Congrats on Christen, I think his back up stats will serve him well and not too bad in the hills either. Good to see the famed TTT unit get some added reinforcements.
Thanks His Res/Rec looks fine indeed, however Stamina worries me a bit... Doesn't seem to be a major issue so far, but we'll see.
TTT squad would've liked getting a new leader, but at least depth has been slightly improved for this year. Not the worst news indeed.
Christen is a great signing, with his energy and prologue stats he should become a contender for Tour of Qatar after some training.
Also cool to see you got Chavanne back. I'm sure he will cross paths with Leung a lot this season again. Last year Gabby was mostly the one ahead, I hope to change that for this season.
Fighting for the Qatar win would be great, but requires quite some luck as well. Also, his Acc isn't amazing (yet still solid of course), so don't even know how much sense training Spr actually makes. Will definitely try if I get the funds, though
Or could make him the new Chavanne, even though investing millions into PRL training for something like 5 stages per year probably isn't worthwile. For now, we have the "true" Gabby, and I hope he'll still have the edge over Leung in most prologues - Leung can still beat him in longer TTs
These signings like Christen, Chavanne and Colombo make a lot of sense to me Such a shame that you couldn't bring the Wisniowski deal to a close.
Not surprising that my CCC signings find your approval
But yeah, indeed great that I could get 3 new Swiss riders in, with D. Page so far being the only Swiss leaving. And Wisniowski sucks, definitely. But I think if found a less high-scoring, yet more long-term solution to spend (or waste?) my wage cap on.
Honour to whom honour is due! As previously mentioned, Fausto Masnada left the team during this transfer period. And given his status as the team's first big signing, and also the team's all-time top scorer so far, he definitely deserves a farewell post.
2019
Back in 2019, when the team was founded under the name of Centovalli - Fiat, Fausto was our main target in our first transfer period. Born in Northern Italy, not too far from the Swiss border, he looked to be a perfect fit for us. As we also were focusing on developing talents back then, Fausto as a very talented level 4 rider was a logical target.
Little did we know that other managers out there seem to think alike. But after all, it was rather unsurprising that Italian team Generali also wanted to sign him. We got involved in our first big bidding war as soon as transfers started - but eventually ran away with the "win", signing Fausto for a whopping € 300,000.
Getting him was the first challenge, which we only just managed to pass. Loaning him out was challenge number two - and it proved too difficult for us, with no-one having enough wage and loan cap left to take him on loan. Which led to him riding down in CT and losing a crucial year of development. And of training, which we sadly have to admit in retrospect.
However, 2019 wasn't a bad year at all for him. In fact, in some ways it even was his most successful year. Despite all of his great results, Fausto actually only managed to win a single stage for us. And it came at the biggest possible stage for a CT team, in an HC race. After being part of the day's breakaway on stage 4 of the Int. Österreich Rundfahrt, alongside teammate Manfredi, he outsprinted everyone to take the win!
Fausto Masnada winning stage 4 of the 2019 Int. Österreich Rundfahrt.
In the same year, he also won his only secondary classification for us, which was yet another big highlight - as he won the KoM standings in our home race Tour de Romandie! He also narrowly missed out on another stage win, by finishing 2nd on... stage 4.
Fausto ended the 2019 with 183 points in 41st place, being our 2nd best scorer behind the legendary Marco Guillén. A great promise of what was yet to come.
2020
In 2020, we managed to bring his wage down to € 180,000, allowing us to finally find a team taking him on loan. Obviously, it was Generali who wanted to have him - at least for this one year. We don't have too many track records of this season, but we know he scored 186 points, ending up 188th in PT. His lowest individual rankings result to date - understandably. But still ahead of well-known names like Elissonde, Vosekalns or Jakobsen!
2021
During Fausto's absence, the team got a surprising 4th place in CT, meaning that we would ride the 2021 season in PCT. It wasn't the most awesome year for Fausto, though. We were a bit overwhelmed by all the options available in PCT, and still had to learn a lot in terms of race planning. Which clearly wasn't optimized for him.
Still, he got his only stage podium of the year, another stage Top 10 and finally a GC Top 10 (9th) in the Hong Kong Challenge, showing what kind of races are the best fit for him. He also got Top 10 GC finishes in Eritrea and Vineyards. Basically in the races where we didn't use him as a domestique for Quintana.
And there was yet another highlight - our "true" home race, the Tour de Suisse, where we got wildcard access to for the first time. Yes, it still was a PT race back in these days, and even 9 days long... Fausto got three Top 10 stage results - plus an amazing 6th place in GC!
Sadly, his great performance in TdS wasn't worth any points, otherwise we clearly wouldn't have relegated. But we did; and to be honest, Fausto's 166 points (117th place) were pretty disappointing. As said before, we are to blame at least as much as the rider, though, not having optimized his planning.
2022
So it was back to CT in 2022. And once again, we didn't really optimize our schedule for Fausto - although it has to be said that the PCT calendar is much better suited for such a rider type. Instead, Fausto mostly was on helper duties for either Colin Stüssi - our new climbing leader - or Moscon.
Nonetheless, it's safe to say that Masnada had an awesome season. In particular in the Hong Kong Challenge, a race he really loves. After finishing 3rd in the first and last stages, he ended up 2nd in GC, just a couple of seconds behind the winner!
His biggest achievement of the year however came in Spain, in the Volta a Catalunya to be precise. After the team got a clear win in the stage 3 TTT, Fausto took over the yellow jersey after day 4 - rather unexpectedly, with team leader Stüssi apparently not being in form. He then managed to keep it all the way to the finish line, winning his first ever GC - and his only one to date!
Fausto Masnada winning the 2022 Volta a Catalunya!
Another big result came on the final day of the season, where he almost completed our win goal for the first time in team history. But after getting a 2nd place in our first year already (by Cyrille Thièry), Fausto just came short of winning the Züri Metzgete, finishing 2nd behind Wackermann (who went on to going back-to-back in 2023 by the way).
All in all, Fausto scored 326 points in 2022, ending up 6th in the CT individual standings! He wasn't even our highest scoring rider that year, though, with Stüssi finishing 2nd (and Rekita 9th, by the way). But it definitely was an awesome season by him, and he fully met our expectations there!
2023
After failing the last couple of races two years before, resulting in relegation, we got another chance to compete in PCT last season. And this time, we were far better prepared for this adventure than ever before!
One important point was that we had the strongest TTT outfit in PCT, underlined by three stage wins and a classic win. Fausto was only part of two winning lineups, but in particular the opening stage win in Pais Vasco turned out to be highly valuable. Fausto didn't concede much time, not even in the ITT, and ended up 2nd in GC! Only behind Oomen, but ahead of Dunbar - what a sign of quality!
In South Africa, however, feelings were clearly mixed. Fausto also was in the winning TTT squad there, and never conceded any time to the best puncheurs in all these hilly finishes. However, he committed his potentially biggest error during his entire career with us - he missed out on a decisive split on flat roads. He would actually have won the GC without this time loss, now he didn't even finish in the Top 10.
Another highlight came in Britain. Actually being there as a supporter for Stüssi - who sat in 2nd GC before the final stage - he was ready to take over when it was the latter's turn to take a stupid decision. Stüssi wasted his energy during the final stage and got dropped - Fausto jumped in to finish 3rd on the final day and in the GC!
He also finished 5th in the Tour of Vineyards, where for once we hadn't our strongest TTT lineup at the start line. His 7th place in Pologne however has to be valued clearly higher, being an HC race against some really strong competition!
In total, Fausto scored 13 Top 10 results in stages (not counting TTTs), as well as 4 GC Top 10 results (thereof two podiums). His efforts were worth some incredible 496 points - ex aequo with a star rider like Van Hooydonck, and ahead of the likes of Gamper, Reis, Powless, Aular, Gesbert, Bennett - and even teammate Stüssi, thanks to the latter's Britain debacle.
2024
Almost 500 points in PCT - sadly, we won't find out how many of them Fausto could have scored in PT. However, we believe that PCT is the best suited division for him, given his versatility and the great freedom with the PCT calendar. And PCT is where he will ride in the 2024 season, joining the Germans from Kraftwerk Man Machine. We wish him all the best for this new adventure!
Fausto, we want to thank you very much for all your achievements. Your 1,171 points scored for us in 4 years (not counting the Generali season) result in you being our highest scoring rider in history, and we are really sad to let you go. But we're sure you'll have a lot of fun with another team heavily relying on depth scoring, and we think it's a perfect place for you!
Grazie mille e arrivederci, Fausto! It was an honour to have you on the team!
We knew we had to sign at least one "big name" if we want to have a shot at staying up. Well, it wasn't to be. All our deals for "big names" fell through, so we had to settle with a "semi-big name".
Not the greatest introduction, but what we mean by this is just that the rider we got isn't a potential 1,000 points scorer - at least not yet. But this man still scored 783 points in PT last year, with the Ronde van Nederland GC win being his greatest achievement.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Kaden Groves! Kaden is one of the more versatile sprinters out there, being pretty competent in hilly terrain as well - although he doesn't like having too many of them, to be fair. But take a look at his skillset and judge by yourself:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Kaden Groves
75
61
72
65
75
73
80
66
80
79
64
67
71
Indeed, Kaden is our first - and to date only - rider with a "red" main stat! And whereas his prologue stat isn't anything special among the world's top sprinters, there are only 6 80+ sprinters who have a "green" hills stat, with Kaden being one of them! Only three are stronger than him uphill, all of them far older than he is.
So, Kaden doesn't necessarily have a very big name today yet - but we're pretty sure he'll make himself known very soon! His signing - for the enormous wage of 670k - is an investment for the future, with many similarly skilled sprinters being 30+ already. Kaden may no longer be U25 eligible, but he mainly scored U25 points just in Nederland anyway.
You may also want to notice that his flat skills as well as his energy stats are in the upper third of the top sprinters, too - so we're confident that we signed a very solid rider. Repeating his 2023 score might be difficult, but Kaden definitely is a rider from whom we expect 500+ points this year! Will he get them? We believe yes!
First, it's time to say goodbye to yet another rider. Dylan Page definitely is the fastest Swiss sprinter currently around, in particular after Marcel Aregger's declines. We were after Dylan for a couple of years - and finally managed to sign him in 2023.
And now, after just one season, he's gone again. Why? Going into transfers, we had 3 sprinters, allowing us to cover all flat stages of the year. Still, given his age, we intended to sell him anyway - and after the signing of Kaden Groves was confirmed, we were actively looking for a taker. Declines of many other sprinters had led to the situation where a 100k wage for a sprinter of his format no longer is exaggerated, and hence we had several teams interested in him.
After he had already concluded a good deal, bringing in a stage race domestique and some cash, the deal partner told us there might be issues, and so we looked for another deal. In the end, it was Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh who got him for 350k - definitely a handy sum for us.
Dylan reached four podium spots for us last year, thereof two in the Deutschland Tour where he even finished 2nd in the points standings! Dylan, all the best - and rock the Continental Tour now!
----------------------------------------------
The "handy sum" and unexpected cap space (as we didn't end up with a rider swap in the end) gave us more flexibility, and we decided to join the race for a rider we had on our radar in the last two years already. A deal for him was already pending, but we checked that there were no hard feelings around with us offering slightly more money.
And so, for a 100k fee, we bought our 2nd rider in this transfer window: Lorenzo Delcò! Lorenzo only got his first contract two years ago, aged 27 already, with ELCO - ABEA, and having almost reached his maximum level (despite being a neo-pro). He scored 69 points and got then traded to Hilcona in 2023, where he scored 44 points (which however meant that he ended up 300 spots higher than in PT the year before).
And now, he makes the small move from Liechtenstein to Switzerland, his home country. And not only that - after failing to sign a rider from Ticino for five straight years, he's actually the second Ticinese joining us during this transfer period! But it's obviously not just due to his origin that we signed him (although it honestly played a big role, with stronger and/or younger riders at a similar wage available), but also due to his rather broad skillset. Let's take a look:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Lorenzo Delcò
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Clearly, Lorenzo is no world beater (pretty obvious given the 100k fee), but he adds some good support for uphill races, and also has proven to be a rider looking for breakaway opportunities, something that should definitely be handy in particular in GTs. Last year, he finished 2nd in a ToA stage, and 34th in the GC (right behind a certain Dominik Nerz), so he should be a great addition to our roster depth.
I love the addition of Groves. With some 'small' training perhaps the best sprinter in the game For me it was either him or Halvorsen this season, and the biggest thing holding me back from going for Groves was indeed paying the wage this season, as I would have gladly spent that 1.3m Halvorsen fee on his 81 or 80 acc training, which could really see him outscore last season's score quite nicely with some luck I think. But of course, even without training he's still a gem to have in the team and brings some very welcome firepower for the flat and uphill sprints
I love the addition of Groves. With some 'small' training perhaps the best sprinter in the game For me it was either him or Halvorsen this season, and the biggest thing holding me back from going for Groves was indeed paying the wage this season, as I would have gladly spent that 1.3m Halvorsen fee on his 81 or 80 acc training, which could really see him outscore last season's score quite nicely with some luck I think. But of course, even without training he's still a gem to have in the team and brings some very welcome firepower for the flat and uphill sprints
Well, thanks for not having gone for him then Although if this had let to a Zmorka sale, maybe you still should have
Groves was one of my favourite FAs (there weren't many, though ^^), but if the Wisniowski deal hadn't fallen through, he'd definitely not have ended up with us. Then it was a decision between him and Ovsya - in hindisght maybe the Kazakh might have been the better choice, as it might have left me with more options to bring in stronger riders. But who knows, and to be honest, I'm definitely satisfied that Groves finally signed with us.
Sadly, no Spr/Acc training this year - could've done hills, but it might not be worth it with the low Mo stat. I hope he'll be able to score similarly well as last year - or even better, given that he went to two GTs last year whereof one was rather a failure. He'll do one, but not two in 2024.
And a good thing about his inflated wage is that I should be able to easily save a couple of Euros next year, relegation or no
Transfers Wrap-Up | Indonesia?!?
Before we get into what might have been our weirdest deal of this transfer window, first a side-note. Not an unimportant one, though, as it enabled the other deal.
For the second time in a row, we actually sent Jan Sommer out on loan. After riding for Kraftwerk last year, he joins Minions for 2024, trying to get some more experience on the PCT cobbles. We concluded an equal wage split deal, without any fee involved.
Whereas Jan could have gained the experience needed with us, the loan allowed us to free up the wage cap space needed to do a pretty strange deal. At least we still think it is, or at least it definitely appears to be.
First of all, we have to bid goodbye to Giorgi Tediashvili, returning to DK Žalgiris. We intended him to be our great cobbles domestique for the future - maybe even with some training if budget allows - but we let him go.
Well, right from the start of transfers, we had enquiries about him, mainly from Lithuania, but also from other managers. Our answer was: No. Taking 3rd place last year in Geraardsbergen - Bosberg, he clearly displayed his big potential - a potential we wanted him to turn into more points. And still, he ended up leaving. Why?
At some point during transfers, we realized that we actually only have very little depth for uphill races. While we had TTers and sprinters, it was the climbers and puncheurs that were missing. In particular after Masnada left, who was great in any uphill race.
And so, when the opportunity arose to get two capable uphill riders - and potential breakaway candidates, who knows - who also bring some decent TT skills which is always appreciated, we thought it was a rather decent deal for us. Instead of a young cobbles domestique - whose departure we still regret! - we got two solid uphill riders.
We admit we have no clue why they were sold by Indosat Ooredoo - the only Indonesian team out there - to DK Žalgiris in the first place, but they were. And now, they're joining us. Please welcome Teten Rohendi and Andreas Odie Purnama Setiawa!
To further introduce them, let's first take a look at their skills:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Teten Rohendi
70
75
75
70
73
75
74
55
62
73
71
70
71
AOP Setiawa
68
70
75
74
76
72
71
57
62
70
76
66
74
You may notice the "AOP" abbreviation for Setiawa - better get used to it. We'll use that one when writing his "full" name, or just "Odie" when using the first name. Yeah, sometimes we're lazy.
Lazy, hopefully that's not what this duo will be. Totalling just 76 points combined last year in PCT, we're hoping for a bit more this year. As mentioned before, both should strengthen our uphill departments in general, but let's get a bit more specific.
Teten, being strong no matter whether the uphills are long or short, should actually be one of our key domestiques this year. He has enough RDs to do all three GTs, but we're not sure we actually want him to. But two of them definitely are a possibility - and he looks like a good fit for some first-week breakaways.
Odie has some good skills on the TT bike, which makes him a candidate for our TTT lineups, and for hilly stage races in general. He's also our rider with the second best fighter stat, so he'd better use it well!
So, whereas we're still a bit weak in mountains and hills, at least we got some support now. But what about the cobbles, where we just lost our only real domestique? Let's talk about that in the final update...
To be honest, Dylan Page wasn’t a part of our initial transfer plans. However, we are very happy to have him join the team, and hopefully he will both lead Zariff to many wins and create some results on his own.
To be honest, Dylan Page wasn’t a part of our initial transfer plans. However, we are very happy to have him join the team, and hopefully he will both lead Zariff to many wins and create some results on his own.
I guess no-one had Page in his plans pre-transfers, with most expecting to sign one or two 78 sprinters for 50k in the last days of transfers. Well, looks like this no longer is the case, and sprinters like Page are getting a little more attractive
Still, I think he's a good sprinter in CT, and I hope he'll deliver some great results for you!
Thought about trying to snag Odie near the end but didn't have the cash. Really nice depth to add late on.
Yeah, I really had neglected mountain depth for several years now, guess it's time to fix that in the near future ^^ The Indonesians surely help this year already, but I guess I'd need some years of racing in the same division to really build up a solid core of climbers.
Transfers Wrap-Up | Tomas
With Tediashvili leaving, we definitely had an issue in our roster: we have a strong cobbler in Eddie Theuns, but our future support riders Colombo and Sommer aren't ready yet. Whereas we are confident that Eddie doesn't need helpers in the finale of a race, it's still good if someone can fetch him a bottle before the last hour of racing.
So, we were trying to bring in a replacement for Giorgi, although we didn't have the illusion that we'd be able to sign a same quality rider this late in transfers. Furthermore, we only had 15k of cap space left...
The solution was to try once again selling Manuel Stocker to a team who could actually use his services - whereas we do have a great sprinter now in Kaden, he's still not among the world's fastest, and so we won't be tasked with setting up a leadout train in most races.
The deal we reached, however, was even better than imagined for Manuel! In his final maxed season, he will rider for Genii Hyundai N Cycling - where he'll actually be share the lead sprinter role with the legendary Luke Rowe!
We were hoping for Manuel to find a great sprinter to support this year - now he can display all of his skills as a proper lead sprinter! Whereas he obviously isn't as fast as some other CT sprinters, we're sure that with his solid overall skills he'll be able to score quite a few points!
Manuel, all the best, and thanks a lot for your great contribution over the last 5 years!
----------------------------------------------
So, who did we bring in then in this swap deal? Well, a cobbles helper. Not just any cobbles helper, but actually a really good one. Old - a one-year solution - but good.
