After Suntory withdrew its sponsorship DaveTwoBob is delighted to announce a new sponsorship deal with French auto manufacturer Renault. The sponsorship is highlighting the role of Renault Classic, a department that preserves, renovates and exhibits historical Renault vehicles. 2021 is the 60th anniversary of the Renault 4L, the company’s best-selling car.

Renault Classic shows its collection across Europe during exhibitions, motor shows, historical courses, and sport events such as World Series by Renault, Le Mans Classic, Goodwood Festival of Speed and Salons Automobile.

To tie in with the historic nature of Renault Classic the team will ride in the Renault–Elf–Gitane retro cycling jersey from the days when Renault won the Tour de France 4 years in a row with French legends Laurent Fignon and Bernard Hinault.

DaveTwoBob hopes this will inspire current team leader Romain Bardet to a Tour de France Maillot Jaune.

Thanks to Hillis91 for permission to use his classic creation.

The national cycling associations of Argentina and Chile are the project's main promoters, and hence the main sponsors. While being co-sponsors for the main team, the development team's nationality will switch each year - for 2021 it will be Chilean.

But of course, such a project requires more mone - and who says money says bank. In fact, the Banco de Tierra del Fuego, based in Ushuaia, the world's most southern city, continues as one of the team's secondary sponsors.

The other secondary sponsor is Tierra del Fuego's tourism association, represented by the world's most southern railway, the Tren del Fin del Mundo - the Train of the End of the World.

Hello everyone! We thought that right before the start of the transfer season is a good moment to present the outcome of our renewals process! And in order to justify some of the major raises, we'll also give you some insights on most of our riders' development. We'll end this update with an overview of our pre-transfer roster - and you'll see that we likely have a rather calm period ahead.

But now, let's get started with the renewals list:

	Rider	2020 Wage	2021 Wage	Difference
	Rick Zabel	400	520	+120
	Juan Chamorro	400	500	+100
	Armando Huamán	320	400	+80
	Javier Gomez	310	400	+90
	Roberto Romero Martínez	310	370	+60
	Yonder Godoy	330	335	+5
	Eduardo Sepulveda	250	320	+70
	Tácio Mendes	280	320	+40
	Eduardo Gonzalez	225	310	+85
	Fernando Gaviria	325	290	-35
	Daniel Díaz	220	230	+10
	Frederik Vilhelmsen	180	230	+50
	Germán Ollero	160	170	+10
	Eloy Nogueira	100	150	+50
	Pablo Gonçalves	160	140	-20
	Andrés Cruz	140	135	-5
	Ernesto Urízar	100	110	+10
	Héctor Molina	100	110	+10
	Miquel Espinosa	110	110	0
	Jonathan Saavedra	100	100	0
	Rubén Gorriarán	115	100	-15
	Signed talents
	Alexander Costa	0	100	+100
	Fabian Martinuccio	0	100	+100
	Ian Munder	0	100	+100
	Mauricio Méndez	0	100	+100
	Released riders
	Agustín Benítez	100	0	-100
	Flavio Barba	100	0	-100
	Ismael Folgueira	100	0	-100
	Manolo Izurza	100	0	-100
	Miguel Ojeda	100	0	-100

In total, the sum of our riders' wages went up by 615, which is quite a lot. But thanks to a generous 2021 budet, we actually have some more wage to spend - and already 25 contracted riders, thereof the mandatory 8 U23 Gauchitos.
The list of released riders obviously didn't amuse our sponsors. But we just didn't see a realistic future in the pro peloton for them, which is why we had to bid them goodbye.
While our Chilean sponsors quickly calmed down as we signed two Chilean talents while we released only one, we had to agree that Argentina's balance of -3 riders is not at all along the lines of our visions. But we prefer to favor quality over quantity - and unfortunately, it turned out to be really hard to find Argentinean talents with good potential. We'll definitely keep up our scouting there, though!


But now, let's pass over to the rider development details. The guy who negotiated the highest raise this year was this one:

	Rider	AVG	FL	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Age	Pot
	Rick Zabel	76.4	75	66	74	66	67	72	77	76	74	69	75	71	73	27	6
		1.1	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Rick Zabel	77.5	75	67	76	66	67	72	77	77	74	69	76	71	73	28	6

While at first Rick's development doesn't look too impressive - not having improved his sprint, and the acceleration only slightly - he made some really big progress in the hills, where he's now our ex aequo strongest rider! We're hoping that this will help him score even more points in bumpy races - now it's his turn to justify his new wage!

