Since this is our fifth season, we thought it would be fitting to look back at the first four. Installment one: the class of 2014.

Summary:

In early 2014, the Minions put together a cycling team with Chiquita and Universal as main sponsors. The team was simply called Team Chiquita-Universal. A slapstick jersey was created, some riders were signed without actually looking at how good they were and a lot of other things we'd be laughing at right now. Our first season was a disaster. We have no clue how we didn't finish last with the shocking team we had, I mean come on we thought it was a good idea to sign Rahsaan f'ing Bahati as lead sprinter.

Highlights:

Chad Haga winning a time trial in Volta ao Algarve, our first and only win of the season, and somehow finishing fifth in the Tour of America.



Jakob Rathe finishing third in Cigar Brewing Twillight GP and thus miraculously achieving a goal.



Carter Jones winning the King of the Mountains title in Tour de Beauce, with the fact that we have to mention this as a highlight being a perfect illustration of this disastrous season.



Disappointments:

Every other race during the season. Literally.

Rankings:

#		Team	Total
1		Grupo Nutresa	1854
2		Bonsucro	1793
3		ONCE-Eroski Cycling Team	1785
24		Team Chiquita-Universal	632

#		Name	Team	Total
1		Vitor Rodrigues	Siam Cement - Lenovo	886
2		Marcel Wyss	Team Vontobel	630
3		Jose Mendes	Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling	626
29		Chad Haga	Team Chiquita-Universal	241

Summary:

Remembered as our first season. And it should only be remembered as our first season. Any other things regarding the team that season should be forgotton as quickly as possible.

Since this is our fifth season, we thought it would be fitting to look back at the first four. Installment one: the class of 2015.

Summary:

After a disappointing season, and only barely receiving a new license after the MGUCI complained about inactivity, we could call this the real foundation of the team as we know it today. The name was changed to Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions in order to give the single-celled yellow organisms a better name recognition, and Bikex designed a more professional jersey for us to ride in. Also important were the signing of two riders: Kinney and Martinez, who would be important in the next years. In the end we finished seventeenth, considerably better than last season but still off from where we want to be. But we did enjoy more success over the season.

Highlights:

Yasmani Martinez finishing sixth in the C1 Vuelta a Tachira.



Nick Kinney winning a stage at the Tour de Pologne



Chad Haga winning a time trial in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, and finishing second in the GC at Tour de Slovenie.



Fabio Montenegro winning a mountain stage in the Tour of America and a decent KoM classification together with Haga.



Disappointments:

Piamonte being sacked before the season for admitting he didn't like bananas.

Not being able to loan out Haga and Selander so they could max out, and loaning out Jones to a fellow CT team where he couldn't develop, and signing and training Tolleson with the intention to make him lead sprinter while he doesn't have that ability, and signing Jeandesbosz only to transfer him for free to another team a few days later, and buying Duggan for 150k while he would be more valuable at a retirement home, and buying Santambrogio for 200k while his talents didn't merit that amount. (In short: nearly every transfer we made)

Le Montagner crashing on Benelux Challenge while he was leading the youth classification, and Martinez crashing on the Tour of Scotland where he was one of the favourites



Losing 16th place in the standings to OTP Bank after the final race.

Rankings:

#		Team	Total
1		Novatek-Panarmenian.net	1669
2		Strava	1652
3		Fablok - Dunlop	1591
17		Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	735

#		Name	Team	Total
1		Anthony Lavoine	Fablok - Dunlop	594
2		Maximiliano Richeze	Sancor Cycling Team	513
3		Frantisek Rabon	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	490
34		Chad Haga	Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions	187

Summary:

Not bad given the squad we had, but serious improvements, especially in the transfer and race planning department, were necessary to push the team even further. But all in all this proved to be a decent foundation to build on.

Since this is our fifth season, we thought it would be fitting to look back at the first four. Installment one: the class of 2016.

Summary:

Third time's the charm, they say. Well, we had the opportunity to promote due to disbandments but chose against it, opting for a fight at the top of the Continental Tour. Due to character restrictions we had to rename to Chiquita - Universal, and we moved our HQ to sunny Guatemala. For the transfer season we decided to invest in two areas previously neglected in order to push for a promotion bid. With Drapac and Manarelli we signed two decent sprinters, and we even build a cobblestone squad with De Haes, Marcos and Matthews. Other important riders stayed, and Haga and Selander where finally loaned out to reach their full potential. This all brought us what we wanted. Fourth place and direct promotion. But unfortunately off-bike drama was the talk of the season.

