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[EPIC 14] Cofidis | Giro del Trentino
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 17-12-2014 00:00
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Team Leader
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 Charlie Charneux
Salut,
My name is Charlie Charneux, I was born in the Netherlands, but I have spent most my life in Luxembourg. I love cycling and I still remember watching Johan Meesuew and Tom Boonen on the cobblestones. So I spent hours on les pavé and sprinting across the cobblestones! I dream of one day riding alongside Tom Boonen or one of the other cobble greats. I believe I will fit very well into Cofidis, I believe that I will learn a lot from Adrien Petit and I am very excited to have a season with my new manager Mr Poulet.
Thanks, Charlie Charneux
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 17-12-2014 20:22
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Small Tour Specialist
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Welcome aboard Charlie, I am really pleased to have a keen young rider join the team and I am looking forward to planning a race schedule with you.
After the troubles of last season the team were a bit subdued but I am pleased to say your arrival has been a breath of fresh air and the atmosphere in the camp is now a lot more positive.
Adrien and Jan have been energised by my conversion to the cobbles and are keen work with you and get some solid training in for the early season races.
Hercule
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 17-12-2014 20:41
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Team Leader
Posts: 7366
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thanks, a lot,
I am looking forward to next season and hoping to have an interesting schedule.
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| The Hobbit |
Posted on 24-12-2014 08:17
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Signing in
Hello everybody, it is Anders here. I am delighted to announce that I am signing for Cofidis. It is truly a great team, with a lot of history, and a dream come true for someone like myself. I grew up watching cycling, at least when I couldn't be outside doing it myself, and it is a huge honour to now be representing one of the teams which I had cheered on as a child.
Frankly the offer was too good to be true, as much as I tried to ask questions I couldn't resist this. The opportunity to ride for such an amazing team was beyond even my wildest dreams when I first put myself forward for the EPIC rider pool. As a member of the team I will get to ride with some amazing talents, and hopefully I will be learning from them next year.
As a Norwegian I understand I do not fit fully into the team mould. However, the riders and support staff are very receptive and I am sure I will soon be one of the team, even if my speciality is an individual affair. I have already struck common ground with the manager, from my albeit brief conversation, he seems like a great guy. I am sure he is the one to lead the team forward, as long as he stays in charge that is.
Hopefully the team will participate in races in Norway and the rest of Scandinavia. The assurance of this is one of the biggest reasons I signed for the team. I have not lived on the mainland for long, but it really is beautiful and it is an amazing experience whenever I ride in front of the amazing Norwegian fans. I hope to see you all again in January, or maybe even earlier!
Anders Myrvold |
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 24-12-2014 15:04
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Small Tour Specialist
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Cofidis are very pleased to welcome Anders Myrvold to the team for next season.
The Panserbjørn's time trialling will give us a much needed boost in that department and his flat speed willl help Adrien Petit to success on the flat stages.
Cofidis intend to venture north next season to give Anders some home advantage.
I hope Anders will enjoy his time at Cofidis and will develop his true potential.
Hercule
Edited by DaveTwoBob on 24-12-2014 17:33
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 01-01-2015 16:16
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2433
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Off Season Training
The riders have been working hard in our winter training camp improving their general conditioning, doing core strength work and working on positioning. The team split into groups to focus on specific areas making good progress and are looking forward to demonstrating this in the forthcoming season:-
Mountains - Rein Taaramäe, Jérôme Coppel and Nicolas Edet
Hills - Rudy Molard, Romain Hardy, Yoann Bagot and Romain Zingle
Cobbles - Adrien Petit, Jan Ghyselinck and Charlie Charneux
Sprints - Egoitz García
TT & Flat - Anders Myrvold, Romain Lemarchand & Edwig Cammaerts
Its great to see new team members Anders Myrvold and Charlie Charneux settling into the team so well.
Renewals
I have not renewed all our riders for next season and with thanks for their service to the team we say farewell to:
Julien Fouchard, Florent Barle, Cyril Bessy, Nico Sijmens, Arnaud Labbe and Gert Joeaar
In a monumental administrative blunder I forgot to renew Romain Zingle and Romain Lemarchand and must apologise to the riders and the fans for this stupid error. I hope I can make up for it with some good signings.
Draft
With the Draft picks now underway I can reveal our targets.
Julian Alaphilippe Round 1 Draft Pick
Florian Senechal - Europcar
Dylan van Baarle
Alexis Gougeard - FDJ
Thomas Vaubourzeix
Sean de Bie
Sondre Holst Enger
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
Edited by DaveTwoBob on 01-01-2015 19:32
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 11:12
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 01-01-2015 16:26
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Team Leader
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Some poetic beauty in one rider training sprints alone 
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 01-01-2015 16:31
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Small Tour Specialist
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Atlantius wrote:
Some poetic beauty in one rider training sprints alone
 not too clever!
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 03-01-2015 18:59
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2433
Joined: 07-07-2013
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Euskaltel - Euskadi Transfer
Egoitz García was less than impressed with my training plans and expressed a desire to return to the Basque country so a deal with Euskaltel - Euskadi was an obvious choice and we wish him well. We will miss his strength on the cobbles but hope young Charlie Charneux will fill his shoes.
In return I am pleased to welcome Greek rider Ioannis Tamouridis. He will play a similar role for us as he did last year, a useful member of the leadout train and providing extra pace to any team time trials.
Hercule Poulet
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 04-01-2015 09:58
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Small Tour Specialist
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Androni-Giocattoli Transfer
Rein Taaramäe was looking for a return to the world tour and attracted a few offers. He thinks Androni-Giocattoli have better promotion chances than Cofidis. I hesitated to exchange him for aging climber Franco Pellizotti but when Emanuele Sella was included as well I agreed after getting reassurances the riders are now riding clean.
Hercule Poulet
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 04-01-2015 23:04
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Small Tour Specialist
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With Rein Taaramäe leaving I felt we needed another stage racer to support Jérôme Coppel. Sadly I failed to get my first choice of Christophe Riblon. On hearing Katusha needed some cash for their wage bill I thought Vladimir Gusev could fill the role with the added bonus that he is none too bad on the cobbles.
The Katusha manager needed a rider as well as cash so we agreed to exchange Luis Ángel Maté and 10k for Gusev. Maté had commented on the number of attacking riders now at Cofidis so was glad of the chance to move and we hope he can animate the races for Katusha like he did for us.
That leaves Dani Navarro as our only Spanish rider.
Hercule Poulet
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 12-01-2015 05:38
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Team Leader
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Salut,
I've had a great time settling into the team. Fortunately I speak French, so there are no language issues and both Adrien and Jan have been very welcoming. I really look forward to riding with them next season, already I've really enjoyed the cobble training so far and if anybody needs an idea of what we are riding on, it isn't the easy stuff:
I also thought this would be a good time to speak about my schedule and goals for the upcoming season, here are a list of my preferred races:
Major Goals:
  Tour de Benelux: This race means a lot to me, being cobbled and being a race that goes to my home country and country of birth.
 Paris-Roubaix: This race got me into cycling and it's a dream of mine to race it.
Other Goals:
Ronde Van Vlaanderen: Another cobbled classic.
Ghent - Wevelegem: Cobblestones.
E3 Harelbeke: Cobblestones.
Obviously I understand that I cannot attend all these races, due to wildcards and different ideas from Mr Poulet, although I hope he will be happy to discuss these with me.
Merci, Charlie
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 12-01-2015 08:57
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2433
Joined: 07-07-2013
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Salut Charlie,
Thanks for your thoughts on the upcoming season. They are well timed, as the transfer season is coming to an end (stay tuned for an announcement) my thoughts had turned to the race schedule.
I am pleased to say your race goals are in line with my thoughts and as one of our best cobblers you will certainly be selected if we are lucky enough to get wildcards.
The new arrivals have strengthened our cobbles squad with Mickaël Delage, Vladimir Gusev and William Bonnet all capable on the pavé. Egoitz Garcia left for Euskaltel - Euskadi which is sad for us but great for him and we look forward to racing against him this coming season.
I am very pleased to see how well you have integrated into the team, Adrien and Jan have given me some great feedback. I am very hopeful we can get some good results in the spring.
Bonne Santé
Hercule Poulet
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 12-01-2015 18:45
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Small Tour Specialist
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When talented young sprinter Julian Alaphilippe joined the team he was very disappointed to find we only had Charlie Charneaux as a lead out man who could get over a hill. So we targeted another hill sprinter for our draft pick in round 2 and were delighted to get Yannick Martinez.
