10th season for our main sponsor Aegon and for the second year Peroni is our co-sponsor.
The team has kind of made its way into a regular top10-15 contender in the highest division, which obviously is the goal from now on to always improve and not going back into the relegation area.
Edited by roturn on 11-08-2022 17:16
De Bie, Groeneweegn, Olivier will remain our leading trio for the 2020 season. All 3 are maximum unlikely to leave. Age wise they still have couple years in their prime to carry the team.
Behind those a list of PT quality riders that have shown to do well such as co-sprinter Vesely, time trialist Paillot, GC riders Keinath and Velits or climber Zardini. While age is hurting our GT trio quite a bit, at least wage wise Velits and Keinath went down to compensate. Though clearly something must be done in transfers to guarantee good stage racing in most races.
The young talents around Carboni, van der Poel, Ciccone, Van Hooydonck are expected to show up more regularly in 2020 as their prime is coming soon, while the squad is completed by our TTT riders and helpers, which will be the ones in breakaways for most of the time.
Special mention for Lars Boom. Being with the team since the beginning having won several races, stages in all divisions. At 35 years of age, his prime is long gone and still he was in the top10 of the Tour of Northern Europe in 2019 after winning it the year before after several attempts.
While even inside the team, the next TONE contenders are slowly found in Van Hooydonck and van der Poel, he will still come back in 2020 to fight for prime in HIS race. He understood his value for the team and accepted a nice minimum contract to lead the talents into their prime, being the clear captain du road.
De Bie
Sean
29
BEL
4
100
79,49
€ 580.000
Groenewegen
Dylan
27
NED
4
100
78,05
€ 400.000
Olivier
Daan
28
NED
4
100
77,59
€ 300.000
Vesely
Daniel
28
CZE
4
100
76,74
€ 160.000
Paillot
Yoann
29
FRA
4
100
76,58
€ 135.000
Zardini
Edoardo
31
ITA
4
100
76,20
€ 145.000
Keinath
Nico
33
GER
4
100
76,06
€ 140.000
Velits
Peter
35
SVK
4
100
74,69
€ 150.000
Carboni
Giovanni
25
ITA
4
8
74,41
€ 70.000
van der Poel
Mathieu
25
NED
4
90
74,41
€ 85.000
Van Hooydonck
Nathan
25
BEL
4
30
74,17
€ 60.000
Bauhaus
Phil
26
GER
4
100
73,90
€ 75.000
Koep
Thomas
30
GER
4
100
73,88
€ 50.000
Ciccone
Giulio
26
ITA
4
100
73,82
€ 50.000
van der Hoorn
Taco
27
NED
4
100
73,68
€ 50.000
Dumoulin
Tom
30
NED
4
100
73,43
€ 50.000
Thurau
Bjorn
32
GER
4
100
72,45
€ 50.000
Frison
Frederik
28
BEL
4
100
71,93
€ 50.000
Boom
Lars
35
NED
4
100
71,37
€ 50.000
Saying Goodbye
First of, huge thanks to Thomas Dekker, a rider that came to us already late in his career and despite being over his prime, delivered us a GC win in the Criterium Dauphine and some nice GT runs. At the age of 36 unfortunately it`s the end of his contract as strength and wage demands no longer were matching.
Similar can be said about van der Hugenhaben. Now being 35 his prime is long gone. He did his work as support role for De Bie, but now the younger riders will come to replace his spot.
Not so happy to see Sbaragli go as he was a long term part of our team already being developed and supported. Most known as final leadout for former rider Ben Swift, his role was already reduced last season with Groenewegen/Vesely not needing a sprint train. Unfortunately he decided to ask for a bigger role, so we couldn`t find a solution in renewals.
Other than those, our 4 stagiares are leaving to find a new team as also the 3 loanies we had in 2019 and now being on a different level are going to do well for their actual teams.
