Congrats on another ProTour title, certainly the achievement to take it three times in a row and certainly enough potential/will/methods to go for another title!
Congrats for third consecutive PT title! Amazing comeback in October when it looked like Moser had it wrapped. So i guess this is a good moment like any other to give you my bank account details?
We have assembled the best result of all races throughout our presence at the Man-Game, under the name of Festina (+/- something else). These are our best results in all races we have ever ridden. A lot of races have changed status throughout the years. The "Status" column shows at what level the result was achieved and the "Current" column shows at what level the race is currently ridden - if still on the calender.
Looking at the list, it looks very comforting. We have managed to win 9 and podium in 19 out of 25 possible PT races. For us, that is a massive achievement. Obviously winning 1 Grand Tour and 2 monuments is the most interesting for us.
What is revealed here is also that we struggle to make a real impact on the cobbled races. Except for Tour of Northern Europe we haven't managed to podium in ANY cobbled race on the current PT calender, despite having a total of 9 seasons to do so! That hurts, and will have to change in the future.
After winning the Tour de France 2017 we are now looking at the Giro d'Italia where our best ever result is 4th, back in 2015! Despite often proving to have a quality leader for most terrains we have simply lacked the final quality. This is also something that we obviously would like to change.
Certainly three in a row is a record, so congratulations for that! Always interesting to see how much thought, planning and analysis goes into the game, and your team has consistently paid you back for that in these last few seasons. And if anywhere made the difference in particular this season, it was certainly the PTHC category.
It will be interesting to see where you go from here, even with changes, you'll no doubt still be up there.
Ahh crap. I guess I'll have to wait another year for my transition then
Thanks a lot, though
Roman wrote:
Hard work in the off-season pays off. Interesting to see Tom David almost as successful as was expected from you before the season. Poor boy was surely criticized during the season too much from you!
One take from this for me: It looks like I really need to improve my team in the area of secondary leaders. Riders like Vasyliv or Vlatos made quite a difference for your total points count. Will be interesting to find out what you have in your mind for the next year.
He sure was poor though - It was only 2 lucky stagewins (on semi hilly terrain) that made him reach the goal (almost).
Yeah and this season they didn't even perform that well. Last season Piter Campero, Jakub Novak, Charalampas Kastrantas and Olivier Le Gac did even better, than what I have managed to do this time around.
Well it isn't much of a secret that I want to turn the team more french than it has been this season. We have only had 6 French riders this season. One on loan and the other on heavy decrease of stats. So we need to start rebuilding - preferably talents, but if that isn't possible, then push for the bigger names. Maybe both.
Also we might start looking for a new secondary solution, as Greece isn't fed with sufficiently strong riders to be useful. It was different when I could have Vlatos, Tzortzakis and Kastrantas, but Tzortzakis is on decline, and neither Kastrantas nor Vlatos are suitable options for further training. I have signed Bouglas and Farantakis from the FA, both being so poor that no one else wanted them. There are a couple of CT or PCT level domestiques, but nothing that is really viable as development riders. Fully maxed, sure, but wasting 2-3 seasons for them to be less than my current domestiques, isn't good enough.
So definately looking for other options. I have a few on my mind already, but it depends on the amount of frenchies I can sign
Marcovdw wrote:
Congrats on another ProTour title, certainly the achievement to take it three times in a row and certainly enough potential/will/methods to go for another title!
Thanks a lot! The will to go for a 4th isn't really there I think. I was already at a turning point last season, where I really wanted to start reshaping things, but the record was holding me from changing my ways. Going hard on for a 4th would just be greedy I feel. And to think I would come 2nd instead, I would feel like having wasted a season.
So definately no chance for a Festina 4-in-a-row. We will instead try to build for a new period of 2 in-a-row team
Aquarius97 wrote:
Congrats for third consecutive PT title! Amazing comeback in October when it looked like Moser had it wrapped. So i guess this is a good moment like any other to give you my bank account details?
Thanks a lot. Indeed, things looked sealed at one point. I don't think anyone realistically thought we would go on to take 1-2 in Tasmania, let alone win in Lombardia. So because of those extraordinary results, it ended up looking quite comfortable. In reality we should probably have scored similar to Moser in Lombardia and then scored something like 350-400 points in Tasmania rather than 600+.
