The Combuijs Capers

[Combuijs]

In the mountain time trial Epifanio Merchan just got some points with 30th place.

In the cobble stage to Follonica, Arjen just started too fast for Ørjan, so in the end he was short of breath and had to make do with 5th place. The good news was that is was one place better than Konrad Magnusson, the bad news was that Rolv Sele again finished before him, this time as 3rd. Glorious winner was Yannick Pierre of the aptly named Cobble Crushers. Again honourable mentions for Guido Leeghwater who as a helper finished 40th.

Division standings after the Tirreno Adriatico:

1º      Rekutxuteam   2200   0   2   0   
2º      Flyvende_hjul   1990   1   0   0   
3º      CobbleCrushers   1838   2   0   1   

25º      Caracoles   670   2   0   0   
26º      Combuijs   647   0   1   0   
27º      CC_Porco_Jones   632   0   1   0   

These riders are going to ride the Prima Vera:

251 Thomas Freitag
252 Carlo Bemelmans
253 Eelco van der Laan
254 Guido Leeghwater
255 Oscar Meijer

These 5 go for the E3:

251 Garret Rose
252 Koen Helder
253 Oscar Meijer
254 Arjen Rutte
255 Julius Wiegel

[Zatarra]

Rolv was very happy he could beat Arjen once again. Now it was his turn, however to not look at the other rivals. I think for now it was the best result possible. Magnussen had a free role: he could barely keep Arjen's wheel. Together with Amund he rode a pretty good result!

Good luck and we'll meet again in the E3 although I think our biys will be beaten by Yannick once again.

[Combuijs]

In Milan - San Remo Thomas Freitag proved he can compete with the best hillsprinters of his age. In the leading group of 50 he finished 11th and we are quite happy with that.

We now know how to beat Zatarra's Rolv Sele! Just let him watch Arjen Rutte and then pass him with another rider, the highly talented Garret Rose. That resulted in a 5th place, Yannick Pierre was unbeatable again. There are still improvements possible in tactics, Koen Helder helped more than expected and as a consequence Julius Wiegel did less. Arjen Rutte got 24th place in a free role.

Division standings after the E3:

1º      Rekutxuteam   2975   1   2   0   
2º      CobbleCrushers   2678   3   0   1   
3º      Flyvende_hjul   2215   1   0   0   

18º      skunk   1162   0   0   0   
19º      Combuijs   1112   0   1   0   
20º      LOSRAYOSDELARRY   1038   0   0   0   

BMW was wise after the event: if we would finish within place 8 in the E3 they would sponsor us. We just had finished 5th, but that did not count in their eyes. Stupid cars anyway!


The lineup for the Tour of Catalunya:

181 Yvo de Cleer
182 Carlo Bemelmans
183 Thomas Freitag
184 Guido Leeghwater
185 Tristan Prins

Yvo is there for the mountain stages and the GC, Tristan will support him in everything, Carlo Bemelmans will be there in the flat hill stage and we use again our sprint couple for the sprint stage.

[Zatarra]

Sele was not amused. His tactics were not as good as we hoped beforehand. Good to see you have several other riders to compete with on the cobbles. Next stop: G-W. Sele will be there again.

Congrats on your fifth place! 

[Combuijs]

Well, Yvo de Cleer has taken a subscription on place 11, he finished there in the first two stages of the Tour of Catalunya. And guess where he stands in the GC?

[Combuijs]

In the sprint stage to Torremdebarra Thomas Freitag gets 21st place in a free role and Yvo de Cleer got up to 2nd place in the GC.

Carlo Bemelmans gets himself in a free role an 11th place in the flat hill race to Olot. Unfortunately Yvo de Cleer could not keep second place in the GC in his weakest stage of the Tour and he is back to place 12 now.

For tomorrow morning this will be the line up for Gent-Wevelgem:

181 Arjen Rutte
182 Adam Balogh
183 Chester Laybutt
184 Oscar Meijer
185 Garret Rose

[Combuijs]

In the last race of the Tour of Catalunya, Yvo de Cleer got 12th place, which gave him a 9th place in the GC, our first GC points on the World Tour.

I don't think we did an optimal tactical race in Gent-Wevelgem, but leader Arjen Rutte finished 9th and Garret Rose finished 19th in a free role. Alas, that was behind Rolv Sele (3rd), but lo, it was before Yannick Pierre (10th). Winner was Ketil Fossum of Thorboassonarvesen.

Division standings after Gent-Wevelgem:

1º      Rekutxuteam   3335   1   2   0   
2º      CobbleCrushers   3301   3   1   1   
3º      Flyvende_hjul   3156   2   0   0   

11º      CrossAndGo    1895   2   0   0   
12º      Combuijs   1761   0   1   0   
13º      $Tourmalet   1755   2   0   1   

Norman Schuh had found a new home and it is a very well known home: AJFactoryCycling. No doubt he will have to find another home after Paris-Roubaix...

We have our first iconic rider! His name is Yvo de Cleer and this is where he is iconic in:


We have accepted a sponsor offer by Ukr Telecom. They have assured us their wifi connections are better than our current ones, which does not tell anything actually. We assured them we will finish with the best six in the second stage of the Tour of Switzerland


These riders will go across Vlaanderen:

111 Chester Laybutt
112 Adam Balogh
113 Oscar Meijer
114 Garret Rose
115 Julius Wiegel

And these riders will go around in the Ronde van Vlaanderen:

111 Chester Laybutt
112 Adam Balogh
113 Oscar Meijer
114 Garret Rose
115 Julius Wiegel

[Combuijs]

In Dwars door Vlaanderen we rode without the notorious earplugs in the so called no-wifi modus, very watchful, but no results.

In the Tour of Flanders we had leader Chester Laybutt on place 10 en free role Garret Rose on 21st place. We had not expected to beat winner Ketil Fossum, but we had hoped to do better.

Division standings after Vlaanderen:

1º      CobbleCrushers   4671   3   2   1   
2º      Flyvende_hjul   3756   2   1   0   
3º      Rekutxuteam   3595   1   2   0   

12º      °Peachy°Melocotons   2010   0   0   2   
13º      Combuijs   2001   0   1   0   
14º      CrossAndGo    1895   2   0   0   

Looks good, one would say, but just as Cobble Crushers we have very few good races left...

De Telegraaf have noticed our bronze rider Yvo de Cleer too:


What they did not spot is that Tristan Prins has got one now too...

For the Itzulia these riders will learn how to speak Basque:

121 Eddy Room
122 Chester Laybutt
123 Tristan Prins
124 Garret Rose
125 Trevor Taylor

Eddy will be our leader, Tristan will be his luxury helper, Chester and Garret will star in the cobble hill race and Trevor might prove his worth in the closing time trial.

The line up for the cup race, a flat time trial with a hilly ending:

1 Trevor Taylor
2 Koen Helder
3 Guido Leeghwater
4 Epifanio Merchan
5 Julius Wiegel

Trevor came over from time trial specialist Aurora Australis especially for this race, we won't give up the cup without a fight!

[Combuijs]

Buying Trevor Taylor was a good decision as he really made the difference in the cup flat hill time trial. Before the hilly ending he was still second to Teamsonio's Xabier Merido, but uphill he was four seconds faster, enough for a place in the last 16. There we will be up to Cojo Nudos, who we know from last season, in a flat cobble race. We should be favourite as we have some very good cobblers.

In the Itzulia we can only boast a 29th place for Tristan Prins in the first stage, but that will change tonight...

[Combuijs]

Great succes in the Zalla cobble hill race. In a free role Chester Laybutt was 3rd en Garret Rose 5th. No Zatarra rider to be seen, which was an extra. Sentinental Chicken Lenny Ford was un(b)eatable though. Anyway, it is our second piece of silverware this season!

In the Getxo hilly race in the Itzulia Eddy Room got 14th place. The old Getxo race was flat, but this one suits Eddy better.

The lineup for the most important race of the season will be:

101 Julius Maalderink
102 Inocencio Aleixo
103 Ørjan Henningsen
104 Chester Laybutt
105 Arjen Rutte

Avianca will sponsor us for a 5th place in the Strade Bianchi. Now, there is an interesting goal, certainly because they won't change the parcours every season. Now we only have to find out who or what Avianca is...

[Zatarra]

Sele missed the boat in the first section already. The constant beating of Combuijs riders had cost him too much energy to recover the gap. Also, he complained about the hilly sections between the cobbles. Although the tour director promised 5 cobblesections, the hills were too rebundant.

We are really looking forward to the most important race of the season as well. Wondering where Julius Maalderink has been few weeks. We are however not so sure about the line-up yet. Let's say we have too much choice . Anyway; Cobbles4Life!

