We wouldn't stop at those four with plenty of bananas to splash around, would we? No, we signed two more riders from the free agent market. Here they are:

Jay Major



The first rider who won't join for 50 but for 55,000 bananas. This Bahaman young sprinter talent will get the necessary development at the Minions. Main tasks will include domestiquing and sprint train.

Kenny De Haes



You know we always brag about Rathe finishing third in the Cigar City Brewing Twillight GP two years ago, and achieved our only goal. Well, this guy won it. For 50,000 bananas we hope he can repeat that for us in the upcoming season.

Also, we will share the news that Mauro Santambrogio has left for fellow American team KAYAK - Clas Ohlson. We did receive 35,000 for him, and we wish him the best at his new team as long as he doesn't take away victories from us.

We made it no secret we wanted to sign a superstar sprinter. We already closed a deal with Avila but we wanted more. In fact, two of the very best are coming our way with the second one only hours away from signing (some administrative work), but we can already present the first one:

Carlos Alexandre Manarelli



We entered negotiations with Flores - Ceitec in order to sign him. He could leave the team and we wanted a sprinter. Win-win situation. We paid 300,000 bananas for his services and comes with a wage of just 50,000 bananas. For your information he finished 24th in the CT rankings in 2014. That's good.

The other news is that two riders will leave on a loan deal. Fan favourites Haga and Selander will ride in the colors of Movistar - US Postal this season in order to gain the necessary experience to improve further. We wish them best of luck and we hope they'll shine in our colors again next season.

After signing Avila from the free agency and Manarelli from Flores, our hunger for sprinters hasn't gone yet. So, we bought ourselves another one. And two other riders. Put your hands together for:

Damion Drapac



We entered negotiations with an unpronouncable Irish cycling team and got him for 500,000 bananas and a 60,000 wage. This Australian has proven to be fast in the past and will certainly become a threat in the flat stages this year.

Nervin Jiatz



On loan from Aeropostal Venezuela Ciclismo. The only reason we signed him is because he's Guatemalan. Not sure what his qualities and weaknesses are. In fact we haven't even looked at him before putting our signature under the loan deal.

Chris Barton



Signed only a few minutes ago, but we can present him already. Good in the time trials and mountains, and that for 50,000 bananas. Rode for Team Type 1 last year and showed good performances to deserve a ride for us this season.

Sometimes things go according to plan, and sometimes they don't. This transfer season has mainly goone quite well, but now some thing has gone bad. But first the good news, two more signings:

Leandro Marcos



The second Cuban after Martinez. This guy can go well over both cobbles and hills. At 65,000 bananas he's not the cheapest but not extremely expensive either.

Diego Milan



From the Dominican Republic, this puncheur comes a little overpriced at 70,000 bananas. Yet he should be decent enough to haul some points and support the leaders.

And now the bad news, we tried to sign Fabio Taborre. He was already on his way to our HQ and finalize the contract when he was pulled of his bike, taken into a van and tortured until he agreed to ride for our competitors New Balance. Though that deal has not been finalized yet we do not see the need to free him from the dark room they're holding him in, as most Minions are currently busy with other affairs. Please be aware that this action will not be without consequences, New Balance manager. Be afraid, be very afraid.

After losing out on Taboore in controversial circumstances, we looked elsewhere for a new puncheur to join up with Kinney. We came across this pole:

Gracjan Lejman



Rode for Fablok last year which has now turned into Arrinera. He is a free transfer and comes with a 60,000 bananas wage. He is strong in the hills and a great fighter, but not much else. He did win a stage in last year's Ruta America del Sur and is targeting his home race and our goal race, the Tour de Pologne.

Jones has left the team and joins his former teammate Santambrogio at KAYAK. He was unhappy since we couldn't give him a leading or a PT-contract.

By now the team looks like this. We're planning on adding one more rider, and that should normally be a climber.

Barring a loan for Rathe, we have finished our transfer season with our last rider. We wanted to sign another climber, and we found this guy:

Cayetano Sarmiento



Comes for 65,000 bananas after being released by Podium Ambition last year. This Colombian will be a valuable final addition to the climbers squad to support Martinez to reach our sponsor goals.

The squad is now full, expect a full presentation soon!

