You really undersold how good the renewals were! Plenty of space to work transfers from multiple angles. We'll see this team continue to go from strength to strength i'm sure!
You really undersold how good the renewals were! Plenty of space to work transfers from multiple angles. We'll see this team continue to go from strength to strength i'm sure!
If you say so... I think it was solid, and both Schmid's OVL drop and Groves' inflated FA wage (and Christen's as well) helped to get the wage down. Still not much of an idea what I'll do with that free cap space, in particular given that many other teams seem to be in a similar situation. But I hope transfers will be more fun than last year
World Championships Update
It looks like we closed our previous HQ a bit prematurely - before all the World Championship races were done, that is.
Well, while we knew that in particular one of our riders might do pretty well in the final road race, the previous results were not convincing at all:
- The TTT was even completely awful, with France (Brunel) only finishing 7th - and Switzerland (Bissegger, Küng, Darbellay, Stüssi) taking an unacceptable 11th place. Poland (Rekita, Marchewka) were even further behind in 13th place, definitely not a good race for our riders.
- Our two Indonesians were competing in the B race, but with 31st (Rohendi) and 40th (Odie) place, they were anonymous. None of their teammates could get even close to winning the race, either, so no A race for them.
- None of our riders qualified for the U23 ITT this year, definitely a low for us.
- Our best talent Christen wasn't selected for the U23 RR, either, so we only had Page in this race. He did pretty well, finishing 23rd, definitely some promising signs that couldn't be expected on a hilly course!
- The Elite ITT wasn't any good, either, with Rekita probably having the worst day of the season, not even making the Top 30 (whereas he even was Top 10 in some races this year...). Bissegger (35th), Küng (37th) and Vernon (41st) weren't more successful, either.
But it was definitely worth waiting for the final race of the year - the Elite Road Race! 7 of our riders were selected for this event: Kaden Groves Xuban Errazkin Ethan Vernon Gergely Szarka Cees Bol Mauro Schmid Colin Stüssi
Which means that all of our sprinters were in this race - and Kaden Groves and Cees Bol were even part of the breakaway of the day!
Kaden Groves leading the BotD.
And that break lasted long, very very long! Kaden Groves surprisingly was the last man standing, getting caught with a little more than 20km left. And it took some serious attacks to catch them - Pidcock, Vansevenant, Yates, Kudus - all tried their luck in vain, but it still led to the group being caught.
And with 8km to go, the Swiss team made a big move:
Marc Hirschi on the attack!
The attack didn't stick, but it sure hurt everyone, and in particular those who didn't have any helpers left. There were still three Swiss riders in the group, though - besides Hirschi, Mauro Schmid and Colin Stüssi made the split as well. And going into the finale, in particular Schmid was really well positioned in about 5th place.
And when the group reached the red kite, it was clear that Mauro had some big plans for today:
Mauro Schmid taking MAL's wheel for the final sprint!
And Mauro definitely was on fire, as he really managed to follow MAL on this really steep hill! And he even tried getting past him:
Mauro Schmid trying to grab the win on the final meters!
Mauro Schmid being narrowly beaten by MAL...
In the end, it was a really close call - and Mauro almost did it! But MAL was just a little bit too strong on this day, surely also thanks to a great Colombian team perfectly launching him.
But hey: Mauro Schmid is Vice World Champion! A Silver medal in an individual event - we've definitely never seen that, and it's absolutely amazing! We knew that this was a route for Mauro, sure. But we also knew that he failed in quite some races with well-suited routes this year. Not today. Today, he did a perfect job, and this 2nd place is so far more than what we could expect - only one rider was stronger, which we have to accept - and it's a result that Mauro can be very, very proud of!
Of course, it stings a little bit that he couldn't gain the final inches to overtake MAL. But we never expected this fantastic result, and so after a couple of days, it's definitely a really big story for Mauro and our team! Congratulations to MAL on the title - but congratulations as well to Mauro - and the Swiss team, with Hirschi perfectly playing the co-leader part - as well, as that was a truly outstanding result!
By the way, Stüssi and Hirschi finished 30th and 31st. Groves and Bol also made the Top 100, which Errazkin surprisingly missed out on. Vernon and Szarka finished way back, as expected. But all of the were still pretty happy after the race, given their teammate's outstanding performance!
So, that definitely wraps up the 2024 season. We know you're all waiting for our availability list at this point - you'll have to wait for a couple more days, but it will come for sure! See you then, stay tuned! And don't expect Mauro's availability to be overly high after his latest performance...
You had a great renewals, and are looking very strong to push for an even better season this year, than the last with a few smart moves - which I'm sure you'll do! A great write-up btw!
