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Riga - Jurmala GP Discussion
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| Heine |
Posted on 10-04-2026 06:14
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Grand Tour Specialist
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 Riga - Jurmala GP (PTHC)
Abhi with the report
It's a sprinters classic, some speedbumps and maybe some wind. We know how these goes, some minor riders attack at the start, they ride for 160-165 km and they are caught, then the trains do their best, some fast guy wins and many managers once again wonder why they invested in a sprinter. Dejavu?
Swift, Guarnieri, Manninen, Conquard and SKA are the previous winner. You could see the profile before it was presented just by looking at that, thought SKA would make you wonder if they changes it to a prl last year. SKA with a suprise win last year denying Coquard's hattrick after he had won the 2 previous ones. Vesely in 3rd place.
| Year | Name | | 2024 | Soren Kragh Andersen (Aker - MOT) | | 2023 | Bryan Coquard (ELCO - ABEA) | | 2022 | Bryan Coquard (ELCO - ABEA) | | 2021 | Matti Manninen (Los Pollos Hermanos) | | 2020 | Jacopo Guarnieri (Bakkafrost) | | 2019 | Jacopo Guarnieri (Delvaux) | | 2018 | Ben Swift (Aegon - Lavazza) |
| 1 | Soren Kragh Andersen | Aker - MOT | 4h04'51 | | 2 | Bryan Coquard | Manada Coyote | s.t. | | 3 | Daniel Vesely | DK Zalgiris | s.t. | | 4 | Eduard Grosu | Rabobank | s.t. | | 5 | Elias Afewerki | Benetton Bimex Cycling | s.t. | | 6 | Sondre Holst Enger | Tafjord Kraft | s.t. | | 7 | Alvaro Hodeg | Ekoi - Le Creuset | s.t. | | 8 | Jasper Philipsen | Polar | s.t. | | 9 | Itamar Einhorn | Sauber Petronas Racing | s.t. | | 10 | Jiankun Liu | Lotto-Caloi | s.t. |
Lets look at the top sprinters present
| Name | FL | SP | AC |  Ewan | 75 | 83 | 81 |  Gaviria | 76 | 83 | 84 |  Grosu | 72 | 82 | 79 |  Dainese | 76 | 81 | 82 |  Kanter | 75 | 81 | 80 |  Zabel | 74 | 81 | 79 |  Peak | 80 | 80 | 78 |  Einhorn | 74 | 80 | 78 |  Walls | 74 | 80 | 78 |  Groves | 75 | 80 | 79 |  Hsu | 75 | 80 | 79 |  Aniolkowski | 76 | 80 | 79 |  Adomaitis | 75 | 79 | 78 |  Riabushenko | 76 | 79 | 77 | | Gross | 74 | 79 | 79 |  Willwohl | 73 | 79 | 78 |  Ovsyannikov | 74 | 79 | 78 |  Ahlstrand | 70 | 79 | 76 | | Nur Hasan | 74 | 79 | 78 |
Not on the list, but will mention him first anyway is last years winner  Andersen, his flat skill together with his team mate Konychev makes them dangerous, but they are not among the main favorites as their pure sprinting is not up there with them.
Apart from SKA none of last years top 3 is here, but 4th place Grosu is back and among the best sprinters, he is however not all up there at the level of maybe the biggest favorite Gaviria and Ewan who have the highest max pace, will that be enough?
Peak is a standout rider with his fantastic flat together with a strong sprint, I believe we can expect another great result from him. Dainese, Kanter, Groves, Hsu and Aniolkowski are other riders with a good flat and sprint combination, while also Adomaitis (is his stamina too weak here?) and Riabushenko deserves to be mentioned.
The last of the top sprinters not stated til now includes Zabel (who has never really lived up to his father), Einhorn and Walls. On a good day they can all win, but I put the other guys just that tiny bit ahead of them.
Of the under 79 guys I believe you should not underestimate  Vermeersch and Dekker. I see them as riders who can surprise here!
My main favorite has to be Peak, while others have the best sprint his skills on the flat makes him the strongest rider present!
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 06:23
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World Champion
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Hope for a decent sprint or some kind of late attack. Hopefully Houle has been teaching Vermeersch his ways and Florian can find a good move for a small group sprint finish!
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."
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| knockout |
Posted on 10-04-2026 08:04
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8376
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Same as for every sprinter classic: Ovsya is for the sprint, many rouleurs around to possibly late attack. It's our home race so maybe this is the time?
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Laurens147 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 08:06
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Sprinter
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I messed up completely not bringing Liu or Wouters here, Jezus Christ  What was I thinking.. All hopes on a Veyhe special then!
