We proudly present the new east - cental European cycling project based in Ukraine calledTeam Metinvest - Slovnaft
We are in Kyiv,Ukraine and you, as a cycling jurnalist is sitting in the State Opera house where the presentation of the new force in Division2 cycling is about to begin. As usually the show begins late and you hate yourself that you refused the refreshment from the nice ukrainien hostess.
Suddnely there is some action starting as you see the familiar face entering the podium. Yes it is Serhiy Honchar , former world TT champion and yellow jersey wearer in TDF2006. Honchar is then talking about his role in the team, that he shoudl be the Directeur sportif and bla,bla,bla...
Only interesting part is that one about team vision and spirit. According to Honchar team wants to focus on mix of ukrainian experienced riders and young talents combined with riders from surrounding countries such as Slovakia, Poland and Czech Republic. Team also wants to give some chance to talents from Far East and maybe even Africa. What an ambitious project!
After you almost fell asleep you noticed that some guy is entering the podium, followed by the younger one. The presenter is saying that it is CEO of Metinvest and head chairman of Slovnaft and they are smiling widely.
At hthe first look they seem to wear some fancy clothes, but then the presenter is calling the clothes the new team jersey.
You give that shirt a closer look ( big thanks to ANFreeman, great job)
The presentation continues with talks about the sponsors, actually the most boring part. You were handled by the flyer about the sponsors and backroung info, so you promised yourself you will look at it later
After the show ended, you eat some caviar and a delicious lobster and you think "not a bad country that Ukraine"
When you look closer on the flyer you were handled at the presentation you see something like this:
Our team Metinvest - Slovnaft is proud to be part of the newly established Continental Tour,Division 2. There are lot of people to make this dream of many ukrainian cycling fans come true. We want to introduce them a bit and thank them again by this way
Main sponsors:
Metinvest is an international vertically integrated mining and steel company owning 24 assets in Ukraine, Europe and the United States and managing each link of the production chain – iron ore and coal mining.
Metinvest CEO Ruslan Popov is a big cycling fan and his idea started this project.
The holding is ready to spend large funds if this idea will have expected results.
SlovnaftPlc., based in Bratislava is refinery with annual processing capacity of 5,5 – 6 mil ton. The company core business is production, warehousing, wholesale and retail sales and distribution.
Cycling is more and more popular every year in Slovakia and Slovnaft wants to reflect that on the field of proffesional sport.
The longest race in calendar with some hilly stages and some stages for sprinters.
Certainly a tough goal, but we believe our riders will be ready and determined to fullfill this task. The race is important for our team and sponsors, as developing African talents is one of our priorities for the future, we hope some of them will be with us right from the start.
Top 10 goal
Chrono Gatineau
Spoiler:
There couldnt be any other goal for team managed by Serhiy Honchar. This TT race should perfectly fit to our riders, as we hope to bring some ukrainian time-trialers. This is a personal goal of our DS and he would be very happy to see his rider among the best
Special goal
Going global
The goal is to get five wins (Either GC, stage or classic) outside of Europe in races of Division 2 status.
As you already know, our team wants to give a chance to cycling talents from all-over the world, and because of that we will ride a lot of non-European races to discover the future stars and to give a chance to our African and Asian prospects. Also i maybe have not to mention that showing our sponsors around the world is great advertisment
Team also wants to perform well in the following races :
Championships of Zurich
Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise
Klasika Sniezka
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 29-07-2011 14:51
Interview with Team Metinvest - Slovnaft DS Serhiy Honchar
We met with Serhiy in Bratislava, at hotel Intercontinental café. He looks tired a bit, but you can guess from his face and words that is happy men now. He was so generous that he reserved an hour for our questions.
Serhiy, lets start with the fact that you were named DS of the new ukrainian team Metinvest - Slovnaft. How that happened and how you feel about it?
Well, it was simple. My cycling friend Ruslan Popov (CEO of Metinvest) told me about this project a year ago and i was delighted with his ideas. We started to discuss the details and looking for the money and so. He was assured from the start that i should be DS, so we made the deal (smile).
What is the reason you agreed to be the Directeur sportif?
Everybody who knows me, could tell you that cycling is my love. The style of how my cycling career ended was nothing to cheer for, so i want to demonstrate that i am respectable and proud man and that i am able to bring Ukraine to the spotlight in cycling again.
That leads me to another question, does Ukraine have such a good cycling basement and talent to have a continental team?
