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Volta a Portugal Discussion
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| ember |
Posted on 16-10-2023 09:57
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Hmm, no stage result is disappointing, I must admit, as we're here primarily for stage results. A bit worrying to see Mohoric work his socks off at the front of the peloton, possibly to defend Kragh's jersey. Had hoped he would rather be allowed to chase results himself.
The positive is that Kragh keeps the jersey, and he probably will for at least another stage, seeing the flat rated stage 4 coming up.
Thank you for the report and the pace they're coming with, UU! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 16-10-2023 11:13
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Our riders seem to struggle to get results. 5 riders within the s.t. is pretty good GC wise though, and with Giannoutsos in 4th atm there is atleast something to hope for.
There's a lot of riders in the top 10 that shouldn't be anywhere near that by the end of the race, so who knows if we can actually get a solid result.
It was a bit of a bummer though to see Spanopoulos be the one missing out, as he had a solid shot of a top 20. Way ahead of Soulious, Kastrantas and Miltiadis atleast.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 16-10-2023 11:18
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Not too surprising that the stage didn't result in any big gaps. Meintjes as the best placed of the GC riders makes me optimistic, but I doubt that stage 5 will be much different. Still, here's hoping! One more sprint stage to get through first, maybe we can get into the breakaway?
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| cio93 |
Posted on 16-10-2023 17:45
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YES! A perfect stage from start to finish. 
I appreciate the kind comments.
I wasn't sure whether Madouas' skills would suffice in this race with quite hefty puncheur opposition, but the first signing of Rutsch in the chase gave me hope already.
Over the last climbs, we positioned ourselves at the front in numbers I didn't expect from this rather barebones squad, and Valentin found the wheel to be in and capitalized on all that preparation expertly!
Gotta wonder if this is him saying "look, you should've invested in me!" or if it rather works out to a "I'm actually good enough as is, why did you even consider". 
Let's see if we can aim for the leader's jersey before the TT, but even if Madouas stays where he is and just rides solidly for the rest of the race, I'm very happy with the outcome considering I prefaced this race with "we gotta be here".
I do hope our KoM opportunists Egger and Fortunato utilize their time loss today to get our jersey into breakaways now though.
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| quadsas |
Posted on 16-10-2023 19:14
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Points scored in all three stages, survived the splits, pretty good start, need some breakaway appearances though
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 17-10-2023 04:46
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I'll definitely take a top 5 from Sureda there. After stage 2 I didn't think he was gonna sprint at all. A few more of those throughout the year and he'll justify his 50k salary.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 17-10-2023 07:52
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It's great to be walking away from this race with a stage win and not any stage win, but Van der Kooij first career win
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 17-10-2023 08:12
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Congratulations alex! This time it's van der kooij, in a couple of seasons you a forget about the 'van der' 
Quispe tried, but alas. He does stay in the lead together with Chiu, but I see Chiu takes over the jersey for the next stage. Sharing is caring I guess! Hopefully this doesn't withhold Quispe from attacking again.
Thanks for another great report, Ulrich!
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 17-10-2023 09:04
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No sprinter and no time lost. Excellent result 
Congrats to the winners so far and excellent reports!
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 17-10-2023 09:26
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At least we're scoring some points now, but very passive race from us so far.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| ember |
Posted on 17-10-2023 10:23
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Kragh still in the jersey is a very nice surprise, and the big positive so far for us. Now we really need to go for it on the hills, and let Kragh do his own race without commiting domestiques to him. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 12:21
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| knockout |
Posted on 17-10-2023 11:02
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Grand Tour Champion
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Not a fan of how the ai used dzama and skujins here to 1) try to push the split in the final and 2) go for the long leadout.
I think it should decide for one of those plans because not even they will have enough energy for both. Still cool to see them active
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| roturn |
Posted on 17-10-2023 11:21
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Vingerling with the next great performance. One spot close to get the big bang here with the GC lead even. He is really adding the scoring here nicely with the stage and GC performances and already has scored more than the season expectations.
Seeing Matthews in the favourites list, I wasn`t expecting to see Vingerling sprinting but the game and preview window seems to have different ideas and so far, it is working out nicely.
Congrats to alexkr for the win and thanks for the report! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 17-10-2023 11:58
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1 point in the bank.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 18-10-2023 05:05
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Got a little iffy there at the end. We were well placed throughout the stage, but not on the final climb. I especially don't like how far back Kamna finished.
That said, everyone finished on the same time, and all is well. AI still seems to like us, so if we had some bad legs today, it was a good day to have them.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 18-10-2023 05:23
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The entire team waiting for Van der Kooij
Hopefully they are just practicing helping out a Kooij when he's in trouble
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 18-10-2023 08:31
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Interesting to see Ndayisenga active in the finale after Meintjes' attack fell short, and he even collects a point for it. Good to see the aggressiveness, but as expected no time gaps in the end. Louis should be one of the top favorites for tomorrow, but I'm a bit worried that, if there aren't any significant gaps again, he'll be fairly far behind after the time trial going into the final stage, and I'm not sure how he'll handle that. But I guess we'll find out. Congrats Oleg on a nice win by Skujins!
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| SotD |
Posted on 18-10-2023 08:45
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Our riders are so extremely inactive. We are yet to feature in a breakaway at all this season, and our leaders doesn't participate in the sprint or attacks towards the end.
I guess I'll just have to look at the resultlists and ignore that we are an actual part of the races.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 18-10-2023 09:03
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Another near miss from Hayakawa. We weren't expecting a flurry of wins when we decided to hire him but rather consistency in sprints, so I guess we can be happy with these results.
Kinda disappointed at the hilly stage. Arndt was 2nd favourite, but was never at the front. Guerreiro was in the mix but never really looked fresh enough to fight for the stage. The team was all pretty packed at the front of the race, but the absence of gaps makes this stage another lost opportunity for us.
Congrats to the stage victors and thanks for the pace of the reports!
Side note: it seems like Rachid isn't wearing the  Lebanon NC kit. This has happened for the last couple of years. Any chance I can get that looked at?
Edited by Gustavovskiy on 18-10-2023 11:20
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 18-10-2023 09:05
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Madrazo is looking good at the moment! I'm really excited to get to the longer ITT and the mountain stage!
Congrats to the winners so far and again excellent reports!
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