Welcome to the HQ of ING - InBev Cycling Team
We're a new formed cycling team. We are one of the 16 teams that has secured a place in the World Tour. Our team is Dutch, but there will be some Belgian influence because of our secondary sponsor AB InBev.
In this HQ we update you on everything this team is up to. That means our jersey, our team roster, but of course, also our results, season goals and our plans for the upcoming and the next season.
There is still plenty of time left before the races start, but there will be plenty of news, especially about the transfers...
Main sponsor: ING
The ING Group is a global financial institution from the Netherlands. It's one of the main multinationals from the Netherlands.
The bank is located at almost every 1st and 2nd world country, and has a revenue of €55,79 Billion Euros(!) in 2011. That means that they are the 12th largest corporation in the world(by revenue) and you can say that they are the biggest Bank in the world. So it was just a matter of time when they are going to sponsor a Cycling Team. The sponsor region of ING is actually the whole world, but they are focussing on the BeNeLux. ING wants us to stay in the World Tour, and they do whatever it takes to assure that. In the future, they want us to be the biggest Cycling Team in the world. And that's the same goal that we have
Secondary sponsor: AB InBev
You may not be that familiair with this name, but this is actually another huge company. The full name is Anheuser-Busch InBev. It's the world largest brewer, and the company got 25% of the market share. It contains famous brands, for example Budweiser, Corona and Beck's... The company wants the cycling fans to know the name InBev, and not just the name of the brands. This sponsor is also focussing on the whole world, but mainly on the BeNeLux, and especially Belgium.
Minor sponsors:
Randstad
Spoiler
A Dutch multinational human resource consulting firm
Heineken
Spoiler
Heineken International is another brewing company, the third largest one of the World. They wanted a spot on our shirt to keep up with InBev.
Telenet
Spoiler
Telenet is the largest provider of broadband cable services in Belgium.
Jupiler
Spoiler
Jupiler is a Belgium beer brand, mainly active in the BeNeLux, and also sponsoring the highest Belgium football league and the second one in the Netherlands.
Our aim is to get the best Dutch riders in our team. And we want to add a few Belgian cyclists too. But that doesn't mean that we won't get people from outside the BeNeLux. One of our leaders is from outside the BeNeLux, Thomas Voeckler. He will be a valuable addition to the team. Our focus lies at the cobbles and hills. We are also able to ride a good GT, but we don't have a Contador. Ruiter can climb like him though, but got no TT or Recovery. Boonen and Boom can win any cobbled race, Veenhof can win most of the sprints, and Voeckler, Schleck and Van Avermaet can win every hilly race. The others can win plenty of races too.
Team goals
Importance
Race
Goal
*****
RvV/Paris-Roubaix
Win at least one of them
****
Amstel Gold Race
Top 3
***
All GT’s
Total of at least 5 stage-wins
**
Eneco Tour/
Top 3
**
Vuelta a Espana
Top 5
**
Paris-Nice
Top 5
*
Tour de Romandie
Top 3
*
Dutch NC
Win
*
All GT’s
Grab a KoM jersey
There are a lot of goals where we count on Voeckler and Boonen. That's obvious, because they're great. As you can see, we do focus about many monuments, either hilly or cobbled. Our focus isn't really at the GT's. Yes, we want 5 stage-wins, and we think that's easy achieveable with this squad. We will send a strong climbers team to the Vuelta, since we may have a good chance there. After we saw the routes, we also chose some smaller races. Romandië and Paris-Nice have a great route for our squad. The Eneco Tour was a goal of us anyway, it's in the BeNeLux, and it's one of Boom's favourite races. With Veenhof in our team, we just have to win the NC, since it will most likely be a sprint.
March
Paris-Nice 4-11
Tirreno-Adriatico 7-13
Milan-San Remo 17
Volta a Catalunya 19-25
E3 Harelbeke 23
Criterium International 24-25
Gent-Wevelgem 25
April
Ronde van Vlaanderen 1
Volta a Pais Vasco 2-7
Paris-Roubaix 8
Amstel Gold Race 15
La Fleche Wallonne 18
Liege-Bastogne-Liege 22
Tour de Romandie 24-29
May
Giro d'Italia 5-27
June
Criterium du Dauphine 3-10
Tour de Suisse 9-17
July
Tour de France 30(June)-22
Tour de Pologne 10-16
August
Eneco Tour 6-12
Clasica de San Sebastian 14
Vattenfall Cyclassic 19
GP Ouest-France 26
September
Vuelta a Espana 18(August)-9
GP de Quebec 7
GP de Montreal 9
Giro di Lombardia 29
Tour Down Under 2012, Winner of Stage 5(Thomas Voeckler)
Omloop het Nieuwsblad 2012, Winner(Tom Boonen) Tirreno - Adriatico 2012, Winner of Team Classification
Johan Veenhof, a dutch sprinter, 28 years old, has signed a contract with our team.
We're very happy with this deal. We're a new team, and we signed a major deal within a few days!
We wish him good luck this season and hope he has a good time
Spoiler
Johan Veenhof got 79 Sprint, 78 Acceleration and 72 Hills
And that's signing number two. Mathijs Ruiter, a great dutch climber, joined us. He signed a two years contract.
His main ability is climbing, and he's very good at that. We think he's among the 5 best climbers of the peloton. He's also a good hilly rider, but it's not likely that he will be our leader in the Ardennaises... He will get a big role in the one-week stage races, and will at least join one GT. The only downsides of him are that his Time-trial abilty isn't great, and he isn't able to recuperate that good.
Still, ING - InBev is extremely happy that he signed for us. We hope that he has a good time here.
Hi, I’m Jesleyh, and I’m the manager of ING – InBev Cycling Team.
As you know, we are a new Dutch-Belgian Cycling Team, and we secured a WT spot. I will also be the Editor-In-chief of this magazine. This magazine will appear weekly, in every weekend. Most of the times, it will appear on Sunday, but we might surprise you and release it on Saturday sometimes.
In this Magazine, we keep you updated on the latest news. We will also try to give an interview each week. Although the team roster only got 2 cyclists yet, and nothing happened, we still found someone to interview. We got our own interviewer, ex-cyclist Thijs Zonneveld. Our new sprinter Johan Veenhof didn’t mind answering some questions for our magazine. You can find the interview later in the magazine.
Part 1 : How did this team start
Part 2: Our expectations for this season
Part 3: A peek at our rivals
Part 4: An interview with Johan Veenhof
Part 5: Rider of the month
Part 6: The dream
Part 7: Next week in ING Cycling Magazine
How did this team start?
After the collapse of all the World Tour Teams of last year, and the new ‘clean’ start they made, the Dutch Cycling Federation(KNWU) were clear: We need a Dutch Cycling Team again, in the World Tour. So everybody spent a lot of effort in searching for a big, Dutch multinational who can sponsor the team. Of course, the first teams they asked was Rabobank, but they were already a secondary sponsor of another new team. Vacansoleil didn’t have enough money to carry this team to the top of World Tour cycling. So it had to be a new sponsor. We couldn’t see Shell sponsoring a team, and which team was next on the list of biggest Dutch Multinationals? ING. They were searching for a new sport where they could invest in, after they retired from Formula 1. So our main sponsor was found. For the other sponsor, we travelled to Belgium. AB InBev, another huge company, wanted to sponsor us. And after that, there were many sponsors who wanted to be a minor sponsor. Heineken told us that they wanted to be a minor sponsor, even before ING was our main sponsor. So they didn’t like that we chose InBev as our secondary sponsor. But Heineken still wanted to stay on our shirt. Our other minor sponsors are Randstad, Telenet and Jupiler. We were fast with signing up for the World Tour, and we looked so promising, that we instantly got a WT spot.
