PCM Career: Scotrail 2020 - Transfer Season
July 25, 2008It's 2020, the year in which Dimension Data will have the first African Tour winner, according to their mission statement in 2015, and the year in which AquaBlueSports moves from Ireland to a neighbouring country....
>< Welcome to Scotrail! ><
In 2019, our contract with AquaBlueSports ended. Although we were offered a new contract, the sponsorship was wrapped up with a few problems: first and foremost, ABS has many regions it focuses on, meaning we needed famous riders from Ireland, Great Britain, Belgium ánd Denmark to keep the sponsor happy. Apart from that, the sponsor was unable to pinpoint a budget for 2020 until the end of the year.
Our team took a gamble signing with Scotrail, a Scottish based, UK registered sponsor. Our budget went up significantly compared to 2019, although the offer was actually one of the lower offers we received. So, now for the transfers: what could our team do to become more competitive on the highest level? Can we form a credible GT squad?
Goals for the tranfer season: Add strength to our mountain squad. Find a rider with the possibility to ride top 10 in one of the Grand Tours. Sign UK riders with potential.
Stay committed to young riders.
What follows is a detailed account of our transfer season. A summary can be found all the way below.
Releases
We've lost quite a number of riders from our roster, some intentionally ad some unfortunately. These are the riders we've lost:
Chevrier, Clément: The French climber wore yellow for four days right in the middle of the transfer period, gaining him plenty of attention from other teams. Not wanting to get bogged down in a bidding war, we let Chevrier go, back to former team AG2R.
Planckaert, Edward: With us on a one year contract, the Belgian sprinter was bound to get better offers than we could spare after a good season.
Kreder, Michel: Michel has been with ABS from the start, and 2019 might have been his best season so far. Early on, Michel let us know he wanted to stay with us. However, as the team ambitious would require cutting loose some star riders and we had a "better, younger Kreder" in the likes of Casper Pedersen, we decided to let Kreder go. However....
Pedersen, Casper could not be kept either. The interest from other teams was fierce, and eventually we lost out. Looking back, this is one rider I wish we had put more effort into keeping, especially after he signed for Pro-Continental squad Gazprom.
Warbasse, Larry: Another mainstay of our team, Captain America told us he was willing to stay with us on a lower salary than in 2019 regardless of his good performance this year. Despite our team willing to offer more than what he asked for, Trek Segafredo offered far more, and so we had to say goodbye.
Renewals
Dunne, Conor and Dunbar, Edward have turned out to be two indispensable all-terrain baroudeurs. Both no-brainers for renewal, especially considering their moderate salary demands.
Archbold, Shane. This New Zealander used to be one of the teams main lead-outs, although his pure speed has long been surpassed by others. Last year, he asked for a big raise for a one year renewal, now he agreed to stay with us several years for the same amount.
New signings - prime targets
Last year, our strategy had been mostly to sign young talents and riders for our classics's squad. This year, we'd keep our focus on young riders, but we also wanted to attract at least one GC prospect for our second your on World Tour. We had three targets for this:
Wilco Kelderman: The Dutchman showed all-round great skill, climbing and TT'ing. His contract in 2018 signalled an affordable price, while he would be able to secure results without too much aid from domestiques.
Adam Yates: The young Brit would please our new sponsor to no end, and his acceleration means he's suitable for stage hunting when the GC quest does not go to plan.
Primoz Roglic: Another available climber with great TT. Recent national champion, we've spend a lot of time with him in the break as he battled with our climbers for the polka dot jersey in the Tour. Surprisingly, his asking price is lower than his current salary with Lotto-Jumbo.
Result: Kelderman's asking price was triple his current salary, making him far too expensive for us. Yates and Roglic however were convinced with aggressive bidding to sign for us early, and we can't wait to put them to the test. Yates will stay with us for two years, while Roglic has signed for one.
Several riders applied to our team unasked, some of which we signed:
Jesper Hansen: A climber from Astana, suitable for domestique duties.
Martin Laas: The Estonian sprinter's offer was initially declined, but late in the season he was brought aboard as lead-out.
Pavel Sivakov: The Russian young talent surprised us with his offer. We signed him for a long-term contract, for half his asking price. He lacks stamina but is a great climber, and joined the team from August onwards as a stagiair. Although we will need him to domestique for our leaders, he provides us a great GC candidate for the future. After the winter's training, his climbing has evolved to be one of the highest in the pro-peloton. Pavel will stay with us for three seasons!
We signed several promising climbers as domestiques, mainly focusing on the young climbers and punchers with Connor Swift from the British conti-scene, Gaizko Arabidurrutia, a young Venezuelan and American Japhet Wadsworth. As all round domestiques we signed Escritt, Trondsen and Pierpaolo.
In August, we were surprised by an unexpected injection of capital. This allowed us to buy three core riders for our squad:
Lachlan Morton, this puncher will be allowed to lead the team in the Australian summer, peaking early to provide our leaders with the chance to peak later in the season.
Loic Vliegen; This Belgian puncher-cum-classics specialist will be valuable domestique for Felline and Costa in both the cobbled and Ardennes classics.
Sondre Holst Enger: Signed far below market value, Enger represents the first time that Adam Blythe is no longer our main sprinter. The Norwegian placed second in his national championships, but come next June we hope to conquer the Norwegian national jersey through him.
We've regrettably failed to sign several prospects, among them Owain Doull, who refused our offer despite getting no other offers. Hope you enjoy your sabbatical, Owain!
Loic Vliegen; This Belgian puncher-cum-classics specialist will be valuable domestique for Felline and Costa in both the cobbled and Ardennes classics.
Sondre Holst Enger: Signed far below market value, Enger represents the first time that Adam Blythe is no longer our main sprinter. The Norwegian placed second in his national championships, but come next June we hope to conquer the Norwegian national jersey through him.
We've regrettably failed to sign several prospects, among them Owain Doull, who refused our offer despite getting no other offers. Hope you enjoy your sabbatical, Owain!
Conclusions & Prospects:
Our goals of strengthening our GC squad have been met doubly over and then some. Instead of one GC candidate, we've ended up with three. The loss of many of our more punchy riders will be felt, and our inability to renew with some of our riders is a certain failure. With Yates, we've got a British rider of great renown, much to the pride of our sponsor. In terms of national jerseys, we've improved on our previous count, bringing us to the following collection of jerseys:
In early 2020, Shane Archbold has renewed his grasp of the NZL jersey for the third year running, signifying a good start for the team. Morton just missed out on the Australian jersey. This succes was enough to convince the sponsor, ScotRail, to extend their sponsorship until 2024 - with or without our consent, to be honest.
In summary, our leaders for the coming year are:
Adam Yates - GC, 77 AVG - Giro d'Italia
Primoz Roglic - GC, 78 AVG - Tour de France
Adrien Costa - Puncher, 77 AVG - Ardennes classics, Lombardia
Pavel Sisakov - GC, 76 AVG - Dauphinée
Sondre Holst Enger - Sprinter, 74 AVG - Gent Wevelgem, Ride London
Fabio Feline - Classics, 73 AVG - Flanders, Roubaix
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