Three flat stages, one hilly stage and one time - trial. The hilly stage will tell us at most who will not win the race as the winner will definitely be decided in the final stage - a 35.3 kilometers time - trial.
Previous two winners are now in the PT division, but Lammertink and Cosnefroy are here and definitely ready to keep high the flag of previous winners.
Zalgiris have their dynamic duo here of Kmieliauskas and Beniusis in a clear bid to take home the GC win. Bjerg, Lammertink and Cataford are the riders with the most chances of stopping that. While there are plenty of good riders against the clock present here that will fight for a top 10 and maybe even a podium with a bit of luck, it's hard to look past those five for the overall win.
Time - trialists
Rider
FL
HI
TT
ST
RS
SP
AC
Kmieliauskas
74
70
81
74
71
63
69
Bjerg
75
68
80
73
77
68
70
Lammertink
74
69
80
70
76
63
68
Beniusis
71
60
80
71
73
57
67
Cataford
74
70
79
75
75
60
69
Cosnefroy
76
71
78
78
81
69
69
Brunel
75
71
78
72
78
61
65
Conci
71
74
78
76
75
63
68
Noia
76
60
78
70
74
61
69
Nareklishvili
74
69
78
70
74
66
67
Vandevelde
75
65
78
72
74
62
65
Thomas
73
66
78
75
73
74
79
Belevics
76
64
78
73
72
63
66
Viennet
70
65
78
72
72
53
61
Paillot
68
69
78
72
71
61
61
Grosu is the best sprinter here. But there will be a terrible competition in the sprints and lots of other riders could be looking at stages wins here. The list of those who could win sprints here is quite and look and is definitely not limited at the following: Enger, Van Poppel, Abdul Halil, Zabel, Manninen, Peak, Einhorn and Jakobsen.
Demare is amongst the top sprinters here as well and he could have a decent shot at winning the third stage too. Too bad he is terrible at time - trials as the potential bonus seconds gathered in the first four stages could have given him a boost.
Sprinters
Rider
FL
HI
TT
ST
RS
SP
AC
Grosu
72
72
61
73
69
82
79
Enger
73
69
71
71
73
81
78
Van Poppel
72
64
67
74
71
81
78
Abdul Halil
70
60
60
71
68
81
79
Zabel
74
69
55
74
70
81
79
Manninen
73
65
68
69
73
80
78
Peak
80
69
67
73
77
80
78
Einhorn
74
61
62
71
71
80
78
Jakobsen
74
67
59
75
73
80
80
Demare
71
78
59
72
69
80
78
Hodeg
72
65
67
69
74
79
78
Kamberaj
75
69
67
73
73
79
78
Welten
76
69
58
72
71
79
75
Willwohl
73
65
56
71
67
79
78
Ahlstrand
70
63
56
68
67
79
76
De Bie is by far the best puncheur here and should be the man to beat in the third stage. JEWA TIROL seem to have a team that could be capable of controlling the race for him too. But after also doing so for Grosu in the sprints, will they be fresh enough to do so? Not to mention they will have to look after Lammertink as well. And will the stage be hard enough for the Belgian rider to actually take advantage of his better stats compared to the other puncheurs because if it will be a rather easy stage then Demare will be ready to make the most of his far superior sprint. It's a really tough call to make at the moment.
Always has been a good race for us. Bjerg usually survives stage 4 but in the new engine we'll have to see. Otherwise we have plenty of stage results to hunt for
Not feeling confident with the squad we've brought here...might be a case of hoping that Willwohl does well enough in the sprints to end up high in the points classification. Can't see Viennet or Perez seriously challenging for the GC, so this is likely going to be a painful watch.
The team directors seem to agree and have already been spotted out in the Copenhagen airport gorging themselves on pickled herring and getting into fights with the bar staff for swigging from Duvel bottles out of their luggage as opposed to ordering the Carlsberg on tap.
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