|
Team Puma - SAP 2013
|
| cio93 |
Posted on 16-01-2013 18:29
|
World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
PCM$: 500.00
|
8 motivated riders hoping for a surprise at season opener
 Jurgen Van den Broeck | | | | |  Hubert Schwab |  Wilco Kelderman | | | | |  Fabio Felline |  Jocelyn Bar | | | | |  Mario Vogt | | Tom Dumoulin | | | | | Jasha Sütterlin |
Here we are, preparing for the first WT race we're automatically invited to.
While this is a great status we worked hard for last season, it is obvious that it also means we can't field a top favourite for every WT race as it was with Bennati last season.
So while we sent our best puncheurs to China, they are by far our weakest department this year and thus any effort to enhance the race has to be considered a success for us.
Jurgen Van den Broeck leads us in the hilly terrain he'll rarely visit this season (the other races being Pais Vasco, Tasmania and Il Lombardia).
He'll receive good support from Kelderman, Vogt, Felline and Swiss RR champ Schwab.
We expect him to finish way off the favourites, but hopefully still amongst the best domestiques.
While we are yet to receive a complete start list, we can assume a place in the Top25 would satisfy us before heading to our first season goal at the Tour of Qatar.
|
| |
|
|
| cio93 |
Posted on 24-01-2013 19:03
|
World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
PCM$: 500.00
|
Agressive racing, mediocre result in China
Mario representing us in the breakaway
Jurgen trying to get into the successful favourites group
In this year's season opener Badaling International, the 8 riders from Puma - SAP showed their class, although the result wasn't matching the effort in the end.
In the small breakaway of 4, Mario Vogt did a good job showing our jersey. His nervousness made him fall in a descent, but the race went another way that moment anyway.
The last 50k were very intense, and Jurgen Van Den Broeck was one of the first to attack.
He tried to escape from the bunch multiple times, but it wasn't meant to be.
His last effort saw him leading the peloton just metres behind the select group of 8 who decided the race between them, a heartbreaking moment for everyone watching.
In the upcoming sprint, Jurgen was too tired to make an impact and finished 25th.
While this is exactly what we expected beforehand, the way the race went leaves us slightly disappointed with the result, knowing a Top10 would've been very possible if Jurgen had joined the leaders.
| 25 | Jurgen Van den Broeck | Team Puma - SAP | +37 | | 47 | Hubert Schwab | Team Puma - SAP | s.t. | | 71 | Fabio Felline | Team Puma - SAP | s.t. | | 99 | Wilco Kelderman | Team Puma - SAP | s.t. | | 135 | Jocelyn Bar | Team Puma - SAP | + 5'44 | | 153 | Jasha Sütterlin | Team Puma - SAP | + 8'30 | | 155 | Tom Dumoulin | Team Puma - SAP | s.t. | | 160 | Mario Vogt | Team Puma - SAP | + 11'20 |
First season goal in flat-as-Keira-Knightley Tour of Qatar
| Daniele Bennati | | | | | Enrico Gasparotto |  Thomas Vedel Kvist | | | | | Gianni Meersman | | Mickaël Delage | | | | | Sébastien Minard | | Jocelyn Bar | | | | | Jetse Bol |
These 8 riders flew to Qatar hoping for nothing less than the GC win for Daniele Bennati, while our sponsors would be satisfied with a TOP 3 in our first season goal race.
The race itself consists of 5 flat stages, where only the wind should prevent mass sprints judged by the startlist, and a final 3.5k ITT, presumably without an impact on the GC.
In preparation for the two GTs in similar lineups (Nuyens joins in both Giro and Tour, Kelderman replaces Bar in the Tour), we've sent the best 8 riders possible for a flat stage race.
Obviously, Daniele is our undisputed leader. He can rely on last year's leadout men Gasparotto and Kvist, while Meersman, Bar and Bol are the main domestiques.
Minard and Delage should either help in the leadout or try to get into a break to exempt us from relaying.
Interestingly, this makes that lineup exactly the same as we saw it so often last year, proving to be incredibly effective.
Fulfilling our sponsor goal is a must even with the presence of the very best sprinters. One stage win should be a must for that, thus this is the minimum we want.
