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[PCT] Minions '24
Marcovdw
INTRODUCTION


This is how we introduced ourselves:
Spoiler
Once upon a time, a little yellow single-celled organism was searching around for some food for his friends, the other little yellow single-celled organisms. He found a tree full of bananas, and it became the most holy food for them; only apples (or babbles, as they would pronounce them) came close afterwards, but the bananas stayed on top forever. They could continue to eat bananas without anyone noticing, until capitalism.

A bunch of Americans found out about the bananas, and decided to eat them as well. The organisms weren't too happy about that, but the Americans only wanted to sell bananas to them for ridiciously high prices. The organisms agreed on the deal, because they just couldn't live without bananas. The Americans founded a company called United Fruit Company, which would later be known as Chiquita Brands International.

After the deal, the little yellow single-celled organisms were living in peace again, even during both World Wars and the Cold War, but their rest was disturbed again in the 21st century when an American/French film crew decided to use them for a movie. The company, who named theirself Illumination Entertainment, had a big plan with them, and they even gave them a name that will always be recognized, the Minions!

Illumination Entertainment became a subsidiary of Universal Studios, a rich and famous American company. The film, called Despicable Me and released in 2010, became a hugh success, and the Minions became rich. A sequel would follow 3 years later, and that made them even richer. In 2015, the Minions will finally get their own movie, suprisingly called Minions, where they will finally be main characters. Despicable Me 3 is scheduled for 2017.

One of the Minions was a big fan of cycling, and decided to found a cycling team with the money he earned from the movies and the bananas. He, however, did not have enough money to it, neither did all the Minions together. They first asked Universal Studios to sponsor them. They decided to help, but they didn't offer enough money to fund the entire team. Then Chiquita came to rescue, and offered an amazing amount of money for the team, accompanied by a giant raise in the price of the bananas. Team Chiquita-Universal was born!


This is how the story continued:
Spoiler
The Minions began strong, designing jerseys, making goals and selecting races. Riders were signed, but they made one critical mistake. Instead of human currency, the riders were paid in bananas. This did not only effect their health, but it also resulted in some angry Minions who had to either go to rehab or switch to babbles. And things didn't get better when a film crew showed up to make a new movie about them, which is to premiere soon.

This slight controversy resulted in a big mess. Minions weren't motivated to watch races or write about it, riders weren't performing due to the lack of support from the Minions and organizers threatened to take our license away. Our season marked just four highlights, though that's more than none. The victory of Chad Haga in a TT in Algarve resulted in a mass celebration in our lab and a daily pilgrimage to Portugal. Carter Jones won the mountain jersey in the Tour de Beauce, but those 2 wins were all there would be last season. There were some minor celebrations when Jakob Rathe achieved our goal in a for Minions impronouncable race (Cigar City Brewing Twilight GP) and some decent performances in our home tour: the Tour of America.

It didn't look good for the Minions though. 24th out of 26 was definately a big bummer, though higher than most critics expected. It was a nail-biting offseason, but their but-jokes, banana-bribery and cute smiles managed to secure a new license for this season. We managed to keep both our main sponsors and secondary sponsors aboard (Chiquita, Universal, Illumination Entertainment and Gameloft). To keep the Minions happy, we decided to change our name to Chiquita - Universal powered by Minions, after we were already informally called Team Minions last season. We were given a new appearance as well, with a new jersey designed by renowned artist Bikex. Last season was trial-and-error, this season will be trial-and-succeeding!

The Minions aren't dead. The Minions are alive. The Minions are more fond of cycling than ever and extremely driven to perform this season, and of course gain more bananas. Or babbles. Or both.


And then, all this stuff happened:
Spoiler
Now, the Minions cycling team is in their third consecutive season in the lowest level of cycling. The Minions are losing hope, but is there a Minion who can stand up and lead them to promotion, finally?

Where did it go wrong last season? The start was promising, with our license renewed and Minions being added to the official team name. However, there was some controversy regarding the not very child-friendly abbreviation. We would like to maintain a good relationship with children, and therefore we rectified our error immediately. We also found out that Piamonte didn't like bananas. He was thrown out of the HQ immediately.

Transfers went better as the year before. The PR-Minion didn't mess up the validation process and got it right in one go. Some star riders were signed, such as Martinez and Kinney. Yet, there were also failures. Jones was loaned out to a even worse team where he couldn't progress. 500,000 bananas were invested in sprinter Tolleson, but his stack of top 10's were limited, if there were any. The old and decreasing Duggan was signed to provide experience, but can he be useful for another season? And in the closing stages we signed the overpriced Italian fighter Santambrogio. Our 200,000 bananas donation to Festina might have been the key to their ProTour victory.

Resultwise the season also went better. Our first season resulted in 1 stage victory, the second season that increased to 3! Kinney won a stage in Pologne, Haga the TT in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge and Montenegro won from a breakaway in our favourite race, the Tour of America. He and Haga also fought for the mountains competition, but where a few places away from victory. The race has given us some great memories, and we will certainly return this year. Martinez had some great stage race results, including a sixth place in the prestigious Vuelta a Tachira.

On the other hand, Tolleson couldn't impress in the sprints. At one point, Santambrogio managed to outdo him on a regular basis. The lack of points in sprinters races is the reason we couldn't compete for promotion positions. It will now be a Mexican standoff between Carlsberg, Lierse and us to decide who will be the last team to promote from the 2014 entrants.

We lost 16th place in the standings on the final race, yet 17th out of 26 is much better as our 24th place. If we can improve by the same margin this year, promotion will be within reach!

For the Minions themselves, 2015 was quite successful. The eponymous film was a box office hit, and grossed billions worldwide. The Minions now have some time of before they start working on their new movie, Despicable Me 3. Kevin the Minion was knighted by the Queen of England, and is now known as Sir Kevin. He will replace Dave as general manager, who has decided to move on and seek new challenges in the world of the yellow single-celled organisms.

In 2016, the team will revert to its 2014 name, but without the Team prefix. Due to new restrictions by the MGUCI, a character lenght was introduced, which made our team name too long for their administration. The team will officially be known as Chiquita - Universal, but as always the media will always associate us with the Minions, who will not leave the world of cycling in the near future! The team is now officially based in Guatemala, because the Minions want to be in a banana republic. This will mean an increased focus on Central America, but we will not forget the most important market on the earth, the United States of America!

However, we must be realistic. Some Minions are getting depressed. Promotion has to be achieved, otherwise who knows what will happen. Complete Minion breakdown? The apocalypse? It is up to Sir Kevin, team manager Stuart and the directeurs sportifs, including Bob, to find the most despicable master to... ehh sorry, that's the plot of the movie.

To get the team to the top of the world of cycling, that's it!


And then, this stuff happened as well:
Spoiler
They say third time's the charm. Well, it certainly was the case for us. We are now allowed to add a P in front of our opening abbreviation because we promoted to the Pro Continental Tour in the MGUCI system. But it's a miracle we got to this place at all. Here's a quick reconstruction:

On the bike things went pretty well. We managed to sign two great sprinters in Drapac and Manarelli, and three cobblestones specialists in De Haes, Marcos and Matthews. This meant that we were able to participate on all terrains for once. Yes, there were also some less successful acquisitions this season but far less so than the previous years. Haga and Selander were send on loan to a ProTour squad, and would come back to us having gained valuable experience.

Over the first two season we scored a total of four victories. However, we knew very quickly that this season would be much better, as we had already won three stages when we came to March. Barton and Sarmiento, two new riders as well, both won a stage in the Tour of the Middle East, and De Haes won us our first classic: the prestigious Geraardsbergen - Bosberg. But the big fish came from New Zealand, the Tour of Southland, where Martinez won the fourth stage and consequently the general classification. You could imagine the celebrations, fireworks and Minions who drank slightly too much at the headquarters.

And it didn't stop there, as our sprinters delivered on their promises as well. Drapac won a stage in Circulo de Juarez and came close to the overall victory. He also won the opening stage in the Tour of Denmark, taking the leader's jersey before losing it on stage three to our very own Kinney, who won that stage as well. Unfortunately he also couldn't win the overall classification. Manarelli managed to rack up four victories over the season, one in the Tour de Pologne, one in the Herald Sun Tour and two consecutive stages in Ruta America del Sur. Martinez also won a time trial in the USAPCC, the exact same one Haga won the year before.

This did us well in the rankings. We were within reach of automatic promotion all season, and although we couldn't challenge for the title which went to Ferrero, we still finished in fourth place, one place ahead of our rivals Carlsberg, after Lierse chickened out of a battle of the last team of the 2014 generation to promote. Fourth place means we could finally kiss goodbye to the bottom depths of the CT, and start mixing us in the midfield of the PCT.

However, off the bike things went a little bit less well, understatement of the year. First there was a bit of a miscommunication with Esmaeli regarding his future, and he left the team midway through the season after only participating in two races. Then, our sponsors started to withdraw, all for the silliest of reasons. Universal withdrew because they though we favoured Chiquita, and that wasn't true, and they knew it, but they wanted a way out for something else. Because our operations were moved to the glorious banana republic of Guatemala for tax reasons, our team became, let's say a lot less liked by some organisations. The people of Guatemala noticed their bananas became extremely expensive due to some of our employee's habits, and soon we had some major riots outside our building.

We knew we had to bail when even Chiquita, our most beloved sponsor (sorry Universal, you had this coming), left us and joined the side of the protestors. We took our stuff and got the hell out of the country, before they burned our HQ to the ground. Back in the US of A we couldn't find a place to stay, we couldn't find a sponsor to work with and we couldn't eat bananas because we didn't have them anymore.

Then, as an angel descended down from heaven, Tareq Esmaeli came back with money from his dad, who apparently is a super rich oil Sheikh from Qatar. He bought the license and saved the Minions from bankruptcy and most likely prison. This means we're once again on the move, towards Qatar, with our new sugar daddy paying for everything we need (including apparently a mountain made of oil for a new race). We have no sponsors who could direct where we go and what we do, it's just the Minions from now on. And Tareq the banana lover is back with the team, and we will never ever threat him the way we did last season.

Long story short: we're on the most wanted list of the CIA, FBI and Interpol, we have both Chiquita and Universal suing us, the governments of the United States and Guatemala want to see us extradited, and for some reason the Walt Disney Company has send mercenaries to kill us. But that won't stop us. We're going to continue were we left off: to conquer the world of cycling, whether you like it or not!


Another season, more stories:
Spoiler
Let's start with the good news (pun intented): we survived our first season in PCT! How? Well, read below.

We realised our squad was in need of a major make-over, since our CT leaders would not be good enough to lead PCT. Our two major signings were Úran for the mountains/stage races, and Betancourt for the hills. Albert was brought on to lead at the cobbles, and Drapac remained sprint leader though we knew he would struggle more. A leader in every discipline, what could go wrong?

A lot, actually. We spent over a million bananas on helping Betancourt lose weight so he would be in top shape going in this season, but his performances were not what we expected. We wanted constant scoring while he only delivered a few good result contrary to many bad results. Albert didn't have the best of seasons either but at least he tried. And our support riders didn't really get themselves inside the break or in a low points-scoring position for them to be of any help for the rankings.

We made mistakes, we'll admit. We left over 150k in our wage cap to afford Betancourt's training, money we could have used to sign better riders. And the riders we did sign weren't scouted that great either. We signed Goodnews Clifford purely because of his first name and the laughs we would have, not because of his skill. Jeandesbosz had previously been signed by us but never raced, so we brought him back to close the chapter, but his age had already caught him and he wasn't as good as he used to be. Albourdainy was signed because he's friends with the Sheikh's son and while he wasn't too bad, we could've signed someone with more pedigree.

That still doesn't answer our earlier question though. How did we survive? Well, a large part of it is down to one man: Úran. He scored well in every race he participated in, but in August he delivered big-time when he won Deutschland Tour in the PTHC category, against ProTour opposition, and single-handedly pushed us out of the relegation zone we'd been spending in since January. A statue for him has already been erected outside the HQ.

Other two silver linings were Drapac, who caused an upset when he won Nahakon Rahamanakon Classic in Thailand (that's not how it's spelled but we've never done it correctly and you probably never noticed), and De Haes, who won three stages in three different races from the breakaway. Those fringe points proved to be just enough to stay above the five bottom places.

In the end it's twentieth place, two places and just 237 points ahead of relegation. This year we have to do better, this year we have to sign riders better, this year we have to plan races better, this year we have to race races better, this year we have to be better!

Because we're not going down, we're going up!


Season six went as follows:
Spoiler
And so we made it to our sixth season. Can you believe it, six years already. We started on this adventure knowing absolutely nothing, which showed in our first seasons, but now we're at a spot where we know what's going on and how to improve.

Take our fifth season. We barely avoided relegation in our debut in PCT, and improvements were necessary to improve on our ranking position. We knew we had some additional cap space held behind by Betancourt, but selling him for a record fee opened up some real possibilities. In response we bought Zepuntke for a record fee and assembled a strong cobblestone squad. Additionally, we focussed on time trials to avoid the painful moments whenever they took place.

The season indeed went a lot better than before. Not only relying on Úran to score points, but he was still our top scorer. Despite not winning a stage race this season he was a lot more consistent and finished second and third almost every stage or race. This brought him to eighth place in the individual rankings. The cobblestone squad also took a lot of points, including Zepuntke and Albert as second- and third-best scorers respectively.

But it were the little guys who made it into a great season. Loanee Moulingui finished third in Omloop het Nieuwsblad. Third for an unmaxed, 23 year old in the highest category possible is a wonderful performance, and meant he finished sixth on our end-of-season rankings. Drapac also picked his race where he overperformed, winning a stage and finishing third in the GC at Baltic Chain Tour.

Not everything was bright though. We made our GT debut in the Vuelta, but largely remained anonymous except Úran taking seventh place in the GC. Betancourt's replacement, Quevedo, was not up to standards and scored even less. This means we have to look for a new lead puncheur for the third year in a row. But you know what they say, third time's a charm.

Put everything together and we have a solid midtable finish of thirteenth. Way ahead of the relegation spots but also behind the (disband) promotion spots. For a while we looked to battle for the promotion spots, placing sixth or seventh midway through the season, but with less racedays in the latter months we dropped back a bit. That's not a shame, it shows we have a great base and with a little tweaking, we can promote to PT this season.

Third time's a charm, we'll promote to PT!


Nothing interesting happened here:
Spoiler
And here we are in season seven, still with the unwanted C in our division prefix. Our triple three-years plan ([CT] learning - building a base - promotion - [PCT] survival - building a base - promotion - [PT] survival - building a base - champions) is now officially one year behind schedule. Whereas we managed to get through the Continental division in three years as planned, the ProContinental arc of our team history will have at least four chapters.

For the third year in a row Uran was our highest scorer, elevating his status as team legend even further. A few stage wins here and there, and a lot of GC top fives, but his big win came in the Corsica International, a race he had won before for a different team but always fell just short of in our colors. He once again finished in the top ten of the individual standings, in exactly tenth place with a total of points similar to the previous season.

We brought in Claeys to tackle our persistent puncheurs problem, an unlike his maligned predecessors, he actually got some results. Two wins in GP Wallonie and Tour of Southland early in the season were his highlights, but after those two he thought he did enough and couldn't achieve the same results for the rest of the season, only occasionally making the top ten.

The cobbles squad, though slightly dismantled compared to the previous season, also did a good job, with Zepuntke and Albert being our third- and fourth-best point scorers with some decent results, though no stand-out Moulingui-like performance. Janse van Rensburg also surprisingly had some decent results where we did not expect him to perform well. In all honesty, there were multiple riders which scored more points than anticipated. Marcos and Ivanov scored more than 100 points, Martinez had a top 25 in a PTHC stage race. Even Esmaeli picked up six points during the season!

Yet we only finished in fourteenth place in the final rankings, a place lower than the previous season despite scoring an additional 156 points. We wanted promotion but ended up far, far away. As scapegoat we labeled the sprinting department as biggest failures. Drapac did not have a win this season but did finish second once, whereas Vantomme, whom we signed with the explicit goal of participating and scoring high in sprints, did not participate or score high in sprints. At least the performance in the other departments was good enough to avoid relegation.

So, we are a year behind schedule. Does this mean a major revamp? Doing this differently from now on? A fresh breath in management and the squad? Behind the scenes we have been negotiating contracts, planning the schedule, infiltrating rival teams and blackmailing the MGUCI to make sure this year we will get what we deserve, a top five finish and promotion to the highest echelon of cycling!

And finally get rid of the bloody C!


Someone give this Minion a banana:
Spoiler
People following our progress ever since our baby steps will have seen our lack of updates for the 2020 season. No race previews or reviews were posted during the season, there were no answers to press question or fan mail, yet the manager was spotted all over the world doing everything but writing for his own team. Only after the season there was a Minion (read: a Minion who was forced to do so, otherwise he wouldn't get a banana) who provided minimal statement on the races of the season.

The season itself wasn't one we had hoped for either. We had hoped to get rid of the C in our division title, but in fact we have not gotten any closer. We finished in fourteenth position again, and thus will be heading into our fifth season in the ProContinental division. It could be worse, as relegation is also avoided with some wiggle room, but the progress has stagnated drastically.

Uran went into the season as undisputed leader again and got out as our top scorer, but not to the levels he had shown in previous years. This can be attributed to this age. The Colombian is in the autumn of his career, with the next generation to take over the reins. An important acquisition turned out to be Vesely, who would score very close to Uran's tally and proved to be our first ever consistent sprinter. Haga also rode some good races with his dangerous combination of climbing and riding against the clock.

There were some major disappointments as well. Zepuntke did not really get to fight for podium positions but still scored points in the races where he participated. Claeys on the other hand was clearly not giving everything he had and would often be one of the first "favorites" to get dropped. The biggest disappointment occurred before the season however, with the teams minutes away of signing legendary time trialist Coppel before being snatched away by a rival outfit.

So what's in store for the upcoming season? Uran and other subleaders are only getting older, and the talents such as Bjerg and Hodeg are not ready to take over yet. The transfer season will be an important one to take in fresh blood which will push us further up the rankings, as we are sick and tired of this time loop where we are stuck in the boring mid-tables.

We want to conquer the world of cycling, remember?


Yum yum yum:
Spoiler
The 2021 season was the season where the Minions should finally have achieved promotion to the ProTour. Things didn't quite turn out that way though.

The star signing was Hagen, earning a record fee of close to a million bananas. We were delighted to have a superstar sign for us with multiple monuments and a World Championship on his CV. He would be the one to break the puncheurs curse. Even though he ended up as our highest scoring rider his performances were somewhat disappointed, especially in the early part of the season. So the puncheurs curse continues.

Other riders also failed to impress. Vesely continuously started his sprint 500 meters too early. Uran's best days are far behind him and we really started noticing the effects this season. Haga could not pull some miracle performances like he was able to in the past. Zepuntke received expensive training which did not lead to noticeable better results.

The positives are hard to find. An obvious one is Hodeg, who sprinted to two stage wins in his home race. Kalaba also looked like a more consistent sprinter. Future time trial star Bjerg won a time trial in the Tour de l'Avenir. Haga scored a WC-bronze medal, but given it was in the team time trial it will hardly be remembered.

Despite the negative tone we were never in real relegation danger. Seventeenth place and three-hundred points above the line is not enough for angry door smashing, but it is our worst result since our first season in PCT. We keep on saying we want to achieve promotion but we seem to be on a more downward trajectory, which needs to be reversed to avoid going back down to CT.

