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Tour of Northern Europe - Discussion
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 04-05-2025 10:05
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 12680
Joined: 27-07-2015
PCM$: 1961.50
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This ToNE route is fire!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 04-05-2025 10:40
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3030
Joined: 11-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Supberb riding from the team and Pedersen. Surprised to see himself being active and getting such a good placement on the stage, leading the Gerts group over the line. That puts us in a very good position before tomorrow, so we just have to hope for a similar day. Seemingly the AI at least sees him as a GC rider, so that promising.
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| knockout |
Posted on 04-05-2025 10:52
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8235
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 500.00
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I agree. Most cobblers are doing well but lots of different types of riders are competing with them which is exactly what a ToNE route should be imo. Good job there!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 04-05-2025 12:45
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5234
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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Was hoping for just a little bit more by Schmid - but definitely can't blame him for losing out to Stannard, Vansevenant and Higuita. Geniets the only one ahead of him he should've beaten, but alas.
Hopefully the final stage with the longer climb will allow him to gap the more "pure" puncheurs; with the podium goal sadly being out of reach due to the stage 5 blunder (really hate those splits on flat stages, feels like they're only given when we're on the wrong side ^^), making the Top 10 is the bare minimum goal now.
Decent job by Küng and Theuns, although I wonder why Pedersen or Cosnefroy made the split and they didn't... Need to be more attentive tomorrow!
Congrats to Gustav, hopefully Stannard has more of the same left for races where it really matters!
Thanks for the report.
In terms of route design, I was surprised by the selectivity of the cobbles stage, but as I wrote three days ago, I guess the pack just more or less sat up at some point (hence the pretty big group). Just the split on the flat stage is bad, but I guess that's the AI that has to be blamed, not the race designer(s)!
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 04-05-2025 13:31
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1120.00
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Stannard!!! 
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
1x  x1
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 05-05-2025 02:55
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 3914
Joined: 02-11-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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A few notes on the race, read the Stage 7 report before you read this, if you haven't already.
Glad people liked the course.
One improvement of PCM 22 over 20 is it rides cobbles in a stage race much more aggressively. In testing I had to keep making the cobbles stage easier to avoid wiping out the non-cobblers all together. However, I still don't think the AI considers cobbles a GC skill. See for example, Altur protected Ardila and Vansevenant was favored over Van Hoydonck. I think some of the reason for weak chase on the cobbled stage was that Wirtgen was considered the race favorite because of his TT and nobody was willing to help EA. But they don't factor in the kind of gaps that can open on the cobbles.
Unfortunately, not much we can do about the splits on flat stages, without a huge time gap setting which would be tricky to implement. The game already is pretty generous in scoring gaps, i think because Cyanide knows they happen too easily. From a planning perspective having a top sprinter can help because it gets you more representation at the front. And they do typically protect at least the GC top 5.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| ember |
Posted on 05-05-2025 04:21
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Team Leader
Posts: 7057
Joined: 27-03-2008
PCM$: 900.00
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Good to see we tried for the breakaway on stage 6 and 7, with Swift getting into it on the final stage. The hilly stages played out in a cool way with the puncheurs really making a difference. The top 10 GC looks cool, I would say, which is a testament to the course! Good work on putting it together. We will definitely try again with a cobbler, I suspect, hoping to be «lucky» to gain enough time in the cobbles to be from then on considered a GC rider 
Congratulations on massive races to both alex and tastasol! Very curious to see how this affects the standings. Also thank you for great reports, UU. They have been exciting and interesting to follow. |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 05-05-2025 05:04
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3030
Joined: 11-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Almost embarrassing to see how good of a climber Pedersen became the last few stages. Of course, this isn't the toughest climbs around, but really punching above his weight looking at the hill stat alone. Probably helped to some degree that Gerts was in such a dominant lead compared to the more pure puncheurs, as I can imagine Pedersen would have been tested more if he was in the lead himself.
Anyway a big, big result for us. Even some good depth scoring with a bunch of guys top 50 and Abrahamsen all the way up in 20th. An even bigger race for Rabobank of course, and it probably looks like a three horse race together with Moser now. Oxxo scoring some points in the hills here for example with Higuita and Cedevita with the KoM, but I guess they are still not completely safe.
Think we should be in at around 5500 now, but the hilly races in the end won't give much for us. Instead Rheden will be huge for us. We have sometimes struggled there, because it ends up in a large group after our main guy has used too much energy to force a selection. Probably need a podium there this time around to give us the needed breathing space.
