Written by Michael of English Sprinting Team
  
  On Day 19 of Season 30 in the world of OCM, at exactly 19:00 hours, sign up for the Monte Rosa Tour ended. I'm Michael and I'm going to give a short summary of the press conference that followed the closure of sign up.
  
  The first team to enter this tour is Vagabundos. This Romanian based team have brought a few good tour riders. We believe their captain to be Paul Godefroid as he's currently in top form. But Laurentiu Rusu and Burton Day are more than capable of stepping up to captaincy if
  anything goes wrong.
  
  Next to speak was the manager of Spanish team Lexx. "We are happy to anounce the purchase of previous division one captain Brend Roussel. He's in our starting lineup and will be the second in command on the team. Sevastian Alemany will lead the team and is currently in top form".
  
  Ozgur Akman, manager of Manisaspor, will hope that recent signing Senel Nedim has what it takes to win this tour. The rider said: "I feel great in this team. They have all welcomed me and I should have quite a bit of form going into this tour. The manager has chosen a good team to help me in the mountains, so that is where I must shine".
  
  To say that this is a division five tour, there's certainly a lot of talented riders that will be going after the win. Cyclists is no exception. But has the manager made a mistake? Here's what he said: "Unfortunately, our normal tour rider Chad Talkington won't be in the best of form going into the tour. We are waiting to see how this will affect him in the prologue". If I was the manager, I would let Jeffrey Sans captain.
  
  The first youth classification contender spoke next. He's American and he's called Luis Vincent from team Gruppo Anti. He's not the best of climbers and he's not the best of time trial riders, but he's certainly not going to do badly in either category. "It's my second shot at this tour, but this time I'll be captaining the team". He's had a good start to the season with two top nines, so he's shouldn't do too badly here.
  
  Another rider recently coming back from a vacation is Gerasim Filatov. He's the clear favourite to captain Drollevangers, but with his lack of form, the task will probably pass onto Viktor Bertovic.

He's what the manager said: "Ideally we wanted Filatov to captain the team in this tour, but he's not ready so we'll have to see what happens".
  
  Previous Giro di Sicilia winner Mohamed Yassine Medressi arrives here with one goal: to win the final stage. With two results under his belt already this season, he should add to that here. "I'm confident that Medressi should be able to get a result in this tour" said the manager of Ahmed cycling team.
  
  "I'm in great shape at the moment!". This was the statement from the captain of FretexHIBAS. His name is Erland Almås whose currently still young enough for the youth classification and is in top form. One problem for this team will be the support available to the captain. "We've got average team mates to support our captain, but I'm hopeful that they'll be enough to do the job".
  
  And there's another captain that's not in the best of shape! Keegan Cycling Team have an excellent captain in the form of Jacque Van Haerschot, but he might not be ready in time for this tour. "Well, our captain isn't in the best of form and we haven't got the best team mates, but I still think that we can get a few top nines out of this tour" said the manager.
  
  Damian, the team manager of Help (what a great team name!) has managed to sign up with his captain, Hipólito Valério, in top form. This will certainly help his chances of doing well in the individual stages. Unfortunately, lack of support and time trial center might prove too much to get a good result in the general classification.
  
  I think the eleventh team to enter will be going for the breakaway attempts in all the stages except the prologue obviously. SolenTechnology has been around for three months and a bit, so you can understand why they wanted to enter this tour....... because it's there first one!
  
  Like the previous team, Abelixe will be their main rivals, or partners, in the breakaway. This team is based around cobblestone riders, but they haven't been entered through to the obvious fact that there aren't any cobblestone stages. Will they get lucky?
  
  "I like climbing and I like time trials, what more could I want than a tour to ride in!". This was the statement from Gerard Kurek who will be captaining team de stamper. Again he's another rider that won't

have the best team mates in the world, but with his riding ability he should do well in the general classification.
  
  The next real sprinter in this tour is Yonas Yehualashet. "I won't have much competition to beat in the final stage, but I certainly won't be underestimating any of the other sprinters in this tour". LFC Rado team should have a decent chance of winning the final stage.
  
  The next rider in line has a good record in tours. He's won the Race of the Minuteman and got third place in this tour. His name is Baltazar Pitillas. "I haven't felt this good since I won Race of the Minuteman, so hopefully I can win here!". Alpha Plus will certainly hope that happens.
  
  "This tour isn't exactly suited to me, but I think I'll be able to get a couple of top nines at least" said Åge Lindström. Unfortunately one of Team Albatros main sprinters was injured before the start of sign up, so he couldn't enter. But the current captain should do well in the second and
  last stages of this tour.
  
  Another potential captain has entered without a lot of form! It's Nari Iacone this time. Salvino Salgada might have to step up to captaincy for BCTeam. "I haven't got bad form, so maybe if I do better in the prologue than Iacone, then I'll get captaincy in the mountains" said Salgada.
  
  This tour was planned for Starmans, but they missed original sign up, only to sign up three days later. But plans had already changed by then so there captain Jef Pragt won't be in the best of form, but he's certainly not one to count out! "He'll have better support than most in the mountains, so we hope he can win a bit of money for us there".
  
  Belmonte Pro Cycling was the second of three teams to enter three days after everybody else. Lukas Viken is another sprinter looking to win the final stage and being only one of four sprinters in the tour, he should have a good chance at that.
  
  The final team to enter was Team Kernow. Rodolf Leezer is a very experienced racer and shouldn't do too badly in this tour. The team is probably one of the best equipped, but again the captain won't be in the best of form...... Will it cost the team the win?
  
  
  Thanks for ready and good luck to all the teams in the tour!