It was an eventful year for the team, and in this ongoing series of articles we will look back on the highs, lows and everything in between for 2019.

As always we started our year in the UAE with the ICL World Tour's sprint-fest.



Barry Markus in action at the 2019 Palm Classic

There was no time to rest for Shafeeq, Lindeman and Schoonbroodt as they were racing in Indonesia just three days later. This race has some significance in our team's history, as Nick van der Lijke scored our first ever stage victory here in 2015.

After a disappointing first two stages it was apparent that we had no chance for the GC, so the team went about chasing breakaways. Kristjan Koren achieved a nice 3rd place on stage 3's individual time trial, surprising many of the pundits.


Former Slovenian National Champion Kristjan Koren shines on stage 3

Bob Schoonbroodt got into a break on day 4 and matched his team-mate's effort with another third placing behind the new points leader Marek Konwa. Stage 5 saw Hoogerland get his chance but he was sadly caught just before the finish. Following a tough mountain time trial on stage 6, Kristjan finished as our best performer in 23rd overall.


Our first World Tour stage race of the season would also play host to our first victory celebration. Tom-Jelte Slagter repeated his past successes in Australia, the team leader delivering big with a win on the opening day to take both the points and leader's jerseys.


Tom-Jelte Slagter claims victory Down Under

It would be a short-lived race lead however, as a Dylan van Baarle-led TTT squad could only limit our losses to 23 seconds on stage 2. Stage 3's 12th placing saw Slagter move back into the top ten but an attempt to follow the favourites on stage 4 backfired - the deficit to Matej Mohoric ballooning out to more than two minutes.

Stage 5 saw another top ten finish but the GC was unchanged. A 25th placing overall and 5th in the points classification rounded out a largely disappointing month for the team, but there were plenty of reasons to be positive about the future with Mollema and Dumoulin set to start their seasons next month.

Beñat Intxausti made his team debut as we travelled to Mallorca to begin February. Stage 1 saw Tan Peng place himself in the breakaway, but after a late split in the peloton only Van Emden remained with Intxausti in the front group. Beñat impressed on stage 3, finishing 10th to give us a chance at a high overall finish.

After another strong performance on the final stage, Intxausti finished in 10th overall. A solid result from our leader on debut, giving us some confidence heading into Pais Vasco.


Fan-favourite Johnny Hoogerland on the attack in stage 4

Team leaders Bauke Mollema and Tom Dumoulin both made their long-awaited return for the 2019 season, with the former aiming to repeat his victory in 2018. There were promising sings on stage 1, with Mollema finishing in 5th place behind a small group of attackers led by the in-form Matej Mohoric.

Reinders achieved a 6th placing on stage 2 as Mollema continued to follow any attempted attacks. It wouldn't take long for these tactics to pay off as the reigning champ took stage 3 to give himself a 39-second lead over Majka heading into the second half of the race.


Mollema tears away from his rivals to claim stage 3

A late Mohoric attack on day 4 proved too much for Dumoulin to handle, but a late counter-attack from Bauke saw him retain second place overall. After little movement to the overall standings on Stage 5, it all came down to the time-trial with Mollema trailing by under half a minute. Unsurprisingly, Dutch national champion Dumoulin starred to take the stage win but all eyes were on the top 4 to see if Pinot, Kwiatkowski or Mollema could gain enough time.

An incredible effort from Kwiatkowski saw him jump ahead of Mollema, but Mohoric limited his losses enough to claim the overall victory. Although it wasn't the result we were hoping for, two stage wins and a 3rd placing on GC was an excellent way for our star duo to kick off their year.


With the race running concurrently with the Basque showcase, we sent a slightly undermanned side to Canberra. José Gonçalves finished 8th in the prologue and looked set for a good tour, only to suffer a nasty fall on stage 2 and spend the rest of the race at the rear of the peloton.

Elsewhere, Koen Bekker showed some good signs on the mountain top finish to stage 3 to claim 5th place in the youth classification. Chad Haga finished in 24th overall but it was an underwhelming race for our team. The riders were buoyed by the efforts of their counterparts in Europe however, with the team gathering in a packed hotel room to cheer on Tom to his final stage victory before heading back home to prepare for the classics season.


Tom Dumoulin's victory in the rain provided a morale boost

March began with the traditional cobbled classic where Daniel Oss would lead our team after a great 5th placing last season. Kristjan Koren excited the race by getting in a three-man breakaway group, but Oss was unable to match the sprint power of Peter Sagan and finished in 18th.


Koren attacks on the roads of Ghent

The white roads of Tuscany were the first time that two of our young stars would be unleashed on the World Tour stage for 2019 - Ian Boswell and the enigmatic Eldir Moreira. It wasn't to be our day however, with Mollema our best finisher in 20th.


Robert Gesink had his first race of the year as he joined Mollema and Boswell for the trip to South America. Mollema immediately put the other contenders on notice by securing three top 10 finishes in as many days, but stage 3 would have even more reason for celebration as Nick Van der Lijke took a victory from the breakaway.


