Tour of Vancouver Discussion
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Marcovdw |
Posted on 23-04-2020 21:40
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Tour of Vancouver
History
Year | Winner | Team | 2018 | Aleksandr Pluchkin | Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff | 2017 | Andrei Amador | Team UBS | 2016 | Riccardo Ricco | Team Telkom for Africa | 2015 | Alberto Contador | Bonsucro | 2014 | Janez Brajkovic | Heineken-Cal Giant | 2013 | Timofey Kritskiy | Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC |
Tour of Vancouver is one of the premier cycling races in Canada, heading into its seventh edition. The format is unchanged, seven stages with a mixture of flat, mountains, individual, team and regular stages. The only major change is a category downgrade, from the HC category to C2HC. It will therefore play host to the best of the Continental Tour riders, who surely covet a place on the illustrious list of former winners. None of the former winners returning, mostly because they are not allowed to, so a new name and team will appear.
Profiles
Stage on is a hill climb, in which the climbers will create the first differences amongst themselves. The next two stages are flat before we have the first regular mountain stage. Stage five is flat again, with stage six having another mountain top finish. The final stage is a team time trial, where the leaders have to rely on their teammates to get them over the line.
Startlist
Favorites | MO | TTT* | RES | Outsiders | MO | TTT* | RES | Eastman | 81 | 75 | 75 | Stetina | 78 | 75 | 74 | Ratiy | 80 | 72 | 73 | Diaz | 78 | 72 | 73 | Pinot | 80 | 71 | 79 | Manfredi | 78 | 68 | 73 | Vinhas | 79 | 71 | 73 | Signorini | 78 | 68 | 72 | Valls | 79 | 69 | 77 | Mannion | 77 | 75 | 76 | Kiserlovski | 79 | 69 | 74 | Battaglin | 77 | 75 | 72 | Nibali | 78 | 74 | 71 | Borisavljevic | 77 | 74 | 74 | Giogieri | 78 | 73 | 74 | Potocki | 77 | 71 | 71 | Medvedev | 78 | 70 | 77 | Cort Nielsen | 77 | 69 | 75 | Faiers | 78 | 69 | 75 | Saggiorato | 77 | 68 | 74 |
* = average of five best TT riders in team
The prime favorite would be Eastman. He is the best climber and has a very good team for the time trial. But we remember how it looked sow promising in Tour of America last year, and he managed to throw it away. His support is good, Stetina and Mannion can be counted on.
Pinot is set to be his biggest rival. He can match the American in the mountains but has to lead before the final time trial, GCN will not beat Azteca in the TTT. He has Vinhas and Potocki as support.
Ratiy for CYBEX has a slightly better time trial squad, and also a good lieutenant in Diaz. He should finish high up in the GC.
Kiserlovski and last year's Tour of America winner Valls don't have a good TTT squad. They need to attack on the stages before to get a decent lead beforehand.
Euskaltel can chose between Nibali and Borisavljevic, the latter the only true contender for the young rider classification. Centovalli also has a luxury problem between Manfredi, Signorini and Saggiorato, though none of them will like the last stage.
Other contenders to mention are Giogieri, Medvedev,
Faiers, Battaglin and Cort Nielsen.
Sprinter | SP | ACC | FL | Outsiders | SP | ACC | FL | Carsi | 80 | 82 | 70 | Cisse | 78 | 77 | 74 | Awang | 79 | 83 | 64 | Fonseca | 78 | 77 | 74 | Perera | 79 | 80 | 71 | Szalontay | 78 | 77 | 69 | L. Keough | 79 | 79 | 73 | Nepomnyachsniy | 78 | 76 | 74 | Manarelli | 79 | 79 | 72 | J. Keough | 78 | 75 | 72 | Von Hoff | 79 | 77 | 71 | Kamberaj | 77 | 77 | 73 | Suryadi | 79 | 76 | 71 | Dzervus | 77 | 76 | 74 | Sobota | 78 | 78 | 72 | Kruopis | 77 | 75 | 72 | Yamamoto | 78 | 78 | 72 | Van Poppel | 76 | 78 | 75 |
Three chances for the sprinters this race, thus coming in great numbers. Carsi is arguably the favorite, and has Manarelli as leadout.
Other teams with good trains are Zalgiris with Awang - Nepomnyachsniy, NENT with Perera - Van Poppel, CYBEX with Suryadi - J. Keough.
