Nah, lets tease the cycling jurnalists and fans a little bit more until the planning is done.
That is some seriously great lineup for Tour you have here, it will be great battle between Spilak and whoever other 85 climbers/s will turn out in France.
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 20-06-2016 08:06
Local media of France have spotted Jerome Coppel on what seems to be a unique and specialized training trip. It should be evident that the Team Gen-I - Festina setup have invested several millions in his development and one of the worlds best timetriallists might be targeting a great season ahead including World championships and Olympics among others. Jerome Coppel is by many already touted as the best timetriallist in the world aswell as a strong roulleur.
A slovenian media also speculates that another rider would be in for a massive amount of training as they got a quick glance at a rider wearing Gen-I - Festina gear at the airport. The media are speculating on which rider it could be, but seems to know that he was "dark-haried", ruling out French rider, Maxime Bouet. The media are guessing that another French rider, Mathieu Bernaudeau could be going to a timetrial training, but his destination was not similar to the one of Jerome Coppel, why most are guessing that team leader Simon Spilak could be the person in question!
Edited by SotD on 19-03-2017 11:26
Piter Campero, 25 years old (Two time national champion)
Piter Campero initially signed for Festina in the 2013 season, having shown promise in small domestique races in South America. The promise of a bolivian climber was by many touted to be a gamble, and the first season in the Pro Tour was quickly discovered to be a mouthful. Campero ended the season in 39th of the Tour de l'Avenir, helping fellow U23 rider, Clement Koretzky to an overall 10th place in the race. Shortly after, he also managed to claim the Bolivia National RR championship title, proving the doubters wrong.
Despite having now showed his talent, Piter Campero went off on loan for the 2014 season to Allianz-BMC Cycling Team, where he had the chance to get a lot of riding into heart at HC level. Throughout the season Campero was a strong domestique for the german outfit, and occasionally he sneaked into a decent GC position, such as 28th at the demanding Volta a Portugal. Despite being a helper, Piter Campero showed remarkable skill as a breakaway rider, and numerous times were in contention for a stagewin - although no luck in the end. Having won the Bolivian National RR championship in the 2013 season, he went on to do a double in 2014, also claiming 2nd at the TT, behind Ruben Ibanez of the Grupo Nutresa outfit.
After having been loaned out, Piter went back to the Pro Tour, and the owner Team Festina. The HC races clearly had paid off, and where Campero previously struggled to stay with the pack, he now had a significant amount of power to help his leaders perform well, often finishing within top 70 himself on strong GC races. The best individual performance was in Vuelta a Colombia where he landed a 39th GC position, while helping captain Simon Spilak reach his goal. Piter also delivered a staggering 36th GC in the Tour of Northern Europe, despite having never delivered on the cobbles previously. Piter Campero also participated in the first ever run of the Continental Championships, where he finished 42nd being the best Bolivian rider, after winner Taylor Phinney. In the World Championships he landed a spot at the B-Worlds, where he managed a respectable 52nd in a RR that suited him very little. It was, however dissapointing to see Campero ending 2nd in the National TT, while not completing the RR.
This season Piter Campero will mainly be considered a domestique, but key races for him will be the likes of Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a España, Criterium du Dauphine and the Vuelta a Colombia. Dauphine will be a first for him, while he already have tried the other races getting these GC results:
Giro d'Italia 2015: 70th
Vuelta a España 2015: 64th
Vuelta a Colombia 2015: 39th
We expect him to do even better this season, and having compiled the data of his performance we assess his level to be something similar to this:
Career Highligts
Winner of Bolivian National Championship RR ('13, '14)
28th Volta a Portugal ('14)
36th Tour of Northern Europe ('15)
39th Vuelta a Colombia ('15)
39th Tour de l'Avenir (U23) ('13)
Olivier Le Gac, 23 years old (The lovely Tour of Britain)
French talent, Olivier Le Gac quickly got the attention of the cycling world with strong junior results, resulting in his first Pro contract as 19 years of age at Team Puma-SAP and it didn't take long for him to prove himself as a valuable domestique. Getting instant top 30 results in his first season in HC races such as MTN Cycling Classic, Tour of South Africa and Tour of Taihu even claiming a KOM jersey at his first appearance in the Tour of Brittain. Olivier Le Gac also took part of the U23 World Championships where he was in attacking mood to light up the race. In the end he managed a 25th place among much older riders - And winner Kevin Eeckhout. He also took part of his first French National Championships, where he helped Sebastien Minard getting into the top 10.
