Teams & Riders Transfers and Rumours 2020-2021

[Libertine Seguros]

Team Sky, gone but not forgotten...

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

He's mostly a domestique only in GTs and he could've maybe won a couple of GT stages more had his team choices been different

Being an extremely highly paid Sky/Ineos superdomestique does not mean just that you ride for other people in GTs. It means structuring your form, your season, what type of training you do and your goals around riding for other people in GTs.

It doesn’t just mean giving up the chance to ride for yourself in the biggest races of the season, it means focusing your season on that and over time it means altering the balance of your capabilities as a rider to be better at that.

Perhaps “a fraction” overstates things, but we are talking here about one of the most talented and successful one day racers in the world who going into 2021 won’t have won an even slightly meaningful one day race since 2017. I think it’s pretty clear that he has chosen to optimise his bank balance rather than his palmares, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do!

 

[Armchair cyclist]

I would assume that is what domestiques are for.

I wouldn't put it past Moscon

 

[Armchair cyclist]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1334467426914869248

View: https://twitter.com/CircusWGT/status/1334467426914869248


INTERMARCHE-WANTY-GOBERT MATERIAUX


bit of a mouthful!

And they have already dropped the fourth word of it on their own badge, so they can scarcely complain if we abbreviate it.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Sunweb become Team DSM, kit looks nice

Does that mean that their development squad will now be known as Team B DSM?

 

[SafeBet]

Does that mean that their development squad will now be known as Team B DSM?

Payoff: the only cycling team you can find on Pornhub.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Payoff: the only cycling team you can find on Pornhub.

Well they have proved this year, that they're pretty good at tag teaming.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Given the fact that they seem to be super strict with their riders it's kinda fitting, I guess OCD will be their safeword.

 

[saganftw]

Being an extremely highly paid Sky/Ineos superdomestique does not mean just that you ride for other people in GTs. It means structuring your form, your season, what type of training you do and your goals around riding for other people in GTs.

It doesn’t just mean giving up the chance to ride for yourself in the biggest races of the season, it means focusing your season on that and over time it means altering the balance of your capabilities as a rider to be better at that.

Perhaps “a fraction” overstates things, but we are talking here about one of the most talented and successful one day racers in the world who going into 2021 won’t have won an even slightly meaningful one day race since 2017. I think it’s pretty clear that he has chosen to optimise his bank balance rather than his palmares, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do!

i do not question his decision to take money, however if we assume correctly thats the motivating factor, one could easily make an argument if he was a leader he would have made more money - after all that kind of logic applies mostly to riders who dont really have talent to be high performers

but kwiatkovski could easily be a multiple classics winner - probably not fleche wallone, maybe even paris rubaix would be out of his reach unless he was training specifically for it but everything else is on the table

you put that together with, as a better known athlete, better sponsorship deals he would made more...i guess is just mentally easier to take decent sum for little pressure than bigger sum but a lot more pressure with it, because its not like he is training less by being a domestique so he still puts in work

 

[Stilletto]

Not sure if it been confirmed here but
Diego Camargo to EF Education.

Qhubeka - Assoss
renews Reinhard van Rensburg and signs Matteo Pelucchi ex Bardiani, Lasse Norman Hansen ex Alpecin

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Payoff: the only cycling team you can find on Pornhub.

 

[Escarabajo]

Not sure if it been confirmed here but
Diego Camargo to EF Education.

Qhubeka - Assoss
renews Reinhard van Rensburg and signs Matteo Pelucchi ex Bardiani, Lasse Norman Hansen ex Alpecin

Correct. Link below:

Vuelta a Colombia winner Camargo signs for EF Pro Cycling

22-year-old also landed Vuelta de la Juventud in 2020

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Qhubeka - Assoss
renews Reinhard van Rensburg and signs Matteo Pelucchi ex Bardiani, Lasse Norman Hansen ex Alpecin

There's only three s's in Assos. Assoss is what I assume is going on here, but I've been mislead by riders' facial expressions before

Assos - Qhubeka now have 22 riders confirmed for next year and with a few further additions, they definitely won't be the worst WT team on paper anymore (written with no disrespect towards Verandas Willems). They lack some better mountain doms for Pozzo/Aru, and Jesper Hansen looks like an obvious choice to fill that gap, although he doesn't perform consistently.

