The Combuijs Capers

[Combuijs]

In the last stage in the Tour de France to Pari... oh wait, to Le-Puy-en-Velay, our helpers did a very good job for Arjen Rutte and it was a shame he just lost to Ketil Fossum (Thorboassonarvesen) at the finishing line. Still happy with 2nd, 16th (Garret Rose), 17th (Julius Maalderink) and 24th place (Ørjan Henningsen).



In the GC Yvo de Cleer finishes 38th which was 4 places behind Ivari Mitt and 12:19 after winner Cyking Mike Bauer. Second and third were two Dutchies, AJFactoryCycler Ed van Vliet and Flying wheel Ron van den Hemel.

Division standings after the Tour de France:

1º      Flyvende_hjul   9982   3   1   2   
2º      AJFactoryCycling   8023   4   1   5   
3º      CobbleCrushers   7334   4   4   3

18º      Thorboassonarvesen   4392   4   1   1   
19º      Combuijs   4381   1   2   1   
20º      SPORTLIFE   4318   0   2   1   

It's hard to see how The Norwegian Flying Wheels won't win the division, but with AJFactoryCycling you never know... We are of course very happy to be just in front of SPORTLIFE, but the question is how long that will last.
 

[Combuijs]

In the GP San Sebastian Tristan Prins did very well. His assistant Eddy Room brought him without any problems (apart from a flat tyre) to the start of the only mountain in the race. From there on no one could stop Ed van Vliet, not even Mike Bauer (4th) and Tristan finished 9th, for which he received many compliments.



Division standings after the GP San Sebastian:

1º      Flyvende_hjul   10122   3   1   2   
2º      AJFactoryCycling   8523   5   1   5   
3º      CyKings   7486   8   3   1   

16º      Matterhorn   4773   1   1   4   
17º      Combuijs   4561   1   2   1   
18º      BorinotTeam   4510   3   1   2   

On Spanish television the commentators praised the brilliant tactics thought out by team director Belarmino Farinha in the Clasica San Sebastian.
   

They also talked about the development of Thomas Freitag, not riding in the Clasica. They think he is a real talent for the future.

[Combuijs]

These riders will do the Binck Bank Bolero:

161 Arjen Rutte
162 Carlo Bemelmans
163 Koen Helder
164 Eelco van der Laan
165 Julius Maalderink

Arjen is our GC man, in all stages helped by Julius. Carlo will be a free agent in the hills race. Koen and Eelco are simply hungry for races.

[Vos]

We are of course very happy to be just in front of SPORTLIFE, but the question is how long that will last.

For the first time my team was very close to your team this season, and than you decide to ride with brilliant tactics in SSB, grrrrrr^^ :

   

If you continue like this it will be difficult for SPORTLIFE to gain up on your team. 
Also because I have a very bad BB-Tour selection.
Maybe in the Vuelta it is possible to get close to your team again.
Another possibility is that you give a bribe of many bottles of honeybeer, then you don't have to worry about my team this season. 

[Combuijs]

Free agent Carlo Bemelmans manages to finish 22nd in Aywaille without any help whatsoever. Arjen Rutte is now 107th in the GC, but his time will come in the last two stages. Or not...



We have a very very sad treasurer at the moment as our general manager has thought it worthwhile to splash out almost all of the money in buying Inglorious Bastard Oliver King. The Bastards are well known for their quality riders, but also for their high prices. And for their rock bottom place on the World Tour... With Oliver we hope to have a high talented youngster who can cooperate with our Tristan Prins in mountain hill races and who can sometimes ride for a GC.

We now know that although Julius Maalderink is really very talented, he is not of the highest level possible.

In the last great tour of the season these riders will be vulnerable to a bribe from Vos:

181 Oliver King
182 Yvo de Cleer
183 Sam Parker
184 Tristan Prins
185 Garret Rose

We are going to try out Oliver for the GC, while the others may go for their chance if there is one. And we will see what will be more luring than a Magnum bottle of Combuijs Honey Ale...

[Vos]

Your Vuelta team looks good, Combuijs. 
I suspect that it is by far better as the SPORTLIFE team. Hopefully my estimation is wrong.
Good luck in the Vuelta.

[Combuijs]

In the interesting part of the Binck Bank Tour we did pretty well, although we had hoped for a podium place somewhere. In the stage to Vogelwaarde Arjen Rutte was 5th. He lost to Zatarra's Konrad Magnussen, which was disappointing, but in fact nice to see Zatarra scoring his second win.