Edited by cio93 on 24-01-2013 19:08
|
| |
|
|
| SotD |
Posted on 24-01-2013 19:08
|
World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
|
What a team for Qatar. I would be very surprised if you don't run out with 3 stagewins and a podium atleast. That is one hell of a setup for Bennati...
I can't compete with that for sure.
|
| |
|
|
| Spilak23 |
Posted on 24-01-2013 19:09
|
Team Leader
Posts: 7357
Joined: 22-08-2011
PCM$: 200.00
|
Will be a great fight in Qatar between the Puma and the Pokerstar train! Good luck 
|
| |
|
|
| cio93 |
Posted on 24-01-2013 19:38
|
World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
PCM$: 500.00
|
SotD wrote:
What a team for Qatar. I would be very surprised if you don't run out with 3 stagewins and a podium atleast. That is one hell of a setup for Bennati...
I can't compete with that for sure.
Thanks, but as Spilak23 pointed out, wait until you see the Pokerstars lineup 
3 stage wins is unachievable for anyone imo with alone three 84 sprinters + Bewley present. Even three podiums isn't easy.
I'm a bit sad there's no "teamwork" stat like in FIFA, having the same lineup like in ~35 CT race days last season should be worth something 
|
| |
|
|
| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 08:53
|
Bot Agent
Posts: Countless
Joined: 23.11.09
|
|
| IP: None |
|
|
| SotD |
Posted on 24-01-2013 21:12
|
World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
|
I'm looking forward to see how well Guerao can compete against the top top guys here. I'm also in my strongest possible lineup, but I know I'm not a favorite at all. One top 3 would be nice though.
Óscar Guerao
Anthony Lavoine
Benoît Sinner
Mathieu Bernaudeau
Marco Brus
Cedric Lebris
Panagiotis Vlatos
Piter Campero
83-80-78-73-73 should be the sprint train I'm forming. Unfortunately my sprinters are not very strong flat riders, so I might be sprinting for 10th places in the end. Will be interesting, as the sprints is going to be important for me this season.
|
| |
|
|
| cio93 |
Posted on 24-01-2013 21:27
|
World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
PCM$: 500.00
|
Yeah, the flat stat might hurt your chances.
Gasparotto and Kvist only have 76/77SP, but 78/75FL hopefully helps with positioning.
In the end, I think no more than the last leadout man can make a difference with his sprint stat anyway.
Though if that's Holloway or even Mohs for Pokerstars, any train competing with them has to have a good advantage beforehand.
Still, with that many top sprinters, the chance that someone goes early from behind who the front runners can cling to is rather high.
|
| |
|
|
| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 25-01-2013 06:28
|
World Champion
Posts: 14236
Joined: 20-06-2011
PCM$: 300.00
|
Brutal team for Qatar indeed, tuned up for the first clash of titanic sprinter teams between you and Pokerstars. Also great joke about Kiera.  (but i love her anyway).
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 25-01-2013 06:28
|
| |
|
|
| cio93 |
Posted on 04-05-2013 11:50
|
World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
PCM$: 500.00
|
Sorry for the lack of updates, university giving me a hard time recently...going to get this up-to-date over the weekend
| Daniele Bennati | | | | | Enrico Gasparotto | | Thomas Vedel Kvist | | | | | Gianni Meersman | | Mickaël Delage | | | | | Sébastien Minard | | Jocelyn Bar | | | | | Jetse Bol |
Tour of Qatar set the stage for the first big clash of the titans. In the end, we lost.
The first stage went quite fine, with Daniele finishing second.
He failed to impress in a tight second stage sprint, with his top end speed not fast enough to overcome the positioning deficit.
With a tactical masterpiece - the manager says "It ruined our goal!" - Thomas Vedel Kvist won our first PT stage ever the upcoming day.
Daniele let his backwheel go after his initial acceleration proved to be surprisingly good, and Thomas kept that advantage all the way to the finish.
Arguably, a podium place from Bennati would've secured our goal later on...
In stage 4, Kvist returned the favour and led out Bennati perfectly.
