Jayco - Red Bull would like to congratulate you on your success in the transfer market so far. This gives us the utmost confidence that selling Arashiro and Beppu to you was the right thing to do.
For the record we did not want to let Arashiro go really and felt a large amount of money was needed to allow the rider to join this team. Good luck to him and the team.
On a final note we understand now that the team is named Meiji Fuji, for some reason something got lost in translation
Levi4life wrote:
Now the question is can valverde resist the temptation of Hesjedal....
My money is on no he can't
He's going to have to! He used all his money on Beppu/Arashiro
Exactly.
I did see his name jump out at me though. Still it wouldn't work on this team.
@roturn, CountArach, and Heine - Thanks building a team like this and then getting all these kind words makes me happy and proud that I did start a Japanese team.
@Smowz - Thank you, its nice to hear. And the transfer fee was like you said large, but the biggest thing is that you allowed for a move which we really appreciate. Thanks, glad you finally noticed the team name. It is a little tricky I must say
With another 24 hours passing we can proudly announce 5 more signings for next season.
Our first signing is Chen Shikai. Chen is a very promising young Chinese climber, who could become a very good stage racer in the future. We had to fight to sign Shikai but in the end no one could match our offer of 165,000 Euros, maybe a little much for a rider that hasn't proven himself, but we see him as a must-sign just because of his future prospects.
Our next signing is Yukihiro Doi, who is Japan's 2nd strongest available climber. We think he can win a couple stages for us, and get in lots of breakaways collecting lots of King of the Mountains points with that.
Our 3rd signing today is Junpei Murakami a guy who can win both a sprinters stage and a hilly stage. He wont win lots, but he will always be a wildcard in the races he enters because of his skill in both areas.
4th joining the team today is a rider we are very proud to sign is Sergei Lagutin the Uzbekistan rider, whos good at pretty much everything. He'll most definitely be a valued team-mate this year but he will also get some chances to ride for himself.
Lastly we have Jai Crawford who has been successful in Asia and Australia (in real life, which is why I wanted him specifically). He is also our first import rider, and we hope he fits in nicely with the team. We can tell you we are making moves so that he's not the only import rider, but we wont be signing too many of them.
In the latest 24 hours, Meiji have signed another 2 riders to the team, both free agents.
The first signing to announce is Cheng Ji, a Chinese rider who specializes in climbing, but is also decent at time trialing. He should be a good domestique for Sano and Doi this season, unless he goes out on loan to gain a little experience in the PT.
Our other signing is none other than Jack Bauer, the popular rider from New Zealand. Jack should be an important part to the team this season and will likely get his wins (if any at all) in the TT or on a hilly stage. We are very excited to have Jack on the team because after scouting him for a while we noticed he would be great for starting off a sprint train.
Edited by valverde321 on 27-06-2011 19:00
It is with great pleasure that I announce to you the final few signings of the season, with likely only loans left. We have signed 6 more riders, who should round out the team into a pretty strong sprinting team, I think.
We have Masaaki Kikuchi, the Japanese sprinter, who looks to be another nice lead-out man. He is very excited to be joining this team.
Now we have Takashi Miyazawa the wile veteran. He still has some acceleration but he's also here to bring knowledge and experience to the younger riders of the team.
Third is a very good climber Yuzuru Suzuki, who will have lots of chances to get in breakaways and represent the team. He isn't that great of a climber, but from where he comes from he is, so we had to sign him. Ho-Ting Kwok, was a very interesting rider for us. He is from Hong Kong, and he really impressed us with his attacking style. He is also a very good Time trialer so he strengthens an area of the team, we're not all that strong in.
And we also have another sprinter in Anaur Manan. Anuar, could possibly be the teams number one sprinter although he's got tough company with Arashiro and Sung Baek Park, but as a manager we like the idea of having three guys fight for number one.
Lastly its our biggest signing of this week. Matthew Lloyd will be joining the team, as the main puncheur. It was a great signing for us, and we now have 3 Aussies with Scully, Lloyd, and Crawford.
We also have some Loan News.
-Yaun Wei will be joining the team from WWE on a one year loan
-Tom Scully will also be joining the team on a loan for one year
-Cheng Ji will be leaving for a year, to gain experience with Pearl Adidas
Edited by valverde321 on 27-06-2011 19:17
SportingNonsense wrote:
Kwok was a good signing, he'll be rather good in TTs when maxed
Thats why I signed him, and also because of his Fighter. Most of my signings are thinking towards the future since most of them aren't that great right now.
So with the transfer season pretty much wrapped up, Meiji - Fuji can announce the final roster for the new season. We signed almost every rider from our shortlist, so we can be happy about that. Many will say, we dont have the greatest squad, but thats only for this season. We plan on gaining worldwide recognition, and hopefully attract bigger and better sponsors. We believe that this team is built for the future, and we will have some great sprinters, and a few good climbers. Anyway here is this years squad.
Team Leaders
Jack Bauer
Jack Bauer is one of our best signings. He's a great time-trialer from New Zealand, and we think he should be the leader for any TT's we might be racing in, and hopefully win us a few points too. Jack isn't just good at one thing though, he can also ride short climbs very well and he has a good sprint finish, so he's helpful in breakaways.
Yukiya Arashiro
Arashiro, will likely be Meiji's best sprint, since almost no hill can stop Yukiya, meaning he will almost always come to the sprint fresh. Arashiro is our prized possession, as he is currently the face of Japanese cycling. Arashiro had a bit of success last year, as he won a couple stages and finished high up in a few more.
Matthew Lloyd
Matthew Lloyd will be our leader for the hilly races that we participate in. He was brought in for the sole purpose of winning as many CT hilly classics and stages as possible, as well as keeping Jai Crawford company. Lloyd will likely ride in the Oceanic races, as we feel he will be motivated to win there, but the rest of his schedule has yet to be determined.
Junya Sano
Our last leader is climbing specialist Junya Sano. Although not much more than a super-dometique on other teams, here he is by far the best climber, and we dont have much hopes of him dominating Stage Races, but we have him in case by chance on of the races we enter has a mountain. He could of course go for the KoM classification if he wants, as it will be important to grab as much money from the races as we can.
Sprinters:
Fumiyuki Beppu
Fumiyuki Beppu is one of our best sprinters. He definitely doesn't get enough credit for how good he actually is, because he's also Japanese TT Champion, so he is also good in that discipline. Whats also great about Fumiyuki is he always seems to be smiling, which will be very welcome to the team, on those long road trips coming back from North America or Western Europe.
Kenji Itami
While Kenji isn't the best sprinter, he is good, when he does make it inside the last 10km. He isn't very strong on the hills either, but he has the ability to surprise people with his quick acceleration on the pan flat stages.
Masaaki Kikuchi
Masaaki is one of our riders who should do fairly well in all sprints he's in. He's also known to attack a lot so if he isn't having much success in the sprints we can change it up and tell him to get in the breaks.
Anuar Manan
Anuar is quite possibly our best pure sprinter, but the problem for his is getting his big frame over the steep hills. Some think that he wont do well thanks to his low hill ability but we think that with a good schedule, he can achieve some very good results for us.
Takashi Miyazawa
Takashi was once a very dominant sprinter, but he's aged since then and is still a very good sprinter but not as good as he once was. He will be a key rider, who we expect to have a few high finishes as well as the guy who can always share techniques with the younger more in-experienced riders on the team.
Taiji Nishitani
Taiji is one of our most complete sprinters. He's very similar to Beppu, but has more of a kick for the line than Beppu. Taiji is very happy to ride with a Japanese team, as he makes a comeback to cycling after being out of it for a year. Expect atleast one stage win from him this season, as well as a lot of high finishes on flat stages.
Sung Baek Park
He is undoubtedly the teams best sprinter, and will be looking to lead as many sprinting races as possible, as well as race as close to home as possible. Apparently he could have signed for less than we gave him, but his agent was being a little greedy at the time. Still we signed him none-the less and will be looking to get as many stage wins out of him as possible.
Climbers:
Jai Crawford
Jai is a very good climber from Australia, who we liked as soon as we had our scout come back from Australia. Jai is someone who has had history with races in the Asia Tour like the Tour de Langkawi, so because of that, we thought it would be good to have some experience on board, as well as a good climber.
Yukihiro Doi
Now we have the teams ultra-domestique Yukihiro Doi. He is a very valuable piece of the team, and a symbol of Japanese climbing thanks to his popular facial hair. Yukihiro will want to ride for himself at some point and with the team we have, it will most certainly be possible for him to do so.
Yuzuru Suzuki
This is our last skilled climber. He's a rider who should be able to get in the break and survive to the finish. He isn't the strongest climber but he'll never be dropped without a fight, and of course he loves to attack.
Super Team-Mates:
Ho-Ting Kwok
There wasn't much known about this guy, until one of our scouts returned 2 days early from his trip to China and Hong Kong. He was in a rush to tell us about this guy, because he wanted to make sure we got to him first. We think his track abilities will translate well as a road-cyclist, and he's already proven to us he will be a good time-trialer in his workouts with us.
Sergei Lagutin
What a signing he is! He's a very good all-rounder. He can do pretty much everything but he isn't the best on the team at any of them, so while he could be our biggest secret weapon, he could also be a very useful teammate in every single race he's a part of.
Junpei Murakami
What we get from this guy, is a huge desire to do everything for your team, and someone who should be a usefull leadout man. He's also someone which should be welcome to the idea of getting into the break often, which fits well with the team this year.
Young Talents:
Yoshimitsu Hiratsuka
While he is already 24 years old, he does show a lot of upside as a climber and future Japanese champion, should the race ever take place on a mountain. He hasa real knack for learning the fine details and he's a very modest guy.
Ryota Nishizono
He is 25 years old, but he has improved every season that he's raced so far. Plus he looks set out to do well at the Japanese TT Championships so we could see a future winner of that race in him some day.
(No picture available)
Chen Shikai
Not to be confused with Chen Zhi Kai the famous movie actor, Chen Shikai is a virtually unknown chinese cyclist. He's so unknown he has a total of zero photo's on the internet. We really only found this guy thanks to all the hard work our scout put into finding future great cyclists. There's no doubt in my mind, he will be a great rider one day, but for now he's a usefull team-mate willing to learn.
Genki Yamamoto
He's already had success as a young rider, so now its time for him to step up to a new level of cycling, and ride for our team. He wont ever be the greatest sprinter out there, but he should improve to be a very decent one, and we are fine with that.
Loaned out Riders:
Cheng Ji
This season Ji will be riding for Pearl-Adidas. We wish him the best of luck for his season with them, and hope he gets along well with the others on that team.
Loaned In:
Tom Scully
We have a young Kiwi sprinter with us for one year. He looks promising, and we wish him the best of luck once the season is over and he returns back to his original team Jayco-RedBull.
Yuan Wei
Yuan Wei isn't the best rider in the world but if he was he would win every single race because of his racing style. He loves to attack, and he loves to be at the front of the race, two things Meiji want to do a lot of this year. Therfore we welcome Yuan as part of the team, and would like to give a shoutout to Team WWE for allowing the loan to happen.
Stagiare's:
Hiroyuki Fukata
He isn't great, but he is here to see what he can do at this level of racing, and we can see if he's has what it takes to turn pro.
Edited by valverde321 on 05-07-2011 04:29
Great read, and glad to see you found enough regional riders to put together this very interesting new team. Good luck for the future, from your friends at Team CSC-Orbea.
At this time Meiji would just like to make a shout out to everyone that wrote pre-season reviews (off the top of my head that is Sot-D, Heine, and Roturn), and although all the reviews were leaning torwards the bottom of the CT finish for Meiji, we can still say we are happy, just not as happy as we would have been had you all said we would promote.
(My apologies if I left someone out, who also wrote a review)
________________________________________
At this time we also want to thank Levi4life for his generous amount of cash (approximately 2,035,000) in which he bet, Meiji would buy Hesjedal. (Which we never did)
Now the question is can valverde resist the temptation of Hesjedal....
My money is on no he can't
We thank him for his generosity. Edited by valverde321 on 18-07-2011 01:13
Meiji Fuji have jumped on the twitter bandwagon, and hopefully it should be a nice way of communicating with the other team managers. Now I just have to figure out how to use it.
Edited by valverde321 on 28-07-2011 16:58
Finally the team has produced a good result, after a few early season races. There were a couple Top 5's before, but nothing really that spectacular. But that all changed today, when Anuar Manan the rider titled by many as "that useless sprinter" or "bust" has just gotten Meiji, its best result of the season, so take that doubters
Mumbai Cyclothon 2
Manan had great positioning early in the sprint.
He then opens his sprint and gains on Bennati quickly.
Its also a shot which will please Fuji who are getting a great advertisment with the close up of this amazing frame!
He was just a little late however, and takes 2nd place in the sprint. But still a very nice result. And Miyazawa also inside the Top 10.
Keep going!
and glad to see you found enough regional riders to put together this very interesting new team. Good luck for the future, from your friends at Team CSC-Orbea.
