Like in any old fantasy novel, to get our mighty trident - signing Madrazo while keeping Stallaert and Silvestre around -, we had to make some sacrifices. In our case, this meant bidding farewell to some key teammates from previous years.

Madushanka Perera gave us great joy with two stage wins and a points jersey last season. At minimum wage, that was tremendous value. We took a gamble and renewed him for a 140% wage increase, always with the possibility in mind that we might sell him. That opportunity came around very early in the window, when Oktal Pharma - TotalTV manager sgdanny approached us, and we quickly struck a deal for 600.000€.

A bit later, when talks over Madrazo were already beginning to heat up, we were looking for more ways to create cap space. And we eventually found it in a package deal, shipping both Loic Vliegen and Yves Lampaert off to newly formed Colombini-Adler AP. Both provided us not only with decent points, but Lampaert in particular was a vital part of Stallaerts success. It wasn't an easy decision, but it had to be made. At a combined fee of 350.000€, we believe manager KaiserAdler has gotten himself an absolute bargain.

Lastly, we had to say goodbye to a member of our inaugural squad from two years ago. Used as additional leverage in the Madrazo deal, Bob Schoonbroodt went to Isostar - Specialized, where he may or may not end up staying. He's been a reliable domestique and at times decent points scorer in his own right, and we wish him nothing but the best for the future.

For Jonas Rutsch, it's not a permanent goodbye, but our German youngster will spend his second consecutive season on loan, this time at PT outlet EA Vesuvio, where he'll get a chance to lead their cobbles squad. He'll return fully formed, having gained vital experience.

Those departures alone still weren't enough - we had to do more. To maximize our available cap space, we loaned in three young riders whose home teams will pay their wages while we help them along in development:

Coming from all across the European continent, these three youngsters provide new regional elements to the team. Karl Patrick Lauk joins us from Polar, he's already pretty quick and can certainly be a nice threat if he ever gets in a successful breakaway, or he might score some bonus second at intermediate sprints to sneak some white jersey points onto the board.

ELCO - ABEA product Alex Mengoulas does a lot of things fairly well. He's a decent puncheur, a decent time trialist, a decent cobblestone rider and is pretty quick to round it all out. He should be a useful domestique on many terrains this year.

Finally, from Sauber comes Samuele Menicucci. He will be part of our cobbles squad where he can provide help even after the first difficulties, as he's also good uphill.

We're happy to have all of them around for a year and hope they will do well! We also thank all managers involved for ultimately helping to make the biggest deal in Bralirwa history reality.

What started as a very hectic transfer window quickly calmed down after our big move, and ultimately, we ended up with just two non-loan, non-stagiare additions: Madrazo, and our only free agency signing of the year - a talented young Rwandan time trialist named Renus Uhiriwe.

Uhiriwe was our second main target of the offseason (behind, you know ...) and we had to fight a little harder than we expected to get him, but we believe the 75.000€ will be well worth it in the long run. He could well be a future training target, but at 21 years of age, we will take his development slowly for now.

Given the massive wages our three leaders command, we had to look for every avenue to save salary in other places. Hence, in addition to bringing in the loanees, we've signed four stagiares to fill our remaining roster spots.

With Shemu Nsengiyumva, we add another Rwandan to bring our total seven rider from our home country, the most in our young team history. He's a workhorse on flat roads and fairly limited otherwise, so it's questionable if he's going to make the roster long-term. But we want to show our commitment to building the Rwandan cycling scene, and if he shows enough, he might earn a full contract.

Aziz Melki was on our radar last year and we were fairly close to signing him back then. Given Tunisair's involvement with our team, and Souheil Khederi not getting any younger, he's got a decent chance to make the squad next year, given he'll develop into a capable puncheur.

Having signed two youngsters from our focus regions, we went another way with our final additions and brought on two talents from Spain. Ivan Cobo is perhaps the most promising of all our stagiares, he'll develop into a fine climbing domestique. Marc Brustenga on the other hand is another rider best used on flat roads, but he also has a quick finish that could make him pretty useful.

And with that, our transfer activities are completed. While not everything went the way we planned it (but when does it ever), we're overall pretty happy. Once the window officially closes, we will hold a press conference to introduce the 2022 team in full. Stay tuned!

jandal7 wrote:
Gutted we didn't get Uhiriwe, would no doubt have gone back in for him after the recent overbid for my guy but it took too long to come. Will be a staple rider for you for the next decade I'm sure

DarkWolf wrote:
I love these signings! And a Spanish touch always warms my heart.

baseballlover312 wrote:
Adding Madrazo to Stallaert and Silvestre is something straight out of a horror movie for the rest of us PCT managers. Wow. Insane.

Is your team top heavy? Yes. But your top is incredibly heavy as you have hegemons of the division (or close) on 3 terrains. And your bottom, while light, is made up of mostly regional talents who fit the team. You'll promote, and your African project will be even cooler developing in PT.

Nemolito wrote:
Seven Rwandans is really incredible. Bralirwa has meant a lot for Rwandan (and African) cycling in a very short time, and with a possible promotion lurking around the corner, they could do even more with a bigger budget as of next season. Go go Bralirwa!

After a very eventful transfer period - at least in the first few days -, we're ready to present our new team for the upcoming season. In many ways, it still looks very similar to last year's team, but it some ways, it is entirely different. Let's take a look in detail.

Despite a massive aquisition in another department, we'll start with the area that has defined much of our team's history. Joeri Stallaert is still our highest paid rider and the source of a big chunk of the team's points - so we hope, at least, especially with weaker competition on paper than last year.

That weaker competition is contrasted by a significantly weaker support squad around him, though. With Yves Lampaert and Bob Schoonbroodt, we had to give up two key pieces, and Jonas Rutsch is away on loan once again. Thus, we're left with Tesform Okbamariam as the main lieutenant, and loan-ins Samuele Menicucci and Alex Mengoulas as domestiques for the early parts of races.

I alluded to a big signing earlier, and you all knew who it was. Angel Madrazo is without a doubt the single biggest name in team history. A two time Tour de France winner, he instantly lifts our stage racing department to unknown heights. We expect big things from him.

The rest of this part of the squad remains entirely unchanged compared to last year. Valens Ndayisenga will be a key supporter for Madrazo but occasionally get a chance to ride for himself, too. Bonaventure Uwizeyimana will tackle stage races with time trials alongside Janvier Hadi, while Mektel Eyob will both support Madrazo and Ndayisenga, as well as have some leading roles especially in hilly races.

Fabio Silvestre continues to be our main sprinter and we hope he can continue where he left off last year, when he was our top scorer and in the Top 10 of the PCT individual rankings. With Madushanka Perera gone, Houcaine El Sabbahi will get some chances to shine. We are aware that his development is far from over though, and we don't expect any major contributions. Joeri Stallaert would of course also fit in this category, and he'll take on the role of main sprinter in a few races this year.

As is tradition, hills is our weakest area of the team (well, except for time trials, which we've once again given up on completely). With Loic Vliegen and Andrea Vendrame out, Souheil Khederi holds the line as the team's top pure puncheur. He will be supported (or supplanted) in many hilly races by Mektel Eyob and Valens Ndayisenga, though.

Youngsters Natnael Tesfatsion and Moise Mugisha jump up from the pure talent ranks. While we don't expect any major results from them, we hope they can get into breakaways often, and maybe snatch some U25 points up along the way.

	Fl	Mo	Hi	TT	St	Rs	Rc	Co	Sp	Ac	Fi	Dh	Pr
S. Mugisha	74	64	69	72	69	72	70	63	62	68	73	64	66
R. Uhiriwe	69	61	66	68	66	67	62	60	63	68	72	64	68
Y. Debesay	64	66	68	59	66	67	68	62	62	69	68	64	59
K. Lauk *	74	65	62	66	68	69	63	67	72	72	66	64	66
A. Melki **	69	62	68	62	68	69	65	60	61	63	71	62	62
S. Nsengiyumva **	68	62	63	62	67	68	62	61	61	62	66	62	62
M. Brustenga **	68	60	64	58	60	70	64	60	67	70	61	71	58
I. Cobo **	61	66	66	60	63	65	63	58	62	64	61	62	59
.
J. Rutsch ***	75	63	68	61	74	74	68	74	67	68	70	69	66

* loaned in
** stagiare
*** loaned out

Speaking of talents: Here's one of our most important parts of the squad. Samuel Mugisha would have been added to the time trialists if we had literally anyone else there. Renus Uhiriwe and former stagiare Yacob Debesay are still at the very beginning of their development, while loan-in Karl Patrick Lauk might actually contribute something here and there.

Then we have a big bunch of stagiares. Aziz Melki and Shemu Nsengiyumva cover some of our biggest focus regions, while Marc Brustenga and Ivan Cobo are mainly here to ease the transition for Angel Madrazo.

Lastly, Jonas Rutsch will complete the last step of his development at EA Vesuvio.

