Van Loocke will be our sprint leader throughout the season and our best hope in races such as the Circuit Franco-Belge. His goal will be to bring in a win for the season as well as several podium finishes. Last season he rode for Pokerstars.com and it is likely that this will be his last season as a professional, and we hope that he can impart some of his collected experience on our younger riders.
Poulhiès is a French sprinter who did not manage to secure a contract last season. This season, however, he will be the lead-out man for Van Loocke, and will be looking for his own opportunities. We hope that he will continue to grow under our auspices and that he can act as a good lead-out man in years to come.
Super Domestiques
- Cyril Gautier - €250,000
In many other continental teams, Gautier would be a leader in the hilly races, but in our team he will be Vanendert’s chief lieutenant. He is capable of taking his own chances and has a great uphill acceleration. He will probably lead our team in some races, but will spend most of his time by Vanendert’s side.
- Johan Vansummeren - €85,000
One of the great domestiques in the sport, Vansummeren can do it all. Whether he is driving the pace uphill or along the cobblestones, Vansummeren will be dishing out pain whenever we need him to. He is undoubtedly one of our team’s key riders.
- Francis De Greef - €80,000
Francis is the best climber in the team. He was brought in with the assumption that we would have a better climber than himself so that he could be the chief domestique but we did not manage to get the signature of any stage racer. As such he will be riding for himself and taking his chances this season, in the hope of bringing in a victory this season. He will also be helping in the hilly classics.
- Niels Albert - €160,000
Last season, IKEA dominated the cobbles thanks largely to Vanspeybrouck’s efforts. However, the whole time he had next to him one loyal domestique. Niels Albert was that man. Albert managed to bring in his own cobbled results last season, and we hope for the same from him this season, though he will be more of a pure domestique this season given that we already have two cobbled leaders. Albert is absolutely indispensible for ensuring victory on the rough terrain this year.
This is a beautiful well constructed team, not only have you got pretty decent value for money with some of your leaders but also have a wonderful focus about your team. Seventeen Belgiums and four more out on loan, this great cycling nation are surely proud of this team.
The only possible weakness is that lack of finishing speed in most of your riders - this leads me to the conclusion that the Bpost jersey will be on the attack is most races this season
Smowz wrote:
This is a beautiful well constructed team, not only have you got pretty decent value for money with some of your leaders but also have a wonderful focus about your team. Seventeen Belgiums and four more out on loan, this great cycling nation are surely proud of this team.
The only possible weakness is that lack of finishing speed in most of your riders - this leads me to the conclusion that the Bpost jersey will be on the attack is most races this season
Glad you like it! Yeah but Peeters needed the experience in order to be maxed out, and I doubt I'll get enough wildcards todo that. Once he comes back I'll have another sprinter. Then I patiently wait for Stenuit and Stallaert. In the meantime, there will be attacks aplenty
Roman wrote:
Poulhies was really useless for my team in last 2 seasons, so good luck with him, I hope he can do better in your team.
Anyway, great presentation and great team, I really like it!
I expect literally nothing from him, but wasn't happy with just one sprinter. A hanful of top 10s would be alright in my books. Considering I barely had to pay anything for him I'm not disappointed.
I'm going to post my second last part of the team presentation now, then do the young riders one either tomorrow or the day after... I have 12 young talents...
Broers is one of only two riders to transfer from another team, together with Ben Curfs. Broers is a solid domestique over the cobbles and this is the role he will be performing all year. We understand that, given that we will be going into most of these races as favourites, we will be looked to as the ones who will have to push on the pace. Broers is key to that and though he will not be seen by many of our fans, he will be performing a role that is absolutely key.
- Tom Stubbe - €90,000
Stubbe is another one of those rare riders on our team – a climber. He will be helping out whenever the terrain goes uphill, or whenever we just need someone to chase a break. Of course, as with De Greef, he will be looking for his own chances throughout the season and we hope for a couple of good climbing results from him.
Stallaert is perhaps the biggest young talent on our team. At only age 21 he is already showing flashes of his sprinting potential, as well as a strong ability on cobblestones. In years to come he is likely to be the undisputed leader of this team, as long as we can keep a hold of him at his high wage. In the next two to three years expect to see Stallaert winning many races.
- Guillame Van Keirsbulck - €70,000
It takes a talented man to be able to ride across cobblestones. It takes an even more talented man to be able to ride up hills as well. Van Keirsbulck is just one such man. In coming years he will probably come to take on a role similar to that of Vansummeren – the loyal domestique who can do what he has to whenever he has to. He is also already quite capable of finding his own opportunities.
