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Scandinavia Open Road Race Discussion
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 07-12-2018 13:42
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 Scandinavia Open Road Race
3 stages – 383.6 km
Welcome to the 9th edition of Scandinavia Open Road Race. The race have been on the MG calender since 2009, but with no race in 2012.
All the previous editions have been a classic one day race near Husqvarna, but for the first time it has transformed into a stage race, first a short uphill prologue and then two hilly stages. The most decisive stage may well the 2nd with a hard 4.4 km 9% climb close to the finish.
Local riders:
The local spectators will be hoping for Volvo’s  Fredrik Ludvigsson to take something from this race, but other Swedish riders Lövkvist, Wetterhall,  Gebremedhin and  Anderberg sure also to get some extra applause and cheers.
Previous winners
Last year’s winner  Skujins is here again. 2016 winner Mohamed Shawal Anuar Aziz absence, but 2015 winner  McCarthy is also here.
2014 winner Cesare Di Maggio not here riding in CT, but 2013 winner  Froome is here.
2011 winner Tomas Vaitkus has retired, 2010 winner Luke Rowe still active but not present, he won on a much flatter route, so did 2009 winner Martijn Maaskant who has also retired.
As we can see from the above no one has won it twice so all present previous winners Skujins, McCarthy and Froome can be the first to do that.
Favorites:
Hugo Boss top favorite to win the race  Ponzi the strongest puncher with a fine backup in Slagter, Landa and Mudarra
All of them likely to lose time in the prologue but would not worry too much about it.
Bennelong – Mitchelton with  Bobridge absolutely also with a good option to win, a bit weaker as a pure puncher but very likely to gain time on Ponzi in the prologue and also a bit more resistant. Watson not the strongest lieutenant but all in all a fine team setup.
Evonik – ELKO with Skujins another rider with a fine possibly to win the race, lacking a bit acceleration compared to the above and also likely to lose time in the prologue, but his high resistance might help him and his stamina may play a minor role on the long stage 2. Strong backup in Van Stayen and Smirnovs.
Porto – Prio with  Claeys, has a weakness with a limited acceleration but otherwise also a top puncher who should be able to win the race. Not the best team setup, Afonso probably the only one able to help as soon as things get rough.
Team Puma with  Kelderman and also bringing strong support in Demare and Felline, Kelderman not as strong pure puncher as the above but with strong backup abilities, all in all dangerous cards Puma has.
Underneath the mentioned top favorites we got that we can call five outsiders, teams who has riders able to perform very well and maybe win the race although that would be a surprise.
Team Reddit’s  Lutsenko, stands out with the strongest acceleration in this group, a clear weakness is a weak team.
Ayubowan’s McCarthy, with a strong combo of stamina and resistance, but comes with a relative weak team.
Novatek’s  Schreurs with the best lieutenant in Klemme
Fablok’s veteran Froome have declined, but is still a force to be reckoned, as we have seen in Tour Down Under. A relative weak team support with Rovny as lieutenant.
Berg’s Gesink, having the best prologue of all the favorites, but also a lack of acceleration, a very strong team with Vogt and Paulinho
That was the top ten favorites to win this race, but at least 6 more teams bring riders with good potential at least to aim for top ten:  Koretzky,  Boswell,  Betancourt,  Costa,  Dowsett,  Izagirre
The remaining teams bring  Bystrom,  Bilbao, Chaves,  Juul-Jensen, Jensen,  Bellis,  Quevedo and
 Roux
Can’t see they can break top ten but on the other hand every team has a useful leader and you never know.
Regarding the prologue difficult to say what the ration will be between hill climbing and prologue ability, my expectation will be that the favorites may be:
Gesink, Bobridge Dennis, Izagirre, Costa, Ignatiev, Navardauskas, Bazhkou, Brändle, Kelderman
List of top punchers.
| Rider | H | A | P | S | R | . | Rider | H | A | P | S | R | | Ponzi | 84 | 80 | 68 | 77 | 72 | | Klemme | 80 | 66 | 67 | 74 | 70 | | Bobridge | 83 | 80 | 77 | 74 | 74 | | Izagirre | 80 | 64 | 77 | 73 | 72 | | Skujins | 83 | 76 | 59 | 80 | 77 | | Vogt | 80 | 63 | 66 | 78 | 71 | | Claeys | 83 | 73 | 64 | 74 | 68 | | Demare | 79 | 81 | 61 | 75 | 72 | | Kelderman | 82 | 72 | 70 | 80 | 75 | | Van Stayen | 79 | 78 | 60 | 76 | 71 | | Lutsenko | 81 | 81 | 68 | 76 | 73 | | Bystrom | 79 | 76 | 61 | 75 | 72 | | Schreurs | 81 | 74 | 66 | 76 | 72 | | Pichon | 79 | 76 | 64 | 74 | 76 | | McCarthy | 81 | 74 | 58 | 80 | 75 | | Bilbao | 79 | 75 | 61 | 77 | 71 | | Froome | 81 | 73 | 66 | 75 | 71 | | Chaves | 79 | 72 | 68 | 74 | 73 | | Gesink | 81 | 68 | 80 | 78 | 80 | | Slagter | 79 | 71 | 66 | 71 | 73 | | Koretzky | 80 | 79 | 61 | 77 | 70 | | Barrio | 79 | 67 | 58 | 69 | 63 | | Boswell | 80 | 76 | 69 | 77 | 73 | | Juul-Jensen | 78 | 79 | 67 | 76 | 74 | | Betancourt | 80 | 74 | 59 | 72 | 71 | | Jensen | 78 | 76 | 70 | 77 | 73 | | Costa | 80 | 72 | 76 | 73 | 72 | | Roux | 78 | 75 | 62 | 78 | 71 | | Dowsett | 80 | 71 | 63 | 74 | 69 | | Quevedo | 78 | 75 | 65 | 72 | 72 |
Startlist
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 15:57
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 07-12-2018 13:46
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16429
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Don't worry, Juul-Jensen likes being doubted. Show'em how it's done boys!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Vien |
Posted on 07-12-2018 14:02
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Small Tour Specialist
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Whew, finally. Been so stressed for this race. My obsession for this game is getting more and more unhealthy...
Every Lutsenko race is a key race, and I can't say he's done enough so far. But his last PTHC race was hopeful, so I hope he can surprise here, too.
Top 3 is my goal, which means we'd have to beat one bigger favourite. Thanks for the preview Tamijo, a long one again... Don't burn out! |
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 07-12-2018 14:09
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As in every hilly race, not really expecting much from the team. The full hilly squad is here trying to snatch as much depth points as possible. Maybe Bystrom for a GC Top15. Hoping that PT team wipe out the race though 
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| SotD |
Posted on 07-12-2018 14:20
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Cool. I had completely forgotten I was part of this race.
Koretzky could land a top 10 if he can be bothered. That's a 50/50 question though 
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| viking90 |
Posted on 07-12-2018 18:09
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It really hurts that we cant send a stronger squad to our home race...
But hills is as said before not our strongest area |
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| fintas |
Posted on 07-12-2018 19:50
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Very interesting to see Gesink with number 1. The lack of acceleration will hurt Gesink in this race but I hope he can achieve the win in the first stage and maybe receive a boost for the rest of the race. Vogt, Paulinho and McEvoy should be more than enough support to control the race.
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 07-12-2018 20:36
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Grand Tour Champion
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Last on the team list, doesn't sound good 
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| Kentaurus |
Posted on 07-12-2018 20:37
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Team Motto time! Any points are good points!
AZTECA - NBCSN  |
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| Scorchio |
Posted on 08-12-2018 14:22
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OOF, a heavy start-list. WCC feel like minnows here. Hoovering up points here and there where possible looks the order of the day.
Manager of ISA - Hexacta in the MG |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 08-12-2018 15:22
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16429
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Very solid start for Juul-Jensen, especially considering he has basically not TT skills to speak of. Hopefully that means he's on a good form here, and we'll have a fun couple of days!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Vien |
Posted on 08-12-2018 15:41
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Decent start from Lutsenko, would've loved a few more seconds in Skujins but we'll only know how much this prologue mattered after the next two days.
Expected the TT guys to do a bit better though, Izagirre and Costa specifically  |
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 08-12-2018 16:29
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I predict we will be totally anonymous from now on. At least we got our camera time by having the first starter...
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| fintas |
Posted on 08-12-2018 16:30
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Please spare me ... This race starts very badly, the only positive aspect being the good stage of Vogt
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-12-2018 17:45
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World Champion
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18th is a very pleasing result from Koretzky. Easily his best ever TT result.
Now fingers are crossed that he can climb into the top 10.
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 08-12-2018 22:03
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World Champion
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Looks like our riders will be very SORR after this one...
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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| dev4ever |
Posted on 08-12-2018 22:09
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Small Tour Specialist
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Fine way to bounce back for Ponzi after a dissapointing Liege (considering he have won nearly all other races he's been in)  .
Bit surprised as this was the least suiting Ponzi stage in the race and he still won! Would have thought Bobridge or especially Gesink to do better here.
Look forward to the rest of the race aswell!
Btw, minor typo in the report, as first stating Hugo Boss as the leading team. Then pronouncing Bennelong the leaders two sentences laiter.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 09-12-2018 09:40
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Auspicious start from Claeys. Now I'm hopeful to see what he can do here.
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 09-12-2018 10:15
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Really surprised that the hilly stat was way more important. Anyway Bystrom was expected to lose some time, so probably even better this way.
Ponzi doesn't seem like stopping winning anytime soon
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 09-12-2018 20:21
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Grand Tour Champion
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I like a bold attack by Quevedo and frankly that's what's neccessary if he wants to have any real chance at a success. But then he goes on to lose 7 minutes and finish way behind riders of similar skill. Gambled and lost.
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