And we're done! With the signing of Michael Van Staeyen, the management has decided we have a competitive squad ready. Michael is a young Belgian sprinter, who will be used as lead out during this season, while he develops further.
That gives us 30 names on our roster, and we think we can join the fight on all sides. Our goals have been announced already, but there's a lot more news coming up, so keep visiting our website.
In other news, there has been rumours of Vincenzo Nibali being dragged into a Pizza Ullo delivery van. These unfair accusations are absolutely untrue. Besides, the police arrived to stop this. Is what we heard.
We also have 20% of our team as potential U23s, and a shockingly high 50% U25. That means half of our team is still going to improve a lot! This is pretty much where we want to be. Aside from Basso, Bruseghin and Eeckhout, most riders can count on a longer contract.
Nationality
We have always profiled as a Belgian-Italian team and this shows on our roster. Of our 30 riders, 17 are Belgian (57%) and 7 are Italian (23%), so that's a very nice 80% total, making our sponsors extremely happy! The 6 other riders are from 6 different countries.
Jerseys
As we said, a lot of young riders and few nationalities, means we don't have a lot of national jerseys. We do have both Belgian ones, as Philippe Gilbert managed to win both the road race and the time trial. Also Cameron Meyer secured the Australian time trial jersey! So that's 3 jerseys total!
As a part of our season preview, we asked the management of our rivals what they thought of our team, and they all kindly agreed. They will be discussing our roster, our strenghts and weaknesses, and of course the rivalry itself. Before we go, I would like to thank those managers for their fast and great responses!
The first to react was manager ste_18 of Team Fastweb, our Italian rival:
Lierse Pizza Ullo: Let's know our rival
Hi all, I'm the manager of Team Fastweb and in this piece I'll present you our rival: the team Lierse - Pizza Ullo.
I'll start with some stat: the majority of the rider come from Belgium (17) then they have 7 rider from Italy. Here explained the reason of our rivalry. Anyway the team has lot of young guys (the youngest is Demare with 20 years) but some old ones too (the oldest is Niko Eeckhout with 41): in fact their average is 27 year. This show how the team is balanced either for future and present.
Now start talking about their roster. Their strenghts are the classic and some promising rider. For the hilly stage they've got Gilbert while for the northern one they've got Thompson. Both aren't the best in their categories but can get some victories, especially Gilbert. What i've seen is that they haven't a great alternative to Philippe or one who can help him a lot. Instead for northern classic they can count on Jurgen Roelandts, Dries Devenyns and Stijn Devolder helping Mitch.
So here is my balance:
+++Brilliant future with Demare, Nizzolo, De Gent
++Gilbert
+Northern Classic squad for their deep
-Gilbert is pretty alone
--Some rider a bit too old like Basso to be competitive
---Not a leader for a GT or an important GC
Secondly we have manager Marcovdw of Domino's - ARS, the pizza rival:
Lierse - Pizza Ullo roster Rosterview
A nice balanced roster, many specialities, but (except Gilbert, Basso and Gonzalez) no true favourites for a race.
The strenghts are in the Ardennes Classics. Gilbert can definitely win there. And he has some helpers, so he is definitely a favourite. The custom riders should also give some good results, and De Gendt and Basso can do good thing in the mountains.
There are definitely some wins possible though. For sure the Ardennes Classics with Gilbert. And maybe some GT-stages, the team can do something there. De Gendt and Basso can win smaller GC's, but no Giro,Tour,Vuelta.
Our rivalry will happen most in the sprints and the Cobbled Classics. The opponents just simply have far better riders out there.
Let me end by saying that the battle of the Pizza's will continue!
Lastly we have manager Jesleyh from ING - InBev Cycling Team, our rival in Belgium:
Team Review Lierse – Pizza Ullo
Now that the team rosters are complete, and the jerseys revealed, we (ING - InBev) wanted to do a review on our rivals, Lierse – Pizza Ullo. They are our rivals and that’s why we keep a close eye on them… We don’t have their complete team roster like we have on our own HQ, but we know their leaders very good of course
Mountain/GT’s
Lucas Gonzalez(80MO, 80TT, 82 REC) – 32 years old
Thomas de Gendt(77MO, 77TT, 78REC) – 25 years old
Ivan Basso(78MO, 72TT, 76REC) – 34 years old
Their GT squad is very strong. With Gonzalez they have a TdF contender. He’s a Wiggins type of rider. His recovery ability is just great, a night of rest does miracles for him. Beside Gonzalez, they have two other good GT riders. De Gendt is very young and is like the same type of rider as Gonzalez is, just a bit less good in most of the things, but he got his age in his favour. Basso is a bit different type of GT rider. His TT isn’t good at all, but I think he’s a better climber than De Gendt. The Giro route isn’t really in his favour, but he can compensate the TT with his climbing ability, no doubt. Overall, the GT squad is very strong. It’s not pure domination, but they can at least Top 10 all the GT’s… The downside of the squad is the age, since 2 of 3 will decline in at least a few years. Age won’t affect the rating too much though.