We did it! We assembled a squad to dominate the 2016 season. But well, we thought that every year and we finished 24th and 17th in the rankings. This year we aim at a top 10 (again) and might actually pull it off this season. Today we will present our squad with a comparison between the past two years and now:

Climbers/Stage racers



Our first season was saved by Haga and Montenegro in the Tour of America. Elsewhere they couldn't do much. Last year we got Martinez as team leader and scored some decent performances but no victory. For 2016 Montenegro has left the team and Haga is loaned out to PT. Martinez is still here and is now joined by Sarmiento and Barton.

Hills



The 2014 team was non-exsistant beyond Selander. The year after he was part of a strong hills trio with Duggan and Kinney. The latter has been retained and Selander is now in PT for the season. New signings for this year are Lejman and Milan, which means we have another puncheurs trio which should be capable of some great performances is every hilly race.

Sprints



The first sprinters couldn't survive a speed bump and were useless. Last year Tolleson wouldn't sprint and was useless. For this year we've taken no risk and signed not one, not two, but three capable sprinters in Drapac, Manarelli and Avila. Could we see our first sprint victory this year?

Cobbles



The first two year we couldn't handle them bar Rathe who even achieved our only goal in our debut season. This year we actually did something about that and signed De Haes as leader, Marcos for the hilly cobbles, Matthews for the flat cobbles and retained Rathe.

Time trials



Haga won two time trials but is not available this year. Griffith needs to step up his game after two seasons of development. And in case that doesn't work we signed Barton. As always we'll be riding the Monterrey TTT in hope for points.

Overall



As you can see our leaders always used to be climbers, stage racers or puncheurs. For this season we can see a sprinter amongst them. We have no doubt this is our strongest squad ever, though that's not difficult to achieve. What is difficult is achieving promotion, but we are very confident that we'll pull it off this season! Watch out for Sir Kevin's Yellow Army!

This year, three of our riders have the honor to ride in their nations colors. Tareq Esmaeli retained his double Qatari NC unopposed, and Yasmani Martinez won the time trial in Cuba. Our loanee Nervin Jiatz is the Guatemalan Champion in both the road race and the time trial. Our jersey designer Bikex has made the three special jerseys:

Martinez:



Jiatz:



Esmaeli:

The traditional season opener around Port Phillip Bay in Australia, these four criteriums are only available for riders from that area. Also, they are non-ranking event, not costing any racedays but not brining in any points

Team:

Damion Drapac

Now we happen to have signed one Australian during this transfer window and he was eigble for paticipation. Damion Drapac will ride in the colors of Drapac Professional Cycling (no coincidence) and is one of the main contenders as one of the fastest sprinters around.

Stage 1:

Flat criterium around Ritchie Boulevard in Geelong. Drapac was one of the favourites, and was up there when the sprint began. He showed his full capacity and delivered a win in his first race in the season. Even though it wasn't in our yellow-blue colors but in the red of Drapac Cycling, we count this as our first ever sprinting victory!



Stage 2:

Another flat criterium around Geelong, this time it's Eastern Park. This time Drapac was beaten by a random Chinese dude. His second place meant he kept the lead in the general classification.



Stage 3:

Off to Portarlington, and we knew Drapac wouldn't stand a chance here since it would be too hilly for him. A Malaysian guy won, Drapac nearly two minutes behind but still in the overall lead.

Stage 4:

The final, decisive criterium around Williamstown was again playing into Drapac's strengths. When the sprint began, he was badly positioned and in fear of losing the race on the final day. The same Chinese dude who won stage two won again, which meant Drapac had to finish fourth to win the title. In one final jump he passed Matthews for fourth placed and therefore managed to take the overall title!



Classification:

1	Damion Drapac	Drapac Cycling	22
2	Kenji Itami	Japan National Team	17
3	Libin Chen	Chinese National Team	16
4	Mohamed Harrif Salleh	Malaysian National Team	16
5	Michael Matthews	Compal - Merida	11

Rating:



Great race for us, shame it doesn't bring ranking points

Another pre-season non-ranking event, this time the Continental Championships in Doha, Qatar. We don't expect much from anywhere else than America, where we hope our new sprinters can challenge the best on the pancake flat course. The best riders from each continent qualify for the Intercontinental event.

Profiles:

TT:

RR:


Flat, flat, flat, flat, flat.

