The Combuijs Capers

[Combuijs]

We had a very close cup race against Prodoping Pong. In a hill mountain sprint stage from the Itzulia our Valentin Litenko went into the attack on the only mountain. He took a lead on two Pingpongers of 42 seconds there, which I thought was enough. In the remaining flat sections Aart van Sant however reduced that to 0 seconds, so we had sprint à deux as a decider. Luckily Aart had given too much in the flat sections, so Valentin could sprint us into the last 16 of the cup. There we face another sports team in Pro Continental Tour Chess Power in a mountain hill race from Paris-Nice. Our tactics should be really good then as we might be out thought here...

In the second stage of the Itzulia to Lukunberri Oliver King finished 6th, while his helper Tristan Prins just forgot to pick up points. In the third stage to Eguesibar Oliver King was tremendously supported by Valentin Litenko, so he got 24th place there.



As some other reporters have shown Oliver King is 15th in the GC now, so we will give him our confidence for the last stage. We will see if he can get passed Pallieter of Sportlife.

Diario Vasco noted we have a cobble rider who is capable of getting silverware. And they are right, Chester Laybutt is the person they write about:


Cobbler Arjen Rutte and time trialist Robert Brubaker have been called up by their national coaches. The Dutch coach must have a very cunning plan indeed to call Arjen up as the race in question is a time trial...

A long list of coming races starting with Paris-Roubaix:

41 Julius Maalderink
42 Ørjan Henningsen
43 Eelco van der Laan
44 Chester Laybutt
45 Arjen Rutte

Continuing with the Combuijs Honey Ale Race, the Wallonian Arrow and To Bastogne and back again:

41 Carlo Bemelmans
42 Chester Laybutt
43 Adam Neeskens
44 Tristan Prins
45 Eddy Room

And finally the Tour de Romandie:

41 Yvo de Cleer
42 Valentin Litenko
43 Sam Parker
44 Garret Rose
45 Julius Wiegel

Yvo will be our GC man, assisted by Valentin and Sam, Garret and Julius are there to train their technique in practice.

[Atalm93]

Very exciting tour for the top GC contenders above the dot line. And a lot of Dutch managers have a GC rider in this tour (for now).

1    Adam Roethlisberger   22   Rekutxuteam   0: 00" 
2    Nate Henderson   22   AJFactoryCycling   0: 00" 
3    Marzio Pantani   22   Wiggo_pupils   0: 05" 
4    Jarl Ulvestad   22   Flyvende_hjul   0: 28" 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6    Dries Smulders   22   CaptainOrange   0: 54"
9    Pallieter Saint-Germain   22   SPORTLIFE   1: 15"     
10    Pol Claesen   22   Flyvende_hjul   1: 28"
13    István Kasztel   22   Yvo_Meppelink_ProCycling   1: 32"
14    Eddy VanAmerongen   22   CrossAndGo    1: 38"   
15    Oliver King   22   Combuijs   1: 58" 
17    Erki Kirsiaed   22   Zatarra   2: 06"
23    Nicolas Boilleau   22   DeRodeVod   2: 47"

What is interesting, is that Ulvestad actually would have been at 0:00 too, if I had not messed up roles in stage 3, where I managed to race Ulvestad as helper instead of captain...   

[Vos]

In the end it did not matter so much, Ulvestad finished as 7th in the GC and that could have been 5th.
Not a mistake that cost a tour victory, for example. And remember, the competition makes mistakes too ( although your mistake is rare ).

Saint-Germain finished as 118th in the final stage. And in the final GC a 14th place, 3 places behind King (Combuijs).
Hopefully another SPORTLIFE cyclist can score somewhere a top 10 GC in this season.

[Atalm93]

Actually I dont know what im doing this season. Im making more mistakes than usually. Like last stage, I forgot to remove the last two energy points for Ulvestad, meaning he spent to many...
I will think I lost about 30 seconds on it.

So combined 28 + 30 seconds = 58 seconds. My mistakes this tour costed him a 3rd and maybe 2nd place in GC. Points lost = 125 or 200.

I need to get my shit together, haha! My mistakes have probably costed me around 400-500 points this season already, and that can make the difference in the end...

Too bad you lost your top10, but I know you have an upcoming chance later this season! .

[Combuijs]

In the last Itzulia stage around Getxo we broke a new team record by getting four riders in the top 30 of a World Tour race: Carlo Bemelmans 16th, Eddy Room 20th, Tristan Prins 22nd and Oliver King 25th. Oliver got awarded the Lightbulb Trophy for his efforts. As a result he finished 11th in the GC, 8 seconds out of the top 10, more than two minutes behind winner Marzio Pantani (who is apparently a pupil of Wiggo), but more importantly three places above Sportlife's Pallieter Saint-Germain. I know this has been mentioned before, but I repeat it in case someone overlooked the original text...

