Wizards Cycling public relations

[Lizard]

Yes, I know... was a hard decision and I´m not happy with it at all... but from the team aspect was better.

[Lizard]

Mbeki going for the big victories

After a fabulous training in the past two months, new hope for classic races Ndale Mbeki wins first stage of this years´ Tour de Romandie. After an expected weak prologue today the team used it´s chance and Mbeki is wearing White und Yellow at least until tomorrow. We find this great and are going for other stages this tour.

[Lizard]

Rider of the month: April

And the nominees are:

Nicolas LaCroix (6%):
Stage 2 Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Kat. 4
465 points

Ndale Mbeki (49%):
Stage 2 Tour de Romandie, Kat. 4
2 days yellow jersey
455 points

Jan Vermaart (45%):
2nd Paris-Roubaix, Kat. 6
Tro Bro Leon, Kat. 3
933 points

And the winner is:
Ndale Mbeki! Our new hero and by now god in training wins his first stage at the Tour de Romandie as we planned it to happen (I really did, that´s the weird thing about it). Two, maybe three months and Ndale could be a solid part in our classic rows.

April training

Joost Berkefeldt: +2 Flat
Basil Broucek: -
Manuel Clausen: +1 Climb
Jaroslav Jendl: +2 Climb, +1 Flat
André Katchono: +1 Flat
Nicolas LaCroix: +1 Flat
Ndale Mbeki: +4 Climb, +4 Flat
Wesley Sneijder: -
Alfons Ulminger: +4 Flat
John vandenVaalken: +3 Climb, +3 Flat
Kato Wolfsong: +1 Climb

[Lizard]

2nd swiss rider to join team: Samuel Albany

21years old Samuel Albany from Lausanne joins the team for May 2010. He is going to be a half-climber with excellent flat skills - at least this is what we hope.

Name: Samuel Albany
Age: 21
Place of birth: Lausanne
Nationality: Swiss
Skills: 55-73-64-54-45, 40 Reg

[Lizard]

Tour de Romandie

A nice tour with a strong Mbeki, who for the first time won a stage and wore the yellow jersey for two days. If we´re not that asleep on the last day when Egsdorfer attacks, maybe Ndale can take a Top 10-place. Nevermind, we had a very entertaining tour with the typical Blabla by ourselves aswell as our opponents and a good competition. Ohne Tasche keine Competition!! Btw. Adler, don´t take it personally

General classement:
4th: Wesley Sneijder

Stages:
1st: Ndale Mbeki
3rd: Manuel Clausen, Wesley Sneijder

Finances:
264.338 Credits

[Lizard]

Upcoming: Last race for routinier Basil Broucek

May, 3rd 2009: On the transfer market the team sees a young rider, 21 years of age, skills: 53-74-76-55-43, 41 Reg. Basil Broucek, most important classic helper 2009, 2nd czech hero for our team and with him the czech era will die. What began January 2009 with the buy of Adam Wollfinger will end after the last czech rider of the team has finished his last tour: Giro d´Italia 2010. His career began 2009 as a trade for Armin Bettler (who by this time should´ve stayed in the team, but in the end was a good decision to bring up Basil) with the Giro d´Italia 2009 and now his first race will be his last race. It just needs to be mentioned, since Basil is one of the most important characters and as an oldie really became the heart of the team - maybe not in aspects of sports, but for the team´s cult and popularity aswell as my own "emotions" for the game, if you like to talk of emotions for some virtual numbers.

Since only talking about the history and not about the future is boring there will be - as the czech era ends with June 2010 - a new era coming up for the Wizards Cycling team. The classic season 2010 showed which way the team wants to go: classic races & stage wins, red & green jerseys. To search for new riders fitting into this concept we will move our scouts from Czech Republic and Cameroon to the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Samuel Albany, Alfons Ulminger, (Switzerland) Joost Berkefeldt, Wesley Sneijder, Jan Vermaart (Netherlands) & Bastiaan Beijssens (Belgium) were the first ones to join our new team concept, many many will follow. And except Ndale Mbeki, last cameroon hero to be bought for a rather long time (I guess) the new captains are not even bought until now. At least three other classic captains will join the team in the next few months, even two time trialists are planned - those are not meant to be TT specialists, by the way.

