Quite simple really, part two of our transfers update! What's happened in just over 24hours? Well a surprising amount!
Out
Andrew Talansky
31
79MO 77HL
300k
"Pitbull"
Bram Welten
22
70SP 67CB
LOAN
Bram
Hayato Okamoto
71SP 70PL
LOAN
"OK"
After two strong years of leadership, including a podium in the Tour of America, Pitbull leaves for pastures new and blue... Valio... He served the team excellently, but with our new plan in mind we wanted to trade in for younger riders more suited to our new focuses.
Bram who? He'll get introduced in a second, but will be joining GCN ProTeam on loan for the season. This will give Bram the introduction to cycling that will kickstart his development into a handy little sprinter.
OK also goes out on loan, this time to cycleYorkshire. Again a developmental loan for the young sprinter/prologue specialist. He'll come back stronger and more ready to assist the team going forwards.
In
Michael Hepburn
28
79TT 79PL
100k
"Heppy"
Alexander Edmondson
26
77SP 74CB
50k
"Edmo"
Bram Welten
22
70SP 67CB
LOAN
Bram
Heppy joins in a double deal from Bennelong, long time friends of the team. His time trial skills are well known and he'll be a useful engine on the sprint days to position the Pocket Rocket. He's a nice solid addition to the team.
Edmo is the other part of the double deal. A multi-use rider, always valuable, especially on just 50k! He can be a key part of a sprint train for Ewan, the cobbles support for Altur, he can even prologue as well! At 26 his peak years are just starting.
Bram Welten joins from the FA. He's a young talented sprinter, a welcome addition to the team in future seasons. He can also cope with cobbles and hills well enough, that will the right guidance could see him become a valuable asset to the team for years to come!
Three out, three in. Keeping things balance in terms of rider numbers, whilst opening up a bit more cap space. The team is progressing nicely but still waiting on the final key pieces of the puzzle for the season. Although we do openly admit we look and feel more like a PCT team than PT outfit, it could be a rather long season near the bottom.
@Mre - Almost like I picked her out just to get you to comment... And he'll get a nickname eventually!
@SotD - Brought some good strong support rider for Ewan, we were lacking riders who can chase a break. And yes, wild swing to TT's for the first time ever as team! The PT will have not seen a team quite like ours ever before!
Hope Jams/"Super-Nova" can do well in his debut year of the PT. Glad to see him at a team that really wanted him, hope he can do great work here in breaks and for your sprinters
Yeah agent Jams coming in to send Repsol back down the divisions must have you quaking in your boots
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Transfers all done for another year. Below we'll go over the final deals we made, before going over our final squad. In the next few days you'll see Goals, and get a proper reveal of the teams three-year plan we keep hinting at.
Out
Borislav Ivanov
30
76MO 74HL
50k
Boris
Boris departs, leaving us with no climbers at all. Perfect! The deal was with Festina, but he ultimately ends up with Minions, not that we really care. Helped bring Vliegen in without overspending, good deal.
In
Jens Keukeliere
31
80SP 70CB
275k
"Kek"
Jesse Sergent
31
80TT 79FL
320k
"Goose"
Lukas Postlberger
27
77TT 77PL
60k
"Posti"
Loic Vliegen
26
75HL 73AC
50k
Loic
Rasmus Quaade
29
78TT 76PL
50k
Quaade
Kek comes in from GCN on transfer for just 100k. Adds a bit more oomph to the sprints, as a capable lead-out for Ewan who could strike out on his own. A very welcome signing!
Goose eventually landed off the Free Agency after quite a tussle. The top level time trialist will lead out men against the clock, but will also be a top quality workhorse on the flat days.
Posti joins up from SPAR on a simple 100k, adding depth to out TTT and he can get over some hills and cobbles to become a useful all-round domestique.
Loic came as part of a swap deal from Festina. Primarily a Hills wildcard, he can pull on the flat and isn't useless on the cobbles. A work-in-progress he could be a very useful multi-terrain rider going forwards.
Quaade is the final addition, from Carlsberg. Eventually landed at 175k he completes the key part of the TTT unit and tops off the squad for the year!
Squad
Nat.
Name
Age
Key Stats
Wage
Nickname
Caleb Ewan
25
83SP 81AC
600k
“Pocket Rocket”
Marcos Altur
26
81CB 70HL
300k
Marcos
Jens Keukeliere
31
80SP 71CB
275k
“Kek”
Alex Cataford
26
79TT 79PL
320k
“AC”
Ricki Nelson
31
81SP 81AC
150k
Ricki
Jesse Sergent
31
80TT 79FL
320k
“Goose”
Geraint Thomas
33
78CB 73SP
175k
“G”
Michael Hepburn
28
79TT 79PL
100k
“Heppy”
Julian Alaphilippe
27
77SP 73HL
100k
Julian
Momchil Robov
26
76HL 72MO
80k
Robov
Alex Edmondson
26
77SP 74CB
50k
“Edmo”
Darren Matthews
28
76SP 75CB
55k
Darren
Martin Grashev
32
75CB 72MO
50k
Martin
Lukas Postlberger
27
77TT 77PL
60k
“Posti”
Logan Owen
24
75CB 72FL
60k
“Wolverine”
Loic Vliegen
26
75HL 73AC
50k
Loic
Rasmus Quaade
29
78TT 76PL
50k
Quaade
Jamalidin Novardianto
25
75FL 78AC
LOAN
“Supa-Nova”
Jyme Bridges
30
72HL 71CB
50k
Jyme
Dobrin Lilovski
24
72HL 69AC
50k
“Lily”
Chris Lawless
24
71HL 67SP
50k
“Dredd”
Kim Le Court
23
71HL 73FT
50k
“Queen”
Kristin Vanderpool
24
72PL 71TT
50k
“Pool”
We've boosted the support for Ewan. Kek is a good lead-out, as is Edmo, plus adding a number of flat road workhorses. Altur is definitely the best Classics rider we've ever had, and we've improved his support as Wolverine develops and with Edmo. We've built a small but effective TTT unit.
Gone are the climbers yes, a bold call. But we were never going to compete on the steep roads, so perhaps this risk could play off if others get into difficulty.
Excited to get going and see what we can make happen in our PT debut, even if that means just not finishing dead last!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
#GoBigOrGoHome! Usual business with Goals, picking extremely difficult ones we know before hand we won't achieve. Why do we keep doing this? At this points almost entirely just to keep the tradition going.
A clear focus on where we feel the teams strengths lie. Three flat races chosen where we had options, the flat element of the Grand Tours, and the mandatory Team Standings. That's a lot of pressure on the Pocket Rocket!
In hindsight post transfers, we should have used an OR goal with MSR and one of the Cobbled monuments, but we had no idea we'd land Altur ahead of time. At least with P-KV-P we did bag a few good time trialists who could give us a chance to get close.
Getting one Goal would be a massive achievement, we'll honestly be happy just getting close enough to one to get something budget wise next year.
Does our new three-year plan mean at some point we'll take less hard goals? Come back next year to find out.
The Great Big "Let's Actually Post The Full Stats" Post
Self explanatory post, it's just the full stats of our 2019 Team! You won't see Welten or Okamoto on here, as they are out on loan. And Supa-Nova is only in on Loan. We like it, even if it's going to be a real outside shot at PT survival.
We did forget to add AC's and Goose's wage to this. Both are at 320k.
The key wins for Podium Ambition:
- Pocket Rocket and Altur won't decline for another 6+ years! Plenty of time to build them up and their support.
- Only 2 riders will decline at the end of the year, G and Grashev, and they are only domestiques
- There's at least 325k in cap space to free up at the end of the year in releasing riders, plus the 325k we're under-cap anyway. That's 650k in wage savings before we start contract talks!
- 7 un-maxed riders all with easy level ups to grab
- The teams new direction and focus is well established, so going forawrds we are just fine-tuning and perfecting the plan
- We got 3 of our Top5 transfer targets (AC, Goose + Altur), an another of our Top10 (Welten)
The painful misses for Podium Ambition:
- Hugo Houle, we really wanted the Canadian! But ultimately we had to prioritise the TTT unit ahead of another sprinter.
- Overall lack of talent signings. We were hoping to get one or two more ontop of Welten, but missed out as we had to chase the bigger point scoring targets first
Ewan+Altur+Cataford is a great leader trio for an insanely long time to come!
Even Puma is a little bit jealous.
You might need them all to overperform to stay up this season, but if you don't, it's pretty much a given that you'll bounce back immediately and will have two seasons worth of budget to invest in training one or several of them to ensure you'll stay for good then.
