February 2024
Starting the month in the middle of Division 1, after selling 3 riders we were deep in the relegation fight. In the end the UAE and Trofeo Laigueglia win brought us on rank 12 with 6,307. The team did 28 races, winning 7 races (Babai, Hamarat, Chau, Sievert, Dachwitz, Krausz, Oppenheimer) and 2 national championships (Hamarat, Krausz). Additionally Ferenc Krausz could win the GC at UAE (first stage race win since Vuelta 2023
) and also the white jersey there. The team starts with 3,656 points at rank 11 (still in division 1).
Most impressive and surprising win was the win that kept us in the first division: Robert Oppenheimer winning Trofeo Laigueglia. It was a very intensive race with a big escape group, where Anton Rella was our captain. It looked pretty good for nearly 2/3 of the race, but the group was not that homogenous and starting with the leaders made some troubles. After getting rid of the 50 climb guys, Rella tried some early compensation of his mountain/sprint lead, but the group didn't work together. As Rella was the only one in tempo soon, and the gap already was under 4min, he decided to stop as well. Then immediately two riders attacked, resulting in losing the weaker one. But this was the start of collaboration and suddenly everybody joined the tempo. In the back it was just Crazy Vikings chasing after he missed the start (and the group). He then decided to attack out of tempo with his leaders pretty early (more than 3 laps to go) and Oppenheimer followed and also LeCun was in the group as a helper for Oppenheimer. Crazy was there with 3 riders and continued to chase the group. After a sieb by his climber, it was just a 2 riders Crazy Vikings group in front of the classics group that followed him. LeCun did pace for one lap, then bergwerks classic helper took over and finally, Holiday, Cotrufo and Oppenheimer brought the group 3 back to Crazy's duo and the leaders from the long escape. The final sprint then surprisingly went for Oppenheimer who decided to launch (with Rella in the wheel) at 200. It was the moment when Crazy's train went for the tricksprint and Oppenheimer couldn't be caught back.
Transfers
A young Ukrainian specialist for hilly terrain signed his contract at A&D. He will be trained as a 80-70 kind of rider. His name Wolodymyr Drinfeld.
Wolodymyr Drinfeld, 21y
Start: 73-55-72-54-59-54.2 43reg
Goal: 80-70 with 59 sprint
4 riders had to retire to hire Wolodymyr. Oleksij Iwachnenko (169 races, 28 wins, 4 points classifications), Carlo Avogadro (267 races), Karl Prachar (182 races, 5 wins, 1 GC win, 1 points classification), and Gabriel Fahrenheit (177 races, 2nd at Ronde Van Vlaanderen, 1 win).
Oleksij was a very successfull sprinter early in his carreer. He soon was on a path for 30+ wins. He was our captain in the 2023 Milano-Sanremo campaign which failed but Tesla winning was a good compensation for the team. His biggest win was the Maglia Ciclamino (points classification at Giro d'Italia 2023) where he could also win 2 stages. He could win 2 stages as well at the Vuelta Espana 2023. He won the BEMER Cyclassics, the points classification and 2 stages at Romandie 2023. With 1,880 points he was rider #22 in the World Tour 2023. Between February 2023 and October 2023 he could win at least one race each month (totally 25 race wins in 9 months) but after the real season was over and new sprinters joined the team, the focus was not on Oleksij any more. Very strong career for a hill sprinter in a GC focused team.
Oleksij Iwachnenko, 35, 169 races, 28 wins, 9,177 points
Bought: 49-56-65-59-81-60,2 46 reg
Peak: 64-59 with 86 sprint
Carlo was a reg strong helper. He was in tempo first at the GIRO 2023 contributing to the GC win of Volta. He could never shine on his own but was in escape groups regularly as well, mostly as a puller for other team members.
Carlo Avogadro, 34, 267 races, 449 points
Bought: 48-66-77-53-48-63.6 61reg
Peak: 50-80-81
Karl Prachar was a 70-80 classic with just 77 flat and good sprint. He mostly failed to follow the right attacks in big races or was not strong enough in the climbs. But he could win the Tour of Austria (GC and points classification +2s stages) which was the one highlight of his career. The second highlight was the win at Tre Valli Varesine. So all in all a solid career for a gap filler classic at A&D (young classic at GIRO peak end of the season+offseason, compare him with Detreköi).
Karl Prachar, 36, 182 races, 5 wins, 6,610 points
Bought: 56-72-75-56-64-65.4 46reg
Peak: 73-77 with 65 sprint
Gabriel was our pavé leader for early 2023 season. He had some mountain as well which made him the leader in almost all races with pavé (lacking a classic with good flat and/or good pavé). His biggest success was the 2nd place at Ronde Van Vlaanderen and his 4th places at Paris-Roubaix and Dwars Door Vlaanderen.
Gabriel Fahrenheit, 37, 177 races, 1 win, 2,653 points
Bought: 55-70-53-50-53-70.9 35 reg
Peak: 61-83-53-50-53-80
Nikola Tesla
Robert Oppenheimer
James Watt
he'll have 400 races in his career). I'm already aiming to break Gustavo Frings' record… I'll probably take a 67 mountain with 72TT and the max possible in the side stat. 59 spr to scratch out stage wins/good places in one-day races. With a helper 82-70-79 and 55 reg. That's my personal goal.
Roberto Frucht, 21y
Boaz Trakhtenbrot (28y, 75r)
Jacob Wolfowitz (31y, 183r)
Alexandros Karatzoglou (31y, 195r)
Akos Detreköi (33y, 203r)
NgôBao Châu (34y, 94r)
Roger Quickley, 21