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Tour of the Battenkill Discussion
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 26-06-2021 17:48
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We're in beautiful upstate New York for another edition of the Tour of the Battenkill. The leaves are starting to change as we reach late September, and the scenery is quite magnificent, though it will be another week or two before the foliage is at its best.
Battenkill, as always, offers an extremely difficult cobbles race, accented by some steep and irregular hills. While there are some long flat sections, the final cobbled climb to the line makes it difficult to see a race that isn't selective. Cobbles will be the most important metric here; that much should be certain.
Over the years, Tour of the Battenkill has been shuffled to every division in MG, and it has been PTHC for the past two years. Each of those two years has been very difficult and selective, and each has been won by the legend himself, Sam Bewley. However, Moser have not sent Bewley to defend his title this season. Plenty of the next generation will be itching to get their name under his in the list of winners.
| Name | Cob | Hill | Sta | Res | Spr | Acc |  Summerhill | 83 | 73 | 76 | 72 | 70 | 73 |  Blythe | 82 | 66 | 76 | 71 | 76 | 73 |  Altur | 82 | 70 | 75 | 70 | 72 | 68 | | Vanspeybrouck | 81 | 70 | 77 | 70 | 66 | 68 |  Teunissen | 81 | 67 | 77 | 73 | 67 | 69 |  Gerts | 80 | 78 | 76 | 80 | 72 | 70 |  Theuns | 80 | 74 | 76 | 73 | 77 | 76 |  Vanbilsen | 80 | 69 | 80 | 74 | 72 | 71 |  Daniel | 80 | 69 | 76 | 76 | 76 | 72 |  Vanmarcke | 80 | 66 | 77 | 72 | 70 | 72 |  Kasperkiewicz | 79 | 73 | 73 | 75 | 59 | 66 |
With all the division changes and retirees, there is one former winner at the line today. He also happens to be the current favorite, and the rider with the best team support. Danny Summerhill will be hoping to repeat his 2015 performance, in which he soloed to a dominating victory over some older legends. He has the luxury of having the man who finished 3rd that day, Pieter Vanspeybrouck, as his superdomestique. The duo have had great success year and have a strong team behind them. They will be the ones to beat.
Andorra's biggest competition should come from reigning Paris-Roubaix winner Adam Blythe. He's a tick behind in cobbles, and the profile's inclines will be less suitable to him than a Roubaix type stage. Plus, it seems unlikely his plus sprinting ability will matter much. Nevertheless, he's very strong and has good depth to support him.
While he has had a couple of solid performances recently Altur has in general been a disappointment for Podium Ambition, and has not offered a reasonable return on their investment. A win tomorrow would be huge for both his confidence and the confidence of management, who may already be strategizing ways to move in a different direction for classics.
Teunissen is a very strong rider on the cobbles. While that's the extent of his main abilities, that's the factor that should matter the most here. A bigger deficit for him might be that his team is quite weak. He'll have to fight for position on his own and choose his level of aggression wisely.
It will be very interesting to see how Gerts goes. He's been the best puncheur of the classics specialists the last few years, but has trained hard on cobbles this year. He should go pretty well here, as there are some sharp climbs on course. However, this isn't a hilly circuit or anything like that. He will have to plan out his spots to push the pace carefully, and he doesn't exactly have a team that can control the race for him.
Theuns might be the king of versatility here. He loves the cobbles, likes the climbs, and is probably the fastest of the favorites in a finishing sprint. Unlike the previous couple of guys, he should have some good support too. Gaday is a great lieutenant that complements his style, and is an outsider in his own right. If the race is uncharacteristically easy, De Buyst makes for a good leadout man.
Vanbilsen is a pure cobbles specialist who should do decently here and enjoy the >200km length of the route. Vanmarcke is a slightly older, slightly weaker version of this same archetype, and will basically have to forge alone here. Daniel is also similar, though with a bit more endurance and engine resilience, and a finishing kick that may or may not matter at all.
Shout out to Kasperkiewicz. He might be a step behind the top tier guys this season, but he still has room to grow, and it would really help his development to feature strongly this season and get that experience. He definitely has the strength for a great performance on a good day.
| Name | Cob | Hill | Sta | Res | Spr | Acc |  Bakari | 80 | 53 | 56 | 53 | 59 | 57 |  Fenn | 79 | 61 | 75 | 71 | 70 | 69 | | Machado | 79 | 63 | 72 | 67 | 62 | 61 |  David | 78 | 75 | 76 | 74 | 70 | 73 | | Gaday | 78 | 75 | 75 | 72 | 71 | 73 |  Bush | 78 | 63 | 75 | 73 | 71 | 73 | | Neilands | 78 | 69 | 74 | 73 | 71 | 67 |  Debesay | 77 | 74 | 75 | 79 | 69 | 78 | | Chatarunga | 77 | 67 | 79 | 72 | 70 | 68 |  Saber | 76 | 68 | 74 | 72 | 81 | 79 |  Havik | 76 | 64 | 74 | 68 | 79 | 76 | | Rowe | 75 | 66 | 76 | 70 | 79 | 80 |
The outsiders are a collection of guys who aren't complete enough or strong enough in the cobbles to win in most circumstances. Still, the line for separating these guys is thin. Andrew Fenn, for instance, is likely capable of a good result here. However, he might be held back by the fact that his skills going uphill are notably worse than even his fellow cobbles leaders.
Guys like Bakari and Machado are even more one-dimensional and likely nonfactors. But wouldn't it be cool if they pulled something out?
Tom David has often been a foil over the years due to his good climbing ability on short section. These days, he's kind of a lesser Gerts. Similar story for Debesay, although his strong resistance may help him outperform his strength on the cobbles.
Other guys like Saber and Havik occupy the niche of sprinters who can ride classics, but in a race like this, it seems unlikely their exact skillset will be the one that wins out. They'd probably be better suited having gone to Rheden.
You'll notice too that some of these guys have better leaders on the top list. Those teams will be quite fortunate to have multiple guys that may be in the front positions towards the end.
Looking forward to a picturesque, and hopefully exciting, day in the valleys of the Taconic Mountains!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 06-12-2025 21:29
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| quadsas |
Posted on 26-06-2021 20:05
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oh, we're in this. a point would be a huge victory
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 26-06-2021 22:33
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Lack of hill skills might hurt Mike here. Top 5 would be amazing
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 26-06-2021 23:28
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Pretty clear Altur is fighting for his place on the team, prety clear he couldn't give f*ck. A low Top10 would be perfect to keep his wages as low as possible.
Far more interested in seeing if Wolverine can show more good signs and stake his claim to a leadership position for next year!
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 26-06-2021 23:33
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Top-40 would already be a success for David at this point of the year. Maybe he fools me and goes for Top-30 for a change.
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 26-06-2021 23:36
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A bit too hilly for Vanbilsen I guess.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 27-06-2021 00:08
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Hopefully our team of time trailists can put in a decent TTT performance together far behind the pack to hopefully make the time limit 
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 27-06-2021 19:14
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tsmoha wrote:
Top-40 would already be a success for David at this point of the year. Maybe he fools me and goes for Top-30 for a change.
This but for Debesay. He's very lucky he overperforms enough in non-cobbled races, he's more of a HI/TT rider now which is ironic given how that type of rider underperforms in PCM18
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
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| Bikex |
Posted on 27-06-2021 19:19
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Let's see what Kasperkiewicz can do this race should suit him |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 28-06-2021 00:08
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Big race for Evonik. Is there a way back for them in the title fight? Congrats also to Andorra on a win that should make them safe in the PCT.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 28-06-2021 06:06
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tsmoha wrote:
Top-40 would already be a success for David at this point of the year. Maybe he fools me and goes for Top-30 for a change.
