After our relegation back to CT, we knew that our toughest renewals period so far would be awaiting us. And it was tough indeed! Not only is there a maximum roster size of 20 in CT (we had 23 riders last year) - more importantly, the wage cap is cut down to 1.2M from 2.5M last season. Which means that it wouldn't have made any sense at all to renew all riders - especially with the fine in case of exceeding the wage cap after renewals being double the amount of the exceedance.
So we knew that some really tough decisions were coming, and some of them really hurt us. In other cases, we just didn't agree with riders thinking they should get a raise after a sub-par season. So, what's the outcome? Here we go!
In the list below you have the old and new wages. Plus, we have the difference to last year's wage in the last column. For released riders, you can also see how far we went in the negotiations with them - for renewed ones, we don't want to reveal too much of our strategy, though.
Rider
2021 Wage
2022 Wage
Difference
Nairo Quintana
600,000
480,000
- 120,000
Gianni Moscon
195,000
190,000
- 5,000
Fausto Masnada
120,000
140,000
+ 20,000
Gino Mäder
55,000
100,000
+ 45,000
Mauro Schmid
150,000
90,000
- 60,000
Hermann Pernsteiner
80,000
75,000
- 5,000
Szymon Rekita
100,000
70,000
- 30,000
Leonardo Basso
55,000
50,000
- 5,000
Manuel Stocker
50,000
50,000
0
Stefan Bissegger
50,000
50,000
0
Alexys Brunel
50,000
50,000
0
Gergely Szarka
50,000
50,000
0
Theo Reinhardt
260,000
Released (R1)
- 260,000
Thomas Boudat
90,000
No Agreement (R3)
- 90,000
Fabian Lienhard
90,000
Released (R2)
- 90,000
Cyrille Thièry
60,000
Released (R1)
- 60,000
Mikiel Habtom
55,000
Released (R1)
- 55,000
Andrea Manfredi
55,000
Released (R2)
- 55,000
Benedikt Mundle
55,000
Released (R1)
- 55,000
Mirco Saggiorato
55,000
Released (R1)
- 55,000
Alfredo Balloni
50,000
Released (R1)
- 50,000
Robin Froidevaux
50,000
Released (R1)
- 50,000
Jason Tesson
10,000
Released (R1)
- 10,000
We had 23 riders pre-renewals - only 12 are left. Among those who remain, we were able to negotiate an overall wage reduction of 160,000. While a small part of this is due to the bad 2021 season, most comes from the fact that riders signed from FA are often overpaid in their first year, which was the case for Mauro Schmid and Szymon Rekita, who both agreed on a salary more in line with their actual capabilities.
For Nairo Quintana, it's actually the same effect - with the difference that he had been signed from FA even the year before, so it took 2 years to get him to a pretty reasonable wage. Gianni Moscon, Leo Basso and Hermann Pernsteiner agreed on a minor paycut due to their sub-par 2021 results.
On the other hand, Gino Mäder was our first ever rider to reach his maximum level after having signed as a neo-pro with us. He definitely deserves this raise - but we'll of course be expecting him to perform next year!
Fausto Masnada performed pretty much according to our expectations - so we were surprised to see him insisting on a raise. As he knows he's one of our most important riders, he obviously was in a good position, and finally got a bit more money. But as for Mäder, a raise asks for some good performances!
Finally, four contracts were concluded with riders who earned the minimum wage last year and still do so; except for Manuel Stocker, all of them are still developing and will surely get higher wages later in their career. They are Stefan Bissegger, Alexys Brunel and Gergely Szarka.
That's it for those who (currently) stay, now let's move onto the less joyful part. 11 riders are gone - and what hurts most, we even said goodbye to 4 Swiss riders. For some of them it might just be a temporary goodbye, though - but let's talk about this in more detail.
8 of these 11 riders actually didn't even get an initial offer. We knew we had to cut down our roster size, and so it was a matter of previous performance, age, potential - and also potential selling value. While not exceeding the wage cap by too much. As we said before, difficult decisions.
The most painful, but probably also the most straightforward decision concerned Theo Reinhardt. He's our 2020 promotion hero, and he'll always be. But he's 32 now, and so just has one maxed season in his legs. Additionally, it is well known by now that medium tier sprinters often ask for way too high wages during renewals and are later on signed for much less as free agents. We're convinced that Theo will find a team for the 2022 season - maybe he'll even return - but we're almost sure that he'll earn less than what he asked for. Sorry, Theo - and thank you again!
For Mirco Saggiorato and Alfredo Balloni, age was the key factor to not offer them a new contract. While that was agreed on with Mirco even before the season, Alfredo would probably have been able to stay with us in PCT - but in CT, we prefer assigning the roster spots to younger riders. Thanks to both of you as well, you both did a good job for the team - Mirco in 2019 and 2020, Alfredo last year.
With Cyrille Thièry, Benedikt Mundle and Mikiel Habtom, three riders we were pretty satisfied with didn't get an offer, either. We're sure all of them would have been good assets in CT this year, but given the roster size and especially wage budget limits, they just weren't among our top priority riders to renew. It is however not excluded that one of them might still join us again during transfers! If not, big thanks to all of you! Cyrille was with us right from the start, while Benedikt joined us in our promotion season, and Mikiel signed just last off-season. May you all find a great new team!
And finally, we also didn't offer new contracts to our talents Robin Froidevaux and Jason Tesson. Especially releasing a young Swiss rider was a really painful decision. Would we have stayed in PCT, Robin would definitely have been able to stay with us. But in the end, it came down to a choice between him and Szarka - and we think that the Hungarian has got a better potential on the long term. His recent win in the National Championships surely had an impact on that decision. Sorry, Robin - maybe our paths will cross again in the future?
Releasing Jason wasn't easy, either, given that we love to be a place where young riders can develop - but came to the conclusion that his development was too low to be sustainable on the longer term - especially with our reduced roster size. We're sure he'll do well for his new team, though - whichever it may be!
Now let's move on to those riders who actually did receive an initial offer, but refused it. One of them is Andrea Manfredi - a rider who was part of our first-year squad already. And he even had a career highlight last year, winning the Georgian classic Sakartvelo Trophy - and a Tour de Romandie stage the year before. However, with the return of maxed Gino Mäder - who is much more versatile - we weren't ready to offer him the wage he requested. We submitted him a tentative offer, which he turned down - and we subequently ended negotiations. Thank you for you valuable contribution in the last three years, Andrea, and all the best for the future!
The next name on that list is easily the most controversial non-renewal in team history, as it is freshly crowned Swiss RR NC Fabian Lienhard - actually a no-go to release him. But we did offer him what we judged to be a still pretty excessive wage given his abysmal 2021 scoring - and when he turned it down, we had no choice but letting him go. It wouldn't have been fair towards other - far better scoring - riders to make an even better offer. And we seriously doubt he'll earn what we offered him - but still wish him good luck in finding a new team!
This marks an incredibly disappointing end to a story we hoped to be a great one, but he actually had his strongest season back in 2019 as a level 4 rider on loan with Philips. He performed far below expectations in the two seasons riding for us - and especially far below what he should have given his wage. It's really sad to not keep the reigning Swiss champion, but well, emotions unfortunately aren't everything in sports. Goodbye, Fabian - or even "See you"?
Another episode has also been written in our story with Thomas Boudat. Thomas joined us in 2019 as a level 3 rider, but already after his first season had some clearly too high wage demands. He was released and re-signed for his previous wage, and loaned out again. After maxing out, we judged his wage demand was now adequate and renewed him for 2021 - where he had a rather disappointing season.
But we still wanted to give him another chance and offered him a higher wage than last year - which he still turned down. Dear Thomas, after a relegation, we need team players - and riders thinking they earn a wage after a less-than-optimal season aren't really in that category. We guess he knew about 4 new French teams joining the CT division, and hence he might indeed end up with a much higher salary than he'd have even getting a raise from us, but we're still disappointed. We have some gut feeling we might cross paths quite often next year, though...
