|
Badaling International Discussion
|
| Fabianski |
Posted on 02-11-2019 12:47
|
Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5234
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
|
 Badaling International
Beijing – Badaling 232 km
Hello and welcome to the kick-off of the 2019 Pro Tour season. As ever since 2013, PT racing will take off in China, on the now well-known route from Beijing to the Great Wall. After some flat kilometers allowing to get the engines working, the riders will reach the circuit at the Great Wall. This circuit leads them seven times across a tough hill - roughly 10km long, 4% incline - before taking the descent one last time. The final stretch is then again leading upwards, but it's only short, so even a strong downhill could make the difference here.
Remember, last year we had a weird race, resulting in a surprising breakaway win by  Caio Godoy and a bunch sprint of more than 100 riders for second, so basically any outcome seems to be possible. Godoy has come back this year, as have the 2017 and 2016 winners,  Peter Sagan and  Francesco Ginanni.
Whereas Godoy clearly comes back as a domestique for Ben Gastauer, both Ginanni and especially Sagan belong to the PT's elite puncheurs. Of course, it is this type of rider that we should count among the top favorites. And almost all of them have indeed found the way to China.
Do you remember last year's Top2 pre-race favorites? They are the same this year:  Edvald Boasson Hagen, who is still the best puncheur, and last year's runner-up,  Simone Ponzi, who is a tad weaker on the hills than Hagen, but has better sprint, acceleration and climbing abilities.
Then, the field is incredibly dense this year.  Jan Bakelants is surely still among the top favorites, but he has slightly declined (making Ponzi the sole #2 puncheur behind Hagen) and should now be competing at roughly the same level as the likes of  Sean de Bie,  Toms Skujins,  Matej Mohoric, Peter Sagan or  Alexey Lutsenko. Wow, these are the names you really want to have in a PT hilly classic!
And the list can be continued, as you can see below. It's interesting to note that
Indosat has brought huge hilly support for Bakelants in Mohamed Anuar Aziz, who might have been a leader in some other team. The same goes for  T-Mobile, who have a great line-up with Tejay van Garderen and Emanuel Buchmann.
And it might come as a surprise to some that  Bennelong has not nominated Jack Bobridge, but rather Lachlan Morton, who is by far the strongest climber in this field.
In terms of local heros, the croud will certainly cheer for  Yikui Niu, who is the sole Chinese rider in this year's Badaling peloton.
But now it's time to have a look at the stats of the presumed favorites:
| Rider | H | Acc | M | Sta | Res | Spr | | Hagen | 85 | 79 | 70 | 81 | 74 | 73 | | Ponzi | 84 | 80 | 73 | 77 | 72 | 76 | | Lutsenko | 83 | 81 | 73 | 76 | 73 | 72 | | Bakelants | 83 | 77 | 74 | 80 | 77 | 72 | | Mohoric | 83 | 77 | 71 | 78 | 72 | 67 | | Sagan | 83 | 76 | 74 | 78 | 74 | 73 | | Skujins | 83 | 76 | 70 | 80 | 77 | 68 | | De Bie | 83 | 75 | 71 | 77 | 76 | 72 | | Van Garderen | 82 | 79 | 72 | 78 | 75 | 70 | | Gastauer | 82 | 76 | 71 | 78 | 70 | 67 |  Koretzky | 81 | 79 | 71 | 77 | 70 | 71 |  McCarthy | 81 | 74 | 67 | 80 | 75 | 65 | | Ginanni | 81 | 71 | 68 | 75 | 75 | 64 |  Boswell | 80 | 76 | 71 | 77 | 73 | 65 |  Ulissi | 80 | 75 | 66 | 83 | 71 | 74 | | Buchmann | 80 | 73 | 76 | 73 | 74 | 65 | | Anuar Aziz | 80 | 69 | 67 | 76 | 71 | 66 |
Startlist:
As this is my first race, feel free to send me some suggestions of how I can improve - there's lot of things to learn!
|
| |
|
|
| jandal7 |
Posted on 02-11-2019 13:00
|
World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1120.00
|
Looking forward to seeing trained Mohoric on the top level. Should be an entertaining battle with a slightly changed field, I think there may be some MO influence and slightly surprised not to see any punchy climbers come but who knows. Let's go Mohoric and Skujins.
Really nice preview Fabianski and super cool to see you reporting, thanks a lot!
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 |
| |
|
|
| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 02-11-2019 13:12
|
Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4190
Joined: 13-09-2015
PCM$: 400.00
|
First ever PT race here we go. No hopes of any kinda of result obviously, so would be nice to see someone in the breakaway. Anything more than the minimum points would be a success here
|
| |
|
|
| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 02-11-2019 13:16
|
Tour de France Champion
Posts: 17833
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
|
The road goes up? Then this isn't a race for us. I'll be constantly surprised this season when our team is not last in the startlist image 
|
| |
|
|
| matt17br |
Posted on 02-11-2019 13:51
|
Directeur Sportif
Posts: 10519
Joined: 28-09-2013
PCM$: 200.00
|
Excited to see what this debut PT season has in store for us, Badaling is never a great indicator of strength so I wouldn't be too worried to see Ulissi underperform (not that he's gonna crack the top 10 too often this season).
I sent Gaday here and he pretty much has the same name as last year's winner, could this, uhhh, mean anything?
