ember wrote:
I suspect you're planning to have more money than you'll actually get
Even if a rider like Contador is for sale, I suspect he won't leave Festina for anything less than 2 millions. As an example, I got 3,6 millions in total budget as a continental team (PCT this year) last year, and I believe my team was one of the new teams that got most money.
But I like your ambitions, and it will be interesting to see if you can succeed to bring one or two of your targets to your team.
I don't have a clue how much money we'll have, but I plan to spend whatever it takes to get those goals. If that's by training a weaker rider or splashing the cash, we'll see. I'm trying to learn my lesson from last year when I had pretty easy goals and failed them all.
Evian – MIAT management are proud to announce today the signing of the first two riders for the 2013 season. Both men who have signed were part of Team Dyson last season and are believed to have been signed for their growth potential, although they will get their chances at points this season. However, both men could leave if the deal is right, and we’d like to wish the riders who are now free agents good luck. We expect Daniel Eliad will find a home at fellow PCT team PFG-Armavia, while our British contingent have been linked with a move to one of the new British CT teams.
The first man we have re-signed for next season is a Dutch sprinter who was a valuable leadout man for Simon Gaywood last season, and finished 7th in the GP Kranj. I’d like to congratulate Marco Brus on his contract renewal, and we hope he will develop with us for the next two seasons until he has reached his peak. Marco can sprint well, but he’s also a good time trialist, so he could be a man for the flat stage races on home soil, like the Ster ZLM Tour.
The other rider who has signed a new contract with the team is a Norwegian who had his best result in Belgium last season, with second in a stage of the Ronde van Belgie. Ken Sebastian Vassdal has been linked with a move to Aker – MOT, but any move that comes about will involve reimbursement of some sort for us. If he stays, then Ken will be used in races with time trials, and be allowed to develop into a specialist in that discipline.
Evian – MIAT have today announced the 12 HC races they will be competing in this season. Team manager JPH has provided us with his less than expert analysis about each race, and has also made a few more hints about transfer targets during his conversation with us.
Ok, well the first HC race of the season is the Down Under Classic and I can confirm we will be there on the 10th January. It’s a flat classic although there are a few small hills, but we believe that we can sign a sprinter capable of winning this race – whether through the free agency or through transfers. However, we don’t have a goal here so we just hope to garner points for the Asia Tour rankings.
We won’t be back in HC action for nearly two months after that, before we head to the Kenya Mountain Classic; a new race on the calendar this season. As the name suggests a Climber should triumph, and we have full confidence in all of our transfer targets for a stage race leader that they could get a good result here.
Then, three weeks later we have two races. The first one is a three day stage race and a Top 5 goal for us; the Corsica International. It’ll be difficult to reach that goal, but we believe we will get the rider we need. Expect to see a strong French contingent here as domestiques, as there isn’t a lot else to compete for except the overall.
At the same time, the race we are unsure why we entered is on. E3 Prijs is a Belgian cobbled classic, and for this race as well as some others we are looking to sign a Sprinter who can do Cobbles – Sebastian Turgot’s name has been mentioned and he is of interest.
Two weeks later, and we are going to America for another classic, this time the Philadelphia International. We hope a sprinter is able to win here, but the course can favour an attacker or even a puncheur. We don’t know what will happen, but we’ll give it our best shot.
Then another month off from HC action and another flat classic. The Berlin Pro Race is going to be an interesting race, and we will send our best sprinters there to try and get plenty of points even though it isn’t a race in Asia.
Another short stage race comes next with the four stage Eneco Tour. All of the stages are flat and sprinter friendly and it’s also a Top 5 goal. We reckon we can do well there, and although we only want a Top 5 we think the win is achievable.
At the start of July and the start of August we have two different hilly classics, both of which aren’t key goals for us but could be good point scorers for us. The Manx International and the Clasica San Sebastian are our 8th and 9th HC races.
Our finally three races come in the final month of the season. On the 5th October we have the Giro dell’Emilia, which is a race we could do well or terribly in. However, our big aims are the other two races; the Tour of Beijing from the 16th to 20th October and the Japan Cup on the 23rd October. They’re both Asia Tour races and we want to finish the season on a high, as well as hopefully sealing our Asia Tour team rankings triumph. Both suit puncheurs, so it could be interesting.
Evian-MIAT are pleased to announce their first signings for the 2013 season. The first four names on the list will be no surprise, as they are all Mongolian. Tuguldur Tuulhangai is a strong sprinter and reigning Mongolian national champion, while Bolderdene Boldbaatar will be a rider like him one day. Baasankhuu Myagmarsuren will develop into a decent climbing domestique, but our most interesting signing is Maani Altanzul, who will develop into a fast man who can climb and TT – much like another rider we have signed.
The other two riders we have signed are Blaise Sonnery and Jean-Christophe Peraud. Blaise is a sprinter who can climb – just like Altanzul will become. Jean-Christophe is an ex-mountain biker who can climb and TT, so he will be a key domestique for us. All of these riders are on minimum wage, except Peraud on 70,000 euros. More news will come later.
Top sprinter Danilo Napolitano has signed for Evian-MIAT. After a long negotiation process, he signed on the dotted line for 750,000 - a lot of money but we believe he'll be worth it. We have a few more deals lined up, but this is the biggest yet.
More riders have joined the team, but others have left. Free Agent Sprinters Andrea Guardini, Adrien Petit and Carlos Alexandre Manarelli have all joined to strengthen our leadout train, while we have also signed Italian Puncheur Federico Rocchetti from the free agent pool. We have also secured four riders on loan from Festina-Canal+: Clement Koretzky, Bryan Coquard, Charalampas Kastrantas and Alexis Gougeard. Koretzky and Gougeard will fit into our hill squad, Coquard will be on leadout duty and Kastrantas will be our man for the breakaways. Marco Brus has moved in the opposite direction as part of the deals, on loan.
We have also sold two of our riders, and sacked one. Bolderdene Boldbaatar wished to move back to Mongolia to be with his family, while Ken Sebastien Vassdal has moved to Risa-Ergon and Jean-Christophe Peraud is in the process of completing a move to the Oz Cycling Project. We have invested some of our cash though.
Jose Serpa will be our leader in the Mountains, and we hope he will reach some of our goals and hoover up the Mountains in the Asia Tour. It’ll be difficult for him to Top 5 the Corsica International, but he won’t be far off and he’s on a reasonable wage. Between him and Napolitano we look able to get, or at least almost get, 4 of our goals.
Welcome to the team presentation for Evian-MIAT’s 2013 season. Only one deal remains to be completed, so I figured we may as well crack on and start presenting our team. It’s going to be in many parts: Leaders, Luxury Domestiques and Talents. Not stolen from HTC Nieuwsblad, simply borrowed. Not as pretty either, for which I must congratulate Alakagom. Now, on with the show!
Leaders
Name:
Danilo Napolitano
Nationality:
Age:
32
Wage:
€750,000
Stats:
Spoiler
FL
MO
HIL
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
74
58
67
57
74
67
80
68
83
83
59
65
66
Danilo is a super sprinter, one of the best in the world – I’d say that only Boonen, Bennati and maybe Bewley are better. He’ll lead our team in the flat races, and should help us achieve many of our goals. His wage is higher than we would have liked, and he’s getting older but should be useful for many years to come. With only Cavendish, Kennaugh and Vantomme as real opposition (and let’s face it, Vantomme is the Torres of the cycling world) we’re looking forward to a strong season from him after being at Unicredit last season.
Jose is a man I targeted before transfers began, although it took an offer being rejected for Jaime Suaza for me to sign him for 1.2 million from Festina. He’ll lead our team in the mountains, and we hope he will dominate the mountainous Asia Tour races and achieve our top 5 goal in the Corsica International. If he doesn’t, he’ll have a crack despite his declining years and tendency to crash – he is Colombian after all!
