Vesely did alright here being involved in basically all sprints despite clearly no longer having it it packed fields.
Two things impressed the most.
1) His very good positioning at around 2-5km to go and
2) the unique skills of going backwards incredibly fast afterwards.
He always was just past the top10 except ones inside, which is totally right. Not giving me any points (expectedly) but might see him a bit further up scoring here and there in smaller competition.
The TT now will be similarly packed, so I can't really expect a lot but let's see about the daily form.
For the cobbles squad it was a nice warmup without anyone trying. But not a breakaway event anyway.
I suspect that coming 2nd to Kemboi on that last stage may prove to be the determining factor in the GC, as that 14 second swing would probably be enough to make Gaviria favourite.
Not a bad race after a rough start, with 2nd or 3rd the likely outcome and some solid stage results - I would always like to win of course, but if Kemboi finally wins Qatar that may be more pleasing from a personal perspective than any victory!
We don't have many flat prologues on our calendar this year, and so a 3rd place here for SKA is pretty damn disappointing. He's been pretty much infallible here previously, and with the range of RDC effects decreasing, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for and expecting more than 3rd place on the stage. Would be just our luck that SKA's reign of prologue dominance ends the year we spend big money to acquire him. The points difference between those stage wins and just top 5s is massive.
That said, obviously a very successful race for us overall thanks to Rodenberg. 6th place is awesome for him, plus SKA in 15th and Forssell also just outside the top 30. Can't ask for much more without a favorite.
Thanks for the reports cunego! And congrats to Knockout. Kemboi finally getting the win here is a worthy story.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Such a dissapointing race. This was by far the race I was looking the most forward to all season. Atleast our PRL depth salvaged some points overall with just Gibbons being outside the top 50 here.
Would have liked to see a bit better from Uhiriwe and Varotsos to climb the U25 rankings, but 2nd from Moutsios was nice, Thanks to his bonus seconds from the attack.
We just have to put this behind us and hope out leadout works significantly better in the other races. Otherwise this is going to be a Long season…
Big Thanks for the solid reports nontheless, and congrats to all who Got what they come for
This was the most important race of the season for Kemboi and it working out so perfecty is just awesome. Also makes me glad that i decided to bring the leadout train even if it only was crucial for one of the stages.
Feeling for SotD, Farantakis should be all over the race. Not even being in the top 5 fight is way below expectations and i would have been annoying if Kemboi was in that position.
Congrats to all the stage winners and especially knockout for taking the GC win!
Kopfauf with our first stage top 10 of the season, but 10th is still kind of disappointing. At least Brunel did fairly well and secured us a second rider in the GC top 25 (not that it'll be worth anything). But the (unexpected) highlight is actually finishing 3rd in the team classification in a sprinter/TT race, two disciplines we haven't been famous for so far.
And finally thanks to cunego for all those cool reports and all those shout-outs to those desperate breakaway attempts here! And although Renault probably won't be happy (in general) that it's still Ekoi - Le Creuset for you, it's probably the right season for them to ignore this kind of mix-up
