I'm gonna start a story celebrating one of the most incredible young cyclist ever, the Evenepoel of the beginning of the '00, the ukranian champion Yaroslav Popovych, and to do this I take the control of his team, the unpronounceable Landbouwkrediet - Colnago.
Yaroslav Popovych (04/01/1980) was an absolute cannibal during his period spent in the Under 23 category: Silver medal at the age of 18 in the 2000 World Championship and winner of the following 2001 World Championship, and then again winnerof the hardest u-23 race (Giro della Valle d'Aosta) and the Paris - Roubaix Espoirs (in front of his currently team-mates Bileka and Bernucci) in the same year.
The advent of the young star in the professional world was so expected that his former Sportive Director, Olivano Locatelli, dediced to bring forward by one year the date of the debut creating around himself a whole team thanks to the collaboration with Landbouwkredit.
In his first year as professionist, Yaroslav catches his first victory at the second day of race (Porec Trophy), in his first Giro d'Italia gets close to the top 10 (12°). In his second season, 2003, I take the control of the team, to make Yaroslav a real protagonist of this sport.
Edited by ddeluca on 25-04-2019 14:37
For those who do not know it, this is going to be our jersey for the current season. Landbouwkrediet is bank brand original from Belgium, already present from a long time in the cycling world, while Colnago is the italian exclusive bike factory, which partneship isborn for the signing of Yaroslav Popovych.
Needless to say, our main leader his the enfant prodige Yaroslav Popovych, 23 year, our deputy to target the stage races (Giro d'Italia in our whishes) and the hardest classics as Fleche Wallonne or Liege - Bastogne - Liegi..
But on his side there are some good riders who accepted to accompany our ukranian champion in this season, and that will be very useful especially for reaching the main goals asked by the sponsor that, we don't have to forget, is belgian, and so it asks to be very competitive in flanders race. We have the honour to have convinced the Belgian Champion in charge Tom Steels to do a step down and to join us. Tom will surely be our leader for the sprints and for the easier classics as Gent-Wevelgem.
Next to him we have another interesting sprinter that could grow at his shadow (literally, because is 20 kilos lighter ), a sort of alter ego: Ludovic Cappelle.
The fact that this team focuses on the youngs is understable by the presence of another rider with a very bright future: Lorenzo Bernucci. Bernucci came second in the Paris-Roubaix won by Yaroslav and third in the World Championship 2000. He is fast but also able to skip the smooth hills.
Ukraine is the third soul of the team next to the belgian and the italian one, and Vladimir Duma is one of the best performers of his generation. After a career on his own as a leader, Vladimir accepted the role of mother-hen of Yaroslav, he will accompain him in the most important appointments but he will have his freedom too.
This is the whole team. Is numerous and mixed between experts and young promises (keep an eye on Tomas Vaitkus and on the not yet 20y Maxime Monfort). it is appreciable that old lyons like Ludo Dierckxsens and Johan Verstrepen (both been able to catch top 10 in the northern classics in the past) accepted to extend their careers to join us, while other youngs friends like Volodymir Bileka, Yuri Metluschenko and Ruslan Gryshenko will try to no make feeling homesickness to Yaroslav. Our team seems not well equipped to support Yaroslav during the mountain and not enough competitive to reach the results asked by the sponsor in the northern classics (above all, the top 10 in the Tour of Flanders), but we are just a Division II team, and we'll do our best!
Together with the main team I decided to create a development team too, competing in the main events of the u-23 calendar
And this is all for the presentation, I will give a particolar attention to the races where Yaroslav will race but at the same time I inform you to all the important results of the team and world cycling during the 2003 season too!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
), a sort of alter ego: Ludovic Cappelle.
