This roundup might be a little on the longer side as we are including all the riders that left us both before and during transfers, this being a total of 11 riders.
Retired
Fabian Cancellara
I guess we should start off with the first rider to depart us, the one and only Spartacus rides off into the sunset, having joined us for his final season. Unfortunately he couldn’t add one last big result to what he had already achieved in a career than 99% of pro riders would be jealous of with his 2 monuments and 6 Tour de France stage wins over the years.
Draft Riders
Owain Doull
The British rider came into our side as an extra rider for the cobbles and surpassed all expectations by securing 10th GC at KBC De Panne Tour, a C1 race no less and thanks mainly to this result he ended the season on 73 points. As things stand after the CT draft, no-one has decided to give this talented 26 Year old a spot on their roster so his only remaining hope is a contract on one of the Amateur teams.
The second Draft rider from last year also left the team, and that was;
Tom Veelers
Veelers was also brought in to provide some extra support on the cobbles, and highlight was a stunning 6th place at the 1 Jour of Dunquerke. Having got a little bit older and having declined abit in his abilities we are not surprised to find Veelers without a contract this season even if he would still have had something to offer as a loyal domestique. He did manage 54 points for us last season in what might end up being his final contracted season.
Released
Oscar Gatto
Gatto came into our side on a €50,000 contract to offer us some extra depth when needed on the hills and cobbles; unfortunately he had a very tough season. Working hard for his teammates and not getting any chances to shine, bringing in just 27 points all year and with him declining even further during the off season we don’t expect him to be back in a professional peloton again.
Anuar Manan
The next released rider was Anuar Manan, the Malaysian leadout rider was unfortunate to find himself a victim of our attempt to become a younger side this year after he had given us 4 years of great service as a leadout rider and secondary sprinter. Despite taking a small decline from last season we still feel he was unlucky not to get picked up in the CT draft as teams seemed to be going for a lot of leadout sprinters. He may have only scored 13 points for us himself but that is only because he spent the whole year leading out Salleh and having pedigree of taking C1 victories for Meiji before joining us I’d have thought someone would have offered him a contract.
Miles Olman
Miles had a fairly successful season with us in the CT, taking home 2 stage wins, but we adjudged the step up to PCT to be too much for him as he got weaker over the break between seasons. There is good news however as despite failing to find a side during transfers or the CT Draft Miles has signed a contract with Kofola in the Amateur division for the upcoming season.
Kevin Reza
Next man on the released list is French sprinter Kevin Reza who spent the vast majority of his season being a leadout man and never got a chance to shine himself, failing to put up any notable results. This year he has gained an Amateur contract at Adriatic Kontinentalna Selekcija where he will likely be working for Igor Boev.
Martin Weiss
The last rider we let go was Martin Weiss, as we wanted to free up more cap space going into transfers and we felt we were very well stocked in terms of depth on the hills. During free agency he was picked up by new CT team OMV Petrom-albania.al and will be leading them in the Hills in their CT campaign.
Sold/Traded
Tom Bohli
Tom Bohli was originally signed as a future cobles leader for us but in the end we decided to move him on to Team UBS where he has spent the previous couple of seasons. He joins them to support Spengler, and seeing as they are both the same age and have already ridden together for 2 seasons now whilst he was out on loan there they already have a good working understanding of how each other rides.
Arnaud Grand
Arnaud Grand is another part of the move that saw Bohli joining Team UBS, beefing up their cobble support for Spengler. He was brought in to our squad 2 years ago but failed to generate the kind of results we were looking for out of a cobble leader, proving to us that he would be much better suited to a support role, and seeing as we had no Cobble leader ourselves we decided that moving him on would be beneficial for both parties.
Cristoph Taubel
Taubel joined us last year in a swap deal for Andreas Hofer, but finds himself leaving us after only 1 year with the side as we move away from a cobble focus. He joins OMV Petrom-albania.al which sees him returning to the CT division where he links up with Martin Weiss who we released and sees him gain the support of Eric Young in his bid to put up some strong results again this year.
Riccardo Zoidl
Riccardo Zoidl is something of a legend around here joining us in our first season and being a consistent point scorer every season so far. After 1 year loaned out and 5 years in our colours it was a tough decision to let him move on, however he didn’t fair that well when we last rode in the PCT so we have agreed to send him back down to the CT where he has thrived. At age 31 the former WCITT top 10 finisher is not getting any younger so we felt it best to give him the chance to be competitive whilst he still can be and look to find a long term replacement for him.
Arrivals
A.K.A. “Has He Got Enough Money To Spend”
This season saw a lot of change for us with a total of 13 new riders joining the side, 5 of which joined from other teams and 8 through Free Agency.
This has resulted in the biggest rebuild in the team’s history and we are excited to properly unveil our new signings.
