Thanks for the preview SN. I expect another break winning (late one most likely), but if it comes down to sprint of the strong man, i can see it as VSbeast, Holloway battle.
I hope Nolan Hoffman can finish in top10, maybe in top5 if he will benefit from his strong secondary stats and ability to navigate through chaotic sprinting preparations in tougher sprint races. Grosu is our wildcard
Lets aim to keep our attacking streak going, looking for 11 consecutive days with an attack and hopefully 10 of 11 breakaway days for the season. Zero expectation on Chicchi and i'd be shocked if he broke the Top30, and happy if he broke the Top50. Picked this race to fill up the calendar so i'm not bothered at all.
It will be interesting to see whether the stronger teams in the PCT can guarantee a sprint in what has proved in the past to be a really difficult race to control. TdU in general the sprints arrived quite regularly.
GVA + MVS really is a tough potential sprint pair from Venchi it will be fascinating to see whether the likes of Ciolek, Nappy and Vantomme can do MvS for pace.
AMEXpc, after a mediocre outing in the Tour Down Under and a totally expected zero point effort at the Veulta al Trachira, should be in position to place two riders in the points in China.
American sprinter Luke Keough (Hl/64, SP/78) should have better legs after the hills than some of the speed demons. Newly signed Marko Kump (Hl/75, SP/77) seems to be under the radar of the media.
AMEX thinks Kump can be a serious threat for a podium finish and a top 10 for sure. Keough should be in the top 20 and maybe even higher if the race conditions set up make it hard for the sprinters.
========================================= Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
Hopefully docker's hill stat really helps with this race the two times I've seen it in the past I just didn't fancy Vanderbiest at all (remember Haddou dying on the hill in C2.
Can't believe Haussler isn't here and i think Gavezzi could be the surprise.
More importantly hope we get in the break as were only 18th on the team list that could happen.
This is a very open and unpredictable race, I think. I hope the team is able to control the race for Van Stayen towards the end. If they can, I think he has a very good chance of winning.
This is really going to be annoying if it keeps like this I called it right in planning that it was going to be hard brought the right riders in Houle and Docker and then Docker doesn't sprint at least Houle did
This might happen on a course like this when most sprinters are tired and those sprinters, who shouldn`t, have tired out their teammates.
Had hoped to see this one here end in a sprint finish, but Gazelle probably destroyed all chances with their move and got a bit rewarded with the podium at least.
Feel sorry for Hornbach a bit as one of their best riders in Gavazzi horribly underperforming so far this season.
Yes I agree with bballlurver - insane amount of breaks the sprinters are getting nothing.
Eddie stobart are just having an awesome time, a sensational win there. Proves again that this classic is a very tough one to control and or this is going to be one unpredictable year.
Well what a surprise ...
I'm a little disappointed with my team, still 15th in view of the manner in which the race is not bad.
This leaves my team with an average of 19.5 pts / race day
Sutty is really riding the wave right now! It was a close run race on a tough course. It was never clear cut as a sprint finish and they really capitalised on that fact.
However, to see such a serious startlist unable to close it off was a shame. I am trying to stick up for PCM13 and will do so again. It was a hillier route as evidenced by the number of sprinters being dropped, and that was going to favor a breakaway. But if this sort of breakaway is going to consistently appear we could see a long frustrating season.
Speaking of frustration, Boeing! We lost our 100% attack record in the worst performance we've ever had, i think. I have no expectations of Chicchi at all but this was below even that. Yates as best rider in 72nd is sad, and having every single rider dropped is also very very bad. Tachira, as i feared, looks to be a one off and this is gonna be a long long season.
Well this race was the one you could expect to end in a breakaway win the most of all races where it happened so far this season, but that doesn't change the fact that it's kinda annoying by now.
I don't know whether to be happy to at least get 3 points out of this race in contrary to Van Stayen or Kump or to be horribly disappointed that we did a leadout in the only situation where you shouldn't:
when your sprinter lacks the energy to keep it up until the line and everyone else saves some more energy behind...
Horrible race for some big teams... and also for Oz.. definitely had hoped for more than a 23rd place, especially as some other teams without any favorites scored big time.
daaah, working so much and ending up with only 10th place gaining points. Why couldn´t Kreder, Ahlstrand or Klostergaard hang on to a top 25 to get some more needed points.
Well atleast we are where the action is compared to Down Under where we were invisible...
It was a nice report SportingNonsense, thanks!
Edited by viking90 on 22-04-2014 21:32
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
at least Houle did 
.
