Tukhtahuaev - Still not difficult to pronounce

[Tukhtahuaev]

After the retirement of the legendary Murodbek Makhamadzhonov the team is now in a bit of a transition period without any real leader.

The current roster:

Zafarmurod Rakhmonaliev
Oleksandr Piskun
Elkhan Baltabekov
Zemenfes Mengisteab
Zakhar Karatay
Ondrej Nebyla
Harrison Nembhard
Kensi Taiwia
Hubert Grala
Artem Palamarchuk
Zhansultan Dosmagambetov
Shokhzhakhon Mamatkhodzhaev
Tlaloc Coyotecatl
Shohrat Dawamat
Ibrokhim Ibrokhimov
Deimantas Girdvainis
Graziano Alborghetti
Traian Aelenei
Terentiy Tikhomirov

[Robyklebt]

The Big Donkey is very happy to see Tukhtahuaev back! Now just ride in the afternoon.
Sadly I just had to fire Tukhtasinov as assistant DS last Saturday. I realized that he was too old, same as the DS and the other assistant DS. But since you're back maybe you'll produce another talented DS that can take over the position soon!

Anyway, viva Tukht! Welcome back! Join the afternoon! (Level is quite a bit lower than it used to be, we have T-Mobile-A, r anti-Ganna, AAD, Bergwerk and so riding there now, your class would be more than welcome!

[Tukhtahuaev]

Unfortunately my current schedule makes riding in the afternoon difficult. I'll try to join you for a few races on the weekends when I can, but I can't promise too much

[Tukhtahuaev]

It took only one week for the first real success to come. In one of the most exciting flat race I can remember, Egor Stepanov managed to win the mass sprint to give the team its first win since the comeback

13.03.2023,9 :00 : Cuglieri-Cagliari: Flat Stage
1. 00:00:00 Egor Stepanov (Tukhtahuaev)
2. 00:00:00 Ilario Mosconi (Gipfelstuermer)
3. 00:00:00 Georg Steib (Black-Star)
4. 00:00:00 Cody Boer (Trekken Racing)
5. 00:00:00 Bernardo Simoes (Cultural Salamanca)

[Tukhtahuaev]

Both Milano-Torino and Milano-Sanremo almost went into the history books for the team, but in the end we just fell short.

At Milano-Torino a late escape allowed Erbolat Kenzhebek a 2nd place finish. Stepanov with outside chances in the bunch sprint took the wrong wheel and disappointed in P14.

15.03.2023,10 :00 : Milano-Torino: Flat Stage
01. 00:00:00 Phil Taylor (Kreatief)
02. 00:00:00 Erbolat Kenzhebek (Tukhtahuaev)
03. 00:00:00 Smithson Utivich (Schartner Bombe)
04. 00:00:00 Percy Rojas (SV Furpach)
05. 00:00:01 Oleg Potrov (Rsc Spree)

In Sanremo the team were complete outsiders, so all hopes were on the escape. To everyone's surprise the escape actually went through. Unfortunately Vladimir Bogaciuc was not quite strong enough to win, but a 2nd place finish at one of the most important races is still a major success. This is already the 4th Milano-Sanremo podium finish in the teams history, unfortunately still without a win

18.03.2023,21 :00 : La Classicissima: Flat Stage
1. 00:00:00 Fitzgerald Pineda (CerveloTestTeam)
2. 00:00:00 Vladimir Bogaciuc (Tukhtahuaev)
3. 00:00:00 Daan Vercruysse (Belgium)
4. 00:00:00 Damian Schiffbauer (pinte pakkers)
5. 00:01:35 Vinncent Verhoeven (Romoc Riders)

[Tukhtahuaev]

New arrivals for April and May

Bulgarian flatrider Atanas Peshov was already signed for the beginning of April. In the future he is supposed to keep the peloton together towards the end of races and help our second new signing.
Normunds Deklavs from Latvia will hopefully become the next star sprinter for the team. Deklavs is also quite competent on pavé and may sneak a few good results in Belgium next spring

[Tukhtahuaev]

Yaroslav Nesterenko managed a surprise win out of an escape today. In the final sprint everyone else watched each other and no one reacted to his launch

