After a rather disappointing start in the season's final month, only three C2HC races were left - whereof two stage races for the sprinters. Hence, we had to split our fast men into two teams. In Australia, four flat stages and a time trial were awaiting us, so our designated GC leader was Patrick Gamper - our rising TT star. Our sprint leader was Issiaka Cissé, with Max Walscheid and Riccardo Minali as leadouts.
However, whereas we did some work to reel in the escapees on stage 1, we didn't build a sprint train. Hence, Issiaka Cissé's position going onto the final meters wasn't great - but he made the best out of the situation, sprinting to 4th - his 3rd best result of the season, and his best in a C2HC race!
Moreover, the front group was awarded a 27" gap on the main bunch, which was great news for the sprinters with decent ITT skills, given that they all of a sudden might even have a shot at the GC!
None of our other riders was in the front group, and only one made it inside the main bunch - fortunately, it was Patrick Gamper, our best time trialist.
On stage 2, we again failed to build a train for our sprinter, and so Issiaka Cissé had to launch his sprint from far back in the front group. Once again, we had to curse bad positioning, as he was probably the one having the highest speed in the end - which at least made him move up to 5th place. Still, the result left us kind of unsatisfied, given what could have been possible...
But stage 3 showed us that it could have been worse - because it went worse on that day. Again, no train, and this time Issiaka Cissé actually had a decent position - but couldn't deliver. He finished 9th, which is another Top 10 stage result, but definitely not what we were hoping for. The best news was that he still was 11th in the GC, and being a rather decent time trialist compared to many other sprinters, we had some hopes of keeping a Top 20 position.
Without any doubt, the ITT on stage 4 would decide on the race winner - and without any surprise, we weren't among the best. Our strongest rider, as expected, was Patrick Gamper, who finished 27th of the day, 1'16" behind the winner. Which unfortunately just wasn't enough to reach a scoring GC or U25 position...
What was better news was seeing Issiaka Cissé finishing only a few positions - and seconds - behind, as he was 35th with 1'28" back. This wasn't enough to secure a Top 20 GC, but at least he only dropped to 24th, securing some minor GC points.
But these points actually were far from being secured, given that the sprinter teams - including ourselves - didn't work hard enough on the final day, and so the breakaway took the win. Issiaka Cissé fortunately only dropped one spot to 25th, and he ended the final stage in 15th place (9th from the bunch).
Whereas we were pretty satisfied with the first two stages, the remainder of the race didn't unfold very well for us. Our sprint train never built up, and so positioning of our sprinter was kind of left to chance. He did a decent job, but the sprint leader role might be too ambitions for him. Nonetheless, we value his services as a great leadout sprinter a lot! But given that he didn't act as a leadout in the clashing race in Poland, how did our sprint leader do over there? Let's find out shortly...
Given that there was no time trial here in Poland, the GC was very likely to be won by a sprinter, and so we sent our fastest man here: Marco Guillén, supported by Manuel Stocker. It was his final race before declining, so we really hoped for a last big performance by our team oldie.
But stage one was quite a bummer in that respect. Manuel Stocker had a very bad position and was even distanced for a few kilometers, and so Marco Guillén was on his own - it didn't work out too well. The competition was strong, of course, but 7th place wasn't what we had expected. Hence, we had to discuss quite a few tactical points that evening...
Yet, to not much avail, as it seemed. Manuel Stocker was again dropped, this time with 10km to go. But he made it back, even to the front of the pack to properly lead out the sprint for Marco Guillén! He claimed the lead with 200m to go - but then slightly faded, still securing a wonderful 2nd place! The old man was still alive!
Now, well in contention for the GC, the sky was the limit. But sometimes, earth is quite near to the sky... After a finale that unfolded pretty much like the one on the first day, meaning without proper leadout, Marco Guillén only was able to sprint to 6th on day number three. Still, he was 4th both in GC and the points standings - everything was still possible!
But the leadout had to work much better again for a stage win to be realistic. And it did! This time, it was Cyrille Thièry launching Marco Guillén - but this time, the competition was a tad too strong. It looked great with a kilometer to go, but finally it was "just" 5th place.
Whereas our top sprinter was disappointed when crossing the line, his face quickly brightened up when seeing the final GC results - 3rd place! Marco Guillén had just achieved our best ever GC result, in his final stage race at full speed! Along with the shared 3rd place in the points standings, that was really a great race for him!