Some riders have to do without proper leadout, but that shouldn't hurt their chances. Riders like L. Keough, Von Hoff, Sobota, Yamamoto, Cisse, Fonseca and Szalontay are all contenders.
Team | TTT* | Star | TT | Azteca - NBCSN | 75.0 | Eastman | 77 | Adastra - Hell Energy Cycling | 74.6 | Marchewka | 77 | Euskaltel - Elior | 74.0 | Robert | 79 | OMV Petrom-Albania.al | 73.2 | Betilson | 75 | Glanbia Foods Cycling Project | 72.2 | Craddock | 76 | CYBEX Platinum | 72.0 | Van Baarle | 77 | GCN ProTeam | 71.2 | Burke | 76 | DK Zalgiris | 70.2 | Beniusis | 72 | Eddie Stobart | 69.8 | Joeaar | 75 | Tryg Insurance Cycling Team | 69.4 | Cort Nielsen | 72 | NENT Racing p/b Hootsuite | 69.2 | Faiers | 75 | BNZ Cycling Team | 69.0 | Scotson | 72 | Bianchi - Campagnolo | 68.6 | Kluge | 73 | Centovalli - Fiat | 68.2 | Masnada | 71 | McCormick Pro Cycling | 68.2 | Fung | 70 | Netia - Vonin | 67.7 | Rekita | 77 | Equinor Pro Cycling | 65.6 | Zingle | 68 |
* = average of five best TT riders in team
The team time trial is not the favorite discipline of some teams. Most teams do bring their best time trialist, but often the fifth wheel is a liability. All teams start the race with eight riders except Netia, who bring six. It is possible some riders drop out of the race on the mountain stages, making the squad size even smaller. It's the fifth rider over the line which counts.
From the preliminary overview, Azteca, Adastra and Euskaltel are the main favorites for the stage. Good news for Eastman, who is also the best time trialist of his team and can control proceding himself.
Other GC riders who are not as good in time trials might be in danger of finishing behind the fifth-placed rider, or the others have to slow down so the GC rider is amongst the first five. Leaders for which this is a problem are Pinot, Giogieri, Battaglin, Manfredi and Signorini.
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Kentaurus |
Posted on 23-04-2020 22:03
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Obviously a big race for us. We spent much of the offseason this year working to increase our TT ability for races like this one and to better utilize his skills.
With Eastman we bring a good climbing team with Mannion and Stetina as pure climbers but also Ortega who can put in a good help on that TTT as well. On the TT obviously Eastman will lead us, but Ortega as previously mentioned is very good as is our flat specialist Jordan Cheyne, a pair of our universal support riders in Christian Egidio and Uri Martins Sandoval will also be critical to both the TTT and providing early stage control of the race.
We didn't just give in on the other stages either as Luke Keough will hopefully be able to continue his good form this season and find some results on the three flat stages. He won't get much in the way of support in the late parts of the race, but the team should do well to keep the field under control for much of the earlier stages of each raceday.
AZTECA - NBCSN
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Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 23-04-2020 22:25
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Directeur Sportif
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The McCormick dev team rides this one, ranked below the control team again. Hopefully Habtemicheal will find a break and we will at least get one mention over the course of the race.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling
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Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 05:50
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quadsas |
Posted on 23-04-2020 22:41
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total filler race, but Ive no idea why Hofer and Reus arent here, no good
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Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 23-04-2020 22:48
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Well we have a team built for success here so hopefully they do what I need of them!
Nibbles has been in incredible form this season so a Podium finish here is certainly not out of the question. Borisavljevic is also a threat to the favourites so I'm hoping him and Nibbles work together well to make the race interesting.
We should have a decent shot GC wise thanks to a pretty strong TTT setup where both our GC contenders are decent TT riders themselves. Not too much support for our best 2 in the Mountains although Conci should do a job for some of it, I don't expect to control the race anyway.
Sprinting wise, Fonseca is here with a little bit of support so hopefully he shows himself too.
All in all, a big race here for us as we have to continue the momentum to make that title push!
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Jakstar22 |
Posted on 23-04-2020 23:23
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I’m excited for this one. Kiserlovski should be able to do well and hopefully Steele continues his sprint form!!
Good luck everyone !