Our expectations
As said, ING wants us to be one of the major teams in Cycling. They do not mind spending a huge amount money on it. The revenue of ING is so big, that some millions per year for merchandising won’t be noticed, although they hope that the rise of the revenue due to this cycling team will be noticeable…
Most of the team roster is unknown. There are two Dutch riders who signed at our team, but that’s it. Although we can say that they are great cyclists. Johan Veenhof is a Dutch sprinter of Age 28. We think he’s one of the 10 best sprinters out there. The other signing is Mathijs Ruiter. He’s a great climber, but the problem is his problem with recuperation. That’s why he would never win a GT. He might be able to win shorter WT races, like Tirreno – Adriatico. His TT-ability is also lacking, but we forgive him that. He focused on climbing, and that’s where he’s good at.
ING expect us to have a team roster, where at least 35% of the cyclists are Dutch. We expect a roster of 30 cyclists, so it will be about 12 cyclists… Our secondary sponsor, AB InBev, expects us to have 15% Belgium cyclists. That means 4 or 5 Belgian Cyclists. We are okay with that. That leaves us with maximum 13 cyclists from other countries, that seems enough.
Since we are wanting to be the biggest team in the world, we want to be able to win any race. So cobbled races, GT’s, flat races, races in hot and cold countries. So just every race. Well, we already have a good sprinter, who can take care of the flat and slightly uphill races. It’s hard to expect what kind of team we get, but ING expect us to Top 5 one of the GT’s, and get several top 10s in classics. That can be either hilly or cobbled, of course.
For the first year, ING wants us to finish at least somewhere in the middle of the rankings, any better position is welcome. The most important thing is to stay in the WT.
A peek at our rivals
There are some very strong teams formed.
Some of them already have some signings done. Argentina – Globant-Telefe signed the North-Korean hope Kim Po-Ding, Lunar signed Maxime Oget and Lierse signed Gonzalez.
But there are many promising teams out there, who haven’t signed a big rider yet. For example the Swiss team, team Motorex, and team Tulip – Guiness. It’s hard to predict which team is the strongest, and we will do that here, in this magazine, after the transfer period.
It isn’t hard to see which team is our main rival. It’s team Lierse – Pizza Ullo. It’s nothing personal, I like the manager Ollfardh. The problem is that we’re both after Belgian riders. Since they are the team that will be the first active on the transfer market, we’re going to have a hard time. But you never know, since they are an Italian team too, they might prefer for example Nibali over V/d Broeck. We’ll just see what happens. We were lucky to be the only Dutch WT team. It’s not that good for Dutch Cycling, but we are kind of the first pick for ambitious Dutch riders. There are Dutch teams in the Continental Tour though. We will meet them in some of the WT races, and we wish them the best. We have good relations with both of the teams, especially with Team Trik.
Interview
Today, we’re having an interview with our new signing Johan Veenhof. Our interviewer Thijs Zonneveld met Johan at a small gas station close to Rotterdam. The interview is about the new team, his expectations, his contract and we couldn’t resist to ask a question about doping. Thijs Zonneveld: You signed a contact with ING, the biggest Dutch Cycling team at the moment, how do you feel right now?
Johan Veenhof: I feel great. I can’t wait to start. That’s why I even went on a training camp to Australia. I want to become better in cycling in hot countries, like Australia. TZ: What do you think about the jersey?
JV: let's just say that I hope I can become world champion or national champion TZ: Are you planning to stay here just for two years, or are you open to renewing?
JV: I'm planning to renew my contract when the current one runs out, things can change over the course of the next 2 years TZ: What are you personal goals for this season, if you have decided them already.
JV: my main point of interseted are the worlds, nationals and the Tour. TZ: Do you think that you can keep up with the big sprinters, like Cav, Greipel, Degenkolb?
JV: of course I can! who do you think you're talking too? TZ: What do you think of the other signing, climber Mathijs Ruiter?
