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Tour de France Discussion
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| Heine |
Posted on 19-12-2014 08:51
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Close for Brändle, had been fitting if he won a stage, considering how my other austrians did in the Vuelta. Hopefully my team will be in more breakaways. Both my sprinters are out, so that is our hope
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 11-12-2025 13:41
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| ember |
Posted on 19-12-2014 09:00
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Great to come back to so many thrilling reports. Brilliant work, roturn!
Van Heerden's sprinting has been pretty good considering his other performances this season, which is a pleasant surprise. Really cool to see our team try a leadout on stage 13, I hope we'll see something similar on stage 15.
Good to see Levarlet involved in the breakaway on stage 12, but admittedly his chances of succeeding are greater on the hilly stages. Hopefully he's able to pick the right moment on the coming stage and get in the breakaway, as it's one of two hilly chances left for him.
The fight for the GC is really intense! Schleck's brilliant riding on the first mountain stages means he's back in the game, making it five serious contenders for the overall win, though, Phinney should struggle to keep up.
SotD must have been relieved to see Spilak claim victory on Plateau de Beille, but he will need to continue to take time as the MTT could be better for especially Pluchkin than the Slovenian. |
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| Smowz |
Posted on 19-12-2014 09:15
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 Awesome, really pleased to have a lucky breakaway win.
I believe that is the first proper French stage win of this years Tour (TTT don't count) Allez Simply Red Bull 
Great that makes two GTours where we have stage wins this year, only missing out in the Giro where Good Energy greedily kept winning stages! Oh well narrowly missed goal is okay.
Superb for Morizot who was active in the Paris Nice without much luck so it is really good to see him take a stage win - though the flat isn't necessarily his best terrian. I thought Brandle may be the big threat but Floran made the right move at the right time. Only just clear of the sprinting pack and really that terrian should have mnade catch academic but teams did not want to roll the dice.
@ ember: You are far more generous that I, that sprinting from Van Heerden once again underwhelming.
I notice Phinney and Dekker were up there they could be close to bonuses on flat stages. Stage 15 is likely to be last chance saloon for some with that nasty short mountain stage still to come,
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| ember |
Posted on 19-12-2014 09:59
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Smowz wrote:
@ ember: You are far more generous that I, that sprinting from Van Heerden once again underwhelming.
Yeah, but after his "performances" so far this season, fifth places is almost as good as wins from Van Heerden  |
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 19-12-2014 10:14
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I guess my only gripe is that Phinney and other GC contenders are always involved up there in the sprints. It ruins the points competition somewhat - even if you have an olden day Bennati, he still wouldn't go in mountain stage breaks a la Hushovd style in real life to get the points needed.
Other than that, I can't really complain with 4th and having the best sprinter left, just a shame that I was worried about Guarnieri surviving when it was Blythe and Rowe that have let the team down!
[url=cleavercycling.co.uk]  [/url] |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 19-12-2014 10:28
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Great to see Kreder in the mix. A promise for years to come
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-12-2014 10:30
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Almost can bear watching this, especially now when Spilak has gotten so close to Pluchkin!
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| CountArach |
Posted on 19-12-2014 10:31
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Well if my team isn't even going to try for breaks now then I just don't know what to say.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 19-12-2014 10:37
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Alex got his banners Didn't know you are such an award-winning daily-legend!
Gratz to Smowzy for the win. Kinda expected to see a break being allowed to take line honours. Nothing wrong about it. Shame for teams like Bpost missing it though. Maybe next time!
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 19-12-2014 11:01
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tsmoha wrote:
Alex got his banners Didn't know you are such an award-winning daily-legend!
I wouldn't say a legend. I just used to be more active and involved in all the topics of the forum in my first 2-3 years. In 2009, I think I even was second or third in the Member of the Year Award. Would have been quite awesome to get both that and and the New Member Award.
