I must admit I was in a big dilemma with myself whether or not to do it. I planned on doing both +2HI for Aidan and +2 TT for Ioannidis, but I just couldn't find money from my riders like normally, so in the end it was between doing a little bit for both, or doing the best possible for both. In the end I decided to go against my greek due to a combination of really wanting to push Aidan to cover for Koretzky next season and Ioannidis already being 28yo. I wanted to end up having him 76MO, 79/80TT, which now can't happen, so I guess he'll end up being the one that wasn't trained anyway. I guess Mavrikakis, Spanopoulos, Ioannidis and Kortsidakis will have to fight over being developped next year next to Aidan once he hopefully goes to become 80 HI
Although it's nice to see Aidan trained, I think it's better for the game that new additions can only be trained from 26 years onwards. But yeah, given that Aidan isn't world class yet (sorry @aidanvn13, nothing personal ), it won't break the game, and so I'm just looking forward racing against him in PTHC next season
Coquard is already a beast anyway, so let's just make him a tiny bit beastier still But I'm really looking forward to when you're gonna boost your Greeks, will be great to see them win PT one day
He will hopefully be a very competitive rider in the future. Whether I can make him a top level rider while also training my greeks is a big question though
@Bikex
Thanks. He was a really nice fit as I needed one of those hybrids for mountains and hills after Boily left. With Aidan now similar in hills as Boily and Jang similar in mountains, and not far off in hills I can hopefully cover the lost ground with those
the_hoyle has done it again! Our trusted jersey designer has updated our kit, and we think he has done a brilliant job. The Festina - OAKA setup keeps working in the same colorsheme, but updates the originality, to better match the modern way of designing.
The yellow is still a big marker - and could be a sign of what's to come!
Also the graphics of the team have been changed to better fit the current colorcodes within the team.
As "always" we have a Greek National Champion in the team, this year we actually have both.
Panagiotis Vlatos takes another timetrial championship, while Michail Kortsidakis took his first ever road race win. Also Andreas Miltiadis won the cypriot road race and too will wear a nice looking jersey created by the_hoyle
Welcome to the 2021 Tour de France presentation of the Festina roster. We are proud to present our bid for the overall win, and to proper target that we bring everything we have in order to serve the best possible win-chance for Lecuisinier.
Greek road race national champion is listed as the teams road captain, and will be eager to show off his new jersey at the front of the peloton for a vast majority of the race.
David de la Cruz is ready to take up the role as a lieutentaint of the team, and while the spanish climber could have an outside shot of a GC top 10 himself he is ready to throw himself out there to make sure the pace is kept infuriatingly high in the finals.
And in case anyone of our numerous climbers have a bad day, we have made sure that another one will take over, and thus seeing a mountains overload with the likes of Mavrikakis, Gu Jang, Spanopoulos, giannoutsos and Rochas will lead the way for the lieutenaint and his captain.
Both Rochas and Giannoutsos will also be here in a learning role, as both are likely to have a fair amount of chances for themselves next season. Both are U25 eligeble and depending on the level of competition both might have a good chance to fight for a reasonable U25 GC. The most important part however is to ensure that our leader, Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier will get the Tour de France jersey in Paris!
Welcome back after the long winterwait. It will be very interesting to see if Festina can make for a strong start. 3 races, 2 of which suits the team reasonably well, and the last - well. Not much. Let's have a look!
Tour of Tasmania:
Straight from the gun we can present an all "inhouse" focused setup with 2 riders from France, 5 from Greece and 1 from Cyprus. Because of the flat start we hope to see Bryan Coquard target the early lead. It will also be a good way to test the waters of what to expect from the team leadoutsetup. Farantakis is here as the sole leadout, where we expect Kortsidakis to take place as another member of the leadout in the future.
After the initial sprint stage it's every man for Lecuisinier. In order to ensure that no complications of interest occurs Lecuisinier is here without Koretzky and van Niekerk, who on their own could have a decent chance for succes on the stage - but not in the GC.
And while Lecuisinier seems like a stretch for a race without mountains, he has a good history of riding solid in the hills and his TT qualities should ensure he is atleast within a fight for top 10GC - and maybe even top 5. Panagiotis Vlatos is here to make sure we also have a shot at aiming for a top stage result in the TT, and can make a strong intel for Lecuisinier. In our sleight of hand we behold Ioannidis for a possible shot at a decent GC if he stays close to Lecuisinier and also Kiriakidis could be a solid U25 option.
It's a short GC race and we will like to see us maximizing the effects of the limited raceday restraints. But the competition is fierce.
