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Giro d'Italia Discussion
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| SotD |
Posted on 29-12-2025 08:48
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World Champion

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Amazing to finally see Giannoutsos be among those riders getting a shot at it, and then finish it off aswell. The most likely situation is for him to drop out of the top 10 tomorrow though.
Too bad the rest of the team took a day off. A huge amount of points (for us) was lost there.
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 29-12-2025 09:52
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World Champion

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Pretty perfect stage from Champoussin. The only thing that would have made it better would have been another stage win, but let's not get too greedy.
I usually root for the underdogs, but given how this one played out, I really hope Kudus can get there in the end.
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| roturn |
Posted on 29-12-2025 10:28
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Team Manager

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Being not at home at the moment and harder to follow.
A bit disappointed that after some active early days, my riders totally ignore racing since half time. Having 4 options for breaks inclusive a perfect fit in Wellens in 16th spot, it's tough to see no attacks anymore with the break regularly going for the win and climbing past my guys as well.
Not scoring a lot this way and definitely must be better in other GTs. |
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 29-12-2025 12:02
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Grand Tour Specialist

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I definitely would not want to have a rider in the GC top-5 here going into the last mountain stage. It’s so so close, and every stage has varied wildly with the top guys. Kudus was out of it in week 2 and Bernal was dominating before he had a few rough days, he’s gotten himself back into a good position and would have gone close to wearing pink today if he didn’t drop at the end. Good luck to all involved!
Stüssi continually being overtaken by break riders. It’d be nice if he actually gave it a shot tomorrow, not like he has anything to lose. Congrats on a strong win SotD, and thanks for the report!
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 29-12-2025 12:37
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Small Tour Specialist

Posts: 2000
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This is stressful. I'm not a fan of how the AI is handling GTs in this version of the game. Kudus somehow is in good position going into the last mountain stage but we'll see how it goes.
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| ember |
Posted on 29-12-2025 13:27
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Team Leader

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Perfect try by Williams! Being not strong enough is fair, but very happy to see him try. A 4th place is good.
Thank you for the report, kb. Well covered, giving us everything both from the breakaway and the group of favourites. Now though, the final decider for the GC! |
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 29-12-2025 14:30
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Classics Specialist

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Seems like Barguil is cooked, congrats to Alex on the KoM dub!
This podium battle in the GC tomorrow is going to be absolutely incredible to follow! Thanks for the reports!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 29-12-2025 17:47
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Tour de France Champion

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Unfortunately, just an insanely anonymous race for us. Unless Carthy goes into a successful break tomorrow, it will have to be considered a failure.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 28-01-2026 11:52
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 29-12-2025 19:40
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Classics Specialist

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The last mountain stage looks crazy, basically 130km of climbing. Good luck to everyone, really hope we can keep the team ranking until the end. Stellar reports by the way, thanks a lot!
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| Bikex |
Posted on 29-12-2025 22:10
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Team Leader

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McNulty looks very good in pink. Unfortunately there’s one more tough mountain stage and he lost more time than I would’ve hoped in this one already. I hope McNulty will put up a fight and please just doesn’t start to chase the break by himself like Bernal did a few stages ago. |
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 30-12-2025 05:02
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Directeur Sportif

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One last chance to do something. GC battle is wild though!
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| SotD |
Posted on 30-12-2025 08:39
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World Champion

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Only dropping 1 spot here is better than I could have asked for here, despite having a couple of riders ahead that I would have liked to be beating. A couple of riders behind could have gotten better GC’s though.
The top 6 seems about right by now, but it haven’t been a very pretty route to correct itself.
GC wise I would have liked riders like Karatsivis and Christakos to do significantly better. I would also have expected to see Vine much more active, but it seems like much better climbers are needed for breakaway succes in this version. Not sure having him as a GT Leader later on is a good decision. Probably would have made more sense to keep Mavrikakis.
Cool to see Aular doing a classic real life climber-thingy where he decides to sit up to gain enough time to do a monster break and win the stage. To see him also end up about where to expect GC wise is great.
Others were not so fortunate, with Carthy being the most Obviously victim. In all fairness he did overachieve in the past though, so overall he’s still a great GT story.
Rybalkin have been consistently WAY overperforming here, which is weird to see.
Edited by SotD on 30-12-2025 08:45
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| Bikex |
Posted on 30-12-2025 08:44
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Team Leader

