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Hong Kong Challenge Discussion
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 12-10-2023 14:37
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World Champion
Posts: 11392
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1020.00
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As expected from the guys. Will see how they go tomorrow!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| seancoll |
Posted on 12-10-2023 16:57
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Domestique
Posts: 480
Joined: 20-12-2022
PCM$: 500.00
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Nothing special, but our SEE Turtles are going (moderately) slow and steady into some decent GC positions. We knew we wouldn't be fighting for high placements in stages, but it's nice to see some consistency pay off. Hopefully Reguigui, Siriwardena and Abreu all have the right combo of hills and mountain to stay in the GC group for a while tomorrow. If we can keep 2 in the top 15 of GC, we're very happy here.
today's stage just reminds me I never want to see Glanbia or Jura in a TTT (against me).
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 12-10-2023 20:31
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4669
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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I'm a bit in two minds about this stage...
To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed by the stage result. With our top 3 TTers being 78-77-77, it's rough to get out of the stage with zero points. I'd say that Bissegger, Küng and Marchewka all were solid, but none of them had a good day.
Moreover, Masnada and Errazkin both even had a bad day, especially the former given e.g. a 23" loss against fellow 73 TTer Faglum Karlsson. That's definitely lower than expected and makes another GC podium finish unlikely by now.
On the other hand, Darbellay's Top 20 result is surely good stuff, and as written in the report, he might now be our best GC option. Whereas Küng in 2nd place looks good, he surely won't stay there, so Darbellay as one of the stronger climbers in the top GC positions looks good. However, he's our worst hills rider up there, so that's a risk as well.
In an ideal world, Errazkin would prepare an attack for Masnada from the very start of the final climb, ensuring there will be gaps - and Darbellay just follows as good as he can. But the optimal scenario surely won't happen - I guess if we can secure a Top 5, I'd have to be content.
Overall, there seems to be no way around McNulty now. The top puncheurs would need to gap him by a minute or so, and I can't see that happen. I also doubt Paillot will finish high up; Brändle as a clearly stronger climber lost 2 minutes even with the yellow jersey bonus last year, so if the puncheurs are similarly aggressive this year, both Paillot and Küng will drop outside the Top 10. But we'll see, we've often seen surprising results in this race.
Congrats once again to LPH, at least the stage results look really great for you 
And thanks to roturn for the report.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 13-10-2023 08:53
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 9099
Joined: 13-03-2013
PCM$: 2100.00
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Expected win for McNulty, living up to expectations. Big time strength shown by Higuita, you love to see it. Interesting set of riders up top the GC, Barbio certainly with an awesome result for UBS, but the stages were a lot less selective than expected.
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| roturn |
Posted on 13-10-2023 08:53
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Team Manager
Posts: 22246
Joined: 24-11-2007
PCM$: 3900.00
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Congrats to McCormick for the favourite win here in the end.
Though in general not very happy with the outcome. The TT riders clearly got a too big advantage here with the positioning on both GC stages, while some teams got hit a lot harder than others.
JURA Giants played the Kung card and a bit for Errazkin. 6th and top15 are okay I guess but when Darbellay and Masnada both could get a lot more here, it was still frustrating.
SEE Turtles as well with two decent GC options just threw it away on that last stage here for no reason.
Assa Abloy got the Paillot GC but Faglum Karlsson should have placed himself a lot better really as one of the top top favourites going into the stage.
For my own team a desaster obviously. Having a rider being ignored happens obviously, but I never have seen a change during a race and both times to the negative. Vansevenant going into the race as stage and GC top5-10 favourite and lost it on stage 1 while Vanhoucke then was given leadership. But just like Vansevenant and 5 team mates on day 1, suddenly Vanhoucke and 5 team mates were just sitting up and riding in last spots. Really annoying outcome here and the January update will show this clearly as it was 9 race days which didn`t really deliver any points. Luckily not the best suited races for me but in the end still two potential top5-10 GCs if played smarter.
What I like about the race and outcome though is that some riders played the combination, which makes the race special, pretty well, such as Barbio, Main etc. |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 13-10-2023 09:07
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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I agree with roturn that some teams played their cards poorly, but that is always a problem when like 15 teams have riders in positions to do well - some will necessarily fail to pull off their strategy correctly. Especially when you consider the surprise rider or two that will often be in there. Speaking of, really happy for Glanbia with Main's fifth place, they'll need performances like this to have any chance at survival. Stela-Vita also making good use of Goos' skillset here. And congrats of course to UU for McNulty's win. Expected, yes, but you still need to pull it off and McNulty did it in style with that stage win.
From a Bralirwa perspective, I'm happy with 8th and 9th for Uwi and Izagirre. Uwi did better, as expected, but Izagirre's performance is honestly even more encouraging. 19th on a stage like this, alongside guys like Teuns or Barta, gives me some more optimism for the punchier races to come. Add to that a few points from Eyob in 23rd overall, Mugisha 3rd in the KoM classification, and 3rd place in the team competition (a rare occurence for us to do something there) and we leave with a really solid points total. On to Portugal!
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| Laurens147 |
Posted on 13-10-2023 09:17
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Protected Rider
Posts: 1122
Joined: 26-04-2020
PCM$: 800.00
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Congrats UU with the victory! 
