Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

[greyclouds]

I don’t know how I feel about Padun. He had two eye catching wins at the dauphine but was pretty invisible in the vuelta. I expected more.

His reputation seems to be big, but very inconsistent talent. Does Vaughters want him as a domestique or will he just be allowed to freelance?

Yes, Padun has a reputation, but it doesn't belong in this forum

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Good signing but so far he hasnt shown any type of consistency.

You are right, but as Anderis suggested above if he was consistent they wouldn’t be able to afford him.

 

[Anderis]

It seems the 2022 roster has been finalised and it will be the 27 riders that are listed here:

CQ Ranking - Team not found

CQ Ranking is the world's leading cycling ranking and extensive results database. Also known as Cycling Quotient.

cqranking.com

+ Padun, Morton and Delettre.
Maybe they'll go for 31 riders but if not, then all of: Caicedo, Howes, Owen, Scully and Whelan are out of contract. Also only 2 Americans in the roster, when the lowest in the team's history prior to that point it was 6!

 

[Anderis]

So we know their Etoile de Besseges 2022 provisional roster but we don't officially know what riders will be on the team in 2022, yet.

It's so weird with this team sometimes.

 

[RedheadDane]

So we know their Etoile de Besseges 2022 provisional roster but we don't officially know what riders will be on the team in 2022, yet.

It's so weird with this team sometimes.

We know Delettre won't be riding for them.

 

[Anderis]

We know Delettre won't be riding for them.

We also know of hundreds of other riders who won't be riding for them.

But for example, they announced their 2015 roster on the 14th of November 2014. Why are they so late this year.

 

[RedheadDane]

We also know of hundreds of other riders who won't be riding for them.

Most of those haven't been mentioned as someone who'd definitely be riding for them.

+ Padun, Morton and Delettre.

 

[Anderis]

As it turns out, Padun had originally had a contract for 2022 with Bahrain. Maybe that's the reason the signing od Delettre has fallen at the last moment. They needed a spot for Padun who was not someone they had expected to sign. But that would imply they didn't have another free spot on a team and they should have 31 riders in 2022. Judging by frequent appearances on their twitter late in the year, I would be surprised if Morton and Howes weren't renewed but who knows.

 

[F_Cance]

As it turns out, Padun had originally had a contract for 2022 with Bahrain

now that makes it even more interesting. Where is the source for this?

 

[janraaskalt]

now that makes it even more interesting. Where is the source for this?

Story here on Cycling News website

 

[yaco]

Ineos publically announced their final squad today on the 21st December - There is no hard or fast Rule which dictates when a team should announce their squad.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

With Vaughters, you never know what to think. I‘ve been following him as a rider, and since his first days as a team manager. I still don‘t know what to think of him.

Highlights in the last few months were: „Steinhauser is best U23 rider of the world“ and „Padun has highest VO2 max I ever saw“. May be true, may be not…

 

[Anderis]

Highlights in the last few months were: „Steinhauser is best U23 rider of the world“ and „Padun has highest VO2 max I ever saw“. May be true, may be not…

A highlight from a few years ago should be calling Jose Neves the most talented Portuguese rider since Rui Costa and then never offering him a full time contract.

I don't think he's called Steinhauser the best U23 rider in the world.

“Georg is, I think, potentially the most talented Under-23 rider in the world right now,” Vaughters said.

“That doesn’t mean that he’s the best Under-23 rider in the world right now. The thing to understand about Georg is that his father was a professional cyclist and his father was very insistent that Georg finish his schooling before he dedicates himself to cycling, which is actually very rare in the world of cycling.

source

 

[IndianCyclist]

With Padun, he has a goose that can lay a golden egg at GTs as long as he doesn't get too greedy and kill it off

 

[Anderis]

So Scully apparently stays but CQ seems to think that all the other guys are out:

CQ Ranking

CQ Ranking is the world's leading cycling ranking and extensive results database. Also known as Cycling Quotient.

cqranking.com

 

[Roku]

Vaughters would be a very good salesman. Every rider he signs is either the next big thing or an underperforming star overlooked by a plethora of former teams.

So Scully apparently stays but CQ seems to think that all the other guys are out:

CQ Ranking

CQ Ranking is the world's leading cycling ranking and extensive results database. Also known as Cycling Quotient.

cqranking.com

That's what makes more sense IMHO. Just looked it up and Scully has just been registered in UCI for 2022. I guess Howes and Morton can still be sponsored by the team to do gravel shenanigans without having a Pro Contract.

Don't know about El Fares which is listed as questionable, but he was supposed to have signed a two-year contract.

 

[Anderis]

Vaughters would be a very good salesman. Every rider he signs is either the next big thing or an underperforming star overlooked by a plethora of former teams.

This makes perfect sense.

1. Why would you sign riders you don't believe in.
2. Why would you not say positive things about your riders when asked by media.

On average, over the years, his team was classified 4-5 places higher in team rankings than it was in the budget rankings. So it means he's actually signed a lot of riders who were overlooked by richer teams yet delivered decent results.

