Issue #2 is still a few days away. I only started organizing bits for it yesterday, so my guess is Friday release. Gonna have some good stuff from the Crits Series, to Repsol-Cativen, to new sponsors.
The Sound Issue #2 will be released over the weekend! This weeks feature interview is with Brownm of Repsol-Caitven, and also includes an introduction to the Crits Series, Geraint Thomas part 2, Sponsor Searching and The Tour of America
==Sound Wave: Sponsor Searching==
We are now truly into the second half of the season. The racing is getting harder, and every point more important. As the time rolls on teams have to start thinking about 2014. For some this is easy, they have a long term plan to continue, for others this is just about transfers. But for many this means looking for new Sponsors. Over the past month or so there have been a few announcements about new sponsors for 2014.
Here at BVP we already confirmed that Vivacom will be leaving team. If i'm honest this was expected. It was a one-off thing to get the team off the ground and running. We have spent some time contact various companies and groups to gather any potential interest, and met with little success. Until we had a brainwave! Half of Vivacoms contribution was put up by the Bulgarian government (if your clever you already know where this is going), so a few emails were exchanged.
From 2014 Bulgaria will be sponsoring the team! The government tourist board will put up the remaining budget needed. This comes with a slight name change as well. For 2014 we will become Bulgari-Boeing Bicycling, B3B. This deal is again a one year deal initially. But it's nice to know that the team has a future.
==One-On-One: Repsol-Caitven==
Brownm joined the Man-Game in 2012 with Continental Division 2 team Caitven, based out of Venezuela. They earned promotion to the PCT for 2013, and brought in Repsol to co-sponsor. We caught up with Brownm just before he headed away.
Spoiler
- You started off as a Continental Division 2 team in 2012, finishing 3rd. Did that experience help you during the transfer and planning period?
- Starting off in Division 2 definitely allowed me to understand in a better way how computer controlled teams worked. It allowed me to become focused on what riders I would need to get to become successful. However it consisted of small squads and small race teams with lower quality riders. This meant that races were much more chaotic, and you didn't have room for many domestiques, something which has caused my biggest mistake of this season.
- The team certainly kept to its South American roots this season, whilst adding strength. Where you happy with the transfer period?
- I really wanted to stay with a Venezuelan base with as many South American riders as I could, however as we had to build our teams from scratch, I knew that I would have to recruit overseas riders to create a team which could challenge. As a South American team I wanted to stay as a mountain based team, but I knew that I would need a few sprinters and hilly riders to round the team off. On the whole I was happy with the transfer season, especially with the signing of Kashechkin. Looking back I can see areas where I made mistakes.
- On paper the team is very strong, yet somehow results have been absent this season. What has gone wrong this season?
- I agree, the team does look strong on paper, however there is one fatal flaw. As I have eluded to this was my biggest mistake of the transfer. I brought way too many mountain domestiques, a lot of good climbers, but only one leader. Kashechkin is my only rider who can really challenge for races in the mountains. If I could go back and do it again I would sacrifice two or three of my average climbers to try and sign one more leader, who could try and win races.
- With the team at the bottom of the rankings at the end of July, and predicted to finish 29th, relegation is looming. Is this a worry for the team?
- Yes it is a worry. We always knew that this season would be tough, coming in having to build your own team, when you come up against teams with a solid base you are always going to be at a disadvantage, but we were up for the challenge. Obviously it hasn't gone quite as we planned, but there is still hope. However if we are to get relegated it wouldn't be the end of the world, as we would try to adapt and come straight back up.
- With 2014 perhaps as a Continental team, have you started thinking and planning that far ahead?
- I have had a few thoughts about which riders I would be able to keep with the smaller salary allowance, and how I would adapt to the Continental Division. Although I'm not sure what the best way to go would be, I will wait until the end of the season to make any definitive decisions.
- Repsol-Caitven still has a lot of races to go, do you think this season can turn around in that remaining time?
- I really believe that we have a chance of saving the season, we have some important mountainous races to come such as, Vuelta a Burgos, Tour of Hellas, Tour de Vineyards and importantly Tour of America. Kashechkin will be going to the Tour of America and although there will be some tough competition if he does well it could be a high points scoring race.
- Which of your teams riders can we expect to see star in the future?
- We have a few young riders who have the potential to be good riders in the future, it is unlikely that any of them will be team leaders but some of them could certainly be valuable domestiques and win less important races. Estifanos Kebede could become a very good Ethiopian climber, as could Jonathan Salinas. Our rider with the most improvement is Xavier Quevedo, who could become a very good puncheur who is able to get over mountains.
- PCM12 became known for some odd AI, how have you found it this season? And are you looking forward to the much improved PCM13 next season?
- As I said before we have got too many average climbers who don't have the ability to win races, and with PCM12, it is hard to break up the field on tough mountains. This means that the top climbers go ahead, but our good climbers can't drop the worse climbers. This means that they are unable to create gaps on the climbs and hence we struggle to do well on the GC. This means that only Kashechkin is our only climber who has produced big results. Hopefully we can be more successful towards the end of the season. I am definitely looking forward to PCM13 as it will benefit my climbers.
==The Not So Secret Pro: Geraint Thomas Part 2==
The 5 Jours is a big race. It has a great history and is a staple in the cobbles calendar. Of course it means it attracts the best available specialists. The aim was to get myself a high GC position, and maybe try and get a stage win or something as well. There would be plenty of opportunities to at least give it a go.
I put my speed to the test on Stage 1, bagging a Top10 finish, while the rest of the team showed intent, placing 4 more guys into the Top20. Stage 2 saw Stefan going alone in an amazing breakaway. I again got involved in the finish, barely missing a crash to get another Top10. My early season fears were well and truly gone. I had proved to myself that i really had the power to compete with these guys as a leader, adn that the team did really back me up for this.
Lets skip a quiet stage 3 and go to stage 4. This was the big day of the race, a tough course over a cobbled hill. The earlier races had shown that i was not quite on the level of the other main contenders. If we did the usual of go with them, i would probably end up 5th, which is not bad, but equally its not a win. Before the stage DS TMM talked through the plan. It was standard stuff, and i did not like it. So on the start line i spoke to the guys. "Go big, or go home". They nodded.
I attacked. Early. I can only imagine what the other teams were thinking and i loved it. I pushed as hard as i dared all day long. I was either going to win or explode, and for most of the day i really could not tell which was coming. I was caught late on, and imediately couldnt hold on. I saw Martin in the lead group. He asked if i wanted towing, to which i told him "to fuck off and do this shit." He duly delivered with 4th place.
I still managed to hang onto a decent finish. It wasn't a win, but it was amazing. I finished the race in 15th, not to be sniffed at. Martin and Stefan were and amazing 4th and 5th respectively. Jamie even brought home a jersey.
TMM's idea of "Go Big or Go Home" may not be perfect, but it certainly is a hell of a lot more fun to ride to. Hopefully we can take that on-board for this final run in at the end of the season. There are some big races still to come, and we could really do with some big results.
[Geraint will write again in a later issue]
==Whale Watching: Crits Series==
The Crits Series is a brand new creation for 2013. Across the season there are a number of short events. The whole series is limited to 72AVG riders or below. It really gives some of the lesser riders a platform to shine. At the start of the year interest was high, with races regularly oversubscribed. But as the season has progressed, focus has been on the main game, and the Crits Series has been through a tough time. We decided to talk to co-creator Tsmoha about the Series:
Spoiler
- What gave you the idea to set up the Crits Series?
- The initial idea was to run a pre-season event only. Loving the Australian cycling scene, I started running the Bay Classics and thought it would be a cool idea to invite other managers nominating their riders, which went pretty well. Then roturn actually had the idea to run further events like that and then we made plans for a whole Crits Series.
- How do you think the Series has gone so far this season?
- Even though the pace had to be slowed down in the recent weeks (we reporters want to keep the main focus on the official ManGame-calendar), I'm pretty happy with the Series so far. It's always good to see active managers, who make this events possible. We had some up and downs, sure, but in general I'm satisfied with most of the events we've held so far.
