2019 beckons, and with it the joy of transfers. And for EA Vesuvio, one rider with a high chance of moving on is Nico Keinath.
His two season run with us has had plenty to write home about, and season highlights have consistently come at the biggest race of all - the Tour de France.
A huge breakaway win on Stage 14 of 2017, 21 minutes ahead of the lead GC riders, catapulted Keinath up to 5th overall - eventually holding on for 9th. This year he fought hard for a follow up Top 10 performance, without the benefit of a large breakaway. He may well have done it too, if not for the breakaway successes of former Vesuvio man Galta. Instead a hard fought 11th, with the highlight being a mega performance on Stage 12 - the only one able to stick with top Slovene Spilak.
He ranked 33rd in the ProTour in 2017, with 3rd in the Volta Portugal, and also Top 10s in Tasmana and at the Dauphine. While he did slip to 81st last season, that was no doubt in part to our race selection choices. 14th at the Vuelta was strong, but not exactly points chasing - while his other leadership opportunity at California was forced to take a back seat as an inspired Ben Gastauer stormed to a remarkable 3rd overall.
Throughout these two past seasons, and for the coming season, his stats remain unchanged. 79 Mountain, 76 Hill, 75 TT. And after renewals, a small decrease in wage has been accepted: a bargain at € 220,000.
All offers are expected to be of interest to the team, so be sure not to overlook this in the week ahead!
Elsewhere in the team, Amine Galdoune, sufficiently impressed in his 15 race days of Stagiare riding for the team last year, and has been rewarded with a first professional contract. The budding Moroccan sprinter now needs a season on loan to CT or PCT, which Vesuvio will be keen to faciliate. It is hoped this will be fairly straight forward, with Vesuvio having a strong history of loaning in riders as well.
Disagreement between sponsors and team management?
Luxemburger Welt are reporting rumours of disagreements between team sponsors and management of the longest running professional cycling team today. On the eve of the key transfer reason, there is apparent disagreement over the long term direction of the team.
Accumalux analysts have apparently calculated that the optimum 2020 division for the team will be in PCT, to allow for stars Andy Schleck and Ben Gastauer to maximise their victory opportunities.
Meanwhile Eritel are said to be disappointed at the removal of all African races from the PT and PTHC calendar for the 2019 season, and would like to see the team's stars riding strong on the African continent - for which PCT teams have many more opportunities to ride.
Some of the team management are not said to be in tune with these wishes. Directeur sportif Frank Schleck values loyalty highly, and would like to retain as much of the team as possible. We know that Nico Keinath is expected to leave, but will others follow?
Team manager SN did not respond to Luxemburger Welt's request for comment.
For possibly the first season in the team's history, more than half of the team's riders are unmaxed. The transfer season might not have brought in one of the big talents targeted, so we instead opted into giving an opportunity to riders who may otherwise have been overlooked; to go with those signed earlier in the season, and those we already had.
Caio Godoy leads the way. He came to us as Level 1 and now entering season number 3, he is closing in on his full potential. Not that he even needed close to that to strike a first big win at the Badaling International.
The 2018 Tour of Bulgaria C2 race was a very interesting one for us. Former loanee Lehtinen took the opening stage, while former rider Leopold Konig won the final stage and the GC - edging out our long-time support climber Medvedev. And on Stage 4, the first professional victory for Tom Wirtgen. A great season of development with cycleYorkshire culminated in a 2nd place at the U23 TT World Championships, 3rd place at the Tour de l'Avenir and a first Luxembourg Time Trial title.
Joining Wirtgen in riding in Vesuvio for the colours for the first time, in his second contracted season, is Sepp Kuss. His season at Azteca-NBCSN was a hard one, but he is all the better for it.
These aren't the only 3 newcomers with a future in the mountains. Keagan Girdlestone had a nasty crash as a junior, but DK Zalgiris gave him his first chance last year, and it's now time to take the next step. His best result last season was a breakaway 6th on the final stage of the Tour du Langkawi. Ziga Rucigaj moves up from the amateur ranks of Becherovka - Petrof, while it's a first pro contract for Ildur Arslanov.
