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Tour of Britain Discussion Thread
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| kumazan |
Posted on 25-07-2012 09:43
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Team Leader
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Welcome to Britain for what's the penultimate HC stage race of the season, the Tour of Britain. Once a Pro Tour race, now it's one of the final races which decide the CT rankings, and many teams will be already doing their maths to know what they need to get here to stay on track for their goals. The race is clearly divided in three blocks:
First, we have the first two stages, both flat with some bumps here and there, but which shouldn't be enough to disturb the sprinters, so expect the fastest men to shine there.
Then, stages 3,4 & 5 should prove more challenging, and this is where most of the GC fight should happen, although none of the three stages is really selective, meaning time bonuses might end up being decisive.
Finally, the last three stages are as flat as it gets, so it should be a sprinters party again. The race will end in London, as it usually does, this time with a flat criterium stage, which should be a victory parade unless the GC is close enough for the bonuses to be important.
As for the contenders, four names stand out:
 Jonathan Bellis won the race the last season, meaning he's automatically a top favourite. Great in the hills, he's also quite fast, which could prove useful in case time bonuses decide the race, plus he's British, meaning he'll have all the motivation to perform here. With Dowsett and Appleby, he is sure to have good support.
Rund um Frankfurt winner  Fabian Wegmann is pretty much as good of a climber as Bellis, and faster in the sprint. The German will surely be tough to beat, and will rely on Sumukulis and Rast to support him on the lumpy stuff.
 Cesare Di Maggio has been consistently strong in the hills during the season, and he's already won in Britain this season, when he won the GP of Wales beating… Jonathan Bellis. His downfall might be his lack of speed, but whenever the race hits the steep gradients, look for Cesare to start the fireworks.
Finally  Samuel Sánchez hasn't had his brightest season, but he still managed to get California Giant's first victory of the season in Mallorca, and, although the lack of speed might be his main handicap, just like Di Maggio's, his rivals shouldn't underestimate the Spanish veteran.
A step behind them, another group of contenders emerges with
 Sylvain Calzati
 Ben Hermans
 Giovanni Visconti
 Jérémy Roy
 Matthew Lloyd
 Aleksandar Flügel
Any of them strong enough to cause havoc in the hills, but possibly lacking something to be top favourites with the 4 aforementioned.
This race isn't only about the GC though, with up to 5 flat stages likely to end in a sprint, we have some of the Continental Tour's top sprinters here, so look for
 Erik Mohs
Danilo Napolitano
Peter Kennaugh
 Mark Cavendish
Maxime Vantomme
Claudio Corioni
to dominate the flat stages. Most of them will share team with a GC contender, but Mohs and Cavendish will have their teams focused on them, something which could give both an edge over the rest.
As for the rest of the teams,  Koppert brings what's pretty much an 8 men sprint train for Hans Dekkers, who is fast enough to be a threat with such support.  Cyclevox will rely on Tomas Vaitkus for the sprints, and the Lithuanian will have a similarly strong support.  Team WWE brings the young Michael Vingerling for the sprints, and Bauke Mollema for the hills.  Puma has a young team led by Belgian sprinter Lars Croket, and it'll be interesting to see how the team's future stars fare in Britain.
Norwegian veteran  Thor Hushovd is the man Saab – Scania brings for the sprints, which looks like their main goal judging by their lineup, while both  Crescenzo D'Amore and Tiziano Dall'Antonia shouldn't be overlooked, specially the latter, who can get quite decently over the hills. Finally  Oz Cycling and  Team Bpost rely on two fast sprinters like Ahmad Haidar Anuawar and Jurgen Van Loocke, but it remains to be seen if they are strong enough to get a stage win.
Startlist
Note: The idea is to start the reports once ANF has finished the Deutschland Tour. He's having some problems though, so if it takes too long for him to solve them I'll start reporting so we don't slow down the game much.
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| beagle |
Posted on 25-07-2012 09:56
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Small Tour Specialist
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Location: Czech Republic
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quite huge startlist 
Manager of Pokerstars.com in Man-Game |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 25-07-2012 10:03
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4581
Joined: 14.07.08
Location: Sydney, Australia
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 Poulhiès as my team leader. Yeah this was one of those races my team just isn't suited to. Breaks are the name of the game. A sprinter will win this though.
