Voyagin a subsidiary of Rakuten takes over as the head sponsor for the team. They are a travel, accommodations and activities firm based in Japan, focusing on the East Asia region. With Covid affecting travel worldwide, Rakuten felt the need to help advertise one of its struggling branches within the organization, which will hopefully become prosperous again soon, once it is safe to do so again. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will hopefully spur more travelers to visit the region by 2022, so the timing of the switch makes sense in that regard as hopefully more travelers who plan to visit the region become aware of the brand. A much smaller budget is to be expected and some have even said this move shows that Rakuten has more or less given up on the team, although that remains to be seen.

Bird is a transportation company that specializes in e-scooters, scooters and bike sharing, in over 100 cities around the globe. In 2017 it became the fastest company to ever reach a 1 Billion dollar valuation, which it went on to double by June 2018. Its focus on sustainable transportation make it a great partnership with not only Voyagin, but cycling in general with hopes of expanding further. Its biggest Competitor Lime was a sponsor for the PTs top team a season ago, so Bird has high hopes it has picked the right team to support for the future. They have agreed to be patient, but as a partnership currently, they are not spending an arm and a leg to run the team. With questions about Rakuten/Voyagin's involvement, Bird will have to see progress before they take on more of the responsibility and finances.

Moncler is the teams third sponsor. While the MGUCI rules mean they may not end up in the teams "official" title, they are as much a co sponsor as Bird. Originally a French Fashion and Skiwear company, they are now an Italian brand, with French roots. With continuing growth, and small time collaborations with other sporting ventures, their collaboration with a Danish bike brand helped dip their toes into the cycling world, where they now hope to take their next step and follow in the footsteps of Rapha and Palace, who have helped to make cycling more fashionable with its 2020 Giro d'Italia collab. With Cycling and Skiing using similar materials and cycling clothes becoming more popular in global fashion such as "biker shorts" being one example of this trend, now seems like the perfect time for a luxury brand to enter the market. Working with Le Col they have come up with the clothing and materials for the squad, and helped create an eye-catching design, which will certainly be polarizing. The collaboration hopes to increase the appeal towards cycling with higher fashion while giving Moncler the opportunity to create some unique pieces aimed at cyclists who also want to stand out even when they are on the bike.

TechnoGym joins on, as our final sponsor of the team, which will provide the teams training equipment. The official provider of gym equipment for several Football teams, the Olympics, as well as F1 teams. With their stationary bikes and direct drive trainers, as well as Zwift and Rouvy implementation, riders will be able to train in state of the art conditions, even when weather would normally stop them.

Fabianski wrote:
Hum, not really liking the competition on the Italian market there, but good luck with your new sponsors nonetheless! You should definitely have a good base to go back up again, as you wouldn't even have relegated with a bit more of luck I'd say...

TheManxMissile wrote:
Always a fan of crazy jerseys! I imagine you'll be amongst the promotion favorites this season with an immediate bounce back to the PT

withoutnonsense wrote:
Actually, this was a team that would normally have stayed in the PT. But Quintana was very disappointed. The good start of last season didn't help either. Hopefully you will rise again.

With renewals now completed, Voyagin heads into the transfer window looking to offload some of the higher earners from its accounts in order to cover some of the fines its been given from the MGUCI for ending renewals above the PCT salary cap. Nairo Quintana had a decent season previously, but is hoping to return to the ProTour where his services are best matched. Quintana himself has said he would prefer to race at PT, but is not officially asking out of the team, as he sees them as a solid challenger for promotion. Nevertheless, we feel he will attract interest from PT teams looking at a solid one week stage racer.

Hayakawa has been a long serving member of the team, and has really becoming a great wage/pts earner for the team. However with Liu taking another step in his progression, the team feels it is time to move on from Hayakawa, who would make a great leader at CT level, and a great depth option at PCT. The same can be said for Kuboki, who was one of the teams best scorers in PCT just two seasons ago, with his great versatility on Time trials, hills and sprints.

Barbier is poised to become either a nice SPR+COB rider, or one of the best leadouts in the business, with his great RES and Flat stats in the future, if trained correctly.

Overall the team is hoping to finish the transfer window with 4 great scoring options, as well as add some younger talents to the mix, to help replace the older riders which have departed the team this offseason. Now more than ever, the team is willing to listen to offers on just about any rider, and will consider serious offers for any rider as well, so long as a replacement can be lined up elsewhere.

We hope to hear from all interested parties

SotD wrote:
Hayakawa leaving? Must admit that comes as a surprise. Not that I need him, but He seems like a very good fit in your team. I guess it's a wage thing

Fabianski wrote:
At least I won't be bothering you about Costagli this year
Maybe about someone else, though ^^

Fabianski wrote:
Congrats on finally securing Bagioli I obviously was after him and Aleotti as well, but as a newly promoted PCT team you can't really afford getting only talents ^^
By the way, he might be challenged by Schmid for 3rd best puncheur of his generation, as I could also make him arrive at 76Mo/79Hi

Thanks again for the Quintana deal, although it was a bit more expensive than initially concluded. By the way, I'd have loved to take Kuboki, but just didn't have the funds anymore (else I'd definitely have gone for him once he was sacked)... Maybe I can help you out again next year But for now, happy we finally got a deal, after it didn't happen for Costagli in the last two years
And yeah, it obviously was Quintana I was most interested in And given that you didn't really use your money to buy other riders, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where that 1.4M fee could go

redordead wrote:
Since Beltran is nearly finished his battles with Kinoshita, maybe we can have Bagioli/Ardila battles in the future, as he might also be interested as being one of the top puncheurs from this class. Of course if I ever again find myself in the same division as you

whitejersey wrote:
Pleased to let Chen ride for a team that really values him! Love the pick up of Bagioli, even if it didn't come without massive sacrifices. I think that Kinoshita and Shikai should keep you up no matter what, so really looking forward to seeing how your team stacks up in the future!

Longtime Canadian manager for Voyagin is reportedly facing severe backlash from new sponsors, Bird, Moncler and Technogym, for failing to acquire the anticipated number of riders from the sponsors focus areas.

Moncler in particular was reportedly expecting atleast 5 Italian riders on the squad, while Bird wanted more riders from its two largest markets in North America and Western Europe.

What this means for the manager, as well as the sponsors involvement past this season is yet to be determined, but its a story to follow, as the season nears. One has to think poor performances may make any decision to pull out much easier, while good performances could well save the manager, and the partnerships.

TT:
Rei Onodera
Chen Shikai
Jacob Salcone
Tushantha Rajapakshage

RR:
Yudai Arashiro
Jiankun Liu
Jacob Salcone

valverde321 wrote: