I must admit, I was not very high on your chances to stay up this year, and you proved me wrong. Up and down the lineup, I can see a lot of guys hitting their marks.
Stussi to me was the X-Factor as a successful GC guy I would not have had PT faith in beforehand. Plus Kaden proved to be a phenomenal signing, and Ed proved he had one more great campaign in him. On the other hand, Cees Bol might be your public enemy number one, and he did underperform, but sprinters in that tier are always volatile. Looks like Szarka picked you up!
Yeah, I guess many were surprised by us staying up - and so am I, at least somewhat. I'm not that surprised by Stüssi's performance tbh - he already showed in last year's wildcard Giro that he can be a rock solid GT rider. And Chiarello wasn't very different stats-wise, so these Top10-15 spots were looking pretty realistic to me.
For me, it's Groves and Schmid who made the difference. I mean, Groves didn't win a lot, but he won the Nederland GC and the Maillot Vert, so really big wins. And Schmid was probably sometimes ignored due to having just 79Hi, but in some of the races where he was considered an outside favourite he did really well.
The offseason will be interesting, with Eddie surely no longer being leader material, and one of the sprinters likely being on the move - we'll see how it goes
Took a while to read (most of) it but great overview in your riders performance. I was amongst the doubters but cool to see you overperfoming (yours and mine) expectations quite a bit. Stüssi and Groves might have been key riders in that but your post shows quite well that almost the whole squad contributed nicely with very few down riders. Congrats on a good season!
Thanks for the congrats!
It's true that we had quite some good contributors, but it's also pretty clear that the depth approach in TT-heavy races doesn't work as well as it did in PCT - just due to the competition being so much stronger. We'll see what we can do about that in the next couple of weeks, to improve our chances of staying up again
Team History Update
Except for National and International Championships, the season is done and dusted. And after having taken a close look at the 2024 season, let's now take a step back and look at how this season compares to past ones - it's time for our history update!
Goals
It's a new category in our team history. And it's sadly not one we're particularly proud of. Because our best outcome in this domain is a 3/5 in our 2nd season, the first time we promoted to PCT, as you can see in the graph:
This year was pretty much an average season, with 2/5 sponsor goals completed. Additionally, we were within 5 spots of the team standings target, which is also worth some credit by our sponsors.
Generally speaking, we haven't included partially achieved goals here, as they're hard to measure. For example, in our 2022 CT campaign, whereas we only completed 2 goals, we missed out on the three others by 1, 2 and 2 spots - it was our best "goals" season in some way, but not in terms of fully completed goals.
So this is an area where we clearly want - and need - to make progress in the future, as we think at least 3/5 would be needed on a longer term to get enough sponsor support to sustain a PT team. We'll see if we can get it done next year already!
Wins
We did have some big wins this year. We got our first wins in a PTHC classic, in a PTHC stage, PT stage, PT stage race and GT stage! Which leaves us with a PTHC stage race, PT classic, monument and GT that we still have to achieve in terms of race wins.
And of course, our biggest achievement - at least in terms of sponsor attention - was Groves' win of the Maillot Vert, which he claimed on the very final meters of the 2024 Tour de France!
So, some big highlights - but what about the raw numbers? Let's take a look:
So, looking only at race wins - the first 3 categories - the 2024 season was the worst year in team history! Last year's 6 stage wins were already a low in that category - we "topped" that by getting only 5 this year. At least, two of them were prestigious GT stage wins, though.
But we did at least win a GC again, with the Ronde van Nederland, after having narrowly missed out on some occasions last year. The one classic win - by Mauro Schmid - was already more than expected without a world beater on board, but obviously very welcome.
Still, only 7 wins "on the road" are less than what we were hoping for - in particular considering our pretty solid sprinters. Groves got 3 stage wins, Szarka 1 (more than expected) - and Bol none. There's still some room to improve - but we'll also need some more firepower to claim more race wins next year!
At least we got 4 "jerseys" - special classification win would actually be more accurate, as we also include team standings there. Whereof we got 1, in Tirreno. One white jersey by Vernon in Praha - and two green jerseys by Groves, the one in the Netherlands and then obviously the Maillot Vert!
