Bauke Mollema

Bauke Mollema

Mollema at the 2016 Tour of Alberta
Personal information
Full name	Bauke Mollema
Born	(1986-11-26) 26 November 1986 Groningen, Netherlands
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]
Weight	64 kg (141 lb; 10.1 st)[1]
Team information
Current team	Trek Factory Racing
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Amateur team(s)
2007	Rabobank Continental Team
Professional team(s)
2008–2014	Rabobank
2015–	Trek Factory Racing
Major wins
Grand Tours Vuelta a España Points classification (2011) 1 individual stage (2013) Stage races Tour of Alberta (2015) Tour de l'Avenir (2007) One-day races and Classics Clásica de San Sebastián (2016) Japan Cup (2015)
Infobox last updated on 30 July 2016

Bauke Mollema (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbʌukə ˈmɔləmaː] BOW-kə MOL-ə-mah; born 26 November 1986) is a Dutch professional cyclist currently riding for Trek Factory Racing.

Career

Early years

In 2007 Mollema won the prestigious stage race for upcoming talents Tour de l'Avenir and the Circuito Montañés. He joined Rabobank's ProTeam in 2008, signing his first contract as a professional. His first notable result was a 6th position in the final classification of the 2008 Vuelta a Castilla y León. He made his ProTour debut in the 2008 Tour de Romandie, but did not finish the race due to a fall, which resulted in a fractured collarbone. He fully returned in top shape in the 2008 Deutschland Tour, in which he started as Rabobank's team leader, eventually finishing 7th in the GC. After a disappointing spring in 2009, the season was over for Mollema due to Pfeiffer's disease.

2010

Mollema made his Grand Tour debut in the 2010 Giro d'Italia in which he made a good impression but fell short of a top 10 classification and winning the young rider competition, partially due to missing out on a break-away of 50 riders in which a lot of direct opponents gained a 12 minutes lead. Mollema continued to ride strong later in the season with a mountain stage win in the Tour de Pologne and a third place overall after winner Dan Martin and runner-up Grega Bole.

2011

Mollema at the 2011 Liège–Bastogne–Liège

In the spring of 2011 he already showed good form with a ninth place overall in Paris–Nice and tenth overall in the Volta a Catalunya. He eventually did not show his good form in the Ardennes classics and rode disappointing results. The main objective of Mollema's 2011 season was his first ever Tour de France. As preparation for the Tour he rode, together with teammate Steven Kruijswijk, the Tour de Suisse. Both riders performed extremely well in a strong field. This resulted for Kruijswijk in a podium finish but Mollema fell short for the podium due to a flat tyre. Due to illness his General Classification in the Tour de France was not a success. In the last week he stated that he felt better and tried for a break-away. This resulted in a second place in the 17th stage after Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky.

Mollema returned to action in his third Grand Tour, the 2011 Vuelta a España. On the steep uphill finishes in stage 5 and 8 he finished in the top five. He did not lose any crucial time in the first week and was awarded the red leader's jersey after his second place in stage 9. Due to his weaker time trial skills compared to other General Classification contenders such as Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali, he lost the leader's jersey a day after he had won it. Mollema rode well after the time trial and was heading for a podium position, but the Dutchman fell to a fourth place overall due to the performance of Juan José Cobo on the Alto de L'Angliru. Mollema eventually came onto the podium in Madrid as winner of the points classification. It was the first time since 1992 that a Dutchman won a major classification in a Grand Tour, after Eddy Bouwmans won the young rider classification in the Tour de France.

2013

Mollema at the 2013 Tour de France

In 2013, Mollema carried some good form finishing 2nd in the Vuelta a Murcia, 3rd in the Vuelta a Andalucía, and 4th in the Criterium International. In the Tour de Suisse, Mollema won stage 2 marking his first victory in 2013.^[2] After having a strong ride in the mountains, Mollema entered the final time trial in 4th position. He later moved up into 2nd that day.^[3]

Mollema's good form continued at the Tour de France, where he finished fourth on the first mountain stage to Ax 3 Domaines to rise to fourth in the general classification. He finished eighth on the next stage and rose to third overall after Richie Porte lost more than 18 minutes. On stage 13 he rose to second in general classification when Valverde lost almost 10 minutes after suffering a puncture with approximately 80 km left, while also gaining over a minute on Froome's lead. However, he lost time in the last week due to illness and finished 6th in the general classification.

Mollema also rode the 2013 Vuelta a España. He won Stage 17 of the race by attacking from the peleton 500 metres from the line, and holding off the chasing pack led home by Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky).^[4]

2014

Mollema at the 2014 Tour de France

At the 2014 Tour de France, Mollema sat seventh overall heading into the penultimate stage, a 54-kilometer individual time trial. However, riding a new Bianchi for the first time, Mollema could only place 140th position and slipped to tenth overall in the general classification, 21 minutes and 24 seconds behind the winner, Vincenzo Nibali.^[5]

At the end of the season he left Belkin Pro Cycling to join Trek Factory Racing.^[6]

2015

Mollema (right) with Alberta Culture Minister David Eggen following his win of the 2015 Tour of Alberta.

In March 2015, Mollema finished second overall behind Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) at Tirreno–Adriatico.^[7] However, he subsequently suffered a back injury which affected his 2015 Tour de France preparations.^[8] Mollema went on to finish seventh overall in the Tour.

In September 2015, Mollema won the Tour of Alberta stage race in Canada.^[9]

2016

On Stage 12 of the 2016 Tour de France, Mollema bridged across to an attack by race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Richie Porte (BMC) on Mont Ventoux, and was the only GC contender able to do so. However, all 3 riders were involved in a crash with a motorbike after spectators on the road forced the motorbike to stop. Mollema was able to remount his bike and continued riding, while Porte was delayed and passed by the other GC contenders and Froome ditched his bike and continued on foot until receiving a replacement bike from his team car. Mollema finished the stage 1 minute and 40 seconds ahead of Froome, and the initial standings placed Mollema in second overall behind new leader Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange). However, Froome was awarded the same time as Mollema after a jury decision, and retained the yellow jersey.^[10] The revised standings also placed Nairo Quintana ahead of Mollema, who was now fourth overall. Mollema criticised the UCI's handling of the stage afterwards.^[11] On Stage 13, Mollema produced what he described as "the best time trial of my life" to place sixth on the 37.5 km hilly route. He finished 51 seconds down on Froome, but took time out of all the other GC contenders and rose to second overall.^[12]

Career achievements

Major results

Grand Tours overall classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Giro	12	—	—	—	—	—	—
Tour	—	69	WD	6	10	7	11
Vuelta	—	4	28	52	—	—	—

WD = Withdrew; IP = In Progress

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bauke Mollema.

• Bauke Mollema profile at Cycling Archives
• Bauke Mollema profile on procyclingstats