The Combuijs Capers

[Combuijs]

Wilfred Bentinck wins the ultra short stage in Adelaide, but Midas van Veldhuizen manages to lose 1:16, so for the time being he is out of the top 20 in the GC. We expect to see him back tonight and tomorrow.



And De Telegraaf has just noticed that we were on the World Tour last season. O dear, under which stone have they been laying?


These riders will be there for the people's Tour, Omloop het Nieuwsblad:

481 Chester Laybutt
482 Julius Maalderink
483 Adam Neeskens
484 Arjen Rutte
485 Julius Wiegel

These riders will bite the dust in the Strade Bianchi:

481 Chester Laybutt
482 Ørjan Henningsen
483 Julius Maalderink
484 Arjen Rutte
485 Julius Wiegel

These riders will ride to the sun in Paris-Nice:

481 Yvo de Cleer
482 Thomas Freitag
483 Oliver King
484 Tristan Prins
485 Midas van Veldhuizen

[Combuijs]

And the Combuijs Honey Ale team has earned their first points in season 3. This was done by free roler Tristan Prins who finished 14 in the Unley-Stirling stage.



Midas van Veldhuizen has gone up to place 19 in the GC, so we expect a top 20 place tomorrow morning. First in the GC? Josep Lluis Cabo of AJFactoryCycling. How does he do it everytime?

Our youth academy has produced a nice young hiller called Quintijn de Graaf. He can stay with us for a learning period.

[Combuijs]

Right, we have a lot of catching up to do!

First of all the Tour Down Under. In the last stage Midas van Veldhuizen lost 1:19 and finished on a disappointing and pointless 21st place in the GC. The Tour was won by AJFactoryCycling's Josep Lluis Cabo with quite a gap (0:34) to peachy Artis Laksa.

As in the previous season Chester Laybutt had huge sleeping problems while preparing for the Omloop het Nieuwsblad. Must be something in the air in Gent. Nonetheless he rode very attentive and he was there when Marcus Beaumont (Atlantico) and Yannick Pierre (Cobble Crushers) attacked. That was a bit premature because Sentinental Chicken Lenny Ford could overtake them in the last meters. Chester paid the toll for his lack of sleep and finished 5th. Arjen Rutte in a free role got 11th place, just before Zatarra's Rolv Sele who was complaining about the hills.

Luckily Chester was really fit for the Strade Bianchi. In a fantastic race he was always in the leading group accompanied by helper Ørjan Henningsen. In the end he finished just outside the podium on place 4 after unbeatable Cobble Crusher Yannick Pierre. Free role Arjan Rutte finished 17th, Ørjan 23rd.

In the first stage of Paris-Nice to Biot Yvo de Cleer managed to get a 21st place, which was pretty good as he could have done with a little rest himself... In the GC Yvo de Cleer is now 45th. The time trial stage went to Duncan Dekeyser. It seems Bloemen aan de Mitte has absolutely no problem to win on the World Tour level. Why were they not there last season?



Division standings after the second stage of Paris-Nice:

1º      CobbleCrushers   1548   1   0   1   
2º      AJFactoryCycling   1199   0   0   0   
3º      Atlantico   944   0   1   0   
4º      Combuijs   911   0   0   0   
5º      SentinelChickens   888   1   0   0   

We went from 49th to 4th, which is a new record high for us!

We all are carrying a cross around our necks, because of the 5th place in the Omloop het Nieuwsblad. If we had known that before...


Thanks to the 4th place in the Strade Bianchi we can now fly for free to Columbia. We are looking for a reason to actually do that apart from the rarely occuring World championship race.


Chester Laybutt has earned back his transfer fee with these two sponsordeals alone...

We have bought time trialler Robert Brubaker from Pro Continental team Skrimshaw. Robert is very glad to compete on the highest level possible, especially as good time trialers are relatively rare on the World Tour. In cooperation with his personal manager we will try to make a nice schedule for him this season. We will have to free up space in the squad, but no decision has been made yet which rider will have a future without any free Combuijs Honey Ale.

We have some new iconic riders as well: Garret Rose , Carlo Bemelmans and Eddy Room .

We have been awarded the Youth Development Award for giving experience to young riders. The speech that was delivered in this event was not completely understandable, so it might be something else entirely...


