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Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha Discussion
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 26-09-2018 22:53
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The PT time-trial festival is back again in the Czech Republic for the third consecutive year, but moving the dates from late-July to March. Before 2016, the race was held under the format of a one-day race, with the route that it's being used in the final stage of the new route.
Only one man has won the race in its current format, and he'll back to try to get a third title on the race, but we'll talk about the favourites later.
The race starts with a prologue in Praga's streets, before a flat stage that finishes in Karlovy Vary. The third day we have the most important stage, with the long TT around Karlovy Vary, before the final stage, of which we have already talked
| Favourites | TT | PRL | FLA | HIL | Contenders | TT | PRL | FLA | HIL |  Phinney | 83 | 83 | 73 | 77 |  Kwok | 79 | 79 | 76 | 62 |  Fiedler | 83 | 82 | 79 | 68 |  Hepburn | 79 | 79 | 71 | 66 |  Durbridge | 81 | 81 | 73 | 67 | Dempster | 79 | 79 | 74 | 64 |  Kittel | 81 | 81 | 75 | 64 | Stannard | 79 | 79 | 75 | 55 |  Vlatos | 81 | 81 | 72 | 66 | Cataford | 79 | 79 | 74 | 70 |  Paillot | 80 | 80 | 70 | 71 |  Brändle | 79 | 79 | 75 | 71 |  Van Winden | 80 | 80 | 74 | 63 |  Malori | 79 | 79 | 78 | 68 | | Viennet | 80 | 80 | 72 | 67 |  Haugard | 79 | 79 | 72 | 60 |  Howson | 80 | 80 | 71 | 65 | Vorobev | 79 | 78 | 75 | 65 |  Gonzalez Salas | 80 | 80 | 70 | 60 | Dal Col | 79 | 78 | 71 | 64 |  Sütterlin | 80 | 80 | 71 | 65 | Dennis | 78 | 81 | 72 | 75 | | Yatsevich | 80 | 80 | 70 | 68 |  Leung | 76 | 80 | 71 | 64 | | Kritskiy | 80 | 79 | 75 | 75 |  Stoltz | 66 | 80 | 80 | 68 |  Dillier | 80 | 79 | 70 | 64 |  Gretsch | 77 | 79 | 71 | 62 |
Phinney leads the startlist as two-times defending champion. In 2016 he won both prologue and long TT, while last year he only won the long TT. And with Coppel not taking part in the race being in PCT, his favourite status is bigger than ever.
His main competitor should be T-Mobile's new signing Fiedler. The German rider has finished third in the past two years, and is looking to improve in his past results in the race. He's as strong as Phinney in the long TT, but he's slightly worse than him in shorter ones. Nothing too worrying, but race could be decided because of prologue seconds so...
There's a bunch of riders that should be fighting for the remaining podium place, having 3 main favourites for that place, with Kittel, who was fifth last year, Vlatos, who was eighth last year, and Durbridge, who was eighth two years ago, but he has a tendency to underperform in this kind of races.
We all know how random TT's can be in these days, so we'll talk about a few riders that have shown decent result in this race, or have an interesting skillset.
Sütterlin is a rider that has finished always in the Top6 of this race. Yatsevich leads a very deep Tinkoff squad, which includes potential Top10 candidates like Dal Col, Vorobev, Malori and Kritskiy. The Russian could become a bigger favourite if the final stage is so selective that the worst climbers between the TT get dropped. Gonzalez Salas is used to get dropped in the final stage, though this year he's won Qatar's epilogue. Dennis is probably Bennelong's biggest hope here, and with his supreme prologue skills, he could even win the prologue and from there get a good GC result. Leung is a similar rider as Dennis, but weaker. Then we have Stoltz as the final prologue specialist.
Paillot, Van Winden, Howson, Viennet are riders that could benefit from the roll-dice in the TT, but they don't have a great history in the race.
