[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/TeamIsraelSUN/status/1452585194578403328

Dowsett's hour record attempt is the other upcoming track event. Obviously as he is using it to raise money for charity, we all no doubt hope he does well, but let's be honest, he isn't at the level of a Wiggins, Dennis or Campenaerts and if he does better than those three it will have a lot to do with the altitude and improved technological gains.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/velonews/status/1454089434748567560

Neilands renewed the other day and the four Israelis will bring the total to the stated 30 riders.

“We are not under any rush or pressure to fill it, and we may not fill it at all, but if there is a good opportunity for us, we’ll keep the roster spot open.”

Therefore no place for Vahtra or anyone from the devo squad. I don't think anyone in the devo squad is currently good enough to make the jump anyway, but it would have been a carrot for attracting some better youngsters in the future.

Difficult to see Benoot/Van Wilder being interested if Jumbo/Deceuninck etc are after them.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/jauzy19/status/1454967177992445961

There's one correct educated guess from me.

Not sure I would have given him a guaranteed WT contract. Has he done enough to warrant that in his espoir years?  It hopefully marks though a changing of the transfer dealings of the team going forward. Plenty of contracts are up at the end of 2022 and with another 3 (?) year WT ranking in the bag, the team can afford to plan a bit more long term.

One pleasing knock-on effect will be an increased chance of invites to the Baby Giro and Aosta for the devo team next year.

[Leadbelly]

https://www.facebook.com/IsraelCyclingAcademy/posts/3804081606362036

We now know half of the devo team in 2022. The Israeli half.

Staying

Ben Moshe (no longer U23)
Goldstein
Davidzon
Tene
Kogut

In

Raisberg (2001)
Weinberg (2000 - raced the U23 Worlds)
Peretz (2003)

Out

Abu Fares
Lahav
Tsahor

The article also states that the four Israelis in the main team have extended and will get leadership opportunities from time to time.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/CanadianCycling/status/1456936334090805248

Bauer --------->

Also mentioned in the article is that Canadian trackie Derek Gee is joining the devo team. I was aware of him several years ago through the Misc American Tour Races threads, but he hasn't done much road racing for a couple of years and as a 97-er we can view the transfer as likely just a helping hand for his Paris ambitions on the track.

[Leadbelly]

As for the juniors tomorrow, Cole Kessler (US JR TT Champion) is following a lot of I-SUN people and equipment providers on Instagram. He's been riding quite a bit over here in Europe this year with the LUX junior team and with some success.

Done.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CV8Y34xveKr/



Here's a little interview with him from a couple of months ago.

https://dailybruin.com/2021/09/18/cole-kessler-to-enter-ucla-with-competitive-european-cycling-resume

Started MTBing at 13. When covid hit, he switched to road just to keep in condition and hasn't looked back since.

[Leadbelly]

Also mentioned in the article is that Canadian trackie Derek Gee is joining the devo team. I was aware of him several years ago through the Misc American Tour Races threads, but he hasn't done much road racing for a couple of years and as a 97-er we can view the transfer as likely just a helping hand for his Paris ambitions on the track.

......or maybe not.

https://twitter.com/cdncyclist/status/1457909994498760707

Derek also spoke about how this impacts his involvement with the track program.

"I'm definitely taking a bit of a break. It's still an unknown as to how I'm going to be on the road; what kind of rider I am and how far I can make it on the road. I have big aspirations on the road and I'm definitely going to commit fully this year and see where it goes. I'll probably make a decision about the track from there."

One other piece of news we can glean from the interview is that Plamondon will not be with the devo team in 2022. Czech media were saying that things didn't look good for Boucek either.

Ergo the foreign half of the devo team will be:

Gee
Pickrell
Kessler
Hollyman
Mackellar
Frigo

+2

Alex Bogna might be a possibility if he doesn't win a place at Alpecin via Zwift. If you see his haircut you'll know which country he comes from. Well, one of two countries just thinking about it.

[LukasCPH]

Alex Bogna might be a possibility if he doesn't win a place at Alpecin via Zwift. If you see his haircut you'll know which country he comes from. Well, one of two countries just thinking about it.

The way you wrote that, I didn't even need to see a photo to know he's Aussie.

