You've built quite a good classics squad! I guess we'll have a lot of overlap in our schedules. I'm interested to see if you keep this leaning for JURA after this season.
Even though he's Slovenian I never really had a cobbles leader to be interested in him, but iirc he has been part of some strong cobbles squads in the best. Should be a good helper for Theuns.
Damn those cobbles! I always feel a ping of jealousy when I see cobble riders signed by other teams, but when it's my turn I end up ignoring it completely. I'll watch with interest your performances in the classics.
Before we get to the team presentation, let's take another look back on the transfer period, to get the big picture of what we wanted to achieve - and what we finally got:
Transfer Targets
Prio
Target
Outcome
1
Get a stage racer OR train Stüssi
Failure
2
Get a second PCT-level leader
Success
Edward Theuns
3
Sign Elia Blum
Failure
4
Sign Stefan Küng
Success
Stefan Küng
5
Sign Martin Schäppi
Failure
6
Sign 1-2 stage race sprinter(s)
Success
Cees Bol
Dylan Page
7
Sign 2-3 talents besides Blum
Success
Jan Sommer
Félix Stehli
Hugo Page
Whereas it's true that there's more green than red in this table, we're still not quite happy with our transfer season. Missing out on the most important goal, as well as Switzerland's best talent by a mile, definitely doesn't feel like a success.
There's hope that we still did enough to survive in PCT - more on this in the team presentation where we'll get a comparison with our 2021 PCT squad. Especially Theuns is a cool signing - although an unexpected one, meaning that our schedule won't be fully optimized for his skillset.
We also did well on the less important targets; bringing both Küng and D. Page home feels good, and Bol should be a great rider for the sprints for years to come. Missing out on Schäppi - who would've been our clear-cut C2 leader - stings a bit, but we understand that UBS wouldn't have let him go elsewhere.
Despite missing out on our main talent target, we still brought some cool young riders in. H. Page should be the most interesting rider of our trio, being a potential future top sprinter, whereas Stehli and Sommer will grow into versatile domestiques.
So all in all, our transfer season was clearly not a complete failure - but we definitely didn't get where we wanted to, especially in terms of stage racing. Without giving any details, we can say that our C1 calendar will clearly reflect the changes our overall roster structure underwent during transfers.
bbl You're welcome Would've happily swapped him for Galta, though
cunego Yeah, Teggart would've been the optimal rider to get for this job, but unfortunately I was out of money when he was for sale... So you got at least two riders (Meintjes, Teggart) I'd have loved to get as well Kosic should be OK for a late signing, though, as you say.
Bush Well, my classics squad basically is Theuns Of course, hoping for Kosic and Tediashvili to provide some support, maybe also Küng in some wildcard races - but your classics team is far stronger. Still jealous of Jacobs
redordead I didn't look at his full history, but at least last year he was helping Mads Pedersen getting some remarkable results indeed He should have another decent (domestique) season in him, and next year we'll have Tediashvili up to full strength to take over
DW I wasn't even trying to get a top cobbler, he just arrived here Hope Theuns will have another strong season, you can have him next year then
Laurens Thanks again for the Küng deal Unfortunate for you that you didn't find what you were looking for, but it's obviously good news for me. I guess his wage scared most other managers; had he been at what he should have according to OVL, you'd have made more money with him, or gotten a cobbler in return as you wanted.
But yeah, I'm happy to have a good local core, despite UBS interferring every now or then (they'll say the same thing about us for sure)
Two years ago, when we first hit PCT ground, we were so enthusiastic that we offered all riders of the promoting team a new contract. Which led to some roster spots being filled by riders who didn't really have PCT level.
After the following relegation, we were forced to decide on a rider-per-rider basis who to keep and who to release - or sell. And we took much more strategic choices in our signings, having learnt a lot during our PCT year (which we almost ended successfully, just a couple of points short of staying up). Among the contracted and drafted riders, there were some who we knew would only stay for one year, to help us bounce back.
This year, we did release 3 riders during renewals, with another one not agreeing to our conditions. What we were left with was a team that would have been too strong (and too expensive) for CT, but that still needed some retouching to have a shot at staying up.
After it's all said and done in terms of transfers - and training, by the way, as we had sadly had no money left for that - we're proud to present you our 2023 squad!
Where applicable/relevant, we also include the comparison with last year's roster - and with the 2021 lineup, to see where we have improved (or not) compared to our first PCT adventure!
Climbers & Stage Racers
2022
Spoiler
2021
Spoiler
Well, we could actually rename this category to "Stage Racers" only, as we don't have any pure climbers. All of them are at least capable riders against the clock as well.
If you take a look at the 2022 figures, you'll see that these are exactly the same riders as last year, with exactly the same stats. The three riders who claimed two GC wins and three 2nd places in our five C2 mountain stage races.
But while they were dominant in C2, they were close to irrelevant one level higher, which is why we made getting a top stage racer our first priority. As you can see, we didn't achieve it.
And so, our hopes are that Colin Stüssi has gained enough experience at the higher level last year to be competitive in the mountainous races we'll participate in! All things considered, he should be roughly among the Top 15 stage racers of the divisions; while there are almost 20 stronger climbers, only few of them can match or even beat him against the clock. So we hope that with clever race selection and good support, he'll still be able to net us a couple of Top 10 results!
Fausto Masnada won the Volta a Catalunya last year - despite Stüssi's presence, but thanks to the latter's support. He's our strongest climbing domestique - but given his versatility, and our calendar, he'll also focus a lot on riding as a (co-)leader in more hilly races.
Which leaves us down to Gino Mäder as Stüssi's main helper. While our planning hasn't been fully made, it looks clear that the two compatriots will mostly ride together - at least in the mountainous races. Gino has a 2nd place in last year's Tour of California to his name - a race that has now been promoted to the HC category, let's see if he can excel again!
Compared to our 2021 climbers squad, we notice a clear regression in terms of leadership. Nairo Quintana was one of the division's best climbers - although he often failed to deliver up to those mountain skills. Still, we clearly had a stronger presence on the long uphills - and as a consequence, our calendar contains clearly less mountain races than back in 2021.
Puncheurs
2022
Spoiler
2021
Spoiler
The first thing to notice is that after three years riding with us, Gianni Moscon has moved to greener pastures - at the very least to pastures where he finally got the training facilities he was so much longing for.
In return, we got Xuban Errazkin, who is only the 2nd Spaniard on our team, and the first who actually gets paid (Merino Criado being our 2nd year draft pick). He is very similar to Gianni - at least to the untrained version of Gianni - being slightly weaker on the hills but stronger on longer inclines. And: He does have some better ITT skills, and he's two years younger. We'll have to see which races to send him to, as he won't stand a chance against the division's top puncheurs in the "classic" hilly races - but the PCT calendar allows for some nice planning.
Mauro Schmid has clearly stepped up from domestique level to being a co-leader. If you don't think so, check out the stats and results of a certain Xandro Meurisse... We believe that Mauro can excel in tough races ending on flatter roads, given that he's a decent sprinter in addition to handling hills well. His kick and resistance are already great - and he's not even done developing!
Fausto Masnada adds a different profile to our puncheurs squad, as he handles all kinds of climbs equally well. Not among the strongest on mountains or hills, he combines both and can hold himself against the clock, too. We're happy to have three somewhat different types of puncheurs on board!
But, actually, make that four. We also included Edward Theuns in this list. Given that there aren't enough cobbles to use up all his race days, he'll likely get to enjoy some of the easier hilly races - where we expect him to get some nice results thanks to being a good sprinter himself! A hilly sprinter - a rider profile we were lacking so far!
