Really cool to see some of the best Danish riders all time in Pedersen and SKA finding their way to a home team. Massive arrivals.
Obviously I also love to see Olivier getting another good run here with you. It`s surely good wage for a rider like him even though he is no longer in his prime.
I had a gut feeling pre-transfers this P(ed)er(sen) swap could happen as it just fitted both your needs and possibilities regarding wages and the nationality fit, but it's still a huge deal!
Yes, it did seem to fit, although it was a lot bolder than I would normally go for!
Really cool to see some of the best Danish riders all time in Pedersen and SKA finding their way to a home team. Massive arrivals.
Obviously I also love to see Olivier getting another good run here with you. It`s surely good wage for a rider like him even though he is no longer in his prime.
Thank you! I quite like Olivier as a secondary GT guy this year and think he was being undervalued by the market, though not amazing that he's an exploding asset at this point in his career. But we needed the cash for other things, so it's something we'll live with!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Last year was a huge signing period for talents at Carlsberg, even if none are projected to be world beaters. It was a time to build a new core from the ground up. This year, Carlsberg was a bit less aggressive with talents, though this may ultimately have been foolhardy, as some of the talents they missed out on would have been better uses of their money. But nothing to do about it now. They can only be excited for the future!
Morten Nortoft | $100,000 | Cobbles | Lvl. 2.00
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
69
65
66
66
66
73
71
66
69
63
68
71
69
68
75
65
70
69
72
79
75
69
76
64
71
72
70
74
Nortoft is the only Carlsberg talent to sign from free agency this year, after a short bidding war. There are a ton of ways to go with Nortoft's development, and the above is just one. He could emphasize his sprinting or hills abilities instead. The fundamentals are the same in any case. He's a young Danish cobbles specialist with a huge tank for the end of grueling races. While he'll never be a leader, he's well rounded and will be an able superdomestique for whomever is Carlsberg's classics leader for the next decade.
Alexander Arnt Hansen | $55,000 | Cobbles | Lvl. 3.18
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MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
72
56
62
67
63
72
69
64
71
71
69
66
65
66
76
56
62
68
63
76
72
66
75
74
71
68
65
66
After securing Nortoft, getting another Danish cobbles domestique wasn't exactly a priority, but it never hurts to be set up for many years to come in advance. Carlsberg sought Hansen last year when he was a neopro, but lost the bidding war to Tajford Kraft. When Tajford sent word out that Hansen could now be available for the minimum fee, Carlsberg pounced on the opportunity, getting him for only 55k. Though he's more advanced than Nortoft in his development, he's actually a year younger, so he has an even longer career ahead of him.
In agreeing to trade for Soren Kragh Andersen, Carlsberg knew they were spending big money on an older rider in his final years at the top of the sport, which was the last thing Carlsberg had planned coming into the transfer season. So, Carlsberg pushed to include a a younger rider in the deal who could either be used as a nice regional domestique or a tradeable asset going forward. Svestad fit the bill as a well rounded stage racing talent who will make an unremarkable but reliable helper for his leaders for many years to come.
Tijn Louwerensen | $0 | Sprinter | Lvl. 1.35
FL
MO
MM
HI
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ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
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67
55
58
61
60
66
69
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72
73
57
61
72
55
58
61
60
71
72
75
70
76
77
73
57
61
With Gyasi Sulvaran set to decline next season, there were fears that for the first time in many years, the number of Curacao riders at Carlsberg might actually decrease. Never fret, that is not going to happen. While Tijn Louwerensen is not under contract with Carlsberg yet, he will ride for the team's development squad, the Cardinals, this season. If he impresses, the team holds the right to sign him to a the main team next year. Tijn is expected to be a nice leadout man that will also assist in cobbled classics.
We spoke with team manager baseballlover312 about the Carlsberg's new talents:
"Looking back, we should have gone harder to sign future leaders like Noa Isidore and Vlad Van Mechelen, but we got a little paralysis and let those opportunities slip. We'll need to revisit our future cobbles leader at a later date. But in the meantime, we're happy with the nice crop of young talents we've gotten. Between those we acquired this year and last year, we have a core already set for the next generation, which will make it easier to flip assets and make bigger moves later without scrambling to find worthwhile domestiques late on in the window.
Four years ago, when Carlsberg signed a 22 year old Mathias Skjelmose Jensen to his first professional contract, a path was forged. The team had a Danish GC leader they could build around and rally behind. He was destined to be the greatest Danish stage racer in MG history. Getting there was the primary objective.
In the years since, he has checked off all the achievements possible to him. He won the Tour de l'Avenir at age 23. At age 25, he finished top 5 in the Tour de France and won the white jersey. There have been some hiccups, for sure. And the commentators have doubted his endurance and ability to adapt to the modern peloton. But he has stayed firm.
Mattias Skjelmose Jensen | $277,000 | Age 26
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2025
73
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76
↓↓↓
↓↓↓
2026
73
81
78
74
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75
58
64
66
70
66
76
And so, when it came time to invest this offseason, there was only one natural choice, and that was to make sure Skjelmose continued to progress into the rider he was destined to be. He spent the winter in freezing temperatures riding some of the world's highest mountain passes, and has returned a stronger and faster climber than ever before.