Name:
Federico Rocchetti
Nationality:
Age:
27
Wage:
€100,000
Stats:
Spoiler
FL
MO
HIL
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
68
63
75
64
70
65
68
54
65
64
79
57
64
The Hills are an area in which having strong leaders are important, but we were priced out of moves for most of the big names on our shortlist. Federico looks a good signing though, as he is young, relatively cheap and loves to attack. He can also do C2 races, so should pick up many points on the Asia Tour. Federico is new to pro cycling this season, after going well on the Italian amateur scene.
Name:
Martin Puusepp
Nationality:
Age:
25
Wage:
€75,000
Stats:
Spoiler
FL
MO
HIL
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
67
62
75
68
67
70
68
56
61
68
74
67
68
Leading alongside Federico in the Hills is Martin, our Estonian puncheur. He’s taken a little training since we signed him, and has improved his ability in the hills further, and like Federico he can race in C2 races and loves to attack. He is also new to the professional scene, and we expect great things from him and Federico, as they both should be consistent point scorers – if not big winners.
It's an interesting idea to have a hilly squad focused around C2 races.
However there are a few CT riders that are superior to Rocchetti and Puusepp (DM-W, Weening, Sánchez Gonzalez etc) and a number of riders that are carbon copies of them (by my count there is 19 riders with 74 hill at the CT level and 11 with 75+.) It's probably better than throwing them into C1 races though I guess!
CountArach wrote:
It will be interesting to see your two hilly guys in C2 next year. Interesting idea because they can probably get more results there.
Well, we are only racing in C2 Asia races, and they'll race in all the C1 Asia hilly races and the HC Hilly races, so they should be solid but steady point scorers. As Firefly pointed out though, there are a lot of guys around their level.
The second part of our presentation focuses on those of our riders who are our luxury domestiques. These are the riders who will get their own chance at points, but for now are simply there to assist our leaders.
Luxury Domestiques
Name:
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Nationality:
Age:
24
Wage:
€75,000
Stats:
Spoiler
FL
MO
HIL
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
72
53
59
57
71
65
73
61
79
79
57
66
57
Carlos has signed for us after riding for Jayco-Red Bull last season, and will be a key part of our leadout train for Danilo. He’ll also get a chance on his own in a few races, although his lack of ability over hills could work against him. However, he still has time to potentially improve in every department with a bit of training, so he is one for the future potentially.
Name:
Blaise Sonnery
Nationality:
Age:
28
Wage:
€50,000
Stats:
Spoiler
[table=75%
FL MO HIL TT STA RES REC COB SP ACC FTR DH PRL
69 7170 64 66 7175 53 7873 67 60 64
[/table]
Blaise has signed for us after being at Jayco-Red Bull last season like Carlos, and we believe he can be a useful member of Danilo’s leadout train. However, he can race in C2 races too which will be useful, and can get over hills and mountains better than your average sprinter. Those qualities, plus the fact he is French made him a must buy for us when he became available.
Name:
Tuguldur Tuulhangai
Nationality:
Age:
28
Wage:
€50,000
Stats:
Spoiler
FL
MO
HIL
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
67
53
61
59
68
64
69
51
75
77
56
64
59
Tuguldur is the Mongolian champion on the road and in Time Trials, and with the money from MIAT coming in we felt we ought to sign him. He’ll help leadout Danilo, although he isn’t going to be amazing at it. Still, as long as there is Mongolian money in this team then expect him to be here. His jersey has been made and will be presented soon.
Name:
Andreas Landa
Nationality:
Age:
25
Wage:
€90,000
Stats:
Spoiler
FL
MO
HIL
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
66
75
67
68
68
73
67
56
53
71
68
63
68
Andreas will be our second in command in the Mountains, as well as getting his own leadership opportunities at times. He’s new to pro cycling after spending the last few years studying will riding with a small Norwegian team, and we expect big things from him in the C2 races, as well as when he is riding as a domestique for Serpa.
We’ve shown you our leaders, now it’s time to show you their support staff and our talents. This section of our preview isn’t as detailed, as the manager is studying for some things and trying to read War and Peace at the same time, but we hope you enjoy.
