How pleased are you with your team?

So this is the 5th season already for me in the -main-game. A milestone!

Time to look back!


I started this game young, idealistic and naive. I thought I could win this game with a team of Belgians. The first year I managed to become 6th, with 7 Belgians. The year after I became 12th with 11 Belgians. By the 3th year I became a bit wiser and made a little less errors what resulted in 3th place with 5 Belgians. Last season I did my best performance becoming 2nd with 3 Belgians.

Oh wait!

2016: 6th – 7 Belgians

2017: 12th – 11 Belgians

2018: 3th – 5 Belgians

2019: 2nd – 3 Belgians

2020: ? – 2 Belgians

Can you see the pattern too? 
If there is a god of logic … Time to act, mister!
 


Let's show some hall of fame statistics:


5 Best remembers?

- Cavendish woke up in 2016 thinking it was 2013.

- Gasparotto winning the Amstel Gold Race shortly after the deadly crash of Antoine Demoitié.

- Geraint Thomas winning the tour out of nowhere.

- Picking Fabio Jakobsen as neo. Never heard of him. Just thinking: If it’s good enough for Patrick Lefèvre, it’s good enough for me too.

- Battling with  for the title until September. But then Lutsenko and Colbrelli decided they had enough, while Roglic was still hungry …


5 Worst remeberings?

- Stig Broeckx’ crash

- The yearly cursing because I end up with too much free budget near the end of the auction.

- Signing Tanguy Turgis instead of Anthony Turgis

- Not paying attention while I signed Wout Poels for 600k€, while I was thinking it was 300k€

- Navardauskas with a 240k€-contract scoring 38pts in 2yrs because of heart condition.


Zeros?

Nocentini transferred to a Portuguese continental team Tavira.

Westra quit cycling because of mental health.

Malori quit cycling because he never recovered after a severe crash

De Bie was out whole year because of heart condition.


Worst contracts over 4 seasons:


Absolute:

1. Naverdauskas 5pts

2. Baska 11pts

3. Turgis (Tanguy) 20pts

4. Valls 20pts

5. Sergent 20pts

6. Devolder 20pts

7. Korsaeth 25pts

8. Baska 29pts

9. De Bie 30pts

10. Guardini 33pts

11. Navardauskas 33pts


Relative:

1. Navardauskas 0,02pts/€

2. Navardauskas 0,14pts/€

3. De Bie 0,14pts/€

4. Guardini 0,24pts/€

5. De Bie 0,25pts/€

6. Devolder 0,29pts/€

7. Hesjedal 0,30pts/€

8. Drucker 0,31pts/€

9. Gatto 0,35pts/€

10. Baska 0,37pts/€


Best contracts over 4 seasons:


Absolute:

1. Thomas 1893pts

2. Pogacar 1408pts

3. Uran 1343pts

4. Boasson Hagen 1148pts

5. Lutsenko 1049pts

6. Cavendish 1023pts

7. Bouhanni 840pts

8. Jungels 737pts

9. Colbrelli 725pts

10. Formolo 694pts


Relative:

1. Pogacar 46,93pts/€

2. Jakobsen 18,87pts/€

3. Kragh Andersen 13,77pts/€

4. Gasparotto 6,78pts/€

5. Bevin 5,29pts/€

6. Kuznetsov 5,10pts/€

7. Dupont 4,72pts/€

8. Guarnieri 4,44pts/€

9. Van Emden 4,27pts/€

10. Van Emden 4,01pts/€


In the team for more than 2 seasons:

4: De Bie, Kuznetsov

3: Dupont, Formolo, O’Connor, Politt, Sprengers, Van Emden



And finally   for 2020:


I started the auction with a small wish list. Higuita, Martinez Poveda and Alaphilippe where my main targets because I like them so much. Sadly I had to back off all of them because they became too expensive for me. Also on my list was Quinten Hermans. I really thought he would stay under the radar, but sadly that was not the case. So I had to continue without a wishlist and ended up with this bunch of ...

Leaders:

- Trentin. Not very happy having him because I think I overpaid him. But near the end of the auction I feared to be left with too much unspent budget. So I had to get 1 more expensive guy, while there were not so much big guys left. I aimed first for Valverde, but  made clear that would not happen, so in the end I could choose Trentin or Kristoff. Trentin was cheaper, so less risk there.

- Kelderman. Sort of a gamble as he lies more in hospitalbed then in his altitude tent. But if he stays safe, he has complete freedom now to ride top 10 everywhere he wants as Dumoulin has left the building.

- Costa. Got him because of a tactical trade. But it’s always nice to have a former in the team. In my perception he didn’t have his best year last year. But when looking closely he showed some good form at age of 32 ending top 10 in Valencia, Oman, Tirreno, Romandie, Burgos and Montreal.

- Formolo. Did already great the 2 seasons before. Now aged 27, he is ready to perform his best season ever! Transferred to UAE to be a real leader there. When he adapts well to the new environment, he will do great.

- Lutsenko. Almost impossible to do better than his awesome season last year. In my opinion he was one of the best cyclists in 2019. Off course he was one of the key-riders at  to get that 2nd place. Let’s do that again Alexey!


Mid-range:

- Madouas, Politt, O’connor, Carthy. Invested in youth in 2018, hoping they would deliver in 2020. Madouas, Politt, Carthy showed in 2019 nice things. So looking forward to their performance. O’connor he seems going in a negative performance spiral after his great 2018 giro. Let’s hope that he revives in the new NTT-envirronment and that they will give him loads of ketones.

- Hamilton. Showed skill down under and in Poland. He doesn’t have to work anymore for Dumoulin, so there is an open road to performance.

- Roosen. Imo the best contract I got this year. He had a very bad season because of crashes in Kuurne and California. But he came back in august and had an excellent season ending. This will get him motivated during winter to prepare himself for the classics!

- Steimle. At 1/8 he comes at as a trainee. 1 month later he gets a 2,5yr-contract. And in the same week he wins 2 races in such a powerfull way. Don’t think twice and contract the guy!

- Cocquard, Impey, Lulu Sanchez, Visconti. Experienced warriors you can have faith in.


Leftovers:

- Drucker and Gesink. Pretty nice contracts. Both got injured last year, and are ready to do their work for the team. But now and then they get their own chance.

- De Gendt, fraile, Smith, Paret-peintre, Eenkhoorn Chernetskiy, Roche, Claeys, Zeits, Petilli. Nice mix of young and old. Some climbing skill, some attacking skill, some classic skill. Only thing I miss is some sprinting skill.

- Pronskiy. My only neo left after I sold my soul to . I actually wrote his name in my notes in august after I read an article on him. Apparently he got some talent, and vino believes in him. But at age of 21 he is superyoung. And it’s not because you show skill in Langkawi and in Guadeloupe that it will work out fine in the WT-peloton. We will see.

- And finally some Slovenian baby who’s name I forgot.



So after last season’s second place I'm going all in this year.

I hope so much for victory, that I will not do the effort of thinking whether I have a chance or not.

Only positive vibes at !