The 2024 season has started and little was heard from the Genii Hyundai N Cycling's boss - ivaneurope. Well, he's been monitoring the team's performance during the month behind the scenes as he had to deal with some issues. Unfortunately (if you've seen the images) the Argon 18 frame has failed to pass the homologation process and the deal fell through. For similar reasons the team will be racing with the 2023 jersey for this season as the team failed to submit the new one. Giant, BWT and Ionos have agreed to support the team one more season with talks with potential new sponsors will be conducted throughout the season.
Now, onto the recap of the first month. Our first race back in the CT was Gisborne GP where we got only 4 points courtesy of KHJ's 16th place. While this was largely forgetable race, the next race - Tour Down Under, was far more productive hunting ground for the Danish puncheur. A 3rd place in Stage 2 got him in race win contention and he only needed to hang on against much stronger competition from the PCT riders and direct challengers from the CT teams like Boswell from Glanbia. But he did rise to the occasion, took the lead in Stage 5 with only 2 seconds ahead of Boswell which proved to be just enough for the overall win - the team's first Stage Race overall win since Giro del Trentino in 2018 where Petar Panayotov won.
With the dust settled, the team got 156 points which were enough for 8th place in the team standings. We've only spent 14 RD as this time we were looking for a more balanced calendar. PPRD wise we have 11.14 which gives us a projected total of 1560 points, but that is if the current trend continues, which could go either up or down.
Very decent start to the season for you, and some really nice planning in there as well, especially those sneaky points in the Isle of Man TTT. Congrats to you Ivan as the team has been built really quite well for consistent scoring throughout the season. Let's see if it continues, as Genii are one of the teams, as you note, which is hard to predict the finishing position.
After relatively quiet 4th month of the 2024 season for the Genii Hyundai N Cycling the team made an announcement. After lots of rumours, it was officially revealed that Genii Capital will no longer be involved with the team in any capacity afte the conclusion of the season. The team has stated that they were already informed about that in advance and said that they respect their decision.
The question now is how the team will be named for 2025? Though the team's trade name is IESE Group MGUCI Team, IESE Group president ivaneurope has since stated that the team will not go under that moniker and instead will look at potential new naming rights co-holder. Hyundai Motor Europe has stated that they will prefer to be co-holders of the naming rights and that being the sole sponsor in the name is only 'last resort' scenario. Other smaller sponsors have stated that they may consider increadong their involvement, but nothing concrete has been made yet.
Well, Hyundai has been part of this team since 2020 - with 5 contiguous seasons it is the sponsor that had formed part of our various guises the longest. And are here to stay - they just don't want the entire burden to be on them. And I kinda understand their choice. DT Swiss is the only partner that has been with the team since its inception.
Luke Rowe - the 34 y.o. sprinter will join the team this season
