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Tour of Luxembourg Discussion Thread
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| roturn |
Posted on 26-02-2012 19:12
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The Tour of Luxembourg in his 4th appearance in the ManGame. The race was for the real puncheurs in the past as the winners Wegmann, Schumacher and A.Efimkin show.
It consists of a short hilly prologue, 3 hilly stages and a sprinter stage in the end. Due to the short time trial length it might again be a race for the strongest puncheurs.
 Vespa
Ginanni is surely one of the biggest favourites and he got some nice support here. Gavazzi might focus the last stage.
 Venchi
Di Maggio and Pellizotti are a strong duo here. Both need to attack as they will lose some time in the prologue.
 Bianchi
Another strong duo for one of the hot promotion contenders. Claeys and Monfort are both capable to win the race. So they surely want to bring at least one of them on the podium.
 Cerne
Luis Leon Sanchez showed in the Algarve how to win a similar race and this one should even suit him a bit more. Surely a interesting rider to watch.
 Proximus
Ben Nasser is another pure puncheur. His advatange might be his sprint as all hilly stages might be decided out of a smaller group and every bonus second can be race deciding. With Kip and Uugunbayar they also show their interest on the final stage.
 Pirelli
Roche is their man here. He surely can reach the podium and they gave him solid support to perform well.
 Bpost
Another team with a strong duo. Vanendert and Gautier convinced with their attacking style this season. Surely an interesting mix for this race.
 Jayco - RedBull
Kirchen is one of the most successful riders in this race winning stages and two times runner-up in the last editions. Also his team mate Vorganov already finished on the podium here. Surely you can expect them to perform well another time although their are better puncheurs here this time. Graeme Brown is one of the favourites for the last stage.
 T.CS Bank
Ignatiev is leading a row of decent puncheur with great time trial abilities. The Russian has a disappointing season so far but being the top favourite for the opening prologue might help him to stay with the better puncheurs on the next stages. He might be the best sprinter within the puncheurs, which could give him a big advantage over the rest.
 Rothaus
Boom had some great results so far this season. Similar to Ignatiev he will have an advantage in the time trial but having problems on the hilly stages. With Hermans he has one of the better helpers on his side.
 Cyclevox
Konovalovas leads the team here. They surely need some points here.
In Casar and Mandri he will get nice support.
 Team WWE
Pinaeu leads an experienced team here with Voeckler, Astarloza or Mollema. Will be interesting how they perform here with some decent outside favourites for high GC rankings.
 Pokerstars
With Clement and Van Goolen they have decent riders but maybe not enough to hang on with the better puncheurs. Therefore Guillén could be the top favourite for the last stage with Dumoulin leading him out.
 Trilux
Without real race ambitions but some decent breakaway riders the German team starts this race. Surely being active hoping for a surprise is their aim here. This also means that the only earlier winner riding in the CT with Wegmann won`t get a chance to repeat his win here.
 CSC
Zaballa might be their best chance on the hilly stages, while he gets supported by 3 climbers. Interesting mix.
 Koppert
Last but not least Team Koppert. On the paper maybe the weakest team with Flens and Van Zandbeek hoping for good prologue results. Freire`s win in Bayern might motivate them to give it another try to join the breakaways.
Full Startlist Spoiler Cerne
1. L. Sanchez Gil
2. M. Biondo
3. B. Borges
4. A. Mourato
5. N. Oliveira
6. B. Pires
7. R. Reis
Vespa
11. F. Ginanni
12. N. Arndt
13. L. Ascani
14. M. Bono
15. M. Gavazzi
16. M. Kwiatkowski
17. M. Quinziato
Tinkoff
21. M. Ignatiev
22. M. Belkov
23. P. Ignatenko
24. A. Ovechkin
25. I. Rovny
26. B. Shpilevski
27. K. Yatsevich
Pirelli
31. N. Roche
32. M. Busche
33. D. Caccia
34. G. Cheula
35. A. Flaksis
36. M. Iannetti
37. N. Kinney
Bianchi
41. M. Monfort
42. J. AramendÃa
43. D. Claeys
44. S. Locatelli
45. O. Martynenko
46. P. Mazur
47. P. Rooijakkers
Rothaus
51. L. Boom
52. B. Hermans
53. T. Koep
54. A. Kunitski
55. A. Passeron
56. C. Van Heerden
57. M. Velits
Bpost
61. J. Vanendert
62. F. De Greef
63. S. Dillier
64. M. Elijzen
65. F. Frison
66. C. Gautier
67. S. Poulhiès
Cyclevox
71. I. Konovalovas
72. S. Casar
73. A. Coutts
74. L. Holohan
75. R. Mandri
76. J. Perry
77. T. Rabou
Proximus
81. H. Ben Nasser
82. J. Coenen
83. I. Kip
84. L. Lefèvre
85. E. Reekers
86. D. Shatskikh
87. K. Uugunbayar
Red Bull
91. K. Kirchen
92. G. Brown
93. M. Chérel
94. A. Jelloul
95. G. Tzortzakis
96. G. Veloso
97. E. Vorganov
Venchi
101. C. Di Maggio
102. C. Cominelli
103. O. Haavardsholm
104. P. Haugard
105. F. Pellizotti
106. P. Sagan
107. D. Viganò
Pokerstars
111. J. Van Goolen
112. S. Clement
113. S. Dumoulin
114. M. Guillén
115. N. Ingels
116. C. Kern
117. M. Maaskant
WWE
121. J. Pineau
122. M. Astarloza
123. L. Didier
124. A. Diniz
125. B. Mollema
126. H. Roulston
127. T. Voeckler
Trilux
131. G. Smukulis
132. J. Barta
133. D. Devenyns
134. H. Duyn
135. P. Walsleben
136. R. Weissinger
137. R. Zepunkte
Koppert
141. R. Van Zandbeek
142. R. Flens
143. J. Hopman
144. J. McCarthy
145. P. Möhlmann
146. F. Taillefour
147. J. Thomson
CSC
151. M. Dueñas
152. I. Kovalev