	Rider	AVG	FL	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Age	Pot
	Juan Chamorro	76.6	71	78	75	71	69	61	64	71	71	76	72	67	73	29	6
		1.0	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Juan Chamorro	77.6	71	79	76	71	69	61	66	72	71	76	73	68	74	30	6

Last year's team leader got a raise of 100, which is 25% more than last year. This was justified by him increasing both his mountain and hill abilities, which makes him the ex aequo strongest pure climber of the CT division pre-transfers. Looking at other riders' wages, we think we did a decent job negotiating his wage, actually. Let's see if he can live up to his new price tag!

	Rider	AVG	FL	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Age	Pot
	Javier Gomez	75.7	72	76	73	74	72	59	62	69	68	69	71	68	74	29	5
		1.0	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Javier Gomez	76.7	73	77	75	75	74	60	63	69	68	69	72	69	75	30	5

Next is another rider who made a significant development step - turning 30 years old already! Improving pretty much everything that's needed to be a good stage racer was worth a raise of 90. We're looking forward to see the 2021 version of Javier riding up any incline - he's stronger on the longer ones now, and made an even more significant step in hilly terrain!

	Rider	AVG	FL	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Age	Pot
	Armando Huamán	75.7	70	68	75	61	64	68	66	73	72	70	76	69	71	24	6
		0.8	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Armando Huamán	76.5	72	69	76	62	64	68	67	75	72	71	76	70	72	25	6

Last season's shared strongest puncheur was able to keep this "title", still ex aequo with Chamorro - and now with Zabel, as seen before. But with his good progress on the flat and his stronger acceleration, he convinced us that a raise by 80 would be appropriate. Up to him to prove he's right - especially with him no longer being U25 eligible!

	Rider	AVG	FL	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Age	Pot
	Roberto Romero Martínez	75.7	75	65	73	68	69	76	67	71	74	71	76	70	71	26	6
		0.7	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Roberto Romero Martínez	76.4	75	65	74	68	69	76	68	72	74	71	77	71	72	27	6

Our cobbles leader (and in fact sole cobbler) didn't have the most convincing 2020 season - surprisingly getting some of his strongest results in hilly races, and not on the cobbles. He still dared asking for a raise, which we finally negotiated down to 60. A slight improvement in the hills was his strongest argument, and with a further increase of his already great stamina he should definitely not be dropped because he runs out of gas! What is to be seen is whether the team eventually decides to drop the cobbles department altogether...

	Rider	AVG	FL	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Age	Pot
	Eduardo Gonzalez	74.3	74	64	70	65	69	67	75	75	73	64	74	69	73	24	6
		1.4	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Eduardo Gonzalez	75.7	75	64	73	65	70	67	76	76	74	66	75	71	75	25	6

Next is one of last season's positive surprises, our newly crowned Panamanian road NC! Obviously, after a great season comes a massive raise demand - we settled for 85, making him gain about 40% more than last year! But given his increased sprint speed and acceleration, alongside a massive jump in his punching capabilities, we're sure he's worth the investment! His statline resembles Zabel's quite a lot already - except that he's 3 years younger. We can't wait to see our sprinter duo out on the roads!

	Rider	AVG	FL	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Age	Pot
	Eduardo Sepulveda	75	75	71	70	76	76	67	69	69	70	69	71	70	73	29	5
		0.8	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Eduardo Sepulveda	75.8	76	73	72	76	76	67	69	69	70	69	72	71	74	30	5

Our strongest Argentinean didn't have a spectacular development. We're especially disappointed that he couldn't improve his main strength - the TT skill. However, with his increase in uphill capabilities, we believe he'll now be an even better domestique in mountainous stage races, and survive a few more bumps. Whether his raise of 70 is justified or not is rather irrelevant, given his nationality - but we sure hope he's worth this additional money!


So, those are the most important developments of our main squad riders. Let's now take a look as well at our juniors:

	Rider	AVG	FL	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Age	Pot
	Germán Ollero	70.6	67	70	68	71	71	55	59	64	67	59	70	66	68	20	6
		2.0	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Germán Ollero	72.6	69	72	70	73	73	56	60	65	67	59	71	67	70	21	6
	Ernesto Urízar	70.1	61	71	69	56	60	54	59	68	73	63	66	62	65	21	5
		1.9	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Ernesto Urízar	72	62	73	70	58	61	55	62	69	74	70	69	66	69	22	5
	Andrés Cruz	68.9	67	58	61	60	65	61	70	70	67	66	69	66	66	21	6
		3.0	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Andrés Cruz	71.9	70	60	63	61	66	62	73	73	67	66	71	68	68	22	6
	Miquel Espinosa	68.4	67	57	63	62	67	58	69	70	68	71	67	65	67	21	6
		3.0	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Miquel Espinosa	71.4	70	59	64	62	68	59	72	73	68	72	69	67	69	22	6
	Rubén Gorriarán	68.2	69	64	63	59	60	69	65	65	73	68	66	68	65	22	5
		2.8	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓	↓↓↓
	Rubén Gorriarán	71	72	64	64	61	62	72	67	68	73	68	68	69	67	23	5

We're definitely happy to see our junior sprinters develop so well! Both Cruz and Espinosa now enter their final U23 season, and we sure hope to see a couple of wins from them! Both of them are rather one-dimensional so far though, so there might be a competition of which one makes the main team next season - or maybe one of them can focus on building up a secondary pillar?

