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Giro d'Italia Discussion
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| SotD |
Posted on 06-01-2024 21:22
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World Champion
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I very much agree DD.
I have never felt as little about the Man-Game as I am currently. Not specifically because of this result, but all season has been dreadful because of sprints also.
I am Quick to show frustration, but that atleast show dedication and willingness to work for solutions. This season has mostly sent me into a state of not caring anymore. This isn’t the place to take the discussion, but I still feel (more than ever), that the switch “up”
To this version is the worst decision we have ever made in the history of the game.
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 06-01-2024 22:42
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Ouch...
Shikai getting into the breakaway was obvious, I guess everyone expected that. I also expected him to make a big jump, something like Top 5 region. But this... is just ridiculous, sorry to say. Even if the top GC riders didn't have good doms (which isn't true, as cio pointed out), Dombrowski and Haig could easily work together and cut the gap down to a reasonable amount. Throwing the GC out of the window is not realistic at all.
True, we got our Top 10 GC result as I was hoping for, but I'm not really happy with it, as those last three stages basically ruined the race. No clue if it's PCM, the MG DB, the stages - it's just unlucky to end like this. I know some people pointed out that these kinds of breakaways could happen in GTs - I just didn't believe it ever would happen to that extent, as I wasn't used to see that. Well, it did happen, and I sure hope it won't happen again!
Nonetheless, congrats to beagle on the stage and GC win, and thanks to Abhi for reporting.
And commiserations especially to DD.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 07-01-2024 05:38
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I honestly don't even know what to say. This is unconscionable. There's nothing I could say to rationalize or even complain coherently about what just happened. Just gotta forget this one now and hope Quintana gets a lucky break in the later GT's I guess.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| redordead |
Posted on 07-01-2024 09:12
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Stupid race.
I guess we can get used to random mediocre riders having realistic chances to win GTs now. I guess I'm kinda glad my team isn't GT centric, although I'd probably take it on the chin regardless.
I feel sorry for DD and Dombrowski.
"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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| Eden95 |
Posted on 07-01-2024 12:07
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Pure insanity. I can’t believe what I just read - 11 minutes?!
Congrats to beagle, I would love to see a before and after of your face after reading this report  At the end of the day, Shikai is a decent rider and it is pretty cool to have the first Asian rider win a GT in the MG. Congrats man.
But otherwise this has got to be the most insane result I’ve ever witnessed - Malecki was pretty nuts a few seasons ago, but this is a whole other level. There’s not much else to add that hasn’t been said - commiserations to DD and tsmoha and everyone else (Ryan, bbl, Roman …) who have unfortunately just shat the bed in terms of luck. Hopefully it’s a one off and is as a result of something unseen, but I am fearful for the Herklotz, Kudus, Phinney and Lecuisiniers of the world in the next GTs - a repeat of the third week of this Giro could be catastrophic.
Thank you for the wonderful reports throughout the race Abhi, you’ve made it wonderful to follow.
@DD: Also want to say what a classy and well worded response that is from you despite the result and that I (and i’m sure many others) totally agree.
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-01-2024 07:08
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World Champion
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You did an amazing job reporting the Giro! Thanks a lot!
Obviously a massive GC result for us, with also a nice KOM and a few decent stages. I would have hoped to see Bouglas get into the top 10 more than once as I hoped this would be the race that would help him into the next category of Greek riders. He’ll have to find his way elsewhere :-)
Mavrikakis was OK. Had quite some BotD appearances but was just too weak to make it happen. Would have been cool to see him inside the top 20, but just outside is OK looking at the competition. He’s not the most Well rounded.
Koretzky was a waste of racedays, but he had plenty to spare, so I guess it was this or some 5 pointers for completing random races.
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| seancoll |
Posted on 08-01-2024 07:12
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An amazing read as a non-participant. Thank you for some fantastic reports!
Some awesome results as well for the PCT wildcards. Congrats on showing the best of what you've got and stealing some pretty fantastic placings.
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| redordead |
Posted on 08-01-2024 07:29
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Not the most enjoyable race for me, then again I've never really had much fun in GTs. I found my team very frustrating to follow, but we may have come away with just enough points to give them a passing grade. That's probably TBD.
Thank you Abhi for all the nice reports and the big effort for doing a GT. It probably wasn't fun with all the AI shenanigans, but you made the best of it
"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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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 08-01-2024 07:32
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WAHEY
It took till the last stage of the entire race but what a way to end it! Young Thijssen with what could well end up being the biggest win of his entire MG career. To catapult himself up to 3rd in the Points is an outstanding effort from him given his complete lack of support here too.
