Despite finishing 9th in the Pro Tour teams classification and a fairly decent season, the team did not manage to achieve any of the goals imposed by the sponsors at the start of the season. This did not sit well with any our sponsors and as a result they decided to withdraw their support. The team held the name of eBuddy for four consecutive seasons, making them our longest title sponsor partnership so saying goodbye was not easy.
But changing team names in cycling is something everyone is used to and new sponsors were found quite quickly with Huski Chocolate stepping in as the new title sponsor, while Jumbo were brought in to continue the Dutch connection.
The jersey for the 2021 season can be seen in the opening post.
Will be weird to not have eBuddy in the peloton but hope the new sponsor works out even better for you. Look forward to some possible PTHC meetups next season!
AbhishekLFC wrote:
Will be weird to not have eBuddy in the peloton but hope the new sponsor works out even better for you. Look forward to some possible PTHC meetups next season!
And transfers off course
Looking forward too!
I felt like it was time for a change. eBuddy had already stayed as a title sponsor for one more season than Jack Wolfskin and Project 1t4i did and with the disaster in terms of goals I felt like this was the perfect opportunity to close down this chapter and open a new one.
Edit: actually looks like I got that wrong and eBuddy had been the title sponsor for five seasons, not four like I thought
Three riders did not renew their contracts with the team during the 2021 renewals. While it was the team's decision not to offer Vermeltfoort a new contract, in the case of Ariesen and Aru it was them who were not happy with what the team had offered them. Rumor has it the two have the same agent and he was the reason behind these departures.
Nevertheless we wish all of them the very best in the future! Ariesen brought in some surprising wins through breakaways, while Vermeltfoort and Aru were fantastic team players providing brilliant support for our team leaders when needed.
Below you can find the new wages for the 2021 season as well as the availability of our riders for the upcoming transfer window!
Four riders left the team during the transfers season, 3 of them being long time servers of the team.
After a great first few seasons in the team, Boswell's results dropped in the last couple of season and he was overshowed by Gerts in the classics last year. A stage win in last year's Giro was the perfect swan song as he looks for new opportunities in the lower divisions.
Lammertink is another rider who has an amazing quality, but the PT might be a hat too big for him to reach his true potential. The biggest disappointment for us is that he is leaving without having won the Dutch TT championships for the team.
Yves Lampaert is a long time server of the team and an important domestique for Gerts in the last seasons. He was not a rider we were looking to sell, but we were forced to in order to stay within the wage cap.
Kaczmarek only joined last year and while we valued him very much, his wage demands proved to be too high for us to fit into our budget.
Arrivals
Rider
Wage
Former Team
Age
Key Stats
Tiesj Benoot
600,000
Free Agent
27
78HI, 76CO, 75MO
Jordi Meeus
60,000
Free Agent
23
74FL, 71CO, 71SP
Emil Dima
50,000
Free Agent
24
70TT, 69MO
Alex Hoehn *
50,000
McCornick
24
73MO, 70MO, 70HI
Jamal Hibatullah *
50,000
Sauber
24
75MO, 70HI
Munkhtulga Erdenesuren *
50,000
BNZ
29
73CO
* Loaned in
On the new names list, Tiesj Benoot is definitely the most important name. The Belgian rider is still quite young and is one of the best all-rounders in the World and is set to form a terrific duo with Floris Gerts in the classics.
He is joined by two young riders who we believe will become an important part of our core in the long term: Jordi Meeus and Emil Dima. The Belgian is already a beast on the flats and is set to become a great lead out as well as a good domestique on the cobbles, while the Romanian can both climb and time - trial.
The thee other names on our new riders for 2021 are riders that we do not own, but are loaned in to gain the experience they need at the Pro Tour level to reach the next step in their careers.
One aspect that makes me love this game so much is that countries such as Indonesia or Mongolia have a chance to come to the forefront here. I am curious to see how Emil Dima and the loan ins are developing.
To be honest, I'm not quite sure your team is stronger. More like a step sideways, which isn't bad but is an interesting decision. Obviously pending any training though, which could be significant.
Benoot is fantastic, but will require both careful and lucky planning. Gotta really maximize the hybrid cobbles races obviously. At 27 though he's a great bet for the future.
I guess the most surprising thing to me was the Lammertink deal. Everything you said in the advert - about him being a top guy despite being younger than almost all his competitors - it was all true. To the point that it was so true, I was a bit perplexed as to why you wanted to sell him. If I hadn't been preoccupied with other parts of my budget at the time, I would have probably bought him for more than he sold for. Add on that he's Dutch too. Was it just a matter of wanting him to get more wins in PCT?
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
I'd say the team is about the same, maybe a bit weaker as we lost Lammertink. I'd say Benoot is on par with Boswell at the moment as the American did not score the point expected from a 80 hill rider last year. And Benoot has more space for growth.
I'm hoping this season Dombrowski will be once again on the good side of 1000 points though and hope he makes up for Lammertink's points.
It wasn't exactly an easy decision to sell Lammertink, but I needed space to accommodate Benoot's wage. So at that point I had to sell for sure either Van Poppel or Lammertink. And Lammertink was getting way more attention, but even with him people were quite reluctant to make an offer. So I decided to go with what I could get and felt like a good enough offer
A lot will rest on Benoot's performances for sure, but I can't really say he's worse than the riders that went out. He is also at a good age which makes a lot of sense.
Losing Lammertink is a blow, but I think you're still in for a solid season
Not knowing what training plans you have it could be another midtable finish. Dombrowski SHOULD always score more than 1000 points - maybe 85MO? Not that I would train him like that with a rider like Benoot coming in. Benoot however is a bit difficult to train also, as reducing his racedays drastically will reduce his versatility. No point in having a rider with 80 MO, 80 Hi and 80 COB if he can't properly make use of those combinations anywhere, and instead turns out to be a top 5-10 rider everywhere.
I guess I would go for the hill path for Benoot, but already having Gerts as the COB/HI combination, where is Benoot really to shine?
Too bad you had to sell Lammertink to get Benoot though. He was a great team fit.
I'll eagerly await to see how you end up spending that training money
I never considered training Dombrowski and even more this season when he is one more year closer to decreasing.
My A plan was to make Gerts 82 in cobbles, but with little interest towards Van Poppel it became clear it would be quite hard to achieve that. So I went with 81 and give Benoot a boost in hills as well.
Pairing Gerts and Benoot is not hard. Gerts leads cobbles with Benoot as domestique, Benoot leads hills with Gerts as domestique
