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Tour Down Under Discussion
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 23-08-2018 22:02
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Grand Tour Champion
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I like Eiking in the break, a good KoM classification could bring in some nice points. Hope he'll be taking points on Willunga as well then.
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| Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 23-08-2018 22:29
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Small Tour Specialist
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Ah, so close to the win! But nevertheless an unreal performance by Kreder, considering the sprinters he's beating here and the position he was in  Didn't even think he would take part in the sprint when I barely could spot him with 3 K's to go.
Climbing a little bit in the GC then, but will be very difficult to advance further. Now looking forward to see if we can do something on Old Willunga Hill tomorrow.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 23-08-2018 23:04
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Rive so close to bridging to that breakaway. I'm almost proud! Thanks for the lively reports roturn!
Ewan! what a miss there. Willunga next. Decisive or irrelevant?
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| redordead |
Posted on 24-08-2018 06:52
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Gautier has this race in the bag
"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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| tastasol |
Posted on 24-08-2018 07:01
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Another Ulissi special, eh? At least he got a 2nd place out of it this time. Gautier playing this perfectly and gets another win. Congrats on a huge result, Atlantius!
A man in the break for us, but no doubt about the best Scandinavian result. Great ride from Bystrøm after he missed the first move.
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| ember |
Posted on 24-08-2018 07:04
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Brilliant racing again!  And congratulations on another win, Atlantius, eventhough the AI played it perfect for Gautier there and Ulissi would have been an even nicer stage winner after all the work.
Very nice to see Bystrøm do well too, as a third place overall is considerably better than one could expect pre-race. Though, he could of course be thrown of the podium by Ewan on the final stage, but nevertheless it looks to be a great race for him
Looks to be a lot of decent depth points for Generali as well, which is a good thing seeing how they played that stage and took responsibility. Three riders in the top 16, and two more in the top 30, surely counts for something.
And thank you for the report, roturn, I definitely enjoyed it! |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 06:32
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| roturn |
Posted on 24-08-2018 07:04
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Tough life for Ulissi. Once he is in a perfect position no other rider wants to chase with him, which is weird as I don`t see any other rider with such extreme.
And by spending all that energy to keep a gap, the others easily can outsprint him despite his actual stat advantage.
But yes, nice to see him try again and again still. |
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 24-08-2018 07:12
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What a stage!
Amazing ride from Gautier and thanks to Generali for setting it up 
Looks like Gautier learned a lot about race smarts after repeatedly blowing up after being outgunned by EBH/TVG last season.
Ulissi would have earned the win as well but it was perfect tactics by Gautier.
Now we just need to stay out of trouble and our biggest result of the season is in the bag.
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| Heine |
Posted on 24-08-2018 07:21
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A big bow to the Generali team, awesome work from them. And a really, really good stage (who would believe that little hill would make for a much better stage than Badaling?). Reminds me a bit of how my team set up Flügel during my promotion season. Would've deserved the win, but Gautier looks just awesome this season. I think we see the CT Individual Winner making his mark early.
If Generali and Ulissi continue like this he has to win stages/classics soon. It might be the classic "we know you are the best sprinter, so we wont tow you" that I feel we see with Sagan irl a lot (Just that Sagan wins anyway)
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 24-08-2018 08:08
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Grand Tour Champion
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Quevedo held his ground decently but I would have preferred had he been one or two groups further up the road. Gautier is just too strong.
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 24-08-2018 08:28
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Can't believe Bystrom's result 
Let's start from the beginning. Great to see Duchesne joining the break. One of the reasons for my overload of good puncheurs in the team is that in late stages in hilly stage races, once they've lost some time, they are able to join breakaways. A shame that there wasn't any KoM before Willunga, otherwise Antoine could have got away with KoM jersey given how strong he was today.
Roelandts blowing up wasn't unexpected, but seeing Ewan and Gaviria one group down the road hurts a little. He should finish 20th in GC no matter what, but had he been in Ewan's group, a 12-14th place in GC gives more points 
A shame that Rodriguez couldn't progress in U25 classification, and will have to settle for 8th place, which still gives him a point.
