We entered renewals with some clear ideas on who we want to keep in the team and who won’t get a new contract, leaving us in doubt only with some domestiques. We decided to adapt the strategy for them on the way.

Captains:
These five riders were our main leaders and point scorers last season, so they also were the key players of the renewals (apart from our talents).
We were able to keep APP on his old wage and that’s clearly good news. Maybe we would have been able to even reduce his wage, but we didn’t want to test this out.
Ranaweera got an increase after a good season, but it’s been a small one and on a wage of 250,000 he should still be good value for his money.
Daniel got an offer from us, but weren’t surprised he really didn’t like it. So we decided to part ways for now.
Hodeg was on a low wage and his good results got him an increase of 35,000 in the end. There are some sprinters available in FA, but we clearly prefer not to rely on signing one of them while still having the opportunity to get in the mix.
Oliveira got a similar raise, which wasn’t what we hoped for. But especially with similar riders like Demare declining or Lagane going back to CT we thought he could do even better next season.

Youngsters:
With four of our youngsters maxing we couldn’t hope to keep their wages at the minimum. And we had to live with some serious raises there: All four rode for minimum wage last season, but Boileau, Garibian and Louvel all ended around a wage of 100,000 for next season. At least Delbove was content with staying on his old wage.
Even more important were the renewals of Vauquelin and Lapeira. We hoped for some potential for cuts with them and we actually got them.
We also were able to re-sign Costiou, Berhe and Askey with no changes in their wages. That wasn’t a surprise for the former two as they were on minimum wage anyway, but Askey wasn’t willing to reduce his 90,000 wage. But that’s actually fair enough after he was our 5th best scorer last season.
Juntunen was one of the riders we put on hold for the first rounds, but after the elongated negotiations with our maxing riders we finally decided to part ways with him. He’s still on our list as a potential late signing in transfers though.
Baudin is once again released after his second stagiaire season.

Domestiques:
After a good season our domestiques wanted their share of the cake too. We decided to part way with all of our declining riders, so we bid farewell to Chevrier, Dunne, Hadi and Pinot.
Mestric easily got a new contract after he agreed to ride on minimum wage. Paulus was our other main target in the supporting cast, but our wage ideas weren’t compatible in the end. Le Gac suffered from the same fate as Juntunen and is another victim of the numerous raises and didn’t get an offer from us in the end. Both puncheurs are still on our list if they don’t find another team in FA though.

Conclusion:
Overall we can well live with the results of the renewals as we were able to renew all crucial riders while still starting transfers with a cap space of 930,000, which should give us quite some room to improve our squad.

		2024 wage	2025 wage	difference
Lewis Askey	€90,000	€90,000	€0
Alex Baudin	€10,000	released	-€10,000
Welay Hagos Berhe	€50,000	€50,000	€0
Alan Boileau	€50,000	€110,000	+€60,000
Clement Chevrier	€50,000	released	-€50,000
Ewen Costiou	€50,000	€50,000	€0
Maxime Daniel	€390,000	rejected	-€390,000
Joris Delbove	€50,000	€50,000	€0
Conor Dunne	€60,000	released	-€60,000
Arman Garibian	€50,000	€95,000	+€45,000
Janvier Hadi	€65,000	released	-€65,000
Alvaro Hodeg	€90,000	€125,000	+€35,000
Antti-Jussi Juntunen	€50,000	released	-€50,000
Paul Lapeira	€160,000	€110,000	-€50,000
Olivier Le Gac	€65,000	released	-€65,000
Matis Louvel	€50,000	€100,000	+€50,000
Matija Mestric	€55,000	€50,000	-€5,000
Rui Oliveira	€110,000	€140,000	+€30,000
Aurelien Paret-Peintre	€270,000	€270,000	€0
Daniel Paulus	€60,000	rejected	-€60,000
Thibault Pinot	€85,000	released	-€85,000
Suranga Ranaweera	€235,000	€250,000	+€15,000
Kevin Vauquelin	€110,000	€80,000	-€30,000
			total change	-€695,000
			effective change	+€150,000

These riders are clearly available for a decent offer, though we are not forced to sell anybody (yet) and will happily keep them with us if needed. In any case cash offers are preferred here.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP	Age	Wage
	Joris Delbove	65	76	75	74	58	67	73	75	62	60	71	73	72	58	4.100	25	50.000
	Alvaro Hodeg	72	53	59	65	67	69	74	70	51	79	78	53	64	73	4.100	29	125.000
	Rui Oli-veira	70	67	72	76	70	77	72	72	66	75	78	65	67	71	4.100	29	140.000

Delbove wasn’t able to show himself too much yet as he just finished his development. But he could be nice break-away or KoM option for the lower divisions if he gets the opportunity to ride for himself, especially as he’s on minimum wage.

Hodeg proved to be a good sprinter able to get results even without a sprint train last season (including a PTHC stage win and two more PTHC stage podiums and a C1 classics podium), accumulating more than 200 points in PCT last season. In addition he’s only 29 years old and on a reasonable wage, so he should be a nice option for teams with a South American focus.

Oliveira is a hilly sprinter who also has a decent TT stat. He nearly scored 200 points last season in PCT (not including a 2nd place in a wildcard race in PT) and is also only 29 years old and on a decent wage. With the plethora of hilly classics and stage races available for all divisions he’s a good option as secondary leader, stage hunter or just domestique.

These talents are planned to stay with the team, but could leave us if a really good cash or trade offer occurs.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP	Age	Wage
	Lewis Askey	68	63	67	70	58	71	66	70	74	67	73	60	67	67	3.55	24	90.000
	Welay Hagos Berhe	68	73	72	71	71	73	70	73	60	61	67	68	64	69	4.65	24	50.000

Askey is on a 90k wage after already getting some big results last season (including a PTHC classic win from the break). He will max at 78 CO with decent back-up stats and should be easy to level up in every division.

Berhe is on minimum wage and though he won’t be a world beater he clearly will be a nice stage racing domestique, especially for the numerous African teams around. Even more so he can be maxed in all divisions (including CT), being at 4.65 already.

We don’t plan to sell or trade these riders, but maybe there’s an offer we can’t refuse or some need to free some cap space or generate some cash later in transfers, so stay in touch if you’re interested in one of them.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP	Age	Wa-ge
	Alan Boileau	67	75	76	77	65	68	71	73	62	67	76	68	67	64	4.100	26	110.000
	Ewen Costiou	73	66	69	72	68	71	70	64	66	73	74	68	69	71	3.0	23	50.000
	Arman Garibian	70	76	74	71	73	74	75	78	55	60	71	66	70	73	4.100	25	95.000
	Matija Mestric	73	63	67	70	63	69	70	68	76	55	65	71	75	67	4.100	28	50.000

These riders are not available at all – at least as long as you don’t offer a younger, better, cheaper and preferably French version of them in return, probably with some cash on top.

		FL	MO	MM	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	XP	Age	Wa-ge
	Paul Lapeira	75	69	71	72	61	72	72	68	74	74	74	76	71	64	4.66	25	110.000
	Matis Louvel	77	64	68	72	73	75	78	70	76	67	67	67	66	73	4.100	26	100.000
	Aurelien Paret-Peintre	72	76	77	77	72	73	75	73	63	72	74	72	70	72	4.100	29	270.000
	Suranga Ranawee-ra	67	80	77	73	76	75	75	74	52	58	65	57	69	73	4.100	30	250.000
	Kevin Vauquelin	69	77	73	69	74	70	74	73	58	68	69	72	71	73	4.65	24	80.000