The Adastra - Hell Energy Cycling wants to present the jerseys that will be worn by the team's riders in the 2019 MGUCI season:


The regular jersey, set to be worn by the team during the season.



Bulgaria NC jersey to be worn by Petar Panayotov in RR and Valentin Stoenchev (TT)



Italy NC jersey to be worn by Riccardo Ricco (RR)



Albania NC jersey to be worn by Xhuliano Kamberaj (RR and TT)



Lithuania NC jesey to be worn by Ramunas Navardauskas (TT)



Venezuela NC jersey to be worn by Hersony Canelon (RR)

What do you think about the 2019 jersey collection? Let us know.

With the midseason in progress the Adastra - Hell Energy Cycling announced two new sponsorship deals that will go into effect next MGUCI season. Clothing brand Kappa and Hyundai Motor Company will join the team for the 2020 season. "We're delighted to welcome Kappa and Hyundai to the team for the 2020 season." - said ivaneurope, CEO of Adastra Cycling Ltd..

Kappa replaces fellow italian brand Errea, whose sponsorship agreement ends at the end of the season. One of the reasons that were rumoured for seeking new clothing partner was the jerseys of the national champions - some of which failed to pass the MGUCI quality control. Errea tried to create NC jerseys, based on national team jerseys in other sports such as football and volleyball, but some designs were not accepted. The end of the agreement with Errea also means that BioRacer will no longer be partner of the team - instead it will be �le who will produce the kits for next season under the �le by Kappa label.

Hyundai is set to replace Citroën as the vehicle sponsor of the team. The company will provide cars and free service to the vehicles as part of the agreement. It's also expected the the team could use the Hyundai Motorsport motif as potential design for their kit, but this is yet to be confirmed by both sides

Among other sponsorship deals it was announced that Metinvest will not return to the team after the 2-year deal (signed in 2018) expires. Both parties confirmed that this is not due to performance related issues, but rather caused by corporate restructuring by Metinvest aimed at cost cutting with sponsorships given much less budget. Rokit also announced that they will not excercise their extension cluse as they want to focus more on their main deals with the Williams F1 team and Houston Rockets basketball team. The deal with Swiss bike company Scott will enter into its second year with the team, while it is belived that DT Swiss has also signed a lont term deal with the team.

Also, it is currently unknown if the team will remain solely under Canadian nationality or seek secondary nationality.

Today the Adastra - Hell Energy Cycling announced that Hyundai Motor Company has purchased 20% stake of Adastra Cycling Ltd.. The Korean automotive manufacturer has decided to invest more in cycling and starting from the next season the team will undergo another rebranding with the new official name will be Adastra Hyundai N Hell Energy Cycling. The team's colors are yet to be determined, but according to sources Hyundai's distinctive shade of blue, found on Hyundai's racing cars.

With the 2019 MGUCI season drawing to a close for Adastra - Hell Energy Cycling, the team has announced key changes in the executive branch of the team as well as the plans for the 2020 season. The first thing that was announced was the arrival of former head of PR and Marketing director of Metinvest Anastasiya Klymenko as the new marketing director. Klymenko left Metinvest, who will end their sponsorhip of the team at the end of the season, in early 2019. She admitted that Adastra have contacted her in the middle of the year offering the position. Both the team and Metinvest have denied that the end of their relationship has anything to do with Klymenko's negotiations with the team and all parties agreed to not announce her appointment in public until the later stages of the season.

"I'm please to announce the arrival of Anastasiya Klymenko to our executive team. Also I'd like to thank Metinvest for their understanding and I'd like to express my gratitude for the 2 years our team had partnership with them." - said ivaneurope, CEO of Adastra Hyundai Cycling GmbH

You may be surprised that the name of the license holder has changed. Following the purchase of 20% of Adastra Cycling Ltd., Hyundai Motor Europe GmbH and the team had revealed their intentions to move to new HQ in Frankfurt, Germany. To reflect this change the company was renamed Adastra Hyundai Cycling GmbH. Currently it is unknown if the team will change nationalites (the team is racing under Canadian flag), but according to RTL the team will race with German license as primary and Canadian as secondary. It is also believed that the team will focus more on European riders, but the team refused to comment on any rider decisions until the off-season.

"Currently the team is not going to answer questions regarding our current riders or any other rider. What you read in the press about potential interest in rider X are pure rumours" - replied ivaneurope to a question from German journalist. "Now especially is not the time to tell who we target next season - there're rules by the MGUCI and I'd like to adhere by them."