Thanks for the reports and congrats on the win, Alex. The best rider around for this race, so a very deserved win.
Edited by tastasol on 05-05-2025 05:09
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 05-05-2025 05:20
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16552
Joined: 27-07-2011
PCM$: 13638.70
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First of all, congrats to Rabobank! Gerts is the perfect winner for this race, and he lived up to expectations for once.
Obviously, I'm thrilled with Per's performance. I have absolutely no idea how he managed to do so well on the hills, especially without any team support, but I will obviously take it. Hold onto the podium from some charging puncheurs and stage racers took an insane effort, and he was up to the challenge. After last year, I came in with low expectations, but Per blew them out of the water to snag a podium here. One more race for him in Battenkill, but he's certainly already had another phenomenal year.
Our lack of any depth is gonna keep this from being a great scoring race for us, but we didn't really bring anyone who should have scored some depth points besides Meiler. Will be interesting where this puts us in the top 10 fight, given that we only have a couple races left now (and some of the teams around us have more).
Thanks for the awesome reports Ulrich!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| redordead |
Posted on 05-05-2025 07:32
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Team Leader
Posts: 5511
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Definitely a cool race and a big improvement on previous editions 
For us it looked it like it was going to be a slightly underwhelming race, but then like a few times this season we were able to find those extra points via the KOM and actually winning it in the end. Good stuff! 
Thanks for the reports and congrats to Rabobank on the win and securing another season in PT
"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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| Fabianski |
Posted on 05-05-2025 07:49
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5234
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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Question: How dumb can the game engine be?
Answer: Yes.
Schmid is just broken in stage races. Lost 4'10" to Vansevenant - who he should've been able to keep up with (or lose just the 20" others did on stage 7) on the last 3 days. Instead of finishing 5th/6th, it's 13th. No clue why, but we got definitely screwed up by the AI here, big points lost.
Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
From a planning perspective having a top sprinter can help because it gets you more representation at the front.
Well, Bol was considered a top 5 sprinter on all flat stages, didn't help at all on S5. It did on S1/2, though, so I guess the engine just decided to hate us in the 2nd half of the race.
I was really looking forward to the race, it turned out to be a completely awful one. Had I not yet decided to continue, I'd quit now. Not because of the results, but because of the engine to be so horribly bad that it's just not fun following.
Congrats to whoever won the race, I haven't even looked at the details after this bad joke.
Thanks for the report, even though I'd prefer not having read it.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 05-12-2025 14:55
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 05-05-2025 08:48
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Team Leader
Posts: 6174
Joined: 20-07-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Really glad to see Stannard take back to back wins the two hilly stages. Makes the off-season dedication to his development feel less of a failure than what our season as been telling us. These were his 2nd and 3rd victories of the season, which combined with Hayakawa's triumph in Qatar, makes it the 3rd WC victory in a total of 5 for the season.
Would like to back the idea of the route. I've never been too focused on this race, but the COB-HIL balance seems to have been perfected this year. Congrats and thanks for the work (UU, I think?). Masterful reports as well, thanks for them as well.
Finally congrats, alex. Gerts gets a duly deserved win here. Well done!
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 05-05-2025 09:51
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World Champion
Posts: 13560
Joined: 05-08-2008
PCM$: 400.00
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Thanks guys!
Very happy to not only finally have a good result in this race by Gerts but actually winning it. And in a moment where we really needed a huge result. And in the last season he is maxed out. Couldn't have picked a better moment.
The rankings at the relegation line must be really interesting at the moment.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 05-05-2025 10:10
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2797
Joined: 20-04-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Congrats Alex! Great win by Gerts
This turned out to be a good ToNE for us, especially within the context of the title race.
Aleotti was mister consistent. Hardly showed up on the radar, but he managed to avoid losing a lot of time on all of the different terrains. This way he gradually climbed up all the way to 8th in GC and 3d in the YC
Malecki got caught in one of the flat splits and lost a lot of time in the first hilly stage after a naive attack. So he wasn't doing too great. But a solid final stage performance saw him rise back up to 14th in GC.
Thanks for the reports UU! Great job. And I agree that this ToNE route worked well.
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| Bikex |
Posted on 05-05-2025 11:14
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Team Leader
Posts: 7385
Joined: 25-08-2012
PCM$: 600.00
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Not happy with how this race turned out at all. I felt like with DvB who was 2nd last year and got top 10s in previous years I had one of the riders better suited for the race. In the end none of my riders is even in the top 30.
