Hoegaarden Team - The refreshing bikers

[Hoegaarden]

History of the team
Created at the end of March 2010, Hoegaarden Team is the first step of an international brewery in the cicling world.
Indeed, as the most important company of the most important country of a sport that becomes worldwide, AB Inbev had no other choice than to enter cycling to promote its brands.
In this regard, the brand "Hoegaarden" was chosen because of the uniqueness of this white beer that young people from the whole world find more appealing.


Facts
The team is based in Luxembourg for obvious fiscal reasons but has his training base in Belgium, near Leuven. Because of this implantation and to facilitate communication inside the team, the recruitement process focused on Belgian and Luxembourgers bikers.
The working language is then a mixture of German, French and Flemish.


Season 2010
After a disappointing first month without glance and - more important - without significative results, the team leader decided to start from a clean sheet and from a team able to play its cards right during all kinds of races. So, new but experienced riders were hired behind a great captain and leader: Gilbert Philippe.
Besides some helpers like Thomas Steels and Joachim Benoit, these new guys included Pieter Van Pietegem (an interesting guy to place in escapes thanks to his burst of speed), Andy Schlecht (a decent climber), Kim Kärjeng (to lead the team downhill) and Klaus Warm (a good sprinter).

From this moment on, the team was able to access some podiums in Graulhet and in Namibia but the quest for a victory was still unsuccessful.
Therefore, the team management decided to inject some capital and reinforce the team by substituing Schlecht, Steels and Benoit with Lionel Strauss, Sergej Boljakow (two decent flatriders) and last but not least Benoît Weis, one of the best climbers around in lower divisions.
Finally, thanks to this new acquisition, Hoegaarden Team reached its first victory when Weis won Kraubat GP against strong contenders.

This victory combined with the reorganisation of the team which will now focus on hilly races means the beginning of a new era.
Then, some very good guys like Van Pietegem, Warm and Kärjeng were let go so new bikers could find a spot in the team.
Now, with the addition of Fabien Weber (Weis's friend and an honest flatrider) and, more important, Tom Hoegaerts (a flatrider able to stay with the leaders when the road goes up) and Laurent Schimberg (an interesting hillrider) who finished his first race with his new jersey at a great 3rd place and as winner of the massive sprint in Bormio - St Anton, where Philippe did a great job too by getting the 2nd spot.


Objectives
Thanks to these promising results, the management hopes the team can now book more victories and thus gain access to the 5th division during June before attaining the 4th for September 2010.


The team

[NoPikouze]

Welcome here !

A very nice press center
And often very good tactics

Don't worry when you don't win, you get lots of money to reinforce the squad

[Hoegaarden]

Expensive trip to China today, but it was still worth it!

01. 00:00:00 Henning Schultheiss (Koenigsbacher)
02. 00:00:09 Stefan Rabitsch (Promille)
03. 00:00:09 Umberto Checon (Promille)
04. 00:00:16 Laurent Schimberg (Hoegaarden Team)
05. 00:00:16 Jens Fischermann (Teahouse-Team)
06. 00:00:16 Gilbert Philippe (Hoegaarden Team)
07. 00:00:18 Rüdiger Röhnisch (Koenigsbacher)
08. 00:00:18 Marco Seramano (Promille)
09. 00:00:18 Eric Schäffer (Koenigsbacher)
10. 00:00:18 Francis Moreau (Poledoc)
11. 00:00:18 Markus Fohr (Koenigsbacher)
12. 00:00:20 Manfred Klier (Thueringen)
13. 00:00:33 Phalanster Carantec (Havre Pourpre)
14. 00:00:33 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)
15. 00:00:36 Mauricio Ikuta (Thueringen)
...
21. 00:00:38 Tom Hoegaerts (Hoegaarden Team)
30. 00:05:57 Willem Vansevenant (Hoegaarden Team)

The race only began really 20 kms before the ending with a nice attack of Carantec joined by Benoit Weis.
Unfortunately they were caught before the last hill where Schultheiss and the Promille guys were too strong.
Fischermann also made a good impression and thanks to his attack, Philppe and Schimberg were able to escape from a small group.
At the end, the team can be happy with its performance, I don't think we could have done so much better.

See you next week, probably in Maribor!

[Lizard]

Welcome to the world of RSF, enjoy yourself, I´ll keep an eye on this press thread. Good riders, I look forward to see your team grow.