As I released rather too many riders I was looking to hire 5 free agents, the maximum allowed by the UCI. We benefitted from FdJ releasing a lot of their riders and welcome sprint trio William Bonnet, Mickaël Delage and Anthony Geslin. Geslin is another hill sprinter so Julian has another leadout man.
Dani Navarro was our only Spanish rider left after the transfers so we contacted former Vuelta stage winner Gustavo César who agreed to ride with Dani.
We have hired a few older riders so wanted to balance the team with some youth and recruited talented young climber Clément Chevrier.
I think the transfer season was a success, although we haven't attracted any stars we have improved the depth of the squad in all areas.
The wisdom of trading Taaramäe for Pellizotti and Sella will be tested as he was our best stage racer.
It will be interesting to see how our brand new hill sprint squad headed by Julian Alaphilippe will perform in the coming season.
Now we have our squad sorted out its time to do some race planning. I am excited but a little daunted by this and hope I can match the squads strengths to the races.
Hercule Poulet
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 12-01-2015 18:49
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Classics Specialist
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I really love this team, great work with your signings
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 12-01-2015 19:12
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2433
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I have done an analysis of the strength of the team before and after the transfer period. Hercule Poulet.
Only 12 of the 2013 Squad remain for 2014
| End 2013 | Start 2014 | | Riders | 23 | 25 | | Avg of Avg | 71.5 | 72.6 | | | | | Nationalities | | | | (Cofidis Operation Underlined) | | | | French | 14 | 15 | | Spanish | 3 | 2 | | Belgian | 4 | 2 | | Estonia | 2 | 0 | | Italian | 0 | 2 | | Greek | 0 | 1 | | Russian | 0 | 1 | | Luxemburger | 0 | 1 | | Norwegian | 0 | 1 | | | | | __________________ | ________ | ________ | | Top 5 Stage Racers | Taaramäe | Coppel | | More but not better | Coppel | Gusev | | | César | | __________________ | ________ | ________ | | Top 5 Mountains | Navarro | Navarro | | Not much change | Taaramäe | Pellizotti | | Coppel | Coppel | | Bagot | Bagot | | Edet | Edet | | __________________ | ________ | ________ | | Top 5 Hills | Navarro | Navarro | | Improved slightly | Taaramäe | Pellizotti | | Hardy | Sella | | Coppel | Hardy | | Bagot | Coppel | | __________________ | ________ | ________ | | Top 5 TT | Taaramäe | Myrvold | | Improved Depth Significantly | Coppel | Coppel | | Lemarchand | Gusev | | | Tamouridis | | | Cesar | | __________________ | ________ | ________ | | Top 5 Cobblers | Petit | Petit | | Improved Depth Significantly | Ghyselinck | Charneux | | García | Ghyselinck | | | Martinez | | | Delage | | __________________ | ________ | ________ | | Top 5 Sprinters | Petit | Petit | | Improved Depth Significantly | Poulhiès | Alaphilippe | | García | Poulhiès | | | Bonnet | | | Martinez | | __________________ | ________ | ________ | | Top 5 Hill Sprinters | García | Alaphilippe | | Major Improvement | | Geslin | | | Martinez | | | Charneaux | | __________________ | ________ | ________ | | Top 5 Fighters | Navarro | Sella | | Improved slightly | Edet | Navarro | | Maté | Pellizotti | | Taaramäe | Edet | | Le Mével | Geslin |
Edited by DaveTwoBob on 24-01-2015 22:47
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 12-01-2015 19:17
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World Champion
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A very good team, just missing that one top French rider in my opinion.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 12-01-2015 19:33
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Small Tour Specialist
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sgdanny wrote:
I really love this team, great work with your signings
Thanks, No grand plan, I was able to take advantage of decent French riders being available from FdJ and in the draft. Should make the season enjoyable with the team a bit more competitive.
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 12-01-2015 19:42
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Ollfardh wrote:
A very good team, just missing that one top French rider in my opinion.
Cheers, sounds like a target for the next transfer period
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 12-01-2015 20:01
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Team Leader
Posts: 7366
Joined: 11-07-2014
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I'm happy, I get to be on a team like this. 
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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