So Küng won't be at Arenberg and Benelux? Sucks a bit for you I guess, but of course an incredibly solid rider to build on and obviously can't be a better regional fit. Errazkin is also a great asset imo, fits perfectly in your TTT-eam as you said, and could so serious damage in races like South Africa (and others, but won't name them all ). Tediashvili great cobble domestique for... a trained Sommer?
Loving the talents you got obviously as well. Thanks to Ulrich's redesign of Stehli he's found a home, and Sommer is definitely a solid dom with training potential. Page is a fun sprinter and could particularly see him do well in a GT. Going for green in his home Tour one day?
With the exception of the 2020 season, we have always welcomed at least one talent on loan - 2023 is fully in line with that! We are happy to provide the following two riders the race experience they need to reach the next level:
Scott joins us from Lidl Cycling, and he's kind of a special case - neo-pro at 28 years old! We won't comment on his potential development paths, but for now he'll be pretty useful in time trial events and on uphill terrain already.
Just like Errazkin and Tediashvili, who joined us on a permanent base, Gustas is another manifestation of fruitful negotiations with DK Žalgiris (who are paying his wage, by the way). His main strength lies in the time trialling area, although his best skill right now is downhill riding. He'll surely get to do that with us as well!
With Gustas' loan secured, it is also clear that we are no longer able to loan in a rider with a high wage, having partially used our loan cap now. But we're always open to other loan deals, if we can fit the respective riders - we'll see if there's more to come!
Abhi Obviously agree on Küng, especially with regional focus in mind He was also a pretty high finisher in the PCT rankings last year (around 40th iirc), and we hope he can even improve on that now that he's back home
jaxika Thanks! Will be exciting to watch Phinney ride in your jersey, too!
jandal We all do it seems
Marco Küng vs. Dennis reloaded this year? Guess it might be the last dance at top level for the latter, though...
cunego Yep, was about time we finally got him We surely need a big name to have a shot at survival, let's see if we can finally bring one in after tons of fallen-through deals...
redordead I guess the fee would've been higher had the wage been lower. But I think Laurens made a good job of bringing him down from 400k to 250k... That wage surely made some folks keep their fingers off
We'll see if we can stay up, have some doubts about that given how our riders (or those riding for us last year) did in C1/HC in 2022... Hopefully you're right
Nemo No, unfortunately he will miss out. I guess that will be something to fix for next year
You're right that the PCT calendar is pretty puncheur-TT friendly, it's not by chance that I was interested in Errazkin
Trained Sommer, probably not. But as said before, let's lay out the floor for a potential leader to come in next year - don't want to get a leader AND support in the same year, if possible
And last but not least, thanks to you guys for restatting some really useless riders (yeah, Stehli was one of them).
No, it's not what you might think. While we did definitely dream of signing Eddie Dunbar, who would have been a perfect fit for our team skillset-wise, no deal did materialize. We'll postpone that to next year then.
And no, it's not Eddie van Heerden, either, who recently signed with new team Simba Cement. So, who are we talking about?
Let's first give some insights in the making-of of the deal. Soon after transfers started, we got some enquiries about prologue star rider Gabby. Whereas one deal did not happen because the other manager couldn't find a replacement for the rider we'd have loved to sign, we turned down a proposal from another manager that was including Eddie. Why?
Well, it would have meant giving up on either Brunel or Bissegger. As with all other proposals involving them (there were plenty), we stood firm by our pre-transfers take that we would only give them away for an insane offer - mainly due to U25 points on the table.
So, we settled with the fact that we wouldn't sell Gabby after all - which we were happy with, too, despite our schedule including a maximum of 3 prologues (missing out on Dauphiné, Portugal and Benelux due to band selections). The maximum of 4 potential prologues was the reason why Gabby was available at all, by the way.
But the same manager, who we already knew to be tenacious after lots of (finally unfruitful) negotiations last year, came back to us. Suggesting to get Eddie for Gabby plus a significant amount of cash. Due to cap space, and given that the cash was around the lower acceptable limit, we heavy-heartedly agreed on including our highly appreciated "Italo-Swiss army-knife" Leo as well.
Both sides could live with this deal, and after a confirmation period of 24 hours, it was sealed this morning. Which means that we have to announce two departments - with MOL Cycling Team getting two riders they value a lot:
Gabriel "Gabby" Chavanne only joined us last year from Evonik - and it was a good year for him. He got to ride 6 prologues, winning two and finishing 2nd once, plus bringing home the green jersey from Jelajah.