And awesome recap of the World's, and a big congrats on the somewhat surprising result. But I'm contemplating that we'll better get used to that after the end of the transfers
A fantastic ride from Schmid! The good news is that he is young enough to see at least two more opportunities to take the rainbow jersey on a hilly parcour. Maybe a little bit of training is all he needs to get across the line?
You had a great renewals, and are looking very strong to push for an even better season this year, than the last with a few smart moves - which I'm sure you'll do! A great write-up btw!
And awesome recap of the World's, and a big congrats on the somewhat surprising result. But I'm contemplating that we'll better get used to that after the end of the transfers
Well, I'm not that sure about the "smart moves" - there weren't many of those last year, just some luck with Groves in the end
I'd obviously love to give Schmid some good stat bump, but we'll have to see what can be done in terms of sales - and at the same time still strengthening the roster. I don't have any experience (apart from my CT relegation) with this scenario, though, so it will surely be an interesting couple of days
A fantastic ride from Schmid! The good news is that he is young enough to see at least two more opportunities to take the rainbow jersey on a hilly parcour. Maybe a little bit of training is all he needs to get across the line?
Not sure if "a little bit" will be enough when facing the likes of Areruya, Vansevenant, Valter for quite some years
But definitely agree, it was a fantastic race on a perfectly suited course, in particular with acceleration and maybe sprint being pretty important in the end as well.
Rider Availability
After renewals come transfers - and traditionally the transfer availabilities are listed prior to the start of the craziest ten days of the year.
Also traditionally, we didn't do a lot of sales. Well, with 7 riders being aged 30+, we better do some deals this year, in order to rejuvenate our roster.
We do already have quite some room in terms of cap space - but if we want to not only rejuvenate, but also strengthen our roster, we'll need some money. And to get money, we'll have to sell. Whom? We'll see.
Here's our initial take on which riders should be the most likely to leave, followed by some more details about the "more available" riders:
Rider
2025 Wage
Availability
Mauro Schmid
420'000 €
•
Kaden Groves
470'000 €
••
Cees Bol
155'000 €
•••••
Colin Stüssi
180'000 €
••••
Xuban Errazkin
145'000 €
••••
Gergely Szarka
135'000 €
•••
Valentin Darbellay
115'000 €
••
Alexys Brunel
110'000 €
•••
Stefan Bissegger
105'000 €
••
Teten Rohendi
90'000 €
••
Stefan Küng
100'000 €
•••
Szymon Rekita
80'000 €
••••
Hugo Page
60'000 €
••
Lorenzo Delco
60'000 €
••
Filippo Colombo
50'000 €
••
AOP Setiawa
55'000 €
••
Krzysztof Marchewka
50'000 €
•••••
Christoph Janssen
50'000 €
••
Felix Stehli
50'000 €
••
Gabriel Chavanne
55'000 €
••••
Jan Sommer
50'000 €
••
Fabio Christen
150'000 €
•
•
Unavailable
••
Unlikely to leave
•••
Maybe, maybe not
••••
Likely to leave
•••••
Available
Probably something relatively new in our history - only two riders are basically sure to stay on board! They are Mauro Schmid, vice World Champion, and Fabio Christen, future Qatar contender. Both of them are considered to be centerpieces for the team's future.
Page is no longer completely unavailable, due to the signings of Christen and Groves last year - but we'd still love to keep him around. The same holds for the other developing talents, Stehli and Sommer - they also got a "Swiss bonus" to their (un-)availability.
Bissegger, Darbellay, Delco, Colombo and Janssen all are Swiss and young enough to stay for at least one more season, so we're reluctant to let go of any of them.
And despite not being Swiss, the same holds for our Indonesians, Rohendi and Setiawa. They're just way too useful to simply sell them - instead, we're making other riders available.
So let's take a closer look at the nine 3+ dot riders:
We still love Cees' skillset. He's such a well-rounded sprinter, keeping up over the hills, and then having a great engine for the sprint preparation.
However, the step up to PT was just a little bit too much for him. The 76th place (263 points) in our 2023 PCT season speaks much more about his great potential at a slightly lower level - a stage win in THE sprinter race, Circulo de Juarez - should be pretty convincing.
Moreover, we have two more great sprinters with Groves and Szarka, so we do think that the best for Cees' career would be to race in PCT or even CT this year - in particular in CT he could be quite a monster thanks to his great allround skills!
Cees will definitely be available, preferrably for cash (as pretty much all other riders), but we're open to any kind of deal!
Yes, a TTer! Krzysztof was an important part of our roster in CT, where he even got some podiums, and in PCT, contributing to many awesome TTT outcomes.
