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Tour of Qatar Discussion
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| SotD |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:18
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World Champion
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Losing 2nd by 2 seconds hurt, as it's easy to find stages where those could have been gained. 8th on the stage also makes it close but no cigar in the chase for 2nd in points. Instead 4th, losing a lot of points.
Add to that a pathetic TT by Vlatos and this race is one to forget... 3rd in GC is acceptable, but this season has started out much worse than anticipated, costing a total of around 100 points which will be difficult to find elsewhere.
Congrats with the win beagle. Also Roman for a good 2nd with some decent team depth and a surprising U25 Jersey.
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| Roman |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:20
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4386
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Wow, really weird to see another flat stage ending up in a win for break. Where is the problem? Leading teams were not strong enough to control the peloton or just weird PCM AI?
But well, it was not the worst scenario for Bewley's podium hopes, my sprint train clearly is not the greatest one this year and so I am quite a bit lucky that breakaway riders took all the important bonus seconds and so Bewley finished 2nd overall, that is surely a nice result with no stage wins and quite a lot bad sprint results. Well it was not that bad if he ended up joint 2nd in the points competition, but I was surely quite a bit lucky.
I am a lot happy with Baska's race though. 14th overall and winning the youth competition, what a dream race for him. Surely had a great day to beat Groenewegen, quite a pity for already bad Aegon's race. A good race for my team also confirms our 2nd place in the team competition and decent 22nd place for Croket.
Thanks for the reports and congratulations to our friends from Iberia.
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:26
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Grand Tour Specialist
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I think that the reason for breakaway wins could be that with some many gaps produced in the first stages, Iberia "considered" the GC safe with the riders that were joining breakaways, so they were allowed more gap and more riders on the breakaway, so the sprinter teams couldn't bring them back for the finish
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| fintas |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:28
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2602
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Some ups and downs in this race for my team, Dennis Van Winden was fine and did what I really expected of him. Probably could have done even better in this last stage but the top10 of stage and GC are the only positive things we take from this race.
On the other hand Silvestre was a complete disappointment not being able to discuss a single sprint throughout the race and with 77prl ends up wasting too much time in this last stage. The 36th place of the GC is clearly a disappointment, or he was very unlucky in this race and has always had negative daily form or this does not promise anything good for the team throughout the season.
118 points earned in this race ends up not being much but for a team like mine any point won is welcome, and certainly there were those who did even worse.
Big congrats to beagle, for me this season will always be good when a PCT team draw points to the PT teams, except mine of course.
Thanks for the reports Tamijo
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:32
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2282
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Aquarius97 wrote:
Gonzales Salas!  Not a big surprise, given he's 80 PRL, but probably no one thought of him as a stage winner today. Always nice to see a Spanish rider winning  He was one of my targets had he been available in this transfers, but it couldn't be. Now he might not available next season either 
Its his first win for us aswell, perhaps his first win entirely considering I got him a few seasons back when he was 4.99?
Very happy obviously with the final stage here making it a decent race! Kristoff to 7th is very decent aswell. Thanks for the reports tamijo and congratz to Team Degenkolb and beagle!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:32
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2889
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Good performance from Kragh Andersen, so at least we end the race on a positive note. Makes it even more annoying that he got dropped (and being 77 flat, I was hoping he would take advantage of the wind, if anything), but good to now that he still have two more levels to go before he's fully developed
Thanks for the reports, Tamijo, and congrats to beagle on the win. Not often you get a PCT team winning in a wildcard race!
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:34
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Grand Tour Specialist
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dev4ever wrote:
Aquarius97 wrote:
Gonzales Salas! Not a big surprise, given he's 80 PRL, but probably no one thought of him as a stage winner today. Always nice to see a Spanish rider winning He was one of my targets had he been available in this transfers, but it couldn't be. Now he might not available next season either
Its his first win for us aswell, perhaps his first win entirely considering I got him a few seasons back when he was 4.99?
Very happy obviously with the final stage here making it a decent race! Kristoff to 7th is very decent aswell. Thanks for the reports tamijo and congratz to Team Degenkolb and beagle!
He won a stage in Tour of Britain two years ago for you
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:39
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2282
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ooops haha 
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:50
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7593
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Not quite the PT debut I wished but nevertheless it was a great experience to be part of. See you guys at the Vuelta!
Congrats to the other wildcard Degenkolb on the victory, and thanks Tamijo on the great reports the past few days.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 09:00
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 27-08-2018 19:52
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World Champion
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Sadly, a no show for Howson, but looking at the final GC it would have been pretty hard to get much more out of it anyway.
In the end, a decent race but only thanks to Ariesen's feast who also gets top 10s in the points and youth rankings. I say it's only been a decent race because I was hoping for much more from Grosu so a stage win and a 15th place in the GC is a bit less than what I was expecting.
