Cool names there. Ever since Hollloway high back up sprinters have peaked my interest. But seems like lots of others are taking peek and unfortunately most of them operate at the peak of the sport. Definitely interested in talking about Groenewegen.
Gotta join the chorus of voices who have seen an interesting entry or two on that availability list. If we're talking of reunions though, maybe the Halland Johannessen twins should have one
@Ulrich Ulriksen: Looking forward to talking to you about potential trades and offers!
@liefwarrior: Reunions are always nice! But is the team the twins can ride together in a given? Looking forward to hear from you and what you potentially have in mind
The transfer season is far from over at Aker - MOT, but it sure has been busy. One part of it has been the FA market, where the team have signed five riders. Two leadout riders, two domestiques for the hills, and then a cool wildcard:
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
OVR
XP
Age
Wage
Alexander Salby
75
63
64
65
62
75
75
78
69
75
75
67
71
65
73,58
4.100
27
110 000
Marc Sarreau
75
58
62
65
60
74
76
75
72
76
76
63
64
67
74,38
4.100
32
80 000
Salby was a big priority when the transfer season started, as we really rate him as a leadout rider. His good flat, combined with good enough sprint/acceleration, we hope, should make for a strong leadout rider, especially with his energy stats. And we've made our intentions very clear for the long game, we're in it for the sprints, with Groenewegen this season and De Lie to continue his development. We know very well the sprints can be a lottery, but at least we think we're giving ourselves better odds adding Salby to the team.
Very much of the same can be said about Sarreau. Good flat, decent sprint/acceleration combination and solid energy stats. Admittedly older, but he could well be Groenewegen's final leadout this season. We're excited to see how he does.
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
OVR
XP
Age
Wage
Joel Yates
71
65
72
78
69
77
74
71
63
62
69
73
69
69
74,25
4.100
29
50 000
Cristian Rodriguez
70
70
73
76
67
76
70
70
55
65
71
75
74
67
74,14
4.100
30
50 000
The next duo is Yates and Rodriguez, who will be key domestiques for Valter's season. Our Hungarian talisman was magnificent last season, and we think he deserves better support, so we're thrilled to add Yates and Rodriguez on minimum wages.
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
OVR
XP
Age
Wage
-
Blerton Nuha
71
70
70
70
65
73
71
68
58
64
72
77
72
65
71,59
3.97
25
50 000
-
Blerton Nuha
75
72
73
73
66
77
73
70
59
65
75
81
73
66
71,59
4.100
25
50 000
We chased Nuha last transfer season too, but just missed out in a bidding war. This year there was no such thing, to our big surprise and relief, so we were over the moon to put pen to paper and agree a 50k contract with Nuha. We see him as a future key domestique that will also chase own success here and there, due to his abilities to attack and be aggressive.
Seems like you're embracing the stamina meta pretty strongly! I was wary to go that high for Salby, but he ready is the perfect leadout rider, and his wage will come down quickly.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Love these signings, as always great taste. Nuha is so cool and as bbl says, STA is the new RES and so I have to pledge my allegiance there too and love those acquisitions
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
Not being that active on the FA market, meant we had to look to deals and trades to do what we wanted to do this transfer season. It became clear for many that we were trying to bring in the needed money for what we saw as some crucial training.
And so we sold. The first deal we found, saw last year's Tour de France hero, and also a rider we have developed ourselves, Anders Halland Johannessen leave. He will ride this season for Swedish outfit Assa Abloy. In came Alexander Konychev, who we believe will form a formidable duo with Kragh for the flat classics.
Then there was Domen Novak, who we sold when an offer of 1,7m came our way, just raising the money we hoped to raise, combined with the 500k we got on top of the AHJ/Konychev trade. We wish him the best in the color's of IESE!
Letting both AHJ and Novak leave, left us really, really thin on climbers. We didn't solve that admittedly, especially when he who was supposed to take over, Faglum Karlsson, got traded away again after a surprising enquiry from Duvel-Tsingtao. We are banking on having enough quality to be safe this season, hopefully giving us a better future, as the Spanish puncheur Romo came in in the trade that saw Faglum Karlsson leave.
We immediately knew we couln't count on huge points in the mountains, but we still tried to cover, hopefully, some breakaway options, trading in Williams for cool riders for the future, but also loaning in JP Lopez from Newton. The duo should have a lot of freedom in the mountains in any race they do for us. Speaking of loans and Newton, we're also happy to have Canal on loan with us, where he'll max out and do both the Tour and his home GT, the Vuelta.