This is the 5th entry to the Palmarès since the comeback and all 5 of them happened in Italy. The team is now thinking about joining the Giro in May to increase the chances of good results

22.04.2023,10 :00 : Italian Border - Monfalcone: Flat Stage
1. 00:00:00 Yaroslav Nesterenko (Tukhtahuaev)
2. 00:00:00 Florian Schwimmer (Ansach)
3. 00:00:00 Harry Wilson (Cultural Salamanca)
4. 00:00:00 Vladimir Bogaciuc (Tukhtahuaev)
5. 00:00:00 Sergio Lador (Cultural Salamanca)

[Tukhtahuaev]

April 2023

+1,971,885
3,344 points

Overall a very decent month. It didn't start well with a very underwhelming Basque Tour, but after that results improved. 3 wins, 2 of them by Egor Stepanov in fantasy sprint races, 1 out of an escape. After the comeback there really aren't much more opportunities.
The classics as expected without any highlights. P13 at RVV and PR for Adurashidov, P18 at LBL for Kravchenko. Flèche Wallone a little bit better with a P7, but also a small and weak field. So really not much to write about.
Training went well. Kravchenko reaching 70 mountain was a nice surprise. Young riders all with decent or good training. A few more months and we might be able to fight for wins in more important races

Not riding the Giro in May, so probably good chances to get a few decent results as opposition shouldn't be the strongest in parallel to the best GT

[Tukhtahuaev]

May 2023

+2,507,850
3,799 points

May was a very successful month. Only 1 stage win by Azamat Abdurashidov doesn't sound that good, but that's not all there is to the story. We decided rather spontaneously to ride the 4 Jours de Dunkerque and Tour of Norway, which proved to be a very good decision.
In Dunkerque it was Sherzod Kholmatov who got to shine. Thanks to 3rd places in both key stages he managed to not only win the youth jersey, he actually won the GC as well. That's the first stage race victory since the comeback. As a bonus we also got the Team classification.
Norway didn't go quite as well, but still some decent results. This time Dmytro Kravchenko finished 3rd overall and we won two more jerseys. Oybek Sariboev surprisingly won the youth classification and Vladimir Bogaciuc won the mountain jersey as he was simply the only one that really fought for it. None of the other one day races are worth mentioning, but still a very good month.

We can also welcome two new riders to the team. Beksultan Babakhanov from Kazakhstan joins as a hopeful classic for the future, while the Belarussian Ilya Pashkevich is supposed to be a rather cheap hellper, who can do a lot of early tempo

[Tukhtahuaev]

June 2023

+1,609,906
1,673 points

A very underwhelming month this time. No results worth mentioning at all until the National Championships where we managed a total of 5 wins. Unfortunately those wins don't earn you a lot of money or points, so not a big help to get the team back to the top.
In the end Azamat Abdurashidov got us a real win towards the end of the month after following the right attack in a not so important race. Nothing else worth mentioning this month. The lack of success meant that we didn't have the budget for a new rider for the most part. Now the budget would be enough, but there is a very limited number of riders worth considering.

[Tukhtahuaev]

July 2023

+1,851,777
2,256 points

Another unspectacular month, but a bit better than June. Azamat Abdurashidov gave us the only win this month in a rather unimportant one day race in Italy, but there were plenty of decent results all around, including 4 top 3 positions in stages at Austria, Castilla y Leon and Pologne.
On the personel side there were a few more changes. At the start of July promising Uzbek allrounder Shodiyor Gafurbekov joined the team. He can do pretty much anything well, but his main focus will be the Spring classics. Also joining the team just now is Belgian Axel Vermeylen, who is a pavé specialist and is supposed to give us the 3rd Paris - Roubaix win

[Tukhtahuaev]

August 2023

+1,972,176
3,018 points

Lazy, so almost 2 weeks too late with the August summary. A solid month with 3 sprint victories by Egor Stepanov, one of them actually rather important at the Benelux Tour. As a bonus Ilya Pashkevich got 3rd at the BEMER Cyclassics out of a group. Actually missed a few chances for more wins, so things are looking good for the future.
The team also welcomes another young rider. Vsevolod Skorko from Ukraine joins as a future flat monster

[Tukhtahuaev]

