Cool team presentation, Fab! I really hope you can stay up. It will be a challenge, but if someone can pull it off...
Thanks for the nice words
Yeah, guess it'll be our biggest challenge so far, even with quite some experience in the bag (which was missing when we relegated from PCT in our first attempt). I guess it'll be a lot of lessons learnt in terms of PT planning at least, hopefully they'll be handy later on
Calendar & Goals
The season start is closing in, and so it's time to talk about our Calendar and the Sponsor Goals.
Well, actually, there's not that much to say about the calendar. It was 100% clear already before going into transfers - something we're definitely not used to yet. The PT calendar dictates most of the season's schedule, with the three PTHC bands being the only variable part to it.
This year, we submitted bands 1, 5 and 6 as our top priorities. And we were lucky to get our top priorities indeed. There was never a doubt about band 1, including the Tour de Suisse. Arenberg and Rheden are also races we're looking forward to - and in Ukraine the team definitely has quite some redemption work to do after last year's complete failure!
Band 5 is the same as last year, with Slovenia, Deutschland, Veenendaal and Roma Maxima. Pretty much a no-brainer as well, in particular given that we intended to sign a top TTer. We didn't, but it still feels like a good choice.
And then we decided to go for band 6 as our 3rd priority. Portugal is the longest PTHC stage race on the calendear. Competition was weak last year - probably due to its length - and we hope to find a similar situation this year. Even though we obviously know that other managers may have noticed this as well. But we had to take that band anyway due to Franceville being in it, a two-day stage race for cobblers. With two hilly classics rounding off the band - including San Sebastian where Schmid had his breakthrough race last year, it felt like a good choice.
So we're missing out on band 4 this year. Lithuania obviously would have been a great pick, but we think that Schmid isn't quite ready yet for Balkans. We'll likely target the band next year again (in particular after Theuns' next decline), but for this year there have been other priorities.
The rest of the calendar is the mandatory PT one. We actually were pretty surprised that despite having 17 RDs more than last year, we'll have almost 20 races less, with only 40 races being in the PT schedule. Which puts much more weight on every single race. We'll admit we like the (relative) planning freedom in PCT more, but one day we'll hopefully get used to the PT way, too.
There's not much more to say - you can find our calendar here if you're interested in getting the full picture.
So, let's move over to the next part without further ado:
Goals
Believe it or not - but 2024 is actually the first season in team history without a Swiss goal race. And if you wonder how that is possible, we completely get you. Here's why:
Unfortunately (from today's point of view), Tour de Suisse got downgraded to PTHC two years ago. And sadly, for PT teams, the only PTHC race goal allowed is a win goal. And as we were pretty sure we wouldn't be able to get a potential TdS winner during transfers, well, we sadly had to pass on a Swiss race goal for once.
Obviously, it was quite a bummer for our sponsors to find out these PT goal rules, but they could understand why we weren't eager to accept another unreachable goal.
Another one? Well, this obviously means we already had at least one - actually rather two of them. Let's take a look:
Goal #1 | Team Standings | Top 10
The team standings goal is a mandatory one. And the only goal that would have made sense for us as a team promoting to PT for the first time would have been the "Avoid relegation" goal.
But no, our sponsors would rather have liked to go for the Top 5 goal. They said we already were overly modest with last year's Top 10 goal, so we should aim higher this time.
And despite showing all of our calculations, predicting us to relegate, we only managed to talk them down to a Top 10 goal. None less. Will we have even the slightest chance of reaching it? Well, if we manage to stay up, a lot could be possible. But not likely, and we know that.
Goal #2 | Tour de France | Win
Spoiler
Yeah, the next unfeasible goal. And we all know it. There are 2-3 riders out there who could realistically win this race, and none of them was available. Agreeing on this goal was just strategic, helping us to have our sponsors settle for some more realistic goals elsewhere.
It has to be mentioned that a GT goal is needed anyway - as is a win goal - and we decided to agree on one fully unrealistic goal instead of two probably unrealistic ones.
To underline the impossibility to achieve a Tour de France win this year, we won't even send our #1 stage racer. But even though our hopes aren't huge GC-wise, we still have some ambitions, as you can see from our line-up:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Valentin Darbellay
69
78
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
65
70
67
76
Teten Rohendi
70
75
75
70
73
75
74
55
62
73
71
70
71
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Kaden Groves
75
62
72
65
75
73
80
66
80
79
64
67
71
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Ethan Vernon
73
60
65
77
72
75
72
66
75
70
63
65
78
Gabriel Chavanne
75
58
64
65
71
76
74
57
76
76
53
67
82
Valentin Darbellay will try to either get a Top 15 GC result, or get into some funny 3rd-week brekaways - or both. Teten Rohendi, Clément Berthet and Lorenzo Delco will get all the freedom they want to join the breaks in the first weeks.
A major part of our focus will definitely be on the sprints, though, with Kaden Groves hopefully getting some nice stage results - in particular the first week should suit him with quite some bumpy finales. He should get some good support from Ethan Vernon and Gabriel Chavanne - both of which will also target the prologue, the latter for the stage podium, the former for a potential white jersey day. Stefan Bissegger is there for the long ITT.
GC win? Nope. Stage win? Hopefully.
Goal #3 | Tour of Northern Europe | GC Top 3
Spoiler
Top 3 you say? And yet another unrealistic goal... or not? Well, we hope not. Sure, to really get a GC podium, everything needs to go the right way. But we'd like to think that it isn't impossible. Let's look at the roster first:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
Tomas Paprstka
75
62
69
62
74
70
68
75
70
72
69
78
63
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Mauro Schmid
72
76
79
68
71
78
73
69
70
79
78
74
66
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Sure, the goal would have been more realistic with the Wisniowski transfer, who won the race in 2019 and finished in the Top 4 three times in the last four years.
But in fact Stefan Küng also has two podium finishes to his name, 2nd in 2020 and 3rd in 2021. Combining a TT, hills and cobbles, that's definitely a mixture he should like. Van Baarle's 2nd place last year is also encouraging, with Küng having pretty much the same skillset.
However, with the TT having been cut by about 50%, riders like Edward Theuns could also get their chance. And if it's really a race for the puncheurs now, Mauro Schmid - who isn't awful on cobbles and the TT bike, either - might also sense an opportunity to shine.
And if Cosnefroy can win the race, why not sending Alexys Brunel to Northern Europe? Szymon Rekita could also try to get a good stage result - you never know if the cobbles really matter.
Last but not least, there's Cees Bol, who's our man for the first two (flat) stages - a man who can also handle some hills and some cobbles, too. We're firing on all cylinders here - let's hope we get some good return!
Top 3? Possible, but definitely not a given. Top 10 would be fine actually, and every spot closer to the podium is a success.
