[Thomas]
Good evening everybody, thanks for joining us today.
Us, that means Emanuel Probst, CEO of Jura Haushaltsgeräte. Christian Ammann, CEO of GIANTS Software. Rubens Bertogliati, Directeur Sportif of Jura GIANTS. And myself, Thomas Peter, CEO of Swiss Cycling.
Emanuel, Christian, your companies are the main sponsors of MGUCI PT outfit Jura GIANTS. Rubens, you're the team's DS. It's probably safe to say that the season hasn't been going according to plan to date. Rubens, tell us what went wrong.
[Rubens]
Well, it's not just one thing, it's a complex combination of unlucky events. First, the pre-season wasn't great. We saw some important changes in the MGUCI world, and most of them were not in our team's favour. Riders who we expected to be solid points scorers - or even to join the extended world class level - suddenly lost a lot of their worth.
Worse, even riders we signed to enhance our team's quality turned out to be far weaker than we thought - not the least "thanks" to the aforementioned changes. A lot of things went in the wrong way for us during the offseason.
Take the first results, which were mostly between mediocre and plain awful - and that's what made team manager Mr. Fabianski throw in the towel.
[Thomas]
That sounds bad indeed, and it really was bad. In my role as the Managing Director of the Swiss Cycling Association, I was in touch with most of the Swiss riders - and morale was really low.
Which was in particular true for Mauro Schmid and Valentin Darbellay, who had great hopes of making a big step forward this year - the opposite was true, at least at the beginning of 2025. Or take Fabio Christen, who was dreaming of becoming the next Kemboi - but with the new regulations he would be far from being competitive if the team developed him that way.
So a lot of frustration on the rider side as well, not only for the manager. It was a big blow for the sponsors as well, who were mostly delighted during the last three seasons. Or am I wrong, Emanuel?
[Emanuel]
That's exactly right. I mean, we kind of know the experience of changed mechanics. You try to develop a brand new coffee machine, and the first results are rarely what you'd hope them to be. But as you start understanding the issues, you adapt and eventually you get there.
But this situation is different. Here we had a system working really well - and all of a sudden it's broken. In the world of coffee machines, it would take a change of physics laws to get a similar effect. That will never happen. But with our cycling team, we saw exactly that.
We knew it might be a rough season, but so many things not working anymore - even things that should on paper have improved - is truly frustrating.
[Christian]
I can only second this, even though I'm working in a completely different domain.
You know, sports somehow is a game. And in a game, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But nothing is as annoying as losing due to breaking changes in a game, especially changes you couldn't really see coming to a certain extent.
So yes, it definitely was a frustrating start to the year - even more so given that even last year's superstar, Kaden Groves, was nowhere close to being as competitive as he was in 2024. With results being even worse than expected - and we didn't expect a top-notch season, fully supporting the team's development strategy - it's obvious that we cannot be satisfied.
[Rubens]
Yes, there were a couple of awful results, with riders sometimes just not caring about the race, not even trying to get at least some kind of a satisfying results. Take Tasmania, Qatar, Tirreno, Ukraine, MSR or Balkans as bad examples. Or even more recently, Scandinavia being a total failure, in particular after last year's relative success. That's a whole lot of really bad races.
Add on top of that the expected low results on the cobbles, due to the lack of a specialist - and there's not much left to be satisfied with.
[Thomas]
And yet, there's a reason why we're here tonight. Because we do have a message for you. But before we get to that, let's take a look at some of the few great moments of the 2025 season so far. Rubens, what were the glimpses of hope so far?
[Rubens]
Let's start with one that might not appear to be outstanding, yet still was a good sign:
TTTs have been one of our main focus points in recent years, and our outfit still worked very well in the Copenhagen - Malmö classic. 5th place this year, our best result to date!
And then, probably the biggest highlight in 2025 to date - you probably guess which race I'm talking about:
For the 3rd year in a row, the Giro d'Italia has been very kind to us. After two wins in 2023 (by Bol) and one last year (by Szarka), it was Valentin Darbellay's turn in 2025, winning stage 14!
Valentin joined a lot of breakaways - something we were missing from him last year - and converted one of those into a stage win.
