Welcome to the Head Quarters of Kraftwerk Man Machine Cycling Team riding in PCM Daily's Management Game 2019 Season.
Apologies for the news blackout during the Transfer Season, real life getting in the way.
The management are looking to build on our 11th place in PCT in 2018 by improving our Mountains, Stage Race and Cobbles rosters and manage the decline of our 2 leaders.
Kraftwerk and Trivago are continuing their sponsorship and we will be riding in the same iconic shirt.
Kraftwerk Man Machine are based in Dusseldorf riding on a German licence. The team is comprised of an international squad to reflect the international appeal of Kraftwerk's music, although Germany will always be the best represented nation. The management will look to recruit riders from Germany, France, Japan, Russia and Great Britain. This reflects the fan base and mix of languages sung on various Kraftwerk songs as you can hear on the track Numbers from their 1981 album Computer World.
Here is a live version from the Minimum-Maximum tour (its playback restricted if embedded). https://www.youtu...3f-JwOGO1A
Pioneers
As Kraftwerk were pioneers in developing new sounds and instruments, the Kraftwerk Man Machine will look to develop new talent. We are open to developing riders on loan from other teams if they fit our nationality profile.
Concept and Icon
The Kraftwerk Man Machine team name is taken from Kraftwerk's 1978 album The Man Machine. The concept of the Man Machine is of humans, technology and nature combined in harmony with the Rider, Bicycle and Parcours being a prime example. The youtube link below is the live version of The Man Machine from the Minimum-Maximum tour (its playback restricted if embedded). https://www.youtu...kd7LbQnfIQ
Kraftwerk are as much about image as music and the shirt design was inspired by the iconic cover of the same album.
A BIG thankyou to the_hoyle for the shirt design and for his guidance in keeping the design pure and elegant.
Riders in Gold have joined the team, those in red font from Free Agency, those in green font from deals. We said goodbye to newly maxed Nils Politt as part of the deal to bring Dominik Nerz to the team and Daniel Paulus as part of the rescue plan due to appalling financial mismanagement.
New Riders
Dominik Nerz
MO 80, HIL 72, TT 73 - our new mountains leader, we will be trying to minimise his weaknesses with careful planning
Daniel Teklehaimanot
MO 77, HIL 74, TT 74 - backup leader and support for Nerz
Alexandre Geniez
MO 75, HIL 71, TT 74 – Mountain domestique with handy TT stat
Aberlardo Ablenado
MO 78, HIL 67, TT 72 - Mountain domestique and C2 race leader
Josue Gonzalez Cortes
HIL 74, MO 72, TT 74 – useful domestique with decent TT
Aiman Cahyadi
HIL 75, MO 70, FL 70 – swapped for Paulus (HIL 77, MO 74) to fix our finances. Had a stage win IRL just recently which we are taking as a good omen.
Laurens De Vreese
COB 74, HIL 72, FLAT 74, SP 70 – will have to be our Cobbles “leader” after the Transfer woes described below. Useful helper for hilly sprint stages.
Johann van Zyl
COB 71, HIL 74, FLAT 74, TT 73 – very useful domestique to have when race planning as he covers lots of disciplines.
Our Squad before Renewals looks like this. Riders highlighted in red have not been renewed to give some space to bring in climbers and cobblers.
Final Roster
The roster after Renewals and Transfers looks like this. Management were not aggressive enough in renegotiations with our declining leaders, a lesson learnt for the future.
Riders in Gold have joined the team, those in red font from Free Agency, those in green font from deals. We said goodbye to newly maxed Nils Politt as part of the deal to bring Dominik Nerz to the team and Daniel Paulus as part of the recue plan due to appalling financial mismanagement.
New Riders
Dominik Nerz
MO 80, HIL 72, TT 73 - our new mountains leader, we will be trying to minimise his weaknesses with careful planning
Daniel Teklehaimanot
MO 77, HIL 74, TT 74 - backup leader and support for Nerz
Alexandre Geniez
MO 75, HIL 71, TT 74 – Mountain domestique with handy TT stat
Aberlardo Ablenado
MO 78, HIL 67, TT 72 - Mountain domestique and C2 race leader
Josue Gonzalez Cortes
HIL 74, MO 72, TT 74 – useful domestique with decent TT
Aiman Cahyadi
HIL 75, MO 70, FL 70 – swapped for Paulus (HIL 77, MO 74) to fix our finances. Had a stage win IRL just recently which we are taking as a good omen.
Laurens De Vreese
COB 74, HIL 72, FLAT 74, SP 70 – will have to be our Cobbles “leader” after the Transfer woes described below. Useful helper for hilly sprint stages.
Johann van Zyl
COB 71, HIL 74, FLAT 74, TT 73 – very useful domestique to have when race planning as he covers lots of disciplines.
