@The Rider - Check the front posts. All my team information (stuff on sponsors, future plans, races, schedule and results etc etc) can be easily accessed by anyone!
The Great Big Catch-Up Post
Gosh it's been a long time since i did one of these. So i'm going to keep things pretty breif so as not to make myself bored and to cover all the racing nice and quickly and get this HQ back on the right track.
Tour of the South China Sea Simon Yates is our best finisher in 72nd place. Flat rated race with many hills was probably the worst possible terrain the team could face, a real blow after the great start in Tachira.
Tour of South Africa Matthew Lloyd was the star of the race for the team. The best finisher on 5 out of 6 stage the hilly leader took 13th on Stage 2 and 20th on Stage 4. Gorka Izagirre popped into the breakaway on Stage 5 to give the sponsors some TV time. Matt's quiet racing did get him 18th Overall which was not half bad considering the field. Still we lacked agression, perhaps South China Sea was still on some minds.
//// Bahir Dar
Cobbles! Martin Grashev put his unique skills to the max as he almost came within winning distance in Africa, unltimately finishing a strong 2nd place! Geraint Thomas showed well with 10th place. Frankly we couldn't have asked for a better start to the cobbles season.
Dwars Door Vlaanderen
Cobbles! Isaac Bolivar announces himself with a strong Breakaway rider. However Geraint Thomas steps up to the plate and hits a 3rd place Podium finish to continue a good start to the classics. The downside being a lack of support from Grashev.
Strade Bianche Valentin Stoenchev penetrates the breakaway, which is the days high point. Grashev is the best finisher in 93rd place as Chicchi and Capecchi fall way short on homer turf, perhaps they stopped to meet the family?
Driedagsse De Panne
Cobbles! Boliver again in a breakaway on Stage 1. Thomas lost masses of time but we believe he was suffering from a cold. However Grashev also struggles. Sparling goes long on Stage 2 in the breakaway. Thomas looses more time, definately ill. Stage 3 didn't involve cobbles, so Thomas decides to finish 5th after having Stefan Hristov in the breakaway. Bolivar was our best GC finisher in 21st, nice for him. But a huge points loss for the team on our best terrain, dammit!
Kenya Mountain Classic Petar Panayotov puts in one of the season best rides so far to finish 6th. He hung on the divisions absolute top climbers until the final 3km in a true gritty performance. As a bonus Cayetano Sarmiento finished 15th with his own gritty and determined performance. A good sign for the Stage Races to come?
Rheden GP
Cobbles! Will Routley shows why we kept him with a solid breakaway ride. Geraint Thomas finishes 7th, but did the right thing in not following the attackers and using his sprint we feel. All good practice.
E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
Cobbles! Geraint Thomas struggles to 11th place after placing several attacks. It was a bold strategy but he would, we feel, probably have had a podium place if he waited and used his sprint. Points lost.
Corsica International Matthew Lloyd reminds everyone he still exists with a breakaway on stage 1. Other than that the race was quiet as Panayotov rides to 18th Overall. Not a bad result looking at the race as a whole, but after Kenya it feels like more points lost.
Tour of Vancouver
Goal Race! Simon Yates confirms his talent with a Top10 on stage 1. Not wanting to be outdone Caleb Ewan shows himself with 15th on stage 2. Sarmiento has a great race with 2 breakaways on Stages 4 and 6, and 5th place on Stage 6. Izagirre does the team a favor with a breakaway STAGE WIN on stage 5 to please the sponsors on our "home" event. Panayotov rides strongly to finish 14th Overall but again having seen what he can do in Kenya it's both points lost and a disappointing way to fail our first Goal.
Tour of the Battenkill
Goal Race! Geraint Thomas goes all out to win at out "home" cobbled event. Multiple attacks animate the race, but again it perhaps does more harm than good. He finishes a strong 5th place, but it fails the goal and probably should have been a podium if he waited to sprint.
