Turul al Romaniei Discussion
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Mresuperstar |
Posted on 11-05-2013 13:34
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Turul al Romaniei Preview
May 2-10, 2013 : Europe C2 : Romania
The Tour of Romania finally gets the nod to be part of the man-game for the first time this season. So, while everyone's eyes are centered on the first Grand Tour of the year being held in Italy, the C2 managers have their own little mini-tour to watch as well. It's just too bad that Romania is mostly flat lands. The racing kicks off with 6.9kms prologue followed by 6 flat stages where the sprinter will look to gain enough bonus seconds to hold off the climbers on stage 8. And if 6 sprinter stages weren't enough the tour wraps up with 1 more flat stage to give the fast-men one final chance to make up the time lost from the day before. So now the favourites split into 3 categories:
Larsson Flens Niemiec Barton Joeaar
The top 5 favourites for the opening prologue surely have to no chance to win the race but could hold the leader's jersey for the first few days. Niemiec and Barton are the two non-pure TT specialist as they can also ride the mountains quite well which should help them later in the tour. The other 3 will quickly turn into lead out men for their sprinters once their time at the top of leader board expires.
Guillen Lay Hochmann Chicchi
Speirs Rizza Thorsen Lima Abdallah
Schinker Renshaw Friedman Lasca
The best of best have come out to compete, well for a few exceptions but so many great C2 sprinters are here. The only bad thing about that is they could end up splitting all the bonus seconds up between them and thus giving them no chance for a high GC finish because of the next group of riders in this preview. But for the casual spectator you can't ask for much more, well maybe Maksimov, Nelson, and Peeters would have made this an epic group.
Marzano Ndbri Menchov
Rodas Parra Bustamante Colorado
Very few of the elite C2 climbers wanted to press their luck with a do or die mountain stage therefore only 6 climbers are good enough to get mentioned in the preview. Marzano is the clear cut favourite since he is the 2nd best climber in the division, on paper. But Ndbri has had some great success this season already while on the other hand Menchov is looking to get things moving in the right direction for Barca. Then are the three former CSC-Orbea domestiques from a season ago. All of them have had semi-successful seasons so far, but which one will leaving with the bragging rights over each other this time? There are also plenty of other lower tier climbers that have a great opportunity to pickup points they normal wouldn't get for their teams with a majority of the top climbers staying home to save race days.
Edited by Mresuperstar on 12-05-2013 14:21
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alexkr00 |
Posted on 11-05-2013 13:47
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It's just too bad that Romania is mostly flat lands
No, it's not
Nice preview though.
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TheManxMissile |
Posted on 11-05-2013 13:48
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Time to make a statement! Chicchi needs at least 1 stage win, and the Colombian duo need to be in the Top10 on Stage 8. Also would love 4 breaks from the boys. Our season needs a kickstart somewhere, and Romania is close to home and provides everything we need.
Should be an exciting race, as it's incredibly evenly balanced across the board. Also loving the 4 man Allianz team
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jaxika |
Posted on 11-05-2013 13:51
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I dont know why my team is here, some planning casualties. But its fun to see Thorsen with number 1 |
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Mresuperstar |
Posted on 11-05-2013 13:53
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alexkr00 wrote:
It's just too bad that Romania is mostly flat lands
No, it's not
Nice preview though.
I worded that horrible wrong, for what roads they are using for the their tour are mostly flat. Kinda wish there was 1 more mountain stage but an all-or-nothing stage 8 does make this race a lot more interesting.
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Spilak23 |
Posted on 11-05-2013 14:01
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Goal is to win two stages with Lay. He was quite disapointing in Norway but Anton Martin is here to lead him out so should work out well.
If Gallego, Fernandez Oliveira or Perez Sanchez can place themself in the top 10 overal, they did a good job.
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dev4ever |
Posted on 11-05-2013 14:13
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One stage win for Guillen and 2 guys top 10 in GC would make this an awesome race!
Also good too not see Guillen as the number 1 favourite from PCM for once, will put some pressure of him for sure.
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FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 11-05-2013 14:54
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Hoping for a good AI performance which sees lots of gaps on the MTF. Probably unlikely though
Schinker could surprise with a stage win, while I thought Rijntjes could have a chance at the prologue (Seemingly not). |
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Posted on 24-11-2024 09:09
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fjhoekie |
Posted on 11-05-2013 17:09
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Would be rather weird if Lima would turn out to be my sprinter instead of Poli....
Anyway, this is my top 10 goal and I feel confident Kononenko will get that one, also because he should be one of the better GC guys in the prologue.
Love the amount of sprinters here btw, will give Maksimov less opposition in Sweden
Edited by fjhoekie on 11-05-2013 17:11
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
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Mresuperstar |
Posted on 11-05-2013 17:41
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fjhoekie wrote:
Would be rather weird if Lima would turn out to be my sprinter instead of Poli....
Whoops I looked right over Polivoda, I just saw Lima at the top of your riders so I went with him. But then again PCM has done crazier things this year.
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fjhoekie |
Posted on 12-05-2013 11:50
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Mresuperstar wrote:
fjhoekie wrote:
Would be rather weird if Lima would turn out to be my sprinter instead of Poli....
Whoops I looked right over Polivoda, I just saw Lima at the top of your riders so I went with him. But then again PCM has done crazier things this year.
Ohh yes, I know what you mean....
*Points at Gomenyuk in Vilnius AND Donetsk*
On the other hand, in the Middle East Lima turned out to be an excellent lead-out for Polivoda
Edited by fjhoekie on 12-05-2013 11:51
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
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TheManxMissile |
Posted on 12-05-2013 11:55
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fjhoekie wrote:
On the other hand, in the Middle East Lima turned out to be an excellent lead-out for Polivoda
Apart from when Chicchi beat him Which i need to happen again, please
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Smowz |
Posted on 12-05-2013 14:25
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Another decent result for the last place bottom feeders .
It seems a bit weird that he was given a place ahead of Joeaar when all other indications were that he was slower.
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Spilak23 |
Posted on 12-05-2013 14:27
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Somehow, Perez Sanchez is the best placed climber
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Mresuperstar |
Posted on 12-05-2013 14:31
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Spilak23 wrote:
Somehow, Perez Sanchez is the best placed climber
Because he was one of the early starters. Most of the other climbers started in the middle or later. But like I said in the report I don't know why the early starters had such an advantage.
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Spilak23 |
Posted on 12-05-2013 14:32
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Probably a wind-change. I'm happy with it. It probably means he will finish top 10 in the race. Hopefully
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FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 12-05-2013 14:49
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Wow, great ride from Rijntjes. Thought he would have a chance here. Also great ride from Paillot, SotD should be happy.
Nice compact report Mre |
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fjhoekie |
Posted on 12-05-2013 15:15
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So, Polivoda is placed rather well, and so is Kononenko. A top 10 GC (goal) is now achievable in 2 ways
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
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TheManxMissile |
Posted on 12-05-2013 15:17
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Mihyalov takes a good 10th place. And Edwin and Francesco are nicely placed.
Bring on the real racing!
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Stevenag |
Posted on 12-05-2013 19:31
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Decent result for me. Sys in a top 10 is great, and Marzano doesn't fall to far behind. Still enough for him to demand a good day on the climbing stage. Now we need a lot of boring stages with no breakaway victories. |
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