I really like the way your team has taken shape, especially that final addition
Gamper is an absolute steal for that wage as well. Masnada will be a beast once maxed out, but his MO/hil combo looks like it'll do very well for you.
I loved your approach to team building and was very glad that we are able to help each other out with four loan deals. Looking forward to see how your team does on the road. You can be sure that I'll be following
Eden Thanks for the final addition At least role-play-wise, it was really the perfect deal! My mountain squad should be quite decent for CT now, although we're missing a "superstar". I'm really happy I got Gamper for that wage, and Masnada... yeah, he'll have to deliver in order to justifiy this season's wage But sure, once maxed out, he'll be a great stage racer in combined Mo/Hi races in CT.
Abhishek Thanks to you for doing good business! I'll be following your team as well, that's for sure! Looking forward to seeing Lienhard and Boudat in action for Philips On our side, we're very happy the focus on swiss and italian riders worked out that well. Let's see tonight who our final additions are
After the end of the official transfer season, our roster was almost final. But as MGUCI recently added more races - and more race days per team - to the CT calendar, they decided to sponsor two riders per season and team. Hence, we won't have to pay any wage for them, but they will be full team members.
As we wrote in our final transfers update, we swapped out our best sprinter for yet another mountain goat. In return, we planned on picking another sprinter in the draft. Not knowing what the other teams had planned for their draft, we chose to go the safe way and include several sprinter targets on top of our list. Note that some Russians with an interesting stats profile would have been available, but for some reason we included none of them...
Finally, it turned out that our top target was the top target of two other teams as well - but as our first pick was due before theirs, we are happy to welcome Marco Guillen here in Ticino!
Marco was the first pick in last year's draft, and despite a victory and a total of 151 points for Swisslion did not get a regular contract. He is 32 years old, and our new team senior. He will ride his last season in prime shape, and we hope he will be able to repeat his very solid performance from last year! His specialities are pan-flat races, as you can see from his stats:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Marco Guillen
67
58
61
56
66
62
69
61
81
82
54
57
56
Marco can do exactly one thing very well - sprinting. We wanted a sprinter, we got one. We will need to protect him well, though, as he does not really like the parts of the race that are not called "final sprint". He will have Manuel Stocker, Max Walscheid and Riccardo Minali supporting him, as well as our second draft pick (presented below). We hope Marco will have a good time here in Ticino; at least, he doesn't fear the heat. And here in Ticino, we're all a bit latinos, no?
It turned out that some other teams had strong interest in Marco, but none of them would go for our second choice. We hesitated to tell MGUCI we wanted only one sprinter, but we didn't. After all, in CT you can't really have enough sprinters (or leadouts), so we took the "risk" of getting two sprinters. And we got them. So, we can happily announce that Issiaka Cissé has signed for Centovalli - Fiat as well!
Issiaka is 28 years old and current Ivorian TT champion - the only national champion riding for us this year! He was riding as a leadout for WCC last season, where his contract was not renewed. Coming from a warm country as well and speaking French, he's a nice fit for a Swiss team, too. He may not have the same top speed as Marco, but he's got other nice stats to compensate for that:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Issiaka Cissé
74
53
63
67
73
67
78
63
78
77
73
59
65
Unlike Marco, he isn't afraid of the parts of the race preceding the final sprint. Besides still being a decent sprinter, he is a fairly good flat rider, which makes him a nice leadout. He's got the stamina for longer races as well, and some minor bumps won't shake him too much. Issiaka and Marco will share a part of their race schedule, where Issiaka will act as a leadout sprinter. However, he will definitely get his own chances as a sprinter as well, especially as he is a nice fit for longer stage races due to his good recovery.
If he does his job well, and if we find a decent lead sprinter next season, there are chances that his stay will not only last for one year.
So, that's it. Unless we completely messed up our transfers documentation and are forced to release a rider, our definitive roster stands now. Feel free to comment, and stay tuned for some hopefully big races this season!
Final Roster 2019
Wages for loanees (in and out) are the part of the wages we pay.
redordead Well, my planning for me won't be great, either. As we didn't have a sprinter until very late in the transfers, we didn't choose a big deal of flat races. There are the C2HC mandatory ones, but there aren't that many of them. But I tried to do my best for him and Cissé, who doesn't like bumpy courses that much either.
Of course, I'm hoping for some points; promotion is no mandatory goal this season, though. We've got a lot of development work to do, so I had to find a good balance of performance and development. Let's see how it works out
As we mentioned in our drafted riders' presentation, Issiaka Cissé is the current national ITT champion of Ivory Coast. Today, his jersey has arrived - designed once more by master designer Mr. hillis91 - all credits to him!
