The finnish talent Axel Källberg joins the team, an exciting fastman for the future. This year will be about learning and then we have big hopes for him to either become a great leadout or a great sprinter himself
Brieuc Rolland was a talent we eyed early as a target for the season, just waited on the right moment to sign him. He is a very nice future climber that we hope to see stay in the team for many years. We are unsure how to best train him, but like a combination of climbing and hills
Son of a legend, and old friend of the manager
RICK ZABEL
We thought when we signed Coquard we would not sign another elite sprinter, then the chance to pick up Zabel arrived and I could not let the chance go away. The manager developed him many years ago and we are glad to welcome him to Peugeot this year! We will now have 2 sprinters pretty much doing their last dance with us and will have someone on every flat stage or race we enter!
Johan Price-Pejtersen was not on the list of riders we expected to sign this transfers, but here he is! A part of the "Thomas turnover" that we like to call it and ends up being joint best TT rider on the team. A domestique that will ride some TTs for us this year
Mark Donovan is another rider we really didn't expect to sign, but here he is! The last victim of the "Thomas turnover". Mark is a good climber who will most likely support Ranaweera this season
Transfers are over and it is time for presenting the 2026 Peugeot squad that will battle in the PCT division!
We start the presentation with the team captains with 5 riders sharing that title
First and foremost is our climber and GC captain Suranga Ranaweera, one of the best GC riders of the division and joining the team after a great year in a team which name will not be mentioned. He will lead the team over the mountains and is also our best time-trialist. We have to admit we went into the season not planning to have a major GC leader so getting Suranga was a very pleasent surprise
Aurelien Paret-Peintre is another rider signed from the team who will not be mentioned. He is our main French Captain this year and our best puncheur. However he will not ride a lof of hilly classics but will focus on shorter stage races on hilly parcourses. He comes from several great seasons and we hope he can continue! APP was our main transfer target going into transfers and we are really happy to have him on board!
Going into transfers we didn't really plan to sign a cobble leader (like with GC leader) but with Rutsch falling into our lap we couldn't avoid picking him up. He had some mayor development last season and we have also noticed he does look a tiny bit better over the hills this season (minor hill training). Jonas will lead the team on the cobbles, and he will also play a role in other races with his strong flat skills!
Another target going into transfers was to get a strong sprinter, and as he is French Bryan Coquard was the main target. We are extremely happy to sign him as our main sprinter. He is a mangame legend, won PCT last year and while he is not getting younger he is still a very strong rider. With a strong train we expect a good season from Coquard!
A late addition as it just proved to be too good a chance was the signing of Rick Zabel. A known entity for the management of the team. He is also getting older but will be used to split the sprint opportunities with Coquard. Together they will make it possible for us to challenge on all flat stages this season and hopefully score many extra points
Studying last season we noticed that a strong train was maybe the most important factor in a succesfull sprinter was the leadout train and support. We therefor decided early to focus on picking up strong leadout and flat riders for the season. Thus picking up Trondsen, Welsford, Venturini, Frame and Antonijevic was very important for us. They will ride together with Coquard and Zabel all season and hopefully make "The Black Train" a feared unit this year. Some of them might get their own chances during the season, but mainly they will ride as slaves. In our internal "Sprint train calculator" Trondsen and Welsford was among the top scorers with their flat and sprint combo and we are a looking forward to seeing them this season
A good team needs good domestiques and we are quite happy with ours. Outside of the forementioned sprint train we are strongest in the climbing department hwere Wirtgen, Donovan and Kirsch all are good helpers. Wirtgen is also our best helper on the more hilly stages and will be an important asset for Paret-Peintre this year, and migth even get to lead in some C2 races? Price-Pejtersen is our only TT helper and will offer some support in TTTs while Laporte on a "free loan" in his most likely last proffesional season will work as our main cobble support rider. Consdering we are a newly promoted team we are quite happy about the domestiques we have managed to pick up.
Paul Magnier is the big name among our talents and the best paid rider on the team. He is not paid for what he is going to do this season, but what he is going to do in the future. There are many managers who might disagree with the plans we got for him, considering that letting him develop like a pure sprinter would also make him a great rider, but we see the value in making him the best puncheur-sprinter in the world, and then continue training him as a sprinter later!
Wallenborn and Kockelmann are nice talents even though they are not world beaters. Wallenborn will be a strong puncheur while Kockelmann will be a allround / baradeur. We hope they will help us to have a strong Luxembourg identity in the future
Rolland and Paret-Peintre are together with Magnier the French future of the team. Paret-Peintre is not like his brother, he is much more the baradeur type. We are excited to see how he will work out. Rolland is more the climbing type and pretty much takes up the hole in our talent program left by letting Gomez and Tabarez go.
