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[PCT] Ekoi | Preview January
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 01-09-2024 18:21
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Zhihui Jiang joined us in the CT draft last season and now leaves us taking 370k with him to Minions. And though he really had one chance to shine in a prologue in our jersey he didn’t fail to deliver there, resulting in an everlasting place in the team’s history as the first GC (and points) leader we ever had as well as scoring the only TT podium and thus best TT result for our team so far – a record that will hopefully be temporary, but could actually stand for quite some time after we failed to acquire a TT specialist in transfers.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 01-09-2024 21:30
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Lapeira, Ranaweera and Pinot are just three of the several nice signings you made in the last days, I really like what you've done. If you wouldn't be able to survive this year you'd have such nice names for the years after that you'll never stay long in CT for sure. But would of course be even more fun if you could stay in PCT, so good luck with that 
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 11-10-2024 07:31
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 03-09-2024 09:17
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Its been great chatting with you in transfers and well done for getting some great talents. I hope Ranaweera performs better for you with a different schedule.
Best of luck staying in PCT but even if you don't a bounce back with developed talents would be almost certain.
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 06-09-2024 17:24
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Kristians Belohvosciks joins us on loan from DK Žalgiris. He’s a neo-pro time trialist and is just here to learn.
Spoiler | | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age |  | Kristians Beloh-vosciks | 70 | 60 | 62 | 67 | 69 | 71 | 65 | 62 | 59 | 67 | 69 | 65 | 72 | 22 |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 06-09-2024 17:24
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Janvier Hadi joins us on a trade deal. He already caught our interest earlier in transfers as he’s not only a good stage racing domestique but also a decent sprinter. We hope he can use this unique skillset to get in some breaks when not on domestique duty with Ranaweera.
Spoiler | | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age | | Janvier Hadi | 68 | 74 | 72 | 74 | 73 | 70 | 71 | 61 | 74 | 71 | 68 | 69 | 74 | 32 |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 06-09-2024 17:24
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Dylan Teuns leaves us as part of the swap deal with Janvier Hadi and will ride his final maxed season with Bralirwa – Cegeka. He was our biggest signing in our inaugural season and has scored the most podiums for the team since. He’s also second best points scorer all-time. So the 77k we got in addition to Hadi might not seem too much, but they (and the wage saved) were crucial for the other transfer activities described below to take place.
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 06-09-2024 17:25
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Matija Mestric joins us from Carlsberg – Danske Bank for a steep fee of 420k, though a big part of that fee was needed to get our last loan deal done and gets right back to us as a result. He’s planned as Daniel’s lieutenant for the upcoming season – a role he could play for quite some years (though for different leaders in the future) given he’s only 27 years old and on a 55k wage.
Spoiler | | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age | | Matija Mestric | 73 | 63 | 70 | 63 | 69 | 70 | 68 | 76 | 55 | 65 | 71 | 75 | 67 | 27 |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 06-09-2024 17:25
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Tobias Lund Andresen is loaned in from Carlsberg – Danske Bank for a fee of 290k with us paying 20k of his wage. He’s one of this year’s class of talented sprinters and will do his first steps in pro cycling with us.
Spoiler | | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age | | Tobias Lund Andresen | 66 | 56 | 60 | 60 | 68 | 68 | 62 | 60 | 71 | 73 | 57 | 63 | 59 | 22 |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 06-09-2024 17:25
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Clement Chevrier was released after his wage demands were too high for us after his great last season. But we haven’t forgotten his two stage wins and so we offered him our last full roster spot late in transfers which he accepted on minimum wage after he wasn’t signed in Free Agency by another team and was already half way in a new career. But now we’re able to add some variety in the refreshing department for all those riders (and of course team officials) not really into beer with his expertise. Also we’re particularly happy he’ll be able to spend his last maxed season with us as he’s the only rider from our inaugural season still with the team after Teuns’ departure apart from our 4 talents we signed back then.
Spoiler | | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age | | Clement Chevrier | 65 | 75 | 74 | 57 | 69 | 69 | 69 | 50 | 60 | 67 | 77 | 60 | 57 | 32 |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 06-09-2024 17:26
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Alex Baudin spent the last season with us as a stagiaire – and he’ll do so this season too, thus taking our last roster spot.
