We've had a roller-coaster ride of a debut in our first month as a professional team starting off with the CT.2 Tour d'Indonesia. In the opening stage we weren't much of a talking point in the final result, though Bernardo Colex got us some screen time in the breakaway. In Stage 2, however, our young rider Genki Yamamoto surprised many with a 7th place finish. He didn't back off the next day either, placing 10th in the Stage 3 time trial and putting himself in 10th overall. The next two stages were only fought in the breakaways for us, with Robert Bush and Colex going with the attackers on Stages 4 and 5 respectively. On the last stage, Yamamoto finally cracked and it was just up to damage limitation for him. Esteban Chaves, meanwhile, who was quiet in the race until this point, put in an impressive performance for 4th. Chaves and Yamamoto finished 12th and 15th in the GC respectively.
After our first top 10 results, it would not be long before the team claimed its first victory. This came during the CT.1 La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, where Gianluca Brambilla got his season underway with a sprint win on Stage 1. Bajan champion Darren Matthews was a surprise element, and took 3rd on the day. Matthews interestingly went into the breakaway the next day to pick up KOM points, but he had a free role in the race and so the move wasn't heavily scrutinized. Brambilla claimed a 9th place on Stage 4 and looked good for a top 10 in the GC, but he too unfortunately faltered on the last stage and wound up 12th overall. We unfortunately could not continue our run of good form in the CT.2 Christchurch - Akeroa where Julian Arredondo was our best man in 30th, just nabbing one point.
Going into February, Brambilla is our best standing rider in both the Continental and Prestige Rankings, sitting at 24th and 40th in them respectively. The team currently lies 14th in the Continental Rankings and 23rd in the Prestige Rankings, so in terms of points a decent start for the team. We can only hope it keeps getting better from here.
Rider of the month goes to Matti Breschel. The only real competition he had was from Arnaud Demare, but Breschel got 3 points more on the rankings, and was much more of a positive suprise than Demare. Breschel had a 3th, 4th, 5th and 7th place in Gabon and was actually looking alright in the GC until he lost more than three minutes to Tom-Jelte Slagter on stage 4.
Controversal thoughts about the first month in 2016 at the team central:
Leopard-Evonik disappoint in both races including captains Kelderman and Gasparotto. Bazhkou though did a good job to show the jersey and secure some points.
Geox-Kalev did really well debuting as youth team. Laas nearly took a podium spot without any leadout in Brazil.
January
Race
Goal
Result
Highly notable
Tour d'Indonesia
GC Podium
8th GC (Kelderman)
Bazhkou 2nd (Stage)
Christchurch-Akoara
Top 5
16th (Bazhkou)
x
Copa America
Top 10
4th (Laas)
x
CT Standings
Top 5
13th (161 Pts)
Bazhkou (17th)
February
Race
Goal
Result
Highly notable
Volta ao Algarve
GC Podium
Cpt.: Kelderman
National Capital Tour
Stage: Top 5
Groenewegen
Tour of Bishkek
Stage: Top 5
Laas/Slik
For February Wilco will be the main man to score, looking at his chances in Portugal. National Capital Tour is one of the few chances for Dylan to lead the team, Kruijswijk will try something on the climbs.
For the youngsters it should be a tough Tour of Bishkek, Laas and Slik are the men with a clean look for a Top 5 on a stage.
With the ICL preparing to kick off season number three, we have finalised our race calendar for the year ahead! Here are our races for the 2016 ICL season.