Overall, it was our season with the most race days - yet the 2024 season is tied for the least amount of wins across all categories. Which isn't overly surprising as a newly promoted team, but it definitely shows that we'll have to get better next year!
When speaking of next year: Summing up all these wins (which excludes Avenir and NCs), we currently hold at 94. So the goal must be to get win #100 next year - we really hope we can do it!
Points
When you get to race your first year in PT, with granted points in all PT+ race categories, it's pretty obvious what the result has to look like - and so it does:
It was our highest scoring season by far, scoring slightly more than 6,000 points!
But let's start at the beginning - even though it might not look - nor feel - that way, it was actually the 6th consecutive season where we increased our points total - meaning in every single year since the team foundation! It's pretty obvious that this streak can't go on for much longer (hopefully 1-2 more years, though), but we think it's a pretty good sign for our team building approach!
The 2021 PCT season still was an outlier, as it was the only year where our PpRD decreased - just 43 points more than the year before in CT, but more RDs to spend, resulting in a lower efficiency.
Let's recall that the improvement from 2022 compared to 2020 is somewhat noteworthy, as with the disappearance of the C2HC category that year the potential points on the table for CT teams clearly went down - and so did the number of RDs that year - yet we still easily outscored our 2020 season and even improved our PpRD by almost 2.5 points!
Then we have the two big steps upwards, which make our first 4 seasons look pretty bad (a predicate we'd only accept for our very first year). From winning CT to finishing 2nd in PCT to getting 13th in PT - it has been an amazing journey these last three years, and the points confirm that!
So, it's two years in a row we had to clearly rescale this chart - will we have to do the same next year? It would be great news - but even if we end up in the 6,000 - 7,000 range, we'd most likely be very happy about that!
Rider History Update
The first part was all about the team, let's take a closer look at the riders now. We've kept track of a number of statistics - sadly not as much as other managers, who even track rider breakaway appearances, but still enough to get some interesting facts!
Rider Nationalities
Well, it's not about individual riders just yet, but let's still take a look at which bigger or smaller cycling nations we've already got covered! Guessing our #1 will probably too easy of a task - but what about the next countries?
Nation
Number
23
9
6
4
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
So that's 76 riders from 27 nations riding for us so far - with Switzerland obviously having the biggest representation, with almost 1/3 of all riders!
In 2024, we had three new nations in this list, with Odie and Rohendi being our first Indonesians, Paprstka our first Czech - and Groves our first Aussie! The latter obviously was our biggest signing of the year, as we'll see later, but the others also had some valuable contributions.
Italy being our 2nd most represented nation shouldn't be too surprising for those still knowing that we started as a Swiss-Italian team, with Fiat being on board for the first 3 season - which is half of our existence!
France is #3, which pretty much confirms our strategy to sign as many riders as possible from Switzerland and surrounding countries. We only had two Germans and Austrians each so far, though, Mundle was our sole Liechtensteiner so far.
Seeing Greece in 4th place already might be surprising, but this is due to the fact that we made some great experiences with loaning in riders from SotD's teams, so that's the reason.
How many nations will be added next year? The goal is still to have a Swiss core, but being in PT we also have to ensure we have a shot at staying up, and then we can't always look at a rider's flag as long as he can net us big points!
Rider Loyalty
The sad news first: it took us only 6 years to have no more rider from our inaugural season on board! With Manuel Stocker leaving last offseason - getting much more points for Genii than he could have scored for us - we don't have any single rider who did 6/6 years for us, as you can see from this table:
You see that Stocker was even the only rider doing the first 5 years for us, or riding for us during 5 seasons at all.
But Bissegger, Masnada and Szarka also had a contract with us for 5 years, they just were loaned out for 1 or 2 seasons respectively. Both Bissegger and Szarka might add another year, which would make them the most loyal riders.
Actually, however, this title would belong to Gino Mäder. We signed him in our very first season, and he stayed with us for 4 years (thereof one loaned out to PT). After his IRL death, he was replaced 1:1 in the game by Valentin Darbellay, who is still riding for us. So it's the same rider, but with two different identities, who has been with us since the start.
