Very glad to see Lahlou get a home, lovely rider screwed over by steals
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
So far, throughout pre-season affairs, manager Martin Blockhuis has maintained that the team will not be attending one of cycling's Grand Tours, despite the presence of Chris Froome. The Briton, however, may have hinted at a possible change in plans.
Froome posted a tweet recently that read, "Happy to start work with @trublucycle! Having a good time training with my new teammates, looking forward to route presentations. We'll see if a GT is on the cards in my farewell tour..." Whether Blockhuis' stance has softened or not is unclear at this point, but one thing is for sure, Chris Froome will likely be in high demand, wherever he ends up showing off the red and white.
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
CarbonSports: Lack of Transfers due to Transfer Ban?
CarbonSports is famous for doing big transfer deals and selling lots of riders. This made fans even more curious when the German Classic Juggernaut refused to do a single transfer all transfer season long and turned to free agent acquisitions for every single open roster spot. Not a single rider left the team after renewals ended and not a single rider was bought.
New reports blame a transfer embargo for this. According to a "Friedrichshafen Sports News" reporter who cited "scources close to the situation" this was a sanction by the UCI for the repeated protest against the PR rules during the 2018 ICL season. We cannot confirm these reports because ICL and CarbonSports both denied us a comment. Previous reports blamed irritations about investments in further development of Sagan for the lack of transfers. If any of these reports is true will likely remain unknown.
Q: The last time we talked right after your promotion and you seemed unsure whether it was such a good thing. How do you feel now?
A: Oh well, no use in looking back now, for better or for worse we are now at the top level and we'll see how it goes.
Q: You held onto 15 of your 18 riders. Too many?
A: We feel loyal to the guys, they achieved the promotion and so they should have the chance to show themselves in the World Tour. Sure, it's true, if we had tried to maximise our chances of staying in the WT we should have let go of several more riders, Valgren, Dowsett, Lowsley, possibly even Schorn and Fuglsang. But that's not our mentality.
Q: How about the new riders then? You captured Majka through the steal system and were close to getting Contador and Kwiatkowski, too.
A: Obviously, we are extremely pleased about capturing Majka, and at such a low wage as well. All three riders were very tempting and we just couldn't decide, in hindsight we should have concentrated on just two of them. Contador and Kwiatkowski – Majka, too – were definitely worth a higher wage than we offered, but we'd have been in financial trouble if we'd ended up with all three of them... as I said, we should have concentrated on just two of them.
Q: Capturing Majka must have been a relief nonetheless. How did you approach the FA season?
A: Right, having hired a captain eased our minds and allowed us to approach the next steps calmly. Though again we ran into trouble not being able to decide among the many Brits on the market and again made very low first bids on a lot of them and immediately lost out on several of them, including Simon and Adam Yates.
Q: Weren't those dream riders you could build a British team around for years to come?
A: Yes, but we felt we couldn't overpay for future potential. We orientated our bids on the points they scored last season. But more established teams were willing to pay them more and build towards the future.
Q: But you did end up with four new British riders. Tell us about them.
A: Geraint Thomas is the biggest catch. I was very jealous seeing him ride for Team Wiggle last year, I thought it was the smartest steal of any CT team. He's got a great combination of skills, sadly, he's growing old. But we are planning on buying him a Potion of Youth which will allow him to keep his top level for another year. Then there are Dibben and Tao Hart, two exciting young Brits we hope will stay with us for a long time. Lastly, Cuming is an excellent domestique who even at the age of 29 still has many good years left in him.
Paris-Nice 2018 with Fuglsang in yellow.
Q: And after the first round of fireworks?
A: With the new transfer system we had to consider further FA signings simultaneously with transfers and found that to be a little too much. We also didn't communicate well or fast enough with other teams. We failed to press on a price for a rider we really liked and saw him move to another team for a low fee, and by the time we enquired about another rider his team had already concluded a deal.
It was our first year of real transfers, so hopefully we'll do better next time. In fact, we already did better with Ruben Fernandez, that deal went through within a couple of hours. Another good stage racer can't be a mistake, plus Fuglsang will start his decline next season and Fernandez is an early replacement.