Nick holds off race leader Betancur on stage 3

The next three stages followed a similar pattern with Lindeman and Gesink both making appearances in the break, while Mollema continued to keep up with the group of favourites. He lost some time on the summit of stage 5 before making it up again, narrowly beaten to the line by Contador and Betancur on stage 6. Strong team performances saw us take the lead in the teams' classification, with Boswell and Gesink both improving with more time on the bike.


Close, but not quite enough for Bauke

Stage 7 saw another 3rd placing as Bauke led the peloton sprint, before disaster struck on the antepenultimate day when he couldn't match the top climbers. It was up to Boswell now and the American delivered big time by slotting into the top ten and even pushing the top three contenders on the queen stage. His efforts would prove crucial as we claimed the teams' classification by just 30" over Sevilla, with Ian our best finisher in 8th overall and Bauke 14th


Boswell taking it to the favourites on stage 9


It was a tense start for us as Lindeman and Hoogerland only just made it to the prologue in time, having travelled directly from the Venezuela the night before. If they were feeling sore, they certainly didn't show it with Bert-Jan providing great support for team leader Kristjan Koren on stage 2 before Johnny went on the attack the following day. The highlight of a quiet tour came on the final day when Tan Peng joined the break to claim 22nd place overall.


Peng en route to a 9th placing on stage 4


While the others put in a brave performance in Croatia, it was a disappointing day for our sprinters in northern Italy. Barry Markus and local hero Daniel Oss both missed the crucial move as Mark Cavendish repeated his victory from 10 years earlier.


We finished the month the same way it started, returning to Belgium for two more one-day classics. Daniel Oss was again our leader and performed admirably, finishing 'best of the rest' in 13th despite limited support.


The second of three Flemish World Tour races was less successful, ending a disappointing month for the team. Sinkeldam's 33rd placing was over 7 minutes behind eventual winner Arnaud Demare, a performance he himself described as "not what we want to be known for". We looked to put this failure behind us going into April.

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April was certainly not our best month, with the team going winless for the first time in 2019. We started the month where we left off, with the Tour of Flanders.


Freezing conditions were not enough to stop Bob Schoonbroodt getting in the break, but it was a futile attempt as the strongmen of Filliers and Peugeot shut the race down. Oss came from a long way back to sprint into a respectable 10th place as Van Keirsbulck went back-to-back.


Back on home soil for the first time, we came in to the race with high hopes for our sprinters to come away with some good results. It was not to be however, with the likes of Greipel and Bouhanni proving to be too good for us. Lindeman and Schoonbroodt made a couple of breakaways, but a 15th placing from Oss on stage 5 was as close as we got.


Bob Schoonbroodt gave the home fans something to cheer for


With pressure mounting on the team's leaders to perform, Jetse Bol went on the attack early. Sadly, it would be a similar result as we had seen in the past with Oss left isolated with around 40km left to go. Lindeman's 16th placing was too little, and far too late.


The climbing men got their first chance for the month, with former race winner Intxausti set to lead the team as part of his farewell season. But this race was all about another former winner and current world champion - Fabio Aru. The Italian won the final three stages with only Romain Bardet able to offer any competition. While our best finisher was Beñat in 11th, most of the squad got a chance to attack and it was a good warm-up ahead of the grand tours.


Beñat on the attack in stage 4


Meanwhile, we sent a 7-man squad to compete in the local classic event. Tan Peng aimed to repeat his previous 4th place finish by getting in an early move, but was unable to survive to the end. Lindeman and Shafeeq both finished just outside the top 10 as we continued to fall short of expectations.


In spite of poor recent form, we had every reason to be confident of a strong result in this showcase for time-trialists. Tom Dumoulin was the defending champion, while van Baarle was considered an outside chance for a placing. While Dylan was unable to challenge the top times, Tom rode a hard pace and received the silver medal, just 4 seconds behind Tobias Ludvigsson in first. While it was a hard loss to take, we were glad to finally score some more valuable points after a recent drought.


Now for the big test. Our first focus race for the year was not only on home soil, but we had a big contender in Bauke Mollema. Kristjan Koren got himself in the break and was well positioned to help out for the finish as one of the last remaining domestiques. The final sections of the course did not prove selective enough for Bauke to have an impact though, with the team having to settle for 11th and 15th.


Koren was at the head of the race with just 25km to go



Climbers Koen Bekker and Ian Boswell were added to the team for the next two races, with a tougher profile for the final two Belgian classics.

This time it was Tan Peng who got in the early move, and the man from Taiwan did not disappoint. With only just over 10kms to go, his group of four had a 1'40 gap back to the contenders. Sadly for us, the quartet was chased down in the closing minutes with Kwiatkowski taking the win. Boswell was our best finisher in 17th, with Peng, Mollema and Oss finishing just behind.


Our final chance for the month proved to be the most underwhelming of all. Mollema won this race in 2016, finished runner up the next year and 10th in 2018 but was largely unsighted in this edition. Boswell and Slagter were not much better, with neither challenging for a high position as Warren Barguil cruised to victory.

Whether it was a lack of teamwork, preparedness or just not having the talent required, it's fair to say this month was disastrous. Dumoulin aside, the team were left in doubt by the sponsors and the fans alike that they must do better.