In 2013 Olivier Le Gac had moved on to join Pearl-Adidas in the PT, having done so well in his first season as a pro rider. But riding at Pro Tour level seemed to be a bit out of his league, and being just 20 years of age it was really no wonder. His best result of the season was 54th in the Tour of Norway, but mainly riding as a domestique - All was fair. At the end of the season he debuted on Tour de l'Avenir getting a dissapointing 190th in the GC, having crashed early in the race. Getting 43rd in the U23 World Championships was somewhat of a dissapointment to the young rider, but seeing not only Koretzky but also Demare in the top 5 of the race, he must have known he did what was needed.
In 2014 he finally joined the French legion of Festina in the aim to become a better rider. Results didn't improve, however, and while the French rider was looking very interesting at first, interest started fading, with the swift development of riders such as Koretzky, Demare and Lecuisinier. In the Tour de l'Avenir he struggled, yet again, only to come 34th, but helping captain Lecuisinier get 2nd. So for the 2015 season, Olivier Le Gac was loaned out to join AMEX-Navigon at HC level. And while it all started out fairly mediocre, it was evident that Le Gac had found some breathing space, and suddenly appeared enjoying life of racing again. With attacking riding and a strong engine, he scored his best GC result ever, getting 13th of the Tour of Czech Republic, only to deliver even better at his favorite race Tour of Britain, where he landed an 8th GC result, having previously won the KOM of the race.
After having ridden a respectable season, he went back home to help Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier win the Tour de l'Avenir, which unfortunately failed in the end, getting 2nd. Olivier Le Gac climbed and rode well, fighting for a couple of stagewin aswell, before he helped Lecuisinier get bronze at the U23 World Championships on a very mountainous route.
This season Olivier Le Gac will try to be a captain for the first time in his career, and we are very eager to see what this 23 year old rider can do with a team to support him. His key races will be Clasica San Sebastian, Giro dell'Emilia and Tour of Ukraine, but the team counts on him to perform well in the classics of the Pro Tour season aswell with races such as Badaling International, Milano San Remo, Fleche Wallone, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Giro di Lombardia. He tried several of these races before, but back in 2013 and there are definately room for improvement:
Badaling International: 103rd
Milano San Remo: 137th
Fleche Wallone: 105th
Liege-Bastogne-Liege: 130th
Giro di Lombardia: 83rd
We expect that all races will be improved, some significantly - And obviously we want him to be aggressive as ever. Because of these data we assess that his level will resemble to this:
Career Highligts
8th Tour of Britain ('15)
13th Tour of Czech Republic ('15)
KOM Winner Tour of Britain ('12)
21st Tour of South Africa ('12)
24th MTN Cycling Classic ('12)
Bryan Coquard, 24 years old (Tour of Qatar time?)
As a young rider, Bryan Coquard got spectacular results on the track because of his phenomenal acceleration, but transcendance into road racing have been a bit of a bore so far. In 2013 Coquard debuted by signing a Pro contract with Festina, being just 21 years old - He was quickly loaned out to French continental team, Evian-MIAT to develop, and get a hold of riding within a peloton. And while he did have a few decent results here and there, he was mainly there for learning and helping. His first race of his career was a promising 23rd in The Emerald Race, but after that he was often behind the other guys going into the final. His first Tour de l'Avenir showed that he was a fairly strong rider against the clock. His best stage result was 8th on stage 3.
