@Abhishek Pretty much over, although i won't reject another good climber
@Eden @LLS Blame the market! The most points he gives us the better
@Yellow Jersey Thanks!
@Booker Our mountain squad must perform or we'll struggle, but with those riders already signed i'm confident

As you already know, the transfer market never sleeps, and in the last hours we got confirmation that 3 new riders will be joining our team, 2 of them being loanies



The 26-yo Italian sprinter joins our team in the minimum wage, and is expected to be the only sprinter of the team. Apart from trying to steal a few points for the team, his job will be to protect our leaders in the flatter plat of mountain stages





The first of our two loanies is this 24-yo Mexican stage racer. Becherovka's manager has trusted us the development of this young rider, who when maxed out is expected to become a good CT stage racer or a domestique for higher divisions.

For this rider we'll pay his full wage, and receive a 50k compensation fee

Nidush Nirantha Fernando

Another loanie with this young Sri Lankan rider, coming from Ayubowan!
He is more a puncheur, and he should be a good domestiques for our (if we sign one) hilly classic leader

This time, we'll only pay half his wage, and no fee is involved in the deal

@jandal Still trying to convince the admins to create a over 35 category so I can win a few more races .

I'm really happy with my squad at this moment, already 11 riders in the house, so now just a few touch-ups and my roster will be finished. Hopefully we can fight against each other with our Spanish climbers

I'm starting to feel that our roster might be really old for MG standards, with lots of managers fighting for the best talents in the market.

Anyway, we have to welcome former Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert. Gilbert's biggest was in 2011 Amstel Gold Race, together with 2007 Eneco Tour.

Philippe will co-lead together with Cunego the hilly classic and stage races. We hope that they can work well together for the team's good and bring some good points.

Is he our cobbles leader, or our hilly sprinter? I really hope that he can do both and score valious points for the team.

He was last season in Spanish team Hugo Boss, so the country is not new to him, something that should help in the acclimatization.

Aquarius97 wrote:
@Ian Cunego is one hell of a signing

@Jakstar You really have a problem if you think that Cunego is the guy to fight against the likes of Campero . You should go to page 2 and check who i have already signed

With our climbing and hillier squad almost completed, it was time to sign a rider who could give us some good points on TT's and stage races with a TT and flat stages.

The 30-yo Frenchman was part of last season's Bouygues Telecom TTT train, but with the team's disband he end up in the FA market. He was able to score close to 200 points in PT last season.

Team manager has stated that Morgan Kneisky is the rider that he is the happiest to have signed this season, apart from Rafael Valls

@knockout Thanks! If you look better, you can see that all of our old guys are on the "Hilly Races Squad", with both Cunego and Gilbert being the Hilly leaders.

And I did this because I noticed that younger riders (27-30 yo) with the same stats people were bidding a lot more money that on this old riders, so basically it was my only solution with Valls eating a third of my wage cap, having good riders at low prices.

@ryant At the end I have end up with only 3 +72 climbers, although all of them have at least 76 (not counting Cunego on this).

And Kneisky should be my second best scorer after Valls, hopefully he can steal a flat classic, as he is the ideal guy for that

@Tamijo Just saw your goals and you're right. We should be clashing a lot this season, hopefully for the wins

We are glad to anounce another four riders who have signed with Repsol - Honda for the coming season, with two of them being loanies

Stefano is our latest addition to our hilly classics squad. The 28-yo Italian might not be a point scorer for us, but is expected to be a super domestique thanks to his impressive back-up stats. And only by the minimum wage!

So both Damiano and Philippe must be sure that they will have a rider with them until the very end of the races

Finally we were able to sign a un-maxed rider from the FA, and even an Spanish one.

Jaime, who is 24-yo, is a project of a future 78-climber, who should be a great domestique in the future for our team. He has told us that he can't wait to learn from riders such as Cunego, Valverde or Valls

The youngest rider of MG joins our team in a 1-season loan from PT champions, Festina - Dexia. They have trusted us the task of developing Aidan this year, and we won't disappoint them.

The 21-yo South African should become in the future a decent puncheur, and the only thing that we expect for him is that he enters in the breakaways

Another rider loaned in, this time coming from Italian PCT squad Generali - EDF.

Maximilian is a 24-yo German who has good sprint and prologue abilities. He should the lead-out men for our "sprinters" (cough... what is an sprinter? ), so as with Aidan, no pressure on him to score any points

Croatia14 wrote:
I have just realized you got Kneisky for 75k great work!

Although we might sign one or two stagiares, the main team is completed with this two riders. So in our first season we will have 17 riders, with Spain being the most represented country with 5 riders, next Italy with 4, and the rest of riders coming from 8 different countries

Another Spanish young rider who has signed for our team. Cristian is a puncheur, who is expect to develop into a guy who likes more the long classics due his good stamina, and that should give him good results in the future despite beinga a sub-par puncheur, even in CT

He has arrived with a minimum wage, and his first year will be more focused on his development that in actual results.

We brought "The Power" with Robert coming to Repsol - Honda in a one-year loan deal from Jayco-Cobra9.

Already a decent climber for his age, Robert will learn how to be a domestique here, as he will be able to ride lots of mountain races that suit him well