Daniele just had to finish, and he gave us our second consecutive stage win!
With Bennati in second place on GC, leading Bewley and Kvist on a shared place 4 ahead of the last sprint stage gave us a feeling of security.
For whatever reason, the only constellation that could still kick us down to fourth happened. Swift won ahead of Bewley, who held off Lo Cicero by fractions of a centimetre...
The TT confirmed what we feared: Daniele finished the race on position 4, with Thomas Vedel Kvist hanging onto a far more enjoyable 8th.
Wrapping up the race, we are delighted about the two stage wins. Still, failing our sponsor goal hit us hard mentally, even though they assured us our performance still satisfied them.
| 4 | Daniele Bennati | Team Puma - SAP | + 22 | | 8 | Thomas Vedel Kvist | Team Puma - SAP | + 37 | | 76 | Gianni Meersman | Team Puma - SAP | + 52 | | 87 | Enrico Gasparotto | Team Puma - SAP | + 54 | | 93 | Jetse Bol | Team Puma - SAP | + 55 | | 103 | Sébastien Minard | Team Puma - SAP | + 58 | | 129 | Jocelyn Bar | Team Puma - SAP | + 1'02 | | 133 | Mickaël Delage | Team Puma - SAP | + 1'03 |
Expected invisibility in Chrono des Herbiers
| | Fabio Felline | | Tom Dumoulin | | | | | Jasha Sütterlin |
A TT classic is definitely not our favourite race this season, so we decided to use this as an experience gainer for our two most hopeful TT talents and the odd one out Felline due to race day leftovers.
The results page gave the only piece of evidence we actually participated in France.
| 54 | Tom Dumoulin | Team Puma - SAP | + 4'23 | | 58 | Jasha Sütterlin | Team Puma - SAP | + 4'56 | | 61 | Fabio Felline | Team Puma - SAP | + 6'16 |
Mediocre race between the seas
| Daniele Bennati | | | | | Enrico Gasparotto | | Thomas Vedel Kvist | | | | | Gianni Meersman | | Mickaël Delage | | | | | Sébastien Minard | | Jocelyn Bar | | | | | Jetse Bol |
Our well-practised sprint squad flew to Italy to repeat the partly successful Qatar performance.
However, it wasn't meant to be as satisfying.
The first stage proved to be 50 metres too long for Daniele...
...and only gave us third place.
It goes without saying the hilly stages saw us playing no significant role.
Stage 4 was one for the sprinters again, but Bennati fucked up somehow, coming in as 12th.
Stage 7 went better, but he slightly mistimed his sprint and got overtaken by three others.
Overall, Mickaël finished 49th on GC and 10th in the KoM classification.
| 49 | Mickaël Delage | Team Puma - SAP | + 21'00 | | 87 | Jetse Bol | Team Puma - SAP | + 44'17 | | 101 | Enrico Gasparotto | Team Puma - SAP | + 56'33 | | 105 | Thomas Vedel Kvist | Team Puma - SAP | + 58'47 | | 106 | Gianni Meersman | Team Puma - SAP | + 1h02'35 | | 115 | Sébastien Minard | Team Puma - SAP | + 1h08'43 | | 120 | Daniele Bennati | Team Puma - SAP | + 1h13'40 | | 132 | Jocelyn Bar | Team Puma - SAP | + 1h24'24 |
Nice has a nice beach or: Hills are just like cobbles
| Maarten Wynants | | | | | Mattia Pozzo |  Mauricio Sanz | | | | | Mario Vogt |
The three-way race clash in March forced us to send the spare 4 men not important for either Bennati in Italy or Jurgen in Spain to France.
Our normally cobbles-only domestique Mauricio had a great week though. As if he wasn't everything but a climber, he showed our colors in various breakaways and gave us a very nice third place in the KoM classification. He finished best overall in 64th as well.
| 64 | Mauricio Sanz | Team Puma - SAP | + 32'09 | | 69 | Mario Vogt | Team Puma - SAP | + 32'47 | | 99 | Mattia Pozzo | Team Puma - SAP | + 43'12 | | 112 | Maarten Wynants | Team Puma - SAP | + 51'29 |
And it feels like I am just too close to...
| Jurgen Van den Broeck | | | | | Hubert Schwab | | Wilco Kelderman | | | | | Fabio Felline | | Johannes Heider | | | | | Dominique Nerz | | Tom Dumoulin | | | | | Jasha Sütterlin |
The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya gave Jurgen Van den Broeck his first chance to impress at a stage race, and we expected a Top15 for sure with the profile suiting him.