Goal #4 | Giro di Lombardia | Top 10
Spoiler
After the GT, our sponsors also went for a monument goal. Not for some random monument - as it was the case in 4/5 seasons so far, they picked the final day of racing of the season. 3x Züri Metzgete and once Emilia were our final-day goals so far, all of them being win goals. Now, it's a Top 10 goal in Lombardia. And who should achieve this one?
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Mauro Schmid
72
76
79
68
71
78
73
69
70
79
78
74
66
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
Valentin Darbellay
69
78
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
65
70
67
76
Teten Rohendi
70
75
75
70
73
75
74
55
62
73
71
70
71
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
AOP Setiawa
68
70
75
74
76
72
71
57
62
70
76
66
74
Hugo Page
69
65
67
61
71
69
65
63
73
76
68
69
66
Felix Stehli
67
68
71
62
70
70
69
62
69
71
69
69
66
The world's top climbers mostly dominated this race last year - but with a profile change for 2024, it looks like this should be one for the puncheurs who can climb decently. Hence, our team leader is Mauro Schmid. Clasica San Sebastian looks pretty similar, and Mauro finished 2nd there as an unmaxed rider in 2023. So, why not give it a try at the highest possible stage?
Mauro will get about as much uphill support as we can provide, except for Stüssi being absent. But Xuban Errazkin and Valentin Darbellay are here to help on shorter and longer uphills respectively.
Furthermore, all of Teten Rohendi, Clément Berthet and AOP Setiawa are capable uphill riders, and we hope they'll survive the first couple of bumps.
The long Colma di Sormano will likely be the decider on whether Mauro can fight for a top result or not; if he can stay with the best on this climb, he should be able to recover enough energy on the downhill to hold on until the end, with the finale favouring his downhill-sprint combo. We'll see - we're definitely looking forward to this one! And maybe to finally achieving a last-day goal?
Goal #5 | Copenhagen - Malmo TTT | Top 10
Spoiler
As last year's strongest TTT outfit, this was pretty much an obvious goal race. What was less obvious though was to pick the goal difficulty - Top 10 or podium? Sadly, Top 5 doesn't exist as a goal in PT - and although we knew we wanted to sign a top TTer, we also didn't plan to invest a lot into our TT department otherwise. So we settled for the minimum goal, Top 10. And these riders will hopefully achieve this target:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
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 Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Ethan Vernon
73
60
65
77
72
75
72
66
75
70
63
65
78
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
Colin Stüssi
71
79
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
AOP Setiawa
68
70
75
74
76
72
71
57
62
70
76
66
74
Christoph Janssen
72
65
67
74
70
73
72
55
59
67
65
65
74
Indeed, no Rekita here, he'll be stage hunting in Portugal. In total, we could have sent a lineup that would be 6 TT points stronger - but it wouldn't have made any difference for the top spots anyway, with the podium being completely out of reach no matter our lineup.
Still, there are 6 teams in total who theoretically could send a stronger team than us. But if nothing goes completely wrong, the Top 10 goal should be safe. But this race clearly shows us how rough the PT reality is - from #1 in PCT to #7 in PT, despite slightly improving the depth (thanks to Vernon)...
We won't complain, though, and we'll happily accept any Top 10 outcome here - finishing lower isn't really an option and hopefully won't happen.
These are the goals - 1/5 should be doable, 3/5 would be the optimal yet unlikely scenario. But we'll try to get as close as we can - and hopefully the sponsors will be happy enough with whatever the outcome is!
It's the final thing before the season actually starts: Rider planning. We don't want yet another monstrous post like the team presentation, so we decided to split this into three parts. Climbers & Puncheurs, TTers, Cobblers & Sprinters.
The last part will also include the planning of our loanees, so their home teams can track them throughout the year.
Credits to knockout for the format which I really like, and it even includes "my" calendar (thanks for the thanks btw).
But now, let's not talk about the "how" any longer, let's rather look at the first four riders:
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
02-Feb
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT
PT
13-Feb
20-Feb
Paris - Nice
PT
---
03-Apr
23-Apr
Giro d'Italia
GT
---
11-May
31-May
Vuelta a Espana
GT
---
07-Jun
13-Jun
Tour de Suisse
PTHC
That's only 5 races for Colin - which is a direct consequence of the fact that there aren't many mountain stage races in PT besides the three GTs. And Colin's disadvantage compared to teammate Darbellay is that all of our non-GT mountain stage races start with a prologue, where he is clearly inferior.
Hence, we decided to send him to both the Giro and the Vuelta. He finished 8th in the former last year, and we hope that the TTT stage plus the important long ITT should suit him in 2024 again. A GC result between 10th and 15th should be the realistic goal for both GTs, but this obviously heavily depends on the competitors present.
In Paris - Nice and Tour de Suisse, he will co-lead the team with Darbellay. We couldn't really find a fully separate schedule for the two, so we'll see how that works out.
Last but not least, Colin will ride in the Scandinavian TTT classic, hopefully helping to secure our Top 10 sponsor goal.
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Valentin Darbellay
69
78
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
65
70
67
76
07-Jan
09-Jan
Tour of Tasmania
PT
---
01-Feb
08-Feb
Volta a Portugal
PTHC
13-Feb
20-Feb
Paris - Nice
PT
22-Feb
24-Feb
Tour of Ukraine
PTHC
---
20-Apr
GP Liechtenstein
PT
---
01-Jun
03-Jun
Scandinavia Open Road Race
PT
07-Jun
13-Jun
Tour de Suisse
PTHC
28-Jun
Clasica San Sebastian
PTHC
---
03-Jul
23-Jul
Tour de France
GT
25-Jul
29-Jul
Tour of Slovenia
PTHC
---
18-Oct
Giro di Lombardia
M
Logically, Valentin does the only GT not covered by Colin - the biggest race in the world, the Tour de France. He'll obviously not be blamed for failing our win goal; given his skills, a Top 15 would be great, a Top 20 acceptable.
There are many races where we send him to without knowing what his actual role will be - all those races combining hills and TTs. Tasmania, Ukraine, Slovenia. The goal will be to not lose time in the uphill stages - except for bonus seconds, which he won't be fighting for given his weakness on the hills - and then limit the damage to the specialists in the ITTs. Which can work well if the uphill stages are selective, or not that much if they aren't.
He'll also lead the team in Portugal, where his skillset might have been enough for a Top 5 last year. Top 10 would be fine in 2024, though. Liechtenstein will be his only classic as our leader, with Colin riding the Giro.
In Paris - Nice and Tour de Suisse, he'll be our co-leader, as mentioned before. Scandinavia Open Road Race, San Sebastian and Lombardia are rather filler races, although he might provide some valuable support for the puncheurs in particular in the latter two.