In Paris-Roubaix Julius Maalderink showed off his improving technique skills and finished 20th, which was some distance from first place Bram Travin (Ikibasque) and second place Konrad Magnussen (Zatarra).

Some nice results in the hill classics. Carlo Bemelmans picks up 12th place in the Combuijs Honey Ale race and 19th place in the Fleche Wallonne with in general a good team effort.



Division standings after the Wallonian Arrow:

1º      Wiggo_pupils   5188   2   1   3   
2º      CobbleCrushers   5046   4   1   2   
3º      Flyvende_hjul   4731   1   2   2   
4º      CyKings   4497   2   0   2   
5º      Combuijs   4185   0   3   1   
6º      °Peachy°Melocotons   3981   3   2   2   

19º      Matterhorn   2135   0   2   1   
20º      Zatarra   1988   0   1   1   
21º      Antequera   1985   1   0   0   

34º      TeamRHB   1136   1   0   0   
35º      SPORTLIFE   1102   0   1   2   
36º      Facha_Bartolo   1091   1   0   1   

So, Flying Wheels complaining about lost points, but still 3rd in the rankings. If he does not want the points, he can give them to us...

In order to improve our sprint train we have bought Dénes Nemcsik from World Tour team Intellinet Cycling FF. Dénes is our second most expensive buy and we hope he will bring almost as much points as our most expensive one Oliver King. We will work on a nice program for him in the remaining races.

As a result we have put Midas van Veldhuizen on the transfer list because his wagon has derailed now from that same sprint train.

La Wallonie published an article in which it stated that the Combuijs Honey Ale is worth 30 stars. From a Wallonian paper this is a compliment indeed, though it is unclear wether they meant the ale or the team.

[Vos]

34º      TeamRHB   1136   1   0   0   
35º      SPORTLIFE   1102   0   1   2   
36º      Facha_Bartolo   1091   1   0   1   

No hills-classics for SPORTLIFE, looking at the 1A ranking this seems a more suited activity for my team  :

[Combuijs]

In Liège-Bastogne-Liège Carlo Bemelmans picked up his expected points with a 17th place.

In the first stage of the Tour of Romandie to Leysin Yvo de Cleer started well with a 13th place. He had a nice chat with Zatarra's Ivari Mitt and Sportlife's Albert Nieuwendijk who finished in the same group. Only Flying Wheel Oscar Luis Sepulveda spoiled the party by finishing in a group before them.



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

1º      Wiggo_pupils   5782   3   2   3   
2º      CobbleCrushers   5321   4   1   2   
3º      Flyvende_hjul   4984   1   2   2   
4º      °Peachy°Melocotons   4724   4   2   3   
5º      CyKings   4697   2   0   2   
6º      Combuijs   4332   0   3   1   
7º      SentinelChickens   3377   1   1   1   

20º      LOSRAYOSDELARRY   2222   0   1   0   
21º      Zatarra   2041   0   1   1   
22º      IKIBASQUE   2023   2   1   1   

35º      CaptainOrange   1197   0   0   0   
36º      SPORTLIFE   1172   0   1   2   
37º      Facha_Bartolo   1151   1   0   1   

Sportlife is apparently still enjoying the red light district...

Tribune de Genève praised our way of setting up a training camp. You can see that our riders are really motivated after a fortnight of sun, sea and ...eh... cycling.


They also noted that Thomas Freitag is now not only an iconic sprinter but also an iconic hill rider and Oliver King is now not only an iconic mountain rider, but also an iconic time trialist. He can use that in the coming Tour de France...

[Vos]

Ups, I made a teamcaptain mistake. I forgot that I had a sponsordeal for top10 of stage 1.
And Tafi could have scored that sponsordeal. Now he finished as 17th in a free role. (and Nieuwendijk was 16th as teamcaptain)

Nieuwendijk can ride a GC in Romandie, but I also forgot that in every stage (except the TT) there is a better SPORTLIFE-rider.
In this situation it is smarter to ride for stage results instead of a GC result, especially in stage 1 with that sponsordeal.
One huge advantage of this mistake : now Nieuwendijk had a nice chat with de Cleer and Mitt in the final climb. 

His helper Saint-Germain had an off-day, because despite he accelerated in s4 with 2 EP, he was suddenly in the wrong 2nd group in s4.
Free role rider Miorlin trusted his active weather icon too much, with no energy and no worries at all he was enjoying the scenery in s4.
Again a mistake because also he could not follow the front group in s4 and finished because of that outside the points (33rd).

Actually I dont know what im doing this season. Im making more mistakes than usually.

+1, the same in team SPORTLIFE 

[Combuijs]

In the second stage of the Tour de Romandie to Aigle Yvo de Cleer took 18th place.

