Nicholas Roche is currently racing the prestigious HC event that is Tour of Eritrea and after a weak performance on the Mountain stage with all helpers crashing when it counted. After this there were 5 minutes up to Amador in the GC spot. A master knows his boundaries and when used correctly he can do anything.
Nicholas was set behind all the GC men halfway through the stage and was almost out of GC contention for good. He came back to the front, only to go to the front of the group and launch an deadly attack
Along side Georg Preidler this was the chance for us to take our first stage victory. Nicholas had come from behind and beyond the climbing ability of a top notch lineup and into the front of the race to go for a first win in the Arrinera shirt
And what do you know he was the strongest of the lot today and clearly had an magnificent day in the saddle. Nicolas Roche is truly capable of knowing his limits and this will leave to showcase an magnificent performance here in Eritrea. Tomorrow we will take a look on our attempt to take another stage victory on the last flat stage of the race.
January and February gave us a 3rd Overall in the 1st Rankings Update of our virgin season here in the PCT and everything has panned out it seems, except for the fact that we leave the key month of our season without a GC. We're happy to take Podiums, but after 3 GC's last season and a stronger team, you'd expect greater things to happen.
Chris Froome have started best of all, with him being the best scoring rider in the season far, however with 16/37 RD's used already and a 23 PpRD it is about expected, but could be a lot better. Nicolas Roche came in 8th in the Rankings with 14/37 RD's spend and a 16,21 PpRD it has been quite good, considering the opposition he has met in his races. Anthony Lavoine leaves off with a stage win, but won't get near the 9 stage wins from last season for sure.
March Preview
02-mar
GP Herning
2
C1
07-mar
Kandy Classic
2
HC
12-mar
Bayern Rundfahrt
5
C1
18-mar
Gent-Wevelgem
2
C1
27-mar
Corsica International
3
HC
29-mar
Ringerike GP
2
C1
GP Herning
The team travels to the north and to the city of Herning, a city in ever transformation to become a pure sports town, one of those chains are this race! The flat terrain of Denmark fits Nikolas Maes more than any other cobble route and with our idea of getting bonus points on each terrain must hold, we want to see a Top 10 here coming from the Belgian rider.
Nat.
Rider
Role
MAES, Nikolas
Leader
LEBRIS, Cedric
Lieutenant
BIALOBLOCKI, Marcin
Lieutenant
COHEN, Noam
Helper
MARGALIOT, Ran
Helper
SAGIV, Guy
Helper
NAREKLISHVILI, Giorgi
Helper
STIMULAK, Klemen
Helper
Kandy Classic
We don't really have any expectations of this race and will leave Berard in charge of making his best effort. We will look to join the break and perhaps take the victory from there. It is an HC event and forced for us to participate in, but we might as well take advantage of every single chance we get here.
Nat.
Rider
Role
BERARD, Julien
Leader
FEILLU, Brice
Lieutenant
SHAPIRA, Idan
Lieutenant
ELIAD, Daniel
Helper
OWSIAN, Lukasz
Helper
SAGAN, Juraj
Helper
STIMULAK, Klemen
Helper
LEBRIS, Cedric
Helper
Bayern Rundfahrt
Race Planning can be tricky and the riders you ideally want in a race might be busy somewhere else or have other forced priorities around the whole MG Calendar. This is the only race we don't expect much from Chris Froome and he will have to hope for a easier lineup and go bananas on the hilly stage. We do have both Sprinters and Time Trialists here too and will hope to get at least 1 or 2 stage wins away from this race.
Nat.
Rider
Role
FROOME, Chris
Leader
MATYSIAK, Bartlomiej
Lieutenant
ZIELINSKI, Kamil
Lieutenant
LAVOINE, Anthony
Sprinter
COHEN, Noam
Leadout
BIALOBLOCKI, Marcin
Helper
BODNAR, Maciej
Helper
MAES, Nikolas
Helper
Gent - Wevelgem
Another chance of Nikolas Maes to gain some useful points and a Top 10 here is hoped for, he certainly had the chance to scout the field when going to Denmark earlier in the month. It is a hard race to win and with Summerhill here, all you can hope for is 2nd place, which will be more than welcome.
Nat.
