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Vuelta al Pais Vasco Discussion
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 30-06-2014 21:58
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Directeur Sportif
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 Vuelta al Pais Vasco
The ProTour continues with another prestigious stage-race: the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, now in it's 8th edition, features a perfect setup for the best puncheurs in the division.
Four hilly stages, one for the sprinters and the concluding (yes, hilly) TTT will offer plenty of chances to attack the GC, which was taken out by Robert Gesink (1t4i) in the previous two years! Will previous winners like Trofimov (2011, now Tinkoff) or Sanchez Gil (2010, now Rothaus) be able to prevent Gesink from completing the triple?
The Startlist
The TTT
With 28km in total, the concluding hilly Team Time Trial will of course be crucial for the GC-fight. But may it be the lack of any single outstanding pure TT-squad or the half hilly, half flat profile - this TTT is damn hard to predict.
The managers all seemed to avoid wasting a pure TT-squad's racedays here and so we have a situation, in which the depth of puncheurs in a team may be more important than the TT-power. We may see less huge gaps, but of course any seconds will do here. Maybe the most interesting stage of all.
The Favorites
Credit where credit is due:  Gesink enters this race with two consecutive victories in the past two seasons, so he's again someone to watch out for. Project 1t4i ain't the dominating TT-team like in the past though, but given the competition, this may not hurt his chances too badly.
But there are several stronger puncheurs at the start though:  Boasson Hagen,  Bakelants, former race-winner  Trofimov,  Ponzi,  Ginanni or  F Schleck/Gastauer as the first to mention, maybe. Some of them - Levarlet, Taaramäe, Roche - have a pretty strong co-leader behind them, so those teams may have a tactical advantage.
The field ain't exactly lacking depth, as the list continues with some very strong riders:  Schumacher,  Van Garderen,  Claeys, Milan-Sanremo winner  Ricco,  Gilbert or  Costa all will stand chances to attack the higher places in the GC.
Volkswagen lines up with a strong duo in  Flügel/Klemme, former race-winner  Luis Leon Sanchez may hope for a special boost. Same goes for  Valverde on home soil.  van der Hugenhaben deserves a mention as well and wildcard-entry  Monfort may aim to continue his team's ever-conistent performances on hilly terrain.  Guldhammer won't be amongst the biggest contenders, but ain't too bad to miss out completely.  Sagan completes this list, which is worth a hopefully entertaining PT-race.
The Sprinters
Opposing to the extraordinary packed puncheurs-field, the startlist lacks outstanding sprinters. For good reasons, of course. But with one flat stage, some sprinters were brought to score some points:
Van der Lijke, Demare or  Bruno Santos look like the most dangerous riders for this one flat parcours. A fast-finishing GC-contender like Ponzi or Trofimov may go for some valuable bonus seconds, too.
Note/ First of all, I'm sorry for the long delay. Roturn will take over the reports, as I'm less active (atm) on this forum/MG due to personal reasons. Huge thanks to roturn for taking over this race. Enjoy the race, guys.
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 30-06-2014 23:37
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Alright, time to start scoring points again.
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 30-06-2014 23:45
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Bushwackers wrote:
Alright, time to start scoring points again.
Yep  (our second goal of the season; Top-3)
| Nat. | Name | Fl | Mo | Hi | TT | St | Rs | Rc | Co | Sp | Ac | Fi | Do | Pr |  | Trofimov, Yuri | 74 | 78 | 83 | 77 | 80 | 78 | 78 | 66 | 74 | 76 | 77 | 71 | 77 | | Ovechkin, Artem | 72 | 61 | 70 | 76 | 69 | 74 | 63 | 56 | 61 | 70 | 73 | 63 | 76 | | Brutt, Pavel | 75 | 65 | 71 | 74 | 73 | 74 | 71 | 58 | 56 | 73 | 80 | 62 | 74 | | Kozontchuk, Dmitri | 74 | 65 | 71 | 69 | 75 | 72 | 74 | 74 | 68 | 70 | 79 | 67 | 69 | | Rovny, Ivan | 72 | 63 | 76 | 63 | 75 | 73 | 72 | 60 | 69 | 73 | 75 | 64 | 63 | | Zakarin, Ilnur | 71 | 72 | 75 | 68 | 72 | 72 | 67 | 61 | 64 | 71 | 75 | 70 | 68 | | Rybakov, Alexander | 68 | 65 | 75 | 67 | 73 | 68 | 65 | 62 | 64 | 72 | 80 | 58 | 67 | | Pomoshnikov, Sergei | 69 | 73 | 71 | 60 | 74 | 72 | 69 | 52 | 64 | 64 | 60 | 66 | 60 |
Edited by OlegTinkov on 01-07-2014 00:02
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 09-12-2025 04:51
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 01-07-2014 00:56
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TTT, what TTT?