What was understandable however is that we have a total of 10 sponsors now, apart from our main sponsor Combuijs Honey Ale of course. Our marketing manager Gerard Brown thinks he can get some better deals now. He better be true to his word, because there is no sponsor waiting for us at the moment...

[Zatarra]

Haha, well, congratulations on your good start. Seems you will have a better season than last season, which for you is a good thing of course! Hopefully you can keep scoring the big points in the cobblehill classics.

For Zatarra this season will be hard. As you've heard, Sele is not as good in getting over the hills than Rutte, Laybutt or the unbeatable Pierre and Ford. However, the first flat cobble race hopefully will give us some hope for the rest of the season. Pity there won't be so many points to catch in those races.

Also, this night Sansonetti made his way over to Zatarra. Rolv was very happy with that as now he at least will have a solid domestique for the upcoming classics in Flanders. We'll see.

[Combuijs]

Yvo de Cleer finishes on 1:22 in Nice, quitely riding the last few hunderd meters, forgetting to sprint for points, so he collects zero points on place 31. We will have a nice little talk with him, but first he has to perform in the last stage to improve his GC, which is now 30. Our guess is he will finish 21st... Nice win by Sportlife's Nicola Miorlin by the way.



In an interview with NOS Sport we were asked if we knew we had iconic hill rider. Yes, as told yesterday, we have two. Difficult job, interviewing.


These riders will bounce between the Tirreno and the Adriatico:

41 Oliver King
42 Thomas Freitag
43 Chester Laybutt
44 Sam Parker
45 Midas van Veldhuizen

We will count on the GC of Oliver King, assisted by Sam Parker, while Thomas Freitag and Midas van Veldhuizen will go for the hill sprint race. Chester Laybutt is there for the publicity...

These riders will do the second round of the cup:

1 Midas van Veldhuizen
2 Carlo Bemelmans
3 Thomas Freitag
4 Julius Maalderink
5 Adam Neeskens

[Combuijs]

Yvo de Cleer did not have a frustrating 21st place in the Paris-Nice GC, he finished 27th, exactly 5 minutes behind Flying wheel winner Robrecht Kemperman.

In the Tirreno Adriatico we had some hopes for a good result in the hill sprint race to Cascinia, but Midas van Veldhuizen could not cope with the strong opposition he was faced with. Wilfred Bentinck had no such trouble as he claimed his second victory in this Tour.

The last mountain stage in the Tirreno Adriatico to Monte San Vicino overhauled the GC quite a lot, as was to be expected. Our Oliver King finished 26th without too much help from his assigned domestiques, and he climbed to place 18 in the GC, which was satisfying. It's not scoring points like AJ Factory Cycling (2nd and 4th) or Yvo Meppelink Pro Cycling (3rd) are doing, but it still are points. The tour was won by Rekutxu Adam Roethlisberger.



Division standings after the Tirreno Adriatico:

1º      AJFactoryCycling   2663   0   0   0   
2º      Yvo_Meppelink_ProCycling   2069   4   1   1   
3º      SaulSalinasTeam   1742   0   3   0   

13º      Wiggo_pupils   963   1   1   1   
14º      Combuijs   956   0   0   0   
15º      Pomilles_Balears   952   0   0   2   

It looks like the Tour de France, Dutch teams take over...

In the CFF Cup we managed to beat Kinchen Team in a hill sprint race. After a bad start they never recovered although their Emeterio Vela came within 15 seconds from our Midas van Veldhuizen. In the next round we will take on Pro Continental Tour team Rio mare from Italy in a flat cobble race. They will need all the luck they can get. Or a good new rider...

In the Gazetta della Sport a full page was devoted to our team and they named Julius Wiegel as an iconic rider. Big deal, half the team is now iconic...


More interesting was the remark that Chester Laybutt is a rider which every team dreams of riding him in a hill cobble race. Well, for us we don't need to dream about it...


In Milan-San Remo we will present:

131 Thomas Freitag
132 Carlo Bemelmans
133 Ørjan Henningsen
134 Arjen Rutte
135 Midas van Veldhuizen

In the E3 Harelbeke we think these riders will do best:

131 Chester Laybutt
132 Adam Balogh
133 Adam Neeskens
134 Garret Rose
135 Julius Wiegel

[Combuijs]

Last season Thomas Freitag in a free role could get points in Milan-San Remo, but this season helped by Midas van Veldhuizen he finished just outside the points on place 32. Like a lot of other riders he had been surprised in the first kilometer by a serious attack and in the other 293 kilometers he could not come back...