Tour d'Indonesia
CT.2
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo
CT.1
National Capital Tour
CT.2
Roma Maxima
CT.1
Paris - Nice
CT.1
Dwars door Vlaanderen
CT.1
Tour of South Africa
CT.2
Ster ZLM Tour
WT
Rheden GP
CT.1
Amstel Gold Race
WT
Amgen Tour of California
CT.2
Tour des Fjords
CT.1
Tour of Mount Fuji
WT
Tour de Suisse
CT.1
Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
CT.2
Le Géant de Provence
CT.2
Kigali GP
CT.2
Int. Österreich-Rundfahrt
CT.1
Volta a Portugal
CT.2
Tour of Vancouver
CT.1
RideLondon–Surrey Classic
CT.2
USA Pro Cycling Challenge
CT.1
Eneco Tour
WT
Vuelta a España
WT
Cigar City Classic
CT.2
World Ports Classic
CT.1
Course de la Paix
WT
Virginia Chrono Tour
WT
Milano - Torino
CT.2
Paris - Tours
CT.1
Our riders were heavily involved in the season planning, with the team’s calendar being shaped around their suggestions. In addition to competing in all races based in the Netherlands and the USA, we will return to the scene of our first victory with Nick Van der Lijke leading the team in the Tour d’Indonesia. Robert Gesink will make a return to the race in which he emerged as a star (Amgen Tour of California), while Jos Van Emden and Stef Clement will also hope to replicate last year’s World Tour stage wins in the Eneco Tour and Vuelta a España respectively.
In what will probably be a surprise to many of our fans, star sprinter Theo Bos has elected not to take part in this year’s Vuelta. He spoke with our website earlier today.
Welcome Theo, how have you found the off-season? I enjoyed it. We had a tough season last year and everyone deserved a little break after that. Meeting all the new guys in the team for next year was fun too. We’re a small but passionate group and everyone gets along really well.
You spoke about some of your new team-mates this year. How did it feel to be re-united with riders like Pieter Weening and Bert-Jan Lindeman who you have ridden with in the past? I’ve known Pieter for quite a while now and we have always talked, but it’s always good to be able to see guys like him more often after we have been on different teams for the last five years. Bert was with me in the first year of ICL and to see how he has improved over that time is incredible. I think he will be a big rider for us now.
Okay, now on to the season ahead. Where can our fans see you this year? I will be starting January in Africa with La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, then to Australia before a small break. After that, it’s the Ster ZLM Tour, Rheden and the Fjords before I race in some longer stage races and London. I finish my year with the Cigar City and World Ports Classics before hopefully getting to ride with the national team later on.
What was behind your decision to skip the team’s biggest race of the year, the Vuelta? There were a few reasons why we decided that. First, while it is the biggest chance for us to show the team colours to the world, last year I didn’t find as much success as we had hoped. I have a lot of past bad experiences from the race, including 2013 when I had to be withdrawn just before stage 1. Boy (Van Poppel) is improving very fast and he deserves his chance to go for a victory of his own now. There are also some very important events which we will be racing at the same time and I will compete in those instead.
What are your personal goals for the year ahead? Um, winning more races? (laughs) That’s always what I try to do. Last season I improved from the one before so hopefully that continues. It’s great to see your team win too. My happiest moment of last year was when I heard over the radio that Stef (Clement) had won his stage in the Vuelta. We were all so proud of him to finally get the win he had tried so hard for.
Thanks for your time, Theo. We hope to see you on top of the podium very soon! Thank you, I hope for that too!
We will be back soon with more updates following the completion of our early season races. Remember to keep checking back throughout the year for all the latest for TVM Cycling Team HQ!
With all of the great updates being put out there by a variety of teams: Prorace - La Boulangère simply had to put one up. Rather than review the great start to the season we have made, largely down to the unprecedented form of the irrepresible Belgian champ, we will look forward to the coming classics which suit the rouleurs.
So there we have it. Langeveld riding all but one of the races, largely possible as he isn't riding a GT this season: however, he won the one has isn't riding 'Wallonië Prijs' last season. Interesting! Though it must be said we bring the ICL season 1 winner of that race, Gilbert, in all of his supreme form.
Rheden GP, with a small startlist, and Roma Maxima, where Gilbert is undefeated, may be two of the more likelier races where we will challenge for the win. That said a good showing in all of these races is expected.
It is fair to say we are slightly weaker on the cobbles than last season. Although we don't have any race goals per say in the above races, we do have this target:
finish as the 5th/6th best WT team by points in 'them flat classics'.
How will it pan out? Thanks to the great pace currently, I dare say it won't take long to see!