Please welcome Tomas Paprstka! Tomas is good on the cobbles - obviously - but also has a flat engine and doesn't get dropped over the least speedbump. He also has some sprinter skills - and is a daredevil on the downhills (now tied for our best downhiller alongside Küng). But let's just show the numbers:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Tomas Paprstka
75
62
69
62
74
70
68
75
70
72
69
78
63
It's clear that Tomas isn't as strong and as versatile as Giorgi, but he's still a very reliable domestique. He's also a good depth scorer, be it in CT or PCT - and we're hoping for more of the same!
It's already a given that we'll have to redesign our cobbles unit next season, with Theuns further declining and Tomas also leaving behind his prime - but for this year, we think we still have some good arguments on the stones!
This definitely wraps up our transfers - a summary including all ins and outs will follow next. Given all the potential deals we missed out on, we also had a little cash to spend on training, which will be the subject of another post - before finally presenting the final 2024 team. Stay tuned!
I had some interest in Vernon also. So there, you also got a rider I wanted
Groves is expensive, but it's a solid investment for sure. With the young local talent Christen you'll have competent sprinting for years
Tediashvili will be a miss, such a cool rider
Yeah, that must be the exception that confirms the rule then
Groves was definitely signed having a likely relegation in mind. I hope to be able to cut like half a million from him and Theuns combined, which should make things more manageable. With only Janssen and Colombo maxing - so no big talents - the rest of the team shouldn't change that much. That's why I didn't care that much about him being expensive.
And yeah, still unsure about the Tediashvili deal, I'm afraid I'll regret it pretty soon already... Cool rider, as you say. Hopefully he'll at least get trained where he's now.
Groves is an excellent signing, for the present and the future. Enjoyed having Paprstka in the past. Hope he can contribute well for you too.
Thanks. Nice to have him indeed, let's see what he can do even without being trained for now.
Paprstka will hopefully have another solid season, guess he'll be happy to have his final maxed year in PT. Carrying bottles for Theuns is the only expectation we have, everything else higher than finishing points will be a bonus
Transfers Wrap-Up | In & Out
With all these individual updates, it can easily happen to lose the view on the full picture. Well, the really full one will be presented later on, for now we'll just look at the movements that happened during transfers. Here they are:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
XP
Age
In
Kaden Groves
75
62
72
65
75
73
80
66
80
79
64
67
71
4.100
26
Teten Rohendi
70
75
75
70
73
75
74
55
62
73
71
70
71
4.100
28
Tomas Paprstka
75
62
69
62
74
70
68
75
70
72
69
78
63
4.100
32
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
4.100
29
Gabriel Chavanne
75
58
64
65
71
76
74
57
76
76
53
67
82
4.100
32
AOP Setiawa
68
70
75
74
76
72
71
57
62
70
76
66
74
4.100
28
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
4.06
27
Fabio Christen
66
63
65
65
66
69
63
57
69
71
65
65
71
1.00
22
Out
Fausto Masnada
71
77
76
73
76
75
73
60
63
73
69
71
70
4.100
31
Giorgi Tediashvili
75
66
70
65
76
78
73
76
71
71
70
66
65
4.100
25
Dylan Page
75
57
66
60
72
72
75
66
78
79
62
55
59
4.100
31
Manuel Stocker
75
60
65
69
71
73
76
59
76
77
65
65
71
4.100
32
Loaned In
Ethan Vernon
73
60
65
77
72
75
72
66
75
70
63
65
78
4.08
24
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
4.07
25
Loaned Out
Jan Sommer
72
60
64
65
70
70
67
70
68
69
70
65
66
3.15
24
Fabio Christen
66
63
65
65
66
69
63
57
69
71
65
65
71
1.00
22
So, did we achieve any of our goals?
Well, on the selling side, we're pretty much on track. We had 8 30+ aged riders flagged for transfers, and managed to sell two out of three "five-dot" availability riders. Dylan Page was sent to Cimba Cement for a nice fee in return, whereas Manuel Stocker was swapped for a cobbles helper. The latter was needed due to the unexpected departure of Tediashvili, which in return brought us some much-needed uphill depth.
Fausto Masnada wasn't an immediate sales target, but a decent fee plus the opportunity to bring in our first ever rider from Ticino - plus having a potentially big deal on the horizon where the money was needed - pushed us to sell him this year already.
So we're left with our Polish TT duo among the "high availability" riders - as we didn't manage to sell them early on, and we failed to get other TTers, we decided to keep them. The other 30+ riders staying for 2024 are Colin Stüssi and Eddie Theuns, both of which are team leaders - and once Masnada left and our big deal for Wisniowski fell through, it was clear that both of them would stay.
On the "In" side, there are some mixed feelings to be honest. Our main goal was signing a heavy-hitting TT rider, with Ganna being the first choice. And once it became clear that we wouldn't get him, it was too late to get the likes of Howson or Cataford. And we also missed out on Powless, who was another big potential target - given the pending Ganna deal, we just couldn't commit the funds when it would have been needed...
The deal to bring in Wisniowski was a highlight, as it meant some real chances to survive - but it wasn't to be. This obviously was our biggest frustration among the many disappointing moments we went through.
In the end, we went for Kaden Groves, who also was high up on our list pre-transfers. Our biggest transfer in this period for sure.
However, the most important one for us (and our sponsors) was the signing of Fabio Christen, Switzerland's next (sub-)top sprinter. Securing a loan deal was more challenging than expected, but we eventuall got what we needed, and so the transfer period basically is a success for us.
Bringing in three more Swiss riders - thereof two from Ticino - was another highlight. In particular the return of Gabby is great for the team, and he'll hopefully be able to play out his full experience once again this year, before sadly starting to decline next offseason.
Lorenzo Delcò and Filippo Colombo add some much needed depth, one for stage races, the other one for the cobbles. And Colombo will even improve next offseason, which is great news.
Paprstka was the aforementioned cobbles domestique we had to bring in after Tediashvili's departure; in exchange for the latter, we got two Indonesian riders who will be very helpful in uphill races.
Overall, we bid goodbye to three 30+ riders - and signed two new ones in return. We still managed to rejuvenate our roster, though, in particular obviously thanks to Christen's arrival. But Groves should also have a bright future ahead of him, and Colombo will be a solid cobbles helper for years to come.
We failed to bring in a new stage race or cobbles leader - but we'll reschedule that for next year; in particular Theuns will need a successor - if we don't decide to completely drop the cobbles thing again.
Next up: some little training news, and then finally the full squad presentation.
It came pretty unexpected that he had some cash lying around after transfers - it's yet another evidence that our transfer period didn't really meet our expectations in terms of deals. But well, if you have got some cash left, you'd better use it, right?
