redordead wrote:
From the jersey design it seems the plan is to go all the way to the top
Triglav rocks
The Top
Pos
Team
Total
1
Isostar - Specialized
8192
2
Evonik - ELKO
7886
3
Team Puma - SAP
7428
4
Moser - Sygic
7231
5
Festina - OAKA
6950
The Scorers
Pos
Rider
Nat
Team
Points
1
Taylor Phinney
USA
Isostar - Specialized
2528
2
Silvio Herklotz
GER
Team Puma - SAP
2456
3
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
FRA
Festina - OAKA
2044
4
John Degenkolb
GER
ISA - Hexacta
1681
5
Sam Bewley
NZL
Moser - Sygic
1612
28
David Per
SLO
Isostar - Specialized
973
47
Matej Mohoric
SLO
Isostar - Specialized
691
53
Domen Novak
SLO
Isostar - Specialized
612
57
Primoz Roglic
SLO
Isostar - Specialized
583
84
Jan Polanc
SLO
Isostar - Specialized
422
94
Aleksandar Roman
SER
Isostar - Specialized
361
96
Lilian Calmejane
FRA
Isostar - Specialized
360
121
Mikel Bizkarra
ESP
Isostar - Specialized
295
151
Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev
KAZ
Isostar - Specialized
232
165
Peeter Tarvis
EST
Isostar - Specialized
213
172
Davide Gabburo
ITA
Isostar - Specialized
199
208
Vegard Robinson Bugge
NOR
Isostar - Specialized
169
246
Nans Peters
FRA
Isostar - Specialized
135
364
Gregory Daniel
USA
Isostar - Specialized
83
365
Roy Jans
BEL
Isostar - Specialized
82
379
Kamil Gradek
POL
Isostar - Specialized
79
443
Iliyan Kolev
BUL
Isostar - Specialized
59
453
Jonas Rickaert
BEL
Isostar - Specialized
54
487
Clement Russo
FRA
Isostar - Specialized
41
501
Ryan Gibbons
RSA
Isostar - Specialized
21
The Story
Contrarily to last year, Isostar went into the season that was more of a 2nd tier favourite, expected to finish somehwhere in the middle of the Top10. National hero Simon Spilak left the squad, US-star Taylor Phinney joined as the figurehead of the squad. A calm season with the overturned squad? Not really!
After the medium-scale disappointment of last season, the team overturned it's squad not only in the leading positions, but also in the deeper parts of the squad. An approach that neglected sprinters and "weaker captains" for races without our stars, but instead focussed on supporting the captains perfectly and finding riders that would attack as soon as no captains holding them back. The result more often than not was being at the front of the race; either controlling because our leaders would have a chance of winning or with a firework of attacks because we wouldn't have anything to loose. The experiences of success and failure of our past two World Tour seasons led us to this "be favourite or fire away" approach, that at the end turned into gold for our team.
Let's now focus on how every individual contributed to the title:
Ryan Gibbons: Our loanee from GCN had a learning season. He intentionally did rarely get of use as a sprinter, but focussed on getting stronger as an allround-rider by supporting especially in hilly races.
Clement Russo: The hilly sprinter did similarly, focussing on his development by working in the hills and also doing a Grand Tour in support of the leaders.
Jonas Rickaert: The classics helper did his work for David Per, and also worked on his skillset to become an important asset in future sprint trains and classics-set-ups.
Iliyan Kolev: Bulgarian Kolev finished his development as a cobbler, and so supported David Per well in the classics.
Kamil Gradek: Kamil did his expected all-round job as a road captain, and was also part of many attacks. Most notably did he work for our breakaway leaders in Grand Tours, when he more often than not attacked with him and took over their workload in first parts of these stages to have them fresher in the final stages. Loyal servant.
Roy Jans: A transition year for our prime leadout, as he did not have anyone to lead but instead could go on the attack in some stages and work his roleur capabilities.
Gregory Daniel: The training buddy of Taylor Phinney was used as a powerhouse in the TTTs and did valuable motoring at the front of the race.
Nans Peters: The versatile attacker did well in serving as an allround-domestique and pushed for attacks. With his recent development he prepared himself for a breakout-season as an attacker.
Vegard Robinson Bugge: The perfect 50k helper, what a fantastic season he had, especially on the attack on Grand Tours. Valuable contribution, also in giving his experise to the next generation of attackers in our squad.
Davide Gabburo: Isostar's next Roy Jans outperformed his "guide" with his breakaway success, especially at the Giro. He will be a prime attacker in the opening weeks of Grand Tours for years to come, and his mindset and finishing punch already made him collect a valuable 200 points for us.
Peeter Tarvis: The only Estonian left on our squad did mightily impress as a helper and on the break. His power often helped our captains positioning right before the vital parts of the race, so that he can be seen as an architect of many of our success stories.
Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev: At first glance his season might have been a disappointment compared to his wage, but then almost cracked the Top150. Being the leader of the team on quite some occasions he didn't attack as much as we hoped with his Kruijswijk-esque stats, but instead anchored our team while his mates could make a move. Rock-solid in many GCs.
Mikel Bizkarra: With #121 the Basque climber was a success story, with his amazing performances in Grand Tours. He was brought in to try something in the mountains of GTs and attack at all the big races where we have no leader (or support Phinney), and he did so well in doing exactly that. He followed the path Igor Anton planted for him four years ago in our first Isostar-season, and boy he did impress in the spirit of our basque legend and first promotion hero.
Lilian Calmejane: From being our nemesis in the last season at the Balkans International to becoming our very own success story, Calmejane broke the Top100 by attacking at the Grand Tours and being the protected rider behind Matej Mohoric in the hilly classics. His high-energy profile makes him a perfect rider for the Isostar-spirit, and thus he thrived under Mount Triglav.
Aleksandar Roman: Our Serbian star. We had to sell his partner in crime in Kalaba in order to execute our success. When they left, we told "Balkan Cycling Project"-manager Djordje96 that we would take good care of the Serbian Duo. Now Alex was a driving force behind our championships, especially with his awesome attacking at the Grand Tours. What a story for the regional hero.
Jan Polanc: Big time Polanc had a difficult outlook to the season. Our star hilly cobbler suddenly was not the big time cobbler in our squad, instead he more and more focussed on his energy to be the secondary rider on the cobbler and a great allround helper in all sorts of classics. He's not the guy of the team anymore as he was in CT and PCT, but instead he found his valuable role as a luxury-dom and also scored a lot while doing so, especially at the cobbled classics.
Primoz Roglic: One of our key signing this year was Primoz Roglic. Ever since the team got founded by the founding group around Robert Kranjec, it was the distinct goal of bringing Rogla in. We chased him each offseason and got close, but now we finally got him to come home. By being granted leadership in almost every race he rode he used his free role to get close to a Top50 performance in the rankings. A model secondary stage racer.
Domen Novak: Hometown hero Domen Novak didn't even finish his development, but already scored a vital 612 points for us. Of course we layed huge pressure on him, making him lead the attacking force for us in two Grand Tours. And boy he performed. Dressing up polka dots, white jersey, leaders jerseys and receiving stage winners glory in Grand Tours showed what he is made of and what is yet to come. Sure, the environment was perfectly designed for him, but he took his chance and impressed mightily. The feel-good story of our team, the future climbing star of Slovenia, and probably the game changing rider for us.
Matej Mohoric: The hero. The biggest ever Free Agent signed for us, even when still at level 4 in PCT. He led us to promotion in his first year, now he performed consistently as a Top10 puncheur of the world. He did not have the big highlights, in fact he scored well below expectation, but still he finished in the Top50 and performed as the premier Slovenian puncheur.
David Per: The pride of our academy. The cobbled star of Slovenia performed gloriously. Fantastic racing throughout the year. Whether as our cobbled captain or our (for many) surprising flat captain, he always found a way to attack and try to break the opposition. Sometimes he missed, but he accumulted several memorable performances and results, which makes him a driving force in our success story. As a first year self-developed max guy David finished 28th in the rankings, racking up almost 1000 points. We are proud.
Taylor Phinney: He came, he rode, he won. There are no words to describe how amazing his season was. Many stage race wins. Individual World Time Trial Champion. Individual world rankings leader. Team World Champion. He is the real deal. He is one of the best riders on the planet, and now he won it all together with us.
So what is left: We can only thank all of you. Thank you Ryan, Clement, Jonas, Iliyan, Kamil, Roy, Greg, Nans, Vegard, Davide, Peeter, Bakthiyar, Mikel, Lilian, Alex, Jan, Primoz, Domen, Matej, David and Taylor. Thank you all past heros of the squad, Igor, Grega, Andrew, Stan and Dusan. Thank you Slovenian heroes Marko and Simon. Thank you supporters of Isostar, whether you were here from the beginning or just joined our #meninlime last season. This title is also yours.
The Development
Of our 7 best scorers, 5 were self-developed. Matej Mohoric and Jan Polanc finished their development at the squad, Polanc even joined in our first ever year, being our highest earner as a lvl3 guy. Domen Novak, Aleksander Roman and David Per went all the way through our academy ranks. With Primoz Roglic a sixth of our Top7 scorers comes from our focus region, five of them coming from Slovenia.
