The first batch of FA signings fulfills Team Puma - SAP's most important goals
Disclaimer: deeply personal comment in the spoiler at the bottom of this.
If you are in a mental state to handle a story of loss, it would be greatly appreciated if you could spare a minute.
Within the first hours of Free Agent confirmations, Team Puma - SAP is proud to present its four FA signings.
At the onset of the off-season, the sudden emergence of a new German climbing prospect led to frantic planning how to accommodate Anton Schiffer once transfer season opens yet another portal to hell.
Luckily, it took less than expected to secure the services of Anton, which in turn allowed us to delve deeper into the available rider pool and find three very suitable riders still in development to join him in the Puma jerseys of the future.
Anton Schiffer
4.50
26yo
Climber
€250.000
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As mentioned above, Anton Schiffer was the best German prospect available this season. €250.000 is a steep, but fair price considering the general feel of the market.
He makes his pro cycling debut as an already well-rounded climber with plenty of resilience to set himself apart from the average mountain domestique or breakaway rider.
At 26 years of age, his time at the top of the climber hierarchy will be shorter than ideal once he maxes out next season, but he will certainly be a potential training target to bring him closer to GT stage success and leadership roles.
Abderrahim Zahiri
3.22
29yo
Stage Racer
€50.000
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A surprising sight for some, we have identified Abderrahim Zahiri as a strong climbing domestique for the next handful of years, with plenty of potential left to be unlocked even at age 29 now that he makes it to the top tier of cycling.
He, along with our last signing of the day, symbolizes Team Puma - SAP's first serious step into representation in the Maghreb, and we look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship with that region in the future.
Maurice Ballerstedt
3.26
24yo
Cobbler
€60.000
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Maurice Ballerstedt has been brought into the team with the clear goal of supporting a hopefully top cobbler in the Jonas Rutsch of 2026 and onward.
Similar to Rutsch, Ballerstedt has another couple of development years ahead of him to become a reliable domestique in flat classics.
There is a chance he will be loaned out later on this transfer season while there's not quite the need for a deep cobbles squad just yet.
Hamza Amari
1.68
23yo
Sprinter
€60.000
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The Maghreb will indeed be a minor focus region of ours this season, and to accompany a Moroccan rider, we also found an intriguing young Algerian we wish to have with us in the future. Hamza Amari will develop into a nice sprinter that will give us reasons to smile, whether as a leadout rider or potentially hunting for small success himself.
Spoiler
Hi everyone.
Timm here, not "cio93".
The ManGame, and the journey of Team Puma - SAP within it, is deeply important to me and has been a significant part of my life for many years.
So was Amari.
Amari was one of my dogs, and sadly we lost him unexpectedly in July, way too early at only 8 years of age.
Technically, one of my mom's dogs, but living in the same town means I don't think there's a distinction considering the time we spent together.
Amari was tiny in stature, but big in personality and courage.
Not even half the size of his four brothers (in spirit) of the same breed, he was their inofficial leader and didn't hesitate to show even the largest dogs who they were going to be up against.
Always desperate to receive help to make it all the way up the sofa to get in on the cuddling (and the licking, oh the licking!), our "kleiner Mann" / "little man" will leave a much, much bigger hole. One that we cannot and do not want to fill again.
I have chosen to make this signing specifically in his memory.
Don't expect this rider to appear in any future transfer availability posts.
Thank you for your attention.
Back to silly make-believe! There's no alternative to having fun in life.
Congrats on landing these talents, it will be exciting to see what you can do with Schiffer eventually!
Spoiler
Thanks for sharing the personal note on Amari. Its clear how much you loved him and you've found an awesome way to remember the little man through this game. I went through a parallel experience last month, losing my cat Melon at only 7 years old. So I will definitely be following along and cheering for you and Amari!
Schiffer is a fantastic rider, Zahiri a nice min wage pickup that i hoped would be there later and i hope that Hamza will get his opportunities to shine for you!
I had Ballerstedt on the radar when he was added two years ago and I was still a part-German team, but didn't get around to signing him. Should be a nice piece to the cobbles squad. And Schiffer is an unsurprising, but still great signing. I'm sure he'll get some nice development at Puma!