On the Mountains front, not a lot to write home about. Mas lost a lot of time unnecessarily early on but, to his credit, clawed back a lot of this to finish 30th in the GC. Rodriguez, on the other hand, started fairly well and slowly slipped back but kept inside the Top 40. A little disappointed we weren't more active in the breakaways but not a horrible effort from the team all things considered.
Congrats to those managers who took solid points and result here. An insane GC result in the end but congratulations indeed to Shikai.
A huge thank you Abhi for the level of reporting throughout the whole race! You were able to capture all of the key moments throughout the top part of the GC and kept the fairly variable sprints interesting too. A great effort (I know what it takes to report a GC and it can get at ya when things are going funny). Much appreciated
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 08-01-2024 08:26
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Directeur Sportif
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Thanks for the quality reports and the work you put into it! Much appreciated.
Eventually a kinda disastrous result for us though, finishing 3rd (ten seconds ahead of Bennett, no offense) for no reason and no more stage results in the second half of the race. Probably too less to avoid relegation. I hardly complain about AI, but this is ridicolous and I feel really sorry for JD, who at least got some stage wins and many points despite throwing a GT away like nothing.
Ironicaly it's Shikai taking a random GT, who we fought for in free agency and gave up last minute  congrats anyway!
Still.. frustrating stuff, I have to admit.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 06-12-2025 20:38
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 08-01-2024 09:47
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Thanks for the reports, Abhi! Sorry for not commenting in the last part of the race, but there was really nothing going on for our team.
I expected this to be our worst GT of the season, not our worst GT ever. It's true we didn't send a very good team here in terms of climbers, but Van Poppel was easily in the top 5 sprinters with more than decent support. To see him only finish 3 times in the top 10 with no podiums in the entire race was really disappointing. And then there was the fact that we didn't make any of the breakaways in the big mountain stages. Champoussin should have been able to sneak in there, given he showed glimpses of what he can do when staying in the pack, even in that last insanse mountain stage where he finished 19th.
We didn't have great expectations here, but only three top 10 showing in terms of stages and no rider in the top 60 in the GC is beyond our worst expectations.
As for what happened in the GC at the top, had Dombrowski not won the Vuelta last year, I would have thought this was definitely a curse for him to always finish second. Or the devil finally came back to collect from whatever deal Malecki made with him a few years ago. Or this is the most unpredictable version of the game we had so far. And not in a good way.
I don't think it's necessarily bad to have these types of surprises every now and then even though it must really suck for those on the receiving end. But the way it happened makes no sense at all and just highlights some major issues with the AI. Like others have said, had Gazzelle brought a bad supporting team here you could have made a case about why this happened. But what actually unfolded makes no sense at all. As Shikai not only took the overall lead in dramatic fashion, but he did it by putting almost 5 minutes into Dombrowski. It makes no sense why he would be gifted that huge amount of time in the last mountain stage of the race.
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| Laurens147 |
Posted on 08-01-2024 10:32
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Sprinter
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Thanks for the reports Abhi It was a pleasure to read all of them!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
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| ember |
Posted on 08-01-2024 16:15
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That's a wrap! Thank you again for your reports, Abhi.
Curious to see where this leaves us in terms of points. Very happy with everything we delivered up until the penultimate day, and we're definitely also lucky that it resulted in points too, with Amezawa's two stage wins, but also Kragh's prologue win. |
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 08-01-2024 20:05
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Ahlstrand with a wonderful encore. Only one win might seem like little but a bunch of second places and general consistency brings him green. Our first "official" GC can be called a success in my eyes, even though Vosekalns failed to live up to expectations in the end. With the way the GC went maybe Cattaneo would have been a viable option here but you never know during planning. Maybe he can pull a Shikai in Le Tour 
Speaking of, congrats beagle on the GC win! And thanks AbhishekLFC for the wonderful reports the last month!
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 08-01-2024 20:56
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 Sad to lose the Ciclamino on the last possible occasion, after having it for so long. One awful sprint where Bol didn't score at all made the difference, taking 6th today definitely isn't bad by any means.
But there's nothing wrong with Ahlstrand taking the points shirt, congrats to the Minions! Just a shame Bol couldn't take his "once-in-a-lifetime" chance, but I guess that's better for me once renewals come
Congrats as well to ZARA on the stage win, Thijssen definitely had a great race as well!
GC-wise, I'm obviously happy to have Stüssi in 8th - but I don't like the circumstances that brought him there.
I think there's nothing wrong with the podium riders, either - just the order bothers me quite a bit. I sure hope this won't happen again in the other GTs - but I fear especially the ToA could see such a scenario happen, with even weaker top riders and domestiques...
Congrats nonetheless to Polar and Shikai - and big, big thanks to Abhi for the great coverage!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 09-01-2024 00:07
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Thanks for all the reports, Abhi! Solid work.