153. C. Lewis
154. E. Parra Bustamante
155. J. Rodas
156. A. Talansky
157. C. Zaballa
Will wait for some small DB changes by SN before starting the race. |
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| Kami |
Posted on 26-02-2012 19:14
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Rooting for Kirchen here, although the contender field is a lot bigger then last year.
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| fenian_1234 |
Posted on 26-02-2012 19:18
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Aaah....lots of good puncheurs. Probably set for episode 374 of the Ginanni Disappoints series. |
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 26-02-2012 19:20
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Just hoping for a good result on the prologue with Kovalev. Anything else would be a bonus.
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| Christer |
Posted on 26-02-2012 19:45
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I hope for some nice results here. Probably failing, because of my strong squad (compared to what I could have sent..)
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| roturn |
Posted on 26-02-2012 19:48
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I sent a pretty strong squad here with Boom, Hermans, Kunitski and Passeron. Probably not the best idea as I haven`t expected so many puncheurs here. |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 26-02-2012 21:07
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A top 10 wih Vanendert and a top 15 with Gautier are what I'm hoping for here. A really strong line up makes me think I'm not getting much more.
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| beagle |
Posted on 26-02-2012 21:14
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I´d be happy with same scenario like in Bayern-Rundfahrt race 
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| fenian_1234 |
Posted on 26-02-2012 21:21
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There is always that. I've got a fairly weak team on purpose to support Ginanni - always seems if he has strong support he waits to long to try anything....Flip side of that is they won't be strong enough to peg back a good break on stage 3 or 4. |
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Posted on 22-11-2024 01:58
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| Smowz |
Posted on 26-02-2012 22:02
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It's going to be a tough race this one, a few more punchaers around than Rundfaht and stage's 3 and 4 are likely to be selective. I think it will be a tight one with bonifications being the deciding factor so if Kirchen can sneak a top 3 with a solid TT a decent top 10 is hopeful.
Everything is crossed that Tzortzakis or Brown are not selected to be breakaways - hoping really that Vorganov pulls off his regular miracle breakaway.
Roturn, please don't tell Brown that he is expected to do well that will ensure he does really badly - mind you the thought of a Red Bull sprint train is quite exciting.
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| rycadinho |
Posted on 26-02-2012 22:11
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Oh god this wasn't to be expected. Roche needs to stop under performing and start... well over performing if we want to have a man on the final podium!
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| fenian_1234 |
Posted on 26-02-2012 22:36
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I hope Stage 1 is one of those TT's where hill stat is more important than TT stat.  |
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| fenian_1234 |
Posted on 27-02-2012 23:02
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Ginanni within a stage winning time bonus of taking the race lead. He's got no chance..... |
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 27-02-2012 23:28
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I was hoping for better than 7th 
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| rycadinho |
Posted on 28-02-2012 00:39
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Seems Roche really has decided to give it everything, excellent start - now to keep it going..
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| Christer |
Posted on 28-02-2012 01:02
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Not too shabby. I can live with this!
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| CountArach |
Posted on 28-02-2012 03:32
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Two in the top ten - I can live with that. Vanendert set up nicely.
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| beagle |
Posted on 28-02-2012 09:26
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Good start, hopefully not the only positive moment for me from this race.
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| roturn |
Posted on 28-02-2012 09:29
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Not the worst start. Boom losing his 2nd time trial. Still 2/4. Can`t complain as it was Ignatiev ahead.
Also Velits and Hermans did quite well which gave me 2nd in the team ranking.
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| fenian_1234 |
Posted on 28-02-2012 22:36
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Posts: 4790
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Can we just cancel hilly races from the calendar next year and delete all the puncheurs??? |
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