Welcome to team Vacansoleil, one of, if the, smallest teams in the World Tour of cycling. After many successes last year, we have been granted World Tour status again for a second year, and we hope to build on our results last year.
Despite loosing Borut Bozic and Alberto Ongarato, we have more than made up for the loss, signing some even better riders, Kris Boeckmans, Gustav Larsson and Kenny Van Hummel. we have also decided to invest in the future, signing 5 Neo-Pro's and 2 Young Riders, full to the brim with talent.
Maurits Lammertink and Jacek Morajko showed a great deal of potential last year riding on punchy parcours, Bert-Jan Lindeman showed promise during the sprints, Tomasz Marczynski could develop into a great climber, and Martin Mortensen is already quite an established Time Trialist.
Mirko Sirika is a famous name in San - Marino, and we hope, and believe, he can make it a famous name world-wide by winning the Tour de France (Yep, he's that good). Taylor Lowe on the other hand, is an excellent cobbler, but can't manage anything more than a short (and steep!) hill. He is almost the perfect rider for Milan - San Remo, and if it had cobbles, I don't think anyone except Cancellara or Gilbert could get the better of him.
As for our more experience riders, we have cards to play in most races. Bjorn Leukemans is our leader for the Northern Classics and the Ardennes classics, with support from Stijn Devolder and Johnny Hoogerland. Romain Feillu is our sprint captain, and with Kris Boeckmans and Kenny Van Hummel for support, we expect a few wins. When the road pitches up, expect Wout Poels, Rob Ruijgh and Marco Marcato to carry the teams hopes.
Edited by Pinktay3 on 27-10-2012 12:28
Mirko is a Stage Racer from the small country of San Marino. At only 18 years of age, Mirko has lots of room for improvement. As a 16 year old, he began to dominate all age groups, he decided to move to the big leagues and that's when one of our scouts saw him and immediately wanted to sign him. However, nothing became fruitfull for a few years because of His focus on schooling and his young age, however, Farnese Vini began looking at him, and we folded under the pressure and signed him immediately at 18 years of age.
Mirko grew up next to the streets of Italy, and has dreamed of the Giro d'Italia since he was a little boy. He is also quite a conventional cyclist in regards to his dreams of the Tour de France. The Coppa Placci is also raced on the back doorstep of his childhood home, and if he were ever successful in a one day race, this would be it.
Born and raised (until he was 4...) in New Zealand, Taylor first found his talent for riding Cobblestones on a family holiday to France, when they stopped off in Belgium for a day and came across a cycling race (one of the biggest one-day races in the world, the Ronde van Vlaanderen) and Taylor was selected out of the crowd to race on of the pros over an 800 meter section off Cobbles. Not content with waiting to see what happened or how to ride them, Taylor jumped on the bike and was off.
Zooming off into the distance, not even the motorbike could keep up with him, and to this day, it remains one of the most watched cycling clips on You Tube. You wouldn't believe it now, but that rider was our very own (albeit younger) Stijn Devolder, how suggested we keep a close eye on him. We supported Taylor throughout his schooling years, providing him with team kit, a team bike, and, most importantly, an apartment on top of the Cipressa. To this day, Taylor, who has also become quite proficient in climbing short, steep climbs (due to going up and down the Cipressa each morning) has dreamed of launching an attack over the Cipressa and riding alone a to victory in Milan - San Remo. He also aspires to return to the scene off his initial success of cycling and win the Ronde van Vlaanderen. And, what Northern Classics riders dreams would be complete without a Paris - Roubaix winning ride? Not Taylor's.
After competing at State and National level (with mixed success) i decided to move to the Benelux Region, where i suddenly improved enough to start to get regognised by teams. I first got approached by Quickstep, the Lotto, but ultimately, i decided to ride as a stagaire with Skil - Shimano, due to their squad size and the fact they were based 3km's from my house.
At the end of the season, after riding as a stagaire for 3 months, i lost a bit of hope for becoming a Pro, but i was forgetting the small (Only 160kms...) Road Race Series i had coming up in the Centre of Holland. Racing as the only member of team Skil - Shimano, i won all 6 Road Races, came 2nd and 3rd in the 2 Criteriums, Won 1 Time Trial and fnished 7th in the Second TT (I Punctured coming out of the start-house) and i took the overall by just over 12 minutes! It was at this point that i was approached by a member of the Vacansoleil scouting team and i signed a contract right there and then.
Nothing special. Westra claimed 10th on GC, but ultimately it came from time bonuses. I would've liked to see Leukemans a bit more active, but 22nd was his result.
Westra must have been feeling alright when he broke away, because he was the only member of the team to collect any points. He ended up 12th in the KoM and 17th in the Points Competition
Our team finished as the 10th best team and our only Young Rider, Lindeman finished in 40th position in that classification. All in all, we hope for a much better season than this, and hope we are only getting off to a bad start
GC - Westra (10th)
Points - Westra (17th)
KoM - Westra (12th)
U-26 - Lindeman (40th)
Best Stage - Leukemans (6th, Stage 2)
Edited by Pinktay3 on 09-11-2012 04:27
Paris - Nice and Tirreno - Adriatico Squads Announced
Today the manager of Vacansoleil announced their start lists for the up-coming World Tour events, Paris - Nice and Tirreno - Adriatico. The team will be lead in France by Roger Nilsson and Mirko Sirica, and supported by Romain Feillu, Kris Boeckmans, Gustav Larsson,Bert-Jan Lindeman and Jacek Morajko. Taylor Lowe will also be in attendance, but will have a free role in preparation on his assult on the Northern Classics
For the race in Italy, the team relies on Thomas De Gendt, Wout Poels and Bjorn Leukemans. They will all be supported by Kenny Van Hummel, Pim Ligthart, Liewue Westra, Mirko Selvaggi and Marcello Pavarin
Wow, what a surprise! I'm leading the team at my first Professional race. I', extremely privileged for this change, and shall grasp it with both hands. Going in as a potential Domestique, anything i achieve above helping the team will be a fantastic result.