Our biggest new signing of the season is Elie Gesbert, who shows promise of being a puncheur with a particular strong stamina. Not quite as strong, but also promising, we swooped Sjoerd Bax away from a potential stagiare contract to join us. He is another with amateur history, spending last season with Bianchi Racing p/b eBuddy.
Speaking of nearly stagiare contracts, Janos Pelikan thought he had one with Team Cerveceria Costa Rica last season, but it fell through in the final stages of the season. He gets his chance this time around though, in full, and will look to build on his time trialling. The other terrain we had to target in some way was cobbles, and fortunately we could do this locally. Ivan Centrone was with Delvaux last season as a stagiare, and impressed in his home race. The Benelux Challenge course starts in Luxembourg, and on Stage 4 he utilised the cobbled roads to shine in the breakaway, on his way to winning the KoM competition.
Our own stagiare last season Amine Galdoune was granted a permanent contract, and will spend the season on loan with Carrefour - ESPN. We have a new stagiare too, Joseph Kimathi, who had a similar experience with Xero Racing last time around.
We mentioned how Benelux Challenge started in Luxembourg? Well Stage 2 of 2017 marked the first professional victory of the first of our loanees to mention, and that was raced through the Duchy. Jesse Kaislavuo will become the 4th Finnish rider in our team history.
Also spending the year with us are Thanawut Sanikwathi and two riders bolstering our African contingent. Bonaventure Uwizeyimana and last but not least Jordan Schleck, who seeks to legitimise his claim as heir to the Schleck hierarchy.
Here's how they all look like now.
And here is one of just many options for how they all might look in future.
It was somewhat tough to watch you get overbid on all the big talents one by one, even though you already went quite high for many of them.
It's gonna be a very intriguing rebuild you're going to attempt. Schleck, Gastauer, and I assume a trained Van der Lijke should surely help you stay up to get it done.
Good luck!
Wow, that is an amazing talent squad, even though there's no Sivakov etc. it's a very good squad and an awesome core of riders to build up! Didn't realise when I saw Godoy win Badaling I was watching the first win of a very dangerous rider in the future! Not the training I'd go with for Kimathi (Cv2-Cv1-Cv1-Cv1 probably) but he becomes a more solid stage race domestique your way I suppose with that TT.
And yes, a big year for young Jordan Schleck. I'm sure he'll do everything he can to win the approval of the Vesuvio manager and, in your words, "legitimise his claim as heir to the Schleck hierarchy". Looking forward to it!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Interesting path for Gesbert. Not exactly the path I would have taken, but obviously the STA and RES are looking good at that form. I do think though that he would benefit from atleat being 75MO.
@Gustav: Thanks. Not really looked at race planning yet, but am sure it is going to cause some headaches - fortunately many of them are not starting from x.0.
@Yellow Jersey: He's certainly the all round strongest of my loan intake, so will have plenty of opportunities! Was great to be able to use the loans to boost my African rider count.
@cio: Yeh, what can you do? In the end there were just too many regional focused teams willing to go bigger, and it wasn't worth stretching beyond 270k in the end for me. Did really think I'd finally snatched Kämna, until BBL appeared out of nowhere.
@jandal: Indeed, a good core did was a big part of the aim, even before moving on from the stronger talents. More satisfying to try to build up domestiques in-house. And yeh, Stage Race is not the way to go on Kimathi, but I don't know how likely it is I'll keep him beyond Stagiare year. There'll have to be a chance for Schleck to ride with Schleck for sure!
@redordead: Yep, Ziga makes for a very interesting support rider - I'd assume he was a near option for being picked up by you?
@SotD: There's certainly a few options for Gesbert, and now isn't the time that a final decision will be made. There's more of a gap in my team for a future puncheur, so will need to consider which support stats will be most helpful for a scenario in which he receives good hill stat training.
After 7 seasons in Vesuvio colours, Maciej Paterski is now stepping into a Directur Sportif role, having been a very dependable part of the set up and support of our team throughout his career. From Frank Schleck to Ben Gastauer, and Ben Swift to Nick van der Lijke, Paterski was always there for the team. And often, he had free reign to attack too - for some breakaway and KoM success.
