Domenik Klemme's career at Team B&O has come to an end. From next season he will be returning to his home-country racing for the exciting Volkswagen-Mapei outfit.
Klemme was signed as a free agent back in 2010 and so joined the team in its first year on the ProTour. That same year he would come close to a stage win in the Giro d'Italia when he finished second to Dimitri Claeys in stage 14.
In 2011 he took part in the Deutschland Tour and in cooperation with his team-mates, he won the Team Time Trial in stage 2. His team captain Alex Pluchkin would go on to finish 2nd in the GC, with great help from Klemme. Earlier in the year he finished 6th in stage 19 of the Tour de France.
The following season his biggest result was a 19th place in the Amstel Gold Race.
Eventhough Klemme came close to that first individual win in 2013 with a 2nd place at German National RR Championships and 3rd at the second stage of the Vuelta a España, he never managed to grab it in his time at Team B&O.
Personal succes has not been the keyword of Klemme's time in the team, but he was always an important helper and one of the main reasons for the successes of Pluchkin, but also former team leader, Edvald Boasson Hagen.
We wish him all the best in the seasons to come!
Klemme attacking for the win in stage 2 of this year's La Vuelta.
You either have a lot of notes on your riders or a memory like an elephant. Either way it's a joy reading these small bits and parts from you. Klemme is a great domestique.
The team's new signings, Zakkari Dempster, Borislav Ivanov and loanee Marc Garby must be looking forward to be riding these shiny new things, designed by fintas.
Hopefully a lot of races will be won with this fine new equipment.
Transfer season is over for some teams and Team B&O is one of them. Domenik Klemme left the team as the first action of the transfer period and soon thereafter Zakkari Dempster joined.
Another prominent name in the team's history to leave was Steven Kruijswijk who has joined his former team-mate Edvald Boasson Hagen at Aker-MOT.
"Selling Kruijswijk was not part of the plans. But things changed when we got a good offer for him. He was an integral part of this team and it was very hard for me to let him go. He has been fantastic for us and I hope to see him back in the team down the road sometime."
Also Rasmus Quaade who started as a stagiare in 2012 left the team to make up some cap room for incoming signings.
Besides Dempster the team signed Bulgarian climber, Borislav Ivanov and Jure Zremsek, who is an experienced asset to the team. Zremsek could also feature in races with TTTs as that is one of his big strengths.
The transfer period also meant a welcome back to Frederik Wilman, who was with the team in its first year in 2008. Wilman is expected to support the team's leaders Pluchkin, Keinath and Guldhammer in the mountain stages.
Also in on loan deals are Danish climber Marc Christian Garby and Dutch all-rounder Nick van der Lijke. The manager is hoping for a big impact by bringing these two in for 2014.
So the team roster now stands at 27 riders with the goal being the same: Lots of good results in the stage races and a winning the Tour de France.
The ProTour kicked off in China, in and out of Beijing today. The race was won by Vesuvio-Accumalux' Fränk Schleck in convincing fashion, while Team B&O had a more supporting role.
Unfortuneately none of the B&O riders made the final selection resulting in 30th place for Aleksandr Pluchkin, 34th for Michal Kwiatkowski and 40th for Nikias Arndt. Not impressive by a long shot, but this is not the team's territory as explained by DS niconico:
We also managed to get a comment from a debuting Magnus Cort Nielsen, who has returned from a season-long loan at Swedbank-PEAB. The young Dane finished just outside the points in 56th today.
"It was a really tough race. We'd hoped that Alex or Michal would have made the final selection, but it wasn't to be. I'm happy with my own performance and I'm really looking forward to racing Paris-Nice now. I'll be riding for Keinath here and hopefully he can get a good result in that race."
Next up is Tour of Qatar where the team will be looking to new signings Zakkari Dempster and Nick van der Lijke to score a good result.
Following a mediocre start to the season it is time for the pedal-punching delegation of the team to secure some points for the rankings. Tour of Qatar is about to start and Team B&O has two debutants lined up for the first stage.
One of them is Zakkari Dempster, who after six seasons at Continental level finally is ready to set off in pursuit of new palmares for him and his team at ProTour level.
The Aussie joined Team B&O in the transfer season after the disbandment of Hollister Pro Cycling, and he is eager to get underway for his new team.
"It's almost like a dream come true for me to join Team B&O. They have been at ProTour level for three years now and they know how to compete at the highest level. I'm really looking forward to Qatar. It's my first race for the team and I really want to do well. I think van der Lijke could potentially claim some Top 10s throughout the race and if everything clicks I have a personal goal of finishing in the Top 5 of the time trial in stage 6. It may be a bit too short for my liking, but the season is just getting started so the legs are fresh and I'm in great shape."
Eventhough the team's captain in Qatar, Zakkari Dempster, didn't manage to squeeze into the overall Top 10 it was still a solid race from the Danish team that doesn't have great history in this race.
DS and manager niconico:
"Zakkari [Dempster] was always sticking to the front the whole race and he knew he needed to as we saw in stage four. He rode a brilliant race but just lacked the final punch in the short time trial in the final stage. 13th for him is very good and then we had more results aswell."
Besides intelligent riding from Dempster also Steensen and Sagan performed well. Steensen finished 5th in the final ITT in a star-studded field of TTists, while Juraj Sagan came agonizingly close to the stage win in stage 5 where he finished 2nd.
Next up is Chronos des Herbiers where Dempster and Steensen will be riding once more. Making his season debut here is Michael Færk Christensen.
With three races down Team B&O occupies 16th place in the ProTour Team Standings. Today's Chronos des Herbiers didn't spark much enthusiasm after a below-par performance.
The team's Australian tempo specialist Zakkari Dempster was hoping to finish inside the Top 10 but instead had to settle for 16th. Not a bad result in such a strong field of TTists, but nevertheless the former Hollister Pro Cycling rider was not content.
"I feel in great shape and Qatar went alright for me so I was hoping I could into this race with even more power in my legs. Unfortuneately that wasn't the case today and I cannot be pleased with this result."
The result bumps Dempster up to 20th in the ProTour Individual Standings, which isn't bad for a rider making his debut in the top tier of cycling. Next up for the Aussie is Paris-Nice where he will be a pivotal rider for the team and captain Nico Keinath, to get him into a good position after the TTT.
Jerome Coppel of Simply Red Bull won Chronos des Herbiers, with Mikhail Ignatiev a surprise 2nd and World Champion Taylor Phinney rounding out the podium in 3rd.
The Race of Two Seas kicked off today in decent fashion for the team with Brian Vandborg and Juraj Sagan, both finishing inside the Top 10 in the 5-km prologue.
Also team captain, Rasmus Guldhammer, got off to a good start finishing the day as the 21st fastest rider losing just a few seconds on the biggest favourites for overall win.
"It's a good start for me, TTing isn't my strongest side but I have improved a good deal over the winter, so I'm happy with this stage and looking forward to the hills now. I'm hoping that I can finish in the Top 10 here and maybe race for a stage win in one of the stages with a downhill finish," said Guldhammer
The full B&O team in Italy is Rasmus Guldhammer, Brian Vandborg, Juraj Sagan, Kristian Sobota, Nick van der Lijke, Nikias Arndt, Borislav Ivanov and Thomas Riber-Sellebjerg.
Guldhammer off to a good start in Tirreno-Adriatico.
Tirreno-Adriatico is hotting up, and so is Paris-Nice. The Race of Two Seas and the Race to the Sun is seeing some good riding from the B&O boys these days.
In Italy, Rasmus Guldhammer is sitting in 15th on GC, he is however, struggling to keep up with the puncheurs in the steep hills, but is stille hopeful he can win back some time and finish in the Top 10.
"It's been a hard race with lots of short up-and-down bursts, which is not the kind of riding I like. 15th overall is not bad but I was looking for something better, and I'm still hopeful I can get there."
Succes is greater in Paris-Nice for the team, where the opening TTT saw the Danish team finish in 4th place, which was a perfect way to set up captain Nico Keinath for a shot at the GC.
He has tried a lot, and then he has tried some more. B&O captain Aleksandr Pluchkin has been in every edition of the Man-Game Tour de France since 2009, steadily quantifying his development as a GC rider by improving on his GC finishes year after year.
Last season after finishing on the podium for the first time in 2012, Pluchkin was in pole position to grab the Tour crown. But fate wanted something different as the multiple national champion punctured on the stage fitting numbered 13 of that year and lost his yellow jersey.
This year the competition is even fiercer than last time around. Big names like Spilak, Madrazo and Schleck are the obvious rivals of Pluchkin, but eventhough the runner-up of this season's Giro d'Italia is not sitting in first place at the moment, it is definitely looking up.
"After the ITT Alex is now 2 minutes down on Phinney, but what's even more important is the time he has already gained on Madrazo, Spilak and Schleck. At this point that's huge. Phinney is of course too in a great position and he is a previous Grand Tour Champion, so hauling back the massive advantage he gained today is no easy task by any means."
Was the words of DC niconico following today's time trial that saw David Zabriskie hold off Taylor Phinney for the win, with Pluchkin losing just under two minutes on the latter.
"We believe it's possible. After the travesty of the last Tour de France Pluchkin is more determined than ever. There are lots of mountain finishes to come which will favour Alex, so it's definitely possible. Spilak and Madrazo of course, cannot be discounted.
An outstanding Aleksandr Pluchkin finally achieved his ultimate career goal this season by winning the 2015 edition of the Tour de France.
We would like to wish him and his Metinvest-Dacia team a heartfelt congratulation on the amazing feat.
"Pluchkin came close so many times with us, but his change to Metinvest-Dacia has surely done him a world of good. We are very proud to have fostered such a talented rider, and we are sure that more Tour wins await up the road," the former Team B&O manager niconico said in a press statement.
Awesome idea niconico to honor your former franchise rider, you and rest of B&O team members certainly did a great job in shaping his talent and character. Whole Metinvest team is happy to earn his services and finally bringing him to his lifetime goal, benefiting from yours earlier guidance.
Thanks for the warm congrats, i am still like this when seeing him on this picture:
Btw. our own "double GT win" report is coming soon (weekend) in our long deserted HQ thread.
