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[PCT] Lululemon/Bulgaria Blackfish
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 24-04-2015 11:18
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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Many Rumor. Such Speculation. Very Rider. Wow
New DB so time to give an update on our transfer plances, and they have changed a bit since our last post on the subject. The situation has been firmed up on our side down and now relies less upon the outcome of renewals. Then there is of course the response to the new DB which enables us to have a solid list of targets for the first time.
That is what our squad looks like. Soupe returns to give us a genuine sprinting option. The advances to Ewan make him a perfect lead-out as he continues to grow. You can also see how Simone Yates is growing into a tasty combination Puncher/Sprinter. Anyway let's delve into the transfer related stuff.
Lloyd/Izagirre/Sarmiento
The trio were previously on the block to be sold. When the time comes we will still be listening to offers for them, especially Sarmiento is very borderline, however our preference is to keep the trio with us. The expected wage drops makes them very attractive domestiques and breakaway riders. So yes during transfers send us offers but we won't sell easily or lightly.
This is where renewals come into play slightly. If we were to sell, or even release these three, we would double our free wage cap space. That is a lot of money to have to go after one rider but would leave us relying on said rider. The aim is to get that double wage cap space via renewals which we see as very possible.
Hristov
No changes to the status of Stefan Hristov. He will be heading to the PT on Loan to max out this season. We don't anticipate this being a problem because he is a very handy 50k cobbled domestique. Where he goes is an unkown but we have some ideas of teams to contact.
Chicchi/Aleksiev
Again no changes here. Both riders are being shown the door in renewals and will be released. Neither rider has what we need at BLK and the 100k can be put in infinately better use over two zero-point riders.
Targets
Yes we have targets. We are lining up to have 22 riders straight up so don't need anyone to comply with the rules (based on 2014 rules of 20rider min.). So what do we spend our money on? Well the one big points scorer we've never had! We've eyed up 4 potential riders from our focus regions who can fill this position, as well as 5 from just outside these areas. We like to be prepared so have a longerlist of about 15 more riders who can come in from outside our sponsor regions.
WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR DOMESTIQUES. Had to make that clear, we have no interest or need for those low level team fillers. Yep not even Bulgarians are we looking at this time around (pending new additions in DBv2).
We don't want to talk about our entire lists but here's a couple of names from our short and long lists to mull over. They shouldn't be surprises:
Ian Boswell, Free Agent from Bend, OR
Tejay Van Garderen, Free Agent from Tacoma, WA
Dan Holloway, Free Agent from Morgan Hill, CA
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| Ad Bot |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 24-04-2015 11:42
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Team Manager
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Those 3 would be perfect for your Win goals 
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 24-04-2015 12:03
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8058
Joined: 22-06-2009
PCM$: 650.00
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Give up on TVG and I'll let you have the other two. 
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 08-05-2015 18:36
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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Many Monies. Such Renewals. Very Possibilities. Wow
Still sticking with title style!
We can talk about renewals! Negotiations were carried out all on the opening Sunday night and ever rider had his wage sorted inside 2 Rounds of talks. We stuck to our plans and to our percieved values for riders. There were a number of changes to the Renewals system to make it harder and more unpredictable, with significant new powers given to riders and riders agents. Luckily we are relegation worthy team and we only had one year with the old system so for us things were nice and simple. So here's a look at the new 2015 Wages and a significant change in our Transfer policy...