[Hoegaarden]

Against all odds, we finally could take part at the Dauphiné since the organisation accepted our late sign up!
After a week of harsh stages and some fights between managers, our participation has been largerly rewarded eventhough we decided not to fight for the general classification...


These 8 days began with a first time trial of 6km, without any chance of success from our part:

01. 00:00:00 Lesedi Kreel (RC XY-Ungeloest)
02. 00:00:04 John Connen (Kitovras)
03. 00:00:05 Luis Gilberto (VicomtesLens)
04. 00:00:06 Andreas König (Team NetApp)
05. 00:00:07 Theodore Benson (RC XY-Ungeloest)
06. 00:00:08 Ziggy Marley (team sansoucci)
07. 00:00:09 Lars Greilich (inTime)
08. 00:00:09 Cadel Evans (simply)
09. 00:00:10 Lances Amstronge (flo teamX)
10. 00:00:11 Florent Dupont (vercors)
...
26. 00:00:32 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)
51. 00:00:50 Gilbert Philippe (Hoegaarden Team)



The second stage was a bit more interesting and a group of 4 climbers ended up sprinting for the victory... Benoit was unable to win but still managed to get the third place

01. 00:00:00 Tom Galot (Kitovras)
02. 00:00:00 Fernando Mendes (Paris XX Racing)
03. 00:00:00 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)
04. 00:00:00 Harald Morscher (Robyklebt)
05. 00:00:04 Clive Owen (simply)
06. 00:00:04 Lance Verystrong (USPLance)
07. 00:00:04 Ramus Guldhammer (Paris XX Racing)
08. 00:00:04 Julio Recoba (vercors)
09. 00:00:04 Paul Airoldi (inTime)
10. 00:00:05 Darnell Bix (inTime)
...
12. 00:00:05 Laurent Schimberg (Hoegaarden Team)



The third stage offered a long portion of flat after the last mountain and our Old Gilbert attacked when the peloton was hesitating. A great and deserved win was awaiting for Gilbert Philippe after a long series of 2nd places. Our Dauphiné was already a success!

01. 00:00:00 Gilbert Philippe (Hoegaarden Team)
02. 00:00:13 Hermann Francois (Robyklebt)
03. 00:00:13 Michel Rath (RC XY-Ungeloest)
04. 00:00:13 Gil Burguard (inTime)
05. 00:01:01 Ramus Guldhammer (Paris XX Racing)
06. 00:01:14 Gabriele Colombo (vercors)
07. 00:01:14 Darnell Bix (inTime)
08. 00:01:14 Luis Gilberto (VicomtesLens)
09. 00:01:14 Cadel Evans (simply)
10. 00:01:14 Laurent Schimberg (Hoegaarden Team)
...
30. 00:01:14 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)



Fourth stage, an ITT of almost 50km, nothing for us but rest for the next day

01. 00:00:00 John Connen (Kitovras)
02. 00:00:31 Theodore Benson (RC XY-Ungeloest)
03. 00:01:02 Lesedi Kreel (RC XY-Ungeloest)
04. 00:01:08 Lars Greilich (inTime)
05. 00:01:52 Fab Cancel (flo teamX)
06. 00:02:21 Lances Amstronge (flo teamX)
07. 00:02:41 Ziggy Marley (team sansoucci)
08. 00:02:41 Florent Dupont (vercors)
09. 00:02:44 Cadel Evans (simply)
10. 00:02:48 Andreas König (Team NetApp)
...
85. 00:09:49 Laurent Schimberg (Hoegaarden Team)
89. 00:09:58 Willem Vansevenant (Hoegaarden Team)
108. 00:10:59 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)



Indeed, the fifth stage proposed an arrival at the summit of an HC mountain and the 4 climbers from the second stage were again the stongest. But this time Benoit Weis was fresher than the others and attacked at the hardest part of the climb which resulted to a lone win , our second in this Dauphiné, and also a red jersey and a green one, too!