Sbaragli
Kristian
30
ITA
4
100
75,12
Dekker
Thomas
36
NED
4
100
72,97
van der Hugenhaben
Robin
35
NED
4
100
71,73
Lonardi
Giovanni
24
ITA
2
20
68,79
Kooistra
Marten
23
NED
1
20
67,90
Di Felice
Francesco
23
ITA
1
20
67,18
Ferri
Gregorio
23
ITA
1
20
66,82
Eiking
Odd Christian
26
NOR
4
100
75,35
Sendeku
Getachew
25
ETH
4
35
72,69
Dlamini
Nicholas
25
RSA
4
23
71,56
Transfer Availability
As you know by now, my pre transfer ideas are quickly different to what happens in transfers. That said, here my acual planning with some availabilities.
With ~1 mio wage cap to spend, the team can clearly fill some gaps and improve from an already decent core.
Quite a few interesting riders for us as well. One of them is "maybe" even the same as jph. I know we came close to a deal for Dekker last season, but perhaps we can strike a deal this time round.
The 2020 transfers saw once again a nice change of riders going both ways as also quite a few loaning in riders to help out other teams. In the end the team is ending with 27 riders of which 5 are loans, 11 unmaxed riders and the leader trio of De Bie, Olivier, Groenewegen as in the last seasons.
Riders Out
5 Riders in total are leaving the team including some decent scorers, which in addition to other riders declining makes it a tough year for us.
Nico Keinath
4.100
33yo
Stage Racer
€ 500.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
73
78
75
74
76
75
74
58
61
69
70
62
74
Clearly quite a loss as he was one of our 2019 stage race trio performing well in several races including stage results as well. A potential top10 GC rider in PTHC races mainly, who only joined the year before on a high fee. He sees his future in the CT actually, moving first to Evonik and later joining Philips in their CT promotion attempt.
Daniel Vesely
4.100
28yo
Sprinter
€ 900.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
73
60
68
57
74
68
76
57
81
80
61
71
57
Another rider leaving the team after just one year. Vesely was our sprinter whenever Groenewegen couldn`t participate and did really well including a few top3-5s. With him we are losing our GT sprinting basically but are getting a decent fee in reward. He goes into the PCT joining the Minions for stage glory. As Czech NC he surely will be recognized nicely for them.
Yoann Paillot
4.100
29yo
Time Trialist
€ 1.250.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
70
70
71
80
75
74
68
56
63
64
56
71
80
Joining the team alongside Vesely in the Swift deal in 2019, he is the third rider on a one year contract only. Having gotten huge interest early on, which resulted in the 2020 highest fee for our team, it was quickly obvious, that he is to be sold. Being a great time trialist including some decent uphill skills as well, he is a loss in especially for the TTTs in the GTs. He likely going for more individual results a division lower joining Farfetch in the PCT.
Tom Dumoulin
4.100
30yo
Time Trialist
€ 350.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
71
59
68
78
75
76
70
52
65
67
66
60
78
The former Dutch ITT champ was a late loss in transfers when more money was needed. Wasn`t really planned to let him go. In especially in TTTs he was very important for us as also fighting in GTs to make it to the finish line. Though at the age of 30 he plans to get some more results for himself, which wasn`t really possible in the PT division. He follows Keinath to Philips, where he can ride as TT leader in the CT.
Bjorn Thurau
4.100
32yo
Puncheur
€ 50.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
72
65
75
58
75
71
68
53
66
73
77
67
65
Thurau rode with us for several years now always being one of most active riders all season resulting in stage wins from breakaways and KoM jerseys. Unfortunately though he already lost quite a few race days to talents in 2019 and with the new riders coming in, it looked very similar in 2020 so that we decided to let him go down to PCT promoter Adastra N Hell Energy where he might have more chances himself.
Riders In
Not counting the loanies, a total of 8 Riders join the team in 2020 including one old face, we are all happy to see him back. All riders in come from the FA Pool, so the number shows the wage and not the fee as above.
Thomas Dekker
4.100
36yo
Stage Racer
€ 50.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
69
75
69
72
68
73
71
55
61
62
63
61
72
Unforgotten his Dauphine win, which was our first real PT stage race win at declining age already! He was a great piece of our squad for a while now being the route captain alongside Boom and the Dutch leading duo for the new generation of cyclists. After he did not accept our renewals offer, we immedately decided to get him back anyway from the FA pool and luckily he accepted our offer this time. He got one last Tour de France, right!
