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Tour of America Discussion
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| roturn |
Posted on 17-11-2013 04:23
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The Tour of America goes into its 3rd season. With 21 stages it`s the GT for the Continental teams.
In the two previous editions we saw quite dominant wins by Franco Pellizotti in 2011 and Robert Kiserlovski in 2012, who won by 8 or 13min ahead of the rest.
Team wise we will see a huge improvement. While 5 teams only participated 2 years ago, the team number climbed to 9 last season. This year no less than 20 teams will be at the start which makes it even more a GT-feeling.
5 US teams alone show the development there as also one from Canada and one from Venezuela.
We will come to the favourites after the profiles but stay tuned as both former winners are here again.
This year the Tour of America could better be named the bigger Tour of California as the whole 3 weeks will take place around there.
The first week starts without the biggest mountains North of San Francisco with some chances for the sprinters.
3 very flat stages where the long list of top sprinters will fight for the win before the 4th stage brings us the first of 3 long time trials. But different to the later this one here is a TTT, which should bring the first bigger selection.
The last 3 stages of the first week lead us to San Francisco and are a mix of flat and hilly stages. All 3 have some tough climbs in the end, still experts rate 2 of those as sprinter stages. Here we will see what sprinters and GC riders struggle already before the first mountains.
After a rest day the real climbing starts. 3 mountain top finishes in a row and here we might see a first sign of how the GC might look in the end. Being weak on those days might cost you any chance GC wise.
2 hilly stages follow as we head towards the North of LA.
In LA then also the first individual time trial and with 53,7km it can make a lot of damage. Stage 14 then is the next and eventually only chance for the sprinters in the 2nd week.
Going into the last week we start with another sprint stage and as some sprinters might have struggled already it could give us a different result than on the first few flat stages.
Stages 16, 18 and 19 then 3 more mountain top finishes. So it`s 6 MTF in total, which means, it`s the most mountaineous Tour of America ever.
Stage 17 is another sprinter stage but with a very classic length with 245km and some weird rated mountain sprints.
2nd last day will then clear all open GC questions as we have another 33km ITT in Los Angeles. Again a completely flat time trial. So we have ~140km in total of flat time trialing which hurts the pure sprinters a lot.
Final day finishes with a sprint stage in Santa Monica.
 Hollister comes back to the Tour of America with the 2012 winner Robert Kiserlovski. He is joined by sprinter Serebriakov. Together they won 5 stages last year and this is probably their goal again.
 Team WWE has the 2nd former race winner. Franco Pellizotti is not as strong as two years ago and does not count to the biggest favourites any longer. And as the team did not nominate 3 time stage winner Kessiakoff it`s probably up to Andre Greipel going for stage wins as also the always attacking Voeckler and Txurruka.
 Volkswagen has a strong GC guy in Ratiy and a great sprinter in Castaneda. Their goal surely is the GC podium and stage wins. With Sieberg and Avenir stage winner Zabel they should be able to do bring Castaneda into a good position in the sprints.
 Repsol with Kashechkin another high quality GC rider. He has some good mountain support and should be watched. And as all GC teams so far also Repsol goes for the GC-Sprint combination as Ferrari is their sprinter here.
 Team CSC sends Igor Anton, one of those, who did well in both years so far. 13th in 2011 and 2nd last season. So he was the best of the rest behind Kiserlovski. This year he is aiming another podium for sure, while Teruel has outsider chances in the sprints only.
 Bintang comes with Krasnoperov GC wise. A podium is not impossible even though I would rate the other mentioned a bit higher. But top5 must be his goal here.
 Meiji comes with Stetina, who is the first favourite from the USA. So he surely is motivated a lot to get a top5 in best case. Anuar Manan is their lead sprinter and he showed with two stage wins last year, that he must be watched. Zaini could be a nice bet for those hilly stages even though it depends on his freedom.
 Prio - Porto with last years 7th Nicacio looks to improve this year. Also he might want to add another stage win here, while Bruno Santos showed great form recently and might deliver some great stage results on the flat stages.
 RBC with another veteran. Just like Pellizotti John Gadret is far from his former strength. But still he is able to top5-10 here I think. As Canadian team this is of course also important for them. Tzortakis to lead them in the sprints, while the rest might have breakaway roles.
 Oz Cycling with Peraud might hope for some improvement by him in the mountains. At least the time trials should suit him. Stage wise they probably hope for Jiao to attack in those hilly stages.
 Mobil is the only US CT team but does not need to hide as Vrecer showed some great climbing so far in the PCT races. They surely hope to finish in the top10 here or grab 1-2 stage wins with a breakaway.
 Cisco is in some relegation problems and so they hope for Dyachenko and Osella to overperform here a bit. Top 10 will be hard but not impossible. It might be needed actually as also in the sprints they are more outsiders.
 Sram as next US team. GC wise Sousa and Hudecek will aim the top15, while their sprinter Mezgec looks more promising in the fight for good stage results.
 Amex concentrates on the sprints mainly and with the US duo Farrar/Keough they should be strong. Gretsch for the time trials would also be a solid bet.
 airBaltic with top sprinter Matt Rowe, who wants to get stage wins of course. GC wise a top10-15 by Lowe would probably be the maximum.
 Sauber has the number 1 here but sorry that I mention them that late. Awang and Haidar Anuawar is a strong duo for the sprints while Jiriakov and Schurter might try something on the harder stages. GC wise it`s not looking that good for them.
 Boeing concentrates mainly on the sprints I think with Chicchi and has some riders in Grashev or Georgiev for the mountains.
 Adira comes with Portuguese GC rider Cabreira. But also due to his horrible lack of time trial skills a top15 might already be the maximum and a huge success. More likely they concentrate on the breakaways.
 ANC Halfords with US climbers Danielson and Barton might hope for a surprising strong result by those. Other than that not the strongest team.
 LukOil as last team but without their strong GC riders. So a good chance for the 3rd row of climbers in Samokhtalov or Vorontsov to show themselves.
Popov might be too weak for the real sprints but on the harder stages he might surprise.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 17-11-2013 04:32
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Wow some teams really took a race day knock to come here, good for them as a monster stage race can be a lot of fun.
In general this has been a race where one team has dominated, nut sure that will happen this time. Hollister still look string mind you.
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 04:32
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Its finally here! 
Hoping to improve on last year, although Stetina not #61. has me a little worried that PCM hasn't put him down as the team leader and thus may not see him try for a good GC, which was my plan with him. Still if Zaini and Manan can stage hunt, Im hoping for atleast a stage win or two.
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 17-11-2013 04:45
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This is it. The biggest race of the year for us... forget the Tour de France.
Do well we stay in the PCT, or do poorly and we are going down to the CT.
GO GO GO Anton! 
Thanks for the lengthy preview roturn, looking forward to 21 intense stages.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 17-11-2013 06:31
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Expecting a disaster, hoping for a miracle 
Great preview, packed startlist, a lot of stages... Will either make for a lot of fun or for a whole lot of trouble.
I stopped cheering for Peraud, he's not riding in our team bus anymore and is allowed to do anything here.. From Top-35 to Top-5 (if he wants to)
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| cio93 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 06:40
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Not too happy that an inactive team has the GC and a sprint favourite here, but the race is wide open this year.
Ratiy and Krasnoperov will struggle on the hilly stages, we'll see whether that is enough for some weaker climbers to overtake them.
Personally, I'm rooting for VW, Meiji and Cisco here.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 17-11-2013 08:35
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Oh wow this is going to be super interesting from a relegation and promotion perspective. So many teams need so much here. I'm rooting for Cisco.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 02:14
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 09:29
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It's finally here! Where my promotion hunt will be over... 
Still, Vrecer should finish in the top 10 hopefully and maybe, big maybe, Ciocan will do something.
And great preview Roturn. |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 17-11-2013 14:00
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So much at stake here. This is going to be really intense between a fair amount of teams. The american teams were expected to bring their heavy guns and so they did, but it's way too difficult to predict the final top10 with so many good stage-racers. And don't get me started on the sprinters. I could count at least 10-15 who have a really good chance at a stage win or more. If someone is to dominate in that field I'd name Greipel, Mezgec, Rowe or Serebriakov. Hopefully Santos will have good legs on the right day to collect a victory.
Amazing preview roturn. Now let the show hit the road!
Edited by Gustavovskiy on 17-11-2013 14:01
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 17:41
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Not a bad first stage in the break and Tzortakis 6th is good. |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 17:47
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9th for Eefting  |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 17-11-2013 17:52
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Directeur Sportif
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Cooke! that was actually a great moment seeing him mentioned in the train-setup,all alone on the left side
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| Mhaley45 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 18:03
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AMEXpc needs to perform here in the Tour of America. We need the points and we also need the sponsor exposure that only top finishes can guarantee.
This seasons dual focus on the cobbles and sprinting has been a case of love and hate. The spring cobble season treated us well, but todate our sprinters have been awful with the exception of Jake Keough in a couple of CT races. The Tour of American will give us our best chances of the season to podium on the flat stages. With Tyler Farrar and Jake Keough both home grown we has the potential all we need to do now is deliver.
Patrick Gretsch should be near the podium on the TT.
Looking forward to this stage race.
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Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 18:09
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cio93 wrote:
Personally, I'm rooting for VW, Meiji and Cisco here.
CountArach wrote:
Oh wow this is going to be super interesting from a relegation and promotion perspective. So many teams need so much here. I'm rooting for Cisco.
Thanks, we'll need it! 
I'm hoping that Osella or Dyachenko will go for stage wins and potentially the KoM jersey; not the overall, given the strength of this year's field.
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| Mhaley45 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 18:13
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AMEX's sprint train falls short yet again. Keough has to lead too early and Farrar has not chance to sprint in from over a kilometer out.
So many sprint stages --- So few points
Despair is setting in.
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Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 18:23
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Crap, was not expecting a 3rd so soon!Nice start for Manan.
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| Christer |
Posted on 17-11-2013 19:05
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Really been looking forward to this race. Don't remember why I didn't send Kessiakoff, but I am sure I had my reasons. My entire next season can be dependent on this race, in term of points needed to try and stay in PCT and money from the sponsors.
At least I am off to a great start, with Greipel winning the opening stage. Here's to the unlikely 21 Team WWE stage wins!
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 17-11-2013 19:29
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absolutely no idea how we ended up with the number 1 jersey, did they pick team names out of a hat or something?
We'll be lucky to escape this race with a stage win, our best chance of that is probably with Schurter on stage 12 or through a breakaway.
nice to see Awang so well positioned on the first stage, shame he seemingly forgot to actually sprint afterwards. And with Jiriakov outsprinting my 2 designated sprinters I'm starting to wonder whether we should get my 2 malaysians to lead him out instead.
maybe he can spring a surprise on stage 5 if some of the pure quickmen get dropped on the cat 2 near the end.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 17-11-2013 21:21
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Good sprint by Greipel, cashing on Amex's train's problems. Santos with a satisfying début as well finishing 5th.
I hope Nascimento isn't hurt. He is an important part of my TTT squad, in especially with good time-trialists around (which is also a new thing I guess)
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 18-11-2013 10:46
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And here goes Peraud
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