As every year, we're looking forward to lots of discussions, around likely, possible and completely impossible yet still materializing deals!
To have a good starting point, here's our availability list we also posted in our headquarters - and which will be updated depending on what deals we're able to agree on, and what free agents will sign with us.
Availability list
Rider
2024 Wage
Availability
Mauro Schmid
€ 500,000
•
Edward Theuns
€ 220,000
•••
Colin Stüssi
€ 175,000
•••
Xuban Errazkin
€ 160,000
••
Cees Bol
€ 165,000
••
Fausto Masnada
€ 180,000
•••
Gergely Szarka
€ 115,000
••
Stefan Bissegger
€ 105,000
••
Giorgi Tediashvili
€ 100,000
••
Dylan Page
€ 100,000
•••••
Alexys Brunel
€ 130,000
••
Valentin Darbellay
€ 130,000
••
Stefan Küng
€ 140,000
•••
Manuel Stocker
€ 50,000
•••••
Szymon Rekita
€ 90,000
••••
Krzysztof Marchewka
€ 55,000
•••••
Hugo Page
€ 70,000
•
Felix Stehli
€ 55,000
••
Christoph Janssen
€ 50,000
••
Jan Sommer
€ 50,000
••
•
Unavailable
••
Unlikely to leave
•••
Maybe, maybe not
••••
Likely to leave
•••••
Available
Now, let's put some spotlight on the msot available riders - we'll surely provide details on other riders later, but these are the ones we're really looking to get offers in for:
Whenever he had the freedom to ride on his own account, Dylan was in the mix, scoring several Top 10s - and even getting close to winning the green jersey in the PTHC Deutschland Tour.
Given the progressing stat deflation, we believe that Dylan should be a great option for quite some PCT and CT teams nowadays. We won't be asking for a horrendous fee for him, and even some rider swaps could be considered.
Want to get the currently fastest Swiss sprinter? Take your chance!
Yet another Swiss, yet another specialist for the flats.
Manuel actually was instrumental for our srpinters' great success in our first two years in CT, where he often tore the peloton apart in sprint preparations, allowing his lead sprinter to cruise to great results.
We don't have a top-notch sprinter nowadays, and we would love to allow Manuel to get another shot at leading out a great sprinter in his final maxed year. Are you missing a first man in your sprint train? Then Manuel is your choice!
Winning the Polish ITT NC in 2022 was one of Krzysztof's highlights with us - but he also was pretty successful in general, in particular in our 2022 CT season. 2nd in Sun Tour, 4th in the IoM ITT (which doesn't exist as an ITT anymore, sadly) were his highlights.
In PCT, he was a key part of our TTT lineup - but in PT, we feel that he might lack some speed. Hence we'd love to see him return to a lower division, to actually deliver some more great individual results.
TTers are pretty scarce this year it seems - Krzysztof could be a good chance for you to score some important points in those TT events!
These are our current top availabilities, but don't hesitate to contact us for any other rider on the list - the fewer dots there are, the more convincing your offer should be, though!
Looking for...
We've told you who we might be selling - now let's briefly talk about what kind of rider we're looking for.
It's actually rather easy: red digits. We don't have any 80+ main stat rider after Theuns' decline, and we do think that some of them are a must if we want to have a shot at surviving in PT.
In the best case, they're under 30, but we're obviously willing to accept older riders if they can score really well.
Otherwise, we'll be looking for versatile riders, e.g. at least two "green" numbers in main stats . Just hit us up if you think you've got an interesting proposition for us!
Loaning strategy
We've always been thankful for PT teams providing our talents the possibility to complete their development process. Now, we're on the other side of things - and for us it's absolutely clear that we're open for some loan-ins.
While we do have some precise targets in mind already (which others probably do, too), don't hesitate to ask for a loan even if we don't hit you up. We may not be able to agree on too many deals in the first days, but if some days into transfers we still have the possibility to do it, we're happy to take some loanees!
Among the currently "most" transfer listed riders, there has been some interest around Krzysztof Marchewka. Given other availability lists, we think that an offer around 350k would have good chances of being accepted once deals are allowed.
No interest has been signalled so far for Dylan Page or Manuel Stocker. However, given certain bids on the FA market, we are sure that Dylan would be an awesome fit for many teams, as it looks getting difficult (as expected) to get a 78/79 sprinter for 100k wage! Get your offers on the table!
And for Stocker, don't hesitate to take your chance if you need a great leadout rider! Minimum wage, perfect reliability - what else do you want?
