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Benelux Challenge Discussion
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| Laurens147 |
Posted on 23-03-2025 07:27
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 [HC] Benelux Challenge 
Report by Imladrik
| | | | | | | | | | | Stage 1 |  | Maastricht | 6,2 KM | | | | | | | | Stage 2 |  | Veenendaal > Nijmegen | 147,4 KM | | | | | | | | Stage 3 |  | Heers > Andenne | 188,3 KM | | | | | | | | Stage 4 |  | Ronse > Ronse | 192,4 KM | | | | | | | | Stage 5 | | Tielt > Oudenaarde | 175,4 KM | | | | | | | | Stage 6 | | Sneek > Leiden | 184,6 KM | | | | | | |
| Year | Winner | Runner-up | Third | | | | | | | | 2023 | PIDCOCK Thomas | STALLAERT Joeri | BOHLI Tom | | | | | | | | 2022 | KUNG Stefan | BEWLEY Sam | KIREVA Albert | | | | | | | | 2021 | SENNI Manuel | BARTHE Cyril | RIESEBEEK Oscar | | | | | | | | 2020 | GAVIRIA Fernando | DEBESEY Mekseb | KUMP Marko | | | | | | | | 2019 | CHAVES Johan Esteban | KASPERKIEWICZ Przemyslaw | NZEKE Geremie | | | | | | | | 2018 | BEN NASSER Hassen | BREEN Vegard | HOELGAARD Daniel | | | | | | | | 2017 | SQUIRE Robbie | RYBAKOV Alexander | KREDER Michel | | | | | | | | 2016 | HUGENTOBLER Gregory | KONWA Marek | BILLE Gaetan | | | | | | | | 2015 | DE MAAR Marc | MOLARD Rudy | FAVILLI Elia | | | | | | | | 2014 | WYSS Marcel | LEBRIS Cedric | SWEETING Robert | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1 | Thomas Pidcock | Xero Racing | 20h31'54 | | | | | | | | 2 | Joeri Stallaert | Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes | 17" | | | | | | | | 3 | Tom Bohli | Team UBS - Tissot | 24" | | | | | | | | 4 | Max Losch | DK Žalgiris | 25" | | | | | | | | 5 | Tom Van Asbroeck | Team UBS - Tissot | 27" | | | | | | | | 6 | Luke Rowe | Lampre - Pinarello | 28" | | | | | | | | 7 | Mick Van Dijke | Sony - Force India | 29" | | | | | | | | 8 | Oscar Riesebeek | Lampre - Pinarello | 30" | | | | | | | | 9 | Lucas Manuel Gaday | Strava | 36" | | | | | | | | 10 | Andreas Kron | Tryg - Gobyk | 44" | | | | | | |
S1: Nils Schomber (Xero Racing) S2: Willi Willwohl (Team Würth MODYF) S3: Thomas Pidcock (Xero Racing) S4: Nathan Van Hooydonck (Fastned) S5: Patrick Gamper (Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam) S6: Max Losch (DK Žalgiris) Pts: Thomas Pidcock (Xero Racing) KoM: Ivan Centrone (Trans Looney Tunes) Simon Pellaud (Sauber Petronas Racing) Yth: Thomas Pidcock (Xero Racing)
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| Last name | First name | Country | Age | FL | ST | CB | SP | AC | PR |  Gamper | Patrick | AUT | 27 | 77 | 77 | 80 | 64 | 71 | 76 |
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| Last name | First name | Country | Age | FL | ST | CB | SP | AC | PR |  Stallaert | Joeri | BEL | 33 | 76 | 75 | 80 | 78 | 75 | 57 |  Stavrakakis | Georgios | GRE | 26 | 76 | 74 | 77 | 64 | 68 | 77 |  Nareklishvili | Beka | GEO | 28 | 72 | 73 | 77 | 64 | 71 | 76 | | Kortsidakis | Michail | GRE | 30 | 77 | 75 | 77 | 68 | 72 | 73 |  Kasperkiewicz | Przemyslaw | POL | 30 | 76 | 75 | 81 | 59 | 67 | 74 |
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| Last name | First name | Country | Age | FL | ST | CB | SP | AC | PR |  Debesay | Mekseb | ERI | 33 | 74 | 73 | 78 | 68 | 76 | 73 |  Peng | Yuan Tan | TPE | 31 | 75 | 74 | 75 | 69 | 73 | 72 |  Chokri | El Mehdi | MOR | 27 | 75 | 74 | 76 | 65 | 68 | 75 | | Edmondson | Alexander | AUS | 31 | 73 | 72 | 74 | 77 | 75 | 74 |  Schäppi | Martin | SWI | 28 | 72 | 74 | 76 | 66 | 68 | 75 | | Losch | Max | LUX | 31 | 73 | 72 | 71 | 78 | 79 | 66 | | Harrison | Sam | GBR | 32 | 72 | 73 | 73 | 78 | 81 | 72 |
Prologue specialists
| Last name | First name | Country | Age | PRL | | | | | |  Kopfauf | Markus | AUT | 28 | 81 | | | | | |  Howson | Damien | AUS | 32 | 80 | | | | | |  Durbridge | Luke | AUS | 33 | 80 | | | | | | | Cataford | Alexandor | CAN | 31 | 79 | | | | | |  Frame | Alex | NZL | 31 | 79 | | | | | |