So, what do we end up with? 12 riders, as you already know - for a total wage of 1.395M. Yeah, indeed, that's above CT's wage cap, so our strategy heading into transfers should be obvious. The question is not IF we will be selling any riders, but rather which one(s). So stay tuned for our Transfer Availability update, and follow our Transfers HQ closely, as said availability may well change during the "most crazy days of the year"! See you there!
Mostly expected roster cuts. Reinhardts release probably the biggest news but not really a surprise. Would love to see him return to you for another season but aged 32 maybe it is time for the next generation to take over sprinters duty.
Also the end to the Lienhard saga. Really expected him to give you so much more and pains me that he never lived up to his stats.
I'm not sure if there's ever been a hero to zero story quite as short and dramatic as Theo Reinhardt's. Dude was unstoppable in 2020 and unwatchable in 2021. You definitely made the right choice to lay him off at that salary level.
I know the struggle of a renewals following relegation, that's for sure. It's never easy and forces you to part ways with riders you don't want to. Long term though, it's generally for the best because it makes you tighten your budget around the core of your team that really matters and cut ties with the weak links. Then you have a stronger base to build on.
And looking at that core, you did well here. Masnada is still on a good salary after his raise and will be a great CT stage racer. Moscon did well in 2020 and should do well again. Mäder is a top notch lieutenant and will score in his own right in CT. Rekita will be a beast in CT and is on an awesome wage.
You have a strong core of CT leaders, all under 30, on great wages. A good Quintana sale for a cheaper leader or some training, and I think your second go-around in PCT will go much better than the first.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
knockout I agree that most releases aren't surprising, and I'm fine with all but Boudat actually.
I already tried to sell Reinhardt last year, but there was absolutely no interest given his wage. That's the main reason I didn't renew him. Just not enough budget, and no perspective of selling. Looking at other teams' renewals, I'm definitely not the only one who was fed up with greedy sprinters - especially with sprints being more random than most other terrains.
I'm really unhappy about Lienhard, for sure. I guess he might have worked well back in the PCM15 days, but the more recent versions don't like pure puncheurs that much. Plus, he got a really unjustified major OVL boost last year, making him ask for absurd wages given his actual performance. Well, I hope he finds another team that maybe plans him better - I tried planning him as leader, helper, or potential attacker in stage races - nothing really worked out... It can only get better I'd say ^^
bbl He wasn't actually even *that* bad, but I still think the sprint engine changed a bit to value Acc less than in PCM18. I didn't expect him to perform exactly at the same level as in 2020, but he often was so far off in the same races one year later, against similar competition - that definitely sucked, and we certainly payed a high prize for it by relegating.
I agree that we should have a solid core, but let's see what transfers bring. Nairo definitely has to be sold, as you say, and depending on availabilities and new riders, my roster might look pretty different by the end of transfers. Definitely hoping for a busy period
Some great work done in renewals, some riders it must hurt to lose but the path forward looks really promising - Nairo gone and a couple of additions screams 2x trained Masnada and a swift return upwards
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
Not sure what Boudat would have wanted, but he's certainly someone I would've liked to see back, even if it was at a cost of a talent.
With Quintana renewed it made absolute sense that there wouldn't be room for Reinhardt. The fact you're over the cap shows this team has a lot of quality. It's probably gonna be a busy transfer period for you, but I'm confident you'll be promoting back to PCT
I thought Boudat was overpaid last year already, so for him to demand another raise ... I think you made the right call there. And it looks like the Vendrame-Habtom-Swap didn't work out too well for either of us. A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved, I guess
Quintana is an interesting decision. He could absolutely demolish the competition in CT and guarantee you a swift return to PCT (at least I would think so), but with his first decline coming, he won't be part of the long term plans. I'm curious what the market for a guy like him will be. You've got a lot of work to do, but a really great core to build from, that's for sure.
It hurts to see Boudat go. I do think he's worth 100K wage, but I understand the reasoning for letting him go as he doesn't score a lot of points, and can't really be a top rider unless there's heavy investment in him.
Besides that it looks pretty much as expected. A lot of room for manouvre (in terms of roster capacity) is always nice.
