Welcome to the brand-new headquarters of the team formerly known as Centovalli - Fiat! It's season number three, and the first one in the Pro Continental Tour!
While the team's look did only slightly change in the first two seasons - and the name not at all - there are quite some news this year. Including a new main sponsor - and hence a brand-new jersey design! Let's first take a look at the 2021 team sponsors:
Jura Elektroapparate AGMain sponsor
When promotion to PCT looked more and more realistic during the course of the 2020 season - one year earlier than what we realistically expected - our previous primary sponsor Ticino Turismo informed us that they would not be able to afford a PCT budget. As you will see later, they still remain an important partner, though.
As GIANTS Software did not want to take the step up to primary sponsor in PCT, we were desperately looking for another Swiss company. Fiat would have been ready to jump in, but our primary goal was to remain a mainly Swiss team - and that finally was possible due to the commitment of Jura Elektroapparate AG!
Founded in 1931 - they will celebrate their 90th anniversary in 2021 - Jura have been among the prime household machines manufacturers in Switzerland for quite a while now. Several of their products are legendary, and while Jura mainly focus on coffee machines today, they still produce some of those "retro" machines - a toaster and a waffle iron.
When speaking of coffee machines, their motto is clear: Freshly ground, not capsuled! A slogan that fits perfectly with our team, as mentions Jura CEO Emanuel Probst:
Coffee machines have a complex mechanism. Lots of wheels need to turn at the right speed, in the right direction, to deliver the perfect taste of coffee. Cycling is the same; the internal mechanics of a team are complex, and everyone needs to work well together so that the riders' wheels turn well. It's a dynamic sport, and the team has delivered a really refreshing 2020 season - and refreshing fits well with our newest cold-brew machines.
Of course, the partnership and adverts with Roger Federer has helped us getting known all around the world, but you can say it's not a lot of risk to team up with a champion. Our engagment in this team is a statement that Switzerland is still our home country, and that we want to invest into the future. Always move on, always dare to take new paths, don't just go the same ways as everyone else - Freshly ground, not capsuled!
Thanks to Jura for joining us - let's hope for a long-lasting partnership, and lots of good cups of coffee to celebrate our future success!
FiatSecondary sponsor
You might remember Fiat's decision of withdrawing by the end of the 2020 season, which they communicated just during last season's preparation. We are stoked that our great results - and especially the promotion to PCT - made them reconsider and finally revert their decision! Fiat are still with us, for the third consecutive season - and with our Italian stars on board, the story might even go on... At least that's what Olivier François, director of Fiat Italia, is now hoping for:
So, we're still here... Unexpected, but it's really good news for everyone. The promotion to the Pro Continental Division ensures much greater visibility, as the team might even be invited to the biggest races of the world now. Moreover, we believe that Gianni Moscon and Fausto Masnada are two great Italian cyclists, and Gianni's exceptional results in Italian races last year were great publicity for us. We believe that the team can take another step forward and reach a midfield result in PCT next year, so that both sides would be interested in continuing the partnership!
This sounds much better than last year, undoubtedly! Now let's just ensure we stay up, and our Fiat story might indeed move on...
Ticino TurismoMinor sponsor
Sports can be unpredictable at times - and given that our season went much better than expected, our three-year plan with Ticino Turismo as our main sponsor in CT did not materialize. They always said they wouldn't be able to remain our primary supporters in PCT, but they are still on board. Why? Angelo Trotta, president of Ticino Turismo, explains:
In the last two years, and especially during the 2020 season, we got some amazing publicity for Ticino in general and Centovalli in particular. But building up a brand takes longer than two years, and as our goal always was a long-term cooperation, we will happily continue to support the team one league higher. Although we're not present in the team name anymore, the dedication of Ticino Turismo will still be visible all around the world - and we're sure the boys will do a fantastic job again!
Ticino Turismo are already part of our history, and without them, the team wouldn't have been able to take off. Thank you for staying with us - hopefully for many more years to come!
GIANTS SoftwareMinor sponsor
Our plans for 2021 had GIANTS as a co-main-sponsor, together with our friends from Ticino - but just like them, the software house doesn't (yet) have the financial power to fund a PCT team. We are thankful that they are still with us, hoping to further promote their headline product. Christian Ammann, GIANTS CEO, says:
The 2020 season was a great experience for us. We learned a lot about the sport, enthusiastically following "our" riders. And we could see the clicks on our website go up every time a Centovalli - Fiat rider stood on top, so that investment definitely was worth it!
We also took some learnings from the "real" sport to our e-sport project, and we're now even thinking about including some bikes in our next version of Farming Simulator. We're a young, dynamic team - just like "our" riders - that's definitely a great fit so far!
You might remember that GIANTS Software requested us to further promote Swiss cycling if we wanted them to stay with us - we apparently did a pretty good job so far. They now mentioned that we might also sign riders from their other main focus countries - let's see what that means during transfers!