Whereas we sadly couldn't afford the same high altitude camp that Colin Stüssi benefitted from two years ago, we found a less expensive - yet less effective one - where Valentin Darbellay trained hard to improve his climbing skills. And whereas he's still far away from being among the world's top climbers, he still took an important step on his way to becoming Switzerland's best stage racer - maybe next year already, but definitely after Stüssi's decline in two years time. Here's Valentin's updated skillset:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
OVL
2023
69
77
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
64
70
67
76
75.21
↓↓↓
↓↓↓
2024
69
78
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
65
70
67
76
75.68
When Valentin came back, we were positively surprised to see that not only his mountain skills improved, but he also got slightly more explosive during the camp. It's obviously still not enough to keep up with the world's elite mountain goats, but we're happy with every improvement we can see!
When talking about little improvements, there's also some positive news about our top signing Kaden Groves. He's slowly getting used to training conditions in Switzerland - i.e. almost no flat roads - and he also slightly improved his climbing skills:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
OVL
2023
75
61
72
65
75
73
80
66
80
79
64
67
71
77.20
↓↓↓
2024
75
62
72
65
75
73
80
66
80
79
64
67
71
77.22
Whereas this obviously doesn't make Kaden a great climber yet - and he'll never be - it could help him save a bit more energy in difficult stage finales, which could be decisive in the final sprint. Let's see if training in Switzerland will have more beneficial effects in the future...
Obviously this wasnt a good transfer window for you but you still added two young sprinters that can contribute for over half a decade and will help the team to bounce back stronger
I always follow with interest your team and there are some very interesting additions here. I also love the Indonesian touch for your team this season. Good luck in the new season!
Obviously this wasnt a good transfer window for you but you still added two young sprinters that can contribute for over half a decade and will help the team to bounce back stronger
Relying on sprinters may not be the best idea in recent game versions, though
We'll see what we can do, hopefully we'll get at least a couple of fun races to create (more) great PT memories
I always follow with interest your team and there are some very interesting additions here. I also love the Indonesian touch for your team this season. Good luck in the new season!
Thanks! We'll need that luck, definitely Looking forward to see what you can do in your second PCT attempt, too!
2024 Team Presentation
tl;dr
The full roster can be found here or in the spoiler, and our points predictions say we'll relegate.
Spoiler
Full version
Another transfer period is behind us - the first one where the goal was to shape a PT-ready team!
Did we succeed? Probably not. Let's be honest - purely looking at PT-ready leaders, we had the weakest of all promoting teams. Sure, Eddie Theuns would've been great if still maxed, but he isn't. So we're left with only subtop leaders - at least we had one of them in all disciplines.
But sadly, our most important deals didn't materialize, and so we can't be fully happy with the transfer period. Still, we're sure the riders we're about to present will give everything they have to still create the surprise, and to hold the league!
To see where we actually did improve - and where we did the contrary - we'll include last year's figures (even though the rules have changed once again). And we also include a per-rider points expectation, so in the end we can see where we should end up. These expectations aren't easy to do for PT newbies, with all the finishing points on top of the "actual" scoring - but we tried. Let's go!
Climbers & Stage Racers
2023
Spoiler
Well, that comparison hurts. Usually you'd want to get stronger riders and more depth when promoting to PT - in particular in this department. In the end, it's a failed target. The top FAs went out of reach - considering what we were willing to spend - and most other potential targets weren't available or we were in other negotiations when they became available.
And instead of getting at least one additional climber, we actually lost one! And as much as we'd have loved to replace Fausto Masnada by a younger rider having similar skills, we couldn't find one.
So, in the end we decided to at least prepare Valentin Darbellay to take over from Colin Stüssi within the next two years. Both of them are looking very similar now, with Val's big advantage obviously being prologues, whereas Colin still is a bit stronger on any kind of uphills.
The duo will be able to cover all of our mountain races - potentially having better chances in some, and no chances in others. We know we don't have a big scorer, which hurts mainly in terms of potential GT points, but it is what it is.
Let's have a look at the expected points:
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Colin Stüssi
350
0
0.00
0
0%
Valentin Darbellay
320
0
0.00
0
0%
Total
670
0
---
0
0%
Both being rather similar riders, the expected points aren't far apart, either. The points expected from Colin are only slightly higher, given that he'll rider two GTs compared to just one by Val.
Expected points for both of them are in the region of riders like Kirsch or Habtemichael and should be doable - and with some luck, in particular in one of the GTs, they could actually easily be 100+ higher for any of them, looking e.g. at what Giannoutsos did last year.
670 points are expected from this duo - we already clearly underestimated the stage racers last year, can they surprise us again?
Puncheurs
2023
Spoiler
You can notice that the number of riders in this department has also decreased - by half, actually. But that's only part of the truth. We mentioned that we changed the rules again, so riders only are listed in one department now, in particular given that we include the points expectations this time.
Given that Masnada has left anyway and Theuns' main strength are the cobbles, we actually have the same two "real" puncheurs as last year. So, no improvement again?
Yes, there is some improvement! The main difference compared to 2023 is that Mauro Schmid has now reached his maximum level and will hopefully be ready for greater things! He already displayed his great talent by taking 2nd place in San Sebastian last year - more is hopefully to come!
Sure, there are 29 stronger puncheurs than him looking just at the hill stat. But if we consider the Hi/Mo combo, we already see him in the Top 15. Factoring in Spr/Acc as well, we do have quite some hopes that he'll regularly fight for Top 10s even at PT level - at least in the really hard races.
Xuban Errazkin definitely had to stay once Masnada left, and we're glad we could keep him on board. He's a strong "hybrid" puncheur as well, and on top of that also has great physical strength and some pretty good skills on the TT bike. Which makes him a good alternative to Mauro in races where handling a TT bike somewhat matters. 4th in the Tour of Lithuania was his standout result last year - sadly we don't return there in 2024...
How do their respective skills translate to expected points? Let's look at the numbers:
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Mauro Schmid
570
0
0.00
0
0%
Xuban Errazkin
220
0
0.00
0
0%
Total
790
0
---
0
0%
Indeed - we expect more points from the puncheurs than from the climbers! Mauro's expected points are basically as many as Skujins scored last year - a far stronger pure puncheur, but also far less versatile. The MGUCI values Mauro almost the same as Mohoric, who scored barely more - and given that a top rider definitely needs to satisfy the "1 point per € 1,000 wage" rule of thumb, 500 points should be the bare minimum. But we'll see...
