Approaching the 1st FA round as a new team manager in the ICL is a bit daunting. I might end up with all the riders I bid for and find myself in debt (like Team Alitalia) or I might end up with none.
My (too) conservative choice was to bid on 20 riders, but only the minimum wage. For this tactic to have any chance I discarded all riders which seemed desirable and concentrated on old riders I hoped would not gather much interest.
It worked fairly well, only 4 riders received bids which put me out of the running immediately: Gilbert, Spilak, Howard and Brus. But only 8 riders came for the minimum wage, the other 8 needed a second bid, something I was very unsure about. In hindsight, I should have bid at least 120% in round 1.1. Here are my 1.2 bids:
Jakob Fuglsang
440
755
172%
Wout Poels
400
585
146%
Ian Stannard
320
425
133%
Daniel Schorn
290
425
147%
Stefan Denifl
220
305
139%
Monsalve
210
305
145%
Ian Bibby
120
155
129%
Miguel MÃnguez
100
155
155%
To my surprise, I was the highest bidder in every case. That's more than I was aiming for, at least I made sure I had some budget left (540) even for this case. As it stands, the team went from having no riders to having 8 mostly supporting riders to a pretty much complete team very quickly. What a relief!
The team so far with a few preliminary comments can be found in the Team HQ.
Edited by Ripley on 13-09-2017 11:46
I actually think you made some really good transfers in that round. Schorn, Stannard, Poels and Monsalve could all be very good riders for those prices and Bibby in particular is a nice domestique to complement the earlier signings.
Cheers mate! Glad to hear it, especially since I had no idea what I was doing. To celebrate I created my first signature banner (ever in any forum), again, without knowing what I was doing. Maybe lacking those nice colour gradients others use.
First of all we would like to announce our leader for the cobbled classics: Andrey Amador. He will be the main man in Flanders and the north of France. In the Walloon regio he will mainly assist Battaglin and in some cases Fabio Aru. His strength overall will certainly help the team grow. Andrey Amador
Second addition is Argentinian sprinter Maximiliano Richeze. He will be mainly road-captain. Max will end his career like it started, riding for Panaria. Richeze in Lankawi 2006
All other additions will have the Italian flag in front of their names, cause that's what our team and partners stand for: developping Italians to the top.
HELA HOLA MARCO CANOLA, is there a nicer announcement possible? Don't think so! Canola became a professional back in 2012 riding for the Colnago CSF Bardiani team one of the successors of the Panaria team.
Canola in action
Next up is Marco Coledan, who also became pro back in 2012 with Colnago. Coledan is known as an excellent rouleur and track racer. Coledan back in '14
Andrea Fedi is one of the younger additions, however he is already 26 years old. Will have the same job as Coledan: riding on the front of the peloton. Fedi seems to like colourfull kits, guess he will feel in his orange-blue jersey
Paolo Colombo is the last addition, 23 years old and a pure mountain goat. Might have his first chance to race a grandtour.
The team, led by Jesus Herrada and Mathieu Van der Poel, has traveled to Mallorca for their first pre-season training camp. Whilst the most riders looked relaxed from their holidays, some others wern't too excited about their recent wage cuts and the departures of Benat Intxausti, Jan Bakelants and Navardauskas.
"They have been team members since the foundation, they were the team's very identity I say", said a rider in thick spanish accent to the press. "Truth is, there is a lot of wage cutting and rider selling going on, they are talking about buzzwords like lean management.. I don't know what that has to do with cycling?!"
Another rider has responded less surprised: "This is just part of the transformation that is finally taking place. The team has hired a lot of talent and they need a place to grow. Guys like Van der Poel, Pulido are the future."
The team has been noted for currently selling some of its most loyal riders. This is in response to the rise in Contador's wage who is singlehandlely taking up almost a fifth of the budget. Curiously, Contador was not seen amongst the arrivals.
German sport magazine SportBild reported today that the management of German cycling team CarbonSports Cycling - Lightweight noticed the lack of an elite stage racer in their team. The team is setup well for the classics and sprints but has never finished on a Grand Tour podium despite being one of the top teams in cycling for four years.