Spoiler | | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age | | Alex Baudin | 65 | 66 | 66 | 66 | 68 | 66 | 67 | 63 | 63 | 66 | 67 | 65 | 63 | 23 |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 06-09-2024 18:40
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Tour de France Champion
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Thanks for taking on Andresen and giving him a good home to start! Hope Mestric does well for you. |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 07-09-2024 23:01
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Transfers are done and so it’s time to present our first PCT squad. We achieved promotion with a team consisting nearly entirely of hybrid climbers and puncheurs, thus missing out on stage racers, cobblers, sprinters and TTers. So we went into transfers with three main goals:
1) Get a more well-rounded squad by acquiring a real GC captain, a cobbles squad, a decent sprinter and improving our notoriously weak TT department with a potential leader and a decent TTT unit.
2) Use the bigger cap space to gather some good talents, especially the biggest French riders.
3) Achieving the other two tasks in a way that allows us either to keep the main leaders and talents together for CT in case of a relegation or have quite some cap space available for next season in PCT to further build on the new core and fight for the French talents born in 2003 (and there are some quite promising ones).
So let’s have a look at the different departments:
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age |  | Suranga Ranaweera | 67 | 80 | 73 | 76 | 75 | 75 | 74 | 52 | 58 | 65 | 57 | 69 | 73 | 29 |  | Thibaut Pinot | 70 | 78 | 72 | 63 | 73 | 76 | 70 | 56 | 60 | 66 | 70 | 65 | 63 | 34 | | Clement Chevrier | 65 | 75 | 74 | 57 | 69 | 69 | 69 | 50 | 60 | 67 | 77 | 60 | 57 | 32 | | Joris Delbove | 65 | 74 | 72 | 58 | 67 | 72 | 74 | 62 | 60 | 69 | 71 | 72 | 58 | 24 |  | Conor Dunne | 66 | 74 | 74 | 69 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 70 | 62 | 69 | 74 | 69 | 69 | 32 |  | Arman Garibian | 69 | 74 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 76 | 55 | 60 | 70 | 66 | 70 | 71 | 24 |  | Janvier Hadi | 68 | 74 | 72 | 74 | 73 | 70 | 71 | 61 | 74 | 71 | 68 | 69 | 74 | 32 | | Kevin Vauquelin | 68 | 73 | 67 | 72 | 68 | 72 | 70 | 58 | 68 | 68 | 71 | 70 | 71 | 23 |  | Welay Hagos Berhe | 67 | 71 | 69 | 69 | 71 | 68 | 71 | 60 | 61 | 66 | 67 | 64 | 67 | 23 |
Suranga Ranaweera was our biggest transfer yet with some 1.3M paid for him. But we are quite happy we got one of the best stage racers in this year’s PCT after the likes of Areruya, Eastman, Bennett, McNulty, Choi, Jorgenson, Faglum Karlsson or Stüssi left the division. Add his rather low wage and age and we got more content and optimistic with his signing. Veteran Thibault Pinot will be his lieutenant in the big mountains as long as there’s no TTT on the block. Speaking of which we got quite some more stage racers who can actually ride a TT bike by development (Garibian, Vauquelin) or smaller deals (Dunne, Hadi, Berhe). And here’s probably the biggest possible problem of this year’s squad: we already rely on most of our talents to actually contribute as helpers and maybe even depth scorers. Luckily enough they could actually be capable to do so. But if we managed to reduce our calendar of mountainous stage races to an amount of RDs where Ranaweera could lead in most to all of the races, we should actually be fine there.
