This is where you will find the news about the pride of Finnish Cycling:
Valio - DeLaval - the most Bovine team in the world!
...also the home of bad puns about cows/milk adn all things related.
We now head into our 4th season and 2nd in the PCT.
The focus of this season will be to consolidate our position in the PCT so we can continue to develop Finnish cycling.
To achieve that we will be looking to sign another leader to be less dependant on Il Toro.
Spoiler
Main Jersey
Finland RR: Roope Nurmi
Finland ITT: Samuel Halme
Italy RR: Ivano Lo Cicero
Iceland RR+ITT: Ingvar Omarsson
Turkey ITT: Gökhan Hasta
United Arab Emirates RR: Essa Khalifa
Our main sponsor Valio shot a commercial featuring the late great Lemmy a month ago. Now turned tribute: https://t.co/jPbFFUP5vA
Below a look back at the history of the team in chronological order.
It features a small summary of the season, rankings summary of the team profiles (any rider named Rider of the Month that season), roster overviews as well as links to more information.
Head-banner provides link to the relevant HQ's.
Enjoy!
2014: Less than entertaining (CT)
We came into existance with high hopes back by Live Nation, who wanted an entertaining team to suit their brand. It should be built of riders from smaller cycling nations with Finland and Sweden as home nations.
We quickly lost out on all our leadership targets, except Chris Anker Sørensen, and in stead we tried to built a teaam perfect for breakaways. We failed.
The team rarely managed to get someone in the break, and when they did the group was doomed. Since we didn't have any top-shelf leaders either the result was much less than impressive - and the entertainment value possibly even lower.
The lack of results and effort really took hard on everyone around the team and for a long time our veery existance was on the line.
If it hadn't been for the insisting effort of CAS and a late season shine from Sarabia it seems very likely that this could have been the last season for the team as well as the first.
After the terrible 2014 there was a lot of pressure, though very low expectations going into the 2015 season. However with a new set of sponsors we were deteermined on turning things around.
The foundation for this obviously needeed to be made in the transfer season, where we went hard an agresssively for the best Finnish rider aruond, Jukka Vastaranta, and managed to secure him for a very low fee thanks to everyone knowing that we would force his price tag far over his value if we had to.
That allowed us to sign a couple of other big names in Anacona and to some extent Samoilev, to bolster the top end of our squad.
And boy did that turn things around. Jukka got us a win early on to rally up the spirit and evn though both him aand Anacona underperformed in a lot of races they were able to score enough to take the pressure of everyone else.
Especially Chris Anker Sørensen ws a joy to see in his new role. Where he had been our stand-out leader in 2014 he was now in the role of the underdog, which seemed to suit him a lot better as he both outscored his 2014 and got his first win for us and ultimarely getting awarded the Bull of the Year after a vote among the fans.
Expctations going in to the season was relatively low, but we were confident that those we picked up in the transfer window as well as our domestic riders would step up to the task.
And boy did they get the biggest yield we could have hoped for. Our new signing Lo Cicero proved right from the start that we were right in putting our trust in him despite everyone else doubting him and Jukka Vastaranta took a brilliant win in Argentina as th highlight of what is expected to be his last season at his best.
Looking at the points table we have to admit that it looks like a one-man army, but a sprinter needs a strong support team and pretty much everyone in that department punched above their weight making it a magical season in many ways.
However the tendency of having a leader that couldn't be bothered continued. In the past it was our lead sprinter Westling and this season it was our lead climber Anacona, who went from 8th place in the CT rankings last year to 9th in the team rankings this season.
My favourite HQ - just always so much detail and narrative about the team. The team really did great last year, hope they will cement themselves further in the PCT. Love the NC jerseys, especially of UAE and Italy.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Well put together HQ and summary, and always love for the jersey. Not ashamed to say that Valio pleasantly surprised me last season as I expected them to potentially be dragged down towards the relegation bun-fight. Lo Cicero really had a stand out season leading from the front. With stalwarts Jukka, Chris and Matti all starting to age, looks like an active transfer season ahead for you. Hopefully with a good renewals and transfer process, hopefully you can keep the bandwagon mooo-ving forward .
Once again a lovely HQ and of course I'm gonna follow your season closely again. And perhaps I will have again the chance to win one of the loan rider awards
Shonak: Thanks. Really happy that you like the Italian NC. For me that was by far the most difficult to make as I swayed a bit from the completely traditional tri-colour, but I feel that it ended up in a good place with clear visibility and tradition combined with our signature design.
Scorchio: Thanks. I was (slightly) pleasantly surprised by Lo Cicero but had expected a bit more from Anacona than him clocking in as 9th best Valio-rider...
15th was a bit higher than expected, but I felt confident we would avoid relegation - now I just have to build the base a bit so actually I expect a transfer season very similar to previous years with focus being on adding one or two leaders where I'm weakest. Of the three you mention Jukka is the biggest headache, but in reality he only had one top -race last year, which was to b expected as I tested him in C1 races the year before.
knockout: Thanks. Looking at the pre-renewals roster a couple of riders would benefit from a year at PT level at least. Then only time can tell if I renewed with any of them
For a start 4 riders were let go without further talks. All of which are considering retiring all-together. Eisel got one season with us while three riders who first signed to Team Live Nation also sees an end to their adventure. Colex and Taciak have been valuable helpers over the years as have Sarabia, who have even shown the kind of spirit that would justify for a CT-team to pick him up and give him another year no the bike - he just doesn't have what we need to consolidate our position in PCT when we also need to slim down the squad a bit to allow everyone the amount of races they deserve.
Last season we had three stagiaires and after careful consideration only Höög was given a full-time contract putting Kanerva and Vainionpää on the market. Still we won't/can't rule out that they could get to wear the spots sometime again - if nothing else then for l'Avenir.
