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Hong Kong Challenge Discussion
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 13-10-2022 08:42
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World Champion
Posts: 11395
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1020.00
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Great stage victory by Areruya, showing some serious strength to ride those guys off his wheel like that, and a decent GC jump even if overall this race goes down as a disappointment - nice to see him best of the puncheurs though, just wish the hilly stages were harder. Nice to tie win for points (we still adjust the points scales to count both winners as 1st, right?  ), frustrating to lose white on the last day to an inferior puncheur but that's life as a domestique going against a leader and still happy with this race from Habtemichael.
Congrats to hillis, huge early season win there for Kritskiy. And lovely reports as always Nemo
Croatia14 wrote:
Nice preview, though I wouldn't have put Reis in the favourites.
Bad take
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 13-10-2022 09:20
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7593
Joined: 04-07-2012
PCM$: 15445.00
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The Brown experiment has failed.
Thanks for the reports Nemolito and congrats hillis!
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| TinxiaS |
Posted on 13-10-2022 10:13
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Domestique
Posts: 504
Joined: 17-08-2020
PCM$: 400.00
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Omg. I really didn expected such a good result from my team.
I hoped that the hill team will be close to top 10 or 15 in first and last stage but with no real expectation in GC. Benjamin Dyball really took a full surprice across the all three stages and finished on 5th place in GC and the second place in team classification.
Congrat to the winners and thanks for preview and report Nemo. 
______________________________________________
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 13-10-2022 10:50
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4505
Joined: 05-10-2010
PCM$: 900.00
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Result: | 40 | Eddie Dunbar | Indosat Ooredoo | +3’10 |
GC: | 25 | Eddie Dunbar | Indosat Ooredoo | + 4'31 |
What even is there to say? 3 discount versions of Dunbar finished the stage in the top-10 while he may as well have not even shown up to the start line. He couldn’t even finish ahead of the TT riders like Cosnefroy in the GC. Disgraceful. Like the first stage was horrible but it was that way for many, but he could have at least salvaged something from the two following stages - yet it’s a terrible TT and then whatever the fuck this stage result is.
I can handle bad results and shit form but getting dudded by the AI here and in the TDU with Borges not bothering to ride for the GC as the favourite and Howard not participating in sprints fucking sucks. We should be high up in the rankings after January but instead we’re gonna be dead last after two races we had a top favourite in. Honestly don’t really care if we get relegated but if it’s due to AI shenanigans then that might be curtains for us. Apologies for the negativity, congrats hillis, a big win for old boy Tim.
Thanks for the reports Nemo, were lovely to read as always despite my team.
Edited by Eden95 on 13-10-2022 10:57
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 13-10-2022 11:15
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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Uwi has surpassed my wildest expectations with his performances here. Finishing 7th on a stage like this, and 4th overall is incredible. That's exactly the kind of performance our second row riders need to contribute in our promotion bid. To have two Rwandans in the Top 6 is also an absolute treat.
Sucks to see so many managers (rightfully) disappointed, I hope the pendulum swings soon for y'all. Races like this are always tricky.
Of course, thanks a lot for the great reports, Nemo!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 13-10-2022 13:04
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16429
Joined: 27-07-2011
PCM$: 10438.70
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I'm not sure if this has already been noted, but Kamna has been wearing the white jersey despite being 26 years old. While I would love for him to be U25 eligible or just age down a year, I'm not sure that's how it works.  Since he's not in the U25 rankings, I imagine it's already been remedied, but just wanted to point it out in case.
Weird race for us overall. Kamna seemed to have great form on the climbing days despite his 71 hill, and that is promising for his calendar this year. On the other hand, he completely bonked during the TT, where he was supposed to be near the top. So, even with his good result today, he gets leapfrogged by enough other guys to stay in 8th. I guess that's about right for his skill level. I hoped for a little more, and I certainly didn't expect the time gaps to emerge how they did, but 8th is fine. Certainly beats what happened to stronger guys with similar skillsets.
We also had decent depth scoring, which is new. Guldhammer probably did the opposite of Kamna - decent TT but underwhelmed on the climbs. I'm gonna suppose he was working for Lennard, and that's why. He still gets a decent spot in 13th, though in C1 that's not a lot of points for grabs. Eg gets a few for 26th, and a few for the team classification. I hoped for a little more, but it was far from disastrous for us. Sorry to those for whom this was a disaster.
Thanks for the reports Nemo, and congrats to hillis!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 15:05
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Bot Agent
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 13-10-2022 13:14
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 9099
Joined: 13-03-2013
PCM$: 2100.00
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Weird race and results, but a big one especially for many promoted teams. Would be fun if Jura surpasses their avg of last year in C1/HC races this year, that wouldn't even be a surprise Congrats to Gjensidige, and also teams like Bralirwa, Trans and McCormick who had beautfil races. Commisionaries especially to Cedevita, but also many other teams really didn't get what they deserve here (looking at Indosat especially)
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| quadsas |
Posted on 13-10-2022 13:59
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2518
Joined: 18-01-2013
PCM$: 300.00
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Not the greatest final stage, but decent GC placements, stages, teams and KOM points should total a decent points haul
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 13-10-2022 20:00
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 3265
Joined: 02-11-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Boswell on fire. Three road stages have yielded two firsts and a second, plus KOM and share of the Points jersey.
