IMAX
The Canadian's who created the best film format provide a unique partnership. Global reach, constant evolutions, a great sponsorship that returns after a long break. They would love a strong North American representation on the team as we shift more back to our roots.
Caribbean Tourism
A region wider sponsor consisting of numerous stake holders from small shacks selling Piragua, up to major Government departments. A major player on the team and heralding our major focus shift to the great Islands with the white beaches and incredible sporting passion.
Mount Gay Rum
The Barbadian alcohol firm is the oldest producer of Rum in the entire world. It's a huge global brand with interests in all markets, especially the Americas. For them growing brand awareness against other Caribbean companies is key, doing this on a platform of local riders could be fun.
Mauritius Commercial Bank
The Mauritian bank is the largest and oldest in the country. In the last few years it's been a real innovator and grower in the African market. A great opportunity for them to begin growing more globally and for us to get a unique partner. They love marketing one of the two females in the peloton.
Hincapie Sportswear
The American sportswear manufacturer continues with the team this year. Steeped in cycling history the famous Hincapie name is well known in the top echelons of cycling. A growing market globally they want more North American rider presence to market from.
Scott Sports
The Swiss bike manufacturer continues as an official partner. It's not about being Swiss, it's about being fast! And Scott make some of the quickest bikes on the planet. A long history of innovation, including the aero (aka Tri) handlebars, just perfect for a sprinting and flat based squad.
Shimano
The Japanese firm is one the biggest players in the world of cycling. Their components are on an insane number of bikes and teams. It's a quality partnership that will only benefit the team, and given their global position any strong riders are enough to keep them happy.
Sea Turtle Conservation
Our all-new NC sponsor. Cycling is one way to save the planet, so at the same time we want to boost our eco footprint. We are raising awareness of a range of projects across the Caribbean to try and protect as many of these amazing animals as possible.
Kraken
Our partnership management unit handling the day-to-day running of the franchise. The revolutionary partnership will help drive the teams counter-culture concepts and boost us to a new age!
Goals Barbados Cycling Festival - Top 5 - PASS 5th Caleb Ewan Tour of the Battenkill - Win - FAIL 14th Marcos Altur Down Under Classic - Win - FAIL 8th Caleb Ewan Chrono d'Arenberg - Win - CLOSE 2nd Alex Cataford Team Standings - Win
Well, we relegated. For what is technically only the second time in our history, despite three bottom-5 finishes. And means hold a 3-2 Promotion/Relegation record, despite only one top-5 finish. We make no sense a team... at all...
It was a valiant ProTour season. Caleb Ewan continued to prove he's amongst the top of the top sprinters in the world. AC proved to be a surprisingly strong force. Supa-Nova was arguably the surprise of the season. And overall we put up a strong battle despite being massively outclassed in every aspect from wage spend to talents. Heck, we lasted an entire Grand Tour before being bottom of the rankings.
Back in the PCT for a fifth time, starting to feel like home! Our main target for this season is to NOT become the first back-to-back relegation team. But doing so whilst sticking to our teams key focus on only flat courses could be interesting.
We can't talk about renewals yet (although my god have we dropped a ton of hints during Worlds and the entire previous season), so there are two special posts to come. What we can say is that our new management partnership with the Seattle Kraken is off to a good start.
Yes we've switched up our sponsors quite a bit this season! Kraken replace Canucks at a management franchise level. Antofagasta are gone after we failed to get any South Americans. Avanti are gone as a bike sponsor, replaced by Scott who bring great history and skills. McLaren are also gone as they suffer some serious financial issues at home. In comes IMAX Corporation, loving the success of AC and marketability of Wolverine, and Movistar, backing Altur and a small but strong European set.
Jersey design to be confirmed, but don't worry we'll still be representing the Pink and colorful! A few changes going on but we are still the fun loving, not so serious, count-culture cycling team you all barely tolerate!
New season, new sponsors, new avatar, still all the best gifs I hear the Kraken has a top notch analytics department, could come in handy in the transfer window!
Can you tell what team inspired this piece of art? the_hoyle crushed it, as per usual. Brand new design to go with the new sponsors, but same completely wild style and color choices.
Goddamn this is the best jersey since our last one! One day it will be possible to gif's on jerseys... until then...
The Great Big "Goddamn Legend, National Hero and Cult Icon" Post
Martin "The Goddamn Legend, National Hero and Cult Icon" Grashev. For the 32 year old Bulgarian to finish in the Top20 of a World Championship is absolutely incredible! Completely justifies bringing the worlds to Bulgaria and really puts the full stop on what has been a long long project.
All the way from Boeing-Bulgaria Bicycling newbies, cobbles defined my team and Grashev was more than excellent support to Geraint Thomas (also now departing the squad, more on the "King of Herning" soon) and to Burghardt and to Altur. Guiding all of them to exceptional results.
The 2015 E3 Prijs, defeating Vanspeybrouck in a one-vs-one, was an absolute career highlight and he only major win. But my word what a win! Only a handful of classics men can say they beat Pieter, Summerhill and Boonen in a fair race, Martin Grashev is on that unique list alongside the company of Sam Bewley!
He has also claimed a National Title for himself, but on African Cobbles (yes that's a whole unique category i've decided) he made himself known. Completely bucking the trend to finish on the podium in multiple years of the GP Kigali, as well as single handedly trying to prevent relegation in the Tour de Faso 2014 (i hope it was 2014...). Martin Grashev, he will never be celebrated like Pate or Kagestad or the MG legends like Cunego or Schleck. But he is without question one of the finest bike riders around.
If no-one claims your legendary skills in transfers we will bring you back as a DS to tutor the next generation of unique talents.
Martin we, the people of the MG, your loyal supporters for 7 years, and you country men on home soil, salute you!
The Great Big "Once, Twice, Three Times A King" Post
Geraint Thomas became the Million Dollar Man. He was our teams first ever leader and is just about still our Best Rider, although the Pocket Rocket will definitely pass him this coming year. G has definied this squad since it's inception and to not have the Brit on the team leaves a strange hole in our identity.
The percentage of MG riders who have ever won a race is tiny. The number that have won the same race twice, even smaller. To win one race three times, only the absolute very best of the absolute very best can claim the feat.
Yes, i'm shouting loundly that G is one of the MG's all-time absolute very best of the absolute very best!
Sorry... did i say three times? Of course i mean Four. Four Times a Champion. At this point you can count the number of riders to acheive this on your hands alone.
GP Herning, that well known northern classic. The Danish cobbles have been dominated by Geraint Thomas. Way way way back in 2009 Geraint won solo ahead of Magnus Backstedt (seriously, go back and look at the names in this race, the MG was very very different thing). But that wasn't for us, so who really cares too much.
I'm here to talk about 2016, 2017 and 2018. The hat-trick! Honestly this just gets more an more impressive for G, the list of hat-trick champions is tiny.
2016 - Outsprinting the great Summerhill, and 9 others, by a clear two bike lengths in the rain.
2017 - Outsprinting the surprise Daniel, and 13 others, by a clear five bike lengths after Burghardt played perfect attacking foil.
2018 - Outsprinting Van Kiersbulck, and 10 others, by a clear five bike lengths.
There's a pattern there, but that's what Thomas was always best at. Hang in over the bumps and kill with his finishing speed. When paired with the powerhouse Burghardt this was a dangerous combo that helps promote us to the PT.
And that's not counting our 2016 CT season where G took a further three victories at that level, to finish 6th in the Individual Ranking.
Geraint Thomas was a superstar for us. An absolute hero. One of the best classics riders year in and year out, despite not being a great climber. He has left the team physically, but we will always carry G in our hearts!
The moment no-one claims him in transfers he'll be joining us as a DS. But maybe, just maybe, the Welshman has one final burst of speed in his legs!
The loss of Grashev, "Supa-Nova" and Thomas, going to be a hard time coping! But that jersey is a nice start
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
That's what we start renewals with. Stand out renewal, getting the World Champion for just 100k!
...
Oh, you say this isn't real? ... weird....
Who's up for grabs in transfers?
Keukeleire - We can't keep spelling his name correctly and it's embarassing. We're open to offers but he can help Ewan and Altur so i'm not desparate.
Nelson - In the CT he's a weapon, above that he struggles. Not desparate to sell but we'll take offers seriously.
Lilovski - The Last of the Bulgarians! As we completely abandon going uphill he's out of road. And he's still got one more level up to go.
Lawless - The Last of the Brits! As we completely abandon going uphill he's out of road. And he's still got one more level up to go.
Not much to say there. It's a bit of a blank year. Shifting out cap space on relegation, getting the last year from a few priced veterans. Next year we'll be busier, for now we're just trying to secure a PCT space and get a little training done.
Incoming
Jon Ander Insausti <-- Repsol <-- Swap
Jon Aberasturi <-- Europcar <-- 200k
Ramon Domene <-- Polar <-- 165k
Jannik Steimle <-- Puma <-- Loan
David Dekker <-- Free Agent
Overall
We sold off almost all our time trialists, for over 1million total! Why not also sell AC? We love him after a strong PT season and couldn't bare to part with him this time around.
OK has also gone out, on Loan, to reach lvl 4.00.
We took that 1mil, and used it to accidently create a Spanish core! Aberasturi is a handy sprint leadout, Insausti is decent cobbles support, and Domene is a C2 secret weapon and strong support.
Also agreed a deal with Team Puma for a young sprinter, earning us a nice 80k bonus.
Finally we have made just the one Free Agent signing, David Dekker. The Dutchman has a great future as a sprinter with good cobbles ability. And starting with 70FL, 73ST & 73RS is just amazing! Cost a lot at 130k, but a worthwhile investment for the future.
Twenty riders, inside the Wage Cap after relegating, and generating a good chunk of spare cash for training purposes. I really think this should be enough to secure a PCT spot next year, when we'll get an instant cap saving on Kek and Ricki of 350k.
So, fellow MG managers, what you think of the Podium Ambitions?
Looks pretty good to me. Caleb Ewan should dominate with his stats and his awesome leadout. Altur also has great support for the cobbles. Cataford should do really well with his skillset, and Kek and Ricki could get some chances to shine themselves.
Scott Sports
I hear the Kraken has a top notch analytics department, could come in handy in the transfer window!
