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Tour de France - Discussion
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| knockout |
Posted on 17-03-2026 20:10
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Grand Tour Champion
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Very costly mistake here by barely not catching the break. Also krasts dropping in the youth classifications hurt.
On the plus side, its hard to see Lecuisinier drop + 2'29 to Sivakov or a bit less than that to Padun in a tt or in paris.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 18-03-2026 21:17
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| TinxiaS |
Posted on 17-03-2026 20:31
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Domestique
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I wouldn't be surpriced if Lecuisinier would finish infront of Padun after ITT. But I hope on best for my team as they surpriced in all levels. 
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 17-03-2026 21:07
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Classics Specialist
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Leknessund still going strong. 8th would be a good GC result.
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 17-03-2026 22:50
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World Champion
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Not ideal.
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
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 18-03-2026 05:46
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Directeur Sportif
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Haig making up another position and hopefully he can have a decent TT to at least get us the Top 5 goal. Hayter also making his way up to 2nd in the U25s is nice to have. He shouldn't lose anything in the ITT. Stupid of Zmorka to join the break and not reserve the energy for tomorrow. Will be surprised if he can still challenge for the stage win. Of all the stages to get into the break, this was the worst possible option for him! Leemreize dropping in both the KOM and the GC isn't great either.
Congrats to Beagle and thanks for the report!
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| ember |
Posted on 18-03-2026 06:36
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Team Leader
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Kind of surprise breakaway winner. Congratulations, beagle!
Williams with another great ride. A pity all his efforts didn’t make a difference in the KoM standings, but that was impossible to know when he started fighting Higuita for points. After all, he came very close to passing Egger, but just not in the end. Cool to have him up front and fight for a stage top 10. This could also see him end 10th in the GC, depending on daily form and the solid TTers just behind him in the GC.
Thank you for the report, Imladrik! |
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| redordead |
Posted on 18-03-2026 07:20
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Team Leader
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We got points outside of sprints 
Great ride by Chumil in the breakaway to finish 4th on the stage and he now has a chance to finish in the top 100 also.
"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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| roturn |
Posted on 18-03-2026 08:20
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Team Manager
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So basically all mountain stages without Phinney in the break made it to the finish slowly moving him outside the top10 this way and twice Phinney any into the break, the peloton caught the break and he collapsed to lose even more time.
While 13th seems totally fine to me in this field and his declined stats, the scenario still wasn't too nice to him. Was hoping to see him survive a break for a final stage shot or just staying with the best for a top10 without all the breakaway mixing.
Anyway, expectations with the GT gamble kind of matched.
Thanks for the reports and looking forward to the final stage. |
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 18-03-2026 08:49
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Grand Tour Champion
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Good to see Erdenebat in 12th! He’s doing well! Might have to steal him back for me next year!
Congrats Zmorka on the win! It’s been a great TDF!
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 18-03-2026 10:00
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Classics Specialist
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No stage win for Higuita (or a particularly good GC), but we'll definitely cherish that KoM-jersey for the rest of our lifes! Great result by Ocampo in the TT as well, proud of my boy. And love to see big Zmorks with the stage win here. Absolute legend.
Jakstar22 wrote:
Good to see Erdenebat in 12th! He’s doing well! Might have to steal him back for me next year!
We'll make sure his cage isn't locked so the stealing goes smoothly. Just leave us a small thank you note including an enveloppe with a nice amount of money 
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 18-03-2026 10:01
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World Champion
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7th in the GC and hanging onto the Teams Classification is a good enough outcome for me from the last couple of stages. Let's hope tomorrow doesn't have another weird flat stage result before writing any final thoughts
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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| ryant |
Posted on 18-03-2026 12:32
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Small Tour Specialist
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Pedro tried very hard for an unexpected stage win at the end but in the end he didnt quite have it... Shame for us but 3rd on the day is no slouch. Hayter sucked in the TT which is bad for him and us and we don't have anyone close to the overall either so we're all in on Cullaigh for the last stage! Green is impossible but another stage win is what we want/need!
Congrats to Knockout for Lecuisinier getting there eventually - not a outstanding race due to the lack of stage wins but another GT nonetheless!
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 18-03-2026 12:53
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Not going to elaborate on the GC yet sonce we've seen flat stages are no gimmes in this engine. I'll just say I'm happy with Skjelmose's performance even if he just barely loses a GC spot given how strenuous the last few days have been, and it's nice to get a top 5 from Norsgaard to make his participation worth something. Thanks for the report!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| knockout |
Posted on 18-03-2026 15:52
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Grand Tour Champion
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jandal7 wrote:
7th in the GC and hanging onto the Teams Classification is a good enough outcome for me from the last couple of stages. Let's hope tomorrow doesn't have another weird flat stage result before writing any final thoughts
Damn it, still had some hopes that we could catch you ...
Interesting that the tt specialists recovered well enough to dominate this late time trial. Feel like that would have looked very different in some of the previous game editions...
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| knockout |
Posted on 18-03-2026 18:18
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Grand Tour Champion
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First of all, thank you Imladrik for the fantastic coverage! I know it must be frustrating when some managers are mostly disappointed with the AI (me included ^^ ) and others dont seem to show up but the quality of the reports were once again top notch!
