I took a long hard look at Aregger, he is so complete with decent TT and hill and the price was pretty attractive but decided to focus elsewhere in the end. Good to see him with a Swiss team.
Indeed, no single additional Free Agent has signed for us in the meantime. We're still a bit sour about the one we narrowly missed out on, but well... Apparently other FAs even change their mind 10 minutes before the deadline, so at least we knew it 6x earlier ^^
So, let's leave the past behind and move on to the present - and to much nicer feelings.
In order to have a better understanding of the overall situation, we'll start with the loans:
Loans - 2x in, 2x out
IN Panagiotis Karatsivis Alexandros Matsangas
------------------------------ OUT Stefan Bissegger Alexys Brunel
Let's do the loan-outs first, as they're probably most interesting. At the very start of transfers, multiple teams approached us asking to take our TT duo on loan. Pre-transfers, we imagined not paying any wage for them - and we got some offers for that scenario, and various ones with split wage deals.
And we got one where we'd pay the entire wage. Which obviously was the worst possible deal for us, and that's what we told them. But they insisted, providing a higher and higher fee, making clear they absolutely wanted our duo - and even proposed a massive discount on one of their riders. So we finally cracked, bagged those 500k for the loan deals - and still are paying the wages of Stefan Bissegger and Alexys Brunel. They will enjoy their season with Team Puma - SAP and complete their development in a team well-known for their TT competences. Thanks for taking them, cio!
However, before we accepted the deal, we made sure we could in turn get two loan-ins where we wouldn't pay any wage. Having already loaned in three Greeks in our very first season, we reactivated our connection to our old friend SotD - who amazingly for us agreed to jump in!
So here we are, having two Greek riders on loan, and all in all paying 100k of wage for 2 riders - along with a total of 650k in fees for all those loan deals. Looks like we have improved our negotiation skills over the years
You might remember that those were the two highly available riders pre-transfers, and we have more or less succeeded in our task of selling them.
We set an asking price of 1.2M for Nairo Quintana, and while we got some interesting swap options, we finally decided to go the full-cash way. Nairo will tackle his final prime season at Volcanica - Fox; exactly what we were hoping for, and where he belongs! Thanks for the 2021 season in our team, and all the best with our Latino friends!
Where we - objectively - miserably failed at was selling Hermann Pernsteiner. We hoped to get 500k for him - and ended up paying 400k! Which obviously means he was part of a swap deal, but more on that later... In the meantime, Pernie has been sold further - for 400k. So we clearly have to admit that our negotiation skills aren't PT worthy yet - or that we have just been slightly bamboozled...
Anyway, let's now tackle the final - and most interesting - part of this update:
Welcome Home!
Colin Stüssi Gabriel Chavanne
We agree, it's not exactly "Welcome Home", as both have never been riding for us - but if two Swiss riders join a Swiss team, we think it's still appropriate
You might remember that fancy double-loan deal with the Pumas. Well, the final - and to us most important - part of the deal was that we got Colin Stüssi for just 100k!
Colin will add some more firepower to our now triple-headed stage race leading team, along with Gino Mäder and Fausto Masnada. He has gained a lot of valuable experience during all his years with a Top PT team - and we're sure he'll rock the CT stage races this year! With all of our climbers being at least somewhat competent in TTs, there's pretty much no stage race we can't target - and we appreciate that a lot!
Let's just take a look at his skillset to confirm this:
Colin Stüssi, Level 4.MAX, 29 y.o., € 110,000 wage
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FT
DH
PL
71
77
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
You might also remember that we mentioned a swap deal when talking about Pernsteiner - the other part of that swap was prologue specialist Gabriel Chavanne! Having grown up at Sauber, he now is back in Switzerland, ready to rock CT prologues!
This isn't his only competence, though, as he's also pretty strong on the flat and will make for a great leadout - or a decent sprinter in his own right where he gets the opportunity. We still feel like we overpaid a bit for him, but the sponsors won't really care given the perfect fit in terms of nationality!
And let's put some numbers on the skills we already explained above:
Gabriel Chavanne, Level 4.MAX, 30 y.o., € 50,000 wage
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FT
DH
PL
75
58
64
65
71
76
74
57
76
76
53
67
82
And this concludes our second transfer update. So far, we have brought in three Swiss riders out of three total signings - let's see if we can continue that streak
We currently have a total of 13 riders on board for the 2022 season, meaning at least two more will join us until the end of the transfer period. However, given that Free Agency hasn't necessarily treated us well so far, we're choosing a rather passive approach and wait for some special opportunities that may arise on the final days.
