fcancellara wrote:
Very interesting. Maybe time for a new title?
After presenting the 2012 squad.
valverde321 wrote:
Nice! I've been wondering how you use those flags still, because I thought the Daily db added some countries that that flag package doesn't include.
Do you just use the daily flags for the ones that don't work?
Yup
Teddy The Creator wrote:
Wow! Tschopp and Kessiakoff are absolute beasts in your career! Tschopp for Le Tour?
To back those two up, they have an army of strong climbers. Most important ones will be newcomers Nairo Quintana, Daniel Moreno and Ezequiel Mosquera, together with staying riders like David Arroyo, Angel Madrazo and David López. Other incoming riders deserving a mention are super talent Jonathan Castroviejo, Russian champion Vladimir Karpets and Rafael Valls.
They've also made sure to strengthen not only the climbing, but the other parts too. For the hilly classics, they've brought in former Italian champion Giovanni Visconti from Farnese Vini. But one of their better transfer moves was to wrap up former world champion Oscar Freire. Sure, he has decreased a lot. But still, he's a very useful sprinter with decent hill stat, and he also brings in tons of experience.
Cofidis marks the return to WorldTour with two really strong transfers. Home duo Pierre Rolland and John Gadret both leaves their respective teams to jump onto the strong looking red armada. With those two top level climbers in the squad, they'll be looking for GC victories and mountain stage wins rather than successful breakaways this year.
To sum up, Cofidis will be strong in Grand Tours and other stage races with Rolland and Gadret, decent on the cobbles with Scheirlinckx and in contrary to last year, incredibly weak in the sprints. Blot and Adrien Petit will be their fastest guys, both with a sprint stat of less than 75. That lack might cost them a lot of points.
Pellizotti's rating: 2/5
Euskaltel - Orbea Cycling Team
The Basque proud, Euskaltel, did a great job in the transfer season, and has gathered one of WorldTour's strongest squads. It was at the cost of cutting it's ties to the Basque country, but I'm quite sure that the fans will forgive them when the strong results starts to roll in.
As replacement for the leaving Samuel Sánchez comes last year's big disappointment, Alberto Contador. Together with the best climber in the world at the moment, Igor Anton, Contador will be looking to finish what he was on his way doing last year, winning his fourth Tour. Anton might have something to say though, so it's not impossible that one of them goes to the Giro and Vuelta instead.
The greatest strength might also be their major weakness though. The complete focus on the mountains has costed them in the other parts. However, with such incredible climbing arsenal, and also a big improvement in the time trials, the team has gone more to the good than to the bad. One of the strongest I'd say.
I love to see Caisse d'Erpagne back, it was one of my favorites Nice presentations so far. I'm looking forward to the new season.
€: By the way, I figured you made most of the transfers yourself? Otherwise you would have the very rare luck of realistic PCM transfers Edited by cunego59 on 21-01-2012 09:44
Great to see Caisse d'Epargne back into the game, i have always loved their jersey Also nice to see Euskaltel with such a strong team. In my careers they're always some of the first Pro-teams to develop the wrong way
cunego59 wrote:
I love to see Caisse d'Erpagne back, it was one of my favorites Nice presentations so far. I'm looking forward to the new season.
€: By the way, I figured you made most of the transfers yourself? Otherwise you would have the very rare luck of realistic PCM transfers
+1
Thanks both! I've of course made the transfers myself.
And I also love Caisse. That, plus that I've never liked Movi's jerseys was reason enough for me to get them back.
FreitasPCM wrote:
Great presentation. Really like the teams, and of course, the random potential.
Thanks!
roturn wrote:
Awesome presentation. Must have taken a lot of time to write.
Euskaltel and Caisse d`Espargne have some serious climbers in their squad to dominate the mountains.
Thank you! As you said, I've used a fair bit of time on it.
sutty68 wrote:
Euskaltel looking really good
fcancellara wrote:
Euskatel is really strong...
Agreed.
andy222c wrote:
Great to see Caisse d'Epargne back into the game, i have always loved their jersey Also nice to see Euskaltel with such a strong team. In my careers they're always some of the first Pro-teams to develop the wrong way
Couldn't agree more. One of the best ever jerseys according to me.
valverde321 wrote:
Caisse is back!
I love you so much! The jersey probably looks amazing. Illes Balears is back too!
But no Valverde Make that your priority, to manually transfer him to Caisse next year
Yeah! And with the good old jersey too!
And don't worry, Valverde is in the WorldTour, just not in Caisse.
baia wrote:
Really some surprises there....Euskaltel and Caisse show to be strong in climbs,Cofidis will give nice fight too...
Bring Valverde to Caisse...
Yep, all three are looking nice. And as said above, Valverde is back, and soon you'll know where. Edited by Pellizotti2 on 21-01-2012 20:32
Ste117 wrote:
When sponsorships change, do the jersey change also.
Good luck for the new season, I missed your last season but I will be there cheering you on every step of the way
Of course.
Oh, and nice to see you around here!
Garmin - Barracuda
With HTC now gone from the cycling world, it's up to Garmin to wave the American flag up high. They seem to have taken the challenge seriously, by wrapping up two strong GC captains in the shapes of Alejandro Valverde and Bradley Wiggins. While the first of those comes back from a lengthy suspension, the latter also marks a return, but rather to the team than to the sport.
Also the rest of the team has been revamped, with strong riders like Romain Feillu, Sebastien Rosseler and Gustav Erik Larsson all joining from other WorldTour teams. But to the looks of it, Jonathan Vaughters' plan is to continue focusing on the youth. In Esteban Chaves, Nathan Haas and mainly, 19 year old Ryan Eastman, they've acquired talents that any team in the world would be happy to have.