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Mauro Schmid
72
76
79
68
71
78
73
69
70
79
78
74
66
01-Feb
08-Feb
Volta a Portugal
PTHC
13-Feb
Classique du Grand-Duché
PT
22-Feb
24-Feb
Tour of Ukraine
PTHC
28-Feb
Milano - San Remo
M
---
01-Mar
03-Mar
Ronde van Nederland
PT
21-Mar
Macskako Kerekparverseny
PT
---
30-Apr
Amstel Gold Race
PT
---
03-May
Fleche Wallonne
PT
07-May
Liege - Bastogne - Liege
M
---
01-Jun
03-Jun
Scandinavia Open Road Race
PT
28-Jun
Clasica San Sebastian
PTHC
---
04-Sep
10-Sep
Tour of Northern Europe
PT
---
09-Oct
Japan Cup
PTHC
18-Oct
Giro di Lombardia
M
Well, we have 7 hilly classics on our calendar. That's 14 race days, out of 42 - and Mauro obviously does them all. But what to do with the rest?
Scandinavia Open Road Race pretty much is a no-brainer as well with the TT gone. In Ronde van Nederland, he'll ride alongside Groves, that's why we hesitated to send him there. Same question for Tirreno, by the way, where we decided to not send Mauro.
And then, no Tasmania, but Ukraine instead - despite more TTing. That's because of the hilly stage getting much harder. And that's it pretty much about the hills.
Well, Portugal has some of them, too. Mauro should go stage hunting there - and who knows, he isn't awful on the TT bike, why not get a minor GC result as well? MSR has hills at the end, too - not always decisive, but they can be. It's worth a try.
Macskako on the other hand has cobbles. And some hills. And Mauro showed last year that he likes this race, finishing 29th. He also handled the Viana cobbles, so why not give it another try. Same story for ToNE, in particular with the pretty short ITT in 2024. Some cobbles, quite some hills - let's try it!
All in all, we really have to find out what races suit Mauro best. Apart from the hilly classics, of course. We hope we got a nice selection, so that even if it doesn't fully work, we get a better idea for next year.
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
07-Jan
09-Jan
Tour of Tasmania
PT
---
01-Feb
08-Feb
Volta a Portugal
PTHC
12-Feb
18-Feb
Tirreno - Adriatico
PT
22-Feb
24-Feb
Tour of Ukraine
PTHC
---
27-Mar
Ronde van Vlaanderen
M
---
03-Apr
23-Apr
Giro d'Italia
GT
30-Apr
Amstel Gold Race
PT
---
03-May
Fleche Wallonne
PT
07-May
Liege - Bastogne - Liege
M
---
01-Jun
03-Jun
Scandinavia Open Road Race
PT
28-Jun
Clasica San Sebastian
PTHC
---
09-Oct
Japan Cup
PTHC
18-Oct
Giro di Lombardia
M
With Mauro being our new puncheur leader, there aren't many races left for Xuban to lead the team. To be precise, it's Tasmania and Tirreno. Both of them including hills and a TT - although the relevance of the latter might be too important in both for Xuban to really shine. Still, we have faith in him, and believe he will deliver some good results.
Otherwise, he just has two more races where he won't support Mauro. Ronde van Vlaanderen being the first - with Xuban not being a cobbler at all, maybe a questionable choice. But there are many hills nonetheless, and that's where he could still be able to help Theuns.
And finally, the Giro. We hope he'll get a lot of freedom there, and in particular the first week with many hilly finales could be a good fit for him. It's somewhat risky to use 21 of his RDs for this - but on the other hand, there aren't many other good fits anyway.
Otherwise, he's really racing to help Mauro - or to take over in case the latter has a bad day.
I think this team will put up a great fight and has a good chance of staying in PT. The squad still reminds me a lot of my own team in the last couple of years and that didn't turn out too badly
That Stüssi schedule looks quite familiar. Could end up as a bit of a rivalry with Foss. I had hoped to see Darbellay and Stüssi with swapped races for a slightly more favourably matchup
Interesting choice to not send Rekita to Portugal. Seems counter-intuitive to me but you surely looked at the TTT situation far more closely than i did.
I think this team will put up a great fight and has a good chance of staying in PT. The squad still reminds me a lot of my own team in the last couple of years and that didn't turn out too badly
They will put up a great fight, that's the least I can hope for! I think it could work if we get the right depth results here or there, and there's almost zero breakaway points in the expectations, so that could easily be a factor as well.
Let's say that your team is one of my examples for team building - looking at your 2023 squad, I guess the original is still far better than the replica
That Stüssi schedule looks quite familiar. Could end up as a bit of a rivalry with Foss. I had hoped to see Darbellay and Stüssi with swapped races for a slightly more favourably matchup
Interesting choice to not send Rekita to Portugal. Seems counter-intuitive to me but you surely looked at the TTT situation far more closely than i did.
I don't think it matters whether Foss rides against Stüssi or Darbellay, he's easily stronger overall anyway
Well, Rekita actually will ride in Portugal, but I guess you meant the TTT. I don't think it would have changed anything in terms of pecking order, with the Top 5 being out of reach anyway. In Portugal, he could get a stage podium in the TT, so for me it was worth the gamble. Can easily go wrong, though.
knockout wrote:
That Stüssi schedule looks quite familiar. Could end up as a bit of a rivalry with Foss. I had hoped to see Darbellay and Stüssi with swapped races for a slightly more favourably matchup
Interesting choice to not send Rekita to Portugal. Seems counter-intuitive to me but you surely looked at the TTT situation far more closely than i did.
I don't think it matters whether Foss rides against Stüssi or Darbellay, he's easily stronger overall anyway
Well, Rekita actually will ride in Portugal, but I guess you meant the TTT. I don't think it would have changed anything in terms of pecking order, with the Top 5 being out of reach anyway. In Portugal, he could get a stage podium in the TT, so for me it was worth the gamble. Can easily go wrong, though.
Yeah, thats what i meant. As i said, you likely looked into ttt strengths a lot more carefully than i did. I only took a brief look into where my team is compared to other teams and tried to guess Lithuania TTT lineups. My gut feeling was that the chance of going from e.g. 7th to 5th might be more valuable than the chance of a stage podium but if you are in a "hole" where a minor improvement or weakening doesnt change your ranking much, it could be the right call. Ive even skipped the TTT in the past to strengthen the Portugal lineup and while that might have looked like a questionable decision, it worked out in hindsight at least. So i like that you looked into that closely and made informed decisions. Hope it works out for you.
I hope that Foss is stronger than Stüssi but i could easily see them swapping places at times. Should be close enough for daily form to matter.
Yeah, thats what i meant. As i said, you likely looked into ttt strengths a lot more carefully than i did. I only took a brief look into where my team is compared to other teams and tried to guess Lithuania TTT lineups. My gut feeling was that the chance of going from e.g. 7th to 5th might be more valuable than the chance of a stage podium but if you are in a "hole" where a minor improvement or weakening doesnt change your ranking much, it could be the right call. Ive even skipped the TTT in the past to strengthen the Portugal lineup and while that might have looked like a questionable decision, it worked out in hindsight at least. So i like that you looked into that closely and made informed decisions. Hope it works out for you.
I hope that Foss is stronger than Stüssi but i could easily see them swapping places at times. Should be close enough for daily form to matter.
Rekita's Portugal planning is a gamble for sure. And I obviously don't know either if all managers send their top TTers to Copenhagen (although I guess so). But between two TT stages and a potential impact on team standings, I decided it was worth the risk.
It weakens our TTT lineup by 5 stat points in total, but on the other hand the difference between best and worst rider is now down to 4 points. We'll see how it goes, don't have much PT experience yet
You're probably right on the Stüssi vs. Foss battle - daily form will be important. At least in the mountains - in TTs we've seen that the rankings are most often in the order of TT stats. We'll see if that changes with extending the daily form range...
Leader Planning | TTers
While the two other leader planning posts cover two disciplines each, this one is all about TTers - just because we have so many of them. And if you want, it's actually two disciplines as well - TTers and Prologue specialists.
We actually cover the schedule of 5 riders here - all the 78+ TTers, our sole true prologue specialist - and our "Swiss Army Knife". Let's go!
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
07-Jan
09-Jan
Tour of Tasmania
PT
18-Jan
23-Jan
Tour of Qatar
PT
---
01-Feb
08-Feb
Volta a Portugal
PTHC
13-Feb
20-Feb
Paris - Nice
PT
---
12-Mar
15-Mar
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
PT
---
03-Apr
23-Apr
Giro d'Italia
GT
---
07-Jun
13-Jun
Tour de Suisse
PTHC
26-Jun
Chrono des Herbiers
PT
---
25-Jul
29-Jul
Tour of Slovenia
PTHC
---
01-Aug
05-Aug
Deutschland Tour
PTHC
13-Aug
Chrono d'Arenberg
PTHC
---
04-Sep
10-Sep
Tour of Northern Europe
PT
Unlike planned before transfers, Szymon is still our Top TTer. And when this became clear, we had to decide whether to move ahead and raise funds to train him or not. Well, we didn't - and given some other trainings, we're not too unhappy with our decision.
Still, our hopes in quite some TT-heavy races will be on his shoulders, with expectations obviously being clearly lower than they would have been for someone like Ganna.
Szymon will be our leader in Praha, Herbiers and Deutschland Tour - two stage races, one classic. Top 20 finishes should be possible, maybe a Top 15 with some luck. In Arenberg, the cobbles impact is unsure - if they are as unimportant as last year, he'd be in a similar position as in Herbiers.
In Paris - Nice, Slovenia and in the Giro, he'll lead our TTT outfit, also having a shot at stage points in the ITT in the latter two (as the competition in the P-N prologue will just be stronger).
In Portugal, Tasmania and ToNE (if cobbles don't matter), he'll only be going for stage results and to add depth, whereas in Switzerland it will likely only be the "depth" part, with neither the prologue nor the rollercoaster ITT being his favourite races.
The most notable absence in his schedule should be the Copenhagen - Malmo TTT, which is due to the clash with Portugal where we wanted to send a TTer to go for stage results. It could pay off or not - we'll see.
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
07-Jan
09-Jan
Tour of Tasmania
PT
18-Jan
23-Jan
Tour of Qatar
PT
---
02-Feb
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT
PT
13-Feb
20-Feb
Paris - Nice
PT
22-Feb
24-Feb
Tour of Ukraine
PTHC
28-Feb
Milano - San Remo
M
---
12-Mar
15-Mar
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
PT
---
28-Apr
Veenendaal - Veenendaal
PTHC
---
05-May
Rund um Koln
PT
---
20-Jun
GP Moscow
PT
26-Jun
Chrono des Herbiers
PT
---
03-Jul
23-Jul
Tour de France
GT
25-Jul
29-Jul
Tour of Slovenia
PTHC
---
01-Aug
05-Aug
Deutschland Tour
PTHC
Yes, Stefan is basically a co-leader and depth scorer, no "true" team leader. However, if his legs are good, he could do surprisingly well in hilly races with a TT, like Tasmania, Ukraine or Slovenia. However, the most likely scenario for him is to "just" add depth points.
Of course, he's got a supplementary task in Slovenia - the same as in Paris - Nice and Copenhagen - Malmo: pull the TTT lineup to a strong result. In the Scandinavian TTT classic, he'll lead the lineup alongside Brunel, given Rekita's absence.
The other race with some freedom is the biggest one possible - the Tour de France. He'll be our best TTer present in France, where he'll hopefully deliver a decent result in the long ITT.
Qatar, Praha, Herbiers and Deutschland are in the "depth scorer" category, whereas he's "only" planned as a helper for Groves in our flat classics. Thanks to his decent rouleur and sprint skills, we thought this could be a good fit for him.
And this will also be the role he'll take in Tour de France, besides targeting the TT stage. Leading out Groves, alongside Vernon or Chavanne - why not?
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
07-Jan
09-Jan
Tour of Tasmania
PT
18-Jan
23-Jan
Tour of Qatar
PT
---
02-Feb
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT
PT
13-Feb
20-Feb
Paris - Nice
PT
22-Feb
24-Feb
Tour of Ukraine
PTHC
---
12-Mar
15-Mar
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
PT
---
03-Apr
23-Apr
Giro d'Italia
GT
---
26-Jun
Chrono des Herbiers
PT
---
25-Jul
29-Jul
Tour of Slovenia
PTHC
---
01-Aug
05-Aug
Deutschland Tour
PTHC
13-Aug
Chrono d'Arenberg
PTHC
---
04-Sep
10-Sep
Tour of Northern Europe
PT
Alexys is valued below Stefan according to OVL - but he's shown last year that he can be the better scorer by far - by factor 2 to be precise. However, we'll have to see if this also holds for PT racing.
Most of the points difference came from hilly stage races with a TT - such as Tasmania. If he can make the right splits there, and in Ukraine, and in Slovenia, he could be a great scorer again.
Furthermore, besides being solid on the hills, he also has decent-ish cobbles skills, hence the nomination for Arenberg and ToNE. In particular the latter might be a decent race for him, looking at 2023 winner Cosnefroy's skillset in comparison...
