Welcome to the Head Quarters of Kraftwerk Man Machine Cycling Team riding in PCM Daily's Management Game 2021 Season.
Kraftwerk managed a best ever 8th place in PCT in 2020. Can we go 2 better in 2021 and gain promotion? Who knows, certainly not manager DaveTwoBob after his woeful prediction of fighting against relegation last year. However the luck of Tour of America dominance is unlikely to repeat itself.
Kraftwerk and Trivago are back for another year of 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
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.
Pre Renewals Squad
Our Squad before Renewals looked like this.
Post Renewals Squad
Our Squad after it was decimated by unsentimental manager DaveTwoBob. Edited by DaveTwoBob on 30-05-2022 17:01
Kraftwerk Man Machine Renewals and Transfer Availability
Renewals
Rider
Wage 2020
Wage 2021
Difference
Availability
David De la Cruz
€ 225,000
€ 180,000
-€ 45,000
Possible
Mark Cavendish
€ 280,000
€ 0
-€ 280,000
Released
Marco Haller
€ 130,000
€ 160,000
€ 30,000
No
Pello Bilbao
€ 120,000
€ 135,000
€ 15,000
Possible
Dominik Nerz
€ 130,000
€ 200,000
€ 70,000
No
Arvin Moazemi
€ 110,000
€ 100,000
-€ 10,000
No
Eugert Zhupa
€ 175,000
€ 120,000
-€ 55,000
Yes
Willi Willwohl
€ 85,000
€ 90,000
€ 5,000
Yes
Domenik Klemme
€ 70,000
€ 0
-€ 70,000
Released
Robert Kiserlovski
€ 100,000
€ 0
-€ 100,000
Released
Nico Denz
€ 70,000
€ 75,000
€ 5,000
No
Lucas Schädlich
€ 90,000
€ 70,000
-€ 20,000
Possible
Alexandre Geniez
€ 50,000
€ 0
-€ 50,000
Released
Josue Gonzalez Cortes
€ 50,000
€ 0
-€ 50,000
Released
Jocelin Maillet
€ 50,000
€ 0
-€ 50,000
Released
Westley Gough
€ 50,000
€ 0
-€ 50,000
Released
Florian Scheit
€ 50,000
€ 60,000
€ 10,000
No
Gennadiy Tatarinov
€ 50,000
€ 55,000
€ 5,000
No
Jetse Bol
€ 50,000
€ 50,000
€ 0
No
Aiman Cahyadi
€ 50,000
€ 0
-€ 50,000
Released
Sang Hong Park
€ 50,000
€ 55,000
€ 5,000
No
Burr Ho
€ 50,000
€ 50,000
€ 0
Possible
Remco Broers
€ 50,000
€ 0
-€ 50,000
Released
Gianni Vermeersch
€ 150,000
€ 100,000
-€ 50,000
Yes
Gabor Kasa
€ 50,000
€ 50,000
€ 0
Possible
Max Walsleben
€ 55,000
€ 50,000
-€ 5,000
Yes
Fabien Grellier
€ 50,000
€ 0
-€ 50,000
Released
TOTALS
27
17
-€ 840,000
Unsentimental Kraftwerk Manager DaveTwoBob has cut 10 riders from the squad that brought Kraftwerk’s best ever result. With an aging squad cap space is desperately needed for some younger blood.
Availability
Cobblers For Sale
After playing at developing a cobbles squad Kraftwerk have finally decided to give up on pave.
Renewals News
Kraftwerk parted company with long serving sprinter Mark Cavendish who has declined too far to be competitive in PCT. Time Trialist Lucas Schädlich has declined too and would not compete for top 10 places. Our cobbles team cost € 320,000 in wages for 39 points and we have lost patience with cobbles. We had a number of old or unperforming riders who were released, dropping the squad size from 27 to 17 and providing € 900,000 wage cap.
Main Targets
After trying and failing to get big leaders last season and being forced to a depth approach Kraftwerk had their best ever season. We decided to embrace that this year and not to target big leaders. Sub top leaders get more race days making a smaller squad feasible and planning a visit to the Tour of America possible.