Then, we got plenty of tentative interest for Szymon Rekita so far. No concrete offers, but some potential deal propositions. However, Szymon will only be sold if we can get a proper replacement - if we do, he'll definitely be on offer, though! Given that we have him at four dots, we're still pretty convinced that we'll eventually be able to strike a deal. And of course, if your offer is too good to be refused, well, it won't be refused anyway!
Otherwise, Colin Stüssi seems to be one of our most interesting available riders. We got inquiries for pure cash deals, or with him being part of a swap. What's for sure is that we'd need another stage racer if we were to part ways with him - which definitely is a possibility. Stefan Küng also got some interest - but surprisingly, no-one seems to be interested in Fausto Masnada this year, and Edward Theuns has no inquiries as well. Even though all of these (probably) aren't immediately for sale, you can still reach out!
Update? Why an update? Well, just to show we're still alive.
Still no concrete offers for our riders, still some vague interest. It really doesn't feel like this team (or a big part of it) won the CT division back in 2022, and finished 2nd in PCT last season!
You could get promising riders who know how to succeed, so don't hesitate to contact us!
While we're still taking offers mainly for the three five-dot riders, chances currently are pretty high that at least one of the 3-4 dot riders will leave, too! Get your offers in, and we'll see what we can do!
Good morning, everyone.
"Good" is not exactly how transfers have been going for us, with none of our riders getting an offer we'd be willing to accept.
For now, it looks more like we'll keep our 2023 PCT team together, maybe hire one free agent on top of that, and then try to rebuild our squad in PCT next year. Our desire to rejuvenate the squad acutally isn't *that* urgent, given that none of our leaders except for Theuns decline next year, so...
If you still want one of our great riders, just hit us up! We don't want to sell them over value, but not under value, either. If we see a 1.2M asking price for Faglum Karlsson, then we definitely can't be happy with 800k offers for Stüssi, who scored 100 points more in PCT last year...
In short, hope for deals hasn't gone completely, but it currently looks like the only deals we might end up with will be loan deals.
Here we are again. First, we want to apologize for our previous publication. Our intern, who is as frustrated about the situation as we all are, just posted without having its content reviewed. Sorry for that, we'll try to improve our QA in the PR department.
Whereas it's true that we are disappointed about the current situation, there's no reason to give up just yet! Instead, we'll just try harder to convince you that our riders are actually great value - and it's indeed right that we wouldn't mind keeping all of them for another year. But we also want to prepare for the future, which is why we could imagine parting ways with some of them.
Do you think we don't have any top-level leaders who are worth throwing big money at? You may be right that they are not "top-level" - but we do believe that if you plan their calendars well, they're actually hidden gems!
Colin Stüssi, for example, finished 2nd in the CT indivudal standings two years ago, and 36th in the PCT standings last year. In both years, he was the strongest among comparable riders, e.g. scoring only marginally less than Powless (currently offered at 1.4M) or even Aular and Reis, both clearly stronger climbers. And Stüssi easily outscored e.g. Faglum Karlsson, Triple-P or Novak by 100+ points - if that isn't a sign of quality, what else is it?
As things currently go, we can't promise we'll indeed end up selling him, but if we are, we'd need 1M for him. And there's now even a potential deal for this value.
Interested in his statline? Here we go:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
XP
Age
Colin Stüssi
71
79
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
4.100
31
Want to go even better? Well, look at Fausto Masnada then! Sure, he scored less than Stüssi in our 2022 CT campaign - but that is mainly due to planning, where he mostly was Colin's luxury domestique.
In 2023, where he got more freedom to lead, Fausto actually outscored Colin, ending up 30th in the PCT individual standings! He can climb, he has punch, he can TT - he's got all it takes to compete in CT/PCT races! And we still remember when he got a Top 10 GC result in the Tour de Suisse - back in 2021, when it still was a PT race!
He's our signature rider, and it would be really hard to part ways with him - we turned down several 1M+ offers in the last couple of years already - but age is slowly catching up with him, too. Still, he's got two more great years in him, so don't miss your chance of getting one of the most exciting PCT/CT riders!
And just to say - we don't know what kinds of deals are currently being prepared, but he scored the exact same amount as a certain Van Hooydonck last year in PCT - and more than Gamper, Reis, Bonifazio or Powless...
Here's his statline:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
XP
Age
Fausto Masnada
71
77
76
73
76
75
73
60
63
73
69
71
70
4.100
31
And that's just two of our great riders. There's for example Edward Theuns as well, who needs no introduction. And we find it rather crazy that a big amount of money is thrown at a rider who scored 200 points less last year (and is also declining), but we got not even an enquiry yet for Eddie...
