Yevgeni joined us as part of a deal that saw Leopold Konig leave after a years valued service in CT. More about that later.

Yevgeni doesn't make our squad any younger, but after the recruitment of Talansky this was key in making the squad a bit more diverse with Nepomnyachsniy a strong TT'er with good skills in hilly terrain. A skillset that will come in handy several times over the season just as he can boost our TTT roster nicely.

After having failed to secure a big cobbled leader as hoped we were taken in by the Sri Lankan champion. Not just because we love NC's but also because he is a veery strong cobbler, who with his aggressive style of racing could be a good companion for Olli Kulppi taking a bit of the pressure away from our shy Finnish classics hero.

Then you might think that Sri Lanka is an odd fit for a Finnish team. That would be correct, but we are also very much a bovine team (in case you had missed that somehow) and few nations hold cows in such high esteem as Sri Lanka.

Moving from Sri Lanka to Finland is a big step so we let Sameera bring a friend, even though they won't get to race together very often.

Sachin haven't just joined us for the sake of his passport though. In fact he is a very competent helper for stage races and will even bee part of our TTT setup. On top of that only 24 years old so he has many good years ahead of him.

We never really planned to go after a sprinter, but within hours we lost Liepins and got the chance to swap Vinther for a slightly faster guy to fill the gap left by the Latvian.

Vanderaerden isn't a man for the future, but with good recovery and good skills on the flat as well as a strong sprint he will fulfil the role of support for Manninen in key races as well as getting the chance to sprint for himself in select stage races, where we don'e expect to see the biggest sprinters on the startlist.

Martins joins us on loan from our good friends at Evonik - ELKO and will mainly be a helper for the lumpier terrain, but can in fact be of some use pretty much everywhere.

Despite being 29 years old and is likely to be as good as he'll ever get Trond Larsen will now get to ride his first season in the pro ranks.

He is far from a world beater, but he is a solid helper, especially on the flats, and will even be an important rider in our TTT lineup. Should he find himself in a breakaway that lasts all the way he even has the kick needed to finish things.

Is Sauli the biggest Finnish talent ever?
No. I doubt even his mom would claim that, but he does have a very interesting skillset being strong on hills, TT and having a decent kicker. His career projectory will likely see him turn into Jaako Hänninens shadow.

To be honest Jesper Lindahl was supposed to only get a stagiare contract, but when we found ourselves with a spare 40k towards the end we decided to give him a full contract anyway.

In the future we expect him to develop into a versatile domestique kind of rider for different kinds of classics. Don't expect him to ride a full race program this year though as we largely consider him a stagiare+.

As per tradition we will go through the herd looking at each group, but first a fond farewell to the three rider leaving us in the transfer window.

Leopold König was only with us for a year, but was instrumental in our swift return to PCT as well as in our effort to have more scoring options this year. He really managed to make his mark on the team in short time.
We sold him to Isostar - Limebike, who then transferred him to Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ.

Emils Liepins clearly wanted to return to Latvia and Evonik - ELKO. We had high hoped for the Manninen/Liepins duo in CT, but Emils was rarely there when needed and didn't strike when given the chance for himself either. The silver medal at the nationals was just another sign of which team we wanted to race for the coming season...

Troels Vinther have been with us for three good years providing some fine leadouts for our sprinters. He will spend the last year at his peak in CT with Adastra - Hell Energy Cycling.

Our climbing department have two new leaders this year (again).
Andrew Talansky the most proficient climber with Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy more focused on the stage races where a good TT is crucial and pure climbing skills less essential but still important for the overall.
They should be able to get decent support both of them even in the rare race clash.

Gautier is obviously the undisputed leader whenever we hit the hills. Despite winning the CT ranking last year he wasn't dominant on the C2 scene. In fact he did better against PCT competition in C1 so we are optimistic that he will be able to carry on - this time wearing the French champions jersey as further evidence of his class.

His support is strengthened a bit by Kanervas development, but in all honestly it would not have hurt with another strong helper, doesn't matter much if he continues being the first attacker of the favourites though!

Whenever sprinting is on the scheme Manninen is our leader. Sure he didn't have a magnificent season last year, but he still is the best Finnish rider and as such he gets to lead our team on his favourite terrain by default.

