Is it a gift or is it a curse? For the 3 time in the 3 days this Pais Vasco, we finished on the third place. Very good, but not the win we are looking for for quite some time now. But contrary to the other days, we can't be unhappy with the final result, as Wilco Kelderman's attack led to time gain on the others. With 5km to go, Wilco attacked, leaving the Euskaltel duo Anton/Sanchez behind. Not something you do every day!
It was going way better than his attack on day 1, picking up what remained of the early break. We ca, only hope he didn't peak too soon, the Giro is still a month away!
At the finish, Wilco lost 12 second to the stage winner and new yellow jersey, Francis Mourey. But he does take 24 seconds on Kwiatkowski, taking over the young rider jersey! Good finishes from the rest of the team also give us the lead in the team rankings!
After we looked at the startlist, we knew a podium would be very hard. One does not simply defeat Cavendish, Greipel and Kittel. BUt one can always have a bad day or a fall, so we did send a very strong sprint train and decided to toughen up the race. Lars Boom and Maarten Wynants try to make amends for their poor showing in Ronde Van Vlaanderen and attack.
But the other teams want a sprint and pull them back in with 20 kilometres to go. Our sprint train was taking form, when a mass crash took down Moreno Hofland, who was supposed to launch Renshaw. In the mess, a few riders got away and Renshaw and Brouwer got locked in. While Greipel was celebrating, we stiil were stuck, resulting in only a 7th for Willem Brouwer and 9th for Mark Renshaw.
On to Roubaix then. Again, no podium expectations, but we hope Vanmarcke will surprise us!
Actually we were trying out a new black Kevlar prototype helmet. The organisers wanted to disqualify us, but the UCI allowed it
For Paris-Roubaix, we're trying out another new prototype, that will give us +3 cobble. UCI approved again. You got that, Shonak?
Edited by Ollfardh on 20-02-2014 12:53
The third Monument, the Hell of the North, Paris-Roubaix. It's not made for cyclists, it's made for gladiators. These eight heroes entered the arena. They fought in the dirt, leaving bllod sweat and tears on the cobbles between paris in Roubaux. They are Belkin.
Jetse Bol Lars Boom Tom Leezer Maarten Tjallingii Jos Van Emden Sep Vanmarcke Robert Wagner Maarten Wynants
From the start, we rode the perfect race. Jos Van Emden got into the early break, making sure he could assist our leaders later on. He rode a smart race, not wasting too much energy.
Leukemans joined them and took a lot of turn to increase the gap. In the back, the other teams were forced to work. We just protected our leaders, Boom and Vanmarcke. In the break, Erveti tries to go solo, but Van Emden strongly counters him.
From the peloton, Cancellara and Gaudin attack, so Jos just lets them come and sits in the wheel. Spartacus is wasting a lot of powers! Now it was time for Tjallingii and Wynants to unleash hell upon the two attackers. But Boonen gets impatient and attack, Boom follows. Are Cancellara and Boonen killing each other?
Now just 30 kilometres to the line. It's Sep time. Vanmarcke pulls off a devastating attack. Who has an answer?
No one.
Now it's just 20 kilometres, can he hold on?
Carrefour de l'Arbre. Suffering in the highest degree.
In the chasing group, Boom counters everything that moves, he tries to protect Vanmarcke as best as he can.
It's there, the velodrome. The crowd is cheering his name. But he needs to keep going, the others are coming really close. Come on Sep!
Total exhaustion, he can't even lift his arms anymore, but he made it. Sep Vanmarcke crosses the line first and wins Paris-Roubaix!
Lars Boom takes 9th, great work from him in the background.
And here we are, the picture of the year. He can finaly cheer now. Sep Vanmarcke wins Paris-Roubaix.
After the succesful cobbled season, we move on to the Ardennes. The warm-up is Brabantse Pijl, where Willem Brouwer and Jorge Cristobal Riquelme were supposed to lead. Unfortunately, the organisation added some last minute cobbles, so we'll have to change our plans. Since our goal was a top 10 here, we're a bit scared now.
Next up is the Amstel Gold Race, the most important dutch race there is, so we want a podium here. It'll be hard, but we have several riders who should like the course. The key will be teamwork here, to disable the superstars. Mollema, Brouwer or Christobal Riquelme will lead, depending on how hard the finish will be.
Fleche Wallonne is a nice race as well. Again we rely on Jorge Cristobal Riquelme, but if the Mur de Huy is too steep for him, Bauke Mollema is there as well.
Finaly there's the 4th monument already, Liege-Bastogne-Liege. To keep up with the earlier ones, a top 10 would be nice. Unfortunately our top monument finisher, Sep Vanmarcke, won't be riding here, so it's once again up to Mollema and Cristobal Riquelme to do their best!
We hope Paris-Roubaix was not our high watermark of the season, because the followup was less then ok. Amstel Gold Race, a very important race for our team of course, was a disaster. It already started with the first breakaway. While our cobbles team always made sure we were in the break, our Ardennes team did not, thus we were forced to chase early on. Then Luis Leon Sanchez tried to get away 40 kilometres away from the line.
But way too many big names joining him, so they were brought back. Bauke Mollema tries next and Sanchez tried a few times again as well. By the time we hit the final Cauberg, we were suffering. 13th and 14th is all we could manage today.
Not our day today, though we appreciate our riders trying a Vanmarcke, only the big guys can attack so much and still get a good final result. We probably should've kept someone fresh for the final. Hoping for better in Fleche Wallonne!
In the mean time, Pais Vasco became a nightmare as Luis Leon Sanchez and Wilco Kelderman made a few questionable decisions in the penultimate stage, causing both of them to loose their chances of a top 10, despite Sanchez finishing 7th on that stage. They needed an incredible time trial, but Wilco could only manage 10th place, thus finishing 12th in the GC, with Luis Leon coming in 14th. A week full of good stage results is thus ruined by the lack of GC.
Edited by Ollfardh on 06-03-2014 10:58
The Giro d'Italia is a beautiful race, so we want to send one of our best riders there. Willem Brouwer will lead the team, hoping to win a sprint. He wil get help on the flat from Jos Van Emden, Dennis Van Winden and his leadout, Moreno Hofland. Sep Vanmarcke can also help out on the flat, though we also expect him in a breakaway for a stage win. Another guy here for stage wins is Robert Gesink. Not the GC rider he once was anymore, we still hope he show something. Wilco Kelderman will be our guy for the GC. We know it will be very hard, but we hope for a top 10. Marc Goos and Lars Petter Nordhaug will be his mountain domestiques.
Willem Brouwer Robert Gesink Marc Goos Moreno Hofland Wilco Kelderman Lars Petter Nordhaug Jos Van Emden Dennis Van Winden Sep Vanmarcke
In preparation of the Giro, our riders will ride a number of less important races. Wilco Kelderman will ride in Romandie, where he will share the lead with Bauke Molleme. Robert Gesink will be preparing in the Tour of Turkey. Sprinter Moreno Hofland will have a chance to ride for himself in Romandie as well, before he goes back to being a leadout in the Giro. Aside form those two, we'll also ride the German classic Rund um Finanzplatz Frankfurt. No real expectations there, Jorge Cristobal Riquelme will lead the team. The rest of our Giro squad has had plenty of racedays already, they'll be ready for the Giro.
Edited by Ollfardh on 12-03-2014 15:22
Last weekend, we were complaining about no rider getting in the breakaway. You can imagine how big our disappointement was when we had no rider in a breakaway consisting of 16(!) riders. And things got even worse, as no one replied to any attacks that came. We didn't get any tv time due to our lackluster performance. This was probably the most passive race of Belkin all season long. Our fury from the cobbled classics is clearly gone. Bauke Mollema went to save the day for the team by getting 8th after a late attack. A good result, but we'll need to have some talks before Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
We can under stand the Ardennes classics weren't as good as you would've hoped. We started bad in the Gold Race, followed by an invisible Fleche Wallonne and then we finished with Liege-Bastogne-Liege where once again the results weren't what they should be. We want to apologies for the poor showing of our team and assure you the riders involved are sorry as well. Or at least they will be sorry after their extra training.
Bauke Mollema did his best, and with a top 10 in Fleche he had one good race at least. Sanchez and Gesink also did one thing right, getting a few points in the Gold Race and Liege-Bastogne-Liege respectively. We're not too happy with Jorge Cristobal Riquelme's performance though, getting defeated 3 times by Delfi Cervero. Slagter, Martens and Nordhaug also diappointed by not getting into the break once.
Those 7 riders will all take a training session on the Cauberg, as an extra training for the rest of the season.
With only 6 riders in Turkey, it was hard to control the race. So we just watched and waited for the inevitable sprint. Our train was Bol-Leezer-Bos, not the best we had this year, but it should be on level with the Continental Tour teams. But on stage 1, we got blocked and couldn't get anywhere near the win.
The second day, our train didn't get blocked, but by bringing back the breakaway, Bol and Leezer had to go a bit too early. Bos did get 3rd today, while Leezer also picked up a few points by finishing 10th
We're still hoping for a win in the next days. Though our train is not the strongest, Bos should be amongst the best sprinters in this pack. Furthermore, Gesink can try something on a hilly finish. We don't have the best team in this race, but our closest competitors in the rankings aren't even here, so we should try to get some points in.
Edited by Ollfardh on 25-03-2014 10:16
We rode a few bad races this season, but what happened yesterday in Brabantse Pijl, was by far the worst we've seen all season. As we were in the CT, we couldn't use team radios, and in the chaos that followed we lost our easy goal by 1 place.
We started out well with Jorge Cristobal Riquelme starting an early breakaway, while keeping Vanmarcke, Boom and Brouwer safe in the peloton.
The lead group didn't cooperate well, but even stranger, there was little chasing from the peloton. Vanmarcke tried to close the gap, but after his great win in Roubaix a few days ago, he just didn't have the legs to do something special here. Lars Boom got dropped even earlier.
And here it is, in the last few metres, Roelandts passes Jorge, taking away our easy goal. Really disappointing of course.
In other news, Robert Gesink has been grabbing some good results in the Tour of Turkey. Unfortunately, due to prime minister Erdogan's latest decision, all tv transmissions have been blocked and we can't show you any images.
Edited by Ollfardh on 04-04-2014 10:02
Ollfardh wrote:
Unfortunately, due to prime minister Erdogan's latest decision, all tv transmissions have been blocked and we can't show you any images.
Nice one. I'll steal that line for the NetApp reports.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
With Romandie and Turkey, it was out last chance to get into form before the Giro. In Turkey, Robert Gesink showed he was ready, only Niemiec was better. With a few stage podium he came really close to a win, but it just wasn't meant to be. Theo Bos on the other hand could only manage a third place, while we definitely expected more of him. Tom Leezer also grabbed some points as leadout, but it seems our train isn't working that well. Unfortunately, tv broadcast are still blocked in Turkey, better luck next year!
Romandie had an uphill prologue to the liking of Bauke Mollema and Wilco Kelderman. The got 6th and 8th respectively, and especialy for Wilco this is looking really good for the Giro.
Hi guys, it's Willem. Season Part 2 hasn't been great for me up to now. I rode Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold Race. Personally, I didn't really have goals there, but I hoped that our leaders would do well, though for some reason, I was made a co-leader in Brabantse.
In the Amstel Gold Race, our best rider was 13th(Mollema). It was great to ride it though, and the crowd cheered at me. It's not my ideal type of race though.
The cobbles of the Brabantse Pijl were a disaster. It was nice to try them out once, but never again! I finished 17 minutes behind the winner, which was (surprisingly) Hulsmans, in the end. Riquelme did a good job though. He's not a big fan of the cobbles either, but managed 11th.
So next up is the Giro d'Italia. I'm really looking forward to it. I will be the lead sprinter. On paper, there's only 1 guy faster than me, that is Mark Cavendish. He's the fastest man on the world, at least shared with Kittel.
This will be my first GT. The 2013 Giro definitely got some nice 'semi-hilly' stages, where I might be a favourite.
I've been training in Italy for a bit. Exploring the roads and such.
Belkin's leader will most likely be Wilco Kelderman, another youngster. I might have to do a bit work for him, given that I'm not a bad climber, but I don't mind working for him, he's a nice guy.
My goal for the Giro is 2 stage-wins. It's a bit ambitious, but I should have realistic chances on that. I'm ready for the Giro!
Jetse Bol
Sep Vanmarcke
Robert Wagner
Lars Petter Nordhaug
