aidanvn13 wrote:
Expect a PM about a Rwandan

cunego59 wrote:

Shhhhh ...

As we started transfers with already 20 riders in the team, and no need to loan out any of them, we haven't been as active in the FA as other years, with only one FA signing so far. Apart from that, we've acquired two riders in different swap deals.

We say goodbye to Jakub Novak, member of the team for the last two season, with will lead Carrefour in stage races in CT. We also say goodbye to Valens Ndayisenga, another rider who spent his last two years with us, who joins his home team Bralinwga in CT. And also we parted ways with Jon Ander Insausti, who has left to join Podium Ambition.

Now, we move to present the 3 new riders that are confirmed to be with us for the 2020 season

FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DOW	PRL
73	58	68	77	75	72	69	56	69	70	73	61	77

The Austrian timetrialist arrives at Repsol in order to help strenghten our TTT squad after the loss of Novak. His C2 availability could be useful, though at first glance it didn't seem to be TT-only races in C2

FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DOW	PRL
71	61	64	60	68	68	67	69	68	67	64	63	60

We got ourselves with a rouleur talent in the 22-year Belgian. His possible developments will be discussed in a future post, but a likely scenario for his future is to be a strong guy for the flat with decent cobbled/sprint abilities, a perfect domestique

FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DOW	PRL
70	61	63	62	68	70	65	57	73	77	65	68	70

And our final signing is this Polish future sprinter star, who we got in the Jakub Novak trade. Massive potential rider, that should max at 79/81 spr/acc, he's set to be our future sprinter, having also potential to be trainable

The most expensive talent in Repsol - Netflix history, over twice the amount we payed 2 seasons ago for Eddie Dunbar (150k), and we are really happy to have the Hungarian future star in our squad. His skillset gives us a headache in the development he'll follow, starting from this season, as almost except for being a cobbler or a timetrialist, he can literally be anything. Unllimited development options.

Though we have our favourite one ofc, and we will present all the realistic options we've thought in a later post. We can't wait to see Attila racing in our colors, as this season he's set to be a pure domestique in some of Kudus' races, while obviously following a very extensive development program that will see him racing in many different types of races

@Knockout Really looks bright
@Cunego I may have an entire excel sheet just for his posibilites
@Jaxika Thanks! We'll see about the loan next season
@Cio
@Quadsas Only for a few hours i almost had him at 300k, at the end 400k. Probably looking at McNulty and Dainese prices it's a bargain yeah

Two FA signings, two riders coming in swap deals and one riders loaned in is the summary of this transfer update.

Also we say goodbye to loyal domestique Fabien Taillefour, who ride in Eddie Stobart colors next season, and to Giacomo Nizzolo, winner of our first ever Pro Tour win in Tirreno last season, who will join Festina - OAKA.

Apart from this, both Alan Banaszek and Michael O'Loughlin will spend this season on loan at Aegon - Peroni

FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DOW	PRL
71	58	60	56	76	72	63	75	58	58	67	64	56

The Spanish cobbler comes to the team in a swap for Fabien Taillefour, as with Vanmarcke staying one more season in the team, we needed to keep at least decent domestique for him

FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DOW	PRL
65	67	69	62	70	70	67	50	63	68	65	72	64

The 22 years Chinese talent will spend the first season of his career in our team, after an agreement with PT team Rakuten was made to make him a Level 3 rider, meaning that we'll see him a lot in our lineups

FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DOW	PRL
75	55	64	81	74	70	68	57	60	73	72	64	81

The German timetrialist star arrives to Repsol in order to form a super-duo with Zmorka in the timetrials, drastically improving our TTT setup too. It's his final year in his prime, but we hope to get the best of it, and with his future declines, he'll still be a valuable rider for a TTT setup. Kittel is the only major signing on maxed riders of this off-season

FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DOW	PRL
77	61	66	61	76	73	69	67	65	80	83	74	63

The Hungarian rouleur is a new addition coming from FA to the squad, a very welcomed one, as the 27-yo will be the main support for Attila Valter's adaptation to the professional circuit. Apart from that, he's a magnificient attacker, the perfect guy to get in dangerous breakaways, and maybe steal a flat classic with a late attack. And all of this for only 65k in wage, what we consider a bargain given the prices in this FA

FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DOW	PRL
76	61	75	66	75	71	68	62	70	73	82	71	65

The final rider that has already signed a 55k-wage contract for this season, another rider who consider a bargain in FA, the Polish rider has a very very interesting skillset; great rouleur and puncheur, with a great attacking spirit, and some speed to fight for stage wins in breakaways. If only he was better at climbing, he'd be pretty much perfect

I present the 2020 Repsol - Netflix squad, that will compete in PCT with the goal of promoting back to PT.

The team's leader doesn't need any introduction, but his skillset has suffered some modifications. As most of the PCT climbers appear to be good to great timetrialists, but struggle in the hills, Merhawi Kudus has improved in his puncheur skills to be able to compete better in those kind of stages during stage races. His top speed has been slighlty improved too, who knows where it can be needed

Our second leader is of course Sep Vanmarcke, third year in the team. He was close to leave us during this transfers, but at the end, seeing both the cobbles strenght of the division and the eventual lack of need to sell him, we decided to keep him for his final prime year

The third and final leader is Marlen Zmorka, He's the other ride to have improved during the off-season. His climbing abilities have been polished, in order for him to compete better in stage races that have a TT and semihard stages. We don't the 2 extra points in mountain will be key for this season, but it's more like a long term project, where he ends in the mid-60's, which eventually could mean a lot more points from races where currently he's not able to compete.

The secondary leaders include guys such as Jaime Roson, our newly maxed climber, who will act as Kudus' super domestique in several races, but will have chances to lead races during the season; Eddie Dunbar, who isn't maxed yet, but already provides an amazing skillset to complement our TTT roster and the TT-hilly stage races; and Marcel Kittel and Mario Gonzalez Salas, who both are legitimate TT leaders in almost every team in PCT, but will be part of this 3-headed monster that is our team in ITTs. Together with Zmorka, we hope for big dominations in the flat stage races with a TT

The rest of the team is filled with interesting riders, that fit some role within the team, but should they big points, they would come from breakaways. Without a true puncheur in our team, guys as Carlos Barbero, Cristian Rodriguez, Yuri Trofimov and Jacopo Mosca will have to fill that role, Barbero and Mosca already winning a GT stage last year, Rodriguez maxing and a true MG legend in Trofimov. We have climbing domestiques, such as Jesus Herrada, Miguel Angel Benito or Antonio Pedrero, with the former two being part of the main TTT squad.

We have our roulers, with Pawel Bernas, Lluis Mas and Peter Varga in this role of protecting the climbers/timetrialists during flat stages, and getting some action in breakaways. We also have guys that are good in flat roads, but excel in timetrial or cobbles, with Lukas Postlberger being part of the TTT squad, and Daniel Ruiz as the main domestique for Vanmarcke

And we end with the talents, led of course by Attila Valter, who will have a role of early domestique in the mountain while getting developed. We also have Jordi Meeus, good guy for flats, same can be said about Matthew Teggart. Finally Xianjing Lyu will spend his rookie season here on loan from Rakuten, while Alan Banaszek and Michael O'Loughlin will do the opposite at Aegon