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Tour of Eritrea Discussion
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 10:27
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 17-06-2015 09:20
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 Tour of Eritrea
The Tour of Eritrea goes into it's third edition and has been upgraded to an HC status this year, becoming one of Africa's premium (and most prestigious) races. There will be six stages this year, so it's a longer and more challenging route than last season.
The climbers will once again aim for the queen stage up to "Asmara": a key stage for the GC, for obvious reasons. This year though, there will be two additional hilly stages in the final three days, so strong puncheurs can do some damage there. Especially the final stage looks pretty tricky and challenging, with a steady up and down all across the route.
With defending champion Florentino Marquez missing this year, last year's runner-up Robert Kiserlovski will be one of those, trying to grab an important victory against some heavy competition..
The Startlist
The Favorites | Rider | Mo | Hi | Rider | Mo | Hi |  José Rujano | 81 | 73 |  Maxim Iglinski | 77 | 72 |  Jurgen Van den Broeck | 81 | 76 |  Andrei Kashechkin | 77 | 72 |  Magno Nazaret | 80 | 71 |  Daniel Teklehaimanot | 77 | 74 | | Mikayil Krasnoperov | 80 | 68 |  David López Garcia | 77 | 74 | | Natnael Berhane | 80 | 75 | David Arroyo | 77 | 71 |  Robert Kiserlovski | 80 | 75 |  Alex Ardila Cano | 77 | 71 | | Rafael Valls | 79 | 75 | Jairo Agudelo | 77 | 68 | | Artemio Moschella | 79 | 69 |  Tim Kennaugh | 77 | 70 |  Jarlinson Pantano Gómez | 79 | 71 | David Rosch | 77 | 72 |  Mwangi Samwel | 79 | 70 | Alejandro Valverde | 77 | 77 | | Walter Pedraza | 78 | 71 | Michal Kwiatkowski | 77 | 78 |  Peter Stetina | 78 | 67 |  Jakub Kratochvila | 76 | 77 | | George Bennett | 78 | 76 |  Edoardo Zardini | 76 | 77 |
We may start with local hero Berhane: last year's 4th here is definitely amongst the top-favorites. One of the best climbers and adding decent skills on shorter climbs, too, Berhane and Eritel do have something to lose here.
Of course there's extraordinary strong (climbing) competition though: Rujano and Van den Broeck, as well as Kiserlovski may be the very top-favorites beside Berhane. Also Nazaret (last year's 8th here, 3rd in 2013) knows this race pretty well, but may fear the two hilly stages. Same goes for Krasnoperov, who has to limit the damage on the final three days.
A few more allrounders like Valls, Bennett, Kwiatkowski and maybe good old Valverde may benefit from the less talented puncheurs amongst the best climbers. Also PT-entree Becherovka (Kratochvila) or Sauber (Zardini) do look quite promising, if there leaders do survive the queen stage in one of the front groups.
The Sprinters | Rider | Sp | Acc | Rider | Sp | Acc | | Marco Guillén | 81 | 82 | Ahmad Haidar Anuawar | 78 | 76 | | Jens Keukeleire | 80 | 79 | Nolan Hoffman | 78 | 78 |  Danilo Kupfernagel | 80 | 80 | Benoît Sinner | 78 | 73 | | Jaime Alberto Castañeda | 80 | 79 |  Martin Pedersen | 78 | 75 |  Damion Drapac | 80 | 79 | Emanuele Rizza | 78 | 73 |  Sonny Colbrelli | 79 | 75 | Edwin Avila | 78 | 77 |  Saulo Lay | 79 | 81 |  Anthony José Brea | 78 | 76 | | Carlos Alexandre Manarelli | 79 | 79 | | | | | Daniel Vesely | 79 | 80 | | | |
With three flat stages on the menu, there's of course some strong sprint competition lining up here: Guillén as the fastest, coming off a pretty good year in the CT. Will he deliver against the heavy competition in this division?
Keukeleire, Castaneda and Drapac as next in line, who will aim for at least one stage-win and some valuable points through consistent sprints here. Vesely, Colbrelli, Lay and Manarelli could well be in the mix, too.. Hoffman as one of Africa's cycling stars will surely try to hang on with those favorites as well.
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 17-06-2015 09:23
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Krasno should never have been here 
Will be interesting to see if he can stay on his bike though, and the same applies for A Efimkin...
GC Wise, a top 15 would do.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 17-06-2015 09:24
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World Champion
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First race for my full mountain train, and let's see what they can do. 
Hopefully we can snag a top 3 from this! |
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| roturn |
Posted on 17-06-2015 09:25
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This would have one for Olivier/Aru. But decided against this band as I went for my main leaders only and Keizer wasn`t really suiting it.
I hope Berhane is taking his home race. But I think Van den Broeck will as best allrounder here. Bennett hopefully doing well, too.
Krasnoperov and Nazarez might lose the race in the hills and might even lose a lot GC positions there. Not ideal races for those.
In the sprints Keukeleire and Kupfernagel should be strongest I think. So Bpost could really need a win here after Tachira. In general Bpost is the team to beat here. |
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 17-06-2015 09:45
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Cool preview for a cool race.
