@Laurens147 - Thanks!
@Fabianski - Luckily he signed with us instead, hopefully more similar races are coming up
@redordead - We sure did, wishing for more races like that.



Ninety-six riders have had the honor of belonging to the best cycling team in history. To honor them, we'll be going through the archives to discuss them all. At the end of each month, a group of riders is selected with something in common. Where were they before they became addicted to bananas? How did they do on the road? Where are they now? This adventure culminates in the introduction of the Minions Hall of Fame, where we honor our legends.

This month's group: the unsung heroes of the 2016 promotion squad. Many riders of that year got into our hall of fame, but there are more riders who played a valuable part that season and didn't get the same attention. Time to set the record straight for nine of them, with there performances before, during and after that fabulous season highlighted.

Edwin Avila



Our first proper sprinter signing was track star Edwin Avila, who had functioned in a leadout role for Grupo Nutresa. He would do the same for us, guiding Drapac and Manarelli to a couple of victories. He had few opportunities to himself but managed to score out of some weird situations, such as finishing fourth in a sprint in Tour of Southland where the podium sprinted a gap of 40 seconds. Combined with a third place on the opening stage of Giro del Capo and two top eights in Herald Sun Tour, he collected eight points in our promotion efforts, which was only the sixteenth-best amongst our team. He continued his leadout duties in future seasons but with the sprinters no longer up to standard we could hardly blame him for anything. He had a sixth place in his home tour in 2019 and a seventh place in Poland in 2017, but scoring points was never his main task, as demonstrated by his pointless but renewal-worthy 2018 season. Ahead of 2020 we needed to refresh the entire sprinting squad and the Colombian was out of a job which he never regained elsewhere.



Jakob Rathe



Jakob Rathe used to be our classics specialist in the first two seasons of our existence, but with added depth in that department he found himself in a more supporting role. He did not complain and duly did his tasks, such as splitting the pack in Lincoln GP to aid Marcos to third. His ten points during the season (fifteenth place) mainly came from the Cigar City Brewing Twilight GP, where he finished twelfth. Of course he will always be remembered by his performance in that race, but we're talking about the one from two years prior. In his and our debut season, good results were hard to come by, and we did not expect to achieve our top five goal set before the season. Jakob proved us all wrong by attacking in the final kilometer and finishing third, achieving our only goal of the season! Other competent results include a twelfth place in Geraardsbergen - Bosberg and seventh in the queen stage of Benelux Challenge, both in 2015. He didn't follow us into the PCT but got a second chance with the amateurs of RBC, which saw him land a contract at McCormick, where he completed his personal development and leads their cobblestone efforts to this day.



Mark Griffith



Our tenth signing ever, Mark Griffith had a difficult first season for the team, having been out of the sport for a year. He finished sixth in the time trial in the Tour de San Luis as only points of the year. Due to us not having any clue how to run a cycling team back then (and to this day some might argue), he did not develop his strength at all. Another year of struggling followed with another sixth place in San Luis as only scoring race. Now developed and with San Luis off the calendar, performances came more regular in 2016. Fifth in the prologue and second in the longer time trial of Tour of Southland, seventh in the Tour de Slovenie time trial, fourth in the Herald Sun Tour time trial, and third in the American Championships (TT of course). Fourteenth out of nineteen riders with eleven points surely wasn't bad, but it was his ceiling and not good enough to continue his development into PCT. Glanbia tried to complete it a few years later but they realized you can't teach an old dog new XP levels and sacked him off after one season.



Cayetano Sarmiento



We had made an attempt to sign Cayetano Sarmiento before our promotion season but failed. After his dismissal from Bulgaria he joined our team, and opened with a bang by winning the third stage of the Tour of the Middle East, our first success of the season. Other than that, he was mainly a support for Martinez in his important endeavors, ending up with eighteen points and thirteenth place. He would continue in a supporting role for the next two seasons, now to fellow Colombian Uran, and won a stage in the Volta a Portugal which was important in our late season battle against relegation. He was our eleventh-highest scoring rider in his second season, but fifteenth-highest in his third season. We mutually agreed to terminate his contract and he is now somewhere in the Colombian mountains going for rides.



