The teams 5th season in the ManGame will in our case take place in the ProTour. This season marks a new high for the team, as we enter the ProTour with a direct promotion from the PCT. Therefore it ends one chapter in our journey to becoming a powerhouse team in the ManGame with us reaching our first big goal. Now is the time to set new ones, to set new boundaries and to set new exciting prospects in the biggest races on the calendar. We had a taste of the rough marks of a Grand Tour last season and now we have to participate in 3. These among other challenges are a breath of fresh air for the team and finding our footing in the ProTour is the next big step.

With renewals upon us, we can reveal that big changes will be made to the roster for next season and that the search for new and younger talent is imminent for the upcoming transfer season. This is no big secret, having focused on a more experienced roster for the past years in the PCT with little focus on developing talent. For now we'll have to wait for the rest of the teams to finish their renewals to enable us to reveal our own renewals.

Meanwhile we have some other big news and that is the inclusion of a Hall of Fame for the team. Where we will over the coming days include some the most meaningful riders in our own personal Hall of Fame. These riders have been irreplaceable in our yearning to reach the ProTour and therefore we would like to thank them properly. Let the 2019 season begin!

Nat.	Last Name	First Name	Wage
	Mohs	Erik	€ 300.000
	Guardini	Andrea	€ 125.000
	Poljanski	Pawel	€ 105.000
	Raileanu	Cristian	€ 100.000
	Stepniak	Grzegorz	€ 95.000
	Nareklishvili	Giorgi	€ 70.000
	Rovny	Ivan	€ 65.000
	Bostner	Jaka	€ 60.000
	Goldstein	Roy	€ 60.000
	Shapira	Idan	€ 60.000
	Cohen	Noam	€ 50.000
	Eliad	Daniel	€ 50.000
	Ignatiev	Dmitriy	€ 50.000
	Jallays	Welle	€ 50.000
	Nechita	Andrei	€ 50.000
	Sagan	Juraj	€ 50.000

A lot of surprises in our renewals. It's time for a clean slate overall and with our promotion to PT we have an excellent chance at doing just that. It also means that a lot of backbone has been removed and big assets to the team are gone. Also it's a chance for new Polish forces to take over with only 2 remaining. All in all a very exciting transfer season to come with about 2M to spend on wages

We would like to thank Chris Froome, Mikhail Ignatiev, Ran Margaliot, Emanuel Piaskowy, Nicolas Roche and Kamil Zielinski for there years of service. Froome and Roche has been leaders on this team for quite some time, but declining age and a chance to dominate new shores seems set for those two. Mikhail Ignatiev was in many ways our saving grace for promoting to PT, but wage demands were to high and hopefully he'll find a new team to help.

The biggest of all these are however Kamil Zielinski, who has made his team and nation proud with many glances of excellent. Who does even forget the time he dominated "Tour of the Middle East" with 2 opening stage wins and a 2nd place on the 3rd stage? Or the time he won a stage in our very first ever race in a PCT field Down Under? Thank you Kamil for many exciting times here at Fablok.

Now all that remains is, who does replace such strong assets and what areas will we venture into now having races like Tour de France and Vuelta Espana to think about? Do we continue focusing on sprints and TT's or something else entirely. Stay tuned for more!

knockout wrote:
A team with over 2m cap space talking about GTs and continuing to focus on TTs? I have an idea about a possible FA target...

Last Name	First Name	Wage	Availability
Mohs	Erik	€ 300.000	Maybe
Rovny	Ivan	€ 65.000	Yes
Cohen	Noam	€ 50.000	Yes
Jallays	Welle	€ 50.000	Yes
Eliad	Daniel	€ 50.000	Yes
Ignatiev	Dmitriy	€ 50.000	Yes
Sagan	Juraj	€ 50.000	Yes

Fablok-Bank BGZ's first season in PT is upon us and renewals were an excellent chance to clean up in the squad and start a new chapter with new riders. In many ways this is the start of our 2nd run and the clocks have been reset to almost 0. Therefore only a limited amount of riders are available on the transfer market this year, as the main bulk of the squad is already set to a acceptable level before the start of transfer season.