Stay tuned for further updates - although we don't know when we'll have some for you.
cio We've become a kind of retirement home for Swiss Puma riders it seems
WJ Thanks! Don't know if he's really strong enough to be considered for pure bunch sprints though, we'll see how I'll plan him
UU Thanks for not overbidding I do hope I can make some use of his hill stat, and obviously the strong prologue should give him some opportunities to shine, too. Those are random anyway, but I've got some good riders now, and hopefully one of them will succeed
red Indeed short-term, yeah... Was already in talks for him last year, would have been nice to get two years of his prime, but yeah ^^ Unfortunately no young Swiss sprinter in sight
Obviously liked Aregger a lot, hence the bidding. He's just a fundamentally good rider all around, no weaknesses for his rider type. He'll be a great fit on your team, and no doubt scoop up a bunch of points throughout the year.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
We could never keep Gabby under 70,000 wage when we had him so that's the kind of output you should expect from him.
Obviously I love him as we started our journey together in my and his first season. 9 years on and it's nice to see him back in Switzerland, even if it's not back with us.
Yup, that's an accurate representation of how our talks went!
Truly a mysterious deal in any situation but the one I found myself in, but I have no regrets and will follow even more closely than I've already done before.
I see you in a similar position to LLS last season, and without putting too much pressure on the whole project, I'm confident in a similar outcome!
I'll be rooting for your team next season. I love the project you've got going here! And doing business with Jura GIANTS was a pleasure. Thank you for that! Nairo already met his teammates and he feels right at home.
One of our goals pre-transfers was to build up a solid TTT core. However, we didn't anticipate the TTers market would be as crazy as it finally was - just to remind you, in other years, 78 TTers could even slip through to CT draft...
We didn't get our primary FA targets, didn't manage to get the deals we would have liked to, or were just ignored despite having announced our interest... Well, it wasn't to be.
Still, we managed to sign the runner-up of last year's Polish TT NC - welcome to the show, Krzysztof Marchewka! We don't know if it was the fact that he lost that TT to Rekita that made BWT not offer him a new contract, but we are glad to have two of the country's top time triallists united now! Let's take a look at his current skillset:
Krzysztof Marchewka, Level 4.MAX, 29 y.o., € 75,000 wage
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FT
DH
PL
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
And yeah, obviously Krzysztof is not Swiss - the first Non-Swiss rider permanently signed this transfer window - but at least we still respect the color scheme of the country flag.
While transfers are slowly coming to an end, we're expecting one or two more additions, plus two riders from the CT draft. Stay tuned for further updates!
knockout Outstanding for me or for you? We'll see if Gabby was worth that money, given that you sent Pernsteiner back to CT again we'll have the direct comparison
Croatia I agree with your feeling, not sure at all about Chavanne. But even if he doesn't deliver - which could very well be the case with prologues being almost completely random - at least we added another Swiss rider
bbl Thanks for not outbidding me Had hoped to get him for 50k later in transfers, but quality finally shows I guess. I'm looking forward to sending him to all kinds of races (knowing that we won't do any cobbles at all)
sammy OK, let's see how much he'll be asking for during next renewals His journey isn't completely over, so let's see if he'll end his career in the same team where it started
cio Indeed some crazy dealing there, guess nobody really understood that combined 500k fee for the loans (not even I tbh ). But I'm surely happy to have Stüssi now, and I definitely hope we'll be able to bounce back up
DarkWolf Thanks, we can surely use any kind of support we can get! Thanks for taking care of Nairo, I'm really happy he ended up in the best suited team around
cunego A big price, I agree - but fortunately one that cio indirectly paid for me For now I think that the country flag is the best part of the Chavanne deal, but I sure hope he'll prove me wrong and score tons of points
You're doing great business to set yourself up to head back to PCT for 2023. Hope you play it right and can enjoy yourself on the way
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
The fact that we're only at update number 4 shows that it was a pretty quiet period for us (except for the lengthy deal talks around our TT talents and Stüssi) - and a rider category missing so far was "Talents". While not a priority after relegation to CT, we still are committed to development of Swiss cyclists.
We were almost sure that we wouldn't be able to sign this year's top talent Alex Balmer, who unfortunately didn't even end up in a Swiss team, but one rider we always had on our radar was Christoph Janssen. We planned to get him from the CT riders draft, but when someone offered him a stagiaire contract, we had to react, not wanting to lose a year of his development.
Christoph was happy to get a full-time contract and accepted the minimum wage of 50k. While not being a top talent by any means, he'll definitely end up as an important part of our TTT setup in a couple of years - let's take a look at his current and potential skillsets:
Christoph Janssen, Level 1.00, 22 y.o., € 50,000 wage
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FT
DH
PL
Current
69
62
63
69
66
68
68
55
59
66
63
65
69
Max
70
69
68
76
71
73
75
55
59
67
64
65
76
Given that it's the final day of transfers with just a couple of hours to go, we don't expect many more moves - but having loaned out our Hungarian talent Gergely Szarka to another "Swiss" team (Duolingo), we're one rider short of the minimum limit. So we'll definitely bring in yet another Free Agent - let's see which name will appear in the next update - the second-to-last one, with the CT draft outcome then marking the definitive end of transfers.
jandal I definitely hope I won't completely mess up the planning, and then I should definitely have some good riders who could secure promotion But it's cleraly not a given with that big CT competition this year!