Depth
Lists to show the team depth in each terrain, new riders in bold
MO
80, 78, 77,77,75,75
HILL
80,76,76,75,75,75,
COB
74,74, 71,70
SPRINT
82,80,79,77,76,75
FLAT
76, 74, 74,73,72
TT
80, 74, 74,74,74,73,73,72
Transfer Woes
After a smooth transaction with cio to bring Nerz into the team from Puma - Sap I had a very frustrating time trying to land a cobbles leader. No 1 target was free agent Lucas Manuel Gaday and was leading bidder for 68 hours until the wage went beyond our budget.
My plan B was to go for Christophe Laporte but by the time I lost Gaday, Laporte was off the market so I switched focus to Patrick Naud. Eventually I had to choose between Naud and Daniel Teklehaimanot, I went for “The Tickler” as I thought he had better points scoring potential. I had a small amount of cash left and managed to make a deal for Laurens De Vreese who has similar stats to Naud on a 50k wage.
I was really exasperated when Laporte came back on the market but such are the ways of the Transfer Season. However worse was to come.
During the site outage I lost track of a rider I bid on and didn't realise I had won the bid. Come transfer sheet checking SN alerted me to the issue and I started a last minute bid to sort out my finances. After some possible interest in Tartarinov and Scheit with less than 15 hours left I didn't have the nerve to wait and agreed a swap deal with jaxica for Paulus which damaged our hill strength but not as badly as loosing one of my leaders!
Edited by DaveTwoBob on 01-10-2019 11:37
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Mark Cavendish (SP 82) 6th best PCT sprinter has declined this year but is still competitive in the sprints. I have reduced Kraftwerks lead out riders this season as our superior leadouts last season did not appear to contribute to superior results. I have bought in more rouleurs to chase the break and help out earlier in the sprint. Hope this proves to be a wise move.
We lost both Dietmar Mehr-Wenige (HIL 78) (released) and Daniel Paulus (HIL 77) (appalling financial mismanagement) from our hills support, newly maxed Nico Denz (HIL 76) will need to step up. With Aleksandar Flügel (HIL 80) 10th best PCT puncheur declining and other riders improving I have a feeling he might really struggle this season.
Marco Haller (SP80) 22nd best PCT sprinter had a great season last year and as a second sprinter he will have lots of opportunities in stage races with a couple of flat stages as well as a return to the Tour of America where he did so well last year.
Lucas Schädlich (TT80) 6th best PCT TTer will compete in the TTs but isn’t good over the hills so needs a flat parcours.
Our new climbing department of Dominik Nerz (MO 80) 17th Best PCT Climber and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MO 77) have lots of race days and can combine in nearly every mountain race making race planning fairly simple apart from the clashes with 2 C2 races where Aberlardo Ablenado (MO 78) leads and takes the climbers who can TT for the TTT in each race.
Can our new climbing department compensate for the declines in our 2 main leaders? Only time will tell.
Month by Month analysis
I have tried to show which periods have the best scoring potential for Kraftwerk based on the leaders race days, Cav, Flügel, Schädlich, Haller and Nerz.
The analysis shows we can expect a strong start and end to the season from Kraftwerk but mid season has few race days but features 3 goal races.
Jan/Feb
Mar/Apr
May/Jun
Jul/Aug
Sep/Oct
Mark Cavendish
Days
11
11
8
7
9
%
24%
24%
17%
15%
20%
Aleksandar Flügel
Days
11
8
8
6
14
%
23%
17%
17%
13%
29%
Lucas Schädlich
Days
5
21
0
2
5
%
15%
64%
0%
6%
15%
Marco Haller
Days
4
19
2
11
21
%
7%
33%
4%
19%
37%
Dominik Nerz
Days
8
6
5
9
21
%
16%
12%
10%
18%
43%
TOTAL
17%
30%
10%
14%
29%
January and February Startlists
Here is a look at the racing programme of Kraftwerk Man Machine during January and February. Tour Down Under is our best chance of points.
Cav rides the Down Under Classic, Tour Down Under and Ras Tailteann.
Flügel joins Cav at the Tour Down Under and rides the Tour de Slovenie with Lucas Schädlich.
New boy Dominik Nerz has his first race for Kraftwerk at Clasique Pico Basile, and joins Marco Haller at the Tour of the Middle East.
We don’t have a good rider for the Pro Hallstatt Classic, Nerz is giving it a go.
March and April Startlists
Here is a look at the racing programme of Kraftwerk Man Machine during a very busy March and April. Goal race Barbados Cycling Festival is in this period.
