Although the season end is still a lot of time away, we need to take those things into consideration as planning for the next season is starting by now and this is surely a thing we want to do thoroughly and carefully. Thus we want to adress something to the EPIC riders on our team and those wo maybe want to be.
@Rajesh Kakhi: In the last part you have shown to be a reliable leader for the team and you are, if I'm not mistaken the particular rider who has brought in most points until the end of Part 2. If you would like to keep our relationship, we were really delighted and the management is sure that we can offer you a solid contract for the next year. Please, please, stay with us. Wink
@Jamel Johnson: As you have been joining in only recently, we do not know much about your abilities yet, but we didn't sign you for no reason, so if you would like to prolong the contract, our door is always open for you as well.
@Christian De Vries: I don't know what to say. Sad That time we had and the little time we will have together will always have a place in my heart - especially as you have shown now what a great talent you are by riding incredibly in Österreich. You man, you made other riders check for a motor in your bike. I will miss that. Sad But, however, we accept your choice to be concentrating on your real passion, the cyclocross sport. We wish you best of luck there and hope that you will return to street racing again. Goodbye..
@EPIC Riders With No Contract For Next Season: We don't really plan on stepping up to WT this year, so all in all we have at least four free spots for EPIC riders. As the rest of our sqad will be sorted out as well, we would really like to sign somebody from you. If anybody is interested in riding for Champion System next year and being part of our family, please contact us and we will talk about everything then. We are sure that we are able to work something out for every rider willing to join us, so don't be shy! Smile
By the way, we already signed Chris Froome for next year. Ok, no, we didn't. We signed Lance Armstrong instead. Damn, no, we really hate doping. To be honest, we didn't sign anybody so far, but we just want to be a bit as cool as Oleg Tinkov. Without the billions - unfortunately
Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 01-09-2014 15:12
Overall Description: In this race, flat stages are mixed with tough mountains. From 13 stages, about the half should end in a bunch sprint, with others having a mountain-top finish and also chances for smaller groups in tough stages ending on the flat.
Squad:
Jamel Johnson
Fabian Schnaidt
Matthew Brammeier
Matthias Friedemann
Gregor Gazvoda
Craig Lewis
Muhamad Othman
Clinton Avery
Sponsor Goal: Medium (countered) - Stage Win
Tactics: Jamel Johnson is granted the chance to ride for himself in his very first professional race. He is our leader in the mountains. Besides riding for a good GC position, Jamel will also try to go for a stage win by taking risks on tough stages, because that is our sponsor goal. To fulfill this, we also send our stronges sprinters to China. Fabian Schnaidt has his first race in this Part and with Matthew Brammeier and Matthias Friedemann we brought a strong train to support him. Hopefully he will achieve a stage win, just like he did last year. Gregor Gazvoda, Craig Lewis, Muhamad Othman and Clinton Avery will usually work for the other four, but of course they will also try their own luck if chances are good.
Team Objectives: Stage Win, Top 5 GC
We really want to apologize for not bringing any Chinese rides to this race. We are sorry for all the fans that were waiting for Chinese guys to race eagerly. However, we have to work on our sponsor's goals in the first place. To do so, we were forced to bring exactly the squad we did
Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 13-08-2014 21:52
When the new management team took over Champion System, we did it with high ambitions. But we had no idea what could be achievable with this very team. Maybe you remember how we where partying after our first win at all when Hugo Houle won a stage of 4 Jours de Dunkerque.
Well, now we are just over the top. With only two races having started in this Part 3 of the season, we won more than we could have ever imagined. There have been six stages raced so far, and we won four of them. I repear: FOUR! From six! In two different races!
Christian De Vries, who will sadly leave us at the end of the season, won all the first three stages in Int. Österreich-Rundfahrt. With his strong climbing skills he gave nobody a chance to compete against him. But we also thank the whole team for supporting him so well. This was truly a masterpiece and we are eagerly awaiting the upcoming stages, because we not only hope for even more stage wins, but also for the GC win. And this would be our first race win ever.
