Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
Would prefer to have seen Amezawa in the PT.

Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:

A nice off-season pivot to younger leaders. Would prefer to have seen Amezawa in the PT. Stedman is a nice find as well

Fabianski wrote:


Me too, as I was also trying to get him
But the best alternative was that he went to PCT, so I can live with that as well

baseballlover312 wrote:

Amezawa is gonna cook in PCT where he can fully avoid TT's. Thanks for taking Arenas!

jandal7 wrote:

Love the talents, of course competing on some and unable to compete in time on others but you deserve them all, doing a lot more for African cycling than we have been doing! So long as they show up for their nation... No secret Amezawa is a favourite of mine and now on a favourite team of mine - in the words of bbl, can't wait to watch him cook <3

After our main rookie targets and our new leaders were secured, we were left with still some wage cap to spend and a few different directions to go in. We had our eye on a few strong veteran options, but ultimately they all went past the price tag we were comfortable with. So instead, we brought in one more high-end talent.

To round out the roster, we completed a deal that had been in the making for a while, bringing back one of our loaned-in riders from last year, and finally we bolstered our contingent of Rwandan riders to a new all-time high with two riders who should be useful in their own right, but whose return to the team is also a nice story line. Let's go through them:

Giulio Pellizzari

1.0

22 y/o

Climber

200.000€

At 200.000€, Giulio Pellizzari is the biggest signing we made this year in free agency. The talented Italian is on track to develop into a very capable climber, not dissimilar to Lennert Van Eetvelt, who he might support in the future, but he could also claim leadership status himself. We're very excited to be able to develop him.

Hatem Ben Ameur

3.30

23 y/o

Time Trialist

50.000€

Ever since Souheil Khederi left us in 2023, we've been looking for a replacement to represent one of our main partners, Tunisian Airlines. Enter: Hatem Ben Ameur. Last year, we were only able to loan him out from our good friends at Los Pollos Hermanos, now we signed him for a transfer fee of 327.000€.

Hatem will develop into a solid time trialist with a big motor, who is also pretty capable to hold his own on mountainous and hilly terrain, which should make him a very useful rider.

Janvier Hadi

4.100

33 y/o

Stage Racer

50.000€

As mentioned at the top, our final two signings did not just have a cycling value, but also an emotional one. Janvier Hadi was one of our first ever transfers when we entered the MGUCI in 2020, joining us from Puma. He had been a reliable and important part of the team for four years before spending the final season of his prime at Ekoi - Le Creuset last year. Now, he returns for one last ride, providing us with some crucial support in our slightly depleted climbing and time trialing departments.

Didier Munyaneza

3.30

23 y/o

Time Trialist

50.000€

Our history with Didier Munyaneza is not as feel-good as Janvier's. Didier was also on our inaugural team as one of our two draft picks. At 24 years old, he had only previously spent one year as a stagiaire at Tryg. But he really came into his own and provided us one of our very early highlights, winning the KoM jersey at the Circulo de Juarez.

With that success under his belt, he was not willing to accept the minimum wage during renewals, and we broke off negotiations with the clear intent to simply bring him back in FA. But at the end of transfers, we suddenly found ourself without a roster spot for him. Every transfer season since, we went in thinking that we should really bring him in again, and every time, something got in the way.

Didier was without contract in 2021, 2022 and 2024, only Project: Africa took a chance on him in 2023, which at least brought him to Level 4. Now, at 29, he finally returns and we will help him reach his full potential. Even if his prime will only last three years then, he's shown his attacking spirit and good punch more than enough to make us confident that he'll play a good role - hopefully, this time for more than just one year.

We started transfers with a very, very small budget after missing last year's goals by a wide margin and being more cautious for the upcoming season. So we started the transfer window with the clear intention to bring in a few riders on loan to generate some income, ultimately landing three.

As transfers progressed and we generated more cash than we had originally anticipated from sales, we suddenly found ourselves wanting to free up more cap space, which led us to also loaning out three riders. Here's how things shook out:

Double national champion of the Dominican Republic Jesus Roniel Marte joins us from Podium Ambition and will play an important role in our classics department, supporting both Bini in the major races as well as Matthew Teggart in C2, where he also has the chance to score a few points himself.

Jeremias Arenas Rodriguez joins from Carlsberg, where he had already spent a season as a stagiaire. The Curacao native is a solid allrounder, doing well on flat and hilly terrain. Niki Arvanitou is our second piece of business with Los Pollos Hermanos. The talented punchy sprinter could already be a wild card as an interesting rider in breakaways, if he gets the chance.

Bringing in Marte allowed us to thin out our own classics department at least for a short while, loaning out our two Belgian puncheur/cobbles hybrids Gerben Kuypers and Emiel Verstrynge. Gerben will max at Cedevita, while Emiel will spend a year with our fellow Belgian friends at Lotto-Caloi. Hatem Ben Ameur meanwhile will spend a second year in a row on loan, going to new PT team Indosat Ooredoo.


And with that, our squad for 2025 is complete. A full squad presentation will follow, but not before we give a due farewell to the three riders that left us during this transfer period - they are three of our most important ever riders, after all.

There's been a lot of turnover in the off-season and with that came the exit of three riders that are among the most important riders in team history, including of course the biggest of them all. We want to use the opportunity before the upcoming season starts to honor their contributions and give them the goodbye they deserve.

Bonaventure Uwizeyimana has been one of the more prolific Rwandan riders of the past decade. He joined us from Assa Abloy in 2021, our first year in PCT, and has helped steer the ship as a solid scorer ever since.

After a slow debut season, he scored 175 points, 213 points and 204 points over the last three years. Highlights included a 4th place at the Hong Kong Challenge in 2022 and a 3rd place in the Tour of Norway in 2023, and indeed the Tour of Norway proved to be his favorite race of them all: In 2024, he returned to win it outright after being part of the winning breakaway on the final stage!


With that, Bonaventure brought us one of our to date just three stage race GC victories. In total, he finishes his Bralirwa career - at least for now - as the current 6th highest total scorer in team history, with the 7th most race days, too. Now, he will spend the final season of his prime with division rivals Everesting.

While Biniam Girmay will try to challenge it going forward, for now there's no question that Louis Meintjes is the best African rider to ever don the Bralirwa jersey. After joining us from Lidl Cycling ahead of the 2023 season for what was then our second highest fee ever paid, he was a true leader and a model of consistency, finishing 18th and 17th in the individual PCT standings over the past two years.


While the big stage race win would elude him - he finished 2nd in the GC three times, with another six Top 5 GC finishes! -, he did score two high-profile wins for us, namely two PTHC stage wins in the 2024 Tour de Suisse and the 2023 Volta a Portugal. In total, only two riders have ever scored more points for Bralirwa: Fabio Silvestre, and the third rider we will say goodbye to today.

As a parting gift, Louis also found his place in team history as its current highest ever incoming transfer fee, as he joins CT outfit Glanbia for 1.2 million. We wish him and Glanbia a lot of success!

The aforementioned third rider, the highest ever points scorer for Bralirwa - and it's not particularly close -, is of course none other than Joeri Stallaert. He's not only the most successful, but also the most important Bralirwa rider and it will take a long time to change that (though once again, Bini will certainly try).

Like Bonaventure, Joeri joined us in 2021 as we tried to assemble a team that could compete in PCT. He was far and away our biggest free agency target, and after a fierce bidding war with Zwift Pro Cycling - though funnily enough it would not stay our fiercest -, he joined us for the extraordinary wage of 850.000.


He would show that he was worth that money very quickly, though. In just his second race, the 2021 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, he took his first win, and in his trademark style, too: by winning in a sprint from a small group. Four races later, he had added two more, taking the E3 Prijs and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, which he would go on to win three years in a row!

From 2021 to 2023, Joeri won a whopping eight one day races, adding another ten podium finishes! Indeed, in addition to his many highlights, he was also just incredibly consistent, hardly ever finishing outside of the Top 5 in HC or C1 races, or outside of the Top 10 against PTHC competition. He was even able to win on that level, with his highest-profile victory being the 2022 Franceville Classique.


Said consistency also showed up in the rankings, where he finished 12th, 11th and 7th from 2021 to 2023, adding another Top 40 finish in the first year of his decline last season. This obviously has him at the top of Bralirwa's all-time scoring board with 2780 points, almost a thousand points more than Silvestre in second place. There's no other way to put it: He's a bona fide team legend.

It's also worth mentioning that Joeri has also always been very accommodating in our contract negotiations, which allowed us to build strong teams around him, but also to retain him on reasonable wages not once but twice after he started to exit his prime, and ultimately gain a transfer fee this year. He leaves us for fellow Belgian team Duvel-Tsingtao for a fee of 650.000.

With this retrospective, we conclude the 2024 season and the off-season. Next up will be the 2025 team presentation.

baseballlover312 wrote:

In an era where PCT cobbles leaders were jumping around like mercenaries constantly, Stallaert really found a home with Bralirwa. I certainly hated facing him in his prime. What a menace year on year. Sad to see him go, but he's a legend who will live on in the history books, and you got a nice fee for him.

Gustavovskiy wrote:

Beautiful homage.

Looking forward to see what Uwizeyimana can do for us in this final top year.

It was a fun transfer season with a lot of turnover, particularly at the top of our depth chart. With that comes a degree of uncertainty as we head into our fourth consecutive season in PCT. Here's the team that will steer us through 2025:

After a season on loan at Assa Abloy, Biniam Girmay will wear the Bralirwa jersey for the first time this year. While he's not at the level of prime Joeri Stallaert (yet), he is a strong contender on PCT cobbles. In my estimation, there's a fairly clear Top 4-5 of cobbles riders in the division and Bini is one of them. Joeri was by points scored the 4th best cobblestone rider in the division last season, so the hope and expectation is to at least replicate that.

Bini has a decent support system around him, a stronger one actually than Joeri did last year. Matthew Teggart returns, Jean Eric Habimana has taken another step and loanee Jesus Roniel Marte provides some solid support, too. Teggart will have a role to play as a leader himself again, too, as once again our C2 schedule revolves entirely around him.

Our second new leader is Takeaki Amezawa. He's one of the best punchy climbers in PCT and will hopefully lead us well in most mountaineous races. I say most because he will skip the majority of the TT-heavy stage races on our schedule for obvious reasons, and compete in a few hilly classics instead.

In those stage races, we will not have a GC leader and instead rely on the likes of Valens Ndayisenga and Lennert Van Eetvelt, who will otherwise support Takeaki in the mountains, to go on KoM or stage hunts from breakaways. Lenny should also be in contention for U25 points in a few races. In general, we obviously lack depth here, although some riders from the other categories can pull a shift or two uphill if need be, too.

The only terrain leader to return from last season, Natnael Tesfatsion is still our main puncheur - though as mentioned above, he will share leadership with Takeaki in a few races. He has flashed his talents a few times last year but has also been quite inconsistent. With U25 points no longer on the table, we hope he can show more stability to continue to contribute, but the PCT puncheur field is a really tough one.

In Max Stedman, we have a new arrival with a unique skillset, who can hopefully leverage his solid sprint into a few good results here and there. Bralirwa staple Moise Mugisha and returner Didier Munyaneza will offer support as well as hopefully a strong breakaway presence.

Since the days of Fabio Silvestre, we have lacked true top end talent in our sprinting department. This year is no different in that regard, but Alvaro Hodeg certainly provides an upgrade over Kevin Feiereisen, and Jago Willems is starting to become competitive as well, giving us some depth scoring opportunities.

It worth noting that Biniam Girmay will also enter a few sprint classics, which allows us to cover almost every stage race with sprint stages, too. We don't expect any highlight results, but the ambition is to score at least a few points almost everywhere.

Our time trialing department remains lacking, but with one exception of a TTT at the Tour de Romandie, it's also not really needed this year. That being said, maybe veteran Janvier Hadi, despite his first decline, can still get a decent result or two, Samuel Mugisha will be a good support rider in flat races, Renus Uhiriwe still has a year to grow into his prime, and the latter two are good fighters who might join a breakaway or two.

Once again an important part of our teambuilding efforts, here's a look at our roster of talents. Nikiforos Arvanitou and Jeremias Arenas Rodriguez join us on loan, but that still leaves us with five Level 1 talents of our own.

