Halo dan selamat datang di base Indosat Ooredoo untuk musim baru!
Welcome to the HQ of PCT team Indosat Ooredoo for the 2022 PCT cycling season! We're back to racing in the PCT division after managing to keep ourselves up last season. Continuing on with our change of focus from last season, we hope to establish ourselves comfortably within the division, whilst continuing to develop the best cyclists Indonesia ans South-East Asian has to offer.
Tujuan dan Informasi tim jangka panjang "Long term team goals and other information"
In 2022, we enter our 8th season in the MG peloton after a 2021 season that can only be labeled as a success. We laid all our cards on the table during the last transfer season in hopes of securing a rider to build a future around of which we were successful, but not without sacrificing a stupid amount of the teams salary cap to do so. We floundered around the bottom of the rankings table for most of the season, before shooting upwards in the final months due to some impressive individual performances.
As we enter the new season, we hope to continue to build upon our goals that were firmly established last season - to continue to build and develop a young core of (primarily) Indonesian/SE Asian riders whilst identifying other promising riders to bring into the team. We experienced a great deal of success in establishing a solid pathway to professional cycling for young Indonesian talent last season, by managing to sign Wibisono, Yudha and Rohendi to long contracts. Wibisono and Yudha rode for us last season, whilst Rohendi was thrown in the deep end for his first season riding for PT team Mapei and even competing in a GT. Our scouts have been scouring the region in the past 12 months to identify the next batch of promising cyclists they believe can take the next step. We can't go into our recruitment/renewal strategy until a later date, but have high hopes we can push our squad this season into being at least half Indonesian!
Along with establishing a proper cycling federation in Indonesia and massively improving development pathways for local riders, since the introduction of Indosat in 2015 cycling has gone from being completely unknown to having most of the professional calendar televised on the national broadcaster, even including local races and criterium championships! Also in another massive boost to cycling in Indonesia, the ICF (Indonesian Cycling Federation) has struck a deal with the MGUCI to expand the Archipelago's signature professional race the Tour of East Java - from 2 stages to 4. Over 200,000 spectators lined the roads of Java last season for the 2-day race, with an almost half a million spectators expected this season.
2022 Sponsors
Name
Description
Role
Indosat Ooredoo
Telco company
Primary team sponsor
ANZ
Bank
Financial support
Giant
Bike manafacturer
Bike supplier
Mos Burger
Restaurant chain
Financial support
Sugoi
Clothing manafacturer
Clothing supplier
Oceania Cycling Federation
-
Development
2022 Jersey
We will be using the same jersey from last season, as it's just too pretty to pass up the opportunity of using it again. Thanks to hillis91 once again for its creation!
2015 was our first season as part of the MG. We originally started as a joint Indonesian-Australian team with Indonesia as the teams' focus region, and Australian bank ANZ was brought in to bankroll the team and not have a lot of impact on the composition of the team. As Indonesia was not a known cycling nation at the time and the rider pool was quite small, the initial objective of the team was to establish itself and to be competitive from the get-go. We accomplished this by finishing 5th in our first season and automatically promoting up into the PCT division.
The Roster
2015 was a strange time where riders much weaker than their current (2021) CT counterparts were the best you could get. Atapuma was a huge coup at the time; him and Winner Anacona from DeLaval were the two strongest GC riders on paper in CT that season. As a result, we built a team around him for that reason. We brought in mountain goat Signorini, Mikel Nieve from FCB – Polska and a host of climbing domestiques to help Atapuma out. Surprisingly though, Atapuma wasn’t actually our key signing. We also signed Lithuanian legend Aidis Kruopis, who had been released by the defunct Bacardi PT team, to lead the team in the sprints. He had a phenomenal season – finishing 4th in the individual rankings, taking 6 victories and 4 classification victories throughout the season.
Despite the top echelon of the roster being dominated by European riders, we did actually manage to have 12/17 riders on our roster from Asia/Oceania. Only three of them Indonesian, however.
The Season
Seung Kwon Lee in the breakaway in the team’s first ever professional race
Our season began with somewhat of a home race in Australia at the Great Ocean Road Classic. Our young rider Lee got us some tv time in the break, but otherwise it was an anonymous race for the team (that was also won by MG legend Richeze)
Our second race in the MG peloton was one of great significance. Aidis Kruopis led the team in the 6-day race where he won the first ever race for the team on stage 2, as well as winning the green jersey and finishing 4th overall!
Aidis Kruopis wins the second stage of the Tour of Benelux
Our results that season were pretty consistent, with Signorini winning a stage and finishing 2nd in GC in the Middle East Tour where he dramatically lost the leaders jersey on the last stage. TOME was also the first proper result an Indonesian rider had ever achieved with Robin Manulang taking 2nd in the ITT on stage 11.
The next few races had some more highlights, with Mikel Nieve winning a stage and finishing 3rd GC in the Giro del Trentino, with Atapuma finishing 6th. Atapuma then came out and won the Tour of Langkawi + a stage victory in impressive style, with one of the most memorable rides in the teams history. Back when riders asses weren’t glued to their seats, he went down in a bad crash 3km from the finish on the first of 2 Mountain stages before coming back to win the following mountain stage in a dominant fashion.
Darwin Atapuma on his way to a stage win and overall GC victory in Malaysia
The team continued its string of consistent results throughout the season until a late-season dip in form made promotion look like almost impossible, until Kruopis went ballistic in another ‘home race’, the Herald Sun Tour, where he took two stage wins, the points jersey and the overall GC. Ultimately this was just enough to catapult us back up the standings and to secure promotion to the PCT.
Recap
Our inaugural MG season was a resounding success, with us promoting first try along with Fablok and Strava. Kruopis was such a fun rider to have, and it was such a fun season to be a part of with the division's top riders not being all that much better than a teams regular domestiques which made most races unpredictable. Although it wasn't really possible to adhere to our national focus at all, it's still one of my favourite seasons in the MG and one i'll always remember.
Kruopis wins stage 2 of the Herald Sun Tour in the Leaders jersey
Apologies for my terrible 2015 results table
Results
*Apologies for formatting
Win Count: 15 NC's: 5
Aidis Kruopis 1st
Stage 2 - Benelux Challenge
Stage 2 - Tour de San Luis
Stage 3 - USA PCC
GC - Herald Sun Tour
Stage 1 - Herald Sun Tour
Stage 2 - Herald Sun Tour Benelux Challenge Tour de San Luis USAPCC Herald Sun Tour 2nd
Stage 1 - USA PCC 3rd
Stage 1 (ITT) - Benelux Challenge
Stage 1 & 5 - Tour of Slovenie 4th
GC - Benelux Challenge (+49)
Stage 3 - Benelux Challenge
Stage 1 - Tour de San Luis
Stage 1 Tour of Langkawi Top 10
Hanko Classic
Cigar City Brewing Classic
Stage 5 + 6 - Benelux Challenge
Stage 1 - Tour of Taiwan
Stage 4 - Tour of Taiwan
Stage 7 - Tour de San Luis
13th - GC San Luis
Stage 2 - Tour of Langkawi
Stage 8 - USAPCC
11th - Herald Sun Tour ITT
Mikel Nieve 1st
Stage 2, Giro del Trentino 3rd
GC - Giro del Trentino Top 10
Stage 5 - Benelux Challenge
Stage 3 - Tour de San Luis
Stage 6 - Tour of Poland
Darwin Atapuma 1st
GC - Tour of Langkawi
Stage - Tour of Langkawi
KOM - USAPCC 3rd
Stage 2 - USA PCC
Stage 6 - USAPCC 4th
Stage 6 - Tour de San Luis 6th
GC - USAPCC
GC - Giro del Trentino Top 10
Stage 5 - Tour de San Luis
Stage 2 - Giro del Trentino
Stage 4 - Giro del Trentino
