There's really something wrong (still) with the renewals demands from sprinters. Steimle on the same contract as Meiler, Stüssi, Vasyliv and Sütterlin is just so wrong. He's not a bad leadout, but as a rider himself very mediocre.
Besides that I guess there's not much else to say that you'll obviously be a pre-season favorite for the title despite the obvious need for a few sales. A quick calculation by head see that you need to find something like ~300K in wage cap, but as 1/3 of that could be found in Steimle I don't see any reason to believe you won't have a similarly strong team after the changes.
(got held up, sorry for breaking up the coherent structure with the delay!)
Renewals
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
21 Wage
22 Wage
S. Herklotz
72
84
81
74
79
80
78
67
68
76
80
76
78
1.150.000
1.200.000
A.Demare
73
67
80
61
75
72
80
63
82
81
70
63
61
650.000
675.000
F. Ganna
76
69
73
80
74
81
69
66
69
73
74
74
82
150.000
450.000
V. Madouas
74
75
77
69
76
73
76
60
73
73
66
68
70
75.000
195.000
J. Steimle
74
66
70
65
71
69
74
67
78
80
61
62
71
50.000
120.000
L. Meiler
74
64
74
64
72
70
71
77
63
71
75
66
64
50.000
125.000
C. Stüssi
71
77
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
105.000
110.000
Y. Vasyliv
71
77
74
72
78
72
75
56
62
67
64
71
72
105.000
110.000
J. Sütterlin
71
59
65
80
73
77
67
56
59
60
76
73
80
110.000
115.000
R. Cavagna
77
64
74
76
75
74
71
73
73
71
60
63
76
110.000
90.000
C. Mager
70
74
77
62
68
70
71
56
60
71
68
70
62
65.000
65.000
F. Stork
69
75
71
75
74
73
76
58
61
70
62
68
76
50.000
60.000
B. Zwiehoff
68
75
74
60
71
74
72
62
61
75
66
75
60
100.000
60.000
M. Egger
66
75
74
55
70
76
71
59
64
74
73
65
55
60.000
60.000
J. Schinnagel
68
75
74
65
77
72
71
57
65
73
69
74
65
50.000
60.000
Y. Niu
72
74
72
67
76
69
75
56
74
74
73
70
67
55.000
55.000
N. Politt
73
63
66
78
70
73
72
60
59
65
69
66
76
55.000
60.000
Nieuwenhuis
75
64
69
60
69
73
65
70
73
75
62
76
60
50.000
50.000
D. Weinstein
71
70
70
75
72
70
76
67
68
70
65
69
76
55.000
55.000
F. Gross
70
60
60
62
66
72
66
61
74
75
60
60
62
50.000
50.000
3.765.000
2022 is the start of a new era for Team Puma - SAP.
The next generation of top-end talents has maxed out and begins to shape the squad's future, and this renewals overview for the team indicates this more clearly than any wall of text could.
Ganna, Madouas, Steimle, Meiler and Stork are the cornerstones of Team Puma - SAP for the better part of the next decade, and old cornerstones will have to step aside to create sufficient (cap) space for them.
Overall, renewals went about as expected.
Small increases beyond the predicted margins for riders like Stüssi, Vasyliv, Sütterlin and Politt prove to be costly when added up, while the demands from our star riders Herklotz and Demare were reasonable for the incredible seasons they had, winning the Giro d'Italia and the maillot vert respectively and four GT stages each.
Similarly, we were prepared for the steep wage curves of Ganna and Madouas as they begin to take leadership in their respective specialties.
We thank Marcel Aregger and Meron Amanuel for their time with us, there sadly wasn't any space for them within our tight budget as their roles are getting filled by younger, home-grown riders.
Particularly Aregger's podium spot at Milan - San Remo as well as his stage win on home soil in Suisse would've convinced us to keep him around in any other year, but at least this should help him find a new team.
The bottom line: we're above cap space with the minimum amount of riders.