The expectations for Errazkin might be a tad too high, actually, in particular given that he'll only be Mauro's domestique in quite some races. But he'll also have chances to lead the team, and we hope he'll be able to pull off a surprise at some point.
790 points - or more - should be totalled by the puncheurs, which looks like a more ambitious goal than for the climbers where we were rather conservative with expectations.
Time Trialists
2023
Spoiler
Our best represented discipline gets even more entries - despite one rider (Mäder/Darbellay) missing out due to the single-department rule. With his prologue skills, he'd still have satisfied the 76+ limit, though.
When speaking of prologues - we're happy to welcome back one of the world's Top 5 specialists of the discipline, Gabriel Chavanne! Although a stage win will be hard to get against the almighty SKA, we expect a couple of stage podiums out of the 6 opportunities he'll have!
Otherwise, there's a little bit more depth added to our TTT core, thanks to loan-in Ethan Vernon. Whereas our loanees usually got a separate category, they're just so good this year to be included in the "regular" departments - in particular with Ethan being tied for 2nd best prologue rider. And, he's U25 eligible, which will hopefully net him a couple of points, too.
Szymon Rekita still is our leader in the discipline, as we failed to get our target 80+ rider. We could have trained either of Stefan Bissegger or Alexys Brunel to reach the same level, but given the plethora of similarly strong TTers in PT, we felt like this wouldn't have made much of a difference, and so they'll be Szymon's main backups should he miss out on some weird splits.
Stefan Küng is our true Swiss Army Knife, being competent on all terrains. Which is pretty much the opposite of Krzysztof Marchewka, who, just like his compatriot, is a pure specialist of flat ITTs.
That's 7 riders in this department - with Gabby being the only one specialised only in short TTs. A crucial department in last year's promotion campaign, but what about this year's expectations?
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Szymon Rekita
150
0
0.00
0
0%
Stefan Bissegger
110
0
0.00
0
0%
Alexys Brunel
130
0
0.00
0
0%
Stefan Kung
170
0
0.00
0
0%
Ethan Vernon
100
0
0.00
0
0%
Krzysztof Marchewka
40
0
0.00
0
0%
Gabriel Chavanne
100
0
0.00
0
0%
Total
800
0
---
0
0%
800 points, that looks like a pretty small amount. In particular given that this department scored almost 1,000 points last year (only counting the specialists' points). But the PCT calendar was a perfect fit for them, in particular with the many TTTs where we just were the best team.
This year, we're somewhere around 7th in TTTs, which is a massive difference. And we definitely lack some top scorers - hence the maximum expected score for a single rider is just 170 points for Küng. Considering that Van Baarle as a very similar rider scored 500+, the potential to reach more points is definitely there, but not a given by any means.
We can do a similar comparison for Brunel vs. Cosnefroy - the latter scoring massive points with a surprise ToNE win. Brunel also could do much better than 130 points if he does well in hilly stages, but we went for pretty much the minimum expectation again.
Vernon's 100 points could also be too low, if he manages to get some good white jersey points. And Gabby scored more than twice as much in 2023 as we expect this year - just because he might be less lucky with stage podiums.
All in all, we kept our expectations rather low - also knowing that it's likely that not all of the TTers will score when participating in the same race. But we do believe that these 800 points really should be the floor, and the actual scoring might go well beyond 1,000 points if certain things fall into place. They better do, actually...
Cobblers
2023
Spoiler
Sadly, this year we should actually remove the "s" from "Cobblers", as it's a one-man show by Theuns. Only just, though, had we set the bar at 75+, there'd be two riders in here.
We might really regret the loss of Tediashvili - in particular in the future, as we'll have to completely rebuild this department with Theuns' ongoing decline.
But for this year, we hope that Edward Theuns can still deliver some really big results. Despite his first decline, he's still among the world's Top 20 cobblers, and in hilly races with reduced bunch sprints he should still have some Top 10s in his legs.
Eddie still has one of the best Cob/Hi/Spr combos, and despite not being among the physically strongest riders, we hope that he'll use this great skillset to his advantage!
What does this mean in terms of expected points?
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Edward Theuns
550
0
0.00
0
0%
Total
550
0
---
0
0%
That might seem like a pretty bold number, but he's shown last year that he can not only keep up with stronger cobblers, but also beat them in a sprint. Sure, he has declined - which is the reason why the expectations are more than 300 points lower than when he last raced in PT, two years ago.
And we believe he can also use his additional RDs - "thanks" to the decline - in some non-cobbled races, where we can use him as another hilly sprinter, or as a good support rider. We'll see if it was the right move to keep him for this year - we believe it was!
Sprinters
2023
Spoiler
Another discipline with some losses - on one hand, Theuns isn't eligible anymore according to the single-discipline rule, on the other hand both Swiss members of the department, Stocker and Page, left the team during the transfer period.
Still, we have no doubt that the sprinter department is stronger than last year. With last year's rules, all of Theuns, Chavanne and Vernon would be listed here, too - so the sprinter/leadout depth has actually even improved. Furthermore, Szarka finally reached his maximum level.
But most importantly, we were able to secure the services of Kaden Groves for the upcoming season! And even though team legend Guillén had a higher main stat, and other team legend Reinhardt was famous for his acceleration, we believe that Kaden is the most well-rounded sprinter we've had so far!
Kaden rode for Amaysim last year, being still U25 eligible, with his main highlight being without any doubt the Ronde van Nederland GC win. Unsurprisingly, he'll be back to defend his title. But unlike last year, he will only do one GT in 2024, given that we now have three sprinters on board, each of which will get one GT.
Cees Bol isn't much slower than Kaden, and in fact he's our most robust sprinter - and the most experienced one with 29 years. He has his name written in the team's history books as our first ever GT stage winner - if he can add another one now that it really matters in terms of points, that would be awesome. He did best in PT races last year, so there's hope that he'll be able to repeat this!
Gergely Szarka is our 3rd sprinter, just maxing this offseason. There aren't really enough sprint stages to evenly distribute among three sprinters, so he won't get to race too often - but we're still looking forward to discover his full skillset this year!
Three sprinters, at least one for every flat stage of the year - so what about the expectations?
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Kaden Groves
500
0
0.00
0
0%
Cees Bol
220
0
0.00
0
0%
Gergely Szarka
40
0
0.00
0
0%
Total
760
0
---
0
0%
These 760 points at the same time look like a lot - and not that much. Just to relate, Kaden alone scored 786 points last season, which is almost 300 more than we expect from him in 2024. But we can't expect an overachievement like Ronde van Nederland every year.
On the other hand, he'll do just one GT, meaning that his race days can be spread across more races than in 2023. Given that his GTs last year were pretty disappointing, there's some hope that his total output won't be much lower this year - but betting on sprinters is always a gamble no matter what...
Had he been scoring eligible, Bol would have scored 374 points in the Giro alone last year. And 150 in Paris - Nice. He'll definitely get some chances to shine this year as well, but can he deliver under pressure as well? If he can, 500 points could be on the table for him as well - but it could also be just around 100, like e.g. Hodeg did in 2023.
Szarka will actually just have two races as our lead sprinter, supporting Groves in all the others. A single GT stage win would obviously net him about the double of the expected points, but it won't be easy to get one. We won't say no if he does, though...
So, it looks like another department with the expectations being rather modest, but that's just accounting for the well-known sprint randomness. We could easily score more points, though, maybe even 500 points more than expected - but these 760 points still feel like a realistic target.
Domestiques
2023 Not Available
Indeed, we didn't have this category last year. Every single rider could be fitted into at least one other department - or in the talents, loan-out or loan-in category. This time, no less than 5 riders can be labelled as "domestiques", which basically means that we were able to add quite some depth after all!
This is mainly important for the GTs, where we just wanted to have some additional capable uphill riders, on one hand to support our GC leaders, on the other hand for occasional breakaways. Although our roster is by far not as deep as other teams' climbing departments, we're fairly happy with the outcome.
Clément Berthet - our 2nd loan-in after Vernon - and the Indonesian duo of Teten Rohendi and AOP Setiawa will get two GT appearances each, with Lorenzo Delco also getting one.
Odie will also be part of most of our TTT lineups, and given his good skills on shorter inclines we're also hoping for him to squeeze some points out of hilly-TT-heavy races. Rohendi and Berthet will have to rely more on breakaways, and Delco basically can just help out everywhere.
Which is not quite the case of Tomas Paprstka, whose most important task will be supporting Eddie in cobbled races. And maybe get some individual results as well every now or then.
Clearly, these aren't the riders we expect the most points of - but how many is "not the most"?
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Teten Rohendi
125
0
0.00
0
0%
Tomas Paprstka
110
0
0.00
0
0%
Clement Berthet
80
0
0.00
0
0%
Lorenzo Delco
90
0
0.00
0
0%
Andreas Odie Purnama Setiawa
80
0
0.00
0
0%
Total
485
0
---
0
0%
So, "not the most" still means roughly 100 points per rider. However, more than half of the expected points actually are just "finisher points", so it's not really that many additional points that are expected.
What we expect from each of them is a couple of solid "depth results", but also quite some races without any additional points. A surprising GT stage win would basically lead to any of them completing his personal goal, so all in all we're hoping for 1-2 amazing performances across the entire doms department. If they happen, great. If not, it's not that much lost.
Talents
2023
Spoiler
Well, last year's biggest talents no longer are talents. Schmid, Szarka and Teadiashvili all maxed, and while the latter has unfortunately left the building, the two others now are proper team leaders.
With two of our talents being loaned out, the most promising one actually riding for us in 2024 is Hugo Page. He'll join the sprinter department for next year, as he'll already reach 76 Spr.
Christoph Janssen, who already was an important contributor to our TTT lineup last year and obviously still is, will change in the TTers section after this season, whereas Filippo Colombo will join the Domestiques' ranks, growing into a good helper on the cobbles.
Hence, the only one who will actually remain in this list for next year is Felix Stehli - who also has been the most successful of these four so far, winning the KoM jersey in last year's Deutschland Tour. Some attacks is what we can expect from him this year, too - not much more yet, though.
We definitely don't want to put any pressure on these young lads yet, but we still have some modest points expectations for them:
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Filippo Colombo
90
0
0.00
0
0%
Hugo Page
65
0
0.00
0
0%
Felix Stehli
80
0
0.00
0
0%
Christoph Janssen
35
0
0.00
0
0%
Total
270
0
---
0
0%
The expectations for Colombo and Stehli might look rather high at first - but knowing that they'll do plenty of classic, each hopefully yielding 5 finisher points, we actually don't expect anything extraordinary from them.
The same holds for Page and Janssen, who just will do more stage races and hence get less finisher points in total. So basically no expectations except for finishing races, pretty much everything else being a bonus!
Loan-outs
It doesn't make much sense to compare loan-outs across years, so we don't do it. We'll just mention that Jan Sommer was already loaned out last year. Just like this season, this was just for cleaning up some cap space, allowing us to bring in another rider; we could easily have planned Jan to get the experience he needs, but loaning him out was a strategic decision in both cases.
That's quite different for Fabio Christen, for whom it just wouldn't have made any sense to launch his career in the world's biggest races. It's only the second time we had to pay for the 1 -> 3 loan condition (the first one being Szarka, for helping out another team three years ago) - and this definitely resulted in the highest loan-out fee we ever paid, € 510,000. But we're sure that he's in good hands for the 2024 season now.
Obviously, there are no points expectations for them, as they won't score for us. We still wish them best of luck with their respective teams, Minions (Sommer) and Lotto-Caloi (Christen)!
Jura GIANTS 2024
2023
Spoiler
So, that's it, our first PT roster in team history. Does it look like a PT roster? Well, not quite. Not even that much like a PCT roster, with only one single rider having a "red" main stat. Still, it's pretty much the roster that finished 2nd in PCT last year - with the big exceptions being Masnada leaving and Theuns declining on one side, Groves joining and Schmid maxing on the other hand.
It could definitely be labelled a "subtop team", as we have subtop leaders in every discipline. What we sadly tried to achieve in vain is signing a world-class rider. We were close to getting there with Ganna, and even closer with Wisniowski - but it wasn't to be.
So, our team leaders for 2024 are Stüssi, Schmid, Rekita, Theuns and Groves. Probably not a lineup anyone will be particularly afraid of. Also, if you look at our climbing depth, it's actually not good. Hills are a bit better, but not excellent, either. And on the cobbles, Theuns has just one decent domestique this year.
At least we doe have some depth in the TTs (not that much compared to the top teams, though) and for the sprints, where we have 2 good leaders. And we have Chavanne, who could make a difference if prologues turn out in our favour.
The main positive point about our team is that we do have subtop leaders in every discipline. Yes, we don't have the potential top scorer any other team has. But there are many teams who have one or even two disciplines with not even a subtop leader. For us, there's no race where we can't send at least one of our leaders, which at least gives us a chance of scoring in every race.
If one of our leaders doesn't perform as expected, it's definitely by far not as bad as for a team who heavily relies on two or three world-class leaders whereof one doesn't perform. Meaning that our strength is our team, our depth.