Rankings
Luckily a new Rankings Update came out whilst writing this (i guess someone reads twitter). So currently we stand 21st in the PCT division, ahead of rival team Mobil-Aeropostal, 4 places clear of the relegation zone. However that gap is only about 70pts so it's a slim margin. On the plus side we have struggled a bit in the last months so i'm taking this as a good sign as our performances can't really get too much worse.
The PpRD Table looks even better! This places us up into 18th, which is solidly mid-table! The "dead-cert" relegation boys are giving it one heck of a fight. This is parlty because we have used the joint-least race days in the division. In terms of points there is a nice 600 odd buffer between us and relegation... Could possibly the worst team in the division pull off one of the greatest seasons in cycling history?!
And Finally
Time to wrap up. It's been a mixed period for the team. Great results are the exception, with underperformance being the rule at the moment. This is worrying but not devastating yet. Geraint Thomas is as consistent on the Cobbles as ever which is good. Panayotov has his moments but needs to step up a level in the stage races. Otherwise the boys just need to keep attacking and fighting for whatever they can reach if we are to do what everyone pretty much saw as impossible before the season began... survive!
Absolutely Finally
#TheSound is on the verge of a return! After a long time away the beloved magazine is currently slated for a return in October with another Issues planned for December!
Quite Honestly Finally
Our Twitter handle has changed. You can now find us @TMM_PCMD using #mgB3B or #B3B. #TheSound can still be reached @TheSound. We are still very much active on there and company is always good.
As the season rumbles into the heat of Summer and the real mid-point grind kicks in the first news of sponsors begin to emerge in various places around the peloton. The shaping of the Rankings has now forced some teams to reconsider their positions and sponsors, and Boeing-Bulgaria is no different from the rest.
Boeing made it clear at the start of the year that if the team relegated then they would not renew their contract. The intial 2-year deal concludes on October and the title sponsor space could be opening up. Currently the team is just above the relegation places, with the operative word being just. The gap is small and current performances do not look good for the squad. Right now Boeing would be scaling back their involvement, if not out the door completely.
Bulgaria is a lot more stable. The Governments support has been very strong for 2 years, and they have long-term goals running through to 2017. So the thinking is that they will remain on board for a 3rd season, but they are not interested in taking that title sponsor position. It is also unknown whether this sponsorship would be under Bulgaria Tourism again or, like in our first season, come via a supported company.
Nike have provided the clothing for 2 years, and that is very unlikely to change. They are happy working with the team, but would like us to bring in a big name US rider that they can use for promotion. It's not crucial but would allow them to put more money into the team.
SRAM slightly increased their involvment this season, taking on a sizable chunk of the bike design along with Boeing. Their position is unknown and very much relates to that of Boeings. If Boeing remain SRAM will stay and continue joint work on bikes and equipment, but if the main sponsors leaves then SRAM will scale back their involvement to purely supplying groupsets and related pieces.
Finally minor sponsors Starbucks and Evergreen. Starbucks are a huge company and their contribution to the team must be barely felt by the main company, which works in our favor. Their input to the team is pretty much secured regardless of what the seasons result is. Evergreen is very much linked to Boeing, and like SRAM may leave if Boeing goes.
So we are expecting a fairly serious change of sponsorship for next season. We've been doing two years as an American registered team, without any American riders and without any stand out results on American soil. So will we still be American-Bulgarian next season? We can't say at the moment. In fact we are only just beginning the process of contacting potential sponsors with three plans in mind. Plan 1 is renewing with our current sponsors. This is preffered but requires us to stay in the PCT next season. Plan 2 is restructuring. The most likely option will see a selection of new sponsors take over the team. Plan 3 is franchising. We've been in rough allience with local sports teams and being taken over by a singular entity would make life simple, but is the least likely of the options. Regardless it's going to an interesting few months both on and off the bikes.
So the end of May Rankings have been released. For the first time this season Boeing-Bulgaria Bicycling has dropped into the relegation zone. The recent successes of Puma-SAP and Canadian rivals RBC have shot them up and forced us downwards. This marks the low point of the season for the team, but it's not all bad news. We have used the joint-least number of race-days in the division, tied at 68 with Meiji.
