Real UCI would now say, this is too similar to the U25 jersey.
MG UCI is fine with the shirt
It will be weird to not see you in the darkish/red jersey anymore, which was a real constant of the MG in all those years.
Surely a standout jersey though.
Elia is a Swiss supertalent who we anticipate will develop into a future team leader in the time trials. We see him as a rider in the style of his veteran compatriot Silvan Dillier, and he will hopefully pick up the torch as Dillier enters the later years of his career. Signing Elia was a huge goal of our transfers, and we landed him for a wage of 175,000.
Alexandre Balmer
Statline:
67
72
70
70
71
72
66
63
61
68
71
75
65
Lvl: 3.06
Age: 23
Alexandre is a rider who has long been on our radar, and we are excited to bring him over to our squad after spending his neo-pro season at Le Creuset. We expect Alexandre to develop into a stout stage racer, who could potentially lead the team in the future. We paid a steep transfer fee of 500,000 to Le Creuset to secure him this year, and his wage is 65,000.
Jan Stöckli
Statline:
64
72
71
60
69
68
70
61
59
67
66
70
58
3.58
23
Lvl: 3.58
Age: 23
Jan joins us from free agency after spending last season as a Minion. Jan is another young climbing talent who joins us in our effort to revitalize the team and develop young Swiss riders. We view him as a pure climber and look forward to him having a long career with us. Wage this year is 65,000.
Tom Van Asbroeck
Statline:
74
52
70
65
74
71
77
73
79
77
73
67
73
Lvl: 4.100
Age: 33
Tom Van Asbroeck joins us in keeping with our tradition of hiring veteran riders on the tail end of their career as mercenaries to bring in points. He has a long and decorated cycling career, most recently spending the past 2 season at Philips (now Sony). For us, he is the team's only sprinter this year and we will look to slot him into races to maximize his point-scoring potential given our lack of depth in the sprints. His salary this year is 100,000.
Martin Schäppi
Statline:
72
64
67
75
74
72
69
76
66
68
70
60
75
Lvl: 4.100
Age: 27
Not exactly a new signing, Martin was brought back into the fold after negotiations between the team and his agent broke down prior to transfers. He decided to test the free agency waters and was quite successful in doing so, increasing his salary to 150,000. He was seen as a non-negotiable target so I'm happy he's back with the team, though admittedly this was quite a phuck up on my part. He is integral to our TTT squad, as well as a key classics domestique.
So that's a wrap for our transfer season this year. Overall, I see it as a restructuring season after demoting to the PCT. We were sorely in need of young talent with many of our long-standing Swiss leaders beginning to decline. I think we achieved the goal of revitalizing the team. We may not bounce back to the PT this year, but I'm happy with our line-up and feel that our team aligns with the sponsors' mission.
Congrats on getting all those talents, especially Blum - although I have to admit I hate not having had the necessary founds at the right time to get him... Schäppi is also a brilliant rider, who was one of my prime targets this year, but once you went 150k for him I knew there probably was no point in going higher and higher...
All in all, you did a great job with Swiss talents - you even got more than I did, so it looks like the restructuring is off to a good start
Good luck for the season - and let's hope all those talents will eventually help you break out of the "elevator scheme"!
Breaking from our tradition as an elevator team, we had a pretty mediocre 2023 finishing 10th and remaining in the PCT for another year. As a result Tissot has announced they are withdrawing their sponsorship and we will be racing 2024 under our traditional colors of Team UBS, with the jersey made by the_hoyle.
