Rounding out our talent acquisitions we found a rider that not only looks to figure as part of our recently successful time-trialing setup. He will also add quality to our emerging cobbled classics unit.
For the final signing we had to work hard and paid a large sum to improve our climbing/stage racing depth. With some of the departures in our climbing ranks, which we'll talk about a bit later, we felt it was important to replenish some of that. As so it was a long process to secure this signing.
Ciccone:Week long stage races and Grand Tours is where I see myself this coming year. I'm looking forward to working for an up and coming rider like Tadej Pogacar.
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita
Sheehan, Currie, Fedorov, Ciccone... I should stop liking the same riders as you do, as it's you who get them anyway
Really a great roster you've put together, signing some nice talents as well as some experienced riders with some handy skills (wanted Ciccone mainly for his PRL). After the Pogacar and Siric trainings, I wouldn't be surprised to see you knocking on the door of the Top 5.
On the other hand, replacing Enger's points of an awesome season (900+ iirc) won't be easy, and you have lost a little TT depth. Looking forward to see what Buitrago can do, should definitely be a fun rider to follow
Sheehan, Currie, Fedorov, Ciccone... I should stop liking the same riders as you do, as it's you who get them anyway
It's not like every rider I get is a resounding success. I probably could've done slightly better in free agency here or there, but it's a decent haul.
Really a great roster you've put together, signing some nice talents as well as some experienced riders with some handy skills (wanted Ciccone mainly for his PRL). After the Pogacar and Siric trainings, I wouldn't be surprised to see you knocking on the door of the Top 5.
On the other hand, replacing Enger's points of an awesome season (900+ iirc) won't be easy, and you have lost a little TT depth. Looking forward to see what Buitrago can do, should definitely be a fun rider to follow
I have my doubts whether the team is better than last year and that's without even accounting for the other teams.
Our TT department is considerably worse and Enger was great last year. There are ways to make up for that, but to actually improve on last season feels like a bit of long shot.
I'd be perfectly satisfied hovering anywhere around the top 10 again
Our squad is just a touch leaner than last year when it comes to numbers. Therefore after loaning in only one rider last year, we've added a couple more for this season. We've been less loan focused recently, but we acknowledge we need to do our part in helping to develop riders to their maximum potential.
The riders that are joining us for the season are:
Dylan Redy | Age: 25 | Lvl: 4.09 | Wage: 50k
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
70
69
73
68
71
70
70
65
69
71
69
66
70
We were delighted to renew our relationship with ISA - Hexacta when it comes to loaning in their riders. Dylan is a wonderful rider for anyone planning their season with his all round ability. As so we'll be utilising him in many different race squads and he will ride in a Grand Tour to ensure him completing his development.
Alexander Salby | Age: 26 | Lvl: 4.80 | Wage: 50k
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
73
63
65
62
74
75
73
68
73
73
67
71
65
If once you don't succeed, try again. But we succeed the first time, so why not go back to the well? Alexander is the 2nd loanee coming over from ISA - Hexacta. He doesn't need as much development time, but he'll still fill an important role for us in a number of one day races.
Kees Duyvesteyn | Age: 26 | Lvl: 4.54 | Wage: 50k
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
68
68
75
65
67
70
67
60
64
74
73
67
65
Our final loanee is an old friend in fact. Kees started his career as a stagiaire with us back in 2020. After leaving on a permanent deal last year he returns to us this year on loan from his new team ELCO - ABEA. He joins without a loan clause, but we think he'll be involved enough to finally reach his full potential.
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita
There some very interesting talents added to an already lovely team. Also, due to various reasons, a longtime career I played a couple of years ago in PCM and some real life cycling races, I do love a lot the additions of Fedorov and Ciccone. Good luck in the new season!
It's been another rather busy transfer period for us. It wasn't a big secret that we were looking to increase our funds to spend on some training. In total we have 8 riders that left on a permanent transfer deal and a further 5 riders going out on loan.
Transferred
Damien Howson
It was a successful single season for us and for Damien. He provided us with some high quality time-trialing including a TTT stage win at the Vuelta. On the other side he got a bit of pay rise and is now joining our friends at Sony - Force India for a fee of 700k.
Sondre Holst Enger
Another rider with only one season here, but what a season it was! Enger finished as our 2nd highest highest scorer and really took to the Pro Tour like a duck to water. He's easily the best and most successful sprinter we've ever had. We were only going to sell him in a deal that worked for us, but having him join a newly promoted Norwegian PCT team just made too much sense. As is, he was sold for a fee of 900k to Tafjord-Kraft.
Lawson Craddock, Aleksa Crncevic
Craddock and Crncevic both left as part of a swap deal with Lidl Cycling. Both were real solid contributors for us. Craddock this last season and Crncevic in our promotion season 2 years ago. Coming in the other direction was Magnus Cort Nielsen and a nominal fee of 25k.
