Our 6 missing riders finaly turned up. While checking the point rankings yesterday, we found an increase of 6 points coming from South America. Apparently, some of our riders were signed up for the Tour de San Luis. Robert Gesink managed a 8th place in the time trial. None of the riders were able to comment on the lack of results on the earlier stages.
After a long break, Belkin is ready for the next part of the season. We have the Belgian opening weekend ahead of us, with also Almeria on the menu, after which we move to Italy for the Strade Bianchi.
We start of course with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, where Sep Vanmarcke defends his 2012 win. Our Belgian talent will lead the cobble squad with other specialists like Lars Boom, Maarten Wynants and Maarten Tjallingii. We aim for our first season goal, a top 5 finish, with these riders:
Jetse Bol Lars Boom Tom Leezer Maarten Tjallingii Jos Van Emden Sep Vanmarcke Robert Wagner Maarten Wynants
The next day we need to split up our riders, a few stay in Belgium for Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, while the other go to Spain for the Clasica Almeria. While both races have the potential to become a mass sprint, the cobbles in Kuurne and the hills in Almeria could make it different.
In Kuurne, we send our cobbles team with Theo Bos as backup plan in case it does come to a sprint. Vanmarcke and Boom can also finish form a breakaway though. Here are our riders for Kuurne:
Lars Boom Theo Bos Tom Leezer Maarten Tjallingii Jos Van Emden Sep Vanmarcke Robert Wagner Maarten Wynants
At the same time, we turn our eyes to Almeria, where Willem Brouwer will lead the team over the hills. He has shown in Gabon what he can do, and he'll get a strong team to help him. Brown, Hofland and Renshaw will be his sprint train if needed, but more likely the race will get tough and he can use the expectise of Paul Martens and Luis Leon Sanchez. This is the full team:
Jetse Bol Willem Brouwer Graeme Brown Juan Manuel Garate Moreno Hofland Paul Martens Mark Renshaw Luis Leon Sanchez
Edited by Ollfardh on 27-11-2013 16:10
It's a RL friend of mine, it's not the first time I wrote the mistake, just the first time I dind't correct it before posting. Couldn't you pick another name for your rider?
Great news guys!
I managed to secure another win! It happened in Spain, in Clásica de Almeria, a 1.HC race.
No big guys were present, except for Ciolek. It was a bit of a similair field to Gabon. Some hills were there today, and Euskaltel & Movistar had some great puncheurs/climbers with them. Even Costa was there. Though they didn't profit of that by setting a hard pace. Luckily for me
So it looked like it was going to be a mass sprint. But then, it turned out that everybody was jealous of our amazing train, and went wheelsucking. In my wheel, that is. So we had to do the pace on our own. That didn't work out, and the break almost got the win, if Renshaw wasn't there.
He was a-ma-zing, I really owe a lot to him today. He even got a Top 10 himself in the end.
Here's a picture of me winning:
You can see how close the break was. Look at the Androni guy, right-above, that's Rosa, who was from the break. So we were lucky, but I don't really mind
My next race is Strade Bianche. It's a hilly stage that's probably a reduced sprint, with Valverde-type of riders having good chances as well due to a tough hill. The race will probably suit me well, looking forward to it.
As a .5 category race, we targeted Almeria as a race with a ot of potential. We have Willem Brouwer, who has shown he can handle the hills, and with a lot of fast men going to Kuurne, we had a big chance here.
Of course the traditional breakaway got away, but the other teams did not do any effort to drop Wimpie. Enter the Belkin train.
The team brought back the breakaway right on time, and Mark Renshaw did what he's supposed to do, opening the sprint
And Brouwer came out of his wheel to win the Clasica Almeria! After his successes in Gabon, this is his first classic victory. He can thank his team mates for the great work they did.
This is where the season really starts for us, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. We rode a storng race, with all our cobblers present when they had to. Sep Vanmarcke and Lars Boom were very strong, while the Maartens showed they were ready as well.
Of course, Cancellara had to try one last attack, and our guys had to spend quite some enrgy, as no one else wanted to get him back. It did mean we were in a good position for the sprint.