There are also our Polish TTers, who have some minor interest so far - and there's Dylan Page, whose value is definitely rising as FA bids on similar sprinters continue to go up.
Just hit us up if any of our riders - even the ones marked with low availability (they will just need a very convincing offer) - is of interest to you, the worst we can happen is that we refuse!
No news on the sales side, that's why there were no further updates yesterday. There is some interest in Colin Stüssi, potentially around 1.1M - which should be justified given the offers on a very similar rider, as well as a stronger climber (both scoring 100 points less in PCT last year). But given that we currently have no perspective of signing a stage racer, Colin rather looks set to stay. For now. You know, things can change hourly during transfers. And of course, if you've got too much money to throw around (as many seem to have), we'll obviously eventually let go of him.
Currently we're only looking to get some free agents, so the scenario 2023 = 2024 could well materialize. We might be in need of a 1->3 loan, though, and just wanted to see if there still would be loaning homes available. We'd preferrably offload 200k+ of wage, meaning you might be in for a nice fee, but details could always be negotiated - in particular given that we first have to secure our target, and only then would we know his final wage.
Otherwise, don't hesitate to enquire on our riders - currently, we consider Fausto Masnada to be the "most available" of our three-dot riders, alongside our five-dotters of course. So all of Manuel Stocker, Dylan Page and Krzysztof Marchewka are still looking for a new home.
Yes, this is actually an update. And it's kind of a sad one. Our first-year signature signing Fausto Masnada will be leaving the team, as it stands now returning to PCT. Which might be the division he's best suited for, given the hybrid-friendly calendar. There will definitely be a farewell post in our HQ, but we'll wait until the deal is confirmed.
Right now, we get a rider and some cash in return. If you want to take your last chance of getting Fausto, we'll need overbids being valued € 1,100,000 or more - cash or swaps with at least the same amount of cash.
Fausto finished 6th in the CT individual standings in 2022, and 30th in the PCT individual standings last year - looking at the price tag of other riders, who scored 150 points less, this definitely is a bargain. But we get another kind of "signature" rider back, which also is worth something for team history!
We're also still looking for a potential loaning home, preferrably with a team that could cover part of a 200k+ wage. No hurry, but it might happen.
And we will also need to sell at least one more rider as it stands, preferrably Krzysztof Marchewka (77 TTer, 55k wage) or Dylan Page (78/79 sprinter, 100k wage).
After missing out on all of our top targets, it now looks like we might be getting a former World Champion in, who despite a first decline should still net us some nice points.
Now, if this deal should be sealed, we will definitely let go of Edward Theuns. Just to start, here's his current statline - after a first decline (sadly), too:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
XP
Age
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
4.100
33
That's still an impressive statline, isn't it?
And despite a decline, Theuns is far from being done! Last year, he won three classics - Omloop, Le Samyn, and Lillestrom. And guess what? His greatest PCT rival from last year has also declined! So don't be shy, take your chance - with Spengler and Van Hooydonck both moving out of PCT, Theuns would be an awesome fit for any team with ambitions on the cobbles!
And just to relate: A similarly skilled cobbler - but weaker in hills and sprint - who I shall not name here, currently stands at more than 1.5 times Eddie's wage! So if you're still after a great cobbler - admittedly mainly in PCT and CT, but surely solid in PT as well - don't hesitate to come up with a tentative offer.
As said before, Eddie will very likely be sold if our other deal goes through - but if you come up with a strong enough proposition (mainly cash needed right now, but cash + swap could do as well), he might be yours no matter what!
On another note, Dylan Page is still very much available, too. Still open bids for 78 sprinters mostly have arrived around the 100k mark now as well, so if you want to be sure to not pay any more than that, don't hesitate to contact us, too! Krzysztof Marchewka and Szymon Rekita on the other hand are now more and more likely to stay, given that we failed our primary target of bringing in a top TTer, once again. Still, if the offer is right, in particular the former could still be leaving.
Not many news, except for the fact that our first loan deal is finally sealed - and the fact that Masnada will be definitely gone in less than 5 minutes
Otherwise, we're getting quite some enquiries about Edward Theuns, with opportunities that could be pretty interesting. An optimal case for us would be to get a deal valued in the 1M region - but if he is sold, the starting offer basically just needs to cover some other expenses. We'd say 600k cash should be the bare minimum, otherwise we might prefer selling another rider instead.
Still plenty of time for you to think about Eddie (in particular if you're in PCT and you don't want to race against him, as that's where he seems to be going to most likely). A deal won't be posted before 10PM BST in any case, and that's about when I'll get home (so don't be surprised if you don't get an answer between 4 and 10).
