Lars Petter Nordhaug accepts the offer from Aker Solutions - Bergans!
Aker Solutions - Bergans finally got their first rider, and it is a norwegian. "Lars Petter Nordhaug agreed on the offer from us, and I'm delighted to have him in the team," Ember said. Nordhaug will be a strong domestique for our team, in every possible terrain. He's good at flats, hills and mountains. He can also handle the cobbles in a good way. Nordhaug is also strong enough to win stages/races from a breakaway.
After a silent start to the transfer season, today, Aker Solutions - Bergans has dug deep in Røkke's wallet today. They started the day easy, signing Nordhaug, the norwegian domestique as their first rider. In the early evening their was another press conference from their team manager, Ember. And this time, it was some very interesting signings. Jose Alarcon was the first name Ember released! He ended last years Continental Tour 2nd overall, thanks to his superb climbing skills. There's no doubt Ember has paid more than he wanted for Alarcon, though, he probably felt committed to do so, after stating Aker Solutions - Bergans goals for the upcoming season. Alarcon has been given a pay rise of 880,000 euros compared to last season, which no doubt is sensational, when he will continue racing in the Continental Divison. At least Aker Solutions - Bergans should have a realistic shot at their goals now. Though, Ember expressed his concerns when he heard Valverde had signed for Team Proximus - Trek. Hopefully they won't clash in too many races.
Ember continued his press conference wishing Gustav Larsson welcome to the team. Ember expressed his delight of signing Larsson, he said: "Larsson feels like a bargain, hopefully we will be able to let him race the right races, where he hopefully can bring our team glory." Larsson is a great time trialist, and he is also a good climber, that will hopefully prove handy in some stage races.
First thing this morning was the signing of Andrey Zeits. The Kazakh is an experienced rider, aged 29, but he still has some potential left. He might be loaned to a ProTour team, to be well prepared for the 2013 season, where he turns 30, and will be in his best age. If he doesn't get loaned out, he will still be a very strong helper for us, especially on hilly terrain. His wage will be 50,000.
Hector Duenas Nevado was the next man to join our team. He's 25 years old, and will hopefully be capable of helping Alarcon in the mountains. He's also an incredible descender, one of the very best in the game, so if he is in the mix for a win in a mountainous race, he will definately get the green light to attack on the downhills. His wage will be 50,000.
Remberto Jaramillo was the last rider to sign for our team today. He will hopefully prove himself as one of the most important domestiques for Alarcon in the mountains, and if he proves his potential, he will be given a leader role in minor, mountainous stage races. His wage will be 50,000.
The two signings we forgot to mention yesterday, was that Johan Le Bon and Ole Hirschlein has joined us on loans for this season. We will use them as much as possible, we find it great to take part in the development of young riders, hopefully they will learn a lot from our team. We don't pay anything of Hirschlein's wage, for Le Bon's wage, we pay 30,000.
Edited by ember on 25-06-2011 20:17
In the last three days Aker Solutions - Bergans has signed several riders.
Anthony Roux Jure Zrimsek Jaume Rovira Hector Duenas Nevado Mauricio Ortega Anders Lund
Emillien Viennet Jonathan Castroviejo
The last two has joined us on loans. We are very pleased with our new signings. Roux gives us something extra on the hills, hopefully he can have a good time with us, as a leader. Jure Zrimsek is brought in due to his abilities in time trialing. We hope he can show off strong in the team time trials we will participate in. The same goes for Viennet, we've loaned him from Spyker Cars mainly due to his time trial ability. Anders Lund is a norwegian, who is loyal ridern, in every race he participate in. Loyality counts. Rovira, Duenas Nevado, Ortega and Castroviejo have all signed. They will hopefully do damage to a peloton when the roads start to rise.
Ember also said he wasn't totally satisfied with the transfer season so far. "We've been very close on landing some great deals, especially the one with Team Festina, We were only hours away from signing both Ardila and Lavoine. But hey! Our team looks strong, and I'm looking forward to co-operate with all our riders. Hopefully we'll have a great season, especially in the mountains."
On a last note, the roster has been updated on page 1 of this media thread. "And we're probably not finished with our transfers yet, we still have space in our wage budget," Ember said, and walked off the scene.
Edited by ember on 28-06-2011 21:06
Wilmer Vasquez - another climber joins Aker Solutions - Bergans.
In a short press release today, Ember announced Vasquez as a part of Aker Solutions - Bergans. "It's with great pleasure I can announce Vasquez as a member of our team. We hope he really can show himself in his home race, together with Alarcon, Vuelta al Tachira. Back in 2010, he ended 4th, it would be amazing to see him produce a podium result in his homecountry. Though, Vasquez' main role in the team is to be a superdomestique for Alarcon in the mountains. Vuelta al Tachira will be the exception, there, we will be racing for both."
Jairo Agudelo was the last man to join Aker Solutions - Bergans before the season starts. There will come two more riders, but they won't join the team until midway in the season.
Agudelo is another climber, and he will be of great use to Alarcon. We arguably have one of the very best climbing team out there, hopefully we can take advantage of that at once a stage race or one-day race hits the mountains. Agudelo is also a decent time trialist, and the most important race for him will probably be Brixia Tour, where his time trial skills will be just as important as his climbing talent. Hopefully Agudelo can prove himself there, and help Alarcon whenever it will be needed. He will also be given the role of co-leader in some stage races, we haven't quite worked out which yet, but Agudelo has already stated that Tour of Swaziland looks like a great race.
That was all for now, we only got 2 men left to sign, they will both be stagiares, and we hope to announce them in the upcoming days. Right now our team counts 19 riders + 2 stagiares from July. We hope we can bring honour to our sponsors, but it will for sure be an extremely tough fight, there are a lot of CTteams with great climbers this season, hopefully we will be up there, fighting with them.
We've just ended our transfer season, our team counts 19 riders + 2 stagiaires. They are all looking forward to the racing season. Anyway, below follows a team presentation:
#1 Jose Alarcon
Jose was without doubt "our" man in the transfer season. He was a must-have man, and we were delighted when he decided to put his name on our paper. He will be our leader in whatever race he is racing. He's one of the worlds best climbers, and we will try to take advantage of that. We hope he can bring us glory, and thus prove himself worth his wage of €1,000,000 (yes, 1 million Euros).
#2 Gustav Larsson
Gustav is a great rider. He's rock solid on the mountains, but he's also a gifted time trialist. We will give him the opportunity to make the best use of that combination, and therefore he will serve us as a leader. He's also a very experienced rider, hopefully he can learn a lot to the younger in our team. He will ride for a wage of €200,000.
#3 Anthony Roux
Anthony is our only serious contender for the hills, which naturally means he will be our leader in that terrain. Especially hilly classics in France will be targetted, we would love to see Roux do great things in his home country. Roux came from UBS - Lapierre, Bushwackers accepted our offer of €855,000 for Roux services, and we are delighted to say that he will continue on the wage he was paid at UBS - Lapierre. We will pay Roux a wage of €100,500.
Jonas is the best sprinter in our team. Jonas has in previous teams developed into a powersprinter. He's got a rather slow acceleration, but when he first hits his maximum speed, there won't be many beating him. He's a Dane, and it won't be surprising to see him struggle when the race hits any hill or mountain. But we hope Jonas, togheter with Lucas Haedo, can do good in the only race on norwegian roads; Rogaland GP. He will be paid €50,000.
#5 Lucas Sebastian Haedo
Lucas is a great rider to have in the team. He's just like Aaen Jørgensen, a rider with a great sprint. However, where Aaen Jørgensen will have problems, Haedo might be capable to survive. He can handle various terrain, which hopefully results in him having great legs in the final sprint, where his acceleration should leave other riders behind. We hope he can bring us a couple of stage wins throughout the season. Hopefully he can prove his wage of €50,000 as a great investment.
#6 Wilmer Vasquez
Wilmer is without any doubt a climber. His climbing skills is superior to any other skills he has, on the bike that is. He can hopefully show off as a leader in some races, together with Agudelo. In races where he won't race for the win, we hope to see him in breakaways or as a great helper to Alarcon. He will be paid good, €200,000 to be excact.
#7 Jairo Agudelo
Jairo fits perfectly in our team. He's a great climber, but he's also a decent time trialist. When the terrain is mountainous, he will be a dangerous rider to any breakaway companion, or he might be our leader. He will, just as Vasquez, be limited in races where both him and Alarcon rides. In those races he will of course do whatever he can to help Alarcon. His wage is €300,000.
Jure was mainly brought to our team due to his time trial ability. He will be useful in any TTT he takes part in. Also, he is quite good on both flats and mountains, which makes him the perfect domestique. He will be there for our leaders, with whatever needed. He will be paid €50,000.
#9 Lars Petter Nordhaug
Lars Petter was the first rider we signed. He's one out of two norwegians in our team. He will be useful as a helper in any kind of terrain. We would love to see him in a breakaway, and we will try whatever it takes to bring him into a breakaway in Rogaland GP. His wage will be paid €50,000.
Jaume will be Roux main helper for the hills. He should be able to follow Roux for a time, and hopefully give him the needed water. His experience should also be good for our young riders. He will be paid €50,000.
#12 Hector Duenas Nevado
Hector will be extremely important in stage races containing mountains. His ability to climb with the leaders should prove worthy when we will try our best to shred the peloton to pieces. Duenas Nevado should be one of the men up for the task. His wage will be €50,000.
#13 Remberto Jaramillo
Remberto will be one of the loyal helpers to Alarcon. His climbing skills is great, though, he lacks secondary skills. But hopefully he will be there when we hit the mountains, then he should be able to drop many riders. He will be paid €50,000.
#14 Mauricio Ortega
Mauricio is another good climber in our team. He also got a nice acceleration, hopefully he can pace the peloton early on different climbs. We will pay €50,000 for his services.
#15 Anders Lund
Anders is our other norwegian team member. He will contribute to the team as a helper, in whatever race he will race. He's still young, so theres a good chance he will develop into a solid domestique on the flats and on the hills. He will be paid €50,000.
Edited by ember on 07-07-2011 12:15
We've brought 4 riders to our teams through loans. They are all listed below:
#16 Emilien Viennet
Emilien was part of a loan aggreement with Team Spyker Cars and CrueTrue. We will have Emilien in our team for one season, where he will get as much experience as possible. Also, we hope he can prove useful in the TTT we will participate in. Team Spyker Cars pays his wage of €50,000.
#17 Johan Le Bon
Johan is another Frenchman we take on loan for the upcoming season. He got decent overall stats, hopefully he will be of good use in all the races he participates in, which will be a lot of races, considering we will let him race the maximum race days possible. We will pay €30,000 of his wage.
#18 Ole Hirschlein
Ole comes from Milka - Vittel. He will continue his progress towards a good climber at our team. He will be used as much as possible, and we pay €0 of his wage.
#19 Jonathan Castroviejo
The Basque joins us for one year, coming from Team Festina. He will be of great use for Roux on the hills. We will pay all his wage for the upcoming season, €50,000.
Stagiaires:
#20 Romain Guillemois
Romain will join us midway through the season, as a stagiare. He's a great talent, and he has the potential to develop to the new Romain Feillu, or Jimmy Casper. We were surprised no other team tried to sign Guillemois, but that doesn't please uss less! He will be paid €10,000.
#21 Krzysztof Marchewka
Krzysztof, a former footballer, decided to join us from midway this season. His idol is M Bodnar, the fellow countryman, and also a time trialist. Krzysztof has every chance of become even better than Bodnar. Hopefully he will stay with our team the next seasons. We will pay him €10,000.
On behalf of Aker Solutions - Bergans, I'm happy to say we have updated or rosterpost on page 1 of this thread. It now contains the stats of the riders riding for us in the 2012 season.
Aker Solutions - Bergans had a break-in to their HQ this morning. The rumour says there were only one paper missing, though, that's not confirmed yet.
One paper indeed, the "main paper for race planning" went with the burglar, luckily we had taken a picture of that paper, due to its worth, and we publish it here too, then we should be safe, not loosing it again.
We will continue to look for anything else missing, we haven't found Jørgensen's pet yet, but we assume that's because he brought it back home for the night. The 8 inches tall donkey is valuable!
On a short comment to the paper, we are worried Larsson won't be able to have 43 race days this season, if he doesn't, we'll hopefully find a different solution.
Aker Solutions - Bergans enjoyed action in MTN Cycling Classic.
Today the 2012 ManGame season kicked off with MTN Cycling Classic. A HC one day classic which contained it all, breakaways, punctures, falls and winners. The riders representing us were:
Anthony Roux Lars Petter Nordhaug Anders Lund Jaume Rovira Hector Duenas Nevado Jonathan Castroviejo Ole Hirschlein Johan Le Bon
I had told the guys to be offensive through the whole race, and they indeed did just that. Ole Hirschlein made an early attack, and he formed the initial breakaway. Later, Le Bon bravely fought his way into the breakaway, which meant we had two riders in the breakaway. Ole Hirschlein attacking, and forming the breakaway.
Later on in the race, they were both caught though. And going into the final 14 kilometres, there were 41 riders in the lead group, we were represented with Anthony Roux and Jaume Rovira. Roux had already attacked at this point, making his bid for the stage win, but he didn't succeed, and were caught by a really determined chase from Vespa - Aprilia - De Rosa. They raced perfectly for their leader, Ginanni, and it was a fully deserved win for him and their team, when he crossed the line first, winning MTN Cycling Classic.
Rovira led our team home, in 9th. His good sprint made him pass a lot of riders in the sprint. Roux followed close to Rovira, in 13th. Roux was very well placed before the sprint started, but he struggled to keep up with the strongest. Rovira leading our team home with a 9th place, on the right side of the road. Roux follows behind, in 13th.
That was all for now, I'm heading for Venezuela, where we will participate in our next race, Vuelta al Tachira. Alarcon will lead our team there, but Vasquez will also be given his chances, as both him and Alarcon will race on home soil.
Ember
Aker Solutions - BergansEdited by ember on 29-07-2011 14:13
Jørgensen delivers the first win for Aker Solutions - Bergans!
Vuelta al Tachira, a 12 days stage race in Venezuela has just started, but we've already made our mark on the race. First there was a team time trial, we ended last, and gave Alarcon a bad start to his hopes for an overall win. It means he has to attack in the high mountains. We ended the TTT 31 seconds behind Team WWE, which gave Kessiakoff the jersey. Congratulations to them! On our way in the team time trial.
The second stage were a flat stage, were we had hopes for both Jørgensen and Haedo. We hoped one of them could pull off a top 10, maybe even a top 5, Jørgensen had higher ambitions though. He placed himself perfect behind Cerne's excellent leadout for their sprinter, Santos. He followed Santos to the very last kilometer, where he made his move, and just snatched the victory. Great start for our team, and we are all extremely happy now. Jørgensen wins stage 2 (thanks to roturn for the picture).
There's another flat stage to come before we hit the mountains in Venezuela. Hopefully Jørgensen/Haedo can do well there too, after that they will have to work for Alarcon. They have already said they look forward to work for him, as he's a great guy. The team did very well today, keeping Alarcon out of trouble. Hopefully we can avoid bad luck and crashes tomorrow too.
Stay with us, we'll hopefully come back with more race reports as the race goes on.
Ember
Aker Solutions - BergansEdited by ember on 29-07-2011 13:11
That is danish Anders Lund, not the norwegian one
