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SAA Tour d'Afrique Discussion
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| matt17br |
Posted on 19-08-2016 22:36
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Directeur Sportif
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1st ever edition for the PT’s very own pure sprinters’ fest: the SAA Tour d’Afrique, a stage race that very much resembles Tour of Qatar, except from the fact that it lacks the wind and the Time Trial kilometers.
4 days across Mauritius, South Africa, Rwanda and Kenya, with very high expectations set by the stage names. In fact, Kigali and Kenya Mountain both are places where PCT MG races are held, and both are amongst the tougher and beautiful in the calendar. In this case, however, they will be presented as mere sprint stages. The Kenya Mountain Sprint stage is basically the Kenya Mountain Classic raced the opposite way around, the Kigali one doesn’t even feature the steep cobbled sector included in the Kigali GP.
If you asked me who the favorite would be last year at this time of the year I would have no doubts:  Ben Swift, then riding for Vesuvio. The Brit, however, has put up something close to a no-show for his standards, having almost always beaten by  Degenkolb when going head to head, whom I now consider to be the outright favorite for this one, considering his consistency and his performance at the Tour of Qatar.
There’s the finest of the finer sprinters in the MG in here though, and some of them definitely need to be looked at, considering some of their results at the start of this season.
| Rider | SP | AC | FL | RS | Rider | SP | AC | FL | RS | | Swift | 84 | 82 | 74 | 70 |  Van Heerden | 82 | 73 | 73 | 67 | | Degenkolb | 84 | 81 | 76 | 71 |  Maksimov | 81 | 84 | 72 | 69 | | Mohs | 83 | 82 | 75 | 64 |  Boeckmans | 81 | 83 | 73 | 71 |  Cavendish | 83 | 81 | 73 | 71 |  Roelandts | 81 | 80 | 75 | 74 |  Kristoff | 83 | 79 | 75 | 71 |  Grosu | 81 | 80 | 73 | 70 |  Ciolek | 83 | 79 | 75 | 69 |  Appollonio | 81 | 78 | 74 | 66 |  Van Stayen | 83 | 77 | 76 | 71 | Holloway | 80 | 82 | 78 | 77 |  Kennaugh | 82 | 81 | 77 | 71 |  Guardini | 80 | 82 | 72 | 69 |  Guarnieri | 82 | 81 | 76 | 76 | Impey | 80 | 81 | 74 | 72 |  Howard | 82 | 79 | 76 | 70 | Demare | 80 | 81 | 73 | 72 |  Tzortzakis | 82 | 79 | 74 | 66 | Vesely | 80 | 80 | 73 | 68 |  Goss | 82 | 78 | 74 | 71 |  Van Poppel | 80 | 78 | 72 | 71 |
Obviously, looking at this you would think it’s something between Swift and Degenkolb. The German is in some of the best shape he’s ever been and will ever be in, having been 2nd in the Classica di Primavera, the Milano – Sanremo, after having dominated the Tour of Qatar and the European Championships’ Road Race. That partly also was due to his sprint train dominance, a sprint train that will also feature in the startlist as strong as usual, with Mohs being the leadout everyone dreams to have. The opposite should be said for the Brit however, that is either peaking for the upcoming GTs or is now actually past his prime. He’s really struggled to get the expected results so far.
Cavendish has finally moved back to where he belongs to, the PT, after a few years of absence. And that move certainly only did good to him. He has won a cobbled classic in front of Bewley, which says it all really, as well as a great performance at the Tour of Qatar. Therefore, he comes here with great hopes to continue on his early season form. He’s here supported and possibly covered by Holloway among others, who will be there in case anything goes wrong. Again, the complete opposite goes for Kristoff, who received heavy training during the winter and doesn’t seem to reap any kind of rewards just yet, after a quite Zubeldiesque performance at the Tour of Qatar and not only.
Ciolek, frankly, has disappointed last season, and quite a lot too. Thought to be the best sprinter of the PCT at the start of the season, he proved to be so in not many occasions; on a good day, however, the German is obviously among the best sprinters in the world, and with a shared leader/main leadout such as Demare it’s quite hard to look past Puma for this race. Van Stayen’s jump to the PT was with no praise and no blame last year. While he did finish among the top positions in the end of the season rankings, that was quite expected, especially after dominating the PCT for so long. Nowadays, he really doesn’t seem to be as good as he should be in group sprints, and obviously does prefer hillier races than this one, hence he doesn’t really come as favorite for this one.
Kennaugh and Guarnieri had 2 very good seasons last year. The former was as consistent as the latter, but the Italian showed some blinks of total domination, such as in the Tour of Northern Europe, where he absolutely swept every single sprint stage. He used to have a better sprint train than now – Good Energy had maybe one of the all-time strongest in the history of the MG. Both of them are outsiders, but it’s hard to think they can do anything more than a podium in this kind of field.