 

[gerundium]

Cav to DQS. Announced on the DQS instagram.

 

[fuiers]

Cav to DQS. Announced on the DQS instagram.

That was something I did not see coming. Hopefully this will payout in a good way.

 

[BlueRoads]

Cav to DQS. Announced on the DQS instagram.

Wow. Don't know why exactly, but I like it. Maybe he can turn into a DS later.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Pelucchi is one of Nizzolo's best friends, they have been teammates in the U23 ranks. I guess he's a decent sprinter for the Asian races like Langkawi that the team usually rides.
Lasse Norman Hansen is a classy rider, but durning the next season his main focus will probably on getting the track cycling TP gold medal (if the Olympics actually happen). The team really lacks climbers that can support Pozzovivo (and maybe Aru). They'd be better off as a good PCT team than insisting with the WT bs...

 

[saganftw]

Wow. Don't know why exactly, but I like it. Maybe he can turn into a DS later.

people in britain buy floors too

 

[Ricco']

Lasse Norman Hansen is a classy rider, but durning the next season his main focus will probably on getting the track cycling TP gold medal (if the Olympics actually happen).

Yes, it will. Alpecin let Norman Hansen go because of his focus on the track and because they thought that his preparation for the track prevented him to combine it with the road program of the team.

 

[RedheadDane]

Pelucchi is one of Nizzolo's best friends, they have been teammates in the U23 ranks. I guess he's a decent sprinter for the Asian races like Langkawi that the team usually rides.
Lasse Norman Hansen is a classy rider, but durning the next season his main focus will probably on getting the track cycling TP gold medal (if the Olympics actually happen). The team really lacks climbers that can support Pozzovivo (and maybe Aru). They'd be better off as a good PCT team than insisting with the WT bs...

You seem... very bitter about the fact that they have WorldTeam status for next year.
As for the climbers to support Pozzovivo thing, well... one of them is obviously gonna be... Aru!

people in britain buy floors too

What? What? WHAT??????

Yes, it will. Alpecin let Norman Hansen go because of his focus on the track and because they thought that his preparation for the track prevented him to combine it with the road program of the team.

And yet he initially signed with the team because they'd let him focus on the track.

 

[Mayomaniac]

You seem... very bitter about the fact that they have WorldTeam status for next year.
As for the climbers to support Pozzovivo thing, well... one of them is obviously gonna be... Aru!

Not really, I just think that it's better to have less mediocre WT teams and more strong PCT teams that actually have an impact on the bigger races that they race.

 

[Bolder]

Hope DQS can get Cav back to contender level for a few races.

Regarding Assos-Qhubeka: I think the World Tour is giving the team a bit of a pass because of their underlying mission, and because of the pandemic situation. I'm OK with both of those. I still have high hopes that we'll see a black African star in the near future.

It's possible that if the global economic climate improves they could find another sponsor who wants to be associated with Qhubeka and give them a longer term future -- again, that's a good thing from my perspective.

I'm an optimist and an Aru fan, so at the very least I hope he can pull off a GT stage win.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Cav to DQS is a great move. They are short a sprinter. Their number 3 guy, Hodeg, hasn’t been showing number 2 guy form. Under normal circumstances they bring in a high level sprinter to slot into that number 2 position, but they don’t want to make a move that looks like they are writing off Jakobsen. So they bring in Cav, who clearly isn’t a long term replacement for Jakobsen, who brings a load of publicity and, if anyone can get some of the old Cav back it’s them. Even if he fails completely, they get loads of media coverage for what is probably more or less zero money and on current form they wouldn‘t get much out of promoting Hodeg anyway, so there’s no real risk (sorry Alvaro fans, I like the guy but he’s not showing much).

From Cav’s point of view, well if he wants one last chance, he couldn’t get a better one than at DQS.

 

[Landeirovic]

Henao sign in Qhubeka

 

[Ricco']

And yet he initially signed with the team because they'd let him focus on the track.

Yes, but according to Alpecin's manager, they were expecting him to be more present on their road goals. They were sorry to let him go as they see in him a lot of potential, but were not able to have him miss a lot of their road program next year and take the spot of another rider who could be more present on the road.