As the curtains fall on a rather hectic first transfer period for the team, Ethiopian Airlines is delighted to present its roster for the 2024 season. Boasting bona fide leaders on three terrains, this highly experienced squad will aim to be competitive in almost every race they enter.

Coming into this season, team management had set a clear goal of targeting mountainous stage races. While there were multiple interesting options in free agency, management opted to acquire Pierre Paolo Penasa from Genii Hyundai N Cycling for a team record fee of 300.000. Although he is not getting any younger, Triple P should make the team competive in any race he enters and play a major role in achieving the team's goals.
Second in command will be Eritrean Natnael Berhane, who will hopefully open up a range of tactical options when racing alongside Triple P, while also getting the opportunity to lead outright on occasion.
A host of strong domestiques will help them reach the stage finales unscathed, among them Juan Ernesto Chamorro, Ethiopia's very own Tsgabu Gebremaryam Grmay, Mektel Eyob, Martijn Keizer, and Patrick Bevin. Tom Dumoulin will be a key figure whenever a TTT is on the menu.

Although team management did not initially intend to focus too much on the hills, an opportuntiy presented itself to trade for a top tier CT puncheur in Sven Erik Bystrom from Trans Looney Tunes. Given his explosiveness and fighting spirit, we hope he will make us proud whenever the roads go uphill.
In order to support him in the hills, Sebastian Schönberger was acquired from Evonik - ELKO, while free agency pickups Chris Hamilton and Souheil Khederi will play their part too. Mektel Eyob, who joins from Bralirwa - Cegeka, will also prove his versatility and be a key helper for Sven Erik as well as PPP.

Ethiopian Airlines is particulalry proud to have an African leader in this department, with Ryan Gibbons spearheading our fast men. Although he may not have quite the same standout attributes as our other two leaders, we nevertheless hope he can become a regular point scorer on the flat days. The last man in the sprint train will be fellow African Mikiel Habtom, while former Bank of Ireland man Felix English will act as road captain and pilot those two in the early stages of the finale.

Yes, you read that correctly, Ethiopian Airlines only signed a singular talent. It is clear that developing cycling in Ethiopia will be a long-term process, but at least our Kenyan sponsors will be particularly pleased to see Ivan Kipruto gain valuable experience in the professional peloton. Hopefully, by the time August comes around, more local talent will have been identified to join the squad on an apprentice contract.

Damian, your team has been described as the retirement home of the peloton. Only two of your riders are below the age of the 30, and one of those is 29. Is Ethiopian Airlines where cyclists' dreams go to die?

I agree that the age profile of our team is perhaps not ideal, and might mean we will have another very active offseason next year. But at the CT level you really need to take it year by year, especially as a new team. We are competing against more established teams with bigger budgets, and working with a very limited cap. Of course we know Triple P is not going to be our leader in five years time, but if he helps us reach our goals this year, that's enough. We will back all of our riders for as long as they have the legs, and put our feelers out for homegrown talent in the meantime.

You were involved in one of the more controversial moments early on in the transfer season, when one of your local rivals made an 11th hour bid on two of your targets. What was your reaction at the time?

I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble. And I don't want to be in big trouble.

Of course we would have preferred concluding our business in quick fashion, but the main thing is that they are now both on our team. Their wages have been increased accordingly, so they will now have extra reason to prove their worth. If they can repay our faith in them, all will be forgotten in no time. And anyway, what would a local rivalry be without some spice...

You have signed two national champions [Felix English, IRL RR; Souheil Khederi, TUN RR & TT], who will need their own jerseys, yet you haven't even presented the team's main jersey yet. Have you already encountered issues with your Chinese suppliers? They can't be happy with how you completely ignored the Asian market...

First of all, it's great to be reunited with Felix. I remember him well from when he was just a young lad starting out with the old Bank of Ireland team, and was surprised none of the Irish teams were interested in signing their national champion. Of course we will have a beautiful jersey for him to show off, same as for all of our riders. We have run into some production issues as it is being made completely in-house, but rest assured, the presentation will follow very soon.

As for our lack of Asian, in particular Chinese, signings, of course we would have liked to have been more active on that market. But the reality is that we are working with a limited budget, and the constrained African market already leaves you with very little room for manoeuvre. We are very happy that we have been able to sign a number of riders from our home region of East Africa, supplemented by more riders from further away on the continent, Our Chinese partners have reaffirmed that their support is grounded in a desire to expand on the African market, rather than to promote Chinese cycling, so we are confident our collaboration will remain steadfast.

A highly embarrassing clerical error has left Ethiopian Airlines GM Damian Ippofix scrambling for explanations as an incorrect transfer sheet nearly left the team's hopes for the season in tatters. According to insiders familiar with the matter, the intern in charge of administrative matters enjoyed one too many refreshing Tusker lager while celebrating the marquee signing of Ryan Gibbons, understating his wages by 10.000. This went unnoticed by team management until a routine MG UCI budget check revealed alarming irregularities.

After having already presented the 2024 squad as final, team management was left scrambling for ways to rectify the budget situation. After attempts to secure a loan + fee failed, the difficult decision to sell Mektel Eyob was taken. Although he would have been a vital member of the team for 2024 and beyond, only he and team leaders Pierre Paolo Penasa and Sven Erik Bystrom were legally allowed to be transferred. After fielding calls from several teams, a cash transfer was arranged. This cash was promptly invested into the slightly cheaper Frederik Frison, who will add much-needed time trial depth to the team. A silver lining to this is that this deal allowed team Polar to escape a similarly tricky cap situation.

Following on from this, the team added two final riders as part of the CT draft. The team is delighted to have secured the signature of their top two choices, Andrea Vendrame and Gaspar Goncalves. They will add much needed depth in the hills and mountains and partially make up for the loss of Eyob

This means that the following 18 men will wear the Ethiopian Airlines jersey in 2024:

Speaking of jersey... the team can finally present their kit for the upcoming season. Designed in-house in a moment of "graphic design is my passion" madness, the shirt takes inspiration from the Ethiopian flag, with the nation's crest featuring prominently on one side. Hopefully, the riders will do the shirt proud and give us plenty of opportunities to see it on the podium throughout the upcoming season.

AbhishekLFC wrote:

Very good squad for mountains, hills and even sprints. Hope they perform as expected to make your first season a successful one.

Race	Category	Goal
Volta a Catalunya	C2	Win

Our first goal this season is already our win goal - a tough ask, to be sure. We went into the goal creation process without any idea what our squad might look like. A focus on GCs was clear, as was the plan to build a strong TTT squad, so combining the two for our win goal appeared to make a lot of sense. While our efforts to build that TTT squad was only a qualified success, we are confident of limiting our losses there and then seeing what Pierre Paolo Penasa can do on the two tough mountain stages. Winning outright will probably prove a bridge too far, but we are confident of securing a result.

Race	Category	Goal
Tour of Eritrea	C1	Top 5

The choice of C1 goal was a no-brainer - as close to a home race as it gets, with a tasty mountain stage to boot. Realistically, the level of competition and the fact that the race is not as hard/long as other stage races means we are unlikely to achieve a top 5 here, but racing close to home and showing off our jersey and our local heroes will perhaps inspire the lads to punch above their weight here.

Race	Category	Goal
Monterrey TTT	C2	Top 10

Another goal that was selected with building a TTT squad in mind. Given the race usually sees around 12-15 teams taking part, top 10 seemed like a savvy choice. Perhaps we tried getting too cute in selecting this, but hopefully our TTT boys have enough in them to swing a top 10 here.

Race	Category	Goal
Giro del Trentino	C2	Top 5

Another race with a TTT and two tough days in the mountains. On paper, this should suit PPP quite well, and he will have a strong supporting cast. The lack of variety in our goal planning was a calculated risk, as we could not guarantee we would get a top class puncheur or sprinter alongside our stage racing target, and by this point in the season it should be clear if our squad building efforts have been successful.

Race	Category	Goal
Team Standings	CT	Top 10

Nothing too ambitious here, anything more would have been too tough of an ask of a new team. If all our plans work out, this goal is very achievable, but if even one of our leaders underperforms throughout the season, it will be a challenge. It will be a season of fine margins in the CT division, and most teams will feel like they could finish inside the top 10 if a bit of luck goes their way.

Nat.	Name	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	Age
	Sven Erik Bystrom	72	68	79	61	75	72	67	56	68	76	78	73	61	32
	Andrea Vendrame	72	62	76	58	75	73	73	60	71	75	67	67	70	30
	Chris Hamilton	72	68	76	67	71	74	74	55	64	73	70	68	69	29
	Sebastian Schönberger	66	72	76	59	73	74	71	57	65	71	75	74	59	30
	Gaspar Goncalves	69	73	75	56	71	70	67	56	68	74	62	66	62	29
	Souheil Khederi	66	73	75	60	66	65	69	58	57	71	66	70	58	33
	Patrick Bevin	67	73	72	75	66	62	71	52	63	72	73	68	71	33
	Ivan Kipruto	67	59	68	58	67	68	66	58	67	70	64	62	58	22

Our first race should be a good one to gauge where this season will take us. We're taking more or less our strongest possible hills squad to Aotearoa, where they will go up against Moscon et al in a race that is probably on the trickier side as far as hilly races are concerned. An uphill finish should presumably suit SEB, but for his acceleration to come into play, he'll have to stick with the big boys throughout the race.

