Luis Leon Sanchez wrote:

Could be a long season but you had a goal in mind and I would say that's been achieved with the talents you've brought in to ensure a bright future! You can be sure I'll come to you at some stage for your Australian talent but until then, I hope you look after him well

cunego59 wrote:

Martinez, Vauquelin and Gregoire will be a nasty trio very soon, and Isidore is an incredible signing to join them in a few years. I think you've set up your timeline perfectly to truly establish yourself in PT in two years (or three at the latest). Take good care of Verstrynge, I hope he'll do well for you

knockout wrote:

If a PT team scores less than the PCT teams, can they relegate directly to CT?

baseballlover312 wrote:

Seems like you had your timeline in order pretty well. Promotion last year was a great way to ensure you could make the long terms commitment to your project without risking losing it by falling to CT, so I think you're in perfect shape. Yes, you'll relegate, but in 3-5 years you will be a powerhouse.

jandal7 wrote:

Going to enjoy you relegating now because you're going to be a nightmare to face pretty soon!

AbhishekLFC wrote:

Vive le France! We'll see you back in PT in 2028 I guess

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
	Matis Louvel	77	64	68	72	73	75	78	70	76	67	67	67	66	73
		77	64	68	72	73	75	78	70	78	67	67	67	66	73

We start with someone who’s technically not a talent anymore, but who got some development nonetheless. Matis used the mentorship of Ruben to further improve his skills on the cobbles which will be crucial to not only become a super-domestique for Noa Isidore in the future, but also (co-)lead our cobbles squad until then.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Igor Arrieta	64	73	70	66	57	68	71	67	61	64	69	80	66	62	3.85
	Climberv2	67	77	73	67	57	71	75	69	62	64	71	85	71	62	4.100

Igor is an attacking climber and we want to keep him this way, in fact making him one of the most aggressive riders in the peloton.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Alex Baudin	71	66	69	67	68	69	71	72	64	64	69	70	72	67	3.30
	Time Trial	76	68	71	69	75	73	76	76	64	64	69	74	73	74	4.100
	Climberv2	76	72	73	69	68	74	76	74	66	64	72	76	78	67	4.100
	Climberv2/v1	75	73	74	69	69	74	76	75	65	65	73	74	76	67	4.100
	Fighter	78	68	71	70	70	73	75	75	66	66	73	77	74	69	4.100

Alex is probably the rider we’re the least sure of where to go with him. Right now we prefer the TT path to make him an useful TTT asset who still can support in the uphill parts of stage races. But we also like the different climber paths, sacrificing the TT (and maybe some FL) to make him a FL/CL hybrid domestique.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Emanuel Castro	67	66	70	73	72	68	68	70	60	66	71	65	65	72	3.13
	Time Trial	70	66	70	74	75	70	70	72	60	66	71	67	65	75	4.100

We’ll develop Emanuel into a TTT and hills domestique who will probably be on minimum wage forever while supporting his leaders in those terrains.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Pierre Gautherat	71	61	67	73	58	73	71	67	63	66	71	68	64	57	3.15
	Hillsv1	73	63	71	78	59	78	73	69	63	69	75	71	66	58	4.100

Pierre will develop into a pure puncheur, so he can accompany Romain Gregoire for most of his future career.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Romain Gregoire	71	68	72	75	62	74	73	69	65	67	74	71	73	58	3.37
	Hillsv1	73	70	77	82	64	79	76	71	65	71	79	75	75	60	4.100

Romain is one of the biggest puncheur talents out there and we don’t plan to interfere with this development.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Alexander Hajek	67	72	73	73	61	71	72	71	57	58	68	66	71	58	3.40
	Climberv1	69	77	78	75	62	75	76	74	57	59	71	68	73	58	4.100
	Hillsv1	69	74	77	78	62	76	74	73	57	61	72	69	73	59	4.100
	Climberv2	72	77	76	74	61	75	76	73	59	58	70	71	77	58	4.100

Alexander is another of those riders who still could develop in quite some different ways. In general they differ in what kind of climbs he’ll like best. We prefer the Climberv1 path at the moment to make him the best hybrid domestique for both mountains and hills, but could also change to Hillsv1 to make him better fitting for Romain.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Noa Isidore	68	65	67	68	62	70	67	63	71	67	73	71	71	68	1.00
	Classics	75	65	72	75	62	78	72	66	80	71	78	81	74	68	4.100
	Classics/Cobbles	75	65	69	72	62	78	74	66	80	74	78	77	71	68	4.100