Moreover, due to some gaps occurring on stage 3, Manuel Stocker (19th) and Cyrille Thièry (23rd) finished pretty high up in the GC, too, contributing some valuable points. And: We won the team standings, thanks to Guillén's consistent Top 7 finishes in this race!
All in all, it was a wonderful way to finish off our stage race season, with only one final highlight to come: Züri Metzgete. But first, let's celebrate another great race - maybe the final one - by Marco Guillén!
Marco Guillén taking the lead on stage 2, where he finished 2nd.
This was the day the regular season was coming to an end - and what could have been a better place for the final great showing of the year than another race on home soil? Of course, we once again weren't among the favorites for the hilly Züri Metzgete - despite it being our win goal - so for the last time of the season the motto was: Attack!
Gino Mäder and Alessandro Fedeli tried it, but first the latter, then the former were reeled in again. We didn't really understand what happened to Gino, as the peloton wasn't moving fast - he just slowed down until he was back in the pack.
But more bad things happened, as Simon Pellaud suffered a puncture and was dropped pretty early on. He fought his way back, but he certainly spent a lot of energy to do so. So we had to hope for someone else to shine.
For instance Cyrille Thièry. He was having a pretty good run lately, and did an amazing job of keeping up with the big guns across the final hilltop! And with a bit more than 10km to go, he even attacked - and was 2nd of the race, just 45" behind Edmondson, who had surprised the others heading into the final descent.
Only Siskevicius was able to join our man - unfortunately, he only joined, without doing any work. Thièry continued pushing nonetheless, knowing it was his only chance to maybe still win the race.
Well, it wasn't to be. Maybe it would have worked with a little help by his "companion", but he wasn't able to close the gap on his own. Nonetheless, Cyrille Thièry finished the season on a very high note, taking 2nd place in Zürich - a huge result for him and the team, especially in front of a lot of friends and families! Great work, Cyrille!
Furthermore, we had four more riders in the Top 30: Jan-André Freuler (22nd) and Mirco Saggiorato (25th) just inside, Simon Pellaud (29th) and Manuel Stocker (30th) outside the scoring spots. It was a very solid team performance, outshined of course by Cyrille Thièry's great podium finish!
And so, the regular season comes to an end. We enjoyed it most of the time, seeing a lot of promising results. We learned a lot of important lessons, too, helping us in coming up with a wishlist for the offseason. But first, let's closely follow the World Championships, where some of our riders will take part, followed by the Nationals where we'll hopefully be able to claim some titles!
Next up is a review of our season goals, followed by an evaluation of our riders. Stay tuned!
Gino Mäder in the early breakaway.
Cyrille Thièry sprinting to 2nd place, his best result of the year.
Numbers don't lie, and the numbers say we only achieved the two least important goals of the season. Nonetheless, we can still consider it a good season. Let's take a more detailed look on why this is:
Our sponsors' most important goal was a win in the final race of the season, back home in the Züri Metzgete. Realistically, we didn't have any chance to achieve this one - nevertheless, we fought until the end, finally claiming a great 2nd place, celebrated by the sponsors just as if we had won. So yes, it's a failed goal, but a great performance. Nothing to be mad about.
The same can be said of Giro del Trentino, where we had a Top 5 goal. As we didn't manage to build up a strong TTT team, we knew this one would be hard, too. But again, we only failed by a single spot, with Mirco Saggiorato taking 6th, backed up by 14th to 16th places by Masnada, Manfredi and Signorini. The sponsors were really happy about the team result, but we failed to achieve the goal again - by a mere 12 seconds... Which sums up the whole season pretty well: We're in the mix, but not on top yet.
The only really disappointing performance in a goal race was noted in San Marino, where we had a Top 10 goal in the Coppa Placci. The worst part of it being that we had the 8th and 9th riders from the peloton - but the race went to the breakaway, and so it was another goal failed. Again, the team was right there, taking 14th, 15th, 19th and 20th - but with 4 riders in the Top 20, we should definitely have sacrificed one or two to reel the breakaway in. We didn't, and the sponsors weren't amused.
