We'd like to again apologize for not being up-to-date with our transfer news. Now that things have calmed down a bit (well, not this morning, but we'll explain that later), we have finally found time to look back at what's happened, and to present you our signings in detail.
The very first rider who ever signed a contract with Centovalli - Fiat is... Andrea Manfredi. He joined us for the minimum wage of € 50,000 from the FA market. Andrea was riding the last two years for the now disbanded team Reddit and has found a new challenge here in Ticino! He is only 27 years old, and therefore should be on his top for some more years. He was our first confirmed signing, and an important one, as show his stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Andrea Manfredi
69
78
65
65
68
73
72
54
62
73
77
73
65
He will definitely be leading us in the mountains, together with another signing we will present later. His rather low Stamina makes him suited for shorter races, but with his enormous fighting spirit, he definitely will bring some action to the races. His TT skills will certainly not make him win a GC, but he's still quite solid. All in all, a great rider for minimum wage! Welcome, Andrea!
The ink on Andrea's contract had hardly dried, as Swiss talent Gino Mäder joined Centovalli - Fiat from the FA market. He was one of our top prospects, and we're very happy to get him for € 50,000 as well. Gino is probably Switzerland's greatest talent joining the MGUCI circus this year - after Marc Hirschi, of course. As such, he will need some time to develop his strengths - he is level 1 - in which we will be pleased to follow him closely. Here are his stats, along with some potential development paths:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Gino Mäder
68
70
66
68
68
70
70
64
67
63
69
67
69
Stage racer
69
77
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
64
70
67
76
Climberv1
69
77
73
68
69
74
75
64
67
70
76
68
69
Right now, we're a bit unsure which direction he will be taking, but he's probably going to be a decent stage rider. Already now, he will be useful with his climbing stat and quite good physical values. Actually, he doesn't really have a huge weakness, so he'll already be a good support in his very first season. Which is great for a 22-year-old. Welcome, Gino!
Italian, Swiss, guess what's next? Well, two Italians! About two hours after Gino's signing, Leonardo Basso and Andrea Vendrame entered the office and put their names on the dotted line. Just like the two previous signings, they joined us from Free Agency.
Leonardo Basso is another rider who lost his job due to a team disbanding; he's a former member of RBC Pro Cycling. He's 26 years old and has almost reached his full potential. Looking at his stats, he is what you would call an Allrounder:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Leonardo Basso
72
67
72
71
76
72
72
71
71
69
62
69
71
Hills
73
68
74
71
78
73
73
71
71
70
63
69
71
Stage racer
72
69
73
73
77
73
74
71
71
69
62
69
73
Classics
73
67
73
71
77
73
73
73
71
69
63
69
71
So, there are very small differences depending on the path he will finally follow. It may even be a different one, who knows. His great advantage is that he will be of use on any single terrain - except for the really high mountains. And the longer the race, the more precious he will be. His physical stats are already impressive - and they will be even more next year! His great disadvantage is that he's decent everywhere, but a leader nowhere. So his role on the team seems to be fixed for the next few years...
For the current season, we have decided to push his development to the max, and so we have loaned him out to Repsol - Netflix. We will closely follow how he performs this season and wish him good luck! And hopefully, we get back a full-strength domestique in a year. See you soon, Leonardo!
As we were still equipping our office, and unable to find a second pen, Andrea Vendrame had to wait until Leonardo had signed his contract. But then it was his turn, and he became the fourth team member of Centovalli - Fiat! Andrea is kind of a late starter in the MGUCI world, as he will ride his first season this year. However, at 25 years, he has already reached level 3. However, there are still at least two paths how he could develop, as show his stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Andrea Vendrame
70
60
71
57
70
71
71
60
69
71
64
66
69
Hills
72
62
76
58
75
73
73
60
71
75
67
67
70
Track-Sprint
74
60
72
58
72
75
73
60
74
75
64
67
73
We guess it will rather be the hill variant, but we'll see what the future brings us. In either case, he should already be a good support in the hills, and he won't crack easily given his physical stats. We are currently unsure if he will be loaned out this year; it would be a good option for him to gain some experience on higher level. Negotiations are still possible.
