avermaet at Evonik - ELKO - amd proven himself raising a few eyebrows along the way!
He is assisted by a couple of islanders. Arissol comes all the way from the Seychelles and will be very useful in pretty much all terrains, but his season will be shaped around Kulppi's. Brynjolfsson will likely follow Olli as a shadow and will probably only ride races with cobbles and perhaps the odd TTT.

			Cbl	Acc	Flat	Hill	Age
	Olli	Kulppi	76	70	73	67	26
	Kari	Brynjolfsson	73	68	71	68	29
	Ahmad	Arissol	72	68	74	71	26

Someone needs to pull the hard work and often that is the calves of the flock. This is no exception.
We will present the talents in more detail at a later point.

			Flat	Mtn	Hill	Acc	Age
	Roope	Nurmi	69	56	66	71	24
	Joni	Kanerva	66	60	69	68	22
	Essa	Khalifa	68	63	70	61	24
	Gustav	Höög	67	52	60	72	22

This year we again have three stagiares.
Vainionpää and Kanerva rejoins us for another year as stagiares to convince us to give them full-time next year.
Raimondas Rumsas is a big foreign talent who could have been worth a full time contract gien the level of his talent, but he needed some time to help take car of his grandma, who still isn't well.

			Flat	TT	Cbl	Spr	Age
	Oskari	Vainionpää	69	61	66	62	22
	Hiski	Kanerva	69	62	52	68	23
	Raimondas	Rumsas	64	70	52	53	23

All in all I believe we have a stronger team with more big scoring options than last year, that hopefully will land us a secure mid-table position far away from both relegation and promotion.
What do you think about it?

Bushwackers wrote:
You've got a very fun team with 3 quality leaders who will definitely score a lot of points. I think you've done a great job of building your national focus and it makes it a cool team all around. Promotion would be very difficult, and I am rooting for you guys to not relegate. Mid pack is definitely a possibility, and I'd be interested to see what your team looks like with all of your talents fully developed. Good luck this year!

Thanks to our sponsors Kiitokori and Nokian Tyres for their hard work providing us with bikes/wheels. The brand new models have been sent in for UCI-approval so now we just have to hope we'll be allowed to use them for other than training.

We have signed a deal with POC for delivery of helmets, but they won't arrive until closer to season start.

Again this year we will ride a good few PT races to benefit the development of our riders.

With two Frenchies on the team this year we're happy to be going to Paris - Nice. Whether or not they will go there is yet to be seen.
Also we will be making our monument debut in Paris-Roubaix - the race where Olli kulppi first made his name known when riding in support of Tom Boonen while riding in Evonik-colours. This year he will be allowed to ride his own chance free of any pressure!

With a proper hilly leader we will also be entering a proper hilly race in Amstel Gold Race. That will be some good experience for everyone to make us as sharp as possible in the PCT hilly classics.

Vuelta a España will be our 2nd GT just as we will be making our second appearance in Tour of Northern Europe, where we did well being part of the battle for the climbers jersey last year.

Lastly we will be taking a ride across the Øresundsbridge as part of the Copenhagen - Malmö TTT, which ends not far from DeLavals HQ in Lund.

Also with a total of 6 l'Avenir eligible riders riding in our colours this season we're very exited about the new U23 races.

Full calendar in spoiler:

With the full calendar, the full roster and the new equipment revealed it's time to also reveal the big goals of the season:

Last year we aimed to win Baltic Chain Tour, signed Lo Cicero with that specific target in mind and the team followed through.
This year the race has the same route taking us through Finland and our sprint train is slightly stronger with Manninen having developed so naturally we're aiming for a repeat.
Anything else would be plain silly.

This will actual be our first start in Post Danmark Rundt despite always having had a big interest in Denmark and Danish riders on the roster, but we're aiming for a big debut chasing stage wins mainly, but hoping for a decent GC along the way.

We have a long history of failing to do anything in this Swedish classic. Nevertheless we return year afteer year.
With Gautier added to the team we hope to be able to sompete this time around and will be aiming big.

Here we have our first failed goal as we due to a slight planning miss when setting goals will have our sprinter at a similar race in Philadelphia on this day and won't even be entering the race.
Stupid team manager not putting this HC-band high enough on the list...

Last year we finished 15th. This year our team is stronger so we should be able to at least reproduce that result.

Ian Butler wrote:
Slick equipment! Delicious!

Hope you can achieve those goals in the upcoming season. At least top 15 in PCT should be a given, I believe

Quite a lot of our riders still haven't reached their top level so let's have a look at what they will grow into.
Before going into details regarding the youngsters we'd just like to raise awareness to the training effort that have resulted in Pökälä now being a stronger TT'er than ever before.

All the projections are expressions to the current preferred development plan but could be subject to change.
As most other calf stables we have them sorted a bit by age and we'll start our walk- through the stables with the youngest - as you always should.