	Rider	Type	AVG	Age	Wage
	Valens Ndayisenga	Climber	75,24	28	€ 110.000
	Bonaventure Uwizeyimana	Stage Racer	74,84	29	€ 85.000
	Janvier Hadi	Allrounder	73,09	30	€ 50.000
	Moise Mugisha	Puncheur	71,91	25	€ 50.000
	Samuel Mugisha	Rouleur	70,05	25	€ 55.000
	Renus Uhiriwe	Time Trials	67,17	21	€ 75.000
	Shemu Nsengiyumva *	Rouleur	64,91	23	€ 10.000
	Mektel Eyob	Climber	74,61	29	€ 75.000
	Tesform Okbamariam	Cobbles	73,51	31	€ 50.000
	Natnael Tesfatsion	Puncheur	72,63	23	€ 70.000
	Yacob Debesay	Puncheur	68,07	23	€ 50.000
	Souheil Khederi	Puncheur	73,44	31	€ 50.000
	Aziz Melki *	Puncheur	67,37	23	€ 10.000
	Houcaine El Sabbahi	Sprinter	73,50	25	€ 50.000
	Angel Madrazo	Stage Racer	79,35	34	€ 600.000
	Marc Brustenga *	Rouleur	67,33	23	€ 10.000
	Ivan Cobo *	Climber	65,93	22	€ 10.000
	Joeri Stallaert	Cobbles	78,56	30	€ 850.000
	Fabio Silvestre	Sprinter	78,11	31	€ 370.000
	Karl Patrick Lauk **	Sprinter	70,24	25	€ 50.000
	Alex Mengoulas **	Puncheur	70,05	25	€ 50.000
	Samuele Menicucci **	Cobbles	69,49	25	€ 50.000
	* Stagiaires	Average	71,79	26,5
	** Loaned in

Whoever followed the early transfer window knows that all of our plans revolved around getting Biniam Girmay at almost all costs. We were willing to sacrifice the short term outlook of the team, perhaps even relegate, to get a key building block for the future.

Then we ran into a PT team going into full rebuild mode. And our plans shifted drastically. Instead of building with an eye to the future and signing a promising talent, we went kind of all-in on the present, signing an ageing legend of the game. In the process, we lost a whole lot of depth, but we gained something we've never really had before - an elite stage racer.

That said, while we put a ton of resources into a short term project, we did not stray from our path of developing talent. Even excluding loan-ins and stagiares, we have 6 unmaxed riders on our team, with another out on loan. The second of our two real acquisitions is a promising Rwandan. Our first four home-grown riders will be maxed out next year. And, again counting just our own full time riders, we're currently at 12 of 15 African riders, the other three being our top leaders.

So, even if our initial plans were upended, we're pretty happy with where we're at right now. Promotion is a real goal, even if we think that's far from guaranteed (we were some 400 points off of 5th place last year, lost over 800 points from veteran riders leaving, and Pluchkin, a comparable rider to Madrazo now, scored around 1.100 points last year - it could end up working out, but it might be pretty close).

Anyway, we should be very competitive in almost any race we enter. And we will get to ride our first races at PT level, including our first Grand Tour! (More on that in the near future.) That's gonna be a ton of fun. Really, the season can't start soon enough!

Gustavovskiy wrote:
That's a really strong team in my view. Three very reliable leaders should generate a steady stream of points in that promotion campaign, of which, I agree, you're a solid candidate for.

I wasn't really expecting to cross paths with you as much as we did in transfer season, with both bidding on Madrazo and Debesay. Hope both of us experience success with our acquisitions. Good luck!

Nemolito wrote:
Love to see all of the most important domestiques being African, with superstar Madrazo basically being surrounded by an all Rwandan climbing squad

Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
Congrats on putting together a really great team in a short time. Pretty impressive you missed on your big target but were able to pivot in such an effective way.

Now I just want to know what AreruyaFanNo1 thinks.

A couple of days before racing starts again for the 2022 season, Bralirwa management invited journalists for a press conference, discussing off-season events and previewing the upcoming months. Team president Theodore Boss gave an introductory statement:

"Welcome, everyone. Today, we're looking forward to a very exciting season. It's been two years since we've started this Rwandan cycling adventure and the arrow keeps pointing upwards.

In 2022, we will have the most Rwandan riders under contract we've had so far in our young history, with 7! Our efforts have always been directed towards contributing to the promotion of African cycling at large as well, and our core now consists of more African riders than ever, too.

And the superlatives don't stop there. We're going to be competing in PT races for the first time, including our first Grand Tour - the Giro d'Italia! This, combined with the arrival of one of the biggest names in cycling, is another milestone on our journey. We've been incredibly excited to welcome the magnificent Angel Madrazo, and I'd like to hand it over to Ms Dira Sportif, who was the driving force behind this move."

Sporting Director Dira Sportif took the microphone and continued: "Thank you, Mr. Boss. Our transfer season was a turbulent one, and pulling of the signing of Angel has certainly been the most exciting, ambitious and most high-profile move we've ever done. We had to make some sacrifices, but this signing brings unprecedented attention to our team and, by proxy, Rwandan cycling. So, we're very happy it worked out.

