I am very honoured you have selected me to ride the continental championship. Not only shall I try to put Greece back on the map, I will also try to show off the NetApp-Endura jersey. Greek cycling is currently under financial pressure, so I have decided to donate half my income to the sport federation of Greece, in order to keep cycling alive.
Ioannis
Of course, Ioannis. We feel that you really deserve this shot at the Continental Championship and we are hopeful that you can really achieve your ambitious goal of a resurgence of greek cycling in the coming years. Your gesture to support Greek cycling is a truly massive sign, especially because it comes from the heart, and we consider this a great step forward into the right direction. If you ever hear of any greek talents, be sure to inform us. We would love to support your cause along the way. Maybe Team NetApp - Endura can also support the Greek's Sport Federation in the coming months, for example by providing bikes or jerseys to young kids and teenagers who don't have the privilege to afford it?
Continental Championship
Speaking of the Continental Championship, Team NetApp - Endura has released its final roster for the race. Leopold König, Jan Barta and Alexander Wetterhall will participate in both European competitions. While we only send 3 riders to the Time Trial, we will send the full total of 9 riders to Valkenburg, place of this year's European Circuit. Leopold König will be our race leader with strong support by Jan Barta, Bartosz Huzarski and Paul Voss. Our young riders such as Heimdal Hägg, Ioannis Dimitriou or recent Tour of Oman stage winner Dermot Walker will also have their first chance at proving themselves at World Elite level, competing agains the best riders in the world. We feel this is an opportunitiy and a chance to learn a lot from.
Team Name:Team NetApp - Endura
European Time Trial (3 riders selected)
- Leopold König
- Jan Barta
- Alexander Wetterhall
European Road Race (9 riders selected)
- Leopold König
- Jan Barta
- Paul Voss - Heimdal Hägg
- Bartosz Huzarski
- Blaz Jarc - Dermot Walker - Ioannis Dimitriou
- José Mendes
American Time Trial
No riders participating
American Road Race
No riders participating
Aufrazian Time Trial (1 rider selected)
- Zakkari Dempster
Currently the cobblestone classics are being raced, where the team doesn't participate, but be sure to check soon to catch up on the achievements of Tour San Luis, Tour of Oman and GP Indurain.
Signed,
Peter Luttenberger
Edited by Shonak on 16-01-2014 00:33
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
So, Peter Luttenberger has made me perform some extra hours and the work does not really pay off, but hey - just letting everyone know that the promised, new team presentation is up at Page 3 now. Go check it out!
Yours,
X
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
First of all I\ll just say thet I\m extremely honoured that you have selected me for teh continental championships. I will do my best to help get the team noticed!
And then I have been looking a bit on races in the nextpart of the season while waiting for my call to go to Spain.
First of all I would love it if I could get to go to Tour of Norway as that is probably the closest to Sweden I can get while also being a race decently suited for a guy like me. I also really like the setup of Presidential Tour of Turkey. Not a lot of completely flats for the big trains, but not a lot of really big mountains either. If you apply for us to go there I would love to be part of the team...
Apart from that you are obviously free to use me as you see fit. For example in the German races, where I assume the team will be aiming to do well.
Tour San Luis finished; Walker loses leader’s jersey in Tour of Oman
And now we can say it for sure: Our goal of a Top 10 ranking at the Tour San Luis has been achieved by Leopold König.
Our Czech professional defended his 6th place overall without much hassle on the last stage, leading from San Luis to Juana Koslay. The stage was won by Lequatre from Team Bretagne. None Team Net App – Endura rider was in the break. This 7th stage marks the end of the week-long stage race, where Team NetApp – Endura showed in one of the earliest races of the season, that our form is quite up there and that we are able to compete with the teams of the world tour level. Leopold König stated later in a team meeting: “I would have liked to lose a bit less time, but I guess the place itself is quite okay. Especially when you look at the startlist and see how many big names have participated here.” König is sort of on his own with his 6th place, having a huge gap on the five riders ahead of him, while also having quite a huge lead on the 8th rider Duarte. “It was a weird race. I think on the good days there would have been more possible, but I also suffered some bad days, where I lost time that I shouldn’t have lost.” In the end, König is right with his sentiment that it was a good race from him, after all he achieved our season goal – and that’s all we were asking for anyway at this point.
We also a news from Tour of Oman: After obtaining the leader’s jersey on stage 1 and hanging on to it for three stages, Dermot Walker had to hand over his probably favourite jersey in the world back to the committee… who probably gave it someone else instead. The team offered a great fight, but alas, the steep climb up the finish line was obviously quite a bit too much for the british sprinter, who performed a worthy effort to defend the jersey. The stage win went to Peeters, a young rider under the Europcar flag. Subsequently, Scott Thwaites, ranked 3rd ahead of today’s stage, lost his 3rd place overall too. There’s still one stage left (we think) and we suppose it's a sprint stage, so expect some revenge from our guys.
So long,
X
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Oh, you dirty... not what you may think. We havn't been tested positive concering any forbidden substances and of course we didn't have unprotected... well, you know. No, this time positive means what the word implies: Something positive!
The team followed the lead of Peter Luttenberger and fought its way out of the negativity that surrounded Team NetApp - Endura during Boogerd's missing. We currently hold 33th place in the Team Ranking, with 96 points, and you can count on us that we will climb some more places in the on-going season.
Spoiler
1
Omega Pharma
2874
2
Belkin
2372
3
Sky
2271
4
RadioShack
2062
5
Movistar
1979
6
Cannondale
1382
7
BMC
1163
8
Argos
1139
9
Lotto
1139
10
Garmin
864
11
Saxo-Tinkoff
854
12
Europcar
970
13
Katusha
673
14
Orica-GreenEdge
659
15
Astana
651
16
Euskaltel
623
17
FDJ
617
18
Androni
535
19
AG2R
523
20
MTN
496
21
Colombia
362
22
Lampre
340
23
Bretagne
334
24
Cofidis
303
25
Sojasun
275
26
Vini Fantini
263
27
Bardiani
205
28
Topsport
178
29
RusVelo
116
30
Accent Jobs
108
31
Crelan
101
32
IAM
99
33
NetApp
96
34
CCC
39
35
UHC
28
36
Novo Nordisk
21
37
Caja Rural
-10
38
Champion System
-235
39
Vacansoleil
-441
Don't forget that Peter Luttenberger welcomes all riders and staff to his private vineyard in Austria in the first season break part. First of course, we will have to talk details about the next season part that's waiting for us. Peter Luttenberger has registered your wishes Heimdal Hägg and we will take a look at all races. If any riders want to wish for races too, they should know that the only races that Team NetApp - Endura is sure to race will be Tour of California as well as Bayern - Rundfahrt and the one-day races Rund um Köln and Rund um den Finanzplatz. All further races have yet to be decided in the coming hours or days. If you have any preferences, be sure to drop a note and we will take them into consideration.
Signed,
X
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Hi Boss, I have looked through the calendar for the next part and I have decided to tell you my opinion on every race. I'm honestly not interested in any WT races but if you pick me, then I will of course do my best. This is what I think:
Red - No Interest; Blue - Some Interest; Green - Very Interested
CT.4 Scheldeprijs [3 April] CT.4 Brabantse Pijl [10 April] CT.6 Giro del Trentino [16-19 April] CT.5 Tour of Turkey [21-28 April] CT.5 Rund um den Finanzplatz [1 May] CT.6 Quatre Jours de Dunkerque [1-5 May] CT.6 Rund um Koln [12 May] CT.5 Tour of California [12-19 May] CT.6 Tour of Norway [15-19 May] CT.6 Bayern Rundfahrt [22-26 May] CT.6 Ronde van Belgie [22-26 May] CT.5 Philadelphia International Championship [2 June] CT.6 Tour de Luxembourg [12-16 June]
I hope this gives you some idea of what races you might want to pick and, of course, the final decision is yours. I would also like to ride with McEvoy, Thwaites and Hägg as much as possible as I get on well with all three and think we can help each other a lot.
Dermot Walker
Manager of Bunzl - Centrica
ICL's World Tour Champions and Talented Bottlers
Brave effort by Huzarski while König remains close to Top 10 -Volta Ciclista a Catalunya-
Leopold König
Andreas Schillinger
David de la Cruz
Markus Eichler
Bartosz Huzarski
Michael Schwarzmann
Blaz Jarc
Roger Kluge
With two stage wins for Bennati and one for Alberto Contador, this year’s Volta Ciclista a Catalunya has been going all perfect for Team Saxo – Tinkoff. Well, nearly perfect, since Richie Porte (SKY) holds the leader’s jersey and took also a stage win. But with the current Danish-britishdominance in the race, our guys wanted to take advantage of today’s fifth stage, that might have been perfect for a breakaway.
In fact, our own man Huzarski was the man who instigated the breakaway and was throughout the stage one of the most active as he took several mountain and points classifications with ease.
Unfortunately, with about 2 kilometers left, Huzarski and two of his remaining companions were caught by the sprinting peloton. While some of the others guys were caught already a bit earlier, Huzarski struggled until then to fight for his stage win. A brave effort and surely a worthy performance of another stage win for the team but we are sure that with such an attitude the next win will be just around the corner. The stage win went once more to Danielle Bennati and Saxo-Tinkoff.
We would love to report more about Team NetApp – Endura’s attacks but alas, the race hasn’t been very kind to us so far. Many attempts failed, but at least Leopold König holds a great 15th rank in overall classification so far. There are still 2 stages left and anything can happen, so make sure to keep an eye out for our jerseys.
König was right up there with the favourites on stages 3 and 4. While on stage 3 the SKY train did his usual thing, Leopold König did a great job holding on and achieved a 15th place on the stage after Porte, Contador, Hesjedal and some other riders set themselves apart. He couldn’t follow their attacks at that point unfortunately.
Stage 4 presented itself after some time as a game of tactics where König profited from some good positioning and was long-time in a Group with Porte and Contador and about 5 more riders. Especially SKY did a lot of work to hunt down the leading group, containing Daniel Martin (GRS) amongst others, so that leaves König in a comfortable position. Of course, the pace was quite high.
As the climb began, König was in the lead group, when Group Martin got caught by the Group Porte/Contador/König. Down the road were still riders like Hesjedal or Intxausti, who were trying to catch up. 15 kilometers from the finish, we saw König than following an attack by Daniel Martin. A great move by our NetApp – Endura rider, and he showed really that he can compete with the best of the best.
However, when push came to shovel, and Contador attacked, the group split itself apart big time. König was shattered at that point, unable to react. The later stage winner Contador really showed an impressive performance with 8 kilometers to go. König spent much time on the climb recovering from his earlier attack and trying to not get dropped. He's on the second picture behind the yellow flag in a group with Moreno in case you are wondering. Eventually, König arrived on good 13th place, around 3 minutes behind Contador and has now a good position in the ranking to maintain his 15th place but also he and the team have good prospects to improve upon that.
General Classification, after five stages
Rank Name Team Time
So we we're finally allowed to start racing in Spain.
It had really been far to long without racing since Langkawi, so full of enthusiasm I went in the break right away.
Of course i knew we didn't stand much of a chance of actually winning the race, but partly I just couldn't keep still in teh peloton and partly my 18th place in la Marsaillaise earlier this season proved to me that it's able to score some points in this kind of race by simpley insisting on it.
I rode alongside Pliuschin for a good while after the big names had passed by us. By did they go fast oer the hills.
Anyway the Moldovian proved what rutine means in cycling and was a lot better at saving his energy so he beat me in the battle for 10th place.
Still I'm happy with 11th and keeping my statistics of not starting a race without getting the team some points!
I'd say that's pretty good for an 18-year old neopro?
We at RadioShack wish the new DS of NetApp - Endura the best of luck and hope to form a solid link between the two teams.
This won't be the last you hear of us anytime soon as, Jens Voigt, has expressed an interest in joining your German based team at the end of the season.
Thank you for your kind words. I have settled in very fast and the team has welcomed me in a fantastic way.
We are always interested in signing such young, hungry, motivated riders like Jens Voigt...
... But being a bit less silly now: We would love to sign Jens Voigt. He is a true legend in german cycling and a rider to be feared. It'd be an honour if Jens Voigt would want to throw in some years at our humble racing equipe. We are not sure if we can afford the wage of such a high-class profile rider with so much reputation but we are sure he will boost the recognition of our team and maybe the sponsor will chip in something extra? Thank you for the heads up, Cirillo Demetrio. We appreciate it!
All the best to you, Fabian Cancellara and your team in the upcoming World Tour cobblestone-events,
Peter LuttenbergerEdited by Shonak on 19-01-2014 19:03
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
We nearly can't keep up with delivering the news to you. So let’s start on a sportive side then and eventually things will lean more towards the boring part, the old, doozy management stuff.
Leopold König continues to perform well at the Volta a Catalunya, currently holding a 16th place ahead of the final stage. He arrived in the peloton 57 seconds after the breakaway, which saw amongst others the likes of Jens Voigt and Contador’s super buddy Tiralongo working for a possible stage win. Daniel Moreno had the honours in the end though of this hilly route as he took the victory in Valls. The stage winner has subsequently passed König in the overall classification, thus we suffered a small setback. Contador is the new leader of the overall classification as he reached the breakaway with a bold move. We are sure that König can only be inspired by Contador’s resilient nature and that he will keep his great overall place for the next stage or hopefully even improve upon that.