Oskari still only has astagiaire contract (his second of that) but given his still very young age he has every chance of developing into a strong domestique for cobbles and flat terrain.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
1.35	69	58	63	61	69	71	69	66	62	69	76	65	58
2.00	70	58	63	61	70	71	69	67	62	69	76	65	58
3.00	71	58	63	61	71	72	69	69	63	69	76	65	58
4.00	73	58	64	61	73	74	70	71	65	69	76	65	58
4.100	74	58	64	61	74	75	70	73	66	69	76	65	58

This young Swede joined us on a stagiaire contract last year and have been invited in on a full time contract.
His future will likely see him as a roleur capable of setting a hard pace on the flat as well as powering away. However much may change for him.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
1.43	67	52	60	54	62	67	69	60	67	72	62	58	62
2.00	68	52	61	54	63	67	69	61	67	72	63	58	62
3.00	70	52	62	54	64	68	70	61	68	74	65	59	62
4.00	72	53	63	54	66	69	72	63	71	76	65	60	62
4.100	74	53	64	54	67	70	73	63	72	78	67	61	62

Joni Kanerva is the biggest Finnish talent to appear in such young age in many years, perhaps ever.
There are several different options for his development, but we think he will make the most of his talent by focusing on his skills on short steep climbs.
That path could see him turning into the strongest Finnish Puncheur in history!

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
1.00	66	60	69	69	67	65	66	55	61	68	68	66	69
2.00	66	61	71	69	68	66	67	55	61	69	69	66	69
3.00	67	62	73	69	70	67	68	55	62	71	71	67	69
4.00	68	65	76	70	71	69	70	55	62	73	74	68	70
4.100	69	66	78	70	73	70	71	55	63	75	76	69	70

Despite what you might think Hiski and Joni are in fact not related - there's only 5 months of age between them...
Hiski is far from the most talented young Finn around but could become a solid helper for hilly terrain if he isn't passed over by more talented youngsters before coming that far.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
1.35	69	62	66	62	67	62	59	52	68	65	54	63	60
2.00	69	62	67	62	68	62	59	52	68	66	54	63	60
3.00	69	63	69	62	69	63	60	52	68	67	55	63	60
4.00	70	64	71	62	71	64	61	52	69	69	57	64	60
4.100	71	65	73	62	73	65	62	52	69	70	58	64	60

From across the Baltic season we have gotten a very talented time trialist, who should not be held back bu his fathers sins.
This year he only has a stagiare contract to allow him time to care for his sick grandmother but we expect him to ride full-time next year.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
2.81	64	55	61	70	63	63	64	52	53	61	66	63	68
3.00	65	57	63	72	65	65	66	52	53	62	67	63	70
4.00	67	58	64	76	67	68	68	52	53	62	69	64	74
4.100	69	59	65	78	69	70	70	52	53	62	71	64	76

Since joining us the very first season we have grown more and more fond of Essa due to his aggressive way of riding, that have already earned him several NC's
He might not have the most impressive skill-set but if he continues to ride the same way he will bee a very interesting sort of rider when reaching his top level.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
3.90	68	63	70	63	69	68	66	57	59	61	66	63	63
4.00	69	66	73	64	70	69	68	57	59	63	69	64	64
4.100	69	68	75	64	71	70	70	57	59	65	71	64	64

Jesse is on loan with Team Reddit this season to get as many race days as possible - something we couldn't promise him this year.
He will likely develop into a cobbled-helper. Another path could see him focus on his hilly skills but right now we feel he will be more useful for us if he focuses on his cobbles-skills.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
2.98	69	65	68	59	69	70	72	68	66	72	73	69	59
3.00	70	65	68	59	70	71	72	70	67	72	73	69	59
4.00	72	65	69	59	72	73	73	72	69	72	73	69	59
4.100	73	65	69	59	73	74	73	74	70	72	73	69	59

Roope is far from the most talented rider around but will once fully developed be a deceent all-round helper. That is if he continues to have a small edge on the other talent - this year he largely saved his employment by taking the NC afterall.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
3.06	69	56	66	61	70	71	68	67	69	71	64	67	64
4.00	71	56	68	61	72	72	69	69	69	71	67	68	64
4.100	72	56	68	61	74	73	70	71	70	71	67	68	64

Another talent from across the Baltic Sea. Originally bought from our friends at Evonik-ELKO and now back with them to finish his development.
He is destined to take the role of Manninens trusty lead-out man for years to come.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
4.12	71	60	66	59	71	67	76	54	76	77	58	58	60
4.100	73	60	66	59	73	68	77	55	78	79	58	58	60

Speaking of which we have Matti Manninen, who was less than impressive in the first few years of his career, but took a giant step up after winning the NC before last season.
He is now aiming at a future as our lead sprinter, where his strong prologue will come in handy going after GC results in flat stage races.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
4.76	72	64	66	69	71	74	76	58	78	78	70	71	74
4.100	74	64	66	69	71	75	77	58	80	80	70	71	76

As a diabetic rider Jonas haven't had the easiest of career paths, but will now finally reach his top level.
For him that means being a solid helper for stage races and TTT's.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
4.60	66	72	67	71	72	71	70	50	60	67	63	71	71
4.100	66	74	68	73	73	72	72	50	60	67	63	71	73

Samuel surprised most by taking the Finnish TT-championship at the end of last season as an omen of his future.
However he will mainly be looking at a career as a helper and key member of our TTT-squad.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
4.60	71	55	64	72	66	68	69	53	58	67	62	61	72
4.100	72	57	65	74	68	70	71	53	58	68	62	61	74

Risto proved already last season that while he is a one-trick pony he does that one trick to perfection as h was an important member of the team surrounding Lo Cicero.
This season he will be gaining experience on the highest level aiming to set up John Degenkolb for a succesful season.

XP	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PL
4.08	75	61	67	67	65	69	70	63	61	61	68	63	68
4.100	77	61	68	69	66	71	71	63	61	61	69	63	70