NoPikouze, a drug free team

[NoPikouze]

Oops I meant andalucia / ruta del sol. Same shit, all in spain...

Lefebvre doesnt need a plan, he's amazing! Ok first wanted to give him some TT skill, but I changed my mind, flat and downhill is enough, tt is expensive. Don't compare him to that sudistic joke!

[Robyklebt]

Azizi gone!!!!

The guy that made NoPikouze something. Before Azizi NoPik was just the weird guy with no talent, class, good riders and success. Ok, he had Roko Keko.
Azizi came, Aix said, while the rest of RSF only thought: He's not good enough NoPik, starting values to low. A bit later it was: Not good enough, stopping at 84 mountain is too early. Result: Everybody was wrong, Azizi with 84 sprint was more than strong enough. 28 wins... He got an excellent team around him, his own class and despite the manager Jawad Azizi won 28 races! And big ones too, Romagna, Milano Torino and ok, Plouay can count as kind of big as well. Too bad his gone, the Iranian superstar, now NoPikouze will fall back into mediocrity! Viva Jawad!

[Aixteam]

Azizi gone!!!!

The guy that made NoPikouze something. Before Azizi NoPik was just the weird guy with no talent, class, good riders and success. Ok, he had Roko Keko.
Azizi came, Aix said, while the rest of RSF only thought: He's not good enough NoPik, starting values to low. A bit later it was: Not good enough, stopping at 84 mountain is too early. Result: Everybody was wrong, Azizi with 84 sprint was more than strong enough. 28 wins... He got an excellent team around him, his own class and despite the manager Jawad Azizi won 28 races! And big ones too, Romagna, Milano Torino and ok, Plouay can count as kind of big as well. Too bad his gone, the Iranian superstar, now NoPikouze will fall back into mediocrity! Viva Jawad!

84 mountain and 84 sprint ? 28 wins is low with this rider !

[NoPikouze]

Roko Keko, the spokesperson of Petit Singe who moonlights at his former team NoPikouze, announced the breaking news today. Jawad Azizi retires.
The hillsprinter, who is by far iranian's most succesful rider ever, was already thinking about putting away his bike for a while. Eventually, after his latest honorific win at Milano-Torino he decided it was enough, and that he should give more space to his younger teammates.

The young Jawad was spotted by our scouts a veeery long time ago, the management always showed him trust and respect by bringing in decent helpers for the guy, and that's why he never considered of moving to a million petrodollar team.
During his 16 seasons for the team, he was able to gather a significant amount of stage wins, and also some point-jerseys and even a couple of stageraces.

Amongst his numerous trophies, we can point out:
- his impressive win at Cyclassics Hamburg. Completely isolated after the last climb of the day, he was able to hold the peloton on his own and to win the final sprint. This was probably the best day of his career.
- A fabulous strike at the Campeonato de los Andes 2010. He won 4 stages there, even if it should be 5, but he got a contraction in his heel during the last 500 meters. A pity. But nevertheless an impressive performance.
- One stage of Paris Nice. He didn't get many of those classy stagewins, because the team was not invited by ASO most of the time, since there was no leader for the GC. French jerks...
- A couple of italian semi-classics such as Milano-Torino, GP Romagna, Giro dell Appennino. And also a couple of spanish quarter-classics (inca-inca, trofeo palmanova).
- A bunch of great results in reputed short tours (luxmburg, besseges, lorraine, picardie...)

To all these wins, you must add a 3rd place on GP Plouay and also a stage of the sheikh tour 2010.

All in all, his career was very nice and all these wins were also a good reward for the helpers who gave everything to the team, everyday (especially in the Andes!!). Let's have a thought to Masoud Zandi, Boris Bondarenko, Vlad Yezersky and Rahman Rezaei who all had a great share during this season. And also a special thought to Anatoly Gouchenko, a perfect helper, never tired to control breakaways, who retired at 39 after 18! seasons with the team, and exactly 365 races, according to Bugmann's statistics.