We are sure you have heard it by now: Heimdal Hägg has once more proven his incredible potential by getting 11th at GP Indurain. But more so, he showed his talent for catching the right break and having a strong will to compete and hunt for stages. Hägg was member of a 7 men strong break, which saw J.M. Garate (BEL) as the one rider who instigated an attack with 20 kilometers to go. While Hägg tried to hang on, he didn’t quite manage and together with Pliuschin from IAM Cycling he got passed by the favourites. The two worked good together and while Pliuschin achieved a Top 10 result for IAM Cycling, Hägg just fell a bit short, probably due to his very young age, in the final sprint. In the end, the earning of a hard-outfought day was a 11th place. Hägg thinks it’s pretty good for a Neo-Pro? We think it’s pretty fantastic for such a young rider.
Don’t think that’s enough of good news? Well, the real big one is about to come… Team NetApp – Endura has been invited to ride the Vuelta a Espana this year as their wildcard application got approved. Obviously this some freaking huge for us and a reward of how our hard work pays off. We have studied the course intensively and now which riders will have the best chances there. Obviously for some riders like Leopold König, this race will be the true late season highlight.
Hopefully such a picture from an alternate universe will become reality in ours too! Apparently we see him here winning a stage at the Vuelta 2013 that day… Hm, I like the ring of that.
The official news and statement by founder and sport director Ralph Denk is already on the website. Check it out!
The organizers of the Vuelta a Espana assigned one of three wildcards to the highest ranked German cycling team. On August 24, Team NetApp – Endura will now be at the starting line at the Grand Tour in Vilanova de Arousa, northwest of Spain.
"We always believed firmly in the fact that we will ride a Grand Tour this season, too. At the Giro we were the only team without Italian roots to receive votes and at the Tour we were on the short-list of candidates. After we came up just short two times before, things finally came together with an invitation to the Vuelta. The whole team is excited and can’t wait to race the Vuelta," added Ralph Denk, [Founder of] Team NetApp, after the announcement. "The Vuelta is very demanding this year. But I think that is good. Because we have always had our biggest upsets when the challenges were particularly large. The team's development is simply enormous since the Giro last year. Therefore I am confident that we will justify the invitation to the Vuelta with a great performance," Denk continued. “I appreciate that the organizers of the Vuelta invited a young team as we are. We are a new generation of successful riders who need to compete in the world’s best races to further develop,” said Ralph Denk.
The three-week Grand Tour will lead the riders over a 3,319 kilometer course. The Vuelta kicks off with a team time trial. On the road to the finale on September 15th in Madrid, the riders will also complete six flat stages, one individual time trial, and thirteen mountain stages.
What, you don’t have enough yet? Well okay. Here comes another headline: Our seasons schedule for the second part of this yearly campaign has been approved by the UCI and we now have our official race calendar for the next three months. With the Vuelta a Espana in our sights now, we wanted to reduce the race days a bit compared to the first part. Former team manager Michael Boogerd organized quite a handful of races, some of our guys like José Mendes have already ridden a bunch of days – maybe too much so far. So we will grant some guys a bit of a small break, while others will have to stack up their count of race days. Team NetApp - Endura still rides two World Tour events in this part of the campaign, the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco as well as Tour de Romandie. We assemble a strong squad for both races, while our focus will lie goal-wise probably more upon the upcoming Continental Tour events.
Category
Race
Date
Type
WT.4
Pais Vasco
1 – 6 April
Hilly
CT.6
Giro del Trentino
16 – 19 April
Mountain
CT.5
Tour of Turkey
21 – 28 April
Flat, Hilly
WT.4
Tour de Romandie
23 – 28 April
Hilly, Mountain
CT.5
Rund um den Finanzplatz
1 May
Flat
CT.6
Rund um Köln
12 May
Flat
CT.5
Tour of California
12 – 19 May
Hilly
CT.6
Tour of Norway
15 - 19 May
Flat
CT.6
Bayern-Rundfahrt
22 – 26 May
Flat
CT.5
Philadelphia Int. CS
2 June
Flat
CT.6
Tour de Luxembourg
12 – 16 June
Flat
We have taken note of Heimdal Hägg’s and Dermot Walker’s preferences. It’s great to see that our riders think so carefully about their race and training schedule. Looking at the race profiles of the upcoming stages, we will address both of them shortly. I’m sure we can find a satisfying schedule for both of you. And since the calendar for this season part 2 stands, does Ioannis Dimitriou have any preferences too?
