jandal7 wrote:

@Ulrich - You're right - in the long run I'm happy with it of course or I wouldn't have bid that high, but for now I can't say I love that big chunk of cap he's bitten out

@quadsas - Please no

The young Kenyan puncheur is our first representative from the nation to ride full-time and the second in total after former stagiaire Kimathi, who sadly no longer rides with us. We see a future for him as an explosive punchy climber so should be very useful for attacks in both mountains and hills, and a valuable lieutenant for Areruya for years to come - we sure hope they get along!

A French puncheur? At Xero? It just feels right. Jason Tesson may not ever reach the beastliness of Anthony Roux, but perhaps the better countryman to compare him with is the fantastic Lillian Calmejane. Our stagiare may not be as good as the new Isostar signing but he does have the same all-around model of a puncheur with some explosiveness, and decent enough skill over longer mountains and on the flat as well. We hope he'll turn into a versatile domestique and a dangerous breakaway rider. Other options could include focusing more on his sprinting skills.

Our final signing and second stagiare of the 2020 transfers is a powerful young sprinter who can tough it out in harder flat classics, a talent we will look to work on in tandem with his finishing ability. Our first ever Algerian, Yacine Hamza will ride with us in C2 races and any category from August as a trial run for a full contract, but we would love to make him a fantastic leadout rider in the future.

@Abhishek - Thanks, I was pretty happy with our finishing touches here and for the first time might keep all my final signings for next year

@redordead - Not sure he's quite a steal given his not great backups but I do like him a lot for the wage especially as he should go down to 50 and then stay not too far above for his career, so maybe you are right

@cunego - Gotta do our part for African talents, can't just take Areruya and call it a day Especially cool I think to have a career lieutenant for him that is from a relatively nearby country

@knockout - Thank you very much, hope he lives up to that hype

@valverde - Me too, I am surprised and glad both him and Nikiema (the latter was more worried about regional interest than general) got through relatively unscathed - makes up for Meurisse and Stannard I suppose

@Croatia - Yeah Hamza has a really neat statline with the FL-RES combo that I thought you'd like Thanks a lot

viking90 wrote:
I was surprised it was me as a Scandinavian team who started the bidding on Kipkemboi! I ended up with dutch Lars van den Berg instead same type of rider just a little bit weaker!

Good look with develop him!

George Bennett
29 | Maxed | 175,000

FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FT	DH	PL
67	80	76	65	75	74	79	58	65	73	55	63	65
	↓↓↓
67	81	76	65	75	74	79	58	65	73	55	63	65

jandal7 wrote:

Well, I hate to be a killjoy and ruin this nice moment, but your bid was invalid anyway Thanks though, I am looking forward to seeing him grow with us. Van den Berg looks very nice, hope he does well for you