It's a shame the riders I'm more interested in are either no or unlikely, I might still send a speculative message just in case your plans change but that availability list doesn't leave me hopeful.
sammyt93 wrote:
It's a shame the riders I'm more interested in are either no or unlikely, I might still send a speculative message just in case your plans change but that availability list doesn't leave me hopeful.
Do that! As always also this availability list isn't set in stone. Interested on who you have in mind. Although if it is Marzuki you'll probably be disappointed, I didn't pay 145k for him last season to give him away now.
SotD wrote:
A couple of interesting names on the list. We may be talking in the off season. I have a couple of potential gaps to cover
#1 Departures
During the hectic last few days of transfers 8 of our riders were transferred to other teams. We'd like to thank all of them for their time on the team. Most notable rider leaving is Pello Bilbao who was a big part of our push to PT promotion last season, where he finished 28th in the final PCT rankings. At Swisslion he will try to repeat his success at PCT level again in the upcoming year.
Pello Bilbao celebrating a stage win at the 3rd stage of 2018 Jelajah SKL after outsprinting Di Maggio and home favorite Anuar Aziz.
Another big name leaving our team is 2017 Gent - Wevelgem winner Alexandr Nepomnyachsniy, who after a disappointing 2018 campaign decided to step down to become cobbles leader at CT team DK Zalgiris. Arvin Moazemi was transferred out to Evonik - ELKO where he will be part of the squad supporting Skujins. Moazemi's best result for our team was arguably his 8th place at the 2018 Tour of Japan where he also scored a stage podium. An emotional goodbye was the one of Bambang Suryadi who was part of the team since its inaugural season and a big part of Guerao's successes. Last season he showed he can also score by himself, when he was top 10 in four different stages. He will ride at CT level for CYBEX Platinum next season.
Alexandr Nepomnyachsniy crossing the line first at the 2017 edition of Gent - Wevelgem.
Austrian duo Lukas Postlberger and Felix Grossschartner also left the team. First was part of the team for 3 seasons and a good support for our leaders. Highlight of his time at Siam Cement the win of the mountains jersey at the 2018 Tour of Germany. Next year he'll be part of Podium Ambition's timetrialing squad. Grossschartner was on contract for two seasons, but in both of them was loaned out to Novatek, so never got to ride in our jersey. Philips put an end to our Chelsea like practices and will let him ride on their own team next season. The team wants to express its gratitude to both riders and wishes them good luck at their new teams. Nipuna Shira Manamalage developed great to become one of the biggest engines of the peloton. In 2018 he will ride for McCormick Procylcling at CT level and might surprise some with good results at flat cobbled races.
Lastly, Thai stage racer Nawuti Liphongyu also switched teams in the offseason and will ride in the colors of Sauber Petronas Racing.
#2 New Signings
Biggest signing of our team history is arguably Alexey Lutsenko who was convinced with a wage of € 1.155.000 to join our team from the free agency. After an outstanding 2018 campaign for the now defunct Team Reddit, it just had to be him to lead our team in our first season in PT. Some say after using our trainings facilities for the first time he got even stronger over the offseason.
With all the transfers out, our team lost some depth. To cover that in some areas we signed some more riders from the Free Agency. First one is timetrialist Dennis Van Winden, who will make our Dutch main sponsor happy. Van Winden is not gaining as much as he did in the past when he managed to oversell himself dramatically to his Italian manager, but still will be a decent asset to our team.
Dennis Van Winden, 32, 4.100 XP, Wage: € 100.000
OVL
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FI
DH
PR
74,84
74
53
63
80
70
70
74
57
59
72
79
63
80
Next important signing is French sprint star Nacer Bouhanni. After several convincing seasons for Euskaltel, Bouhanni will be the second sprinter of our team. In races he'll not be supporting Guerao, he'll have chances to race for himself.
Nacer Bouhanni, 29, 4.100 XP, Wage: € 205.000
OVL
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FI
DH
PR
74,90
74
55
63
55
74
69
74
59
80
77
64
58
55
Another free agent signing of our team is cobbled talent Varsham Darbinyan who already this season will be a good support rider for Tom David and Oscar Guerao.
