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Transfers and Rumours 2016 > 2017

Page 103 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
TMP402 said:
Ricco' said:
Zinoviev Letter said:
pastronef said:
Jani Brajkovic rumored to Bahrain-Merida

This is the weirdest transfer season rumour so far. I can only assume that some Bahraini princeling used to watch cycling four or five years ago and hasn't bothered to check what Brajkovic has been like since.

UHC is a good place for riders to find a second chance, but Brajkovic has been terrible.

It's called Gorazd Stangelj and his search for slovenian riders.

Also Brajkovic lives in Dubai.

edit
yes I saw
DXB is Dubai (see his twitter)
 
Re:

Zinoviev Letter said:
Larry Warbasse (IAM) effectively announced that he's moving to Aqua Blue. It's just about possible that his "looking forward to next year" picture of a shamrock indicated a left field move to join An Post if he's lost his mind.
Ahh, that would be disappointing for me since I really wanted him to join Cannondale. Signing guys like Vanmarcke, Carthy and Phinney is good, but that's not really enough to balance the amount of unspectacular, but solid riders who left. There were rumours linking Warbasse and Van Asbroeck with Cannondale, but if they don't come true, I can't see how they are not going to suffer shortened support in many races next year. There are very little riders of that calibre left on the market. And WT calendar will likely be expanded significantly next year.
 
Re: Re:

Anderis said:
Zinoviev Letter said:
Larry Warbasse (IAM) effectively announced that he's moving to Aqua Blue. It's just about possible that his "looking forward to next year" picture of a shamrock indicated a left field move to join An Post if he's lost his mind.
Ahh, that would be disappointing for me since I really wanted him to join Cannondale. Signing guys like Vanmarcke, Carthy and Phinney is good, but that's not really enough to balance the amount of unspectacular, but solid riders who left. There were rumours linking Warbasse and Van Asbroeck with Cannondale, but if they don't come true, I can't see how they are not going to suffer shortened support in many races next year. There are very little riders of that calibre left on the market. And WT calendar will likely be expanded significantly next year.

I don't really understand why Warbasse was apparently struggling to find a new contract. He's a rider that could be very useful to most teams.

I agree that he'd have been a good addition to Cannondale. According to PCS there are now 24 Cannondale-Drapac riders announced. With the expanded season they really do need more than that, so it will be interesting to see who they've got. Their "headline" signings, Carthy, Vanmarcke, Phinney have been so obviously good that I hadn't really noticed that they haven't really brought in additional support until you mentioned it. The riders they do have look pretty good - there are very few of the 24 who I wouldn't have kept in their shoes - but that balance could shift if the last names are duds.

On a positive note, I think that Mullen will be like an additional signing next year.
 
Re: Re:

Zinoviev Letter said:
Anderis said:
Zinoviev Letter said:
Larry Warbasse (IAM) effectively announced that he's moving to Aqua Blue. It's just about possible that his "looking forward to next year" picture of a shamrock indicated a left field move to join An Post if he's lost his mind.
Ahh, that would be disappointing for me since I really wanted him to join Cannondale. Signing guys like Vanmarcke, Carthy and Phinney is good, but that's not really enough to balance the amount of unspectacular, but solid riders who left. There were rumours linking Warbasse and Van Asbroeck with Cannondale, but if they don't come true, I can't see how they are not going to suffer shortened support in many races next year. There are very little riders of that calibre left on the market. And WT calendar will likely be expanded significantly next year.

I don't really understand why Warbasse was apparently struggling to find a new contract. He's a rider that could be very useful to most teams.

I agree that he'd have been a good addition to Cannondale. According to PCS there are now 24 Cannondale-Drapac riders announced. With the expanded season they really do need more than that, so it will be interesting to see who they've got. Their "headline" signings, Carthy, Vanmarcke, Phinney have been so obviously good that I hadn't really noticed that they haven't really brought in additional support until you mentioned it. The riders they do have look pretty good - there are very few of the 24 who I wouldn't have kept in their shoes - but that balance could shift if the last names are duds.

On a positive note, I think that Mullen will be like an additional signing next year.

They're good now. Wait 'til they get the same training plan as Mullen.
 
Zinoviev Letter said:
pastronef said:
Jani Brajkovic rumored to Bahrain-Merida

This is the weirdest transfer season rumour so far. I can only assume that some Bahraini princeling used to watch cycling four or five years ago and hasn't bothered to check what Brajkovic has been like since.

UHC is a good place for riders to find a second chance, but Brajkovic has been terrible.

Janez Brajkovic appears already on the Abu Dhabi Tour's startlist - riding for the Al Nasr continental team.
 