The season was not without highlights, however, and there were several memorable results that stand out and I hope we can build on going into next year. We managed to achieve 4/5 of our goals as shown below:
Target
Goal
Result
Franceville Classique
Top 10
6th - Lukas Spengler
Tour de Pologne
Win
8th - Emanuel Buchmann
Giro dell'Emilia
Top 10
2nd - Emanuel Buchmann
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Top 10
3rd - Lukas Spengler
PCT Team Standings
Top 10
10th - Team
Full 2023 Results
Spoiler
Rider
Race
Result
E. Buchmann
Giro dell'Emilia
2nd
E. Buchmann
Classique du Grand-Duché
4th
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - GC
5th
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 5
1st
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 6
4th
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 3
5th
E. Buchmann
Japan Cup
7th
E. Buchmann
GP Wallonie
8th
E. Buchmann
Tour de Pologne - GC
8th
E. Buchmann
Tour de Pologne - Stage 7
3rd
E. Buchmann
Tour of South Africa - GC
10th
E. Buchmann
Tour of South Africa - Stage 2
3rd
E. Buchmann
Tour of South Africa - Stage 5
3rd
E. Buchmann
Tour of Norway - Stage 4
2nd
Lukas Spengler
Tour of Northern Europe - Stage 4
1st
Lukas Spengler
Omloop Het Niewsblad
3rd
Lukas Spengler
Le Samyn
7th
Lukas Spengler
Benelux Tour - Stage 5
4th
Lukas Spengler
Paris - Roubaix
4th
Lukas Spengler
Franceville Classique - GC
6th
Lukas Spengler
Franceville Classique - Stage 1
4th
Lukas Spengler
Rheden GP
6th
Patrick Schelling
Swiss National RR Championship
1st
Patrick Schelling
Tour de Vineyards - GC
1st
Patrick Schelling
Tour de Vineyards - Stage 3
3rd
Patrick Schelling
Tour d'Andorra - GC
7th
Patrick Schelling
Tour of Japan - GC
7th
Patrick Schelling
Tour de Romandie - GC
9th
Johan Jacobs
Tour of Northern Europe - GC
8th
Johan Jacobs
Tour of Northern Europe - Stage 4
2nd
Johan Jacobs
Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne
8th
Thery Schir
Tour de Vineyards - GC
2nd
Tom Bohli
Benelux Tour - GC
3rd
Tom Bohli
1 Jour de Dunkerque
4th
Tom Bohli
GP Kigali
5th
Silvan Dillier
Swiss National TT Championship
1st
Silvan Dillier
Tour of California - Stage 6
2nd
Silvan Dillier
Tour of Japan - Stage 1
4th
Silvan Dillier
Chrono d'Arenberg
5th
Silvan Dillier
Tour of Britain - Stage 2
5th
Silvan Dillier
Arab Tour - GC
7th
Martin Schäppi
Tour du Faso - GC
7th
Jan Stöckli
GP Lugano
2nd
P. Haugard
Tour de Pologne - Stage 1
1st
P. Haugard
Norway National TT Championship
1st
P. Haugard
Hong Kong Challenge - Stage 2
2nd
P. Haugard
Tour of Japan - Stage 1
2nd
P. Haugard
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 4
4th
P. Haugard
Arab Tour - GC
5th
P. Haugard
Tour of Norway - Stage 3
5th
P. Haugard
Tour of California - Stage 1
5th
T. Van Asbroeck
Tour Down Under - Stage 1
2nd
T. Van Asbroeck
Arab Tour - Stage 2
2nd
T. Van Asbroeck
Tour of California - Stage 3
3rd
T. Van Asbroeck
Euskal Bizikleta - Stage 2
4th
T. Van Asbroeck
Benelux Tour - GC
5th
Antonio Barbio
Hong Kong Challenge - GC
2nd
Daniil Fominykh
Kazakh National TT Championship
1st
Team
Tour de Vineyards - Stage 5 TTT
1st
Team
Tour of Northern Europe - Team Standings
2nd
Team
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 1 TTT
2nd
Team
Tour de Romandie - Stage 1 TTT
4th
Spoiler
In terms of results, first and foremost was our GC 1-2 in the Tour de Vineyards. Aided by a strong team performance winning the final TTT, Patrick Schelling sealed the overall GC title ahead of team mate and compatriot Thery Schir. Patrick went on to have a strong season that was capped off with another win in the Swiss National Road Championship. We're anticipating he will slot into more of a support role this coming season since he isn't getting any younger, so it was great to see him find some top results in one of his last seasons.
The team storms to a win in Stage 5 of the Tour de Vineyards, bringing Schelling and Schir home for the GC 1-2.
Another rider who had a great year was TT ace Phan Age Haugard. His highlights included winning stage 1 of the Tour de Pologne and the Norweigian National TT Championship. He landed 6 other Top-5 placings in time trials throughout the season and was a crucial element of our success in TTTs throughout the season. In early talks with his agent, we are anticipating he will be seeking compensation to reflect his achievements going into next season.
Phan Age Haugard celebrating with a stage win and early leader's jersey in stage 1 of the Tour de Pologne.
As the manager's personal favorite result of the season, we had young talent Jan Stöckli land a huge result in a national race for us, the GP Lugano. Jan slotted into the day's breakaway and made it to the final selection of four riders, where he finished 2nd in the sprint. We view this as a sign of Jan's talent and hopefully a marker of things to come this season.
Finally, our home grown superstar Lukas Spengler continued to shine and represent our team at our most important race of the season, Paris - Roubaix. He would have certainly benefited from a more selective race, but he still managed to take 4th overall from the sprint of the final group of 10. A repeat of his result from 2022 and confirmation of his pedigree. He achieved numerous other top-10 results through his cobbles campaign, with another highlight coming in winning stage 4 of the Tour of Northern Europe, again at the ProTour level.
