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Olympia's Tour Discussion
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| roturn |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:10
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Team Manager
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The sprinter elite is meeting in the Olympia`s Tour. That said it`s not a pure sprinter race and actually tough to rate.
There are two short time trials, which might still favour the prologue specialists. Then 4 pure sprint stages and a mix of cobbled and sprint stage as the final one. So lots of riders might go for the win here.
A time trialist to gain enough time in his two opportunities?
A sprinter taking enough bonus seconds to beat the others?
Or a brave cobbler, who can create a gap on the final stage?
Let`s check the sprinters first as those might have the best chance to gain time in case of many podium places.
 Holloway
 Ciolek
 Goss
 Lo Cicero
 Vantomme
 Maksimov
Those 6 might be the very best and go for stage wins and bonus seconds.
But we have a lot more to offer as the next row of sprinters is not much weaker:
 Granjel Cabrera
 Kupfernagel
 Rowe
 Serebriakov
 Castaneda
 Vanoverschelde
 Sonnery
 Bennett
 Kreder
 Thorsen
Outside sprinters are
 Van Poppel
 Friedman
 Fonseca
 Renshaw
I am honestly happy to not be part of that sprinter madness in the Continental division. At least we should get lots of exciting sprint finishes with so many possible winners!
The next on the list and with ~6km time trialing, those here go for stage wins and a high GC with their gained time.
Ford
Olman
Reus
Ligthart
Tennant
Stannard
 Elijzen
Johansson
Wetterhall
Barth
Schär
So quite a few top time triaists here and it`s in especially interesting to see that here but also in the sprinter field the mix of PCT and CT is great. Lots of big CT names here, that could reach the overall win or at least very good results.
The cobblers are probably having the less chances with only very few kilometers over pavement. So it`s not surprising that just a few are here and eventually even support their leaders only as some sprinters/timetrialists are decent cobblers as well.
Steurs
Lagab
Vanbilsen
Traksel
So who will win the Olympia`s Tour in 2014?
With Cornu in 2013 and Giaux in 2012 a time trialist and a sprinter were able to take it in the race history. So eventually a cobbler to take it this year?
Last year saw 3 stage wins by Vantomme and a 2nd in the GC. So he might be the top favourite even though the sprinter competition looks stronger than in previous years.
Olman, Ford, Stannard or Elijzen all finished in the top10 last season and also look to improve.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 12:24
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:12
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Biggest sprinter names here... YAY! Gives me hope that Vaitkus and Greipel can dominate in Ukraine...
As for here I just hope Vanoverschelde will try to sprint...
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| Jesleyh |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:15
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Tour de France Champion
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Ouch. A bit more TTists than I hoped for. 2 Top 10s might be possible, though.
Feyenoord(football) and Kelderman fanboy
PCMdaily Awards: 12x nomination, 9x runner-up, 0x win.
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:15
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World Champion
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C'mon Cabrera! You have good prologue skills and your a great sprinter! I'm hoping for a good stuff from you! And, please, PCM, don't troll and give us a great race! |
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:16
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World Champion
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I better get a stage win here. Lo Cicero's high Prologue means I also think he should do okay on the GC as long as the stage bonus seconds are also gained but first overall would be difficult for sure.
Hoping the very few kms of cobble means that true cobblers wont dominate on that stage.
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| Selwink |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:17
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Grand Tour Champion
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Will be nice to see how Serebriakov can do in this field. A podium, or even a win, would be nice. 
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:21
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Directeur Sportif
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Hoping for Goss to take a stage and of course both TTs should be taken by Oz  guess Ford or Olman won't be able to survive all those road races, so it's all for Goss and stage-results.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:22
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Reus here with nat bonus for our first season goal of a top 5. Can't believe I didn't spot the Cobbles though. |
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:23
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World Champion
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Well Vantomme will not repeat his success from last year, that's for sure.
A win is a must with 6 of his race days already wasted though incompetence and no luck. Top 10 in GC should be doable if we do take the stage win along the day.
About cobbles, in the Panne guys with 50's in cobbles survived much tougher stage 1 
Edited by Alakagom on 18-05-2014 19:23
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| cio93 |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:28
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World Champion
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Finally...Ciolek back to racing to give us something to cheer about again.
His prologue stat is pretty bad, so I dunno what to expect from him in the GC, but a stage win would be a good start to at least try.
Fricking useless tiny cobbles strech hopefully doesn't fuck everything up, that's a rather urgent AI fix imo (taking the amount of cobbles into consideration when determining leadership and race outcome).
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| jph27 |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:31
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Alakagom wrote:
Well Vantomme will not repeat his success from last year, that's for sure.
A win is a must with 6 of his race days already wasted though incompetence and no luck. Top 10 in GC should be doable if we do take the stage win along the day.
About cobbles, in the Panne guys with 50's in cobbles survived much tougher stage 1
Tell that to 75COB Turgot, 78COB Thomas and so on |
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| ryant |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:41
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Small Tour Specialist
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We have sent almost the best possible team here, hope we can get something from the race with Stannard, and also Rowe, hope he can improve from his first 2 races and try and get some top 10's as well
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| Ste117 |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:48
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Classics Specialist
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I decided not to send Cavendish here and it was a good decision. I hope Thorsen can do something here.
MG Team manager Team Ticos Air Costa Rica
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| viking90 |
Posted on 18-05-2014 19:51
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4032
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Not expecting much here, maybe Wetterhall or Johansson can get a good GC place And Kvist, Kreder & Ahlstrand can snatch some pts in the sprints. |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 18-05-2014 20:09
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roturn wrote:
Olman, Ford, Stannard or Elijzen all finished in the top10 last season and also look to improve.
As did Tennant - 5th in fact. Hopefully that can be repeated.
Bennett has already exceeded expectations for the season in Tachira, anything else is a bonus, and given the field here - unlikely!
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| roturn |
Posted on 18-05-2014 20:51
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Team Manager
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Must have missed him as he surely would have been in that list otherwise.
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| fintas |
Posted on 18-05-2014 20:53
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2602
Joined: 21-03-2008
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Many expectations for this race. Can Kupfernagel maintain the form shown so far? I hope so, top10 is the desired minimum and maybe a stage win is also possible
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 19-05-2014 06:47
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World Champion
Posts: 14236
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jph27 wrote:
Reus here with nat bonus for our first season goal of a top 5. Can't believe I didn't spot the Cobbles though.
To be honest, i was surprised to see you talking about Reus going here (i was very afraid he will go to Ukaine instead),but i think cobbles are not so much to worry about, i would worry about top sprinters with bonus seconds more, but top 5 can be still very possible, goo luck to Kai!
I am very pleased to see extremely strong field, meaning Ukraine race will be much less packed with stars, so i hope we can have a good time there with fjhoekie.
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 19-05-2014 06:48
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| Smowz |
Posted on 19-05-2014 09:18
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I raced the 2012 edition and it was the final stage (which had no cobbles) that proved decisive with a breakaway taking it - with Giaux getting the win from the breakaway.
I signed him the year after
This looks like a sprinters race this time - I likes the looks of Puma's sprint train.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 19-05-2014 12:12
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World Champion
Posts: 10845
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Smowz wrote:
I raced the 2012 edition and it was the final stage (which had no cobbles) that proved decisive with a breakaway taking it - with Giaux getting the win from the breakaway.
I signed him the year after
This looks like a sprinters race this time - I likes the looks of Puma's sprint train.
I assume because said Giaux is in it? 
It'll be the first real test for my train after DUC was a nightmare in that regard and South China not even a sprinters race. Here, there will be no valid excuses though. We should be leading the field, possibly challenged only by Meiji and Project: Africa.
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