Hello everyone and welcome to my story. As the name implies, I’m going to be taking charge of Landbouwkrediet, the Belgian cycling team that is almost entirely focussed on the classics. I have no illusions about this team – I will not be looking to ride a single Grand Tour, certainly not in this season or in the next, but I have much more modest aims, which I’ll expand on in the team presentation.
Database: PCM.Daily 2011 Database with patch 1.0.4.1 Difficulty: Hard
One other thing I feel I should mention is that I’ll be playing with one extra rule that will constrain me somewhat. During Time Trials I will not be taking control of the riders, but instead I’ll let them be automated by the AI. I feel that as the game stands it is far too easy to win time trials and this means that winning the overall at week-long tours is not beyond my team, when really it should be. So this is my way of evening the game up a bit. Combining that with the hard difficulty means that you should expect almost nothing from my team in any time trial situation. Any result at all would be a blessing.
Table of Contents
Rather than scrolling through everything, you can just click here and get straight to each race.
The Belgian cycling scene is a strong one, perhaps one of the strongest in the world. This means that there are many Continental and Pro Continental teams who spring up in races around the world, but there are no races sweeter to these teams than their home classics. Landbouwkrediet is a team that falls firmly into this class – the team is tailored to ride both kinds of classics and over the years they have come up with some good results. Founded in 1992, and under the Landbouwkrediet name since 2001.
The team this year is mostly focussed on the cobbled classics and I aim to be highly placed in as many of them as I can, and I hope to get a wildcard entry to both the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix. Winning either of them is well beyond this team’s capability, but a top 10 or 15 result is within our grasp.
The team for this year.
Important Riders
The Cobbled Classics Leaders
The absolute leader of the team and the man whom we will be riding for in most races is Bert De Waele. He is a rider who can perform well in both kinds of classics, but this year he will be spearheading our cobbled classics season. He will be supported well enough by our cobbled domestiques to ensure some sterling results.
Bobbie Traksel is one of our other leaders. He is an all-round rider who can do everything well, but nothing brilliantly – a real Jack-of-all-trades. He will be working as a domestique in some races, and leading the team in his own right in many more, particularly cobbled races that are likely to end in a sprint.
A rider not quite of the calibre of the other two, Frederic Amorison will be leading our team in those races where neither of the other two are present, and when they are present, he will be looking for breakaway opportunities. He could potentially place in some of the smaller 1.1 level races.
The Ardennes Classics Leaders
One of our climbing domestiques, Davy Commeyne is another all-round rider. He will be looking to help out in the Ardennes Classics, where he can hopefully slip into a breakaway. He can also potentially win 1.1 level classics throughout the season, given that he has a slightly better kick than most climbers.
Together with Davy Commeyne, Geert Verheyen is one of our chances for a good ride in the Ardennes. Though he is a better climber, he lacks the same kick that Commeyne possesses. He will also be looking for breakaway opportunities and can lead our team in smaller classics.
The Sprinters
Our primary sprinter on flat stages, Hans Dekkers has the potential to win several stages at Continental tours throughout the year. He will, for this reason, be focussing on stage races and will be skipping many of the Spring classics.
A more punchy sprinter than Dekkers, Reinier Honig shall be our sprinter wherever Dekkers can’t be. He is also a couple of years younger and in the next two or three years he has the potential to become our main sprinter. We shall also be hoping to develop him into someone who can perform well in uphill sprints.
The Future Talents
Dirk Bellemakers represents the future of this team. He is a solid puncheur who, uniquely in the team, is not a bad time trialist. In the coming two or three years we will be seeking to develop his time trialling ability to a level where it is possible or him to be truly competitive in short stage races that have a time trial. He will be our leader in many stage races throughout the year, but we don’t expect anything too much of him this year. A couple of top ten performances would be a great sign of things to come.
This ride, Jonathon Breyne, at age 20 is well away from his maximum potential. However, he is already showing signs of a spark in time trialing. He will be having a very low-key year this time around but hopefully he can start to perform Dirk Bellemakers’ role in a couple of years.
The man whose name I’m going to have more trouble spelling than any other man, Egidijus Juodvalkis should be a decent sprinter in a couple of years time. He also shows a small ability in the hills, meaning he could potentially become similar to Honig, and become a punchy sprinter.