September 2023

+2,606,329
4,751 points

An absolutely incredible end of the month! The beginning of september was nothing special until the two classics in Canada, where Oybek Sariboev got his chance to shine, taking 3rd at Québec and two days later winning in Montréal. A few days later we got another win thanks to a brave escape attempt from Azamat Abdurashidov.
All these result pale a little bit compared to what happend in the final third of the month with an incredible streak of wins and good results in the Tour de Luxembourg and Cro Race. In Luxembourg the team completely dominated the field and two wins each from Babakhanov and Sariboev meant that we won every single stage apart from the time trial. Due to the TT it was impossible to also take the GC, but Sariboev at least managed 3rd overall and also took the sprint jersey. All these victories of course also gave us the team classification.
At the Cro Race it was a similar picture, although not quite as dominant. Three stages won, one each for Atanas Peshov, Axel Vermeylen and Erbolat Kenzhebek, the team classification again and also the mountain jersey for Ilya Pashkevich. Unfortunately there were no chances in the general classification with Vladimir Bogaciuc finishing fifth as the best rider of the team.

Thanks to the much higher than expected income we managed to sign two new riders for this month. Magomed Bakayev fro mRussia is a promising classic who we expect to play an important role starting with the spring classics, while Reuben Kemp from the Bahamas is more of a support rider, who should get decent results in flat stages

[Tukhtahuaev]

October 2023

+2,879,275
4,627 points

Overall very mixed feelings about this. Stats look a lot better than it actually was, but they are misleading. A lot of money and points come from Cro Race, which was primarily done in September. After winning the final stage there it took a while to get any more results worth mentioning. Guangxi was very disappointing with mediocre sprint results and no GC chances.
Success finally came at the national championships where we won the three most important ones for the team. Shodiyor Gafurbekov won in Uzbekistan, Erbolat Kenzhebek in Kazakhstan and Vsevolod Skorko in Ukraine. Given the lack of opposition these wins are seen as mandatory, so we barely had reason to celebrate.
The real highlight then finally came at the Tour de Paves. Shodiyor Gafurbekov could win the fourth stage and also secure second in the general classification. In addition to that he also won the points and youth classification. For a while Sherzod Kholmatov was also in GC contention, actually wearing the yellow jersey for one stage, but he overexerted himself in the half stage and couldn't keep up afterwards.

On the personnel side Egor Stepanov, one of the most important riders of the first few comeback months retired. He was the one to get the first win after over 2 years.
Finally we also welcome 2 new riders. 25 years old Hugo Gil from Bolivia was signed as an additional option for the spring classics thanks to his decent mountain and pavé skill. Our second signing is Nurdaulet Rakhimzhanov from Kazakhstan, whose biggest quality is his salary

[Tukhtahuaev]

Now that the team is not in a position to win as much, we shift the focus more towards marketing to increase our budget again. I will try to at least post monthly summaries again in the future

After an incredible 2025, Murodbek Makhamadzhonov retired to signal the start of a new era. For now the team is not in the greatest position to win many races and the plan for the next few months is to target some niche races and use 2026 for a rebuild.

Artem Palamarchuk will be the main captain for sprint races, but without any sprinter as support, it will be difficult to win much. Main goal is of course MSR, where we still never got a win after plenty of tries with different types of riders.
Hubert Grala on the other hand will be the gc captain for a lot of tours. His lack of mountai skill means that he most likely only focusses on smaller, 1 week tours instead of the GTs, where we most likely won't have any gc ambitions at all.

[Tukhtahuaev]

January 2026

+3,108,888
5,165 points

Expectations for January were not big at all as there was no race for our main GC rider Hubert Grala. The plan was to focus on sprints for Palamarchuk and ride with cheap lineups in other races. In the end it went a lot better than expected.
We got off to a great start with Zemenfes Mengisteab getting a shock win at GP Letzebuerg. Then we went to Australia for the January tour, where Oleksandr Piskun got a stage win and 3rd in GC, which was much more than expected from him. In addition Artem Palamarchuk also won a stage and also the sprint jersey. Following that Artem got to shine some more. At the short Tunisian Roads tour, he managed 2 more stage wins and the sprint jersey again.
After that the month was supposed to essentially be over. Cheap lineups and out of form leaders for Down Under and AlUla, where the target was to just earn a little bit of money. At Down Under the favourites had different plans though. A completely harmless escape with Zemenfes Mengisteab was allowed to win by over 6 minutes and suddenly the GC win and team classification were already secured. Unfortunately the same didn't happen at AlUla, where an out of form Palamarchuk couldn't really do much and nothing worth mentioning was achieved.