Alexys is the only TTer besides Vernon to do all four TTTs this year, hence being a centerpiece in this discipline. He did well in these races last year, and we expect more of the same this time.
Like Stefan, he'll only be a "depth scorer" in Qatar, Praha, Herbiers or Deutschland (and maybe Arenberg), but depth points are points as well. He'll also be looking forward to the long ITT in the Giro - even though the TTT might attract some of the world's best TTers as well...
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
07-Jan
09-Jan
Tour of Tasmania
PT
---
02-Feb
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT
PT
12-Feb
18-Feb
Tirreno - Adriatico
PT
22-Feb
24-Feb
Tour of Ukraine
PTHC
---
10-Mar
Strada Appia Antica
PT
12-Mar
15-Mar
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
PT
18-Mar
19-Mar
Franceville Classique
PTHC
21-Mar
Macskako Kerekparverseny
PT
23-Mar
E3 Prijs
PT
27-Mar
Ronde van Vlaanderen
M
---
01-Apr
Paris - Roubaix
M
03-Apr
23-Apr
Giro d'Italia
GT
---
25-Jul
29-Jul
Tour of Slovenia
PTHC
---
13-Aug
Chrono d'Arenberg
PTHC
15-Aug
East Midlands Cicle Classic
PT
---
04-Sep
10-Sep
Tour of Northern Europe
PT
Küng's calendar is pretty different from the previously listed TTers'. Being a slightly weaker pure TTer, he doesn't do most of the pan-flat TT races - no Qatar, Herbiers or Deutschland on his schedule.
Instead, hopes are high in particular for the hilly-TT stage races, just like for Alexys. Stefan may be a tad weaker on the TT bike, but he's definitely stronger on the uphills - in the end, both of them had the almost identical score by the end of 2023.
This time, however, thanks to having much more RDs available, Stefan will also do all of our cobbled races on the calendar. Which leads to a very busy month of March - in fact, from Appia to the Giro, he does 8 races in a row for us.
His most important race of the year will be ToNE, where we have a pretty tough sponsor goal. But combining hills, cobbles and TT is what Stefan loves, so we're looking forward to see what he can do in this race he already has two GC podiums in.
Arenberg will be another highlight, in particular if cobbles somewhat matter again. We'll have to wait until August to find out - but Stefan will definitely busy (and hopefully successful) before already!
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Gabriel Chavanne
75
58
64
65
71
76
74
57
76
76
53
67
82
18-Jan
23-Jan
Tour of Qatar
PT
---
01-Feb
08-Feb
Volta a Portugal
PTHC
13-Feb
20-Feb
Paris - Nice
PT
---
12-Mar
15-Mar
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
PT
---
28-Apr
Veenendaal - Veenendaal
PTHC
---
05-May
Rund um Koln
PT
---
07-Jun
13-Jun
Tour de Suisse
PTHC
20-Jun
GP Moscow
PT
---
03-Jul
23-Jul
Tour de France
GT
6 out of Gabby's 9 final races at his peak will contain a short TT - prologue in five cases, epilogue in one. That's the good news. The bad news is that he'll most likely face almighty SKA in all of these 6, making a stage win rather unlikely once again.
Still, the dream to win the opening stage and wear yellow in a race is still alive - and it would be awesome if this happened in Tour de Suisse, or even in his final race, Tour de France. And as a worldwide Top 5 prologue rider, you can definitely have such dreams...
Besides stage wins, the GC in Qatar definitely is a goal as well. Given that the epilogue unfortunately is pretty short nowadays, a lower Top 20 looks like the best possible outcome, but that would still be a good result (in particular if our sprinter finishes even higher up...).
The three races where there's no short ITT are flat classics, where his role will be to support Groves.
When speaking of support - we obviously know he won't be of any help in the Paris - Nice TTT, but last year's experience shows that we simply tend to drop weak riders early on, without them having a negative impact on our team result. We sure hope that our 2024 strategy is still the same.
A lot of respect for you and Rekita, but I hope he finishes below at least two other new-in-pt tt'ists in the Giro I do hope this year's Arenberg treats the versatile riders a bit better than last year, so Küng can compete for the win for your team
Regarding your other leaders I hope Stüssi can perform well in your home race, and I also look forward towards Schmid in the TONE, among others. Vansevenant showed last year what that rider type can do there, and both stages and GC-wise Schmid could do the same or better this year. Looking forward to the battle with Higuita in the hilly stages
A lot of respect for you and Rekita, but I hope he finishes below at least two other new-in-pt tt'ists in the Giro I do hope this year's Arenberg treats the versatile riders a bit better than last year, so Küng can compete for the win for your team
Regarding your other leaders I hope Stüssi can perform well in your home race, and I also look forward towards Schmid in the TONE, among others. Vansevenant showed last year what that rider type can do there, and both stages and GC-wise Schmid could do the same or better this year. Looking forward to the battle with Higuita in the hilly stages
There's always hope that Rekita's very slightly better Recovery will make the difference there But yeah, guess it's more likely he'll actually miss out on the time limit before the ITT rather than winning the latter
Küng will almost certainly not win Arenberg, no matter how much the cobbles matter, but a Top 10 would be nice
Hoping that Schmid will do some fireworks in the races where he goes stage hunting, but obviously not a given. It's a season to learn for me, learn how maxed Schmid works, learn how my riders behave in all these races they've never participated in.
Indeed, it's cobbler, not cobblers, as there's only one rider fitting this category. On the other hand, we have three sprinters - although in hindsight we were probably right with our pre-transfers statement that two sprinters would likely be enough...
Nonetheless, our current situation allows us to send a sprinter to every race with a flat stage, which we'll obviously do. Let's see which one of them goes where:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
01-Feb
08-Feb
Volta a Portugal
PTHC
12-Feb
18-Feb
Tirreno - Adriatico
PT
28-Feb
Milano - San Remo
M
---
01-Mar
03-Mar
Ronde van Nederland
PT
10-Mar
Strada Appia Antica
PT
18-Mar
19-Mar
Franceville Classique
PTHC
21-Mar
Macskako Kerekparverseny
PT
23-Mar
E3 Prijs
PT
27-Mar
Ronde van Vlaanderen
M
---
01-Apr
Paris - Roubaix
M
20-Apr
GP Liechtenstein
PT
23-Apr
Roma Maxima
PTHC
30-Apr
Amstel Gold Race
PT
---
03-May
Fleche Wallonne
PT
07-May
Liege - Bastogne - Liege
M
---
01-Jun
03-Jun
Scandinavia Open Road Race
PT
28-Jun
Clasica San Sebastian
PTHC
---
15-Aug
East Midlands Cicle Classic
PT
---
04-Sep
10-Sep
Tour of Northern Europe
PT
28-Sep
Rheden GP
PTHC
There are two pretty obvious themes in Eddie's schedule: cobbles and hills. On the cobbles, he'll be our undisputed leader, and we expect great things from him despite his decline. Although he's not among the best pure cobblers, his versatility combining cobbles, hills and sprint is still rather unique, which is the main reason for our hopes.
