Q: Hello Mr. Aycon, nice to meet you and I am glad that we can have this little Interview so you can tell the world more about this new CT Team which will join the MGUCI. So how did it happen that you will join next season?

A: Hello also, thank you also. I am following the MGUCI for a little time and at some point I thought "I think I can do that too and wanna compete their too!". Having this thought I was than eager to make it reality. First step was to find sponsors and partners whoch could finance the project and luckily we were succesful with this.

Q: About your sponsors. They are not from the traditional cyclist countries. Can you tell us a bit more about this happened that they are now supporting you?

A: Sure! Like I said finding a ssponsor was the first step to make this project possible. My first thought was also that there are many countries that have a lot of people who love and support cycling. But on the other hand they wer already represented by teams in the MGUCI so why they should give me money to form a new team?
So then I just thought who has money to spend and who probably would? Naturally you think then about the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. I did too and started to pursue a lot of companies and even the state itself about my project. Overall they were interested in supporting cycling and getting attention this way for their own projects. The problem was they didnt want to start at the bottom, they wanted all the attention and success right away. And that was something we couldnt deliver or promise. This was some pretty early setback.

Q: I see, a lot of the companies and sponsors from there wanna be a big player right away. So how did you continue then?

A: Exactly, we just werent big enough for them and maybe not ambitious for them. At the time then I was already in the UAE and tried to convince some of them in direct conversations what did work out obviously. So after i recovered from the first disappointment I continued and these countries arent the only ones there. So being close to Oman i just went and spoke to people there. And surprisingly they were even more interested and willing to go the whole way with me. The people of Omantel were really interested in the end. Besides Aramco, Qatar Airways and Co. they didnt get yet the attention so it seemed a huge chance for them! Omantel also is a shareholder of Zain and so i got in contact with them too, a company based in Kuwait and operating in the Middle east area and Africa. The final talks with them were then done pretty fast and we agreed on a multi year deal with both of them to trying to build something big under the flag of Oman and also Kuwait!

Q: This will bring bring new countries to the MGUCI. But this probably makes it also hard to get a lot of local riders involved who are good enough to compete. How will this influence the squad and rider selection?

A: You're right, there arent really many local riders to build the team with. But we are all realists here and if I cant find any good rider this wont be necessary. So we are not bound to regional riders and we all agree on this. But it's a bonus if we can find some. Other than that we just want to get te best suited riders for our team and with a lot of international riders we can also promote Oman and Kuwait to their representative countries! So this is a Win-Win Situation I would say.

Q: Thanks for telling us about your background story. My last question now is in which direction you wanna go and what you wanna accomplish in your first season?

A: What we wanna reach this year? We honestly just wanna establish ourself and build a good foundation for the future. We are not in a rush and plan long term. The direction isnt so easy to decide because it heavily depends on the market and what we can get. But if you ask me personally then I am a huge fan of the Grand Tours. So we will most likely focus on Stage races and suitable riders for this if possible. One day we wanna compete in all 3 of the Grand tours so this will be a good start. Also we have seen in the calendar that there are suitable races in our sponsor regions next season, competing and succeeding in them will be the Goal!

Q: Alright. Thank you again for sharing all of this with us. We wish you all the best for whats coming next and will follow your team closely. Anything you wanna share at the end?

A: We just want to start working on the team and look forward to all the freindly interactions we will have with the other teams in the upcomming weeks and months! See you all on the road or in any meeting room!

Title Sponsors:	Zain
	Omantel
Sponsors:	ZOI
Bikes:	Colnago
Clothing:	AGU
Equipment:	Shimano
	ENVE
	KASK
	Wahoo