Lukas Spengler takes the win on Stage 4 of the Tour of Northern Europe.
There have been rumblings of dissatisfaction from Spengler and his agent and they have indicated he may seek a trade to a team that can confirm his participation in the highest level races in 2024. This could be part of a larger change to our strategy for 2024 as we look to rejuvenate our squad and rebuild to the point of contending for promotion once again. I'm expecting our squad to look quite different at the end of transfers and this will hopefully be one of our more active off seasons in terms of trades, loans, and negotiations. Please know we will be open for business and willing to hear out all ideas. Until then, good luck to all in renewals!
A bit late to the party, but it felt weird to make a mid-season update without first giving a review of our transfer season. We made some very impactful moves and our team this season looks quite different than it did last year. Ultimately, Lukas Spengler and the team decided to part ways after a long career together. He hoped to race his prime years at the highest level, which we were unable to accommodate as we remained in PCT this season. We found a willing trade partner and in one of our biggest off-season moves in team history, we swapped for Brazilian stage racer Caio Godoy from EA Vesuvio. This was a massive move for us and represents a restructure as we shift mountains leadership duties from an aging Patrick Schelling, and offer more leadership opportunities in the cobbles to Johan Jacobs.
Caio Godoy
Statline:
68
81
76
67
75
76
77
54
59
75
71
68
67
Lvl: 4.100
Age: 29
Our other signings came from free agency, with a mixture of young talent as well as veteran experience:
Tom Van Asbroeck
Statline:
73
51
69
64
72
69
74
72
78
75
72
66
72
Lvl: 4.100
Age: 34
Tom rejoins the team after testing the free agency waters. He will return as a domestique in the cobbles as well as sprinting lead-out for the next new signing.
Madushanka Perera
Statline:
71
53
64
58
69
73
77
64
79
80
50
61
74
Lvl: 4.100
Age: 31
Perera will take over leadership responsibilities as our team's main sprinter. We traditionally have not invested significantly into our sprint department and the same holds true this year. We will mostly see Perera sniping individual stages where we anticipate sprint fields will be weaker.
Fabian Weiss
Statline:
66
65
68
69
68
66
69
56
57
63
67
67
63
Lvl: 1.00
Age: 22
Fabian Weiss is a young talent who we anticipate will develop into a valuable member of our TTT line-up in a few years time. For now, he will mainly be serving domestique duties as he gathers experience.
Lucca Jenni
Statline:
64
66
66
54
74
69
67
55
58
68
66
68
54
Lvl: 1.00
Age: 22
Lucca Jenni is another young Swiss talent we are excited to sign. His strengths lie more in the mountains and hills, and we predict he will develop into a valuable climbing domestique in the future.
Filip Maciejuk
Statline:
69
64
69
71
68
69
65
69
64
68
65
69
69
Lvl: 3.00
Age: 25
Filip Maciejuk is a Polish talent that we expect to help in our TTT lineup and cobbles department this year, though we expect he will further develop in both areas over the next couple years.
Damien Touze
Statline:
71
66
70
61
73
73
67
70
70
72
71
64
63
Lvl: 4.100
Age: 28
Damien Touze joins us from free agency as a veteran support rider mainly to help out in our cobbles department. He also has strength in the hills and good backup stats to will be present in many races as a domestique.
All in all, I view our transfer season as a successful effort in restructuring. I am excited to see how our new leaders will perform this season and my hope is that we will challenge for promotion after a disappointing year last year. Stay tuned for our mid-season update!
Some nice additions both talents-wise as well as leaders. Jacobs has already shown he's a more than adequate substitute for Spengler and Buchmann has also shown some good results this season.
In addition it's always nice to see Touze getting a good ride this season from a French perspective, he's been on my late addition list for ever (though always one place too far down).
And I'm thrilled to see Balmer maxed next season, he's still my only talent ever sold.
2024 was a bit of a mixed bag but we've had worse seasons. This year was a restructuring season for us, but we still had a pretty successful year and will be promoting back to PT as a result. Despite promoting and meeting our team standings goal, we went 1/5 for our goals in total:
Target
Goal
Result
Clasica San Sebastian
Win
17th - Buchmann
Tour of Japan
Win
14th - Caio Godoy
Giro dell'Emilia
Win
5th - Buchmann
Milano Torino
Win
4th - Buchmann
PCT Team Standings
Top 5
5th
The main storyline for us last transfer season was the trade with EA - Vesuvio that saw us parting ways with Lukas Spengler in exchange for a new stage race leader in Caio Godoy. I theorized that we could hand leadership of our cobbles squad to Johan Jacobs and achieve a similar point haul at a much reduced budget, then use the savings to strengthen other areas of our team (sprints, mountains). Overall, the plan worked and was likely our key to promotion. At exactly half the salary of Spengler, Jacobs scored 436 points for us this year compared to Spengler's 384 last year.
