The World Series of Cycling is an alternative cycling universe based on two main “what ifs”: (1) What if cycling had developed on a regional club based structure (similar to soccer) and (2) what if stage racing had never become a significant part of top-level cycling. And I suppose a third one where it departs from the first “what if” – that the primary competition became a European one rather than than individual nations early in history (So the Champion’s League not the Serie A).
I decided on a calendar that is more like Formula 1 - 34 one day road aces, ranging from pure sprints to mountain climbs, and 6 team time trials, all on weekends – so each race is an event. Each race is contested by 18 to 20 club teams. Certain clubs have become “big” clubs but all the team are independent continuing entities that would make Jonathan Vaughters proud. I will post more about the clubs and structure in a later post, or this could get really long.
I have generally tried to flavor my alternative universe with things from the real world to give it some familiarity, so for example the big cycling countries have not changed.
Also the many of the major classics still exist within the World Series calendar. Although the dates have moved a little, most significantly the Ronde which I moved to September to bring one more big race to the end of the season. In the World Series of Cycling the classics repeat every season and the remaining races will be scheduled uniquely each year.
In order to balance the parcours of the big races I also turned the Champs Elysees sprint into a one-day classic and made the Bola Del Mundo climb a classic. I chose that climb because I wanted a classic in Spain and it seemed realistic that it would be on a climb relatively near a big city.
I have been running this for 5 seasons with the intent of developing a story but never got around to it for various reason. So going to do start small and see how it goes. Currently between the 2020 and 2021 season so will start with a recap of 2020 in the next post.
2020 Sees ABCA Back on Top of the LCI World Series Senior Division
Amsterdam’s finest captured their 8th LCI Title and 5th of the World Series Era (2000 forward). After taking 4 titles from 2009 to 2014 they had to wait 6 years for another title. Defending champion Gent finished 2nd while 2018 title winners Allez Toulouse (aka A!T) finished third. Full Senior Division Standings are below.
ABCA (Amstel Bike Club Amsterdam, generally known as ABCA) were competitive across all parcours and boasted 3, 1,000 point riders – veteran Dutch sprinter Jeremy Schaap led the way with 1,417 points, by far the best return of his career. Close behind him was one of the emerging stars of the peloton, another Dutchman, puncheur Bo Willemsen on 1,317 while ABCA’s French climber Elliot Levasseur accumulated 1,311 points. There winning margin of 1,230 points was one of the largest in recent seasons.
ABCA's Bo Willemsen (in the center) sprints against Jerzy Gromulka (BIA) and Tomás Roza (UNO) as Il Lombardia comes down to a sprint. Gromulka would beat Willemsen into second but the failure of Toulouse or Gent to score significant points in the season's second to last race effectively secured ABCA's title
Senior Division Standings
Spoiler
ABCA
NED
4,844
Gent
BEL
3,614
A!T
FRA
3,522
Tigres Bilbao
ESP
3,373
4-72 - Colombia
COL
3,200
Dublin City Rollers
IRL
2,879
Limburg
NED
2,765
Rovers
ENG
2,414
Paris Nord
FRA
2,369
Liège et Namur
BEL
2,086
Bianchi
ITA
1,723
Team Colorado
USA
1,720
Uno Barcelona
ESP
1,620
Hamburg-Altstadt
GER
886
Club Oz
AUS
768
Madrid
ESP
758
(Relegated)
Ville de Bruxelles
BEL
590
(Relegated)
Sydney Roos
AUS
489
(Relegated)
Background
Spoiler
Going to keep non-universe stuff in spoilers so those who don't want behind the curtains stuff can ignore it.
I generally tried to keep true to local languages and spellings, ABCA is an exception, but since I only speak English I am relying on Google translate. Don't really want to change any team names at this point but open to corrections from those who speak the relevant language.
Generally this world does not have commercial sponsors driving team names, as in real life, but as you can see a few teams do have a commercial connection. My thinking was that teams were connected to the company at one point in their history but they are now independent or largely independent while retaining historic names. As I think is true of some Bundesliga teams
The Portuguese rider is known in his home country simply as “O Rei” for a reason. This was his second consecutive Velo d’Or (awarded to the highest point scoring rider) and fourth overall. At the age of 28, Rocha has already secured his place among the all-time greats. Victories in Paris Roubaix and on the Champs during 2020 added 2 more monuments bringing his career total to 13 (4 RVV, 4 PR, 3 MSR, 2 CE) plus he has a Rainbow Jersey in the closet.
However, one rider generally can’t win the World Series title on his own. His Gent squad fell short of securing back-to-back titles World Series titles and Rocha has made it known that he wants to ride for a club that can consistently put a World Series winning team around him. With his contract up this year, where Rocha signs for 2021 will be the story of the offseason.
Senior Division Top 20 Riders By Points
Spoiler
Full Name
Team
Nat
Pts
Wins
2nds
3rds
Top 5s
Mauricio Rocha
GNT
POR
3,353
4
4
3
15
Sebastiano Conti
LIM
ITA
2,247
2
2
2
12
Bastien Joly
A!T
FRA
2,008
4
1
1
8
Manuel Guera
DCR
ESP
1,619
2
1
3
8
Asier Ibarrola
BIL
ESP
1,575
2
1
1
6
Julien Schaap
ABC
NED
1,491
3
2
2
9
Wojciech Janus
COL
POL
1,467
1
2
1
7
Teddy Tiernan
ROV
ENG
1,352
3
0
1
4
Bo Willemsen
ABC
NED
1,317
2
2
0
5
Elliot Levasseur
ABC
FRA
1,311
1
2
3
7
Mario Pignatelli
BIL
ITA
1,131
0
2
2
8
Arturo Bianco
LEN
ITA
1,001
0
1
3
7
Peter Proctor
TCO
USA
773
1
2
0
3
Pierrick Guiraud
PND
FRA
768
0
0
3
4
Loïc Robert
A!T
FRA
741
1
1
0
4
Fabian Favre
BIA
SWI
701
0
2
0
3
Jérémie Cornet
UNO
FRA
688
1
0
1
2
Jerzy Gromulka
BIA
POL
669
1
0
0
1
Stéphane Rivet
HAM
FRA
661
1
0
0
1
Johannes Jansen
DCR
NED
659
1
0
0
1
Points Explanation
Spoiler
World Series Points are very front loaded, the Series wants to put a premium on aggressive rider. Winning is worth 320 points, 2nd 160 points, 3rd 120 points, 4th 60 points and 5th, 30 points. The 7 monuments reward double points. Then there are 150 bonus points available based on finishing gaps that go down to 10th place (if the top 10 finishes on the same time they all get 15 extra points). So most points are in the top 5 which means relatively few riders accumulate most of the points.
Also there are only 34 races, excluding Team Time Trials, per year, so every win is precious and most riders won't win a single World Series race in their career.
Republika Ljubljana, the only Slovenian team in the World Series, won the Challenge Division (the 2nd tier in the World Series) and earned promotion to the Senior Division for the first time in their history. Republika had never been out of the Regional Divisions, prior to 2016, when they earned promotion to the Challenge Division.
Joining Republika in the promotion slots were second placed Brisbane and third placed Versailles. Versailles fans will feel that the team is back where they belong and the pressure will be on for them to stay there. Versailles, historically the most decorated French team, has experienced a rough decade. They don't have a top 10 Senior Division finish since 2010 and the decade was capped off by demotion in 2019. Brisbane will return to the top level for the first time since 2014.