In 2014 he was yet again loaned out, this time to promotion contender Quickstep, where he was set to be a leadout sprinter, and gain experience in front of the pack when sprints started. It seemed evident that this was a good decision, as he was well positioned throughout the season, although his own merits were very limited, most notably was the 17th place in one-day race Melaka Govenor's Cup. In the Tour de l'Avenir pundits were beginning to speculate whether this could be the big breakthrough as he went 16th fastest in the opening prologue, best of all the sprinters, and just 19 seconds down on the leaders jersey. But an unlucky 5th on the first real day of racing had him overtaken by young sprinter, Nick van der Lijke. After the dissapointing event, many expected him to strike back at the flat U23 World Championships, but a horrible 18th place left France with little to flag for.
In 2015, however he was back "home" at Festina, where he was looking to learn from lead sprinter, Georgos Tzortzakis, and as such he was set out to be lead out in most races. This became a succesful feat, and he was the leadout for Tzortzakis succesful campaign at the 2015 Giro d'Italia where he won two stages and led the sprint competition for a while, before team mate Riccardo Ricco took over. On a personal level, there was not a lot to cheer for, but the opening race, Tour of Qatar offered a bit of succes ending with a 29th GC after some well ridden finals aswell as a decent timetrial result.
This season Bryan Coquard will aim to get a few top 5s himself, to see whether or not the talent can withhold the ambition of once being a Pro Tour lead sprinter. He will be sharing captaincy with Georgos Tzortzakis on several occassions, but the french accelerator will have a few key races: Tour of Qatar, Vuelta a España, Paris-Nice, Tour of California, Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha, GP Moscow and Tour of Tasmania. He rode a few of these races before, but with limited succes.
The spreadsheet of results, performances and expectations forms the basis data, that we valuate will be Coquard of 2016:
Career Highligts
8th stage 3 Giro d'Italia ('15)
17th Melaka Govenor's Cup ('14)
23rd The Emerald Race ('13)
27th Olympia's Tour ('14)
27th Tour of Taihu ('14
cio93 wrote:
Absolutely loving the story about my former rider! I hope he'll overperform somewhere for you.
Thanks mate
I surely hope so too - I doubt it though, but it will be nice to see him lead a few races, to see what he is actually capable of. His stats are not top of course, but definately not all that bad either, so he might perform reasonably well at the HC classics - That is my hope/aim atleast. I have a decent setup for all HC races this season, except the cobbled one, where I was naive and hoped Tom David might've been eligeble, and only too late had the cap space to try and do something about it.
Yuriy Vasyliv, 22 years old (Tour de l'Avenir captain)
From a very early age, pundits have been touting Vasyliv to become one of the worlds biggest stars, and getting a Pro contract with Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team back in 2013 being just 19 years old, seemed like a good starting point for the young German-Ukrainian rider. And Yuriy Vasyliv made an immidiate impact, as he, in his just 2nd Pro race ever managed to finish 4th in the Bucks County Classic. He later went on to struggle a bit in the HC races, but throughout the season he did well, progressing ever so slowly and he debuted in the Tour de l'Avenir helping Wilco Kelderman, in a joint Puma - SAP team, to reach 4th in the GC, while ending in 57th himself.
Pro Tour team, Festina, picked him up from free after the season, and despite most media's concern about this big jump, the team was sure that this gem could become a valuable helper already. Vasyliv quickly developped, but seemed to lack the skills to really pose a threat, finishing all sorts of races within 50-80th. Most prominent was his 64th GC in his debut Tour of Switzerland, shortly followed by 67th GC in his home race, Deutschland Tour. During his second Tour de l'Avenir it was evident to most, that Vasyliv would be captain material one day, finishing 12th in the GC while helping team leader Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier to 2nd overall. Shortly after he also positioned himself as a "must be watched" roulleur getting 7th in the German national championships.
In the 2015 season his small breakthrough came, but while many though Vasyliv was mainly a climber, he managed to shine on different terrains, most notably getting 12th overall in Badaling International in the season opener. He then later helped his team getting 9th in the TTT of Copenhagen-Malmo, while also getting respectable results in the Milano San Remo, Tour of California, Criterium du Dauphine Libere and Tour of Northern Europe - Aswell as getting decent GC results in the HC race Tour of Vancouver. At the end of the season Yuriy Vasyliv was once again the main domestique for Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier in the Tour de l'Avenir, but he even managed to get 7th himself aswell as a stagewin on stage 8. He then went to achieve 7th at the U23 World Championships for Timetriallists, showing his great prospect on numerous terrains, while getting 8th from the U23 World Championships RR, on very mountainous terrain.