As said before, he'd have been down to maximum four prologues this year, and so we had to agree that it makes more sense for him to join a team where he could ride more of his main focus stages. Thanks for having you for our fantastic CT year, and for your contribution towards the division title!
Leonardo "Leo" Basso is one of just 4 remaining first-year signings (alongside Masnada, Mäder and Stocker). After loaned out in 2019 to reach his maximum level, he has been a highly valued and incredibly versatile team member ever since. Not a superstar by any means, but a reliable helper you can count on on any kind of terrain!
To underline that, he scored our best cobbles result (by a mile) with a 4th place in Lincoln GP in 2020, and last year was part of our strong TTT lineup every single time we reached a stage podium (6x). We will definitely miss him a lot!
Two great riders - plus € 750,000 of cash - are gone, but who did we get in return, then? Well, Eddie. Eddie? Eddie!
Surprised? So are we! Never did we consider signing one of the world's best cobblers this year - but well, transfers often take surprising turns and twists!
Eddie joins us from PT team MOL, for which he rode in the last two years. Previously, he was riding for the legendary, now sadly defunct Generali team - where he became the rider he now is. From a strong leadout rider handling some hills and cobbles, he grew into a cobblestones specialist who likes hills and who can sprint!
Thanks to his versatility, he finished between 30th and 40th place in the PT individual rankings three times in the last four years, and hence was roughly the 5th best cobbler of the division. But first and foremost, he actually is a monument winner - the first on our team - winning Ronde van Vlaanderen in 2021! He currently "just" has one other classics win to his name - the 2022 edition of Cheshire Cycling Tour - but many more Top 5 results.
While we weren't actually eager to get a 32 year old rider for his final prime season - meaning a replacement will need to be found in the not too distant future - it was just too good of an opportunity to not jump on it. Eddie should be a Top 5 cobbler in PCT as well, and despite our clearly not cobbles-optimized schedule (notably missing out on Franceville and Benelux), we believe that he can make the difference between staying up and relegating!
In addition to his obvious main strength, we're also happy to now have another rider type we were lacking so far - a hilly sprinter. We have got some races - in addition to cobbles - in mind for him, but we'll have to work out his detailed planning. In any case, we're stoked - and proud - to count a monument winner in our 2023 team! Welcome once again, Eddie!
So, now we have our "big signing" of the transfer season secured. Given our financial situation and the lack of attractive enough deals for our riders, this deal almost concludes our transfer season. We have still some smaller deals cooking, but the big picture of the roster is unlikely to change by now.
Have you ever noticed that there exist three Pages in the MGUCI database? Obviously not paper pages, but riders having Page as their last name. One is still without contract and is looking unlikely to get one - but since 12:27 today, we own two of them. Double Page.
Just like for Küng, it took us years to finally get hold of the Swiss Page. In 2020, we were eventually outbid and had too many other open targets to insist. In 2021, we didn't even try. In 2022, we felt bad. I mean, really bad. There were 62 minutes left on the clock before our deal would have been sealed, when another team jumped in. We raised our offer, only to get outbid by another team who hadn't shown interest in him earlier. Rough.
But that's the past, the present is now! And without further ado, let's introduce:
Here we are, Dylan will finally be wearing our jersey! After having been released by Sauber during the 2020 offseason, he was signed by Guave - who left the MGUCI tour after one year only. He found a new home with Indosat for the next two years (being released in between as well) - before it was finally time to come back home!
Whereas we once had the dream of training him to join the upper class of sprinters, those ideas have vanished three years later - but we are still happy to have him! Unlike Theuns, he doesn't really appreciate bumpy roads, so he will mainly compete in the really flat races. We're sure we can find some niches for him where he can shine - we value him clearly higher than Stepniak last year, and you might remember that our Polish sprinter even went on to win an HC stage...
We're glad to have a Swiss sprinter again, after Marcel Aregger unfortunately reached the end of his prime and didn't agree on renewing his contract. Dylan will be the fastest Swiss sprinter for years to come - unfortunately, we must say, as there's absolutely no successor in sight yet...
However, even if he doesn't get to mentor a fellow countryman, he can still use his native language to teach our prime sprinter talent the basics and more! You remember his name? Of course - Page! Dylan will start declining when Hugo will reach his prime - I guess that's some perfect design of our Double Page!
knockout They're not just among your favorite riders it seems... Whereas it makes sense for Gabby to go back to PT with more prologues (and especially a GC-defining one, which is missing in PCT I feel), I'd have really loved to keep Basso. But yeah, point-wise it was surely worth it, even though it's only a short-term solution.
cunego Not at all surprised that you don't appreciate However, Stallaert should easily be the stronger rider in most cases I guess. Still looking forward to some nice duels - on a completely new terrain for me
lief Bad? Says the guy who got Summerhill Guess we'll have some big battles out there in PCT, with Spengler and Zepuntke also there - the PT cobblers will be bored by the lack of competition
Well would have loved to see Teuns stay in the Pro Tour to have less opponents for Daniel but an astute signing nonetheless. Overall your team looks like it is shaping up nicely.
Congrats on Teuns, in the slightly lesser competition of the PCT his finishing will be an even bigger asset. And great to see Page make it to you after all those tries.
I really like how your team shapes up. And although I am sorry to see Basso go I love the Kung and Theuns signings.
Please do me a favor and don't drop in the CT again.
Yeah, that is French - one of the four official languages spoken in Switzerland. "Bol" literally translates to "bowl", but "We have some bowl" doesn't make sense, right? Well, "avoir du bol" is an often-used phrase meaning "to be lucky" - so this update actually is labelled "We are lucky"!
Lucky, why? Well, because we wanted to sign a rider with a 145k wage, but only had 140k left. Furthermore, we needed some cash to get him - and we didn't have enough. Turns out we were lucky:
- The team selling the rider we were interested in also proposed a 1->3 loan, and we apparently were the first ones to jump in. So we would get a loan that would allow us to have enough money to purchase the rider in question.
- For the 5k wage surplus, we were looking for a loan-out - if possible one that would even free up 55k of wage cap or more, to go for yet another rider on the Free Agent market. And we did get such a deal.
- However, even if the cap space allowed for signing another Free Agent, the total balance wouldn't. But we were lucky again, the 1->3 loan partner agreed on paying a slightly higher fee!
So, what does this make us end up with? To summarize: One loan-in, one loan-out - and one rider who was the initial target. You may have guessed his name from the update title (which was obviously chosen on purpose) - it is:
Cees joins us from Lidl Cycling - a team we were discussing with throughout the entire transfer season. Mostly about one of our own riders - those talks might resume next transfer season. But also about their other sprinter, Kamberaj, whose price tag eventually went beyond our reach. We also talked about Bol - and once they could confirm their signing of Peak, Bol was free to leave.
However, another team was quicker to commit to a buy, but given that we had discussed a potential deal for several days, we didn't feel too bad to hijack their deal. And we eventually turned out to be lucky again, as they couldn't match our € 400,000 bid.
So, Cees will definitely be filling the role as our main sprinter. He might have a slightly worse acceleration that Dylan Page, but he's got a higher topspeed - and he's just stronger everywhere else, too. In particular, we do like his great physical values, as well as his decent skills over the hills. Having only just missed out on the Top 100 in last year's PT individual rankings, we believe he could step up in PCT this year, and we're expecting great things for him in the races where not the whole field of top PCT sprinters will be present!
Another part of this three-way deal is the loan-out of Jan Sommer. Although we could have provided him with the required experience to get to the next level, financially speaking it was the best solution for us to loan him out for one season. Luckily, we did get a loan partner in Kraftwerk Man Machine who accepted to comply to the conditions we desired, meaning that they pay 65k of his 75k wage - meaning that we got from -5k of cap space to +60k.
Using that space however was only possible to the aforementioned 1->3 loan deal - again with Lidl Cycling - who agreed on paying slightly more than th erequired 185,000 fee. And here he is, please welcom:
Cedric mainly joins us to gather some experience of course, but we're hoping for him to already show his talent on the hills, and his strong fighting spirit. We'll likely have far more options for breakaways than last year, and Cedric is one rider we expect to join some of them!
We would like to express our thanks again to Lidl Cycling, who agreed on paying all of his wage, plus a slightly higher fee than required, allowing us to make full use of your wage cap!
