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Volta a Catalunya Discussion
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 24-10-2022 07:20
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World Champion
Posts: 11392
Joined: 17-12-2014
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 Volta a Catalunya
2 Mountain (2 MTF) | 2 Hilly | 1 Flat | 1 ITT (40.7km)
Welcome to the Volta a Catalunya, one of cycling's great traditional stage races and the third-oldest still existing in the world. Now at the CT level, it's one of the premier events on the third-tier's calendar and has attracted the startlist to match.
| Rider | MO | HI | TT | RS | AC | Rider | MO | HI | TT | RS | AC |  Stüssi | 79 | 73 | 75 | 73 | 66 |  Vasyliv | 77 | 74 | 72 | 72 | 67 |  Warbasse | 78 | 75 | 74 | 73 | 65 |  Iturria | 77 | 73 | 72 | 74 | 61 |  Schlegel | 78 | 77 | 65 | 74 | 75 |  Kozhatayev | 77 | 74 | 72 | 75 | 69 | | Masnada | 77 | 76 | 73 | 75 | 73 |  Alarcon | 81 | 70 | 64 | 69 | 73 | | Ablenado | 78 | 67 | 72 | 77 | 65 | Mäder | 77 | 71 | 75 | 75 | 64 |  Ratiy | 78 | 68 | 72 | 70 | 55 |  Kolar | 77 | 75 | 61 | 71 | 66 |  Talansky | 77 | 75 | 70 | 73 | 66 | Mannion | 77 | 71 | 64 | 76 | 71 |
The headline, of course, is that after the other big names in CT stage racing duked it out in Tachira, it's time for Colin Stüssi to make his grand entrance, freshly trained and backed with a ridiculous supporting cast, including Masnada, recently 2nd in the C1 Hong Kong Challenge and a contender here in his own right, and Mäder, the heavy favourite for the U25 classification here. He's the top favourite, as he will be everywhere in the CT he goes you suspect, but it's a very deep field here, and as we saw in Tachira it seems like every race has a lot of potential winners in the CT this year.
Jura are hardly the only team with multiple cards to play, as Alarcon and Ablenado show out for Caja Rural as they did in Tachira. The latter took charge of the team's GC fortunes there, and with a long ITT here likely will again, but the latter showed on occasions there that on his day he is the best climber on the team still. Surely the former GT winner can't be happy as a second fiddle here.
One team that was very happy coming out of that race was Glanbia, who had Andrew Talansky taking a fantastic GC victory, with Gavin Mannion a fine lieutenant and 12th for his efforts. They still aren't favoured to repeat, with the introduction of Stussi and Masnada to proceedings sure to make it tough, as well as Talansky's countryman Larry Warbasse who surely is still smarting from losing a race which he came into as the heavy favourite. He and Stussi should, on paper, have the most to gain from the time trial on Stage 3, as well as being two of the top climbers.
| Hills | HI | MO | AC | Sprints | SP | AC | HI | Time Trial | TT |  Betancourt | 79 | 72 | 72 | Guardini | 79 | 80 | 63 | Rekita | 79 | | Juul-Jensen | 77 | 69 | 77 |  Willwohl | 79 | 78 | 64 | Erdenebat | 78 |  Kanepejs | 77 | 67 | 71 | Aregger | 78 | 77 | 71 | Predatsch | 77 |  Zordan | 77 | 73 | 74 | Prasad | 78 | 79 | 68 | Marchewka | 77 | | Vogt | 80 | 62 | 63 |  Alaphilippe | 77 | 77 | 73 | Downey | 77 | | Vliegen | 77 | 67 | 74 |  Thwaites | 78 | 76 | 65 |  Andersen | 77 | | Le Roux | 77 | 66 | 72 | Frame | 77 | 76 | 62 | Frison | 77 | | Besada | 77 | 63 | 77 | Mudgway | 76 | 78 | 64 | Mottin | 77 | | Laas | 76 | 74 | 76 | Luchshenko | 75 | 75 | 75 | Cheyne | 76 | | Schultz | 76 | 76 | 71 | Favilli | 75 | 72 | 74 | Stoenchev | 76 | | Hindley | 76 | 72 | 73 | | | | | Archibald | 76 | | Svab | 76 | 71 | 78 | | | | | Laizer | 76 |
A look at those riders that will be targeting individual stages in this tour, particularly looking at Stages 1 and 5 for the puncheurs, Stage 2 for the sprinters and Stage 4 for the chronomen. However Stages 1 and 5 are also vey open to the punchy sprinters, with Alaphilippe, Luchshenko and Favilli great shouts on that front. Betancourt headlines the more traditional puncheurs, in what looks like a very open field, while Rekita is one of three Jura riders mentioned in the above list to go with their GC trio, and is the favourite for the ITT. What a ridiculous squad.