All in all a decent race for us. Could have hoped for some better stage results here and there, but we're not a GT team, so happy to get through in a relatively good way. Not huge in terms of points, but hopefully not hopeless as well. Congrats to all who did well!
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 09-01-2024 05:48
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Didn't get time to write anything yesterday but I felt I had to say thanks to everyone for all the nice words.
I really liked the Giro profile when making it but didn't realize PCM had this twist in store, possibly because of stage design (who knows these things anymore!). Also, I was really enjoying the race till Stage 20 I guess. Then it was a lot of mixed feelings. Great to see Asian cycling on the up with results here but the AI really screwed up the feel good factor. Only PCM can then throw the curveball and have the best sprinter take the Ciclamino after all the sprinting fails earlier in the season.
A bit of a recap coming up in the next post.
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 09-01-2024 06:48
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A little recap of how things went down in the Giro:
| Stage | Winner | GC | Points | KOM | U25 | Team | | 1 | Andersen | Andersen | Andersen | - | Bissegger | MOL | | 2 | Sureda | Andersen | Sureda | Hecht | Bissegger | MOL | | 3 | Steimle | Steimle | Steimle | Hecht | Groves | Lidl | | 4 | Enger | Enger | Enger | Dujardin | Groves | Lidl | | 5 | Bol | Enger | Bol | Dujardin | Groves | Lidl | | 6 | Dombrowski | Dombrowski | Bol | Dujardin | Pidcock | Lidl | | 7 | Dombrowski | Dombrowski | Bol | Dombrowski | Schmid | Carlsberg | | 8 | Durbridge | Haig | Bol | Dombrowski | Schmid | Carlsberg | | 9 | Groves | Haig | Bol | Dombrowski | Schmid | Carlsberg | | 10 | Amezawa | Haig | Bol | Dombrowski | Schmid | Jura | | 11 | Fouche | Haig | Bol | Vosekalns | Schmid | Jura | | 12 | Van der Lijke | Haig | Van der Lijke | Vosekalns | Schmid | Jura | | 13 | Dombrowski | Dombrowski | Van der Lijke | Vosekalns | Fouche | Carlsberg | | 14 | Dombrowski | Dombrowski | Van der Lijke | Dombrowski | Fouche | Carlsberg | | 15 | Bol | Dombrowski | Bol | Dombrowski | Fouche | Carlsberg | | 16 | Hirt | Dombrowski | Bol | Dombrowski | Fouche | Carlsberg | | 17 | Ahlstrand | Dombrowski | Bol | Chamorro | Fouche | Carlsberg | | 18 | Amezawa | Dombrowski | Bol | Chamorro | Fouche | Carlsberg | | 19 | Godoy | Dombrowski | Bol | Bennett | Fouche | Carlsberg | | 20 | Shikai | Shikai | Bol | Pinot | Fouche | Carlsberg | | 21 | Thijssen | Shikai | Ahlstrand | Pinot | Fouche | Carlsberg |
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 09-01-2024 07:57
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Well said Abhi. For most of the race I thought: Well, there is too little breakaway success this Giro. Obviously the last mountain stages turned that around. I indeed got reminded of the devastating Tour loss for Spilak against Taaramae that jandal mentioned. Sometimes the AI just fucks up. But then again, if Shikai ends up a couple of positions lower and Giannoutsos finishes somewhere around 10th everybody sees it as perfectly reasonable Giro-Result. It's a shame what happened, PCM AI massively failed, but there have also been plenty of good sides to this Giro.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 09-01-2024 14:25
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First of all, thank you to Abhi for three weeks of phenomenal reports. They were truly spectacular the whole way. Comprehensive coverage that was detailed and well paced. Great to wake up to each day.
Gonna be brief about Galta cause it still stings too much. 9th in the end isn't catastrophic based on stats alone, though some of the riders above him are weaker. But how it happened just hurts. I truly believe he was the 4th best GC guy here (maybe even 3rd). Not on paper, but in the race itself. And the game punished him for that in those last couple of days. He ended up one spot too high. Shikai, who at the time was just below him, wins the whole thing, and we fall to 9th. And it seems like all the riders just decided they were okay with that result. It sucks because it feels like we were too strong to place well in the end, and it was all pretty random.
That said, it wasn't all terrible. Sureda's stage win and podium were completely unexpected. I think he scored around 100 points, which almost makes up for the scoring difference of 4th-9th on GC. We had a lot of good placings too, and the depth really came through with 16th from Gregaard and 29th from Eg. Add in the teams classification, and those are some extra points we pretty much never have gotten in the past. We also barely held on to our top 10 goal in the end, which means we will be 3/3 from our attainable goals this year. It just stings a lot cause this was the GT we really invested in, and it was so close to working out.
Thanks again for the reports and congrats to those who did well in the end. Commiserations to those who lost out too.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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