There have been speculations that Froome not having signed a contract yet might be connected to CarbonSports' boycott of the first FA round. Has he already agreed on a precontract with the team? Is there any other reasonable explanation why the man who won all three GTs already still remains a free agent?
Other top targets could include Nairo Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali or Alberto Contador who wasn't seen in Liberty Seguros' training camp yesterday.
The recently established Aviva Cycling Team has announced former hour record holder Alex Dowsett as their 17th signing. Dowsett makes the move from top WT team Bunzl, joining Stannard and Bibby. "We are very pleased to have convinced Alex to move into a leading role in our new team", a brief statement from the management reads.
The rider himself posted on his social media account: "I was honoured to be part of Team Bunzl, great team, amazing management, all ours needs were taken care of. But I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to help a new team establish itself, I'm really looking forward to the challenge."
The first phase of the transfer window started off in disappointing fashion for us. We were able to strike a deal with only one rider from the Free Agents - Dutch cobbles talent Nino Honigh. We believe he is a rider who can achieve big things in the future.
When the trades window began, we were on the lookout for mountain domestiques, a leader for our hills campaign and a sprinter. We struck a deal with Italo-Ventilair for Gianluca Brambilla and with Groupo Argos - Quala for Heiner Parra. Santos - Euskadi had put up John Degenkolb for sale and we jumped at the chance to pick him up. We also secured the services of Greg Van Avermaet from CarbonSports. He will be our leader for the Northern Classics. Late on in the window, we signed Benat Intxausti as leader of our one week stage races.
This transfer window also saw us letting go of a couple of riders. We sold John Darwin Atapuma to Team WWE for a good price. We also allowed Lars Boom to join CarbonSports in a deal which also saw Oscar Svendsen and Hans-Georg Nentwich join our squad. The deal for Degenkolb involved Cesar Paredes returning to his former team.
We are quite pleased with where we stand at the moment with our squad. We need only four more riders to complete our team but there is a chance we may end up signing more than that.
After a season with Budyak and Sklar as most appealing U23 riders, the focus has shifted to a more hilly races oriented team with Ischenko, Arsamazov and Samorukov as strong trio. Kurlovich meanwhile is great rider for any TT in this level of cycling, and with Saigidov and Vuksanovic also the future seems to be quite bright.
VisitUkraine p/b Nemiroff
Anatoliy Budyak
73,1
Patrik Å imek
73,3
Mykyta Sklar
73,7
Roman Kreuziger
78,6
Daniil Kalinskiy
68,6
Jan Hirt
76
Oleksandr Golovash
72,8
Lubomir Petrus
70,6
Anatoliy Sosnitskiy
73
Leopold König
77,1
Oleksandr Polivoda
70
Edvald Boasson Hagen
77,4
Vitaliy Buts
70,2
Ole Haavardsholm
70,9
Dmytro Grabovskyy
68,7
Mikhail Ignatiev
72,9
Maksym Averin
69,5
Alexey Tsatevitch
75,7
Andrei Krasilnikau
73,3
Denis Galimzyanov
73
Igor Onofrei
73,3
Timofey Kritskiy
72,9
Alexandre Pliuschin
71,4
Mirko Kovacic
75
Simon Spilak
77,4
After signing top talent Simek late last season, the team has strengtened itself by offering Mirko Kovacic, Croatia's best talent, and quite possibly one of the very best sprinters of the next few years, a contract. Mirko will be Tsatevitch' main helper this season, and hopefully can take the leader role next year.
Besides guaraneeing a good future, the management has tried to assemble a team worthy of being in the WT. Budyak, Sklar and Kalinskiy promote to the main team, Simek is an excellent addition from the scouting and also new signings Onofrei, Kritskiy, Spilak, Haavardsholm, Pliuschin and Kreuziger will try and help the team survive on this level. Spilak and Kreuziger in particular are strong additions for the team, capable of competing in the biggest races.
