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Cheshire Cycling Tour - Discussion
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 03-02-2021 07:19
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3367
Joined: 20-04-2020
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 Cheshire Cycling Tour
Hello and welcome to Great Britain for the third edition of the Cheshire Cycling Tour! 2019 winner  Summerhill has come back to defend his title, while 2018 winner  Baugnies, who also won the KoM last year, is spending the last of his good days in the Continental Division. Some stage winners from the previous editions have also made it back, those are  Blythe,  Van der Haar,  Rowe,  Zabel and  Van Asbroeck. The PTHC stage race is a must see for the fans around the world who love cobbles, as the best cobblers from PCT and PT come together to (hopefully) give us a spectacle to enjoy. The first stage is the queen’s stage, with a lot of elevation and many cobbled sectors. After three stages without cobbles the Tour ends with another cobbled stage, which sees the rider conquer another set of different cobbled sectors in Great Britain.
So, the riders at the top of the GC after five days should be cobblers, instead of the usual mountain goats or sprinters. Let’s have a look at the list of favourites.
| FLAT | HILL | COB | STA | RES | REC | | Summerhill | 78 | 73 | 83 | 76 | 72 | 69 |  Spengler | 74 | 65 | 83 | 72 | 73 | 76 | | Blythe | 76 | 66 | 82 | 76 | 71 | 77 |  Altur | 75 | 70 | 82 | 75 | 70 | 70 |  Sibilla | 71 | 63 | 81 | 72 | 68 | 65 | | Trentin | 74 | 74 | 81 | 76 | 71 | 75 | | Vanspeybrouck | 75 | 70 | 81 | 77 | 70 | 70 |  Zepuntke | 72 | 69 | 81 | 79 | 72 | 64 |  Stallaert | 77 | 67 | 81 | 76 | 68 | 80 |  Theuns | 72 | 74 | 80 | 76 | 73 | 74 |  Vanmarcke | 76 | 66 | 80 | 77 | 72 | 68 |  Daniel | 73 | 69 | 80 | 76 | 76 | 74 | | Machado | 69 | 63 | 79 | 72 | 67 | 63 |  Ferreira | 73 | 68 | 79 | 74 | 70 | 69 |  Kasperkiewicz | 74 | 73 | 79 | 73 | 75 | 69 |  Fenn | 72 | 61 | 79 | 75 | 71 | 68 | | Bush | 74 | 63 | 78 | 75 | 73 | 71 |  David | 74 | 75 | 78 | 76 | 74 | 70 |  Moulingui | 74 | 71 | 78 | 71 | 71 | 53 | | Gaday | 71 | 75 | 78 | 75 | 72 | 71 | | Breen | 77 | 70 | 78 | 72 | 72 | 71 | | Neilands | 77 | 69 | 78 | 74 | 73 | 70 |  Van Keirsbulck | 72 | 71 | 78 | 75 | 73 | 63 | | Debesay | 75 | 74 | 77 | 75 | 79 | 70 |  Benoot | 71 | 78 | 76 | 75 | 74 | 74 |
No reason in denying it, there’s one big favourite, as for any cobbled race he enters, Danny Summerhill. The American champion and his luxe domestique Vanspeybrouck are the guys who are doing everything they can in order to make sure their team doesn’t relegate from PCT. A PTHC stage race is the perfect opportunity to shine once again and score many points for manager YellowJersey.
So, who will be their biggest competitor? Spengler maybe? The Swiss from Team UBS can also count on some decent domestiques, Bohli and Grand. Apart from that, he can also count on the support of Fabianski, which will definitely make the other teams jealous. Blythe is also a big rival for the American from Andorra Cycling Project, which he has shown earlier this year by winning some local cobbled races around Roubaix, a city in Northern France. Being a home race for him, he will be extra motivated to show what he’s got. Latvian rider Neilands has the job of keeping him safe on the earlier cobbled sectors. Altur is definitely also a name to follow. The Spaniard hasn’t made his manager very happy this season, so a PTHC stage race is exactly the time to make up for that. One of his domestiques, Owen, should be the favourite for the U25 classification.
Of course, those won’t be the only names battling for the first positions. Trentin and Zepuntke know their way around the cobbles as well, while also being quite strong physically. The German maybe a bit less, as he is not really the one with the strongest recovery. His physical abilities still seem to be a bit better than similar cobblers Sibilla and Belgian champion Stallaert though, while the three of them might struggle with the elevation on the first stage.
Many other strong cobblers on the list attract our attention, such as Theuns, Vanmarcke, Daniel and Kasperkiewicz. The former three because they should also be top-10 or even top-5 candidates, and the latter one because he is not maxed yet, while also being the second most expensive rider on the list after having King Power offered him 660.000 euros on the FA last transfer season.
Enough about the cobblers though, let’s have a look at the list of sprinters.
| FLAT | COB | STA | RES | REC | SPR | ACC | | Howard | 76 | 63 | 75 | 70 | 79 | 82 | 79 | | Kump | 74 | 73 | 76 | 73 | 80 | 81 | 80 | | Manninen | 74 | 58 | 71 | 75 | 77 | 81 | 80 | | Vesely | 73 | 57 | 74 | 68 | 76 | 81 | 80 | | Zabel | 74 | 65 | 74 | 70 | 79 | 81 | 79 | | Appollonio | 74 | 65 | 71 | 66 | 72 | 81 | 78 | | Itami | 75 | 64 | 71 | 67 | 78 | 80 | 82 | | Keukeleire | 72 | 71 | 73 | 68 | 76 | 80 | 79 | | Van Asbroeck | 75 | 74 | 75 | 72 | 79 | 80 | 78 | | Meyer | 72 | 63 | 70 | 65 | 74 | 80 | 76 | | Eislers | 77 | 59 | 76 | 76 | 74 | 80 | 76 | | Rowe | 78 | 75 | 76 | 70 | 79 | 79 | 80 | | Perera | 71 | 64 | 69 | 73 | 77 | 79 | 80 | | Hsu | 75 | 72 | 75 | 70 | 73 | 79 | 79 |
With three out of the five stages being mainly flat without any cobbles, we can also expect some mass sprints. Purely looking at sprinting capacities, Howard seems to be the favourite for this kind of stage. There’s a lot of competition, with many similar riders, some of them even being very decent cobblers as well.
Kump is definitely one of those. He won’t be a name in the top-10 of the GC we think, but should definitely be able to score some points both in the GC and during the sprint stages. The Slovenian is the best puncheur amongst the sprinters, and will be looking to repeat his Pologne successes. Some other succesful sprinters are also present in Great Britain, such as Manninen and Vesely.
Itami is the sprinter with the best acceleration, while some other guys on the list know there way around the cobbles quite well, so riders like Keukeleire, Van Asbroeck, Rowe and Hsu might even be sprinting for some very important bonus seconds GC-wise. Even though they couldn’t make the sprinters’ list, the same could be true for Stallaert,  Havik and some others.
The only thing left for me to do is to share the startlist, the only thing left for the riders to do is to win some stages and the GC!
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 03-02-2021 07:50
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Directeur Sportif
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Surprisingly weak startlist here. I'm rooting for Kump, but also Rowe performing would be very cool. Great preview!
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 03-02-2021 08:03
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World Champion
Posts: 14563
Joined: 08-08-2011
PCM$: 9100.00
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Why did I skip this race? I seem to remember it being hillier and you know, 50MO Kenny. Probably not going to beat Andorra though so all good.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 03-02-2021 08:11
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Howard as the favorite for sprints, probably ain't a good thing  obviously still hoping for at least one stage win by him. Need some scoring here.
David hasn't been worth a thing so far. So I'm not confident anymore. On paper, the profiles look good for his skillset, but I fear he's in the "random 78 main stat guy, who doesn't care about results" kind of bunch.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 23:02
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| tastasol |
Posted on 03-02-2021 08:43
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2889
Joined: 11-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Couldn't get a spot here unfortunately. Good luck to those racing! Summerhill should be tough to beat.
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 03-02-2021 08:56
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2905
Joined: 07-08-2011
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Had we not had such a weak stint of races this was going to a race to really determine the outcome of our season. Obviously hoping for a massive performance from Kump to get us back into PCT contention.
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 03-02-2021 09:10
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7593
Joined: 04-07-2012
PCM$: 15445.00
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Always a bit of wonky race so hopefully get a Minion in the break on stage one with a ten minute lead, have Vesely do his thing on the middle stages and finish on a high.
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| viking90 |
Posted on 03-02-2021 09:11
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4032
Joined: 24-01-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Hmm, dont really know how Stallaert can make those hills but when it cobbles in it we need to send him! Praying that he can surprise a bit in the first stage... |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 03-02-2021 09:17
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World Champion
Posts: 11395
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1020.00
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We overperformed a bit in 2018 with Rowe points, 8th and stage win, then to a hilarious extent in 2019 with 4th and 5th on GC with 77 and 75 cobblers despite an actually really hard stage 1, so fully expecting the karmic comedown with a relative no-show here 
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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| quadsas |
Posted on 03-02-2021 09:31
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2518
Joined: 18-01-2013
PCM$: 300.00
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Give the goblin some points. ovsya want point
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 03-02-2021 11:13
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
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I reserve comment until i see exactly how bad we do here 
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| Bikex |
Posted on 03-02-2021 11:14
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Team Leader
Posts: 7257
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I hope Kasperkiewicz can fight for a top 10 here and Hsu show himself in the sprints. |
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| knockout |
Posted on 03-02-2021 11:23
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7735
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 400.00
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Very reasonable startlist here, makes me get my expectations for Blythe up. Hopefully, he will do well on stage 1 as its a bit too hilly for him while quite a few of those cobbles sections are on downhill parts but he should get preferential AI treatment as one of the top cobblers so he might be fine. Hope he carried his form here instead of celebrating too much...
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| matt17br |
Posted on 03-02-2021 11:25
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 10525
Joined: 28-09-2013
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Could be a big race for us. Need Theuns to turn his cobbles season around, because it's largely been a disappointment for the most part otherwise. Team's strong and deep, just need them to perform like they're supposed to! Thanks for all the reporting you've been doing Nemolito.
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| Yellow Jersey |
Posted on 03-02-2021 17:09
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2809
Joined: 16-04-2013
PCM$: 900.00
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In it to win it!
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 03-02-2021 19:13
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Team Leader
Posts: 6036
Joined: 20-07-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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This is exactly the race we don't need right now
It should be fun nonthelesse. Thanks for the preview Nemo!
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 03-02-2021 19:38
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World Champion
Posts: 12986
Joined: 20-05-2009
PCM$: 530.00
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Not expecting much here, and we need the opposite so I'll probably be disappointed unless Shiki pulls a miracle.
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 03-02-2021 21:12
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8059
Joined: 22-06-2009
PCM$: 650.00
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I'll happily take Altur back if you no longer want him 
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 04-02-2021 08:55
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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That's even worse than I expected it to be. Not sure how a Hi 75 Co 78 guy can finish outside the Top 60 here, but since it has been bad since his first race for us, I can state two things about Tom David:
1. He's a joke.
2. Probably the worst deal I've ever done in the MG.
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 04-02-2021 09:04
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World Champion
Posts: 14563
Joined: 08-08-2011
PCM$: 9100.00
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In retrosprect it's probably best I'm not here
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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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)
