Tom Danielson at home after the 2011 TDF (by Mary Topping)
Nearly all pro-cyclists will fight an injury at some point. When a crash injury prevents a rider from performing his best at a race that means the world to him, that can be a pretty decent setback. That’s where Tom Danielson of Team Garmin-Barracuda found himself this week at the Tour of Langkawi.
Danielson crashed on stage 3 of the Malaysian event during the sprint finish, gifting the country with skin souvenirs the size of young banana leaves. He rode up the final climb of stage 6, Genting Highlands, with a swollen leg. The effects of the crash and the ensuing infection led him to abandon the race before stage 7 started.
In an interview with Velonation after stage 6, Danielson expressed disappointment with his performance. He seemed to say he felt he’d let the team down. Prior to the race he couldn’t wait to gobble up Genting Highlands, where he won a stage in 2003; he couldn’t wait to return to the scene of a victory that launched his career. And now this week he stood on the same ground, perhaps thinking he hadn’t been able to honor the Tour of Langkawi with the type of result he felt it and the memory of his 2003 overall victory deserved.
Other riders have acknowledged the impact of injury on their confidence. Take Craig Lewis. Just before the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (UPCC) in August 2011, his first return to competition since May when he sustained multiple fractures in a crash during the Giro d’Italia, Lewis wrote:
“As a professional athlete, I know I should have more confidence. In fact, I should be oozing it. But you’d be surprised with how much confidence in your athletic ability you’d lose if you were just recently teaching yourself how to move an arm or walk again. At the start of every racing season, after a long winter’s break, there is always the worry about not cutting it in a race. Multiply that worry by ten, and that is where I am heading into next week.”
Lewis finished the UPCC, though not without pain. Many riders have come back from – even used, the disappointment and frustration of setbacks. Lance Armstrong beat cancer. Greg LeMond received 40 bullets in his back in 1987, almost died, then won the Tour de France again in 1989. Evelyn Stevens suffered over the Passo di Mortirolo in last year’s Giro Donne, crashing multiple times in what she described as “probably the lowest point in my cycling career.” Less than one week ago she won the Tour of New Zealand.
In a VeloNews interview prior to stage 7 of the Tour of Langkawi, Danielson said, “One of the things I’m lacking is the confidence to push it above my limit and go for the win.” Maybe something else explains his comment, but it sounds like the injury and disappointment at Langkawi have shaken his confidence. He can recover and fortify it, though, because he’s already learned how to do that.
Danielson nurtured his confidence in 2011 with aggressive riding in the Tour de Suisse and by summiting Alpe d’Huez and other mountains in last year’s Tour de France with the riders who stepped on the podiums at the finale in Paris. Danielson said in TourChats he knows that winning feeling and he knows he’s capable. He told the Denver Post as much last August when he described how it felt to race next to Cadel Evans and Frank and Andy Schleck: “I had to say, ‘This is just who you are. You can do this.'”
“He showed in the Tour de France he can ride with those guys,” Jonathan Vaughters, Team Garmin-Barracuda CEO and Director Sportif, said last August in the Denver Post. “I think now he wants to show that he can beat them.”
There’s every reason to believe the foundation upon which Vaughters’ words were built still stands strong.
Flagstaff Mountain Amphitheater entrance sign
[updated 2/29/2012]
According to the Boulder Daily Camera, Boulder local organizing committee co-chair Andrew Shoemaker shared details on the USA Pro Cycling Challenge stage 6 route from Golden to Boulder. The August 25th stage is reported to finish at the Amphitheater area on the Flagstaff Mountain climb.
Many Colorado-based pro-cyclists, including Tom Danielson, expressed desire for an uphill finish on Flagstaff.
Route details revealed included:
- leave the start in Golden up Highway 93 into Boulder,
- one or more sprint lines in Boulder during the stage,
- up Boulder Canyon and through Nederland,
- Peak to Peak Highway to St. Vrain Drive and into Lyons,
- Route 36 toward Boulder then turn onto Lefthand Canyon,
- up Lee Hill, into University Hill area,
- up Flagstaff Mountain with finish line at the Amphitheater.
An approach up the Flagstaff climb from the intersection of Broadway and Baseline adds about 1.4 miles to the three miles from the traditional start just past Chautauqua Park up to the Amphitheater. The Road to Cat 1 blog provides a detailed illustration of these three miles: the first mile rises on average 8.6%, the second mile 5.5%, and the third 6.1%.