And now, let's all pray and hope for new success with the new generation... which my be difficult





Jawad Azizi

[NoPikouze]

May was probably the best month ever of the team. Mirjaqip Qoshqarbaev was able to take the overall win in the giro d'italia 22h edition, versus teams as Radler, Avesa, Hansa-team, Liberty Seguros, Lesossies and Specialized-Trek (also Rhino and Suessem, without gc rider). Let's have a short view of the highlights :
- After the TTT at day 5, Mirjaqip was in front of all the gc contenders (excepted silenzos the offliner) thanks to the great job of Marc Goos and the other TT guys. Ok, there were 3 mistakes, but the timeloss was not really important, maxi 20" on the perfect performance.
- The first Mountain arrivalwas a big shock. Trying to follow the stronger climbers to have hope for the stagewin. Failed, lost 8" on them, plus the 20" of bonifications. Really bad. This tactic was ok-ish for the classics when I really wanted to have a chance to win (and not doing a stupid place 2 attack). But here, I realised that I couldn't afford the risk. Losing 28" was losing all the advantage I gathered on Tonkov (Avesa) after the time-trials.
- At the next mountain/classic stage, Ivan was able to hold the group together, and insured the stagewin for Mirjaqip! Getting back thsoe 20" of bonification, well a bit less actually since Tonkov was also on the podium. Ouf.
- The first real mountain stage, where everything went according to the initial plan. Attack as soon as possible with the 2 climbers. Only specialised was following. Once again, the physics were not really helpful. But in the end, and after more than 60 kms of breakaway by the 3 climber-group, we were able to beat the best climbers by 10"! No bonifications. But 10" win instead of a couple of seconds loss. Pretty cool, and making me suddenly even more dangerous.
- The next stage, also with mountains. Started at 890 with the leader, might be a biiig problem. With the overpowered team I decide to race very fast from the first mountain on. Nobody moves, until the last mountain, and even there they don't start immédiatly. At the finish line, Mirja loses 19 seconds to a fit Tonkov, who was the most dangerous contender imo. Being so unfit, it was almost a miracle. Total of these 2 mountain days with really bad form: -9 seconds on the most dangerous climber with almost topform. Impressive.
- At the next opportunity, instead of attacking from far away I siebed with my second climber. Getting rid of the Hubers. They/he try to keep the gap small, but after a while his team explodes completely. I believe the loss was something like 4'. Only Radler/Tirado was able to win time, almost 1'30 which made him from this point the most dangerous opponent.
- The next 2 important stages were about controlling the 2 climbers. The first one, with a very steep arrival, worked pretty good. Mirja was almost able to win the stage, but he finished 2nd at a couple of seconds of Tirado, and in front of Tonkov. Perfect, but the Stelvio is still to come, with Tirado around 30" behind Mirja, it might still be a risk. Fortunately, but also sadly, Radler didn't show up for the stage and Tirado didnt follow the attacks when Tonkov wasnt able to. This was the end. TT at 90%, and Mirja beats Tonkov by 1'22 in the GC. Champaign !

All in all, only 1 stage for Mirjaqip (+ one for Amedeo), which was not that great, but we had to keep the main focus on the GC and that worked out perfectly.
After the good results on Tirreno (2 stages, 2nd place overall), and also the nice riding (although disappointing resultwise) on the spring-classics, it really shows the latest development of the team. Being able to compete at such a level is an interesting achievement.

[Robyklebt]

You have to change your team name now, that's what cool dudes do after winning the Giro!!!!

Questions: When did the Kazakh have topform?
Too bad about Radler being off of course. But I'm convinced you'd have beaten that guy anyway.

[NoPikouze]

Grand Tours

Giro: 1. Qoshqarbaev, 10. Aboukoumov + 2 stages, fantastic !!
Tour: 5. Qoshqarbaev, 8. Aboukoumov + 4 stages and team. Really a stupid fail, forgot to fight after making the difference!!
Vuelta: 1. Qoshqarbaev, 4. Aboukoumov + 2 stages, points and team. Great.