Varsham Darbinyan, 25, 4.14 XP, Wage: € 50.000
OVL
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FI
DH
PR
73,03
70
58
66
62
71
71
63
75
74
72
64
68
65
2020
71
58
66
63
73
72
64
77
75
72
64
68
66
Final signing from the Free Agency is young Hong Kong stage racer Fung Ka Hoo who will spend his first professional season loaned out to McCormick Pro Cycling. Fung was not our first choice talent, but will still become an integral part of our future team.
Ka Hoo Fung, 22, 1.0 XP, Wage: € 50.000
OVL
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FI
DH
PR
69,51
67
69
67
70
65
68
68
50
62
69
69
66
68
2022
68
77
71
76
69
73
75
50
62
71
71
67
74
In the trade deal for Felix Grossschartner we received Portuguese puncheur Jaoa Costa, which means we continue our trend of having at least one Portuguese rider on our squad.
Jaoa Costa, 31, 4.100 XP, Wage: € 55.000
OVL
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FI
DH
PR
73,60
66
71
75
57
68
69
68
54
65
73
75
72
57
In the coming season we will have four loaned in riders in our colors to help them with their development. We are looking forward to see what they can do for our team.
OVL
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FI
DH
PR
Kristaps Budenieks
24
72,21
69
71
72
63
69
73
69
70
69
71
72
72
61
Sandis Eislers
26
71,96
72
64
72
60
69
67
66
61
74
73
67
68
60
Jakob Rathe
28
71,63
71
63
66
61
72
70
67
71
72
76
68
62
61
Sonomtseren Delgerbayar
31
69,71
74
51
63
72
74
71
74
66
66
69
84
60
72
#3 Full Team
OVL
MO
HI
TT
CB
SP
Varsham Darbinyan
73,03
58
66
62
75
74
Stefan Denifl
78,09
84
76
72
54
66
Matthias Brändle
76,23
76
71
79
56
60
Oscar Guerao
77,50
57
65
57
68
83
Nacer Bouhanni
74,90
55
63
55
59
80
Chun Wing Leung
74,50
57
64
78
50
69
Ka Hoo Fung**
69,51
69
67
70
50
62
Alexey Lutsenko
80,25
73
83
68
54
72
Yevgeniy Gidich
74,76
73
76
73
55
62
Gyung Gu Jang
74,24
76
76
62
54
66
Kristaps Budenieks*
72,21
71
72
63
70
69
Sandis Eislers*
71,96
64
72
60
61
74
Muhamad Zawawi Azman
73,98
74
75
63
50
65
Nur Amirul Marzuki
73,89
71
74
64
74
72
Sonomtseren Delgerbayar*
69,71
51
63
72
66
66
Dennis Van Winden
74,84
53
63
80
57
59
Ajay Pandit Chhetri
73,05
76
71
61
55
64
Tom David
76,76
62
75
65
78
70
Jaoa Costa
73,60
71
75
57
54
65
Sarawut Sirironnachai
74,82
66
77
65
57
64
Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn
73,73
70
73
67
50
69
Hsuan Ping Hsu
74,08
64
67
69
72
77
Jakob Rathe*
71,63
63
66
61
71
72
* - Loaned In
** - Loaned Out
Edited by Bikex on 09-10-2019 16:29
I would be surprised if you were in relegation danger, seeing Denifl, Brandle and David lighting up the roads whilst Lutsenko finally gets the chance to beast it in PT like he deserves should be enough to keep you up and more likely to be mid table than in a relegation battle.
@Sotd: You are right of course. Don't know what happened there. Also still considering giving him sprinters' training. Something to decide at the end of the season. @jakstar: Sono will be a very useful rider for me in TTs and flat races in general. Also hope to see him in some breaks. Thanks for making the deal possibly so late into transfers. @Croatia: I have the same feeling about your training decisions. @sammyt: Thanks for your confidence! In my opinion for a mid table finish the season has to go very well. A lot depends on how Lutsenko is handled by the new PCM I guess.
Thanks for not allowing Lutsenko into the PCT I mirror sammy's thoughts to quite an extent and think you've built a team that should be ale to stay out of relegation danger. Looking forward to see what a trained Lutsenko can do and also how the new game treats Denifl
Still, I could see ourselves being in contact come transfer time.
