The Combuijs Capers

[Zatarra]

With Zatarra there were plenty of points scored in domestique roles last season  .

Good luck, Combuijs! Hope to see you again soon. The past two seasons were fun. Let's meet again next season!

[Combuijs]

First podium in the Tour Down Under:
3rd stage to Campbell Town: 2. Rafael Szepesi



Division standings after the Tour Down Under:

1º      Bergtoppers   1242   2   0   1   
2º      IKIBASQUE   1181   0   2   0   
3º      $Tourmalet   945   1   0   1   
4º      KinchenTeam   818   0   1   0   
5º      cave   584   0   0   2   
6º      Shiro_Lions   574   1   0   0   

9º      WaterBoys   374   0   0   0   
10º      Combuijs    313   0   1   0   
11º      vercors   294   0   0   0   

Dutch team Bergtoppers in the lead now, which looks promising as you would expect them to score heavily in the mountain races. Happy with place 10 for the moment, we should be on our way to Zatarra's division in the next two races...

[Combuijs]

Omloop het Nieuwsblad: 2. Adam Neeskens, 21. Arjen Rutte

Strade Bianchi: 1. Adam Neeskens, 7. Arjen Rutte

Yeah, the first victory this season. Adam was not amongst the favourites, his helper Arjen was...

Paris-Nice:
1st stage: 26. Oliver King
2nd stage to Vendome: 7. Oliver King

You know you are not on World Tour level when your GC-rider finishes 7th in a flat hill race... Oliver is now 4th in the GC, 28 seconds behind Tourmalet climber Hans-Jürgen Klose.



Division standings after the 2nd stage of Paris-Nice:

1º      IKIBASQUE   1923   0   3   0   
2º      $Tourmalet   1866   2   1   2   
3º      Bergtoppers   1817   2   0   2   
4º      Combuijs   1565   1   2   0   
5º      WaterBoys   1137   0   0   0   
6º      cave   1017   1   0   2   

Gaps are opening up already between teams, but we are on the right side of the promotion gap, for the time being.

We have been rewarded with several bronze statues for ... time trial. John Paxson and Yvo van Straalen were on the receiving end.


To avoid these costly statues we have changed training to downhill...

[Combuijs]

Paris-Nice:
5th stage to Croix de Chaubouret: 3. Oliver King

In the GC we have Oliver King on the lowest podium place after winner Hans-Jürgen Klose ($Tourmalet) and Shiro Lion Joaquin Palomeque, and Valentin Litenko on place 14.



Division standings after Paris-Nice:

1º      $Tourmalet   2881   3   2   3   
2º      IKIBASQUE   2342   0   3   0   
3º      Bergtoppers   2295   2   1   2   
4º      Combuijs   2068   1   2   1   
5º      cave   1295   1   0   2   
6º      WaterBoys   1284   0   0   0   

[Combuijs]

Tirreno Adriatico:
1st stage: 1. Oliver King, 28. Tristan Prins
3rd stage to Monte San Vicino: 4. Oliver King



GC after 3 stages:

1    Hans-Jürgen Klose   28   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   0   0
2    Oliver King   28   Combuijs   0: 30"   0   0
3    Hartwig Adenauer   28   cave   0: 35"   0   0
4    Joaquin Palomeque   28   Shiro_Lions   1: 43"   0   0
5    Wouter VanGeffen   28   meloneros   1: 44"   0   0

[Combuijs]

Tirreno Adriatico:
5th stage: 18. Tristan Prins, 24. Oliver King

Final GC:

1    Hans-Jürgen Klose   28   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   500   150000
2    Oliver King   28   Combuijs   0: 26"   400   135000
3    Hartwig Adenauer   28   cave   1: 04"   325   120000
4    Joaquin Palomeque   28   Shiro_Lions   1: 45"   275   105000
5    Wouter VanGeffen   28   meloneros   2: 35"   250   90000

The second place was enough to satisfy Movistar, not unknown in the cycling world, We now have better communications, in Spain at least...


