Thanks Count, development of likes of Zmorka, Karnulin and Bratashcuk to secure future of Ukraine cycling is very important task for Metinvest.
@rjc_43: Believe me, if there would be an option "dont steal a single point from Good Energy" i would even pay for that to be active. Anyway, do you remember which manager gave me an advice to go for as many PT wildcards as possible?
At first, sorry for all the inactivity. Sorry to our fans and to MG management and reporters, people that make this great fun possible! No need to give my reasons for that i hope, it is like it is.
I will put few reviews in next week or so and will try to catch up with things. 5 racing months is a lot, so i will put it short to make it easier for both fans and me. There is not much to cheer for anyway, at least results wise.
January review
As usual, new cycling season starts Down Under for majority of teams and we were not an exception. Who would not change the freezing Europe for Australia
Down Under Classic - HC Asia
First race of cycling calendar and Metinvest was ready with 2013 PCT start Nolan Hoffman as the leader and Vasylyuk, Grosu and Brambilla as the main helpers.
We still dont know where was the problem, maybe Nolan was still with his head in the stars, but he somehow forgot to prepare for the sprint properly. It resulted in very disappointing start to his season, as he was not even able to pass the wheel of Vasylyuk, his lead-out.
The race was a bit surprisingly won by Danilo Kupfernagel from Karcher, what a start to the season for him and his team!
Results
Spoiler
1
Danilo Kupfernagel
Karcher-Adira Racing
1h31'51
2
Ivano Lo Cicero
Meiji - Cannondale
s.t.
3
Gerald Ciolek
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
4
Roman Maksimov
Project: Africa
s.t.
5
Raúl Granjel Cabrera
Mobil - Aeropostal Ciclismo
s.t.
33
Andriy Vasylyuk
Metinvest-Emirates
s.t.
34
Nolan Hoffman
Metinvest-Emirates
s.t.
Tour Down Under - C1Asia (6 stages)
First C1 stage race in 2014 saw the riders tackling the heat of Australia in the race of growing popularity. Our team was built around two men. Our new hilly leader František Raboň coming from Milka and usual sprint leader Nolan Hoffman.
Nolan Hoffman was once again in bad form in stage1. In 2nd stage, our future star Eduard Grosu took the responsibility and finished 7th.
3rd stage was first important for the final outcome of the race and Raboň was able to place himself in second large group of favourites.
4th stage was where Nolan Hoffman has finally delivered his first podium of the year behind Goss and Haussler. He was one of the fastst in the end and who knows what happened if finishing line was further up the road...
Stage5 was famous Willunga hill showdown and Rabon put a nice effort there to strengten his top10 GC position, with Chris Froome from Quickstep stealing the lead from Venchi's "The Beast" Van Stayen.
But the Van Stayen show was not over and with Stage6 win and the bonus seconds, he won the whole race! Rabon held his 7th spot in GC, which was the perfect start to his Metinvest career.
Nicolae Tanovitchii, our attacking talent from Moldova also deserves a mention for his gutsy riding style, fighting for the KOM jersey.
Results
Spoiler
1
Michael Van Stayen
Venchi - Ferranti
17h13'56
2
Chris Froome
Quickstep
+ 2
3
Diego Ulissi
Bacardi Limited
+ 28
4
Hassen Ben Nasser
Team Kenya Airways
+ 32
5
Cyril Gautier
La Vie Claire
+ 40
7
Frantisek Rabon
Metinvest-Emirates
+ 1'00
Picture of the month:
What a close finish in 4th stage of tour Down Under. Nolan Hoffman coming 3rd in his South Africa NC jersey.Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 27-10-2014 09:05
Here is the 2nd update, this time about February. Dont expect much, we were still shite...
February review
After the usual start of the cycling calendar in Australia, Metinvest started February in Honkong and continued to Africa, before finally opening the european cycling calendar in sunny, but still a bit cold Mallorca
Tour of South China Sea - C1 Asia
Less than 140kms and pretty flat couse awaited the riders in Honkong for this classic. It was not pan flat though, so we saw this race as ideal for our sprint captain Nolan Hoffman, supported mainly by Vasylyuk and Brambilla. Rest of the team was rather young and ready for a possible day in the break.