Our last signed talent is Finnish Axel Kallberg. When we noticed noone had picked him up we could not avoid picking up such a strong future sprinter and prologue rider. We expect him to develop into a strong leadout rider who can pick up points by his skills on the shorter time trials
Entire squad
That leaves us with this squad for the 2026 season, 21 riders, 1 of them loaned in, 1 rider left from last season, 6 riders developing, 7 French and 4 Luxembourgian riders this season. We are not entirly sure how this season will end but feel we have managed to build a competitive squad that should be noticed in the PCT this year. We are also very happy that over half the squad are from either France or Luxembourg
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
OVR
Age
Ranaweera
67
80
77
73
76
75
75
74
52
58
65
57
69
73
77.06
31
Paret-Peintre
72
76
77
77
72
73
75
73
63
72
74
72
70
72
77.03
30
Rutsch
77
63
66
68
61
76
75
69
79
69
68
70
69
66
76.22
28
Coquard
70
56
60
64
62
66
69
79
53
81
78
57
62
76
75.75
34
Zabel
73
59
64
68
54
73
69
77
64
80
78
65
51
54
75.99
33
Welsford
75
59
62
64
64
70
70
76
66
77
77
64
65
66
74.54
30
Trondsen
75
65
69
72
64
72
73
83
66
76
76
66
67
65
74.65
32
Wirtgen
70
75
75
75
64
73
72
74
58
66
68
70
69
64
74.49
28
Kirsch
69
75
74
73
70
71
69
73
66
67
66
61
61
70
73.50
33
Donovan
72
76
74
71
65
74
77
69
62
63
71
72
74
67
73.85
27
Venturini
74
62
65
67
64
72
72
77
71
74
75
62
72
68
73.04
33
Price-Pejtersen
72
61
62
62
76
69
76
67
60
62
65
65
64
75
72.42
27
Antonijevic
78
61
64
66
68
67
74
65
68
71
74
80
72
68
72.25
32
Frame
70
50
55
61
68
67
72
70
61
76
74
51
67
78
72.11
33
Laporte
70
59
65
70
59
67
69
69
72
69
68
64
61
62
71.14
34
Magnier
67
58
63
68
64
65
65
62
66
71
72
67
66
68
69.20
22
Wallenborn
68
66
69
72
57
72
73
70
56
60
69
69
71
57
70.80
23
Paret-Peintre
72
67
68
66
63
69
70
70
63
66
71
72
72
58
69.39
25
Kockelmann
69
67
67
67
69
70
69
66
62
66
71
67
69
69
69.39
22
Rolland
63
69
69
68
60
67
66
66
62
58
66
66
71
57
68.03
23
Kallberg
67
57
59
61
68
69
68
67
63
70
69
62
64
70
67.77
23
General transfers
Goals before transfers
1a) Sign Aurelien Paret-Peintre 1b Sign Paul Magnier from FA
We managed both our main goals and main targets of the transfer season, which was to pick up APP as a leader and Magnier as our future talent. We felt both were the right moves for our team identity. Magnier ended up being more expensive than we planned, but we refused to give up while APP came cheaper than we feared. In general we managed our main goals
2) Sign Valentin Madouas from FA
We really wanted to create a 1-2 with APP and Madouas and that failed. Madouas became expensive too quickly and we had to keep the money in the "Magnier fund" as we called it. I am not looking forward to racing against Madouas this year
3) Sign Bryan Coquard
We identified Coquard as one of our main targets (but after APP, Magnier and Madouas) and are very happy to have secured him
4) Build a squad with a majority of French and Luxembourgian riders
We did it, even though it was close. 11 of 21 are either from France or Luxembourg with all talents but 1 from our focus nations
Traded for:
Ranaweera
Paret-Peintre A
Zabel
Welsford
Donovan
Price-Pejtersen
Loaned in:
Laporte
Kept:
Wallenborn
Sold:
Galta
Thomas
Kopfauf
Gomez
Tabarez
In the squad for a short time:
Bettiol
Lazkano
Setiawa
Verdict
All in all we are happy with the transfer season, we entered the transfer season with 6 riders under contract, about 2 millions in wage cap and. We managed to secure our leadership quite early (except for Zabel) which was very nice for us.
We had many talks during transfers and at times were close to signing several other riders than those we ended up with. Had we been a bit more risk willing we would've fought for Lapeira but didn't dare to offer more money than we had at the time. Could most likely have expected to get hold of more money and been thougher there. In the end we actually ended up with a tiny bit of money in reserve that could maybe have been used here.
We pounced on the possibilities that presented themself, panicked at times and did our best. In the end put this as a good transfer window, now we just have to hope that planning wont ruin the season
To create such a strong team from basically nothing is a very impressive job done in my opinion. The leadership trio of Ranaweera, APP and Rutsch also has a nice age profile, which makes the further declines of Coquard and Zabel after the year more palatable.
Sorry for being responsible for the only red color in your goals list (well, not too sorry, but you know, in spirit ). I'm sure Madouas and Paret-Peintre will clash often, should be a fun duel to follow over the course of the season. Don't love Rutsch as competition for Bini either, I wouldn't be shocked if Rutsch gets the better of him every now and then, even if his support is lacking a bit.
Overall, I think you could well have built a candidate for the next back-to-back promotion here, depending on what the rest of the division looks like. No real weaknesses (except we may share the same contempt for TTs ), decent to great support for your leaders, and all that while securing Magnier. I think you can be very happy!
