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Tour of Northern Europe - Discussion
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 18-01-2026 14:59
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Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
baseballlover312 wrote:
Per went for it way too early. I guess maybe it was a GC play, but if your strategy is to lose 4 minutes on a flat sprint day and make it back by attacking 60 km out the next day, you might need a lobotomy.
GC wise, our poor performance got worse as we have no shot at depth spots now. This stage was even more head scratching for that. Keep in mind everyone except AKA is 71+ cobbles and Meiler is 77. This is truly something to behold:
Congrats to Tinkoff! And thanks for the report.
I had this in the report but think I took it out as there was too much going on - unfortunately the team all dropped back to support AKA, which has been seen before when the game doesn't consider any of the team a GC leader. This has always been a tough race to balance because there is a lot for the AI to consider and it isn't that smart. Clearly it didn't consider the cobblers GC leaders this year. That said I thought there was some really good racing on individual stages so optimistic we can make some tweaks to avoid too much GC wackiness.
No worries. Ultimately we're only losing a few points from this, but I think it does solidify that's a significant risk to take a sprinter to a race where you have middling/questionable GC ambitions as with Skjelmose earlier in the year. I still don't really understand the AI wanting to help sprinters so much on non-sprint stage as I'm not sure what that accomplishes, but now that we know it's a factor I can plan around it better in the future.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 18-01-2026 15:43
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Ouch, with Malecki missing the split in stage 2 and Aleotti puncturing in stage 3 we are pretty much done here.
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| roturn |
Posted on 18-01-2026 20:44
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So how is Hooydonck not attentive on day 2 already making Vansevenant the clear leader. Just for him to lose contact before the cobbles even for no reason.
So race already over for us. Only stage hunting now.
Quite frustrating performance once again unfortunately.
Thanks for the report and congrats to the winners. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 19-01-2026 05:25
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The cobbles hardly meant anything there. I hope it’s better balanced in the one day race. Here it was probably a good thing for us. Stavrakakis steals a couple of points is cool, but it’s the 10th GC from Kiriakidis that matters.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-01-2026 09:37
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| knockout |
Posted on 19-01-2026 05:55
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Solid tt by herregodts which puts him into a great position for now. Still has to survive the hilly stages which are a challenge too and are not given freely but the bigger obstacle was the cobbles. Fingers crossed
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| ember |
Posted on 19-01-2026 07:48
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Interesting GC before the decisive hilly stages! Very curious to see how the big guns play it out. Will be cool to see many of them go for it, so that we get an aggressive approach fighting for the podium positions and the GC win. Having said all that, of course Wirtgen is now the overwhelming favourite. |
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| redordead |
Posted on 19-01-2026 09:19
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3 riders in the top 20 is very good, but I doubt we keep them there. Maybe one of them makes it, not sure who the AI will prioritise, probably none.
Philipsen has basically hit his quota for this race, but one more top 3 stage result would be nice.
"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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| Bikex |
Posted on 19-01-2026 09:45
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knockout wrote:
Solid tt by herregodts which puts him into a great position for now. Still has to survive the hilly stages which are a challenge too and are not given freely but the bigger obstacle was the cobbles. Fingers crossed
I have to say great move to bring him here. I would've expected the cobbbles stat to be more deciding in the TT.
Van Baarle and Tiller sit good in GC right now, but I worry the hills might end up being a little bit too hard for them. Hsu hasn't done well in the sprints so far. I hope he can take his last chance in stage 5. |
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| knockout |
Posted on 19-01-2026 12:40
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Bikex wrote:
knockout wrote:
Solid tt by herregodts which puts him into a great position for now. Still has to survive the hilly stages which are a challenge too and are not given freely but the bigger obstacle was the cobbles. Fingers crossed
I have to say great move to bring him here. I would've expected the cobbbles stat to be more deciding in the TT.
Van Baarle and Tiller sit good in GC right now, but I worry the hills might end up being a little bit too hard for them. Hsu hasn't done well in the sprints so far. I hope he can take his last chance in stage 5.
Thanks 
In a way its because i lack leader alternatives for this race. Ovsya is the obvious one but i have a hard time imagining him finishing better than 30th overall here with both tt and hi as obvious weaknesses. Someone like Lopez is completely unusable on the cobbles. So its "only" Herregodts or min wage allrounders like Ansons as leaders for me.
I dont have guys like Van Baarle or Tiller who can do a good leaders job here too as the current gc position shows (and i think they have a solid chance of staying there) so i had to take the small gamble of sending Herregodts here if i wanted the chance to avoid a low score.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 19-01-2026 14:44
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MVD is in a very good position. Didn't expect to be this high at this point. Just flats and hills to go, so hoping he can keep it going.
Thanks for the report!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 19-01-2026 15:33
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Indeed, looks like a stage racer's race this year. I guess it's only fair after last year that it bounces back.
Thanks for the continued reports. We'll hope dropping back for AKA was worth it and we can get one more result out of him. Once the hills come, our race is pretty much over.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 20-01-2026 00:39
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Well, at least I can console myself by imagining that the team sitting up for AKA gave him enough energy for today's stage. So close to a great win in his final season, but second place is still a very nice result for him. His positioning remains elite in his twilight years. Congrats to Cedevita!
Nothing really to fight for now as I expect Menten and Per to drop out of the minor GC spots on the hills. Hope for some breakaways!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| SotD |
Posted on 20-01-2026 05:11
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After two stagewins 5th is perfectly fine. The important thing here was to get more points and to keep the lead for another day.
Still a chance to lose the Jersey as it’s very close, but atleast we came one day closer to achieving the goal.
Congrats to Cedevita for a good race so far!
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| ember |
Posted on 20-01-2026 06:51
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Hoping to see us try to be creative on the hilly stages now and maybe try our luck in breakaways. That would be cool.
Congratulations on the win, red! |
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| redordead |
Posted on 20-01-2026 06:52
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Big win for Jasper 
I'm surprised Siric wasn't doing the leadout. Does being 11th in GC prevent him from doing that? Luckily Groselj stepped up and looks like he did a great job. I was thinking that maybe sending him here wasn't the best use of his RDs, but he's contributed a lot to Philipsen's sprint results
"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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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 21-01-2026 02:30
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Genuinely crazy bug to have your whole team drop for a sprinter with no flat stages left, but I've talked about it enough. Thanks for the report!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-01-2026 05:23
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Kiriakidis kept his 10th place, but he really should be able to atleast keep up with riders like Vermeersch, Siric etc.
Let’s hope he have better legs tomorrow otherwise he could make a bad tumble.
Farantakis still in the points Jersey, and us in 2nd Team is great. I suspect a drop in teams is likely with breaks tomorrow.
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| knockout |
Posted on 21-01-2026 06:00
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Rune with a brilliant ride. This is loooking great so far with just one more stage to go!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 21-01-2026 07:15
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Good to see Tolhoek and Kooij trying to keep the flag high, because this has really been a race to forget for Gerts.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 21-01-2026 08:11
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My guys are doing their best to be present in the breakaway so can't blame them. That 8th place by Vacek must be a career's best, so we'll take it
Thanks for the amazing reporting so far!
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