Thanks for the reports.
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| knockout |
Posted on 27-08-2018 20:03
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7735
Joined: 21-12-2010
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Stoltz with a seriously bad day but its still a good day for Evonik as Van Stayen narrowly keeps hold of that 6th GC spot. 5th is what i hoped for Van Stayen prerace so 6th is perfectly fine for me. Never expected a GC podium to be possible here so i have no reason to be disappointed with that.
Especially cool is that the rest of the team collects excellent depth points. Mansilla 19th, Nooytens 25th, Dzamastagic 27th, Eislers 29th, De Vreese 37th and Neilands 49th is so much better than expected. Quite ironic that Stoltz is the only rider who goes home with just finishing points for me.
In the end, Im actually not that unhappy about leaving Greg Van Avermaet at home. He would have replaced Mansilla here and i think he would have scored pretty much the same as him himself. Obviously he would have helped Van stayen a bit more but he would not have made much of a difference to the two break victories and i think 4th in GC plus a few more stage points on the two mass sprints he didnt finish 2nd is all the difference he could have made. I think he can score / assist similar points in the three hilly classics he rides instead.
Swift as a big loser replacing Van Stayen as the top sprinter who doesnt care about Qatar for mysterious reasons. Only that it is much more unexplainable for him than it was for MVS. Im glad Aegon doesnt go out of this empty handed but they still lost a fair few points here.
Congrats to beagle, its cool to see Degenkolb still got it in PT races. Hopefully he'll be equally good in pct ones.
Kennaugh amongst the winners of the race as well as Ciolek who seems to perform better now that his manager does not put as much pressure on him...
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 27-08-2018 20:10
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World Champion
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knockout wrote:
Ciolek who seems to perform better now that his manager does not put as much pressure on him...
He finished 8th here last season too.
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| knockout |
Posted on 27-08-2018 20:17
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Grand Tour Champion
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cio93 wrote:
knockout wrote:
Ciolek who seems to perform better now that his manager does not put as much pressure on him...
He finished 8th here last season too.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 27-08-2018 21:01
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Team Manager
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Damn, terrible ride by Kneisky. All he had to do was ride normally and GC Top 15 (at least) would have been secured, but he ends a poor 20th, beaten by a ton of weaker riders on the stage result; and all of the nearby GC riders who are 4-6 PL stats worse.
Kittel at least managing 3rd on the stage - getting the benefit of the doubt over Andersen and O'Shea. Behind worse riders than him, but ahead of better, so can't really complain.
First Gautier in TDU, now Degenkolb in Qatar - two performances the team's needed slightly more last season, particularly Degenkolb.
Thanks for the reports!
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| beagle |
Posted on 27-08-2018 21:02
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Grand Tour Specialist
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History of Tour of Qatar race says, Tom Boonen won 5 stages (one in Warner Brothers colours) and twice GC in 2013 & 2014. And now, in 2018, John Degenkolb managed to equal The Legend and brought 4th overall win in 7th presence, making by far the most succesfull MG race for my team.
Tamijo, big thanks for entertaining and incredibly detailed reporting!
Finally, thanks for congratulations and see you in Tasmania in October!
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 27-08-2018 21:04
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 29989
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Great start to the season for Kennaugh, finishing 4th overall. Very satisfied with that. It was especially awesome to see the sprint train actually working out fairly well in a couple of stages, Promising for the future races. |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 27-08-2018 21:36
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Team Leader
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Very acceptable race for us. Avelino showing he can be counted on (sometimes) and two successful breaks with Porto riders in it is always a nice gesture from PCM.
Bittersweet though to see Betilson without his fabulous Angolan NC jersey, although those were probable some of the best SS of our 2017 kit!
Seeing Fiedler underperform makes me a bit sad for Heine. Hopefully he won't repeat these sort of failures the rest of the season like last year.
Festina with a strong result, but not the massive win SotD was hoping for. And Aegon. Fortunately there was Gallopin, but still that is too less with Swift and Gronewegen on board. I hope Dekker overperform again this season!
And thanks TS, for the update on the shirt issue!
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| viking90 |
Posted on 27-08-2018 22:56
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Ì´m happy with 5th in GC by Ahlstrand but not satisfied with his stage results but he was constantly top 10 atleast.
Nice TT result by Haugard and Campenaerts to bad they already lost a lot of time on earlier stages.
Congrats Beagle for the win, but would have been better if he did that last season I guess... Nice to see Galopin win to smooth out Swift preformance.
Thanks for reporting! |
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 28-08-2018 08:24
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Too bad Malori couldn't reach the top-10 but at least we harvest some points
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 28-08-2018 17:57
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As expected very little points. But I'm glad Hofland got in a winning break and finished 4th in a stage.
Congrats on the win beagle!
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