No at all Mico, I'm pretty sure that's another bug. Anyway, next week I have 2 races that are on their list (one star), so maybe that will change something. But the main thing is, it looks like their happiness doesn't affect my future sponsors as I got another few good offers from Coca-Cola, Gazprom, Warner Bross, Siemens and Puma. It talks now, but don't wanna rush. I'm gonna wait at least untill June with signing a deal. Anyway it looks like I'm gonna get some good money, and due to wages bug I won't be able to spend it all again, so I decided to get a new trainer to replace my current sprinters trainer Alex Afonin with some decent one.
In a meantime Demare won another few races. He was 1st in Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt.
Arnaud Demare on the finish line of Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt.
And won 3 stages of 5 Jours de Dunkerque, finishing 1st in points and young classification and 3rd in general.
It looks like my promotion to Wolrd Tour is nearly certain, as at the moment I am 1232 points clear ahead of Roubaix Lille Metropole.
Edited by wroblitz on 16-09-2012 18:32
I really like Puma shirts (don't know what Gazprom's looks like), anyway I'm not such an aesthete to go for a shirt design. Call me materialist, but I can consider that factor only when budget of the sponsors is similar.
Just finished two simultaneously races (both on my sponsor's list - ranked 1 star) - Bayern - Rundfahrt (2.HC) and Ronde van Belgie (2.HC). Both 5-day long, with very similar stages. I had to separate my sprinting duet - Demare took part in Bayern - Rundfahrt, while Krivenco was fighting in Belgium. They both did pretty well fulfilling my sponsor's objectives, which was a stage win. Demare ended up winning all the flat stages apart from the last one, where he came 2nd, and Oleg Krivenco was bravely fighting with Peter Sagan, winning one of the stages, and becoming 2nd on another.
Narrow finish - Oleg Krivenco winning 1st stage of Ronde van Belgie 2016.
At the same time Demare was already dominating Bayern - Rundfahrt.
But everything was down to ITT sessions, and one hilly stage in Belgium. Malori won the German one, while in Belgium it was Luca Barla who didn't give any chance to the opposition.
They were both 1st in GC after that. Having just one flat stage in Bayern - Rundfahrt it was no problem to bring the yellow jersey home for Malori, but on Ronde van Belgie last stage is hilly, and Barla held only 22 sec lead. I was also counting on Aliu to get it, who's much better puncheur, and who was 56 sec behind. Unfortunatelly I failed to catch the breakaway, and win - alongside with the yellow jersey - went to one of them.
Coloured jerseys - Arnaud Demare and Adriano Malori on the last stage of Bayern - Rundfahrt 2016.
Earlier on Krivenco and Demare took two first places in Rogoland GP (1.1).
I'm also pretty close to sign my sponsor deal. It will be eighter Coca-Cola, FedEx or Volkswagen.
Btw, here's how my finances changed after signing with Mercedes-Benz.
My next race on the calendar was Skoda-Tour de Luxemburg. It started well, as on the prologue 4 of my riders finished top 10, with Michal Kwiatkowski being the best of them - finishing 2nd beating Fabian Cancellara.
Sole Pole - Michal Kwiatkowski during Skoda's prologue.
Then it wasn't so great. Demare won only 1 stage (however finishing top 5 all the time), and on the hilly stage Daniel Aliu came 9th. But then, for a change my team get back to tradition of winning KoM jerseys dominating it with great Kwiatkowski's perfomance.
I also decided to renew Castroviejo's and Kwiatkowski's contracts, and... signed my new sponsor deal! It looks like for next 2 years my team will be red, as after long negotiations I finally went for Coca-Cola, who's gonna pay €6.101.000 for having it's name on my rider's back.
To celebrate the fact that I will be getting 2x more money from my sponsor next year and the fact that due to wages bug I won't be able to spend it all on my wages I decided to get some staff instead.
Climber and puncheur trainer - Jacques Michuad.
Two scouts.
Polish - Marek Cichosz.
and Spanish - Alfonso Gutierrez.
Also I got my team first doctor ever. To make my relationship with future sponsor better I went for American - Brian Hayes.
My second group finally came to play. I came 3rd with Nunez (who actually progressed very well - ACC 82, SP 83) in ProRace Berlin losing only to Cavendish and Colbrelli. He also won stage 1 of Tour de Slovenie where he attacked on last hill alongside with Aliu and Ciolek getting 34 sec lead.
But apart from that stage and due to lack of climbers it was pretty poor tour for my team. Only managed to grab a mountain jersey (and even that came with some effort) and finish 14 in GC.
Tour de Slovenie (2.1)
Overall: 14th Aliu
Points: 8th Nunez
Mountain: 1st Rozada
Young: 1st Aliu
Team: 8th
Oleg Krivenco did pretty good on cobbles - winning Halle - Ingooigem.
Dirty win - Oleg Krivenco.
Also renewed contract with Monslave and decided not to resign with Aliu, Contofalsky, Eichler, Grabsh, Kiendys, Navardauskas. Still wondering about Rasmussen.
Edited by wroblitz on 19-09-2012 18:28
Downside are the russian riders you'll need to get. Siemens is German right?
Call me materialist, but I can consider that factor only when budget of the sponsors is similar. 
