jph27 wrote:
I like the news of Tuguldur leaving. That makes my life easier, for sure.
I was aware that this will make you happy, i was not sure if you are going to troll me and leave me with him in the squad, while i am not interested in him for 2013.
jph27 wrote:
I like the news of Tuguldur leaving. That makes my life easier, for sure.
I was aware that this will make you happy, i was not sure if you are going to troll me and leave me with him in the squad, while i am not interested in him for 2013.
Nah, but if you were to keep him then I would have held onto Eliad and used the money from Armavia to spend on Tuguldur.
jph27 wrote:
I like the news of Tuguldur leaving. That makes my life easier, for sure.
I was aware that this will make you happy, i was not sure if you are going to troll me and leave me with him in the squad, while i am not interested in him for 2013.
Nah, but if you were to keep him then I would have held onto Eliad and used the money from Armavia to spend on Tuguldur.
Well, his thinking was evil, but after all he is going to release Eliad, while you are holding on both Dviri and Shapira to rob me for money :/
What if I have tricked you instead, with giving false rumours about our riders of interests. Then you can sit there with your useless Israelians Edited by Bjartne on 27-11-2012 12:36
Well, these two are not useless at all, Shapira is staying (like Ruslan Popov mentioned in article) and is not for sale, while Dviri could be also useful if nobody wants him. Israeli TT champion could not be simply released to free agency.
Hello friends of cycling and team Metinvest-Emirates especially. My sources close to the team management are reporting heavy activity of the team on both transfer and free agent market.
It also says that many moves are just inches from being official and there are only hours left before they will be made public. So stay tunned!
Hello cycling fans, i have already informed you today that team Metinvest-Emirates is very close to their first signings and now i just returned from press conference, where they announced no less than 9 new signings for 2013 PCT season. And all of them for the minimum wage, despite some of them are really strong riders for the present, or the future. Here is the info about signed riders, as Ruslan Popov (CEO of Metinvest) gave it to us journalists...
Denys Karnulin- 50,000 €
First signing and one of the most important ones. Brightest homeland stage racing talent and possible successor of Jaroslav Popovych as the rider for GT top 10s.
Sergiy Lagkuti- 50,000 €
One of the best TTists from Ukraine, projected leader of our TT squad for the next year, also useful at stage races and leading out our sprinters.
Andriy Vasylyuk- 50,000 €
Strong and still young sprinter, potentially our sprint leader, depending on next signings. Can also serve the role of top lead-out man.
Anatoliy Pakthusov- 50,000 €
Brilliant signing just for the minimum wage contract, we are very happy to make a deal with Anatoliy, as he is great rider for the hilly terrain and potential luxury domestique for our leader there. He is 28 years old, so there is still time for improvements.
Oleksandr Grygorenko- 50,000 €
Another nice signing, we gained a very useful mountain and hilly domestique in person of Oleksandr. Welcome to our team...
Anatoliy Sosnitskiy- 50,000 €
Anatoliy was one of our main targets for the season, so susseccful negotiation of his minimum wage contract is great for us. Very talented rider, who could develop in top tier climber.
Giorgio Brambilla- 50,000 €
Our first Italian signing, we are very happy about, as we want to grow our Italian part of the squad. Perfect lead-out man and useful sprinter alone.
Andrea Palini- 50,000 €
Andrea is our second signing from Italy and this 24 year old puncher is the bet for the future. We feel he has the potential to lead us in hilly races in few years.
Mateusz Taciak- 50,000 €
We were scouting a lot also in the Polish region and Mateusz is one of the results. He is very good all-arounder, who is especially useful as stage racing domestique, with good both climbing and TT abilities.
As you can see, Metinvest made some great early moves for important riders, but the main stars of the team are yet to be signed and revealed. More info soon...
Four new riders: two from free agency, two via transfers!
After first nine new riders already reported to the team, here are the four yesterday's signing, including the bright star from South Africa! Team chief Ruslan Popov said about the new riders this morning:
Nolan Hoffman- 130,000 €
Biggest signing of the transfer season so far and we feel we gained the services of former track rider and fantastic sprinter for a very good wage. He will not be the best sprinter in the division, but his secondary stats are much better compared to some likes of Lo Cicero, so Metinvest is pretty confident, that Nolan will bring some points to the team.
Also our secondary sponsor Harmony Gold mining is super excited with this signing from their home country. Nolan Hoffman was one of our main priorities coming to the transfers, so getting him for a good money is rated as bright success.
Oleksandr Sheydyk- 50,000 €
Experienced rider and of the best climbers in Ukraine, signed for the minimal wage from the free agency. His job will be looking after our star signing, that will get announced later today.
