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Tour de Suisse Discussion
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 25-02-2024 22:13
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I'm happy with Madrazo and his position at the moment. A top 10 is so important for us so him being there and looking like his climbing fairly well is really important. He can definitely improve in the net mountain stage just by hanging a bit closer to the front riders as well so keen to see how he goes there.
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| ryant |
Posted on 25-02-2024 22:25
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As expected this race has been dire for ourselves. It doesn't help that we miss every break with riders we want and only LNH can get in them instead. Good news is he sits 3rd in the KOM but unlikely to win it I have to say. Really hope Williams can join the break away on the last stage just so we don't waste the whole race, it seems it would have been better to send him to the Dauphine to support Morton instead 
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| redordead |
Posted on 26-02-2024 07:46
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I didn't expect TGH to be one of the riders on the attack, he must have felt pretty good. Who knows if he would've been better off just following the big guns, but he did make a selection and he finished 6th on the stage and that's definitely a very good result. If he can do his job in the time-trial then he could solidify a 6th in GC.
Habtemichael and Borisavljevic also had pretty good rides. Hopefully they keep this up to give us some depth scoring.
"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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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 29-09-2024 00:22
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 26-02-2024 09:30
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Great stage for us! For once, perfectly executed strategy. First, Schmid finally joins the BotD. And easily wins the sprint and the KoM. Which obviously makes me think "what if...", as he could be wearing the jersey now had he done the same thing on days 2 or 3... But still a good stage by him. Easing off in the end hopefully means saving some energy for a proper KoM challenge on the final day - no clue how many KoM sprints there will really be, but all climbs except for the big one (Albula?) look good for a strong puncheur... We'll see.
But the big news is obviously Stüssi doing a fantastic job! Sure, the sponsor goal is to win the race, but it currently looks like we might get a Top 10, which would already be an awesome result! The Top 5 definitely are better climbers, so it's absolutely no shame to get dropped. And keeping up with Tao is as good as it can get - even dropping Cattaneo, Shikai and Madrazo!
We'll definitely lose 6th to Tao, and 28" on Cattaneo might not be enough, either. But 36" to Shikai should be enough, and Madrazo should even lose time. Most importantly, Foss and Powless are 1'30" down, so if Stüssi doesn't get a really, really bad day on one of the last two stages, it really looks great for Top 10!
Furthermore, Darbellay has one of his better races as well, currently sitting in 19th. On paper, he's the best TTer of this group, and should even move past Kuss and maybe Sicard or Kirsch. A Top 20 would be a great result for him as well. Other than that, really hoping for some breakaway action on the final day, Darbellay plus Schmid would be the optimal scenario.
Congrats to Haig on the stage win, GC now is definitely between him and Bernal. Great fight for 3rd as well, most likely between McNulty and Reis. Will be interesting to see if Oomen's minute on Tao is enough, but it should be. 3 in the Top 5 would be an awesome result for PCT!
Thanks for the entertaining report!
No need to apologize; Stüssi keeping up so long is more than I expected. Absolutely no complaints about better riders getting better results 
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| MacC |
Posted on 26-02-2024 09:40
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@Fab, pretty sure they said there would be no KOM points on the last day and that everybody should just forget about that
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| quadsas |
Posted on 26-02-2024 19:35
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Mountain stage was dreadful, will need to get our guys into top 50 on last stage somehow. Good work by Beniusis tho, really needed that win but gotta take 2nd
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 26-02-2024 20:01
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Mikkel
A light in dark times, and a bright future for the Dane with his first win in his career.
Cattaneo with a decent TT but not good enough to overcome yesterday's deficit. Tomorrow will be all about consolidation
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| KaiserAdler |
Posted on 26-02-2024 21:16
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Domestique
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Top 5 will definitely be great for Reis considering the competition here. Hopefully he can improve on it. But he certainly has to keep his place now. A podium would be great but he shouldn't risk his top 5 in the attempt.
Thanks for the reporting and congrats to the winners so far!
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 26-02-2024 22:13
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Congrats Minions! Good win for Bjerg.
Still not too happy with lack of break action, and alao Kolar being the guy we choose to throw in on the one occasion we decide to go for it. Abdurrahman and Rohendi quietly doing ok in the GC, would love to see them move up a little bit if they can. Nur Hasan has had some bad sprints, but is there or thereabouts.
Thanks for the lovely reports!
Indosat - ANZ HQ
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 26-02-2024 22:26
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Pretty average TT for us I guess. No great performance, but no failure either. Stüssi could've been 10 seconds faster, but he'd still have lost two spots. The one to Tao was expected, and Cattaneo was on a good day and passed him as well. Nothing unexpected, and we're still sitting in 8th place - now the goal definitely has to be to defend that Top 10 spot! It's 54" to Madrazo in 11th, which will hopefully be enough given the short final climb tomorrow...
Darbellay also delivered nicely, being the strongest of his "group" not only on paper, but in-race. 16th place looks great, and hopefully he won't concede to many places on the final day.