Cuore of SwitzerlandJersey sponsor
We have been very satisfied so far with our jerseys Made in Switzerland - and so there's no reason to change! As in our first year, hillis91 has designed us a great jersey for the 2021 season - stay tuned, it will be revealed shortly!
BMCBike sponsor
When you're trying to bring as much Swissness as possible to the team, BMC is a must-have partner. Why looking for bikes abroad if you can have the best ones at home? Last year proved that we were right to stay with them - and let's see if they can even provide us with some secret TT weapons this time!
Wander AG started in 1865 with the development of a product to fight malnutrition, and that saved hundreds of lives: the famous "Ovomaltine", based on malt extract, was born. In the world of ManGame, Isostar is definitely the best known product - and sports nutrition is what definitely makes Wander the perfect fit for us! Wander's CEO Arnold Furtwaengler agrees:
We are pioneers in various domains, and development has always been one of our core tasks. So, helping develop Swiss cycling will be a win-win situation - they will benefit from our sports nutrition, and we will get valuable feedback to develop even better products. We're really looking forward to this experience - let's go!
So, that sounds like a lot of movement behind the scenes - but in the end, it's "just" the main and nutrition sponsors that have really changed. Let's see if despite all those changes we can perform as usual - we are convinced that with all those sponsors on board, we're well prepared for our PCT adventure 2021!
The secret is revealed - we hereby proudly present the 2021 jersey of team Jura - Fiat!
After Mr. hillis91's retirement finally turned out to be rather a sabbatical, the designer of our inaugural jersey was back on board for 2021 - and you can judge by yourself if he has lost any of his competences during his year off. We definitely think: No! On the contrary, he included all of our (and our sponsors') wishes, and we are definitely really happy with the outcome!
With the change of the main sponsor, it was obvious that the jersey would undergo a major redesign. Gone is the blue-and-white colour scheme; instead it's mainly red and black now. The white touch will however be important to make our kit recognizable in the peloton - the gradient on the sleeves will definitely help for this, too!
Obviously, new primary sponsor Jura gets the most important spots. With the red font of their logo, the white background was almost a given. But not only are they represented by their logo on the jersey, the coffee beans on the dark background are a reminiscence of their slogan: Freshly ground, not capsuled!
With Fiat, it's then all back to retro style, as their old logo is back on the kit! They noticed that people know this one better than the current logo, so they agreed on this design choice. Fiat is only present on the jersey this year, not on the shorts. But as their logo is visible from all sides, they are absolutely happy with the new design, too!
Logically, GIANTS Software as our second secondary sponsor get more space on the shorts. Plus, their logo is visible on the sleeves, which will hopefully help us spot our riders in the pack!
Ticino Turismo, the further main sponsors, have to take a step back in terms of presence on the jersey. Still, on our riders' backs everyone can still read "Ticino", and a small logo is also visible on the shorts and - maybe most importantly - on the riders' hearts!
Heart is a great cue for moving on to Cuore, who actually produced this kit from hillis91's design templates. Obviously, they put their logo pretty much everywhere, but rather discretely as well. And last but not least, we have BMC - bike sponsor - and Wander - nutrition sponsor - who are hoping that their logos will be often seen on screen as well!
Overall, we are really delighted by our new outfit, and we would like to thank again Mr. hillis91 for his amazing work! Our jersey may not be as flashy as some others - but that's not our preferred style anyway. Now let's hopefully soon find out who will be the 20+ riders wearing this kit during the 2021 - and hopefully often presenting on the podiums of PCT!
Will be exciting to see you in PCT this season. I think we may end up crossing paths a few times, but I look forward to talking when transfers come round.
It's a bit like Christmas - the day a team gets its jersey for the new season! That day was today for us - and instead of repeating ourselves here, please go and check out the official Jersey Presentation Post to take a look at our new outfit!
We'd still like to give huge thanks to our designer hillis91 in this place - may all this coffee keep our riders awake until the very last moment of the season!
Laurens147 Thanks mate! Great to see you on board as well, looking forward to see more about your project
valverde321 Yeah, I'm afraid Moscon will have to face Kinoshita in quite some races
Always open for talks, but the Italians won't be cheap
After the promotion to PCT, we were pretty positive going into renewals, knowing that we would always have the option to fit everyone in the new budget. However, we decided to not offer a new contract to two riders, while another rider turned down our first offer and we subsequently decided to not go any further in the negotiations.
Let's take a look at the new wages (in parenthesis the negotiation round the rider agreed in) and the differences with last year:
Well, that looks pretty ugly. We can say that we weren't the best negotiators this offseason; a total of 12 out of 19 retained riders actually were able to get a raise. With only 4 riders making less money than in the 2020 season (plus a not renewed one), we're paying 165k more.
