Hope Tao delivers for you; his wage to quality ratio is indeed in a great spot.
Also cool to see him get trained. Looking forward to future duels between him and Leknessund.
As of this day, Isostar - Specialized seizes its activities after a 7-year spell in MG pro cycling. An era of Slovenian cycling ends with the threepeat of 2020-2022.
2016: Isostar - Adriatic
Team manager Kristijan Brajkovíc created Isostar - Adriatic in 2016, achieving promotion in his first year. Igor Anton (coming from Hugo Boss), Andrew Tennant (after promoting awesome Strava) and Jempy Drucker were main characters of a team whose highest wage rider was level 3 loan out Jan Polanc, who would turn into a prime performer for the team lateron. With Bazhkou, Kamberaj and Potocki the team had an unusual 4 loan-outs with no loan-ins as a first year, aiming at building the Eastern European core. With Luka Mezgec, Grega Bole and Luka Pibernik the team already had 3 Slovenians contributing well.
Final Result: 7th CT
2017: Isostar - Adriatic
For the 2017 PCT season, Isostar - Adriatic had its potentially most outstanding season: As a newly promoted team the squad again spent most wages on an unmaxed rider, this time it was local hero Matej Mohoric. The projected world class puncheur was meant to be the big scorer in the PT push next season, but others stepped in so well it came early. Marko Kump was the star of the show in PCT, using his hilly sprinter skillset to lead Isostar to finishing 2nd after transferring over from the admired Hugo Boss by dev4ever. His supporting cast of Roy Jans and Ramunas Navardauskas was elite, the latter surprised all together with Stan "the man" Bazhkou and local star Matej Mugerli (before rising into the management) in the hybrid races Isostar utilized to perfection. Mohoric already contributed big time alongside Xavier Quevedo, while former superstar Janez Brajkovic joined his homeside to prove himself in one last dance. Matthias Brändle did his job in the heavier TT stage races to cause a major upset promotion for the team.
Final Result: 2nd PCT
2018: Isostar Slovenija
Having achieved what only elite managers Shonak and knockout achieved to that day, a double-promoted Isostar Slovenija was all about avoiding relegation and promoting Slovenian cycling. One big fish in the pond was meant to secure exactly that: Local superstar Simon Spilak arrived from GOAT-manager SotD to lead the team with a maxed Matej Mohoric and a juiced up Marko Kump alongside him. Jan Polanc led the team on cobbles, while young talent David Per was developing into a monster (what a ride he had over two years Philips!). The team invested into youngsters Novak, Pavlic, Groselj, Korosec, Roman and Rumac to further promote the region. Experienced Faiers, Kratochvila, Wyss and, yes, Riccardo Ricco as a lieutenant for Simon Spilak rounded out the roster to finish 9th in the first PT season. Spilak couldn't win the desired Tour de France, but still achieved great success finishing 4th in the individual PT standings. Mohoric almost scored 4-digit points in his first maxed season, while Kump and Polanc both added over 500.
Final Result: 9th PT
One big moment for Slovenian cycling came at the end of the season, where a team around Matej Mohoric and Evonik alumni Mark Dzamastagic guided Marko Kump to a Slovenian World Champions title, an achievement that made all nation-building and training ambitions worthwile!
2019: Isostar - LimeBike
New sponsor LimeBike brought consistency into the team, that kept the core (though Spilak slightly declined) but added Martijn Keizer as a TT-heavy stage racer, a rider type with tradition at Isostar (Tennant, Brändle). He was meant to add the missing scoring to establish the team as a top class side. Further improvements were made in the training room with self-developed Matej Mohoric, who now was one of the best puncheurs in the world. David Per was ready to co-lead the team alongside Polanc on the cobbles as a lvl4-rider already. Spilak, still amazingly strong, decided to focus on the Giro to grab his laurels with a new supporting cast including Augustyn, Gilanipoor, young loan-in Frankiny and the developing home-grown Aleks Roman and Daniel Jaramillo. This proved to be effective, as Spilak took the first GT for the team and rode into pink ahead of Silvio Herklotz, a rider Isostar would often clash with in the future.
The team also focussed on attacking on the flat, not only with David Per. New signings Peeter Tarvis, Jetse Bol and Gasper Katrasnik provided similarly great scoring as a Slovenian loan-in from Norway, surprising with one of the most iconic wins in team history.
At the end of the year the team finished 5th, upgrading further from the 1st PT season. With Spilak slowly declining and Kump not getting younger himself, the team needed to be creative to further strive for ultimate success.
