Author Topic: The Combuijs Capers  (Read 32197 times)

Combuijs

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #180 on: July 17, 2019, 11:33:17 AM »
The last stage in Basque Country around Zalla was rather succesfull. Garret Rose reached place 10 in a free role and Adam Balogh, in another free role, scored his first World Tour points with place 17. More importantly, Tristan Prins only lost 2:43 thanks to helper Eddy Room, so he finished 9th in the GC, 1:28 after winner Asger Anthonisen (Atlantico).

Julius Maalderink has been in a training camp for Paris-Roubaix but as we concentrate on hill training we did expect not too much of him, and we were right. He finished 14th, his helper Arjen Rutte 28th. Winner was Ikibasque Bram Travin, honourable mentions for Zatarra's Rolv Sele (4th) and Konrad Magnusson (6th).



Division standings after Paris-Roubaix:

1º      CobbleCrushers   4905   2   3   3   
2º      AJFactoryCycling   3913   0   0   0   
3º      Atlantico   3911   0   2   0   
4º      SentinelChickens   3631   2   1   1   
5º      Yvo_Meppelink_ProCycling   3442   5   1   3   
6º      Combuijs   3151   0   0   0   
7º      Flyvende_hjul   3107   1   0   0   

Did I say really say after reaching place 8 it could only go downhill? Hmm, it looks like a Tour de France road book, there is always just a little climb when you least expect it...

After the hill classics the line up for the Tour of Romandy will be:

51 Oliver King
52 Koen Helder
53 Julius Maalderink
54 Tristan Prins
55 Arjen Rutte

« Last Edit: July 20, 2019, 08:06:15 PM by Combuijs »

Combuijs

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #181 on: July 19, 2019, 11:14:35 AM »
For us the hill classics were the Eddy Room show. 18th in the Combuijs Honey Ale race, 27th in the Fleche Wallone and 24th in Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He won't be very well known in public now, but he is still collecting points.



Division standings after the first stage of the Tour of Romandy:

1º      CobbleCrushers   5457   2   3   3   
2º      AJFactoryCycling   4956   1   0   0   
3º      Atlantico   4151   0   2   0   

9º      Thorboassonarvesen   3557   3   1   0   
10º      Combuijs   3336   0   0   0   
11º      ProdopingPong   3063   1   2   1   

We are the highest team now without a podium place. That feels like a milestone somehow, but I doubt it will be one...

Combuijs

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #182 on: July 20, 2019, 08:08:02 PM »
We have no time trial specialist in the Tour of Romandy but Oliver King finishes on the last point worth position. This did compensate for his first pointless position in the previous Aubonne-Geneve stage. He was then on the one but last point worth position in the GC.

On the cobbles around Fribourg Julius Maalderink gets 10th position, supported by Arjen Rutte who finishes on the one but last point worth position. Oliver King lost his position completely in the GC, but will still be leader in the last stage around Sion.



The Tribune de Genève notes that we have an excellent sleet rider. That is well spotted as we have recruited the very fast winger ... eh ... young cyclist Johannes Overmars who likes most races in Scandinavia...


Robert Brubaker has been called up for international time trial services by an expert USA coach. He won't score international points though...

These riders will circle around the Henninger Turm:

91 Tristan Prins
92 Oliver King
93 Eelco van der Laan
94 Eddy Room
95 Midas van Veldhuizen

These riders will circle around Italy:

91 Yvo de Cleer
92 Thomas Freitag
93 Chester Laybutt
94 Julius Maalderink
95 Midas van Veldhuizen

Yvo will be our GC and mountain man, Thomas and Midas will do the sprint races and Chester and Julius the cobble races.

These riders will do the fourth round of the cup:

1 Chester Laybutt
2 Julius Maalderink
3 Garret Rose
4 Arjen Rutte
5 Julius Wiegel

Combuijs

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #183 on: July 22, 2019, 05:00:40 PM »
In the last Romandian stage around Sion Oliver King lost only half a minute and finished 19th. That way he catapulted up to 18th place in the GC. Winner Igor Paraje got flowers at the finishing line for his very good Tour win.

In Rundum der Henninger Turm Tristan Prins finished 19th and helper Oliver King 27th. It is always a surprise when helpers are winning points for us.

The Giro starts in Belgium this season, as every grand Tour should do. In the stage to Namur Chester Laybutt and Julius Maalderink did not stay close together as planned, but finished 7th and 8th. Winner was Cobble Crusher Yannick Pierre. They have to repave the whole Namur citadel now...



Leader Yvo de Cleer managed to finish within the time limit and can note the first lost 4 minutes.

Division standings after the first stage in the Giro:

1º      CobbleCrushers   6088   3   3   4   
2º      AJFactoryCycling   5772   1   1   1   
3º      Flyvende_hjul   4796   1   0   1   

9º      Thorboassonarvesen   3830   3   1   0   
10º      Combuijs   3783   0   0   0   
11º      CyKings   3724   1   2   3   

We could ride the cup race as a kind of introduction show to the Giro as we rode exactly the same stage. Flying Wheeler Alex Bornemissza could only keep Julius Wiegel behind him, but had to let go four other Combuijs riders. So for the second time in succession we are in the quarter finals of the cup!