Highlights:

Kenny De Haes winning the cobblestone classic Geraardsbergen-Bosberg.



Two stage wins in the Tour of the Middle East virtue of Chris Barton and Cayetano Sarmiento (pictured).



Yasmani Martinez winning a stage in USAPCC, and a stage and the GC in Tour of Southland.



Damion Drapac winning a stage and runner-up in the GC at Circulo de Juarez, and then a stage at Danmark Rundt.



Nick Kinney also winning a stage at the Danmark Rundt.



Carlos Alexandre Manarelli winning a stage in Tour de Pologne, a stage in Herald Sun Tour, and two stages in Ruta America del Sur.



Many other great result that I simply don't have room to write about.

Disappointments:

Martinez falling down in the Tour of the Middle East GC for no apparent reason.

Tareq Esmaeli handing in his contract after only being given 17 racedays.

All of our four sponsors withdrawing during the season.

Giro del Capo. Volcan de Agua Classic. Tour du Faso. Don't ever mention those races again.

Fleeing Guatemala after the local population started a bloody protest against us, and the US Intelligence Agencies trying to hunt us down.

Rankings:

#		Team	Total
1		Ferrero - Samruk	1996
2		Podium Ambition	1907
3		Kraftwerk Man Machine	1783
4		Chiquita - Universal	1515

#		Name	Team	Total
1		Serghei Tvetcov	cycleYorkshire s/b ASDA-Savers	554
2		Enrico Barbin	Ferrero - Samruk	537
3		Andreas Stauff	Kraftwerk Man Machine	472
18		Yasmani Martinez	Chiquita - Universal	303

Summary:

We achieved promotion, boy I never had a bigger party than that evening. It was a great season with so many victories I had to go into rehad for alcohol problems from all the champagne. The struggle with the local population/sponsors/other enemies was scary but luckily it would end well.

Since this is our fifth season, we thought it would be fitting to look back at the first four. Installment one: the class of 2017.

Summary:

Our first season in PCT. First the background info: Tareq Esmaeli's dad turned out to be a rich oil Sheikh who not only bought the team but also build a mountain to train on. Hence the team moved to Qatar and was renamed Minions. The team needed a major makeover with only the sprinting department staying roughly the same. Úran was the major signing of the season, at a wage 0f 600k! Betancourt would become the new hilly leader and we trained him with 1.2 million bananas! Albert came in as cobblestone specialist. However, this was not enough to keep us out of the relegation fight. We spend most of the season just under the line, but one man in one race managed to pull us out: Úran in Tour of Deutschland.

Highlights:

Damion Drapac winning the Nakhon Ratchasima Trophy (I had to copy that name) and achieving our top ten goal in Veenendaal.



Kenny De Haes with three breakaway wins over the season, in De Panne, Olympia's Tour and Baltic Chain Tour (in which he finished 6th in the GC).



Bjorn Selander successfully going for the KoM jersey in PTHC Tour of Norway



Rigoberto Úran began PTHC Tour of Deutschland as one of the favourites, and proved the doubters wrong by taking the leader's jersey with one stage to go and never let go of it again.



Cayetano Sarmiento winning a stage in PTHC Volta a Portugal.



Disappointments:

Úran kinda failing in Tour of Eritrea, and then our team time trial in Tour of Vancouver costing him a possible GC podium.

Every race Betancourt participated in except Beijing and Milano - Torino.

Albert being denied a third place in PTHC Rheden GP due to uncooperative fellow escapees.

Albourdainy taking the Qatari TT NC away from Esmaeli, for which he was fired from the team.

Rankings:

#		Team	Total
1		Grieg - Eftel	3461
2		Isostar - Adriatic	3187
3		Berg Cycles	3122
20		Minions	1837

#		Name	Team	Total
1		Edvald Boasson Hagen	Grieg - Eftel	1504
2		Andrei Amador	Team UBS	1234
3		Tejay Van Garderen	Newton Foundation	976
12		Rigoberto Úran	Minions	705

Summary:

We didn't relegate, that's the big plus. Úran is a great rider for as long as he's at his prime, which is only two more seasons. In the other departments we have to strengthen ourselves, because we can't keep relying on De Haes breakaway wins or a fluke from Drapac.