That's it for our first transfer update. Stay tuned for more news to come soon! And yes, there will be more Italians and Swiss - but not exclusively
Hello again, welcome to the second part of our Transfers Wrap-Up. If you've followed the first part, we were unsure about Andrea Vendrame's immediate future. In the meantime, a deal has been concluded with Delvaux, so Andrea won't be racing for us this year, but come back at a higher level next season. We wish him and Delvaux all the best for the upcoming season.
You remember, he was the last rider we presented in the first update. Not long after him - it seemed like everybody wanted to sign with us - it was Jan-Andre Freuler stopping by our headquarters and signing his contract, despite having had another offer from Adastra. So, we had to offer him € 60,000, which is still a great wage for our highest OVL rider. As Vendrame, he's starting his MGUCI career quite late - and even later than the former. Jan-Andre is 27 years old and has already reached his maximum potential. But that's rather good for us, as he still has some years at full speed ahead, and we will see that full speed as soon as the roads go up. Let's look at his stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Jan-Andre Freuler
69
72
75
68
73
75
72
59
67
75
67
75
69
He's going to be a valuable domestique in both mountains and hilly stages. He's got a high resistance and a decent acceleration as well. As he's a rather introverted rider, we don't expect him to attack a lot, although his hill and acceleration combo would be great. As long as he does a good job for his leaders, we'll be absolutely happy with him - and we're pretty sure he will score some nice points.
Before Freuler, we had an Italian duo signing. Of course, the Swiss had to follow their example, as the next rider knocking on our HQ door was Simon Pellaud. As all riders before him, he joined us from the FA market, where he landed as he didn't get a renewal at Nordstrom - BioWare after their rebranding. We don't know why, but we are happy to welcome the 27-year-old in Ticino. As Freuler, he got a competing offer we had to outbid. Our competition came from within our own country, as it was Team UBS. But Simon finally decided to help us build up a new team, where he'll certainly be able to mentor our youngsters. But not only that, he should score us some points as our designated hill leader:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Simon Pellaud
70
65
77
66
74
68
71
55
65
70
71
67
66
Of course, he's not a world-class puncher, but we didn't expect to get that in CT. But what we got in Simon makes us happy, too. He has got a decent acceleration and a good stamina, so if he attacks on a rather long hill, he could do some damage. He won't develop any further, but we are sure he will be a good scorer this season.
That's it for now. Expect more to come tomorrow - the really exciting stuff has not even started yet!
Loving the nice regional riders! That talent trio is awesome, really like all three of them. Freuler is super cool, could be very very successful in breakaways in future years! for years to come.
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." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Azerbaijan Thanks. You've had lots of great signings, too, so will not be easy racing against you
jandal Yeah, Centovalli's got talent Let's see how they will finally develop. Some more talents to be presented... Regarding Freuler, I don't really know what to expect, as I'm new to MG and can't really identify some rider traits right away. I hope you're right about the breakaways!
knockout Thanks for having contributed to my awesome team by selling me one of the riders I'm going to present later
Tamijo Roleplay-wise, it was never the goal to get to PCT right away. We'll rather develop some riders first, and then see what we can do. But I guess our Mo/Hi departments are not too bad, so I hope we can make it to the Top10.
Mäder: Due to his low acceleration i would take him as a stage racer rather than a mo/hi climber. With those stats he could be even a great asset once you make it to the PT! I think if you pick climberv2 for the first level and afterwards stage racer you can get him to 78MO, 70hi, 74TT too
Basso: I think i'd take the Classics option although all of them are close together.
