Real UCI would now say, this is too similar to the U25 jersey.
MG UCI is fine with the shirt
It will be weird to not see you in the darkish/red jersey anymore, which was a real constant of the MG in all those years.
Surely a standout jersey though.
Elia is a Swiss supertalent who we anticipate will develop into a future team leader in the time trials. We see him as a rider in the style of his veteran compatriot Silvan Dillier, and he will hopefully pick up the torch as Dillier enters the later years of his career. Signing Elia was a huge goal of our transfers, and we landed him for a wage of 175,000.
Alexandre Balmer
Statline:
67
72
70
70
71
72
66
63
61
68
71
75
65
Lvl: 3.06
Age: 23
Alexandre is a rider who has long been on our radar, and we are excited to bring him over to our squad after spending his neo-pro season at Le Creuset. We expect Alexandre to develop into a stout stage racer, who could potentially lead the team in the future. We paid a steep transfer fee of 500,000 to Le Creuset to secure him this year, and his wage is 65,000.
Jan Stöckli
Statline:
64
72
71
60
69
68
70
61
59
67
66
70
58
3.58
23
Lvl: 3.58
Age: 23
Jan joins us from free agency after spending last season as a Minion. Jan is another young climbing talent who joins us in our effort to revitalize the team and develop young Swiss riders. We view him as a pure climber and look forward to him having a long career with us. Wage this year is 65,000.
Tom Van Asbroeck
Statline:
74
52
70
65
74
71
77
73
79
77
73
67
73
Lvl: 4.100
Age: 33
Tom Van Asbroeck joins us in keeping with our tradition of hiring veteran riders on the tail end of their career as mercenaries to bring in points. He has a long and decorated cycling career, most recently spending the past 2 season at Philips (now Sony). For us, he is the team's only sprinter this year and we will look to slot him into races to maximize his point-scoring potential given our lack of depth in the sprints. His salary this year is 100,000.
Martin Schäppi
Statline:
72
64
67
75
74
72
69
76
66
68
70
60
75
Lvl: 4.100
Age: 27
Not exactly a new signing, Martin was brought back into the fold after negotiations between the team and his agent broke down prior to transfers. He decided to test the free agency waters and was quite successful in doing so, increasing his salary to 150,000. He was seen as a non-negotiable target so I'm happy he's back with the team, though admittedly this was quite a phuck up on my part. He is integral to our TTT squad, as well as a key classics domestique.
So that's a wrap for our transfer season this year. Overall, I see it as a restructuring season after demoting to the PCT. We were sorely in need of young talent with many of our long-standing Swiss leaders beginning to decline. I think we achieved the goal of revitalizing the team. We may not bounce back to the PT this year, but I'm happy with our line-up and feel that our team aligns with the sponsors' mission.
Congrats on getting all those talents, especially Blum - although I have to admit I hate not having had the necessary founds at the right time to get him... Schäppi is also a brilliant rider, who was one of my prime targets this year, but once you went 150k for him I knew there probably was no point in going higher and higher...
All in all, you did a great job with Swiss talents - you even got more than I did, so it looks like the restructuring is off to a good start
Good luck for the season - and let's hope all those talents will eventually help you break out of the "elevator scheme"!
Breaking from our tradition as an elevator team, we had a pretty mediocre 2023 finishing 10th and remaining in the PCT for another year. As a result Tissot has announced they are withdrawing their sponsorship and we will be racing 2024 under our traditional colors of Team UBS, with the jersey made by the_hoyle.
The season was not without highlights, however, and there were several memorable results that stand out and I hope we can build on going into next year. We managed to achieve 4/5 of our goals as shown below:
Target
Goal
Result
Franceville Classique
Top 10
6th - Lukas Spengler
Tour de Pologne
Win
8th - Emanuel Buchmann
Giro dell'Emilia
Top 10
2nd - Emanuel Buchmann
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Top 10
3rd - Lukas Spengler
PCT Team Standings
Top 10
10th - Team
Full 2023 Results
Spoiler
Rider
Race
Result
E. Buchmann
Giro dell'Emilia
2nd
E. Buchmann
Classique du Grand-Duché
4th
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - GC
5th
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 5
1st
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 6
4th
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 3
5th
E. Buchmann
Japan Cup
7th
E. Buchmann
GP Wallonie
8th
E. Buchmann
Tour de Pologne - GC
8th
E. Buchmann
Tour de Pologne - Stage 7
3rd
E. Buchmann
Tour of South Africa - GC
10th
E. Buchmann
Tour of South Africa - Stage 2
3rd
E. Buchmann
Tour of South Africa - Stage 5
3rd
E. Buchmann
Tour of Norway - Stage 4
2nd
