Always interesting to look back at predictions at this point, and I imagine we'll see a more detailed analysis at some point, but while there was plenty wrong with mine, I did get 4 of the Top 5 right - only going wrong with Orange, and Grieg!
Grieg really enjoying the consistent excellence of EBH and Wisniowski, so congratulations to them. Really quite interesting to see them tackle the promotion challenge this time around, so much better placed than last time, already having a PT quality leader in place. UBS and Newton also with another chance at the PT, while Berg, Isostar, and now Ferrero will get a first attempt.
It's also interesting to think about what went wrong for Orange. The lack of depth is an obvious conclusion, but Sicard clearly could have done better - and it wouldn't have taken much more from him to make the Top 5.
Lots of interesting stories through the division, and challenges for next season, but time to take a look at Eritel.
11th is a very nice result, only 8 points away from the Top 10, and with a number of good performances across the team.
Kudus the star, and it was very nice to have a season with the best Eritrean, and indeed best African, and the planning considerations that went into him. Lots of pleasing results, and making the Top 20 of the individual rankings.
Instead the stage race win came from Berhane. Not his greatest season, until our final race, and what a turn around. As a main stay in the team for a number of seasons, it was great to see.
Lots of other good performances too. Debesay performing well in a number of races; Hamza winning a prologue; Hadi also good at ToA and elsewhere; Van Heerden with some good results now and again; Afewerki with some breakthrough sprint performances; Okbamariam, Venter, Khederi and Teklehaimanot also with highlights along the way.
And after 10 seasons in the PCT, this feels like a fitting point to bring an end to the team. The all African project has been fun to develop, but this is pretty much the peak of it's ambition. Many good riders developed, and some nice performances with the riders who we wanted to sign. Going forward, it would likely only be a case of maintaining and doing similar things.
The ashes of Project Africa could be picked over, and it's not out of the question that an all-African team could promote, but that's a challenge for somebody else to pick up. The most interesting remaining challenge would have been to see some of the riders in the CT, where they'd be more likely to fight for overall victories, but it's quite satisfying to have shown that those who predicted relegation were way off the mark, and maybe some of the riders will end up there anyway. I'll certainly cheer them on if so.
A year with Kudus, ending with a Berhane victory and one of Debesay's many showings, it's something that won't easily be bettered, so let's not try. The inter-relationships with Aidan and FroomeDog's teams were good fun in the past, but also at an end now. It will be interesting to see where the riders end up, and nice to open up the slot for another team to have an opportunity in PCT.
First of all, congrats and commiserations to all the managers throughout the division. It has once again been a pleasure racing against you this Man-Game season.
Thank you also to everyone who dedicates time and effort to keep this game running in the form of admins and reporters, you all do a fantastic job!
Now onto the rankings and the racing. Obviously it would be nice to finish higher up the table but in a season where the transfer plans didn't quite work out and I ended up throwing a lot of wage at two young fellas, survival was the main goal. Finishing 19th and surviving comfortably is a great result for us.
We had no rider finish in the Top 50 of the individual rankings which is part of why we finished so low. But we did however have 5 riders finishing between 50th-75th, this proved to be vital for us.
Bouhanni was our highest scoring rider which was great to see from him. Stage wins in Vancouver and Barbados along with a podium in the Dutch FV Classic saw the Frenchman have what is a pretty solid season. He was annoyingly inconsistent but he picked up results and points where no one saw it coming and I can't complain with that. His main support in Lobato walked away with 76 points as well so our sprint team was fairly successful.
Our traditionally strong climbing squad was led by Van den Broeck who also had an inconsistent season but his 309 point haul was well worth the low wage we paid for him. His supporting cast in Zardini, Izagirre and the Fernandez boys struggled to contribute.
Our sole TT specialist in Cornu again had a solid season managing 300 points. His Isle of Man win along with a couple of prologue and TT stage wins throughout the season kept him going well. He of course had moments of inconsistency but a supporting cast would help him in TTTs.
The puncheur squad was one that provided well for us in a discipline where we had previously had little focus. Despite very strong competition in almost all races, Caruso picked up some big results for us. Le Gac also picked him breakaway results, KOM points and Youth classification points. Zingle also contributed over 100 points.
The final talking point to be made is our younger riders. Novak and Mas were both on big wages for what they would return. Novak managed to pick up a few points and even managed a stage win from the breakaway. Both Novak and Mas finished Top 20 in the GC of Avenir with Mas in 5th until the final stage. They will both have more seasons in Avenir and will be stronger and more helpful for us next season. Borisavljevic has meanwhile been out on loan at PT team Wiesenhof where he managed to get 73 points, he also finished on the Podium in the GC of Avenir. He will be a solid rider to have next season!
Congrats to tastasol for the title! EBH had a perfect season, proving the investment you did was totally worth, and now you'll promote with a PT top leader, something not everyone can say. And you also have an amazing rider like Wisniowski
It's always sad to see some nice teams relegating, though i think all of them have a good base to bounce back at the first attempt next season in CT. Tbh, i was a little bit worried with riders like Di Maggio, Barguil, Gautier coming down to CT, but with the latest anouncements, luckily i don't have to worry about it anymore
And it looks like it would be now a good idea to switch focus to Africa, with all the teams focusing there disbanding (Eritel, Project, Kenia last season) or probably changing the focus (Haute).
And to those who will continue in PCT next season, see you there for transfers
Well, after an awesome start, winning Eritrea, 2nd in Romandie and a stage in Polonge, we collapsed really badly, came ridiculously close to relegation, only being saved by good late races like Japan and Emilia.
Kwiat was great in MO/HL races, not great in classics, LLS was absolutely rubbish, Vantomme was underperforming but not as much as Lo Cicero and that combination brought us to the limit. Otherwise Rabottini was a great performer and Honkisz got points behind the scenes, Morkov finally made up for Zuri in his last season as well.
Unfortunately my hope for a few points from strong talents like Kaspa and Pedersen was a bit optimistic, Veyhe was actually our best (<3).
Though, even though I talk of underperformances, it's actually pretty amazing we stayed up with our huge investment in talents, of our total alotted wage budget, we spent 810k on level 1 or 2 talents, over 32% of our total budget, I took a quick look at the DB and found only Statoil spent a greater percentage (495k or 41.25% and no teams spent more (Evonik spent 600k or 17.1%, Lierse spent 540k or 21.6%, Euskatel spent 430k or 17.2%, Compal spent 475k or 19% and Garmin spent 285k or 23.75% (a few other CT teams around the 20% mark)), so I do feel a bit left out Scorchio.
Now that we barely made it though, we're one step closer to finally being able to make use of some of the awesome guys we signed though.
Congrats to Grieg of course on the title as I already said, really cool to see Isostar as second relegatee, love both of their squads and think they'll do awesome going up to PT with their bases. Congrats Berg, UBS, Newton and Ferrero as well, big achievement especially for Ferrero in Evonik/Strava style (same as Isostar).
I do feel bad for the relegatees though, Valio and MOL in particular were very close and thinking that I could relegate made me think about just how much that can mess up plans, hope you guys can keep your plans going and come back even stronger!
Finally Thank you to all the reporters and everybody who did something behind the scenes, such an awesome community effort to make this game possible! In particular I think Roturn deserves a special thank you though, believe he did a lot to pull the MG through a long off period.
Finally, I'd just like to say to the 7 managers who told us we'd relegate, in particular the 3 who predicted us last, I told you so (though, clearly the ones who predicted us in the higher relegation predictions had some merit ) Maybe next year I should make my own formula.
Big season for Grieg, congrats, tasta! Obviously, EBH had this "marginal" stat(istical) gains, but the way he finished it off, was just ridicilous at some point. With Wisniowski at his side, this was certainly one of the most powerful duos in the history of the PCT? Sick stuff and some great races, that I followed on first hand.
A great season for Matthew Goss, too! Some kind of a strange sprinter at times, but looking at the final rankings, he obviously made the best of his opportunities eventually. Not sure about his team's future, but Goss will have one prime year left. A Jayco comeback maybe? You heard it here first
Could write a lot of stuff now, but I will keep it short and repeat myself from the other threads: thanks to all active managers and reporters for making this a great season to follow/run!
First of all, I want to thank all those who have made this season possible, and then congratulate Grieg on the title won and the great season made by EBH and all the others promoting managers.
At the beginning of the season, the rise of division did not enter my head, our liders were far from the best in the division. Fortunately the consistency of the team ended up paying off. In particular the duo Marquez / Nazaret was able to put us in front of the table with magnificent races throughout the season.
Now a new era is about to begin, it will not be a very easy time, especially if we consider the age of many of our riders. It will have to be a great revolution in the team if we want to be able to compete with the best.
Huge season for Grieg, who (unsurprisingly, though) won the rankings by a chunk. IMO they are just a top rider, let's say Spilak *Caugh* away from being title contenders for the Pro Tour, next season...
The big story is obviously Isostar. I had several chats with croatia throughout, and I think I told him continuously that he would be a top team - Promotion is just great, and obviously comes from great planning also. So once the team has been trimmed to the Pro Tour, I believe that is another team to look out for!
Obviously you got Matej Mohoric, as the big gun, well supported by riders like Quevedo, Bazkhou and Pibernik he should do well in his first maxed out season. Marko Kump with his compatriot Roy Jans and Luis Miguel Mansilla will probably score more than half decent aswell, although he isn't quite van Stayen/Demare good. He is more well rounded though, and can compete better in the cobbles, where they have Jan Polanc instead. In addition to that some interesting riders like Matthias Brändle and Ramunas Navardauskas to do well on several occassions in the PT, I think.
Talents like David Per, Xhuliano Kamberaj, Daniel Alexander Jaramillo, Martin Laas, Tadej Logar, Jernej Svab and Miha Poljanec should all be interesting for the future aswell.
Once Janez Brajkovic is gone (I think he will be), they will have something like 1,2mio to fit a superstar or 2-3 subtop riders into their team. They will be a strong team for sure!
I am also looking forward to see what Berg and Ferrero can do. They lack riders to win at PT level, and/or have some that are old and not reliable on the long run. So both are probably in for some tweaking. Rui Costa have a good combination of stats to make use of his TT, but he have tried PT before without too great a result. For Ferrero the same applies, they have a rider like Ignatiev, but he is declining, Henao Montoya just isn't good enough to win races, although 46 RD is a good asset. Everyone else within the team is lieutenaint material at best. Quite impressed with how they managed to steal 6th ahead of Orange and Fablok!
Team UBS and Newton Foundation knows what it's all about. So the big question is whether they have learnt or not. I think they have. Newton comes up with a well rounded team, but only van Garderen as a reliable source of points. Maksimov usually comes short at PT level, and both Altur and Tsatevich didn't perform according to their stats the last time. Warbasse and Fraile being good domestiques, but there is an urgent need for a top climber that they can support.
UBS have that top climber, as well as the backup for him he needs. Reichenbach will struggle at PT level, as will Aregger, Reinhardt and Spengler (despite being better next season). For me UBS doesn't need that one superstar to deliver. They rather need a competitive sprinter/cobbler and puncheur and they should be OK. It will be touch and go in the off season I think to land the best possible signings, but they should have enough wage cap to do so, especially if they force out a couple of their current riders that are CT level riders (no offense).
I can't wait to have you up in the PT - Big congratulations!
For Orange. Mike?! WTF! - I thought that was a certain promotion, but I guess having Romain Sicard onboard is just the recipe for disaster. I have given up on signing him, and I think I am lucky. His acceleration just makes him constantly underperforming, and now it's too late to do anything about. If he hadn't sealed the destiny of 3-4 teams at this rate, he would have been a GT winner - But unfortunately he never got the training needed to do so. To think I would have made him to what Spilak is now. Hmm... A lot of water under the bridge. Basically the same issue with Quintana. Lack of acceleration. Schreurs? Same thing. Most puncheurs have 76+. But surely Kamyshev? Nah... 58ACC, makes basically all other stats worthless. Atleast he can be trained +2ACC for the next 4 seasons cheaply. But 66ACC will probably not make him great either.
I hope to see Orange in a remake this off season. They belong in the PT with their history.
Fablok. Comisserations man! I really saw you promoting here towards the end. Unfortunately it was a good time to promote seeing some of your leaders surging towards the end. I hope you'll turn things around and promote next season.
Several things can be said for the remaining teams also, but instead of doing so I'll say congratulations to those of you who managed to reach your goals, and better luck next time for those not - especially those relegating. A couple of them are surprising to me, but I hope you will all stick around to fight right back up!
Fablok. Comisserations man! I really saw you promoting here towards the end. Unfortunately it was a good time to promote seeing some of your leaders surging towards the end. I hope you'll turn things around and promote next season.
Thanks
By going for an older team, we kinda needed to promote this year in order to make our PT dreams come true. By the end I really really looked forward for a new challenge, but it was not to be with both Mohs and Froome underperforming, one to the randomness of PCM and one to the choice of a bad AI tactic. Overall blunders have been seen for all teams throughout the season and we ended up not having the best race planning (my biggest weakness) in most cases, so I was surprised that we were this far up.
I can now look back at a great season though, where we were dangerous in the sprints and Froome overperformed comparing to last year in an even stronger field of opponents with the addition of both Hagen and TVG. Ultimately it ended with only one GC, but as it was in Pologne against TvG, I have to say that was the highlight. As for sprints it looks like a downgrade for Mohs and the addition of Degenkolb, so that field will be a lot harder, but now at least I know which sprinters works best with each other.
Where the Top 5 was ultimately lost was however with Roche, where he just went into the 77 MO trap and underperformed massively comparing to last year. It was a bold move to let him lead so many races, but I hope that by dropping him for next season will allow greater depth in our squad.
Another thing we need to improve on is depth. We would throughout the season in almost every race only have at most 2 point scorers per race and no riders in the small bonus points in secondary GC positions. This is where we needed a better backline of riders and that is the main thing that kept us away from the Top 5.
Congratulations to the promoting teams and kudos to all the reporters for their hard work. University made me not able to help reporting this year, so again thanks for that and I salute you being able to keep up a strong pace. Cya for the next season, where I hope to have a completely new set of leaders and a deeper squad to build on.
Congrats Tastasol and the other promotees! EBH's record in the PCT this year was borderline inhuman. Looking forward to seeing how Grieg will continue to shape their team with a bit of extra $$ going back up to PT. UBS and Newton returning to the PT is also good to see, have wanted to see Amador back up challenging the big boys in PT for a while now. His return should certainly worry a few
Also happy to see SPAR & Meiji with strong finishes too - keeping Asian cycling going strong in the second division is important! Now, just if one of use can get up to PT next year.. Compal going down to CT is a blow though - they'll be straight back if Bjartne can keep a hold of Choi who should tear through the CT. Hope to see you back asap!
Also it's no good to see a team like Valio go down - with them and Compal it's two teams who promoted with us relegating which is sad to see. Will be interesting to see who takes a punt on Lo Cicero for the upcoming season however.
And on to us - the team on paper should be a safe bet for a finish around 9-15th so to finish 9th inside the top-10 after being predicted floundering around in no man's land is terrific! Just close enough to the promotion spots to give us hope for the coming season with a few tweaks and additions.
Goss has been absolutely superb in his maiden year with us - 9th in the overall standings and from memory with only one disappointing race this season. His combo with Ji is imperative to his success, performing much better in races where he is also present. Intxausti with an *ok* season, still can't remember how to stay on his bike which is a shame because he still has the ability to score decent points. Brenes finishing on equal points with Anuar Aziz is a testament to how important he became to us this season - picking up the slack when Intxausti faltered/fell. All in all, out best finish yet and hopefully a sign of things to come.
A huge thanks to all the reporters and MG organisers for a fantastic season - it feels like it only started yesterday. I know it isn't easy at all to run something as complicated as the MG but this season you made it look easy Onwards and upwards.
Not sure about his team's future, but Goss will have one prime year left.
We'll still be around hunting for obscure Asian talents for years to come yet
Goss was worth that $1m fee and so much more this season - found it hard to come by wins until Barbados but always super consistent and there or thereabouts. I think he and Ji miiiiight have at least another year left with us over here Also, it was good to have Hamilton with us this season too. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to train him up a bit for you!
The loss of Eritel is definitely something to mourn, loved following through the years that I've been involved and something of an inspiration for WCC. African MG cycling has been devastated this last season with loss of Kenya, PA and now Eritel, although there legacy lives on in the prevelance of quality riders from the continent. Will be interesting to see if someone chooses to change tack and fill in the void.
18th and safe, couldn't ask for anything more than that! Job done, important stat gains achieved, time to enjoy a second PCT season totally legit
Next up, deciding exactly who's gonna be cut. Got a couple of names in mind but we'll see how renewals go. Although i'm partially taken by the idea of rebuilding most of the team from scratch and giving a bit more identity to the whole project...
) Maybe next year I should make my own formula. 
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