Overall a far better transfers than last season but an lack of interest in our adverts made the experience a bit frustrating.
Trades
Our Annual Puma SAP deal
I was quite interested in time trialist Jasha Sütterlin but Nikias Arndt was more readily available and I managed to get Marcel Kittel from Free Agency. Arndt was a good choice as he allowed David de La Cruz to leave the team. Finally settled on a price of € 1,000,000. Nikias has an interesting skill set that rewards careful planning, if only Ruby the cat was still here to help me out! Nerz will cover the stage races with time trials and Nikias will take on those without.
David for David
SotD expressed an interest in 32 year old David De la Cruz and we finally negotiated with Festina – OAKA for a swap deal with 31 year old Canadian David Boily who will strengthen our great hill depth.
David Boily | | 4.100 | € 175,000 | Age 31 | Puncheur
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
Stats
67
76
78
70
72
72
69
56
68
74
69
79
61
Three for One
Gianni Vermeersch, Nico Denz & Lucas Schädlich left for Aegon – Peroni. A big thanks to roturn for enabling this deal as our adverts to generate cash were getting increasingly desperate. These riders combined to release enough cap space to bring in German sprinter Rick Zabel. Rick replaces Mark Cavendish but lacks the good quality energy stats to be truly competitive. As a German team we really wanted one of the top German sprinters to ride for us. Pretty happy we didn’t sell leadout Willi Willwohl! Rick is fairly local to Düsseldorf, he was born in Unna 85km away.
Rick Zabel | | 4.100 | € 255,000 | Age 28 | Sprinter
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
Stats
74
60
69
55
74
70
79
65
81
79
66
52
55
Free Agents
What a weird Free Agent market this season compared to the last one with good riders going for minimum wage. Overpaid for my German targets but that’s life.
Marcel Kittel | | 4.100 | € 200,000 | Age 33 | Time Trials
I know I shouldn’t have bought a 33 year old but it’s the legend Marcel Kittel and I couldn’t resist.
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
Stats
74
54
63
80
73
69
66
56
59
72
71
63
80
Michel Koch| | 4.100 | € 100,000 | Age 30 | Climbing Domestique
Michel was brought in to replace Jocelin Maillet who declined and was released. He has good Acc which we hope he can use going for KOM chances. Michel is a local lad born in Wuppertal just up the road from Düsseldorf.
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
Stats
66
77
73
68
69
74
74
51
67
76
57
61
70
Josip Rumac| | 4.100 | € 50,000 | Age 27 | Hill Sprinter
Josip replaces Sang Hong Park as our main hill sprinter and adds to our hill depth. Josip has a useful mountain ability which we hope allows him to save energy for a decisive kick on a flat finish after a hilly parcour. Park is 32 and will retire next season.
After the success of hiring a declining Kiserlovski as a C2 leader we thought we would try it again with Teodoro Costagli. His Acc isn’t the greatest but we hope he can grind out a Top 10.
Sachin replaces Cortes Josue Gonzalez as our minor placing stage racer able to pick up top 30s while on a very cheap wage.
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
Stats
67
74
72
74
75
71
77
63
62
61
60
75
75
Jan Dieteren| | 4.100 | € 50,000 | Age 28 | Hills Domestique
Jan will try to replace Nico Denz who left in the deal that brought Rick Zabel to the team. He has slightly better Hill but worse Mountain and Acc so is unlikely to score as well as Denz but will be valuable support to the “big three”. It will be interesting to see if his Fighter stat results in any breakaway success.
Originally planned as a third TTer, with Lucas Schädlich leaving in exchange for Zabel, Klemen will have to step up. The concept was to use our depth to target the Teams competition which required three decent TTers for the ITT stages. His Flat and Sprint will also be useful as part of a leadout train for Zabel & Haller.
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
AC
FT
DH
PR
Stats
73
59
66
77
71
72
69
57
72
74
65
61
66
Transfer Summary
Never mind the quality feel the depth. Comparing this year to last year.
Sprints 2020
81,80,79,76,75,74,72,71
Sprints 2021
81,80,79,75,74,74,72,71
.