When we stared our project, we proclaimed that we wanted to bring Slovenia all the way to the top. In our first two years we promoted our Slovenian squad from 3rd to 1st tier cycling. Then we won gold with Marko Kump at the World Championships. Simon Spilak took his missing win at the Giro di Italia passing Slovenia. And now we took the biggest achievement of all, the PT crown. With 5 Slovenians as our Top7, with also 5 self-developed riders in our Top7. The circle is complete.
Incredible season! Huge congrats From CT to PT champs in 5 (I think) seasons!!
So glad you stayed for this season, and looking forward to how you go in this off-season. I'm sure there's something already cooking in the HQ. Looking forward to those.
Also very happy that we could have Per and witness his start from up close. Simply an amazing rider and one who's records as loan-in and young rider will probably never be matched in our colours!
The total number of regional riders has dwindled a bit over the years, but when you look at the rankings and see the top dominated with them, it's even more impressive
An incredible season by the #meninlime! Great to see the regional focus playing such an important role here as well. The kind of team building which will be an example to look at for regional teams in the decades to come
Congratulations on the title, looking forward to see what your next move(s) will be.
@withoutnonsense: Who knows if the team performs next year. But yeah, with a new game we'll again have to change our approach for sure, as the analysis we took into PCM18 that maybe gave us the edge is pretty worthless with PCM20 AI.
@AbhishekLFC: Thanks mate! It was an incredible journey indeed. Yeah in hindsight it was a very good choice to go for one more year. I'd have no clue how to approach offseason, but if so I guess it would be an atypical Isostar-offseason keeping the core together and trying to improve punctually.
Yeah I loved the shared Per-story. David I guess had an all-time high with your team. Let's hope I can pay back the favour with loanees from you in the future, and maybe even have Gorazd ride with me for one year to support his brother.
@redordead: Thanks mate Yeah that is true, but with two more amazing Slovenian teams emphasizing regional boundaries the pool of regional riders is not big enough to serve all three of us. Thus I'm happy if all three of us get a fair share and we focus on developing each of our riders well. And I think we're on a good track of doing so Also I'm very proud of the combined 3642 points of our regional sixpack, which means that a regional team alone could almost sustain itself in the pro tour. Therefore we are incredibly happy with what we achieved over 5 years, together with people like Djordje96, you and TinxiaS in order to promote Balkan and especially Slovenian cycling.
@Nemolito: Thank you very much for the gratulations and the nice words. As said in the resuming post, we've basically achieved everything we wanted. It will be hard to define new goals for the team.
@knockout: Thanks again It was a tough battle between us (and others like cio, SotD and roman) on some very high quality compared to previous seasons, which makes us even prouder to stand on top (with a Conglomerate 1-2). Yeah we squeezed a lot out of our captains (though I'd argue that you could get more out of[obviously Mohoric but also Roglic, Kozhatayev, Polanc and Calmejane) and supporting riders, which also was the only way to beat you this year. The pleasure was mine
Joining the party late, but huge congrats nonetheless! From almost disbanding (or re-starting) to winning PT - honestly, I wouldn't have thought it pre-season! Your attacking strategy in the absence of real leaders worked out perfectly - and although I've got no clue about how such a lineup is handled in PCM20, your team is a great example for my transfer season
Looking forward to meet you (bar Phinney) in PTHC races next year
@withoutnonsense: Honestly I don't know, but I'm leaning more towards a no atm. Still in the thought process and trying to find motivation, but the last couple of news didn't help.
@Fabianski: Thank you very much my friend! It's always a pleasure talking to you about MG. I hope you continue the great process with your team, I enjoy following your journey a lot.
So you're leaving? It will be a shame if Isostar shuts down, but alas - retire while still being on the top of the world is perhaps the greatest sendoff.
Really hope you continue, but if not, it's obviously been a pleasure having you all these years. Your team's rapid ascent to the very top echelon of MG is something only the very best managers have pulled off. At the same time, I understand losing motivation after winning the PT. Nowhere left to climb in sense.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
baseballlover312 wrote:
Really hope you continue, but if not, it's obviously been a pleasure having you all these years. Your team's rapid ascent to the very top echelon of MG is something only the very best managers have pulled off. At the same time, I understand losing motivation after winning the PT. Nowhere left to climb in sense.
This. Your team is one I admire a lot, as you built a largely regional focused team, and took it to the top which not many can do, unless they choose a more traditional country like France/Germany/Spain etc and even then it still comes with huge challenges.
Perhaps shifting gears to a new focus, could help keep things interesting if that is the reasoning behind your hesitations to continue.
Credits to the awesome hoyle for creating a fantastic shirt and also dealing with probably the most annoying & stubborn applicant for graphical work of all time.
Indeed, happy to see you come back to defend the title
We might end up discussing again, but I probably won't put in as much money as I did for Pernsteiner this time
Isostar - Specialized 2021 