While we were totally sure that Christian would show his strength at some point, we are even more excited about Fabian Schnaidt taking his first win for us in Tour of Qinghai Lake. Yes, that is in China! In our very home country, in our home race, Fabian has proven that it was the right decision to trust him in this important race. After a hard period of training, which he came out stronger than he ever was, he has now won the first stage right away. We believe that he will bring in some more results throughout this race and the rest of the season, but he has overpaid his dues yet.
As if that would not be enough, we already achieved one sponsor goal, which was a stage win in Qinghai Lake, and are sure that we will also get the second one, because Christian will surely stay in the Top10 of the GC in Austria if he does not crash. I mean, we even hope, he wins that race!
In the end, we thank all our riders for their great showings so far and we thank all our fans for supporting us.
Guys, we are the flyest!
Team management - Jochen Hahn
This was an incredible race for Team Champion System! Christian De Vries did not only win one, nor two, no he won three stages! All the three first mountain stages he finished first, so that on the following ones he only had to bring the yellow jersey home, which he did safely. On top of the GC, he also won the Points Clasification, the Young Rider Classification and got second in the KoM Classification.
The whole team worked perfectly for our leader Christian and he did not show any sign of weakness throughout the week, so he always looked comfortable when riding away from everybody else on the steep mountains. The final ITT could have changed the GC, but as Christian had a big margin over everybody else and is a good time trialist, he even got a fifth place securing the win.
Now we will be celebrating this huge success. However, we need to stay focused on the upcoming races and we may not forget that we also have other guys doing strong: We see Fabian Schnaidt winning sprints and we still wait for Rajesh Kakhi to show himself in the last season part. All in all, this should be a great finale of the 2013 season. Stay tuned and watch out for us!
Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 22-08-2014 15:00
A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of…
We, as Team Champion System have to make a big announcement. It is about our future, basically.
You want some information about the next year roster? You get them.
You want some information about who is available for transfers, though you know it’s still long ahead? You get it.
But first, we have to talk something bigger. It’s about the whole concept as a Cycling team and we are proud to show you what will hopefully be to your liking:
Out of an initiative of the Chinese government, we decided together (were not chased to, no, decided together) to become a cycling team riding for an Ideology and for a special kind of worldview.
Champion System Pro Cycling Team will be the first ever Communist/Socialist/Anti-Capitalist cycling team. We ride not only for results and the development of our talents anymore, but also to show a Socialist face to the world.
We hope you like how things will work next year inside of our team. And hopefully you will also understand that we see a certain strong need to step up to the WT in 2015. Yes, that is an ambitious goal but with that new goal in the background and also our new signings we will try hard to step up in the highest league of teams. Now you get to know our new guys which will ride for the team in the 2014 Season.
Po-ding Kim – He will be our leader in most races. His strength in climbing and even more in time-trialing makes him a perfect captain for the team and all the rest is surely going to be helping him winning us big results.
Rajesh Kakhi – He is not new, but we are absolutely proud that we were able to resign Rajesh for another year. He is going to be a leader in all the hilly races, which will be a certain part of our next year calendar for sure.
Naveed Alinejad – The Iranian sprinter is a strong addition to the team. He will be our leading sprinter in several races, especially those which are too hard for Fabian, as he has a decent strength in hills. Having both him and Rajesh in key hilly races will grant us good chances to hunt for wins there.
Firmansyah Sinaga – Firmansyah is a young and talented climber. He will usually be working for the more experienced guys in the mountains, but we are looking forward to give him chances to show his potential in minor races and such, where we focus on sprints.
After you got your awaited information about how transfers look, we will get back to the big thing for us now: Out of our new concept for the next year we have to make adjustements to the squad. We present you a little introduction of who fits better in the team and who less. But most importantly, everybody is basically available for transfer – if you make the right offer. What is more important to us: You will see now how the riders are connected to our idea.
Po-ding Kim
Po-ding is the heart of our communist family. Right after the decision to transform the team was made, negotiations between the Great Leader Kim Jong Un and our Chinese government began. With the signing of Po-ding we have the leading Communist cyclist in our team – and we are proud of that.
Rajesh Kakhi
Though one may not know it, India has a certain socialist history. When the country began its industrial uprise, they followed Soviet standards and ideas at first. Not only the focus on heavy industry in the 20th century, but also a required state permit for trading goods are key facets of the Indian Socialism. However, nowadays, India is one of the most Capitalist economies in the world. What is left from the good old times, are more or less Socialist political regulations that keep the country from falling even deeper in the neo-liberal hole.
Naveed Alinejad
Naveed was one of our main targets in terms of politics. As an Iranian he represents the Anti-Capitalist fight we are still fighting better than anybody else. Iran has been in conflict with the USA, home of Capitalism, for decades now and they continue the struggle against the Western Capitalist world.
Firmansyah Sinaga
Indonesia, where Firmansyah is from, is the country with the fourth biggest population in the world. As the state is not very wealthy though, poverty is a huge problem all over the place. Almost one third of the whole population lives in poverty, while in problem regions and big cities especially, sometimes even half of the people live from less than they need to. We together with Firmansyah want to put a spotlight on the problems in Indonesia.
Now after you saw how the yet confirmed EPIC riders on our squad next season are connected to us, we go on with the other riders.
Bobbie Traksel
In the Netherlands, our brothers from the Socialistische Partij have been establishing a certain Socialist strength. Being the third strongest party in terms of members, these guys are doing good in making our idea stronger in Europe.
Matthew Brammeier
Ireland has had a hard time due to the World Financial crisis. Although many are speaking of things getting better, increasing parts of the public are demonstrating against how things are run, because the new recovery is only a recovery for the rich. We support that Irish uproar.
Ryan Roth
Canada has been a less Capitalist alternative to the USA in North America. Although the country itself is more capitalist than we would like, that is enough for us to justify Ryan’s place on the squad. Hint: We would still like trading him for a rider more fitting.
Gregor Gazvoda
Gregor’s home country Slovenia is a sad example of how a country can turn in the wrong direction. Being part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, it was once one of the most Western socialist states and a symbol of different peoples coming together. After 1992, the country split up, so that we see several states in the region now, of which Slovenia is very special, as it has literally no real left-wing parties represented. For history’s sake and for reminding everybody what may happen if we do not pursue our dreams, Gregor is on the team.
Muhamad Othman
In the 1950s, there was no such thing as Malaysia. The different territories, which are part of the country nowadays, have been under British, Japanese or regional control. In 1957, the Malayan Federation was founded, becoming the state of Malaysia in 1963. It is a great achievement for Malaysia, that the country was not only able to rise from the ashes (or rather Capitalist foreign-government), but also kick out the super-Capitalist state of Singapore. Sadly, Malaysia has a strong capitalist identity, though.
Pengda Jiao, Gang Xu, Biao Liu
The Chinese government was initiator of our political turn. Do I really have to tell why we want to work with Chinese talents to develop their potential?
Mart Ojavee
Another post-Socialist country is Estonia. Mart’s home country is, for us, a symbol of how peaceful political changes can go on. Between 1987 and 1991, the Singing Revolution made Estonia a Western democracy again (which we don’t really like), but more importantly, that big political change has been rather peaceful, which we do appreciate. Maybe anybody is thinking of turning Socialist peacefully now?
Kin San Wu
For those who don’t see it: Hong Kong is basically a part of China, which is just under a special kind of Government.
These guys fit less in the squad. Feel free to offer a transfer if you want, but keep in mind some of those are really worth theirselves as domestiques (or even more). Except Zachary Bell, he is the worst rider we ever had. If you want somebody getting you TV time by riding behind the peloton, you should sing him, though.
Chris Butler (We hate USA)
Chad Beyer (We hate USA)
Craig Lewis (Did we mention, we hate USA?)
Chan Jae Jang (South Korea is nothing better)
Ryota Nishizono (Japan is very capitalist too)
Chun Feng (Taiwan is in a big-ass conflict with China)
Clinton Avery (New Zealand or Clinton have literally nothing connected to Socialism)
Zachary Bell (Canada is ok, but Zach is not)
In the end I have to say thank you for reading. We as the team hope you enjoy what we are planning for next season and that you feel well informed about the transfer stuff.
Let’s cheer for good results for the rest of the season,
Workers of the world, unite!Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 01-09-2014 18:13
Po-ding is a great signing for next season, hope Champion Systems get promoted for next season.
SH wrote:
Zachary Bell, he is the worst rider we ever had. If you want somebody getting you TV time by riding behind the peloton, you shouldsing him, though.
No we won't be signing him and we certainly won't be serenading him!
@all: Thanks, it gives our adventure hope to reach its goal, if you actually like our turning in the right (left) direction.
@mvh: Until now, they haven't, but maybe they will. We await them...
@The Rider: Never thought somebody would ever do that
@Ollfardh: I just want to get sure, if my team will be out of domestiques, may I sign some weak Communists for free? I mean from weaker teams or so? Like BMC did with Powers?
SIGNING OF BIG TALENT ANNOUNCED...
Just right after we presented you our overall turn for next season - and we waht to thank you for your appreciation of the Communist idea - we may now show you a great signing. We secured this young, very talented guy just after our big announcement, so we were yet not able to tell you, though we were really near the end in our negotiations.
However, now we may officially state that we have a new rider for next year's roster:
Voltali Feunard
The young Frenchman is going to be a good addition to the team. As we plan to develop him slowly in the upcoming years to go straight to the top long-term, he will mostly help our captains or, when he feels to, try his own luck in attacks and sprints, as long as it fits the team tactics.
We are really looking forward to having him in our (next-year) Communist family. And here is why he fits in our concept:
In France, Voltalis home country, Francois Hollande and his Parti socialiste won the latest elections. Though Hollande of course is not a real socialist or communist, but a left democrat, however, we accept the French Socialism light. When Coca Cola has its Coke light, why can’t we have a Socialism light? But because we really hate Coca Cola for its Capitalist behavior, we will never ever allow a Socialism zero. Furthermore, Voltali is riding Tour of Qinghai Lake and Tour of Hainan this season and he says that he feels pretty comfortable in our Capitalist-free environment here in China.
Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 01-09-2014 21:55
For those of you who missed my earlier introduction, my name is Kim Po-ding, I'm a 24 year old cyclist from the glorious nation of North-Korea. My victories this year include the Continental Championship time trial, Algarvia and Bayern General Classification, and of course, the U23 World Championship Time Trial.
My greatest skill if obviously my time trial. I am not allowed to describe how I was trained for this in North Korea, but a great deal of pain was involved. Pain that made me stronger. I can also climb good, but I'm not an attacked, I just follow. Then destroy opponents in time trial!
My main goal next year will be the Tour de France, which I could not ride this year. I will also be targetting to extend my titles in Algarvia and the Continental Time Trial Championships. Unfortunately I cannot defend my U23 title, as I became too old this year. I will target the main event though.
You haven't heard of us a pretty long time now and that is mainly because we were too busy to really wrap up all the racing. That was because we really worked on our squad for next season. Scouting and scouting talents and running through the whole cycling world to find more guys willing to go this path with us, we are unbelievably happy to announce our latest signing.
From next season on,
Lars Grawunder
is going to be part of our family. He is a specialist in Time Trials, a discipline we were really lacking strength in. Though of course Po-ding is a very strong time trialist, we desperately needed more depth here as we are already sparing out cobbled classics. With both Lars and Po-ding, from now on, we can really compete in TeamTimeTrials if we succeed in signing one or two relatively strong guys more in the transfer season. Furthermore, from now on Lars can race literally in any race now - as a domestique in all races without a TimeTrial or sparing himself a bit if there is one. In easier stage races, a good GC position should also be possible for Lars.
This freedom will give him the opportunity to develop well over the next seasons as it is our most important goal to develop him further. To state the obvious, Champion System will not be able to sign any EPIC riders, from now on we fully concentrate on non-EPIC signs. And, believe us, we are planning big.
I am sure, Lars will introduce himself to you some time later.
