Renewals are the most dreaded part of any team's transfer season, and Team Puma - SAP is glad to report they got through them at least somewhat according to plan.
First, let's start off with the news of two riders leaving the team that have been instrumental to its success throughout the last few years and will be dearly missed: Gerald Ciolek has been our main sprinter since age got to Daniele Bennati, and despite some lows along the way, we've been lucky to have him on our team.
He's entering his last year on top form, and he deserves to ride it as a clear #1 sprinter for his future team.
His stage win in the Dauphine Libere remains his last big result for Team Puma - SAP. We wish Gerald all the best, thank him for his outstanding efforts and will support him from the sidelines wherever possible.
With Ciolek leaving and Arnaud Demare rising into the role of main sprinter, our need for a flat powerhouse leadout train has been substantially reduced.
Therefore, Sebastian Lander had been informed that he might not make the cut for next year's roster, and after rough negotiations in the renewals process, the decision was made to rather let him leave to free agency than pay an additional fine to the MGUCI and potentially struggle to make profit at all.
Nevertheless, we're also grateful for his performances throughout the last years on many decisive occasions.
We're sure his abilities will help him find a suitable team to continue his career in and we'll keep monitoring his development.
Some words on the riders staying with the team at least into transfer season:
We knew the rise of our two top talents into the ranks of worldwide stars would mean increased wage demands, and the plan was to ensure no big trouble with the renewal process of Herklotz and Demare.
Therefore, we might have slightly overspent on their salaries, but we avoided any catastrophes and remain on target regarding their future.
To slightly make up for that, we were able to reduce the wages of Kelderman after his sub-par season and many of our second tier riders. Especially our climber core around Arndt, Bongiorno and Nerz has accepted slight cuts despite good results, symbolizing the great relations between the team and those riders.
On the other hand, some rumoured changes in the calculation of official statistics have made domestiques all across the cycling world gain a slight sense of entitlement going into renewals, and the aforementioned wage cuts were immediately lost again when negotiating with a handful of riders that used to accept more reasonable wages before.
Regardless, most of those riders remain vital to the team's success.
On the topic of transfer availability, there are two names clearly standing out.
With the loss of Lander and an average season from Adam Blythe and Sascha Weber, we're considering a reset of our cobbles department.
We will obviously listen to offers on most of our riders, but those two in particular WILL be sold.
#MakeBevinAvailable
Some very good riders available/semi-available, not sure if our promoting PCT budget can handle their price tags though Good luck for transfers
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
@jandal7: did tsmoha send you? I'm really sorry. TTTs are too vital.
@Yellow Jersey: Thank you! It'll certainly be incredibly exciting, the culmination of four years of development...
@whitejersey: I surely hope there are some ambitious cobbles teams out there! You never know who's willing to put his money on that terrain, but I believe these two guys are worth the investment.
@Abhishek: I guess there will be PMs. However it wouldn't be the first time I expected to sell climbers and ended up keeping them. I'm looking forward to discuss the offers though.
And yeah I'm glad he took a wage cut, which is entirely justified though considering he barely scored half of his 2016 points last season.
Cobbler sale details
With transfer season being scheduled now, we would like to turn the spotlight on our two cobblers transfer listed this season.
Adam Blythe
4.100
29yo
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Adam Blythe has enjoyed success in our team jersey, but will likely be a victim of our philosophy to fully support Herklotz and Demare.
Twice fourth in Paris-Roubaix and on the Ronde podium once, he has already proven to be one of the best cobblers in the world.
As things stand, he would be set to be the third best specialist in ProTour next season, and if your PCT team has enough cash to consider him, he could even become the dominating rider of that level and catapult you high up in the rankings in your chase of promotion.
He also has two years of training eligibility left, in case he's not quite strong enough for your liking yet.
In particular his good sprint after a tough cobbled race distinguishes him from most of the similar or slightly worse cobblers and leaves him vulnerable only to Sam Bewley. Furthermore, a decent TT stat paired with good recovery means he can also help your team in stage races with TTTs, whether it is to provide support on flat stages with chasing duties or to lead out your sprinter without your GC leader conceding time.
With many cobblers, you only get any value out of them on their terrain. Adam Blythe is worth sending to a multitude of other races as well.
Sascha Weber
4.100
30yo
Fl
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73
57
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Sascha Weber is a similar rider to Blythe, having learned from the Brit throughout the years.
He is the perfect leadout for your sprinter with stats sufficient to regularly bring him to the flamme rouge in the perfect position, but more importantly, he loves the cobbles too.
In particular for the PCT and CT level, he can punch far above his weight if he hangs on to theoretically superior riders.
In case you haven't followed the Continental Tour last season, I would like to draw a comparison to Sam Harrison of WCC. 73cob, 78sp was the winning formula for him on many occasions thanks to the somewhat passive racing that has become standard on the cobbles.
This stat combination was enough for him to become the dominant cobbler of the season despite being only tied 22th best cobbler on paper, finishing an incredible 8th in the individual rankings with a points total that outscored three entire teams on his own and would've lifted any random midfield team into the promotion region.
Sascha Weber is an even safer bet to make it to the finish with the best cobblers, while being nearly as fast as Harrison and sporting practically identical support stats.
Adam Blythe and Sascha Weber are a rare breed: cobblers whose race days are worth maxing out due to their versatility.
Considering the way cobbled races are ridden lately, they both offer the best secondary stat possible: a fast sprint to finish first of their group and ensure nobody worse who was lucky to hang on gets to score better than them, or to even unlock the potential to win races ahead of the absolute best.
In the five days of transfers so far, two riders have left Team Puma - SAP after successful years with us, while four new additions coming from Free Agency will be presented now.
As expected and announced after renewals, we have found new homes for two great cobblers.