Mountain/GTs rating: 8/10
Hills
Phillipe Gilbert(80HI, 78STA, 69SP) – 29 years old
Lucas Gonzalez(77HI, 75STA, 71SP) – 32 years old
Dries Devenyns(75HI, 74STA, 61SP) – 28 years old
I didn’t put De Gendt and Basso here, since they will focus on the mountains instead of the hills I guess. I can see Gonzalez participating though, since he’s a good hilly rider.
With Gilbert, they have one of the best hilly riders out there. He can win any of those hilly classics, and if he joins a GT, he can win some of the hilly stages. Although I think that Gilbert won’t join multiple GT’s, since he also wants to focus on races like Paris – Nice.
The team lacks support on the hilly classics though. If you look at 75+ hill riders, they are very limited. From Gilbert, there’s a big gap to Gonzalez, and Gonzalez is the only big support for Gilbert, and it’s not even sure if Gonzalez will be there.
Of course they have Gilbert, but the amount of support is a lack.
Hills rating: 7,5/10
TTs
Lucas Gonzalez(80TT, 78PRL) – 32 years old
Thomas De Gendt(77TT, 74PRL) – 25 years old
Cameron Meyer(76TT, 73PRL) – 23 years old
Some good TTists out here. The only problem is that the two best guys will be GT leaders, so the GT TT’s will be the main part where we see them in action. Still, they have a chance at winning at most of the TTs they participate in, especially the longer ones.
TTs rating: 8,5/10
Cobbles
Mitch Thompson(77COB, 76HI, 72SP) – 28 years old
Phillipe Gilbert(75 COB, 80HI, 69SP) – 32 years old
Kristoff Goddaert(72COB, 67HI, 74SP) – 25 years old
This is simply not enough. With Mitch Thompson, at least they tried to be competitive in their sponsor country’s specialisation, but for a Belgium team, this seriously isn’t enough. There is almost equal to 0 support in cobbling, only Gilbert is serious support, even though Belgium got plenty of cobblers. And Gilbert won’t focus on cobbled races I guess. Boonen was unreachable, but why not try to sign Vanmarcke, Nuyens, Vansummeren or Leukemans? Or Ballan, Pozatto, Tosatto, Paolini or Mercato from the other sponsors country.
I think the sponsor isn’t really happy with this.
Cobbles rating: 4,5/10
Overall
Overall, this team is very strong, I can say one of the strongest teams from the WT. The team made some mistakes in the transfer period too though. The cobbled squad could’ve been way better, and the hills could have got more support too, since Gilbert is a great rider, but needs support for wins.
I’ve said most of the things I want to say already, this team is very good. They will be tough opposition for us. We wish them good luck. We’re better at the sprints, cobbles and at giving support at for example the hills, but Lierse’s mountain and hills leaders are just stronger. The overall rating isn't the average of the other rankings, TT is less important, and since this team doesn't seem interest in cobbles, that is also slightly reduced in the importance. Depth was also important, and they would have a good score in 'depth' if it was one of the seperate ratings.
Overall rating: 8/10
Last of all, I want to thank the three managers again for their contribution!
Edited by Ollfardh on 17-01-2013 09:23
Hmm... My review looked better with the bold things etc...
Don't agree with Ste about the GC leaders though, look at Gonzalez... (although he won't improve, since Francopell seems dead )
UCI refuses us desired races, team not happy with CT program
Great surprise when the Continental Tour calendar was announced today. Non of our most desired races got selected. We would like to apologise to our fans, you won't be seeing us in Oploop Het Nieuwsblad, Brabantse Pijl or Strade Bianchi. Especialy Philippe Gilbert, former winner of all these races, was very disappointed.
While we do not understand the reason behind the UCI's decision, we are forced to accept it. We will unfortunately be riding some lesser known and lesser important races, outside Belgium and Italy. The full schedule will be announced tomorrow!
We're also approaching the 3000 views (wow!), as usual there will be a surprise, but this one will need to be claimed! Just state that you're the 3000th visitor, and if it turns out you are correct, we'll get in touch with you!
What would someone has done to Nibali?? He's untouchable! Remeber this
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