Not sure I've given you a hearty slap on the back for winning the 2018 PT crown, so retrospective congrats.
You'll get a lot of interest with your rider availability list, but in my case they don't tend to fit regional interest, so things will have to have gone particularly pear-shaped for us to interact too much. Whatever the case, I am expecting to witness the cyborg version of Herklotz incoming for the MG season come the end of transfers!
ember wrote:
With Herklotz as an absolute world class leader, as shown by the individual rankings in the 2018 season, I must agree with Roman. It's difficult to see you end the transfer season as anything else than the favourite for the title again. And I'm looking forward to see what minor changes you'll do!
Seeing the riders listed as available/possibly available, Bongiorno is the one that stands out for me. Expect quite a few managers to be interested in him, and I could well be one of them.
Thank you! Who knows if it'll really just be minor changes, we did what we came here for already.
jph27 wrote:
Wouldn't be transfer season without us talking, and I'm strongly of the view you can never have too many top quality puncheurs, so I expect our yearly tradition of futile talks will continue
Resistance might be futile (quite literally in terms of PCM18 AI actually), but you never know if this might be the year! I'm looking forward to it again.
Scorchio wrote:
Not sure I've given you a hearty slap on the back for winning the 2018 PT crown, so retrospective congrats.
You'll get a lot of interest with your rider availability list, but in my case they don't tend to fit regional interest, so things will have to have gone particularly pear-shaped for us to interact too much. Whatever the case, I am expecting to witness the cyborg version of Herklotz incoming for the MG season come the end of transfers!
Thank you very much, and do you really think putting 8 minutes into Phinney in the Vuelta if we disregard the flat TT wasn't already cyborg enough?
In the five days of transfers so far, Team Puma - SAP has made a grand total of four swap moves and secured one young rider from Free Agency.
After winning the ProTour title, our direction cannot go upwards anymore, so the call was made to return our focus on German talent even more and bolster our core around Silvio Herklotz, rather than valuing the maximum points scoring ability.
Therefore, these five moves result in the loss of two Dutchmen, a German and an Italian, while we welcome five new Germans to the team!
We are somewhat sad to announce the departure of several riders that were fundamentally important to the success of Team Puma - SAP throughout the years, the most important of them even since the the team was founded.
Wilco Kelderman was an integral part of the team since 2012, never even spending just one day in another jersey than ours.
His results as one of the top puncheurs in the world are widely known, in particular his Flèche Wallone victory in 2016 ensured he will be viewed among the greats of this generation.
His imminent departure sparked a lot of interest from all over the world, but in the end we personally valued the deal proposed by Philips the most.
Beyond the fact that Wilco gets to lead a Dutch team in PCT now and will try to become the best puncheur there, they also agreed to send young cobbler Lukas Meiler in return, a rider we will present to you later.
We wish Wilco Kelderman all the best in his new team colors, and hope to meet again on the road!
Another longstanding member of Team Puma - SAP (since 2013 to be exact), and recent winner of the KoM jersey in the Tour de France, Dominik Nerz is a great climber and will now be able to display that skill at Kraftwerk Man Machine in PCT.
Dominik, at age 30, has expressed his wish to ride on the PCT circuit as a clear team leader with the focus on our team clearly lying on Vuelta a Espana winner Silvio Herklotz now.
We believe he can show his skills there regularly, and the deal got even sweeter for us thanks to the addition of Nils Politt to our team in return.
Thank you Dominik for your efforts for Team Puma - SAP throughout the years!
Another great climber in our team's history is on the way to our friends over at Festina - OAKA. Italian Francesco Bongiorno has always had a lead role at the Giro and other climbing-heavy races since he officially joined us as a developed talent in 2015, after having spent two years on our payroll, but in other teams to facilitate his growth.
We, and the entire cycling world, will never forget his endeavours in the Giro 2017, where he set off on an insane solo on stage 15 to win it by 9 minutes over the favorites, putting him on a great 8th place in the final GC of that race.
We however have always received great interest in him from Festina, and this was finally the year where they agreed to sending German climber Yuriy Vasyliv in return, a fact that sealed this deal for us.
Grazie Francesco! We will meet again soon.
Lastly, we have also agreed to a swap deal with CT team CYBEX Platinum for our TTer Dylan van Baarle, a rider we had acquired in the 2013 transfer season just like Bongiorno and Nerz.
Dylan had always been a valuable part of our team, never failing to live up to his tasks of protecting our leaders and animating the race wherever possible. In one of his last races for us, the latest Tour de France, he did that very well and scored a nice 7th place from a breakaway late in the race.
Besides that, he always was an important piece of our TTT lineups and led many of our GC hopefuls to good results in that discipline. We do hope though that his replacement Florian Stork can one day grow into such a role as well.