What this means is that our PPrD ranking moves us out of relegation and into 20th/21st position, funnily right ahead of Puma and RBC. Whilst we have slipped for now our consistency might just give us a fighting shot at avoiding relegation!
This update turned out to be the final straw for our title sponsor Boeing. They've been part of the team as lead sponsor for our first 2 years of existence but the end of the season will see the partnership with the team come to an end. They do not feel confident the team can avoid relegation and have called it quits with their forray into cycling. Perhaps the decision could have waited until later in the season but Boeing wanted to give the management the best chance of getting quality replacements. Boeing will have a special place in team history and will not soon be forgotten, let's hope we can send them out on a high note.
As previously discussed some other teams relation to the team was closely linked to Boeings. For starters Boeing are providing the bikes to the team in conjunction with SRAM. So we are on the hunt for new bikes, currently in talks with two major American manufacturers. SRAM have decided to react to Boeings news by also stating they will not stay with the team next season. This means we'll also have to find a new partner to supply components and groupsets for the squad. The other linked sponsor was Evergreen, an aviation firm based in Oregon. Their contribution wasn't huge but they have decided to withdraw as well, stating Boeing's departure as the main reason.
This opens up a number of open sponsor and partner positions. We are hunting for a new Title sponsor, a new Components partner, and new Bike partner and a new Minor sponsor. The hunt for a title sponsor is going well with 5 companies showing real interest in the position. While only one can take that Title role we are thinking we can bring more of them into the project as new minor sponsors. As said we are talking with two big bike manufacturers and a deal will be struck with one of them. We cannot sign a Components partner until we know the bike we'll be using as both bike suppliers have serious contracts of their own which we would have to honor, but that should not be a problem.
We'll keep our fans abreast of the latest news as it becomes confirmed. All we want is for the riders to keep fighting and riding hard, because the better they do then the better we can attract. Matthew Lloyds wins in the Czech Republic could not have been better timed!
Canadian Rivals RBC are very saddened to hear boeing are leaving because of our success will be intresting to see who takes up the role possibly another american company?? also keep the green
I was going to slowly drag this out, but with the team racing as it is i would rather focus updates there. So with some fairly radical changes to the team better to give time to let it sink in
The Great Big Sponsor Swapout
Current Title
2014 Title
Boeing
Aerospace
Lululemon
Sports Clothing
Bulgaria
Tourism
Bulgaria
Tourism
Current Clothing
2014 Clothing
Nike
Sports Clothing
Nike
Sports Clothing
Current Bike
2014 Bike
Boeing
Aerospace
Specialized
Bicycles
SRAM
Bicycle Components
Zipp
Bicycle Components
Current Minor
2014 Minor
Starbucks
Food & Beverages
Canucks
Sports & Entertainment
Evergreen
Aviation
Starbucks
Food & Beverages
Dogecoin
Cryptocurrency
IMAX
Entertainment
With the confirmation that Boeing was quiting the team, along with Evergreen and SRAM. That is roughly half of the sponsors and over half the funding leaving the team. Luckily the teams battling performances and real determination to fight to stay in the PCT, along with the established popularity, made it an easy sell to potential investors.
So our new title sponsor is Lululemon Athletica. Based in Vancouver, BC, Lululemon is a manufacturer and retailer of sports clothing. Primarily this is yoga gear but the business is ever expanding. Already with links to cycling via the Specialized-Lululemon womens team it's a stable deal which could run for many years. The company wants to expand into the male markets so any and every result is good for them, regardless of scale.
Boeing did provide our bikes this year, in association with SRAM, so obviously we've had to find new frames and equipment. Specialized were recommended to us by Lululemon and they were more than happy to continue their relationship with the company and supply the team. Exact models are unknown but all their frames are quality and will be happily recieved.
The space in the minor sponsor role has been filled by Canucks Sports & Entertainment. Canucks is the umbrella company that owns the NHL team Vancouver Canucks, AHL team Utica Comets and the Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The company is supremely experienced in terms of managing a sports team and with their guidance and expertese we hope to take the team to the next level of performance and notariety.