Very interesting to see you turn your focus to North Africa. Competition, sure, but also always great to see more people working towards developing those regions. All the best with Amari in particular!
I want to thank everyone for your kind words.
They really matter, and I'm grateful for your uplifting reactions. I wasn't sure if this was a good spur-of-the-moment decision initially, but it felt right then and feels right now, even more so thanks to your support.
It's very comforting that his memory will live on, and more on that further down as well.
THE BIG FAT PRE-SEASON POST
Let's cover it all, shall we!
TRANSFER UPDATE PT.2
We don't want to forget a quick summary of the transfer moves that weren't covered yet in our first update.
Alongside the loan of Maurice Ballerstedt to Specialized, we also send Marco Brenner to the PCT team for another season of development.
We thank WJ a lot for the swift negotiations!
We also say goodbye to Ben Zwiehoff and Joris Nieuwenhuis.
Ben was brought in at an already advanced age to provide mountain break coverage and climbing support, and the decision was made to swap him for valuable talents in order to improve the age structure of the team while the arrival of Anton Schiffer means this position can still be covered.
Joris had an intriguing offer from a new Dutch CT team that would have played right to his strengths, but sadly the team didn't materialize in the end and we might be back in the mix for him from Free Agency next year.
In between swaps and stagiaire signings, there's a total of 5 new riders to present.
Most, if not all, of these young riders will be able to remain at minimum wage for the rest of their careers in order to reinforce our depth for the better part of the next 10 years.
This allows us to focus on the top end of a post-Herklotz team structure in the coming transfer seasons, which removes a lot of pressure.
Alexandros Matsangos
4.100
26yo
Cobbler
€50.000
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The sad loss of Remi Cavagna to our friends at ELCO - ABEA could be slightly mitigated by turning that deal into a swap, with us receiving a solid cobbler in Alexandros Matsangos in return.
The Cypriot newly maxed as a good depth piece for Jonas Rutsch while also possessing enough skill uphill and in time-trials to round out lineups there.
Pauls Rubenis
4.13
24yo
Cobbler
€50.000
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Ben Zwiehoff's departure to Indosat - Ooredoo even brings back two riders to us in a larger swap deal.
The first of those is Pauls Rubenis, a nearly fully-developed talent for both cobbled classics and leadouts who somehow hasn't already ended up at one of the strong Baltic teams.
With the loss of Joris Nieuwenhuis, he will soon replace that important depth role for both Rutsch and Kanter - and looking at his age, whoever may come after!
ARUBA Indy Van Vliet
3.36
23yo
Stage Racer
€50.000
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The second arrival from Indosat looks about as exotic as the team has ever gotten at first glance. Indy Van Vliet is the reigning Aruban road race champion, but with Aruba being an autonoumous country within the Netherlands, there's more of a connection to a Western European team for this Caribbean rider than you may think!
We intend to develop Indy into an allround stage racer to contribute to all aspects of such races equally for at least the rest of this decade.
Moritz Kretschy
1.58
23yo
Allrounder
€10.000
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In the latter parts of the transfer season, we were happy (albeit surprised considering the amount of German teams) to see Moritz Kretschy was still available for a stagiare contract, which we swiftly secured.
With a return to a more multi-national team than what may have been the plan in recent years, we still want to ensure there's a solid amount of young Germans in the team in the future, and we expect Moritz to be an absolute staple for us even though he sadly won't be able to gain a level this year.
His allround abilities will most certainly see his race days be more or less maxed out each season as there's always a need for a reliable domestique or punchy breakaway rider.
Oussama Mimouni
1.00
22yo
Sprinter
€10.000
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As mentioned before, for a very specific reason there will be a certain minor focus on the Mahgreb in future years, and our final rider addition is a welcome further step into that direction right from the start. Oussama Mimouni could've easily been off the table before stagiaire bidding was enabled if he had been from a traditional cycling country, so we're very happy to loosely tie the Algerian to our team with such a contract.
While his development will be rather slow, he will turn into a very capable leadout rider eventually.
TEAM PUMA - SAP 2025
Team Puma - SAP 2025 looks a lot like it did in 2024, and for a good reason.
We believe in the structure of the team to deliver a strong result again after P8 last year.
