The UCI WorldTour will kick off soon as well. In January, the riders will ride the Santos Tour Down Under. This race has been organised since 1999 and in 2008 it became part of the ProTour. In the 14 previous years of organisation, we have had 11 different winners.
The stages:
We start this edition with a relatively flat stage. The riders will get one opportunity for the King of the Mountains and 3 intermediate sprints. In the last few kilometers, we still have a short hill, which could drop some sprinters.
Stage 2 is already a hilly stage. The start may not look too difficult, with only 2 sprints and no KoM prizes, but in the last kilometers, the riders have to climb Mount Corkscrew, followed by a tough descent to the finish line. The GC may already be shaken up a little here.
Stage 3 has the first uphill finish of this edition. It may be uphill, but it isn't very tough. What is tough though is the entire stage. We don't have a flat piece for a single moment, meaning the real sprinters won't stand a chance today
Stage 4 is the easiest stage so far this tour. The KoM comes quite early and afterwards only a few ups and downs. The finish will be fully flat today, so all sprinters should have a serious chance of victory today.
The queen stage of the Santos Tour Down Under 2013. The stage is relatively easy in the beginning, but in the last 25 kilometers, we ascent the Old Willunga Hill twice. After the first ascent, we don't have a downhill immediately, but first a piece of flat. This toughens it up even more. The winner of today will most likely win the GC as well. note: profile shown is a lap driven a couple of times
The final stage is the easiest one. It's almost fully flat, apart from a short hill clumb a few times. However, this hill is so short it shouldn't cause any difficulty. That, combined with a length of just 90kms, should ensure a final chance for the sprinters.
The start list:
The favorites: *****
Daniel Moreno
Moreno has the explosivity needed for this race. That, combined with a good ability of getting over short hills, makes him the race favorite ****
Sergio Henao
Henao is just like Moreno. He also has a strong squad support, but is a little weaker himself. Nonetheless, he should do very well here. ***
Enrico Gasparotto
Gasparotto already showed in the Amstel Gold Race last year he has a good punch. He hopes to show it here as well, but it's a doubt whether he can compete with Moreno and Henao **
Sylvain Chavanel
Chavanel may not have the strongest punch of them all, but he is a very good downhiller, which is also useful. Combine that with his fighting spirit and here we have a dangerous contender. *
Jelle Vanendert
Vanendert has also proven already he is capable of riding a good race for punchers. With some podiums in the Ardennes plus a Tour stage, he knows about riding in front. Even though it's early in the season, we might still exspect him here.
Other outsiders:
Nicklas Strömberg, Andrea Guardini, Mark Renshaw, Roberto Ferrari, Greg Henderson, Michael Matthews, Yauheni Hutarovich, Barry Markus, Gianni Meersman, Francisco Ventoso.
Nice open startlist, gives plenty of opportunity to a lot of riders. Degenkold of course has to seen as sprint favorite, but there are easily enough other there to scare him (Demare, Hanzen, Viviani etc.). The GC here is always interesting. Two "Hilly" stages but neither are ever that selective (at least in old PCMs) or overly tough. Interesting to see how Degenkolb and Hanzen do in GC with good HL and SP stats.
Today is a flat stage. This one should be for the sprinters, or, who knows, a breakaway? Today’s stage is the longest stage of the race, but still, a mere 189km. This stage might not drop Harrini since I can’t spot a lot of hills in the second half of the race. Though on the other hand, Harrini sucks on longer distances as well.
The Stage 179km –
A breakaway was formed fairly quickly. Chiarini(AND) is a big name, but still, down 3’10 in the GC. The others are Kiendýs(CCC), Wallays(TSV), Boev(RVL) and Corti(COL). Especially the last name is interesting, Corti is third in the KoM ranking(7pts), only 6 points behind Vanthourenhout(CRE), with 10 points up for grabs today. 148km – Nobody is interested in the sprint, Kiendys just happens to relay when they cross the line. The peloton doesn’t fully let the breakaway go, they’re stuck on 4 and a half minutes. It’s probably because of Chiarini. 136km –
Chiarini wins the KoM sprint, while Corti ruins himself by going too early, and not picking up any points at all. No KoM jersey for him. Peloton at 6’20. They seem to have changed their minds, giving the escapees some more time. 100km –
The KoM sprint is won by Wallays, ahead of Chiarini & Corti. After tolerating the gap getting a bit bigger, the peloton, led by Belkin & MTN, is now working again, and the gap is brought back to 5’40 now. 50km – Nothing really happened. Break slowly reeled in, 2’40 left, and nobody in the break giving a shit about the sprints. 23km –
The peloton already has the break in its sight now(1’15), and the sprint preparations are about to begin. It’s getting windy, but it’s too late for an echelon stage now 11km –
The peloton, a bit disrupted by the headwind, still haven’t catched the escapees yet, who are still 40 seconds in front. 5km –
Both the peloton and the break now split in pieces. This is actually fun!
Chiarini(AND) & Boev(RVL) now at the front, a few seconds ahead of Wallays(TSV), and a disrupted peloton following close(’32) as well. 3km – The sprint trains are coming, but the escapees still have a small chance. Gavazzi is comfortably behind the dominating Belkin train, and Paulini the Katusha guy behind the other dominating train, which is the Vacansoleil train. MTN train is falling a bit behind on the left, but still doing decent. It’s a bit of a messy preparation. (I intended to make a screenshot here, but it apparently failed…) 2000m –
The inevitable happened, the break is reeled in. Brouwer & Boeckmans are going for an early sprint, perhaps too early? Ciolek comfortabely in Brouwer’s wheel, probably the best position you can be in. 1000m –
Ciolek still hanging on to Brouwer’s wheel. Nobody is close, Gavazzi & Boeckmans look good for third. 600m –
Ciolek out of Brouwer’s wheel, overtaking him easily. Can he give the home team a win here? Gavazzi looks set for third, and Boeckmans is burning out, Martens for fourth? Finish –
Ciolek does it! Making MTN really happy, and showing Brouwer who’s the boss. Brouwer easily second, with Gavazzi third.
Martens makes it fourth, Vachon a surprising 5th. Cervero, 69 SP+68FL, surprisingly makes it to the Top 10 in this sprint finish. Results
A breakaway win, or echolon's maybe(considering the hard wind last stage) might still change it? (I'm not suggesting anything, haven't played stage 6 yet)
mvhoogdalem wrote:
Damn.. that is one tough startlist. Not really a weak team here.
Hopefully Viviani or Moser can get a stage win.
BMC did their best .
Great preview, can't wait for the real racing to start with the most ridiculous TDU startlist ever. Moreno and Henao??? Right. We'll do very, very well to get a top 10. I'm going for Degenkolb to clean up in the sprints. I also really hope Katusha and Astana fail because they're unmanaged and it sucks if they do well. Unfortunately, with the riders they have, that's pretty unlikely.
Guys, small problem I forgot.
I'm now on my other computer, but some keyboard shortcuts, like CTRL+U, don't work here, the game just freezes(doesn't crash, I can click CTRL+U again to make it stop freezing). I can manually remove them every time, ofc, but it takes time, and there always has to be 1 thing that's still there, it seems.
So sorry for some ugly screenshots with the pauze button still on it
Is Brouwer going for a spot as lead-out man on MTN next season?
Alightly disappointed that Lobato didn't do better, but probably a result of the late catch - they tend to make weird sprints at least in older games...
(BEL)
(MTN)
(EUS)
(VAC)
(COF)
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