Hello and welcome to the 2015 HQ of Team TomTom.
We are a team that was grounded in 2014, and promoted to PCT right away!
Thus, in 2015, we will be racing PCT.
It's gonna be an exciting year.
Sponsors
Main Sponsor: TomTom
The Dutch manufacturer of navigation systems upped our budget and therefore we concluded we don't need any co-sponsor. The team name was fine enough so the team will be called Team TomTom in 2015, just like last year.
Nevertheless, the team still got a few new sponsors.
Here's a brief overview of our minor sponsors for 2015, which all will feature on our 2015 jersey.
Minor Sponsor 1: Eneco
Spoiler
That's right, the (obvious) sponsor of the Eneco Tour decided they want to take over a team. Eneco is the largest Dutch energy supplier.
Minor Sponsor 2: Jumbo
Spoiler
Another Dutch brand, not very familiar to cycling. (Although they do sponsor some Dutch WT team in an alternate reality ).
Jumbo is a supermarket chain which is ever expanding, with new Jumbos popping up in NL almost on a daily basis.
Minor Sponsor 3: Randstad
Spoiler
Just like last year, Randstad will be a minor sponsor. Randstad is a human resource consulting firm and very active in lots of sports, often, like in this case, as minor sponsor.
Then there are a few small sponsors, sponsoring certain things. Cipollini will sponsor our bikes, Deda Element will sponsor our wheels, Ale Giordina will be our clothing sponsor and at last, our nutrition sponsor will be Born.
As you probably already noticed, our main sponsors are Dutch, meaning the Netherlands will once again be our main focus. If we can't find a Dutch rider suiting specific needs, we'll look in Belgium and Germany first, before looking at the rest of Europe or even on another continent.
Jersey
Spoiler
Our jersey was created by Krisa, a Belgian shirt designer.
PCT Rankings Top 15 Rheden GP(HC) Win FDB Eire Tour(C1) Top 5 Tour of Norway(C1) Top 5 Isle of Man ITT(C1)Top 5
Calendar
TBA
What I can already tell is that we'll be focussing on the BeNeLux calendar as much as we can, and north & west Europe is also a priority.
Edited by Jesleyh on 11-06-2015 20:02
Our renewals are ready, and we're proud to announce that we have renewed 12 of our riders.
We have given most of them generous wages, possibly even too generous.
Here are the riders that we have re-signed, with their wages.
Brus
Marco
€50.000
Bulgac
Brian
€65.000
Duggan
Timothy
€110.000
Eefting
Roy
€50.000
Elijzen
Michiel
€105.000
Lebris
Cedric
€65.000
Mate
Luis Angel
€50.000
Moreno
Daniel
€100.000
Stenuit
Robin
€50.000
Toribio
Jose Vicente
€75.000
Van Ooijen
Cornelius
€50.000
Vingerling
Michael
€170.000
3 riders have not had their contracts renewed and will therefore be a free agent.
Obviously Bekmanis and Schoonbroodt are not part of our team anyway, having returned to their actual owners.
The riders that have been released are Pieter Ghyllebert, Diego Gallego and Elmar Reinders.
The first 2 have been release due to their age, and Elmar Reinders, our stagiare, has not proven enough in his month at our team.
Elijzen, Moreno and Duggan, the other ''oldies'', were able to stay, although for wage cut. In the case of the latter, that was a very large cut.
Vingerling is the only rider that is still on a huge wage. We wanted to make sure that we didn't lose the only rider with serious PCT capabilities we had left as well.
Our pre-transfer season team roster now looks like this:
There is plenty of work to be done in the transfer season, as you can see, the squad needs a lot of strengthening.
News about rider availability will come at a later point, but most of the riders will be available, for the right price, of course.
Edited by Jesleyh on 08-05-2015 18:43
Time to announce who must stay, who could go, and who basically must go.
Unavailable
Michael
Vingerling
170.000
Interesting enough, he's the only one that must stay. Even though he's kinda expensive, he would be a perfect leadout for any sprinter we might get. If we don't get anyone, a shame, but he could do a little something on PCT himself, hopefully. Probably not though
Possible, but expensive
Michiel
Elijzen
105.000
Jose Vicente
Toribio
75.000
Cedric
Lebris
65.000
Marco
Brus
50.000
Robin
Stenuit
50.000
Those riders can only go for a generous offer. This has different reasons. Elijzen is still a great, all-around, TTist/fighter. He has many more days than he had last year, as well, so despite his age, he's still worth alot to us.
Toribio is a good domestique for a low wage. Same goes for Lebris.
