Profile



Startlist



Bad

Tolleson was in the break for a while, but then crashed. Warning: some Minions may find the following image disturbing.



Bad

Rathe finished third here last year. Our goal was a top 5. We have to add a 2 behind his result last year. 32nd. Goal failed.

Bad

First race in a while which doesn't contain the Good, Good, Good scheme. It seems like our flow may be over.

Results

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Ermin Van Wyk	Strava	4h20'35
2	Sébastien Turgot	Sodexo ProCycling	+ 1'15
3	Nick Ingels	Evonik - ELKO	+ 1'36
4	Gert Steegmans	Fox Sports - Golomt Cycling	s.t.
5	Alexandre Aulas	In-n-Out Cycling Team Powered By Carrefour	s.t.
32	Jakob Rathe	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 3'48
49	Maxime Le Montagner	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 7'29
54	Tareq Esmaeli	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
60	John Murphy	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 11'55
61	Taylor Tolleson	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
88	Simon-Pierre Gauthier	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 15'34
103	Shaquille Sinclair	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 18'52
110	Mike Friedman	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.

The end of the season is approaching. Time to initiate the final push!

Tour of America





Chad Haga
Taylor Tolleson
Fabio Montenegro
Timothy Duggan
Mauro Santambrogio
Alex Howes
Mark Griffith
Shaquille Sinclair

The biggest race for us, but also the biggest gamble. Last year it was quite succeful, but with a bigger and stronger startlist we're not sure it will happen again. Haga finished 5th last year, but a top 10 this year will be quite a succes. Tolleson will hopefully sprint to a top 100.

Acropolis Cup



Nick Kinney
Bjorn Selander
Jakob Rathe
Tareq Esmaeli
Mike Friedman
John Murphy
Maxime Le Montagner
Simon-Pierre Gauthier

I honestly don't know how Athens can afford a classic in times of economic misery. Anyway, Kinney will be an outsider for this race

Grands Prix Cyclistes



Nick Kinney
Bjorn Selander
Sebastian Salas
Jakob Rathe
Tareq Esmaeli
Mike Friedman
Maxime Le Montagner
Simon-Pierre Gauthier

An important race hosted by our northern neighbours. Strong startlist, but we hope Kinney can score some points. Intern Gauthier and Salas will ride their homerace.

GP Yekaterinburg



Bjorn Selander
Timothy Duggan
Mauro Santambrogio
Sebastian Salas
Jakob Rathe
Tareq Esmaeli
John Murphy
Maxime Le Montagner

No Kinney, no expectations. Maybe the duo Duggan/Selander can surprise!

Profiles




Startlist



Review

Two of our riders, intern Gauthier and Sinclair, participated in the yearly under -23 event, the Tour de l'Avenir. They joined a mixed American team together with riders from Azteca and ONCE, riding in the pink jersey of the latter. While our two Minions didn't do anything noteworthy aside from gaining experience and a failed breakaway attempt of the Canadian in the second stage. Temporary teammate Carapaz finished in 10th position in the GC

Results

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Lachlan Morton	Oz Cycling Project	35h58'28
2	Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier	Festina-Canal+	+ 31
3	Chen Shikai	Meiji - JR East	+ 2'44
4	Daan Olivier	Aegon - Lavazza	+ 4'59
5	Silvio Herklotz	Festina-Canal+	+ 7'26
10	Richard Antonio Carapaz	ONCE-Eroski	+ 12'50
78	Cesar Ixehuati	ONCE-Eroski	+ 1h04'20
80	Jose Luis Rodriguez	ONCE-Eroski	+ 1h04'31
106	Rodolfo Villalobos	ONCE-Eroski	+ 1h23'24
121	Shaquille Sinclair	ONCE-Eroski	+ 1h43'11
130	Simon-Pierre Gauthier	ONCE-Eroski	+ 1h58'27

Profile



Startlist



Good

We didn't bankrupt Greece during the race, the Acropolis still stands and some people even cheered from the road. The Greek crisis is a hoax! This is very important, because Greece is big market for Chiquita.

Mixed

Our leader Kinney attacked with 35 kilometers to go, and was joined by some other riders. Unfortunately, their attempt was brought back before the line.



