Welcome to the team thread of Team Bianchi
Our team would like to present good and fair cycling
Also our team has the same goal as every team:
To be in some years one of the best cycling teams in the world
We would like to be present in sprints, but also on the mountains and on the hilly classics at the Continental Tour (again for the 3rd season)
Other sponsors:
Scania
Medion
Nalini
Elite
Mavic
Our jersey: 2010
Spoiler:
2011
Spoiler:
2012
Our riders: 2010
Spoiler:
Koldo Gil Jakob Fuglsang Gerald Ciolek David Kopp Phillip Walsleben Markus Eichler Jörg Jaksche Felix Odebrecht Eric Baumann Stefan Radochla Björn Schröder Grischa Janorschke Dennis Haueisen Rémi Pauriol Geoffroy Lequatre Jérémie Allain Klaas Vantornout Jude Libert Daniel Thorsen Brett Lancaster Stuart O'Grady Alessandro Petacchi Artemio Moschella Piet Rooijakkers Wladimir Gustov Robert Hunter Jíri Hochmann Martin Elmiger Sergiu Cioban Haijun Ma
loaned from Accumalux
2011
Spoiler:
Gerald Ciolek Andreas Stauff Jörg Jaksche Felix Odebrecht Stefan Radochla Renè Weissinger Maxime Monfort Dimitri Claeys Klaas Vantornout Jude Libert Koldo Gil Javier Aramendía Frantisek Rabon (czech road champion) Jíri Hochmann Tommy Zaini Artemio Moschella Geoffroy Lequatre Jérémie Allain Brett Lancaster Luke Roberts Piet Rooijakkers Wladimir Gustov Martin Elmiger Andreas Matzbacher Hubert Schwab Piotr Mazur
2012 Gerald Ciolek Felix Odebrecht Maxime Monfort Dimitri Claeys Klaas Vantornout Koldo Gil (spanish road champion) Juan Jóse Cobo Manuel Lloret David de la Fuente Javier Aramendía Frantisek Rabon (czech road champion) Jíri Hochmann Geoffroy Lequatre Jérémie Allain Piet Rooijakkers Wladimir Gustov Andreas Matzbacher Hubert Schwab Piotr Mazur
Oleksandr Martynenko (loaned from Wiggle - San Pellegrino) Stefano Locatelli (loaned from Wiggle - San Pellegrino) Rohan Dennis (loaned from Team Festina - Conex)
Tommy Zaini (loaned to Wiggle - San Pellegrino) Andreas Stauff (loaned to Vesuxio - Accumalux) Artemio Moschella (loaned to Vesuxio - Accumalux) Jude Libert (loaned to Carmeuse - Bouygues Telecom)
Goals: 2010 1. Win, Vattenfall Classics 2. Top 3, Bayern-Rundfahrt 3. Top 5, Post Danmark Rundt 4. Top 5, Team Rankings 5. Top 5, Tre Valli Varesine 2011 1. Win Scandinavian Race Uppsala 2. Top 5 Tour de Langkawi 3. Top 5 Vattenfall Cyclassics 4. Stage win Post Danmark Rundt 5. Top 10 team ranking 2012 1. Win Giro dell'Appellenio 2. Top 5 Tour de Pologne 3. Top 5 Strade Bianche 4. Top 5 Trofea Melinda 5. Top 5 Team Standings
Giro dell'Emilia - Cobo 2nd Berlin ProRace - Ciolek 8th Deutschland Tour - Ciolek stage win and green jersey Criterium Hainleite - Claeys 7th Tour de Luxembourg - Monfort stage win, Claeys 2nd GC and 1st U25C
Edited by Rin on 10-10-2012 18:29
9 race wins
De la Fuente 2
Monfort 1
Ma 1
Ciolek 1
Gil 1
Rabon 1
Cobo 1
Lloret 1
4 yellow jerseys
De la Fuente 2
Monfort 1
Lloret 1
2 green jerseys
Lloret 1
Ciolek 1
7 king of the mountain jerseys
Lloret 2
Monfort 1
Rooijakkers 1
Schwab 1
Gil 1
Lequatre 1
1 white jersey
Claeys 1
NOTE: Seasons 2nd and 3rd places are with 2nd and 3rd GC, points and KOM rankings.
Seasons "race win" is with "general classification/yellow jersey" whilst the yellow jersey is not counted in "jersey wins"
Overall section race win are with yellow jersey wins, as the yellow jersey is a race win.
Team rankings and Team time trial results aren't listed.
Edited by Rin on 09-10-2012 11:40
After a quite disappointing season 2010 where we reached the 23rd place at the team ranking and our best rider was Ciolek ranked 44th, we hope that our team doesn't fall into pieces because we expect that we won't have as much money as last season, so Capri-Sonne won't sponsor us anymore. We would like to be more international, so the new central is in Denmark. We won't be that sprint team, we would like to have more other specialists like time-trialists and rider for mountain stages or classics. We are open for loan offers like last season.