Thanks Heine for the preview!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 11-04-2026 22:28
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 08:36
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World Champion
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The startlist is stacked, but I'm sure Aniolkowski can find his way through to a good result.
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| ember |
Posted on 10-04-2026 09:27
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Hopeful again, just like I am for every flat race this season without Groenewegen. Kragh as the defending champion means we have the right to be optimistic, I feel, but we still need a specific scenario where either him or Konychev is part of a successful late attack.
Stacked startlist, will be fun to see whether the sprinters or rouleurs gets the most from it. |
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 09:40
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2031
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Thanks for the preview, Heine (although you didn't even shamelessly stole here  )!
A late attack would probably be our best chance here, but Rajovic could also surprise in a sprint. Not too optimistic anyway as it seems everyone else had the same plan(s) ...
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| Caspi |
Posted on 10-04-2026 10:13
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I’ll be happy if we’re visible at any point during the race. Breakaway, controlling the peloton, kamikaze late attack, lead out train, contesting the sprint…
Realistically, Sanikwathi shouldn’t be able to get within the top 20, let alone top 10, in this field, so a late attack from Hamza would probably be our best bet. That said, the most likely scenario is that one of the other guys makes the breakaway and the rest takes a day off.
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| quadsas |
Posted on 10-04-2026 15:50
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Classics Specialist
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Varga shenanigans inbound
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 15:57
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Classics Specialist
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Hopefully Einhorn can get a good result here
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| SotD |
Posted on 10-04-2026 18:10
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I miss this one. Have very fond memories of this race :-)
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| Booker |
Posted on 10-04-2026 19:22
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Thanks for the preview Heine. Not holding out super high hopes for Willwohl but who knows…as always in sprint races it’s a crapshoot.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 19:26
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Hopefully Peak returns to form here and it turns out that August was just a blip. With only 9 RDs this month it would be good to score well here, as I don't have high hopes for the others. |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 11-04-2026 18:02
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jph27 wrote:
Hopefully Peak returns to form here and it turns out that August was just a blip. With only 9 RDs this month it would be good to score well here, as I don't have high hopes for the others.
Ah, it was the rest of his season that was a series of freak results! Got to love a 80FL sprinter being dropped in a flat classic...
Dekker saved us a little but still below expectations overall. Congrats to Eden and thanks for the report Abhi! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 11-04-2026 18:06
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World Champion
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Really weird to see Peak among those dropped. Almost as if he wasn't the designated leader - Or perhaps sending 6 riders to the race was a mistake?
That being said it was nice to see the top guys fighting it out. Grosu was likely hit my his relatively low FL stat is my guess.
Not a preferred race for the relegation-threatened teams in the PT this.
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| jaxika |
Posted on 11-04-2026 18:10
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Hmmm...a top5 in a PTHC race very good, still maybe some points are wasted.
Thanks for the report and congrats for the winner! |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 11-04-2026 18:28
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SotD wrote:
Really weird to see Peak among those dropped. Almost as if he wasn't the designated leader - Or perhaps sending 6 riders to the race was a mistake?
That being said it was nice to see the top guys fighting it out. Grosu was likely hit my his relatively low FL stat is my guess.
Not a preferred race for the relegation-threatened teams in the PT this.
Hey, I sent everyone who had spare RDs! But yes, my planning probably didn't help
I suspect Dekker was the leader as he doesn't normally sprint, and a +2 for him and -2 for Peak would easily see their roles reserved. Frustrating not to be able to rely on him as a leadout, but Mihkels should be able to step up into his role next season so should be able to avoid that issue. |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 11-04-2026 18:48
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Indeed weird to see Peak getting dropped in the end among some other names.
Congrats on the win Eden!
One of Adomaitis' best results of the year, coming in 6th. I'm thrilled. Maybe there's hope for him!
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 11-04-2026 18:59
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Small Tour Specialist
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Thanks for the report, Abhi, and congrats to Eden!
We leave here with some depth points and Quispes best result of the season ...
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 11-04-2026 19:18
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Well Peak getting dropped makes me less irritated by Riabushenko's failure, Frustrating when much weaker sprinters like Willwohl managed to survive. Riabushenko has misfired badly more than once in these flat classics which I thought would suit him, so not a one off.
All that said Daniel sprinting for 14th means it isn't a total fail (not clear why our 4th best sprinter was the contesting things). Once again one of our secondary riders saving our bacon.
Thanks for the report Abhi and congrats to Eden, Gaviria a deserved winner.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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