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Tour of Beijing Discussion
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 18-02-2018 11:04
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 [HC] Tour of Beijing
Profiles:
The Venue
Welcome to the 5th edition of Tour of Beijing raced continually in the MG calendar since 2013 where it was won by Fabian Wegmann from Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team, at the time 33 years old, today no longer active.
The race will mainly take place in and around Beijing, but also other Chinese city’s will be visited.
There is no time trail and no high mountains so this will be decided amongst the punchers. Due to the long 3rd stage Stamina will be a factor. Sometimes sprint is important in hilly races, but I don't think it will matter that much in this one, the climbs are too hard.
Out of the 5 stages two will be sprinter friendly, so not that much for the best PTC sprinters in this one.
Previous Winners
Last year’s winner Tomohiro Kinoshita from Meiji - JR East, will be here attempting to win again, to be the first to win the race twice.
2015 winner Jonathan Bellis (FCB - Polska) is now with PT team Ayubowan! Not participation.
2014 winner Carlos Betancourt (FCB - Polska), now riding for Minions will be participation also attempting to be the first to win the race twice.
Other riders who previously had success in the race and will be racing in this edition is last years 3rd Aleksandar Flügel from Kraftwerk Man Machine, 2015 U25 winner Michał Kwiatkowski from Netia–Vónin, 2014 stage winner Diego Ulissi from Generali – EDF, and 2013 stage winner Chris Froome from Fablok - Bank BGZ
Favorites
It is not easy to pick out the outright favorite in this race, I will say its split between 2013 stage winner  Froome with the better hill climb and last year’s winner  Kinoshita with superior acceleration, stamina and resistance.
Right beneath the two,  Di Maggio  Flügel,  Anuar Aziz and  Ulissi all seems to be very strong for this profile, but all with different weaknesses to place then in this 2nd group, that said we can expect any of them to win, if everything does not work out as Froome and Kinoshita hopes it will.
The third group of riders to be mentioned, I would not expect to win a race with this hard competition, but they should be fighting for top 5-10 on every hilly stage and in cycling it is not over till the fat lady sings so anything is possible.  Betancourt  Vogt  Kwiatkowski  Waeytens  Reichenbach  Levarlet Barrio  Caruso
The only CT team to participate is World Cycling Centre, and just beneath the 3rd group mentioned above they got  Boily, unlikely to take part in the podium competition, but he can surprise and might end up in top 10 if he has a perfect race.
Complete list of GC riders:
| . | Hi | Ac | St | Rs | Rc | . | Hi | Ac | St | Rs | Rc | | Froome | 82 | 75 | 77 | 73 | 72 | Serry | 78 | 69 | 71 | 70 | 69 | | Di Maggio | 82 | 75 | 73 | 68 | 65 | Mehr-Wenige | 78 | 67 | 74 | 69 | 73 | | Kinoshita | 81 | 77 | 80 | 77 | 73 | Zingle | 77 | 76 | 74 | 69 | 70 | | Flügel | 81 | 74 | 79 | 67 | 69 | Sanchez Gil | 77 | 72 | 75 | 75 | 75 | | Anuar Aziz | 81 | 71 | 78 | 73 | 71 |  Teklit | 77 | 70 | 75 | 72 | 70 | | Ulissi | 80 | 75 | 83 | 71 | 72 | Le Gac | 77 | 69 | 73 | 74 | 71 | | Betancourt | 80 | 74 | 72 | 71 | 64 | Hategeka | 77 | 66 | 74 | 69 | 68 | | Vogt | 80 | 63 | 78 | 71 | 65 | Venter | 77 | 66 | 72 | 74 | 71 | | Kwiatkowski | 79 | 75 | 74 | 76 | 75 | McEvoy | 76 | 79 | 75 | 70 | 71 | | Waeytens | 79 | 73 | 72 | 70 | 68 | Lavery | 76 | 77 | 75 | 71 | 68 | | Reichenbach | 79 | 69 | 76 | 69 | 73 | Selander | 76 | 76 | 74 | 71 | 70 | | Levarlet | 79 | 68 | 70 | 72 | 73 | Rovny | 76 | 73 | 75 | 73 | 72 | | Barrio | 79 | 67 | 69 | 63 | 65 |  Lane | 76 | 73 | 70 | 68 | 72 | | Caruso | 78 | 77 | 76 | 71 | 65 | Khederi | 76 | 73 | 68 | 67 | 71 | | Boily | 78 | 74 | 72 | 72 | 69 | Tanovitchii | 76 | 71 | 75 | 72 | 71 |
Compared to the fact that only 2 of 5 stages will provide any opportunity’s for the sprinters and that the points jersey may well go to a GC rider, we have quite a strong sprinter group fighting for the flat stages, with Van Heerden clearly as the fastest finisher, but with much better acceleration we have Kupfernagel, Moser, Drapac and Lavoine just behind him, as very serious possibility to steal a stage.