Rider
Role
MAES, Nikolas
Leader
LEBRIS, Cedric
Lieutenant
ELIAD, Daniel
Helper
MARGALIOT, Ran
Helper
SHAPIRA, Idan
Helper
SAGIV, Guy
Helper
NAREKLISHVILI, Giorgi
Helper
STIMULAK, Klemen
Helper
Corsica - International
Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but with a Win goal here based on our Transfer Targets, which went really downhill I might say. So we come here with Berard in the hope of him showing what he did in East Java, a very similar race in which he won. Anthony Lavoine is here to take the sprint and Bialoblocki here to take the TT. Stage wins it is!
Nat.
Rider
Role
BERARD, Julien
Leader
FEILLU, Brice
Lieutenant
LAVOINE, Anthony
Sprinter
MATYSIAK, Bartlomiej
Leadout
BIALOBLOCKI, Marcin
Time Trial
BODNAR, Maciej
Time Trial
PSZCZOLARSKI, Wojciech
Helper
STIMULAK, Klemen
Helper
Ringerike GP
We round off March with a hilly classic and famously it seems to be a lottery among the best. Once again because of Race priorities we have Nicolas Roche in this race leading us. In stage races with hilly stages they are destined for him, so hopefully he can transfer that to here. Our scoring chances aren't that high like last month, but we promise we will do our best!
Nat.
Rider
Role
ROCHE, Nicolas
Leader
ZIELINSKI,Kamil
Lieutenant
OWSIAN, Lukasz
Lieutenant
MARGALIOT, Ran
Helper
ELIAD, Daniel
Helper
SHAPIRA, Idan
Helper
LEBRIS, Cedric
Helper
NAREKLISHVILI, Giorgi
Helper
This Update is Sponsored by : Arrinera
The Arrinera Hussarya is the first supercar to be produced by Polish automotive manufacturer Arrinera Automotive. It is Poland's first supercar. It is named after Poland's Hussar cavalry. English car designer and engineer Lee Noble was responsible for the design and production of the chassis in addition to being a member of the supervisory board and a shareholder. On 18 July 2012, it was announced that Arrinera would produce 33 units of a special "Series 33" version of the Hussarya, with exclusive designs on the exterior and the interior. Production was delayed but is expected to arrive in 2016. Production was postponed several times during last few years.
Arrinera Automotive S.A., is a Polish supercar manufacturer based in Warsaw. The company developed from an initiative in 2008 including Lee Noble, and as of late 2011, a prototype version of the Arrinera supercar has been produced.
Debuting in the international market with the Hussarya racing car, built to FIA GT spec. Our car was displayed publicly for the first time in early 2016 at the Autosport International Racing Car Show in Birmingham, and now is ready to race.
Being a relatively new Company on the market and is currently getting larger by the day. They have decided to implement their influence in sports to start donating money early on in our teams progress throughout the 2015 season. Where we've used those to expand our own influence, now they are on the cover of our jerseys and we will both look to expand our influence even more over the coming years!
Fantastic preview & review! Lots of effort but amazing outcome.
Good luck for you in march. I'm glad that I won't have to meet you too often this year, still I'll try to bring you some pain in Herning for sure despite you being the guy with much more chances of course.
Dont worry, you're not alone on choosing goals who turns out to be impossible
Interesting to see Froome at Bayern! Did not see that one comming at all, but that makes us two in wanting a selective hilly stage there, seems like Froome and Costa are gonna become great friends throughout the season
@dev : Damn Costa is there >.> Oh well it was either sending Froome to Bayern or miss out on 5 RD's and some other stuff, so I'll gladly settle for 2nd again
Just a little update on our Palmares of the season, we have completed 2 goals and failed 1 goal with Scandinavian Road Race being the next goal! So all-in-all a solid performance in that aspect. The goal is still to remain in the Top 10 to the end of the season. Roche/Froome have used 49/75 of their RD's. Another goal is also to get a GC win, where most notably our best winning chances are with Roche in Tour of Beijing and Froome with Tour of Britain
@sgdannyMG wins yet another 2x stage win in a row and still hunts to break the 3x stage win curse, that has lived with us since our creation pic.twitter.com/EQwienFZEt
Join us in the Tour of Britain where FROOME, Chris is hunting our 5th GC victory of our almost 2 year long existence and what will be the greatest GC victory for us. We will lose the GC in the Time Trial, but plan is to retake the lead once again in the final hilly climbs of the race. Let's make this an memorable race!
@FroomeChrisMG and @TheLavoine with their two respective wins on the two first day of the Race
We're proud to announce that Fablok is back as main sponsor for the team, after a season as secondary sponsor due to financial problems. Arrinera leaves the organization completely, as they ironically and sadly has run into financial problems too. Fablok was main sponsor last season and will come back for good in a 2 year deal with Bank BGZ to co-sponsor the team. Bank BGZ is our main source of money and as such, they have requested to be more prominent on next years jersey.
That is our second announcement as well, as the team is currently custom designing next seasons kit and as always, our goal is to maintain a simplistic design with a color to remember! Yes our green suit (no, not the one from Green Lantern) will be back into play and that is all that matters! The team will also continue harvesting Polish & Israeli players in the near future. Over the next days we will finally get a name for our final sponsors, where several Israeli sponsors, have shown interest in sponsoring the team.
Next update will be with the preliminary shirt for next season, which will feature the current sponsors currently set in stone for next season.
The Polish NC Pawel Poljanski will soon return from his PT loan to Evonik - ELKO and have participated in 2 GT's this season. In terms of results it hasn't been a success for the NC, however after two seasons away from the team, we will finally see him ride in our colors this season. Currently the plan is to have him be our leader in Mountain stage races, where he hopefully can compete for some Top 10's. This will only be possible, if we start a hard training schedule, where he can improve further, so a hard off-season awaits this gentleman.
Grzegorz Stepniak
lvl
XP
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Cb
Sp
Ac
Fi
Dh
Prl
4
0
70
57
67
64
68
69
74
66
77
77
63
68
73
4
100
72
57
67
64
70
71
75
67
79
79
63
68
73
Grzegorz Stepniak will soon return from one of the biggest team in the MG; Team I-Gen - Festina. Their sprinting train has been joined by our very own sprinter, but it hasn't been a season worth celebrating for. The sprinting train at the PT winner has been low in terms of performance, however we are happy to have Grzegorz back in the fold. Here he, Cohen and Lavoine will hopefully be joined by a strong sprinter, who is planned to arrive in the transfer season. CT was won with our sprinting train and it is well about time, we will see that return
Idan Shapira
lvl
XP
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Cb
Sp
Ac
Fi
Dh
Prl
4
89
67
74
70
63
67
71
74
54
56
75
75
62
63
4
100
67
76
72
63
68
72
76
54
56
77
77
62
63
Idan Shapira has been a solid helper at the team this season, mostly for Nicholas Roche this season. Now he has reached full potential and will hopefully be more a threat in the big races next season. Idan is now also the strongest climber in Israel and will be a great rolemodel, for both the guys at the team and the undiscovered Israeli cycling talents.
Klemen Stimulak
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XP
Fl
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Hi
TT
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Rc
Cb
Sp
Ac
Fi
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3
65
69
59
64
73
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66
57
70
73
64
61
62
4
11
71
59
65
75
70
70
68
57
72
74
64
61
64
Klemen Stimulak's future at the team will depend on whether he is strong enough to be loaned out to the PT for next season. If he does, then the team will have a good helper at the flat and a strong TTT member in the future. Klemen has been a good helper for the team this season, but the sprinting results of this year, cannot be put on Klemen's shoulders alone, so we have been happy to have him here, if loaning him out fails.
Giorgi Nareklishvilli
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2
0
68
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72
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67
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67
72
58
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3
29
70
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74
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71
Giorgi was a late addition in last years transfer period and now he has been one of the rider with the most RD's this season. Hope is that he can continue being a work horse in our races, so he can improve his skills further for the future. We're really looking forward to next season, where the team has set the wished perimeters for our squad next season
You're setting up a nice amount of talents here! Especially Giorgi looks like a steel. Your two polish guys will be very helpful in PCT, Poljanski with his attacking style and Stepniak as the legitimite regen of Lavoine and could be an insane leadout.
Klemen is a rider we, as a Slovenian based team, of course have to follow closely.
It is time for our season preview and @ChrisFroome was our main scorer as predicted in our pre-season analysis. In the very last month of the season, after a long season, Froome could celebrate winning both Milano-Torino and Japan Cup to finish off the season with wins. He came close in San Luis and in his home country Britain. but was unable to beat highest scoring rider; Kinoshita. Chris Froome has delivered this season and will surely be seen on our team next year.