I am very proud to say that Ukraine has lot of great experienced riders and some very good youngsters that has bright cycling future ahead. That is our main goal as a team , to rise the level of cycling in Ukraine. Of course some greatest ukrainian riders are part of the other teams, but we will try to bring them home in the future (nervous smile).
Speaking about riders, do you have some closer idea which riders you will target in transfer season?
Only thing i am allowed to say, is that i have it (laughing). No, seriously it would be silly to speak abou transfer targets right now, but you can be sure we will try to bring in the best available ukrainian riders to reach our goals. To satisfy our sponsors and to fill the squad expect some riders from Poland, Slovakia and Czech republic to be negotiated with.
Last question Serhiy, i heard at your teams presentation evening in Kiyv, that you also want give a chance to some talents from not-so developed countries,concerning cycling. Is that true?
Yeah, you have very good ears, that is very important part of our philosophy, we are currently in contact with some prospects from Africa and Asia, but that is all i can reveal.
Thank you for your time and your answers and good luck for the upcoming season.
Posts: 4809 Joined: 14.07.08 Location: Sydney, Australia PCM$: 30.00
Your team thread is looking relaly good. I'm looking at the database now and there are quite a lot of talented Ukrainian free agents, and some of hte best aren't even at maximum experience yet so you have a lot of good room for growth. Looking forward to seeing how you will go this season!
CountArach wrote:
Your team thread is looking relaly good. I'm looking at the database now and there are quite a lot of talented Ukrainian free agents, and some of hte best aren't even at maximum experience yet so you have a lot of good room for growth. Looking forward to seeing how you will go this season!
Thanks, i agree there are definetely nice talents in Ukraine
Btw. you all can read the interview with our DS now !
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 08-07-2011 12:15
Posts: 670 Joined: 15.07.07 Location: Oslo PCM$: 100.00
Interresting team! I was looking on a ukrainian that I really wanted to sign and that i was willing to pay a lot to have, but it would be a shame if he didn't end up with you. I'll keep you alone this year, but in the future, I think we could have some nice southern and eastern-europe fights about riders. Good luck with the season, I will surely follow you with interrest
Bjartne wrote:
Interresting team! I was looking on a ukrainian that I really wanted to sign and that i was willing to pay a lot to have, but it would be a shame if he didn't end up with you. I'll keep you alone this year, but in the future, I think we could have some nice southern and eastern-europe fights about riders. Good luck with the season, I will surely follow you with interrest
Thanks for the nice words
Good luck to you too on the market
And i see you are going for Hossaini Reza, nice talent he is
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 14-07-2011 09:36
Posts: 670 Joined: 15.07.07 Location: Oslo PCM$: 100.00
Yes, he is one of the better Iranies. I have taken a look at both Kostjuk, Klimov, Esmaeli and Jurco. Would be great additions to every team in the CT2. I think the interrest will be high though. I am very excited before the transfer window, to see whats happening
Very well knowned ukrainian newspaper Ukraine Observer has some of the best investigative reporters in country and now you can also benefit from it. One of them was able to obtain the transfer shortlist of new ukrainian cycling team, called Team Metinvest - Slovnaft.
The transfer season is beginning tommorow, so you can compare later how succesfull the team was in negotiating.
So here it is:
Ruslan Grychenko
Juri Krivtsov
Oleg Chuzhda
Maxim Rudenko
Denis Kostjuk
Vladimir Djudja
Aleksander Kvachuk
Marlen Zmorka
Mikayil Grebinyuk
Marjan Smigunov
Vyacheslav Pestryakov
Matej Jurco
Krzysztof Kuzniak
Sylvester Janiszkiewicz
Bartosz Wujczak
Jaroslaw Marycz
Aleksandr Arekejev
Sergei Klimov
Sergei Komkov
Konstantin Klimiankou
Hossaini Reza
Tareq Esmaeli
Ahmed Albourdainy
Unfortunately some of the names on the list were smudgy and were not possible to read, so we will probably see some surprise actions on the market by Serhiy Honchar
Strong list. Matej Jurco will be hard to get though with other Slovakian team. I found two Qatar riders on that list quite funny
Alakagom wrote:
Strong list. Matej Jurco will be hard to get though with other Slovakian team. I found two Qatar riders on that list quite funny
Good luck and great team thread.
Thanks Alakagom, and abou the Qatar riders, yeah it seems pretty weird,but as you can read in the press release developing african talents is one of the visions of the team
Alakagom wrote:
Strong list. Matej Jurco will be hard to get though with other Slovakian team. I found two Qatar riders on that list quite funny
Good luck and great team thread.
