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Teams & Riders The Great Big Cycling Transfers and Rumours Thread

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Renewal of Marco Frapporti. Vini Zabu trolling the cycling world
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MAL announced to Movistar


A 1year deal. Seems odd for a GC contender.
Part of me wonders if this is something akin to a Marcus Pettersson deal (he was signed to a 1-year low-level deal to help the team out of a salary crunch, being 'made whole' by renewing at an inflated amount for the following 5 years, and when the two contracts were added together, they made a perfectly reasonable price for a six year deal for him) based on balancing the budget in a post-Corona world. MAL is coming off an injury, and Valverde's current contract is up at the end of 2021. There may be a carrot being dangled at the end of the year, as with Valverde's salary likely coming off the rider payroll or being re-upped at a lower level, there will be more money available to extend MAL if he lives up to expectations, but as he's coming off injury the extension offer will be performance-based? Effectively "we want you for X number of years, we offer you this for year 1, but what we offer you beyond that will be based on how things go" - and MAL may be happy enough to accept that that because he won't necessarily be an unquestioned leader in the team, so he wants the out clause to be able to go somewhere else immediately if the team and him are not a fit - or it may be that because teams' budgets are being hit, the kind of salary offer he's seeing in the marketplace is not what he'd ideally be looking for, so Movistar offering him a short term deal that means he has maximum freedom to renegotiate when times are less hard up?
 
Part of me wonders if this is something akin to a Marcus Pettersson deal (he was signed to a 1-year low-level deal to help the team out of a salary crunch, being 'made whole' by renewing at an inflated amount for the following 5 years, and when the two contracts were added together, they made a perfectly reasonable price for a six year deal for him) based on balancing the budget in a post-Corona world. MAL is coming off an injury, and Valverde's current contract is up at the end of 2021. There may be a carrot being dangled at the end of the year, as with Valverde's salary likely coming off the rider payroll or being re-upped at a lower level, there will be more money available to extend MAL if he lives up to expectations, but as he's coming off injury the extension offer will be performance-based? Effectively "we want you for X number of years, we offer you this for year 1, but what we offer you beyond that will be based on how things go" - and MAL may be happy enough to accept that that because he won't necessarily be an unquestioned leader in the team, so he wants the out clause to be able to go somewhere else immediately if the team and him are not a fit - or it may be that because teams' budgets are being hit, the kind of salary offer he's seeing in the marketplace is not what he'd ideally be looking for, so Movistar offering him a short term deal that means he has maximum freedom to renegotiate when times are less hard up?

You're forgetting Valverde has a 5 year contract and can choose to continue racing if he wishes. Lopez at best would be the 4th leader on the team behind the 3 Spaniards. I would not be surprised if he was signed because of the sponsorship with Movistar wanting 3 Colombians on the team. Still don't understand how he fits in. Movistar is one of the few teams without the budget issues most of the teams dealt with in 2020, plus they had some money to work with after Quintana and Landa left and they didn't spend all that money in salaries last year with all the young kids they've been signing. So they had two higher priced riders leave last year. What they signed Lopez to for 1 year and whatever they do next year doesn't have anything to do with Valverde's salary. Also Movistar has done 1 year contracts many times.
 
You're forgetting Valverde has a 5 year contract and can choose to continue racing if he wishes. Lopez at best would be the 4th leader on the team behind the 3 Spaniards. I would not be surprised if he was signed because of the sponsorship with Movistar wanting 3 Colombians on the team. Still don't understand how he fits in. Movistar is one of the few teams without the budget issues most of the teams dealt with in 2020, plus they had some money to work with after Quintana and Landa left and they didn't spend all that money in salaries last year with all the young kids they've been signing. So they had two higher priced riders leave last year. What they signed Lopez to for 1 year and whatever they do next year doesn't have anything to do with Valverde's salary. Also Movistar has done 1 year contracts many times.
I'm not sure if you are joking or not. Lopez will be at worst number 2 behind Mas.
 
Koronin, come on, put your feet on the ground.
Do you think Lopez will go to Movistar for 1 year to be the 4th leader. "Hey, sign here and you will be warrantied that you will be our fourth leader in the pecking order!!"

Weird signing for 1 year. Not sure what's behind all this.

He's going to be behind Valverde and Mas and at best equal to Soler. So yes, 4th leader or co-3rd leader.
1 year contracts aren't unusual for Movistar. Due offers Lopez may have gotten based on his injury he may have only wanted a 1 year contract to try and prove he's recovered next year and try the market again.
 
Lol, no, in what world are you living?

Fairly simple. Valverde is in process of turning over team leadership to Mas, but will still retains some of it. Even if Soler has figured out he's more of a stage hunter his personality hasn't changed. Also Mas and Valverde are Spaniards. Oh and I forgot about Cortina who is going there to take over leadership of the northern classics team and be their sprinter.
I also don't think Lopez has a big issue with being one of several leaders as that didn't appear to concern or bother him when he was at Astana.
 
Soler has finished 1 WT race in top10 overall in the last 2.5 years.

Lopez' worst ever GT finishing place is better than Soler's best ever GT finishing place.

Enough said. :) Nobody in the cycling world is crazy enough to back Soler over Lopez for stage races leadership.

Soler has won Paris-Nice. However he should be more of a stage hunter. Issue of leadership and Soler is more his personality. It'll be interesting to see if Lopez and Soler can get along with each other. Lopez would know coming in that Mas is the top GC rider and that it's Valverde's team.
If Lopez is going to lead a GT it'll be the Giro. Mas will lead the Tour and Vuelta.
 

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