This season it is expected that Vasyliv will take another step on his way to becoming a top class cyclist, and for the first time ever, he will actually lead the way, both in the Tour de l'Avenir, but also on several PT and HC races. Key races for Yuriy Vasyliv will be: Tour of California, Tour de Suisse, Clasica San Sebastian, Tour of Ukraine and Giro dell'Emilia. He is also looking set to ride his first ever Grand Tour. He look to improve on previous results:
Tour de l'Avenir: 7th
Tour of California: 37th
Tour of Switzerland: 64th
While, those being respectable results, we are not doubting that he can improve on all. Especially Tour de l'Avenir, where he will aim to reach the podium, and make it three in a row for the team. The data we have assembled regarding the rider, looks like this:
Career Highligts
Stagewin in Tour de l'Avenir ('15)
7th GC Tour de l'Avenir ('15)
12th Badaling International ('15)
4th Bucks County Classic ('13)
8th World Championship RR ('15)
Tom David, 26 years old (7th GC Tour of Northern Europe)
Tom David is a fairly late bloomer compared to a lot of the other talents within the team, however the New Zealand rider proved that he was developping, and that fast over the past couple of seasons. Going well under the radar for a couple of seasons, he was signed by French focused Festina-Canal+ in early 2014 to strengthen the cobbled department. It was never truly discovered at wall level he could be competitive at. And all started out fairly numb, with him going 53rd at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, before him suddenly - from out of nowhere - picked up a geniunly surprising 10th at Gent-Wevelgem. This was, without a doubt, the highligt of his season, with nothing else noteworthy in store.
In 2015 Tom David seemed slightly stronger on a generel aspect of riding, finishing 40th in Classique du Grand-Duche and 30 in the East Midlands Cicle Classic, but the top results were not presenting themselves, and with results like 78th in Ronde van Vlaanderen pundits started speculating that Tom David might not have the level to compete in the Pro Tour. 30th at Paris-Roubaix again showed a bit of development material, but nothing spectacular happened - Until it did! In the 2015 department of Tour of Northern Europe, Tom David yet again rode at a spectacular level getting 7th in the GC after making a nice survival ride on stage 3 and riding superbly over the hills of stage 4. On top of 7th in the GC he also won the Young Riders competition, fairly uncontested.
This upcoming season, Tom David will be the sole and undisputed cobbled leader of the team, and with key races like: Paris-Roubaix, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, East Midlands Cicle Classic, Strada Appia Antica and most importantly Tour of Northern Europe. He already have experience with most of these races:
Tour of Northern Europe: 7th
Paris-Roubaix: 30th
East Midlands Cicle Classic: 30th
Strada Appia Antica: 38th
Ronde van Vlaanderen: 52nd
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: 53rd
Most results are respectable already, but we expect Tom David to be fighting for top 20s in all of these races, probably not, however, making a better ride in the Tour of Northern Europe. We have evaluated Tom Davids progress, and estimate things to look like this:
Career Highligts
7th GC Tour of Northern Europe ('15)
Winner of Young Riders Competition Tour of Northern Europe ('15)
10th Gent-Wevelgem ('14)
30th Paris-Roubaix ('15)
30th East Midlands Cicle Classic ('15)
Bushwackers wrote:
Fun to read, very good research! There's never going to be a shortage of talent at Festina.
Thanks a lot mate. It has taken forever, so I think in the future I will begin writing up results for each rider and each race - Well if they do anything anyway
But I find it quite fun to see what riders can develop from and into, and looking at it from results and screenshots, makes it less of a game and more like a role play version of real life I think. So quite like to do it - For myself obviously. Happy that others like it too!
