Hello everyone. Today starts a new season in cycling world. We have introduced some journalists in our staff and in this number we´ll try to inform you about the teams and cyclists of this 2016 season which is about to start. This year seems really amazing... We start!
WORLD TOUR
AG2R La Mondiale
This team doesn´t change the name and sponsor, but it changes a lot their roster.
The team has improved a lot and they have some great French cyclists. The leaders on the sprints will be Arnaud Démare (77 SPR, 82 ACC) an Bryan Coquard (80 SPR, 82 ACC). Both are nice climbers and puncheurs so they could pass really well some summits really close to the finish line.
Going up, they have a great Thibaut Pinot (82 MO, 78 HIL) and Pierre Rolland (79 MO, 78 HIL), so they will be the leaders of the team in Grand Tours like Tour, Giro or Vuelta.
Démare (80 COB) will be aswell the leader on the cobbles. He has worked a lot on improve that field, so he will be favourite on spring classics. Gaudin (78 COB) will be his best worker there.
Gallopin (78 HIL, 75 TTR, 74 COB, 75 SPR) has become one of the most complete riders in the world and he could get some wins too.
Other riders to mention are Feillu (76 SPR, 81 ACC), a very improved Sénechal (77 SPR, 79 ACC), Vuillermoz (75 MO, 78 HIL), Gougeard (77 HIL) or Gretsch (74 TTR, 80 PRL).
The objectives of the team will be being in Top 5 in a Grand Tour, and being in Top 5 too in a cobbled classic. Also they could dream with a podium in Milano - Sanremo... or even winning.
Alitalia - Merida
They needed a restructuration, that´s clear. The new Lampre, now Alitalia, has renewed his roster with some good Italian riders. This year they won´t win a lot, but they need to improve their promises and to keep the division.
The best rider is maybe Matteo Trentin (79 SPR, 80 ACC, 75 COB). With 26 years, he decided to leave Etixx and to sign this project. He will be the sprinter of the team and the cyclists who is supposed to win the most here.
He won´t be alone in the last kilometres. The team have also Wackermann (77 SPR, 76 ACC), Palini (77 SPR, 72 ACC) or Fortin (73 SPR, 75 ACC) to help him winning.
Except the sprinters, this team is really poor. They could fight in the Ardennes classics and in the late season in Italy with some good puncheurs.
They are Davide Villella (78 HIL, 72 MO), Ponzi (77 HIL, 73 SPR, 79 ACC) or Reda (77 HIL). To climb the best is Salerno (75 MO) who isn´t a really good climber. Another chance will be Polanc (74 MO, 76 HIL), but nothing more.
The team shouldn´t have very objectives in World Tour races. They have to get at least a stage in a Grand Tour and they could need to win some stages in WT calendar, specially with Trentin or Villella.
Androni
Second Italian team in WT so far (they are 3) and maybe Androni is the 2nd in the country.
If we look at average in the cyclists, the best could be Stefano Pirazzi (75 MO, 75 HIL, 84 FTR). He is well-known as a fighter and of course we will see him in a lot of breakaways this season. Sure he could win at least one...
If we look at sprinters, the best is Belletti (77 SPR, 79 ACC), followed closely by Zordan (76 SPR, 76 ACC), the Romanian Grosu (76 SPR, 77 ACC) and Benfatto (75 SPR, 77 ACC).
The other star of the team is the always amazing Enrico Battaglin (75 MO, 78 HIL, 76 SPR, 80 ACC, 77 FTR). He did an awesome 2015 season and he decided to left Bardiani. He choosed Androni finally after a tough fight between Mapei, Alitalia and Androni, the three Italian WT teams.
Other good cyclists are Mohoric (71 MO, 75 HIL, 77 ACC) who left Utsonomiya, his team in 2015, Monsalve (75 MO, 75 HIL), Trofimov (76 MO, 77 HIL) and Locatelli (78 MO, 75 HIL), the best climber in the team.
The objectives will be winning stages in the WT calendar, specially in the Italian races. They have to do the same in the Europe Tour, giving a chance to Battaglin in the last part of the season in which he is always an amazing rider. Also they could dream with a good position in GC of a Grand Tour with Locatelli.
Maybe this team has to wait a bit to show all their potential, but this year they could fight and keep WT.
Astana Pro Team
Since 2 years, Astana lost their two stars: Nibali left the team and signed for Unilever. Aru did the same, but he has signed for Mapei this winter,
So they needed to do a bit of restructuration, at least finding new riders.
2015 was a good season for them. They signed Gilbert and he won a lot of classics. But this winter, Gilbert signed with the promising project of Lotto.
Astana moved very well in the market and signed Betancur (77 MO, 81 HIL), Costa (74 MO, 79 HIL) or Ulissi (74 MO, 81 HIL).