So, what else to say than: Let´s go for a great Giro d´Italia 2010 and I really hope for a nice new orientation for my team aswell as a stage win for Basil Broucek in his very last race.

[Lizard]

Basil shows again teamplay, Clausen able to take first stage for Wizards

Fifth stage of this years´ Giro d´Italia, first possibility to prevent a sprint. A good cooperation by Recien Nacidos and Wizards Cycling could prevent the almost sure sprint on the rather flat stage from Novara to Novi Ligure. After the peloton was split on the first climb of the day the two classic teams did a huge job to run away from the wall of tempo riders in the field. After the last climb Clausen as strongest sprinter needs to ride an attack himself, so he does. A five-headed group consisting Clausen, Branco, Nicolosi, Guggisberg and Fonseca now had to just stay away and defend the almost 40 seconds left on the peloton. Three seconds were saved and Clausen was lucky enough to win the sprint. After two weeks since Mbeki´s last win finally we managed to ride a stage with almost no big mistakes, which in the end would´ve been to let the classic riders of LosTicos join in after the second important climb. "On other days of this tour we will not be as strong and lucky as today, were LosTicos was not necessary to hold back the peloton by accident. Recien Nacidos, LosTicos aswell as our team will have to do a fine job for the upcoming classic stages and I hope we can repeat today´s win.", so Manuel Clausen after the victory.

[Lizard]

Finally second stage for Wizards, Clausen again victorious

Almost all classic stages aimed by the team management were horrible losses for the Wizards, since Manuel Clausen was only able to get the 5th stage. Now he was able to take aswell the 12th Giro stage, but in between many many possible stages were lost due to miserable manager mistakes. Branco is the lucky one, and Clausen might already have lost every chance for the points classement. For today he shows he´s still in the game, let´s see if we are able to make a miracle happen.

[Lizard]

Mbeki wins decisive stage of this year´s Giro d´Italia

Today Ndale Mbeki was able to win the 19th stage of the Giro d´Italia 2010. It was the most important classement stage in this tour and by his second professional win after Tour de Romandie´s first stage Mbeki shows his huge potential. Finally we score three times at the Giro, which was the least we hoped for.

[Lizard]

Giro d´Italia

All in all the Giro d´Italia was an epic race with many many strong teams for different terrains and competition for every stage. Quite similar to the real Giro every stage was ridden with huge enthusiasm by the contestants which made the race interesting the whole time (except the sprint stages, where the teams cooperated very very good - only one sprint could be prevented). In the end the Wizards rode a bad Giro, we made many many mistakes in the finales, good choices were rarely. After the strong spring classics where our team did a huge job I think now was a phase where the stage wins for us were more lucky than deserved, even though we gave it our best and did a good control job when it was necessary. Only the not played cards which are Basil Broucek and Kato Wolfsong might´ve been a real weakness by our team. But it´s okay, no big deal. Just that we by that did not get a chance to win the red jersey (which was a real objective) is really disappointing. We never came in position to participate for it. Hoping for change in the future, again we see much work to do for the Lizard manager, but congrats to all the winners during 23 days, me personally, I had a great time all in common and I hope the others think quite the same. Tour de France - here we come!

General classement:
6th: Wesley Sneijder

Stages:
1st: Manuel Clausen (2x), Ndale Mbeki

Finances:
-1.039.312 Credits

Overall classement:
01. Yuri Gamov (Robyklebt)
02. Sandalio Aldeia (LosTicos)
03. Felipe Caramelli (Belgian Team)
04. Ethan Heinhardt (Gaurain Rx)
05. Dmitri Puzanov (Toxicity)
06. gesperrt b (BayernPower)
07. Wesley Sneijder (Wizards Cycling)
08. Momo Molgugge (Hello Kitty CT)
09. Pablo Verunga (Psychopathen)
10. Lex Ameise (Belgian Team)

Red Jersey: Guillaume Prebois (Gaurain Rx)
Green Jersey: Dmitri Puzanov (Toxicity)
White Jersey: gesperrt b (BayernPower)