Bad

As always, we do show ourselves but we can't seem to get those results. 21st place for Kinney just isn't good enough when you're looking for the top 10 in the rankings!

Results

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Julien Simon	OTP Bank - Slovnaft	4h49'06
2	Kazushige Kuboki	Actavis - DKSH	s.t.
3	Mauricio Soler	Alpina - Avianca	s.t.
4	Kamil Zielinski	Fablok - Dunlop	s.t.
5	Rudy Molard	Generali - Kronenbourg 1664	s.t.
21	Nick Kinney	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
37	Bjorn Selander	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
104	Jakob Rathe	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 4'01
116	Maxime Le Montagner	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 5'05
128	Tareq Esmaeli	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
134	John Murphy	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
153	Simon-Pierre Gauthier	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 7'51
160	Mike Friedman	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.

Profiles



Startlist



Good

We actually have something to battle for! It was immediately clear that Haga wouldn't be able to fight for a good classification, so instead we switched our focus to the King of the Mountains competition. After 7 stages, he's leading the classification by 2 points!



Mixed

Stage 6 was a TTT, and we didn't consider ourselves amongst the favourites. Nevertheless, the Minions excelled, finishing 6th! Unfortunately, no points are awarded for this position.

Bad

Tolleson. I think you know what I'm talking about.

Results

Stage	Winner (Team)	Best Minion (Place, time)
1	Michael Schär (Vontobel)	Chad Haga (14th, + 14)
2	Raúl Granjel Cabrera (Mobil)	Mark Griffith (117th, s.t.)
3	Raúl Granjel Cabrera (Mobil)	Taylor Tolleson (107th, + 2'39)
4	Juan Van Heerden (Eritel)	Taylor Tolleson (61st, s.t.)
5	Edoardo Zardini (Sauber)	Timothy Duggan (31st, + 3'19)
6 (TTT)	Prio - Porto	6th, +40
7	Natnael Berhane (Eritel)	Fabio Montenegro (45th, + 2'07)

GC

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Natnael Berhane	Eritel - Sonatrach	20h58'02
2	Winner Anacona	DeLaval - Kiitokori	+ 36
3	John-Lee Augustyn	Project: Africa	+ 1'41
4	Petar Panayotov	Lululemon/Bulgaria Blackfish	+ 2'03
5	Jaroslav Popovych	Children of Chernobyl Foundation p/b Nemiroff	+ 2'11
50	Fabio Montenegro	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 8'48
75	Timothy Duggan	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 13'54
77	Chad Haga	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 14'50
80	Mauro Santambrogio	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 15'09
81	Alex Howes	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 15'15
82	Taylor Tolleson	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 15'21
137	Shaquille Sinclair	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 45'36
138	Mark Griffith	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 48'42

Profiles



Startlist



Good

The best performance of the second week comes from Duggan. He went into the break on stage 11, the one that nearly made it to the end. The sprinters overtook him in the final kilometer, but he still finished 10th!



Mixed

The battle of the KoM turns out to be a fierce one. Haga is still one of the contenders, and despite numerous break attempts of his the jersey now belongs to Lövkvist.



Bad

I have given up on Tolleson a long time ago.

Results

Stage	Winner (Team)	Best Minion (Place, time)
8	Raúl Granjel Cabrera (Mobil)	Timothy Duggan (42nd, s.t.)
9	Thomas Lövkvist (Swedbank)	Fabio Montenegro (63th, + 11'08)
10	Thomas Lövkvist (Swedbank)	Chad Haga (43th, + 6'06)
11	Raúl Granjel Cabrera (Mobil)	Timothy Duggan (10th, s.t.)
12	Pedro Nicácio (Bonsucro)	Alex Howes (27th, + 2'39)
13	Raúl Granjel Cabrera (Mobil)	Taylor Tolleson (38th, s.t.)
14	Tyler Farrar (Azteca)	Mauro Santambrogio (96th, s.t.)

GC

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Thomas Lövkvist	Swedbank-PEAB	50h02'26
2	Winner Anacona	DeLaval - Kiitokori	+ 1'01
3	Natnael Berhane	Eritel - Sonatrach	+ 2'07
4	Igor Antón	ONCE-Eroski	+ 3'45
5	Jaroslav Popovych	Children of Chernobyl Foundation p/b Nemiroff	+ 3'58
56	Chad Haga	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 33'07
61	Fabio Montenegro	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 34'17
62	Alex Howes	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 35'14
63	Mauro Santambrogio	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 37'37
74	Taylor Tolleson	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 51'24
82	Timothy Duggan	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 55'04
135	Shaquille Sinclair	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 2h10'22
137	Mark Griffith	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 2h13'10

The team has three victories in total, one from last year and two from this year. None of them came from a foreigner, from a mountain stage or from a C1-level race.



Today, Fabio Montenegro wrote himself into the Minion history books by winning stage 16 in the big one, the Tour of America!

Since it seems to be the thing to do right now, the Minions can't resist revealing how well their talents have developped:

Mark Griffith (3.93 -> 4.00)

	FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
Old	64	56	55	74	60	68	62	50	52	57	66	63	74
New	66	57	56	76	62	70	64	50	52	57	68	63	76

That's it. Griffith will hopefully suck a little bit less next year.

Profiles



Startlist



Good

Fabio Montenegro went into the break on the mountainous 16th stage. Aside from scoring mountain points, he surprisingly won the stage and secured himself a contract renewal for next season.



Mixed

With both Haga and Montenegro up high in the KoM classification, we went in as many breaks as possible. We scored a lot of mountain points, and good stage classifications. Unfortunately the polka dot won't be ours, as they finished 4th and 5th.



Bad

Tolleson finished 18th on the final stage. Wait. that isn'r bad news. That's quite good actually. Now, if he could do that every stage from now on...

Results

Stage	Winner (Team)	Best Minion (Place, time)
15	Riccardo Zoidl (Sauber)	Mauro Santambrogio (35th, + 3'10)
16	Fabio Montenegro (Chiquita)	Fabio Montenegro (1st, 5h53'21)
17	Pedro Nicácio (Bonsucro)	Fabio Montenegro (3rd, + 40)
18	Martin Kohler (Vontobel)	Chad Haga (5th, s.t.)
19	Basilio Ramos Ticona (Bonsucro)	Chad Haga (3rd, + 31)
20	Peter Stetina (Africa)	Chad Haga (6th, + 1'05)
21	Geoffrey Soupe (Lululemon)	Taylor Tolleson (18th, s.t.)

GC

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Natnael Berhane	Eritel - Sonatrach	77h38'32
2	Thomas Lövkvist	Swedbank-PEAB	+ 23
3	Igor Antón	ONCE-Eroski	+ 1'59
4	Winner Anacona	DeLaval - Kiitokori	+ 3'02
5	Petar Panayotov	Lululemon/Bulgaria Blackfish	+ 5'23
44	Chad Haga	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 29'37
52	Fabio Montenegro	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 42'41
58	Alex Howes	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 48'50
67	Mauro Santambrogio	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 1h04'41
72	Taylor Tolleson	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 1h17'23
74	Timothy Duggan	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 1h19'07
131	Shaquille Sinclair	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 3h35'06
135	Mark Griffith	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 4h04'23

Profiles



Startlist



Good

Kinney appeared in the break on stage 1. Unfortunately, no result, but at least we showed our colours.



Mixed

It was a very strong field, so we didn't expect much of Kinney. He finished 26th on the final stage, which is not bad at all. Just not good enough for points.

Bad

We are a very successful team, but now others have realized this and are trying to copy us. For example, Gazelle has copied our jersey and place a gazelle instead of a Minion on it. They will be hearing from our lawyers soon.



Results

Stage	Winner (Team)	Best Minion (Place, time)
1	Michael Vink (Risa)	Nick Kinney (102nd, + 1'30)
2	Wilco Kelderman (Puma)	Nick Kinney (26th, + 2'01)

GC

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Wilco Kelderman	Team Puma - SAP	10h20'37
2	Hassen Ben Nasser	Team Kenya Airways	+ 8
3	Luis Leon Sanchez Gil	Evonik - ELKO	+ 12
4	Cesare Di Maggio	Team Vontobel	s.t.
5	Domenik Klemme	Grupo Nutresa	+ 20
55	Nick Kinney	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 2'21
95	Bjorn Selander	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 5'29
130	Tareq Esmaeli	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 6'30
157	Jakob Rathe	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 11'32
169	Sebastian Salas	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 16'07
171	Maxime Le Montagner	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 18'15
172	Simon-Pierre Gauthier	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
188	Mike Friedman	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 33'06

Profile



Startlist



Bad

No TV-time whatsoever for the Minions. This is unfair, and we demand a compensation from the organizers/broadcasters!