Also, if all deals materialize as we'd hope them to, we might be in for a pretty late overbid somewhere - we apologize in advance, but we prefer having everything settled first.
The title says it all. It's back to square one for us.
As with most deals lined up during this transfer period, or FA bids, our potentially most important deal has fallen through as well.
Sadly, it comes back to bite us that we don't like to hijack deals, in particular deals with other riders involved. Otherwise, we might have signed some big name already. We just don't like to do it, but it's obviously according to the rules.
So, what does this mean for the availability of Edward Theuns? It's pretty obviously reduced, although not zero. We'd need to find an alternative, given that we picked in particular our PTHC calendar with a strong cobbler in mind. We're not sure this is doable pretty late into transfers - but if someone can offer us a strong (non-declining) cobbler, Theuns will still be available. And he'll obviously be available as well for a very good offer - up to you to find out what that is, if you're interested.
Now, we'll have to regroup and revise our strategy. There are still a couple of interesting FA targets out on the market - and otherwise, we now have some money left to deal with you. We feel that in particular our stage racing department could be strengthened - and we still lack a very strong TTer as well. Hit us up if you have some ideas - we should have some space and a bit of money left.
Lots of things are currently unsecure - but one thing is sure: we finally signed our main target for the year. More details on this hopefully to come in our HQ.
Now, we do need a home for one year for Fabio Christen, Switzerland's future top sprinter. We thought we already had a deal partner - even two candidates offered us our favourite deal - but currently none of them is available for taking Fabio anymore.
So, we're looking for a partner who could offer us a 1->3 loan, taking Fabio's full wage (250k), and receiving a 600k fee in return. If you can't offer exactly that, but pretty close to, please hit us up as well - we may not get our ideal scenario (as in 100% of the cases this transfer period), but we'll see.
Well, usually, 1->3 loans with some cash involved (600k, remember) rather easily get some takers. However, this transfer period really isn't our luckiest one, and so all options eventually vanished. We got two full-wage offers before Fabio signed; looks like we picked the wrong one there, too.
So there seems to be a risk that Fabio won't get his required loan at all... Which obviously means we have to move away from our ideal scenario (at least for the time being). So, if someone can take at least 160k of his 250k wage, please contact us asap. Depending on the wage, this would mean a fee between 510k and 600k, just to say...
On another note, we're still looking to sell Dylan Page:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
XP
Age
Dylan Page
75
57
66
60
72
72
75
66
78
79
62
55
59
4.100
31
We think that his 100k wage actually has become very reasonable nowadays, looking at some sprinters still being fighted for. So if you want to get him, hit us up. Swaps are possible as well, preferrably for a stage racer.
We're all relieved - after dozens of phone calls, e-mails and other messages, we are happy to announce that our talent Fabio Christen (who is yet to be announced in our HQ - sorry for the delay, we really had a lot to do in the last couple of days...) has found a home for the 2024 season. Big thanks to our successors as CT division winners, Lotto-Caloi (formerly know as the "Crabpack"), for providing Fabio the platform he needs to take his first steps as a professional cyclist!
Lotto-Caloi agreed on taking 160k of Fabio's 250k wage, meaning we only pay 90k. And we also had to pay a pretty big fee - definitely the biggest one in team history - usually being on the other end of such loan deals. Well, it's a new experience for us...
But we are glad our most important issue is now resolved, and we hope we can now fully focus on the final moves again!
And one of these final moves would be to sell Dylan Page. Whereas we do like Dylan, and he did a pretty good job last year, we feel that having 3 similar sprinters is a bit too much - and with Dylan being the oldest of the 3 (and the one one having the lowest wage), he's the one who might have to go.
If you don't remember from our previous message, here's his statline:
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
XP
Age
Dylan Page
75
57
66
60
72
72
75
66
78
79
62
55
59
4.100
31
With his 100k wage, he isn't more expensive than similar sprinters out there - and so before you miss out on your FA target and have no other one available, better go for Dylan! We're not asking for a whole lot of money, and actually even swap deals could be an option right now. Preferrably for a stage racer or TTer - don't hesitate to submit some proposals!
Just a little heads-up that Dylan Page is still available. Go get your secondary sprinter for 100k - unlike some pending FAs, his wage is guaranteed to not change for this year anymore! We don't actually need to sell him anymore, but there might still be teams looking to fill their secondary sprinter role - don't hesitate to contact us! Swaps are also welcome - we could also include our reliable leadout Manuel Stocker, who's still on the market as well!
