Start	End	Race	team goal	results
23-Aug	31-Aug	Tour de l'Avenir	-	GC Top 5; 2 GC Top 25s; Stage Podium; 2 Stage Top 5s; 4 Stage Top 10s

We hoped for a GC top 5 with Vauquelin here and he started the race accordingly with an 8th place in the prologue as best of the GC riders. Stage 2 was one for the sprinters, but Pithie wasn’t able to get a top 10 there. It was the same picture in stage 3, but as soon as the peloton got into the hills in stage 4 our team was there. Pithie got our first podium as 3rd in this stage while Vauquelin finished in 7th and stayed the best placed GC rider. In stage 5 Costiou was our best rider in 4th, but Pithie and Vauquelin also finished in the first group. Stage 6 was the first mountain stage. We sent Silva (our guest rider from Aker) into the break, but they didn’t make it really far and in the end Vauquelin wasn’t able to follow the other GC favourites in the final climb, dropping to 6th in the GC. Stage 7 was another one for the sprinters and Pithie finished 10th there. The penultimate stage was a long TT and while Vauquelin only finished 11th there he won quite some time on some of the other GC riders, thus climbing to 4th in the GC. He lost this position because of time bonuses to our former loanee Karatsivis in the final stage, but 5th was his realistic position in the GC anyway. Berhe in 12th and Pithie in 14th overall had also good races.

Lewis Askey | 23 years old | LVL2>LVL3 | LVL 3.55

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
67	63	70	58	69	65	69	72	66	73	60	67	67
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
68	63	70	58	71	66	70	74	67	73	60	67	67

Lewis already had his first big results, but he still has two seasons of development ahead of him. He’ll be a more vital part of our cobbles department next season nonetheless.


Alex Baudin | 23 years old | LVL1>LVL2 | LVL 2.23

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
65	66	66	66	68	66	67	63	63	66	67	65	63
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
65	67	67	67	69	67	68	63	63	66	67	65	64

After two seasons as a stagiaire Alex finally makes the first step in his development. Time will tell if more steps will follow.


Welay Hagos Berhe | 23 years old | LVL3>LVL4 | LVL 4.65

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
67	71	69	69	71	68	71	60	61	66	67	64	67
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
68	73	71	71	73	70	73	60	61	67	68	64	69

Welay Hagos is on his way to a stage racing domestique and will be a decent one next season already.


Alan Boileau | 25 years old | LVL4>Max | LVL 4.100

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
67	73	75	65	68	70	72	62	67	74	66	67	64
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
67	75	77	65	68	71	73	62	67	76	68	67	64

Alan is one of our maxing riders and he’ll be a vital part of APPs support cast from next season onwards.


Ewen Costiou | 22 years old | LVL1>LVL3 | LVL 3.00

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
71	66	72	68	71	68	63	66	70	72	68	69	69
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
73	66	72	68	71	70	71	66	73	74	68	69	71

We finally decided to develop Ewen into a punchy sprinter (with some decent prologue skills). We always had a soft spot for those.


Joris Delbove | 24 years old | LVL4>Max | LVL 4.100

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
65	74	72	58	67	72	74	62	60	69	71	72	58
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
65	76	74	58	67	73	75	62	60	71	73	72	58

Joris is one of the two riders who were developed fully in-house. He’ll take over Chevriers spot as a mountain domestique / stage hunter.


Arman Garibian | 24 years old | LVL4>Max | LVL 4.100

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
69	74	70	71	72	73	76	55	60	70	66	70	71
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
70	76	71	73	74	75	78	55	60	71	66	70	73

Arman is our second fully home-grown rider. Apart from being a good stage racing domestique (and maybe even depth scorer) he probably won’t wear our usual jersey in the years to come as a potential Moldovian NC dominator.


[b]Antti-Jussi Juntunen | 25 years old | LVL3>LVL4 | LVL 4.01

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
68	63	72	61	67	70	65	61	68	71	68	61	60
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
69	65	74	61	68	71	67	61	68	73	70	62	60

Antti-Jussi is on his way to become a domestique for the hills. We’ll see if he’ll continue this journey with us.


Paul Lapeira | 24 years old | LVL3>LVL4 | LVL 4.66

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
73	69	71	61	70	70	67	71	72	73	75	70	64
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
75	69	72	61	72	72	68	74	74	74	76	71	64

We chose the cobbles path for Paul, making him a nice future cobbles leader (barring some training).


Matis Louvel | 25 years old | LVL4>Max | LVL 4.100

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
75	64	71	71	73	76	69	74	67	67	67	66	71
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
77	64	72	73	75	78	70	76	67	67	67	66	73

Matis is the last of our first talent class (and thus maxing riders). He’ll be a valuable cobbles, TTT and sprint train asset in the next season and is on our training list for the years to come.


Kevin Vauquelin | 23 years old | LVL3>LVL4 | LVL 4.65

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
68	73	67	72	68	72	70	58	68	68	71	70	71
⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊	⇊
69	77	69	74	70	74	73	58	68	69	72	71	73

Kevin is our future GC leader and we already expect some nice U25 results from him next season despite not being maxed yet.

Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:

Congrats a very solid season, I don't think I was the only one who thought you would struggle. But those early resutls settled the team's nerves and it turned into a pretty relaxing season for you (at least for someone who wasn't the manager).

A trained APP is a scary prospect.

redordead wrote:

APP and Ranaweera did a very nice job leading the team with the other guys chipping in enough to make it a comfortable season

Ezeefreak wrote:

Nice write up of your season and overall really a nice and solid season. Not in any danger and your team overall looks really nicely build for the upcomming years.
Look forward to battle again with you next season, though we probably dont have much of a chance

SotD wrote:

Awesome talents! A bit sad about the path chosen for Ewen tbh, but it’s always a bit of a struggle to pick paths. Especially when you already have other riders covering some of the possibilities. I don’t see the PRL gain as relevant though, unless you plan to build Ewen into a top sprinter. He won’t be able to combine those stats to actually gain anything significant on better sprinters (or PRL riders for that matter). Would probably have given more focus on his HI, or maybe to make him look a bit more like Lapeira, to have a leadout possibility.

Still, as said - awesome talents!

knockout wrote:

Fantastic group of talents! Said it before the season that i really like the group of riders youve assembled but i wasnt sure if their short term strength would be good enough. Now that youve survived this one toughest season, the future is looking bright!

Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:

A really nice group here - really like Lapeira myself. With 15 million or so invested Garibian could be the next Pluchkin .

AbhishekLFC wrote:

Like everyone has already mentioned, that's a great bunch of talents covering all terrains! Also very impressive with the French focus for the majority of the young riders.