2020 Challenge Division Final Standings
Spoiler
Republika
SLO
4,926
(Promoted)
Brisbane
AUS
3,626
(Promoted)
Versailles
FRA
3,221
(Promoted)
VCB
FRA
3,171
Torino
ITA
2,652
Le Vieux-Port
FRA
2,616
Nice
FRA
2,513
Vilnius-Baltic
LIT
2,003
Firenze
ITA
1,793
København CU
DEN
1,673
RC Montréal
CAN
1,616
Genova
ITA
1,481
Brugge
BEL
1,310
Venezuela
VEN
1,272
North Island Cycling
NZL
1,200
Baltimore 54
BAL
1,131
Yorkshire Elite
ENG
1,036
München
GER
801
Roma Mercurius
ITA
547
(Relegated)
Sevilla
ESP
462
(Relegated)
Rotterdam (NED) and Midway (USA) will replace demoted Roma and Sevilla. Both teams return to the Challenge Division after 1 season at the regional level.
The World Series Structure:
Spoiler
Three Levels:
Senior Division, 18 teams (international)
Challenge Division, 20 teams (international)
Regional (Americas, Asia Pacific, Northern Europe and Mediterranean, approximately 20 teams each)
Each year the top 3 teams in Challenge go up and the bottom 3 in Senior go down. In addition, the bottom 2 teams in Challenge go back to the Regional divisions and 2 teams selected from across the 4 division are promoted to Challenge.
Background
Spoiler
I only simulate the top two divisions, others are just on a spreadsheet. Similarly I have simulated this since 2015, I generated champions prior to that on a spreadsheet. I did this in more detail from 2000 forward, so I made that the "World Series" era similar to the Premier League era so I would have an excuse to date some records from that date.
31 YO Artem Vetochkin topped the Challenge division rider standings as he led Republika to first place and promotion. Vetochkin won 5 of 6 Mountain classified races and added a 6th win in a Medium Mountain classified race. His 2,955 points tops his previous career best of 1,616 in 2015. Included in his wins was a victory on the Kitzbüheler Horn, one of the Challenge Division double point races. Vetochkin also won there in 2015.
Next year he will ride with Republika in the Senior Division, Vetochkin spent 3 seasons riding for Versailles at that level and had much less success. His best ever finish in a Senior Division race is 3rd (Pico Veleta, 2019; Pike's Peak, 2017).
Challenge Division Top 20 Riders by Points
Spoiler
Full Name
Team
Nat
Pts
Wins
2nds
3rds
Top 5s
Artem Vetochkin
SLO
RUS
2,955
6
1
2
9
Massimo Cantini
VER
ITA
2,410
3
5
2
10
Ben Sullivan
BRI
AUS
2,156
3
0
1
10
Cédric Teyssier
VCB
FRA
1,754
2
2
3
7
Carlo Luigi Sabato
TOR
ITA
1,512
1
1
4
9
Brice Fauvel
LVP
FRA
1,172
1
1
3
7
Alessandro Papini
FIR
ITA
1,111
2
0
2
5
Mike Pallesen
NIS
DEN
1,044
2
1
0
5
Alejandro Espina
KCU
ESP
1,039
1
3
0
4
Javier Iurrita
SLO
ESP
885
1
0
1
3
Antonis Ioannidis
VIL
GRE
828
1
1
1
4
Bruce Day
BRG
AUS
808
1
2
0
5
Silvio Sebastian
SLO
ESP
779
0
2
1
5
Jules Maille
NIC
FRA
725
0
2
1
4
Paul Wolff
VCB
FRA
702
0
3
0
4
Flavio Beltrame
GEN
ITA
693
1
0
0
1
Emeric Moulin
VEN
FRA
672
0
1
2
6
Siem van de Boer
NIC
NED
661
1
0
0
1
Sven J. Mayr
LVP
GER
642
1
0
0
3
Stefan Aerts
VIL
NED
622
0
1
1
5
Challenge Division Double Point Races
Like the Monuments in the Senior Division there are 5 double point races that recur every year in the Challenge Division. They are the Kitzbüheler Horn, Clásica San Sebastián, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, GP Plouay and The International. The last race is the only one that moves each year and but is always a short, flat stage held in a major city.