There are 10 races including cobbles in Eddie's planning. If he finishes 10th in all of them, he'll reach his points goal. He obviously won't - but a couple of higher results, which he should definitely be capable of, can make up for some failures.
Otherwise, he's planned as a support rider in hilly races. In some easier stages, he might even get his own chance to fight for a stage result, given that he's still a pretty good sprinter. He won't get the 3 wins he achieved last year - but why not a (probably) final one?
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Kaden Groves
75
62
72
65
75
73
80
66
80
79
64
67
71
18-Jan
23-Jan
Tour of Qatar
PT
---
12-Feb
18-Feb
Tirreno - Adriatico
PT
28-Feb
Milano - San Remo
M
---
01-Mar
03-Mar
Ronde van Nederland
PT
12-Mar
15-Mar
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
PT
---
28-Apr
Veenendaal - Veenendaal
PTHC
---
05-May
Rund um Koln
PT
---
20-Jun
GP Moscow
PT
---
03-Jul
23-Jul
Tour de France
GT
---
01-Aug
05-Aug
Deutschland Tour
PTHC
Only 10 races - half as many as for Theuns - are on Kaden's schedule. We'll get to race four flat classics, where he'll lead us; starting with the most prestigious one, MSR, which could suit him well thanks to the hills before the finale. Veenendaal, Koln and Moscow are the other classics.
He'll also go stage hunting in quite some races - or even more. In Qatar and Ronde van Nederland - where he's the defending champion - we have hopes for a good GC result on top of strong stage placings. In Tirreno, we'll have to see how well he handles the hills and the TT, but a minor GC result might be on the cards, too.
It also was clear that he would do one GT (compared to two last year), and we ended up picking the biggest possible stage for him, the Tour de France. We expect lots of sprinters to go to the Vuelta given the many flat stages there are. And we expect Yates going to the Giro and picking up quite some points and stages given the many bumps. So we went for the Tour, which has a decent amount of flat and medium difficulty hilly stages, looking like a perfect fit for Kaden. GTs are always a gamble for sprinters - hopefully this one pays off!
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
07-Jan
09-Jan
Tour of Tasmania
PT
---
01-Feb
08-Feb
Volta a Portugal
PTHC
13-Feb
20-Feb
Paris - Nice
PT
---
18-Mar
19-Mar
Franceville Classique
PTHC
27-Mar
Ronde van Vlaanderen
M
---
11-May
31-May
Vuelta a Espana
GT
---
07-Jun
13-Jun
Tour de Suisse
PTHC
---
04-Sep
10-Sep
Tour of Northern Europe
PT
28-Sep
Rheden GP
PTHC
It's actually even just 9 races for Cees, although he only does one GT as well. Unlike Kaden, he doesn't have any races where we have any kind of GC hopes for him, so he can really fully focus on stage results.
We decided to send him to Paris - Nice, supposing that our team will adopt the same strategy as last year - dropping him early on, so he doesn't slow them down. Hopefully he'll have some good stage results in the bag before that closing stage.
You may notice that Cees also will do some cobbles - two classics, the two-day Franceville stage race, and ToNE - the latter being the only one where he also has some chances to shine. Well, we simply don't have enough other races with flat stages, and we don't have enough cobbles supporters - and with him being our strongest sprinter on this terrain, we decided to send him there.
We could also have skipped these four races including cobbles, plus Portugal or P-N, and send him to another GT instead - we would likely have considered that if we only had two sprinters.
But this year, Cees will only do the Vuelta, where we expect a big sprinter festival to take place. We can't expect similar miraculous things to happen as in last year's Giro, but a couple of good stage results obviously should still be on the cards!
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Gergely Szarka
77
62
67
61
72
73
76
60
78
78
64
66
72
13-Feb
Classique du Grand-Duché
PT
28-Feb
Milano - San Remo
M
---
03-Apr
23-Apr
Giro d'Italia
GT
28-Apr
Veenendaal - Veenendaal
PTHC
---
05-May
Rund um Koln
PT
---
20-Jun
GP Moscow
PT
---
25-Jul
29-Jul
Tour of Slovenia
PTHC
Gergely definitely is "just" our 3rd sprinter, and it shows in his planning. Sadly for him, there just aren't many flat stages left for him to cover as our leader.
He even has to do a hilly classic in the Grand-Duché, given that we need all of our 24 riders on that one day of the year. Otherwise, he'll mostly ride in support of Groves, more precisely in all four flat classics this year.
But he still gets to lead us in two races, the highlight definitely being the Giro! Giro? TTT? Szarka? Well, yes. It shouldn't matter, as the team will be instructed to drop him right at the start line. And after that stage 3, he'll hopefully compete for some nice results - it could be decisive on whether his contract gets renewed or not.
He also has another chance to shine, in Slovenia. There's just one flat stage, but there is one. And a TTT, for which the same strategy as in the Giro should apply. We don't expect many sprinters to make the trip to Slovenia, so this should be another good chance for him!
Loanee Planning
As previously mentioned, we would like to offer the managers of our two loanees the chance to easily track their rider throughout the year, which is why we include their schedules here:
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Ethan Vernon
73
60
65
77
72
75
72
66
75
70
63
65
78
18-Jan
23-Jan
Tour of Qatar
PT
---
02-Feb
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT
PT
13-Feb
20-Feb
Paris - Nice
PT
---
12-Mar
15-Mar
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
PT
---
03-Apr
23-Apr
Giro d'Italia
GT
---
07-Jun
13-Jun
Tour de Suisse
PTHC
---
03-Jul
23-Jul
Tour de France
GT
25-Jul
29-Jul
Tour of Slovenia
PTHC
---
01-Aug
05-Aug
Deutschland Tour
PTHC
Only 9 races for Ethan, but two GTs (with some minor hopes for a day one white jersey in Le Tour). Member of our TTT core in all four of them, and hopefully in for some U25 points in Qatar, Praha and Deutschland.
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
13-Feb
Classique du Grand-Duché
PT
---
10-Mar
Strada Appia Antica
PT
18-Mar
19-Mar
Franceville Classique
PTHC
21-Mar
Macskako Kerekparverseny
PT
23-Mar
E3 Prijs
PT
27-Mar
Ronde van Vlaanderen
M
---
01-Apr
Paris - Roubaix
M
20-Apr
GP Liechtenstein
PT
23-Apr
Roma Maxima
PTHC
---
11-May
31-May
Vuelta a Espana
GT
---
28-Jun
Clasica San Sebastian
PTHC
---
03-Jul
23-Jul
Tour de France
GT
---
09-Oct
Japan Cup
PTHC
18-Oct
Giro di Lombardia
M
More races, less RDs for Clément. He gets to do two GTs as well, where we're hoping for breakaways. He also does various uphill classics - and a couple of cobbled races, given that no-one else volunteered for doing them.