Johan Jacobs lands his sole victory of the year in Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne.
The other question going into the season was how Caio Godoy would compare to the competition in the PCT. This one was tricky to answer. Godoy was facing an uphill battle as we developed our calendar for the season before we knew we would have him - meaning we weren't able to send him to ideal races for a pure climber and his race days were not well optimized. His highlights came in a couple of GC podiums and he ultimately finished 31st in the individual PCT standings with a total of 499 points.
Caio Godoy wins the mountain top finish in Stage 4 of the Tour du Maroc.
As with last season, Emanuel Buchmann was our most consistent point scorer. We have him to thank for carrying the team back to the ProTour. Highlights came in multiple stage wins and solid GC results throughout the season, finishing 7th in the individual standings, with an overall victory at the Badaling International.
Emanuel Buchmann wins a close bunch sprint at Badaling International.
Some of the most enjoyable results are when our secondary riders or developing talents achieve unexpected results, and we had a couple such surprises this year:
Thery Schir was given a free role in the Tour of Slovenia and snatched a stage win from a breakway on Stage 3.
Elia Blum had a quiet year working as a domestique and focusing on continuing to train and develop, but showcased his undeniable talent at the end of the season by winning the Stage 8 ITT at the Tour de l'Avenir.
The team storms to a win in the Stage 4 TTT at the Tour of South Africa. Patrick Müller and any GC ambition was sacrificed for this :c
Full 2024 Results
Spoiler
Rider
Race
Result
E. Buchmann
Badaling International
1st
E. Buchmann
Tour de Pologne - GC
2nd
E. Buchmann
Tour de Pologne - Points
1st
E. Buchmann
Tour de Pologne - Stage 5
1st
E. Buchmann
Tour de Pologne - Stage 2
2nd
E. Buchmann
Tour de Pologne - Stage 7
4th
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - GC
4th
E. Buchmann
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 5
1st
E. Buchmann
Milano - Torino
4th
E. Buchmann
Grands Prix Cycliste
4th
E. Buchmann
Tour of Britain - GC
5th
E. Buchmann
Tour of Britain - Stage 4
2nd
E. Buchmann
Giro dell'Emilia
5th
E. Buchmann
Tour of Lithuania - GC
5th
Caio Godoy
Tour of Eritrea - GC
2nd
Caio Godoy
Tour of Eritrea - Stage 3
2nd
Caio Godoy
Tour du Maroc - GC
3rd
Caio Godoy
Tour du Maroc - Points
1st
Caio Godoy
Tour du Maroc - Stage 4
1st
Caio Godoy
Tour du Maroc - Stage 2
4th
Caio Godoy
Tour of Romandie - GC
6th
Caio Godoy
Tour of Romandie - Stage 3
5th
Caio Godoy
Tour of Romandie - Stage 4
5th
Caio Godoy
Pro Hallstatt Classic
6th
Caio Godoy
Tour d'Andorra - GC
8th
Caio Godoy
Tour d'Andorra - Stage 3
2nd
Caio Godoy
Tour d'Andorra - Stage 2
5th
Caio Godoy
Volta a Portugal - Stage 8
3rd
Johan Jacobs
Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne
1st
Johan Jacobs
Omloop Het Niewsblad
2nd
Johan Jacobs
1 Jour de Dunkerque
3rd
Johan Jacobs
Roma Maxima
4th
Johan Jacobs
Lillestrom GP
5th
Johan Jacobs
GP Kigali
7th
Patrick Müller
Strade Bianche
4th
Patrick Müller
Tour Down Under - GC
10th
Thery Schir
Tour of Slovenia - Stage 3
1st
Thery Schir
Tour of Slovenia - KoM
3rd
Thery Schir
Tour of South Africa - GC
2nd
Martin Schäppi
Dwars door Vlaanderen
2nd
Martin Schäppi
Lincoln GP
7th
Martin Schäppi
Tour du Faso - GC
8th
Elia Blum
Tour de l'Avenir - Stage 8
1st
P. Haugard
Tour of Norway - Stage 3
2nd
P. Haugard
Tour de Pologne - Stage 1
2nd
P. Haugard
Volta a Portugal - Stage 1
4th
P. Haugard
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 4
5th
P. Haugard
Arab Tour - GC
9th
M. Perera
Tour du Maroc - Stage 1
1st
M. Perera
Tour du Maroc - Points
3rd
M. Perera
Arab Tour - Points
2nd
M. Perera
Arab Tour - Stage 1
3rd
M. Perera
Arab Tour - Stage 2
3rd
M. Perera
Tour Down Under - Stage 6
2nd
M. Perera
Tour of Japan - Stage 6
2nd
M. Perera
Tour of Japan - Stage 4
4th
M. Perera
Down Under Classic
8th
T. Van Asbroeck
Tour du Faso - Stage 2
1st
T. Van Asbroeck
Franceville Classique - Stage 1
4th
T. Van Asbroeck
Benelux Challenge - Stage 6
5th
Antonio Barbio
Tour of South Africa - GC
3rd
Daniil Fominykh
Great Ocean Road Classic
7th
Team
Tour de Romandie - Team
1st
Team
Tour de Romandie - Stage 1 TTT
5th
Team
Tour of South Africa - Stage 4 TTT
1st
Team
Tour of Lithuania - Stage 3 TTT
