Finlay Tarling will be an Israel Premier Tech Academy rider for 2024 and 2025.
-
The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to
In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.
Thanks!
Out of nowhere, BORA got a nice classics squad.
Lazkano, Pithie, Tratnik, Sobrero, Herzog, Schachmann (I assume they resign him after he found himself again)
That's what happens when you get unlimited money out of nowhere. They jump on everyone that's free and has shown talent.
Neither Lazkano nor Aranburu are considered high profile names, but without them, Movistar has very VERY little talent on that roster and badly need to sign someone who can win a couple of races.
Narváez would be a good start, but it remains to be seen how he would fit into the current roster or whatever the team might look like next season. Outside of a few surprises here and there, just not that much to build on right now.
Rumours are that he has signed with a team in December already, but some sources say Visma, others Trek.
Only agree partially. With unlimited money AND no plan you jump on everyone…which means MvP, Phillipsen and Lenny Martinez for me. Seems like they at least have an idea what they want to do
Allegedly 'better at some things' than his brother was at 17, getting in early before Ineos can probably, but their tt-setup is crap I think so not sure it's the best move for him.
Well the issue they have had for a while now is that their budget never matched up to the prominence they had in the péloton for most of the 2010s thanks to Quintana and Valverde, and they've been long overdue the kind of rebuild they're going through, only they've been absolutely thumped hard by a few factors, some of which are their own fault and others aren't:
- the determination to get Mikel Landa costing them much of their support squad leaving them with an enticing but utterly self-destructive triple-headed leadership that never got the results they would have hoped for out of it (and the fact that loyalty to Valverde to the last meant they ended up letting the other two go to keep the guy who would always have to retire soon anyway)
- the emergence of a successful wave of South American talent meaning that everyone and their wife scouts Latin America nowadays, an area where they used to have a leg up over most of the competition. Falling out with Acquadro at an inopportune time also didn't help, with him having first dibs on much of the Latin American talents coming through at the time.
- kicking the can down the road about when they'd have to do the rebuild during the days when they couldn't compete with Sky/Ineos has come back to bite them as the rebuild is now hitting at a time when there are about five or six super budget teams that they can't hope to compete with (especially now that the budget is split with the women's team too)
- the fiasco with Miguel Ángel López (although that may have worked out in the long run with him getting suspended and them getting a couple of years of solid results out of Aranburu out of it, Óscar Rodríguez and Gorka Izagirre were less productive for UCI points but did their roles) and losing Jaime Rosón who was at the exact kind of role they were missing at the time, due to his previous biopassport issues at Caja Rural
- the documentary series was pretty good for them from a media and income perspective but possibly somewhat disastrous in other ways; the warts-and-all nature of the documentary laid bare some of the deficiencies of the team in terms of its sports science and development and may well have encouraged some riders who were also interviewing at other teams to explore those alternative options.
- The team is now struggling to get the top Spanish talent as well as the top Latin American talent. Even talented riders they already have within the team umbrella; placing such riders in Kern Pharma may be a good idea for development, but they then have less obligation to the WT team, while simultaneously they have needed to promote riders from the domestic calendar directly to the WT team as an incentive (e.g. Iván Romeo and Abner González) - at the expense that it makes the team's official feeder (Finisher-Galibier, the former Lizarte) less appealing because going to that team you're only likely to get a ProTeam placement rather than a WT contract. Even Igor Arrieta got placed in the ProTeam despite showing more than many of those that had been promoted to Movistar before - and may well have been looking elsewhere anyway before the team rather unceremoniously fired his father.
The fact they couldn't finalise Carlos Rodríguez after the contract was known about literally over a year before Ineos managed to convince him to stay after results meant they could justify driving the salary up beyond what Movistar were able to match shows quite clearly, this is a team that feels like it should be competing at the top, but realistically it has been a mid-table team that was overachieving for several years, and the amount of effort expended to try to keep up at that achievement level means they've overextended themselves and now that reality is hitting, they're in danger of not even being the mid-table team they should be, but instead being a basement-dweller as more of the teams below them get injections of money and talent that they just can't compete with anymore.
They wanted Philipsen, Van der Poel was never out of contract. Martinez to Bahrain was basically a done deal before this year already (before the money influx).
They went after almost everyone who has shown talent in classics. Tratnik (he wouldve come without Red Bull too I think), Pithie, Lazkano, but also Vermeersch for example (they were close but he choose UAE in the end). Not really rocket science what they're doing.
For their climbing squad they are a bit quieter, but also there they went after a big talent everyone knows. Pelizzari is rumoured to sign there (like you mentioned). They also had an offer out for Van Gils, but he choose to stay at Lotto.
Denk said Philipsen is too expensive. I don't think they throw money around. They just have 20 - 25 Millionen € more and can compete with Ineos, UAE and Visma.
I don't think Lazanko, Tratnik and Pithie cost more then 3 million Euro. Philipsen would cost more then all three together.
A lot of money goes in the structure and they still would have money for one or two really big rider. I think UAE is the team who is paying really good for a lot of top riders.
I don't think Lazanko, Tratnik and Pithie cost more then 3 million Euro. Philipsen would cost more then all three together.
A lot of money goes in the structure and they still would have money for one or two really big rider. I think UAE is the team who is paying really good for a lot of top riders.
With Philipsen likely to stay at Alpecin and eating up budget, you think they may have to let Groves to move teams.
I think Groves should be looking to move on in general. Not so much for Tour purposes (only kind of stage he'd have a shot at winning is a heavily reduced bunch sprint), but more so because Philipsen is about the only sprinter who he isn't getting ahead of in the hierarchy for the classics. Would be a good fit for a team like Groupama, who haven't really reinvested the Démare money and are also losing Pithie in that department.
Regarding Simon Carr options are staying with EF, but multiple other teams interested. According to Benson.
One of those teams is Cofidis, who seem to be interested in literally everyone. They upped their budget significantly and are losing Zingle so they have some money to spend. They question is, who actually wants to come to their team right now apart from the type of experienced riders you overpay like Buchmann.
Aranburu is a big rider they are linked to but Arkea apparently is in pole position to add another versatile (like they have a fetish for that kind of riders) sprinter to their team.
Also in Marca this evening:
- Lazkano to Bora
- Aranburu to French team, but not Cofidis (see above, probably Arkea) together with another rider from Movistar
- Narvaez to Movistar doesn't seem likely at all
- G. Izagirre might retire, Ion hasn't started contract extensions with Cofidis yet
- Talks between Movistar and Quintana for an extension
One of those teams is Cofidis, who seem to be interested in literally everyone. They upped their budget significantly and are losing Zingle so they have some money to spend. They question is, who actually wants to come to their team right now apart from the type of experienced riders you overpay like Buchmann.
Aranburu is a big rider they are linked to but Arkea apparently is in pole position to add another versatile (like they have a fetish for that kind of riders) sprinter to their team.
Also in Marca this evening:
- Lazkano to Bora
- Aranburu to French team, but not Cofidis (see above, probably Arkea) together with another rider from Movistar
- Narvaez to Movistar doesn't seem likely at all
- G. Izagirre might retire, Ion hasn't started contract extensions with Cofidis yet
- Talks between Movistar and Quintana for an extension
Last edited:
If Ewan retires which is a possibility then Groves should return to Jayco. He was effectively riding the same program at Alpecin as he was at Jayco. And there would be little difference in his level of support.
Well I prefer a huge company like Red Bull over some dodgy foreign government sponsoring a team...
Now apparently + Jhonatan Narváez
View: https://x.com/cirogazzetta/status/1793510179792994426?s=46&t=irfeBpODB9Bm6OcN_SI2Gg
View: https://x.com/cirogazzetta/status/1793508965638447196
Ciro reporting ELB won't ride for Lidl-Trek next year.
Ciro reporting ELB won't ride for Lidl-Trek next year.
Salvarani
BANNED
Potentially a pretty good replacement for Hirschi... and Narvaez can work for the team as well.
TRENDING THREADS
-
-
Giro d'Italia Giro d‘Italia 2024 Stage 20, Alpago-Bassano del Grappa, 184 km- Started by QueenStagiaire
- Replies: 665
-
Giro d'Italia Giro d‘Italia 2024 Stage 15, Manerba del Garda-Livigno (Mottolino), 222 km- Started by QueenStagiaire
- Replies: 1K
-
Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia 2024 Stage 17: Selva di Val Gardena/Wolkenstein in Gröden – Passo Brocon, 159.0k- Started by Red Rick
- Replies: 584
-
Teams & Riders The Remco Evenepoel is the next Eddy Merckx thread- Started by DNP-Old
- Replies: 25K
-
Giro d'Italia Giro d’Italia 2024, Stage 19: Mortegliano - Sappada, 157k- Started by DenisMenchov
- Replies: 398
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram