I'm pretty clueless on what to do during transfer season to be honest

Let's just hope I don't find another way of spending a ton of money to make my team worse, like I did this year

After months of speculation regarding the team's future, I can today finally say that we can put the speculation to an end. I am proud to announce that one of the most recognisable brands in the Balkan region has decided to sponsor the team for an indefinite amount of time.



Yes, our new sponsor is none other than Cedevita. Cedevita's parent company Atlantic Grupa have decided to make use of their best known brand to sponsor our cycling project. I have held extensive talks with both their CEO Emil Tedeshi and their president of international expansion Enzo Smrekar. Those talks have been very productive as we all agreed on our goals to promote cycling. It was also very important that we managed to retain our status as a PCT team. We are all looking forward to a new start following the official conclusion of this season.

We will hold a full press conference at the start of next season where we expect to fully present the team.


Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team

Very very interesting, great choice!

No more Lions from Switzerland?

Love that you stick to your focus region albeit with a different sponsor. Will be weird not having Swisslion around though!

This should hopefully ensure that you don't get frantic phonecalls from agents of Swiss riders trying to get signed to a domestic team

I thought so as well. A bigger brand for hopefully some bigger things to come







All good things come to an end I guess. Although I hope even better things are on the way now



Let's hope not. We all got sick and tired of those

Rider	Wage	Points	RDs Used	PTS/Wage	PTS/RD	PCT Rank
Beltran	€ 725k	781	35	1.08	22.31	18th
Boeckmans	€ 223k	481	45	2.16	10.69	49th
Saber	€ 375k	310	42	0.83	7.38	77th
Nepomnyachsniy	€ 120k	217	56	1.81	3.88	101st
Mottin	€ 50k	127	70	2.54	1.81	143rd
Gilanipoor	€ 50k	115	67	2.30	1.72	159th
Giogieri	€ 50k	54	65	1.08	0.83	232nd
Poljanec	€ 50k	46	58	0.92	0.79	256th
Ablenado	€ 90k	39	62	0.43	0.63	283rd
Kurianov*	€ 50k	38	77	0.76	0.49	284th
Penko	€ 50k	33	71	0.66	0.47	306th
Groselj	€ 50k	7	68	0.14	0.10	457th
Stavrakakis**	€ 37k	6	76	0.14	0.08	463rd
Marin*	€ 50k	4	63	0.08	0.06	489th
Christodoulous	€ 50k	1	74	0.02	0.01	525th
Duyvensteyn***	€ 20k	1	15	0.05	0.07	537th

*	Kurianov and Marin on loan from Gjensidige Cycling Team
**	Stavrakakis on loan from Festina - OAKA
***	Duyvensteyn on a stagiare contract

Eduard Alexander Beltran

While Beltran scored a ridiculous amount of points last year his total is almost 600 pts lower this time. So despite his wages dropping to 725k his PTS/Wage ratio has also dropped considerably, barely breaking even there.

Best result(s):

Tour of Lithuania Overall 1st, Stage 1st (HC); Grands Prix Cyclistes Overall 2nd (HC); Balkans International Overall 5th (PTHC); Giro dell'Emelia 4th (HC); Apex Mountain Classic 2nd (C1); Gisborne GP 4th (C1); GP Lugano 5th (C1)

Kris Boeckmans

We tried to fill our 2nd sprinter spot in transfers and stumbled upon Kris Boeckmans in free agency. He actually became our #1 sprinter on a very affordable wage. He maximised his scoring in the high value sprinters stage race, scored well in classics, but managed only one stage victory.

Best result(s):

Barbados Cycling Festival Overall 3rd, Stage 1st (HC); Down Under Classic 3rd (HC); Berlin ProRace 5th (HC); Tour of Cyprus Stage 2nd, 3rd, Points 3rd (HC); Tour of Norway Stage 2nd (PTHC); Hanko Classic 8th (C1)

Lahcen Saber

Saber came into the team as our record signing and was expected to lead our sprinting efforts as well as score in some of the cobble races. His cobble season was an unmitigated disaster and his sprint results were sporadic as well. All of that led to one of the worst PTS/Wage ratios on the team.

