While our last update pretty much predicted it, the whole renewal period was stunning, even for the manager. We couldn't reach an agreement with G and see two of our top 3 scorers, our two best Brits, leave the team. Playing with fire, we also decided not to continue with Schorn despite his recent HIL 75 upgrade.
We did ensure that Ruben and Ian stay and also kept Monsalve on his minimum wage with a late contract offer. We are left with just 15 riders in the main team, with just one captain, but plenty of cash on hand..
News is coming out from Suntory that, despite being offered a substantial pay increase, aging star sprinter MARK CAVENDISH has not agreed terms with manager DaveTwoBob and will take his chances on the Free Agent market.
DaveTwoBob has been unavailable for comment but close associates have been unofficially reporting comments on the lines of “greedy ancient Manx bastard” have been overheard.
In contrast ROMAIN BARDET has been seen smiling in an exclusive car dealership, his wage negotiations must have gone well!
Some other riders have been looking downbeat with reports of 10 team members not being renewed. We can be sure Suntory will be active in the transfer market.
Not surprised that Suntory is dropping Cav. He had an outstanding performance though so he will likely find a contract very fast. Looking forward to Bardet V2.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Few weeks ago, a local journalist published some photos figuring Brugse Zot riders with a never seen before kit, assuming it could be the new season one. Team manager wanted to comment this leakage: "Yes, the new kit will appear very similar to that...anyway we were out just for testing new materials, and as you can see riders were wearing also old shorts. The graphic of the jersey wasn't the definitive one that we'll use next season, but there are just minor changes than that used there. I can show you the front of the jersey and nothing more at the moment, but we are close to the full unveiling."
Daniel Martin has announced he will retire after the conclusion of the 2020 season. The Équipe Cycliste Peugeot rider can look back on a glorious career in the Ardennes, Vuelta (stage win last season pictured) and other hilly races, but the time has come to hang up his bike. He has a valid contract with Peugeot for his final season, but they have no expectations for him in the top races. He might wish to spend his final season hunting for glory at a lower level.
Apart from Martin, eighteen other riders have renewed their contract with Équipe Cycliste Peugeot. Jérôme Cousin, Pascal Jacquin, Guillaume Mayeux, Michael Schär and Albert Torres have not been offered a new contract and have left the team. All other riders entered negotiations and were able to secure a new contract at a wage acceptable to both parties.
At the development team Équipe Developpement Citroën, only one rider change takes place. Gratien Casse's development has not been up to standard and he will be replaced by new recruit Raphael Laugier. The seven other riders will continue for their second or third year, hoping they can make the jump to the main team next season.
An unlikely partnership has begun. Guinness has teamed up with cell phone maker turned security software developer BlackBerry to create a new professional cycling team. The team will be based in Dublin, Ireland, with headquarters for the development team, BlackBerry Limited U23, located in Toronto, Canada. The team will honor its Canadian identity by riding Cervélo bikes this season, and will be clothed by Northwave. Irish software vendor Openet is said to be contributing some funds as well.
Little is known about the direction the team will take. A classics focus has been hinted at by team officials, but sponsor representatives have been emphasizing their desire for GC performances in their introductory speeches. One thing is for certain: the team will be looking to field the majority of its riders from Ireland and Canada.
For now, we are left with just the jersey the team will presumably wear this season, leaked to the press earlier today. It's style and precision is... questionable, to say the least. Word is that it was designed by the team manager, despite him having absolutely no prior experience with such work. Nevertheless, it will at least prominently display the sponsors, which should keep them happy if results come.
Spoiler
Yes, I actually made this jersey. Yes, I actually tried. No, it's not a joke.
Team 43 - formerly known as TVM Cycling Team - are proud to announce that we have secured funding for the upcoming ICL20 season.
The team's future was in doubt after the former sponsor withdrew during the middle of last season, leaving many riders and staff in limbo for the past five months. After many discussions with potential suitors over the team's direction, focus and team ethos, we have reached an agreement which will see the team continue riding in the World Tour for another year.
After arduous work behind the scenes, we can now officially reveal that the team will now be known as Baku Synergy Plus. The team's name reflects that of our major sponsors (the Azeri city of Baku and the Synergy Group) along with the many others whose financial and logistical support have been crucial to allow us to continue into 2020. The team's headquarters will remain in the Netherlands for now, with many of our staff and riders still residing in Europe.
We can't wait to get started and would like to thank everyone whose contributions have made this possible. Further announcements will be coming soon, including our first re-signings for the season ahead and the presentation of our new team jersey.
