Another year, still where we belong in PCT!



2023 Roster

Nat.	Name	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	Age
	Mark Padun	67	82	77	66	72	74	76	53	60	75	76	70	65	27
	Eduard Alexander Beltran	68	78	80	65	71	70	70	58	65	74	77	73	65	33
	Stanislaw Aniolkowski	76	62	65	56	76	74	79	63	80	79	57	64	59	26
	Roman Gladysh	72	70	77	64	73	72	73	61	71	76	74	69	66	28
	Yuriy Vasyliv	71	77	74	72	78	72	75	56	62	67	64	71	72	30
	Roman Lutsyshyn	70	50	54	64	69	73	74	55	79	80	58	57	70	29
	Oleksandr Prevar	71	70	79	61	75	68	66	52	66	71	62	65	61	33
	Zouzou Andriafenomananiaina	65	76	72	74	74	74	76	56	52	71	76	64	70	29
	Rein Taaramäe	68	78	71	74	69	70	65	50	53	66	63	63	72	36
	Nipuna Shira Manamalage	81	51	59	52	71	64	56	77	57	56	64	61	57	31
	Oleksandr Golovash	72	60	60	78	72	69	66	55	73	76	61	65	78	32
	Kaspars Sergis	68	75	76	58	69	73	73	58	58	70	76	66	58	31
	Anatoliy Budyak	68	74	78	68	72	67	73	56	57	68	63	74	68	28
	Nicolae Tanovitchii	72	68	76	60	75	72	71	57	62	71	79	68	60	30
	Andrii Bratashcuk	69	71	77	58	75	70	69	52	62	67	65	79	58	31
	Volodymyr Dzhus	65	76	70	64	74	74	68	55	58	75	70	63	64	30
	Aleksandr Pluchkin	67	78	68	72	68	68	65	63	60	64	60	59	72	36
	Martin Papanov	68	74	72	71	72	72	74	54	65	67	68	66	75	24
	Peter Varga	77	61	66	61	76	73	69	67	65	80	83	74	63	30
	Andriy Orlov	69	58	76	67	74	68	69	55	63	70	74	64	67	31
	Matic Zumer	68	70	68	56	68	74	62	56	65	76	72	80	57	26
	Yaroslav Parashchak	69	67	72	57	68	69	70	58	59	70	71	66	57	23
	Ziga Horvat	73	66	67	56	71	74	66	69	67	70	69	67	59	25
	Dmytro Kachur	64	61	68	59	66	69	72	62	60	67	63	67	59	22
	Maksym Bilyi	66	68	65	68	69	67	65	60	62	66	68	71	68	22

Sadly with renewals there's a chance of having to let go when no proper arrangements can be met, and for us this means the departure of a few true legends.

Fisrt and foremost Alexandr Pluchkin, the legend who's won all 3 GTs in his career is coming of age, and his wage demands were too much for us to fit him into our salary house for a final honorary season. Pluchkin has brought us much joy in the years at the team, with many highlights such as winning Tirreno - Adriatico and getting 4 consecutive wins in Austria! During those years Pluchkin has also been a mentor for Padun who will now officially take over the reign.

Furthermore also Simon Spilak has been released after 1 year of service. The also multiple GT winner was on a 1 year deal, and served it with pride, riding with and for Pluchkin during the latest Tour of America.

Other riders who have been released are Adrian Nitu, Heiko Redecker, Artem Topchanyuk who has been serving us from the very start in 2013 and Oleksandr Shevchenko.

Now only a couple of riders from the ancient 2013 squad remain, being Oleksandr Prevar, Oleksandr Golovash, Volodymyr Dzhus and Nicolae Tanovitchii. The latter 2 of those who were on loan to us from Metinvest in 2013 and joined permanently a number of years later.

Just like all other teams, we've been busy trying to collect a full squad for the upcoming season and proud to present a number of new riders!

First of all is Colombian hero Eduard Alexander Beltran who, despite his age, will be a very strong leader in the role that Prevar has had the past number of seasons, leading us throughout most of the races with hilly terrain.

Along with him 2 other true legends join the team! Multiple GT winners in fact! Rein Taaramäe and Alexandr Pluchkin are both here to mentor the group, for Taaramäe this will be new, but for Pluchkin this is all so familiar, just with a less familiar wage size. Having the guy that defined the team for so many years back after rocky renewals honestly is the best thing that could ever have happened!

Finally we've strengthened our Ukrainian core by signing Yuriy Vasyliv, a rider born in Ukraine, but riding with a German UCI license who is amazingly strong as a support rider in stage races, as well as young talents Dmytro Kachur and Makym Bilyi.

All this also means some riders had to be cut. Recent ongoings made us decide to let go of Petr Rikunov and Aliaksandr Riabushenko, whilt also Vadim Pronskiy has been sold in order to allow these changes to happen.

We're not quite done yet, but the general outline for the team has most certainly been set!

During the final days of transfers we've made one more deal to strenghten the core of the team. Hybrid climber Kaspars Sergis from Latvia is the 25th rider to join and complete our team. His main focus will of course be looking after both Padun and Beltran, but we'll make sure he will get chances on his own to, mainly to join breaks in races that would suit him best.

As said, this means the end of our transfers, unless something special happens of course. Nothing can ever be ruled out!

The team we're rocking with for the season is shown below, and will be mainly lead by Mark Padun in mountainous races, Eduard Alexander Beltran in hybrid and hilly races, Stanislaw Aniolkowski for sprints and Nipuna Shira Manamalage for the odd cobbled race here and there.

We're fairly confident this team has everything needed to have a good year once again, building from last year's disappointment. Promotion isn't the goal, but if it seems to be in reach during the season we're sure the team has the firepower to actually fight for it until the end.