2011 Veranda's Willems–Accent season
The 2011 season for the Veranda's Willems–Accent professional cycling team began in January at the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise and ended in October at the Nationale Sluitingsprijs.
[1] Thus, in order to compete in any UCI World Tour event, the team had to be invited in advance, by race organisers.
The team also recorded no fewer than 28 top-ten placings in single-day races, including two victories for Evert Verbist at the Beverbeek Classic in February and Gregory Habeaux at Dwars door het Hageland in July.
In line with the squad's promotion to the second-tier of UCI-registered racing, Veranda's Willems–Accent were allowed to utilise more riders on their roster as a UCI Professional Continental team.
[14] Two riders also joined Veranda's Willems–Accent from another ProTour team; Staf Scheirlinckx,[15] a domestique and former top-ten finisher at Paris–Roubaix in 2006, and Jurgen Van Goolen both joined from Omega Pharma–Lotto; Van Goolen had previously signed for the Pegasus Sports project, prior to folding before the 2011 season even started.
[16] Steven Caethoven and Arnoud Van Groen left their respective Professional Continental teams Landbouwkrediet and Vacansoleil to join Veranda's Willems–Accent,[15][17] Under-23 riders Jaco Venter and Thomas Vernaeckt both competed at Continental level in 2010 for MTN–Energade and Sunweb-Revor respectively, but joined Veranda's Willems–Accent in the hopes of progressing eventually to the World Tour.
[18][19] Also joining the team were Jempy Drucker, Rob Goris, David Kemp, Bram Schmitz and Evert Verbist.
[21] Fabio Polazzi, Robin Stenuit and Jonas Vangenechten all joined Wallonie Bruxelles–Crédit Agricole for the 2011 season, with Cédric Collaers (Lotto-Bodysol), Sven Renders (Team Worldofbike.gr) and Hendrik Van Den Bossche (Donckers Koffie-Jelly Belly) all acquiring contracts for the 2011 season.
At the Beverbeek Classic in Belgium, Verbist and Dries Hollanders – who would join Veranda's Willems Accent later in the year as a stagiaire – attacked off the front of the field and in the process, set up a two-man sprint for the victory in Hamont-Achel.
[28] In April, during one of the team's wildcard entries to a World Tour race, Scheirlinckx finished in eighth place in the Tour of Flanders,[29] having bridged up to the lead group prior to the final climb of the race, the cobbled Bosberg hill, 10 km (6.2 mi) from the finish in Meerbeke.
[35] The team also sent squads to the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise,[36] Omloop Het Nieuwsblad,[37] Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne,[38] Le Samyn,[39] De Vlaamse Pijl,[40] the Handzame Classic,[41] Dwars door Vlaanderen,[42] E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke,[43] Gent–Wevelgem,[44] Hel van het Mergelland,[45] Brabantse Pijl,[46] the Grand Prix de Denain,[47] the Tour du Finistère,[48] the Amstel Gold Race,[49] the Tro-Bro Léon,[50] La Flèche Wallonne,[51] Liège–Bastogne–Liège,[52] the Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop,[53] Halle–Ingooigem,[54] and the Internationale Wielertrofee Jong Maar Moedig,[55] but placed outside of the top 10 in all of these races.
It began with a victory, with Habeaux taking his first professional win in Dwars door het Hageland, held in Aarschot, Belgium.
The run began towards the end of August with a tenth-place finish in the Schaal Sels-Merksem event,[63] which was followed by a trio of fourth places in early-September at the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens,[64] the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen,[65] and Paris–Brussels,[66] before a third place the day after, in the Grand Prix de Fourmies.
[90] The team also scored 40 points on the 2010–2011 UCI Asia Tour,[91] but this was due to the acquisition of results as Veranda's Willems–Accent did not compete in Asia as a team during the season; David Kemp joined Veranda's Willems–Accent for the 2011 season, having won the Tour of Taihu in October 2010 for Fly V Australia.
The final arrival at the team for 2012 was ex-Team Katusha rider and three-time Belgian national time trial champion Leif Hoste.
