Team Bpost Delivering your mail – and your cycling!
A message from the bpost Website
Over the last number of years our company has undergone a tremendous number of very exciting changes. We have been delivering more and better services to the European public, and now we are recognised as one of the leading companies in the world in postal services.
The public has trusted us with their mail for many years now and have stuck with us through these last few years as we undergo our restructuring. Now it is time for us to give something back to the community, not just of Belgium, but of the world.
As such I am proud to announce that as of today bpost has teamed up with Landbouwkrediet and Simyo to create a new cycling team based in Belgium. We Belgians are renowned for our love of cycling, yet there have been so few teams in recent years who have looked towards developing Belgian talent to make a Belgian team that is a powerful player in our very own Belgian races – and we think this is wrong.
The team we are creating shall be focussed on Belgian talent, both of the future and of the present, and we shall be focussing on ensuring that the whole world can see what Belgians have to offer.
Team bpost will be the fastest thing on two wheels – except for your mailman.
bpost The Belgian Post Group, branded as bpost since 2010, is the Belgian organisation responsible for the delivery of mail, national and international. The Belgian Post Group is one of the largest civilian employers in Belgium. It provides a range of postal, courier, direct marketing, banking, insurance and electronic services in a highly competitive European market.
Today has marked the coming into being of a number of cycling squads after the UCI formally announced those teams which would be granted a licence for hte 2012 season.
The latest team to be announced is Team Bpost, a Belgian team sponsored by that country's largest mailing provider. There were two main speakers at the official announcement today. The first was CEO of bpost, Johnny Thijs.
"Bpost is incredibly proud to be a part of shaping the future of this country's cycling. For too long have we watched talented Belgian youths forced out of the nation's great pasttime. Today we put an end to that."
Also speaking was Count Arach, the man who has been put in charge of the creation and subsequent management of the team.
"The team we are looking to create is quite obviously based on Belgians and will focus on what has always been teh natural strength of Belgian riders - the Classics. The team will require leaders and, though I am not willing to name anyone specifically yet, we have our eyes on several well known Classics riders."
"I don't just see this team as an opportunity for Belgian talent, but also International talent. We don't want to exclude a talented youngster from participating in our team simply because he does not speak Belgian."
At this point Mr. Thijs had to lean over and was heard to whisper in Count Arach's ear that there was no such language as Belgian.
"Be that as it may, the point stands that we should not exclude talented youths from our team." At this Mr. Thijs nodded furiously.
It remains to be seen if the team shall perform as well as it wishes, but its goals of development seem noble and may well benefit the sport as a whole. The largest obstacle it may have to face could well be the Manager himself.
It gives me great pleasure to unveil the new Jersey for our team in this season 2012. Made by the talented graphics artist ANFreeman, it is something that we are truly proud of.
In addition I am pleased to announce our equipment partnerships for hte season. We shall be riding on Merckx bikes, and we hope we shall be able to emulate Eddy Merckx's own achievements in some small way. Further, we shall be using Roval wheels and Lazer helmets, which will be unveiled as soon as they are completed.
We are immensely excited about these announcements and we hope to prove worthy of the amount of money poured into this project.
Team Bpost Announces Goals for the Season Bpost – Delivering Your (Cycling) News
The team are proud to finally announce what our goals for the forthcoming season are. When we announced the team we said we would be a Belgian team for Belgian riders in Belgian races – and we are going to stick with that all the way.
Our goals are modest this year. As a squad aiming to develop young Belgian talent we can’t overreach, yet at the same time we feel it would be disappointing if we didn’t manage to do well in races important to our fans.
Our major goal this year is victory in the Dwars door Vlaanderen. This race, much like ourselves, is new to the Belgian cycling scene and we feel it is thus likely to be overlooked by some of the major contenders in the Continental Tour. This goal is more than achievable.
We have two important stage races early in the year that we will also be focussing on. First up we shall be targeting Top 5 at the KBC De Panne Tour. If we can get our team leader, whoever they turn out to be, over the cobbled sections and the short, sharp climbs, then we should be able to manage this as well.