Otherwise, it's 3rd year signings Schmid, Rekita and Brunel who are already at 4 seasons with Jura (Brunel having been loaned out for his maxing season). The former might end up spending most of his career with us, we'll see what that means in terms of seasons.
You can also see three riders with a leading 0, which are Vendrame, Sommer and Christen. Vendrame was loaned out for 2 seasons - and then was sold, so he never wore our jersey. Sommer has also been loaned out in the last two years, but will hopefully ride for us in 2025 - the same holds for Christen who had to be loaned out for his first development step in 2024.
Rider Activity
The list of RDs is obviously pretty similar to the loyalty list, but counting actual races and not contract years. The difference being that loaned-out years are accounted for with zero race days. So what does this look like?
Given that he was the only rider to actually race 5 years for us, Stocker still holds the prime spot (again, it would have been Mäder, if not... you know). But Bissegger and Rekita are pretty close - at least for the former there really are no plans to trade him, so it's very likely that he'll take the lead by the end of 2025.
Schmid actually should have a slight advantage over Bissegger, given that he was maxed in-house and hence potentially has one additional season to race for us. But the disadvantage of having a higher OVL value is far bigger than the advantage of in-house development, so even if he should stay with us for his entire career, he'll probably never lead this list.
Two team legends in Reinhardt and Theuns just didn't make it to 100 RDs, both stopping at 99 - at least the latter could still have a chance of making it above the spoiler next year.
Rider Wages
We're getting to the more interesting facts now... This one is all about money - and can you guess who has earned the most of it so far?
For simplicity, we just took the "contract wages" here, so even if we didn't pay the full wage of our loaned-out riders, we counted it fully - and we took 0 for loaned-in riders.
The current leader is Mauro Schmid, as you can see, making almost 1M during the four season he's already been with us. Masnada earned a bit less despite being under contract for 5 years. And in 3rd place, we already have Groves for whom we clearly overspent this year, but we still think it was a good investment.
Eddie Theuns actually got as much money in two years as Quintana in one, but clearly outscored the latter. And look at Stüssi's less than 500k in 3 seasons, definitely a great price for the amount of points he scored! OK, to be fair, he got trained in 2022, otherwise his wage would surely have been higher back then already.
Stüssi has made the jump to the top! 3 seasons were enough to outscore former leader Masnada's total - but to be fair, Colin had the big advantage of riding in PT this year. Still, he rode very consistently in the last three years and definitely deserves to be in the spotlight for now!
Eddie Theuns scored only 70 points less in 2 years, and if he was a couple of years younger, he'd definitely be a candidate to take the prime position. But being two years past his prime now, it's more than questionable that he could outscore Colin next year - if both stay on the team, obviously.
But even if both are staying, there are some good chances for Mauro Schmid to move past both of them! With 851 points, he got the 2nd best season result so far (with Theuns getting the 3rd best, nota bene!), and we're hoping for him to do even better in the future! Given that he's so much younger than both Stüssi and Theuns, it's pretty likely that he could set the bar for quite some time - unless we sign a true superstar!
Masnada dropped down to 4th place after being traded - looking at the gap, he might have retained the lead had he stayed on the team. But he's gone, and we definitely hope he can bring Kraftwerk back to PCT next season!
Moscon also lost 3 spots, being our 5th and final rider so far above 1,000 points. 1,000 points, that's the next goal for a season result, and Groves already got pretty close to that mark, posting our highscore so far with 943 points! If he gets some training, he might even challenge Schmid for taking the lead here - we'll see where his journey leads!
Reinhardt is still in 7th place, even though he only was with us in 2020 and 2021. He still has our highest individual CT score with 596 points - although to be fair that was with the old points scale and RDs, so we're pretty sure that Stüssi would have outscored him in 2022 under similar circumstances. Still, he's a team legend as our first ever GC winner, and we love to look back to these good old times!
Despite still being an active rider, Rekita lost two spots this year, with both Schmid and Groves flying past him. He scored even less points than back in the 2022 CT years, so PT might really just be a level too high for him...