The Goals
Official Goals:
The official goals of the team can be seen below:
Our goals for the year
We wil need to have a fantastic early season to ensure our entry into the Ronde and Roubaix. The easiest way to ensure that is to achieve our target of the top 5 in the Omloop, which will show the potential of the team. We must also show our ability to win 1.1 races. As my write-up of the cobbled leaders implied, our season will be built around getting a decent result in these two races. I don’t believe that any of these 6 goals are beyond the team.
Personal Goals:
I would like a top 15 in both the Ronde and Roubaix. I would also like a top 10 in at least one of the Ardennes classics, which I will also be seeking wildcards for. Other than that, I don’t have many goals. I would like to make the team incredibly active in breakaways, just as the team is in real life, and I think with this tactic I will win the occasional surprise stage.
Edited by CountArach on 29-05-2011 07:29
Great team choice, good luck with the story Traskel should win a lot of races, he usually in my games is a monster at winning in the Conti races, hope he will do as good and even better with you.
Cadel Evans won the Australian national time trial championship and Matthew Lloyd won the Australian road race championship, with Evans coming in a close second place.
Tour de San Luis – Introduction
The Tour de San Luis would be our first race of the season. We don’t really hold out too many hopes for it, given that it has a time trial, which we will always struggle in. On the other hand, we do hope to go for a stage win. Mostly we are here to start training for our regular season.
This is our team for the race. Traksel will be our overall leader, with De Waele supporting where necessary. This is because Traksel is a better time trialist, however slight the difference between the two may be. If he could get a stage or a top 10 overall, that would be fantastic for us. Dekkers shall be sprinting for us, and there are numerous opportunities for sprinters in this edition of the race.
The stages
Two large mountain climbs at the finish and a hilly time trial will determine who wins this one overall, as well as the chance for some gaps on stage 2 with the short, punchy climb. There are 3 stages that will almost certainly be for the sprinters.
As always early season races are very hard to call as it is very much about who has the best form. Some names to look out for are Knees, for Team Sky, Joly for Saur-Sojasun or perhaps someone like Sutherland for UnitedHealthcare, who is capable of putting in a good time trial as well as being a decent climber.
Our first race of the season! Traksel is listed as one of the favourites, but he won’t be sprinting, so I have to live with the fact that I’m going to be upsetting a lot of bookmakers. Other sprinters at the tour include Seb Chavanel (Europcar), Forster (UnitedHealthcare) and Engoulvement (Saur-Sojasun). This stage will hopefully tell us who is in good enough form to take the first sprints of the year.
The stage opened with several attacks to try to form the break of the day. The first attempt was initiated by our own Barbe, who was followed by several riders. The group got too large, however, and failed to get away. A second attempt was launched at the start of climb and this one proved much more successful. Barbe succeeded into getting into this one instead.
The break was Barbe (Landbouwkrediet), Hebik (PSK Whirlpool), D. Ignatiev (Itera-Katusha), Schmitz (Veranda’s) and Nepomnyachshiy (Astana). Modolo (Colnago) and Van Uden (PureBlack) bridged quickly.
The break of the day
Over the top of the climb they had 4’53” over the peleton and they succeeded in pulling this out to 6’15” at the first sprint point. Of course, the sprinters’ teams were not going to let these men ruin their day and so Sky and Skil started working. Skil was certainly working for their sprinters, with Kluge being the most likely to take the day from their bunch. Sky was nurturing hopes of the overall and didn’t need a breakaway to ruin their chances for that.
By the second sprint point the gap was down to 3’29” and the breakaway started to realise that with 41km of pan-flat terrain still to come, they had almost no chance of staying away. The gap came down and with 25km to go, just as the group was being dragged in, the attacks started. Ignatiev and Nepomnyachshiy initiated these, but Barbe responded with Hebik and Schmitz, who managed to go over the top and bring the lead out further again. The pace pushed on relentlessly and, as so often happens, the riders were dragged back into the peleton with 11 kilometres remaining.