- William Maesen - €70,000
Maesan has the rare double talent of being both a climber and also Belgian. Though he is unlikely to develop into one of the world’s greatest climbers, we do hope that he can one day become someone capable of leading us in shorter tours. He has already shown a remarkable ability to recover after a day’s exertions, rare in someone his age. We will invest a lot of time and money to turn him into the future stage racer that Belgium needs.
- Jan Polanc - €55,000
Polanc’s inclusion in our team list might seem something of an oddity – he is the only rider in our team not from Belgium or a country that borders on it. But that would be ignoring the fact that Polanc is already highly skilled in the most Belgian of the cycling arts – riding on cobblestones. He will one day be skilled enough to either lead our team over the cobbles, or at least will be a faithful super-domestique. It will be interesting to watch his development over the years to come.
- Frederik Frison - €50,000
The last of our signings but not the least wanted by any means. Frison has a talent that is markedly lacking in most of our team – he is capable of riding a time trial. Or rather, he will be in a couple of years. For the moment he shall be playing the role of a general domestique as he learns his trade. If it comes to it, he is likely to be included in any of our team time trial squads, though we may only be facing one or two all season.
- Mathieu La Lavandier - €50,000
The first of the La Lavandier twins, Mathieu represents a great hope for our team. Already a better climber than most of our team, he will hopefully one day develop into a stage racer, much as we hope that Maesen will. The two will be supporting each other in this endeavour and hopefully by nurturing tem through these early years they will realise what we have done for them, and choose to remain with our team.
- Maxime La Lavandier - €50,000
Though arguably not as gifted as his brother is, Maxime will be developing alongside him and will also be acting as a domestique for him in the coming years and throughout most of his career, or so we suspect. To his credit, he is probably more of a pure climber than his twin because he possesses something more of a kick. Another climbing hopeful to watch in coming seasons.
- Robin Stenuit - €70,000
Arguably the rider with the best hair in the entire squad, Stenuit is another sprinter we will look towards in the coming seasons. Though he is not as gifted as Stallaert, particularly on rough or hilly terrain, he still will one day have a devastating ability to kick out of a pack. In the meantime he can help set up sprints and may even act as a lead-out on occasion, particularly if Poulhiès is our lead sprinter.
Stagiares
- Julien Paquet - €10,000
Another time-trialist of the future, Paquet spent the end of last season as a stagiare for Wiggle-San Pellegino. His contract was not extended to this year however, and we could not find enough room in our budget to give him a full contract. As such he will be a stagiare with us this season and we hope to find more room for him in the team next year.
- Mike De Bie - €10,000
Yet another young time-trialist, we hope to turn De Bie into a useful man to have in a team time trial, or failing that, a man who can get top 10s in time trials whenever he faces them. The rest of the time he will be a domestique.
- Jasper Stuyven - €10,000
With the collapse of Highroad-TomTom, Stuyven was left without a team. For a man who was paid €100,000 for his contract last year, this came as a shock. What was perhaps less shocking was that he was not able to find a team who would take him on as a rider for this season. We came in at the last minute and offered him what we could – he could ride as a stagiare at the end of this season, but there would be no guarantees going into next year. He accepted and we hope that he will show us that he can be an able domestique in the hills who is capable of riding aggressively to get into a good break.
- Jakob Steigmiller - €10,000
The only German in the team, Steigmiller is a rather strange type of sprinter. Whilst not naturally speedy in the sprints, he already possesses a devastating turn of speed that is capable of launching him to a stage win. We hope that with time his ability to sprint will come along, and that his acceleration will improve further, and at the end of the year he will be honing his skills as a lead-out man and perhaps will be looking for a chance to show his own talents as a sprinter.
Edited by CountArach on 18-07-2011 09:58
Today, with the announcement of all the wildcards for CT teams in ProTour races, BPost got two wishes granted - an entry into both a cobbled classic and one of the Ardennes classics.
The team will be riding the Omloop Het Volk, one of the tougher cobbled races of the season, which includes not just cobbles on the flat but also cobbled climbs. The team manager had this to say about the race.
"We are delighted to be invited to race infront of our home audience - with Vanspeybrouck and Maes, as well as our able domestiques Albert and Broers, we believe that we have the potential to have a rider in contention for the victory at the end of the race."
Vanspeybrouck was also delighted to hear the news, and had this to say. "I was so disappointed to miss out on a chance to race the ProTour cobbled classics last year, when I was in the form of my life. The team [Team Ikea-Bianchi] just had different goals to my own. I'm so pleased to finally be given this opportunity to race in front of the huge crowds that only ProTour races are capable of drawing."
In addition to riding this cobbled classic, the Belgian team will also be riding in the Amstel Gold Race. The team manager, Count Arach, was less bullish about the team's chances.
