Congrats to Generali, the new champs, and the rest of the top 5 guaranteed promoters. Also pleased to see Carlsberg - Danske Bank survive the relegation battle, and hence avoid the loss of their sponsors. Of course, commiserations to those teams who ended up in the relegation zone. Season end is also an appropriate juncture to once more extend thanks to all the reporters and other actors behind the scenes of the Man-Game that keep us happily on the road.
WCC achieved our primary survival objective, with 17th being around where I thought we would likely end up pre-season. It was obvious this year that the overall standard of teams in PCT had risen, and this is reflected in how close the gaps are between teams throughout the majority of the table. WCC received concerted criticism from certain quarters pre-season who considered that the development focus had been sacrificed. Looking at the make up of the teams who have ended up relegated, they are in general the teams with the most wage cap commited to expensive development projects. WCC still have 8 non-maxed full-wage riders on our books, but had made an assessment that without a headline leader on the squad (and likely available during transfers), squad depth was instead the necessary recipe for survival. We think this thought process is correctly reflected at season end. Where we go from here has yet to be decided. Renewal negotiations will prove crucial in determining our future trajectory!
Well to call this season disappointing would be an unfair, we finished exactly where we expected. That said, the results of several of the races (ToA) were underwhelming and a single rider did outscore our entire team. Our young talents got to develop though and we look to put in a really strong CT season next year with this crop of talent we have developed.
Finally able to make a post, and am incredibly elated to make the jump up to PT. When we were in 1st midway through the season I was just hoping that when we began to drop down the rankings that we’d still be able to salvage a promotion spot, and we’ve managed that
Commiserations to the teams that are relegating, especially Netia and Lierse as two of the most active managers in the MG. Glad to see Carlsberg stay up, what an end to the season they had. Hopefully they can go onto greater things next season.
Congratulations to the other promoting teams! Generali were immense all season and by far the most deserving team to take the PCT crown. SPAR had an incredible season and appear to already have a good base to build off going into PT with riders like Denifl and Guerao. It’s also great to see us both promote together as the two SE Asian teams Repsol doing a Strava and going straight to the top in as little time as possible is great to see! I’m interested to see how they plan for the next season. Fablok having a great season too, we both promoted to PCT in the same season and it looks like we’re both going up to PT together too! They’re gonna need some luck during transfers along with a solid plan to completely rebuild their team for PT, as will we as our team is full of pensioners too. A very interesting transfer period to come it seems!
And for the team, Anuar Aziz finally showing how good he can be in his final season as a maxed rider. It was wonderful seeing him stick it to the objectively better punchers (except Lutsenko, of course) and do so well.
Goss was fantastic during the first half of the season, but trailed off and had an absolutely shocking second half of the season. He’s been great for Indosat nonetheless.
Keizer finally brought a bit of oomph that had been missing with Intxausti in seasons past. Still a little underwhelming though, with a few poor performances in the mountains and a bad ITT or two costing the team dearly at certain points. Wouldn’t be promoting without him though. Worth the astronomical fee. And now back to PT to race against his former team!
Just wanna say thanks to all that’s make the MG possible. It’s really a marvellous feat of what a bunch of random people can do spread out across different continents and time zones. So, thanks!
Edited by Eden95 on 04-08-2019 12:45
Indeed nice to see Keizer having an impact on your promotion run.
But as with me he is some kind of hit or miss switching between excellent performances, at times even on hilly stages and with underaverage performance in especially in his speciality.
Statwise he could reach so much more I feel but as long as he doesn`t perform as bad as some other riders, he is still a very decent rider in any team.
roturn wrote:
Indeed nice to see Keizer having an impact on your promotion run.
But as with me he is some kind of hit or miss switching between excellent performances, at times even on hilly stages and with underaverage performance in especially in his speciality.
Statwise he could reach so much more I feel but as long as he doesn`t perform as bad as some other riders, he is still a very decent rider in any team.
That basically describes Keizer this season, too. Good example would be the last stage of Catalunya where he led by over a minute after an ITT and on the last stage lost 2m10s in the last 2km of the stage to finish 3rd when there was no reason he should have. Similar things happened a few other times too. But then he beat Coppel in BR and rode exceptionally well in races like Vancouver so I guess you never know which Keizer’s gonna turn up for a race which keeps things interesting
Moment of truth....We finally reached our sole goal after joining the ManGame a few years ago and that goal was simply getting 1 season in PT. With that goal reached I look forward to getting a chance to work within a large wage budget and actually experience that experience.
We've been close to promotion each season, always missing that last element or what it seems to be that little extra nudge. Froome and Roche declined, while we only really got new signings that strengthened our depth while also adding Mikhail Ignatiev to the fold. With these seasons our predicted finishes has gone from the top of the pile to the bottom and amidst all this we still promoted!
Many have mentioned our old squad, which features only Guardini as a main leader that isn't over the decline age of 32. While I have a very good idea of what areas I will focus on and with many great examples of PT do-overs I think it's possible to stay in PT with a new freshly made squad. All our transfer funds have gone into buying old experienced leaders and amidst all this only a handful of talents, who has grown into important backup roles.
There's a big chance of us to fail with basically nothing to build upon, but that's just part of the fun. Also it's great that our little Polish project have nutured into all this. Not only us, as Netia and Kulczyk have believed in this project and hopefully can gain an advantage of having a Polish team in the PT
Speaking of other teams, Netia, really sad to see our Polish friends going down, but it's always been a long-term project, that now has to suffer because of being just that. I'm quite sure trek has learned a lot from this and will come back stronger. Kulczyk already doing great in the PCT in their first season is awesome to see and hopefully they can join the promotion fight next year.
Congratulations to all our "co-promoters" and hopefully our transfer season won't be too bloody. Thanks to all the reporters who managed to keep this season alive and hopefully still are able to next year.
Now it's time to enter the nearest panic room and come up with some elaborate plan to actually do this thing, PT here we go!
