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Geelong Tour Discussion
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 23-09-2013 21:32
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Welcome to Australia for the next in the series of Continental Stage Races, The 2013 Geelong Tour! This six-day race is held across a variety of six stages, featuring four Flat stages, and also one Hilly stage and an ITT which should together decide the GC here.
This is the second edition of the race, after the last year's race which was won by Het Nieuwsblad's Dieter Capelle. Neither team nor rider returns this year, leaving the race open for a new winner. In fact only one rider who won a stage last year features in this edition, Allianz's Daniel Thorsen who won stage 1 last year.
As for the profile, all bar one of the stages are under 100 kilometers, which should ensure the stages are packed with excitement. Stage five is the only exception, at 144 kilometers, but it is a flat day so the extra racing shouldn't influence the racing too much.
As for the top riders, here is a list of the top Puncheurs in the race, along with their TT stats:
| Name | Team | Hill | TT |  Puusepp | Evian - MIAT | 75 | 68 | | Rocchetti | Evian - MIAT | 75 | 64 |  Cioban | Eskpla - Cision Cycling Team | 75 | 64 |  Westra | Team Gazelle | 74 | 76 |  Firsanov | Banco Nacional de Costa Rica | 74 | 65 | | Jumabekov | Banco Nacional de Costa Rica | 74 | 62 |  Olsson | Risa - Ergon Cycling Team | 73 | 71 |  Rabie | MTN - World Bicycle Relief | 73 | 70 | | Daspuntsag | Team Gazelle | 73 | 68 | | Siskevicus | Eskpla - Cision Cycling Team | 73 | 64 | | Mohamed Shawal Anuar Aziz | Evian - MIAT | 73 | 61 |
Gazelle probably bring the strongest squad in the race. They are lead by Westra, who should be able to hold on during the hilly stage and perform the best in the ITT thanks to his Time Trialing capabilities. A strong squad as always backs him up, with Dapuntsag and Shaekhov standing out as good domestiques.
Closely following them as forces in the overall classification are Mongolian Pro-Continental squad Evian - MIAT, who have two big overall contenders in the form of Puusepp and Rocchetti. The may lack in TT ability, but can use the hilly stage to great affect with support from Anuar Aziz.
Another team who look well prepared for the GC fight is Eskpla, who have a big name in Cioban backed up by Siskevicus among others. The same is true for BNCR, with Jumabekov and Firsanov in their team.
However, sprinting wise the Costa Ricans also look like a big force here with Guillen being the main favourite for the flat stages. Morales and Cano should support him well, as they fight a battle with  Die Berg Komt Er for sprinting supremacy. They bring Hochmann and Abakoumov, who should also do well. Also watch out for Flens in the TT
Another rider to look out for in the sprints is Thorsen, who won a stage here last year. He rides for  Allianz, who will hope he can get good results, but he hasn't got much support leadout-wise.  Sauber and Awang are probably in the same situation, in good spirits after Huntegobler's dominant Tour de Korea win. He also rides here.
Another few teams saw an opportunity to bring big Continental sprinters here, like the  Japanese - Korean Cycling Project who bring Peeters and  Cadbury - Schweppes with Renshaw. These should struggle to bring wins though.
A team in an interesting situation is MTN, who have sub favourites in both sprinting and the overall. Egyptian sprinter Abdallah could surprise, with Rabie in the same situation in the overall battle.
The same could be said for  The Oz Cycling Project. They bring the best rouleur in the race by far in Michael Ford, who must be a big favourite to win stage 4. He can't win the overall though due to a poor climbing ability. The hunt for further success will be left to Drapac, who could feature in the sprints.
Of the last three teams, Risa - Ergon are arguably the best of a bad bunch, as they have a weaker overall contender in Olsson as well as a sprinter in Giacoppo.  Credexbank and  FC Barcelona only bring sprint-oriented squads lead by Papok and Lequatre respectively, who would do well to get a top five as they are not the cream of sprinting talent.
Edited by FroomeDog99 on 25-09-2013 20:41
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 23-09-2013 21:43
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This will be one hell of a race for 2nd place 
Good memories from this race last year too. 2nd race in the calendar and we after it we never gave up that top spot to anyone  Gazzelle doing it very similar way
Edited by Alakagom on 23-09-2013 21:44
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 23-09-2013 21:44
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Nice preview, FD!