Stage winners:
01 Milan Gurovic (Satzte Sich)
02 Karl Eiterolloid (Robyklebt)
03 Puno Pozdrava (Team Thoronto)
04 Hello Kitty CT (Team Time Trial)
05 Manuel Clausen (Wizards Cycling)
06 Milos Teodosic (Satzte Sich)
07 Thiago Branco (Recien Nacidos)
08 Sandalio Aldeia (LosTicos)
09 Guillaume Prebois (Gaurain Rx)
10 Guillaume Prebois (Gaurain Rx)
11 Ethan Heinhardt (Gaurain Rx)
12 Manuel Clausen (Wizards Cycling)
13 Lex Ameise (Belgian Team)
14 Marco Arias (LosTicos)
15 Sandalio Aldeia (LosTicos)
16 Sandalio Aldeia (LosTicos)
17 Marcel Roller (Team Kajutschka)
18 Nikolaus Müssiggang (Satzte Sich)
19 Ndale Mbeki (Wizards Cycling)
20 Felipe Caramelli (Belgian Team)
21 Luka Vladovic (Team Kajutschka)

Team management:

Basil Broucek, last of the czech heroes will be sold by now. Thanks for 13 months of great victories, defeats, epic races etc. Basil was a real strength for our team, we´ll always keep him in mind.

[Lizard]

Basil out, Peppermayer to join Wizards Cycling

20years old dutch talent Robbin Peppermayer will join Wizards Cycling in June. He will be a helper for the team to ride many races as the first one in tempo. Personal data:

Name: Robbin Peppermayer
Age: 20
Place of birth: Rotterdam
Nationality: Dutch
Skills: 48-67-68-49-50, 50 Reg

[Lizard]

Season transfers over: Sneijder leaves, new belgian talent recruited

We are sorry not to be able to hold Sneijder for our team, but with our Giro participation we destroyed our finances. For that temporarily we will lose a climber, even though one is going to be recruited earlier or later this year. In exchange we earn a new belgian sprinter. Here is some information:

Name: Mark Enkeevelaert
Age: 20
Place of birth: Gent
Nationality: Belgian
Skills: 50-58-57-47-81, 41 Reg

Good luck to Mark, we are sure he is going to be an essential part of the upcoming "Project Lizard".

[Lizard]

First bombshell by Enkeevelaert

Young sprinter Mark Enkeevelaert, 21 years, today reached the 2nd place in a mass sprint against Claudio Terranova (97 Sprint), Salomon Brahms (95 Sprint) and Nikolaus Müssiggang (94 Sprint). By this extraordinary result he shows his potential and is already a winning candidate for this season. The team hopes for more strong sprints by the belgian rider from Gent: "At the Tour de France he will get plenty of experience, at ENECO, Paris-Tours aswell as Vattenfall Cyclassics we expect him to collect many palmares entries.", so Sports Director Eugen deBoer.

[Lizard]

If the classic captains can´t make it, it has to be Mark the Gun: First victory for Enkeevelaert!

21years old Mark Enkeevelaert, who already managed to sprint on 2nd position early this season made his first victory at the very important Tour de Suisse. After a hard day of much work he could make the teams hope become real and was first in the sprint. With Principe Codadeltreno (Crissler) and Alexei Shulga (Adler) the other participating teams in the chase have also made a podium place. Thanks for the great cooperation, only by that it was possible to catch the escape on the very last kilometre. Soooooooooooooooo happy right now!!!!

[Quick]

This is Sparta! YEAH^^

[Lizard]

Two stage wins missed by manager´s performance

Stage 6, Tour de Suisse, 18h, Nicolas LaCroix ends up 2nd after an interesting finale. Stage 7, Ndale Mbeki is 2nd again ... sometimes it just won´t work... it could´ve been three, maybe four stage wins (if we are online on the first real stage), but again and again we only end up doing real much bullshit nowadays.. I just don´t know if I want to ride other races this month or not... for the team, it´s necessary to ride on.