But at least we got some better news for them concerning the two final goals. First was a Top 10 place in the Tour of Bulgaria. The race was postponed due to technical problems, but our riders didn't get too distracted, fortunately. With a good TTT (Top 10), they managed to limit the damages, and with consistent performances in the mountains finally achieved not only one Top 10 result, but two of them! 9th place went to Mirco Saggiorato, 10th to Fausto Masnada. It wasn't an outstanding race - not even a funny one to watch - but at least we could finally check off one goal!
And the final goal - another mandatory one besides the win goal - concerned the final team standings. Although some previews saw us a bit higher in the list, our sponsors went for the most modest one, meaning we should "just" get a Top 15 out of 17 teams. But it didn't look great most of the season, only towards the end we collected some more points. Thanks to an outstanding Course de Solidarnosc by Marco Guillén, and the second place in Zürich by Cyrille Thièry, we finally just snatched the required 15th place - the bare minimum.
So that was two goals just achieved, two goals just missed, and another missed one due to tactical mistakes. There's definitely room for improvement - let's see if we can do better next year!
Now that the regular season is over, let's take a close look about how each of our riders - including loan-outs - performed this year. With the NCs still ahead, some of our riders might add a highlight to their achievements, but definitely no more points. The following table is sorted by total points, and you can find as well the numbers for Points per Race Day and Wage per Point.
Rider
RDs
Wage
Points
PpRD
Wage/Points
Marco Guillén
54
0
303
5.6
0
Fausto Masnada
56
300,000
183
3.3
1,639
Mirco Saggiorato
57
65,000
115
2.0
565
Andrea Manfredi
60
50,000
105
1.8
476
Jan-André Freuler
56
60,000
94
1.7
638
Cyrille Thièry
62
50,000
90
1.5
556
Simon Pellaud
62
60,000
54
0.9
1,111
Gino Mäder
95
50,000
37
0.4
1,351
Issiaka Cissé
63
0
34
0.5
0
Gian Piero Signorini
60
65,000
25
0.4
2,600
Manuel Stocker
66
50,000
12
0.2
4,167
Pascal Eenkhoorn
80
40,000
8
0.1
5,000
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
31
50,000
8
0.3
6,250
Patrick Gamper
91
85,000
6
0.1
14,167
Ioannidis Kiriakidis
40
50,000
4
0.1
12,500
Maximilian Walscheid
81
50,000
4
< 0.1
12,500
Aimiliano Vila
37
0
2
0.1
0
Alessandro Fedeli
95
50,000
0
0
n/a
Riccardo Minali
35
50,000
0
0
n/a
But as numbers don't tell you everything, let's take a look at some more details for each rider (except for the loan-ins).
Marco Guillén 303 points
Highlights:
Benelux Challenge
Points jersey, 2 stage wins
Course de Solidarnosc
3rd GC, 3rd Points, 4 Stage Top 10
Tour de Langkawi
Stage win
Tour de San Luis
Stage win
Betonexpressz GP
2nd place
Without any doubt, Marco is our Rider of the Year! He only joined the team in the CT draft, being ignored by everyone during transfers, but then had an amazing season in his final "prime" year! He'll be a team legend forever, as he got our first ever win in Malaysia, the first podium in a one-day classic in Hungary, and finally the first GC podium in Poland - what a man!
Unfortunately, he will decline after this fantastic year - which he'll hopefully end by winning the Costa Rican NC! Either way, after being paid by MGUCI this year, we'll have to sit down and see if we can offer him a spot in our next season's roster. Despite his decline, we're convinced he still has these great moments in his legs!
Fausto Masnada 183 points
Highlights:
Tour de Romandie
KoM jersey, Stage Top 10
Int. Österreich Rundfahrt
Stage win, 3rd KoM, 3rd Points
The title Most expensive rider isn't necessarily a bad thing, but Fausto will probably rather be remembered as our Most crazy transfer - not many teams would spend 300k on an unmaxed rider. We did - and it paid out! He won our first ever jersey, and even in a home race, taking home the KoM standings in Romandie! Other than this, he got our first ever win on HC level, finishing off a great team work in Austria on stage 4.
What will be his next goal is a PT loan, which is absolutely required for completing his development. But first, we'll have to negotiate a wage allowing us to actually get such a loan deal - something we failed at this year.
Mirco Saggiorato 115 points
Highlights:
Giro del Trentino
6th GC
Tour of Vancouver
7th GC
Vuelta al Tachira
9th GC
Tour of Bulgaria
9th GC
Next is our best scoring Swiss rider. Mirco did a really solid job, getting four GC Top 10s. He fulfilled one of our sponsors' goals, getting a Top 10 in Bulgaria - and narrowly missed out on another, being one place short of the Top 5 goal in Trentino. We'd have hoped for some true highlights, though - maybe next year?