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the official launch of the Cycling Down Under Program, operating one of the newest professional cycling teams to join the Continental Tour in 2020. This team will be known as Strava - Avanti, and as you can see from the official kit, we will be decked out in the vibrant Strava orange with some white and black rounding out the kit nicely.
Our title sponsors Strava and the NZ-based Avanti occupy the most real estate on the kit, and they will be providing crucial finance, equipment, and logistics support throughout the season. We will have additional support from Pearl Izumi and Oakley providing clothing, shoes, glasses, and some of the extra cash needed to get through a long season of racing. Lastly, I have to thank our individual backers for supporting this project, as without them we would likely not have had enough funding to meaningfully participate in the Continental Tour.
Cycling Down Under Program
Australia has long been a formidable force in world cycling, with numerous riders claiming impressive international results over the years. The island nation is a stalwart in the professional scene, but for 2020 it was apparent that there would be no teams from Australia participating in the World Tour or Continental Tour.
Enter Martin Sterling, a businessman and avid amateur cyclist hailing from Adelaide. Sterling knew that there ought to be a professional team for Australians to fly their flag under, and so he set about founding the Cycling Down Under Program. The organization's name takes influence from the Tour Down Under, a race Sterling held dear as it rolled through his home city every year. The goal of the program is to provide a consistent pathway for both veteran and rookie professional cyclists to remain competing on the world stage. The focus is mainly on Australia for the 2020 season, and with only a Continental team in operation, but in future there are plans to have an U23 development team, and a more broadened focus on New Zealand, South Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Riders So Far
At this early stage in the transfer period, we have just four riders confirmed to be joining us for the upcoming racing season. We will have two talented U23 riders getting an opportunity to train and race on the world stage, Mitchell Jones and 19-year-old Ioannis Foster.
These two young talents will not be without guidance, thanks to our other two signings. Transferring from our friends on the other side of the Earth at Grupo Argos - Quala, are Angus Chapman and Louis Meintjes. Chapman is going to be one of our main leaders for when the roads get steep, and Meintjes is a reliable workhorse who will be able to serve our captains well, along with advising our younger members. Despite the World Tour experience these two will be bringing to the table, at 25 and 28 respectively they still have great years ahead of them and we look forward to working with them for as long as we are able.
We are currently in talks with many other riders to complete our roster for the 2020 season, but we cannot yet provide any details on that. I will be happy to update you on our roster at the end of the transfer season once the rest of the squad is finalized. With that, our team presentation will now come to a close. I thank all those who have tuned in, and we look forward to making Australia proud in the year ahead.
We caught up with KBC – Godiva manager Willie McRettin from the Casa Medina Bogotá following the news that Nairo Quintana has signed a free agent deal with KBC.
Willie, you must feel good about having such a great rider on board?
Aye, very good, a little hungover, but very good. He is a great, great, lad, not a big lad mind you, quite a small one actually, but great. Very great. We all celebrated here at the bar last night, me and Nikolay [Mihaylov] and Nairo and a bunch of guys who I think were with Nairo but might just have been locals. Anyway, we were a happy bunch, except for Nairo, he is too much of a professional to be that happy, not to say he wasnae happy, he just wasnae feckin happy, if you know what I mean. I woke up this morning in a panic because I thought I might have offered a contract to Lucho, the bartender at the Casa Medina, on the basis of his name having good history and his bartending skills. Turns out I didnae, I think maybe Nairo made sure that the offer got lost in translation. He is a great, great lad, very happy to have signed him. Did you know he has won the Tour 3 times? Feck.
Your team was just promoted under a special exception and you have always emphasized the humble nature of your team – how did you end up pursuing, perhaps, the best grand tour rider of his generation?
It started with Hans at the bank, a few weeks before the signing season he phones me up and says: “I know you didn’t expect to make the World Tour Willie, but now you have, and the bank can’t handle the negative publicity of getting relegated so you have to avoid that.” I started to protest but he goes right on – “I know that is a challenge but to help out I got the quants in our derivatives group to do some math and they tell me if you can score 6,000 points you have a good chance to stay up – so there you go, done, 6,000 points, don’t get relegated.” And he hangs up. So I’m fecked.
I was back at the Grand in Brussels so naturally I spent a few days drowning my sorrows. And then something my granny used to say came to me, she would say “Willie, if you going to drink good feckin’ Bordeaux you may as well drink a bottle of 2009 Château Haut-Brion.” Loved her expensive Bordeaux did granny. So, I realized I may as well go to the feckin top and take a run at Nairo. I got him on the phone and sung him a few verses from ”I’m Gonna Be” so he knew how much I wanted him. Nikolay said it was feckin’ creepy but what does that bastard know – turns out Nairo loves Scottish alternative rock. And the rest is history, you shoulda seen the wee lad belting out the lyrics to all the Scottish classics when we were doing karaoke at the bar last night. Turns out he is a pretty feckin good singer too – of course I was few Jack and Tonics in by then.
You have some other signings, what are your highlights there?
Great lads, big, beef-fed Belgian lads. Got to bring the team's average weight back up with Nairo onboard. Great lads all of them. Will tell you more when I figure out how to pronounce their names.
You have also made some progress with your U23 team, what has you strategy been there?
My strategy has been to tell Nikolay to get on with it. Once the bank said I could only sign riders from our focus countries and no Scots, I lost feckin interest. I did make him sign the Irish lad, Eiber Mudd, just because of his name but other than that it is all Nikolay. I think Nikolay is laboring under the misapprehension that the only kind of bike racing that matters is time trialing. I haven’t looked myself but I suspect we may have a lot of time trial specialists, and not much else. Of course, the big, feckin problem with that is all the extra money we will have spend on national champions kit 5-years from now. Do you know what it cost me to get Nikolay and Ryan’s [Mullen] kit done up special? Feck.
What are your plans for the rest of the transfer season?
Well, I want to find Anthony Hubert. I appear to have signed him when I clicked on the wrong button on one of the ICL’s whiz-bang spreadsheets. I am sure he is great lad, but if you are out there Anthony, please get in touch. Other than that I cannae tell you much, because as the great Kenny Rogers once said “Never count your cards while your sittin’ at the table”.
Ulrich Ulriksen wrote: You have some other signings, what are your highlights there?
Great lads, big, beef-fed Belgian lads. Got to bring the team's average weight back up with Nairo onboard. Great lads all of them. Will tell you more when I figure out how to pronounce their names.
Said by the manager who has McCalmont Tighearnach on his team
Welcome to the Headquarters of newly founded CT team Tierra del Fuego (TDF)! You will find everything you need to know about our main and U23 teams on this site, which will be regularly updated throughout the upcoming season! Glad to have you here!
When talking about South American cyclists, everyone thinks of the Colombian climbers, eventually mentioning the Venezuelans as well. In fact, there are 107 Colombians in the ICL database, which is by far the highest number of any Latin American country - followed by Brazil with 33.
Argentina and Chile together have a total of 39 riders - and have now decided to increase this number! They have chosen the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego - also known as Fireland - to symbolize their cooperation, as this territory is divided between both countries.
For the start of their project, the partner countries, along with the sponsors that will presented later on, have decided to focus on Latin riders in general, before narrowing their focus to Argentina and Chile once the program is fruitfully established. For this to happen as soon as possible, it has also been decided to start a U23 team alongside the "main" squad. And while the Tierra del Fuego team will compete under Argentinean flag - given that this country has the greater share of said Archipelago and will invest more money - the U23 team will switch countries on a yearly basis, in order to cover both countries as well as possible. The junior team has been baptised Los Gauchitos (GAU) - the little cowboys.
It may happen that the talent pool proves to be too small, in which case the team will keep its focus on entire South Amercia, but the goal is to promote homegrown talents as much as possible!
The Sponsors
The national cycling associations of Argentina and Chile are the project's main promoters, and hence the main sponsors.
But of course, such a project requires more mone - and who says money says bank. In fact, the Banco de Tierra del Fuego, based in Ushuaia, the world's most southern city, will be one of the team's secondary sponsors in the inaugural season.
The other secondary sponsor is Tierra del Fuego's tourism association, represented by the world's most southern railway, the Tren del Fin del Mundo - the Train of the End of the World. It doesn't come as a surprise that team manager Mr. Fabianski managed to talk them into a sponsorship, given a similar project run by him in the MGUCI world.
Ulrich Ulriksen wrote: You have some other signings, what are your highlights there?
Great lads, big, beef-fed Belgian lads. Got to bring the team's average weight back up with Nairo onboard. Great lads all of them. Will tell you more when I figure out how to pronounce their names.
Said by the manager who has McCalmont Tighearnach on his team
He was on the team last year, so had a year to work on that one.
Suntory 
Guinness Cycling p/b BlackBerry 
CCC Sprandi Polkowice 
Angus Chapman and 
Louis Meintjes. Chapman is going to be one of our main leaders for when the roads get steep, and Meintjes is a reliable workhorse who will be able to serve our captains well, along with advising our younger members. Despite the World Tour experience these two will be bringing to the table, at 25 and 28 respectively they still have great years ahead of them and we look forward to working with them for as long as we are able.
