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Hong Kong Challenge Discussion
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 17-12-2019 17:12
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 Hong Kong Challenge
The continental tour is back in Hong Kong for the 2019 season, in the race that saw König taking the maiden win of this race last year. Two punchy days awaits the riders with one rather short time trail inbetween them. Last time the continental tour met in terrain like this, it all came down to a sprint. Last year riders like Haas, Reus and Panayotov took stages wins. Only Reus is here this year, now riding for DK Zalgiris.
The clear favorite in Hong Kong for the overall this year has to be  Kwiatkowski, the polak can climb the longer climbs aswell as the shorter more punchy ones. What seperates him from the rest of the competiton is his above average abilities on the time trail bike on top of his climbing capabilities. The same can almost be said about his nearest rival  Costa, who is great in the shorter punchy climbs but might struggle abit more in the longer climbs. He too can ride above average on the time trail bike, and will try his very best to stay withing striking range for the overal after the time trail on the second day. He will need to take time out of Kwiatkowski to be able to out duel him up the last climb on the third and final day up to Tai Mo Shan. Another hot tip for the overal might just be  Siskevicius, who where only inches away from taking the win in San Cristobal as we saw Chaves win the CT season opener. He will be more then keen on proving himself here in Hong Kong.
For the more punchy riders like  Bystrom and Roux, they might need to be over the top aggressive on the first day to Hong Kong Sports House. They will, on paper, need a larger gap in the overal going into the second and thrid day of the race. As none of them are known for their abilities on the time trail bike.
Speaking of fighting against the clock, the startlist for the Hong Kong Challange have a strong field when it comes to time trailing. Their respective managers might have seen a strong possibility to grab an easy stage win on the shorter circuit in Sunny Bay. Reus knows from last year what it takes to win here in Hong Kong. He will not grab the win easy, he will get heavy competition from riders like  Van Baarle,  Navardauskas,  Fominykh and Abreu to only mention a few.
| Rider | MO | HL | TT | Rider | MO | HL | TT | | Kwiatkowski | 78 | 79 | 70 | Costa | 70 | 79 | 75 | | Siskevicius | 73 | 78 | 65 | Bystrom | 68 | 79 | 61 | | Mehr-Wenige | 66 | 78 | 63 | Roux | 65 | 78 | 62 | | Badilatti | 76 | 75 | 65 |  Masnada | 75 | 75 | 71 | | Zoidl | 75 | 74 | 76 |  Kiserlovski | 79 | 74 | 71 |
| Rider | MO | HL | TT | Rider | MO | HL | TT |  Pinot | 80 | 74 | 65 | Ratiy | 80 | 70 | 74 | | Zingle | 69 | 77 | 68 | Pellaud | 65 | 77 | 66 | | Hategeka | 72 | 77 | 66 | Teklit | 70 | 77 | 64 |  Villella | 65 | 77 | 61 | Gaspar | 75 | 75 | 66 | | Fernandez | 75 | 75 | 66 | Nibali | 78 | 73 | 73 |
| Rider | FL | MO | HL | TT | Rider | FL | MO | HL | TT | | Reus | 75 | 69 | 72 | 77 | Van Baarle | 73 | 59 | 70 | 77 | | Navardauskas | 75 | 60 | 75 | 76 | Abreu | 73 | 73 | 73 | 75 | | Fominykh | 74 | 56 | 67 | 77 | Robert | 67 | 57 | 60 | 79 |  Olman | 67 | 52 | 56 | 78 | Marchewka | 65 | 64 | 60 | 77 | | Burke | 74 | 54 | 60 | 76 | Ramos Ticona | 69 | 70 | 74 | 75 |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 17-12-2019 17:27
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Tour de France Champion
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Cool to be racing again, at least with the amateur team. BREAKAWAYS please. 
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| quadsas |
Posted on 17-12-2019 19:00
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Small Tour Specialist
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Hoping for a great performance and not just a decent one. Stage win and top 4 gc will do
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 17-12-2019 19:28
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I really hope for a Top 10 GC for Masnada here. Pellaud is our best pure puncheur, but Masnada brings the best package of punching, climbing and time trialling. Let's see how the game treats him...
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| Kentaurus |
Posted on 17-12-2019 22:51
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Really not sure where this race will go, wanted no part of it when I saw the profile. First stage looks great for Kwiat, but even then I feel like the end of that race may be too much for the pure puncheurs, and instead favor the climbers. Stage two, TT... looks to be a very open field, stage three will certainly be for the climbers. I'm picking Ratiy to win it all.
AZTECA - NBCSN  |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 05:51
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| hillis91 |
Posted on 17-12-2019 23:42
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Redemption time for us. Bystrøm dont let me down, once again.
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 18-12-2019 05:49
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No Haas this year but I'm excited to see what Kiserlovski can do!!
Good luck everyone!
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| SotD |
Posted on 19-12-2019 19:17
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Alright. Stage 1 was a succes. Bagot survived in the front group. Unfortunately as our only rider. His horrible TT skills will kill him off - but for now the dream of a decent GC is alive as he with 76MO and 74HI should be among the low-end outsiders for the final stage.
Maybe him losing some time on the TT will make him attack - one can only hope! Otherwise I'd say go for it to La Lavandier, who's already 3 minutes down...
I had some expectations that Konovalovas might have been able to survive the first stage and make a good TT impression, but unfortunately not.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 19-12-2019 20:58
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Tour de France Champion
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Happy to see Osorio in the break.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| quadsas |
Posted on 19-12-2019 22:12
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Small Tour Specialist
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That was a nothing stage, but 4 of the greatest riders on earth survived in the top group, maybe Reus can take GC tommorow
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| hillis91 |
Posted on 19-12-2019 22:21
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AI is awful when it comes to the hillier terrains. What a joke
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| cio93 |
Posted on 19-12-2019 22:51
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Yeah, about PCM 18......
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 19-12-2019 23:05
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Well, of course it's a huge result for us, but Freuler actually was just lucky to be in the first position after this final downhill. He'll certainly not keep that jersey, but at least we have Masnada in a good position as well.
But yeah, hilly stages and PCM 18 don't fit well, unfortunately...
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| Azerbaijan |
Posted on 20-12-2019 06:50
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Pavlic...what a surprise. Two guys in the top 10 is a very good result.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 20-12-2019 10:37
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Azerbaijan wrote:
Pavlic...what a surprise. Two guys in the top 10 is a very good result.
Glad he's performing so well for you! And better than 3/4 of my squad 
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 20-12-2019 10:37
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Azerbaijan wrote:
Pavlic...what a surprise. Two guys in the top 10 is a very good result.
Glad he's performing so well for you! And better than 3/4 of my squad
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 20-12-2019 14:39
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hillis91 wrote:
AI is awful when it comes to the hillier terrains. What a joke
Yes, with the profiles we got (not hilly rather semi-mountain) it's shit !
We will change that, to make good puncher stages/races but sadly not this year.
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| hillis91 |
Posted on 20-12-2019 17:31
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Fabianski wrote:
Well, of course it's a huge result for us, but Freuler actually was just lucky to be in the first position after this final downhill. He'll certainly not keep that jersey, but at least we have Masnada in a good position as well.
But yeah, hilly stages and PCM 18 don't fit well, unfortunately...
What a year to focus all my team on hills
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 20-12-2019 20:42
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Stage 1 was disappointing from Costa but needed the higher MO if he wanted to compete there.
A good turnaround on stage 2 with 4 riders in the Top 11. Costa a lot better than his earlier efforts.
This final stage could be really interesting. For me, having Nibali and Borisavljevic within striking distance in 4th and 6th ensures it'll be exciting and maybe disappointing but we'll hope for the best.
Currently 1st, 3rd and 4th in the U25 as well as 1st in Teams which is always good for some extra points.
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-12-2019 01:57
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The TT is stage 2, not 1. I skippes Reading it for a while :-)
Bagot within a shot of top 20 if he does well...
Is this the first ever win for Ratiy? Surely a big surprise!
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