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Tour of the Middle East - Discussion
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 22-11-2024 02:37
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 3265
Joined: 02-11-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Welcome to the 11th, and possibly last, edition of the Tour of the Middle East. The riders arrive with rumors swirling that Malaysia has made a lucrative cash offer to the mangame UCI to bring back the Tour of Langkawi, and this race is on the chopping block. Of course, it’s all rumors and with new Middle Eastern teams in the peloton and the locals knowing a lot about lucrative cash offers things could still change.
The TOME started in 2013 but is only in its 11th edition because it took 2017 off. Since the last race this reporting team covered went by without a single McCormick reference, we will get it out of the way early here, by noting that Sepp Kuss one this race for McCormick in 2021. Since then, it has been won by Bjorn Tore Hoem and William Chiarello. Of course, everything was won by Chiarello last year. The race has some quality in its history with Kudus (twice) and Pluchkin as former winners.
The race is the essence of a stage race (minus an IT), with 2 sprints, 1 hilly stage and a big mountain to finish. This year it will have the honor of being the first to test the new bonus second system whereby riders finishing 4th to 8th on each stage will receive time bonuses (1st to 8th: 20-12-8-6-4-3-2-1).
 Jorgenson is this year’s Chiarello and he is looking to continue his dominance here. He has to contend with three 80 mountain riders.  Seboka is probably not a threat and  Carapaz didn’t come close to Jorgenson in Catalunya but with no TT’s on the menu  Bennett has to be a serious contender.
The lack of TTs also suits  Preidler and  Smith as well, both of whom should be good on the hilly stage, Smith will look to use his stronger finish to take bonus seconds on that stage.  Penasa and  Munoz will hope to make the difference on the mountain stage while  Lunke is not as strong an overall climber as those 4 but has strong secondary stats.  Iturria is another rider with slightly lower climbing capabilities but strong secondaries. He won stage 4 last year.
In addition to the riders shown below there is a very deep field of climbers both mountain goats and more hybrid riders.
| Rider | FL | MT | HI | RS | SP | AC | | Bennett | 66 | 80 | 75 | 73 | 64 | 72 | | Carapaz | 69 | 80 | 71 | 76 | 56 | 65 | | Seboka | 61 | 80 | 62 | 70 | 52 | 67 | | Jorgenson | 73 | 79 | 75 | 78 | 65 | 71 | | Penasa | 69 | 79 | 73 | 70 | 56 | 74 | | Munoz | 66 | 79 | 73 | 72 | 56 | 71 | | Preidler | 66 | 78 | 76 | 74 | 50 | 66 | | Smith | 69 | 78 | 75 | 74 | 66 | 74 | | Berhane | 65 | 78 | 72 | 69 | 59 | 63 | | Lunke | 69 | 78 | 72 | 74 | 60 | 65 | | Madrazo | 61 | 78 | 69 | 70 | 56 | 62 | | Manfredi | 69 | 78 | 65 | 73 | 62 | 73 | | Chamorro | 65 | 77 | 74 | 74 | 65 | 72 | | Rochas | 67 | 77 | 74 | 70 | 61 | 73 | | Iturria | 71 | 77 | 73 | 74 | 60 | 61 | | Pronskiy | 65 | 77 | 73 | 72 | 61 | 73 | | Schleck | 64 | 77 | 73 | 71 | 52 | 73 |  Munoz | 64 | 77 | 73 | 69 | 57 | 70 | | Borisavljevic | 68 | 77 | 73 | 74 | 59 | 65 |  Vanhoucke | 71 | 77 | 72 | 72 | 67 | 68 | | Ablenado | 66 | 77 | 66 | 76 | 50 | 64 |
A few punchy riders have shown up who won’t compete on the last stage but could steal the bonus seconds on the hilly stage (although a GC man has taken the hilly stage the last two years). They include:
| Rider | FL | MT | HI | RS | SP | AC | | Waeytens | 69 | 70 | 79 | 68 | 65 | 71 |  Morin | 70 | 65 | 78 | 73 | 69 | 76 | | Yates | 71 | 65 | 78 | 74 | 62 | 69 | | Lafay | 66 | 75 | 77 | 72 | 63 | 74 | | Zordan | 67 | 73 | 77 | 72 | 65 | 74 | | Serrano | 69 | 72 | 77 | 75 | 68 | 77 | | Skjerping | 67 | 70 | 77 | 67 | 58 | 65 | | Carr | 68 | 70 | 77 | 71 | 59 | 72 | | Izagirre | 67 | 70 | 77 | 66 | 56 | 58 |
Morin and Serrano are the best finishers in this group while Lafay might hope to compete in the overall.
With two sprint days out of 4 race days, a number of sprinters have made the trip:
| Rider | FL | SP | AC | RS | | Carsi | 70 | 80 | 82 | 69 | | Zariff | 70 | 80 | 80 | 67 | | Willwohl | 73 | 79 | 78 | 67 |  Riabushenko | 76 | 79 | 77 | 74 | | Welten | 76 | 79 | 75 | 71 | | Scott | 72 | 78 | 78 | 71 | | Gibbons | 75 | 78 | 78 | 72 | | Altanzul | 72 | 78 | 75 | 73 | | Zhao | 74 | 77 | 81 | 74 | | Barbier | 75 | 77 | 79 | 71 | | Hofstetter | 74 | 77 | 78 | 71 | | Van der Sande | 73 | 77 | 76 | 70 |  McLay | 73 | 77 | 76 | 72 | | Vingerling | 69 | 77 | 76 | 63 | | Houle | 76 | 77 | 75 | 68 |
Carsi and Zariff are the best on paper but neither of them is known for their toughness. Riabushenko is a much tougher customer and after a very poor 2023 he will be looking to make a difference this year. Not a lot of great lead outs but Willwohl has Reinhardt and Stalberg.
18 teams on the start line including 3 from the PCT in Benetton, Sony – Force India and Kraftwerk.
Startlist
 
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 22-11-2024 07:48
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Team Leader
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This could be where Bennett starts to makes his big dent into the CT. This race is really perfect for him and with his performance in both the hills and Mountains in Tachira he could do really well here! Jorgensen will be a tough competitor but it will be a really interesting race I think with no TT
Also hoping Scott can do well in the sprints as well!
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 22-11-2024 08:55
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11677
Joined: 27-07-2015
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First of two C2 races for us. Lots of chances for breakaways with no top contender anywhere. Lets see how it goes. Everything is a bonus.
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| Booker |
Posted on 22-11-2024 10:15
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 875
Joined: 03-07-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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This is one of only a couple of genuine opportunities for Smith and others to challenge Jorgenson in the C2 calendar. Looking forward to seeing what he can do, as well as our sprint train (which has come in force) on the first two stages.
This is a prioritised race for us, though regrettably not a goal race.
Side note: if the Middle East (Oman, UAE, etc) is struggling to compete with Malaysia for cash, we must be living in an alternative reality 
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 22-11-2024 12:11
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8059
Joined: 22-06-2009
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One of two stage races for Jorgenson this season without a race against the clock. Will be interesting to see if he can still find a way to win like the man he is trying to match from last season (Chiarello).
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| hillis91 |
Posted on 22-11-2024 12:44
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Team Leader
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No time trail or team time trail for us to steal time.
Let's see if we can sneak away with a decent amount of points here.
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| Caspi |
Posted on 22-11-2024 12:47
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Neo-Pro
Posts: 372
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Regrettably, this is a goal race for us.
Hope the team rides for Carpenter on S3, and that Manfredi or Seboka loses enough time to be allowed in the breakaway on S4.
I should have brought one more leadout man for Zariff, but he should still be able to podium at least once.
Excited to see how the race unfolds, despite our low expectations 
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| Imladrik |
Posted on 22-11-2024 14:03
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 810
Joined: 05-10-2021
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Hard to say what to expect for this one. We sure aren't favorites and should not repeat last season's feat, but Iturria has strong support.
Would like to see Hofstetter and Lafay take some points too!
Thanks for the preview, excited to see where it goes.
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
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| Dippofix |
Posted on 23-11-2024 09:03
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3906
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Very good effort from Gibbo, happy with a podium here. Hopefully Penasa can do something similar in the mountains and we'll be laughing.
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 23-11-2024 11:44
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8059
Joined: 22-06-2009
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Wham, bam, thank you Bram! His first victory in his third season with our team.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 03:02
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 23-11-2024 11:55
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Team Leader
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Not a bad 7th place. Picks up a point or 2 in stage one so that’s a decent start considering stages 3 and 4 are our goals.
Congrats to the winner and thanks for the report
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 23-11-2024 19:21
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3215
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Minimal expectations here in a stacked field. Carapaz to win for me feels safe he was pretty good in Catalunya in the mountains with Jorgenson 2nd. Though it wouldn't surprise me if whoever attacks first on the final mountain wins given we've had two stage winners in Tachira and Catalunya doing that.
Houle good stage 1 5th feels about right for him in this field |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 24-11-2024 04:33
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World Champion
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A race special to Bennett for his first PCT win back in 2018 as a relatively unheralded 78/76 guy pre-training in a deep PCT field, he did a rangy attack on the penultimate climb of the (formerly much tougher) Stage 3 and took the win and yellow. Since training some good GC results and maybe a bad one too iirc. Hope he can finally take the GC victory here for Spark
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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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 24-11-2024 05:26
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Team Leader
Posts: 7297
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Good to see Scott contesting the sprint point but no point if your out of energy for the final sprint.
As Jandal just said, Go Bennett!!
Congrats to the winner of stage 2 and another excellent report!
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 24-11-2024 12:39
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11677
Joined: 27-07-2015
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Disappointing couple of stages with no one joining the break despite us having no real competitors for the sprint. Kooistra did fine with a Top 10 of stage 2.
Congrats to the winners so far and thanks for the reports Ulrich
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| Caspi |
Posted on 24-11-2024 13:22
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Neo-Pro
Posts: 372
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What the journalists saw in our team bus after Zariff blew up with 200 m to go:
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| Dippofix |
Posted on 24-11-2024 21:01
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3906
Joined: 29-01-2013
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Great stuff from Gibbo to snatch third out of nowhere. Slowly winning me over after nearly causing our whole team to go bust in the transfer season
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Tour of the Middle East 