Boudat can join Alaphilippe on the list of "probably should have overpaid because of all the new French teams" riders
I'm very interested what your transfers ends up looking like. Slight sponsor changes, a bit of wage space, opens up some opportunities. Certainly it seems to me like your eyes should be on promotion, if not the title!
jandal Thanks. Yeah, most of the wages feel right; maybe could've saved some Euros on Masnada, but 140k is still fine. Boudat is clearly the one that hurts most, after two years of development and probably some good potential to score in CT. Well... I guess the sprinter market still isnt' that dried out
Nairo will obviously go, but what will be made out of this is completely open currently.
redordead Just couldn't see why he should get a raise after a mediocre year, so played it conservative in the first two rounds and then obviously didn't propose a high enough raise. Would've preferred him to stay, for sure.
It can be a very busy or a rather calm period - I'm open to a lot of scenarii
cunego Agree, that wage already hurt last year. But after completing development, I still wanted to keep him for his first maxed year. The main issue is that prologues are completely random, so that 78 stat isn't worth much. He might have done better with a lower stat due to better starting positions - who knows.
Had I stayed up, I'd definitely have kept Habtom though, was really happy with him. But yeah, renewals fee ^^
Nairo should definitely be on the move, or I'd have to release all other >50k earners I guess. However, due to his Pot 7 I'm sure he'll be useful for at least two more seasons after his prime. He also has good energy stats, so the decline should hurt him less than e.g. Alarcon (who doesn't seem to care, though )
SotD I agree, it hurts. And without all the French teams joining, I guess he'd have come back for less wage from FA; now I'm not that sure anymore
There's some room for manoeuvre indeed, especially once Nairo will be gone. Let's see what I can make out of this; the Swiss additions definitely look way less juicy than in the last couple of years, so it's very likely not going to be an all-Swiss focus.
TMM Lienhard wasn't any better in terms of greediness, though
I've got no clue what transfers will really look like - lots of things could happen. Promotion should indeed be the goal, no matter what happens. We have a good core that should already be close to the Top 5, so if I don't completely mess up transfers and planning, I hope to be back in PCT next year.
Was sad to see you go down last season. I thought Quintana would be a little better for you, but I think it was just a close season for a lot of teams, mine included.
Im not sure we will talk too much during the off-season unless we can work out a swap deal most likely.
If you followed our renewals outcome, you will already know that we're currently down to just 12 riders. However, being slightly above the wage limit, we're still looking to sell a couple of riders.
Depending on how things evolve, we might even use the transfer period for a major reshuffle - which means a lot of deals might be possible if the circumstances are right!
But let's just put it clear right away: Mauro Schmid is not for sale! Nor are Gino Mäder or Stefan Bissegger. But we'll happily talk about all others with you!
In order for you to have an idea for which rider your proposition has the highest chances of being accepted, here's the availability overview:
Rider
2022 Wage
Availability
PT/PCT Loan
Nairo Quintana
€ 480,000
•••••
Gianni Moscon
€ 190,000
••
Fausto Masnada
€ 140,000
••
Gino Mäder
€ 100,000
•
Mauro Schmid
€ 90,000
•
Maybe
Hermann Pernsteiner
€ 75,000
•••••
Manuel Stocker
€ 50,000
••
Szymon Rekita
€ 70,000
••
Stefan Bissegger
€ 50,000
•
Yes
Alexys Brunel
€ 50,000
••
Yes
Leonardo Basso
€ 50,000
••
Gergely Szarka
€ 50,000
•••
•
Unavailable
••
Unlikely to leave
•••
Maybe, maybe not
••••
Likely to leave
•••••
Available
Let's go into some details about what kinds of deals we could imagine:
Nairo Quintana
Nairo will very, very likely be sold - or we'd need to offload all other riders earning more than the minimum wage.
Nairo was 21st in PCT last year, and this time around is on a much lower wage (480k vs. 600k). He won Tour of Japan (C1), finished 3rd in Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt (HC) and got some more Top 10s in stage races and classics.
What we clearly found out last year is that he does really well in mountain time trials. He's a great diesel climber and loves long, steady climbs. We believe that with some better planning and stronger support, he'd be a great leader in PCT! And although he's already 32y.o., his great potential will ensure that he'll stay useful for at least two more seasons.
