Team Puma - SAP was founded in 2012 with a clear focus on developing German and Western European talents.
Some high-profile youngsters were indeed signed immediately, first and foremost the puncheur duo of Wilco Kelderman and Mario Vogt and the best German TT talent in Jasha Sütterlin.
The surprise late transfer addition Daniele Bennati proved strong enough to lead the team to the highest division in its first year, two years earlier than anyone could have expected.
2013 started with the acquisition of a highly sought-after Arnaud Demare who is touted a better Peter Sagan than Sagan himself could ever become, alongside further interesting neo-pros like Daniel or Bongiorno.
The German focus wasn't abandoned though and in Dominik Nerz, the best available German stage racing talent arrived.
The season itself was characterized by ups and downs.
Bennati managed to take a monument podium in Milano-San Remo along with four stages in the Giro d'Italia and the new arrival Jurgen Van den Broeck surprised in several shorter stage races.
With a late-season surge by B&O not completely countered due to weaker performances in the closing races, relegation couldn't quite be avoided in the end, but the fight our riders put up impressed many.
The team was always planning long-term with so many talents, so while there was certainly some disappointment, no sponsor saw the need to pull the plug early.
Reinforced with new motivation from every staff member, the team went into the 2014 transfer season with the clear goal of getting the brightest German star talent in at least a decade and it indeed secured the signature of Silvio Herklotz, who will be a focal point of the team for years to come.
The departure of our beloved sprint legend Daniele Bennati was compensated directly in a swap with team manager favourite sprinter Gerald Ciolek.
Leaving the team were former leaders Van den Broeck and Nuyens as well, as the HQ decision was to further invest in talents and use the upcoming season as a transition phase to await the maxing out of several 2012 talents like Kelderman and Bar.
Thus, a lot of cap space was again used on some interesting new riders like Tim Declerq, Jo Kogstad Ringheim or Sebastian Lander.
While the team had the potential to achieve a promotion spot, a weak early season saw us even slipping down into the realms of relegation fears.
Luckily, good performances by Ciolek and Nerz got us out of that zone and we were able to finish the season in a respectable 13th place, which actually was only 60 points away from what should turn out later to be a place granting promotion.
2015 started with a relatively quiet transfer period, with the marquee signing being Nikias Arndt to further strenghten the mountain support for Dominik Nerz and, in the future, Silvio Herklotz.
Additionally, Nerz came out of the off-season as a stronger climber than before, while several high-profile talents such as Demare or Bongiorno continued their progression and/or returned from PT loans.
With all predictions putting us easily into a promotion spot, the pressure was on. But everybody handled it well and Team Puma - SAP was only below the Top 5 in a single rankings update.
In the end, Wilco Kelderman and Gerald Ciolek led the team to a very convincing 3rd overall place in the 2015 PCT season, which meant automatic promotion back to ProTour!
Edited by cio93 on 20-09-2017 15:36
With 1 million additional cap space, but potentially still lacking one top-class leader to secure a spot away from the relegation places in their second ProTour adventure, renewals were both approached with both serenity and suspense in the Team
Puma - SAP headquarters.
The day started at 10am and since the TV cameras spotted the last riders leaving the building in the early afternoon already, it can be assumed no final round was needed to satisfy the demands of the riders as well as the expectations of the management.
All people involved were seen smiling to some degree when leaving for their homes or nearby parks, and indeed, renewals did not end with any casualties.
All 25 riders under contract stay under contract coming into transfer season.
Along with the updated 2016 wages, we present a rough estimate of transfer availability for every Puma rider. The categories should be relatively self-explanatory, but we will go into detail afterwards.
Some big changes up and down this renewals, with the obviously outstanding example being Maxime Daniel.
His sole C1 win last season really got to his head, and he came into the room with a ridiculous initial demand.
We gave him an offer that still would've more than doubled his 2015 wage, but the French temper got the better of him and he was out of the door faster than French teens sporting molotovs in the Paris banlieues when they see a police car approaching.
Still, we did not want to lose him to Free Agency, so we teeth-gnashingly accepted his demands.
However, that does not save him from getting transfer listed.
The easy rule of thumb here is: If we get an upgrade on his position, Daniel is out, if we don't, he stays.
On the bright side, we were very content with the negotiations with our other leaders. Demare demanding a serios increase was to be expected, and the same goes for Kelderman having the same intention after nearly scoring 1000 points last season.
We think we kept both of their wages and Ciolek's in a reasonable frame, and the money we had to spend on Daniel was saved by Herklotz and Arndt in return.
