The transfer season has begun, with free agent transfers at the top of the team's agenda at the moment. Management was willing to elaborate that they would have a more relaxed focus on the USA and Japan, allowing more international experience into the fold. That said, rumors have floated around about potential targets near the top of the FA market, but CEO Martin Blockhuis was reluctant to comment on any specifics, though he did give the press a little bit of info. "In a perfect world, we'd like to have a local leader, but we don't have our bets hedged on any one or two particular riders. That said, with the presence of Aru in the CT division, we are keen to make sure we will be able to compete for the top spots to have a shot at promotion."
2020 Kit Partially Leaked
An inside informant delivered the press with a small portion of what next season's kit will look like. It is unclear whether the leak was malicious, or a marketing tool, but the new kit looks to be entirely different from this season's. Speculation on the sponsors will likely not bear much fruit, though notably, the part of a logo that is visible doesn't appear to belong to any existing company. If this leaker remains at their post, we may expect to see more hints being dropped throughout the year.
We are happy to announce the new jersey for Fabio Aru. The world champ will wear the new PRS system jersey by Alé Cycling. The italians came up with this wonderfull design.
Our first signings for the 2019 season have gone through, and they form the beginnings and the backbone of the Specialized - Sony squad. Our initial talent Susumu Yamazaki will be joined by nine more riders.
Justin Williams and Robert Bush are our first domestic signings in the US. Williams will be tackling the sprints, while Bush will make himself and the sponsors seen in breakaways throughout the year.
Two more Japanese riders have also joined the fold here at the team, and they are climber Tomohiro Hayakawa, and the younger puncher Hiroki Nishimura. Everyone listed so far makes for a well-rounded base of riders, but we're not done quite yet.
A returning alumni from the former Specialized Development Team, is 24-year-old time trial specialist Sam Oomen, who has quite happily taken up the opportunity to continue in Specialized - Sony colours. "I'm really happy to be a part of this team again," he said when asked about his return here. "This team really brought out the best in me back in the Under 23's when I was still in the development squad, and it's nice to take the step up into the pro team after this long wait for the team's return."
Another climber is present in Dylan Girdlestone, one of our two first African signings showing a very global team. The other is puncher talent and Moroccan national champion Hamid Lahlou, who will be wearing a custom national champion kit, included at the end of this section of the press release.
We will have another breakaway artist in our team, in the form of Mads Würtz. He has value on just about every terrain, and we will hopefully see him infiltrating breakaways very often this season.
Last, but certainly not least, we have a very promising-looking stage racing talent, 23-year-old Vito Pogacar. He will have the crucial mentorship of Girdlestone and Hayakawa, and we expect big things from him in the future.
We can say that contract negotiations are still ongoing for 7 different riders, though we cannot yet reveal who for legal reasons. Suffice to say, the team is hopefully going to be strengthened greatly, and our goal of promotion may become a very real possibility in the coming days.
Season Targets
It's no secret that we hope to achieve promotion for the 2020 season, with new sponsors already onboard. However, that is not our sole focus. While we will have a keen eye on finishing in the top 3 of the CT teams, we also will be looking to compete in a few WT races. We do not plan on applying for a wildcard for a Grand Tour at the moment, but plans can change, and we will evaluate our prospects once our squad is finalized.
We are setting a target of 15 wins for the season. It may be ambitious, or it may be underestimating our chances, depending on our final squad and how our current contract negotiations go. If we finish the season anywhere between 10 and 20 wins, it will be considered a success.
Interrupting a busy transfer season, Willie McRettin spoke to us from his new base at the Grand Hotel Sofia. I asked him how the transfer season was going:
"It's great, fantastic, great, just got back from the Lobby Bar where we shook hands on a deal with the man the locals call the Bulgarian Betancur, Semyon Melnik. Great lad, big hands, you can expect to see life size cut outs of him in all 236 KBC Bulgarian branches in the coming weeks. Also, despite getting a wee tight with the budget and losing out on Serry we've got a fantastic Belgian core locked up with Benoot, Eijssen and Dejonghe. And we have another big Belgian lad coming on board that I am not allowed to talk about yet. So that is fantastic.
Hans from the bank called and said they were thrilled that we had covered all of their 'relevant markets', including Ireland, which they dropped on us just last week. We got Ryan Mullen who is not only the Irish National time trial champion but a also a fantastic lad who doesn't seem to mind me calling him McMullen because it is the closest I'm getting to a Scot on the roster.
Unfortunately, Hans was a little ahead of himself and I had to say 'Hang on Hans we havenae got a Hungarian', which isn't something you get to say everyday. Fantastic talking, got to go now, speaking to Froomey's boys in an hour - by the way as far as KBC Godiva is concerned he is a Kenyan."