The big question for Noa is whether we prefer to bump his SP or HI. Given he probably won’t win a sprint against the likes of Girmay, Vermeersch or del Grosso anyway in most of the cases we prefer him to get some advantage over them in hillier races while also making him a potential breakaway rider for some stage races by going the Classics route.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Victor Loulergue	68	63	65	64	63	68	67	66	62	61	68	66	70	69	1.00
	Climberv2	76	72	72	67	63	75	76	70	65	61	73	77	81	69	4.100

Victor will develop into a cool domestique for the early parts of stages, both in the flat and in the mountains. He’ll be a rider you can throw in any GT to support your leaders.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Lenny Martinez	66	76	74	72	68	73	75	75	57	56	73	70	70	67	3.38
	Stage Race/Climberv1	68	82	78	75	71	78	79	79	57	57	76	72	72	69	4.100

Lenny will be our GC leader for nearly a decade and so it’s no surprise we’ll develop him to maximize his opportunities in the mountains where the biggest time gaps are made.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Cameron Rogers	73	62	65	68	71	72	70	68	65	65	67	71	67	74	1.00
	Time Trial	80	62	66	71	78	77	77	73	65	65	67	76	67	81	4.100

We really like the look of the maxed Cameron, his combination of a big engine for the flats and TTs with good energy stats and a decent HI will make him a great rider for TT-heavy races without too much climbing. And on top he’ll be one of the best prologue riders in the world with some advantages in both FL and energy stats over his biggest competitors.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP
	Emiel Verstrynge	70	66	70	73	56	70	74	55	74	60	71	71	67	56	4.36
	Classics	71	66	71	74	56	71	75	56	76	61	72	73	67	56	4.100

Last in line is our only (!) lvl. 4 talent. Emiel will further develop his general classics skill, making him a useful domestique both for the cobbles and the hills.

Caspi wrote:

Crazy talent factory!

For Alex Baudin I prefer fighter over climber, but I would probably also go for the TT path.

redordead wrote:

Cool getting Isidore on such a low wage.

TheManxMissile wrote:

The future's bright, the future's Ekoi. Not much else to say as this year is clearly deliberately a write-off. Fingers crossed for a few fun results to break up the season and keep things ticking over.
I'm going to hate seeing you in 2027 in the same division.

Race	Cat	goal
31-Mar		Ronde van Vlaanderen	M	Win

We start with the humble goal of winning a monument. While Zepuntke is still our strongest pure cobbler this race might be a better fit for Louvel. Either way we actually hope to snatch a top 10 here.

Race	Cat	goal
01-Apr		Paris - Roubaix	M	Win

When it won’t work once, why don’t try it twice? We clearly won’t win the second cobble monument as well, but maybe Zepuntke can at least show his NC jersey with a top 10 in the velodrome?

Race	Cat	goal
12-May	18-May	Tour of Northern Europe	PT	Win

The mixture of hills, cobbles and TTs in this race should make Louvel our best option here. Once again he won’t take the targeted win, but a top 10 should be a more realistic goal.

Race	Cat	goal
03-Jul	23-Jul	Tour de France	GT	Top 10

Finally the biggest race of them all and we don’t even aim for a win, but only for a top 10 instead! Our hopes are on Vauquelin here and while it is far from guaranteed he’ll achieve this goal it’s still the most realistic one of them all, especially if he learnt something from Skjelmoses 2025 TdF.

Race	goal
Team Standings	Win

It just won’t happen. Even getting somewhat near to 21st would be a huge surprise, so as soon as we knew we’d miss any team standings goal we went for the biggest one.

We went for maximum budget this season, but there’s a possibility we might achieve one race goal and at least don’t miss the other three by some miles. It won’t get better than that.

Race	Cat	goal
23-Aug	31-Aug	Tour de l'Avenir	U23	Win

It’s technically not an official goal (and not even a race where points are awarded), but it’s actually the only race this season we actually enter as favourites. And rightly so, as Lenny Martinez will be the best GC rider at the start and he’ll be supported by a strong team, consisting entirely of our own riders. We expect him to win the race and we also hope for quite some stage results from him and Romain Gregoire.