Expected Points: 150-200pts
Tour of Qatar:
For the first time we bring the setup we expect to feature around Coquard on a constant level. Farantakis, Kortsidakis and Karatzios. While Coquard is our big gun here hoping for a GC top 3 alongside with a stagewin or 2, take a look at the setup around him.
7 Greek riders is a new record in one Pro Tour race. Ioannidis is here for a chance to upset the prologue - not to win, but maybe to sneak away with some decent bonus points for a GC top 30. Who knows if that will be possible, but we'll give it a go. Primary leadout Farantakis joins Coquard having a strong prologue quality. If he could somehow sneak in a decent stage result at one point he too could finish as high as top 20 GC. Obviously our big hope outside Coquard is Panagiotis Vlatos who did well here in the past.
We come with slightly reduced expectations to normal, but having Coquard as the team captain we have to expect him to finally deliver a podium here along with some stage succes.
Expected Points: 250-300pts
Franceville Classique:
The Franceville Classique is relatively speaking a race we would have preferred not taking part in. We have no particular history in the race despite racing it last season, and we don't exactly have the needed quality to do well. That said, it's the first cobbled race of the season and it always gives an indication of where we stand.
Georgios Karatzios is the teams sole leader, and with Kortsidakis as a helper he might be able to stay in touch for a bit longer than he usually does. In an ideal world we put in Miltiadis in the early break and see how long he can stay afloat - and in case nothing happens at all we opted to see if Farantakis could be one of the few sprinters here.
Needless to say, we don't expect a thing, and being at PTHC level we may as well come away with 0 points as with 20. That however is a boring prediction, so let's adjust a bit.
Expected Points: 20-40
Overall Expectations:
Overall the month of January should add to our presence towards the top of the rankings - maybe in the region of 5th. We don't expect to win any race, but we expect to start our stagewin account and get some decent GC succes aswell.
knockout wrote:
Two strong races for you, definitely a good start to the season and quite some gap to us already
It has most definately been a very good start for us. If my math is somewhat correct we land 241 points from Tasmania and 521 points from Qatar. So in both cases we outperform our high-end expectations.
Tasmania not by a lot, and had Coquard landed the 3rd place he actually looked like sprinting to, we would have been within the table. Same basically goes for the Qatar. Had we stopped racing after the 5th stage we would have scored somewhere in between 250-300 points because of the depth from Ioannidis and Farantakis, but the added bonus from Coquard taking the win, a stagewin, and 2nd points we move way ahead of the expected outcome.
Coquard is now on 434 points. Last season he scored a total of 984. So after 2 races he's almost halfway there, and he underperformed in 5/7 stages. It's very surrealistic...
Farantakis is on 76 points. Last season he scored 50. Ioannidis is on 58. Last season he scored 119.
With Vlatos performing horribly in two of his key races it's a wonder that we have outscored our expectations this massively.
Welcome back after the long winterwait. It will be very interesting to see if Festina can make for a strong start. 3 races, 2 of which suits the team reasonably well, and the last - well. Not much. Let's have a look!
Tour of Tasmania:
We brought a lot of firepower to Tasmania with both Lecuisinier and Coquard here aiming for succes. And we did come off to a great start winning the first stage of the season. Well on paper atleast.
It wasn't exactly a clear cut from the organizers, but they decided in favor of our french supersprinter. On the 2nd stage it was all about keeping Lecuisinier close to the front, and we managed to do that pretty well, allowing him to take 5th on the day, Moving into the final stage Lecuisinier was in a great position, although we did lose Ioannidis, whom would have been a good shout at lower GC positions. In the end Lecuisinier had a very poor show, finishing the timetrial in 62nd place. We could easily have expected more, but the GC result was alright taking 7th.
We expected between 150-200 points going into the race, but came out with more due to Coquards stagewin and early lead aswell as him taking the points jersey.
Overall Points: 251pts
Tour of Qatar:
We have been going into this race as a favorite numerous times, but only being let down again and again. Unlike in the past, the Qatar started of with a prologue rather than ending with the epilogue. Farantakis and Ioannidis had a great time in the saddle and both took unexpected top 10s. Unfortunately our pre-race favorites Coquard and Vlatos had a poor show, and for Vlatos in particular this meant "race over".
Coquard didn't have a good race at all, with just two times in the top 10 during the first 4 sprint stages (5 stages in total). Fortunately the depth was alright going into the final stage with Coquard in 8th, Farantakis in 13th and Ioannidis in 16th. But a drastic turn of events saw the final stage being complete chaos. With all riders in the front group we had a good shot at improving the overall harvest, and when Coquard finally showed his sprinting legs the race went from dissapointing to very good in a matter of seconds.
