BikeExchange years 2022 and beyond

[eth-dog]

So they haven't had a good season at all. 3rd in the Giro overall is good from Yates, as well as winning the Tour of the Alps. Sixth in Milan-San Remo with Matthews is okay, beaten by Stuyven, Ewan, Van Aert, Sagan and MvDP isn't terrible, they're all world class riders, same with 4th in Amstel Gold. Chaves got 8th in La Fleche Wallone which is good, as is 14th in Liege-Bastogne-Liege. So an okay Spring Classics but no wins.

Grand Tour wise, only one stage win out of 63 stages (unless Matthews pulls something out of his hat tonight). 3rd in the Giro as mentioned is a good result for Yates. A poor Tour and an average Vuelta. I think it's time to move away from General Classification in general, but the awkward bit is that the only 2 GC riders on the roster are still contracted for next year. Let them go after next year, let them ride GC for someone else.

The key is that Bling gets that one win. Hopefully he does the TDU next year, wins early and then he'll be away. Mezgec should be given a chance to have the team built around him as well, he's not as quick as Matthews but he should get a Vuelta or a Giro as one of the protected riders next year. Give Hamilton the Giro, it takes pressure off him as having the Tour as your first ever GC race is a lot of pressure. Give him 2 specialist climbers as domestiques, give Mezgec 2 lead out people and have two tweeners like Durbridge, Juul Jensen, Grondahl Jansen, Meyer etc to essentially be workhorses. Do a similar structure in the Tour for Matthews and Yates, then let Yates and Hamilton go in the Vuelta but that's ages away.

 

[Vader]

Thanks for starting this thread, rather than polluting the Vuelta thread with BEX discussion. Good move, and I'll direct all future responses here, rather than to that thread.

Bling turns 31 in 3 weeks, and will be 32 before the 2023 season begins. Bling can't compete with the top sprinters & puncheurs now, and this will be even more evident by 2023. By 2023 he should be transitioning to the "road captain" role, supporting another rider as the "main man" - along the lines of Hincapie, supporting Cadel Evans in 2011.

So, if Bling isn't the answer - who is? Maybe they need to be looking outside of their existing list?

BEX don't have the support riders, or the budget, to go chasing GC results. They need to be looking at the up & coming sprinters & puncheurs - the next Caleb Ewan & Bling. They needn't be Australian, and they needn't be on BEX's current list. Who, and where they can be found, I don't know.

 

[Bigelow]

Isn't the sole reason for their existance to win the TDF.

Have they missed out on the upcoming and Australian riders because of that focus ?

They have gone all out in their recruiting of European riders to build a team for the grand tours but the result hasn't come and now they have to rebuild.

 

[eth-dog]

Isn't the sole reason for their existance to win the TDF.

Have they missed out on the upcoming and Australian riders because of that focus ?

They have gone all out in their recruiting of European riders to build a team for the grand tours but the result hasn't come and now they have to rebuild.

No. It was to have an an Australian World Tour cycling team, which was well overdue. They sort of stumbled onto GC with the Yates twins and Chaves coming as relative kids, before that they were built around stage wins.

 

[drd23]

Who do you target right now if you're BEX to be "the man" from 2023 onwards? The only sprinter worth their salt coming out of contract next year is Jasper Philipsen. Do you basically give him the Yates money to be the man for two of the Grand tours?

At the moment the team seems to have its focus too split. But if its decided that the aims of the team are to win races/stages, the answer is yes imo assuming he remains being one of the top handful of sprinters at present.

 

[yaco55]

BEX's problems of today stem back to switching to a GC team in 2015 - They never had the budget to be a long-term GC team without affecting the other parts of their program being sprints and classics - Yes, they recruited wisely in Yates x 2 and Chaves resulting in a Vuelta Victory, a 2nd and 3rd in the Giro, a third in the Vuelta and a fourth in the TDF - Even big budget teams with a focus on GC are usually only strong in one of the two other disciplines - Ineos has always been weak in the Classics, Jumbo are OK in 3 because of a freak inVan Aert, while UAE are limited in the classics - So ultimately the emphasis on GC with a smaller budget cost them Ewan as a flagship Aussie rider.

They need to look at their talent ID and recruitment which has been a failure in the last 3 years - They have invested in the wrong Aussie riders, have failed to attract young talent like other teams, their inflexibility in in recruitment has cost them OZ/NZ riders in the last two years.