Edited by Ulrich Ulriksen on 01-05-2018 04:19
Wow this sounds really cool, neat idea Can't wait to see how it has been going!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Seems North Island Cycling have the upper hand in the NZ battle, hope to see the assumed SI team promote soon to have a healthy rivalry and take NZ towards the top!
Love the write-ups, O Rei is an absolute monster.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Got the last 2020 recap post up. Going to do some team profiles next. As I am currently working the offseason will probably gradually increase the information on 2021 rosters. Since they were referenced thought we would start with North Island Cycling
History
Since joining the LCI in 1980 North Island have mostly bounced between the Regional Division and the lower half of the Challenge Division. They reached their high point in 2010, which was their one, and only, year in the Senior Division. Typically they have not had the budget to compete at the highest levels, and their proud insistence on maintaining only New Zealand as their country of registration means they have to find 9 Kiwi riders of a suitable quality, which has limited their roster depth.
2020 Season Recap
Danish sprinter Mike Pallesen proved a good signing for North Island in 2020, scoring nearly all their points. Pallesen had one of his best seasons and North Island fans will have been pleased with the victory in Australia. On the other hand their second leader Laborie had his second consecutive poor season and at 33 his days as a points scoring rider seem to be over. Aging Brazilian climber Ze Favila stepped down from the Senior division to join North Island as another leader in 2020 but did not contribute.
2021 Early Prognosis
Pallesen will be back and should produce enough points to keep North Island clear of the relegation zone. Key domestiques from Pallesen's lead out train, Restivo, Hajdaraga and Major, will also return. Favilla and Laborie are out of contract freeing up budget for some fresh blood but given limited resources only a shrewd signing will put the team in the top half of the table. Developing top young riders is the path for small budget teams but none of North Island's younger riders look like future gold.
Roster Background
Spoiler
Senior Division teams have a roster of 22, Challenge Division 18, of which half must come from their countries of registration. Most teams from smaller countries are registered in multiple countries to ease the challenge of meeting the roster requirements. For example Dublin City Rollers are also registered in the United Kingdom, a somewhat controversial move among their fan base. Also given they only have 40 one-day races to cover with 8 riders in each race the last few spots on the roster are often filled by lessor riders signed to meet nationality requirements rather than actually appear in races (see Dan Myers above, there are a few cases of riders riding for a team for multiple seasons without getting a single start).
Seems like Pallesen is keeping North Island afloat. Hopefully some good young Kiwis turn up soon
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Started with a small team, so will go to a large team: Allez Toulouse
History
1903 the newly formed Ligue Internationale des Cyclistes (LCI) ran a highly successful European competition featuring 12 one-day races in Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland. A squad from Paris, Paris Nord, were crowned champions. Not wanting to be outdone by the capital, a group of clubs from the Toulouse area decided they would band together and form a team to enter the 1904 competition. Being good loyal to their home town they settled on the name Allez Toulouse.
The project bore immediate fruit, in 1904 the Toulouse squad finished 3rd, ahead of Paris Nord. Perhaps drunk with their success the the member clubs promptly fell to bickering, lawsuits and fist fights. It would be the sixties before the club would again find stability. Although true success continued to elude them and through 2016 they had still never won the LCI title despite a consistent presence at the top level.
In 2017 that changed, 113 years after that first entry they finally won the title. Team leader Bastien Joly put up over 4,000 points, won 7 races including LBL and was second in Lombardia and on the Bola del Mundo. Joly was complemented by two other French riders, sprinter Loïc Robert and climber Evan Wolff.
2018 saw a repeat title by the narrowest of margins. Joly engaged in a season long duel with Liège et Namur's Arturo Bianco. In the end Joly won out, beating Bianco into second at Lombardia by the width of a tire and thereby securing the title ahead of Bianco's and Liège.