Hoping for at least one stage-win, but we do need a GC-result as well. I'm hoping for the hilly stage to feature only small and only a few gaps with bigger groups reaching the hill-top. Not sure if that's realistic though. So far in the season, we had no luck with the often feared less-selective-hilly-stages, maybe this time
Anyway. Given that Evian features the top of the favorites-list and being on home soil, a dissapointing race will be disastrous news for Oz.
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 23-09-2013 21:51
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Westra to win again. *sigh*
EDIT: I just remembered. I can be proud of myself. My team was one of the few that was able to win a GC race, by dominance, where Gazelle was present.
Edited by Miguel98 on 23-09-2013 21:58
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 23-09-2013 23:25
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Nice preview!
Westra should indeed have a good chance. But I'm a bit scared of the Oz Time-Trial rockets Ford and Olman. That one hilly stage is not very hard and is also short. If they can hang on there, they probably win the GC. Having the home advantage wont hurt.
Also, there is the possibility of one sprinter dominating and grabbing a lot of bonus seconds. Is there a sprinter with decent TT?
@Miguel: yes, I remember: Glava Tour. My two best scoring riders were there (Nardin, Weening) and they got their asses handed to them by Ciocan. After that, seeing Alex on a start-list always makes me a bit nervous. Glad he's not here. 
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 24-09-2013 05:48
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Easy one for Westra, only problem can be the wizard duo from the Oz, with their superior TT, but can they hold on with Gazelle on the hills?
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 24-09-2013 05:48
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| Smowz |
Posted on 24-09-2013 05:57
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Well there is just one hill at the end of stage 2, it is possible that gaps could be small so some chance for Olman - Ford I think.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 24-09-2013 07:29
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Westra will win and we will put four in the Top 10. Korea mk2. |
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 24-09-2013 14:03
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I like the sound of Korea mk2, but it might be a little hard to repeat that result.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 12:02
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| CountArach |
Posted on 24-09-2013 15:03
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Smowz wrote:
Well there is just one hill at the end of stage 2, it is possible that gaps could be small so some chance for Olman - Ford I think.
Hmmm I hadn't considered that when I looked at the startlist. In fact I think that sounds quite likely in retrospect.
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 24-09-2013 15:30
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Points Jersey is goal here. Morales and Cano should deliver Guillen in a great position. Hope Guillen can fullfill his destiny here. Anything GC-wise is just a bonus.
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| jaxika |
Posted on 24-09-2013 21:15
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Not bad from Thorsen at this level |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 24-09-2013 21:16
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Nice to see my favorite rider doing well in the break...
...not so nice to see Drapac completely failing in the more important sprint...
...shocked to see our former loser Renshaw taking this opener!
But at least Smowz will be happy about the latter
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 24-09-2013 21:19
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tsmoha, take back Renshaw. He's now winning. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 24-09-2013 21:41
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Miguel98 wrote:
tsmoha, take back Renshaw. He's now winning.
He seems to be useful in the CT, yes. The place, where i feel we may end up next year.. Guess what? I think he would start losing though
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| Smowz |
Posted on 24-09-2013 21:48
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CountArach wrote:
Smowz wrote:
Well there is just one hill at the end of stage 2, it is possible that gaps could be small so some chance for Olman - Ford I think.
Hmmm I hadn't considered that when I looked at the startlist. In fact I think that sounds quite likely in retrospect.
It could be interesting to see how the AI works, it may just randomly have a bunch of guys drop 25kms out despite the lack of a hill just because of hill rating.
Nice win from Renshaw, hone town advantage obviously helped.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 24-09-2013 21:51
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Lazy sprint teams letting me do all the work.
Was scary to see Gregory "20 minutes" Hugentobler in the break, but luckily we reeled him back in this time.
Edited by DubbelDekker on 24-09-2013 21:54
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| tastasol |
Posted on 25-09-2013 15:59
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Poor start from Giacoppo. Hope that Olsson can compete in the GC.
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 25-09-2013 18:25
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It's only solo breaks that work like that for us, I don't think we've had any other breaks make it to the finish yet.
Good to see I've finally found a race flat enough for Awang to actually contest the sprint, I think I might count that as a win in itself.
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| aidanvn13 |
Posted on 25-09-2013 18:29
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A bit disappointing from Abdallah. Hoping for better on the other stages. Also, maybe Rabie can pull of something in the GC.
Kudos in advance to Gazelle for another propable win. DubbelDekker has really put together an awesome squad.
And thanks FroomeDog for the awesome reports
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