However, if any of those 2 can be replaced by a BeNeLux rider with similar qualities, the situation might change!
Both Brus and Stenuit still have some sprinter potential, and come from regions that are important for our sponsors as well.
Possible, for a good price
Daniel
Moreno
100.000
Roy
Eefting
50.000
Moreno is getting older, and whilst still a very good climber, it is time for him to say goodbye, although another year at our team wouldn't hurt either, since he can still be useful.
Eefting is a very useful guy in our sprinter train, but not someone who absolutely can't be missed, therefore he's available, especially for a CT team.
Go ahead, buy them!
Timothy
Duggan
110.000
Luis Angel
Mate
50.000
Cornelius
Van Ooijen
50.000
All those riders still have its uses for our team, but would be much more useful as CT rider. We have no problems with them staying(otherwise we wouldn't have extended), but you can pick them up for only a small amount of cash.
Duggan's TT & HI combination can still grant him good GC spots in CT, Mate is able to be a great help at all sorts of climbs, and Van Ooijen is a good fighter who is also able to help out in TTTs.
PT Loan
Brian
Bulgac
65.000
At this moment, we feel there's only 1 guy needing XP on the highest level. Bulgac, being on LVL4, 50XP, cannot develop further without PT experience, and therefore he needs a PT loan.
Bulgac is a class fighter(76FTR) and a very good domestique. But don't forget that, with most notably 74PRL, he can be useful in Time Trials as well.
Being okay at climbs, the only terrain where he couldn't possibly be useful is on the cobbles.
Even though he might not be the brightest guy, we hope a team is willing to pick him up. It would be great if any BeNeLux team is willing to give him this chance.
Edited by Jesleyh on 09-05-2015 12:25
Since our transfer season is definitely over, it is time to present our team.
It has been a busy period for Team TomTom, signing 15 riders, which should be close to the amount of some of the new teams
We will present our leaders and protected riders, and show you our whole team roster in the final part.
Leaders
First, let's take a look at our absolute leaders. These are the guys that will deliver us serious points, if everything goes right, that is.
Robin van der Hugenhaben - 30 - 410,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
OVL
73
77
80
71
77
76
75
65
68
66
80
66
71
77,50
Robin is a great puncher, and one of the best ones in the division. He was on the free agent market, and I think we were able to get him relatively cheap. Robin lacks acceleration, but makes up for it by being good on longer climbs.
Maxime Vantomme - 29 - 330,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
OVL
73
55
64
64
76
65
79
70
82
78
67
64
64
75,50
We bought Maxime for 1,51million from Quickstep. A huge amount, but we were simply aiming for a lead sprinter and all alternatives were unavailable or too expensive.
He should achieve some great results and has a proper leadout train available as well. We hope he can even better than he was for Quickstep in the past years.
Nikolas Maes - 29 - 245,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
OVL
80
56
67
64
79
74
72
79
62
67
72
62
64
75,09
Nikolas is a quality cobbler, and one of the best riders on flat roads of the world. He simply needs to attack if he wants to win a cobbled classic, though, and that's exactly what we want him to do. Other leadout trains will beg for mercy the moment he gets to the front.
Dennis van Winden - 28 - 200,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
OVL
74
53
63
80
70
70
74
57
59
72
79
63
80
73,90
A quality TTist for us. We hope he can grab us a couple of wins, but we realise there are a few top guys in the PCT division. Should still deliver us some nice points.
Protected riders
Now let's take a look at the other important riders. Not the riders that will score a 1000 points, but the riders that either are going to help the others to achieve that, or outsiders in races themselves.
Michel Kreder - 28 - 100,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
OVL
73
63
70
64
72
68
80
66
78
80
56
64
64
74,35
Michel will be our sprinter in the hills, being quite class on the hilly terrain, at least better than 90% of the other sprinters in the division. He will also be a leadout for Vantomme in some cases. On only 100k, he is an absolute bargain.
Michael Vingerling - 25 - 170,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
OVL
71
55
61
65
72
66
76
68
79
79
57
68
76
73,60
Vantomme's leadout, simply. He will often go where Vantomme goes, but he will get a few opportunities to sprint to Top 10s himself.
Believe it or not, he's our second youngest guy.
David Claerebout - 28 - 50,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
OVL
67
75
68
73
68
66
73
50
57
61
57
71
73
73,34
Yeah... We need someone in the mountains you know. He's number one of our climbing duo. Will also be able to feature in our TTT train.
Jude Libert - 27 - 70,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
OVL
58
76
67
62
64
69
71
51
55
76
66
56
62
73,14
Well, he is what he is, an one-trick pony. He's obviously the other half of our climbing duo. Will not be under pressure to perform, but we hope he goes for some attacks in the mountains. As long as he survives the flat roads, that is
Evert Verbist - 31 - 100,000
FL
MO
HI
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
OVL
77
51
64
61
74
72
71
77
58
67
79
63
61
73,05
Evert will be a great help for Maes. A strong second-row cobbler who could even attack in the final to put pressure on the other teams(preferably Azteca, who have no support for Summerhill ).
Will also feature in our leadout train and will be a very useful attacker in nearly every race.
Complete 2015 Team Roster
Dion
Beukeboom
€ 50.000
71,09
Marco
Brus
€ 50.000
71,25
Brian
Bulgac
€ 65.000
69,09
David
Claerebout
€ 50.000
73,34
Nick
Clesen
€ 50.000
70,30
Michiel
Elijzen
€ 105.000
72,15
Michel
Kreder
€100.000
74,35
Cedric
Lebris
€ 65.000
70,84
Jude
Libert
€70.000
73,14
Nikolas
Maes
€ 245.000
75,09
Bob
Schoonbroodt
€ 70.000
72,96
Tom
Schwarmes
€ 10.000
64,85
Robin
Stenuit
€ 50.000
68,44
Albert
Timmer
€ 50.000
71,06
Jose Vicente
Toribio
€ 75.000
71,96
Robin
van der Hugenhaben
€410.000
77,50
Geert
Van der Sanden
€ 50.000
71,96
Dennis
Van Winden
€ 200.000
73,90
Maxime
Vantomme
€ 330.000
75,50
Evert
Verbist
€ 100.000
73,05
Coen
Vermeltfoort
€ 70.000
72,72
Julien
Vermote
€ 50.000
71,11
Michael
Vingerling
€170.000
73,60
We're fairly happy with the outcome of the team. We'll be able to fight on every front except the long climbs.
Some points we're not fully content about are the average age(27,7) and the hill depth, but in my opinion, this team is good enough to finish in the upper half of the PCT division.
Which is higher than we expected beforehand.
Some top-quality leaders, I think you are definitely the best new PCT team and the top half should be easy for you. The likes of Hugenhaben and Vantomme especially could put you in promotion contention if they do really well.
I think you did well to develop one of the worst pre-transfer PCT teams into a good one.
You have strong leaders on every terrains bar the overpowered mountains and riders like Kreder are a great way to fill empty spots.
The one thing I really don't like is the amount of domestiques in the hills for Hugenhaben. It will be difficult to control races if riders like Toribio or Schoonbroodt have to chase down other facourites' attacks so you have to hope that Hugenhaben follows them immediately (or attacks himself)
@Froomedog
Thank you very much. The best new PCT team? Hmm, could be, I'm unsure. Promotion contention though? You overestimate my planning skills
@Viking
Thanks. Yes I'm very happy with Michel Kreder, 100k is a great amount for him as well
@Knockout
Thanks for the nice words. Yeah I started out with a crappy team and most things went like I hoped they'd go.
I decided pre-transfers that I would leave the mountains alone, and that proved to be a great decision. Looks like you made the same decision for your team
Yes, controlling races on the hills won't be easy, but the full 74HI trio will go where Hugh goes most of the time, so I hope that's enough. Robin has 80FTR anyway so he is supposed to attack in later phases. With 66ACC, I do not want him to finish in a group, to be honest
It's a really nice team and I don't think it will be too bad with controlling things for Hugenhaben. The hilly riders in the PCT are strong, but not THAT strong, and a rider like Vermelfoort is a brilliant "control" rider, with his flat and hill combination. Also a rider like Albert Timmer might be valuable in these races. Normally the peloton isn't dropped for the first 75% of the race, and in the last 25% I think van der Hugenhaben can do well on his own.
You definitely had a great transfer season, definitely hurts seeing Hugh's pricetag compared to McCarthy - looking forward to that battle throughout the season! That combined with Vantomme and a possibly very useful third big scorer in Maes I'd definitely tip you to be the best new PCT team as well - I'd nearly go as far as predicting you to reach hammer-promotion places.
Good luck with this year, and I hope that VDHH is more successful for you than he was for me. Getting him for about half the wage (and after I bumped him up to 80 hill) certainly won't hurt.
).
FDB Eire Tour(C1) Top 5
Tour of Norway(C1) Top 5
Isle of Man ITT(C1)Top 5
