The debut of Team Roompot in the pro peloton immediately put the new Dutch pro continental team in the spotlight. In the four races of the Challenge Mallorca, the Orange riders were among the best every day. And with a 5th place for Marc de Maar in the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana and two 6th place for Raymond Kreder (in Palma and Campos), the riders of team manager Jean-Paul van Poppel acheived results right from the beginning.
With a fine 3rd place in the teams classification, Team Roompot underlined that they had arrived with plenty of ambition. That De Maar could mix it up with riders like Alejandro Valverde and Bauke Mollema on the climbs proves that the former Curacao champion has trained well over the winter. Kreder knew how to do well in the sprints with support from Jesper Asselamn, Berden de Vries and Mike Terpstra.
In Satuday's race with seven climbs, Terpstra, Asselman and Etienne van Empel were part of a big breakaway and Terpstra did well to finish 16th. On Friday, Huub Duyn was one of the protagonists. In the Trofeo Andratx-Mirador d'es Colomer one of the veterans of the team was part of another breakaway. Teammate Marc de Maar finished 11th . After the first races, Team Roompot are third in the UCI Europe Tour.
From Wednesday, the riders will be at the start of Etoile de Besseges where Michael Boogerd will make his debut as a team leader. Together with colleague Erik Breukink, he will lead the following riders: Brian van Goethem, Dylan Groenewegen, Johnny Hoogerland, Tim Kerkhof, Michel Kreder, Wesley Kreder, André Looij and Ivar Slik.
Ryoma WATANABE 23 years | today |
Jeroen KREGEL 39 years | today |
Chun Te CHIANG 40 years | today |
Tom DERNIES 34 years | today |
Michel SUAREZ 38 years | today |
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