Welcome to part 3 of our Transfers Wrap-Up. Whereas the first 6 riders were equally distributed among Switzerland and Italy, it's time now to bring in some new colors! We're still staying regional though, as we can announce the signing of Maximilian Walscheid. The 26-year-old was riding for Puma's amateur team Vattenfall last season and joins us as a Free Agent on minimum wage as well. He already has a certain amount of experience, which makes him a Level 3 rider. As by now we have fully used up our loan cap, and we think a 17-man-roster is not exaggerated, he will be riding with us this season. And we're not at all unhappy with that, given what he already has to offer:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Max Walscheid
69
55
62
61
69
70
64
61
70
75
61
66
71
Track-Sprint
73
55
63
62
71
74
73
61
79
79
61
67
75
Clearly, he is a sprinter preferring pan-flat races. And his development will likely go in this direction, as it's probably too late to make him a good hill rider or a decent cobbler. So it will be the Spr/Prl combo. With his great acceleration, we believe he will do nice stuff once reaching full potential. For now, he's going to help leading out other guys, but soon he might be our top sprinter! Welcome on the team, Max!
And then, the first deal confirmations were awaiting us. Shortly after the earliest possible deadline, MGUCI approved our deal with Italian fellows from Generali, who agreed to sell us Cyrile Thiery for just € 100,000. Cyrile is an already experienced rider, and with 29 years will be one of the team's oldies. He earns the minimum wage of € 50,000 as well. And for this wage, he's got a very nice profile as well:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Cyrile Thiery
72
70
74
66
73
73
70
60
72
73
77
74
65
We guess it's quite clear that he is the absolutely perfect breakaway rider! He has a very marked fighting spirit and does well on the flat, in the mountains and on the hills. And on top of this, his sprinting capabilities might allow him to win races from smaller groups. We are very happy for this signing, and expect some fireworks of attacking the next few years!
And about two hours later, our phone rang again. MGUCI informed us that our loan deal with Philips is perfectly valid, and so we can welcome Riccardo Minali in Ticino for the upcoming season. We agreed with Philips that we would pay his € 50,000 wage, and received the same amount as a transfer fee in return. Riccardo is a level 2 rider, and we'll help him get some experience and reach the next level in his career. However, even though he's "just" a loan-in rider, he might be really helpful:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Riccardo Minali
67
52
57
56
69
70
69
59
73
73
62
73
64
We won't do any speculations about his possible development paths, as he will decide on this with Philips. With his already nice sprinting capabilities, he may help us with some lead-out, even though he's probably not ready for the really high speeds and hard races yet. But we're sure he will do some decent work for us - and even more next year for Philips!
All these signings were confirmed on the first possible day - including the 12h deadline for technical reasons. So our roster already counted 8 riders - plus one loan-in. Well, you can ride one race with 8 riders - but not a whole season. So there must be more! Stay tuned...
knockout Thanks a lot for your valuable feedback! As a rookie, I certainly won't refuse good advice from experienced managers
Concerning Mäder, I haven't looked at the best possible combination of plans yet, but I'll certainly do that before making a final decision
You're building up your 1st season squad with what looks like a nice regional focus and an eye towards rider development, always a fun route forward. Great effort with the HQ content as well (wish I was being as diligent!). Thumbs up!
Scorchio The regional focus was our goal. I think it's quite easily doable in CT, especially if it's not your primary goal to get promoted as quickly as possible. It would be harder in PCT and PT, especially for Swiss riders. The Italian market should be vast enough, though.
Abhishek Yeah, we think he's gonna be useful. Probably not yet ready for long, tough races or long stage races, but he'll certainly do a nice job. Just as our second Philips Loan-In, who we are yet to talk about Hope our guys will do a decent jobs at Philips as well!
As we were reading pre-transfer adverts attentively, we immediately picked up our phone and called Evonik as soon as the transfer window officially opened. They had someone for sale who would be a perfect fit for our team. It took some negotiation and insisting on our side, but it was worth it all! Early in the next morning (we've arrived on september 24, the fifth day of the window), we got the confirmation that Fabian Lienhard now had officially become a team member of Centovalli - Fiat!
Fabian is only 25 years old - yes, we're building up quite a young team - and is not quite done with his development yet. He cost us a transfer fee of € 150,000, which is certainly not too much given his stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Fabian Lienhard
72
65
73
66
75
71
68
55
73
75
76
69
70
Hills
73
66
75
66
77
72
69
55
73
76
77
69
70
Track-Sprint
74
65
73
66
75
72
73
55
75
77
76
69
72
He already has great stamina, does hills well and is a super fighter - and this comes with a great acceleration! So if he is in the breakaway in a hilly race - and this really should happen - the competition should be afraid, very afraid! Because on top of this, he has a decent sprint. A real puncher. But this leaves us a bit unsure about the direction of his final development step. Hills, or rather sprint and strengthening prologue? We'd love to go for the hilly option, but then we'd lose the possibility to get him a recovery boost, which he'd receive if we choose sprinter training for him. We'll likely ask for some advice of the more experienced managers.
Whatever the decision will be, it is sure that Fabian won't be riding in our jersey this season. As he needs one more season on higher levels to get to his full potential, we have decided to loan him out to Philips on a 50/50 wage split deal. Thanks to our dutch friends! We take Minali, they take Lienhard - perfect business!
Later this morning, we finally had the next Free Agent walking into our office, and signing his one-year contract with Centovalli - Fiat. He was riding for Team UBS last year, where he didn't get a new contract and then refused their offer in the FA market - Welcome, Mirco Saggiorato! With his 31 years, he is our oldest - and most experienced - rider. We are happy that he still has two years left at full gas - at least when slopes are steep:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Mirco Saggiorato
68
77
73
66
72
74
73
50
58
72
71
66
66
Together with our italian mountain goat Andrea Manfredi, he will lead the team on the steep inclines. However, unlike Andrea, he handles the shorter climbs very well, too. Along with a good physical stats, he will certainly have some good shots at stage races with no long TT. However, sprinting capabilities being absent, we doubt he will get lots of stage wins. But our CT competition should still be afraid of our Manfredi - Saggiorato duo!
Later that same day, we concluded a deal that will surprise many of you. But as we communicated in our pre-transfer press release, we would not say no to riders from "more distant countries" if we consider it a good deal. Therefore, we welcome two loan-ins from Festina, Ioannidis Kiriakidis and Miltiadis Giannoutsos! We pay the wage for both of them and will help them to reach the next level. In return, we received a total fee of € 150,000.
But wait, you call that a "good deal", you may ask. Yes, we do. Because a third rider, who we will present later on, was part of the deal. But for now, let's just have a look at the stats of "our" two Greeks:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Ioannidis Kiriakidis
67
68
69
70
68
69
68
62
63
70
69
73
70
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
65
71
68
66
70
72
68
57
64
65
74
66
71
We believe that both of them will be of valuable help in our first season! Ioannidis actually is one of our best TTers this year (yeah, that's something we're not proud of) and doesn't fear some uphill riding, whereas Miltiadis will be really useful in the mountains. Especially as he's already in quite a good physical shape. We hope Festina's manager SotD will be happy with their evolution here in Ticino. And to be honest: Ticino is quite "mediterranean" already, so they shouldn't feel completely lost!
That's it for now. Two really important signings for our team, and two loan-ins who opened the door to an important deal - stay tuned for more signings!
Welcome to the next part of Centovalli - Fiat's Transfer's Wrap-Up. If the remaining transfer season does not reserve us any huge surprises, it should be the second-to-last part - but who knows? We know it's beginning to get lengthy - but we're a new team, so basically everything IS new in the first transfer season. We hope for a much more quiet offseason next year - but let's first finalize this year's team! So far, we have presented 10 permanent team members, three of which (Basso, Vendrame, Lienhard) have already been loaned out. Plus three loan-ins, who will join us for the current season.
