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Tour de France Discussion
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| knockout |
Posted on 26-03-2023 10:31
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Grand Tour Champion
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Vosekalns doesnt seem to have the legs here anymore and the rest of the team shouldnt be good enough for the next stage either with better riders joining the breaks. So our final hope is that Thijssen can surprise once more on the champs elyssee
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 26-03-2023 10:36
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World Champion
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Shame Beltran didn't go for it again today but a huge Pogacar day instead!
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 26-03-2023 12:04
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World Champion
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Not too shabby. No points, but Chiarello pretty close to a step up or two if he Can take advantage of the last mountainstage. Still more of a Dream than a realistic target though. Giannoutsos jumping back into top 25. I guess there’s nothing else to do but to keep trying and hoping for him to some day hit a good break.
Nsengimana with a good Stage to come close to securing a top 100. All points count at this point.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 26-03-2023 12:15
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Directeur Sportif
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Shit. Our breakaway climbers seemingly on -5 days today. But you can be screwed over worse by the AI, just looking at what Moser does. What a shambolic stage. Great ride by Latour though, loving his determination paying off.
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 26-03-2023 15:05
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2641
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Eh Wellens take it easy he!
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| Roman |
Posted on 26-03-2023 15:29
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Did not expect much, but this is just ridiculous. Just how stupid is the AI for my team. Such a disappointing race by all Hirt, Warchol, Swift. Team classification win would still be decent as I probably never won that competition in a GT, but i expected a lot more. The highlight of the race for me probably is a decent breakaway attempt of Seboka which ended up pretty badly... Well looks like this season is going to be a pretty great relegation struggle.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 20-09-2024 06:42
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| roturn |
Posted on 26-03-2023 18:37
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Team Manager
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Wellens really was impressive here. A pity that Latour was given too much room before.
In the end a great stage for me, 2nd finally giving a few stage points as well plus moving up in the GC.
Unfortunately he lost a bit earlier as performances like today could have seen him closer to the podium fight. |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 26-03-2023 19:24
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World Champion
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Congrats to Polar and Aegon ahead! Well played.
Sucks to see such a small gap to Wellens ballon to a minute by the end, if Herklotz had managed to close that gap, it would've been an even better stage. Stork did very well here.
Let's do this one more time!
The ways to still lose this become less and less, but they're never zero.
Luz Ardiden is long, but not crazy steep. The route leading up to it is very hard and I hope at least one of Stork or Madouas will make the cut again to provide support.
It seems like the method of letting second-tier climbers get away early isn't susceptible to significant time loss, so maybe it's a valid strategy for tomorrow. Still I'd prefer not letting any gap threaten the overall victory, but if Herklotz isn't on his greatest day and can't close every gap, I'm confident he knows his limits and does whatever is necessary.
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| Bikex |
Posted on 27-03-2023 00:04
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Team Leader
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I’m pleased to read that the managers of mighty Isostar and Puma consider my team a threat in the rankings. I don’t think it’s a realistic assessment but I enjoy making them nervous. 
The last few stages did go quite well for my team. It was great to see the leadout with Ferreira and Darbinyan working so well and of course Hsu finishing it off. Then, Roglic in the last two stages was amazing. I’m happy he still could deliver a big win for King Power in his possibly last race. He came close multiple times already. After wearing yellow for a few days last year it’s again the tour where he performs the strongest. It’s not the year for the breaks this year with plenty of teams helping Puma with the pacemaking work. Phodingam and Smith already had strong days in breaks that didn’t make it, so it’s good to see Roglic finishing one successfully. Looking forward to the last two stages. Smith should have some energy left to do something in the last mountain stage I hope. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 27-03-2023 09:28
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World Champion
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Oh come on Herklotz, you could have given that one to Chiarello! 
Great great stage, and absolutely brilliant stuff from Chiarello. It was exactly what I had dreamt of, and the report made me go through all kinds of emotions, from "Oh no, that's too soon" to "Oh man he's going fast, maybe he can latch on to Hart and fight for it", to "Nah, they are already attacking from behind" to "He's really flying though, and it doesn't seem like the favorites take it too seriously"...
Moving up to 8th in the GC is brilliant and just adds that the Vuelta result wasn't a fluke at all. Getting a 2nd and 3rd place on stages is as good as a stagewin, so while it doesn't taste quite as good, we do come away with some brilliant points, when we also add the stagewin of Miltiadis and 2nd place from Bouglas - who can hopefully add a few more points tomorrow. Giannoutsos found the level I expected before the race around 25th, and while he attacked numerous times, I need to re-think how I train him to be the most practical rider in the future. I messed up when picking Stage Racer for too long - It would have been better to have some better HI and ACC in terms of training him to mimic Chiarello in the future.