Obviously I was talking about Top-4 and a potential shot at the Top-3 
Anyway, nice way to say goodbye. I really didn't expect anything at this point, but David finally played his Hi/Cob combo to his advantage. Can't blame him for missing the podium, he went for the smart tactics after all.
Thanks for this report, that finally made me not rage quit after David being one of the first notable names being dropped with 100km to go
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| redordead |
Posted on 28-06-2021 06:24
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Surprised that Poljanec finished higher than Saber, but in the end both missed the top 30. Pretty much expected tbh 
Thanks for the report bbl 
"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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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 28-06-2021 06:34
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Love to see the incredible result for Evonik. They've had extremely bad luck recently, along with some underperformances. Almost caught up with them again but they made a great recovery
Shame Saber couldn't get a good result to round off his cobbled season, but this race doesn't suit him at all.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 28-06-2021 07:37
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Now Im scared. Congrats to YJ for the dominant Summerhill win and to Evonik for that awesome result!
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 28-06-2021 08:17
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Classics Specialist
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Teunissen didn't have the legs. Great ride by Kruijswijk though; that does compensate a bit in terms of scoring.
Nice report bbl, thanks
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| SotD |
Posted on 28-06-2021 08:28
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Great result from Evonik to make this a very tough 3-way battle!
I guess the battle for top 5 with Moser, Gazelle and myself will be tough aswell!
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 28-06-2021 08:34
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That should see Andorra safe! Vanbilsen also doing a good job to keep his wage low.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| knockout |
Posted on 28-06-2021 09:11
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Huge, huge result for us. After seeing that Blythe puncture i felt like we might as well give up all our hopes for a result here but both he and the entire team pulled through with a fantastic performance from that point. Didnt really expect too much before the race because the profile looked a bit too hilly for Blythe so even better that he fought through here.
Insane team depth as well. Was expecting to see my depth be rather good as most of my support guys are well suited to such a hybrid route but their end results beats every expectation.
Not sure yet how the ranking situation looks at the top but gaining ~80 points in the remote duel with Isostar keeps our hopes alive.
Thanks for the report!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| knockout |
Posted on 28-06-2021 11:05
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tastasol wrote:
Big race for Evonik. Is there a way back for them in the title fight?
Still dreaming of it but realistically, its barely possible. Isostar should be ahead by 350 points now with Puma and Evonik head-to-head.
Calender wise, Puma and Isostar only have Tasmania and Lombardia left while i have Japan Cup as an additional race. Japan Cup will have a bit weaker startlist than most other hilly races due to the band it is in.
I'd say it's possible but the chances are very slim. I'd estimate that we'd probably have to score 200+ points in Japan and 300+ points in Lombardia which would both be huge numbers and even then i'm not sure if that would be enough to overtake Isostar since Tasmania should be the better race for them.
As for Puma, they probably would be lucky to beat me and would likely need some combination of Evonik failure, break success and/or a big Tasmania scoring from their allrounders to finish second but i see no way for them to challenge Isostar for the title even if they might actually be a couple of points ahead of me at this point. Their big leaders just dont have any good race days anymore.
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 28-06-2021 11:33
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tsmoha wrote:
tsmoha wrote:
Top-40 would already be a success for David at this point of the year. Maybe he fools me and goes for Top-30 for a change.
Obviously I was talking about Top-4 and a potential shot at the Top-3
Uh yeah me too when I quoted you and said same for Debesay
Great race from him, a shame his late gamble didn't work out or it'd be an absolutely massive one, but still 5th is a very good points haul at this point. Great to see him finally turn up on the cobbles when it matters, if we can pull a couple more of these results then we can maybe finally let ourselves dream high. That's right, I'm saying it...
Spoiler if everything goes right, we can maybe come 8th! 
Thanks for the report bbl, really enjoyed it
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 |
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