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Paris - Tours Discussion Thread
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| kumazan |
Posted on 23-09-2012 13:56
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After a long year of racing, this year's Europe Tour has come to its final day with the last two races, the sprinters classic Paris – Tours, and the unconventional Duo Normand, both in France. We'll focus in the former, which, despite its name, does'’t start in Paris, but in the nearby town of Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines.
The course is almost pan flat, although the two hills present in the last 12 kilometers could be a good place to use as launch pad for the puncheurs. It’ll have to be a strong attack though, as the slopes don't even go close to the double figures. In fact, since 2008, the sprinters have always won in Tours, being the Italian Riccardo Riccò in 2007 the last to beat them, with a strong late attack.
As it was expected, the startlist is pretty much as who's who of the Continental Tour sprinters, as the only top sprinters not starting here are those from the teams which didn't send a team. Therefore, we have a great list of contenders, with
 Daniele Bennati
As the biggest favourite. The Italian has been dominant in the mass sprints this season, and he comes with a quality leadout in Enrico Gasparotto and Thomas Vedel Kvist, so Bennati has everything to deliver. His ability to go over the hills could be quite handy too, if there are serious late attacks.
Talking about strong leadouts, both  Danilo Napolitano and  Erik Mohs are well supported. We saw in the Tour of Britain what Van Poppel and Lorenzetto can do, and they have Borrajo and Borghesi here as well, making an impressive train. Meanwhile the German will have no other but last year's winner Roger Kluge to lead him out.
 Maxime Vantomme is underperforming, but he could partly save his season with a victory in the Avenue de Grammont. His team is kinda split in two with a half focusing on the sprint and the other half in helping Hermans, but he should be there in the end.
 Bianchi has a strong pair with Gerald Ciolek and JÃri Hochmann. While the Czech will struggle in the last hills, if he's there this could prove to be a killer combination. Otherwise, the German is still one of the fastest sprinters around, and his podium chances are good enough.
 Claudio Corioni's solid season has been somewhat interrupted by a weak performance in the Tour of Britain, where he couldn't even make the podium in any stage. Surely Paris – Tours would be a great race for him to be back to the top places.
A step behind from the aforementioned fastmen, there's a group of sprinters who are theoretically slower, but still have an outside chance, if not for the win, for the top 3/5, they are
 Mathieu Drujon, who copes quite well with long distances
 Francesco Chicchi and Thor Hushovd, a strong pair that can upset the favourite's with Westling's leadout
 Heinrich Haussler, being a better climber than most of the sprinters, a fast pace in the hills would favour him
 Emanuele Rizza and Crescenzo D'Amore, while the latter could struggle in the hills, the former should be there, and a top 10 is a very realistic goal
 Chris Sutton and  Alexei Markov both come with an entire team built around them, but both could find the hills and the speed of the top favourites as too big obstacles to overcome
Finally,  Sung Baek Park and  Alberto Loddo could find themselves outclassed, and the limited support they'll get surely won't help, while both  Jurgen Van Loocke and  Bobbie Traksel seem to lack a bit to really contend for a top result.
As for the puncheurs who could emulate Riccò,
Jérémy Roy
Aleksandar Flügel
Pieter Weening
Frantisek Rabon
Ben Hermans
Matthew Lloyd
Stand out, although most of them will probably have to work for the sprinters in their teams, being Roy, Flügel and Lloyd those who could get the most freedom to race for themselves.
Startlist
Spoiler Puma
1. D. Bennati
2. N. Bouhanni
3. M. Delage
4. E. Gasparotto
5. T. Kvist
6. O. Le Gac
7. G. Meersman
UniCredit
11. D. Napolitano
12. F. Borghesi
13. A. Borrajo
14. D. Bragazzi
15. M. Lorenzetto
16. B. Van Poppel
17. P. Weening
Rothaus
21. M. Vantomme
22. B. Hermans
23. V. Iglinski
24. M. Landa
25. J. Novak
26. A. Passeron
27. D. Vesely
Pokerstars
31. E. Mohs
32. G. Atkins
33. D. Boucher
34. R. Kluge
35. M. Maaskant
36. F. Nolf
37. J. Vermote
Bianchi
41. G. Ciolek
42. R. Dennis
43. J. Hochmann
44. G. Lequatre
45. F. Odebrecht
46. F. Rabon
47. P. Rooijakkers
Venchi
51. C. Corioni
52. M. Corti
53. P. Haugard
54. F. Reda
55. A. Santoro
56. N. Tirloni
57. D. Viganò
Focus
61. M. Drujon
62. R. Feillu
63. D. Gaudin
64. R. Hardy
65. C. Pineau
66. J. Roy
67. T. Skujins
Saab
71. F. Chicchi
72. N. Aistrup
73. T. Hushovd
74. T. Larsson
75. J. Lindgren
76. L. Persson
77. M. Westling
Trilux
81. H. Haussler
82. T. Fothen
83. I. Keisse
84. G. Rast
85. A. Saramotins
86. S. Tronet
87. R. Zepunkte
Ferrari
91. E. Rizza
92. E. Capecchi
93. C. D'Amore
94. G. Fonzi
95. P. Longo Borghini
96. A. Scodeller
97. L. Sterbini
Red Bull
101. C. Sutton
102. J. Giaux
103. A. Jelloul
104. C. Manarelli
105. M. Priamo
106. B. Sonnery
107. G. Tzortzakis
Tinkoff
111. A. Markov
112. D. Galimzyanov
113. A. Khatuntsev
114. P. Korzh
115. B. Shpilevski
116. A. Timofeev
117. N. Trusov
Meiji
121. S. Park
122. F. Beppu
123. HT. Kwok
124. S. Lagutin
125. M. Lloyd
126. T. Scully
127. C. Shikai
Team VW
131. A. Loddo
132. W. Anacona
133. G. Brenes
134. A. Flügel
135. A. Klier
136. D. Schorn
137. R. Zabel
Koppert
141. B. Traksel
142. O. Freire
143. S. Langeveld
144. P. Ligthart
145. J. Ockeloen
146. A. Reuvers
147. F. Taillefour
Bpost
151. J. Van Loocke
152. M. La Lavandier
153. S. Poulhiès
154. J. Stallaert
155. J. Steigmiller
156. G. Van Keirsbulck
157. J. Vansummeren
B
161. JP. Nazon
162. JL. Gnanhouan
163. D. Moncoutié
164. C. Soler
165. N. Vogondy
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| CountArach |
Posted on 23-09-2012 13:58
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Grand Tour Champion
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My team needs a sprinter. Desperately.
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| miggi133 |
Posted on 23-09-2012 14:03
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CountArach wrote:
My team needs a sprinter. Desperately.
Ill offer you Samai Samai 
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| cio93 |
Posted on 23-09-2012 14:21
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World Champion
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I hope the hill doesn't allow a strong attack and won't disturb the sprint preparation.
Because of this, primary goals are to ensure a mass sprint and to have Bennati in contention when the sprint starts. Both are no certainties here.
I'm actually fine with a Top3 then
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| Heine |
Posted on 23-09-2012 17:37
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I need the hill to make a difference, then flugel can use his downhill skills
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 04:55
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| Smowz |
Posted on 23-09-2012 17:43
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This looks a long shot. Then again any race against Bennati has been this season.
Late attacks could scramble sprint trains and then we have a shot.
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| felix_29 |
Posted on 24-09-2012 10:31
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Bad positioning by Haussler, but still a great third place. Bennati and Ciolek seemed to strong to beat them anyway.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 24-09-2012 10:34
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8290
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CountArach wrote:
My team needs a sprinter. Desperately.
I should insult my team more often. 5th place was exactly what I needed.
Congrats to Puma. This is the greatest late run by a team ever, surely?!
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| roturn |
Posted on 24-09-2012 11:09
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Bennati with yet another great performance. Also Ciolek impressive being that strong after attacking.
Vantomme with maybe the best season result but still quite disappointing to be that far from Ciolek and behind Haussler.
Hermans with a nice 11th. |
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| beagle |
Posted on 24-09-2012 13:17
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Posts: 4200
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disappointing result for Mohs, five riders in TOP20 still brought some decent amount of points though
Bennati is unstoppable 
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 24-09-2012 13:31
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Yay! Top 50!
Rizza and D'Amore really are useless.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 24-09-2012 13:59
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Just when I thought we had these classics cracked along comes an absolute shocker.
In the file as putting everything on the (unlikely) break resulted in the rest of the riders pretty much being taken out.
Following Emillia the CTour team win was out of bounds, now I see Blythe inspired Rapha taking great points in Faso. (I can always hope that SN didn't want Blythe on the plane to Africa). I shocking performance though, Giaux on the transfer list!
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| cio93 |
Posted on 24-09-2012 14:46
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Posts: 10845
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Phew, that starts to get ridiculous 
Thanks guys, I really don't know how Bennati constantly avoids being boxed in in such chaotic sprints when 2-3 other favourites don't.