Bad

Duggan and Selander were our leaders here, but both finished outside the top-50. As always, Santambrogio saved the day by finishing 19th and scoring an astonishing 4 points.

Bad

We should've taken Kinney to here instead of Canada. Maybe he could've finished top 10, perhaps 5 here?

Results

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Jose Mendes	Severstal-Mercator	5h24'35
2	Marc De Maar	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	+ 11
3	Julien Simon	OTP Bank - Slovnaft	+ 24
4	Frantisek Rabon	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	s.t.
5	Andrey Zeits	Netia - Norske Skog	s.t.
19	Mauro Santambrogio	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 41
58	Bjorn Selander	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
71	Sebastian Salas	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
77	Tareq Esmaeli	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
79	Timothy Duggan	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
145	Jakob Rathe	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 3'52
170	John Murphy	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 7'34
172	Maxime Le Montagner	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.

Last month of the year. Will we survive the CT? Can we perhaps maybe luckily somehow promote? Will Bob eat a banana? After this month, we know the answers!

Colombian Venteaux



Yasmani Martinez
Fabio Montenegro
Mauro Santambrogio
Sebastian Salas
Alex Howes
Tareq Esmaeli
John Murphy
Shaquille Sinclair

Will be a waste of racedays. Startlist will be too strong, Martinez too weak to actually score a decent result. Home race for Montenegro, and yes it's in Colombia, not in Montenegro.

/// Ruta America del Sur



Yasmani Martinez
Chad Haga
Bjorn Selander
Fabio Montenegro
Sebastian Salas
Mark Griffith
Shaquille Sinclair
Simon-Pierre Gauthier

Last race of the season, so important that we made it our win goal. Martinez is here, but the mountains apparently not. Kinney is not here, the hills are here. Nope, we will not end our season on a high note.

Profile



Startlist



Good

Somehow Esmaeli was our best finisher. We have found a hidden climbing potential in him. He finished nearly 2 minutes ahead of Martinez, which means Tareq the Banana Lover should've been our mountains leader all season long instead of the Cuban.

Mixed

Santambrogio showed our colors in the break! Only wished he would be a better climber, or that we put someone else in the break



Bad

Martinez/Montenegro/Salas couldn't impress here, but the startlist was super strong though this was to be expected.

Results

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Beñat Intxausti	RBC Pro Cycling	3h33'05
2	José Rujano	Mobil - Aeropostal Ciclismo	s.t.
3	Janez Brajkovic	ONCE-Eroski	+ 25
4	Florentino Marquez	Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling	s.t.
5	Emanuele Sella	Siam Cement - Lenovo	s.t.
45	Tareq Esmaeli	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 7'34
46	Fabio Montenegro	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 7'43
54	Sebastian Salas	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 8'34
63	Alex Howes	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 9'10
66	Yasmani Martinez	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.
117	Mauro Santambrogio	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 15'45
162	Shaquille Sinclair	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 32'29
165	John Murphy	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	s.t.

Profiles



Startlist



Good

In our last race of the season, Haga was the shining star. Twice he went into the break, twice he scored a good result. First it was a seventh place on stage 4, and he improved to a second place on the final the stage. He finished 19th in the GC, one place ahead of Martinez, 5th in the points classification and third in the mountains classification.



Mixed

Before this race we were in a provisional 16th place in the rankings, leading by 19 points to OTP Bank. They have gained on us during this race, until Haga brought us back in the race. As it stands right now, we are 6 points ahead of them, but they still have one final race left. The Minions are holding on to their seats...

Bad

Due to a scheduling mistake, Kinney was not present here. Due to a lack of mountains, Martinez and Montenegro couldn't impress. The managament has apologized to everyone involved, and the Minion responsible for this mistake will be fired.