But in PT, with TTTs having less importance and the TTers field being so insanely deep, he lost a lot of his value for us.
And so we'd love to give him the chance to shine again in a lower division, as we believe that he could still do something great in particular in CT!
Moreover, the TTers market is pretty dry, so you better hurry up and get this very solid rider soon! We'll happily include him in a swap deal, but cash is still welcome, too!
Colin just doesn't stop surprising us! After a great 2022 CT season followed by a rock solid PCT year, he was amazing again last season! In every single race that he participated in, he finished in the Top 10 - be it the Giro, the Vuelta, Paris - Nice or the Tour de Suisse!
But yeah, he's unfortunately not getting any younger (otherwise you could remove at least two dots). Whereas we'd love to see him fighting for GT Top 10s once again, we also know that we need to think about the future. And so, Colin is one of our main candiates for a trade - despite being Swiss, despite his huge success.
However, whereas he's likely to lead, he won't be cheap. To get an idea of what we're expecting, you can take a look at last year's Faglum Karlsson deal - a rider Colin just beat two years in a row (first in PCT, then in PT), last year by almost 100 points. While this looks like a big investment, we're sure it's worth it for you!
In particular CT teams going for a promotion push should be really interested in getting the division's #2 back in 2022 - but as we've seen in the last three years, Colin just does a great job no matter the division!
You might be surprised to see a rider below the age of 30 so high on our availability list.
But let's be honest: with Mauro Schmid maxing, Xuban's role became kind of redundant for us. They're just too similar - with Mauro simply being better in most domains. And being relegated to a mere domestique just doesn't do justice to Xuban's great skillset!
We're sure that he can get some brilliant results thanks to his great versatility and energy - but not really in Mauro's shadow. So we'd mainly expect PCT or CT teams to be interested in getting him, and in particular with so many great puncheurs declining he could definitely be a big factor!
His most valuable achievement for us was a 4th place in the Tour of Lithuania, underlining his solid TT skill. And had he not been on the team alongside Fausto Masnada back in the days, he'd have scored many more big results.
We believe that it's time for him to take on a leading role in his new team - who wants to give him the opportunity?
Indeed, our best TTer gets four dots this year! And that's despite him not even being in his last prime year, and despite some massive TTer shortage! Why?
Well, it might surprise you, but we had to recognize that having plenty of TTing depth doesn't really pay off that much. Moreover, we didn't pick the "TT PTHC Band" this year, so there would basically be just Praha and Herbiers left for Szymon.
So, why not test the market and see what a 79 TTer is worth nowadays? We do have no obligation to sell him; if he stays he'll still score some valuable points for us. But we're pretty confident that there are teams out there desperately looking for a rider like him, in particular in PCT/CT where he did an even better job!
Interested? Well, call us as soon as transfers start, we'll happily talk about any kinds of deals - once again, cash preferred.
Yep, Gabby is on the block again! Just like last time, his stay on our team might be limited to one season - even though we clearly wouldn't mind keeping him, either.
But with his decline it will be really difficult for him to still claim some stage podiums in PT, whereas things should be easier for him in PCT and even more so in CT. With 55k, he's a real bargain for the points scoring potential he brings!
He's a legend, for sure, and we'll never forget him and his two stage wins back in 2022 - but age is catching up with him as well, with PT likely no longer being the right division for him. He deserves to fight for wins one last year - only the lower divisions can offer him that!
Gergely is the first three-dotter on the list. Which means that we'll consider selling him if the offer is really good; given that we definitely want to sell Bol, Gergely might become available only if we fail to do the former. Or if we get another decent sprinter to replace him.
But we could definitely understand that people might be interested in Hungary's second best sprinter, in particular given his huge performance at last year's Giro, where he got his first career win! Despite gettng only few opportunities to shine, he scored more than 200 points, which is far more than expected!
We do still think that Gergely is a great GT sprinter, in particular for slightly weaker fields, and these would also be his main races if he stays on board. But maybe someone else thinks alike, we'll probably soon find out...
Yes, we know that someone will be disappointed about these "only" three dots. But hey, given Alexys' great allround skillset, three dots is still a lot!
The Frenchman didn't have his best year last season, whereas the year before he did a great job in PCT. And that's the main reason why we're making him kind of available - in PT, he's just one TTer out of a big bunch of similar riders. The field is much less stacked in other divisions, where we're sure he could thrive more!
But whereas we're giving up on quite some TTers - at least according to "the dots" - we still want to keep at least a somewhat decent TT core, which is why Alexys isn't more available yet. If we can sign some "replacements", then it might indeed happen that he moves back to France.
Don't take it for granted, though - we still believe in his skills as well! We'd just need to find the funds to bring him up to PT leader level, and our sponsors wouldn't necessarily appreciate this move for a non-Swiss rider... But he'd definitely be worth some training, in particular by French teams!
It took us so long to finally sign Stefan two years ago - why would we let go of him now?
Well, as much as we love his great skillset, we can't just be romantic without thinking of the team's future. We're absolutely convinced that Stefan has another great season in his legs, so we'd love to keep him!
But if selling him can enable us to get some younger alternative, we'd seriously consider it. Stefan is our last rider on the 3+ dots list, which already says something about his status.
However, if a PCT/CT team can give him a leader role for one of the races he loves so much - in particular the Benelux Challenge - could we really refuse him this opportunity? We might find out - in any case, a highly valuable and versatile rider like Stefan won't be given away for free!
Looking for...
We've told you who we might be selling - now let's briefly talk about what kind of rider we're looking for.
Like last year, it's actually rather easy: red digits. We did manage to sign Groves last year, who fits this category - but we think we need more of this kind to build a sustainable base for a longer stay in PT.
After Theuns' further decline and refusal to agree on a contract, we're obviously looking for a cobbler now. And a climber. And maybe a really good TTer, you know that we still love those.
Basically, we're open to a lot of options, just hit us up if you think you've got something special for us - maybe just not a puncheur and another Groves-like sprinter.
Loaning strategy
We've always been thankful for PT teams providing our talents the possibility to complete their development process. Now, we're on the other side of things - and for us it's absolutely clear that we're open for some loan-ins.
While we do have some precise targets in mind already (which others probably do, too), don't hesitate to ask for a loan even if we don't hit you up.
We also want to reserve a part of our wage cap for loan-ins, i.e. if you have a rider that really fits our roster, we're willing to pay his wage. Sounds good, right?
And now, the only thing that's left to do is closely watching other availability announcements, and just waiting for the transfer window to open! Let's get the madness started!
The penultimate availability post I eagerly waited for is there - and it's about as good as I could reasonably hoped for! If I had the funds I probably would take half of your available riders, but without any riders who meet your requirements to swap on my side that probably won't happen.
Also it's kind of discouraging that you seem eager to sell the interesting rider(s) to Peugeot
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
Looks like it’ll be a busy transfer season for you
With so many TT risers potentially out the door, I wonder if there’s any intention to re-focus the team? Would be strange to not see Jura fighting for results in TTT’s. Good job on Groves’ wage in renewals also, always a pain trying to reduce an expensive FA’s wage the following season without them spitting out their drink and wanting to leave.
You've definitely got some interesting names on the block there, and who knows maybe we even see a homecoming or two depending on how transfers goes for us.
The penultimate availability post I eagerly waited for is there - and it's about as good as I could reasonably hoped for! If I had the funds I probably would take half of your available riders, but without any riders who meet your requirements to swap on my side that probably won't happen.
Also it's kind of discouraging that you seem eager to sell the interesting rider(s) to Peugeot
Yeah, sorry, I'm not giving them away for free I do have two of your riders on my extended list, but we'll have to see if we can find an agreement. Cash is always convincing, though - which is one reason why I do like Peugeot's availability list, indeed
Looks like it’ll be a busy transfer season for you
With so many TT risers potentially out the door, I wonder if there’s any intention to re-focus the team? Would be strange to not see Jura fighting for results in TTT’s. Good job on Groves’ wage in renewals also, always a pain trying to reduce an expensive FA’s wage the following season without them spitting out their drink and wanting to leave.
I hope it's going to be busy - and more successful than the previous one.
People tend to forget that we didn't really have a TTT unit in the first three years - which means during half of our existence It's not necessarily a priority to shift the focus, but I think that in PT it's not really worth it going all-in on TTTs. Can't beat Vesuvio anyway, and then there are other really high-level teams, so I was only fighting for a Top 5 at best anyway.
If it turns out that TTers don't have a good enough market value anyway, they might obviously as well stay
You've definitely got some interesting names on the block there, and who knows maybe we even see a homecoming or two depending on how transfers goes for us.
Happy to finally talk with you again, guess there might be some interesting opportunities for both of us
Well, unlike you, I don't have many riders that are attractive to other PT teams, so kind of expected We might still talk, we'll see...
Well, if you did. Then you'd probably be winning PT or something
Other PT managers have pretty interesting riders available... If I had been able to sign one of those spicy lvl3 riders last year, I might have been in that position as well
Trading Groves could still happen (although really unlikely), but Schmid *should* be safe for now. Sorry
Interesting availability list with some expected and some unexpected names. Guess there's a medium rebuild on the cards!