We are up to World Tour rival Psychoedge in a sprint race with a little hill. We will get out our sprinters then, but chances are that we again will go out in the quarter finals.

In the international race around Lake Banyoles apparently only 20 riders did finish. We presume the rest got lost in the water. We will have to drag out Robert Brubaker before his next race somehow...

Arjen Rutte, Julius Maalderink, Julius Wiegel and Adam Neeskens have been called up by the Dutch National team manager. You would expect a hill cobble race then and indeed we will be riding from Bornem to Geraardsbergen. The four of them are about equally strong, so at least they can help themselves...

Vos

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #184 on: July 22, 2019, 08:04:17 PM »
These riders will circle around Italy:

91 Yvo de Cleer
92 Thomas Freitag
93 Chester Laybutt
94 Julius Maalderink
95 Midas van Veldhuizen

Yvo will be our GC and mountain man, Thomas and Midas will do the sprint races and Chester and Julius the cobble races.

Time to challenge Combuijs again in a big tour.  :)
For sure no shame to finish below Combuijs in 1A and his team is doing great this season.
But the gap* is too big at the moment, so in this way my cyclists are more motivated.
* =
11º      Combuijs   3823
22º      SPORTLIFE   2396

My Giro selection (startnumbers 261 to 265 because of the 27th place in 1A before the Giro)  :

261 Miorlin ( climber ) --> stage 2 and stage 8.
262 Saint-Germain ( allrounder ) --> GC ? despite he will be just 4 or 5 stages the teamcaptain.
263 Tafi ( climbsprinter ) --> stage 10
264 Nieuwendijk ( flat- and TT-climb ) --> stage 9
265 Gallardo ( hillsclimber ) --> stage 3

The teamcaptain role is uncertain in some stages, it depends on if Saint-Germain can ride a GC.
Startnumber with an 1 in it is of course for an Italian, he has home advantage and I have high expectations of Miorlin in stage 8.

Miorlin did great as teamcaptain in stage 2 despite his low flat, because he had 2 active weather icons and that helped a lot.
The helper role tactic of Gallardo was bad, his 5 EP start was not enough so Miorlin had to do it on his own. He should have had another helper.
Happy with the excellent 5th place of Miorlin. Also Nieuwendijk did great, in a free role he finished as 13th.


Combuijs scored already 195 points in stage 1 and his climber De Cleer was the only one in stage 2 that finished with a light bulb.
Well done Combuijs !  8) 
For now the Giro duel =
235   versus 195
« Last Edit: July 22, 2019, 08:32:22 PM by Vos »

Combuijs

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #185 on: July 23, 2019, 10:45:24 AM »
The stage to Montevarchi ended with a tricky downhill section, but no accidents were reported. Yvo de Cleer finishes 19th, six places behind a certain Albert Nieuwendijk.



In the GC Yvo is now on 64th place, so we will concentrate on individual stages for a while.

That same Nieuwendijk finished 21st in the third stage to Di Lavaredo. Not that good but a lot better than our Yvo (55th) who had concentrated on Nicola Miorlin (45th). So Sportlife doing better than we did, but we are still in front with 235 to 230. Now, do they have any point scoring sprinters? Eh... and do we have them? We will see tonight.

We are not only training youth riders now, but also new managers. The victim is Cycling Team Wiekevorst, which operates on the Amateur Tour level. But next season they will ride their races on the Continental Tour for sure!


RAI Sport 1 commentator Silvio Martinello remarked that Robert Brubaker is a medium talent. It will have to do...

Vos

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #186 on: July 23, 2019, 10:54:44 AM »
stage 3 Giro :
Not a really good race for teamcaptain Saint-Germain and helper Gallardo.
Gallardo was 6 seconds behind in s4 so no extra bonus for his team captain in the final climb.
Saint-Germain finished as 41st and now in the GC 65th on 4:44"
Very uncertain if he can score GC points, perhaps he is already too far behind because he has just a little sprint. For now too soon to tell.

Nieuwendijk did again great in a free role and scored some points with a 21st place.
This means almost as many points as Combuijs at the moment :  :)
( but no points for SPORTLIFE in the next 2 stages, and Combuijs might score points there )

235   versus 230

Vos

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #187 on: July 24, 2019, 08:54:41 AM »
Again a lightbulb for a Combuijs rider ; Freitag did great in stage 5 and finished as 9th.  8)
He also scored points in stage 4, and as expected zero points for SPORTLIFE in these hill-sprint-stages. So the Giro duel is now :
345   versus 230

In these 2 stages team captain Saint-Germain (SPORTLIFE) moved up 34 places in the GC.
At the moment he is 31st GC on 6:54", that is still 1½ minute behind the number 20 GC.
It does not look promising that he can score GC points.
But that is no problem, SPORTLIFE has other cyclists to score many points in the final 3 stages.

edit ; and it could be that I made a mistake in the choice of teamcaptain in these 2 stages,
because Tafi and Nieuwendijk are not far behind Saint-Germain in the GC.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2019, 09:04:18 AM by Vos »

Combuijs

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #188 on: July 24, 2019, 12:02:26 PM »
In Praia a Mare Thomas Freitag got 27th place, which was a bit disappointing. We had expected better with all these hills so late in the race.

