Welcome to the Czech Republic for the 13th edition of Praha-Karlovy Vary-Praha. After three one day editions, this is known as a stage race with high TT focus.
Race history
After being won by sprinter in the 3 first editions this turned into the Phinney show with him winning all editions from 2016 to 2021. In 2022 he had to settle for 2nd as Zmorka took his first and only victory before Würtz took the 2 last editions
Last year started off with SKA taking the prologue before Steimle won stage 2. The deciding stage was of course stage 3 where Würtz decided the GC by winning before Groves finished the race by winning stage 4
There is one thing that really matters in this race, and that makes 1 team in particular the main focus. EA Vesuvio is present with both the biggest favorites. Würtz won the 2 last editions, he has also been 2nd twice. This is a race he likes a lot! His biggest competitor is the perhaps best timetrialist in the world and his teammate Wirtgen. He has never won this race, could this be his year?
Behind the EA riders there is a strong field led by former winner and 2nd last year Zmorka and recently promoted Dunbar. They are the most likely to be able to beat (or split) the EA guys. Behind them again we have Mullen who is also a strong time trialist who can challenge for the podium.
Moving a bit farther down the list Ganna stands out as he is also one of the biggest favorites for the 1st stage while being a good time trialist. We also have Mano and Ocampo who will be looking for a strong result.
There are many more very strong time trialist but a special mention to 6 times champion Phinney. He is not among the biggest favorites any more but the old man can still ride!
Name
TT
Wirtgen
84
Würtz
83
Zmorka
82
Dunbar
82
Mullen
81
Ganna
80
Ocampo
80
Mano
80
Herregodts
79
Oliveira
79
Tanfield
79
Phinney
79
Evenepoel
79
Howson
79
Razumov
79
Zakarin
79
Goldstein
79
Rekita
79
Norsgaard
79
Stage 1 is the "big" prologue stage and of course we have Andersen here as the favorite. He is the prl champion and will want to prove that again. Already mentioned Zmorka and Ganna together with Leung might be his closest competitors, even though we should not forget riders like Wirtgen and Herregodts who has proven to be really strong on the short TTs aswell.
Special mention to Kemboi who is the strongest sprinter among the prologue guys. A good stage 1 should make him take the lead after stage 2. Too bad his TT skills detoriate when the TTs become longer.
Name
PR
Andersen
83
Zmorka
82
Ganna
82
Leung
82
Kemboi
81
Wirtgen
80
Herregodts
80
Larsen
80
There are 2 flat stages and that makes several strong sprinters come here to fight for the flat stages. Coquard is perhaps the best pure sprinter and he has had a strong season, but the same can be said about Farantakis for ELCO. Both of them are also strong prologue riders who should aim for the leader jersey after stage 2 together with already mentioned Kemboi.
Together with them we have Aniolkowski who has had a fantastic season in PT. While Peak has had the same in PCT! That could be an interesting "battle in the battle" as we say in Norway.
Halvorsen, Samolenkov and even Vesely proves that the battle to get stage wins will be really tight here!
Obviously not expecting much here, it's our mandatory TT race for the year. At least we have Norsgaard now who can maybe sneak into the top 20 if he actually has the wherewithal to stay in the group on the flat stages. Also Rodenberg could get lucky on the flat stages. Maybe some breakaway action.
Thanks for the preview!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
If the team wants to stay in PT, this is a very important race to make that happen. Will normally lose some points against a Sony (go Zmorka!!!!), but hopefully our time trialists can do similar to Deutschland. Halvorsen with two chances (and possible green jersey points) to help us in our goal to get closer/over to the next safe spot, which is Gazelle.
Thank you for the great preview, Heine, good luck to everyone!
[PT] Praha-Karlovy Vary-Praha 