With that in mind, one of our youngest riders, Anatoliy Sosnitskiy joined the break of five soon after the start. Later his older companion Lagkuti tried to jump into second break, but it was caught later.
Meanwhile in the pack, Nolan Hoffman was calm, even when majority of his support was already dropped. He had a teammate upront, so he wasn't forced to set the tempo in reduced group of sprint favourites.
In the end, two riders from the morning group managed to stay in front of the pack and Rob Partridge from Eddie Stobart Pro Cycling was the one who was first over the finish line, beating Mancuso from Bacardi. Great win for a CT team for sure.
Sosnitskiy used all of his remaining power to hold off majority of the sprinters and finished 6th, a great result for the young ukrainian in C1 race. Nolan Hoffman finished 11th, which concluded a good race for Metinvest.
Results
Spoiler
1
Rob Partridge
Eddie Stobart Pro Cycling
3h19'43
2
Salvatore Mancuso
Bacardi Limited
s.t.
3
Gert Steegmans
Gazelle
+ 39
4
Taylor Tolleson
Heineken-Cal Giant
s.t.
5
Sebastian Langeveld
Heineken-Cal Giant
s.t.
6
Anatoliy Sosnitskiy
Metinvest-Emirates
s.t.
11
Nolan Hoffman
Metinvest-Emirates
s.t.
Tour of South Africa - HC Africa (6 stages)
After the long flight from Asia, Nolan Hoffman arrived to his homeland (as the road race NC) for the 2014 edition of Tour of South Africa, the race that he was able to win the year before.
He joined the teammates that were already few days there, training for tough race, which featured rolling flat stages, combined with much tougher hilly ones. Eduard Grosu and Anatoliy Paktusov were named as co-captains, especially for tougher stages. Experts were pretty sure that Nolan will not be able to repeat his impressive 2013 race, so how that concluded?
Well, not very good for Metinvest...Hoffman started the tour with 8th place and later was 5th in stage 5 and that was pretty much it from him. He dropped down in hilly stages and his final GC position is even not worth mentioning.
Eduard Grosu was in the end the best Metinvest rider GC-wise, which is great for him, but 56th place was a big big disappointment. Not that Grosu was expected to do better, but Pakthusov was. He was abyssmal to say at least in every hilly stage and in the end finished even behind Hoffman in GC. The atmosphere in the team bus could not have been any worse, we started the season in very bad way. Only fact that our trio of leaders were still yet to start their seasons was a bit calming.
Apart from our side, the race was very interesting and Kenya Airways rider Hassen Ben Nasser was crowned as the GC winner in the end, after controlling the race with 2nd place in last stage. Skujins and Gautier completed the podium, so not a sprinter exploiting the puncheurs this time...
Results
Spoiler
1
Hassen Ben Nasser
Team Kenya Airways
22h38'19
2
Toms Skujins
Swedbank - PEAB
+ 41
3
Cyril Gautier
La Vie Claire
+ 54
4
Jack Bobridge
Oz Cycling Project
+ 1'26
5
Maxime Monfort
Gazelle
+ 2'06
56
Eduard Grosu
Metinvest-Emirates
s.t.
Vuelta a Mallorca - C1 Europe (4 stages)
Finally a race in Europe! These were the the thoughts of every member of Metinvest prior to Vuelta a Mallorca, the tough four stages long test tailor made for puncheurs. That ment František Raboň in the lineup as the leader, with Traficante, Ghisalberti as his main helpers and Hoffman as free role sprinter for easier stages.
Nolan was able to grab a top10 for a start, with 6th spot in first stage won by Maksimov.
2nd stage was already a bit tougher, but still a one for the fast men. Lagkuti spent a day in the break, but it was caught before the line, where Raboň joined the sprint and grabbed solid 11th spot, good effort against the pure sprinters. But why he was even sprinting instead of Hoffman? Because Hoffman was involved in accident of pre-race favourite Chris Froome and had to abandon, very unlucky.
Unlike Nolan, Froome was not injured from the crash (but still his GC race was over) and we could see that perfectly with his stage win in 3rd stage. Only Caesare DiMaggio and Carlos Betancourt came close, but not really. Raboň was decent and placed himself in the end of first bigger group. His earlier sprint involvment helped him to climb to 7th overall, that was nice.
