roturn wrote:
Both should be very nice domestiques on PT level and would need 2-3 years of training for more while immediately would be very good CT leaders and decent in some PCT races as well.
70ACC for Carboni was a bit worrying for me though, but then again the low FL stat of Fabbro could be a problem. Carboni with 78MO 77HI is definately better though!
Which would be the one with 70acc max as well unfortunately.
Which would be the one with 70acc max as well unfortunately.
Prefer the one with 78/77 but with 72TT and 70ACC
Need to get this training in somehow.
Didn't quite catch that? How are you going to make him 78MO 77HI 72TT?
Don't know if Carboni is a rider worth training TBH. He should be really strong already, but will never become a PT level leader due to the ACC, and once he's maxed out and training eligeble he will be 27. So just 4 seasons of training. He needs 73-74ACC atleast, so that is 1½-2 years of training. And then you have another 4-5 stats to put on him.
81-82HI? Would be good, but for just a couple of seasons.
Rudy Barbier, 26 years old (Leadout sprinter)
Rudy Barbier is a classical sprinter. Fast on the line, relatively strong in the cobbles and with a strong engine. With these qualities, Barbier have everything needed to be a PT level leadout rider.
Last season Rudy was contracted at Haute Route - Mavic, but having been on the shortlist for several seasons, we are happy to have finally managed to secure his signature.
Barbier used the off season to develop further, and we evaluate him with these stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Rudy Barbier
70
50
66
56
69
69
67
66
74
75
63
63
60
26yo
Already strong enough to be a valuable rider when reeling in breakaways, but also fast enough to maybe go as one of the rider leading out the star. In the future we are not yet sure whether or not Barbier should become a classical leadout rider, or a more punchy leadout. We have a potentially strong punchy sprinter on our hands now, and need to rethink the way we build trains in the future.
If going for a Coquard leadout type, this is what we believe he will end up with:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Rudy Barbier
74
50
67
56
72
70
77
69
78
79
63
64
60
28yo
But as we recognize the limitations in his skill sets, we might be looking to make him a leadout for another type of races all together. His mountainous capabilities will always struggle, hence letting him ride tough GC races would normally be a no go. Going for a more versatile leadout type, this is what we can expect:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Rudy Barbier
72
52
71
57
73
71
73
66
75
78
66
64
61
28yo
No matter which direction we chose, we believe that Rudy Barbier will become a valuable rider to lead out sprinters within our setup.
Nikolaos Ioannidis, 25 years old (GC Domestique)
For several seasons, Nikolaos Ioannidis have been part of the game, but have struggled to find contracts at a professionel level. This season we have decided to tie him, while loaning him out to Carrefour - ESPN where he will have a chance to show himself as one of the lead climbers of the team.
While having never proved strong enough to potentially lead a team, we do evaluate Nikolaos to be of sufficient quality to be a very important GC domestique in the future. This is how we evaluate him right now:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Nikolaos Ioannidis
66
71
70
71
73
71
69
57
58
69
71
67
72
25yo
Realistically Ioannidis needs to attack from quite some range to pose a threat on a stagewin looking at his ability to finishi races, but we evaluate him as a domestique, so that doesn't matter much. This is our final evaluation fo him:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Nikolaos Ioannidis
67
75
73
75
76
74
73
57
58
70
72
67
76
27yo
With a great allround skill set, Ioannidis could be a regular top 50 finisher in Grand Tours while aiding the captains to succes, but it wouldn't require much training to actually make him a rather strong GC rider himself. Something we are obviously considering aswell.
Scorchio wrote:
I prefer the 1st option for Barbier. If you'd wanted more like the 2nd option, why didn't you just stick with our mutual friend Georgios? .
Back then I didn't have a hilly sprinter
Now that I have a rider such as Pascal Ackermann I might start to consider how to get the best out of him, which could be done by having a couple of similar looking (but less strong) sprinters. And for that, Bouglas (I believe he's the one are referring to) is a bit to old. He would max out at 29 a year before Ackermann would even be done levelling up, and well before trainable
But I do think I'll use Barbier with option 1 too, while probably signing a new leadout once it's needed.
Aidan van Niekerk, 21 years old (Puncheur)
Last season we signed the very talented South African puncheur, Aidan van Niekerk. He spent the first season at CT level, and will be loaned out yet again for the upcoming season, but will ride at another PT team, where we aim for him to learn from top rider, Jan Bakelants.