The stagewin also came with the overall win, aswell as a major boost in the points competition, while the team also secured 2nd in the Team GC. From expecting 250-300 points we came out with 516 completely shattering the goal.
Overall Points: 516pts
Franceville Classique:
While we didn't expect much, we certainly didn't deliver anything more than very little. We move on from this very fast, as we didn't score a single point, while expecting 20-40 atleast.
Overall Points: 0
Overall Result:
We expected a points tally of 420-540, which might have even been slightly ambitious. Fortunately our riders didn't care, and delivered a fantastic january
After a fantastic January we move into February where expectations are quite low. We will participate in 6 races in total. Let's have a look.
Copenhagen-Malmo TTT:
In the past the Festina-franchise was a very solid TTT setup. Over the years things have changed, and while we can provide a reasonable TTT show, we won't be competing for neither the win nor the top 5. But outside of that it could be fair game. We have an ambition to position ourselves in the region of 8-10, but hope to prove strong on the day and maybe overperform slightly. We need that if February should be good!
Expected Points: 40-70pts
Tirreno-Adriatico:
David de la Cruz will be unleashed as the teams leader for the first time, and we are very eager to see what he can deliver in a race like this. On a good startlist he might fight for a lower end top 10 or 15. Bryan Coquard is here with his normal leadout and we hope to see him take another stagewin. Rochas and Giannoutsos are here for experience, and if all plays out well they are allowed some leeway which could help them get a reasonable U25 result.
Expected Points: 100-150pts
Paris-Nice:
Probably the weakest of our tripple-header, but still a reasonably interesting setup. Aidan van Niekerk will get his first ever real leaders role, and behind him are the likes of Vlatos and Kopfauf attempting to get a good stageresult. Gyung Gu Jang makes his debut to the team, and with some solid stats we hope to see him active in the breakaways. Kiriakidis is our U25 asset, and could have a decent race while Ioannidis will see if he can continue his TT form, and maybe hang on for a little while in the tougher terrain.
Expected Points: 75-125
Classique du Grand-Duché:
The first hilly one day race of the PT calender is always a bit of a gamble as either the Paris-Nice or the Tirreno-Adriatico will attempt to steal away a good portion of the hilly riders. We can only hope this is one of the seasons where Koretzky will be among the top 5 contenders. Regardless of the competition we expect a top 10. Koretzky is the undisputed team leader, and we'll probably be hoping to keep 1-2 riders with him for as long as possible.
Expected Points: 80-120
Pro Hallstatt Classic:
Lecuisinier will be brought here to attempt to make amends. Last season he was 4th here, and while a repeat is realistic, we do hope he can atleast better himself by 1 spot to secure a podium. Otherwise we can start questioning our planning with a combination of Hallstatt, East Java and Tasmania over a race like Tirreno-Adriatico. Let's hope we did the right thing.
Expected Points: 120-180
Milano San Remo:
Last season Coquard showed remarkable endurance to finish the race in 3rd. We can't possibly expect him to replicate that result, but we can ofcourse hope for a top 10 from either Coquard or Koretzky. And that is what we aim for.
Expected Points: 90-140
Overall Expectations:
In a month where a lot is up to chance, everything can happen. Normally a month including 6 races should see us close to 1000 points, but we recognize that it will not be realistic unless we have a couple of very unexpected successes.
It was a second to none january after a massive point harvest in Qatar, so we entered the month of february with a reasonable amount of optimism despite not really having big hopes for any wins.
Copenhagen-Malmo TTT:
With a solid setup, yet not overwhelming we had a quiet hope of maybe landing 8th in the Copenhagen-Malmo TTT, but we didn't quite get the desired result.
Getting 11th wasn't that bad, and saw us end up in the lower spectrum of our expected outcome of 40-70 points. Seeing the startlist gave false expectations though so we don't come out of the race all too happy.
Overall Points: 45pts
Tirreno-Adriatico:
For the first time in the season we were able to see just how strong David de la Cruz was - and with a solid start from Giannoutsos and Coquard we were ready to steal the leaders jersey on stage 2 or 3. Unfortunately neither stages had the outcome we expected and this Coquard was never really close to winning a stage, nor claim the leaders jersey. Giannoutsos had a good run until the mountains kicked in however.