Moving with Bystrom. Thought it was over when he was in Ewan's group in the summit of Willunga, but then he recovered in the downhill, and in the sprint, despite not being explicity told, i'm quite sure that Duchesne launched him for the third place, the bonus seconds, and more importantly, the time gap that puts him in the GC podium 
Now i'm really rooting for a breakaway win tomorrow PLEASE! Too many missed chances to win already by Ewan, so i'm afraid that tomorrow could be his day if a breakaway doesn't spoil the "fun". Anyway, i would be pretty happy with 4th place in GC, as it's not something i could really expect pre-race.
Congrats to Atlantius, and also to Generali's team, amazing depth despite not getting the win Ulissi. They put today 4 riders in the second group, and killed any chance we had of winning the Teams classification, but i'm ok with 2nd place there though
And thanks for the report roturn!
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 24-08-2018 09:11
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I would complain about PCM AI with Waeytens ridin for himself instead of helping Gaviria, but when you see Ulissi I can't say much. Still, no top 10 here hurts after the first stages.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| SotD |
Posted on 24-08-2018 09:16
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Gautier the beast
Strong setup by Generali there, but Ulissi struggling to make the most of it. Still a good team effort, which will give some points surely.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 24-08-2018 09:34
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Cool stage, Gautier is just a beast here!
Won't repeat my wishes for our guys to join breakaways, so I'm just going to say that I would love to see Goss defending the points classification
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| Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 24-08-2018 10:13
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Great stage, though a bit meh for us. Positioning seems to be the main problem for our puncheurs throughout this race, as Kadri was pretty good today, but way too far behind when the action started.
Kreder saving the race a bit for us, but hope we can get a result on the last stage as well, as ~6 PpRD is not really the level we want to be at.
Meanwhile, Gautier shows that he belongs on a higher level then CT - reckon he will have a good chance of winning the Individual Rankings if he has a few more races like this. And great team effort from Generali as well!
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| matt17br |
Posted on 24-08-2018 10:25
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Wow. What a team effort indeed, that was beautiful to watch (and of course this means a big additional point haul as well!). I love how aggressive my team rode and I really enjoy seeing Ulissi always be in first line when it comes to attacking, but yeah, I wish his sprint stat was useful. Oh well, I'm numb to him losing sprints against much slower riders by now anyway, and I'm glad this was against Gautier that was ahead of him in the GC already (and also doesn't ride for a direct contender in our division!).
Huge congrats to Atlantius, this is massive for CT for sure and makes me regret not having Valio #1 in the preseason prediction. Still, a huge race for us too (if punctures grace us in tonight's short breakaway favourite) and this should still mean a point total around the 150 mark, which is a big improvement compared to last year's horrible luck. Hopefully this doesn't mean that my hilly squad won't demand huge raises next off-season, most of my riders here besides Ulissi are either on 50k or close to!
Thanks for the exciting report roturn, loved it.
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 24-08-2018 11:38
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Sykkel_Freak wrote:
Meanwhile, Gautier shows that he belongs on a higher level then CT - reckon he will have a good chance of winning the Individual Rankings if he has a few more races like this. And great team effort from Generali as well!
Well if he had proven that inconclusively last season he would still be riding on a higher level than CT
Thanks for all the congratulations everyone btw.
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 24-08-2018 11:44
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At least Anderson joined a break, that counts for something right?
While I do realize that I haven't brought out the A-Team to this race leaving 0 points is not fun, gotta admit that.
Gratz to Atlantius, quite the race thet Gautier is having.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 24-08-2018 12:54
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Valio deserves this GC win, if only for the amazing looking equipment!
Ewan could still jump on the podium which would make for a great season start for Podium Ambition, while simultaneously already rendering the rest of the year irrelevant.
Lander couldn't quite keep his GC position, but then again that wasn't to be expected pre-race.
matt17br wrote:
Hopefully this doesn't mean that my hilly squad won't demand huge raises next off-season, most of my riders here besides Ulissi are either on 50k or close to!
I love the way you're thinking. Also congrats for those tactics!
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| viking90 |
Posted on 24-08-2018 13:11
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WTF Bystrom, where did that came from?!?! 
Congrats Aquarius97
Huge race for Valio, congrats Atlantius |
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