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Tour of the Middle East Discussion
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 03-09-2018 10:14
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Directeur Sportif
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Kudos to Kudus 
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 03-09-2018 10:14
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Directeur Sportif
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Pretty much what was expected after stage 3. Quite disappointing in the end. PCT is catching up to us after a good January. Time to settle in for the long haul!
Congrats Aquarius and thanks for the reports tsmoha
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 03-09-2018 10:15
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Unlucky Jandal! 6th, 10th GC & a stage win is still pretty decent mind you
Strange little cameo from Signorini there, going into the stage with 0 KOM points and coming out with the overall classification is quite nice, alongside a 3rd to to Moldovan giant. Brenes disappointing, but still an ok result. Augustin achieving a decent result for him as well. At least we can take a few points from a race without any real expectations
Congrats to Aquarius and thanks for the reports tsmoha! That last stage was great.
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 03-09-2018 10:16
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World Champion
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Eden95 wrote:
Unlucky Jandal! 6th, 10th GC & a stage win is still pretty decent mind you
not 6th, 19th 
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."
[PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
1x  x1
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 03-09-2018 10:17
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 17833
Joined: 12-05-2012
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I guess i'm happy with 7th GC given Talansky's scary yo-yo day. He's still vastly better than any GC rider we had before he joined last year, and any points are good points having watched our usually reliable cobbles unit completely f*ck up twice.
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 03-09-2018 10:20
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4190
Joined: 13-09-2015
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Wow what a stage. It was amazing to see Merhawi taking the initiative (or maybe it was Pluchkin, and he just followed him) in the previous to last climb probably seeing weakness in Xero riders, and then being so strong that Pluchkin could only get rid off him in the sprint.
Again so close for a stage win, but it doesn't matter when you are a winner of a HC stage race 
First win of the season and what a win. Beating Pluchkin in mountains is just... amazing.
Adding also the Points jersey plus the expected U25 win, and that's almost a wipe out of the jerseys in the race. A shame that the rest of the team was sub-par and didn't help a lot for a good Team standings, but three extra riders in the Top50 helps a little, as two of them get points also for U25.
So after Rafa Valls, now the team has another legend in Merhawi Kudus, who also gets his first GC win outside of Avenir. Hopefully this is just the beginning of many wins for our team in years to come.
242 points from Kudus in this race, which puts him in 303 points with only 8RDs, and obviously in the first place of the PCT Individual Ranking (he won't stay there for long, but for the time being, just celebrate it  )
Also, Repsol is the new PCT leader
Thanks everyone for your congrulations, and a special thanks to tsmoha for the amazing reports of this race. Also, thinking of SN's comment yesterday, i hope you wanted this race to be so brutal, because if so, you've done a fantastic job transforming that ZCTS into this beauty 
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 03-09-2018 10:27
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Tour de France Champion
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Congrats Repsol, great racing from Kudus!
As for my own team, a top 50 and 3 riders finishing the race, this doesn't look well for the stage races this season.
Thanks for all the reports Tsmoha, you earned a break now
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 03-09-2018 10:29
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Team Leader
Posts: 5568
Joined: 12-06-2013
PCM$: 500.00
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Considering his hill stat and how much time he lost on stage 3, I'll take the 6th there on stage 4 from Nazaret and a 12th overall in the GC for him. A great effort from him in that final stage showing what he is capable of in the mountains. Borisavljevic with some points thanks to 35th in the GC and 3rd in U25. Mas also a couple of points with a Top 50 GC and 7th in the U25.
Overall not the worst race for us given that the hill stage meant it didn't necessarily fit any of our leaders. If we can improve on this then we'll be back on track.
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 03-09-2018 11:06
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7772
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Exactly as I predicted. Kudus - Pluchkin - Úran. A shame to not achieve our win goal here but given the way panned out and the strenght of the opposition I think third is the max Úran could've gotten out of this.
Kudos to Kudus and Repsol. Great overall win and some good points from the other classifications. Thanks tsmoha for the wonderful reports!
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 03-09-2018 11:48
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Team Manager
Posts: 31706
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Amazing result! Very happy to see Kudus get that first big stage race win and also loving the 2018 vintage Berhane so far. First sighted at East Java last year, he is keeping it going nicely.
Pluchkin really needed to attack again, but still the stage win and GC 2nd. Velits the biggest surprise, over in the hills, some way under in the mountains. Too passive with Bennett seen as team leader maybe?