The main aim of the team was by far Taylor Phinney, ever since he entered the FA scene he caught our attention and after failing to steal a rider to lead the team in the cobbles, we made sure Phinney would be signed.
A massive talent, he will lead in the cobbled classics, with the good support of young talent Miguel Bryon there is no definite target yet to set, but with the American's high-end sprint it can be worth a mention in the important placings. He will also lead the team's sprint squad, although by far not a top sprinter we are sure he'll get the chance to be up there in the mass sprints at some point during the season. And well, in a team with so many it'd be easy to not notice it, but his time-trialing skills are also good enough to be in the fight for some wins during the season definetely, and massively important in the TTT setup.
Phinney is still 29, even though there really is room for improvement, the focus will be to really keep him with us for as long as possible, as a rider like him is a rarity.
An eye on the future
Name
AVG
FL
MO
HIL
TT
PRL
COB
SP
ACC
DH
FTR
STA
RES
REC
Wage
Age
Neil Brick
71,8
72
61
65
62
68
63
72
73
72
60
71
68
72
110
23
Michael Boothroyd
70,8
72
62
67
67
66
71
69
69
72
72
71
67
68
100
23
Mussie Tesfamariam
69,1
67
61
71
58
61
63
63
64
70
71
65
67
68
100
23
James Smith
67,7
62
68
67
64
65
57
55
65
68
68
66
65
68
100
21
Kjell Renlund
65,9
67
66
65
61
64
61
56
65
65
63
64
67
63
100
22
José Agustín Gonzalez
64,7
57
65
63
58
60
57
58
63
62
65
59
56
58
100
19
However Phinney wasn't the only one signing a contract with the team yesterday, 8 U-23 riders were contacted to be a part of the team's development squad, and right away 6 were delighted with the chance to race this season in our colours.
Depending on how the remaining riders' deal with the contract offers on their disposal, Ikhlaas Martin, who raced in the team last season helping in the promotion, may change directions and lead the team's U-23 structure. He's a 21-year old climber, and if he so joins then he will have the support of 3 young riders who are fresh from the market.
James Smith, Kjell Renlund and José Agustín Gonzales are a part of the newly-built structure, and will look out for their chances in the moutains, and gaining as much experience as possible through racing.
Mussie Tesfamariam is a puncheur in the making, a pure puncheur that is, and with his 23 years of age he will have to look good to prove that he is able to make it to the main team, as the responsabilities of having Michal Kwiatkowski in the team may prove too much for young riders to have space in the team in this field.
Finally the two riders who are looking really fit to lead the team, spiritually at least. Both 23 and with some experience, Neil Brick is a pure sprinter, and he has the necessary backups for a rider his age already. On the other side Michael Boothroyd is a classics man, a passista in a way, but he also pack a strong sprint. With the right development he is definitely a rider to look out for in the future.
Rumors are spreading around that the upcoming season will be the final one for CarbonSports - Lightweight. After a season where Alberto Contador and the classic heavyweights were competing for spotlight this season they will be back to the roots with a focus on sprints and classics.
Due to new rules and the lack of offers in the early phases of the transfer season it looks like Peter Sagan and Marcel Kittel will not move anywhere and will be back to headline the teams' season once again as they always have done throughout the years.
Swedbank - PEABs roster is starting to take place and they have giving huge contracts to Kris Boeckmans and Pieter Serry. The Belgian duo has enormous pressure on their shoulders when going in to the season.
Swedbank have also signed veteran Fabian Cancellare who together with Jempy Drucker will try their luck on cobbles.
Of course a lot of Scandinavian riders have been signed aswell.
We failed in hiring the Yates brothers, but at least we managed to fulfil plan B to reunite the Van Windens. We also missed out on a few more Brits, only by a hair in the cases of Doull and Davies. But we are proud to announce the arrival of Geraint Thomas as our new leader on cobbles as well as the exciting prospects Tao Hart and Dibben. Cuming and Stefan Van Winden are reliable domestiques.
Glad you got Dibben, Tao and GT, and Cuming is an awesome dom too. Shame about the Yates bros but there's plenty of fish left in the sea to make that final touch
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
Taking over the Wiggle team it seems But in any way Thomas is a treat for CT, massive rider and I hope he and Dibben can deliver fine, and that Dibben can develop massively.
Before we get into our present leaders, we have to address cobblestone specialist Hamish Schreurs. We don't have much of a focus on the cobbled classics here at Specialized - Sony, but Schreurs will have his opportunities to show his talents alongside the aforementioned Bush and Würtz, along with our first leader.
Costa Rican champion Andrey Amador is a signing we're quite happy with for the 2019 season. He is a veteran of the sport, and capable on all terrain, including the cobblestones. He will be a valuable member of the squad all year long, be it hunting for stages and breakaways, sheperding our climbing captains throught the high mountains, or mentoring our young riders, especially the well-rounded stage racing talent Pogacar, who can learn a lot from the Costa Rican. His national champion kit is included at the end of this section.
Scott Davies is our first of two climbing captains. He is still quite young at 24, but his abilities are already very promising, and he will have a great many opportunities to target the Youth Classifications at stage races throughout the season. He will also spend some time in the service of our second climbing captain, sometimes as a foil to set up counter-attacks, and sometimes as a key domestique.
This second captain is Gavin Mannion. He is an excellent climber, though he has work to do in the time trials, which is why he is expected to hunt for stage wins more often than General Classification results. A very solid and experienced rider, with still a good many years ahead of him, Mannion is currently our top signing.
The Transfer Season Goes On
Tejay Van Garderen was high in the team's list of priorities in the initial phase of Free Agent bidding, but it was not meant to be, as the American stage racer signed for CCC at a price we simply could not match.
"In all honesty, in our original plans, Mannion was to be a super domestique for TVG," Tru Blu CEO Martin Blockhuis told the press. "Obviously, the TVG deal didn't go through, and we also failed to get Fabio Felline on board. It's sad but that's life. There's more transfer season to go. We plan on picking up one more rider from the Free Agent list, and then we'll get into dealing with other teams, which will be a more openly visible process.
"I think that we'll have all this done with fairly quickly, I hope so anyway, but so far I have to say things have been going quite well. We could lament about TVG 'till the cows come home, but the fact is we couldn't meet his asking price, so it's time to move on and spread those funds to others."
We are happy to announce the establishment of our own development team called the Aviva Futura Project (AFP). We had originally planned this for next season to give young British cyclists a home but then we made an unusual deal with Santos-Euskadi a few days ago. We were so grateful to be able to steal our new captain Majka from the relegated Basque team that we will take their worst talents off their hands free of charge.
Please don't expect any results from the dev team nor many team updates this season. We see this as a test run for the “real” development team which will start next year.
Team so far: Cavallo, Guede, Keersmaekers, Ousemane, Rosel, Savino, Scuro
We are proud to announce first riders that will join our team in our first ever WT season. We are excited to say that Tejay Van Garderen decided to join our team for upcoming season. This will be a really hard time for our riders since we will be struggling to survive in WT division. But with TVG we can say that it might be a bit easier now. Lawson Craddock is a fellow American to join us too. Great domestique for leaders, and with his ability in the ITT he is a great addiction to our team for potential TTT stages. Fabio Felline will get his chances in some cobble classics along side our sprint leader Komisarek. We don't expect massive success in those races, but a free role will definitely suit them. Pole Mateusz Nowak is another rider in our sprint train. Colombians Javier Gomez & Daniel Jaramillo will help our mountain leaders.
Tejay Van Garderen was high in the team's list of priorities in the initial phase of Free Agent bidding, but it was not meant to be, as the American stage racer signed for CCC at a price we simply could not match.
I wanted to write that was very ambitious as a CT team, then he went ahead and signed triple gt winner Froome
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Tejay Van Garderen was high in the team's list of priorities in the initial phase of Free Agent bidding, but it was not meant to be, as the American stage racer signed for CCC at a price we simply could not match.
I wanted to write that was very ambitious as a CT team, then he went ahead and signed triple gt winner Froome
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Specialized - Sony 
Susumu Yamazaki will be joined by nine more riders.
Sam Oomen, who has quite happily taken up the opportunity to continue in Specialized - Sony colours. "I'm really happy to be a part of this team again," he said when asked about his return here. "This team really brought out the best in me back in the Under 23's when I was still in the development squad, and it's nice to take the step up into the pro team after this long wait for the team's return."
Dylan Girdlestone, one of our two first African signings showing a very global team. The other is puncher talent and Moroccan national champion 
Hamid Lahlou, who will be wearing a custom national champion kit, included at the end of this section of the press release.
Mads Würtz. He has value on just about every terrain, and we will hopefully see him infiltrating breakaways very often this season.
Vito Pogacar. He will have the crucial mentorship of Girdlestone and Hayakawa, and we expect big things from him in the future.
Hamish Schreurs. We don't have much of a focus on the cobbled classics here at Specialized - Sony, but Schreurs will have his opportunities to show his talents alongside the aforementioned Bush and Würtz, along with our first leader.
Andrey Amador is a signing we're quite happy with for the 2019 season. He is a veteran of the sport, and capable on all terrain, including the cobblestones. He will be a valuable member of the squad all year long, be it hunting for stages and breakaways, sheperding our climbing captains throught the high mountains, or mentoring our young riders, especially the well-rounded stage racing talent Pogacar, who can learn a lot from the Costa Rican. His national champion kit is included at the end of this section.