- Have there been any stand out performances or races?
- That's a tough question Smile But of course I do have my favorite races: the Profronden van Belgie were pretty awesome to follow. I liked the mix of flat, hilly and cobbled stages and how they played out.
Speaking of stand out performances, three things come to my mind quickly:
#1 Chris Sutton - He took out 3 out of 4 stages in the Bay Classics.
#2 Theo Bos - He can actually win! His two wins in Belgium and the Dutch Crits were crazy!
#3 Metinvest triple - Vitoria, Brambilla and Capecchi attacked just a few moments before the bunch sprint kicked off in Italy's opening race. Huge!
- Any hints about the Grand Final routes yet?
- No, sir! Well, we haven't chosen any places yet, seriously. But the plan is to choose some "special" places, so something like the Cauberg-finish we've already seen in the Dutch Crits, for example.
- Do you think it will return for the 2014 season? And if so any ideas on changes/additions yet?
- Hard to say. Pretty much depends on how much time roturn and me will have. Also the amount of reporters for the MG plays a role.. if it returns - and I hope it does - we may consider some changes. Balance is a key factor, so we would need to focus on that first.
BVP have been appearing in the Series were possible, with the highlight being at the most recent Baltic eHealth Cyc Series, where we managed to send a whole team, from which Grashev took a terrific victory.
The Series will well be worth watching as it gets towards the sharp end, and we hope it returns for 2014. Safe to say we will be back with the Crits Series in future issues.
==Sounding Off: Hindsight==
That concludes Issue #2 of The Sound. Our initial plans for this issue had two more interviews and a history piece. The interviews have been pushed back to later issues, and the history piece is still under works and will be in wither Issues #3or4. We are still looking at ways to improve the layout, but have been strapped for time, hope you can cope.
If you have any ideas for articles, please contact us as we always need content. Next issue we will try and get hold of a very big name interview, have a new Pro writer and more!
No Issue #3 this week. The quiet slow pace doesn't help much. That said i have stacked up a few articles and ideas to use in future issues.
So next week Issue #3 will probably contain: Future Development, Tour of the Future, a brand new Guest pro and the usual interview... and maybe some more as well
Issue #3 is coming together, i promise. It's been a slow time in the game so i put it off a bit. However the issue is close to release now.
We've got a chat with Cio of Puma-SAP. We've got a look at Sram-Ribbox. We've got a piece by Alex Ciocan. We'll delve into the Tour de l'Avenir. We check out Boeings future development plans. And we'll also try and round up the various rumors and announcements from the last month.
It's gonna be a great issue!
Another 10days later... It's coming i promise, eventually... In the mean time...
2014 and Riders
Yep here will be a quick run down of our current plans for the Boeing squad for the 2014 season.
Nikolay Mihaylov
Renew
Unavailable
Spas Gyurov
Renew
Unavailable
Pavlin Balinski
Renew
Unavailable
Georgi Petrov Georgiev
Renew
Unavailable
Stefan Hristov
Renew
Unavailable
Ahmed Ahmed
Renew
Unavailable
Aleksander Aleksiev
Renew
Unavailable
Valentin Stoenchev
Renew
Unavailable
Martin Grashev
Renew
Unavailable
Will Routely
Renew
Unavailable
Jamie Sparling
Renew
Unavailable
Rob Britton
Renew
Unavailable
Francisco Colorado
Renew
Possible
Edwin Parra Bustamante
Renew
Possible
Amadou Bakari
Released
Johnathon Tiernan-Locke
Released
Geraint Thomas
Renew
Possible
Francesco Chicchi
Released
Antonio Bucciero
Released
Summary
We are going to hold onto all of our Bulgarians. The plan still is for them to form the bulk of the squad. All of them have performed above expectation this season and have earned those spots for 2014.
The Canadians equally are staying on. All three have use to the squad and have great use as domestiques for the main guys in the team. Plus they are important to the sponsors.
The Colombians will be renewed initially. Both riders have had ok seasons but nothing special. We have one big target for the transfer season. If we obtain that target, then the Colombians will stay on as help. If we fail then both riders will become available for transfer.
Bakari was a gamble. Then we signed Thomas and were stuck with him. He will not be offered a contract and will be leaving the team.
JTL will also be leaving. He's been solid this season but does not fit into our views for the squad. We would like the extra squad and cap space, as we feel we can bring in a more useful rider for the same price.
Thomas is interesting. He will be renewed at first. However if we obtain our main target he will be available to transfer. If we miss our big target then Thomas will remain as the teams big leader for another season.
The Italians will also be leaving. Bucciero has been good, but again we feel we can get a better rider for the money. Chicchi has been disappointing almost all season and has not done enough to secure a contract offer.
Targets
With at least 6 teams disbanding, possibly up to 12, there will be a host of new talented riders entering Free Agency. Our sponsors would like us to bring in a few Americans, preferably three, to the squad so our focus will be on securing some of these. As yet no names can be confirmed, but 6 or 7 are on the initial radar.
Also we have one big target in mind. The name will remain secret until transfer time, but it's pretty easy to guess. We will be making a big offer to attract the name. Then it comes to left over cap space. We'll see what we can dig up out of that space, targeting excess riders from bigger teams, looking to get a Thomas-esque bargain again.
As mentioned ins The Sound Issue #2, Vivacom are dropping out as sponsor and being replaced by Bulgaria. The team for 2014 will be known as Bulgaria-Boeing Bicycling or B3B for short. Here we will go through the various sponsors, big and small, as well as revealing our 2014 jersey for the first time!
Main Sponsor Boeing - Aerospace
Boeing have pledged themselves again to the team they helped start up. They are still the biggest supporter of the squad, but have scaled back their contributions a little bit. It's great to have them on side again and their assistance in terms of logistics really assists the team across the season. Very very happy to be working with them.
They are requesting more representation from the USA in the team and we will do our best to bring in a couple of Yanks.
Bulgaria - Tourism
Bulgaria take over from Vivacom. The government is putting up all of the money now as part of a scheme to boost sport in the country as well as international tourism. Their contribution is significant to the team and of course Bulgarians form the majority of the riders. They have also pledged themselves for a number of seasons, minimum three, so will be around until 2017 with some luck.
They are happy with the national representation in the squad, and would like us to push to get a Bulgarian team to the Worlds by 2017.
Co-Sponsors Nike - Clothing
The Portland, OR, based firm will be providing the kit for a second season. Nike have long and successful links with sport and cycling which we are benefiting from. The teams exposure in Eastern Europe is attractive and part of the basis of the partnership. Nike have agreed to sponsor the team for as long as it is present in Eastern Europe.
They are happy with the nationalities of the team, and would just like some more successes.
SRAM - Equipment
SRAM-Ribbox folding has allowed SRAM to up their involvement with the squad. They still provide the key parts of the bikes as well as some finances and cycling experiences. Based of Chicago SRAM are interested in our presence in Eastern Europe as well, and will stick by us for that duration.
They are happy with the nationalities of the team, and would just like some more successes.
Starbucks - Beverages
The Seattle based mega-giant in coffee are again connected with the squad. The scale of the involvement is not massive but it certainly helps as is a good part of our strategy to secure a strong financial base. Starbucks would like a bigger involvement in cycling and the team but are holding off until we start climbing higher in the ranks.
They would like some more American riders in the team, but is not crucial to their continued support.
Evergreen - Aviation
Brand new to the cycling scene is Evergreen. The Washington state based aviation company was very excited to join the project. They provide a small amount of funding this season to see how it works with the thought of scaling up for 2015. They would like to see some good exposure in the American races, rather than Europe like some of the bigger involved firms.
They would like some Americans in the squad, and some more success in American races.
Jersey
We had to go to a new creator for this jersey, with normal go to man Miggi busy in real life. FroomeDog stepped up and has made our new jersey, and he has done an outstanding job satisfying all the parties related to the team. So here it is, our 2014 Jersey!
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
It's coming i promise, eventually... In the mean time...
Boeing - Aerospace