The big dissapointment came from David de la Cruz who were in no mans land well behind the subtop riders he should have battled with for a top 10-15 GC. At one point he looked set for as low as 30th, but in combination with Giannoutsos he did try on the final stage and survived for long enough to climb to 19th overall. The combination of points saw us move inches ahead of our minimum expectations to the race, but it was very dissapointing not to be close to a stagewin at any point given how strong a setup we did bring.
Overall Points: 104pts
Paris-Nice:
In Paris-Nice we sent whatever firepower we had left after prioritizing both Tirreno-Adriatico and Classique du Grand-Duché higher. Still Ioannidis looked remarkable strong for a decent amount of time. At one point we had hopes of him actually fighting for a top 15 in the GC, but ultimately he cracked while Aidan van Niekerk started to move up. Still nothing impressive happened until the very final stage.
Newcomer Gyung Gu Jang joined the attacks late in the stage and followed Sergis for some late KOM points. Both got away, but unfortunately van der Poel had enough to stay in the group and in the sprint it was no match for the fast dutchman to take the win. Jang, however took a strong 2nd aswell as a reasonable KOM result. Despite going into the race with low expectations, we managed to secure ourselves enough to land safely in the middle ground of the expected.
Overall Points: 97
Classique du Grand-Duché:
Clement Koretzky had a solid season in 2020 and despite not knowing what to expect we had high hopes of him doing another good show. The Classique du Grand-Duché saw him take his first ever one-day race podium last season but the added competition and relatively weak backup meant that we couldn't expect a lot. Kortsidakis was sent in the early breakaway to allow us to sit tight and not waste any energy in the first part of the race.
As Kortsidakis was caught with 30km to go he put one last effort to keep Koretzky close to the front, and from then on it was Kastrantas doing his job to keep things under control to the best of his capabilities. This saw Koretzky well positioned at around 3km to go. In the finale it was Turgis and Koretzky fighting for the front, and at one point it looked liked Koretzky was going to take it. Unfortunately Turgis managed to find his second wind in the final 200 metres, and Koretzky had to settle for 2nd. Still his best ever oneday race result - and we are very happy to shatter our expected points of 80-120 points.
Overall Points: 201pts
Pro Hallstatt Classic:
Having Lecuisinier on the starting lineup means high expectations. We don't bring him to a race unless we have a feeling he might upset and take the win. Here he unfortunately had to feat up against Silvio Herklotz, and the world champion was having non of it!
Both were positioned well in the final. Herklotz due to the efforts of Kämna and Lecuisinier due to the efforts of Mavrikakis. Once Herklotz unleashed his acceleration everyone stood still. Except for Lecuisinier who managed to get attached and follow not far behind. As the final started to become long and harsh, Lecuisinier ever so slowly begain to regain the contact - but the final wasn't quite long enough and thus had to settle for 2nd. We can live with that, and if Lecuisinier shows similar strength in the remaining races he attends, he will get close to his goal of 2000 points. So far he is up to 235 after 5RD, with his 3 worst included. So far so good!
Overall Points: 139pts
Milano San Remo:
Coquard was able to hang on last season to take 4th in the first monument of the season. This season it looked like a repeat could be in the cards! Over the Poggio all was good, and Coquard was positioned with Kortsidakis and Farantakis in ~30th position with Koretzky closer to the front to help control any attacks. But it wasn't the attacks that made the race strange.
Suddenly the elastic broke, and the sprinters struggled to regain control, while the front of the pack furiously charged towards the line. Fortunately Koretzky was still in line for a reasonable result, and in the end we are happy to accept 8th from a chaotic situation due to great awareness from our lead puncheur. Coquard joined the sprinters in line and came home in a respectable 25th. We came with the expectations of 90-140 points, but came out ever so slightly better.
Overall Points: 142
Overall Result:
We expected a pointshaul in the midst of 500-775 pts depending on stagesucces and individual quality, and we managed that. Easily. In fact we were less than 50 points from exceeding our expectations for the month. So despite falling in the overall PT rankings we are satisfied with the month of february which definately keeps us withing the hopes of landing a PT podium in the end!
February was another month within the "dart", albeit not as close to bulls eye as January. Let's have a loot at what March have to offer.
Strada Appia Antica:
A cobbled race. And a very difficult cobbled race is an obvious "nothing"-race for us. We have tried to do something slightly different here with Aidan van Niekerk as part of the roster. The parcours seems difficult enough that some of the natural cobblers might struggle in the early part of the route, and with 66COB we might see Aidan survive for quite some time. Probably not a particular interesting result, but if we are lucky we can land 3 riders in top 50. Probably not though!