After the "Greek Intermezzo", it was time again for some Free Agent signing. There were three of them in the evening of september 24. The first of them was Austrian talent Patrick Gamper. However, our scouts were not the only ones to be convinced of him, the competition from Swisslion and Podium Ambition making him great offers as well. Finally, we were able to sign the 22-year-old for a wage of € 85,000. The wage bids did clearly not reach Hirschi level, but his stats may give an indication of why several teams were after him:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Patrick Gamper
70
62
65
69
70
72
66
70
63
70
71
71
69
Cobbles
77
62
66
69
77
77
69
78
70
71
72
72
69
Classics
77
62
70
69
75
76
69
77
63
71
79
72
69
Fabian
77
62
66
76
77
77
69
78
63
71
72
72
76
So, basically anything seems to be possible. Even a pure TT training - with maxing out at 78TT/PL - would be possible, but in our opinion it would be a shame to not further develop his cobbles capabilities. And vice versa, focusing only on cobbles (and improving sprinting) would make too little use of his nice TT basics. So, we think he's a rather good candidate for the "Fabian" way - strong cobbler and TTer. Both of which we're currently missing... Future will tell, but for now: Welcome, Patrick!
The next signature came from another talent, Italy's Alessandro Fedeli. He is 23 years old and apparently much less sought after than Gamper, as he signed for the minimum wage of € 50,000. Even though he is one year older than Gamper or Mäder, he might need a bit more time to reach a good CT level, but we will certainly manage to do it. Here's what we currently have and hope to get:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Alessandro Fedeli
66
64
69
61
66
65
60
57
64
67
62
62
63
Hills
69
67
77
62
74
69
64
57
67
74
67
63
64
ClimberV1
67
73
77
62
69
69
67
57
64
74
70
63
64
Honestly, we don't know yet which path to take with him. Focusing only on hills training would give him decent stamina, whereas with a ClimberV1 focus, he would be nice in both mountains and hills, but have rather poor physical stats. Most probable for him will be a mix of hill, climber and maybe even some stage racing training. We'll figure it out, and we're convinced he will be a very valuable rider once his development completed!
Are you still with us? Yes? Well, in this case, you are now going to witness our most spectacular - and maybe dumbest - signing of the year. It is true that we did absolutely want to sign him, and Fiat pushed us to bid to our limits - which we did. And we won, mainly against Generali. Here he was, Fausto Masnada, and it was a warm welcome. However, as with his 26 years he has just not reached his full potential yet, we had planned on loaning him out. What we did not have in mind - or only some hours before he finally signed - was that his enormous wage of € 300,000 would not make him a desirable loan deal target. Fausto himself wouldn't care, that was administrative details, and he just wanted to ride some races. But in the background, we tried everything we could, had some promising returns - but finally, no one was able to take him. Maybe we could have found a deal where we'd pay the full wage, but paying 300k without having any return is not great for a CT team, as this makes up for 1/4 of our total wage budget.
So, finally he will stay with us this year, and despite that fact that he has not reached his maximum level yet, we are not too unhappy about this fact! We believe that even as a level 4 rider, he has some stats that make him really valuable:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Fausto Masnada
70
75
75
71
74
73
71
60
63
72
69
71
68
Stage Racer
71
77
76
73
76
75
73
60
63
73
69
71
70
ClimberV1
70
77
77
71
75
74
73
60
63
74
71
72
68
So the question is basically if one point more on the hills plus a slightly better acceleration is worth two points less in TT and PL. We think not, so his final progression will probably be stage race oriented. For now, he'll have to show us that despite his huge wage, we did not make a mistake in signing him. But we are sure he won't deceive us. Welcome, Fausto!
This was the final signing on september 24, but after a rather short night, we could welcome the next rider in our HQ. Finally another flag, you may say, as it was Thomas Boudat who signed on the dotted line that morning. This 25-year-old Frenchman - newly arrived in the MGUCI world as well - is a level 3 rider and will take € 55,000 of wage. Well, actually not, but we'll get to that in the last part of our wrap-up...
