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Tour of Qatar Discussion
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| The Rider |
Posted on 07-06-2015 13:55
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Credits to Roturn for this paragraph:
Tom Boonen won last 2 editions but has stepped down to the PCT and won`t be able to defend his title. So it might be his long time challenger Sam Bewley to win the race in 2015. The Kiwi was on the podium in the past 3 editions. Similar situation for Ben Swift. Winner of 2012 and podium in 2013. But also Lo Cicero showed some solid racing here with two top 10`s in past 3 years. His advantage might be the better prologue skills, which might also help Guarnieri. But as we talk about a sprint race, the Pokerstars sprint train can`t be far away. With their power, they should be able to get lots of bonus seconds. But with two very similar strong sprinters, who is going to be their main sprinter? Surely a gamble here. And then we mustn`t forget the prologue specialists as the final stage is on a 3,5km course against the clock. Coppel, Ford, Cancellara, Durbridge, Kittel or Keizer all hope for a nice spread of bonus seconds. Then those might be in for a high GC or even the win.
Top Sprinters:
These are the riders who will have their eyes on the overall and some stage wins.  Pokerstars will look to set the benchmark as the team with the top lead-out but how will they fare against a star-studded array of fast men?
There are many questions, such as:
- How well will the world champ,  Goss, go?
- Will  Georgos Tzortzakis step up to be feared with in the sprints?
- Will  Alexander Kristoff justify all of the talk about him in the off-season?
- Will  Sam Bewley take the title and justify his place as the race favourite?
| Flat | Sprint | Acceleration | Prologue |  Theo Bos | 55 | 85 | 85 | 65 |  Ivano Lo Cicero | 72 | 84 | 78 | 75 |  Ben Swift | 74 | 84 | 82 | 70 | | Sam Bewley | 78 | 83 | 83 | 71 | | John Degenkolb | 76 | 83 | 81 | 67 | | Erik Mohs | 75 | 83 | 82 | 66 |  Michael Van Stayen | 76 | 83 | 77 | 60 |  Romain Vanderbiest | 74 | 82 | 77 | 74 | | Leigh Howard | 76 | 82 | 79 | 68 | | Georgos Tzortzakis | 74 | 82 | 79 | 59 |  Jacopo Guarnieri | 76 | 82 | 81 | 75 | | Matthew Goss | 74 | 82 | 78 | 64 | | Alexander Kristoff | 75 | 81 | 79 | 73 |  Danilo Napolitano | 72 | 81 | 80 | 64 |  Roman Maksimov | 72 | 81 | 84 | 69 |  Peter Kennaugh | 77 | 81 | 81 | 63 |
Prologue Specialists:
Some might have hopes of a prologue specialist winning the final stage and taking the GC. Well they will probably have to go round the 3.5 km stage at 80 m/ph to take the GC from the sprinters as there are bonus seconds down to 10th place at the finish on stages 1-5, including 25 seconds of bonuses for the stage winner.
| Flat | Sprint | Acceleration | Prologue | | Jerome Coppel | 77 | 65 | 74 | 83 | | Michael Ford | 63 | 73 | 73 | 81 |  Fabian Cancellara | 82 | 70 | 71 | 81 | | Luke Durbridge | 73 | 62 | 64 | 81 | | Marcel Kittel | 75 | 60 | 73 | 81 |  Martijn Keizer | 72 | 57 | 73 | 81 | | Lucas Schädlich | 70 | 70 | 76 | 80 |  Marlen Zmorka | 72 | 62 | 70 | 80 | | Jesse Sergent | 79 | 61 | 51 | 80 |  Kiril Yatsevich | 70 | 60 | 63 | 80 | | Emilien Viennet | 72 | 55 | 64 | 80 | | Elia Viviani | 78 | 71 | 70 | 79 |
Of course, all of the PT teams are present and we have two wildcards. Aegon will want to show they have plenty to offer after being relegated last season and  Swedbank will, no doubt, enjoy the temperatures and racing against the tops.
Ayubowan bring Vanderbiest to the start, not a name which many will think can challenge for wins here, though this team won't get many chances of having a top 10 favourite this season so he might need to deliver. However, of the newly promoted teams if looks like Quickstep are the best placed to score some points, but how well will the likes of Metinvest & Movistar - US Postal run? They will need to score some points, here and there, in races like these if they want to avoid the drop. The same goes for Napolitano's team, will the Italian get up there in the sprints? Well, hot on the heels of the Down Under Classic, you can't rule anything out in the MG!
Startlist:
Edited by The Rider on 07-06-2015 15:42
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| CountArach |
Posted on 07-06-2015 14:06
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8290
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Bewley will take this if the flat stat truly means anything.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 03:34
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 07-06-2015 14:07
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World Champion
Posts: 13915
Joined: 05-08-2008
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Some breakaway wins would be nice.
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 07-06-2015 14:08
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World Champion
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Theo Bos, Allezz!
Well hopefully we shield Cicero well through five stages if he can conserve his energy well I am hopeful this race should go well, and his prologue hopefully helps him as well.