Milan-San Remo: 17. Julius Maalderink
E3 Harelbeke: 2. Adam Neeskens, 7. Garret Rose

Volta Catalunya:
2nd stage: 2. Oliver King
3rd stage: 4. Oliver King, 6. Tristan Prins
4th stage around Barcelona: 20. Tristan Prins



GC after 4 stages:

1    Oliver King   28   Combuijs   0: 00"   0   0
2    Hans-Jürgen Klose   28   $Tourmalet   0: 13"   0   0
3    Joaquin Palomeque   28   Shiro_Lions   0: 31"   0   0
4    Endre Omdal   28   WaterBoys   0: 52"   0   0
5    Charles Ooms   28   Frier_Accounting   0: 55"   0   0

For once we have a lead over Hans-Jürgen Klose, but will 13 seconds be enough in the last mountain stage?

Division standings after the 4th stage in the Volta:

1º      $Tourmalet   4672   4   3   4   
2º      Bergtoppers   4485   4   2   2   
3º      Combuijs   3820   2   4   1   
4º      IKIBASQUE   3618   1   3   1   
5º      cave   2706   1   1   4   
6º      WaterBoys   2593   0   0   1   

It will be hard to get to the first two, but the gap between us and 5th place is very, very wide already.

[Combuijs]

Volta Catalunya:
5th stage: 6. Oliver King, 29. Tristan Prins

GC:

1    Oliver King   28   Combuijs   0: 00"   500   150000
2    Joaquin Palomeque   28   Shiro_Lions   1: 00"   400   135000
3    Hans-Jürgen Klose   28   $Tourmalet   1: 11"   325   120000
4    Endre Omdal   28   WaterBoys   1: 21"   275   105000
5    Jacopo Giardini   28   vercors   1: 37"   250   90000

Hans-Jürgen is not that unbeatable it appears, so our first GC win this season.

Gent-Wevelgem: 3. Adam Neeskens, 4. Julius Maalderink
Dwars door Vlaanderen: 3. Adam Neeskens, 15. Garret Rose
Ronde van Vlaanderen: 4. Adam Neeskens, 12. Garret Rose

Itzulia:
1st stage: 10. Valentin Litenko, 15. Oliver King
2nd stage around Zalla: 29. Valentin Litenko



GC of the Itzulia after two stages:

1    Ivan Chiapucci   28   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   0   0
2    Sam Lee   28   $Tourmalet   0: 30"   0   0
3    Ali John Schilling   27   cave   0: 33"   0   0
4    Asger Anthonisen   28   meloneros   0: 50"   0   0
5    Valentin Litenko   28   Combuijs   1: 02"   0   0

Still everything to go for!

Division standings after the second stage of the Itzulia:

1º      $Tourmalet   6539   4   6   5   
2º      Bergtoppers   6255   5   2   2   
3º      Combuijs   5992   2   4   3   
4º      IKIBASQUE   4397   1   4   1   
5º      cave   4393   4   1   4   
6º      WaterBoys   4161   0   0   1   

We can lookup now and start fighting for place 1...

[Combuijs]

Itzulia:
3rd stage: 1. Valentin Litenko
5th stage: 1. Valentin Litenko, 16. Oliver King

Two wins by Valentin Litenko in the Itzulia, but only 8th place in the GC. Oliver King finished 16th.

Parijs-Roubaix: 3. Arjen Rutte, 25 Julius Maalderink
Combuijs Honey Ale Race: 21. Adam Neeskens
Luik-Bastenaken-Luik: 16. Adam Neeskens

And yes, we had lots of helpers in the Fleche Wallonne, but unfortunately no leader..

Tour de Romandie:
2nd stage to Zinal: 8. Will Miller



GC of of the Tour de Romandie:

1    Mikael Nikoladze   28   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   0   0
2    Diego Mora   28   Bergtoppers   2: 20"   0   0
3    Will Miller   28   Combuijs   2: 35"   0   0
4    Konstantin Karpin   28   cave   2: 42"   0   0
5    Oliver McDermot   28   Frier_Accounting   3: 15"   0   0

We have hopes of a podium place for Will Miller...