Gasparotto and Delage on 7 and 10 despite not leading out giving us even more points who are often overlooked but still helpful.
I really don't want to see the new rankings as I fear we'll be agonizingly close to promotion compared to what I expected in my wildest dreams. 
Edited by cio93 on 24-09-2012 14:46
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 24-09-2012 19:20
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Posts: 33046
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As a Eurovision winner might say, Puma are going up up up up up! Maybe not promotion up, but certainly up the table up! (That enough 'up's? ) And who knows, it could be very worthwhile for any CT team ending up as the 7th best eligible team for promotion. Theyre certainly closing in on that!
Despite their poor showing today, UniCredit are actually finishing the season stronger than Puma - over 1000 points in their last 6 places. But we dont care about them.
Elsewhere, 6 teams threw away 2 race days by coming here - a rare 0 pointer for Jayco Red Bull, while VolksWagen's promotion hopes will slip a little more - even though their team was never likely to score big here anyway.
Trilux remain in the close battle outside the Top 10 too, and overtakes Vespa today.
And a rare performance from Vantomme sees Rothaus move back into the Top 20.
| 1 | | 1 | | | Team Bianchi | 4945 | | 2 | | 2 | | | Jayco - Red Bull | 4341 | | 3 | | 3 | |  | Rapha Condor - Qhubeka | 4201 | | 4 | | 4 | |  | California Giant Berry Farms-Specialized | 3632 | | 5 | | 5 | |  | Aker Solutions - Bergans | 3577 | | 6 | | 6 | | | Pokerstars.com | 3513 | | 7 | | 7 | | | Team Venchi ProCycling | 3422 | | 8 | | 8 | | | UniCredit | 3330 | | 9 | | 9 | |  | Pirelli - Alfa Romeo | 3198 | | 10 | | 10 | |  | Hollister Pro Cycling | 3083 | | 11 | | 13 |  | | Team Puma - SAP | 3075 | | 12 | | 11 |  | | VolksWagen - Siemens | 3072 | | 13 | | 12 | |  | Emu Export | 3062 | | 14 | | 15 | | | Team Trilux - Falke | 2969 | | 15 | | 14 | |  | Vespa - Aprilia - De Rosa | 2937 | | 16 | | 16 | | | T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft | 2846 | | 17 | | 17 | | | Team Bpost | 2710 | | 18 | | 18 | | | Saab-Scania | 2315 | | 19 | | 21 | | | Team Rothaus - Aegon | 2247 | | 20 | | 19 | |  | Team CSC-Orbea | 2217 | | 21 | | 20 | | | Ferrari - ERG | 2204 | | 22 | | 22 | |  | Team WWE | 2154 | | 23 | | 23 | |  | Proximus - Trek | 2142 | | 24 | | 24 | | | Focused Cycling | 1949 | | 25 | | 25 | | | Koppert Cycling Team | 1796 | | 26 | | 26 | |  | Cerne | 1765 | | 27 | | 27 | |  | Cyclevox | 1765 | | 28 | | 28 | | | Meiji - Fuji | 1320 | | 29 | | 29 | |  | Oz Cycling Project | 1209 |
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| viking90 |
Posted on 24-09-2012 19:32
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With Chicchi and Hushovd in the team I had expected a bit more then a 58th place, did I have to high expectations? ^^
Cleary to weak team around them in this race, let´s end this season...  |
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| Heine |
Posted on 24-09-2012 19:36
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Get me into top 10 for my placement goal and then end the season...
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| Levi4life |
Posted on 24-09-2012 19:41
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At least there is a gap between us and Aker now. Franco-belge wasn't a complete failure. Pokerstars is making me a bit nervous too.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 24-09-2012 19:43
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Levi4life wrote:
At least there is a gap between us and Aker now. Franco-belge wasn't a complete failure. Pokerstars is making me a bit nervous too.
Both you and Pokerstars are currently in promotion positions, so no need to feel too nervous!
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| Levi4life |
Posted on 24-09-2012 19:51
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I'm more worried about my top 5. If I manage to not lose too much ground by the end of the season I will have had completed 4 of my 5 goals. If my team manages to go on a win streak in Oz then I will get 5 of 5.
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| beagle |
Posted on 24-09-2012 20:44
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Aker have only little chance (in case you´ll completely fail in Australia and they shine in TTT & Japan). Your feelings about my team can be right though, if there won´t be huge difference in Herald Tour into your favor, I believe Pokerstars still can jump on 4th place!
*praying for strong performance in Faso*
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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