The Combuijs Capers

[Combuijs]

The Getxo - Getxo stage is of course familiar from another life, albeit this stage is hilly, while the previous one was flat. Well, Basque-Country-flat, but still sprinters ruled then. Nowadays they don't, and this suits us better.

In a finish à deux Tristan Prins had to give way to Hallgeir Solhaug. This means that both have now won two stages in this Tour. Pretty dull that... The team did well with Adam Neeskens on 12th, Eddy Room on 14th, Chester Laybutt on 16th and Garret Rose on 23rd place.



We forgot to tell you that Eddy Room finished 30th yesterday, which is pointwise inifinitely better than his 31st place in the stage before...

In the GC Tristan Prins has now opened up the gap between Chiapucci and Maximo to around 1:30, which is hopefully enough for tonight's race.

The Euskal Kazeta presented an article about our team and made compliments about the weather resistance of some of our riders.

Mind you, you need that very much in the Basque Country!

[Combuijs]

We will have to have a serious talk with our mechanic Tigran Filin. Tristan Prins's bike broke down in the hills section on our way to Valdegovia and he immediately lost contact with his competitors. In this way what should have been a nice calm ride became a nailbiting affair. In the end helper Eddy Room could limit the loss to 1:22 which was enough for a 27th and 29th place and the first place in the GC.



We have now won 3 of the 5 Tours, which certainly deserves an extra Magnum bottle of Combuijs Honey Ale.

1    Tristan Prins   19   Combuijs   0: 00"   500   100000
2    Romeu Maximo   19   Kalarratas   0: 35"   400   90000
3    Ivan Chiapucci   19   $Tourmalet   1: 29"   325   80000
4    Hallgeir Solhaug   19   Bolaverde   1: 39"   275   70000
5    Pedro Kranz   19   MelonKas   2: 07"   250   60000

Division standings after the Tour of Basque Country:

1º      $Tourmalet   11476   4   7   7   
2º      WinterIsComing   11124   3   4   6   
3º      Combuijs   10770   9   4   6   
4º      CojoNudos   8193   2   1   0   
5º      Kalarratas   5863   0   8   2   

Plopsala has fallen out of the top 5 now.

Barclays will sponsor us if we get a result in the 4th stage of the Tour de France. Hmm, interesting, although Banca Santander won't like it...


We are of course looking forward to Paris - Roubaix and we will be doing that with:

21 Jules Maalderink
22 Innocencio Aleixio
23 Chester Laybutt
24 Oscar Meijer
25 Norman Schuh

The first of the hill classics will be our own Combuijs Honey Ale Race where we are going to start with:

21 Carlo Bemelmans
22 Chester Laybutt
23 Adam Neeskens
24 Garret Rose
25 Tristan Prins

[Combuijs]

Paris - Roubaix was in fact decided at the "Bos van Wallers". Our team placed an attack and 10 riders were away with four from our team. Only Chester Laybutt got a flat tyre at a crucial moment. Four other riders could reach the lead in the flat section behind that, but in the next cobble strokes our Julius Maalderink flew away. He would have beaten everyone in a sprint on the Velodrome in Roubaix, but there was no one to be seen.



This is our 10th victory this season and with three Tour wins we have ordered some extra Magnum bottles of Combuijs Honey Ale as our current stock depletes rapidly... Innocencio Aleixio (12th), Norman Schuh (14th) and Oscar Meijer (18th) shared the bottle in the Combuijs Beehive bar (copyright Vos), only Chester Laybutt was pissed of and had an intensive chat with Tigran Filin, the mechanic.

[Combuijs]

In our own Combuijs Honey Ale Race Carlo Bemelmans just missed out on first place. He became second in a sprint à trois after Stu Beal ($Tourmalet) and before Pim Broeder (WinterIsComing). So for once a Magnum bottle of Combuijs Honey Ale for a non-Combuijs rider.  Stu might feel slightly less good in tomorrow's races... Eddy Room finished 10th, Chester Laybutt 20th and Adam Neeskens 29th.



