With one of our goals depending on how our transfer season went, we can now reveal that we have chosen Clasica San Sebastian to be our second win goal, ahead of the Tour of Czech Republic.
This decision came about after the team signed main transfer target Daryl Impey, who should be an ideal rider for the race. Should the hilly profile not result in a selective sprint, we also have Ben Nasser who can hang on with the best hilly riders and out-sprint them.
That means our goals in full for 2015 are:
Race
Goal
Type
Cat
PCT Team Standings
Top 10
Strade Bianche
Win
HC
Clasica San Sebastian
Win
HC
Nelspruit Classic
Top 5
HC
Manx International
Top 5
HC
With transfers for the team now finished, expect a team presentation in the coming days here, before the season gets underway.
Edited by FroomeDog99 on 19-05-2015 21:32
SportingNonsense wrote:
Sensible goal choice, and good to see you pick up Manfred. I'd probably have gone for him at the end of transfers again if you hadn't
We would have tried to get him last year, but ran out of cap and had to leave him to you. Happy to have him now though, can be a good Kenyan domestique for us in future once developed.
I'm not surprised you would have gone for him, Eritel seem to be bidding on every rider who is African and relatively young with your unused salary cap
Transfers are now over for the team, and with just race planning remaining before the season begins we can now present to you the riders who'll form our team this season.
With 11 riders leaving and another 11 riders joining, it has been a busy period but we are happy with our dealings and we now have a strong all-round team with leaders on most terrains to launch a bid to reach the top 10 in the PCT standings.
The team's main rider last season who provided nearly half of our points, this season we hope not to be so reliant on him with other leaders arriving. Despite this, he will still play a major role in the team leading us on the hills once again. We hope he can replicate last year's successes in the hilly races.
Another rider that's new to the team, Michal is good on both the mountains and hills, making him a good option for us to lead in stage races over the year. His time trial isn't his best quality, but combined with a good prologue he has the ability to ride well on these stages so he should be able to grab a few good GC placings.
Daryl will lead the team in sprints this season, after arriving in transfers for a big fee. His ability on the hills will mean many races he rides will be on lumpy terrain, where he will hope to hang on and use his sprint to his advantage at the finish. Among his goals are his home race Tour of South Africa, where he will hope to continue the team's success there after we won it last year.
After a disappointing first season for the team, this season Mwangi will get another chance at leading us in the high mountains. We hope he has now adapted to life here and can now push on and start earning us some points in the races that he rides.
American rider Bookwalter is another rider new to the team. He will be our leader in time-trials, and combining his ability on the TT bike with a decent climbing ability he will be a threat in lots of TT stage races over the year.
Marco is another who is new to the team this season. He provides valuable experience, and his versatility on several terrains makes him an ideal super domestique for the team. His sprinting and hilly ability will mean he will spend most of his season leading out Impey, while he will also get the chance to lead us on a couple of cobbled races.
Spending another year with us in pursuit of development, Merhawi will one day lead the team in the mountains. After improving in the off-season, he will move into the role of being our best domestique in the mountains. We also hope to give him a taste of C2 leadership in the odd race this year also.
Arriving from Red Bull - Huawei, Maciej will provide us with a useful option in TT's over the course of the year, adding to our TTT squad's depth and also maybe getting a few good individual results in the discipline. When not on the TT bike the big Pole can be a useful domestique for the sprints.
One of the team's best scorers last year with 100+ points, Simon will hope to continue to help the team on the mountains while also hunting stages when the opportunity arises.
Bassirou joins us from the free agency and will be a good domestique for us on the hills. He can also be an attacking rider if given the opportunity to go up the road.
An all-round domestique, Rossetto is one of a few European imports to the team. He should be a good helper for us in TTT's over the season and on the hills.
A relatively young addition to the team, Clovis adds to our depth on the hills and mountains, and will spend the majority of his time working for others as a domestique.
One of few riders left from our inaugural season, Tarik remains a mainstay of the hilly department of the team. His abilities on the flat means he is also a useful rider for the flat classics we ride.
Pirmin provides an ideal leadout for Impey, combining a strong sprint with a decent climbing ability. We hope he can position our sprint leader well on plenty of occasions this season.
After renewing with us for another season Redouane is set for another season working on the hills for our leaders. His ability on the mountains also makes him useful on those races also.
Lotto was a useful rider in TTT's for us last season, a role he will continue to fill this year. His attacking mentality also lead to him finishing in the top ten of a HC classic, so he will be given a license to attack also.
Hillary was looking for a loan to the PT to help him develop, but no opportunity arose for him so he will spent the season here instead serving our leaders on the hills.
Daniel has served us well over the past few seasons, and as a result was rewarded with a new deal. However, his uses are limited tot he high mountains and as a result this could be his last season on the team.
A future solid stage-racer for the team, Bonaventure spent last year in the CT and will spent this year once again developing, working for the team in the mountains.
Another rider for the future, Hussein arrives to fill the hole left by the outgoing Ndbri. One day he will be a great climber for us, but for now he will spend the year developing.
Joining the team on loan from Bouygues in a loan swap, Jorgen will be the water carrier of the team as he is our worst rider. However, he can still be a useful domestique at times for us on the hills.
Before the season begins, the inaugural continental championships have been taking place, with 20 of our riders taking part in the African, European and American races. Our first race was the African time-trial, and it went very well.
Kenyan rider Mujtaba Hussein, currently out on loan at Vesuvio in the PT, want into the race as a minor favourite, after improving his time-trialling skills in the off-season. However, he surpassed our expectations in finishing on the podium in 3rd!
It was a very promising performance, as Hussein beat riders of the calibre of Dan Craven. We hope he can challenge for victory for next season once he has developed even more.
Hopefully this is the first of a few good results at the championships, where we have contenders in the African RR, American TT and European RR. We will keep you updates with how our riders are doing.
I'm thinking of doing an overview of some of our leaders' calendar, is there any rider you would like to see the calendar of? Not many posts here recently apart from mine, so thought I would see who others are interested in.
Will leave this question open until tomorrow, where I'll probably do the first one.
Kwiak and Impey for me are the most interesting all round to see schedules of as they have the most obvious wide calendar to choose from; would be surprised for instance is most aren't able to fairly accurately predict Samwel's f.e. .
Kwiak in particular is intersting whether he will concentrate on puncheur races, mixed stage races or even some mountain races. Impey whether he follows the obvious sprinter path, or tries to avoid some of his biggest competitors on the flat and utilise his ability in the hills at all.
Whatever the case, a much stronger Team Keya Airways ready to hit the road in 2015 in comparison to 2014 imo - a good transfer season for you!
Scorchio - Kwiatek and Impey were hard to schedule. I went for a mix of flat and hilly terrains for Impey to try and find the right combination for him, and hilly and mountains for Kwiatkowski. Both will get a bit of both terrains, hopefully it works for them for at least one of them.
Samwel was actually one of the hardest for me to pick. He didn't even reach his full allocation of racedays, which may be surprising but I don't think he'll be too effective with all the top climbers and didn't want him to get in Kwiatek's way with PCM maybe putting him as leader in races they both ride.
aidan - That's a lot of riders, I doubt I'll do that many. Thinking of doing Impey, Kwiatek and maybe Ben Nasser as well at the moment.
With many teams and riders having finalised their schedules for the upcoming season, we are happy to announce our best rider Daryl Impey's schedule for the year, which includes a variety of races with different profiles ranging from flat to hilly.
He will begin his season at the Tour Down Under in Austraila. He will then get the chance to lead the team at his home race, the Tour of South Africa, where we hope he can retain our title. He will also attempt to achieve our win goal at Clasica San Sebastian, before closing his season at the Paris - Tours classic.
Next up for his schedule to be announced is another new arrival, Michal Kwiatkowski. With strong all-round climbing ability the Pole will target both mountainous and hilly races this season, although his main focus will be on stage-races.
His season begins in Eritrea, where he will hope to get his season off to a good start in a stage race with both mountains and hills. A highlight on his calendar is the 11-day Tour of Portugal, where we think he should be able to contend for the win in a mountainous race with many hilly stages. His season closes at the Tour of Beijing, a tough hilly stage race in China.