Best result(s):

Baltic Chain Tour Overall 2nd (C1); Circulo de Juarez Overall 8th (C1); Ronde van Het IJsselmeer 4th (C1); Lisbon Classic 5th (C1)

Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy

The veteran stage racer was brought in to feature in the TT heavy races. His season is best described as hit and miss. From races where he finished top 10 overall to races where he barely scored any points. Not a bad season by all accounts, but more was expected.

Best result(s):

Vuelta al Pais Vasco Overall 10th (HC); Tour of Britain Overall 6th (C1); Jelajah SKL Overall 7th (C1); Tour of Norway Overall 16th (PTHC)

Hugues Mottin

Hugues was a late addition to the team joining us from Andorra Cycling Project. The aim was to target the flat TT events and most other TT stages across the calendar. He had a very slow start to the season, but picked it up in the 2nd half. In the end he was our best PTS/Wage rider, in a vacuum well worth the investment.

Best result(s):

Arab Tour Overall 9th (HC); Deutschland Tour Overall 19th (PTHC); Windhoek ITT 10th (C1); Celtic Chrono 11th (C1)

Abolfazl Gilanipoor

Abolfazl came from our friends at Isostar and as per usual it seems, the deal paid off. We perhaps didn't see as much attacking riding as we hoped for from him, but he still got some solid results while working well for others. Our 2nd best PTS/Wage rider.

Best result(s):

Volta a Portugal Stage 1st (PTHC); Vuelta al Pais Vasco Overall 12th (HC)

Tyron Giogieri

Similar to Gilanipoor, Giogieri was brought in to provide some attacking riding in the mountains. But all the same we saw too little of that with not many other results to show. On minimum wage he was at least a net positive rider.

Best result(s):

Sakartvelo Trophy 5th (C2); Corsica International Overall 21st (HC);

Miha Poljanec

Miha entered this season as a lvl 4 rider. His main aim was to finish his development. He didn't race as much in order to allow some other riders to progress. When he did suit up he mostly did tireless work for the team leader.

Best result(s):

Balkans International Stage 1st (PTHC)

Aberlardo Ablenado

Ablenado came in as a replacement for Pello Bilbao. He was supposed to show some attacking riding, ignoring the GC or score some minor GC places in difficult mountain stage races with time-trials. He did neither, scoring worse than unmaxed riders. A terrible season for him.

Stepan Kurianov

One of those progressing riders was loanee Kurianov. He rode in plenty of races and managed to get in some breakaways and even did some leadout work.

Best result(s):

Torshavn GP 5th (C1)

Izidor Penko

Same as Poljanec, Izidor focused himself on completing his development. He will aim to become an even better support rider next season, as well as score some points in TT events that are his forte.

Best result(s):

Arab Tour U25 1st (HC)

Matic Groselj

Groselj as a level 3 rider again showed he is quite strong on the flat roads. He especially got into a lot of breakaways in the PT wildcard races. He also did some impressive leadout work at times.

Best result(s):

Baltic Chain Tour U25 3rd (C1)

Georgios Stavrakakis

Stavrakakis managed to score some points as a level 1 loanee. He needed plenty of races for his development, but did his best in the flat and cobbled races.

Best result(s):

Baltic Chain Tour U25 2nd (C1)

Gabriel Marin

Marin joined us on loan to complete his development. He raced a fair few races, provided final leadouts for Boeckmans when necessary and even managed to pull off a few results himself to get on the score sheet.

Michael Christodoulos

Michael didn't have his best days on the TT stages, but he is still only a level 3 rider and we are hoping to see him score a few more points next year.

Kees Duyvensteyn

Duyvensteyn was the last addition to the squad, joining on a stagiare contract. With only limited race days available he managed to get into a breakaway and score a point. We look forward to seeing more of him next season.


Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team

In the first part of rider development we will take a look at the riders who have been a part of our team since the establishment of the team in 2018.








Stay tuned for part 2 where we will look at the progress of riders who spent this season on loan.


Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team

Some decent talents you have there. Poljanec with his beasty flat and decent cobble/sprint does make him a wonderful asset in multiple situations - and a great breakaway option too.

Penko seems like a very solid domestique with emphasis on the backup stats aswell. Probably too weak everywhere to make his own presence, but he is likely going to be one of those 50K domestiques that you want to keep until he can't pedal anymore.

Mestric should be ready to take up a decent domestiques role this season already, and might be an OK pointscorer next season. I fear that his physical traits will make him suffer though, as the cobbled races are usually pretty tough. He does have a pretty nice 75DH that might make him a breakaway contender every now and again though.

Poljanec might be a rider that joins the early break in a cobbled race, and with his flat stat he might have a chance for a decent result under the right conditions If not, he's always very handy to have when necessary for chasing/lead-out duties. Matija could even join him in one of his cobbled attacks next year, who knows

Nothing but love for Izidor.

I really like the look of Miha and Izidor, great job in their development!

Yeah, I love that Poljanec has some nice all round stats to go with his ability on the flat. He managed a stage win in Balkans this season, so hopefully he has more results like that in his locker



You pretty much summed it up. I hope Penko can be that rock solid domestique that can be used in different races and perhaps has enough all round stats to have some decent breakaways



I hope a decent combo of cobble, flat and hill as main stats can somewhat offset his weaker backup stats. He's definitely the weakest rider of these 3.



It would be interesting if we ever see Poljanec as the 3rd man in the sprint train, how he'd do there.

We love Izi also



Thanks! And thanks for selling me Miha in the first place

To be honest I'm not sure if in hindsight it was worth maxing his cobble stat, but I was swayed after that result in Kuurne as a lvl 1 rider. Since then lots has changed including game versions. But after commiting to the cobbles, I decided to finish the job as there isn't much wiggle room with a pot 2 rider.

Izidor I kinda made a rookie mistake my first season, as he could've been a 77 TT rider

In the second part of rider development we will take a look at the riders who have spent this season on loan at other teams.






Stay tuned for the last part, there we will review the progress of all the remaining unmaxed riders.


Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team

The last part of this series covers the remaining who have all made considerable improvements over the season.












This wraps up our 3 part series on rider development. We have managed to max our first 2 riders by ourselves and we have plenty more young Balkan talent on the way.


Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team

Some very VERY interesting talents here! Wow...

Pogacar obviously the big name, but honestly wasn't aware that you had this much talent. Well done!

Rajovic and Orken will both be very solid leadout riders with massive acceleration.

Groselj and Christodoulos both very competent TT'ers, even more so in the future.

Siric is a bit of a hidden gem I feel. Strong overall stats and still two more gains to go. Impressive!

Antonijevic is a bit of a fan-favorite for me. We had him in a season because we thought he would be the perfect train-rider for a top sprinter. We basically still do, although I guess I would have rather given him a higher COB stat than a higher PRL stat.

Christodoulos is on my transferlist once more obviously

I thought Širi� was one of top talents in the last batch, but I believe you got him very cheap, I think I would've gone slightly different path with him, but he will a great rider nonetheless.

And the talents just keep on coming Crazy how you got Siric to 3.83 from 1.00, really liking the look of him.

Pogacar is the obvious Poga-star but that's a fine set of talents, and mostly from the focus region, to develop into useful and better riders!

Thanks I don't think I have nearly the level of talent as a lot of other teams, but Pogacar is clearly the rider that stands out while the others are more average, but hopefully useful riders.

Rajovic and Orken are both a bit quirky sprinters. It remains to be seen how they pan out. I see Groselj as more of a prologue guy with the obvious huge engine on the flat. Christodoulos is more of a pure TT rider. I was surprised to find Siric in the DB also last year, so I couldn't resist picking up a rare Bosnian talent

Antonijevic is definitely a rider that has bounced around with stagiare contracts. After the previous season with my amateur team it was a pure RP decision to bring him aboard. He joins a bit of a stacked field of flat riders here, but I went more in the leadout direction with him.

