The Headquarter of the Maloja Mountain Nomads has been quiet for a few days, but that doesn't mean that we've spent our time idly. In fact, four new riders have been signed, two of them on a loan deal:

	Rider	Age	Stats			Wage
	Alex Diniz	29	75 Mo	74 Fgt	72 Acc	€ 140.000
	Adil Jelloul	32	74 Sp	72 Hi	71 Ftr	€ 50.000
	Jack Haig	21	69 Mo	69 Hi	70 TT	€ 20.000
	Patrick Bercz	25	72 Sp	73 Acc		€ 0

Alex Diniz is our second most expensive rider in terms of wage. We hope that he'll prove his worth as the main mountain domestique for Schwab and Iglinsky. Adil Jelloul will be the team's second rider from the African continent. The Morrocan time trial champion is probably our most versatile rider, being good in the hills, on flat stages and time trials, as well as having both a great punch and fighting spririt.

Jack Haig is our first loan rider. The Australian stage racing prospect joins from Oz Cycling and will be a good domestique whenever the road starts to ascend. By loaning Patrick Bercz, we stengthen our relations with Team Puma - SAP. In a team that really doesn't focus on sprinting, he might get a few chances to prove himself. But mostly, we hope that both riders have a good time at our team and we've promised to bring them to a new level of experience.

Having reached the minimum number of 15 riders now, the team would be ready to start the season. However, the management is still in talks with a few riders and is watching the stagiare market closely. So you can expect one or two last transfer updates in the next days.

With the addition of two free agents and a stagiare, the Maloja Mountain Nomads have now finished their transfer activities. The last riders added to the squad are:

	Rider	Age	Stats			Wage
	Viatcheslav Dyadichkin	32	74 Mo	75 Fgt	72 Acc	€ 50.000
	Aurélien Passeron	30	71 Fl	70 Hi	76 Ftr	€ 50.000
	Romain Guillemois	23	65 Fl	70 Sp	72 Acc	€ 10.000

Dyadichkin is another rider to add some depth to our mountain departement. He will also keep his compatriot and team leader Iglinski company. Aurélien Passeron joins as a great allround domestique with fantastic fighting spirit. He'll be useful on many terrains and we hope to see him in several breakaways.

And while we were at it, we signed a second Frenchman: Romain Guillemois joins us as a stagiare. To our own surprise, we decided to recrute a sprinter here, and with the potential to develop into an elite rider even in higher divisions, we're very happy with our choice.

With these minimum wage riders, our squad is finalized. We're generally very happy, and we're confident that these riders will represent us more than well in our debut season.

The transfer period is finished and we're now entering the last step of pre-season. Today, we have received our calendar for the 2014 season, and we're happy to announce that all our choices have been accepted.

Besides the 60 race days in C2HC races, we will spend 65 days in the C2 circuit. In addition, we've chosen to challenge ourselves in 25 days of C1 racing. The five races are:

Vuelta al Tachira
Giro del Trentino
Cartago - Irazu
Tour de Pays de Savoie
Tour of Eritrea

All five races are packed with mountains and will give Maxim Iglinski and Hubert Schwab the chance to prove themselves against the strongest competition. We don't expect too much, but we do hope for a few good results.

Other than that, the planning poses the challenge of finding suitable races for the likes of David Vitoria, Stefan Schafer or Artur Gajek to shine. Many of our second-tier riders, while not amongst the top riders on their respective terrain, should have the capability of scoring valuable points, if we manage to assign them to the right races.

Once we've put the final touches on the riders' schedules, we'll be offering you a detailed team presentation with first glimpses of the plans, so stay tuned!

The transfer period saw many national champions changing teams, and here at the Maloja Mountain Nomads, we are happy that we were able to sign one, too. It may not be the most prominent of all championship titles, but we're still proud to have Adil Jelloul, the national time trialing champion of Morroco, on our team.

Having already designed our main jersey, Cavendish-Fan delivered another fantastic kit featuring the characteristic green pentagram of the Morrocan flag:


Jelloul already stated his happiness to represent his country in the few time trials the team will be riding this year, and we're hoping that he will use these opportunities to shine for both Morroco and the Nomads!

Before starting into his first pro season, young Australian Jack Haig will ride one last race for his domestic team, the Avanti Racing Team. On the four stage pre-season criterium, hosted by Oz Cycling DS tsmoha, he'll team up with Damion Drapac, Simon Clarke, Alexander Edmonson and last year's Round 3 winner Lachlan Morton.


Our loanee from Oz Cycling is a decent allrounder and will certainly seek to shine in his home country, before returning to the team and starting the competitive season. Being mostly a domestique for the Nomads, this will certainly be a good shot for a decent result. We wish him the best and will follow the race closely!

The cycling season is about to start, with the first races just around the corner, so let's take a look at what's on the schedule for the Maloja Mountain Nomads in January:

Markus Fahnert	Leader
David Vitoria	Free Element
Adil Jelloul	Free Element
Stefan Schafer	Luxury Domestique
Manuel Fumic	Domestique
Bereket Yemane	Domestique
Mathias Flückinger	Domestique

We expect all the best CT puncheurs to be at the season opener, and none of our riders is part of that elite. Hence, we don't expect too much. A breakaway participation of Jelloul or Yemane would be nice, and who knows what Fahnert or Vitoria (if he makes it that far) can do in the finish.

Happy:	Anything noteworthy, from a BotD to a Top 10 finish.
Disappointed:	-

Hubert Schwab	Leader
Bereket Yemane	Free Element
Alex Diniz	Domestique
Viatcheslav Diadichkin	Domestique
Mathias Flückinger	Domestique
Jack Haig	Domestique
Patrick Bercz	Domestique

We make our debut at a C1 race with one clear focus: Shining in the mountains. Hubert Schwab will be our leader here, with decent support by Diniz and Diadichkin. Yemane should be looking for a break or two. Also worth noticing: It's the first appearance of our two loaned-in riders Haig and Bercz, and it's almost the most diverse squad we could possibly compose in terms of nations.

Happy:	Top 10 by Schwab
Disappointed:	Less than a Top 15 by Schwab and no appearance at all in breaks, hence not proving worthy of a C1 race.

Artur Gajek	Leader
Adil Jelloul	Free Element
Markus Fahnert	Domestique
Stefan Schafer	Domestique
Manuel Fumic	Domestique
Ralf Matzka	Domestique
Heinrich Berger	Domestique

In contrary to the Tachira squad, this one's almost exclusively German. It's one of the few races where Artur Gajek gets the chance to prove himself. He's our main sprinter, but far from the best even in the CT. Hence, we don't expect much from him, anything within the Top 15-20 and better would be much appreciated. Adil Jelloul is our joker as a quick finisher from a breakaway, Ralf Matzka could fill that role as well.

Happy:	Top 15 by Gajek
Disappointed:	-