Much more dramatic was the situation around Matti Breschel. We were happy to sign him last year but as he was one of the last decent riders left on the market his wage went far beyond what he was worth and with him starting to lose his top level we were simply to far from each other to agree on a number despite extensive talks.
We hope that a CT-team will pick him up and he will get one or two seasons with some decent results on that level.
Having slimmed down the team quite a bit we have room both in the bus and the budget for another strong leader to take the pressure of Lo Cicero a bit.
Post Renewals Team and Availability
Key stats
OVL
Age
XP
Wage
Available?
Manninen
Spr78, Acc78
74.11
25
4.76
75k
No
Vastaranta
Hi75, Acc76
73.95
33
4.100
80k
No
Kulppi
Cbl76, Fla73
73.21
26
4.100
57k
No
Paajanen
Hi75, Mo71
72.82
28
4.100
50k
No
Pökälä
TT76, Prl76
72.61
27
4.100
50k
No
Lehtinen
Mo75, Hi73
72.24
24
4.100
50k
No
Henttala
Mo72, TT71
70.67
26
4.60
50k
No
Tiainen
Acc74, Spr73
70.11
28
4.100
50k
No
Kaislavuo
Fig73, Acc72
68.47
24
2.98
50k
No
Nurmi
Acc71, Fla69
68.35
24
3.06
50k
No
Halme
TT71, Fla71
68.19
26
4.60
50k
No
Aaltio
Fla75
65.95
29
4.08
55k
For Loan
Lo Cicero
Spr84, Prl75
76.67
29
4.100
400k
No
Lindau
Hi75, Fla71
72.40
26
4.100
50k
No
Höög
Acc72, Fla67
66.17
22
1.43
50k
Maybe
Vinther
Spr77, Acc74
72.95
30
4.100
50k
No
Sørensen
Mo75, Hi73
72.11
33
4.100
60k
Yes
Omarsson
Hi74. TT73
72.82
28
4.100
50k
No
Paillot
TT80, Prl80
75.74
26
4.100
145k
Maybe
Anacona
Mtn79, Hi74
75.46
29
4.100
130k
Yes
Samoilev
Mo75, Hi74
73.30
32
4.100
100k
Yes
Hasta
Mo76, Rec75
73.19
27
4.100
50k
No
Liepins
Spr76, Acc77
72.68
25
4.12
50k
For Loan
Khalifa
Hi70, Fla68
67.71
24
3.90
50k
Yes
Of these Anacona is likely the only one we will actively try to help get a new team. He did very well for us a leader on CT-level, but could be equally useful serving a strong leader.
The rest of the available riders can go or stay depending on a lot of things, but especially if the team in question can offer them an appealing role for the future.
We just wanted to put a quick remarks to the HC/PTHC races we have been allowed into.
In short we got the five bands we had placed highest on our lists, which means that we will be racing a lot on Scandinavia and kicking the season off with the same race as last year: Down Under Classic, which was also Lo Ciceros first win for the team.
We will have a good few cobbled races for Kulppi to show what he have learned during his two years with Evonik-ELKO riding alongside masters such as Boonen and Van Avermaet.
Also there seems to be both hills and mountains in some of these races, whiv´ch could be a problem with our current roster...
We went in to the transfer season with one main goal: Signing a leader for hilly races, so of course we were quite happy when the deal seeing Cyril Gautier joining us. Gautier will be key in our wish to do well in the Scandinavian races that are too bumpy for Lo Cicero.
Our main shortlist only really featured one talent. Joni Kanerva. Joni is still young and has a lot of development to do but has some real talent (6) and the potential to be the best Finnish puncher ever. Amazingly enough we were able to sign him on minimum wage!
It's also time to say goodbye. Chris Anker Sørensen, The Ox from Hammel have been with us since the very start. In fact he was the very first signing made by Team Live Nation back in the day (and as it turned out also the by far best). Two years in a row he was voted rider of the year, but last season he struggled and with age pressing in he declared a wish to lend his service and experience to young countrymen. So we allowed him to transfer to Carlsberg - Danske Bank for a fee of 100k. We wish The Ox our very best - he will always have a special place in our barn.
Winner Anacona was instrumental in our promotion to PCT, but last season we fell out and our mountains squad never got working. In mutual agreement Winner will be returning to CT hoping to redeem himself and live up to his name while riding for the newly formed Team Reddit for a feee of 360k.
That is it for now and is even expected to be the main deals for us this year, but then again we're not ruling anything out just yet and we hope to be able to send on or two riders on loan to a PT team.
Likewise we wish all the best to Argentinian Dairy Cycling!
It will be a pleasure to park our milk truck next to yours and have an intercowtinental cream feast.
Finns Everywhere!
Yesterday our friends at Team Reddit stated that they were in dire need of riders in general. As we have already sold them Winner Anacona we took notice as we want him to do well back on the level he belongs.
At the same time we were approached by Jesse Kaislavuo, who were a bit disappointed about the provisional race program we had presented him with as it didn't feature as many race days as he would have liked.
One thing led to another and now he will get at least 60 days of racing in CT with Team Reddit. A good deal for everyone!
We were also starting to worry that this could be the first season in ManGame history to not have a Finnish rider in the highest division. Obviously that would be sad for us seeing how much Finnish cycling in general have developed over the last few year.
Luckily an opportunity arose and we quickly came to an agreement that will see Risto Aaltio putting his massive engine on the flat to good use in the service of John Degenkolb at Iberia - Team Degenkolb. The deal ensures that Risto will max out before he turns 30.
Congrats in signing Joni Kanerva, I was looking at him a few times and maybe try to sign him,, but could not do that to you
I guess you would have fought so hard for him that I would have to give up anyway...
.
Hope we'll meet somewhere this season, shouldn't be impossible 