On the long term, it looks like a given that Mauro will be our leader for years to come. However, there are rumors that Fausto might be coaching Xuban on the TT bike, to get even faster against the clock... We'll see next year if this coaching helps!
Compared to last year, we've lost our leader, but we're hoping for Xuban and Mauro to compensate for Gianni's points. In fact, if we want to have a shot at staying up, they'll have to. With the addition of Eddie, I dare to say we should score more points from hilly races than last year - and also more than two years ago, where all of Pernsteiner, Lienhard and Thièry didn't contribute all that much...
Time Trialists
2022
Spoiler
2021
Spoiler
Let's then move on to the one department we have most hopes and confidence in - despite not reaching our transfer target of signing an 80+ specialist. Last year's lineup was already looking promising - but of the five riders listed only two did specialise in the longer races against the clock, the others focusing more on prologues.
Two of them are gone - Chavanne was transferred to MOL, Aregger was released to Free Agency from where he found a new contract with Adidas. However, two specialists for the longer TTs got back from loan - and a new one was signed.
Szymon Rekita continues to lead the department, being among the division's Top 10 considering only pure TT skills.
However, Stefan Bissegger and Alexys Brunel have now completed their development, and are both far more versatile than Rekita. Both can handle some uphills without too many issues, with the former also having a decent sprint speed. And, most importantly for this year: Both are only 25 years old, hence they're eligible for the U25 standings.
Versatility is an even better fit to describe Stefan Küng, as our new signing cannot only handle the TT bike, but also shorter and longer climbs - and even some cobbles. He's definitely more versatile than Krzysztof Marchewka, who just like his fellow countryman is a pure TT powerhouse.
We also include Gino Mäder in this list, due to his above-average prologue skills. He's also decent in ITTs, just like Colin Stüssi, by the way.
Overall, we have been able to strengthen our TT department once again. Last year, we were already strong - strongest in CT - with Rekita and Marchewka, plus some bonus points from Chavanne and Aregger in prologues. But this year, we believe we have one of the strongest - if not the best - TTT core of the PCT division, and there aren't even that many PT teams that are clearly stronger. And unlike lots of other TT specialists, Bissegger, Brunel and Küng are also pretty versatile - which gives us hope that they will be able to shine in some slightly tougher races as well! Küng has won Benelux Challenge last year, proving that versatility can sometimes really pay off!
By the way, two years ago we only had Balloni and a not yet fully maxed Rekita - it's no secret that we expect far more points from this department in 2023!
Cobblers
2022 Not Available
2021 Not Available
Alongside the TT department, the cobbles is where we expect to - and have to - make the big difference compared to 2021. We have never had an actual cobbler, with Leo Basso being our best guess in mandatory races. However, Leo left us during transfers - together with Chavanne - to bring in one of the world's top cobblers:
Edward Theuns has joined us! With the winner of the 2021 Ronde van Vlaanderen, we now count a monument winner among our ranks! And he's not done yet - clearly not - as he has yet another year at his prime left. It's an honour to have him for this season. His strengths are obvious - not only is he one of the division's fastest men on cobblestones - one out of just seven 80+ cobblers - he's also one of the strongest of them both on the hills and in a sprint. His top rider status is underlined by the fact that there are only two cobblers with a higher OVL than him - Stallaert and Debesay (counting Benoot as a puncheur).
So, it's pretty clear that much of our destiny is in Eddie's hands. As we didn't expect the arrival of a top cobbler this year, our calendar isn't optimized for him sadly - he'll most notably miss out on Franceville Classique. However, there are still plenty of opportunities left for him to score some big points - they'll be highly appreciated no matter what!
Given that we didn't expect to sign a leader on this terrain, the support cast is also rather thin. Giorgi Tediashvili - just like Eddie, the first rider of his country to get a full contract with us - is still developing, but will hopefully learn a lot from the world star to at least grow into a great domestique.
Nejc Kosic - the first Slovenian ever to sign any kind of contract with us - was brought in in a last-minute transfer, to at least somewhat strengthen our support team. He has been working for 2022 RvV winner Pedersen, now he'll support the Dane's predecessor - what else do you need?
As mentioned before, there were no cobblers in the last two years - actually, our best cobbles result dates from 2020, when Leo Basso surprisingly finished 4th in C2HC race Lincoln GP. Let's hope we'll at least get a 4th place in a PTHC race by Eddie then!
Sprinters
2022
Spoiler
2021
Spoiler
This is the department where by far the most changes happen from year to year. Far too high rider demands during renewals - unjustified in a really vast market - are the main reason. At least in 2022, we didn't even target a long-term solution in the sprinter positions, and so it's not surprising that almost everything has changed once again.
However, there's one constant: Manuel Stocker is the only rider who was riding for us in every single season so far (although others were always under contract as well, but sometimes loaned out). He's an incredibly reliable leadout rider, not asking to ride for his own fame, but always ready to serve his lead sprinters.
Manuel obviously isn't our leader by any means, but we felt he deserved this mention. Moreover, he might even have a sprinter to lead out this year, after not being used a lot last year. And that lead sprinter is Cees Bol - our first Dutchman on a full contract. First trying to sign his (now former) teammate Kamberaj, we had the opportunity to sign Cees late in the window, and we were lucky to have more cash left than another team. It's not like Cees was one of the fastest men out there, clearly not - and we know which races we'll have to avoid. But we believe that with some clever planning, he'll be able to make a lot out of his great energy stats - and out of the fact that he's one of the sprinters who can handle hills pretty well. We don't expect him to pick up tons of wins, but we hope that his physical skills will at least make him a consistent scorer. He almost finished in the PT Top 100 last year, so we're confident that he'll deliver!
Dylan Page is a sprinter we were after for some years now, for the obvious reason of being Swiss. But not only that, his strong acceleration will hopefully give him the edge over some faster sprinters at times. In his Indosat years, he has proven to be a decent PCT-level sprinter, and hopefully he'll do the same for his home team from now on!
We also have Edward Theuns on this list - in fact, he's listed in three categories! We still have to figure out the details of how to plan him, but we're pretty sure that he'll spend his non-cobbled race days in some tougher sprinter races, as we're confident that he'll be able to deliver some nice results in those as well!
And last but not least - after having already mentioned Manuel - there's Gergely Szarka. He started as a stagiaire back in 2020, then was loaned out for strategic reasons in the last two years - and will now finally complete his development path as another strong leadout rider. Currently, he's pretty much a clone of Stocker, with some slightly stronger uphill skills but without any TT skills whatsoever.
We'll see what the future will bring in this department - we'd love to keep Bol and Page at least for another season, but it remains to be seen what will happen with Szarka then. And not to forget, an even stronger sprinter talent is in the making...
What do we expect compared to the last two years? Well, we think that Bol & Page are stronger sprinters than Aregger & Stepniak last year - but Aregger had those great prologue skills on top of sprinting. So we think that it could be Theuns who makes the big difference.
Compared to 2021, we have definitely lost some speed, though, as there's no match for Reinhardt. However, in terms of wages of the pure sprinters we're better off, so even if we score some less points, that should be fine.
Talents
2022
Spoiler
You might remember that in previous years there was a category "Domestiques". Well, it's no longer there, because we could fit all of our riders into at least one other category.
So, it's all about the youngsters here - more precisely about those who do indeed ride for us this year.