Our other important Stage race in the early part of this season shall be the 5 Jours De Dunkirque where we shall target another Top 5 performance. Hopefully our team will be at peak performance by this point after the previous two months riding an intensive classics campaign. The race is very difficult, yet we know that many of our fans live on the French-Belgian border so will appreciate seeing our team in full flight.
Our final major target of the season would be an absolute dream if we succeeded. We shall be aiming to achieve a Top 10 at the Circuit Franco-Belge, a HC categorised race that is also rather difficult. Once again we understand how important this race is to Belgians, being the most important multiple day tour of Belgian, yet we are confident that we can put a strong enough team there to achieve this goal.
Ideally we shall be aiming for a Top 15 in the Overall Team Standings, however given that we aren’t racing as many of the stage races this season as some of the other bigger teams, we understand that this may be beyond our reach. However, if we have a remarkable classics season, as we certainly hope, then this is more than possible.
The team shall also be looking for strong performances at various other classics throughout the year, particularly in Nokere-Koerse, E3 Prijs, the new Hel van Met Mergelland, the Profronde van Drenthe and Rund um den Eschborn-Frankfurt. Adding these races into our schedule means that we have 8 of our 9 most important races within two months of each other. Yet we are confident that we can cobble* together a team together that is strong enough to manage this.
We are also pleased to announce that we have begun the search for riders – so be on the lookout for a talent scout at your local club races. We can also state that whilst the breakup of fellow Belgian development team Highroad – Tom-Tom saddens us greatly, we look forward to continuing their fine work in developing Belgian youths.
Join us throughout the year here on our website where we shall provide you with rider blogs, race reports, and the general goings-on of our team. We look forward to a marvellous season and I am sure we can count on you support.
Sincerely,
Team BPost Management Belgian riders, Belgian races, Belgian Postal Services
Cyclingnews.com sat down exclusively with the manager Count Arach of the new Team Bpost to discuss potential riders for the 2012 Season.
CN: Hello Mr. Arach it is a pleasure to have you here with us. Your team, from the announcements it has so far made, will be focussed on Belgian riders, young ones in particular. This was a similar goal to the recently disbanded HighRoad-TomTom. Are there any riders from that team who you have your sights set on?
Arach: I’m glad to be here, thanks. Yes naturally our two teams have a lot of overlapping interests, though we certainly hope to achieve better results than they managed throughout the year. We have been combing their team with a great deal of interest and there are a few names we would like to express interest in. The most obvious one of these is Maxime Vantomme. An incredibly strong sprinter who also the ability to ride on cobblestones would be able to deliver a great deal to a team like ours. Add in the fact that he is only 25 and suddenly he is an immensely good deal. Of course we know we won’t be the only team looking towards signing him, so we aren’t holding our breath.
Maxime Vantomme
Michiel Elijzen is another rider from that team that we would like to enter discussions with. An aggressive rider who has the ability to both ride a time trial and also rider well on cobblestones is just the sort of man who would be able to lead a team like ours through some of the small Belgian tours, which we have already stated are our goal. He also has a great deal of experience, yet is still only 29. Though he is not Belgian we feel that he still embraces the Belgian spirit of aggressive riding.
Michiel Elijzen
At the same time we acknowledge that we would like our team to be more competitive on the cobblestones than HighRoad-TomTom were, so we shall be looking elsewhere for riders.
CN: There are also other teams disbanding before the start of this season, are there any riders from these teams that you would like to focus on?
Arach: Indeed there are. Two big names that dominated the cobbled classics last year were Pieter Vanspreybrouck and Niels Albert from Team IKEA – Bianchi. Both of these men are incredibly proficient on the cobblestones and either of them would make a great overall leader for our team. Again, we understand that they are both going to be highly sought-after riders this year, but we are confident we can offer them a unique opportunity to lead a team of their own countrymen.
