Teams & Riders The Great Big Cycling Transfers, Extensions, and Rumours Thread

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I was watching in Sporza but my dutch isn't good to understand more than the basic. They talked about him losing his explosiveness and only be able to return to his best next year, right?

To be frank, I can't recall any results of note; and his CX form nose dived. It appeared he was a U23 World Champion who hadn't transitioned to the Elites. However, he showed enough on Sunday to suggest there is a decent rider waiting for the training to pay off.

It's another 'what the hell are DSM doing'?
 
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To be frank, I can't recall any results of note; and his CX form nose dived. It appeared he was a U23 World Champion who hadn't transitioned to the Elites. However, he showed enough on Sunday to suggest there is a decent rider waiting for the training to pay off.

It's another 'what the hell are DSM doing'?

He had a strong winter in 2018-2019, in his first elite year before he passed from Sunweb Development to the Elite team. That year he had a strong 4th place in a hard edition of Namur, which I think is the performance I remember better, although he did even better in the next World Cup with a 3rd place in Zolder.

After that year, he had worse results each year and rode fewer races each season.
 
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he suffered from it all year basically. Pellaud mentioned it in an interview before Tour de Romandie already

OK, thank you :)

I hadn‘t known it, and had no suspicion, since his results were decent, and he raced all season long. Plus, he never won that much, and was rather the guy for the aggressive racing and the breakaways.

He seems to be a great guy, and I wish him that his health improves, so that he can be a pro rider again, soon.

Hard to predict how this will develop. Covid is quite new, and not too much is known about Long Covid, also. Best thing will be to monitor his body and health closely, and to see if there comes the day when his health reaches the level he had before Covid infection… Get well soon…
 
Team Coop has been saved in last moment and signed 3 year sponsordeals with Coop and Repsol. According to Norwegian Sykkelmagasinet they will keep 6 of the riders and Martin Tjøtta will go there. That means there should be 2-5 more open spots, i dont know if there are Danish/Swedish riders that could be options or if they will fill up with more young Norwegians.

Of the 12 riders from this Season Bendixen will join Uno-X, Bårdseng will go to Human Powered by Health and Andreas Stokbro have signed with a new team but it’s not confirmed which (I guess Q36,5 or Tudor).

I think Vegard Stokke, the former junior star, will retire. Career destroyed by knee injuries.
 
UAE logic: We need to sign that Wine boy to beat that Wineyard boy

Every clean rider has weaknesses. Ving hasn't shown any weaknesses yet except maybe the cobbles and an inability to sprint with Pog. However, Vingegaard must have some weaknesses beyond those. He's only been an elite rider for what, 2 years? I am not sure he's been figured out yet.

What does that have to do with Vine? If UAE is serious about being Jumbo and Ving at the Tour, they need a team with 2 riders for the flat/hills. Let's say Bjerg and Wellens. Then Pog's spot. Now you have 5 riders left. If you want to win the Tour you bring Yates to counter Primoz either as a GC decoy or a super domestique. Then you bring Brandon McNulty, Ayuso and Majka as more domestiques. That leaves 1 spot for someone from the Soler, Bennett, Formolo, Groschartner and yes, Vine group. That also leaves some talent to go for the Giro which UAE seems intent to do.

Is Vine needed? No but UAE needs depth. I find it curious that we didn't get the signing until after the Tour route came out with no TTT and a lot of climbing. UAE has the team necessary to pull back Roglic attacks and possibly even Ving, if Ving is human.

So I like the move, it's another depth signing and yes, I could see an in-form Vine pulling back some attacks in the third week of the Tour even as the 8th rider on the squad. They have created a team for the 2023 route, that's for sure. Now the question is just how beatable Ving is and how much was his machine like performance from this year's Tour an aberration.
 
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Every clean rider has weaknesses. Ving hasn't shown any weaknesses yet except maybe the cobbles and an inability to sprint with Pog. However, Vingegaard must have some weaknesses beyond those. He's only been an elite rider for what, 2 years? I am not sure he's been figured out yet.

What does that have to do with Vine? If UAE is serious about being Jumbo and Ving at the Tour, they need a team with 2 riders for the flat/hills. Let's say Bjerg and Wellens. Then Pog's spot. Now you have 5 riders left. If you want to win the Tour you bring Yates to counter Primoz either as a GC decoy or a super domestique. Then you bring Brandon McNulty, Ayuso and Majka as more domestiques. That leaves 1 spot for someone from the Soler, Bennett, Formolo, Groschartner and yes, Vine group. That also leaves some talent to go for the Giro which UAE seems intent to do.

Is Vine needed? No but UAE needs depth. I find it curious that we didn't get the signing until after the Tour route came out with no TTT and a lot of climbing. UAE has the team necessary to pull back Roglic attacks and possibly even Ving, if Ving is human.

So I like the move, it's another depth signing and yes, I could see an in-form Vine pulling back some attacks in the third week of the Tour even as the 8th rider on the squad. They have created a team for the 2023 route, that's for sure. Now the question is just how beatable Ving is and how much was his machine like performance from this year's Tour an aberration.

According to UAE, Ayuso won't go to the Tour as a domestique, he will be their leader for the Vuelta instead. If he did the Tour he could actually be a podium threat unlike Adam Yates.
 
According to UAE, Ayuso won't go to the Tour as a domestique, he will be their leader for the Vuelta instead. If he did the Tour he could actually be a podium threat unlike Adam Yates.

Interesting. That I don't understand. So neither Almeida or Ayuso for the Tour? They realize they lost the Tour in 2022, right? When you're trying to topple Jumbo, you need all hands on deck. I guess the depth signings make such a move possible but if I was Pog, I'd demand the best 7 riders in my team come to the Tour.
 
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Every clean rider has weaknesses. Ving hasn't shown any weaknesses yet except maybe the cobbles and an inability to sprint with Pog. However, Vingegaard must have some weaknesses beyond those. He's only been an elite rider for what, 2 years? I am not sure he's been figured out yet.

What does that have to do with Vine? If UAE is serious about being Jumbo and Ving at the Tour, they need a team with 2 riders for the flat/hills. Let's say Bjerg and Wellens. Then Pog's spot. Now you have 5 riders left. If you want to win the Tour you bring Yates to counter Primoz either as a GC decoy or a super domestique. Then you bring Brandon McNulty, Ayuso and Majka as more domestiques. That leaves 1 spot for someone from the Soler, Bennett, Formolo, Groschartner and yes, Vine group. That also leaves some talent to go for the Giro which UAE seems intent to do.

Is Vine needed? No but UAE needs depth. I find it curious that we didn't get the signing until after the Tour route came out with no TTT and a lot of climbing. UAE has the team necessary to pull back Roglic attacks and possibly even Ving, if Ving is human.

So I like the move, it's another depth signing and yes, I could see an in-form Vine pulling back some attacks in the third week of the Tour even as the 8th rider on the squad. They have created a team for the 2023 route, that's for sure. Now the question is just how beatable Ving is and how much was his machine like performance from this year's Tour an aberration.


Yates is not good enough for a secondary leader. At least not against the likes of Roglic. I'd say the same about Ayuso at this moment. Of course, he will likely improve, but you never know that. Tbh the same pretty much applies to Almeida as well.

And if you don't have a secondary leader to be at Roglic's level, your best bet as a team like UAE is to bring the best team on Pog's dispose, you're able to. Given the fact that already heavily damaged UAE team was doing good in the mountains this year, more mountain support wasn't needed, particularly not after the Yates/Groshartner signing was announced. Flat/roulers support is what they miss(ed) the most.. They did very little to address that weakness.
 
In my opinion, Team Emirates DID need to add high-calibre climbing domestiques. The question is... are Vine and A.Yates good enough to battle with Kuss and Roglic? Probably not.

With Vine they added a Kuss-like domestique. He has done tremendous stages combined with subpar performances, but I think the "mountain goat" domestique role might be great for Vine, allowing him to save energy in flat stages and the start of hard stages.

The other liability has not been properly addressed, which is a powerhorse for the flat with good positioning, ability to move around in the pack and echelon-riding skills.

My UAE TDF team would be

Pogacar
Almeida
A.Yates
Majka

Two out of Vine, McNulty, Formolo

Two out of Bjerg, Wellens, Trentin.