Without any surprise, Mauro Schmid tops the list by a landslide. He's the best talent we've ever signed, but we hope to get him some competition for that title next year. Or the year after. Or... Well, talking about Schmid, he's actually a team leader already, at just 24 y.o. He'll be one of the top puncheurs of his age, and we do of course have long-term plans with him. He's set to be the main face of our team for years to come - we're looking forward to it! But for now, he'll still have to gather some experience to reach his maximum level. We were able to secure quite some PT wildcards, so we should be able to compile a meaningful PCT calendar for him - but we're sure anyway that he'll do well wherever we send him (bar TT races)!
Giorgi Tediashvili is on the team for the second time, after having done his first development steps on loan with us already. Just like Schmid, he'll have to gain some more experience to reach his maximum level - and to grow into a really strong cobbles domestique. Or could it be more? As long as we're in PCT, we don't think so (C2 eligibility anyone?), but if he does a great job, anything could be on the table.
Gergely Szarka has had a pretty bumpy development path so far, which he's set to finally complete this year. The question is whether he'll be yet another sprinter, or whether his skillset will eventually be valued because less riders of that format will be available in the future...
Christoph Janssen was our only talent signing last year, and he's fully on track. He's on his way to become a good TT core member, having a good speed on flat roads to bring back attackers and lead out a sprinter. Nothing spectacular, but still valuable.
Then we have two new talent signings, the first of them being Félix Stehli. Félix already comes with some experience, despite signing his first contract. We currently see him develop into a pretty aggressive puncheur in the mold of Jan-Andre Freuler, who we unfortunately missed out on during transfers. A more sprint-centered path is in the cards as well - or a mix of both.
The pure sprinter path, however, is reserved for Hugo Page. The Frenchman is our 2nd most expensive talent signed so far (after Schmid's 150k in 2021). We're not quite sure which exact path to go with him, but he'll surely end up having a great acceleration and a good topspeed - making him a great training target for the future.
There's another talent out there - we'll see him in the loan-out section, though. Compared to last year, we have clearly made some progress - and we're in a similar place as in 2021, although we mainly had some level 3 riders back then. Of those talents, only Schmid is expected to be a decent contributor already, even though Tediashvili might add some points as well.
Loan-ins
Pre-transfers, we had the hopes of securing one massive loan-in who would use up all of our loan cap. Well, there was only one PT loan-out this year that would have matched this criterion, but we didn't want to actively bother managers and hence missed out.
Instead, we're welcoming three loan-ins, all with the 1->3 development clause, netting us a profit of 555k - the only incoming money during the entire transfer period. Which shows that we're bad sellers, or just getting too attached to our riders - but that's another topic.
We're positive that all of these three talents - we can't talk about youngsters, given that one really isn't one - can make a good impact in their first professional season. Cedric Bakke Christophersen - our first ever rider from Norway - is an aggressive rider, and should hopefully join some breakaways all year long. Otherwise, he'll do a good job as a domestique in mountainous and hilly races.
Scott Davies, Lidl Cycling teammate of Cedric, is the first Brit on the roster we actually pay, as we've agreed on taking on his wage for the season. He's not young anymore, but should still have the time to grow into a strong time triallist - although he'll unfortunately not have many peak years left. For the time being, we'll try to give him some TT experience as well - but if you remember our stacked specialist department, he's more likely to gain experience in the mountains, his other strength.
Despite some previous deals with DK Žalgiris, Gustas Raugala is actually the first Lithuanian joining us, although it's just for one year. Just like Davies, he likes sitting on a TT bike, but we'll be making use of his skills on the flat in other types of races as well.
We'd like to thank both managers for their confidence, as we try to bring their talents up to the next level!
Loan-outs
We can actually drop that plural "s" for this year, as we only loan out one rider in 2023. We agree it was quite a gamble to keep Schmid and Tediashvili with us, given that they haven't made a lot of progress on their final development level yet. However, the PT wildcards we received make sure that their developments will actually come to completion.
And in terms of providing experience, there was no reason we had to loan out Jan Sommer, our future cobbles helper - we only chose to do so for strategic reason, as sending him over to Germany (Kraftwerk) for one year allowed us to get a cobbles helper for the present.
We're sure that there will be no issues finding his place over there - moreover given that Filippo Colombo, another talent we were eyeing, also signed with Kraftwerk late in transfers.
We'd like to express our gratitude towards manager DaveTwoBob for agreeing on a loan deal that was very favorable for us, and we obviously did pay the mandatory fee for this favor.
Jura GIANTS 2023
2022
Spoiler
2021
Spoiler
So, what does this make us end up with?
Compared to 2022, we have an unchanged mountain lineup, whereas we lost some quality on the hills with Errazkin arriving in Moscon's place - but at the same time we gained a lot through Mauro's next development step.
TT-wise, what we gained was getting back Bissegger and Brunel as maxed riders, plus one of our top targets in Stefan Küng. Sprinter-wise, we think we're slightly better off than last year with Bol + Page - and moreover we do have at least one long-term solution here.
Where we make a massive difference with last year's roster, however, is obviously in the cobbles section. From nothing to having a former Ronde van Vlaanderen winner still in his prime - that's definitely not something we expected.
Compared to 2021, it's clear that we're lacking a top climber this year, as well as some depth. We're still hoping to pick up some valuable points, though!
Puncheur-wise, there's also less depth, and a less strong leader considering pure hills - but we believe that Errazkin and Schmid should pick up a similar amount of points as Moscon, Pernsteiner and Lienhard combined back in 2021.
And then it's obvious that we make a big difference in the TT part. From having two pure TT specialists and no TTT support in 2021, to having one of the division's best TTT cores and some very versatile TTers - it's clear that we expect a massively increased points return compared to Balloni/Rekita back in the days.
The same holds even more for the cobbles, where we had four races, zero points in 2021. We'll have far more cobbled races this time, and expect lots of points!
In terms of sprinters, things are probably looking slightly worse this year than two years ago. However, we have (hopefully) learnt from some planning mistakes - and we like to think that Bol could score a similar amount of points as Reinhardt did, thanks to his well-roundedness. And beating Boudat's 39 points from 2021 should be feasible for Page - meaning we might just lose Habtom's points then.
We think it's safe to say that the overall roster quality has improved from 2021. We expect some losses in mountains, hills and sprints, but we're confident that the TTers and cobblers will more than make up for this! Given that we only missed out on safety by 27 points two years ago, we think that we've done enough to stay in PCT this time!
To underline this, we're going to present you our points expectations per department (and even per rider) - a first in team history! This will hopefully make it easier for us to estimate expected scorings in future seasons - but it also means we'll likely be far off a realistic value this time. So yeah, you're allowed to laugh at our guesswork
Points Expectations
One thing to note is that whereas several riders appeared in multiple lists in the presentation, for the sake of simplicity we'll just have one overall points expectation for them. So, let's find out where we get!
The idea and part of the format was taken over from SotD - thanks for the great idea! We'll list the expected and actual points, current PpRD, projected points and the difference in % between expectation and projection. Here we go:
Climbers & Stage Racers
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Diff.
Colin Stüssi
200
0
n/a
0
-100%
Fausto Masnada
250
0
n/a
0
-100%
Gino Mäder
100
0
n/a
0
-100%
Total
550
0
---
0
-100%
Where do we get those expectations from? On one hand, we were looking at points scored in C1/HC races in 2022. On the other hand, we were looking for similar riders in the PCT rankings. For Stüssi, that would be e.g. Ranaweera, who is a slightly stronger climber, though - hence we expect a little less than those 257 points for Stüssi. We should have a good TTT team backing him up in some races, though, hence we think that 200 points shouldn't be exaggerated.
Masnada is even higher, as he already is a proven PCT scorer - both in Hong Kong and Euskal Bizikleta last year. In 2021, he scored 166 points, but we think that this year's calendar should suit him better, and we have a better feeling of how to plan him. Less mountains, more hills, for sure. 250 points for him, which would be slightly less than e.g. Nathan Brown.
Only 100 points are expected from Mäder - who was out on loan in 2021, so no reference value for him. We'll have less mountains and more TTs in general, and we do think he should be able to get some points from those races. We also expect him to get into some breakaways in the mountains. 100 points is still a good amount less than what e.g. Uwizeyimana or Borisavljevic scored and can hopefully be reached.
Overall, that's 550 points expected from our climbers (who won't be riding just mountain races, though). These same riders scored 900 points in CT last year, so we expect to lose more than 1/3 of the points due to the PCT level being much higher.
Puncheurs
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Diff.
Mauro Schmid
250
0
n/a
0
-100%
Xuban Errazkin
200
0
n/a
0
-100%
Total
450
0
---
0
-100%
Only 2 riders, but almost as many expected points than for the climbers. We've repeated it very often now, but it's still true that we see Schmid in his 2023 shape as a very similar rider to Xandro Meurisse. The Belgian scored 379 points last year - we expect quite a lot less from Mauro, due to his calendar not being optimized for development reasons. We feel that he should still have some really good races - and if he gets those 250 points, he would fully justify the cash we spent on wildcards!
Errazkin was already in PCT last year, and he already was his team's hills leader. So those 188 points give us a pretty good idea of what he might be capable of achieving - although we think that our TTT core should help him getting some even stronger results in a couple of races. 200 points would be nice.
That's 450 points, which makes up for a total of 1,000 points combined for mountains and hills. Which sounds like a lot to be honest - we'll see if that's really achievable!
Time Trialists
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Diff.
Stefan Bissegger
250
0
n/a
0
-100%
Alexys Brunel
250
0
n/a
0
-100%
Stefan Küng
250
0
n/a
0
-100%
Szymon Rekita
150
0
n/a
0
-100%
Krzysztof Marchewka
50
0
n/a
0
-100%
Total
950
0
---
0
-100%
So, here's maybe the most difficult department to assess. On one hand, strong depth can mean that some of the riders won't score much at all. On the other hand, TTing is THE department with the highest chance of getting some depth results.
And because we don't know which of our riders will get the best treatment, we just penciled in 250 points for all of Bissegger, Brunel and Küng. However, we think of this rather as a minimum value. Küng scored 456 points last year - but he won't be able to repeat his Benelux win, accounting for more than 200 points! Brunel and Bissegger are somewhat similar to Cosnefroy and Thomas, who scored 420 and 271 points respectively, but maybe slightly weaker still. So we feel that 250 points by each of them should be achievable - with one of them hopefully going clearly higher.
Rekita, despite being our strongest pure TT rider, is expected to get 100 points less - just because of his lack of versatility. If we compare him to Gonzalez Salas, who's a pretty similar kind of one-dimensional rider, 150 points look rather ridiculous (vs. 316), but Szymon just lacks that red stat - which could make a huge difference. Comparing him to Beniusis might be more appropriate, and 186 points should be realistic indeed.
Marchewka probably won't be a big scorer in PCT anymore, but he'll still be a valuable contributor to TTTs and team results in general. We think that 50 points could still be on the cards.
In total, that's a ridiculously high expected amount of 950 points! But we all know that time trials can be a big gamble - and if it doesn't work out at all as expected, this could be quite catastrophic. On the other hand, if we get some overperformances resulting in 1,000+ points, who knows where this could lead us...
Cobblers
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Diff.
Edward Theuns
500
0
n/a
0
-100%
Giorgi Tediashvili
50
0
n/a
0
-100%
Nejc Kosic
20
0
n/a
0
-100%
Total
570
0
---
0
-100%
This department is even harder to estimate, given that we never had a cobbler so far. Eddie Theuns is one of the world's top cobblers, and from what we've heard he's expected to fight against Stallaert for being PCT's top cobbler this year. The latter scored 700 points in the last two years, and while we don't expect Eddie to achieve this - also due to missing support - we believe he should end up in the PCT Top 30, which usually requires around 500 points. So that's what we expect - but we'll happily take more of course!
Tediashvili isn't expected to do achieve great things in his final year of development - however, having scored 34 points already as a level 3 rider, we think that his versatility could well be worth 50 points this year.
Expectations are lower for Kosic, who's a faster pure cobbler, but less versatile - 20 points from him would be fine.
With only one potential big scorer, that gets us to 570 expected points from cobbles - which is 570 points more than what we expected (and scored) two years ago. And they could make a huge difference!
Sprinters
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Diff.
Cees Bol
200
0
n/a
0
-100%
Dylan Page
75
0
n/a
0
-100%
Manuel Stocker
10
0
n/a
0
-100%
Gergely Szarka
10
0
n/a
0
-100%
Total
295
0
---
0
-100%
Another domain that's hard to estimate, as it might be the most random one - sprints. We're well aware that we don't have a top PCT sprinter, and so these 200 points for Bol might seem too high. However, he finished just outside the Top 100 in last year's PT standings - doing the same thing in PCT would result in roughly 200 points. Back in 2021, Reinhardt scored 250 points - and while Bol doesn't have Theo's great acceleration, he's a versatile sprinter who - if planned well - might reach similar scoring heights. At least that's our hope.
Page has been riding in PCT for Indosat in the past two years - scoring 114 points in 2021, and 50 points last year. We'll roughly take the average and go for 75 points.
Stocker and Szarka aren't expected to score a lot, riding mainly in support of one of the sprinters. But some breakaways or unexpected depth points can always be on the table, so we'll be hoping for 10 points scored by each of them.
All of this adds up to 295 points - which is less than the 350+ we scored in 2021. An achievable target? We'll find out!
Talents
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Diff.
Félix Stehli
5
0
n/a
0
-100%
Cedric Bakke
5
0
n/a
0
-100%
Christoph Janssen
10
0
n/a
0
-100%
Hugo Page
5
0
n/a
0
-100%
Scott Davies
5
0
n/a
0
-100%
Gustas Raugala
5
0
n/a
0
-100%
Total
35
0
---
0
-100%
Yes, we do also expect some minor points from our talents (we added the loan-ins to this category as well, by the way). We don't care how they contribute - be it with breakaways, via team points or otherwise - but experience shows that there always are some minor points on the table. We do pencil in 5 points for all of them - except for Janssen, who will definitely be part of some TTT lineups and hence is expected to score a little more.
35 points from the "rest" of the team doesn't look like an exaggerated expectation - up to our talents to convince us we should expect even more next year
Summary
Dept.
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Diff.
Climbers
550
0
---
0
-100%
Puncheurs
450
0
---
0
-100%
TTers
950
0
---
0
-100%
Cobblers
570
0
---
0
-100%
Sprinters
295
0
---
0
-100%
Talents
35
0
---
0
-100%
Total
2,850
0
n/a
0
-100%
So, 2,850 is the number. The amount of points we're hoping - or expecting - to achieve in 2023. Let's try to put that into some context.
Last year, this would have been enough for 8th place in PCT. So easily clear of relegation, which was avoided with 2,200 points. And actually just 200 points behind Binance, who reached a disband promotion spot - and 400 points behind automatic promotion.
One year further back, we'll have to do some maths because of the changed amount of race days - an expected PpRD of 17.48 would have been equivalent to 3'060 points in 2021. That would have been 7th place, just 60 points behind UBS who earned a disband promotion.
