Welcome to the new and improved Carrefour - ESPN headquarters, where you can find information on all things regarding the newly-promoted PCT team.
Carrefour and ESPN return as main sponsors to continue this extensive partnership with the team, however failure outside of the CT division has plauged the team, meaning that expectations will be high and leashes will be short for the team this season.
So many former Festina riders. No wonder I like this team so much
Jakub Novak
Anthony Lavoine
Juan Ernesto Chamorro
Frederik Nolf
Wen Hao Li
And to make it better I have been chasing Tsatevich and Quevedo quite some times in the past.
A pretty solid core of 76-78 main stat riders so you basically "just" need to build the leaders core. That's easier said than done obiovusly with so many people wanting to land the same riders. I think I would get rid of some of your subsprinters. I suspect the likes of Bercz, Sanikwahti, Dakteris and Planckaert could be replaced with something more interesting, seeing as you have enough sprinting capacity in the remaining riders. Lavoine as the leader and Tsatevich and Hao Li as the leadouts if that would be needed. I would probably look to replace Caruso too, as he mainly looks like a domestique to Gu Jan, Chamorro, Tsatevich and Quevedo. Maybe sell him to get enough money to train Quevedo to 79HI or Chamorro to 77HI.
Btw - in the DB it says you have Crncevic, Young and Rowsell too.
SotD wrote:
So many former Festina riders. No wonder I like this team so much
(...)
Btw - in the DB it says you have Crncevic, Young and Rowsell too.
Given all the deals we've done in the past, including some of the older ones like Coppel and Lhotellerie, I'm almost a bit surprised there's not more
The team definitely needs some new leaders, but at least for once we have a solid core of riders behind who could help on any terrain. We'll have to see post-renewals as to how wages will affect my ability to cash out on some riders, but hopefully I clear up some extra money as needed.
Not sure if we'll go the training route, as part of me almost wants to go the other way and try to find/develop some prospects, given I haven't really gotten the chance to have fun in that realm outside of Crncevic and Mustafa Carsi I guess back in the day. But the development route is definitely one that is infinitely more stressful while trying to stay up in the PCT.
Also - I just copy pasted the pre-draft squad list from last year, so that's why Young and Rowsell are missing, while Crncevic was out on loan. I'll have an update to all that following renewals. But thanks for all the kind words SotD, much appreciated!
Renewals was relatively straight-forward for us this year. Quevedo and Lavoine leave as they repeatedly demanded salaries that were way over their market value. The 4 other riders leaving simply were too old, or were aquired through the CT draft. Actually, Planckaert doesn't fit under either of those categories but he's just useless for us at this point.
The only deals we knew in the moment that were tough to hand out were Tsatevich and Novak's contracts. Novak is a team legend at this point, leading us to CT promotions as the team's top scorer twice. However, him aging while Crncevic was back from loan to replace him made extending him a potentially unwise, but an emotional choice. Meanwhile, Tsatevich is a manager and clubhouse favorite, which meant we were going to do everything in our power to not let him hit the market in free agency.
Edited by maxime86 on 14-09-2021 01:36
Lavoine taking a win in Langkawi this past season.
Name
Wage
Anthony Lavoine
50,000
Cyril Gautier
50,000
Xavier Quevedo
50,000
Thomas Faiers
50,000
Kevin Colleoni
50,000
Maxime Daniel
400,000
Spoiler
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FI
DH
PRL
Lavoine
72
59
59
61
69
62
75
64
79
76
61
78
61
Gautier
70
66
78
62
73
69
66
58
66
74
75
62
62
Quevedo
69
71
78
65
72
72
73
56
65
75
69
72
65
Faiers
69
76
69
73
72
72
73
65
61
70
72
65
73
Daniel
73
56
69
56
76
76
74
80
76
72
69
74
64
-
Colleoni
Unmaxed
65
68
68
65
65
68
65
60
64
69
65
68
62
Maxed
68
77
73
72
72
73
72
60
64
70
66
69
69
Sure we brought back Quevedo and Lavoine, but the cream of the crop here is clearly Maxime Daniel. As a part of keeping our sponsors, we decided to make a further effort in bringing in French riders, with Daniel as a leader being one of those. The rest are all riders we feel are great prices considering each of them should provide peripheral scoring either now, or a few years from now in Colleoni's case.