As for the battle for this year's GC in the Tour: 3 managers that I respect a lot are in the mix and I would be happy for any of them to take it home. Still, I feel like dave got his share of success though so maybe he should let nico or SotD, who are not exactly the luckiest managers in the game, take this one
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 19-12-2014 11:33
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alexkr00 wrote:
As for the battle for this year's GC in the Tour: 3 managers that I respect a lot are in the mix and I would be happy for any of them to take it home. Still, I feel like dave got his share of success though so maybe he should let nico or SotD, who are not exactly the luckiest managers in the game, take this one
Well said. That sums up my thoughts on this quite well. Nothing against you dave 
As to this stage: yay 3rd place!!
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| beagle |
Posted on 19-12-2014 11:36
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I was hoping torso of my team will try something. Well, it didn´t happen.
Nice win for SBR!
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| SotD |
Posted on 19-12-2014 12:39
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I'm a bit underwhelmed with the way Tzortzakis decided to solve this issue. Creating a sprint train including no one besides yourself seems to be a pretty bad solution, whereas a seemingly sane person would have picked the wheel of another sprinter.
Also, Phinney - Could you please stop sprinting for those minor positions, so Spilak can have a shot at the points jersey in case he doesn't have what it takes to pass Pluchkin?
Nice to see a french rider win btw.
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| SotD |
Posted on 19-12-2014 12:40
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Roman wrote:
Well, at least König tried!
And congrats to SotD!
Thanks mate - It was a very important win - Also taking Spilak up to 5 stagewins this season which is pretty cool
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 19-12-2014 13:06
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Just as well that the breakaway stayed away if Phinney is now the 3rd best sprinter left!
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| Roman |
Posted on 19-12-2014 18:42
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Wow, we did a train! Too bad it was only a sprint for a 4th place. Still nice to see Howard being so successfull. With Vesely and Gough only getting better for the next year, I am quite happy to see the future of my sprint train. 
SotD: That GC win here would be awesome for you. You are right in the game for that, wish you some good luck after what happened to you again in Giro!
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| Smowz |
Posted on 20-12-2014 09:16
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Excellent - another really good breakaway selection by the AI. Samoilev much like Morizot is a really nice rider for this sort of thing. Not the winner this time, there were a few too many good riders in the break but I thought Branislav rode that Faron climb smart.
In general I thought it was quite a nice GC stage - once again hilly implies punchaers should be there but actually it was one for the GC guys. Though not for the stage win and happy to gobble up 3rd place style points Tekliehaimont is the sort of rider that is great to win a tour stage ahead of Shikai too what a global race this is!
Spliak screws up here and Pluchkin takes a small step forward - I wonder if Spilak can attack the Moldovan again.
This is getting pathetic from Madrazo - I mean the guy is 8th , he hasn't crashed or anything does he need steak or something?
Continued consistent day by day reporting this race is really like an advent calender as I say before. Some treats for us again today (a 4th podium as well - with one win as well I'll take that).
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 20-12-2014 09:20
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The Top 3 of the GC starting to take shape here. I agree, Madrazo isn't looking at all good. Has he lost a family member or something which has brought his spirits down a lot?
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 20-12-2014 09:25
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No break away since stage 2.... Just wow. Maruqez decent effort again though.
And seriously check Madrazo for injury Surely it's impossible for such rider to finish behind on every single stage so much.
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| roturn |
Posted on 20-12-2014 10:02
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Smowz wrote:
Continued consistent day by day reporting this race is really like an advent calender as I say before. Some treats for us again today (a 4th podium as well - with one win as well I'll take that).
Might lack in the last stages though. Christmas holidays and some days off the computer might become an issue.
For me this race is neither good nor bad.
Keizer is doing a pretty good job and once more finished with an okay gap to the better riders. But did also gain on Monsalve/König/Marquez etc.
But I would love to see my team more active. Roux or Boom would have been perfect for this stage. But they don`t try enough.
Teams like Volkswagen or Vueling are getting "easy" points on those stages, while my team is pretty much a low pointer here just like we were in the Vuelta. A bit better with Boom`s KoM attempt but far too less without any good stage results. |
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