This sound like a lot, but let's differentiate a bit. The biggest raise obviously goes to Theo Reinhardt, who in fact doubles his salary! While a raise was deserved anyway after his great season, the MGUCI now set his OVL a brutal 1.19 points higher than last year, which also led to a wage increase. Is he worth all that money? Definitely yes in CT, but we're not completely sure yet what we'll do with him in PCT...
An increase of 0.25 OVL points plus a really strong 2020 season are worth a 45k increase for Gianni Moscon, who therefore got overrun both in terms of wage and OVL by Theo. As for Theo, a raise was definitely earned, given that he finished in the Top 10 of the CT individual rankings.
Thomas Boudat and Andrea Vendrame both reached their maximum level this offseason, so obviously they were asking for more money as well. No issues with that.
And no issues as well for Robin Froidevaux and Gergely Szarka, who both were on a stagiaire contract last year and now got a pro contract. One year late, but we hope they'll still develop well with us!
On the other side, Fausto Masnada's wage has now pretty much normalized, after we clearly overpaid him in the last two seasons. And we have a similar case for Stefan Bissegger, who had a "talent wage" last year and now is paid according to his actual capabilities.
Mirco Saggiorato is starting to feel his age, and with lowered skills comes a lowered wage. But we're pretty sure that he's still worth this money - not only as a mountain domestique, but in terms of "team senior" as well.
And last but not least, Hermann Pernsteiner has agreed on a small paycut, after MGUCI lowered his OVL value by 0.32 points.
You can also see that we decided not to offer new contracts to our 2020 CT draft riders Nico Brüngger and Pedro Merino Criado. Both have reached an age where they PCT would be too challenging for them, so they got released.
Furthermore, we did offer a new contract to Tom Scully, but we were not willing to spend more than what we initially offered him. When he turned down that offer, it was clear for us that we wouldn't negotiate further.
We wish those three riders all the best for their future - and at least Tom should easily find a new (CT?) team!
So, where do we end up with this? We are currently paying a total of € 1,560,000 in wages - which is € 940,000 below the PCT salary cap. And we have 19 riders - only one rider short of the minimum roster size. So, in theory, we could spend all the remaining wage budget on a single rider - let's see how we really spend that money!
We will as well be looking forward to taking some talents on loan - our team philosophy is still based on developing talents, and not necessarily buy only "finished" riders. And we might sell some of those riders as well - an availability post will be published shortly!
That was a very risky move renewing Reinhardt at that wage, but who knows, maybe that will force you to keep him and he will end up overperforming. Also great to see Pernsteiner reducing his wage, as he clearly wants to appear to be more reasonable and leave Jura for greener pastures
After renewals, we already have 19 riders on board - and plenty of budget left to fulfill the minimum roster requirements. Which means that we're not in a position where we absolutely need to sell some riders - but we're still open for talks.
In general, you can talk with us about any of our riders - but especially for the Swiss and Italian ones, the offer would need to be pretty good. We currently don't want to exclude any scenario, though! In the below table, you can see which riders are more likely to leave the team than others:
In case of questions or rider offers, don't hesitate to contact us!
Eden Thanks Really happy with hillis' work!
quadsas The risk wouldn't have that big when staying with PCM2018 imho, but it definitely is risky with the version change... let's see!
As for Pernie, joining RB might be an option. I've heard he doesn't like their drink that much, though, so it would take quite something to convince him... and to convince me, given the sum I paid for him last year ^^
What a party it was, when the phone rang tonight at 8.39 PM, and Mauro Schmid told us after his 48h respite that he accepts our offer!
Mauro was our top target from free agency this year, and so we immediately put a 150k bid on him once the transfer window opened. This apparently dissuaded other teams from placing their bids, as they knew we wouldn't let go of Mauro - and in the end our initial move more than played out!
But why are we over the moon about this signing? Well, let's look at Mauro's current stats - and at two possible development paths we have for him:
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FT
DH
PL
1.00
71
70
71
67
69
74
69
69
69
72
71
73
65
Climber
72
78
77
69
71
79
74
69
69
78
77
74
67
Puncheur
72
76
79
69
72
78
73
69
70
78
77
74
67
Mauro will be an incredibly well-balanced rider once he reaches his full potential! His amazing resistance, acceleration and fighting spirit obviously stick out - and then we "just" have to decide if he becomes an even better mountain domestique than Masnada, or an even stronger puncheur than Moscon (without the latter's sprint limitation)! Especially as a puncheur, we think he can be trained to world-class level. But for now, let's just rejoice again and look forward to see him ride in our jersey! Welcome, Mauro!
This is our very first confirmed transfer of the window; more is to come tomorrow.
And don't forget, most of our riders could be sold if the offer is right, so don't hesitate to contact us!
Jura - Fiat 
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