On paper his support looks weaker than last year, but we expect that our train wouldn't be allowed very often anyway just as it can't be mainly our responsibility to control things all day this year.
Vanderaerden will be with Manninen in key races, but also allowed his own chance in some races where we expect a weaker sprint field.

In Marcel Kittel we have the strongest TT'er we've ever had and several races on our calendar where we expect him to be a key rider. Of course TT'ers are always a gamble, but we feel good about this one.

Pökälä will be allowed to ride his chances as well and Hänninen will be targeeting the shorter TT's while gathering experience for when he is expected to become one of the worlds best prologue riders in the future.

Olli Kulppi have had two seasons with sole leadership and clearly not enjoyed it. We had hoped to sign a big leader, but didn't find the cash to back up our hopes.

In stead we have given him a strong and aggressive companion in the Sri Lankan champion Chatarunga. That definitely doesn't bring us up high on the favourite lists, but hopefully it will make us better at the underdog role to have two cards to play.

These three shall mainly be focusing on their development this year. Especially Jaako Hänninen has priority to get into the races he needs to develop best possible.

How much Jesper Lindahl races will depend on a lot of other factors as his contract in many ways can be seen as an expanded stagiare contract.

Two of our calves have been sent to pasture elsewhere to help them grow as fast as possible.

Kaislavuo will be jumping to PT with classic outfit EA Vesuvio after a year in CT followed by a year at an amateur team. Will he be able to continue his streak with one win each year?

Hannes Bergstrom Frisk will be gathering experience with the new Danish CT outfit Tryg Insurance Cycling Team. Seems like a good safe environment for him this year.

1		Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	1708
2		Eduard Alexander Beltran	Swisslion Cycling Team	1368
3		Jonas Ahlstrand	Volvo acc. by Spotify	1136
15		Cyril Gautier	Valio - Viking Genetics	785
30		Andrew Talansky	Valio - Viking Genetics	550
44		Matti Manninen	Valio - Viking Genetics	455
50		Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Valio - Viking Genetics	420
85		Marcel Kittel	Valio - Viking Genetics	262
239		Samuel Pokälä	Valio - Viking Genetics	58
240		Sachin Dulanjana	Valio - Viking Genetics	58
258		Oskari Vainionpää	Valio - Viking Genetics	52
259		Ingvar Omarsson	Valio - Viking Genetics	51
277		Sameera Chatarunga	Valio - Viking Genetics	46
298		Awet Gebremedhin	Valio - Viking Genetics	40
299		Olli Kulppi	Valio - Viking Genetics	40
353		Michael Vanderaerden	Valio - Viking Genetics	24
376		Martins Blums	Valio - Viking Genetics	20
385		Risto Aaltio	Valio - Viking Genetics	19
407		Joonas Henttala	Valio - Viking Genetics	15
439		Sasu Helme	Valio - Viking Genetics	10
442		Paavo Paajanen	Valio - Viking Genetics	10
455		Trond Larsen	Valio - Viking Genetics	7
457		Joni Kanerva	Valio - Viking Genetics	7
471		Jaako Hänninen	Valio - Viking Genetics	6
491		Gokhan Hasta	Valio - Viking Genetics	4
492		Sakari Lehtinen	Valio - Viking Genetics	4
502		Aleksi Hänninen	Valio - Viking Genetics	3
514		Kari Brynjolfsson	Valio - Viking Genetics	2

Among the leaders only Manninen got a raise, everyone else agreed to a reduced salary. Most noteworthy perhaps Nepomnyachsniy taking a pay cut of 105k after some lengthy negotiations.

A few riders didn't get a new contract:
Vanderaerden was a bit of a filler and with him getting older and not really delivering anything last season he was cut without negotiations.
Brynjolfsson has a bit more history with the team, but was let go to give more wiggle room when rebuilding the team around some younger leadership. Same goes for the Finnish riders Larsen, Vainionpää, Pietikäainen and Lindahl, who could all end up with a new contract if they fit in on the team once new leadership have been secured.

Generally outside the Finnish core most riders can leave under the right circumstances. Very few riders, who absolutely need to leave though...