If we had one thing in abundance in our first two seasons it were puncheurs of any kind. And with especially APP being a consistent scorer in races of all categories of the MGUCI in the last two years we didn’t see any need to invest in this department heavily. In fact we parted ways with our second lead puncheur Teuns late in transfers as we still have some good support for APP with the likes of Paulus, Le Gac or a developed Boileau – and our obligatory punchy sprinter who’ll be talked about in the sprinters section. And with APP being a fairly decent TTer himself and the newly added TTT depth he could actually score pretty well in most of the hilly stage races from C1 to PTHC. Also Paulus and Le Gac will enter our mandatory C2 races as captains with at least outside chances to actually score some points there too.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age | | Aurelien Paret-Peintre | 72 | 76 | 77 | 72 | 73 | 75 | 73 | 63 | 72 | 74 | 72 | 70 | 72 | 28 |  | Daniel Paulus | 69 | 74 | 77 | 64 | 71 | 68 | 73 | 56 | 62 | 71 | 73 | 67 | 64 | 31 | | Olivier Le Gac | 70 | 69 | 77 | 60 | 73 | 74 | 71 | 52 | 64 | 69 | 74 | 73 | 60 | 31 | | Alan Boileau | 67 | 73 | 75 | 65 | 68 | 70 | 72 | 62 | 67 | 74 | 66 | 67 | 64 | 25 | | Ewen Costiou | 71 | 66 | 72 | 68 | 71 | 68 | 63 | 66 | 70 | 72 | 68 | 69 | 69 | 22 |  | Antti-Jussi Juntunen | 68 | 63 | 72 | 61 | 67 | 70 | 65 | 61 | 68 | 71 | 68 | 61 | 60 | 25 |
We never had a real cobbler so far, but after reporting quite some cobbles races last season we decided we wanted to join into the fun there and build a cobbles squad from scratch. We only had Louvel to build on, so we needed a true leader most of all and hope to have found him in veteran Maxime Daniel. He earns quite a hefty wage of 390k, but as he was the best cobblers available in Free Agency and actually is among the best cobblers of the PCT after an exodus of top cobblers like Spengler, Theuns, van Hooydonck or Zepuntke to PT and CT. With the late addition of Matija Mestric we also got him a decent lieutenant in addition to all the cobbles talents we signed (Askey, Lapeira) or loaned in (Pithie). And apart from our actual captain (and Pithie) the squad could stay together for years and only get better.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age | | Maxime Daniel | 72 | 55 | 68 | 55 | 75 | 75 | 72 | 79 | 75 | 71 | 68 | 73 | 63 | 33 |  | Matija Mestric | 73 | 63 | 70 | 63 | 69 | 70 | 68 | 76 | 55 | 65 | 71 | 75 | 67 | 27 | | Matis Louvel | 75 | 64 | 71 | 71 | 73 | 76 | 69 | 74 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 66 | 71 | 25 |  | Laurence Pithie | 72 | 66 | 72 | 71 | 73 | 73 | 70 | 73 | 72 | 73 | 67 | 72 | 69 | 22 |  | Lewis Askey | 67 | 63 | 70 | 58 | 69 | 65 | 69 | 72 | 66 | 73 | 60 | 67 | 67 | 23 | | Paul Lapeira | 73 | 69 | 71 | 61 | 70 | 70 | 67 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 75 | 70 | 64 | 24 |
We only had Russo as a sprinter last season and released him after some rather hefty wage demands from his side, so we needed a new sprinter as it’s impossible to fully ignore flat races or stages. So we looked for a cheap but decent sprinter to chase the occasional good result in smaller stage races or some depth points from flat classics – and we found him in Alvaro Hodeg who in addition is also only 28 years old. He surely won’t be a favourite in any race, but if we’re able to put him in races with weak sprinter fields he could actually do rather well. In addition we signed Rui Oliveira as a punchy sprinter for all those hilly classics or stage races with a flat finish.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age |  | Alvaro Hodeg | 72 | 53 | 65 | 67 | 69 | 74 | 70 | 51 | 79 | 78 | 53 | 64 | 73 | 28 |  | Rui Oliveira | 70 | 67 | 76 | 70 | 77 | 72 | 72 | 66 | 75 | 78 | 65 | 67 | 71 | 28 |
Loaned in Laurence Pithie was already mentioned as a domestique for the cobbles squad and he’s a nice TTT piece as well. In addition we loaned in two more rider: Tobias Lund Andresen, who is a pure sprinter, and Kristians Belohvisciks, who will be a good TTer in the future. We also re-signed Alex Baudin for a second season as stagiaire. None of them is actually expected to contribute in the crucial parts of a race or even score any points.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Age | | Alex Baudin | 65 | 66 | 66 | 66 | 68 | 66 | 67 | 63 | 63 | 66 | 67 | 65 | 63 | 23 |  | Kristians Belohvosciks | 70 | 60 | 62 | 67 | 69 | 71 | 65 | 62 | 59 | 67 | 69 | 65 | 72 | 22 |  | Tobias Lund Andresen | 66 | 56 | 60 | 60 | 68 | 68 | 62 | 60 | 71 | 73 | 57 | 63 | 59 | 22 |
So how did we in regards of our three goals for transfers?
Goal 1: A more well-rounded squad
We definitely achieved this goal, and though we failed to sign a lead TTer (and we really tried) we should have a chance to get a result (and of course score points) on pretty much all terrains and every single RD. We won’t have the biggest depth though, so it remains to be seen if decent to good leaders are enough to get the points needed to stay in PCT.
