25 riders, the biggest squad we ever had and the biggest payroll we ever have to pay. We could give you a detailed comparison to last seasons but (a we already did that in the transfer overview and (b the team has obviously improved in every specialisation due to the promotion. So this year we will do it a bit differently, we will present our squad spread over seven groups, and give our expert opinions on them.
Climbers/Stage racers
Our biggest signing of the season came in the form of Rigoberto Úran, who doesn't get paid 600000 bananas without any previous results of course. He will be our team leader for the mountain races, preferbably with time trial. Jarlinson Pantano Gómez comes over for a transfer record of 500000 bananas to become his first lieutenant and leader in the other mountain racers his leader can't perform in. Yasmani Martinez was given the option to leave but he stays on to work as climbing domestique and useful TTT entity. Cayetano Sarmiento is good at mountain stages but not much else, which means he won't ride much else.
Time trialists:
Chad Haga spend last season on loan at Movistar and now comes back to be our second best time trialist after Úran, but he has other preferences. His general climbing ability means he'll most likely be participating in races where climbing is involved. Chris Barton received some interest during the winter but we're happy to have him on board for another season, especially since Griffith is no longer part of the squad.
Puncheurs:
Our second star signing comes in the form of Carlos Betancourt, who we also spend 1.2 million bananas on training to get him fit for the season. Bjorn Selander also returns from a loan to become his most trusted lieutenant. Nick Kinney and Diego Milan stay on from last year and have accepted a reduced role, knowing they're not getting any younger and that their best years are behind them.
Sprinters:
You might notice there are no changes compared to last year. That's right. We are confident enough to keep our sprint train from last season intact. Or we didn't have additional funds to make micro-optimalisations to this department. Damion Drapac and Carlos Alexandre Manarelli will, like last season, split the flat stages, which means we will have a capable sprinter in every flat stage of the calendar. Edwin Avila is first leadout and can go for his own chances when the terrain is a bit more difficult.
Talents:
After Haga and Selander completed their development this season, we noticed a bit of a lack of talents behind them. We signed Shaquille Sinclair back to our team after he spend a season on loan to us, to continue and hopefully finish his development. Salah Eddine Mraouni is someone we signed on loan this year from the World Cycling Centre, and we're getting paid a heafty sum to give him experience. Jay Major has started his development program with us last year and the results are satisfactory enough to continue for at least another season.
The rest:
Not meant in a bad way, but these are the riders we can't really categorise in the above specialisations. Ethan Weiss is known as an attacking beast in hilly stages but he kinda disappointed last season. But we give him another chance this year to change that. Tareq Esmaeli is the lord and savior of the team and he obviously deserves a spot here forever. Goodnews Clifford was not just signed for his name or nationality, but for his attacking spirit. Ahmed Albourdainy is a friend of Esmaeli and his previous experiences in the pro peleton was reason enough to get him on board as well.
So, there you have it. Minions 2017 PCT. We're confident enough that this team will at least survive, which is our bare minimum goal for the season. But of course we want more, we aim for more. We always will. We're invincible!
We have a record number of national champions in our squad for this season. We had to creat a total of six special jerseys, which will be worn by seven different riders because we have both champions from Cuba. There are four double champions, two TT champions and one RR champion. The design was leaked early because Disney hacked us, so don't act surprised by the creations please.
Bahamas, for Jay Major (RR/TT):
Cuba, for Leandro Marcos (RR) and Yasmani Martinez (TT):
We can always rely on the Minions to bring a smile to our face, and with the new national champions jersey presentation, we are not disappointed. . Look forward to seeing the dungarees out at the races. With a number of ex- World Cycling Centre riders onboard, and a triumvarite of Colombian leaders, WCC will be paying close attention to how the Minions cope after their promotion to the PCT. All of Colombian cycling is delighted to see the progress than Betancourt has made over the winter window now that he has finally started paying some attention to his diet (!).
The one question mark for me with the Minions progression is the reliance on the same sprint leaders, who may well find life a lot tougher up one division. Other than that, Minions look like they have adapted well for the new season ahead, and with decent race planning and a light sprinkling of good fortune should steer well clear of the relegation zone. A final word for our Morrocan TT champion Mraouni spending the season on loan from WCC with the Minions; try not to succumb to the madness! .