Thanks for the reports and congrats alex! |
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 05-05-2025 11:20
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3837
Joined: 20-04-2020
PCM$: 425.00
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Higuita tried, and got two decent stage results. A bit of a shame and just classic for us this season to see him lose more time on a flat non-cobbled stage, than he is able to gain on two (hard) hilly stages 
Pcm just isn't able to handle a big load of teams with good leaders, and definitely not on a route like this. Just really getting annoying that we're consequently getting handed the kind of worst possible outcome in almost every race this season
Big races for Rabobank and Grieg, potentially sealing survival for another season for both of them, so congratulations on that! Nice to see two active managers rewarded, if not for survival at least already for big scoring in this race.
Although in the end most of it was rather painful to read, I'm glad it was brought to us in such a fantastic way yet again, so thank you Ulrich for some heartbreaking yet wonderful reports
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| roturn |
Posted on 05-05-2025 12:47
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Team Manager
Posts: 22043
Joined: 24-11-2007
PCM$: 3900.00
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A few days away from home and suddenly missing couple of races.
While Van Hooydonck and Vansevenant did pretty similar in the first half, I was a bit worried to see Vansevenant as expected though being 2nd of the GC riders there.
The sprinter split? on stage 5 though worked wonders moving Vansvenant to 11th GC and the clear GC leader for the team with 2 puncheur stages to go.
Those were almost played to perfection, despite not being able to drop the top cobblers, that got a big gap on that stage, enough and who the heck is Stannard and why did he show up that much here?
Vansvenant twice beaten by him, but at least he always was up there one of the main initiating guys to deliver big gaps.
Moving up to 4th in the final GC is all good and shows his class here, good choice to pick him here over Van Hooydonck alone due to the puncheur stages. Later dropped quite a bit outside the top50 even.
Add minor points in P and KoM competition as also winning the U25 over Pidcock (rivalry!) this race was a nice success.
Thanks for reporting and congrats alexkr for those much needed points obviously! |
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| knockout |
Posted on 05-05-2025 14:40
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8235
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 500.00
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As feared before the race, we lost further ground on Gazelle and also Tinkoff which means we should focus on the fight for 3rd now. Luckily most other teams in that fight also struggled here which means that fight is still wide open.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 05-05-2025 14:43
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Team Leader
Posts: 5568
Joined: 12-06-2013
PCM$: 500.00
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A slow but sure downhill slide from Cosnefroy from fighting at the edge of the Top 5 to only just holding onto the Top 10 in the end with 9th. A very different route which didn't suit him in that the Hills were tough, the cobbles tougher, and the TT not long enough for him to make up time.
We won't talk about Thijssen who really didn't show up.
Thank you for the reports! Would have been a really fun race to follow as a neutral.
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 05-05-2025 22:51
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5234
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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alexkr00 wrote:
The rankings at the relegation line must be really interesting at the moment.
They are. Spoiler alert - don't read if you prefer to wait for the ranking updates at the end of the month.
Spoiler
| 14 |  | Cedevita | 5542 | | 15 | | Grieg-Maersk | 5534 | | 16 | | Oxxo - Frisby | 5448 | | 17 | | Moser - Sygic | 5365 | | 18 | | Rabobank | 5326 | | 19 | | MOL Cycling Team | 5057 |
Only including the teams that I think could still be involved (hoping my team with roughly 200 points more won't be).
Rabobank are the only team of these 6 to participate in Balkans, and despite still sitting below the line, the remaining schedule looks good for them.
MOL will have to be very successful in the remaining races, but with Altur (Rheden) and Ardila (Japan, Lombardia), and probably Haig in Lombardia as well, they could still make it.
Rabobank have Formolo in Balkans and probably Lombardia, with Champoussin/Gerts likely covering the hilly PTHC classics. No more cobbles for them, which could hurt.
Moser for me is the team most at risk besides MOL. They only have Rheden and Battenkill besides Lombardia - without a top contender. They will bring Kudus to Lombardia, where he might have to win to save them.
Oxxo have Battenkill and Japan Cup; they won't score much in the former, so Higuita needs to do well in Japan and Lombardia. Otherwise, a Kudus win in Italy might send them down.
Grieg have made a huge step towards in ToNE as well, and so Pedersen will have a big chance to definitely save them in Rheden. Japan Cup and Lombardia won't do much for them I guess.
Cedevita have just Rheden and Lombardia left. A lot needs to go wrong for them to relegate, but it could still happen - Siric should be their main card left to play.
Assa, Lidl and ZARA look to be too far behind, and the others too far above.
Edited by Fabianski on 05-05-2025 23:27
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