Most notable on the list is Erik Mohs, who despite having reached the declining age still is a very capable leader and has a perfect wage for his set of skills. We find ourselves in the situation of whether to get a new leader in the sprinting department. So therefore our ears are very open for possible

Lastly the team will be inclined to listen to offers for our other riders. However, due to our predicament, you might have to spend a bit extra for us to listen. We at Fablok wishes good luck to our peers in their respective transfer seasons. Our door is always open for discussions. Cya!

redordead wrote:
Looks like a big overhaul coming up, I guess in a lot of cases it's almost a necessity when changing divisions. Good luck

The time where our first signings join from Free Agency is upon is. Please give us a chance to introduce our very first signings of the year and for this edition we've added some nice filling to an otherwise delicious sandwich

Fl	Mo	Hi	TT	St	Rs	Rc	Cb	Sp	Ac	Fi	Dh	Prl
71	59	65	75	70	70	68	57	72	74	64	61	64

Our first signing is an old aquaintance who finallly returns to the team. Our team abandoned young riders in our search to reach the PT quickly, has returned. Klemen hopefully can find his footing again on our team

Fl	Mo	Hi	TT	St	Rs	Rc	Cb	Sp	Ac	Fi	Dh	Prl
72	74	73	66	72	72	70	61	69	71	73	67	64

Julien Bernard has not been on the team before, but that doesnt mean he can't be of use. Julien Bernards skills fit our calendar and he can expect to ride at least 2 GT's next season. So plenty of time for him to be maxed out and to be even better

Fl	Mo	Hi	TT	St	Rs	Rc	Cb	Sp	Ac	Fi	Dh	Prl
71	73	72	71	70	70	71	59	69	70	69	69	70

Leszek Plucinski is also a new inclusion. Leszek can something in both Mountains, Hills and TT's. However, to be honest his job will mostly be protective work and to collect water bottles. However, I'm sure he's gonna fit into the team just fine

cio93 wrote:
Bernard at 50k certainly an early steal of the FA season, he's been high up on my list, but I couldn't afford to commit any cap space so early.
I can see him do really well from breakaways.

Fl	Mo	Hi	TT	St	Rs	Rc	Cb	Sp	Ac	Fi	Dh	Prl
76	73	84	68	77	72	76	68	76	80	77	74	68

Simone Ponzi joins us from the Free Agency after his team Hugo Boss decided to close down it's business. He comes from last season with a 3rd place in the final standings in the ProTour. This along with a boom in the recent years has turned Ponzi into a machine. We hope that he can continue his killing spree here with us and is thrilled to have our main point scoring rider secured

Fl	Mo	Hi	TT	St	Rs	Rc	Cb	Sp	Ac	Fi	Dh	Prl
72	81	75	72	79	80	76	62	63	68	64	70	72

The second spot has been reserved by Tim Wellens, who joins us after a 1.9M bid was accepted for his services. While expensive for a rider, who will have a hard time getting into GT Top 10's. He has like Ponzi shown himself quite capable these past years. Also he takes a contested spot as our GT leader. However, we could've gone in more 'secure' directions with this spot, but as a team starting a focus in the Mountains for the first year. We now have a rider to build our future with

Fl	Mo	Hi	TT	St	Rs	Rc	Cb	Sp	Ac	Fi	Dh	Prl
71	57	64	65	70	72	66	65	74	74	63	66	69

Gabriel Marin joins us on loan from Equinor in the PCT division. While he does not take the sprinter spot left by Erik Mohs. He instead takes the role of being a leadout at a high level and hopefully he will grow with the challenge

Fl	Mo	Hi	TT	St	Rs	Rc	Cb	Sp	Ac	Fi	Dh	Prl
71	66	74	73	72	74	70	69	63	69	68	67	74

Jakub Kaczmarek is one of Poland's best domnestiques. As he can both drive up, down and straight with a mix of Climber and TT skills. He will be a very important rider, who can fill a lot of different roles. We're really pleased to have this type of talent as our disposal

Fl	Mo	Hi	TT	St	Rs	Rc	Cb	Sp	Ac	Fi	Dh	Prl
70	75	77	62	74	74	74	75	69	71	61	66	62

Tiesj Benoot is our final signing when it comes to our leader department, but it looks like it wont be our last signings of the season. However, let's get to business. Tiesj Benoot joins us from Free Agency and is ready for his final year of development at Fablok. Tiesj will be our leader in the Cobbles, but he is mostly a signing for the future and we're currently planning on making him into a world class puncheur. So one year in as leader in the cobbles and with some tutorage at the feet of Ponzi, we hope he can take his spot very soon.