Last stage did not bring any drama, so Di Maggio rolled over the line safely in the pack and became the GC winner, followed by Betancurt, just 4 seconds down. František Raboň again joined the sprint and with another top10 finish even moved himself a place up in GC, to final 6th place.
Vuelta a Mallorca became our best race in 2014 so far and things were looking a bit more brightly for a while...
White roads of Tuscany, so romantic! But not at all in February, when you are a PCT rider and you have to tackle almost 190kms of rolling terrain. End of February came and many of the divison's best puncheurs were ready to start at Strade Bianche.
Metinvest was quite succesful there in 2013 and this time, the race was a season's opener for our new megastar Mikhail Ignatiev. Not exactly his cup of cofee (a TT), but Mikhail is a strong rider and we hoped he will try to be agressive on this special terrain. He had especially Grosu, Popkov and Hoffman by his side, to help him achieve at least top10.
In the end, top 10 was without Ignatiev, who came 14th , but nobody can say that he did not try. To be honest, he probably tried too much, as he attacked no less than three times, which costed him the power in the final tough uphill sprint won by beasty Michael Van Stayen from Venchi, followed by other strong puncheurs Ben Nasser and Ulissi.
Mikhail Ignatiev with his 3rd and final attempt to tear the race apart at Strade Bianche. He finished 14th.Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 27-10-2014 11:26
Great overview, pleasure to read. February wasn't a bad month for you, but then again none of your riders set a world alight as well. I remember well Baungies and Igantiev working together at the end, it wasn't to be, but decent effort from both.
@ Alakagom: Thanks for the nice words mate, it is good for me to summarize what happened earlier in the season, now that i calmed down a bit and i am able to see the race discussions again
I agree that February was decent month, especially as Popovych was still yet to ride and Mikhail had just 2 race days, but the worse was still waiting for us in next months.
But there were also great times for Metinvest in early season, to the big surprise it did not came from PCT racing. More about that in this special.
PT Intermezzo#1 - Ignatiev hunting TT glory
Last year, Metinvest was able to secure two PT wildcards in form of participation in Kopenhagen - Malmö TTT and in Deutschland Tour. In 2014, we were again given the honour to ask for some of them. In the end we managed to be invited to three PT races, with two of them coming very early in the season.
I would like to say big thanks to the MG management here, as Metinvest as the whole sees PT wildcards as big honour and chance to develop the team, next to it being the great form of marketing.
This is the story of the first PT wildcard...
Chrono des Herbiers - PT TT classic
Our first PT wildcard of the season and already the ultimate test of raw cycling power, as TT is sometimes called. More than 48 challenging kilometres,where only the strongest can prevail!
Question was, why Metinvest at the start? Do they have someone to challenge the biggest cycling beasts such as Taylor Phinney or Jerome Coppel? We did not, for our first seasons in professional peloton, but now we have. One of the worlds best TTists Mikhail Ignatiev joined the colours of Metinvest for 2014 and this race suits his abilities. Top10 was the ultimate goal, but we secretly hoped for better.
But before our leader, two other TTists from Metinvest fired from the starting blocks. Well, Marlen Zmorka fired and Haijun Ma barely jumped. Ma, chinese TT champion finished 64th, so one of the worst Zmorka , the future of the Ukrainian TT school and our big hope finished 21st, which is a fantastic result as it matches his age. He is still learning how to cycle in the bigger league, but this result is a fantastic promise for the future. Marlen told me after the race, that he wants to win this race later in his career, we will ever support him in these tries.
3..2..1 and Ignatiev was on the route. So far, best time in the finish was held by "Captain America" David Zabriskie. It was time of 1h05m41s. Did Igantiev beat this time? No, because he absolutely smashed it! 1h04m25s...
After that Kittel came really close, but Mikhail was still leading. Next in the line was world TT champion himself Taylor Phinney. Ouch, that was so close, but he was not able to beat Ignatiev, he came few seconds late. It almost seemed that noone will be able to beat our TT machine, but then Jerome Coppel, arguably the worlds best TTer crossed the finish line. Their time was almost the same, but in the end, Jerome Coppel was crowned the champion of Chrono des Herbiers, just two seconds in front of Ignatiev!
