First up today was Marvin Orlando Angarita. He will spend much of his time as a lead-out for Forero and is thus a very valuable member of the squad. His wage of 70,000 reflects the fact that he is a good sprinter for the CT circuit.

Next was a much-needed signing - Victor Hugo Orozco. Our climbing department has looked rather thin so far, especially one rooted in the Colombian traidition of mountain goats, and so it was necessary to sign another climber to assist Zurita. Orozco has a powerful attack and doesn't mind staying out in front for a while so will be quite a loose cannon over the coming season. Signed with a wage of 70,000.

Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez is a rider of a similar vein to Orozco, better on the mountains than on the hills, and a solid fighter, and cheap too at 50,000. As one of the older members of the team at 30, he will lend some experience to an otherwise fairly youthful squad.

Finally, just a few minutes ago we were able to welcome Juan Esteban Arango to our team with a wage of 55,000. Arango is very similar to Angarita, not only in name, but in cycling terms, and will be part of what might potentially develop into a sprint train (On a Colombian team? What madness!)

On Thursday we managed to secure the signature of Sebastian Henao. Along with Rivera and Parra Bustamente, he will form part of a potent Colombian triumvirate within a couple of years. Signed for 50,000

We are also very excited to have the Brazilian Murilo Affonso on board. He has the potential to develop not just his climbing but his time-trialling too, making him something rather unique in this team of talented pure climbers. He too has a wage of 50,000

One of the fastest men in the CT division, JP will be mainly targeting flat C2 races, and we have signed four riders specifically to be his loyal domestiques for the season (more on them later). At 31, he is the oldest member of the team, but although we are a team that places a great emphasis upon talent, it is important to have some quality in the first season and JP delivers just that.

Although we initially targeted a very climbing-orientated team going in to transfers, through a mixture of interest from rival teams and teams from divisions above with more money to spend that plan ended up going out of the window. We did, however, managed to secure the Bolivian Gilber Zurita on a transfer. He is excellent in the mountains, but rather poor in hills, time-trialling and back-up stats so will be targeting mountainous races like the Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid

Victor is very similar to Gilber in terms of climbing ability, but is more inclined to go for the long-range attacks with his impressive burst of acceleration. Thus he will focus on the mountainous stage-races slightly more, such as Clasico RCN, his home race. Our joint second-highest paid rider, we hope that he will be succesful for the team over this season.

Marvin is a solid rider who gets over the mountains best of our sprinters and has a good kick on him. He also doesn't mind going on the attack, as his fairly high Fighter stat for a Sprinter suggests.

Juan is a very similar rider to Marvin, but is slightly better on the flat, so he might be the last lead-out for Forero, and also has very good recovery, meaning he would do well in long races like Langkawi. The two A's form a crucial part of our team that we hope will help bring success over the coming season.

One of the later signings for the team, Willy G could prove to be a very useful addition to the team. Being just 1 agonising XP point away from being maxed, he will return next year a much better rider; and his OK sprint ability means he may be used to help in a sprint finish.

Another late addition to the team, 'Spartacissimus' may well turn out to be a very interesting rider indeed in the future, with a good sprint and being able to handle the hills fairly well. At the moment, however, like most of our team he is a work in progress.

At the moment, Juan is nothing more than an 'earnest' domestique (so to speak). But in two or three years hopefully he will develop to become one of the focal points of the team, hence the high wage we were prepared to pay. Not only can he climb, he is also one of the few riders on the team who does not find descents actively harmful.

One of the older members of the team, Robinson was signed to be an experienced domestique on the mountains and also to be a breakaway threat on the hilly stages, where we have practically nothing else going for us.

Pretty much the only reason we signed Miguel was to provide a good option for breakaways on the mountains, as we can already see that we are going to need a bit of luck from breakaways this season. Apart from that, he can be a useful, experienced team-mate.

Another late addition to the team, 'Spartacissimus' may well turn out to be a very interesting rider indeed in the future, with a good sprint and being able to handle the hills fairly well. At the moment, however, like most of our team he is a work in progress.

We're off to Cuba for the first day of racing in the season, mainly to be a part of the season's Grand Depart, so to speak, but also to give young Cuban puncher Bru an opportunity to race his home race, a classic that he will no doubt be looking to win/podium in a couple of years.

Our focus in this race is most definitely Forero, hopefully looking for a stage win but we are already aware that there will be some competition around. Rodriguez Parra, the only guy on the team not to recoil in disgust at the sight of a TT bike, will look for perhaps something in the time-trial, but is more likely to be confined to 'helping Forero' duties.

A race in the vicinity in South America is not one to be missed out on, even if it is C1. Although Orozco and Zurita are both here, with the lack of hills helping their cause somewhat, breakaways will be the focus and we are hopeful of achieving something other than an XP-gaining mission here.

The season opener was always going to be tough, with so many teams involved, and with a squad not really suited to the terrain, so it proved. A nil-pointer to start the season.

Summarised in a smiley:

We were eagerly anticipating this race, as a first chance to see a big showdown between the top CT sprinters. However, the weakness of the teams (read: PCM AI) to catch the breakaways meant that the race turned into a little bit of a damp squib, and that wasn't just the weather. Nevertheless, at least some points were secured here, and Murilo Affonso put on a good show being active in the break.

The only stage that ended in a bunch sprint between the favourites was won by Cam Meyer of Fletcher, but it was Forero who claimed an impressive second place, our first real result of the season.

Summarised in a smiley:

Our first foray into racing at C1 level looked like a big ask, and so it proved. Despite being quite active getting a few riders in breaks here and there, they never materialised at the right time when the break did actually make it to the finish. Marvin Orlando Angarita featured a bit in the early stages, but the team as a whole was just too anonymous during the course of the race.

Victor Hugo Orozco did manage to just about hang with the bigger favourites in the mountains, and even launched an attack on the final mountain stage, as he sneaked into a point-scoring 30th overall.

Summarised in a smiley:

With the preview already having posted, it looks like once again there's a huge clutch of PCT sprinters wanting to battle this out, but we believe Forero could potentially gain a top 10 here, providing the race comes down to a bunch sprint. The hills on the parcours may also be a little too much for Forero, but he has good support, worthy of a train perhaps at C2 level but not here in C1!

To be perfectly honest, I don't have a clue why we signed up to this race, our riders aren't really suited to it, but I guess it was just a race-day filler and an opportunity for the break. We will be hoping that the relatively high Mo/Hi ratio on the third stage will be able to support Orozco and Zurita, and that Angarita could noodle around the remaining stages, depending on the competition that turns up. Without luck, most probably a nil-pointer for us.

2014 In Review

Part 1: Looking back

Looking back at the HQ, which I have shamefully neglected during the season, apologies for that everyone, but just haven't really had the time to update as much as I would have liked, I see the youthful optimism that was present at the start of our first season in professional cycling. In Juan Pablo Forero, we had garnered ourselves a big marquee signing, and we had filled the team around him with youthful Colombian and South American talent. However, this season cannot really be considered a success as we finished a rather lowly 22nd in the rankings, indeed the entire team was outscored by the Portuguese superstar of Siam Cement, Vitor Rodrigues. A lack of any strength whatsoever in the hills, a key terrain in the CT, was a big factor in our failure, and despite having a good team set-up for breaks, we did not profit from them as much as say Eddie Stobart or Euskaltel did (albeit this being a rather feeble excuse for a disappointing performance). However, for the most part we have youth on our side and our team will only get stronger next year (although we are looking to loan out a couple of key members of the team, more on that later).

Detailed below are the final CT team rankings for the season; the individual rankings along with the performance of every Alpina rider; a look at how we fared in our goals; and a quick round-up of the season in a gallery at the foot of the post.

The second part of 2014 In Review: Part 2: Looking forward, will be arriving shortly.

Team Rankings

Individual Rankings

In terms of our goals, a 1/5 success rate perhaps fairly reflects on our season. There were flashes of hope and the very occassional success, but on the whole, failure was the byword. Our frustrating failure to secure a puncheur in the transfer season meant that a top 10 goal in the Ruta America del Sur, a very achievable goal indeed, was failed miserably, and it was general abjectness that led to the failure of the other three. The one bright spark was a fantastic performance from Victor Hugo Orozco in Madrid, outsprinting several other superior climbers, including the likes of the now seemingly legendary Vitor Rodrigues, on a summit finish for a pleasing 4th place.

Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid: It is David Arroyo of ONCE who leads the favourites group in but Orozco is right up there, securing our only goal success of the season.

Tour de Langkawi: A theme that was to become familiar with Forero throughout the season: a good and fairly consistent sprinter, but lacking that extra firepower to hold everyone else. Here he is once again pipped to the line by Vingerling of TomTom.

Tour d'Algerie: Finally, on the 9th of July, Forero delivers our first win in the ManGame, as he beats Vingerling by a hair's width on stage 2 in Algeria.

Tour d'Algerie: Algeria proved to be a relatively bountiful hunting ground for Forero, as on the fourth stage he secured our second and last victory of the season, once again defeating his arch-rival Vingerling in a close sprint.

Tour d'Azerbaijan: Juan Ernesto Chamorro was one of the few success stories for Alpina this season, his 4th place finish overall in Azerbaijan, due to the breakaway pictured where he finished second behind Schurter of Sauber, was our best GC finish of the season.

Clásico RCN: Before the season, we had high hopes of a good finish in our home race, but as the race loomed our hopes diminished on a daily basis. Gilber Zurita, however, salvaged some pride from this race with an attack (pictured here) on a hilly stage, of all things, to claim an 8th place overall finish and put some gloss on what was otherwise an extremely disappointing season from him.

Scorchio wrote:
Nice summary even although Alpina's season might not have gone as you would best like. I was surprised (and pleased!) that Forero did so well, thought he might be a bit to 1-d to meet with success, but he certainly led from the front for you. Looking forward, as discused elsewhere, all the young kids will be battle-hardened with 1-year under their wings; more than a little interested to see what stat-gain decisions were made for them.

You can expect me to be in touch during transfer season . At the very least we should try and help each other out on the loan front for the benefit of Colombian cycling development!

2014 In Review

Part 2: Looking forward

After looking back at the 2014 season in the first part of our end-of-season review, we now turn our attentions to the forthcoming season, one that we hope will bring more success and happiness than the last.

The management of Alpina - Avianca are currently unwilling to release a list of targets for the transfer season, but are looking to strengthen the team in the hill department whilst sticking to our fairly rigid continental focus.

William Germán Rodríguez Parra

XP Gain: 4.99 -> 4.100

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	69	61	60	72	69	71	72	54	71	72	64	59	72
2015	71	61	60	74	70	72	73	54	72	73	64	59	74

The only man on the team who knows what a time-trial bike is, William Germán Rodríguez Parra was signed to be an early part of Forero's lead-out role, and now, having entered one HC classic purely to gain him this one XP point, he has improved in several areas, developing what appears to be a rather unique skillset in the CT, being able to time-trial whilst also having a kick in the sprint in th end, potentially making him a useful rider given certain circumstances.

Juan Ernesto Chamorro

XP Gain: 3.14 -> 4.01

Available for PT loan

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	65	73	70	63	70	74	66	51	66	70	73	73	63
2015	66	76	73	64	71	75	68	51	66	72	76	74	64

Arguably our most talented rider, we were very pleased when we managed to sign Juan Ernesto Chamorro in our inaugural transfer season. However, if he is to reach his full potential, it is best for him to seek a loan to a PT team that might be willing to take him on, so that he may return back to us a better rider. Juan is a good climber, and combined with solid backup stats, like his resistance, fighter and downhill stats, he is the type of rider that can be both a domestique in the mountains for better teams and get in the breaks on mountain stages when he is not needed to protect a team leader. He would no doubt be a very solid temporary acquisition for any team that wished to pursue him.