But that wasn't all - he even got to wear the Maglia Rosa for a total of five days! One day after stage 9, and then for a full four days after stage 15. Surely a career highlight - for a rider who looked to be a complete failure this year according to the previous results!
Val dropped a little in stages 19 and 20, but still managed to hold onto 8th place in GC - the team's 3rd straight GC Top 10 in the Giro!
Lastly, we can mention the Tour of Northern Europe - a race we were already hoping to do well in last year, but this year we actually got the result we were hoping for:
This is Mauro Schmid, riding the stage 4 ITT in yellow! He did a great job on the cobbled stage 3, finishing 4th, to take over the leader jersey. Of course, he lost it in the ITT, but with two hilly stages to go, he stayed in GC contention.
Unfortunately, he made a crucial tactical error on stage 7, being caught out of position - but he still was able to secure a fantastic 3rd place in the final GC! Our best GC result of the season to date, and definitely a big relief for the entire team, but definitely for himself first and foremost!
It even looked like we might write another success story in our home race, the Tour de Suisse, but unfortunately Valentin Darbellay had a horrible TT in what was otherwise a great race for him, so instead of a possible GC podium he "only" took 7th place. Respectable, but much more would have been on the cards.
[Thomas]
There were definitely much more lows than highs this year, but these strong results show that the team is still alive. Sure, Mauro Schmid is the big loser of the year - symptomatic for that is San Sebastian, where he only finished 10th after having been 2nd and 1st in recent editions. And Darbellay isn't as consistent as the team was hoping him to be. And Groves' 2025 edition is miserable compared to the two last years.
But still, Swiss Cycling believes that there is a lot of potential in this team. And for us, it is a horrible scenario to see a team mostly focusing on Swiss riders just disappear - even more so a team at the highest level. And so, we wanted to find a solution.
Emanuel, please explain your point of view.
[Emanuel]
Jura has been a sponsor of this team for years now. We've been through lows, we've been through highs. We never had the intention of stopping our engagement by the end of this year - no matter how bad the results would be.
So the announcement of Mr. Fabianski of the team's disband was shocking news for us. Sure, as the team's manager it's his right to take this decision - but we were surprised and disappointed that there were no talks before that announcement.
We can somewhat understand that it was just too much for him at this point in time, but we still do not agree to make a full stop at this point. So we discussed the situation with Rubens, who was delighted to hear our point of view, and who immediately contacted Thomas and Christian.
[Christian]
Our point of view was exactly the same. This team has been a perfect platform for us in years, and it was great for us to get known globally by supporting mostly locally. The "Game Over" message came out of the blue, and we don't think that this is a proper end to the great game the team has been playing recently.
[Rubens]
I was more than happy to hear that our two main sponsors were fundamentally opposed to a disband. But I couldn't really do anything, with Mr. Fabianski being the MGUCI licence owner after all. So I tried to make use of Thomas' connections to the cycling world - as he explained before, we all agreed that it would be a huge loss for Swiss Cycling to stop this team, so we needed to examinate all our options.
[Thomas]
Our position was clear from the start: Swiss Cycling needs this team, and its focus on local riders. It could even turn into a pure development team and still be of great value - but for us it was clear that the show must go on!
So our message tonight to all the riders is that we stand with you, we want to keep writing this story, and we'll give Rubens all support he needs! We seriously hope that there will be a future for Jura GIANTS, whatever the team will look like!
We know that what has been said has been said, and that is a fact that Mr. Fabianski announced the team's disband. So we'll need MGUCI's favours to secure the team's continuation.
[Rubens]
The good news is that we have finally been able to reach out to Mr. Fabianski. He was delighted to hear that there is so much support for the project he's been putting so much effort into for years. He does not know whether the team will continue or not, and what kind of role he'd take on if MGUCI allow the team to continue.
But what we can share with you tonight is the following letter that he sent to MGUCI:
Dear MGUCI
As you know, I have announced the disband of PT team Jura GIANTS by the end of the 2025 season.
I made this announcement after a lot of disappointing results, some of which directly caused by your change of regulations at the start of the ongoing season.
However, it has become evident to me that such a step would cause big damage to the development of cycling, particularly in Switzerland. Which is an outcome that I do not intend at all.
Therefore, I hereby withdraw the disband request for team Jura GIANTS.