* Key for above table:
Number in brackets = cobble stat
Selected for a race = 1
Race highlighted green = c1 race
Race highlighted blue = WT race
Race highlighted orange = Monument
Our oldest man wins Februarys rider of the month after good performances in Vuelta a Mallorca finishing third and National Capital Tour where he just missed out on the victory to a strong Tanel Kangert, and finished second. He also almost alone moved the team from 20th to 15th in the Prestige Rankings, and is on 14th on the Individual Prestige Ranking.
In short, sucessful breakaways from Kusnetzov & Budyak brought us a really good month. They were helping out for an improved Kelderman, who still couldn´t deliver on his highest level, and a crashed Chernetskiy. Also the Rankings look much better now...
For March highly interesting will be Jakobs team debut as well as how good Kelderman can do in the hills from Paris to Nice. Enrico or our belorussian manimal have the chance to improve dompared to their unsucessful first classic this year, but the opponence looks really strong.
Yearly Goals
Goal
Result
Best rider
CT Standings
Top 5
6th (460 Pts)
Kelderman (12th)
Prestige Ranking
Promotion
16th (460 Pts, 7th CT)
Kelderman (28th)
U23 Ranking
Top 15
2nd (133 Pts)
Budyak (2nd)
February
Race
Goal
Result
Highly notable
Volta ao Algarve
GC Podium
4th (Kelderman)
Team Classification
National Capital Tour
Stage: Top 5
Stage (Kusnetzov)
x
Tour of Bishkek
Stage: Top 5
2nd GC (Budyak)
Budyak 2nd (Stage)
March
Race
Goal
Captain
Highly notable
Paris-Nice
Top 10
Kelderman
Clasica Iberia
Top 5
Gaspa/Bazhkou
Criterium Intern.
Top 3
Fuglsang
Kobenhavn
break
Laas/Slik
finally my Team Presentation looks okay as well, so all goals & results can be seen there too...
As it happens, there's not much to review for February. The team only participated in one race this past month, the CT.2 National Capital Tour. Most of the riders are still stretching their legs out for the later parts of the season, and so we weren't particularly prominent in the race. Yauheni Hutarovich is coming into form nicely however, claiming 4th place on the second stage. The team tried to help better the position in the last-day criterium, but he was unfortunately held up by a fall and fell out of contention. On that day, our ever-present Matthews was in the break. Finally, Julian Arredondo was our best man in the GC, but only 18th after having a bad day on the decisive third stage.
Going into March, Brambilla is still our best ranked rider in 49th and 75th in the Continental and Prestige rankings respectively. In the team rankings we sit around the middle of the pack still at 21st and 32nd respectively. March will be our biggest month so far, where we will race the CT.2 Criterium International and our first World Tour event, the Vuelta a Tachira.
A slight fall in the tables for all teams despite the more than solid performances of both main and developement team. But some teams just had an amazing march.
For us especially Fuglsangs 2nd in Crit. International brought the points, missing out on the victory by just 2 seconds to Kangert.
Laas also with a great result at Cote Picarde once again for our U23 team.
March
Race
Goal
Result
Highly notable
Paris-Nice
Top 10
6th (Kelderman)
Kelderman (Stage)
Clasica Iberia
Top 5
8th (Gasparotto)
x
Criterium Intern.
Top 3
2nd (Fuglsang)
x
Cote Picarde
Top 10
3rd (Laas)
x
Kobenhavn
break
28th (Slik)
x
Paris Roubaix U23
break
49th (Tokoev)
x
April
Race
Goal
Captain
Highly notable
Colombia Team GP
Top 5
x
Tour of South Africa
Win
Fuglsang
Ronde Espoirs
Top 25
Laas/Slik
ZLM Toer
Top 5
Laas
GP Palio
Top 25
x
L-B-L Espoirs
Top 25
x
April is a big deal for our development due to the number of U23 races. But at the same time they all don´t seem to fit our leaders, so there is much space to top our expectations.
The main team only hast the Colombia Team GP to go, where we want to be the strongest CT-Team and aim for a Top 5 spot. And there is South Africa, where nothing less than an Overall Victory for Fuglsang is expected. He has a great supporting cast and should be the strongest climber. A first step to a possible CT-GT-treble? We would love that, especially looking at the standings.
With the WT Vuelta a Tachira and the CT.2 Criterium International slated for March, the objective at the start of the month was breakaways, and boy did it work. Starting with Tachira, things took a few days to kick off for us, but Esteban Chaves got the ball rolling with a breakaway appearance in Stage 4. He entered the break again the next day, partnered with Kanstantsin Siutsou, and the former landed 15th place. Chaves improved that to 11th on Stage 6 after another successful break, but he was approaching an un-salvageable level of fatigue, so it was time for another rider to take the reigns. Our young Japanese talent Genki Yamamoto once again showed his stuff by making the break on Stages 8, 9 and 10, finishing 8th on stage 8 and 19th in the GC, in which Chaves held 24th.
In the Criterium International, it was a less exciting affair for the team, namely on the first stage where none of our riders were prominent. On Stage 2, Nathan Brown landed his first result finishing 10th in the time trial. The next day it was Julian Arredondo's last chance to recover a good GC position, and he came up 11th overall in the end. As for the rankings at the end of March, Genki Yamamoto is our first rider onto the World Tour Rankings in 111th. The team sits 23rd there, near the bottom but more than can be said for some other Continental outfits. Gianluca Brambilla is still our best rider all-round, placed 87th and 147th in the Continental and Prestige rankings respectively. For those rankings, the team finds themselves 28th and 36th respectively, still in a fairly average position.
April will be a big month for us, particularly the build-up to the Giro d'Italia in May. April also holds our second World Tour participation at the Amstel Gold Race.
The standings look better than ever. The main team gains points on the best CT teams after another strong month, while our development team continues to do absolutely amazing.
Yearly Goals
Goal
Result
Best rider
CT Standings
Top 5
4th (1888 Pts)
Fuglsang (2nd)
Prestige Ranking
Promotion
20th (1888 Pts, 5th CT)
Kelderman (32nd)
U23 Ranking
Top 15
2nd (426 Pts)
Laas (2nd)
Big result was the win of Jakob in the Romandie of course. In addition we had an ok Tour of California with some points, a quiet TT and the first notable result of Dylan. Ivan and Martin still are there with stunning performances, firstly Laas at Frankfurt and even on amountain stage in Valle d'Aosta, and secondly SLik with that great out-of-nowhere performance at Rutland-Melton.
May
Race
Goal
Result
Highly notable
Tour de Romandie
Top 3
1st (Fuglsang)
Stage Victory
Tour of California
Top 5
5th (Kelderman)
Kobenhavn-Malmö
Top 20
22nd (Chernetskiy)
GP Moscow
Top 10
7th (Groenewegen)
Frankfurt U23
Top 5
3rd (Laas)
Giro Valle d'Aosta
Stage Top 3
3*Top 3 (Laas)
Rutland-Melton
Top 25
2nd (Slik)
June
Race
Goal
Captain
Co-Captain
Vuelta Guatemala
Top 10
Fuglsang
Tour d'Andorra
Win
Fuglsang
Kelderman
Rheinland Pfalz
Top 3
Gasparotto
Bazhkou
Geant Provence
Top 3
Fuglsang
Tour de Berlin
Top 10
Laas
Slik
Coupe des Nations
Top 10
Slik
To come now is June with our first WT appearance, where our Danish captain aims a Top 10. With Andorra as the first goal (we should´ve gone for SA as planned) nothing but a win counts despite the strong opponence; we brought our 2 main men here. We also want to podium in France with Jakob again and in Germany with our hilly double threat Enrico & Stanislau.
The youngsters have two races, Laas aims a Top 10 around Berlin while Slik will go for the Coupe des Nations where Martin is having a break. Stage glory is appreciated in both races.
Specialized - Playstation 
Stage 1 - 03/02 2016 
Tour d'Indonesia
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo
National Capital Tour
Roma Maxima
Paris - Nice
Dwars door Vlaanderen
Tour of South Africa
Ster ZLM Tour
Tour des Fjords
Tour of Mount Fuji
Tour de Suisse
Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
Kigali GP
Int. Österreich-Rundfahrt
Volta a Portugal
Tour of Vancouver
RideLondon–Surrey Classic
Eneco Tour
Vuelta a España
Course de la Paix
