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Riga - Jurmala GP - Discussion
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 14-03-2021 10:02
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 Riga – Jurmala GP
Welcome to Latvia, welcome for the third edition of Riga – Jurmala GP. Every year, thousands, nay, millions of cycling tourists come to Latvia to enjoy the views for the tourist edition of the Latvian classic, but now it’s time for the pros. Two former winners, Jacopo Guarnieri and Ben Swift, with only last year’s winner  Guarnieri coming back. No worries, there will still be some enjoyable sprinters at the start tomorrow, so let’s have a look at the startlist.
| FLAT | STA | RES | SPR | ACC |  Van Stayen | 76 | 76 | 71 | 84 | 78 |  Ewan | 75 | 73 | 71 | 83 | 81 |  Guerao | 74 | 71 | 64 | 83 | 76 |  Howard | 76 | 75 | 70 | 82 | 79 | | Nelson | 72 | 70 | 64 | 81 | 81 | | Guarnieri | 75 | 76 | 75 | 81 | 80 |  Manninen | 74 | 71 | 75 | 81 | 80 |  Vesely | 73 | 74 | 68 | 81 | 80 |  Zabel | 74 | 74 | 70 | 81 | 79 |  Ciolek | 73 | 70 | 66 | 81 | 76 |  Itami | 75 | 71 | 67 | 80 | 82 | | Keukeleire | 72 | 73 | 68 | 80 | 79 |  Van Asbroeck | 75 | 75 | 72 | 80 | 78 | | Mohs | 72 | 68 | 59 | 80 | 77 |  Rowe | 72 | 80 | 58 | 80 | 70 |  Awang | 64 | 67 | 62 | 79 | 83 |  Lay | 73 | 68 | 66 | 79 | 81 |  Rowe | 78 | 76 | 70 | 79 | 80 | | Perera | 71 | 69 | 73 | 79 | 80 |  Boivin | 74 | 74 | 70 | 79 | 80 |  Stepniak | 72 | 70 | 70 | 79 | 79 | | Vingerling | 71 | 72 | 66 | 79 | 79 |  Hsu | 75 | 75 | 70 | 79 | 79 |  Hayakawa | 73 | 75 | 68 | 79 | 79 |
As the home team, this race is important to Evonik – Elko for obvious reasons. Van Stayen was fifth in the first edition and only thirteenth last year, but maybe this time it will be the Belgian who pops the champagne bottles after the race. He has a strong flat team with him and should be the fastest when it comes to sprinting. His acceleration could be a problem though. He is not the only one who is a strong sprinter and struggles with the acceleration, as the same can be said about two other names just below him on the list: Guerao and Howard. The Spaniard has not impressed so far this season, while the Bennelong rider had a very disappointing Cheshire Tour, where he barely managed a top-5 spot as the top favourite on three opportunities. In between those three names we find a more well-rounded sprinter in Ewan. Good on the flat, decent physical capacities and a fast guy with a strong acceleration, is the Australian from the pink armada of Podium Ambition the top favourite tomorrow? He recently finished second in the Hanko Classic and will be hoping to improve that by one place tomorrow. He will be aided by luxe sprinter domestique Nelson.
Guarnieri won this race last year, and that will be his goal again. He had a terrible Hanko Classic, so a good result would mean a lot to his team. Just below him we find some similar PCT sprinters in Manninen, Vesely and Zabel, who could all score some very nice points as most of the PT sprinters did not come here and are at home or in Switzerland.
Itami has already proven to be able to win in PCT this season, and so have Lay and Boivin, but definitely for the latter two the competition might be a bit too hard tomorrow. Same thing can be said about Rowe as well, who might try it with a late attack again.
Ciolek, Van Asbroeck, Rowe and Awang could aim for a top-10 as well, although they probably shouldn’t get their hopes up too much if we look at their results so far this season. Hayakawa and Hsu have gotten podium spots in PCT and the Japanese even in a GT this season, but it would also be surprising to see them in the top-10 now.