Unlike some of the other strong looking teams, they've got the part the others lacked: a multi-talented squad. Grand Tours, shorter stage races, hilly classics, cobbled classics, sprints and time trials. Garmin has a rider or two for everything. That, in addition to their young, talented squad gives them the highest possible rating from me. Will be interesting to see whether they can meet my expectations.
Pellizotti's rating: 5/5
GreenEDGE Cycling Project
A Tour de France winner and world champion in Cadel Evans, a Tour Down Under winner and Amstel Gold race podium finisher in Simon Gerrans, a Tour de France points jersey winner in Robbie McEwen and a Milano-San Remo champion in Matthew Goss. GreenEDGE has both the experience and the talent in the squad that's needed for success.
Evans moves over from BMC after a so-so season, where I think he expected more. He might not be as young and fresh as in his old days, and the stats are starting to drop the wrong way, but he's still one of the world's best GT riders and punchers, and the kick he'll get from riding in the first ever Australian top team should give him some extra motivation to perform on top level at least one more season.
Even if Evans doesn't meet the expectations, they can still rely on Gerrans and their many sprinters to collect points throughout the year. Main sprinter Matthew Goss and the reborn Robbie McEwen might be the best ones, but also the likes of Leigh Howard, Julian Dean or possibly even Daryl Impey will also score a fair amount of points.
Pellizotti's rating: 3/5
Katusha - The Russian Cycling Project
A team that does to me, look like they're going the wrong way is Katusha. Sure, they've signed some strong new riders, but it's hard to replace riders like Mikhail Ignatiev, Yuri Trofimov and especially super domestique Daniel Moreno. At least they managed to keep Joaquim Rodriguez, who gets company from Russia's biggest star, Denis Menchov.
Those two must produce the expected results if they are expecting to stay on top level for any longer time. Vladimir Efimkin might also be able to save them in a few races, but with the incredibly small amount of strong riders they've got, it will require a great season by all their leaders no matter what.
Another explanation to their loss of riders might be that they're planning to give their own Russian talents more room. Sprinter duo Galimzyanov and Porsev has already established themselves at the highest level, and this season they might get company from other youngsters like Petr Ignatenko, Timofey Kritskiy and Ivan Rovny. Either way, I don't think this looks promising for the Russian pride.
Also Esteban Chaves will be an amazing climber one day!
Katusha sucks
Knew you'd like that.
baia wrote:
Wooow..
I want that Valverde in my story...Light McEwen with 39 years old and 80 sprint...and is Farrar with 27 already loosing attributes?
Actually Farrar hasn't decreased. It's just that at the start of the story, I lowered all stats so that the maximum in every was 80. So in sprint for example, Cavendish had 80 while Farrar got 78. Therefore he hasn't decreased nor developed, apart from McEwen.
Lampre - San Marco
Led by one of last year's Tour's surprises, the heavily improved Przemyslaw Niemiec, Lampre are looking for another successful GT year. In addition to Niemiec they've also got defending Giro champion Damiano Cunego and young star Simon Spilak. I'm quite sure they'll be fine even without previous star Michele Scarponi.
The most prominent names joining for 2012 are Italy's sprinter number one, Daniele Bennati, who's replacing the old and weak Alessandro Petacchi as the team's main sprinter, his new leadout man Paride Grillo, and last but not least, former Colnago star Marco Frapporti, who will unburden some of the weight from Cunego to perform in the hilly classics.
With three strong GC captains in Niemiec, Cunego and Spilak, three fast sprinters in Bennati, Grillo and Bole, and lots of strong support for them, Lampre has built up a solid squad which looks to be strong on every terrain but the cobbles. Still, even without any points there, they will most likely gather those at other places.
Pellizotti's rating: 4/5
Liquigas - Cannondale Cycling Team
The other Italian top team has focused more on acquiring new riders than, like Lampre, using their own talents. The biggest name joining the squad is of course Michele Scarponi, who'll team up with Ivan Basso as replacement for the leaving Nibali.
To help Scarponi and Basso, the management has made sure to bring in two of Colombia's biggest climbing talents, Carlos Alberto Betancur and Cayetano Sarmiento, and also another mega talent, Slovenian Jan Tratnik. Together with Sylwester Szmyd, they form a four man domestique duo with climbing capacity on the same level as their captains, which will secure them help a long way up the mountains.
Apart from the climbing, the team is pretty weak though. They did however, manage to keep rising stars Peter Sagan and Elia Viviani, to make sure that they have someone to rely on in the sprints. Also, the signing of defending Vattenfall Cyclassics champion Manuele Boaro was very vital, seeing he's one of few decent timetriallists in the squad. Still, it's too much focus on the climbing I think.
Pellizotti's rating: 3/5
Lotto - Belisol Cycling Team
One of 2012's most interesting teams in my opinion is the Lotto team. The loss of GT leader Jurgen Van den Broeck hasn't costed them as much as many thought, as they quickly brought in not one, but two equivalent replacements in Frank Schleck and Chris Anker Sörensen.
Also the other leaving leader, Philippe Gilbert, won't be missed that much, as Schleck, Sörensen and Vanendert will make sure that the results roll in also in the hilly classics, while Roelandts, Meersman and Neyens will do their very best to score valuable points in the cobbled classics. Solid team, but not on Garmin level.
Very nice previews so far and some interesting developments. Strange to see, e.g., that Cunego is better in mountain than in hill. And quick question, where is Dominik Nerz now?
Nice presentations so far. I'm looking forward to the new season.
Make that your priority, to manually transfer him to Caisse next year 