The investment was significant and undoubtedly really limited Carlsberg's ability to maneuver throughout the transfer season. Certain money was simply off limits once it was accrued. But the team doesn't envision this journey ending here. And if Skjelmose is really going to be someday contend for a GT podium, let alone a victory, he needed to keep that progression going as quickly as possible. The chance to improve his ability on medium mountains along with higher mountains for the same cost also played a role.
Skjelmose vastly overperformed expectations last year, thanks almost entirely due to his fluke TDF performance and consistent U25 results. He can't count on those this year, and so the team expects that his points total might decrease significantly despite his training. If the team survives in PT, it will nevertheless have been worth the investment. If not, it may cause some regrets among management for putting all their faith in one man.
"We've made our ambitions for Mattias pretty clear ever since we signed him, so this was always in the cards. Once we sold Hugh, we had the money to train him fully, and it seemed kind of impossible to deviate from the plan. I don't know if it was the smart option given some of the questions about weaknesses in his skillset. But it was the only move that the sponsors, the fans, and the team could be happy with, and so it was done."
That concludes our coverage of the changes to Carlsberg's roster this season. We'll be back with one more article providing an overview of the final team.
Mr. Pickles
Sporting News
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Although a big investment and, as you say given he's no longer going for U25 points, a bit of a risk in 2026, I think it's the right thing to do for your team and he's still only 26 and looking very strong so I think you can expect some pretty good results this year! Good luck with him!
Although a big investment and, as you say given he's no longer going for U25 points, a bit of a risk in 2026, I think it's the right thing to do for your team and he's still only 26 and looking very strong so I think you can expect some pretty good results this year! Good luck with him!
Indeed. It's a risky play, but Skjelmose is my guy, and it felt like it was worth taking the chance to have the young, homegrown regional leader I've always wanted.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Let's start on a positive note: this is the most regionally focused the team has been in a very long time, maybe ever. For most of the last decade, Carlsberg operated with a core of Danish domestiques supporting a largely international set of leaders. There were exceptions, such as AKA and Guldhammer, and to an extent Galta, but Carlsberg's primary scorers have not been regional in a long time. With the acquisitions of Pedersen and SKA, and the ascension of Skjelmose, that has changed. Of the 30 riders whose contractual rights are held by Carlsberg, 17 are Danish, and 8 more come from Carlsberg's broader focus regions (including the rest of Scandinavia and Curacao). The vast majority of Carlsberg's points should be scored by regional riders this season.
While that's a nice moral victory and will please the sponsors, things are a little less optimistic on the performance side of things. In many ways, this looks like the 2025 team, but worse. Hugh Carthy was essentially swapped for Daan Olivier and cash. Olivier is substantially worse, although the team hope that GT breakaway luck could bring them closer in scoring than would otherwise be expected. Skjelmose has been trained to fill the gap, but his stamina may continue to hold him back, and in any case, the lack of ITT's on the PT calendar this year limits his comparative advantage in most races. While Carthy underperformed last year, it still stands to reason that Olivier and Skjelmose will score less than Carthy and untrained Skjelmose together.
On the cobbles, the swap for Pedersen from Per offers at least a marginal upgrade in an ever more competitive discipline, but the question is by how much, especially given the wage difference. Part of that swap calculus will also be Pedersen's additional leadership in flat classics. The team did not replace AKA's role as a second lead sprinter after his decline, and so the approach will be to use Pedersen as a flat classics specialist as well, along with SKA. Rodenberg will focus on stage races.
Depth wise, we like to think Carlsberg is stronger than its OVL's suggest, but that is always subject to change. We wouldn't expect a rider like Gregaard to have a 500 point season again, but we still expect him to punch above his ratings. The team hopes the trading of Meiler will sort of paradoxically help keep Menten in cobbled races longer for minor placings, and Norsgaard can take advantage of some weaker pure TT fields, like last year.
The X-Factor will be Soren Kragh Andersen. SKA is the best prologue rider in the professional peloton, and there are a good amount of prologues this year (though many are bumpier than he would like). If SKA can finish in his normal 500-700 point range by dominating prologues and scoring decently in flat classics, Carlsberg should be safe from relegation. If he falters and slips further than last year, it could be difficult to stay afloat.
Altogether, Carlsberg's squad doesn't look particularly great, and in a lot of ways looks closer to relegation than any of Carlsberg's first three PT teams. The cause for optimism mostly lies not internally, but from the competition. After seeing the rest of the PT, there appear to be a good amount of teams that have prioritized talents and big money free agents to the detriment of single season performance. Then, among the rest, there's a decent amount of parity. Given that landscape, we see Carlsberg finishing in the lower-mid table (~15th), but it could go either way depending on their planning and luck compared to last year.
We reached out to baseballlover312 about his outlook:
"Usually, I feel very nervous during transfers, and slowly become more confident in my team as the days pass after the window ends. This season, it feels like the opposite. The more I look back on transfers, the more regrets I have. We were in a tough position where we needed to train Skjelmose to the fullest extent possible. With that done, there weren't a ton of ways we could improve our team or even keep it steady. It feels like our team got worse from last year without getting any big talents for the future, which is unfortunate and really my own fault for mismanaging assets. But I'm glad we have a young core in the wings, and I think we'll be in a good spot to work from next year whether its in PT or PCT."
Morten Nortoft 
Tijn Louwerensen 
