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

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I remember playing PCM 2015 and the transfers weren't random at all.

Top 5 teams always signed all the good riders and Cannondale only ever signed mediocre Italian riders because someone set Italy as their sponsor interest country.
That's not the norm. In the previous edition, Igor Antón went to Crelan or Landbouwkrediet or whatever they're called at that time. And in 2019 edition he's not retired and rode for Roomport and raced very little in a PCT team with very few riders. That's more normal PCM.

Compared to that Landa to AG2R is very predictable.
 
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He is, however, already an improvement on pretty much all the DSes they have except Lastras and maybe Sciandri.
I do rate Sciandri, with him in the teamcar they actually played the numbers game right with Carapaz and Landa and ended up winning the 2019 Giro.
The main problem is that he seems to be pretty far down the pecking order and not in charge at their high priority races...
 
Hirschi has a contract for 2024 (Mader rumoured to not have one). Also why would he know this stuff. He isn't known a someone with this kind of info right?
there's an interview with Mäder in the Neue Zürchter Zeitung today which confirms that his contract with Bahrain expires at the end of this year.

Tudor and Q36.5 are among the teams which have offered him a deal for 2024, but there are others as well. Mäder himself calls the Swiss teams interesting ("Never say never"), but also says that joining a relatively new team now, for the potentially best part of his career, comes with a risk. So it doesn't really sound like he'll end up at either of them.
 
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I'm surprised about the Tao to Trek rumour. First of all he seems to be in a really good position at Ineos right now, second he just suffered a really serious, potentially career altering, injury. I wouldn't throw tons of money at him before seeing him race again.
On the other hand, he's probably cheaper now than if he had won the 2023 Giro...

For himself I don't really understand the move either. It can't be the money, nobody richer than Ineos. It can't be the opportunities, he gets every opportunity he wants at Ineos. It can't be the team, Ineos is a better GC team than Trek. And he credits his new coach with getting him to this level, someone he'll have to part ways with if he goes to Trek.

Maybe it's just a contract negotiation ploy.
 
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