Panorama Overlook view near top of Flagstaff Mountain, above Amphitheater (photo by Mary Topping)
The reported finish line location means riders will not tackle the remaining 1.5 miles to the summit. This last stretch is more difficult with gradients of 10% or higher.
The story detailing the route also indicated Flagstaff Road will be closed beginning the night of August 24th. Spectators will need to walk or ride to watch the race on the Flagstaff climb.
The race organization confirmed this route information with a news release on February 29, 2012 on the USA Pro Challenge website.
Sep Vanmarcke at the 2011 E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke (photo by Cindy Trossaert, Flickr)
[updated 2/27/2012]
Four days before the 2012 Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Sep Vanmarcke acknowledged that Hushovd’s departure from Garmin-Barracuda opened a door to greater potential success this year for the young classics rider.
With last season marked by knee and achilles tendon injuries and a bad crash at the Vuelta, Vanmarcke could have allowed shaken confidence to rule; he could have focused on the “what-ifs” of stepping into the space beyond the open door – another crash on the narrow roads, perhaps, or a return of the cramps that took hold at the end of last year’s Gent-Wevelgem.
Twenty-three year-old Vanmarcke from West Flanders instead mustered his courage. He shot through that open door on Saturday and won the Omloop het Nieuwsblad ahead of Tom Boonen.
Vanmarcke’s calendar on his website shows he should be starting Paris-Nice on Sunday, March 4th. That provides a few days to discover and savor a few morsels about Vanmarcke.
Dreams
“I think the kind of rider you dream to be is what’s in you,” Vanmarcke said in 2011. “I think I always dreamed of the cobblestone races and always wanted to do it, so I’m good at it…I didn’t dream about Miguel Indurain, but I loved Johan Museeuw and Peter Van Petegem and Edwig Van Hooydonck.”
Belgian racing family
“I grew up with racing, I never saw anything else,” he told Podium Cafe. His dad raced. His brothers raced. “I couldn’t start [racing] earlier because of my parents; there were three children that were racing and it was too difficult to get them to the races at one time. I just had to wait ‘til I was 15.”
Sep and his brother Ken raced together for two years. Second place in the 2008 Deinze-Ieper one-day race matters a lot to Sep, because that day his brother Ken won. Sep became a professional cyclist in August, 2009.
Hard worker
In 2011 Sep Vanmarcke rode well to position Hushovd for a shot at Paris-Roubaix — one of Vanmarcke’s favorite races, and ultimately supported Vansummeren’s win as well as finding 20th place for himself. He worked for Heinrich Haussler at the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke, and later in August for Dan Martin at the Vuelta.
These valuable domestique performances landed Vanmarcke among the five nominees on the HLN reader’s poll for best Belgian worker in 2011, the Crystal Sweat Drop Award (the award is a glass replica of a drop of sweat). Readers voted Vanmarcke into third place, the middle of the pack — the only time you’re ever find the cobble-loving on-the-attack Vanmarcke in that position.
Sep Vanmarcke, November 2011, in Boulder (photo by Mary Topping)
Career details
Born: July 28, 1988, in Kortrijk , Belgium
Race results highlights:
- 2011 — 2nd Westrozebeke, 4th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke, 4th stage 20 of Tour of Spain
- 2010 — mountains jersey Four Days of Dunkirk, 2nd Gent-Wevelgem, 2nd overall Franco-Belge, 2nd Wanzele
- 2009 — 1st stage 2 Ronde van Vlaams-Brabant, 1st Trognée-Hannut, 1st stage 1 U-23 Tour du Haut Anjou, 5th stage 1 & 6th stage 3 of Tour de l’Avenir, 24th U-23 World Championships
- 2008 — 1st stage 2 Ronde van Vlaams-Brabant, 1st Kruishoutem, 2nd Deinze-Ieper, 2nd Omloop van de Gouden Garnaal
- 2007 to 2004 — numerous top 10’s and 15 wins
Teams
KSV-Deerlijk Gaverzicht, 2003 – 2006 (Juniors)
CLC team Ingelmunster, 2007
Young Flanders-Davitamon-Lotto, 2008
Jong Vlaanderen-Bauknecht, 2009 (until August)
Topsport Vlaanderen, 2009 – 2010
Garmin Barracude, 2011 – present
[With gratitude to Cindy Trossaert for Creative Commons sharing on Flickr.]
Crested Butte, statue in town
Crested Butte and Mount Crested Butte (the ski resort area) welcome the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (UPCC) for the finish of stage 2 on August 21st. A town that grew up around mining, the Crested Butte area yielded significant amounts of coal by 1882. At that time Crested Butte’s population of 1,000 could visit or feel crowded by several saloons and restaurants, five hotels, a bank, three livery stables, sawmills, doctors, lawyers and the Union Congregational Church.
Today Crested Butte is a dirt-loving playfellow under a cloak of historic charm.
Dirt-loving
Mount Crested Butte trails map
Crested Butte’s roads didn’t get paved until 1983, about three years after its first Fat Tire Bike Week, now called the Crested Butte Bike Week.
This celebration of tires on trails is the longest running mountain bike festival, which makes it just one of the many hallmarks setting Crested Butte apart from other mountain towns. This year Crested Butte Bike Week will take place from June 21st to 24th.
Playfellow
During Crested Butte’s townie criterium event last year on the morning of the UPCC’s arrival in town, contestants rode part of each lap through the Talk of the Town Bar – yes, entering through the back door, cruising past the bar, and exiting to a roaring crowd outside of the front door.
What a way to play above the dirt: the Crested Butte Zip Line Tour takes guests along five zip lines and a series of suspension bridges.
Historic charmer
Crested Butte became a Registered National Historic District in 1972 and is Colorado’s eighth largest historic district. Stroll down Elk Avenue through the historic district in the middle of town and admire original buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Until recently the largest elk antlers ever measured, these antlers from an elk a Crested Butte resident took down in 1899 in the Dark Canyon of Anthracite Creek west of Crested Butte hang on a wall at the Chamber of Commerce Visitor’s Center in downtown Crested Butte when not on loan or tour. The owners shipped the antlers to the Boone and Crocket Club in New York for measurement in 1960 to establish world record status.
Along the road from Mount Crested Butte to the town of Gothic (photo by Mary Topping)
The former mining town of Gothic lies about five miles north of Mount Crested Butte, at 9,500 feet elevation among blue lupine on Gothic Road. More than 1,000 people lived in Gothic until it became deserted by 1893 when silver mining had played out. The town is home to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. An easy hike to Judd Falls begins at a trailhead just past Gothic.
See also:
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Durango: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Telluride: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Montrose: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Gunnison: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Aspen: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Beaver Creek: facts and fables
[Via Champion System Pro Cycling Team. Updated with video on 2/24/2012.]
Craig Lewis, (photo courtesy of Champion System Pro Cycling Team)
The Tour de Langkawi marks the debut of Craig Lewis for the Champion System Pro Cycling Team, which will be on the hunt for stage wins during the 10-day race in Malaysia.
“Training camp was really solid and I’m excited to see how the first race goes,” Lewis said. “My training has really progressed but it’s hard to say how that will show here with all of the travel and heat. But I am hoping to get 10 solid days of racing in the legs to form a base for the rest of the year.
“My only real expectation is to finish stronger than when I’ve started. If I can offer help to the guys and we win a stage, that would be huge.”
Joining Lewis on the six-rider Champion System roster is American Chris Butler, Australian Aaron Kemps, Jaan Kirsipuu of Estonia and Malaysians Anuar Manan and Adiq Othman. The more than 1,400-kilometer race begins Friday [2/24/2012] with a 20.3-kilometer individual time trial.
Champion System Pro Cycling Team General Manager Ed Beamon said Kemps, Kirsipuu and Manan offer a formidable lineup to contest the sprints, while Butler will look to the overall.
“Our first objective will be to get Anuar a victory,” Beamon said. “Butler will be our man for Genting (Stage 6’s mountain-top finish), but this will be a very tough race for the general classification. So we’ll concentrate on stages.”
Beamon said Asia’s first pro continental squad has learned a lot in a short time. In addition to competing at the Tours of Qatar and Oman the past month, Champion System is also fielding a team for Saturday’s opening Belgian classic, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
“The races in the Middle East were a big learning experience, and I think especially the Chinese guys grew a lot,” Beamon said.
Tour de Langkawi Roster (Feb. 24-March 4):
Chris Butler (USA), Aaron Kemps (AUS), Jaan Kirsipuu (EST), Craig Lewis (USA), Anuar Manan (MAS), Adiq Othman (MAS).
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Roster (Feb. 25):
Riders: Clinton Avery (NZL), Joris Boillat (SUI), William Clarke (AUS), Gorik Gardeyn (BEL), Kun Jiang (CHN), Biao Liu (CHN), Pengda Jiao (CHN), Gang XU (CHN).
