Renewals were not particularly kind to the team this season, though not totally surprising given the number of riders reaching the later stages of their development. However, given the underwhelming performances from some riders last season (looks at Yates and Turgis) their demands came as somewhat of a surprise, as did needing all three rounds to negotiate with them. There are also some example of poor financial management on the team's part - how Velasco ended up at 120k and Tiller at 325k will be mysteries until the end of time.

Transfer availability will follow once management have decided how they want to approach this season. In the past the focus has been on long term sustainability, but if there was ever a time to go into 'win now' mode it would be in a potential final season. Either way, expect big changes, not least due to the need to get under the cap - whether this is the usual approach of signing talents and selling anyone over 29 can't be confirmed at this point, but old habits tend to be hard to give up.

jph27 wrote:

A quiet transfer period for the team saw 2 departures and 5 arrivals - though with 3 of those on loan, the squad overhaul promised at the beginning of the transfer window didn't quite happen. Indeed, the team's transfer period was characterised by struggling to sell riders and when it could, struggling to afford their replacements. It certainly wasn't for a lack of trying, but in the end only Yoann Paillot and Simone Velasco departed. Both served the team admirably, and ultimately found themselves squeezed out by the need for the team to free up cap space, and the aim to get younger in the process. In their place came the first two of the five riders introduced below.

Alexander Cataford was the obvious choice as Paillot's replacement when we assessed the market pre-transfers, and we were delighted to sign him for a fee of 1.25 million. It's perhaps slightly more than we would have liked to pay, but as it solved our cap problems and gained us a more versatile - and crucially younger - lead TTer, we felt it was a worthwhile investment.

Hamza Mansouri is the kind of rider we typically sign. Unmaxed? Check. Versatile? Check. Strong support stats? Check. On Xero's shortlist? Check. We plan to develop Mansouri as a puncheur, although some thought has been given as to whether a stage racing development path may bring more value in the long run, as we consider the need to replace our aging stage racers. Both potential paths are set out below.

We found ourselves with some spare cash this season, and decided to invest a chunk of it into loaning in riders we felt could be useful members of our squad while also continuing to develop. James Knox and Mushin Misbah were key targets as members of our stage racing and time trialling squads, while Sandy Nur Hasan gives us an additional sprinter to use in leadout trains when needed. Thanks go to their managers for paying their wages while they ride with us!

With all that said and done, we also had a bit of cash to spare which we used to train Salem Kemboi (+1 MO, + 1 HIL), Rasmus Tiller (+2 MO) and Jodok Salzmann (+1 MO). While these are minor trainings, they should hopefully make the aforementioned trio just a little bit more difficult to drop, and give them a little bit more energy at the end of each stage - it all adds up. We can now reveal our squad for the upcoming season, and below it how our talents will look at their max.