Riders come, riders leave. It how the world turns. And that is exactly the case for us today. Three riders left the squad to ride elsewhere next season, although two of them will return after one year.

Jarlinson Pantano Gómez was offered a contract at Philips - Continental to become Henao's mountain lieutenant. We decided to accept the 300k transfer fee even though we bought him for more last season. We wish him all the best at his new employment.

Fulgencio Bru will join ProTour team EA Vesuvio on a season-long loan deal. We brought him in during the FA's but we decided that we cannot develop him to the level we want, whereas this is possible at his new team.

Alvaro Hodeg goes down a division. The young talent received an offer from Delvaux to have him gather experience there for his first season in professional cycling. We decided to accept the offer based on the fact specialists say it wil benefit his long-term development.

Not every signing we make can be a superstar or a future superstar. You need riders which are willing to carry bottles, be part of the leadout train or other tasks in supporting the leader. These are called domestiques, and we signed two today:

Nico Schinker



In the past we had two sprinters and we just let them sprint, this year we actually put in some effort to build a train for Drapac: the Drapac-train. This sprinter from Luxembourg (pictured on the right) will be one of the wagons.

Farzad Khodayari



This mountain and hills domestique comes from the Islamic Republic of Iran, a friend to the Qatari government and the Sheikh. He was looking for a contract and we felt he could be of value for us in uphill races.

Some teams were in money troubles at the end of the transfer season due to corrupt accountants and such. We gave them a helping hand to get rid of their problems.

Andzs Flaksis



Latvia's national champion joins from Project Andorra who spend too much on salary. He becomes another part of our beastly cobblestone squad.

As part of this deal, Oliver Naesen went in the other direction. We wish him all the best in his new team and against the opposition in the continental division.

This was our last new arrival this season, the transfer market is closed as of one hour ago. We will give a full squad presentation and details like calendar and goals at a later date.

Transfer season over, time for a presentation à la Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. We'll present our riders discipline by discipline.

Climbers

Rigoberto Úran, 31 years old, 4.100 XP, €600000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
72	82	74	78	75	81	77	55	55	71	67	62	78

Aka the Supreme Leader, we expect him to take the most points and victories.

Yasmani Martinez, 31 years old, 4.100 XP, €95000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
69	76	72	73	73	71	76	51	67	75	75	62	73

Stepping up after Pantano left, but he showed in the past he's up for the task.

Cayetano Sarmiento, 31 years old, 4.100 XP, €60000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
65	76	66	54	70	74	70	58	51	66	76	78	54

Always manages to pick a surprising stage victory with an attack.

Chad Haga, 30 years old, 4.100 XP, €70000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
70	75	72	76	73	70	72	57	64	67	70	71	77

Mountains? Hills? Time trials? You can use him nearly everywhere.

Farzad Khodayari, 26 years old, 4.100 XP, €50000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
66	75	73	62	71	72	72	52	64	72	72	80	62

A new signing, and one of the better bottle carriers around.

Puncheurs

Xavier Quevedo, 27 years old, 4.100 XP, €135000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
69	71	78	65	72	72	73	56	65	75	69	72	65

He can't do much worse than Betancourt, can he?

Bjorn Selander, 30 years old, 4.100 XP, €75000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
71	68	76	63	74	71	70	63	70	76	71	61	63

In the team since the very beginning and always a great figure to have around.

Odd Christian Eiking, 24 years old, 3.23 XP, €50000 paid wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
69	67	73	64	73	72	69	54	66	71	71	67	66

Loaned in from Equinor, looking to gain experience while helping out in the hills.

Time trialsts

Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg, 29 years old, 4.100 XP, €100000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
70	69	68	78	71	71	69	63	60	76	67	64	78

A time trialists who isn't shy from going uphill, could be useful for certain races.

Chris Barton, 30 years old, 4.100 XP, €50000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
65	73	65	75	71	73	73	61	59	66	68	74	75

A good time trialist with a decent mountain stat to back it up.

Laureano Rosas, 28 years old, 4.100 XP, €50000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
72	59	65	75	72	70	73	51	70	74	55	61	76

Signed for team time trials, but could even work in the leadout train if necessary.