Team:

Edwin Avila (RR)
Jhonnatan De Leon (TT & RR)
Tareq Esmaeli (TT & RR)
Nervin Jiatz (RR)
Jay Major (RR)
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli[/b] (RR)
Leandro Marcos (RR)
Yasmani Martinez (TT & RR)
Darren Matthews (TT, RR & Intercontinental RR)
Diego Milan (TT & RR)

The benefits of having rider from smaller countries is that they'll participate anyway. Shockingly no USA's and no Drapac either, From this bunch we see chances for Martinez in the time trial and for Avila and Manarelli in the road race.

Asian TT:

Esmaeli finished 47th, nearly 8 minutes off winner Kwok. He wasn't last, as Darmonov was over a minute slower.

Asian RR:

The Qatari didn't show himself in his home country and rode to an anonymous 153rd place.

American TT:

Matthews was the first of our riders to get noticed when he set provisional third time, but that was still early on. Martinez would go into the hot seat for a short while before being send away again by Rosas. The Cuban would end up in 25th 4 and a half minutes back which is quite disappointing. Matthews 38th, De Leon 42nd, Milan 43rd.

American RR:

A total of 9 participants and title contenders. Unfortunately due to extreme wind conditions, most of our riders where dropped at the 5k mark (like Manarelli) or even way before that. Only Matthews managed to stay out front and put in a decent effort to finish eight and qualify for the Intercontinental Championships. Tolleson finished fifth which raises questions why he wasn't able to do such things for us. Manarelli 27th, Avila 33rd directly ahead of Martinez. Marcos 56th, Major 59th, De Leon 126th, Milan 130th and Jiatz 137th.

Intercontinental RR:

So Matthews qualified, but couldn't surprise us or the world. He finished 74th, 3'39 behind winner Degenkolb.

Rating:



Matthews is the only one who deserves a compliment.

And so it has finally begun, the 2016 cycling season kicks off in Cuba for the annual Clasico San Cristobal, the traditional opener for the CT season. Like last year, we'll be here again but hoping for a slightly better result.

Profile:



The route is hilly so the puncheurs will contend for the victory here. Climbing ability might be necessary as well.

Team:

Chris Barton
Nervin Jiatz
Nick Kinney
Gracjan Lejman
Jay Major
Leandro Marcos
Yasmani Martinez
Diego Milan

Martinez will once again go to his home race but we don't expect much. Kinney will be our leader after missing out last season, and is supported by new recruits Lejman, Milan and Marcos, who will be riding his home race as well. Barton, Jiatz and Major complete the squad. All three will also make their debuts

Race:

To be fair it wasn't a good race for us. Lejman was dropped early on and also Kinney couldn't follow the pace. Our best rider today was Milan in 20th, one place behind Santambrogio and 3 and a half minutes behind winner Hategeka. Taborre finished fifth which increases our anger towards New Balance.

Classification:

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	Gasore Hategeka	MOL - OMW Petrom	5h09'05
2	Tom Diggle	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	s.t.
3	Domenik Klemme	Kraftwerk Man Machine	s.t.
4	Gregory Hugentobler	Sauber Petronas Racing	s.t.
5	Fabio Taborre	New Balance	s.t.
20	Diego Milan	Chiquita - Universal	+ 3'28
39	Leandro Marcos	Chiquita - Universal	+ 4'19
54	Nick Kinney	Chiquita - Universal	+ 7'24
60	Yasmani Martinez	Chiquita - Universal	+ 8'25
68	Gracjan Lejman	Chiquita - Universal	+ 10'03
107	Chris Barton	Chiquita - Universal	+ 15'06
115	Nervin Jiatz	Chiquita - Universal	+ 17'01
125	Jay Major	Chiquita - Universal	+ 20'30

Rider rankings:

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Diego Milan	2

Rating:



It was Milan who salvaged two points to not make this a total disaster.

AFter releasing our C2HC races some time ago we can now also announce our definitive schedule for the season consisting of mostly C2HC and C2 races. Unlike last year we won't go to the Tour of America and instead focus on the lower level Tour of the Middle East.