As always, I am but the Silver Surfer to Nemolito's Galactus, in that I am far more popular and cool but he is much more scary and important. And that I am just heralding his imminent reports. |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 24-10-2022 07:28
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World Champion
Posts: 11392
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1020.00
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So there are rumours suggesting Stage 3 is actually a TTT, we all agree I think that I don't make mistakes (and in the extremely unlikely case I did, I wouldn't currently have time to fix them) but that's the version of events that Nemolito is going with and he's the boss I guess so whatever
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 24-10-2022 09:07
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Classics Specialist
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One of the perks of being so cool and popular is that you can get away with mistaking a TTT for an ITT. Thanks for a great preview and good luck to all participants 
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| GregPeck |
Posted on 24-10-2022 09:28
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Free Agent
Posts: 141
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Hopefully, we can come away with a stage win to help achieve our goal of 8 stage wins. But after the first races of the season, I think we will be lucky to get one win on the year |
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| MacC |
Posted on 24-10-2022 09:41
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Sprinter
Posts: 1594
Joined: 15-07-2008
PCM$: 700.00
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Well, I hope it's a TTT for Talansky's sake!
Still, as I said in my HQ because of the mountains I don't have my full TTT set-up. I just hope I get the balance right with Mannion and Martin as mountain help and enough TTers to still be competitive over the 40km.
Obviously, Talanksy can approach this with confidence after Táchira but a top 5 would be still be a good result as we all suck Stussi's dust, right?
As usual hoping my TT guys do a bit of breakaway action
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 24-10-2022 12:50
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2905
Joined: 07-08-2011
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Just hoping that Potocki is as liked this year as he was last year as that could be a massive amount of extra points for us, also think this might be the first time that Thwaites gets to be uninterrupted sprint leader so hoping that he pulls something off here as well! Thanks for the preview!
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 24-10-2022 13:18
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4505
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Big race for Kolar here - really cool too that he can get an opportunity to lead. Can’t remember who else I’ve sent, but would love for a bit of that PCT mountain goat luck in this race that seems to be so abundant for Sauber
Thanks for the preview! Very curious to see how the Jura trio go
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 24-10-2022 15:28
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Team Leader
Posts: 7294
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After the start Vasyliv had in Tachira, he and I would like that form to continue but we also bring with us a level of confidence. Schultz is back again as key mountain support while potentially having an opportunity in the hills. The TTT will be interesting for us. We have erdenebat here to lead the team through it but it’ll be interesting to see where we are at in terms of TTT. Similar to Glanbia, a top 10 will be satisfying for us here in Spain!
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 24-10-2022 16:42
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4669
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I'm honestly not sure if I should prefer a TTT or an ITT, but although the startlist is missing, I guess not many teams should be able to match our TTT setup here. Rekita and Marchewka are the main engines for that one, but especially Stüssi and Mäder are pretty strong as well. Masnada, Rowsell and Basso should be solid "assets", too, with the former being a dark horse for the GC as well.
But yeah, the team is obviously set up to carry Stüssi to the GC win; we at least need a podium, any lower result would be quite a big disappointment.
We'll see what Aregger can do in the sprints; he's listed pretty high up and is decent on the hills. But the AI might just use him to protect Stüssi.