We were able to secure the signature of Tosh van der Sande in the 2nd FA round. He is our 18th and final signing, having made full use of the available budget. Van der Sande will be the lead-out man for our main sprinter Daniel Schorn, though he will at times be able to race for results himself. At 28 years of age and with promising potential we hope the Belgian rider will improve further with time.
Wiggle presented by Boardman Bikes are very pleased to announce the signings of the following 10 riders from the Free Agency:
Simon Clarke
Heinrich Haussler
Matthew Holmes
Daniel McLay
Mark McNally
Cameron Meyer
Joseph Perrett
Alex Peters
Oliver Rossi
Scott Thwaites
Spoiler
Most of these signings will not become team leaders, but Meyer will probably get some chances to perform well in stage races, as will Clarke in the hilly classics. Haussler and McNally have been signed to provide support for Thomas in the cobbled classics and shall also have their own chances to perform well on the cobbles. They, along with Perrett, Rossi, Thwaites and McLay, have also been signed to help improve Bennett's leadout train for the sprints, to help increase his chances of taking wins. Holmes has been signed to help our team leaders Roche and Edmondson in the hills and mountains, while Peters has been signed to provide protection for our team leaders in the flatter races. Finally, Rossi, Meyer and Perrett have also been signed to help improve the fairly strong TTT squad that we already had.
Update on our transfer plans: We have now used up the majority of our budget and only plan to sign one or two more riders before the transfer period ends.
Six more riders join the team after the second round of free agent signings:
Jon Aberasturi from Basque Country (though in the official administration still Spanish) is brought in for the sprint train to aid our lead sprinters
Martijn Budding completes our development squad. This young Dutchman is good on the cobbles
Antoine Duchesne replaces Salas as representative from the Francophone part of Canada. He is a good domestique who can be used on any terrain.
Lars van der Haar is a Dutch cyclocross riders who switches to the road during the summer months.
Marco Marcato from Italy joins our cobblestone setup with lots and lots of experience.
Danilo Wyss is the Swiss road race champion, and also becomes part of the sprint train.
Our team is completed and it's unlikely the final rounds will change anything. We won't be actively selling riders on the transfer market. Offers will be heard but we won't sell riders for anything cheap.
According to a SportBild report earlier this week German classic team CarbonSports Cycling - Lightweight targetted elite stage racer Chris Froome. While he signed for another team german newspaper Bild wants to know that CarbonSports send indeed a contract offer to the rider's agent but it was seemingly deemed to be too low.
It seems unlikely that the dream of signing one of the Big 4 elite stage can still be achieved but making several riders like Boom, Ciolek and Betancur might link to further transfer talks. Although rumors about a difficult financial situation might also be true.
Vince McMahon announced today that WWE will be sponsoring a new cycling team to compete at the CT level of ICL. McMahon went on to announce that the current PPV sponsorship partnership with KFC will carry over to this cycling team. Addidas will be the clothing provider.
Spoiler
WWE & KFC have been partners for many years now.
"WWE felt the need to expand its viewership and strongly feels that dipping into the world of cycling can attract some viewers from different countries. Its not a secret that the USA doesn't get a large number of viewership when it comes to cycling, and we need to expand our audience to other parts of the world, those who do watch cycling and might not know what we have to offer.
McMahon revealed local cycling fan and WWE web developer John Clark will manage the squad. He wasted no time naming 2 huge signings that WWE made who will captain the squad this year. "Adam Blythe has the speed and endurance to carry our team in its inaugural season. John Darwin Atapuma will be right beside him with hopes of grabbing a few wins this year.
Spoiler
Leader John Darwin Atapuma
Team captain Adam Blythe
McMahon went on to say that starting a new team was a little more complicated than anticipated, so they decided to sign most of the riders from their own continent. "The USA & Canada will be the focal point of our team. It may not be ideal in expanding our audience across the globe, but its what we had to start with. We got Husky Energy of Canad on board, so that should help."
Spoiler
Mikel Landa, WWE's 3rd biggest signing of the season.