Thomas has however very fond of memories of L'Aquila as he finished 9th there in the 5th stage of the Giro. We got compliments as our tactics were really a light in the darkness of mediocrity. If only we knew what we did right, because after entering the first hills Thomas was completely out of help...



Anyway, useful points, certainly as all Sportlife riders were only busy emptying water bottles on their head. We have gained 110 points these two races.

Vos

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #189 on: July 24, 2019, 07:35:22 PM »
Ups, mistake in stage 6, the wrong team captain.  :-[
Saint Germain should have been the team captain here also. Perhaps too hot outside otherwise I cannot explain this mistake. Because somehow now Tafi was the team captain and I knew of previous season he is not suited at all  for this stage with his 22 downhill.
Anyway, no problem, most likely it costs Saint-Germain just 19 seconds and a few points. Now he finished as 27th in a free role.

Combuijs did better (17th) with his German hill sprinter Freitag who scored points 3 times in a row now.
And probably that will be 4 times in a row when he scores also points in the flat sprint stage 7.

So, again more points for Combuijs, but I don't have to worry about this Giro-ranking below, said my climber Miorlin to me.  ;)
395   versus 250

Vos

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #190 on: July 25, 2019, 07:24:58 AM »

In stage 7 to Milano the cyclists of Combuijs and SPORTLIFE were just enjoying the scenery ; zero points for both teams.
And it seems the manager of SPORTLIFE is trying to avoid GC points, because in this stage there was not even a team captain.  :-[ :D

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #191 on: July 25, 2019, 10:55:27 AM »
The stage to Lissone was an odd one, starting with a little climb, then a long downhill section and finally a very long flat section with two small hill for good measure. Hard to judge, but we managed to get Thomas Freitag on 17th position. How Sportlife's Saint-Germain came to 27th place we will never understand. We have heard rumours he pushed away several riders, but he was not taken out of the Giro because the head of the jury is also Belgian.

This morning there was also a sprint stage and let's be short: we gambled and lost. Don't know if Sportlife gambled, but luckily they also lost. So, all in all 30 points gained.

Now there are also rumours there is a GC. Never noticed before... We have Yvo de Cleer on 42nd place on a respectable 10 minutes from leader Adam Roethlisberger (Rekutxuteam). He has however three Sportlife riders in front of him and probably their best man behind him. Let's see if we can nudge some Sportlife riders out of the Giro...

We have changed our training regime to stamina, and for the first time all riders can actually profit from that. We have build a nice annex to our training complex:



Garret Rose and Chester Laybutt have not unexpectedly been called up for Great Britain in the next international race. We will notify you when the Hungarian national coach wakes up...

Vos

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #192 on: July 25, 2019, 12:48:42 PM »
Don't know if Sportlife gambled
I gambled without a team captain.  ;D
So, again a dumm team captain mistake, twice in a row now.  :-[ :-[  :)
Also here Saint-Germain should have been the team captain, now he finished as 121st in a free role and was riding in a team captain tactic.

I estimate that this mistake costs him 0:53" or even 1:20", because I think he could have finished as teamcaptain 2 or 3 groups earlier.
Very unnecessary time loss, and together with the also dumm mistake in the previous stage of 0:19" =
in total 1:12" or 1:39" time loss due to stupid team captain mistakes.

It is uncertain at this moment if these 2 mistakes will cost GC points in the end. I will know that after stage 10, and positive that he is not a cyclist who could compete for the pink jersey. He is competing just for the nr20 GC position.

I checked the tactics of the next stage now 5 times, just to be sure.  ;)
Saint Germain gets a free role and Miorlin is the teamcaptain in stage 8.
Miorlin is going for the stage victory despite he is just the 8th favorite or so (he can only challenge the 5th favorite).
Of course stage victory with an 8th favorite could (or even should) be an unreachable goal, but Miorlin has home advantage.^^

Vos

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #193 on: July 25, 2019, 01:13:16 PM »
Let's see if we can nudge some Sportlife riders out of the Giro...
Now my team is scared :)), especially because your Giro team has a German and an English rider.
They could be the Tony Martin and Luke Rowe of CFF.  :P
Well, it could be that nothing happens despite the orders of their manager, because in the next stage : 8ºC, rain and hard wind.
So, hopefully they keep their cool.^^

Vos

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Re: The Combuijs Capers
« Reply #194 on: July 25, 2019, 07:34:08 PM »

Point of view of Miorlin during stage 8 of the Giro, he was far ahead of most other climbers and on his way to victory !  8)

Miorlin is going for the stage victory despite he is just the 8th favorite or so (he can only challenge the 5th favorite).
Of course stage victory with an 8th favorite could (or even should) be an unreachable goal, but Miorlin has home advantage.^^
:)

De Cleer (Combuijs) had a mechanical breakdown on a very bad moment ; the final climb.
But he scored also points with a 24th place and he is now 20th in the GC  and that is before all SPORTLIFE cyclists. ( for now ;) )
The Giro duel^^ =
500   versus   423