Hye everyone
I have tough a lot about making my own story and I will give a shot. But before we start I have to tell some things. At first because this is my first ever story, any help or criticism will be apreciated. Another thing you had to know is that I'm realy bad in english (actualy in languages in general) so I'm 100% sure there will be some spellingerrors in the report.
The races will start when te PCMdaily2012 database is available
But for now let's start.
My story so far
I will start this story at the end of 2011 when I was part of the fantastic HTC-Highroad manager staff. We all know that we were entering the last races of or team. Bob Stapleton has said to me that I would be the sports director in the last stage race of the season: “ the Tour of Beijing”.
Our team bus arrived as one of the first at the start line of the 1e stage. After we settled everything down, it was time for a reconnaissance trip. I was taking with Tony Martin (the later winner) about the 11km route of the upcoming time trail when suddenly the team bus of Garmin arrived. Tony took his bike and went for a reconnaissance trip. When I wanted to step back on the bus I heard someone called me name. I looked around and saw that Jonathan Vaughters stands next to me. “Hye Thomas, I need you for a second” he said, “I have heard that you don’t have a job for next year?” I answerd “That’s correct” with a little bit of sadness in my voice. “Well I have a solution, I think!” he said.“That would be nice!” was my spontaneously reaction. “We are looking for a new DS next year. Allan (Peiper) told some good things about you, are you interested?” Without hesitation I agreed and we set a date for the contract negotiation. On December 28 I signed a contract for 2 years as a sports director at the Garmin Barracuda Pro Cycling Team .
A few words about the team
Garmin-Barracuda is a UCI ProTeam established in 2007. The headquarter is situated in the United States, Boulder (Colorado). The team is managed by Slipstream Sports. Slipstream is a sports marketing and development company.
The team has a strictly anti-doping program. Every rider have to do a few test which control their biological passport. If there are any strange values, the rider cannot race until everything is back ok. But the team gives also chances to riders who have had a suspension for doping (like D. Millar and T. Dekker).
The team is riding on Cervélo-bikes with Shimano components. We will use the wheels of Mavic. The team works closely together with the people of Mavic as you can see in this video:
This are our bikes (road en TT) and our nice (argyle) jersey:
Team presentation will up next
Edited by PCM rulezz on 07-07-2012 11:57
Tyler is our clear leader in the sprints. He had a tough season last year due to the dead of his best friend Wouter weylandt. But this gave him the strength to win a stage in the Tour de France.
The green jersey is one of the most important things in this season. He feels like he is ready to beat Cav in the ranking of best sprinter of the world. Let’s hope he succeeded, the team will give him all he needs.
Christian Vande Velde
Christian thinks a lot about the tour of 2008 where he finished fourth overall. And he thinks that he can do better this year. We believe in him so he will lead our team in Le Grand Boucle. But before June he will lead our team in 2 other big races. Paris-Nice is the first one. This is a good preparation for the rest of the season. A top 10 is his ambition. The second big pre-tour race on his program is the Amgen Tour of California. He wants to win this race in his (and the team’s) homecountry.
Ryder Hesjedal
After a seventh place overall in the 2010 tour de France we think Ryder is ready to lead the team in this year Giro d’Italia. He is aiming for a top 5 spot. His other objectives for this season are the Tirreno-Adriatico and The tour of Romandie. After the giro, Ryder will help Christian in the tour, and with a bit of luck is a good classification also possible. In the end of the season there are the 2 Canadian one day classics.
Free elements Heinrich Haussler
Heinrich is or leader in the northern classics. Although after a few years without any big wins he wants to win something big. If he is in good shape Milano-Sanremo could be possible. Heinrich isn’t slow so he could do well in the sprints and wants to help Farrar to win the green jerey.
His first big abjoctif is the Santos Tour down under. In this race he wil get full support of his teammates. He needs a good start of the season (or it could be his last in the argyle jersey).
Dan Martin
After his stage victory in the vuelta last year, Martin is ready for the next step in his career. He will makes his Tour de France debut and try to help Vande Velde. Because his TT isn’t his best weapon, a GC isn’t for this year. He will try to win a stage and to win the polka dot jersey. He will not race that much in the beginning of the season so he can ride the vuelta after the tour. He will try to take a top 10 spot on the GC.
Tom Danielson
Not mutch to say about Tommy D. We can use a man with his experience in our Tourteam. He will also try to ride a good GC in smaller stageraces like ATOC and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
Cobblestone specialists
There is no doubt that Haussler is our team leader on the cobbles. But there are still some other riders who wants a good result on these streets full of misery and pain.
Andreas klier: very helpful domestique
Johan Vansummeren: the only one (in our team of course) who won a classic. So he is not the man who will do the work.
Martijn Maaskant: very helpful domestique
Sep Vanmarcke: the number 3 classic rider of our team. Not sure what we could expect from him, but we have some high expectations after his Paris-Roubaix from last year.
Time trial specialist
The best time trialist in our time is David Zabriskie closely followed by David Millar. On the second row we have some riders like of Ramunas Navardauskas, Sébastien Rosseler and Alex Rasmussen who can win some smaller TT’s.
Sprinters and climbers
With Murilo Fischer, Koldo Fernandez and Robbie Hunter, we can make a very strong lead-out train for Tyler. But eatch of the riders named before can sprint for themselves in some races.
Beside all the time trailers and sprinters there also some good climbers like the 2 young American talents: Andrew Talansky and Peter Stetina. Christophe Le Mével an Thomas Dekker are also there to help their leaders when the terrain goes up.
Full team roster
Because I've not mentioned all our riders, here is our 2012 rooster
I the next preseason introduction, I will tell you something about our great staff and our first training camp.
Stay tuned and thanks for reading ThomasEdited by PCM rulezz on 22-06-2012 15:44
Hye everyone
After a long day of travelling I’m arrived at the team’s first training camp in Calpe, Spain. I travelled all the way from Belgium to Calpe with 2 of my colleagues (and compatriots): Eric Van Lancker and Geert Van Bondt both sport directors at Garmin Barracuda. We did the trip with an airplane so we had a lot of time to talk about cycling. They have told me some things to know about the team. Very useful information actually. During this trip I had decided to make a blog so that you guys always know what is happening inside the team. So this is the first one.
When we arrived there were already some riders unpacking there suitcase and they had a lot of fun to hear about all the laughing. Jack Bauer was the first rider who saw us and great us. I asked him what was so funny and he said that Daved Zabriskie was doing some practical jokes with some of his colleagues. Eric told me that that’s nothing new because he is the comedian of our team.
I went to my room and unpacked my suitcase will the laughing didn’t stops. After our supper we had a nice chat with all the riders together. And after that I went back to my room to sleep and to write my first blog.
But I have a question for you guys. If there is anything that you want to know about a rider, staff member, race schedule, team or rider goals, me, ... just post your question here and I’ll do my best to give you a answer in one of my next post (I will do it when there are enough question to make a large Question – Answer – blog). Don’t hesitate to ask more than 1 question if you want.
In my next post I will give you some extra information about the training camp and the beginning of the season.
Something different now. As I’m a sport director, I’m not present in all the races so I can’t give you not a very detailed report. In the races I’m not present you will get only the basic information like team rooster, short stage reports, ... But in the races where I’m in the team car you will get everything: very detailed reports, inside information before and after stages, interviews (and not only from our riders), ...
Thomas
Note:
I know that the idea with the question isn’t original because there are other stories with it. But it is still a long time to the release of the PCMdialy 2012 database and I want to keep busy to then. I hope don’t mind.
Edited by PCM rulezz on 07-07-2012 11:58
Winners never quit, quitters never win.
It's difficult not to be happy when you're surrounded by Belgians. - Mark Cavendish
Hello
We just finished our first day of the training camp. I’ve made this short video during the day, here it is:
It was a long day so I don’t have much time to write today. Tomorrow we going to discuss our race calendar. I will post our decisions here tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I’ll also post some picture of our riders during the action.
And remember: you may still ask your questions.
Hi
This is my last blog at our training camp. But as promised I have made some pictures and this is the result.
But let's get serious now. My colleagues and I have made our selections for January. You can find our decisions in this diagram:
Haussler and Haas will both ride the NC RR and NC TT.
For the Tour down Under are Haussler and Vanmarcke our leaders. In the sprints, Haussler has Fischer and Hunter as his lead-out man's. Haas has told us that he wants to win the KOM-jersey. That would be realy nice because it's his first race for the team in his home country.
In Argentina, our teamleaders are Zabriskie and Talansky. Fernandez and Rasmussen will contest the sprints. And btw, the tour de San luis will be my first race as a DS for Garmin Barracuda, so I can't wait for that race.
@ Ian Butler: Hesjedal's calender isn't 100% sure, but he will start his season at the volta de algarve and after that Tirreno-Adriatico
So see you in Argentina ThomasEdited by PCM rulezz on 07-07-2012 11:59
Winners never quit, quitters never win.
It's difficult not to be happy when you're surrounded by Belgians. - Mark Cavendish
It was just weird not knowing what it was but having it in every story! ahaha! thanks 