This makes us think that our projections probably are far too optimistic. Whereas we'd love to achieve a Top 10 finish, we think Top 15 should be more realistic. We do believe we've done enough - also in terms of race selection - to avoid relegation this time, but Top 10 seems a bit like a long shot - especially that close to promotion.
Tell us what you think of those numbers - can we really fight for a Top 10? Even for promotion? Or are we far too optimistic and we'll actually relegate?
In any case, we're looking forward to the 2023 racing season, and we're excited to see what this new setup will be able to achieve!
SotD So I think it was the right call to not buy a rider from you this year, otherwise you might have used my money to get Küng
I think you're way too optimistic about your TTers points haul here if I got to be completely honest! Otherwise I think that you're somewhat right with your assessment. I'd expect you to land at around 2450-2500 points if I had to guess without doing my own calculations!
Very impressive squad, really competitive across all terrains with some nice young guys coming in.
Not sure I agree with WJ on your TT projections. It is possible to build very TT friendly calendar in PCT this year, so think you are right to be bullish on those guys. And because of TTTs there is a reinforcing impact, having a strong TTT squad helps all of them score better.
If I had a hesitation it would be the puncheurs, fear they might be too far down the favorites list to get positioning priority. Although if you are right, I feel better about my squad. Still I definitely agree you have some room for error versus relegation and a lot of upside if things go well.
I'm not gonna lie, I didn't read everything, but I get the gist of it
I think the projection of 2850 pts is on the high end, but definitely achievable. I like the setup, seems well suited to PCT. With good planning and a bit of luck you could certainly be in the promotion hunt. Although maybe I should make another PCT prediction this year and see where I have you there, my guesses though were pretty off last year
WJ I can definitely understand your assessment, and those almost 1,000 points look like a lot. We'll see how it really turns out; it's a fact that Küng alone scored 450 points last year, and this even without having a good TTT setup. So the expectation of 250 points looks moderate. Cosnefroy, who's similar to Brunel but still a bit stronger, scored 420, and Ben Thomas, who I like to compare with Bissegger, got 270. Then I compared Rekita to Beniusis (who had additional U25 points), or Sajnok or Belevics, so 150 doesn't look way off, either. But of course, they might take points away from each other, and not all of them will have a good season. But even if I get the 2,400 points you mention, I'll be happy, as that would mean around 15th place and staying safe
UU Yeah, PCT calendar can be customized in a pretty TT-friendly way - I haven't done planning yet, but I think my TTers cannot even attend all TT events. Which hopefully means they will have only few "useless" races
I share your concerns about the puncheurs, at least partly. As I said, Schmid now looks a lot like Meurisse, who's been doing well for years now. But there's obviously a risk that the new game engine doesn't like him - especially with his low stamina. Errazkin already had a leader role last year, and apparently found some nice niches to score well, and I'll try to further optimize that
But yeah, every manager will try to optimize his planning, and in the end we'll see what the outcome is. As long as I don't relegate, I guess I can live with pretty much any number of points (although that attitude might change if the team has tons of really bad races ^^).
red Well, my first round of projections was even more optimistic - closer to last year's scoring of the same or similar riders - but given that the total score would've resulted in promotion last year, I still wanted to cut some numbers down
Good planning definitely is key, especially with my batch of TTers, and I'm glad I already have one year of PCT experience - even though relegation obviously wasn't cool
Predictions are always welcome of course
We weren't overly successful in last year's National Championships. While we sometimes just narrowly missed out on a win, other riders didn't even get a chance due to their country's terrain selection. However, we were able to defend the Polish ITT crown - although surprisingly it wasn't defending champion Rekita who won the race, but his teammate Krzysztof Marchewka - who, despite some enquiries during transfers, will be wearing our jersey this year.
And another national champion joined us - former loanee Giorgi Nareklishvili, who rather surprisingly beat Beka Nareklishvili to the line in a cobbled race.
Whereas Krzysztof could just take over the jersey from Szymon, we're excited that our jersey designer hillis91 actually found some time to design a shirt for Giorgi as well - thanks a lot once again! And here are these two special jerseys which will hopefully be seen often this year:
Time Trial Champion Krzysztof Marchewka
Road Race Champion Giorgi Tediashvili
Team Trivia - NCs
Today, we'd like to introduce the new category of trivia, collected throughout a single year or the entire team history. We hope you enjoy some of those facts & figures!
The first edition is all about national champions - which fits pretty well with the current HQ update!
- Our first ever NC was Issiaka Cissé, joining us in the 2019 CT draft as Ivorian ITT NC. His main competence was sprinting, though. He wore the same jersey in 2020 as well.
- The first double-champion was Benedikt Mundle, wearing both Liechtenstein NC jerseys in 2021. He won them due to the country not having any other professional rider in 2020.
- 2021 was our record year with 4 NC jerseys; besides Mundle, Szymon Rekita was wearing the Polish ITT jersey (as a yet unmaxed rider), whereas Manuel Stocker won the Swiss Road Race NC the year before.
- Stocker was our first Swiss NC winner, with Fabian Lienhard (RR) and Gino Mäder (ITT) getting the double in 2021. The former didn't ride for us in 2022, though, being released after relegation.
- Gergely Szarka was our only loaned-out NC so far; he won the Hungarian Road Race in 2021, but was riding for Duolingo in 2022.
- The NC jersey most often worn by our riders is the Polish ITT one, donned by one of our riders for the 3rd time in a row: Szymon Rekita in 2021 and 2022, and Krzysztof Marchewka in 2023.
- We're now at 10 NC jerseys in total: 3x ITT (2021, 2022, 2023) 1x RR (2021), 1x ITT (2022) 1x RR (2021), 1x ITT (2021) 2x ITT (2019, 2020) 1x RR (2023)
- Only 3 of these jerseys - respectively the rider donning them - were acquired during transfers - Cissé in 2019, Rekita in 2021, Tediashvili in 2023. The other 7 were won (or automatically awarded) in the previous season.
Just like in our first PCT season, we planned to apply for some Pro Tour races in order for your young riders to get some experience - and for the more experienced ones to get a chance of competing at the highest possible level.
Unlike two years ago, where we only did stage races and classics, we went for the full package this time! And whereas we get to do only one PT stage race this time (compared to three back in 2021), the biggest news is that we were awarded a Grand Tour AND a Monument wildcard each!
While our favorite GT would have been the biggest race in the world, the Tour de France - due to potential clashes - we are still proud to be part of the 2023 Giro d'Italia! The exact details of our lineup are still work in progress, but it's safe to say - and pretty obvious - that both Mauro Schmid and Giorgi Tediashvili will be part of the squad. This experience will help them complete their development paths.
Additionally, we get to enter the Ronde van Vlaanderen, which will allow 2021 winner Edward Theuns to compete at the highest possible level one final time!
In total, we get to participate in 7 Pro Tour races, for a total of 39 race days! This is the highest amount of any PCT team - which is understandable given that we were the only team applying for the full package (and being granted races from every category). You can find the details of all 7 wildcard races in the following calendar excerpt. We're looking forward to compete with the world's top teams in all of these races - and we're definitely looking to make an impact in all of them!
PT Wildcards
Start
End
Race
Category
02-Feb
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT
PT
13-Feb
20-Feb
Paris - Nice
PT
---
20-Mar
Strada Appia Antica
PT
23-Mar
Macskako Kerekparverseny
PT
25-Mar
Ronde van Vlaanderen
PTM
---
03-Apr
23-Apr
Giro d'Italia
PTM
---
17-Aug
Chrono des Herbiers
PT
Team Trivia - Development
The most obvious reason for getting as many wildcards as possible is rider development, and most importantly Schmid's final development step. So we make it the topic of today's trivia section. Enjoy!
