Exciting news in the cycling business today! VVV-Venlo is stepping into the cycling world again! They are starting a whole new team, just like in 2012. In 2012 they quit because of all the doping scandals, seeing as it gave the club a bad name.
But after a lot of researches and thorough investigations by the Dutch government and other officials in the cycling world, they believe the cycling world is mostly clean again, and it is yet again a great way to promote the club.
It is rumored some riders have already been approached; the biggest rumor at the moment is the possible signing of Wilco Kelderman! The young Dutchman is considered one of the biggest talents in today’s cycling, and already rode for VVV-Venlo Pro Cycling last year.
As to who the new manager of the team will be, there are a few candidates, the name of Danny Nelissen is rumored aswell. Nelissen is a retired Dutch rider who confessed to the use of doping recently. VVV-Venlo thinks he’s a good example for young riders and one of the few people who want to break through the omerta and come clean.
His contract at Eurosport (commentating) recently ended so he is available.
Timo Mennen (mastermind behind the VVV-Venlo cycling business and big investor) was available for answering some questions:
Reporter: “Is it true you’re going to start a new team?”
Mennen:
“yes, it’s true we are going to start a new team. We are looking forward to it, and we are looking to finally make a chance in the cycling world, instead of running away from it.”
Reporter: “Ok, that’s a very noble target, how do you think you are going to achieve it?”
Mennen:
“I don’t have a lot of time now, we will release a press conference in a couple of days, I have to go now.”
Reporter: “Wait, one last question please! Is it true Danny Nelissen and Wilco Kelderman were approached for a job as manager and rider at the new team?”
Mennen:
“Maybe, maybe not. Guess we’ll find out! We are working hard behind the scenes, I have to go now, bye!”
Reporter: “Thank you for answering some questions!”
Mennen:
“No problem.”
Edited by TimoCycling on 22-05-2013 17:14
Ian Butler: thanks, I aim for a succesfull season!
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VVV-Venlo Pro Cycling: Press conference
Hello ladies and gentleman, thank you for joining us today, at our press conference! Lately we have been very busy and we completed the team. We called this conference to announce the new team, and roster and the new team manager.
Let’s cut right to the chase, on the screen you’ll see our roster:
Leaders: Thibaut Pinot Andrea Guardini Sebastian Turgot
Protected riders: Moreno Moser Wilco Kelderman Johnny Hoogerland Barry Markus Taylor Phinney Nairo Quintana
Important teammates: Daniel Oss Matteo Trentin Eros Capecchi Bert-Jan Lindeman Matthias Frank Thomas Dekker Adrien Petit
Teammates: Michael Schär Rob Ruijgh Martijn Keizer Damien Gaudin John Darwin Atapuma
Young talents: Danny van Poppel Daan Olivier Joseph Dombrowski Luca Helder
Leaders:
We have chosen for these riders, because they are all experts at their area, Pinot is our GC-rider and we see a very bright future for him. He can definitely develop at our team.
Guardini is already one of the better sprinters in the world, and he will have an absolute leader role at our team when it comes to the mass sprints!
Turgot is our leader for the cobbled season. He has a lot of experience and we are aiming for top 10s atleast with him.
Protected riders:
These riders will assist our leaders in the bigger races, and at the same time will get their own chances at somewhat smaller races and hilly classics (Moser and Kelderman). These are all good talents, and with the experience of Matthias Frank and Hoogerland added it makes for a deadly combination. In Wilco we see the next big stage rider, but he’ll have to make some steps still! We have a lot faith in our Dutchman! Quintana will be the main climber in the GC’s and will go for KOTM-jersey’s and hopefully one day GC top 10s.
Important teammates:
These riders are mainly here to be of great assistance for our leaders and protected riders. Yet in the smaller races they are already good enough to go for stage wins. We expect a lot from these riders as this is the glue of our team. Without great teammates you are nowhere!
Teammates:
These riders are also here to assist our leaders and protected riders, and maybe go for a breakaway sometimes. We still think they have potential, so they might just receive a leading role in the smaller races in the near future.
Young talents:
These are the 5 riders we expect a lot from. They are all great talents, and will definitely make it to the top! They will have an assisting role at first, but once they grow to their potential they will hopefully be leaders one day! Helder is a trainee, a born sprinter with a bright future ahead of him! You will definitely see him in some sprints this year!
--
We are having a 15 minute break now, after that there will be more information about a sponsor partnership and the new team manager!
Edited by TimoCycling on 19-04-2013 14:57
Fcancellara: We represent the new generation of clean cycling. So yeah, a lot of youngsters, we'll see how it goes. If the team grows too strong we will let some of them go probably. But for now I think this is a good team to start with.
IanButler: Thanks, I'm sure they'll go a long way together!
--
I hope everyone had a nice break, we will continue with the announcing of our new partnership with Pinarello!
As you know by now, we have a lot of Italian riders in our team, this is due to our partnership with Pinarello, and they will provide our equipment. We hope to benefit a lot with this partnership. There are lots of great Italian riders out there, and ofcourse we are looking forward to having some talented Italians in our team!
Now onto the last big announcement! The new team manager is joining us now. It was a tough choice, but we are looking forward to the future with this manager, and we are confident he is the right choice for this team! Let’s welcome him, it is Danny Nelissen!
You now have the chance to ask Mr. Nelissen questions.
Reporter:
“Danny, firstly, congratulations with your new job! What does this mean to you?”
Nelissen:
“Thank you, ofcourse this means a lot to me! I have been looking for a new challenge and this is the right moment to make this move. I’m happy that Timo has confidence in me, and I’m looking forward already to the start of the season!”
Reporter:
“Looking back at your doping history, this is a pretty unlikely job offer, what is the main reason they chose you over all good candidates?”
Nelissen:
“Listen, I came clean and I want the doping stories to be over with. We stand for clean cycling and that’s it. I was wrong in the past, but I learnt from my mistakes and I’m glad Timo has confidence in me and I’m looking forward to the future!”
Reporter:
“okay, last question: what do you think about the team, and what are your goals?”
Nelissen:
“The team is a really, really talented bunch. We definitely chose for the future of cycling, that means no more older cyclists from the doping generation. This is a clean generation and we I’m really excited about the possibilities with this team. My goals are clear, we want to ride a GC this year and push for promotion to the World Tour.” From then on we will hopefully grow into a GC-contender team.”
This will conclude our press-conference, thank you for coming and have a nice day! We will be revealing the new shirts very soon!
Edited by TimoCycling on 19-04-2013 15:41
One question, do the pictures load for you guys? Because they don't load at my PC, only the one of the microphones. Pretty weird...
Fcancellara: Thanks, yeah, pretty stupid to do. I always liked listening to his commentating. Better than lame old Mart Smeets...
Edited by TimoCycling on 19-04-2013 15:01
Jesleyh: Especially for you, Kelderman! And Gaudin for Ian. No, I really like him too! He's a great talent and Dutch!
fcancellara: fixed it, just got some new pics from the internet and for some reason they worked.
--
We were able to get the statistics of our three leaders into a graph. These are their attributes measured by our computers. Maybe an overview like this for the whole team will follow after this one. The 3 leaders:
Sébastien Turgot:
Thibaut Pinot:
Andrea Guardini:
I’m using the new PCM 2013 DB. For some reason I couldn’t make a screen of their faces… But yeah, these are their stats.
Great to see Sutty back following the adventures of the team!!
@ian they're the same, but yeah, I still really like them and well maybe next season I might ask someone to make a new one, but I'm happy with it for now!
--
Tour de San Luis: Stage 1
I will write the stagereports as if Danny Nelissen, the manager reports about them or what do we call it? Blogging?
Stageprofile:
Our startlist:
Goals:
We want to achieve a good GC position with Frank and Dombrowski. Markus and van Poppel are here for the sprints, and Keizer and Olivier are here for attacking and assisting.
We aim for atleast a top 3 with Markus, and maybe a win. We’ll see how it goes with their low form at the moment.
Stagereport:
Right from the start Martijn Keizer attacked. He is a born attacker so it wasn’t a big surprise. Luckily he got some other guys with him:
Smukulis;
Jörgensen;
Coquard.
They work pretty well together. Reaching a maximum lead of about 8 minutes. But the peloton woke up pretty early, so with 20kms to go they had 1 and a half minute left of their lead. Keizer tried to attack but all four riders stayed together because they couldn’t drop each other. Then everybody started looking at each other. As an experienced man I knew it was over, so I had to push Markus to the front of the peloton for the sprint.
We let Dombrowski pull for a couple of kilometers but the other trains were stronger, so I yelled at Barry to follow another sprinter, so he followed in the slipstream of Napolitano and rode a great sprint! But will it be enough?