That covers the changes but we've also added two new minor sponsors. The firs is Dogecoin a cryptocurrency. Yes we understand this looks completely mental but it makes a lot of sense. The Dogecoin community has had a variety of links with sports before, most notably sponsoring Josh Wise NASCAR entry in a selection of races, an by sponsoring a number of winter olympic athletes. Created by an Oregon native it very much fits with the teams regional identiy and our personality of trying something different.
Finally we've added IMAX Corporation to our list of sponsors. The Canadian firm is a big global player in the cinema industry. They are hoping the extra advertising exposure can help turn the tide against 3D's invasion. As a global firm they have no issues with needing certain riders or results.
We've made no plans yet on the jersey. A few ideas are starting to be put together and we will start communicating with a designer in due course. Fans have made requests to keep our "iconic green" coloring and as long as we maintain our links with Bulgarian cycling that will remain our primary colors. But expect a very different jersey from the past two seasons. If any jersey designer has a particular urge to deal with a complex request they should let us know. Also the team name has not been confirmed, and neither has the teams liscense registration location. And as always we welcome comments and questions.
Just putting out there but wouldn't a team sponsored by a sports clothing company want to wear clothes from that sports clothing company?? Also go Canadian it's time for another member of the Canadian revolution.
@fintas - Gotta be fast But no reason Zipp couldn't be involved with more than one team
@jt - Lululemon is still limited in its male offerings, and currently has no male cycling gear available outside North America. As a result they are ok for us to be linked with Nike who is not a direct competitor in their key areas (bullsh*t is topclass there ).
TheManxMissile wrote:
@Cio - Expect a lot of Doge next season!
@fintas - Gotta be fast But no reason Zipp couldn't be involved with more than one team
@jt - Lululemon is still limited in its male offerings, and currently has no male cycling gear available outside North America. As a result they are ok for us to be linked with Nike who is not a direct competitor in their key areas (bullsh*t is topclass there).
Ahh I see haha does that mean they only sign crap riders haha
Ah, this looks really interesting. Those are some nice new sponsor contracts you have there - I'm quite a fan of the Lululemon brand myself (I don't own a single item, but I just think it's a cool company). You've still got that Bulgarian - North American focus which is nice too.
Last year our home European race was the cobbled Dobrich GP, where we battled hard to finish 2nd and 3rd in front of a huge crowd of local fans. It was possibly the highlight of our debt season. Following the success of the team and the Bulgarian cyclist this year the MGUCI sanctioned the first ever Tour of Bulgaria and instantly it was our main goal of the campaign.
In accordance with our sponsorship agreement we sent a 100% Bulgarian team, something we are very proud of. Led by Petar "still working on a good nickname" Panayotov we also had National Champion Stefan Hristov, classics star Martin Grashev, Stefan Cholakov, Momchil Robov and Valentin Stoenchev. Petar was going after the Win while the rest would support and hunt breakaways.
Mihaylov was active early on stage one, winning the first IS of the race, but ultimately wasn't able to escape. Without a sprinter the finishes were to be endured rather than enjoyed. From there we were invisible on Stages 2+3, a real disapointment for us and the fans.
Mihaylov was back at it on Stage 4 trying to get into the breakaway but again was unsucessful. Finally Grashev was able to get away on Stage 5 putting in a good show before being swalled up before the climatic finale and highlight of the race. Petar was canny over the climbs and placed himself well to stay near the front, even sprinting to 7th place on the downhill run.
Stage 6 was the climactic mountain finale and Petar did take part in animating the race on the climbs. Whilst he wasn't able to get away it showed his form and helped shake out various weaker riders. 5th place come the finish line was a well deserved reward and recieved the loudest cheers of the 6 days of racing.
Consistency on those final days moved Petar up into 6th place on the GC, tied with the same time as 5th place. Not the win we hoped for but pretty much equalling realistic predictions all things considered. Grashev was also happy finishing inside the Top30 on GC.
