Written by Buciu Alexandru of Fighting
  
  Hello, everyone and welcome to the Late Show, this time with Alex! As you may know, I took over from JHDZ. We all thank you, JHDZ for the shows you put together! Let’s give him a big round of applause!
  Yeah, that’s it! And now, moving on to our first show of the season! As you know, the awards of season 43 are just around the corner. And since they are so close, I challenge you to answer to this question – Do you think that Jonas and his team Jonas Pro Cycling will win more than 5 awards this time? Let me know in the comments after the show what you think!
  And since we are discussing about the awards, they couldn’t have been possible without one man. One boss, one chief of staff, one…Don of Schiavi Di Don! Give him a round of applause!
  
  ALEX: To start it off, how are you?
  DON: I'm doing very well, life is getting busier the closer I get to adult life, but I still manage to enjoy what I'm doing, so that's good. *wink*
  ALEX: What made you like OCM?
  DON: The fact that it is so easy to make it personal. Being able to create your own story through press releases, articles, and the forum makes it so much fun without even playing the actual game already. The opportunities to get involved can really make you addicted, and I guess that's what happened to me. Having so many nice people to talk to on the Chat also helps to keep my hours of OCM per week on an unhealthy level.
  ALEX: *laughs* How did you come up with the name of your team?
  DON: That is a really nice question! My original team probably had the least original name ever (although my noob 'cheat' teams had better names, but still). So I definitely wanted to put some thought into the restart. Having already established my image as mafia boss, it had to be something Italian and authoritarian. I found the perfect inspiration for this in the Italian anthem, the most glorious musical composition of all time. In it is the incredibly nice sentence 'Chè schiava di Roma, Iddio la creò', which roughly means 'For God has created us, (as) slaves of Rome'. The transition from slaves of Rome to slaves of The Don was easily made, as you can imagine. At first I thought I had the grammar wrong, but my Italian friend gabbo has said that it's all right, so I'll trust him on that. *smiles*
  ALEX: Are you really Italian or just liked the flag/country?
  DON: As you can probably tell from my previous answer, I am not a real Italian. I am from the Netherlands, although I don't really feel Dutch either. But I like to see myself as Dutch at birth, Italian at heart, and Norwegian in the mind. Italy is the perfect country for holidays, Norway is the perfect country to live in, and the Netherlands is the perfect balance of boring and convenience that makes traveling on holidays worth it, but living at home bearable. *winks*
  But to come back to my love for Italy, my favorite place in Italy is Arezzo, which has the perfect combination of a very cute but not overcrowded historical center, and beautiful views from the fortress rising above it. Which leads to my pro-travel tip: when there is a fortress, always visit it.
  
  
  ALEX: Will keep that in mind. Actually, I share the same opinion as you here. To keep it around the same subject, what country would like to visit? Would you stay and live in it or just buy a vacation house there