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| roturn |
Posted on 25-07-2012 10:23
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Directeur Sportif
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Can live with Hermans as 41. 
Had hoped for a weaker sprinter field but with 5 flat stages...Vantomme needs to perform. The two British might have an advantage and Mohs always was strong. Still a win is a must.
And top10 is wanted.
Only negative is that except for Hermans, Vantomme and Velits I only have talents here, so not much help expected.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 25-07-2012 10:27
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Classics Specialist
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All for Croket here plus some occasional break presence, I guess.
But with that many sprinters, neither a good result for Croket nor successful breaks are very likely.
 17-03-2013
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-05-2013 07:16
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| Smowz |
Posted on 25-07-2012 11:39
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It's going to come down to who can get that gap, a lucky break here or repeated not quite selective enough is what JRB are playing for.
Guys like Mori, Calzati, Moinard and Impey could all take race leadership at a pinch.
No Bennati, the responsibility turns to Unicredit and Pokerstars who are pretty good at chasing I reckon so it will be tough to make that selection.
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 25-07-2012 14:29
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Location: USA, Michigan
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Glad I didn't send a team here, Good Luck to Everybody
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| Levi4life |
Posted on 25-07-2012 18:48
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No sprinters for my team. Hopefully this means we go balls out for the breakaway each day. I can't see Sanchez doing well here, it's simply not hard enough. In the past though, this race has been a clusterfuck in the past, so maybe we get lucky with a winning break.
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| ember |
Posted on 25-07-2012 19:29
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This looks like a very interesting race, due to the competitive start list for a hilly race, eventhough the hilly stages don't look selective at all. Should be some great fights between breakaways and the chasing peloton. |
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| viking90 |
Posted on 27-07-2012 09:55
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Sprinter
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Hope that Hushovd managed to get something out of this race!
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| kumazan |
Posted on 08-08-2012 12:44
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Team Leader
Posts: 6124
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Location: Rzeszów, Poland
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Okay, it's been almost three weeks since ANF's last report, so I'll start reporting. Expect the first one in a few minutes. 
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| roturn |
Posted on 08-08-2012 13:46
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 9626
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Location: Germany
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Have seen far worse sprints by Vantomme.
So this is good. Still just a 3rd and no win for him so far this season.
He has to try another time.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 08-08-2012 13:52
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Very nice report.
Good sprint from Napolitano. I like what Stallaert was doing there - already scraping for the points with the minor placings in categories. With this line-up I have very little hope of anything good happening.
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| beagle |
Posted on 08-08-2012 14:06
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Small Tour Specialist
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why the hell my team even didn´t try to sprint??!!!
Manager of Pokerstars.com in Man-Game |
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| beagle |
Posted on 09-08-2012 13:25
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2602
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why the hell my team even didn´t try to sprint??!!!
again? why???
Manager of Pokerstars.com in Man-Game |
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| kumazan |
Posted on 09-08-2012 13:42
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Team Leader
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Yeah, it's strange. It's been a while since I did the races, but iirc, in the first stage Mohs lost the wheel he was following and was unable to keep up afterwards. In the second it was purely bad positioning. Both him and Dekkers were ridiculously far back when the peloton approached the last kms, and it was impossible to gain enough positions to contend the sprint.
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 09-08-2012 14:00
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Grand Tour Champion
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Stupid flat stages....
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| Heine |
Posted on 09-08-2012 21:06
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Sprinter
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Zabel  His father should be proud!
Volkswagen-Mapei |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 09-08-2012 21:11
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Classics Specialist
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Meh. If anyone wants Croket next season (which I doubt), he'll be a free agent most probably.
I guess it's his weak ACC which prevents him from using his above-average positioning to achieve some kind of result.
Especially when I have to get some climbers/puncheurs to be far more competitive next season, he's just too expensive for no use.
Also foreseeable that the first BOTD without a Puma guy makes it, seems like we won't make any significant points this race.
Edited by cio93 on 09-08-2012 21:44
17-03-2013
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| viking90 |
Posted on 09-08-2012 21:27
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Sprinter
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Great Lavery! Nice to see good results by him so early in the career
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