Wow, that's a huge amount of level-ups
I guess a couple of these names could be interesting - I wouldn't refuse some more negotiations that are as fruitful as last year's
Looks like some fantastic talent development and a good renewals process for you. Very surprised to see your 5 star availability choices looking at your full team, but if you can sell those riders, you should have a ton of great options to move forward in whatever direction you want.
Didn't notice Kemboi this past year so much, but I think he might be my favorite of your team. But still some really cool riders that have peaked my interest (no pun intended Barnabas).
All those amazing talents... many of whom should be mine Been a while since we were head-to-head on the road or indeed in the transfer market with my hands firmly tied behind my back in free agency the last two seasons. Looking forward to a resumption the former and I'm sure probably the latter
Love your squad as always and big fan of your team. Love the PT stability you have found through your great squadbuilding and development - even though my team structure has changed somewhat since our awesome 2020 PCT teams, it gives me some faith in our shared ideals of rider type and squadbuilding
If I could turn back time, I'd tell myself to bid harder for Kemboi in his rookie year for sure. Every year of my MG life that low availability mark still hits hard
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
A nice set of talents you're developing there! Also renewals seem to have went decently. It's just a shame Barguil's already declining, it was such fun to see him constantly attacking in the Tour last season.
That stat gain post is awesome and includes so many talents that i had my eyes on - in some cases for years - so it was cool to see you pick them up and still develop them.
Availability shows that you intend to continue rebuilding your squad this year and im curious to see how it will look once done.
Wow, that's a huge amount of level-ups
I guess a couple of these names could be interesting - I wouldn't refuse some more negotiations that are as fruitful as last year's
Sounds like a plan, looking forward to seeing what your availability post brings!
Looks like some fantastic talent development and a good renewals process for you. Very surprised to see your 5 star availability choices looking at your full team, but if you can sell those riders, you should have a ton of great options to move forward in whatever direction you want.
Didn't notice Kemboi this past year so much, but I think he might be my favorite of your team. But still some really cool riders that have peaked my interest (no pun intended Barnabas).
Overall I think it was a fairly good renewals process, though there are a few riders I would have ideally liked to have ended up with lower wages - Lyu and Salzmann are probably the main ones, though others ended up being easier to renew than expected.
In terms of availability, it's probably not the best season to be trying to replace leaders when looking at the options available. But I figure that the current roster is never going to be better than mid-table PT, so why not try something different and hope for a better position in the long run.
All those amazing talents... many of whom should be mine Been a while since we were head-to-head on the road or indeed in the transfer market with my hands firmly tied behind my back in free agency the last two seasons. Looking forward to a resumption the former and I'm sure probably the latter
Love your squad as always and big fan of your team. Love the PT stability you have found through your great squadbuilding and development - even though my team structure has changed somewhat since our awesome 2020 PCT teams, it gives me some faith in our shared ideals of rider type and squadbuilding
If I could turn back time, I'd tell myself to bid harder for Kemboi in his rookie year for sure. Every year of my MG life that low availability mark still hits hard
Yeah I've found FA bidding a lot easier the last two seasons for some reason
I think you're probably better equipped than I was in 2020 looking at team structure - the key thing for PT is having reliable big scorers, rather than the depth scoring approach that works so well in PCT. Though that being said, Aker last season made depth scoring work for them so maybe things are moving in that direction.
Kemboi ended up being a FA signing at Level 3 for something ridiculous, like 75k. Still no idea how that happened!
The talent factory was up and running again this past season
It's nice to be back to the "development squad" approach after a few seasons moving away from it. Hopefully it pays off in the long run, after all it is surprisingly time consuming figuring out development plans over and over again
A nice set of talents you're developing there! Also renewals seem to have went decently. It's just a shame Barguil's already declining, it was such fun to see him constantly attacking in the Tour last season.
Yeah, I think as a one season signing Barguil turned out better than I could have expected. Even now he's not that much weaker than Yates who he replaced, but suspect PT may be too high a level for him to be consistently competitive.
That stat gain post is awesome and includes so many talents that i had my eyes on - in some cases for years - so it was cool to see you pick them up and still develop them.
Availability shows that you intend to continue rebuilding your squad this year and im curious to see how it will look once done.
It was very much the same for me, so glad I managed to create that opportunity. Unfortunately a few of them ending up being casualties of renewals, but Davies is back at least and it isn't impossible the others become FA options - though would be cool to see someone else pick them up now they're at Level 3!
As said above, I think the rebuild could go horribly wrong but it feels like the potential reward outweighs the risk. Realistically, there isn't a path to adding the 1500-2000 point a year leader needed to be competitive barring something unexpected. So I guess the goal is to a) fill the squad with lots of lower waged 500-1000 point riders to avoid relegation and b) try and add a rider or two who can become one of those 1500-2000 point scorers in the long run. All easier said than done of course, but after a few seasons of mid-table stability worth trying something slightly different.
From your days as Ayubowan, I always admired your ability to build a talent factory for an out of vogue nation in Sri Lanka. Great to see you're still around jph and interested to see how the German theme comes through!
A shame that Lyu has such a high wage, as a certain Chinese part-sponsored team could've been a nice landing spot for the young man! I'm sure we'll talk
A strong group of talents being developed, as per usual. The availability post seemed quite stunning, at first glance, but checking the ages of those who might be departing things make a lot more sense. Aside from that, in Kemboi and Peak there is a rather apparent preference for a certain type of sprinter.
I'm still a bit sad about the path you chose for Mansouri when Fighter would've just been so much more fun, eventhough I somewhat understand it from a "practical" standpoint
Not a lot of wage cap to play with at the start, but lots of dots on those availabilities, so I'm sure you'll have a busy offseason. Not sure if we'll talk, but good luck either way
From your days as Ayubowan, I always admired your ability to build a talent factory for an out of vogue nation in Sri Lanka. Great to see you're still around jph and interested to see how the German theme comes through!
A shame that Lyu has such a high wage, as a certain Chinese part-sponsored team could've been a nice landing spot for the young man! I'm sure we'll talk
Thanks, and good to see you back! I expect the German theme to remain as non-existent as last season, which I'm sure is what the other German teams want to hear
Lyu was a tricky one in renewals as his wage from FA last season was too high even for his maxed stats. 200k is still higher than I would have liked, but would have been surprised to have been able to get any lower.
A strong group of talents being developed, as per usual. The availability post seemed quite stunning, at first glance, but checking the ages of those who might be departing things make a lot more sense. Aside from that, in Kemboi and Peak there is a rather apparent preference for a certain type of sprinter.
This is definitely a transition season, so as you say the availability of key riders is best understood in that context - this isn't a PT winning roster this season or next, so no point keeping around 31-33 year old riders who will just lose value. That being said, still a balance to be struck to remain competitive.
I'm still a bit sad about the path you chose for Mansouri when Fighter would've just been so much more fun, eventhough I somewhat understand it from a "practical" standpoint
Not a lot of wage cap to play with at the start, but lots of dots on those availabilities, so I'm sure you'll have a busy offseason. Not sure if we'll talk, but good luck either way
Sorry about that - I went for what I thought would be best from a point scoring perspective, though I agree Fighter would have been a lot more fun
It is unusual for the first arrivals and departures post of transfers to take this long to arrive, but this time around the window has thrown up some surprising challenges, but also some surprising opportunities.
Firstly, we must say thank you to the riders who have departed the team so far this transfer window. Warren Barguil has left for 1m to join Specialized, Magnus Cort Nielsen has left as part of a swap deal to join Cedevita that we’ll discuss further below and Xianjing Lyu will have joined Duvel-Tsingtao for 300k by the time many of you read this. We wish them and their new teams all the best for the future!
Departures mean only one thing though – arrivals! We’ve concentrated this window on signing riders who we think are undervalued in terms of their wages relative to their point scoring potential, as we aim to improve our depth and hopefully crack the PT top 10. We’ve also sought to get younger where possible, though a few deals have been made with short term gain very much in mind.
