Written by Velosipedska at 20:16 22/4-2024
Greetings to fans, press and other readers. The press releases have been a bit sparse, but here is a season review for season 68 and a look ahead at season 69. Most importantly, we are saying goodbye (kind of) to the most successful rider in Velosipedska history! Let’s dive straight in!
---TEAM NEWS---
First of all, thanks to our sponsors for this season: VCBM Outlet Store, Bank of Essex, The Scout News Agency, Fantoft Sports Equipment, Gevelsberg GePräu, Talents R Us and Easter Egg Farms. Most sponsor contracts are over or almost over, so we are looking for new partnerships for 69. Interested parties can contact our PR manager Vujadin Mileski. All in all, there was not much news regarding our team structure and finances. Our trainers, Gjorgi Beqiri and Dragi Stavrevski have both retired, but a replacement is ready. More about that in the Rider News section.
Our final economic position after S68:
Income
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Starting Balance: 25,016
Funding: 0,-
Rider Sales: 110,199
Prize Money: 131,500
Jobs: 80,500
Sponsors: 233,000
Merchandise: 37,595
Expenses
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Team Upgrades: 0.-
Supplies: 28,900
Staff: 1,925
Scouting: 0,-
Rider Hires: 105,554
Training: 406,350
Net Balance
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76,081
---RACE NEWS---
As previously announced, these last few seasons since ‘the great incident’ (read up on that in V-News #25) we try to take it slow. Our older riders lack form and experience because they missed a couple of seasons, and our younger riders are often still in training. Petar Jovanovski showed some potential by gaining 3d place in the YC at both El Corazón de México and Race of the Minutemen. He also got a 2d place at El Limón - El Carman, so those are promising signs for the 22-year-old. Our other young captain, Jurica Donev struggled a bit at the start of the season, but gained some nice race training experience during the season and showed his improvement at Jawlat Oman Lesalahef, finishing 4th overall and 3d in the YC. Both youngsters are now recharging to be in top form for their next goals.
Apart from these youngster experiments, a few older riders did their best and the team gained a few nice podium spots and a Eftim Nastevski win at Ulaanbaatar uruu Uruudakh. Obviously, we want more than a single win next season, but as a rebuilding small team we can be happy with the results so far.
Next season, these young captains will try to improve on these results. Our older core will be supporting Petar whilst we search for new climbers, whilst our younger group is almost entirely sprint-focused. We have aging climbers and baby sprinters and are ready to take on the world! We have no explicit goal but we will try to grab a youth jersey with a young captain this season, since we came pretty close last season in several races.
---RIDER NEWS---
The big news today is that Riste Nikolovski has finally retired. Riste was the very last rider from the original team that founded Velosipedska back in season 52. Riste is responsible for a third of all Velosipedska results (34/94), the only rider to rack up 10 wins for the team. He also participated in a record number of 238 races for Velosipedska, only Eftim Nastevski (211) currently sits above 200 races for us. Riste managed to gain over half a million dollars in prize money for the team (518,500). Riste Nikolovski was the jewel of Macedonian cycling for many seasons, and probably the only climber that reached such a high level out of all Macedonians. A testament to his all-or-nothing attitude is the fact that he won 3 races for the Macedonian national team, but never got another podium spot. Luckily, 40-year-old Riste will become a trainer at Velosipedska in an attempt to train the next generation of national talent.
Together with Riste, Nikola Shaqiri has also retired. Nikola’s only result was a 5th place at Bali Classic back in S55, but as a teammate he helped his captains in 143 races. We thank him for 13 seasons of service. Nikola’s cousin Angel Shaqiri is still active at Totalidade.
Lastly, we would like to welcome a few signings and update you on riders currently in our training program. Apart from the young captains mentioned earlier, Artim Nacevski, Tomce Gjosevski and Mirko Zendeli have finished training and are now part of our sprint train. In their place, three new riders are currently in training:
Slavco Pitoska is almost finished with his training program. He’s been trained on the climbs and hills, but his average downhill, sprint and TT potential or even his small flat road potential can still be explored. After that, Slavco should be able to join Petar Jovanovski soon in a friendly battle for co-captainship, especially for YC jerseys in hilly tours.
Zlatko Stankov has good hill, average climbing and small downhill potential. This will make him a nice teammate in our growing squad of young hilly climbers, but if he exceeds our expectations in the training camp he might be a hidden captain himself. He is a bit older than the other recent trainees though, so he will not be our first choice in YC attempts.
Vasko Tofiloski could be the perfect addition to our sprint team, and could even replace Jurica Donev as the final man in some races. He has average sprint potential, but he can be good in terms of technique and flat road ability, making him a nice prospect. He will most likely be our main LO2 for the foreseeable future.
As always, if you spot your local Macedonian riding a bike faster than he ought to be, send him our way! The Velosipedska training academy is always open for young compatriots with an aptitude for cycling.
A few stats to round up the rider section
As said earlier, Riste Nikolovski (238) and Eftim Nastevski (211) became the first Velosipedska riders to surpass 200 races for the team. Jordan Spirkoski (192) is closing in on that number in what might be his final season.
Jovan Georgievski (10) became the 4th rider with 10 results for Velosipedska, after Nikolovski (34), Spirkoski (13) and Metodija Aksentiev (10).
Petar Jovanovski (149, aged 21) is closing in on 150 total career points for Velosipedska, the first rider since 35-year-old Gerogievski and 36-year-old Spirkoski to reach that milestone. The future is here!
Kind regards and thanks for reading,
KrMees (Manager)
Vujadin Mileski (PR)
Subscribers: 10
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Comments
great write-up
Time flies in this game. Riste is a legend!
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