This 2nd place in PT race became the by far biggest result in history of Team Metinvest-Emirates. It made me so proud. A am a strong man, but i was crying like a baby. My project can be succesful, we can compete with the best. Or we cannot?
jph27 wrote:
And that is why you will be forever indebted to me for not continuing to bid on Coppel
Well, you are imo the one that benefited the most from the fact that you stopped bidding as you say. Because you are doing great and you would not have such a team with Coppel. Ignatiev is yet to score some major points, so we cannot count so far. Craven and Kangert are better punchy TTists so far
But of course i am happy that Coppel is in PT. Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 27-10-2014 13:20
Just two weeks after our first PT wildcard in 2014 came the second one. this time not only a classic, but seven stages long stage race in Catalunya. This race is part of usual PT early season triple header, together with Paris-Nice and T-A.
We felt that Catalunya course was the best choice for our team's abilities, as it started with very short prologue, followed by two flat stages and concluded with four demanding hilly stages, one of them being almost 30kms long hilly TT.
Volta Cyclista a Catalunya - PT (7 stages)
As you could see in the first paragraph, Catalunya was the race tailor-made for puncher with good TT skills, so PT stars like Gesink, Trofimov or Phinney did not surprise anyone in the startlist. But what about Metinvest and its lineup?
Leader was pretty clear, as Mikhail Ignatiev is by far the best TTist in our team and very decent puncheur too. Also he was coming from strong 2nd place in our 2014 PT wildacrd debut in Chrono des Herbiers. Popkov and Pakthusov served as the luxury domestiques for Mikhail and the lineup was completed with young guns Brataschcuk, Grosu, Karnulin, Tanovitchii and Zmorka.
The opening short prologue was our chance for strong result and it showed off pretty well. Our future TT star Marlen Zmorka finished 8th and Ignatiev even few places higher, 4th. It was not enough to challenge likes of Coppel or Phinney, but two in top10 and three in top15 (Popkov 15th) was great start for our PCT setup.
2nd stage was rather dull (Theo Bos taking points tells the whole story) , but in 3rd stage Metinvest was very active and succesful. It started with Eduar Grosu joining the day's breakaway, where he was last man to be caught up by chasing pack, less than 6kms from the line. Such a late catch created a lot of chaos in sprint preparations. Martin Reimer shot out from that chaotic bunch to grab the great win for Vueling. To our immerse pleasure, he was followed by Mikhail Ignatiev in 2nd. What a PT year for Ignatiev and our team with another stage podium. The great stage was crowned by the fact that Ignatiev became the new race leader!
Very hard 4th stage started with Metinvest controlling the whole pack for the race leader, what an honor. In the end, Mikhail was able to hold with the leading group of nine, but Yuri Trofimov was so strong in the sprint, that he was awarded a gap and thus the GC lead. It was a shame to loose a race lead, but Mikhail was totally spent after the tough day and he lost it to the beasty superstar...
5th stage was about limiting the losses before the hilly TT, at least for our leader. Stage was full of attacks, especially from Gesink and other strong punchers, but it was not enough to drop Ignatiev or Phinney, who all finished in first group. Sprint was again won by "Tsar" Trofimov, second win in the row for him.
The time of hilly TT came and main question was if Trofimov will sustain the pressure from stronger TTists as Phinney or Ignatiev. But before the GC favourites, Zmorka once again took the lead on the route and it was enough for 16th place in the end. That was an indicator about hills having a big role in this specific course. Maybe that was the reason why Ignatiev finished 4th, but it was enough to hold that 3rd in GC in front of Gesink, at least at that point...
Last stage is still something where we are not 100% sure what happened. Maybe we were not adapted enough to PT riding, but Metinvest was not the only team to made some mistakes. The whole day was chaotic and it resulted in Ignatiev loosing precious podium in PT stage race. It was a bit expected that he will loose it to Gesink, but he lost it to L.L. Sanchez from Rothaus, who was part of the clever late move, together with overall race winner Trofimov and several others. Ignatiev finished 4th in GC.