Geoffrey Bouchard
A free agent signing 2 year ago, Geoffrey was such a great rider to have around and he quickly became a bit of a fan favourite. He was an unsung hero in our promotion season and also proved his worth in the Pro Tour. He left to join Lotto-Caloi for a bargain fee of only 100k.
Matevz Govekar, Giorgi Nareklishvili
This was another bigger deal with a few motivations for us. We brought back Gasper Katrasnik who in hindsight we never should've sold in addition to the 900k. We were also motivated to give Govekar a chance to shine as a leader. He showed his ability by winning the U23 WC road race and we wish him all the best. Nareklishvili had to be included to make the deal work.
David Gaudu, Magnus Cort Nielsen
Cort Nielsen didn't stay with us for long, together with David Gaudu they moved to the Pro Tour team Grieg-Maersk for a fee worth 1m. We want to take a moment to thank David for his 3 years with us. His arrival coincided with an upturn in our team's performance. He's been a great leader and even better domestique for us. His role got reduced this past year so we hope for his success at his new team.
Loaned Out
Kristjan Hocevar
Kristjan got a solid amount of race days last year, therefore we had the option of having someone else look after the final step of his development. He goes to Sony - Force India where he adds depth to his climbing ranks. He then should be ready for a bigger role with us next season.
Fred Wright
It's quite a similar situation for Fred Wright. He's set for an important domestique role at Tryg - Eni which should be a good proving ground for him. Next year he hopefully fills his role as an all round rider for us.
Milos Borisavljevic
This was a deal that came a bit out of left field. We've never loaned out a maxed rider before. We got a 250k fee and Milos's wages paid are being split between us and Zain - Omantel. The deal still feels a bit strange for us, but we felt the money gained was needed at the time and hopefully our team's performance doesn't suffer to much without one of main domestiques.
Aljaz Jarc, Aleks Bechkov
Our two late bloomers both ended up leaving late in the transfer window. We could have given them the race days ourselves, but we got an opportunity to clear some extra wage space to secure our free agents. They both left to go to newly promoted PCT team Llapi-Vita.
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita
I was too late in considering the loan-out candidates within my team, but that's nothing I can change now. I hope your riders come back better next season, although I do understand that sometimes during transfers some such moves are made for financial reasons rather than development of cyclists. Still, I am hoping for the best for your riders.
There some very interesting talents added to an already lovely team. Also, due to various reasons, a longtime career I played a couple of years ago in PCM and some real life cycling races, I do love a lot the additions of Fedorov and Ciccone. Good luck in the new season!
Yeah, I couldn't quite get the regional riders this year so I had to make do with some others.
Saying goodbye is never easy. I hope this short poem by ChatGPT helps you overcome the pain.
Farewell to Govekar, talent so bright,
Who chased the winds with fierce delight.
To Howson, the time trial king, so bold,
A master of speed, with a heart of gold.
Enger, the fast man, swift as the breeze,
Left rivals behind with effortless ease.
Bouchard, underrated, but grit defined,
In every race, a warrior's mind.
We bid you goodbye, with a tear in our eye,
Legends depart, but memories won't die.
Going into transfers coming off a very successful debut season in the Pro Tour, we were tasked with a set of different challenges. With a large and well performing squad we started off with very little cap space. So the key for us was how to maneuver around the market to open up cap space and how to spend our money.
It's not a secret that this year is when our two main faces of our Balkan project became training eligible. A large portion of our budget was always going to be allocated for that. Still as our finances were uncertain on what we could afford that made us rather passive in terms of buying riders. In the end our main focus was on free agents where we added 5 riders to cover some of our outgoings.
From a regional point of view our Balkan quota was reduced by one. On the other hand we were able to invest the maximum amount of funds into training both Tadej Pogacar and Ivan Siric. Myself and our sponsors think this is still a massive net positive. Now it comes down to the riders, coaches and director sportifs to make it all worth our while.
With that said I would now like to formally introduce Cedevita's 2024 rider squad.
2024 Squad
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
XP
Age
Wage
Pogacar
70
82
76
76
79
80
80
51
63
72
69
66
75
Max
26
475k
Buitrago
67
78
76
66
70
74
76
60
65
80
76
67
66
Max
25
240k
Geoghegan H.
