February saw the Adastra - Argon 18 suqad participating in 5 events, 3 of which were in the Asia-Pacific region. The month started in Malaysia and the Tour de Langkawi, which was part of the compulsory C2HC calendar. Along with the set ultimate goal for an outright win (next to impossible) this was the start of the season for Petar Panayotov, who returned to the team for a second season. While the team didn't expect to be factor in the flat sprint stages, Michael Vanderaerden did actually scored decent Top 10 finishes in some stages including 2nd in Stage 4 behind ENI-MOL's Kobe Vanoverschelde. And as faith would have it Vanoverschelde got the upper had of our sprinter in the following stages, with the exception of Stage 7, but both finished well behind - it was our loanee Schlegel who had great performance, narrowly missing the podium. As for Panayotov - after quiet Stage 3 where he was 3 minutes behind Jaime Suaza in the GC, in Stage 5, which was the queen stage, Pana finished 8th which was enough to finish 9th in the GC. With this the team reached its minimal goal of Top 10 finish despite not reaching the ultimate goal.
Then the team traveled to Ireland and the Ras Tailteann - this race was purely a test one and the team didn't expect anything from it, being mostly in the middle of the peloton. The following C1 race however was one that the team has set to be the first test for the Panardet duo of Panayotov and Romain Bardet - Volta a Catalunya. The duo was riding in the Top 25 in the GC with both losing time on the TT which hampered their chances of moving up in the pecking order and it's going to be monitored by the team. Eventually, Bardet had to settle for 15th, while Panayotov missed out on Top 20 by some 7 seconds. But the star of the race for us was Hideto Nakane - the Japaneese rider, signed from the Repsol outfit, came from humble beginnings in Venezuela and Malaysia, but in Catalunya he was fighting Alberto Contador for mountain points, eventually beating him 82:66 to take the first ever classification jersey win in the team's history.
Then it was again a compulsory C2HC event - Gisborne GP. The hilly terrain was not the cup of tea for us with Thomas Degand being our best rider in lowly 48th. But what followed next was the best race of the season for us and in our history yet - Hong Kong Challenge. This event was 3 day challenge featuring Sprint stage, Time Trail and Mountain finish stage. The first two stages were so so with Dion Beukeboom finishing 17th in the TT, but no one predicted what would come in the final stage with finish at Tai Mo Shan. Less than 9 km to go, Dario Cataldo from Campari - Super Dry launched an final assault from the peloton with Panayotov following suit. The duo quickly caught and passed the then leader in the stage Michael Cuming. Cataldo tried to open a gap, but to no avail and in the last kilometer Pana launched a surprisng attack on the climb, winning the stage and had realistic chance of even scoring Adastra's first GC. Little did he know Leopold König finished 25 seconds later, securing the GC with 10 second gap ahead of Pana. As consolation prize Pana became co-winner in the Points Standings along with the previous two stage winners - Nathan Haas and Kai Reus. The team's combined efforts were morphed into 2nd in the teams standings.
With the 2018 MGUCI season comming to its climax, things became to look up for the Adastra - Argon 18 operation. With solid results from Petar Panayotov and the supporting cast the team, dating all the way back to 2016 as Vivacom - DataMap, out of obscure backmarker to a legit contender for podiums and win. And things were set to be brighter. Until...
Argon 18 had made weeks ago a press conference at which the Adastra Cycling Ltd (the parent company) were present. The announcemet was shocking - Argon 18 announced that they're not going to renew their contract with the team beyond the end of the 2018 season. This came as a shock to the media as it was assumed that Argon 18 will continue provide bikes for the team for at least another year. The primary reason for Argon's departure according to one journalist was the requirement by MGUCI to re-homologate the bikes from brands not in the published list. Since Argon 18 were not included, they had to go through that process and the fee for that homologation didn't please the owners of the bike manufacturer.
"We're announcing that our agreement with Adastra Cycling Ltd., which is set to expire at the end of the 2018 MGUCI season, will not be renewed. Both parties agreed upon this and Adastra Cycling Ltd. is free to negotiate with any bycicle manufacturer for 2019 and beyond. No further information will be released at the moment. Thank you." - these were the words of the former cyclist and current Argon 18 owner Gervais Rioux. "With our deep regret we confirm that Adastra Cycling Ltd. will not continue riding with Argon 18 bikes for the 2019 season. We want to thank Gervais Rioux and his team for the massive support to the team over the past 2 years." - said Ivaneurope, CEO of the Adastra Cycling Ltd.
With Argon 18's departure two questions rise. The first is who will be the new bike supplier. It seems that the team will go with one of the published with BMC and Giant being the rumoured frontrunners of replacing Argon 18. Another quiestion is how the team will be named. As of now the team is called Adastra - Argon 18, but with the departure of the bike manufacturer, another name change is on the horizon. Reports say that Metinvest, previously sponsoring the Metinvest-Dacia World Tour team disbanded in late 2017, isn't willing to commit again as co-title sponsor although they've shown interest to continue as strategic partner. Rumours circulate that Hungarian energy drink company HELL Energy could be in line to become the team's second title sponsor.
With the season nearing the end, Adastra - Argon 18 will send yet another season of underachievement. The team currently sits at 13th place with no chance of going higher, so this has put a wrench in the promotion aspirations even though the team won Giro del Trentino and Vilnius GP. "We're not entirely happy with the overall performace this season. Even though we've won some races and secondary classification, I think there's still to improve in some areas if we really want promotion to PCT. " - said Ivaneurope, CEO of Adastra Cycling.
There is some news on the sponsorship spectre - as recently reported by PCMDailyNews.com Adastra Cycling has signed a new sponsorship deal with Hell Energy Drink with the Hungarian brand entering as co-sponsor of the team. This also means that the team name will be changed to Adastra - Hell Energy Cycling to reflect the sponsorship change. "We're delighted that Hell Energy is joining forces with us. Having them secures our participation for the 2019 season" - said Andrey Zeits, Executive of cycling operations of Adastra Cycling. Hell Energy replace Argon 18 as naming rights sponsors after the Canadian bike manufacturer announced its departure. It was rumoured that the Hell Energy sponsorship and name change will kick in at the Zuri Metzgete, but accourding to sources this request was rejected by the MGUCI stating that "...any sponsorhip and name changes come into effect starting from January 1st the following year."
Meanwhile sportswear manufacturer Errea will help Bioracer with the jersey design for 2019 according to MGGazetta.it. It's believed that the jersey will be loosely based on the 2018-19 Parma Calcio 1913 football team third kit design. The jersey's main color is understood to be predominantly white with red and black accents.
Meanwhile Canyon has entered the talks for potential new bycicle supplier for the team. The new bike partner will be announced at the end of the season.
The logo of Hell could make for an interesting and distinctive jersey if the cosponsor has a big impact on the jersey design. Lets hope that the riders will ride with a burning passion otherwise... nah, im not gonna start with bad word plays already
knockout wrote:
The logo of Hell could make for an interesting and distinctive jersey if the cosponsor has a big impact on the jersey design. Lets hope that the riders will ride with a burning passion otherwise... nah, im not gonna start with bad word plays already
did take a look, this would've matched very well with the old Vesuvio days
Absolutely. Didnt know the sponsor either but with that name i had to look it up. Immediately imagined a bright red a bit like Vesuvio too. White/Red/Black can work too although i struggle to imagine how exactly it would look.
Breaking News: Due to uncertainty with the Bulgarian Cycling Union, Adastra Cycling Ltd., announces that for the 2019 MGUCI season will compete under Canadian license. At the moment there are no plans for applying for second national license and as of now no talks were started.
I like the setup, as it very much resembles a real CT setup. Not too much focus on nationality, while still having a notable region. Also experienced riders aren't just cut from the team if a younger similar rider can be signed. The latter is probably the reason why you haven't had the needed succes though.
Too many riders without any real pointscoring ability, that basically covers areas where you already are covered well. F.e. your climbing department are pretty good with riders such as Panayotov, Bardet, Nakane and Degand. The rest (Hughes, Matte, Belkov, Bjelmark and Ebsen) are basically doing nothing. I believe the pointscorings tell this pretty much too if we take a look.
The 4 I mention scored 567 points on wages covered 340K. Points in terms of wages 1,67. Pretty decent outing. Could be better, could be worse.
the remaining 5 scored 61 points on wages covered 250K. Points in terms of wages 0,24. This is not good. Not good at all! Especially not from riders that are fully maxed. Had it been level 1-3 guys, then OK. Part of a plan. Also I don't see any of those 5 actually contributing to your story line, and to me they seem to be picked purely on their MO stat, to back up your leaders. But they don't need THAT much help. Honestly I don't see them doing more in terms of helping than Schlegl, Grabovski or even Stoenchev to be honest.
So my suggestion would be to lower the amount of helpers - even in key areas, and spend the money on fewer - but better - riders.
Huge kudos to make Vanderaerden work this well though!
And I must say - Even if Grega Bole is among the worst pointscorers for you, I believe riders like him is the way to go if you are to sign 50 riders. He can work for you in mulitple terrains, and if you have a leader, I believe stats like this should be sufficient aslong as the rider is versatile!
One more thing though. You desperately need a decent puncheur to survive - no matter which division you are in, having no puncheur is a no go. Whether you want a TT puncheur, a mountain puncheur or a sprint puncheur may not be so important (as long as you plan for it), but you desperately need one in order to go up.
If I take out the 3 youngest riders in your team, your team have an AVR age of 31,4. THIS season. Maybe something to take a look at too, in order to keep a steady progression. Riders like Schlegel, Kukrle, Yzeiraj and Stoenchev is probably the way to go, although maybe they need to be slightly better once maxing if you also want to benefit from them once you go up. I do believe you are on the correct path, and have done very well from where you started out, though! And I do believe that you will promote next season
NB: I know the czech guys are loanies, I just use them as an example for riders that could suit your team very well in the future. Also don't be afraid to sign and loan out a rider that you can't develop yourself - like Stoenchev. the points lost is not much, but the points that could be gained from having him maxed next season could be the difference between going up or not.
Thanks for the advice. Yeah, this team really needs young and fresh blood and quite frankly I think my team is one of the oldest, if not THE oldest team in the ManGame averaging 29 y.o. and without my 3 youngest riders it goes over 30. Panayotov is 31 and may have few years more on top level, but maybe it's time to find more similar younger rider to act as secondary leader as Bardet isn't getting younger and overall he's underperformed with just 132 points. Though the experiment of having both in a single race worked out.
Vanderaerden, who was my second best rider, was basically a steal having taken him in the free rider draft, but the lack of supporting cast and much stronger opposition with high Acceleration really hampered the chances. Maybe I'll have to sign few riders that will act as sprint support, but what if I get my hands on even better sprinter? In the draft I was pondering if I should give Kip a chance, but instead passed on him though in the end both ended on similar points.
Out of the time trail specialists - the second strong position - I think Grabovski and Marchewka will most likely stay. In Vilnius GP I've basically stacked my best TT riders and it really paid off. On the other hand Beukeboom turned out to be one of the huge busts and almost certainly getting the chop.
I think the riders that will 99.9% stay are Panayotov, Bardet, Vanderaerden, Grabovski, Nakane and Marchewka.
Riders that could stay (50/50 chance): Matte, Hughes, Stoenchev, Degand and Bjelkmark
Riders that are leaving: Mihaylov, Hristov, Zaraliev, Bole, Yzeiraj, Ebsen, Beukeboom, Belkov and Dupont
