Zinoviev Letter said:
They don't have ProTour strength in depth, but they look like a pretty good Pro Conti squad to me. Not Cervelo or Vacansoleil good, but better than most.
The ProConti teams last year:
Vacansoleil - 7th (Marcato, Leukemans, Feillu, Riccò*, Carrara all in the CQ ranking top 100, + Hoogerland 107th. Highest ranked: Marcato, 31st)
Cervélo - 16th (Hushovd, Tondó and Sastre all in the CQ top 100 - highest ranked = Hushovd, 19th.
Cofidis - 19th (Moncoutié, Dumoulin and Duque all in the CQ ranking top 100, and Taaramäe, Keukeleire (101st) and Minard also putting in good scores. Top ranked = Moncoutié, 59th)
Bouygues - 20th (Voeckler and Fedrigo in the top 100 plus several in the top 200. Best ranked: Voeckler, 35th)
BMC - 21st (Only Evans in top 100, with a few between 100 and 200. Hence I used them as my comparison for the new Pegasus team. Only difference: Evans ranks 6th overall on CQ and isn't 38)
Androni - 23rd (Scarponi and Bertagnolli in top 100, with a few between 100 and 200 including Serpa 104th. Top scorer: Scarponi, 12th)
Skil-Shimano - 24th (only Kenny van Hummel - 98th - in top 100. A number of other riders in the 150-300 region. Probably the first team that Pegasus can legitimately claim to be stronger than).
Saur - 25th (Jérôme Coppel - 70th - their only top 100. Also Julien Simon and Jimmy Caspar in top 200)
TopSport - 27th (top scorer Kristof Vandewalle, 118th)
ISD - 28th (may have scored higher had Rujano and Sinkewitz been on full year deals; nonetheless top scorer Giovanni Visconti, 22nd - and with others in the top 200, potentially another comparison for the strength in depth of Pegasus)
CarmioOro - 29th (Pardilla and Ventoso in top 100, Pardilla best in 72nd. Also Sella in top 200).
CSF - 30th (Pozzovivo in 41st, but also Belletti and Modolo in top 200 - again, useful comparison for strength? Probably a bit weaker than Pegasus).
Xacobero - 31st (Mosquera the obvious top scorer, ranked 30th. No other big scorers)
Acqua e Sapone - 32nd (Paolini and Garzelli in top 100, Paolini best in 78th. Other results lacking, but squad depth not far off Pegasus)
Landbouwkrediet - 33rd
De Rosa-Stac Plastic - 34th
Ceramica Flaminia - 37th*
CCC Polsat-Polkowice - 41st
Andalucía-Caja Sur - 42nd
Vorarlberg-Corratec - 80th**
Scott-Marcondes César-São José dos Campos - 90th**
* the transfer of Riccò's points obviously alters the rankings for these two teams.
** these teams lost ProContinental registration temporarily, in Vorarlberg's case never regaining it, due to financial problems during the season.
My conclusion? Pegasus are a decent but not spectacular ProConti team. They will be outranked also by FDJ (18th) and Geox, in addition to those ProConti teams mentioned above (obviously Cervélo and Vacansoleil won't be there as ProConti teams next year). They look to be on a par with BMC or ISD in terms of their roster; but their highest ranked rider is simply not as dynamic or as much of a guarantor of results as Evans or Visconti.