The Sprint
Behind those good sprinters there are more, Reinhardt, Lay, Scully, Hayakawa, Peeters all strong sprinter looking for the perfect stage. There are more but can’t mention everyone.
The points Jersey will probably go to a puncher, but of course the sprinters hope to win two stages and just maybe get it, with a bit of luck.
List of Sprinters:
| Rider | Sp | Ac | Rs | Rc | Rider | Sp | Ac | Rs | Rc | | Van Heerden | 82 | 73 | 67 | 78 | Santos | 79 | 75 | 68 | 74 | | Kupfernagel | 80 | 80 | 66 | 78 | Colbrelli | 79 | 75 | 72 | 76 | | Moser | 80 | 79 | 69 | 76 | Aregger | 78 | 77 | 71 | 77 | | Drapac | 80 | 79 | 65 | 76 | Tewelde | 78 | 77 | 72 | 77 | | Lavoine | 80 | 78 | 64 | 77 | King | 78 | 73 | 71 | 79 | | Reinhardt | 79 | 84 | 66 | 78 | Kreder | 77 | 78 | 71 | 77 | | Lay | 79 | 81 | 66 | 77 | Planckaert | 77 | 77 | 72 | 70 | | Scully | 79 | 80 | 70 | 78 | Cohen | 77 | 76 | 69 | 77 | | Hayakawa | 79 | 79 | 68 | 76 | Ayoune | 77 | 75 | 66 | 74 | | Peeters | 79 | 77 | 68 | 75 | Yamamoto | 76 | 76 | 67 | 76 |
The Young Rider Competition
In the youth competition we can expect to see these riders compete for the jersey.
Vogt clearly the favorite.
| Mario Vogt | Berg Cycles | | Olivier Le Gac | Euskaltel | | Stefan Kung | Team UBS | | Nicolae Tanovitchii | Generali - EDF | | Maximillian Schachmann | Berg Cycles | | Gianni Moscon | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | | Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev | Compal-Merida |
Startlist:
Edited by Tamijo on 18-02-2018 11:10
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| Ad Bot |
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 18-02-2018 11:10
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Didnt expect this startlist. The goal is obviously a GC win, which is the only way we can stay in contention for promotion imo. Hopefully no crashes will happen to either favorites, so we can get a great race
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 18-02-2018 11:25
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hmm, I'd like to have expectations here but not sure if I can, especially with us being way down the startlist, in theory though there could be some Mo influence despite being presumably heavily biased towards hills and it's probably the weakest hills starlist we'll see with no EBH or TVG.
Reasonably sure Kinoshia will win and it'd be good after him being quite anonymous this year, though I'd also like Roche to go for it for our Polish buddies and of course I'll still dream of a certain Pole winning it. 
Top notch preview Tamijo, really great, thank you!
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 18-02-2018 11:53
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Time for Waeytens to start scoring. If he fails, I could at least hope Peeters finaly wins a stage for us.