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Oof dropping off the podium is tough but to be honest not all that much surprising. It was just one tough mountain stage too many |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-12-2025 10:09
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World Champion

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Champoussin must have had a terrible day. Going into the breakaway and dropping so early, not getting any KoM points. But luckily for us, Barguil wasn't feeling much better either and it was virtually impossible for Kirsch to get it.
Too bad he couldn't get a good stage placing today as it could have set him up for a top 10 in the points rankings as well. Well, he could still get it, depending on how the sprint unfolds tomorrow.
I know I said stage wins and KoM was the goal here, which we achieved, but being in the top 10 before the last big stage and then dropping four places feels like a disappointment.
Sucks for McNulty to not even get a podium after leading into the final decisive stage, but all the riders above him are somewhat expected to be better than him.
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| ryant |
Posted on 30-12-2025 13:22
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Small Tour Specialist

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Well we finish about as poorly as we would have liked and now this race is pretty much "relegation confirmed" tiers of bad if not for Kemboi grabbing two stages and currently 2nd in the SC... We'd need another stage win tomorrow to have a shot of first there so we're not counting on it.
6th for Morton is about as worse as it could have got in an admittedly strong field but losing the race on the first selective stage and horrifically at that means Morton will struggle to score 1000pts for the season which is quite a drop off regardless of last season's overperformance.
Congrats to Kudus for winning dominantly however and the GC race while seemingly on the back burner for much of the race does get the "right" winner in the end!
John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25
Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 30-12-2025 13:55
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Directeur Sportif

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Congrats to Nemo and UBS. A very messy race but in the end the strongest climber wins. Aular redeems a poor race with a nice stage win. It does seem like going in the break caught up with guys on later stages which seems right.
I am pretty sure Bikex would have welcomed fourth with open arms before the race so it has to be considered success overall for McNulty - one tough stage too many. He won a stage in the Giro before so seems to like Italy.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 30-12-2025 13:57
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Small Tour Specialist

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I don't know how to feel about this one. On the one hand, I'm happy to take the win and check off our biggest goal of the season, but at the same time this was a race without highlights for us and I feel that Kudus left a lot of points on the table as we walk away with no stage wins. Balmer taking the best young rider is a nice consolation prize I suppose. The impression I'm walking away with is that the real excitement took place in the breakaways that won nearly every day while the GC battle grinded away in the background. As others identified, I don't think MG teams are strong enough to control races in Grand tours in this version of the game. It will be interesting to see how the Tour and Vuelta play out. Either way, thanks for an amazing job of reporting KB! And fingers crossed for no major surprises in the last stage here
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 30-12-2025 14:53
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Tour de France Champion

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I guess we gave up. GC fight is nice though!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| knockout |
Posted on 30-12-2025 14:54
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Grand Tour Champion

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So looks like Foss is finishing 7th which is a great result as "best of the rest". Very happy about that even when i dislike the anonymous riding by the rest of the team
Cool to Kudus claiming pink now. Very interesting fight at the top and while the end result looks somewhat expected, the path towards it was wild
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 30-12-2025 15:08
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Tour de France Champion

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Really awful race by Carthy honestly. At least in terms of actual MG scoring. I kept waiting for something to happen and remain positive, but he just never delivered. Just as we feared, he sat around doing nothing and kept letting breakaway riders leapfrog him on GC until he ultimately ends up just outside the top 10, with no stage results or other classifications. These random attacks on the final climb don't do anything in this version. Just constant wastes of energy. Sucks to see guys like Foss, Darbellay, Giannoutsos all ahead in the end just because the game chose them to make a breakaway along the way, unlike Carthy. But I guess this is payback for all our/his luck in the final week last year. Hopefully it doesn't cost us in the relegation fight.
Congrats to Bushwackers and thanks for the great reports! Objectively an excitign and chaotic Giro outside my team's anonymity.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
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