JV: he's a bit older then I am but I would compare him to Rodriguez, one of the best climbers but lacks some points in the TT. with a bit of luck a GT win is possible TZ: Do you agree with manager Jesleyh, if he says that ING can be one of the bigger teams in cycling?
JV: everthing is possible, I have no doubt that ING will become one of the bigger teams, otherwise I proprobly wouldn't have signed with them TZ: Do you think that now the UCI collapsed and started over 'clean', there will be no doping anymore in this sport?
JV: cycling is too big and to wide of a sport to ever become clean, there is always one person that crosses the line. TZ: And the last question, do you think that you can comply with the expectations you got? People say that you are capable of GT stage wins and that you're among the 10(some even say 5) best sprinters of the world. Are you?
JV: the worlds are going to be hard as well as the NC. but some Tour wins should be able to achieve. what people say about me being among the top 10 best sprinters of the world. I would like to prove them right TZ: Thanks for your time
Rider of the Month
Once in a while, we’re going to nominee 3-5 cyclists for ’Rider of the Month’. The ‘Rider of the Month’ gets four points, and the second and third get 2 points and 1 point. We’re not sure if we are going to let you vote, or if we let some of the Dutch cycling experts are going to vote. It depends on the number of subscribers this magazine will get. Anyway, at the end of the year, the winner of the ranking gets the ‘Gillette Rider of the Year’ trophy.
The dream
We, Dutchmen, have a dream.
We want to make the Netherlands one of the major, maybe even the biggest cycling country in the world. And that does mean our team, but even more the dutch cyclists on the team. And we got enough talent. We already got some world-class or almost world-class riders, like, Boom, Terpstra, Veenhof, Ruiter, Hoogenboom, Gesink and Mollema. And there is plenty of talent in this country. For example Steven Kruiswijk, Wout Poels, Wilco Kelderman, Tom Slagter, Boy van Poppel, Henkjan Knol and many more cyclists. The question is, will it be enough? The aim of ING is not only to sponsor our team to increase their revenue. No. It’s also to help the Dutch Cyclists getting the best in the world. It turns out that there are many cycling fans in the management of ING.
We´ll try to make this dream come true.
Surprisingly, the two new riders were so keen to start, that they flew to Australia and started training and showing our jersey. They´ve also explored the Santos Tour Down Under route. Although it´s far from sure that they are going to ride the TDU. They told us that they wanted to get better in cycling in hot countries.
Next time in ING Cycling Magazine
For next week you can expect:
- More, exciting news.
- Another interview, maybe even 2 interviews.
- News and information about our signings
- And much, much more
Inspired by marcovdw´s weekly newsEdited by Jesleyh on 09-12-2012 19:03
Tom Boonen, one of the best cobblers of the world, signed a contract with us. It's shame that it's just one year, but he'll provide us with great results for the next year, and we think that he can provide us with some wins in classics like Paris - Roubaix and RvV. His stamina is also great, so he might even get a good result in races like Milan - SanRemo. It's hard to say who our next target will be. There is still plenty of choice.
And another big signing is ours. Thomas Voeckler has signed for two years. We consider him as a puncheur, but he will be used as a fighter in GTs... We see him as one of the favourites for the KoM jersey, just like last year, where he got it in the TdF. As one of the better hilly riders of the world, he might take a win in one of the hilly classics. We would obviously like it if he wins the Amstel Gold Race, in our home country. But most of the hilly classics are in the country of our secondary sponsor, Belgium
For our next signing, we stay in West-Europe, for sure. So you don't have to expect a Australian or something like that.
And again, we signed a great rider. Fränk Schleck is one of the best climbers of the world. And yes, also this signing is old. We don't care that much, as long as 'he's good, it's okay. But considering his age, it's not likely that we renew his contract. If the contract ends he's 34. It's a shame that we had to seperate the Schleck brothers, but it's okay, Fränk got tired of working for Andy the whole time.
We promise, our next rider will be much younger. We found a great talent. We can only say that he's not from Europe, but from a different continent.