We will provide La Fleche Wallone with the following riders:

11 Carlo Bemelmans
12 Chester Laybutt
13 Adam Neeskens
14 Tristan Prins
15 Eddy Room

These riders will go from Lieja to Bastogne and back to Lieja:

11 Carlo Bemelmans
12 Chester Laybutt
13 Adam Neeskens
14 Eddy Room
15 Garret Rose

[Combuijs]

First of all we welcome Arjan Rutte to the team. He was bought for a substantial sum from De Rode Vod and Arjan has told us he was glad that he could exchange a red triangle for a bottle of Combuijs Honey Ale. We wish him all the beer he can get and a succesfull Vuelta.

In the Fleche Wallone Carlo Bemelmans looked better than his opponents according to a Eurosport reporter, but in the sprint à quatre on the Muur van Hoei he proved the worst after Stu Beal ($Tourmalet), Pim Broeder (WinterIsComing) and Patrick Fredickson ($Tourmalet again). Slightly worse were Tristan Prins (15th), Adam Neeskens (16th) and Eddy Room (17th) but you don't get extra points for nice series... Chester Laybutt finished 29th.

[Combuijs]

In Bastogne Carlo Bemelmans kept up with three other riders, but back in Lieja Stu Beal and Patrick Fredickson again proved stronger than Carlo, so he had to settle for third place, before Pim Broeder. 15th place for Eddy Room, 24th place for Chester Laybutt and 27th place Garret Rose.

Carlo told reporters that $Tourmalet trains his riders simply better hillwise. And really, those hills in Lieja are steep:



After the classical cobbles and hills the division standing is:

1º      $Tourmalet   15136   7   8   8   
2º      WinterIsComing   13799   3   5   7   
3º      Combuijs   13490   10   5   7   
4º      CojoNudos   9883   2   1   0   
5º      Bolaverde   7470   3   3   2   

New kid on the block Bolaverde is approaching but has a very large gap to manage.

These riders will be on a French language course in the Tour of Romande:

21 Eduard Brouwers
22 Julius Maalderink
23 Epifanio Merchan
24 Sebastiaan Vermaelen
25 Andreas van Zijl

[Combuijs]

In the cobbles around Fribourg all riders were pampering Eduard Brouwers in order to keep his losses restricted. They more or less succeeded and Eduard lost three minutes in the end. There was one exception of course. Hero Julius Maalderink could go his own way and as he only knows one way he won the race as well, his 5th victory in total. Andreas van Zijl could not restrict himself and finished 18th.

After his win Julius was driven around Fribourg in a very peculiar vehicle:

[Combuijs]

A pleasant surprise in the time trial today around Genève. Not around the lake itself, that is far too long. But Sebastiaan Vermaelen to everyone's astonishment finishes 3rd and justifies his selection for this Tour. Andreas van Zijl finishes 20th, Epifanio Merchan 22nd.



In the GC Andreas van Zijl is our best rider on place 9 and 1:15, but tomorrow will be the day of Eduard Brouwers, who, some claim, is favourite to win in, again, Genève.

[Combuijs]

Eduard Brouwers has now had his first sip of a Magnum bottle of Combuijs Honey Ale after his win in the Aubonne - Genève stage. He attacked in the mountains where only two other riders could follow, but in the long descend and the last flat stage to Genève other riders came back. Eduard wisely saved some power up for the sprint à dix and beated Valentijn Teffer (WinterIsComing) by a small margin. Epifanio Merchan got 18th and Andreas van Zijl 21st.

In the GC Andreas van Zijl is now 3rd after Albano Roseiro (Kalarattas) and Jim Einarsen (Bolaverde). Eduard Brouwers is now 9th. We have now retreated to a secluded space in Genève to decide on the leadership this afternoon in the Sion stage.

[Combuijs]

Eduard Brouwers got the vote of confidence this afternoon and he did a very good job by finishing 4th in Sion on 0:47. He got terrific help from Epifanio Merchan who finished 8th. Andreas van Zijl became 16th.