Cav tries to repeat his success at our goal race (Top 10) the Barbados Cycling Festival supported by Marco Haller, and the new and rather colder Tour of Uppsala where he is joined by Lucas Schädlich. Cav also tries to repeat his success from 2 years ago at Veenendaal – Veenendaal whereas Marco Haller goes to clash race the Lisbon Classic.
Aleksandar Flügel and Lucas Schädlich will try to get something out of Vuelta al Pais Vasco without many expectations. Flügel has better chances at the GP Wallonie
Vuelta a Colombia will be visited by Dominik Nerz and Marco Haller.
Daniel Teklehaimanot gets his only leadership role at the Tour of California with Marco Haller going for the sprints.
Laurens De Vreese will ride E3 Prijs and Kuurne - Bruxelles – Kuurne with no expectations and we hope Wesley Kreder can get something from the Tour of Pologne and Lucas Schädlich can place well in the ITT stage of Tour of Ukraine.
May and June Startlists
Here is a look at the racing programme of Kraftwerk Man Machine during a quiet May and June. Cav has 4 one day races, 2 are home races, lets hope he can win one.
Cav’s 4 one day races are Berlin ProRace, Frankfurt Eschborn, Riga - Jurmala GP (with Marco Haller) and Hanko Classic.
Kraftwerk’s mountain depth will be tested when Dominik Nerz takes on the very mountainous Tour d'Andorra which unfortunately clashes with Aberlardo Ablenado going for C2 race Giro del Trentino when we hope our strengthened TT depth will help.
Aleksandar Flügel will be trying not to be dropped during the TTT of the Tour of South Africa and going for a top 10 at the Colombo Classic.
Laurens De Vreese will try to get anything out of GP Kigali.
July and August Startlists
Here is a look at the racing programme of Kraftwerk Man Machine during a quiet July and August. This is a key period with three goal races in quick succession.
Aleksandar Flügel has the challenging responsibility of delivering 2 goal races, top 5 at the Tour of Beijing and top 5 at Clasica San Sebastian.
Mark Cavendish has to try and deliver our win goal at the Baltic Chain Tour where he was 2nd by 2 seconds last year. He also rides at the Nakhon Ratchasima Trophy.
Kraftwerk’s mountain depth will be tested again when Dominik Nerz goes for the Kenya Mountain Classic which clashes with Aberlardo Ablenado going for C2 race Tour of Bulgaria when we again hope our strengthened TT depth will help. Nerz also rides Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt joined by Marco Haller in his home race but the mountains will be a high price for his 2 flat chances.
Lucas Schädlich tests his TT skills in the Celtic Chrono.
Nantahala Classic will be attempted by Wesley Kreder but it might be to hilly for him.
September and October Startlists
Here is a look at the racing programme of Kraftwerk Man Machine during a busy September and October. The Tour of America will be a key race.
Marco Haller will return to the Tour of America to try and repeat his fantastic success from last year. This time he will be joined by Dominik Nerz as a genuine GC contender but the ITT kilometres are against him.
Cav and Lucas Schädlich return to the Deutschland Tour home race, I hope Lucas can maintain a minor GC position this year instead of loosing 2 mins in the last stage. Cav also has SAA Tour d'Afrique where new recruit Johann van Zyl will be at his home race.
Wesley Kreder will hope he can hang on over the hills for a sprint finish at GP Lugano.
Aleksandar Flügel has a busy programme with 4 races over the 2 months, Balkans International, Milano – Torino, Giro dell'Emelia and the Japan Cup.
A note to let managers and organisers know I am due to move house soon and with not be very active over the next month or so.
Hopefully I will be back for the transfer season.
Mark Cavendish (SP 82) had a good year despite his decline, winning Ras Tailteann was the highlight.
Marco Haller (SP80) had a very disappointing year with only one stage win, I think he might need a bit more support than we gave him.
Lucas Schädlich (TT80) managed a top 15 in our home race Deutschland Tour but suffred badly anytime there was an uphill finish to a TT.
Our new climbing department of Dominik Nerz (MO 80) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MO 77) had a slow start to the season but picked up well with Nerz getting 4th GC in the Tour of America. Aberlardo Ablenado (MO 78) was disappointing in his C2 races so will be demoted to support next season. Nico Denz (HIL 76) was able to step up winning young rider and finishing 8th in GC at the Balkans International after some aggressive riding in the early stages.
A declined Aleksandar Flügel (HIL80) struggled a bit with the new AI but managed a good 3rd on GC at the Tour of South Africa.
New recruits Daniel Teklehaimanot, Josue Gonzalez Cortes, Aberlardo Ablenado and Johann van Zyl added some better strength in depth as we hoped they would.
With two riders declining for the second time, maybe there's a need for a rebuild in the coming season. Nerz has done well this time and should be a good base to build around. Will be following your team to see how things develop
).
