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Cheshire Cycling Tour Discussion
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| ryant |
Posted on 01-11-2026 23:10
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Small Tour Specialist
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Ballerini showing his sprinting skills well! 2nd is more than expected considering this is very much a throwaway race for us here. Shame he couldn't hang at the front on the tough cobbles although that is not unexpected.
Just have to keep showing up in the breaks and see what happens! Congrats to Ovsyannikov for a deserved win!
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 02-11-2026 00:45
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Tour de France Champion
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Tough race for us so far. Pedersen is around, but just not performing at all like someone who should be an overall favorite. A top 5 on this stage is good in isolation, but not really enough at this point. All we can hope is that tomorrow ends up being more selective than what we've seen so far, and he has good daily form. Otherwise it will be a very disappointing result to be in the lower half of the top 10.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| knockout |
Posted on 02-11-2026 05:48
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8759
Joined: 21-12-2010
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Adria leading out ovsya for the victory. What a beautiful thing to witness!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Heine |
Posted on 02-11-2026 06:22
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5155
Joined: 08-04-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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And PCT keep doing well.  I need PT to show their strenght here! Can't let PCT managers get more points now
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 02-11-2026 07:19
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8014
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The gamble to bring Major is paying out tenfold
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 04-11-2026 09:42
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 02-11-2026 08:39
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Team Manager
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Going from good to good-ish at best to actively bad through the three stages so far. On paper, following Pedersen would be a decent move, but looks like the Carlsberg train didn't have enough juice to be close enough to the front, and then Bini seems to have gotten completely blocked around the 1km mark. No bonus seconds at all is very unfortunate.
Still, 4th place in the GC is still within the Top 5 goal, so I won't complain (yet  ). No idea how tomorrow's stage is going to play out, if it's going to be unselective or Viana-style carnage. I guess I want to hope for the former, lose at most one place to Pedersen and be happy. We'll see.
Thanks for another nice report and congrats lief, Ovsyannikov looks really strong!
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 02-11-2026 08:45
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Tour de France Champion
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 02-11-2026 09:54
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Classics Specialist
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Solid if not spectacular here weirdly Lap did the job on the hardest stage but then has been blocked badly on both sprints which has hurt his overall but we've had a strong GC overall team wise looks like its only going to be an okay result here and a lot less then was possible but looking at how some teams have been given here its more then fine.
P.S race hasn't worked like me and UU expected from testing will be looked at having a few tweaks going forward |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 02-11-2026 13:12
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Stewart really doesn't ride as I was expecting him to... He cared even less about the sprint than on day 1 (112th on the day...), even risking to be gapped. He should have at least tried - but I guess sending Christen here was a pretty bad choice, looks like he got the sprinter role instead of Stewart despite being slower...
Fortunately, Sommer was attentive and has now moved up to 13th, guess we'll have to be riding for him on the last day now. The hill looks pretty steep, so perfect terrain for Stewart - but it might be just too far away from the finish to do any damage. If both cobblers make the front group and end up inside the Top 20, I'll happily take it.
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| ember |
Posted on 02-11-2026 14:24
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Team Leader
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The way this race played out, I definitely regret not sending De Lie here. Feared he could run away with the stage win on stage 1, and then force Anderberg into domestiquing on what looked to be a super difficult stage 2.
Happy to have both Anderberg and Eekhoff safe through stage 3, though! Both might drop a bit in the GC on the final stage if it comes down to a sprint due to bonuses, but if we end up with two riders in the top 10, we can only be happy, I think. Alternatively, Anderberg is on a monster day and wins both the stage and the GC solo  |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 03-11-2026 22:39
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Tour de France Champion
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Ok, so the stages were kind of dissapointing as Hopkins was wasted and Spengler invisible. But he was silently in 6th overall, which when you look at the field, is spot on if not actually slightly better than expected. It's good solid points!
Kuroeda 21st also ain't half bad. And it didn't go unnoticed that future team star, Forbes, was 2nd in the U25 for Ekoi.
All things considered, decent race. Solid points. Further proof our belief in Spengler is well founded, and that Kuroeda is capable as a #2. Slight shame the other PCT teams also did well out of this, but it can't be helped. Enjoyable race, even if not quite as the designers hoped.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 04-11-2026 05:09
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 17119
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No idea what happened here. Pedersen really just didn't show up. 7th place for the out and out favorite is atrocious. I'm not at all mad that Per won, but I was hoping for something of a duel, and what I got was nothing. Save for the first stage sprint, Pedersen was completely anonymous, poorly positioned, and just generally weaker than he should have been. I have a sort of sneaking suspicion that the AI may have taken him for a sprinter or something instead of a cobbles leader. If so, it's horrible AI but at least hopefully will be limited to stage races and not hurt his classics chances. Otherwise, I'm at a loss.
Thank you for the reports!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 04-11-2026 06:28
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After missing the split on stage 2, Stewart and Sommer finally showed up and got the best out of this race that was still possible, finishing 13th and 14th in GC. Great job! I was hoping for 30 points, we almost got 3x that, so a first good step in the right direction 
Of course, I could've done without all those other PCT teams doing an awesome job, but it was kind of expected (although I'd have expected Ovsy and Bini in the reverse order). Congrats, great performance!
Thanks for the reports!
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| Heine |
Posted on 04-11-2026 07:35
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5155
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I repeat myself, but I still think PCT did way too good for my liking here...
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| redordead |
Posted on 04-11-2026 07:59
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Seeing the results here tells me I shouldn't be too eager to pick this race in the future.
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 04-11-2026 08:45
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World Champion
Posts: 13872
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Cobbled stage race could have been a good scoring opportunity for us. But the only moment we were visible in the race it was for Gerts to throw away his GC. At least we don't come out completely empty handed thanks to van den Berg.
Thanks for the reports!
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 04-11-2026 08:49
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Team Manager
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Fabianski wrote:
Of course, I could've done without all those other PCT teams doing an awesome job, but it was kind of expected (although I'd have expected Ovsy and Bini in the reverse order). Congrats, great performance!
Would've hoped for that, too With how the race turned out, I guess the sprint advantage was more important here than the +1 cobbles. At the same time, I don't think I would've wished for a more selective race, as that might've made it more difficult to finish ahead of Anderberg and especially Pedersen.
Ultimately, achieving our season goal here was the biggest thing and we did that, so I'm very happy. We leave with roughly 220 points I believe, which is excellent. Habimana in white is neat, plus a little bit of depth scoring via the GC (nice Top 50 by De Buyst), 3rd in the points classification for Bini and that super random 3rd place on the final stage for Kuypers. Where on earth did that come from 
Thank you for the great reports UU, and congrats to tastasol and lief for very strong races. Great start to the season for Tryg, who I had as a potential relegation candidate - doesn't look like that for the moment!
And as others have mentioned, 8 PCT riders in the Top 14 of the GC is kind of wild. Shows just how tough that PCT cobbles field is this year.
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| ember |
Posted on 04-11-2026 09:40
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Team Leader
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Thought this was going to be an amazing race for Anderberg before the race, but the much less selectiveness than I hoped for, made it quite a different race. And seeing how it played out, 5th must be considered good. Eekhoff in 10th is great!
Thank you for the reports, and congratulations to the many managers who did very well, in particular the PCT teams! Must say that was a mighty impressive finish by Per. Grabbing 2nd on the final stage to defend his GC win against Ovsyannikov, basically on a tough sprint stage… Very well done! |
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