The Combuijs Capers

[Vos]

while these riders are going to ride on the E3, which will be a lot more interesting:

171 Adam Neeskens
172 Chester Laybutt
173 Julius Maalderink
174 Garret Rose
175 Julius Wiegel

For sure interesting ! Congratulations with winning the classic race E3 Harelbeke, Combuijs ! 


Adam Neeskens "grabs" the victory 

[Zatarra]

Nice! A very good victory Combuijs! And also some nice additional points from Laybutt, Maalderink and Rose. Nicely done.

I think a lot of cobblehillers are in TC for G-W, DdV and RVV (Ford, Pierre). Sele wins E3 in 2d in absence of some great cobblehillers as well. But hey, that's their mistake, lol! Nice, congrats!

[Vos]

Sele wins E3 in 2d

Also congrats with this classic victory, Zatarra 

[cabrasverdes]

Great victory Combuijs, congratulatioms. The help of Laybutt was decisive at the end.

[Combuijs]

Let's forget about Milan-San Remo and scroll forward to the much more important E3 Harelbeke. We had an interested sponsor so we prepared meticulously for this race and what a result we got: our first win in a monument. That was worth several Magnum bottles of Combuijs Honey Ale, of which we had quite a few on stock...

The E3 was a kind of last one out race.  The size of the leader group got from 61 to 12, back to 17, then 11 until there were 6 riders left. Leader Adam Neeskens had company from two helpers all the time.

As some very knowledgeable expert said, Chester Laybutt was the key. He could help Adam Neeskens until the last kilometre so that the other Dutchman Noah Nelisse (Cabrasverdes) could only claim second place, just before Cobble Crusher Artúr Bereményi.



All five riders scored points (not four as a just not that knowledgeable expert claimed): Adam Neekens 1st, Chester Laybutt 11th, Julius Maalderink 12th, Garret Rose 15th (free role) and Julius Wiegel 29th. That's a first too!

Division standings after the E3 Harelbeke:

1º      CyKings   3078   1   0   2   
2º      Cabrasverdes   2980   1   3   1   
3º      °Peachy°Melocotons   2689   2   1   1   

8º      Flyvende_hjul   1792   0   0   0   
9º      Combuijs   1788   1   0   0   
10º      SentinelChickens   1741   0   0   1   

17º      Codex   1138   0   0   0   
18º      SPORTLIFE   1102   2   0   2   
19º      Atlantico   1077   0   1   1   

Unfortunately the season is not over yet, but we have reached our goal, a top 10 place, already...

ISS is very happy with the win in the E3 Harelbeke, so we have a new sponsor and hopefully professional catering.


Another result of the E3 is that our stores are booming at the moment. You can notice it is the day just before Sinterklaas...

The Volta will see:

81 Yvo de Cleer
82 Ørjan Henningsen
83 Damien Lambert
84 Valentin Litenko
85 Will Miller

Yvo is our man there, whether it is the GC or the stages. Will is his faithful assistant, Damien and Valentin will be a little bit less faithful and Ørjan is there for some amusement...

[shalgo]

Congratulations on the win in E3 Harelbeke and on having 4 riders in the top 15!

[Combuijs]

Success brings success, so Yvo de Cleer got some wonderful results in the Volta. He finishes 10th on Vallter 2000 and he even finishes 5th in Torrefarrera, so he is now 9th in the GC, half a minute behind leader Brian Vandborg (Ares).



Apart from some forum reactions here (thank you very much!) a lot of reactions in the newspapers as well on the win of Adam Neeskens in the E3. They stated that we now have won one monument on World Tour (obviously) and that Adam is a homegrown rider, which indeed he is.


In other news we have won our first race on the second level of the World Challenge, which apparently has to be celebrated.


In still other news another homegrown rider is for sale, so if you want to score points at cobble hill races, take a look at Koen Helder. He will be going out tonight.

[Combuijs]

On Lo Port Yvo de Cleer finishes 14th, which is about what we expected of him. He is now 14th in the GC, hopefully he won't fall out the top 20 in the last stage, a mountain time trial.



These riders will prepare for the final sprint in Wevelgem:

91 Adam Neeskens
92 Ørjan Henningsen
93 Eelco van der Laan/color]
94 Julius Maalderink
95 Garret Rose

[Combuijs]

While Yvo de Cleer was nowhere to be seen in the closing mountain time trial in the Volta, he managed a 16th place in the GC, which was encouraging.

