Israel-Premier Tech Roland 2023 Roster Preview

2022 Season Summary

It was certainly an interesting year for the then Roland Cogeas Edelweiss team. Many wondered what they were doing at Women’s WorldTour level and their line-up didn’t necessarily encourage high expectations. They were a borderline one-woman team with Tamara Dronova properly bailing their season out with not so much depth behind her. We got used to the sight of Dronova on her own in the front group of races and whilst she didn’t win a race in 2022, she was remarkably consistent in all of the biggest WWT races. You have to wonder if she had some more support whether she could have won a few races last year.

Behind her, Caroline Baur picked up a bunch of points in becoming Swiss national champion and Petra Stiasny got a few points here and there before taking 5th in a Tour de Romandie stage. Rotem Gafinovitz had a similar points profile to Baur, taking nearly all of them at the Israeli national championships. The team gave itself just enough of a shot of remaining in the Women’s WorldTour at the end of 2023. They’re right on the cusp of where they need to be but it’s going to be a battle.

2022 World Ranking: 18th
2022 WorldTour Ranking: 14th

Star Riders

Riders to Watch in 2023

Tamara Dronova is going to need to repeat her 2022 season for the team to stand any real chance of remaining at WWT level. She’s still the team’s best rider on paper. The supporting cast is improved this season, with the likes of Sofia Colinelli going to be a threat in one-day races and Claire Steels some good climbing support in the battle for GC points as well. I’m excited to see how Thi That Nguyen fares now she’s back on a European team. She was on the cusp of something big when the covid pandemic hit and forced her to stay in Vietnam for the most part. As you can see in the image above, on her day she can outsprint Elisa Balsamo and Lorena Wiebes which is pretty rare.

Transfer Thoughts

The team had a job to do to improve their squad and in fairness, they have done it to some degree. It’s not a squad that will take on the medium to big hitters but it does give them a chance of staying in the WWT. Dronova was the main focus last season but Claire Steels can get results on her own, plus support Dronova in those major races so she has less to do. It’s a similar story with the likes of Sofia Collinelli on flatter races as well. Thi That Nguyen should give the team a bulk of useful points at the Asian Continental Championships and if she can be the threat she was last time she was racing in Europe, she could be a great wildcard to have. Lara Vieceli is an underrated signing as well. She will be a road captain that the team didn’t have last season. Vieceli can chip in with points too but her value will be helping others score more. Losing Petra Stiasny to Fenix-Deceuninck at the very moment she delivered on her potential is unfortunate but most of the other outgoing transfers make sense.

My pervading thought is that the team might be 1-2 riders short of the ideal squad size they need to race the necessary calendar to score enough points.