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[PT23] Cedevita | NC Recap
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| redordead |
Posted on 29-08-2023 07:07
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Post-Transfers Press Conference
Good day to Everyone!
It's been a while since we changed divisions. Over the last four years we got very used to the PCT wage cap, even if our budget outside the wages fluctuated to twice as much between seasons. Well we were able to count on spending the same fees, but the key would be on how to make use of the 1 million extra wage space.
We headed into transfers with a big group of riders and some were always headed for the exit door. We found good value for a few riders which gave us some flexibility to shop around. The free agency market proved to be too expensive for us to compete for the top riders. In the end we focused our efforts on signing Tao Geoghegan Hart for whom we used up most of our available cap space. He's still a fairly young rider that can be part of the team for many years which made it a worthy investment for us.
We tried to pair up Tao with another top quality addition, but all our offers for those riders were rebuffed. So looking to keep an eye on the future and maintaining flexibility we targeted riders that weren't going to decline yet and had some value going forward. In the end we mainly acquired time-trial riders and have massively strengthened that department. Our stage racing ranks were also further improved by adding Daniel Habtemichael and the average age of riders for 2023 is 27.1 years old.
As always we remain committed to our Balkan focus. Some local riders left the team, but we were able to replenish our squad by bringing back Dusan Rajovic, signing Jernej Svab and finding new talents to develop in Dorde Duric and Husein Selimovic.
With that said I would now like to formally introduce Cedevita's 2023 rider squad.
| FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CO | SP | AC | FT | DH | PR | XP | Age | Wage |  Pogacar | 70 | 80 | 76 | 76 | 79 | 80 | 80 | 51 | 63 | 72 | 69 | 66 | 75 | Max | 25 | 485k |  Geoghegan H. | 70 | 79 | 74 | 78 | 76 | 74 | 75 | 62 | 62 | 69 | 70 | 70 | 76 | Max | 28 | 700k |  Enger | 73 | 63 | 69 | 71 | 71 | 73 | 77 | 58 | 81 | 78 | 62 | 68 | 77 | Max | 30 | 275k |  Lammertink | 74 | 64 | 69 | 80 | 70 | 76 | 70 | 65 | 63 | 68 | 74 | 68 | 79 | Max | 30 | 160k |  Siric | 78 | 63 | 71 | 65 | 77 | 80 | 69 | 76 | 77 | 71 | 60 | 75 | 65 | Max | 25 | 135k |  Habtemichael | 67 | 78 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 73 | 76 | 52 | 59 | 66 | 68 | 69 | 74 | Max | 26 | 135k |  Gaudu | 73 | 71 | 78 | 66 | 78 | 75 | 71 | 57 | 68 | 70 | 69 | 69 | 66 | Max | 27 | 120k |  Rajovic | 72 | 58 | 64 | 59 | 70 | 76 | 70 | 55 | 78 | 82 | 57 | 57 | 62 | Max | 26 | 140k |  Howson | 71 | 59 | 65 | 80 | 73 | 74 | 72 | 58 | 64 | 68 | 72 | 63 | 80 | Max | 31 | 105k | | Borisavljevic | 68 | 77 | 73 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 75 | 54 | 59 | 65 | 64 | 68 | 74 | Max | 29 | 105k | | Bouchard | 70 | 77 | 74 | 67 | 70 | 72 | 76 | 55 | 62 | 70 | 78 | 76 | 66 | Max | 31 | 110k |  Buitrago | 67 | 76 | 74 | 66 | 69 | 73 | 74 | 60 | 65 | 78 | 74 | 67 | 66 | 4.90 | 24 | 95k |  Craddock | 71 | 73 | 74 | 76 | 75 | 75 | 72 | 54 | 62 | 68 | 72 | 65 | 76 | Max | 31 | 90k | | Svab | 70 | 71 | 76 | 57 | 70 | 72 | 69 | 66 | 67 | 78 | 68 | 68 | 55 | Max | 28 | 105k |  Nareklishvili | 74 | 68 | 69 | 78 | 70 | 74 | 69 | 67 | 66 | 67 | 76 | 58 | 76 | Max | 30 | 130k |  Christodoulos | 72 | 68 | 68 | 78 | 75 | 69 | 70 | 53 | 53 | 64 | 73 | 65 | 79 | Max | 26 | 85k | | Groselj | 78 | 58 | 66 | 77 | 74 | 78 | 71 | 67 | 73 | 72 | 69 | 70 | 79 | Max | 27 | 65k | | Penko | 71 | 68 | 71 | 76 | 73 | 74 | 71 | 58 | 65 | 70 | 62 | 71 | 76 | Max | 27 | 55k | | Poljanec | 77 | 67 | 69 | 63 | 70 | 68 | 67 | 73 | 71 | 71 | 69 | 73 | 63 | Max | 28 | 50k | | Crncevic | 67 | 76 | 70 | 73 | 70 | 70 | 75 | 64 | 61 | 69 | 67 | 75 | 72 | Max | 28 | 60k | | Govekar | 70 | 68 | 73 | 60 | 70 | 73 | 67 | 58 | 69 | 74 | 70 | 70 | 67 | 3.06 | 23 | 55k |  Croes ** | 65 | 73 | 73 | 73 | 72 | 70 | 70 | 56 | 62 | 65 | 65 | 69 | 73 | 4.00 | 26 | 55k | | Wright | 71 | 68 | 70 | 68 | 70 | 71 | 68 | 68 | 70 | 70 | 74 | 66 | 68 | 3.92 | 24 | 50k | | Hocevar | 66 | 72 | 71 | 61 | 66 | 66 | 66 | 54 | 66 | 73 | 69 | 69 | 62 | 3.34 | 24 | 50k | | Selimovic * | 70 | 68 | 69 | 60 | 71 | 72 | 70 | 62 | 65 | 73 | 72 | 68 | 66 | 1.00 | 22 | 85k | | Duric * | 68 | 60 | 69 | 60 | 71 | 72 | 69 | 71 | 64 | 70 | 65 | 71 | 59 | 2.00 | 23 | 50k | | Stojnic | 71 | 66 | 67 | 71 | 71 | 74 | 70 | 56 | 67 | 69 | 72 | 65 | 73 | 3.15 | 24 | 50k | | Jarc * | 69 | 63 | 66 | 63 | 67 | 68 | 68 | 68 | 67 | 69 | 72 | 68 | 63 | 1.62 | 24 | 50k |  Bechkov * | 67 | 66 | 64 | 69 | 66 | 66 | 65 | 55 | 63 | 60 | 70 | 66 | 68 | 1.57 | 24 | 50k |
Now I will open the floor for your questions.
Q: You had a big turnover of riders in the squad. Did you achieve all you wanted to achieve in the transfer season?
Mervar: It's always hard to say if we achieved everything. We couldn't acquire a bonafide top leader for PT even though some were to some degree available. On the other hand we are happy we were able to get Tao and plenty of younger riders.
Q: A question for both you and Tao. First of all why was he so highly sought after and secondly what will his role be this season?
Mervar: Riders with Tao's profile don't become available that often, especially when you factor in his age. Role wise you could say he fills the leadership void left by Eddy Beltran. Of course he's a different rider, but we feel he'll be able to lead us in a number of races.
Geoghegan Hart: Just like Bostjan said, I'm here to be a leader for quite a few races. Everyone here has shown a huge investment in me to make this move a success. Thanks to them I've been doing specialized training so I'm fully prepared for the season ahead.
Tao Geoghegan Hart | Age: 28 | Lvl: 4.100 | Wage: 700k | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CO | SP | AC | FT | DH | PR | | 2022 | 70 | 79 | 74 | 76 | 76 | 74 | 75 | 62 | 62 | 69 | 70 | 70 | 76 | | | | | ↓↓↓ | | 2023 | 70 | 79 | 74 | 78 | 76 | 74 | 75 | 62 | 62 | 69 | 70 | 70 | 76 |
Q: The other GC leader should be Tadej Pogacar who is arguably the team's best rider. Since you weren't able to bring in any bigger names, how much pressure is on his shoulders?
Mervar: Tadej will be leading us in a handful of races and he is our prototypical climber or stage racer. He performed at a great level last year and while we indeed hope he can continue like that, this is still a team effort. Everyone will need to do their part.
Q: You covered the sprinting department which was pretty much non-existent last year with Enger and Rajovic. A big improvement on paper at least, what is the expectation there and was it necessary for Katrasnik to leave?
Mervar: Katrasnik did not have to leave, but we received a solid offer from our Slovenian friends at Trans Looney Tunes and we did wanted to add at least one sprinter to our ranks. We are still deliberating on Enger's and Rajovic's race schedules, but we expect them to compete for stage wins.
Q: Beltran and Eriksson have both left with no new arrivals for the hilly classics. Do you believe Gaudu can lead at this level?
Mervar: Honestly, we don't know. But we are willing to give David a shot, he hasn't let us down yet. We didn't feel there was a puncheur on the market that made sense for us, so this development was expected.
Q: No additions to the cobble classics team as well?
Mervar: No, unfortunately it's another area where we couldn't afford to invest in. Cobbles and hills won't be very productive for us so we will need to make up for it elsewhere.
Q: Finally, do you believe you have done enough to avoid relegation and remain in the ProTour?
Mervar: It's hard to say given our inexperience at this level, but we feel we've given ourselves a decent shot at survival. We are also always looking to do well in our goal races, but if the season does go awry we believe we've got some flexibility to rebuild the team.
That will be all for today's presentation. Thank you all for coming, I hope to see more of you during the year.
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 29-08-2023 10:02
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World Champion
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My last two top time - trialists back together again 
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 29-08-2023 11:11
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Tour de France Champion
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I hope there's a lot of PT Prologues!
Love the top two riders, and sets the question of how many U25 points Pogs can get and could that prove to be the survival difference? If not, the future is still super secure for the team.
Hopefully by getting Croes to ride with so many good young Slovenians he can help unearth equally good Caribbeans.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 29-08-2023 14:27
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16355
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You seem to have had a similar though process to me regardining training your high priced FA signing to ease the high wage a little bit. Hart is going to be a stud for many years - unfortunately for the rest of us!
You have a super young team, and Pog's guaranteed white jerseys will be a lot of fun. I imagine we'll both be following each other's team's closely this year, unfortunately probably for the relegation battle. If things don't go well, you're at least in an even better position to bounce back. Best of luck!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| redordead |
Posted on 30-08-2023 08:03
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4788
Joined: 18-10-2017
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That's a quirky twist of fate, and another fun fact. I had Kai Reus in my debut season in 2018, another one of your former TTers.
TheManxMissile wrote:
I hope there's a lot of PT Prologues!
Love the top two riders, and sets the question of how many U25 points Pogs can get and could that prove to be the survival difference? If not, the future is still super secure for the team.
I think we'll see that there are many better prologue riders than mine. Pogacar's season will certainly be key to survival. I'm not exactly sure if he can live up to his wage, but with U25 pts this is his best chance.
TheManxMissile wrote:
Hopefully by getting Croes to ride with so many good young Slovenians he can help unearth equally good Caribbeans.
There really aren't that many good young Slovenians apart from Pogacar. Govekar is solid, but not much different from your Caribbeans and I don't think we'll have another Slovenian of that level for a few years.
baseballlover312 wrote:
You seem to have had a similar though process to me regardining training your high priced FA signing to ease the high wage a little bit. Hart is going to be a stud for many years - unfortunately for the rest of us!
No, the thought process had nothing to do with TGH being a FA signing. Most of my other riders I'd want to train simply aren't eligible.
Hopefully for me he's a stud, but I basically paid 700k in free agency and another 1.55m in training fees (Croatia already did 79 MO training) just to get him to a similar level than your German who costs only 177k.
baseballlover312 wrote:
You have a super young team, and Pog's guaranteed white jerseys will be a lot of fun. I imagine we'll both be following each other's team's closely this year, unfortunately probably for the relegation battle. If things don't go well, you're at least in an even better position to bounce back. Best of luck!
