We enter the second season of our existence as a professional cycling team. Our first season saw immediate success as we finished 4th in the Continental Tour and earned promotion to the Pro Continental Tour. 2018 will see us line up in the middle tier of MG cycling.

The management structure remains the same with the three man team; I'm supported by my two partners. While I look into the equipment and rider man-management, my partners take care of the logistics, transportation and finances. Together, we worked well to keep things running smoothly last season, and hope for more of the same in this one.

Dutch electronics giants Philips continues to be one of our title sponsors and we continue to call Amsterdam our home as a result. The terms of the sponsorship remain the same, with the objective of improving Dutch cycling and providing a platform for Dutch cyclists to prove their mettle.

Continental Tyres continues to be our link to German cycling, and they will continue to provide our tires, in association with Zipp who will provide our wheels. Continental has expressed a desire to see us increase our German contingent for the coming season.

There is no major change in terms of other sponsors from last season. The only change that we are looking at is our jersey sponsor. They will be announced when the jersey in revealed.

As our secondary sponsor, Unilever continues to encourage us to bring in a rider from outside our focus regions, for whom they will provide the funds. It remains to be seen whether we will be able do so this season.

Our focus regions remain the same. We did exceedingly well in sticking to our focus regions for rider recruitment last season and hope to do the same again.

There are some special requests from our title sponsors which we will keep in mind when we build our team for the coming season.

Race	Category	Goal	Result
Volta a Portugal	PTHC	Top 10	31st
Tour de Pologne	HC	Win	9th
Berlin Pro Race	HC	Top 5	5th
Kenya Mountain Classic	HC	Top 5	1st
Team Standings	PCT	Top 10	18th

*Green means Goal Achieved. Red means Goal Failed.

Start	End	Race	Category
10-Jan		Down Under Classic	HC
10-Jan		Clasico San Cristobal	C2
31-Jan		Clasique Pico Basile	C1
5-Feb	8-Feb	Tour of Middle East	HC
8-Feb	14-Feb	Tour de Pologne	HC
10-Feb		Gent Wevelgem	C1
10-Feb	12-Feb	Ras Tailteann	C1
18-Feb	23-Feb	Volta a Catalunya	C1
25-Feb	27-Feb	Etoile de Besseges	C1
28-Feb		Pro Hallstatt Classic	PTHC
3-Mar		Roma Maxima	C1
7-Mar	12-Mar	Vuelta al Pais Vasco	PTHC
10-Mar		Le Samyn	C1
11-Mar	16-Mar	Vuelta a Colombia	HC
14-Mar	15-Apr	Tour of East Java	C1
20-Mar		Strade Bianche	PTHC
24-Mar	28-Mar	Tour of Southland	C1
28-Mar		E3 Prijs	PTHC
28-Mar	31-Mar	Jelajah SKL	C1
31-Mar		GP Herning	HC
1-Apr		Nakhon Ratchasima Trophy	C1
2-Apr	23-Apr	Giro d'Italia	GT
8-Apr		Coppa Placci	C2
26-Apr		Lisbon Classic	PTHC
28-Apr	30-Apr	Corsica International	C1
29-Apr		Veenendaal - Veenendaal	HC
29-Apr		Philadelphia Intl Champ	HC
1-May	5-May	Cheshire Cycling Tour	HC
12-May	14-May	Scandinavia Open RR	PTHC
16-May		Berlin ProRace	HC
23-May	28-May	Olympia's Tour	C1
1-Jun	6-Jun	Tour of Japan	C1
5-Jun		GP Kigali	HC
8-Jun		Riga - Jurmala GP	PTHC
10-Jun	14-Jun	Post Danmark Rundt	HC
18-Jun	23-Jun	Tour of South Africa	C1
26-Jun		Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer	C1
11-Jul	14-Jul	Bayern Rundfahrt	C1
17-Jul		Sakartvelo Trophy	C2
20-Jul		Kenya Mountain Classic	HC
26-Jul	29-Jul	Tour of Beijing	HC
4-Aug		Macskako Kerekparverseny	C1
7-Aug		Clasica San Sebastian	HC
7-Aug	13-Aug	Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt	HC
11-Aug	21-Aug	Volta a Portugal	PTHC
1-Sep	5-Sep	Tour of Britain	C1
4-Sep	11-Sep	Balkans International	PTHC
27-Sep		Rheden GP	PTHC
3-Oct		Giro dell'Emelia	HC
12-Oct	15-Oct	Barbados Cycling Festival	HC
18-Oct		Japan Cup	HC

*Races in bold are goal races.

After last season's dream run, it was difficult to part ways with some of the riders who were instrumental in the same. But at the end of renewals, and with loans ending at the end of the season, these are the riders who've left us for the time being.

Tom Leezer and Albert Timmer were released with age catching up to them and with them deemed surplus to requirements.

Michel Kreder is a huge loss for the team in renewals, but his demands were too high, and we had to let him go after he rejected nearly a 50% wage hike!

At the end of renewals, we have a team of 14 riders with just 6 left to pick up. The team does not have any leaders capable of competing for wins in the PCT, and that is what we have to concentrate on in the market if we hope to survive in the PCT. We will have a wage budget of €1.6M to conclude our transfer business.

We will not be looking for a high churn in personnel, but we are open to discussing any interest that other teams have in our riders, The Dutch core is unlikely to leave however.