I'm quite happy about this GT season. First time with such a leader, taking 2 GTs, it's really great. But since I kind of LOST the Tour by a mistake, imo, it's a bit tempering the happiness... Otherwise it's a good achievement.

Cat 4 Tours

Tirreno-Adriatico: 2. Qoshqarbaev, warming up for the giro, beaten by Avesa. + 2 stages and points jersey
Volta a Catalunya: 4. Qoshqarbaev + 1 stage
Pais Vasco: 5. Goos + team
Tour de Romandie: 4. Goos
Dauphiné: 2. Goos + team

No win in this sector. But decent performances. Always someone stronger, better, with more form, or just who's sucking on the active team all the time... I fucked up Tirreno but the other tours were just not winnable without a lucky day.

Monuments

Milano-Sanremo: 10. Otemisuly
Ronde van Vlaanderen: 11. Zavarov
Paris-Roubaix: 7. Saracen
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: 10. Qoshqarbaev
Giro di Lombardia: 1. Otemisuly

Really bad untill the final Lombardia. In LBL I tried to follow the winner instead of attacking myself for a safe podium-spot. Failed, thus a shitplace in the group of losers.

Important classics

Amstel Gold Race: 13. Qoshqarbaev
Flèche Wallonne: 3. Qoshqarbaev
San Sebastian: 3. Aboukoumov
Flèche brabançonne: 7. Zavarov
Coppa Agostini: 1. Lemansky
Coppa Bernocchi: 4. Lemansky
GP Wallonie: 5. Otemisuly
Coppa Sabatani: 16. Qoshqarbaev
Giro dell'Emilia: 10. Qoshqarbaev
Giro del Piemonte: 2. Qoshqarbaev
GP Beghelli: 11. Otemisuly
Gent-Wevelgem:
Montepaschi:
Paris-Tours:
Het Volk:
E3 Prijs Vlanderen:
Scheldeprijs:
GP Hamburg:
Tre Valli Varesine:
GP de Plouay:
Giro del Veneto:
Giro della Romagna:
GP de Québec:
Paris-Bruxelles:
GP des Fourmies:
GP de Montréal:
Milano-Torino

I can't find my result for the blank races. Probably I was riding something else. Or just out of the top 20, happened a couple of times as well
The general impression is not too bad. One win and a couple of good spots, with several different riders. I'm happy about that. But I'm lacking a classic win with Mirjaqip. That pisses me a bit.


In the end, I should be really happy with this season. Giro+Vuelta+Lombardia... What else to say ?! Sure the overall level wasn't really impressive, I don't had the feeling to be a genius at anytime. But now it's curved in the stone, or whatever.
But failure in the Tour, and more importantly, failure to win ONE classic with Mirjaqip, it's just bothering me. I did what I could but it didn't came... Last big shit was at Giro dell Emilia, but that was another fail by precipitation, nervousness, and being sucked dry by some asshole, I guess.

Credit for the writing of this thingy goes to Roko Keko, legendary NoPik rider and also senior spokesman at Petit Singe.

[Robyklebt]

Roko Keko helped?

He's fired. If you work for the Ape, you do that exclusively. No side jobs. If at least he did a good job, but curving stones? Bye Roko.

GP Hamburg:
Tre Valli Varesine:
GP de Plouay:
Giro del Veneto:
Giro della Romagna:
GP de Québec:
Paris-Bruxelles:
GP des Fourmies:
GP de Montréal:

All not ridden, since it's during the Vuelta.

Gent-Wevelgem:
E3 Prijs Vlanderen:
Scheldeprijs:

During Catalunya and Pais Vasco, so not ridden.

That leaves:
Het Volk
Montepaschi
Paris-Tours
Milano Torino

MT you probably would have made a result with Qosqarbaev, so likely you didn't ride....