The rest of the sprinters that could aim at a top 10 are quite diverse. We do have Bewley’s teammate Howard who has mostly performed well when given the chance, and surely with Vesely as a support will continue to do so; Tzortzakis who is one of many of Festina’s sprinters who rarely has very good days, but when he does he can compete with the best as some of his results last year prove; Goss who once somehow won a World Championship in front of the likes of Bewley and Trofimov and then discovered alcohol.
Van Heerden, who is the prototype of the fatty sprinter along with Matt Rowe, will share the lead of Eritel with new-coming Impey; Maksimov who really doesn’t like anything that is not a 0% slope; Boeckmans who has had an incredible Paris-Nice and is here to keep that streak; Roelandts who is usually always there in the top 10 but rarely ever wins anything; Grosu who is Avin’s loved one and golden boy, and I’m not sure if that is good or bad. Hasn’t been much of an issue for Zmorka so far at all. What’s good is that Guardini will be a great leadout for him.
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| roturn |
Posted on 19-08-2016 22:40
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Team Manager
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Degenkolb to win easily.
Swift hopefully at least a stage and podium in gc despite my team failing to create a sprint train again... |
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| viking90 |
Posted on 19-08-2016 22:45
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Will be exciting to follow.
Hope Swift can deliver for you roturn, starting to now the feeling when your star sprinter does not make as good result as he should  |
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| Crommy |
Posted on 19-08-2016 22:52
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World Champion
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All I'm hoping for Roelandts to do is at least try giving sprinting a go on each stage. Like I pay him to.
Swift - Degenkolb battle will be interesting though.
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 19-08-2016 23:00
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World Champion
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Lammertink to win the GC after a breakaway. You read it here first.
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| tastasol |
Posted on 19-08-2016 23:51
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Classics Specialist
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Top five from Guarnieri? Hope so... Will be a interesting race, but seeing how Qatar went, Degenkolb should be the favourite here.
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| Roman |
Posted on 19-08-2016 23:58
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Grand Tour Specialist
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My duo to fail, especially Vesely, as AI can't really handle two sprinters in one team. 
Degenkolb to win.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 20-08-2016 00:24
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Grand Tour Champion
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Boeckmans has already shown he is the division's best sprinter so I expect that to continue 
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 20-08-2016 07:39
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Directeur Sportif
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Nice preview
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| Smowz |
Posted on 20-08-2016 08:10
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Right no Bewley so we take on GoT fan roturn with his misfiring not so swift Vesuvio rip off deal and of course Pokerstars.
Beagle its on like donkey kong bitch.
Hmm Hagen is here sneak hill in there somewhere?
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 14:38
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| knockout |
Posted on 20-08-2016 08:12
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Grand Tour Champion
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Nice Preview!
Degenkolb should be the strongest sprinter.
I hope that the few speed bumps help Van Stayen already to improve upon his Qatar performance.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 20-08-2016 09:49
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Small Tour Specialist
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No expectations. Hope we go in the break a lot.
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| ember |
Posted on 20-08-2016 10:39
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Just crossing fingers EBH's presence won't ruin Kristoff's chances. If it doesn't, this race should suit Kristoff rather well, I just hope we're allowed to build a train as well.
Smowz wrote:
Hmm Hagen is here sneak hill in there somewhere?
It felt like there was no other satisfying way to make use of EBH's race days. Neither is this, but sending him to a week long stage race instead would have meant he had to drop a classic or two, which wasn't really an alternative. And after all, who doesn't want to race on a new continent? |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 20-08-2016 11:58
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World Champion
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Wow, that preview hit pretty hard, thanks for the kind words
Recent results don't suggest there should be high expectations, but I hope the presence of Demare helps to deliver Ciolek in better positions than Qatar more consistently.
It's not about trying to win (like last year or with Bennati), it's about taking considerably more points than the lower-ranked teams.
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| beagle |
Posted on 20-08-2016 12:23
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"Surprisingly" same tough competition as in Qatar, except of Bewley 
Let´s see if Degenkolb with support of Mohs and Lay (instead of Kluge) can achieve another outstandig result for our team. Watching ongoing FBD Eire Tour makes me uncertain though.
Thanks for stunning preview matt!
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 20-08-2016 18:58
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Tour de France Champion
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You can underestimate Kennaugh as much as you like. Did well in Qatar and will do well here. Otherwise... |
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 20-08-2016 19:26
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Degenkolb and Pokerstars starts off like they did in Qatar, think we will see a similar situation, where once you have the GC lead, you won't give it away. Good to see Swift getting better by the stage and will be the main opponent obviously.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 20-08-2016 19:34
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World Champion
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........
thanks for mentioning the Demare crash 
by the way, I just realized this is our win goal 
Edited by cio93 on 20-08-2016 19:42
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| roturn |
Posted on 20-08-2016 19:36
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2nd is fine for me seeing Degenkolb that superior with a well known sprint train.
Good to see my team at least tried to form one as it was the first time this season only! Still a bit of work needed for a better train but it`s a start. |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 20-08-2016 19:59
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World Champion
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A top 10 in a stage here by Van Poppel would be awesome. Bonus seconds -> higher GC placing
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SAA Tour d'Afrique 