We hope we'll see him wearing it in live coverage at least once this season - we think it's really great! You can immediately recognize which country he represents - but our marking Centovalli design is still very present.
You may think that there's a color missing on this jersey. Yeah, you're right. The green part hasn't made its way to the jersey, but you'll find it on the shorts. So Issiaka will really be a riding Ivorian flag - it's going to look great!
For those among you who would like to see the full template, including shorts, you'll find it in the below spoiler. We're really looking forward to start our first season - we'll soon be able to tell you who will do the start for Centovalli - Fiat!
Nicely balanced squad with riders on every terrain except for the cobbles. I would bet on Thiery to pull off some good results - good fighter, strong all around stats and a decent sprint.
Ulrich Ulriksen Thanks. Yeah, cobbles (and TT) are really absent. I'm not too happy about this, but it should already look much better next year with Basso coming back maxed (probably 73 Cob, 71 TT), and Gamper reaching level 3 (probably 73 Cob, 72 TT). And if Masnada agrees to a pay cut, I should be able to bring in some more quality in these departments.
I hope Thiery will indeed go for some breakaways; at least that's what you would expect with 77 Ftr. Same goes for Manfredi, who might try some long-range attacks in the mountains. And next year with Lienhard coming back (probably 77 Ftr, 75 Hi, 73 Spr), we'll be even more aggressive
We have already individually presented every single rider on our roster, and we have presented the full roster. Today, let's focus more on taking a look at the different departments we have. You'll notice that there are no TimeTrial or Cobbles department - we have unfortunately been unable to sign specialists in these domains. Be assured, however, that in about three years Patrick Gamper should be able to be our leader - or at least a very important domestique - in both of them! So whereas the present situation is admittedly not great, the future looks bright!
But for now, let's live in the present and focus on the three departments we are really happy with.
The Climbers
Even though we finally missed out on one of our targets, Teodoro Costagli (Mo 79), we were able to sign three real mountain goats in Manfredi, Signorini and Saggiorato. And even though Masnada might be a tad weaker than this trio, he will still be a great help when the air gets thin. Especially with Manfredi's aggressivity, we expect to see some nice racing, and to have a great presence of our jersey in mountain races.
The depth of our climbing department allows us to have at least two out of this quartet in every mountain race. This really is where we expect a lot of points. Moreover, Saggiorato and especially Masnada are a great fit for stage races with a mix of mountainous and hilly stages; Masnada doesn't even fear some TT kilometers. We expect great things from these boys, and we're sure they will deliver!
The Puncheurs
Simon Pellaud is our hilly leader; however, the support is strong, and there are many possibilities for the second-row riders to take their own chances. Again, we have a great fighter in this department in Cyrile Thiery. Moreover, he doesn't really have a weakness. Whereas Pellaud really focuses on hills, Thiery can do hills, mountains, and even sprints. With his aggressivity, we expect him to try out a lot - he will probably fail sometimes, but there will be success as well. We see a similar profile for Freuler, who isn't as aggressive, but does mountains and hills well, too. And we've already presented Masnada and Saggiorato, whose strength in the hills will mainly come in handy for stage races. In one-day-races, they will rather act as domestiques for Pellaud - but you never know...
The hilly department is slightly weaker than the climbers, but we still expect some fireworks and a good amount of points from them.
The Sprinters
Thanks to the CT draft, we were finally able to get a very fast man in Marco Guillen. And Cissé should be the perfect leadout for him; his top speed may be slightly slower, but he's great on the flat. Moreover, Cissé is well suited for stage races, due to his great recovery. In Stocker, Walscheid and loan-in Minali, there should be enough support for Guillen even when Cissé is planned for different races.
Of course, we know about both Guillen and Cissé not being happy about non-flat roads, but - as said for the hilly department - we believe Thiery can jump in in those races. We may not have the greatest sprinter department, and there may be lots of ups and downs, especially for Guillen - but we are convinced that we'll see several ups this season!
The Talents
We have already talked about Patrick Gamper being our potential future cobbles and TT leader. He already is our strongest cobbler this season - which doesn't mean we are expecting great things from him, though! He will learn a lot, and we are convinced he will already be much stronger next year. We will try to keep him next season as well, before sending him out for gaining PT experience in two years.