After it was revealed that the Adastra Hyundai N Hell Energy Cycling (as the team would be called in 2020) will move its HQ in Germany and most likely compete under German flag, now German cycling outlets published a leak of what is suposed to be the 2020 jersey for the team. It's been confirmed that Alé in cooperation with Kappa will become the team's official and apparel supplier for the 2020 season with design and colors being unconfirmed. The leak though gives us first glimpse on how the team's jersey will look:

As you may see, the team retained the familiar white, red and black color combination present since the 2018 season when Adastra became the majpr sponsor of the team. Unlike the past season, this season the team ditches the multi-color front in favor of a more dominant white with red and black boxes for the Adastra and Hyundai logos respectively as well as alternating red and black stripes at the bottom.

The team was asked for a comment about the leak, which is yet to be given.

Rider	Rank	Points	RD	PPRD
Hersony Canelon	16	336	47	7,15
Riccardo Zoidl	42	181	56	3,23
Michal Kukrle	91	80	71	1,13
Enrico Battaglin	101	73	68	1,07
Ramunas Navardauskas	50	145	51	2,84
Petar Panayotov	52	144	51	2,82
Adam Toupalik	151	39	72	0,54
Tadej Pogacar	102	70	63	1,11
Krzysztof Marchewka	168	34	60	0,57
Xhuliano Kamberaj	159	38	59	0,64
Riccardo Ricco	200	24	57	0,42
Hideto Nakane	219	20	49	0,41
Max Losch	235	15	43	0,35
Valentin Stoenchev	249	13	52	0,25
Meron Amanuel	254	12	59	0,2
Zachary Hughes	275	8	49	0,16
Alexander Cowan	281	7	59	0,12
Tom Thill	116	58	61	0,95
Ole Haavardsholm	152	38	58	0,66
Troels Vinther	NC	0	39	0
Viktor Filutas	NC	0	66	0

As you can see, 20 riders out of the 22-rider roster have managed to score at least a sigle point. However, only four have scored more than 100 points. And what's more amusing is that the best rider - Hersony Canelon, has more points than the second and third best riders on the team (Riccardo Zoidl and Ramunas Navardauskas) COMBINED. Petar Panayotov has regressed significantly - after being the best rider for 2 seasons, he fell to 4th behind Canelon, Zoidl and Navardauskas (all three being in their first year with the team). Xhuliano Kamberaj, who finished his 3rd year withe the organization and first as a perament member, scored 38 points.

Rider	Points	Wage	WPP
Hersony Canelon	336	65000	193
Riccardo Zoidl	181	75000	414
Michal Kukrle	80	50000	625
Enrico Battaglin	73	50000	685
Ramunas Navardauskas	145	100000	690
Petar Panayotov	144	120000	833
Adam Toupalik	39	50000	1282
Tadej Pogacar	70	100000	1429
Krzysztof Marchewka	34	50000	1471
Xhuliano Kamberaj	38	60000	1579
Riccardo Ricco	24	55000	2292
Hideto Nakane	20	65000	3250
Max Losch	15	50000	3333
Valentin Stoenchev	13	50000	3846
Meron Amanuel	12	56000	4667
Zachary Hughes	8	50000	6250
Alexander Cowan	7	50000	7143
Tom Thill	58	0	N/A
Ole Haavardsholm	38	0	N/A
Troels Vinther	0	50000	N/A
Viktor Filutas	0	50000	N/A

Canelon's 65k wage and his 336 points tally mean that every point the Venezuela RR champion won costed the team 193 MG$. However he was the only rider to earn less than 200 MG$ per point and 11 riders were above 1000 MG$ per point

redordead wrote:
Canelon was for sure the surprise package of the team. The end result in the standings is probably not what you hoped it, but it looks like the team took a step forward.

Some retooling is still needed, but in Canelon, Zoidl and Navardauskas you have a nice base to attack promotion next season

With the off-season being on and the renewals on the horizon, what will be the next move for the team. In the CT standings the team finished 8th, which was way outside of the Top 5 spots which give automatic promotion berths to the PCT and managemnt admits that promotion via disbands seems highly unlikely. This means, you've guessed it, another season in the CT. This means that the team will again be limited in terms of transfer and payroll budget.

The team has 22 riders on their books with 16 riders being on contract with the team, 4 riders were loaned in and 2 riders were from the additional free rider quota. In attempt to retool the team, most of the squad will be gone after renewals. The team has said that between 6-8 riders at maximum would create the backbone of the team come transfer season. But which ones will get the coveted contract extensions.

One of the riders that would have guarantee contract is Hersony Canelon. The 31 y.o. from Venezuela joined from the defunct Team Reddit as Free Agent and he instantly became the best rider in a team that wasn't concentrated on sprints. He won several stages during the season and won the only GC win for the team at the Course de Solidarnosc in Poland late in the season. Following this stellar season in CT, he'll surely want an extension, but the team's main worries are his age and stats compared to his rivals. Should he sign an extension a supporting cast needs to be built.