Nicholas Roche has had one of the most continuous seasons in the whole PCT and sadly only got down to 15th place. Not everything panned his way, but at least he could take home the win in Nelspruit Classic. Perhaps his final win of his career, but nonetheless we will celebrate this Irishman tonight. Fun Fact: Out of his 37 RD's Roche has not finished outside the Top 7 this season in any race he has participated in.
Spoiler
1st in Nelspruit Classic
2nd in Tour de San Luis
3rd in Tour of South Africa
3rd in Tour de Romandie
4th in Volta a Catalunya
4th in Gisborne GP
5th in Ringerike GP
6th in Tour de Beijing
7th in Tour of Eritrea
Goals
Goal
Race
Cat
Result
Win
Corsica International
HC
Failed
Top 5
Tour Down Under
C1
Complete
Top 5
Volta a Catalunya
HC
Complete
Win
Scandinavian Road Race
C1
Failed
Top 10
PCT Standings
-
Failed
We had the task to predict what type of riders we would be able to complete goals against and as you will know, we failed to get 2 of the targeted riders for these tasks. Top 10 in the PCT looked possible from the get-go, but with only 2 real point scorers, that was getting tough to complete in the end. Overall some goals were failed from the start, so having 2 completed goals is enough to satisfy our needs. The roster won't get changed much next season, so a 5/5 target might be possible there!
Enjoy a small slideshow here of our outlook for the next season. A few minor sponsors are still left to be found. The team will be Polish as main nationality as we always have. Secondary nationalities will be Israel and Ireland and goal there is to grow Israeli players and also get a B-World Championship spot for them next season.
The shirt will be released when a new HQ is made for next season, until then all activity we need to finish up is Palmares of the 2016 season. See you on the other side!
knockout wrote:
That shirt looks so 2015 - a bit more black, a bit less white but you should be recognizable with that shirt !
Well then there you go, that was the pure intention of the change. Idea is to create a look that is simple, stands out and conveys our presence on/off the road
Shirt preview is ready for display. In other news Anthony Lavoine is rumored to leave the team for CT leadership! Any validation?Stay tuned pic.twitter.com/jnu4X6LVau
Before the team will venture into the World Championships and into the National Championships, where 2 titles should be within grasps. Before that, we have some time to continue our shirt promotion with an announcement, that the final sponsor deals are almost in place for our new kit for next season. There are currently chatter, that the checkered flag will venture into the Salomon Group design. "We are still in negotiations with several interesting sponsors, that will add a new flavor to our daily work. However many sponsors have strict clauses to follow and that makes it hard to work with"
Our manager also had time to reveal, that the latest rumors of Anthony Lavoine leaving the team is a possibility, but not fact (as described in the media). The medias various sources does add up, that Lavoine has had it hard to accept possibly getting downgraded into a leadout role next season. "Anthony is a trademark for our very foundation and he will always be the one, that gave us our very first General Classification. To that end we are grateful, but if the right bid arrives at our doorstep, then we might consider for what it is; a chance for Anthony to go down and win GC's once more!"
To finish off before the World and National Championship, we will now present our 2016 Palmares, where we managed to finish 12th in our first season out of 30 teams. As you can see in the spoiler; We have been a two-man team this year and this will place us in peril, if one of these can't manage to perform. The team therefore goes into the off-season with new plans for the team and new plans will happen!
Pawel Poljanski might finally be able to shine some light on our future this upcoming season, however those big Polish name we so desire, will be near impossible to add to our roster. Therefore it should be our legacy to introduce the very best into the sport in the next years and the goal is to have Polish riders do just that. 1 in the Top 5 most scoring is not what we signed up for, so it should be the teams No. 1 Target to get a Polish point scorer. We are looking to expand our sprinter stable with Stepniak and perhaps even a top class sprinter to join, so the plans are many, but the options few.
Overall I am pleased with this season and if this is the way to get a 12th place, then this will add to our experience and continue to build this team, while using veterans like Froome and Roche to transform into that. We were build on the success of a sprinter and perhaps that, will be the way to go this way around next season in the PCT. Losing; is not an option!
Tour of Eritrea 1/3 | The Comeback King