In the E3 Harelbeke almost everything went well, apart from the hilly section where Chester Laybutt did not get handy support. Chester again finished just outside the podium on place 4, 4 seconds after winner Ketil Fossum (Thorboassonarvesen). Garret Rose on a free role was 12th, three place in front of Zatarra's Giacommo Sansonetti. So, quite satisfied with this race, Chester just needs to step up one place...



Division standings after the E3:

1º      AJFactoryCycling   2908   0   0   0   
2º      Yvo_Meppelink_ProCycling   2344   4   1   1   
3º      CobbleCrushers   2221   1   0   3   

11º      Wiggo_pupils   1438   1   2   1   
12º      Combuijs   1381   0   0   0   
13º      Psychoedge   1244   0   0   0   

On the sports pages of Het Nieuwsblad one journalist mentioned that Oliver King is really one of the greatest talents around. That is not unexpected news, but it is still welcome of course!

These riders will get a taste of the sun in Catalunya:

131 Oliver King
132 Robert Brubaker
133 Yvo de Cleer
134 Adam Neeskens
135 Arjen Rutte

We are curious what Robert can do in the time trial and further on we have interests in the second stage with Arjen and the fourth stage with Yvo. We won't go for the GC, but we will watch Arjen and Oliver with interest.

[Combuijs]

First points for Robert Brubaker in the time trial around the lake of Banyoles as he finished 20th.

In the stage around Olot Arjen Rutte lost his helper Adam Neeskens after the first cobble section and he had to find his own way to 19th place. An honourful mention for Zatarra's Martin van Groningen who would have finished higher than his current 3rd place if an umbrella had not crossed the street in the last section.



In the GC Arjen Rutte is now 32nd, Oliver King ... eh ... 144th.

According to the patriottic Világgazdaság Hungarian Adam Balogh is an iconic cobblestone rider. Well, he can prove that in the coming races in Flanders...

[Zatarra]

First points for Robert Brubaker in the time trial around the lake of Banyoles as he finished 20th.

In the stage around Olot Arjen Rutte lost his helper Adam Neeskens after the first cobble section and he had to find his own way to 19th place. An honourful mention for Zatarra's Martin van Groningen who would have finished higher than his current 3rd place if an umbrella had not crossed the street in the last section.



In the GC Arjen Rutte is now 32nd, Oliver King ... eh ... 144th.

According to the patriottic Világgazdaság Hungarian Adam Balogh is an iconic cobblestone rider. Well, he can prove that in the coming races in Flanders...

Martin was not amused. Actually two umbrellas crossed the street. In the final km, but also with about 20km to go causing him to lose touch with the goruo he was in. Anyway, he's done a good job. Zatarra is still waiting for the first win, though...

[Combuijs]

The fourth stage in Catalunya to Lo Port gave us an enlightened 6th place for Yvo de Cleer. If supporters of Cross and Go had kept quiet during the night in front of our team bus, he might have been on the podium together with winner Ton Jansma, but we are still happy with the result.



In the GC Arjen Rutte is back to place 31, so it is doubtful whether he will get within the first 20. The Cross and Go fans no doubt will be a pest for Flying Wheeler leader Ron van den Hemel who has 8 seconds on Ton Jansma and 15 seconds on Maarten Hoekstra before the last stage.

We have decided to sell our 19 year old hiller Quintijn de Greef. We hope he can prosper somewhere else to gain experience.

El Periodico de Catalunya published a story of Julius Maalderink being an iconic cobble rider. They wonder why he won't ride the Flemish classical races and link that to his current hill training.


The line up for Gent-Wevelgem will be:

111 Arjen Rutte
112 Adam Balogh
113 Ørjan Henningsen
114 Adam Neeskens
115 Garret Rose

These riders will ride Dwars door and around Vlaanderen:

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

[Combuijs]

Well, well, well, who would have thought the Sagrada Familia could inspire our riders? In the hills around Barcelona we had chosen Adam Neeskens as a leader and he managed to get his first points on World Tour Level with a 12th place. The icing on the cake however was Arjen Rutte finishing on 2 minutes from winner Quintijn Nelissen (PDM Cycling Team) which got him unexpectedly to 12th place in the GC. Flying Wheel Ron van den Hemel won the Tour while both Cross and Go-ers fell far away to place 20 and 26.



