Hey, TDU hasn't started yet, so this still counts! I'm not too late! You're not my boss, you can't fire me.
(picture by a great and subconscious girl)
First, a quick introduction. TopSport Vlaanderen is the government-run - well, one of our government at least - sports program of Flanders. It isn't just for cycling, that is just one part of it. But since the dawn of time, or somewhere mid nineties at least, there has been a TSV cycling team, for both road cyclists and trackies. They're a ProContinental squad that like the classics, no surprise, but also usually participate in your second-tier Spanish or Italian climby stage races (think Burgos). They have a modest budget of 2.5 million euros, and have produced some great names in the past: Tom Boonen, Tom Steels, Stijn Devolder, Leif Hoste, Björn Leukemans and Jelle Vanendert are all former TopSporters. Unlike other teams, they want their talents to leave the team as soon as they're ready (but no sooner). Talents don't quit TSV, they graduate from it.
Well, I don't know what you thought, but I was hoping for the top names that stayed - Michael Van Staeyen, Pieter Van Speybrouck and Kris Boeckmans, I'm looking at you boys - to step up a level. This being a development squad, there's no use in hoping for classics win or GT podium stages. No, let us look at this with a bit more realism. Semi-classic podium performances - like Sep Vanmarcke's second place in 2010's Ghent-Wevelgem - or sprint wins in tours of say Britain, Turkey and Oman are the absolute height of what you can expect of them.
Kris Boeckmans spent the better part of 2010's spring swapping the title of Great Belgian Sprint Promise with Jens Keukeleire. Even though he lost that fight, 2011 should have made him step up a level. Maybe bag a win in, say, the Tour of Qatar? Or podium in de Scheldeprijs? Same goes for Michael Van Staeyen, though he only comes alive for the autumn part of the year. In a steady development winning a stage in 2010's Tour of Denmark should translate into, what, a stage in 2011 Eneco Tour? Tour of Poland perhaps?
On a climbier level, Jerome Baugnies was well on the way to a top 15 in the Ardennes classics and the likes. Of their incoming talents, Jelle Wallays was the 'biggest' name, having won the U23 Paris-Tours in 2010, one might expect him to be quite quick.
Nothing of the sort, really. Kris Boeckmans failed to impress, though in his defence he missed all of the cycling season before May, which, to a Belgian, is pretty much all out of the cycling season. Michael Van Staeyen had his usual half-year nap and then stuck to results that, in terms of worthiness, were basically on the same level as the year before, maybe even slightly lower.
The other kids weren't quite alright either, baggin only one win and fifteen podium spots in total. And it's not that they were too busy attacking to win. They were far less visible too. They didn't even get into the doomed break at RVV. TSV should always be in the doomed break at RVV. You never know, maybe that doomed break isn't so doomed this time after all.
In the same direction as they have been going, just maybe ride a little faster. You're not always going to have a Boonen or Vanmarcke in your squad, sometimes a Boeckmans will have to do. The peloton isn't just Belgian any more and, and I truly believe this, that's a good thing. OmegaStep find their young kids in Poland (via the Shack) and the UK (via An Post) these days; Lotto-Belisol - that new Belgian-centered team - signs a New-Zealander and an Iranian. The world is getting bigger, the bar has been raised. My TSV boys will just have to learn to jump higher.
0 recs | 35 comments
Their 2011 year was pretty dissapointing
meaning 2012 should probably be a better year.
broerie - January 11, 2012
Interesting
I hope your hopes come true – and we see this generation of TSV boys all over the peloton in the future
Sarah Connolly - January 11, 2012
Yay!
The long-awaited TSV capsule! [it was worth it]
Chris Fontecchio - January 11, 2012
Longest time it took anyone to write one of these, probably :)
tgsgirl - January 11, 2012
Got you covered
Jens - January 13, 2012
indeed
he does.
Chris Fontecchio - January 13, 2012
You appear to be fully back in bizz, gs.
Agree, one win will not cut it @ 2.5 million euros. Same management still?
Uphill - January 11, 2012
I promised Chris I'd do this one
and he cries like a baby when you let him down. Really, it’s not a pretty sight.
tgsgirl - January 11, 2012
Cav got quite a few fans.
Uphill - January 11, 2012
Lack of transfers
Do you think the post-2010 Bonanza simply meant there weren’t enough guys left to graduate this year? Maybe we add 5 +1, average of three per year, and call it good?
Chris Fontecchio - January 11, 2012
That, the failure of some guys to step up
and the growing market of available riders
tgsgirl - January 11, 2012
And the fact that some younger ones get a chance to start in a big team rightaway
(Robert, Vermote, Van Keirsbulck, the young vanendert…)
broerie - January 11, 2012
Ah yes, that too
good point
tgsgirl - January 11, 2012
young vanendert looks just like big vanendert, btw
It’s going to be impossible to keep them apart next year. I hope one is taller than the other or something.
tgsgirl - January 11, 2012
Eew, same bad (you really should learn to shave) moustache attempt as his bro too
Douglas Ansel - January 11, 2012
That seems like a big problem for development squads
Like they run on 2-or-3 year cycles or something – when they get it right, everyone gets signed, mining the team for talent, & have to start all over again
Sarah Connolly - January 11, 2012
not a problem for TSV
that’s the goal of the team
broerie - January 11, 2012
"Problem" was probably the wrong word
“Nature” would be better!
Sarah Connolly - January 11, 2012
Hey gs
you should write something about this too, I’m way too lazy.
That guy writes for The international journal of intercultural bigboobedbimbo PMagazine studies and posts his stuff on wielertoerist afterwards.It was probably published in P a week ago.
broerie - January 11, 2012
Interesting. Have Read It Later-ed
No time to write on it though. No sleep for the wicked.
(you read P? for the interviews, right?)
tgsgirl - January 11, 2012
No, I am a proud member of wielertoerist.be
broerie - January 11, 2012
(I do read it at the Chinese takeaway )
broerie - January 11, 2012
A good Chinese takeaway nearby
That’s all this neighbourhood is missing
tgsgirl - January 11, 2012
200 meters for me
and it’s a very good one
:)
broerie - January 11, 2012
beware,
after the racy leadup, disappointing link …
lots and lots of words :(
yeehoo - January 12, 2012
Tom Boonen on Topsport? I knew he rode for an amateur club in Kotrijk but never any Topsport thing (unless it was amateur)
So I’d like to see where you go that from
Topsport seems to be in a rut…they have talent and then it seems to sit there and not do a whole lot. Need to get some better management in there or whatever.
Vlaanderen90 - January 11, 2012
Yeah, no Tombo on TopSport
Damn you wiki. Sorry ‘bout that, I was way too busy building forts in the mid nineties to pay attention to U23 talents. Don’t know what I was thinking, really.
tgsgirl - January 12, 2012
Steven Van Vooren
spent a lot of time in the breakaways over the past 2 seasons, especially in the semi-classics, and in the Amstel Gold Race. He joined TSV from An-Post, prior to that he was an amateur with JCBA-Cyclign Center (now Fuji Test Team). Since he is only 24, we can expect to see much more of him.
touriste-routier - January 11, 2012
and that brings us back to the link I showed to gs
broerie - January 12, 2012
I've been intrigued by TSV, for 2 reasons;
1) what’s the deal with Preben Van Hecke? My understanding of TSV is that it’s demographic ought to be a load of U23 riders from the low countries, and maybe 3 senior vets in their mid-30s giving guidance and acting as road captain(s) etc. Yet Van Hecke falls in the middle. He’s also shown decent talent, not least the year he was right there in the last 10k of de Ronde (one of the years that Tommeke got ‘Devoldered’). What’s the deal?
2) Commendable as the mission is, what’s the benefit to TSV/Flanders sport govt to this ‘development team’? I agree with Sean Kelly’s remarks last year that there ought to be a small transfer market – nothing that can get out of hand like the football, but something set in stone based on a table of attributes such as team level, rider age etc. A team like Farnese-Vini for example ought to be rewarded for finding and nurturing Andrea Guardini, in the current system they’ll lose him for nothing. TSV would be one of the teams to benefit most from a system rewarding development.
ike2112 - January 12, 2012
1) No idea actually, maybe he is close with some staff mebers, maybe a politician pulled some strings to give him a place on the team, maybe he made deal (I give you a sponsor, you give me a spot on the team). But you’re right: he hasn’t got the profile of the traditional road captain and he’s too old to be considered a prospect
2) It’s just a way of supporting the sport. Flanders support the team financially. The team gives the slightly less talented riders a chance (or the guys who need some more time). As a result a lot of these youngsters manage to get a spot on a big team = more Flemish riders in the big races and that makes Flanders happy.
Lots of sports get financial support in Belgium. Cycling is the 2nd biggest sport around here, so it’s fairly normal that a lot of money goest to that sport. Another example: Lotto. The company behind Lotto, the Belgian ‘Nationale Loterij’, is partially directed by the government. It was owned by the government untill a couple of years ago.
broerie - January 12, 2012
I understand the motive, in a way.
But if more exposure for young Flandrians if the only incentive, if other riders like Stuyven start to make their own way, doesn’t it become almost redundant?
When a rider crosses the line, they show their sponsor. TSV kind of doesn’t exactly have one. I have Quickstep flooring in the house, an HTC phone, a Colnago bike – but I can’t buy me some fractured Belgian sport development council.
Maybe Belgium is ok in terms of economy. But I know sports facilities in the UK are closing just now due to cost cuts. I’d love a local cycling team to support, and it’d be great to see a stepping-stone for young athletes. But if cost £2.5m at a time when my local sports centre and community club was closing, I’d probably start to question the tangible benefits.
ike2112 - January 12, 2012
The exceptional talents have never needed development teams
Gilbert, Boonen, VDB,…. These guys have always made their career on their own. TSV is meant for the riders who are slightly less strong, but can still become (very) good pro cyclists.
As to the other remark: TSV does have private sponsors too, it’s not all government money.
Doesn’t the British government support the tennis federation, football and rugby clubs, athletics clubs, rowing, swimming? I always thought the British track program was financed with government money?
broerie - January 12, 2012
Yeah, lots of sports funded with Govt and Lottery money
(although it’s all likely to be cut to the bone, once the Olympics are over…)
Sarah Connolly - January 12, 2012
Well, I guess Team Sky and British Cycling do the same in the UK, with lots of public money backing them
and the same Qs could be asked here, re support for local sports for all, versus support for Team Sky…
Sarah Connolly - January 12, 2012
You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of Podium Cafe to post a comment.