Marco Marzano
Michele Scarponi
Vojtech Hacecký
Klaas Sys
Emanuel Kiserlovski
Manuele Mori
Francesco Failli
Francisco Lasca
Mauro Da Dalto
Tim Wellens
Massimiliano Maisto
Pierre Paolo Penasa
Davide Villella
Davide Appollonio
Mirko Trosino
Giuseppe Fonzi
Edited by Stevenag on 03-01-2013 17:56
Today a new chapter was written for the former small Swiss Team Adecco. After a mediocre season some big changes had to be done. Former small sponsor Kappa has taken over as title sponsor. The sportswear brand wanted to be more included in the team and put a lot more money into it. The other name sponsor of the team is another Italian brand. The oil and gas corporation ENI. Together they will put money into the team, and try to make it into a winning team. Former main sponsor Adecco will continue their support, but now in a minor role. As the team want to branch out of Italy and have some sort of eastern european look to it, Slovenian Adria was signed as the teams last sponsor. A jersey is being made ATM, and will be presented at a later stage.
As already mentioned, the team is mainly Italian. That does not mean that there will be a huge percentage of Italian riders. We will focus on Eastern Europeans, and mainly riders from the former Yugoslavian countries. For the really big names for the team they will be signed from wherever they can come.
The first step towards the new season has been made with the official announcement of the shirt. We want the shirt to be feared from the peleton, and hopefully the back of the shirt will be more known than the front. Thanks to ANFreeman for the design.
As part of the announcement, it was also mentioned that BMC would be the bikesponsor as last year, and this time also have their logo on the shirt.
Sauber Petronas Racing are said to be chasing some of the Swiss riders that were part of Team Adecco last year.
According to reports coming out of Switzerland Sauber Petronas Racing are said to be interested in up to 4 of the former Team Adecco riders with Martin Kohler, Andreas Dietzker, Martin Elminger and Steve Zampieri all on the radar of the new continental tour outfit.
Whether they are actively pursuing all 4 of these riders or not is up for debate but there definately is some interest in them if our sources are to be believed.
would you like to comment on whether these riders would be allowed to go to Sauber or whether they are still part of the teams plans now that there is going to be a bigger focus on Italy?
After a longer quiet period we can finally give more spesifics about the Kappa-teams plans for the season. Four races are being set as targets, and at the same time we are going for good results in the European races. Races out of Europe will only be bonuses.
Our focus will be in Eastern Europe and Italy, and the races in Slovenia has a bigger focus.
Most important will be a win in the Slovenian GP Postojna. The race is a long, not to hard hilly race with a flat finish. The rider we will be looking for here is a hilly rider with some kick, and a lot of stamina. Without ever thinking we can sign them, the rider type we would like is someone like Pozatto and Trofimov. But only a weaker similar rider.
The next race we will be looking for a good result in is Tre Valli Varesine.
The race is also a hilly classic, but a lot shorter and with a much harder finish. For this race it is mostly about the best hilly rider, and not so much focus on a sprinter.
We will also focus on two stage races in eastern europe. The first is Turul Romaniei. The race has 9 stages, with one big climb at the end of stage 8 to most likely be deciding. But with 8 flat/hilly stages around there is a lot of road for a climber to lose time to a break away. We will therefor need a good team to help our captain, and hopefully also get into some breaks ourself.
Our last goal is the Tour of Slovenie.
The race is very open with three not flat stages with a flat finish, and a flat TT. The need for a rider who can ride up and also take time on the flats will be important.
Our team looks to be a team for the higher alltitudes, but with a need for flexible leaders who can do a good job on any terrain. The look has started, but so far our team has no riders, and no one linked.
Four riders has been signed for the first season of the new Kappa-ENI-team. No big names, but good riders for this season.
Our first signing is Mauro Da Dalto. He is a decent sprinter, but not very good. His most important job in the team will be to pick up bottles, and work hard for the team in flat races. He could also potentially go for a top 10 in a sprintstage, or help out a sprinter in the end. He could also be very interesting in a breakaway.
Our next signing is Francesco Lasca. Lasca will be one of our main sprinters for the year. He will not fight for the top positions, but on a lucky day, he might get into some good positions. He may become more of a team player than a sprinter, but will get his chances in the right races.
The last of our three free transfers is Czech Time Trialist Vojtech Hackecy. He is another guy expected to do a lot of work on the flats. The team of Hackecky, Lasca and Da Dalto makes up the skeleton of the squad, and they will surely do a lot of work for the stars of our team.
The last guy signed is veteran rider Massimo Mori. Mori is best in a hilly race, with a adequate kick. He will be an important part of the team in the end of long hilly races, and maybe at the right time be the leader of a b-side.
Tomorrow we hope for more signings, and then the team leaders should be announced.
We are still looking for new riders. Our wage budget is shrinking, but any good rider with a 50k wage will be interesting, and our transfer budget is still big. We will also take any no-wage loan for riders who need experience. We will ride lots of HC-races, and any loan-signing that demand HC-races will get them, and a full load of races. If there is anyone who needs to get rid of some riders for experience. This is your chance.
So another season is over, and again I sucked at keeping this thread updated.
But I should at least make a short summary at the end.
The season ended in third place, a position we kept for most of the year. In the end we were far away from the teams at the top, but had also a decent control on the teams behind us.
The best riders for our team was unsurprisingly Marzano (5th) and Scarponi (11th), but Lasca in 20th also performed way over what was expected.
For our goals we performed pretty good.
In Postojna, we were really close to our win goal, but Scarponi was too slow in the end. A second and a third is still a good result though.
In the Tre Valli Varesine, Scarponi was again just too slow to win the race, but a second meant we made our goal of a top 5.
The top five in Romaniei was never in doubt. Marzano crushed everyone in the mountain, and won the entire race.
The top five in Slovenia was never possible, while a bit of confusion meant that we ended up with a hairy top-five goal in the European ranking. This was never achiveable, but the goal we though we choose (top five in the CT-European ranking) we absolutly crushed, and won the CT-ranking for Europe.
Next season
A lot of the older riders on the team has to go away. Mori, Maisto and Da Dalto should have no change of a renewal, while Scarponi really has to cut his wage for it to be considered. Marzano should have one good season left in him, so will most likely be kept, but not at any cost.
For new signings, we will have (if we don't lose anyone important) a good mountain team with Marzano, Kiserlovski and Penesa, and a good sprint team with Lasca and Appollonio as the main riders. In both of those areas, we would like to sign a big Italian star, capable of winning races on our new level. We would also like our team to be even more Italian based than now. Meaning a bigger focus on races in Italy, and fewer riders from other nations. With one big Italian team gone, there should be room for us to build our team in that direction.
I hope you might be able to keep that thread more updated next season.
Is always nice to have updated HQ`s. May it be with many graphics or just text.
Anyway. Congrats to your 3rd in the CT rankings and thanks a lot for taking care of Davide Villella. It was nice to see that he actually delivered on your end as well with some decent results including a stage win! So good luck with dominating Italian cycling in future.
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