Transfer Availability
Looking to sell
Colin Stüssi
71
77
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
4.100
29
110k
Yuriy Vasyliv
71
77
74
72
78
72
75
56
62
67
64
71
72
4.100
29
110k
Jasha Sütterlin
71
59
65
80
73
77
67
56
59
60
76
73
80
4.100
30
115k
As mentioned above: the team is changing face. Regrettably, we're forced to reduce wages, and these three riders are the only ones on the team that are not absolutely vital for the future AND can amount to a sufficient wage reduction.
This doesn't mean that any of these riders are on wages too high for their value though! I believe they all are still very much a good investment for just above 100k.
Colin Stüssi is a great Swiss stage racer and combines the most important stats for such a rider. With 75TT and even better energy stats, he can be the most reliable domestique to your GT effort (as shown by being the superdom in a Giro and Tour victory recently), complement your stage racing efforts in PCT or lead your CT team in the promotion fight. Yuriy Vasyliv is a very similar rider to Stüssi, with the same credentials of providing crucial support to Silvio Herklotz in his latest two GT wins. He compensates for slightly weaker TTing with a slightly better punch and endurance. Jasha Sütterlin was the German ITT champion in 2020 and has been the cornerstone of Team Puma - SAP, having been on the team in every single season since its very first outing a decade ago. Having to sell him hurts, but his role in the team has been taken by Filippo Ganna, and we'd like to see him lead a team again in the latter part of his career. He still has three more years at full strength, and full strength for Sütterlin means being a Top 10 time trialist in the world. Third in Praha and sixth in Herbiers last season, winning the Qatar epilogue and said NC the year before...he's worth the investment in PT, and would be even more so in PCT as the joint best TTer of the division as things stand!
Available for a very convincing offer
Lukas Meiler
74
64
74
64
72
70
71
77
63
71
75
66
64
4.100
27
125k
Christian Mager
70
74
77
62
68
70
71
56
60
71
68
70
62
4.100
30
65k
Mike Aaron Egger
66
75
74
55
70
76
71
59
64
74
73
65
55
4.100
29
60k
Joh. Schinnagel
68
75
74
65
77
72
71
57
65
73
69
74
65
4.100
26
60k
Yikui Niu
72
74
72
67
76
69
75
56
74
74
73
70
67
4.100
28
55k
Nils Politt
73
63
66
78
70
73
72
60
59
65
69
66
76
4.100
28
60k
Domenic Weinstein
71
70
70
75
72
70
76
67
68
70
65
69
76
4.100
28
55k
This bunch of riders can be kept if things go to plan, but are not planned around in future races to a point where a mutually beneficial swap or an intriguing cash offer can't convince us to start negotiating.
None older than 30, they all provide great value for low wages, as making sure to fit as many valuable stats within a low OVL as possible has been a main focus of the team building for years now. Lukas Meiler is the exception to this, and he finds himself in this category as a contingency plan in case there needs to be one more sale than expected.
Needs a crazy deal
Arnaud Demare
73
67
80
61
75
72
80
63
82
81
70
63
61
4.100
31
675k
Filippo Ganna
76
69
73
80
74
81
69
66
69
73
74
74
82
4.100
26
450k
Valentin Madouas
74
75
77
69
76
73
76
60
73
73
66
68
70
4.100
26
195k
Jannik Steimle
74
66
70
65
71
69
74
67
78
80
61
62
71
4.100
26
120k
Remi Cavagna
77
64
74
76
75
74
71
73
73
71
60
63
76
4.100
27
90k
Florian Stork
69
75
71
75
74
73
76
58
61
70
62
68
76
4.100
25
60k
Ben Zwiehoff
68
75
74
60
71
74
72
62
61
75
66
75
60
4.10
28
60k
The future of Team Puma - SAP (and Arnaud Demare). With most of these riders having just maxed out, we're looking forward to see their full potential unfold after years of loaning out and carrying sometimes more, sometimes less dead weight.
No standard offer can convince us to part ways with any of these riders, but we all know any transfer season contains plenty of crazy ones as well!
Loaning out
Joris Nieuwenhuis
75
64
69
60
69
73
65
70
73
75
62
76
60
4.4
26
50k
Felix Gross
70
60
60
62
66
72
66
61
74
75
60
60
62
3.43
24
50k
Nieuwenhuis and Groß are best suited to continue their development on a loan this season, and both are on minimum wage.