| Nat. | Rider | Key Stats | 2015 Wage | Transfer Status |  | Geraint Thomas | CB79 SP74 | 170,000 | Possible |  | Petar Panayotov | 78MO 72HL | 275,000 | Unavailable |  | Matthew Lloyd | 76HL 73MO | 100,000 | Possible |  | Cayetano Sarmiento | 76MO 76FTR | 50,000 | Available |  | Geoffrey Soupe | 79SP 72FL | 70,000 | Possible |  | Gorka Izagirre | 75MO 73HL | 100,000 | Available | | Martin Grashev | 75CB 72MO | 60,000 | Unavailable | | Stefan Hristov | 75CB 71FL | 50,000 | Loan | | Georgi Georgiev | 74MO 70HL | 50,000 | Unavailable | | Simon Yates | 73HL 72SP | 75,000 | Possible |  | Will Routely | 74HL 70CB | 50,000 | Unavailable | | Nikolay Mihaylov | 74TT 70SP | 50,000 | Unavailable | | Jamie Sparling | 74CB 78FTR | 50,000 | Unavailable | | Caleb Ewan | 76SP 73PRL | 250,000 | Possible | | Romain Bardet | 72MO 71ACC | 50,000 | Possible |  | Eros Capecchi | 74SP 70HL | 50,000 | Available | | Spas Gyurov | 73TT 70CB | 50,000 | Unavailable | | Valentin Stoenchev | 71TT 70STA | 50,000 | Unavailable | | Momchil Robov | 69MO 69HL | 60,000 | Unavailable |  | Sven Fritsch | 69HL 65SP | 50,000 | Available | | Isaac Bolivar | 70CB 69TT | 50,000 | Available | | Stanimir Cholakov | 73SP 72STA | 50,000 | Unavailable | | Max Losch | 69SP 78FTR | 50,000 | Available |
Some significant savings made! Bulgarian star Panayotov has taken a wage hit. Izagirre and Lloyd now match in lowered wages. Simon Yates took a tumble. Sarmiento falls down to minimum wage. Caleb Ewan is probably the biggest beneficiary of the new system but he still took the biggest cut of the lot.
Geraint Thomas remains the same after his HC Classic win. Grashev sticks the same knowing his dual ability counts. Momchil Robov benefits from multiple stage wins to climb to 60k. Soupe returns a better rider than ever and also benefits wage wise. Otherwise riders have remained at minimum wages across the board.
Now we'll talk about Transfers. There is a significant amount of newly available riders on the Market, several of whom are from key Sponsor areas. This is an opportunity to sign up those riders that may never come again. Luckily Canucks Management got there ahead of G.M. TheManxMissile and forced the renewals of most riders. My plan as GM was to release all non-Bulgarians that were not team leaders but i was talked down from the edge.
Available means exactly that. Come with an offer and we will listen with open arms, the caveat being that we would prefer to sell the riders to teams with interests in their home nations or regions. We just want the best for the riders under our contracts. Possible is slightly more complex. These are riders we can sell, but they won't come cheap. They form a key part of either our team now or of our future plans. None of them would move without guarantees of an equal level replacement.
Stefan Hristov will be looking for a Loan. He's a great minimum wage cobbles domestique who is looking to max out this season. We will be contacting a few teams in Transfers to set-up a deal. We have full confidence we can make this deal happen.
That's the potential for a lot of changes. Well we are team who should be a division lower! Clearly this collection of riders is no guarantee of safety and as much as we want to keep them together, keeping them together in the CT is not an attractive idea. Plus as we mentioned there's so many new Sponsor Region riders on the table we would be foolish not to take a stab at them.
We are very excited for the start of transfers. Our Shortshort, Short, Medium and Long Lists are in place. We are ready to talk to various teams to avoid serious and damaging conflict (you can guess who you are Sremuperstar and Nidanva and others). Bring it on boys!
And here's something to make this less serious:
Edited by TheManxMissile on 08-05-2015 18:38
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 09-05-2015 12:55
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 11-05-2015 13:42
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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Many Staff. Such Backroom. Very Collaborative. Wow.
As elluded to yesterday on Twitter here is a probably too long HQ post that has nothing to do with transfers! We've just decided that now is as good a time as any to sort out our key backroom staff and to announce our second Partnership scheme.
Running a cycling team takes a lot of time. There's litterally hundreds of things that need doing and overseeing. Now G.M. TheManxMissile has two seasons of experience under his belt but to make hs job a bit easier, and to make the team better overall, he's contracted in a "Chief D.S", a Second-in-Command. Miss. Hill will just assist with the day-to-day running of the team, acting very much as a trouble shooter.
To try and find some more gains we are bringing in a dedicated Nutrition Co-ordinator to the team. He's got many many years experience as a top Chef and will be managing the riders diet plans as well as traveling to key races to cook specifically for the squad. Fresh from Sweden we welcome Tom to the team.
We're also bringing in a new Head Mechanic to try and further minimize technical issues in races. We don't have many bike related issues but if we can try and get rid of them completely then it's only a good thing. Plus our new Mechanic isn't overly chatty and is very efficient. Welcome GERTY to the team!
Those are our new key Backroom staff as we try and solidify our position in the PCT. Alongside them we can also announce our new Partnership scheme. We will be working on several projects with EMP Museum! The Experience Music Project is a non-profit museum in Seattle that is home to a great collection of music artifacts, documents the PNW's history with music and supports various bands and music events.
Our Partnership with the EMP Museum is one i am very excited about. The Lululemon/Bulgaria Blackfish sponsors will all contribute a small sum to help stage an all new music event in the summer months. We'll also send various riders and team staff to the EMP in rest periods to help run small scale events an projects there. The EMP Museum will give us and our riders exclusive first access to new music to then share with the world. Finally we'll also be promoting artists and songs via out HQ occasionaly through the year. It's a Partnership i am very excited about!
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 14-05-2015 14:08
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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Many Transfers. Such Riders. Very New. Wow.
Time to introduce out transfers thus far. Today we confirm that 6 riders join BLK whilst we say good bye to 4 more. It's been an interesting and surprisingly stress-free period for BLK actually. Our intitial plans were to pick up a big stage racer t achieve our goals. Well we threw that plan out the window very quickly when we saw the climbers already in PCT after renewals. Then as the period has progressed and more and more have turned up we've become every more glad we jumped ship. So let'srun through who and what we've ended up with!
| | Borislav Ivanov, 26 | Climber | 50,000 | 4.100 |
Borislav spent last year with B&O who disbanded. He hit the free market and was our first target for the period. We just had to bring the Bulgarian climber home, which we did for the minimum price of 50k! Added to that Borislav earned the honor of being the first rider signed in the entire transfer period. He is a good climber who loves to go out on attacks. It's great to bring him home!
| FL | MT | HL | TT | ST | RES | REC | CB | SP | ACC | FTR | DH | PRL | | 69 | 76 | 74 | 63 | 72 | 75 | 75 | 50 | 58 | 68 | 77 | 69 | 63 |
 | Andre Greipel, 33 | Sprinter | 250,000 | 4.100 |
Andre Greipel has come across from what was Privatbank, now Chernobyl, for a fee equivalent to 150,000. The Gorilla is a real tough sprinter. He's getting on a bit, starting his decline, but still packs a punch and a mindse of a real hardman. We'd already massively improved out sprint department and Greipel adds real experience on the road as well as points scoring ability.
| FL | MT | HL | TT | ST | RES | REC | CB | SP | ACC | FTR | DH | PRL | | 73 | 53 | 65 | 64 | 72 | 70 | 75 | 65 | 79 | 76 | 69 | 68 | 73 |
 | Kobe Vanoverschelde, 28 | Sprinter | 70,000 | 4.100 |
Kobe vs Shaq, it could happen this year. Kobe comes along from Chernobyl, formerly Privatbank, for the fee equivalent to 150,000. The double deal with Greipel we think is a steal. Kobe brings in the teams first 80+ stat since Bakari! He's wickedly fast and on a great wage. Not as strong overall as Andre but he's youthful, comparitively, which helps him out. Just another good option for points in the sprints, as well as being good at Basketball.
| FL | MT | HL | TT | ST | RES | REC | CB | SP | ACC | FTR | DH | PRL | | 72 | 54 | 62 | 59 | 74 | 64 | 77 | 63 | 80 | 75 | 67 | 62 | 59 |
| | Julian Alaphilippe, 23 | Sprinter | 105,000 | 3.36 |
Monsuier Julian, excuse the spelling, is out talent aquisition of the period. We stacked last year and now we're kinda hooked on the tactic. He's a really interesting rider to have. Julian can sprint well but he's probably just as good on the hills and attack away at the moment. The future will see him grow more as a sprinter, but one who'll be hard to shift and who won't always wait for the pack. Very much like Simon Yates.