That next year will be the final one in his prime shape, so let's see if he can get one more big win. Unfortunately not in the Swiss NC jersey, as we had hoped for, as he missed out on the decisive move...
Andrea Manfredi 105 points
Highlights:
Transfagarasan GP
8th place
Tour of Vancouver
10th GC, 2 Stage Top 10
Whereas Masnada and Saggiorato are pretty well-rounded stage racers, Andrea is a pure climber - and he did pretty well, too. Without any true highlights, just as Saggiorato - his best result was a 4th stage place - he collected just above 100 points by "just" solid riding. His 8th place in a one-day race in Romania summarizes his season pretty well.
In order to step up, he'd have to increase his hill or time trial level - let's see if there's some room for improvement next season!
Jan-André Freuler 94 points
Highlights:
Hong Kong Challenge
Stage win, Yellow jersey for 1 day
Tour of South Africa
Stage win
Tour of Great Britain
Stage win
Jan-André is our Most efficient rider; he only got 4 stage Top 10s this year - thereof three wins! He has definitely proven his worth as a great breakaway rider, especially in hilly stages. Furthermore, he was our first (and by now only) rider having worn a GC leader jersey - definitely a moment to remember!
Let's see if he can continue his impressive Win / Top 10 ratio next year - if we can meet his (probably higher) wage request!
Cyrille Thièry 90 points
Highlighs:
Züri Metzgete
2nd place
Vuelta al Tachira
Stage podium
Surprisingly, Cyrille Thièry scored only 4 points less than Freuler, despite losing 0-3 on wins. And he almost overtook his teammate in the final race of the season - had he won in Zürich instead of getting "just" 2nd place, he'd surely be our Man of the Year. Still, it was a pretty consistent season, with some valuable Top 20 places in one-day and stage races.
Given that he'll turn 30 during the off-season, training is no longer an option for him - let's see if he can find other ways for squeezing out the missing bits to finally get a win next year!
Simon Pellaud 54 points
Highlights:
Grands Prix Cyclistes
9th GC, Stage Top 10
We mainly had two riders - designated leaders on their terrain - struggling a lot this year. Simon was one of them. We had really big hopes on him for the hilly races - but many, many hills proved to be too long for him. He had one brilliant stage with a short uphill finish, where he almost made the podium - that's all, unfortunately.
However, there's a ray of hope for next year, as MGUCI have announced that there will be more races for riders like Simon - let's see if this will allow him to shine more often!
Gino Mäder 37 points
Highlights:
Benelux Challenge
9th GC, 3rd U25, Stage Top 10
The title Youngster of the Year goes to Gino Mäder! He was active in several races, including the Benelux Challenge, where a gutsy ride brought him the first GC Top 10 of his young career! Several U25 Top 10s make clear that he definitely has a bright future coming along!
Will his immediate future be with us? Renewals will show, but we're positive. Some more U25 podiums would be our hope for next season - and he's only half-way done with his development!
Issiaka Cissé 34 points
Highlights:
Vuelta al Tachira
2 Stage podiums, 4 Stage Top 10
Herald Sun Tour
3 Stage Top 10
Issiaka was our second drafted rider - and our only NC in this year's roster. In many races, he was the last leadout for our sprint master Marco Guillén - and in the ones where he was himself our leader, he got some nice results, including the first stage podiums of our team history!
His points alone might not justify a contract renewal, but he has shown his immense value as a leadout - let's see what we can do for him! Defending his ITT NC title would surely be a good argument for him...
Gian Piero Signorini 25 points
Highlights:
Tour de Romandie
4th KoM, Stage Top 10
We're coming to the riders with no real highlights this year. And unfortunately, we have to award the title Disappointment of the Year to Gian Piero. He never lived up to his role of climbing co-leader - whether it was due to his age, or if it was his physical deficits coming more into play this year, we didn't find out. In his breakaway appearances, he often couldn't keep up with weaker pure climbers - we definitely expected more from him.
Of course, he doesn't have the best cards going into renewals. On the other hand, his experience could come in handy for our younger riders - and he surely won't have a second crappy season in a row!
