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Tour of Qatar Discussion
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 25-07-2016 17:19
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 Tour of Qatar
Welcome to the desert! We're back at our annual race here in the small peninsula in the Persian Gulf that is Qatar. The country is only the 164th biggest country in the world and resides with 2,5 million inhabitants pushed together on the small peninsula. We go into the 9th edition of the race in MG terms and is the place for sprinters wanting to win a GC
The reigning champion  Ben Swift is back to reclaim his victory from last year and he meets tough opposition this year again! He has won this race 2 times before and hopes to take his 3rd win here.
Looking at the route it seems the bonifications on each sprinting stage will mean that the GC will be battled out between the Sprinters, but the strong Prologue riders will get a chance of winning a stage on the final day.
| Rider | SPR | ACC | PRL | Rider | SPR | ACC | PRL | | Swift | 84 | 82 | 70 |  Vantomme | 82 | 78 | 64 |  Degenkolb | 84 | 81 | 67 |  Kennaugh | 82 | 81 | 63 |  Bewley | 83 | 83 | 71 |  Tzortzakis | 82 | 79 | 59 |  Kristoff | 83 | 79 | 73 |  Guarnieri | 82 | 81 | 75 | | Mohs | 83 | 82 | 66 | Enger | 81 | 78 | 77 |  Cavendish | 83 | 81 | 76 |  Maksimov | 81 | 84 | 69 |  Ciolek | 83 | 79 | 61 |  Roelandts | 81 | 80 | 68 |  Van Stayen | 83 | 77 | 60 | Coquard | 81 | 83 | 79 | | Howard | 82 | 79 | 68 |  Grosu | 81 | 80 | 70 |  Goss | 82 | 78 | 65 |  Boeckmans | 81 | 83 | 60 |
First if we see the favorites of winning the overall we firstly have to touch the riders that can ride a good Prologue. Bryan Coquard with 79 Prologue is the biggest favorite in those terms, as if he can manage to not lose too much time in the sprints, he can take the GC on the final day. Other big names in these terms are Mark Cavendish and Sondre Holst Enger
If we look at the best bets for the overall win and the biggest competitors for each stage then Swift will have to look out for Pokerstars duo Degenkolb and Mohs firstly, as their cooperation can be fatal for the overall outcome.
Sam Bewley must never be forgotten and being one of the best overall riders in the MG, he will always be the Top favorite, even though he has never won this race. He has a team around him, that usually manage to create solid leadout trains too. Michael Van Stayen and Jacopo Guarnieri must gauge the fact this is their first race in new teams and will hope to impress their managers. Lastly Alexander Kristoff and Gerald Ciolek must not be forgotten either!
| Rider | SPR | RES | PRL | Rider | SPR | RES | PRL |  Fiedler | 66 | 76 | 82 | Dempster | 71 | 74 | 79 | | Vlatos | 67 | 71 | 81 | Olman | 69 | 68 | 79 | | Durbridge | 62 | 74 | 81 |  Gretsch | 69 | 72 | 79 |  Kittel | 60 | 70 | 81 | Dennis | 65 | 74 | 79 | | Chavanne | 74 | 74 | 80 |  Malori | 63 | 73 | 79 | | Howson | 64 | 74 | 80 | Bookwalter | 62 | 72 | 79 |  Sergent | 61 | 74 | 80 | Mottin | 51 | 74 | 79 | | Sütterlin | 59 | 77 | 80 | Meyer | 80 | 65 | 78 | | Viennet | 55 | 75 | 80 | Li | 75 | 68 | 78 | | Hansen | 73 | 73 | 79 | Bernaudeau | 73 | 71 | 78 |
The PT has a visit from the PCT from Jacob Fiedler and is here to take the final stage ahead of all the other PT teams or will he? The opposition to him is still very strong with riders like Panagiotis Vlatos and Marcel Kittel to compete for the win on the last day
Surely we must never forget names like Durbridge, Chavanne and Sütterlin to compete for the win here too, so there are a lot of potential winners here. Most interesting is that Cameron Meyer is also here with his 78 Prologue and 80 SPR, so if he doesn't lose too much time, he can actually go for the race win!
The stage is set for a competitive race here in the desert and will give the PT teams a good idea of where their sprinters can perform compared to others and also we will have our first GC winner in a Stage Race here too! First Report will be out Wednesday Morning!
Edited by sgdanny on 25-07-2016 17:24
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 25-07-2016 17:25
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I've got Vantomme here to hopefully make use of our wildcard but really don't expect much from him. Picking Bewley to win this year,
Thanks for the preview sgdanny! 
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 25-07-2016 17:29
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Tour de France Champion
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Considering I expect very little of Ranneries on the CT circuit I can't say I expect anything from him here, but happy to see him racing at least. Hope he can do something domestique related. Everyone needs water regardless of skill after all. Go Vesuvio!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| roturn |
Posted on 25-07-2016 17:33
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Swift hopefully repeats his podium here in best case with the GC win of course. Though podium is the minimum for him. Would be disappointed to reach less.
Also stage win is asked here with 5 flat stages. Should be some nice finishes with most of the very best around.
My team should be quite strong as well with riders such as Boom or Nooytens to chase or time trialists like Frison or Hamza.
Then Van der Sanden, Berger, Sbaragli sprint train.
Looking forward to your reports, sgdanny. |
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 25-07-2016 17:34
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Classics Specialist
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Gonna be interesting, which PT team has the best train The bonus seconds from previous stages should be enough to make sure the Epilogue TT isnt gonna matter that much.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 25-07-2016 17:34
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Team Leader
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Sprinters championship here
Not mentioned in preview but assuming we are going formula one for time bonifications? This seems to be the reason fro attracting the best sprinters to fight it out.