We would like to again apologize to Iberia, as we outbid them shortly before Thomas would sign with them - and had he not experienced some technical difficulties, he would have signed there anyway. He was on our list from the start, but we somehow missed that he had already got an offer, and how we finally got him left us a bit unhappy. But finally, we did nothing wrong and just used the rules in our favor, as does everyone else.
But why did we actually want to get him? Well, when looking at his stats, you will notice a lot of similarities with one of our previous additions, Max Walscheid:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Thomas Boudat
69
51
67
61
69
70
69
58
74
74
62
65
74
Track Sprint
73
51
68
62
71
74
78
58
79
78
62
66
78
Track-Spr. + Hills
72
52
70
62
72
73
78
58
78
78
62
66
76
We are quite sure that he will do a Track-Sprint development to reach level 4. However, we're not sure yet how to max him out. Either we redo Track-Sprint and get him 79 SP / 78 PL, or we send him in the hills to get a bit better on the short inclines. That would mean he would lose a bit of his PL capability. It's a tradeoff, and time will tell how we proceed. In either case, we're convinced that he will be of great value to the team! He will, however, not ride with us this season. He was part of a swap-loan-deal with Philips, but we'll tell you the details in the next update.
But for now, let's get back to our Greeks. Do you remember we called it a "Good Deal"? Yes, and we still do, as here's the third and final part of the deal: Manuel Stocker joined us for just € 200,000 from Festina! And if you recall that Festina paid us € 150,000 to take Kiriakidis and Giannoutsos on loan, Manuel finally cost us just € 50,000 of transfer fee, and the same amount of wage. But before we definitively claim it a "Good Deal", let's look at his stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Manuel Stocker
75
60
65
69
71
73
76
59
76
77
65
65
71
Manuel, 27 years old, has already reached his maximum potential, and we can safely say he will be an important rider this year. Being himself a decent sprinter, he will certainly get some chances to lead the team, but will mainly be the final leadout for our main sprinter, whose presentation will be part of the last update as well. We do not expect any miracles from Manuel, but due to his speed on the flat, his decent PL and TT, and especially his sprinting capabilities, there may be stage races where we can even expect him to do well overall. Time will tell, but we're looking forward to seeing him ride in our jersey!
That's it for now. Five new riders, and we're still not done yet! After having signed Stocker, however, there was no wage cap left. We were precisely at zero. And we had primarily Free Agent, who we were not allowed to trade. So, transfers over? Nope. The last update will tell you the rest of our transfers story.
Gutted I had to let Gamper go in FA, but I'm glad to see he's found a nice home. He is definitely well suited to the "Fabian" way
Seems like you were able to get tons of value on a CT budget, all the while having a perfect regional focus as well. I'm very interested to see how the season goes for you, but this looks to be hands down one of the funnest teams in CT
This looks similar to how I built my first CT squad, except I had a few more Swiss riders to choose from and had Malaysians instead of Italians.
I'm disappointed to have missed out on Gamper, but my funds were tied up ensuring Hirschi, then Mano signed so couldn't afford to make a bid until it was too late. He has to be taken down the Fabian route though, definitely the best one for him, I might even try to prize him away at some point in the future if you do as that version of him really interests me.
I'll definitely be rooting for him you this year, hopefully you can have a strong season.
Can't wait to see who you pick up in the draft, I don't doubt there will be riders in there who still have strong scoring potential like there was last year and maybe a couple of hidden talents although they might be from further afield.
redordead Yeah, we're really happy with our team. I had to insist for Gamper, as he'll be our cobbles leader in three years, I hope. And moreover a strong asset for the TTT-lineup we don't have yet.
I do believe that we've got a lot of quality riders, yes. Which I find rather amazing, given that Masnada ties up 1/4 of our wages budget. Of course, we don't have TTers, cobblers and prime sprinters, which is a pity, but with 17 riders you just can't cover it all. I hope we'll be able to shave off a bit of those 300k for Masnada next year, and fill up our roster a bit.
sammy Well, you can't have 'em all Stoked for you that you've got Hirschi AND Mano, two riders I'd have loved to sign as well. But I guess CT budget is not for the BIG talents (especially if you sign another guy for 300k). Would have been nice to team up with you for Avenir, but as you have your own team ready to go, I'll see who my 3 guys will ride with. Will certainly be rooting for you, too, and I'm especially eager to see how Hirschi can do in his debut season.
Here it is, the last part of our Transfers Update. It does not include the CT draft, though; its outcome will be presented later.
As you remember, after Manuel Stocker's transfer, we were left with zero wage budget. BUT: We still had 150k of loan cap left, and three level 3 riders to potentially loan out. Which was announced in our Transfers HQ as well. On the other hand, after the loan-out of Fabian Lienhard to Philips, we had only 16 riders left. So every move now required even more thinking than before. And all except the last moves happened on "Crazy Friday", september 27 (and hence were confirmed one day later).
So, it came in very handy that our so-to-say "Business Partners" of Festina were looking to loan out another greek talent, for whom they would pay the full wage. As it was a level 1 rider, there would be no fee involved. Perfect for us - an additional rider for free! We did not hesitate at all, picked up our phone and a few minutes later agreed on taking Aimiliano Vila on loan. Aimiliano is 22 years old, and will ride his first season. And even though he's a rookie, we believe he will be helpful, given his stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Aimiliano Vila
69
65
69
63
68
69
70
54
66
67
69
68
63
Again, we won't speculate on his development path. We plan on using him mainly in bumpy races, as he already handles the hills quite well. Of course, he's not here to get big result, but to get a possibility to develop his capabilities. And we're happy to offer him this place.
At least, we now had again 25k of wage budget, as the Lienhard loan-out got confirmed. So, still no budget for a new rider (stagiares excluded), but a call from ENI - MOL, offering some riders, one of which caught our interest. But no wage budget means no signing, right? As we would never have agreed on sacking one of our swiss or italian riders, the only way to free up some wage cap space was to loan out some riders.
And there we once again got in touch with Philips. They wanted to loan out their new dutch super-talent, and were even ready to pay for a level 1 to 3 development. Which would get us some nice money we could invest in the aforementioned ENI - MOL rider. But yeah, we had 25k of wage left to pay - which was exactly the offer they already had And they only had 40k of loan cap. It took one bright moment of team manager Fabianski to find the missing piece to the puzzle: We would take their rider on loan, and pay the 40k of wage they requested. In return, we would loan out Thomas Boudat, for whom they would pay the entire wage, as no loan cap would be left. This way, they paid us a fee of € 200,000 for the 1 -> 3 development clause, and we'd pay them back a € 55,000 fee for paying Boudat's wage. Finally, they pay only € 15,000 of additional wage, but get a good replacement for one season. And we, besides the nice fee, get Pascal Eenkhoorn on loan. So it was kind of a swap-loan-deal - something that doesn't exist in MGUCI's rulebook, but something that worked very well for us!
And Pascal will definitely be able to do some nice things for us before returning to Philips:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Pascal Eenkhoorn
69
69
67
64
70
72
73
65
64
68
66
66
70
Even though he'll probably develop as a very nice mountain rider, we rather plan to use him for our have-to-do cobbled races, as he will be one of our most useful riders there. As he will need to do lots of races in order for us to ensure the development we promised, he will certainly get to race some mountains as well. We expect him to do good work on pretty much any possible terrain. We're stoked to have him for one year!
So, in sum, we had gotten rid of Boudat's € 55,000 wage, but in return were paying € 40,000 of Eenkhoorn's wage. Which gave us € 40,000 of free cap space - enough for 4 stagiaires, but still not enough for an "entire" rider. Still, we were really hopeful (and already had some contacts) that we would be able to loan out Andrea Vendrame, and hence accepted ENI - MOL's deal proposition for Leonid Krasnov. Vendrame indeed got loaned out to Delvaux on a 50/50 loan deal, leaving us now with the required cap space to fit in Krasnov.