70
79
74
78
76
74
75
62
62
69
70
70
76
Max
29
450k
Siric
78
63
71
65
77
80
69
78
77
71
60
75
65
Max
26
140k
Lammertink
74
64
69
80
70
76
70
65
63
68
74
68
79
Max
31
180k
Habtemichael
67
78
74
74
74
73
76
52
59
66
68
69
74
Max
27
140k
Hoelgaard
72
74
77
65
72
72
72
62
68
74
73
69
65
Max
31
120k
Rajovic
72
58
64
59
70
76
70
55
78
82
57
57
62
Max
27
115k
Borisavljevic *
68
77
73
74
74
74
75
54
59
65
64
68
74
Max
30
105k
Power
67
77
70
66
77
76
79
59
56
63
61
65
65
Max
29
120k
Ciccone
67
77
73
71
70
70
73
50
51
69
59
59
79
Max
30
170k
Christodoulos
72
68
68
78
75
69
70
53
53
64
73
65
79
Max
27
70k
Groselj
78
58
66
77
74
78
71
67
73
72
69
70
79
Max
28
65k
Penko
71
68
71
76
73
74
71
58
65
70
62
71
76
Max
28
50k
Katrasnik
81
61
63
69
72
76
69
63
63
72
81
73
69
Max
29
75k
Poljanec
77
67
69
63
70
68
67
73
71
71
69
73
63
Max
29
50k
Hocevar *
67
75
74
62
67
67
68
54
66
75
72
70
63
4.62
25
50k
Duyvesteyn **
68
68
75
65
67
70
67
60
64
74
73
67
65
4.54
26
50k
Wright *
74
69
71
69
72
73
70
69
71
72
76
67
69
4.58
25
50k
Sheehan
72
68
72
73
71
72
68
58
66
75
68
68
72
3.00
24
235k
Redy **
70
69
73
68
71
70
70
65
69
71
69
66
70
4.09
25
50k
Fedorov
73
64
71
72
71
69
66
72
70
71
68
69
70
3.50
24
150k
Selimovic
70
71
69
60
72
75
72
62
65
75
74
71
66
3.08
23
70k
Stojnic
72
68
69
73
73
76
72
56
67
70
73
65
75
4.18
25
65k
Salby **
73
63
65
62
74
75
73
68
73
73
67
71
65
4.80
26
50k
Duric
69
60
70
60
72
72
69
72
64
70
66
71
59
3.96
24
50k
Jarc *
70
63
66
63
68
69
68
69
68
69
72
68
63
2.99
25
50k
Currie
71
62
62
74
70
71
68
53
63
70
64
72
72
3.35
23
150k
Bechkov *
67
67
64
70
67
67
66
55
63
60
70
66
69
2.99
25
50k
*
Loaned out
**
Loaned in
Spoiler
Now I will open the floor for your questions.
Q:Everyone here wants to know how much Tadej has improved? Are you committed to supporting him even more in the future and what are his goals for the upcoming season?
Mervar: Of course if it's within our means then we will always look to help Tadej improve as much as possible. We have to be somewhat pragmatic, what's best for the team still comes first, but I'd like to believe that helping Tadej also means helping the team. Right? (glances over to Pogacar)
Pogacar: Absolutely! I'm obviously very thankful to the team for believing and investing in me from the start. This season I want to fight for podiums and my goal is to finish on the podium at least once. What are my target races? You'll have to wait and see!
Tadej Pogacar | Age: 26 | Lvl: 4.100 | Wage: 475k
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
2023
70
80
76
76
79
80
80
51
63
72
69
66
75
↓↓↓
2024
70
82
76
76
79
80
80
51
63
72
69
66
75
Q:With lots of money spent on development and barely anything spent on new additions, is this team actually better than last year?
Mervar: That's a good question and one I don't have a good answer for. I'd like to think so, but there is no regret in the investments we made. We can always look to improve in our dealings.
Q:The other rider who has had a lot of money invested in is Ivan Siric. No offense, but he's not on the same level as Pogacar. How much does he have to prove?
Mervar: We want to see an improvement that goes without saying and we will review his performances at the end of the season in order to decide on further development. We hope the cobbled races can provide us with even more joy and excitement.
Ivan Siric | Age: 26 | Lvl: 4.100 | Wage: 140k
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
2023
78
63
71
65
77
80
69
76
77
71
60
75
65
↓↓↓
2024
78
63
71
65
77
80
69
78
77
71
60
75
65
Q:There were some rumours that Santiago Buitrago was for sale. He's obviously remained with the team. This is a big season for him, right?
Mervar: There were some inquiries about Santiago, but it never came even close for us to consider a sale. We don't want to put a lot of pressure on him, but it is an important season for him and he will get chances to show what he can do.
Q:Can you talk us through the thought process of selling a young regional talent like Matevz Govekar?
Mervar: It definitely wasn't an easy decision. There had to be some very specific circumstances that had to align for us to make a deal like that. In the end our goal is to improve cycling in our region. In this case we felt it was best for him to have an opportunity elsewhere. No better place than another Slovenian team.
Q:Finally, what are the big picture goals for the upcoming season?
Mervar: Some would say we found our first season in the Pro Tour to be very easy. Regardless of that we can't afford to be complacent. First goal is always to remain in the division. Apart from that, sponsor goals are always of the utmost importance and we of course want to see the improvement from the training and development of our riders.
That will be all for today's presentation. Thank you all for coming, I hope to see more of you during the year.
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita
Damien Howson
Sondre Holst Enger
Lawson Craddock, 
Aleksa Crncevic
Geoffrey Bouchard
Matevz Govekar, 
Giorgi Nareklishvili
Fred Wright
Milos Borisavljevic
Aleks Bechkov
Buitrago
Lammertink
Habtemichael
Christodoulos