Breakaway victory on the final stage of the 2016 Tour of Northern Europe
Long range breakaway came to fruition, with a 3rd place at the 2012 Fleche Wallone
In the breakaway for all 4 road stages to secure the 2016 Vuelta al Pais Vasco KoM
Leading out Ben Swift at the Tour de France
Job done and riding to a Top 20 at the Classique du Grand-Duche, as Frank Schleck went on to take our only home victory
Trademark celebration, as he wins the 2017 Polish Championships
Polish jersey on show, as the team builds up to Van der Lijke's victory for Stage 1 of the 2018 Dauphine
Introducing, Willie Smit
The Paterski replacement! South African Willie Smit came into cycling with Project: Africa in 2014, completing his development with a PT season with Grieg-Eftel. The African squad going bust in 2017 prevented him from a continuation, but he returned in PCT last season with Team Reddit. With much the same abilities to ride well in the hills, and support sprinter's efforts, he might be here for a while!
2018 saw Andy Schleck complete his double set of Grand Tour victories, taking a 2nd Giro victory to go with two at the Tour and Vuelta.
While he has some great results in other races, the Grand Tours are where it matters. Looking into 2019, the MG UCI have permitted him to race more this season but he is getting older, so equally is not so interested in jetting around the world from race to race - so this year he will only be participating in 2 races. And for the first time since 2011, this means two Grand Tours in one season!
Fighting Valverde in 2011
Can he add to his Grand Tour records this year? 6 wins, 9 podiums, 11 Top 10s and 12 completions in total. The Points and KoM jerseys from all three races, and a total of 18 stage wins (4 Giro, 7 Vuelta, 7 Tour).
Finishing the Mountain TT up Vesuvio
The choice of Grand Tours was relatively straight forward, with the extensive individual time trial kilometres at the Vuelta, it had to be the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France this year. This also means that it will be the first time since 2011 in which he returns to 'attempt' a title defense in the year immediately after a victory. Winning is beyond our expectations though, and management have instead locked in on two Top 10 goals as the minimum aim. These goals did mean no chance to reconsider, as we do wonder if the Vuelta could end up with a weaker field - even with the PCT wildcard assault.
Full Record
Giro d'Italia: 1st (2015, 2018), 3rd (2008), 5th (2007); Points (2018); KoM (2008); Stages: 2 in 2017, 2 in 2018. Vuelta a Espana: 1st (2010, 2017), 2nd (2011), 88th (2009); Points (2017); KoM (2010); Stages: 3 in 2010, 4 in 2017. Tour de France: 1st (2014, 2016), 3rd (2013), 6th (2011); Points (2014); KoM (2014); Stages: 1 in 2011, 1 in 2013, 3 in 2014, 2 in 2016.
With Kittel, it's just one Schleck TTT this year, rather than at least 2. I don't expect to be in victory contention anyway, so not such a case of every second counts. And wouldn't want to risk dropping Andy
There's nothing Kittel could do this season that he has not already done for me before, so time for a change. There might have been less of a need for the money once Keinath escalated, but it still came in useful!
This season we matched a couple of Grand Tour records, all to do with the King of the Mountains competition. Winning the competition at two Grand Tours in a season has only been done previously by the Carlsberg team in 2008 - Rasmussen at the Tour, followed by Vinokourov at the Vuelta. Likewise, only one team has won a total of four KoM jerseys in their history. Sure, our efficiency can't match the Portugese outfit Erste/Lipton/Webeffect, with 4 in 4 years - 3 from Sella at the Giro. But after Koldo Gil at the 2007 Tour, and Andy Schleck at the 2014 Tour, 2019 now brings us to 4 as well.
Giro: Marc Goos
In his many years at the team, Goos' most memorable Grand Tour was the 2016 Tour de France. There he supported Andy Schleck to a victory, and took 11th on GC in the process. For the 2019 Giro, once again Goos was alongside Schleck - now on the decline, but still ultimately capable of finishing 4th overall.