On paper this looks very good! Well done clearly staying with your main plan, I'd say, and then prioritizing the leadout for Coquard, and maybe Zabel too. Should work very well for this year, and then it's another rebuild time next season, I guess, looking at the ages of your sprinters
Echoing others that this looks a really solid team! Ranaweera should be a very competitive leader at PCT level, APP has proven his quality time and again, Rutsch was a great pick-up, and the two old heads of Coquard and Zabel still have a lot to give. Should be a fun season for you!
To create such a strong team from basically nothing is a very impressive job done in my opinion. The leadership trio of Ranaweera, APP and Rutsch also has a nice age profile, which makes the further declines of Coquard and Zabel after the year more palatable.
Sorry for being responsible for the only red color in your goals list (well, not too sorry, but you know, in spirit ). I'm sure Madouas and Paret-Peintre will clash often, should be a fun duel to follow over the course of the season. Don't love Rutsch as competition for Bini either, I wouldn't be shocked if Rutsch gets the better of him every now and then, even if his support is lacking a bit.
Overall, I think you could well have built a candidate for the next back-to-back promotion here, depending on what the rest of the division looks like. No real weaknesses (except we may share the same contempt for TTs ), decent to great support for your leaders, and all that while securing Magnier. I think you can be very happy!
Thanks, quite happy with the build and excited to see what we can do.
To be honest I am a big fan of TT riders in Mangame, but fewer races who fit made me decide to not focus on it (and with Powless not being available, had he been that plan might've changed)
I hope you plan Madouas bad and APP wont meet him a lot
On paper this looks very good! Well done clearly staying with your main plan, I'd say, and then prioritizing the leadout for Coquard, and maybe Zabel too. Should work very well for this year, and then it's another rebuild time next season, I guess, looking at the ages of your sprinters
As I answered others I'm quite happy with it. You know based on our chats that I had many different ideas during the transfers, but that was also "easier" when I had already gotten the first pieces down. Would've been very nice to have riders like Gruel and/or Pescador here...
Hopefully I can keep riders like Trondsen and Welsford for next season, and then get a new main sprinter and maybe a new flat rider for the train. If they stay it's easy to slot someone in. Wont be a big secret to say that Zabel /Coquard/Fram/Antonijevic/Venturini most likely are 1 season riders
I suppose this is a combination of dont relegate , but prepare the futue. If yes, then well done
You are correct, I feel pretty sure we will manage to avoid relegation, then it's just a question of getting the planning right to see where we end up in the end. I feel if luck is on my side I can fight for one of the promotion spots, but will need luck to be with me
Echoing others that this looks a really solid team! Ranaweera should be a very competitive leader at PCT level, APP has proven his quality time and again, Rutsch was a great pick-up, and the two old heads of Coquard and Zabel still have a lot to give. Should be a fun season for you!
Thanks, I hope this will work and become a fun season!
Ranaweera and APP have proven themselves to be able PCT leaders, so you should do well on those terrains. Coquard was too, but he's declined again so it remains to be seen if he gets the same sort of treatment again. Strong sprint unit nonetheless. Think the signing of season (besides the talents obviously) is Rutsch, as you should not be well set on that terrain for many years to come!
All your dealing at the end of transfers was very impressive. Turned a great team into a title contender. I think Coquard is gonna end up being a great value for yout hat people regret passing on. I'm not sold on stamina matter for sprinters in stage races after my experience with AKA, and the speed is still there.
Lots of pieces for present and future, just great work in terms of team construction.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Fun team. Shouldn't have any problems staying in PCT as I've said before. If Rutsch does very well then that might be what pushes you towards the promotion spots.
Ranaweera and APP have proven themselves to be able PCT leaders, so you should do well on those terrains. Coquard was too, but he's declined again so it remains to be seen if he gets the same sort of treatment again. Strong sprint unit nonetheless. Think the signing of season (besides the talents obviously) is Rutsch, as you should not be well set on that terrain for many years to come!
I hope Ranaweera and APP will do well, I think I have a good setup for them and hope I found the right races
Rutsch the jury is out for myself, I love his age (one of the reasons I was willing to pay as much), but my PTHC and HC is not perfect for him, so he got less races than I would've wished. He is however a good investment for the future
All your dealing at the end of transfers was very impressive. Turned a great team into a title contender. I think Coquard is gonna end up being a great value for yout hat people regret passing on. I'm not sold on stamina matter for sprinters in stage races after my experience with AKA, and the speed is still there.
Lots of pieces for present and future, just great work in terms of team construction.
I hope I can do well this season, managed to get my good friend Claude to check a bit, and we are not such good friends any more... Hopefully testing and checking trends works better than Claude analyzing the team...
I believe the same with Coquard, and hope we are right!
Fun team. Shouldn't have any problems staying in PCT as I've said before. If Rutsch does very well then that might be what pushes you towards the promotion spots.
Thanks, fingers crossed. Like I said earlier I don't have the perfect race setup for Rutsch, but hopefully he can do well on those races he leads
Happy to see him get a ride this season!
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