Quintana was dethroned last year by Theuns for the highest PCT score, but his 563 points in 2021 are still enough for a Top 10 spot currently. But Errazkin and Küng should definitely pass him next year if both stay on the team - even Darbellay and maybe Brunel might do so.
Another notable result is the one of Ethan Vernon, who scored 136 points, making him our best loaned-in rider ever! Our other 2024 loanee, Berthet, gets #2 in this special ranking - having scored less than half of Ethan's points. Which confirms that going for Ethan and even paying his wage was a good decision!
Rider Points/Wage
Whereas the total points ranking is probably the most prestigious one, the points/wage list shows the "cheapest" scorers, or let's call them the most efficient ones! And who do you think tops this list?
Are you surprised? So are we! Marcel Aregger rode for us in our 2022 CT campaign, and he really did an amazing job - more than 4 points per € 1,000 of wage, and this in CT, is an outstanding result!
Back to the riders for whom we don't need a fictional wage, though. We already said over and over again that Stüssi is an incredibly reliable scorer - this list confirms that statement again. It's really sad that he'll already turn 32...
Lorenzo Delcò is another pretty surprising name up there, but it's just a result of his awesome versatility. Eddie Theuns was our 2nd "extended world class" rider after Quintana, and he did an awesome job as well!
Rekita and Setiawa are other riders currently on the team who scored really well, even though the former did even far better in the two previous seasons. To our surprise, Darbellay also makes the Top 10 - with his 2023 result however being more valuable than the 2024 outcome.
It's not very surprising that none of the riders we developed from level 1 are high up in this list, given that the first 2-3 years usually are pretty low-return years. Mauro Schmid is the only one scoring more than 1 point / 1k€ so far - which is still pretty remarkable, given that his wage was pretty high already in his maxing season, where he didn't score too big. He'll probably never make the top of this list, but we'll see where he can end up!
Rider PpRD
The final list is the PpRD one. It's another measure of efficiency - not linked to salary this time, but to the number of RDs spent. This one again penalizes self-developed talents - so can you figure out who comes out on top?
This one probably wasn't too hard. Groves just scored our second highest PpRD in team history, and he was riding for us just this one season so far - making him the relatively clear #1 here!
But Eddie Theuns actually isn't even that far behind, despite his first decline! He was even able to better his 2023 score after having lost some of his skills, so this 14.19 PpRD value is pretty great!
Despite having been a bit disappointing in 2021, Quintana still didn't have an awful season, and his PpRD of clearly above 10 was actually fine - it was his 600k wage that was too much for this amount of points, though.
Stüssi then is the first 100+ RD rider in the list, getting a PpRD of almost 10 despite spending a year each in CT and PCT, before finally entering PT in 2024! Reinhardt also did a good job, given that he only rode CT and PCT, but still wasn't far off that 10 PpRD mark!
Moscon then is the final rider who stands a bit above the rest, having an almost 2 PpRD advantage over Masnada who's the next rider - and the first one having spent more than 200 RDs for us.
And then, our first talent. Our best talent so far, without any doubt - and despite his 3 low-scoring years of development, Mauro Schmid already has a PpRD of more than 5! Which obviously is mostly thanks to his 20+ PpRD in 2024, the best ever value in team history so far! He should eventually be able to increase that value to 10+, but we'll see.
We'd also have Bol in the Top 10 after the 2023 season - but after his horrible 2024, he only just makes the Top 15 now, even dropping behind cobbles domestique Paprstka...
And that's it for this year! Stay tuned for another history update in roughly 12 months time - but we hope to see you sooner than that! We'll end this 2024 HQ with a NC/WC update, but depending on MGUCI timings we'll already welcome you in our 2025 headquarters before that! Stay tuned!
Feels like Schmid had a pretty good year, even if he didn't match Vansevenant and Pidcock. He and Groves are a nice base for years to come.
Evidence of our more modest team trajectory that you have 5 riders over 1,000 points to my one - who would be 6th on your list (Kuss 1,043). Although selling McNulty has an impact there.
