jandal7 wrote:
What a sexy sexy rider

We didnt just convince Latvians to join our team but we also added a couple of foreign domestiques on the free agency market. While some spectators mocked our attempts with speculations that we want to sign every single sprinter on the transfer market and that we try to replicate a top team that is performing relatively successful in a parallel universum, we believe that each of them fills an important role in our squad and will help our team to :

Tobyn Horton | 32 | 50.000

I guess most people will think that Horton is a dangerous piece to add to your leadout train because his acceleration might not link well with Michael Van Stayen but they are wrong. Wrong because that is absolutely not the plan. He won't race a lot with Michael Van Stayen as we scouted him as a cobbler. We have done great experiences with sprinters who are capable of riding the cobbles too: Saramotins, Timmy Dupont and Janis Dakteris are just a few examples of similar riders working well for us. His strength on the flat and the ability to ride on the cobbles will be important to keep the pace in the peloton high while his acceleration might be helpful to shut down attacks quickly if needed or charge forward if splits in the peleton appear. Due to the age of 32 this is intended as strictly a one year contract without much chances to extend afterwards.

Luis Miguel Mansilla | 32 | 50.000

Luis Miguel Mansilla is a sprinter who can pass hills really well. We liked the idea of adding another leadout for Michael Van Stayen due to the gut feeling that Dakteris could leave the team and we believe he is a good man to use for this role eventhough we prefer high flat leadouts. Speculations said that he was too greedy when leaving Isostar but he took a healthy discount to join our team.

Laurens De Vreese | 30 | 50.000

In an attempt to bolster our support team for the classic season De Vreese was one of our favoured riders on the market. He is quite versatile with skills on both hills and cobbles while also being solid enough in sprints out of small groups and he can survive stage races too which makes him an excellent addition to our team.

We havent solely relied on the free agency for incoming quality as we also spent 505,000€ to buy three riders that will be an immediate help. All three of them will have clearly defined roles for the 2018 season and all three of them will earn exactly 50,000€ for the next season.

Andrei Sakalou | 25 | 50,000 | 150.000 fee

As we dont have a top 3 stage racer in the world, we might enjoy some space for attacks in the mountains. For that we want to trust riders who are capable to ride both mountains and hillls and are explosive enough to set attacks and we believe we have found a guy like that in Sakalou.

As we dont have a top 3 stage racer in the world, we might enjoy some space for attacks in the mountains. For that we want to trust riders who are capable to ride both mountains and hillls and are explosive enough to set attacks and we believe we have found a guy like that in Egger.

Last season Nooytens was loaned in to support our cobbles team around Greg Van Avermaet and he will return as one of the most important domestiques for our cobble season. Outside of the cobbles season he will be important as a pace setter in flat races and for our lead sprinter Michael Van Stayen. We're happy to get him for this modest fee.

We already said goodbye to Evaldas Siskevicius but we also will have to say good bye to two longterm members of our squad. Both Michel Koch and Janis Dakteris left the team with immediate effect.

Michel Koch has been a rider who signed for us in 2014 for our debut season and since then has been either with us or out on loan. Apparently, he could not handle the pressure of having to deliver us the Tour de France victory after already failing to do the last two seasons.

Janis Dakteris started his professional career when he signed for us in 2015. He has been an important domestique both for sprint finishes and cobbled classics but this season his role within the squad looked to diminish so we accepted his transfer request to Aker where he will be a much more important part of the leadout train as he would have been for us this year.

Close to the final transfer deadline we were still left with only 19 riders riding for Evonik in 2018 which means there was one more open roster spot to use. A couple of talks with financially troubled teams did not lead to a deal so we used the roster spot on a talented and to that point still unsigned free agent. Fabian Lienhard is a very versatile prospect with strengths on the hills and in the sprints. He could end up as a good leadout rider with similar strengths as Mark Dzamastagic or as a fantastic depth option for the hills: