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[CT] Podium Ambition - "Duck, and Cover"
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 05-12-2025 12:00
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2031
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I'm really curious how your plans for the future turn out and who your new sponsors are (not even talking about the jersey on top!). I just hope they're from somewhere far from France ...
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| seancoll |
Posted on 05-12-2025 20:26
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Breakaway Specialist
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Hey now! I think we were supposed to let the other turtle connected team win the Monterrey TTT, but at least it was kept within the hemisphere!
Excited for how the rest of the season goes for you as you've definitely had some good successes in the first quarter.
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 06-01-2026 19:53
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 17872
Joined: 12-05-2012
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The Great Big "We're Better Than Bianchi" Post
Is it a clickbait title? Yes. But one with a semblance of truth. Whist Bianchi Enel romp away with the CT title, Podium Ambition has outscored them in both March & April! The gauntlet has been thrown down to the division, we are seriously in the promotion fight!
How did this happen? One man, Chequan Richardson! Not the name you were expecting, but the one dimensional Bermudan dominated the narrative of April. The GC win in Faso, followed by stunning solo success in Dwars Door Vlaanderen propels Chequan to his highest ever ranking position of 4th. Save for an unfortunate puncture he could realistically be 3rd.
This team has not experienced such cobbles success since Geraint Thomas was on the team, and we were rocking the last years of Marcus Burghardt. We imagined the 32yo desperation transfer would get 40pts maybe, just filling in squads with our interest more on Akil Campbell or the future of Nathaniel Forbes. There's a lesson to be learned, never ever underestimate a Pirate!
Not much more to review. The month was basically all about the cobbles wins, and a few points elsewhere to keep things ticking over. Up to 3rd in the table, and projected Top5. Lots of racing to come, and supposedly more that suits the team. We are in the battle and continue to press on and secure a truly special result.
Oh - we also wanted to make a small announcement! It's known Podium Ambition will be departing the peloton after the season. Today we'd like to share with the world our new registration for the 2026 season and beyond - Japan  & Fiji  Let the speculation on who our specific sponsors will be commence, you will not predict what's coming, but you know you want it in the PCT.
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 06-01-2026 20:04
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Classics Specialist
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Weird sense of pride to make the title of a podium ambition post!
Japan definitely gives you much better options going forward than the self-proclaimed kamakaize mission you're on now, so hopefully it's one that starts in the PCT |
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| Heine |
Posted on 07-01-2026 06:33
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4630
Joined: 08-04-2007
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Fitting with Japan with Sony leaving their team. Looking forward to your new project!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 11-04-2026 22:17
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| Caspi |
Posted on 07-01-2026 08:24
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 867
Joined: 22-09-2022
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Richardson winning in Faso wasn't unexpected IMO, but Dwars Door Vlaanderen on the other hand 
Good luck on the quest towards PCT.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 07-01-2026 12:57
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Tour de France Champion
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Congrats on Richardson! Really good to see a pure cobbles guy actually go off a bit in CT.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 08-01-2026 19:34
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2031
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It was always clear the Pirates are better than Bianchi (sorry jt), but now it's also proven by the numbers! It's cool to see the riders not only know they have to make sure this project ends on a high but are also able to contribute to this.
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 28-03-2026 18:25
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Tour de France Champion
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@jt - Bianchi very much having the last laugh on that title hahaha....
@Heine - See below!
@Caspi - Richardson doing anything is always a surprise, just proud he gets to go out on a genuine career high
@bbl - Maybe next year it'll inspire other teams to put some efforts into them
@kande - In a lot of ways the Pirates have done better than I expected, in a lot of ways not... mixed bag.
The Great Big "Wait, you're serious?" Post
Too long between updates, we know we know. But following the historic classics period it's safe to say we regressed hard back to the norm in May-June-July. That and just the usual mid-season slump. But all is not lost, nor forgotten. So let's do the quick catch-up on the current promotion race.
It's still on! Somehow. Against all the odds. We are still in the fight for a legit Top-5 finish, and the potential disband-promotion places. Scoring from Lagane and Norbert and Hennis is battling to keep us in the fight, despite a lack of marquee result in this period. Even Mayer is getting in on the act with an arguably career best ride in San Luis, which whilst not a win was visible and committed and delivered reasonable points. Jay Major continues to contribute points as well. Imagine how good this team could be with a legit leader? Haha... hahaha.... ha... I made myself sad...
Given that this is the end of Podium Ambition 3.0, who's going to be funding next years pursuit of actually good riders? (Sorry Pirates, I love you but you're just not that good). We said we were swapping Islands, from the sunny Caribbean shores to the equally world famous shores of the rising sun. And Fiji.
