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Ronde van Nederland Discussion
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 19-01-2020 20:32
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Grand Tour Champion
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 Ronde van Nederland
History
| Year | Winner | Team | | 2018 | Arnaud Demare | Team Puma - SAP |
Goedemiddag dames en heren, appels en peren, de tweede editie van de Ronde van Nederland vindt plaats op...
Oh wait sorry, I'm reporting this race for the international media instead of the local. Welcome ladies and gentlemen, apples and... pears, the second edition of the Tour of the Netherlands takes place between the 20th and 22nd of March. Last year it was a mix between flat and hilly stages, for this year the race is more stereotypical of the Netherlands: flat. Three flat stages which the sprinters marked in their agenda way before the season began. Arnaud Demare won two stages last year and managed to fend off the puncheurs to take the overall victory, the other stage was won by Alexander Kristoff. Both are back on the startlist, but the competition is fierce.
Profiles
All three are flat stages with very minor undulation but nothing which should put fear into the sprinters. Stage one is in the Achterhoek region in the east of the Netherlands, with a stage from Ulft to Gendringen. Note that this is the only stage with a mountain sprint, so it should be hotly contested. Stage two takes the riders into Belgium for a stage between Blankenberge and Ardooie. The profile of stage three is strangely reminiscent of the GP Fourmies race in France. The creator of this race could use some geography lessons.
Startlist
| Team | Sprinter | SP | ACC | Leadout | SP | ACC |  Aegon - Lavazza | Groenewegen | 82 | 81 | Bauhaus | 78 | 75 |  Air France - KLM | Kennaugh | 82 | 81 | Clarke | 78 | 76 |  Aker - MOT | Swift | 84 | 82 | Scully | 79 | 80 |  Bennelong - Mitchelton | Howard | 82 | 79 | McCormick | 73 | 72 |  Desigual | Zabel | 81 | 79 | Yates | 75 | 80 |  EA Vesuvio | Van der Lijke | 82 | 79 | Afewerki | 79 | 80 |  eBuddy | Grosu | 83 | 80 | Brus | 78 | 78 |  Evonik - ELKO | Van Stayen | 84 | 78 | Liepins | 78 | 79 |  Fablok - Bank BGZ | Guardini | 80 | 82 | Stepniak | 79 | 79 |  Farfetch Pro Cycling | Kemboi | 79 | 80 | Van der Sande | 79 | 79 |  Festina - OAKA | Coquard | 84 | 83 | Petit | 80 | 78 |  Gazelle | Hofland | 68 | 72 | Potts | 68 | 71 |  Generali | Martinelli | 78 | 78 | Planckaert | 77 | 77 |  Grieg - Maersk | Bertilsson | 79 | 77 | Pedersen | 76 | 75 |  Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ | Kristoff | 83 | 79 | Goss | 81 | 77 |  Isostar - LimeBike | Kump | 81 | 80 | Van der Sanden | 78 | 79 |  Moser - Sygic | Soupe | 79 | 77 | Baska | 76 | 77 |  Podium Ambition | Ewan | 83 | 81 | Nelson | 81 | 81 |  Repsol - Netflix | Basso | 71 | 69 | Barbero | 70 | 74 |  SPAR - Siam Cement | Guerao | 83 | 76 | Hsu | 77 | 77 |  Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff | Ulanowski | 80 | 77 | Lutsyshyn | 79 | 80 |  Team Puma - SAP | Demare | 82 | 81 | Wackermann | 74 | 72 |  Team Tinkoff | Van Heerden | 81 | 72 | Samolenkov | 80 | 79 |  T-Mobile | Schwarzmann | 76 | 75 | Favilli | 76 | 74 |
A table of favorites might not cut it as nearly every team brings a sprinter who could win the race in the right position with the right train. In a sprint, the strongest might not always win, hence there is no real prime favorite to be designated.