And Leonid Krasnov should have been the last rider we'd present to you. But he wasn't happy moving to Ticino with its almost mediterranean climate. Hence, we were looking for a home that would fit him better - and for a replacement rider who would be a better fit for our team. And guess what? It worked!
This morning, we concluded our last deal of this Transfers season with Indosat. Krasnov would leave us before really arriving (and being able to upset the team), and we are happy to welcome Gian Piero Signorini at Centovalli - Fiat!
As we did anyway not have a sprinter that Krasnov could have lead out, we would rather strengthen our mountain squad even more - something our competition probably didn't want to hear. I think with Mirco Saggiorato, Andrea Manfredi and now Gian Piero, we definitely have some horsepower for the steeper slopes!
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Gian Piero Signorini
59
78
69
65
66
72
73
53
56
74
68
62
65
Even though Gian Piero is alread 31 years old (yet some months younger than Saggiorato, who remains the "Team Oldie"), he will still be a valuable asset for us for some more years, due to his enormous potential, which will make him decrease quite slowly. He earns a € 65,000 wage - exactly what we could afford!
So, we end our first transfer season just the same way we started it - by signing an italian climber. And we end up with zero wage budget and zero loan cap. Perfect planning or a lot of luck? Perhaps a bit of both. One thing is sure: We have some firepower on the road - and we believe it will be a fun first season to watch! Stay tuned!
Andrea Manfredi. He joined us for the minimum wage of € 50,000 from the FA market. Andrea was riding the last two years for the now disbanded team Reddit and has found a new challenge here in Ticino! He is only 27 years old, and therefore should be on his top for some more years. He was our first confirmed signing, and an important one, as show his stats:
Gino Mäder joined Centovalli - Fiat from the FA market. He was one of our top prospects, and we're very happy to get him for € 50,000 as well. Gino is probably Switzerland's greatest talent joining the MGUCI circus this year - after Marc Hirschi, of course. As such, he will need some time to develop his strengths - he is level 1 - in which we will be pleased to follow him closely. Here are his stats, along with some potential development paths:
Let's see how they will finally develop. Some more talents to be presented... Regarding Freuler, I don't really know what to expect, as I'm new to MG and can't really identify some rider traits right away. I hope you're right about the breakaways!
Maximilian Walscheid. The 26-year-old was riding for Puma's amateur team Vattenfall last season and joins us as a Free Agent on minimum wage as well. He already has a certain amount of experience, which makes him a Level 3 rider. As by now we have fully used up our loan cap, and we think a 17-man-roster is not exaggerated, he will be riding with us this season. And we're not at all unhappy with that, given what he already has to offer:
Ioannidis Kiriakidis and 
Patrick Gamper. However, our scouts were not the only ones to be convinced of him, the competition from Swisslion and Podium Ambition making him great offers as well. Finally, we were able to sign the 22-year-old for a wage of € 85,000. The wage bids did clearly not reach Hirschi level, but his stats may give an indication of why several teams were after him:
Thomas Boudat who signed on the dotted line that morning. This 25-year-old Frenchman - newly arrived in the MGUCI world as well - is a level 3 rider and will take € 55,000 of wage. Well, actually not, but we'll get to that in the last part of our wrap-up...
Stoked for you that you've got Hirschi AND Mano, two riders I'd have loved to sign as well. But I guess CT budget is not for the BIG talents (especially if you sign another guy for 300k). Would have been nice to team up with you for Avenir, but as you have your own team ready to go, I'll see who my 3 guys will ride with. Will certainly be rooting for you, too, and I'm especially eager to see how Hirschi can do in his debut season.
Pascal Eenkhoorn on loan. So it was kind of a swap-loan-deal - something that doesn't exist in MGUCI's rulebook, but something that worked very well for us!
Leonid Krasnov. Vendrame indeed got loaned out to Delvaux on a 50/50 loan deal, leaving us now with the required cap space to fit in Krasnov.