Division standings after the third stage in Romandie:

1º      $Tourmalet   10167   5   7   5   
2º      Bergtoppers   7283   7   3   2   
3º      Combuijs   7206   4   4   4   
4º      IKIBASQUE   7074   2   7   3   
5º      cave   6758   5   2   5   
6º      WaterBoys   5937   0   0   2   

In between we have been second for a while, but in the hill classics $Tourmalet have jumped away from all of us.

[Combuijs]

Forgot to tell but Valentin Litenko's win in stage 3 of the Itzulia there made also somebody in Spain very happy:


Tour de Romandie:
5th stage: 4. Will Miller, 14. Oliver King

GC:

1    Mikael Nikoladze   28   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   500   150000
2    Will Miller   28   Combuijs   0: 09"   400   135000
3    Vladislavs Zvaigzne   28   meloneros   0: 32"   325   120000

8    Oliver King   28   Combuijs   3: 07"   175   52500

Eschborn-Frankfurt: 9. Valentin Litenko, 25. Oliver King

Good result, but nothing compared to the deeds of $Tourmalet:

1   Mikael Nikoladze      28   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   500   150000
2   Mike Edgar      28   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   400   135000
3   Ivan Chiapucci      28   $Tourmalet   0: 00"   325   120000

That does call up memories on the Mapei results in some of the classics a long time ago.

Giro:
1st stage to Zoldo Alto: 6. Will Miller

That's the kind of start you want in a grand tour!



Division standings after the first stage in the Giro:

1º      $Tourmalet   12282   6   8   6   
2º      cave   8633   6   3   5   
3º      Combuijs   8259   4   4   4   
4º      Bergtoppers   7966   7   3   2   
5º      IKIBASQUE   7609   2   7   3   
6º      WaterBoys   6397   0   0   2   

As you can see we are second now as $Tourmalet is commpeting in a completely different competition...

[Combuijs]

Giro:
3rd stage: 3. Will Miller, 7. Valentin Litenko
5th stage: 3. Will Miller, 10. Valentin Litenko
6th stage: 6. Will Miller
7th stage to Praia a Mare: 27. Will Miller



GC:
1    Antonius Berner   28   cave   0: 00"   0   0
2    Will Miller   28   Combuijs   0: 40"   0   0
3    Sam Lee   28   $Tourmalet   1: 28"   0   0
4    Mikael Nikoladze   28   $Tourmalet   1: 41"   0   0
5    Diego Mora   28   Bergtoppers   2: 06"   0   0

20    Valentin Litenko   28   Combuijs   7: 00"   0   0

Will Will be able to clench the pink from Berner? Or will the $Tourmalet couple come up with a cunning plan? Read it all in the next episode...

[Combuijs]

Giro:

In the last stage Will Miller failed to get Antonius Berner in trouble, it was the other way round, Antonius won the last stage. No cunning plan from $Tourmalet either, and if there was, it backfired as Diego Mora clinched the last podium place:

GC:
1    Antonius Berner   28   cave   0: 00"   1000   250000
2    Will Miller   28   Combuijs   1: 47"   800   225000
3    Diego Mora   28   Bergtoppers   1: 58"   650   200000
4    Sam Lee   28   $Tourmalet   2: 01"   550   175000
5    Mikael Nikoladze   28   $Tourmalet   2: 03"   500   150000

Happy with the result though.

Dauphiné Liberé:
2nd stage: 19. Tristan Prins
3rd stage around Grenoble: 1. Julius Maalderink, 11. Arjen Rutte, 23. Adam Neeskens

We went for stages in the Dauphiné and at least one stage is what we got! We even had a happy sponsor, but they failed to tell us in what way we can benefit.




GC:
1    Reinis Kalve   27   ForaturaFacile   0: 00"   0   0
2    Lander Manrique   28   vercors   0: 14"   0   0
3    Franco Canalini   26   heikir_proteam   1: 14"   0   0
4    Arjen Rutte   28   Combuijs   1: 45"   0   0
5    Róbert Lengyel   28   CajaRuralZamora   1: 48"   0   0
6    Dzintars Treimanis   28   OmicronDS   1: 51"   0   0
7    Julius Maalderink   28   Combuijs   1: 59"   0   0

19    Adam Neeskens   28   Combuijs   2: 43"   0   0

We are not going for the GC, but we can't complain after the 3rd stage, can't we?