Looking forward if you can come up with a suitable offer for Christodoulos come transfers



Siric is a bit of a project rider, but he definitely has some nice potential



I don't think I'll be doing 1.00 -> 3.83 anytime soon again



Believe it or not Pogacar was not in my plans at all when I promoted to PCT, but I kinda got him on a whim and to keep him on a regional focused team

Without the ability to have regional riders as leaders I had to fill our quotas with talents instead. We have a fair few now, so it's perhaps a chance to focus on other areas of the squad in the coming transfers. But the goal of developing Balkan talent will never stop

First of all thank you to all of you, who have gathered here today.

Today we close a chapter for our team as we say farewell to Swisslion Takovo as our title sponsor. I would like to take this moment to thank Mr. Rodoljub Draskovic, CEO of Swisslion Group. Thank you for the trust you have had in us from the start. If it wasn't for Swisslion and our other sponsors, this project would have never gotten off the ground.

We have been through a lot over these three years. Through ups and downs, but today we won't focus on the negative. No, today we will take a trip down memory lane and look at the highlights we have produced, as we hopefully move on to another successful period. Successful for ourselves and Balkan cycling.

2018

Spoiler

First Victory

Marco Guillen wins Swisslion's first ever stage at the Tour de Langkawi.



Costa Seibeb doubled Swisslion's success with a breakaway victory on stage 5.

Spoiler

First Overall Victory

Eugert Zhupa winning on the difficult cobbles at the Tour du Faso.

Spoiler

Home Debut

Tony Martin managed to win the stage 1 time-trial at our home race Tour of Slovenia.

Spoiler

A Surprising Win

Luka Pibernik won stage 3 of the Benelux Challenge with a brave attack en route to finishing 4th overall.

Spoiler

Promotion Achieved

			Team	Total
1	1		Delvaux	2591
2	2		Valio - DeLaval	2184
3	3		Compal-Merida	1854
4	4		Swisslion Cycling Team	1691
5	5		Andorra Project - InGamba	1661
6	6		ENI - MOL	1626
7	7		Banco de Bogota	1579
8	9		Campari - Super Dry	1553
9	8		Sauber Petronas Racing	1532
10	10		Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	1414
11	11		GCN ProTeam	1340
12	12		Rothaus - Aegon	1291
13	13		Adastra - Argon 18	1062
14	14		Oberfranken	992
15	15		Eddie Stobart	974
16	16		Telia-Brussels Airlines	889
17	17		BNZ Cycling Team	863
18	18		Equinor Pro Cycling	737
19	19		DK Žalgiris	635

All the success we accumulated over the season culminated in a 4th place finish in the CT standings. That allowed for automatic promotion to the PCT division. This unexpected success meant that our story was about to take a turn in a very different direction.

2019

Spoiler

Big Signings

Our foray into PCT was a turbulent ride, but through that we were able to secure two huge signings that would shape our future. For the distant future we were able to secure a local talent in Tadej Pogacar as one of the most exciting stage racers of his generation. For the immediate future we added Eduard Alexander Beltran to punch us up the standings, in an effort to stave off relegation.

Spoiler

First PCT Victory

Gerald Ciolek gave the team an early boost with a stage win in the Tour Down Under.

Spoiler

Shocking The Cycling World

Eddy Beltran as we came to call him had the dream Swisslion debut. He won the PTHC categorised Tour of East Java with an upset win over some of the PT's best climbers.

Spoiler

Punching Above Your Weight

Eddy Beltran continued his great run of results in PTHC with a stage victory and 2nd place overall in Pais Vasco

Spoiler

In A League Of His Own

Eddy Beltran again showed his class as he held stronger riders at bay only to turn the tables on the final hilly stage. The Colombian soloed to stage and overall victory in Cyprus.

Spoiler

The Italian Job

After all the success in stage races Eddy Beltran proved he can do it in the classics as well. It looked for a while that he could be challenged, but he produced an impressive victory in the end.



Continuing his strong season in the Italian classics, Beltran was the strongest in climb up to San Luca as he bagged his 2nd victory in Italy.

