The final full signing for our team as we end transfers!

Morten Reckweg | Age: 28 | OVL: 70.43 | Roleur

Morten Reckweg was purely signed for his amazing ability to pull on the flats, making him a perfect lead-out man for Vantomme, he ended up getting a very high wage for how late in transfers he was signed, but we think he was worth it given how useful he will be this season.

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	CB	SP	ACC	FG	DH	PRL
76	52	64	74	76	71	72	67	68	72	75	71	74

Torkil Veyhe | Age: 22 | OVL: 65.61 | Roleur
Pot 4 | Level 1



Faroe Islands cyclist Torkil Veyhe has signed with us a stagiare this season, he's a very talented roleur (will max at 80 flat) so we decided to was worth giving him a spot on the team to see how useful he could be in future seasons, for this season, he will ride in support of Vantomme were possible and maybe get the occasional chance at a breakaway.

FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	CB	SP	ACC	FG	DH	PRL
72	66	66	63	63	65	65	50	52	73	77	70	64

With that signing, we have completed our squad for the 2016 season:



We are quite pleased with our team this season, while we won't be at all near the top of the division, we are satisfied that we should avoid relegation provided the team lives up to expectations and we also managed to mostly stick to our national focus, despite having to bring some international leaders in, although Norske Skog may be looking to give us a geography lesson on the difference between Denmark and Norway - looks like we'll be looking for a new co-sponsor next season.

This season we saved a portion of our transfer budget to apply for wildcards in the PT division, fortunately it was a worthy investment as we came out with 4 exciting races to compete in, not least of all the Tour de France, where we hope to see the team ready to attack to make the sponsor's name seen in the worlds biggest race. we are incredibly excited about this and hope it can motivate the riders to up their game during the season to make the squad for the worlds biggest race. Aside from that Maxime Vantomme will lead us in the Tour of Qatar while our puncheurs also get PT racing in the Fleche Wallonne and Badaling International, which are all exciting events for the team. We have no goals for these races except to see our team attacking and showing our jersey so we hope to see some good racing in the PT this season.

Maxime Vantomme	Michael Mørkøv
Kristian Sobota	Krister Hagen
Pawel Franczak	Pawel Bernas
Adam Pierzga	Morten Reckweg

Last season: N/A
Our Goal: Top 3

Our season begins with the Down Under Classic in Australia, a big chance for Maxime Vantomme to prove his value to the team, last season he finished 1st in the bunch, but behind 5 attackers, so we're hoping this time he can get a top 3 at least.

Luis Leon Sanchez Gil	Adam Stachowiak
Andrea Palini	Zsolt Der
Matteo Rabottini	Marcus Fahnert
Adrian Honkisz	Tomasz Marczynski

Last season: N/A
Our Goal: Attack

While our sprinters go to Australia, our puncheurs will head to China for the Pro Tour race Badaling International, Luis Leon Sanchez has come 4th here before, but we just want the team to race aggressively and make a name for themselves - any results will be a bonus.

Maxime Vantomme	Michael Mørkøv
Andrea Palini	Pawel Franczak
Kristian Sobota	Pawel Bernas
Adam Stachowiak	Adam Pierzga

Last season: Tomasz Marczynski 45th
Our Goal: Top 10, Stage Win

The Tour Down Under is our first tour, we've mostly stuck to bringing Vantomme and support for him to get some sprint wins, but we also have both Palini and Stachowiak here with hopes for a decent finish in the GC.

Maxime Vantomme	Michael Mørkøv
Kristian Sobota	Krister Hagen
Pawel Franczak	Pawel Bernas
Adam Pierzga	Morten Reckweg

Last season: N/A
Our Goal: Stage Top 5

Our second PT Wildcard is in Qatar, we've brought a full sprinters team but don't know how much Vantomme can do in the PT field, we still have hopes for him to at least top 5 on one stage though.

We didn't have to wait long for our first win this season! As Luis Leon Sanchez wins on none other than the white roads of Strade Bianche!



We had no interest in the morning break, but we still kept LLS right at the front and protected from the start.



With 15km left Sanchez realised he had an opportunity and set off in pursuit of lone leader Cancellara!



He caught and dropped Cancellara, leading the peloton into the final 3.5km with a 41 second lead on the pack!



Flügel tries his best to catch him but he was too late as Luis Leon Sanchez takes a great win for the team! Winning our first HC event in a great fashion!

With the biggest race in the world nearing, it's time to present our squad, we've used the wildcard invitation to motivate our team to perform in the hopes of gaining a place in the race, and after long deliberation, we have managed to pick what we hope will be a good showing from a wildcard team.



Maxime Vantomme - Maxime Vantomme arrived at the team this year with high expectations, but he definitely delivered, after a slow January, he picked up steam and took 2 stage wins in FBD Eire tour as well as more recently winning Interlagos GP. Most importantly he proved he could race with the big boys by finishing 5th in the tour of Qatar and will go to the tour hoping for similar sprint performances.

Kristian Sobota - Vantomme can attribute his wins to his team, but nobody more than Kristian Sobota, the Dane has lead Vantomme to victory on many occasions, with a perfect eye for positioning and even an ability to get his own results, the pinnacle being 5th place on a Tour of Qatar stage.

Pawel Franczak - One of our toughest decisions in picking the squad was the choice between Pierzga and Franczak, but Pawel proved himself by guiding Vantomme to victory in Interlagos, proving he could take up the position in place of Sobota in case something were to happen to him, all things going well though, he should prove excellent in lead-out duties.



Petar Panayotov - The Bulgarian hasn't really proved himself this year, but we decided he was worth the punt, not for any GC goals, but instead to chase the Polka dot jersey, one of the most prestigious things we could aim for, he won't get much support in this endeavour, but hopefully he can take something away from this race.

Luis Leon Sanchez - Last year's PCT winner was brought from Evonik to keep us afloat, so far he has done more than that, winning both Strade Bianche and the Bayern Rundfahrt. There's only 3 real hill stages at this year's tour, but LLS can work for Vantomme on the flat and join breaks in the mountains.



Michael Mørkøv - He can sprint, climb hills and most importantly do a good lead-out. If only he wasn't a little lacking in team spirit he could be a great rider.

Pawel Bernas - Very strong flat man, has proved this season to be a key support for Vantomme, but will also be able to join breaks on the more lumpy stages if he wants, so a useful team member in all cases.

Adam Stachowiak - One of our men from our first season, the Pole can punch exceedingly well and loves a good break, he took home the mountains jersey at South Africa, so hopefully he'll have a go at that here, otherwise, he can support both Vantomme and LLS.

Sponsor Rumours

It's no secret that Norske Skog are unhappy with the team having just one Norweigen man on the squad, the largely anonymous Krister Hagan, last season they were more lenient resigning for a season off Adam Stachowiak's Tour of Norway performance, this season it seems unlikely they will renew their contract, so a search for a new secondary sponsor has begun behind the scenes.

The most likely candidates seem to be Guerciotti, our Italian bike sponsors, stepping up into co-sponsorship of the team, as well as Netia taking full control of our squad as sole sponsor.

Another interesting rumour is Vónin filling the role, a fishing company based in the Faroe Islands who operates throughout Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Lithuania, Russia and Canada, and the recent signing of stagierre Torkil Veyhe can be seen as a possible prelude to this future sponsor.

Other sponsor names have emerged less often but are still linked, Polish companies Przewozy Regionalne and Comcarch have both emerged as potential names, especially with the former already linked to the team.

Of course, all these rumours are just speculation and the team is unwilling to release any information until a deal is confirmed, but some promising rumours are definitely emerging.