The same development path goes for Mäder and Fedeli. Both should gain a lot of experience this year. Gino will support our mountain goats and try to get involved in some stage races' U25 competition (which we expect even more next year), whereas Fedeli will be a good helper in hilly races.
All three of them should stay with us for two years now, and should then get a loan-out to PT. We will do our best to help them developing in the best possible way!
The Loan-Ins
We already saw Minali presented among the sprinter department. We believe he will already be strong enough to really help our sprinters. We have less expectations for the other riders. However, Kiriakidis will be our second-strongest TTer after Masnada this year, so he will support our captains in the TTTs. Giannoutsos will add some more support in the mountains, as will Vila for the hilly races. Eenkhoorn will race a lot, on all possible terrains, as we have agreed to give his development a huge boost. He will be particularly useful in the mountains, but he's our second-best cobblers, too.
As you see, we have our weaknesses, but clearly our strengths as well. We'll see where that leads us; some are speaking of promotion fight, we would like to reach Top 15 at least. More details on our goals will be presentend shortly.
We are glad to finally present our race schedule and goals.
We won't go into much detail on the team schedule; it can be found here. We just want to point out some of the highlights:
In April, we'll ride the first race in one of our focus regions: Coppa Placci (C2) in San Marino. Well, this isn't quite Italy, but as close as you can get. Furthermore, it's our first goal race.
In May, we'll get to ride our first race on home soil: Tour of Romandie (C1), where our many Swiss riders will want to shine in front of their friends and families.
Still in May, we'll hit Italy for our next goal race, Giro del Trentino (C2).
In July, we rotate the Italian flag and swap some colors, as we're heading to Bulgaria for Tour of Bulgaria (C2), our third goal race.
Then, we got our first HC wildcard in August, as we've been invited to join the Int. Österreich Rundfahrt (HC) peloton - a rare opportunity to get good XP for our young riders.
And two more races in Italy await us: Milano - Torino (C1) in September and Giro dell'Emelia (HC) in October.
We've even been able to get two clashing HC races, as we got invited to GP Lugano (HC) as well - whis is great news for our main sponsor, as we get to race in Ticino!
We will finally close our season with our last and most important goal race, Züri Metzgete (C2HC), which will have a heavy influence on our season evaluation.
But now let's take a closer look on the goals our sponsors fixed for this season. Obviously, they want us to shine in the races in their home regions. However, there were only two possible goal races in Switzerland and Italy - which were both selected - so they needed to broaden their selection criteria. And here we go:
Our first goal race will be Coppa Placci (C2). A race in a small country surrounded by Italian soil - fair enough. We are expected to get a Top 10 out of this hilly race, so we obviously send our best puncheurs, led by Simon Pellaud. And here's the full roster:
Spoiler
Rider
Hill
Rider
Hill
Simon Pellaud
77
Aimiliano Vila
69
Jan-Andre Freuler
75
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
68
Fausto Masnada
75
Gino Mäder
66
Cyrille Thièry
74
Patrick Gamper
65
The second goal race then leads us to northern Italy. Not quite to Piedmont, but we'll get to race in Trentino for the 3-stage-race Giro del Trentino (C2). When our sponsor fixed this goal, we knew we'd have to go for some strong TT support, as the race starts with a 28km TTT. Well, mission not accomplished. Hence, it will be very hard getting the requested GC Top 5 out of this race. Of course, we send our best climbing squad to Italy, hoping the climbers can fix the damage we're very likely to suffer on stage 1. And we'll send the least bad TTers as well, but we're honestly not over-confident on this goal. But take a look at the roster and judge by yourself. At least, the top climbers shouldn't be left behind by their teammates in the opening stage.
Spoiler
Rider
Mt
TT
Rider
Mt
TT
Gian-Piero Signorini
78
65
Gino Mäder
70
68
Andrea Manfredi
78
65
Ioannidis Kiriakidis
68
70
Mirco Saggiorato
77
66
Patrick Gamper
62
69
Fausto Masnada
75
71
Alessandro Fedeli
64
61
Next on the goals list is a trip to the Tour of Bulgaria (C2). But why Bulgaria? Well, we sat down with our sponsors and analyzed the other goal races. We noted a great similitued between Trentino and Bulgaria, and so if we had been able to build a perfect squad for Trentino, Bulgaria would have been a perfect fit. That was the reasoning behind this goal.
