Hi all,
This will be my first PCM story ever and I hope you will enjoy it. Before starting to write the story I allready did 2 or 3 stages in the Tour of San Luis, so you won't get a report or screenshots from those stages.
In November 2010 a well known Belgian newspaper decided they didn't just want to write about cycling, they should also take part in it. That's why the 'Gazet van Antwerpen' decided to start their own cycling team. First things first, we had to looking for a co-sponsor which we found in the beer brand Palm.
At the date of the 23rd of november everything was settled and signed, but now we had to go look for riders. Because it is our first year the sponsors weren't giving us too much to spend so we went looking for young Belgian talents.
Our first signings were quite hopefull with Steven van Vooren and Bart de Clerq. After some struggle we got our first and only big name. I'll announce him with the rest of the full roster as well as our many talents. Except the last years pro talents we also scouted some. We found one supertalent in Maxim de Neef, he will be the best climber of his generation, at least we hope it.
I'm glad to announce that we do have a shirt allready, by Nike:
Spoiler
Next post will contain full roster and results from stage 1 and 2 (maybe 3) of Tour de San Luis
As promised, the roster, the goals and the first few results of the season
As you guys can see in the roster we signed another big name since my last post. The big names are Kevin Seeldraeyers and Thomas de Gendt. We also signed sprinting talent Michael van Staeyen
The roster:
Spoiler
The sponsors didnt give us a lot of money, which makes our goals not the hardest on earth to do.
Main goals:
Stage win in the Tour the France
Stage win in Driedaagse - de Panne -Koksijde
Stage win in the Tour of Belgium
Because these races are quite spread over the season I won't let riders peak at specific times.
Now it's time for the first race of the year, the Australian Championship. I simmed it even though I got Justin Ellis for it. Same goes for ITT championship.
Results Road Race:
1. Baden Cooke
2. Simon Gerrans
3. Stuart O'Grady
Time Trial:
1. Cadel Evans
2. Richie Porte
3. Jack Bobridge
Edited by Demeij on 26-07-2011 09:27
Off to our first race. Tour of San Luis. First stage will be quite flat with a very small hill in the beginning.
My team will be: B. De Clerq
S. van Vooren
J. Ellis
Y. Eijssen
F. Verkinderen
T. Weyenberg
S. Pieters
As we haven't got a very good sprinter we will aim for the mountain jersey in the first stage.
Results stage 1:
Spoiler
1. A. Guardini
2. C. Sutton s.t.
3. A. van Groen s.t. 90. S. Pieters s.t.
95. S van Vooren s.t.
102. J. Ellis s.t.
131. B. de Clerq s.t.
159. Y. Eijssen +2.47 (last)
Mountain Jersey:
1. S. van Vooren 6pts
Sprint Jersey:
1. A. Guardini 25pts
Stage 2 will be hilly with 2 K.O.M sprint and a steep hill at the end of the stage. Changes will be made in GC in this stage, so I'll want to be in top 10 with B. de Clerq. S. van Vooren will also try to keep his mountain jersey, but with a lot of points to take at the finish this will be nearly impossible.
Results stage 2:
Spoiler
1. Ian Wilkinson
2. Danilo Di Luca +9
3. Roy Curvers +9
4. Oscar Gatto +9
5. Alberto Losada +25
6. Luca Mazzanti +25
7. B. De Clerq +42
22. Y. Eijssen +55
35. S. van Vooren+1.36
159. R. Broers +12.25 (last)
Mountain Jersey:
1. Ian Wilkinson 22pts
2. Danilo Di Luca 12pts
3. Steven van Vooren 12pts
Sprinting Jersey:
1. Ian Wilkinson 37pts
2. Andrea Guardini 37pts
3. Jimmy Casper 32pts
As season goes on and I played on I actually forgot I was also writing a story. Anyways, I think writing all results for every race is quite an extensive job so I'll try to write a summarizing story for every tour, race and sometimes for a lone stage.
We left on stage 2 of the Tour de San Luis, a hilly stage where B. de Clerq finished 7th on 42 seconds of Ian Wilkinson, the lone survivor of the B.O.T.D. Next stage, stage 3 is a flat stage, again without a good sprinter in my team we'll just try to keep everyone in the bunch today, which we succesfully did. Stage 4 was the time trial. My main man for the GC did quite well with a 10th spot, after which he got 5th in the GC.
Stage 5 and 6 were hilly stages, but de Clerq wasn't in much trouble, he stayed 5th in the GC until after stage 6. Meanwhile S. van Vooren was attacking every single day to get some K.O.M points. After stage 6 he was 2nd with 2 points less then the number 1 in the K.O.M rankings.
Stage 7 is a whole different story. The stage was flat with a single K.O.M point in it. That's why van Vooren was in the BOTD and got there first. First goal reached, a jersey in some tour. The BOTD was swallowed by the bunch and it was looking like a mass sprint finish until, at 3.2 km of the finish, a big crash happened, only 30 riders could continue. In the front group was all of the top 20 except, you can guess, B. de Clerq.
Summarizing the tour, we rode a good tour, showed ourselves in the top 10, but only didnt make it because of bad luck in the last stage. We did get the climbers jersey which is a very good result for this young, but talented team!
I think I will pick it up as full story, but for the next week I'm working in the afternoon and learning for some re-exams in the evening, so I won't have time to write an extensive race report.
Think I will pick it up monday the 8th again or something with some races around end of february/beginning of march