| Sprinters | SPR | ACC | FLA | HIL | | Van Stayen | 84 | 78 | 76 | 79 | | Kristoff | 83 | 79 | 75 | 68 | | Ahlstrand | 83 | 82 | 74 | 67 | | Avelino | 83 | 78 | 71 | 64 | | Guerao | 83 | 76 | 74 | 65 |  Groenewegen | 82 | 81 | 73 | 66 | | Howard | 82 | 79 | 76 | 68 | | Kennaugh | 82 | 81 | 77 | 65 | | Enger | 81 | 78 | 73 | 69 |  Maksimov | 81 | 84 | 72 | 60 | | Tzortzakis | 81 | 77 | 73 | 64 | | Zabel | 81 | 79 | 74 | 69 | | Silvestre | 80 | 81 | 78 | 67 | | Stauff | 80 | 81 | 74 | 65 |
With two chances for the sprinters, there's an interesting field looking for stage wins here. None of these has won a stage in this race in the past, with neither Swift, Degenkolb and Bewley present, so we'll see new stage winners this year. The fastest sprinter is Van Stayen, and has a great support here with Van Avermaet and Dzamastagic, but probably Ahlstrand with his better acceleration should be considered the big favourite for the sprints. Groenewegen and Kennaugh will try to build on their good performances this season, while riders as Kristoff, Howard, Avelino or Guerao are waiting for this race to be their first great moment of the season
Everything is set for this great battle between the best TTers in the Pro Tour
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| viking90 |
Posted on 26-09-2018 23:03
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Quite nice to see no Bewley or Swift here maybe Ahlstrand can make some nice results here.  We really need that much!
Bot GC wise we dont have much to hope for with Haugard. |
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Posted on 22-11-2024 03:26
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 26-09-2018 23:35
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Okay. Please let one random TT guy from us grab a decent result here. I'm tired of thinking back at how deep Durbridge fell last year (after a good prologue). Dennis hasn't really done too much for us this season, maybe he will surprise here. Also Hepburn may finally start to show some solid skills, but eventually Dempster may once again be our best performer would very welcome a lucky Top-10 here!
For Howard there's no excuse to not be in the mix for a result. A Top-5 in at least one stage must be our goal, but it won't be easy obviously. But when Kennaugh can deliver results on this level, why not try to do the same, Leigh?
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| tastasol |
Posted on 26-09-2018 23:45
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Hope to see us in the breaks and hopefully SKA can deliver another good prologue...
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| ember |
Posted on 27-09-2018 07:53
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Nice to have an actual time trialist in such a race, which is a change from the past seasons.
Hopefully Paillot can fight for a top 10 overall, and I like the lumpy look of the long TT for that, as that can hopefully see him benefit compared to a couple of the others TTers. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 27-09-2018 08:24
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This was one of those races where it hurt me a bit not having Coquard, but in the end I thought it was too much of a gamble to send him here...
Tzortzakis might score a bit, aswell as Vlatos, but it's always a bit lottery with those timetrials.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 27-09-2018 08:47
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We're expecting a few points here. Leung for day 1 and U25 competition, Avelino for days 2 and 4, Nascimento for a top 15/20 and Borges for the KoM. Let's see what this setup can give us.
Phinney is the obvious favourite you can just give him the medal. I'm curious about Fiedler and how much of a challenge he can put up.
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 27-09-2018 09:40
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Let's see if bringing my four timetrialists (incl Kritskiy) pays off
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| Heine |
Posted on 27-09-2018 10:00
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I hope Fiedler can give Phinney a good challenge here, not expecting to win (Can't see anyone beat Phinney tbh) but anything other than top 3 is a dissapointment
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| knockout |
Posted on 27-09-2018 11:29
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First test of the year for my (on paper) beasty leadout with Stoltz - Dzamastagic and GVA. Favorable startlist for us so lets rock
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Roman |
Posted on 27-09-2018 13:43
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It is great to be back home with totally no expectations.  Expect absolutely nothing from here. Fiedler better does not score huge points for our biggest rivals. 
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| fintas |
Posted on 27-09-2018 17:06
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I'm hoping Dennis can peek a spot in the top 10, anything below the top15 will be a disaster.
For stages 2 and 4 we have the Silvestre, but judging by what has been seen this season he will not even be able to be in the final sprint, let alone be able to think of a prominent place.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 27-09-2018 18:05
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Low expectations here. But we might get lucky of course.
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 27-09-2018 22:22
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24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 27-09-2018 23:01
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Glad I don't have a favorite for the longer TT... you can only be disappointed with a 3 star favorite. Terrible result for Dennis.
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 27-09-2018 23:18
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Happy with 2nd place, but overall some very strange results.
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| knockout |
Posted on 28-09-2018 06:25
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Totallz awesome, waited for years onthis moment and super glad it finally worked out. Guess i have to start hyping him now, right?
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 28-09-2018 06:34
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What??!!
Looks like Evonik did some secret off-season TT ( ) training 
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| ember |
Posted on 28-09-2018 06:57
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Cool to see Stoltz grab a big win! Congratulations, knockout
Pleasantly surprised by Paillot's third place, way above expectations. As OlegTinkov says, some very weird results. Fingers crossed Paillot can overperform in the long TT as well, it would be brilliant if we can run away with a top 10 here. |
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| fintas |
Posted on 28-09-2018 07:31
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Very nice result for Dennis, but Silvestre again with a poor result, which leaves nothing good for the sprint stages.
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