In Gent-Wevelgem helper Julius Maalderink finished 9th in a second group, while leader Adam Neeskens arrived in a third group on place 17. This tells that tactics went seriously wrong, which was indeed the case. Adam Neeskens was visibly enjoying his win in the E3 in the first section.




Division standings after Gent-Wevelgem:

1º      Cabrasverdes   3717   2   3   1   
2º      ProdopingPong   3459   1   2   2   
3º      °Peachy°Melocotons   3404   2   2   1   

8º      Ares   2640   2   1   0   
9º      Combuijs   2301   1   0   0   
10º      skunk   2183   0   0   0   

14º      Rekutxuteam   1886   0   2   1   
15º      SPORTLIFE   1658   3   0   2   
16º      CrossAndGo    1618   1   0   1   

We have sold Koen Helder for 2.8 million to Continental Tour Team Salpeter. We are confident that he will score many points for them on that level.

The main events are there for us, Across and Around Flanders:

81 Adam Neeskens
82 Chester Laybutt
83 Julius Maalderink
84 Garret Rose
85 Julius Wiegel

[Combuijs]

Across Flanders brought Adam Neeskens place 9, which was good, but not good enough for potential sponsor Statoil. We will have to use B-brands for another season to get our supporting bus going. Tactics could have been better as Julius Maalderink lost contact in the fourth section. Green goat Berend Verheyen won the race.

Around Flanders leader Adam Neeskens finishes 15th, while Garret Rose in a free role just fell outside the points. As far as I can see a perfect tactic, so there was not much more in it for him. Predictably green goat Berend Verheyen won the race.



Division standings after Flanders:

1º      Cabrasverdes   5067   4   3   1   
2º      CobbleCrushers   4127   2   4   2   
3º      Flyvende_hjul   3837   0   0   5   

9º      Ares   2640   2   1   0   
10º      Combuijs   2601   1   0   0   
11º      skunk   2393   0   0   0   

17º      galegospolabici   1730   0   1   0   
18º      SPORTLIFE   1658   3   0   2   
19º      Thorboassonarvesen   1630   0   1   0   

In the Itzulia these riders will be enjoying the Basque cuisine:

91 Valentin Litenko
92 Yvo de Cleer
93 Damien Lambert
94 Adam Neeskens
95 Garret Rose

Valentin will be our leader, Yvo and Damien his helpers, while Adam and Garret will try to win the first stage.

[Zatarra]

Good luck, Combuijs!

The nice victory of Adam in E3 couldn't get the follow-up you've hoped for, probably due to active TC's of competitors, but keep up the good standings. Even 1k point above Sportlife. That's to be remembered .

[Vos]

 
No cyclists for the classic races in my team, that means missing out a lot of points.
Let's see if my team can get a little bit closer in Itzulia.
( I doubt it. Hopefully Tafi will do well in stages 2 and 4. )

By the way, it is not special that Combuijs is above my team. Normally in this phase of the season.
And 2 out of the total of 4 seasons in 1A, Combuijs finished above my team.
And in previous season he had medical bad luck, that probably has cost a lot of points.
Combuijs 1A results season 2 to 5 = 18, 11, 11, 30.
SPORTLIFE 1A results season 2 to 5 = 11, 16, 14, 13.
Perhaps time that one of- or both of- our teams will finish top10. ( I assume that my current team will not achieve that this season ).

Hopefully your team will promote again, Zatarra, then it is fun to add it in this equation. Good luck this season !

[Zatarra]

Thanks! I'm trying as hard as I can! Not doing too bad thusfar, but still a lot of races to come that I don't score points. Missing you guys!

[Vos]

You are not doing bad at all / in fact, very good ; a lot of points in the 6 cobblehills classic races ; 3rd, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 4th and 2nd. Impressive !
To promote will not be easy, I see now you have some very fierce competition in division 2d.
But your team is for sure in the promotion race with the current 6th place. Time enough to buy for the other important races in this season.
It would be great if your team will promote again, because that means more fun in division 1A.

[Combuijs]

Some terrific results in the Itzulia. In the first stage around Zalla Garret Rose manages a third place after winner Ketil Fossum (Thorboassonarvesen) and green goat Berend Verheyen. Helper Adam Neeskens gets 13th place for good measure. With that we have sealed a deal with Sika, so our team bus can be pampered during the winter holidays.


In the stage to Valdegovia Valentin Litenko finds himself back on place 5, which is one place behind Sportlife's Lorenzo Tafi, but still a tremendous result. He is now on place 29 in the GC, Garret Rose is still on the podium, but he won't stay there for long.