"Last year Vanendert came 13th and Gautier 18th, riding on different teams. Together we hope that one of them can make it into the Top 10 of the race, though we believe this will be a big ask. We also hope to have one of our younger riders get into a break early in the day to liven things up."
"We're just happy to be racing with the world's best teams, and are pleased that the race organisers saw fit to give us this place," the manager concluded.[
The team has also applied for a spot at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, after it was announced that no other Continental Teams had done so. The manager was playing down expectations, and had this to say, "We simply didn't have the money they were asking, but we would do almost anything to have our team race there. If not this year, then next year we will be hoping for the spot."
If granted a place, Vanspeybrouck could cause quite a large deal of concern to the ProTour cobbled riders.
We will be giving our very brief thoughts on various goings-on throughout the season, as well as thoughts on what we hope to achieve in each race. Our website will remain fully updated, but not as fast as the power of twitter allows.
Gautier Shines In MTN Cycling Classic Van Keirsbluck in break
Today Gautier capped off a tremendous day of racing for us with a 4th place in the HC-rated MTN Cycling Classic in South Africa. He was a long way back going into the bunch kick but his ability to accelerate quickly uphill allowed him to be a real contender for the bunch gallop.
The day started well for us with Van Keirsbulck, in his first ever race as a professional, getting himself into the 14-man break. This meant that we did not have to chase throughout the entire day, and instead Vespa were forced to do all the work at hte front of the peleton.
Van Keirsbulck in the day's break
The race came together towards the end and though Vanendert tried numerous times to attack off the front of the group, Vespa was always ready to drag things back together. Going into the final 3 kilometres, Vanendert was on the very front of the peleton and put in a blistering attack that almost succeeded in gapping the bunch. It was not to be, however, and this put him in the undesirable position of leading out the group.
With a kilometre to go, the sprinting started and everyone leapt off Vanendert's wheel. Gautier was well back in the group but his quick turn of pace meant that he capitalised on finding a gap opening in front of him and he held off the Rapha duo of Bellis and Dowsett for his well-earned 4th place.
"I'm absolutely thrilled to be this highly placed," Gautier said. "The plan was always to work for Vanendert and, when that plan went awry, I was going to do my best in the finishing sprint and thankfully the terrain in the last kilometre really suited me so I was able to work my way well up in the standings."
Vanendert came 18th and Vansummeren led in the second group on the road for 28th. Van Keirsbulck held onto a group for 38th, 3'30" down. De Greef was next across the line in 77th and Maesen was not far behind at 88th. The La Lavandier twins found the pace too high for them and rolled in together at 119th and 120th.
Our next race will be the Tour of Wellington, where our sprinters hope to have their chance to shine.
Tour of Wellington Team Announced Van Loocke leads rookie team
We are happy to announce the team that shall be competing in the upcoming Tour of Wellington! The team list is:
Jurgen Van Loocke
Robin Stenuit
Willem Van Den Eynde
Mathieu La Lavandier
Frederick Frison
Joeri Stallaert
Silvan Dillier
As can be seen, 4 of these riders are in their first season as a professional and 2 of the riders are loaned in to us. This is because we see it as the sort of race that should be taken as a learning opportunity - it is a real chance to get some hands-on experience in the professional peleton. The profile doesn't really suit any of our leaders too well, so we have decided to put our trust in young blood and to attempt to get in some early breakaways.
Van Looke is our best chance to do something special at the race, and with 3 flat stages he should hopefully have a real opportunity to do so. He will be lead-out by our up-and-coming sprinters Stenuit and Stallaert.
Mathieu La Lavandier will be hoping that he can do something in the hills, most likely getting himself into a break and holding on to contest the finale. Failing that, however, he will take it as a chance to show that he has the ability to keep pace with some of the puncheurs after a somewhat disappointing MTN Cycling Classic.
Van Den Eynde and Dillier, the two loanees on the team, will be riding this race to try to get in a break, but mostly to show that we can live up to our promise of giving loaned-in riders the maximum number of race days possible.
Van Loocke is a good rider for the flat stages. Hope for nice battles with him there.
But with that many talents I don`t think we will see a Bpost train there. Van Loocke might have to look for another sprint train. Edited by roturn on 03-08-2011 10:24
Indeed nearly the same race schedule for us. A few changes but in general very similar. In all your following races up to end of March I am also riding.
So good luck in these races and let`s hope for nice duels there.
roturn wrote:
Indeed nearly the same race schedule for us. A few changes but in general very similar. In all your following races up to end of March I am also riding.
So good luck in these races and let`s hope for nice duels there.
I'm sure our riders will become firm rivals and I'll try not to yell too loudly every time Vantomme outsprints me.
