Coming back from the Tour du Rwanda, we can only say: Wow!
The race has been a major success for us, and it really shows us what our boys are capable of, at least when the WT riders aren't around to dictate the race.
I'm very happy I choose to go with the team to Rwanda as a DS, because it was a wonderful trip. Meanwhile the boys back home fought in the Belgian Opening weekend, I'll give a small update on that first.
For the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, there oddly wasn't a very strong startlist. Daniel Dierickx profited fully from that and actually managed to pull off a major achievement by finishing 6th! That only goes to show how big his engine is. Talk about making a good first impression in Flanders!
We also had Arthur Roets riding in the breakaway all day!
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad - Top 15
1
Marcus Burghardt
BORA - hansgrohe
5h31'31
2
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
CCC Team
s.t.
3
Nils Politt
Team Katusha- Alpecin
s.t.
4
Luke Rowe
Team Sky
s.t.
5
Damien Gaudin
Direct Energie
s.t.
6
Daniel Dierickx
Wanty - Gobert Cycling Team
+ 35
7
Phil Bauhaus
Bahrain - Merida
+ 1'18
8
Daryl Impey
Mitchelton-Scott
s.t.
9
Fabio Sabatini
Deceuninck-Quick Step
s.t.
10
Sean De Bie
Roompot-Charles
s.t.
11
Jens Debusschere
Team Katusha- Alpecin
s.t.
12
Jean Pierre Drucker
BORA - hansgrohe
s.t.
13
Gediminas Bagdonas
Ag2r La Mondiale
s.t.
14
Roel Huyge
Wanty - Gobert Cycling Team
s.t.
15
Salvatore Puccio
Team Sky
s.t.
Kuurne the next day was perhaps another good chance for our boys. Dierickx and Roets completely sacrificed themselves for Huyge, hoping for his fast kick to get us another top 10, but it wasn't meant to be. In the mass sprint, he finished 16th. Not bad, but not amazingly good either.
And so let's go to Rwanda, because exciting things have happened there!
Tour du Rwanda :: Part I - Charmed!
When we asked Maxime Thomas who his favorite rider was, he said Thomas De Gendt, without thinking. Turns out this is not a coincidence. Maxime was relentless in his attacking in this 8-day stage race. Sometimes at the start of the race, sometimes in the middle, sometimes near the end. It didn't yield to any result, besides the occasional intermediate sprint reward, but he charmed the whole cycling community, without a doubt.
The one I'll remember most is when he had attacked, but been brought back. The tempo went up and he had to let the front group go. When things slowed down a little, he caught up, went to the front and immediately attacked again.
It's the folly of youth. But what a wonderful folly to watch!
Tour du Rwanda :: Part II - A Battle of Kings!
Maxime wasn't the only one to show his strength. Joris Cuyper, not even 20 years old, managed to get in the breakaway on the second stage. He took the King of the Mountain jersey there.
Asking him about it after the race, we decided to try and defend it until the end.
And so we did. Maxime was a major help, but mostly Joris did it himself. Especially Nikodemus Holler was dead set on the jersey himself, he wanted to crown himself King of the Mountains.
What followed was a battle for kingship, with these two together at the front, almost every day. In the end, Joris prevailed, bringing home our very first jersey for 2019!
Tour du Rwanda :: Part III - Fighting Spirit
The list goes on! During all these fighting, the other boys were looking for their chance to shine. And one of them found it.
On stage 5, three of our guys were in the front group of 35 riders. There were 20 km left to go and it went uphill, at a slope of about 5-6%. Waiting for a sprint would not result in a win, so Noah Poulin decided to gamble. All or nothing. He went and attacked and got a 40 second lead pretty easily. But he had to keep his lead until the end!
He fought hard, and it payed off. A second victory for our team! This one tastes very sweet indeed!
Tour du Rwanda :: Part IV - Mental Strength
And finally, arguably the greatest achievement over the entire race (though we can't underestimate the other riders' efforts!), Damien Michaud tried to ride a decent GC for this race. After two stages, he was placed 12th, so it looked good.
Damien performed on the level day after day and slowly moved up the GC, to 11th, to 8th, back to 12th. And just when you think he might crack, he pulls out his greatest performance on the final stage, only to end up 7th in the Final Classification.
Well done, Damien! And a big congratulations to the entire squad. I was proud to be with these boys during this race!
Unfortunately, the bad news is that Louis Leroy's back injury is healing more slowly than we hoped, he might be out until mid April. Sad to see his early season ruined like that. Let's hope he can kick back later this year!
- Ian
Wow, a great result in Omloop but also a fantastic team race in Rwanda in a very strong field it must be said. Already a Maxime Thomas De Gendt fan
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
I had forgotten how great it was to write on PCM.Daily, with the daily support! That's really great! Thanks!
canojuancho - Thanks. It's a great team, I really like them!
sutty68 - Nice to be back, Mr. S Thanks! It wouldn't be a story without a comment from you!
Tamijo - It was a great race. Some of our boys in excellent form, too. I'm still getting to know the game, I may have peaked some boys too early...
VoetsT - Most definitely!
jandal7 - Glad to see Maxime already has some fans
the_hoyle - Yes, very welcome points for the CQ ranking, too!
I think I'm getting the hang of this game. Just raced a few nice races, so I will probably up the difficulty now Edited by Ian Butler on 06-03-2019 20:34
It's not easy, leading a team of 20 neopros in the PCT circuit. Obviously we've already gotten lots of criticism, people saying our license as a PCT shouldn't be valid with such a change of squad. I hope our results so far have proven the critics wrong, we're definitely not the worst ranked team in the PCT so far.
Still, we are not without hope. The stage races we will enter, we'll just have to prove we belong there. And our Classics riders can step up their game, for certain. And we also have the hilly classics to look forward, too. Both the WT ones, and the smaller ones, where we might have a chance at a victory.
In other news, Sporza has been very interested in our project. Since we've received a wildcard for the Ronde van Vlaanderen, they intend to follow us all day that day with a camera crew. A team full of neopros starting at the Ronde, they think it's very special.
I agree.
A grand reversal of fortune! Only 9 days ago I posted that it was a rough time for us, that we were having some tough races.
Well, the boys certainly picked up on the message! Oh and how!
Today I have three achievements for you. It's up to you to vote which achievement is the greatest. Search within your heart and tell us whose performance you rank the highest!
A. Huyge and the Sprint Train
In GP de Denain, the peloton was headed for a mass sprint. We had a few strong riders ready to make way for our sprinter, Roel Huyge. He was feeling good that day, so if we could get him in position, that'd be great!
It all started with Maxime Thomas, who pulled more than his weight. He set the pace for over 25 km, discouraging any further attacks and bringing the peloton closer to that mass sprint.
After that, Mustafa Bousaid took up the role of bringing Huyge to the front, and keeping him there. He set a tremendous pace and made sure our sprinter could contend for the victory.
Yet, a sprint train is useless without a finisher. Roel Huyge went from wheel to wheel and timed his final punch perfectly. A second victory for him this season. The 23 year old is definitely making use of his chances!
Obviously the Record Bank E3 - Harelbeke is going to be super important for us. We had high hopes of Dierickx. And while he certainly didn't disappoint, finishing 21th on his first E3, another rider of our team took all the glory for himself.
Tim Baets was the first attacker of the day, and one of the five riders to spend the entire day at the front. Baets is a monster rider, the biggest engine I've ever seen on a 22 year old.
Suddenly it started looking close for the peloton, would they even catch the breakaway group? Had they miscalculated? Greg Van Avermaet wouldn't leave it up to chance and attacked - and reached the breakaway group.
But the five brave men refused to let Van Avermaet go. They held on to the pace and Van Avermaet took them to the finish line. The peloton had, in fact, miscalculated. That meant we were in for a top 6!
Even greater, Van Avermaet had jumped and was in it, all or nothing. The other riders at the front had spent the entire day riding, so Van Avermaet did all the work himself. But maybe he dug a little too deep? Either way, he had no punch left at the end. Vuillermoz was the fastest and took the victory, while Baets surprised everyone, including me, by finishing 2nd, just ahead of Van Avermaet, in this E3 Harelbeke.
Three guesses who this is about. You're right, he's quickly becoming a fan favorite and not without reason. Maxime Thomas, the boy from Wallonie who admires Thomas De Gendt and who resembles him in riding style.
In Classic Loire Atlantique, he showed off a little more of his attacking magic. You can't win if you don't try, that's his motto.
And you know what that means. If you do try, you can win. He went looking for glory some 40 km from the finish. He brought along four others. They worked together extremely well and went to the final kilometers together. There, Maxime launched yet another attack. He got a few dozen meters, that's about it. He kept that lead straight until the finish line. If the finish line were five meters further, he might've lost, but he calculated his efforts perfectly.
A fourth victory this season for us, three months into the season. We've had our ups and downs, but the ups are leading!
Wow three great races. Super happy to see Maxime get a victory already due to his attacking, Huyge looks like a strong and intelligent sprinter, but you can’t argue with an E3 podium for a Belgian neo-pro, Baets gets my vote!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
valverde321 - It probably depends on what team you play with? If you have favorites or not. And, of course, a bit of luck never hurts!
sutty68 - Sure are!
the_hoyle - Yeah, so unexpected, too. That never happened to me in PCM before, that the breakaway makes it to the finish line in a WT classic!
Hope you don't mind about this pace for now. Like I said, for the first time in forever I have nothing to do for a few days, and I'm quite excited about this new PCM so that explains it.
Next week, busy schedule kicks in again, while the new-ness of PCM wears off, it'll be a much more leisurely pace!
For now, I've put it on normal difficulty, I'm getting the hang of the game. Eventually I'll probably end up on Hard difficulty.
Even though our main focus lies in climbing, and finding talented climbers in Belgium, we have plenty of stakes in the fire in the cobbled races. Some of our guys are born Flandriens and we want to develop our team in all possible directions.
Gent - Wevelgem and the Ronde Van Vlaanderen were two big goals for this early season. Especially for Dierickx, Huyge and Leroy. Unfortunately, Leroy is still injured and won't be back until after the early season. Shows how important your back is, and how easily it can give you a lot of pain.
After our very surprising result in Record Bank E3 - Harelbeke, some pressure was already off our shoulders. The sponsors are already quite happy with what we've shown. Still, a team of 20 neopros means, besides inexperience, that these boys are always hungry!
Oh, and before you ask, yes we also raced in Dwars Door Vlaanderen. But we didn't even make the top 50 there, so nothing to report from that race.
Gent - Wevelgem
The story of Wevelgem is easily told. An early breakaway getting caught some 30 km before the finish line, and then a sprint of 24 riders.
Kris Catelyn was in the breakaway of the day, and actually attacked out of it with 50 km to go. He rode some 20 km at the front of the race, before being swallowed by the peloton.
Unfortunately, Huyge was not strong enough to survive the hills, and we had no man in the first group of the race. Catelyn was our best finisher, at 30th place.
A more exciting story, both for the average cycling fan and for our fans! Sporza followed our team for an entire day with camera crews. So don't be afraid if you see my face on television any day soon. Just remember that my wife has to look at that face every day. You'll be okay.
Back to the race. It was important for our sponsor to get in the breakaway of the day in the most important race in Flanders.
We could count on Maxime Thomas to do that. That's why we brought him here!
Better yet, when the peloton started breaking up in pieces in the last half of the race, Thomas easied up a little, let himself get caught and then rode his heart out for about 10 km, not allowing riders in the background to catch back up. This was invaluable work for Dierickx, who had been racing very attentively and was still in this favorites' group!
And still it gets better. Dierickx, as a neopro, managed to hang on to the accelerations on the Kwaremont. With 40 km left to go, he was within the top 13 of the race. Nobody expected him to set the pace, and - acting on our counsil - he kept a low profile.
Further attacks wore him down, though, and when a group of 4 riders sped away, he had a tough moment. However, he did hang on in the chasing group and even took turns now. And that with the whole of Flanders watching!
Unfortunately, the four attackers worked together well and managed to sprint for the top spots. Kristoff was unbeatable in the sprint and takes this year's Ronde Van Vlaanderen.
Despite his best efforts, Dierickx is not a sprinter, and so he finished next to last in the chasing group. But that's only a footnoot in today's story. He finishes 10th in his first Ronde Van Vlaanderen.
I need only to remind you that he is 21 years old, and then you might figure out that our ambitious goal of winning a monument might not be so far fetched after all...
A good showing from Catelyn in GW, but a fantastic one from Dierickx in De Ronde - wow! Sagan, Gilbert, Moscon, Terpstra, Stybar all beaten - by a neo pro with no breakaway or luck, a pure performance and what a statement. Belgium is watching, surely the world is too - and ASO must be kicking themselves over not giving you a Roubaix wildcard!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
support! That's really great! Thanks!
