On Monday 5 January 2009 the Rabobank cycling team for 2009 has been presented. Exactly one year after the team presentation for 2008 the goals were more realistic than in 2008 when the team wanted to become the best sports team in the world.
In 2009 it's all about pure combativity ...

In Ahoy in Rotterdam, where the Tour de France 2010 will start, general manager Harold Knebel said he was happy with the results of 2008 but saw some room for improvement: It was good, but it could have been better. I think that with more combativity we can even better reach our goals.
The team's direction therefore expects its directeurs sportifs and riders in 2009 to show more initiative, aggressive riding and a recognisable strategy.

In addition to the ProTeam 22 riders work for the Rabobank Continental Team, among who the former track rider Theo Bos who swaps the track for road cycling.

The 2009 ProTeam will be composed of no less than 30 riders who will be coached by 5 directeurs sportifs: Erik Breukink, Erik Dekker, Adri van Houwelingen, Frans Maassen and Jan Boven. In addition to their work as directeur sportif they will continue their role as rider régisseur. This role was new in 2008 and apparently turned out to be beneficial according to Knebel, and we want to intensify and thus even more improve this. In this double role they will be supported and coached by the performance manager, former national coach volleyball Peter Murphy. Knebel said: We think that someone like Murphy will provide some new ideas to our directeurs sportifs in the way they coach our athletes. Not because they don't do it well today, but just because we want to continue to open up for new ideas..

The newcomers

Seven riders are new in the Rabobank ProTeam 2009:
- Lars Boom (NED, Rabobank Continental)
- Kai Reus (NED, back again through the Rabobank Continental team after his accident in July 2007)
- Juan Manuel Garate (ESP, QuickStep)
- Stef Clement (NED, Bouygues Telecom)
- Nick Nuyens (BEL, Cofidis)
- Tom Stamsnijder (NED, Gerolsteiner)
- Maarten Tjallingii (NED, Silence-Lotto)

In the video below the new riders present each other: Hennie Stamsnijder, former cyclo-cross world champion (1981) and now manager sports marketing at Shimano, introduces his son Tom Stamsnijder as a 23-year old allround rider, Maarten Tjallingii (31) introduces Stef Clement (26-year old time trial rider) and the other way around and Nick Nuyens (28) and Juan Manuel Garate (32-year old climber) mutually present each other.
Stef Clement is coming back to a team he already knows since before his 3 years working for Bouygues Telecom he was part of the Rabobank Continental Team. At Bouygues he only focussed on time trials and Clement indicates he wants to continue with this but also develop more widely: I still have lots of things to learn. My time trial can still be improved and I want to start working on my climber's abilities because I haven't been able to work on them since three years.

His comeback to the Dutch team was quite natural: We meet each other all the time and I didn't leave the team in conflict. I trained a lot with Jan Boven and Erik Dekker, so we talked about it several times. In 2006 I was not ready for it. In 2007 we discussed it again but my contract with Bouygues still continued. Now it was clear for everyone: I wanted to come back and the team was happy to get me. That's cool!

All names

The following 30 riders (among who 18 Dutch riders) will be part of the Rabobank ProTeam in 2009:
- Mauricio Ardila (COL)
- Lars Boom (NED)
- Graeme Brown (AUS)
- Stef Clement (NED)
- Jos van Emden (NED)
- Juan Antonio Flecha (ESP)
- Rick Flens (NED)
- Oscar Freire (NED)
- Juan Manuel Garate (ESP)
- Robert Gesink (NED)
- Bram de Groot (NED)
- Mathew Hayman (AUS)
- Pedro Horrillo (ESP)
- Dmitri Kozontchouk (RUS)
- Sebastian Langeveld (NED)
- Tom Leezer (NED)
- Marc de Maar (NED)
- Paul Martens (DEU)
- Denis Menchov (RUS)
- Koos Moerenhout (NED)
- Bauke Mollema (NED)
- Grischa Niermann (DEU)
- Nick Nuyens (BEL)
- Joost Posthuma (NED)
- Kai Reus (NED)
- Tom Stamsnijder (NED)
- Bram Tankink (NED)
- Laurens ten Dam (NED)
- Maarten Tjallingii (NED)
- Pieter Weening (NED)

The goals

Nick Nuyens has been hired by the team for the Flemish classics and Sebastian Langeveld will also have a role to play there. The goal is to win at least one of the classics.

Denis Menchov will -like in 2008- do the Giro d'Italia to prepare for the Tour de France and will most probably be supported in the Tour by the young talented rider Robert Gesink. In the Tour the goal is to finish among the three best riders ... preferably as the winner.
Gesink was able to do some nice things last year in Paris-Nice (see here for more information about Paris-Nice 2009) where he managed to take the yellow jersey and finally finished 4th and in the Tour of Spain which he did for the first time, finishing 7th (see here for the route and stages of the Vuelta 2009 in The Netherlands, Belgium and Spain).
Gesink will do a similar programme as last year at the start of the season with the Tour of California and Paris-Nice or the Tirreno Adriatico. Gesink said: I don't know the stage profiles for these two races yet. We have to check them out but maybe I'll do one of these races. But I especially focus on the Amstel Gold Race and the Walloon classics. Then it's time to prepare for the Tour. I decided to take it easy (this winter). Last year I focused on a good start of the season in California. I wanted to show something there. The priorities are different now.

The doping topic

The Rabobank team has decided to be completely transparent in the fight against doping. Their website will show a regularly updated list of all doping checks of all Rabobank riders to get rid of the rumours that some riders would be tested more often and to improve the credibility of cycling as a sport.

The new Rabobank shirt and the new bike

The shirt and bibshort for the Rabobank riders for 2009 is a little bit different from the 2008 kit. The bibshort sports a new white ribbon and the shirt also has some additional white accents.
AGU remains the cycling wear supplier until 31 December 2012 and thus becomes as loyal as the Rabobank itself as a sponsor of the team since the start.

In 2009 Rabobank also changes bike supplier: for the first time since the creation of the team in 1996 Colnago does not supply the bikes, but Giant does. The team has chosen the TCR Advanced SL, in white as well ...

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Team presentations 2009 | Marketing

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