Anyway, obviously a good season. GIRO! Lombardia! Vuelta too, yeah yeah. Missing... Cat 4 Tours, but you were always close, so that's ok I guess.
Classics saved with Lombardia, but the monuments before. Nothing obvious for your team really. Nothing were your team really should have done better. Ok, Podium in LBL, but rather try for the win, good. But yeah, one thing missing is... the win with Qoshqarbaev (now that I found out it's really an easy name enjoy writing it too). And that win would be the Flèche Wallonne. Did you end up in a group with 50 90 climbers? Or what happened there? But even without that, 2 GTs 1 Monument, no reason to complain. Especially since Qoshqarbaev really wasn't as talented as Mattarozzi, or had the advantage of being in a high quality team like tschiepi! Grr.

So after the Roko Keko era, the Azizi era you had the Qoshqarbaev era! What's next?

[NoPikouze]

I have no plan at the moment, maybe it will be a planless future, with an insignificant team, just like you !

[NoPikouze]

Tonight Mirjaqip Qoshqarbaev retires from the professionnal cycling world...

After 15 months of great successes, our first climber and also pionneer of the Kazakh invasion in our team (and in the german world ) declared the end of his career. "This Campeonato de los Andes was really exciting, I was able to ride several great stages and to impress and teach all the other riders some tactical lessons... But the legs weren't able to achieve more. The younger generations are a bit too agressive in the peloton and I don't feel comfortable riding along with them anymore. I have to spend a great part of my focus and energy on keeping up in the bunch, and in the end you pay the bill for all those efforts and you ain't able to follow the guys when to roads go up".

After a struggling start with the team due to adaptation an language issues (only one youth jersey at the Tour de l'Estérel...), Mirjaqip began a series of serious achievements from the start of the real season, at the Tour Down Under. A victory at the willunga hill put him in the lead of the gc, and he was able to keep that spot until the end of the race.

During the warming up for GTs he showed us that he would be a perfect leader by finishing 2nd at Tirreno. This performance was something to rely on, and made us sign a last minute deal with another Kazakh climber, Ivan Aboukoumov, to support Mirjaqip during all the upcoming tours.

The belgian classics week was a bit of a disappointment. Disabled by his growing reputation and the pressure coming along, Mirjaqip couldn't get more than a podium spot at the fleche Wallone. Despite several attemps especially on LBL, the results were not great.

Then came the main stuff. At the Giro d'Italia, the duo showed it's worth by achieving the maglia rosa win and great control or attacking options during all the stages.

Then came the Tour de France. In a difficult group, the Kazakh duo was able to make the big differences needed on the timetrialists, especially on this 2012 edition. But this costed them so much energy, they weren't able to hold the other climbers until the end, and those took the advantage. Later on, Mirjaqip did some attempts to get the win, it was avoided by the other climbers, but the TT specialists could this time take advantage of the situation and win the yellow jersey back, taking it to the Champs Elysées.

Finally, at the Vuelta d'Espana, Mirjaqip was unstoppable and took another GT win.

From then on, the end of a fabulous career was in sight. In his quest for a classic win, Mirjaqip couldn't get better than a 2nd position at Giro dello Piemonte during the italian autumn classics. And he kept training until the Campeonato, trying to pick up one last stagewin for make the circle complete.

The team is happy and proud about his great career. He was unvaluable during a whole year, and his well deserved retirement will leave us with a big empty spot to fill.

Adios.

Significant number:
14 stagewins (3 at the Tour, 1 at the Giro and at the Vuelta)
3 tours (Down Under, Giro, Vuelta)
EP: 21.957 (8th in the eternal ranking)

[Robyklebt]

It hurts, but I admit it, Qoshqarbaev is the best Kazakh RSF climbe ever! And there were some good ones, the Quick one, URGANOV... oh, just checked, Larin and Maxim Yablonsky were Kazakhs too! Abdykarimov, Chruschtschow, Sokolov (but thought he was a Huber?) Oh, there's 2.. .one is, but few points, strange, why do I remember him? Mmh, maybe a russian Sokolov who was better.. Anyway, lots of great climbers in Kazakhstan, must be one of the top climbing nation at RSF, and yep, Qoshqarbaev is nr 1! GIRO winner!!!! Great career. Just had a phone call from Conti though, he wasn't too happy with the adjective you used, but convinced him to forget it, it's Qoshqarbaev after all!