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No clue what they have spent, but spent they have. 3 year extension running until the end of 2022: https://mailchi.mp/ef/martinez-contract-extension-2458617?e=171cfbd58aZinoviev Letter said:Of course all of their transfer choices will depend on how much they spend to keep Martinez.
I guess it's a decent deal for Martinez if he agreed to sign a 3 years-deal so early in the season after showing great form in the last couple of weeks. No doubt he would be sought by many other teams if he was a free agent.JoeD1997 said:No clue what they have spent, but spent they have. 3 year extension running until the end of 2022: https://mailchi.mp/ef/martinez-contract-extension-2458617?e=171cfbd58aZinoviev Letter said:Of course all of their transfer choices will depend on how much they spend to keep Martinez.
Hope Martinez can stay injury free as he seems destined to take over from Uran at EF. Very promising.Vaughters said Martinez's emerging talent in the time trial will make him a GC threat in the future.
"He's a gifted climber — one of, say, 20 very talented climbers in the peloton. But it's his blossoming ability in the time trial that makes Dani so exciting," Vaughters said. "He's made huge improvements in the TT. He's a climber whose time trial is now a strength, not a liability. He’s worked hard on his end there, and I’m also proud of the advancements the team has made on that front, too. We're doing great work together."
EF Education First say Martínez's spring race program will likely include Itzulia Basque Country [formerly Vuelta País Vasco], the Ardennes Classics and Tour de Romandie. He’s also expected to start his second Tour de France in July.
Hopefully EF is seeing the value of this team. Also I think Tejay had signed for more than one year. Hopefully at this point he understands he's more of a top domestique than as a race leader.Anderis said:I guess it's a decent deal for Martinez if he agreed to sign a 3 years-deal so early in the season after showing great form in the last couple of weeks. No doubt he would be sought by many other teams if he was a free agent.JoeD1997 said:No clue what they have spent, but spent they have. 3 year extension running until the end of 2022: https://mailchi.mp/ef/martinez-contract-extension-2458617?e=171cfbd58aZinoviev Letter said:Of course all of their transfer choices will depend on how much they spend to keep Martinez.
Great news for EF that they keep him. Will bring some stability as they have a great succession plan that they need when Uran and many other important riders are already at the wrong side of 30. Now Vaughters can get picky during the transfer window. With Uran, Woods, Martinez, Carthy, Clarke, Langeveld, Bettiol and Vanmarcke they have stage races and classics covered for next year. And with Higuita, Villalobos, Whelan and Van den Berg some talent to develop. They could use a decent sprinter, though. McLay is vastly inconsistent and Modolo disappoints more and more as the time progresses.
A little weird that EF has chosen to bring Martinez to TdF last year, but also this year. You'd expect this would be the year to contend for the GC in either the Giro or Vuelta, but on the other hand, TdF looks just as hard (if not harder) to do really well in the GC. Also, there's 3 timetrials in the Giro.Anderis said:I wouldn't be surprised if Tejay is just on a 1 year deal, maybe with an option to extend on the team's side- he signed after rather poor 2018, so it's maybe "we'll pay you as if 2018 was just a one-off but if there is no improvement in 2019, there's no way we keep you on this salary for any longer".
So Martinez is doing TdF? Woods also stated more than once that he would like do to go the TdF this year. It looks more and more likely they won't have a proper leader for the Giro this year.![]()
Don't think Talansky ever won Paris-Nice. I remember him finishing 2nd to Porte, though.Zinoviev Letter said:Martinez signing for a long time is great news. There is always a risk involved in betting heavily on a young guy immediately after a breakthrough performance. They got burned before when they resigned Talansky for big money after his Paris Nice win , for instance. But if a smaller budget team wants to compete for GTs it is the only viable way.
He must have meant Dauphiné.jaylew said:Don't think Talansky ever won Paris-Nice. I remember him finishing 2nd to Porte, though.Zinoviev Letter said:Martinez signing for a long time is great news. There is always a risk involved in betting heavily on a young guy immediately after a breakthrough performance. They got burned before when they resigned Talansky for big money after his Paris Nice win , for instance. But if a smaller budget team wants to compete for GTs it is the only viable way.
This is a misconception though. Higuita already made a pretty big leap in the latter part of the 2018 season. He even beat the unbeatable Caicedo in Manizales (MTF). Furthermore, three years ago, when he was just 18 years old, he finished 12th in Valle d'Aosta, one of the most prestigious U23 races, while being a helper to Aguirre and Aldemar Reyes. He is performing above expectations, but it's not like they appeared out of the clear blue sky nor had he never showed signs.Anderis said:Whoever was responsible for bringing Higuita to EF, I'm impressed with his talent-spotting ability. A quick look at his 2017/2018 results doesn't reveal anywhere near as much promise as Higuita is showing right now, in early 2019. They will now have a lot of Latin-American climbing talent in the team with Martinez, Caicedo + Villalobos set to join later this year.
Ahh that Vuelta a Colombia. I was of course not aware, because this result has not been registered by procyclingstats.DNP-Old said:He even beat the unbeatable Caicedo in Manizales (MTF).
Paris Nice is a higher prestige.tobydawq said:He must have meant Dauphiné.jaylew said:Don't think Talansky ever won Paris-Nice. I remember him finishing 2nd to Porte, though.Zinoviev Letter said:Martinez signing for a long time is great news. There is always a risk involved in betting heavily on a young guy immediately after a breakthrough performance. They got burned before when they resigned Talansky for big money after his Paris Nice win , for instance. But if a smaller budget team wants to compete for GTs it is the only viable way.
What does that matter when Talansky didn't win that?This Charming Man said:Paris Nice is a higher prestige.tobydawq said:He must have meant Dauphiné.jaylew said:Don't think Talansky ever won Paris-Nice. I remember him finishing 2nd to Porte, though.Zinoviev Letter said:Martinez signing for a long time is great news. There is always a risk involved in betting heavily on a young guy immediately after a breakthrough performance. They got burned before when they resigned Talansky for big money after his Paris Nice win , for instance. But if a smaller budget team wants to compete for GTs it is the only viable way.
Breschel has not done any classics, not even Sanremo where his result last year was like the best result for the team all year, and instead has raced Coppi e Bartali. Maybe he has been ill or is out of favor with the directors for some reason.Anderis said:I'm baffled by how weak EF's cobbled squad is looking this season, barring Langeveld and Bettiol. Yet another race and they have absolutely no support riders in the bunch while half of the peloton is still there. It's embarassing how little worth riders like Modolo, Phinney, Docker and Breschel are sharing betweem themselves nowadays. It is a surprise to me because for the past 2 years they were often doing very well on cobbles as a team with some lesser riders so I thought the staff was doing good job with training, preparation etc. of their classics team and I expected this to continue. Maybe it's time to reshuffle the squad that is providing support to Vanmarcke, Langeveld and Bettiol, who all have contracts for next year but most of the other cobble riders do not.
I'm also slightly disappointed with the Catalunya roster where I expected them to look stronger as a team but at least it seems like Mike Woods is growing some good consistency he didn't necessarily have in the previous years. All in all, the team is having a respectable spring considering the fact that their main leaders in Uran and Vanmarcke have had a rough start to the season. I bet a team like Dimension Data would gladly trade with EF for their respective performances. But there's still room for imprvement.