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Baltic Chain Tour Discussion
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 09-01-2021 19:05
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Team Leader
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Welcome to northern Europe for the 8th edition of the Baltic Chain Tour. A mainstay event of the continental circuit, it has become a bucket-list title to include on your sprinter resumé and in many ways is one of the races who defines if you really are a respectable sprinter at this level, as the list of past winners testifies:
2013  Óscar Avelino
2014  Maxime Vantomme
2015  Jonas Ahlstrand
2016  Ivano Lo Cicero
2017 Tom Van Asbroeck
2018  John Degenkolb
2019 Kris Boeckmans
Don’t let yourself get fooled by its name though. The race doesn’t actually take place in the Baltic Sea as it turns out cycling races don’t work particularly well on large bodies of water. Creativily, though, the organizers have set up the race on its shores, in multiple countries, neatly organized in circuit races in  Saint Petersburg,  Hanko, Stockholm and  Vilnius. Before all that we have a unique 3km cobbled prologue in the streets of  Tallin.
Ah, one other thing: it’s completely flat. There’s not even one single KoM prime throughout the whole route, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise when you realise there aren’t many climbs to be scaled on the Baltic Sea.
Let’s also have a look at who’s around to try and win this thing, shall we?
| FLA | SPR | ACC | | FLA | SPR | ACC |  Lo Cicero | 72 | 84 | 78 |  Itami | 75 | 80 | 82 |  Ewan | 75 | 83 | 81 | Keukeleire | 72 | 80 | 79 |  Swift | 73 | 83 | 81 |  Guardini | 72 | 80 | 82 |  Guerao | 74 | 83 | 76 |  Drapac | 71 | 80 | 79 | | Kristoff | 74 | 82 | 77 |  Rowe | 78 | 79 | 80 |  Avelino | 70 | 82 | 77 | Lander | 77 | 79 | 77 |  Gaviria | 76 | 81 | 84 | Matthews | 76 | 79 | 79 |  Saber | 75 | 81 | 79 |  Perera | 71 | 79 | 80 | | Guarnieri | 75 | 81 | 80 |  Selig | 71 | 79 | 81 |  Manninen | 74 | 81 | 80 |  Willwohl | 73 | 79 | 78 |  Vesely | 73 | 81 | 80 | Stauff | 73 | 79 | 79 | | Cavendish | 71 | 81 | 78 |  Manarelli | 72 | 79 | 79 | | Silvestre | 78 | 80 | 81 |  Awang | 64 | 79 | 83 |
A bunch of sprinters as you’d have imagined are here. You can make a case for almost every one of them, but nominally the 2016 winner Ivano Lo Cicero is the fastest. Is he robust enough to beat the likes of Caleb Ewan or Ben Swift though? And what about the ones which might profit from the cobbles on the first day like Alexander Kristoff, Lahcen Saber or Luke Rowe? About that stage, here’s another list for you:
| Cobblers | COB | Prologuists | PRL | Prolobblers | COB | PRL | | Altur | 82 | Van Aert | 79 | Debesay | 77 | 74 | | Trentin | 81 | Cataford | 79 | Kristoff | 77 | 72 | | Zepuntke | 81 | Robert | 79 | Saber | 76 | 70 | | Daniel | 80 | Schomber | 79 | Rowe | 75 | 74 | | Baugnies | 79 | Balloni | 78 | Matthews | 75 | 74 | | Machado | 79 | Bille | 77 | Van der Haar | 75 | 71 |  Van Avermaet | 78 | Navardauskas | 77 | Edmondson | 74 | 74 | | Breen | 78 | Silvestre | 77 | Martinez | 73 | 73 | | Moulingui | 78 | Hussein | 77 | Kortsidakis | 72 | 73 |
I have absolutely no clue how stage 1 is going to come out, but I find some dread in the fact that some top cobbles specialists could spare five race days to ride just one kilometre of green cobblestones. Debesay won here last year, with also Saber having done well. Perhaps the list on the right is the one we should give more credit to. Really curious about that one.
Well, enough unnecessary words have been spent on this preview. Hopefully you guys get the gist of what’s in store for the next few days. Good luck everyone!
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 09-01-2021 19:11
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
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Between Altur, Cataford and Matthews/Edmo i expect to be outside the Top20 on Stage 1. Then Ewan to get a stage win, but not much else and a low Top10 GC. Basically, enough to continue our relegation push following all the other big races for us this year.
Side note, last time Altur, Ewan and Cataford all appeared together was MSR where Ewan did finish on the podium, a sign of things to come here?
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 01:57
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 09-01-2021 19:31
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Posts: 5533
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Could really do with a strong performance from Avelino here! Going to be tough though.
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| redordead |
Posted on 09-01-2021 19:37
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Perhaps the last chance for Saber to really score some big points in our fight against relegation. He kinda owes us a good performance by now 
Thanks for preview Gustav 
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 09-01-2021 20:15
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Grand Tour Champion
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The cobblestones and sprint teams combined, leaving the time trialists at home because that didn't work last year. Hopefully Vesely and Zepuntke can co-lead and the German is less of a diva than Claeys.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 09-01-2021 20:19
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In hindsight, I'm not sure why I thought sending Selig to C1 sprints was a good idea 
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 09-01-2021 20:24
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World Champion
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Still our only GC win ever, so Gaviria to make it 2?
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 09-01-2021 20:32
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2933
Joined: 09-05-2011
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Well, it's a thing - I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel TBH
PS: Where are the starting lineups?
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 09-01-2021 20:38
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Posts: 3367
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Definitely brought the weakest sprinter here, so can't expect much (or anything at all). Baugnies also shouldn't be good enough a prologue rider to score points, and as there are no KoM-points available it is very very likely for us to finish with zero points. Thanks for the preview and good luck to everyone
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| quadsas |
Posted on 09-01-2021 20:53
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2518
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I think this is our win goal? Guerao hasn't been terrible, but hard to expect a victory here. Unless the Gods drop us a bone
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 09-01-2021 21:08
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Well, I saw the cobbles symbol on stage one, so I decided to skip this race. In hindsight, it might have been a good opportunity for Reinhardt once again, but well...
Good luck to all those who participate
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 09-01-2021 23:09
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
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Saw this just now, but I think Prolobblers is instantly a Top 5 most favorite word for me
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 11-01-2021 01:47
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8058
Joined: 22-06-2009
PCM$: 650.00
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Attaboy Altur! 
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 11-01-2021 04:59
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World Champion
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A shame Debesay couldn't double up here, but a decent placing from him and for Rowe, hopefully each can finish in the GC points.
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
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| redordead |
Posted on 11-01-2021 06:01
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
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I can't really argue with Saber losing just 5 seconds, good ride Now let's attack those GC spots!!
Having 2nd and 3rd in the U25 ranking right now, it would be nice if we score a few points there as well.
Looks like you thought wrong TMM, congrats
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 11-01-2021 08:17
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Classics Specialist
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Definitely not a good start, but was to be expected. Nice to see Hayter being fifth in the U25, could very well be the only one/two points we score if he manages to hold on
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 11-01-2021 09:19
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Grand Tour Champion
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Vesely will have a difficult time making up ground with bonus seconds as he finished second ... from the bottom 
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 11-01-2021 10:17
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World Champion
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Nice stage result by Van Aert (although last of the +2 guys is always annoying). Gaviria at +9 is ok, we can work with that. I hope.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 11-01-2021 10:49
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2433
Joined: 07-07-2013
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Good start for Cav with +3 seconds.
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 11-01-2021 14:38
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
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I'm as shocked as the rest of you!
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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