| FL | MT | HL | TT | ST | RES | REC | CB | SP | ACC | FTR | DH | PRL | | 68 | 65 | 71 | 62 | 70 | 67 | 69 | 62 | 72 | 73 | 75 | 72 | 64 |
 | Steve Fisher, 25 | Sprinter | 110,000 | 4.100 |
Steve Fisher will go down in team history. He becomes our first ever American rider! Steve is from Bellingham, WA so is a big tick for our Washington sponsors. That means he also only lives less than 90km from our Vancouver HQ so is a good tick for our Canadian sponsors. He's decently quick. Only a domeqtique and lead-out man in ability but he means so much more to us hence the inflated price-tag. Steve-y we love you, Steve-y we do!
| FL | MT | HL | TT | ST | RES | REC | CB | SP | ACC | FTR | DH | PRL | | 74 | 62 | 64 | 62 | 72 | 68 | 70 | 62 | 75 | 74 | 61 | 67 | 67 |
| | Ricki Nelson, 27 | Sprinter | 150,000 | 4.100 |
Hey Ricki you're so fine you blow my mind. Ricki tops off our sprint quartet for the season. The Ozzy is super-fast in a sprint and we hope he can survive enough bumps to deliver that killer speed. A 600,000 price tag is kind of steep but his skills on the road and the advice he can pass to Ewan make it worth it in our eyes. Hopefully he won't have to relegate twice in two years and can lead the team to safety.
| FL | MT | HL | TT | ST | RES | REC | CB | SP | ACC | FTR | DH | PRL | | 72 | 55 | 60 | 56 | 70 | 64 | 79 | 64 | 81 | 81 | 53 | 61 | 72 |
Now for the goodbyes. Gorka Izzagire departs after just one season, he will join the mountain train at Euskaltel-Air France for 300,000. Eros Capecchi also departs after just one season, he will join BelarusBank in the CT for a fee of 100,000. Izagirre we feel is replaced by Ivanov, whilst Capecchi is replaced by Alaphilippe, so no loss for us in our eyes.
Stefan Hristov got his loan sorted very easily. He'll follow in Soupes footsteps at Red Bull in the PT, we are splitting the wages 50/50. When he comes back he'll be maxed with 77CB. Max Losch is also being loaned out, down to the CT with Fox Sports. Not planned but we think it will better serve his development in a lower division, plus it feels good to help out a team in financial difficulties. We are still in the transfer market looking to add another rider to our squad, and possibly sell one or two more.
In honor of our new signings and our new partnership scheme, here is an appropriate song for y'all to enjoy! We do apologise in advance....
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| knockout |
Posted on 14-05-2015 14:19
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7735
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 400.00
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All those pictures 
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 14-05-2015 21:37
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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@Knockout - Started with Kobe, obvious, then i had to go further! Alaphilippe was the tricky one but i think i did ok 
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 16-05-2015 17:09
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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Many Transfers. Such Riders. Very New. Wow Again.
Today we wrap up our transfer period! Two final signings have been confirmed that will take us up to a total of 27 riders for the year. At this point it was just about using up leftover cap space so we decided to pick-up a couple more Bulgarians on the cheap, seeing as Americans are roughly 100% inflated over what they should be. Right on with the presentations:
| | Stanislav Zaraliev, 27 | Time Trialist | 50,000 |
Zaraliev comes in to bolster our still rather weak Time Trialing department and can slip into both the cobbles and sprint support teams as a general workhorse. He's probably not going to set the world on fire but he's more than happy to work for someone else to win, and perhaps he can breakaway to some personal glory.
| FL | MT | HL | TT | ST | RES | REC | CB | SP | AC | FTR | DH | PRL | | 72 | 63 | 65 | 72 | 72 | 68 | 67 | 68 | 64 | 71 | 72 | 60 | 74 |
| | Pavlin Balinski, 26 | Sprinter | 50,000 |
Guess who's back, back again. Paviln Balinski returns to the team after a season away. He was last with us in our debut 2013 season. Fair to say we didn't leave things on the best of terms but that 50,000 wage packet was too much to turn down. Equally with the future of the team so unsettled there might me some more arguments between us.