Results

Stage	Winner (Team)	Best Minion (Place, time)
1	Neofytos Sakellaridis (Elta)	Yasmani Martinez (14th, + 9)
2	Moreno Moser (Generali)	No times available
3	Gracjan Lejman (Fablok)	Yasmani Martinez (20th, + 1'15)
4	Richard Handley (Fred Whitton)	Chad Haga (7th, s.t.)
5	Jukka Vastaranta (DeLaval)	Chad Haga (17th, + 44)
6	Moreno Moser (Generali)	Yasmani Martinez (12th, s.t.)
7	Maximiliano Richeze (SanCor)	Yasmani Martinez (30th, s.t.)
8	Ethan Weiss (Gatorade)	Chad Haga (2nd, + 52)

GC

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Frantisek Rabon	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	29h08'46
2	Abdelkader Belmokhtar	Strava	+ 17
3	Ignacio Sarabia	DeLaval - Kiitokori	+ 19
4	Jukka Vastaranta	DeLaval - Kiitokori	+ 23
5	Bartlomiej Matysiak	Fablok - Dunlop	+ 28
19	Chad Haga	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 1'25
20	Yasmani Martinez	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 1'274
47	Bjorn Selander	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 3'38
58	Sebastian Salas	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 5'04
115	Fabio Montenegro	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 21'57
147	Simon-Pierre Gauthier	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 40'37
151	Shaquille Sinclair	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 43'00
163	Mark Griffith	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	+ 1h13'23

Our season is over, it's time to reflect upon the goals the sponsors set at the beginning of the season.

Cigar City Brewing Twilight GP

Top 5

Last year, Rathe finished third and achieved this very same goal. This year, he could not emulate that result. 32nd is not quite top 5.

Circulo de Juarez

Points jersey

I would've eaten every Minion-overall availaible if we achieved this one, but luckily for the Minions I didn't have to. Tolleson did sprint sometimes, but finished outside the top 15. It's so bad we don't even have the official placement.

CT Team Standings

Top 10

16th or 17th, depending on the final race of the season. Same story as last year, failed. However, we did improve upon our 24th place of last season. If the mathmatical trend continues, we should finish in the top 10 next season.

///

Ruta America del Sur

Win

Nope, Haga finished 19th. Race planner Norbert has been fired because of the failure to select Kinney for this important race.

USA Pro Cycling Challenge

Stage win

Haga won the stage 4 time trial. Mission accomplished.

We scored 20 percent, 1 out of 5. The same percentage as last year, but this time the goal had a bit higher profile. It would be nice if we could achieve 2 next season. And we should actually set goals our leaders can achieve. So no points jersey in Mexico next year!

The 2015 cycling season is over, finished, done. Where did we finish?

Team

1		Novatek-Panarmenian.net	1669
2		Strava	1652
3		Fablok - Dunlop	1591
4		Compal-Merida	1478
5		Indosat - ANZ	1453
6		DeLaval - Kiitokori	1440
7		Generali - Kronenbourg 1664	1250
8		In-n-Out Cycling Team Powered By Carrefour	1130
9		Netia - Norske Skog	1116
10		SanCor Cycling Team	1091
11		Alpina - Avianca	1053
12		Carlsberg - Danske Bank	998
13		Severstal-Mercator	950
14		Actavis - DKSH	931
15		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo Cycling Team	804
16		OTP Bank - Slovnaft	761
17		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	735
18		Gatorade - SIS	689
19		BelarusBank Pro Cycling	660
20		Verkefnid Iceland	656
21		Akzonobel - Statoil	604
22		Sodexo ProCycling	442
23		Elta - Hellenic Post	405
24		Fox Sports - Golomt Cycling	403
25		Fred Whitton Race Team	399
26		Team Type 1	299

Yup, we were overtaken by OTP Bank in the final race of the season. Nevertheless, 17th is an improvement from last year's 24th place. Next year 10th place?