Well here's a shock, IMAX will continue to back the team! Why? Personal love. But they are neither Japanese nor Fijian, so who will be representing our new registrations? Tourism Fiji, hardly groundbreaking here, this team has I think in every season had a national/regional tourism board association. But crucially, this allows us to maintain a link and support for Sea Turtle Conservation. Fiji is home to five of the seven species of seas turtle, so how could we not keep showing our care for the environment?
So far so cool. But you've seen nothing yet. As we need to announce our primary benefactor, a truly revolutionary new light in cycling. I guarantee no-one saw this coming. Our new headline sponsor, hailing from Japan but with a truly unmatched global reach is
Edited by TheManxMissile on 05-04-2026 14:42
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 05-04-2026 15:05
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Tour de France Champion
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The Great Big "Ok, Fine, I'll Tell" Post
Before we get to the headline act, we should fill out the supporting sponsors. IMAX remain, and despite being neither Japanese nor Fijian are basically operating as co-lead sponsors of the project. The format is every growing, ever developing, and just the ultimate cinema experience, so it's very much passion but a great way to stay in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
Caribbean Tourism is out, Tourism Fiji is in. I love Mount Gay Rum and it's a sad farewell.
But we get to replace them with a new sponsor, Gekkeikan. One of the oldest companies in the world, Gekkeikan has a US subsidiary and is forward player in the international nihonshu market. Plenty to be excited about and expand that reach even further.
Mauritius Commercial Bank served us well. But we're not replacing them with another financial institution. Instead we've worked a relationship with a true global giant, Bridgestone. Famous as a tyre manufacturer, they are also present in the domestic bicycle scene, and they want to expand this arm as a way to help drive (pun intended) away from petroleum uses. This also ends the deals with Cervelo and SRAM, instead shifting to Shimano.
So we've covered all the bases... except that other co-lead sponsor we've teased
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| Caspi |
Posted on 05-04-2026 16:06
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 867
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Mount Gay Rum will be missed.
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 10-04-2026 20:27
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Tour de France Champion
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The Great Big "Duck, and Cover" Post
Have we really stretched out sponsor announcements over four posts? Damn straight we have! You know if you're reading this HQ it's a solid 99% purely done to make myself laugh. Also not much to report results wise as we await a ranking update and the expected anti-climax of the season.
IMAX, Tourism Fiji, Gekkeikan, Bridgestone & Shimano. It's a heck of combination of sponsors. But who is the primary benefactor? The big cheese? The head honcho? The grand enchilada? The top dog? The sugar daddy? That last one feels sketchy...
In what is almost certainly a Man-Game first (I didn't do the research, so sue me) allow me to introduce to you a cycling team sponsored by vtubers, Hololive. I said this HQ is 99% just to make myself laugh! Hololive Production is an arm of Cover Corporation (you get the title now, right?), but frankly the two elements are pretty much synonymous with each other., and yes it's a Vtuber agency. Major presence in the Japanese market, backed up with a sizable Indonesian exposure and an ever growing English-language collection, this is a truly 21st century partnership with global reach.
Oh and of course, if you're familiar with US baseball you may well know of "The Hololive Buff" and how it powered the Dodgers to back-to-back World Series (if you ignore the incredibly broken financials of MLB which has turned it into a 4-team contest, we swear it's the vtubers and not how capitalism destroys everything). If we can get some of that buff-up the MG better be prepared!!
So will the team be called Hololive - Imax? No, that sounds dumb. So make sure you come back for sponsor post number 5 when we can talk through the new name for Podium Ambition! Oh and of course we can only imagine what the hell kind of jersey idea was in my mind to try and get made for this, that'll have to be a sixth post. Maybe a seventh if we can keep in the promotion challenge! Hahaha
(This one's the Duck, this was not worth the title pun but it was fully worth it)
Edited by TheManxMissile on 10-04-2026 20:36
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 20:34
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Classics Specialist
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no idea what a vtuber is or a hololive, but as long as it doesn't come with the most mental geographical restrictions possible its a step in the right direction! |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 20:49
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2031
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jt1109 wrote:
no idea what a vtuber is or a hololive, but as long as it doesn't come with the most mental geographical restrictions possible its a step in the right direction!
You're just old ... and once I find my encyclopedia to look it up I'll send you a cable explaining it.
Spoiler And I hope some of those young people have to look those up. Welcome to our world!
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| Booker |
Posted on 11-04-2026 14:01
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Protected Rider
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This feels like something that shouldn't be my work computer, so I'll Hololive in ignorance as to what that actually is. Glad for you though that the "vtubes" are lucrative enough to sponsor a cycling team, and good luck with the new direction...I'm sure you'll enjoy teasing us with rogue references.
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 11-04-2026 14:26
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3871
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Sorry Pirates, I love you but you're just not that good feels like a MLB reference too, and I promise I'm not going Quackers
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