[Combuijs]

No successes in the Itzulia, Trevor Taylor even finished behind Eddy Room in the final hilly time trial, so he will be looking for a new team shortly. Eddy finishes 23rd in the GC, which was won by Caracoles' Guilherme Fonseca.

Mixed feelings about Paris-Roubaix. Julius Maalderink finishes 4th (with training camp, well spotted Zatarra!), but tactics could have been better. He was pretty alone the last three sections of the race, while I was afraid that Arjen Rutte would ride too hard for him. Not so, obviously... Zatarra's Amund Svendsen finished 3rd, but the jury overlooked his poking a stave in Julius's wheel just before the finish... Winner was Jean Philippe Mescoff of Atlantico.

Division standings after Paris-Roubaix:

1º      CobbleCrushers   5335   3   3   1   
2º      Flyvende_hjul   4415   2   1   0   
3º      SentinelChickens   4120   1   4   1   

10º      BorinotTeam   2635   2   1   2   
11º      Combuijs   2520   0   1   1   
12º      ProdopingPong   2440   0   3   0   

De Telegraaf has found out we have scored points on the World Tour with more than ten riders:


Well, for Telegraaf news this is pretty accurate, but in fact it is wrong, we did it with exactly ten riders, not more...

We now know Avianca is an airways company, and it is always good for cutting travel costs to have them as a sponsor, only there are not many World Tour races in their country, Colombia.

In our home monument we will start with:

101 Eddy Room
102 Carlo Bemelmans
103 Chester Laybutt
104 Adam Neeskens
105 Garret Rose

While in La Fleche Wallonne we will start with:

101 Eddy Room
102 Carlo Bemelmans
103 Chester Laybutt
104 Adam Neeskens
105 Tristan Prins

[Zatarra]

Zatarra's Amund Svendsen finished 3rd, but the jury overlooked his poking a stave in Julius's wheel just before the finish...

Where can I object such an imputation? I assume you as well as I did saw Julius having trouble with his gear. Seems like you have to speak to your mechanic instead of insinuating false play of Zatarrians.

Anyway, good job on have made Paris-Roubaix interesting from start to finish. Hopefully we'll meet again soon!

[Combuijs]

Controversy about the accusations of Julius Maalderink yesterday in Paris-Roubaix. We have spoken with our Russian mechanic Tigran Filin and he is adamant in his statement that the gear was working very well. In this statement his is backed up by his president, a certain Mr. Putin, so there can be no doubt whatsoever that the gear was working correctly. Can you aim that Kalashnikov somewhere else now? Thank you...

Zattarians is by the way an interesting form of Zatarra, you picked up a t somewhere, but lost an r in the process...

Meanwile Eddy Room showed that special training in the Limburg mountains helps to flourish in the hill classics: 16th place in the Combuijs Honey Ale Race and 18th in the Wallonian Arrow. It is not spectacular, but it is points, and that is more than most teams can boast.

These riders will realise in Bastogne that they will have to return to Liege:

141 Eddy Room
142 Carlo Bemelmans
143 Chester Laybutt
144 Adam Neeskens
145 Garret Rose

In the Tour of Romandie you will find amongst others these riders:

141 Yvo de Cleer
142 Ørjan Henningsen
143 Tristan Prins
144 Eddy Room
145 Arjen Rutte

Yvo will be our mountain man and GC man, Tristan his lovely assistant in the mountains and hills, Eddy in the hills and on the cobbles and our cobble couple Ørjan and Arjen are there to beat Zatarra in the last race.

[Combuijs]

Eddy Room finishes 25th in Liege and Yvo de Cleer finishes 25th in Zinal. We will take the points and see if we can keep Yvo in front.

Division standings after the first stage of Romandie:

1º      CobbleCrushers   5935   3   3   1   
2º      Flyvende_hjul   5268   2   1   2   
3º      Rekutxuteam   4441   2   2   0   

14º      $Tourmalet   2837   2   1   1   
15º      Combuijs   2787   0   1   1   
16º      Yvo_Meppelink_ProCycling   2755   4   0   1   

For a (no doubt short) while we are the second Dutch team now. And the place just behind $Tourmalet somehow feels comfortable, we are only missing WinterIsComing in our neighbourhood. It seems he is less present after the HBO Game of Thrones series ended...

We have sold Oscar Meijer to Franc Team for a substantial amount in Euros. Not in Belgian Francs luckily...