Well, as you know, we failed on the TTT part. At least, this stage is 6km shorter than the Trentino TTT, and there are three mountain top finishes. Which gives our climbers some more possibilities to make up the very likely deficit from the TTT. And as the goal is "only" a GC Top 10, we really believe our riders can achieve it. The roster is obviously similar to the Trentino one, but not exactly the same:
Spoiler
Rider
Mt
TT
Rider
Mt
TT
Gian-Piero Signorini
78
65
Jan-Andre Freuler
72
68
Andrea Manfredi
78
65
Gino Mäder
70
68
Mirco Saggiorato
77
66
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
71
66
Fausto Masnada
75
71
Patrick Gamper
62
69
The final race goal leads us to our home soil, and it's the very last race of the 2019 season: Züri Metzgete (C2HC). As Coppa Placci, it is a hilly one-day race. Our main sponsor insisted he wants us to Win this race - which will be incredibly tough, as the whole CT field will be present, but we'll give our best!
For the season finale, we bring the following squad:
Spoiler
Rider
Hill
Rider
Hill
Simon Pellaud
77
Alessandro Fedeli
69
Jan-Andre Freuler
75
Gino Mäder
66
Cyrille Thièry
74
Manuel Stocker
65
Mirco Saggiorato
73
Patrick Gamper
65
This final race might as well have an influence on the final goal: Our sponsors expect us to finish among the Top 15 Teams of the CT division. This really is our minimum goal, as we're confident that our boys should rather be able to attack the Top 10. What do you think?
Finally, the take-off to our first ever race is coming near, and it's time to present in more detail what awaits us for the season start. We don't have a fully packed January, as we'll only ride three races. Let's have a look at these:
Jan 10 | Clasico San Cristobal (C2)
We're heading to Cuba for our first ever race, the hilly Clasico San Cristobal. With 4.5 hard laps and an uphill finish, this will certainly be the perfect race for the best CT puncheurs. We don't have one of the absolute beasts, but our riders are well prepared for the kick-off as well - and they're courageous, so why not try something from far away? It's none of our goal races, so we didn't send the best possible squad, but we should still be competitive with this roster:
Rider
Hi
Spr
Rider
Hi
Spr
Simon Pellaud
77
65
Pascal Eenkhoorn
67
64
Fausto Masnada
75
63
Gino Mäder
66
67
Ioannidis Kiriakidis
69
63
Patrick Gamper
65
63
Aimiliano Vila
69
66
Max Walscheid
62
74
While Pellaud and Masnada are there to get a good result, the other riders should support them as well as possible, and gain valuable experience from this race. No big expectations for them.
Jan 22 - 31 | Vuelta al Tachira (C2)
We stay in south america, and move over to Venezuela for our longest stage race of the season, the 10-day Vuelta al Tachira. There's something for each type of rider in this tour: 3 almost pan-flat sprint stages, one flat-rated stage with two mountains in the first half, one rather flat but hilly-rated stage, one hilly stage that looks much like a mountain stage, having a hill-top-finish. And, of course, four stages for our mountain goats, whereof two mountain-top-finishes, one downhill finish, and a mountain TT, where we hope the pure TT abilities won't be that important.
We finally did not bring our hill specialist, Pellaud, but we focused more on mountains and sprints, where we hope to get big results with the following squad:
Rider
Mo
Hi
Spr
Rider
Mo
Hi
Spr
Gian Piero Signorini
78
69
56
Issiaka Cissé
53
63
78
Andrea Manfredi
78
65
62
Cyrille Thièry
70
74
72
Mirco Saggiorato
77
73
58
Pascal Eenkhoorn
69
67
64
Gino Mäder
70
66
67
Alessandro Fedeli
64
69
64
This is the first time that our "Mountain Trio" Signorini - Manfredi - Saggiorato will try to rock the CT world. Our primary hope for the GC is Saggiorato, as he should be able to do decent hill stages as well, whereas the Italians will have green light to try whatever they want in the mountain stages.
For the first three stages, we have Cissé, who will likely drop out on the first mountain stage. We hope it's not a waste of RDs, but we'll have to see. We bring Thièry as well, who can survive mountains, is quite a good puncheur and has a decent sprint - so the last stage might suit him.
And again, we have some young riders, but we expect all of Mäder, Eenkhoorn and Fedeli to provide good support in the mountains and/or hills.
Jan 31 | Great Ocean Road Classic (C2HC)
The third and final January race is a mandatory one, and we continue our trip around the world (it will take until mid-march to touch European soil) by heading to Australia, where we take part in the Great Ocean Road Classic. The route does have some bumps, but the last kilometers are mostly downhill, and so we naturally send a very sprinter-heavy squad to this race:
Rider
Spr
Acc
Fl
Rider
Spr
Acc
Fl
Marco Guillén
81
82
67
Aimiliano Vila
66
67
69
Manuel Stocker
76
77
75
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
64
65
65
Max Walscheid
74
75
69
Ioannidis Kiriakidis
63
70
67
Riccardo Minali
73
73
67
Patrick Gamper
63
70
70
As the race is not very long - just 130km - Guillén's rather low stamina will hopefully not be that much of an issue. Our primary goal is to bring him in a perfect position, and Stocker will be the key for this, as he's our strongest man on the flat. Should Guillén not be able to keep up, Stocker can take his own chance.
With Walscheid and Minali, we've got two other riders can try to lead out a sprinter, but like the rest of the team, they're here to gain experience. But we'd be disappointed if we didn't get any points out of this race.
That's all for January. Stay tuned for the first results!
We were longing for this moment - and now it's already over: our first race!
Unfortunately, our riders were not able to sneak into the breakaway of the day, but Simon Pellaud had a strong finish and just got the expected Top 15 result: 15th place in our very first race is a good start, the hilly races not being our biggest strength. Fausto Masnada was the second scoring rider, he finished 23rd. The race was won by Esteban Chaves (Azteca) ahead of Siskevicius (DK Zalgiris) and Rui Costa (Euskaltel).
Simon Pellaud (left) reaching the finish line
Results of Centovalli - Fiat riders:
Place
Rider
Distance
15
Simon Pellaud
+ 1'14
23
Fausto Masnada
+ 2'16
70
Pascal Eenkhoorn
+ 5'30
82
Ioannidis Kiriakidis
+ 5'30
127
Gino Mäder
+ 9'15
129
Aimiliano Vila
+ 9'15
142
Patrick Gamper
+ 14'34
173
Max Walscheid
+ 26'22
Let's have a small spotlight as well on the Badaling International, which was held the same day. In China, our loan-out Leonardo Basso joined the breakaway group. Unfortunately, he couldn't hold the lead until the end, but he was the last of the escapees to be reeled in, and finished on a good 33rd place, for which he earned some PT points. We're looking forward for him doing similar things for us next year!
And done it is, our first stage race - and it was even our longest of the season with 10 stages. Containing flat, hilly and mountainous stages, we sent all types of riders to Venezuela - and it paid out, with all departments scoring some points. Issiaka Cissé was our sprinter, and after two rather mediocre stages (8th and 10th), he got our first ever podium on stage 3 with his 3rd place! He even improved on this with P2 on stage number 5, getting him a total of four Top 10 stage results and 10th in the points standings.
Issiaka Cissé (left) just missing out on the win on stage 5
After the sprinter shows, Mirco Saggiorato got a great 4th place on stage 6, and the same GC position at that time - leaving us with big hopes for big points! Unfortunately, we couldn't keep up his great form. He lost a lot of time in the MTT on stage 7 (in which Andrea Manfredi surprised everyone by setting the 4th best time of the day!). 7th on stage 8 then was solid again, but his daily form on stage 9 was again really bad. At least, he was able to secure a GC Top 10, finishing 9th, to which Manfredi added a nice 11th place. We'd have been happy with this result before the race, but given the standings after stage 6, we leave South Amercia with a bitter-sweet feeling.
The sweet part definitely was improved on by Cyrille Thièry, who got us another podium with his 3rd place on the final stage. Another highlight was Pascal Eenkhoorn wearing the white jersey on stage 6. Finally, the 6th place in the final team standings is OK, but we had hoped for more.
On the day of the last stage, our team raced in Australia as well - the review of this race will be published shortly.
But sure, once maxed out, he'll be a great stage racer in combined Mo/Hi races in CT.
Marco Guillen here in Ticino!
Issiaka Cissé has signed for Centovalli - Fiat as well!
Coppa Placci (C2) in San Marino. Well, this isn't quite Italy, but as close as you can get. Furthermore, it's our first goal race.
Tour of Romandie (C1), where our many Swiss riders will want to shine in front of their friends and families.
Giro del Trentino (C2).
Tour of Bulgaria (C2), our third goal race.
Int. Österreich Rundfahrt (HC) peloton - a rare opportunity to get good XP for our young riders.
Clasico San Cristobal (C2)
Vuelta al Tachira (C2)
Great Ocean Road Classic (C2HC)
Badaling International, which was held the same day. In China, our loan-out 
