The management of Tinkoff - La Datcha Team was on holiday during the transfer season at the newly acquired villa in Cabo San Lucus (Mexico), which led to a quite transfer period: We were able to sign Jonas Vingegaard and a talented stagiaire from Uzbekistan Dimitry Bocharov.
4 riders didn't get a new contract during contract negotiations, luckily for them 3 got resigned by our team during the transfer period; Lev Gonov, Gleb Syritsa and Egor Igoshev (the first two will be loaned out to Spark Team NZ and Igoshev will be stagiaire again). Alexander Sulimov found a new team and signed with Specialized.
Ivan Menshov, a talented Russian stage racer and son of Denis Menshov, was signed as a free agent. He together with Ivanov Viacheslav will be riding for Zwift - Newton Foundation this year (loan deal) to gain eXPerience.
At the end of the transfer season we managed to sign a French stagiaire by the name of Jordan Labrosse, he might be a decent cobbler some day.
So what do you guys think? After last year's second place eyes are on Tinkoff -> Good enough for let's say top-5 in the PT?
kandesbunzler26 believes that we will finish 8th as a team this year: "They were the surprise of the last season, but it’s hard to see them repeat a podium finish. It should still be enough for a top 10 finish by adding up a lot of sub-top results and depth."
-knockout-
knockout also (!) predicts us being 8th: "The team of maxed out stamina stats. If that is now the crucial stat as everyone is suggesting, they are bound to overperform once again.
Sivakov is looking great, Senechal and their sprint duo will surely play an important role once again. They also have a good TTT team as they always have.
Im very doubtful about Skujins. I suspect he might hit the cliff now and stop performing solidly.
I simply suck at predicting them. Always underrating them. 8th is higher than i would normally predict them since i see flaws in many of their riders but the success in the past and the suspected importance of stamina needs to be recognized. From relegation to podium, nothing would really shock me anymore."
-AbhishekLFC-
AbhishekLFC also (!!) predicts us being 8th
-Ulrich Ulriksen-
Ulrich Ulriksen predicts us being 7th
-jph27-
jph27 also (!) predicts us being 7th
-Heine-
Heine predicts us being 11th: "There are two things that really stand out for me when looking at the entire Tinkoff team together, that is the awesome national focus and the great focus on stamina stat. 15 riders with 75 or over in stamina! As my knowledge of PCM24 goes that will be very valuable this season and makes me believe Tinkoff could really overperform my ranking here, but I am staying with my rules.
Sivakov is the main leader and he is being trained into a great GC rider. Good climbing, great energy stats and good TT makes. He is still just that tiny step behind the top who can win GTs, but from next season he will be right up there! Vingegaard is one of the few new faces on the team and will together with Mamykin, Vlasov, Rikunov and others form a good support climing team for Sivakov. There are also a great TTT train here with 5 riders 77 or higher, including Vlasov who can climb well and Razumov who in himself should score some good points with TT combined with som hill.
Skujins is the aging hilly leader who might have his last good season this year. Tikhonin, Strakhov and Trakhov looks like great support riders for him. Senechal is another good rider, I rank him also right behind the really greats on his terrains but should be a consistent scorer. When it comes to sprints Samolenkov and Banaszek is the sprinters on the team. To be honest while they look good I am not really sure if they will be able to do that much and there is a total lack of leadout riders for them.
All in all I place Tinkoff at 11th, but I would not be surprised if they put this prediction to shame with their great focus on energy stats that could make this team do much better."
-whitejersey-
whitejersey did a nice video about the PT teams -> Tinkoff's part starts at 42m40s