| FL | MT | HL | TT | ST | RES | REC | CB | SP | AC | FTR | DH | PRL | | 69 | 54 | 57 | 62 | 67 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 71 | 71 | 71 | 62 | 62 |
So what does this mean for the team? Well we are now finished with transfers and our squad is ocked in. Our race selections were sent off ages ago. We're pretty much ready to go baring Race Planning. The Vancouver, Bulgaria and ToA goals are already forfited barring some miracle act of god. Rheden isn't looking likely but is still possible. Top5 Rankings is but a fever dream of a team who will once again be battle against relegation.
It's gonna be another long and rough year. We do think there are a couple of teams worse than us so again with some luck we hope to be fighting for that 25th place. Either way there's gonna be some serious sponsor discussions about results and about our transfer policies.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 16-05-2015 17:13
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Relegation battle, most likely. But a nice sprinter's core to help our future Ozzie to gain the experience he missed out last year
Definitely some weaker teams around, yap. It's doable this time!
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| cio93 |
Posted on 16-05-2015 17:17
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World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
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tsmoha wrote:
Relegation battle, most likely. But a nice sprinter's core to help our future Ozzie to gain the experience he missed out last year
Definitely some weaker teams around, yap. It's doable this time!
Oh, believe me, if he relegates and needs to get rid of him, I'm in that fight.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 16-05-2015 17:19
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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cio93 wrote:
tsmoha wrote:
Relegation battle, most likely. But a nice sprinter's core to help our future Ozzie to gain the experience he missed out last year
Definitely some weaker teams around, yap. It's doable this time!
Oh, believe me, if he relegates and needs to get rid of him, I'm in that fight.
Never expected anything else
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 16-05-2015 17:54
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
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Bring along enough ca$h next year and we'll see. The thing is his wage would still be affordable for a CT team and i will still be able to take him from 3>4 in CT so i'd have no pressing reason to sell
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| The Rider |
Posted on 16-05-2015 20:41
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4543
Joined: 29-02-2012
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Will be hard getting used to your team as a team with so many good sprinters, after Chicchi was your best sprinter last season. (Or worst depending on how you look at it!)
Looks like another relegation scrap could be on the cards, but I feel plenty of teams will be involved this time. |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 17-05-2015 04:30
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8290
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As said a relegation fight is on your hands but I expect your depth in sprinting should see a steady trickle of points coming in from most races which should help.
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 17-05-2015 10:10
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
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@Rider - Chicchi wasn't a sprinter, he was a walker. Big change in focus and plans but looking at the Sprint field compared to the Stage Race field it has the potential to really pay-off. We'll be in the fight and we will need some luck to survive again just hopfully not SN-luck.
@Count - The sprinters should prevent too many zero-point races of which we had far too many last season. If Panayotov get's relegated to mid-stage attacker he might get some useful points. Consistency from Lloyd and then another HC win for Thomas and anything is possible. But i'll keep my sights low to avoid dissapointment
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 20-05-2015 10:45
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
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TheManxMissile wrote:
With transfers having finished for us, and most teams, this tweet ended up being worryingly accurate for us... Just waiting on the inevitable relegation and i'll have nailed 5/5 for the first time
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 20-05-2015 12:06
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3214
Joined: 23-07-2008
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before season "we won't sign any fillers" signs 3 bulgarian fillers and steve fisher
I still think you'll stay up this year as I think you've improved(think I said it on twitter) looking forward to seeing how soupe does |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 20-05-2015 12:11
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
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jt1109 wrote:
before season "we won't sign any fillers" signs 3 bulgarian fillers and steve fisher
That was just to prevent pointing out some quality riders we were looking at, like Ivanov who could contribute points. Zaraliev and Balinski were just bruning left over cap and setting up as replacements for next year when Routely declines and some guys have to go out on loan.
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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)