Aidan is a rider who loves being in the front of races, and we have big plans for him in the future. Currently we assess him with the following stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Aidan van Niekerk
68
70
72
64
70
73
74
66
62
70
78
70
64
21yo
Having already proven to be a strong climber we only expect Aidan to be stronger. In the past he had several personal clashes with Charalampas Kastrantas, who is a regular at Festina, and to avoid any issues, we decided to loan out Aidan. Having said that, we fully expect them to come to terms with one another, so they can help eachother next season.
In the future we believe that Aidan will look something like this:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Aidan van Niekerk
69
73
77
65
72
75
76
66
63
74
82
71
65
23yo
What is worth noting here, is that Aidan will be just 23 years old, once he is estimated to fully develop, and hence being training eligeble at the age of 24. And by then, our hilly leader Clement Koretzky will be on his 2nd to last season on peak level. A perfect time to begin inventing a new leader. Here we expect Aidan van Niekerk to be our future leader. If trained fully, we should see him reach level 85HI by the age of 27. Whether or not, that is the logical way to go is yet to be decided, as his sprint stat might advocate for a different approach.
Nontheless we expect Aidan van Niekerk to be one of the best riders available one way of another.
That's some plans! With the sprint, stamina (and tt) a bit low, it would be very interesting to see if it will be worth it. 85 hills and 82 ftr at least should make him a very good rider.
Looking forward to have him on the team this year!
Georgios Karatzios, 28 years old (Cobbler)
From basically nothing, Karatzios made a sudden late bloom into a very interesting looking rider. Having never ridden at professionel level, it will be somewhat of a quantum leap for the 28-year old Greek.
While we don't have a lot of expectations for Karatzios right away, we do believe he have everything it takes to make a very high level domestique for Maxime Daniel in a year or two.
Karatzios is already very strong on the flat and cobbled sections, but also should become a quality puncheur, perfectly suited for a race like Tour of Flandres.
This season we expect him to look like this:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Georgios Karatzios
74
58
70
59
72
68
66
73
60
65
70
61
59
28yo
While already a decent domestique on flats and cobbles, we expect him to be a powerhouse once fully grown acustomed to the high level of professional cycling. Something which will also be very useful for a rider like Bryan Coquard.
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Georgios Karatzios
77
58
71
59
75
71
67
77
63
67
70
61
59
30yo
We believe that Karatzios will never become a Pro Tour leading material, but less is definately also useful.
tastasol wrote:
That's some plans! With the sprint, stamina (and tt) a bit low, it would be very interesting to see if it will be worth it. 85 hills and 82 ftr at least should make him a very good rider.
Looking forward to have him on the team this year!
Yeah. Not sure 85HI is the best, but maybe use his MO/HI combination could be another way to go. He should be easy to train to 67 in stats like SPR and TT, due to his relatively high OVL (Once trained a bit). 74ACC seems like a good stat for a climber, while 82FIG and 71DH is very nice as a bonus.
I will be very interested to see if he will be attacking a lot for you this season. I think there's a good chance he will
Manuel Stocker, 26 years old (Leadout Sprinter)
Manuel Stocker was also on the team last season, but due to contract reasons was released, only to be re-signed again. Manuel is the perfect leadout sprinter, as he has a decent speed, while also a good flat aswell as TT capabilities.
This season, Manuel will be loaned out to fellow PT team, Desigual, and we believe he will look like this:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Manuel Stocker
73
60
65
69
70
72
73
59
75
76
64
65
71
26yo
Once he will be maxed out, he will be ready to take part in the train for Bryan Coquard next season. This will be with the following stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Manuel Stocker
74
60
65
69
70
73
77
59
77
78
64
65
72
27yo
Not much else to say about Stocker, who is basically man-marking Coquard next season.
Pascal Ackermann, 24 years old (Sprinter)
German Super-talent Pascal Ackermann signed from amateur ranks this season, and while being 24 years old already we expect him to become one of the better riders within the peloton in a few seasons time.
Pascal Ackermann comes in and joins the train for Bryan Coquard this season, while also getting a few chances for himself with his strong punch for steep climbs. This is what we expect from Pascal Ackermann this season:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Pascal Ackermann
70
63
72
60
70
69
74
61
75
76
63
62
67
24yo
And while he already have some impressive qualities, the really interesting thing comes when reassessing his talent once fully developped. We are looking at two different setups for Pascal Ackermann, and we are yet to determine which will be the most profitable for us.