[Lizard]

Total team exchange possible

Is it time to start over from new? Team manager is right now thinking of changing the whole team.

[Lizard]

Was just a rumour

Bah, what was I thinking! Found the rider I wanted to have, just happy right now! No need to exchange the team and blabla.... and fuck you LaCroix, 51-74 and becomes 55-86? Maybe train some flat? No? Then go! For him joins Uber-Favourite-Lizard-Maybe-Even-As-Much-Cult-As-Wollfinger-Rider... okay, no top skills I know... but fuck top skills! No one likes top skills. He´ll win Ronde van Vlaanderen 2011 anyways!!

[Quick]

Skills, skills, skills!!! And name!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

[Lizard]

You can find em in the forum...

[Quick]

Bah...so i wait till next month...grr

[Lizard]

No success since Clausen´s epic win at Gent-Wevelgem?

After the first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d´Italia, and the following half month the team just finished to achieve it´s first important mark with the 50´000 eternal points collected. Of course the next goal will be the glorious 100´000, and we already have been pretty successful this year so far: 22 stage wins (within it: Gent-Wevelgem, 3 Giro stages, 10 other Kat. 3+ stages) 2 stage races, 1 jersey, two team classements aswell as ending up 2nd on Paris-Roubaix. We hope for the success to come back again with the big Project Lizard 2010/11, and our first hope is DICK2010. For your entertainment. For us.

[Quick]

I want a Dick too!

[Lizard]

No Tour de France for Project Lizard

Right now the private situation of manager Chris does not allow to be online for 23 days in a row. So again the Wizards Cycling squad will be missing the most important tour of the whole year. It is though possible to ride the small tours of July programme.

[Lizard]

Project Lizard: July programme

Since the Tour de France will have to be cancelled for next month´s third divisioneer, other races will be ridden instead. Planned so far are: Classica San Sebastian, Tour de Wallonie, Österreich-Rundfahrt. Optionally there could be Vuelta Madrid and plenty single races. On the Österreich-Rundfahrt team´s new sensation Dick Eickendreyer will be participating. Here is some personal information on him:

Name: Dick Eickendreyer
Age: 20
Place of birth: Antwerpen
Nationality: Belgian
Skills: 56-73-79-68-44, 36 Reg (71.8 Pavé)

Tobias Feder, famous journalist in the cycling branche, had the chance to catch the young gun and ask him on his career goals aswell as his first steps:

Feder: Hello Dick, you are by your team treated as the newcomer of the year, are there similarities to team legend Adam Wollfinger?
Eickendreyer: I don´t think so. The only real comparison could be that he aswell as I had the focus on one day races or "classics" as you might call them. Though I love the flemish races and Adam is well-known he did not.
Feder: What are your goals for the upcoming first professional season? Which races are you going to participate?
Eickendreyer: My goal is of course to make a quick first professional victory. I already said yes to ride the national tour of Austria, and the team gave me the chance to decide whether the Vuelta Madrid will be ridden, since it won´t leave many options for our team to win stages.
Feder: So since you are the team´s hope, we already have heard of the new "Project Lizard" for which your name is a mark. I already talked to the scouts and got to know they were searching for a leader for the April-season of 2011. Are you this leader? And what are your goals for the important classic races of 2010/11?
Eickendreyer: I really hope I can be the leader for those great races. As I said, I love the flandres-season, and there is nothing I`d want to win more than Gent-Wevelgem and Ronde van Vlaanderen. A double though would be the non plus ultra. In 2010 there are more or less only hard races left: Classica San Sebastian, Giro di Lombardia, Fleche Jurasienne, etc. For me those races are too heavy, I´m not known to be the very best climber in the scene though I was able to win the young riders´ race of Classica San Sebastian last year. This pretty much happened by accident but made the scouts have an eye on me. It might have been the point where Wizards Cycling became interested.
Feder: Last question: Since you are the centre of Project Lizard right now, tell me: What young riders are going to join the squad in the next months?
Eickendreyer: I will only answer this question partially: Better look out for my dutch youth competitor Victor, he´ll be one of the boys for the whole season 2011.
Feder: Thank you for this interview and good luck for July!