Q: And then the finishing touches?
A: At that point we still had a good amount of budget left to spend, though we wanted to keep some back for research, training and scouting, ideally 320, which allowed us to spend about 700 on two more good riders, a puncher and a sprinter, that was the plan. First we picked up Hardy, who hardly seems worth his minimum wage. He's our top puncher but he's way behind the best in the world, but we wanted somebody to fill the role. For the sprinter we liked and bid on Silvestre, but sadly, we weren't alone and lost out to Credit Suisse. Eventually, we changed our plan and hired Duarte rather than Palini – whose wage would have cut too far into our training budget – or Modolo.
Q: So your squad is a bit unbalanced?
A: It's heavy on mountains and light on sprinters and riders for the hilly classics. I'd probably call it a conservative setup, climbers usually score with more consistency, as do cobblestone specialists, and with Thomas, Stannard and Dibben we have three good Brits for that terrain. But it might be consistent low-level scoring.
Q: Enough to avoid relegation?
A: No idea. Honestly, I haven't even looked at the competition yet. We feel like the new kid, again, we have no idea what to expect. We have set no goals, except maybe for Majka to be more successful than last season, which was very disappointing for him.
Q: Would relegation spell the end of the Aviva Cycling Team?
A: Absolutely not. Well, we'll have to see what the sponsor says, but thankfully we have another sponsor in the wings who'd love to step in if Aviva ends its commitment. So maybe we'll ride under a new name, but we'll definitely ride.
This transfer season has been one of constant activity for Lufthansa. A total of 13 new riders have joined the squad this season. The total squad of 33 riders will be split up into the 25 rider senior team and the 8 rider development team. The team have scheduled a press conference for the formal team presentation later this month. For now, we give you an insight into the new riders who will ride in the team colours in 2019.
Simon Yates was the big-name capture for the team from the Free Agent market. He became a Free Agent after the withdrawal of Bunzl Centrica from the ICL, having spent his development years with the now defunct outfit. Yates joins Lufthansa as their lead puncher, a position where they lacked a leader in 2018.
Andrea Palini joins the team from Free Agency as the second sprinter to take some workload off Degenkolb, who looks to be in line to take up a more Classics focused season, with the departure of Greg Van Avermaet.
Zico Waeytens and Philip Lavery are two more Free Agent captures brought in to support the hill and cobbled squads, respectively. Lavery is no slouch on the flats and will be strong addition to that squad as well.
Emanuel Buchmann, Ronan Van Zandbeek, Mario Vogt and Casper Von Folsach are the other Free Agent signings made by the team. The role for these riders will be to ride as domestiques.
Joseph Dombrowski came to the team as a part of a huge five team rider swaps, including Grupo Argos, Equipe Cycliste, Suntory, Alitalia and Lufthansa, seeing a total of 9 riders change teams in the process. He will become the team's premier Stage Racer and is expected to lead in the Grand Tours.
Michael Matthews was an early buy for the team from Suntory Lucozade Sport, and will look to target hilly sprints and classics.
Raymond Kreder was brought in to be a part of our sprint train as a direct swap for Benat Intxausti with TVM Cycling Team.
Marco Platania was also a part of the five team trade whch brought Dombrowski to us. He joins as a domestique to our hills squad, and a useful all-rounder otherwise.
Patheras Dimas, the first ever Greek rider in the team, is a talented young sprinter, was purchased from Grupo Argos - Quala and will join up with the development squad.
The new signings bring in a fresh look to the team, which was overly dependent on their stars, Degenkolb, Van Avermaet and Porte last season. Only the first of those three remain, with the supporting cast now looking stronger on paper. In Yates and Dombrowski, they have managed to get in two riders who still have years of improvement ahead. It remains to be seen if the team can establish themselves firmly in the Word Tour or will they suffer from second season syndrome?
Specialized - Sony DS Andreas Holdsteppe talked with Cycling News about the season to come, revealing some details about the team's preliminary calendar. First, Holdsteppe confirmed that the provisional calendar for the year comprised of 40 different races, 11 of which are potential wildcard entries into World Tour events. He gave a few more specifics on that matter.
