The Pro Hallstatt classic is back for it's third edition. The route consists of an early medium difficulty climb followed by a circuit consisting of a climb, which will be ridden five times. The finish comes on top of a 3 km steep hill, which is sure to test the limits of the riders, having already tackled the six previous climbs. The flat road leading from the descent of the climb on the circuit to the climb to the finish is very short, and will not provide any riders dropped on the penultimate climb a lot of time to recover.
Both previous occasions of this race have been won by Simon Spilak, riding for Isostar. He is not here to defend his crown, having changed teams in the off-season. Isostar are here however, with a different leader, looking to keep the prize with themselves for another year. More on them and their leader later.
The strength of the field has to be mentioned here, with a massive showdown among some of the best climbers in the PT and PCT on the cards. Who will write their name as the first rider not named Spilak to win this race and will Isostar keep their opponents at bay once more or will some other team steal the spotlight for themselves?
Favourites
MON
HIL
RES
ACC
DHL
Lecuisinier
85
75
80
74
70
Madrazo
85
76
80
72
69
Herklotz
84
79
80
76
76
Taaramäe
84
77
79
75
69
Phinney
85
77
74
75
71
Tenorio
84
76
76
67
68
Sicard
82
78
79
70
65
Olivier
81
76
80
71
71
Kudus
82
77
77
70
67
Monsalve
81
76
80
73
65
Galta
81
73
79
66
70
Lecuisinier and Madrazo come into this race as the joint top-favourites. They are very evenly matched in their climbing skills and ability to hold their watts for longer, with the former being the slightly more explosive rider and slightly better on the descents. Madrazo though, has a much stronger supporting cast. Formolo, Sosnitskiy, Karnulin, Vervaeke, Vysna and Konrad make for a formidable mountain train, and they'll be hoping to help their leader ride away from the competition. Barta and Mavrikakis are the chosen chosen lead domestiques for Festina.
The next duo in line to challenge for the win are Taaramae and Herklotz. The two riders are on the opposite ends of their career spectrum, with the former now on the decline while the latter is getting better every season. Herklotz is slightly better on the shorter climbs, which should help him on the climb to the finish, and also has better backups than the Estonian legend. Aker have brought a three pronged attack however, with Galta and Kwiatkowski also expected to aim for high placings, and it is Amezawa and Aranburu who are expected to do the heavy lifting for their leaders. Stussi, Vasyliv, Egger, Helme, Niu and Bevin have tasked with supporting Herklotz in this race.
Phinney is as strong a climber as our top duo of Lecuisinier and Madrazo, but lacks a little in the energy stats, and so is rated a little lower in this preview. He too is, without doubt, a candidate capable of winning this race, and his team's hope of a three-peat in this race. Roglic, no slouch himself in a race like this, will be the second option for the team while Novak, Roman and Bizakarra are the main domestiques.
The strongest climber among the PCT teams in this race is Tenorio, whose support stats leave a little to desired. Abal, Nazaret and Burke have been tasked with helping their to a good placing in this race.
Sicard comes of the back of a stunning 2019 season, and will be looking to continue in the same vein this time around. He is a better all-round climber than those around him in the favourites list. He will have Salinas, Koch, Rosch and Martin to help him in the race.
Kudus and Monsalve are the next representatives from PCT teams in this race. Kudus is always a contender for an over-performance in a race like this. In fact, Monsalve is a similar rider, being a little weaker on the climbs but having slightly better support stats.
Galta, as mentioned before is the second option for his team, Aker-MOT. He does not have an explosive finish but is a strong climber in his own right. It will be interesting to see how his team use him in this race.