Rider of the month:
Zemenfes Mengisteab. 2 stage wins in cat 3 races and also Down Under GC

Best race of the month:
AECT - Stage 5. Perfect form planning and a great strategy. Much more satisfying to win like that than the dumb luck at Down Under

Worst race of the month:
AlUla - Stage 2. P2, but not being able to win against a sprinter that goes from 150m was just depressing

Transfers in:
Graziano Alborghetti - 71-54-78-49-53-60.9-53, 21 years
Alborghetti is supposed to be our main GC rider for tours that are too mountainous for Hubert Grala. His second role will be to support Grala in his GC fights

[Robyklebt]

I feel sort of insulted by Alborghetti. It feels like a "pity-buy". Big Donkey has no chance anymore if Tukh brings a strong climber, so let him have a chance, by buying a weaker one, while still being confident of beating him!
Strade Bianche winner 27? That I don't mind

[flockmastoR]

Transfers in:
Graziano Alborghetti - 71-54-78-49-53-60.9-53, 21 years
Alborghetti is supposed to be our main GC rider for tours that are too mountainous for Hubert Grala. His second role will be to support Grala in his GC fights

So can I suppose you train him 80-70 style? Would make sense as support + with his pave can make him interessting for some classics.

[Tukhtahuaev]

I feel sort of insulted by Alborghetti. It feels like a "pity-buy". Big Donkey has no chance anymore if Tukh brings a strong climber, so let him have a chance, by buying a weaker one, while still being confident of beating him!
Strade Bianche winner 27? That I don't mind

GT wins are not really my focus for this year, so I also didn't have to try and get the perfect climber. Alborghetti is good enough and has some nice secondary skills that I might use

Transfers in:
Graziano Alborghetti - 71-54-78-49-53-60.9-53, 21 years
Alborghetti is supposed to be our main GC rider for tours that are too mountainous for Hubert Grala. His second role will be to support Grala in his GC fights

So can I suppose you train him 80-70 style? Would make sense as support + with his pave can make him interessting for some classics.

Not entirely sure yet, but definitely a bit more focus on flat than usual

[Tukhtahuaev]

February 2026

+1,406,063
5,115 points

Before the final race of the month, I didn't believe in my chances to get the Division 1 title anymore and thought this month would just be a big disappointment. Then everything just went perfectly at Omloop and suddenly we win Division 1 with in my opinion one of the weakest looking teams to do so in a long time. Investing a lot into the title fight made me sacrifice a lot of money that would have been very helpful in the longterm, so there are some questionmarks about whether the push was actually a good idea and a few negative feelings remain because of that. Still have to call February a success anyway, since making money is not what this game is about.
Results obviously very good overall with a stage and also GC and points jersey at Valenciana and the win at Omloop, which still is one of my favourite races. 2nd in GC at Algarve also sounds good, but I think there was an opportunity to win GC on the final day that I simply missed to see. Also a bad sprinting performance in quite a few races and a bit of bad luck that just happens with a lone sprinter from time to time. In the end only 2 wins for Palamarchuk, when he could have gotten 4 or 5, if I played it right

Rider of the month:
Hubert Grala. 2 stage wins in cat 3 races and also Down Under GC

Best race of the month:
Omloop. Full risk with Division 1 on the line and everything worked out perfectly

Worst race of the month:
Algarve - Stage 4. Bad sprint that cost a potential stage win and also the green jersey

Transfers in:
Traian Aelenei - 48-53-74-50-81-59-38, 21 years
A young sprinter to take off a bit of pressure from Palamarchuk. Starting skills not quite as impressive, but should be good enough to win once in a while

Terentiy Tikhomirov - 54-74-68-48-55-68.9-52, 21 years
Young classic, who is mostly going to be a helper, but might get a few opportunities to ride for his own chances. Good but not great at almost everything.