With Theuns gone and all of Stüssi, Rekita, Bol, Chavanne potentially leaving, not sure if I'd still call that "medium" And if Groves should end up leaving, it'd definitely be a major operation...
The first two days of the transfer period are already behind, and so it's time for a first update.
As you could read from our availability list, one of our goals was to give Cees Bol the chance to shine in a division that's a better fit for him than PT. And whereas the deal isn't finalized yet, Cees is indeed on his way out - the final destination will be known in less than 24 hours. We would like to thank Cees for his great contribution, in particular during the 2023 season where he scored clearly more points than expected on our way to 2nd place in PCT! And he'll be forever in the team's history books as the team's first ever GT stage winner, winning not one, but two of them during the 2023 Giro d'Italia!
Thanks a lot, Cees, and all the best!
Now, onto the new arrivals! So far, we have signed two riders on a permanent contract, as well as two loanees! We welcome:
Robin Donzé
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Robin Donze
66
69
66
58
69
70
67
57
69
69
65
65
57
2028 v1
67
75
74
59
71
74
71
57
70
76
72
66
58
2028 v2
67
77
72
58
70
74
72
57
69
76
72
67
57
Robin was one of the few Swiss talents available on the transfer market this year - and definitely the best climbing talent. Which sadly also says quite something about Switzerland's 2003-born riders.
It's not that Robin will be bad, not at all - just not good enough to make him a leader in Pro Tour. It's sure that he'll be a solid uphill rider, but we're still unsure whether we'll try to train him to be a more well-balanced climber or rather one who likes the long ascents. In either case, he should be able to make good use of his explosivity!
He'll not be a GT specialist due to his relatively low physical potential, but he could turn out to be a good attacker in week-long stage races - or a good domestique in classics.
Sadly, as a PT team we cannot grant young riders the best possible development in-house, so Robin is already on his way to Germany, joining CT team Kraftwerk Man Machine for the 2025 season. This is rather costly, which is another reason why we will probably not sign another Swiss talent, even though there are two more decent ones out there.
We wish Robin all the best for his neo-pro year and are looking forward to getting him back much stronger at the end of the season!
Antoine Aebi
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Antoine Aebi
69
71
74
64
73
71
65
60
69
73
65
78
63
2026
69
72
76
64
74
72
66
60
69
74
66
78
63
Antoine isn't a young rider anymore; he was part of the now defunct Hilcona Racing Team last season, and is already 27 years old. He still hasn't reached his full potential, though, which we believe he'll do after the upcoming season.
Antoine isn't a flashy talent, either, but a solid puncheur helper. His physical potential won't make him a GT rider, either - he'll be one for the shorter stage races or the classics. What we do particularly like about him is his daredevil attitude, potentially giving him the edge over others in downhills.
We're looking forward to see what he can contribute to the team, and we're confident he'll be a valuable addition this year already!
Antonio Tiberi
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Antonio Tiberi
67
75
69
73
69
71
68
54
60
69
70
68
72
After Antoine, we're getting Antonio. The Sammarinese is joining us from Sauber for his final year of development. His main skills are not unlike Darbellay's in the latter's final year of development, albeit with some weaker physical condition.
We expect Antonio to support our climbers in most stage races, and at least one GT - once again, he's not the perfectly suited rider for those, given his rather weak energy stats. But he'll surely gain some valuable experience - and hopefully do some valuable work as well!
Henri Uhlig
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Henri Uhlig
70
57
63
62
70
73
75
76
65
75
68
72
60
Henri is our second loan-in of the year (at least to date) - and, believe it or not, he's our best cobbler! So you may rightfully ask how he should gain the experience he needs if there's no tutor there for him...
We'll see if we can still fix that at this point - but if we can't, well, we'll throw him in the water anyway. We're sure he'll learn a lot riding against the world's best - and hopefully we still get someone to teach him the basics of PT cobbling!
That's it for the moment. Unfortunately, due to more away time than foreseen, we've struggled to get into the early big deals, and will have to wait and see if we can still somehow get what it likely takes to hold the division once again!
Let's be honest - it's not looking good currently, but transfers only just started, and maybe we'll pull a Groves out of our transfer hats once again!
Definitely not a primary priority to sell one of them, but if the offer is right...
Kaden Groves
Xuban Errazkin
Ethan Vernon
Gergely Szarka
Cees Bol
Mauro Schmid
I do have two of your riders on my extended list, but we'll have to see if we can find an agreement. Cash is always convincing, though - which is one reason why I do like Peugeot's availability list, indeed 
Antonio Tiberi 
Henri Uhlig 