Early signs of form came in the Stage 1 prologue - 9th place there. Also an 11th at the harder time trial which came at Stage 9. Stage 13, the first summit finish, and quite an interesting breakaway. Vesuvio top the bill with three, Goos, Godoy and Uwizeyimana. Also in the 20 break, a former KoM winner Dall'Oste, and the current competition leader, Van Niekerk. Patience is the key here, let the battle go on the first climb, and drop the group on the second - 2nd over the Cat 1 climb behind Novikov, account underway, 12 points. And then also the last man standing, caught by Herklotz with just 3km to go, ending up 15th on the stage. There's always the next day.
Stage 14! Back in the break, and after 2nd place at the first Cat 1 climb of the day, then a first climb win, over the Truc d'Arbe (Combes). Aru had been chasing points earlier in the day, but again, patience is the key. A win again at the Colle San Carlo, better yet, it's closer to the finish, and he's now solo with a minute's lead. The stage win follows, and the KoM lead, 56 points to Aru's 46. 9th on GC too, not that that matters.
Stage 15, a hill stage, with a mountainous looking finale. Towards the end only two left in the break. Sam Oomen won the stage, we'll have to keep an eye out for him. Behind another aggressive showing from Goos, picking up some more points - now up to 70. And also taking 5th on the stage, why not.
Time for a quiet day? Not when Stage 16 has the Gavia and Mortirolo. A Dutch day in the break, Goos is there again, as are Kruijswijk, Oomen and Dekker - 5th, 6th and 8th on the standings as we begin. Not a day long breakaway as it turns out, 12 points picked up before dropping back to support Schleck. Nice to see a former teammate Konig go on to take the win, and the day ends with Goos still in 10th overall, and still the KoM leader on 82. Aru 61, Kruijswijk 56.
An actual day off on Stage 17, and for Stage 18 even a change of roles. Helping Afewerki in a sprint finish, as the African took 2nd in the peloton behind Swift, 6th overall on the stage. Shame about the break! The KoM fight would come down to Stage 20. Goos makes the break, but so do 2nd, 3rd and 5th in the classification - Aru, Konig and Oomen. Godoy in here too, for support.
And Oomen started strongly, winning the first two climbs. 30 points and up to 88 for him, Goos crucially 2nd on the HC climb, making that 96 points.
The gap is further closed on the next climb, and it's all coming down to the last climb of the race. Goos and Oomen together in the front group of 6, Goos' lead down to 4, only a couple of kilometres from the top - but Spilak and Herklotz duelling for Giro glory, leading the GC riders coming up behind.
Spilak, Herklotz and Hirt join the break and leave them - still three more scoring positions. Time for Schleck to return a favour, joins the group and brings Gesink away with it. KoM jersey secure for Goos right there, beating Oomen to the last two points, showing that the GC interruption was not in the end needed.
1
Marc Goos
EA Vesuvio
106
2
Sam Oomen
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
100
3
Fabio Aru
eBuddy
73
4
Leopold Konig
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
69
5
Thomas Dekker
Aegon - Lavazza
62
Vuelta: Caio Godoy
Inspired by Goos, Godoy was soon onto his 2nd Grand Tour of the season at the Vuelta. He wasn't able to make an impact at the Giro, a bit of a support role, but only 56th on GC. Maybe the Vuelta could be different. With Kirsch and Wirtgen, the team needs to go on the attack to take something from the race - and Sven Fritsch sets the ball rolling with a 2nd on Stage 2, and a spell in the Young Riders jersey. There's a 3rd for Wirtgen on Stage 5, but the team don't get into subsequent breakaway opportunities. Stage 12 comes and goes, no sign of Godoy just yet, but the KoM points have certainly been spread around. Kastrantas and Zawawi Azman share the lead, on 40 points.
Stage 13 goes west out of the Basque Country, 7 climbs on offer, and 32 riders in the breakaway. Godoy has made his first outing, with Kuss for company. 2nd on the 3rd climb, then starting to show he's on for a good day on the 4th. Having been tipped as one of 10 from the break to watch, he forces a selection of 3 with Bongiorno and Van der Hugenhaben, and wins the climb.