Goal 2: Gather talent
While we were only the second highest bidders on the two best (and most expensive) talents Ayuso and De Lie it surely proves we tried to get us some big talents this year. And though we missed the biggest ones, we’re actually pretty content with the amount and quality of talent we gathered. In addition to the five still developing riders we already owned we signed the two most interesting French talents on the market (Lapeira, Costiou) from Free Agency. We brought in Askey and Berhe for modest fees (100k and 50k) and got us a future 78 cobbler and a pretty solid stage race domestique. We also acquired Juntunen as part of the Gall deal, and though the Fin is neither the biggest talent nor the youngest, he still will develop into a 76 HI puncheur. So in total we have 10 riders in the squad who are still developing into really useful assets, so we think we did well in this regard. (Also a post regarding our development plans will follow later on).
Goal 3: Be ready for a future in CT as well as PCT
A reason for paying Daniel 390k was we know he won’t be in the team next season (at least not with a wage anywhere near this one). And the same goes for the other declining or nearly declining riders in the squad. Add the 190k wage we’re paying in the Pithie loan and some expected wage reductions (Lapeira, Vauquelin, Askey, maybe also APP) and we should easily only have a wage hit of around 1.5-1.8M for those riders expected to be our core for the next season(s). This should put us in a reasonably good position for the 2025 season to either contest an immediate promotion back to PCT or improve our squad in PCT (and fight for the likes of Lenny Martinez or Romain Gregoire in FA).
So altogether we’re fairly content with our transfer season and the resulting squad. Now we’ll have to see if we actually did enough here (and in season planning) to let at least 5 other teams finish behind us.
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 08-09-2024 07:18
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18169
Joined: 12-05-2012
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You cover it well in your closing remarks. Team looks good. Can it beat 5 others - there's a real chance, especially if Daniel can carve out a run of big results. But if not, the future is strong with some big talents and usable CT level wage contenders. Overall just pretty smart efficient work, as i'd expect from Ekoi 
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| Laurens147 |
Posted on 08-09-2024 07:23
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You’ve got a good offseason mate. Your core with Ranaweera, APP and Daniel will bring you in a good spot to stay up. It will depend on the scoring potential of the (young) supporting cast if you ask me.
Ten developping talents is a crazy outlook for future years All the best and looking forward to race again together!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 08-09-2024 13:11
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16365
Joined: 27-07-2011
PCM$: 10038.70
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Ranaweera and APP are good guys to build around for a bit with good ages, and perfect for a team with so many talents. So jealous of the cobbles squad you have developing, and glad Mestric ended up being a good fit for it!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| redordead |
Posted on 09-09-2024 08:20
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Grand Tour Specialist
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I see that Mestric cost quite a pretty penny. If his value ever drops and he's out of favour then I wouldn't mind organising another homecoming 
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 09-09-2024 21:01
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As we have acquired some nice talents in addition to the good ones we already had under contract we’ll have a look at the planned or possible development paths of our not quite a dozen young guns, including those whose path is not yet decided due to pure versatility of the riders. We will start with our nearly maxed riders and go down in levels from there on.
Alan Boileau will do the last step of his development this season to become a hybrid puncheur similar to Paulus. Not really any other options left right now after the crucial decisions were made earlier in his development.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Boileau | Alan | 67 | 73 | 75 | 65 | 68 | 70 | 72 | 62 | 67 | 74 | 66 | 67 | 64 | 4.21 | | Climber1 | 67 | 75 | 77 | 65 | 68 | 71 | 73 | 62 | 67 | 76 | 68 | 67 | 64 | 4.100 |
Joris Delbove will take the same path as Boileau to become a climber similar to Chevrier. He’ll also be one of the first two riders fuly developed in-house.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Delbove | Joris | 65 | 74 | 72 | 58 | 67 | 72 | 74 | 62 | 60 | 69 | 71 | 72 | 58 | 4.02 | | Climber1 | 65 | 76 | 74 | 58 | 67 | 73 | 75 | 62 | 60 | 71 | 73 | 72 | 58 | 4.100 |