It was a good run out infront of the home crowd and the lads can be happy with their performances. We will have two more days action in Bulgaria for the Nationals at the end of the season. Until then the team will keep pushing hard to avoid relegation and validate the new sponsors comitments to the team, especially that of Bulgaria.
Some days are normal days. Some days are bad days. Some days are great days. Then every now and then you have a day that is just plain weird from start to finish. Today was one of those days, but it can also be called an incredible day. I can sit here and write that we have added a brand new sponsor for next season.
Whooshh Innovations are a decidedly unique company based just outside of Seattle, WA. They have a very narrow window of interest and operation but one that is incredibly effective and surprisingly useful. They are the market leaders in this area and are possibly the biggest surprise secret in the whole Pacific-North West. Whooshh Innovations are the creators of the "Salmon Cannon".
Yep the Salmon Cannon. Right strictly speaking not a cannon but it does transport Salmon at high speeds. We were put into contact with them via one of our agents and instantly knew we wanted to be involved with them in some fashion. Now we'd already sold off all the standard sponsorship partnerships so we've had the create a whole new style of sponsor partnership just for them. Whooshh Innovations will be our National Champion sponsor. So instead of the normal NC style jersey with the sponsor logos they will be replaced with Whooshh logos.
But what if we don't win a National Championship? Well firstly we will win both Bulgarian titles, that's a fact Ivanov can't change. Then we hope to luck into another one or two either through actual success or transfers. So for the entire season there will be riders of ours wearing just Woosh sponsored National Champions Jerseys. I said it was unique and a weird day.
It's the start of July which means the season is well over 50% complete. With the June Rankings update just released here's a quick whip around our situation, our thoughts on the remaining months and a summary of our Loanee's escapades in the ProTour!
As you can see are several timezones behind the current division leaders, but we were never aiming to be anywhere near to up echelons of the PCT. Our goal was very simply to avoid relegation and at worst just to not be last in the division. We are comfortably not going to be bottom of the division thanks to Compal and Mobil sucking. Mobil are improving slowly but we don't think it will be fast enough to pass us.
Currently we sit in 25th position. This is safety! We are only two points behind Kazzinc, but only thrity-four ahead of Allianz. So it's safety but hardly comfortable. This comes at the end of June. We had a relatively high number of race days this month including the freebee points of Monterrey. Perhaps we should still be in the relegation zone.
On the plus side we've got a heck of a lot of race days left including two winnable cobbled events and a 3-week Tour of America. On current form i think that staying above the relegation zone is possible. We need good races on the cobbles, Bahir Dar good really. Then all we need is Petar to keep up his Top15/10 consistency complemented by a variety of breakaways and strong stage results and we can maintain or even improve our PpRD and defy every single prediction.
A lot will depend on the teams around us. Kazzinc we think will slip a bit more backwards as will Hornbach. RBC are in range of closing down. Allianz had a poor month but we can also stay ahead of them in our opinion. The bad news is that at some point Metinvest will find form and shoot up the rankings. We're treating this as a lost place already.
But that means we'd only need to beat two teams in the rankings and that is not beyond possibility or reason! The downside being we have now failed all of our racing goals.
July probably won't be the best month. The USAPCC should be solid points but Southland and Danmark don't suit out team that well, so any points will be happily taken. August has the first cobbles in Copenhagen and that should be a big scorer. Baltic Chain and Bayern most likely won't be and we will be relying on breakaways yet again. Avenir will be a nice side note for the period as well. September is a big month with the Tour of America dominating. Hopefully we can get a stage win like last year and just improve overall in that race. Britain and Quebec are to be endured rather than enjoyed. Wanze is a great end to the month and should be another big scorer. October doesn't look great apart from Faso and we will be scrapping for every single points we can get at that stage.