These are probably the "worst" of my talents (Depending on what Coquard can do). Now to present the big guns
Panagiotis Vlatos, 26 years old (Current National TT Champion)
Back in 2012, Panagiotis Vlatos signed his first contract, as a stagiare at Koppert Cycling Team. He only rode two races for them, Omloop Het Volk and Gent-Wevelgem, both without succes - He did, however ride the Tour de l'Avenir for Festina-Canal+, where he ended up in 112th GC after having gone 7th in the timetrial on stage 9. He later came in 9th in the U23 World Championships for timetriallists, after winner Ryan Eastman. He also managed 23rd at the road race, proving his talent. Eventually Vlatos also managed to win both the National RR and TT Championship.
In 2013 he signed a Pro contract at Festina-Canal+ and this was where his career really started. As one of the very few greeks in professional cycling, Panagiotis had to learn from scratch, and despite doing reasonably well in a few timetrials, he struggled heavily to keep up with the peloton. He did land a fair few decent neo-pro results such as 59th Tour of Qatar and helping the team to 12th at the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT. At the end of the season, Vlatos yet again claimed the National TT Championships, while getting silver at the roadrace after Kastrantas.
2014 was not much better, but Vlatos did seem to be very happy at the team, and slowly progressed int a better and better timetriallist, also getting a few helping roles in the cobbled races, such as Paris-Roubaix and Ronde van Vlaanderen. The team went one up in the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT, and Panagiatos Vlatos was once more on the starting sheet. For the 3rd consquetive time, Vlatos won the Greek National Championships for timetriallists, but this time he was only 4th in the road race - again Kastrantas was the winner. For the first time ever, Vlatos was also nominated to ride the European Championships for timetriallists, but here it was evident, that he was still not at the top of the top - A 28th place was all it could become.
In 2015 Vlatos took a leap forward, that was noteworthy, and instead of getting 70-110th in the races he entered, he went 22th at the Tour of Qatar, and managed 18th in the Chrono des Herbiers, where all of the best timetriallists in the world are gathered to fight it out - A mini World Championships. Having Vlatos as one of the anchormen of the TTT setup, the team also went two up in the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT, getting 9th. The elite World Championships TT, was too much of a task for Vlatos, who only managed 44th, but like always, he won the Greek National Championship for timetriallist, making it four-in-a-row!
This season will be all about the timetrials, and we have reason to believe that he will improve once more. Key races for Vlatos will be: Tour of Qatar, Chrono des Herbiers, Tour of California, Tour de Suisse, Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha, Tour of Northern Europe, Copenhagen-Malmo TTT and The Tour de France.
Several of these races will be his first ever attempt, but we feel he is ready, and have developped well. With the data assembling we believe this is what to look out for:
Career Highligts
Winner of Greek National Championship RR ('12)
Winner of Greek National Championship TT ('12, '13, '14, '15)
9th U23 World Championship TT ('12)
18th Chrono des Herbiers ('15)
22nd Tour of Qatar ('15)
Jakub Novak, 28 years old (Time to rise above it all)
Czech cycling have been in swift development over the past years, and one of the strong talents, is Jakub Novak. He signed for Team Rothaus - Aegon when he was 24 years old, back in 2012. Back then, then team was situated in the Continental rankings and Novak was obviously signed as a domestique. It weren't long before the world noticed that his bottom level was fairly high though, and throughout the season he rode 30-50th results, getting a few highlights such as 19th Criterium Hainleite, 23rd KBC De Panne Tour and 28th E3 Prijs. But two specific results made the pundits look. Novak won the first stage of the Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt, having the leaders jersey for one day, aswell as winning the KOM jersey in Tour of Turkey. In the aftermath of the season, Novak attended the World Championships where he tried to go from afar, with the likes of Bobridge, Navardauskas and Coppel. It all came to nothing though, and Novak ended up as very last.
The season after, Novak was situated in Milka-AVG at Pro Tour level, and despite having a long season, it wasn't really happening for the 25year old rider, who had a fair amount of succes at HC level. 75th GC at Tour of Switzerland was the "highlight". Also he helped his team get a great 2nd place at the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT. After a season of basically nothing it was time to shine in the nationals, and after going solo for a fair bit of the race he ended up winning the National Championships RR of Czech Republic. He also managed to get 5th from the TT.