There is always the possibility for a (late) attack to surprise everyone, so here is a list of the best rouleurs at the start tomorrow.
| FLAT | STA | RES | SPR | ACC | | Arashiro | 81 | 71 | 67 | 70 | 75 | | Stoltz | 80 | 76 | 79 | 62 | 74 | | Brockhoff | 79 | 74 | 76 | 62 | 73 | | Veyhe | 78 | 65 | 69 | 56 | 78 | | Dzamastagic | 78 | 76 | 72 | 76 | 78 | | Rowe | 78 | 76 | 70 | 79 | 80 |  Mas | 78 | 66 | 71 | 71 | 78 |  Cherkasov | 78 | 71 | 73 | 69 | 74 | | Varga | 77 | 76 | 73 | 65 | 80 | | Wohler | 77 | 72 | 71 | 71 | 72 | | Van der Haar | 77 | 70 | 72 | 72 | 70 | | Bar | 77 | 75 | 72 | 77 | 76 | | Culey | 77 | 76 | 75 | 65 | 68 | | Christensen | 77 | 74 | 73 | 68 | 64 | | Aaltio | 77 | 66 | 71 | 61 | 61 | | Neilands | 77 | 74 | 73 | 71 | 67 | | Atkins | 77 | 69 | 64 | 72 | 66 |
Most of the stronger rouleurs present will probably have to work for their sprinter, such as the three riders from Evonik – Elko and Bennelong – Mitchelton on the list, which makes the chance of getting a mass sprint even higher. Nevertheless, names like Arashiro, Brockhoff, Veyhe, Mas and Cherkasov should be having more freedom to attack, and you never know how far they make it.
That’s it from me, now it’s time for the riders to shine and to try and get that sweet victory in Latvia. Down below is the startlist, good luck to everyone!
Edited by Nemolito on 14-03-2021 10:44
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 14-03-2021 10:34
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Grand Tour Champion
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The profile gave me a minor heart attack but then I realised you accidentally put San Cristobal there instead of Riga - Jurmala 
Assuming the race is actually flat, go Vesely!
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 14-03-2021 10:34
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Mas, Varga and Bernas in the race, hopefully one of them joins the late attack. Obviously i'd like it to survive, but at least i hope we are active
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 14-03-2021 10:43
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Classics Specialist
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Marcovdw wrote:
The profile gave me a minor heart attack but then I realised you accidentally put San Cristobal there instead of Riga - Jurmala
Assuming the race is actually flat, go Vesely!
Last minute change by the race organisers actually, they wanted to make the race more selective 
Sorry about that, will change it now 
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 14-03-2021 11:09
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Our lineup looks solid, as long as we don't set up a train for Howard (as we don't have a train, that's worth this name). Howard used to do well in this race, iirc, and the Top-5 must be the goal after some rather lame performances by him recently.
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| Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 14-03-2021 11:22
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Guarnieri's had three quite poor races in a row now, so hoping he can bounce back here and get back on old form. Looking forward to the report
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| Bikex |
Posted on 14-03-2021 12:31
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Nemolito wrote:
Hayakawa and Hsu have gotten podium spots in PCT and the Japanese even in a GT this season...
The Taiwanese as well 
However as said in the preview there is little hope for this being a high scoring race for us considering the (expectable) strong start list. Hope to see my team in the break and Hsu trying something in the sprint.
Thanks for the preview! |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 14-03-2021 12:38
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Ciolek to dominate the field easily again.
Good luck everyone else, you'll need it! Thanks for the preview Nemo!
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| quadsas |
Posted on 14-03-2021 13:10
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Our win goal..Guerao can definitely come close to achieving it, unlikely to win it, but we'll take top 5
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| knockout |
Posted on 14-03-2021 14:48
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Time for Van Stayen to deliver in our home race after being a bit disappointing in most past editions. The startlist might not be the toughest so perhaps we can deliver here for once
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 14-03-2021 16:23
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Bikex wrote:
Nemolito wrote:
Hayakawa and Hsu have gotten podium spots in PCT and the Japanese even in a GT this season...
The Taiwanese as well
However as said in the preview there is little hope for this being a high scoring race for us considering the (expectable) strong start list. Hope to see my team in the break and Hsu trying something in the sprint.
Thanks for the preview!
I feel like our teams always seem to get compared. Might make for a decent MG$ bet, Hayakawa vs Hsu
Im hoping for Arashiro here, or Itami if my team decides to do nothing again. The sprints are so random, but I think Hayakawa is just too far down the pecking order, he probably wont even bother to sprint.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 09:45
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 14-03-2021 19:24
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I was hoping for a slightly stronger startlist in the hope Ewan would bump to the #5 Favorite and surf someone elses train for a change. Alas we are here to be resigned to being the man in front. The resulting Top10 is not bad, especially if one of our other three 79+ sprinters can stay near the top end as well.
In solidarity with the Aussies, i reckon Howard could do very well here as the top sprinter i don't see getting train AI.
