SotD wrote:
That is an awesome shirt. My favorite so far. Don't be french btw... Chase something else. Hungarians perhaps

Firstly, I’d like to talk about whom of my current riders will be staying with the team. Ken Sebastien Vassdal and Marco Brus definitely will be, although they may be transferred out in the future – Ken has already been linked with Aker, and Marco could possibly head back to the Netherlands. Daniel Eliad may stay at the team, although he will definitely leave during transfers if he was to stay. Of the British contingent, we are likely to wave goodbye to all of them, with Matthew Gee and Simon Gaywood being the only question marks. Matthew is one for the future, while Simon is getting older and had a torrid 2012, but could still come good as a leadout man.

Then our focus will move to the French riders. With Festina, Alstorm and Simply Red Bull in the market, to name just three, we will have our work cut out a little. Still, we have some ideas of who we would like, and we can hope. John Gadret looks set to be a free agent again, and we would love him to be a key part of our Mountains squad, with Jocelin Maillet someone I would like to see as an able back-up. Also of interest of us are Yannick Talabardon, Julien Berard, Brice Feillu and Sebastien Ivars – all riders who would be little more than domestiques in the PT, but could be key for us.

In the hills there is only one Frenchman who piques our interest, and that is Jeremy Roy, formerly of Focused Cycling. He would be one of the best puncheurs at PCT level, and he can TT and do Cobbles as well – my kind of rider. Speaking of Time Trials, my favourite discipline, there are a few riders I am interested in. Unlike Dyson we won’t be chronocentric, but we’ll still hope to have a strong TT presence. Hugues Mottin and Florian Morizot are both riders we like the look of, with Mottin a one dimensional rider, but one who is very good at one thing – not a bad thing in a division where specialists rule.

The next area is an interesting one for me, Cobbles. Dyson had no Cobblers, yet did well in D2 races and we hope our experience rubs off with stronger riders. Michel Sibilla was a key domestique for Tom Boonen this season, and we believe he could be King of the PCT Cobbled Classics if he signed with us. Damien Gaudin, formerly of Focused, is no Sibilla but another rider we have an interest in, possibly as leader if Sibilla proves too expensive.

As Puma’s success with Bennati proved, Sprinters are worth it in this division. Mikhail Bourgoin is possibly on of the fastest men in the world, but without a strong endurance he struggles in long races. For the short, pan flat races we believe he could be a bargain success. Mathieu Drujon, Sebastien Chavanel and Romain Feillu and Stephane Poulhies are also of interest as leadout men, and leaders in the smaller races.

Thanks for listening, we hope to have some more news soon with regards to international riders and the Mongolian riders we have an interest in.

jph27 wrote:


I'm hoping for a few French riders, not any big names really. The kind of guys I'd like to sign are the guys you would probably have as domestiques, and I'd happily take young French riders on loan to develop them, like a less focused version of, er, Focused.

SotD wrote:


That would be good. I'm hoping to take in a few french talents, if there are some In that case we could probably make a good deal on loaning. If I would get a level 1 rider, then you could probably also get a gentleman agreement where you have him the season after aswell

As we did earlier, I’ll start with the climbers that I have an interest in. The first name on my list, and I’m sure the first name on many lists, is Stefan Denifl. Stefan can climb very well, and also will do decently in the hills and in Time Trials. Another rider of interest to me is his Venezuelan teammate, Yeison Delgado – although his age makes him a less attractive proposition. His fellow Venezuelan Paul Torres could also be of interest to us, as a domestique and a leader in the smaller races, as could the Costa Rican rider Cesar Rojas Villegas.

Onto the Hills, and our big target here is the Tunisian, Hassen Ben Nasser who we’re sure would welcome a manager almost as mad as his old one at Proximus – Trek. To be honest, he’s our only foreign target here from the free agents market, although we would like to add to him with some of our finance on top of the salary cap.

As I said earlier, we’d like to keep some sort of focus on the Time Trials. To help us with this, we would love to sign the World Time Trial Champion, Michael Rogers. Also, his fellow Aussie Miles Olman is of interest to us, who could make a team for the Duo Normand with Jocelin Maillet, should we manage to sign them both.

On the cobbles there is only one rider we have an interest in, and that is the Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha, as we feel that Cobbles specialists aren’t worth the outlay really in the Pro Continental division, although teams like BPost base their whole season around a strong showing in these races.

The really interesting area for us though, is the Sprints. Ivano Lo Cicero, Danilo Napolitano and Mark Cavendish are the three riders that we hope to make one of the leader of our Sprint train. If we can’t get one of those three, we would like to turn to the Portuguese rider Oscar Avelino, the Dutch rider Ismael Kip, or the Colombian rider Jaime Alberto Castaneda to lead our train. Other Sprinters that are of interest to us include Alois Kankovsky, Saulo Lay, Danilo Kupfernagel, Alejandro Borrajo, Anthony Jose Brea, Maciej Ulanowski and Ricki Nelson.

Finally, we’ll talk about the Mongolian riders. We would like to sign the five best Mongolians possible, and our main targets are Kangarid Naran and Khayabkhyrvaa Uugunbayar, with Tuguldur Tuulhangai being a man we would like to sign given the chance. Bolderdene Boldbaatar is also of interest, but we have no interest in signing Baasankhuu Myagmarsuren.

we have no interest in signing Baasankhuu Myagmarsuren.

SportingNonsense wrote:


I have a feeling that might change...

Do you have any comments on the article posted in Eurosport earlier today linking you with a loan move for Nacer Bouhanni and Jocelyn Bar?