He may be over the top sometimes but it still makes perfect sense that he is even if it's sometimes funny.

 

[Roku]

I guess there has to be some middle ground between the Lefevere approach of bashing the riders leaving the team while undermining some of your most loyal and devoted riders and the Vaughters approach of overpraising your riders and new signings while hinting or expressing how no other team manager had seen their talent or properly train them.

 

[Anderis]

2022 roster confirmed (finally!)

El Fares extended for a year.

Those reports about French riders from you don't tend to age well, do they? To be fair- he might have extended but then had his contract cancelled to make a place for Padun. It even appears they had him confused with Padun in the official news initially:

Hmmm, when I originally read it El Farès was there instead of Padun.

I wonder what's the opinion of the French sponsor about all that- they don't have a single French rider for 2022 while it appeared they wanted more than one. But they're still on the official website of the team, so it doesn't look like the contract has been cancelled.

Also Vaughters says that this is potentially the strongest roster they've ever had, which I'm not that optimistic about. I really think 2011 and 2020 rosters were super strong compared to this one. Maybe if all riders develop to the best of their potential, the 2022 could get very strong at some point too but that's pretty much what never happens in reality. Look how promising the 2015 roster was too, but ultimately Formolo, Mohoric and Moser have never given the team as much as you would have hoped for at the time (while Bettiol surprisingly turned out to be the biggest deal of the bunch). I don't even think the 2022 roster looks as promising in early 2022 as the 2015 one looked in early 2015. It's not awful but I don't see anything special about it.

 

[Anderis]

It's nice to see Bettiol in good shape in Etoile de Besseges but I'm a bit concerned by the rest of the team finishing so far behind. I feel it's not normal for Valgren or Cort to be this far away in such a field but admittedly I didn't watch any of the stages so I don't know if there were any tactical reasons for it (but I doubt).

 

[RedheadDane]

It's nice to see Bettiol in good shape in Etoile de Besseges but I'm a bit concerned by the rest of the team finishing so far behind. I feel it's not normal for Valgren or Cort to be this far away in such a field but admittedly I didn't watch any of the stages so I don't know if there were any tactical reasons for it (but I doubt).

Cort's been sick.

 

[Salvarani]

It's nice to see Bettiol in good shape in Etoile de Besseges but I'm a bit concerned by the rest of the team finishing so far behind. I feel it's not normal for Valgren or Cort to be this far away in such a field but admittedly I didn't watch any of the stages so I don't know if there were any tactical reasons for it (but I doubt).

Cort I can agree with, but for Valgren this is a fairly normal start. It is rare that he is in good shape in the beginning. Looking through his career, so far, his win in Omloop is an outlier for early in the season results. He is usually good towards the end of the season historically.

 

[Anderis]

Cort I can agree with, but for Valgren this is a fairly normal start. It is rare that he is in good shape in the beginning. Looking through his career, so far, his win in Omloop is an outlier for early in the season results. He is usually good towards the end of the season historically.

I think we've already had that discussion in another thread.

As I said- he might not be winning races all the time but even if he's at his 80%, he would still mostly finish between 20th and 40th place, even early in the season.

I also don't think there's anything inherent to his early season struggles. Last year he broke his hand in his first race day of the season so obviously it took him time to recover. In 2020 he finished 5th in Etoile de Besseges ITT. In 2018 he won OHN and in 2017 he did well in E3.

Just look at his early season results at PCS in 2020, 2019, 2018 etc. They were typically between 20th and 40th place, not between 80th and 110th like this year. He is usually a consistent rider who doesn't finish very far behind even if his form is not optimal, so I'm concerned.

 

[Salvarani]

I think we've already had that discussion in another thread.



Just look at his early season results at PCS in 2020, 2019, 2018 etc. They were typically between 20th and 40th place, not between 80th and 110th like this year. He is usually a consistent rider who doesn't finish very far behind even if his form is not optimal, so I'm concerned.

To me just that seems like "average" results that are typical for him this time of the year.

We simply dont agree then, which is fine, and remember it is just the first race. He might get better in the next few races... and come fall he will be great. Unless he for some reason is great in the classics this year.

He is not the most consistent rider.

 

[Anderis]

To me just that seems like "average" results that are typical for him this time of the year.

We simply dont agree then, which is fine

It is not fine because it takes 15 seconds of research to find out what you're saying is wrong and I already did the research for you which you chose to ignore.

He's not finished outside top50 in a single race in early 2019 or 2020 and in 2021 he broke his hand in February, came back and his worst results were 52nd in MSR and 72nd in Catalunya but Catalunya is much more mountainous and he still delivered two top10 stage finishes there.

This year he already finished 91st in Marseille and he's on his way to finish way below top50 here (unless he does better today) with no highlights on any particualr stage. That's a clear step down in terms of performance in early races from his previous 3 years (and it goes further, in 2018 he finished inside top40 in his first 3 races too).