Written by alberta 1 at 19:33 21/2-2011
There has been a lot going on for Alberta 1 in the last couple weeks. Sean was quoted about a week ago saying his team will become “unrecognizable”, and it has indeed morphed into a more highly skilled, compact team.
In a brief reflection, Alberta 1’s previous era was one of great success, seeing the team first make the transition from climbing to sprinting, then rise from division 7 to division 2 in less than a season. The charge was led by the cobbler, Hamlin Chessman, with help from sprinters Marc Moore, Davin Wann, and most recently, Montez Ascencion. Highlights include Chessman’s two victories in less then a week which boosted Alberta 1 out of division 7, Wann’s victory in the Halifax Grand Prix on home soil, and Ascencion’s recent win at Rotterdam Classic.
However team management concluded that in order to keep the drive alive, there had to be change, and change there has been. Alberta 1 has been the epicentre of the recent flurry of activity within SNAOTR, which saw the acquisition of Danish lead out, Matthias Krogsgaard from speedyb, and the in return, former captain, Hamlin Chessman, was flown south of the 49, though there are rumours that he may return to Alberta 1 in the near future.
Alberta 1 has also been active outside of North America, and acquired two internationally recognized, European superstars:
- Meine Berkhout:
A Dutch cycling veteran, and former captain/vice captain for legendary teams, including Team Brandt, Skils, and Torreira. Career highlights include several wins in division 2 along with division 1 victories in Valladolid – León (Spain) and Lübeck-Hannover (Germany), both while riding for Team Brandt.
- Conrado Fraga:
The 'Portuguese Volcano', is known for his fiery temper off the race course, but on the course, he is currently Portugal’s national champion and widely understood as one of the best sprinters in the world. Conrado was discovered by Gradient Levellers and, after going through the team’s internal training system, emerged as a superstar. Fraga has been prominent on the world tour achieving a runner up finish in CoN Sydney, before moving forward to take a third place for Portugal in Bruxelles - Liège (Germany). He has also been instrumental in Gradient Levellers climb up the world standings with top division wins in Great Britain and the USA. Currently in the prime of his career, Fraga should ride strong for Alberta 1 for many seasons to come and with our young team growing around him, he will likely experience a tremendous amount of success on his new team.
On a more solemn note, Montez Ascencion was traded to Portugal after captaining just two races for Alberta 1, to serve as lead out for Jannic De Keijsere of Belgium. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours and will never forget his gritty efforts in Rotterdam Classic and Fredericia – Vejle, defeating superior competition in both races to win his team 200 much needed points.
So where is the team going and what can be expected of Alberta 1 in the near future?
Management says the immediate goal is to make the qualifying rank for the Netherlandse Tour later this season, a challenging task, but not impossible. In the long term, Sean hopes do direct his team to a steady spot in division 1, while acquiring more team staff, as well as increasing roster size. Sean has also hinted at branching off into time trialling.
The future is very bright for the young Canadian team and it will be exciting to see what the future holds.
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Comments
Good to know that soon there'll a a Top Division team started later than mine :)
And strange to see him wearing a different colour jersey. Your's matches his ginger hair now!
Best of luck with the Volcano. Hope you can control his temper better than I could! Fraga could do a lot of damage in Division 2.
*smooth
looks to be a sooth road ahead ;)
I just hope I can max his CL/DH/HL/FR so he'll be a great teammate :)
Very nice! he could become one of the best downhillers in the game... a younger, better Pettis! But I'm getting ahead of myself :D
Totally unrelated lol: Iacob's DH is currently 83 and I'll know within a half hour whether or not he's made it to 84+! :)
The future is looking bright, Sean!
I guess neither alberta 1 nor redop are to be trifled with now!
go Fraga!
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