We hope Dylan can lead his new CT team and show that division how time trialing is done correctly with his experience!
As mentioned before, all four transfers this season have been swap deals and saw German riders join Team Puma - SAP in return.
The general plan before transfer season has therefore been successfully executed already, and we are very happy with the new additions that will help Silvio feel even more comfortable in this team as he and Arnaud lead us into the future.
In total, we now own ten German riders, which actually may give us the opportunity to field a fully German GT lineup one day!
Having such a team support Herklotz on his way to another Grand Tour victory might become our most important long-term goal now.
Lukas Meiler joins us from PCT outfit Philips and brings an interesting skillset that will develop even further in the next years.
A lover of all things cobbled, he will learn from Tim Declerq and hopefully develop into his direction to take over the role of versatile cobbles leader in a few years time.
His ability on the flats and hills will surely be above average once maxed, and until then he will already be an important domestique in many different races and circumstances.
Lukas Meiler
2.99
24yo
Cobbles
€55.000
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Nils Politt has just finished his development as a TTer, and will now have the opportunity to display his skills in our jersey.
A rouleur in the best sense, he can invest his powers in domestique duties on flat stages, and will be able to lead us in TTTs. Especially in his home race Deutschland Tour, he will certainly try to finish high in the GC too though!
Nils Politt
4.100
25yo
Time Trial
€50.000
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We always closely monitored the performances of Yuriy Vasyliv as he steadily improved at Festina, and never lost hope that we might one day manage to convince him to ride in our jersey. The time finally has come!
As a major piece in our team plans going forward, Yuriy has all the skills necessary to ride very well in stage races all around the world.
We expect him to mostly support Silvio Herklotz in his ambitions to win even more races, but he surely has the ability to lead races for us too and perform well there.
At just 26 years of age, he will be able to spend his entire prime with us and Silvio and especially considering his low wage, we don't see any reason to ever split up this duo again!
Yuriy Vasyliv
4.100
26yo
Stage Racer
€105.000
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Our youngest addition at just 22 years, Florian Stork has already raced a season on Continental Tour level and appears to have the talent to one day become a core rider in our stage racing team.
With similar strength in climbing and time trialling, plus great secondary stats, he brings everything we could ask for in terms of a support rider in races where Herklotz needs to avoid a time loss in a TTT and requires good climbers to stay at his side for as long as possible.
For the next few years, Florian will learn how to fill that role best from the experienced riders in our team.
Florian Stork
2.99
22yo
Stage Racer
€50.000
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For now, our only acquisition from Free Agency is young German sprint prodigy Jannik Steimle.
Jannik will spend his first season in CT with Tryg Insurance Cycling Team to ensure he transitions well from junior racing to the elite circuit, and develops as fast as possible so he can help us soon.
Once fully developed, we expect Jannik to be a strong sprinter with fast acceleration who enjoys a hard day of racing more than a pan flat route. He may team up with Demare at times, but we also see the potential in him to go even beyond these expected skills and become a main sprinter for our team, in particular once Arnaud starts to decline.
Cool restructuring! I see you focus a lot more on regionals, otherwise I couldn't explain the trade for Vasyliv. Politt and Meiler are great value, so is Steimle (who could also become a nice guy to train indeed). I like what you are doing!
Croatia14 wrote:
Cool restructuring! I see you focus a lot more on regionals, otherwise I couldn't explain the trade for Vasyliv. Politt and Meiler are great value, so is Steimle (who could also become a nice guy to train indeed). I like what you are doing!
Thank you! And I did address that.
After winning the ProTour title, our direction cannot go upwards anymore, so the call was made to return our focus on German talent even more and bolster our core around Silvio Herklotz, rather than valuing the maximum points scoring ability.
3 years younger, 30k wage cheaper, and the best German stage racer not in my team yet that won't decline soon.
All things I can hopefully afford to care about now.
We would like to use this opportunity to announce our latest and potentially most important signing of the 2019 transfer season.
Valentin, bienvenue à Team Puma - SAP!
Valentin Madouas, a young Frenchman at the start of his professional career, had been our big target this transfer season as soon as we managed to scout this rider and realized his immense versatility and talent to one day become a leader of Team Puma - SAP.
We therefore are very happy to have convinced him to join our team for this season, and hopefully for the rest of his career.
Madouas, at just 23 years of age, already displays a wide array of skills on any terrain and in any discipline.
This means that there are many different ways how to form him into a fully grown rider in the next years, but we very much consider for him to become an apprentice of our French star Arnaud Demare for a while, especially after the loss of Kelderman.
We plan for Valentin to learn from him over the course of the next seasons to one day emulate his success on the highest level of professional cycling.
However, we can already tell now that Madouas will be much better on longer slopes than his fellow countryman, and even in time trials if there is a need to perform in them for GC purposes.
