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Tour of Pologne - Discussion
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 05:08
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 13-01-2021 09:12
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 Tour of Pologne
Welcome to Poland for the Tour of Pologne! 184 riders from 24 teams are ready to show what they’re worth in seven interesting stages in the country of the delicious pierogi. They will be able to show their skills on several terrains, as the seven stages are made out of two flat, three hilly, one mountain and one timetrial stage. Two former winners have come back to try and become the first rider to win the Tour of Pologne for the second time since it was introduced back in 2007. Those riders are  Ulissi and  Dowsett. Of course, the race profile and the division of the race has changed throughout the years, which leads us to our favourite’s of this year’s edition.
| MNT | HILL | TT | STA | RES | REC |  Denifl | 83 | 75 | 71 | 73 | 69 | 74 |  Cattaneo | 82 | 70 | 79 | 76 | 80 | 80 |  Gesink | 81 | 79 | 78 | 75 | 77 | 77 |  Guldhammer | 81 | 77 | 71 | 74 | 75 | 74 |  Bennett | 81 | 76 | 65 | 75 | 74 | 79 |  Preidler | 80 | 78 | 58 | 71 | 77 | 76 |  Penasa | 80 | 74 | 70 | 75 | 72 | 77 |  Yates | 79 | 76 | 71 | 79 | 80 | 76 | | Pomoshnikov | 79 | 74 | 64 | 78 | 76 | 74 |  Slagter | 78 | 79 | 66 | 71 | 73 | 74 |  De la Cruz | 78 | 75 | 74 | 72 | 76 | 75 |  Roson | 78 | 76 | 61 | 67 | 70 | 77 |  Chamorro | 78 | 75 | 65 | 72 | 76 | 70 |  Warbasse | 78 | 75 | 74 | 75 | 73 | 72 | | Fabbro | 78 | 75 | 67 | 71 | 72 | 74 |  Duarte | 78 | 66 | 73 | 71 | 73 | 73 | | Areruya | 77 | 77 | 65 | 75 | 77 | 77 |  Raileanu | 77 | 77 | 63 | 74 | 73 | 76 | | Squire | 77 | 77 | 65 | 70 | 70 | 76 |  Senni | 77 | 73 | 74 | 76 | 79 | 76 | | Novak | 77 | 73 | 76 | 75 | 73 | 75 |  Faiers | 77 | 70 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 76 | | Eg | 77 | 71 | 74 | 76 | 74 | 75 |  Scarponi | 77 | 75 | 66 | 71 | 72 | 75 |
Denifl and Cattaneo are the best pure climbers in Poland, which should be in their advantage on the fifth stage. They are very different riders though, as the Austrian is alright in the hills but should normally lose some time on the final TT against the Italian, who has the physical advantage but is the weakest of the favourite in the hills.
Gesink, Guldhammer, Bennett, Penasa and Preidler will also be going to aim for the GC win, although it might be hard for Preidler and Bennett looking at their time trial capacities. Gesink on the other hand is only just weaker than Cattaneo on a time trial-bike while also being very strong in the hills, so we can imagine Duolingo manager Gustav hoping for the win here. Guldhammer and Penasa are good all-rounders, but they will also need to try and gain some seconds on the big favourites if they want to be in the lead after the time trial as well.
Slagter is also an interesting name, as he is one of the best puncheurs amongst the favourites here. His lack of time trial skills, however, should also mean he won’t be contending for the GC win. Two CT teams have come here to aim for a top-15 or maybe even a top-10 and thus grabbing a lot of points in their battle for the promotion to the PCT. Carlsberg have brought Warbasse, Fabbro and Eg, while Carrefour came here with Chamorro and Novak.