These moves in all likelihood pretty much conclude our transfers. As mentioned before, we do have the wage cap (but no cash) to sign yet another rider - we're looking forward to find out which one we'll be able to convince of joining us! And we're obviously always open to any kind of deal propositions - we just want to state that we have only very little wage cap, no loan cap and no cash left!
WJ Well, I'd also have preferred getting a great stage racer - but I guess Theuns is a far better option than having no leader, so I had to accept this offer. Blame jaxika for some added competition in PCT cobbled races
Ulrich Thanks. Yeah, I really hope he'll be able to make use of his great top speed - Stallaert showed us how it's done in the last two years, so up to Eddie to imitate him every now or then
sammy Well, iirc he's 24 already, so no stagiare contract sadly
DarkWolf Yeah, I love them too And dropping back to CT will hopefully not happen, given that I don't have Nairo on board who relegated the two of us in the two previous years
Abhi I guess it's looking good for certain aspects of the season, but we clearly didn't achieve all our goals... Let's see if we can stay up this time, would be a really, really bad moment to go down again this year...
red Well, it was enough that you outbid me on Lammertink, no need to do the same with Theuns And I guess jaxika isn't overly unhappy that Theuns doesn't join a PT team
Theuns is a big name in PCT. Theuns vs. Stallaert then, hopefully some crumbles left for the likes of Zepuntke Seems like your sprinting department is also nicely shaping up
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
No, we don't speak Slovenian, not at all - but the fact that we just added a new flag to the list of riders having any kind of contract with us deserves some special mention. Even more so because it's not just any country - it's the one where triple PT winners Isostar came from, it's Slovenia.
The name of the rider isn't that spectacular, though - of course we were miles off signing someone like David Per. But while looking for some support of our new cobbles leader Eddie Theuns, we found this experienced domestique:
Nejc was riding for Grieg-Maersk last year, hence he knows what it takes to deliver his captain to some amazing results. Even though he lost some of his cobbles skills during the offseason, he will still be Eddie's main helper for the 2023 season.
Depending on the C2 races we'll end up participating in, he might even get some leadership opportunities, and he'll hopefully be a great mentor for Tediashvili for the latter to take over this role starting in 2024!
What we do particularly like about Nejc - in addition to his pure cobbles skills - is his fighting spirit. This might be exactly what it takes to be successful at the lower level - and will also be helpful to support his leader in the toughest races!
This signing concludes our transfer season. We'll now start working on the team presentation, which will hopefully be ready soon! Stay tuned!
Nemo I guess you shouldn't just ignore Summerhill, Van Hooydonck, Daniel or Debesay I guess there will definitely be some points left for Spengler, Zepuntke or Blythe who don't like hills nor sprints that much - and as said before, the calendar isn't quite optimized for a cobbler, either. Still hoping for Theuns to make the difference between relegating and staying up, though!
Blasing Thanks for the nice words Of course, feel free to use whatever you like - I didn't invent anything myself, just compiled what I found elsewhere and put it together to my liking
Imladrik I do have some love for languages, and playing with words is part of it Thanks for the nice words
Had a long look at Kosic, too, at one point, but he wasn't a priority anymore after we brought in Teggart and Young. A neat pickup late in the window though, to be sure. Really looking forward to the team presentation!
). Tediashvili great cobble domestique for... a trained Sommer? 
Scott Davies | 28 y.o. | lvl 1.60 | € 50,000 wage | pot. 4
Gustas Raugala | 22 y.o. | lvl 1 | € 50,000 wage | pot. 4
Gabriel "Gabby" Chavanne only joined us last year from Evonik - and it was a good year for him. He got to ride 6 prologues, winning two and finishing 2nd once, plus bringing home the green jersey from Jelajah.
Leonardo "Leo" Basso is one of just 4 remaining first-year signings (alongside Masnada, Mäder and Stocker). After loaned out in 2019 to reach his maximum level, he has been a highly valued and incredibly versatile team member ever since. Not a superstar by any means, but a reliable helper you can count on on any kind of terrain!
Edward Theuns | 32 y.o. | lvl 4.max | € 380,000 | pot. 5
Cees Bol | 28 y.o. | lvl 4.max | € 145,000 wage | pot. 6
Cedric Bakke Christophersen | 22 y.o. | lvl. 1 | € 85,000 wage | pot. 6
Nejc Kosic | 33 y.o. | lvl 4.max | € 60,000 wage | pot. 4