Oh, and most important of all, almost our entire organization was arrested at the end of the season, casting doubt over the future of the team. While we maintain our complete innocence, the evidence fabricated by the intelligence agencies seems enough to be locked up for life. We cannot run a cycling team from prison, where there are no bananas.

Will we see the Minions again?


Look mom, I made it:
Spoiler
The C is gone from the division abbreviation. This is not a mistake. This is not a drill. This is real, we made it to the ProTour!

In our sixth attempt to get out of the PCT midfield the team were joined by celestial superstars Subwoolfer, who aside from wanting to dominate cycling finished tenth in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, representing Norway with "Give that wolf a banana". Our headquarters were based on a remote tropical island in Bermuda, with every facility available to get our riders in tip top shape.

A notable omission this season was our legend Uran, who could no longer be entrusted with leadership duties. Hagen's failure of the past season saw him kicked out of the door with a lot less emotions. Fan favorite Zepuntke's departure did make a lot of us cry, but we knew he was going to a good home at Los Pollos Hermanos. Replacing them as leaders were Cattaneo and Dennis, two riders with PT experience to boast their big paycheck, but also not the youngest anymore.

The sprinters core remained consistent with Vesely, Kalaba and Hodeg. While the trio did not achieve any victory in terms of classics and general classifications, they did win nine sprints between them. Kalaba became the king of the hilly sprints and sprints in stage races, winning five in total. Vesely finished in the top thirty of the individual PCT rankings with two stage wins, while Hodeg continued to be underestimated with two stage wins as well.

We finally gave up on getting a star puncheur, as we'd rather be absent than disappointed each race. That did not mean we closed the book on hilly races entirely, on the contrary in fact. Dennis and lost son Brown were brought in for the common combo of hills with time trials, where they could challenge for the GC by being decent at both. The Australian had a stellar season, winning the Tours of Norway and Britain and was the fourteenth-best rider of the PCT.

But that's not all. It's hard to fill Uran's shoes but Cattaneo did everything we could dream and more. Fourth in the Tour of East Java and second in the Criterium du Dauphine, as PTHC races, were already great achievements, but taking home the yellow jersey in the Tour de Vineyards and Bayern Rundfahrt were icings on the cake! Ahlstrand, Areruya and Dunbar were the only three riders to score more points that season. Even Uran never finished this high.

Before the season most pundits predicted another boring mid-table finish for us, perhaps even putting us towards the relegation fight, but we once again proved those pundits have no clue what they're talking about. We finished on the podium of the 2022 ProContinental Tour. Third place behind runaway favorite Amaysim Cervelo and fellow surprise package Zara - Irizar. And you know what third place means, right? Promotion to the ProTour!

Now we're here, but we're not done yet. Step one: remain in the ProTour division. Step two: move towards the top of the ProTour division. Step three: win the ProTour division. If it takes another six seasons, so be it, but stay tuned for a heck of a ride!


After nine seasons we made it. Season ten would be the crown jewel on our work: the ProTour. But we don't wanna stop here, we're here to stay, we're here to win. Subwoolfer was thanked for their services since they turned out to be actual humans in wolf costumes instead of super rich space aliens, so it was back to just the Minios. But if there was one way we want to go on this adventure, it is this way.

Our only goal this year was to survive. Our main transfer target was an American with the same initials as toilet paper, but his wage demands were outrageous. Instead we signed PCT champion of the previous season Ahlstrand for a record fee, and broke our wage record to sign Liege - Bastogne - Liege winner Kinoshita. Keep Cattaneo from last year, add in a talented Bjerg, and a bunch of competent riders, and we should be good to keep our head above the water.

Things would not quite go our way though. We were thirteenth in the January ranking update, but for the rest of the year we would not be found outside of the bottom two positions. It wouldn't be until May we had shaken Binance off for the laterne rouge, but by then the teams above us were already too far away to even dream about staying above the cut line. The realization of relegation came quite early, so we could just enjoy the final months and tick off bucket list items.

This will be the only paragraph dedicated to the failures before we go into a more positive vibe again. Kinoshita underperformed, not coming close to a monument win and not scoring the amount of points expected from his stature and wage bill. Ahlstrand also disappointed quite often, especially compared to Vesely, whom we sold during the transfer, rocking in the PCT division. Our depth was lacking, we had no talents of our own and we had a cobblestone quartet with absolutely no chances of anything even if they did a race in relay.

Now that's off our chest, some positive notes. We rode three Grand Tours, all with a level of success. Ahlstrand won the final stage in the Giro, which also made him win the points classification. Kalaba won the opening stage of the Tour, which gave us an iconic shot of a Minion on the podium in the yellow jersey. Cattaneo finished in a decent eighth place, and so close to seventh. Vosekalns was often spotted in breakaways and challenging for mountain classifications.

Elsewhere, Kinoshita contributed with a win in the Grand Prix Cyclistes. Bjerg had a breakthrough year, winning the young rider classification in the Tour of Tasmania, finished third in the Tour time trial and won the time trial in the Tour de Suisse. Kalaba once again had a stellar season in the secondary sprinter role, as did Hodeg in the tertiary. The four loanees from (Pro) Continental teams all held their own in this tough division as well.

This year we are back in the Pro Continental Tour, with leaders who are getting older and little young talent to take over the reigns immediately. We have shown we can get to the ProTour, so we can get there again. How and when is to be seen, but we have confidence. We still believe.

We'll be back.

Spoiler
This story is completely fictional. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious as well. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental, but I hope the little yellow single-celled organisms are real Pfft

Manager of Minions
 
Marcovdw
SQUAD


Nat.NameFLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRAgeWage
T. Kinoshita7271826579767258677672706533700k
J. Ahlstrand7258655871707465817957627034300k
M. Cattaneo6880687773777552506760627734300k
D. Kalaba7465697070727657797958687828125k
A. Vosekalns6678756269737251677181686232175k
M. Bjerg7564687973777363687071677926125k
D. Dall'Oste697575666972735557697270663350k
D. Quintana697671707372765061636764703260k
M. De Witte746068617572677571696465613150k
N. Brown677472757271705957696463763375k
D. Matthews716065696865697475747365733350k
Z. Jiang726166656973726275756573793050k
Z. Sipos686769757371675460626966763350k
A. Vorobev726062766866625055677853753465k
J. Sommer726064657070677068697065662450k
J. Casillas676565736870675461736672732950k
F. A. Gomez636764696667695256656867622250k
L. Dressler686067676767646760626663622250k
C. D. Guavita636950676960706350547764672250k
W. J. Lecerf606864556467635360657068572210k
E. Paleni645358696464675458626562692265k

Edited by Marcovdw on 10-10-2024 20:28
Manager of Minions
 
Marcovdw
CALENDAR


StartEndRaceCategory
07-Jan Down Under ClassicHC
11-Jan16-Jan Tour Down UnderC1
19-Jan Badaling InternationalC1
26-Jan29-Jan Tour of GuadeloupeC1
---
02-Feb Copenhagen - Malmo TTTPT
04-Feb Omloop Het NieuwsbladHC
06-Feb Gent - WevelgemC2
08-Feb Isle of Man TTTC1
10-Feb Le SamynHC
13-Feb Classique du Grand-DuchéPT
22-Feb24-Feb Tour of UkrainePTHC
22-Feb26-Feb Circulo de JuarezHC
---
12-Mar16-Mar Tour of NorwayHC
18-Mar23-Mar Tour of South AfricaC1
25-Mar Strade BiancheHC
30-Mar Geraardsbergen - BosbergC2
---
03-Apr05-Apr USA Pro Cycling ChallengeC1
23-Apr Roma MaximaPTHC
25-Apr GP WallonieC1
28-Apr Veenendaal - VeenendaalPTHC
28-Apr Lisbon ClassicHC
30-Apr Dwars door VlaanderenC2
---
01-May Pro Hallstatt ClassicC1
03-May Fleche WallonnePT
03-May08-May Tour de RomandieHC
05-May Rund um KolnPT
26-May31-May Vuelta al Pais VascoC1
---
01-Jun Hanko ClassicC1
03-Jun Monterrey TTTC2
07-Jun13-Jun Tour de SuissePTHC
12-Jun18-Jun Criterium du Dauphine LiberePTHC
18-Jun Frankfurt EschbornC1
20-Jun26-Jun Tour of CaliforniaHC
---
01-Jul Torshavn GPC1
03-Jul06-Jul Arab TourHC
08-Jul11-Jul Euskal BizikletaC1
18-Jul23-Jul Benelux ChallengeHC
19-Jul Philadelphia International ChampionshipPTHC
25-Jul29-Jul Tour of SloveniaPTHC
---
01-Aug05-Aug Deutschland TourPTHC
07-Aug11-Aug Post Danmark RundtHC
13-Aug Chrono d'ArenbergPTHC
18-Aug20-Aug Ras TailteannPTHC
22-Aug Milano - TorinoHC
---
22-Sep26-Sep La Tropicale Amissa BongoC1
28-Sep Tour of the BattenkillPTHC
28-Sep Rheden GPPTHC
---
01-Oct06-Oct Tour of JapanHC
04-Oct Paris ToursC1
12-Oct16-Oct Tour of BritainC1
18-Oct Giro dell'EmiliaHC

Edited by Marcovdw on 10-10-2024 20:37
Manager of Minions
 
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jandal7
Feel like you're going to be one of the most exciting teams to watch in transfers. Don't see many relegating teams that come in with great cap space and seem to be wanting to get another million free through sales judging by the availability notices in the old HQ. Kinoshita + Ahlstrand should be good money for you, both of them definitely still got it even after declines.

Cattaneo + 1.5m of new riders seems like a scary thought, curious who those might be and how you retool to get rid of the Minions retirement home moniker once again Pfft
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."

[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] i.imgur.com/c85NSl6.png Xero Racing

i.imgur.com/PdCbs9I.png
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5x i.imgur.com/wM6Wok5.png x5
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2x pcmdaily.com/images/mg/Awards2021/funniest21.png x2
2x i.imgur.com/TUidkLG.png x2
 
Marcovdw
@jandal7 - I'm selling old guys just so I can buy old guys Pfft

RENEWALS


Of the twenty-one riders at the end of the 2023 season, eleven remain heading into the 2024 season:

Rider2023 wage2024 wage+/-
Jonas Ahlstrand500,000300,000-200,000
Mikkel Bjerg110,000125,00015,000
Nathan Brown110,00075,000-35,000
Mattia Cattaneo500,000300,000-200,000
Mathias De Witte50,00050,0000
Alvaro Hodeg100,00090,000-10,000
Dusan Kalaba185,000175,000-10,000
Tomohiro Kinoshita1,000,000700,000-300,000
Dayer Quintana50,00060,00010,000
Laurens Sweeck60,00060,0000
Andris Vosekalns110,000125,00015,000


We're glad the three biggest earners took significant wage cuts to help fit within PCT budget limits. The others kept the exact or around the same wage. Bjerg, Quintana and Vosekalns are the only three riders with a minor wage increase, and all deserved.

Twenty-one minus eleven equals ten, which is the number of riders no longer with the team:

ReleasedEnd of loan
Rudy Barbier Nathan Alexander
Isaac Bolivar Cristian Perez
Janis Dakteris Einer Augusto Rubio
Rohan Dennis Yannis Voisard
Leandro Marcos
Tom Jelte Slagter


The four loanees return to their parent squads while six riders did not see their contract renewed and are free agents as of right now.

As stated before, two riders are explicitly transfer listed. Kinoshita and Ahlstrand are very likely to be sold for cash or in a swap deal involving a PCT-capable leader in the stage race or on the cobbles. We're looking forward to talks during the transfer season. All other riders can still leave under the right circumstances for the right reward, but some are even more unlikely than others.

Finally a message of general benefit. Due to the relegation we had to make further budget cuts, and we had to leave our tropical HQ in Bermuda. Luckily we found an location of equal beauty and prestige, the backroom of the Minions Shop & Tea Room in Minions, Cornwall. As such, our official registration has been transfered to the United Kingdom. Not that it influenes any potential signings, we will seek the best and most despicable riders from all around the world as always.

media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/2c/b9/bf/2b/caption.jpg

Manager of Minions
 
Marcovdw
NEW SIGNINGS - PART 1


The Minions are ready for the 2024 season with twelve new riders. We'll present the first six in the first post, the second wave will come at a later date and we'll also discuss the riders which have left the team. The first wave of riders entering solidify our nickname of retirement home, as all but one of them are 30 or above. We tried to make the squad younger and signed some talents, but we also need riders who can help us right now.

Jhonatan Casillas

layout.eurosport.com/i/person/default_large.png

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
676565736870675461736672733.762950k
716767777174705461736972774.10031*


Let's start with the youngest of this bunch, 29 year old Mexican time trialist Jhonatan Casillas. Despite being part of the older group, we believe he still has potential to grow and become an asset in the team time trials, even as soon as next year and replace some of the older riders signed. Picked up from free agency for minimum wage after not being renewed by Lidl.

* = presumptive stats

Daniele Dall'Oste

www.tuttobiciweb.it/article/63920/photo-medium.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
697575666972735557697270664.1003350k


Signing a rider who hasn't raced much last season is a risk, but we believe Daniele Dall'Oste can still be a valuable rider even after his stint at the ill-fated Mercatone Uno - Weba. The 33 year old Italian has a lot of pedigree in the climbing, and even at this age we believe he can help his countryman Cattaneo or be present in breakaways. At a 50k salary, it's worth a punt.

Zhihui Jiang

www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/M6TfMfx1Mcz1U6z7MjQyOTk=/yang-jiang-zhihui-qiu-zhentao-sun-haijiao-440nw-13022670f.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
726166656973726275756573794.1003050k


Even if it meant giving up on one of our favorite riders ever on the team, the money and the rider we received from Ekoi in return lessened the pain. Zhihui Jiang is is a 30 year old rider from China, who specializes in races less than five kilometer. Outside of aiming for the top spot in prologues, he can help out in the sprint train for races exceeding that distance. Our first ever rider from China earns 50,000 bananas.

Darren Matthews

dgalywyr863hv.cloudfront.net/pictures/athletes/549195/3282477/5/full.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
716065696865697475747365734.1003350k


A familiar name returns! Darren Matthews made his debut in professional cycling in our colors in 2016, the year we achieved our promotion from the Continental to the Pro Continental Tour. The Barbadian was then sold to Podium Ambition, where he was right in the middle of the development of Caribbean riders and acted as a mentor. Now, at 33 years of age and 50 thousand bananas, he returns, to lead the team in the few cobblestone races we ride.

Zoltan Sipos

freerider.ro/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/cn.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
686769757371675460626966764.1003350k


We had our first ever rider from China and now we have our first ever rider from Hungary. Zoltan Sipos was picked up from free agency without a bidding war to act as helper in team time trials. At 33 years of age we acknowledge it will likely be a one year stint for the former DuckDuckGo rider, but as stated already we have replacements in the wings.

Anton Vorobev

i.eurosport.com/2012/09/17/889689-20060363-2560-1440.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
726062766866625055677853754.1003465k


The only rider to earn more than the legal minimum wage, Anton Vorobev joins the team for 65k after being dropped by his compatriot team Tinkoff. A year older than Sipos, he was signed for the same purpose: bridging the gap we have in the team time trial department before the young guard can take over. May his one and only season be a satisfactory one.

Manager of Minions
 
Marcovdw
NEW SIGNINGS - PART 2


The Minions are ready for the 2024 season with twelve new riders. We'll present the second bunch of six in this post, and we'll also discuss the riders which have left the team in part three. This wave considers the revival of the Minions academy, signing four full time riders and a stagiare to develop their trade, as well as a young talent on loan from a ProTour team.

Luca Dressler

www.procyclingstats.com/images/riders/bp/ff/luca-dressler-2022.jpeg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
686067676767646760626663621.02250k
756068757472687460636864704.10025*


22 year old German Luca Dressler has the potential to become good in a wide variety of disciplines. He likes cobbles, he likes riding against the clocks, he even likes short hills. His development path is wide open, but for now we are likely to develop him as the spiritual successor of Fabian Cancellara, because we want nothing to do with that other department he is talented in.

* = presumptive stats

Fausto Agustin Gomez

layout.eurosport.com/i/person/default_large.png

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
636764696667695256656867621.02250k
667065767174745256667067694.10025*


From Argentina, Fausto Augustin Gomez is one of those riders signed to become part of our team time trial core for the years to come. At 22 years old he has plenty of years ahead of him to fulfill this role. He also seems to not be bad at going up mountains, so we could skew towards developing him as a helper for those races as well. Don't be surprised to see him in our colors for the next decade.

* = presumptive stats

Cesar David Guavita

noticiasyrespuestas.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Adrian-Bustamante.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
636950676960706350547764671.02250k
677654757665776350557965754.10025*


Similarly talented and aged, Cesar David Guavita might at first glance be a better climber and a slightly worse time trialist than his fellow South American. Nevertheless we foresee a similar role for him in the future, being part of team time trials and assisting whichever stage race leader we have in the future. We received compliments from a not-to-be-name-od ProTour manager for his signing, so we know he was on the radar for other teams as well.

* = presumptive stats

William Junior Lecerf

www.soudal-quickstepteam.com/images/team_rider/c_c/660x900/lecerf_1703414532.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
606864556467635360657068571.02210k
617772566771705360727869584.10026*


If your parents named you junior, it will be tough to break through in the pro peloton. Thus we only signed William J. Lecerf (as he prefers to be called) as a stagiare, meaning he'll ride with us for a few races throughout the season, mainly at the C2 level. The Belgian needs to convince us in these races to give him a full contract next year, and prove he can be a capable climber for the team.

* = presumptive stats

Enzo Paleni

dgalywyr863hv.cloudfront.net/pictures/athletes/21116758/6507979/12/full.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
645358696464675458626562691.02265k
715461786971745458627063784.10025*


The most talented time trialist from the bunch gets the biggest paycheck, earning 65,000 bananas this year. Enzo Paleni, 22 years old from France, is the golden child of this generation of the Minions TT academy, and might supersede the moniker of just team time trial helper and become a proficient time trialist outright. Seeing the development Bjerg has gone through, he has a path he can follow and be measured against.

* = presumptive stats

Jan Sommer

dgalywyr863hv.cloudfront.net/pictures/athletes/16605072/5802492/12/large.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
726064657070677068697065663.152450k*


Our only loanee this year comes from Switzerland and the Swiss team of Jura, promoted to the ProTour in our stead this year for the first time in their existence. Jan Sommer still needs some development and joins us for the season at a split wage. At our team he can ride in the races he likes most, cobblestone races, because we have plenty of space and a lack of real leader there. We look forward to what he can do for us.

* = wage split 25k/25k with Jura

Manager of Minions
 
redordead
A pretty quiet window, but kinda expected as all of Kinoshita, Ahlstrand and Cattaneo remained on the team. I like the FA moves. Matthews or Jiang could be good lead outs for Ahlstrand while Sipos and Vorobev rekindle some of the previous TTT focus.

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"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
 
Marcovdw
@redordead - A quiet transfer window is not what I had in mind, but if the big earners are not sold and you have 440k to sign nine riders, there isn't much you can do.

DEPARTURES AND TRAININGS


Where riders come, riders go. Two riders who rode for our colors the past years have left and will ride elsewhere. We'll use this opportunity to say goodbye, reflect what they did for us and what their next challenges are. We'll also discuss our top secret training plans, which by revealing are no longer secret.

Alvaro Hodeg

pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2022/Reports/HC/Osterreich/S3/21.jpg

A definitive member of the Hall of Fame in the future, Alvaro Hodeg makes the transfer to Ekoi - Le Creuset in exchange for 370 thousand real world currency and the services of Zhihui Jiang, to become their lead sprinter in the PCT for the first time in his career. Alvaro holds a special place in our heart as he joined us at 22 years old, first spending a year on loan at Delvaux before riding five years in our colors, becoming the first rider to complete his full development and ride for the team (looking at you, Jay Major). With a lot of sprinting talent he never got anywhere above the role of tertiary sprinter or primary leadout, but achieved various wins over the years, including the team's first ever stage win in the Tour d'Avenir, and stage in Colombia, Austria, and Britain. For the few chances he made the most of them, and he'll surely be missed.

Laurens Sweeck

pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2021/Reports/C2/Kigali/PCM0040.jpg

Leaving the team after four years of service, Laurens Sweeck was first signed as main helper to Ruben Zepuntke in 2021, but when the German left he had to assume leadership for what we assumed would be an ad interim position. Three years later and he still was the de facto leader of the cobblestone squad, but simply was not capable of making a mark against the talented riders in the PT or PCT. The hope was to sign a proper leader for these races this year so the Belgian could revert to a better suited assisting role, but when that did not materialize we decide to part ways amicably and give the leadership-ish to De Witte. He was traded to EA Vesuvio in the ProTour, where he will be assisting Lukas Spengler in big races such as the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris - Roubaix. In exchange we received Ziga Rucigaj. Who?

Ziga Rucigaj

media1.tenor.com/m/yTxA7WgkBEUAAAAd/grandpa-abe-exit.gif

Yes, Ziga Rucigaj was briefly part of our team, but he left as quickly as he joined. More on that later, but first let's appreciate the five minutes the 29 year old Slovenian was on our team and the lasting legacy he will leave behind. We received a nice 200k fee from debutants Cervelo, which was exactly the amount we needed to achieve our training goals for the season.

Mikkel Bjerg

images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/mg22329780.100-1_800.jpg

FLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRXPAgeWage
756468797377736368707167794.10025110k
756468807377736368707167794.10026125k


Don't panic, he isn't leaving. We say goodbye to 79 TT and hello to 80 TT Mikkel Bjerg. The money gained from selling Hodeg and Rucigaj (and indirectly Sweeck) was enough to buy a wind tunnel and improve his aerodynamic position on the bike. The 26 year old Dane has already shown to be one of the brightest starts against the clock and we expect great things from him the coming season, even though we have credible evidence our opponents have not been sitting around either.

Manager of Minions
 
Nemolito
Marcovdw wrote:
We received compliments from a not-to-be-name-od ProTour manager for his signing, so we know he was on the radar for other teams as well.


Now that's a good pun.

Both Agustin Gomez and Guavita were definitely on my radar, so I was happy to see them receive a contract at a time I wasn't sure if I'd be able to contract them. They're both slightly unique riders I think, who should hopefully prove to be valuable domestiques when the time comes.

After renewals I did fear selling Kinoshita might be difficult because of his wage, so I guess he has another chance to shine at your team now. I hope PCT is more his thing, and at least it should help him that guys like Schmid, Higuita, Vansevenant and Areruya among others have left the building. There are still the Hirschi's and Stannards of this world of course, but I think pure puncheurs could at least do better than last year in PCT. Nice Bjerg training as well, sadly he's not the only to have received that training (in PCT) this season. Nevertheless a strong rider, with still great prospects for possible more future training Smile
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Marcovdw
@Nemolito - Another downside of not planning to keep Kinoshita around is not selecting good PTHC/HC races for him, so it'll be mainly C1 this year. This year will probably be a gap year for the team with the oldies doing enough for a decent finish and the youngsters being able to develop.

2024 SQUAD


As we edge ever closer to the start of the season, let's present the full squad for the upcoming season.

Nat.NameFLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPRAgeWage
T. Kinoshita7271826579767258677672706533700k
J. Ahlstrand7258655871707465817957627034300k
M. Cattaneo6880687773777552506760627734300k
D. Kalaba7465697070727657797958687828125k
A. Vosekalns6678756269737251677181686232175k
M. Bjerg7564687973777363687071677926125k
D. Dall'Oste697575666972735557697270663350k
D. Quintana697671707372765061636764703260k
M. De Witte746068617572677571696465613150k
N. Brown677472757271705957696463763375k
D. Matthews716065696865697475747365733350k
Z. Jiang726166656973726275756573793050k
Z. Sipos686769757371675460626966763350k
A. Vorobev726062766866625055677853753465k
J. Sommer726064657070677068697065662450k
J. Casillas676565736870675461736672732950k
F. A. Gomez636764696667695256656867622250k
L. Dressler686067676767646760626663622250k
C. D. Guavita636950676960706350547764672250k
W. J. Lecerf606864556467635360657068572210k
E. Paleni645358696464675458626562692265k


Despite the relegation, the leadership has stayed intact despite advertising their sale. The plan was to sell Kinoshita and Ahlstrand, invest the income in training and go to the free agent market to pick up suitable and most importantly younger leaders. That hasn't happened, meaning these two superstars get another year as leader on the team. Not that terrible.

When we were last in the PCT, Cattaneo bossed the stage races and finished fourth in the individual rankings. Two years on that might no longer be possible, but he still has a lot of talent to beat his rival when we go uphill and against the clock. Kalaba has always been a dangerous weapon in PCT as well and despite not being promoted to a full leadership position, still has enough chances to score very good points.

Bjerg received the planned training, though it came at the cost of team favorite Hodeg and a potential nice signing in Rucigaj. A lot of training has gone on against the clock but we believe the young Dane can become an even more important points scorer this year.

The mountains support consists of Vosekalns, new acquisition Dall'Oste, Quintana (Dayer, not Nairo) and Brown. Strong riders who can support Cattaneo in the high mountains and be part of a breakaway to target mountain points or stage results.

A rump cobblestone squad consists of De Witte and the returning Matthews. We're not expecting to score big here but have targeted a few C2 cobblestone races. The Barbadian will also serve in the sprint train together with Jiang, who in his turn has a few opportunities on very short distances against the clock.

Sipos and Vorobev were brought in specifically to assist with team time trials in lieu of the talents signed to take this place in the future. Casillas, Gomez, Dressler, Guavita and Paleni are all here to learn and take over their place in the not too distant future.

Rounding off the team is Sommer, on loan from PT team Jura to develop on the cobblestones, and stagiare Lecerf who joins for the final months of the season as well as selected C2 races. That completest the squad of 21 riders ready to tackle the 2024 PCT season for the Minions!

Manager of Minions
 
Marcovdw
JANUARY


The break is over, a new year of racing has dawned. Back in the ProContinental Tour, a busy program awaits us in the month of January.

Down Under Classic

The PCT season traditionally opens Down Under with a Classic for the sprinters. We wanted to start on a strong note and placed Casillas in a breakaway attempt on debut, but the race was always going to the sprinters, where we focused on Ahlstrand. The Swede never found himself amongst the front rows and finished in a tenth place. Not bad, but also not really the banging opener we hoped for. All youngsters made their debut and finished the race as well.

pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Reports/HC/Down%20Under%20Classic/20241012151020_1.jpg

PosRiderTeamTime
1Xhuliano KamberajLlapi-Vita1h39'43
10Jonas AhlstrandMinionss.t.
50Jan SommerMinionss.t.
101Jhonatan CasillasMinionss.t.
107Zhihui JiangMinionss.t.
131Enzo PaleniMinionss.t.
135Luca DresslerMinionss.t.
146Fausto Agustin GomezMinionss.t.
148Cesar David GuavitaMinionss.t.


Rating: BananaBanana

Tour Down Under

We stay Down Under for a Tour. Ahlstrand again leads the flat stages, and is joined by Kinoshita for the GC. The Swede scored a ninth place on the opening stage, coming into the wind slightly too early. On the third stage he had better timing and finished in third spot. On the sixth and final stage we tried a train, but we don't really have the people for that resulting in a thirteenth place. Over to the Japanese and the GC battle, a tenth place on the second stage and a fifteenth place behind the breakaway on the fourth saw him in tenth overall heading into the decisive fifth stage. He stuck with the favorites group but made no attempt to attack them, finishing eighth on the stage and seventh in the GC.

pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Reports/C1/TdU/mg24_03_tdu_PCM1045.jpg

PosRiderTeamTime
1Kristian Haugaard JensenGenii Hyundai N Cycling17h47'40
7Tomohiro KinoshitaMinions+ 24
26Jonas AhlstrandMinions+ 2'35
47Zhihui JiangMinions+ 4'25
57Andris VosekalnsMinions+ 4'53
80Daniele Dall'OsteMinions+ 5'44
119Nathan BrownMinions+ 8'08
143Jan SommerMinions+ 10'05
176Darren MatthewsMinions+ 14'34


Rating: BananaBananaBanana

Badaling International

Over to China for a race which is somewhere between the mountains and the hills. Given Kinoshita's fifth place at the World Championships on a comparable route, we fancy our chances here. We chased down the breakaway and the Japanese was part of the front group in the sprint to the finish line, but like in Australia seventh place was his. That's not a result we were looking for.

pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Reports/C1/Badaling/20241019170438_1.jpg

PosRiderTeamTime
1Emanuel BuchmannTeam UBS5h22'38
7Tomohiro KinoshitaMinionss.t.
38Dayer QuintanaMinions+ 1'54
39Andris VosekalnsMinionss.t.
49Daniele Dall'OsteMinionss.t.
146Fausto Agustin GomezMinions+ 6'28
147Luca DresslerMinionss.t.
188Enzo PaleniMinionss.t.
189Cesar David GuavitaMinions+ 15'05


Rating: BananaBanana

Tour of Guadeloupe

The month concludes with four flat stages on the French island, and once again Ahlstrand is our leader in a very busy first month for him. He coasted on Ewan's wheel to sixth on the first stage. On Coquard's wheel the next stage, he did even better and finished third, and at that point only behind the two aforementioned riders in the GC due to bonus seconds. He could not keep the momentum and got blocked in on the third stage, crossing the line in eighth, and down to fifth in the GC. On the final stage the timing was completely off and he went way too early, giving up and placing twenty-second. We can count ourselves lucky this only dropped him down one place in the GC. Looking at face value, sixth in this field is quite good but a better final stage and it could have been a podium.

pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Reports/C1/Guadeloupe/mg24_gua_02_PCM0903.jpg

PosRiderTeamTime
1Caleb EwanISA - Hexacta12h24'21
6Jonas AhlstrandMinions+ 25
99Zhihui JiangMinions+ 52
149Darren MatthewsMinions+ 3'04
152Cesar David GuavitaMinionss.t.
170Jan SommerMinionss.t.
174Luca DresslerMinionss.t.
176Fausto Agustin GomezMinionss.t.
191Enzo PaleniMinions+ 12'20


Rating: BananaBananaBanana

Rankings

The rankings after the first month don't say much yet, because some teams have had bigger programs and certain leaders are still on extended vacation. For what it's worth we are in thirteenth place with only points scored by Ahlstrand and Kinoshita. The trajectory of the team and weather we will focus on promotion or avoiding relegation, or if we have a boring season without much hope or fear.

PosTeamTotalRDPpRDProj
1pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/llv.pngLlapi-Vita3312413.792248
2pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/zal.pngDK Zalgiris2542012.72070
3pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/isa.pngISA - Hexacta2521615.752567
4pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/mcy.pngManada Coyote2511417.932923
5pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/lot.pngLotto-Caloi2451417.52853
6pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/eko.pngEkoi - Le Creuset2441024.43977
7pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/ubs.pngTeam UBS2171218.082947
8pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/lpu.pngLierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam2071020.73374
9pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/brc.pngBralirwa - Cegeka1871611.691905
10pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/spz.pngSpecialized1691214.082295
11pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/bbc.pngBenetton Bimex Cycling1601213.332173
12pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/trg.pngTryg - Eni160188.891449
13pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/min.pngMinions1571411.211827
14pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/t3a.pngPodium Ambition1511410.791759
15pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/elc.pngELCO - ABEA124620.673369
16pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/kmm.pngKraftwerk Man Machine116148.291351
17pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/sfi.pngSony - Force India113814.132303
18pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/ino.pngIndosat Ooredoo107128.921454
19pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/p4e.pngTeam Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska106185.89960
20pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/spr.pngSauber Petronas Racing92146.571071
21pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/eve.pngEveresting90146.431048
22pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/tir.pngJEWA TIROL73126.08991
23pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/taf.pngTafjord Kraft69417.252812
24pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/mck.pngMcCormick Pro Cycling47123.92639


PosRiderNatTeamTotal Points
1Caleb EwanAUSpcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/isa.pngISA - Hexacta218
11Jonas AhlstrandSWDpcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/min.pngMinions90
19Tomohiro KinoshitaJPNpcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Micros/min.pngMinions67

Manager of Minions
 
Nemolito
Some ok races by your two leaders, but nothing special. An average of 2,5 out of five bananas and around midtable, so it's all about being 'ok' so far, with no real outliers positive or negative. I hope the rest of the team can also start scoring as of February, and perhaps we'll see a podium or win by one of the aforementioned leaders somewhere soon Smile
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