Plenty of opportunities for different types of riders in Argentina. But it's hard to look past the puncheurs when it come to the GC fight.
Last years winner, Moscon, is back to defend his title and he does have the first option for the overall win as he has the best hill stat from those present on the startlist. He has a great MM stat as well in case it will come into play in that longer hill at the end of the last stage. So he has to be the man to beat here.
Turgis, Sagan and Vogt are his main rivals if we look at the stats, but the last two have reached their decline age and their back-up stats are not looking great. So we might need to look even further down the list to search for riders that could challenge Moscon.
Puncheurs
Rider
FL
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
SP
AC
PR
Moscon
71
77
80
66
76
77
60
73
70
Turgis
73
73
79
66
76
78
70
77
68
Sagan
68
75
79
64
72
68
69
70
64
Vogt
72
70
79
65
77
70
61
62
65
Stocek
71
73
78
61
75
70
70
75
61
Boswell
68
74
78
65
74
70
63
73
67
Watson
70
72
78
68
76
72
62
72
67
Budyak
68
76
78
68
72
67
57
68
68
Paez
73
75
77
68
74
70
73
76
68
Mayer
68
73
77
70
65
72
72
77
71
Gladysh
72
74
77
64
73
72
71
76
66
Senyenov
70
70
77
63
68
73
68
73
63
Lafay
66
76
77
63
72
72
65
74
61
Montenegro
69
74
77
64
71
73
64
74
64
Dieteren
67
74
77
58
75
70
63
66
58
We have two opportunities for the sprinters and looking at the hill stats of the main sprinters present here they will only be fighting for stage wins as it's highly unlikely they will manage to hang on with the favorites group with the puncheurs in the hilly stage to make us of the bonus seconds they will be getting in the flat stages. Though a couple of them will surely try to put up a fight.
Manninen is the best sprinter here and will be eyeing at least one stage win. Van der Lijke, Carsi and Plowright will be his main rivals, while Kiskonen, who could easily challenge in the sprints here will be on lead-out today for the main man once again.
Sprinters
Rider
FL
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
SP
AC
PR
Manninen
73
65
65
68
69
73
80
78
75
Van der Lijke
70
67
73
63
68
66
79
74
65
Carsi
69
52
54
66
64
67
79
80
70
Plowright
74
60
60
58
70
73
78
76
58
Kiskonen
74
64
68
68
77
77
77
77
70
Tivani
70
65
67
63
68
78
77
78
72
Harrison
71
64
66
71
72
69
77
80
71
Major
74
58
66
57
74
70
77
78
64
Frame
71
56
62
69
69
74
77
76
79
Russo
73
69
73
65
73
73
76
78
65
Oka
73
66
67
74
71
72
76
76
79
Darbinyan
72
62
66
62
72
71
76
74
65
Sinclair
70
59
61
67
69
70
76
75
70
Keough
70
58
59
55
62
68
76
74
77
We have an opening short time - trial where Chavanne and Kopfauf will clash once again. The Austrian had the upper hand in Uppsala and while Chavanne did enjoy a good race from his team's perspective in Sweden, he will surely want to take a win to his name in the prologue here.
It's hard to look past those two for the win in the first stage. Ciccone would have surely hoped for some tougher mountain stages rather than the hilly ones we got to perhaps fight for a good position in the GC built on a good result in the opening stage. For all the other top prologue specialists the GC will probably be over by the end of stage 3 as none of them look like they enjoy when the road starts going uphill.
Really like the team we brought here! Tivani should have great sprint support for the two sprint stages. Montenegro should show he can handle the punchy stages and our prologue guys haven't had the best luck - so it's time for them to pull the surprise over Chavanne!
judging by how the hilly stage races are going in all division very low expectations here for Moscon might crack the top 5 but his sprint probably holds him back for more. Wonder if Paez or someone can bag some early bonus seconds in the flat stages and win from there, Van Der Lyjke probably very dangerous for the same reason
Thanks for the preview, alex (this time really, I checked )!
Though we're not racing here this season I have so fond memories of this race I couldn't not comment here (for everyone interested: look at the 2023 edition). Best of luck to everyone!
)!