Arman Garibian is the second rider who will be fully developed in-house and he’ll be a really good stage racing domestique who’ll be able to stay by his leader long into the climbs and stages. He also could be a target for training given his good backup stats. Therefore we expect to get lots of inquiries in the next transfer seasons for him. Also it won’t be long until he’ll dominate the Moldovian NCs with the TT probably already starting this season.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Garibian | Arman | 69 | 74 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 76 | 55 | 60 | 70 | 66 | 70 | 71 | 4.03 | | Stage Racer | 70 | 76 | 71 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 78 | 55 | 60 | 71 | 66 | 70 | 73 | 4.100 |
Matis Louvel will be another transfer target for other managers (and already has been, to be honest) which isn’t a surprise given his skilss on the cobbles, the flats, the hills and on the TT bike. Add some good backup stats and you have another potential training target.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Louvel | Matis | 75 | 64 | 71 | 71 | 73 | 76 | 69 | 74 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 66 | 71 | 4.06 | | Fabian | 77 | 64 | 72 | 73 | 75 | 78 | 70 | 76 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 66 | 73 | 4.100 |
Welay Hagos Berhe was signed for a modest 50k fee and should be a bargain given he’ll develop into a good stage racing domestique. With all the African teams around we’re actually surprised we could get him rather easily.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Berhe | Welay Hagos | 67 | 71 | 69 | 69 | 71 | 68 | 71 | 60 | 61 | 66 | 67 | 64 | 67 | 3.54 | | Stage Racer | 68 | 75 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 71 | 75 | 60 | 61 | 67 | 68 | 64 | 71 | 4.100 |
Antti-Jussi Juntunen joined us as part of a swap deal so he hadn’t to be sacked. He’s already 25, but will still develop into a good puncheur.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Juntunen | Antti-Jussi | 68 | 63 | 72 | 61 | 67 | 70 | 65 | 61 | 68 | 71 | 68 | 61 | 60 | 3.17 | | Climber1 | 69 | 67 | 76 | 61 | 68 | 72 | 68 | 61 | 68 | 75 | 72 | 62 | 60 | 4.100 | | Hills | 70 | 65 | 77 | 62 | 71 | 72 | 67 | 61 | 69 | 74 | 71 | 62 | 61 | 4.100 |
Paul Lapeira was our number one transfer target this season. He’s already 24, but he’s so versatile it’ll actually be hard to decide which path we’ll choose for him. The fighter path looks interesting as he’ll end up with nearly all stats 70+ there, but he could also become a sprinting cobbler or a sprinter who’ll be good on all terrains (including the mountains). Our plans see him gathering enough XP this season so he could be maxed out even in CT next season.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Lapeira | Paul | 73 | 69 | 71 | 61 | 70 | 70 | 67 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 75 | 70 | 64 | 3.00 | | Cobbler | 77 | 69 | 72 | 61 | 74 | 73 | 69 | 76 | 76 | 74 | 76 | 71 | 64 | 4.100 | | Fighter | 78 | 71 | 73 | 63 | 74 | 73 | 70 | 73 | 74 | 77 | 80 | 72 | 66 | 4.100 | | Classics | 77 | 69 | 74 | 61 | 73 | 73 | 69 | 75 | 72 | 74 | 80 | 71 | 64 | 4.100 | | Sprinter | 77 | 70 | 72 | 61 | 74 | 72 | 70 | 74 | 77 | 77 | 75 | 71 | 64 | 4.100 | | Climber1 | 74 | 74 | 76 | 62 | 72 | 72 | 71 | 71 | 72 | 77 | 80 | 71 | 65 | 4.100 | | Stage Racer | 75 | 74 | 74 | 65 | 74 | 73 | 71 | 71 | 72 | 74 | 76 | 71 | 68 | 4.100 |
Kevin Vauquelin will develop into our leading stage racer (he’ll actually be a U25 threat next season already). We got quite some inquiries on him this transfers, but made clear he wasn’t available (and most probably won’t be for the years to come) – not even for a loan as he’s also planned to get enough XP to stay with us even in CT.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Vauquelin | Kevin | 68 | 73 | 67 | 72 | 68 | 72 | 70 | 58 | 68 | 68 | 71 | 70 | 71 | 3.17 | | Stage Racer | 70 | 79 | 71 | 76 | 72 | 76 | 75 | 58 | 68 | 70 | 73 | 71 | 75 | 4.100 | | Climber1/Stage Racer | 70 | 79 | 72 | 75 | 71 | 76 | 74 | 58 | 68 | 71 | 75 | 71 | 74 | 4.100 |
Lewis Askey is our only level 2 talent this season, so he won’t get that many RDs as he’ll be levelled up by riding the Tour de l’Avenir alone. But he’s already planned with for the cobbled races and will be even more so in the years to come as he’ll become a really good cobbler with some decent hill and sprint skills. So we think he’s a bargain for the 100k fee we paid to sign him.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Askey | Lewis | 67 | 63 | 70 | 58 | 69 | 65 | 69 | 72 | 66 | 73 | 60 | 67 | 67 | 2.81 | | Cobbler | 71 | 63 | 71 | 58 | 75 | 69 | 72 | 78 | 70 | 74 | 61 | 67 | 67 | 4.100 |
Alex Baudin is with us as a stagiaire for a second year in a row, but this time will actually level up. He’s going to be a decent stage racing / TTT domestique if someone (maybe even us) is willing to take the time to develop him.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Baudin | Alex | 65 | 66 | 66 | 66 | 68 | 66 | 67 | 63 | 63 | 66 | 67 | 65 | 63 | 1.62 | | Stage Racer | 66 | 73 | 71 | 73 | 73 | 71 | 74 | 63 | 63 | 67 | 68 | 65 | 70 | 4.100 |
Ewen Costiou is a rider similar to Lapeira in his versatility. We prefer a hilly sprinter / leadout path for him at the moment, but this could change over this season’s time.
| | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | XP | | Costiou | Ewen | 71 | 66 | 72 | 68 | 71 | 68 | 63 | 66 | 70 | 72 | 68 | 69 | 69 | 1.00 | | Sprinter | 76 | 66 | 72 | 68 | 76 | 69 | 73 | 69 | 77 | 77 | 68 | 69 | 69 | 4.100 | | Track-Sprinter | 76 | 66 | 72 | 68 | 72 | 73 | 73 | 66 | 77 | 77 | 68 | 69 | 74 | 4.100 | | Stage Racer | 72 | 73 | 75 | 73 | 76 | 71 | 68 | 66 | 70 | 72 | 68 | 69 | 74 | 4.100 | | Climber1 | 71 | 73 | 76 | 68 | 72 | 72 | 68 | 66 | 70 | 77 | 72 | 69 | 69 | 4.100 | | Hills | 72 | 67 | 77 | 68 | 76 | 71 | 66 | 66 | 71 | 76 | 71 | 69 | 69 | 4.100 | | Fighter | 76 | 66 | 75 | 68 | 75 | 71 | 66 | 66 | 73 | 76 | 73 | 70 | 69 | 4.100 |
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| knockout |
Posted on 09-09-2024 21:19
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7672
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 400.00
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So so good. Love the talent factory you've built!
For Lapeira i definitely see him as a classic specialist in the future - ideally a cobbler. Fighter or the sprinter paths look like a bit of a waste of a special talent!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 09-09-2024 22:19
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World Champion
Posts: 12152
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Looks like an amazingly fun project with all these talents! Reminds me a lot of my own setup back in the days when I started having a big french focus.
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 10-09-2024 22:03
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Protected Rider
Posts: 1052
Joined: 07-07-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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@Nemo
CT is the only fun I know yet, so I hope PCT is even more fun, especially if I can enjoy it another year.
@D2B
I can only echo that, it was a great pleasure talking and dealing with you. I'm actually rather hopeful Ranaweera will do well as he should be racing lots of fitting races with a rather manageable PCT stage racing competition and some good support.
@bbl
I hope we'll see Andresen in some race reports as he'll have plenty of RDs. In contrast to Mestric, who unfortunately will have to suffer from all the talents needing XP. But he'll be an important piece of the cobbles squad supporting Daniel. But this will surely change next season with an actual cobbles squad existing (and further improving) pre-transfers.
@TMM
I'm happy someone so experienced in team-building already expects smart, efficient work from us That's surely a good sign (and I promise to finally recall Forbes' name correctly, though I already had to think about it again ...).
@Laurens
I rather hope my young riders' scoring won't be essential as I think they'll probably rack in some U25 or KoM points from breaks but still seem to be domestiques rather than depth scorers to me. But I'll happily be proven wrong about that
@red
Mestric had a big pricetag this transfers, but actually this was more of fictional money we payed Carlsberg so they could afford paying the 1>3 clause for Andresen to us in return. Alternatively Andresen would have been loaned in without the clause for a much smaller fee and Mestric would have stayed with Carlsberg. So he actually cost us like 150k (after taxes). Also keen to hear from you next transfers anyway after the good (though fruitless) talks this year
@knockout
I like my talent factory as well! The cobbler path is surely one of the most interesting as he'll also be a good leadout and breakaway rider. Add some training and he'll be a really good cobbles leader
@SotD
I'll be happy if my project will only be partially as successful as your French period! And with the French talents hopefully added to the team in the next two years at least (Martinez, Gregoire, Magnier, ...) it'll only be more fun
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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