Final Result: 5th PT
2020: Isostar - Specialized
With Mount Triglav on the shirt and Specialized as new co-sponsor, Isostar tried to step it one up, though not without a loss. Both Simon Spilak and the beloved Arrow from Dolenjska, Marko Kump, left the side in the quest for bringing in a superstar in his prime. And after a year where Isostar missed out narrowly, they signed Taylor Phinney from Grieg, only to beef him up into the most elite Stage Racer of present time. He was joined by Primoz Roglic, who came over from Generali in the Spilak deal to fit the identity perfectly. Bakthiyar Kozhatayev, Vegard Bugge and Lilian Calmejane joined to improve depth scoring, while a surprisingly strong contribution came from lvl 4 siginings Nans Peters and especially Davide Gabburo, who both excelled on the attack. Mikel Bizkarra replaced the climbers alongside developing Aleks Roman by ravaging on the breakaway mountain stages hunting for KOMs and stages. David Per, fully developped, almost scored 4-digit numbers, with Novak and Roglic taking another 600 each. The big one was Taylor Phinney though, going all the way to take the individual title (and added the WC ITT to our achievement lists).
That effort was enough to finish an upset as a team, winning the PT team crown for Slovenia in a tight battle ahead of the 4 PT giants Evonik, Puma, Moser and Festina. The ultimate dream come true, and that with 5/6 Slovenian riders as best scorers, and 5/7 best scores being home grown in the Isostar academy.
Final Result: 1st PT
2021: Isostar - Specialized
For 2021 the team aimed at returning with the squad in similar fashion, but wage constraints made that impossible. Primoz Roglic left the team, and then dominos fell: The management got the opportunity to sign both star puncheur Alexey Lutsenko from King Power and Fernando Gaviria from Lierse. This came with a price though, sacrificing long-term heroes Jan Polanc, Domen Novak and Matej Mohoric on the way to try themselves in new environments after winning it all with the team. Fernando came out of training camp in perfect shape and delivered with the dominant train of 2021. Alex Riabushenko (loaned in from VisitUkraine) and Pavel Bernas proved key to this train, but Gaviria also delivered without it to take yet another WC home, while Phinney took the ITT in New York as well.
Romain Bardet was a key addition in the stage hunting department, often using Gavin Mannion, Antonio Pedrero and Carl Frederik Hagen as support guys for him and Aleks Roman to hunt jerseys and stages. Kevin Inkelaar was integral to the team's success, continuing the loan bond between Philips and Isostar by scoring mighty 658 points and winning KOMs, white jerseys and stages at every level, even at the Tour de France.
This led to a massive season, where Taylor took the individual scoring crown, Fernando finished 5th and Alexey 11th. Combining for 9294 points, Isostar finished a historic season in the PT drivers seat ahead of Puma, Evonik, Festina and ISA.
Final Result: 1st PT
2022: Isostar - Specialized
After that successful season, wage rises were always going to be a problem: One of the big 4 had to leave, and it was Lutsenko that we couldn't keep. The Kazakh champ left in a deal adding Tao Geoghegan Hart from Gazelle, who demanded less wage will getting trained to become a very valuable scorer. He was joined by Sergio Higuita over from Xero, an investment meant to be a long-term partner in crime for Gaviria and the colombian sponsors. Juan Chamorro, Daniel Jaramillo and Jan Drago Petelin joined the climbing section that suffered the loss of Aleks Roman as well. The roleurs section faced steady improvements since 2020, with the self developed influx of Rickaert and Peak (2020), Sweeny (2021) and Andersen (2022), while also snapping up Cherkasov to perfectly support Gaviria and Per. While both didn't achieve their maximum output, they were as integral as Taylor Phinney, who scored the individual crown for the 3rd time in a row. The sacrifice of riding no GT over those years was a necessary one to make, as it proved successful in the closing stages of the year once more: Isostar won the PT for a 3rd time in a row! A small margin over arising friends King Power and Puma was enough to secure a spot at the top of MG history.
Final Result: 1st PT
Isostar's rise to success has always been one of quite some rider turnover, yet always kept regional demands in mind. This idea culminated in 2020, arguably the most amazing season in team history. The team always banked a lot on cheap riders other teams overlooked in free agency and smart loans to make the most out of salary cap constraints and allow for the big guns to get paid accordingly. To honor all the small and big contributors to Isostar success over 7 years, we like to proudly present our hall of fame!
Hall of Fame
Legends
Jan Polanc
2016-2020
Marko Kump
2017-2019
Matej Mohoric
2017-2020
David Per
2017-2022
Simon Spilak
2018-2019
Taylor Phinney
2020-2022
Icons
Igor Antón
2016
Stanislau Bazhkou
2016-2017
Janez Brajkovic
2017
Domen Novak
2017-2020
Aleksandar Roman
2018-2021
Alexey Lutsenko
2021
Fernando Gaviria
2021-2022
Fan Favourites
Andrew Tennant
2016
Jempy Drucker
2016
Luka Mezgec
2016
Grega Bole
2016
Martin Laas
2016-2018
Gasper Katrasnik
2016, 2019
Matej Mugerli
2017
Ramunas Navardauskas
2017
Matthias Brändle
2017
Roy Jans
2017, 2020
Daniel Jaramillo
2017-2019, 2022
Thomas Faiers
2018
Herrman Pernsteiner
2018-2019
Dusan Kalaba
2018-2019
Martijn Keizer
2019
Peeter Tarvis
2019-2020
Bakthiyar Kozhatayev
2020
Lilian Calmejane
2020
Davide Gabburo
2020
Mikel Bizkarra
2020
Barnabas Peak
2020-2022
Jonas Rickaert
2020-2022
Alexandr Riabushenko
2021
Pawel Bernas
2021
Romain Bardet
2021
Shaun Nick Bester
2021-2022
Tao Geoghegan Hart
2022
Sergio Higuita
2022
Juan Chamorro
2022
And that's it, thank you for seven years of support with the team, and guiding our ways all the ways from the bottom to the top. We had a lot of managers inspiring us on the way, including but not limited to Selwink, knockout, Shonak, DubbelDekker and dev4ever. It was a pleasure to be part of this game for so long, now it's time to (finally) pass it on to other managers. Thank you for an amazing time all the way, from reporters to organizers to all the Skype talks and people that were just nice and commented, in shared races on the HQ or times when I reported races passionately (long time ago, I know). I'll stay around looking at race reports or as a person to talk to when transfer season catches fire surely, but the decision of disbanding the team is a final one that grew over multiple months. That said, I love the man-game and I love the state it is in right now with a whole bunch of amazing people.
Congrats on the PT title and on your 'retirement', I guess
3-peating PT with another dominant season by Phinney and homegrown David Per winning a monument with Paris - Roubaix seems like a perfect way to go out
I don't know too much about the history of MG, but you have to go down as one of GOATs of the game
Isostar were definitely an inspiration to me as I started the ManGame. In fact before applying for joining I noticed the game mostly by seeing your team. Kump was winning races in that PCT season and I was confused as hell why Polanc was riding cobbles
Thanks for all the memories and contributions! Have fun and good luck!
First of all, big congrats! Winning the PT three times in a row is a feat only some very select managers achieved so far - SotD and yourself, as you surely know. Having the best rider on board - at least looking at his three individual wins in a row - surely helped, but you simply built a fantastic team year after year. You were always forced to rebuild parts of your team due to wage demands increasing with your great success - and you always found a solution. Congrats again!
Now, I'm really sad to see you go. It's understandable, and stopping when having reached the summit is pretty neat, but for MG it isn't cool We're losing first of all a cool person, but also a great manager and a regular contributor (reports and other admin stuff earlier, race and HQ comments nowadays). I'm glad you finally decided to continue after being close to disbanding already after the 2019 season iirc, but I'm still sad that this moment has come now.
I wish you all the best for your non-MG projects, and I'm glad you'll still be sticking around And who knows, maybe in some years...
You'd made some comments along these lines so can't say it's a shock but certainly not the news I expected or wanted to wake up to. I don't really think I can put into words a proper tribute to the team or more importantly you.
It's cool seeing you name the managers who inspired you, as I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that you would be the first name on my list of most inspiring managers despite starting in the same year. That 2017 PCT team might still be my all-time favourite non-Xero MG squad and it was such a cool season. I carved out my own Xero identity more and more over the years but I think every PCT Xero squad was in some way chasing Isostar 2017.
As so many people can attest you are a very fun, helpful, friendly and generous guy to have in the MG and I have absolutely loved sharing the last seven seasons with you. I think that part is more important to say for me than the obvious stuff others could easily also wax lyrical about in how great a manager and team builder you are.
Finally, my Isostar jersey rankings:
1. 2017
2. 2021
3. 2019
4. 2018
5. 2020
6. 2022
7. 2016
I think I've criticised a lot of them at some point (usually on first seeing them lol) but I do really like or love them all except 2016 and maybe 2022, 1 and 2 are very tight and then 3-5 could easily be in any order too.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Was hoping this wouldn't happen any time soon but here we are!
You were basically the one who convinced me to join MG way back in 2017. You were also the first team I made signings from. You were the one I asked most for MG related help in my first couple of seasons, and always got a ready response. Isostar indeed were also the team I idolized mostly, and tried to emulate, and failed miserably
Really sad to see you go, and do hope you find the motivation again in a couple of seasons maybe to want to come back and start all over again
First of all congrats to the PT title and the domination you build over the past couple years, easily becoming one of the biggest MG teams of the MG history. Really an impressive management you got there to always make very good decisions and barely fail.
Regarding the end of the story, it`s really sad to hear. Never nice to see long term managers leaving, in especially managers that contributed a lot including lots of background stuff.
It was always a pleasure to have a chat with you and wish you all the best.
Good to hear that you won`t leave the game/site fully and will be around for nice chats still.
Wait, WHAT? You'll leave the MGUCI circuit? It's really sad day, but at least you bow out in style on the very top of the mountain. And some of Isostar's alumni have been riding for my team as well.
It's been pleasure to do transfer deals with you. Hopefully this won't be a definitve goodbye, but rather see you later. Best of luck.
I can imagine this was not an easy decision to make. I'm glad you ended your career with a bang. To be fair, in all of Los Pollos' existence, the PT winner was Isostar, so for me it feels more like a regular season than a bang An active manager like you will definitely be missed, so just like the others I'd love to see you come back one day for a new project.
In the name of the promoting PCT managers I'd also like to thank you for giving them a big extra opportunity to stay in the PT with names like Phinney, Gaviria and Per
Congratulations on completing the triple, mate! Sad to see you go, but I understand the decision. Hope you'll one day return for a second ManGame speedrun.
I've always liked the rider composition of your team very much. Truly a master squad builder and legend of the game. It was a pleasure chatting and doing transfer business with you.
Gutted to see you leave. I've only been here so short, but for the past year you were a god to me. The unreachable valhalla of PT, with you being the back to back, and now triple, Kings of it. I'll certainly miss you as I've already said. But I'm glad to see you'll be around. Hopefully you'll make a comeback someday! Cheers
Very sad day for the MG to see you leave but i hope we'll remain in contact outside of it and i would love to take up your offer to discuss thoughts about it. When you joined the MG, i knew you from the ICL but had no idea that our mg paths would intertwine this much.
We had a sort-of rivalry on the road with some brilliant ranking fights that rarely felt like a rivalry to me due to our friendship outside of it. Sometimes it felt like you had so much luck that you were unbeatable but as the old saying goes " Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity" and i know the work you put in to set yourself up for it to deserve every last bit of it.
Off the road, i dont think there was a single manager that i talked to more. Even when it looked like we would never find a deal that benefitted both of us equally at first, we still ended up with some big deals between us the last few years that required a lot of trust and goodwill on both parts.
Touching ending write-up there and i feel honored that I/Evonik was mentioned multiple times. Oh and congrats for another fully deserved and unchallenged title!
Jokes aside, very sad to see you leave the MG, I hope that in a season or two you will have the fire to start managing again. We've had a lot of discussions around various of elements of the MG over the years, whether that has been transfer dealings or other aspects you have been a great person to spare with.
Obviously you're going out on a high note, and I understand why you're quitting now after the fact that you've been hinting at it for a long time, so leaving on a threepeat is a great way to leave your mark on MG history.
Two of the biggest leaders have come from dealings with you, first Thomas Faiers who blasted us back into the PCT as our first true GC leader and then the big gun Marko Kump who couldn't keep me in the PCT but absolutely dominated in the CT last season. There is a lot of inspiration in the way you orchestrated your teams over the years and with you and I having a lot of the same priorities when it comes to fun upside riders you leave behind one of the most fun teams to follow in MG history!
Thanks for everything, hopefully you'll be back as an active manager again at some point in the future.
I guess there's no where to go after winning the PT 3 years in a row.
If I remember correctly, you also considered this last year, but I was hoping maybe you'd chose a change a focus instead like SotD did and as I suggested to Roman in the rankings thread.
If you'll continue to follow the game, we can only hope it will be tempting enough for you to come back at some point.
Can only parrot what others have said, but if this really is it for you on the MG what a fucking way to go out! Congratulations on the 3-peat, it’s truly a test of perseverance to have to scrap your team and re-build every year due to crazy wages etc. and a testament to your Managment skill. I’m glad you’ll still be hanging around, and wish you all the best with where life takes you. Hopefully back into the MG at some point, sooner rather than later. Was a pleasure
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