We are searching for (riders):
german, netherlandish, belgian
regardless of nationality:
helpers (flat 68+, mountain 66+, hill 67+ and stamina 67+)
mountain riders (over 77)
hill riders (over 77)
Spoiler:
Thanks a lot to Maximka
Edited by Rin on 12-03-2011 11:51
So the renewals are done and so this is the pre-transfer roster: Koldo Gil 210.000€ Jakob Fuglsang 50.000€ Gerald Ciolek 200.000€ David Kopp 90.000€ Markus Eichler 80.000€ Jörg Jaksche 50.000€ Felix Odebrecht 50.000€ Stefan Radochla 50.000€ Björn Schröder 50.000€ Dennis Haueisen 50.000€ Rémi Pauriol 50.000€ Geoffroy Lequatre 50.000€ Jérémie Allain 50.000€ Klaas Vantornout 50.000€ Jude Libert 50.000€ Brett Lancaster 50.000€ Artemio Moschella 50.000€ Piet Rooijakkers 60.000€ Wladimir Gustov 50.000€ Jíri Hochmann 60.000€ Martin Elmiger 55.000€
So these riders are free agents: Sergiu Cioban Robert Hunter Phillip Walsleben Alessandro Petacchi Eric Baumann Grischa Janorschke Daniel Thorsen
retired: Stuart O'Grady
We are open to offers, every rider is transferable
Edited by Rin on 07-03-2010 22:00
And as the transfer season is running, Team LEGO can announce 10 new riders:
Spoiler:
Andreas Stauff
The first signing is Andreas Stauff, he's very young and he looks very promising. We hope that our sprint department will win some more stages and a flat classic. Also he is eligible for the brand new criterium season this year, we hope that he can get some top 5 places.
Spoiler:
Andreas Matzbacher
Another Andreas in the team, but this time it's the austrian Andreas Matzbacher. He will support the mountain deparment as Fuglsang was traded.
Spoiler:
Luke Roberts
Luke Roberts will support the sprinting and time trial department of the team. He is very experienced and as he can lead out and time trial a bit, he could be very useful for us.
Spoiler:
Dimitri Claeys
Dimitri Claeys is a very strong for the hilly classics and uphill finishes. With this season we bought more riders with very high skill at steep hills, he is definetly one of the strongest riders of this team and we hope that he will get many many points. Björn Schröder was traded to Domina Vacanze for Claeys.
Spoiler:
Hubert Schwab
Hubert Schwab will be with Koldo Gil our spearhead at the mountains, he can help Gil but he will get some own races where he could prove himself, we hope that we are now a bit stronger at the mountains and maybe get a stage win at the mountains. Remi Pauriol was traded to Domina Vacanze for Schwab.
Spoiler:
Piotr Mazur
Now we have at least 1 time trialist at the team as we just loaned Haijun Ma and it's Piotr Mazur. With Javier Aramendía, we hope that both could really help us to improve our deficit at time trials last season. He was bought for 75.000€ from the Pro Tour top-team Vesuvio-Accumalux.
Spoiler:
Maxime Monfort
Last seasons "Seine-Marne-Seine" pro tour race winner Maxime Monfort joins Team LEGO and will be the spearhead of the hill department at our team. We think that he will definetly get a lot of points for the team as we would like to reach the Top 10 this season and we hope that he will win a CT-race.
Spoiler:
Javier Aramendía
Javier Aramendía is a young and good time trialist. We hope that he will get with Piotr Mazur a good place at the Duo Normand and the Isle of Men ITT. But we think that he will also present decent results at the stage race time trials.
Tommy Zaini
Tommy Zaini is a promising young talent for the uphill finishes and hill classics. He was a free agent as the IrnBru-RBS team was disbanded. As he is also eligible for the Criterium Season, we think that he will get at least 1 win.
Edited by Rin on 28-03-2010 12:32
This is a very very nice setup! If you don't want comments, just get them to delete this, just had to compliment it. Looks absolutely beautiful, well done!
Manager of Team Festina
Thank you very much
As it's the media and team thread, everyone can post there
And now the last brick of the LEGO building arrived and it's Frantisek Rabon, the current czech champion. He is strong at short uphill sections and as a bonus he is for this a decent sprinter and fights as much as he can. We hope that he will complete the hill section of the team, as Claeys is the strongest, Monfort better for some hill/mountainious classics, Rabon for some short hill classics which could end in a group sprint and Zaini a helper and definetly a rider for the future and for the Criterium Series.
LEGO won't extend their contract with Man-Game license holder ACRT (Adrian Cycling Racing Team) as the contract will run out this season. ACRT is optimistic to find another sponsor as the team is doing well at the moment and was a lot better then last season.
At the moment we can't say which rider will be free agent this transfer season. We would like to keep as many important riders as we can. But like last season every rider is available if ACRT gets a good trade offer.
