Transfers and Rumours 2018 > 2019

[Red Rick]

Interesting that Lefevre says the buy out of that contract isn't enough to pay an average pro.

 

[Breh]

Baffling howmuch talent Quick Step has lost the past two seasons. All that talent replaced by some neopro's, Sénéchal, Morkov and Viviani.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

Baffling howmuch talent Quick Step has lost the past two seasons. All that talent replaced by some neopro's, Sénéchal, Morkov and Viviani.

...but Quickstep keep winning, and the guys who leave don’t. They must have a good eye for the neopros.

 

[RedheadDane]

Cavendish extends with Dimension Data.

http://africasteam.com/2018/10/24/cavendish-steps-up-for-team-dimension-data/

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Hmm... with Gaviria leaving they'll be one down from the 23 riders claimed by Lefevre. So... Peak?

Peak Barnabas has already signed with SEG Academy for next season

A few weeks ag there was rumour about Viviani wanting to have Cimolai as a part of his train, but if Fernando is leaving they have more that enough riders to be part o Viviani's train.
UAE on the other hand don't have enough riders for two sprint trains, for them a Cimolai return would make sense.
Lefevre to sign Pippo once again as one of their 4 or so guys for the cobbles (in that context as one of multiple cards to play he'd actually be pretty dangerous).

 

[Breh]

Richeze needs a new sprinter.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Richeze needs a new sprinter.

It’s not as if Quickstep are about to run out of sprinters.

 

[Gigs_98]

This is actually a move nobody would have believed in only a few years ago. I think it was when tinkoff folded and Sagan was on the market that lefevre said "why do I need Sagan, I have Gaviria". That Lefevre did not sound like someone who would sell Gaviria only two years later. But now this actually doesn't look like that big of a surprise. Gaviria has been very good but only as a sprinter and he completely failed to develop into a serious contender for the classics despite being in the best of environments. I think qs did the right thing.
Gaviria however probably made the same mistake many have made before him to cash in and go to UAE. When one rider goes there and underperforms it might be coincidence. If two go there and underperform it's either a big coincidence or the start of a pattern. But if half a dozen riders go to a team and all underperform it's getting very clear which of the two it is. I hope he'll prove me wrong but I fear this won't end well for him. Also why on earth did UAE think having kristoff and Gaviria in one team would be a good idea?

 

[42x16ss]

Re:

Richeze needs a new sprinter.

I know, QS are only left with Viviani, Hodeg, Jakobsen, Sabatini and Martinelli.

May as well sit the season out...

 

[Nirvana]

Three years with UAE it's an almost career ending injury.
Considering that colombians usually tends to plateau and fade very early could be a disgrace for him.

Anyway i can see Quick-Step win at least a couple of stages at the Giro with Hoedg, at the Tour with Viviani and at the Vuelta with Jakobsen like nothing would have changed.

 

[MuskyOurSaviour]

Re:

Three years with UAE it's an almost career ending injury.
Considering that colombians usually tends to plateau and fade very early could be a disgrace for him.

Anyway i can see Quick-Step win at least a couple of stages at the Giro with Hoedg, at the Tour with Viviani and at the Vuelta with Jakobsen like nothing would have changed.

Except now Gaviria will win them, for UAE

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Three years with UAE it's an almost career ending injury.
Considering that colombians usually tends to plateau and fade very early could be a disgrace for him.

Anyway i can see Quick-Step win at least a couple of stages at the Giro with Hoedg, at the Tour with Viviani and at the Vuelta with Jakobsen like nothing would have changed.

Except now Gaviria will win them, for UAE

If we take a look at the most recent big-name sprinter to leave Quickstep - Kittel - then I'd be inclined to agree with Nirvana.
Cavendish was actually a bit of a subversion; he did quite fine in his first year away from Quickstep, then he's spent the last two seasons either sick, or injured, or some combination of both.

 

[Bakkie]

Is Philipsen already confirmed to UAE?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It looks like we will get a chance to assess the relative contributions of Gaviria himself and the QS sprint support machine to his success, because even if UAE bring in support immediately, they can’t possibly match QS. Everyone knows Gaviria is good and everyone knows that being on the end of the QS train would add to any sprinter’s win tally, but previously we’ve had no way to assess each factor.

UAE really do need to get a dedicated lead out and a couple of sprint train big lumps regardless of the answer to the above question. They are not currently equipped to support two sprinters

 

[Akuryo]

So, could QS maybe use some of the money they got/saved into a new climber? Cause right now their support for Mas is pretty slim. Except of course, Bob Jungels does the Kiryienka/Kwiatkowski during the Tour for Deceuninck...

 

[qwerty16]

This is actually a move nobody would have believed in only a few years ago. I think it was when tinkoff folded and Sagan was on the market that lefevre said "why do I need Sagan, I have Gaviria". That Lefevre did not sound like someone who would sell Gaviria only two years later. But now this actually doesn't look like that big of a surprise. Gaviria has been very good but only as a sprinter and he completely failed to develop into a serious contender for the classics despite being in the best of environments. I think qs did the right thing.
Gaviria however probably made the same mistake many have made before him to cash in and go to UAE. When one rider goes there and underperforms it might be coincidence. If two go there and underperform it's either a big coincidence or the start of a pattern. But if half a dozen riders go to a team and all underperform it's getting very clear which of the two it is. I hope he'll prove me wrong but I fear this won't end well for him. Also why on earth did UAE think having kristoff and Gaviria in one team would be a good idea?