Gian Piereo Signorini 1st
Stage 4 - Tour of Middle East
Stage 7 - USAPCC
KOM - Tour of Middle East 2nd
GC - Tour of Middle East
Stage 9 - Tour of Middle East 3rd
GC, Tour of Java
Stage 2 - Tour of Java 4th
Stage 8 - Tour of Middle East Top 10
10th GC - Tour of Azerbaijan
Stage 2 - Tour of Middle East
Stage 10 - Tour of Middle East
Kouhei Uchima 2nd 6th GC - Tour of Taiwan
Stage 1, Tour of Middle East
Hossein Nateghi 3rd
Stage 5 + 6 - Tour of Middle East 4th
Stage 1 - La Tropicale Amisso Bongo
Stage 1 - Herald Sun Tour Top 10
Stage 2 + 4 - La Tropicale Amisso Bongo
13th GC - La Tropicale Amisso Bongo
Robin Manulang 2nd
Stage 11 (ITT) - Tour of Middle East 3rd
Stage 6 - Giro del Capo 9th
GC - Tour de San Luis Top 10 -
Stage 3,Tour de San Luis
Federico Rocchetti 1st
Stage 6 - La Tropicale Amisso Bongo 9th
GC - Tour of Taiwan Top 10
Stage 3 - Tour of Taiwan
Hyeong Min Choe 11th
GC - Tour of Taiwan 2nd
Stage 2 - Tour of Taiwan 3rd
Stage 7 - Tour of Poland
Cameron Bayly Top 10
Stage 2 - Tour of Taiwan
Yousef Mizra Banihammad 6th
GC - Tour of Slovenia
Wenlong Zhang Top 10
Stage 1, Tour de San Luis
Stage 2, Tour de San Luis
Stage 3 - Giro del Trentino
Stage 1 - Herald Sun Tour
Stage 1 - Tour of Java
Peerapol Chawchiangkuang 3rd
Stage 5, Giro del Trentino Top 10
10th- GC Tour of Langkawi
8th - Stage 2, Tour of Java 12th
GC - Giro del Trentino 13th
GC - Tour of Java
NC's RR - Parno ITT - Manulang RR - S. Lee ITT- Choe ITT - Banihammad
Dylan Page Enkhtaivan Bolor-Erdene Sergey Luchshenko Alan Jousseaume Laurens Huys
Page leaves the team chasing a much fatter paycheck. Much was done to try and retain his services, but unfortunately we couldn't provide him with a big enough yacht as an incentive. Bolor-Erdene sadly leaves the team as we no longer need somebody with his skillset. As much as it hurts to lose a rider we have developed, we know he'll almost definitely be getting picked up by another team come transfers.
Luchshenko too, likes money. Far, far too much money. So, we kicked him to the kerb.
Jousseaume and Huys performed well as stagiares, but are no longer needed.
Post-renewals Comment
The obvious focus was to decrease Dunbar's wage as much as we reasonably could without angering him too much as he has become accustomed to living the high life these past 12 months. 600k is still a considerable amount, but his decrease ultimately covers for the rest of the teams' wage increases. We will continue to chip away at his wage each year until such a time it meets up with his stats.
We lucked out signing Jensen and Howard for stupidly cheap wages from the free agency last season, so Jensen's increased demands and Howard's (with first decline) equal wage demands are no surprise. We are quite content with Howard considering the sprinter tax the last few years.
Warchol was always going to seek an increase after his training last off season. Due to a couple of gambles with his race planning last season that didn't pay off, his results weren't as good as they could have been which has contributed to his lower wage. He hasn't attended our post-season wrap up retreat in Indonesia and he is not at all interested in joint leadership for the coming season and as such has been in talks with his manager to evaluate his options.
Rohendi and Xandri have both returned from their respective PT loans feeling a little too big for their boots, and we decided to indulge them because what else are we supposed to do? Arifin saw their new contracts and also demanded more.
Suryadi and especially Gani decided their hit-and-miss sprint leadouts from last season were somehow deserving of a wage increase. They definitely weren't, but we paid them anyway.
Overall, our renewals can be considered a success. We were able to talk down Dunbar and keep Jensen, Warchol and Howard all on very competitive wages whilst keeping enough room in our wage cap to provide us with flexibility going into transfers. Our newly maxed out returning loanees + senior Indonesian cohort all demanding more money was definitely not ideal as we feel we could have banked another $100k to use going into transfers, but it wasn't to be. We couldn't risk losing any of our home nation riders, especially Rohendi. We managed to finish the renewals period with 18 riders - 9 of them Indonesian which is the most positive part of our renewal period.
Jensen was one of the few guys who got less in FA last year than he would have gotten in renewals, likely due to the influx of puncheurs hitting the PCT market. In hindsight, maybe I should have gone after him stronger, but I went in a different direction, and it is what it is. 270k seems about right for him, although he was hit or miss a bit last season.
Similarly Warchol was on an insanely cheap wage last year after his training, so that was always gonna go up despite his underwhelming performance. Sounds from your post like he's on his way out. Hate to see that after so much was invested in training, but better not to get caught caring about sunk cost.
The big contract is obviously still Dunbar, and paying a guy <77 OVL 600,000 is never fun, but he's a long term investment, and I think it should pay off. That wage is already more manageable than last year, and it will get more so over time. He's already shown himself to have the perfect balance in stage races too. I'm very curious how you will train him if you decide to go in that direction because he certainly has the fundamentals for it.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Great wage cut for Eddie, indeed, and with some training in the next couple of years he'll definitely justify that high initial investment.
Warchol's raise was pretty obvious, while Jensen's might hurt a bit more.
And sorry to see Page go; those Swiss guys really are just thinking about money and nothing else this year ^^
@bbl: I do think too that the insane amount of quality puncheurs in PCT last season did help to dissuade other potential suitors for Jensen. Anywhere up to a bit over 300k is about right for him, so still quit content with 270k. I had basically accepted relegation during race planning last season, so I decided i'd try some uh, 'different' planning strategies than I'd normally use with Jensen and Warchol because why the hell not if I'm a dead ringer for going down? It was obviously very hit and miss this way, if they had both been planned more conventionally I they would have scored much better. Also a complete lack of support (1 rider at 75 hil, 1 rider at 76mt) in either terrain definitly didn't help.
I also take solace in knowing that Dunbar's wage next season will be very manageable, all I have to do is to make sure we can stay in PCT for another year until then basically As for the training, If I can manage to do it properly (or at all) he will wind up being a very fun rider.
@Fabianski: It is indeed, it makes me wonder if I should have tried to go lower as he accepted my first offer. Can just be glad he wasn't offended
Jensen's increase isn't all that bad, still slightly undervalued I think. He was hampered for a few reasons last season along with the crazy PCT puncheur strength. If things stay similar to how they are now pre-transfers regarding hilly strength he should do much better this season I think. And yes, it seems the Swiss conglomerate in the MG have conspired in their group chat to squeeze as much money out of their respective teams as they can this year
@redordead: It's exactly what I had hoped for. Three low-wage leader types to go with moneybags Dunbar and enough cap flexibility to fill in the gaps this season. Or, I have three low wage leader types that I can sell to fund my crippling 'Must tear my team apart and rebuild every transfers' addiction
The biggest surprise here is surely the potential availability of last season's top point scorer Howard. Besides the obvious issues with sprinters last season, Howard still managed to have a terrific season finishing comfortably in the top-20 of the individual rankings as one of the top sprinters in the division. His skills have gone down ever so slightly in the off season, but he will still be fiercely competitive and will still be one of the best in PCT, or will be a solid cut-price option in PT. His low wage means that he will be able to comfortably and easily fit into any teams plans (even CT).
Warchol is a rider we took great pride in developing, but it appears that is is in both parties best interests to part ways. His past season was a bit of a mixed bag due to some wacky planning shenanigans and zero support, with the highlight being his 2nd GC and stage win at the Tour of America. He makes a wonderful, cheap option for any team with his low wage and on a team with at least a small amount of climbing support and flexible planning will definitely thrive and score very well. He has a great amount of race days and is a fantastic option for the ToA (with many race days still spare) for a PCT team, a great secondary leader at PT level or for the ambitious CT team he would catapult you straight into potential promotion.
Jensen is also open to any offers, like all of our leaders every year
He had a solid season last year, and we've already begun to plan his next season with the team so we would be very happy to retain him, but open to any offers during transfers.
It might be strange to see Dunbar not completely unavailable. While we definitely hope to keep him in the team and build around him into the future, the team managers addiction to wheeling and dealing each transfers means that if an offer were to come in for him that was deemed good enough, it would be considered. Whether that be cash, or a swap. Would have to be very very juicy though.
Xandri has recently re-joined the team from his PT loan stint where he finished his development. He's a very solid stage racing domestique for PT + PCT teams, and would make a very serviceable lieutenant or even GC leader on a CT team. We would like to keep him, but his spot will need to be taken by a local rider.
Hofer and Wolf have expressed their desire to ride for a team with a strong TTT setup, and if we are unable to see a way to potentially strengthen our TT stocks before transfers begin, they will be free to leave.
LOANS
Abdurrahman, Nur Hasan and Verschaeve are all available for a PT loan needed to finish their development. All 3 riders would make very handy additions to their loan teams - Nur Hasan (77sp, great energy stats) would be an amazing leadout, Abdurrahman (75mt, solid all round stats) a solid GT stage hunter/stage racing domestique as well as Vershcaeve (74mt, 72hil, good energy stats). All three riders are on basement wages and would actually be useful for the loaning in team.
Interesting availability list for sure. Interested in seeing how you will be able to move a declined Howard, he should deffo be able to do a job despite the decline.
Our first signing of the 22' transfer season is veteran GC man Novak. He's a rider that's certainly been around the block a few times and has been a part of the professional peloton for quite a while. He joins our ranks at bottom dollar to add depth to our stage racing department that so desperately needs it after last season. He'll be one of quite a few climbers we'll have riding for us next season.
Robert Gesink
Age: 35
Ovl: 73.93
Wage: $75,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
66
76
74
73
68
70
70
59
54
58
65
59
73
Gesink is a man who needs no introduction. A former GT winner of the Vuelta a Espana as well as 7-time stage winner, he has also been on the podium of both other grand tours (2x TDF & 1x Giro). We are thrilled to have a legend of this caliber join us! Whilst his best days are behind him, he joins our team as our road captain and will hopefully prove to be a serviceable member of our stage racing team. He will also be completing a coaching apprenticeship with our team this season and will hopefully accept a role amongst our coaching staff when he decides to call it a day.
@knockout: The goal was to avoid the rat race for ex-generali stage racers and snag a couple of basement price stage racers like these two, who we plan to replace with Verschaeve and Abdurrahman when they return maxed out next season
@DarkWolf: I mean I know the term 'road captain' gets thrown around a lot these days, but hopefully they can channel BMC-era George Hincapie for the season.
@LLS: Like I said above, nothing wrong with a couple of older heads. Can help the younger riders with their wily tax avoidance schemes they've learned over the years also
Think all the old jokes have been made so I'll just say both of those two definitely still got it and sure they will do very decent jobs for you this year in the stage race squads
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Indosat Ooredoo
ANZ
Giant
Mos Burger
Sugoi
Oceania Cycling Federation
Aidis Kruopis
Mikel Nieve
Darwin Atapuma
Gian Piereo Signorini
Hossein Nateghi
Robin Manulang
Hyeong Min Choe
Yousef Mizra Banihammad
Wenlong Zhang
Tour of Langkawi 
Dylan Page
Enkhtaivan Bolor-Erdene
Sergey Luchshenko
Alan Jousseaume
As for the training, If I can manage to do it properly (or at all) he will wind up being a very fun rider.
Jakub Novak
Robert Gesink
