Suffering Australian ends season now
Graeme Brown will not race in today’s Paris-Brussels, having fallen sick a day after the Memorial Van Steenbergen. Rabobank has good news, though, as Bauke Mollema will return to racing between the two capitals. Mollema finished third in the Tour of Poland, but broke his collarbone in the final stage.
Sprinter Brown was hoping to deliver one more result for the team in 2010, but the sick rider was scratched from the start list. In accordance with the Rabobank staff, Brown decided to end his season. “Graeme is just empty,” sports director Nico Verhoeven said on the team’s website. “Thursday he also developed gastrointestinal problems. That precisely fits the picture of a rider who is at his wit’s end.”
The team will start with seven instead of eight riders. One of the seven is Bauke Mollema, who had a great Tour of Poland, until he crashed in the wet last stage. He finished so he could preserve his third place overall, but then had to sit out with a broken collarbone.
The Rabobank team is completed by stagiaire Jetse Bol, who had a promising start to his pro career on Wednesday, when he rode the Memorial Van Steenbergen. Bol was part of the Rabobank Continental team so far. He won the Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux earlier this year.
The Rabobank team for Paris-Brussel consists of Lars Boom, Jos van Emden, Rick Flens, Koos Moerenhout, Paul Martens, Bauke Mollema and Jetse Bol.