Division standings after the 3rd stage of the Dauphiné:

1º      $Tourmalet   15757   8   9   6   
2º      cave   11853   8   7   5   
3º      Bergtoppers   11293   10   5   2   
4º      Combuijs   10108   5   4   6   
5º      IKIBASQUE   8071   2   7   3   
6º      WaterBoys   7259   1   0   3   

Still fighting for second place, but it is not getting any easier. Hard to miss out on promotion though

Meanwhile we've changed training to sprint and Hidde Daelman, Leroy van den Borre and one the Vonkjes just could fetch a bronze statue at the last moment:

[Combuijs]

Dauphiné Liberé:
4th stage: 3. Adam Neeskens
5th stage: 3. Tristan Prins

Apart from good results in the stages, Tristan Prins finished 12th in the GC, totally unsupported and totally unexpected...

Tour of Switzerland:
2nd stage to Bern: 28. Oliver King



In the GC Olvier King is 14th, but we expect more of him. A place in the top 9 actually...

Division standings after the 2nd stage of the Tour of Switzerland:

1º      $Tourmalet   17057   8   10   6   
2º      cave   12956   9   8   5   
3º      Bergtoppers   11593   11   5   2   
4º      Combuijs   10416   5   4   8   
5º      IKIBASQUE   8091   2   7   3   
6º      WaterBoys   7681   2   0   3   

[Combuijs]

Tour of Switzerland:
3rd stage: 6. Oliver King
4th stage: 2. Will Miller, 5. Oliver King

Some controversy in the 4th stage as we gave Will leadership instead of Oliver. Can't say he did dissappoint though...

GC:

1    Hartwig Adenauer   28   cave   0: 00"   500   150000
2    Ivan Chiapucci   28   $Tourmalet   0: 16"   400   135000
3    Sam Lee   28   $Tourmalet   0: 29"   325   120000
4    Oliver King   28   Combuijs   0: 56"   275   105000
5    Asger Anthonisen   28   meloneros   1: 38"   250   90000

Will Miller finished in the top 20...

This was good enough for the Eesti Pank Bank to sponsor us for a while. Always handy to have some money ready in Estland...


Tour de France:
2nd stage: 5. Dénes Nemcsik
3rd stage: 5. Oliver King
4th stage: 3. Oliver King, 21. Will Miller
5th stage: 5. Dénes Nemcsik
6th stage: 3. Oliver King, 8. Will Miller
8th stage to Loudenvieille: 6. Oliver King



GC Tour de France:

1    Hartwig Adenauer   28   cave   0: 00"   0   0
2    Hans-Jürgen Klose   28   $Tourmalet   1: 04"   0   0
3    Malthe M.Iversen   28   Handest   2: 40"   0   0
4    Oliver King   28   Combuijs   3: 33"   0   0
5    Brendan Morris   25   Bergtoppers   4: 25"   0   0
6    Gustavs Melderis   28   OmicronDS   4: 58"   0   0
7    Wouter VanGeffen   28   meloneros   5: 10"   0   0
8    Emin Ramonov   28   cave   5: 58"   0   0
9    Bernhard Niklitschek   28   Rekutxuteam   6: 17"   0   0
10    Will Miller   28   Combuijs   7: 59"   0   0

In the last two stages Oliver will try to keep this place in order to satisfy a sponsor. This will be hard though as he won't excel in both stages.

Division standings after the 8th stage of the Tour de France:

1º      $Tourmalet   19595   9   11   8   
2º      cave   16273   13   9   7   
3º      Bergtoppers   12620   14   5   2   
4º      Combuijs   11936   5   5   10   
5º      WaterBoys   8793   2   3   4   
6º      Frier_Accounting   8345   0   1   1   

Cave is also running away now to second place, thanks to the excellent effort by Hartwig Adenauer. Ikibasque is suddenly falling away so we expect a hard battle for the last promotion place between Waterboys and Frier Accounting. This will take some serious calculations!

