Team Telenor-SAS is a new team in the continental tour. The team will be built around a Scandinavian core and are looking to promote scandinavian cycling and present the main sponsors to a large international audience.
Sponsors:
Telenor
SAS
Saab (Secondary)
Moods of Norway (clothing)
Rooster:
Fredrik Kessiakoff Thomas Vaitkus Graeme Brown Xavier Florencio Thomas Rohregger Benjamin Noval Christian Pfannberger Rafaâ Chtioui Lucas Schädlich (Loaned out) Thomas Vedel Kvist (Loaned out) Fabio Sabatini Niki Østergaard Jussi Veikkanen Sebastian Siedler Fredrik Wilman Lasse Bøchman Daniel Foder Remco Te Brake Andreas Klier Lars Petter Nordhaug Stian Remme Stian Sommerseth Ole Haavardsholm Rasmus Guldhammer (Loaned in)
Edited by Heine on 28-03-2010 19:12
Win Ringerike Grand Prix
Win Post Danmark Rundt
Team Standings Top 15
Top 5 Scandinavia Race Uppsala
Top 5 Fyen Rundt
Results:
TTT
2nd place, 4th stage Mount Hood Cycling Classic
Thomas Rohregger:
3rd place, 2nd stage Tour of Wellington
3rd place, 1st stage Mount Hood Cycling Classic
3rd place, 3rd stage International Osterreich Rundfahrt
4th place, GC Mount Hood Cycling Classic
Fabio Sabatini:
1st place, Air Foce Cycling Classic
2nd place, 7th stage Tour of Wellington
3rd place, 1st stage Tour of Wellington
3rd place, 8th stage Presidental Tour of Turkey
3rd place, 2nd stage Tour of Ireland
Tomas Vaitkus:
1st place, Scandinavian Race Upsalla
1st place, 6th stage Mount Hood Cycling Classic
2nd place, 2nd stage Mount Hood Cycling Classic
2nd place, 3rd stage World's View Challenge
3rd place, Dutch Food Valley Classic
Points Jersey Mount Hood Cycling Classic
Fredrik Kessiakoff
1st place, 1st stage Tour De Beauce
1st place, 6th stage Tour De Beauce
2nd place, GC World's View Challenge
2nd place, GC Tour De Beauce
2nd place, 4th stage World's View Challenge
3rd place, 3rd stage Tour De Beauce
King of Mountains Tour De Picarde
Lasse Bøchman:
1st place, Cape Argus Cycle Tour
Rasmus Guldhammer
3rd place, young riders Presidental Tour of Turkey
Remco Te Brake
3rd place, 2nd stage, Tour de Beauce
Xavier Florencio
1st place, 3rd stage, Tour De Beauce
Jussi Veikkanen
2nd place, 9th stage, Volta a Portugal
3rd place, 1st stage, Volta a Portugal
Greame Brown
2nd place, 5th stage, Vuelta a Burgos
Edited by Heine on 21-03-2011 07:52
Fredrik Kessiakoff Thomas Vaitkus Graeme Brown Xavier Florencio Thomas Rohregger Benjamin Noval Christian Pfannberger Rafaâ Chtioui Lucas Schädlich (Loaned out) Thomas Vedel Kvist (Loaned out) Fabio Sabatini Niki Østergaard Jussi Veikkanen Fredrik Wilman Lasse Bøchman Daniel Foder Andreas Klier Sebastian Siedler Lars Petter Nordhaug Stian Remme Stian Sommerseth Ole Haavardsholm Remco Te Brake Rasmus Guldhammer (Loaned in)
Telenor and SAS today announced a new cooperation project, a cycling team. Director of Telenor made a press release about the event: "Cycling is a growing sport in Scandinavia and around the globe. It is therefor an interesting market for both our firms when looking to expand into foreign markets. At the same time cycling is healthy and great training both for your body and concentration."