They need to address their training program/development which I believe will be changed over the summer - Apparently there will be more emphasis on shorter intense training as opposed to endurance efforts - Expect staff turnover in this area and the team to peak early in 2022. Lucas Hamilton is a perfect example of a rider whose training numbers are very good BUT yet his performance is nowhere near that level. Look at Groves who is a touch quicker than Dainese, has struggled to stay on his bike resulting in him DNF in four out of five stage races - And he has not been sighted since June.

'Old School tactics' which continue to be unsuccessfully used by the team - They need to get away from their mentality that we ride nearly stage for a team-leader ( Non GC ) - This was perfectly evident in the Vuelta when they continually rode for Matthews on flat sprints, instead of using Mezgec - Matthews could have been saved for more punchy finishes and to actually get into a BREAK - This also resulted in them unnecessarily 'burning out' riders who could have gone for later stages.

I had low expectations coming into 2021 but they have fared worse than my projections - Year 2017 was a similarly bad year and then the team bounced back in 2018 to have the men and women's WT champions in S.Yates and Annemiek Van Vleuten, though I can't see a bounce back in 2022.

Then you have the disasters that have befallen the women's team - Lose the best women rider in AVV (to a fantastic offer from Movistar), somehow lose their current leading rider in Grace Brown because the team didn't share her ambitions and would not give her a preferred racing program, while their marquee rider in Spratt ( in the top 10 paid riders ) has been rubbish in the last two years and is now effectively a domestique - There are issues with the management of the women's team and divisions with team members which need to be addressed.

 

[Orange Agent]

Have never been able to secure sponsorship to keep the team afloat. If it wasn't for Gerry's deep pockets the whole thing would of ended already. I think next year will probably be the last unless something major changes. Been plenty of positives and they were the pioneers on how teams engage with the fans by starting Backstage pass and the movie. The fire just seems to have fizzled out.

 

[yaco55]

Have never been able to secure sponsorship to keep the team afloat. If it wasn't for Gerry's deep pockets the whole thing would of ended already. I think next year will probably be the last unless something major changes. Been plenty of positives and they were the pioneers on how teams engage with the fans by starting Backstage pass and the movie. The fire just seems to have fizzled out.

Yes, Gerry has mainly kept it afloat but Orica was a title sponsor ( with deep pockets ) for five years and the new Saudi sponsor that came onboard before the TDF is a decent sized sponsor - They were unlucky in 2018 because they had a deal with one of the biggest five companies in Hong Kong which fell through at the last minute - Gerry will sell the licence in 2022 and it's likely to be Middle East money.

 

[Orange Agent]

Stannard has signed with Alpecin-Fenix for the next 2 years. Nobody is even rumoured to be coming in, it's all fallen apart.

 

[eth-dog]

Stannard has signed with Alpecin-Fenix for the next 2 years. Nobody is even rumoured to be coming in, it's all fallen apart.

They've barely used him as the man, he probably gets the Vuelta as the sprinter next year.

 

[Orange Agent]

They've barely used him as the man, he probably gets the Vuelta as the sprinter next year.

I reckon he's a breakaway specialist at this point, he might develop further but.

 

[eth-dog]

I reckon he's a breakaway specialist at this point, he might develop further but.

He can sprint though.

 

[yaco55]

Lets cut to the chase with Stannard - He was never going to renew with the team after the last stage incident with Impey at the Ruta Del Sol - Stannard was going to win that stage until Impey deliberately veered out ( worse than the Groenewegen/Jakobsen incident ) causing both riders to fall in the last 50 metres - Once Stannard got up he vented his spleen at a prone Impey and threw his sunglasses at Impey - Yes, Stannard's post incident behaviour was unfortunate but the subsequent actions of Bex management were worse - They made Stannard issue a public apology for the crash and it's aftermath - Yet, Impey never had to apologise and was never sanctioned by the UCI - Gotta say that Stannard has been a disappointment since he turned pro - He was one of the leading talents in the under 23's and even won a race as an 18 year old against the pro's in Europe - He struggled in his first year because his professionalism was not at WT level - He has shown signs in the last two years and has been close to securing his first pro win - I think, Alpecin is a good fit for his skill set and he may win races - The disappointment is that Stannard was forced to leave because of a lack of loyalty from BEX.

