knockout wrote:
I have some bad news for you...

Unfortunately Lopez was the only leader we knew we would keep when picking PTHC bands so it was an obvious decision to focus heavily on his strenghts when picking bands...

Our sales during the transfer window also helped one of our leaders to improve his skills further. Miguel Angel Lopez has continued working hard on himself during a pre-season training camp and thus we think his chances to win in the Ardennes have further improved. His development is a key reason for our excitement for the upcoming season.

SotD wrote:
Impressive stuff. But not too many RD anymore unfortunately. Still enough to be a pain in the ass for everyone else obviously, but I suppose not so much a rider to battle a GT, which would have been interesting!

Top 10 PT Ranking
After finishing 2nd last season, we knew that we would try to do some major changes in our squad. Since there were plans for both a full rebuild year to build a foundation for a strong longterm future with a focus on getting younger leaders and some ideas for another year of aiming for the title, we decided to play it a bit safer and go for a top 10 rankings goal.

Win Tour de France
After finishing all three Grand Tours in the Top 11 last season, we obviously pick a top 10 goal in one of them this year, right? Sorry, just kidding. It has been the biggest goal for our team for years so obviously we would pick the Win TDF goal again. Do we have a stage racer who can achieve this goal on our roster this season? We'll see after the Grand Depart ...

Win Balkans International
For the first time ever, we decided on a PTHC goal for our team. Balkans is a tough stage race that is usually described as a hilly race. Last season, Miguel Angel Lopez finished third behind Kwiatkowski and Sagan. This season, we aim to win the race.

Top 10 Liege - Bastogne - Liege
Liege - Bastogne - Liege was one of our bigger disappointments in 2020 with our leader duo Toms Skujins and Miguel Angel Lopez finishing 11th and 17th. This season, we aim to improve on this result.

Top 10 Giro di Lombardia
After winning the season closer last season, all eyes will be on Miguel Angel Lopez once again. As much as we'd like to repeat that success, our official goal is a bit less ambitious.

We will be back in a familiar design in yellow / white / carmine red for the umpteenth season. The original design by aidanvn13 only saw some minor updates including the addition of our new colombian sponsor Riopaila Castilla.

Credits to the jersey update goes to the_hoyle who also supplied us with a bunch of beautiful NC jersey. Especially the Estonian ITT jersey could get a lot of air time this season.

- 2019 race winner Rein Taaramae gives his Evonik debut
- Navardauskas & Tvetcov as main depth scoring options
- Eislers aiming for the stage win on day 1
- Only Eislers race without Dzamastagic

Past results:
2016: 48th (Skujins)
2017: 46th (Skujins)
2018: 19th (Becis)
2019: 66th (Riesebeek)
2020: 23th (Riesebeek), 1 stage win (Riesebeek)

- Full focus on our GC leaders Chavanne and Stoltz
- Eislers & Hofstetter deliberately left out of the squad #questionable
- Hope for attacks

Past results:
2016: 8th (Van Stayen)
2017: 43rd (Van Stayen)
2018: 6th (Van Stayen)
2019: 9th (Van Stayen)
2020: 18th (Chavanne)
0 stage wins

We start the season with two races that rarely left us satisfied in the past and we will compete in both with a new strategy compared to previous seasons. Most notable is that Eislers will race in Tasmania instead of in Qatar. The questionable thought process is that Qatar's prologue is slightly longer than in past seasons and no longer an epilogue. This should be less favourable for Eislers who is one of the sprinters with the worst prologue skills. With Van Stayen already missing out on a top 40 GC result twice in five years, we figured that we give up the chance at five stage results against all the top sprinters for the chance to race a few less sprint stages against potentially more favourable startlists.

The aim for the month is to lose as little ground as possible to other PT podium contenders who might have stronger leaders for both of these races and / or an additional day of racing in the PTHC category.

- Chiarello as GC leader
- Ambitions for the Prologue
- Hofstetter a good fit for the undulating sprint opportunities

Past results:
2015: 16th (Siskevicius)
2018: 18th (Skujins), 1 stage win (Skujins)
2019: 18th (Skujins)
2020: 4th (Lopez)

Tremendous Team Torture

Team Time Trials are boring. We have advocated against them for years. The MGUCI doesn't agree with us so we decided to boycott his year's edition.

Fun fact: Our total scoring in five years is 10 points.

Past Results:
2016: 21st of 24
2017: 23rd of 23
2018: 24th of 24
2019: 22th of 24
2020: 24th of 24

- Biggest hope is the prologue
- Focus on the clashing races
- Only mountainous race without Taaramae, Lopez and Chiarello:
- Expected strong startlist and RD concerns
- Vosekalns attacking spree?

Past results:
2016: 7th (Skujins), 1 stage (Skujins)
2017: 35th (Siskevicius)
2018: 14th (Van Stayen), 1 stage (Van Stayen)
2019: 22th (Lopez)
2020: 14th (Skujins)

- This is the Qatar replacement race on Eislers' schedule
- Expecting a weak sprinter startlist with only some hilly sprinters
- 1 panflat stage and multiple downhill finishes that could end up in a sprint
- Trusting Eisler's awesome backup stats to survive the climbs
- Tvetcov as GC option who can support Eislers too

Past results:
2016: 26th (Koch)
2017: 7th (Skujins)
2018: 53rd (Vosekalns)
2019: 18th (Van Stayen), 1 stage win (Van Stayen)
2020: 15th (Vosekalns)

- Priority race during triple header planning
- Stronger startlist expected than last season due to additional P-N TT
- Hoping to defend the race victory
- Focus on versatile domestiques that have lots of other RDs elsewhere

Past results:
2015: 8th (Sanchez Gil)
2016: 26th (Van Stayen)
2017: 14th (Van Stayen)
2018: 2nd (Skujins)
2019: 5th (Skujins)
2020: 1st (Lopez)

- Van Stayen is gone but Evonik strategy stays the same
- Eislers as undisputed leader
- Stacking up rouleurs & classic specialists

Past results:
2016: 3rd (Van Stayen)
2017: 1st (Van Stayen)
2018: 8th (Van Stayen)
2019: 8th (Van Stayen)
2020: 11th (Dzamastagic)

As always, February gives us lots of racing including the famous triple header. Evoniks focus is on Grand Duche where Lopez aims to defend his victory while Taaramae and Chiarello skip the triple header entirely.

Eislers will be crucial this month as the designated leader for the first monument of the year and as our leader for Paris - Nice which controversially replaced Qatar on his schedule. We are curious whether you think that is a huge mistake or a gamble worth taking?