While Vainqueur Masengesho, Giulio Pellizarri and Jonathan Vervenne have the potential to develop into team leaders, Hebron Berhane and Samuel Niyonkuru will form part of our climbing support squad in the future. For now, we obviously don't have expectations for any of them, and all contributions are seen as welcome surprises.

Three riders that are under contract with us will ride for other teams this season. Gerben Kuypers (4.31) and Emiel Verstrynge (3.31) will be valuable pieces to our classics suads in the future, while Hatem Ben Ameur (3.30) is going to be a really solid time trialist. We very much look forward to welcoming them back next year.

	Rider	Type	AVG	Age	Wage
	Valens Ndayisenga	Climber	74,84	31	90.000 €
	Jean Eric Habimana	Classics	74,67	24	83.000 €
	Moise Mugisha	Puncheur	73,41	28	50.000 €
	Janvier Hadi	Stage Racer	72,45	33	50.000 €
	Renus Uhiriwe	Time Trialist	72,24	24	50.000 €
	Samuel Mugisha	Time Trialist	71,31	28	50.000 €
	Didier Munyaneza	Puncheur	71,17	29	50.000 €
	Vainqueur Masengesho	Sprinter	69,08	23	130.000 €
	Samuel Niyonkuru	Climber	68,61	22	50.000 €
	Lennert Van Eetvelt	Climber	75,26	24	110.000 €
	Jago Willems	Sprinter	74,04	24	65.000 €
	Jonathan Vervenne	Time Trialist	68,69	22	75.000 €
	Biniam Girmay	Cobbles	77,60	25	320.000 €
	Natnael Tesfatsion	Puncheur	76,62	26	185.000 €
	Hebron Berhane	Climber	69,10	22	50.000 €
	Takeaki Amezawa	Climber	77,77	30	380.000 €
	Alvaro Hodeg	Sprinter	75,01	29	125.000 €
	Max Stedman	Puncheur	74,62	29	50.000 €
	Matthew Teggart	Cobbles	73,89	29	95.000 €
	Giulio Pellizzari	Climber	68,98	22	200.000 €
	Jesus Roniel Marte *	Cobbles	72,51	24	60.000 €
	Nikiforos Arvanitou *	Classics	70,25	22	80.000 €
	Jeremias Arenas Rodriguez *	Climber	66,67	23	50.000 €
	* loaned in

After two years of challenging for promotion in 2022 and 2023, this will be our second transition season towards our new leadership core. And we've definitely become younger as a team in the off-season, but coming off a 14th place in the PCT standings, it's debatable at best if we got better. Previews see us anywhere from solidly mid-table to in the thick of the relegation fight, which feels like a fair judgment. The season goal - we'll get to those in more detail later - is a Top 15 finish and if we get there, we'll be happy.

And if we do get through the season unharmed, I think we're in a great position going forward. Six riders will max out after the season, including Lennert Van Eetvelt, Jago Willems and Jean Eric Habimana, who will be significant contributors going forward. With Janvier Hadi, only one rider will decline, and just two others - Valens Ndayisenga at 31 and Takeaki Amezawa at 30 - are more than 29 years old. Including the three riders out on loan, we have as many as 22 riders who could well be on the team starting the next off-season. We also have nine riders from Rwanda under contract, the most we ever had by a good margin.

First, we have to get there, of course. But there's a lot to look forward to this season already. The emergence of Biniam Girmay is the main thing, of course. But even beyond that, there are few races where we don't have something to root for, and be it only to get a promising rider into a breakaway. Before we kick off though, we will still have a deeper look at our calendar and goals.

We have presented the team, now it's time to have a look forward to the season. Where will we ride, who will ride where, and what do we want to achieve? Let's start with the first point.

As has mostly been the case over the past few years, our schedule is pretty front-loaded, with a strong focus on spring classics of course. Beyond the obvious picks for Bini, many decisions regarding HC and PTHC bands have been suboptimal with the squad we have now, but hindsight is always 20/20 and we'll do our best with what we have.

What's cool is that we'll also have a nice selection of PT wild cards. We'll participate in our second ever Grand Tour, returning to the Giro after competing there with Angel Madrazo in 2022. We'll also ride the first two monuments in team history, showing our colors at Milano - San Remo and Paris - Roubaix.