I do not even know whether this is possible, but if your regulations allow it, I would like to inform you that the team and its principal sponsors are willing to continue beyond the 2025 season.
Kind regards,
Fabianski
So, that's today's main news. We don't know yet how MGUCI's ruling on this will be, but we hope that they'll give us another chance.
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
I'm glad you didnt miss the Giro heroics of Darbellay. Always feels a bit underwhelming when these unexpected overperformances go towards managers that are no longer invested in their teams - cool that this is not the case now. Welcome back!
Really happy to see this Fab, the MG is so much better (and competitive) with you in it, although in your short-term hiatus, others have shown great talent for the rankings write-ups as well!
Your team had lots of struggle and then also some highlights. Good to see that after a break those highlights gave you new motivation to make a come back.
@all
Thanks for your comments, really appreciate it
It's been (and still is) a busy period, with a new job, another baby, then a new job again - I hope things will settle a bit so I can again be more active. But in the next couple of years, activity will definitely be less than it was in my "prime" I hope it'll be enough to satisfy MGUCI though
Talent Development
We'll talk about our mostly awful season again later. Now, you might think that if we were so bad, that must surely be because we have lots of awesome talents, like other teams that struggled this year? Well, it turns out we do have some talents, but as said pre-season, there aren't many big Swiss talents around currently. Still, some of the riders we do have on board should be solid PCT riders or even decent PT domestiques. And maybe a little bit more, in one case. But let's look at them one by one:
Robin is getting back after his year with Kraftwerk, having mainly trained and developed his uphill skills. Currently, he likes high mountains most, but we believe that he'll be strongest in typical "transition stages" - undulating stages that are likely to be won by a breakaway.
By the time he will reach his full potential, he should be able to handle any type of climb - and he'll also have the necessary speed and kick to fight for stage wins. That's the plan, that's our hope.
Nils Aebersold 1 -> 3 (2x ClimberV1)
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2025
68
65
67
69
60
69
68
67
60
63
66
65
66
62
2026
68
69
71
72
60
70
69
68
60
63
69
68
66
62
Max
70
74
76
74
61
74
74
73
60
64
72
70
68
62
Nils has also been riding for Kraftwerk this year, and just like Robin he mainly focused on the uphills. In 2026, they're somewhat different riders, with Robin preferring the longer and Nils the shorter climbs - but in the end they will both be pretty versatile.
With Nils being less punchy, we mostly see him as a domestique for any kind of uphill race, but of course he could also do well in breakaways if there is a chance for him!
Roman Holzer 1 -> 3 (2x Sprinter)
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2025
69
62
62
62
64
67
66
66
64
70
69
65
63
66
2026
72
62
62
62
64
69
66
68
66
73
72
65
63
66
Max
76
62
62
63
65
71
69
77
66
77
76
65
64
70
Roman, who was riding for Simba Cement in 2025, has a pretty different profile. And unlike the others, he already had a big highlight this year, when he won the white jersey and took 16th overall in Ras Tailteann!
It's obvious that he'll develop into a sprinter - or maybe rather a leadout, given that his potential is nowhere near to world-class. We plan him to be a good rouleur, so he can either help in catching breakaways, or being the first man of a leadout train. However, his lack of resistance may be an issue - but we'll see how we manage to work around that.
The sophomores: 3 -> 4
Robin Froidevaux 3 -> 4 (Hills)
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2025
69
63
66
69
63
69
69
65
61
71
72
69
67
66
2026
70
64
68
72
64
72
70
66
61
72
74
71
68
67
Max
71
65
70
74
64
74
71
67
61
73
76
72
69
67
Robin is another uphill rider, who finally takes the next step after two years of being unemployed. Unlike the other Robin and Nils, though, Froidevaux is pretty one-sided, liking only the short, steep ascents.
However, with a solid sprint and good acceleration, he could still be a strong breakaway rider, just in some easier stages compared to the other two. We'll however have to see whether we can still fit him in after the incoming relegation verdict...
Pablo Castrillo 3 -> 4 (ClimberV1)
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2025
68
73
73
72
69
72
73
70
57
58
67
68
72
68
2026
69
76
76
75
70
73
75
72
57
58
69
71
73
69
Max
70
79
78
76
71
75
77
74
57
59
71
72
74
69
Pablo is our only non-Swiss talent - and probably the best of the bunch! In any case, he's our best uphill talent by far.
