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Tour of America Discussion
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| SotD |
Posted on 27-03-2018 09:15
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Pomoshnikov clearly not a gentleman here, but to his defense the bonus seconds could have landed him 10th with some luck - so I guess that justifies it a bit.
When it ends up giving nothing it looks grim, though! 
Nice to see Barguil winning - I had him as the race favorite, because of his acceleration, but it became very close.
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| jaxika |
Posted on 27-03-2018 09:18
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3148
Joined: 16-07-2008
PCM$: 9200.00
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Wow, what a great stage. Stancu really is in fire. The secon part of the race is a lot better. Thanks for the report  |
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 27-03-2018 09:33
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Team Leader
Posts: 7366
Joined: 11-07-2014
PCM$: 700.00
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How, even? Damn, we better win Japan now. 
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 27-03-2018 12:51
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Sprinter
Posts: 1907
Joined: 07-02-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Congrats Ste on the well deserved win, I believe you had the superior rider and definitely the better team for the race. I'm still very proud of my Schelling for putting up a huge fight and sitting in the lead for so long, he performed well above expectations in the end.
Hopefully the last stage is uneventful for the GC riders! Thank you for the great race roturn, it was fantastic.
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| hillis91 |
Posted on 27-03-2018 13:09
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Team Leader
Posts: 5897
Joined: 30-11-2006
PCM$: 1500.00
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Congrats Ste on the deserved win.
For us this was bitter sweet. We were able to be a part of the racing with Bookwalter and twice with Park. But the fact that the KOM jersey eluded us and a stage win also looks to elude us is rather bad.
The team is still in search for our first win. It's getting hard..
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 27-03-2018 13:29
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16429
Joined: 27-07-2011
PCM$: 10438.70
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Great attack by Barguil to win, but utter trash everywhere else. That was supposed to be the king stage? Barely any gaps at all. We got 30 guys sprinting in together, even when there looks to be gaps. And Garby just rides in to 8th despite clearly having more in the legs.
Time after time we were one of the best in the mountains except when it mattered, and the truckloads of TT kms did us in, even in the few cases when they shouldn't have statistically. Looks like this scheduling risk didn't pay off. What a waste of race days.
In any case, amazing report. Congrats to Ticos.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 27-03-2018 13:50
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8058
Joined: 22-06-2009
PCM$: 650.00
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First off, congrats to Ste and Barguil. It came down to the wire, so that was fun to watch.
Second, I have no idea what my team was doing but it worked out in the end. Fraile calling Warbasse back to the pack probably cost us a stage win, but also helped Fraile salvage a 6th place in GC. I can live with that.
Fingers crossed for no crashes on the parade stage.
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| roturn |
Posted on 27-03-2018 17:37
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Team Manager
Posts: 22246
Joined: 24-11-2007
PCM$: 3900.00
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There you go. The last GT of the year is finished.
Congrats to Ste for that stunning win and to Bushwackers for making it a brilliant duel with lots of points scored surely.
Personally I had a struggle at half time really with those 3 sprinter stages all ending the same way with hard chasing until the 40km mark and then having the break getting their 2nd air and keeping a gap. Always annoying to see. Good that the last stage went different even though the wind played a role then.
What I liked a lot here was the small amount of crashes. No idea why it was different. I guess stage design must play a big role. Warbasse with the puncture being hit hardest almost early on. No other top rider really was unlucky.
That said seeing Berhane that shit sucks just the same as it shouldn`t have happened. |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 27-03-2018 17:49
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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Need PCT rankings now to see how much this has changed the relegation fight. By my rough guessing it could be rather tight...
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 01:02
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Bot Agent
Posts: Countless
Joined: 23.11.09
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 27-03-2018 18:04
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World Champion
Posts: 14563
Joined: 08-08-2011
PCM$: 9100.00
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It looked scary for Tico's at some point, but they don't score too much aside from their well deserved win, I hope. MOL also scoring good but not scary good, so I don't think it was a bad Tour for us. Congrats to all winners!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| Vien |
Posted on 27-03-2018 18:25
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2322
Joined: 16-06-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Well, that's the ToA. We certainly didn't get the sprints I had hoped for, so we're not gonna get a lot of points from this. Our GC and U25 ambitions also died along the road. At least it gave us some learning moments or the transfer season, as just signing a lot of sprinters and hoping one would do well didn't work (who would've thought?)
Thankfully Vuillermoz was the only one to perform and givee us a beautiful KoM jersey. I was scared he'd lose it to Stancu after that solo, but he got us the 40 or so points that we'll desperately need.
Congrats to Ste and the other big point scorers, and thank you so much for taking the burden by reporting this, roturn. |
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| knockout |
Posted on 27-03-2018 18:34
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7735
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 400.00
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Congrats to ste! This is what you get for having the best climber and the best support. It was close in the end but a well deserved victory!
MOL... i have no idea how they do it but they keep having those overperformances wherever they go. S20 is a great example for their season...
I'm curious how that will impact the relegation fight in PCT now. Surely puts in more pressure on Valio and Netia for example.
Thanks for the reports!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 27-03-2018 19:10
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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roturn wrote:
What I liked a lot here was the small amount of crashes. No idea why it was different. I guess stage design must play a big role.
Yeah, I guess those US climbs wiht less hairpins do the trick indeed.
Not too happy with how some stages were played by the AI, but glad to see Ticos' strength paid off. Barguil finallly passed Schelling then, which should be fine for both managers Congrats to all podium finishers! Disappointed by Berhane though. He really should have done more. Nice to see Pozzovivo had some moments and the final GC result ain't too shabby as well.
Granjel took stage-wins, but it's still disappointing that they gave away some chances. It could have been an epic final stage for him, but well, he somehow lost his form here. His inactive manager has to be blamed 
A huge thanks for the reports, roturn. Enjoyable, as always. I think it's a good year for a change of the route though - and as said before - the change will happen in 2018.
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| Ste117 |
Posted on 27-03-2018 19:10
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3684
Joined: 21-02-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Yessss we won a big race and 5th with Chamorro too and team classifications too
Thanks Roturn for the amazing tense reports and effort you put into this and thanks to everyone for making this race very interesting
MG Team manager Team Ticos Air Costa Rica
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| tastasol |
Posted on 27-03-2018 19:11
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2889
Joined: 11-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Exciting race to follow, and a well deserved win for Barguil and Ticos. Congrats Ste!
A brilliant race for a couple of other teams, especially Bushwackers is surely happy, despite losing the race in the final mountain stage. Great performance from Schelling, and together with Amador in Colombia, this should mean that promotion is more or less confirmed.
Very interesting with both MOL and Ticos having a good race here, I guess there's plenty of us waiting to see how that relegation fight looks now!
Been a great race to follow, thanks for the reports, roturn
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 27-03-2018 19:37
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16429
Joined: 27-07-2011
PCM$: 10438.70
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First off, thank you so much to Roturn for the consistent, amazingly detailed reports over the past couple of weeks. As my first GT, your hard work made it an amazing experience to follow. Brilliant job!
Secondly, congratulations to Ste for an amazing performance. This is exactly what your team was made for. So often PCM disregards team strength and leaders just have their way. I'm really glad the AI allowed for the strength of your team and Barguil's ingenuity to secure you an awesome victory.
Now, onto the Carlsberg evaluation...
Bertillson once again with a great sprint, but just not in a good position when he needed to be, and ran out of road. Another stage win would have been amazing, but I'll take second for some points. I just know we could have done more in the sprints, but he's on a 50k contract. Who would I be to criticize a minimum wage guy for this performance?
Overall, I am extremely mixed about this. I don't think I'll really know how to feel about the race until I see the point totals and where it puts us in the relegation fight.
Clearly, we miscalculated our GC possibilities here. I don't know why, but I vastly underestimated the negative effect all those TT km's would have on Garby's chances. Part of that is on me, as he's not a strong TTist to begin with, and there were a lot in the race, but part of it was just getting screwed over by the AI. Getting dropped in the TTT is what lost Garby his top 5, though a below par performance in both the mtn TT and final TT also hurt him tremendously. We could have been in the discussion for a top 4 if he hadn't been dropped in the TTT and had done better than Berhane and Chamorro in the final one, as his stats said he could.
What makes Garby's performance all the more disappointing was that he looked really strong in the mountains most of the time, and actually conquered the hills despite only having 70 in the category. For years I've thought his hills stat would hold him back, but TT seems to be a much bigger deal, even if the competition didn't seem nearly as high going in.
8th place is not what I wanted. it's not what I feel is representative of what I saw in the race most days. But that is the hand we were dealt, and that is why the races are run. 8th in a C1 stage race isn't going to give us any significant points, so it's pretty much an empty effort.
What might have saved us here was our stage placings. We were up there on almost every stage. Krigbaum and Bertilsson with stage wins was an amazing surprise, especially Krigbaum, who is a lvl 1 talent that almost went unsigned last year. Ebsen also put in a tremendous effort on most stages, and just didn't have the skills to pull out a win or the KOM, but the effort gained us a lot of placings. I won't know for sure until I sort the results out for my HQ archive, but between all the breakaway, sprint, and mountain placings on stage throughout the race, it seemed we were top 5 in almost a dozen. That's bound to make up a least a little of the point total.
So overall, ToA didn't work out for us how we wanted, but also gave us some positive surprises along the way. It may send us towards relegation, but I don't regret it, and hopefully we'll be back next year.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 27-03-2018 20:10
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World Champion
Posts: 11392
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1020.00
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Amazing race, thank you roturn for top-notch reporting as ever, consistently great! Barguil, Schelling, Fraile, DE MARCHI, Carlsberg stage results, Ticos in general, Granjel, von Hoff, SCHOMBER AND SCHLECK FINISHING, so many great storylines I haven't even mentioned, what a race  Big result for Ticos and UBS, plus MOL with some luck and good stage results don't look bad there - have no idea what kind of points they got though.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 27-03-2018 20:38
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2889
Joined: 11-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Trust me bbl, you're safe from relegation. Plenty of good results here, even though Garby easily could have been a couple of spots higher up in the GC.
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 27-03-2018 22:03
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2282
Joined: 13-03-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Fun edition this one. Thanks for the great coverage roturn!
Happy to see Barguil take it in the end as he seemed like the strongest rider throughout with the strongest team for sure too.
Great race by Schelling too defending the jersey brilliantly for so long! Big congratz to both Ticos and UBS!
Very unfortunate to see Berhane so bad here. He should really have animated the race, instead he acted like he never got trained from 78mt.
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| the_hoyle |
Posted on 27-03-2018 22:49
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7651
Joined: 28-05-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Fantastic reporting throughout from roturn so thanks so much for your efforts with the race.
Massive congrats to Ticos and Ste on the GC victory and team dominance. Very strong team paid off hugely , although there is a little disappointment that Schelling couldn't hold the jersey on stage 20.
As for Haute Route... Pinot did what was expected throughout the race. Sadly lost time on an early hilly stage and was playing catch up from there really. That and his / the team's lack of TT strength meant he was at a disadvantage time wise against his rivals. Delighted with a Top 5 and he fought to the end which is really good to see. Relegation was on the cards pre race and we will need a miracle not to return to the CT next season
.: Manager of :.
.: My Awards :.
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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
