r TAKA/ Japan's Top Cycling Team:

[cataracs]

Current riders:


A young team that is looking good for the upcoming season, with probably the highest paid leader in the game in the near future. (he gets as much as Ganna and Bieri together currently)
The team scouts are busy looking for a kid with high potential in the Tokyo streets, probably a 46-60-70 60+reg rider that costs as cheap as possible.

[cataracs]

Hayato Toyotomi sings a 2years contract that will not be extended unless he makes top3 in MSR or RVV, or if Quick thinks he's worth keeping the r jersey by that time.

No luck in finding a young cheap guy yet and things aren't looking great financially, but there should be a new arrival soon to reduce the high salary issue.

Februray23:

Income: 654,469r$f


Results:

• Besseges: Graham with top form was hoping for a stage win, but could actually win the tour with an early attack in stage3. Daglish wasn't feeling it and finished 17th in the GC.

• UCI Cyclocross World Championship: Spencer prepared for this race, and things were looking great until the final km, he deccided to waste energy in an unsuccessful attack, then couldn't sprint well, and finished 7th. This was the failure of the season.

• NCs: It was hard to win the Japanese race against the french teams helping each other. Dogan managed to get the Turkish jersey for the team.

• Oman: not much to mention here, Daglish was struggling again, and couldn't keep up with the other climbers in every uphill finish, then ended 7th in the GC.

• Algarve: In the second stage Daglish lost Pearce in the final hill and finished second, 6" behind him. But on stage 4 he managed to keep up with Pearce, then won in a very close sprint. But the climbs weren't long enough to distance the tt guys, so in the end he was 4th in GC.

• UAE Tour: The team lost 50seconds to CC in the TTT on stage 2. Even though Daglish won the next day, he couldn't gain time on Henry Hill who won the tour, Daglish 2nd in GC 1'23" behind. We also won the team ranking thanks to some early escapes.

Overall not a bad a season, when Kenny 84-58 is the only leader of the team...

[cataracs]

2023 feels like the first year of real playing of the game. For the first time a rider spends his whole career in the team then retires and this was Harry Graham, followed by a few others. Team building was what I struggled with before with constant sellings, but this time around I managed to trust my riders and keep them around so the year was decent compared to how it was bebfore.

For record:




The finances were ok too, with a big income last December!




Top races of 2023: Not results wise, but races that were fun, from what I can still remember anyway.

Monte Paschi 04.03.2023. late race, 9 teams. It wasn't super hard to control, but the ending was fun. Double attack with Dogan(who was weaker back then) and Graham, followed by Mateusz Michalski (Bahrain-Merida) and Linus Broaar (Bearclaw Cycling). Dogan rode a little bit then we needed to go faster so he dropped in the 5**, Bahrain and I worked together while Bear rested a little for having weaker stats, but in the final km Linus attacked and won, Mateusz and Harry followed eachother and let him go, we missed switching to blue too probably, but was a nice race.

World Championships Road Race 06.08.2023. Less teams then expected were there, some (Lenny & free ) left and we were only 2 top sprinters basically, NNT with a very strong train. a big group of 12riders escaped in km2 and I missed it, then I had to do probably the hardest chase of the year, with NNT. Used all my riders to death and somehow managed to get the MS, for a top form Takahashi. But the NNT train was way too strong, so finished 2nd in a very close sprint from 50m.


NC Liechtenstein. 19.10.2023. Not the biggest race but it was exciting. Nc's usually a diffirent experience from normal C4F. Just 4 riders, two offline, so only Mike Kübler (r TAKA) and Spiridon Sprenger (Team FL) were left. The circuit was up and down so well balanced. Spiridon attacked in the first 2% but Mike could follow, then tried again the next 2% and could get rid of Mike that time around and the intense 1v1 race started from there. In the end the hills were too much for Sprenger so Kübler won, but they both ended with 0 energy left. looking forward for the next Liechtenstein race



So a very nice year for r TAKA but no big achievements yet, that's what the team is looking for in 2024, with an actual Grand Tour leader, and some nice riders for the spring classics.

[cataracs]

2024 Has been great so far but hopefully more to come! First goal achieved, Roubaix won. Now Giro is the second goal, but by the look of it, TdF would be easier, but we'll try to win both anyway.

January: offseason so not any important races. Emir won the first race of the year GP Letzebuerg and the team thought he'd have a great future, but no. Just like the previous Sultan, he doesn't ride well in important races...so Emir the biggest disappointment of the team currently. Shisui won January tour in an easy field against bad Gipfel, and that was it mostly.
8 stage wins, 1 tour. +$2,147,261.

February: Start of the real season, so a few cool races to win but not so many. NC's we could win 3, Japan, Turkey (mot important) and Senegal. Inui won Omloop then Emir won KBK the day after, so perfect last week and beginning of the spring classics.
8 stage wins +$1,860,401.

March: Definitely the best month ever for the team, great results and history was made. But it didn't start well, Strade Bianche the team's favorite race was lost in an awful way. Tukhtahuaev refused to cooperate then gifted the win to a random untalented rider. With that we immediately started looking for a new classic that won't get fucked in downhill and bought Thorkell. The team then went to Tirenno and Fujiwara finished 2nd in GC, so good result. Milano Torino was very bad, miscommunication between Emir and Keisuke led to a place13 result. But few days later Keisuke Takahashi won the first monument for the team! MSR! wasn't expecting it, but in the end he was the only sprinter left in the main group and could easily win. Then results kept coming, De Panne, Suda won DDV and 2nd in E3, Fumihiro won GW, Shisui ended the season with a podium in RVV.
7 stage wins, +$1,797,897

April: The team was under pressure to win the D1 title so didn't perform well in some tours, but it wasn't that bad to be honest, AAD
just overperformed so it was hard to beat him. Inui won Roubaix, one of the main goals of the team in 2024 so was very happy about it. Shisui won Amstel with a solo attack in the last hill and that was the team's top performance so far, great win. But then Emir failed to win LBL and ruined everything. Fujiwara won Romandie, but unimportant Suiss stagerace anyway, just good preparation for the Giro.
4 stage wins, 1 tour, +$1,011,335.


So first part of 2024 was good overall, great spring classics season, much better than the other r team...But riding for the Division1 win hurt the team financially, now we'll have to spend June grinding again and leave the fight for D1 to August+.

[flockmastoR]

Was a very nice battle for the Division win in April. But it also was very stressfull as I couldn't leave out any important race. After all, a shitload of 2nd places (monuments, classics, stage races) brought me there so I don't feel like having overperformed at all. Now I have less pressure winning division 1 in May and can concentrate on the GIRO.