Funniliy I did not realise Cav had such a high PRL, now makes me more eager to see him in action.
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 25-07-2016 17:47
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Going to need some serious luck here to have anything competitive I guess if there's one windy stage Houle did well enough in the Intercontinental championships that's really our only hope |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 25-07-2016 17:47
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Didn't do too well here last season. Just hoping for Goss to at least compete in the sprints and one or two TT guys having a go at the Top-15 GC.
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| matt17br |
Posted on 25-07-2016 17:54
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So many awesome sprinters in here makes it always a fantastic race to follow to also predict how the rest of the season will turn out to look like sprinting wise.
Coquard is my hipster pick for this as I not only expect him to have some great trains and over perform throughout the season but also be among the best in the prologue. Prologue in the last stage however means that whoever holds the leader jersey until that day will get some sort of boost in his prologue stat anyway, so it will prolly come down to usual Bewley vs Swift battle. Looking forward to this either way, thanks for the insightful preview Danny!
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| ember |
Posted on 25-07-2016 18:03
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On paper, Kristoff should have a fair shot at getting a train. He should also be strong enough to be up there if there's a lot of crosswinds. Fingers crossed, but I kind of fear he'll be similar to last season without the training due to all the other great sprinters, going with no train, and struggling for positions and fighting it out for top 10 placings, but we shall see.
I assume Degenkolb and Swift will get a train every stage due to their 84 sp, and then Bewley must be the favourite of the 83 guys considering the third train. Anyway, the battles between the trains should be great to follow.
Nice preview, sgdanny! |
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 25-07-2016 18:56
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Let's see if Maksimov can keep his string of taking part in sprints intact. Very happy with what I saw in the continental championships. Fingers crossed the hills training in the offseason finally got him over the hump - pun intended.
If not, then hopefully Farrar, Silvestre and Bookwalter (and maybe even finally maxed out Verona) can pick up the slack.
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| beagle |
Posted on 25-07-2016 19:10
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I remember setting another leader in startlist then expected didn´t matter in previous versions, but I´m still afraid what will happen. I better hope for echelons then, it could be very helpful for my team in normal ocassions.
Hopefully choosing sprinters with their own sprint train won´t be totally random every stage just because such stacked field...
Thanks for fantastic preview sgdanny, can´t wait to Wednesday morning!
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| knockout |
Posted on 25-07-2016 19:44
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Grand Tour Champion
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First race for Van Stayen this season and I'm really curious to see what he can do. Last season he got his own train on a couple of stages which would be awesome but after all those trainings I'm doubting he will be considered strong enough to get one. I really dislike his acceleration and I hope it won't harm him too much throughout the season but at least he got some decent flat stat.
With Chavanne (80) and Stoltz (78) I have two options for the epilogue who can surprise.
And i hope that my team will work at the front. Giving the tendency of echelons I have sent a team consisting of flat beasts who can really harm other team if they put the hammer on the road and go all in at some point. 78-78-76-76-75-75-75-73 are the flat stats of my riders here which hopefully helps me to get some nice action / results
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 25-07-2016 19:55
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Sprinter
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Always a fun race. I'm most excited to see Chavanne in the epilogue, it will be interesting to see if a unique rider like him will be able to score points in the PT.
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| beagle |
Posted on 25-07-2016 19:57
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knockout wrote:
And i hope that my team will work at the front. Giving the tendency of echelons I have sent a team consisting of flat beasts who can really harm other team if they put the hammer on the road and go all in at some point. 78-78-76-76-75-75-75-73 are the flat stats of my riders here which hopefully helps me to get some nice action / results
Mine are sightly better: 78-77-77-76-76-76-75-74. Let´s cooperate and destroy peleton to pieces in that desert wind 
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 25-07-2016 20:09
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Small Tour Specialist
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I expect Swift to win here.
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| knockout |
Posted on 25-07-2016 20:13
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Grand Tour Champion
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beagle wrote:
knockout wrote:
And i hope that my team will work at the front. Giving the tendency of echelons I have sent a team consisting of flat beasts who can really harm other team if they put the hammer on the road and go all in at some point. 78-78-76-76-75-75-75-73 are the flat stats of my riders here which hopefully helps me to get some nice action / results
Mine are sightly better: 78-77-77-76-76-76-75-74. Let´s cooperate and destroy peleton to pieces in that desert wind
Only better because Chavanne destroys it with his 73 FL but I could not leave him home with his 80 PRL
Even considered sending 78 FL 78 SP 78 ACC GVA here as well but he would not be too much of an upgrade (especially as I don't see us getting trains) but would be missed at other spots 
I like the idea of cooperating a lot! Let's go one step further and cooperate in the leadout train as well. Dzamastagic + Mohs as leadouts and then Degenstache and VS to battle it out on the line.
Dzamastagic can surely communicate with his old team mates to make it work
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| Roman |
Posted on 25-07-2016 20:14
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Well... hopefully this year Howard is actually able to help Bewley to achieve something, preferably in a sprint train, however Conti-Champs experience tells me I should prepare for a disappointment. Degenkolb to win.
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 25-07-2016 20:42
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Small Tour Specialist
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Degenstache to be the most consistent sprinter and win thanks to his superior leadout-train.
Should provide some great racing as usual, definetely one of the most interesting races of the calender!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 25-07-2016 20:51
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As SotD mentioned earlier, Guarnieri to 83 could have made him one of the favourites, but certainly amongst the top here.
Interesting to ser wich of the sprinters that will get a train here. The racing in Australia gives me a slight hope that Guarnieri could get a train, considering I sent a relatively strong squad around him.
And about that echelon co-operation, I'm joining in with 78-78-78-76-75-74-74-71
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