Quite like the whole HQ from the graphics PoV, was already awesome last year, but this is taking things to a whole new level.
I think we will see a lot of each other next year, both of us focusing on hills and mountains, but I'm mainly just happy I won't have to put up with Impey too much. It'll be very interesting to see how he does at this level - could be a standings winner or could disappoint a little.
Ah, Hoffman and Impey will clash a few times - no surprise. Which is disappointing because it means we'll mostly be fighting for 2nd places. Nice mix up for Impey with flat and hilly. I can see him winning at every single race he's attending. He's the kind of rider who can slot you into a mid top 10.
Kwiatkowksi is where it gets really interesting because we'll see everywhere bar Romandie. He'll come up against Bennett, Eastman, Craven, and Augustyn and numerous occasions which is cool. Should see some nice battles with him and 4 of my guys!
Dippofix - Thanks! I'm sure Marquez and McCarthy will beat our leaders the majority of times they face each other, but you're right that Impey should hopefully be a good scorer. I'm not sure how well he will do either, only time will tell I guess.
cio93 - Really? That's great news, as I expected him to be Impey's main rival. It does make me wonder where Demare is going though, and whether I've missed a few races with his schedule that he could do well at.
aidan - Seems like we'll be seeing a lot of Project on the road then! Hoffman should be a good rival to Impey, I'm looking forward to their battle at the Tour of South Africa. I also think Kwiatek and Bennett should get similar results and expected a similar calendar, surprised he'll be meeting Eastman though (Portugal?). Hopefully that's the only occasion.
Well I think it's more the fact that with a leader for each distinctive terrain, there wasn't a lot of overall race days left to spend on races that specifically suit Demare, and the fact that Ciolek exists of course.
He's doing:
DUC, Philly, Berlin, Eneco, Melaka and Paris-Tours as Ciolek leadout.
Strade and GP Cyclistes as the bunch sprint option which I hope Kelderman will make irrelevant anyway.
And most importantly Ukraine, Vancouver, Romandie, Dunkerque, Britain as the guy for the flat(-ish) stages and Plouay as his big classic win goal.
Edited by cio93 on 04-06-2015 17:21
cio93 wrote:
Well I think it's more the fact that with a leader for each distinctive terrain, there wasn't a lot of overall race days left to spend on races that specifically suit Demare, and the fact that Ciolek exists of course.
He's doing:
DUC, Philly, Berlin, Eneco, Melaka and Paris-Tours as Ciolek leadout.
Strade and GP Cyclistes as the bunch sprint option which I hope Kelderman will make irrelevant anyway.
And most importantly Ukraine, Vancouver, Romandie, Dunkerque, Britain as the guy for the flat stages and Plouay as his big classic win goal.
So plenty of stage hunting. Impey is at Strade for a bunch sprint option also, as backup for Ben Nasser (it's a win goal) so they could come into competition there as well. Shame he doesn't get to lead much in hilly races, as I think he could have been really effective.
I wish, but I can't leave Kelderman out of those just to see what Demare can do, and there aren't enough races to fill both of their calendars, especially considering we opted out of HC band 6.
Edited by cio93 on 04-06-2015 17:31
Clasica San Sebastian to be our second win goal, ahead of the Tour of Czech Republic.
Hassen Ben Nasser
Tour of Czech Republic
Michal Kwiatkowski
Tour de Romandie
Tour of Japan
Volta a Portugal
Tour Down Under
GP Plouay
Mwangi Samwel
Colombian Venteaux
Tour of Bulgaria
Brent Bookwalter
Duo Differdange
Post Danmark Rundt
Merhawi Kudus
Bassirou Konte
Clovis Kamzong
Tarik Chaoufi
Redouane Chaabane
Lotto Petrus
Bonaventure Uwizeyimana
Jorgen Matt
.
Dutch Food Valley Classic
Berlin ProRace
Tour of Norway
Melaka's Governor Cup
Grands Prix Cyclistes
Gisborne GP
Tour of Beijing
