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Benelux Challenge - Discussion
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 11-05-2021 09:47
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I did not expect Martinez to become team leader for the stage, but nice to see Kalaba and Selander end up in the GC top twenty. Hopefully the latter can end the race on a high note.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 11-05-2021 14:19
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Well, I'll definitely take that! In a vaccuum, I definitely would have liked to see Juul-Jensen gaining time on Gaviria and Debesay on a day like this. Luckily though, points aren't scored in a vacuum, and given the circumstances, this was a great performance. A stage podium and moving into the top 5 on GC - yeah that's a victory with C1 scoring for a CT team any day.
Quite obviously though, the biggest shock for us, which changes everything, was the insane performance by Patrick Olesen. Like others have said, I think the early splits worked in the favor of the couple of weaker puncheurs who made it, since the pace in every group was slow enough to keep the status quo level. Olesen didn't overextend himself to pull back Caruso, and it really paid off! Dude is 73/73 mtn/hill - UNMAXED still, and should come home with 6th on GC. This is a guy who had trouble getting a contract at lvl. 1 and almost never got the chance to develop. I know he's just a column in a DB, but I'm really happy for the guy.
Also, I love how this race, where I saw myself as having almost no depth at all, turned out to give me the most depth scoring I've had all year. 5th and 6th on GC, and Gregaard decently placed as well too, 3rd in the U25 standings. Those 3 might net me the team classification in a C1 race, which would truly be an accomplishment considering two of them are unmaxed and JJ is on his redemption tour. Plus, all 3 guys are Danes, which always feels good for us, and the sponsors.
Fingers crossed that the game recognizes that we need to protect all our GC places tomorrow and nobody gets needlessly dropped in the finale or punctures. Without a sprinter, it's basically just a procession for us.
Congrats to Lierse on sealing the GC win, and congrats to Fablok for Benoot getting a deserved stage win, even though he probably should have won this race GC wise.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 11-05-2021 14:34
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Dissapointing yet again, a really big "what if" race for us. Yes Kump is still in a good GC spot etc. but he has not been riding this race smartly if we wind up relegating by a few points they could most likely have been found here.
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| beagle |
Posted on 11-05-2021 23:39
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Came here with low expectations, but may leave with full pockets of points! Hopefully last flat stage won´t shuffle things too much. Few more points from sprint (TvA) or successful late attack would be welcomed though 
All in all very interesting race with some unexpected over/under performances. I´d favour Summerhill or Benoot before race, but Gaviria looks like worthy winner!
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 12-05-2021 06:07
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Well good things lasted for just a stage but still a good effort by Van Lerberghe to stay in the points. Always knew Bovenhuis losing time would probably hurt us eventually, given his abilities.
Thanks for the reports Nemo 
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 12-05-2021 08:55
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Fine, you convinced me there's a problem with yellow jersey not sprinting
Great result for Gaviria, I tried setting him up for a few races like this like TDU, but this is the only one where it worked so far. Which is a bit strange, because both the cobble and hill stage should have resulted in more time loss. It's something I could pull of in a solo game, but I didn't expect the AI to fully see the possibilities for him here as well. But it did, which is good. Some other riders got disliked by the AI though, so yeah.
Yellow + green should mark us safe for the rest of the season and finish somewhere in the middle, which is less than what I had expected before the season, but with Bonifazio being so bugged there's not much we can do.
Thanks for the great reports Nemolito!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 12-05-2021 09:04
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A shame Kump couldn't win it, but good GC result. Congrats to Zero and Loerse for their great races, also Carlsberg and Strava! Great to see Andorra pick up a win and also Gorazd in the mix. Finally thanks for all the great reports, enjoyed it even as a non-participant.
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 12-05-2021 09:54
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For a race we only picked because we had 6 RD left, very successful, though I believe it could have been more. Claeys didn't show himself, Selander loses a few GC positions due to a split, Kalaba could have gotten more in the sprints, but the first three days will be edged in my memory forever. Congrats Ollfardh, thanks Nemolito for the reports!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 12-05-2021 15:25
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Gregaard gave me a small scare there, but in the end he did his job and we're out of here with the results we expected after yesterday.
I already basically did my full race write up yesterday after the GC battle finished. 5th, 6th, and 17th on GC, plus teams and stage placings will do very well for us here. Olesen with the race of his life made a mediocre result into a phenomenal one. 5th and 6th is even better than 2nd.
Thanks for the great reports Nemo, and congrats to Ollfardh!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 20:16
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| roturn |
Posted on 12-05-2021 16:04
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Not sure if AI worked well or not so well here.
In the end the allrounders were highly placed in the GC with the puncheurs having an advantage over the cobblers as the hill stage led to a lot more time gaps as the one cobble stage, where I actually expected it to be opposite.
Gaviria might not be the best anywhere on the hard terrain but he is decent on all and great in the sprints for bonus seconds. So it is pretty fair to see him win here, even though you could argue, he should have been gapped on some stages. Well done Ollfardh!
Similar for Kump, who surely was expected to beat Gaviria on the hill stage, but leader jersey and/or daily form might have been key here.
Debesay as probably best allrounder of all nicely placed as well just like Xero in general.
Also Carlsberg with a nice race as Juul-Jensen was one of the puncheurs that profited from the lower gaps in the cobble stage.
Opposite Summerhill, who clearly could have won here as well, seeing his hill isn`t weaker than Gaviria and also he could have gapped the others a lot more normally on the cobbles.
All in all, I kind of like the outcome here and it`s good to see that a cobbled/hill combination in such stage race can work out without too much of one-sided gaps in comparison to classics as teams pick their tactics differently.
Thanks for reporting, nemolito! |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 12-05-2021 17:51
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Finally commenting here, but mostly because you got our mini jersey repeatedly wrong on Stage 6 for Dekker
It's fun to throw out a team of only support riders and see what they can do. Kim and Jyme riding excellently in their respective NC jerseys!
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 12-05-2021 18:08
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3rd in a stage - that's our consolation prize? But honestly, I've given up on staying in the PCT division at this point.
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| beagle |
Posted on 12-05-2021 20:20
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No major changes in the last stage, so I leave Benelux pretty happy, especially proud of dominant 1-2-3 in youth competition
Congrats Ollfardh and thanks Nemo for great reporting!
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 13-05-2021 06:19
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Nice to see Per 2 getting some points in his first race itself That name already has some special attachment for us! Our cobbles team couldn't hang on in the hills but that was expected. Still the stage win was a bonus and we're happy with that and the decent GC placing for Van Lerberghe against PCT competition.
Congrats to Ollfardh and thanks for the reports
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