By now, it's looking pretty likely that Dylan Page will indeed leave the team. We have multiple offers on the table, some cash, some with a rider swap. I'll be home late in the evening and assess their respective value for me and then hopefully put up the deal.
The currently leading offer would be valued around 250k, so don't hesitate to hit us up if you can also propose something in that refion (or higher). You can also include Manuel Stocker in the deal, our ever reliable leadout rider - in this case, we could take a rider with a wage up to 150k and might also be ready to pay a fee if we feel that the rider really strengthens our roster! This could also be the case in a swap for Dylan alone - hut us up with your ideas!
Dylan Page did gather some interest, with the highest offer received so far still being around 250k. Due to timing issues, the deal couldn't be finalized yet, but it should be later today. Which means you've still got some time to jump in if you wish. Manuel Stocker still didn't get any love, but he's still available, too. And thanks to DB access, we can even include his statline this time. As we said, one can go, both can go, even in a combined deal - we're open to a lot of things
We also get inquiries about the availability status of other riders. Well, sadly the transfer period hasn't been overly kind to us - for example, we failed to sign a single TT rider. Hence, we cannot afford to sell one of them if we are to keep a more or less competitive TTT outfit - except for a swap for similarly skilled TTers, they're hence off the market for now (unless an awesome offer comes in, of course).
The same holds for Edward Theuns. We would have sold him early in the window when there still was a chance to get a replacement. This doesn't seem to be the case now, and so it would take an exceptional proposition to still sell him.
Otherwise, no rider is explicitly listed for transfers, but if you have some great ideas, potentially including multiple riders, don't hesitate to talk to us.
Finally, here are the statlines of our two transfer listed riders:
It's official now - Dylan Page will leave the team after just one season. As it stands now, he'll be heading to Africa, joining Bralirwa. We get a fee and a rider in return - all in all, we value the deal at 300k.
If you still want to get Dylan, we'd need offers valued at 350k at least. Which can be cash, but preferrably cash plus a stage race domestique, as we'd be getting now.
The deal can be found here.
Otherwise, we're still open to many kinds of deals. For example, we recently got a 1M offer for Colin Stüssi, which we seriously considered but turned down. However, Colin might still be leaving - we'd need a higher fee this late in transfers though. Or, maybe interesting for some of you, we could swap him for a better leader and add some cash (or another rider) on top of that. Don't hesitate to come up with something if you're interested.
The situation is similar for Szymon Rekita. We'd need at least a 78 TTer in exchange for him - or a better one, where we'd add some cash. Feel free to hit us up.
And even Edward Theuns might still leave the team - the situation is the same as with the two previously mentioned riders, though, we'd need a replacement for him to consider trading him.
Manuel Stocker still is available for sale, too, but given that we now managed to sign a pretty cool sprinter, we might actually want to keep him around.
Generally speaking, every rider (bar Schmid, and maybe H. Page) could still be made available for the right offer!
Who would have thought it - we actually got a 350k offer for Dylan Page
However, due to some misunderstandings, both parties of the initial deal can actually live with the new situation - we, because we get more money, and our initial partner because they don't need to do some potentially bad moves now.
Page's general destination hasn't changed much, though - he's still going to Africa, but it's Kenya instead of Rwanda now.
Because of all the time these negotiations took, we'd only accept overbids with deals valued at least 100k more, i.e. 450k now. If this price tag doesn't scare you (or you have some good cash plus a good rider to offer us), you can find the new deal here.
A straight sale now means that we've got 100k of wage cap freed up, and we also still have 40k of loan cap left. So if you've got some propositions to make us, don't hesitate to reach out! We're still looking for good stage race domestiques or time triallists - if you can offer us some specialists in these domains, don't hesitate to contact us!
Of course, Manuel Stocker still is available, too - as are basically all of our riders if we can use them for some "upswapping", i.e. we get a better (or similar but younger) rider and pay you some cash. Surprise us with creative solutions!
Dylan Page is now definitely packing his bags; we're expecting the final validation of his transfer by the MGUCI in about 20 minutes.
Now, as we're on the final stretch of the transfer window - one day to go - we're looking to make some last moves. One move we'd like to do is to bring in a cobbles domestique (75+ cobbles stat). Our conditions would be to do a swap including Manuel Stocker, for a rider having a 65k wage at most. We could include some money in that deal, the exact fee can be negotiated.
If you have such a rider you could imagine parting ways with - at the same time getting proven leadout rider Stocker in return - don't hesitate to pick up your phone and call us!