 

[Orange Agent]

Jakob Fuglsang set to leave Astana for Team BikeExchange

Move comes about as speculation mounts that Premier Tech hold talks with Gerry Ryan’s team

www.cyclingnews.com

So this is interesting. I guess they could still keep some Aussie flavour to it with a Canadian co-sponsor. Fuglsang could maybe still do a job for Yates but he's been dropping off world tour level for a while now. Either way it's still something positive for those involved in the team.

 

[eth-dog]

Fuglsang is a great target. Can be support next year for Yates and then become a breakaway specialist the year after for stage wins. He's been overrated as a GC rider but the quality is definitely there.

 

[yaco55]

You want to get full value from S.Yates - Then you get him to ride the three GTS as a stage hunter -The advantage of this suggestion is that he can be underdone when starting the GT's and build into the race - He's good enough to get wins

 

[eth-dog]

Could Kaden Groves be their new sprinter? Had some good results this year, has finished ahead of Caleb Ewan, Peter Sagan, Alberto Dainese, Nils Politt, Michael Morkov (when he's been the man) this year despite his only win coming from a 1.6 km prologue. At 22 he has great scope to become a good rider. Hope he gets the chance at one of the GT's next year.

 

[yaco55]

Groves was recruited to be a sprinter BUT has issues staying on his bike - Before Slovakia he had started 5 stage races and DNF'ed four times because of crashes - Even at Slovakia he crashed in the last 15kms of stage 3 when he made the front split - Actually he had good form but poor tactics and positioning in the finals - He definitely should have won another stage.

Groves has two major issues, excluding his propensity to crash - BEX needs Mezgec to ride with him who is one of the best lead-out riders in the peleton - The second issue is his race program. For example he needs to win more one day races which will improve his bike handling, positioning and of course the opportunity to win. Anyway, after thinking long and hard he's been offered a contract renewal from BEX.

The bigger issue is the women's team - Posted earlier there are issues with the team's management and rider relationships - Now Sarah Roy is moving to Canyon Sram while the team showed it's unhappiness with a terse tweet after Roy publically released the information - The Aussie core of the team is done to two with Spratt and Allen ( who is no certainty to be re-contracted ) Apparently they have signed three or four young Aussie riders of which only Ruby Rose McGannon is definite WT quality.

 

[Orange Agent]

Roy getting a 2 year contract when she 36 in Feb is pretty crazy IMO. Still nothing official on Premier Tech and a decision on where they going, was supposed to be end of this month. Worth noting they never sponsored Astana women's team. Doesn't mean they are Canadian Lefevere but it's still a point. Given the local girls have barely raced in 2 years it's tough work to fill a roster but in previous years have regularly found someone who stepped up easily(Garfoot, Kennedy, Brown). With Olympics done they should get Alex Manly back in.

 

[yaco55]

The deal with Premier Tech will get done and it will include the women's team - Have previously posted there are issues in the women's team with management and within riders - Is it a coincidence the Australian core has left the team.

 

[yaco55]

Kelland O'Brien ( who has signed with BEX ) will ride as a stagiare at the CRO tour beginning tomorrow - I'll be interested to see how he performs because he's not that far behind Plapp in talent.

 

[eth-dog]

Tom Dumoulin apparently possibly on the move to us according to L'Equipe. Not sure whether he's a GC rider anymore, which is good for us as he's a bloody good time trialist and strong in the mountains.

EDIT: It seems that's been denied by JV and Dumoulin.

 

[yaco55]

The reports are that it may happen 2023 - I hope it happens in 2022 because a focused and in-form Dumoulin can win serious races - BEX needs more talented riders.

 

[Orange Agent]

Qubeka looks likely it's finished due to NextHash signing a 5 year deal before the TDF and stopping payments after a month, cheap way to get publicity. Other sporting teams might wanna take note about crypto sponsorships. It would leave Simon Clarke and Rob Power without a ride for next year and given they'd likely be cheap to get back it may work out well for BEX. If the TD news is serious, Clarke as a road captain would be good support.

 

[yaco55]

Clarke left on bad terms, though time heals all wounds - Power is not WT standard - BEX needs to build their classics team - I would look at Claeys, Nizzolo, Campaenarts and Walschied. At the moment the women's team has two Aussie riders left on their team and one is uncontracted.