In 2019 and 2020 Toulouse come up short with a second and a third. But they have become a regular participant in the title race while boasting three of the best French riders of their generation. And for the first time in their history are the dominant French team in the peloton.
2020 Season Recap
After an injury-hit 2019 Joly bounced back with a 2,000 point haul, at 33 he might not regain the heights of '17 and '18 but he is still a force to be reckoned with. Robert again added significant points and Thierry Trouvé appears to have arrived as a point-scoring rider. After his best season in '19 Wolff had a poor 2020 and he is also on the wrong side of 30. However, until late in the year a third title for the group looked like a possibility but Joly and Wollf, who have dominated the Bola del Mundo in recent years, could only manage 5th and 13th and their title challenge stalled.
2021 Early Prognosis
The big 3 and Trouvé are all back in 2021. Toulouse will need to freshen the roster up soon but it seems like they still have enough left in the legs for one more push. If Trouvé can take a step up that would be a major boost. Walker, Pfaff and Israeli rider Blomstein are three of the best domestiques in the peloton, good on all terrains. With most roles well settled the only major offseason business will be to sign a strong climbing domestique to replace Pavone, who was not re-signed.
Next team are somewhere in the middle: Dublin City Rollers (DCR)
History
If you are a DCR fan, one year stands out in your memory: 1998. In that year DCR rocketed from nowhere to win the title. It remains their only top 3 finish. More typically they have been the definition of a yo-yo team. At one point they were promoted to the Senior Division only to be relegated the next year, on 4 consecutive occasions. They arrived most recently in the Senior Division in 2017, when Padraig O'Malley and Jan Havlik went 1st and 2nd in the GP Ploauy, racking up over 1,000 points in one race, and catapulting DCR to a surprise promotion.
They were generally expected to go straight back down but sprinter Manuel Guera emerged to at just the right time to keep them up. In 2020 they finished 6th their best finish since the glory of '98.
2020 Season Recap
DCR have one of the best groups of young riders in the peloton. The challenge has been avoiding the disruption of relegation long enough for that group to emerge. After a mediocre 2019 it wasn't clear that Guera was the man to make that happen and new signings Jansen and Wagemans were both stepping up from the Challenge Division to replace solid cobbler Stephan Hollander who had not re-signed. But 2020 proved to be a great success - Guera had his best year with 2 wins and 11 top 10s and Wagemans was at the sharp end in all the cobbled races and scored his best result ever with 2nd in Gent Wevelgem. Jansen a talented rider, who lacks one clear strength, emerged as a solid lead out man for Guera and pulled off DCR's first Monument win since 1998 with a lead-out turned sprint in Milan San Remo, while Guera rolled in second.
2021 Early Prognosis
In Preuss, Görtz, De Wilde, Cleary and McKeever DCR have 5 riders 23 and under who held their own in the senior division in 2020. All of them have a chance to be stars, but the Irish climber Sean McKeever is considered the crown jewel of the group. Preuss and Görtz are puncheurs while Cleary and De Wilde are roulers, so there is a good mix of skill as well.
But 2021 is not going to the year that groups leads DCR, they will need another year or two of maturity. Instead Guera, who just signed a new 3-year contract, and Wagemans, will be expected to keep the team safe. 6th again might be a stretch, since MSR is unlikely to yield another 1-2, but mid-table safety should be doable. The offseason focus will be some cobbled support riders for Wagemans as veteran cobblers David Bredesen and Ian Reid are moving on.
Edited by Ulrich Ulriksen on 09-05-2018 23:09
Looks as though Dublin are a fan of the 1-2 win Seems like a likeable young team, and Irish which is a plus
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Neo-Pro signings are now complete for the 2021 season. Most riders will spend a few seasons developing on loan or a feeder team in the Regional Leagues before making their Major League debut.
