This is where you will find the news about the pride of Finnish Cycling:
Valio - DeLaval - the most Bovine team in the world!
...also the home of bad puns about cows/milk and all things related.
We now head into our 5th season, which takes us back to CT.
We have a clear goal for this season: Promoting straight back up to PCT in order to be able to develop Finnish Cycling in the best possible way.
Our main sponsor Valio shot a commercial featuring the late great Lemmy a month ago. Now turned tribute: https://t.co/jPbFFUP5vA
Below a look back at the history of the team in chronological order.
It features a small summary of the season, rankings summary of the team profiles (any rider named Rider of the Month that season), roster overviews as well as links to more information.
Head-banner provides link to the relevant HQ's.
We came into existence with high hopes back by Live Nation, who wanted an entertaining team to suit their brand. It should be built of riders from smaller cycling nations with Finland and Sweden as home nations.
We quickly lost out on all our leadership targets, except Chris Anker Sørensen, and in stead we tried to built a team perfect for breakaways. We failed.
The team rarely managed to get someone in the break, and when they did the group was doomed. Since we didn't have any top-shelf leaders either the result was much less than impressive - and the entertainment value possibly even lower.
The lack of results and effort really took hard on everyone around the team and for a long time our very existence was on the line.
If it hadn't been for the insisting effort of CAS and a late season shine from Sarabia it seems very likely that this could have been the last season for the team as well as the first.
After the terrible 2014 there was a lot of pressure, though very low expectations going into the 2015 season. However with a new set of sponsors we were determined on turning things around.
The foundation for this obviously needed to be made in the transfer season, where we went hard an aggressively for the best Finnish rider around, Jukka Vastaranta, and managed to secure him for a very low fee thanks to everyone knowing that we would force his price tag far over his value if we had to.
That allowed us to sign a couple of other big names in Anacona and to some extent Samoilev, to bolster the top end of our squad.
And boy did that turn things around. Jukka got us a win early on to rally up the spirit and evn though both him and Anacona underperformed in a lot of races they were able to score enough to take the pressure of everyone else.
Especially Chris Anker Sørensen ws a joy to see in his new role. Where he had been our stand-out leader in 2014 he was now in the role of the underdog, which seemed to suit him a lot better as he both outscored his 2014 and got his first win for us and ultimately getting awarded the Bull of the Year after a vote among the fans.
Expctations going in to the season was relatively low, but we were confident that those we picked up in the transfer window as well as our domestic riders would step up to the task.
And boy did they get the biggest yield we could have hoped for. Our new signing Lo Cicero proved right from the start that we were right in putting our trust in him despite everyone else doubting him and Jukka Vastaranta took a brilliant win in Argentina as th highlight of what is expected to be his last season at his best.
Looking at the points table we have to admit that it looks like a one-man army, but a sprinter needs a strong support team and pretty much everyone in that department punched above their weight making it a magical season in many ways.
However the tendency of having a leader that couldn't be bothered continued. In the past it was our lead sprinter Westling and this season it was our lead climber Anacona, who went from 8th place in the CT rankings last year to 9th in the team rankings this season.
This was supposed to be a fairly quiet season where we established ourselves as a mid-table PCT team by keeping our main leader and adding Gautier for the hills without really losing major point scorers.
Early in the season it started to become clear that Lo Cicero simply wasn't able to deliver another season as the one who earned him the nickname Il Toro.
Combined with the lack of enthusiasm in mountains and cobbles we just couldn't scrap together enough points for survival.
Looking at your squad, I would probably say it is the strongest one in the CT going into the transfer season, though GCN and ENI is no doubt of similar quality. Expecting you to do very well this year and bounce straight back to the PCT
Thanks both. We might have one of the best CT teams right now, but anything can happen in the transfer season and we could possibly find ourselves much weaker placed in each terrain when the window closes as I only expect to make sure minor changes.
The transfer season is right around the corner and we have been given the go to take part in the big cattle market.
Not that we expect to do much trading at all and recent calculations even show that we doesn't even have to loan out Joni Kanerva. If you'd like him on board do feel free to contact us though!
That leaves our main potential transfer object being Yoann Paillot who could be available for the right deal, which in first hand would include a good climber/stage racer with a lower wage than Paillot.
Apart from that we are very open to taking in young riders on loan.
Parting with other riders will take a really good offer.
Good luck Atlantius, still expect this season to be a big opportunity for further development of Finnish cycling, if only in that Manninen will get his first experience as a legit leader.
Looks like the CT already has its favourite, but we’ll see how the transfer season plays out
Vien: You're welcowme to cowtact me when the window opens
Booker: I'll say this much: This is the best season to be CT for Finnish cycling with the "original" batch all maxed now and some new coming up that can be taken care of as a CT team. Hopefully Manninen will add his name to the short list of Finnish race winners and prove capable of taking over as the leading figure after Vastaranta. Could be an important season for Kulppi as well as he's likely to lead on cobbles, which won't happen in PCT again.
We are very happy to present to you our first two signings this year. Two real bulls of the future:
Sasu Helme
22 yrs
Pot 5
Sasu is a very talented rider who could go in many different directions, but we see him focusing on his climbing skills where he can become very dangerous due to his great kick and racing heart.
Fla
Mtn
Hill
TT
Sta
Res
Rec
Cbl
Spr
Acc
Fgt
Dwn
Prl
2018
68
68
69
67
68
68
69
62
60
72
69
66
67
Maxed
69
77
77
68
71
72
76
62
60
79
77
67
68
Aleksi Hänninen
22 yrs
Pot 5
Aleksi has the potential to one day become on of the best prologue riders in the world. Since that is a pretty small niche we're happy that he also has the potential to earn a spot in our sprint train.
Fla
Mtn
Hill
TT
Sta
Res
Rec
Cbl
Spr
Acc
Fgt
Dwn
Prl
2018
65
61
63
64
63
64
63
56
68
69
64
58
72
Maxed
72
61
64
69
68
70
68
56
75
74
64
59
81
We have had a busy day where to other deals look secured, but we'll wait for the official time needed for MGUCI approval to pass before we go in to details.
quadsas: These two were important for me to get, but sadly I probably won't be able to offer a contract to all the Finnish riders that deserve it this year.