I will be rooting for a "continental stars" berhane for the GC and Hoffman for the flat stages, however Nolan could have a hard time to sptint for a top5. He would need some harder flat stages
Bpost sending a really strong team, could be a great point haul here for Count.
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 17-06-2015 09:49
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Brutal mountain stage there on the Asmara.
Hoping for Berhane to shine here  |
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| The Rider |
Posted on 17-06-2015 09:56
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Season 2 finally gets underway for Bonsucro!
All about the flat stages for us, we really should be the team to beat as no one has a 1-2 combo as potent as Castaneda and Manarelli.
I just hope we aren't in for replays of last season where Guillen gets a sprint train with riders with 58 sprint. |
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| Kentaurus |
Posted on 17-06-2015 10:05
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Holy crap the amount of climbers for essentially one mountain stage. Think I'll continue about my stage hunting and hope for the best (going to be a very common trend for me).
AZTECA - NBCSN  |
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 17-06-2015 10:44
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This is more my level, hope my climbers/puncheurs show up. Thanks for this tsmoha.
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| ggDonovan |
Posted on 17-06-2015 11:23
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Nazaret + a combative team. Not great expectations to be honest.
Nazaret for a late top 10. There are some nice riders with better allround skills.
We can learn a lot about the result of the race after seeing the last stage from Táchira
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 17-06-2015 11:35
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Goal of a Top 5 here, and Valls is our man.
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| fintas |
Posted on 17-06-2015 11:55
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This is easy for my team, Kupfernagel for the sprints and Vakoc to the hill stages..
Jurgen Van den Broeck for me is the man to beat..
Keukeleire, Castaneda and Drapac as next in line
I think you have forgotten, somebody better than these. Not to mention Kupfernagel, can only be a lapse and I hope that is not a sign of things to come
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 17-06-2015 12:01
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fintas wrote:
I think you have forgotten, somebody better than these. Not to mention Kupfernagel, can only be a lapse and I hope that is not a sign of things to come
Writing my previews always prior to racing the stages, so just forgot to mention him here. I'm still pissed that he took last years DUC, you know 
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| ember |
Posted on 17-06-2015 12:08
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Slightly surprising to see all those great climbers present in a race where there's only one mountain stage and what looks like two difficult hilly stages. Due to that, I fancy Valverde and Kwiatkowski to do great due to their nice MO/HI combined with what should be a very useful acc stat.
But obviously it comes down to how the mountain stage plays out. If the best climbers cancel each other out, they're probably the favourites for the race win, but if the pace is according to the best climbers stats, they are likely to be gone five kilometers before the finish on that stage 
For the sprints, I hope Keukeleire can get going thinking of wins, as he clearly was one of the best in Tachira without really being rewarded. |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 17-06-2015 12:33
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As people have noticed I've got a lot of hope for this race. A really strong line up and with a lot of the other top climbers in the division elsewhere I'm hoping for at least a podium place. Keukeleire doing well in the sprints would also be a huge help.
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| Bikex |
Posted on 17-06-2015 14:01
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Right into the next race, where I'm sending one of my two strong climbers. This time it's Kiserlovski, who has the better hill stat. It's nice to see how diverse the competition in the mountains is. Some climbers were already seen in Tachira against Sella, but then there are also new faces which Kiserlovski has to face now.
After a podium last year for Kiserlovski, I hope to see him repeat that result. My support sent here is slightly weaker than the one Sella could rely on in Venezuela but with Jang and Poorseyedi to rather strong climbers are on board and then there is Meiyin Wang whose hill I trained +1 in the off season, so he should be a good support on the last three stages.
I expect the mountain stage to end in a mass sprint of a select group, with a not very steep final climb and a lot of similarily strong climbers. As Kiserlovski then is one of the better puncheurs of the good climbers I hope he can make a difference in stage 4 and 6.
Nice to see that you listed Haidar Anuawar with the sprinters, but I can't expect much of him. He probably won't even contest the final sprints.
A breakaway appearance of one of my riders in the first flat stages would be appreciated then. |
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 17-06-2015 14:20
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I'm mainly stage hunting here with GUillen and Landa. Hopefully Pantano will keep up with the better climbers this time around.
Bit surprised with the selection of a few guys who's taking a bit risky road since its only one mt. stage and it doesnt look like its the hardest one either. And the hilly stage will probably cause some major victims aswell.
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 17-06-2015 14:41
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Seems to have been a long long while since Eddie Stobart riders took part in a race, so hopefully the nice rest has done them good (hopefully). |
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| Roman |
Posted on 17-06-2015 15:55
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Looking forward to see Kratochvila in hilly stages, and Vesely in sprints. First ever Becherovka's race in PCT category.
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 17-06-2015 15:57
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I'm hoping for a not very selective mountain stage then a strong performance on one of the hilly stages. This race kicks off what I fear is going to be a very long season for us where we have to fight hard for every point, if we avoid last in the final rankings then I'll consider it a success.
Just like most races this season my target is simply to avoid a 0 point trip.
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