Communications from the team have been quiet recently, with rumours that the team manager had disappeared. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), he was able to be located and returned to team HQ, albeit reluctantly. Comments such as “the whole team have been on holiday all year, so what difference does it make if I am as well� have been commonplace since his return.

However, during the manager’s absence the team’s current sponsors decided to pull out at the end of the season. This is partly a result of performance, with relegation looking almost certain at this point, bringing the team’s spell in the PT to an end. But it is also the result of frustration at the way the last transfer season played out. Sources close to team management reveal that the team moved to a new, more data-focused approach last transfer season. Some of the more bizarre transfer decisions that ensued can be revealed to be due to the team manager not paying full attention, and focusing on signing riders whose wages reflected good value for money, but neglecting to consider point scoring potential. The disaster of the season that has ensued all stems from this error, and has acted as a catalyst for significant sponsor dissatisfaction.

Many wondered if this would lead to the end of the team, and for a while it looked like that would be the case. Team management agreed that if they were to continue, the team would use relegation as an opportunity to go back to what served them well in the past with a focus on developing talents, but this was not appealing to many sponsors who wanted to see an immediate return on their investment. But at the last minute, an unlikely source of help appeared – interested in the more novel aspects of the team’s approach, and feeling there was more value in sponsoring a team doing things differently than a generic PT midfielder.

With that in mind, the team are pleased to announce that next season and beyond they will race as Bolt – Eesti. This doesn’t mean that the team will be Estonian focused – though talented Estonians will be prioritised as appropriate – so fellow Baltic teams don’t need to worry about additional competition. Our jersey will be revealed in time, and we anticipate that we’ll see a significant roster turnover this offseason, which means exciting times lie ahead.

knockout wrote:

Mansouris path is an interesting one for me. Is it an attempt to keep his OVR lower or where other thoughts more decisive for the choice?

Said it before but really like how you develop some of those sleeper FAs that were hidden unsigned for a while

jph27 wrote:



I had originally always planned to go for the 73/73/76 stage race option, but given his ACC and FTR and seeing how a similar rider in Craddock has got on this season, I think there's better point scoring potential as a breakaway rider than as a TTer who can climb. Not a huge amount in it, but knowing what I know now I'd probably have gone for something like 72/76/71 or 73/75/72 when maxed with the higher ACC.

Having finished 2nd here last year, we thought this would be an opportunity for Kemboi to at the minimum secure partial credit for a near miss. His 10th place was part of a general underperformance, but we accepted it as part of the regular sprint lottery.

2nd in Qatar in 2020 and 2023, we usually make Qatar a win goal as it suits Kemboi perfectly - and a near miss should be almost guaranteed. He decided to avoid sprinting on almost all the stages and then snuck into 9th in the prologue. In retrospect, this was the moment we knew relegation was a near certainty.

De Bie was 6th here last season, with van der Poel not far behind in support. As our original plan was to sell De Bie and pursue an arguably better suited rider in Ganna plus train van der Poel, we thought a win goal here made sense. As that didn't happen our chances were slim to start with, and once the cobbles were selective we knew our goal was a likely failure.

With the strength of our sprinters being in longer stage races and some good breakaway options, we chose a goal we'd not usually attempt. Straight away we failed this goal in the Giro, with our best result being Larsen's 2nd on Stage 9. However, we may still get some credit as Gee took Stage 13 of the Vuelta and Faglum Karlsson won Stage 20 of the Tour (the queen stage no less).

Always good to be ambitious right? There's bad seasons, then there's having one of the ten worst PT seasons in history when your goal was top 5 in the team standings. All in all, we won't be expecting a great budget next season!