VeloNation interview (with video) with Craig Lewis the day before the Tour de Langkawi started.
Racing bikes on snow — it’s a bit nutty, and brings new meaning to slipping and sliding.
View toward Teva Mountain Games village from snow crit start line
On February 11, 2012 the Teva Winter Mountain Games hosted a snow crit race in Vail with cash prizes for mountain bike and snow bike categories. Women and men in both categories touched only snow after they sped off at 5 p.m. in soft but cold post-sunset light.
They circled a 1.0 kilometer loop with 170 feet of elevation gain. The highest male finishers completed nine to ten laps in about 35 to 40 minutes.
2012 Teva Winter Mt. Games, Vail, Snow Crit map
Experience a course-side view of the start, the treacherous downhill, demanding uphill, and finish in this video which features the Team CLIF Bar riders, Brady Kappius and Mitch Hoke.
Male, MTB: 1. Tim Allen, 2. Greg Krause, 3. Brady Kappius
Female, MTB: 1. Tamara Donelson, 2. Amy Hermes, 3. Cait Boyd
Male, snow bike: 1. Mitch Hoke, 2. Jake Wells, 3. Jay Henry
Female, snow bike: 1. Judy Freeman, 2. Gretchen Reeves, 3. Eszter Horanyi
Brady Kappius & Mitch Hoke (l - r) at snow crit finish, Teva Winter Mt. Games (photo by Mary Topping)
San Juan Mountains, view from Ridgeway just south of Montrose (photo by Mary Topping)
Montrose’s allure hinges on its location in the Uncompahgre Valley. Its place in southwestern Colorado gifts the city with rich Ute Native American history, abundant agriculture and consumables, and breath-taking nearby scenery and towns. Montrose will host the start of stage 2 of the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge on August 21st.
Pomona, Dad’s Town, and Uncompahgre Town all stood-in as names for the city before it became Montrose after the name of a character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, The Legend of Montrose.
Ute Native American influence
The Ute Native Americans lived for hundreds of years in the areas of the Uncompahgre Valley and Plateau. “Uncompahgre” is a Ute word with several translations, including hot springs, red lake, and the place where water makes the rocks red.
One of Montrose’s treasures is the Ute Indian Museum. Situated on the original 8.65 acre homestead of Chief Ouray and his wife, Chipeta, the museum is said to showcase “one of the most complete collections of Ute Indian artifacts.” The grounds also include Chipeta’s crypt as well as a native plants garden. According to one blogger, visitors claim to have seen Chipeta wandering the museum grounds, and to have heard the sound of drumbeats echo in a rear exhibit room even though the ceremonial drum in that room rests under glass.
Friends, near Ridgway, Colorado (photo by Mary Topping)
Agriculture and consumables (beer, actually)
Thanks to irrigation provided by the Gunnison River via the Gunnison Tunnel, agriculture occupies an important place around Montrose. At the time of the race you should find farm stands along Highway 50 full of corn from Olathe, fresh cut that day.
Race fans might appreciate the result of harvesting another sort of grain: local beer.
- In town, the Horsefly Brewing Company offers a selection of micro-brews. If you get to Montrose on Monday night, that’s $1 taco night at the Horsefly.
- About a 30 minute drive south of Montrose – and on the way from Telluride to Montrose if you come via the Dallas Divide and Highway 62, Colorado Boy serves its ales in a pub in downtown Ridgway. Colorado Boy says it sources all of its electricity from wind power and its hot water from solar collectors on the roof. Local cattle (Ridgway is ranching territory) feed on the grain and yeast left over from the brewing process. The brewery’s Irish Ale won a bronze medal at the 2011 Great American Beer Festival. The pub is closed on Mondays, but perhaps Colorado Boy will make an exception on August 20th.
Breath-taking scenery and towns
Pick a direction – from the Grand Mesa to the north, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison to the east, the town of Ouray (whose nickname is the Switzerland of America) to the south, and the Uncompahgre National Forest to the west, it’s all stunning.
View of Main Street in Ouray, looking north (photo by Mary Topping)
See also:
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Durango: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Telluride: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Mount / Crested Butte: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Gunnison: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Aspen: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Beaver Creek: facts and fables
To say Jacob Rathe rolled on two wheels before he walked on two legs is a bit of an exaggeration — but just a bit. Rathe’s life on a bike began, according to an interview in the Oregonian, “at age 3, when he taught himself to stay up on two wheels: picture him riding circles on the back deck.” Just 20 years-old at the time he signed his new contract, Jacob Rathe is the youngest rider on Team Garmin-Barracuda’s roster in 2012.
