Well where to start. I am DS Frederic Aurel, but you can call me Fred! Back in early 2012 I was working in Brussels with the E.U. Someone came up with an idea to promote the idea of the EU(C.A.P) common agricultural policy amongst the public to raise awareness. Long story short they set up Eurofarm, a continental cycling team, through some fluke I was made Directeur Sportif.

I quickly learned the ropes guiding that team. It was made up of mostly continental Belgian riders with some hard headed veterans, I guess you could call them mercenaries. It was hard times, we struggled to attain equipment and couldn't even afford to acquire a half decent jersey, but I wouldn't swap that time for anything. I was a selector for the world champs for Belgium, which saw Gilbert win.

Someone most have been impressed with the set up, someone French that is as BNP PARIBAS, took over sponsorship in 2013 and continued through 2014. Here I became more used to dealing with multinational riders, although I did have one or two bust ups with Offredo, we always made up though! Being a French team, despite not having household names we received many invitations to the top races. In 2013, without a doubt our most prominent rider was French champ Lemoine who even managed a stage win at the Dauphine. But 2014 was much more fruitful.

Our stage race man Pinot really exploded onto the scene at the 2014 Vuelta. Despite losing time in the first week he was clearly the strongest rider in the mountains in the last week taking three victories. Supported by good results from the likes of Froome, Cornu and Elissonde, at the end of 2014 BNP PARIBAS had been promoted to the world tour. A new sponsor came on board, that sponsor was Coca Cola.

In 2015, we did find the racing very difficult racing at the top level at the top difficulty. We had decent results throughout the season, Geniez winning the Criterium overall. Winning four stages at the Giro and having Farrar in the pink jersey throughout the first week but later on the guys disappointed, Pinot barely managed a tour top 10 despite being a favourite, however we were secure as one of the top teams in the world.

2016 was much better and saw the greatest achievements, lead by figurehead Farrar, who was beginning to challenge Cavendish for the title of fastest man in the world. Farrar won more than 12 races/stages, including the overall at the Tour of Qatar, the overall at the Tirenno Adriatico, 2nd at Gent Warelgem and multiple Giro stages. The best win had to be with Felline at Milan SanRemo. We also had Contador, after he had a few years out of the sport. He got off to a great start winning Paris Nice but faltered when it came to the tour finishing fifth although he did win the Vuelta with teammate Sanchez 2nd (although I had left my position at Coca Cola as D.S after the Tour.)


Well that wraps up my experience as a D.S so far. I left Coca Cola, who are now American Express, and I thought my life as a D.S was over but then some representatives from thriving middle east company Qatar Optics came to me with a proposition I couldn't refuse. To build, from the ground up a Qatari based team that will one day compete and succeed in the biggest races in the world. I accepted.

We could only sign free agents at the end of the 2016 season, however, the team has a huge budget for the next season, the majority of riders are on a one year deal and many are about to retire.


----The cycling landscape has changed a lot in since 2012. For example we now have a recent French winner of the Tour with Pinot of RadioShack(now Exxon Mobil) winning by less than a minute over teammate Velits. 2014-2015, saw an epic showdown for the Tour title between Andy Shleck and Yannick Eijssen, Shleck won in 2014 but Eijssen won by '1 second in 2015.

----Van De Sande has emerged as the dominant classics man winning three Belgian hilly classics in the last 2 years, although he will miss the 2017 season with a fractured skull.

---Rabobank continental team, had an exceptional 2016, winning the mountain jersey at the TDF and even gaining promotion to the World Tour. However, with Rabobank still being in existence, Philips arose to replace the sponsor 'Rabobank Continental Team'.

--- Lars Boom, Looks to be the dominant classics man, however he only has 1 win at Paris Roubaix.

---Suitsou, has won the vuelta twice. Rasmussen is World TT champ and Moser is the road race champ. Nibali has won the Giro and plenty of big names have retired.

Special thanks to MrUFO and TMR96 who designed the jersey

How is Kelderman doing in 2017?