But we had wasted too much energy and could not control the sprint. In a very close finish, Boom got 4th place and Vanmarcke got 6th. We can also note the 20th from Tjallingii and the 21th from Wynants. We got our sponsor goal, although a podium was within reach.
The next day in Kuurne, Maarten Tjallingii felt completely recovered from yesterday's hard work and got in the big breakaway.
No organised chase came, and the remaining riders would fight it out for the win. Unfortunately, Maarten started to feel yesterday's efforts and could not participate for the win. Greipel won it, Tjallingii finished 12th. After him, a frustrated Sep Vanmarcke won the peloton sprint for 17th, while we also note good results from Lars Boom as 23th and Maarten Wynants as 27th, just outside of the points again.
As the januari election is still going on, we can already announce the winner of Februari, with only 3 race days. The winner is..
Willem Brouwer!
For his victory in the Clasica de Almeria. Runner up is Lars Boom for his 4th place in Omloop, achieving our first team goal. Third is Maarten Tjallingii for his strong Belgian opening weekend.
Our next race is the Strade Bianche, we are sending a strong squad with Willem Brouwer and Jorge Cristobal Riquelme with shared leadership. Both can handle a hill and have a strong sprint, so we're hoping for a podium here. Here's the full team:
Lars Boom Willem Brouwer Jorge Cristobal Riquelme Paul Martens Tom-Jelte Slagter David Tanner Maarten Tjallingii Sep Vanmarcke
The big races are coming up, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. Both promise to be very contested with almost every big name in the peloton going to one of them. For the stage racers it's the first real test of the season and for the single day specialists it's the last chance to prepare for the classics. Belkin is aiming for a top 10 in both races, which will be hard as most teams are targeting these races.
The team for Paris-Nice will be a support team for our two leaders: Willem Brouwer for the flat and Bauke Mollema in the mountains; with Laurens Ten Dam getting a free role.
Willem Brouwer Moreno Hofland Steven Kruijswijk Bauke Mollema Lars Peter Nordhaug Bram Tankink David Tanner Laurens Ten Dam
For Tirreno-Adriatico, we're sending a strong time trial team to get our GC men in a good position. Wilco Kelderman and Robert Gesink will have co-leadership in order to get a good result. We also count on Theo Bos to contest the mass sprints.
Jack Bobridge Lars Boom Theo Bos Stef Clement Robert Gesink Marc Goos Wilco Kelderman Jos Van Emden
While we're working hard to get another podium, we found we're just falling short. Our sprint train is doing well in Paris-Nice, but we're not top of the world yet. Willem Brouwer and Moreno Hofland did manage back-to-back top 10's. In the Tirreno Adriatico, Theo Bos has some difficulties to get over bridges, resulting in a disappointing first race for him. We did however get a nice result in the Team Time Trial and Robert Gesink and Wilco Kelderman are looking good.
After a great season start, things are going a bit less well for Belkin at the moment. Kelderman and Gesink are realising they can't compete with the world class climbers, while Willem Brouwer is having some problems getting over hills. Good news comes from Tom-Jelte Slagter and Jorge Cristobal Riquelme, who managed top 10 in Strade Bianche.
Next up is Nokere Koerse, an important race for our Belgians, so we're sending a strong line up.
Jetse Bol Lars Boom Tom Leezer Maarten Tjallingii Jos Van Emden Sep Vanmarcke Robert Wagner Maarten Wynants
Like many other teams, Belkin is looking forward to the first monument of the year, La Primavera! The longest of all classics will lead the riders from Milan to San Remo. With no Italians on the team to ride their home race, we decided to go for the strongest possible selection.
Lars Boom Willem Brouwer Jorge Cristobal Riquelme Paul Martens Mark Renshaw Luis Leon Sanchez Sep Vanmarcke Maarten Wynants
Our leaders will be Willem Brouwer and Jorge Cristobal Riquelme. Both can survive a hill and have the speed to finish it off in the sprint. Though there are better puncheurs and better sprinters in the peloton, few have the combination of both as these guys.