So these are our hopes GC-wise; if both can more or less hold onto their current spots, it should be a pretty decent race for us. But it could still become a great race, if Schmid gets to do some breakaway magic. I hope we'll get lucky with the breaks for once, would be nice in our home race. But yeah, you can't count on them, it would just be cool if the Schmid plan actually worked out 
Congrats to Minions on the stage win, and great to have a really, really close battle up front! And Oomen even managed to stay in the podium fight - a stage win might be enough, and he could definitely be capable of doing so! As is McNulty, of course, as shown in Hong Kong already. Should be a good fight!
Thanks for the report to cunego!
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 26-02-2024 23:14
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Not a great TT from McNulty but good enough to get on the podium so can't complain too much. Don't love how close Hart got, putting our top 5 goal at some risk if tomorrow goes wrong. Hopefully I was right that it won't be that selective. Still in a good spot in the teams and should have a shot at winning it, but if a break wins that can really mess with things.
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| redordead |
Posted on 27-02-2024 08:22
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TGH did his job with Habtemichael and Borisavljevic not doing too bad either. We're holding three good GC positions so hopefully we can hold on to them in the final stage.
"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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| cio93 |
Posted on 27-02-2024 10:41
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Solid depth on the mountain stage, and an expectedly mediocre TT, so we're in no man's land in the GC but at least with many riders in the scoring range.
The most important thing about the final stage is whether we can hold on to first and third in the points classification, additionally THJ should retake third in the U25 and hopefully we can put one of our strong climbers into the break.
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 27-02-2024 17:43
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Another excellent result from Oomen. If we ignore Ukraine, this is proably his best season ever.
Congrats to Polar for an epic win and thanks for the reports!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| quadsas |
Posted on 27-02-2024 19:28
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Good effort by Dion to pull himself out of the GC helldepths, but race in general aint it chief
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 27-02-2024 20:03
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Cattaneo keeps his seventh place which is the best possible today. Together with the Bjerg stage win, not a bad race.
Thanks for the reports cunego and congrats beagle!
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| KaiserAdler |
Posted on 27-02-2024 20:15
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Such a nailbiter in the end. Sadly Reis couldn't keep the top 5 in hand but nonetheless a great result! Thanks for the report and congrats to the winners!
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 27-02-2024 20:56
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Oh wow, what a stage! Insane attacking and relentless chasing, and then a nailbiter at the very end - what a show!
And big congrats to Bernal, what a way to defend his title! There just weren't enough high mountains for Haig to make the difference here, but strong racing by him as well. And that finish by Oomen... great job, Lierse are having a huge month and could be very close to the promotion spots by now!
For us, the stage obviously didn't go according to plan. Schmid and Darbellay in the breakaway is exactly what we wanted - but the pack was having none of it. Schmid then unfortunately wasn't in the next attempt anymore - instead, there were some great climbers so not even Darbellay stood a chance of mounting a KoM challenge.
On the other hand, Stüssi was really attentive and always stayed with the guys he had to - the front 4 were just too strong. But 8th place in GC is a great performance - despite the missed win goal, which was clear before the race anyway.
And glad to see that Darbellay didn't pay for his breakaway attempts and chasing work, holding onto that strong 16th place. One in the Top 10, another one in the Top 20 - GC-wise, we definitely got more than we expected!
On the other hand, stage results were pretty poor. And unfortunately, Schmid was disappointing overall. He really should've joined the break on stages 2 and 3; just one breakaway attempt on day 5 plus a 5th place on stage 3 definitely means the gamble didn't pay off at all, and that's 7 wasted RDs for him. Looks like we estimated him to be stronger than he really is - he'll need some more lessons from Meurisse I guess ^^
All in all, we're probably a bit below the target 20 PpRD, but not so far that we'd have to call this race a failure. As said before, it was great GC-wise, but the lack of activity wasn't great to see - and hurt our scoring.
Thanks for the great reports to cunego, although it was sometimes frustrating to see my team do nothing, they were great to follow! And yeah, definitely surprised to see the Stelvio as a part of Tour de Suisse
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 28-02-2024 02:33
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Well McNulty managed to accomplish the goal of a top 5. That he did so in the least confidence building fashion possible isn't great, but excitement is not his middle name. Holding the podium was never likely given his poor performance versus Oomen in the TT. But 4th is still best among a pretty similar group of riders so a very nice outcome.
Team wasn't great to drop 2 spots in the teams competition. Kuss was particularly disappointing but we were probably punching above our weight earlier in the race anyway.
Congrats to Beagle and Polar on a very exciting win. I wonder how different the Giro would have been if Shikai had been a domestique rather than an attacker.
Thanks to Cunego for some great reports.
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 28-02-2024 06:46
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I can’t complain with a 9th overall. Well I can but I won’t 
Not a bad Race for us. Looking a bit stronger compared to what we have done so far this season. Hopefully we can continue to improve and hopefully get out if the relegation zone
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