Keep pushing… against the favourites! (CFF, season 37, Race 3)

Second NT race? Quite good.
It was hard to choose between Nordin Bernard and Martin Vandelanoitte as leader for this race: Nordin was our choice for his better skills (less experience, but 9200 vs. 9000). We know we are not the best national team in climbing: this season it will be hard because there are 2 stages with climbs.
At the end, we did a 12° with Nordin Bernard and 22° with Martin Vandelanoitte: 100 points and now a 8° place in NT ranking (300 points in 2 races, the same as Italy and already better than the final score in season 36 after 7 races).

Let’so go with the race number 3.

NT season 37 - Race 3:
4th February: Pau - Revel 239,5 km
Flat/sprinters stage

If a 9400 rider finishes al the 4th place (Fred Gilles) and a 9200 rider can finish 12° (Nordin Bernard), we arrive at the flat stage with NO RIDERS over 9000… definetely, not the best starting point.
In the last 2 seasons Belgium NT scored ZERO points on this kind of route. The last result in top 15 was in the season 34 with Brecht Vlaminck (now retired).

On 4th February we will try to do our best with Pierre Julien Vandewiele (31), helped by Raoul Peters (30), Edmond Coppens (27), Sebastian VanSteenberghe (27) and Arn Bauduin (26). Our team will be probably (I’ll study our riders for all the week, in order to see something else) completed by:
Kobe Costenoble (26), good at sprint/flat and in hilly routes, good for the team now and convocated to increase his experience;
Enrique Cleeren (24), for the same reasons of Costenoble;
Pim Anthoons (22), really young and our best prospect as future sprinter (8530 at 22 yo);
Jokke Apers (24), definitely not good for this race, but strong in flat, technique, stamina… and TT. He is our best cronoman and we try to increase his experience for next races.
Jokke Apers will be convocated because… we don’t have a 9th rider over 8500 in temr of valutation.

Well, as always, let me know in DM on cyclingforfun if you have some requests or questions.

Best regards,
Let’go!
Alé Belgium!
Go Belgium!

Convocations:
Pierre Julien Vandewiele (31)
Raoul Peters (30)
Edmond Coppens (27)
Sebastiaan VanSteenberghe (27)
Arn Bauduin (26)
Kobe Costenoble (26)
Enrique Cleeren (24)
Jokke Apers (24)
Pim Anthoons (22)