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Pascal Ackermann
73
64
75
61
73
72
79
61
79
80
64
63
69
26yo
Here we will get a rider perfectly suitable for riding his own chances in very difficult terrain, while also working as a leadout rider for Coquard before getting trained himself.
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Pascal Ackermann
72
65
77
61
75
71
79
61
77
80
66
63
68
26yo
This solution will open for Ackermann going mainly for himself and the hilly races, while working OK for leadouts here and there, but lacking some strength in the flats, aswell as sprints.
Miltiadis Giannoutsous, 21 years old (GC rider)
The final talent this season, is also one of the most interesting seen with Greek eyes. Miltiadis is a unique rider from the Greek peninsula, as he is a GC rider in it's purest form. He is lacking a little bit in terms of timetrials, but instead is the best climber from the region ever.
This season he is beeing loaned to Repsol - Netflix from the Pro Continental Division, where he aims to get as much experience as possible. This is what he will look like this season:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
65
69
67
65
69
71
66
57
64
65
74
66
70
21yo
After this season we expect Giannoutsos to return to Festina and receive his final development there. Once fully developped we expect him to look like this:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
66
78
75
66
72
76
73
57
64
72
85
69
71
24yo
Unless something changes for us, the above will be the path chosen for Giannoutsos, but we could be tempted to go for the below aswell:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
68
78
72
72
76
78
75
57
64
68
75
67
77
24yo
No matter what happens, Giannoutsos can be looking forward to a relatively high amount of training in order to finally see a Greek rider breaking into the top 10 of a Grand Tour GC.
The season is almost ready to start, and as usual this means that we are ready to put down the plans for the public. Several sponsor goals have been made, but also internal team goals are listed. Below you will be presented for the team goals.
Team Standings - Top 3 | TBA
Tour of Qatar - Win | TBA
GP Moscow - Win | TBA
Tour de France - Top 5 | TBA
Milano San Remo - Top 10 | TBA
Letting go of both Simon Spilak and Jerome Coppel effectively moves us out of top 3 contention, so while it is a sponsor goal, we have been rather open about it, and we believe a top 10 should be the realistic target. That said, we have tried our best to plan in regards of achieving the goal. Looking at our team, and comparing with others, however, settle things. We need to be extremely lucky all around to achieve it.
The two win goals of the season is somewhat realistic, seeing Bryan Coquard being now among the top 5 sprinters in the world, but we also know that to achieve win goals, everything need to be working - and we aren't the only teams around. Tour of Qatar is our biggest goal of the season, as Coquard does have the best possible skillset for the race. He's not the only contender, and he needs to be consistent to win, as he can't cover much time in the prologue against riders such as Degenkolb, Swift, Grosu, Kristoff, Bewley, Ahlstrand and Groenewegen.
At GP Moscow a win will be even more up to daily form and chance, but if we don't trust Coquard to win races like that, we shouldn't have invested as heavily in him as we did.
Going for top 10 in Milano San Remo is yet again a bit of a gamble. Last season, Koretzky was our only guy up front, and he delivered exactly 10th. But Milano San Remo has a history with us, and we rarely goes without picking it as a goal of some sort.
The final goal is probably the most interesting one, as we had a split goal.
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier time
Top 3 Giro d'Italia or Top 5 Tour de France...
In the end we picked Top 5 Tour de France, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier will ride the Tour de France. Whether or not he will be able to achieve the goal, is dependant on whatever riders decide to turn up for the race. Top 5 isn't unrealistic however, and most importantly - The U25 competition should be his for the taking.
But then what? Well, despite not having the Giro as a sponsor goal, we does have it as an internal goal, hence Lecuisinier isn't doing one Grand Tour. He will ride 2! One of the main reason for not moving into training him, came with this decision, and it will be the last time ever he can ride 2 Grand Tours in just 1 season.
We hope to see him finish top 5 in both, and land the U25 competition, in which case he should be able to secure around 1000 points which is our designated figure for him.