At the moment Arjen Rutte is tipped as a top 5 finisher for Gent-Wevelgem, no doubt based on his fantastic results in the Tour of Catalunya.

Division standings after that Tour:

1º      AJFactoryCycling   3405   0   0   0   
2º      Yvo_Meppelink_ProCycling   2952   5   1   2   
3º      Flyvende_hjul   2365   1   0   0   

10º      °Peachy°Melocotons   1878   2   1   0   
11º      Combuijs   1648   0   0   0   
12º      CyKings   1619   0   1   2   

[Combuijs]

Gent-Wevelgem was more succesfull than expected as Arjen Rutte could quite easily remain in the leading group. He finished 5th, behind winner Ketil Fossum (Thorboassonarvesen) but before Zatarra's Rolv Sele.



The Gazet van Antwerpen told us today Chester Laybutt is able to finish on the podium of Dwars door Vlaanderen. That might be a bit optimistic as he did not really prepare for this race.

They reported also that Sam Parker is not a really great talent, which is a pity.

In the Itzulia we will start with:

101 Tristan Prins
102 Adam Balogh
103 Robert Brubaker
104 Eddy Room
105 Garret Rose

Tristan will be there for the mountain hill stages and the GC, helped by Eddy, Garret and Adam will be there for the hill cobble stage and Robert Brubaker may shine in the time trial.

These riders will do the third round of the cup:

11 Julius Maalderink
12 Ørjan Henningsen
13 Eelco van der Laan
14 Chester Laybutt
15 Arjen Rutte

[Combuijs]

We seem to have a fear of the podium because Chester Laybutt finished 4th again in Dwars door Vlaanderen. Maybe they can extend the podium with two places? Or are they afraid the winner will fall very badly from those extended heights? Garret Rose in a free role finished 12th.



In the Tour of Flanders it was thought Chester Laybutt could finish on the podium, but we knew better. Satisfied with his 14th place and the 22nd place of Garret Rose.

Division standings after the Flemish classics:

1º      CobbleCrushers   4602   2   2   3   
2º      AJFactoryCycling   3585   0   0   0   
3º      SentinelChickens   3069   1   1   1   

7º      Flyvende_hjul   2695   1   0   0   
8º      Combuijs   2518   0   0   0   
9º      Wiggo_pupils   2303   1   2   1   

8th place will be as high as it gets as we have had our favourite races. From now on we will go downhill...

[Combuijs]

In the cup race to Follonica we had no trouble with Rio Mare. They only did turn up with two riders and they were both half a minute behind after the first section. So Jules and company made it into a nice training ride. In the last 16 we will meet World Tour team Flying Wheels which is quite unfortunate. It is however very fortunate that we can ride a hilly cobble race against them from Perwez to Namur.

In the time trial around Lodosa Robert Brubaker did better than last time as he finished 16th.

In the stage around Güeñes Tristan Prins did very well although podium fear stroke again in the end. Still, 5th place is encouraging.



In the GC he is 51st so he still has a lot of time to take back after a very bad time trial.

Quintijn de Greef has found a fine new home in Plopsala, who no doubt will take good care of him. If only the gnomes there would stay quiet...

[Combuijs]

In the Urdax-Vitoria race Tristan Prins finishes 12th in the leader group. He was lucky enough to come back on the flat sections without a helper after some problems in the mountains.

In the hills around Getxo Tristan Prins proved his hill training really helps him as he finishes 17th. He immediately praised Eddy Room for his terrific support. Eddy himself managed to get 20th place which are his first points this season.



In the GC Tristan Prins rockets to 9th place, but he will go down the last race as he really does not like the cobblestones of Zalla.

The Diario Vasco thinks Koen Helder is an iconic rider. How would they know? He hardly has had a race on the World Tour level!


We are going to hobble on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix with:

71 Julius Maalderink
72 Ørjan Henningsen
73 Eelco van der Laan
74 Chester Laybutt
75 Arjen Rutte

Julius will take some extra ketones in his Combuijs Honey Ale this evening, so he will be really ready for Roubaix.

We will provide these riders on The Combuijs Honey Ale, the Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege races:

71 Eddy Room
72 Carlo Bemelmans
73 Chester Laybutt
74 Adam Neeskens
75 Tristan Prins