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 06-12-2025 11:56
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 03-09-2018 14:19
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16553
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Welp, second half of the race went about as poorly as it could have. Garby a complete no show the whole race, but Kudus takes the points jersey off Appo by a single point... that hurts more. I never like rooting against other teams, but didn't Kudus win enough here? Couldn't we have had this one thing?
In any case, awesome reports! Happy with a stage win at least.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Bikex |
Posted on 03-09-2018 20:35
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Team Leader
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Embarassing from Denifl. Why can't I have anything nice? Denifl and Guerao should be fired on the spot.
Thanks for the reports! |
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 03-09-2018 21:01
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Classics Specialist
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Mountain stage went as expected, but the hill stage didn't, oh well it was just a few luxury points
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 03-09-2018 21:21
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2541
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Great breakaway from Tartarinov managing 25th in GC getting Kraftwerk some more unexpected points. This is very encouraging for the Tour of America where we are looking for breakaway action from the team.
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| ryant |
Posted on 03-09-2018 21:27
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2388
Joined: 15-08-2012
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This race was a disappointment even with our limited expectations here 
John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25
Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 03-09-2018 22:31
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
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Argh what an awful last stage for us. Can't understand that at all, even with AI struggles it shouldn't have been that way. If Velits disappoints like this throughout the season we're doomed. Valiant ride from Bennett, he's been great and if Velits would have got the podium he should have or even top 5 this would've been a great race for us. Instead we're still waiting to get some proper points on the board, which may never come at this rate
Thanks for the excellent reports tsmoha, awesome as ever and truly stunning given the quantity you put out!
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."
[PT] Xero Racing
5x x5
1x x1
2x x2
2x x2 |
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| Heine |
Posted on 04-09-2018 08:23
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4465
Joined: 08-04-2007
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Aquarius97 wrote:
Now a more calmed comment, after i had time to analize the last stage and the time gaps properly, and the overall scoring options for Kudus
Let's assume that Pluchkin wins the stage, because it's impossible that he loses it. The ideal scenario is to stay on his wheel the longest possible time, and finish in second place the stage, obviously within 1'30 to secure the GC win (I assume that Bennett won't be there to fight for the GC win, quite obvious with a 78 MON). That, apart from the U25 win which is more than safe in any race Kudus does this year, would secure the Points jersey by one point over Appollonio (given the Italian finishes within time limit).
Obvioulsy nothing is done yet, and if with just 1 point of diference in hills, Kudus put 1'41 on Pluchkin, i don't want to imagine what the Moldovan can do tomorrow with his 4-point gap in mountains
Also, we've brought to you exclusive footage of Kudus riding up tomorrow's final climb in his winter training 
I just had to quote this post after reading trough the entire race, thats what you can a prediction
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 04-09-2018 09:12
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11786
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Heine wrote:
Aquarius97 wrote:
Now a more calmed comment, after i had time to analize the last stage and the time gaps properly, and the overall scoring options for Kudus
Let's assume that Pluchkin wins the stage, because it's impossible that he loses it. The ideal scenario is to stay on his wheel the longest possible time, and finish in second place the stage, obviously within 1'30 to secure the GC win (I assume that Bennett won't be there to fight for the GC win, quite obvious with a 78 MON). That, apart from the U25 win which is more than safe in any race Kudus does this year, would secure the Points jersey by one point over Appollonio (given the Italian finishes within time limit).
Obvioulsy nothing is done yet, and if with just 1 point of diference in hills, Kudus put 1'41 on Pluchkin, i don't want to imagine what the Moldovan can do tomorrow with his 4-point gap in mountains
Also, we've brought to you exclusive footage of Kudus riding up tomorrow's final climb in his winter training
I just had to quote this post after reading trough the entire race, thats what you can a prediction
Yeah, right. I had to smile when reading this prediction (knowing the actual results already, of course)!
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 04-09-2018 13:04
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2276
Joined: 13-03-2011
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Another year, another great leader for Repsol it seems! Congratz on the great win from Kudus! Very nice start for their PCT campaign!
What a brutal race this was. Really enjoyable from a neutral point of view! Very detailed reports too, cheers for that tsmoha.
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 04-09-2018 16:40
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World Champion
Posts: 12429
Joined: 20-05-2009
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Cant believe Shikai lost 11 minutes on stage 3. Sure he definitely should have lost time, but 11 minutes is insane. Have to wonder if he crashed at all.
Choi did decently here, and Iino picked up what Shikai lacked, so atleast we had 2 nearly in the Top 15 here.
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