and go from time to time?
  DON: You probably expect me to say Italy here again, but I just have to choose Norway. In the autumn of 2016, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to study in the most beautiful city in the world, which is Bergen. I still miss living so close to the amazing nature there every single day. If I didn't have friends and family in the Netherlands that I would miss I would probably already have moved there permanently. It might rain there 2/3rds of the year, but when it doesn't it is absolutely glorious. I think the World Championships there showed that to you all.
  ALEX: Do you cycle IRL?
  DON: I do, but by far not as much as I'd like to. When I lived in Norway, I did rides whenever the weather allowed me. I am built for climbing, with 58kgs and 1.80m, so I loved the short but steep climbs that Bergen offered. The Netherlands however, has almost nothing of the sort. Instead, we have a lot of wind, in which my weight/length ratio is far from ideal. So I can't really motivate myself to go for a ride often enough. This summer I'll start getting serious again though, I promise!
  ALEX: Who is your favorite cyclist IRL?
  DON: I usually support any Italian or Norwegian, but I especially like Boasson Hagen. Big fan of Team Dimension Data because of their links to Qhubeka, which is an awesome form of development work. I actually study International Development, so I might even do some research on the Qhubeka project, it really is fascinating how they try to help through cycling.
  ALEX: Who is your favourite rider in OCM? And race? And manager?...Yes, 3 questions in 1. *smiles*
  DON: My favourite rider is Niccolo Maffia. Anyone who disagrees will get a personal visit from him. Honorable mentions also go to Sandro Montelbano, Rostam Sirjani, and the amazing Äme Anderberg.
  My favourite race is, and this is uncovering the narcisist in me, is the self-designed Fuga del Vesuvio. I just love the idea of a downhill race from a volcano, how can you not?
  Favourite manager is going to have to be Eli of Equipo Easy On. Apart from being a legend in performances, he has also had a really sympathic game approach, training riders from special countries, scouting way more than is profitable, and more stuff like that. But there are so many managers whose arses I'd also like to kiss publically here for being nice, helpful, and in many cases even genuine friends. I'll make the list nice and long so that I look like a popular guy, the guys that shouldn't be on will know it themselves, and alphabetical to make sure you don't get to know who my favorites are. *winks*
  ABK, anonymous, BrokenChain/Soup, Chili, Chris Fabio, Christian the Artist, david popescu of Familytour, Delion, Donald of Duckburg, Dwalin, Erik Norse, Finz, Frank Holwerda, gabbo,Henri of Ello Ello, ichti, Lamme Frans, Llotyhy (and his gang of Bermudians/Mongolians), Menni of Stroopwafel, NCCC, Nikoline, Nooky, Noppes the grumpy grandpa, the infamous TCD, Rogero of CAPS LOCK, Simon de Montfoort of AnnoDomini, Sortland, virenque of mapei bianchi, Yann of Matrix Team, and that very important person that I just forgot. And of course the guy interviewing me here and his predecessor. *smiles*
  Also, Nick really is a great guy to talk to. He might be frustratingly busy some times, but every time I talk with him, he always shows his heart for the game to me. And it's always good to have a non-perfect leader, it's never fun if you can't complain. *short laugh*
  ALEX: *short laugh* Now that we are around the time when Jonas wins a lot awards

and Alexander Hetland wins the Best Hiller Award, how is it to be the chairman of the Awards Committee?
  DON: It really is lots of fun to me. Sometimes I put too much time into it while I should be studying, but I just really like organizing competitions. And rigging the vote and making it look like it was all fair is also lots of fun of course. Wait, did I say that out loud?
  ALEX: *coughing* Let’s take a pub, ok?
  Ok, now that we are back with Don from our short break, what do you consider to be your greatest achievement in the game so far?
  DON: I still can't believe that I won a Division 1 jersey with my team.
  However, my greatest achievement can only be the WT win with Italy. That truly should have been impossible, and it genuinely almost brought tears to my eyes when I saw the amazing result of the final race which handed us the victory. Bit of a shame it was in that awful city of Oslo actually, but I guess I was able to make my riders want to be out of there as fast as possible.
  ALEX: Any plans for the future of your team?
  DON: The future of my team is Il Gatto Rosso. First time ever I spent over 100k for a talent, but it definitely paid off with his amazing max on the climbing stats. He will make my team a proper climbing team.
  This season however will be all about winning my self-designed Odyssee of the Oryx. I am even training a pave pacer for it, which is really a crazy thing to do.
  
  Ok, and moving to the last part of tonight’s show, I gave Don 5 outrageous, ridiculous, strange videos from YouTube and here are his reactions to them. Let us know in the comments what you think about them as well!
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Xd2G_pkT8
  Ah, fat people and shopping, capitalism in its ultimate form! And I guess having a Wall-mart tattoo on your knuckles has become even worse of an idea now because one of his hands now says 'Wall". JHDZ is not going to pay for that!
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKPZYcxBPRw
  Magnetic man saying 'One day I will move trains' scares the shit out of me. *smiles*
  Most of these people just made themselves unhealthy though, so I could probably feature in this one as well. Now that I think of it, I haven't seen many half man half hamster mafia-bosses around lately....
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5HloVPndQ
  This kind of thing is why I love Japan. I might even use this as a torturing tactic, Maffia should be pretty handy with it. Beheaded chickens remind him of his childhood.
  
  And in case you were wondering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxTNhD5jTyQ
  I honestly really like this. :D
  Probably the only version of Despacito that doesn't make me want to smash things.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjbFjRrHdxs
  Yeah, this is definitely one that I clicked away right after seeing the title. I just had breakfast for Pete's sake! The rubber ducks tasted great btw.
  
  A round of applause for Don, everyone! Thank you for accepting my invitation! It was an honour interviewing you and of course getting my rep a bit higher! Guys, thank you for attending the first show of season 44 and don’t forget to answer to the question - Do you think that Jonas and his team Jonas Pro Cycling will win more than 5 awards this time? Until next time, Don and me, Alex, wish you a great time ahead! Bye-bye! *lights fading out*