However, in PT, depth often doesn't necessarily translate into points. Well, it does, but not into big points. Here are our expectations for the 2024 team:
Dept.
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Climbers
670
0
---
0
0%
Puncheurs
790
0
---
0
0%
TTers
800
0
---
0
0%
Cobblers
550
0
---
0
0%
Sprinters
760
0
---
0
0%
Domestiques
485
0
---
0
0%
Talents
270
0
---
0
0%
Total
4,325
0
n/a
0
0%
4,325 points. That would have been enough for 21st place in the two last years, i.e. in both seasons after RD reduction. So, are we doomed?
We said it before - relegation looks like the most likely scenario. It's sad, but it is what it is. Getting Wisniowski instead of Groves would have upped our expectations by 1,000 points, which would have given us a decent chance to survive.
But even though our numbers don't look great, we're sure that there are chances to stay up if some things fall into place. For example, just take the expectations for Groves and Chavanne - combined, they're 400 points lower than last year's actual score. We also mentioned that Bol scored 500 points in just two wildcard races last year. For many riders, we just took finisher points into account. And, we have zero experiene in predicting PT scorings - which obviously could mean that we're far off in either direction.
Yes, we do believe that there is a chance to stay in PT. And yes, we know that we'd need some luck to actually achieve this. But the team exceeded expectations by more than 1,000 points last year - let's do the same again!
By the way, how did we come up with these numbers? We first looked at the races and estimated how many points we could get. Then we looked at each rider and estimated how many points he could get from every race.
The two total were fairly close, only 80 points apart. So we think that our numbers shouldn't be completely wrong. They are rather conservative, though, and we hope that our riders will convince us to take more optimistic figures in the future!
The expected numbers say we're going down - what will the actual scoresheets say? We're keen to start finding out really soon!
Definitely a better team than last year, but unfortunately the division change has raised the competition level. The depth is good, but the "subtop leaders" thing can't really be denied. If Groves gets lucky and Schmid really takes off, you should be able to soak up enough points with depth to stay. But I think it's contingent on both of those things.
Luckily, even if you do go down, you're a prime bounce back candidate with a great long term outlook, given Groves will be cheaper coming off his FA deal, and Schmid should get way more effective value once the OVL changes happen.
Best of luck (though I reckon we may be competing to stay up this year)!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Definitely a better team than last year, but unfortunately the division change has raised the competition level. The depth is good, but the "subtop leaders" thing can't really be denied. If Groves gets lucky and Schmid really takes off, you should be able to soak up enough points with depth to stay. But I think it's contingent on both of those things.
Luckily, even if you do go down, you're a prime bounce back candidate with a great long term outlook, given Groves will be cheaper coming off his FA deal, and Schmid should get way more effective value once the OVL changes happen.
Best of luck (though I reckon we may be competing to stay up this year)!
Better yes, good enough - unlikely. Guess you're right about Groves who could get lucky and score more than expected - whereas I've got no clue how well Schmid will work in the current engine, against PT competition.
I sure hope his OVL will go down considerably, still find it weird how you get an 81 climber below 400k (you even have two of them), and a 79 puncheur (who has less scoring opportunities imho) costs 500k ^^ But yeah, if you can have a local top rider, you have to keep him no matter what, I guess
Good luck to you as well, although I think I'll only see you from the distance
2024 Jersey
No, it's not a big reveal show, more of a side note. Still, our jersey did get a minor rework, so we still want to present it to you. Here it is, our 2024 jersey:
As said before, there's only a minor modification this year: Stadler Rail, our new transportation sponsor, was added to the back of the shirt and shorts. There wasn't much more we could do jersey-wise - but we agreed with Stadler that their logo will be very prominent on our team bus, and also on cars during racing. Basically everywhere where "transport" is a thing. They're happy with this solution for their first season with us.
By the way, we also got an agreement with the Centovallina that one of their new Stadler trains will get a look in Jura GIANTS style, and we would like to thank our sponsors for making this possible! It's yet another way to get the names of Jura GIANTS and Stadler Rail linked to each other.
Last but not least, we'd also like to present our Polish NC shirt, which Szymon Rekita will be wearing in races against the clock. Sadly, after Tediashvili's departure it's the only NC shirt we have this year, but we'll try to do better next time!
Spoiler
We would like to thank Ezeefreak for our 2024 shirt, and hillis91 for the original jersey!
His Res/Rec looks fine indeed, however Stamina worries me a bit... Doesn't seem to be a major issue so far, but we'll see.
Grazie e Arrivederci, Fausto! 
Kaden Groves! Kaden is one of the more versatile sprinters out there, being pretty competent in hilly terrain as well - although he doesn't like having too many of them, to be fair. But take a look at his skillset and judge by yourself:
Dylan Page definitely is the fastest Swiss sprinter currently around, in particular after Marcel Aregger's declines. We were after Dylan for a couple of years - and finally managed to sign him in 2023.
Giorgi Tediashvili, returning to DK Žalgiris. We intended him to be our great cobbles domestique for the future - maybe even with some training if budget allows - but we let him go.
Teten Rohendi and 
Tomas Paprstka! Tomas is good on the cobbles - obviously - but also has a flat engine and doesn't get dropped over the least speedbump. He also has some sprinter skills - and is a daredevil on the downhills (now tied for our best downhiller alongside Küng). But let's just show the numbers:
Xuban Errazkin definitely had to stay once Masnada left, and we're glad we could keep him on board. He's a strong "hybrid" puncheur as well, and on top of that also has great physical strength and some pretty good skills on the TT bike. Which makes him a good alternative to Mauro in races where handling a TT bike somewhat matters. 4th in the Tour of Lithuania was his standout result last year - sadly we don't return there in 2024...
Szymon Rekita still is our leader in the discipline, as we failed to get our target 80+ rider. We could have trained either of 
Edward Theuns can still deliver some really big results. Despite his first decline, he's still among the world's Top 20 cobblers, and in hilly races with reduced bunch sprints he should still have some Top 10s in his legs.
Cees Bol isn't much slower than Kaden, and in fact he's our most robust sprinter - and the most experienced one with 29 years. He has his name written in the team's history books as our first ever GT stage winner - if he can add another one now that it really matters in terms of points, that would be awesome. He did best in PT races last year, so there's hope that he'll be able to repeat this!
Gergely Szarka is our 3rd sprinter, just maxing this offseason. There aren't really enough sprint stages to evenly distribute among three sprinters, so he won't get to race too often - but we're still looking forward to discover his full skillset this year!