Lukas Spengler
Tour of Northern Europe - Stage 4
1st
Lukas Spengler
Omloop Het Niewsblad
3rd
Lukas Spengler
Le Samyn
7th
Lukas Spengler
Benelux Tour - Stage 5
4th
Lukas Spengler
Paris - Roubaix
4th
Lukas Spengler
Franceville Classique - GC
6th
Lukas Spengler
Franceville Classique - Stage 1
4th
Lukas Spengler
Rheden GP
6th
Patrick Schelling
Swiss National RR Championship
1st
Patrick Schelling
Tour de Vineyards - GC
1st
Patrick Schelling
Tour de Vineyards - Stage 3
3rd
Patrick Schelling
Tour d'Andorra - GC
7th
Patrick Schelling
Tour of Japan - GC
7th
Patrick Schelling
Tour de Romandie - GC
9th
Johan Jacobs
Tour of Northern Europe - GC
8th
Johan Jacobs
Tour of Northern Europe - Stage 4
2nd
Johan Jacobs
Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne
8th
Thery Schir
Tour de Vineyards - GC
2nd
Tom Bohli
Benelux Tour - GC
3rd
Tom Bohli
1 Jour de Dunkerque
4th
Tom Bohli
GP Kigali
5th
Silvan Dillier
Swiss National TT Championship
1st
Silvan Dillier
Tour of California - Stage 6
2nd
Silvan Dillier
Tour of Japan - Stage 1
4th
Silvan Dillier
Chrono d'Arenberg
5th
Silvan Dillier
Tour of Britain - Stage 2
5th
Silvan Dillier
Arab Tour - GC
7th
Martin Schäppi
Tour du Faso - GC
7th
Jan Stöckli
GP Lugano
2nd
P. Haugard
Tour de Pologne - Stage 1
1st
P. Haugard
Norway National TT Championship
1st
P. Haugard
Hong Kong Challenge - Stage 2
2nd
P. Haugard
Tour of Japan - Stage 1
2nd
P. Haugard
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 4
4th
P. Haugard
Arab Tour - GC
5th
P. Haugard
Tour of Norway - Stage 3
5th
P. Haugard
Tour of California - Stage 1
5th
T. Van Asbroeck
Tour Down Under - Stage 1
2nd
T. Van Asbroeck
Arab Tour - Stage 2
2nd
T. Van Asbroeck
Tour of California - Stage 3
3rd
T. Van Asbroeck
Euskal Bizikleta - Stage 2
4th
T. Van Asbroeck
Benelux Tour - GC
5th
Antonio Barbio
Hong Kong Challenge - GC
2nd
Daniil Fominykh
Kazakh National TT Championship
1st
Team
Tour de Vineyards - Stage 5 TTT
1st
Team
Tour of Northern Europe - Team Standings
2nd
Team
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 1 TTT
2nd
Team
Tour de Romandie - Stage 1 TTT
4th
In terms of results, first and foremost was our GC 1-2 in the Tour de Vineyards. Aided by a strong team performance winning the final TTT, Patrick Schelling sealed the overall GC title ahead of team mate and compatriot Thery Schir. Patrick went on to have a strong season that was capped off with another win in the Swiss National Road Championship. We're anticipating he will slot into more of a support role this coming season since he isn't getting any younger, so it was great to see him find some top results in one of his last seasons.
The team storms to a win in Stage 5 of the Tour de Vineyards, bringing Schelling and Schir home for the GC 1-2.
Another rider who had a great year was TT ace Phan Age Haugard. His highlights included winning stage 1 of the Tour de Pologne and the Norweigian National TT Championship. He landed 6 other Top-5 placings in time trials throughout the season and was a crucial element of our success in TTTs throughout the season. In early talks with his agent, we are anticipating he will be seeking compensation to reflect his achievements going into next season.
Phan Age Haugard celebrating with a stage win and early leader's jersey in stage 1 of the Tour de Pologne.
As the manager's personal favorite result of the season, we had young talent Jan Stöckli land a huge result in a national race for us, the GP Lugano. Jan slotted into the day's breakaway and made it to the final selection of four riders, where he finished 2nd in the sprint. We view this as a sign of Jan's talent and hopefully a marker of things to come this season.
Finally, our home grown superstar Lukas Spengler continued to shine and represent our team at our most important race of the season, Paris - Roubaix. He would have certainly benefited from a more selective race, but he still managed to take 4th overall from the sprint of the final group of 10. A repeat of his result from 2022 and confirmation of his pedigree. He achieved numerous other top-10 results through his cobbles campaign, with another highlight coming in winning stage 4 of the Tour of Northern Europe, again at the ProTour level.
Lukas Spengler takes the win on Stage 4 of the Tour of Northern Europe.
There have been rumblings of dissatisfaction from Spengler and his agent and they have indicated he may seek a trade to a team that can confirm his participation in the highest level races in 2024. This could be part of a larger change to our strategy for 2024 as we look to rejuvenate our squad and rebuild to the point of contending for promotion once again. I'm expecting our squad to look quite different at the end of transfers and this will hopefully be one of our more active off seasons in terms of trades, loans, and negotiations. Please know we will be open for business and willing to hear out all ideas. Until then, good luck to all in renewals!Edited by Bushwackers on 04-07-2024 22:52
Elia Blum
Tom Van Asbroeck
