Truly it has been a nervous time for the future of the ManGame these past months and now out of a sudden hidden and dusty files must be bought back to the work table! Given a great season last year, where some did outshine the entire Continental Division and some made sure that everyone was comfortable. We still need to drop the curse of not being able to win 3 stages in a row, but then again that is cocky behaviour in a far better division.

Now the future is set to be more unclear than ever and we have no idea what upgrades the team will be given in the transfer season. We still believe to be the founder of a new era alongside Netia in Polish cycling, but there is a long road to success from here. Also we have expanded into Israel in order to expand our influence on the cycling world and we see great potential in this country too.

Nonetheless we have a strong base from a team that accomplished finishing 3rd, however this is new territory and we don't expect success from the get-go. We thrive to become a common face in the PCT and maybe, just maybe some day we can take the world by storm in the PT

We are already 200k under the CT wage cap and expect to release quite a few riders from the team. So everything looks to be solid and hopefully we can turn this team into a top tier PCT team!

Nat.	Date	Race	RDs	Cat.
	03-feb	Tour of Eritrea	6	HC
	07-feb	Tour de San Luis	8	HC
	25-feb	Strade Bianche	2	HC
	07-mar	Kandy Cycling Classic	2	HC
	27-mar	Corsica International	3	HC
	01-apr	Tour of Vancouver	7	HC
	24-apr	Tour de Romandie	6	HC
	07-maj	Kenya Mountain Classic	2	HC
	16-maj	Berlin ProRace	2	HC
	01-jun	Tour of Norway	5	HC
	20-jun	Nelspruit Classic	2	HC
	25-jun	Tour d'Andorra	5	HC
	15-jul	Tour of the Battenkill	2	HC
	26-jul	Tour of Beijing	5	HC
	05-aug	Int. Österreich Rundfahrt	8	HC
	14-aug	Baltic Chain Tour	5	HC
	24-sep	Rheden GP	2	HC
	02-okt	Paris - Tours	2	HC
	09-okt	Course de Solidarnosc	4	HC
	18-okt	Japan Cup	2	HC

Arrinera has gotten their 4 prefered HC bands and the aim was to have a calendar, where possible targets can do well and still be safe enough in case we end up with Plan Z. We're pleased with this calendar and their profiles looks promising and more down to earth than last year. Mind due breakaway winners will be harder to spot for instance. Our own riders are pleased with the results too, so everything goes well in hand. Next time we will release the Post-Renewals Roster!

	Rider	Age	Wage	OVL
	Anthony Lavoine	28	€135.000	74
	Pawel Poljanski	26	€ 60.000	73
	Gracjan Lejman	28	€60.000	73
	Julien Berard	29	€ 70.000	73
	Mathieu Drujon	33	€ 85.000	73
	Kamil Zielinski	28	€ 70.000	73
	Brice Feillu	31	€ 65.000	73
	Bartlomiej Matysiak	32	€ 70.000	72
	Kristijan Durasek	29	€ 70.000	72
	Wojciech Pszczolarski	25	€ 60.000	72
	Juraj Sagan	28	€ 60.000	71
	Lukasz Owsian	26	€ 50.000	71
	Michal Podlaski	28	€ 50.000	70
	Klemen Stimulak	26	€ 50.000	69

First of all a big thanks to Gasper Svab, Markus Kilsgaard, Blaz Bogataj, Blazej Janiaczyk, Adrian Kurek and Stephen Vicelich for helping us promote to the PCT and wish them best of luck in the future. Now to look at from a practical POV; Many riders got an increased wage and therefore the maximum amount of free wage wasn't accomplished.

On the bright side this leaves 1,55 million of available wage and with possible transfer perhaps even more. This is a fantastic amount, that will give the team nice expansion possibility.

There aren't really many riders we want to leave the team, but the biggest available targets will probably be

Gracjan Lejman
Mathieu Drujon

Both have possibilities to do well in the PCT, but at the team we feel they deserve to get a chance in the CT.

Nat.	Race	Goal	Category
	Corsica International	Win	HC
	Tour Down Under	Top 5	C1
	Volta a Catalunya	Top 5	HC
-	GP Kigali or Scandinavian Open Road Race	Win	C1
-	PCT Team Standings	Top 10	-

The team has gone for a mix of risky goals and achievable goals for this season. These goals should compliment our targets just fine and gives a good indication for what our focus will be. Next up is transfers and next announcement will indicate the teams first signings!

Many parts of the MG world were surprised to see an Israelaen team among the rows of the PCT and now this team has their first 3 Israelean riders or dare I say 3 wise men...

Idan Shapira

FL	MO	Hi	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PR	Wage
67	74	70	63	67	71	74	54	56	75	75	62	63	€ 50.000

Level 4.89 Pot5

Idan Shapira is not even maxed and still has the stats of a solid domnestique, I'm quite sure we can teach him some manners by matching him with the likes of Zielinski!

Noam Cohen

FL	MO	Hi	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PR	Wage
73	60	65	57	71	69	77	57	77	76	62	62	57	50.000

Noam Cohen will replace Mathieu Drujon as leadout for Anthony Lavoine and will have to go through a lot of training getting used to PCT standards, will be interesting to see if he can do just that.

Daniel Eliad

FL	MO	Hi	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PR
67	74	71	65	66	72	70	54	59	75	65	67	65

Daniel Eliad is a guy for the breakaways and if the chance offers he has 75 ACC to set in a final attack for a stage win perhaps. We chose him because we're sure that one single moment will be enough for him to have a spot on our team.

It's quite impossible to predict which "presents" they will bring, but perhaps this is the start of a new era for Israelean cycling!

the_hoyle wrote:
Nice to see some Israelis on the team. Will any wear the NC made?

FL	MO	Hi	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PR
72	78	80	72	78	75	77	59	69	72	71	69	72

Nicolas Roche transfers with a price tag of 1 million and joins with his qualities, experience and 385k wage. He will be the rider for mountainous and hilly terrain in the mix and will be a leading figure going into the season. We're extremely happy to have him here and hopefully he will do well. What do you think about our new signing?

FL	MO	Hi	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PR
74	59	68	77	73	72	69	60	67	65	52	56	77

Maciej Bodnar is the Polish ITT Champion and has a lot to prove after a decent season in the PCT. We hope that he can be a setting stone for the times to come and hopefully we might see him overperform at a glance. He brings experience to the team and fits our focus just perfect!

sgdanny wrote:
What do you think about our new signing?

FL	MO	Hi	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PR
70	70	82	67	77	73	72	51	54	75	68	71	67

Chris Froome will be the leader in the hills for us this season and he comes with lots of experience from the PT and he will be the key for promotion either this or next year. He will be our hilly classics guy mostly, but also feature in some prestigious races at the same time. We're extemely fortunate to have him here, fear us!

FL	MO	Hi	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FI	DH	PR
80	56	67	64	79	74	72	79	62	67	72	62	64

Nikolas Maes joins after his team disbanding and a season to forget as quick as possible. He will be nice to have in the cobble classics and his amazing 80 FL might come in handy in flat classics. He is a luxury signing in a way, as he fits an area we're not entirely focusing on and will still be able to collect points, we weren't gonna get anyway.