If you want to get him, you'd better get out your wallet - we prefer pure cash for Nairo. Initial price tag: 1.2M (we paid more for him; the price might however get lower if no offers come in). If we are to accept a swap for him, we'd have to get a (younger) CT leader in return.
Hermann Pernsteiner
Hermann is likely one of the best hilly domestiques you can get for that wage. He did an amazing job last time we were in CT, scoring lots of points while mainly working as a helper! Taking 2nd place in Austria's NC both in 2020 and 2021 - once on a mountainous, once on a hilly course - displays his great versatility.
So why do we actually want to sell him? He's 32 as well, and with Mauro Schmid, we have the future for the hills already in our roster. So we believe Hermann can be more useful in another team - we think there are plenty of new CT teams who would clearly benefit from having him on board!
As for Nairo, we'd prefer getting pure cash for the Austrian. We think that 500k would be a good price for a rider of his quality and wage (again, we paid more, and he had a higher wage back then). We'd definitely also consider swap deals, preferrably for a talent or a good Under-30 CT-level scorer. Send us your offer, and we'll surely talk about it!
Stefan Bissegger and Alexys Brunel
Both of these definitely need a loan to complete their development. They will surely be useful in almost any TTT setup, so don't hesitate to get them for one year!
We'd clearly prefer to offload their entire wage, i.e. the loaning-in team paying their wages and us paying a fee. We think that the minimum wage should be within every team's budget that wants to strengthen its TTT setup. However, if we don't get any such offers, split-wage deals are an option as well. Hit us up with your offer!
Gianni Moscon and Fausto Masnada
We know that there are some new Italian friends around, so we wanted to lose a word or two about this duo.
Obviously, both Gianni and Fausto are team leaders, and as such definitely won't be easily available. We're currently not interested in cash-only deals for these two - but things can obviously change depending on what we could use money for.
The optimal case for us would be to swap them for Swiss CT leaders - but realistically, there are only very few of those around. So riders from any neighboring nations could be fine, too. Preferably leaders for terrains we haven't really covered yet, i.e. sprinters or cobblers.
But as for all others, we'll be open to listen to your offer - just be warned that it will take a really good offer to be accepted!
Mauro Schmid
Mauro has a "Maybe" in the Loan column. We might indeed loan him out, but for that to happen you'd have to pay a significant part of his wage. And we'd only do it if we absolutely need to free up some more cap space. And no, he won't be sold. Or traded.
Loan-ins 1 -> 3
Furthermore, we'd like to mention the fact that we are available for loan-ins, especially 1 -> 3 loans! Any kind of deal might be possible, depending on the rider's wage - just hit us up, preferrably pretty soon in the transfer period!
If you've got any questions or even deal propositions concerning any of our riders, don't hesitate to ask! As we said before, lots of things are possible this year - our roster might stay more or less as it is now, or might be almost completely reshuffled - hit us up with the most crazy deals you can imagine, as we're crazy, too
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
Finally, our first signing of the year is confirmed! Given the fact that it took us more than 3 full days, you can guess that quite some things went wrong - or not our way - during this period. Including a rider changing his mind right before putting his signature on the dotted line - only to re-change his mind later on... Yeah, there are definitely guys out there that will probably never become our friends...
But let's move on to the positive side of this announcement - we actually have a sprinter! Veteran Marcel Aregger will join us for the 2022 season - the last one in his prime. As a part of Team Puma - SAP he even won a stage in his home race, the Tour de Suisse in 2021 - and we hope he'll be able to do similar stuff for us! He's by no means the fastest guy out there, but he's very versatile, hard to drop on slightly hilly courses, and he's quite fast in prologues as well. Here's his full skillset:
If everything runs through smoothly from now on, you can expect a major update by tomorrow. Until then, we'd be extremely thankful if anyone could help us make our transfer season a 100% success, by sending us a 1->3 loanee where we don't have to pay any wage. It would allow us to make another deal - and who doesn't like deals? Also, in order to finally conclude the deal, we'd need our Hungarian sprint talent Gergely Szarka to be sold - if you want to take him on, hit us up!
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