3rd
Team
Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 1 TTT
3rd
That's our year in summary, thanks for following along. Its exciting to be heading back to PT but I admit I will be miss PCT. Maybe we'll be back next year
We've seen a successful renewals period that has freed up a fair amount of cap space. Many of our riders accepted reductions in salary (mostly due to age), while we also had some increases from development of our younger riders. We released a few aging domestiques. We plan to retain most of our core roster but I'd like to highlight that we will be looking to trade or sell sprinter Madushanka Perrera. If the need arises, we may also field offers for Emanuel Buchmann.
Don't think we'll talk a whole lot during the window as Madushanka didn't really enjoy his time with me the last time around! Excited to see how you're going to tackle the PT season!
We have wrapped up our transfer season, which was quiet but also very exciting. Our roster did not see very much movement, but we did land a massive signing by bringing in 2024 Tour de France winner Merhawi Kudus from free agency to lead the team back into the ProTour. We also saw a couple of long-term riders leaving and will have a handful of new faces, mostly in support roles.
Merhawi Kudus will be our marquis leader for 2025. This is possibly the biggest signing ever for the team and sets an outright salary record in MG history (I don't want to talk about it...). It could be our ticket back to the PCT, but at least we'll have fun doing it.
Yannis Voisard joins the team via transfer from Sauber Petronas Racing. He was hired to work for the team leaders in the high mountains. The sponsors are excited to have another Swiss join the team and hope he will stick around for several years given his relatively young age.
Gaspar Goncalves was signed from free agency and joins the growing contingent of Portuguese-speaking riders on the team. We liked his skillset in the hills and mountains and see him as a versatile domestique.
Other new additions include loaned-in riders Javier Serrano (Euskotren - Pays Basque) and Archie Ryan (Glanbia). Both will ride with us to gain experience at the ProTour level before returning back to their home teams next year. They both bring their own set of strengths and will most likely be valuable domestiques this season.
Finally, we will be bidding farewell to a few notable names. First and foremost, we decided to release Patrick Schelling. Patrick rode for the team for many years as a leader in stage races. The past couple years he has worked as a faithful domestique for our most recent crop of young leaders. He was a truly home grown talent, having ridden for us through his entire career since 2013 (not counting a botched loan deal his first season). This one was a little depressing.
Also leaving is sprinter Madushanka Perera, who goes to Ethiopian Airlines via transfer. He is more of a cap casualty to free space for Kudus, but we also feel he was better suited to PCT competition. Matteo Badilatti is the last rider to leave. He goes on a loan deal to Sauber Petronas Racing in order to free cap space again, but will most likely not be rejoining the team in the future.
Must say I was wrong about your team. After you signed Kudus, I figured there was no way you would still have this level of depth. But I was wrong. With Godoy, Buchmann, and your TTT squad and depth, it's quite a nice setup this year!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Hopefully your stage racers are strong enough to stay in PT in the end! There should be some good results in the hills too, and Jacobs did really well last season. I'm curious how he will hold himself against the best cobblers. Also great to see Balmer finally maxed and already with a good role in the stage racing department!
Kudus + Gaviria weren't enough to keep Moser in PT last year - will Kudus + Godoy + Buchmann + Jacobs be? I think it could go either way, but really hoping you'll stay up, as I will almost certainly leave the PT party after this year
What could really hurt is not a single green figure in the sprint column, in particular didn't get why you let go of Perera - but if it was just to fund Jacobs training, I guess it's fine
Elia Blum
Filip Maciejuk
Antonio Barbio
Phan Age Haugard
Daniil Fominykh
Tom Van Asbroeck
Pedro Sequera
Damien Touze