Mountains 2020
80,78,78,77,75,75,74,73
Mountains 2021
80,79,78,77,76,75,75,74
.
Hills 2020
79,78,78,76,76,76,75,75
Hills 2021
79,78,78,77,76,76,76,75
.
Time Trial 2020
80,74,74,74,74,74,73,73
Time Trial 2021
80,77,74,74,73,73,70,69
.
Cobbles 2020
77, 75,74,73,72
Cobbles 2021
77,74,66,65,65
.
Flat 2020
76,76,75,75,75,74,73,72
Flat 2021
75,75,74,74,73,73,72,72
Depth has largely been maintained except in Cobbles
Slightly Improved
Mountains and Hills
Similar
Sprints
Slightly Declined
Flat & TT
Given Up
Cobbles
Final Squad
Congratulations if you read all the way to the end of this looooong post!
Edited by DaveTwoBob on 19-09-2021 17:22
You worried me for a second there, I saw the Costa Rican flag next to Josip Rumac and wondered if I missed something. Then I read his name and everything returned to normal.
I think your team is going places, I guess not only because of these additions but also because of Trivago.
Awesome presentation. I wouldve liked Rumac and Helme a lot but you made all the right moves for them. Congrats on some strong teambuilding, hope you can have a similarly successful season!
Love that you added 3 German leaders, 2 of which are years away from decline still. Strong identity paired with strong performance. Zabel in particular should have a long, bright future with you.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
@DarkWolf - Oh dear not good getting the Croatia country code wrong especially after having Robert Kiserlovski in the team before Fixed now, thanks for spotting it. Love the going places joke, I might be stealing it
@Croatia - Thanks for appreciating the presentation, started to flag getting to the end, glad it was worth it. Very surprised to get Rumac with no competition, hoping he can be a good minor scorer.
@BBL - I was very pleased with my German leaders and have to repeat my thanks to roturn for being generous in making the Zabel deal happen.
The addition of Arndt and Zabel are pretty good on their own, but when you factor in the regional aspect it's absolutely fantastic!! I hope I can get to that point some day
I think you're in for another good season with all that depth
This is obviously my new favorite team to follow with Nerz AND Arndt!
Boily could also do wonders in PCT, and as the others said that's an admirable group of leaders from Germany, basically the best you could find outside of my team and Mapei.
And if you end up releasing Kittel again next season due to age, I'm happy to discuss Sütterlin as a replacement then!
Depth seems to be the main theme once again - and I'm sure it will work out well again
Your squad looks pretty familiar to me - good in mountains and hills, some TTers and good sprinters, almost no cobblers Although your team's certainly stronger overall than mine! Much more depth - and even with the addition of a few local riders, well done!
cio expressed an interest in his schedule so here it is. I have avoided stage races with flat ITT km which resulted in entering him in some hilly races which have flatish finishes. I am hoping he can perform well in these races to support our objective of making top 3 in Team competitions.
After predicting a fight to avoid relegation, last season was Kraftwerk’s best ever finishing 8th. With that logic I predict we will definitely relegate and thus expect to be riding in the Pro Tour next season .
Whats playing on the Kraftwerk Man Machine Team Bus
Rick Zabel (SP 81) joins the team as top sprinter to replace a declined Mark Cavendish. We hope Lucas Schädlich, Gianni Vermeersch and Nico Denz enjoy the beer at Aegon – Peroni and thank manager roturn for making the Kraftwerk manager very happy with the trade. Willi Willwohl will act as Rick’s leadout.
Marco Haller (SP80) is our 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 to try and add to his 4 stage wins from last year.
Our hill depth has been maintained by the addition of Canadian David Boily (HIL 78) who joined from Festina - OAKA in a swap deal for 32y/o David De la Cruz. He will ride with Pello Bilbao (HIL 79). Kraftwerk are hoping the AI will cope with dual leadership. We do have a good hill depth and are hoping to make up points with depth scoring.
After a miserable cobbles performance last season Kraftwerk has given up on cobbles. We failed to sell Eugert Zhupa (COB 77) and have no expectation for points in the few cobbles races we have entered but do have sympathy with the poor non cobblers we sent to these races. Zhupa will be more use as part of the sprint team.