Unfortunately, no. Van Hummel was just a bit too strong for our young Dutchman. He did a good job though, if he had just made his push a bit earlier he might have won, but we are very happy with this first result!
Today is possibly the last chance for the sprinters in this race. So Markus has to do his very best! It starts of the same as yesterday, with a breakaway. I didn’t send anyone into it, because it’s useless.
BOTD:
M. Andersen (GLU)
A. Di Corrado (BAR)
J. Vangenechten (LTB)
G. Bernaudeau (EUC)
I. Stannard (SKY)
E. Ávila (COL)
J. Vanlandschoot (AJW)
Here is Olivier with the new Pinarello equipment:
The riders tell me great stories about the frame, and it has been a good choice to partner up with Pinarello. I must say, I love the new frames!
The BOTD lasted long, very long! I was quite worried they might make it, but Vacansoleil pulled so hard, they couldn’t make it. With 5 kilometres to go, this is the situation:
Vacansoleil, VVV-Venlo Pro Cycling and Cannondale/Liquigas. We have Martijn Keizer, he sets an amazing pace and drops van Poppel and Markus off perfectly, Markus chooses to follow van Poppel for a while but then he decided he can do it and he sprints with a lot of power! This kid has talent!!
Will it be enough?
Yes!! The first stagevictory for our team in 2013! Wow, who could have thought this? After just two stages we already won a stage! I am very proud of the team and Markus just outshined all the other sprinters today! No van Hummel, no Viviani, nobody could keep up with him!
He now takes the GC-jersey, but he won’t keep it for long as tomorrow is a tough hilly stage! Frank and Dombrowski lose some time, I don’t know how but somehow they dropped out of the peloton. It’s bad for the GC, but we’ll see how we fix this. This tour is already good for us, but we want more!
Today was the first hilly stage of this Tour de San Luis. Our men are not dangerous for the GC anymore, so we’ll go for some form building and possibly a win! Seeing as Dombrowski had an awful day today (-5 form) we decided to put Frank as our front man today. He’s in bad shape but still our best option today.
It started with a breakaway, after a lot of fighting they finally got away. Names:
S. Puccio (SKY)
C. Delle Stelle (BAR)
It’s not the blue man group, it’s a two man group!
After about the half of the stage, a couple more riders escaped, the names are:
L. Westra (VCD)
A. De Marchi (CAN)
C. Jörgensen (GLU)
They are dangerous and it’s hard to get them back. When the final climbs start all hell breaks loose. Attacks from everywhere! Frank also joins the attack, but he won’t be competing for a win today, the others are too far in front.
But De Marchi is still in front, will he make it? He’s definitely extremely strong today. But then Nordhaug from the Blanco team comes flying past everyone! What an extreme display of power! Will it be enough to beat Westra, Morabito and Löfkvist?
The answer to that is yes! But De Marchi is still the strongest today! He brings home the bacon for Cannondale! Frank does a good job and finishes in 8th place.
Results:
Rank
Name
Team
Time
Player
1
Alessandro De Marchi
Cannondale Pro Cycling
4h24'37
2
Lars Petter Nordhaug
Blanco Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
3
Steve Morabito
BMC Racing Team
+ 23
4
Thomas Löfkvist
IAM Cycling
s.t.
5
Lieuwe Westra
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
6
Staf Scheirlinckx
Accent Jobs - Wanty
s.t.
7
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
Sky Procycling
+ 57
8
Matthias Frank
VVV VENLO PRO CYCLING
s.t.
TimoMennen
9
Salvatore Puccio
Sky Procycling
s.t.
10
Jarlinson Pantano
Colombia
s.t.
Spoiler
11
Esteban Chaves
Colombia
s.t.
12
Tim Wellens
Lotto Belisol
s.t.
13
Marco Frapporti
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
14
Niki Østergaard
Team Cult Energy
s.t.
15
Mikhail Ignatiev
Katusha Team
s.t.
16
Paul Martens
Blanco Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
17
Christophe Kern
Team Europcar
s.t.
18
Jesús Herrada
Movistar Team
s.t.
19
Ángel Vicioso
Katusha Team
s.t.
20
Tom Slagter
Blanco Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
21
Alberto Losada
Katusha Team
s.t.
22
Stef Clement
Blanco Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
23
Grega Bole
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
24
Andrea Pasqualon
Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox
s.t.
25
David López
Sky Procycling
s.t.
26
Marcus Burghardt
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
27
Giovanni Visconti
Movistar Team
s.t.
28
Jackson Rodríguez
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
29
Davy Commeyne
Accent Jobs - Wanty
s.t.
30
Martin Elmiger
IAM Cycling
s.t.
31
Marco Pinotti
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
32
Emanuele Sella
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
33
Tiziano Dall'Antonia
Cannondale Pro Cycling
s.t.
34
Ángel Madrazo
Movistar Team
s.t.
35
Fabio Felline
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
36
Francesco Reda
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
37
Joshua Edmonson
Sky Procycling
s.t.
38
Cristian Delle Stelle
Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox
+ 2'13
39
Willem Wauters
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
40
Nicolas Vogondy
Accent Jobs - Wanty
s.t.
41
Steven Caethoven
Accent Jobs - Wanty
s.t.
42
Carlos José Ochoa
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
43
Alex Dowsett
Movistar Team
s.t.
44
Maxim Belkov
Katusha Team
s.t.
45
Franck Bouyer
Team Europcar
s.t.
46
Amaël Moinard
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
47
Gatis Smukulis
Katusha Team
s.t.
48
Aleksejs Saramotins
IAM Cycling
s.t.
49
Martijn Keizer
VVV VENLO PRO CYCLING
s.t.
TimoMennen
50
Carlos Quintero
Colombia
s.t.
51
Jens Debusschere
Lotto Belisol
s.t.
52
Daan Olivier
VVV VENLO PRO CYCLING
s.t.
TimoMennen
53
Imanol Erviti
Movistar Team
s.t.
54
Barry Markus
VVV VENLO PRO CYCLING
s.t.
TimoMennen
55
Yohann Gène
Team Europcar
s.t.
56
Giovanni Bernaudeau
Team Europcar
s.t.
57
Marco Corti
Colombia
+ 3'20
58
Edwin Ávila
Colombia
s.t.
59
Joseph Dombrowski
VVV VENLO PRO CYCLING
s.t.
TimoMennen
60
Angelo Tulik
Team Europcar
s.t.
61
James Vanlandschoot
Accent Jobs - Wanty
+ 4'04
62
Danny Van Poppel
VVV VENLO PRO CYCLING
+ 4'15
TimoMennen
63
Klaas Lodewyck
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
64
Manuel Quinziato
BMC Racing Team
+ 6'10
65
Jürgen Van de Walle
Lotto Belisol
+ 6'21
66
Dominic Klemme
IAM Cycling
+ 6'32
67
Pim Ligthart
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
+ 6'44
68
Christian Moberg Jørgensen
Team Cult Energy
s.t.
69
Vicente Reynès
Lotto Belisol
+ 6'55
70
Gabriel Rasch
Sky Procycling
+ 7'37
71
Tom Leezer
Blanco Pro Cycling Team
+ 7'47
72
Alexander Kamp
Team Cult Energy
+ 8'06
73
Matteo Pelucchi
IAM Cycling
+ 8'23
74
Leonardo Duque
Colombia
s.t.
75
Michael Reihs
Team Cult Energy
s.t.
76
Ian Stannard
Sky Procycling
s.t.
77
Kenny Van Hummel
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
78
Lucas Sebastián Haedo
Cannondale Pro Cycling
s.t.
79
Boy Van Poppel
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
80
Jonas Vangenechten
Lotto Belisol
s.t.
81
Michael Valgren Andersen
Team Cult Energy
s.t.
82
Sonny Colbrelli
Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox
s.t.
83
Guillaume Boivin
Cannondale Pro Cycling
s.t.
84
Gaetan Bille
Lotto Belisol
s.t.
85
Elia Viviani
Cannondale Pro Cycling
s.t.
86
Kristof Goddaert
IAM Cycling
s.t.
87
Edward King
Cannondale Pro Cycling
s.t.
88
Alexander Porsev
Katusha Team
s.t.
89
Robert Wagner
Blanco Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
90
Edoardo Zardini
Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox
s.t.
91
Andrea Di Corrado
Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox
s.t.
92
Eloy Teruel
Movistar Team
s.t.
93
Danilo Napolitano
Accent Jobs - Wanty
s.t.
94
Bryan Coquard
Team Europcar
s.t.
95
Sacha Modolo
Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox
s.t.
Next up is the timetrial. I didn’t feel like playing it, as we don’t have any chance of winning the GC. So here are the results after simulating it:
Thibaut Pinot
Andrea Guardini
Wilco Kelderman
Taylor Phinney
Nairo Quintana
Matthias Frank
.