Bought
Bjorn Tore Hoem
We wanted to bring in more mountain depth this year and when we saw Hoem was available we jumped at the chance to sign him as were impressed by what we saw when we raced against him last year. Even though his nationality doesn’t match our focus areas we are hoping he can prove a valuable asset to the squad one way or another.
Nawuti Liphongyu
The Thai TT NC holder joins us this year from SPAR - Shimano – SCG and we see him as a valuable stage racer that can contribute some support in both mountainous races and against the clock in Team Time Trials. Seeing as he still has 4 years left at the peak of his powers we are hoping that he settles in well with the team in his first year and wants to stay and call our team home for the foreseeable future.
Dylan Page
Dylan joins us from fellow Swiss side Team UBS as our new leadout sprinter, he will be fulfilling the role that Anuar Manan vacated during renewals as a key part of Salleh’s sprint train for at least the next couple of years. He is a rider we have had on our radar for a couple of seasons now so we are excited to be able to bring him in.
Suranga Ranaweera
Ranaweera joins us as our leading stage racer this year and we are hoping that he can score a decent amount of points through white jerseys to compliment his GC positions as we know he will struggle to match the best the division has to offer. We have brought in a nice amount of support to give him the best chance to squeeze out those extra few positions and points and look forward to seeing how he goes for us.
Paolo Scarponi
We did it, we finally did it. After 7 long years of trying we have finally managed to complete a deal to bring Paolo Scarponi home to the only Sammarinese team in the professional Peloton. At 30 years of age he is likely to start declining just as the team starts to reach their full potential, however now he is home he is ready to play his part in helping the younger riders in the squad develop whilst by being a mentor, role figure and support rider for Ranaweera.
Free Agency
Jamal Hibatullah
Last year Hibatullah was riding for the Amateur team Eritel – RwandAir and he impressed us enough to secure a contract here for the coming season. We are hoping to see him continue developing into a strong climber and see him as the ideal candidate to help improve our climbing depth in the coming seasons, not just this one.
Marc Hirschi
Marc is the signing that we are most excited about this season, he is a future star in the making from one of our home nations and we are delighted to be able to give him a platform to start his career. If things go according to plan then he will be here for years to come and help lead us to new heights we are yet to accomplish.
Yuttana Mano
Mano is definitely one for the future and we anticipate him being a star rider for us in the TT’s who we can build a future TTT train around whilst he will also have the skillset to hang on and achieve strong results in races that also feature hills. We are hoping to see him be a good domestique on the hills when there are no TT's, then really come alive in races that feature both.
Mushin Misbah
Misbah was one of the most highly touted Malaysians out there this year and we wanted to make sure he got the start to his career he deserved. We are hoping to develop him here in house throughout his first season as he grows as a rider to eventually see him challenge Ahmad Zamri for the title of best Stage Racer to come out of the nation. If nothing else seeing them working together on the mountains will be a nice sight and there will always be the future TTNC battles to look forward to.
Carlo Noia
Noia is a rider we’ve had our eye on as he impressed us in the local junior ranks and we are looking forward to seeing how far his talents can take him. We think he will turn out even better than his compatriot and newly crowned Under 23 TT World Champion Maccagli, but that doesn’t mean we see him as a replacement for Andrea, we are hoping to see them both riding together for us as part of our future TTT train.
Riccardo Putti
Putti is a local rider taking his first step into the professional peloton this year, inspired by our previous Sammarinese recruits and our new signing and national hero Paolo Scarponi he is one of a new wave of Sammarinese riders that we are hoping to bring through. Putti himself looks to be a very attack focussed rider and we hope to give him the chance to prove himself and get into plenty of breaks throughout the year.
Tom Jelte Slagter
Our biggest signing from free agency for this year was Tom Jelte Slagter, the dutchman comes in to lead us on the hills and races that are a mix between hills and mountain could see him utilised to his full potential to try and score us some strong results. Last season he finished 90th in the PT rankings and we are hoping the step down he has taken will allow him to shine as our team leader.
Akmal Hakim Zakaria
Zakaria is one of the new wave of Malaysian sprinters coming through and we are happy to have him here in our squad in his first year. We are hoping that together with Abdul Halil at Euskaltel and Zariff at Delvaux they can form the next great Malaysian sprint train and take on the world’s best together at International level after competing against each other as they each emerge in their own teams.
Hirschi is seriously cool in the future, absolutely one of my favourite guys in the new talent year and suits you perfectly. Not sure where you take him as there's a few angles but something like 78/78 with 78RES, 75ACC, 83FTR and 77DH is just awesome. You're a lucky team to have him, scary guy!
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
Fabian Cancellara
Owain Doull
Tom Veelers
Oscar Gatto
Anuar Manan
Miles Olman
Kevin Reza
Martin Weiss
Bjorn Tore Hoem 
Nawuti Liphongyu 
Suranga Ranaweera
Paolo Scarponi
Jamal Hibatullah 