Not really sure what to expect, field packed as expected, as long as we form a leadout at least it will be in our hands to deliver results and not on luck.
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| SotD |
Posted on 07-06-2015 14:21
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World Champion
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alexkr00 wrote:
Some breakaway wins would be nice.
No no, we dont want that. We want a boring race with the worst possible sprinters winning a stage each to make the TT'ers win the race 
I hope that Coppel can stay with the pack every day and get inside the top 10 in the end. Don't know what to expect from Tzortzakis though, but I hope he can be around 5th from time to time.
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| Selwink |
Posted on 07-06-2015 14:25
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Grand Tour Champion
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Bos will win.
Hopefully we'll get to see some echelons, to prevent this from being the most boring race on the calendar.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 07-06-2015 14:37
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
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That paragraph was from roturn 
Hope for a better Swift effort than last year, with Kittel as back up if it all goes pair-shaped - though there are much more sprinter time bonus opportunities this year at the finish.
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| ember |
Posted on 07-06-2015 14:37
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Hoping Kristoff can sneak into the top 10 on a couple of stages.
Howard as leadout for Bewley is amazing, and makes him the obvious favourite, as I think only Pokerstars can challenge that leadout, but not even sure they will be allowed to form a leadout!
For the GC, I must hope we're participating in a couple of the breakaways, claim some bonifications from there and hang on to the peloton afterwards, that might lead to a lucky top 10.
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| Crommy |
Posted on 07-06-2015 14:42
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World Champion
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This is the first of two races that Theo is scheduled to do this season.
He might not even come last here.
ALLEZ THEO!!!
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| CountArach |
Posted on 07-06-2015 14:48
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8290
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Crommy wrote:
This is the first of two races that Theo is scheduled to do this season.
He might not even come last here.
ALLEZ THEO!!!
I assume he is also racing the TDF.
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 07-06-2015 15:06
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 29989
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Some points here from Kennaugh, some points there from Viennet = success.
Also, gotta get used to the new jerseys. I was like: Has all the other sprinters got so much training that Kennaugh isn't even on the list? Until I realized I was looking for the wrong mini jersey |
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| viking90 |
Posted on 07-06-2015 15:31
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Time for Ahlstrand to watch and learn from the top sprinters
Would be nice if he managed to sneak in to top 10 in one stage but I doubt it. |
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| Roman |
Posted on 07-06-2015 15:38
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I really hope my team will be able to kick start the season with a really dominating first stage race. Bewley should obviously be a big favourite for the overall win and I have a really big hopes for improved Howard as the last lead-out man, so hopefully at least a couple of stage wins and another overall podium are the minimal goals here for us.
Vesely and Boivin should hopefully be good lead-out riders as well, I definetely have on paper one of the best lead-outs in PT. In addition to that, I really hope for a lot of windy stages, riders like Sergent, Ghyselinck, Danacik or Gough should hopefully help quite a lot to destroy the peloton, and hopefully should have a decent chance to get a decent GC position in the final TT. Hopefully this is going to be a good race for Becherovka boys. 
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| Smowz |
Posted on 07-06-2015 15:38
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Going to be a very tight race this hopefully. Bewley dominating is the big danger for everyone.
Holloway gets a bit of a test here to see if he can sneak a high place - the sprint quality is right up there, one of the best I feel ever seen in MG.
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| beagle |
Posted on 07-06-2015 15:55
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Posts: 4200
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ember wrote:
Hoping Kristoff can sneak into the top 10 on a couple of stages.
Howard as leadout for Bewley is amazing, and makes him the obvious favourite, as I think only Pokerstars can challenge that leadout, but not even sure they will be allowed to form a leadout!
For the GC, I must hope we're participating in a couple of the breakaways, claim some bonifications from there and hang on to the peloton afterwards, that might lead to a lucky top 10.
Considering to standard race condition in Qatar and FL stat of all of my boys, it would be really really disappointing not to see green sprint train here. But it´s PCM, where anything can happen...
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| roturn |
Posted on 07-06-2015 16:16
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Steal.
So Groenewegen top30 sprinter. After his Down Under performance I don't expect anything.
Keizer to top 10 in GC would be cool. And couple of breaks. Back on PT level.
Winner Bewley for sure. |
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 07-06-2015 17:27
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Grand Tour Champion
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Team talk: Maksimov... It's not that hard. No hills, so don't do anything stupid.
Ok now with that out of the way. We will take any points we can get outta here.
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| Kami |
Posted on 07-06-2015 17:30
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Classics Specialist
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I'm not expecting anything special from this race. Hopefully Yatsevich and Viviani can keep up and get a good placing in the final timetrial.
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 07-06-2015 17:43
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Hopefully Guarnieri does better here than last season, but I'm pretty happy with the squad I've managed to get into the race. No real weak links anywhere any more. Only time will tell how I fare against the increased depth of sprint quality in this years PT.
[url=cleavercycling.co.uk]  [/url] |
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 07-06-2015 17:53
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Classics Specialist
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Allez Bos
Many riders with a chance to win this race. |
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