Great preview!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 18-02-2018 12:19
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A good top-5 GC is important and very probable here. Hopefully Moser can pickup a stage too.
Thanks for the preview!
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 18-02-2018 13:00
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no tvg no eddy  Kinoshita will win then ahead of Kwiatek! Rather weak startlist, which is not a good sign for us not present
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 18-02-2018 15:01
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I'm happy TvG and EBG are missing here but it still does look like a tough field. I'm hoping Reichenbach's 73 mountain will give him a little advantage over similar riders so he may get a solid top 10. I was surprised I sent both Reinhardt and Aregger here, but looking at the sprint field I'm glad they are both here, maybe Reinhardt will get a leadout.
Great preview, really looking forward to this one!
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 18-02-2018 16:35
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Didn't pick up this HC band and these profiles don't really suit TVG the best. He does better with flat finishes like S3 than the tough climbs to the top on S1 and S4.
Best of luck everyone. Enjoy this TVG (and EBH) free tour.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 18-02-2018 18:04
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As the profile says, this is for the hill stat, so quite fortunate with the distribution of teams and bands here. Similar races have gone better than expected for Eritel so far, mainly due to Venter finding a way into breakaways, so let's see what the trio can manage this time.
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 18-02-2018 19:49
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Betancourt as former winner, some strong riders missing, and profiles which might be more suitable than the previous. But I'm sure he'll find another way to disappoint me.
Drapac for the flat stage if he survives stage one.
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| tastasol |
Posted on 19-02-2018 14:56
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Good first stage, and Kinoshita back in action. Should be interesting to follow the coming stages. Congrats on the win, valverde!
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 19-02-2018 15:25
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I was hoping for some good news here after the ICL disppointments this weekend, but it seems the results here are equally meh.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 19-02-2018 16:43
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Good stage win for Kinoshita ahead of Ulissi. Always nice to see back up stats being relevant in a 200+km stage.
Also great to see Visconti with a brave ride to lead the KoM classification for at least one day! Certainly no easy day for a breakaway, but he looked good. I miss him when he was still at his best. What a great rider he had been for me in particulary 2014 and 2015 
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 19-02-2018 20:15
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Betancourt with a top ten
But already losing some time 
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 19-02-2018 21:36
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Can't believe my luck, picked this as a top 5 goal and no EBH or TVG makes that far more likely.
Flügel off to a great start with a few seconds in hand over some key rivals, and his lieutenant Mehr-Wenige going well too.
Kinoshita obviously likes this race and looks like the man to beat.
Thanks for the great report Tamijo.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 20-02-2018 08:43
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Certainly a good start to the race for Meiji!
Was good to see Debesay in the Stage 1 break. Not really making the most of the KoM opportunity, but potentially a platform for later. Unfortunately none of my leaders made it into the Top 20 group. Maybe they can now go after the breakaways instead.
And Van Heerden!!!! 2nd place and his best performance of the season. Days like these are why it is worth putting up with the usual frustrations. He kept on Tewelde's wheel perfectly, and a nice competitive sprint from him as a result.
Thanks Tamijo - lots of helpful placement detail for the sprint.
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 20-02-2018 08:49
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This is really bad  Really don't hope he is injured, but that combined with already being far behind...
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 20-02-2018 14:45
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Aw that really sucks - that was the absolute perfect lead out. Got to hand it to Ji though, he singlehandedly opened a gap in the final Kms and tore the group apart before he was cooked, Colbrelli with a great lead out and well all Moser had to do was fall over the line, but couldn't even manage that. Congrats to meiji, a terrific start the the race! They always seem to turn up here.
Thanks for the report!
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 20-02-2018 16:09
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When I die, I want Zico Waeytens to lower me into my grave, so that he can let me down one last time.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| roturn |
Posted on 20-02-2018 17:12
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Ollfardh wrote:
When I die, I want Zico Waeytens to lower me into my grave, so that he can let me down one last time.
Indeed I was searching for him as well...yet another disappointing performance by him. |
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