"We plan to start off the season in Oceania, hoping for an invitation to the [WT] Tour of Toowoomba, which would be followed by [CT.2] Christchurch - Akaroa. Going deeper into the year, there are a few World Tour races that are very important for the team, that we really hope to get invites to. The most crucial ones for us are the [WT] Tour of Mount Fuji in June, and the [WT] Virginia Chrono Tour in September.
"I also regrettably have to confirm, officially, that there isn't a Grand Tour on the cards for the team. We looked at it for a good long while and tried to make it work, and we tossed around the idea of the Giro, but it is just too resource-intensive on us in our first year. We will hope to make a good number of World Tour appearances, but we just couldn't manage to swing a Grand Tour."
Early in November last year, Chris Froome made a tweet that seemed to hint at the possibility of a Grand Tour in his final year. He said, "Happy to start work with @trublucycle! Having a good time training with my new teammates, looking forward to route presentations. We'll see if a GT is on the cards in my farewell tour..."
Holdsteppe's comments seem to have put an official end to that notion, however he insisted that Froome would still have a good number of World Tour appearances this year. "It's a shame to not send Froome to a Grand Tour, but we will still try to make sure that he's at least seen around the world in his farewell tour."
He lastly offered some more specific information regarding season openers for key riders. "We're looking to start Genki Yamamoto, Andrey Amador and Justin Williams in the Tour of Toowoomba. Amador will go on and join Gavin Mannion and Scott Davies at the [CT.1] Vuelta a Mallorca, while Yamamoto and Williams with link up with Chris Froome and Sam Oomen at the [CT.2] Tour de San Luis."
Concluding the discussion, he went on to talk about the nature of the calendar and the projected race days for each rider. "We found something interesting when putting together the calendars for each rider. When you assign riders to get results, to get in breakaways, to gain experience, and you don't pick favourites, you just give everyone opportunities and don't look at what comes before or after - you end up with a pretty even distribution across the team. The lowest number of race days for a rider belongs to Froome, who requested around 50 at most - he ends up with 52. And there aren't any riders above 72 race days, that number belonging to Williams."
"I think that we're gonna have a good year. The hope is that everyone will be enthusiastic and motivated when everybody gets a few chances, and nobody's left out. We're a team, so we want to act like a team."
We had a chance to catch up with KBC-Godiva manager Ian McRettin about the upcoming ICL season, we talked to him from the Radisson Blu Okoume Palace Hotel in Libreville.
"Well I woke up this morning and found the ICL wanted my race plans. To be honest I may have had a wee bit too much to drink last night because it seems like months since I had even thought about it."
McRettin contiinued, "I scratched around my room in a panic and then I remembered Mihaylov holding a Jack and tonic in one hand and my race planning notes in his other hand, and assuring me that Henao could win Liege. So I knew they must be in the tuxedp jacket I wore when Nikolay and I went out to celebrate him signing with us. And sure enough there they were, so I was able to get the race entries off in no time. And frankly it was a relief because now I know why I am Gabon, which had been been puzzling me for some days now. Also I have to say Nikolay is great lad and a great addition to the team although Jack and tonic is a wee bit odd of a tipple."
McRettin went on to annouce that:
"The KBC boys will be making their debut at La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, where we have the first team sprint squad backing up Ciolek for stages and the GC"
Though it seems like a lifetime ago, we already presented our team on the previous page. I updated that post as well as the Team HQ slightly to account for the small amount of training we did. Majka's TTR improved from 76 to 77, he also received two extra race days. Geoghegan Hart got a small climbing package which increased his MON from 76 to 77. While Thomas received the new cheaper Potion of Youth so he has another year at full strength ahead.
Rafal Majka: Now one of the best stage racers, but sadly, there are very few races suiting his skillset, with many mountainous races either without any TT or only a TTT, and we don't have the firepower for the latter. So after a long debate we settled on the following very Spanish-speaking schedule: Vueltas a Espana, a Guatemala, a Tachira, al Pais Vasco as well as the one-day races Lac d'Annecy, LBL and Il Lombardia.
Geraint Thomas: He will be leading the charge in many races, obviously all WT races with cobblestones as well as those with ITTs or TTTs and anything that is only slightly hilly. He captains the following stage races: Toowoomba, Deutschland Tour, Tour of Northern Europe and Virginia Chrono Tour. He goes to the CT just once for the Dwaars Door Vlaanderen, which we selected as a goal race.
Jakob Fuglsang: He'll lead the team in the Giro, the Tour of Mount Fuji, Course de la Paix, the Asmara Cup and the Bucamaranga Classic, while supporting Majka or Thomas in other races.
Tao Geoghegan Hart: He qualifies for the U25 rankings and will therefore only compete in stage races this season, namely: Tour, Vuelta, Tachira, Sochi and Mount Fuji.
Romain Hardy: Not an impressive leader for hilly races, eventually we decided he won't captain any race at WT level and play second fiddle to Majka, Thomas or Fuglsang (unless the AI has other ideas). He will lead the team in several CT.1 races, including our home tour.
Ruben Fernandez: Our captain for the Tour de France as well as Sochi, while supporting Majka in Spain and Guatemala as well as Lac d'Annecy and Il Lombardia. He is our last rider to start his season, in Sochi in May.
Daniel Schorn: He's still the only sprinter we have, I'm afraid. He'll have to lead the team in the flat races, starting with the Palm Classic. Good luck, Daniel! His only Grand Tour is the Giro.
Ian Stannard and Jonathan Dibben: In the WT they'll always be supporting Thomas, but at CT level they'll share the captaincy in several cobblestone races.
Fabio Duarte and Michael Valgren: These two riders switch between free roles and domestique duties throughout the season and we hope they will battle for some minor points. Duarte is happy on mountains and hills while Valgren is a versatile puncher.
Focus Races: We fretted about these for the longest time, we didn't see any obvious options. Well, two of the goals have to concentrate on Majka, of course, but which races to pick? We went with the Vueltas a Espana and Tachira. For somebody who prefers a conservative approach (last season all our goals were CT.2 races) a GT seems risky, but we are bringing our best team to Spain, with Rafal, Ruben, Tao and Fabio. Geoghegan Hart will hopefully score additional points in the U25 rankings.
For that reason we picked Tachira over Guatemala, the latter includes a TT which suits Majka, but Tao is racing Tachira. Duarte could also add points and so could Schorn. Only the opening stage is really flat, but there are two or three fairly easy hilly stages he could compete for.
The third goal would have to focus on Thomas, who is hardly a top favourite in the northern classics. But Stannard and Dibben should add the additional points we need to break even. I was nearly going to go with the Ronde, but then decided to minimise the risk by choosing a CT.1 races, Dwaars door Vlaanderen, even though it meant 2 RDs outside the WT for Thomas.
Let's see if Fernandez can do what Verona can do in his first post-Liberty year. It certainly seems like you might hope for a surprise for him, making him Tour leader.
Guess we will see Majka at the Vuelta then. Some very serious climbing firepower you bring with you.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
PCM.Daily NFL Fantasy Football Champion: 2012 PCM.Daily NHL Prediction Game Champion: 2013 PCM.Daily NFL Prediction Game Champion: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2021
Ceramica Panaria is the main partner of the squad. Panaria is producing ceramic tiles (both floor and wall tiles) in Finale Emillia. Panaria just came out with a new logo after ICL approval of our jersey.
Main races: Giro dell'Emillia, Giro d'Italia
Autogrill
Autogrill is an multinational catering company mainly known for it's highway restaurants and it's presence on airports. It's headquartered in Rozzano near Milano.
Main races: Milano - San Remo, Milano - Torino, Giro d'Italia, Il Lombardia
MCipollini
MCipollini is the bike sponsor of the team. The bikes are named after "Il Re Leone" Mario Cipollini. MCipollini provides the team with 3 different bikes: RB1K THE ONE, NK1K and NKTT. Headquarters are in Verona.