Oct 29, 2009
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Zinoviev Letter said:
pastronef said:
Jani Brajkovic rumored to Bahrain-Merida

This is the weirdest transfer season rumour so far. I can only assume that some Bahraini princeling used to watch cycling four or five years ago and hasn't bothered to check what Brajkovic has been like since.

UHC is a good place for riders to find a second chance, but Brajkovic has been terrible.

Not sure why would this be the weirdest transfer :confused:

Brajkovic had similar heart problems as Gesink in the last few years and was operated in June so he might bounce back as Gesink did. Milan Erzen was his first trainer and manager. Stangelj is on the team. Brajkovic is running a cycling shop with a friend - he is on the team as well. So it's only logical Brajkovic ended in the same team. Totally undeserved if we are looking at his performances in the last years :lol: . Nogav1ca called this one a long time ago -

nogav1ca said:
Mayomaniac said:
Samamba said:
Rip Carthy's career.
That's a bit too harsh, it's his first WT team and they managed to get a talented pure climber like Dombrowski back on track, a young pure climber siging with Sky would probably worry me even more. I don't think that riding 2 years for them will ruin his career, it's a good way to start racing at WT level.

Although it might be easier for Cartht since he is stronger and older than Mohoric was, but Mohoric wasn't too happy with the way he had to train in Cannondale.

On a more related note to the transfer season, I and some others I know wouldn't be too surprised if Brajkovic ended in Bahrain team.

There will be at least one more Slovenian on the team. Maybe David Per, who knows :lol:
 
MajorTom said:
Not sure why would this be the weirdest transfer :confused:

Because it's an old rider who barely has shown the level for a strong Continental team to consider him over the last couple of years and who certainly wouldn't have been renewed by his PCT team getting a move to one of the biggest money teams on the World Tour.

I wasn't aware of his behind the scenes connections to people involved in the team. Friends helping him out is at least a comprehensible reason for this, in sporting terms, completely incomprehensible signing.
 
Zinoviev Letter said:
Because it's an old rider who barely has shown the level for a strong Continental team to consider him over the last couple of years
I think you're exaggerating quite a bit. He was 4th in quality field in Abu Dhabi Tour last year and he generally finishes inside top20 every stage race he enters. That's nowhere near what he was in his prime and that's maybe not deserving a star contract even at a PCT level, but if he doesn't demand too much $ and is willing to dedicate himself to team's goals, he is certainly a good use for any team at pro-conti level, let alone continental (as you tried to suggest otherwise). He wouldn't be among 20 weakest WT riders next year IMO.
 
Anderis said:
Zinoviev Letter said:
Because it's an old rider who barely has shown the level for a strong Continental team to consider him over the last couple of years
I think you're exaggerating quite a bit. He was 4th in quality field in Abu Dhabi Tour last year and he generally finishes inside top20 every stage race he enters. That's nowhere near what he was in his prime and that's maybe not deserving a star contract even at a PCT level, but if he doesn't demand too much $ and is willing to dedicate himself to team's goals, he is certainly a good use for any team at pro-conti level, let alone continental (as you tried to suggest otherwise). He wouldn't be among 20 weakest WT riders next year IMO.

Even assuming he doesn't go Clinic-berserk next year in order to perform, I agree that there will be weaker WT riders, but they will mostly be kids or prospects from whom some improvement is expected. He will be 33.

It's true that he finished top 20 in many stage races, but you have to look at the context: These are largely the American stage races that he was hired to lead and are his main targets for the year. Yet he finishes outside of the top 10 and behind significant numbers of Continental riders. Take the Tour of Utah this year, ok he finished 13th. But five Conti riders finished ahead of him. Or the Tour of California where he finished 18th, but six Conti riders were ahead of him. Or the Tour of the Gila where he managed a mighty 8th, but everyone he was riding against was a Conti rider except for his own teammates. These are decent but unspectacular results for a 23 year old riding for Jelly Belly.

I accept though that I was exaggerating a bit. A Continental team should be glad to have him and he'd make a perfectly acceptable leader of one.
 
Lol at the outrage for Brajkovic. He has contacts, good for him. And he was a great cyclist once. He has as much a legitimate place in a good team as ~30 or more now wt riders. The discussion is similar to when Lotto signed Tomasz Marczynski and a number of people thought it was super strange. Shows that it's now established fact that to get a place in a WT team riders have to be a lot better if they are not from some particular countries. And if you already think like that it can seem weird that teams would take (established quality) cyclists like Brajkovic and Marczynski.
 