Two more climb wins follow, but strength on the climbs isn't quite so matched on the downhill and flatter sections, amid much change of who in the breakaway was best keeping up at the front. A group of 7 are together into the big final climb of the day, the Alto de los Machucos. Brenes has preserved energy the best, attacks away to go on to win the stage. 3rd on the climb for Godoy, then 3rd at the finish, and now 2nd in the KoM competition. 54 points - Bartosz Warchol has 56.
It was Kirsch' turn in the break on Stage 15, and he ended up picking up 40 points himself - he certainly tried to prevent others from scoring. Bongiorno and Brenes were there again though, and move into the Top 2 positions, with a decent lead for the Festina rider, on 84 points.
Stage 16, another big day of climbing, another big breakaway. This time Kirsch and Godoy are in there together. 26 others, including Bongiorno, Brenes and Warchol. Preidler as well, completing the competion top 5 in the move. And it is Preidler and Bongiorno who go well in the points on the first 3 climbs of the day. Not until the 4th climb, the 2nd of the Cat 1s, so our rider get some points out of the day - Kirsch 2nd, Godoy 3rd. But thoughts are more of a stage win today, with both going strong on the final climb.
And yes, Kirsch wins the stage! From 3rd the previous day, now to a fine stage win, and the heady heights of 10th in GC, off the back of all those time gains. Bongiorno holds the KoM lead on 106, Preidler has 94 - they have an advantage, but Kirsch on 68, Godoy on 66, the game is still on.
The battle resumes on Stage 18. Godoy has made the selection, but so too have Preidler and Brenes. Four category one climbs on the road, and Godoy wins the first!
It only continues. Preidler falls away, Brenes struggles too - and even with other strong climbers like Quintana, Brambilla and Latour in the group, Godoy is unstoppable - jumping clear to win both ascents of the Morcuera, to move into the KoM lead.
He duly makes it 4/4, and Latour may win the sprint for the stage win, 6th on the stage, 64 KoM points picked up, Godoy certainly goes to bed a winner as well. 130 points now, a lead of 24 on Bongiorno.
Stage 20 is the last stage of climbing, and we see Godoy in the jersey, trading place in the early attacks with Kirsch.
They don't make the break though. Olivier, Vasyliv, Lopez and Brenes do. Brenes is very much the 4th in that group though, and struggles to collect too many points - Olivier is winning all the climbs, but doesn't have a prior tally to build on.
Later in the stage, Godoy is able to attack and pick up 6 points - nice to have scored something, on the day the victory was secured.
The GC saw Kirsch finish 16th, Godoy 24th; the KoM finished as below.
1
Caio Godoy
EA Vesuvio
136
2
Francesco Bongiorno
Festina - OAKA
106
3
Georg Preidler
T-Mobile
106
4
Gregory Brenes
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
97
5
Daan Olivier
Aegon - Lavazza
76
6
Yuriy Vasyliv
Team Puma - SAP
75
7
Alex Kirsch
EA Vesuvio
68
8
Bartosz Warchol
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
56
9
Anatoliy Sosnitskiy
Gazelle
52
10
Miguel Angel Lopez
Evonik - ELKO
51
No KoM fun would follow at the Tour, or much fun at all for that matter. A puncture ruined Schleck's race, and Van der Lijke had a torrid time in the sprints also. Just as well the Giro and Vuelta had gone so well then!
2019 Review: Career highlights in Gastauer's final chance
2019 was the last season for Ben Gastauer at the height of his strengths, before his age-based decline. He joined the team at 71 Hill in 2011, developed up to 81, with a touch of training to take him to 82. The developments of others in the peloton have added to the challenge, but that did not stop him delivering some real career highlights in 2019.
Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Won three times in a row by Frank Schleck for us for 2010-12. Also the site of a breakaway win by Sven Fritsch, before he joined us from Bpost. A happy hunting ground for Luxembourg then, but never for Gastauer. Finishing on average 21st in the previous 5 seasons, with a best result of 11th - never quite making it count.