I think every rider you either brought in through FA or bought really brings in scoring points in their way (whether they are immediate or future). Also sticking nicely to the regional focus, which is always nice to see. Cristoph can thank me for making 50k this year, without me he would haven't been able to survive in Switzerland, riding for free.
It definitely looks like we've got a soft spot for Polish riders this year, with Poland having the shared 2nd largest representation besides Italy now on our roster.
We can't say this was planned, though; we'd have preferred to get Kung or van Baarle over Marchewka, and for our final Free Agent signing, we were trying to get our old friend Issiaka Cissé back after his previous employer folded their team.
Unfortunately - yet understandably - Issiaka signed with African team P:A, and so we once again had to look out for a sprinter. It is safe to say that we weren't lucky with our targetted sprinters this time around - many, many of them were uncontested, but all of Reinhardt, Boudat and unfortunately even Page had some interest from other teams as well - and ended up signing elsewhere.
Despite not being eager to sign declined riders, we felt like Grzegorz Stepniak was one of the strongest sprinters left on the Free Agent market - and given that he should have no troubles finding friends with two fellow countrymen already being under contract with us, we opted for him. He is aware that this will be a one-year stint with us, but he'll be eager to get the best out of it, trying to get another contract next year. Here's his current skillset:
Grzegorz Stepniak, Level 4.MAX, 33 y.o., € 50,000 wage
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FT
DH
PL
71
56
66
63
68
68
73
66
78
77
62
67
72
We clearly don't have a top-level sprinter this year - but given that we won't participate in any flat classics or purely flat stage races, we don't think it will be much of an issue. Marcel and Grzegorz can cover 112 of our 140 race days, which should be enough to have one of them on pretty much every flat stage we'll be doing. Let's hope our strategy doesn't backfire, and both of them will be able to sprint to some great results!
Nemo Thanks
Not much went according to the initial plans to be honest, but it's still good to see that we were able to bring in 4 Swiss riders - as many as we didn't renew. Which means that we're at 7/15 pre-draft, and Bissegger being loaned out.
Christoph might thank you, yeah, but I won't
The very final part of transfers is done for us, and we are happy to announce our two picks!
For round 1, we wanted to add some depth to our TTT line-up. While our squad is ready to go for TTTs in mountainous stage races, it isn't quite as much for pure TTT events where we don't want to send our top climbers. Plus, having already two pure TTers, we didn't want to go for one-dimensional riders.
One rider who satisfied those criteria pretty well was Erick Rowsell - so we put him on top of our draft list, and he did indeed sign with us! Let's take a look at his statline to understand why we were after him:
Erick Rowsell, Level 4.MAX, 32 y.o., € 0 wage
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FT
DH
PL
68
74
69
73
71
74
70
57
61
67
65
62
73
In addition to not having a lot of depth in pure TT events, the same is actually true for mountain stages, where we have three leaders and not much after them. Erick will actually be our fourth strongest climber, so we're definitely happy with this signing!
For round 2, the initial plan was to go after a sprinter. However, looking at the lack of decent options in Free Agency, we decided to sign another sprinter before the draft - we presented Grzegorz Stepniak earlier today. As we had already submitted our draft list by the time he actually signed his contract, there was no time to change instructions to rather go for another Rowsell-like rider. Which meant that - if the other teams wouldn'd sign all of our listed sprinters - we'd get a sprinter number 3.
Which is indeed what happened, and so we welcome yet another nation on board - representing Israel, Noam Cohen!
While there were still some faster men - in terms of potential top speed - available, we went for Noam because of his great recovery, and also because he's less weak on the uphills than many of the other available sprinters. We're not sure yet if he'll mainly ride as a leadout man, or if he'll get his own chances - but to better understand that, let's again take a look at the skillset:
Noam Cohen, Level 4.MAX, 32 y.o., € 0 wage
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FT
DH
PL
73
60
65
57
71
69
77
57
77
76
62
62
57
Noam is a tad slower than Aregger and Stepniak, but like those two is solid on flat roads as well. We're not quite sure what would be the best position for him; he's probably too fast to lead out his colleagues, but too slow to shine on his own. We'll try to find a niche for him - and while we sure like him, we still regret a bit not having spent more thought on our draft list. It is what it is, and we're sure Noam will contribute his part to a hopefully successful 2022 season!
And that's all about transfers for now - stay tuned for the upcoming posts including team presentation, and probably a little surprise for some of you! Thanks for following, and see you soon!
Great signing with Rowsell, not sure about Cohen though. Overall a good draft for you imo, got one of the Top5 value riders surely, and that surprisingly late.
Panagiotis Karatsivis 
Stefan Bissegger 
Alexys Brunel 
Nairo Quintana 
Hermann Pernsteiner 
Krzysztof Marchewka 
Gergely Szarka to another "Swiss" team (Duolingo), we're one rider short of the minimum limit. So we'll definitely bring in yet another Free Agent - let's see which name will appear in the next update - the second-to-last one, with the CT draft outcome then marking the definitive end of transfers.
Issiaka Cissé back after his previous employer folded their team.
Erick Rowsell 
Noam Cohen 