[Leadbelly]

https://israelcyclingacademy.com/the-next-generation-ica-2022/

Here's the full devo team:

• Jakub Boucek (20, CZE)
• Lahav Davidzon (21, ISR)
• Marco Frigo (21, ITA)
• Derek Gee  (24, CAN)
• Edo Goldstein (21, ISR)
• Mason Hollyman (21, GBR)
• Cole Kessler (18, USA)
• Oded Kogut (20, ISR)
• Alastair Mackellar (19, AUS)
• Aviv Peretz (18, ISR)
• Riley Pickrell (20, CAN)
• Nadav Reisberg (20, ISR)
• Rotem Tene (20, ISR)
• Roy Weinberg (21, ISR)

Only 14 riders and not the 16 earlier mentioned. I would have liked to have seen some more northern classic types in the squad, Verbrugghe talked about wanting to participate in more races of that type in 2022.

Boucek gets renewed despite what Czech media thought.

Finally no sign of Ben Moshe. Does that mean he's got the 31st spot in the main team? Watch this space.

[Leadbelly]

https://israelcyclingacademy.com/the-next-generation-ica-2022/

Here's the full devo team:

...............

Only 14 riders and not the 16 earlier mentioned.

Finally no sign of Ben Moshe. Does that mean he's got the 31st spot in the main team? Watch this space.

Well they messed that up. A hour or so later here's the full team of 16 riders:

• Yuval Ben Moshe (22, ISR)
• Jakub Boucek (20, CZE)
• Lahav Davidzon (21, ISR)
• Marco Frigo (21, ITA)
• Derek Gee  (24, CAN)
• Edo Goldstein (21, ISR)
• Mason Hollyman (21, GBR)
• Cole Kessler (18, USA)
• Oded Kogut (20, ISR)
• Alastair Mackellar (19, AUS)
• Simon Nagy (20, SVK)
• Aviv Peretz (18, ISR)
• Riley Pickrell (20, CAN)
• Nadav Reisberg (20, ISR)
• Rotem Tene (20, ISR)
• Roy Weinberg (21, ISR)

Ben Moshe back in and a new signing in Simon Nagy - recognise the name, couldn't tell you anything about him.

[Leadbelly]

Simon Nagy - recognise the name, couldn't tell you anything about him.

Well according to his team from this year, he is a purebred sprinter, however that might not be so obvious if you check his First page.

https://firstcycling.com/rider.php?r=100759

There are a couple of crit wins and he finished second overall in the Slovak Cup behind Kubis. There's nothing really though that jumps out at you and says "sign me". Maybe he has some good numbers or maybe he's just going to be a domestique.

Edit - some more info about him and why he needed to get out of Slovakia.

https://bratislava.zoznam.sk/velky-cyklisticky-prestup-mlady-slovak-bude-spolujazdcom-vitaza-tour-de-france-v-elitnom-svetovom-time/

He views himself as more of a "classicist".

[Leadbelly]

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/we-want-to-see-results-from-him-israel-start-up-nation-expect-chris-froomes-form-to-improve-as-they-target-a-place-among-the-super-teams

Another interview with Verbrugghe.

Verbrugghe admits that it is a hard sell encouraging proven general classification riders to join the team.

“We want to develop within, and we want to merge the Continental development team with the WorldTour team, but when there is an opportunity [to sign a rider], you have to try and take it,” he said.

“We were close to signing two young riders for this season who, in my eyes, are probably the future of Grand Tours and very decent stage winners. But one went to Bora-Hansgrohe, and the other went to Deceuninck-Quick-Step.

Van Wilder and Vlasov (could have been Hindley I guess, but I don't view him as the future of GTs) presumably. It's good that they're at least trying to move in that direction, but as he himself admits it's difficult.

Hopefully people like Skjelmose and McNulty are already on the radar for next year, or even some bigger names.

[search]

Premier Tech confirmed to get on board

https://twitter.com/IsraelPremTech/status/1479091107791257601

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/IsraelPremTech/status/1486025728919539716

The devo team have already kicked off their season at the Classica CV (or whatever you want to call it). Their hopes were dashed in the last corner however when they got caught up in the crash - they were riding for Pickrell. Him and Gee seemed to form a good combo.

Not sure what is next for them. Would have liked to have seen them at Antalya, but they're not on the list that was released recently. Some will no doubt turn up in Rwanda with the main team and why not the Croatian triple-header in early March.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/IsraelPremTech/status/1486414409740267520

Not a bad debut. However as he points out, he'd been training hard in Australia and might have even been looking to peak at this Santos Festival of Cycling as a last shop window to bag a contract. So in my thinking he could be a bit ahead of others in terms of form/fitness, which is no bad thing.

