"The Green Hell - situated in the marvelous Eifel Mountains, this track have tested man and machine. Many people have tried - some failed, others succeeded. And those who have succeeded had their names immortallized on these twisty roads - Ascari, Fatina, Fangio, Behra, Moss, Brabham, Clark, Stewart, Ickx, Bellof. Even after the horrific incident that nearly took the life of Niki Lauda in 1976, tales on this mythical place were still written. Even after a purpose-built racing cricuit was built right next to these majestic roads and where legends like Prost, Schumacher, Häkkinen to even the modern day heroes in Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso left their mark, the roads in the Eifel forests continue mesmerize everyone. Flugplatz, Fuchsröhre, Bergwerk, Karussell, Brünnchen, Pflanzgarten, Stefan Bellof S and Schwalbenschwanz - they are part of the legend of the Nordschleife. Now, a new chapter will be written as the Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling team presents its roster for the 2020 MGUICI PCT season."

That's how the official presentation of the team's roster started in front of hunrdeds of guests which also included fellow ManGame managers. "We would like to thank each and eveyone of you who accepted our invitation to view Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling's official team presentation" - said ivaneurope, CEO of Adastra Hyundai N Cycling GmbH. Among the guests were also some of Hyundai Motorsport's drivers like Thierry Neuville, Ött Tänak, Gabrielle Tarquini and Norbert Michelisz with Hyundai showcasing their i20 Coupé WRC, i20 R5, i30 N TCR and Veleoster N TCR cars on the track in the cycling team's colors.

The team then introduced its riders for 2020 in several groups. The first group consisted of the riders who stayed with the team - Petar Panayotov, Hersony Canelon, Tom Thiil, Krzysztof Marchewka, Valentin Stoenchev, Ramunas Navardauskas as well as the departing Max Losch, Xhuliano Kamberaj and Riccardo Zoidl. "First and foremost I'd like to thank Riccardo and Xhuliano for their service during last season - we wish them well in their new teams. I'd also like to thank Aker - MOT for loaning in Max Losch in his efforts to reach 4.1 XP level".

The second group was the free agent acquisitions - headlined by Georg Preidler and joined by Momchil Robov, Damion Drapac, Lortents Ola Aasvold, Martin Grashev and Jempy Drucker. When aksed about Preidler's wage, ivaneurope said that for him "not a single cent was spared" and stated that securing big name free agent was a top priority. He was also asked why they decided to sign Grashev so late in the transfer window and his answer was the following: "Martin was considering retirement after the nationals and we weren't sure about his fit within the team, but after we made a couple of moves, we've finally decided to make a phone call and he accepted. A veteran leadership is always important"

The next group consisted of the transfer acquisitions - Andreas Stauff, Alexander Kristoff, Leopold Konig, Sebastian Lander and Bjorn Thurau. Stauff and Lander came in as parts of swap deals that involved Zoidl and Kamberaj respectively. But the real prize along with Preidler was the landing of Kristoff, who came in as part of the package with Konig. From the Norwegian veteran is expected to bring experience in the cobbles, which until this point was a weak spot. "With Kristoff and Lander we have riders that can tackle the cobblestones - an area our team has lacked a true leader in"

And last but not least, the final group was introduced - the loans and stagiares. The team had successfully managed to loan very interesting riders - Jakub Otruba, Sergio Higuita, Remy Rochas and Lennard Kämna. "We would like to presernt these fine young riders which are going to be the future of cycling. We'd like to thank the managers who loaned them to us and be assured that their time here will be memorable." The team also introduced Martin Lavric and Markus Wildauer who will start the season as stgaiares.

The team is now looking forward to the 2020 seaso.

Unlike the grand presentation at the Nürburgring, the Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling decided to present its NC jerseys reveal with less fanfare with an online presentation at the Kappa headquarters in Turin, Italy.

The Bulgaria NC jersey which will be worn by Momchil Robov (RR) and Valentin Stoenchev (TT)

The Lithuania NC Jersey which will be worn by Ramunas Navardauskar (both RR and TT)

The Luxembourg NC jersey which will be worn by Tom Thiil (both RR and TT)
The Poland NC Jersey which will be worn by Krzysztof Marchewka (TT)

This extensive report encompasses the races in January and February as well as the Geraardsbergen-Bosberg

Lineup: Andreas Stauff, Jakub Otruba, Sergio Higuita, Damion Drapac, Momchil Robov, Sbeastian Lander, Martin Grashev, Krzysztof Marchewka

Our season started with the Down Under Classic in Melbourne. As reflected by the starting lineup, this race was classified as a filler race with no real expectations. As expected the team wasn’t one of the frontrunners with Lander being the highest classified rider. Stauff got dropped with less than 20 km left and unfortunately finished nearly 3 minutes behind.

