After finalizing our first staff signings before the transfer season started, we then started to look for Sports Directors for the team, who could actually decide upon tactics that would work during a race, unlike the previous Sports Directors, who were friends of Martin Redford, who preferred to "wing it". Soon afterwards we were able to agree on contracts with two British Sports Directors, so please welcome the following two staff members to the team:
Sean Yates - Head Directeur Sportif
Sean is one of the best British Sports Directors out there and when the opportunity arose to make him part of our staff team, we simply could not refuse. He'll be the team's main Sports director, who will be in the team car at all of our objective races and at several other high-profile events as well, such as the Isle of Man ITT. Yates is a former professional cyclist from the 1980s and 1990s, and has several victories to his name, including an ITT win in the 1988 Tour de France and a day in the maillot jaune at the 1994 Tour de France.
Roger Hammond - Directeur Sportif
Roger is another British Sports Director who is of the highest quality, and yet again, when the opportunity arose to make him part of our staff team, it was an offer we simply couldn't refuse. He'll be the main man in the car during the less important races for the team, such as the Lillestrom GP, as well as at the races of lesser importance when we have race clashes. Hammond is also a former professional cyclist, who is a former two-time British National Road Race Champion, has won multiple stages of the Tour of Britain and has finished in the top 10 of the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix and Gent-Wevelgem.
That should be all of our team's pre-season preparation for the upcoming year now finished, feel free to comment your thoughts and opinions on the team we have assembled for this season. Next news post by me will probably be a Vuelta al Tachira preview, although don't be surprised if there is an unexpected last minute final pre-season prep post in the next few days.
You got some real depth coming to the sprints, somehow reminds of my own sprint core last season. Horton could possible be a could leadout with high flat and acc.
Guess you will struggle a bit on the hills but I guess you managed to avoid some of those races aswell as the cobbles as you mentioned yourself.
Thought Pozzovivo could be a great leader in CT but looked through the post transfer DB and well he got some real competition on the mountains this season, with 3 (!??!) 80 mo stat guys, and Eastman with very good backup stats.
Lets hope that the sprints work out well for you, good luck!
I love the depth to your squad, but I'm really worried about your lack of top class CT riders. I think Haussler might be your only true point scorer but I'd be surprised if even he ended up in the top 25 in the CT. The other sprinters just seem like lead out guys.
But honestly I hope I'm wrong, I love the depth to your team, and Pozzovivo was great for us last year, so I'll be rooting for you guys in races where we aren't represented
Viking: I have to agree that I'm very sprinter-heavy and Horton probably looks like the best lead-out rider candidate of the lot, although I think Barclay on a good day could do a decent job as well, but he doesn't handle hills well enough to last normally. As you already said as well, my tactic for my weaknesses was simply to avoid races featuring them.
I have to agree that it's now ridiculous how good some of the CT climbers are, especially consider that some CT teams have 2 or 3 climbers all of whom are better than Pozzovivo which is a bit of shame, but hopefully he'll score us quite a few points. Praying for sprints to go really well as well, thanks and best of luck to you to.
Maxime: Thanks for the constructive criticism from a manager who certainly has more experience than me; I have to agree with you that we have got a lot of depth and not really any standout riders, so I am hoping that we have a lot of riders who score a good amount of points between them to give us a top 10/15 placement at the end of the season. Also, my plan is not to get promoted to PCT this year at all and I really don't want to do too well, as I want to develop my team over the next couple of years to get some top talents in as leaders, and scrap the huge number of nationalities down to just three or four.
Also, to address the sprinters being like lead-out guys issue, I plan on trying to send Opie out on loan to a PT/PCT team to max him out, hopefully then to make him a better sprinter. I also have to admit that I'm hoping what you're saying isn't true this year, otherwise I feel it could be a very, very long, painful year for Wiggle. Once again, hoping Pozzovivo will do well for me and thanks, best of luck to you.
