Despite being considered a "retirement home", in the past transfers season we managed to sign 2 young Spanish rider, and both, after a season riding for us, have developed into better riders. They are still far from fullfilling their potentials, but they are the future of our team

The young climber is about to turn 25, and if everything goes according to our plans, he'll max out as a 78/76 mon/hill rider. And next season he should be in contention for lots of U25 points like he has done this year in CT, although rivals will be stronger in PCT for that matter

LV	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CO	SP	AC	FI	DH	PR
2.0	66	72	70	61	66	67	73	53	54	68	67	65	58
3.24	66	74	72	61	66	68	74	53	54	70	69	65	58

As we said when we signed him, Cristian has the perfect abilities for to be a great puncheur in the future. His great ability in very long races could be a key factor for him to perform in the long classics in PT in the future

LV	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CO	SP	AC	FI	DH	PR
1.0	68	66	68	66	71	66	67	55	64	65	69	73	66
3.0	69	67	71	66	74	68	68	55	64	67	71	73	66

It's been a long time since pre-season when we agreed with Generali's manager that Beyer would ride in our team in loan this season, making him progress from Lvl2 to Lvl3, but at this point is still unknown why we decided that he should ride in our team, except for that i needed riders to reach the 15-rider minimum and with Generali taking care of part of his salary, it was a win-win deal as Beyer didn't need a lot of RD's to fullfill his clause. His highest point in the season was when in Benelux Challenge prologue, the German finished 8th and scored his only point of the season. But we didn't expect anything else by him, so he "passes" our evaluation with a 5

The young Australian rider was one of the last riders to join the team last season, as we felt like we might need an extra rider to help us with our planning, and having some Loan cap in spare, we were able to reach a quick deal with Jayco. Being a talented climber, he was in all the mountain stage races as one of the first domestiques for Rafa Valls. He only joined once a breakaway in all season, in Cacak Classic, and his lonely point of the season came in Giro del Trentino, as he was one of the 5 best Repsol riders in GC, while the team was 3rd in Teams classification. As we was seen several times working for the team in mountain races and most of his calendar were races that aren't suit to him, we'll rate his season with a 6

The younger rider in the whole MG was riding for our team coming from the now three-times PT champion Festina, looking for some CT experience that would help to develop the South African puncheur. His attacking spirit saw him join some breakaways during the season, specially during Tour de San Luis, where after getting twice in the BotD, he ended 5th in KoM and scored his first points as a pro rider. A 7th place in the U25 rankings in Benelux Challenge would rise his total points tally to 5. We expected more breakaway appearences from him, so that's why he only gets to have a 5,5

The Mexican champion came from PT runner-up Moser to become a member of Valls' mountain support, in a deal that saw our finances back to normal after Valls' fee had put us in "red numbers", as Moser paid us 50k in compensation for paying his full wage. His colorful jersey made him visible several times while working in the front of the bunch and his highest point was Tachira, where we took a surprising lead in the KoM jersey for 3 days that saw him taking 8 points from that race. Some points here and there thanks to U25 classifications made him reach a total of 13 points in the season, thus giving him a rate of 7

The only Sri Lankan that might ever be part of our team, came in a shared-wage deal with PT team Ayubowan. He was meant to be part of our hilly squad, but in the races that he took part, he was never seen nowhere near the front. He only scored some points due to U25 classification in Grands Prix Cyclistes and Solidarnosc, so only gets to be rated with a 2

Jaime is the most interesting of our talents. Maxing out as a 78 climber with 76 hills, he's meant to be a top domestique for many years in our team. In his first year with the team he has scored 7 points, all through U25 classifications, including a third place in Euskal Bizikleta. He is also one of the only 4 riders that were able to score points in C1 races, as he scored both in Romandie and East Java a total of 3 points. Next season he'll be better and will have to fight for U25 points in a lot of races. He's obviously remaining in the team for sure. His season is rated with a 7

Cristian is the second best talent of the team, being a future 76 puncheur that loves long races. Like Jaime, this was his first pro season, and he didn't have any expectations but to show himself in some breakaways here and there. He did show himself in two important days. The first one in San Luis' final stage, where he was in the winning breakaway, but could only finish 8th. It was his first ever point in MG, so still a good result for him. But the best day of his season, was in Tour of Britain's S5. He was in the early breakaway, and when his team-mate Gilbert attacked from long-range, he helped him until the Belgian cracked, and then stayed with him until the very end of the stage, probably limitting Gilbert's losses that day. Next year we hope that he can join even more breakaways. We rate his season with a 6,5

The first one of our stagiares is a 22-yo timetrialist. He took part in Paris-Tours, GP Yekaterinburg and Solidarnosc, and was never part of a breakaway. Not much else to add, apart than while it's highly improbably that he'll continue in the team post-renewals, he might be recalled later in the transfer season

The second and last of our stagiares is this 22-yo sprinter. Given our non-interest on sprinters, it's almost impossible that he'll continue in the team next season, specially as he isn't a good talent, and he would only become a very weak lead-out rider.