There has not been possible to get any other comments from and of the involved parties, but rumors tell that the team are contacting some former scandinavian stars to find a sports manager. Also there are said that the team are already scouting after interesting prospects, mainly from northern Europe.
We will be back with more news as soon as possible
Team Telenor-SAS announce new sports manager
The young Norwegian manager-talent Heine has signed as the new sports manager for Team Telenor-SAS. Heine lacks experience, but is a hardworking and interesting figure to lead the team.
As assistants he have managed to get the former Joker-Bianchi trainer Gino Van Oudenhove and the formed Norwegian top cyclist Knud Knudsen.
Now that the leaders of the team are ready we are looking forward to seeing the signings of the new team. Rumors are that several top names are on the shortlist.
Edited by Heine on 27-02-2010 12:26
The goals for Team Telenor-SAS has been announced. Concentrating around scandinavian races with the main goals being Post Danmark Rundt and Ringerike Grand Prix. Races that the sponsors want the team to win. Other than the winning goals the sponsors want the team to perform well in Scandinavian Race Uppsala and Fyen Rundt. The team also wants to get an okay position in the Continental Tour, finishing inside the top 15.
When the Sponsor Goals ready the team can really start to plan the team for next year. Rumors are saying that the team wants to sign 2 of the following riders: Boasson Hagen, Hushovd, Løvkvist or Rasmussen. However there has been no official statement from the management.
If the rumors are true it seems like the team will be scandinavian based as they told the press earlier.
The swedish climber is the highest paid rider of the team, and the captain. He's going to lead the team in stage races and maybe some hilly classics. His great goal this year is Post Danmark Rundt.
Thomas Vaitkus
The Lithauanian sprinter is one of the riders the team expect alot from this year, he will mostly lead the team in flat stage races with his mixture of a great sprint and a good time trial. He will also be an important rider in other flat races and is expected to help secure some of the team goals
Xavier Florencio
Xavier is a talented spanish allrounder who can race any race and do well. He will probobly not lead the team, but will be a good asset in all races and can get some good placements.
Thomas Rohregger
The first of the teams 2 austrian climbers, and the best one. The team expects alot from Thomas in different stage races, and he will be one of the main points-scorers of the team. He's as good as Kessiakoff in the mountains, not that good in hills but better in time trials. Watch out for the austrian this year!
Graeme Brown
The teams only Aussie is also the fastest sprinter in the team. He will be the captain when the road is flat and is expected to win some bunch sprints this year.
Benjamin Noval
As an experienced climber the team expects some great results from this guy. He will lead the team up the mountain in some races, and help Rohregger and Kessiakoff in other.
Christian Pfannberger
Another great climber for Telenor-SAS, the austrian will really show that the team is serious when the climbs get steep. He is not the best climber in the world, but he can still score alot of good results trough the season.
Rafaâ Chtioui
Signed from the strong Accumlax team before the season. The timetrialist is expected to be a great asset for the team in timetrials, specially team-timetrials. He will be one of the main helpers for Kessiakoff and Rohregger.
To be continuedEdited by Heine on 26-03-2010 15:56
A promising german timetrialist that is loaned out to Festina-Seiko to get experience
Thomas Vedel Kvist
A promising danish sprinter, loaned out to Festina-Seiko to get experience
Fabio Sabatini
A quick italian sprinter, will ride his own chanses and be leadout man for Vaitkus and Brown. Will hopefully win some stages over the year.
Niki Østergaard
Niki is an exciting danish classic rider who will be a part of the cobbleteam this season, he will also be a helper in other races.
Jussi Veikkanen
Jussi is the only finnish rider on the team, and a great domestique. He will mostly race together with Rohregger and Kessiakoff to help them in the flat parts of the stages and in team-timetrials.
Frederik Wilman
One of the Norwegian helpers on the team, Wilman is a good Timetrialist and will help the team in much the same way as Veikkanen.