Some riders tried to go it alone as the break was dragged back in
With 1km remaining Kluge (Skil-Shimano) opened up the sprint, having been set up by Skil’s sprint train. However, he would not prove powerful enough as De Haes (Omega Pharma-Lotto) jumped around him and led out his own sprint in the final 500 metres. Forster (UnitedHealthcare) and Sobrino (Caja Rural) had followed his wheel and tried to accelerate past but their efforts were all for nothing, as De Haes proved too strong for everyone. Dekkers followed Clarke’s (United HealthCare) wheel and managed to overtake him the last 300 metres, riding himself into 4th place. Overall the first sprint of the season was quite good for us – any result was going to be a blessing and a top 4 was very much welcome.
Today should be somewhat more selective than yesterday, and we hope Traksel can stay with the final group. The break formed quite early, with Lemoine (Saur), Furdi (Adria Mobile) and Bouyer (Europcar), as well as our own Stallaert. These four men got away with no trouble and no one chased after them. Seeing their opportunity, 7 more men bridge the gap and an 11 man group now leads the race.
The 11 man group leading the race, with Staellaert on the front.
The break was cut down to 1 minute with 40km remaining. As such it was only a matter of time before the break started to splinter, and so they did with 33km remaining. The break was reduced to Torckler (???), Janiaczyk (CCC-Polsat), Callegarin (TT1), Lemoine (Saur) and Furdi (Adria). However even these four could only stay away for so long and with 13km remaining they too were dragged in and the group was all together at the base of the final climb.
With 3.5km to go, Knees (Sky) leapt out of the bunch, Zwianski (UHC) and Joly (Saur) follow hot on his wheel. Jufre (Astana) leaps out after them too but is too far back to bridge the gap. Traksel was suffering far too much on the climb to go with them. The peleton slowed down as now no one wanted to chase after these four riders – Sky and Saur had been doing the work all day.
Knees proved too strong for the others on the climb and soloed to victory with ease.
No one can deal with Knees’ climbing talent today.
Joly managed to accelerate away from Zwianski on the climb, and Traksel took part in the sprint of the group to come in 9th, but he lost almost 4 minutes on the climb today, putting him well out of contention for a podium place overall. A top 10 is still in his sights, however.
Knees takes the overall lead today and will be difficult to beat.
I just have to vent this somewhere. I've played through the Omloop twice now and both times it has crashed in the last 4km. WHY CAN'T CYANIDE MAKE A GAME THAT WORKS AS INTENDED?!
skeltik wrote:
shouldn't Kruopis have higher sprint stats. winning a stage and a 2nd place in de ronde van België, and some other nice results earlier this year
Probably, but I can't be bothered to change it. He will develop in time.
Today is going to come down to a mass sprint and we are almost certain of that. As such we have decided not to join the break in this stage. The break got away very easily today, with the riders being Schmitz (Veranda’s), Metcalfe and Cardoso (Tavira), Zaballa (Miche), Gnezda (Adria), Ignatiev (Itera-Katusha) and Janiaczyk (CCC).
The break gets away
They built up a maximum gap of 7’20”, which was rather good considering the terrain, but with 90km to the pack started working. Skil lead the chase quickly and this had been cut to 4’30” at the second sprint. Their work paid off and with 17km to go the break was entirely reeled in. The pace was too high for anything to happen, so a sprint became inevitable.
The line approached and Dekkers sat on Forster’s wheel, being the fastest man in the immediate vicinity. De Haes cut across his line, however, so Dekkers jumped onto the wheel of the first stage in this tour.
Dekkers is well placed for the sprint.
De Haes jumped past everyone else and Dekkers managed to hold his wheel – but could he get around him?!
No – De Haes took another brilliant sprint, with Dekkers holding on for second place.
Nice team choice! I like those continental fighter teams! My career is with Farnese and a few days a go I put Reinier Honig on my shortlist, and that's not because he's Dutch! He ride several good results in stages and some minor classics, maybe i'll post some results later if you're interested! ;-)
@ Alakagom - I'm sure he will get some better results throughout the season, but Dekkers is aiming to peak a bit later than the rest of the team, so won't be at peak performance for a while. Plus, the fact of the matter is he just isn't as skilled as the other sprinters. Still, we'll see what the future holds...
@ Tombola - Honig is indeed an immensely talented rider. I have a feeling that he will end up a bit like Traksel (that is to say,an excellent all-rounder), but without the cobble-riding abilities.
Traskel should win a lot of races, he usually in my games is a monster at winning in the Conti races, hope he will do as good and even better with you.