However, in 2021 11 riders will jump straight in at the top levels. Some of the most talked-about prospects are:
22-YO Spaniard Aitor Camus, Camus hails from the Basque region but Barcelona based Uno beat out Tigres for his signature. Camus has shown himself to be an accomplished climber at the junior level and will slot right into Uno's mountain train, one of the top climbing squads in the peloton. Camus is one of only 3 neo-pros starting at the Senior level.
22-YO Slovakian Matej Pavliscak, Pavliscak was the dominant sprinter in the Junior ranks last season. He joins Baltimore in the Challenge Division. Baltimore are recruiting a new sprint leader this offseason but have said that Pavliscak might be given a chance to lead the team in some races.
21-YO Dutchman Lukas Smits joins Challenge Division Squad Le Vieux-Port (LVP). Smits was not a prolific winner at the junior level but LVP felt like he would thrive at the higher level racing over tougher parcours. His stock rose dramatically after he won the U23 Worlds in Bergen with a solo attack and while he had other offers after that he said he felt loyalty to LVP who had tracked him all year.
____
Tigres (Bilbao) will be frustrated that neither of the Basque riders on this list signed with them (Camus and Egoi Lete). However they did sign Portuguese climber Álvaro Ribeiro, the most heralded neo-pro, but decided to assign him to their feeder team to give him a chance to mature.
The full list of neo-pro's starting at the Major League level:
Spoiler
Rider
Age
Nationality
Team
Division
Aitor Camus
22
Spain
Uno
Senior
Fabrizio Goetzky
21
Germany
Hamburg-Altstadt
Senior
Ryan Watson
22
Australia
Paris Nord
Senior
Walter Masías
21
Ecuador
Venezuela
Challenge
Darren Ellis
21
United Kingdom
Yorkshire Elite
Challenge
Marcel Thibaud
23
France
VCB
Challenge
Egoi Lete
22
Spain
Versailles
Challenge
Matej Pavliscak
22
Slovakia
Baltimore 54
Challenge
Lukas Smits
21
Netherlands
Le Vieux-Port
Challenge
Joel Abreu
22
Spain
Nice
Challenge
Christol van der Sleen
20
Netherlands
Rotterdam
Challenge
Background
Spoiler
Each team is allowed to sign 3 neo-pros each year. And teams are allowed to carry up to 6 riders outside their primary roster. These riders are typically riders in the first few years of their career and are not eligible to race in the team's races. Instead they are either loaned out or assigned to a feeder team where they participate in races at a regional level.
Moving on to the Major League's lone Canadian team: Racing Club De Montréal (RCM)
History
Founded in 1990 RCM were first promoted to the Challenge Division in 2009 and were promptly relegated in 2010, they repeated this pattern in 2011 and 2013. But in 2015 they returned to the Challenge Division and their new focus on team time trials paid off with a 2nd place finish in the Lienz TTT which supplied enough points to avoid relegation. Since then they have survived on the back of a strong TTT squad. They won the Challenge Division TTT Title in 2016 and again in 2019. On the road they have had far less success. They managed only 5 top 5 finishes in Road Races from 2015 to 2019 and have yet to win a road race in 9 Challenge Division seasons.
2020 Season Recap
2020 saw RCM's best challenge division finish ever, 11th. They were again strong in the TTT's, finishing 2nd in TTT points and they scored perhaps their greatest TTT triumph ever when they finished 2nd in the Senior Division TTT in Lexington, which they raced as a Wild Card. In addition, they scored 6 top 5 finishes in road races, more than they had from 2015 to 2019 combined. Unfortunately 5 of these were by Kai Price who has said he will test the free agent waters this offseason after spending the first 6 years of his career with RCM. Losing their best riders just as they reach their peak is a frequent problem for low budget teams like RCM.