Rafael Valls
4.100
33yo
Stage Racer
€ 350.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
68
78
74
71
77
76
76
55
61
71
68
65
71
Maybe not as strong but still quite similar replacement for Nico Keinath. For quite some time the fight for the stage racers from the FA was difficult and we waited a bit before joining fully. In the end we are happy to see Valls joining. Not from our usual base of NED/ITA/BEL/GER, the Spaniards have some great tradition already in our team including Luis Leon Sanchez or Gomez Marchante. Let`s hope Valls can be as successful as the other two.
Tiago Machado
4.100
35yo
Climber
€ 75.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
67
78
71
68
68
65
65
50
56
63
63
55
68
A team experienced with ageing stars? That`s Aegon clearly. Always having a good mix of young and old. And with heavily in need to get another decent climber late in transfers, the options were rather limited. Machado unfairly was without a bid until then, so we decided to give him another chance to show himself as lieutnant for Daan Olivier, which is his main job in 2020, which likely is his last real year as professional cyclist.
Loic Vliegen
4.100
27yo
Puncheur
€ 50.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
71
67
77
61
76
70
70
68
66
74
71
69
67
A team without pure puncheur support for De Bie as often it were hybrids like Zardini being main lieutnant while also in need to support the climbers. With van der Hugenhaben out and Thurau as well, we needed replacements and found an interesting addition in Vliegen. Really were surprised he was joining for minimum offer of 50k only as no other showed interest while clearly having been a potential CT leader.
Jasper Stuyven
4.100
28yo
Puncheur
€ 50.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
70
63
77
58
75
67
68
62
66
74
79
69
58
Basically same as with Vliegen, Stuyven coming surprisingly cheap for minimum wage from FA. Two great support riders for De Bie in hill races and stage hunting in stage races in general. His climbing is not as strong, but focus in on pure hill stages anyway. A Belgium trio to hopefully celebrate big wins in 2020.
Harm Vanhoucke
2.0
23yo
Stage Racer
€ 135.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
68
70
67
67
66
69
70
63
67
66
69
69
68
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
71
77
72
72
71
72
76
63
67
68
72
70
73
Being on our scouting list very high, he became the longest thrill for us in transfers with Puma going for him late as well. A future climbing domestique from Belgium and a perfect fit to the team. Still having 3 years until full potential is shown but already of decent support in his 2020 season.
Arvid de Kleijn
4.99
26yo
Allrounder
€ 50.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
70
60
73
60
70
70
75
66
74
74
63
64
67
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
70
61
75
60
71
71
76
66
74
75
64
64
67
De Kleijn is our only Dutch addition in 2020 but one, we are very happy to get for 50k only. Already being a decent puncheur and sprinter, the way to his prime is still 1 year ahead. His combination of stats makes him a great breakaway rider to win from smaller groups and with lots of talents in the team 2020, it`s coming quite handy that he doesn`t need a lot to reach his maximum.
Davide Ballerini
4.00
26yo
Allrounder
€ 50.000
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
71
64
71
57
72
71
71
70
72
78
74
72
57
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
↓
73
64
71
57
73
71
72
71
74
80
74
72
57
Ballerini is a similar allrounder and together with Van der Poel some riders to watch out for in future. Still 1 year from his full potential he is already a decent puncheur, cobbler and sprinter with some great acceleration. Perfect break rider and someone who can support the team in many races.
Loaning In
5 Riders join the team for 2020 on loan to develop further and support our leaders. As usual we don`t really care about Nations from loanies and so they by far don`t match our focussed regions.
Adam Toupalik
4.00
24yo
Roleur
Moser
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
75
64
73
63
71
72
68
68
64
68
65
74
67
Toupalik coming from Moser in his last year of development. He has a big engine and might be of value for Groenewegen`s sprint positioning and also can pass smaller hills with ease.
Alan Banaszek
3.81
23yo
Sprinter
Repsol
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
70
61
63
62
68
70
65
57
73
77
65
68
70
Banaszek is a future sprinter joining us from Repsol. His main task is to take care of Groenewegen here and there but mainly to develop and learning from our more experienced.