[Leadbelly]

Speaking of Australians, Alastair Mackellar made his season debut on the other side of the world this week at the non-UCI Tour Down Under. Even taking into account the level, he did pretty well.

Stage 1 - Made the front group and finished fourth behind the lone winner.
Stage 2 - In the main group, but didn't contest the reduced sprint.
Stage 3 - A break took the stage on Willunga. He was the tenth finisher from the grp of favourites (26s down on Plapp). Behind Whelan and Durbo, but ahead of Dyball and Ewart.

That was good enough to take 6th (!) overall.

In other devo news, Gee and Edo Goldstein are riding for the main team today in France. It's a very Israeli/Canadian selection with only Impey ruining the symmetry.

[search]

I actually thought Marseille could be a good race for Bevin, who often had a great start to the season in the past. But for whatever reason he didn't make the final cut

[Leadbelly]

Surprisingly (or not) his one-day record isn't too hot. The last one he finished was over 3 years ago and if we ignore that as it was the NZ nats, you have to go back four years to Cadel Evans and he only finished 52nd there.

It's a strange one as you'd think he has the skill set to be a factor in a fair few of the medium hilly ones, but it just doesn't seem to be his bag.

Anyway surely you'd prefer Impey to bag a few CQ points.

[Leadbelly]

I didn't think there would be an official link between the teams, but the UCI thinks differently...



They must have the "same paying agent or main partner". Note though that they can't swap riders a la IPT and ICA.

It also means that the continental teams can't ride in the same race. Somebody will have to tell the organizers of the Youngsters Coast Challenge.

[LukasCPH]

It also means that the continental teams can't ride in the same race.

Interesting. There used to be an exception for Conti teams with the same main partner, e.g. in 2015 when Charter Mason Giant, Giant-Champion System, and Pishgaman Giant weren't allowed to race with Giant-Alpecin (not that they would have), but were allowed to race against each other.
However, the following year, Giant-Champion System, Pishgaman Giant, Shimano Racing, and Giant Scatto U23 were not allowed to race against each other (nor with Giant-Alpecin).
 

[Leadbelly]

An okay start to the season for IPT. It's been better than previous years if anything, but others down in the relegation/promotion battle have had even better results which is what brings it down to just okay.

It's been almost exclusively the new guys who have hit the ground running. Clarke the obvious one (maybe for reasons I hypothesised above), Nizzolo with some podiums, Fugly looked good in Valenciana against strong opposition and even Houle who got the best results in Marseille and Besseges.

Despite Hugo's efforts, it's probably been those French races which have been the most disappointing. Impey always used to start the year well at the TDU, but that didn't happen this year and while in Provence it was no surprise that Hagen didn't do so well in the echelons, I kinda expected a climbing response to that on the final day, but no...

The UAE line-up doesn't fill me with confidence either.

https://twitter.com/IsraelPremTech/status/1494956076328177670

[t-72]

I found an interview with Hagen a few weeks back and stories of everything he has been through since the crash, those injuries were clearly more than a little bit worse than everybody expected. If he doesn´t come back to his former top level this year, I think he should retire as an active racer and become a trainer instead - passing on his skills to a younger generation. I have seen many quite large groups of kids training on the MTB in the area of this city where he comes from, so he will have some material to work with, if that is what he wants.

Still, let´s see where he is able to take his own racing this season. There is always hope.

[Leadbelly]

He's talked about wanting to do two GTs this year and maybe that's his forte with more attritional racing over three weeks with multiple mountain days in a row (Zubeldia-ing his way to top 10-15), but yeah with his contract up at the end of the year he needs to show something in the first half of the season.

[Leadbelly]

All this talk of Hagen and Impey got me thinking...



There a lot of riders with futures unknown at the end of this season (according to PCS anyway).



The number of riders has to decrease to 30 at the very least. Frigo will be joining from the devo team and why not Puppio if he has another decent year. One or two of the Israelis will surely have to move up as well.

Assuming as well that they retain the WT licence this will be the ideal opportunity to revitalize the team.

Keepers:

Clarke - be silly not to offer him another year after the start he made
TVA
Brandle
Boivin
Hollenstein
MWS
Biermans
Goldstein

Unsure:

De Marchi - purely because we haven't seen him this year and his age
Bevin - sometimes he looks really good, but needs more consistency
Zabel - surely there's someone better out there for Nizzolo
Sagiv - just a Cheng Ji, but the team needs one or two of them
Cataford - ditto

Exit?:

Froome - he can't string it out for another year, can he?
Impey - poor start to the season
Dowsett - got a charitable extension after his Giro win, but I think he's past it
Barbier - being one dimensional is fine, if you're very good at that one thing, but unfortunately....
Hagen - could turn it around with a good 2022 and he'll probably have chances to attempt that, but...
Piccoli - his nationality will no doubt save him, but not WT level imo
Niv - brings the least to the table of the Israelis

[Leadbelly]

There's a new "G" in town, that's right, Derek Gee.

He got a mention in the thread back in November.

"It's still an unknown as to how I'm going to be on the road; what kind of rider I am and how far I can make it on the road. I have big aspirations on the road and I'm definitely going to commit fully this year and see where it goes. I'll probably make a decision about the track from there."

Well after Gran Camino, I think he can make it quite far on the road.

57th on the murito after doing work, 21st on the multi-climb day (I didn't see it, but presumably the last helper before Fuglsang had to do some work) and then he caps it off by finishing 5th in the TT ahead of all his team mates, some of whom are no mugs on the TT machine.

https://israelpremiertech.com/o-gran-camino-woods-secures-second-overall-gee-surprises-with-career-best-time-trial/

"It was definitely the best time trial I’ve ever done by a long way.....I had absolutely no idea how well I was going. I figured it was the last stage so I would go full gas and see how it went. I wasn’t looking at numbers or anything and it was only when I crossed the line, Alexis, the soigneur, told me. I couldn’t believe it. I was hoping for a top 15 so I am really, really happy.”

He says he is off to race with the devo boys next week in France. Watch this space.

-------------------------------------

Been a not bad week or so in general for some of the lesser names in the team. Berwick had his best performance earlier in the week, but struggled a bit then on the final day. Also in UAE, Jones did a great pull in the sprint train on the stage where Barbier finished 5th (he was the guy in front of Zabel in the train). Strong stepped up to the plate on some lumpy Ruta del Sol terrain to help Clarke and over in Rwanda, Goldstein won the most aggressive rider jersey and nearly got that second pro win for an Israeli.

[search]

Exit?:
Froome - he can't string it out for another year, can he?

not only for one, by the sound of it


https://www.instagram.com/p/CaeaN8TsewO/

[Leadbelly]

The French curse continues this year with the team down to just one rider in PN - Houle. He's not doing too badly tbh, but after the earlier good performances in the year from the new guys and then some encouraging results from lesser names, the form of the team has taken a real nosedive.....

Nizzolo has been nowhere in the TA sprints. The classics results have been very poor[1]. Fuglsang was ill and still isn't firing on all cylinders etc.

Meanwhile the rest of the teams in the relegation battle are picking up points at nearly every opportunity.

Woods won't be able to score enough points on his own, the rest of the team needs to step up sharpish.

1.	So far I've proven right that it was a mistake to let Hofstetter go

[Leadbelly]

Simon Nagy - recognise the name, couldn't tell you anything about him.

Hasn't raced with the devo squad this year and while he is on the team's website, he isn't on the UCI list of riders. Don't know the story.

[Leadbelly]

Phew. Mafeking has been relieved. Finally some good news.

https://twitter.com/IsraelPremTech/status/1515647424517316610

We talked about him a little earlier in the year and how he doesn't seem to be a one-day fan, but in stage races his combo of a fast-ish finish (something not many in the team have), TTing and passable climbing should really give more results like this.

The youngsters haven't been doing too badly either recently. Frigo picked up a stage win in Ardennes and then he and Hollyman did well at the Trofeo Piva. Those two plus Goldstein were also in the mix at LBL U23 on Saturday (5th for Mason). Bear in mind though that all three of them are in their final year at U23 level and therefore results in espoir races have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

[Leadbelly]

Back to reality.....

The Alps result today really deserves a or four.

Firstly though it's good to see Nizzolo back on the bike and he did well to finish just off the GC group with only a couple of other punchier fast men doing better, but the climbers fared less well.

Those face-palms belong to Froome, Piccoli, Hagen and we have to include Goldstein too (after his recent good performances, he can't be judged to different standards now). Unless there are some extenuating circumstances we don't know about, it's pretty woeful stuff.