Main Race: Giro d'Italia
I would like to thank all partners for the staying with the squad after last season. The relegation was such a sad part in the teams history. However not everything was bad. Fabio did his best but planning wasn't the best the squad wasn't simply not strong enough. Of to the positive side, Fabio reached the biggest team goal by winning the Giro d'Italia. Also the Giro del Trentino (which I want to be renamed to Tour of The Alps for professional reasons) was won by Fabio. Last but not least the world champion will ride in our wonderfull jersey.
About 2019 the future looks bright. Aru is the best rider in the division, maybe even in the whole ICL. I hope I made a good planning. Overall the team should be stronger then last year, unfortunately we lost our biggest talent Colombo. New to the team are Latour and Van Asbroeck, both will have co-leader roles in the team. The biggest fraud we got is Manuel Torres though. We signed him for our new development squad but the man was too good to spoil his talent in the u23 division.
Managers main races: Giro d'Italia, Strade Bianche, Il Lombardia
Main races professional reason: Giro del Trentino (Tour of The Alps), Tour des Fjords (Tour of Norway), Course de la paix, Postnord Danmark Rundt
The Ballad of Gay Tony
In the Ballad of Gay Tony I'd like to present a song matching to the content above. Song will be all in Italian though.
First song I'd like to present is "Fai Rumore" made by Diodato. The song won the San Remo (that seems like a link) music festival and earned his way to the Eurovision. Fai Rumore means "make noise" and that is exactly what we want to do make noise and let the world know everything about Ceramica Panaria - Autogrill - Cipollini. Showing our colors with a big amount of pure Italian Passion.
The song video is made in the Arena di Verona. 1 Man flying the italian flag just like our Fabio.
At a press conference, Liberty Seguros has revealed the targets of their top riders. Unsurprisingly, a heavy emphasis will lie on both Grand Tours and Monuments.
Jesus Herrada Last year's Vuelta winner has made a major step up last season and further tried to refine his skillset during the off-season. Coming third at le Tour, he will once again target La Grand Boucle and will set his eyes on defending his vuelta win. He will also race Il Lombardia as part of the team's season goal. The manager has big goals for his latest Grand Tour winner: "After Purito and Contador, we managed to win Vuelta a third time. We will want to continue this streak albeit it real be very difficult. Herrada has made some good progress in the off season and we are convinced he can once again contest for the win in both Grand Tours."
Main goal: Le Tour, La Vuelta, Il Lombardia
Carlos Betancur
He came as part of the largest ICL trade when the team let go off Contador, but Bananito quickly gained the team's confidence. He paid it off with wins at Deutschland Tour, Tour of Toowoomba and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Late in the season he suffered from punctures and crashes. Bananito once again puts his focus on the hilly classics. He will also aim to repeat his stunning performance at Vuelta a Tachira. A former podium rider at the Vuelta 2015, he will race the Giro d'Italia in search of stage wins. The manager hopes are clear: "Bananito has hit the grund running for us and his now in the twiligt of his career. The competition is tough in the hilly classics, but we hope he can repeat his successes both in one day classics and in stage races."
Main goal: Liege, Il Lombardia, Vuelta a Tachira, Giro d'Italia
Mathieu van der Poel The Dutch had a great breakthrough season last year and will want to make the next step this season. The team certainly will place confidence into him for some races like Course de la Paix and Vuelt a Guatamela. It will be exciting to see his progress this season. The manager is convinced: "He is a long time hope for us and we are fully committed to support him in his growth".
Juan Pulido The youngster has made some real progress. In the name of Liberty Seguros, he wil take up leadership early on in his career by spearheading the two Mini-Grand Tours in Portugal and Colombia. The hope is that he can achieve Top 10 GC results in both races. "He has performed incredible well in the U23 and when he joined the team", the manager raves, "he will be Spain's next GT hope, and we think he can make the next step towards that by contesting for top results at the C2 level."
Romero Martinez
The Spaniard is the big hope for Liberty Seguros on the cobbles. He has won a stage from the breakaway last year at the Eneco Tour. Whilst still a long way down in comparison to the top cobbled riders, the spanish team has hopes that he can be a dark horse for some of the shorter cobbled races. "He is a long-time project of ours and last year has been important in his development. In the future, we will want to strengthen our cobble squads with him at the core."