When mentioning the list of contenders it should only be fair to start with the reigning and defending champion: Demare. Known for being a sprinter who is very capable to handle the hills, last year's route was perfectly suited to his abilities. With the hilly stages cut, he needs to purely rely on his sprinting capabilities.
Kristoff won the second stage and hopes to achieve the same for his new team Indosat. He has one of the strongest leadouts in Goss, provided he actually will lead him out and not go for his own glory.
More riders are returning from the previous edition. Van Stayen finished as runner up in all three stages, the GC and the points classification. Surely his only goal this year is to win, and preferably everything.
The honor of the young rider classification went to Zabel, for which he is no longer eligible. He almost missed out on this race because of his team's relegation, but Desigual were awarded a wildcard. Popo4Ever got the other wildcard and field a team with Ulanowski.
The biggest favorite to take the youth classification this year is Ewan, who also has a very good shot at something more. Kemboi is his only competitor for the white jersey from the alleged team leaders.
Grosu finished fourth in the last edition with some good stage results. World Champion Kump was fifth overall. Can they improve on their performance?
The Dutch have two sprinters they can cheer for on... one stage apparently. Groenewegen and Van der Lijke both had a bad run last year and are out for redemption. Technically, Hofland is the lead sprinter for Gazelle but that's likely the first time someone has ever called him a sprinter.
Swift and Coquard make their debuts in this race. Both have shown to be very capable sprinters in the past, but can they live up to expectation in the crowded field? Especially the Frenchman has had a rough season so far.
Team Tinkoff comes with not one, not two, not three, but four strong sprinters: Van Heerden, Samolenkov, Serebriakov, Meyer. All of them are not major favorites but can ride to a top ten, but which one will be the leader? If they play their cards right they have the teams classification in their pocket.
Other sprinters on the startlist to definitely watch out for are Guerao, Kennaugh, Howard and Guardini. The top ten of each stage receives bonus sections, so it might be essencial to sprint for those minor places.
Some teams chose not to field a sprinter, but instead gamble on a cobblestone specialist with big engines. Gazelle comes with Teunissen, Generali with Theuns, Grieg with Wisniowski, Repsol with Vanmarcke. Watch out if any of them is in the break or places a late attack.
Despite the hills being cut from the race, and the King of the Speedbumps classification only having one sprint, there are some puncheurs on the startlist. Moser has no sprinter and gambles on Sagan, while Gazelle brings Ginanni. Even a noteworthy climber, multiple GT winner Pluchkin, is on the startlist. I wonder what trick his manager pulled to get him to participate here.
Since I feel bad for T-Mobile for being the only team without a rider mentioned in this preview: the best rider on their team is time-trialist Fiedler. The only way this team will get some camera time is if they join the breakaway, but with a bit of luck that could lead to a good result.
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 19-01-2020 20:51
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World Champion
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Last year's route was definitely better for Grosu although I don't know how it would play out on PCM18.
So I'd say it's hard for him to improve, but then you look at happened in Qatar which shows it could be very possible, only to look again at Barbados and go back to square one.
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| knockout |
Posted on 19-01-2020 21:02
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Grand Tour Champion
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Who thought that this route change was a good idea? 
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 19-01-2020 21:16
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World Champion
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Obviously, we had to bring the reigning champion Demare.
And obviously, we can't expect him to win here again with the regrettable route change. Whyyyyyyyyy?
I do hope we get consistent Top 10s by surfing the leadout trains and slipstreaming towards the finish line though, which clearly seems to be a viable strategy this season looking at other races, in itself for stage results and to finish high in the GC overall.
This is Demare's only race of the season he can realistically take GC points from, so I'd certainly like to bank some.
Due to this, we again chose to not acquire traditional leadouts this season, and in an ideal world some of these hybrids we sent here like Cavagna, Madouas, Niu, Sagiv and Wackermann would attack on one of the first two stages for bonus seconds.
I don't have any actual hope to contest that KoM sprint though, it doesn't feel like the AI handles our lineup approach that well.