So without further ado, let me introduce our first signings of this transfer window:
Jack Burke
4.100
29yo
Climber
€145,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
69
77
76
69
75
74
80
55
60
71
77
71
69
Joining us for a fee of 500k from Newton Foundation p/b Zwift, Jack Burke is a rider we hope will be a valuable addition to both our stage race and hill squads. Not only is he strong on both shorter and longer climbs, but we think he’s also an underrated TTer and could be a contender for KoMs and breakaway wins in the Grand Tours.
Marcus Faglum Karlsson
4.100
30yo
Stage Racer
€175,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
71
79
73
73
78
75
76
56
60
68
66
74
79
Part of Burke’s role will also be to provide support for our new stage race leader, who joins us for a fee of 1.2m from Assa Abloy. Marcus Faglum Karlsson is a rider we’ve long had an interest in, and while the fee may seem steep we think his incredibly low wage more than makes up for it. As well as being solid in the hills and on a TT bike, we think his strength in prologues could also help him overperform expectations.
Lawson Craddock
4.100
32yo
Stage Racer
€95,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
71
73
74
76
75
75
72
54
62
68
72
65
76
Aleksa Crncevic
4.100
29yo
Stage Racer
€50,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
67
76
70
73
70
70
75
64
61
69
67
75
72
We mentioned the deal that saw Cort Nielsen leave earlier, and in return (with an additional 25k fee from our side) two riders have joined us from Cedevita. Both Lawson Craddock and Aleksa Crncevic will come in to strengthen our stage racing department, with Craddock being a rider we’ve had an interest in for a while. While Craddock will be declining next season, we think he could still be valuable even then, and Crncevic is someone we think is great value given his wage.
Narankhuu Baterdene
4.100
29yo
Sprinter
€50,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
74
58
61
59
72
70
83
67
76
77
59
66
64
A somewhat surprising signing for us, for a fee of 50k from Spark Team NZ, Narankhuu Baterdene is not necessarily the type of sprinter the team usually signs. However, our analysis of sprinter overperformance last season pointed us in the direction of strong recovery being a potential contributor, and for a low fee and low wage we thought it was worth testing that theory out! Baterdene will mainly see action as a leadout, but he may also get some opportunities to sprint for himself at points.
Laurence Pithie
1.15
22yo
Sprinter/Cobbler
€190,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
72
66
72
71
73
73
70
73
72
73
67
72
69
…
77
66
72
71
76
73
80
76
77
78
67
72
69
We haven’t made a big talent signing for a while, at least not one who hadn’t previously developed at least in part elsewhere. That was something we wanted to change this transfers, and while our top two targets got too expensive for us early on, Laurence Pithie was never far behind on our shortlist. At a wage of 190k we’re delighted to have secured a rider we think will turn out to be a huge asset as early as next season – indeed, we think he would be this season if we didn’t need to loan him out to develop! Our current development thinking is outlined above, but it may change over time.
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
Surprised you could sign Pithie at such a managable wage. Great starting stats and way more usable during his developmental years. Even his lvl1 stats would already make for a valuable roster addition.
Lidl Cycling 2024 
Simon Gaywood
Shaun Higgerson
Tijs Crombez
Cyril Lemoine
Daniel Eliad
Ignacio Sarabia
Marco Brus
Ken Sebastian Vassdal
José Serpa
Martin Puusepp
Mohamed Shawal Anuar Aziz [Loan]
Mustafa Carsi
Maksym Averin
Daniel Ricardo Diaz
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Charalampas Kastrantas [Loan]
Michael Boroš [Loan] 
Maani Altanzul
Piotr Mazur
Dane Steve Nugara
Yonathan Monsalve
Salem Kemboi
Sebastian Lander
Josh Atkins
Samuel Ssabagwanya
Stefan De Bod
Eugert Zhupa
Kyeng Ho Min
Michael Gogl
Alexey Voloshin [Stagiare]
Hugo Nunes [Stagiare]
Inigo Elosegui
Hamza Mansouri
Sandy Nur Hasan [Loan]
Alexander Cataford 
Barnabas Peak
Nikita Razumov
Xianjing Lyu
Patompob Phonarjthan
Tilen Finkst
Stavros Theorpanous
Been a while since we were head-to-head on the road or indeed in the transfer market with my hands firmly tied behind my back in free agency the last two seasons. Looking forward to a resumption the former and I'm sure probably the latter 