Aside from the leaders, Liberty Seguros has hired some new sprinters in the off-season. The goal is obvious to still retrieve some points in minor races when it is not a day for the breakaway. The mountain support squad meanwhile has been weakened in the past by the departures of Verona, Intxausti, and most recently Fernandez and Domont. However, Liberty Seguros is convinced by the progress of their young riders, most notably Navarro and Grijalba.
Edited by Shonak on 23-05-2020 05:27
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Another year, more behind-the-scenes chaos at the somehow still Australian-Basque teams with now officially no Aussies and four Basques - one Vuelta stage winner and three who have already not had their contracts renewed for 2020. They were bad with bad management, amazing when the bad management got a kick in the ass, then awful when the management got into serious issues with semi-to-il-legal substances and had a breakdown whilst also doing transfers, and then had to spend a year following Rafal Majka, which isn't good for anybody's health.
They're all living in a secluded farm now, and for hiding-from-Europol-related reasons I'm not going to say where. However as the sporting director, who seems to have recovered well and was clearly not involved in the alleged kidnapping of Rafal Majka, the blackmail of the Majka family, or the "wilfully reckless" introduction of Lafar Majka into human society (not to mention the mass theft of Tour de France merchandise), as he faces up to the press this fine Saturday afternoon to present Santos' squad to face their third year in the CT after their gap year to the big time. In typical Santos fashion, it got out of hand fast.
Jack, it's good to see Santos back where they belong. Looking forward to the season?
Uh, what? That's a bit... next question?
Look Jack, congratulations on the speedy return. Does being back in your preferred Continental Tour bring some level of comfort to the squad as you look to stay there this time?
What the hell is this? No of course it doesn't we just-
Jack don't you think it's cultural appropriation at this point to call yourself Euskadi?
Well I mean we have four Basques this year.... I mean really we just like the shirt and the designer has gone underground...
What do you say to the rumours Davide Albini is unhappy at the steal attempt by Italo being turned down?
Get the fuck out of my headquarters.
Does it make you sad to see Ever Rivera and Diego Ochoa enjoying life in the World Tour without you?
I mean we're happy for them but obviously we'd rather they were still with us and would love them to come home whenever they feel like it and we don't get stupid steal attempts on our riders.
You sound bitter.
Oh really, do I? Sorry, let me just get my cards... alright: "We, Santos-Euskadi, recognise that steals are a legitimate part of the system that is the International Cycling League transfers, and we do not begrudge our rivals the chance to use this system. We are not planning a revolution. Thank you."
How proud of you of limiting your team's time trial skills to 69, according the ICL attribute estimates?
Extremely proud. Time trials are the worst, but also... 69.
What lessons did you learn from your time in the WT?
I'm glad you asked that. We actually discovered there's a large undercover plot from the ICL, the manager of Italo, the guy who helps assist us with our finances, the guy responsible for the ranking system, and the guy who keeps tapping up Albini to keep us away from our throne as the best team in the world.
They're the same person.
I know, it's messed up.
Wasn't it your fault for wildly overspending in the free agency, going to steals after denouncing them, and then falling to pieces in transfers?
You know what: it could be. I actually don't remember last year very well for obvious reasons.
What reasons?
They're obvious.
Do you wish Rafal Majka luck with Aviva Cycling Team?
No.
What do you say to the suggestion by prominent critic Kraddix that you should have kept Majka on your books, and that your team and you as a manager basically suck?
2:45pm tomorrow behind the ICL headquarters, knives.
Jack, when are we actually going to be presented with the tea-
No more questions.
The sporting director then picked up the shoes from his feet and flung them at the journalist beside me, who had been trying to get this back on track. Typical - I guess I'll have to do his job for him and write up their presentation myself...
Bikex wrote:
Keep believing your conspiracy theories, but it wasn't me who made an offer for Albini
Oh wasn’t it? Sorry to slander you like that. In my defence it’s been a while - chalk it up to Jack’s memory issues
Edited by jandal7 on 23-05-2020 12:13
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