@Vien - Thanks. Definitely. My. Best. Jerseys. EVER!!!! Scorchio - Always nice to read from you! I wish you all the best in developping more riders who might end up here as well. Betancourt has been responding well from his diet but we always have to watch for a relapse. I know my sprinters will not be as good as last year but I sacrificed that discipline to get extra improvements on the others, since I still think they'll get top tens now and then. And Mraouni will feel at home here @Tamijo - Thanks, good luck to you too
Obviously our home race has to be here. Unlike last year, where we failed at our home mountain race somewhere in Central America, there are less consequences connected to this race, but we still want to win it nevertheless. Our man: Rigoberto Úran
Tour of Vancouver
Top 10
A combination of mountain stages, which seem to be up the same mountain each time, and time trials, including a mountain time trial up that same mountain. Rigoberto Úran is one of the favourites for the race and should have no trouble finishing inside the top ten. This is a safe bet.
Dutch Food Valley Classic
Top 10
Despite not having the strongest sprinter squad we set a goal for a flat classic. Mainly because it contains the word Food in the title, and we know the Minions go bananas when they hear the word food. And our main writer lives in the start and finish town, so he basically begged us to set a goal here. Damion Drapac will be our leader, and no Manarelli to join him because he will be on the other side of the planet in a simultanious race.
Deutschland Tour
Top 5
This is a race from the PTHC category, which means we will see tougher competition for Rigoberto Úran. Also the goal is much harder, a top 5. We can accept failing this one while still getting a good points haul from it. Goals are overrated, we just want to dominate every race.
PCT Team Standings
Top 10
Because the big bosses mandated we set a goal for the PCT Standings, we decided to go for a familiar number, 10. We set this goal for the past three years in the CT division, and only achieved it last year when we also achieved promotion. We don't want to wait that long in this division though!
After a season away from the core organisation of the team, Dave the Minion finds himself back in a important position. We sat down with him for a in-depth interview.
Hi Dave, welcome back. What is your current position within the team?
Thanks for having me. I am the president of Minions Cycling Incorporated, which means I'm responsible for the daily activities of the team. The Sheikh has put me in this position because he doesn't know much about cycling, all he wants is for his son to be employed. So basically I'm the connecting element between the team and the Sheikh.
In the year you went away, the team finally managed to promote under Sir Kevin's management. How will the two of you work together this year?
First of all I think Sir Kevin has done a great job last year by managing to finally promote this squad to PCT. I have no intention of getting in his way this season, even though I'm technically his boss now. Last year he ran the team both on and off the bike, but for this year we thought that would be too much. Sir Kevin is the general manager and has control over the things on the bike. I take care of the other business and talk to the Sheikh.
Looking back at the transfer season, which signing do you think will have the most impact on the team?
Definitely Rigoberto (Úran, red.). He is a great climber and time trialist, and a true gentleman on and off the bike. I'm honored to work with him, even though I'm not entirely comfortable with his wage, because in the end I have to tell the Sheikh we're paying him 600,000 bananas. But I think he's worth it.
Is there anything you would've done differently?
In hindsight we should've paid more attention to our sprint train. There has been no improvement in that department over last year, and I think it's going to hurt us a bit. Nevertheless, I have full confidence in Damion and Carlos Alexandre (Drapac and Manarelli, red.), as I think they'll score valuable points for us this season.
Darren Matthews has left the team during the transfer season, but then he made some harmful comments regarding his time here. Do you want to comment on those?
I don't know what he said exactly, maybe the press took it out of context, but from what I know it's best not to comment to avoid further escalation. Darren was a great rider for us last season, but now he's in a rival team and we have to live with that.
The team has not asked for a Pro Tour wildcard. Why?
Budgetary reasons. There was no money left for us to apply to a meaningful wildcard, which would be either a Grand Tour or the Tour of Qatar. We don't really care about the other Pro Tour races at the moment, we focus exclusively on the PCT campaign.
The team also won't participate in the Tour of America or the Tour of California despite its American history. But then the team does participate in the Philadelphia International Championship if I'm correct. Why?