This year, in a final group of 14, usual expectations would be that 11th would still be hard to match. But this year, the strongest finish he had ever pulled off in any ProTour classic, never mind a monument. A fine 2nd place!
This year, across the four big hill classics (Grand-Duche, naturally!; Amstel, Fleche and Liege), he finished Top 11 everytime - not achieved before. A home victory at Grand-Duche never quite came, with a 2nd and a 3rd previously. But finishing 10th was crucial for achieving a team sponsor goal.
Across his career, stage races been the place to look for sources of triumph. Not so much the pure hills stage races, but those with some hills present. The 2015 Deutschland Tour, Stage 4; and the 2017 King of the Mountains jersey at the Dauphine, being Gastauer's only career victories.
This year, two more stage wins were to follow! A much deserved top up to a career of not-quites.
Stage 1 of the Tour de Pologne. A late attack which worked, holding off the closing sprints of Boasson Hagen and Lutsenko, for both a win, and a race leaders jersey!
Stage 3 of the Tour of Northern Europe. A hard-ridden stage with many of the race favourites dropped along the way (those of the cobbled favouring), and a late catch of the breakaway, with Gastauer powering through to defeat De Bie and Bibby in the uphill finish.
Ben Gastauer really stepped up in 2019, to make the most of his final year of maximum stats. Inevitably, 2020 will be harder now - it was possible that it could have been a season of new opportunities in PCT, but the teams proved good enough to steer clear of the final relegation position. Maybe he'll seek that opportunity anyway, with a move away from the team? Or does he willingness to take a big wage cut, suggest that 2020 will mark the 10th season of riding for the team?
First Schleck and now Gastauer' declining. It truly is a new generation at Vesuvio now. Thankfully Wirtgen is almost ready to be that next great for Luxembourg. Kirsch is coming into his own as well.
You still have great depth, but I reckon we might see some leaders coming into Vesuvio this transfer season in order to stay out of the relegation fray. I'm really interested to see what you do.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Caio Godoy leads the way. He came to us as Level 1 and now entering season number 3, he is closing in on his full potential. Not that he even needed close to that to strike a first big win at the Badaling International.
Tom Wirtgen. A great season of development with cycleYorkshire culminated in a 2nd place at the U23 TT World Championships, 3rd place at the Tour de l'Avenir and a first Luxembourg Time Trial title.
Sepp Kuss. His season at Azteca-NBCSN was a hard one, but he is all the better for it.
Keagan Girdlestone had a nasty crash as a junior, but DK Zalgiris gave him his first chance last year, and it's now time to take the next step. His best result last season was a breakaway 6th on the final stage of the Tour du Langkawi. 
Ziga Rucigaj moves up from the amateur ranks of Becherovka - Petrof, while it's a first pro contract for 
Ildur Arslanov.
Elie Gesbert, who shows promise of being a puncheur with a particular strong stamina. Not quite as strong, but also promising, we swooped 
Sjoerd Bax away from a potential stagiare contract to join us. He is another with amateur history, spending last season with Bianchi Racing p/b eBuddy.
Janos Pelikan thought he had one with Team Cerveceria Costa Rica last season, but it fell through in the final stages of the season. He gets his chance this time around though, in full, and will look to build on his time trialling. The other terrain we had to target in some way was cobbles, and fortunately we could do this locally. 
Amine Galdoune was granted a permanent contract, and will spend the season on loan with Carrefour - ESPN. We have a new stagiare too, 
Joseph Kimathi, who had a similar experience with Xero Racing last time around.
Jesse Kaislavuo will become the 4th Finnish rider in our team history.
Thanawut Sanikwathi
Bonaventure Uwizeyimana and last but not least 
Jordan Schleck, who seeks to legitimise his claim as heir to the Schleck hierarchy.
Maciej Paterski, Career Summary
Giro d'Italia: 1st (2015, 2018), 3rd (2008), 5th (2007); Points (2018); KoM (2008); Stages: 2 in 2017, 2 in 2018.
Vuelta a Espana: 1st (2010, 2017), 2nd (2011), 88th (2009); Points (2017); KoM (2010); Stages: 3 in 2010, 4 in 2017.