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| Bikex |
Posted on 15-03-2021 09:50
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valverde321 wrote:
Bikex wrote:
Nemolito wrote:
Hayakawa and Hsu have gotten podium spots in PCT and the Japanese even in a GT this season...
The Taiwanese as well
However as said in the preview there is little hope for this being a high scoring race for us considering the (expectable) strong start list. Hope to see my team in the break and Hsu trying something in the sprint.
Thanks for the preview!
I feel like our teams always seem to get compared. Might make for a decent MG$ bet, Hayakawa vs Hsu
True I wonder why that is
Yeah would be a very interesting bet when both in the end won't even make the top 50 |
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 15-03-2021 10:28
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Now I wish the race was hilly  Definitely wrong tactics by Vesely at the end.
Thanks for the report Nemolito, liked the local jeans trivia! Congrats Bakkafrost!
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| knockout |
Posted on 15-03-2021 10:39
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4th plus good depth is good enough, I'll happily take that! Of course Van Stayen was arguably the top favourite on home roads so a podium would have been nice but we played it well by following the late attack with Stoltz and had lots of men in the first rows of the peloton throughout the finish to react to changing circumstances. MVS didnt have the legs to pull through but 4th + 13th + 20th + 23th + 26th + 30th + 41st is good for 140 points which is great scoring and exactly what we need in a month with only two mountainous stage races.
Thanks for the report, really enjoyed the AI here with those two late attacks that were countered solidly. Particularly Stoltz following without putting in too much effort seemed to be a smart choice
Congrats Sykkel, you asked for it and you got it
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 15-03-2021 11:19
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Tour de France Champion
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This is why i have no faith in survival
I think this might be our worst sprint race since our MG debut season. But i nailed the prediction Ewan would be the main leadout for everyone else!
This has been a cursed season i can't help but laugh that if we survive there should 5 hugely embarrassed PCT teams
Two Sprint Win Goal Races - Barbados we were 9th, here 14th - Goddamn awful, but so awful it really is just funny
Edited by TheManxMissile on 15-03-2021 11:25
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| SotD |
Posted on 15-03-2021 11:33
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knockout wrote:
4th plus good depth is good enough, I'll happily take that! Of course Van Stayen was arguably the top favourite on home roads so a podium would have been nice but we played it well by following the late attack with Stoltz and had lots of men in the first rows of the peloton throughout the finish to react to changing circumstances. MVS didnt have the legs to pull through but 4th + 13th + 20th + 23th + 26th + 30th + 41st is good for 140 points which is great scoring and exactly what we need in a month with only two mountainous stage races.
Thanks for the report, really enjoyed the AI here with those two late attacks that were countered solidly. Particularly Stoltz following without putting in too much effort seemed to be a smart choice
Congrats Sykkel, you asked for it and you got it
Hehe I was just about to write good depth points for Evonik, but surely not what they hoped for going into this race
It was great to see Stoltz trying - in general the race seemed very aggressive, which was nice to see!
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| quadsas |
Posted on 15-03-2021 11:53
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bruh
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| knockout |
Posted on 15-03-2021 12:17
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SotD wrote:
Hehe I was just about to write good depth points for Evonik, but surely not what they hoped for going into this race
It was great to see Stoltz trying - in general the race seemed very aggressive, which was nice to see!
And you would be right as i have obviously hoped for slightly more scoring from MVS. But my team followed a tactic that was perfectly reasonable, controlled the race and was aggressive when given a chance, was there in numbers in the end and Van Stayen delivered decently without totally blowing up. It just turns out Van Stayen didnt had the best legs today to claim victory and/or started the sprint 150m too early. But everything the team could do to set themselves up for success, they did.
It's perfectly normal that the prerace favourite doesnt win (and riders like Ewan or Guarnieri are totally within reach so that this was never an obvious victory in the first place) and I'll be the first to bitch around when my team throws away a race without trying or by acting completely stupid - like in the Vuelta. But here Evonik raced as i would have expected, finished maybe 1-3 places below what i could have hoped for but with the depth scoring this result is probably worth sth equal to a 2nd-3rd place. Really cant complain about that.
Btw, how come that the in-game favourite lists included so many rouleurs instead of the usual group of sprinters. Is there a setting in the stage making process that impacted those? Never saw Dzamastagic as a three star favourite before
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| redordead |
Posted on 15-03-2021 12:20
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TheManxMissile wrote:
This has been a cursed season i can't help but laugh that if we survive there should 5 hugely embarrassed PCT teams
Gee, you sure know how to make the others strugglers feel better
"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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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