Gracjan Lejman



We signed Gracjan Lejman towards the end of the transfer period as Fablok was willing to let him go for free (which was still allowed at the time) and we couldn't pass up the opportunity. The Pole had two standout seasons at PCT and CT level, including victories in the 2014 Istrian Spring Trophy and GP Yekaterinburg, so we were convinced in his abilities. However, he had the least inspiring results of the three puncheurs: a fourteenth place in his home race and a fifteenth place in GP Yekaterinburg were his highest finishing positions. He tied for eleventh in our rankings at 26 points, but with his decline approaching we did not renew his contract. He found a ride at the Balkan Project, and went to GCN after a sabbatical, but it would be the last ride of his career.



Chris Barton



Chris Barton once made his debut for an online encyclopedia at the highest level, before dropping down to the lower levels. Like many riders that year he was picked up from a disbanding team for a small wage, and performed very well. He was responsible for the second success of the season by winning the time trial (stage 11) of the Tour of the Middle East in March. He placed third in the mountain time trial of Giro del Capo in the polka dot jersey, and otherwise scored a total of 26 points as joint-eleventh. In the next four years he wouldn't score much but was an important helper for the uphill and in team time trials. In the latter he might have earned his biggest glory by helping the USA to a silver medal in the 2019 World Championships in Bulgaria, and also took silver in his national time trial championships the year before. Reaching "retirement" age at the end of 2020, he left the team and has been enjoying life off the bike.



Ethan Weiss



Having a long history with American teams, Ethan Weiss ended up with us in 2016. He had appeared on our radar the year before when he was a real annoyance in every hilly race with his constant attacks. Finishing 64th in the individual rankings and with his team leaving the sport, we were surprised to pick him up from the free agent market without a fight. Unfortunately he never quite got the same results as he did at Gatorade, possibly because he had less room with our puncheur leaders. He appeared on the breakaway on the final stage of the Giro del Capo, where he showed a glimpse of his old self by finishing fifth. His best GC result was an eighteenth place in Ruta America del Sur. Despite only scoring 28 points over the season, netting him 190th overall and tenth in the team, we had enough confidence in a second season. He couldn't find a way to compensate for Betancourt's horrid performances, twenty-first in La Tropicale Assima Bongo as best, so we saw no future for him in the team. He returned to the Americas for a stint at Azteca and McCormick, but has now become a largely forgotten name. A shame, because he caused a lot of problems for opposing managers.



Jhonnatan De Leon



The year we promoted we raced under a Guatemalan license because it helped us financially to be registered in a banana republic. We signed a local by the name of Jhonnatan De Leon to get in good graces with the local population, and he didn't even turn out that bad. He finished thirteenth in the year-end Tour de l'Avenir for the combined Azteca - Chiquita - Podium Ambition - RBC youth team. Earlier in the season he had scored points from the breakaway in the Tour of Bulgaria, but he will always be remembered for the San Marino Hill Classic. He was in the breakaway with Possoni, Haavardsholm and Klemme, which the peloton failed to catch. While he finished fourth from four, it was a great result nonetheless, making him the ninth-best scoring rider of the season with 39 points. At the end of the season he cowardly chose his home nation over fleeing with us, but was later offered a contract with RBC's amateur branch, remembering him from Avenir. The comeback was not successful and he's back in the local scene.



Diego Milan



Diego Milan's career had been one of downs before he joined us. He made his debut with Team Adecco in the D2 division, which is the predecessor of the current CT division, but did not land a contract in a professional division the next season. Repsol-Cativen picked him up for a season in PCT without highlights, and then he was out of a contract once more. The puncheur from the Dominican Republic then signed here and did very well in the hills trifecta. His highest finishing position was fifth in the GC of Giro del Capo, and sixth in the San Marino Hill Classic. Additionally, he finished thirteenth in the Acropolis Cup and GP Yekaterinburg and won both of his national championships. 104 points meant he was our sixth-best rider, the highest of those not going into the hall of fame. Something unexpected happened, as he was given a contract extension! His second season in the team was marred by dragging Betancourt all over the road, but did take a sixth place in Milano - Torino. Otherwise he appeared in a few unsuccessful breakaways and crashed a few times as well. We did not extend for a third season and he has since not been given a contract anywhere else, officially retiring in 2020 as the greatest cyclist from the Dominican Republic ever.