Harold Tejada
2.00
23yo
Climber
Desigual
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
65
70
69
65
66
70
65
57
59
67
65
63
65
Another young climbing talent from Colombia. Clearly not as gifted as the top4-5 around Bernal, Sosa, Higuita, Rubio, but still shows that the country is doing well in delivering couple of great climbers year for year.
Michael O'Loughlin
2.66
23yo
Time Trialist
Repsol
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
68
62
65
70
64
69
63
62
63
64
66
64
68
In especially with the leavings of Paillot and Dumoulin, some more strength against the clock was needed and while O'Loughlin clearly won`t give us a huge boost, he still is able to help out in TTTs. After the season he is going back to Repsol to develop further.
Ziga Rucigaj
3.04
25yo
Stage Racer
Vesuvio
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
68
72
69
69
70
71
69
61
63
63
68
66
72
One of those typical deals between SN and me every year. I would need to check but likely there was at least one bigger or smaller deal in almost every season including riders such as Swift, Keinath, Vanmarcke, Koep, loanies here, loanies there. Rucigaj just continues this trend and will learn from Olivier a lot in 2020.
Great support added for De Bie with those puncher signings, while Valls and Machado can hopefully replace most of the points loss of Keinath. Vanhoucke looks like an excellent addition for the future as well. Good to see Dekker get a ride again in your colours. Looking forward to see how you go this season
Keinath and Dumoulin are welcome additions for us, and we hope they'll do well in the CT.
De Kleijn is very cool and a shame I didn't keep him really now I didn't get Pedersen, hope he does well for you
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
quadsas wrote:
Having Zalgiris alumni in Ballerini bodes well for your team, granted, he was terrible, but it's a good luck charm for sure.
Sweet cash injection with Paillot, I bet you didn't expect that much interest
Indeed. Early on it started around half, which I found a bit too less but then luckily it passed the expectations in the end.
AbhishekLFC wrote:
Great support added for De Bie with those puncher signings, while Valls and Machado can hopefully replace most of the points loss of Keinath. Vanhoucke looks like an excellent addition for the future as well. Good to see Dekker get a ride again in your colours. Looking forward to see how you go this season
Keinath and Dumoulin are welcome additions for us, and we hope they'll do well in the CT.
Hoping so as well. Puncheur support should be better this year as they clearly are stronger than Hugenhaben/Thurau/Eiking while remaining still is with him but in parts progressed such as VdP or Carboni.
Valls hopefully does what Keinath did. Just needs to take the burden a bit from Olivier only as also Velits declined.
Dekker was the obvious "stupid" 50k rider I wanted to get. Not really helping a lot in the end I think but at least some nice MG history remaining in PT.
jandal7 wrote:
De Kleijn is very cool and a shame I didn't keep him really now I didn't get Pedersen, hope he does well for you
Hope so as well. In the past former Xero riders did well for me and vice versa. So hopefully continues.
The season is soon to start and already in January Aegon - Peroni will be in 3 events, the PT rated Badaling International and Tour of Qatar as also the PTHC 2-day event Tour of East Java.
Badaling International
The team kind of struggled with this race for some time, but most recently in the 2017 and 2018 edition Sean De Bie stepped up to first finish in 7th and then 4th plus 3 more riders in the top25! Something we want to improve from in 2019!
Sean De Bie
73
71
84
72
77
76
69
68
72
75
74
65
68
Loic Vliegen
71
67
77
61
76
70
70
68
66
74
71
69
67
Jasper Stuyven
70
63
77
58
75
67
68
62
66
74
79
69
58
Edoardo Zardini
69
76
77
67
70
66
66
68
72
68
72
74
72
Giovanni Carboni
69
76
75
67
71
71
71
62
66
68
61
72
67
Giulio Ciccone
67
77
73
71
70
70
73
50
51
69
59
59
79
Thomas Dekker
69
75
69
72
68
73
71
55
61
62
63
61
72
Ziga Rucigaj
68
72
69
69
70
71
69
61
63
63
68
66
72
Sean De Bie the obvious leader, who is aiming for the podium here with chances to win even. His support around the pure puncheurs Vliegen/Stuyven, hybrids Zardini/Carboni and climbers Ciccone/Dekker/Rucigaj is very strong and lots of his usual support all year. Zardini`s 21st in 2018 showed how strong he can be in the last kilometers as support.
