Here are our last signings, at least the last signings for the start of the season. We might sign a stagiare, but for the first part of the season, this is it.
14. Jose Vicente Toribio - Wage: 75000
FL
MO
Hill
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
68
70
74
63
70
71
65
52
64
70
64
61
63
Toribio is our first really good puncher. He will not take a massive amount of victories and he's not young anymore, but he will definitely be useful. He is also a decent domestique in the mountainous races.
15. Timothy Duggan - Wage: 205000
FL
MO
Hill
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
70
67
75
73
69
72
68
51
62
67
66
78
73
This guy is really overpaid, we realise that. But we finally got ourselves a puncher with a good TT! He's also a great downhiller. Duggan unfortunately is 32 year old and costs way too much wage. Therefore, we're not planning to let him stay for multiple seasons. But for now, he's a good option.
16. Indulis Bekmanis - Wage: 6000
FL
MO
Hill
TT
STA
RES
REC
COB
SP
ACC
FTR
DH
PRL
65
61
68
68
66
64
65
62
69
71
68
64
68
A nice guy to fill up the team. He's on loan from Evonik, and we got him fairly cheap. He's a good domestique on the hills, in the TTTs and also a decent sprinter. Just a nice guy to have on the team.
He's not officially ours yet, but we're confident that he'll be confirmed in a few hours.
No provisional stats this time, we will have a team presentation soon.
As said, we're only planning on signing a stagiare now, nothing more than that, unless a 2Million bid comes in Edited by Jesleyh on 08-06-2014 11:00
Finally, it's time to present the jersey.
Our jersey has been designed by a young, talented designer named Krisa. He actually came to us just before we started with searching for a designer, so at a perfect moment. Of course, we couldn't resist and we're definitely happy with the result.
Here's the jersey:
As you can see, the main colour is red, which is what TomTom wanted from us. There's a recognisable green colour in the jersey as well, to make us stand out in the peloton.
Some of our riders have done a training ride in Zeeland in their new shirts. Here are some shots.
Also, our designer has also made us NCs, in case we might ever win one.
So we tried them out as well. For many of our riders, this will be the only case they will ever wear an NC, so they thought it was nice to try them out.
So, I hope you guys like the jersey as much as I do!
We're curious to hear your opinions, and again, we'd like to thank Krisa for designing the jersey!
Here is the average stat level of our team, per stat.
As you can see, Stamina is our best stat, we don't have any riders that are bad in the long distance.
Our riders are explosive as well, Acceleration is our second best stat.
Of the main stats, sprint & hill are our best stats. That shouws our team focus, we're sprinting-orientated, and are looking to do well on the hills as well. We're quite good at TTs, prologues in particular, as well.
As you can see, our main focus is the Netherlands, which is exactly what we wanted. Roughly half of the team is Dutch, our sponsor will be happy. Surprisingly, our second focus is Spanish. This is a surprise for us as well. The first two Spanish riders were just a co-incedence: we were just looking for good climbers & punchers, and most good free ones were Spanish. After that, we decided Spain would be a nice minor focus.
We only have 2 Belgians. We hoped for more, but most good Belgians were gone or overpriced when we were allowed to do transfers.
Average age: 27.8
Our average age is too high for my likings, but we don't worry too much about this one, we're looking for an intensive transfer period next year.
Personal Team Goals
***
Promotion.
**
Win 3 races/stages on Dutch soil.
*
Sustain the Dutch influence in the team for the next season.
We really want to go for promotion this season. With this team, it could be possible, but a nice battle lies ahead.
Edited by Jesleyh on 22-04-2014 18:21
After 3 races, our January is already over with.
We started with Clasico San Cristobal(C2). We had some high hopes here, but unfortunately, none of our riders were able to follow the main group, which is a real shame.
So, since there's barely any footage of us there, enjoy a nice picture of the winner, Gaimon.
Next up was New Zealand Cycle Classic(C2). We sent both Mouris and Vingerling here, but unfortunately, the line-up was fairly strong. Elijzen, favourite nr2 on the TT, got shared 3rd, which is a bit meh.
Not a lot GC gaps were inflicted after that, except for Meyer moving on to 2nd because of a few stage-wins and a decent TT. We hoped to drop GC-winner Stannard on the hills, but it didn't work out.
In the sprints, Vingerling managed a podium. He wasn't great in the rest of the stages though.
Elijzen managed a 4th place in the GC after all, which brings in a good amount of points.
Our last race of January was the Great Ocean Classic(C2HC). A sprinting classic where Vingerling was the leader, but where there's a strong field as well.
We were in trouble early, when both Brus and Eefting dropped from the pack. Vingerling was there, but he had to go early, too early, I have to say.
Also, to make it worse, a break just managed to stay ahead of the pack. As a result, Vingerling only managed 21th, which is quite a disappointment.
In February, we only have the BeNeLux Challenge(C2HC). So most of our riders are on a break for a while. Though the BeNeLux Challenge will definitely be important for us. Our sponsor demands a Top 5 here. While it has a lot of hills and some cobbles as well, it'll be a very open race. Duggan will lead the team here, and a Top 5 is realistic, as long as the cobbles don't have a big impact.
There was just 1 race scheduled for us in February. Nevertheless, it was a really important one, BeNeLux challenge.
We had a goal there, scoring a Top 5.
Quite a hard goal, but with 2 hilly stages and a few cobbles, we thought Duggan could achieve that.
We weren't exactly lucky though. In stage 1, there already was a crash near the end.
Guess who was involved? Yes, Duggan.
So basically, our Top 5 goal was ruined, though we still had Toribio.
Stage 2 got to a weird sprint.
That's because the escapees were reeled in really late.
Impressively, Schoonbroodt managed to sprint to an 8th place.
Stage 3 was pancake flat, but ripped the peloton in pieces, which turned out to be nice for us, in the end,.
Toribio was still placed nicely in the GC, and Schoonbroodt, Mate and Lebris as well.
No Duggan, but he was sligtly injured after his crash.
Stage 4 was a cobbled stage, crossing the (famous, except for the report ) Muur van Geraardsbergen a few times. We decided to take a risk and put Lebris into the break. The break was really strong, and Lebris was the guy positioned the best in the GC, from the break. We were delighted to see that the break actually held it to the end!
Lebris sprinted to second, and took over the lead in the GC!!!
So there was a decent chance that we could actually grab the desired Top 5 now! Or better?. Anyway, we shouldn't cheer too early, because a tough hilly stage was up next.
Stage 5 was the hilly stage to Seraing. It was obvious that this was a GC-deciding stage. Lebris isn't good on hills at all, but he felt good today. The team did a great job today, except for 1 point where Lebris kind of dropped.
But we managed to bring him back to the peloton. There were quite some attackers, though, and we couldn't chase too hard, because it'd drop Cedric once again. Most people were reeled back in though, and Lebris managed to stay in the main group. Yay!
Lebris managed to hold on to a 2nd position in the GC on the hilly stage.
The last stage was for the breakaway. There were a few dangerous attacks, but we manages to chase them down, so our 2nd place in the GC is ours! Great job by Lebris and the TomTom team.
We're participating in lots of races in March, that's why we split this month in 2 parts.
In the first part of March, we raced Tour of Langkawi(C2HC), Rheden GP(C1), Olympia Tour(C1) and Seskin Classic(C2HC).
First up was Tour of Langkawi.
We sent Vingerling and a strong train, including Eefting, to Langkawi. We expected some good sprinters, since there should be 8 flat stages.
Things were great. On the first stage, we already took a nice 2nd place, and the same thing happened on stage 2.
Stage 3 was won by a breakaway, but we had Gallego in there. He 'only' took 5th, but was in a good GC position now.
After the Queen's stage, Gallego managed to keep a 5th position in the GC, which is great!
But the best news came at stage 7.
Vingerling got us a win in Malaysia! That's just great!
In the end, Gallego managed to defend his 5th place in the GC, despite echelons!
Some useful points for us!
Rheden GP didn't go all too well. It was a cobbled race that suited Lebris decently, but the opposition just was too strong, we only got 46th.
Royal Olympia Tour was also on our calendar, being an important Dutch race, and also having 2 TTs. We took the gamble and sent Elijzen here, a strong TTist.
We didn't really have a lot else there, but Elijzen proved his worth, getting 6th in the prologue.
Beside a 14th(Elijzen) and 15th(Brus) place in the sprints, TomTom didn't really do a lot of notable stuff.
We looked forward to the 12km TT. It actually was a bit disappointing, with Elijzen ending up 11th in the TT.
Elijzen managed to end up in the GC Top 10 after all, though, which is not bad at all!
Last up in this report is Seskin Classic, a puncher race. Could Duggan finally really prove his worth?
Well, he could! He was really active during the race.
He couldn't give us a podium spot or something, but 7th still is a fairly good result, in the strong puncher CT field.
We can be fairly happy with the first part of March!
I think that your team did not underperformed or overperformed in the first part of March but just reached the expectations. Great race in Langkawi, good Seskin, okayish Olympia Tour and anonymous Rheden for you. So all in all, you can be satisfied with the races!
- Wage: 75000
- Wage: 205000
- Wage: 6000