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Lineup: Andreas Stauff, Jakub Otruba, Sergio Higuita, Damion Drapac, Momchil Robov, Sbeastian Lander, Martin Grashev, Krzysztof Marchewka

Unlike most teams, who fielded tweaked lineups, Adastra decided to go compact by fielding the same lineup from several days earlier. Like the Down Under Classic, the Tour Down Under was also a filler race with no real expectations. Right at the start of the race the veteran Grashev joined the breakaway, while scoring 8 points in the KoM classification. Marchewka also entered a break in Stage 2 while Robov was involved in stages 3 and 5. Even though the GC was out of reach, the team was pleased with it’s riders’ involvement in breakaway groups. In the final stage of the race the local rider Drapac yielded the first Top 5 stage finish by finishing 5th.

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Lineup: Jakub Otruba, Ramunas Navardauskas, Remy Rochas, Tom Thill, Jempy Drucker, Valentin Stoenchev, Alexander Kristoff, Hersony Canelon

After the trip to Australia, the team headed to Belgium for the first of the cobbled races of the season. There, début made Alexander Kristoff from whom at least Top 10 was expected. With the eventual winner Summerhill being unreachable, all that the remaining riders were fighting for was for the 2nd place. Kristoff wasn’t able to reach the Top 3, but managed to hold onto 9th.

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Lineup: Jakub Otruba, Lennard Kämna, Sergio Higuita, Valentin Stoenchev, Sebastian Lander, Leopold Konig, Georg Preidler, Krzysztof Marchewka

The Hong Kong Challenge has been a regular stop for the team since the race’s inception in 2018 and this year it was C1 category race. The team has sent its best rider in Georg Preidler with 2018 winner Leopold Konig acting as a backup option should the Austrian hit trouble. But Preidler didn’t disappoint and justified his decision to sign the 600k contract by winning his very first outing in an Adastra jersey. Konig managed to make a few seconds on the peloton and fortunately his act didn’t hurt Preidler’s chances. But at the time trial stage it was a rude awakening for the Austrian - he finished 155th and tumbled down to 5th in the standings before the crucial final stage. Preidler managed to fend off Mark Padun on the finish line, but it wasn’t enough to take the overall victory, finishing 3rd, 20 seconds behind Wilco Kelderman. He also won the Points Classification and was 2nd in the KoM standings. Konig managed to finish the race in respectable 9th. Props were also given to Sergio Higuita who was the main engine for the team in the peloton.

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Lineup: Jakub Otruba, Petar Panayotov, Ramunas Navardauskas, Sergio Higuita, Lorents Ola Aasvold, Valentin Stoenchev, Hersony Canelon, Bjorn Thurau

In Catalunya the team didn’t send Preidler, but sent Canelon and Navardauskas to fight for stage wins. The first stage was of the Venezuelan’s liking given his acceleration rating, however things were about to get ugly. The remains of the breakaway group weren’t caught until the very last meters of the stage. Canelon’s speed was enough to be ahead of the peloton, but not enough to catch James Oram or Gasper Katrasnik. This had a really negative effect on him as his behaviour caught the attention of the race directors, but no action was taken with Canelon issuing an apology to the team. Stage 2 saw another 3rd place - this time by hilly sprint specialist Navarduaskas. After a really mediocre TTT and quiet Stage 4 Navardauskas scored a win on Stage 5 fending off the challenge from Alexandr Ovsyannikov. This locked Nava to 2nd in the Points Classification behind Mehrawi Kudus, who secured the win in the end. Aasvold finish the highest in 19th

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Lineup: Petar Panayotov, Remy Rochas, Sergio Higuita, Lorents Ola Aasvold, Momchil Robov, Leopold Konig, Bjorn Thurau, Georg Preidler

The final race in the month of February was in the Austrian Alps where the goal was to have the local boy Preidler as high as possible. Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned as Preidler had issues keeping up with the pace of the top climbers and finished 17th - not the kind of position he wanted to be in.

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Lineup: Jakub Otruba, Lennard Kämna, Tom Thill, Jempy Drucker, Damion Drapac, Valentin Stoenchev, Sebastian Lander, Martin Grashev

Though this race was in March, since it’s completed we’ve decided to add it in the report. Without Kristoff, the team didn’t stand a chance and eventually finished way down the order. The veterans Drucker and Grashev had their fair share of breakaway attempts.

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The following review encompases the team’s adventures in Jelajah SKL, Vuelta al Pais Vasco and the Circulo de Juarez.

Lineup: Jakub Otruba, Petar Panayotov, Tom Thill, Damion Drapac, Valentin Stoenchev, Leopold Konig, Sebastian Lander, Bjorn Thurau

The team entered a really oddball team to the Southeast Asian race. Headed by two climbers the team hoped for big gaps in the third stage after so-so first two stages. Konig finished with the main group in Stage 3, putting him in the lower half of Top 10. This was confirmed at the final stage, finishing 9th overall. Thurau meanwhile came up short on winning the KoM classification.

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Lineup: Petar Panayotov, Lennard Kämna, Remy Rochas, Sergio Higuita, Leopold Konig, Martin Grashev, Bjorn Thurau, Krzysztof Marchewka

Konig was again chosen as the leader of the team in the Basque Country with the hopes of another top 10 finish. The TTT opener didn’t show that this will be the case and the hope was for the climbing stages to make the difference. After finishing with the main group in Stage 2, a 5th place finish in Stage 3 as well as 10th in the short TT put him in position for another Top 10. Stage 5 saw an unlikely top finisher for the team as Lennard Kämna ended up 6th. On the final stage Konig solidified his Top 10 position by finishing 8th both in the stage and overall

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Lineup: Andreas Stauff, Jakub Otruba, Ramunas Navardauskas, Tom Thill, Jempy Drucker, Sebastian Lander, Alexander Kristoff, Hersony Canelon
Last, but not least, in this review we’ll take a look at the sprint fest in Mexico. Alexander Kristoff finished 7th in the first two stages and wasn’t clearly happy with this. However his fortunes would turn around in Stage 3 with the Norwegian winning it and taking the provisional lead. But there was a catch - every rider who wore the yellow jersey on the following stage ended up way behind. Kristoff was no exception - finishing a lowly 13th in Stage 4. He was in a prime position to challenge for the win, but it wasn’t meant to be - the race for Kristoff and the team ended on a bittersweet note with 10th in the stage and 8th overall.

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redordead wrote:
Very solid performances by Konig

ivaneurope wrote:

It is very solid, but will it be enough to keep the team in the PCT division next year?

The following review encompases the team’s second half of the month at Vuelta a Colombia, Le Samyn and Strade Bianche.

Lineup: Petar Panayotov, Ramunas Navardauskas, Remy Rochas, Sergio Higuita, Momchil Robov, Valentin Stoenchev, Hersony Canelon, Krzysztof Marchewka

The team had made the boneheaded decision to not send Preidler in Colombia when the planning was being made. Instead Petar Panayotov was given the keys to the ship, which unfortunately was lagging way behind with Pana unable to answer the challenge thrown by the competition. A 3rd for Canelon in the only stage for sprinters was a small ray of light in a race the team wanted to forget. But on the final stage, a miracle occurred - Pana finally showed up and looked like the Pana of old by unleashing a solo attack. Unfortunately according to him this solo ride was his achilles as he finished 2nd in the stage, but racked up some points which could be vital for the team in the long run.

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Lineup: Jakub Otruba, Lennard Kämna, Jempy Drucker, Damion Drapac, Sebastian Lander, Alexander Kristoff, Martin Grashev, Bjorn Thurau

In this race we had high hopes with Alexander Kristoff, who was still reeling from the Juarez disappointment. He tried his luck with a breakaway, but alas it wasn’t meant to be his day - 65th finish with Lachen Saber, the Swisslion rider who seems to be cursed this season, finishing with him. Sebastian Lander managed to limit the damage as much as he could by finishing 19th, but overall a race with so much potential ended up on a very sour note.

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Lineup: Jakub Otruba, Ramunas Navardauskas, Remy Rochas, Tom Thill, Lorents Ola Aasvold, Valentin Stoenchev, Sebastian Lander, Hersony Canelon

If we had to sum up or team’s performance in the last race of this report, it will be this:

With the month of April coming, it is time to reveal our lineups for the first four races of the month:
Paris - Roubaix: Andreas Stauff, Lennard Kämna, Tom Thill, Jempy Drucker, Damion Drapac, Sebastian Lander, Alexander Kristoff, Martin Grashev
Tour of California: Jakub Otruba, Petar Panayotov, Sergio Higuita, Lorents Ola Aasvold, Valentin Stoenchev, Leopold Konig, Hersony Canelon, Georg Preidler
Baltic Chain Tour: Andreas Stauff, Ramunas Navardauskas, Tom Thill, Jempy Drucker, Damion Drapac, Sebastian Lander, Alexander Kristoff, Bjorn Thurau
Tour de Pologne: Jakub Otruba, Lennard Kämna, Remy Rochas, Lorents Ola Aasvold, Momchil Robov, Hersony Canelon, Georg Preidler, Krzysztof Marchewka

The MGUCI season is currently in in their 4th month and the Adastra N - Hell Energy Cycling team is currently in the lower half of the table with being one of the prime suspects for relegation. What's worse is that their biggest deal in free agency is underperforming on so many levels. This is his story.

After rejecting T-Mobile's (now called Mapei) offer to pursue leadership opportunity elsewhere. After long bidding the Austrian signed a lucrative deal with the freshly promoted Adastra team. The price tag - 600k. Sure, that's a lot of money, but he was one of the hottest free agents and the team had to pull the trigger eventually. Now, with their supposed franchise player in Preidler the team was gearing up for their first PCT season after 4 years in the lowest tier of MGUCI cycling.

The first race for the Austrian was a familiar spot for the team in general - the Hong Kong Challenge. And Preidler really impressed - after a solo attack, he won the first stage. However, his inferiorities in the time trail department took their tool and he was severely exposed in the TT stage. But he rebounded in the 3rd and final stage to take 3rd overall and the points classification. So far the start has been good.

His race days were limited though and he missed the entire month of March. The team admited that they should've put him in Vuelta a Colombia, but it was too late. His next race was Tour of California. As expected, both the first and final stages were pretty bad, but a string of terrible finishes, on a hilly stages being severly outpaced by his nearest challengers really undermined his confidence. The same thing happened in the Tour de Pologne, where he again lagged behind witho no answer.

The final race he participated in (as of writing this post) was the 4-stage Tour of Cyprus. Without any TT stages on paper the race profile should have suited Preidler and finally challenge for top spot. But no - on the 3rd stage while hes teammate Momchil Robov was locked in a battle for the KoM jersey, Preidler again was dropped by the competition to end up on nearly 7 minutes behind the leader heading into the final stage. Preidler managed to finish 16th, 7'46 behind the winner Julien Bernard.

So, what happened? Obviously his TT skills ar bad, but his performance in Hong Kong shows that he can negate his deficiencies. Was it the races themselves? Or was it the stacked competition? Or maybe the Hong Kong heroics were just a fluke due to much easier competition? We don't know
yet. But if his situation continues this could not only drag the team back to CT cycling for the next season, compromising their situation, but also damage severely his own market value. While it's way too early in the season some experts think that Peridler's 600k is one of the worst contracts in the MGUCI this year. This puts the team in tricky situation - either pay him and risk compromising their situation (given that CT teams only have half of what PCT teams can pay for riders), or lose him for nothing in return. The rest of the season will be crucial for both Preidler and the Adastra N - Hell Energy Cycling

Amstel Gold was the second wildcard race, but for the Adastra N - Hell Energy Cycling it wasn't anything special, but the aftermath was what it got media buzzing. After a string of terrible results of the past few races, Georg Preidler finished a yet another dreadful race - he was 62nd, over 7 minutes behind. But what happened next was interesting - during the routine rider check it was noticed that one of the riders was missing. That was Preidler. It was revealed by some members of the Swisslion team that they've spotted Preidler in Adastra's team bus, changed his clothes and took a taxi to the airport without saying even a word.

It could be because of his poor performance to have decided to go into solitude to get back his motivation. However before the season MGUCI has sent a memo to all teams from the 3 levels that no rider should leave the designated area after completion of the stage/race until the team makes a routine check on their riders to avoid similar cases in the past. Preidler's absence has alarmed the MGUCI and has launched an investigation against both Preidler for his walkout and the Adastra N team for not preventing this. The team was already in hot waters after the Volta a Cataluña organizers inverstigated Hersony Canelon after his temper issues following Stage 1. This has only got away with warning, but Preidler's walkout could spell disaster - at the worst case scenario Preidler could be banned from the remainder of the season, striped of all of his points, with the team itself being deducted even more points as a consequence. This will most likely mean that the team may go back to CT next season.

Going down could also mean problems with Adastra reportedly withdrawing from the team while Hyundai rejected any clains that they'll close the team if the team is relagated

ivaneurope wrote:
at the worst case scenario Preidler could be banned from the remainder of the season, striped of all of his points