Excellent preview btw, love to see an MG rookie report from the first day of the season already.
|
| |
|
|
| ember |
Posted on 02-11-2019 14:18
|
Team Leader
Posts: 7059
Joined: 27-03-2008
PCM$: 900.00
|
This should be fun 
Very unusual to try a PT hilly classic without any expectationcs at all, but I'll need to get used to it, as we'll be the last teamin any startlist for such race, I expect
With Bakelants slightly weaker compared to last season, this season should on paper be even better for EBH and Ponzi in their final year before declining. What I look the most forward to though, is how trained versions of Sagan, Mohoric and Lutsenko do. If the DH stat counts for something, this classic must be to the liking for especially the former two.
Looking forward to the report! Fingers crossed we can get in the breakaway and such be seen here  |
| |
|
|
| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 02-11-2019 14:40
|
Team Manager
Posts: 31706
Joined: 08-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
|
Let's go Godoy
|
| |
|
|
| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 02-11-2019 14:43
|
Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16555
Joined: 27-07-2011
PCM$: 13638.70
|
Love seeing a couple of my loanees making their PT debuts. Hopefully Eg and Olesen do well for their host teams!
Let's get this season started!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
| |
|
|
| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 20:32
|
Bot Agent
Posts: Countless
Joined: 23.11.09
|
|
| IP: None |
|
|
| knockout |
Posted on 02-11-2019 14:43
|
Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8236
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 500.00
|
Awesome to see one of the new managers start as reporter already and the preview looks promising too. Thanks a lot for that
First race of the season and the heavy hill trainings of others and the new game raises the excitement for the hill opener even more than usual. I hope that Skujins can continue getting those top 5 results against full startlists as he used to do and while this race often is more random than others, it should still be a first sign for things to come...
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
| |
|
|
| Ollfardh |
Posted on 02-11-2019 14:49
|
Tour de France Champion
Posts: 15026
Joined: 08-08-2011
PCM$: 11500.00
|
Good to see you join the reporter crew, the preview sure looks nice.
Now to wait for the PCT start
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
|
| |
|
|
| Tamijo |
Posted on 02-11-2019 15:22
|
Team Leader
Posts: 7422
Joined: 14-07-2015
PCM$: 599.00
|
8 riders 83+ - 13 81+, sorta crazy ain't it.
Anyway interesting to see how this will turn out: Good luck to everyone.
I'm quite sure this time we won't see a breakaway winner, but guess it could be anyone of those 13.
AND THIS
knockout wrote:
Awesome to see one of the new managers start as reporter already and the preview looks promising too. Thanks a lot for that
|
| |
|
|
| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 02-11-2019 15:25
|
Team Leader
Posts: 6178
Joined: 20-07-2008
PCM$: 200.00
|
Indeed, an auspicious start. Kudos Fabianski! Good luck everyone!
|
| |
|
|
| Heine |
Posted on 02-11-2019 16:36
|
Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4470
Joined: 08-04-2007
PCM$: 200.00
|
Here we go!
Finally the season is under way
|
| |
|
|
| the_hoyle |
Posted on 02-11-2019 17:24
|
Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7592
Joined: 28-05-2009
PCM$: 300.00
|
Moulingui making his PT debut. Best of luck to him and looking forward to what will be an exciting rave. Hagen, Ponzi or Mohoric for me
.: Manager of :.
.: My Awards :.
 |
| |
|
|
| sgdanny |
Posted on 02-11-2019 17:53
|
Classics Specialist
Posts: 3587
Joined: 18-03-2014
PCM$: 200.00
|
Our first PT race and we cant be happy with less than a win. That is the hard nature of this season, we just cannot be happy if Ponzi doesnt get the win or get close to winning. He's got fantastic support this race, so hopefully that can improve our chances. I just dont hope a repeat of last year, so theres that to fear for. We're in here for the win!
|
| |
|
|
| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 02-11-2019 19:17
|
Tour de France Champion
Posts: 17833
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
|
Quick general question: i see the Barbados flag not next to my team on the starlist? Does PCM18 not like new nations or just a minor DB oversight?
(you'd argue it's a small detail but it's our identity your messing with!)
|
| |
|
|
| Fabianski |
Posted on 02-11-2019 19:32
|
Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5234
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
|
Yes, I noticed that, too. Some of the riders don't have a flag, too, but that's obviously not visible in the reports. I contacted the Admins as soon as I noticed the issue, but apparently the PCM15 file is not compatible, and they haven't found time yet to complete the flags.
I'm sorry for this, but I too hope it's going to be fixed for the next races. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about this atm.
EDIT: I manually added the flag to the screenshot. OK now?
Edited by Fabianski on 02-11-2019 21:41
|
| |
|
|
| Kentaurus |
Posted on 02-11-2019 23:36
|
Classics Specialist
Posts: 3991
Joined: 26-07-2011
PCM$: 200.00
|
lol it looks fantastic!
AZTECA - NBCSN  |
| |
|
|
| tsmoha |
Posted on 03-11-2019 07:46
|
Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11786
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
|
No expectations for this one. Only thing I want to have is some early aggressive racing, showing our colors at some point early/at halftime maybe.
Nice to see the action starting. Thanks for all the guys, taking care of the early states of the season/reports and stuff!
|
| |
|
|
| Eden95 |
Posted on 03-11-2019 10:31
|
Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4616
Joined: 05-10-2010
PCM$: 1000.00
|
Completely missed this until now, saw it posted in the MG general and thought “eh we’re not PT”. Too used to being in the PCT I think 
I guess we’re in a similar situation to Fablok where every time Bakelants sticks on a jersey, he needs to be competing for the podium. I made some uh, interesting race choices for him this season so hopefully he can make everybody RD count!
Even if it’s an unflattering result, it’s the first PT race for us with a few Indonesians in our squad - so that’s pretty cool
Excited/terrified to see what the juiced up versions of Mohoric, Sagan and Lutsenko can do too. Should be a good race!
Thanks for the preview.
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
| |
|