Manuel Stocker 12 points
Highlights:
Tour de San Luis
2 Stage Top 10
You may think we're disappointed by Manuel's 12 points - but we're not! Instead, we award him the title Domestique of the Year! He did an amazing job as a leadout throughout the whole season, by times tearing apart the whole peloton and getting a gap with his sprinter. He's one of the main reasons for Guillén's huge season, and so he definitely deserves this mention!
Never change a winning team, and so it's clearly our goal to keep Stocker and Cissé together as our sprint train - let's see how much the former thinks his work is worth!
Patrick Gamper 6 points
Highlights:
Geraardsbergen - Bosberg
19th place
Our future cobble leader definitely suffered from the fact that we didn't participate in many such events, but it was enough to gain some valuable experience and even to score some points. He definitely has a lot of potential - both on cobblestones and in ITTs - but he needs some more time to shine.
We're definitely ready to give him the time he needs. He's probably our biggest talent, which is reflected by his salary. Let's see if we can convince him to do another year in CT...
Maximilian Walscheid 4 points
Highlights
Euskal Bizikleta
2 Stage Top 10
Max had a rather difficult year. He's lacking some power on the flat and some top-speed to really work as a leadout, but he did what he could. In the only race where he even was our sprint leader, he got two Top 10s, which is great for him! He showed us that he has the speed, if we give him some more time to develop as well.
He would have needed a loan to develop further this year, but this wasn't possible. The good news is that he won't need one next season to level up - and we hope we'll be the team helping him to do so!
Alessandro Fedeli 0 points
Highlights:
Tour of South Africa
Stage Top 10
And we finish off the list with another talent. Unfortunately, Alessandro wasn't able to score any points this year - he missed his first point by a single place in South Africa. Where he joined the breakaway, was reeled in, and still sprinted to 9th - yet another great promise for the future!
Next year, we definitely expect some points from him, as he starts growing into a decent puncheur. Let's see if we can convince him to stay...
Although we won't look at their performances in detail, let's still lose some words about our loan-ins:
Pascal Eenkhoorn definitely was the most active of them, being present in multiple breakaways, and even wearing the white jersey for one day in Venezuela.
Miltiadis Giannoutsos in the mountains and Ioannidis Kiriakidis in our TTT squad were very valuable helpers as well, whereas Aimiliano Vila, our third Festina loan-in, struggled a bit more.
Riccardo Minali was supposed to support our sprinters, but his weakness on non-flat terrains didn't allow him to bring us the support we were hoping for.
Still, we want to thank our partners Phlips and Festina for these loan deals and wish the riders all the best with their home teams!
Last but not least, let's mention our loan-outs, who are about to return to Ticino.
Leonardo Basso was the only rider loaned-out to PT, more precisely to Repsol - Netflix. His most impressive race was probably the first of the season, where he was reeled in as the last of the escapees. In general, he was a valuable domestique and scored 112 points - we're looking forward to see him strengthen our cobbles and ITT departments!
Fabian Lienhard had the most successful season out of our PCT loan-out trio, winning a KoM and scoring a total of 30 points with Philips in PCT.
Our second loan-out to Philips, Thomas Boudat, even claimed the team's Young rider of the Year award. Despite being a decent sprinter already, he scored most of his 8 points in short ITTs - something we're definitely lacking so far!
Last but not least, Andrea Vendrame was loaned out to Delvaux, where he scored just 3 points. Despite being a decent puncheur already, his lack of mountain skills often held him back - let's see what we can do about this for next year.
Big thanks go to the aforementioned teams for taking care of this quartet during the whole season, and for helping them get the experience they needed!
That's almost all that was left to say concerning the 2019 MG season. Stay tuned for one final post to come - the development of our talents!
Thanks for letting us have Vendrame for the season. He might not have scored a lot of points, but he was often seen fetching bottles, protecting our leaders and closing gaps. Certainly a very important rider for us this season Hope we can repeat this arrangement in the future if the opportunity opens up!
Always liked Thiery, was routing for him in Zuri Metzgete.
Also sympathies on 2nd in the Swiss NC. Finishing 2nd in your most important NC, and the one where you had a real shot, is a familiar emotion for me. I didn't have the frustration of also finishing 2nd in the TT.
I see your HQ posts are as thorough as your reports Interesting read, especially as someone who is about to start their first season. If I have only one rider without points, I think I'd be pleased. Really like you setup in general, looking forward to competing against you
Qtouite pleasant to read that Lienhard performed best out of a trio of pct loan riders. Hopefully he will follow up with further performances wearing your jersey
Sykkel_Freak Thanks for taking him! Glad he did a good job for you We'll definitely need some more loan deals in the future, given we'll try to keep our focus on young talents
Ulrich I guess I didn't plan him very well... He actually pretty much had just this one great race. And with Lienhard coming home, he'll not even be our best hilly sprinter next year. Let's see if we can find him some suitable races...
Nemolito He's down to 88 RDs But yeah, let's hope for some points. I'm sure he'll get some sooner or later - when he maxes out with 73Mo/77Hi, he should even be able to get plenty of points in CT
redordead You name it! Let's see what he'll ask for during renewals - after this great season he surely deserves a contract!
cunego Really glad to see you joining the fun! And yeah, the wall-of-text-syndrome is active in the HQ as well Well, on one hand I hope to have no rider without points next year, on the other hand i hope to sign or loan in some talents... We'll see.
knockout I'm sure he'll do some good things next year. Unfortunately, he won't be as effective as he'd have been with PCM 15, given his lack of mountain skills... But his attacking spirit will hopefully help to bring us some points
Glad that Eenkhoorn could prove somewhat useful. It was a great stint for him to gain experience. Would've been nice if Minali had done it too. Thanks for the help in leveling them up. Great to be associated with all our loan deals. Looking forward to racing against you this season.
lifewarrior Yeah, that's definitely great - on one hand. But at the same time, it reveals a lack of managerial skills concerning the official transfer season... The goal for next year should definitely be to not have a drafted rider as the team's top scorer...
Abhishek Thanks for taking care of Lienhard and Boudat! Glad they could score some points for you.
Riding against you should be some hard work for us - remember at the start of the season we were hoping to meet a level higher up in 2020... Hope you can get back up directly!
As you all know, we signed quite a lot of unmaxed riders during our first transfer season. Most of them - a total of 7 riders - have gained enough experience during this season to level up, three of them even jumping from level 1 to 3. Let's look at their current and (planned) future development:
Fabian Lienhard 4 -> Max (Hills)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2019
72
65
73
66
75
71
68
55
73
75
76
69
70
2020
73
66
75
66
77
72
69
55
73
76
77
69
70
Fabian was one of our main transfer targets, and after a one-year loan-out to Philips, he has now reached his maximum level. With his great fighting spirit, we are hoping to see him in a lot of breakaways on hilly stages, where he should have a decent chance for great stage results thanks to his good speed on the home stretch. Glad to have you on board, Fabian!
Leonardo Basso 4 -> Max (Fabian)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2019
72
67
72
71
76
72
72
71
71
69
62
69
71
2020
73
67
72
72
78
73
73
73
71
69
62
69
72
Leonardo will definitely never be a leader, but with his extremely balanced skillset, he will be a very valuable domestique on pretty much every terrain except for the mountains. Especially our TTT setup and our cobbles department will benefit from his final development step. Welcome back, Leo, and thanks again to Repsol - Netflix for the loan deal!
Andrea Vendrame 3 -> 4 (Hills)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2019
70
60
71
57
70
71
71
60
69
71
64
66
69
2020
71
61
74
58
73
72
72
60
70
73
66
67
70
Max
72
62
76
58
75
73
73
60
71
75
67
67
70
Andrea is developing into a Pellaud-like puncheur, with slightly better physical stats, but even worse mountain skills. We'll try to stick to this plan all the way, and maybe do some extensive mountain training later on. But first, he'll need another loan-out to reach his full natural potential.
Thomas Boudat 3 -> 4 (Track-Sprint)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2019
69
51
67
61
69
70
69
58
74
74
62
65
74
2020
71
51
68
62
70
72
77
58
77
76
62
66
76
Max
73
51
68
62
71
74
78
58
79
78
62
66
78
Thomas is our second rider returning from a loan-out contract with Philips. Thanks again to the Dutch team for helping us so much with our development programme! The Frenchman is already our strongest prologue rider, and he'll be even better after a PT loan-out next year. He should be a worthy successor of Marco Guillén in 2-3 years: a great sprinter who really hates mountains... Let's see if we can find a remedy to that, too.
Gino Mäder 1 -> 3 (2x Stage Race)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2019
68
70
66
68
68
70
70
64
67
63
69
67
69
2020
68
73
68
71
70
72
73
64
67
63
69
67
72
Max
69
77
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
64
70
67
76
Now, let's get to our three youngest talents. Without any doubt, Gino is set to become one of the best Swiss stage racers in the future - at least for purely mountainous races. He already had a really decent season, and we definitely expect him to collect some more U25 points next year. Plus, he'll now be an even more important asset in our TTT squad. The best news: Thanks to smart race planning (and another Avenir participation coming up), he'll be able to get enough experience to level up again while staying in CT
Patrick Gamper 1 -> 3 (2x Fabian)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2019
70
62
65
69
70
72
66
70
63
70
71
71
69
2020
73
62
65
72
73
74
67
73
63
70
71
71
72
Max
77
62
65
76
77
77
69
78
63
71
72
72
76
Patrick definitely was one of our top signings last transfer season, given that in just two year's he'll be one of the top CT cobblers AND time trialists at the same time! Already now, he's our top rider in these disciplines - together with Leo Basso - so our TTT squad will definitely be strengthened. Furthermore, he's a valuable asset in our flat races squad - and let's see if he can get some more points out of the cobbled races! Just as Gino, he'll be able to level up again in CT - hopefully with us!
Alessandro Fedeli 1 -> 3 (Stage Race, Climberv1)
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
2019
66
64
69
61
66
65
60
57
64
67
62
62
63
2020
66
68
72
62
68
67
63
57
64
69
64
62
64
Max
67
73
77
63
70
69
67
57
64
73
69
63
65
Alessandro had a really difficult first season, not scoring any points at all. However, he has the potential of growing into a pretty aggressive puncheur who handles the mountains really well - quite a perfect asset for KoM hunting! We'll need to do something about his physical stats, for sure, but first we'll gladly help him develop further for another season, before he'll need a PT loan-out in 2021, just as Gino and Patrick. And we're definitely hoping for him to bring home at least one point next year!
And that definitely wraps up our inaugural MG season. We had quite a lot of success, celebrating big wins, but on the other hand we learned a lot. Let's try to improve on our weak points in the upcoming season - stay tuned for our new HQ thread popping up soon!
I knew that you had assembled a couple of interesting talents but i didnt realize how many you actually had. Between Gamper, Mäder and Masnada you have some very nice riders that should still be able to provide value even if you at some point reach the PT.
Also really like the look of Basso too.
i think i said it before but you made a pretty good job in your first transfer season. Hope i can say the same about your second
redordead Thanks! Yeah, I'm really glad for having won the fight for Gamper. But honestly, someone who's being developed the Fabian way actually should ride for a Swiss team
Nemolito Oh, you don't really need to be afraid of them yet. Even though we hope to get some points, they're still in development mode - you'll surely sign leaders who are stronger than my "juniors" . Maxing them on my own will unfortunately not be possible - they'll need a PT loan next year...
knockout I think the amount of talents we signed is one of the reasons why we just barely made the Top 15. But I sure hope it will pay out in the future - as you say, some of them would be really useful assets even in PT - or more, if at some point I find the money for training them
Thanks for your comment on our first transfer season - we sure hope the upcoming one will treat us well, too
And finally: Good luck to you all for renewals and transfers!
Herald Sun Tour (C2HC)
Patrick Gamper - our rising TT star. Our sprint leader was 
Issiaka Cissé, with 
Max Walscheid and 
Riccardo Minali as leadouts.
Course de Solidarnosc (C2HC)
Marco Guillén, supported by 
Manuel Stocker. It was his final race before declining, so we really hoped for a last big performance by our team oldie.
Benelux Challenge
Tour de Langkawi
Tour de San Luis
Betonexpressz GP
Tour of Vancouver
Vuelta al Tachira
Transfagarasan GP
Hong Kong Challenge
Tour of South Africa
Tour of Great Britain
Tour de San Luis
Euskal Bizikleta
Thomas Boudat, even claimed the team's Young rider of the Year award. Despite being a decent sprinter already, he scored most of his 8 points in short ITTs - something we're definitely lacking so far!
Hope we can repeat this arrangement in the future if the opportunity opens up!
Interesting read, especially as someone who is about to start their first season. If I have only one rider without points, I think I'd be pleased. Really like you setup in general, looking forward to competing against you 