Of course, it also opened up some new possibilities in terms of planning and where we can attack for top results. You should find an overview of where Angel is going to compete in your press kit."

"As you can see, the most prestigeous outings are at Paris - Nice and the Giro d'Italia - PT riders, beware!", Dir. Sportif said with a wink. "But of course, those don't net us any points. For that, Angel will ride three PTHC stage races, two HC races and two C1 races. Obviously, such a high profile rider will have a selective schedule, so we'll make sure that he uses it to the fullest potential.

However, and he would be the first to tell you so, Angel is not the only rider on our team. Just like last year, Fabio Silvestre and Joeri Stallaert will spearhead our squad in many races, aiming to replicate - or even improve upon - their brilliant 2021. Indeed, many of our focus races feature one of them in the leading role."

"We've gotten slightly more ambitious after last season showed us the potential of our leaders", Dir. Sportif said. "We're aiming for repeat victories of Joeri at Roma Maxima and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. And we're hoping that he can take one step up on the podium in Franceville, too.

Meanwhile, Fabio won the Circulo de Juarez last year, so we hope that he'll be able to at least finish in the Top 5 again. Given that we had a few options for how we wanted to develop the team heading into the off-season, we've opted to aim for another Top 10 result in the division rankings. By now, that's arguably a bit conservative."

After these remarks, journalists were invited to ask questions:

Journalist 1: Ms Sportif, earlier you've described the Madrazo signing as your most ambitious move yet. Bralirwa gets named as a promotion favorite pretty often these days. What are your thoughts on that?

Ms. Sportif: I meant ambitious more in simply the scope of the operation, rather than what it means for our outlook. And it should be noted that we did not simply add Angel to our 2021 squad - 4 of our Top 7 points scorers from last year, as well as some important helpers, are no longer with us. That said, a squad with Angel Madrazo, Fabio Silvestre and Joeri Stallaert is not going into the season aiming for a mid-table place.

Mr. Boss: If I may add to that - when we started this project, our primary goal had been to get to PCT in the not too distant future, then try and establish ourselves. Given our commitment to our focus nations, we weren't sure if PT was ever in the cards, so we never made it an official goal. But we've been ahead of schedule every step of the way so far, and the fact that promotion is an option that isn't completely farfetched is rather remarkable. If it comes to that, we'll embrace it, of course!

Journalist 2: Angel Madrazo is of course the biggest signing of the season, but not the only one. Can you maybe say a few words about Renus Uhiriwe?

Mr. Boss: With pleasure! Renus was our main target this year - really, the only talent we wanted to pursue. We are therefore very happy to have signed him. He's one of the more talented cyclists to come out of Rwanda in a while and has the potential to become an elite time trialist. We look forward to developing him a lot!

Journalist 3: Speaking of talents, the signing of Marc Brustenga and Ivan Cobo as stagiaires has raised some eyebrows. Some would have expected those roster spots to be used for African, or indeed, German riders. Can you maybe get into the reasoning for these decisions?

Mr. Boss: Sure. I understand the reasoning behind the question. First, let me preface this by saying we're convinced of Ivan's and Marc's potential. We believe that they can contribute this year and, if it works out, beyond that. But clearly, we've been looking at Spanish riders more intensely once Angel had been brought in. Having a few guys who speak your language on the team certainly won't hurt.

Journalist 3: If I may follow-up: I've mentioned the possibility of a German stagiaire because there is no German rider at all on your team for the upcoming season. And I couldn't help but notice that there is no representative from Stevens here today. Has it been a conscious decision to not pursue riders from that region?

Ms. Sportif: Maybe I can answer that. That definetely was not a conscious decision. In fact, we've tried to pursue a number of German riders, and some big names, too. We've had our eyes on a couple of free agents and entered transfer talks over potential German leaders with a couple of teams. In the end, it just didn't work out.

Mr. Boss: Obviously, our partners at Stevens would have prefered one or two of those options to materialize. But I'm sure they'll be happy to have their brand associated with our other quality riders as well. And let's not forget that we still have Jonas Rutsch under contract, even if he won't wear our shirt this year.

Journalist 3: So, no friction between you and Stevens?

Press officer: Are there any other questions?

Journalist 4: You're going to your first Grand Tour this year. What would be a succesful race there for you?

Ms. Sportif: Just being there is an achievement, really. But of course, we're not going to Italy to loaf around. We've talked to Angel about this and are in agreement that a podium finish in the GC is a realistic goal. Obviously, competition will play a part in that, but we're confident in his abilities. And we'll be bringing a good, hungry team with him, including multiple Rwandans, so we hope to be present in breakaways, perhaps fighting for a stage win.

Press officer: Thank you, everyone. Enjoy the season, and see you soon!