Pieter Vanspreybrouck
Roy Sentjens from Intesa is also someone we feel could make a valuable contribution to this team. At age 31 he brings a lot of experience to a team that will be mostly comprised of younger riders, but at the same time he has a tremendous ability to ride over cobbles and also to constantly be on the attack.
Other riders in the same vein who we will be looking for are his former teammates Johan Vansummeren and Bobbie Traksel. Traksel is one of those riders who, if he can stick with a group, stands a very good chance of winning the sprint. Vansummeren is something of an all-rounder when it comes to the classics, having the capacity to both climb and ride on cobbles.
CN: Those are some illuminating choices. It appears you have moved away from being solely a Belgian team to being a team focussed on Western Europe.
Arach: Being solely from Belgium was never the plan, and I would like to clarify that. This team was always meant to have a strong component of riders from many different nationalities, but it was always about giving Belgian riders a team in which to hone their abilities and to truly shine in their own races. We can continue to do that no matter how many Dutch, French, German or otherwise riders we have. CN: Finally, are there any other riders from other teams that you would like to see make the transfer to your new project?
Arach: Of course. To name one, Nikolas Maes from Auber 93 – Look, the new manager of which has announced that he will not be getting a contract renewal. Another strong rider in the cobbled classics, he could make an excellent leader or lieutenant for our team.
Nikolas Maes
Another rider would be someone like Jelle Vanendert, the Belgian from Domina Vacanze. He has an excellent ability on the smaller climbs that aren’t so steep, which our team shall be encompassing right throughout the season. He also has a very aggressive style that would make him perfect for our team, which aims to be involved in many breakaways throughout the season.
Jelle Vanendert
CN: Thank you very much for your time, we look forward to keeping up with your progress throughout the season.
Its fine by me, more to read to get excited about transfer season. Also, as i noticed after your goals you are lucky to have a few very good belgian classics riders available this year. Good set of targets in the interview too
dave92 wrote:
Its fine by me, more to read to get excited about transfer season. Also, as i noticed after your goals you are lucky to have a few very good belgian classics riders available this year. Good set of targets in the interview too
Glad to know people are enjoying it - I'll be sure to write another one or two before the transfer season and many more throughout the season.
Yeah I have got very lucky to be starting as several classics teams are disbanding and I'm confident I can get at least two out of all the riders I listed there.
Excellent, loving these media things
Although, more competition for Vantomme. That's me, you and Kami who have expressed interest. I fear he may get very expensive...
[url=https://pcmdaily.com/messages.php?msg_send=19438]-Requests for Man-Game 2014 jerseys are OPEN!
Click to request!-[/url]
ANFreeman wrote:
Excellent, loving these media things
Although, more competition for Vantomme. That's me, you and Kami who have expressed interest. I fear he may get very expensive...
Glad you like it. And yes I have a feeling he will see a significant increase in his wage this season regardless of who ends up with him.
Setzel wrote:
Everyone wants domina riders w00t , can finnaly clear all the roster this year ^^
Greetings everyone, as the world continues to speculate about transfers amongst the ProTour teams and the future of those riders in disbanding teams, I thought I would have a short discussion about some of the riders that Team Bpost have our eye on as potential stars of the future that we would like to give a contract to. After all, we are committed to making a team that is not just competitive, but also serves as a place for future stars to get their footing. Today I will be discussing the young Belgians.
The first I would like to discuss is Jürgen Proesmans. At age 23 he is showing that he could be an excellent sprinter one day, and will certainly be more than capable of performing a lead-out role for any team’s major sprinter within a couple of years.
A different young rider, though one whom I think could have a lot of potential in the coming years in the Ardennes Classics is Gill Van Winckel. An aggressive young man, he has shown that given a couple of years in the Continental peloton he could most certainly become a very useful man to have in the classics season, or a man who could get himself into an early break and stay up the road to help a team leader. He is one man I will be having my eye on if we can find room in the budget for him.
