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Rund um Koln - Discussion
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 18-01-2025 02:21
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Directeur Sportif
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PCM$: 300.00
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 Rund um Koln
The Rund um Koln has had two eras in its history, the first ran from 2008 to 2013 mostly at lower levels, although there was one very famous winner in Tom Boonen. The race then went on hiatus until 2018 when it was revived and has run continuously since, first at the PTHC level and now at the PT level.
Last year this race was won by a late attack as Wisniowski, then with Aker, out-dueled Katrasnik, then with Trans, for the win. Both those riders are back but with new teams. Prior to that it had mostly gone to sprinters since its rebirth, although  Soren Kragh Andersen did defy the sprinters in 2022. While some big names sprinters like Ewan and Degenkolb have won this race none of the sprinters are back to go for two, so Wisniowski and Kragh Andersen are the only riders with a shot to become the first two-time winner.
If the roulers are to win again they will have to defy a very strong group of sprinters
| Rider | FL | SP | AC | HI | RS | ST |  Gaviria | 76 | 83 | 84 | 72 | 76 | 74 |  Grosu | 73 | 83 | 80 | 73 | 70 | 74 | | Groenewegen | 73 | 82 | 81 | 67 | 71 | 74 |  Cullaigh | 74 | 82 | 81 | 67 | 70 | 73 |  Dainese | 76 | 81 | 82 | 69 | 76 | 75 |  Philipsen | 74 | 81 | 80 | 69 | 70 | 74 |  Halvorsen | 76 | 81 | 80 | 65 | 71 | 74 |  Kanter | 75 | 81 | 80 | 67 | 73 | 75 |  Manninen | 74 | 81 | 80 | 66 | 75 | 71 |  Ahlstrand | 72 | 81 | 79 | 65 | 70 | 71 |  Samolenkov | 74 | 81 | 79 | 64 | 71 | 75 |  Kragh Andersen | 77 | 81 | 77 | 64 | 74 | 70 |  Kemboi | 78 | 80 | 80 | 64 | 77 | 74 |  Jakobsen | 74 | 80 | 80 | 67 | 73 | 75 |  Aniolkowski | 76 | 80 | 79 | 66 | 74 | 76 |  Hsu | 75 | 80 | 79 | 67 | 70 | 75 |  Groves | 75 | 80 | 79 | 72 | 73 | 75 |
Tour of Qatar winner Gaviria has to be the favorite, not only is he very fast at the finish, he has the best all-round secondary stats. In the second tier are Grosu, Groenewegen, Cullaigh, and Dainese. Each has strengths and weaknesses, Grosu is best in the hills and the fastest but the others are a little stronger in the other secondaries.
Behind these are a third tier any of whom could make an impression. Halvorsen did well Veenendaal to Veenendaal with a brave late attack. Kragh Andersen and Kemboi are both great on the flats and should arrive at the finish relatively fresh. Groves is the only one of a similar quality to Gaviria and Grosu in the hills. Aniolkowski has great secondaries and has shown the ability to beat the pro tour sprinters already this year. But any of these riders could win if they are on a good day and get some luck in what is likely to be a chaotic finish.
The finish is likely to be chaotic because the roulers will certainly view this race as a great chance to get one over on the sprinters. Top roulers in attendance include:
| Rider | FL | SP | AC | HI | RS | ST | FT | | Konychev | 82 | 76 | 75 | 67 | 78 | 77 | 76 |  Katrasnik | 81 | 63 | 72 | 63 | 76 | 72 | 81 | | Veyhe | 80 | 56 | 78 | 68 | 71 | 66 | 80 | | Wisniowski | 79 | 72 | 75 | 70 | 75 | 74 | 73 | | Nych | 78 | 65 | 76 | 67 | 72 | 75 | 84 | | Antonijevic | 78 | 71 | 74 | 66 | 74 | 67 | 80 | | Varga | 77 | 65 | 80 | 66 | 73 | 76 | 83 |  Pedersen | 77 | 78 | 77 | 69 | 80 | 78 | 75 | | Van den Berg | 77 | 71 | 70 | 64 | 77 | 77 | 75 |  Havik | 77 | 70 | 69 | 70 | 73 | 74 | 75 | | Cosnefroy | 76 | 69 | 69 | 71 | 81 | 78 | 81 |  Dversnes | 76 | 67 | 75 | 69 | 75 | 74 | 77 | | Robeet | 76 | 67 | 69 | 67 | 75 | 72 | 77 | | De Gendt | 76 | 65 | 69 | 73 | 75 | 77 | 77 |  Lampawog | 76 | 64 | 68 | 68 | 75 | 76 | 75 |
Three names catch the eye near the top of this list Konychev, Katrasnik, and Nych. That was the podium in Veenendaal, which is a similar race. In the Netherlands the three of them escaped together, caught and dropped the remaining breakaway riders and contested the finish with a small gap to the peloton. Wisniowski is back to try the same trick and could find himself in the company of his great cobbles rival, Pedersen. Antonijevic and Varga also have form for making late attacks stick. Veyhe is aggressive and strong on the flats but lacks the back up stats of the rest.
