Los Galacticos

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News March

Roster moves

No moves yet. The team is still searching and could react until the 5th of next month if they find someone interesting.

Finance update March
+ 1.949.772 - one race left tomorrow. A solid month which will allow us to buy rider number 12 if we find someone interesting on the market.

Race results
- 3 wins in Cat. 1 one-day-races by Castillo, Flores Nyuti and Diaz Romero
- 1 stage win and 7th overall at Vuelta Catalunya for Marco de Luca
- 6th overall at Tirreno-Adriatico
- mountain jersey at Tirreno by Rafael Ruiz Cabal
- 2nd place at Milano - San Remo by Alejandro Betancur
- 9th place for Cristobal Yanez at Strade Bianche

GC wise both tours didn't end up in a good way and Marco is looking to improve his tour performances in April to be prepared for the Giro in the best possible way.

Rider of the month - March
Again not much competition here. You could take Betancur into consideration for finishing 2nd at Milano-San Remo but this was more than anything a result of a strange race and not our own performance.
So again rider of the month is Marco de Luca.

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News April

Roster moves

At the beginning of April the team agreed on a contract with colombian Humberto Vega - he is a classic helper who you will see lots of times in front of the peloton in the first half of a race. He actually still has chances to be part of the Giro team.
In the middle of this month another rider joined the team. The 31 year old veteran Mario Haas joined the team to give Betancur some immediate help as he is growing into a nice hill sprinter more and more.

Finance update April

+1.352.725 - with 2 races left this month is more on the "not so good"-side. This was to be expected as there was loads of important races which we did with mostly expensive lineups.

race results

Spring season is officially over. We had lots of good results but were just able to get one classic win. On the other side we finished 6 times on the podium in classic races - 4x P2 and 2x P3.
Spring season MVP would be Cristobal Yanez who did not win a race but finished 3 times on the podium and another time ended up 4th at La Doyenne.
The only win was after a dominant performance from Marco de Luca at Fleche Wallone where the team was by far the best team of the bunch and managed to get 6 guys into the Top 10 of the race.

- 1 win for Martin Roux in a Cat. 1 race
- Marco de Luca wins Fleche Wallone & finishes 2nd at La Doyenne
- Yanez rounds up the Ardennes triple podium with P2 at Amstel Gold race
- Yanez also finished Fleche Wallone & Brabant on P3
- Dani Castillo finished on P2 at Brabant
- Roubaix and the Ronde were a disappointment and we didn't manage to get someone into the Top 10 in both races.
- de Luca won 2 stages + the sprint jersey at Pais Vasco
- P2 in GC for de Luca at Pais Vasco

Pais Vasco was a fun tour with a nice success for Marco. The cobbled classics were a disappointment - especially the Ronde was hard to watch and the result went the same way. At Brabant we had the right feeling and followed the right rider on the last km but despite having a 2 to 1 advantage it was not enough to get the win.
The most disappointing race then was La Doyenne when in the final sprint de Luca missed the big chance to win the race. He just had to follow Yanez 200m from the finish line but decided to stay in the wheel of his biggest rival and ended up 2nd.

Rider of the month - April
Marco de Luca - who else?

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News May

Roster moves

Fabio Renta had to leave the team after the Giro to compensate the losses made in May because of our very expensive lineup.
Unfortunately there is no money for any rider. A second climber would be of great help or another strong 60-80 for Betancur.

Finance update May

-932.675 - The Giro went kind of as expected. We lost nearly 1.2 millions in this tour alone.

race results

The month started with the last spring classic if you want to count that one in. Rund um den Turm in Germany finally provided the long due win for Cristobal Yanez who crowned is strong classic season with a win in the last race after several close calls before.

Then the rest was the Giro. A race of mixed feelings for us. A very strong group with 4/5 88 climber's. Our goal was 2 stage wins + a podium for Marco. We fullfilled that goal finally with 3 wins and GC P2 for Marco de Luca. He could have been very close to the win if on some stages our reaction to attacks would have been better. At the end he missed the win by over a minute and it never got really close for Lorient despite a good effort on the last mountain stage. We lost the race in week 1+2 where other teams gained lots of time to Fontaine.
Favorite stage win was definitely the one for Alejandro Betancur in Cesenatico. A very difficult stage to control but we managed to do it with some help of others.

Rider of the month - May

Cristobal Yanez - despite P2 for Marco we decided to give it to Cristobal. He deserved it for his extraordinary spring season and the great work he does as a helper for Marco & Betancur.

[el Galactico]

Comeback stats - 200 races

Around 8 months have past since the comeback of our team. So how did we do and how did the team develop in this time?

Here are some stats on how a comeback could go for you...

Races: 208
Stage wins: 30
Total points: 32.378
Points per race: 155,66

Remember we had to do a cold restart with just the normal 15 millions you get at the beginning. So how did our team value develope in this time?

Current team value: 30.380.708
Profit since comeback: 12.620.051
Average profit per race: 60.673

So despite earning "just" 12.6 millions from races our team value has now more than doubled after 8 months. I think the plan to start with 21 year old riders right from the start definitely helped to get the team value jumping up. One of our goals was also not to sell riders anymore like we did when last playing RSF/C4F. We now try to keep them even if they are lazy in training. Just the losses of a very expensive Giro team stopped our development quite hard.

The main goal for the next months is to keep the team growing and have a base of like 15 to 16 riders at all times and then slowly start to look for the new leaders for the 2021 season.

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News June

Roster moves

At the end of the month we signed 28 year old late bloomer Maxciel Pereira from Brazil. He is a flat rider from Amazonia.

Finance update June
+ 906.034 - Not the best of months due to the problem we didn't have a cheap lineup for one-day-races.

Race results
The month started with the Dauphine - our main goal for the month. Marco de Luca was able to win the GC by over a minute due to a very strong attack which even the superteam of Bonebreakers was not able to answer as he wasted lots of energy on the stage before. Marco was also able to win the sprint jersey even though he didn't win a single stage.

- Felipe Flores Nyuti wins a one-day-race in Iceland
- Again Flores Nyuti won the NC of Costa Rica
- His teammates Yanez, Betancur & Haas did the same in their respective countries.

Most importantly then was the start of the Tour de France. 4 stages took place in June and it was Alejandro Betancur who took the stage wins of stage 1 + 3. After the yellow jersey on stage 2 he is now wearing green and will try to defend it until the end of the Tour de France. It would be the second points jersey in a GT after Guilherme Callado did it at the Vuelta in 2010.

Rider of the month - June
This one goes to Marco de Luca. He took home our first tour win since our comeback and did it in impressive fashion with over a minute in GC to the next contender.

[Gipfelstuermer]

Good luck Marco de Luca & Alejandro Betancur for Le Tour!

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News July

Roster moves

No movements at all as there is no money after Giro + Tour de France.

Finance update July
+ 413.600 - Half the month was losses at the Tour de France after that we earned around 550 k to finish the month on a positive note.

Race results
It was first Yanez on stage 13 of this year's Tour de France and then Marco de Luca on stage 17 with another 2 stage wins in the biggest tour of them all. Betancur defended the green jersey all the way since he took it on stage 1 with one of his 2 wins. To finish it off de Luca once again finished 2nd in GC behind Fontaine. Just that this time it was a little miracle as he won lots of time in the closing TT. Before that we tried several times to win the tour and put more often than not just our podium placement in jeopardy.

- Diaz Romero & Castillo each won a one-day race after the TdF
- DeLuca finished 3rd at the Classica San Sebastian - once again won by ... well you guessed it already.
- Betancur wins first stage of the Tour de l'Ain in a 1-2-3 finish for our team
- DeLuca finished 2nd in GC + we won the team classement (just the 3rd time in our history)

Rider of the month - July
Alejandro Betancur for winning the green jersey at the Tour de France. He is our second rider to win a sprinter's jersey in a GT after Guilherme Callado won it at the Vuelta 10 years ago.

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News August

Roster moves

After it became clear that there was no spot for Mario Haas at the Vuelta he was sold mid August.
No new riders were signed as the team is collecting money to buy a climber in September/October.

Finance update
- 490.688 - The Vuelta did its duty and erased every money we gained before. Though when the Vuelta ended we actually gained about 400k in the last GT of this year.

Race results
August was a very bad month for the team. 4 Cat. 1 wins by Ruiz Cabal, Urrutia and 2 times by Castillo were the only races we won. The first 2 weeks of the Vuelta were a disaster and no fun. With the last week in September it took a good turn and ended well after all.

Rider of the month - August
No important stage wins so decided to give this one to Cristobal Yanez for his efforts to win the mountain jersey at the Vuelta.

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News September

Roster moves

We failed to buy our future climber for 2021 so at the end some of the money was spent to sign 22-year old Daniele Marcolli from Italy to lower salaries on flat / Cat.1 races.

Finance update
+ 2.127.103 - Solid gains as the Vuelta finished in September. After that we had some very nice results which also resulted in good income.

Race results
After August was a bad month with no big results we came back big time in September. 3 stage wins in the last week of La Vuelta by Yanez and 2x Betancur started a month which we finished with a total of 7 stage wins in 27 races.

Vuelta results:
- 3rd GC Marco de Luca
- 11th GC Felipe Flores Nyuti
- mountain jersey Cristobal Yanez

Yanez also won a cat. 1 race after the Vuelta and was then big part of the deciding attack at the GP Quebec which finally gave his teammate Rafael Ruiz Cabal the chance to win this canadian fall classic. One of our nicest wins so far.
Yanez finished 3rd and repeated the result 2 days later at the other fall classic in Montreal.