A member of Team Chipotle development squad (now Team Chipotle-First Solar) last year, Rathe ascended to the Garmin-Barracuda World Tour team for the 2012 season with development teammates Raymond Kreder and Alex Howes.
Jacob Rathe (photo by Pat Malach/Oregon.CyclingAction.com)
About Jacob Rathe
A native of Portland, Oregon, Rathe first rode competitively at age 12 or 13, finishing well as a junior in cyclocross, road, and track disciplines. Like his teammate Raymond Kreder, Rathe is a former national track champion; he won the Junior U.S. scratch race in both 2006 and 2007. He also likes to mountain bike.
Rathe first experienced racing in Europe in 2007 as part of the USA Cycling Junior National team, and told BicyclePaper, “Overseas racing has been invaluable to my riding.” In 2007 he won the Junior Orroir Kermesse in Belgium. Also as a junior he competed in the Giro di Basilicata in Italy in 2008 and the 2009 Junior Men’s World Championship Road Race in Moscow.
An all-around rider, Rathe shows strength in sprinting and climbing, as well as finding the breakaways like he did in the 2011 Volta a Portugal and 2011 U23 U.S. road race championships where he finished second just behind his teammate, Rob Squires.
Rathe has named Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders as career objectives. Given Rathe’s 3rd place in 2011’s Paris-Roubaix Espoirs event, Rathe could be another secret weapon for Team Garmin-Barracuda in the 2012 Spring classics.
Just prior to the Junior Worlds in Moscow, Rathe’s coach, Oliver Martin, said Rathe “always rides to win.” Martin said that in 2009; it still holds true. On February 6th in the 2012 Tour of Qatar, Rathe rode to a team time trial victory with Garmin-Barracuda in his first race of the season.
Career details
Born: 3/13/1991
Race results highlights:
- 2011 1st stage 9 of Volta a Portugal, 1st stage 4 of Rutas de America, 3rd in Paris-Roubaix Espoirs, 2nd in U23 US road race championships
- 2010 2nd Sea Otter Classic Road Race Under 23
- 2009 1st stage 1 of Rothaus Regio Tour and a slew of domestic race victories
- 2008 1st Tour of Red River Gorge
- 2007 and 2006 US Junior National Track champion in scratch race.
Teams: 2004 – 2007 Beaverton Bicycle Club; 2008 -2009 CMG Racing; 2010 Jelly Belly p/b Kenda; 2011 Chipotle Development Team. 2006 – 2010 USA Cycling Development program junior and U23 national teams.
[With gratitude to Pat Malach/Oregon.CyclingAction.com for use of his excellent photo of Jacob Rathe. Oregon.CyclingAction.com offers regular coverage of Rathe and other Oregonian cyclists.]
Road into Telluride (photo by Mary Topping)
On August 20th Stage 1 of the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge ends in Telluride, a town possibly named after tellurium, an element associated with gold. The town beckons race spectators with its mélange of hippy vibe, outdoor nirvana, and understated opulence.
Hippy ambiance
Telluride Free Box
On a corner of main street, in about the middle of the 12 block long town, a row of bins called “The Free Box” lines the side of a building. Shoes, shirts, and other used soft goods wait for new owners to take them away and shower them with love.
Early race fans can enjoy the annual Shroomfest which will take place in Telluride from August 16th to 19th. Activities still to be confirmed include mushroom identification and exhibits, educational lectures, films, cooking workshops, and a parade on August 18th. Mushroom shaped hats are de rigueur for the parade; several Tour de France polka-dot hats sewn together might pass for something fungi-like.
A free year-round gondola transports people from Telluride up to Mountain Village and the ski area. According to visittelluride.com, all of the electricity that runs the gondola originates from wind power generated along the Colorado/Wyoming border. A hiking trail underneath the gondola offers a work-out alternative for visiting Mountain Village.
Telluride provides puppy parking stations, hitching posts with loops for securing a dog’s leash.
Natural places
A rock formation called “Lizard Head” rises on the west side of Colorado Highway 145 between Durango and Telluride. While the head formation itself measures only about 400 feet tall, the elevation at the top is 13,113 feet. The unstable quality of the Lizard Head rock discourages climbers, but hikers can approach the formation by two trails accessed from Highway 145. Sheep ranchers have grazed sheep in the meadows that slope up to the rock formation.
A 1.2 mile hike on a dirt road that begins at the end of Telluride’s main street leads uphill to the base of Bridal Veil Falls, a 365 foot long waterfall. When frozen in the winter, some call the falls “the most difficult waterfall ice climb in North America.”
Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride (photo by Mary Topping)
Celebrity hide-out
Those “in the know” say Telluride has replaced the allure of Aspen for celebrities who just want to melt into the scene. Reported celebrity sightings include Oprah, Ralph Lauren, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, and Jerry Seinfeld.
As of September 2011, the median home cost in Telluride is $683,000.
Males make up 55% of Telluride’s 2,400 inhabitants (2009 data), who in total number about one-half of the town’s largest population when mining activity flourished nearby.
Does the fact that Butch Cassidy (born Robert Leroy Parker) committed his first bank robbery in town in 1889 attract more men to Telluride, a town, however refined, that might prefer to be called rugged like the mountains that surround it?
————–
See also:
Facts and fables about Durango, CO
Facts and fables about Montrose, CO
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Mount / Crested Butte: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Gunnison: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Aspen: facts and fables
USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Beaver Creek: facts and fables
Last week Michel Kreder on Team Garmin-Barracuda won two stages back-to-back in the unusually cold Tour Méditerranéen. The eight Garmin-Barracuda riders in the race included his younger brother, Raymond, a member of Team Chipotle (now Team Chipotle-First Solar) last year.
Team Chipotle-First Solar is the latest incarnation of Jonathan Vaughters’ dedication to the development of under-23 cyclists, a program he launched in 2003 with Team 5280-Subaru. In 2012 Raymond Kreder, Alex Howes and Jacob Rathe moved up from this development team to the Garmin-Barracuda World Tour team.
Raymond Kreder, 2010 Redlands Classic (photo via Slipstreamsports.com)
About Raymond Kreder
Raymond Kreder was born in Zevenhuizen in the Netherlands. He began riding with the Chipotle Development Team in 2009 at 19 years-old. Prior to joining the Slipstream Sports program, he rode for the Belgian Davo Cycling Team. During the 2010 season he raced with the World Tour team as a stagiaire and achieved top 15 results in the Circuit Franco-Belge and a seventh place in the Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke.
In 2010 Raymond Kreder once again demonstrated his skill on the track by winning first place in the Dutch track championships points competition.
He likes the cobblestones, previously naming Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders as his favorite races. And with good reason. In 2006 Raymond Kreder won the juniors version of Paris-Roubaix. In a 2011 interview, Raymond Kreder said he regards that as his biggest win and remembers it as if it happened yesterday.
Raymond Kreder has learned a lot from and still trains with his brother, Michel, who is two years older.
Raymond Kreder sprints well. A tweet by Vaughters in late 2011 indicated he will be called upon together with Koldo Fernandez, Murilo Fischer, and Robbie Hunter to provide a strong lead-out for Tyler Farrar.
Will Raymond Kreder tackle Paris-Roubaix in 2012 to help Vansummeren defend his 2011 title? In late 2011, that might have seemed too much to expect from a 2006 winner of the shorter juniors Paris-Roubaix. Now given his and the team’s performance last week, it might not be.
Regardless, it sounds from his tweet during the Tour Méditerranéen that Raymond Kreder is already living his dream season: “I love my brother @michelkreder ;)! Its really really nice to ride in the same team and same race! Thnxs garmin-barracuda!”
Follow Raymond Kreder on Twitter, @krederRaymond.
Career details
Born: 11/26/1989
Near one of the two Zevenhuizens in the Netherlands (photo by J. Knol, a.k.a. BrotherJohn, on Panoramio)
Race results highlights:
- 2011 three top-5 results in the Rutas de America, two 4th places in the Tour de l’Avenir
- 2010 Dutch Track Champion, 1st in points competition, 1st stage 3 of Cascade Classic
- 2009 3rd in the Noordwijkerhout and additional races in the Netherlands
- 2007 three victories in the Vuelta a les Comarces de Castello Juniors races
- 2006 1st in Paris-Roubaix Juniors
- 2005 Dutch Junior Track Champion, 1st in points race
Teams: 2008 Davo Cycling Team, 2009 Felt-Holowesko Partners U-23 team, 2010 Team Holowesko Partners and stagiaire on Garmin-Transitions, 2011 Chipotle Development team (team history prior to 2008 not identified).
[Many thanks to J. Knol for permission to use his lovely photo of Zevenhuizen, the Netherlands.]
ProVéloPassion 