The second rider that will most likely gain a new contract is Riccardo Zoidl. After years of being part of Sauber Petronas' squad Zoidl was acquired by Adastra in a bid from the Austrian to change the scenery. Allthough he never won a race, he made the Top 10 on several occasions which includes Euskal Bizikleta, Tour de San Luis and Hong Kong Challenge. He'll most likely be inclined to take a pay cut given his age.

Ramunas Navardauskas is also set on extending his contract after some Top 10 performances in races such as Jelajah SKL, Philadelphia International Championship and being key part of the TT machine that took sadly a deep hit after failing to defend its Vilnius GP win from last year after finishing 5th (which coincidently was the only acheived goal this season). His wage of 100k could be a roadblock in the negotiations, but the team believes that both sides can reach a deal.

Xhuliano Kamberaj didn't had a season to remember, but the team is dead set on keeping him in the long term. Max Losch could also be retained as part of Canelon's supporting cast as well as his compatriot Tom Thill, who proved to be decent rider for the team.

The real issue is Petar Panayotov. After two seasons of being the key contributor of the team, he fell off in 2019 and was the 4th best rider of the team. Sure, he had several Top 10-15 finishes, but that's was off from the 2018 season, where he won Giro del Trentino as well as Bulgarian RR NC. He's paid 120k this season which is the highest sum paid to a rider within the team. The problem here is is he really worth keeping after the team going into different direction and given his age, he'll most likely start to decline.

Riders that will most likely be gone are Troels Vinther, Alexander Cowan, Zachary Hughes, Meron Ammanuel, Hideto Nakane, Enrico Battaglin, Riccardo Ricco (who will most likely retire), Ole Haavardsholm and Krzysztof Marchewka.

Af the Road World Championships, held this year in the Vitosha mountain near Sofia, Bulgaria, the off-season has officially begun. But for one of the Bulgarian riders, who took part in this race the future is not looking certain.

Petar Panayotov didn't had the best of seasons in 2019, finishing 52nd after a stron 2018 campaign that propelled the team from the bottom of the league to strong midfield team. This season he wasn't the top contributor and that title went to the Venezuelan sprinter Hersony Canelon, as well as other veterans such as Riccardo Zoidl and Ramunas Navardauskas. Pana didn't manage to finish the Worlds RR, which proved to be a race of attrition. At the end of the race he was asked by journalists about the race.

"Obviously pulling out of your home race hurts, but that's the way it is. I'm happy for Marto (Martin Grashev), he did a fantastic job."

When he was asked about his future, he replied that "...a decision hasn't been made yet" fuelling speculation that the national championships would be his last not only in Adastra jersey, but also in his career. With the team going into different direction having fully relocated their base from Bulgaria to Germany and successfully applied for German license, the media speculates that Panayotov (who is the highest paid rider in the roster at 120k) would no longer be needed with the chance of being axed at the renewals. At 32 years old he's the oldest rider in the roster with possible steep decline afterwards and with the team looking elsewhere, both sides have perhaps seen where the winds are blowing. Both sides have actually admitted that maybe it's be for the best if they go their separate ways.

With the 2020 season nearing its beginning, for Adastra - Hell Energy Cycling (to be called Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling from 2020) the renewal period will be a tough when it comes to making decisions. Following the renewals of the team licenses, the team has lost any theoretical chance to climb up to the PCT division (the team has finished 8th this season). With another season in the lowest level, which was jokingly called "the scrapyard" by some team employees, and having to operate on restricted payroll the team is looking at all of its available options come renewal time. But even between the senior team members there has been friction over what direction the team should head to.

One rumour the has been floated around is that a senior member has proposed the idea of completely blowing the team up - i.e. releasing all of the riders currently under contract and start from scratch. The identity of the member in question was not revealed, but according to insiders it is believed to be COO Andrey Zeits to one behind the idea of striping everything for fresh start. The idea was however met with strong resistance from other key members which could be Anastasiya Klymenko (the head of PR and Marketing) and Clive Ebejer (one of the senior coaches). The opposition believes that if the team starts transfer season with no riders under payroll the chances of acquiring big free agents are not high anyway as it is believed by insiders that the 2020 free agent class to be one of the weakest in years.

The other argument against undertaking such radical direction is that the relationship with other teams could be difficult with teams being hesitant to enter transfer talks with Adastra. It is also believed that the sponsors (Hyundai is believed to be strongly against the idea) are also not on board with this radical proposal.

The team has yet to comment on the speculations, but for now the team refuses to comment on anything regarding rider retainment.