Just a short radio report from the team on the Chinese State Radio about the latest developments in the racing of Champion System is brought to you by your favourite translator:
"We have seen some excellent work by the team in the last days and weeks. Most recently, we worked hard in the Tour of Pologne to save our GC position. Nobody should say we, as a PT team, wouldn't take charge in the WT peloton. That surely foreshadows for the 2015 season when we hope to be WT ourselves. Still, after that work we hoped for some better result by Christian De Vries. He really has to regain some time, so he can make it to the Top3 in the TT. As he will be replaced next season, we hope he gives it all to say goodbye in a proper way.
The Tour of Britain coverage was excellent again. We did really well here, too, showing up in the break and Gregor Gazvoda did compete heavily for points. That fighting spirit is what we need to improve further. Also the strong ride by Chris Butler to help Christian in the late part of the race is remarkable. We didn't think he could do anything, capitalist pig. (Just training for next season.)
Still, Chrisitan has to give it all here as well, because in the upcoming TT we really hope for a GC improvement."
Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 21-10-2014 23:08
Ah, well, times are busy at the moment. You may have noticed that already due to the rather low amount of updates you received from your favourite Socialist cycling team. However, we were not doing nothing, but intensified our plannings for next season already. So here is a little heads-up for you about the most important stuff - or to be more precise: the most important stuff we may talk about (yet).
First of all, the season is almost over for us, but our biggest race is yet to come: The Tour of Beijing. As our home WT race, it is the most important one for the team in the whole year. We send Christian De Vries to show his strength one last time before he will leave the team. We were told by our government that only a Top10 in the General Classification would justify him leaving the team to his home and family, while otherwise he is up to something called "volunteer work". So give it all you got Christian!
Furthermore we may announce that we are already working on our online appearance for next year. Because a modern Communism also needs to work with the internet, we will put the same amount of effort into that as we did this year. But we will have a totally new appearance for the upcoming season, not only for some obvious reasons, but also because we really don't like the first page of our current thread.
Last but not least: Transfer plannings. We received a list of riders we should try to sign from the Chinese government, but that was not really to our liking as those guys certainly know nothing about cycling.
Thus we chose to make our own, rather long, "shortlist", which was - after long, but fruitful negotiations - finally approved. However, as the UCI has forbidden to already declare heavy interest on riders, and because it is somehow considered "semi-top secret" by some important people, all the desired names and almost all the team names are censored. Have fun with it!
Hello to Champion System, Hello to my small fanclub in Cologne and hello to my friends Ben and Paul.
I am very happy to confirm, that i will be riding with Champion System next season. I really look forward to this, because i think this is my chance of making my dream come true.
But who am I? I am Lars Grawunder, nickname "Tango", born in Cologne, 21 years old and i am riding bike since i can walk. I am 191cm tall and I weigh around 75kg, so it was obvious from the start, that I am going to be a rouleur. I have trained hard to achieve everything I achieved until today. My father was always a hater of pro cycling and my mother did not care much about me. So I decided to get rid of them and started my career on my own. I worked illegaly, did go to school, made my exams and bought myself a decent race bike, just to compete in the local race series. And i just won a few local events, until a certaint team contacted me. And I was ready. So f*cking ready to achieve my dream.
"What is your dream?", you may ask. My dream is, to be as my idol Tony Martin and become a Time-Trial World Champion. I know this isn't easy, but for next season, i have a great team by my side, which is, like me, getting better with the time.
But why Champion System?
Because Champion System, thats why! They were the first to send me a contract offer, which surprised me, because i don't like the eastern world. I don't like the way, China runs their country, and anything.
But i am so thankful, that they gave me a chance to ride for them, that i have changed my mind. China is a country of opportunities. It gives me the chance to fulfill my dream. I am already thinking about changing my nationality to chinese.
I have not written this text, because i was told to.
Hello to Champion System, Hello to my small fanclub in Cologne and hello to my friends Ben and Paul.
I am very happy to confirm, that i will be riding with Champion System next season. I really look forward to this, because i think this is my chance of making my dream come true.
But who am I? I am Lars Grawunder, nickname "Tango", born in Cologne, 21 years old and i am riding bike since i can walk. I am 191cm tall and I weigh around 75kg, so it was obvious from the start, that I am going to be a rouleur. I have trained hard to achieve everything I achieved until today. My father was always a hater of pro cycling and my mother did not care much about me. So I decided to get rid of them and started my career on my own. I worked illegaly, did go to school, made my exams and bought myself a decent race bike, just to compete in the local race series. And i just won a few local events, until a certaint team contacted me. And I was ready. So f*cking ready to achieve my dream.
"What is your dream?", you may ask. My dream is, to be as my idol Tony Martin and become a Time-Trial World Champion. I know this isn't easy, but for next season, i have a great team by my side, which is, like me, getting better with the time.
But why Champion System?
Because Champion System, thats why! They were the first to send me a contract offer, which surprised me, because i don't like the eastern world. I don't like the way, China runs their country, and anything.
But i am so thankful, that they gave me a chance to ride for them, that i have changed my mind. China is a country of opportunities. It gives me the chance to fulfill my dream. I am already thinking about changing my nationality to chinese.
I have not written this text, because i was told to.
Greetings from Cologne
Lars
If somebody would have told you to write this text he would have already told you to give a better reason for the team choice than "they were the first team to contact me"
Take that as proof, all you haters. Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 13-11-2014 23:57
We did it! We finished the first season of EPIC. Finally. There have been ups and downs, there have been shining stars and dying riders, there have been super-dumb AI and the celebration of 11th places. We had it all - and I don't want to miss any of that.
As Champion System had its most important race right at the end of the season, we'll have a closer look on our home WT race now: Tour Of Beijing
Here's a list with all the things we did during the race, worth a mention:
-
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Our captain Christian De Vries (who is leaving us after the season and as he didn't accomplish his goals he will maybe find a new job as a coal miner) did absolutely nothing, but sitting in the pack and relaxing. On paper, he was one of the best climbers in the peloton, but the results don't really show that.
In the end, he was 18th in GC, which is really way below what we expected. Our sponsors set us a Top10 GC as an EASY GOAL! Now please imagine how we shall explain them, it didn't work out. I'll be lucky to keep my job..
Now with all the racing being done, let's wrap up how we did in our focus races:
Easy:
Top 10 GC
Int. Österreich Rundfahrt
ACCOMPLISHED
Easy:
Top 10 GC
Tour of Beijing
FAILED
Medium:
Top 5
Brussels Cycling Classic
FAILED
Medium:
Stage Win
Tour of Qinghai Lake
ACCOMPLISHED
Hard:
Top 3 GC
Tour de Pologne
FAILED
Hard:
Top 5
Clasica San Sebastian
FAILED
You see: It was kind of a whacky season part for our team. Only a Top10 GC in Österreich Rundfahrt and a Stage Win in our other home race, Tour of Qinghai Lake, light that list up a bit.
However, we are looking forward now. We are confident. We will make it better. Not only results-wise. Not only professional cycling. WE WILL MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. From next year on. It foreshadows. Short sentences are cool. And they seem to express important things.
TOUR OF QINGHAI LAKE
INTERNATIONALE ÖSTERREICH-RUNDFAHRT
Rajesh Kakhi – He is not new, but we are absolutely proud that we were able to resign Rajesh for another year. He is going to be a leader in all the hilly races, which will be a certain part of our next year calendar for sure. 
Naveed Alinejad – The Iranian sprinter is a strong addition to the team. He will be our leading sprinter in several races, especially those which are too hard for Fabian, as he has a decent strength in hills. Having both him and Rajesh in key hilly races will grant us good chances to hunt for wins there.
Firmansyah Sinaga – Firmansyah is a young and talented climber. He will usually be working for the more experienced guys in the mountains, but we are looking forward to give him chances to show his potential in minor races and such, where we focus on sprints.
Fabian Schnaidt, Matthias Friedemann
Bobbie Traksel
Matthew Brammeier
Ryan Roth
Gregor Gazvoda
Muhamad Othman
Mart Ojavee
Kin San Wu
Voltali Feunard
Brussels Cycling Classic 
Tour de Pologne 
Clasica San Sebastian 