GC podium was missed, but 4th was still great result in PT race, together with 2nd place in a stage, 2x 4th, several other top10s and attacking riding from Zmorka, Grosu and Pakthusov. To sum it up, it was a great experience and great fun for everybody around the team. And the best was yet still to come PT- wise, but that is for another story and you will have it when the time is up for it...
tsmoha wrote:
Wow, completely missed that result thanks to my "break" back then. Your PT-races were great this year. Loving these recaps, keep it going
Thanks a lot mate, i will try to keep posting them in regular fashion in next few weeks, before i will catch up to what is happening in MG now.
Our PT trips (Chrono, Catalunya,Giro) were indeed incredible this year, unlike more important PCT season. Ignatiev is better in PT rankings than in division lower.
Ok, so the plan was to continue these recaps and that obviously did not happen, i struggle to find enough time and motivation for it. So sorry to those that enjoyed them, i will try to think about much easier format of updates for next season.
The second part of this season is so much better for Metinvest, as anybody following the game could see. We still hope we can achieve that top10 rankings goal, so keep the fingers crossed for us and enjoy at least a small rider development update.
Rider development 2014-2015
Name: Anatoliy Sosnitskiy Country: 2014 team: Metinvest-Emirates 2014 XP lvl: 2 2015 XP lvl: 3.35 Training focus: Climbing Tutor: Jaroslav Popovych PT Loan in 2015? NO
Name: Volodymyr Dzhus Country: 2014 team: Metinvest-Emirates 2014 XP lvl: 3 2015 XP lvl: 4.28 Training focus: Climbing Tutor: Jaroslav Popovych PT Loan in 2015? YES
Name: Denys Karnulin Country: 2014 team: Metinvest-Emirates 2014 XP lvl: 3 2015 XP lvl: 4.56 Training focus: Stage Racing Tutor: Jaroslav Popovych PT Loan in 2015? NO
Name: Andrii Bratashcuk Country: 2014 team: Metinvest-Emirates 2014 XP lvl: 3 2015 XP lvl: 4.14 Training focus: Hills Tutor: Frantisek Rabon PT Loan in 2015? YES
Name: Marlen Zmorka Country: 2014 team: Metinvest-Emirates 2014 XP lvl: 3 2015 XP lvl: 4.57 Training focus: TT Tutor: Mikhail Ignatiev PT Loan in 2015? NO
Name: Nicolae Tanovitchii Country: 2014 team: Metinvest-Emirates 2014 XP lvl: 3 2015 XP lvl: 4.13 Training focus: Hills Tutor: Frantisek Rabon PT Loan in 2015? YES
Name: Andris Smirnovs Country: 2014 team: PrivatBank - Nemiroff 2014 XP lvl: 1 2015 XP lvl: 3.28 Training focus: Hills Tutor: Frantisek Rabon PT Loan in 2015? NO
Name: Julian Alaphilippe Country: 2014 team: Team Nordeus 2014 XP lvl: 2 2015 XP lvl: 3.36 Training focus: Hills Tutor: Frantisek Rabon PT Loan in 2015? YES/possible trade
Name: Eduard Grosu Country: 2014 team: Metinvest-Emirates 2014 XP lvl: 3 2015 XP lvl: 4.56 Training focus: Sprinting, Beasting Tutor: Nolan Hoffman, Mikhail Ignatiev PT Loan in 2015? NO
You have some great talents.
Zmorka, Grosu, Alaphillippe, Smirnovs, Karnulin, Bratashcuk could all be valuable in 2015 already. In especially first two obviously.
With Oz going up and I most likely down, I expect quite a few Zmorka/Schädlich battles next year.
Not sure how many other 80+ time trialists will end in PCT.
Team Metinvest Development, better known as Privatbank, is happy to help the other Ukrainian team raise their talents. Quite a few of these are either at my team, or were here last year, and Tanovitchii in particular was a fun rider to have in my team
Hope we can help eachother next year as well.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
roturn wrote:
You have some great talents.
Zmorka, Grosu, Alaphillippe, Smirnovs, Karnulin, Bratashcuk could all be valuable in 2015 already. In especially first two obviously.
With Oz going up and I most likely down, I expect quite a few Zmorka/Schädlich battles next year.
Not sure how many other 80+ time trialists will end in PCT.
Thanks, i like my talents too They are finally coming through the ranks to co-lead the team in some cases, like Zmorka or Grosu. Some of them still need some PT experience though.
