There are only 3 Pro Tour races in September, Deutschland Tour, GP de Fourmies and Tour of North Europe. The first have already been raced, but neither of them brought some good results for Jack Wolfskin.
Michael Van Stayen was the best JW scorer in both races, the Belgian rider finishing with 2 occasions on the stage podiums in Germany, but failed to win the points jersey, after missing the sprint in the last stage. In the general classification, Paco Mancebo was our best rider, finishing 33rd.
After winning 2 stages in this year's Tour de France, Van Stayen was definitely a name to follow in Fourmies, as the Pro Tour riders were getting back to France. But unlike the TDF, Van Stayen wasn't able to count on the support of Marcel Sieberg in the closing kilometers of the race and he only finished 10th. Josh Cooper and Paul Martens also had a nice ride, each getting in one of the two groups that attacked the pack tried to avoid the mass sprint, but eventually failed.
The Dutch National time - trial Champion, Joost Posthuma, started the last stage race of the Pro Tour season as the Jack Wolfskin captain. He managed a nice ride in the opening stage, losing time only to the real hilly specialists.
Most of that time was gained back in the time - trial that followed the opening stage, where only Cancellara was faster than Posthuma. But the Dutch was again in trouble when we hit the next hilly stage and the cobbles, which caused him some more time loses. Still it was again the time - trial who helped him make those stages forgotten, with another second place behind Cancellara.
In the last stage Posthuma avoided any king of troubles and finished on a very good seventh place in the general classification, which should definitely keep us inside the best 10 teams of the Pro Tour.
With the season's finale being closer than ever, it's now time to find out who will wear the rainbow jerseys next year. Seven riders will represent Jack Wolfskin in Croatia, where the Worlds are held this year.
Gesink is the of course the big gun, with both him and Posthuma going to ride for the Netherlands in all the 3 main races: the road race, the individual time - trial and the team time - trial, Robin van der Hugenhaben set to join them in the road race only.
Cornu will also also make an appearance for Belgium in the time - trials, Plaza doing the same for Spain, while Van Huffel will ride as a domestique for Gilbert and Bakelants in the road race. Vaugrenard will also be seen wearing the French jersey in the team time - trial.
Gesink stands a real chance in all three main events
Jack Wolfskin's best performances at the World Championships came, as expected, in the time - trials, starting with 3 medals in the TTT. Plaza was an important part of the winning Spanish team, while Gesink and Posthuma led the Netherlands to the second place.
In the individual time - trial, Robert 'Bob' Gesink was the only rider able to keep it up with the 2 Americans, who dominated the race, the Dutch man taking a well deserved bronze medal. In the road race, Gesink tried an early, unnecessary attack, which kept him away from the first places in the end.
After a mediocre ride in Russia, during the Yekeratinburg GP, 3 of the Jack Wolfskin riders head to France for the Chrono des Herbiers, a race designed for the type of riders that are riding for Jack Wolfskin.
The Dutch Champion, Joost Posthuma, and the Belgian Champion, Dominique Cornu, were there, with an wild card in the Vuelta TT winner and former Spanish Champion, Ruben Plaza. And all 3 of them came home with excellent results, all breaking into the top 20 of the race, the first 2 even making it into the top 10.
The good results in France helped us win some precious points in front of our rivals and we only need to defend the gap we have in Lombordia, which shouldn't be too hard, considering that Gesink is leading the team there.
Cornu was the best Jack Wolfskin rider, finishing 8th
We are among the best 10 cycling teams in the World!
In the last race of the season, the Giro di Lombardia, Gesink didn't manage to get a very good result, finishing only 25th. Still it was enough to keep the 9th place in the Pro Tour Team Rankings, in our first season in the cycling's top division.
Finishing 9th in the team rankings means that this season we managed to achieve 4 of our 5 goals, a little bit better than last season when we had 3 from 5.
In the individual rankings, neither Gesink or Plaza were able to get into the top 15 and even more surprising, Plaza had more points than Gesink, even though he only had 6 more than the Dutch rider.
Now, with the regular season over we are looking forward the renewals and the national championships, where he hope to defend the Dutch and Belgian jerseys.
Surprising or not, it was Plaza who was JW's best rider this season!
Success for Jack Wolfskin in Germany, Holland and Belgium
The National Championships started quite well for us, Paul Martens achieving an amazing victory in the German Championships, fooling the main favorites with a very well timed attack.
The journey through the NCs didn't continue quite well for Jack Wolfskin, Ruben Plaza, missing the Spanish time - trial jersey, but Dominique Cornu made up for that retaining the Belgian jersey.
In the most expected race, the Dutch Championships, we managed to control the race but none of our leaders managed to put it a strong move and at the finish we had a sprint between the strongest riders. We had 3 riders in the front group, but none of them were great sprinters and they even missed the podium, Gesink finishing only 4th. The good news though was that we managed to get back our crown as the best Dutch team at the moment in the time - trial, Gesink and Posthuma coming the best times at the finish. In the end, Gesink was less than a second behind Posthuma, who will wear the red, white and blue jersey for another year.
The Romanian and American Championships haven't been done yet so might get other jerseys as well, even though only Nechita seems to have a real shot at a distinctive jersey for the upcoming season.