With Masnada (and maybe Aregger) for the hilly stages, Stüssi et al. for the mountains, and the whole team for the TTT I guess we have some candidates for good results on every stage; now let's see if our scoring can really be as massive as I hope it to be.
Thanks for the preview to jandal, and for the reports to Nemo
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 24-10-2022 18:04
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Protected Rider
Posts: 1119
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We're here for stage wins, with Alaphilippe trying to confirm and maybe even surpass his results form Tachira. Hamilton and Gogl will support him with this or try to get some results on their own (probably just nearly missing the favourites list for hilly stages). The rest of the squad is here to gain precious race days (and the respective XP).
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| Imladrik |
Posted on 24-10-2022 21:19
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 808
Joined: 05-10-2021
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We're here to take whatever Jura leaves to the other teams.
Itturia has the whole team behind him this time (with Mottin only here to try to not lose too much time in the TTT), so I'll hope we'll ride a bit more agressively.
Be less passive is the least I can ask, we are nearly at home. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 10:16
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 24-10-2022 23:10
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Directeur Sportif
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With Jura as the clear favorites hopefully Warbasse can relax and actually manage at least one strong stage. Will keep expectations low.
Our full and only TTT squad here, so hopefully they are solid as it doesn't get any better than this. Tried to avoid one-dimensional TTers so also have support both in the MT and Hills but might regret that in the TT itself.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| MacC |
Posted on 25-10-2022 10:18
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Sprinter
Posts: 1594
Joined: 15-07-2008
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Nice work from Mannion but I'm a little concerned that this means he might be leader..,,,then again given it's a TTT ,maybe that won't matter too much, there's not much between him and Talansky in climbing ability
Great report Nemo and well done Schegel/Tryg
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| Ezeefreak |
Posted on 25-10-2022 10:54
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Domestique
Posts: 555
Joined: 06-07-2009
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Great report and congratulations to the winners.
But, holy, not even top 100 (!!!!!!). There our whole team just failed. A lot of them surely were strong enough but when you dont pay attention and be in a bad position that happens. Hopefully they make up for that in the next stages.
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| wildwind |
Posted on 25-10-2022 11:36
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Under 23
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Good performance by Luchshenko to finish Top 5 |
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 25-10-2022 13:38
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Decent start, Kolar and Gall both making the split is good news for future stages. Gall taking the u25 lead was a bit of a surprise, I wonder if Mader gets the full domestique treatment here and loses a lot of time if Gall could take it out? Wishful thinking Great to see Schlegel perform as he’s supposed to for Tryg after Tachira, congrats lief! Also good to see Luchshenko continue to do well too, wish we hadn’t lost him.
Thanks for the report Nemo!
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 25-10-2022 13:50
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4669
Joined: 29-09-2018
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Definitely can't complain about 3rd from Aregger on this stage. Maybe Masnada would have gone for the stage if the sprinter hadn't been there, but a stage podium is nice anyway. None of the GC leaders lost time, that was even more important today - I'm slightly afraid of stage 4 for such a scenario, though.
Congrats to Tryg on a dominant stage win, looks like Schlegel has finally found his legs after a disappointing first month
Didn't expect Mannion to do so well on a hilly stage, but I guess he just was attentive and had a great day. Glanbia definitely are on a roll!
Now let's see if Aregger can add another podium or even a win tomorrow; a good result is a Must if he wants to have a shot at the points jersey. But with Schlegel's dominance today, that will be a hard task given the remaining stages.
Thanks for the report, Nemo! Looks like your PCM likes to get my riders 3rd stage places 
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 25-10-2022 14:24
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2905
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Nice to see Baroncini mixing it in the break. No time loss for Potocki is the biggest thing. Thanks for the report!
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| KaiserAdler |
Posted on 25-10-2022 15:37
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Domestique
Posts: 570
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PCM$: 5800.00
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I’m glad my team isnt as invisible as expected. But I’d like to see Betancourt actually push through an attack. Thanks for the report Nemo x
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 25-10-2022 20:44
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2907
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Ludvigsson giving us a better start than expected. No riders dropped time, so we'll still in contention
Great report Nemolito, thank you very much! |
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