We hesitated between the classic stage racer path, and some more aggressive mountain development. We cracked for the latter. On one hand, TTs don't have the best reputation at MGUCI, as they're trying to cut down TT kilometers. On the other hand, Pablo will be a perfect fit for those races without a TT, where we were always reluctant to send our best clibmers - who were decent TTers - to.
The major issue we see with Pablo is that he's on a huge wage, and we'll have to see how we can fit him in in a PCT roster - but we'll definitely have to try!
Fabio Christen 3 -> 4 (Track-TT)
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2025
70
63
65
66
66
67
72
66
57
73
75
65
66
74
2026
72
63
65
67
70
69
74
72
57
75
77
65
67
78
Max
74
63
66
68
71
71
76
77
57
77
79
65
68
80
Besides UBS' Elia Blum, Fabio currently is the most interesting Swiss talent "under development". Initially, we saw him as the typical Qatar-sprinter - good sprint, good prologue. The 79-79-79 (Spr/Acc/Prl) route was the target.
But then came the MGUCI regulation changes, and with them lots of uncertainties - in particular Fabio's pretty low stamina popped up as a concern. The now chosen development path mitigates that a little.
But of course, those red digits in the prologue stat were also tempting. And we've seen this year that prologue stat alone sometimes isn't enough - so we hope that this +3 TT bump compared to the planned path will actually make a difference.
Yes, Fabio won't be a great sprinter now right after his development, but there are definitely plans to make him one! But to be honest, experience also shows that in particular in GTs, those 77 could be enough to be competitive - if we ever get to ride a GT again...
The grown-ups: 4 -> MAX
Felix Stehli 4 -> MAX (ClimberV2)
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2025
68
69
72
74
63
72
71
70
62
70
73
71
70
67
2026
68
71
73
75
63
74
73
71
62
70
74
72
72
67
Yes, another one of those punchy riders, whereof we got quite a lot currently. Looks like Switzerland mostly has these uphill helpers / breakaway riders on offer, and not much else.
That said, Felix already had some bright moments, and we're sure he can have more of those next year when he's maxed! Strength in the hills, decent sprint and acceleration - let's just throw him in some breakaways and see what happens!
Antoine Aebi 4 -> MAX (Hills)
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2025
69
71
73
74
64
73
71
65
60
69
73
65
78
63
2026
69
72
74
76
64
74
72
66
60
69
74
66
78
63
Let's just copy & paste what we just said about Felix, as Antoine is pretty much the same rider - just a little stronger on the uphills, but a little slower in the sprints.
And: Antoine already has a GT stage win! Which makes us pretty confident that this rider profile isn't the worst one to have...
Jan Sommer 4 -> MAX (Cobbles)
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2025
74
60
63
65
65
73
72
68
73
70
70
71
66
66
2026
76
60
63
66
65
75
74
69
75
72
70
71
66
66
Believe it or not, but Jan actually is Switzerland's best cobbles talent since Johan Jacobs...
Well, he'll never be a leader, at least not at PT level (we'll likely test him in C2, though), but a decent domestique both in cobbled and flat races.
Yeah, and that's it about our talents. No TT talent, which is disappointing - but other teams were just more committed to those talents than we were. We're still glad to have the likes of Christen and Castrillo on board - now we'll have to see how many of our talents we can fit in our PCT wage cap...
Definitely some interesting names there. Castriillo is a legit climber who will score. I like where you are going with Christen, a little training on SP to finish him off. I am not sure stamina is as big a deal for a stage race sprinter. And the punchy guys who can sprint also can score in non-selective hilly stages, of which there a few.
I think the challenge is some of those guys will set up really well in PCT but would struggle more at the PT level which is where I am sure you want to be.
Mauro Schmid, finishing 7th in Grand-Duché. That's worse than last year where he ended up 5th, but much better than the worst-case scenario we were genuinely afraid of - missing out on the Top 30. It shows that the team's investement into his physical condition was the right decision - even though it hurts a lot not to see him get to the next puncheur level, as we were all expecting.
I hope it'll be enough to satisfy MGUCI though 
Pablo Castrillo 
