@redordead: Thanks a lot! Yeah, that Per victory surely was the highlight of the season. It's been an awesome ride, and I'm very happy to have inspired (and confused) you & your team-building. It was a pleasure to represent the Balkans alongside you (and Djordje96 earlier), and it's an even bigger pleasure to have grown friends with you on & off ManGame.
@Fabianski: Thank you very much. It's an honor to be mentioned there alongside Festina. Phinney indeed was amazing, though one also have to note that I always sacrificed the biggest prestiges (GTs) for the maximum points. Farther, I'm also happy to have continued even if (as you pointed out) reduced in administrative activities but still active in race threads and HQs, but at the same time it would've felt wrong to continue without the ability to contribute to the level I am now. It feels like other, more active managers are more deserving of the best riders and the PT title fight than I am, and it only feels right to play when I'm 100% committed to an idea to pursue.
@jandal7: Lovely that you share my enjoyment of the 2017-team (and shirt), maybe the (back then) lit HQ helped with that as well. It's very cool that you felt inspired by the teambuilding, and with me loving your squad it feels like it worked well. I can only give those laurels back to you, you've been one of my closest friends on daily and I value that highly. Conglomerate previews with you were legendary anyway. Also: I can't wait to finally get that daily meet up done with you, so finally get your ass over to Europe.
I'd be interested how other managers rank the shirts though, over the years bwiggins, the_hoyle and hillis have created some masterpieces imo. I'd disagree with your ranking, but let's see what others say.
@AbhishekLFC: Always tried my best to get the coolest people around on daily to join MG so happy it worked for you! I'll always be indebted to you with how Per developed his winning spirit in the two amazing seasons he had with you, I hope he'll at some point ride again for your squad. I will follow your MG journey with great interest my friend!
@roturn: Thank you very much for the nice words. You know my grind well, so while my determination may have been annoying sometimes, I'm happy how it has always been great talks with MG administration (and with that I basically mean you
) True, it feels pretty bad to leave but also the time feels right, so happy to stick around in chit-chat anywhere on daily.
@ivaneurope: It's always been a pleasure to talk to you and interact with your squad, I wish you all the best!
@Nemolito: It certainly wasn't, trust me on that. For me every title feels like a big thing, so I celebrate this well. But now you can be happy that there certainly will be a new one, and I feel like it's the right timing to take a step back. Well probably the wrong year for you, but it will be interesting to see who snaps them up indeed.
@DubbelDekker: Thank you very much! It's flattering from the manager of the team that I've probably most idolized for team building and transfer target selection. It was nice to finally had a deal with you this year after so many years of trying to get all the cool riders from you (I remember how hard i pushed for my all time favourite MG rider and possibly RL rider Tanel Kangert). I'll follow your journey for sure.
@KaiserAdler: I'm glad we got a cool crop of new managers last year including you. Thank you for your nice words for our
#meninlime, I feel like itÄs a good time that the next generation of cool green teams takes over
We'll surely continue our good talks on MG!
@knockout: I'm pretty sure we will both keep in contact and talk MG stuff for hours and nights. It's truely amazing which types of friendships can start by (first ICL and then) MG talks, that spirit is what keeps me invested into daily (and the daily meetups of course).
I agree that we had great fights and alliances on the MG roads, and that I've been on the luckier side plenty of times when we clashed in PT. Your mastering of MG analytics that I'm always astonished by pretty surely will bring you the title at some point, and I can't wait to celebrate it once Evonik is where it belongs. Talking about our deals, I can only echo how it's quite insane that we got together for win-win deals even when the both of us targetted similar riders, and I feel like we've influenced each other quite a bit over the years of talks in our taste for certain riders and rider types.
Thanks a lot for the nice words on both out season, our great relationship and our write-up that really got harder and harder to write the deeper I went into the writing. Wasn't easy to hit the "post reply" there, trust me.
@whitejersey: In MG offseason-madness our skype-chat was always one of the busiest, which I was very happy for. It's been my pleasure! Due to our tight relationship I always followed your team closely, from the success of former riders like Faiers and Potocki over the really cool teambuilding often around strenght in numbers to the amazing time you gave Marko Kump in his final years. As communicated back then, after training him up I really really wanted to see the Arrow from Dolenjska as a winner and not as a fizzling our rider, and your team provided exactly the ladder stages in his career he deserved. A great role in the team and delivering fantasticly for multiple years. I'll root for your side both for you as an amazing manager and for your team as a very cool constellation of likeable riders.
@alexkr00: That's indeed part of the reasoning, and I thought about such transformation. But I honestly deel like I had a fantastic time promoting Slovenian cycling to a realistic degree a WT team can provide, and with Cedevita holding our flag and doing more for Slovenian cycling these days (and many Slovenians at very cool teams) it would've felt wrong to claim that nation-building status. With Isostar history, especially from my earlier MG days, it wouldn't have fit into the narrative if I would've chosen any other country or region.
@Eden95: Cheers mate! It's been a hustle, but one that was always amazingly fun to push through. Looking forward to follow MG in the future from a more neutral perspective.
@baseballlover312: Honestly I don't think so. Long-term I think the vision would've been to go for a Slovenia-Colombia dual narrative training up Higuita alongside Gaviria and Per, but I couldn't find the same passion for the plan as I had for plans in the past. As described earlier, alongside other factors that decided the fate more than a "perfect ending" with the treble, though going out on a high is always nice. I also have to thank you for the nice conversations over time, it's been a pleasure!
@kandesbunzler26: Well I'm happy we finally got you to join the MG, and I really enjoyed following your first year (especially with how you let Teuns shine). Thank you for the nice words, it's my pleasure to have been recognized as a person you attach with the good things about daily. Hvala!