The month was then finished by Ricardo Diaz Romero who won 2 small races just divided by a few days.

Rider of the month - August
With the win at the GP Quebec this award goes to Rafael Ruiz Cabal.

[el Galactico]

Transfer news
Castillo released for 2021 climber

Daniel Castillo had to leave our team a few days ago in order to be able to sign a new contract with our future leader for 2021.

Daniel Castillo won 7 races for us. The most important one clearly stage 11 of this year's Giro d'Italia. Beside that he won the NC of Chile once and also finished 2 times on the podium of a classic race (2nd Brabant, 3rd Tre Valli Varesine).
The team didn't want to part ways with him but unfortunately there was no other option as the plans had to be made for 2021.

After these short words lets present our new leader for 2021:

Luca de Marchi 73-54-74-52-54-47reg

He will follow in the footsteps of Marco de Luca and hopefully learn hard from him as long as they are both still in the team.

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News October

Roster moves

Finally some more movement this month.
Daniel Castillo had to be sold & Nicolas Sanz retired.

New riders:
Luca de Marchi 73-54-74-52-54-47reg
Lukas Wallnöfer 54-71-73-53-47-47 reg

Finance update
+ 1.463.513 - Some good income. It would even look better if Sardegna finished a day earlier. This tour alone gave us an additional 620k.

Race results
Despite just finishing 2nd in one of the most important races of the year (for me - Lombardia is a strong contender for my favorite race of all) this October was definitely the most successful one in the history of the team if you look at the numbers:

10 stage wins (1 classic - Piemonte by deLuca)
2 tour wins (de Luca + Urrutia)
2 points jerseys (deLuca + Urrutia)
2 team classements (Tour de Paves + Sardegna)
3 classics podiums (1x 2nd, 2x 3rd)

Rider of the month - October
With the win of the Piemonte classic + a stage and the tour win at the Tour of Sardegna this one goes to Marco de Luca.

[Gipfelstuermer]

New riders:
Luca de Marchi 73-54-74-52-54-47reg
Lukas Wallnöfer 54-71-73-53-47-47 reg

I had that Wallnöfer guy on my shortlist, too. You forgot to mention his pavé skill... 71.9 is nice.

Overall very strong additions to your team! Can be an interesting 2021 season!

[Bear]

Nice transfers! Wallnöfer could become a really nice pave guy. I could have him on my shortlist too if he doesnt have this bad downhill skill

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News November

Roster moves

A new rider joined the team at the beginning of December.

Francisco Guerra 47-70-75-50-63-36 reg

He will join the sprint squad and helps us to be able to participate in sprint races without paying a lot of salary. He was bought after it became clear that we were not able to buy a new classic rider.

Finance update
+ 1.545.595 - Solid income - nothing spectacular.

Race results
November was not as successful as the month before but still quite a good one. It started with a race win by Humberto Vega out of an escape early on.

The team then went on to South America and participated in the Campeonato de los Andes. A very important race being that big parts of the riders are from South America. With the ever-dominating Lorient in the group & Marco de Luca declining in the training before the start we quickly concentrated on escapes & securing the green jersey for Marco de Luca. At the end of the tour green was won and we were also able to win 2 stages (1x de Luca, 1x Yanez). Marco also completed another podium in GC with finishing 3rd.

The big highlight of the month came after that at the Andrha Pradesh tour in India. A strong Alejandro Betancur and the team dominated the peloton nearly in every possible way. At the end he won not only GC but also 3 of 5 stages & the green jersey.

The team also won the team classement in both tours - Andes & India.

Rider of the month - November
3 stage wins, 1 tour win + a green jersey. Rider of the month is Alejandro Betancur.

[el Galactico]

2020 in numbers

I have currently not much time to write stuff, but we love statistics so let's give it a go. 2020 in numbers.

Total points: 59.467
Races: 317
Stage wins: 66 (56 without NC)
Classics (4+): 4
Monuments: 0
GT stages: 10
Tour wins: 4
Tour podium: 9
Sprint jerseys: 8
Mountain jerseys: 3
White jerseys: 3
Team classement: 6
Classics podium: 12

Points per race: 187,59
Races per stage win: 5,66 (not counting NC)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rider of the month December: Alejandro Betancur
6 stage wins + green jersey in the December tour. No doubts.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rider of the year 2020: Marco de Luca

Despite his career is hugely overshadowed by Thomas Fontaine and several huge disappointments he had the biggest impact on our team results and was the clear leader of the team throughout the year. At every other time or every other year he would have been a rider to remember for years.