I'm filled with immense sadness after having got the shocking news about Muriel Furrer's passing.
Muriel was a Swiss U19 racer, and one of the country's brightest female cycling talents,finishing 2nd in RR and ITT Junior NCs this year, and even winning a bronze medal at the Cross-Country EC team event.
During the Junior race of the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland, Muriel crashed badly. The circumstances of her crash are unknown to date.
She was brought to hospital in very critical condition and underwent emergency surgery. Sadly, she lost the fight the day after her accident.
Just 15 months after Gino Mäder's fatal crash, Switzerland lost another promising rider after a crash in a home race. Much worse, though, yet another family lost a beloved young member.
I would like to express my sincere condolences to Muriel's family and friends. My prayers are with you.
The start of our first PT season in history is imminent. One particularity of this division is that we'll have far less races than last years - despite having more RDs in total. This means that races are longer on average - which is obvious given the three GTs on the schedule - and every single race matters even more than in PCT.
We'll do the two mandatory races in January, not having GORC on our schedule this year (unlike in 2023). One of them is brand-new for us, whereas we have a previous (wildcard) experience in the other - here are the details:
Jan 07 - 09 | Tour of Tasmania | PT
Profile
Lineup
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
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Valentin Darbellay
69
78
71
75
73
75
77
64
67
65
70
67
76
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 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
AOP Setiawa
68
70
75
74
76
72
71
57
62
70
76
66
74
Tactics
We have our Top 4 TTers here to create some depth - and in particular Küng or even Brunel might actually keep up with one of the front groups on the hilly stage (there was just one massive group last year).
Darbellay and Errazkin are there in case there's actually more of a selection this year - in particular the former could be our dark horse given his good TTing. He doesn't like hills, but that didn't hold him back in even more hilly races last year.
Bol is obviously here for stage 1, where a good result would be the optimal way to start our season. Odie can try his luck in a stage 2 breakaway - or add some GC depth.
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Stages: 1x Top 10
GC: Top 20
Points: 110
Jan 18 - 23 | Tour of Qatar | PT
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Kaden Groves
75
62
72
65
75
73
80
66
80
79
64
67
71
Gabriel Chavanne
75
58
64
65
71
76
74
57
76
76
53
67
82
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Ethan Vernon
73
60
65
77
72
75
72
66
75
70
63
65
78
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Christoph Janssen
72
65
67
74
70
73
72
55
59
67
65
65
74
Hugo Page
69
65
67
61
71
69
65
63
73
76
68
69
66
Tactics
Debut race for our new top sprinter Groves, meeting the world's best for the first time of the year. A couple of bonus seconds, just enough to fend off the best prologue riders, would be great - and after all he's not awful in those short races against the clock, either.
Our TTer armada obviously targets the final day, with Chavanne hopefully getting a first stage podium. We should also be able to get some team standings points barring any random splits. And some first U25 points with Vernon, which hopefully should be a recurring theme this year.
Wow, that went quickly! Our first ever scoring PT race is already in the books - and let's call it a good start!
On day 1, all our eyes were set on Cees Bol, our lead sprinter in this race. And viewed from the outside, he got his positioning perfectly right! However, he didn't share this outside view, thinking he was too far back, starting to sprint early. Too early. He did take the lead - or was at least close to - but far too early, and so he dropped back to 11th place in the end.
Still, it was a fairly encouraging start, getting a decent result in a pretty strong field despite this capital error.
The big bummer on day 1 was that both Alexys Brunel and designated GC leader Valentin Darbellay lost time after an unexpected split, already dropping out of GC contention.
It turns out that day 1 was actually more crucial for the GC than day 2, where a huge group finished on s.t. Including most of our riders. Except for Darbellay once again, he just didn't take this race seriously enough. Awful start from him.
Also, Szymon Rekita, our best TTer, couldn't quite hang on - which was expected, to be fair. The 6 other riders all finished up front, with Xuban Errazkin getting about as close to a Top 10 finish as Bol did the day before, taking 12th place. Bol himself also finished high up, in 22nd place, showcasing some good early form.
The 20km ITT on day 3 was the GC decider, which had a pretty surprising outcome with Mullen winning it all.
On our side, Stefan Küng did an amazing job. finishing 36th on the day and 13th in GC! He wasn't amazing on any single day, but consistency clearly was key for a first really cool GC result! And surprisingly, Stefan Bissegger doubled down on that by ending up 16th in GC!
Sure, you'd expect Stefan B. to beat Stefan K. in a TT, but we'll take this result anyway. AOP Setiawa also had a good start for us, ending up 29th. Xuban Errazkin was 35th, with Cees Bol finishing 45th. All of them scored more than just finishing points - and got two points each on top of that, thanks to the squad finishing 4th in the team standings!
But let's not forget about the highlight of the day - which was Szymon Rekita having a really strong race, which he finished in 6th place! Our first stage Top 10 of the year - definitely one that makes us rather hopeful for races like Praha or Deutschland later on!
Szymon Rekita on his way to an early strong time.
The most disappointing riders obviously were Alexys Brunel and most of all Valentin Darbellay, who was definitely expected to be in the front group on both days. We'll have to hope he does far better when he'll be our sole GC captain... Here, Küng did his job perfectly well, fortunately. A great start for us!
Good start to the season for you Maybe there's hope after all?
There's always hope until the last race is done
Relegation still looks like the most realistic scenario, looking at other teams. But yeah, we've been lucky in Tasmania for sure - but that's also partly due to our roster composition, no top-level leader but lots of depth. We sure need more of that throughout the season! But there will also be races where this approach doesn't work at all...
It didn't take long for you to start kicking my butt in PT
It's a good start for sure, but I still can't see you finishing behind me at the end of the year
Fabio's first Win!
No, technically speaking, we haven't won anything yet this year. Some points, sure, but no race.
But what happened this week Down Under is so extraordinary that we just have to share it:
Our sprinter talent Fabio Christen, currently on loan with Lotto-Caloi, had a pretty active start to the season, when trying to lead out his sprinter in the Down Under Classic. However, if you followed the race, you sure noticed that he - and the entire Lotto team, to be fair - still has to learn quite something. After all, he'll usually be on the other end of a sprint train, if he'll ever get one later on. Still, he scored his first five points in his very first race as a professional.