I did approach transfers with the idea that it's more likely than not that I will be relegated. Would need to look at the final DB, but I think you should be a bit better than me.
Good luck to you as well 
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| redordead |
Posted on 04-09-2023 08:14
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Grand Tour Specialist
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To start our NC jersey presentation we have two riders who will alternate their appearance in national colors. Ivan Siric continues his reign as road race champion. Joining him again is Aleksa Crncevic as he defended his time-trial title. We again thank ivaneurope for adhering to our wishes in designing a full colored jersey.
Ivan Siric - Bosnian RR Champion
Aleksa Crncevic - Bosnian TT Champion
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita |
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| redordead |
Posted on 05-09-2023 07:10
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4788
Joined: 18-10-2017
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We are lucky to have another regional Balkan duo representing their country's colours. Milos Borisavljevic continues as the time-trial champion, but joining him in the same jersey on the road is Dusan Rajovic who has come back to the team. We again thank ivaneurope for adhering to our wishes in designing a full colored jersey.
Dusan Rajovic - Serbian RR Champion
Milos Borisavljevic - Serbian TT Champion
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 19-09-2024 22:28
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| redordead |
Posted on 06-09-2023 11:58
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Even though he is only with us on loan we still respect every individual nationality so we had no doubts in wanting to supply Jonathan Croes with his own special shirt. We are looking forward to seeing on the road and time-trial stages. We again thank ivaneurope for adhering to our wishes in designing a full colored jersey.
Jonathan Croes - Aruban RR & TT Champion
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 06-09-2023 12:17
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Tour de France Champion
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Hopefully Croes gets in a few breaks to show off the jersey for you (and ivan)
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| redordead |
Posted on 07-09-2023 10:41
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Grand Tour Specialist
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There are no surprises with this jersey as Michael Christodoulos won the time-trial title for the 4th year on the trot. I have to say this is one of my favourites as the orange color of the Cyprus flag meshes well with Cedevita's orange. We again thank ivaneurope for adhering to our wishes in designing a full colored jersey.
Michael Christodoulos - Cyprian TT Champion
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita |
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 08-09-2023 09:54
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Classics Specialist
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Your Cedevita jerseys and NC's are to ivan what the Sagrada Familia is to Antoni Gaudi. With the big difference being your jerseys are no unfinished business of course, but just as mesmerizing.
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| redordead |
Posted on 08-09-2023 11:02
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Grand Tour Specialist
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For the final jersey we have a new one and another colorful one. I believe this is the first time we have a national champion from the African continent and we are sure Daniel Habtemichael will look great in his on the time-trial bike. We again thank ivaneurope for adhering to our wishes in designing a full colored jersey.
Daniel Habtemichael - Eritrean TT Champion
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita |
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| redordead |
Posted on 11-09-2023 08:41
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Grand Tour Specialist
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We had a lot of success with our goals last year, but we did have some luxury picking with Eddy Beltran in mind and having plenty of experience doing that. Now we are in the ProTour with new races to contend with, more rigid rules and lack of top quality leaders to rely on.
Regardless we had to pick 5 goals as per the MGUCI rules. Before transfers we only really had Tadej Pogacar as a viable option therefore not knowing which riders we could acquire meant we picked our goals mostly relying on him.
Tour of Ukraine covers the mandatory win goal. We couldn't really seriously hope to achieve any win goal, but thought the race could potentially suit his all round ability. The thought process is pretty much the same with Paris - Nice. A top 10 finish there seems much more realistic. A Grand Tour is also required per rules and we felt we gave ourselves two achievable goals at the Vuelta and Tour. Finally we had to put forward a team standings goal where we simply had to go for a top 10 to meet the minimum goal cost.
| Race | Country | Category | Goal | Cost | | Tour of Ukraine |  | 2.PTHC | Win | **** | | Paris-Nice | | 2.PT | Top 10 | ** | | Vuelta a Espana |  | 2.GTM | Stage Win | ** | | Tour de France | | 2.GTM | Top 10 | *** | | Team Standings | | MGUCI | Top 10 | *** |
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita |
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 11-09-2023 11:35
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Classics Specialist
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P-N and TdF look very doable indeed, and depending on who you send to Spain a stage win should also be a real option there. Ukraine will be very hard, but nothing is impossible And the top-10 standings, who knows, why not?