21.354 points (#1 Galactico / #33 C4F-History)
219 races
14 stage wins
2 tour wins

- Winner of Fleche Wallonne
- Winner of Piemonte
- 2nd Tour de France
- 2nd Giro d'Italia
- 2nd La Doyenne
- 2nd Lombardia
- 3rd Vuelta Espana
- 3rd Clasica San Sebastian
- 3rd Campeonato de los Andes

[el Galactico]

Galacticos News Classics Season 2021

For a long time I didn't have the time to write anything here. So suddenly this has to be something like a quarterly update.

Roster moves

Hard to recap 4 months here. At the end of 2020 the team was old. It still is right now despite the retirement of my favorite 2 classics of this last generation. Cristobal Yanez & Felipe Flores Nyuti are now retired for some time and left a big gap that has to be filled somehow.
The biggest candidate to do so is currently Taison Souza who signed in January and is developing in a good direction.
Beside that we signed also Jhonatan Aguilar and recently Felipe Vizcaino. The latest addition to the team was future flat star Tom Lombaerts.

The team is still too old with 6 riders that are 34 years or older. We have to say that it was a big challenge to make a smooth transition from generation 2020 to generation 2021. It very much looks like our team can't get as strong as it was in 2020.

Currently we are looking to add a new sprinter to the team but with the upcoming Giro it would probably also be a wise decision to have some money on the account in case the tour wont be a success.

Finance update
In all 4 months we earned around 1.200.000 - a little more money every month would make it much easier.

Race results
The offseason months January & February went very very well. A lot of wins but just when it became important the team lost its luck.
The monuments continued as in 2020. 2nd places for Betancur in San Remo and a 2nd place for Taison Souza at the Ronde.
In difference to 2020 we didn't have more luck in the smaller Cat. 4/5 classics and are therefore still waiting for a big win in 2021 which is very disappointing. Though it was to be expected as the team was mostly not strong enough to have a fair chance to win and seems to be more concentrated on tours this year.

The biggest wins so far this year were stage wins from deMarchi, Aguilar & Vizcaino at Pais Vasco & recently at the Tour de Romandie.

Next stop: Giro d'Italia. Luca de Marchi will be looking to win GC and some stages against probably again some very strong opponents.

[el Galactico]

Giro d'Italia - Luca wins!!

This tour took me a few days to process.

What a tour it was. The by far biggest and strongest peloton with over 20 climbers with 80+ mountain and lots of experienced teams.
So many ups and downs from day 1 until the end. Each good day was followed by a bad day and vice versa.

Before the last mountain stage it looked great and like a easy win for Luca but it came different. Luca lost the maglia rosa and had to fight back in the last time trial in Milano.
He did and the tour ended in maybe the closest Grand Tour we've ever had.
5 guys separated by just 31 seconds. Podium separated by only 7 seconds. It couldn't have been closer. Only in this last TT 3 different guys wore the virtual maglia rosa.

Final standing:
1. Luca de Marchi
2. Nelson Ondoa +0:05
3. Djevat Trkman +0:07
4. Hanamichi Sakuragi
5. Wyn Masters

Luca finally just not won only GC and therefore the first ever GT for the Galacticos. He also won the maglia ciclamino and 2 stages in the last week.

What a great ending to the first Grand Tour of the year. Next up is the Tour de Suisse and then onto the Tour de France where we will try to go for the second GT win in our history. With around 60kms of TT this task looks considerably more difficult than the one we had to take on to win the Giro.

[Gipfelstuermer]

Congratulations deMarchi!!

After Lorient dominance in 2020, good to see deMarchi there! I guess deLuca was a good teacher for deMarchi! And to win the race in this field with only few seconds difference is very strong!

Now he even trained up to 88! Even if TDF will be a very different race... good basis for the rest of the season!

It will be an honor to ride TdS with deMarchi and perhaps we'll see each other at TDF, too!

[IDF]

What a great ending to the first Grand Tour of the year. Next up is the Tour de Suisse and then onto the Tour de France where we will try to go for the second GT win in our history. With around 60kms of TT this task looks considerably more difficult than the one we had to take on to win the Giro.

Nothing is impossible

[el Galactico]

I am back. Finally somehow recovered my password.

2021 in numbers

Total points: 56.130 (2020: 59.467)
Races: 255 (2020: 317)
Stage wins: 54 (2020: 66)
Classics (4+): 2 (2020: 4)
Monuments: 0 (2020: 0)
GT stages: 11 (2020: 10)
Tour wins: 6 (2020: 4)
Tour podium: 5 (2020: 9)
Sprint jerseys: 5 (2020: 8)
Mountain jerseys: 4 (2020: 3)
White jerseys: 2 (2020: 3)
Team classement: 3 (2020: 6)
Classics podium: 5 (2020: 12)

Points per race: 220,12 (2020: 187,59)
Races per stage win: 4,72 (2020: 5,66)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rider of the year 2021: Luca de Marchi

[Bear]

Pearce reminds me of M. Bearclaw... good to see a new Canadian guy with such good skills. Good luck with him.