Wake up honey, another depressing Rabobank availability post dropped.
After two years where we struggled in the relegation battle as we secured the signings of two of the biggest youngsters in the World in Remco Evenepoel and Olav Kooij, we are looking for a calm transfer season.
Our three main leaders will decline at the end of the year so we'll definitely enjoy one quiet transfer season before going back into the madness next year. With the 3 big guns and improved Champoussin and Remco, we think we should be safe for another year in the PT.
With sprint trains not exactly working in our favor and with Kooij also looking like a good lead-out this year, Casper Pedersen could be available for a transfer, but this will be more of a case where we need to open up some space or a good swap offer comes along instead of us actively looking to sell him.
In terms of riders leaving, Man-Game and team legend, Robert Gesink is retiring and could not be offered a new contract.
Two other Dutch riders will be joining him in the departure list: Timo Roosen and Lennard Hofstede. Both are long term servants of the team, being very valuable team-mates to our team leaders, with some personal performances delivered here and there as well. But we have a few young riders ready to take over their role so we felt it was the perfect timing to part ways.
French climber Guillaume Martin will also be leaving. It was always supposed to be a one year deal, but Martin never showed anything worth of making us change our opinion on whether we should renew his contract or not.
Our first stagiare ever, Erik Fetter failed to make an impact last year or show anything worth of a full time contract so he'll be looking for other opportunities elsewhere.
Edited by alexkr00 on 09-08-2024 16:13
Couldn't have stated it better than you, your leaders should be strong enough to keep you in PT and with the talents developing there's little need to change much. Though it's a shame Champoussin isn't available
Very well done securing your PT spot and thus setting your team up for quiet growth the upcoming season. Though, it somehow sounds a bit boring… Sure you are going to be content with status quo?
Couldn't have stated it better than you, your leaders should be strong enough to keep you in PT and with the talents developing there's little need to change much. Though it's a shame Champoussin isn't available
We didn't spend all these years waiting for him to develop just to sell him when he maxes out
Very well done securing your PT spot and thus setting your team up for quiet growth the upcoming season. Though, it somehow sounds a bit boring… Sure you are going to be content with status quo?
knockout wrote:
I gotta remember that I'll never sell you someone who I might want to buy back later
You've done great work rejuvenating the leadership of the squad by bringing in some big talents over the last few seasons while keeping your PT place (while others who have tried to do the same have slipped into a PCT season) - quite a few 32s at the top of the age column so it seems like you've timed it well. Can't believe Grosu is only 32 though as he's been a big name since I started in MG it feels like (was he a product of the early maxing ages I guess?). Your team always throws up some cool results along with the consistency in the rankings, looking forward to racing against you again
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
You've done great work rejuvenating the leadership of the squad by bringing in some big talents over the last few seasons while keeping your PT place (while others who have tried to do the same have slipped into a PCT season) - quite a few 32s at the top of the age column so it seems like you've timed it well. Can't believe Grosu is only 32 though as he's been a big name since I started in MG it feels like (was he a product of the early maxing ages I guess?). Your team always throws up some cool results along with the consistency in the rankings, looking forward to racing against you again
It looks like Grosu was added in 2013. So at 21. It took 3 years to max him out so the 3->Max rule not being possible must have already been in place. Now we add riders at 22 so I guess he did get one extra year in the game.
He must have just always been younger than I thought - maxed right as I joined the game
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
No Hellemose is disappointing but Pedersen available more than makes up for it. I honestly didn't expect it to be that difficult to reacquire him when he was one of the casualties of our demotion a couple of years back, but we've twice failed to reach a deal with him. Perhaps this is the year? Aside from that, clearly one of the stronger squads in terms of continuity and I can't imagine it comes as much of a surprise to anyone that this will be a quiet year.
The Danish Trade federation wants to know how many puncheurs are too many punchers
The public admiration announcement made by liefwarrior got us into thinking what exactly should we do about it. And a quick look at the Tryg - Eni team provided us the answer. Andreas Kron could be ours.
The negotiations between the teams went quite smoothly, with Tryg ready to let go of their Danish puncheur if they were to get two of their favorite Danish riders instead. And that's how Pedersen and Hellemos will be riding for Tryg - Eni from now on, while Andreas Kron will be joining Rabobank.
The Dane is a very good puncheur that should provide us with an extra option in our hilly races plans.
Andreas Kron
4.100xp
26yo
Puncheur
€150,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
73
70
79
66
75
75
71
64
66
73
75
71
65
We had a speech prepared on how even though our teams is filled with very good puncheurs, taking Kron in makes sense because of his age and with the upcoming decline of Formolo and Gerts.
But then we also got the chance Juan Sossa so we;ll just be honest: we'll be hoarding all this puncheurs for now and figure out exactly what to do with them in the next few seasons.
Juan Sossa is a very promising Colombian puncheur, still Avenir eligible. Unlike Kron, he should also be able to handle himself on the longer climbs which is a big plus these days. DK Zalgiris were so happy to send him to ride together with Remco that we even got a discount on the final price of €600,000.
Juan Sossa
3.28xp
23yo
Puncheur
€100,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
67
70
74
57
74
71
72
55
61
68
71
67
58
We see two possible development paths for him, but it will be in two years time that we will need to make a decision so there's plenty of time to decide.
Congrats, with Remco and Kooij in house and Sossa joining them and maybe more young riders on the way, Rabobank 2026 is going to be a force to be reckoned with.
