The last races of the season before we dive into the off-season madness again. Renewals, calendar choices, transfer, etc. Which riders can crown themselves national champions?

Mixed

Two Minions are the only professional cyclists from their respective countries, so they won their NCs by default. Tareq Esmaeli succesfully defended his Qatari title, while Shaquille Sinclair kept his Jamaican jersey in his last ever race for us. As a little extra, they both participated in the mixed NC with other riders who were guaranteed to become national champion. Sinclair's best result was a fourth place in the TT, while Esmaeli finished last in both events.

Canadian

Simon-Pierre Gauthier and Sebastian Salas on a pan flat course. The latter went into the break, and nearly won the road race. He finished as last of the four finishers though. Gauthier failed to finish, but did achieve a top 10 in the TT!



Colombian

Fabio Montenegro went into the break as well, but he was cauht by the favorites. He could still hang on to tenth place though! His TT was not worth mentioning.



Cuban

Only four riders in Cuba, where Jose Mojica was the only one to finish. Yasmani Martinez was the favourite for the TT, and lived up to the expectations by winning our first ever national jersey where multiple riders participated!



French

Also Maxime Le Montagner's last race for us, though he rode in Generali colours, so he could get used to them for next season. He was invisible in both races.

American

11 Minions on this hilly course, with Nick Kinney as a dangerous outsider for the victory. Alex Howes went into the morning break, Carter Jones (returning from Fred Whitton) attacked midstage and Kinney soon followed. Kinney went on to finish second, 2 minutes behind Van Garderen. Timothy Duggan fifth, Chad Haga seventh, Howes tenth, Jones twelfth, Bjorn Selander 22nd, Taylor Tolleson 24th and Jakob Rathe 26th, Mike Friedman, Mark Griffith and John Murphy did not finish the race.



For the TT, Haga was a podium contender in Phinney's absence. Only Bookwalter and Zabriskie finished ahead of him, which meant he achieved the final podium spot. Griffith, Duggan, Murphy and Howes all finished inside the top 15!



Italian

Mauro Santambrogio was not allowed to participate. The Italian Cycling Federation is now one of our main targets to destroy!

Finally, 2015 is over. Now, on to 2016! What will change in the upcoming season?

Sponsorship/naming/licenses

Both major and both minor sponsors continued their commitment to the team. However, our anticipated teamname (Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions) was not approved for its lenght. Therefor, Chiquita - Universal will be our official name, while Minions will be the shortened version. Our abbreviation remains CHI, though our license will move to Guatemala. The United States will remain our main focus though.

Jersey

Same as last season:


Personnel

Dave the Minion will be promoted to CEO of Minions Inc. Unfortunately, he cannot combine that task with his job as general manager of the team. Sir Kevin will be promoted from directeur sportif to general manager, whereas Stuart will remain as team manager and head directeur sportif. We hired three new directeur sportifs to fill the gaps. Bob, John and Mike will join Carl and Jerry as the directeur sportifs.

Transfers

We will not give away any clues as to which rider we will target, though we wll say it is very likely that we will focus on signing a main sprinter, and maybe even a cobbler. As for the riders who will leave we have to wait until the renewals, but it's unlikely Tolleson will stay at the team!