2021 Early Prognosis
Price was also a key cog in the TTT machine so his loss will be felt their as well. Only two of their top 5 TTT riders in 2020 are committed for 2021 - Jayden Strong and Max Ross. So the main offseason priority will be filling those gaps. The team hopes that young Canadian Lucas Parent is ready to step up as a point-scoring rider in the punchy races but he is still looking for his first top 10. So avoiding relegation will likely depend on the team's ability, to once again, pull together a strong TTT squad during the offseason.
Background
Spoiler
Each season each division has 6 TTTs. These contribute points to their teams overall total but in addition their is a mini league in each division based on results in the TTT with the highest scoring team awarded the TTT Title and earning the right to wear a special badge in the next season. Each year there are some teams who will prioritize the TTT competition although few pursue it as singularly as RCM.
Each season each Challenge Division team enters one Senior Division race as a wild card, generally one close to their home territory. Similarly the top Regional teams get a wild card entry to one Challenge Division race.
With the exclusive negotiation periods over the top riders available in the offseason are now known. The next two tables show profiles and history for the top 10 by 2020 points (regardless of division).
Age in
Prior
Prior
Name
2021
Ctry
Team
Div.
Focus
Mauricio Rocha
29
POR
Gent
Snr
COB/SP
Cédric Teyssier
29
FRA
VCB
Chall
Hills
Asier Ibarrola
28
ESP
Tigres Bilbao
Snr
Hills/MT
Wojciech Janus
27
POL
Colombia
Snr
Hills/MT
Antonis Ioannidis
29
GRE
Vilnius Baltic
Chall
MT
Pierrick Guiraud
30
FRA
Paris Nord
Snr
COB
Jules Maille
28
FRA
Nice
Chall
SP
Stéphane Rivet
31
FRA
Hamburg-Alstadt
Snr
COB
Cody Jackson
29
USA
Ville de Bruxelles
Snr
MT
Nolan Dubourg
29
FRA
Paris Nord
Snr
SP
2020
2020
2020
Career Wins
Career Wins
Name
Pts
Wins
Top 10's
Monuments
Major Races*
Mauricio Rocha
3,353
4
17
13
22
Cédric Teyssier
1,754
2
10
0
1
Asier Ibarrola
1,575
2
8
1
3
Wojciech Janus
1,467
1
9
0
0
Antonis Ioannidis
828
1
10
0
0
Pierrick Guiraud
768
0
10
0
0
Jules Maille
725
0
5
0
1
Stéphane Rivet
661
1
1
1
1
Cody Jackson
425
0
6
0
0
Nolan Dubourg
342
0
10
0
0
Along with Rocha, the key riders on the list are Janus and Ibarrola. All 3 are proven Senior Division riders in the prime of their career. More on the market for them later.
Guiraud is close to that quality but had a so-so 2020. At his best he is one of the top 5 cobblers in the peloton but there is a big gap between Rocha and the rest of the top 5. Guiraud's destination will depend on what happens with Rocha. Re-signing with Paris Nord still seems likely.
Rivet appeared to be a luxury domestique pretending to be a team leader until he saved Hamburg's season with a brilliant victory at the Ronde. In his next race, the Worlds, he seriously injured his back. His injury and his lack of track record mean he will miss out on the big money.
Jackson and Dubourg are second tier Senior Division leaders, but riders who are good for 300 to 500+ points a season can be difference makers. Jackson would dominate at the Challenge Division level if a team could persuade him to step down. But that seems unlikely given he exercised his relegation release clause to avoid dropping down with Ville de Bruxelles
Teyssier and Ioannidis are both proven Challenge Division riders who have faltered at the higher level. Maille has never raced at the Senior division level and probably shouldn't. A Senior Division team might take a gamble on one of these but more likely they will get top dollar from a team looking for promotion from the Challenge Division. Look for Sydney to splash some of their riches on at least one of these 3.
* Major Races include the Senior and Challenge Division Monuments, the World and Olympic Champions and Senior and Challenge Division recurring classics.
Can't wait to see how it has been going!