In stage 5 to Rotterdam it appeared that our cobblers did not really have a chance to be in front, Arjen Rutte finished 26th and Julius Maalderink 28th.

In the GC Arjen Rutte finishes 16th, which is encouraging. Winner was EuskaPiero Marcello Peron.



Division standings after the Binck Bank Tour:

1º      Flyvende_hjul   10337   3   1   2   
2º      AJFactoryCycling   9044   5   1   5   
3º      CyKings   7736   8   3   2   

19º      BorinotTeam   4746   3   2   2   
20º      Combuijs   4743   1   2   1   
21º      LOSRAYOSDELARRY   4652   0   2   1   

The Gazet van Antwerpen had an article about the money that our team has splashed around. I'd rather have them writing about our Honey Ale, but apparently no beer in Antwerp can beat that...


Of course the team for the Vuelta is much better than SPORTLIFE's, but the more interesting question is, will they score more points? Of that, I am not so sure. We have a margin of 215 points to play with...

[Combuijs]

The first stage to Lloret de Mar brought a 17th place for Garret Rose, 50 points more than SPORTLIFE and a 3:20 loss for our GC riders. Oh, and this sad view of the town:

[Vos]

The first stage to Lloret de Mar brought a 17th place for Garret Rose, 50 points more than SPORTLIFE.

In case you are wondering if your team will do better as mine. Below the link to the preview.

  selectie SPORTLIFE

https://cyclingforfun.org/smf/index.php?topic=372.msg8704#msg8704

[Combuijs]

Climbing the Angliru is always a tiring task and stamina is not the strongest point of our Sam Parker. So he took off in 3rd position to finish 26th in the time trial up. I guess we were lucky the climb did not last another 3 km. So 23 points for us, but 170 for SPORTLIFE, which means we are 97 behind at the moment.

Oliver King loses 6 seconds to our measuring unit Mike Bauer, which brings him to 51st place in the GC. Well, Madrid ... eh ... Ribeira Sacra is still far away...

[Vos]

stage 3 Vuelta :
stage victory of Miorlin versus 12th place of King.
Vuelta total points : SPORTLIFE vs Combuijs = 420 versus 148. 

[Combuijs]

We went from Almeria to Alto de Velefique and Oliver King lost sight of Mike Bauer on the seocnd climb of the day. In the end he finished 12th on 39 seconds from the winner. And that winner, I'm sad to report, was SPORTLIFE's Nicola Miorlin, who deservedly beated Mike Bauer in the last meters.

So we lost 175 points to SPORTLIFE, 272 in total, they even passed us in the division standings. But you no doubt have heard that news already...



In the GC Oliver King rises to 19th place, almost 2 minutes behind leader Karl Dahlen from Valeronidolo.

This evening we ride again to Lloret de Mar and Yvo de Cleer is tipped for the podium. He won't stand there as he will try to help our King.

Well, it took them some time but now also El Pais acknowledges that Arjen Rutte is an iconic rider.


They also are sure that Thomas Freitag is one of the greatest talents around, which is really good news.

[Combuijs]

In the mountain sprint stage to Lloret de Mar, Yvo de Cleer helped Oliver King to a 13th place and himself to a 15th one. So, did we get nearer to SPORTLIFE? Not quite, Nicola Miorlin finished 2nd, to win another 70 points (342 the difference now). We might as well give up...

Starting place Manlleu is much nicer than Lloret de Mar:


At least we did not lose more points in the sprint stage to Cuenca, which was lucky because SPORTLIFE's Coen Bogarde managed to finish 31st...

In the GC Oliver King is still 19th, now 2:25 behind, you guessed it, Mike Bauer.

For the next race, again to Cuenca, Garret Rose seems to be an outsider. Maybe he can surprise us...

[Combuijs]

Outsider Garret Rose gets 5th place in the cobble hill race to Cuenca in a free role. No expert predicted that. We win 125 points back (217 to go), SPORTLIFE should be very pleased they did not get penalty points for not finishing within the first 100...



Oliver King is up to place 17 in the GC now, a solid 3:39 behind Bauer.

[Vos]

SPORTLIFE should be very pleased they did not get penalty points for not finishing within the first 100...

Well, my best cyclist (120th) in stage 6 will do better in stages 7 and 8, he is time trialist Bogarde.
So, time to score some points again.^^

And good result with Rose in stage 6, well done.
Let's see if Nieuwendijk can pass your best GC rider King, he is not far ahead : 23th on 4:30" versus 17th on 3:39"
Although Nieuwendijk is a climber, he has TT TC bonus due to the WC time trial. I hope King is worried now.