The United States Customs still want to see us in prison, so we thought it would be best to avoid unnecessary risks. Unfortunately, we were forced to race in Philadelphia by some ridiculous rule. The race conflicts with our goal race in the Netherlands, Dutch Food Valley Classic, so we won't send a strong squad to America. Mostly young riders and riders we know won't suddenly desert.
A press officer has said that he will host a television show in his underwear if the team manages to finish ninth. What's your reaction to this?
That guy's crazy, we know. Didn't he also say he would do it naked if we managed to promote? Regardless, we hope to achieve the best possible result but we'll talk to him to see if he can retract his statement.
Realistically, where do you think the team will finish?
Officially we have set ourselves the goal to finish in the top 10, but this was done before the transfer season. We would be happy if we manage to steer away from the relegation zone, which is 20th or higher. I think we can call our seasons successful if we finish 15th. That way we can continue to improve the team and that guy doesn't have to humiliate himself in front of the entire world.
Where do you see the team in five years?
As ProTour champions of course, haha. No, seriously, we're not looking to that yet. First we need to survive PCT, then we need to make the team better to achieve promotion to PT, and then we have to make our team stay in PT, and only then we can think about claiming the title. We don't if this is 3 years, 5 years or 100 years away.
The season is at the verge of beginning. Some riders participate in the annual season opener, the Continental Championships, on which we will report later.
As per tradition, some people with glass bolls and a sixth sense try to predict the final standings of the competition and usually fail. We want to give you a quick overview of where these so called geniuses think we will finish, so we can look back at this at the end of the season and show how wrong they were about our finishing position. They are ordered from worst to best.
I think that based on mean median and mode we will finish around 11th/12th place. 22nd would mean relegation, 3rd would mean automatic promotion. We don't think either of them will happen.
Every year just before the first races, the continental cycling bodies organise their continental championships in both time trialing and a road race, this time held on a mountanious route. Some of our riders participated in these events and we want to report on what they did. There are no ranking points involved, nor will the winner get a special jersey, but they will have bragging rights saying they're the best from their respective continent.
Europe
Out of our four Europeans, none was invited. Logically, since all of them are cobble specialists and not climbers.
Oceania
Drapac received an invitation for the road race which at first surprised us but then we realised every professional cyclist from Australia or New Zealand received one. He obviously didn't win the events, in fact you'd reach his result quicker when starting from the bottom. 85th place for him, but at least he finished the race which is a big achievement for him.
Africa
Clifford participated for Nigeria and Mraouni participated for Morocco. Both had an anonymous road race, finishing 104th and 78th respectively but the latter was an outside bet for a top ten in the time trial. At the moment he crossed the line he was in seventh place, 33 seconds behind the leader at that point. Unfortunately the field was very close, and he would finish in nineteenth, 47 seconds off the winner. Clifford finished 40th at 1 minute and 15 seconds.
Asia
Our two Qatari friends, Albourdainy and Esmaeli were selected for both events since they're the only two professional cyclists in our country. We won't spend any words on the time trial, since they both finished in the bottom three. But not last, so at least there's some celebration.
For the road race the squad was completed by some amateurs who might get a contract next year if they manage to surprise us. Spoiler alert: they didn't. Albourdainy went into the morning breakaway and was one of the stronger riders there, together with Sembukutti. Esmaeli meanwhile managed to stay with the back, mainly thanks to its low pace and many crashes This resulted in the two leaders having a chance of winning. A late charge of Choi was not enough to take gold, which went to Sembukutti. Albourdainy managed to stay ahead of Shikai to take bronze! Esmaeli finished in 30th place.
America
We had many, many representatives for these two races given our history on the continent. Here's a quick rundown: Colombia: Pantano Gómez (RR) and Úran (both); Cuba: Marcos (both) and Martinez (both); Dominican Republic: Milan (both); Jamaica: Sinclair (both). Out of these, we figured Úran would be most likely to return with a good result from either event.
First was the time trial, with Úran marked as a dangerous outsider. He wouldn't challenge for the win which would go to Phinney, but would even slightly disappoint with a tenth place. Martinez finished 23rd, Sinclair 47th, Milan 63rd, Marcos 66th.
The road race had a strong Colombian team with Úran as one of its primary leaders and Pantano Gómez as pure domestique. It turned out Úran was the strongest of the team that day and when riders like Amador and Dombrowski attacked, he had no trouble following in their wheels. Of the five riders who were clearly the strongest that day, Dombrowski would take the win ahead of Monsalve. 36 seconds behind Úran lost the sprint for bronze against Amador and Phinney, but nevertheless he rode a great race! Pantano Gómez finished 28th, Martinez 41st, Milan 117th, Sinclair 137th, Marcos 142nd,
Intercontinental Championships
The best riders from each continent qualified for the continental championships in Bhutan and Nepal. Only two riders received a call-up, Albourdainy for Asia and Úran for the Americas. The former had no business here and did not finish the race. Úran was part of a strong team and unfortunately for him he was not the strongest rider in there. His only notable moment was when he chased down an attack by Kudus, which was caught on camera. After performing some more domestique duties he dropped from the peloton and rolled in 26th place. Europe would sweap the top four with Spilak as winner, Dombrowski being best of the rest in fifth.
2 Colombian leaders paid with plenty of bananas. Can the Minions keep their successful attacking style under rising pressure?
AbhishekLFC: Attacking or not, the Minions are one of the PCT success stories of the transfer window and a dark horse for promotion for me.
knockout: Well, Dark horse for promotion is too optimistic for me. They could strengthen their roster well with new leaders but Uran is the only very strong rider. Betancourt and Albert are only sub-top while Drapac is no PCT leader. They are in a position where they can attack a lot because they don’t have the leaders that will demand working in front of the peloton all the time but whether they’ll do? No idea.
Croatia14: I agree with knockout, Though, Betancur is a Top10-15 puncheur, which will make him decent, and Uran scores everywhere he goes really well (if planning is not screwed up royally). And having a Top5 stage racer normally almost certainly guarantees you non relegation. Everything on top is a bonus. The sprinters aren’t, despite the fact that PCM for strange reasons liked them a lot last year. The attackers really are though. Martinez has the perfect stage hunting stats if he rides complementary to Uran. Add Selander, Weiss, Kinney and also Dehaes and you have a really aggressive outlook that can surf the waves of attacking like they did last season. And who knows, with outstanding luck maybe towards disband promotion?
jandal: Uran and Betancourt (seriously why did people think this was how to spell it ) are good leaders, mostly the former but Betancur (and Albert) are decent subtop leaders too. Their attacking style should remain, Martinez is great and Selander, Dehaes and Kinney should carry the Minions spirit especially with aggressive riding.
trekbmc: Don’t think they’ll be one of the most attacking teams any more, their leaders will block a lot of attacks and probably not be overly aggressive (first time I’ve made a bunch of good leaders sound like a bad thing!) is still a cool squad though with both Uran and Betancourt and they make a nice effort to cover all terrains, so they’ll score across the board and get a consistent finish in the rankings.
Finally, we have arrived at the start of the season. Like previous years we start with a sprinters race Down Under.
Profile:
It's short, it's flat, it's a criterium. Not much interesting to say in all honesty.
Team:
Ahmed Albourdainy Edwin Avila Kenny De Haes Damion Drapac Jay Major Carlos Alexandre Manarelli Salah Eddine Mraouni Shaquille Sinclair
Both Drapac and Manarelli remained as lead sprinters but will have to face stronger opposition. The former does ride on home soil which may favor him. Avila, De Haes, Major and Sinclair (who returns after a gap year) form the sprint train. Albourdainy and Mraouni will make their debuts.
Absolute horsewank, and then I'm being positive. I have no words for this race. No camera time and the best result is 76th. You guys disappointed all the Minions around the world.
This season, a new race class has been introduced: PTHC. In this class the very best of the Pro Tour challenge the top ot the Pro Continental Division. This the first event in this class.
Profile:
Held around the biggest city in Sri Lanka, the parcours is quite hilly, with a steep climb towards the end.
Team:
Ahmed Albourdainy Carlos Betancourt Nick Kinney Jay Major Diego Milan Salah Eddine Mraouni Bjorn Selander Shaquille Sinclair
Betancourt was brought in this transfer season to become our leader for these kind of races. Joining him is Selander, who returns from a loan. Kinney and Milan were part of the hilly squad of last season. Major, Mraouni and Sinclair are here for development reasons. Albourdainy completes the squad.
We knew it would be difficult to win against PT competition. Unfortunately Betancourt was anonymous during the race, coming home in 46th with Milan nine places ahead of him. Both scored 2 points, our first points of the season.
After two races, on of which was a flat classic and the other was against PT opposition, we are not surprised to find ourselves near the bottom. In fact we're even surprised we're not last, and there are actually teams who have scored worse than us or not scored at all. To be fair, Haute Route hasn't even raced yet so we would've always been above them. In February Úran will commence his season, and we hope to have gained a few places by the next update.
Down Under was the expected no-show for you while Betancourt's performance in Colombo was disappointing although he never was amongst the top favourites anyway.
Once upon a time we avoided every cobblestone race we could. But since we realised there are also points on offer, we gathered some riders who like to ride here. So that's why we're here.
Profile:
A bit of cobblestones, but the sprinters who can handle them might be favourites here
Team:
Niels Albert Goodnews Clifford Kenny De Haes Tareq Esmaeli Fabrice Jeandesbosz Leandro Marcos Oliver Naesen Shaquille Sinclair
Brought in this season to become our new leader is Albert, who will debut in his home country. Joining him are De Haes and Marcos who you should recognize from last year, Clifford and Naesen who joined from World Cycling Centre, Jeandesbosz who will finally race for us, Sinclair who needs experience points and Esmaeli who was available for this race.
Clifford was brought in for his attacking spirit and boom, in his first race of the season he goes into the breakaway. Unfortunately his Nigerian champion jersey was missing so he had to ride in our regular outfit. But he still looks good.
The race went to the sprinter types indeed, with Albert not standing any chance. He finished 24th, enough for one point. Clifford finished one place ahead of him for two points, very deserving for his race today.
Classification:
Pos.
Rider
Team
Time
1
Alexandr Nepomnyachsniy
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
5h33'03
2
Alexey Tsatevich
Newton Foundation
s.t.
3
Marcos Altur
Newton Foundation
s.t.
4
Marcus Burghardt
Podium Ambition
s.t.
5
Lukasz Wisniowski
Grieg - Eftel
s.t.
23
Goodnews Clifford
Minions
s.t.
24
Niels Albert
Minions
s.t.
49
Kenny De Haes
Minions
s.t.
51
Oliver Naesen
Minions
s.t.
88
Leandro Marcos
Minions
+ 2'20
131
Fabrice Jeandesbosz
Minions
+ 4'12
141
Shaquille Sinclair
Minions
+ 6'31
154
Tareq Esmaeli
Minions
+ 7'52
Rider rankings:
Pos.
Rider
Points
1
Carlos Betancourt
2
1
Goodnews Clifford
2
1
Diego Milan
2
4
Niels Albert
1
Rating:
(2/5)
Not the best of results but we got enough to be happy about
It's a tour in Eritrea, which is in Africa. And we're racing there.
Profile:
Three sprinter stages, two puncheurs stages and one stage which should be for the climbers in theory.
Team:
Damion Drapac Chad Haga Yasmani Martinez Salah Eddine Mraouni Jarlinson Pantano Gómez Cayetano Sarmiento Rigoberto Úran Ethan Weiss
It's time to finally put forward the big gun: Úran. Joining him for the mountains is another new signing making his debut: Pantano Gómez. Drapac has a free role for the sprints. The other five are Haga, Martinez, Mraouni, Sarmiento and Weiss.
We came here to win with Úran, but things turned out differently. He was not in a good shape on the mountain stage and lost two minutes. He tried to compensate on the next stage, and even finished second, but unfortunately gained no time. On the final stage though he lost time again, resulting in a disappointing 13th place in the GC.
Drapac was seen as an outsider bet for the sprints but has no support. On the first stage he was in a surprisingly strong position but went too early, finishing eigth. On the second stage he did wait a bit longer which resulted in third place. On stage five he also finished eight, which was fifth from the peloton.
Other honorable mentions for Martinez, who finished fifth on stage four, and Haga, who went into the break on stage six.
Classification:
Pos.
Rider
Team
Time
1
Michal Kwiatkowski
Netia - Vónin
23h58'58
2
Patrick Schelling
Team UBS
+ 45
3
Thibaut Pinot
Haute Route - Mavic
+ 1'38
4
Jianhua Ji
Compal-Merida
+ 1'50
5
Merhawi Kudus
Eritel - Sonatrach
+ 2'13
13
Rigoberto Úran
Minions
+ 6'19
20
Yasmani Martinez
Minions
+ 8'41
42
Chad Haga
Minions
+ 20'39
43
Jarlinson Pantano Gómez
Minions
+ 20'41
69
Cayetano Sarmiento
Minions
+ 37'23
83
Ethan Weiss
Minions
+ 53'04
84
Salah Eddine Mraouni
Minions
s.t.
128
Damion Drapac
Minions
+ 1h40'55
Rider rankings:
Pos.
Rider
Points
1
Rigoberto Úran
49
2
Yasmani Martinez
20
3
Damion Drapac
12
4
Chad Haga
5
4
Jarlinson Pantano Gómez
5
6
Carlos Betancourt
2
6
Goodnews Clifford
2
6
Diego Milan
2
9
Niels Albert
1
Rating:
(1/5)
They can call themselves lucky we're giving this race a banana
[url=pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=49156]VIANA DO CASTELO[/url]
Another cobblestone race early in the season, this time in sunny Portugal.
Profile:
But those cobblestones are in the downhill and not on the climb. Interesting.
Team:
Niels Albert Goodnews Clifford Kenny De Haes Tareq Esmaeli Fabrice Jeandesbosz Leandro Marcos Oliver Naesen Shaquille Sinclair
The exact same squad as Gent-Wevelgem because there are two simultanious races here as well. For a full overview I would like to refer you to the previous article.
Jeandesbosz was send into the breakaway with the possibilty it would make it until the end. It did, but not with him. He was not strong enough to remain ahead. The win went to an Icelandic guy, who would've though that,
The other favourites rolled in together, with De Haes taking the final point available in the race. Albert finished 27th.
Classification:
Pos.
Rider
Team
Time
1
Kari Brynjolfsson
Valio - DeLaval
5h57'00
2
Ramon Domene
Newton Foundation
+ 1'41
3
Michal Golas
Goldcorp - Nordstrom Rack
s.t.
4
Linus Dahlberg
Eddie Stobart
+ 3'39
5
Fernando Gaviria
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
s.t.
25
Kenny De Haes
Minions
+ 5'16
27
Niels Albert
Minions
s.t.
39
Goodnews Clifford
Minions
+ 6'56
49
Fabrice Jeandesbosz
Minions
+ 8'24
50
Leandro Marcos
Minions
s.t.
59
Tareq Esmaeli
Minions
+ 11'45
88
Oliver Naesen
Minions
+ 28'37
106
Shaquille Sinclair
Minions
+ 37'06
Rider rankings:
Pos.
Rider
Points
1
Rigoberto Úran
49
2
Yasmani Martinez
20
3
Damion Drapac
12
4
Chad Haga
5
4
Jarlinson Pantano Gómez
5
6
Carlos Betancourt
2
6
Diego Milan
2
6
Goodnews Clifford
2
9
Niels Albert
1
9
Kenny De Haes
1
Rating:
(2/5)
Every point in a cobblestones race is a bonus for us
Bahamas, for Jay Major (RR/TT):
Cuba, for Leandro Marcos (RR) and Yasmani Martinez (TT):
Dominican Republic, for Diego Milan (RR/TT):
Morocco, for Salah Eddine Mraouni (TT):
Nigeria, for Goodnews Clifford (RR/TT):
Qatar, for Tareq Esmaeli (RR/TT):
. Look forward to seeing the dungarees out at the races. With a number of ex- World Cycling Centre riders onboard, and a triumvarite of Colombian leaders, WCC will be paying close attention to how the Minions cope after their promotion to the PCT. All of Colombian cycling is delighted to see the progress than Betancourt has made over the winter window now that he has finally started paying some attention to his diet (!). 
Betancourt has been responding well from his diet but we always have to watch for a relapse. I know my sprinters will not be as good as last year but I sacrificed that discipline to get extra improvements on the others, since I still think they'll get top tens now and then. And Mraouni will feel at home here 
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Shaquille Sinclair