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| ember |
Posted on 01-07-2014 07:02
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We really need Boasson Hagen to perform here, hopefully he's up to the task.
Ponzi with his sprint will probably have a nice lead before the final stage, but Trofimov is the race favourites for me
Edited by ember on 01-07-2014 07:03
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| roturn |
Posted on 01-07-2014 08:58
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alexkr00 wrote:
TTT, what TTT?
This. Ouch.
I thought it`s an ITT. Somehow destroys my hope for a good result by LLS. Other than that somewhere between 5th and 15th would be accurate. Roux as co-leader could as well get a top20-25.
Reports might start later tonight or more probably tomorrow. |
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| Smowz |
Posted on 01-07-2014 09:30
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Eh? TTT - noone in their right mind would think this has a TTT, particularly on the final stage. No bother for me - hell my crappy crew may even have a chance of a half decent result in it.
Santos has some chances on stage 2 if he doesn't get dropped on that climb before hand that given that is when the pace will start may well happen. Also could be a chance of breakaway too of course.
Hope the team can be active otherwise - often teams last on the team sheet tend to get into breaks I feel and thus scoring better than some with an outside favourite. Yes that justifies my crappy squad
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 01-07-2014 09:40
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At least I wasn't the only one to make this mistake, but who knows how this is gonna play out. Hope to get some points on the board after some disappointing cobbles.
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 01-07-2014 10:01
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World Champion
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wacko, TTT should also have a shirt next to the stopwatch thingy, which means that pretty much everyone made a mistake when choosing their line-ups.
So, tsmoha, roturn, are you guys sure that is a TTT?
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| roturn |
Posted on 01-07-2014 10:20
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Just played the stage.
ITT ! 
Thank god. |
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| roturn |
Posted on 02-07-2014 07:21
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LL Sanchez in the front group is good. Olivier being with him was also a strong performance by him.
Gomez Marchante not able to go over the hills is unlucky. Had hoped he could get a decent top25 GC on the uphill finishes. But this would have been a bonus as I just had race days left for him.
Roux out is almost a disaster. He was supposed to support LLS to get a top10 here. Without a real helper now, he might struggle in the stage finals I guess.
Congrats to the winner! |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 02-07-2014 09:26
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I just can't get a break so far this season. Already planning for next year in PCT.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 02-07-2014 09:32
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Pleased to see Juul Jenson active - hope he has a few cards to play in later stages.
Stage 2 is where we have stage ambitions looking to bring it back for a sprint.
These vets just do not go away Old Man Schleck, BooBastard and now Valv.Piti. Cannot see him winning though and Vueling control a babys toy I think - Poncy Ponzi will probably win the flat sprint so the more powerful Wiggle squad could well step in.
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 02-07-2014 10:19
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Solid start to the tour, super glad it's only an ITT and not a TTT. Hoping Ponzi will repeat Tirreno here, but with the TT it'll be a lot harder to hold off riders like Trofimov. Not to mention stage 3's steep ending hill hasn't always suited Ponzi due to the more mountainous rating they usually have.
[url=cleavercycling.co.uk]  [/url] |
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| SotD |
Posted on 02-07-2014 10:59
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Good result for Ricco here... Hoping for something interesting from him. He has got some decent backup in terms of hilly domestiques here. There aren't top quality, but they aren't poor either... Let's hope stage 2 can give Demare a win. I highly doubt it though!
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 02-07-2014 11:37
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World Champion
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After the Catalunya fiasco, Gesink would better win this or he'll be on his way out...
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 02-07-2014 22:15
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BOOM! Vueling strikes again. Valverde... Gets a lot of stick for being old, but still able to show the younger ones how it's done  |
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| SotD |
Posted on 03-07-2014 09:16
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Right...
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 03-07-2014 09:38
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So far so good, but the real race starts now. Come on Rui bring us some points
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 03-07-2014 10:52
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Good little buffer over some of the other GC guys, it'd be nice if Valverde just keeled over and let Ponzi take the lead in points and GC, but I'll let Crue have his small moment of success.
[url=cleavercycling.co.uk] [/url] |
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