Adam Blythe was by no means unsuccessful in our jersey, scoring lots of points in cobbled races all across the calendar.
4th places in the Ronde, Strada Appia Antica and the East Midlands Cicle Classic among other races helped us rise in the rankings throughout the years, and we're very grateful for his efforts.
However, we cannot field leaders on all terrains anymore now that Herklotz and Demare are where we want them to be. After fruitful negotiations in an enjoyable atmosphere, Iberia - Team Degenkolb and Team Puma - SAP agreed on a deal that will see Blythe attend the PCT cobbled races as the main favorite.
We wish him and his new team all the best and will cheer him on from the sidelines, confident that he'll be a major factor in their return to ProTour. Special thanks go to manager beagle for accomodating our demands.
With his leader gone, we allowed Sascha Weber to look for a new team as well. He has always been a valuable rider in support of Blythe on the cobbles or as a vital part of Ciolek's leadout, and at times he contributed good points too.
In particular, we'd like to highlight his 14th place in the 2016 Paris-Roubaix.
It's not a secret that we maintain excellent relations with Festina - Dexia and its manager SotD ever since the team was founded, and they proved to be of use once again as there was swift agreement over a deal after having had talks the previous year already.
Incidentally, Weber will be reunited with his former team mate Maxime Daniel, and we're excited to see what benefits that connection will bring this season.
Two new riders were signed early into transfer season and on minimum wage, while we are also very happy to welcome two exciting prospects combining to €290.000 today after intense fights, followed by a long period of anxious waiting.
As a general trend, you will be able to see that strenghtening our TTT core was our main goal, to ensure Silvio Herklotz will not be restricted in his choice of races by such stages.
Furthermore, finding appropriate support for Arnaud Demare was also of importance. Here, we specifically targeted riders who are not just capable of leadouts on flat stages since that is not Demare's main aim, but rather the kind of riders who can be trusted to be of use at all times, thus using each roster spot as effectively as possible.
And last but not least, obviously all these riders are still young, with most having lots of development left. The future for Herklotz and Demare might be now, but the future of Team Puma - SAP never stops moving forward!
Janvier Hadi is a rider you would not expect to see in Team Puma - SAP, and that is simply due to his nationality.
However, main sponsors Puma and SAP have rightfully identified Africa as a market with an impressive growth rate, incidentally paired with a booming interest in professional and amateur cycling. In particular, Rwanda has seen massive crowds along the routes of local races, while also enjoying success with Ndayisenga and Hategeka in previous years.
After seeing a distinctive rise in brand awareness in New Zealand thanks to our Kiwi rider Patrick Bevin, we had received positive feedback from the HQ when presenting the idea of signing the Rwandan national road race champion Hadi for 2018. It wasn't to be expected that the contract would be for minimum wage though.
A jack of all trades in its best definition, Janvier Hadi will be a vital part of our stage race roster, in particular when TTTs are involved.
Beyond that, he also packs a great sprint which will be instrumental in helping Arnaud Demare in the sprint preparation after tough stages or deep into a GT, when traditional leadout riders have already missed the time limit.
At races the Frenchman cannot attend, we will give Hadi the chance to utilise that sprint power to pursue a result for himself from reduced groups.
Janvier Hadi
4.100
26yo
Stage Racer/Sprinter
€50.000
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Domenic Weinstein was our second early signing, intended to bolster our German core after the departures of Ciolek and Weber.
A time trialler at heart, he's also quite allround, allowing us to use him in all kinds of races to support his leaders, while also getting the chance to represent our jersey in breakaways.
Once maxed, he'll be proficient enough on mountainious and hilly routes to be a valuable addition in stage races where our GC riders need good TTT results to stay in contention.
Certainly, a fully grown Cavagna will be able to fight for results for himself, and he'll surely get chances to shine in the future. If our plans allow, he might become a candidate for training, with Ion Izagirre as a potential example.
Below, we will outline just one of many options for his development.
Filippo Ganna will one day be a major force in the time trials, while also being strong on all sorts of inclines.
We have had him top our scouting list for months in advance, and believe he is a talent well worth this wage.
As a major piece in our team plans, Ganna has not only the potential to elevate our TTT lineup into the win region, he also should find many races to his liking on the calendar.
Being an even stronger prologue rider than time trialer in general, paired with the resilience to not get dropped uphill easily, races like the Tours of Qatar, Tasmania and Norway can become his focus once developed, besides the obvious short opening efforts of GTs and lower stage races alike.
Just like Cavagna, we could imagine spending training money on Ganna eventually, here we're looking at a rider like Coppel as a model.
For now, Filippo will spend his first professional season at Euskaltel - Elior in the PCT division to learn the basics of the sport in an atmosphere more suited to a 22 year old. We don't put any pressure on him for the time being.
I´m happy Blythe is away from PT hopefully beagle will not get to many cobbles wildcards Too bad I did not have much money for transfer this season otherwise Weber could have been in a Swedish team by now
Hadi is a very versatile not top notch in either stats but useful in many terrains.
The other 3 riders is nice signings aswell, espacially Ganna ofc but all of them great TT with ability to get over hills aswell in a few years. Very nice when it´s TTT stages in GTs.
Hadi is one of the coolest riders around, and those talents are all really nice, especially Cavagna and super especially Ganna
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Filippo Ganna was one of my main goals for this transfer period, but after much consideration I preferred to strengthen the team with riders capable of being useful already in this season of debut in the PT.
Silvio Herklotz
Arnaud Demare
Wilco Kelderman
Adam Blythe
Francesco Bongiorno
Tim Declerq
Patrick Bevin
Conor Dunne
Colin Stüssi
Sebastian Lander
waiting for Herklotz to deliver!