Joris Nieuwenhuis needs a PT loan to finish development, and he's able to be a valuable part of a sprint train already with his serious flat stat and acceleration. A good hill and cobble stat means he's not just useful on the flattest and simplest days. Felix Groß can ride in any of the three divisions this season to gain an XP level, even 52 race days in C2 would do. He's a good sprint train addition as well, particularly in the lower two divisions, with his resistance giving him plenty of energy to make it there.
Start of a new era is interesting. Looking forward to seeing what that means
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
@SotD: Steimle could become some sort of side project over the coming years, so even though his wage is only representative of his OVL and nothing else, I find it hard to put him on the chopping block just as he maxes out. Plus 78sp might be a sweet spot in this game when coupled with a good ACC.
It's definitely a season where the top teams all face some uncertainty going into transfers, and I'm looking forward to seeing in which order they'll emerge after. My availability list might indicate that I'm not necessarily aiming to come out on top again though!
@cunego59: A match made in heaven for sure! As much as losing these guys sucks, at least there's finally a reason to negotiate in earnest after years of having to decline very reasonable inquiries for Sütterlin etc. from many sources.
@Fabianski: Silvio is certainly the outlier of all outliers, although no wage request could ever make me doubt his worth for the team. Dunno if the wage gap to Phinney is fair though, but I'm not complaining as I got myself into this situation willingly with many years to reconsider.
I can't wait to discuss the matter with you, and I think there might be a neat way of finding a mutually beneficial deal this season!
@jandal7: Any sort of obvious change is a quite drastic event for a team with the same name and jersey since 2012!
@bbl: I'd enjoy talking even if there were none!
Lennard had a brilliant year and I'm very happy we could agree on the deal, I'll certainly get into detail at some point before the season begins after a very busy period. Enjoy his maxed form!
A team and project I have always been fond of and one that got me into the long-term talent game when I saw the success you had after some tougher times.
Cool to see a lot of the guys, especially Ganna, finishing their development and they’ll know be big additions for you this season.
I’m sure we’ll be in some transfer conversation to do with loans or just a chat! Good luck with the window and hopefully we don’t clash too much
After another lengthy winter training camp for Herklotz and with plenty of improved depth pieces on the roster, the 2021 season was another attempt at making the ProTour podium, albeit only as a side product of individual performances in the stage races, punchy sprinter races and TT efforts.
And in the end, it was a clearly successful campaign, finishing well ahead of third placed Evonik and only conceding to an ever-elusive Isostar at the top of the rankings.
Pos
Last
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
1
1
Isostar - Specialized
9294
193
48,16
2
2
Team Puma - SAP
8717
193
45,17
3
3
Evonik - ELKO
7863
193
40,74
4
4
Festina - OAKA
7194
193
37,27
5
8
ISA - Hexacta
6725
193
34,84
Furthermore, Silvio Herklotz only just missed out on the individual standings crown, where Phinney proved to be unbeatable considering Herklotz won every race he attended.
Pos
Rider
Nat
Team
Total Points
1
Taylor Phinney
USA
Isostar - Specialized
2310
2
Silvio Herklotz
GER
Team Puma - SAP
2293
3
Miguel Angel Lopez
COL
Evonik - ELKO
1916
4
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
FRA
Festina - OAKA
1903
5
Fernando Gaviria
COL
Isostar - Specialized
1809
So, how exactly did we get to this point again?
The first sign of a great season to come for Filippo Ganna was in his first outing in Qatar already, finishing second only to Kragh Andersen in the epilogue, which ended up being good enough for a Top 10 overall thanks to gapping the entire rest of the field by at least 8 seconds over just 6 minutes.
Silvio Herklotz showed up improved at the start line of Tirreno-Adriatico and left no doubt about his favorite status returning to Italy a couple of months later, as his very first attack in the World Champion jersey proved successful and paved the way to a clear overall victory.
Just a week later, Silvio also got the better of the opposition in Hallstatt, making it 2-out-of-2 in quick succession.
A crazy Milan San Remo saw the most unexpected points haul of the season not in terms of the amount scored (as we hoped for Demare to continue his streak of good results), but in terms of who scored them, as Marcel Aregger and Yikui Niu snatched 3rd and 5th away from much stronger riders in a wild finale.
Aregger would add another surprise result to his final season with the team, winning a stage at his home Tour de Suisse.
Jasha Sütterlin got to present his German ITT champion jersey in 2021, and did so very successfully in Praha, with a second place in the long TT lifting him to an overall podium.
And then it already was time for Herklotz' GT of the year, with the Italian soil being the stage of his only defeat as a true GT victory contender two years prior, missing out on the title by only 40 seconds against Simon Spilak.
This time around, the Giro d'Italia threw nothing at Silvio that he couldn't master. Four stage wins and securing the points jersey showed the strength exerted by the World Champion as he flew to an uncontested overall victory by over 5 minutes against valiantly fighting opposition.
With another overall victory later in the season in East Java, Silvio Herklotz won all four races he attended this year.
Rémi Cavagna had another brilliant season with the team, finishing a record-high third and second respectively in his specialist terrain of cobbles-TT hybrid races Chrono Arenberg and Tour of Northern Europe. We're very happy to have carved such an intriguing niche for the Frenchman.
Our future puncheur Valentin Madouas went into the 2021 without any pressure to perform. And it seemed like this situation managed to get the best out of him, as his maiden GT leadership opportunity at the Vuelta a Espana catapulted him into a star role right away.
Breakaway after breakaway, Madouas took KoM points and got TV time, until stage 14 came around and for the first time, Valentin ended up with a true chance of a stage win. It wasn't meant to be, but 9 minutes on the peloton meant a stint in the U25 jersey. The KoM jersey got added to his collection for a while as well, as every breakaway now featured the Frenchman, but both classifications came down to stage 20. Another great effort after three tiring weeks secured our youngster both the KoM and the white jersey at the end! An incredible race for Madouas, and a sign of what's to come.
You probably noticed one name being mostly absent from this recap so far: Arnaud Demare. The second star of the team had a good early season without a standout result, but his time came at his home GT: The Tour de France.
Not wanting to be outdone by Herklotz, Demare too won four stages at his Grand Tour of the season, quickly swapping his French NC jersey for the maillot vert, which he managed to bring all the way to Paris for the second time in his career.
Interestingly, none of his stage wins came in a bunch sprint, as he dominated the hilly stages instead to prove yet again his superiority on such terrain.
The third cornerstone of the new season will be Filippo Ganna, and he too had a standout race last season. Despite still lacking experience, he propelled himself to overall victory in Slovenia on the final hill, backed by strong TTT and ITT efforts. We hope that this is only the first sign of what's to come for our Italian powerhouse!
And the only German stage race of the calendar also saw a Puma stage win, as Nils Politt surprisingly took advantage of an early starting time after a futile attempt to support a puncturing Demare the stage prior to win the Deutschland Tour time trial.
All these results were outstanding and combined to a very successful 2021 season. Last but not least, we would like to recognize some crucial riders that contributed to these results, even if they weren't necessarily visible in the finish shots:
Our loanees
Pos
Rider
Nat
Team
Total Points
107
Georg Zimmermann
GER
Team Puma - SAP
338
163
Nicola Conci
ITA
Team Puma - SAP
202
178
Lennard Kämna
GER
Team Puma - SAP
188
372
Narankhuu Baterdene
MGL
Team Puma - SAP
80
A massive 808 points scored by our loanees doesn't even paint the whole picture: they've all been amazing additions to our squad and proved to be vital for several leader results across the season, on top of the points scored by themselves.
Georg Zimmermann nearly made the Top 100 in a standout season for any unmaxed rider, showing his attacking spirit in pretty much every race he entered. Podium spots on stages in both the Vuelta a Espana and Vuelta a Colombia, along a lengthy stint in the KoM jersey in the former race, are signs of his abilities and made this loan with liefwarrior the most mutually beneficial loan I've seen!
His breakaway appearances in the "big" Vuelta alongside Madouas provided probably the most emblematic shots of our famed roster depth possible.
Nicola Conci and Lennard Kämna came after smooth negotiations with Luis Leon Sanchez and baseballlover as important support for Silvio Herklotz, providing both mountain and TTT help for his Giro d'Italia victory and thus immortalizing themselves in Team Puma - SAP history!
Combining for nearly 400 points, it's clear that both riders also proved their worth in the many races they got to lead in Silvio's absence, doing well in both GC and U25 classifications across the season.
Narankhuu Baterdene had a less eventful season compared to his loanee compatriots, which was always to be expected as a baroudeur and sprint helper. Nevertheless, he was part of the squad that helped Arnaud Demare win his second maillot vert, which also enshrines him in the Puma Pantheon forever thanks to Jakstar22!
There were three permanent spots available on the roster to make the minimum required of 20 riders, and the first days of the transfer season were spent chasing our main targets.
We're happy to announce that both our top targets from Free Agency and from the contracted pool could be secured, and the third spot is filled by another young talent on our shortlist we found ourselves in an opportunity to sign.
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
OVR
Age
Wage
Kelland O'Brien
73
62
71
74
71
75
66
61
64
67
64
65
72
71,12
24
50.000
Kelland O'Brien
75
67
75
77
74
77
70
61
64
69
67
66
75
74,43
26
-
Kelland O'Brien
76
65
73
79
75
78
70
61
64
67
66
66
77
75,64
26
-
Nik Cemazar
68
72
70
71
70
71
72
56
61
64
66
66
70
71,46
23
50.000
Nik Cemazar
71
74
73
75
73
75
75
56
61
65
68
66
74
74,17
25
-
Nik Cemazar
69
76
73
74
73
74
76
56
61
65
67
66
74
74,92
25
-
Miguel Heidemann
69
66
66
73
65
70
68
58
60
59
61
64
71
69,37
24
60.000
Miguel Heidemann
72
68
69
77
68
74
71
58
60
60
62
64
75
73,77
26
-
Kelland O'Brien was spotted during preparation for the transfer season as a perfect fit for the team in every sense but his nationality, as the young time trialist can be transformed into either a very versatile punchy TTer in the mold of Cavagna (minus COB/SP) while staying very cheap due to a surprisingly low OVL, or into an all-out TT specialist that can rival even our leader Ganna in a good week.
He will be an excellent addition to our TTT lineups starting this season already, and we really had to convince his former team Tinkoff - La Datcha to become willing to part ways with him. Therefore, his transfer fee amounts to a whopping €922.000, but we do believe this is an investment worth the benefit spread over the coming decade!
Nik Cemazar had been put somewhere in the middle of our shortlist as an intriguing stage racing talent that we expected to be fought over, which would have reduced our interest as fees could've gone up quite quickly.
It turned out that our second offer of only €200.000 was enough to sign the Slovenian from Team UBS, who could be guided to fill the role of riders like Stüssi and Vasyliv over the coming two years to become a top domestique for Herklotz, or to follow fellow youngster Stork into a more versatile pure domestique role that provides great mountain and TTT support for a small wage.
And since a transfer season without a new German would be an instant failure, we took initiative in pursuing our #1 Free Agency target Miguel Heidemann right from literally the very first second of transfers.
A short haggle with Kraftwerk was quickly resolved and the TT talent was brought into the team on a €60.000 wage. Exactly like O'Brien and Cemazar, his signing is intended to bring longterm stability to our TTT squad supporting both Herklotz and Ganna, as he maxes out in just the right range to be a perfect fit for a Grand Tour lineup with his time trialing skills being backed up by solid MO/HIL to not be useless for the remaining 20 stages, all while again staying cheap.
Departures and the entire loan situation will be discussed in a separate issue.
Kelland O'Brien just suits this team statwise to perfection really. I mean, sure he could have a bit better stats towards the end to match up Ganna/Cavagna, but it's really as close as your going to get.
Cemezar too is a very nice little gem I think. He's 1 stat away from being the perfect Vasyliv/Stüssi replacement, but given the statgain battle I think he'll be spot on.