About TTists, i fear that next year will be even stronger in PCT. Oz is gone, but ING is coming down with their super TT lineup and also Ignatiev is going nowhere, so Metinvest alone should have two 80TT riders. If Rothaus will be added to the mix, there will be some great battles for sure. And that said without too much insight into it, other teams can improve in TT lineups too.
fjhoekie wrote:
Team Metinvest Development, better known as Privatbank, is happy to help the other Ukrainian team raise their talents. Quite a few of these are either at my team, or were here last year, and Tanovitchii in particular was a fun rider to have in my team
Hope we can help eachother next year as well.
Great to hear from our dear friends from Privatbank, we value our cooperation very highly and hope for the continuation of common improvement of eastern european cycling. Privatbank is indeed crucial partner for us in development in talents and i will be happy to talk during transfers again, however we are not planning to get any lvl1,2 talents on board this year and as we are in same division, we can maybe just fill the blank spots terrain wise.
Great job with Smirnovs this year! We stay in touch via e-mail and phone calls and he speaks only in positive manner about his "loan home" for 2014.
I am looking forward to see Prevar finally in Privatbank colours after he spent a year with us and now year in PT! Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 19-02-2015 09:47
Have to say as it stands I couldn't justify splashing out on him, but if you still have him on board next season I could be interested
Also glad I'm getting rid of Reus, with your Zmorka/Ignatiev duo. Though I hope to replace him with a rival of sorts Edited by jph27 on 19-02-2015 11:46
Have to say as it stands I couldn't justify splashing out on him, but if you still have him on board next season I could be interested
Also glad I'm getting rid of Reus, with your Zmorka/Ignatiev duo. Though I hope to replace him with a rival of sorts
I hope you are not speaking about Coppel, that would ruin next season for both teams, yours and mine.
About Julian - where you would train him, sprinter, to become another generic 72hill 78/77sprint stats rider? I thought about that, but I like creating unusual rider types (and i also already have much better Grosu for that role).
This way, Alaphilippe can reach combo of 76hill, 74/78 sprint stats + 79 fighter and i like him much more that way and he can become really beasty with bit of a training.
Anyway, there is no need for any cash splashing, since there is also possibility of rider swaps.
Have to say as it stands I couldn't justify splashing out on him, but if you still have him on board next season I could be interested
Also glad I'm getting rid of Reus, with your Zmorka/Ignatiev duo. Though I hope to replace him with a rival of sorts
I hope you are not speaking about Coppel, that would ruin next season for both teams, yours and mine.
About Julian - where you would train him, sprinter, to become another generic 72hill 78/77sprint stats rider? I thought about that, but I like creating unusual rider types (and i also already have much better Grosu for that role).
This way, Alaphilippe can reach combo of 76hill, 74/78 sprint stats + 79 fighter and i like him much more that way and he can become really beasty with bit of a training.
Anyway, there is no need for any cash splashing, since there is also possibility of rider swaps.
Nah, not Coppel. You're in roughly the right area though
As for Alaphilippe, I would probably have gone with 72/78 or 74/76 on the Hill/Sprint balance. Simply because it's cheaper to train the hill stat of a sprinter than the sprint stat of a puncheur due to the averages. He'll be a very interesting rider when maxed regardless.
Interesting to see Alaphilippe available under the right circumstances...
I'm not sure if I have anyone remotely interesting to you for a swap, but he'll definitely be on my extended targets list now, although receiving our budget will answer many questions already regarding how much money we can even spend on transfers (and any rider involved in a swap is lost money elsewhere ).
Grosu of course will be the bane of Demare next season, -1 FL -2 HIL +-0 SP.
I hope we can split up enough race days over the calendar to not have them meet too often, but with a possibly smaller season next year, this could be a decisive part of how both of us will do in the rankings in the end.
Seeing that you don't plan on loaning out Zmorka and Grosu, you're trying to go for promotion and hope for a GT wildcard I assume?
Edited by cio93 on 19-02-2015 14:40
Down Under Classic - HC Asia
Tour of South China Sea - C1 Asia
Tour of South Africa - HC Africa (6 stages)
Vuelta a Mallorca - C1 Europe (4 stages)
Strade Bianche - HC Europe
Chrono des Herbiers - PT TT classic