We signed four Italian riders in the off-season, and this is the only one that hasn't disappointed us. Although with Stefano we knew what we were signing. A rider that wasn't as strong in hills as other, but with impressive back-ups that would make him overperform to better riders in paper. He has been a constant stream of points in the hilly races, including great performances like 8th in Zuri or 11th in Euskal, but in a very windy day, he was in the BotD in Bayern-Rundfahrt S4, and was the best of all the breakaway riders to win the stage and thanks to a crash in the final stage, jump into the final GC podium. His worth is shown by finishing inside Top50 in the CT Rankings, and having a 99% chance of being in the team next season. Only a extremely high (and unlikely) offer would see him leave the team. He's the best rated rider so far, after we have gave him a 9

The Italian all-rounder was signed in an attempt of having someone for the reduced cobbled C2HC calendar, hoping that his decent top speed would help him to achieve some decent result. It didn't quite work as expected, as Marco could only score 12 points during the season, shared between Tour du Faso and Lillestrom GP, specially in the latter, where he finished in the Top15. Otherwise he would supporting other riders in the flat or hilly races, having a very decent race in Britain, falling short of a GC Top30. That's why we rate his season with a 5. He won't continue in the team due to declining and not being interesting for the team in PCT anymore

The Japanese climber was signed because Honda requested to have some Japanese riders in the team, and by the minimum wage, he was a very fitting rider in Valls' mountain train. He never got to shine by himself, always in the shadows of better riders, so that explain why he only has 1 point all-season, and it coming from Trentino's team classification, so not points actually thanks to him. His best performance came in Giro del Trentino and Tour d'Andorra. In the first he destroyed the race in the first mountain stage, leaving only 3 riders in the front with more than 10 kms to go, which led to huge gaps in that stage. And in Andorra he was in the Top25 until the final stage, where he cracked after working hard for race leader Valls. Despite not shining a lot, his domestique work was very valuable, so we rate him with a 6. He's very unlikely to continue in the team next season, with the team dropping their Japanese focus, and already having interest from other teams to sign him.

Rafa was signed as a luxury domestique of Rafa... Valls, and while as with Nakane, he was always focused on what the team leader needed in the mountain races, that didn't stop him from scoring some minor points in those mountain stage races, as sometimes Valls was so dominating that Serrano wasn't needed a lot and could ride to places somewhere in Top20 for himself. He's another rider that is part of the team's core, so he should stay in the team for at least until he starts to decline, but his future might be united to Valls', so that's why he "only" has a 90% chance to stay. We are really happy with his season and we think that in PCT, he should have more freedom to join breakaways and fight for KoMs, so that's why gets to be rated with a 7,5

A huge mistake. That's what we did signing this Italian sprinter. We thought that he might be able to contest sprint for minor points, but we were obviously wrong. At the end of the season, he's the only non-stagiare rider to not have score a single point. He's obviously not being even considered for a renewal, and his season rate is a 2, because he tried sometimes to get in sprints, like in Tachira, but never got to a Top10

The last season in Alejandro's career wasn't as succesfull as the rest of his career, but he still proved that he was worthy of that minimum contract that he signed with our team. Clasico San Cristobal was the only race he was able to score points, after being in the BotD and managing to finish 13th that day. It was an epic first day of racing for the team, but despite trying it a few more times during his short season (less than 40 RD's), he was never again in a succesfull breakaway. Anyway, he came here with the mission of mentoring the youth riders and he accomplished that, with not only Roson and Rodriguez talking great about him, but also riders like Power, Prado or Van Niekerk, who are riding here loaned from other PT teams, were happy with Bala's presence in the team. That's why his season is rated with a 7

Croatia14 wrote:
If Stacchiotti is not a 0, who is it then?

Croatia14 wrote:
If Stacchiotti is not a 0, who is it then?

Rafael Valls. The STAR of the team. What a season he has had. 9 total wins, 3 GC wins, CT Individual Crown, 2nd in a PCT Stage Race. Well, i could be all day talking about his season and i wouldn't get tired. And also we have talked about his season several times in this HQ, like here or here too. In short, he did exactly what he was signed for. To lead the team to promote to PCT. He had the 2nd highest scoring season for a CT rider ever, only bettered by Vitor Rodrigues in 2014, but he had way more RD's to do it. His season isn't a 10, because he failed in two C2HC races, Trentino and ColVenteaux, but i guess a 9,75 is good enough

And for the only 70% chance of being in 2018 team, is more about the need to sell him if we need money/lots of wage cap than wanting him out, but in several of our "simulations" of how our team could for PCT, he wasn't able to stay on the team

Philippe was signed as the co-leader of our hilly squad, together with Cunego, and he didn't disappoint like the other. At some points we felt that he could have done way better, but scoring almost 200 points is a fair deal given he wasn't the most explosive puncheur in the division and neither was a top one. Given his flat skills we sent him to flat classics, and he almost won Great Ocean Road Classic, finishing 5th after being caught by some sprinters in the final km. Apart from that, the podium in the final race of the season, Zuri-Metzgete, his great first part of Tour of Britain and his constant level around 8th-15th all-season earns him a 8. Being 36 next year, and with way worse stats, he's unlikely to remain in the team for PCT, but we'll try to retain him in a 50k wage and then see if he fits in the team or any other team wants to buy him

The Frenchman was the responsable of making our climbing team to be the second highest scoring team between the 3 flat CT classics, mostly thanks to his amazing solo win in Paris-Tours. He almost got away with the win too in Barcelona Classic, but was caught inside the final km. He was signed as a timetrialist with great power in the flats, but his performance in timetrials was disappointing, not even reaching 10 points in timetrials. That's the reason he's only rated with a 7,5. He's unlikely to remain in the team next season because he doesn't fit in our PCT project, and a rider with his skills will be very valuable for other teams who will pay for him some money that we should need

The best rider in MG history was signed as our hilly leader together with Gilbert and as a top support for Valls in mountains, but it seems like he decided to take an easy year to "destroy" his legacy and not care at all about the team promotion hopes. 37 points is all he got, making it into the Top10 only once all-season in a Tour of Britain stage. Such a pathetic performance that makes him deserving of the only 0 of the team. He's obviously not continuing in the team next season