Transfer Update #1
Asset
Movement
Gyung Gu Jang
Out
Marc Christian Garby
In
300,000
In
-
Alberto Dainese
In (LOAN)
650,000
In
-
Wen Hao Li
Out
Morten Hulgaard
In
81,000
In
-
Michael Van Stayen
In
Alexey Tsatevich
Out
1,700,000
Out
Spoiler
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FI
DH
PRL
Van Stayen
75
63
78
59
74
69
78
68
83
76
72
62
59
Garby
65
79
70
68
71
76
75
50
52
70
72
63
68
Dainese
72
61
67
60
71
74
74
61
76
78
64
69
63
Hulgaard
68
64
68
71
70
68
67
58
65
65
65
66
70
The BIGGEST move we will be making, 100%, is Michael Van Stayen. Having been able to pull severe cash amounts from the Garby-Jang swap, and Dainese's loan, we were able to bring in the man-game legend himself. Although he is aging, hopefully he should provide a strong scoring baseline in sprint stages or in the flatter hills. Losing Li and Tsatevich is painful, but worth the prize of Van Stayen!
Edited by maxime86 on 14-09-2021 02:18
Of course Van Stayen has slightly declined but i think he will still be fantastic in pct where he should have race selection choices that were never available to him over the last five years. All the best!
Hills definitely won't be a lot of fun for us in PCT this year... For the steep finishes, there are Skujins, Ponzi et al., and for the flat ending races there should be pretty much no way past MvS... Congrats on that transfer - I'm afraid you'll have a lot of fun with him
@knockout: Could you please stop selling all your leaders to PCT?
Fabianski wrote:
Hills definitely won't be a lot of fun for us in PCT this year... For the steep finishes, there are Skujins, Ponzi et al., and for the flat ending races there should be pretty much no way past MvS... Congrats on that transfer - I'm afraid you'll have a lot of fun with him
@knockout: Could you please stop selling all your leaders to PCT?
Have you seen the leaders i sold? I surely dont want to go up against them in PT!
Although it is no secret that neither Boeckmans or Bakelandts were not primary targets for us, getting the chance to pick them up at these wages provides us tons of depth scoring in sprints and the hills around Van Stayen.
Transfer Update #2
Asset
Movement
Aleska Crncevic
Out (LOAN)
50,00
In
-
Jan Ghyselinck
Out
Taylor Gunman
In
-
Geremie Nzeke
In
Morten Hulgaard
Out
50,000
Out
-
Mikel Bizkarra
In
Thanawut Sanikwathi
Out
70,000
Out
Spoiler
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FI
DH
PRL
Gunman
72
65
75
70
71
68
70
51
70
75
74
68
77
Nzeke
67
72
76
61
72
67
67
63
66
68
75
74
63
Bizkarra
65
76
72
63
72
72
72
55
65
73
71
67
62
Although these transfers seem quite insignificant, in all of the cases we trimmed wages while moving along a rider we weren't super keen on keeping. Ghyselinck and Sanikwathi were two of the riders we wanted to sell the most, although we sent cash along with Sanikwathi, we feel like we definitely upgraded with our periferal scoring adding Gunman and Bizkarra.
You did quite a good job of maximizing performance in the lower tiers of riders with small deals and late FA's. Van Staeyen should be a really cool leader, and Daniel is a terrific rider from a focus region.
Interested to see you have Garby now. Chamarro will still be better, so interested to see how his calendar and role works out.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Boeckmans was great for me last season and it's nice to see he got paid big time in free agency. Not sure he would've taken 120k in renewals if I tried
Looks like a lot is going to rest on the shoulders of MVS, good luck
redordead wrote:
Boeckmans was great for me last season and it's nice to see he got paid big time in free agency. Not sure he would've taken 120k in renewals if I tried
Looks like a lot is going to rest on the shoulders of MVS, good luck
He was always on the radar for us, but after his decline I was worried if he could perform similarly to last year. At that wage though, it was definitely worth the gamble we think...
Croatia14 wrote:
Very nice small deals for you, did a very good job with late improvements to the team.
Thank you! Was definitely nice figuring out that Sanikwathi-Bizkarra deal despite how long it took, and I'll always take compliments from the PT winner himself!
baseballlover312 wrote:
You did quite a good job of maximizing performance in the lower tiers of riders with small deals and late FA's. Van Staeyen should be a really cool leader, and Daniel is a terrific rider from a focus region.
Interested to see you have Garby now. Chamarro will still be better, so interested to see how his calendar and role works out.
Really appreciate the kind words, Daniel definitely was a bit of an overpay, but it was time for the team to go back towards actually having somesort of nation focus lol... that said, definitely interested as well to see how Garby does. I think I'll likely pair Chamorro and Garby together for the majority of their races, given they are really of different climbing molds. Definitely have some ideas to maximize Garby though, and I think he's go the stats to do well (he really beat out some impressive riders throughout the tour of America for example).
We really just have two main leaders for this upcoming season in Michael and Maxime. Most of our planning was done around flat and cobbled stages, so effectively ending up with two riders of this caliber was a big goal of ours. MVS will likely target lots of flat stages that include one or two steep inclines, while Daniel will be the mainstay leader of our cobbles lineup.
Puncheurs
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FI
DH
PRL
Bakelandts
68
71
80
63
75
72
69
59
69
72
70
65
62
Quevedo
69
71
78
65
72
72
73
56
65
75
69
72
65
Gautier
70
66
78
62
73
69
66
58
66
74
75
62
62
Gunman
72
65
75
70
71
68
70
51
70
75
74
68
77
Nzeke
67
72
76
61
72
67
67
63
66
68
75
74
63
This group of hilly riders is almost deeper than we intended. After striking out on some more climbers, we were able to refocus and pick up Man-Game icon Jan Bakelandts. Although at 35 it's difficult to be sure how effective he is, this will also allow us to deploy Quevedo and Gunman as teammates more in mountain and time-trial races respectively.
Climbers
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FI
DH
PRL
Chamorro
66
78
75
65
72
76
70
51
66
74
78
74
64
Garby
65
79
70
68
71
76
75
50
52
70
72
63
68
Novak
69
76
72
75
74
72
73
59
63
64
63
60
75
Bizkarra
65
76
72
63
72
72
72
55
65
73
71
67
62
Faiers
69
76
69
73
72
72
73
65
61
70
72
65
73
Although not a 'strength' of ours, Garby and Chamorro have proven to be able to provide somesort of peripheral scoring throughout their careers. Novak, Bizkarra and Faiers are all getting over the hill age-wise, yet they will be counted on as important support riders in more climbing-based tours. Novak however, will likely still get his fair share of chances to lead this group.
Sprinters
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FI
DH
PRL
Hayakawa
73
63
65
50
75
68
76
57
79
79
75
73
50
Kuboki
73
65
73
75
75
74
71
59
77
77
70
65
78
Lavoine
72
59
59
61
69
62
75
64
79
76
61
78
61
Dainese
72
61
67
60
71
74
74
61
76
78
64
69
63
Bercz
72
62
70
60
73
68
75
66
76
77
67
66
60
Our sprinters are by far our strongest team subsection. Lavoine returns after his top-30 CT finish last year, but will likely take a back seat to Hayakawa and Boeckmans. Kuboki and Bercz both offer support in more than just sprint stages, and will be the primary helpers for Van Stayen. Evidently, the oh-so talented Dainese will have a fantastic group to learn from.
Cobblers
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FI
DH
PRL
Boeckmans
71
59
66
58
71
68
76
72
79
80
63
56
58
Dakteris
75
55
64
62
74
70
73
72
77
77
63
61
62
Nolf
72
61
64
62
74
69
66
78
61
68
73
58
62
Skala
74
56
71
56
70
72
65
74
66
71
72
74
69
This group definitely does not contain the depth that we have had in the cobbles during previous seasons. However, Dakteris, Nolf and Skala, all were the team's top performers in their role for the cobbles last year. The leading Veteran of the group, Boeckmans, will add a world class finishing sprint if needed, a much needed addition after Planckaert and Sanikwathi's dissapointing sprint finishes in 2020.
Talents
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FI
DH
PRL
Colleoni
65
68
68
65
65
68
65
60
64
69
65
68
62
Spoiler
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FI
DH
PRL
Maxed
68
77
73
72
72
73
72
60
64
70
66
69
69
Coming from the manager's prefered profile of talents, Colleoni will be a long-term project will the goal of him developing into a similar rider as Novak or Crncevic. Coming from Italy to a French cycling team as well should lessen the difficulty of being the youngest rider on the squad by 7 years when setting aside loan-ins.
There we have it, Carrefour - ESPN's full team for this upcoming season. Expectations are honestly non-existant at this point, given that there's a pretty wide set of potential outcomes from the amount of focus that was placed on helping the team's depth. However, even a relegation back to the CT would not cripple the team, as the majority of the team's non-declining riders are on extremely managable wages. Relegation would still be dissapointing given the amount of legend-status riders remain with the team, as continuing a positive send-off for the Van Stayens and Bakelandts of the world would be ideal.
Michael Van Stayen
Maxime Daniel