Tour of Qatar
Except for that weird 2018 when two potential podium sprinters both failed at the same time, the race was quite successful in the last couple years. Since 2016 an Aegon rider was on the podium 3/4 times plus 4 stage wins. Swift obviously the most successful but also Groenewegen has started a big season with a 2nd in Qatar in 2018!
Dylan Groenewegen
73
61
67
64
74
71
85
59
82
81
59
64
72
Phil Bauhaus
74
56
61
56
71
65
77
67
78
75
59
63
60
Taco van der Hoorn
75
60
70
55
76
69
60
75
56
66
84
66
52
Lars Boom
71
67
71
74
69
70
66
70
57
69
71
76
74
Nathan Van Hooydonck
71
63
70
70
73
72
68
78
61
72
64
67
70
Frederik Frison
71
56
67
77
73
71
67
54
65
65
63
67
77
Davide Ballerini
71
64
71
57
72
71
71
70
72
78
74
72
57
Adam Toupalik
75
64
73
63
71
72
68
68
64
68
65
74
67
A team fully focussed on Groenewegen. It will be extremely hard to repeat last years performance as consistent high finisher to take the podium. There will be faster sprinters for sure and winning a stage would be a small surprise, but Dylan has shown to have a great consistency on a high level, so all we can try to bring him into a good position, taking the needed slipstream and aiming for the top10.
Tour of East Java
It`s the debut for our team in the East Java Tour. One sprint, one climb, two days with one of the best startlists most likely. Last year Beltran did beat the likes of Madrazo, Kritskiy, Dombrowski, Tenorio...GT like competition. We know that we might not be the strongest in the high mountains, but Olivier has shown to be a consistent top10 GT finisher.
Daan Olivier
72
81
76
69
76
80
77
59
65
71
70
71
69
Dylan Groenewegen
73
61
67
64
74
71
85
59
82
81
59
64
72
Rafael Valls
68
78
74
71
77
76
76
55
61
71
68
65
71
Tiago Machado
67
78
71
68
68
65
65
50
56
63
63
55
68
Giulio Ciccone
67
77
73
71
70
70
73
50
51
69
59
59
79
Edoardo Zardini
69
76
77
67
70
66
66
68
72
68
72
74
72
Thomas Dekker
69
75
69
72
68
73
71
55
61
62
63
61
72
Ziga Rucigaj
68
72
69
69
70
71
69
61
63
63
68
66
72
The top10 might become hard if other teams going big here. Though it will be our goal and except for Velits, the full mountain squad is around Olivier, Valls, Machado, Ciccone, Zardini.
In addition due to having 2 spare race days left, Groenewegen is here to show his sprint skills on day 1.
No surprises here. The expected leaders are all present in the early races. While Badaling can be a bit of a lottery at times, it could give an early indication whether the training camp for De Bie was worth it.
Aegon
Peroni
Maxime Vantomme
Andrei Kunitski
Martin Velits
Xavier Zabalo
Jonathan Bellis
Simon Geschke
Aurélien Passeron
Valentin Iglinski
Christoff Van Heerden
Alexander Edmondson
Arnaud Grand
Youcef Reguigui [Loan]
Muhamma Afif Ahmad Zamri [Loan]
George Bennett
Hakon Frengstad Berger [Loan]
Martin Weiss [Loan]
Krisztian Lovassy [Loan]
Lawson Craddock [Loan]
German Anibal Orue [Loan]
Walter Trillini (loan)
Daniel Vesely
Getachew Sendeku (loan)
Tiago Machado
Alan Banaszek
Ziga Rucigaj
Harold Tejada
Michael O'Loughlin
Badaling International 
Tour of Qatar 
Tour of East Java 