In the Giro d'Italia we have done whatever possible to limit his losses in the Team Timetrial, and while we realize that we have a horrible team doing that, it means that the following riders will line up for the Giro d'Italia:
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier Juan Ernesto Chamorro Yuriy Vasyliv Matteo Fabbro Panagiotis Vlatos Georgos Tzortzakis Emerson Santos Romain Le Roux
Worth noting is, that we will line up also hoping to get a good U25 result from Vasyliv and Fabbro, while having riders for basically all stages possible, we also hope to put in a good fight for the Team competition.
In the Tour de France, the Team Timetrial doesn't mean as much, which will see us gamble a bit more in terms of TT quality. Yet the team is still relatively strong:
Yet again we hope to make the most from the U25 competition, where we expect Lecuisinier to fight to win, while Vasyliv could also do well, while even Fabbro could possible be in it for a top 10 if performing well. Also worth noting is that Georgos Tzortzakis will be riding both Grand Tours, even landing Emerson Santos as a possible leadout in the Giro d'Italia if the lineup isn't that strong.
The reasoning behind doing so, is that we want to fight for flat stagewins in all 3 Grand Tours. Wait does that mean?
Bryan Coquard time
...Well yes, it most certainly do! Bryan Coquard will infact be riding the Vuelta a España. Some called the "bullshit" filter very early, but it was a very late decision, which in the end was taken as much by Coquard as it was with the direction board. He obviously isn't going alone, though!
Bryan Coquard Emerson Santos Juan Ernesto Chamorro Robin van der Hugenhaben Jocelyn Bar Sascha Weber Rudy Barbier Georgios Karatzios
Worth noting is, that the GC leadership will be dealt between Chamorro and van der Hugenhaben. We hope both will be in the fight for top 25, but we don't know what to expect. Also worth noting is that we already gambled with not going for U25 competition here, which basically means that we hope/think that riders such as Silvio Herklotz, Richard Antonio Carapaz, Jack Haig and Alex Kirsch could be going there as leaders/lieutenaints. Having Herklotz confirmed is basically the perfect scenario for Lecuisinier, while the others are mainly a threat towards Vasyliv.
Bryan Coquard is going with his main leadouts, and while Tzortzakis is likely to lead him out elsewhere, we decided to go without him here, to try and fill whatever gaps this decision with Coquard would bring during the season. So Emerson Santos, Jocelyn Bar, Sascha Weber and Rudy Barbier here as leadouts while Karatzios joins to bring back any breaks.
Except for those races, we aim to maximize the points from Bryan Coquard by attending these races:
- Tour of Qatar
- SAA Tour d'Afrique
- Lisbon Classic
- Rund um Köln
- Deutschland Tour
- GP Moscow
Except for Deutschland Tour he is in for a realistic shot at winning all the races he attends. Races that was left out in the final hour, and something that might ease the opponents a bit:
- Paris-Nice
- Milano San Remo
- Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
- Tour of Tasmania
So it's Morton versus Lecuisinier again Giro should be fun then!
Kinda good news, that there will be one less opponent for the U25 competition at La Vuelta, a race that should suit Jack Haig pretty well with those TT kilometres. But you will meet him at Le Tour instead. Hope to beat you at one race at least Coquard ain't good news, but hey, the only thing I can hope for Howard is to be in the mix, when the sprints go. At least he ain't going to Paris - Nice and Tasmania.
tsmoha wrote:
So it's Morton versus Lecuisinier again Giro should be fun then!
Kinda good news, that there will be one less opponent for the U25 competition at La Vuelta, a race that should suit Jack Haig pretty well with those TT kilometres. But you will meet him at Le Tour instead. Hope to beat you at one race at least Coquard ain't good news, but hey, the only thing I can hope for Howard is to be in the mix, when the sprints go. At least he ain't going to Paris - Nice and Tasmania.
Indeed. Usually Morton wins when it’s regarding top positions. I hope Lecuisinier can atleast put some pressure on him :-)
I'm very happy about the coquard schedule. He's facing mvs less than i feared and especially Praha and Tasmania are races where he could steal points from mvs
Rudy Barbier, 26 years old (Leadout sprinter)
.
Nikolaos Ioannidis, 25 years old (GC Domestique)
Aidan van Niekerk, 21 years old (Puncheur)
Manuel Stocker, 26 years old (Leadout Sprinter)
Pascal Ackermann, 24 years old (Sprinter)
Juan Ernesto Chamorro
Matteo Fabbro
Emerson Santos
Armanto Archimandritis
Loic Vliegen
Robin van der Hugenhaben
Giro should be fun then!