Certainly, having Silvio Herklotz would allow for a title push akin to Evonik if we maximized our current points scoring potential, but that's not how we operate anymore lately.
It's always been important for us to look into the future and have a time-resilient squad with lots of young, allround riders on low wage to supplement the few, mostly German terrain leaders.
This year, it was vital for us to generate the training funds for Jonas Rutsch to make one further step towards a cobbles favorite after it became clear Tibor Del Grosso was not gonna be a Puma rider.
We managed this easily while also retaining more (and younger) riders on our "for sale" list than anticipated, meaning we will enter next year's transfer season with plenty of riders on offer then to again generate training funds, which we consider a big success.
It has become clear that one pillar of this team beyond the GT domination years will be the cobbled classics, and a lot of our transfer moves this year are meant to provide the backbone for that.
The most obvious change compared to 2023 or 2024 is the more multi-national look of the team.
There was a phase where it looked to be a manageable goal to transform the squad into 100% German riders, but we moved away from that again in order to create a better squad for a post-Herklotz future, and to make this whole thing more fun!
Nevertheless, the big announcement still pertains to Germany, and will come after this goals presentation.
2025 goals
The following five goals will be chased by Team Puma - SAP in 2025.
Top 10
PT Team Standings
MGUCI
Win
Vuelta a España
GT
Top 3
Liège - Bastogne - Liège
MON
Top 3
Giro di Lombardia
MON
Top 3
GP Liechtenstein
PT
No big surprises after five achieved goals last season.
Silvio Herklotz will attempt to win a third Vuelta a España after 2018 and 2023, and furthermore will return to Liège as the defending champion and to Lake Como after his 2023 victory there.
Not being at the Giro d'Italia also frees him up to ride the GP Liechtenstein again.
Overall, while achieving all these goals could set us up for a better position (as indicated by a few of the previews, for which we are thankful), we are content to aim for a solid Top 10 position in the overall standings again.
Now, for the big news attached to this reveal.
Silvio Herklotz will be supported at the Vuelta a España by the following riders:
Georg Zimmermann, Johannes Schinnagel, Florian Stork, Mike Aaron Egger, Anton Schiffer, Miguel Heidemann, Juri Hollmann
This means that we are aiming to win a Grand Tour with a fully German lineup!
We are not entirely sure if this would be the first time in history that a GT winner is supported entirely by compatriots, but this would be the culmination of our efforts to promote German cycling regardless.
And last but not least, please stick around for the announcement of a slightly altered 2025 Team Puma - SAP jersey in the coming post soon.
Thrilled to see Herklotz is going to the Vuelta, I was worried you may send him to the Giro but agree that the route in Spain makes the most sense for him.
Very, very achievable goals for Herklotz! Admittedly it hurts to see him in the Vuelta, as I had a minor, minor hope Valter could make his GT debut for Aker without Herklotz present I'll happily take last season's LBL finish though on every early hilly stage, fingers crossed Herklotz and him can combine for good things to happen for Valter too, not only for Herklotz
Famously unchanged since the team's inception in 2012, our team name stands for continuity and a long-term vision that shows itself in transfer moves and training activity alike (maybe a little bit of indecisiveness also plays a role..).
Similarly, our jersey only changed twice, with Aidan updating the original design by Sykkel_Freak in 2014 and hillis91 streamlining that further in 2018.
But times change, and so do lives, and sometimes we want a deeper connection between how we present ourselves and who we are.
Therefore, to be a beacon of remembrance for the 2025 season, we reached out to the ever-talented hillis91 to update the Team Puma - SAP jersey once again.
For the next 12 months, we ride not only in memory of Amari, but with Amari.
His nose and paw prints feature prominently, while an additional little nod to our little man comes in the form of his initial on a background of the real fur fabric of his favorite toy (/pillow), closest to our hearts where he will always live on.
Spoiler
We also want to use this space to present, as mentioned before, Indy Van Vliet's Aruban champion jersey that he earned to ride in during all mass start stages of the 2025 season. Enjoy your reward, Indy!
Thank you hillis91 for a stellar implementation of my very vague vision. <3
I'll happily take last season's LBL finish though on every early hilly stage, fingers crossed Herklotz and him can combine for good things to happen for Valter too, not only for Herklotz 
