Team Metinvest-Emirates - Ukrainian cycling passion project
The team is successor of Team Metinvest-Slovnaft from 2012 Cdiv2 season (old thread here https://pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread....owstart=80), this year it has been granted invitation to the 2nd highest tier of cycling, PCT.
Our jersey for 2013: work of famous designer ANFreeman
Main sponsors:
Metinvest is an international vertically integrated mining and steel company owning 24 assets in Ukraine, Europe and the United States and managing each link of the production chain – iron ore and coal mining.
Metinvest CEO Ruslan Popov is a big cycling fan and his idea started this project.
The holding is ready to spend large funds if this idea will have expected results.
Emirates is an airline based at Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the largest airline in the Middle East, operating over 2,500 flights per week. The company also operates four of the world's ten longest non-stop commercial flights from Dubai to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, and Houston. Emirates is a subsidiary of The Emirates Group, which has over 50,000 employees, and is wholly owned by the government of Dubai directly under the Investment Corporation of Dubai.
Emirates are not newcomers in the world of sports, as they gave great amounts of money to several well-known football teams and support also Formula 1 and many other activities. Now they enter also the world of cycling, their goal is especially to show their name, to develop the cycling at middle east and to spread their influence to Africa and Mediterranean.
Minor sponsors
Harmony Gold mining - South Africa Harmony Gold is the third largest gold mining company in South Africa, the 12th largest in the world (2009) and the 5th largest gold producer in the world. The company owns a number of mines including Elandskraal mine and Phakisa Mine.
We are really happy with our new sponsor, mainly because it is from South Africa, the home of many great cyclicsts and cycling talents. It will surely encourage us to go for the South African riders in the upcoming transfer season. And dont forget Metinvest rider Dennis Van Niekerk is the new South African champion! Also the company mines gold, we can find that useful during transfers.
Gruppo Lucchini - Italy Gruppo Lucchini is the third largest Italian steel group after Gruppo Riva and Techint, with a year production of 3.5 million tonnes. It is specialized in high quality long and special carbon steel products.
Our second fresh sponsors comes from Italy, the home of the cycling legends and home of one of the greatest cycling races ever - Giro d'Italia. As mentioned earlier, Ruslan Popov is the big fan of italian cycling and riders, because of that dont be surprised if Metinvest-Emirates will try to bring some of them during the transfer season. We also would like to cooperate with some PT team with italian talents, they can find a new loaned home for the year or two in our team.
Clothing sponsor
Bike sponsor
Nothing to change here, we were very satisfied with work of both Kalas clothing and Kuota bikes, they have both one year remaining on their contracts.
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 10-01-2013 11:59
Dennis Van Niekerk Born: 19.10.1984
Wage: 50,000 euros
Herman Fouche Born: 30.3.1987
Wage: 50,000 euros
Ahmed Albourdainy Born: 4.4.1990
Wage: 50,000 euros
Summary 2012 - standings, goals and results
The 2011/2012 season almost came to the end, actually only NCs are left to race this season, so it is time of reflection and looking back. We will bring news about important NCs, especially the one from Ukraine, in the separate report.
Also we want to let you know that our teams webmaster was fired, as he failed to inform about races from September and October, sorry for that.
Team rankings
1st
Het Nieuwsblad Cycling Team
1824
2nd
American Express
1565
3rd
Team Cativen
1337
4th
Pivovarna Laško Cycling Team
1258
5th
Samsung-Mol Cycling Team
1162
6th
Alstom - Bic Pro Cycling
1064
7th
Team Kingspan Continental
957
8th
Team Adecco
935
9th
Team UPC
925
10th
Team Metinvest - Slovnaft
918
11th
Team Dyson
899
12th
Ekspla-Maxima Cycling Team
896
13th
Team Serbian Telecom
855
14th
Gazprom-Rosbank
854
15th
Team Petrobras - Banco do Brasil
610
16th
Team Finnair-Nordea
558
17th
Eurovision Cycling Team
485
18th
Team Armavia
440
Our goal was to finish in the top 10 here and we did, we finished right there in the 10th spot. The margins between 7th and 14th spot was rather small, several teams were very balanced results-wise. To be honest we were hoping for top 6, but some of our riders under performed a bit, especially the one we will talk about in a while.
As you can see our best rider is Ruslan Grychenko, sitiing at the 15th place in the end. Not bad you can say, but problem is that we expected a lot more from him, top 10 at least, rather even top 3/5. Why? Because Ruslan should have been the absolute best on hills of Div2 races. In the end he was far from that and majority of his points came from stage races, as he failed to enter top 3 in single day races, what a shame. We are currently thinking about what he and we did bad, but one thing is sure, Ruslan and Metinvest are both going their ways heading to 2013.
Team goals
Win goal:Tour de Maroc - failed Top 10 goal: Chrono Gatineau - accomplished Special goal: Going global - failed
As our team will be one of the new additions to the PCT level, it is important to build a decent squad, to not disappoint. Of course our team would need a major overhaul from being the Div2 team, more quality and peth is required. To be honest to everyone involved, maybe only like 5-6 riders will remain part of out tea. Rest of the team will come up from transfer period negotiations with teams or free agents.
Nothing is definite here, but here are some first signals how could our former team "disband" and born again for PCT. We are in touch with our riders and they know, who should be in and who not. It will be clear who stays in few days. But so fat it looks like that, there are some surprises also:
Should be sure to stay: Ruslan Grychenko Herman Fouche Antonio Bucciero Dor Dviri - TT national champion
Undecided, but could be renewed/part of the trade: Juri Krivtsov Marlen Zmorka Marjan Smigunov Ahmed Albourdainy - RR national chammpion Dennis Van Niekerk - RR national chammpion Idan Shapira
Tuguldur Tuulhangai from Mongolia
Going to the free agency pool: Denis Kostjuk Vladimir Djudja Maxim Rudenko
Yeah, it could be surprising that we plan to drop three domestique riders, but they have been all given the chance and they either failed, or we feel that they are too old and not worth the PCT spot.
On the other hand Ruslan Grychenko was 99% going out, but the last weeks of the season, together with 3rd place at Ukraine national champs brought up new negotiation. As Ruslan also points out, his experiences can prove extremly valuable in PCT.
There are also riders from the second "group" like Idan Shapira or Tuguldur Tuulhangai, who were parts of interest or rumors concerning the other teams. We will see if we will be contacted by someone.
Currently we are building a team strategy we would like to follow in 2013 and we will soon get you some info about parts of our plans for the transfer period.
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 16-10-2012 08:11
As we suggested in the earlier post,we have been working on the 2013 team strategy for the few days now. The main points have to remain secret of course, as the other teams are watching. But we decided to reveal something from our thoughts,regarding the riders we could be looking for in transfer season.
What is not so surprising is fact, that we would like to bring the best domestic, thus Ukrainian, riders around the circuit. Names like Popovych, Grivko, Grabovski are coming to our minds, but we know their teams are so far short on information so far, but we will try to continue with serious negotiations later. Our ultimate rider goal Vadim Ratiy looks like not for sale this year, or too expensive for us at least (these are the words of his manager).
Maybe some of these trades can be achieved by Metinvest making some available places for PT talents as loanees, reducing the price of wanted ukrainian rider . We would me more than glad to cooperate with some PT team, regarding loans of their riders. If someone would be interested, just let us know. And as we plan to remain in the PCT for more years to come, we want to sign some promising youngsters too, buiding our team slowly and with conception is our wish. Metinvest will probably be interested especially in east - European, Italian and African talents. Also we will be looking for some experienced italian riders, as we admire local passion for cycling.
Apart from Ukrainians and talents, our sight is targeting Africa, South Africa especially. We will fight hard for sprinter Nolan Hoffman to lead us throughout the year. Dan Craven and Hassen Ben Nasser are the other interesting riders for us. Together with riders who should have teams, but attract our sights as John-Lee Augustyn, Jaco Venter, Christoff Van Heerden or Cheriff Abdallah.
We are also still thinking about the biggest transfer targets for 2013, but as you see we have some nice idea. Question remains, if Metinvest-Emirates will join the fight for giants like Napolitano,Cunego and many more.