Winning this was obviously a big goal and never felt in danger tbh. Lecuisinier just looked a level above everyone else on every single mountain stage so i was quietly positive that last years desaster wouldnt happen even when i didnt want to spell it out too much. Lecuisinier winning his third title makes him the record holder which i really wanted him to be from the moment i signed him. Just feels too right to have a french record winner.
In terms of the how i'm not too thrilled at this by just a single stage win for him, the late yellow jersey boni and the big amount of breakaway victories. Just makes for a relatively low scoring victory. On the other hand, having the victory on Alp d'Huez is very cool and we had 1-2 stages where the strength of our team support really showed. So that was really appreciated by me. We also got some nice first week action from Adria and Ansons which i also want to point out again.
Foss and Eenkhoorn had an okayish depth result. For points optimization i probably shouldnt have send them here in the first place but i really wanted to lock up the victory - partly as i also feared a much stronger startlist. Wish they looked stronger in their early and somewhat weird breakaway adventure but okayish depth GC and at times very notable support work helped a lot.
Never was in the focus of the reports but i enjoyed seeing Krasts "fighting" for 2nd in the youth comp and 2nd in the team classification is also nice. Wish we would have won that but with Foss and Eenkhoorn working a ton and no breakaway appearances for us that was always going to be a lot more difficult than on paper. Congrats bbl and jandal! (Loved to see Blums finishing top 20 again. Was scared he would be a bit weaker this edition with his fairly low energy stats but cool that he still got it)
Congrats to everyone else who did well here. Whether its Skjelmose and Padun in the GC or Rabobank in the early stages or a ton of guys im probably forgetting right now
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 18-03-2026 20:01
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World Champion
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Thank you for the reports!
Congrats to knockout. It might not have been the dominant win you wanted, but it wasn't really a sweaty one either. And a Tour de France is a Tour de France win
Congrats to all the other winners as well. Quite a great Tour for the freshly maxed out Skjelmose.
You can't say it's been a bad race for us when we set a new team record of stage wins in a single race and managed to snatch our first distinctive jersey at the Tour de France! So many attempts from Grosu and Aniolkowski does it the first try.
Our second half of the race feels a disappointment, not because we didn't win as much as in the first half, but because Formolo didn't play out his chances the way I hoped he would. No attempt at the KoM jersey and the one time he had a shy attempt at a breakaway it ended up completely ruining his GC. I feel a top 20 could have been possible even without breakaways. 35 is pretty bad for him.
For the last stage: another stage win would have been fantastic, but Aniolkowski managed to defend green in great fashion fighting for the win to the very last meters of the stage.
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| ember |
Posted on 18-03-2026 20:05
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Team Leader
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knockout wrote:
First of all, thank you Imladrik for the fantastic coverage! I know it must be frustrating when some managers are mostly disappointed with the AI (me included ^^ ) and others dont seem to show up but the quality of the reports were once again top notch!
This is very true. Thank you! Imladrik! Imladrik! Imladrik!
A good Tour for us, I'd say. Not quite the stage win we hoped for, but several top 10 placings, which says that we tried on most occasions, which was cool to follow.
Congratulations to everyone who had great Tours, and there were several, I'd argue. Also a special congratulations to knockout on the overall win. Wasn't aware of PHL winning it for a third time meant becoming a record holder, but that feels very fitting!
And also, thank you to every manager being interactive this Tour, commenting and posting on the race. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 18-03-2026 20:14
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World Champion
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Thank god this monstrosity is over for us. I belive this is the worst Grand Tour performance I have ever had in all those many many years of being a part of the Man-Game.
Thanks for some quality reports every single day, and a Big congrats knockout for another Lecuisinier GT win! He’s still “my kid”, so atleast I have enjoyed seeing him win.
We are leaving through the back door here and try to Pick ourselves up. Atleast we have had limited amount of horrible races this season, so we are probably still in a solid position to survive, but a Big dent for sure! We need a Vuelta similar to the Giro, and not a replicate of the Tour. Otherwise we are very likely to be a relegationen candidate by the end of the season.
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 18-03-2026 21:00
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Sprinter
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IMLADRIK, IMLADRIK, IMLADRIK! Thanks for all those reports, especially including those insights only a French could give!
Congrats to knockout (and everyone else who won some thing or other) for making Lecuisinier the new record holder here!
And some special shout-outs to the likes of perennial overperformer Aniolkowski for winning green (and some stages), his former teammate (and not-so-overperformer) Padun who nearly made the podium as a wildcard rider (and showed how good he is on the highest level after some pre-season mockings of his signing), Skjelmose for finally making bbl happy again (and doing really great), the Yorkshire sprinter duo, Groves who added a win on the Champs Élysées to his great Tour performances of the last two years (and hopefully put a smile or two on Fabis face), Higuita for giving Nemo something to celebrate as well as Egger who put up a surprising fight for the KoM jersey and Haig who finally made the podium so Abhi dislikes him a bit less. I probably missed someone or the other, but feel free to feel included in this list if you like 
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