Ollero's development was great as well. Although he's only 21, he's only allowed to participate in U23 races due to a rule change for the 2021 season, as else he'd have been considered too strong for that category already. He has become a clearly stronger stage racer now, improving all of climbing, punching and time trialling skills. We might need to put some work into his explosiveness and energy levels, though.

Finally, both of Urízar and Gorriarán made some good progress as well, with the former developing into a good U23 mountain domestique (or leader on his own), and the latter joining the main team as one of South America's best cobblers. Which says it all about the continent's level on that terrain...


All in all, we're definitely happy with the general development. There were some disappointments, especially with our Brazilians Mendes and Gonçalves not improving at all (on the contrary), as well as Godoy's lack of improvement, but overall we can't complain. We're excited for the new season, having already a roster of 25 riders ready - some of which may be up for grabs, as we'll surely announce later on. The foundation for a better 2nd year should definitely be laid, now it's all about spotting and reducing the roster's weaknesses.

For now, the following 25 riders build up our 2021 team(s):

	Rider	AVG	FL	MO	HI	TT	PL	CB	SP	AC	DH	FT	ST	RS	RC	Age	Pot
	TDF
	Juan Chamorro	77.6	71	79	76	71	69	61	66	72	71	76	73	68	74	30	6
	Rick Zabel	77.5	75	67	76	66	67	72	77	77	74	69	76	71	73	28	6
	Javier Gomez	76.7	73	77	75	75	74	60	63	69	68	69	72	69	75	30	5
	Armando Huamán	76.5	72	69	76	62	64	68	67	75	72	71	76	70	72	25	6
	Roberto Romero Martínez	76.4	75	65	74	68	69	76	68	72	74	71	77	71	72	27	6
	Eduardo Sepulveda	75.8	76	73	72	76	76	67	69	69	70	69	72	71	74	30	5
	Tácio Mendes	75.8	73	76	74	74	73	59	60	69	70	63	71	70	75	28	5
	Eduardo Gonzalez	75.7	75	64	73	65	70	67	76	76	74	66	75	71	75	25	6
	Yonder Godoy	75.6	72	76	74	72	71	60	65	73	72	75	73	70	74	28	5
	Fernando Gaviria	75.5	75	70	71	77	75	70	69	68	71	67	72	72	73	27	5
	Daniel Díaz	74.7	70	75	74	66	68	61	65	71	72	77	73	70	73	32	5
	Frederik Vilhelmsen	74.6	70	74	72	73	71	56	59	69	71	59	72	71	76	26	5
	Eloy Nogueira	73.2	65	74	73	67	68	56	62	68	75	73	70	66	69	24	5
	Pablo Gonçalves	73.0	71	71	70	73	73	66	66	66	71	64	72	72	72	25	5
	Héctor Molina	72.3	68	72	70	71	70	55	56	65	65	57	69	67	72	25	5
	Jonathan Saavedra	71.8	70	60	63	73	73	63	61	59	68	59	67	67	67	27	3
	Rubén Gorriarán	71.0	72	64	64	61	62	72	67	68	73	68	68	69	67	23	5
	GAU
	Germán Ollero	72.6	69	72	70	73	73	56	60	65	67	59	71	67	70	21	6
	Ernesto Urízar	72.0	62	73	70	58	61	55	62	69	74	70	69	66	69	22	5
	Andrés Cruz	71.9	70	60	63	61	66	62	73	73	67	66	71	68	68	22	6
	Miquel Espinosa	71.4	70	59	64	62	68	59	72	73	68	72	69	67	69	22	6
	Alexander Costa	67.0	58	68	66	60	58	56	62	62	62	67	60	58	62	20	5
	Fabian Martinuccio	65.7	63	66	68	62	69	62	56	62	60	64	61	67	64	20	6
	Mauricio Méndez	65.4	59	67	65	63	67	54	54	59	58	57	61	60	64	20	5
	Ian Munder	62.6	59	63	64	62	62	57	56	60	64	59	58	63	61	18	5