Zagreb - Ljubljana discussion thread
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Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 04-02-2015 17:26
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Zagreb is the Croatian capital. Ljubljana is the Slovenian capital. If you subtract one to the other you get a C1 race. A hilly one through the roads which connect these two neighboring countries in the northern shores of the Adriatic sea. There’s barely any climbing to do though, through these 172km. The plateau in the 2nd half of the race should sees the most exciting part, but all should be decided only inside Ljubljana, where the last km consists of a masochist ramp to help us find our winner.
This event is reasonably recent in Man-Game history having debuted last year, and won by the german Matthias Kessler
Spoiler 1 | Matthias Kessler | VolksWagen-Mapei | 4h08'21 | 2 | Jérémy Roy | Alstom-RBC | s.t. | 3 | Aleksandr Kolobnev | Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC | s.t. | 4 | Johnny Hoogerland | Swedbank-PEAB | s.t. | 5 | Hassen Ben Nasser | Pivovarna Lasko Cycling Team | s.t. | 6 | Jérôme Baugnies | HTC Nieuwsblad | s.t. | 7 | Marc De Maar | HTC Nieuwsblad | s.t. | 8 | Aleksandr Efimkin | Cisco Cycling Team | s.t. | 9 | Jerome Cousin | Team BPost | s.t. | 10 | Cyril Gautier | Team BPost | s.t. | 11 | Aleksandar Flügel | VolksWagen-Mapei | s.t. | 12 | Alexander Rybakov | Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC | s.t. | 13 | Ilnur Zakarin | Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC | s.t. | 14 | Dmitri Kozontchuk | Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC | s.t. | 15 | Francis De Greef | Team BPost | s.t. | 16 | Cristiano Salerno | Cisco Cycling Team | s.t. | 17 | Nick Van der Lijke | HTC Nieuwsblad | s.t. | 18 | Ruben Zepuntke | VolksWagen-Mapei | s.t. | 19 | Fabio Taborre | Cisco Cycling Team | s.t. | 20 | Jonathon Dufrasnes | Team BPost | s.t. |
Let’s look at this year’s field:
Team | Name | Hill | | Di Maggio | 82 | | Efimkin | 79 | | Skujins | 79 | | Bellis | 78 | | Mehr-Wenige | 78 | | Bilbao | 77 | | McEvoy | 76 | | Gerdemann | 76 | | Vastaranta | 76 | | Weening | 76 | | Jiao | 76 | | Konovalovas | 76 | | Salerno | 75 | | De la Fuente | 75 | | Kump | 75 | | Puusepp | 75 | | Ji | 75 | | Durasek | 75 |
Di Maggio stands out as the absolute favourite coming from a massive phase of his season. Efimkin could be his major opponent, with a powerful team to back him up, Skujins should also be dangerous, even though his side doesn’t have that much depth. Bellis and Bilbao should also be good bets, especially the first with Durasek in support. Karcher, Amex and Privatbank shouldn’t be overlooked either with a double spear-headed leadership.
Stay tuned to find out who of these will take full honours on Ljubljana!
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Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 15:12
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 04-02-2015 17:35
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Technically last year wasn't the first instance of the race - it just went the other way the first time.
Bit of a lottery I feel in terms of route hardness. Could be a breakaway?
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DubbelDekker |
Posted on 04-02-2015 18:04
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Don't expect much from Weening, who has been pretty lackluster all season. Top 10 would be nice.
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tsmoha |
Posted on 04-02-2015 18:15
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Could be kind of a lottery at the finish. Don't expect to much from Jiao, he's been useless this season. May be a good point to score a Top-10 like he did a couple of times last year
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jt1109 |
Posted on 04-02-2015 18:55
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I'm happy to see the startlist here being below average fancy Bellis to take the win. |
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fintas |
Posted on 04-02-2015 19:10
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I certainly hope my double is able to return to get a good result
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valverde321 |
Posted on 04-02-2015 20:33
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Would like to see Efimkin win a race this year, hopefully this can be it, but I fear I wont even get a Top 5
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viking90 |
Posted on 04-02-2015 21:14
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Want a good result from this! |
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Kami |
Posted on 04-02-2015 21:37
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I don't expect to much from this race. A top 10 would be nice though.
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fjhoekie |
Posted on 05-02-2015 09:28
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Not expecting anything here, perhaps Ignas can do well if a reduced group gets to sprint, but not too confident in that...
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Bjartne |
Posted on 06-02-2015 09:36
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Wow, most unexpected win ever! Sent my C-team just to fill up race days for them...
80 points here and stage wins earlier this month may send us closer up to our relegation rivals. Fun to have some success at the end of the season
Thank you Gustavovskiy/Tsmoha for reporting and uploading!
Edited by Bjartne on 06-02-2015 09:37
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fjhoekie |
Posted on 06-02-2015 09:40
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Wow. Could that be the best result a stagiare has ever delivered?
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
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tsmoha |
Posted on 06-02-2015 09:42
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Congrats, Bjartne. At least some unexpected success before going down to CT
So I guess SN was right about the breakaway.. can't complain with Phelan hanging on for a 5th place, which is definitely more than I could expect here. Pretty ridicilous overall result with Del Nero, Bennett and Jiao all inside the Top-16! On the other hand, teams like Venchi and Bacardi with a similar "pattern" of several riders amongst those best today.
Anyway, a strange race, but I will take that points. Thansk for the quality report, Gusta!
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jt1109 |
Posted on 06-02-2015 10:37
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Terrible Bellis should be able to hold McEvoy 9 times out of 10 an tha would have been a top 10 but ohh well bad daiy form, rest of the team were poor and that won't be forgot come transfer season. well done Bjarnte |
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jph27 |
Posted on 06-02-2015 10:43
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I'm so glad I decided not to send a team here, sounds cruel but I'm also glad to see Meiji and Gazelle not scoring well, no offence DD and Valv
Congrats Bjartne! Hopefully you'll rip up the CT next season. Thanks for the report Gustav
Edited by jph27 on 06-02-2015 11:02
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Kami |
Posted on 06-02-2015 12:29
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7th & 9th are certainly more then i could have hoped for. Bilbao might have been able to finish higher in a normal race, but he could just have well have failed (like he more or less did in the final sprint). So i'll take the good results from Kocjan, Grabovski & Ibarguren!
Thanks for the reports, Gusta!
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Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 06-02-2015 13:14
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Fantastic to see other riders stepping it up when Di Maggio doesn't perform!
Never thought we would going to be a part of the breakaway with Di Maggio in our team, so it was a nice surprise to see that we were in it, and even better when it stayed clear. Great performance by Aregger! Yates also somehow managed to beat Di Maggio. Nice to see him do so well already at so young age.
Congrats to Bjartne and thanks for the report!
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DubbelDekker |
Posted on 06-02-2015 13:46
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That was some rather pathetic chasing by the peloton.
Considering the circumstances Weening did ok I guess. Not a good result for us though.
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viking90 |
Posted on 06-02-2015 14:45
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wasted raceday... |
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FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 06-02-2015 17:33
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Zero pointer, banked on Gasparotto surviving and participating in an uphill sprint which didn't happen. I don't think he would've got much anyway if that happened though due to the break staying away. Thanks Gustavovisky for the report. |
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