01. 00:00:00 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)
02. 00:00:01 Fernando Mendes (Paris XX Racing)
03. 00:00:02 Tom Galot (Kitovras)
04. 00:00:08 Harald Morscher (Robyklebt)
05. 00:00:16 Lance Verystrong (USPLance)
06. 00:00:35 Mark Arrow (USPLance)
07. 00:00:35 Skip Stiller (vercors)
08. 00:00:35 Fabian Lossau (inTime)
09. 00:00:48 Fernando Delascuevas (vercors)
10. 00:00:48 Clive Owen (simply)
...
26. 00:03:48 Laurent Schimberg (Hoegaarden Team)



And it was not finished yet! A great sitting by NoPikouze brought Gilbert Philippe to a second win ahead of the best climbers thanks to an early attack. By the way he was elected for the second time as best fighter of the day! Benoit lost his points jersey to Galot, no harm done.

01. 00:00:00 Gilbert Philippe (Hoegaarden Team)
02. 00:00:05 Tom Galot (Kitovras)
03. 00:00:09 Fernando Mendes (Paris XX Racing)
04. 00:00:09 Clive Owen (simply)
05. 00:00:09 Lance Verystrong (USPLance)
06. 00:00:09 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)
07. 00:00:09 Fabian Lossau (inTime)
08. 00:00:23 Gabriele Colombo (vercors)
09. 00:00:26 Darnell Bix (inTime)
10. 00:00:56 Fernando Delascuevas (vercors)
...
32. 00:17:14 Tom Hoegaerts (Hoegaarden Team)



The seventh stage ended with the famous Alpe d'Huez which gave no chance to the heroes of the previous days and the outstanding efforts Benoit had made before cost him his nice mountain jersey

01. 00:00:00 Mark Arrow (USPLance)
02. 00:00:28 Fabian Lossau (inTime)
03. 00:00:38 Fernando Delascuevas (vercors)
04. 00:00:39 Gabriele Colombo (vercors)
05. 00:00:57 Lance Dopestrong (vercors)
06. 00:00:57 Skip Stiller (vercors)
07. 00:00:57 Cadel Evans (simply)
08. 00:00:57 Ziggy Marley (team sansoucci)
09. 00:01:03 Darnell Bix (inTime)
10. 00:01:03 Lance Verystrong (USPLance)
...
13. 00:01:03 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)



Last stage still with some ambitions eventhough the whole is exhausted. Indeed, Benoit Weis had still the mountain jersey in mind and both Philippe and him had the green jersey at reach of hand. Their only chance was to try an attack before the sprints and the final mountains but they were caught rapidly and the final difficulties were really too much for them...

01. 00:00:00 Clive Owen (simply)
02. 00:00:10 Mark Arrow (USPLance)
03. 00:00:18 Lance Verystrong (USPLance)
04. 00:00:20 Fabian Lossau (inTime)
05. 00:00:20 Gabriele Colombo (vercors)
06. 00:00:33 Tom Galot (Kitovras)
07. 00:00:39 Fernando Delascuevas (vercors)
08. 00:01:11 Fernando Mendes (Paris XX Racing)
09. 00:01:11 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)
10. 00:01:11 Darnell Bix (inTime)
...
23. 00:06:37 Laurent Schimberg (Hoegaarden Team)


As a result, we lost all jersey classifications and only grabbed a 14th spot at the general classification with Benoit. Still, with 3 stage victories and a lot of other satisfactions, we can look back at this week with a great feeling and a large smile upon our face!

The final results:
Mannschaftswertung: vercors
Jungfahrertrikot: Floflo Dup (flo teamX)
Sprinttrikot: Tom Galot (Kitovras)
Bergtrikot: Mark Arrow (USPLance)
01. 00:00:00 Gabriele Colombo (vercors)
02. 00:01:03 Cadel Evans (simply)
03. 00:01:51 Mark Arrow (USPLance)
04. 00:02:16 Ziggy Marley (team sansoucci)
05. 00:02:59 Tom Galot (Kitovras)
06. 00:03:34 Fabian Lossau (inTime)
07. 00:03:52 Clive Owen (simply)
08. 00:04:02 Lance Verystrong (USPLance)
09. 00:04:03 Fernando Delascuevas (vercors)
10. 00:04:12 Darnell Bix (inTime)
...
14. 00:07:20 Benoit Weis (Hoegaarden Team)
29. 00:49:29 Laurent Schimberg (Hoegaarden Team)

To conclude, congratulations to (almost) all the other managers, we had a great time on this Dauphiné!


PS : Thanks to these results, we just earned a place in division 5 and have D4 in sight