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Tour of Qatar Discussion
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:19
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Grand Tour Champion
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Jesus, not one rider in the front group. Not one in 82.
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| Heine |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:21
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Your team is doomed Wacko :-p
Well done by Degenkolb, deserved win for Pokerstars, I feel we've seen them split the field here in Qatar before
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| jph27 |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:23
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Team Leader
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Can't see Vanderbiest gaining 12 seconds on Degenkolb with only 74PRL vs 67PRL. Still, 4th looks secure barring an absolute disaster. Shame all our team except Kadri - the weakest TTer - got dropped, but Bouet and Bret would have been fighting for minor places anyway. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:24
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Directeur Sportif
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Goss 
11th in GC and points.. three horrible stages in a row.. missing the Top-10 here definitely hurts and here went the promotion-extra-motivation. Wouldn't be surprised if my TTlers now f**k up the epilogue as well. Not much left, that could save this race from being a disappointing showing from Oz.
Nuff crying: thanks for the reports. Kinda shocking last stage here. I was close to close my browser when noticing Goss in one of those groups behind.
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| roturn |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:27
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Team Manager
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It was nice to finally see one of my riders in a screenshot. Unfortunately it was when he got dropped. 
Not very nice to see no gaps in the end. Would have prefered having no rider in front instead of now having 5 in top82 group.
Deserved win for Pokerstars with this lineup.
Now the TT will have to bring the decision. And who knows. With a good daily form Keizer might win or podium. |
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| Selwink |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:28
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Finally some more entertainment. Too bad there weren't more gaps, but it's nice to see Pokerstars being able to pick up a win with that insane sprint team.
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:28
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World Champion
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Nice report of an eventful stage. I was at first happy when i saw Zmorka is distancing some sprinters in the 3rd group but then it all came back into one big group and that is most likely good outcome for us. Zmorka is now wwithin striking distance to some top15 in GC and could be in battle with Zabel, Coquard and Durbridge for white jersey.
Congrats to Pokerstars, finally they made the stage look like the typical Qatar one.
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 11-06-2015 09:36
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:36
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Well that was a fun final road stage!
Great to see 5 riders make the split. Gastauer proving to be worth the selection here - no hills in sight, but he had 6 race days spare and has been quite useful here. Though him and Harrison sitting up on Stage 4 is still mystifying, and a real pity for Harrison who could have had a handy GC spot.
But without Kittel, Jungels or Porte in the group I was pleased to see we did not contribute to keeping the gap going - particularly as it led to 4 riders finishing in the Top 8 
Deserved stage win for Pokerstars with Degenkolb, and particularly useful for us as it limited the gains of Bewley. Swift beat Bewley in the TT last year so it looks very good now for the GC.
And the riders with time bonuses group reduces from 30 to 18 - with some of those 18 only gaining bonuses for the first time today. Makes it easier for the TTers to gain some GC places, which should help me - and perhaps Van der Lijke can hold off some of them too.
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:40
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2282
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Finally one stage like The Qatar we remember. Awesome riding by Pokerstars, expected to see them in action earlier this race tbh. Shame noone else Had the same interest as them in the end, well, atleast they got the stage win and degen jumped a few places in GC.
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| ember |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:58
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Team Leader
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Great to see Pokerstars getting what they deserved on that stage, well done to Degenkolb, congrats, beagle!
Also nice to finally see some echelons and proper Qatar racing.
Good to have Breen in the breakaway, even though I suspect those four seconds won't have a huge impact thinking of a nice GC placing. It will be interesting to see how many places Kristoff drops. A top 20 looks tough, and he'll most likely need to settle for a top 25-30. At least he has participated in all sprints except this final one, which is nice to see, and we couldn't really ask for more.
Swift looking good for the GC as well now, as I can't see Bewley take nine seconds on him over 3500 meters. |
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| beagle |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:59
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Thanks guys for congratulations, really appreciate 
First stage I won' t complain about. Surprisingly there is still good chance to finish on podium, which was one pf our goals.
Without any time gaps given, Degenkolb remains our only scorer here, which is very disappointing. What a wasting of race days for Mohs or Stauff.
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 14:45
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| SotD |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:00
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Okay, so this was fucking amazing!
Bryan Coquard getting some bonus seconds is so important, and with his 77 Prologue stat he might actually be able to stay inside the top 15. Tzortzakis will likely be caught by a lot of riders. He only have 23 seconds to the TT specialists, and everyone behind him is better at prologues I think.
Coppel is placed in 21st, and I think he actually have a shot at getting close to the top 10. He will catch those riders 10 seconds ahead I think, and Tzortzakis will likely lose 30 seconds to him aswell. Then he will be 11th. I hope he can get 2 seconds on Cancellara, so he won't end up behind him because of 1 bonus second.
Besides that I guess I will have another 3 riders inside the top 50, as I have Vlatos (79TT), Bernaudeau (78TT) and Paillot (78TT) also in the s.t. as Coppel.
Two riders close to the top 10 and another 4 riders in top 30 would be a very pleasing result.
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| Kami |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:38
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Not too bad of a stage for us. Viviani & Yatsevich both made the front group. We'll see how it plays out in the prologue. I think we should atleast be able to get a top 20-30.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 11-06-2015 11:12
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Yeah a real exciting stage that one. Was hopeful at one stage for a real attritional one, but unfortunately Fab decided to just sit there rather than lend to hand to the awesome Pokerstars squad. It probably goes with his long standing hatred of team bogie green.
Still nabbing a bonus second could be handy at the end there.
Edmondson has done a brilliant job as pilot fish for Fab, it could be his defining achievement on what is likely to be a long year of water bottle duty for him.
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 11-06-2015 11:31
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Finally a windy stage!And Degenkolb was really strong finally
Swift has the GC in bag. |
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 11-06-2015 12:18
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First 25 bonus seconds now a Prologue (an individual time trial of usually less than 8 km before a stage race, used to determine which rider wears the leader's jersey on the first stage)?
Let's hope PCM14 sees it as a short ITT; Vorobev PR 78, TT 79!
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 11-06-2015 12:38
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World Champion
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In PCM the time trials under certain amount of kilometres are always prologues. Of course it sucks to have it name like that, as it should rather be an epilogue.
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| Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 11-06-2015 13:44
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We have been at the front the whole race, but when we finally get echelons, we don't pay attention. A bit frustrating, but luckily the first group was caught, so that Van Stayen didn't lose any time.
Nice win for Degenkolb, who now obviously is out of reach for Van Stayen. The TT will be all about defending the 6th place, which I think is doable. The main threat should be Lo Cicero, who is 20 seconds behind.
My other riders should drop back a bit I think, except for Howson who maybe can grab a top 35.
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| Roman |
Posted on 11-06-2015 13:59
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Really disappointing stage for us again. What a waste of race days for Howard. Sergent did absolutely nothing as well. Bewley's 2nd on stage and overall as well is a good result, but I really could send here Bewley + the worst support team ever for him, it probably would not change Bewley's results. Especially the stage 5 was so big oppurtunity for my team to help Pokerstars to crush the peloton...
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 11-06-2015 14:35
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7681
Joined: 19-02-2008
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Heine wrote:
Your team is doomed Wacko :-p
But I reckon we'll have a great squad for PCT.
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