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Tour de France Discussion
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 24-05-2020 11:53
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World Champion
Posts: 13915
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Great tactics by Dombrowski. Chase until you get dropped 
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| ember |
Posted on 24-05-2020 11:53
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Team Leader
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Thank you for keeping the pace and the top quality, cunego59!
Galta proves me wrong!  Didn't believe he had such a performance in him going head to head and even beating similar and a couple of stronger GC riders, at least on paper. Great stage by him!
Really hope he can continue what he just started, as his current 9th overall is unlikely to give him any room or chance to join breakaways. Moving forward, that means we'll depend on luck, Grieg and Gazelle to see not dangerous riders form the breakaway, but if that succeeds for us, I suspect it will be pure luck 
Dominant ride by Madrazo, he's now the man to beat regarding the yellow jersey, as it's difficult to see anyone even challenge him if he continues this way. Congratulations on the stage win, DD! |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 24-05-2020 12:58
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2633
Joined: 20-04-2008
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YES  Thanks
This is exactly the stage I hoped to see. Our climbing support squad together with the teams of other favorites and especially Gried did a great job to reel in such a strong breakaway. This chase is also what made the stage selective and isolated all leaders.
Then Denifl's attack came as a godsend and was the perfect springboard for Madrazo, who is often reluctant to be the first to attack. Once Madrazo was alone and could pretend like he was riding a mountain TT, I knew he had a great chance of winning. He's definitely strongest when he can ride his own consistent tempo.
Phinney's chase was very strong though, dropping superior climbers left and right. The yellow clearly gave him extra morale. Impressive that he managed to keep it. Looking forward to a duel with him the coming days.
Relieved Sicard is less of a threat now. His constant attacking was scary as hell and it took our entire team to keep him at bay. Looks like all those efforts finally caught up with him. Today was very hard on our helpers though, so I hope they don't fall apart in the coming crucial stages.
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| Yellow Jersey |
Posted on 24-05-2020 14:27
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2809
Joined: 16-04-2013
PCM$: 900.00
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Oh Machado it's good to see breakaway intentions but here wasn't the ideal place, still losses weren't big and it's a good sign, more to come hopefully.
Congratz Gazelle and thanks cunego for all the reports!
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 24-05-2020 16:56
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 29989
Joined: 20-10-2006
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Well, that was ... horrible. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 24-05-2020 18:39
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World Champion
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Sicard finally paying the price for his aggressiveness. Phinney is just beastie. Normally I would say that Lecuisinier is a better climber, but the low physical traits of Phinney seems to do nothing.
For us, the team effort was good. My three best climbing domestiques got in the breakaway in order to play a part late in the race, which was brilliant, and Lecuisinier in 5th is OK. Could have hoped for a bit more, especially seeing Denifl there. Still we move closer to a better GC, and that is what we have to keep doing...
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 25-05-2020 02:44
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2666
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Another great report and with 4 riders in the break and 5 riders in the top-40 I can't complain!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 25-05-2020 09:08
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2889
Joined: 11-09-2010
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Kind of a worst case scenario that. Good job by Phinney to get back, but I feared he was going to pay for his effort when he accelerated again and did much work. Not the same smart riding as yesterday, when he used his other rivals wisely. Poor day by our domestiques as well. We'll just have to hope the team will use the next two stages to regain some strength, because otherwise the podium might also get difficult.
Madrazo with another win and a dominant lead now. Can't see him losing this now.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 10:49
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| roturn |
Posted on 25-05-2020 09:33
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Team Manager
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Velits still going for it is nice to see. Losing 2min in the end surely coming from the effort the day before.
Still gaining on direct rivals this way but hopefully not going to crack fully later on. So maybe tomorrow a day rest of attacking or if going, then alongside Dekker who works for him? Being 5th in the KoM now at least should see him going for the breaks again.
GC wise Madrazo seems too strong for the rest. Phinney now had to pay for his yellow jersey effort. Instead the expected Dombrowski/Machado with Madrazo and Lecuisinier/Phinney/Denifl fighting for the top5 spots then.
The only huge rider totally underperforming is Schleck here, which is a pity after all his recent GC runs and might be impacted a lot by his unlucky puncture earlier.
Alarcon always a weird rider, who I still expect to go rant attack later. |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 25-05-2020 09:56
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World Champion
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A shame Velits cracked a little but another great ride - as roturn says above hopefully he recovers well ahead of the Alps, 10th on GC and top 5 KoM at this point looks really cool!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| SotD |
Posted on 25-05-2020 10:20
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
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Another 5th place here from Lecuisinier and climbing to 6th in the GC.
A bit annoying that I can't seem to break Denifl, who really shouldn't be at the level of Lecuisinier despite having +1MO. I can accept that Morton and Dombrowski is slightly better, as their physical traits are not much worse than Lecuisinier.
Sicard losing another 40-odd seconds is nice, although his aggressive riding could see him gain a lot of time at one point.