- Mauro Schmid will be the first rider to be fully developed in-house. Signed in 2021, he will reach his maximum "natural" level by the end of 2023.
- By the end of the year, only 4 riders will have completed their final development step while riding for us: Szymon Rekita in 2021, and Mauro Schmid, Giorgi Tediashvili and Gergely Szarka all in 2023.
- Gergely Szarka is our first rider initially signed as Stagiaire who will reach his maximum level. His development path is further interesting by the fact that he only rode his Stagiaire season and now his final development season for us, being loaned out twice in the meantime.
- Mauro Schmid and Gergely Szarka will only be our riders #3 and #4 to be fully developed by us (in-house or loaned out), the others being Gino Mäder (maxed 2021) and Stefan Bissegger (maxed 2022).
- So far, we have signed 21 unmaxed riders (full contract or Stagiaire), of which 9 reached max level with us. 3 were traded before maxing, 7 are still developing, and 2 have been released.
- Andrea Vendrame is the only rider maxing on the team but not riding a single race for us; he was loaned out twice and then traded right after having maxed.
- Giorgi Tediashvili is the first rider joining our team on a regular contract after having been a loanee earlier (2021, 1->3).
- So far (including 2023), we had 14 loanees riding for us: 4x, 2x, 1x, 1x, 1x, 1x, 1x, 1x, 1x, 1x
- Of these 14 loans, 7 had the 1->3 clause.
- So far, we had 13 loan-outs. 3 riders were loaned out twice, and we paid the 1->3 fee once.
MacC Thanks Compared to many other teams, I feel we're still pretty thin on the uphill terrains (especially mountains, a little less on the hills), but that just means we didn't make that our main focus in bands/C1 selection
Good luck to you as well!
Looking forward to going to the Giro with you - hope we can cause some chaos for the PT teams
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
After Gino Mäder's fatal crash in this year's Tour de Suisse, the question arose whether he would continue to exist in the ManGame DB or not. Definitely a very minor side note given the tragic nature of the RL events, but still one that led to a couple of discussions. Several managers proposed that I should ask MGUCI to have another Swiss rider taking over his skillset and replacing him in my team, so Gino could be withdrawn from the game.
I had already asked MGUCI to do so, but I was told this wasn't how such cases were usually handled. So I somehow accepted that Gino would remain part of my team, although with some mixed feelings from my side.
Unfortunately, there was another fatal accident last week, as we got the horrible news that Tijl De Decker had passed away after his training crash. I'd like to extend my condolences to his family and friends who mourn this huge loss.
In De Decker's case, MGUCI agreed on withdrawing him from the game to bring in Jago Willems, as announced by Bralirwa - Stevens. And although Gino Mäder, unlike De Decker, is a rider with a development and race history in ManGame, they ended up proposing a rider swap for Gino as well.
I'm still incredibly saddened by the loss of Gino, but personally, I feel that withdrawing him from ManGame is the right way to go. Rest in Peace, Gino!
It wasn't an easy task to find a Swiss rider having the same age, and some skills that would justify being added as a 77 Climber, 75 TTer to the ManGame DB. The rider selected by MGUCI (and also proposed by other managers) is Valentin Darbellay.
Valentin was an alpine skier until 2018, and only started cycling recently. However, he seems to be a pretty talented rider. Even though he was mostly competing in national races this year, he did so pretty successfully, winning one-day races GP de la Pédale Romande and Grand Prix de Cours-la-Ville and - most notably - the stage race Tryptique Ardennais. He also recently won a stage of Tour de Namur, where he finished 4th in the GC. He also finished 4th in Tour de la Mirabelle, the only 2.2 race on his calendar.
His performances so far got him a stagiaire contract with Corratec for the remainder of the 2023 season. We'll see how he performs at PCT level, but so far it looks like he's a pretty decent climber/puncheur.
Welcome to the team, Valentin - and thanks to MGUCI for making this move possible!
jandal Well, I mainly hope Mauro Schmid can learn something from Areruya, who I suppose will steal lots of points from the PT teams
But yeah, it's going to be fun for sure, looking forward to rock the Giro alongside Xero
Before revealing our schedule and goals - which we traditionally only do after the official planner deadline - we're already thinking about the end of the upcoming season. Which means picking the best development options for our talents. Which can be a headache, because there are so many of them - some more viable than others.
As other teams are doing similar things now, we just want to share with you the possible outcomes of Mauro Schmid's final development step. He'll be a great rider no matter what - but we want to make him as great as possible, especially in terms of potential future training. So we would like to ask you which option you would pick - or in other words, which of those variants of Mauro's future self would you most hate riding against
Here are all of his possible maxed stats:
Stat Gain
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
OVL
ClimberV1
72
76
79
68
71
78
73
69
70
79
78
74
66
78.88
ClimberV2
72
76
78
68
73
79
73
69
70
78
77
76
66
78.78
Hills
73
75
79
68
73
78
73
69
70
78
77
74
66
78.72
Fighter
74
75
78
69
72
78
73
70
71
78
78
75
67
78.71
Stage Race
72
76
78
70
72
78
74
69
70
77
76
74
68
78.5
Time Trial
74
74
78
70
72
79
73
69
70
77
77
74
68
78.49
Track Sprint
74
74
77
68
71
78
73
69
72
79
76
74
68
78.32
Classics
73
74
78
68
72
78
73
71
70
77
77
74
66
78.31
Track-TT
74
74
77
70
72
79
73
69
71
78
76
74
68
77.84
Sprinter
74
74
77
68
72
77
73
70
72
79
76
74
66
77.81
Cobbles
73
74
77
68
73
78
73
71
71
77
76
74
66
77.54
Fabian
73
74
77
69
73
78
73
71
70
77
76
74
67
77.49
Many of these variants look good from some point of view - but which one is best? Maximizing main stats, leaving his stamina at the lowest possible value? Maximizing stamina, given that it might be more important than previously? Make him a better sprinter? Make him less of a weak link in potential future TTT lineups? Do some "OVL tanking", knowing that between highest and lowest OVL there are 7 (PCT/CT) or even 10 RDs of a difference?
What would your ideas be? We obviously have our 2-3 favorite paths, but we're still interested in what our competitors think about Mauro's most frightening development path
Team Trivia - Swiss Riders
Given that Mauro is one of the best Swiss riders in the current DB - if not the (future) best - let's talk a bit more about our Swiss riders in general!
- Mauro Schmid is the 3rd best unmaxed rider in the current DB, according to OVL. Vansevenant and Pidcock are about 1 point ahead, Ardila and Hirschi - another Swiss puncheur - have roughly 0.5 points less.
- Mauro Schmid is already the best Swiss rider in the DB according to OVL - 77.193 vs. Spengler at 77.186, both rounded to 77.19.
- Mauro Schmid will only be our 4th Swiss rider reaching his maximum level while under contract with us, after Fabian Lienhard, Gino Mäder and Stefan Bissegger. And he will be the first one not needing a loan to achieve this.
- Mauro Schmid - always him - is the Swiss rider with the highest combined wages so far - 450k spread over 3 years. Colin Stüssi (300k, 2 seasons) and Stefan Bissegger (280k, 3 season) take 2nd and 3rd.
- Manuel Stocker is by far the rider with the most race days spent for us - 303 by the end of the 2023 season. He's also the only rider having spent with us all five years since the team foundation.
