Shoutout to Van Wilder too. Glad to see him with you
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." [PT] Xero Racing
Some great signings so far! Benoot obviously the pick of the bunch and that fee was indeed a really good deal! He'll be very good at PCT level. I was tempted to join the bidding war on Watson as he looks a really fun prospect. I'm glad Hesters has a good home with you Your other additions all appear to be smart business too.
@kb - Thank you, but really there's no reason why a nice rider like Watson couldn't do a little vacationing at the Renault camp, just to see how he likes it
@Nemo - Cheers Nemo, and thanks for contributing with the swap for Papanov. We'll take care of him. The Duvel backers are thrilled but the Tsingtao sponsors, on the other hand, are livid at the lack of intent to go all out to sign Chen Shikai, letting him wind up in CT of all places! But thank you for the kind words.
@Abhi, @jandal - BENOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT (and the other guys)
@knockout - Thank you, very pleased we were able to bring in Watson as well, but it only happened because we diversified the talent Pool by being Cruel to Max Poole...sorry
@LLS - A very warm, awkward Belgian/Chinese welcome to Jules Hesters. Thank you for raising such a nice young man, I'm sure he will get along with his new pals and we'll learn a lot about his real abilities this season!
After securing the signatures of Benjamin Thomasvia swap with Jura GIANTS, Daniel Hoelgaardvia swap with Tafjord Kraft and Noa Isidoreon 1>3 loan from Ekoi - Renault, all in week 2 of the transfer window, the Duvel - Tsingtao 2026 PCT team is set.
In the process, we also bid farewell to Alberto Bettiol, Willi Willwohl, Louis Blouwe, Zouzou Andriafenomananiaina, and Stan Van Tricht.
And with that, now it is time to present the 2026 Duvel - Tsingtao roster!
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
OVR
Age
Wage
Tiesj Benoot
71
75
78
81
63
75
74
74
76
69
71
62
66
62
77.88
32
370,000
Marcus Faglum Karlsson
71
79
76
73
73
78
75
76
56
60
68
66
74
79
76.49
32
240,000
Jules Hesters
75
61
63
64
60
74
75
79
72
78
78
63
67
60
75.82
28
125,000
Xianjing Lyu
67
75
76
77
65
75
76
74
50
63
74
71
74
67
75.68
28
135,000
Ilan Van Wilder
67
75
76
76
73
70
72
69
60
67
72
65
67
72
74.98
26
100,000
Daniel Hoelgaard
71
73
75
76
64
71
71
70
61
67
73
72
68
64
74.96
33
125,000
Mingrun Chen
69
77
75
73
62
73
77
77
56
65
72
61
66
62
74.88
30
90,000
Benjamin Thomas
73
56
61
66
78
75
73
70
64
74
79
64
66
79
74.87
31
115,000
Martin Papanov
68
76
75
73
73
73
73
76
54
65
67
68
66
77
74.75
27
85,000
Pierre Barbier
72
58
61
63
63
71
70
78
69
77
79
60
65
62
74.49
29
75,000
Yikui Niu
72
74
73
72
67
76
69
75
56
74
74
73
70
67
74.31
32
90,000
Stan Dewulf
74
66
69
71
67
75
76
70
72
70
71
76
69
66
73.51
29
70,000
Cristian Perez
73
63
65
67
76
73
73
72
69
66
68
75
69
76
73.17
27
55,000
Joris Nieuwenhuis
77
64
67
69
60
71
74
70
71
72
74
62
76
60
73.12
30
70,000
Samuel Watson
71
60
66
71
65
70
77
63
72
68
76
75
74
73
72.98
25
265,000
Laurenz Rex
72
61
64
70
65
72
72
66
72
68
72
73
76
64
72.58
27
75,000
Mathias De Witte
73
59
63
67
60
73
70
65
74
70
67
63
64
60
72.33
33
55,000
Cian Uijtdebroeks
66
73
72
70
71
73
72
73
55
57
64
62
69
70
72.02
23
295,000
Noa Isidore
68
65
67
68
62
70
67
63
71
67
73
71
71
68
71.09
22
350,000*
Jinyang Ju
70
59
63
66
73
68
68
71
59
58
64
64
62
73
69.90
23
50,000
*We pay £0 of Isidore's £350,000 salary
ANALYSIS
Clearly, we're delighted to secure some proper leadership in the form of Benoot and Hesters, both also ticking the domestic national focus. But we're also equally pleased to have strength in depth, both in the stage races (Chen and Papanov) and the hills (Van Wilder and Hoelgaard), as well as a decent sprint train for the first time in the form of Nieuwenhuis, Thomas and Barbier. Adding to that are some of the sneaky point scorers in the form of Niu and Dewulf, and you never know what the likes of Watson, Uijtdebroeks and Rex will muster up while they're still developing.
A lot of this team's success (or lack thereof) will come down to planning, particularly without a second MT leader in addition to Faglum Karlsson. Nonetheless, we believe that Benoot will be a significant improvement over both Bettiol and Stallaert, while team management also envisions some training for Lyu to turn him into a reasonable second option over the hills. Hesters will be a bit of a wildcard, as we hope his chunky backup stats may help him slightly overperform his fairly mediocre 78/78 sprint/accel combo.
This team has a bit of everything, which is how we like it, but we feel that schizophrenia in roster construction may also keep us away from promotion. A second year of stabilisation in PCT may be on the cards, but we quietly hope that we won't let Benoot down by ending his promotion streak.
Benoot is the clear ace of the team, but after that there are a lot of very good subtop riders and depth scorers. I imagine you won't be flirting with relegation nearly as much as last year
Benoot is ofc a great signing. Does this mean you promote this year?
I think in general you have a great depth but just lack a bit of top power behind Benoot to take the step towards promotion. Still some great riders here!
Benoot should be very good and very fun. I think you probably lack one more leader to ultimately promote, but should be much calmer in terms of safety.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
2026 TEAM PRESENTATION 
