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.
Renewals
Renewals went well and we have some spare cash and cap space. I think free agency will be very competitive this season so I renewed all riders except Max Walseben who has been a faithful cobbles helper for many years. Even aging Dominik Nerz gets a contract.
First Name
Surname
2023
2022
Diff
Nikias
Arndt
290
310
-20
Rick
Zabel
280
250
30
Suranga
Ranaweera
205
200
5
Marco
Haller
160
160
0
Michel
Koch
90
105
-15
David
Boily
110
135
-25
Tobias
Ludvigsson
130
170
-40
Jasper
De Buyst
100
135
-35
Josip
Rumac
90
90
0
Pello
Bilbao
90
115
-25
Alex Ariya
Destribois
70
55
15
Sasu
Helme
65
65
0
Arvin
Moazemi
70
100
-30
Gennadiy
Tatarinov
50
60
-10
Florian
Scheit
50
50
0
Eugert
Zhupa
60
85
-25
Jan
Dieteren
50
55
-5
Dominik
Nerz
90
150
-60
Max
Walsleben
0
50
-50
Marco
Mathis
50
50
0
Antti-Jussi
Juntunen
50
10
40
TOTALS
2150
2400
-250
Post Renewals Squad and Availability
Thanks to Knockout for his roster listing tool.
Kraftwerk are looking to replace their aging riders with younger guys so swap deals would be of interest, not all the available riders will go. Looking forward to talking to you lovely Man Game Managers.
Always been a big fan of how you've managed to build a team with such great depth, and interested to see what your attempt to replace some of your ageing riders ends up looking like
Arndt is a rider I've always rated so interested to see what his market is if you decide to sell - think he suffers a little from not quite being the 'normal profile' of any particular rider type despite his versatility.
Transfer Story
Kraftwerk entered transfers with 12 riders aged 32 or older. We needed some young blood in the team.
Kraftwerk wanted a puncheur to replace aging Pello Bilbao and targeted Xianjing Lyu but lost out to Lidl. We swapped to try and tempt Anthony Turgis away from Lidl. We sold Florian Scheit, Gennadiy Tatarinov and Michel Koch to Evonik to create the cap space and generate some cash but were overbid by Lampre.
Meanwhile Burr Ho rejoined from King Power to boost our TTT (ToA has a TTT this year).
We bought young Russian stage racer Petr Rikunov from Team Popo4Ever. This prompted Tinkoff to offer a decent puncheur and a cobbler in a swap. Filling two gaps in the Kraftwerk roster was too good a deal to turn down, Matvey Zubov COB79 and Joni Kanerva HIL79 joined the team.
Then we changed plans to invest our cash in Suranga Ranaweera’s TT skill and got into an epic bidding war with Fastned for Michel Hessmann which we also lost.
Plan D involved overbidding some available Free Agents, apologies to Eden, tastasol and Hosaur for muscling in late to get Nicolay Cherkasov FL80, Sirak Tesfom TT77 and Henri Uhlig COB Pot7 into the Team.
Nikias Arndt had no offers until ELCO – ABEA offered a swap with Jaime Roson. That was a tough call but I decided I needed a younger rider more than points so agreed. SotD got a good deal for Arndt so maybe I could have hung on but I am not as good a deal maker as SotD so probably made the right decision.
We had more Cap Space than cash so took in a couple of loans from Lidl and Jura GIANTS to get us over the line for training cash. Stavros Theorpanous and Jan Sommer join on loan.
Pello Bilbao got a late offer and left for Indosat and after waiting for our Free Agent bids to reach 48 hrs we missed out of our Stagiaire targets so settled for developing Swiss cobbles domestique Free Agent Filippo Colombo.
Transfer Objectives
Target
Result
Comment
Improve age profile
29.3->29
Success
Hire younger Puncheur
Xianjing Lyu
Fail
Anthony Turgis
Fail
Joni Kanerva
Success
Improve TTT
Petr Rikunov
Fail, swapped for Kanerva & Zubov
Sirak Tesfom
Success
Burr Ho
Success
Train Ranaweera
TT 75-76
Success
Hire German Talent
Michel Hessmann
FAIL
Henri Uhlig
Success
Swap Arndt for ypunger rider
Success, swapped for Roson
Hire younger Cobbler
Matvey Zubov
Success (only just)
Filippo Colombo
Success
Henri Uhlig
Success
Improve Break Chase
Nicolay Cherkasov
Success
Sirak Tesfom
Success
We managed to achieve our targets but at the expense of points scoring. We scored 2975 points for 7th place last season. I predict we will score 2375 points this season which will place us around 14th. If we manage to overperform at the Tour of America that could be improved on, its Haller’s last season at the top, can he go out with a bang?
Thanks for taking care of Sommer - and of Colombo I needed a cobbles helper here and now, but would've loved to sign Filippo - expect some PMs next transfers
Good to see you still got a lot of successes in during transfers, despite the failures that obviously always happen. And as you say, although you may have lost some quality, it should be easily enough to stay up. Your depth is great, as always - even though you no longer have two 79+ stage race leaders. But being able to throw 7 75+ main stat riders in mountainous or hilly stage races must feel good - and I'm sure they'll "kraftwerk" your way to safety pretty easily
TT department is looking better now as well, although it remains to be seen if four TTers are enough to get a good TTT result - in America or elsewhere. Zubov looks like hit-or-miss for the cobbles, with pretty much no backups at all, whereas your sprinters are as strong as ever. Hoping Haller can get that record in ToA to end his prime in style!
Arndt will be a miss for sure. Having a better presence in the cobbled and also maybe hilly races can compensate for that somewhat. You might be a tad worse, but I still expect the same solid Kraftwerk and a top 10-ish finish
Most of objectives accomplished, so that was a good transfer season for you. I found some similarities between our teams, because both of us needed the young blood, and made at the expense of making points. I hope this will be enough (for both) and the next season can be for step up.
).
I needed a cobbles helper here and now, but would've loved to sign Filippo - expect some PMs next transfers 