Sprinters
| Last name | First name | Country | Age | FL | ST | RC | SP | AC | | | Boudat | Thomas | FRA | 30 | 73 | 71 | 78 | 79 | 78 | | | Harrison | Sam | GBR | 32 | 72 | 73 | 76 | 78 | 81 | | | El Sabbahi | Houcaine | MOR | 27 | 77 | 72 | 77 | 78 | 77 | | | Losch | Max | LUX | 31 | 73 | 72 | 75 | 78 | 79 | |  Zingle | Axel | FRA | 26 | 75 | 70 | 77 | 78 | 78 | |
Puncheurs
| Last name | First name | Country | Age | HL | ST | RS | RC | SP | AC | | Meurisse | Xandro | BEL | 32 | 77 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 71 | 78 | | Korosec | Rok | SLO | 31 | 75 | 74 | 71 | 71 | 75 | 78 | | Benoot | Tiesj | BEL | 30 | 81 | 75 | 74 | 74 | 69 | 71 |  Eriksson | Lucas | SWD | 28 | 78 | 78 | 74 | 75 | 65 | 76 | | Van Dijke | Mick | NED | 24 | 76 | 74 | 74 | 71 | 71 | 72 |
Patrick Gamper: Lillestrom GP #2, Le Samyn #4, 1 Jour de Dunkerque #4, prologue Baltic Chain Tour #4
Joeri Stallaert: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad #5, Le Samyn #6, Lillestrom GP #6, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne #8, 1 Jour de Dunkerque #10
Georgios Stavrakakis: Le Samyn #8, prologue Baltic Chain Tour winner
Beka Nareklishvili: GP Herning #5
Michail Kortsidakis: Le Samyn #2
Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner, Lillestrom GP winner, 1 Jour de Dunkerque #2, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne #5
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Full startlist:
MG - Lotto - Caloi
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| SotD |
Posted on 23-03-2025 07:35
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World Champion
Posts: 12291
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It’s one of those races where I don’t have a perfectly suited rider to fight for the win, but will hope to flood the subtop by numbers to hopefully strike some luck.
Kortsidakis, Stavrakakis and Edmondson have already been mentioned, but hopefully Boutopoulos and Summerhill won’t be too far back either. The ITT is rather short so shouldn’t define it all.
Gamber should gain a decent head start, but I would still define Kasperkiewicz as the main threat for the win.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 30-03-2025 23:00
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 23-03-2025 08:18
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World Champion
Posts: 14760
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I can't really see Gamper is a favourite here, he's going to lose minutes on that hilly stage. Benoot should win this one.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 23-03-2025 09:13
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11905
Joined: 27-07-2015
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Not too sure what to expect here! We have brought a bit of everything in the startlist, despite it not being the full eight riders! This is the first time we have brought Benoot to this race, so no idea how he goes. Last year, level 3 Mick outperformed all expectations for 7th. We hope he can contribute well again. Hoping for a good start from the Prologue as well.
Thanks for the preview!
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 23-03-2025 10:06
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2967
Joined: 07-08-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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Did a switch up in my planning this year and sent Xandro Meurisse here as another spear on our team. This is one of the best races on the calendar and super excited as this race has been make or break for me plenty of times and we always tend to come out quite well from it!