The main tenor of this race was missed chances, or rather missed groups.
On every single decisive stage, Jurgen "only" made the second favourites group, despite his efforts.
Our luxury domestiques Schwab and Nerz however performed very good, with Hubert finishing very consistent and Dominique making the front group on stage 5 after being in the break all day.
Overall, Jurgen finished a decent 17th, though we can just imagine what position would've been possible with a tad more luck and more energy in the important moments of the race.
| 17 | Jurgen Van den Broeck | Team Puma - SAP | + 3'42 | | 28 | Hubert Schwab | Team Puma - SAP | + 10'00 | | 32 | Dominique Nerz | Team Puma - SAP | + 10'20 | | 50 | Johannes Heider | Team Puma - SAP | + 17'19 | | 63 | Wilco Kelderman | Team Puma - SAP | + 29'16 | | 90 | Fabio Felline | Team Puma - SAP | + 38'52 | | 121 | Tom Dumoulin | Team Puma - SAP | + 52'14 | | 149 | Jasha Sütterlin | Team Puma - SAP | + 1h05'36 |
Edited by cio93 on 04-05-2013 12:09
|
| |
|
|
| cio93 |
Posted on 21-11-2013 17:57
|
World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
PCM$: 500.00
|
I know I'm very late on 'some' reviews, but first, expect a post concerning the future of 27 Puma riders this evening!
|
| |
|
|
| Dippofix |
Posted on 21-11-2013 18:05
|
Classics Specialist
Posts: 3906
Joined: 29-01-2013
PCM$: 300.00
|
Uuuuh, that'll be quite interesting. Whatever you do, don't sell Kelderman. If Jesleyh ever joins the mg, he'll pay millions.
|
| |
|
|
| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 21-11-2013 18:24
|
Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
|
cough cough nudge nudge
|
| |
|
|
| Rin |
Posted on 21-11-2013 18:29
|
Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2748
Joined: 14-04-2008
PCM$: 200.00
|
winky winky bum bum?
Anyway.. If VdB is unavailable I wouldn't bet that Claeys could end up at Puma. Ooops, did I really say that? 
 Team Bianchi - 2012 Man-Game ProContinental Tour Champions
 |
| |
|
|
| alexkr00 |
Posted on 21-11-2013 19:03
|
World Champion
Posts: 13915
Joined: 05-08-2008
PCM$: 300.00
|
dibs on the Dutch riders
|
| |
|
|
| cio93 |
Posted on 21-11-2013 20:57
|
World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
PCM$: 500.00
|
First Transfer Outlook for Team Puma - SAP
The season is in its closing stages, and as recent activity has proven, managers in all divisions are already going through their roster and make first plans regarding the future of those riders and their team as a whole.
At first, we want to say we don't plan on releasing any rider in renewals, but we might have to consider doing that if the interest in some riders is lower than expected.
Obviously we will inform you if that could be the case to offer you a chance to intervene if you have really set your eyes on a certain rider.
The riders are divided in several categories to indicate their transfer likelihood. Riders might change their category if you show unexpected interest - or don't show expected!
Most probably staying
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Johannes Heider
Dominik Nerz
Jocelyn Bar
Francesco Bongiorno
Fabio Felline
Jetse Bol
Wilco Kelderman
Most of those riders are going to be our core team for future seasons, and we'd need to receive an outstanding fee or a great rider in a swap to consider letting them go.
Transfer unlikely
Mario Vogt
Maxime Daniel
Daniele Bennati
Depending on how the transfer season pans out, we might try to replace Bennati with a younger sprinter. This requires a lot of "if's" though.
Most likely would be a swap with such a sprinter with an additional fee or a good transfer fee that would be spent somewhere else immediately.
