After a succesful 2024 PCT campaign, we once again claimed a top 10 spot in the Team Standings after fantastic performances from Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz
& Xandro Meurisse. Especially the latter proved hs skills across a variety of races and produced one of the best seasons ever by a WJSM rider managing to barely scrape out of the top 10 indiviudal standings scoring a massive 759 points whereas 2 million euro man Kaspa "only" managed to produce 639, which was very much what we expected from him going into the season. Xandro Meurisse has departed Specialized after 3 fantastic years filled with massive heights, as a deal could not be reached in renewals following the Belgian's first decline. He is the biggest in a host of names leaving us after long stints with the team. Oscar Riesebeek, Mark Dzamastagic & Lionel Coutinho also leave after long and fruitful stints with the team. Georg Steinhauser & Patrick Naud leave after two shortlived stints with Specialized as the German won't get his stagiare contract turned into a full one and age has sadly caught up with Naud as we will be one Canadian short going into the off season.

knockout wrote:

Dzamastagic, Riesebeek and Meurisse released. Aging is a cruel little thing!

jandal7 wrote:


Will pour one out for a couple of legends in Dzama and Meurisse. Sad to see them go.

SotD wrote:

As you know I really love the base you have build here! I think you are in a very good position to build a promotion contender, from this base.

baseballlover312 wrote:

Always sad to see legends leave, but eventually the time comes.

Booker wrote:

Not loving that we’ll have to go up against a bonafide star cobblist in Kaspa this season, but right back at you from your comment on the Duvel thread, looking forward to dueling this season, mate!

You seem to still have a terrifyingly amount of wage budget to play with though, so I’m sure this can only end in tears

sammyt93 wrote:

Nice to see GVK surviving the culling of the oldies, it just makes sense to see him retire here and not get kicked out the door.

Heine wrote:

With a very strong base and quite a lot of money to play around with you should be able to lauch a stong campaign for promotion. Kasper (I refuse to try to spell it) should be really strong and I love seeing Barguil on a good team!

Some really nice talents that can just keep developing with you, even though they are not the super type they are the kind of talents that over time raise the level of the team

AbhishekLFC wrote:

Very good base to build on for the new season. Definitely an early promotion contender for me

After the dust has settled on the tough negotiations with our riders we're now ready to present our potential outgoings for the upcoming transfer window. Most of the listings should come as absolutely 0 surprise to anyone while there might be some surprising listings among them. Let's run em 1 by 1.

Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz: To the surprise of noone last season's marquee signing is going nowhere in the offseason unless we recieve a big that is so outrageuos that MGUCI will have to dust off the investegation department for the first time since dw almost pulled the scam of the century.

Warren Barguil: The French climber did what was expected of him last year which was also reflected in his wage drop following another decline. At just below 200k wage Barguil could be a sure fire way to promotion for a CT team and if he's not going to move at the end of the day he will still be a valued piece of our leadership core in PCT.

Samuele Battistella: Batti had a dissapointing year in PCT last season, but he did not get a wage drop which showcases the faith that we still have in him to pull out solid results from breaks next year. Something he might be better at doing on the Pro Tour where riders of his strength are more likely to be given the necessary leeway to create the miracles.

Jonathan Milan: Milan's maxed he's going to fight it out for theU25 prologue points next year, albeit he's the weakest of the newly maxed prologue specialists in PCT we still believe that he has the goods.

Filippo Baroncini: Baroncini is a guy that we are looking forward to utilising in across a vast variety of races in the 2025 season and will not be pried off our hands easily, his unique make and model is simply too intriguing.

Pavel Potocki: Potocki is our C2 GOAT but he is also 32 so if there's a buck to be made there we might be talkative.

Adam De Vos: He's Canadian. Moving on.

Guillaume Van Keirsbulck: Don't know why you would want him, but either way GVK is the blood that runs in the veins of the team, he's going nowhere.

Embret Svestad-Bardseng: An interesting dom and breakaway rider once maxed, but we know that there are some Scandinavian teams around the peloton that might find the Norwegian an interesting prospect for the upcoming window.

Edoardo Sandri: Sandri has been with the team as a stagiare for two years now, finally securing his permanent contract with the team, but small murmurings have been heard around the block that Sandri might be a little unsettled. He is going to turn into a fine Flat beast once he is maxed out and we believe that there might be some Italian teams around the peloton who might find him being available to be interesting.

Sergey Medvedev: We already got rid of him once. Do you think we will be stupid enough to do that again, I mean have you seen his energy stats?

Tim Marsman: The Dutch TT/Break specialist was a late pickup in the last transfer window and once he maxes he will be an incredibly solid TTT piece and roleur, that will be able to reel in breaks and control the peloton. Should he stay at the team we will be looking forward to seeing him in the breaks all year.

Jeremie La Grenade: Read De Vos.

Amith Udaya Kumara: Whilst Kumara is an integral part of our cobbles train a deal could probably struck if there is enough interest on the other side of the table.

Josh Kench: Joshy boy was unbenched by us last year after a failed stagiare stint at amaysim. We adore Kench's skillset at Specialized but he is a rider profile that we currently have an overflow of in Medvedev, Marsman, Sandri and himself so there is most definetely the opportunity to strike a deal.

With that out of the way we're looking forward to the transfer season and the cornacopia of opportunities that we have in our current position, may the odds forever be in our favour.

kandesbunzler26 wrote:

With some new Italian teams around and the myriad of Scandinavian teams you should easily find some new teams for most of your available riders, so you should be able to add some more leaders to help Kasperkiewicz with the scoring.

redordead wrote:

Looking forward to seeing Milan and Baroncini in their maxed forms

SotD wrote:

A reasonable amount of available riders here. Didn't quite expect that many. Especially from the "top climbers" list.