Tukhtahuaev - Still not difficult to pronounce

[Tukhtahuaev]

I am still waiting for Mongolia and Madagascar to be added to make you suffer even more

[Robyklebt]

10 years? Congrats! You're now only a semi-noob!

I don't fully get the Karatay hate. He is no Novelli.... He was just one of these countless Tukhs, that appear out of nowhere and win. After the Vuelta it was, suddenly there's a new Tukh winning nonstop, checked, impressive from the end of September (Paris-Chauny) to early November, (Lombok Classic) 1 stage race, 1 stage, 5 one day races, the NC. Superstar. Then ok, he disappeared a bit...a lot. Might be because of Grala? Hate him, not Karatay.

But the list is bad anyway, where is Tukhtasinov???

[Tukhtahuaev]

Karatay just stopped a series of classics at least training decently. With his 71 mountain and low flat there were just so many races where he stood no chance against all the super classics that are around. Had nothing to do with Grala. And Grala I couldn't really hate. Was just the wrong decision to buy him, but he was actually a really good rider

[Tukhtahuaev]

May 2026

+1,718,231
7,932 points


Obviously everyone was focussed on the Giro last month, but first we had to finish Romandie at the start of May. With 2 stage wins, 2 jerseys and the team classification it was a very successful tour and also where most of the profit came from. After that Artem Palamarchuk won a random one day race in preparation for the Giro.
Then the Giro finally started. Goals were pretty clear: Palamarchuk wanted to win the Ciclamino and Alborghetti wanted to win white. The second target seemed almost impossible after looking at the field and unfortunately it really turned out to be. Alborghetti pretty much never played a role on the mountain stages and also could not beat Arjen Burger for white. Overall a very disappointing Giro for him.
Fortunately the stage hunting worked out much better for Artem Palamarchuk and Zhansultan Dosmagambetov. Palamarchuk won 2 bunch sprints and 2 sprints out of reduced groups to comfortably win the Ciclamino in the end. Dosmagambetov had a rather slow start as support for Palamarchuk, but got a few great opportunities of his own in the final week. In the end he got 2 stage wins in a row on stage 17 and 18.
Overall the Giro can be called a success. GC wise it was not exactly good, but 6 stage wins and actually turning a slight profit was more than expected

Rider of the month:
Artem Palamarchuk. 4 Giro stage wins and Ciclamino, difficult to beat that

Best race of the month:
Giro stage 4. Risky to put topform for Palamarchuk there, but it worked out beautifully

Worst race of the month:
Giro stage 20. Piskun falling back from an escape group that went on to win the stage

Transfers in:
Yoserth Padilla - 55-71-75-52-54-65.3-41, 21 years
Pretty much a young Baltabekov. Probably not enough to be a leader, but good value for money

Transfers out:
Elkhan Baltabekov - 71-77-73-54-50-69.5-43, 34 years
Important helper for Makhamadzhonov last summer. Only a single victory to his name

[Tukhtahuaev]

June 2026

+2,660,550
6,486 points


Almost everyone in the team was focussed on the first half of June this time. We started with the 5 day Tour de Wallonie, where the clear goal was to win gc, since we expected most opponents to focus more on the more prestigious later tours. In the end that prediction was completely wrong and a combination of bad tactical choices and moves that didn't seem to make sense meant that pretty much every day was a failure. In the end it was just barely enough for Oleksandr Piskun to get 3rd in GC, but it overall a massive failure.
It was the complete opposite at the beautifully named Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes. Corentin Poitrenaud started the tour with a very surprising debut win and could wear the yellow jersey for 2 days. Artem Palamarchuk also showed strong form by winning 2 stages and getting 2nd in another one, which was enough to win the green jersey. In addition to that we could also secure the white jersey with Poitrenaud, so overall an extremely successful tour.
Towards the end of the month the Tour de Suisse was more of an afterthought without anyone really focussing on it, but Corentin Poitrenaud showed strong form again to get another white jersey and also 3rd in GC.
Outside of those tours we also managed 3 more race wins in not so important one day races.

Rider of the month:
Corentin Poitrenaud. His first ever stage win and 2 white jerseys underlining his ambitions for the Tour de France

Best race of the month:
Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes stage 1. Surprising win against stronger riders on paper

Worst race of the month:
Wallonie stage 5. Completely incrompehensible attack from Elaska on the final km. But even with that just a bad decision to not try to follow

Transfers in:
Svyatoslav Mokrytskyi - 54-73-77-53-63-68.2-44, 21 years
The new classic leader. Hopefully develops a bit better than the past generation

Antauro Carhuaricra - 46-73-77-47-54-73.9-35, 21 years
Strong flat rider and potential pavé leader for 2027

Transfers out:
Oleksandr Piskun - 76-77-67-49-49-67.3-62, 36 years
One of the most important riders in the teams' history. After it became clear that he would not get a spot on the Tour de France team he decided that it is better to retire.

Zemenfes Mengisteab - 66-78-76-48-51-68.7-41, 34 years
Always a decent helper to stay relatively cheap in hilly races. Surprised everyone with a GC win at Down Under this year