In 2014 the now Czech champion, found his Pro Tour level and slowly started growing into the role of a strong GC domestique. He attended all three Grand Tours, the best being 52nd at the Giro d'Italia, but at Deutschland Tour the cycling pundits finally saw Novak as a GC rider. Getting 23rd GC of the race was a decent result, and despite of Jakub Novak having to give up on his national jersey at the end of the season, it was a pleasant season for the young climber.
2015 saw Novak leave the team, to chase captaincy at lower level, and so he joined In-n-Out Cycling Team Powered By Carrefour. It didn't take long for him to achieve his first good result, getting 9th in the GC of Tour of The Middle East, but after that he went on to win USA Pro Cycling Challenge Tour and getting 2nd at Giro del Trentino aswell as a few top 15 results in other GC races. Novak clearly had found a new level to compete at.
This season Novak will try something new: To lead at Pro Tour level. The Czech media are very eager to see what this means, and previously only Leopold König have seemed to have GC potential. Key races for Jakub Novak in the 2016 season are: Giro d'Italia, Criterium du Dauphine Libere aswell as several races being shared leader/lieutenant, such as Paris-Nice and Vuelta al Pais Vasco. He rode a few of these raced in the past:
Giro d'Italia: 52nd
Paris-Nice: 67th
Vuelta al Pais Vasco: 82nd
Having looked and analyzed on his performances, and training schedule this is what we have come to conclude:
Career Highligts
Winner of Czech National Championship RR ('13)
Winner of USA Pro Cycling Challenge ('15)
Runner up at Giro del Trentino ('15)
9th Tour of the Middle East ('15)
23rd Deutschland Tour ('14)
Regarding Nowak. The palmares you listed for 2012, when he was on loan with me, is not complete and the best results were missed as seen below:
Spoiler
1st (shared), KoM, Tour of Turkey
1 day KoM jersey, Tour of Wellington
3rd, stage 6, Tour de Beauce
19th, Criterium Hainleite
1st, Stage 1, Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt
1 day GC, Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt
Clement Koretzky, 26 years old (4th place at Giro di Lombardia)
Back in 2013 a very special talent emerged from the french U23 departement, Clement Koretzky. He immidiately signed a Pro contract with Festina, only to be loaned to the lower divisions to prove his worth. Evian was the lucky receiver and it wasn't long before the french comet started performing. 4th at the Tour de Kumano and 3rd at Tour of Korea having raced only one race prior to these. Those races were definately the integral part of his season, but throughout he did well. At the Tour de l'Avenir, Clement Koretzky yet again delivered well, getting 10th in the GC, only to overachieve getting 4th at the U23 World Championships, ahead of team mate Arnaud Demare.
After the sensational start to the career Clement Koretzky went straight to the Pro Tour, and back to owning team, Festina-Canal+. Here it wouldn't take long for him to become a fan favorite, due to his aggressive style of riding. In his just second Pro Tour race, Tour of Qatar, he took a stagewin to help a dreadful team to a little bit of succes, and later on he went on to win a stage at the Volta a Catalunya aswell. His one day race performance was still very unstabile though, but 23rd at Gent-Wevelgem and 39th af Fleche Wallone made pundits speculate that this could be an extremely versatile rider for future greats. At seasons end Clement Koretzky and Laurent Pichon made a great 3-7 at the French National Championships, and French media were on cloud 9 having a couple of very talented riders at Festina, and for the 2015 season they were set as main helpers of Simon Spilak.
Clement Koretzky developped further and had a spectacular 2015 getting 4th at Giro di Lombardia, 7th at Badaling International aswell as strong performances in Classique du Grand-Duche, Amstel Gold Race and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, aswell as getting 22nd at Deutschland Tour. Having a superior season for his young age, and mostly being a domestique, Laurent Pichon decided to seek his luck elsewhere at the end of the season, but Clement Koretzky have grown into a leading role of the team.
