For the third year in a row we targetted the biggest race in the world for our win goal. When we picked this goal we planned to trust Michel Koch to achieve this but apparantly, the pressure was too much to handle for him and he fled the team. The new plan is still an unknown but the general assumption is that Yannick Stoltz is supposed to take yellow in the opening prologue and defend it till the Champs Elyssee.

Last season's success in Milan - San Remo is arguably the most prestigious victory in our still short team history and we are looking to do well there again. Top 10 ambitions sounds like a fair goal to proclaim since everyone will be looking at last seasons winner.

Roubaix might be our favourite race on the calendar and we have had some very memorable fights against Sam Bewley in the last couple of years on the road to the velodrome and in it as well. Evonik finished 2nd in 2015 with Tom Boonen as a PCT wildcard team and Greg Van Avermaet finished 2nd and 3rd in the last two editions. While we hope to claim the top spot one year our official goal is a top ten which looks very doable to us.

We were unsure whether we wanted another goal decided on the cobblestones but once Greg Van Avermaet was sure to stay for one more year for us we decided to make this our fourth race goal and we aim to repeat the top 3 result that Greg achieved twice in the last two years by finished 2nd behind that one guy from New Zealand.

The team standing goal is in our opinion always the most important one and after achieving an ambitious top 5 goal in 2017 we became a bit more cautious again and took the top 10 goal for this season. By keeping together the leader trio that lead us to a fantastic third place last season this goal looks in line with our expectations.

During the last couple of years Evonik - ELKO has grown into a team that also became a global brand through the very unique style of racing and team building and a lot of the ideas that are today seen as typically Evonik - esque where already in place when the team was founded in 2014 as Evonik - Signal Iduna and raced in the Continental Division. After the promotion to PCT Signal Iduna stepped down as a title sponsor and become a minor sponsor for us but they remained loyal to our team till today. When our sports management group got the opportunity to create an amateur team that competes against continental cycling teams Signal Iduna quickly stepped up as the title sponsor of the new team.

Rider by rider presentation:

Florian Bissinger was the final signing for Evonik - Signal Iduna for our debut season in 2014 and proved himself a valuable asset as a good rouleur and we're happy that he returns to Signal Iduna for this season.
Gianni Meersman was signed by Evonik - ELKO for the debut Pro Tour season in 2016 and surprised many fans and experts as a crucial domestique for Greg Van Avermaet and while one can see first signs of aging already, we still believe him to be a strong cobbler and rouleur for lower division cycling.
Joosten Vaidem was a stagiare for Evonik - ELKO in 2017 and while he didnt improve enought to get a PT contract, he was deemed promising enough to be recommended to Signal Iduna. He is a climber who is also very capable on the hills.

Wojciech "ctrl + v" Pszczolarski is in our opinion one of the strongest riders on an amateur contract this season and we are surprised that no CT team gave him a full-time contract. He is a strong prologue rider but also excels in longer time trials, as a rouleur and would also work well as a supporting team mate for hills or sprint trains.
Yanjanani Sakala is arguably the most interesting rider on an amateur contract this year and while he might not have the reputation yet we believe that he will be a massive asset to Signal Iduna. He is not only the best rouleur on an amateur contract but we believe he might even be the best finisseur in the entire continental tour. Not only that but he is also a decent cobbler if he is on a good day. Watch out for him in flat CT classics!
Mirac Kal is nicknamed "The Anatolian Miracle" for a reason. While he is still a fairly unknown name he is comparable to CT legends like Thiago Nardin and Marc de Maar. Rumors have linked him to Evonik - ELKO for a couple of years but the team never pulled the trigger on him after promoting through the divisions quickly but we are glad he gets the chance to recommend himself for a fulltime 2019 CT contract somewhere.
Michaeil Kortsidakis is an interesting rouleur with a skill set that should be adaptable to CT racing and being only 24 he could still grow into a stronger rider for the future.
Scott Ambrose is a rider we admittedly didnt even know until the Xero management recommended him as an interesting talent for the future. He's quite solid allround right now on a couple of terrains but his future will be in the mountains.

knockout wrote:
Slight reach to compare De Maar to Kal indeed. Kal has a much better sprint

Like almost everyone else who posts some news we strive for correctness in all our news updates. This doesnt prevent mistakes from happening. Unfortunatelly, there was an editorial error in our team presentation and we published incorrect information.