Signed,
Peter Luttenberger & X
Edited by Shonak on 26-01-2014 21:33
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Invitation from Euskaltel - Euskadi [img-r]https://hl2mp.tsgk.com/hlstatsimg/flags/es_states/euskadi.png[/img-r]
To the management and certain riders of Team NetApp - Endura
In our evergoing effort to promote cycling in the "extended Basque country" meaning Euskadi, Navarre and Aquitaine the management of Euskaltel - Euskadi have decided to host a Basque race series taking place with one race in each season break.
That means that someone on your team is eligeable to take part.
Since we respect that riders are bound by their contracts we want you to have the final word in whether or not they may take part They will off course ride in their usual team kit.
The lineup will consist of as many professionals as possible as well as a talent-team from each of the three regions.
The route will vary slightly from race to race but the first edition will be held on the route used for Clásica San Sebastián.
Your eligible rider(s) are: Iker Camaño
To take part all you have to do is confirm your participation below or by PM.
Sincerely
Alaon Etxeberdea
Manager of Euskaltel - Euskadi
P.S. We know that young talent Gorka Nieve has some relation to your manager, so we will allow it to be up to you to decide whether he will be sponsored by NetApp - Endura for the race or ride as part of the Basque talent team.
What a wonderful idea by Euskaltel - Euskadi. Team NetApp - Endura has only the greatest respect and highest esteem for this traditional team, the basque regions, the basque cause and its population. We are glad to be able to support the Basque race series and will surely watch it on the TV.
Iker Camaño in his old Euskaltel - Euskadi jersey.
Team NetApp - Endura is proud to send Iker Camaño to the race. He told us that he's glad that he wasn't forgotten during all his time at Endura Racing and Team NetApp - Endura. Gorka Nieve will also start for our team, however should the race start after he has signed a contract with a team, the new manager can have his say in it too (in case it doesn't turn into too much bureaucratic chaos). Iker Camaño and Gorka Nieve have trained quite a bit together and we are sure they will make a great alliance.
Looking forward to the race. If there's anything else we can do, let us know.
We also wish you all the best and much success for your upcoming home tour, the Vuelta al País Vasco, and hope that our both teams will deliver some exciting racing to the public. Gora Euskadi!
Signed,
Peter Luttenberger
P.S.: We have just talked to Gorka Nieve and he said that he'd love to ride for Team NetApp - Endura at least once in his life. So its set that Gorka Nieve will ride in our jersey at the Basque Race Series.
Edited by Shonak on 22-01-2014 00:16
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Team NetApp - Endura is proud to announce its goals for the 2nd part of the first EPIC season. We have taken into account possible race schedules of our opponents, while also trying to achieve a certain balance of capabilietes, possibilietes and challenge. Winnign the Amgen Tour of California is thereby probably the most ambitious goal we have declared yet.
Overall Victory at Amgen Tour of California
This is the place where our main sponsor NetApp resides, and this is where they want us to shine the most in this second part of the season. Taking the overall victory would be a stellar achievement for our team, so buckle up boys, we will have to give everything here.
Stage win at Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey
Turkey is one of the most interesting markets, it’s natural that we will want to show ourselves in good shape here at this continental race. Since there is a total of 8 stages, we have plenty of opportunitiy of achieving a stage win.
Top 15 at Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco
Previous stage races have shown us that we really do suffer at this World Tour events and thus don’t have it in any way easy. Oddly, when we think about Top 10, we think of a medium goal already, but achieving Top 15 is still acceptable in this category of such a race. The route of País Vasco suits us probably more than the Tour de Romandie and so we are glad to have the chance of showing our talents to the basque public
Race schedules will be provided once our goals have been accepted and countered.
Signed,
Peter Luttenberger
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Hehe, thanks mate. Well, we will see about Chris Horner... Our plan is it to mob him out of the competition through a spoiling campaign so we can take the win.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Just to let everybody know: We have now fully updated the team HQ on page 3. Also it's a tool to get to page 5 with the next post.^^
Edited by Shonak on 23-01-2014 11:24
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Leopold König 
Alexander Wetterhall 
Paul Voss 
Bartosz Huzarski 
Blaz Jarc 
Dermot Walker 
Ioannis Dimitriou 
José Mendes 
Zakkari Dempster 
David de la Cruz