Kristoff has only one year left with UAE. I think they (UAE) think they are better off with Gaviria, despite Kristoff actually being the only one of their big stars who had a half-decent year in 2018.

How that will turn out we will see in the future

 

[ciranda]

Tom van Asbroeck is still without a contract. I find it surprising considering his form in 2nd part of the season.

According to yesterday's Het Nieuwsblad TvA agreed on a low-priced one year deal last year because Vaughters gave him his word that a multi-year contract at better conditions would follow. This never happened though, and in the end of September he got a mail from the team that his contract would not be prolonged at all.

So he probably didn't even look for a new team until he got that mail. And now it's a bit late of course...

That's sort of what happened to Alex Rasmussen some years ago. In the first week of the vuelta Alex asked about the following year and Vaughters said he would get an extension no problem. Alex worked hard for the team and when the race ended it turned out Vaughters had lied and then it was too late for Alex to find another team.

 

[May0maniac]

This is actually a move nobody would have believed in only a few years ago. I think it was when tinkoff folded and Sagan was on the market that lefevre said "why do I need Sagan, I have Gaviria". That Lefevre did not sound like someone who would sell Gaviria only two years later. But now this actually doesn't look like that big of a surprise. Gaviria has been very good but only as a sprinter and he completely failed to develop into a serious contender for the classics despite being in the best of environments. I think qs did the right thing.
Gaviria however probably made the same mistake many have made before him to cash in and go to UAE. When one rider goes there and underperforms it might be coincidence. If two go there and underperform it's either a big coincidence or the start of a pattern. But if half a dozen riders go to a team and all underperform it's getting very clear which of the two it is. I hope he'll prove me wrong but I fear this won't end well for him. Also why on earth did UAE think having kristoff and Gaviria in one team would be a good idea?

Kristoff has only one year left with UAE. I think they (UAE) think they are better off with Gaviria, despite Kristoff actually being the only one of their big stars who had a half-decent year in 2018.

How that will turn out we will see in the future

Lampre/UAE actually has a better track record when it comes to sprinters, they developed Benna and did a decent job with Modolo (who had a great short train, Ferrari and Richeze, when he won a few Giro stages).
Guys like Bonifazio and Cimolai didn't really improve when they left the team and Kristoff was no longer at his best when he signed with them, I think that they are actually not that bad when it comes to sprinters.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

This is actually a move nobody would have believed in only a few years ago. I think it was when tinkoff folded and Sagan was on the market that lefevre said "why do I need Sagan, I have Gaviria". That Lefevre did not sound like someone who would sell Gaviria only two years later. But now this actually doesn't look like that big of a surprise. Gaviria has been very good but only as a sprinter and he completely failed to develop into a serious contender for the classics despite being in the best of environments. I think qs did the right thing.
Gaviria however probably made the same mistake many have made before him to cash in and go to UAE. When one rider goes there and underperforms it might be coincidence. If two go there and underperform it's either a big coincidence or the start of a pattern. But if half a dozen riders go to a team and all underperform it's getting very clear which of the two it is. I hope he'll prove me wrong but I fear this won't end well for him. Also why on earth did UAE think having kristoff and Gaviria in one team would be a good idea?

Kristoff has only one year left with UAE. I think they (UAE) think they are better off with Gaviria, despite Kristoff actually being the only one of their big stars who had a half-decent year in 2018.

How that will turn out we will see in the future

Martin won a Tour stage, a Dauphine stage and finished top 10 in the Tour. Not a great year by his standards, but certainly “half decent”.

 

[the asian]

Really stupid move by Gaviria.

Joining Team UAE is career suicide.

 

[yaco]

Bewley extends with Mitchelton Scott for 2 years - Valuable support rider who can ride on the front of the peleton for long periods - let's hope he's used more often this year as he only had 47 race days.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Bewley extends with Mitchelton Scott for 2 years - Valuable support rider who can ride on the front of the peleton for long periods - let's hope he's used more often this year as he only had 47 race days.

Bewley one of the fun guys in their behind the scenes content, so that's an added bonous

 

[Moviestar]

Re:

Really stupid move by Gaviria.

Joining Team UAE is career suicide.

As the singer Mya would say: It's all 'bout the money
It's all 'bout the dun dun do do do dumb

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Bewley extends with Mitchelton Scott for 2 years - Valuable support rider who can ride on the front of the peleton for long periods - let's hope he's used more often this year as he only had 47 race days.

Bewley one of the fun guys in their behind the scenes content, so that's an added bonous

I'll never forget his... dance, or whatever you wanna call it, from the final stage of the 2016 Vuelta. :lol:

 

[Tim Booth]

Jasper Philipsen to UAE