We went all out on goals last year to get enough money to get Bini - mission accomplished. We then failed every single one of those, but that was fine. Now, we have returned to a more conservative approach.

The goals are also very Bini-centric, as he was the only top quality rider we knew we'd have under contract before transfers started. KBK is our win goal, hoping that he can take advantage of his sprinting particularly well there. The other two HC goals are within reach for sure, as is the PTHC goal on a good day, and with the Battenkill clash.

Finally, our team standings goal this year is the Top 15. It's not a given, but that, too, should be at least possible. Ultimately, I think 3/5 is a realistic target to shoot for, with more on the table.

It's a long list for Bini, simply because outside of the Benelux Tour, wild card Giro d'Italia and technically the Franceville Classique, he's only riding one day races all year.

He's on every non-C2 cobbles race on our calendar, as well as quite a few pure flat races and the fairly hilly GP Izola. In many of the flat races, he shares leadership with Alvaro Hodeg, we're quite interested how that constellation shakes out.

Looking at the wild cards, we're excited for Bini to represent us at Milano - San Remo, Paris - Roubaix, the Giro d'Italia and, of course, our home race at the GP Kigali!

While Bini has done most of his heavy lifting by mid-April, Takeaki will be most active in the second half of the year. Unfortunately, there are a few races that would've been very suitable to his skillset that we missed out on because we chose our bands with a stage racer in mind who was a slightly more competent time trialist.

That being said, with the Tour of Eritrea and the Tour du Maroc, he still has two stage races without a TT that should suit him well. In Andorra, the TT is a mountain time trial, which might limit his losses a bit. That is less likely at the Dauphine, where he will suffer in the (just slightly hilly) ITT.

However, thanks to his strong secondary skills as a puncheur, we decided to give him a bunch of opportunities in hilly races, too. This includes the USA PCC and the Tour de Pologne as stage races, as well as a bunch of one day races including the Clasica San Sebastian and his home race, the Japan Cup. We'll see if that pays off - it will have to if we want to have a shot at the upper half of the standings.

There are quite a few races where Natnael will share leadership duties with Takeaki - a dynamic that ideally benefits both, but could of course backfire. But our second Eritrean leader of course still has a lot of opportunities just for himself.

This includes the stage races Tour Down Under, Tour of Britain and Vuelta al Pais Vasco, where he will go for the GC, as well as the GP Wallonie, the Gisborne GP, and the Tour of Norway as a stage hunter. Overall, it's tough to project how Natnael will fare, given his inconsistencies last year, the really strong PCT puncheur field, and the new game engine. What he will show this year might determine a good deal about his future.

Now, Matthew Teggart is of course not a team leader in the typical sense. Most of his race days will be spent as Bini's lieutenant, supporting him the best way he can. But he was exceptional in his outings in C2 last year, so we made sure our C2 calendar again was filled with opportunities for him to shine. The CT cobbles competition is not super strong this year, so we're hoping for at least a few Top 5 results, and maybe the occasional podium or even a repeat of his victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

As you can see, those schedules leave quite a few races where we don't have a dedicated leader who we can expect to compete for a strong result. The exceptions on this list might be the Viana do Castelo, where Jean Eric Habimana gets the first chance to ride for himself, and the Ras Tailteann, where Alvaro Hodeg will be competing against some of the top sprinters in the world.

The other stage races, which unfortunately include a significant portion of our PTHC and HC calendar, will be left to the stage hunters. Hodeg and Jago Willlems will get their chances on sprint stages. At least one of Valens Ndayisenga and Lennert Van Eetvelt, often both, will be at the major stage races, where they can hopefully do something from a breakaway later in the race, and they might also be able to get some depth points from the GC.

And we have a lot of third tier riders that are suited for breakaway success, too. Moise Mugisha, Didier Munyaneza and Janvier Hadi have all proven that for us in the past, and we hope new signing Max Stedman can do the same.

So, that's where we stand on the eve of the new season. Certainly some promising races to look forward to, but also some potentially dead weight as a result of unfortunate participation choices. We have been quite lucky with somewhat fluky results in unexpected places over the years, and we might need that again to have a worry-free season. But who knows anything at this stage, really. Either way, it's great to get back on the road again!