Going into the lower ranks, no rider stands out as overpaid or a bargain, although Mario Vogt still hasn't proven he's even worth minimum wage. We are ready to be surprised though.
As for the availability apart from Daniel, we likely will look to sell several domestiques depending on the craziness of the FA market and the budget needs for a big aquisition or a big training update for one of our leaders.
Which and how many riders will leave is not determined yet as we need to see how transfer season shapes out in general, and of course what offers we receive for the riders listed as possible and unlikely.
Obviously, "unlikely" riders need better offers than "possible" riders, but we are ready to start negotiations on any basis.
Finally, riders listed with "no" are the absolute core of our teams for years to come in terms of quality and wage, hence any offers on those riders would have to be pretty crazy.
As ever, I'll be interested. However, he's unlikely to be a feasible target considering his wage - a lot will depend on how pieces fall into place higher up the shortlist
As ever, I'll be interested. However, he's unlikely to be a feasible target considering his wage - a lot will depend on how pieces fall into place higher up the shortlist
Of course we'll have a lower transfer fee in mind now than what his pure stats would be worth, so at least you'll only really have to worry about your cap space and not also your budget
And I still don't WANT to, but have you checked out the FA market?
That was my face when I received the round 1 file too.
It then changed to when I got to round 2.
Either he was an anomaly in the SN algorithms and has both borders very close, or his accept wage was still easily 200k+, so I don't even feel like I messed up much...
As ever, I'll be interested. However, he's unlikely to be a feasible target considering his wage - a lot will depend on how pieces fall into place higher up the shortlist
Of course we'll have a lower transfer fee in mind now than what his pure stats would be worth, so at least you'll only really have to worry about your cap space and not also your budget
And I still don't WANT to, but have you checked out the FA market?
I have checked out the FA market. That's why Daniel isn't right at the top of my shortlist
The 2016 goals for Team Puma - SAP have been selected, and unsurprisingly, they again represent our biggest strenght ever since the team was founded, the sprints.
With Gerald Ciolek not being the division's strongest sprinter as he arguably was last year, going for a win in the flat stage race in Africa is more of a gamble, but in order to be competitive, risks had to be taken in the goal selection process this time.
We will likely bring the good old leadout train that has proven to be successful again, although it remains to be seen if experience beats out raw power, as it might not be the most intimidating.
A race tailor-made for Arnaud Demare is obviously Milan San Remo.
A win seems out of reach for now, but a Top 3 might be doable under the right circumstances. If the race turns out to be slowly ridden, Ciolek might also have a say in the final.
Deutschland Tour obviously has to be a goal for any German team in ProTour, and we are in it to win it! Plans are to make Kelderman competitive enough for a strong showing on our home soil, but plans can fail.
That is why we have an alternative in place, which is the very flat Tour of Qatar, again a race for our sprinters around Ciolek. The same circumstances as in SAA TdA apply here, of course.
Our final race goal has to be a GT, and we bank on the Giro/California clash to make things a little bit easier for Nerz, or maybe for Bongiorno in his home race.
But who knows, maybe we'll aquire one of the available stage racers and go for much more?
Last but not least, avoiding relegation is a natural goal for any promoting team, so we don't feel like carving that in stone.
Instead, we go a bit more ambitious and hope for a Top 10 at the end of the season. Much will rely on transfers to get there, as the current roster would probably not get any close to that benchmark.
It was inevitable to part ways with several riders this transfers to ensure we have the cap space and money for leaders capable of keeping us away from the relegation spots.
Mario Vogt joined us from Free Agency in our very first season in 2012, and it wasn't easy to let him go now right when he maxed out, but we feel like he doesn't deserve to be domestique to Kelderman anymore now that he has stats to challenge for victories in PCT himself.
Also we believe we can use the money received in his deal with Karcher - Adira very well.
We thank Mario for his services, and especially for never demanding much in renewals.
Barry Markus was a last-minute acquirement in 2014 when Herklotz went relatively cheap and we needed to spend the leftover cap space in the last few days.
Therefore, he never got past domestique duties, although he will be a good leadout rider in the future. We hope he can be useful for New Balance.
We again want to thank those riders for the time spent in our team, and we also want to thank the managers involved in these three deals for the enjoyable negotiations.
You can be sure that Mario is in very good hands and will be well treated. I only hope that after the success he will have, do not be greedy and continue to be very measured when it is time to renew the contract
Wilco Kelderman
Arnaud Demare
Gerald Ciolek
Francesco Bongiorno
Sebastian Lander
Patrick Bevin
Tim Declerq
Victor Shishelov
when I got to round 2.
