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New Zealand Cycle Tour Discussion
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| cio93 |
Posted on 13-04-2014 19:39
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The C2 teams start their stage racing season in warm New Zealand where the inaugural New Zealand Cycle Tour will be held over 5 days.
Adding to the 15 C2 teams (of which 13 are new to the game) present are rosters of the three PCT teams Compal-Merida, Hornbach and Privatbank.
The race starts with an individual time trial over 20 kilometres that will determine the first yellow jersey wearer who will go into 4 consecutive sprint stages trying to defend his lead against many of the fastest sprinters in the division.
There are a few hills present in every stage.
None of them seem to be hard enough to divide the peloton into stronger and weaker puncheurs, though some "track-sprinters" might find it difficult to preserve all of their energy for the final sprint while going over those obstacles.
Favourite for the opening TT should be  Ian Stannard who will not be happy to face his possibly hardest opponent over the course of the season in
 Elijzen.
Quite close to Elijzen in terms of strenght, but already a lot behind Stannard are the Swede  Renäng, Swiss PT acquisition  Schär and Austrian  Zoidl who cannot rely on his superior uphill ability to distance the others.
The local fans will certainly cheer for  Sam Horgan using the additional motivation in front of a home crowd to overachieve in the TT.
Depending on the time gaps, a batch of top sprinters will either only fight for stage wins and the points jersey, but is possible that a strong, consistent showing of a single rider can see him challenge for the GC win as well.
Leading the fastmen surge is the 80 sprint quintet of Australians Meyer and  Drapac as well as the European foreigners Rowe,  Serebriakov and
 Forero.
Meyer will certainly look to be close enough to the leader in the ITT to go for yellow.
All five of them can rely on a more or less strong sprint support, though
Meyer's team mates lack the speed while Forero has to do with only
Arango.
Serebriakov on the other hand has such a good second sprinter in his team in Hochmann that he might see his leadership threatened if he doesn't perform well fast.
It will be interesting to watch how the Ameriabank DS will utilize his riders.
Very close in terms of top speed is another couple of sprinters.
 Michael Matthews leads Risa's promotion hopes and has superior support stats to most ahead, while Vingerling or  Manarelli lack exactly those a bit.
The champion of lacking support stats in New Zealand is without doubt
Awang though, it remains to be seen whether he will make any impact.
If Vingerling uses his prologue abilites to excel in this slightly longer time trial as well, he could very well be the one of the positioned sprinters after stage 1.
Still on the same level is Azteca's double header  Haedo and Farrar, leadership questions will arise in this team as well.
Haedo possesses the best hill stat of all sprinters mentioned so far with 65, so if the hills really take their toll on weak puncheurs, he could be the surprise of the race.
Another slight step below the top, riders like Westling, Fonseca,
 Sinner,  Teruel and  Renshaw look to benefit from mistakes or slipstreams to randomly sneak into the top positions at times.
Their managers shouldn't expect anything valuable from them though.
PCT teams join C2 races either to gain experience or to have a shot at easier ranking points.
While Hornbach can still play the former card when underachieving with
 Groenewegen, Privatbank's  Polivoda and Compal's  Jang will find it difficult to justify their presence here.
Edited by cio93 on 13-04-2014 19:41
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| jph27 |
Posted on 13-04-2014 19:44
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Shame Sonnery is no longer C2 eligible or I'd have sent him and Mazur here for a bit of fun and xp. Stannard or Meyer for me, hope Manarelli does well  |
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| NTTHRASH |
Posted on 13-04-2014 19:45
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Nice preview. Not attending, but looks like an intense race.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 12:59
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 13-04-2014 19:48
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Should be a really nice race. It should be one for the TT'er though, with so much competition I can't see one sprinter dominating.
The question is, can Stannard survive all these hills. He should, but you never know. If TomTomTom pushes the pace, they could split the race ( at least a player would do - wonder whether AI will try something similar )
Too many sprinters to pick any favourites, Matthews to take a stage win though somehwere I'd say.
Edited by Alakagom on 13-04-2014 19:49
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| Jesleyh |
Posted on 13-04-2014 19:50
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Looking forward to this race a lot!
Stannard was to be expected here, of course. Hope he gets dropped at one of those hills though, I mean, 55 HI won't do you too well.
Scared about the sprinters. I'm having Elijzen & Brus here though, so I hope Vingerling gets an amazing leadout, which will make a big difference I suppose.
@Alak
I can even see Elijzen attack the yellow jersey, he has 80 FTR after all.
Edited by Jesleyh on 13-04-2014 19:53
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 13-04-2014 19:51
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Go Wohler!
Expect my riders to be all over the place without actually winning... Perhaps Athanasiades can surprise me in the TT, but I wouldn't really count on that happening...
EDIT: And ofcourse #TheHottestThingOnWheels also makes his professional debut here 
Edited by fjhoekie on 13-04-2014 19:52
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| knockout |
Posted on 13-04-2014 19:52
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I still hope that Joeaar might do well here but the competition is so strong. I support TomTom's wish of a splitted field on one of the hills 
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| admirschleck |
Posted on 13-04-2014 19:58
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Glad I missed this race, just look at all of these sprinters! First chance to see if the ACC (as well as other stats) matters too much, or it is (hopefully) a bit more random this year.
