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Tour of Qatar - Discussion
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-12-2024 07:28
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| ember |
Posted on 19-10-2024 08:07
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At least we put on another great leadout for all other sprinters. Just a pity the leadout includes Groenewegen again too.
Congratulations, bbl! |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 19-10-2024 10:23
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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
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 19-10-2024 11:25
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Guess we had our lucky day today, 4th by Groves is obviously a huge result looking at the GC! One more similar result would be fantastic - but looking at how many stronger sprinters are yet to get their top stage result, I can't really expect him to go for the podium again. Only thing I could be hoping for would be a breakaway participation, but you can't bet on those anyway.
Congrats to Carlsberg, but also to Rabobank for extending the GC lead. Really strong first half by Grosu!
Thanks for the reports.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 19-10-2024 11:50
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One 7th place being the total contribution of the first 3 stages is far worse than I could have even imagined... and with the prologue no longer being 6km, I suspect our chances of the GC win here are long gone. |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 19-10-2024 15:54
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Huge sprint by AKA! Winning at the very top of the sport in his final season at peak form. Been watching this guy do it for over a decade, and it brings a tear to my eye to see him finishing his career strong. Got himself in a good spot there, and his flat and resistance (I assume) once again helped. I was quite worried he'd crack, but it didn't happen luckily.
Also a huge stage win (obviously) for the GC, since now we can afford to lose the lottery a couple more times and still have a chance at the top 10. But let's hope for more! One more good sprint and we have a legit chance at top 5 GC here, which would be tremendous in this field.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 19-10-2024 17:02
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Our train so good it even delivers our rivals to a stage win. It's not great to lose time to the main rival, but it's good to see Gaviria taking a win as well.
Looks like we are set for a very good GC. Depending on the outcome of the next stage, Grosu could even win the thing.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 19-10-2024 17:11
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Tough one after the stage win, but obviously could be worse (very tough race for Groenewegen). Things were just a little too bunched up and that doesn't favor AKA's lack of acceleration.
Hoping for one more good sprint tomorrow to set us up nice for the GC.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 19-10-2024 17:13
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Absolutely dismal, even if with a stage win and some good fortune we'll be lucky to get a top 5 here. Seems to be an issue of following the leadout train (good) and then getting held up by the rider in front fading (bad). If we can't even get a good result in Qatar then it will be a very long season I suspect! |
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| ember |
Posted on 19-10-2024 19:43
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Thank you for the report and also the pace, UU!
It's a pity we always go to the very front so early and all alone. I'm sure we would have a much better chance if we weren't that dominant at the front, as it costs a lot of energy for the sprinter to be out in the wind like that, eventhough he's only following a wheel.
Nice to see the two top dogs get it right. Not so great for the next three, Cullaigh, Groenewegen and Dainese, to say it mildly. One final chance to get it right, though! |
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| ryant |
Posted on 19-10-2024 21:30
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Hard to say anything nice at this point :/
Its good to see that a sprint favourite can win stages with the changes to stage design so congrats on that point Ulrich and co
John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25
Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 19-10-2024 21:33
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One second gained is better than no second gained, so still a good result by Groves. Guess he'll have to readjust his positioning strategy, though. With the 2023 wide roads he'd probably have been able to challenge for the Top 5 again. Picking a good sprinter's wheel isn't enough anymore, you have to be close enough to the front. Plenty of races left to train that.
Some more seconds might be needed or Groves likely won't be our highest GC finisher if nothing weird happens on S5.
Congrats to Moser and Rabobank for their really consistent results, as said by Ulrich this looks to be the duel for the GC win.
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 20-10-2024 10:42
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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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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 20-10-2024 11:46
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Solid consistency by Jakobsen and hope he can keep this going!!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 20-10-2024 17:33
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Huge stage for AKA to get some time bonuses there when a lot of other favorites did not. When I saw 7th on the stage, I didn't expect to be in 4th on GC. Absolutely no way to complain about that in this field.
Excited for the epilogue now. Even with the short distance, the 16 points of prologue difference between AKA and Aniolkowski should be enough to get 9 seconds back. Hayakawa won't be a threat, and Halvorsen shouldn't gain time either. Manninen is the only one within range who is better than AKA, unless Kemboi goes insane. Can't get too ahead of myself, but 3rd place on GC seems like a legitimate possibility, and a top 5 should be the expectation unless AKA really flops. Should be an exciting finish!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 20-10-2024 18:06
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baseballlover312 wrote:
Huge stage for AKA to get some time bonuses there when a lot of other favorites did not. When I saw 7th on the stage, I didn't expect to be in 4th on GC. Absolutely no way to complain about that in this field.
Excited for the epilogue now. Even with the short distance, the 16 points of prologue difference between AKA and Aniolkowski should be enough to get 9 seconds back. Hayakawa won't be a threat, and Halvorsen shouldn't gain time either. Manninen is the only one within range who is better than AKA, unless Kemboi goes insane. Can't get too ahead of myself, but 3rd place on GC seems like a legitimate possibility, and a top 5 should be the expectation unless AKA really flops. Should be an exciting finish!
If Kemboi makes the top 15 that would be a success - 4km is far too short to make more than 5-10 seconds difference for anyone except the worst prologue riders, so AKA should be well ahead of him.
Waste of 6 RDs from our perspective in a race that should be perfect for Kemboi. Looks like on multiple occasions here he picked the right wheel only for the train in front of him to collapse, which is not something you can really do much about. Can start considering offers for him now at least, as the massive point score we needed here to stand a chance of staying up is looking more like less than 100 points  |
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| Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 20-10-2024 18:29
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It’s the hope that kills you… thankfully Dainese has been consistently bad
Not looking good for our survival chances if this is the level we can expect from Dainese this season.
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 20-10-2024 19:19
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Aker derailying our train just so they can finally deliver Groenewegen to a top 10
Finishing second (especially behind Gaviria) is a great result here for Grosu, but losing out on two jerseys like this after having them since the second stage is a bit annoying.
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| ember |
Posted on 20-10-2024 20:30
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Ouch, sorry, alexkr! 
I really thought, hoped and expected us to at least get one stage with a result here. 10th as our clearly best sprint doesn't quite cut it...
Fingers crossed Kragh's morale is still high and he's up for the epilogue. Would be a pity to see his more than a full year streak of being undefeated in prologues/epilogues get destroyed here. That would really be heartbreaking combined with our hopeless sprints |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 20-10-2024 20:57
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Hum... Obviously not happy with Groves getting trapped by Rabobank's mishap, but alas. Seeing two PCT sprinters who aren't any better than Kaden getting a win each somewhat stings, but still, compared to the awful results by quite some top sprinters, nothing to complain about. Still, it's a huge chance to score big that goes down the drain. Looking at last year's result, Groves will lose 16-20" tomorrow, probably only just finishing inside the Top 30 in GC. Which means that Chavanne should be our best bet for the GC now; a Top 15 could be possible with some luck.
Generally speaking, I guess we were on the rather lucky side after all, with Groves getting one good result, and the splits being undone by the judges today.
Congrats to Everesting on a surprising stage win, and to Moser on the GC. Commiserations to Rabobank throwing a lot out of the window on the last occasion. And to all the top sprinter teams whose leader was unreasonably bad.
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 20-10-2024 21:03
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Really enjoying the coverage of the mass sprints Ulrich Ulriksen, great pictures.
3rd, 6th, 10th, 17th and 8th for Samolenkov... not too bad. Now it's time for Zakarin, Razumov, Yatsevich, Goldstein and Vlasov to collect those much needed points, let's go Tinkoff!
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