Daniel and Vogt are great riders to have, and it would take a similar scenario. Actually, they would belong to the category above. We know of managers killing to get them though, so if we're low on money for another deal - and/or receive a great offer from those - they could go.
Stay attentive!
Transfer possible
Gianni Meersman
Nick Nuyens
Meersman is a versatile helper, but not essential. Again, if we need some extra income...
Nuyens has an atrocious season so far, but he only goes if we sign a new cobbles leader. This is not too unlikely though!
Transfer likely
Maarten Wynants
Mickaël Delage
Sébastien Minard
Tom Dumoulin
Dylan van Baarle
Hubert Schwab
Mauricio Sanz
A rule of thumb in this category, and revealing a first planning detail: The maxed riders go if we can loan replacements in, which we hope will be the case.
Especially Delage would be an asset in CT, considering he's basically the same rider as current leader Nardin!
The Dutch talents Dumoulin and van Baarle already received interest after last year's transfers.
If you feel addressed by this, we might reward you!
Transfer all but certain
Enrico Gasparotto
Thomas Vedel Kvist
Yes, we'll probably part ways with our famous leadout train. That is because we believe in other riders to do a similar job, but for much less salary.
It makes us a bit sad, but we are sure they'll be of good use somewhere else, so don't miss the opportunity!
Rest assured we'll do everything possible to give them bearable wages.
Some riders are missing so far, and those are the riders we might consider loaning out.
Loan possible
Arnaud Demare
Jasha Sütterlin
Those lvl3 guys should stay (and will most definitely not be transferred), but the salary cap might force us to temporarily offload them.
Loan likely
Christian Mager
 Victor Shishelov
Rasmus Sterobo
It looks like neither of those guys is good enough to justify a roster spot yet in most of our transfer plans.
They are great minimum wage guys for PCT though and would only require to get to xp levels 3/4/4.
Depending on how transfers work out, they might be sold as well.
So this was a first assessment of our 27 riders currently under contract.
This is obviously very provisional (disclaimer: and by no means intended to break any rules), but seeing as other managers start doing the same and make first transfer plans, we wanted to give you the opportunity to have a bit more certainty in the case one of our riders is going to be included in such plans.
We are not going to go into detail regarding who we target, especially as we have to wait for new riders being added and for certainty over disbanding teams.
What everyone can see though is that we lack an Ardennes leader so far, and we could use another German...
We might update you more thoroughly at a later point.
PS: Of course this is for Pro Tour, as this is what our current planning focuses on. If we were to relegate, pretend this post never existed.
Edited by cio93 on 21-11-2013 21:01
|
| |
|
|
| cio93 |
Posted on 21-11-2013 21:00
|
World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
PCM$: 500.00
|
@Dippofix: that's the plan
@TMM: need a tissue?
@Rin: That is definitely one of the most interesting swap ideas out there.
(I didn't say that either. All this is just your imagination.)
@alex: well...
Edited by cio93 on 21-11-2013 21:00
|
| |
|
|
| jph27 |
Posted on 21-11-2013 21:02
|
Team Leader
Posts: 7339
Joined: 20-03-2010
PCM$: 900.00
|
Petit/Demare loan swap?
Oh and Gasparotto interests me a lot. But you know that already. |
| |
|
|
| alexkr00 |
Posted on 21-11-2013 21:04
|
World Champion
Posts: 13915
Joined: 05-08-2008
PCM$: 300.00
|
dibs on Dumoulin
|
| |
|
|
| Alakagom |
Posted on 21-11-2013 22:03
|
World Champion
Posts: 10891
Joined: 19-11-2010
PCM$: 200.00
|
Few interesting riders there. Hard to say though without database , but we are likely to make some deals between us for sure ;D
|
| |
|
|
| Rin |
Posted on 21-11-2013 22:04
|
Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2748
Joined: 14-04-2008
PCM$: 200.00
|
cio93 wrote:
@Rin: That is definitely one of the most interesting swap ideas out there.
(I didn't say that either. All this is just your imagination.)
I never said you won't, all this is just your imagination.
Team Bianchi - 2012 Man-Game ProContinental Tour Champions
|
| |
|
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