			Age	OVL	Wage	Available?
	Andrew	Talansky	32	76,81	€ 250 000	Maybe
	Matti	Manninen	28	76,75	€ 210 000	No
	Yevgeni	Nepomnyachsniy	33	75,30	€ 120 000	Yes
	Cyril	Gautier	33	74,99	€ 200 000	Maybe
	Marcel	Kittel	32	74,72	€ 100 000	Maybe
	Sameera	Chatarunga	28	74,24	€ 65 000	Maybe
	Awet	Gebremedhin	28	74,22	€ 60 000	No
	Sasu	Helme	24	73,71	€ 50 000	No
	Joni	Kanerva	25	73,68	€ 50 000	No
	Samuel	Pokälä	30	73,42	€ 50 000	No
	Olli	Kulppi	29	73,39	€ 50 000	No
	Sachin	Dulanjana	25	73,30	€ 50 000	Yes
	Gokhan	Hasta	30	73,17	€ 50 000	Yes
	Paavo	Paajanen	31	72,89	€ 50 000	No
	Ingvar	Omarsson	31	72,88	€ 50 000	No
	Jesse	Kaislavuo	27	72,88	€ 50 000	No
	Sakari	Lehtinen	27	72,81	€ 50 000	No
	Joonas	Henttala	29	72,67	€ 50 000	No
	Hannes	Bergstrom Frisk	25	71,64	€ 70 000	No
	Jaako	Hänninen	23	70,83	€ 80 000	No
	Risto	Aaltio	32	70,30	€ 50 000	Yes
	Aleksi	Hänninen	24	67,76	€ 50 000	No

With the annual auctions ahead and details about the available livestock begins to emerge we have spoken to the foreman at the Valio - Viking Genetics farm.

Looks like big changes are to come at the farm with a lot of proze bulls potentially looking to leave?
Yes, while our best bulls are still very good they are getting to an age where we need to replace them in order to keep progressing. All of them will guarentee a solid output on any team and could really bring something to smaller farms looking for some quick breeding progress in developing farms.

Even a few of the farms more exotic cattle have been listed?
In deed. In the case of Hasta he have always been a valued part of the herd but can't quite follow when some of the younger calves starts running wild and crazy. He's more of a sturdy build which doesn't fit very well into the new flock.
Then there's a couple of beasts who ended up with us more or less as a conincidence in the wake of other deals at least years livestock auctions and thus was never intended as part of our long term plans. Pretty low maintenance though so a good buy for the cost sensitive farm.

With all these going out the team should be active when it comes to adding to the tally as well?
Obviously if we just sell we'll be looking at a return to CT, which is fun as well, but not what we have planned for the future.
We have a plan A, B, C and D but if everything goes as usual we'll eventually end up settling for plan W so it's hard to say what the herd will looke like after the auctions!

Surely you have some numbers marked in the catalogue!?
Of course. I won't be releasing any names at this time except that we're hoping to find at least one real top sturdy bull built for our northern climate and bad roads. However we have been looking for a beast like that for several years without managing to close the deal so we could very well end up with something a bit more delicate than we're imagining at this point.

ivaneurope wrote:
So you may consider selling Kittel? Since my team obtained German license and is bankrolled by Hyundai Europe, having a battle tested German riders could be enticing for the sponsors. And TT is kinda part of my focus. But you've said "maybe" so I guess anything can happen.

Every single PCT season we have gone into the transfer season looking for a decent cobbles leader not due to retire. Now we have finally managed to sign one!

Maxime Daniel will with his strong cobbles/sprint combo be crucial whenever we hit the cobbles and finally Kulppi have someone strong to work for again so we might get to see the level he showed when riding in Evonik colours.
Only 29 years old he fits the ambition to get younger leaders nicely to.

That means that we also say goodbye and thanks for your services to Talansky, Kittel and Nepomnyachsniy who all joined the team as last minute solutions to save us from promotion last year. We thank them for their services, but with 32-33 years of age we needed someone younger to take leadership.

We are very happy to have secured the 2017 Giro del Trentino winner Pierre Paolo Penasa. A steep pay check of 880.000 € is more than we had hoped but a proof that he was one of the most attractive riders on the market - now he will need to do his best to prove himself worth his wages!

Obviously he will be our leader in mountainous stage races getting full support by the team and we see him as a crucial rider in the effort to lift the team even further from last seasons 10th place in the rankings.

As our other top signing Maxime Daniel he is only 29 years old and thus saves us from worrying about his retirement for a couple of years to come and fulfilling our main target of this transfer season being younger leaders.