Taylor Phinney losing a minute to Lecuisinier is really nice as it potentially opens a new opportunity, although the time difference is probably too big to salvage. 3 minutes is really a lot and just two mountaintop finishes isn't enough, as the hilly stage aswell as the downhill finish will likely see Sicard and Phinney gain on Lecuisinier.
I need him to have a really good day in order to climb further in the GC. 5th would be OK, while I obviously would like to see him score higher. 5th places on stages and in the GC doesn't really help him score big points here.
Vlatos out is OK, Stauff continues for another stage, and with a big portion of luck he can survive tomorrows stage to contest the sprint, but we are probably going to see a breakaway win it.
Both Vuillermoz and Cataldo are still in top 50. It would be nice to see them achieve that, while Ioannidis in top 100 is a nice little additional bonus.
We don't seem to get lucky with breakaways though, as we now move into a phase where the breakaway competants are just much stronger.
Vuillermoz might be a good rider to send up the road on stage 17 though.
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| knockout |
Posted on 25-05-2020 10:49
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Grand Tour Champion
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So damn close. What a thriller this was and Lopez looks the strongest he ever had looked. What a brilliant day - dominating the chase against such strong climbing rivals and claiming lots and lots of KoM points along the way!
He is now in a fine position in GC, KoM and U25 and the mext two stages should be fairly relaxing for him, hopefully enough to let him recover from what was surely a massive effort. Stages 18-20 are where the KoM points are on stake and where the chances for a jump in GC might be possible if a break survives.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Yellow Jersey |
Posted on 25-05-2020 13:02
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Classics Specialist
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One mor day Machado, one more day! Today was very close, even a great day for the GC, but a win will come 
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 25-05-2020 13:10
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2633
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Thrilling stage! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time; exceptional work cunego!
Nice team tactics again to blow the peloton up on the penultimate climb, this time even with some help from Madrazo himself. This guaranteed that the entire final climb would be a battle of the favorites. It also brought them within reach of the break.
Halfway up the climb my man Denifl threw the wick into the powder keg again and at exactly the right moment because he caught Phinney napping. At that point I was thinking "IT'S HAPPENING".
But then came that sinking stomach feeling when the yellow jersey closed the gap like it was nothing and accelerated past everyone.
Luckily this turned out to be a bluff and right when the favorites honed in on the last escapees he had to let go. That was a huge moment, because until then I was still very worried the yellow might keep pushing the American beyond his limits all the way to Paris.
Now it's up to us to defend. I know we're up to that task on paper, but I still consider this far from over. There's more than a thousand kilometers in front of us and anything can happen in the final week of a Tour de France.
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 25-05-2020 14:23
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Classics Specialist
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Good day at the office i would say, we closed the gap to the top 10 and overall a solid performance so far, Hacecky looks like hes even struggling to stay in the breakaway. But at least we're putting the pressure on with our limited ressources and not just sitting back and waiting for events to happen
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 25-05-2020 14:27
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World Champion
Posts: 13915
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That's more like it. Come on, Joe!
Too bad we won't be joining any breakaways though. The next two stages have breakaway written all over them.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 25-05-2020 15:10
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World Champion
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This is getting very bullshitty now. So far from how these stages normally play out in the game.
I bet the only breakaway victories in the final week will be tomorrow and Wednesday, and bye jersey.
We need to do everything humanly possible to avoid that. And if this were a real race, we'd succeed. But AI Puma probably doesn't realize the imminent danger and throws tomorrow away.
If we somehow DON'T, it's gotta be a Top 2 finish. We have the best sprinter and the best leadout after these hard stages.
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| ember |
Posted on 25-05-2020 15:12
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Team Leader
Posts: 6849
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Big win by Madrazo! Congratulations again, DD
Difficult to see him loose this race from here, he has been super convincing in the mountains here.
That was a very bad stage for us, I must say. Did fear such stages and GC placings going into the race, but it's a pity to see Galta's great first two weeks kind of go down the drain with that performance. Now we definitely need to go on the attack with Galta and others in the mountains. That was expected pre-race to complete the top 10 goal, and hopefully he does just that when we hit the mountains again. |
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 25-05-2020 15:34
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Directeur Sportif
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Been following the TDF more closely than I do most PT races since it is the TDF. Have to say awesome work from Cunego (you going to run a team next year?).
I thought the image below was a perfectly composed screen shot and a a testament to the beauty of the graphics in the game. If you haven't looked at it full size you should.
There is really nothing that looks "wrong" about it - the bikes and riders are all perfectly captured, the shadows look real, you can see thinking for each of the 3 groups of riders. I have bashed Cyanide for the AI but I have to give them credit for creating a game that can be truly beautiful that is capable of capturing the romance of the sport.
Ok that is my philosophical post for the year. On a more practical level I also like this image because it shows Denifil and my personal favorite PT team, Spar, making the race once again.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 25-05-2020 15:50
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Tour de France Champion
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Bad day for Phinney is a bad day for the team, and a bad day for Eg. Gotta get back to it quickly here.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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