24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Rodrigues was brought in in 2024. A surgical catch from the FA pool with a single 600k bid saw the Portuguese find his way to Everesting completing our leadership vacancy left out by Debesay.
Victories came flying in right from the get go… not. Good results came in in Tour of California (2nd) and Tour of Japan (3rd).
Ominously losing to Oomen in Eureka
Ending his first season with us as the 15th best rider in the division was good, but scoring only about half the points as his statline twin Sam Oomen came as a hard pill to swallow for such an expensive rider.
So 2025 was going to be the year Rodrigues conquered the PCTs best stage races and humbled his opposition. Our delusion was soundly checked though. Not that he was awful. He was just never great. Second in Tour de Romandie and 4th in the Tour of California were his best results.
Second again; Thousand Oaks behind Jorgenson
The writing was on the wall. Nineteenth on the rankings, again, not terrible, but missing the spotlight was not to our sponsors liking. The door was shown to our star GC leader. We hope Minion’s bananas may feed him the fire he missed in the time he spent with us.
Just don’t pull a ’24 Reis si vous plait.
We're still trying to figure out the answer to that question. We can, however, announce our 2026 allignment
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
XP
Age
Pot
Latour
68
80
77
74
69
79
77
78
51
64
73
79
72
73
4.100
33
6
Errazkin
71
75
77
79
70
76
75
76
65
63
73
69
67
70
4.100
30
6
Adomaitis
75
59
63
67
67
66
74
75
57
79
78
60
64
75
4.100
28
5
Fung
68
77
74
71
76
69
73
75
50
62
71
71
67
74
4.100
29
4
Willwohl
73
53
59
65
56
71
67
78
66
79
78
61
64
56
4.100
32
6
Diaz Suarez
67
72
74
76
63
70
74
70
64
65
76
71
74
62
4.100
25
5
Kooistra
77
60
63
65
59
73
69
68
70
76
76
63
63
64
4.100
29
4
Silva
72
65
70
74
67
73
74
72
62
74
75
67
66
65
4.100
25
3
Lau
70
71
73
75
65
74
71
70
64
67
73
74
66
65
4.100
30
3
Kusi
71
66
69
71
77
70
73
75
61
64
68
73
67
77
4.100
30
2
Schreurs
72
54
61
67
52
75
75
71
77
72
71
64
63
61
4.100
32
4
Uwizeyimana
70
75
73
71
73
75
74
75
50
55
67
68
57
73
4.100
33
6
Henao
64
75
75
75
65
69
71
69
52
62
68
67
66
63
4.100
33
5
Riccitello
67
77
73
69
67
75
68
75
58
60
65
68
70
67
4.45
24
5
Orosco
71
75
74
72
70
74
68
72
61
64
66
70
64
67
4.100
27
4
Vasko
63
76
71
65
61
76
78
77
65
57
64
69
76
54
4.43
24
4
Gelders
68
72
71
70
71
69
67
73
54
58
64
63
64
74
4.27
24
4
Mwiguru
65
74
71
67
55
66
69
70
55
57
66
69
75
55
3.02
23
4
Artz
68
59
65
71
58
68
69
68
59
68
73
62
66
58
3.46
24
5
Voltr
68
71
70
69
67
69
65
68
63
66
65
73
65
71
2.50
25
5
Landbo
67
60
64
68
72
67
67
63
66
68
69
66
68
71
1.00
22
4
Oshri
74
60
62
63
63
70
67
72
63
64
75
70
66
64
3.02
23
3
Pavlides
61
69
69
68
53
70
70
68
54
58
66
67
71
54
2.15
24
3
So plan A was to bring a more versatile puncheur/hilly climber. Stannard was a beast, but we felt PCT doesn't reward top pure puncheurs as well. APP was on the radar but he was quickly snatched. Storer became the obvious solution, but the swap for Stannard crumbled due to our manager's greed. Errazkin was the chosen man. Lithuanian media started blasting this 1mil move, while a Canadian outlet is also criticising the money spent on the basque.
Rodrigues had a replacement found as well. Multiple names were discussed, like Novak, Aular, THJ, Olivier, among others. In the end we signed Pierre Latour. A 1.3mil purchase for a 33yo may not be the strongest move, but the frenchman is a solid climber whom we hope can help us postpone our leadership rebuild for another year as our talents keep developing.
Elsewhere we traded Phonarjtan for Fung, who should be a decent stage race sub-leader. We also brought in Willwohl who despite being an older version of Adomaitis, allows us to have a sprinter in pretty much every flat stage we encounter this season.
We've also secured the services of an exciting climber, Martin Voltr; while after a long bidding war, Mads Landbo, also joins the team a TT prodigy. Artz and Pavlides complete the roster but won't be seeing too many race days.
So, the final verdict: is Everesting 2026 better than Everesting 2025? No, but if we were any good at this we wouldn't be repeatedly marginally escaping relegation of the 2nd division of a game we've been playing for 15 years. So, relegation watch should pretty much be in order for us and.
Truth be told though we have a good number of 2025 overperformers in Willwohl, Adomaitis and Orosco. Riccitello and Vasko could find some U25 points here and there as well, but there's no denying it's going to be a another long season for us, but at least I can go to bed at decent hours now.
Liking the makeup of the squad - hope Latour kills it for you, also Should be fun to follow him this season.
I do like the Errazkin training - I was thinking of ways to bring him in myself and possibly train him too - I think with the right calendar he could be elite for you this season. I don't think there's much to worry about in regards of relegation, it seems that de-inflation is in full swing and taking a look at PCT there's easily 10 teams I'd think would be in danger before you. Good pickups in Landbo and Voltr for the future, too.
In retrospect it does seems a little strange to sell Stannard and end up spending more to buy and train Errazkin. I like Errazkin a lot as a rider, but I probably wouldn't have done that training for him at age 30, especially with no MM bump from it. But hopefully combined with Latour it will be enough for you.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
I think you're right it will be another long season for you
Errazkin looks decent enough after training, but as bbl said I'm not sure he'll actually be an upgrade to Stannard. And for 1m you could have bought APP instead and train him
Agree with KB think this could be a really long season I'm another not a fan of Errazkin training similar to how Moscon is for me this build just isn't really rewarded in the game with low sprint stats enough to make it worthwhile. Latour probably suffer from strength of division. I do however like Adomatis I do really like think he's a good sprinter to have might sneak a good GC result at some point. Hope all goes well this year if not I guess the rebuild would be in a good place anyway with Errazkin and Adomatis
Sometimes you just hit and hope it'll all work out. Not entirely sure the moves make sense from where you began transfers but it's not the worst team i can see in the division. A little luck goes a long way, so good luck!
Joao Rodrigues
Should be fun to follow him this season.