Feels like Schmid had a pretty good year, even if he didn't match Vansevenant and Pidcock. He and Groves are a nice base for years to come.
Evidence of our more modest team trajectory that you have 5 riders over 1,000 points to my one - who would be 6th on your list (Kuss 1,043). Although selling McNulty has an impact there.
Good luck next year.
Yeah, I guess his season was pretty good - he landed pretty much where he should have according to OVL. Still don't know what was missing compared to Vansevenant in particular to not even score half of the latter's points - probably a little bit everywhere, including race planning.
Will see if we can train Groves, guess that could be quite fun. But Swiss riders will have top prio of course. As you say, Schmid and Groves should be a good base for the future, no matter whether we're in PT or PCT.
To be fair, you didn't even give Holloway the chance to get to 1,000 points - if I remember correctly, he scored about the same amount of points in 2019 as Groves in 2024 - in CT, nota bene (with more RDs, admittedly, but still) ^^ McNulty would also be there, as you mentioned - and I'm sure you'll get quite some more
Good luck for you, too - and hopefully you'll be off to a better start and not have think about relegation even just for a second!
NC Update
The 2024 National Championships are finally done and dusted, with our home races being the last ones to take place.
We can say that we had a fairly successful campaign; after getting just two titles last year (Tediashvili and Rekita), we doubled this amount in 2024, with the following riders being successful:
Stefan Bissegger - ITT Kaden Groves - RR Szymon Rekita - ITT Tomas Paprstka - RR
Dillier's reign in the Swiss ITTs is definitely over now! Bissegger just beat him by fractions this year, being only our 2nd Swiss ITT champion, after Mäder in 2022 (where Dillier and lots of others were absent, though). Great job, Stefan - now we just have to make sure he won't get overtaken by Blum too soon!
Kudos also to Stefan Küng for taking 2nd place in the cobbled RR, which we never were going to win. Hoping for a better terrain next year!
Groves dominated the Australian RR, as could more or less be expected. Unlike the Tour's Green jersey, which he only wore on the podium in Paris, he'll wear the Aussie NC jersey all year long - unless he gets some more points jerseys, of course!
Rekita took another win in the Polish ITT, with Sjanok and Marchewka being his main rivals, as in the last couple of years. 2 more to go for him?
Last but not least, we did acutally win a cobbled NC race, with Paprstka taking the Czech RR title! It's kind of sad that he'll decline next year, so it remains to be seen how often we'll actually see that jersey at the front of the peloton - but great job nonetheless!
And that's it from our 2024 headquarters! In 2025, we've decided to resize our content manager's mandate, meaning that there will be less content - but hopefully more money to be spent on our roster! We're hoping for another great season for the Jura GIANTS - stay tuned and see you soon at the new HQ!
Congrats on a terrific season. Outside of Isostar's threepeat, I can't think of many three year stretches that strike me as more impressive than your back-to-back promotions into this very safe and solid PT finish. And all that without a big star putting the rest of the team on its back (or perhaps because of it), and instead simply well-rounded team building and smart planning.
I'm also looking forward to reading those history and statistics posts once I find some time for them Always very interesting.
Congrats on a terrific season. Outside of Isostar's threepeat, I can't think of many three year stretches that strike me as more impressive than your back-to-back promotions into this very safe and solid PT finish. And all that without a big star putting the rest of the team on its back (or perhaps because of it), and instead simply well-rounded team building and smart planning.
I'm also looking forward to reading those history and statistics posts once I find some time for them Always very interesting.
Thanks. It's also my impression that our run was pretty cool. CT win, 2nd in PCT, then safely staying in PT. I guess for a new team it would have been even more impressive - I mean, I still remember Los Pollos' debut with back-to-back promotions, but it also meant they didn't have enough time to build a solid base that's really needed for PT.
Definitely happy with what we have achieved in our first 6 years - winning CT and the Tour de France Maillot Vert within 3 season surely is a highlight. Now we'll see how we can handle the first gentle rebuild that will be needed, with Theuns clearly on the decline now and Stüssi and Küng about to decline as well...
Should be an interesting transfer season for us
