Simply Red Bull looking forward to transfer season and Smowz was only too happy to talk about the possibility of bringing in Fabian Cancellara as one of his star men.
I think Fab has one last shot at the big time and I think we could be the team to do it. I don't know Pokerstars are looking to build their team around the Boonen machine.
I depends who else comes in for this incredible rider, but we know we'll be keeping close tabs on him.
Transfer Roundup
More accurately described as a transfer rounddown, Bouygues Telecom went on what was described as a streamlining of the team, but in actuality was a fire sale. Let's see what fine, upstanding gentlemen of honour left the team:
Steven Caethoven also defected, going to a volcano and mumbling something about suddenly getting a competent manager. He left for €400,000 and a replica of Liverpool's cream suits.
Rein is the undisputed leader of the team. Bought for a colossal sum last season due to him being one of the most prestigious stage racing talents, Rein has now maxxed out, and aims to bring in as many points as possible in his 34 days of racing.
Calendar: Giro del Trentino, Kenya Mountain Classic, Corsica International, Tour of Vancouver, Clasica a Quetzaltenango, GP Sudkarnten, Sibiu Tour, Tour of Hellas
Tony Martin
27
€150,000
(2013)
Tony was brought to the team for one purpose: to drag around Rein in the TTT at the Giro del Trentino as fast as possible. Any results after that are a bonus. He will also be part of Jurgen Roelandts' lead out man where race days allow.
Key Races: Giro del Trentino, Tour de Langkawi, Duo Differdange, Isle of Man ITT
Jaime Suaza
28
€175,250
(2008-13)
Jaime is one of the longest serving team members, with this being his sixth consecutive season. His aim this season is to pick up the stage racing flack whenever Rein is unable to, but will also support Rein for our more important goals.
Key Races: Vuelta al Tachira, Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt, Usa Pro Cycling Challenge, Volta a Portugal
Jurgen Roelandts
28
€350,000
(2010-13)
Jurgen had a disappointing season last year, failing to retain his Vuelta points jersey. He looks to do battle as one of the leading sprinters in the PCT, with more chances for stage wins, although he has lost several lead out riders. But to be honest, that never really helped us anyway.
Key Races: Tour de Langkawi, Berlin ProRace, Eneco Tour, Tour of East Java, Baltic Chain Tour, Tour du Faso
Guillaume Levarlet
28
€80,000
(2012-13)
Guillaume is a rider we're going to rely heavily on this season, being our leader when the terrain gets hilly. We've invested quite a bit of money in him, and hope he can rack up points wherever he races.
Oscar is the joint longest servant of the team, going into his seventh season. He will again take up his role of reliable mountain domestique, for his erstwhile South American friend Jaime Suaza, as well as helping Rein.
Pieter Jacobs
28
€60,000
(2010-13)
Pieter has spent his time at the team as a domestique to Fabian Cancellara, but must now emerge as a king of the cobbles in his own right. The PCT is a good level for him to challenge at.
Clement Lhotellerie
28
€50,000
(2008-13)
Clement once took a stunning victory at the Monte Paschi Eroica in the ProTour, but has often been overshadowed by Cancellara. With the team investing in Jacobs, can he reproduce the sensational form which took him to victory?
Part of the swap deal with Simply Red Bull, Mikael should be a valuable domestique, and, we're hoping, escape artist.
Hugues Mottin
25
€90,000
(2013)
Fictional time trialist Hugues Mottin is a great free agency purchase, who will be part of our time trialing for years to come. His main race is the Giro del Trentino TTT.
Team Presentation (4/4)
Here's the rest of the squad:
Wouter Weylandt
29
€70,000
(2011-13)
Julien El Fares
28
€50,000
(2011-loaned out, 2012-13)
Warren Barguil
22
€150,000
(2013)
Theo Bos
30
€50,000
(2007-13)
Tony Gallopin
25
€50,000
(2011-13)
Jean-Francois Camier
26
€50,000
(2011-13)
Stefano Locatelli
24
€50,000
(2013 - on loan from Wiggle)
Joeri Adams
24
€50,000
(2011, 2012 - loaned out, 2013)
Irakli Bablidze
24
€50,000
(2013)
Dries Beatse
23
€50,000
(2011, 2012 - loaned out, 2013)
In Wouter Weylandt, we have a talented sprinter for CT level and a great lead-out rider for Jurgen. Warren Barguil is a great prospect, and the rest of these riders will provide domestique support. Apart from Theo, who just is.
The team participated in 2 whole races in January. The month started with the main (in fact, the only) focus of Theo Bos' own season: the Down Under Classic. Surprisingly, Bos was our only rider who finished in the front group of 61. Unsurprisingly, he came in 49th. No shock there.
The team then ventured into the Vuelta al Tachira, with the team led by Jaime Suaza, but also containing sprinter Wouter Weylandt and super-climber Oscar Solis.
The first four stages were purely for the spinters, and Wouter excelled, coming home 3rd three times and 2nd once. On the first mountain stage, Oscar and Jaime lost 1'18 to stage winner Iker Camano, but Jaime moved up to 12th on GC on stage 7. Stage 8 saw Jaime make the front group again, which moved him up to 7th in GC! Stage 10 saw Jaime move up another position in the GC, but it was stage 10 where Jaime really showed his quality, which has often been wasted for the years the team has spent in the ProTour. He took a phenomenal 2nd to move up to 4th overall, which is where he finally finished.
Oscar Solis finished 10th overall, and Irakli Bablidze was stunning by being in the break on every single even numbered stage (in fact, the team featured in the the break on 10 out of 12 stages!)
Four races for the team in February, kicking off the campaigns of our classics teams, and that of our star and all-round good guy, Rein Taaramae.
The racing started for the cobbled classics team, led by Pieter Jacobs and Clement Lhotellerie, at the Bahir Dir, and it was escape artist Irakli Bablidze who featured in the break for us. The cut was made, and it was a group of 7 who went clear, including Pieter!
But the gradient to the finish proved too much for him, and he came last in that front group. But 7th is still positive, at least compared to Clement down in 20th.
We then ventured to the Giro del Trentino, with Rein's eyes firmly fixed on taking the win over the 4 stages. The race started with the trio of Rein, Tony Martin and Hugues Mottin pushing the team to 2nd in the opening TTT.
Everything went downhill on stage 2 though, as Domenico Pozzovivo basically sewed up the GC, using his nationality bonus to ride solo to victory. Rein came in the next group, rising to 3rd on GC.
Despite probably being the strongest, Rein finished the race 4th on GC.
With that disappointment, the team was, in a hilarious display of managerial incompetence, split between two races on the same day.
At the Gisbourne GP, Joeri Adams top placed in 86th. He did get in the break of the day though. So those fictional euros will be rolling in after that TV coverage.
Meanwhile, at the GP di Lugano, Guillaume rode a stunning ride to finish 4th!
March saw the racing get into full flow, with opportunities for all our leaders to compete over cobbles, mountains and sprints.
Our forays into the cobble classics were poor, with Irakli Bablidze producing our best result of 17th at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Much better results were produced by our sprint leader, Jurgen Roelandts. He started the month with an excellent 6th at the Strade Bianchi, then followed that with a stunning performance at the Tour de Langkawi.
The Tour started with Tony Martin and Hugues Mottin taking 2nd and 3rd in the opening prologue. It was then over to our all conquering sprint train. Jurgen took 2nd on stage 2, won stage 3 and then another 2nd on stage 4 to take a lead in the GC and in the points.
Stage 5 saw a pleasantly surprising result, as Tony Martin attacked late to take the stage and the GC lead, whilst Jurgen was still showing off his form to take 2nd and only fall one place in the GC.
Stage 6 was the mountain stage, and our GC hopes ended there. But the next three stages saw us fully focused on our bunch sprint, and Jurgen delivered, winning all three bunch sprints (although the first was for 4th), thus making the Tour de Langkawi a fantastic race for us.
The final two races saw Rein Taaramae leading the team once again. The Corsica International Classic saw Rein take a fine 3rd place, placing 3rd on both stages 2 and 3. But it was the Kenya Mountain Classic where the team produced what could well be the best performance of our season. Jaime Suaza and Oscar Solis were the work horses who were sensational in covering moves and chasing them down, allowing Rein to launch a single attack with 3.5km to go which nobody could answer! Oscar was rewarded with 8th for his hard work all day, and Jaime took a fantastic 10th.
Better news came from Jurgen Roelandts in his only race of the month, as he continued his winning form to take a fantastic victory at the Hel van Het Mergelland!
Our other two one-day races saw Tony Martin and Hugues Mottin take 3rd at the Duo Differdange, with Guillaume Levarlet 19th at the Giro dell'Appennino
Our main race of the month however saw the team cross the Atlantic to the Tour of Vancouver, with Rein Taaramae going for the victory.
Stage one started extremely well, with Rein immediately taking the win over the opening mountain time trial by 7 seconds!
He then lost this jersey as Timofey Kritskiy took the second stage and the bonus seconds to go into the lead. And that was the story of the race, as Kritskiy marked Rein out of the race, and meant Rein had to settle for second.
May was a busy month for the team, and also the month where the push for promotion began to look very, very dodgy. 7 races, featuring hills, sprints, cobbles and mountains.
The month started in France with the 5 Jours de Dunkerque. Wouter Weylandt picked up a nice 3rd place to open up with, also grabbing another two top five places. This was followed up with a disappointing classics performance again from the cobble team at the Avila Classic, with Pieter Jacobs only managing 18th.
Jaime Suaza led the team once again in France, with the Tour de l'Ain his goal in terrain that didn't always suit him. The team started off strongly with a 4th place finish in the TTT. Jaime however just didn't find the terrain mountainous enough, and could only manager a best stage placing of 15th. Jean-Francois Camier enjoyed a tremendous result however, with 4th on the final stage from a breakaway.
Three sprinters classics saw Jurgen Roelandts lead the team. He started off wonderfully, with 2nd behind Danilo Napolitano in the GP Moscow, then trailed off with 5th at the GP Tunis and a disappointing 9th at the Berlin ProRace.
The month concluded with the Clasica a Quetzaltenango, which saw our beloved hero, Rein Taaramae lead the team... but not very well. 7th on stage 1, and 4th on stage 3 meant he only finished 4th overall, 1'46 behind winner Thomas Dekker.
After the disappointment of May, our calendar eased slightly with June seeing us feature in five races, and a chance for our sub-leaders to step up and see what they were made of.
The month opened up with the Criterium Hainleite, which saw more disappointment as Pieter Jacobs could only manage 26th. However, the GP Sudkarten saw Rein Taaramae take a very pleasing 2nd behind Thomas Dekker.
Then, to Belgium, and the Eneco Tour saw Jurgen Roelandts in disappointing, as he could only muster two top 10s from the four bunch sprints
However, the Tour de Slovenia gave Tony Martin the opportunity to lead the team, and he led the team with a fine performance, staying in the pack for the first 3 stages, then launching his way to 4th overall in the final time trial.
It's been a lean period for the team, but the Ster ZLM Tour saw a surprising shift in fortunes for the squad. Guillaume Levarlet the unlikely hero. He remained safely in the pack for the opening two stages, then powered his way to victory on stage 3, taking over the race lead!
The team kept him safe for the final stage, and we left with a yellow jersey!
After the disappointment of June, the team was looking to bounce back with a busy July, featuring 6 races including 4 stage races.
The month started off with the Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt, where the team was to be led jointly by Jaime Suaza and Guillaume Levarlet. The race started off very badly, as Suaza crashed on the opening stage to fall out of contention straight away. The 2nd stage featured a monumental summit climb to the finish, which was meant to be where Guillaume suffered his downfall. Thanks to Jaime though, who nursed him all the way up the climb, Guillaume placed 6th (Jaime was 5th), and he went 4th in the GC!
On to stage 5, and the hilly terrain really was showing off Guillaume's super legs, no more so than on this stage, as he took the stage win! This moved him to 2nd in the GC
Despite a poor time trial on stage 7, 2nd was Guillaume's final position - what a race!
The Isle of Man ITT saw Hugues Mottin take a very credible 4th, despite starting very early on.
The Tour of East Java saw Jurgen Roelandts up against the very best PCT sprinters, and a 2nd on stage 2 was his best result, netting him 5th overall.
Let's not talk about the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. 'Tis a silly race.
The Sibiu Tour was a chance for Rein Taaramae to once again lead the team, and lead he did. He opened up with 4th on the prologue, just 1 second down. He stayed near the front on the second stage, and the team performed fantastically in the team time trial on stage three, coming 2nd to put Rein right up there.
Stage four was where Rein showed off his talents, taking fourth place on the mountains with some outrageous attacks to move into the lead!
A decent final stage, and the team went home with Rein wearing the leaders and the points jersey!
The month rounded off with Jurgen Roelandts taking a solid 4th at the Ulaanbaatar GP.
July was a slight improvement, and we now headed into August, crunch time for our promotion efforts. 7 races for the team.
The team were entered into their final two HC races of the season, starting with the Volta a Portugal where the team would be lead by Jaime Suaza, with Wouter Weylandt as a sprinter. Jaime took 9th on the mountain stage 5, Stefano Locatelli took 4th on stage 7 from a break, Jaime then took a solid 10th on the queen stage 9, and again in the time trial of stage 10. This gave him 13th overall.
At the same time, Theo Bos led the team at the Vuelta a Burgos.
He finished last overall. A good race for the team.
The Baltic Chain Tour should have been a week where Jurgen Roelandts led our drive towards promotion. Instead, he had a terrible five days, with a best performance of only 6th on a stage.
So it turned to Rein Taaramae to lead the team in our final HC race of the season, the Tour of Hellas. The race was a disappointment up until 6, with Rein and Guillaume Levarlet in the front group on every stage up until then, but not winning and sitting 3rd and 4th respectively.
However, stage 6 saw Rein take a close sprint victory to move himself into second overall, Guillaume falling to 5th, which was how it stayed for the final stage.
The month ended with three classics. The Tour of the Battenkill finally saw Pieter Jacobs perform adequately over the cobbles, taking 5th, whilst the GP Plouay was plain disappointing. The final race, the Race Horizon Park, saw Jurgen Roelandts kick too early in the sprint, but he held on for 4th.
This is, as they say, it. Our schedule is light, the opposition is rapidly catching us up. Time to see how screwed we are. September featured only the one race, three in October.
To October, and promotion now looked like a distant dream. But racing was still to be done, and Milano - Torino saw Guillaume Levarlet bring home a stunning and unexpected 4th place! A sign of things to come?
Jurgen Roelandts. That's what our season was left down to. Two appearances to go, and the first saw him in the prestigious Paris - Tours, where an absolutely Herculean sprint saw him nearly catch the lone escapee on the line, instead, having to settle for 2nd.
Promising, but still nowhere near enough. We went into our final race of the season, the Tour du Faso, with hopes of promotion gone. We were a long way off, it'd have to take one of the most dominating victories in the history of the management game for even a small chance of promotion to occur.
Tour du Faso: The Impossible Tour
Stage 1 - victory in the prologue from Hugues Mottin. A great start.
Stage 2 - victory for Jurgen. Back-to-back victories for the team, and the leaders jersey now with Jurgen. Tomorrow sees cobbles, surely it won't be a third.
Stage 3 - another victory for Jurgen. Back-to-back victories for Jurgen now, and the team's on three in a row. Surely this can't continue?
Stage 4 - victory number 3 for Jurgen, 4 out of 4 for the team. This is unbelievable now.
Stage 5 - Holy smokes, it's four for Jurgen! Five stage wins in a row for the team! The TTT is tomorrow, surely not...
Stage 6 - SIX! This team is on fire, a stunning romp as Mottin, Roelandts and Tony Martin drag the team to a one second victory! Mottin moves to 5th, Martin to 6th, El Fares to 10th.
Stage 7 - It has to end at some point, and why not to Andre Greipel. Jurgen takes 2nd on the stage, and our 100% win ratio ends on the seventh stage.
Stage 8 - But victory does not desert us for long, as Jurgen romps to another sprint victory! This man is unbelievable!
Stage 9 - The stranglehold is broken. A break of the day goes away and stays away, and the two plucky riders take the lead from Jurgen, who drops to 3rd.
Stage 10 - A second sprint loss for Jurgen as Tomas Vaitkus edges him out on the final stage. But another second place.
And that was the Tour du Faso. Seven victories for the team, five from Jurgen Roelandts. That rider, the Belgian National Champion has produced something truly remarkable for this team. Only the Tour de France victory by Chirstophe Moreau in our opening season ranks above this. The team has gone through it's disappointments since relegation last season, but this race makes up for all that as we look like bouncing back at the first time of asking. All thanks to one man, in one race.
Bouygues Telecom 2007: Christophe Moreau stuns France, and the World
Part 1: In the Beginning
In 2007, the management game begun, and was run by newly appointed (and now former) UCI head Crommy. This was a time of blatant corruption, inept management and alcoholism, so no change in UCI management there then. In a bizarre and blatant case of conflict of interests, Crommy also became manager of Bouygues Telecom, and was tasked with fulfilling the hopes and dreams of French cycling.
The teams were created oddly at that time. Each team got a bunch of domestiques (no surprise Bouygues were the worst), but the top 100 riders were "drafted" to each team, each team getting 5 riders. In the rider draft, Bouygues scored their first five signings: Ruben Plaza (he lasted a season), Christophe Moreau (also lasted a season), Juan Antonio Flecha (who lasted precisely 2 days with the team), Jose Rujano (hurrah, he managed two whole seasons!) and Fabian Cancellara.
The team then got to "swap" 3 riders, bringing in Bart Wellens, Oscar Solis and Theo Bos, with 3 riders leaving the team. The team also traded Juan Antonio Flecha with Patrik Sinkewitz of Liquigas fame (setzel's team), the squad's first proper transfer!
The draft had finished, the team roster was complete. Now to the real thing - the racing.
The team's inauguration started, as did every one of the initial Management Game teams, in Italy, with the Tirreno - Adriatico. Our team was led by Ruben Plaza, who a finished a masterful 4th on the stage 5 time trial to move up to 10th overall. However, he lost time on the final stage, and the team had it's first GC result - Ruben Plaza, 14th.
Meanwhile in France, Paris - Nice had begun, with the role of team leader held by Patrik Sinkewitz, whilst Fabian Cancellara was there to hunt for stage wins. Cancellara opened up with 5th in the opening time trial, and the team was aggressive on the following stages, with Cancellara picking up several top 10 finishes.
Voeckler and Sinkewitz on an ill-fated double attack, stage 4, Paris - Nice
However, stage 5 saw the hills take their toll, and Cancellara fell out of the top 10 as Vinokourov took the stage and the lead. But our luck changed, as following a mass crash, Sinkewitz moved up to 15th overall on stage 6. And on the final stage, he took 14th to finish 13th overall, once place better than team mate Plaza in Italy.
Moving to Spain with the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, and it was Sinkewitz again leading the team. He led well, racing to 2nd on the opening stage in a two-up sprint, 41 seconds ahead of the chasers. The race stayed in the same state until the final stage, the time trial - not Sinkewitz's strong point. He lost 1'14 on the stage, and slid to 7th overall - still a good result. Ruben Plaza, who had been fairly annoynmous for the rest of the race, powered to an impressive 3rd placed finish, moving himself up to 13th overall.
Then, the classics began in earnest, starting with Milano - Sanremo. This race saw a front group of 11 make it onto the Via Roma, which included Patrik Sinkewitz! He was flagging though, but still managed a very solid 8th, our best result to date.
Onwards onto Cancellara territory, as the cobbles begun in earnest. It was to be Tom Boonen's year, as he won all 3 classics, and that was coincidental with a fairly disappointing campaign for Fabian. 11th at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, 5th at Gent - Wevelgem and 5th at Paris - Roubaix. Decent, but not the spectacular we were looking for.
Cancellara in the pack
Time to move onto the Ardennes, and our fortune changed. The Amstel Gold Race saw 3 of our riders make the front 8 man group, but none could take the win. Cancellara took 2nd, Xavier Florencio 3rd, and Geslin 8th.
La Fleche Wallonne saw Patrik Sinkewitz edged out of 3rd in a photo finish against Kim Kirchen, but a damn impressive result from him nonetheless. Christophe Moreau ably taking 9th too, a good classics season for us over the hills.
Sinkewitz ended the races with 6th at Liege - Bastogne - Liege, coming in alone in 6th, 1'39 down on victor Valverde.
And so we progressed to the final race before the Giro: the Tour de Romandie. Moreau was here to lead the team, but it was Ruben Plaza who was our best finisher in the opening prologue, taking 10th. Stage 3 saw a selection, but it was Janez Brajokovic who finished solo, flying into the race lead which he would take all the way to the end of the race. Moreau had made the selection of 7 behind him, finishing 5th and going into 6th overall. Stage 4 saw the mountains, and Jose Rujano taking a spectacular 2nd place behind Levi Leipheimer, pushing himself up to 8th overall. Stage 5, and whilst Ruben Plaza took 5th on the stage, Moreau fell 2 places in the GC, Rujano falling to 12th. The final time trial saw both Moreau and Rujano lose another position, but we'd take final GC positions of 8th and 13th.
