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Coppa Placci Discussion
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| redordead |
Posted on 22-10-2025 07:43
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Welcome to the 8th edition of the Coppa Placci one day race. The race has changed its profile since its first edition, but it still has plenty of sharp climbs to test the riders over the 162 km long course. Still over the last couple of years the race seems to be decided on the final that takes the riders to the finish line. It's a steep one that requires a large extended effort and not just a quick acceleration. It's early in the season and everyone is still adjusting themselves, but I do fancy the punchy climbers do well here as a result.
With that said let's look at some of the favourites:
| FL | MO | MM | HI | ST | RS | AC |  Masnada | 71 | 77 | 77 | 76 | 76 | 75 | 73 |  Smith | 69 | 78 | 77 | 75 | 72 | 74 | 74 |  Berthet | 65 | 77 | 77 | 76 | 70 | 75 | 75 | | Lafay | 66 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 72 | 72 | 74 |  Hoelgaard | 72 | 74 | 76 | 77 | 72 | 72 | 74 |  Serrano | 69 | 72 | 75 | 77 | 73 | 75 | 77 |  Paez | 73 | 72 | 75 | 77 | 74 | 70 | 76 |  Laas | 67 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 68 | 73 | 76 | | Sagan | 68 | 70 | 75 | 79 | 72 | 68 | 70 |  Vincent | 70 | 71 | 74 | 77 | 79 | 72 | 71 |  Lagane | 70 | 70 | 74 | 78 | 70 | 71 | 77 |  Kwiatkowski | 68 | 74 | 76 | 77 | 68 | 70 | 69 |  Montenegro | 69 | 70 | 74 | 77 | 71 | 73 | 74 |  Carr | 68 | 70 | 74 | 77 | 74 | 71 | 72 |
I would class Masnada as more of a stage racer, but he is very well rounded when it comes to riding uphill. His victory in San Jose proves that fact and while I don't think this race is as attritional, I think the finish is likely harder and that should still suit him well. Smith and Berthet are very much in the same boat as climbers with a similar skill set. Lafay gives Euskotren another strong option as a former winner of this race. Another former winner is Hoelgaard. He didn't do well in San Jose and I still think he is Tafjord's best puncheur. I'm also a fan Serrano and Paez, both have very good acceleration for the explosive finish. Sagan should be the leader for Ethiopian, but I also like Lass as a better climber with a good punch if needed. I'm not sure if Vincent's high stamina will be as important in a shorter race, but he should still be a top 10 contender easily. Speaking of stamina, Lagane was perfectly fine in San Jose, can he overcome his relative weakness again? Montenegro is your bog standard puncheur. Kwiatkowski and Carr squeezed into this race for the PCT. The veteran Pole is a potential dark horse as a hybrid puncheur.
| FL | MO | MM | HI | ST | RS | AC | | Gall | 67 | 77 | 77 | 76 | 70 | 71 | 72 | | Miltiadis | 68 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 70 | 71 | 75 | | Conti | 67 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 70 | 71 | 74 | | Filutas | 70 | 74 | 75 | 75 | 71 | 69 | 74 | | Gladysh | 72 | 70 | 74 | 77 | 73 | 72 | 76 | | Dyrnes | 67 | 71 | 74 | 77 | 72 | 72 | 76 | | Svab | 70 | 71 | 74 | 76 | 70 | 72 | 78 | | Rojas | 68 | 70 | 73 | 76 | 76 | 71 | 76 | | Schönberger | 66 | 72 | 74 | 76 | 73 | 74 | 71 | | Holmes | 70 | 72 | 74 | 75 | 71 | 73 | 71 |  Lazkano | 65 | 71 | 74 | 77 | 68 | 71 | 75 |  Zordan | 66 | 72 | 74 | 76 | 70 | 70 | 72 | | Van Heerden | 69 | 72 | 74 | 75 | 68 | 70 | 74 | | Dieteren | 67 | 70 | 74 | 77 | 75 | 70 | 66 | | Le Court | 70 | 70 | 73 | 76 | 67 | 70 | 66 |
Most of the riders here are probably very good domestiques for the list above. Or they could replace some of them as leaders. Gall offers the same main stats as Masnada. Dyrnes took over for Hoelgaard in San Jose. Ethiopian have some many additional options with Gladysh, Svab etc. Lazkano and Zordan are the two that project as leaders for their teams.
Full startlist:
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| Heine |
Posted on 22-10-2025 08:23
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Finally time to race again! Hopeing for a good result from Vincent here, and from testing I know it is possible, but that he can just as well end up outside top 10. As he is not among the biggest favorites before the race starts he might end up being a bit too far behind int he peloton when splits occour. I really hope he avoids that
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| Dippofix |
Posted on 22-10-2025 08:54
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Seeing two favourites and four outsiders (and Vendrame here as well), I feel like a strong showing here is a must. Hoping it comes down to HI more than MM as that would really give me confidence in Sagan after San Jose, but a strong team performance with good depth scoring would be good enough. At least the amount of different cards we can play should mean we can react to any situation.
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 22-10-2025 09:13
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Interesting race this and one where the profile really doesn't show what the race is actually like. The climb at the end is about 7km of between 4-6% so while the punchuers have an advantage at the start of the race the final climb strongly favour guys with a good mo/hill combo. So while i expect Lagane and Sagan to make the final group with ease i'd say it's likely the win is fought between Lafay, Masnada and Smith with possibly Berthat depending on who Euskotren choose to lead. Very happy to see what the startlist looks like here from a selfish perspective as the likes of Meintjes, Buitrago and Fabbro would have been favourite to me so we may have got caught lucky here but Smith still needs to finish the job now and have some luck on RD |
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| SotD |
Posted on 22-10-2025 09:54
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It's going to be really interesting to see here with Smith having 2 very solid domestiques - BUT, all 3 with low 70's STA. In other races I would have said "doesn't matter", when the race is 160km long. But with these new engine-thingies it's always very interesting to see just how aggressive changes are on a "new" terrain.
Equally interesting will it be to see if Masnada just cruises this one as his stat combinations seems like a perfect fit, and even have Gall that can probably kill off everyone not fighting for a top 10 themselves.
Finally I'm looking a bit towards Leo Vincent. I'm a bit intrigued by what his chances might be here. The very high STA could cover his flaws elsewhere. Back when I had him, I actually considered training him, but back then is 71ACC seemed to be the achilles of a top level rider. In particular this is interesting for me because of my Kinoshita-gamble, where Soulious is a mini-Masnada as a domestique.
So a lot of interesting things to look for! Best of luck you guys!
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 22-10-2025 10:31
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We got 2 points out of our visit to San Jose so hopefully we can get 3 here 
Obviously we weren't going to miss our home race, will be interesting to see who is our leader here, Lazkano or Antonelli
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 05-12-2025 11:59
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 22-10-2025 11:48
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Hoping Dyrnes and Hoelgaard can cooperate here and do a good job. We really need all the points we can get in the hilly races, as we're really weak in the other compartments.
Thank you very much redordead!  |
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| Radio00 |
Posted on 22-10-2025 16:35
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Hopefully we get a good result.
Nice to see Carr with the favorites |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 22-10-2025 18:30
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Idk, a similar result to San Jose would do just fine! Less than that is far from helpful.
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 22-10-2025 19:49
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Hoping Masnada can compensate for his 0 points in TdU with a win here.
Thanks for the preview red.
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| Imladrik |
Posted on 22-10-2025 21:04
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San Jose was so-so, so hope we'll do better here. And it'll tell whether the Stocek move and pairing him up with Lafay in all races were good or stupid choices.
Thanks for the preview, excited to be back on racing!
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
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| Heine |
Posted on 23-10-2025 08:06
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Congrats Bjartne! Great race from Hoelgaard! Well deserved victory!
Good race from Euskotren getting 4th and 5th, and with Lafay being in the right attack, just not strong enough
9th with Vincent a bit dissapointing, but his MM isn't up there with the best of them. Sucks that Holmes gets the first position with 0 pts...
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 23-10-2025 08:24
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What a ride Hoelgaard!! you love to see those big attacks be rewarded!
From a personal standpoint perfect race lads scored some depth points in Langelotti and Fortunato and Smith did what was expected grabbed a great podium impossible to know how important being just beat by Gall is come end of the season yet but for now we will just be happy to continue getting strong PPRD with some less ideal races to come |
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| Dippofix |
Posted on 23-10-2025 09:41
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Can't complain about 6th and 14th too much given the lack of MM on my lads, and nice to see us put in some attacks too. Unfortunate that we weren't involved in the move that stuck but it wasn't for a lack of trying. Congrats to Bjartne, that's exactly how you want to win a race!
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 23-10-2025 10:33
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Thanks a lot guys!
Was hoping to get a top 5 here by Hoelgaard, so I'm over the moon by the win!
Really really important to claim some puncheurs point for us, before all the cobbled 0-points races 
Thank you redordead for an really exciting race, especially the last kilometres, great job mate! |
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 23-10-2025 10:39
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If my calculations are right, we were the only PCT team to score any points. Well, they aren't much, but it's still something compared to the dookie of a performance in San Jose. GG from Kwiatkowski and Otruba for the points haul - shame that Kolar, Bernard and Preidler finished outside Top 25, another point or two wouldn't have hurt.
Thanks for the report, redordead.
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| redordead |
Posted on 23-10-2025 10:52
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jt1109 wrote:
Very happy to see what the startlist looks like here from a selfish perspective as the likes of Meintjes, Buitrago and Fabbro would have been favourite to me so we may have got caught lucky here but Smith still needs to finish the job now and have some luck on RD
I was disappointed that Buitrago wasn't on the startlist, but Hoelgaard came through for the former Cedevita riders
"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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| Jajajasper |
Posted on 23-10-2025 13:52
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jeez awful day. |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 23-10-2025 14:10
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Awesome win for Hoelgaard and his home team!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Radio00 |
Posted on 23-10-2025 14:20
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Wow, Hoelgaard really wanted to win that race. Congratulations!
But for us, that was disappointing. Hopefully the next races will be better.
At least Johnson was there, tried his best and show the new Jersey. |
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Coppa Placci 