But compared to what happened a few days later, these points are just peanuts. Fabio actually stayed in Australia, for the Tour Down Under following right after DUC. And on stage 2, the first hilly-rated one, he joined the breakaway of the day. And he didn't just join it, he rocked it! He won two out of three KoM sprints, plus both intermediate sprints.
More importantly, though, on the final hill he went clear alongside fellow new-pro Ben Ameur from Bralirwa. With the peloton hesitating, it all came down to a Sprint à Deux for the stage win - guess who won?
Fabio Christen getting his first professional win in Stage 2 of Tour Down Under!
Yes, he did it! Fabio Christen won the stage, his first pro win on his 3rd day of racing, what a story!
And the story gets even better, as Fabio didn't "just" take the stage win, but also took over the lead in every single classification - GC, Points, KoM, U25. OK, not the teams, with no other Lotto rider being competitive enough. But stage win and GC lead, a fantastic start to his career!
He held onto all these classification leads after stage 3 as well, before losing the KoM lead on day 4. Day 5 then was the hardest of the entire race, and as expected, Fabio couldn't quite hold onto the best - but boy, did he put up a fight! He did drop down in the GC, but only to 12th place - still a fantastic position to be in for a neo-pro!
He easily managed to defend this 12th place on the final day. In the end, he got from this race: One stage win, two days in yellow, three days in polka-dots, four days in green, the white jersey - and 12th in GC. Believe it or not, but that's a massive 97 points picked up in his very first stage race!
We've signed a couple of great Swiss talents so far. Gino Mäder, Stefan Bissegger, Mauro Schmid. The latter was considered to be the best of the bunch. But actually all of them are still waiting for what only took Fabio three days of his career: A race win.
A sign of great things to come in the future? We sure hope so - but we're well aware that this week in Down Under could actually be Fabio's highlight of the entire career already. We're obviously trying to bring him to even higher heights, but this was definitely an insane start for him! Big congrats to Fabio, and to his current manager Laurens who picked the perfect strategy for him!
We were fortunate that we could take him in the offseason, but nontheless a great asset for our team, even if he doesn’t score anymore this season Thanks Fab!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
We were fortunate that we could take him in the offseason, but nontheless a great asset for our team, even if he doesn’t score anymore this season Thanks Fab!
Looks like we found a good home for him Thanks for helping us out, that was the perfect deal (wage-split) for us
Race Review | Tour of Qatar | PT
The second stage race of the year was the first one for our most expensive rider ever (in terms of wage for a single year), with Kaden Groves making his debut. He was very competitive in PT last year, and so we were hoping that he still had the speed to defy the world's top sprinters.
Well, he kind of had. His main issue wasn't the lack of speed, but unfortunate positioning. For example, he picked Kanter's wheel on day 1 - a perfect choice normally, but with the Qatari artificially narrowing their roads this year, neither of them finally found space to make use of their speed. 12th place, not the worst result to start with - but still outside the bonus second range.
But even without narrow roads, like on day 2, there wasn't a guarantee to find enough room. Once again, Kaden picked a good wheel, following Samolenkov - but the Russian had someone to his left and to his right, so Kaden couldn't get past him, either. 12th place again.
The finish on stage 3 was a little tougher, leading slightly uphill - and in such a finale, Kaden should be among the strongest. He indeed was, once the frontrunners ran out of steam, he gained lots of positions - in the end, Kaden Groves just narrowly lost the fight for the final podium spot, finishing 4th.
On stage 3, Kaden Groves lost the duel against Halvorsen, but beat Gaviria by inches for 4th place.
On stage 4, back to the "stuck-in-traffic" mode. Clearly, we'll have to analyze these sprints and find a solution for Kaden to be smarter in these sprints. He still finished 10th, but so much more could have been on the table.
It was even worse on the 5th day, where a sprint train collapsed and caused some collateral damage - Kaden was among the impacted riders, and could only sprint to 14th.
So in five sprint stages, Groves only managed to gain 13 bonus seconds - clearly not enough to fend off the strong prologue riders on the final day. He slipped down to 27th in the GC. He did score his first points for us, but we're expecting more for the wage we're paying him.
With Groves not being in the GC fight anymore, our hopes were on our TTers - and most notably on comeback kid Gabby, one of the world's top prologue riders.
And Gabriel Chavanne didn't disappoint - at least not a lot - as he took over the lead after his early ride. A lead he could keep for quite some time. However, his time still ended up being the worst of the Top 4 specialists, meaning 4th place on the day. Another case of "more would have been possible".
Gabby Chavanne posting the early best time.
This performance was good enough for 15th place in GC, which is perfectly fine. None of the pure prologue specialists made the Top 10, so 11th or 12th would have been the best case scenario anyway.
Best case scenario - something we definitely didn't get from our other TTers, sadly. All four of them - Stefan Bissegger, Szymon Rekita, Alexys Brunel and Ethan Vernon posted the identical time, none of them being slightly better than the others to finish 10-15 spots higher up in the GC. Even worse: Vernon, Rekita and Brunel took 51st through 53rd place in GC - which means just outside some higher points than just the ones for finishing the race. At least Bissegger managed to get there, ending up 49th. And Vernon took 4th in the U25 standings - tied for 3rd, but behind on countback. Bad luck also in the team standings, where we tied Cedevita for the 5th best time - but ended up 6th, without any additional points.
So all in all, we got our expected points, but it feels like a lot more was on the table in this race. One additional decent sprint by Groves - a Top 5 - and he cracks the GC Top 10. Well, maybe next year, or whenever we'll be back.
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Stages
1x Top 5, 2x Top 10
2x Top 5, 1x Top 10
GC
Top 20
Top 15
Points
100
125
January Recap
That's our first month in PT done already, as we're not in GORC at the end of January. We had two stage races and reached our targets in both of them, totalling 291 points. Which means that we're ahead of our schedule by 81 points - but given that we'd need about 1,000 more than expected, we still have a very long way to go. The points projection has us at 5,819, which would likely be enough to stay safe - but we'll definitely have some lower scoring races (at least PpRD-wise) than we had in January.
With 291 points, we'll probably not be at the bottom of the standings - but not far ahead, either. Probably still in the relegation zone, or at least very close to it.
February will be a crucial month for us - the busiest of the year - and include some really important races that could be decisive at the end of the year.
Team Standings 
Tour de France 
Tour of Northern Europe 
| GC Top 3
Giro di Lombardia 
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT 
| Top 10
Volta a Portugal
Tour of Ukraine
GP Liechtenstein
Tour of Slovenia
Macskako Kerekparverseny
Japan Cup
Tour of Qatar
Deutschland Tour
GP Moscow
Franceville Classique
Maybe there's hope after all?