Sebastian Siedler
The german experienced sprinter will both be the main sprinter in races and leadout man for the other sprinters. He's a good adition to the team
Edited by Heine on 28-03-2010 19:10
The german rider have had a fantastic carear, winning alot. This year he's not expected to win anything, but be a helper for the other riders, and a road captain. He's expected to go into management in the future and use his experience.
Daniel Foder
A danish domestique that is expected to help the team in every race he races.
Lasse Bøchman
Danish rider who can perform well in both time-trials and hills. The team expect him to get some good results, but mainly help the captains of the team.
Remco Te Brake
A young and interesting dutch sprinter. This season he will be a leadout man, but noone knows what will happen in the future.
Lars Petter Nordhaug
A norwegian domestiques, comeing as 1 of 3 Norwegian riders from the UBS-Annie Chun's team.
Stian Remme
Another norwegian domestiques. Expected to help the team in any way needed.
Stian Sommerseth
Norwegian domestiques who specialises in timetrials. Will help the team as much as possible
Ola Haavardsholm
Not the biggest talent in the world, but still an exiting norwegian rider. Expected to help the team this year, but maybe get some victories in years to come
The race-calender for the comeing season has been made, and if everything goes as planned the team will start the season in the African race "La Tropicale Amissa Bongo", before takeing the trip to Australia for the "Down Under Classic" and the "Tour Down Under".
"The sponsors want us to get known all over the world and has asked us to race on all continents over the season" Manager Heine proclaimed, "the main part of the season will however take place in Europe, with the main goals being the scandinavian races. However our Austrian riders have asked for permission to ride the "International Österich Rundfärth" so we look at that as an important race aswell."
Team Telenor-SAS is an new team in the peloton and noone expects the team to become one of the top teams in the division, but the crew are optimistic: "We got a balanced squad who can win or perform well in most of the races we participate in. We belive that riders like Kessiakoff, Rohregger, Vaitkus and Brown will give us sevral wins, together with the likes of Siedler, Sabatini, Florencio, Pfannberger and Noval. While most other teams got one or a few big stars we've spread it out. The team is more important than a single rider. This year we will check out the level and do our best to build a team ready for promotion in two til three years time, aswell as spread the knowledge about our sponsors over the globe."
Disappointment in Africa, will it change in Australia?
After a disappointing start of the season in Africa, where the sprinters Sabatini and Siedler got the team exactly zero points, the team look forward to racing in Australia. In Africa the team only managed to join some breaks, and fail in the sprints.
Down Under Classic and Tour Down Under feature some of the best sprinters in the world, and Telenor has sent a strong squad with Brown and Vaitkus as leaders. They will receive help from Te Brake, Siedler, Chtioui, Klier, Østergaard, Veikkanen and the 2 promising youngsters Haavardsholm and Guldhammer.
The management wish for some better results and more luck now.
After a dissapointing start of the season Team Telenor-SAS are warmed up. Some promising results in Tour of Wellington by Rohregger and Sabatini got followed by stage win by Vaitkus, second place in the team time trial and finally a fourth place in the GC by Rohregger in the Mount Hood Cycling Classic.
The biggest news however was the suprising victory in Cape Argus Cycle Tour by the young dane Lasse Bøchman. He went in an early break together with Galdos and Dviri. In the end of the stage he attacked his companions and rode solo til the finish, with the pack chasing right behind. A great victory by Lasse Bøchman, and he nets Team Telenor-SAS its first classic victory and its second victory overall!
The new Team Telenor-SAS keeps on with the unstable riding, after a awefull performance in Malaysia the team redeemed itself in Holland with a 3rd place from Vaitkus. The manager of Telenor has announced he's hopeing for more stable results as the team get to know eachother better.
A press release from Team Telenor-SAS issued earlier today announced that the current main sponsors of the team have decided to stop sponsoring cycling.
"At the moment the financial climate of both firms are not in the shape needed to be main sponsors of a team at this level. This got nothing to do with bad results from the team itself but rather bad economical results."
