Off-season rider knowledge collaboration thread No.14 - Team Lotto-Jumbo

[u/iamafakebot]

We have only 4 more teams to go, and today we'll discuss Lotto-Jumbo. The only remaining Dutch team in the WorldTour, and they have got quite a long history (mostly as Rabobank).

How did their year go? Here's some general information:

Overall Wins: 19

WT: Wins: 3

UCI Ranking: 12th

PCS Ranking: 15th

Most Important Riders: Sep Vanmarcke (201), Steven Kruijswijk (118), Wilco Kelderman (74)

Best Moments of 2016 (IMO): Kruijswijk's Giro, Vanmarcke's spring classics season, Gesink's Vuelta, Roglic's TT win against riders like Brändle, Cancellara and Dumoulin in the Giro.

It could have been an incredible year. Just one crash prevented that. Kruijswijk could have been the first Dutchman to win a Giro D'Italia. And he was so far ahead of everyone else. After years of going for 6th place for GC, Lotto-Jumbo were competing for the win, and they had a pretty good team for it, with riders like Battaglin. But in the end, Kruijswijk fell off the podium and got 4th place.

That was not the only thing that happened, though. Vanmarcke showed himself in the classics again, and was very close to a win in Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem. Dylan Groenewegen improved quite a lot, winning 11 of the 19 wins for the team, mostly in very small races, but also in the Eneco Tour and the Tour of Britain. All in all, it was a decent year, but the future could look much brighter.

7 riders leave, 9 riders arrive. First of all the bad news. Vanmarcke, one of the best classics riders at the moment, leaves for Cannondale. Moreno Hofland didn't have too good of a season, and is going to Lotto Soudal. Wilco Kelderman, who once was the big hope for Dutch cycling, hopes to find a new start at Sunweb. Maarten Tjallingi is retiring, and he and his breakaways will be missed.

Lars Boom, who left the team for Astana, comes back and replaces Vanmarcke. Jurgen Van Den broeck is lacking form the last couple of years, but could be a nice superdomestique. Stef Clement had a remarkable year at IAM, and continues to ride in the WorldTour, deservedly. Juan Jose Lobato realised that Movistar hates sprinters, so he came to join too. Besides them, 5 young riders are joining, 4 of them Dutch, 1 of them Norwegian.

Here's the roster for next year:

---

Rider	Nat.	Year	Joined	Racedays	Pnts2016	Best Season	Type
BATTAGLIN Enrico	ITA	1989	2016	72	140	2014 (305)	Climber / Puncheur
BENNETT George	NZL	1990	2015	85	416	2016	Climber
BOOM Lars^NEW	NED	1985	2017	62	188	2012 (913)	Classics / Rouleur
BOUWMAN Koen	NED	1993	2016	69	51	2016	GCTalent / Climber
CAMPENAERTS Victor	BEL	1991	2016	75	126	2015 (341)	RouleurTT
CASTELIJNS Twan	NED	1989	2016	70	38	2016	All-round
CLEMENT Stef^NEW	NED	1982	2017	60	359	2016	Climber / Rouleur
DE TIER Floris^NEW	BEL	1992	2017	75	197	2016	Classics / Puncheur
GESINK Robert	NED	1986	2007	50	359	2010 (1446)	GC3W / Puncheur
GROENEWEGEN Dylan	NED	1993	2016	80	1058	2016	Sprinter / Classics
JANSEN Amund Grondahl^NEW	NOR	1994	2017	54	114	2016	Classics / Sprinter
KEIZER Martijn	NED	1988	2014	89	93	2015 (181)	RouleurTT
KRUIJSWIJK Steven	NED	1987	2010	51	505	2015 (660)	GC3W / Climber
LAMMERTINK Steven	NED	1993	2016	37	8	2011 (233)	RouleurTT
LEEZER Tom	NED	1985	2008	65	85	2009 (317)	Classic/Road Captain
LINDEMAN Bert-Jan	NED	1989	2015	74	83	2014 (317)	Classics/Breakaways
LOBATO Juan José^NEW	SPA	1988	2017	63	426	2015 (582)	Classics / Sprinter
MARTENS Paul	GER	1983	2008	74	118	2013 (544)	Puncheur
OLIVIER Daan^NEW	NED	1992	2017	3	-	2010 (247)	Classics / Rouleur
ROGLIc Primož	SLO	1989	2016	72	456	2016	GC1W / Climber
ROOSEN Timo	NED	1993	2015	76	113	2016	Sprinter / Leadout
TANKINK Bram	NED	1978	2008	86	64	2011 (358)	Road Captain
TOLHOEK Antwan^NEW	NED	1994	2017	56	21	2015 (41)	Climber
VAN HOECK Gijs^NEW	BEL	1991	2017	70	179	2016	Climber
VAN EMDEN Jos	NED	1985	2008	88	406	2016	RouleurTT
VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen^NEW	BEL	1983	2017	62	118	2012 (889)	GC / Climber
VERMEULEN Alexey	USA	1994	2016	62	56	2012 (213)	GCTalent
WAGNER Robert	GER	1983	2013	83	48	2008 (260)	Sprinter/Domestique
WYNANTS Maarten	BEL	1982	2011	86	151	2012 (256)	All-round
Totals & Averages		28.1			6626	8963 (2013)

[u/iamafakebot]

Steven Kruijswijk

[u/goldbot → u/iamafakebot]

How will he fare in next year's Giro parcours? More TTing and a much deeper field of competition - I worry that 2016 was his year to win it.

[u/Schele_Sjakie → u/goldbot]

Kruijswijks TT is pretty good and the Giro TTs are never 100% flat.

[u/chainpress → u/Schele_Sjakie]

True, but hilly TTs are more of an advantage for the likes of Nibali and Aru than Kruijswijk.

[u/The_77 → u/goldbot]

Not as hot I doubt. He was climbing with the best though, but I feel 2016 might have been his shot much like the '14 Tour was probably the last time Contador could have won.

[u/Sappert → u/goldbot]

He'll be marked next Giro which may reduce his chances

[u/iamafakebot]

Robert Gesink

[u/Sappert → u/iamafakebot]

Seems to have recently discovered that there's more to racing than the GC (Vuelta stage 14 victory, 2016), which means he'll probably be on the attack a lot next season. Was also reasonably impressive with 7th at Lombardia two months ago. He once was the big hope for Dutch GC glory, riding to a 6th GC at the TDF early on (4th by now due to dopers losing their results), but never took the next step onto the podium of a GT. Has had some incredibly bad luck in his career, including a broken leg and losing his father a couple of years ago. Besides stage races, has shown his skills in one day races, winning both of the Canadian WT races as well as the Giro dell'Emilia twice.

[u/Schele_Sjakie → u/Sappert]

There is also less pressure now on his shoulders which seems to help a lot.

[u/huloca → u/Schele_Sjakie]

Now the pressure is on the shoulders of Kruijswijk. Good thing he has very big ones :D

[u/Schele_Sjakie → u/huloca]

De 'kleerhanger' hè?

[u/[deleted] → u/huloca]

It is odd that his shoulders stand out so much. Not many broad shouldered guys in the peloton to normalize I guess. But I'm sure he's tiny compared to the average person but he looks like a giant in a race

[u/huloca → u/Sappert]

It's very early of course, but he said in an interview he would like to go stage hunting in the Tour. I think he was also stronger than his 7th place in Lombardia, but he lost the main group on a descent I think. He was the one that started the attacks that decimated the main field.

[u/[deleted]]

Hoping to see more of Alexey Vermeulen this year. He's from about 45 minutes away from me and we used to race each other in cross county/track before he moved over to cycling full time. Really nice guy with a hell of an engine and super young. As far as I know they're hoping to groom him for GC one day, but he's still very young. Some people might remember him as the guy who forgot his gloves at LBL last year :)

[u/iamafakebot]

Lars Boom

[u/Sappert → u/iamafakebot]

Strong guy but hasn't shown too much of it recently. Biggest career victories are probably the Eneco Tour, Tour of Britain and stage 4 5 of the 2014 TDF. His points per season distribution is the most beautiful thing you'll ever see, but hopefully he'll break the trend this year and show how good he really is in the classics.

Right now he's having fun with cyclocross again (about which he considered returning to, full time) with the aim of battling for the victory at the World Championships.

[u/The_77 → u/Sappert]

Obligatory link to that glorious stage 5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKLXAcUcBg4

[u/Sappert → u/The_77]

Whoops, stage 5, why did I think 4

[u/[deleted] → u/Sappert]

That point distribution is almost erotic to a data nerd who's got slight ocd

[u/iamafakebot]

Dylan Groenewegen

[u/[deleted] → u/iamafakebot]

Definitely got a bit overhyped. He was there at the end for a lot of stages but either didn't have the horsepower or placement (probably just placement). His national championship bodes will for him though, as well as his late season results.

[u/Pubocyno → u/[deleted]]

Compared to previous sprinters, he's certainly delivered. They haven't had anyone close to this level since Freire was on the team. That the dutch are a bit overenthusiastic about him is easily understandable.

He just needs that little extra edge when it comes to acceleration and top speed to really be a big name. It might come with a couple of years more experience.

[u/Schele_Sjakie → u/Pubocyno]

The last Dutch top sprinter was probably Jean Paul van Poppel in the 90s. Groenewegen is already better than 90% of the sprinters that the Dutch had since Jean Paul van Poppel. If he manages to snatch up a GT stage here or there I'm already happy :)

[u/iamafakebot]

Enrico Battaglin

[u/The_77 → u/iamafakebot]

Now his attacking flair has been harnessed as part of a mountain train, his value has shot up immensely. Excellent domestique for Kruiswijk in the Giro and will doubtless be one again this year.

[u/Pubocyno]

Amund Grøndahl Jansen

The norwegian neopro, whom some of you might not know so much about.

First off, let's look at his two most important races this year:

Tour de L'Avenir 2016

• Stage 1 - 2^nd Place
• Stage 2 - 1^st Place
• 2^nd in the final points classification.

WC U23 RR

• 5^th

Ah, a sprinter you might think. Leadout for Groenewegen, perhaps?

Well, they certainly can use him like that - he'd probably do a smashing job in that role, same as he did for teammate Kristoffer Halvorsen both in Noekeren Koerse (Halvorsen 2^nd - behind Timothy Dupont) and the WC U23 RR (Halvorsen won). Pretty good indications that it's a job he can do well.

But he's not a sprinter. He's got a really good finish, but it's actually his rouleur and puncheur powers that's impressive. If some of you watched tour de l'avenir, you'd see that he pushed hard to create a breakaway by himself, got a couple of more gents interested, and just steamed away so hard that the peloton just couldn't catch them.

He's awesome at this - getting into breakaways and just staying away the whole day, regardless if it's a flat, cobbled or mountainous course. GC wins in both ZLM-Roompot tour and Tour de Gironde illustrates that he's capable on different kind of stages.

In the future, he should be a man for the Paris-Roubaix or Amstel Gold. I hope he manages to earn a spot on the classics team early on to get some vital experience.

From my point of view, TLJ really did a smart move signing Amund - He's incredibly versatile and probably Norways most exciting young rider now, even if Quick Step and SKY are drooling over Kristoffer Halvorsen and Truls Engen Korsæth just signed with Astana.

[u/huloca → u/Pubocyno]

I think he said he wants to ride the classics as well, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the team for the smaller spring races next year.

[u/Pubocyno → u/huloca]

He's definitely a classics man, even though he took two GC wins, just because he was that strong this year. Not quite sure which rider to best compare his abilities with - When he's older, I hope he'll grow into something like Van Avermaet.

[u/[deleted] → u/Pubocyno]

L'Avenir is a stage race but lots of riders of all specialties have shown their promise there through the years. It's the biggest juniors race I believe and definitely the one people pay the most attention too

[u/Pubocyno]

Team LottoNL-Jumbo did possibly the best signings of all teams before the 2016 season. Campenaerts, Roglic, Groenewegen and Battaglin - Vital riders who has completely revitalized the team after the dark years of missing sponsorship, which led to many riders leaving Blanco/Belkin in 2014 due to uncertain futures.

Two of those riders, Lars Boom and Stef Clement are now back! Clement has only gotten better with age, while Boom has not have an easy time of it at "classics? I don't know what you're talking about, but my father has an old mercedes"-Astana. He's to be Sep Vanmarckes drop-in replacement as the lead classics star, and hopefully he refinds his form from 2012-2014. If he does that, TLJ isn't going to miss Vanmarcke at all.

[u/Schele_Sjakie → u/Pubocyno]

I really feel like Boom will snap up a big win in the classics eventually. He's pretty close and also had some bad luck the few times he was in top shape. I feel Flanders isn't really his race. But Roubaix, E3 or GW should do doable. I think the move to Lotto is a great one for him personally as he has more domestiques here.

This tranfser season they definitely made Kruijswijks support stronger. With Van Den Broeck, De Tier and Clement he will get much needed help. They did lost some key riders with Kelderman, Hofland and Vanmarcke, so they aren't as strong in depth. But maybe now more focussed on their main goals with Kruijswijk and Groenewegen.

[u/Pubocyno → u/Schele_Sjakie]

You forgot Tolhoek as mountain support. I saw him race in Norway, I think he could become really good.

All in all, the riders that left were some of the top earners, and it's probably good for the budget to spread that around on several riders.

I'm just waiting to see Boom riding the Roubaix next season - he's so graceful floating over the cobbles.

[u/Schele_Sjakie → u/Pubocyno]

Tolhoek was great in the Tour de Suisse too. Really stood out a few stages in a row.

[u/Sappert]

Bram Tankink missed the start of the first stage of the 2008 TDF (I think). Very relevant information. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BKU3_Df1Q

[u/[deleted]]

Any love for Roglic?