Podium for Plaza in Catalunya, in our best race so far
After some bad crashes in France and Italy we set our hopes a little bit higher in Catalunya, where we were hoping to see the race that will get our season started for real after missing the high spots in the first 3 races of the season.
The race started really well, with Cornu finishing third in the prologue, just 1 second behind the winner. Ruben Plaza, our leader in Catalunya, also had a good ride finishing 7th, 2 seconds behind the winner. The next stage didn't bring anything special for us but a 7th place again for Plaza in the sprint of the strongest riders in the pack gave us some hopes for the next 2 stages - the decisive ones.
In the third stage were made the first big gapes between the favorites. And luckily for us Plaza was in the first group, along side Uran and Valverde. Ruben lost the stage win to Valverde, but he become the new leader of the race right before the queen stage. Plaza tried to defend his jersey in the mountain stage but after losing almost 1 minute to Valverde, he went down to the third place in the GC.
The next and last 3 stages didn't bring anything to us, except maybe a top 10 from Hans Dekkers in the 6th stage. Still this was our best race of the season so far, with Plaza finishing 3rd in the GC, plus some other 2 good rankings from Paco Mancebo, who finished 19 and from Wim van Huffel who took the 21st spot.
Catalunya also brought Jack Wolfskin the first victory of the season even though it's not a real one, in the team rankings. We managed to get this win thanks to Cornu and Plaza's performances in the opening time - trial and Plaza, Mancebo and Van Huffel's strong rides from the mountain and hilly stages.
Ruben Plaza finished 4th in the queen stage but he failed to keep the leader's jersey
Another mediocre race for Jack Wolfskin: Milano - SanRemo
Recently the 2011 edition of La Primavera ended with Alessandro's Ballan victory on the via Roma, fooling the pack after an attack on the downhill from Capo Berta.
The Jack Wolfskin riders were just shadows of the riders that used to dominate the Continental Tour last year, the Pro Tour looking to be too much for them at least at this moment.
Michael Van Stayen and Robin van der Hugenhaben managed to stay in the group that finished behind Ballan but they were unable to find a good position for the sprint and got just the 28th place and 29th respectively.
The only moment when the Jack Wolfskin jersey was actually seen during the race was with 100 km before the finish, when Sieberg went in one of the unsuccessful attacks
Decent start for Sieberg and co. in the cobbled classics
The classics season kicked off with Milano - San Remo and shortly after that the cobbled classics had their first race with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
The race started quite well for us with Laurens Ten Dam getting a spot in the main breakaway of the day, but he wasn't able to hang on in front until the actual end of the breakaway because of a flat tire.
Marcel Sieberg is our leader for the cobbles and even though he is just a medium World cobbler he managed to stay with the big guys for an while. Still he finished 25th, almost 8 minutes behind the winner Marcus Burghardt, Klaas Sys and Ten Dam finishing in the same group as the German.
It's all about punctures and crashes for Jack Wolfskin so far
Ten Dam 21st in Strade Bianche, Sieberg also in top 30
In the second cobbled classic of the season being able to go over the hills was more important than in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Nuyens took the win in a sprint with Burghardt and Cancellara.
Laurens Ten Dam had a very good result and brought us the highest spot in a classic so far, finishing 21st, Sieberg rounded up the top 30 of the race, while Posthuma had a rather disappointing performance finishing more than 11 minutes behind the winner.
First goal of the season achieved in Criterium International
The recently ended Criterium International topped Volta a Catalunya as our best race of the season so far. Just like in Catalunya we won the teams classification but we weren't able to take any other type of victory.
Gesink had a great start of the race finishing 5th in the first stage, which definitely didn't suit him. In the third stage, last year's winner finished third, 18 seconds behind the winner Samuel Sanchez, which put him in a perfect position for the final time - trial.
In the final stage, Cornu, Gesink and Posthuma were all at the top, finishing 6th, 7th and 8th respectively. The podium of the GC was really close in the end but Gesink wasn't able to win any places, finishing 4 seconds behind the first place and one second behind the second. Cornu finished 11th in the GC, while Posthuma grabbed the 13th spot.
Gesink was very close to win three classifications in the last day but after losing the overall rankings for only 4 seconds, he lost the white jersey for 1 second and finished with the same number of points as Bennati in the green jersey battle. But it was the Italian who got the win thanks to a stage win.
Cornu was our fastest rider in the last day of racing
The Jack Wolfskin riders were prepared for a mass sprint in the German one day race but a quite large group of riders managed to fool the pack and settled the victory between themselves.
Our riders brought some decent results with 2 riders in top 20, Sieberg - 15th and Van Stayen - 18th, while Hans Dekkers also managed a good placing, finishing 25th.
The third cobbled classic of the season brought what's been so far our worst result this season. Marcel Sieberg was again our best rider but he finished just 29th this time.
Sys - 33rd, Giling and De Kort were also in the Sieberg's group, but the Belgian race will definitely bring us the smallest amount of points we got from a race so far.
Edited by alexkr00 on 19-08-2010 15:31
The most recent ended race was definitely our weakest this season and hopefully it will remain that way.
Posthuma was our best chance for some good results here but it all ended in the third stage. The Dutch TT Champ lost the contact with the pack on the early climb and even though Mancebo and van der Hugenhaben tried to help him all our GC hopes were ruined.
Joost tried to go for a stage win but after a ruined breakaway in the fifth stage, he didn't shine in the final time - trial either. On paper, he was one of the big favorites but he finished only 10th in the stage, which was our best result in the Basque race though.
We got only the points for finishing the race in the Basque Country but we are still on the 13th position of the ProTour Rankings, the same position we had after the first 4 races of the season.
Posthuma even tried to go in a breakaway but it wasn't our race
Our results in the 2 Monuments, that marked the end the end of the cobbled classics for the Pro Tour this year, were some rather mediocre ones, with Sieberg being our best rider in both races.
The German finished 32nd in Ronde, while on the velodrome from Roubaix he finished one spot higher.
The Pro Tour season will continue with the Ardennes Classics and Tour de Romandie. In all of the them the Dutch superstar, Robert Gesink, will lead the Jack Wolfskin squad, which means that we should hope for some really good results.
After the cobbled monuments, we moved to the Ardennes in The Netherlands and Belgium.
We thought Gesink had a real shot at winning Amstel Gold Race, as we were riding on the home ground, but instead he brought only an 8th place which was his weakest performance in the Ardennes this year.
As always the second Ardennes Classic, La Fleche Wallone, was decided on the Mur du Huy. There, Gesink was the first rider to attack and even though he almost cracked in the final kilometers of the climb he managed to hang on to the second place, behind Cunego.
After a great Fleche Wallone, Gesink was ready to accomplish our second goal of the season, a top 3 in La Doyenne. The Dutch rider placed himself in the leading group for the final kilometers of the race but all he could do was a top 6, which means that we are now 1 from 2 in our race to achieve our goals.
Even with the missed goal in Liege - Bastogne - Liege, the Ardennes Classic were a great way to add some valuable points in our attempt to maintain a Pro Tour spot for the next year.
After 3 great rides in the Ardennes classics, Gesink continued his peak in Tour de Romandie. We had a great start, Gesink, Cornu and Posthuma performing really well in the prologue.
The next 2 days weren't that important for us, but in the fourth stage we managed to take our first win of the 2011 season - Cornu, Gesink and Posthuma leading the team to the victory in the 14 km TTT.
The race continued with its queen stage and after taking the race on his own in the last kilometers, Gesink took the victory and the yellow jersey. In the last stage, the Dutch rider had no problems keeping himself safety in the pack and he took the overall win in this year's Tour de Romandie.
Shortly after the end of Tour de Romandie, the Giro d'Italia began. As the Italian race was expected to be our weakest Grand Tour this year we didn't have any kind of expectations.
The race started quite well for us with a fourth place from Posthuma in the prologue and a 5th place in the team time - trial.
After the first week, Van Huffel seemed strong enough to grab a surprising place in the overall top 10 but in the end he ended the Giro on the 15th position.
Robin van der Hugenhaben also got a good result in first GT ever, finishing 23rd after spending a lot of time inside the top 20. Some other notable performances were made by Vaugrenard who spent 2 days in the green jersey and by Van Emden and Cooper who got themselves in a few breakaways.
Despite a mediocre Giro, the team is now 10th in Pro Tour rankings thanks to Gesink's great performance in Romandie and things could look even better after Tour of California and Vuelta a Espana, where Plaza and Cornu are aiming for some quality results.
Same time as the Giro the only American race left in the Pro Tour, the Tour of California, was held. Plaza and Cornu were our main guns there and they didn't let us down.
The race started with a short prologue, where both Plaza and Cornu were at the top. In the third stage, Plaza was the strongest rider on the final climb, but because of the big downhill before the finish he was caught and lost the stage win.
In the decisive time - trial Plaza and Cornu were again among the best riders, taking the 5th and the 4th place in the stage. Meanwhile, Dekkers was no where in the sprints.
Plaza started the final stage from the third place and after a complete failure from Zabriskie, he managed to steal the second place from the American, while Cornu had some troubles and lost his place in the top 20.
This second place means that Plaza has been on the podium everywhere he has raced this season, but he had been present in the Jack Wolfskin line - up in only two races so far. The next race that the Spaniard will be riding, will be his home Grand Tour, where the sponsors are expecting a top 10, but we are positive that he can do even better than that.
The second Grand Tour of the year didn't start too well for us, both Cornu and Plaza missing the chance to take the win in the prologue even though they were the big favorites.
The next stages weren't any better, both losing time in the flat stages due to splits in the pack. Still, we got back on track when the second time - trial of the race arrived, Cornu taking the stage win, seconded by Plaza.
There were a lot of ups and downs for Plaza in the mountains, but he came very close to winning a stage, finishing 2nd in the 14th stage, while Van Huffel missed a great chance to finish his second GT of the year in top 20 after a crash which affected his performances for a couple of stages.
Plaza was in a great shape in the third week and he took the stage win in the final time - trial of the race, which gave him the 4th place in the GC, only 7 seconds away from the podium. Still with Plaza, Cornu, Van Huffel and Mancebo's performances we took the victory in the team rankings, which makes the Vuelta one of our best races this season.
The Irish race started very well for us, after two second places in the first two stages, Van Stayen took the lead in the GC, points and youth rankings.
Van Stayen wasn't able to hang on to the yellow jersey for too long though and it all culminated with a crash in the 5th stage which ruined all his hopes. After that it all went wrong for Jack Wolfskin, Van Stayen being nowhere in the last stages of the race, while Vaugrenard lost a great chance to win the KoM jersey.
A couple of second places for Plaza in Dauphine Libere
Ruben Plaza was our team - leader and our only hope for some decent results in the last French race before the Tour de France. And the Spaniard had a pretty good start finishing 4th in the prologue, only to take the yellow jersey 2 stages later.
The former Virgin Media rider started the main time - trial of the race in the yellow jersey and even though he was the main favorite to take the stage win, he finished second behind Karpets, losing the yellow jersey as well. That was only the start of the end for Plaza, who wasn't able to hang on at all in the mountains and lost a lot of time.
He managed to make a nice comeback in the last stage of the race, finishing second in the stage and saving his general classification placing a little bit taking the 11th spot.
Plaza wearing the yellow jersey in Dauphine. Gesink could do it the Tour
Same time as the Dauphine, the second Swiss race of the season was held. Our big gun, Gesink managed to win the previous one in Romandie, but here we were only aiming for a top 20 tops.
The race didn't start well at all for us, Cornu missing the top 10. The race was full of rather boring flat stages, Sys and Cooper making it in a few breakaways but they never making it to end.
In the queen stage Van Huffel made his move at the same time with Kashechkin, but the Belgian wasn't able to hang to Kash's pace and lost in the end almost three minutes to the Lipton rider, who managed to win the stage.