Finally we bring a short update of Soupes exploits with Simply Red Bull in the PT. He's having a good time where most recently he aided Jose Alarcon to a Red Jersey in the Veulta. He's also had a few opportunities to sprint himself and picked up two Top10's in Paris-Nice and in Qatar. We very much look forward to having him back next season and hope he continues well this season
We picked up a significant number of talents in the off-season including big names like Simon Yates and Caleb Ewan. As more and more teams start to look ahead to next season we'll join by quickly going over how our riders will grow. Firslty it must be said that the management screwed the pooch on this aspect and royally boned several riders in this department... So badly that we've almost entirely sworn off ever targeting a talent again the future. Note that the XP Level given are the new ones
Riders We Didn't Ruin
Last name
First name
FL
MO
HL
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
Age
XP Level
Wage
Yates
Simon
71
69
73
67
72
68
66
51
72
75
72
63
70
22
3.59
120
2>3
Hristov
Stefan
71
63
63
66
71
69
67
75
65
71
69
64
66
29
4.10
50
3>4
Bardet
Romain
65
72
69
58
70
68
67
51
52
71
62
70
58
24
3.55
50
2>3
Stoenchev
Valentin
71
66
66
71
70
69
68
58
63
62
60
60
71
23
3.18
50
1>2 2>3
Cholakov
Stanimir
69
51
63
59
72
71
70
65
73
68
58
65
64
23
3.34
50
2>3
Simon takes a nice step forwards. Certainly increasing his chances of breakaway successes as has been his pattern this season. Stefan ups his cobbles came to become more great support for Thomas and take the pressure of Martin next season. Romain continues his work in the mountains, especially as a one-day climber. Valentin benefited from a slow season last year and jumps forwards in time trialing massively. Stanimir continues his unique development path nicely.
Riders Other Teams Didn't Ruin
Last name
First name
FL
MO
HL
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
Age
XP Level
Wage
Soupe
Geoffrey
72
64
66
65
72
69
76
64
79
77
57
64
68
26
Max
60
4>M
We say a huge thanks to Smowz and Simply Red Bull for taking Geoffrey to his peak. Now we will have a good sprinter for the first time ever! We can't wait to get him back and firing as a team leader.
Riders We Did Ruin
Last name
First name
FL
MO
HL
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
Age
XP Level
Wage
Ewan
Caleb
69
61
68
60
67
68
73
66
76
75
63
70
73
20
2.85
400
1>2
Bolivar
Isaac
67
61
64
69
69
66
66
70
60
68
65
74
69
23
2.97
50
1>2
Robov
Momchil
68
69
69
65
66
60
67
50
68
67
72
65
65
21
2.74
50
1>2
Fritsch
Sven
69
64
69
64
67
65
68
61
65
64
64
67
68
20
2.42
50
1>2
Losch
Max
66
51
64
62
65
65
63
66
69
72
78
62
66
21
1.89
50
Aleksiev
Aleksander
65
67
69
65
66
65
63
56
61
64
67
55
65
22
4.40
50
Our big future star Caleb is having a decent neo-pro season but some slight miscalculation leaves him short of a really big jump. He still comes forwards nicely and is young enough that he will still have plenty of time at the top, but we should have gotten him to Level 3. Isaac falls agonzingly short of Level 3 and again this was a huge fail on our side. Momchil is less painful but letting our Bulgarians is a horrible feeling. Sven also misses the double jump but like Ewan he is young enough it won't hurt too much in the long run. Neither Aleksandr nor Max get anywhere this season. Aleksandr really needs to go on loan to progress but what team is going to take him? Perhaps his career is at an early end... Max meanwhile got ruined the most. He failed to gain any Levels and we offer huge apologies to him.
On the brighter side of things as relegatioo to the CT becomes an every increasing reality it will be much easier to continue growing our riders. Perhaps we will take a season off from "Go big or go home" and just work on settling and growing our core of riders.... Or we could "Go BIGGER because we can't go any lower"...
Two last quick poinst whilst i'm updating. 1) Huge shoutout to our business partners the Seattle Seahawks on getting to Superbowl 49. 2) Our 2015 Jersey is now under official construction and we will let you guys see it the second it's ready
Tour of the South China Sea
Tour of South Africa
Dwars Door Vlaanderen
Strade Bianche
Kenya Mountain Classic
Rheden GP
Corsica International
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
) green. 
Fortunately I already have another sponsor