Edison Bravo

XP Gain: 2.00 -> 3.17

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	67	67	69	63	67	70	67	55	62	64	67	70	65
2015	68	68	71	63	69	71	68	55	63	66	68	70	65

A talented puncheur-climber from Chile, Edison Bravo has made some pleasing progress over the season and we hope that he will continue to develop and blossom into a good puncheur in the future.

Fulgencio Bru

XP Gain: 2.75 -> 3.33

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	65	56	70	53	65	62	60	55	65	67	58	67	53
2015	66	57	72	53	67	63	61	55	65	68	59	67	53

A strange being, who is quite competent on the hills but utterly terrified of mountains, Fulgencio Bru was acquired on a free transfer last season and has made some progress, despite being teased by his team-mates for not being of the South American master race and coming from a funny island somewhere up north.

Carlos Henrique Cancellara

XP Gain: 2.00 -> 3.22

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	67	59	67	65	68	67	60	54	71	69	69	61	65
2015	69	59	67	65	69	67	61	55	73	71	69	61	65

'Baby Spartacus' is not quite the beast that his namesake is, but nonetheless is a promising talent from Brazil who, when fully developed, will be a decent sprinter who can get over the hills fairly well.

Heiner Rodrigo Parra Bustamente

XP Gain: 2.00 -> 3.23

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	68	70	67	66	70	71	71	51	51	65	68	64	65
2015	68	72	69	66	71	72	73	51	51	67	70	64	65

Heiner Parra is a very promising talent who will turn out rather like Chamorro although not quite as good once maxed. After a very quiet first season we hope that after improvements over the winter Heiner will develop into a rider that will pursue breaks more actively and successfully.

Ever Rivera

XP Gain: 2.00 -> 3.16

Listening to offers

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	66	68	66	63	69	69	66	55	65	64	64	67	62
2015	66	70	68	63	70	70	68	55	65	66	66	67	62

Despite making promising progress, we feel Ever Rivera is perhaps slightly lagging behind some of our other talents. While we will still do everything we can to support him, we would be open to offers from other teams who may be potentially interested.
When maxed: 75 Mo, 73 Hill or similar

Murilo Affonso

XP Gain: 1.00 -> 2.41

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	66	67	67	66	65	65	67	56	54	67	73	52	66
2015	66	69	68	67	66	66	68	56	54	67	73	52	67

Murilo Affonso is a talent still in his younger days, and so is still at quite a junior level. However, as well as appearing a decent climbing talent he shows promise of potentially being able to recognise a time-trial bike, which bodes well for the future.

Sebastian Henao

XP Gain: 1.00 -> 2.52

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	64	67	68	62	68	69	64	53	63	63	60	66	63
2015	64	69	69	62	68	70	65	53	63	64	61	66	63

The only rider not to score a single point this season, poor old Sebastian Henao would have benefited from being added to the MG a year later. However he's still a decent talent, and he's Colombian, so there's hope for the future yet.

Diego Antonio Ochoa

XP Gain: 1.00 -> 2.53

Listening to offers

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2014	67	63	67	64	68	67	67	50	60	68	71	69	64
2015	67	63	68	64	69	68	68	50	60	69	72	69	64

Similarly to Rivera, Diego Antonio Ochoa has been making some promising progress but is a little behind the pace in some respects. We are happy to keep him at Alpina, but are very willing to listen to offers.
When maxed: 75 Hill, 75 Acc or similar

Marvin Orlando Angarita

XP Gain: none

Available for PT loan

	Fla	Mo	Hil	TT	Sta	Res	Rec	Cob	Spr	Acc	Ftr	DH	Prl
2015	70	62	62	65	70	65	74	62	76	75	71	63	65

Due to an incompetent manager, Marvin Orlando Angarita was not loaned out last season as it was not known how the loaning system worked. Marvin has made a negligible XP gain (4.00 -> 4.01) in the season, but still seeks a potential PT loan, although appreciates that this may be difficult due to the quality of other loan-seeking riders.