After the time trial Yvo de Cleer is now on place 20 in the GC, behind leader Dario Fernandez (skunk), Zatarra's Ivari Mitt and Sportlife's Albert Nieuwendijk and Nicola Miorlin. We expect him to win some places in the last two stages, certainly when Sportlife keeps making mistakes...



To his surprise Julius Maalderink was called up for the national team. To his even greater surprise he has to ride on a time trial bike, just like his teammate Arjen Rutte. They both wonder if that has something to do with their current technique training. National coach Spammie has assured them that if they take this time trial seriously, they will get selected for the international race on the Strade Bianchi. Now, that is what we call a coach with a vision!

Le Courier mentioned that Oliver King is a rider capable of winning silverware.


These riders will try to secure a place in the quarter final of the Cup for the third consecutive time:

1 Tristan Prins
2 Oliver King
3 Valentin Litenko
4 Sam Parker
5 Eddy Room

[Vos]

After the time trial Yvo de Cleer is now on place 20 in the GC, behind leader Dario Fernandez (skunk), Zatarra's Ivari Mitt and Sportlife's Albert Nieuwendijk and Nicola Miorlin. We expect him to win some places in the last two stages, certainly when Sportlife keeps making mistakes...

It could be, because Nieuwendijk and Miorlin are not the team captains in the last two stages.
It would be a mistake to go for the GC, because I can get more points out of the stages.
And every point is needed to get out of the red zone.^^

1 Tristan Prins

Good luck in the CFF Cup, Combuijs.
SPORTLIFE is also still in the CFF Cup.
And also an interesting race tomorrow : Zatarra(1a) vs Yvo_Meppelink_ProCycling(1a)
That last team eliminated my team in the CFF Cup the past 2 seasons.

[Vos]

stage 4 Tour de Romandie :
The race went very well, but a mechanical breakdown in the final section causes missing out a sponsor deal of top 8.
Now the unfortunate Engelberts finished as 9th, one place short.

Nieuwendijk and Miorlin cannot sprint, in a free role they finished on 3:17"
To my surprise Nieuwendijk is still participating for the GC points with his current 14th place. ( 9 seconds before de Cleer^^ )
Now it is uncertain who will be the teamcaptain in stage 5.
I have to think about that, but first things first, I have to talk with Don Clickett (the mechanic) about his future in my team.

[Atalm93]

In the first stage of the Tour of Romandie to Leysin Yvo de Cleer started well with a 13th place. He had a nice chat with Zatarra's Ivari Mitt and Sportlife's Albert Nieuwendijk who finished in the same group. Only Flying Wheel Oscar Luis Sepulveda spoiled the party by finishing in a group before them.

Yeah, sorry about that, Sepulveda has been in a rush this tour, in stage 2 he even felt the need to finish in front of everyone 

Lets see if he is more social in the last stage, but I cant make promises 

[Vos]

Not satisfied at all about stage 5 Romandie, in fact not satisfied about this whole little tour.
Except for Miorlin who did great in stage 2 and he surprised me in stage 5 with scoring a few points in a free role.
But in general, less points as expected in Romandie and still in the red zone :

33º      DeRodeVod   1459   0   2   1   
34º      SPORTLIFE   1425   0   1   3   
35º      TeamRHB   1391   1   0   0   

For comparison the solid 6th place of Combuijs in his better named zone  :

1º      Wiggo_pupils   6088   3   2   3   
2º      Flyvende_hjul   5943   2   2   3   
3º      CyKings   5512   2   0   3   
4º      CobbleCrushers   5321   4   1   2   
5º      °Peachy°Melocotons   5193   4   2   3   
6º      Combuijs   4412   0   3   1   
7º      SentinelChickens   3469   1   1   1

[Combuijs]

The sprint stage around Montreux in the Tour of Romandie was won by, of course, Wilfred Bentinck.

In the GC Yvo de Cleer finishes 16th, before all Sportlife riders, but behind Zatarra's Ivari Mitt (12th), Flying Wheels Robrecht Kemperman (7th) and Oscar Luis Sepulveda (3rd) and of course far behind Cyking Mike Bauer (1st).



Rundum der Henniger Turm will feature:

51 Valentin Litenko
52 Thomas Freitag
53 Dénes Nemcsik
54 Eddy Room
55 Garret Rose

In the Giro you will see after long deliberations:

51 Sam Parker
52 Thomas Freitag
53 Chester Laybutt
54 Dénes Nemcsik
55 Arjen Rutte

We will go for stage points, especially the second stage has our interest, but if feasible Arjen might have a try in the GC.

[Vos]

I expect the record of most spectators in a CFF Cup race will be broken next week , because :
  SPORTLIFE(1a) vs Combuijs(1a)