Three of the seven stages should be fit to be won by a puncheur. Let’s have a look at the list of riders who are aiming for one or more stage wins in Poland.
| MTN | HIL | STA | RES | REC | SPR | ACC | | Schreurs | 69 | 81 | 76 | 72 | 71 | 71 | 74 | | Ulissi | 66 | 80 | 83 | 71 | 72 | 74 | 75 |  Betancourt | 73 | 80 | 72 | 71 | 64 | 67 | 74 | | Dowsett | 65 | 80 | 74 | 69 | 67 | 66 | 71 | | Gesink | 81 | 79 | 75 | 77 | 77 | 59 | 65 | | Slagter | 78 | 79 | 71 | 73 | 74 | 61 | 71 | | Gebrezgabihier | 70 | 79 | 74 | 74 | 72 | 67 | 69 | | Bilbao | 67 | 79 | 77 | 71 | 71 | 71 | 75 | | Preidler | 80 | 78 | 71 | 77 | 76 | 50 | 69 | | Benoot | 75 | 78 | 75 | 74 | 74 | 69 | 71 | | Siskevicius | 73 | 78 | 73 | 72 | 68 | 71 | 75 | | Moazemi | 73 | 78 | 72 | 72 | 75 | 65 | 73 | | Klemme | 72 | 78 | 71 | 67 | 68 | 64 | 63 | | Kanerva | 64 | 78 | 75 | 69 | 70 | 64 | 76 | | Landa | 69 | 78 | 70 | 69 | 70 | 61 | 69 | | Kump | 66 | 77 | 76 | 73 | 80 | 81 | 80 | | Guldhammer | 81 | 77 | 74 | 75 | 74 | 70 | 76 | | Areruya | 77 | 77 | 75 | 77 | 77 | 68 | 74 | | Raileanu | 77 | 77 | 74 | 73 | 76 | 59 | 70 | | Squire | 77 | 77 | 70 | 70 | 76 | 61 | 71 |
A lot of the names have already been mentioned above. We find two former winners in Ulissi and Dowsett, while others have also been brought up in the list of the GC favourites. Two other riders who carry the hope of their managers on their shoulders are Schreurs and Betancourt. The former is actually a teammate of Dowsett, giving GCN two big guns for the hilly stages. The Colombian is quite alright in the mountains as well, which should give him and advantage over his biggest rivals in the hills.
In the first four stages we find two sprints. A sprinter on a roll could conquer the green jersey after the fourth stage, but it won’t be easy to keep it until the end. Not many teams have sent their (best) sprinter to Poland, which could lead to some very nice results for others who normally act as a lead-out.
| FLA | STA | RES | REC | SPR | ACC | | Guerao | 74 | 71 | 64 | 81 | 83 | 76 | | Kump | 74 | 76 | 73 | 80 | 81 | 80 | | Zabel | 74 | 74 | 70 | 79 | 81 | 79 | | Maksimov | 72 | 70 | 69 | 75 | 81 | 84 | | Van der Sande | 75 | 78 | 73 | 76 | 79 | 79 | | Sanikwathi | 72 | 70 | 67 | 75 | 78 | 78 | | Vaquera | 71 | 69 | 65 | 73 | 78 | 80 | | Mareczko | 74 | 71 | 73 | 79 | 78 | 77 | | Canelon | 77 | 65 | 69 | 70 | 78 | 83 | | Merlier | 72 | 71 | 71 | 64 | 77 | 74 | | Bercz | 72 | 73 | 68 | 75 | 76 | 77 | | McEvoy | 70 | 75 | 70 | 71 | 75 | 79 |
Guerao is the fastest on paper, but lacks some physical capacities compared to his rivals. He also has some trouble holding his high pace over a longer period of time. Maksimov on the other hand might be a bit slower, but can hold his pace for an incredibly long time. Kump and Zabel are normally as fast as the Russian, but as longer the race goes on and the harder it gets, those two are more comfortable. Van der Sande and Mareczko seem to be the best all-rounders on the list behind the biggest favourites for stage wins. On a good day they could definitely surprise them, and so could the others.
The GC will be decided with a 25 km time trial on the last day, which has a small bump in the beginning but is mostly flat. The riders on the list below are the favourites for the stage win there.
| TT | STA | RES | REC | | Schädlich | 80 | 70 | 71 | 73 | | Gonzalez Salas | 80 | 74 | 76 | 67 | | Cattaneo | 79 | 76 | 80 | 80 | | Li | 78 | 73 | 68 | 71 | | Nareklishvili | 78 | 70 | 74 | 69 | | Gesink | 78 | 75 | 77 | 77 | | Sterobo | 78 | 74 | 69 | 69 | | Postlberger | 77 | 75 | 72 | 69 | | Ghyselinck | 77 | 75 | 77 | 73 | | Pokälä | 77 | 75 | 73 | 73 | | Marchewka | 77 | 73 | 75 | 74 | | Hussein | 77 | 71 | 69 | 71 | | Novak | 76 | 75 | 73 | 75 | | Bazhkou | 76 | 73 | 75 | 71 |  Nepomnyachsniy | 76 | 73 | 73 | 75 |
Cattaneo and Gesink could be having a battle for the GC win, but both could also win the final GC. The two best time trialists present however, are Schädlich and Gonzalez Salas. Their three best contenders should be Nareklishvili, Sterobo and CT rider Li.