Nation	Race	Division	Date
	January
	Bay Cycling Classic	Crit	1-4
	Continental Championships	CC	5-9
	Clasico San Cristoba	C2	10
	Great Ocean Road Classic	C2HC	31
	February
//	Benelux Challenge	C2HC	1-6
	Tour of the Middle East	C2	17-28
	Geraardsbergen-Bosberg	C2HC	21
	San Marino Hill Classic	C2HC	27
	March
	Tour of Southland	C2	10-17
	Tour of Bulgaria	C2HC	18-22
	Betonexpressz GP	C2	25
	April
	Busan GP	C2HC	1
	Philadelphia International Championship	C1	18
	May
	Barcelona Classic	C2HC	1
	Tour of Scotland	C2HC	18-22
	June
	Sachsen-Anhalt Classic	C2HC	2
	Circulo de Juarez	C2	4-8
	Lincoln GP	C2	6
	Post Danmark Rundt	C2HC	9-13
	Giro del Capo	C2	17-22
	Barbuda Birdmen Classic	C2	22
	Monterrey TTT	C1	29
	July
	Tour de Pologne	C2HC	2-8
	Volcan de Agua Classic	C2	19
	Tour de Slovenie	C2	25-29
	August
	USA Pro Cycling Challenge	C2HC	5-11
	Cigar City Brewing Twilight GP	C2	16
	Tour de l'Avenir	-23	21-30
	September
	Herald Sun Tour	C2	1-5
	Acropolis Cup	C2HC	3
	GP Yekaterinburg	C2HC	24
	October
	Tour du Faso	C2	4-6
///	Ruta America del Sur	C2HC	8-15
	World Championships	WC	24-30
	National Championships	NC	31

Italic = Goal race

The first C2HC event of the season Down Under. Last year we went here with mixed results, but our sprint train has improved so the results should also improve

Profile:



201 flat kilometers which should normally end in a mass sprint.

Team:

Kenny De Haes
Jhonnatan De Leon
Damion Drapac
Nervin Jiatz
Jay Major
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Darren Matthews
Jakob Rathe

We sent both our new lead sprinters here to start off with a bang: Drapac already won the Bay Crits and Manarelli will look to set his career with us on fire. Also full-race debuts for De Haes, De Leon and Matthews.

Race:

Jiatz tried to sneak into the break but couldn't find the right group and dropped back. Midrace, De Haes attacked in similar fashion to he who shall not be named last year. Also this attack failed, and Manarelli dropped in the progress, leaving Drapac and Matthews in the front group



The race ended in a reduced bunch sprint won by Connolly from Schuh. Drapac and Matthews finished just outside in the top ten in eleventh and twelfth, with De Haes in fifteenth.

Classification:

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time
1	William Connolly	Schuh powered by Wiggle	4h39'57
2	Albert Timmer	Isostar - Adriatic	s.t.
3	Ricki Nelson	Podium Ambition	s.t.
4	Geraint Thomas	Podium Ambition	s.t.
5	Giacomo Nizzolo	New Balance	s.t.
11	Damion Drapac	Chiquita - Universal	s.t.
12	Darren Matthews	Chiquita - Universal	s.t.
15	Kenny De Haes	Chiquita - Universal	s.t.
57	Carlos Alexandre Manarelli	Chiquita - Universal	+ 2'21
69	Jay Major	Chiquita - Universal	s.t.
73	Jakob Rathe	Chiquita - Universal	s.t.
101	Nervin Jiatz	Chiquita - Universal	+ 6'10
102	Jhonnatan De Leon	Chiquita - Universal	s.t.

Rider rankings:

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Damion Drapac	11
2	Darren Matthews	10
3	Kenny De Haes	7
4	Diego Milan	2

Rating:



Not bad at all but we expected more from the new sprinters.

One of the few riders who has been with us for the past three season is Tareq Esmaeli. He has won many Qatari National Championships in both TT and road race and has been present in a lot of breakaways. And he's a fan favourite because he's known as the 'Banana Lover', which is the reason for his free transfer two years ago from Metinvest.

However, we encountered some problems this year while doing the race planning. Since our team has gotten stronger and we need the points and develop talents as well, there's not much room left for riders of his caliber. As a result, he only participates in two races this year. First he'll ride in a race close to his home, the Tour of the Middle East since we have some decency in our hearts to let him ride there. Secondly he'll go to Circulo de Juarez due to a scheduling conflict as the Lincoln GP will be raced at the same time and we needed someone to fill the empty spot.

Of course, Tareq is not happy. He's considering his future with the team but for now has decided to race in both races and do the best he can to get back into the picture and secure a contract for next season. It would be sad to see the fan favourite leave this way. We don’t want to part company but for now it’s Esmaeli to decide about his future, and we hope he makes the right decision.