Expected Points: 40-60pts
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha:
On paper this is one of those races where we could expect to do well, but Vlatos have been really poor this season, so we fear this trend will continue. If not, then we have a solid setup here. Coquard should be a top 3 sprinter easily, and with 3/4 stages well suited for him we have to target a stagewin and a reasonable pts competition result.
Expected Points: 180-230pts
Vuelta a Colombia:
One race this month is a potential high scorer - and we need that. Lecuisinier is already behind "schedule" and with this race we have to dominate it from start to finish. Lecuisinier have to do it all himself though without Mavrikakis and de la Cruz to keep him towards the front. It will be interesting to see if Jang and Spanopoulos have what it takes, but I wouldn't expect us to win the Team GC. We do have to win atleast 2 stages, the GC and the points competition though!
Expected Points: 350-400
Ronde van Nederland:
Unfortunately we don't have a strong punchy sprinter. We do have a top sprinter though and a very solid puncheur with a good kick, so this could be a decent race for us. We have to expect Coquard can follow the top riders on the first two stages to be well positioned in the GC, and hopefully Koretzky can help him in the leadout to take as strong a GC outing as possible. The 3rd and final stage can alter it all. The stage doesn't look difficult enough to make huge gaps, but it probably is too difficult for Coquard to follow. And here comes the issue. Can Coquard do well? Will Koretzky drop back to help him? No one knows, so this could be an all or nothing race really!
Expected Points: 120-170
Ronde van Vlaanderen:
Just as bad as we expect the month to start, we expect it to end in similar fashion. Ronde van Vlaanderen is likely a better race for us than Paris-Nice, but there are so many cobblers way above and beyond what we can produce. So let's see if Karatzios can somehow snatch a top 20.
Expected Points: 40-70
Overall Expectations:
Except for the two cobbled races this COULD be a decent month for us. We have all our strongest riders participating in races that should suit them well. Whether or not they perform accordingly is up to time. We have a reasonably high expectation though. We are still not within a 1000-point-month though. If we can get close, that's good enough though!
February wasn't unreasonable, but not good either, so in order to keep up with the fight of the PT podium, we needed a good month of march.
Strada Appia Antica:
Strada Appia Antica is among the cobbled races that suit us the least, and the way Karatzios joins early attacks our chances of succes diminishes by the second. The low expectations to our cobbles campaign is the only thing that ensures that we actually achieve expectations.
Overall Points: 45pts
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha:
The czech race is on paper a good one for us, due to having a top qualified rider on each stage - unfortunately Coquard didn't show anything, and Vlatos was on his usual crappy self in the prologue. Fortunately though he had a rare occassion of living up to his level in the final timetrial aswell as surviving the final semihard stage to allow for us to be well inside the expected points - only 9 points below the cealing.
Overall Points: 221pts
Vuelta a Colombia:
Anything short of two stagewins, the overall GC, the points and a good KOM would be a bad result for us - so it was very dissapointing to see Lecuisinier throw it all away just when it looked like he would achieve the goal. 2nd in the GC, only 1 stagewin and not enough points in general was very very sad. Almost 300 points obviously is better than most teams, but we needed even better.
Overall Points: 285pts
Ronde van Nederland:
The Ronde van Nederland is a difficult race to put expectations to, as it's a mixture of sprints and hills, and we don't have anyone in the middle ground. We do, however have a top sprinter and a solid puncheur and in combination they scored a very decent 8th and 12th in the GC, albeit Coquard proved very unsuccesfull (again) in the sprints. The GC combination and Vila's great take on the KOM saw us shatter our expectations though, and thus cover the lost from Colombia.
Overall Points: 241pts
Ronde van Vlaanderen:
Ronde van Vlaanderen is our favorite of the cobbled classics, but as always we bring nothing. 60 points is fine, and well inside the expected points, so we will park it from here and just hope for Roubaix to end similarly.
Overall Points: 60pts
Overall Result:
We had a relatively high expectation to this month, getting close to the 1000 point mark, but aknowledging the fact that exceeding that mark would be unrealistic. Our expected goal of 730-930 points was covered, and had Lecuisinier proved worthy of his wage, we would have exceeded the expectations. Instead we have to settle for the perfect middleground (almost).
), it won't break the game, and so I'm just looking forward racing against him in PTHC next season 
Tour of Tasmania:
Tour of Qatar:
Franceville Classique:
Copenhagen-Malmo TTT:
Tirreno-Adriatico:
Classique du Grand-Duché:
Pro Hallstatt Classic:
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha:
Vuelta a Colombia:
Ronde van Nederland:
Ronde van Vlaanderen:
