baseballlover312 wrote:
Love that jersey, wow! Terrific work by hillis.

A slow start to the season was finally rectified when Simon Yates finally opened his win account with a pair of stage wins at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco in early March. It was the first two wins for Yates wearing the Desigual jersey after flopping in his debut season with us last year. The new-and-improved Yates was just getting started, as it turned out.

Our climbing superstar Justo Tenorio returned to his home grand tour via a disputed wildcard for a third straight season in hopes of improving his 6th in 2018 and 4th in 2019. The Spaniard did just that with a runner-up finish behind Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier, coming 31 seconds short. Tenorio won the Stage 9 ITT and held the leader's jersey for 5 stages, while Yates won a selective bunch sprint on Stage 3. Pretty good for a wildcard team.

Nestled between classic wins by Tenorio at Kenya Mountain Classic and Yates at the Clasica San Sebastian was a gutsy second place by Omar Fraile at the PTHC Tour of Slovenie. Despite a poor TTT on Day 1, Fraile used the 50km ITT on Stage 4 to his advantage and climbed well enough the following day secure a runner-up finish behind PT standout Jack Bobridge. Fraile also surprised by winning the opening stage of the Tour of Ukraine earlier in the season. And raced well in our next highlight...

Spending 21 race days at the Tour of America is always a risk, but it paid off nicely this season. Desigual's highlight reel: Three stage wins (Fraile with two and Eric Young), placed inside the Top 10 on every stage except one, won the U25 competition (Jack Burke), 2nd in the Team competition, wore the leader's jersey for three days and placed four riders inside the Top 20 (3. David Abal, 12. Fraile, 13. Burke and 16. Carter Jones). Great podium result for Abal as his career is coming to a close. The massive points haul moved us back into a promotion position.

With rumors spreading that manager Mresuperstar was leaving to startup a new team and Desigual under threat to lose its sponsorship, the team still came together over the last few weeks to secure promotion into the Pro Tour. Yates won the opening stage of the Tour of Lithuania before finishing 8th overall and Tenorio wrapped up his season with a bang — 1st overall and a stage win at the Bayern Rundfahrt.

Desigual finished the season with an extraordinary 18 wins, most for a season under Mresuperstar, and that doesn't include the six national champion jerseys and the World Championships yet to be raced.

The All-Time Program Win List now tallies 94 wins over nine seasons with No. 100 on the horizon. Tenorio leads the way with 15 victories followed by Fraile and former rider Tejay Van Garderen both with 11 wins.

Future Canada road race champion, Jack Burke, won the prestigious Tour of America U25 competition while helping David Abal finish on the podium this past season. His support in the mountains and perhaps stage hunting late in stage races/grand tours will be a valuable asset next season in the Pro Tour. Moving closer to home is definitely a plus, as well.

Some speckles of green showing up now for Simon Carr as he progressed two levels while riding for Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes on the CT circuit.

Multiple ways Nicolay Cherkasov could have been trained, but we went with the only option that could boost Cherkasov's flatland abilities into the red zone. He will be extremely hard to drop on most terrains, solid lead-out man and a breakaway threat — as the Russian showed this past season by winning Stage 4 of the Deutschland Tour.

The newest Spanish road race champion is finally fully developed! Training wise, we decided to make him a more well-rounded stage racer than a pure puncheur. Not something we were probably thinking about at the start of his development, but it makes the most sense for us now with Simon Yates proving his worth this past season. This route also gives us better training options down the road.

Oddly enough, Erick Herrera is tied with Simon Yates for 4th place on the Program's All-Time Win list with 6 victories. How? Be the only cyclist in your country good enough to be racing professional. Slow developing Herrera has been the double champion of El Salvador for three straight seasons now and looks like he won't be losing those titles any time soon.

Juan Pedro Lopez also climbs two levels after riding with Simon Carr at Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes this past season. The loss of Spanish sponsorship Desigual sees his future in jeopardy a little, but his future talents might be enough to tempt Zwift to keep him around for a while.

The man "blessed by the gods" is fresh off a 7th place at the U23 World Championships and claimed double national champions for Ecuador. Jhonatan Narvaez's future is certainly bright and we can't wait to see what the Yates-Narvaez partnership will produce in the coming seasons.

Olei Olei! Federico Olei takes the biggest jump in his development. The tough to drop lead-out man will fit right in with the likes of Yates, Narvaez and Cherkasov. Recovery still not where it needs to be yet, but that will be fixed when he gets maxed out this upcoming season.

Jaume Sureda showed glimpses early into this past season at the C2 Vuelta al Tachira that the youngster wasn't afraid to mix things up in a sprint. As the competition got stronger, Sureda faded into the background. With Zwift promoting to the Pro Tour, perhaps a loan down or a change of scenery would be best for his career.

Last but certainly not least is up-and-coming climber Harold Tejada. He spent this last season in the Pro Tour with Aegon - Peroni and gained valuable experience riding alongside Daan Olivier, Peter Velits, Rafael Valls and Tiago Machado. Remains to be seen if Tejada will get to ride around in the Pro Tour again next season with Zwift.