Specially SAS have had problems recently with growing competiontion and have been loosing alot of money.
"Not long ago SAS got support from the Norwegian government to pay off the large loss it have been suffering. To get this funding the company had to cut costs and that includes a much smaller sponsoring budget."
Manager Heine of Team Telenor-SAS was not open for comments but romours state that sevral different firms are interested in takeing over sponsorship of the continental team, and that the front runner is a big international firm.
The team, registered in Norway, has had an okay first season with maybe the biggest dissapointment being the weak results from its homerace Ringerike Grand Prix. On the other hand the team have secured some suprising victories in classics like the Cape Argus Cycle Tour and Air Force Cycling Classic aswell as stage victories in Tour De Beauce and Mount Hood Cycling Classic.
We will be back with more news as soon as possible.
After a press release from Team Telenor-SAS about a week ago there has been numberous rumours of who the new sponsors of the team would be. We've finally managed to get an interview with Sports Manager Heine right after the teams amazing win in Scandinavian Race Uppsala.
First we got to congratulate you, a spectacular victory from Tomas Vaitkus.
Thank you, this is the kind of victory you always want to see, Tomas simply showed that he was the strongest and smartest today.
It was amazing indeed, if my memory is right this is not the first time he tries to go right before the sprint.
You are right there, Tomas is a rider who hates to just sit on the wheels of others and wait for a chanse. He wants to show the world how strong he is, and thats what he did today!
But over to what most of us really wants to know, you got anything to tell about next season?
Oh, I got a lot to tell, but this might not be the right time. Though I can promise you that the team will contiue racing, even though our main sponsors will go away
So you got a new sponsor ready? Since you are willing to promise that the team will not stop racing.
We got a new sponsor yeah, signed the contract right before this race to be honest. I can tell you that, the new sponsors were quite happy with the race today.
But you are not ready to say who the new sponsor are?
No, not yet
But maybe you can give our readers a small hint? The rumours said that you did not manage to find a big scandinavian sponsor.
It seems like the rumours were right there, we talked with different sponsors in Scandinavia, but none were willing to commit the funds we needed. Therefor we signed with two sponsors who are more international.
Interesting to hear, does this means big changes in the rooster? At the moment the team is built with mainly northern europians and the team has also ridden all the scandinavian races.
I wont say too much about next season, but there will be changes. Our goals for next season are to end higher in the continental tour than we will do today, that means we will have to strenghten the team, and considering the quality of riders and the number of teams in the area we will need to look other places.
That was the last we managed to get out of Heine during the interview but atleast this answered alot of the questions, and brought out new ones. We did check alittle around and rumours said that earlier on the day Heine had been seen using Andreas Klier as translator while talking with a few guys in dress. We have not been able to find out who this guys were.
A proud manager from the current Team Telenor-SAS announced on todays press conference that the main sponsors for next year are the car giant Volkswagen and the electronics manufactorer Siemens. The name of the team will next year be Volkswage-Siemens Cycling Team
"There were no scandinavian sponsors willing to give us the funding the team needed to get to the next level. As we started to scout the international market there were really noone that could compete against Volkswagen and Siemens." Heine told the media while Thomas Rohregger showed of the new team jersey.
"Of course new sponsors means there will be some changes. Volkswagen already asked us to enlarge the German contigent of our team. At the moment we got 3 Germans, Klier, Siedler and Schädlich, while we got 2 Austrians. We expect the team to sign atleast 5 more german speaking riders before the next season. In addition to that we will strenghten the team with riders capable of showing that we will be one of the best teams in the peloton.
When asked about the romours that Volkswagen engineers are helping Cervelo with a new bike Heine said "The romours about Volkswagen makeing mini-engines for bicycles is pure bullshit, if you want to find engines you should rather look at the swedish teams, I've heard romours that Volvo patented a so-called "Trofimov-Taäramee Engine" some months ago".
We have not been able to get any comments on the "Trofimov-Taäramee Engine" from any sources.