Our Puncheur department isn’t great at the moment, and will need to be strengthened in the future. Behind Rocchetti and Puusepp we have Mohamed Shawal Anuar Aziz (73HIL, 81HIL in 2016) on loan from Venchi, as well as another Festina loanee in Clement Koretzky (72HIL, 79HIL in 2016) and those two will hopefully help us score points in the C2 Hilly races. Alexis Gougeard is on loan from Festina as well, and is one for the future (77HIL in 2016) as well as our own young Frenchman in Jerome Mainard (76HIL in 2016). However, this area does need shoring up next season – we already have plans though.
The Time Trials and Cobbles aren’t being targeted this season, and it shows in the talents we have signed. For the TT’s, we have Roy Goldstein who signed for us after being released by PFG-Armavia (72TT, 79TT in 2016) and little more, while on the Cobbles we have Maxime Daniel on loan from Puma-SAP (70COB, 79COB and 76SP in 2016) and a rarity in a Colombian Cobbler by the name of Isaac Bolivar, who will never be great but should get points at this level in a few seasons (77COB in 2016).
The part of our team we really aim to take points through is the sprinters. Behind Danilo Napolitano we have a strong train, starting with four riders at their peak; Carlos Alexandre Manarelli (79SP), Blaise Sonnery (78SP, 71MO, 70HIL), Maksym Averin (76SP) and Mongolian champion Tuguldur Tuulhangai (75SP). They are supported by talented youngsters such as Andrea Guardini (75SP, 80SP in 2015), Adrien Petit (74SP, 79SP and 73COB in 2015), on loan Festina rider Bryan Coquard (74SP, 81SP in 2016), Mustafa Carsi (73SP, 80SP in 2016) and our third Mongolian Maani Altanzul (71SP, 78SP and 71TT in 2016). Out on loan we have Marco Brus at Festina, who will return a better rider (73SP, 78SP in 2015) for his time in the Pro Tour.
We hope these riders will help us achieve our goals and help us stay in the PCT. If we do, then expect us to dispense with a few sprinters next season and bring in a few riders who like going uphill. We believe that is the only real weak spot in our team at this level, so we’re hopeful for the next few seasons.
Reports in France suggest there is unrest in the Evian-MIAT camp, after quotes appeared in La Gazzetta and L'Equipe from team manager jph27 in which he called star sprinter Danilo Napolitano was blasted for being overpaid, and in which he appeared to claim relegation was a near certainty. jph has previous on this score, falling out with Simon Gaywood last season. A press conference has been called tomorrow, in which jph is expected to defend himself once again, after the latest controversy.
The time has come for us to announce our program for the first month of the season. I would do a detailed preview, but I don't have the time at the moment. So here it is, our race plan for January.
Down Under Classic
Our first race of the season is one we believe we can win with a little luck. It is a flat classic, a HC one in fact, and we have a top favourite in Danilo Napolitano. In recent years, Allan Davis has dominated so expect a good fight.
Danilo Napolitano
Carlos Manarelli
Blaise Sonnery
Maksym Averin
Bryan Coquard
Andrea Guardini
Tuguldur Tuulhangai
Mustafa Carsi
Tour Down Under
Our second race in Australia is one we have less hope of winning. It's a hilly six day stage race and we aren't great at hills. We hope to pick up a few points, but getting two guys in the top 20 would be a real success.
Adrien Petit
Clement Koretzky
Martin Puusepp
Mohamed Anuar Aziz
Federico Rocchetti
Maxime Daniel
Alexis Gougeard
GP Kathmandu
Another race that is possibly winnable. We have sent our strongest puncheurs here for this Nepalese C2 race and hope it will pay off with a decent haul of points against relatively weak opposition.
Blaise Sonnery
Clement Koretzky
Martin Puusepp
Mohamed Anuar Aziz
Federico Rocchetti
Maani Altanzul
Alexis Gougeard
Napolitano should be fine in the Down Under Classic, but in GP Kathmandu it seems quite difficult for even a top 5. Because the competition of continental teams will be a lot.
Edited by fintas on 20-01-2013 12:54