Edited by Rin on 19-02-2011 13:08
Piotr Mazur was seen yesterday on a training ride, but not in his usual team uniform.
As the local media couldn't identify which jersey he wore, they released a photo.
Announcement for the 2012 season
We are delighted to present the new jersey and sponsors for the next season 2012:
We would like to present a strong team for 2012 and would like to be invited to some ProTour races next season if we don't promote this season.
I can say that we are interested in getting a grand tour rider and would transfer one or two of the sprinters as we have many sprinters but aren't pleased with the performances in this and last season.
We would like to focus on riders from Germany, Belgium and Italy.
Edited by Rin on 26-02-2011 12:39
As we are heading soon to the contract renewals, the managers of the Team Bianchi had a meeting to talk about the last season and about the Pre-Contract renewals the team manager "Adrian of the Adriatic coast" said:
"We made wrong choices for the race plan in 2011, so we analysed that problem and we are hoping now that we can be better then just 10th. 10th was the season goal but now we are the best team that haven't promoted so we have to be definetly at least in the Top 5 2012."
About the 2011 season they also said:
"We are happy with the performance of the one-day classics riders so it will be sure that we will keep Monfort, Claeys, Rabon and Zaini. We aren't happy about the performances of the sprinters and we have to rethink in that area."
About the renewals they said:
"We are interested in holding many of the riders from this season, but it doesn't mean that other teams could have a rider. The deal has to be right. But for Monfort, Claeys, Rabon and Zaini.. That has to be a very good deal."
Asked about Ciolek:
"You haven't got to be a a rocket scientist that I am not happy with Ciolek this season.. At the first season he was with Gil the best rider but this season Gil was even good as last season but Ciolek definetly underperformed. The competition at sprints is at the Continental Tour very hard, maybe the best. This could be a "now or never" season for him with Bianchi 2012, but if there is a good deal I would let him go and have a stronger TT, mountain or even cobble rider."
About Gil:
"He was very good this season and won the spanish championship with his experience. But now he is getting older and so there is a risk that this season could be his last good season.."
About the cobbled races:
"The ProTour has the best cobble races, Paris-Roubaix is more interesting then Nokere-Koerse... I had at the 1st season Kopp and Eichler but they weren't that good at these races but performed very ok. I think there is a place for 1-2 riders which are good at cobbles."
About free agents:
"I think we are only hunting for domestiques as the free agent phase is everytime a time of stress. It's very painful to see that other teams bid for a rider you really would like to have. And it's even worse when there was only 2 hours or less to get him.."
So about transfers:
"Not one team talks about riders from other teams.. So I will break that taboo. If I have to make a top 3 in sprinting, cobbles etc. that would be my top 3 targets:"
I just thought of that you would deny these things on your team pages, but as you ruined it already :
It's just a talk not my main targets, just some "if I could" dreams nothing more
The Team Bianchi announced today it's goals and targets for the 2012 season.
1. Win Giro dell'Appellenio 2. Top 5 Tour de Pologne 3. Top 5 Strade Bianche 4. Top 5 Trofea Melinda 5. Top 5 Team Standings "We should be able to have a great 2012 campaign. As we have at the moment good and strong hill riders, so our main focus are the hill races.
As Bianchi would like to see good results in their country, we chose these races for our goals and at least Top 5 in every of these races should be achievable.
We had already a press release that we have to be this season in the Top 5, otherwise the season would be definetly disappointing. The team is good, has a good structure and we should have learned from the past 2 seasons.
Giro dell'Emilia Berlin ProRace Deutschland Tour Criterium Hainleite Tour de Luxembourg "We also expect of our team to do well in other races in Italy, Germany and Luxembourg. Especially in Germany we have our targets as the team central is there. And we would like to have a good mix of riders mainly from Germany and Italy so there are 3 german and 4 italian races with goals/targets. The main focus is definetly in hilly races, but we plan to expand our team in other areas."
Team Bianchi was very fast on the contract negotiations and we were able to hold the core team with dropping several riders but don't expect a big gun dropping.
Team 2012 Gerald Ciolek Andreas Stauff Felix Odebrecht Maxime Monfort Dimitri Claeys Klaas Vantornout Jude Libert Koldo Gil Javier Aramendía Frantisek Rabon Jíri Hochmann Tommy Zaini Artemio Moschella Geoffroy Lequatre Jérémie Allain Piet Rooijakkers Wladimir Gustov Andreas Matzbacher Hubert Schwab Piotr Mazur
Free Agents Martin Elmiger Brett Lancaster Luke Roberts Jörg Jaksche Stefan Radochla Renè Weissinger
Frederik Nolf declares his interest in riding for Team Bianchi. Team manager Andreas Jøhnke, has spoken that he might be willing to listen to offers, for his cobbled leader.
Manager of Team Festina
: