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Tour Down Under - Discussion
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| roturn |
Posted on 21-01-2013 11:35
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Team Manager
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 Tour Down Under 2013
Welcome to Australia. The season has started and after the Classic i`t`s time for the Tour Down Under. Andre Greipel and Napolitano decided the Down Under Classic but none of them will participate in the Tour Down Under. Actually it`s only the Classics 3rd Allan Davis, 4th Manan and 8th Haussler doing both races of the top10.
But now coming to the Tour Down Under. The first stage race of the new season. The route has slightly changed this year and is supposed to be a lot more difficult. Not only we will see an uphill finish on the Willunga Hill but also seeing a 2nd hard hilly stage already on the 2nd day. Still the favourites can be written on a very long list as it`s probably still not hard enough to create bigger gaps.
We are happy to see the last two winners in the peloton again. First there is Allan Davis, who also won 2 stages in 2012 and belongs to the top favourites for the flat stages again even though he couldn`t make the hattrick in the Down Under Classic, which was surely his goal. Second one is Meiji`s  Arashiro, who won the race in 2011. The Japanese can still play a good role here although some of his teammates might have better chances.
Coming to a few more outstanding sprinters:
 Heinrich Haussler will be Davis` biggest opponent by looking on their stats. Both belong to the very best in this division and it should be a great fight. But it wouldn`t fair to ignore the other sprinters starting with another Australian. The National road champion Mitchel Docker belongs to the candidates for a stage win just like  Yauheni Hutarovych,  Michel Kreder,  Francesco Gavazzi,  Romain Feillu, Bay Classic Series dominator Christopher Sutton or the Down Under Classic`s surprising 4th  Manan.
But different to recent years the sprinters will have difficulties to win this race. So here a proper look on the puncheurs:
 Cisco Cycling sends their new star Aleksandr Efimkin into the race. He will be the best puncheur here and surely aims the crown here. He has nice support and should be on everybodys paper.
 Jaguar has the 2nd star puncheur here. Alex Dowsett had a good off-season and belongs to the favourites here.
 Hollister has a very strong team behind Davis but also aim a good overall position with Betancourt and Proni.
 Pivovarna Lasko has one of the strongest line-up in their PCT debut. Kump and Bole should both do well on the harder stages while Hutarovych has a nice train behind him with almost the whole team.
Sram will have nice backup for Haussler in case that the hills are too hard for him. Wegmann and Duggan are capable to perform well on this terrain and belong to the 2nd row of favourites.
 Swedbank has the duo Hermans for the overall and Kreder for the sprints here. Both don`t belong to the very best but behind it`s very close.
Oz Cycling is the only home team here and this obviously means that they are the crowds favourites. The team actually looks pretty strong with Visconti, Lloyd and Gerrans as leading trio. The sprints might be the biggest problem as none of their sprinters likes the hills a lot.
Meiji improved and is sending a strong sprint train for Modolo, Manan and Arashiro. Hatanaka might be their best chance for the overall and looks like a solid shot.
 CSC-Orbea sends the dup Costa/Barrio. It will be interesting to see how they ride together. Costa is the more complete rider and had a pretty good 2012 season while Barrio is fully concentrated on the hilly stages.
Other riders to watch are Richardson, Barredo, Chavanel, Reimer, Mehr-Wenige, De Maar, Rocchetti and Puusepp as all will be able to land everywhere from winning the race to top20 but don`t have the strongest team behind them.
Full Startlist
Edited by roturn on 21-01-2013 11:36
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 21-01-2013 11:40
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Team Manager
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The debut of Jaguar-Eritel this season - looking forward to it! With Willunga now being uphill, Dowsett's chances are better than they might have been in previous years. Let's see how he can do in his first race in the British champion colours.
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 21-01-2013 11:42
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8058
Joined: 22-06-2009
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Don't really care who leads my team, Costa or Barrio, as long as they work together I'll be happy. 
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| tyriion |
Posted on 21-01-2013 11:42
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Sprinter
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A starting list I expected. Real results will be difficult for my team, but we can always hope Gavazzi has a strong showing.
The MG season is off to a nice start!
Check out my ManGame team here
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 21-01-2013 11:45
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World Champion
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This will be really interesting race, i am anxious to see the reports even when Metinvest is not in the race. Some really strong lineups here, i like the squad of Pivovarna Lasko, they can field many nice finishes if the team roles will be settled well.
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| fintas |
Posted on 21-01-2013 11:48
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Small Tour Specialist
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Given the ability of our team, I am not expecting great results. But can always be a surprise, and if any of the sprint finish favors Van Loocke the truth is that Mehr-Wenige can always make a good result for the team ... We'll see what we can do, a top15 already be optimal.
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| kumazan |
Posted on 21-01-2013 11:55
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Team Leader
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I hope Huta can bring a stage home, it'd be nice. Had considered bringing Ben Nasser here, but eventually had to sacrifice some race days, so I'll have to trust in Bole or Kump to show something in the hills.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:00
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Team Leader
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Not the flattest Tour Down Under we have seen could be difficult for the likes of former winners Davis and Arashiro.
Not sure it is a dead cert for a punchaer either, though Willunga Hill should be decisive enough. Stage two will be the interesting one, Gerrans won a similar stage last year so a mid range punchaer could be in the frame perhaps?
Davis will be pretty tough to beat in the sprints not many of the Down Under Classic class here to challenge him.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:00
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Team Leader
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Two in the Top 20 and some points in the Sprints from Petit is the aim. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 15:14
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:06
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Classics Specialist
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Nice prewiew Roturn!
Interresting start field. Happy to see Manan staying in Australia for another week, he looks in really good shape. |
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| Vien |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:11
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Small Tour Specialist
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Not a very interesting race for me (pointswise!), cause there aren't too many good CT teams here. Will be nice to see what Mehr-Wenige does.
Anyone else rooting for the two Japanese teams? 
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| roturn |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:15
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Team Manager
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I had actually planned to send some riders to this race as well. In especially Bellis and Geschke could have been interesting. But due to my Top10 European focus I had to choose other races. Hope I won`t regret this later when seeing some 0 pointers in European races.  |
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| fintas |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:20
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2602
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Vien wrote:
Not a very interesting race for me (pointswise!), cause there aren't too many good CT teams here. Will be nice to see what Mehr-Wenige does.
Anyone else rooting for the two Japanese teams?
He is my only hope of a positive result, and after seeing all punchaers that will be present have some hope that he can give some points for the team.
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| ltt |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:31
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Neo-Pro
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With Davis on the decline, it will be interesting for me to see how he does in this race as a guide for the rest of the season, but I don't think he'll have the legs to win the overall this year.
Haussler was good here last year, and with his improvement he's going to be even harder to beat in the sprints. |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:38
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Grand Tour Champion
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I thought that is sent Gautier here. Guess I couldn't find the race days. Still, Feillu has a decent hill stat so he could put in a decent showing. Also a stage would be nice, obviously.
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| Mhaley45 |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:42
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Protected Rider
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AMEXpc has few expectations for this race. We have two goals and neither sre likely to result in large points. Carlos Barredo is an interesting punchuer in the PCT. Not strong enough to be a top threat, but very interesting as a hilly breakaway rider. Last year AMEX had success with breakaway riders on the flats Matt Crane & Bart Veyt. We are anxious to see if Barredo can find the right break.
Goal #2 is to see how well Sylvain Chavanel can still ride. He is no longer a podium threat but with solid secondary stats he might be a consistent to 15 punchuer.
On the sprint side we have two young and untested german sprinters. Theo Reinhardt is 23 is a lv 2 with SP/72 and AC78 who is being groomed as a leadout man. Rüdiger Selig is also lv 2 SP73, AC/75 also on track to be a leadout rider.
With a couple of decent domestics Fabien Taillefour (FL/77) and Michael Kurth FL/73, SP/73, AC/73.
Our 7th man is 20 year old Jan Dieteren a german punchuer who is here to sopport and learn.
(1) get Barredo in the break on 1 of the hilly days
(2) get Selig & Reinhardt to the front of the peleton in the final kilometers so that they can at least learn to sprint.
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Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 21-01-2013 12:46
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Directeur Sportif
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Oz fears to fail their 2nd goal in 2nd race of the season With a bit of luck, one of our leaders (Lloyd, Visconti) can do something good though.
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 21-01-2013 13:08
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World Champion
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Efimkin should be one of the overall favourites, but I'm really worried that he wont be able to create enough distance back to the sprinters on Willunga Hill. Would help my season a lot if he brought home a chunk of points, so I've got my fingers crossed.
I'm guessing the title will go to one of the climby sprinters.
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 21-01-2013 15:11
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World Champion
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Not expecting much from this race here but I guess Maar or Lijke with bit of luck can bring some points here. Should be a great race though.
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| tastasol |
Posted on 21-01-2013 15:48
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2889
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Hoping that Sutton will get some good results in the sprints and maybe a breakaway with Olsson. Nice preview, roturn!
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