- 20 Swiss riders signed any kind of contract with us so far. Technically it's 19, but when counting Mäder and Darbellay as distinct riders, we arrive at 20.
- 12 of them were signed as maxed riders (including Darbellay), 8 were signed as talents at level 1, 2 or 4. No Swiss rider got his first contract with us as level 3 rider.
- Nico Brüngger was our only Swiss rider picked in the CT draft, back in 2020.
- Jan-André Freuler was the first yellow jersey wearer in team history, after winning stage 1 of the Hong Kong Challenge in 2019.
- Jan-André Freuler is also the most successful Swiss stage hunter so far, having won 3 stages - all in 2019.
- Other Swiss stage winners are Colin Stüssi (2x), Gabriel Chavanne (2x) and Marcel Aregger (1x). Plus the team, if we count the two TTT wins last season as Swiss wins.
- Colin Stüssi is our only Swiss GC winner so far, winning Giro del Trentino in 2022.
- Colin Stüssi is also the most successful special jersey hunter in team history, winning the points competition in Vancouver and Trentino, plus the KoM in Vancouver last season.
After our first PCT adventure two years ago ended with us relegating back to CT, one might think that we should have picked modest goals for our second attempt. We agree that this would have made perfect sense - however, our sponsors weren't willing to throw in some big money just for the fight for survival.
So, we ended up selecting quite ambitious - for some probably over-ambitious - goals, which allowed us to get a good budget to work with. Up to us now to actually achieve at least some of these goals, or we might end up with much less cash next year.
Here are our 2023 goals:
Goals
Country
Race
Goal
Team Standings
Top 5
Tour de Suisse
Win
Tour of Slovenia
Top 5
Deutschland Rundfahrt
Top 10
Tour of South Africa
Top 5
Yes, that's indeed three PTHC goals, including our sole Win goal. It was 100% clear for our sponsors what the win goal had to be - and being a Swiss team, it didn't come by surprise at all. More on our chances later - let's go through the goals one by one:
Goal #1 - Team Standings: Top 5
This clearly is one of the over-ambitious goals we were talking about. Having relegated two years ago, we could just have gone for a "staying up" goal, meaning Top 15. But heading into transfers, we knew we had a very solid core already, and we were hoping for getting two potentially high-scoring leaders that could bring us in promotion contention.
We ended up getting one top-level rider - who won't necessarily be a high-scoring one though, due to the pretty limited amount of cobbled races. So despite a calendar that looks - for the most part - pretty well-suited to our roster, we think that Top 5 might be a tad too high - we would be pretty happy already with a Top 10 finish. But if everything falls into place - who knows...
Goal #2 - Tour de Suisse: Win
Spoiler
This goal probably explains why we were desperately trying to get a high-level stage race leader. Well, probably not desperately enough; we're pretty sure we could have signed one had we fully committed to it - but in the end we decided that this win goal was pretty much out of reach anyway, and decided to focus more on other areas.
That said, we surely won't give up on a great GC result without putting up a fight - and we're sending pretty much the strongest stage race squad we have to our home race. What gives us some hope is that last year, a certain Tao Geoghegan Hart, who wasn't a much stronger rider than Colin Stüssi back then, actually finished on the GC podium - why not hoping for a big time exploit by one of our riders this year?
Whereas our chances to win the race are slim, we'll definitely be hoping to get some great stage results. These are the riders attempting to achieve "Mission impossible":
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Colin Stüssi
71
79
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
Valentin Darbellay
69
77
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
64
70
67
76
Mauro Schmid
72
74
77
68
71
77
72
69
70
77
76
74
66
Dylan Page
75
57
66
60
72
72
75
66
78
79
62
55
59
Manuel Stocker
75
60
65
69
71
73
76
59
76
77
65
65
71
Gergely Szarka
75
62
67
61
72
72
75
60
76
76
64
66
70
Felix Stéhli
67
66
69
62
70
69
68
62
69
69
67
69
66
Christoph Janssen
71
63
65
72
68
71
70
55
59
66
64
65
72
Yes, we could indeed have lined up a 100% Swiss team, but the race days of Bissegger or Kung have some better potential return elsewhere. Which means that Colin Stüssi is our big hope for the GC, and he'll get some valuable support by Valentin Darbellay. Mauro Schmid is our wildcard and will hopefully go stage or even KoM hunting; we do think that several stages should suit him well.
For the sprints, Dylan Page gets support from faithful leadout rider Manuel Stocker, as well as from the only non-Swiss rider in the lineup, Gergely Szarka. Felix Stéhli and Christoph Janssen are mainly here to gain experience.
What could be realistic with this lineup? GC win? No way. GC Top 10? Hopefully. And some breakaway presence and good stage results would be nice.
Goal #3 - Tour of Slovenia: Top 5
Spoiler
Another goal that could considered to be over-ambitious - and another one we couldn't sign the perfect riders for during transfers. However, despite the fact that we lack a top-end time trialist, we believe that this goal isn't completely out of reach - in fact, Stefan Küng finished 5th here two years ago, and 11th the year before. Unfortunately, the TTT has gotten shorter and the ITT longer since, but we'll still try to get that Top 5 spot with one of the following riders:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
Fausto Masnada
71
77
76
73
76
75
73
60
63
73
69
71
70
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Valentin Darbellay
69
77
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
64
70
67
76
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
We did sacrifice a little bit of TTT power, by bringing our top puncheur Xuban Errazkin instead of Stüssi - but given last year's performance, he just deserves another shot here. The Spaniard actually was 3rd before the loooong closing ITT, where he dropped down to 17th. But he'll mainly be here to protect our strongest time trialists in the hilly stages - maybe even helping them to gap the pure specialists.
Our biggest hope for that Top 5 target might be Stefan Küng, who is clearly the strongest climber/puncheur among our top TTers. And his TTT support is almost as strong as it was back in the Generali days, so let's go!
Fausto Masnada could be our dark horse once more, if he can use his great versatile skillset to create some big gaps on stages 3 and 4 - but just like for Errazkin, his main goal should be to protect those who are far stronger than him against the clock.
Could we reach this goal? We'll definitely need some luck, but if Oliveira could get a Top 5 last year, why not Küng or Brunel this time? However, a Top 10 seems more realistic, which would be a similar performance to Cosnefroy or Vangstad last year.
Goal #4 - Deutschland Tour: Top 10
Spoiler
Another goal in a TT-heavy race - where it gets clear one more time that we might heavily regret not having gone all-in for a top-level TTer in the transfer week. Whereas our TTers are good, they will likely struggle to keep up with the big guns - but if we are really lucky with some good daily form, maybe one of these riders might actually still reach our Top 10 goal:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Dylan Page
75
57
66
60
72
72
75
66
78
79
62
55
59
Manuel Stocker
75
60
65
69
71
73
76
59
76
77
65
65
71
Felix Stehli
67
66
69
62
70
69
68
62
69
69
67
69
66
Hugo Page
66
65
66
61
68
68
62
61
69
72
68
69
66
Gustas Raugala
69
65
65
68
66
68
63
54
58
64
64
71
69
What, only 3 TTers? That's a very valid question - the reason is the clashing Tour of Vineyards, including a TTT. In order to still send a strong team over to New Zealand, we "only" have our three strongest TTers in Germany.
As said before, if one of them has really great legs on stage 3, a Top 10 could be doable even for a sub-80 TTer - as shown by Mano and Tanfield last year. Bringing three good riders - two of them well-rounded - at least gives us a slightly higher chance.
And yeah, then there are the sprints. Dylan Page will be hoping for some unorganized bunch sprints, given that he clearly isn't among the world's elite sprinters. At least he gets some support from Manuel Stocker once again.
Is this goal achievable? Yes. Is it realistic? Probably not quite. Once again... But maybe we come out lucky between one out of this and the Slovenia goal.
Goal #5 - Tour of South Africa: Top 5
Spoiler
Finally a goal we don't feel too bad about! And we're happy that we could convince our sponsors to give us the choice between this one and Hallstatt - post-transfers, it was quickly obvious which one had to be picked, and they agreed.
Why are we pretty positive for this goal? On one hand, we already reached 6th and 7th places in GC with Moscon, while having a mediocre TTT setup at best. And even though the race has now moved up to HC level - meaning we're expecting even stronger competition - we believe the following riders are ready to tackle this challenge:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
Fausto Masnada
71
77
76
73
76
75
73
60
63
73
69
71
70
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Stefan Kung
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
Christoph Janssen
71
63
65
72
68
71
70
55
59
66
64
65
72
Once again, we sacrifice a little bit of pure TTT power, but Xuban Errazkin fortunately is pretty strong against the clock as well - and if your weakest link in a stage race TTT is a 70 TTer, this is probably a pretty good sign. Not many other teams are in a similar situation as far as we can judge.
It's a good thing as well that Fausto Masnada is among our Top 8 TTers anyway, and he'll be the key lieutenant for Xuban in this race. Not to forget Stefan Küng, of course, but stage 5 will surely be too hard for him.
We consciously renounced to bring a sprinter, although Theuns or Bol might have done pretty well here, but we decided to focus on Errazkin and Masnada for the GC. The former didn't have a great race last year, only just missing out on a decisive split on day 5 - so it's redemption time!
Could we reach this goal? Indeed. But we'll still need some luck to not miss out on any important splits.
Summary
All in all, it looks like we've picked some risky or even unrealistic goals. But that's the business - we needed the money this year to get our team up to PCT level. We think we could cope with a lower budget next year due to disappointed sponsors - but we still hope to achieve at least two of these goals! South Africa is a "must" with this lineup, and we also hope to secure one out of Slovenia and Germany - not a given for sure, but hopefully we're lucky enough every now or then!
2023 Calendar
Our schedule includes a significant amount of PT race days - 39 in total, thereof one GT and one monument. Otherwise, we tried to get as many (T)TTs as possible - at the cost of some PTHC/HC cobbled races, given that we didn't expect to sign a top cobbler pre-transfers.
We're glad to have three home races, unfortunately missing out on the final one, Züri Metzgete, though. From the C1 calendar, we picked pretty much every race containing a flat ITT (except for Baltic Chain Tour, which only has a very short prologue, though) - and of course all cobbles we could get.
On the other hand, we avoided pure climber races, like Badaling, Andorra or Eritrea, but also Morocco - and once again we didn't sign up for the Tour of America, either. Flat classics or stage races aren't our thing, either - with Frankfurt Eschborn being the only exception.
At the C2 level, we try to capitalize on CT's lack of cobblers, having selected three cobbled races as well.
In general, both ZARA and Minions were very good examples in terms of calendar selection for us, given that they also had a strong TT core last year. Cobbles are obviously something different...
And now, without even further ado - Jura GIANTS' 2023 calendar:
On Schmid have to vote the obvious choice - Cv1 and maximize HI and ACC. Seems like the the other choices compromise these stats without giving any real advantage anywhere else. Will admit I have not spent time thinking about how to maximize OVL and RD in development.
Once again impressed by your ambition. My goals are much humbler. Aside from the cobbles we will cross paths a lot. McCormick will be at all your goal races. While we don't expect to be that competitive in Slovenia or Deutschland, Boswell will lead a strong team in South Africa and McNulty and the full climbing squad will be at Suisse.
The goals seem to make a lot of sense looking at your pre-transfer squad, and I reckon for at least three out of four goals you have a realistic shot now. Surely Slovenia won't be a walk in the park and Rekyta will need some good raceday conditions for Deutschland to be certain of getting a top-10, but it's all possible.
You forgot to give credit to the guy who made it possible to showcase your calendar so easy btw, forgot who it was exactly but he posted it in the calendar thread.
On a more serious note, not the most surprising calendar with your TTT strength and riders. I don't mind Theuns not being at Franceville of course Looking forward to see how well you can represent PCT in the RvV and the Giro
I'll watch with interest your performances in the classics.
Edward Theuns
Stefan Küng
Cees Bol
Hugo Page
Would've happily swapped him for Galta, though 
Of course, hoping for Kosic and Tediashvili to provide some support, maybe also Küng in some wildcard races - but your classics team is far stronger. Still jealous of Jacobs 
Fausto Masnada won the Volta a Catalunya last year - despite Stüssi's presence, but thanks to the latter's support. He's our strongest climbing domestique - but given his versatility, and our calendar, he'll also focus a lot on riding as a (co-)leader in more hilly races.
Xuban Errazkin, who is only the 2nd Spaniard on our team, and the first who actually gets paid (Merino Criado being our 2nd year draft pick). He is very similar to Gianni - at least to the untrained version of Gianni - being slightly weaker on the hills but stronger on longer inclines. And: He does have some better ITT skills, and he's two years younger. We'll have to see which races to send him to, as he won't stand a chance against the division's top puncheurs in the "classic" hilly races - but the PCT calendar allows for some nice planning.
Szymon Rekita continues to lead the department, being among the division's Top 10 considering only pure TT skills.
Giorgi Tediashvili - just like Eddie, the first rider of his country to get a full contract with us - is still developing, but will hopefully learn a lot from the world star to at least grow into a great domestique.
Nejc Kosic - the first Slovenian ever to sign any kind of contract with us - was brought in in a last-minute transfer, to at least somewhat strengthen our support team. He has been working for 2022 RvV winner Pedersen, now he'll support the Dane's predecessor - what else do you need?
Gergely Szarka. He started as a stagiaire back in 2020, then was loaned out for strategic reasons in the last two years - and will now finally complete his development path as another strong leadout rider. Currently, he's pretty much a clone of Stocker, with some slightly stronger uphill skills but without any TT skills whatsoever.
Cedric Bakke Christophersen - our first ever rider from Norway - is an aggressive rider, and should hopefully join some breakaways all year long. Otherwise, he'll do a good job as a domestique in mountainous and hilly races.
Scott Davies, Lidl Cycling teammate of Cedric, is the first Brit on the roster we actually pay, as we've agreed on taking on his wage for the season. He's not young anymore, but should still have the time to grow into a strong time triallist - although he'll unfortunately not have many peak years left. For the time being, we'll try to give him some TT experience as well - but if you remember our stacked specialist department, he's more likely to gain experience in the mountains, his other strength.
Gustas Raugala is actually the first Lithuanian joining us, although it's just for one year. Just like Davies, he likes sitting on a TT bike, but we'll be making use of his skills on the flat in other types of races as well.
Issiaka Cissé, joining us in the 2019 CT draft as Ivorian ITT NC. His main competence was sprinting, though. He wore the same jersey in 2020 as well.
Benedikt Mundle, wearing both Liechtenstein NC jerseys in 2021. He won them due to the country not having any other professional rider in 2020.
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT
4x, 
1x, 
Tour Down Under
Hong Kong Challenge
Viana do Castelo
Tour of Ukraine
Circulo de Juarez
Isle of Man TTT
Vuelta al Pais Vasco
Pro Hallstatt Classic
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo
Tour of California
Arab Tour
Tour de Vineyards
GP Kigali
Tour of Japan
Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec
