Transfers and Rumours 2012 > 2013

[El Pistolero]

What will Lotto miss out on if they get a wildcard for the Tour? That's the only race they focus on. They don't even have serious classics contenders.

Second AGR, fourth FW, tenth LBL. But don't let facts distract you from the truth.

This year Jurgen Roelandts crashed out early in the season. He has potential for some classics.

Besides, it's not a rant about who will be in the WT(I'm pretty much convinced Lotto will be WT next year). It's a rant about the WT/RV ranking. Ridiculous how a team so bad as AG2R can still rank so high. And the only reason Euskaltel scores so high is because they bought a lot of foreign no-name riders with a lot of points. Can't blame Euskaltel for that, but I can blame the UCI for the ridiculous WT/RV system.

Lotto had 28 wins this year, so no the Tour is not the only race they focus on. They got criticized heavily by the Belgian press this year for their failure at the Flemish classics.

Anyway, one of their goals was to win stages in all 3 GTs. Doesn't sound like a team who only cares about the Tour de France now does it.

 

[Leadbelly]

You could make arguments for any of them missing out. No strength in depth, reliant on one or two riders for points, very 1-dimensional, garbage results for three quarters of the season.

I think it's between Argos and Saxo-Tinkoff for the last place and I'm leaning towards Argos to miss the boat.

 

[Wigwan]

Lotto is a belgian team. They'll get invited to all spring classics.

Lotto has to only sprinter that can beat Cav. They'll get invited to the Tour.

It's plain simple.

 

[Nicosix]

You could make arguments for any of them missing out. No strength in depth, reliant on one or two riders for points, very 1-dimensional, garbage results for three quarters of the season.

I think it's between Argos and Saxo-Tinkoff for the last place and I'm leaning towards Argos to miss the boat.

It looks like it althought it is possible there are some transfers that occured this weekend we didn't hear about yet

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Nothing to defend, Lotto will still make it into the WT.

It's just that AG2R and Euskaltel are crap teams that shouldn't be WT.

Samuel Sanchez is the only decent rider Euskaltel has and will soon be 35 years old. And Igor Anton on occasion, but who knows with him. The only reason you're defending AG2R is because Betancur will be riding for them next year. In reality, AG2R has achieved nothing this season. NOTHING. Cold fact Ryo. Yet you spout your typical BS again. They had 4 wins this season and all of them were from small races. Yeah, really 'far better' than 3 Tour stages and a Giro stage.

Some people can look past nationalism. Sadly you can't look past the Colombians. I will say this to you: come with real arguments for once and not just your typical ad hominem arguments.

I was talking aboutn 2013 ag2r that have betancurt en pozzovivo, as well as gadret, dupont, peraud. way better and more balanced than lotto, yes

 

[gustienordic]

I still think there is some transfer news coming. Riis has mentioned/hinted at numerous times that he still has some aces hidden up his sleeves for points. There has to be some news we haven't heard of yet. Same with Argos.

 

[El Pistolero]

I was talking aboutn 2013 ag2r that have betancurt en pozzovivo, as well as gadret, dupont, peraud. way better and more balanced than lotto, yes

Not really.

And read your post again, clearly talking about this year as well.

Anyway Betancourt's biggest victory this year was defeating Kevin Pauwels in a stage of the Tour of Belgium.

 

[Afrank]

Lotto had 28 wins this year, so no the Tour is not the only race they focus on. They got criticized heavily by the Belgian press this year for their failure at the Flemish classics.

You do realise that 21 of their 28 wins came from races that were either very small (like Ster ZLM Toer) or were just sprinter races (like tour down under).

And for they're biggest leaders of the team Van Den Broeck and Greipel the tour was their main goal (only goal in fact).

 

[Pentacycle]

Not really.

And read your post again, clearly talking about this year as well.

Anyway Betancourt's biggest victory this year was defeating Kevin Pauwels in a stage of the Tour of Belgium.

Betancur also beat Gilbert...

Ag2R has a nice team to animate the GT's and hilly races.
Lotto doesn't have any decent climber except Vanendert(aka the Schlecks' Belgian cousin) and 'one victory in ten years' Van den Broeck.

Their team and their points are all about Andre Greipel, who won more than two thirds of Lotto's victories this year, so they'd better keep him healthy and racing.

 

[Sophistic]

ag2r has a more balanced team next year than lotto....forum comedy at its best.

 

[El Pistolero]

Betancur also beat Gilbert...

Ag2R has a nice team to animate the GT's and hilly races.
Lotto doesn't have any decent climber except Vanendert(aka the Schlecks' Belgian cousin) and 'one victory in ten years' Van den Broeck.

Their team and their points are all about Andre Greipel, who won more than two thirds of Lotto's victories this year, so they'd better keep him healthy and racing.

And AG2R had nothing this year and were still WT.

They never animate anything. And since when is it a big deal to beat Gilbert? You were all laughing at him how bad he was all season.

Lotto doesn't have any decent climber except .... Yeah, AG2R had no decent rider this year, no exceptions.

 

[El Pistolero]

You do realise that 21 of their 28 wins came from races that were either very small (like Ster ZLM Toer) or were just sprinter races (like tour down under).

And for they're biggest leaders of the team Van Den Broeck and Greipel the tour was their main goal (only goal in fact).

You do realize AG2R only had four victories this year and were all very small? What's wrong about winning sprint races by the way? Takes a lot of team work to set up your sprinter for the win. Lotto was at the front all the time in a lot of races and had an excellent lead-out train. If anything, it's far better than some win from a breakaway where they let the guy win by default.

But yeah, clearly AG2R are far better. I didn't even notice them at all this year except for Romain Bardet. That's quite an achievement.

 

[Afrank]

You do realize AG2R only had four victories this year and were all very small? What's wrong about winning sprint races by the way? Takes a lot of team work to set up your sprinter for the win.

But yeah, clearly AG2R are far better. I didn't even notice them at all this year except for Romain Bardet. That's quite an achievement.

Nothing wrong with winning a sprint finish, but I find that winning a one day classic, or a MTF, or winning from a breakaway or winning the GC are more prestigious ways of winning a race then just sprinting in from a big bunch.

I never said AG2R were better, they're in the world tour next year because they signed good riders with points like Pozzovivo. I would agree with you that Lotto did better than AG2R this year.

 

[El Pistolero]

Nothing wrong with winning a sprint finish, but I find that winning a one day classic, or a MTF, or winning from a breakaway or winning the GC are more prestigious ways of winning a race then just sprinting in from a big bunch.

I never said AG2R were better, they're in the world tour next year because they signed good riders with points like Pozzovivo. I would agree with you that Lotto did better than AG2R this year.

No, they were in the WT this year as well. Like I said, there's something fundamentally wrong with the WT/RV rankings.

 

[Afrank]

No, they were in the WT this year as well.

Not sure what you mean, I didn't say they were not in the world tour this year.

 

[El Pistolero]

Not sure what you mean, I didn't say they were not in the world tour this year.

You said they will be in the WT next year because they signed good riders. That's only a part of the story, they're in the WT because of a dumb WT/RV ranking system. How else did they make it into the WT this year lol. 4 wins and invisible in most WT races. What a waste.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

You said they will be in the WT next year because they signed good riders. That's only a part of the story, they're in the WT because of a dumb WT/RV ranking system. How else did they make it into the WT this year lol. 4 wins and invisible in most WT races. What a waste.

They were in the World Tour this year because they went out and signed a bunch of cheap riders with sporting criterion points and added them to the points from some decent results in 2011. They then had a very poor season. Their two most reliable WT point scorers, Gadret and Roche, didn't wrack up decent placings consistently. The guys they hoped to win a bunch of small races with, particularly on the domestic French scene, underperformed. And the riders they brought in for sporting criterion points earned in .2 races around the world barely got to ride at all.

Next year they will be in the World Tour because they went out and signed a bunch of riders with sporting criterion points, again. But this time around they've been pretty clever about it and brought in riders who both had those points and who are actually good. Their signings this year include Steve Chainel, Tauheni Hutarovich, Davide Appollonio, Gediminas Bagdonas, Samuel Dumoulin, Carlos Betancur, Domenico Pozzovivo and Julian Kern. That's the strongest intake by any relatively low budget team this year, by far.

If there was a more rational promotion/relegation system, Ag2r would go down because they were terrible this year. But with any "points follow the rider" system, they would definitely stay up. Their team for next year is, at least on paper, unrecognisably better than their team this year. And yes, they are a lot more likely to animate races than Lotto, even though Greipel will probably mean that Lotto win more.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Not really.

And read your post again, clearly talking about this year as well.

Anyway Betancourt's biggest victory this year was defeating Kevin Pauwels in a stage of the Tour of Belgium.

and gilbert

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

And AG2R had nothing this year and were still WT.

They never animate anything. And since when is it a big deal to beat Gilbert? You were all laughing at him how bad he was all season.

Lotto doesn't have any decent climber except .... Yeah, AG2R had no decent rider this year, no exceptions.

ag2r this year had roche, peraud, dupont, gadret. that is more balanced than lotto no doubt. but this is getting hilarious. pls keep on defending your belgians

 

[El Pistolero]

ag2r this year had roche, peraud, dupont, gadret. that is more balanced than lotto no doubt. but this is getting hilarious. pls keep on defending your belgians

What did Gadret do this year lol?

Roche and Peraud are just average. Even worse than VDB in regards to not winning and only clocking up top tens in stage races. So I'm not really following the logic of the forum here that VDB is "boring" and AG2R "exciting".

Fail to see how that makes for a balanced squad. Do you even know what that word means?

 

[Afrank]

What did Gadret do this year lol?

Roche and Peraud are just average. Even worse than VDB in regards to not winning and only clocking up top tens in stage races. So I'm not really following the logic of the forum here that VDB is "boring" and AG2R "exciting".

Fail to see how that makes for a balanced squad. Do you even know what that word means?

The current crop of riders joning AG2R for 2013 (Betancur, Pozzovivo, Dumoulin etc.) are a lot more exciting than a guy that only focuses on the Tour.

 

[RHRH19861986]

All three, Euskaltel, Lotto and Ag2R have great history in cycling, and given 2013´s lineups, I think Lotto and Ag2R deserve the WT spot, just by names. Ag2R´s transfers are great, the best in some years, wheras Euskaltels´s are terrible, except Serebryakov. But that´s what WT point system leads to.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

vrecer is a great transfer

 

[macnir]

it seems 3M will sponsor a new conti team next year, with the aim of being WT in 3~5 years.
Wouter Wippert, Mike Terpstra, Joop de Gans and Michael Vingerling mentioned.
http://www.telegraaf.nl/telesport/wielersport/13107141/__Multinational_stapt_in_wielrennen__.html

 

[Praetor]

I think Lotto, Euskaltel and Argos are somewhat similar.

You have VDB, Greipel, Roelandts and then a big gap to the rest
You have Sanchez, Anton, Nieve and then a big gap to the rest
You have Kittel, Degenkolb and then a big gap to the rest

Although I do think that the gap is the biggest with Argos, without their 2 leaders, they would even struggle to be a pro-continental team, the other guys really achieve little to nothing results-wise. They are domestiques who can't become temporary leaders should that need arise. At least Lotto still has Meersman, Bak and Vanendert.

AG2R is more balanced, has a bigger midfield, but lacks stand-out riders. If you select them for you race, they will not embarass you by being too weak (like Skil or Footon did a couple of times in the past), but if you don't select them, you won't really miss them either, because their presence usually doesn't really have an big influence on a race.