Re:

ciranda said:
Lol at the outrage for Brajkovic. He has contacts, good for him. And he was a great cyclist once. He has as much a legitimate place in a good team as ~30 or more now wt riders. The discussion is similar to when Lotto signed Tomasz Marczynski and a number of people thought it was super strange. Shows that it's now established fact that to get a place in a WT team riders have to be a lot better if they are not from some particular countries. And if you already think like that it can seem weird that teams would take (established quality) cyclists like Brajkovic and Marczynski.

Actually Marczynski is only riding for Lotto-Soudal because Soudal wanted to have a Polish rider on the team.
 
Re:

ciranda said:
Lol at the outrage for Brajkovic. He has contacts, good for him. And he was a great cyclist once. He has as much a legitimate place in a good team as ~30 or more now wt riders. The discussion is similar to when Lotto signed Tomasz Marczynski and a number of people thought it was super strange. Shows that it's now established fact that to get a place in a WT team riders have to be a lot better if they are not from some particular countries. And if you already think like that it can seem weird that teams would take (established quality) cyclists like Brajkovic and Marczynski.

There's no outrage. I'm surprised and entertained by Brajkovic's return to the world tour after a couple of unimpressive years in the US, but if I was going to get outraged about the Bahraini hereditary dictatorship's involvement in cycling, I wouldn't focus on the hiring of a clapped out Brajkovic. I just find it bizarre that a guy who couldn't hold down a WT contract two years ago, when he actually had impressive results within recent memory, can get a WT contract after two years of anonymity. UHC is a place where multiple out of favour riders have gone to show that they still have it and then have got back to the WT. It's amusing to see a guy who went there for that reason and then showed that he didn't still have it get a contract.

Marczynski won eight races the year before Lotto hired him. Brajkovic last won anything four years ago. It's not some inexplicable bias against Slovenes to see a difference.
 
Re: Re:

Zinoviev Letter said:
ciranda said:
Lol at the outrage for Brajkovic. He has contacts, good for him. And he was a great cyclist once. He has as much a legitimate place in a good team as ~30 or more now wt riders. The discussion is similar to when Lotto signed Tomasz Marczynski and a number of people thought it was super strange. Shows that it's now established fact that to get a place in a WT team riders have to be a lot better if they are not from some particular countries. And if you already think like that it can seem weird that teams would take (established quality) cyclists like Brajkovic and Marczynski.

There's no outrage. I'm surprised and entertained by Brajkovic's return to the world tour after a couple of unimpressive years in the US, but if I was going to get outraged about the Bahraini hereditary dictatorship's involvement in cycling, I wouldn't focus on the hiring of a clapped out Brajkovic. I just find it bizarre that a guy who couldn't hold down a WT contract two years ago, when he actually had impressive results within recent memory, can get a WT contract after two years of anonymity. UHC is a place where multiple out of favour riders have gone to show that they still have it and then have got back to the WT. It's amusing to see a guy who went there for that reason and then showed that he didn't still have it get a contract.

Marczynski won eight races the year before Lotto hired him. Brajkovic last won anything four years ago. It's not some inexplicable bias against Slovenes to see a difference.

My point was the reaction was surprise and incredulousness also w Marczynski.
 
Re: Re:

ciranda said:
Zinoviev Letter said:
ciranda said:
Lol at the outrage for Brajkovic. He has contacts, good for him. And he was a great cyclist once. He has as much a legitimate place in a good team as ~30 or more now wt riders. The discussion is similar to when Lotto signed Tomasz Marczynski and a number of people thought it was super strange. Shows that it's now established fact that to get a place in a WT team riders have to be a lot better if they are not from some particular countries. And if you already think like that it can seem weird that teams would take (established quality) cyclists like Brajkovic and Marczynski.

There's no outrage. I'm surprised and entertained by Brajkovic's return to the world tour after a couple of unimpressive years in the US, but if I was going to get outraged about the Bahraini hereditary dictatorship's involvement in cycling, I wouldn't focus on the hiring of a clapped out Brajkovic. I just find it bizarre that a guy who couldn't hold down a WT contract two years ago, when he actually had impressive results within recent memory, can get a WT contract after two years of anonymity. UHC is a place where multiple out of favour riders have gone to show that they still have it and then have got back to the WT. It's amusing to see a guy who went there for that reason and then showed that he didn't still have it get a contract.

Marczynski won eight races the year before Lotto hired him. Brajkovic last won anything four years ago. It's not some inexplicable bias against Slovenes to see a difference.

My point was the reaction was surprise and incredulousness also w Marczynski.

Yes and my point was that your conviction that people here are biased against riders from some countries and don't think that Poles or Slovenes can cycle is weird and delusional.
 

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