The rest of the team will be their support. Lars Boom can of course try something in a breakaway, but he can work hard on the flat as well. Paul Martens will use his experience to guide the team over the hills. Mark Renshaw will be a great leadout if the race doesn't get too hard. Luis Leon Sanchez is the perfect man for the break. Sep Vanmarcke isn't the best here, but his endurance makes him a great asset in the final. Maarten Wynants will be our top helper in this race.
Our aim if of course to make it tough, as Kittel and Cavendish need to be dropped. We hope a few other teams will help us with that. If so, it will be a very interesting race!
I'm talking to you from Italy, Milan - SanRemo just has finished. And damn, riding nearly 300 kilometers isn't good for your body, believe me.
It was my first long race, and therefore I have to get used to it. Still, I hoped for a Top 10, since I'm the leader of the rankings and should just do good here on paper.
Anyway, not a lot did happen in the race. I must say Soupe, a FDJ rider, really impressed me, going on a solo from far out, even after being in the breakaway, and then being reeled in 10km before the finish. By Cancellara, that is, who won this year's Primavera with a large margin and a great solo.
Behind him, it turned into a hectic sprint for 2nd. The Belkin train wasn't organised very well, but I'm too blame too, since I fell a bit back on the Poggio. Gilbert set an amazing pace!
Anyway, fact is, I got stuck during the sprint. It's such frustrating, I tell you!
Here's a photo that shows it quite well, though I already was stuck a kilometer early. I'm the guy left on the bottom, in the Radioshack sandwich.
In the end, I couldn't manage to grab more than 18th. Which is quite frustrating, but well, that's cycling I guess.
I hope to do better next year, hopefully having developed a bit as well.
We finished Tirreno-Adriatico with a positive note, despite our GC and sponsor goal down the drain, Stef Clement got a nice top 10 in the final time trial.
Paris-Nice was a different story, thing were looking good with Laurens Ten Dam in the break and a lot of sprinters dropped. But Laurens couldn't deliver in the sprint and Willem Brouwer cursed as he won the peloton sprint for 8th place. A day to forget soon!
Milan-San Remo is a race that will annoy us for a long time. We rode pretty much the perfect race. Paul Martens was the first to attack, but the rest of the break wasn't cooperating.
Cancellara did get away, and Gilbert tried to close the gap, we were there immediatly, with in particular Vanmarcke and Luis Leon Sanchez looking good. Willem Brouwer was also there.
But then it goes wrong, a weird manouvre from Kristoff and Brouwer lost Renshaw's wheel. Our sprint train was crippled, our perfect race was over in one second.
Cancellara got away as the peloton was in cahos, and we managed 9th with Vanmarcke, 13th with Sanchez and 18th with Brouwer, who got totaly locked in. Quite disappoiting after such a good race, but we're proud of the boys and what they have showed!
Finaly we had Nokere Koerse, the sprint ended in chaos, with no team able to get a line in it. We did get a lot of points, but the win was for Team Sky.
Bauke Mollema had a great final day of Paris-Nice, finishing 5th in the time trial and stealing the 5th in the GC as well. Good job Bauke, another season goal in the bag!
Next up are the cobbles in Dwars Door Vlaanderen, E3 Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem, while we also ride the Volta a Catalunya and Criterium Iiternational. Rather than bore you with all the startlists, we'll keep it short and announce that Sep Vanmarcke and Lars Boom will lead on the cobbles as usual, while Bauke Mollema leads the Criterium International squad. In Catalunya, we are looking forward to what Cristobal Riquelme, Luis Leon Sanchez and Laurens Ten Dam can do!
After his good Paris-Nice results, Bauke Mollema showed he still has that good form in the Criterium International. In the first stage, a flat race ending in a sprint, our mountain goat managed to get 6th!
The time trial the next morning saw good rides from Jack Bobridge and Wilco Kelderman, but it was again Baume Mollema with the best result, getting another top 10. He's looking very good to take voer the race on the final mountain stage this afternoon.
Jetse Bol
Sep Vanmarcke
Robert Wagner
Graeme Brown
Juan Manuel Garate
Jorge Cristobal Riquelme
Lars Peter Nordhaug
