We didn't send a real sprinter Romandie, so the flat stage 2 was nothing for us. Tom-Jelte Slagter made it up by going in the break of the day, and securing the moutain jersey for a day or two. In the sprint, Paul Martens did his best, but he can't compete with the top sprinters.
Stage 3 was hillier, and Paul did a great job here, finishing 3rd. He's riding a good season so far.
Stage 4 saw a good Bauke Mollema countering Contador. While we did not earn points, we're happy with the rides from Mollema, Kelderman and Slagter.
Stage 5 was the queen stage of this year's Tour de Romandie. Our guys showed themselves, as Mollema opened the debates by jumping to the early breakaway. Contador would join him.
And here they go again!
Now it's Wilco Kelderman attacking!
Mollema and a few other join, it's looking good for us.
Unfortunately Contador and Porte were too strong, but we're really happy with the way Bauke and Wilco showed themselves today. Excellent agressive riding, and two top 10 results. Wilco is looking really good for the Giro as well!
A stage win was the goal for this Giro d'Italia, and our main man to do that was sprinter Willem Brouwer. Our main problem: Mark Cavendish. Stage 1 would probably be flat enough for him, but we did try to make it hard for him. Robert Gesink and Wilco Kelderman set some pace on the last hill, and Cav fell back a bit.
Next up was our sprint train Vanmarcke-Hofland-Brouwer, but unfortunately Calzone did a dangerous manouvre, blocking Hofland. Goss tried his luck and went early, while we were stuck. Despite a great last attempt from Brouwer, he could only get second place. A missed opportunity!
The next day was the team time trial. Despite the stage win goal, we're also deaming of a top 10 GC with Kelderman or Gesink. So everyone did their best here, especialy Brouwer wants to repay the work his team mates have been doing for him yesterday.
Despite having 1 second over Team Sky at the intermediate, we lost a bit in the second part. So we came in second again, just off the goal for the second day in a row. Brouwer also misses the Maglia Rosa by one second.
On to Stage 3 then. It would probably be the last chance for Brouwer to grab the lead. Robert Gesink decided to try something. The other teams would be forced to work, or let an outsider grab time.
BMC started to chase despite them having someone in the lead group. What followed was a series ofattacks, including Nibali and Quintana giving it a go already. Sky had to counter and set a hard pace. Even late attacker Gerrans could not get away. It would be a mass sprint.
Hanzen is the left is the first to launch to get back Gerrans in the centre. Bennati on the right follows, and in his wheel is Willem Brouwer in the youth jersey.
And Brouwer is gaining! Fast! Can he do this?
Victory for Willem Brouwer! What a great day for him and the team. In the end, Cavendish came really close, but he could hold on. Not only does Wimpie take the stage win, he also take the Maglia Rosa! And the point jersey, and the youth jersey. He probably has a hard day tomorrow defending it, so we're just going to let him enjoy it for now, and celebrate our accomplished goal.
Hi, it's Willem here!
I've got amazing news. In fact, a dream came true. Or 2. Anyway, let me tell you what happened:
You've probably read it, but I managed to win a Giro d'Italia stage.
Stage 1 was the first GT stage I've ever ridden. It was a great stage. After a strong leadout from the Belkin team, I managed to finish 2nd. Only Goss was faster.
Now, we were close to a win in the TTT. If we'd have won, I'd get pink, which would be awesome. But we were just 5 seconds short, and I was 1 second short of wearing Pink.
Knowing that stage 3 was hilly, I would have a chance on the win. I knew, that if I win, I will take Pink, regardless of who gets second.
Despite some attacks, we(and others) managed to get the pack together in the end, and guess? I won the sprint, outsprinting Cavendish! Best day of my life!
It means, that I could wear pink! That is so awesome! Here's a nice pic of me, wearing the 'Maglia Rosa'.
The stage was way too tough to keep it though, and Nibali took it over. In stage 5, it was even taken over by Betancur. Stage 5 was a bad day for me though, but I managed to keep my points jersey, and that's what I'm going to focus on the rest of the Giro.
I'm on 50 points now, which is 5 points ahead of my rival Hanzen, and 8 points ahead of Nibali. Plenty of mountains coming up though, so it won't be easy.
Kelderman is positioned 11th now, and is looking good for a GC Top 10.
The last day was a time trial. With a long one coming up in the Giro, it would be Wilco Kelderman's final test. Yet the first to impress was Stef Clement, setting a provisional first, and eventually finishing 8th.
Next up was Wilco. Unfortunately, he lost some time to Kangert, just falling off the podium. As a consolidation he picked up the youth jersey. Holding off guys like Lewis, Kim and Van Garderen is pretty impressive. We said it before, but Wilco is ready for the Giro.
Last of us, Bauke lost a few spots. Time trialing has never been his best part, but he might improve a bit before the Tour. Still, two guys in the top 10 is pretty nice, a good race from Belkin!
Sad news from the Giro the last few days, as Willem Brouwer was injured in a crash on stage 4. He's continuing, but keeps finishing in the back of the peloton, unable to contest the sprints. This is the worst timing of course, but we'll see how it goes. We''re applauding his fighting spirit to continue, but it's really sad to see the best sprinter of the opening days struggling so hard now.
The point jersey is gone now of course, but we're hoping for a recovery and a stage win later on. And whoever will win the point jersey, won't be able to call himself the undisputed champion.
Not much discussion here, a win in Paris-Roubaix is pretty much uncomparable. So without further ado, the winner is..
Sep Vanmarcke
Giving us probably the biggest win of the year, Sep's victory was obvious here. Runner up is Wilco Kelderman, for his great racing in Romandie, bringing home the youth jersey. Thirf is Robert Gesink for finishing second in Turkey, along with some other nice results.
Not the best team we had here, but Bos on the flat and Clement in the time trial should get us some results. Stage 1 saw a mass sprint, with Bos and Paul Martens getting top 10 results.
Martens would repeat his top 10 on the cobbles of stage 2. Stage 3 had Clement grabbing the 5th place in the time trial, getting him in the top 10 of the GC.
The next stage was flat again, Theo Bos did slightly better and grabbed third place. Martens got another top 10 as well, a very solid season so far for our German.
We almost had it in the last stage. Maarten Wynants joined the break that made it to the end, but got surprised by Hardy in the sprint. His second place still gives the team the best result of the race. Stef Clement held on for his top 10 position, giving us some more points. The only downside was that the impressive racing from Team Sky costs us the team rankings.
He needs all our cheering in what has become a very tough Giro d'Italia. With a great Time Trial result, finishing 2nd after Cancellara, he was the best of all GC riders. It gave him a provisional top 10 GC place.
Oviously not the best climber, he does what he can to defend the top 10 placement, finishing 10th in stage 10. He's struggling to hold up with the top climbers though. Better news from stage 12 though, as Willem Brouwer retuned from the dead and managed a 5th place. Maybe he can get another win later on?
Stage 13 saw some aggressive riding from Robert Gesink and Lars Petter Nordhaug, but 13 proved to be unlucky as in the end we didn't get any points and some unusual timegaps appeared. Appeals were sent to the UCI, but they wouldn't change it, causing Wilco to drop to the 10 place. It will be very close now.
Stage 14 saw more attacks from Gesink,but once again Wilco was struggling on the final climb. He held on to the Scarponi group, but it seems he's in real trouble.
We can be very proud of what Wilco has done so far, but we fear the third week. He is still very young and may not have enough in the tank for a 3 week stage race. Pellizotti and Basso are close, but their experience and local fan support might give them the edge. The time trial is also too mountainous for Wilco to take back time, meaning he will have to do all he can to defend.
While we feared week 3, Robert Gesink would have none of that. He attacked!
Ignoring the Mountain points, he set a good pace. In the background, Wilco was struggling again when the big names attacked, but he returned a few times. Realising the danger coming from behind, Robert dropped the rest of the group and went solo with 20 kilometres to go.
In the background, Wilco returned one last time before he was dropped again. But even further behind him were Hesjedal, Basso, Evans and Pellizotti. He was doing a very good job today!
And in the front, Robert Gesink celebrated a very big win. A tremendous day for the team!
Two more continental races while tyhe big guns were riding the Giro, perhaps some opportunities for us here? In Koln, home rider Paul Martens closed the gap to the early break, while we kept Boom and Renshaw in the peloton. But the break stayed away, and they would fight it out for the win. In a battle of the greens, Gene was just stronger then Paul. Better then expected of course, but a second place always hurts. Still, what a great season Paul Martens is having!
Norway was a different story though. Granted, the team was not very strong, but Jorge Cristobal Riquelme should be able to handle both the hills and the sprints. Yes this picture says it all: just not good enough. Only managing a few top 10s, we lost a goal as Europcar again thwarted our plans.
What we were afraid of happened. In the last mountain stage Wilco Kelderman could not follow the attacks of Peillizotti, who took over the 10th place in the GC. All credit to Pellizotti of course, if there was one way we didn't mind losing the spot, it would be like this. A strong attack in the mountains, taking minutes on Wilco.
But we have to be proud of Wilco Kelderman in his first Giro. He has shown great potential for the future and will be back here next year. He's destined for a few great wins in the future.
Another guy we can be proud of is Willem Brouwer. Perhaps the best sprinter in the Giro, he got sick the day after he won a great stage for us, accomplishing our goal. Yet he did not give up, stuck in the back of the peloton for a week, missing sprint after sprints. In the last week he returned to the front and got us a few more points. Thank you for that fighting spirit, Wimpie. We hope to see you back in form for the National Championships!
Willem here.
As you know, our Giro started fantastic, with me grabbing an early win and pink.
Unfortunately, it didn't stay that fantastic. The day after the blog, I got really ill. Appearently, I managed to pick up a minor infection. I visited a doctor in Mola di Bari, the starting place of stage 6.
They told me that it was just minor, but that they wouldn't be able to help me.
It would wear off sooner or later.
So I decided to continue the Giro d'Italia.
While guys like Cavendish & Goss were winning stages, I was in the back of the peloton most of the time. That really hurt me, but I just didn't have the energy for more than that.
The TT was a pain as well. I hadn't recovered at all at that time. I lost an incredible 7 minutes on the leader.
I imagined that if I would just take it easy in the mountain stages, things would eventually get better, so that I could seriously compete in the flat stages again. It got a bit better indeed.
I managed to grab a 5th place in stage 12, in a weird sprint with 1 member of the breakaway that survived.
When I managed to get 21th at the hilly stage, where a break survived, I knew things were getting better. Unfortunately, it were mainly mountain stages upcoming.
Meanwhile, in the mountains. Wilco lost some time. He was 10th for a long, long while, but in the end, he didn't manage to keep up his GC Top 10. Sadly, he got 11th in the GC. The team tactics certainly didn't help, with Gesink attacking a few times instead of helping Wilco secure his position. It has to be said that he got the team a stage-win though, which is great!
The few hilly and flat stages that were still there, unfortunately were a prey for the breakaway.
Stage 21 at least got some sort of sprint, though a few attackers slipped in the Top 10, with most notable Hoogerland taking an impressive victory. At least I was at the front for the last time this Giro
It's been a Giro of mixed feelings for me. I mean, I totally loved the stage win and wearing pink. It was the first time in my pro career that I faced illness though. It is horrible, during a Grand Tour. Mainly due to that, I wasn't able to do much after my 'Pink' stage. That, and too many breakaways making it to the finish.
I could've wore the points jersey for a long while if I was lucky. Who knows, maybe I could held on to it, if I would remain healthy?
Anyway, lets just focus on the good moments. I definitely showed that I'm worth being the main sprinter in this team, and I learned a lot from my first Grand Tour!
For Belkin, it was a decent Giro. Two stage wins from Willem Brouwer and Robert Gesink was great of course, but Wilco Kelderman just missing the top 10 and Willem being sick for most of the flat stages was a nightmare. Overall, we can be happy with what we got out of it, but with a little less bad luck, more would've been possible. let's review the 2013 Giro d'italia
Team rating
Willem Brouwer - 9
A stage win and wearing the Maglia Rosa, was absolutely perfect. Unfortunately he got ill and couldn't follow up on his early success. Robert Gesink - 8
While his stage win was great, he didn't really work for Wilco by attacking so often. Futhermore, he missed chances for the KoM jersey. So while rating him high for his stage win, there were some bad moment from him as well. At least he didn't crash. Marc Goos - 7
Marc did a lot of work for the team early on, but was a bit too invisible towards the end of the race. Moreno Hofland - 6
He didn't really succeed as Brouwer's leadout due to the strong Orica sprint train, and was quite invisible for most part. Wilco Kelderman - 8
Wilco did his absolute best to grab that top 10, but came just short. Still some nice results from him, including a 2nd place in the time trial gives him an 8 as well. Lars Petter Nordhaug - 4
Often attacking, Lars Petter forgot about the importance of the team. Especially in the last mountain stage he let Wilco down. Jos Van Emden - 7
Jos started well with a good TTT result, the main reason we brought him here. After that, he was often found close to the time limit Dennis Van Winden - 7
The same goes for Dennis, the 2nd place in the TTT was a great start, but he became invisible after that. Sep Vanmarcke - 6
Sep couldn't really get the sprint train going and didn't manage to get in a long breakaway as we hoped.
General rating
Best rider: Vincenzo Nibali
He had his daily troubles with Betancourt, Porte and Quintana, but he never really cracked and in the end won the GC with over 6 minutes, while also picking up 2 stage wins. Biggest surprise: Robert Kiserlovski
I hadn't counted on him at the preview, but he had a solid race with a lot of top 10 finishes, and only had some difficulties after his top 10 spot was absolutely safe Greatest disappointment: Mark Cavendish
No Greipel, no Kittel, no Sagan and still he only got 1 stage win. His train never made it and in the end he just can't be happy with wasting 21 race days this way. Best team: Team Sky
Weird as this may sound, they had good results and Porte got a podium despite problems. The main reason they get this award is because they are first on the rankings without using Froome. Most surprising team: Bardiani
Two stage wins and a few other good results. This team showed they were worth the wildcard despite having no top sprinter or top stage racer. Most disappointing team: Lotto - Belisol
Zero points in three weeks of racing, what else can we say. They did not bring any of their 3 good sprinters and the duo Vanendert/De Greef massively diappointed as well.
Edited by Ollfardh on 13-05-2014 16:20
The final major 1 week races are coming up, and Belkin is sending thier top riders. In France, Bauke Mollema will lead the team, and we believe a top 5 is possible, maybe even a podium with Gesink's support.
To Suisse we are sending Wilco Kelderman. After a disappointing Giro end, he'll try to rebound and get a top 10 for the team. We also have Luis Leon Sanchez as backup plan.
In between, the Philadelpia classic will be held in the States. Willem Brouwer will lead the team with support from Boom, Martens and Vanmarcke. A good result might be possible there.
Finaly, in our last race before the National Championships, we go to Luxembourg. Paul Martens will lead, but we will also test how Mark Renshaw and Theo Bos can manage the sprint train in preparation for the Tour.
With a lot of successes, this one was a harder nutt to crack. But we have to select the best result we got, so this month's winner is:
Willem Brouwer
A stage win in the Giro, the Maglia Rosa and an accomplished goal, we can be really proud o fhim. The runner up is Robert Gesink, for also a great Giro win. Third goes to Paul Martens for his good results in the German classics.
Thanks a lot!
Didn't expect it because of that illness. I expected a bit more from the Giro(in terms of wins, not in terms of Maglia Rosa days), to be honest
Also, Gesink? If he wouldn't have kept attacking, Kelderman would have scored a Top 10 and lots of points.
Three hilly opening stages, perfect for some attacks! Robert Gesink in stage 1.
And Gesink does it again in stage 2.
And Tom-Jelte Slagter in stage 3, in the white jersey after he sprinted to 9th in the previous stage.
Followed by Gesink again, he surely wins the combativity award.
He even comes in 4th this stage, but more importantly, all our attacks have made it very easy for Bauke Mollema. He's been finishing very strong, collecting points each stage so far. The next few days will be the real test though.
We regret to inform you that any ranking ambitions we had are gone now. One stage can make a difference. And when it goes wrong, it goes wrong everywhere. If it happens to be the big one week stage races at that moment, you can say goodbye to your ranking ambitions, as two top tens were needed to keep us near the top.
In Suisse, we had Wilco Kelderman crashing badly on the final descent of stage 3 and he saw all the GC contenders pass him one by one. Even with his best effords, he could not get back. He lost his top ten spot and it seems unlikely he can make up for the lost time.