Also nice to see Küng perform well, just like Glanbia and Genii Hyundai. They can use every point in the ranking. Thanks roturn for the reports!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 13-10-2023 10:33
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Sprinter
Posts: 1907
Joined: 07-02-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Congrats to Ulrich on the win w/ McNulty and thanks roturn for the race! I'm really thrilled with how we performed here starting with Haugard in the TT and most importantly with Barbio nabbing 2nd in the GC. Pretty unexpected but definitely encouraging for the rest of the season.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 21-11-2024 23:29
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Bot Agent
Posts: Countless
Joined: 23.11.09
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 13-10-2023 10:33
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Sprinter
Posts: 1907
Joined: 07-02-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Congrats to Ulrich on the win w/ McNulty and thanks roturn for the race! I'm really thrilled with how we performed here starting with Haugard in the TT and most importantly with Barbio nabbing 2nd in the GC. Pretty unexpected but definitely encouraging for the rest of the season.
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 13-10-2023 10:40
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2905
Joined: 07-08-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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Think it's hard to be too upset for me with what essentially was just a throwaway race with a TT in the middle of it! Would have loved Meurisse to get at least a second there but can't be upset with a third. Turgis struggling on the final stage as expected and drops a bit too far in the GC to really make up for it but not really upset!
Congrats to Ulrich on a great win for McNulty and thanks for the report Roturn!
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| KaiserAdler |
Posted on 13-10-2023 10:41
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Domestique
Posts: 570
Joined: 13-07-2022
PCM$: 5800.00
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A giant failure here. Really no reason to even turn up. Heavily disappointed. Thanks for the reporting however.
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| MacC |
Posted on 13-10-2023 10:53
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Sprinter
Posts: 1594
Joined: 15-07-2008
PCM$: 700.00
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Thanks Roturn and commiserations on the result.
Delighted to see McNulty do what is expected for McCormick.
And thanks to those pointing out Main's performance. He certainly flew under the radar just doing enough in each stage to get a good 5th. This is exactly the type of race I got him for so glad he is performing.
I mean the only scoring we got here was his GC place so even this "good" result is probably only scraping through level of scoring.
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 13-10-2023 11:58
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4669
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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Well, that's plain bullshit and one of the worst tactic choices I've ever seen by my team. Going for the weakest uphill rider and for the worst ranked of the quartet is just awfully stupid. Masnada being the worst of them all, huge letdown in his first race of the year. 2nd in GC and 3rd on stage 3 last year, he didn't even bother this time.
Yes, we got 6th and a minor Top 15, which might sound nice - but when going into the last stage with a so much better situation, it's just frustrating if the team does nothing but stupid things. Plenty of points thrown out of the window on one single climb, clearly not good enough. Sorry for the rant, but knowing what your riders are capable of doing, and seeing that what they actually do doesn't correspond at all, is just frustrating.
Congrats to UU, weird to see McNulty win a puncheur stage, but well done.
Thanks for the reports to roturn, and commiserations on the Vansevenant fail.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 13-10-2023 12:35
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3367
Joined: 20-04-2020
PCM$: 425.00
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Good thing we didn't win the third stage as well, or I'd be getting too arrogant  Congratulations to Ulrich on the big win, always great to see someone do well when they do so much for MG. Obviously great feeling when it's his boy McNulty doing what he needs to do in his first race as an adult man.
Stage looked to be a nightmare for us, but in the end Higuita surprisingly came through with fourth. No big gaps over rivals means he is only 13th in GC, with Osorio and Aular 16th and 17th. A bit better for Higuita would have been nice, but this is compensated with his green jersey win and fourth in KoM.
Lovely feeling for me as well concerning homegrown talents, with Osorio in his first maxed race third in the U25 and Beltran as a level 4 in sixth. Old Beltran is slowly leaving town, but the new one can climb a bit as well Winning the teams classification feels great as well, definitely a nice feat without any rider in the top 12.
Thank you roturn for the great reports
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| seancoll |
Posted on 13-10-2023 16:46
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Domestique
Posts: 480
Joined: 20-12-2022
PCM$: 500.00
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roturn wrote:
SEE Turtles as well with two decent GC options just threw it away on that last stage here for no reason.
Couldn't have said it any better. Not a zero pointer, but a certainly not happy with the team on this one. Looking forward to better days ahead!
Good to see the favorite take the W though so congrats UU and McCormick.
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 13-10-2023 23:28
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 3259
Joined: 02-11-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Thanks for the congratulations. Obviously awesome to see McNulty take the win in his first race maxed and do it in style with an impressive win on S3. U25 and 2nd in Points add to the return.
Some nice symmetry in that our only previous win in the overall of a C1 race was when Holloway won TDU in his first race for us.
Just to add to the warm fuzzies the team showed well with Bagioli setting up the win, and he Narvaez and Mohammad all in the top 20. Particularly congrats to Mohammad on finishing 12th. My hope is that McNulty will drag some of our lessor riders into better positions and that worked here. Would have been nice to find 10 more seconds to knock the Chickens into 2nd on teams, but I probably shouldn't be greedy.
Thanks to Roturn for the reports.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 14-10-2023 13:10
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2073
Joined: 11-07-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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A third place in the GC is better than expected and certainly very happy with that. Good effort from Paillot to limit the timeloss. On the other hand, had hoped for more from Faglum Karlsson, especially as his qualities are not too dissimilar from McNulty (although the latter is certainly the better rider).
Congrats to Ulrich and thanks for the reports, Roturn!
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