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whitejersey |
Posted on 24-04-2020 09:45
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Classics Specialist
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Looking forward to this race quite a bit! Nice preview, kinda worrying that Van Poppel is given the 1, but interesting that the game thinks that NENT is the strongest squad here. Bring on the racing!
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Fabianski |
Posted on 24-04-2020 12:52
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Well, bringing all of our strong climbers to a race has sometimes worked out really well, and sometimes was a complete failure. I guess a lot will depend on how the first stage works out.
We don't like the last stage at all, that's for sure. Sprinter-wise, Cissé can count on the support form Stocker - let's see what he can do without having to do any work.
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Fabianski |
Posted on 24-04-2020 23:01
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Definitely not a bad start for us, with two among the Top 8. 4th team in a TT - there must be something wrong
Now let's continue like this in the mountains and not lose too much time in the TTT, then it could be really something good in the end.
Thanks for the report!
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Kentaurus |
Posted on 25-04-2020 00:19
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Eastman starting this race off just like he was supposed to, now we just look to control things and maintain the lead. Think we have the best overall team here at this race, time to perform like it and let them do the work until he absolutely needs to take over again.
Looking for Keough now to take over and do things on the next couple of stages.
AZTECA - NBCSN
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Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 25-04-2020 05:51
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Team Leader
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Not the best start for the fellas but ah well. Plenty of time to improve!
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whitejersey |
Posted on 25-04-2020 10:46
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Will definitely take this result for Faiers, should be in a good position to contest further on in the race! Thanks for the report! Also congrats to Kent on another Eastman win, he is going to be one expensive fella to renew come 2020.
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roturn |
Posted on 25-04-2020 11:05
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Going for Eastman here as he plus the team should be strongest. The early TT could also favour Ratiy, who used to perform well in mountain TTs in the past.
Other than that, I sense another late autumn performance by Nibali, which is nice to see after several years of underperformances. |
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Fabianski |
Posted on 25-04-2020 21:35
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No, that wasn't quite enough. I know my team is not great on the hills, but if Cissé makes the split, the climbers should make it, too.
Well, not too much damage in the end. Unfortunately, the up and down was probably too much for Cissé - I'll accept his 8th place given the end of the stage was obviously hard for everyone (else Beastman wouldn't have finished 3rd).
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Kentaurus |
Posted on 26-04-2020 00:05
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What a massive result for us, we knew Keough might have a shot at making this more than just a race for Eastman, so a second stage win now in a row, and Eastman even making good to extend his lead with bonus seconds.
Tomorrow should see a fairly easy stage, hopefully we can take things a bit easier with splits not being a major threat, let Keough do his work at the end and have Eastman rested and ready for the climb on stage 4.
AZTECA - NBCSN
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Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 26-04-2020 21:15
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Good to see Mostov cross our goal of a mention in the reports off in stage 2.
Congrats to Kent and Azteca on 3 great stages. Always good to see US riders flying high from a McCormick point of view.
Edited by Ulrich Ulriksen on 27-04-2020 01:10
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling
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tsmoha |
Posted on 27-04-2020 00:20
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Quite a race for Azteca so far! I like it, remembering the good old times, when the nationality bonus played a factor and US boys doing well in a Canadian race (my favorite race still) for an grand American team is great. Vancouver always tends to be a big scoring race for the guy, who takes the GC and probably the KoM jersey and maybe even points jersey as well, so this looks set to become a huge race for Azteca already.
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Kentaurus |
Posted on 27-04-2020 04:10
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Wow! Luke Keough is on fire! Will see if we can make it 4 for 4 tomorrow in a stage where Eastman should be the outright favorite. But this is the kind of race so far that makes the season, and should certainly see us catapult up the team standings.
AZTECA - NBCSN
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Fabianski |
Posted on 27-04-2020 11:42
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Congrats to Azteca on their absolute dominance so far. Massive race for them!
Not quite happy with Cissé on P7; especially disappointed by Stocker not even trying to help on the final kms. Definitely hoping for some breakaway action in the mountains, as my climbers shouldn't be counted among the top favorites. We'll see...
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Fabianski |
Posted on 27-04-2020 21:04
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Well, still no top individual result, but the team performance today was finally what I was hoping for when nominating my best climbers. 4 among the Top 20 would be a huge result - but there's one more mountain stage to come. And the TTT, I know...
But first, let the climbers take a break, hopefully watching Cissé getting at least a Top5...
And yeah, what to say about Azteca... Just... Crazy. Congrats.
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