Rider

1	Anthony Lavoine	FRA		Fablok - Dunlop	594
2	Maximiliano Richeze	ARG		Sancor Cycling Team	513
3	Frantisek Rabon	CZE		Novatek-Panarmenian.net	490
4	Marc De Maar	CUR		Carlsberg - Danske Bank	479
5	Aleksandr Serebriakov	RUS		Novatek-Panarmenian.net	436
34	Chad Haga	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	187
37	Yasmani Martinez	CUB		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	183
52	Nick Kinney	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	145
138	Mauro Santambrogio	ITA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	53
163	Timothy Duggan	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	40
173	Fabio Montenegro	COL		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	36
187	Carter Jones	USA		Fred Whitton Race Team	29
193	Bjorn Selander	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	26
220	Jakob Rathe	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	19
263	John Murphy	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	11
271	Taylor Tolleson	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	10
281	Maxime Le Montagner	FRA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	8
301	Mike Friedman	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	6
310	Alex Howes	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	5
331	Sebastian Salas	CAN		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	3
346	Shaquille Sinclair	JAM		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	2
367	Mark Griffith	USA		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	1

Haga once again is our best scorer, but Martinez is close behind. Last year, nearly every point came from Chad or Bjorn, but this year there is a bit more variation in points scoring. Santambrogio and Duggan, bought for a combined total of 350,000 bananas, scored less than 100 points. Loaned-out Jones performed better than most of the team. Tolleson's 10 points is unbearable. Griffith will hopefully score more than 1 point. Esmaeli and stagaire Gauthier scored no points.

We would like to express our congratulations to the winners of the team and riders standings in all the divisions, and wish all promoted team best of luck. We also express our commiserations to the relegated teams, and wish them the best of luck in going back up! And of course, we thank the organizers, helpers and reporters of the MGUCI for this great season!

We'll hopefully be back in 2016, depending on our reapplication. The goal will be simple: promote to PCT. A detailed overview of next year's plan as well as a in-depht review of the season will come at a later point.

A categorized top 3 overview of the season:

Victory of the year award:



Fabio Montenegro, stage 16 Tour of America

Honorable mentions: Nick Kinney, stage 6 Tour of Pologne; Chad Haga, stage 4 USA Pro Cycling Challenge

Rider of the year award:



Chad Haga

Honorable mentions: Nick Kinney; Yasmani Martinez

Race of the year award:



Tour of America

Honorable mentions: Tour de Slovenie; USA Pro Cycling Challenge

Keep it up! award:



Tareq Esmaeli's numerous break attempts

Honorable mentions: Chad Haga/Fabio Montenegro's hunt for the Tour of America King of the Mountains classification; Mauro Santambrogio the ad hoc sprinter

Most painfull moment of the year award:



Maxime Le Montagner's crash in the Benelux Challenge while leading the youth classification

Honorable mentions: Yasmani Martinez's crash in Scotland; Losing 16th place in the standings in the final race

Worst transfer move award:



Buying Mauro Santambrogio for 200k

Honorable mentions: Buying aged Timothy Duggan for 150k, letting Carter Jones go on an useless loan

Worst Minion of the year award:



Taylor Tolleson, who didn't sprint at all

Honorable mentions: Fredy Piamonte, the banana-hater; Norbert, the scheduler who made a costly error

Hottest Minion award:



Shaquille Sinclair

Honorable mentions: Shaquille Sinclair; Shaquille Sinclair

After the season, there's still some racing left. First the World Championships, and then finally the National Championships before we can dive into the transfer madness again. Three and a half Minions participated on the mountainous route in South Africa,

Shaquille Sinclair

Let's start with the half, since Sinclair will return to his former team after the Jamaican National Championship. He participated in the U-23 race, but could not mark an impression on a route that didn't suit him at all. He finished 115th, which is not last. Daan Olivier won.

Yasmani Martinez

The Cuban stage racer participated in the B World Championships as leader for Team Cuba. We had silent hopes of a top 10, but we knew this would be hard. However, we were disappointed by the fact that he was one of the first outsiders to be dropped 100 kilometers before the end. Martinez finished just inside the top 100, in 99th.

Sebastian Salas

Salas participated in the B race as well, for Team Canada. Their team leader was Boily, but he dropped minutes after Martinez did. Salas stayed with him to minimize the loss. He finished two places behind his leader, in 68th, 31 places ahead of Martinez. Lövkvist won the race.

Chad Haga

Haga was selected for two events, the Elite TTT and the Elite RR. In the TTT, the team was 5th at the first chrono, but dropped to 8th at the finish. In the RR, Haga did domestique work for Dombrowski, who rode a great race to finish 7th, 11 seconds behind winner Schleck. Haga went on to finish 106th.