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 23-03-2025 10:52
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7709
Joined: 04-07-2012
PCM$: 17245.00
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In this race because we must so mostly a development race for us. Maybe Jiang can surprise in the prologue or De Witte can do something on the cobbles, but no expectations.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 23-03-2025 11:12
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Team Manager
Posts: 6614
Joined: 14-09-2008
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Stallaert has a very mixed track record here, 2nd place last year but then 13th and 21st the two years before that. Given how much his downgrade has affected him in races that suit him more, I'm not optimistic. But who knows, maybe he can still make some magic happen. Habimana and Kuypers should be able to fight for a Top 5 in the youth classification, so I'll have an eye on that as well. All in all, this could go a bunch of different ways for us, but I'm looking forward to the racing either way. Thanks for the preview Laurens!
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 23-03-2025 11:16
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Team Leader
Posts: 6080
Joined: 20-07-2008
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Complete domination is the bare minimum for us here. Sorry, guys.
Thanks for the preview, Laurens!
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 23-03-2025 11:32
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Sprinter
Posts: 1925
Joined: 07-02-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Not sure how much to read into Jacobs not making the list of favorites here. Hopefully Schappi can do well if the game is not favoring Jacobs 
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| quadsas |
Posted on 23-03-2025 11:53
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2577
Joined: 18-01-2013
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Just hoping for something, anything really
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 23-03-2025 15:22
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 3454
Joined: 02-11-2010
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One of my favorite races to report as it is unpredictable and usually lots of action but figured we would try riding in it.
Hard to know how the AI will treat different riders and rider combinations because the race is so balanced. I agree with others that Gamper is probably not the favorite because of his hill weakness - I would add Debesay to the two mentioned above. Which could be huge for JEWA.
For us we are riding because I figured Hecht was Riesebeek-lite and if he gets some respect positioning-wise he could probably hang on for a decent GC. But that is a big if.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| seancoll |
Posted on 23-03-2025 19:24
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Domestique
Posts: 552
Joined: 20-12-2022
PCM$: 500.00
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We're here with mostly young folks need XP, but also hoping for a few good results from Keough and Frame. Orue, Richardson, and Muhindo should all be good enough to find some level of success on the cobble stages as well, but not in any sort of sprint.
Some Top 50 GC points and a stage result or two would be appreciated.
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 23-03-2025 19:29
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Posts: 1345
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Thanks for the preview, Laurens, though it's not a good sign Daniel wasn't mentioned at all - which is probably alright given his weak prologue and mediocre hill skills. We're hopeful nonetheless and look forward to this race.
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| Ezeefreak |
Posted on 24-03-2025 05:33
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Domestique
Posts: 587
Joined: 06-07-2009
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I guess when Zepuntke not even is mentioned here in any way it shows the trust in his skills and how his season goes. Sure he lacks PRL skills but some of the other favorites too. ANYWAY, i still hope he and Beka can score a bit so try to safe their season a bit.
Thanks for the preview and i look forward to look at devasting results 
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| Laurens147 |
Posted on 24-03-2025 08:21
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Posts: 1255
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Happy to see there is so much talk about the preview  I based myself on the hilly stage from last year, where Losch and Rowe finished 6th and 7th with a hill stat of 65. Obviously no predictor for this time, as mentioned earlier a race that can go either way.
We're here for the sprint stages with Zingle and some minor GC points with Marzuki and co. Maybe WVA can snatch a top-5 in the prologue.
Good luck everyone!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
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| Blasing |
Posted on 24-03-2025 15:30
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Neo-Pro
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This will be one of the most important stage races for us this year. I am hoping for good results on the cobbles by Debesay and in the flat stages by Boudat. Maybe even a good GC result for Debesay.
We really need good points here, otherwise staying in PCT can become tough. Let's do this!
Thanks for the preview and looking forward to the races!
Manager of JEWA TIROL Cycling Team
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 24-03-2025 17:42
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2982
Joined: 15-07-2007
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Thanks Laurens for the preview, looking forward to this, and to see what our guys can do in the Benelux-region |
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 24-03-2025 19:04
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World Champion
Posts: 14760
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In hindsight, getting 3 timetrialist better than Gamper probably wasn't the best move..
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 24-03-2025 19:20
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2967
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Milan in white and Kaspa 4 seconds back is about as good as this stage could go!
Thanks for the report and congrats to Abhi on the win!
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 24-03-2025 19:33
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7709
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We get a point in this race which is already one more than I anticipated
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