Thanks Alakagom, and abou the Qatar riders, yeah it seems pretty weird,but as you can read in the press release developing african talents is one of the visions of the team
I think Qatar is in Asia
Found that sentance in press release as a pretext to try and buy both very good Qatar riders ( don't admit it though )
Alakagom wrote:
Strong list. Matej Jurco will be hard to get though with other Slovakian team. I found two Qatar riders on that list quite funny
Good luck and great team thread.
Thanks Alakagom, and abou the Qatar riders, yeah it seems pretty weird,but as you can read in the press release developing african talents is one of the visions of the team
I think Qatar is in Asia
Found that sentance in press release as a pretext to try and buy both very good Qatar riders ( don't admit it though )
Team Metinvest - Slovnaft is happy to announce that we reached agreement with first six riders. All of them are ukrainians and our transfer targets, so we are very pleased with it. We can give you the names, the financial part of these trades is still a secret.
Maxim Rudenko
Denis Kostjuk
Juri Krivtsov
Vladimir Djudja
Marlen Zmorka
Marjan Smigunov
These six are the base of our team and we will build the team around them. We are now negotiating with more riders, some deals are almost done. Expect one or two bigger stars and few exotic riders to be announced hopefully in following days.
There were also some unsuccesfull moves by our team in the transfer market, biggest of them is absence of signing the slovakian riders, but there was tough competion from the local team and also Serhiy is still inexperienced in terms of transfers
Stay tunned for more transfer news and of course profiles of our signings
Ruslan Popov
CEO of Metinvest and owner of the team
Transfer news, second part
Spoiler:
Hi fans,
I am really happy to announce two new signings, coming for great price:
Herman Fouche
Idan Shapira
These riders were in our sight for a long time and they are both very promising riders for the future, but with a proper attitude they could be competing with the best this season.
More highlights from the transfer season coming up, stay tunned.
Serhiy Honchar
DS of Team Metinvest - Slovnaft
Transfer news, part three
Spoiler:
Hello again,
I am now sitting in a plane that took off in Doha,Qatar where i negotiated with two new potential signings for our team. Now i can enjoy the glass of champagne, because the netogiations were succesfull!
So i proudly present another great assets to our squad:
Ahmed Albourdainy
Dennis Van Niekerk
Dennis is a very good experienced climber, who should lead our team in these type of races.
Ahmed is great prospect and our man for the future in the mountains.
I am very pleased with these transfers, we sealed few exotic riders with a lot of potential so far in the transfer season and that exactly was our goal. Now the team is almost complete, but the biggest transfers still need to be finished, i hope i will be able to announce more riders this evening.
Cheers and stay tunned
Serhiy Honchar
DS of Team Metinvest - Slovnaft
!Two important transfers confirmed!
Spoiler:
Hi again,
After long and nervous negotiations, we finally reached the agreement with two great riders:
Ruslan Grychenko is a great puncher and our future absolute team leader. He has also good time-trial skills and nice finishing kick.He was our main transfer target and we are very happy that he refused the offers from Team Adecco.
Antonio Bucciero is great all-arounder, he can compete almost in every type of the race and especially on cobbles, where he will be our leader. He is also our media guy, as he is very smart and good looking.
I can also reveal that we will bring two more riders, completing our roster at 14 man,more info tommorow. No it is time for champagne, we are very pleased with transfers so far.
Ruslan Popov
CEO of Metinvest and owner of the team
Transfer news, final part
Spoiler:
Hello fans,
we can finally announce signing of last two riders for this season, now our squad is coplete with fourteen. These two riders are both experienced and should help us to get some results. Withou further delay, here they are:
Tuguldur Tuulhangai is from Mongolia and we will give him a chance to ride a bike in more developed country. He will be probably our fastest man, who is also able to get over some hills.
Dor Dviri is our second rider from Israel, we are looking for how will our jewish guys cooperate. Dor is great all- arounder, especially capable to go for the break in hilly and mountainous terrain.
I must admitt i was very nervous at the beginning of the transfers and made some rookie mistakes, but afterall i and the whole staff, we are happy with riders we signed. We have a pretty balanced team and a lot of decent guys, who could possibly bring us some points and of course we have Ruslan Grychenko. We also have few talents for the future, with some room for improvement left.
So this is the last update from the transfers, now the team will be heading to the first joint training camp in Crimea peninsula.
Our staff has just started to work on a team overview, it should be ready tommorow, so be sure to check it then.