In the final time - trial, Cornu managed to take a 5th place, but neither Van Huffel or Mancebo were able to stay in the top 25 in the general classification, finishing 26th and 27th respectively.
The second Dutch race of the Pro Tour season marked our main goal this year. After chasing a lot of time - trial specialists in the off season our line - up for the race looked like this: Cornu, Gesink, Posthuma, Plaza and Donald - the main five riders, with De Kort, Van Emden and Vaugrenard being here to support them.
We had an easy start and at the first intermediate check we were 23 seconds behind Auber 93, who were the fastest team there. At the second intermediate check we were the second fastest team, but still 16 seconds behind Auber.
But in the last part of the race we were clearly the strongest team, Donald, Vaugrenard and Van Emden even losing the contact with the other 5 riders who were heading to an amazing victory.
Gesink was our first rider to cross the finish line, followed by De Kort, Posthuma, Cornu and Plaza. And at the finish the clock showed that we were 14 seconds faster than Auber, which meant that we had achieved our most important goal of the season.
With another goal achieved we need now only to stay in the top 10 of the team rankings in the Pro Tour until the end of the season to make it 4/5 goals this season, only missing the one in Liege - Bastogne - Liege.
Plaza, De Kort, Vaugrenard, Donald, Gesink, Posthuma, Cornu and Van Emden working together
Plenty of things have happened after our amazing win in the Eindhoven TTT in the World of Cycling. Three other classics have been raced, as well as the World's biggest cycling event - The Tour de France.
And if in the classics the only result worth mentioned in Plaza's eight place in the Badaling International, in the Tour de France we achieved a lot of stuff that we can be proud of.
The race started quite well for us, with Gesink managing to grab a top 10 place in the prologue. Then, we moved to the sprint stages, where Sieberg was one level above any other lead - out man. And the amazing work made by the German rider brought our main sprinter, Michael Van Stayen, 2 stage wins and the green jersey for one day. We also spent 4 days in the polka dot jersey during the first week, van der Hugenhaben and Ten Dam wearing it for 2 days each.
At the end of the first week we reached the mountains, but Gesink wasn't able to follow the best climbers and losing time on both Station des Rousses and Morzine Avoirez. The second week didn't start too well either for the Dutch man, Madeleine proving not to be a climb for him either, which left a bitter taste of the Alps for us.
In the 12th stage, right after the celebration of the French National Day, Benoit Vaugrenard made his compatriots proud after getting in the day's main breakaway and winning the stage. The French man's performance represented our third stage win, after Van Stayen's double in the first week.
In the 15th stage we reached the Pyrenees and the stage also marked Gesink's best performance in the mountains in this TDF, the JW leader being the third best rider on the Ax 3 Domaines climb. But in the very next stage Gesink found himself again in trouble and lost a lot of time on Port de Bales.
The Dutch man hoped to get revenge in the queen stage, which finished on the Tourmalet but he even failed to climb into the top 10 of the stage. Still he managed to keep the last place in the top 10 overall.
In the final time - trial of the race, Gesink was one of the fastest riders, but even so he wasn't able to gain any place in the general classification, finishing the Tour 10th. van der Hugenhaben also saved his GC placing after a breakaway in the 19th stage, finishing 24th overall. Paco Mancebo also had a good TDF, the aging Spaniard finishing 36th, 9 places lower than what he achieved in the Vuelta though.
In the last stage on the Champes Elysees, Sieberg was once again at a top level but Van Stayen wasn't able to deliver and he finished only fourth. Still this ended a very successful first Tour de France for the Jack Wolfskin squad, with three stage wins and a top 10 in the general classification.
After a podium in Catalunya and a 4th place in Vuelta a Espana, Ruben Plaza returned to Spain for Vuelta a Asturias, a race which included the mythical Angliru in three of its stages.
But Plaza wasn't able to climb as well as he did in the previous races and much tougher competition made it impossible for him to sneak into the top 10 overall. Still the Spaniard managed to grab a stage win in the fourth stage of the race - a time - trial down the Angliru, where Van Emden also finished fourth.
Ruben heading to his second stage win of the season