Congrats on the dominant Herklotz win cio! And thanks for brilliant reporting so far - It must have taken AGES to create so much content. It's deeply appreciated, despite not saying it everyday like I should.
Really close from 3rd to 6th here, Sivakov should be happiest with the result I think with Hirt and Godoy in the other end of the spectrum. They should have gotten more out of this race for sure.
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| redordead |
Posted on 27-03-2023 09:33
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That has to be one of the most uninspiring performances to secure the polka dots jersey. Leave it to 2022 Beltran for something like that 
On a more serious note. I wanted one big moment from this race and winning the KOM accomplishes that, even if it was a very frustrating way to get here. I always thought Beltran had a decent chance with his MO-HI combo, but his own riding as well as the riding of Pogacar made the job unnecessarily difficult.
Looks like the 'infighting' can finally stop now 
Zariff somehow made it through all the mountain stages. We'll see if he can manage a sprint. but it's something to look forward to on the final stage in Paris
"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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| hillis91 |
Posted on 27-03-2023 09:39
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We folded big time on the last day here, that hurts.
Losing the KOM in that fashion, sucks, but nice to see Arensman trying hard since week 2. It simply was not ment to be.
Congrats to all the winners of standings and stages.
Silvio is in a leauge of his own! haha
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| knockout |
Posted on 27-03-2023 09:46
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Grand Tour Champion
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Didnt have any hopes for my own team anymore and not making any attempts to be active fits into that well. So I'm choosing to celebrate another big week 3 ride by Chiarello instead and also seeing Beltran win the KoM is pretty cool.
Another huge report. Thanks so much!
Congrats cio!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| ember |
Posted on 27-03-2023 09:49
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Thank you for another massive report on a mountain stage, cunego! I second SotD, it must have taken a lot of time to create them, and they are really, really great. This one definitely up there, with all the action there was, both among the favourites and others.
Not a Tour for the breakaways, confirmed! Nice to have Foss try, he couldn’t do more, simply facing better riders. A little disappointed neither Preidler or Amezawa tried their luck in the breakaway, as they would have suited the profile the riders up front had. For the teams classification, we really had no chance when the stage played out this way. Second place there is good, though, and some nice extra points.
Must say I’m surprised Dainese is our star rider of this Tour, eventhough it’s super cool. Just like the report wrote, it takes a Champs-Elysees win to claim green. It feels very unlikely, but fingers crossed he’s in a position to give it a try when the sprint launches. |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 27-03-2023 10:53
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Good to see Majka making himself seen in his last GT mountain stage. Nothing really going our way in this Tour in the mountains though.
Hopefully Van Poppel can gain a couple of place in the green classification in the last stage.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 27-03-2023 11:46
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Some frustrating days for the Los Pollos fans. Munoz only going in the break once in the entire TDF is a shame, definitely when he almost immediately starts dropping and finishes outside of top-50 in the GC. A shame to see Arensman losing the polka-dots after his hard fought battle, but understandable that a rider like Beltran gets the best of him in the end. Big win for Herklotz, winning two TDF just a couple of months apart isn't for everyone
Thanks for the fabulous reports, cunego. Let's end with a Finnish bang tomorrow
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| cio93 |
Posted on 27-03-2023 11:59
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World Champion
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Bring it home, Silvio.
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| Roman |
Posted on 27-03-2023 12:31
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These reports are just fantastic, thanks a lot cunego!
Finally some sort of nice agressive racing, only too bad the reward is pretty small. Still nice effort by both Warchol and Hirt. They better let Seboka raise up that team trophy though.
Congrats, Cio. There really is only one Silvio Herklotz, just impossible to beat for years to come.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 27-03-2023 12:45
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Directeur Sportif
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Stellar ride by Tao even if proving unfruitful at the very end, but today he proved to be strong. At the end his Tour palmares doesn't look the way we hoped it would look, but we've been riding the way we wanted in the last week. Great report, just a shame how hungry the peloton (and Silvio) was.
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| Bikex |
Posted on 27-03-2023 22:22
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Good to see both Smith and Roglic trying even if it wasn’t crowned with any success in the end. Now let’s go Hsu on the final stage! |
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