In the GC we have now place 4 and 5:

1    Nobby Kellman   19   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   0   0
2    Atanas Rebko   19   Kalarratas   1: 04"   0   0
3    Albano Roseiro   19   Kalarratas   1: 21"   0   0
4    Andreas van Zijl   19   Combuijs   1: 30"   0   0
5    Eduard Brouwers   19   Combuijs   1: 51"   0   0

but Eduard Brouwers should be far better in the last stage to, again, Genève.

These riders will start tomorrow afternoon in Rundum der Henniger Turm (which unimaginative person did come up with Eschborn-Frankfurt?):

11 Tristan Prins
12 Eduard Brouwers
13 Adam Neeskens
14 Eddy Room
15 Garret Rose

[Mitte]

Do you have some Honey Ale 0.0% for those kids in Frankfurt??

[Combuijs]

For the third time we rode to Genève in this Tour and Julius Maalderink helped Eduard Brouwers to a 23rd place at the finish, he himself finishing 19th.

Big goal however was the GC and Eduard nearly succeeded:

1    Nobby Kellman   19   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   500   100000
2    Eduard Brouwers   19   Combuijs   0: 20"   400   90000
3    Albano Roseiro   19   Kalarratas   0: 39"   325   80000
4    Romeu Maximo   19   Kalarratas   0: 51"   275   70000
5    Valentijn Teffer   19   WinterIsComing   0: 58"   250   60000

Andreas van Zijl finishes 13th in the GC. After the last race we had a nice evaluation:



Division standings after the Tour de Romandie:

1º      $Tourmalet   16724   7   8   9   
2º      WinterIsComing   14905   3   6   8   
3º      Combuijs   14781   12   5   8   
4º      CojoNudos   10449   2   1   0   
5º      Kalarratas   8286   1   9   3   

$Tourmalet has now a serious gap, Kalarratas have taken over from Bolaverde.

From the measuring unit we got the message that Garret Rose is really a considerable talent, which is really good news.

There have been requests for a Combuijs Honey Ale U19 youth team, but really, you can't call ale without alcohol ale, can't you? Maybe we will do a Combuijs Honey Lemonade team...

[Combuijs]

You know you have a problem when a rider of WinterIsComing is favourite to win. So Tristan Prins was very happy to finish second after Valentijn Teffer in Rundum der Henniger Turm as it was the best he could do. His helpers Eddy Room en Eduard Brouwers finished 10th and 29th.



Division standings after Rundum der Henniger Turm:

1º      $Tourmalet   17344   7   8   9   
2º      WinterIsComing   15935   4   6   9   
3º      Combuijs   15381   12   6   8   
4º      CojoNudos   11064   2   1   0   
5º      Kalarratas   8561   1   9   3   

Tomorrow starts the first great Tour of this season in Cuneo. In the Giro only 5 riders can start and these lucky guys are:

21 Yvo de Cleer
22 Inocencio Aleixo
23 Eduard Brouwers
24 Ørjan Henningsen
25 Epifanio Merchan

Yvo de Cleer will go for the mountain stages and the general classification, Inocencio will assist on the cobbles, Eduard in the mountains and sprints, Epifanio in the mountains and  Ørjan on the cobbles, in the hills and in the sprint. The helpers will in some situations get their own chance to prove their worth.

[Combuijs]

The first stage in the first grand tour in the first season and Yvo de Cleer takes the victory. Dutch television commentator Maarten Ducrot said he looked better than his opponents and for once he was right. He was tremendously helped by Epifanio Merchan who finished 11th in the end. Eduard Brouwers could not help as much as he liked but managed to finish 27th.



Yvo is very proud to wear this famous jersey, although probably not for long

[WinterIsComing]

You know you have a problem when a rider of WinterIsComing is favourite to win. So Tristan Prins was very happy to finish second after Valentijn Teffer in Rundum der Henniger Turm as it was the best he could do. His helpers Eddy Room en Eduard Brouwers finished 10th and 29th.

Proud to be part of a of an All-Dutch podium in Frankfurt! 

And congrats on the Pink Jersey. My cyclist Kleinbergs did better than expected in his debut race with a 3rd place and 14 seconds behind.