FroomeDog99 wrote:
See you at the Kwita Izina, expect a fight for the win
[rage] Why the eff is everybody going to Rwanda?! IT'S MY (team's) COUNTRY!!! [/rage]
Say, do you know any good hotels there?
Well, LukOil - Rostelekom is looking to stay here for that race
Maybe we can arrange some friendly get together between the teams Vien
As long as you don't check our refrigerators
As long as you promis that Contador receives them Steaks at the Festina Headquartes, I shall not check the fridge... Now the minibar, that is a different story. Afterall we are a russian team and that means Vodka,Vodka,Vodka! Oh and Pool Parties...
With the transfer season rouling and everything,
I think it is the time to reveal the first riders to ride for Team Banco Nacional de Costa Rica ever!
Brief told; 11 riders.. 7 costaricans and 1 italien, kazach, dutchman and spaniard. But we're far from done with the transfers yet!
BREAKING NEWS! Team Banco Nacional in desperate search after a climber
The rumours would have it to that Team Banco Nacionale's manager Dev would do almost anything for 78++ climber, except paying over €50.000 euros.
He also stated that any manager with a rider fitting that description should PM team manager Dev immidlity, if they want to clear some cap space or just be nice. Even riders with over €400.000 in wage will be accepted.
A deal which includet a lot of calculations and cooperations - where made yesterday.
The free transfer from Team Bacardi, weren't completly like ``a straight jump over the ocean``
for the newly created costarican continental team, but thanks to the manager of Die Berg, Vien - we managed to solve the little financial problem.
Name:
Gert Stegmans
Nationality:
Age:
33
Wage:
450,000
Specialization:
Nothern Classics
Gert will be our definite leader in all races he shows up in, mostly cobbles,
but he might deside to enter some sprint stages as he got strong support in that apartment,
and likes to win after a succesfull lead-out. His only fear, riding for an small costarican ct team is,
quoting himself here: My support in the cobble section is bad,
truly hope this will get improved within the season starts.
Will it be strong enough?
That's the question who is running through everyone's mounth after seing banco nacionale's
team presentation.
The only two things general manager Dev cared about was: Promotion, and to achieve all goals. Although the last one is out of reach, we still have dreams for cycling in PCT level next year.
Banco Nacional done with the first race of the season!
This is what general team manager Dev had to say after seing the race live in Cristobal:
Nice seing one of our youngsters trying something already in the first season. Iven though it was only short-lasting fun for Jelte Slagter.
There was no suprise Iberia and Gazelle pulled the pack all the way onto the final, where Iberia where absloutly dominant. And J-Rod did nothing else than to finish of in first place.
Seems like Iberia is the team to beat in hills in CT this year, safest promoting candidate for the moment.
Markus Eibegger raising his arms in the air in the first of the three stages, Nazar coming in to a clear second spot!
The race Kwita Izina, who consisted of three types of different stages, one mountain, one flat and one hill, were the team's second win goal, and the team weren't far from the win either!
It all started out with this scary mountain stage, who seemed much harder than it actually was and actually favoured the pucheurs more than the climbers, were Nazar came away with a small group of outsiders, including Markus Eibegger, who those were the strongest of the group. The second stage was one for the sprinters and Emanuelle Rizza pulled of this one, the guy we loaned out to De Berg in return for Sergey Firsanov. And it all came down to the final hilly stage, as expected it all turned down to a sprint between the biggest favourites, were again Eibegger coul raise his arms in the air, concluding a fantastic tour for him and his team, Magna Ryanair!
Markus Eibegger securing his yellow jersey in style, and second time second for Nazar!
As we just finished one third of our race days, I decidet to put up a small preview of how it went.
1/3 of the Season done! The Battle for promotion has begun!
January:
Our Season started of in January already, with the C2 season opener Clasico San Cristobal, were our 2 pucheurs(Firsanov and Jumabekov) did completly okay just finishing inside the top 20.
Afterwards came our debut in C1 races, with name called Vuelta al Tachira, or should I say: A race without ``The big higlight``. Cano did well capturing a lot of top 5's in the sprints, but no podium unfortunatly. And that we roundet of with two guys top twenty on GC, Salas and Esquivel, in a race
with no real expetations, is a pretty decent result, I'd say. Tour de San Luis also passed by with no remarkable result's.
We endet the month 14th, 222 points behind dominant Iberia.
1
Iberia - Comunidad Valenciana
CT
271
2
Kenya Airways - Barclays
CT
193
3
Allianz-BMW
CT
163
14
Banco Nacional de Costa Rica
CT
49
Rider of the month: Marco Salas for his offensive riding in Tachira resulting a 14 place at the general classification.
February:
February wore another weak month point-wise.
With the definitive highlight being Deiber's KoM jersey at Volta a Galicia, we can conclude our disaster of a season start with weak 4.7 points per race day. Iberia maybe lost their lead due to the small amount of race days in January, but still topping the points per race day ranking strongly with 22.1 points.
1
Kenya Airways - Barclays
CT
395
2
Team Gazelle
CT
378
3
Kappa - ENI
CT
372
16
Banco Nacional de Costa Rica
CT
140
Rider of the month: Deiber Esquivel, for his KoM jersey and 6th GC-spot in Galicia.
Steegmans also started his(major cobble) season this month and endet top 10 in all of them, three second places so far but still lacks a victory. But he still scored so good that he jumped right in to a 4th place in the individual rankings.
But the biggest suprise of the year to be Nazar Jumabekov's brilliant second place at the team's second goal, Kwita Izina, we had a win goal, but we would not even consider thinking of a second place as fail. Especially in a race with really NO expectations.
The team also did a massive jump on the rankings, flying into a sixth place. But most suprisesingly being the best CT scorer team in general march, with 331 points. The point per race day is still fairly bad but we expect that to change soon. It's 9.8 and for the first team within ten points from the (still) leading team Iberia. But without the massive scoring this month, a promotion wouldn't even be a possibility.