This season Koretzky have a fair few key races: Badaling International, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milano San Remo, Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Fleche Wallone, Deutschland Tour aswell as getting his second chance at Vuelta a España. He has been riding most of these in the past, actually doing pretty well:
Giro di Lombardia: 4th
Badaling International: 7th
Deutschland Tour: 22nd
Fleche Wallone: 39th
Vuelta a España: 90th
Milano San Remo: 107th
Through stern analysis of the hardcore facts we are fairly confident that Clement Koretzky will have a certain level:
Career Highligts
4th Giro di Lombardia ('15)
7th Badaling International ('15)
Stage winner of Tour of Qatar ('14)
Stage winner of Volta a Catalunya ('14)
3rd Tour of Korea ('13)
roturn wrote:
Nice read those history lessons of your talents.
Regarding Nowak. The palmares you listed for 2012, when he was on loan with me, is not complete and the best results were missed as seen below:
Spoiler
1st (shared), KoM, Tour of Turkey
1 day KoM jersey, Tour of Wellington
3rd, stage 6, Tour de Beauce
19th, Criterium Hainleite
1st, Stage 1, Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt
1 day GC, Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier, 23 years old (2x 2nd at Tour de l'Avenir)
Must like Clement Koretzky, Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier joined Festina in 2013, where he was immidiately loaned out. A season at Alstom-RBC where he matured slowly, getting few good results, but had a good training. 23rd at Tour of Utah was the best result going in to the "outer" season, where he debuted the Tour de l'Avenir. Lecuisinier debuted with 29th helping Koretzky to 10th overall, aswell as showing great timetrial skills, getting 5th in the final TT.
In 2014 he returned to Festina to help his leaders achieve strong results, aswell as proving his talent in the strongest division of all. After a difficult transcendence Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier showed his strength by taking first 28th af Tour of California and then 24th at Criterium du Dauhpine Libere, even being unlucky to crash in the end, where 17th seemed possible. The big result came in the Tour de l'Avenir, however, where a very young Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier surprised everyone to take 2nd GC behind Alex Kirsch of Vesuvio. After a strong Tour de l'Avenir, Lecuisinier went on to get 9th at the U23 World Championship TT.
After another great step in the right direction, Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier saw his major breakthrough in the 2015 Pro Tour season, with superb results such as 13th in Tour de France and Vuelta a España, but also 8th in Tour of California and 15th in Criterium du Dauphine. Being previously runner-up at Tour de l'Avenir, all pundits were looking at Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier for the overall GC, but despite being very strong throughout the race, Lachlan Morton was a bit too strong in the end, winning the race by a margin of just 31 seconds. Shortly after the second runner-up title the U23 World Championship was in line, and this time a mountainous route, which should suit Lecuisinier well - But it suited Daan Olivier and Lachlan Morton a bit better, so Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier had to settle for 3rd, and getting 2nd just 1 second shy of the win in the U23 TT, it was clear to everyone that Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier was and is one of the biggest talents in the world.
This season could be the biggest ever for Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier, and his key race of the season must be Vuelta a España and Paris-Nice where he will be the teams undisputed leader. He have been riding both races before:
Vuelta a España: 13th
Paris-Nice: 43rd
We expect him to improve drastically on his Paris-Nice result from 2014, while we expect, and hope that he can get within the top 10 of the Vuelta. Having looked at the results, and the inevideble talent, let's see what we have.
Career Highligts
13th Tour de France ('15)
13th Vuelta a España ('15)
Runner up at Tour de l'Avenir ('14, '15)
8th Tour of California ('15)
Silver and Bronze at U23 World Championship RR/TT ('15)
maxime86 wrote:
Very cool series you have here
Also happy to see Novak featured, we hope he brings you the success he brought us!
Thanks mate
Novak developped due to training, so decided to add him to the pool, while taking out riders not developping into significant riders (Kastrantas), riders not fully developped (Gougeard and Kosic) and top riders trained (Coppel).
I hope he will be very strong also. The PT is probably a tad too strong for him, but if he can be in a few races that are not too leader heavy, then he might snatch something like a 15th GC somewhere.
Piter Campero, 25 years old (Two time national champion)
Olivier Le Gac, 23 years old (The lovely Tour of Britain)
Yuriy Vasyliv, 22 years old (Tour de l'Avenir captain)
Tom David, 26 years old (7th GC Tour of Northern Europe)
Panagiotis Vlatos, 26 years old (Current National TT Champion)
Jakub Novak, 28 years old (Time to rise above it all)