McMahon ended the conference saying that USA cycleman Joshua Berry will be the 3rd captain of the team, with Mikel Landa also serving as a leader for the team. "We managed to sign some guys from all across the world, which will hopefully work out for us both on the road and with our viewership. The full roster can be found at the Team HQ, linked above, or here - https://pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread....st_1251579
PCM.Daily NFL Fantasy Football Champion: 2012 PCM.Daily NHL Prediction Game Champion: 2013 PCM.Daily NFL Prediction Game Champion: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2021
Suntory are very pleased to announce they have signed the brightest Japanese talent to appear for years, Hiroyuki Nakano, in a rider swap deal. He will form part of our very competitive Orangina Development team. We would like to thank the Italo - Ventilair management for making this possible and hope Belgian talent Ludovic Provost has a great career with them.
The sponsors are also delighted to have Japanese national champion Hayato Yoshida in the squad this season.
After years in Cav's shadow Adam Blythe wanted a new challenge and we hope he brings success to promising new outfit, Team WWE.
Also joining Suntory this season are :-
Sprinters Rick Zabel Paolo Zanni
Time Trialers Anthony Roux Mads Rahbek Shinzo Hashimoto
Classics Talent Raffaele McKenzie
Our transfer season deals are now complete but there are rumours that some of the existing squad have been progressing well in the off season, we are looking forward to seeing if their hard work pays off with improved performances this season.
One of the young spanish riders, said to inherit Contador's throne once, is currently actively looking for a new team. Since rumours have emerged that Liberty Seguros wants to focus its resources on Jesús Herrada, Verona feels unwanted and fears potential lack of support for his own ambitions inside the team.
In an interview with Marca, he has said that he is disappointed that he must continue racing for Liberty Seguros and would prefer to make a last minute switch. "In my book, I can race in WT and PCT, it's both possible. I have enjoyed my years of apprenciteship in the WT but I am now willing to take the mantle of a captain in a new team. I need to make this step in order to prove myself."
Verona is masterful proven lieutnant in the WT and exceels in the mountains. He has won numerous youth jerseys but is yet to score a big win himself. "It's true, I lacked the last percent in quality to win a race, but I have no doubt that I will succeed this year. A team that backs me up and counts on me, will be rewarded richly", he said, adversiting himself.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
A week into the training season, Alberto Contador of Spain has still not arrived in Mallorca. Instead the Spaniard has been seen taking videos in his home at Lugano and taking the occassional training ride.
Most recently, however, the multiple Grand Tour winner, former World Champion and twice LBL-winner has left the swiss tax domicile over the border to spend a few days in Bodensee. Resting in a five star hotel, other guests have taken pictures of him. The nature of his stay is unknown.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Lufthansa Consolidates with a Trio of New Signings
The following are excerpts...
"We went into this round of free agent signings with the goal of rounding out the edges on our team. We signed Nikias Arndt to join our sprint train supporting Degenkolb and Lutz Berg, a young German cobbler, touted for a bright future. We did have a couple more targets but they decided to take up offers from other teams.
When the transfer window re-opened, we were distinctly looking at strengthening a couple of areas, a pace setter for our cobbles squad and a powerful puncheur. We signed Kenneth Vanbilsen from Filliers-Mora, who joins us as an able lieutenant in our cobbles and sprint line-up. We failed to sign a puncheur and will rely on the team we have assembled to fill in for those races. There were some frantic last minute telephone conversations and emails exchanged with a particular team, but in the end a deal could not be ironed out. We are definitely disappointed by this, and blame ourselves for going back so late for the said rider, but we need to make the best of what we have.
Although we did put up a couple of our youngsters for sale, we did not receive any satisfactory offers for them and they will remain with the team for the coming season.
We just need to fill up one more position to be ready for the new season."
To celebrate I created my first signature banner (ever in any forum), again, without knowing what I was doing. Maybe lacking those nice colour gradients others use.
Ceramica Panaria - Autogrill - Cipollini
Jon Aberasturi
Nacer Bouhanni
Antoine Duchesne
Lars van der Haar
Bob Jungels
Yves Lampaert
Daniel Martin
Rüdiger Selig
Danilo Wyss
Suntory 
