Great job with renewals. Wouldn't mind bringing in some of your guys for the season. May have a word then.
Good luck in PT, should be a fun transfers for you!
Thanks, it was a tough one for sure but panned out alright in the end! Happy to hear you think some of my guys would be fits, you know where to find me come Friday!
Good luck to you too!
We went into the off season with a ton of cap space to the fear of many. After initially not planning on picking up one of the big two Wirtgen looked like he was going to go for way under our valuation of 1,6. Even if Herklotz proved way cheaper we have a fantastic long term solution in a category where we have never been amazing. It will take a lot of adaptation to accomodate Wirtgen to best of our ability and most likely he won't be fully unleashed until 2027 granted that we get to stay in the Pro Tour.
Great signing. Congrats! I'm sure he'll end up close to the very top of the rankings again even if you feel like you can't quite tap his full potential with your schedule and team setup just yet.
It’s an amazing signing even if the wage is High. I’m sure you’ll find solid race day options for him, even if some PTHC races might have been picked ideally.
Would be interesting to see what he could do in a GT, but I suspect the 21 RD’s will not make that possible
Obviously a big risk given the wage but he's a certified winner and, if you plan him well, he'll win everything and you'll be well on your way to securing PT status
The wage is high, but he's guaranteed victories at this point, and there's not many (any?) other riders who can really do that in the current DB. Could very well be worth it. Obviously you would have crafted a calendar around him ideally, but PT is the best place for him to be if you don't have the right calendar, as should be enough stage races that he can at least feature in if not ideal.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Where do we even start with this off season? We don't have a cobbles squad and we have the potentially greatest time traillist of all time as our main leader(????). It kind of goes against everything that we stand for. If we start on the departures we say goodbye to a ton of riders. Six riders left us permantently to provide even more space for the shift and PT preparations. The six are: Dylan Kennett: The sprinter joined us last year for a fee around 300k from Glanbia and this year left us in a deal to go to SEE Turtles, where he will aim to dominate the CT sprint field in his final maxed year. We thank the Kiwi for his service after a great 2025 season for us!
Next up are Samuelle Battistella & Filippo Baroncini, who rode for us in their maxed states last year and provided us with great entertainment. Battistella mainly with his win in, the now cancelled, Tour of Eritrea became a name on a lot of lips. Both of them went to Aker - AbInbev in a trade deal for one of our main leader options, who will be presented shortly.
Ronnilan Quita leaves after a single season in our colours, the Phillipino puncheur had a stellar season for us in the PCT after joining from our friends over at King Power last year. After a bidding war we managed to churn a small profit on Quita who will be plying his trade for Deustche WindGuard after the newly founded CT team spent 650k for his services.
Tim Marsman was a late season FA option a few years ago, who was well on his way to becoming a valuable TTT piece, but being one year away from his max state we decided that when a trade offer came in from Rabobank that it felt mutually beneficial to have him ride for his home team instead of our international melting pot.
The last permanent departure is a big and unexpected one, but we decided to test the market for our Cobbles superstar Przemylaw Kasperkiewicz who will be riding for Hunter Valley Cycling this season after their manager hit us up with 950k and a fantastic rider in a trade. According to the insiders this trade sent shivers down the spine of the board, who felt very taken aback by now having a dedicated leader for the cobbles squad going into the team's debut season in the top flight.
Full signings list and squad to be announced at a future date.
@Bikex: Absolutely, if we should end up relegating, which I think we should steer clear off, he will still be a very high value assett to bring into the PCT next year to help set us up for an instant bounce back!
@SotD: Herklotz looks like a steal compared to him looking at wage purely. That's partly my own fault tho as the guy who held the keys to kingdom in FA this offseason . I think we have him mapped out at around 1500 points, but that could change with training coming on a few specific riders, so we will wait and see what comes up.
@LLS: That's certainly the plan and it will also be fun for the first since Kump in CT to have such an, on paper, dominant rider in his category!
@BBL: I do think bar not having Ukraine I get to craft a pretty solid and fun calendar, where he can contest for most of the races, so it should be really fun to follow!
. I think we have him mapped out at around 1500 points, but that could change with training coming on a few specific riders, so we will wait and see what comes up. 