They have to be the leaders on the races, medium mountain and high mountain. They have a great team to help them. Geschke (80 HIL), Zoidl (75 MO, 74 HIL, 77 TTR), Machado (75 MO, 79 HIL), Westra (73 MO, 74 HIL, 77 TTR, 74 COB), Formolo (73 MO, 76 HIL), Landa (77 MO, 75 HIL), Barguil (76 MO, 75 HIL), Cataldo (75 MO, 75 HIL, 74 TTR)... The list is really long...
Except the great team to climb, Marangoni (76 COB) could be the leader in the cobbles and Guarnieri (76 SPR, 76 ACC) in the sprints. Gavazzi (75 HIL, 75 SPR, 77 ACC) and Marcato (71 MO, 74 HIL, 73 COB, 74 SPR, 76 ACC) all the all-rounders of this good team.
Objectives? Betancur could be the leader in Grand Tours with his good abiity climbing. Costa, Ulissi, Geschke, or even Betancur must get a win in the Ardennes classics. And Milano - Sanremo? Maybe this is the hardest team for that classic...
A very complete team with a lot of good characteristics.
BMC Racing Team
If you like the STRONG teams, this is one of the strongest teams this season, specially on cobbles, but on all fields.
Let´s start with the northern classics. A young (27 years) Vanmarcke (83 COB, 83 FLA, 76 HIL, 74 SPR, 79 ACC) is the complete leader of the team. But he isn´t alone of course. The manager has created one of the best teams in cobbles of all-time. Gre Van Avermaet (81 COB, 78 HIL, 75 SPR, 80 ACC) is the 2nd, but he isn´t bad... He is supposed to be the last helper of Vanmarcke in cobbled classics, but he could help the sprinters or fight for the win in Ardennes classics. One of the most complete riders in the world at the moment.
We continue looking at the team for cobbles and we see Keukeleire (78 COB, 76 SPR, 79 ACC, 74 HIL), who is a "Mini Van Avermaet". Maybe he is better sprinter than GVA, but he is his "Mini-Me". De Vreese (78 COB, 71 SPR, 74 ACC, 70 HIL) is like Van Avermaet and Keukeleire. Then the team has got other good secondary helpers as Pucio (73 COB, 72 SPR, 73 ACC, 72, 70 TTR) in the cobbles.
We pass into sprints... they have (apart from Van Avermaet, Keukeleire...) three Italian sprinters, maybe the best Italian sprinters at the moment. One is Nizzolo (79 SPR, 82 ACC, 76 HIL, 77 PRL), who left Trek, other is Modolo (80 SPR, 81 ACC, 73 HIL), maybe a bit faster than Nizzolo, and the last is Lasca (77 SPR, 81 ACC). They must get a lot of wins this year! Apart from them we could see Appollonio (77 SPR, 72 ACC), Wyss (76 SPR, 76 ACC)...
Maybe the poorest field for the team is climbing. The best climbing is Atapuma (76 MO, 74 HIL). He could name aswell Capecchi (74 MO, 76 HIL, 74 ACC), Nerz (75 MO, 74 HIL, 74 TTR) or Hermans (74 MO, 78 HIL, 76 ACC).
To finish, let´s mention Malori (74 HIL, 80 TTR, 79 PRL). The great TT-ist left Movistar and he decides to sign with BMC... let´s see what he can do.
The objective is, of course, winning Paris-Roubaix or De Ronde, or even both. With the sprinters and Malori they must get a lot of wins aswell.
Team Bancolombia
The Team Colombia has changed his name (now Bancolombia) and also division. After a great work in previous 2 seasons, he have the Colombian team in WT now.
The team is very strong in mountain. The leader should be a very improved Fabio Duarte (80 MO, 78 HIL). Then they have a strong team with Kreuziger (77 MO, 79 HIL, 74 TTR) who decided to leave Tinkov´s team, Cháves (77 MO, 80 HIL), Ospina (77 MO, 72 HIL), Bolívar (76 MO, 71 HIL), Anacona (75 MO, 73 HIL) or Arredondo (75 MO, 79 HIL).
They have signed also one of the biggest promises right now, the Argentinian Eduardo Sepúlveda (77 MO, 76 HIL, 77 TTR, 75 PRL). He couldn´t ride a lot in 2015 because he was injured almost all year, but the staff of the team thought that, after his great 2014 with wins in GC of Route Du Sud, Tour d´Alsace and Tour des Pyrénées, he could improve a lot and become one of the figures in future cycling.
The leader on sprints will be another young promise, Julian Alaphilippe (77 SPR, 77 ACC, 70 MO, 74 HIL). He left Etixx after a poor season with a win in 6th stage of USA PCC, but, as with Sepúlveda, the staff think that he could improve. To help him they have Ávila (75 SPR, 73 ACC) or the French 20 year-old Rodophe Fuentes (74 SPR, 72 ACC). We have to look closely at him. He comes from Sub-23 calendar, and he won some good races...
If we are looking for objectives, they have to think in a Top 10/5 in a Grand Tour, but maybe they have to work with Sepúlveda, Alaphilippe and Fuentes to make sure they improve and become the best cyclists in the world in few years,
Fundación Ciclista Banesto
Here´s a very good team in all fields. It´s a Russian-Spanish team. It comes from Katusha, but they changed the sponsor.
Some cyclists are the same of the Katusha roster but they will need to live with a big lose... Joaquim Rodríguez has retired...
They have signed good cyclists.
The cyclist with the best average is Jurgen Roelandts (81 COB, 76 SPR, 74 ACC, 76 HIL). He will give the team chances in a lot of territories, specially in cobbles, as he is one of the best cyclists there. But he hasn´t got a good team to help him there... The only good cyclist in cobbles except Roelandts is Stijn Vandenbergh (77 COB). He is supposed to be the last helper (and maybe the unique...) because he has enough level to be a good rider in last kilometres.
To climb they have a great block, but without a clear leader they´ll need to see a lot of things in every race to say a leader. the best are the young Meintjes (78 MO, 74 HIL) and the young Herrada (78 MO, 75 HIL, 73 TT). The South-African rider comes from MTN-Qhubeka. He is the current South-African champion and we could say that he was 3rd in last Tour of Oman behind Dennis and S. Yates. The Spanish from Cuenca was last season in Movistar. We could say that he was 3rd in World Championships ITT, which is very good.
To accompany them they have a good Russian-Spanish block.
We go into sprints. Without counting Roelandts, the leaders are Meersman (77 SPR, 78 ACC, 77 HIL), Reske (77 SPR, 74 ACC) and Haller (77 SPR, 74 ACC). We have to take a look at Reske, who is 21. He comes from Commerzbank without any good results... will we see some wins from him?
Objectives? Survive in WT with a good block, which seems to be enough to compete with quality this year. Maybe the only objective could be a Top 5/Podium in Paris Roubaix with Roelandts... but nothing more.
Etixx - QuickStep
The best team right now? Maybe! Following the criteria with the other teams (naming the best cyclists) I would have to name all cyclists in this team, but I won´t.
I start with the Panzerwagen. Tony Martin (84 TTR, 83 PRL, 73 MO, 77 HIL, 84 FLA, 76 ACC) stays in Etixx. He is the best TT-ist in the world and he have to demonstrate it once again. With a great Time Trial stat and with a good Hill stat he could win a lot of races.
Now we move onto cobbles, where Etixx has got a strong team. The leader is supposed to be the Dutch Niki Terpstra (84 COB, 70 SPR, 73 HIL, 74 TTR). He has done a good job on cobbles and he has imrpved a lot becoming one of the best with Cancellara and Vanmarcke. He isn´t alone of course. This cobbles team is even better than BMC´s one. They have Degenkolb (80 COB, 77 HIL), Stybar (80 COB, 75 HIL), Schär (78 COB), Gatto (74 COB, 75 HIL), Petit (77 COB, 74 HIL), Vanbilsen (75 COB, 75 HIL)... The list is too long to name all riders!
If we go to sprints, we could see two German great sprinters. One of them is the mentioned Degenkolb (78 SPR, 83 ACC) and the other is Ciolek (78 SPR, 82 ACC, 76 HIL). The other sprinter-star is Swift (79 SPR, 81 ACC, 74 HIL). He could lead the team in some races aswell. Gatto (75 SPR, 76 ACC), Petit (76 SPR, 78 ACC), Young (77 SPR, 81 ACC) or Vanbilsen (74 SPR, 77 ACC) complete the long list.
We have more! To climb they have another strong team leaded by the 2014 TdF winner Michal Kwiatkowski (82 MO, 83 HIL, 80 TTR). We have to say also that we was 2nd in 2015 TdF behind Froome... To try to recover the crown he has some good helpers. Vanendert (76 MO, 78 HIL), De Gendt (77 MO, 76 HIL), the 2014 Vuelta winner Poels (79 MO, 75 HIL), Talansky (79 MO, 78 HIL, 76 TTR), Seeldraeyers (77 MO, 72 HIL) or Gerdemann (74 MO, 75 HIL, 74 TTR) are the people to help Kwiat winning the TdF... and the Ardennes classics aswell, in which he is favourite.
Their objectives are winning all they can! P-R, LBL, TdF, MSR... ALL THEY CAN!
ExxonMobil Pro Cycling Team
[More is coming, it´s unfinished]Edited by MARSUPILAMI on 29-11-2014 08:43
I know you are impatient, but believe me I really cannot spend any time on things like this right now.
fjhoekie wrote in the Man-Game reporters forum:
I'm really sorry I can't keep my promises to report a few races. At the moment we have 2 projects running at school, groupprojects to be precise. Both projects are fully in my hands as my groupmembers do not feel like helping me, causing me to spend 9-10 hours per day either at school or doing these projects.
So yea, I basically would like to quit this if possible...
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