Former winner Soren Kragh Andersen doesn't make this list because he isn't as aggressive as the rest of this list, but he can't be written off.
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 18-01-2025 02:37
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World Champion
Posts: 11427
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1120.00
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Manninen if you feel like doing something good at all at any point this year just feel free to do 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."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 18-01-2025 02:40
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Tour de France Champion
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Ironically I think Per might have the best chance of my guys at a top results here, but if AKA has the race days I can't not send him. Hope that we can get a couple of depth guys in the top 50 maybe. I feel like there are a lot of lucky points up for grabs in these flat classics that we usually miss out on.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 18-01-2025 04:45
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Team Leader
Posts: 5551
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Our performance in one-day races recently has been pretty abysmal. Hopefully we can score a bit better here. Jakobsen ready if it comes down to a sprint and Cosnefroy to be aggressive near the end for a late attack. Fingers crossed!
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 18-01-2025 08:41
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7638
Joined: 04-07-2012
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Another wildcard race where an underperformance by one of our leaders will not be the end of the world
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| tastasol |
Posted on 18-01-2025 08:46
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2925
Joined: 11-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Hoping for something good!
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 18-01-2025 09:36
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World Champion
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Hopefully Grosu can continue our recent results done by Gerts and Formolo in the classics.
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 18-01-2025 11:46
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2671
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16th in 2022 and 14th last year, so an easy win for Samolenkov would be super logical.
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| knockout |
Posted on 18-01-2025 11:54
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7786
Joined: 21-12-2010
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Hard to have high expectations here when Kurianov/Dversnes and Sureda are our options here. But we'll see.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 18-01-2025 12:22
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3424
Joined: 20-04-2020
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Thanks for the nice preview, Ulrich.
Let's go Halvorsen!
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| ember |
Posted on 18-01-2025 13:13
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Team Leader
Posts: 6903
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Expect us to go all in for Groenewegen here. Fingers crossed we get it right! |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 20-01-2025 18:55
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| ryant |
Posted on 18-01-2025 20:07
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Small Tour Specialist
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A race thats almost too tough for a bunch sprint but of course we hope Cullaigh can be at the front of the race at the finish line!
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 18-01-2025 21:32
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4774
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I hope Groves is finally due a good classic result, being clearly below par in MSR and Veenendaal. His skills look great, up to him to prove them in the race.
Thanks for the preview, good luck to all!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 19-01-2025 03:54
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16488
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Interesting finale there. A bit disappointed in AKA, who had a good wheel and just seemed to lose it and run out of gas in the finale. Still, he finishes ahead of a lot of guys with similar skillsets, so no complaints.
The big boon for us is Per. Think this is the first time he and a sprinter have shared a flat classic where he was actually attentive and towards the front in the end, and it clearly paid off. His 10th and AKA's 11th essentially make this as if we got a 5-6th place, considering we'd usually only have one guy place here. Add a couple more guys snaking into the top 50, and I'd say this was a good race for us overall.
Congrats to jandal on getting his Manninen win, and thanks for another great report Ulrich!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| ember |
Posted on 19-01-2025 06:11
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Team Leader
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That was a super strong Groenewegen! Opening the sprint more than 1 kilometer from the line, and holding it for a whole kilometer and still finishing 5th... I'm mighty impressed. Admittedly I'm also thinking that was a golden opportunity for a race win missed, but wow he was strong.
Having Kragh add depth with 9th place, and a very fast finish, is very nice.
Congratulations on the Manninen win, jandal! And thank you for the report, UU. It definitely got hectic towards the end! |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 19-01-2025 08:54
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2925
Joined: 11-09-2010
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A bit meh from Pedersen in the flat classics this season. Seems like he isn't that interested in the attacks and then it kind of fizzles out with something between 12th and 20th. I'm guessing he's just classified as a sprinter by the game.
Nice win for MM, congrats jandal 
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 19-01-2025 09:16
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World Champion
Posts: 13954
Joined: 05-08-2008
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Well, that's a bad result. A real shame no one was there to help Grosu in the finale given we had our "A" train here, the same one that did wonders in Qatar.
Congrats, jandal!
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 19-01-2025 09:36
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7638
Joined: 04-07-2012
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I'm glad this was a PT race because this was pathetic...
Congrats jandal and thanks UU for the report!
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 19-01-2025 09:59
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World Champion
Posts: 11427
Joined: 17-12-2014
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jandal7 wrote:
Manninen if you feel like doing something good at all at any point this year just feel free to do it
That's the Matti Manninen I knew was in there - the guy I was willing to trade "Mr. Xero" George Bennett to get. Hope this is a good sign for the season going forward and not the only good memory we'll have of his 2024. If he can find his form, then my confidence in our survival swells.
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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| ember |
Posted on 19-01-2025 10:50
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Team Leader
Posts: 6903
Joined: 27-03-2008
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jandal7 wrote:
jandal7 wrote:
Manninen if you feel like doing something good at all at any point this year just feel free to do it
If he can find his form, then my confidence in our title push swells.
Fixed that for you  |
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