The only thing left for me to do is to share the startlist, the only thing left for the riders to do is to win some stages and the GC!
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 13-01-2021 09:23
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If Senni can repeat his California performance, I'm happy. Mareczko might even do better than Bonifazio.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| redordead |
Posted on 13-01-2021 09:33
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I can only hope for a lucky breakaway result here.
Thanks for the preview 
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| jph27 |
Posted on 13-01-2021 10:05
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Yates not making the preview after beating everyone above him on the startlist except Gesink already this week is hopefully the disrespect he needs to thrive 
In all seriousness, a top 5 should be the aim here. I expect Gesink to win, but then it should be a good battle for 2nd to 8th - hopefully Yates can continue his tendency to overperform expectations. And here's hoping Van der Sande can show up in the sprints, having been totally anonymous since winning the TDU. |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 13-01-2021 10:22
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All I can say is Bennett owes me a big result here
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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| quadsas |
Posted on 13-01-2021 11:26
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Sent an army here, cause sentimentally, we gotta win the race in Poland. Should be a very fun follow since we have contenders on every single stage.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 13-01-2021 11:33
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jph27 wrote:
Yates not making the preview after beating everyone above him on the startlist except Gesink already this week is hopefully the disrespect he needs to thrive
Hehe. I actually raced Pologne before I did California, which is my he wasn't explicitly mentioned in the preview here. I re-read the Pologne preview this morning to make sure I didn't type some complete nonsense and thought about changing it a bit, but in the end I decided to let it be
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 13-01-2021 12:33
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Really big race for us with a potential 4 stage wins for Marko Kump here. Really looking forward to the reports!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 13-01-2021 14:18
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This is our lone HC venture of the season, chosen because it has a combination of mtn/hills/TT for Warbasse that is not seen in any CT race.
Seeing the startlist, it was probably the wrong move, so i can't expect anything. But we'll just see how it goes!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 13-01-2021 15:04
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Roson to hunt for KoM as in California would be ideal, and 0 hopes that Salas will have enough energies to compete for the stage win in the last day. More than that, very unlikely, joining breakaways would be nice, you never know where there's a hidden point gain in those random breakaway wins
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 13-01-2021 17:27
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De la Cruz for the GC, Schädlich for a stage win and the Kraftwerk 3 headed hilly squad for breaks and KOM. Need the points to keep rolling in.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 13-01-2021 20:07
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This is a rather important race for us. I remember it was tough deciding where to send Gesink between Poland and California. The challenge is probably tougher here but it creates more opportunities for points. We'll see.
A word for Nemolito who continues to deliver races upon races: chapeau mate!
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 14-01-2021 08:37
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Thriving under pressure!? 
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| quadsas |
Posted on 14-01-2021 08:40
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Great start for Denifl, those extra seconds may turn out to be extremely important, due to his lack of TT skills. 0 pointer officially avoided
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 14-01-2021 08:46
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Preidler is letting me down yet again - 600k given for nothing
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| redordead |
Posted on 14-01-2021 08:47
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Nothing to see here. Moving on to the next stage.
Congrats on the win Jandal
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 14-01-2021 08:56
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Amazing start for the team. Lluis Mas taking the KoM lead is great, though hopefully better climbers of our team join that KoM fight in latter stages.
But Eddie? That performance was really unexpected. I'm unsure of how he'll handle the hardest stages, but given several guys of those who finished in the first group are just pure puncheur, things look great
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| Heine |
Posted on 14-01-2021 09:19
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Thats no good from Guldhammer at all  He should've been up there in the first group
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 14-01-2021 09:28
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Again not the best positioning by Senni, but it seems his support quickly disappeared as well.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 14-01-2021 09:56
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Heine wrote:
Thats no good from Guldhammer at all He should've been up there in the first group
I am much much worse - should've listened to you about Preidler
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