Written by Velosipedska at 11:43 22/1-2024
Greetings fans and welcome to the first full season roundup since our return to racing in S66. Season 67 was a season of discovery: which riders are still able to compete and who will be the new Macedonian talents? Let’s dive in!
---TEAM NEWS---
We are happy to report that sponsors still recognized the Velosipedska name. Farruco Alonso Tourrider Academy and Stroopwafelkraam Menni both provided 40k deals, and 5 smaller deals worth 118k were also signed this season. We would like to thank every sponsor for their financial faith in this team. Part of this money was invested in new group sets for the bikes, because we discovered that we had always been riding with only frames and wheels. Surely this technology will make it easier to get up those climbs.
Our final economic position at the end of season 67:
Income
-------------------
Starting Balance: 262,664
Funding: 0,-
Rider Sales: 58,000
Prize Money: 126,500
Jobs: 80,000
Sponsors: 208,000
Merchandise: 34,052
Expenses
-------------------
Team Upgrades: 75,000
Supplies: 25,300
Staff: 2,275
Scouting: 0,-
Rider Hires: 182,875
Training: 395,550
Net Balance
-------------------
22,516
---RACE NEWS---
We had difficulties getting started this season. We are all 7 years older and out of shape, and that was tough to deal with mentally as well. We started with 19 races in which we only achieved a 7th and 8th place. After that, Eftim Nastevski finally started our season by winning his first ever race:Peio - Peio.
Unfortunately this was immediately followed by another run of 18 races with only a 4th and 8th place resulting in points. With only a single result in almost 40 races, morale was pretty low after day 50.
Eftim was again responsible for a turnaround. In the second half of the season he won The Path to Shangri-La and The Kirkjubøur Race and took 2d place at Syterpasset. Jovan Georgievski took 2 second places as well, and Ostoja Sakiri got his first ever p=odium spot at Atacama Ascension.
In the end, Eftims three victories and four other podium spots were our only results in the season. This is a decent result for our rebuilding team, especially after only one victory in the first 50 days. Still, Velosipedska always aim high, so we will want an improvement next season. Our first main goal is a top-9 spot for Riste at Men become Gods Tour, after a horrible showing there this season. Let’s see whether he can do it in his final season!
---RIDER NEWS---
In this strange season, there was still a bit of rider news:
Eftim Nastevski has not only won his first ever race this season and even managed 3 wins. This currently makes him joint-second in terms of wins for Velosipedska, only Riste Nikolovski (10) managed more.
Riste Nikolovski (203) became the first Velosipedska rider to pass 200 races for the team. He will turn 40 at the end of next season and will probably retire at some point in S68.
Slobodan Meglenski has retired. Meglenski was the only rider apart from Nikolovski who remained from the original Velosipedska team that was founded in S52. He mainly rode for us as a water carrier, and was responsible for public relations. Meglenski gained $142,000 doing jobs outside of cycling, at least three times as much as any other rider in Velosipedska history. Apart from that, he made 149 appearances for us, taking 3 top-9 spots in lower divisions. We wish Slobodan the very best in his career after cycling!
Dimitrija Samardziski has also left the team. He had the bad luck of joining us shortly before our rakia-induced race break (see previous news letter). After 27 appearances Dimitrija decided to hang up his bike. He said he might look at another team if they offer him a nice opportunity, but this could also be his retirement.
---TRAINEE NEWS---
Since the team is rebuilding, we have added an extra section to the news letter to introduce our newest riders.
Jurica Donev has just completed his training. Jurica is a very good sprinter with small capabilities in terms of flat roads and technique. We suspect he could endure some more training at the Velosipedska facilities, but he might benefit more from real-life race training. Donev will lead us in a few sprint races, but will also be a great lead out sprinter to launch others if a top sprint talent arrives.
Petar Jovanovski is our most recent addition to the climbing and tour team. He has also finished training. An average climber but good descender and hiller, Jurica is a good all-round races who could try for a youth jersey in the next few seasons.
Artim Nacevski is still in training. He is already good at the flats, but also has potential to become a good downhiller, for which he is now training. He has average climbing and small hill potential, as well ass average sprint and small technique potential. Depending on his training results, he will be a valuable teammate or a captain for downhill or all-round races.
Mirko Zendeli is in training and has good sprint and technique potential and small flat road potential. His average TT potential might even make him a sprint tour contender. He will try to become a ‘baby Boban Karcev’ and with good training results he could lead our new sprint team. If another top talent comes along, Zendeli should be a great technical leadout.
Tomce Gjosevski is also in training, but will only start when the others are done using the facilities. He has no climbing potential but good downhill and small hill potential. On the other hand, he has good sprinting and average technique potential but no flat road potential. Depending on how the others do in training, he will be trained as a teammate for a downhill or a sprint captain.
That is all for today, we wish you all well going into season 68!
Kind regards and thanks for reading,
KrMees (Manager)
Vujadin Mileski (PR)
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