Thanks for the reports Nemo.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 13-10-2022 22:52
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4670
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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Sometimes even some crazy dreams can come true it seems - and in the end only 18" are missing to realize the most crazy one.
To be honest, I'm not even that much surprised that Masnada passed a couple of riders today - he was just the strongest puncheur/hybrid up there, and with that advantage sprinted to another great 3rd place on the stage. The stage result surprises me much more than the jump in the GC - given that he beat some top PCT puncheurs (who didn't really care though, to be honest...).
Fausto was just really consistent throughout the entire race, taking two 3rd places in the hilly stages and playing his TT advantage vs. Boswell/Areruya really well.
Obviously, we were very lucky to get that 2nd overall place - which is easily Masnada's most valuable GC result so far (given that his 6th place in last year's Tour de Suisse wasn't worth any points). We were lucky especially with many of the stronger riders (especially stronger TTers) being gapped in the two hilly stages, and/or underperforming in the TT. Let's just hope we didn't use up the entire season's luck in that one race already ^^
By the way, commiserations to those who should have done much better, but did a very bad job (mainly looking at Beltran and Dunbar, but also Kämna and surely some more). I hope you'll get one of those lucky races as well this year.
And obviously big congrats to Gjensidige, sending Kritskiy was a bit of a gamble, but it paid off big time here! Exactly the kind of result you need to stay up
Croatia14 wrote:
Would be fun if Jura surpasses their avg of last year in C1/HC races this year, that wouldn't even be a surprise
That might be asking for too much, given that C1 was our best category last year But yeah, this year we send our strongest lineups to C1 races, while last year the main leaders rather focused on PTHC/HC... We'll see
And because I always have to complain, let's just state that we had a really disappointing guy as well, with lead puncheur Moscon scoring the fabulous amount of zero points here...
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| hillis91 |
Posted on 13-10-2022 23:13
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Team Leader
Posts: 5897
Joined: 30-11-2006
PCM$: 1500.00
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Wait, what?
We'll take it
Thanks for the well wishings, and thank you for the reports Nemo!
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 14-10-2022 02:13
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Team Leader
Posts: 5533
Joined: 12-06-2013
PCM$: 500.00
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A fairly anonymous race from our guys. Some representation in the TT but otherwise very quiet. We do at least pick up some points with Conci in the Top 10 of the GC and winning the U25s.
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 14-10-2022 09:19
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4670
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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Btw, I just noticed that Karatsivis is missing in the U25 standings. He's one of those "very young" riders, so I guess he just went missing due to the incorrect DB year config in the first races.
Doesn't make a difference points-wise, as Schmid will just lose 1 point to Karatsivis here
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 16-10-2022 17:56
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2933
Joined: 09-05-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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A decent beginning, a great middle and horrible ending - this was our tale at the Hong Kong Challenge unfortunately. But others fared even worse - Dunbar, considered one of the top favorites and is considered far superior to other riders stat wise, finished all the way down at 25th overall. Beltran, last year's winner, was even further down in 45th. Kinoshita - another of the pre-race favorites, finished 44th. Reis and Areruya had matched the expectations though and rightfully so are in the Top 10 with Reis on the podium and Areruya finishing 2nd in Stage 1 and winning Stage 3.
Congrats to Kritskiy and Gjensidige for the win and to Nemolito for the reports
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 17-10-2022 03:03
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World Champion
Posts: 12986
Joined: 20-05-2009
PCM$: 530.00
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Not sure what this was, but it wasn't it. Appalling race.
Thanks for reporting it Nemo.
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| DarkWolf |
Posted on 18-10-2022 06:32
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Protected Rider
Posts: 1025
Joined: 21-09-2020
PCM$: 700.00
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I was expecting better results at Tour Down Under. After all, both of my teams, the one there and the other here, were dominated by youngsters, but the one in Australia had greater potential for scoring. So, I didn't expect it to go the other way around and that is only thanks to Jesus herrada. He salvaged our disastrous result in our first race of the season with what I consider an excellent top 10 here in Hong Kong. Otherwise we'd be in all kind of deep trouble.
Congratulations to Gjensidige and thank you very much for the reports!
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| Shonak |
Posted on 23-10-2022 09:21
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 15615
Joined: 16-07-2013
PCM$: 350.00
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Thanks for the reports. Our only scoring in the first races, Azman did pretty well but was hoping we would be better in terms of depth but I guess not having an outright leader will be a hinderance in the PCT going forward. Gratz to the winner! |
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