Cycling Optimisation

After the announcement of Nippo joining Intermarché Wanty as a sponsor, the 3 japanese riders joining the developpement team are revealed, Shunsuke Imamura (multiple Asian champ track wins), Masao Shimazaki and Kazuma Fujimura (who had decent results as a junior).

The foreign riders of Terengganu are revealed, besides Bregnhoj which was already known, Stefan De Bod, Vadim Pronskiy and Adne Van Engelen are joining the team, continuing to make it the strongest looking team in Asia.

Team Amani is registered in Rwanda and includes, apart from the riders already announced, several local riders and one of the biggest talent of Africa, Jordan Schleck Ssekanwagi.

Tashkent is alive! Well, not under this name, but OU7 seems to be the clear sucessor of Tashkent, keeping most of its riders.

Hengxiang, longstanding chinese conti team, adds Jonas Rapp, Ziga Horvat and Cyrus Monk to its roster, making it a really strong team for chinese UCI races as well as for the Chinese Cycling League.

That is the "out there" transfer announced here, Factor Racing (formerly known as Sava Kranj) has listed for its team kiwi rider Paul Wright but more importantly, former XCM World champion Henrique Avancini, who retired at the end of 2023.

Despite an ongoing legal battle between the French Federation and the professional league over the newly created "conti federale" status (meaning a conti where the riders don't have to be professionals), Bourg en Bresse (which applied for this status) is registered.

The legendary Mehmet Sampiyonbisiklet joins Bike Aid.

A team under the name Bahrain Victorious Developpement team is on the UCI website with no riders listed, but the DS is the same that as CTF victorious last year. This means the team was brought "in-house" to use the developpement team rule with the main team.

2 Kyrgyz teams appeared on the list, which is seems to be a first (or the first teams in a long time). One has 4 former Minsk Cycling team members, while the other has 4 russian riders, including Denis Menchov's two sons.

📅Yesterday, the UCI started to publish the list of continental teams on their website. While the list is often incomplete initially (75 teams so far, the usual total is around 170), we learn several things through this first batch of teams.

🫶If you enjoyed this thread, please follow for more! We are learning with every tweet and are excited for the upcoming content featuring on this page! What do you think about the rumours? Let us know!

💡Q36.5 will benefit massively with a star signing as we will mention in our team overview spotlight on Q36.5 soon. It is hard to see past the fact however that even with Pidcock, the team will struggle to gain a GT entry to satisfy their new man.

📬However Q36.5 did sign Sjoerd Bax, Harm Vanhoucke and Milan Vader this off-season, riders albe to support and stay with Pidcock in harder races when the road goes up.

📉Team support in races will surely be in question too after leaving INEOS. Q36.5 in races would have the likes of Brambilla, Donovan, Christen, Steimle and Frison to help. It cannot be denied this is significantly weaker than the rider support provided at his current team.

📊Even with Pidcock joining, it will be hard for the team to make up the significant deficit to gain automatic invites. With a name like Pidcock entering the team, there is the chance the Swiss team could be riding more WT events but any GT spot would look unlikely.

📩Race invites will be a key theme on this page, and it will be if this move was to come to fruition. Struggling to fight for a GT spot but having raced 30 WT events including 4/5 monuments since their establishment, Q36.5 will boast a competitive schedule for their main man.

📆A good race calendar is imperative for any top rider. Pidcock being the outright leader of the team, racing a GT would be hard to come by currently at Q36.5. However, races like Tirenno, Suisse, Flanders and Roubaix will be possible as the team already competes regularly here.

🚵‍♂️Q36.5 who already involved in MTB and have Swiss rider Filippo Colombo riding both road and MTB with the team would suggest Pidcock will have the freedom to race away from the road while using similar equipment to what he does now. But how would he fare on the road with Q36.5?

That can be nuanced by the fact that Scott, currently the bike supplier of Q36.5, just recently lost their other professional team, dsm-firmenich and may possibly put more money into Q36.5 as it is potentially their flagship team now.

🚲Bike brand Pinarello themselves a long time supplier of Pidcock's current trade team INEOS Grenadiers, also have developed frames in collaboration with the two time Olympic MTB champion. (Pinarello, 2024)
A few links are starting to appear now aren't they?

🤝What do Pidcock and Q36.5 have in common?

Billionaire businessmen Ivan Glasenberg is not only the main backer in Q36.5's Cycling Team, but also bought Bike brand Pinarello for a reported 200 million last year. But why is this of any relevance?
(CyclingNews, 2023)

🎆 With Swiss Pro Team Q36.5 now officially signing multi-discipline star Tom Pidcock, we take a look at why the deal might not be as far-fetched as you think and what the Yorkshireman can bring to Doug Ryder's outfit.

🔟Evaluating recruitments: As the teams try to improve they recruit riders, for several reasons. The reality is, some recruitments can be improved if you really focus on the team's goal, especially those in need of UCI points, which we will highlight.

🗓️Calendar Optimisation: One of the most important things for the teams. Which races do you need to focus on to get points? Which races do you need to focus on for your sponsors? These are important elements that often get looked past in cycling.

🔢Point optimisation: Yes, optimisation means points nowadays. How can you get them? Who can get them? This subject will be present in the background of all our discussions.

🚴‍♀️Rider Scouting: Some really talented riders struggle to make it pro for a number of reasons, we will try to shed some light on riders who aren't spotted to give them the deserved recognition.

Hello everyone, welcome to Cycling Optimisation! The intended goal of this account is to offer analysis on professional cycling on several subjects that may be overlooked sometimes, with the goal of seeing how teams and cycling in general can improve.