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 11-09-2023 14:06
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That's some smart GC goals with Pogacar in mind, indeed. And although I guess it's unlikely that he wins in Ukraine, a Top 5 isn't impossible looking at last year's results... Stage Win goal is always a risky one, but you should definitely have some good candidates, although I don't know anything about the lineup. I could imagine some TT heavy-hitting, though...
Good luck, enjoy your first PT season
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| redordead |
Posted on 12-09-2023 09:20
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He has more race days than any other NC, so he has plenty of opportunities.
Nemolito wrote:
Your Cedevita jerseys and NC's are to ivan what the Sagrada Familia is to Antoni Gaudi. With the big difference being your jerseys are no unfinished business of course, but just as mesmerizing.
I've seen Sagrada. Not my style really 
Nemolito wrote:
P-N and TdF look very doable indeed, and depending on who you send to Spain a stage win should also be a real option there. Ukraine will be very hard, but nothing is impossible And the top-10 standings, who knows, why not?
I was resigned to failing the win goal long ago. The same with the standings. I'm mainly hoping for the other three.
Fabianski wrote:
That's some smart GC goals with Pogacar in mind, indeed. And although I guess it's unlikely that he wins in Ukraine, a Top 5 isn't impossible looking at last year's results... Stage Win goal is always a risky one, but you should definitely have some good candidates, although I don't know anything about the lineup. I could imagine some TT heavy-hitting, though...
Good luck, enjoy your first PT season
Even though I picked goals with Pogacar in mind I'll actually be relying a bit more on Geoghegan Hart.
A stage win would've been fine, but I wasn't able to get a sprinter in transfers.
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 13-09-2023 05:58
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World Champion
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Very colourful NC jersey for Habtemichael - not sure it's as sexy as his Xero one but it's nice still Looking forward to seeing him in it
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
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| redordead |
Posted on 13-09-2023 08:30
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Leader Race Schedules 1/3
Tadej Pogacar | Role: GC Rider | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CO | SP | AC | FT | DH | PR | | 70 | 80 | 76 | 76 | 79 | 80 | 80 | 51 | 63 | 72 | 69 | 66 | 75 |
| Start | End | | Race | Category | | 09-Jan | 11-Jan | | Tour of Tasmania | 2.PT | | 12-Feb | 18-Feb |  | Tirreno - Adriatico | 2.PT | | 20-Apr | |  | GP Liechtenstein | 1.PT | | 14-Jun | 20-Jun | | Criterium du Dauphine Libere | 2.PTHC | | 26-Jun | 28-Jun |  | Scandinavia Open Road Race | 2.PT | | 03-Jul | 23-Jul | | Tour de France | 2.GTM |
It honestly was not easy coming up with Tadej's race schedule. While he on paper should be suitable for many races we also had to account for Tao Geoghegan Hart and his schedule. In the end the race days never quite added up in a way we liked and this was the compromise we settled on.
After some early racing in Tasmania and Tirreno, Tadej will be getting ready for his big goal of the season. Preparation races include the Dauphine and Scandinavia before his final race, the Tour de France. The latter can likely make or break his and the team's season.
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 13-09-2023 09:46
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World Champion
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Was hoping you'd go TGH to Dauphine but you went with the right choice really. Still, glad it's only one time in the season Fouche (and indeed Xero as a whole) has to see your wonderkid - hope we can beat him in the GC at least
Excited for the McNulty duel in the TDF and just to see how he goes in general 
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
5x x5
2x x2
2x x2 |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 13-09-2023 13:16
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16355
Joined: 27-07-2011
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We're obviously gonna conflcit with Tadej a lot in terms of our team as a whole, but happy to see he's going to the Tour and not the Giro at least.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