Spoiler

Survival Achieved

			Team	Total
1	1		ISA - Hexacta	3987
2	2		Volvo acc. by Spotify	3832
3	3		Rakuten Pro Cycling	3769
4	4		Team UBS	3281
5	5		cycleYorkshire	3258
6	8		Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	3167
7	6		Delvaux	3124
8	7		Campari/Asahi development	3119
9	9		Duolingo	3015
10	10		Valio - Viking Genetics	2948
11	11		Desigual	2932
12	12		Xero Racing	2800
13	13		Kraftwerk Man Machine	2765
14	14		Minions	2759
15	15		Iberia - Team Degenkolb	2722
16	16		Berg Cycles	2627
17	17		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	2621
18	20		Swisslion Cycling Team	2310
19	19		Kulczyk - Alitalia	2256
20	18		ENI - MOL	2247
21	22		Andorra Cycling Project	2233
22	21		Carrefour - ESPN	2228
23	23		Carlsberg - Danske Bank	2170
24	24		Team Europcar	2093
25	25		Philips	1874
26	26		Sauber Petronas Racing	1639

Largely on the shoulders of Eduard Alexander Beltran (2nd in the individual rankings) we were able to survive our maiden season in the PCT division. The team defied all the expert's predictions to finish 18th in what was a very competitive fight between many teams trying to avoid the drop.

2020

Spoiler

Raised Expectations

Rider Signed	From Team	Transfer Fee
Lahcen Saber	Phillips	€ 1.000.000
Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Valio - Viking Genetics	€ 500.000
Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Isostar - Specialized	€ 300.000
Aberlardo Ablenado	Kraftwerk Man Machine	Riders Swap
Hugues Mottin	Andorra Cycling Project	€ 235.000

With the above riders joining the team for a total outlay of over € 2.000.000, the expectations for the 2nd season in PCT was to achieve a more comfortable mid table position, further away from the relegation places. At least that was the thought process.

Spoiler

The First Sip Of Success

The season was not going as planned, but newly acquired veteran Kris Boeckmans shone with a stage victory and overall 3rd place in Barbados.

Spoiler

A Historic Moment

One of the perks of being a PCT team is applying for wildcards. MGUCI granted us the wildcard to participate in the Tour de France. Lahcen Saber was the leader there as he won stage 4 and spent a day in the iconic green jersey.

Spoiler

A True Home Victory

Miha Poljanec made it a proud day for our team when he won stage 7 of our home race Balkans International. Being part of our team since the start in 2018 meant this was a special moment for Miha and all of us.

Spoiler

The Long Wait Ended

Last year's survival hero Eddy Beltran didn't have a great season, but he eventually found form in the Tour of Lithuania where he won the overall with a victory on the final stage.

Spoiler

The Final Outcome

			Team	Total
1	2		Farfetch Pro Cycling	4447
2	1		Repsol - Netflix	4191
3	3		Mapei	3963
4	4		Desigual	3795
5	7		Xero Racing	3419
6	8		MOL	3300
7	9		Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	3264
8	5		Kraftwerk Man Machine	3262
9	6		Bakkafrost	3144
10	10		Duolingo	3098
11	11		Polar	3072
12	12		Valio - Viking Genetics	2929
13	16		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	2832
14	13		Minions	2797
15	14		Berg Cycles	2647
16	15		Podium Ambition	2621
17	18		Fablok - Chocolate Jacques	2595
18	17		DK - SVA Zalgiris	2584
19	19		Swisslion Cycling Team	2260
20	21		Andorra Cycling Project	2105
21	20		GCN Racing	2069
22	23		Aramco DP	1976
23	22		Azteca - NBCSN	1900
24	24		Nordstrom - CA Technologies	1828
25	25		Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling	1600
26	26		Campari Asahi Procycling	1331

While the initial expectations for the team's 2nd season in PCT were much higher, the most important goal was still achieved. We were able to secure our PCT status for one more year, but the final ranking showed that much more work will need to be done.

Thank you to everyone that has spent any of their time following our journey. I hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane as much as we did. We hope to see some of you back next year as we come back with a new team and a new outlook.

Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team