Written by Amstel Flanders at 07:35 20/10-2024
Hello there, welcome to the most exciting moment of the season, when we all take a look back on what had happened in the last 90 days of Cycling.
A word to describe our season: Ahab. The new Captain of the team had big shoes to fill, and he successfully came out of vacations to rescue a team that seemed to sink like a stone in the deep sea. Before that happened, the most horrible start for our squad in more than 10 seasons. Injuries everywhere, several top 10s (bad race reports and many missed chances to score and earn money). The debut in Volta ao Porto was a nightmare, two injuries (captain included) and thoughts of not being capable to hold onto D2.
By Day 45, our squad was virtually at D7 with the score so far (even D3 wasn’t kind) and desperation turned into panic. Medgaard Sønderby came out of his break around that time, ready for his targets and we went to Russia hoping his warm up training at Perm Tour could bring a little joy to the mourning manager. The training was a success, though in a weird outcome of the events, Emil lost the SC due to the most strange tie system. Definitely it’s not his most kind race…
In the meantime, Normann scored a thousand points in TF (he is not what he used to be, but it’s better than nothing) and the first result in our nightmare season (Rotterdam Classic, Day 47). Emil added two more results (and the first win) so we could arrived Down Under and see if the Danish cyclist wasn’t a one season GC wonder at Kangaroo Tour. Without good or super legs, the new Captain Ahab beat the competition and made a back to back, winning all sprints but one and avoiding at all the dramatic finish of the past edition with the biggest gap in 9 seasons (Edition 34).
That was the critical point of the season for the team, who performed better regularly and our team leader managed to finish within the Top 30 riders in the OCM Tour Ranking. Of course, all this great performances won’t be taken into consideration by the so called “experts” aka The Committee but we are very proud of our man, who’s the fair heir of our beloved Iranman. There’s always another Manama to nominate (laughs).
In the end, we made an incredible second part of the season to stay in the same division we started (D2), won a little here and there and the team added another fancy jersey to our small humble collection. Manager Williamson and the staff are very satisfied after the rough start we had. Two of our legend riders have retired, Speer and Fayard, farewell guys!
Time to check our captain’s performance throughout the season.
 Wilhelm Lindberg
Total Races: 45
Wins: 0
Results: 0
Top 9’s: 1
Total Earnings: 4.000$
Best Place: 8th
OCM Tour Ranking: 3514th
Norway National Ranking: 106th
OCM Points: 10
Emil Sønderby
Total Races: 30 (+2 with NT)
Wins: 6
Jerseys: 1 (Kangaroo Tour GC)
Results: 14
Top 9’s: 3
Total Earnings: 134.000$
Best Place: 1st
OCM Tour Ranking: 30th
Denmark National Ranking: 4th
OCM Points: 950
Hermann Normann
Total Races: 42
Wins: 0
Results: 1
Top 9’s: 6
Total Earnings: 30.000$
Best Place: 5th
OCM Tour Ranking: 901st
Greenland Tour Ranking: 6th
OCM Points: 158
Other contributions besides team leaders
Mathias De Fauw
Total Races: 27
Wins: 0
Results: 0
Top 9’s: 3
Top Earnings: 17.000$
Best Place: 4th
OCM Tour Ranking: 1482nd
Belgium Tour Ranking: 97th
OCM Points: 88
Zack Fayard
Total Races: 33
Wins: 0
Results: 0
Top 9’s: 2
Top Earnings: 10.000$
Best Place: 5th
OCM Tour Ranking: 2175th
France Tour Ranking: 83rd
OCM Points: 45
Jesper Evjen
Total Races: 4
Wins: 1
Results: 1
Top 9’s: 0
Top Earnings: 14.000$
Best Place: 1st
OCM Tour Ranking: 1354th
Norway Tour Ranking: 45th
OCM Points: 100
Team’s Overall
Wins: 7 (Tied with S66, S68, S69)
Jerseys: 1
Results: 16
Top 9’s: 15
Total Earnings: 209.000$
OCM Points: 1351
Great numbers, considering all the pain and drama of the beginning of this Press Release. As the season passed, we had completed the training of De Fauw and King, two young decent additions to our roster. With very calculated management, we knew our chance to bring something ok to replace our retiring riders would show up and we approached the opportunity.
Here you can see the moves in the transfer market.
Out
Drake Speer - 38k (Retired)
Zack Fayard - 80k (Retired)
Rom Golan - 165k - to Flanders Fields
Total Incoming: 283k$
In
Josué Pinhal - 330k - from Hog Bay CT
Jesper Evjen - 33k - Free Agent (Hire List)
Bing van der Sar - 34k - Free Agent (Hire List)
Total Spending: 407k$
Total Balance: -124k$
Welcome to our new riders and best wishes for Golan, who picked a taxi to the nearest HQs at the Flanders region. Right now both Sønderby and Pinhal are having a break to return when the squad needs them, leaving the very young local promise in charge of the majority of the calendar in the start of this new season, followed by our veterans Normann and Lindberg.
Here’s the line up for this coming S71.
1) Emil Sønderby - 30 years old, Captain Ahab (4 seasons deal left) - (230 HLSP/ 203 SP)
2) Mathias De Fauw - 22 years old, Sprint Captain (3 seasons deal left) - (227 SP)
3) Josué Pinhal - 32 years old, SP/FRSP Captain (3 seasons deal left) - (229 SP)
4) Hermann Normann - 37 years old, Lead-Out/Optional Sprinter (Last Season) - (247 SP)
5) Wilhelm Lindberg – 31 years old, Lead-Out/Optional Sprinter (3 seasons deal left) - (226 SP)
6) Sylvain Nkurunziza - 34 years old, Lead-Out/BA Captain (1 season deal left) (213 SP)
7) Rodas Lima - 34 years old, Lead-Out (Last Season) - (205 SP)
8) André Tran - 31 years old, Lead-Out/Wind-Breaker (1 season deal left) - (204 SP)
9) Artyom Karantirov - 28 years old, Lead-Out (Last Season) - (188 SP)
10) Roberto Lucena - 29 years old, Lead-Out (3 seasons deal left) - (202 SP)
11) Inácio Fagundes - 24 years old, Lead-Out (1 seasons deal left) - (187 SP)
12) Raphael Carrara - 35 years old, Wind-Breaker (1 season deal left) - (175 SP)
13) Carson King - 22 years old, Lead-Out/Accidental Sprint Captain (3 seasons deal left) - (206 SP)
14) Jesper Evjen – 23 years old, BA (5 seasons deal left)
Over n’ Out.
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