As for the overall win, I return to my traditional strategy of "anyone in the lower half of the rankings table please".  Ewan, Guerao, Kristoff, Swift.....
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| tastasol |
Posted on 19-01-2020 22:21
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2889
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All out on the flat guys for us here. Don't expect much, but certainly wouldn't mind any wind splitting the peloton during the stages.
Hopefully some offensive riding from our guys. I want to see all of them going for that KoM sprint!
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| matt17br |
Posted on 19-01-2020 22:46
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Directeur Sportif
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We're here for the breakaways
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| roturn |
Posted on 20-01-2020 06:40
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Team Manager
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Apparently the route change was unintentionally to be honest. In an ideal world this still would have one semi hill stage but with hilly rating and likely in future seasons, this will switch back to such profile.
As it was changed to this when calendar was published, it remained triple flat.
Being a home race I hope for a top5 maybe and top10 definitely with one stage podium or something. Can only hope that Groenewegen is not top3-4 rated, so that Bauhaus/Sbaragli won`t need to lead him out. He better positions himself behind a strong train of Puma, Aker, Evonik, Festina and comes from their slipstream. |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 20-01-2020 06:56
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
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It's the Rocket-Ricki-Kek trio yet again, so based on experience we can expect one good stage and two awful stages for minimal GC points but the Youth Jersey... we're going down down down
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| ember |
Posted on 20-01-2020 08:07
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Team Leader
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Looking forward to see Swift in action again! Admittedly so far we've managed to get it right too few times, but hopefully we can change that here. Hopefully the AI handles our team well and gives our flat guys roles to fill in addition to Scully and Dakteris as the final leadouts.
Nice preview, Marcovdw! |
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 20-01-2020 08:58
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+1. Didn't even bother to send Nizzolo here 
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 18:04
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| SotD |
Posted on 20-01-2020 11:45
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3 sprint stages = atleast 2 dissapointments and probably 3... Coquard to finish 14th in the GC, unless he's dropped from that "very very difficult" stage 3.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 20-01-2020 14:34
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2633
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Let's join some breakaways.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 20-01-2020 21:47
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World Champion
Posts: 10845
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Dammit, that was a perfect setup for Demare to strike late, ruined by Grosu.
It's gonna be hard to recover those bonuses to the luckier 82 sprinters up front.
As great as the KoM AI may be in actual stage races, that was abysmal. Aegon continue their great early form with that gift.
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 20-01-2020 21:57
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3591
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meh....How unlucky...
I know that Guardini doesnt get leadouts, but no help getting into position is hard work and he didnt even get help to do that. Let's see if our fortune turns next stage
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| tastasol |
Posted on 20-01-2020 23:19
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No lucky points, so we'll just have to try again the next days. Hope for some more wind.
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| roturn |
Posted on 21-01-2020 05:38
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Team Manager
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Good stage for the team.
6th in the sprint is okay even though I guess the podium was possible hadn`t it been the blocking by Grosu there. But at least bonus seconds.
KoM is a nice bonus but more important Thurau with the double bonus points. He hopefully not losing time on the remaining stages, which should then lead to a top15-20.
Nice, active riding by the team.
Congrats to CT as Kennaugh really showing up this year and Aker for being the best of the rest with a good chance to improve with 2 more to go. |
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| ember |
Posted on 21-01-2020 06:29
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That's a promising start! Very happy with that, especially as Swift managed to navigate well on his own in the final kilometers, tagging on to Ewan and his leadout. That was most definitely a pleasant result, fingers crossed we can even improve on the upcoming two stages. Then the overall podium and even the overall win could be within reach.
And Kennaugh seems to be a beast this season, winning everywhere. Congratulations again, CT! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-01-2020 09:03
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
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Even outside top 15 from the fastest sprinter now.
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 21-01-2020 09:25
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World Champion
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Grosu right now
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 21-01-2020 12:17
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Directeur Sportif
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Yeah one of the only hybrid races gone lame also how am I loosing that many riders in a time splat when I have a Top3 flat outfit here??
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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)