Outsiders
MON
HIL
RES
ACC
DHL
Preidler
80
78
77
69
81
Guldhammer
81
77
75
76
65
Roglic
80
76
76
74
71
Reis
81
73
76
63
68
Latour
79
75
78
74
73
Brenes
79
73
80
70
65
Formolo
79
79
76
71
64
Faglum Karlsson
79
73
75
68
74
Talansky
79
77
76
69
66
Beltran
79
81
72
76
74
Sosnitskiy
78
72
77
73
77
Carapaz
80
71
76
65
61
Kwiatkowski
78
81
76
75
69
The top two riders in the outsiders list consists of two more PCT team leaders in Preidler and Guldhammer. In fact, this could into a mini grudge match, with Preidler's off-season antics rejecting a contract renewal with his former team. But hey, you can't really blame the guy, he ended up getting a much better contract offer from Adastra in the transfer window.
Roglic, Formolo, Sosnitskiy and Kwiatkowski have already been mentioned as second or even third options for their teams in this race.
Reis, Latour, Brenes, Faglum Karlsson and Carapaz with the Volvo 1-2 punch, Talansky and Beltran carry the hopes of their respective teams in this race, but it looks to be an uphill task, quite literally, for them to crack a Top 10.
I hate to say it, but I completely agree we are big underdogs here. Beltran managed a top 10 here last year, but it seems every race he goes to, the startlist is as stacked as can be. It will take quite an upset to repeat last year's result
I think we might see Phinney and Herklotz resume their rivalry here
Excited to finally see Monsalve in action! Strong startlist, but that was to be expected. If we can get a top 10, I would be satisfied.
Herklotz is the big favorite for me, being slightly punchier than the other top climbers and also having an advantage in terms of downhill skills, which should help him rest up nicely into the final hill.
Lecuisinier comes out with great form, so I would like to see him take a podium here, but we are really low on domestiques, and to this date I can't find a good explanation as to why Bongiorno is not here as a domestique while he was in Badaling, and will also ride Lombardia. I guess my hope was that he could score some points as a free rider. Oh well - if he would have performed here like he did in France, then that really isn't a big loss. Barta and Mavrikakis though are basically his only competent domestiques and atleast one of those need a very good day in order to help him. I guess being alone can invite him to attack though maybe.
I see Herklotz as the man to beat. He may lack 1 in the MO stat, but easily beat the others in HI and DH which imo shouldn't be ignored. He also is the fastest (with Phinney) in a finish. I can hope Phinney will struggle over this many mountains due to his lower RES, but looking at the startlist I kinda see Lecuisinier being the odd man out, to take 5th, but I need better.
Not expecting to score a whole lot of points here with Spilak getting planned elsewhere. Talansky and a few others could do ok but it will be hard to even secure a top 20 spot. Thanks for the preview Abhi!
Our win goal as close to home as it gets for Herklotz, and this race is what we trained his puncheur abilities for, at least short-term.
He already showed in his East Java sprint how much it can be worth, taking best of the rest there. We just need to avoid having another crazy Phinney solo ride here and make it to the final in the front group.
If we manage to not let anybody sneak away over the last mountain, the descent should replenish everyone's bars sufficiently to put them all on roughly equal footing going up the last slope, which should mean Herklotz has the best odds to take the win if he positions himself well thanks to that stat combination.
Our support squad for Silvio is as good as it gets when Arndt has to save RD to lead the team elsewhere, with no standout lieutenant, but plenty of good climbers that can stay at the front of the peloton for most of the race if the AI keeps Herklotz up there and them around him.
Half of our lineup is German, just to point out again how well we've transformed our roster in recent years. I hope they're all motivated to prove themselves not far from the border.
Hopeful for Taaramäe here. A top 5 will be expected, a podium will be good.
Also planned for some solid depth points with Galta and Kwiatkowski here, hopefully that's how it turns out too. Them not caring because Taaramäe leads is what I fear, but hopefully they prove me wrong and secure some much needed depth points!
Just like Sykkel_Freak, for the same reasons he lists, I'm thinking Herklotz is the big favourite here, eventhough the peloton is stacked.
13th beaten by 2-3 riders on a good day. Not the best start from Olivier to the short races... At least his PN run was fine. But expectations were higher.
Not really the result I was hoping for. The amount of downhill kilometers doesn't favor Monsalve, which might have played a role, I guess. Good to see Scarponi continuing his fine form from Catalunya and scoring some minor points, though.