Not unlike the most famous puncheurs of the scene, Hagen and Ponzi, his ability to survive the hardest ridden parts of any race is well complemented by his kick and top speed.
Coincidentally, we expect Valentin to finish his development around the time that Demare will slowly start to feel the effects of age and probably get tired of working hard all winter long yet again.
Therefore, there is a good chance that we will be able to fully focus our human, technical and financial resources in future off-seasons on elevating his abilities to the level of the best riders in the world.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Flooding, hurricanes, be-calmed ferries with no internet-connection, climate change protests, #FAKEnews Presidents: nothing will stop Team Puma - SAP in its mission to hoover up every talent existing in the entire DB!
More seriously, you are of course correct to conclude that Madouas provides the platform to potentially become a franchise defining super-star, just depends how much love you are willing to lavish on him .
After taking the title, managing cap always going to pose problems, (hard to fathom how Festina managed to three-peat to be fair). So really impressed with the re-newed focus on your home region, and the involvement of French leaders just demonstrates the success of the European project (no Brits though, wonder what's up with that!).
There were two more Free Agent signings for Team Puma - SAP in the last hours of transfer season to complete the squad.
Yeah. We know. And it's okay to admit it.
Anyway. Thanks to our excellent relationship with Greek outfit Festina - OAKA throughout the years, our scouts have recognized the talent coming from Greece lately is of rather decent quality.
And now is the time where we actually signed our first Greek rider!
Ioannis Spanopoulos is one of many climbers emerging from the country, but one of the few who escaped Festina's grasp. He comes with some development left to do for us, but luckily we're experts in that.
Once maxed out, he will be a good versatile climber that can easily be put into any stage race with a TTT too, while not being a strain on our budget.
To put it short, exactly the kind of rider we need!
Ioannis Spanopoulos
3.00
26yo
Stage Racer
€50.000
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Four years ago, we signed exotic Kiwi Patrick Bevin because our sponsors saw a rapidly increasing marketing potential for a cycling team in New Zealand thanks to the Bewley craze.
Last season, we signed exotic Rwandan Janvier Hadi because our sponsors recognized Rwanda's passion for cycling is unmatched in Africa.
So what's left after the fastest growing market and the most passionate market?
Right: the biggest market in the world period!
Yikui Niu is our third signing intended to encourage cycling fans all around the globe to take interest in our team and to spread awareness of the sponsors supporting it.
Quite in the mold of Hadi actually, Niu is an excellent allrounder with a fast sprint under any circumstances and on any profile.
With this skill combination and his attacking spirit, we hope he can support the team wherever necessary, but also go in breakaways and contest for intermediate sprints and KoMs.
And if one of those breakaways makes it to the line, you better have gotten rid of the quick Chinese before!
We hope Yikui settles in with the team nicely this season and progresses some more to become an integral part of our team on every race day he rides with us.
Yikui Niu
4.00
25yo
Allrounder
€80.000
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A full team presentation including goals and training will follow later this week.
With the sales of Wilco Kelderman and Dominik Nerz this transfer season, combined with great scoring in our goal races and the positive financial side effects of a PT title, Team Puma - SAP had plenty of cash at hand to fund training camps for their riders over the winter.
As it turns out, the hard work of management during transfers and staff in the various camps was successful, and actually resulted in a new world record, which we are particularly proud of!
Arnaud Demare
28yo
Sprinter/Puncheur
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A dream dreamt six years ago, a goal pursued for more than half a decade, a career focused on becoming the best in the world. It has finally been achieved.
Arnaud Demare is now the first rider in Management Game history to have reached at least 80 in both hill and sprint!!
We applaud his determination throughout the last years to get to this point, and we cannot wait to see how this will affect his performances this season and beyond.
Furthermore, there was just enough money and time left to schedule some mountain rides for him, and we hope this means he will cope slightly better with longer climbs and steady efforts as well.
Silvio Herklotz
25yo
Stage Racer
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The 2018 Vuelta a Espana winner, Silvio Herklotz, has enjoyed a stellar first maxed season, with wins in California and Switzerland complementing his first GT win to propel him to second in the individual rankings of last season.
But despite these performances, Silvio and the team know the opposition will try their best to not let him run away with any more GC wins, so we cannot relax and stop improving!
Therefore, a very big investment was made in the off-season to allow Herklotz to travel to the best training climbs in the world to help him gain further experience and climb even better than in 2018.
We are curious to find out if there was some more performance to be found in these legs when Herklotz lines up for his first race of the new season!
So that's 3.5mil in cap space used on two riders next year, what about the other 18 you need?
Although i did expect to see an 85 there this time around, i guess after fines it wasn't quite happening.
) during transfers...
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