Hanko Classic
June 1, C1



The month of June starts with a flat classic in Finland. The Hanko Classic is an opportunity to go back to basic with how we should approach a flat classic: building a train to guide Vesely to the win. No Veenendaal shenanigans.

We controlled the pace during the day and increased it when we caught the breakaway. We made a train with English and Hodeg leading out Vesely. According to plan.

However, common sprinters' logic dictates following other trains is more beneficial, which is exactly what happened here. As soon as the Czech was released, other passed him and he finished eleventh.

1	Lionel Coutinho	Assa Abloy	4h20'00
11	Daniel Vesely	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
40	Alvaro Hodeg	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
47	Felix English	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
71	Mathias De Witte	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
72	Leandro Marcos	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
76	Laurens Sweeck	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
116	Jan Stöckli	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
125	Didier Merchan	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.

Pro Hallstatt Classic
June 3, HC



Pro Hallstatt Classic is a race which requires a lot of climbing, something which Cattaneo is good at. However, to win the race you require an explosive finish, something Cattaneo is not good at. This might not be the best race for him but he had two spare days left in his planning. Perhaps a miracle occurs.

Stuyven went into the breakaway but there were far better climber in there and even they were caught. Everyone on the team managed to finish the race, including the four youngsters forced to come here to fill the squad.

As expected, Cattaneo did not have the punch at the end. Others had an acceleration while he had to stick to his own pace. It would land him twenty-third place, two minutes behind winner Madrazo.

1	Angel Madrazo	Bralirwa - Stevens	4h27'56
23	Mattia Cattaneo	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 2'04
47	Dayer Quintana	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 4'42
58	Luis Enrique Lemus Davila	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
108	Jasper Stuyven	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 10'13
117	Evgenii Tikhonin	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 11'34
151	Jan Stöckli	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 19'30
155	Savva Novikov	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 21'29
159	Didier Merchan	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.

Tour of East Java
June 5 - 8, PTHC



The next challenge for Cattaneo is the Tour of East Java. Three flat stages and a mountain stage, no time trial, PTHC. It doesn't sound ideal. Our other leader is Vesely who will like this race with three opportunities.

Vesely explored the local cuisine the day before the race and presumably got ill. His highest stage placement was 94th, for the on-paper fourth best sprinter in the race. Lesson learned, bring your own bananas.

Stage three was the only one with GC importance so it was very important that Cattaneo had a good day. The Italian took charge of the favorites group on the first part of the final climb, which was split in two. There was an intermediate sprint between the sections, which awarded bonus seconds, and Cattaneo was alert to take them. The group stuck together to the finish and Cattaneo obviously finished towards the tail end, but the earlier bonus seconds put him up to fourth in the GC plus the mountains classification.

1	Angel Madrazo	Bralirwa - Stevens	4h27'56
4	Mattia Cattaneo	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 16
56	Luis Enrique Lemus Davila	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 4'47
74	Dayer Quintana	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 6'48
79	Kazushige Kuboki	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 7'49
101	Didier Merchan	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 9'42
116	Savva Novikov	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 11'09
156	Daniel Vesely	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 18'39
160	Felix English	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 19'26

Criterium du Dauphine Libere
June 14 - 21, PTHC



According to our schedule, the next race on the calendar is La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, but our media representative told us the internet connection is bad there so we have to skip it for now. Next up is Criterium du Dauphine Libere, a warm-up race for the Tour de France which we're not racing. For us it's a PTHC race with big scoring opportunities, as the startlist is relatively weak as most big names seem to have preferred Switzerland. Good opportunity for Cattaneo with a time trial to help him.

The prologue didn't cause many gaps to start off with. Hodeg sprinted to a decent sixth place on stage two, and Cattaneo avoided losing time on the hilly third stage. The hilly stage four time trial was the first real test and the Italian passed with flying colors, winning the stage and gaining the GC lead. Chief rival Tenorio was only a few seconds behind though and with two tough mountain stages coming up, the win definitely wasn't certain. Lemus Davila surprised everyone by finishing sixth on the stage, but had lost time in a previous stage.

With the lead in hand it was all about survival, which was successful in the transitional fifth stage. Hodeg saw his support reduced and only finished fourteenth on his second and final sprint opportunity. Stage seven was the first of two final mountain stages, and Tenorio attacked for the win. Cattaneo lost 41 seconds, dropping him to second behind the Spaniard with a minute over Dombrowski and Sivakov. We expected more losses on the final stage but instead it was Tenorio who struggled. Cattaneo managed to gain back 35 seconds while not losing any time to the other rivals. The final gap in the GC: 24 seconds, in the Spaniard's favor due to bonus seconds for the stage win.

1	Justo Tenorio	MOL Cycling Team	25h55'15
2	Mattia Cattaneo	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 24
42	Luis Enrique Lemus Davila	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 17'16
44	Dayer Quintana	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 19'12
79	Savva Novikov	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 33'48
101	Evgenii Tikhonin	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 40'29
124	Didier Merchan	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 50'24
145	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1h01'04
176	Alvaro Hodeg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1h36'28

@redordead - He is! Shame he only has two races left on his calendar



Monterrey TTT
June 25, C2



A race we've been in and scored points in every year: the Monterrey Team Time Trial in Mexico. The reason we scored point is usually the lack of participants so even finishing last will net you a few points. For this year the race has been downgraded to C2 which makes planning even more difficult, but we found eight eligible riders for a training ride.

The top twelve teams get points and there are exactly twelve teams participating. The bottom two finishers receive one point for the first five finishers, so five in total. Finish ninth or tenth and we get ten points in total. For free!

We were no match to the Continental teams which could use their full strength, but we did beat Bianchi and Pas Normal Studios to finish tenth. Kuboki, Lemus Davila, Sweeck, Quintana and Rosas are the recipients of two valuable ranking points. Coppel, Stöckli and Hailemichael miss out.

1	BWT Hyundai N Cycling	1h05'10
10	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 4'03

@AbhishekLFC - High appreciation for Cattaneo's work lately
@Fabianski - They should add more mountain races in PTHC, we would have a shot at promotion then



Ninety-six riders have had the honor of belonging to the best cycling team in history. To honor them, we'll be going through the archives to discuss them all. At the end of each month, a group of riders is selected with something in common. Where were they before they became addicted to bananas? How did they do on the road? Where are they now? This adventure culminates in the introduction of the Minions Hall of Fame, where we honor our legends.

This month's group: rider who we signed before our first season and sacked right after. While these guys are the pioneers of the team, they weren't exactly smashing it on the road, demonstrated by Team Chiquita-Universal's 24th place out of 26 teams. Add a minimal if not non-existence archive of that season and you have the most painful history piece of writing ever. Bear with us here.

Nathan Wilson



The first rider we ever signed was Nathan Wilson, who had held no professional contract prior to joining us. Yet he landed a 65k wage at age 23 which he did not proof to be worthy, scoring only one point during the entire season. His highlights were his 83rd place in Transfagarasan GP and appearing in the breakaway of stage five and seven in Olympia's Tour, and that's not even the most pathetic highlight you'll see in this update. We were smart enough to not offer him a new contract, but a few years later he showed up at the Fox News - Flat Earth Society team, which we do not endorse in any way as the Earth is clearly shaped like a banana. The next year he found a spot at conventional McCormick Pro Cycling, scoring a respectable 24 points, but was released again and retired.



Rahsaan Bahati



The second rider we ever signed wasn't much better, in fact it was a whole lot worse. Rahsaan Bahati was later unmasked as a conman who would lure American continental teams into giving him a contract despite having no ability on the bike whatsoever. He claimed to be a sprinter but never showed any result or participated in a train, if he even was in the peloton at that point. His antics caused a massive pile-up on the second stage of the Tour de Bretagne which saw most of the team go down. He scored no points and we reported him to the proper authorities, being put on the blacklist and not scamming any future teams.



Roman Kilun



Now we move onto someone with some actual skill, scoring twenty-five times the points of the previous two riders combined. Roman Kilun was already 33 years old when he joined us for his final season, as he announced his retirement after the season. He had experience in the ProTour with Wikipedia, even finishing in the individual top 100 in 2010. We were not expecting big points from him as his role would be mentoring the newbies, but a breakaway appearance in the Seskin Classic led to a ninth place finish, which would be one of the few top ten results of the season period. Furhtermore he finished twenty-sixth overall in Volta ao Algarve, the highest GC position of everyone in this update. He was also the protagonist of the most legendary piece of commentary on our team from Smowz, more specifically on our jersey: "The road 'captain' of the break is Romain Kilun who wears his teams colours with pride front and back." This picture will be the central masterpiece in our Hall of Fame.



Carter Jones



Carter Jones scored a total of 28 points on his debut season, becoming our fourth-best scorer of the season. He was very active in the Tour de Beauce, where he appeared in two breakaways, finished fifth on a stage and as most memorable piece became King of the Mountains, becoming only one of two Minions to set foot on any podium all season. He used another breakaway appearance in the Ruta America del Sur to finish nineteenth in the GC there, and finished a decent twenty-ninth in the GP Montreal. He received a new contract at the end of the season with the intention to loan him out to gain experience. We did send him away, but to Fred Whitton, who are in the same division as us. Like I said, we had no clue how things worked back then. He was slated to return to the team after that failure, but we sold him to KAYAK for peanuts. He then went on to ride for Newton, later named Desigual, later named Zwift, and has been one of the longer serving riders at that team, proving himself to be of great value to their leaders.



Gert Rajala



Our initial recruitment strategy centered around getting American riders, but with many teams fishing in the same pond it became oversaturated. Our first rider from Europe was an Estonian by the name of Gert Rajala. He had spend four season in the lower levels of the pyramid and looked to be a decent rider, specializing in climbing. He scored exactly two points, with many bad performances including randomly retiring in the Vuelta a Guatemala. We have no individual in-race picture of him, but he is one of these seven rider in the Tour d'Azerbaijan team time trial. We have no clue which one though. To end his description on a positive, he was helpful in the Tour of America, where he finished 28th helping Haga to fifth. That didn't save his ride though, but somehow convinced Bank of Ireland to sign him a level up. They also received some mediocre results and he didn't get a job afterwards.



Wim Stroetinga



Sprinters was a department we wanted good coverage in, so we signed Wim Stroetinga of the Netherlands. He came off a sabbatical after a year at Koppert where he scored no points, so our scouting department might not have been that clever. Nevertheless, he might have been the least worse sprinter we had that season, scoring five points which was the highest amongst all designated sprinters. He took a ninth place on the second stage of Ruta America del Sur, and a seventh place in the third stage of the Benelux Challenge. His best performance, like many that season, came in the Tour of America, where he finished twelfth on the first, ninth on the second and fifth on the third stage. Unfortunately he didn't show great results on the next sprint stages, but came back with a ninth place on the final stage. A complete rebuild of our sprinters squad was needed and he hadn't managed to convinced us or any other team.



Fredy Piamonte



We once swore to never his name again, but for the completeness of the archive we have to mention him: Fredy Piamonte. Excuse us as we wash our mouths with soap. The Colombian was one of the more experienced riders on the team and showed some good results from breakaways in mountainous races: a second place on the fourth stage of Clasico RCN, a fourth place on the fifth stage of Tour de San Luis and a ninth place on the tenth stage of the Tour of America, as well as finishing twentieth in Cartago - Irazu. It put him in the upper midfield of scoring points amongst the team, so we offered him a new contract and he accepted. However, human resources got wind of a quote stating he did not like bananas, which is not tolerable within the team. We fired him and made sure he never got a contract again.



Sebastien Chavanel



We had some French co-sponsors such as Illumination and Gameloft, who both demanded a French rider. We met those demand by signing the lesser of the Chavanels: Sebastien. While his brother Sylvain scored thirteen points that season for In-n-Out, Sebastien scored nothing, nul, zero, zilch. He could not get any better than tenth on the final stage of Circulo de Juarez. We don't understand what went wrong as he had shown good results in the previous seasons, aside from being trapped at the license frauds of Bimbo Nutella. His 2010 season was not a case of mistaken identity, though a year at a Dutchman's megalomaniac mountain project should have been a red flag. His zero points for us was the end of his career.



Marco Bandiera



As last signing of the season we dediced we needed another sprinter, which became the Italian Marco Bandiera. He was never good before us, he was never good at us, and he certainly wasn't good after us as he was never seen cycling again. He was usually the first sprinter to be dropped from the pack, with one exception: he finished fifth on the opening stage of the Oberosterreichrundfahrt. We're just glad we got through these riders as my god, they were terrible, and our HQ discipline was terrible, and just looking back at this season makes us appreciate where we are now. These riders were pioneers, but will hopefully be forgotten.

@Ulrich Ulriksen - Rathe might not be Hall of Fame here but I do keep fond memories of him for being not bad in our first season. Weiss was just wrong team wrong time and I've probably had a hand in Wilson's suboptimal development as well. It's nice to hear appreciative stories of what happened to them after they left the team.



May missed an update, and the overloards have the same internet struggles regarding La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, but we have a new ranking update. At the end of the last one we were sixteenth place but a lot has happened since, and with mostly good results we are going u-u-u-u-u-u-up.

Pos	Last		Team	Total	RD	PpRD	Proj
1	1		Amaysim Cervelo	2675	100	26.75	4360
2	3		Binance	2080	104	20	3260
3	6		Zara - Irizar	1889	102	18.52	3019
4	7		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	1862	96	19.4	3162
5	4		Bralirwa - Stevens	1800	98	18.37	2994
6	11		Sauber Petronas Racing	1757	106	16.58	2703
7	5		Carlsberg - Danske Bank	1755	100	17.55	2861
8	2		HelloFresh - Lampre	1716	91	18.86	3074
9	16		Minions - Subwoolfer	1672	97	17.24	2810
10	14		Voyagin - Bird	1556	111	14.02	2285
11	10		Xero Racing	1537	95	16.18	2637
12	15		Cedevita	1535	86	17.85	2910
13	8		Trans Looney Tunes	1493	115	12.98	2116
14	20		Philips - Force India	1442	97	14.87	2424
15	9		Volcanica - Fox	1387	113	12.27	2000
16	13		Kraftwerk Man Machine	1384	79	17.52	2856
17	17		Team Popo4Ever	1361	87	15.64	2549
18	12		Red Bull Zalgiris	1351	88	15.35	2502
19	19		Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	1228	88	13.95	2274
20	18		Strava	1098	89	12.34	2011
21	21		Indosat Ooredoo	1057	104	10.16	1656
22	23		Crabbe-CC Chevigny	1005	94	10.69	1742
23	24		Project: Africa	908	95	9.56	1558
24	22		Assa Abloy	804	69	11.65	1899

We indeed moved into the top ten for the first time this season, going to ninth. We're just behind the race for the promotion spots but we haven't use more racedays compared to the direct competition. There is still hope to go u-u-u-u-u-u-up, but the relegation concerns have been dealt with. Amaysim Cervelo is running away with the division title but we're only looking at fifth place as our goal.

Pos	Last	Rider	Nat		Team	Total
1	1	Jonas Ahlstrand	SWD		Volcanica - Fox	788
11	143	Mattia Cattaneo	ITA		Minions - Subwoolfer	490
31	16	Daniel Vesely	CZE		Minions - Subwoolfer	298
68	372	Rohan Dennis	AUS		Minions - Subwoolfer	177
71	66	Dusan Kalaba	SER		Minions - Subwoolfer	168
105	215	Nathan Brown	USA		Minions - Subwoolfer	96
123	87	Leandro Marcos	CUB		Minions - Subwoolfer	81
125	91	Laurens Sweeck	BEL		Minions - Subwoolfer	79
126	95	Mathias De Witte	BEL		Minions - Subwoolfer	78
151	179	Alvaro Hodeg	COL		Minions - Subwoolfer	57
206	148	Evgenii Tikhonin	RUS		Minions - Subwoolfer	32
212	165	Kazushige Kuboki	JPN		Minions - Subwoolfer	30
224	160	Felix English	IRL		Minions - Subwoolfer	28
241	267	Luis Enrique Lemus Davila	MEX		Minions - Subwoolfer	23
308	373	Dayer Quintana	COL		Minions - Subwoolfer	13
329	471	Mikkel Bjerg	DEN		Minions - Subwoolfer	10
377	336	Laureano Rosas	ARG		Minions - Subwoolfer	5
378	337	Savva Novikov	RUS		Minions - Subwoolfer	5
450	395	Jan Stöckli	SWI		Minions - Subwoolfer	1
451	470	Jasper Stuyven	BEL		Minions - Subwoolfer	1

Our march u-u-u-u-u-u-up the rankings is obviously thanks to Cattaneo, whose results in mainly PTHC results have brought him close to the individual top ten. Vesely has just fallen outside the top thirty in conceding his team lead. Also making a huge leap is Dennis after winning the Tour of Norway. Kalaba remains ever consistent and Brown has also found another gear. The cobbles trio Marcos, Sweeck and De Witte are almost inseparable in terms of the rankings. Hodeg has had few opportunities but scored a bit and Tikhonin is still holding on to a top ten after his flying start. Bjerg and Stuyven have scored their first points of the season.

Torshavn GP
July 3, C1



Over to the Faroe Islands for the Torshavn GP, a classic which could go to the sprinters or the late attackers. We think the former as Vesely finished runner-up last year, and we bring him again this season. Only one possible improvement possible.

Obviously the workload in the peloton fell to us and in the end we had to sacrifice a lot of men to get the attackers back. Stuyven, Kuboki, English and super leadout Hodeg were all needed to even get the race to a sprint

The Colombian tried to complete the leadout nevertheless but Vesely got in the wind way too early, finishing seventeenth. Hodeg finished one place behind him.

1	Kristoffer Halvorsen	Red Bull Zalgiris	4h04'00
17	Daniel Vesely	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
18	Alvaro Hodeg	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
23	Kazushige Kuboki	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
25	Jasper Stuyven	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
45	Felix English	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
58	Laurens Sweeck	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
59	Savva Novikov	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
119	Evgenii Tikhonin	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.

Arab Tour
July 3 - 6, C1



The Arab Tour consists of three flat stages and a short time trial. Dennis will target the GC while Vesely will take care of the sprints. Simple as that, right?

Starting off with the sprinters, stage one ended comically as Vesely, Kuboki, English, Bjerg and Rosas all decided to sprint against each other, finishing eighth, ninth, tenth, fifteenth and eighteenth on the stage. The internal pecking order was disrupted after this stage, with English our best finisher on the second stage (sixteenth) and Vesely our best on the final stage (tenth). Please do sprinting competitions on your own time.

Whereas the sprinters used this race as internal competition, the time trialists did the same, the difference being they are supposed to. Brown surprisingly won the teammates battle, finishing seventh overall. Favorite Dennis disappointed with eighth place, but legend Coppel showed his legs are still good with fourteenth place overall. On the other end of experience Bjerg disappointed with twenty-eighth place overall but got second in his age category. This combined effort did bring us the teams classification, so we won something after all.

1	Luke Durbridge	Amaysim Cervelo	10h07'02
7	Nathan Brown	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 12
8	Rohan Dennis	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 19
14	Jerome Coppel	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 29
28	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 42
38	Laureano Rosas	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 51
45	Kazushige Kuboki	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 59
58	Felix English	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1'17
154	Daniel Vesely	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 3'08

Philadelphia International Championship
July 13, PTHC



Vesely is on a bit of a low recently. The Philadelphia International Championship might be just to place to get some confidence back. Against PTHC opposition there are big points on offer and he's not classified as a big favorite, so we shouldn't feel pressured into chasing the break or forming a train and thus can go back to the basics: going as fast as possible.

It also gave us the opportunity to do something different. Novikov went into the break to try and impress his owner Tinkoff. However, they weren't in the race so I'm not sure the manager was watching. In any case, the break caused no problems for the peloton.

ISA formed the train and every other sprinter latched on, including Vesely. The Czech chose his own line and got to the front. Unfortunately Silvestre was slightly faster on the right but everyone else finished behind. Second place in a PTHC race is another huge result for the team.

1	Fabio Silvestre	Bralirwa - Stevens	4h19'23
2	Daniel Vesely	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
76	Felix English	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 2'44
103	Laurens Sweeck	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
119	Evgenii Tikhonin	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
140	Alvaro Hodeg	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
169	Jan Stöckli	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
170	Savva Novikov	Minions - Subwoolfer	s.t.
179	Didier Merchan	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 3'54

Tour de Vineyards
July 10 - 14, C1



The beautiful country of New Zealand hosts the Tour de Vineyards, five stages of which the final one is a team time trial, but the third stage is the queen mountain stage. Cattaneo brings a strong team to help him in the final stage which also includes Kalaba, who as bonus can contest the three flat stages.

The Serbian did not waste any time and won the opening stage, taking the yellow jersey as well. On the second stage he finished third and conceded the leader's jersey to Zabel. He then beat the German on stage four, but the breakaway threw a spanner in the works as he finished sixth. Second place in the points classification is a nice addition to the point total though.

We are aware Cattaneo is not the fastest rider in a sprint, even uphill, but with his experience he got his timing perfect. As everyone started acceleration way too soon, the Italian found his own pace and passed everyone on the way to the finish line to win the mountain stage and claim the yellow jersey. Monsalve was already celebrating but was clearly passed before the line. Only Taaramae at twenty seconds in the GC brought slight concern for the team time trial on the final day. However, we were one second ahead of his Zara at the intermediate, meaning it could no longer go wrong. Well, Zara took back that final second and won the stage on milliseconds, but the GC was ours! Mattia Cattaneo wins the Tour de Vineyards 2022!

1	Mattia Cattaneo	Minions - Subwoolfer	12h58'44
12	Nathan Brown	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1'05
31	Luis Enrique Lemus Davila	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 2'32
32	Dayer Quintana	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 2'33
67	Dusan Kalaba	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 4'37
98	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 6'34
110	Laureano Rosas	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 9'11
141	Jerome Coppel	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 12'51

La Tropicale Amissa Bongo
June 9 - 13, C1



Apologies for the delay on reviewing this race, the results came through very slowly and we did not know how we performed here until very recently. The race contains a prologue, a longer time trial and three flat stages in between. Kalaba has a shot at yellow on bonus seconds but overall Dennis is our man.

Kalaba was nine seconds down after the prologue, but took two fifteenth places and an eleventh place on the flat stages. Not what we expected and definitely not what we wanted.

Dennis was our highest ranked rider in the prologue at six seconds, with Brown not far behind at nine seconds. The Australian finished third on the final stage which is also his GC position. Young Bjerg had a disappointing prologue but finished thirteenth on the stage and GC, which means he also took the young rider classification. If there was a classification for seniors, Coppel would have won it as the Frenchman finished nineteenth overall, one place behind Brown.

1	Benjamin Thomas	Zara - Irizar	9h52'40
3	Rohan Dennis	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 21
13	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 51
18	Nathan Brown	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1'05
19	Jerome Coppel	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1'08
27	Dusan Kalaba	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 1'55
37	Laureano Rosas	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 2'31
47	Kazushige Kuboki	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 2'59
142	Jan Stöckli	Minions - Subwoolfer	+ 6'10