Nat.	Name	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	Age
	Ryan Gibbons	75	59	65	67	73	72	73	60	78	78	65	68	72	30
	Mikiel Habtom	74	52	60	63	73	73	78	67	76	76	59	62	66	33
	Martijn Keizer	65	74	64	74	65	69	65	52	50	63	65	54	74	36
	Felix English	78	59	64	67	74	73	64	63	71	75	59	69	70	32
	Tom Dumoulin	69	57	66	76	72	73	65	50	63	64	64	58	76	34
	Ivan Kipruto	67	59	68	58	67	68	66	58	67	70	64	62	58	22

One for the sprinters next in Thailand, where we can only bring 6 riders. One of the drawbacks of having a rather small side, nevertheless Gibbons should have enough support to get him to the finish safely. What he can deliver there is anyone's guess, but at least a solid top 10 showing should be possible.

Nat.	Name	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	Age
	Sven Erik Bystrom	72	68	79	61	75	72	67	56	68	76	78	73	61	32
	Chris Hamilton	72	68	76	67	71	74	74	55	64	73	70	68	69	29
	Sebastian Schönberger	66	72	76	59	73	74	71	57	65	71	75	74	59	30
	Tsgabu Gebremaryam Grmay	66	76	73	64	70	72	74	57	60	70	57	73	64	33
	Gaspar Goncalves	69	73	75	56	71	70	67	56	68	74	62	66	62	29
	Souheil Khederi	66	73	75	60	66	65	69	58	57	71	66	70	58	33
	Martijn Keizer	65	74	64	74	65	69	65	52	50	63	65	54	74	36
	Ivan Kipruto	67	59	68	58	67	68	66	58	67	70	64	62	58	22

Our first C1 race sees us enter hilly territory again, this one featuring two long ascents. Taking this into account, we have selected some helpers that are usually more comfortable in the high mountains, to hopefully shepherd SEB through unharmed. No real expectations for this one, any kind of result would be a welcome surprise.

Nat.	Name	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	Age
	Ryan Gibbons	75	59	65	67	73	72	73	60	78	78	65	68	72	30
	Juan Ernesto Chamorro	65	77	74	64	70	74	68	50	65	72	77	73	63	33
	Natnael Berhane	65	78	72	63	72	69	68	50	59	63	64	68	62	34
	Tsgabu Gebremaryam Grmay	66	76	73	64	70	72	74	57	60	70	57	73	64	33
	Mikiel Habtom	74	52	60	63	73	73	78	67	76	76	59	62	66	33
	Frederik Frison	71	57	67	77	73	71	67	54	65	65	63	67	77	32
	Felix English	78	59	64	67	74	73	64	63	71	75	59	69	70	32
	Tom Dumoulin	69	57	66	76	72	73	65	50	63	64	64	58	76	34

Our globe trotting exploits continue, this time taking us to South America. The longest race in our calendar sees a rare GC opportunity for someone other than Pierre Paolo Penasa. We go into this race with no out-and-out GC leader, as Berhane and Chamorro will be co-captains. On the flat stages, Gibbons will go hunting for podiums, while we bring decent TTers as well. It's hard to predict what the start list will look like given the high number of race days it eats up, therefore our B-List may have a chance to punch above their usual weight.

Nat.	Name	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR	Age
	Sven Erik Bystrom	72	68	79	61	75	72	67	56	68	76	78	73	61	32
	Chris Hamilton	72	68	76	67	71	74	74	55	64	73	70	68	69	29
	Sebastian Schönberger	66	72	76	59	73	74	71	57	65	71	75	74	59	30
	Gaspar Goncalves	69	73	75	56	71	70	67	56	68	74	62	66	62	29
	Souheil Khederi	66	73	75	60	66	65	69	58	57	71	66	70	58	33
	Martijn Keizer	65	74	64	74	65	69	65	52	50	63	65	54	74	36
	Patrick Bevin	67	73	72	75	66	62	71	52	63	72	73	68	71	33
	Ivan Kipruto	67	59	68	58	67	68	66	58	67	70	64	62	58	22

The last race of the month sees us tick a fourth continent off the list as we go to Mexico. Once more our regular hills squad goes out in support of SEB. He has finished in the top 10 here in the past, and anything less than that would be a disappointment for sure. These are, however, really the kind of races we need to be getting podiums or wins in this season if we want to achieve our goal of a top 10 finish.