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Strade Bianche Discussion
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 28-10-2018 16:24
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If you missed the race when it was originally broadcasted on Eurosplats in March, this is the time to catch up here at PCM Daily, reporting from the MGUCI PTHC series
 Strade Bianche 
Gaiole in Chianti – Siena 188 km
Welcome to the 10th edition of Strade Bianche, from 2012-2017 the race have been part of the Continential Man Game series, but this season it has been promoted to PTHC series as part of Band 1, with Lisbon Classic, Rheden GP, Scandinavia Open and Volta a Portugal, no doubt giving some extra quality to the field of riders this time.
Raced partly on undulated white gravel roads in rural Tuscany, the race tests the riders punching abilities and biking skills and it has been called Italy's answer to the famous Belgian classics.
The local spectators will have five riders to cheer for, strongest clearly  Ponzi whom every Italian expect to win this race, pressure on his shoulders indeed.
Also Nordstrom’s  Villella amongst the riders closely followed by Italian sports press, while riders like  Agostini.  Bettiol and  Fabbro will get some extra support from the spectators but honestly will find it hard to get a notable result in a race like this.
Previous Winners
2017 winner Aleksandar Flügel will not attend this time neither will 2016 winner Luis Leon Sanchez Gil who is now beyond his prime years.
2015 winner  Kelderman and 2013 winner  Bellis the only former winners to participate and thereby the only riders to be able to be the first rider to win the race twice. The former amongst the favorite with a good option, the latter amongst the outsiders and not realistically likely to do so.
Favorites
Ponzi the riders to beat, with supreme punch and acceleration. He is not amongst the best in long races nither a top end resistance and that may prove to be a weakness, but anyway he is my favourite and Hugo Boss brings a strong team to back him up, Slagter, Landa, Mudarra
 Skujins 2nd in line, a tiny bit weaker in punch and acceleration but stronger stamina and resistance. Also Evonik brings a fine team, Smirnovs, Sergis, Bekmanis and Sakalou
 Claeys is the uncertain factor, surely a top puncher but his backing ability’s is below par and Porto – Prio doesn’t bring the strongest support, will be interesting to see how far that will take him, personally I think he will miss the podium, my guess is 3-5.
Former winner Kelderman, a bit weaker puncher than those mentioned above, with rather good stamina and resistance but mediocre acceleration, fine lieutenant in Mager.
 Lutsenko although coming this far down as a pure puncher, his acceleration is top end. I guess he is likely to fight for a podium with Kelderman and Claeys, and I would not be surprised it he make it, one thing though that could be a problem is the lack of team support.
McCarthy,  Schreurs and  Froome also riders expected to perform well shooting at a top 5 and anything outside a top ten would be a huge disappointment.
McCarthy clearly the individually best suited only downside is lack of substantial team support.
Schreurs and Froome quite similar riders, and both with great support, Novatek bringing a supreme lieutenant or 2nd leader in Klemme and Fablok with an great deep support in Poljanski, Rovny, Bostner
Then we get to the huge group of leaders with a good shot at a top 10 result, but of course not everyone will make it Koretzky,  Boswell,  Betancourt, Dowsett,  Izagirre,  Vogt
Bystrom,  Bilbao,  Chaves
Will likely also fight hard to get in top 10, but more realistically and up as 15-20.
The remaining teams Carlsberg, Volvo, cycleYorkshire, Xero Racing, Minions, Bennelong and especially Philips will be looking for the surprise result, either from a breakaway win or other unusual events that can always happen in a cycling race.
Full list of favorites
| Rider | H | Acc | Sta | Res | Fla | Spr | . | | H | Acc | Sta | Res | Fla | Spr | | Ponzi | 84 | 80 | 77 | 72 | 76 | 76 | | Barrio | 79 | 67 | 69 | 63 | 63 | 65 | | Skujins | 83 | 76 | 80 | 77 | 70 | 68 | |  Juul-Jensen | 78 | 79 | 76 | 74 | 73 | 66 | | Claeys | 83 | 73 | 74 | 68 | 73 | 67 | |  Jensen | 78 | 76 | 77 | 73 | 71 | 66 | | Kelderman | 82 | 72 | 80 | 75 | 70 | 67 | | Bellis | 78 | 75 | 80 | 71 | 75 | 74 | | Lutsenko | 81 | 81 | 76 | 73 | 69 | 72 | |  Roux | 78 | 75 | 78 | 71 | 74 | 57 | | McCarthy | 81 | 74 | 80 | 75 | 70 | 65 | |  Quevedo | 78 | 75 | 72 | 72 | 69 | 65 | | Schreurs | 81 | 74 | 76 | 72 | 70 | 71 | | Paulinho | 78 | 75 | 70 | 72 | 67 | 68 | | Froome | 81 | 73 | 75 | 71 | 69 | 53 | | Boily | 78 | 74 | 72 | 72 | 67 | 68 | | Koretzky | 80 | 79 | 77 | 70 | 73 | 71 | | Moazemi | 78 | 73 | 72 | 72 | 67 | 65 | | Boswell | 80 | 76 | 77 | 73 | 70 | 65 | |  Watson | 78 | 72 | 76 | 72 | 70 | 62 | | Betancourt | 80 | 74 | 72 | 71 | 69 | 67 | | Landa | 78 | 69 | 70 | 69 | 65 | 61 | | Dowsett | 80 | 71 | 74 | 69 | 70 | 66 | | Levarlet | 78 | 66 | 68 | 70 | 68 | 62 | | Klemme | 80 | 66 | 74 | 70 | 71 | 66 | | Villella | 77 | 80 | 72 | 74 | 72 | 65 | | Izagirre | 80 | 64 | 73 | 72 | 71 | 60 | | Duchesne | 77 | 79 | 73 | 72 | 70 | 69 | | Vogt | 80 | 63 | 78 | 71 | 73 | 62 | | Smirnovs | 77 | 78 | 74 | 69 | 68 | 72 | | Bystrom | 79 | 76 | 75 | 72 | 72 | 68 | | Stuyven | 77 | 74 | 75 | 67 | 70 | 66 | | Pichon | 79 | 76 | 74 | 76 | 71 | 63 | | Poljanski | 77 | 71 | 70 | 70 | 66 | 61 | | Bilbao | 79 | 75 | 77 | 71 | 71 | 71 | | Mager | 77 | 71 | 68 | 70 | 70 | 60 | | Chaves | 79 | 72 | 74 | 73 | 70 | 58 | | Diggle | 77 | 70 | 74 | 70 | 67 | 64 | | Slagter | 79 | 71 | 71 | 73 | 68 | 61 | | Pellaud | 77 | 70 | 74 | 68 | 70 | 65 |
Full startlist
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 28-10-2018 16:29
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Tour de France Champion
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So... this startlist isn't particularly.. favorable. Long attack from JJ? Please?
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 02:40
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 28-10-2018 16:48
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World Champion
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I guess Boswell could do a top 10 here with a bit of luck 
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| viking90 |
Posted on 28-10-2018 16:54
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Top 30 by Jensen maybe? 
Ponzi will win. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 28-10-2018 17:06
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Directeur Sportif
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Top 50 by Watson maybe?
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 28-10-2018 17:24
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Pity I couldn't schedule Flugel to defend his title but looking at the start list it wasn't a bad decision!
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| Kentaurus |
Posted on 28-10-2018 17:39
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Classics Specialist
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Brutal start list to this one, any points will be good points from Chaves.
AZTECA - NBCSN  |
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| SotD |
Posted on 28-10-2018 18:14
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World Champion
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Looking at the starting lineup I would expect Koretzky to end up around 7th, but he rarely does what is expected of him, so I fully expect a complete disaster. We have a horrible piece of support for him, which can be both good and bad. Bad if the race is relatively neutral. Good if it means he will be aggressive.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 28-10-2018 20:22
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Team Leader
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Hopeful for Claeys to reach a good result here. The race seems to be half portuguese
Thanks for taking this on, Tamijo!
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| knockout |
Posted on 28-10-2018 20:44
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Grand Tour Champion
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Thanks for taking up this race on short notice.
Go Skujins!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 28-10-2018 21:14
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World Champion
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I put our unofficial goal as a top 25 here, that with another guy in the top 50 perhaps would be ok. Thanks for taking up the race Tami and providing a quality preview on short notice!
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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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 28-10-2018 21:20
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Grand Tour Champion
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Top five goal. If we achieve that I'll run across entire Italy in a Minions outfit.
Safe to say a miracle has to occur were that to happen. Going in with no expectations, but some kind of result from Quevedo would be nice.
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 28-10-2018 22:04
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2282
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Thanks tamijo!
Looking forward to this. Always some extra expectations whenever Ponzi is competing on home soil.
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 28-10-2018 23:24
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Grand Tour Specialist
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I guess a Top15 could be a reasonable expectation for Bystrom, but hoping he pulls a miracle ride to accomplish our Top5 Goal 
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| cio93 |
Posted on 28-10-2018 23:43
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World Champion
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Top 5 for Kelderman would be very appreciated, we can't just rely on Demare and Herklotz scoring. I think Claeys is beatable from the tier of better puncheurs, while Lutsenko and a couple others below could beat Wilco.
Ideally, Mager supports Kelderman well and makes a late selection for some more points.
Thanks for taking care of this! Mario Vogt for the win
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 29-10-2018 04:55
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Top 100?
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| Vien |
Posted on 29-10-2018 07:28
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2322
Joined: 16-06-2008
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Yaay, I've been waiting for this! Thanks for the preview Tamijo.
The weak startlist provides a huge chance for Lutsenko to score, and we all know he has to. Therefore I can only be happy with a top 3 finish, although top 5 should be more realistic. Hope we can still be able to fight against relegation once this and Besseges have been raced at least.
Should be a free win for Ponzi though |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 29-10-2018 17:09
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At least we had the first attack of the day. Watson is some useless crap though. Can't even achieve a Top-30 like Haas did at lease a couple of times in such classics. Thanks for stepping in with the report. Highly appreciated!
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| Vien |
Posted on 29-10-2018 17:15
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2322
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YESS! THANK YOU PONZI! THANK YOU DEV! LET'S DO THIS MORE OFTEN!
I was a bit scared the break would win at oome point, and I'm very surprised they could finish in the main group. Grats to those teams, and sorry to Evonik for getting robbed.
Thanks for reporting Tamijo Fun route as well, definitely better than last year.
whew... |
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 29-10-2018 17:16
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Get wrecked. The Slovenian attacking machine has nailed it once again. 
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