The first monument was here, Milan - San Remo. Before the start, all riders gathered and made a deal, it would be all for Marcel Kittel. He was feeling good, so no reason to doubt him. The goal was to bring him over the Poggio in a winning position. Sep Vanmarcke, our best rider last year, immediatly showed what we were here for: bringing any breakaway attempts back.
Sep will be the leader in the coming weeks, but today it was all for Marcel. Our hill squad Martens, Slagter, Sanchez and Cristobal Riquelme made sure no one was getting away. When the other teams did not help much, Luis Leon just went solo to
get them riding as well.
We made it over the Cipressa, we're still there on the Poggio. Tom-Jelte sets the pace, hard enough to prevent escape attempts, but not too brutal to kill Marcel. Chavanel was still out, but we think we can get him back.
Mark Renshaw is one of the best leadouts in the world, but on Italian soil with a hill right behind us, the honour goes to Bennati today. With Sagan on his wheel, he's going really strong. Mark's role is over, it's up to Marcel now.
Chavanel is still out there, but here come Bennati, Sagan, Greipel, Hanzen and Kittel, in that order, it's going to be close!
All on a line now..
It's going to be close!
Nailed it!
What a sprint from Marcel Kittel. He got the timing just right and had the power to finish it. This monument goes to the young German. Great teamwork payed off and the sprinter brings home the bacon!
Our second monument in 2 years time shows we are the team for the classics. Sagan and Bennati were really strong, but our 8 guys were stronger. Of course our sponsors are really happy to see Marcel on the podium, this opens door for the German markets. A great day for Belkin!
Unfortunately Bauke Mollema could not hold the leader jersey in Paris - Nice after winning the queen stage. He fell from 1 to 3 on stage 7 and from 3 to 5 on stage 8. The goal is achieved, which makes us happy, but so much more was possible.
In Tirreno - Adriatico, Wilco Kelderman struggled on the first mountain stage, but gained back time in the second mountain stage and the time trial. It was enough for a 9th place in the GC, securing another goal. The biggest performance came from Lars Boom however, looking good for the win on the last day until the Froomebot arrived.
A few races to go, but some very important ones. Driedaagse De Panne is the last preparation for Ronde and Roubaix. Our sponsors gave us a stage win goal there, so we saved no expenses Vanmarcke and Boom will take care of the cobbles, while Renshaw, Kaha and Kittel will try to make the ultimate sprint train.
Our biggest Continental Tour race is of course the one in our home country, the Volta Limburg Classic. Last year, Willem Brouwer finished 3rd, we hope to improve this year with Marcel Kittel. We hope we can keep it together, but with strong support it should be possible.
Last is the GP Indurain. Mollema or Kelderman won't be starting, but we do send Gesink, Cristobal Riquelme and home rider Luis Leon Sanchez to try something. No pressure here, but a good result just before the break is always nice!
Our main focus lies in Europe of course. In the Time Trial, we probably will not get any medals, but Adriano, Lars or Wilco should be able to get a top 10. Maybe even a top 5!
For the road race, we want to repeat a Milan - San Remo scenario. We will put our faith in Marcel again. Sep, Lars, Paul, Tom Jelte and Luis Leon will support him again. Unfortunately we don't have Mark and Jorge available, hampering our sprint train, but with Theo and Adriano we have good replacements.
In Aufrasia, we count on Khan and Mark. Both of you are fast enough, but as we lack a team, you will have to work together really well. Unfortunately our sponsors ask you do the time trial as well, apologies for that. But you know, tv time and all.
For America, it's Jorge and Sebastian. Again, you have to do the time trial as well, but as you're national champion there Jorge, it shouldn't be a problem. For the road race, Jorge is our undisputed leader. But again, without a team it will be hard.
Criterium International always is an interesting race. Send a good sprinter and you take points in stage one. We skipped that one. But with a good time trialist, you can get points on stage 2. We had a few of those!
Bauke Mollema took 6th, and he's looking good in the GC.
Wilco Kelderman took 3rd place in his NC jersey, also looking good for the GC.
And the win went to Adriano Malori, our first ever TT win! This is why we bought him, well done Adriano!
After winning stage 2, we were planning on adding stage 3 to our palmares as well. Wilco Kelderman and Bauke Mollema both were very good in the GC after the time trial, but Nairo Quintana was something to watch out for of course. Barguil, Clement and Goos were the ideal team mates and set a good pace.
And their hard work payed off, Quintana missed a split and our two leaders could sprint for the win in a small group.
A very nice picture, 1-2 for Belkin as Mollema just holds off Kelderman. Bauke also take the GC this way, with 1 second over Kelderman.
Bauke wins the point jersey, it's even a 1-2-3 for Mollema, Kelderman and Malori. The youth jersey is for Wilco, and somehow we lost the team classification to Cofidis. But this is a very good race, we may be on target to repeat last year's result on the rankings.
It took a while for the San Luis results to get in, but our January Rider of the Month is...
Wilco Kelderman
He had a great run in San Luis, earning us quite some points in his first race. Runner up is Jorge Cristobal Riquelme for his good GC in Gabon. Third place goes to Tom-Jelte Slagter for his impressive stage win in Gabon.
When you win a monument, you pretty much eliminate the competition, so our March Rider of the Month is...
Marcel Kittel
He only had 2 race days, Almeria and San Remo, and he nailed both, really well done! Runner up is Bauke Mollema for his wins in Paris-Nice and Criterium International. Third place goes to Adriano Malori for giving us our first ever time trial victory.
Our final race was the Volta Limburg Classic. We had a podium goal here, but we wanted to win the only Dutch race in this season part, so we sent a really strong team. We kept everything together and relied on the fast legs of Marcel Kittel. He was absent on our De Panne goal, but made up for it here by winning this race. Also good finishes for Sep Vanmarcke and Lars Boom after hard work in the race, they look ready for Ronde and Roubaix.
In the rankings, we're doing quite well. Second behind Sky would be something I'm happy with at the end of the season. Movistar is likely to make a comback, but I don't see Cannondale hurting us and the gaps with BMC and Omega Pharma are significant already. We can safely say we aim for the podium again.
Individualy, 5 riders in the top 20 is very nice. Solid perofrmances form Kittel (3), Mollema (11), Vanmarcke (15), Boom (18) and Kelderman (19). We expect those 5 guys to carry the team this season. Sanchez, Cristobal Riquelme, Slagter, Renshaw, Bos and Wynants have been great support as well.
Wins
A big increase compared to last year, Kittel made it 2 in a row for us in Almeria, but winning Milan - San Remo and Volta Limburg Classics, that's 2 important races for us. We couldn't repeat our Gabon win, although Slagter took a stage win. Bauke Mollema won a great Paris - Nice stage as well, and then we started Criterium International with our first ever time trial win from Malori, followed by Mollema taking the queen stage, the GC and the points jersey. Kelderman got a lot of seconds this season part, so we're happy to see him take the youth jersey there.
Goals
Top 10 GC finishes in Paris - Nice and Tirreno - Adriatico were respectively reached by Mollema and Kelderman, although the latter was very close. Kittel accomplished our podium goal in San Remo by winning it, while Vanmarcke lost the win goal in E3 by a centimetre. The stage win in De Panne was never close, despite a very strong team. Volta Limburg was a medium podium goal, once again achieved by Marcel Kittel. That's 4/6 achieved, our best result so far.
Transfers
Always exciting to see how the new guys are doing! As you can read above, Marcel Kittel was outstanding in his first Belkin season. Adriano Malori proved himself with a great win as well. Mangere Kaha is still adapting, we think he'll do a lot better in the next season part, although he got us a few points already. Our youngest guys, Silvio Herklotz and Sebastian Henao have already shown they have a great future ahead of them. Barguil, Stuyven, Van Keirsblulk and Wippert have been great domestiques so far as well.
With Jorge Cristobal Riquelme's excellent 3rd place in the American Continental Championships, we have a bit of extra cash for a training camp. We decided to send Mangere Kaha there to improve his hill capability. We don't want him dropped too soon in the Giro, so let's hope he can use it!
We sent a strong team here, Bauke Mollema for the GC and Jorge Cristobal Riquelme for the sprints, supported by big names as Sanchez, Barguil and Nordhaug. So we did have some expectations, espcially Jorge was doing well in the first sprints, narrowly missing the win a few times.
What happened today was a different story though, but we don't quite get it yet. The riders did not want to talk about what happened, but despite a great double with Bauke Mollema winning and Jorge Cristobal Riquelme finishing 2nd. The mood is a bit odd for a win. We'll probably never found out what really happened in those last few kilometres, so we'll just post you the finish photo.
Unfortunately a very short report. We thought last year's 6th place was bad, but this is even worse. At no point were we ever close to competing. No one in the early break, no one trying anything during the race. Vanmarcke riding behind everything while the rest was happy to finish in the peloton. Our cobbled squad was doing decent until now, but this was really bad. A 12th place by Sep is insufficient, both for him and the rest of the team. We had a chance to attack Sky for leadership of the rankings here, and we let it go. The team manager has made it clear he wants to see a reaction of the riders next week in Roubaix!
We needed a top 5, and with Bauke sixth in the GC on the last day, we would need a very good time trial from him.
And he did not disappoint! A 2nd place in the time trial, only 3 seconds behind Costa. It moves him to 4th in the GC (again) and we achieved our goal. The points jersey is his as well and with the help of Nordhaug and Sanchez, we secure the team classification as well. Still, if it weren't for that one bad stage, we would be competing for the win here. Like in Paris-Nice, he showed what he can do, but needs consistency to win a stage race. But looking forward to the Ardennes, this is a great result of course!
After a horrible Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix was even worse. The team is really disappointed in the results, after a lot of investments in the offseason. Though we are not happy with his results, the team keeps faith in Sep Vanmarcke. The same goes for Lars Boom, who had a few good earlier results to compensate. Newcomers Jasper Stuyven en Guillaume Keirsbulck are still young and can also stay to improve. For Maarten Tjallingii and Maarten Wynants however, there will most likely not be a spot in the team next season.
We now look forward to the Ardennes with Bauke Mollema leading the team, supported by Sanchez, Gesink, Slagter, Nordhaug and Cristobal Riquelme
Good news for our sponsor, as we achieved some more goals. We needed a podium in Shceldeprijs, counting once again on Marcel Kittel, but it was a tough race. A suprise attack from Cancellara was followed by an even more surprising counter from Greipel. Sep Vanmarcke followed smartly and grabbed 3rd place, just what we needed!
In Turkey, we wanted a stage win and after a perfect leadout from Mark Renshaw, it was Marcel Kittel who gave us stage 1. It wasn't the strongest field here, so we're hoping for another win soon. And who knows what Warren Barguil can do for the GC?
Well, some good memories from Belkin. Was a bit weird to lead a dutch team, but I wanted one with a lot of young talent. A big thank you to Willem Brouwer for our first wins in season one, Sep Vanmarcke with that truely epic Paris-Roubaix win and then season two with Marcel Kittel winning San Remo, just fantastic. I think I got the most out of this team
