Has The Cardinals received any funding from Banco Vaticano?
Sadly not, I heard they're into even more financial trouble now that they have their own cycling team...
Transfer Availabilities - Initial asking prices
It's less than 24 hours until the opening of this year's transfer window. We are still trying to get prepared - we do have plans, but we all know that you'll almost never have enough plans for transfers.
We found it helpful last year that team Bolt - Eesti published asking prices for all of their riders, so we will do the same. However, our prices are not set in stone. We set the initial prices by category of availability - once the highest availability level runs out of riders, the next wave will see their asking prices modified - if we are still in need of cash, that is. But if you don't want to wait and pull the trigger right away, you know what to do...
We do have some goals - one of them is making Kaden Groves the rider with the highest fee in team history to date. Until now, this title belongs to Nairo Quintana, who was sold for 1.2M back in 2022. However, we value the deal for Colin Stüssi last year even higher - between 1.5 and 1.6M - where we received 1.1M of cash plus a rider.
But for now, it's about the highest fee deal, so you can imagine Kaden's initial asking price. But enough words - let's take a look at the numbers:
Rider
2026 Wage
Asking price
Likely to leave
Kaden Groves
320'000 €
1.21M €
Muhammad Abdurrahman
90'000 €
450k €
Teten Rohendi
90'000 €
300k €
AOP Setiawa
55'000 €
250k €
"El Chapu" Chapulin
100'000 €
400k €
Filippo Colombo
50'000 €
300k €
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Maybe, maybe not
Niklas Larsen
100'000 €
1.2M €
Jose Fernandes
100'000 €
750k €
Gergely Szarka
125'000 €
750k €
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Unlikely to leave
Pablo Castrillo
240'000 €
2M €
Jake Stewart
115'000 €
1.2M €
Jan Sommer
70'000 €
750k €
Christoph Janssen
50'000 €
750k €
Nils Aebersold
55'000 €
750k €
Robin Donze
55'000 €
750k €
Roman Holzer
60'000 €
750k €
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Unavailable
Mauro Schmid
400'000 €
5M €
Fabio Christen
80'000 €
5M €
Valentin Darbellay
190'000 €
3M €
Stefan Bissegger
120'000 €
2M €
Notice that Filippo Colombo has moved to the highest availability category between the initial list and today - mostly because of another team with a secondary focus on Switzerland popping up (they are also welcome to talk about any kind of discounts with us).
The availability categories will change as well once the most available riders are gone - but don't expect everyone to simply move up, as we still have to keep roster composition in mind.
By the way, the three Indonesians could leave in a package deal. You may notice that their combined asking price is 1M - we might think about a discount if we can package them, but if any of them gets individual interest, we'll take whatever option is more interesting for us.
We will mostly be looking for plain cash offers. But starting from the mentioned asking price, we can also consider swaps to increase a deal's total value.
In terms of overbids, we will go with the following limits - so we're clear and hopefully won't need to justify to the MGUCI why we won't accept an offer that's just 500 € higher than the previous one:
Fee Range
Minimum overbid
50k - 100k
10k
100k - 250k
20k
250k - 1M
50k
1M - 2M
100k
>2M
200k
Loan-ins wanted
As usual, we will also reserve a couple of roster spots for talents who need a loan - they can be any level, but lvl 4 talents should have at least 4.50 XP.
We will also try to reserve up to 100k of wage cap for loans. This obviously depends on our sales activity, and we will confirm this number as soon as we can make sure it's possible.
If you plan to do a major 1->3 loan, please reach out as soon as possible, as we can then reserve our full loan cap for you - and also the 100k in cap space, if we are able to grant it!
General
The above statements are our initial transfer plans. Do not hesitate to reach out with any of your ideas - we're always open to talk, and the worst that can happen is that we can't agree on a deal.
We're also always happy to participate in fancy moves - we did one last year as well, loaning out and funding training for Stefan Bissegger... So hit us up with your weirdest ideas, we might actually make them work!
Hopefully it's going to be fun - and we'll see if it's the only time in transfers we get in touch 
Kaden Groves the rider with the highest fee in team history to date. Until now, this title belongs to 
Nairo Quintana, who was sold for 1.2M back in 2022. However, we value the deal for 
Colin Stüssi last year even higher - between 1.5 and 1.6M - where we received 1.1M of cash plus a rider.
