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[CT 22] McCormick Pro Cycling
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 07-06-2023 13:25
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Love it! Good luck with your planning for PCT, and am wondering if McNulty will try for the ToA crown immediately or if he’ll get a season or two to get settled?
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| MacC |
Posted on 07-06-2023 13:35
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Sprinter
Posts: 1594
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Congrats, well deserved.
With McNulty back you will be starting with an ace in the hand
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 14:26
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 08-06-2023 01:55
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Directeur Sportif
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Eden95 wrote:
Love it! Good luck with your planning for PCT, and am wondering if McNulty will try for the ToA crown immediately or if he’ll get a season or two to get settled?
Good game play would say we need to maximize points to give us a shot at survival but . . .
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 08-06-2023 02:09
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World Champion
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A perfectly timed promotion with McNulty coming back and a great American base to build from for PCT success, I doubt I'm the only one highly anticipating your PCT debut for a while and excited for what you do in the off-season. Congratulations on a great year 
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
5x  x5
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2x  x2 |
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| redordead |
Posted on 08-06-2023 07:24
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Grand Tour Specialist
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At least I won't need to face McNulty too often next season, congrats 
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 08-06-2023 07:54
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11676
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Huge congrats on the 2nd place in the division and the resulting promotion Looking forward to see how the team and McNulty in particular goes in PCT.
It's amazing how Holloway's points record still stands despite him being there for only one season!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 10-06-2023 12:39
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Tour de France Champion
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So happy you got your promotion, and even happier Warbasse was a part of it. You're gonna be a force in PCT with McNulty maxed at the perfect time. Congrats!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 10-06-2023 13:22
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Grand Tour Specialist
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So, you finally did it. Big congrats on promotion, while staying true to your U.S. philosophy all the way!
Signing McNulty in your first season was a bold move - and one that would considerably restrict roster depth in your first years. But it will pay off big time starting with next year, I'm sure!
I just looked at the numbers again, and those 906 points by Holloway in 2019 are looking just insane! Not even Saber reached that value - althouth there obviously are reasons for this (no more C2HC point scale, less races in total).
With McNulty's wage going down a bit every year, you were able to bring in great additions - Kuss and Keough in 2020, Boswell in 2021 - and maybe most importantly, Warbasse this year. Just keeping McNulty instead would probably have yielded the same outcome - promotion - but having Warbasse AND a maxed McNulty for your first PCT year obviously is even far better. Congrats on those moves!
I admit that there were some moments in the season where I seriously thought I'd stand no chance against you in the fight for the title - e.g. when Boswell performed so well at the start of the year, while Moscon did nothing useful. Or when Stüssi disappointed in mountain races, while Kuss and Warbasse both picked up big points. It must feel great for you to win both California and Vancouver on your home continent this year with this duo!
I guess your only top rider who was somewhat disappointing was Keough, who on paper is a great rider to have, but unfortunately PCM can't handle that combo of sprinter and prologue rider too well... He still ended up in the Top 20 iirc, so he wasn't a huge failure, either.
Still, luck turned a bit in the last part of the season, where my riders suddenly got big points and yours were rather failing - Boswell's performances are pretty representative for what I mean. And I also have to say that it hurt to see Kuss slipping down the ToA GC whereas other (weaker?) CT riders did well. But in the end, you still easily promoted, and 2nd place is nothing to scoff at - especially when being beaten only by a relegated team! Congrats again, and I'm looking forward to see how you adapt your roster to the new challenge that is PCT!
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 10-06-2023 19:04
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Directeur Sportif
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Thanks all for the congratulations. McNulty in the PCT is a great start but not sure we are prepared for the PCT in any other way. And if we relegate it probably means the end of McNulty's time with the team. So feeling a little pressure on that front.
Fabianski wrote:
Just keeping McNulty instead would probably have yielded the same outcome - promotion - but having Warbasse AND a maxed McNulty for your first PCT year obviously is even far better.
Funny thing about this - until you posted this I don't think it ever occurred to me that just keeping McNulty unmaxed might have been sufficient to get promoted I always assumed that I had to max McNulty this season, shows how easy it is to get trapped into one line of thinking. I think the approach I took worked out but kind of scary I completely missed that option.
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 10-06-2023 19:59
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Classics Specialist
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Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
Funny thing about this - until you posted this I don't think it ever occurred to me that just keeping McNulty unmaxed might have been sufficient to get promoted I always assumed that I had to max McNulty this season, shows how easy it is to get trapped into one line of thinking. I think the approach I took worked out but kind of scary I completely missed that option.
Don't think relegation would end up meaning the end of McNulty for you. I had Kump on 305k last season in the CT and probably could have had him on slightly more money, as long as McNulty doesn't land at like 400k post relegation, with four 0 wage loans in etc. options are a plenty in that regard, its not something I would worry about.
Congratulations on the promotion, already post promotion you will likely be looking at a top 5 MT depth team with the likes of McNulty, Kuss, declined Warbasse and so on. With a few more astute decisions in the transfer market you should be in a very good position to work towards staying in the division!
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 10-06-2023 21:00
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Congratulations on your promotion! Iirc you were amongst the best in about every race we met, so well deserved. And you're mountain squad looks already promising even for PCT with all of them (minus Warbasse) being quite young. I'm keen to see how you're doing next season.
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 10-06-2023 22:31
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
Thanks all for the congratulations. McNulty in the PCT is a great start but not sure we are prepared for the PCT in any other way.
Not so sure. You've got six 75+ climbers (plus obviously McNulty arriving), so you shouldn't need to worry too much about that department. Boswell and Keough have one maxed season left each; if the latter can perform according to his stats (at least for prologues the restricted daily form impact should help), he should be good enough as well. I see it more like some "padding" here and there, given that you already have a pretty deep roster. Plus, at least Kuss and Boswell have done well at C1 level already.
I may have scored more points this year, but I'm at the CT minimum roster limit - so while both of us will have some work to do in the offseason, I could imagine being even more busy 
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 09-07-2023 00:31
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Directeur Sportif
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With the 2022 season wrapped up I thought I would end McCormick’s fourth season with some awards. Very creative, I know. Diving straight in:
Young Rider of the Year
Prior Winners:
2021 Thanakhan Chaiyasombat
2020 Thomas Revard
2019 Daniel Habtemichael
This award has yet to be won by a McCormick rider riding in McCormick colors, with a loan-ins winning ’19 and ’21 and a McCormick rider on loan winning in ’20.
But there are two strong candidates to break that streak this year. 2020 winner Thomas Revard had another productive season winning the White Jersey in both Catalunya and Vancouver and finishing 7th on the GC in the latter. While his fellow McCormick-original, Alex Hoehn excelled at the Tour of America, 15th overall and 2nd in the young rider competition.
But just as Revard won in 2020 for his exploits at the Tour with King Power, another loan-out excelled at a Grand Tour this year. The break on Stage 20 of the Giro saw Brandon McNulty join forces with his Mol teammate Piotr Brozyna to work over Pro Tour-winner Tao Geoghegan Hart, with McNulty emerging for a solo victory in Tre Cime Di Lavaredo. Undoubtedly the most prestigious win ever achieved by a McCormick rider. And the winner is:
Mateo Frankovic Domestique of the Year
Prior Winners:
2021 Roman Seigle
2020 Mateo Frankovic
2019 Mateo Frankovic
The first two seasons saw a rider who primarily supported our sprint leaders win the award. Last year it was a rider who excelled on punchier terrain. Ironically for a team where the overwhelming majority of the riders have been from the US, none of the winners have been Americans.
This year Jakob Rathe , Zeke Mostov and Noah Granigan were the key domestiques on the flat. With their best day probably coming in Nakhon Ratchasima where McCormick won the race and Rathe took 12th, Kevin Feiereisen, 15th and Mostov, 25th. But while that was a great day, the sprint team also struggled at times this year. In the hills nobody matched last year’s winner, Seigle’s efforts, with Boswell too often left isolated in the 2nd half of the races.
But the strength of the team this year lay in the stage races with Hoehn and Revard being joined by Brendan Rhim and the team’s first Canadian, Charles Matte in providing key support during McCormick’s two stage race wins and numerous other successful stage race moments. Hoehn, Revard and Matte, along with Mostov and Fikri Azka Mohammad were key to the TTT team that delivered solid performances in race after race. And as noted above Revard and Hoehn both provided depth GC scoring on occasion, Rhim took second from the break on Stage 5 in Andorra and Hoehn was repeatedly in the breaks at the Tour of America, not achieving any outstanding stage results but riding his way well up the GC (depth scoring is a domestique skill right?). And the winner is:
Dan Holloway Rider of the Year
Prior Winners:
2021 Ian Boswell
2020 Sepp Kuss
2019 Dan Holloway
Typically, this award has gone to one of our leaders. Each season McCormick has increased the number of leaders on the roster so the competition for this award has only got stiffer. This year there were 4 primary leaders for the first time.
Luke Keough took his third run at this award, but this was his weakest season in points terms (all points were adjusted to recognize the lower race days), and the disaster at the team’s home race the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is hard to overlook. Last year’s winner Ian Boswell was outstanding early in the year but his season fell off at the end and his point total failed to match last year.
2020 winner Sepp Kuss was the only leader from last year who didn’t see his points fall despite having to share stage race leadership with newcomer Lawrence Warbasse. Kuss took home the GC in Vancouver, finished an outstanding third at the C1 Apex Mountain Classic and put together a very credible run at the Tour of America (although he couldn’t come close to the 4th place that won him this award in 2020).
The last contender is Warbasse. He one-upped Kuss by taking the GC win in the Tour of California, in the only nation more important to the team than Canada. While at times his climbing wasn’t up to the standard he would have wanted it is hard to overlook that he did what he was brought in to do: deliver the promised land of the PCT, and he did it while leading the team in points, by a healthy margin. And the winner is:
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 09-07-2023 00:51
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World Champion
Posts: 11392
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Very special to get a Grand Tour stage win for McNulty, especially on such a beautiful a stage as Tre Cime. Can't argue with Warbasse taking home the big award - as you said to come in and lead the team to promotion is a great achievement and certifies him as a McCormick hero. And love the domestique award as a concept too
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
5x x5
2x x2
2x x2 |
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