Cobblers

Ruben Zepuntke, 25 years old, 4.100 XP, €125000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
72	55	69	65	79	72	64	81	72	64	66	68	65

The big transfer of the season, we need ze punkte!

Niels Albert, 32 years old, 4.100 XP, €100000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
75	64	69	57	76	74	72	78	63	68	79	83	57

Not the cobblestone leader this year but still a valued asset.

Bert-Jan Lindeman, 29 years old, 4.100 XP, €125000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
73	55	64	60	72	69	66	76	74	76	64	61	60

He has the ability to survive the cobbles and then a decent sprint to finish it off.

Andzs Flaksis, 30 years old, 4.100 XP, €55000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
70	53	65	56	75	70	66	76	61	62	70	72	56

The Latvian champion who was brought in last minute to strengthen us here.

Leandro Marcos, 27 years old, 4.100 XP, €50000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
74	62	73	63	71	65	70	74	65	70	73	64	65

The Cuban champion who is at his best in hilly cobble races.

Kenny De Haes, 34 years old, 4.100 XP, €60000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
71	50	66	60	71	66	66	73	62	74	69	59	60

The breakaway king of last year, but age seems to be caching up on him.

Clenne Morvan Moulingui, 23 years old, 3.36 XP, €50000 paid wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
69	67	73	64	73	72	69	54	66	71	71	67	66

Loaned in from GCN to help us over the rough roads.

Sprinters

Damion Drapac, 30 years old, 4.100 XP, €95000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
71	51	53	60	70	65	76	64	80	79	66	77	60

Shouldn't be underestimated unless there's a speedbump on the road.

Carlos Alexandre Manarelli, 29 years old, 4.100 XP, €60000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
72	53	59	57	71	65	73	61	79	79	57	66	57

Used wherever Drapac won't be, since there's some bad blood between them.

Edwin Avila, 29 years old, 4.100 XP, €60000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
70	60	66	60	73	69	75	54	78	77	61	60	60

Drapac's go-to leadout man as he has been for the past two seasons.

Nico Schinker, 31 years old, 4.100 XP, €50000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
70	60	63	58	71	65	74	61	77	76	58	62	74

One of the earlier elements in the sprint train.

Shaquille Sinclair, 25 years old, 4.34 XP, €50000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
68	57	61	67	69	69	66	55	74	73	60	67	68

The Jamaican champion will finally finish his development this year.

Jay Major, 23 years old, 3.99 XP, €50000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
70	50	65	57	71	69	64	67	73	74	62	65	64

The youngest rider in the squad but already on his third season at our team.

GOAT

Tareq Esmaeli, 31 years old, 4.100 XP, €50000 wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
64	72	70	57	67	75	71	66	62	69	72	74	57

Greatest rider of all time and all-around a clever fella.

Loaned out

Fulgencio Bru, 27 years old, 4.0 XP, €55000 paid wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
67	58	75	54	69	64	62	55	66	70	61	68	54

On loan at EA Vesuvio in PT, next year he will be a threat in hilly races.

Alvaro Hodeg, 22 years old, 1.0 XP, €50000 paid wage

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SP	ACC	FTR	DH	PRL
65	53	64	66	66	67	59	51	70	71	53	63	66

The future in the world of sprinting, now gaining experience at Delvaux in CT.

Some administrative bullshit no one is really interested in but we have to do it nevertheless: setting official goals and submitting them to the MGUCI. To make our lives even harder there are some rules regarding what can and can't be done. We just threw darts at a big map to see what our goals would be. Here they are:

Tour of the Middle East * Win



Of course winning our home race is important to us. Whether we'll do it is another biscuit, since it failed last year. But we're up for the challenge again and why not? This might be our year.

Strade Bianche * Top 5



If we'll achieve this gun I'll run around the streets of Qatar naked, which will likely get me either arrested and sent to life inprisonment or shot to death.

Veenendaal - Veenendaal * Top 10



The race no longer contains the word food due to a certain crazy psychopath who wanted the name of his home city as race title. But we achieved the same goal last year so why not again?

Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt * Top 5



A mountains race, with a time trial. Úran anyone?

PCT Rankings * Top 10

Failed last year by quite a margin. The squad has improved a bit but has it improved enough to get that top ten? Anyway we'll be happy if we can stay in PCT again, relegation would be a disaster.

As a PCT team we have the chance to ride races in the ProTour. We can't score ranking points and they cost money but they will give experience to younger riders, have many media attention and we can destroy the hopes of other teams by taking their points away. We couldn't ride them last year due to insufficient funds but for this year we managed to get selected for two races:

Tour of Qatar



The ProTour race in our home country, even passing right along side our HQ. It is a big honour to ride this race even though we don't have the strongest sprinter squad. Drapac will go their with a sprint train, Janse van Rensburg fancies the final time trial.

Vuelta a Espana





A Grand Tour! We chose La Vuelta because the Il Giro overlaps with Tour of Vancouver and Le Tour with Kenya Mountain Classic, hence this was the only race where we could go with Úran. Luckily the route suits him with two long time trials. Unfortunately we can't send a sprinter for the first flat races due to the overlap with Berlin ProRace and Olympia's Tour. The latter also rules out riders like Haga and Martinez because there's a TTT there. The puncheurs squad will be in Scandinavia Open Road Race and Tour of Norway, so it might be a puzzle to see who will ride here.

Country	Race	Division	Date
	January
	Clasico San Cristobal	C2	10
	Tour Down Under	C1	14-19
	Tour of Qatar	PT	21-26
	Apex Mountain Classic	PTHC	28
	February
//	Tour of the Middle East	HC	5-8
	Omloop Het Nieuwsblad	PTHC	6
	Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne	C2	7
	Gent - Wevelgem	C1	10
	Ras Tailteann	C1	10-12
	Viana do Castelo	C1	14
	Volta a Catalunya	C1	18-23
	Etoile de Besseges	C1	25-27
	Hong Kong Challenge	C2	25-27
	March
	KBC De Panne Tour	C1	2-5
	Le Samyn	C1	10
	Vuelta a Colombia	HC	11-16
	Tour of East Java	C1	14-15
	Strade Bianche	PTHC	20
	Tour of Southland	C1	24-28
	GP Herning	HC	31
	April
	Tour of Vancouver	HC	1-7
	Nakhon Ratchasima Trophy	C1	1
	Tour of Ukraine	HC	13-15
	Tour of Cyprus	C1	20-23
	Lisbon Classic	PTHC	26
	Corsica International	C1	28-30
	Veenendaal - Veenendaal	HC	29
	May
	Cheshire Cycling Tour	HC	1-5
	Chrono d'Arenberg	C1	9
	Vuelta a Espana	GT	11-31
	Scandinavia Open Road Race	PTHC	12-14
	Berlin ProRace	HC	16
	Olympia's Tour	C1	23-28
	Tour of Norway	PTHC	27-31
	June
	Malopolski Wyscig	PTHC	3
	GP Kigali	HC	5
	Post Danmark Rundt	HC	10-14
	Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer	C1	26
	Monterrey TTT	C1	30
	July
	Celtic Chrono	C1	5-6
	Kenya Mountain Classic	HC	20
	Tour of Beijing	HC	26-29
	August
	Macskako Kerekparverseny	C1	4
	Clasica San Sebastian	HC	7
	Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt	HC	7-13
	Volta a Portugal	PTHC	11-21
//	Baltic Chain Tour	C1	17-21
	September
	Rheden GP	PTHC	27
	Milano - Torino	C1	29
	October
	Tour de Maroc	PTHC	1-9
	Giro dell'Emelia	HC	3
	Barbados Cycling Festival	HC	12-15
	Japan Cup	HC	18

Our design department has been busy the past few days to design the unique national jerseys the national champions on our squad will be allowed to wear. The design is the exact same as last year which means we could re-use some of the designs, but we also had to create some new designs for new countries.

Bahamas



Worn by Major in road races and time trials.

Colombia



Worn by Uran in time trials.

Cuba



Worn by Marcos in road races and by Martinez in time trials.

Jamaica



Worn by Sinclair in road races and time trials.

Latvia



Worn by Flaksis in road races.

Qatar



Worn by Esmaeli in road races.