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 13-04-2014 20:01
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Just read the bit on Hill stats... Please be selective! Poli and Nikolaev should be the bests then!
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 13-04-2014 20:01
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Wonder how this rather easy hills will hurt some pure flat sprinters.. Definitely cheering for either Drapac or Cam Meyer. But i expect Matthews to prove he's the better allround sprinter.
Since the TDU doesn't go so well so far, i will follow both races quite closely Especially since there are two of my loanes as well. Wohler for breakaways, please!
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| Firefly21 |
Posted on 13-04-2014 20:09
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Domestique
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Pfft flat races... so boring  .
Looks like I'll be cheering for Zoidl in the GC (gotta support the Austrians!) and Fletcher-Garneau in the sprints because maybe somehow Haller will be involved...
Edited by Firefly21 on 13-04-2014 20:10
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| 547984 |
Posted on 13-04-2014 20:39
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I'm happy I avoided this race, Cruz probably wouldn't have been able to top Stannard and Elijzen, and I have no sprinter. Will be interesting to watch though.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 13-04-2014 20:42
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Hmm pct teams here, all three likely to be in relegation battle. No coincidence, stupid move.
They are irrelevant here, the test for Stannard can he be bothered to convert ITT into stage race win.
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 13-04-2014 21:40
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Smowz wrote:
Hmm pct teams here, all three likely to be in relegation battle. No coincidence, stupid move.
They are irrelevant here, the test for Stannard can he be bothered to convert ITT into stage race win.
Stupid? Point wise, for sure... But the fact I have some talents which need to be trained, also for the Oz and Metinvest made me join a few C2 races. I knew I would never be able to compete at the top of the division and actually would like to relegate in order to build a 100% Ukrainian team. And ofcourse, loaning in those 2 riders only helped us making friends here, which is always a good thing.
Middle East should be better for my team tho, with Vrecer and Polivoda going
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| welker3257 |
Posted on 13-04-2014 21:48
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Most important race of the year, is the first one
Hopefully that 73 TT and 78 PRL can keep Meyer close enough to Stannard to take the win on time bonuses.
Gig 'em Aggies
Fast N' Loud Cycling Project - ICL
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| The Rider |
Posted on 13-04-2014 21:50
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Hoping the Uruguayan champ, Soto Pereira, can show well in the opening stage and would it be great to see Manarelli get up there in the sprints.
What usually happens in this race on PCM2013? (Don't say a break wins by 10'00 on stage 2!) |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 13-04-2014 21:50
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Will be an interesting race, hope for perhaps a stage win but I wouldn't be too disappointed if Forero couldn't secure one, providing he gets at least a podium. I think he probably has the second-highest TT stat behind Meyer out of the top sprinters so hopefully he might be able to combine something in both disciplines to achieve a GC finish.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 13-04-2014 22:06
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fjhoekie wrote:
Smowz wrote:
Hmm pct teams here, all three likely to be in relegation battle. No coincidence, stupid move.
They are irrelevant here, the test for Stannard can he be bothered to convert ITT into stage race win.
Stupid? Point wise, for sure... But the fact I have some talents which need to be trained, also for the Oz and Metinvest made me join a few C2 races. I knew I would never be able to compete at the top of the division and actually would like to relegate in order to build a 100% Ukrainian team. And ofcourse, loaning in those 2 riders only helped us making friends here, which is always a good thing.
Middle East should be better for my team tho, with Vrecer and Polivoda going
Loaning in riders to make friends? I want to relegate? I don't really care for such attitude. loans should be made with both teams getting something out of it, other than for making friends we are all friends here i think. No team should want to relegate.
Pct teams really should be riding C2 races sporadically in my opinion in particular stage races, likewise CT teams in C1 races. In both cases teams need massive fortune to be a factor.
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| ryant |
Posted on 14-04-2014 00:15
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My first race of the season, hopefully the first win as well
I thought that the hills weren't uber hard for Stannard but we'll see how it goes, this is probably one of the best chances he has at an overall GC.
Biggest threat for me will be Meyer with his decent TT ability (and his great sprint), I just hope that Rowe can 'steal' some bonus seconds away here and there to make their jobs a little harder
Edited by ryant on 14-04-2014 00:16
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 14-04-2014 00:22
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The team's first race of the season and I'm hoping Zoidl can take a top5 in the TT and a top 10 overall. No real hopes for Awang as I know he probably won't win bonus seconds but it's worth bringing him in case. (yes I've learnt to not expect anything from him this season, hopefully he can surprise a few times like he did in the opening stage of the Bay Crits.)
I really hope ACC plays a big role this year for the sprinters, if so Awang having the best ACC in the division might help to make up for his lack of support stats.
@stromeon, depends if you count Awang as a top sprinter as he's got 70TT.
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