Eros Capecchi- 65,000 € (100k transfer fee) Eros was our first trade of the season, as he was acquired from friendly squad Cisco cycling team, for a fee of 100,000 Euros. He is good flat rider and sprinter, but also with abilityy to come over the hills, or jump into the break. Nice signing and one more thing to please our italian co-sponsor Gruppo Lucchini.
Tareq Esmaeli- 50,000 € (50k transfer fee)
Some may remember we were after Tareq already in our first proffesional season, but it is now that we are able to gain his services from AMEX squad. He is a very good and young climber from important region for our sponsor Emirates. Tareq is also the reigning Qatari TT champion, welcome to Metinvest!
So these are the latest signings for the team Metinvest-Emirates, one cay say these are the good ones, especially Nolan Hoffman can be a good bargain. Rusaln Popov called press conference in few hours, where we believe the biggest star for 2013 will be revealed. Actually we can pretty much judge who this will be, but i am looking forward to it, because if it is him, it would be bombshell.
Two stars signed! One for the present, one for the future.
As i informed today morning, CEO of Metinvest called the press conference, but in the end it started two hours later than it formerly should. And now we know why. Because he was ready to not announce one big signing, but straight two! Here they are, commented by Ruslan:
Jaroslav Popovych 460,000 € (575k transfer fee)
Jaroslav is undisputed best rider from Ukraine of all time and bringing him to the recently formed Ukrainian cycling team was a main priority, even before the team was created. After the season in C2, our team was promoted to PCT and Popovych was our nr.1 target.
Thanks to smooth negotiations with nice management of Wiggle professional cycling team, our dream became reality and team now has one of the best stage racers of the last decade. He will be the clear leader in the most important races in 2013 and ideal role model for younger riders likes Karnulin. We feel confident about his chances on some HC races top placements.
Moreno Moser- 50,000 € (50k transfer fee)- LOAN
The young and promising Italian was part of the deal with Wiggle and he will be riding in our team only in 2013, while we will continue with his development and will try to improve his abilities, to show our good will to friendly management of Wiggle. He is nice flat domestique already and can help us in some races.
Eduard Grosu- 160,000 €
The young Romanian is the absolute stand-out signing of the season. He was scouted by many managers from different divisions, but he was excited with our 160,000 offer the most.
We feel Grosu has massive potential and it seems, he has more possible ways, in which rider he can shape up. But so far, it looks like he can become one of the fastest man worldwide. We are absolutely excited by this signing and we hope Eduard will like his new life in Ukraine and racing for Team Metinvest-Emirates.
So you are probably reading about these two signed riders with your mouth open, right? I was also thrilled when i see the riders being announced. Yeah, Popovych was expected by some, but still it is a super feeling, when you are the fan of the team.
There should be another press conference tommorow, so lets wait who it will be this time.
You team is shaping up nicely... And the addition of a certain mr. Suspicious... ääähhh... Popovych, should give you some nice results next season... Right now, I see myself bashing my head against the keyboard again, because I lost out to one of my fellow C2 managers
Thanks guys, i am really happy with how the transfers are going so far, here is another addition and more are coming today! We will be almost complete.
Experienced Canadian signed to help Popovych
Ryder Hesjedal- 80,000 € (300k transfer fee)
After quick and smooth negotiations with friendly german squad Rothaus-Aegon, we signed the experienced 33 years old stage racer. His best days as the leader might be over, but we hope and believe he will be the valuable asset to our squad for a one year at least.
His main role in Metinvest will be looking after our GC leader Jaroslav Popovych during the hard stage races and teaching the young talents how to cope with a life of a professional cyclist.
Welcome to Ukraine Ryder!
Eight new riders signed! Four talents straight loaned-out.
I have jusr returned from another press conference of Team Metinvest-Emirates and there is a lot to talk about also this time. Metinvest management and their head Ruslan Popov are very active during the transfer season left and right and more and more riders are coming to the team ranks. This press conference has seen announcement of no less than 8 new faces!
Vitaliy Popkov 110,000 €
One of our main transfer priorities and one of our designated leaders for the 2013 season in PCT. Vitaliy is a very good hilly rider and he combines that nicely with good abilities against the clock. He will lead the team in hilly races together with Pakthusov. We are thrilled by this signing, as he is one of the best proffesionals in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Dzhus- 50,000 € (loaned to PrivatBank)
Second new signing is one of the plenty Ukarainian talents, this time climbing talent to be precise. Volodymyr combines his climbing ability with fighter nature. He was sent to friendly setup Team PrivatBank, to improve his abilities and help them to some depth in squad. Thnaks for their cooperation.
Andrii Bratashcuk- 50,000 € (loaned to Die Berg)
The young hilly rider Bratashcuk is another talent signed and sent immediately to CT on loan, this time to the interesting project Die Berg kommt Er. Andrii should develop into the decent hilly domestique at least.
Haijun Ma- 150,000 €
We are very excited with signing of this Chinese time trialist and lead-out man, as we missed rider like him in the squad. He also fits perfectly our goal to sign a rider from exotic countries of different continents, as that was the wish of our sponsor Emirates.
Ermin Van Wyk- 50,000 €
Another exotic signing, this time from country of Namibia. Ermin Van Wyk was somewhat overlooked by African teams, so we did not hesitate and acquired services of this potentially great flat and cobble rider. There is a possibility Ermin will be sent to loan to the PT team.
Jaroslaw Dabrowski- 50,000 €
Second Pole coming to our team for 2013 is the experienced mountain goat, with good supportive abilities for the stage races. And these will be his main job, he will be one of the luxury domestiques for Popo.
Nicolae Tanovitchii- 50,000 € (loaned to PrivatBank)
Another east European talent coming to our team, from the small country of Moldavia. But his abilities are not small at all, or will not be to be precise. We feel he has great potential to become great puncher for the PCT level. Again, our Ukrainian partners from CT, Team PrivatBank will look after his development next year.
Stefan Petrovski- 50,000 € (loaned to Die Berg)
Macedonia is even smaller country, but as we see, it can produce a talented cyclist. Stefan Petrovski is an example of this, as he has bright cycling future as the luxury climbing domestique, at least we hope for it. Again, he will ride next year with dutch project Die Berg, where he will meet Bratashcuk.
What a load of new fresh blood coming to the biggest Ukarainian cycling team. Experienced riders combined with talented youth. Metinvest-Emirates did great job in my oppinion, with finding a loan places for these talents, who will look after them next year. Especially cooperation with Team PrivatBank looks like an example to follow.
Enormous Ukrainian talent signed, together with few others!
Marlen Zmorka 160,000 €
Currently maybe the most famous Ukrainian talent and potentially one of the best time-trialists worldwide was acquired after long negotiations. We are very happy that Marlen connected his future with Metinvest, in the end he can learn from the best Ukrainian TTist ever, his new sport manager Serhiy Honchar.
Marlen is the shot for the future, but he is the accomplished rider against the clock even when only 19years old. His biggest targets this year will be helping us in TTTs and his first appereances at Avenir and U23 Worlds TT, races where he can be very successful in the future.
Eduardo Sepulveda- 50,000 €
Young and talented Argentinian completed our goal to have riders at least from four continents, something especially our sponsor Emirates was looking for, to strenghten their position on the new worldwide markets. His main strenght lies in flat,sprinting and prologue abilities and he can be important flat all around domestique in few years.
David Vitoria- 50,000 € (free transfer)
The last signing so far comes from Switzerland and we signed him on free of charge transfer from Pearl-Adidas, as they needed to make some cap room probably. We felt like David is too goodto overlook this offer, as he combine strong flat and sprint abilities, with decent hilly punch. We will use him as the lead-out man in most of the season.
Sebastian Lang 50,000 € (160k transfer fee)
Former German TT champion and one of the best european TTists ever, also great at prologues, signed from Team Koenigsegg (former Sonny Ericsson). He will play an importnat role in our TTT train, which should be one of the strongest in the division. He can also grab some nice results for himself in prologue or against the clock on the longer distance.
Peter Kusztor 50,000 €
Another TT specialist, who comes to our team from the free agency. We are happy he decided to sign with Metinvest, as he is much better puncher than Lang and he also can prepare our sprinters for the mass sprint finish with his very good flat abilities.
So this was the last proper signing for us in this transfer season, we will now only maybe decide to sign some stagiare, who could represent us in Avenir, but the team is now complete and ready for first team meetings and pre-season camps. We welcome them in our team and hope, that with them Metinvest-Emirates will fight to stay in PCT also for the year after, as avoiding the relegation is the main goal for 2013 season.
Also here are the loaned-our riders, who are good part of our team, but they will have host homes in 2013, thanks to all our partners for loaning them in and helping in development of their talents!
These are the riders of great potential (all lvl 6 or 5).
Nice team Popo will be intresting to see if the focus on the mountains over the hills pays off as the battle to beat Alarcon maybe tough and may lose you some points over the season but i wish you the best of luck.
Denys Karnulin- 50,000 € 
Giorgio Brambilla- 50,000 €
Mateusz Taciak- 50,000 €
Nolan Hoffman- 130,000 € 
Tareq Esmaeli- 50,000 € (50k transfer fee)
Eduard Grosu- 160,000 €
Ryder Hesjedal- 80,000 € (300k transfer fee)
Haijun Ma- 150,000 €
Ermin Van Wyk- 50,000 €
Nicolae Tanovitchii- 50,000 € (loaned to PrivatBank)
Eduardo Sepulveda- 50,000 €
David Vitoria- 50,000 € (free transfer)
Sebastian Lang 50,000 € (160k transfer fee)
Peter Kusztor 50,000 € 
