Written by Velosipedska at 15:45 13/8-2020
Greetings to fans, press and other readers. We have reached the end of the second full competitive season for Velosipedska. Last season we just wanted to show Macedonian cycling, but in S53 we had to prove we were here to stay in divisions 6 and 5. S53 was the season of Aksentiev’s ever improving sprint train, and Riste Nikolovski’s continuing ability to get results with very limited support.
---TEAM NEWS---
Like last year, we would like to thank all the support for our team. The fans have been ever-present along the roads, it’s always good to see the Macedonian flag waving when we fight for victory! We are also glad to see more and more Macedonians active in cycling, and we welcome Alpinisti na Ohrid to the stage. Both teams are already communicating well to aid our National Team, and Velosipedska are looking forward to improving Macedonian cycling together.
We are also still in a financially stable position. We have made a bit less in prize money than last year, but considering the tough opposition in these higher divisions, and the fact that both captains have had serious injuries, we can be satisfied with our race income. The biggest improvement has been sponsorship income, a whopping 415k this year compared to last year’s 160k. Unfortunately there was a dispute with Oryx Outdoor Gear this season, they have currently only paid 240k out of a promised 300k. Next season we will introduce new sponsors who will hopefully honour their agreements.
Financial stability and income meant we could afford to improve our team structure. The additions of Nderim Bogatinov and Vladimir Gavalovski have improved our sprint train (Gavalovski is still in our training program). We have also been able to hire doctor Atanas Todorovski and mechanic Ismet Ilijoski. Atanas is even set to improve his skills with a summer course on sports recuperation soon.
Summary of our final economic position this season:
Income
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Starting Balance: 62,456
Funding: 20,00
Rider Sales: 0,-
Prize Money: 127,000
Jobs: 84,000
Sponsors: 415,250
Merchandise: 10,653
Expenses
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Team Upgrades: 79,000
Supplies: 19,200
Staff: 40,000
Scouting: 8,000
Rider Hires: 71,615
Training: 302,400
Net Balance
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199,144
---RIDER NEWS---
The last few weeks have been quiet, but last year we started our end of season tradition - rider awards. The rider awards are still divided into three categories - Talent of the Season, Teammate of the Season, Rider of the Season. Without further ado…
-Talent of the Season-
It would have been difficult for any rider to succeed last year’s winner Aksentiev. Still, in Nderim Bogatinov we have found a great lead out sprinter for the previous top talent. A slightly less complete sprinter than his captain, but he makes up for that with great team spirit and mentality. Nderim has been instrumental in a great season for our sprint team, we are sure he will lead his captain(s) to glory many more times.
-Teammate of the Season-
A close second last year, and still instrumental to our team - the Teammate of the Season is Cedomir Ivanov. After a career at Songolooz and Lundar Cycling Team he joined his national cycling project. As a solid road captain and strong man on the flats, Cedomir has been the first Velosipedska rider to achieve 50 appearances for the team. Currently, his tally sits at 61 races, 5 more than Velovski. At 27 years old he is nearing his prime, a great companion to guide our captains towards their peaks.
-Rider of the Season-
Last year Riste Nikolovski was the sole rider gaining points for our team, whilst we were training our new sprint talent. This year, Metodija Aksentiev is already the main man. After Riste’s injury he stepped up to win a stage in Oryx, but he scored points on many occasions. Last year he was the king of top 10’s, but this season Metodija decided to not only grab his first win, but 2 more totalling 3 wins this season. At age 23 he now sits at 15 top 9's, including 4 top 3’s and 3 wins. He also just got on the podium with a 3d place in the Oryx sprint classification. With our sprint train growing every season and his peak ahead of him, we expect to see him performing like this for plenty more seasons.
---RACE NEWS---
This edition’s race news is not a great read for Velosipedska fans. A few practise races preceded our first appearance at Fast on wheels. We had hoped to give Aksentiev a chance at a second tour stage this year, but off days and mechanical issues during both sprint stages destroyed our chances at a result. We did not have a captain for the other stages, meaning our tour has been a big disappointment. We are planning to participate in the Monte Rosa Tour, so hopefully we can show what Macedonians on a bike can do in Switzerland. Riste Nikolovski will be our captain there.
Metodija Aksentiev will be racing the Classico di Siracusa, our first shot at the Italian sprint classic. Metodija will build form one more time towards this race, after which he will be allowed to enjoy a period of rest whilst we finish training his newest lead out man, Vladimir Gavalovski.
---SEASON CONCLUSION---
Velosipedska can look back at a solid season. There were no surprise results like Riste’s Oryx YC win last season, but overall we have proved that we can still get results in divisions 6 and 5. We will continue to look for Macedonian talents, and slowly improve our support structure to get the most out of these talents.
Our captains have been performing as expected. Riste Nikolovski was unfortunately unable to defend his youth jersey at Oryx due to his injury, but he still managed to get results throughout the season. He now sits at 24 top 9's in 2 seasons, including 1 victory and 3 podium places. Since Beqiri is the only real climber to support him, we can only applaud his success.
Metodija Aksentiev has been described in detail in the awards section. He's 2 years younger than Riste and has a lot more support currently. We expect him to get more results than his climbing teammate soon. Both captains are making the team an average of about $1700 per race, let's hope they keep that up next season!
Thanks again for supporting our team and we hope to see a lot of our fans again in season 54.
Kind regards and thanks for reading,
KrMees (Manager)
Vujadin Mileski (PR)
Subscribers: 10
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Comments
good read. keep up the good work.
Nice read! Good luck in the new seaason and enjoy Metodija. I would, what a nice rider.
Always good to see former riders doing great ! Great work with Macedonia, would be a pleasure to compete against Cedomir in the future !
great summary and best of luck for S54!
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