Meanwhile we have changed our training once again, this time to hill climbing. Get the adrenaline going!

[WinterIsComing]

Good job Combuijs! Looking forward meeting again in 1st division!

[Combuijs]

Tour de France:
9th stage: 7. Dénes Nemcsik

GC Tour de France:

1    Hartwig Adenauer   28   cave   0: 00"   1000   250000
2    Hans-Jürgen Klose   28   $Tourmalet   1: 04"   800   225000
3    Malthe M.Iversen   28   Handest   3: 36"   650   200000
4    Oliver King   28   Combuijs   4: 26"   550   175000
5    Gustavs Melderis   28   OmicronDS   5: 21"   500   150000
6    Brendan Morris   25   Bergtoppers   5: 50"   450   125000
7    Wouter VanGeffen   28   meloneros   6: 36"   400   100000
8    Will Miller   28   Combuijs   8: 02"   350   87500
9    Emin Ramonov   28   cave   8: 38"   300   75000
10    Konstantin Karpin   28   cave   8: 55"   250   62500

That 4th place was precisely enough to sway Michelin into giving us some serious money. We can now finally buy tires to go with the bikes...


GP San Sebastian: 12. Tristan Prins

A bit disappointing but Tristan was a bit tired, probably from his debut in the Dutch team...

Combuijs Honey Ale Tour:
1st stage: 5. Adam Neeskens, 27. Arjen Rutte
2nd stage: 27. Julius Maalderink
3rd stage: 2. Adam Neeskens, 14. Julius Maalderink, 22. Garret Rose
4th stage to Ardooie: 10. Adam Neeskens, 23. Arjen Rutte, 25. Julius Maalderink



Let me for once give you the current top 20 in the GC:

1    Emanuele Rebellin   27   Bergtoppers   0: 00"   0   0
2    Adam Neeskens   28   Combuijs   0: 34"   0   0
3    Kirk Trump   28   $Tourmalet   0: 57"   0   0
4    Arild Lindland   27   meloneros   1: 27"   0   0
5    Henrique Gregorio   28   WaterBoys   1: 32"   0   0
6    Julius Maalderink   28   Combuijs   1: 44"   0   0
7    Jarle Fjelde   28   Bergtoppers   2: 00"   0   0
8    Joost Saeys   28   SportyngCP   2: 33"   0   0
9    Koen Nanninga   28   Bergtoppers   2: 36"   0   0
10    Arjen Rutte   28   Combuijs   2: 37"   0   0
11    Johan Maigård   27   Handest   2: 46"   0   0
12    Neil Fluss   27   WaterBoys   2: 52"   0   0
13    Victor Castro   28   Frier_Accounting   3: 10"   0   0
14    Oleg Popenko   28   Bergtoppers   3: 13"   0   0
15    Gédéon Morin   28   meloneros   3: 15"   0   0
16    Giulio Serri   27   Aragorn   3: 23"   0   0
17    Vicenzo Pellizotti   28   Aragorn   3: 24"   0   0
18    Dries Teeuwen   28   Bergtoppers   3: 28"   0   0
19    Garret Rose   28   Combuijs   3: 40"   0   0
20    Daley Cahill   26   Coeli   3: 45"   0   0

One stage to go and it is not a bad one for us. Can we finish with four riders in the top 20? And will Adam be able to clinch first place. We will know more tonight.

Division standings after the 4th stage of the Combuijs Honey Ale Tour:

1º      $Tourmalet   22111   11   11   9   
2º      cave   18793   13   11   8   
3º      Bergtoppers   14546   16   6   3   
4º      Combuijs   13487   5   6   10   
5º      WaterBoys   9975   2   4   4   
6º      Handest   9085   2   1   5   
   
New kid Handest is taking over 6th place, but Water Boys looks pretty save.

I can understand everyone is happy to see us on the World Tour again next season. That's just team less to worry about in the battle for relegation...