Other than that, our focus for trades was to try to make the team slightly younger, and we think we succeeded, bringing in Stokbro and Vabo from Grieg, Kalf from Rabobank, and Bakke Christophersen from Bolt (in the same deal that originally saw Faglum Karlsson join us). We hope they can all play valuable domestique roles, both this season and for the years to come. The latter deal also saw Peak join forces with Bolt, and we're thrilled to see him get the training we couldn't give him.
We also had a couple of options in the FA market that dragged out, but in the end we got there, signing Toupalik as a domestique for the hills, but a rider that can also do good work on the flats. Then we had the big one, bringing Prasad "home" after his sensational 2023 for us, helping us win the PT title with his sensational Vuelta. He's back for more, and eventhough we are the first to admit we don't expect new miracles, at least he makes us competitive in almost all flat stages, as combined with main sprinter Groenewegen, they cover a lot of race days.
ember wrote:
The latter deal also saw Peak join forces with Bolt, and we're thrilled to see him get the training we couldn't give him.
Surely you could have given him that training in lieu of your actual plans. Admins, it's not too late! We can still fix this.
I liked Romo and he seems perfect for what we've heard about this game version, but I wasn't quick enough to move. Interesting to see how he works with Valter, after spending last year paired with Yates, a very different puncheur. Perhaps some Valter training would have also made sense in this case.
I obviously kid. You've done very well this transfer season as always, and Anderberg is now an extremely scary opponent who you've invested a ton into. You should be near the top again.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
The training always felt like an easy choice this year. Valter was brilliant last season, and I'm not sure 82 hill does much difference for him points wise. Of course he's likely to score less this year, but he should still be able to have a good season, I hope. The Anderberg training feels like it makes a lot more difference, as he should know be a proper podium candidate whereever he goes, as long as we have cobbles, while previously, he was more of a top 5 candidate that could also do better on a rare occasion.
The one option I seriously considered, was making Valter 80 mountain, which for this specific season would have been cool, but not sure at all what good it would have done in the long run, as it would have raised his OVL and wage a fair bit, and I would still not have been sure of how much better points scorer he would actually be.
The training always felt like an easy choice this year. Valter was brilliant last season, and I'm not sure 82 hill does much difference for him points wise. Of course he's likely to score less this year, but he should still be able to have a good season, I hope. The Anderberg training feels like it makes a lot more difference, as he should know be a proper podium candidate whereever he goes, as long as we have cobbles, while previously, he was more of a top 5 candidate that could also do better on a rare occasion.
The one option I seriously considered, was making Valter 80 mountain, which for this specific season would have been cool, but not sure at all what good it would have done in the long run, as it would have raised his OVL and wage a fair bit, and I would still not have been sure of how much better points scorer he would actually be.
To be clear, I completely understand why Anderberg to 82 cobbles was the highest value move. Similar to why I trained Per in the first place two years ago. I just don't like the result.
Although I would have also seen the argument for training both of them to 81 in their main stats. That would have increased Valter's MM as well and kept pace with the higher profile trainings on that terrain (Vansevanent, Hirschi, Bagioli). But yeah, making Anderberg a clear top 3 cobbler was probably the smarter move.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Lots of riders going out so it's probably a small step back for this season. Lopez and Williams feel like perfect additions for your team. I'm interested to see how Konychev does, but I guess he can be a slight improvement on Soren Kragh who was already one of the best rouleurs in the game. Of course Prasad returns to give everyone PTSD again
Mre: Thank you for loaning both of them out to me! Fingers crossed especially Lopez gets the nod as a breakaway rider. If so, he should be very visible in many of his races. The same goes for Canal, but for him, the more realistic target surely must be breakaway appearances in the shorter stage races, where he can maybe fight for KoM points and such. Should be fun to follow!
red: Agree on your short analysis, there can't be any question our team is weakened short term. As part of the ongoing rebuild, I'm still happy with our ins and outs, though, as I hope we're about to set us up well for the future. And also, the PT in general feels slightly weaker at the top than usual. I mean, not the top, top teams, but the depth from 4th to 17h feels maybe slightly less than normal. I'm hoping we can do well from that and secure a spot inside the top 10, and not outside
Looking forward to hear from you and what you potentially have in mind 