Aging star Marcel Kittel (TT80) joins from free agency to compete in the TTs and is joined by Klemen Stimulak (TT77) who also has a handy sprint to help with the sprint train. We were hoping to have a third TT rider to compete for the Team category, the third TT place is taken by flexible stage racer Sachin Dulanjana (TT74) who we hope can make top 30 places in stage races.
Dominik Nerz (MO 80) is joined by Nikias Arndt (MO 79) transferred from our good friends at Team Puma – SAP. Dominik will cover stage races with time trials and Nikias the ones without. In addition we will try to give Nikias opportunities to use his sprint after a mountainous route. They are supported by Michel Koch (MO 78) . These three 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 aging Teodoro Costagli (MO 78) leads and takes the climbers who can TT for the TTT in the Giro del Trentino.
First Half Startlists
Here is a look at the racing programme of Kraftwerk Man Machine during the first half of the season.
Goal races Tour de Pologne (Win) is our compulsory win goal, not achievable but our hill depth could deliver decent points.
Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt (Top 10) where we hope to see Dominik Nerz repeat his top 10 result of last season.
Debut Races Tour of Ukraine features the first race for Marcel Kittel in Kraftwerk colours.
Pro Hallstatt Classic has Nikias Arndt in his first leadership role, looking forward to seeing what he can do.
Barbados Cycling Festival and Circulo de Juarez will feature our newly signed sprinter Rick Zabel, plenty of opportunities for Rick to show how fast he is.
Strade Bianche was won for Kraftwerk by Aleksandar Flügel, can new recruit David Boily come close to repeating this achievement?
Tour of California is the first C2 outing for C2 leader Teodoro Costagli. He hasn’t got great Acc but we hope he can grind out a decent minor place.
Second Half Startlists
Here is a look at the racing programme of Kraftwerk Man Machine during the second half of the season.
Goal races Deutschland Tour (KOM) we wanted a goal at our home race and KOM was a fun choice, hopefully fighter Jan Dieteren can use his skills to get in the break on the key stage. This is the only race to combine Rick Zabel and Marco Haller, wonder how that will play out.
Tour of America (Top 5) where we send an even stronger team to support Dominik Nerz and Marco Haller in the hope we can repeat our outstanding win from last season. We have replaced Park with hilly sprinter Josip Rumac, lets hope Josip and Marco can combine well for a repeat of the 5 sprint stage wins from last season.
Conclusion
For a successful season Kraftwerk will depend on depth scoring including Team competitions. This relies on the AI handling multiple leaders sensibly. A repeat of the Tour of America dominance from last season would be great, however I expect a stronger start list at ToA this season and therefore a mid-table result seems likely but anywhere between 8th and 18th would not be a surprise.
Edited by DaveTwoBob on 01-11-2021 09:25
Dominik Nerz was supported by a strong team to deliver his second ToA GC win. Even more surprising given recent sprint results, Marco Haller defended his green jersey.
Kraftwerk managed 4 stage wins and 13 top 5s, held the yellow jersey for 17 stages and the green for 16 stages. 617 points is higher than my most optimistic estimate of 500. This was mainly due to Haller having a lot better performance than his favourite status suggested which I am very thankful for.
Our ToA top 5 goal looks like the only one that will be successful this season.
Josip Rumac,Arvin Moazemi (31st GC) and Michel Koch (25th GC) all had great races and their role closing down the attacks of Warchol and Novak were key to the win. Jetse Bol did a lot of chasing on the front of the peloton.
Less impressive were Stimulak and Costagli who struggled to make an impact.
).
| 4.100 | € 175,000 | Age 31 | Puncheur 
| 4.100 | € 50,000 | Age 27 | Hill Sprinter 
| 4.100 | € 50,000 | Age 33 | C2 Leader 
| 4.100 | € 55,000 | Age 25 | U25 Stage Racer 
| 4.100 | € 60,000 | Age 26 | Backup Stage Racer 
| 4.100 | € 50,000 | Age 31 | TT & Leadout 
Fixed now, thanks for spotting it. Love the going places joke, I might be stealing it 
I hope I can get to that point some day 