Next on the list I have in front of me is Sven Vandousselaere, who has ridden in the peloton previously but could not find a team last year. This man has the potential to become one of the best all-rounders in the professional peloton, if he can just find a team like ours who would be willing to nurture him through his early years. He would be of some interest to us as someone who could potentially get a top 10 in some time trials, and in future years perhaps aim even higher.
The final rider I would like to flag as someone we are looking into is Joseph Stijn, who rode for the ProTour team Pearl Adidas last year, though his current availability is not yet known. We hope we can get him during the transfer season, though we understand it may not be possible. He is a talented young man on the cobblestones and as such would compliment our team perfectly as a domestique.
There are many other young Belgians out there, some of whom are contracted and some who are not. We have a long list of those who we think could fit into our team and we will be aiming to find the budget to include a number of them. In addition we have been looking at young riders who are not Belgian, and also have a shortlist of those we could potentially sound out.
Make sure you keep checking back here, because I aim to have another blog up as soon as my work schedule allows.
Some of our more observant Belgian fans have taken pictures of the team uniform we showed off earlier on the backs of some riders in their local areas. Today I am pleased to announce that we can confirm these sightings - our staff have been issued with the jerseys and some of them have been wearing them to their kermis races. Thankfully we have managed to acquire some professional-quality photographs taken by a fan of the team, which we can present to everyone today.
One of the members of our staff attacking off the front of the peleton. He was not successful, but he looked marvellous.
A slight downhill section rounding a corner. Our co-sponsor Simyo can be made out on the side.
And finally we have this marvellous photo taken over the shoulder of our rider.
Only the powerlines for company.
The jersey will be made available for sale later in the season, with half the proceeds going to charities that help get Belgian youths off the streets and onto bikes.
Firstly, great media thread. Good to see one still active.
Second, the jersey looks awesome in game, especially with the helmet.
However, I take it you're not using custom accessories? I made these for you: https://www.mediaf...kyxxkpu2xs
Just to finish of the look
[url=https://pcmdaily.com/messages.php?msg_send=19438]-Requests for Man-Game 2014 jerseys are OPEN!
Click to request!-[/url]
They work the same as jerseys, you just overwrite whatever ones you'll be using It's just a matter of replacing the 3 letter team code. Also, be sure to forward them on to SN, or else they won't get used for races
[url=https://pcmdaily.com/messages.php?msg_send=19438]-Requests for Man-Game 2014 jerseys are OPEN!
Click to request!-[/url]
Hi again everyone, it has been a while but a lot has been afoot in the world of cycling lately, with the continuing teams announcing contract renewals. Though not even half the teams have made their announcements thus far, I wanted to have a look at the riders who have been released that we might be interested in.
The first rider we have noticed is most obviously Gert Steegmans, one of the best riders on the cobbles in the world. We fear that we will not have the budget to allow us to purchase him, as rumours say he is asking for over 800,000 euro. Nevertheless, if we get the opportunity to get him at a bargain he would be an immensely welcome addition to our team.
More within our price range we have Frederick Willems and Nico Sijmens. They are both men capable of assisting in races throughout the season and would provide much-needed experience to our squad in all types of terrain.
The next rider is the young Frenchman Julian El Fares. At age 26 he has shown that he can be there amongst the best when he needs to be. Potentially someone who could help out in the mountains through the year, or launch into a breakaway as needed, he would be a welcome addition to our team.
Finally, there is Thomas Rabou, recently not renewed by the Jack Wolfskin ProTour team. At age 28 he has shown much the same qualities as El Fares and could act as another good domestique for any of the classics races that he is needed in.
As can be seen none of the riders at this point that we are looking at are realistically going to be able to lead our team, but we hope to sign a couple of these riders as domestiques, a role that any of them could easily fit into. We will make more anouncements on riders that interest us as soon as more news of reneals arrive.
It's just a matter of replacing the 3 letter team code. Also, be sure to forward them on to SN, or else they won't get used for races 
