Sounds like my team comes out pretty strong. Ricco is less top tier as last year though, with a lot of training happening. My team is better in the depth though, although i hope i don't regret selling Van Stayen.
Ricco will do the Giro, Vuelta double, while Intxausti will ride the Tour. Let's see how it plays out.
Excellent read and great detail, you did an awesome job
Smowz wrote:
But seriously Puma staying up - nah relegation fodder for me!
One could express it in a nicer way, but I have to agree
Thanks for the kind words, but there is a reason why I planned my talents to get as near to 4.99 as possible
Venchi should end up behind us. Let's assume (not hope!) Pluchkin and Spilak screw up once or twice, then B&O and Aker can be beaten. Still needing one team more, and that's definitely too much luck involved then.
I agree that Nuyens could suprise some, but cobbled races obviously depend a lot on luck to overperform.
Bennati has a much harder time than last season for sure, but as long as he achieves most of his 4 goals, job done.
VDB races all small stage races there are, but cracking into the Top5 in any of them will be a hard task.
I guess it became pretty obvious I'm very proud of my bunch of talents as you pointed out, and I'm confident we can re-promote next season.
I could've tried harder getting a more competitive team (and I nearly got Fothen or Burghardt for the VDB money), but it would've beeen at the expense of future seasons, and I definitely prefer giving it a real try 2015 with far more depth and a team I really feel connected to.
17th is slightly optimistic imo, but even though that's still relegation, I'd happily take it (if it's not TOO close to surviving ).
More important than that is to achieve as many goals as possible anyway to give us a good budget, especially for compensating the salary cap loss next season and allowing us to selectively strenghten the roster.
12th would be very ok but I think that Cobo and Lloret etc. are a bit overrated as the fields will be very strong and stats around 77-78 aren't enough for PT as depth would be a lot of 79-80 stat riders.
So if Cunego fails my team does it too.
Team Bianchi - 2012 Man-Game ProContinental Tour Champions
cio93 wrote:
17th is slightly optimistic imo, but even though that's still relegation, I'd happily take it (if it's not TOO close to surviving ).
More important than that is to achieve as many goals as possible anyway to give us a good budget, especially for compensating the salary cap loss next season and allowing us to selectively strenghten the roster.
cio93 wrote:
17th is slightly optimistic imo, but even though that's still relegation, I'd happily take it (if it's not TOO close to surviving ).
More important than that is to achieve as many goals as possible anyway to give us a good budget, especially for compensating the salary cap loss next season and allowing us to selectively strenghten the roster.
Is it bad for you if you avoid relegation?
Noo
I guess 17th gives more money than 20th, but being 5 points short of 16th wouldn't be pleasant either.
Or if you refer to the second paragraph, I meant I'd rather have 4/5 goals and end up 20th than 1/5 and 17th.
8th would be very good for me. I don't find my squad that much stronger than last year, if at all. On paper it is, but other riders got trained, and unfortunately, i didn't have the budget to train Ricco/Intxausti.
The reason i send Ricco to the Giro/Vuelta is simple. A lot of people got trained in MO/HI. He'll score less points in the hills and the smaller stage races.
In the Grand Tours however, he still has his very high supporting stats, which should make a difference in 21 days of racing.
Really enjoyed that read, really in depth. 7th seems to be the common prediction for the team, which I would be ecstatic to get. If I had known I would have signed Nibali, I would have made my Giro goal a little higher than top-10, but I don't think he'll be able to win it.
This is seriously a quality preview. I haven't had the time to do my own prediction yet, and it seems I won't have it done before the first race - But it will be there
I think you are underestimating your own team though, I would reckon you are around 10th, while I wouldn't put my own team in top 5 contention, but that might be due to how badly Fothen performed last season... On paper it should be possible, so I'm hopefull.