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 16-10-2012 08:35
African sources suggest that Egyptian champion Cherif Abdallah had already been told by his Jaguar-Eritel team that there would be no place for him in the squad in 2013. It was thought that he would return to the free agency, but now that interest in him has been suggested by other teams, a renewal may be made to allow for a cheap deal away from Jaguar during the transfers period.
We in Metinvest are happy for quick response of famous African developing project Rapha about Abdallah. As we said in our press release, he is interesting rider for us, as we are looking to Africa this year also and Cheriff looks like an interesting rider. Thus the part about resigning him and selling him cheap sounds nice.
However it still remains to be seen, which riders will be free agents this transfer season, so we have to wait with detail offer on Cheriff, till free agents list will be ready. Rapha can be sure we will try to contact them before they are done with their renewals.
Edit: Also if there some other African talented riders, that are known to part their ways with Rapha for 2013, we could be also interested to hear their names.
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 16-10-2012 10:07
As we already mentioned in our introducing post, the last weeks saw team's management flying around the world (with Emirates of course) in search for the new minor sponsors interested in connecting their names with newly promoted PCT team.
Me (Serhiy Honchar) together with CEO of Metinvest and cycling lover Ruslan Popov, we spoke with many interested companies especially in Italy and Africa, as Ruslan admires italian cycling and Africa is one of our targeted areas when thinking about potential talents.
In the end, we negotiated pretty nice deals with two companies, both connected to metal proccesing business, same as our main sponsor Metinvest.
So we can officially announce two new and final sponsors of our team:
Harmony Gold mining - South Africa Harmony Gold is the third largest gold mining company in South Africa, the 12th largest in the world (2009) and the 5th largest gold producer in the world. The company owns a number of mines including Elandskraal mine and Phakisa Mine.
We are really happy with our new sponsor, mainly because it is from South Africa, the home of many great cyclicsts and cycling talents. It will surely encourage us to go for the South African riders in the upcoming transfer season. And dont forget Metinvest rider Dennis Van Niekerk is the new South African champion! Also the company mines gold, we can find that useful during transfers.
Gruppo Lucchini - Italy Gruppo Lucchini is the third largest Italian steel group after Gruppo Riva and Techint, with a year production of 3.5 million tonnes. It is specialized in high quality long and special carbon steel products.
Our second fresh sponsors comes from Italy, the home of the cycling legends and home of one of the greatest cycling races ever - Giro d'Italia. As mentioned earlier, Ruslan Popov is the big fan of italian cycling and riders, because of that dont be surprised if Metinvest-Emirates will try to bring some of them during the transfer season. We also would like to cooperate with some PT team with italian talents, they can find a new loaned home for the year or two in our team.
New jersey design for 2013 PCT revealed!
As you see above, we managed to secure the final two sponsors for our team coming to the 2013 PCT and famous designer ANF was so quick to come with updated (with sponsors, plus cool tiny changes) and final jersey design for the season. We admire his work and we think he did great job once again, judge yourselves:
We updated also our introduction post with a new design, stay tunned with Metinvest-Emirates, as transfer season is coming soon.
Serhiy Honchar, manager of Team Metinvest-EmiratesEdited by Avin Wargunnson on 18-10-2012 06:47
Tuulhangai is of interest to Evian-MIAT (well MIAT, but anyway ), and sources at the team wonder if Metinvest-Emirates would be able to come to a deal with them in the transfer season, possibly including a rider exchange?
Sources close to Metinvest report that while Tuguldur is one of the important team members, there is going to be sort of riders earthquake in the team prior the 2013 season. Metinvest is looking to renew the contract with Tuulhangai, but should be ready then to start the contract negotiations with anybody interested, of course mongolian based team is the first thought destination for him.
We are acknowleged of fact that Tuguldur in person is delighted with the new emerged team from his homeland. Team Metinvest-Emirates has somewhat reasonable management and friedly attitude towards the other managers, thus the transfer fee could be very low, coresponding with his wage maybe. Metinvest would prefer move like this, as they not seem paricullary interested in any of Evian-MIAT riders from 2012, according to rumours of course.
Hi there, here is your favourite cycling reporter Olexander Pitin, former member of Kiyv post newspaper, now on freelance. I will try to bring you the news about Ukrainian cycling in 2013 and especially about Team Metinvest-Emirates. I hope i will have the attention, as i have something that other reporters (mainly the new Kiyv post sports guy) dont, the connections and reliable sources close to the Ukrainian cycling.
In the first article, lets talk about some interesting transfers rumours surrounding team Metinvest-Emirates, as transfer period is coming in weeks time.
Metinvest, the biggest player in Ukrainian cycling
As you already know, there is "new kid on the block" in Ukrainian cycling world coming to the CT, Team PrivatBank. Team Metinvest already contacted the new team's manager according to my sources and both project are said to be ready to live and ride in friendly atmosphere and maybe even cooperation in developing home-grown talents.
However Metinvest, prior to the transfers is claiming to stay the biggest team in country and they will try to sign the best free agents from Ukraine, that fits their plan. Here i can give you names such as Artem Topchyanuk, Vitaliy Popkov, Anatoliy Pakthusov and Oleksandr Polivoda. I would be very surprised if Metinvest decides to not going for these.
As the team ultimate goal is to bring the bright future to cycling in Ukraine, they are supposed to try to sign the best domestic talents. My source from the team says, that Metinvest is more than ready to go absolutely crazy on the three choosen talents, they will fight for them till the last breath. I thought these three should be no one else then Marlen Zmorka, Anatoliy Sosnitskiy and /or Maksym Vasilyev.
Metinvest-Emirates looking to Africa and Italy?
This second paragraph is rather based on my experiences and thought about the team squad, rather than sources and reliable info, but one name is spoken more about than the others. It is no one else than South African sprinter Nolan Hoffman. He is said to be number one option in the transfer season for Metinvest and it is nothing surprising with their proclaimed incresed focus on african riders. Expect the team to go very high to get him, they can go nuts because of it.
Also the same reasons bring us to rumors about prospects of signing likes of Dan Craven or Hassen Ben Nasser. The point is, that i expect high african biased activity on the transfer market from the side of Metinvest team.
Same can be said about their interests in Italian riders, i n connection with their new minor sponsor from that country.
Here names like Giovanni Visconti, Matteo Rabottini or Mirco Lorenzetto comes into my mind.
But we have to wait for the real start of the transfer season to see what happens, as the plans and choices can broke there very quickly. But i hope you liked this article and that it gave you the basic idea for who can be team Metinvest-Emirates after in few weeks time.
Have a nice time and we will meet again soon at one of my articles i hope...
Olexander Pitin,
Cycling freelance reporter
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 23-10-2012 07:50
This is just what Olexander Pitin thinks, he is not on our paycheck.
And we will see, guys like Popkov,Kononenko may pretty well not be targets for our team, lets see when the transfers begin...but i am pretty much reconciled with fact, that our transfer season will be shite with so many teams from areas of our interest. It will be sad to leave the given line of team transfer policy and go for unimportant countries for us, but that is life.
Even French-Mongolian team is cruising around riders from Africa and Ukraine?
Several people are talking about a possible transfer for Marjan Smigunov to PrivatBank. He is keeping an own online blog and those people have read the text: ''I really like Metinvast, but I would like some more oppurtunties to shine.'' A move to PrivatBank would seem logical, as Smigunov is Ukrainian, just like PrivatBank. We couldn't track the source, we only know Marjan deleted a post seven minutes after putting it online. Perhaps he was forced to do so.
-Denys Kulyk.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
Indeed Marjan Smigunov was so disloyal to his team and wrote something like suggested in the press. And it is also true he was forced to delete the post, because we are his employee and we should hear from him first, not the public.
In the light of this events (but not only reason), Marjan has no longer future in our team for 2013 and he can live his dream in PrivatBank or somewhere else. He will be likely released to free agency and look for the team from there.
Whoever finds this information interesting, could be also attracted by fact that several other riders like Kostjuk or Shumilov should be also up for the grabs.
Dor Dviri - TT national champion
), and sources at the team wonder if Metinvest-Emirates would be able to come to a deal with them in the transfer season, possibly including a rider exchange?
