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Tour of Qatar - Discussion
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 20-10-2024 21:14
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Team Leader
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Completely forgot our first wildcard was this early in the season. Apologies. But I'm elated to catch the race just in time to witness Hayakawa clinch this fantastic stage victory. What a result! Too bad we can't score points from this, we really could use them! Brilliant coverage of the sprints, UU! Thanks for that!
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 20-10-2024 21:57
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Team Leader
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Jakobsen not quite where he needed to be on Stage 5 which has bumped him off the podium fight. Currently in 5th, I'd be happy if he can just stay there!
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 21-10-2024 03:16
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Directeur Sportif
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Since this is the first edition since we decided to narrow the roads thought I would post a few reactions from reporting.
The good-
The top two sprinters were the top two sprinters. Gaviria generally followed wheels while Grosu had a train. I think Rabobank’s train was the most consistently successful we have seen under PCM22, congrats to Alex on figuring out the secret sauce.
The bad-
The next two, Groenewegen and Cullaigh, were terrible. And while bad AI luck contributes I think they both had issues that you can point to in the stats. As Croatia called after S1 (that guy knows the game), Peak’s flat was too high for Groenewegen and he kept pulling him ahead and exhausting him (and maybe the guys behind him). It was noticeable that Rabobank always came from further back. I think Cullaigh may have had the opposite problem. Wippert is a 68 flat, my thinking is that he was too slow to keep up and that resulted in Cullaigh being out of position.
Obviously some other guys like Kemboi and Dainese also suffered, either just bad luck or maybe victims of Peak as well. There is still a lot of density in the sprint stats - 14 riders between 79 and 81 sp in this race - as long as that is the case there is always going to be a lottery element to the sprints in the mangame, regardless of the AI. Overall I think this race supports that two lanes are an improvement.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 05-12-2025 21:32
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 21-10-2024 04:27
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Tour de France Champion
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Spectacular race for us, considering our squad and the expectations. Best of the rest behind the clear best two PT sprinters is really an absolutely ideal situation for us. AKA with a stage win and a GC podium. What a way to start off his year. It's these types of results that we need if we want to stay up this year. Per is Per. He may not repeat last year, but we know his talent level. AKA is one of a lot of similar sprinters that can go either way in any given season. To score big here while similar sprinters are in the 10-20 range on GC without a stage win is huge for AKA's comparative PpRD.
As for the rest of the team, obviously not much going since we don't have any time trialists and that's where the minor placings went. Forssell at least gets above minimum there. But we knew we were limited going in. 3rd place is amazing.
Thanks to Ulrich for the reports and congrats to Moser on a deserved win! Sorry to those whom the lottery failed this time—I'm sure I'll be back with you soon.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| ember |
Posted on 21-10-2024 06:16
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Team Leader
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Thank you for the reports, UU! Your coverage of the sprints have been brilliant, as it has been very easy to follow the movements by the sprinters and the trains. Thank you!
Happy to get that stage win by Kragh. Quite the consistency he has been proving for a very long time now.
For Groenewegen, thank you for writing your thoughts as a reporter, UU. If the AI is not able to adjust to Peak’s strength and not let Kragh and him stay in the front, but next to the pack, but still be “solo” out in the wind for several kilometers with Groenewegen on the wheel, we will struggle a lot this season in all flat races where all three are present. Hello, relegation, is my immediate thought, but we shall see  Fingers crossed both can score well in all races where the others are not!
Congratulations to both Roman and alexkr on great races, but especially to bbl. That’s a sensational race by the elder Kragh to land a GC podium here. |
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 21-10-2024 07:27
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Team Leader
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No crazy prologue result from Cosnefroy but Jakobsen doing what he needed to do and not only staying ahead of those around him but even moving up to 4th! A fantastic GC result for us given the field and just the kind of start we needed from Jakobsen to his season. Some minor scoring from the Points classification too rewarding his consistency.
Couple of points from Cosnefroy who was the only other rider who really scored but still a great overall result for the team!
Congrats to the Top 2 favourites and well done to bbl also with a big result for AKA.
Thanks for the great reports and the insight throughout 
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| redordead |
Posted on 21-10-2024 07:27
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Team Leader
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I think we got the most out of this race that we could have realistically expected to. From Duric getting those 'free' U25 points to Christodoulos and Groselj putting their best foot forward in the time-trial.
It's marginal, but we might need these kinds of small wins to see us through the season and hopefully we don't have many more races like Tasmania.
Congrats to those who have done well and thanks to UU for the reports
"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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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 21-10-2024 07:35
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Tour de France Champion
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My boy Gaviria does it again!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 21-10-2024 08:17
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3837
Joined: 20-04-2020
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Thank you for the great reports as always, Ulrich, very clear and easy to read as always.
Stages two to four were very consistent for Halvorsen, and even though stage 5 was a zero pointer (or seconder), a good epilogue lead towards a fifth place in GC. All in all a great result for our new sprinter, very welcome after a shocking Tasmania performance, and glad to not be among the unlucky sprinters/teams here. Congratulations on those that did well, and conmiserations for those more unlucky ones. Glad to see Manninen at least did something on the final two stages for jandal.
Decent performances by Sütterlin, Vlatos and Erdenebat for some depth points and also Aguilar Mendez' with a top-8 in the U25 PT for the first time, we'll take it
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-10-2024 09:46
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World Champion
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Some will always be dissapointed from such a race. Very happy to see the two strongest sprinters coming out on top though!
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 21-10-2024 12:56
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World Champion
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Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
I think Rabobank’s train was the most consistently successful we have seen under PCM22, congrats to Alex on figuring out the secret sauce.
Pure luck. I'm not even sure if I have this train for all the races Grosu is in. We'll need to check. Thanks for the reports!
Like I said in the previous post, second is a fantastic result, but it does sting a bit the way we lost the fight for the first place.
Congrats, Roman! And ember for walking away with a stage win after all the Groenewegen problems.
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 21-10-2024 21:29
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Hum... Not really satisfied with this final stage to be honest.
Chavanne did just the bare minimum, finishing last of the Top 4 prologue riders. That's 30 points lost compared to the case where he takes 2nd as last year. But at least he delivered, and a Top 15 GC is fine.
The other TTers all finishing with the same time isn't optimal, either, at least one of them could've joined the 78ers who finished a second faster. Then, getting 51st, 52nd and 53rd in GC clearly isn't optimal - three spots better for each of them and we get some additional points. Vernon also losing out on the U25 on s.t., just like we only get 6th in teams while matching the 5th best time... Not the luckiest stage. And obviously, if Groves had gotten another Top 5, that would've been a Top 10 overall. But the season is still long, plenty of room for improvement
All in all, I guess we got a little bit more than the minimum expectation, leaving us with some "what-ifs". But several other teams didn't even get close to minimum expectations, so I guess we're rather fine.
Congrats to Moser on a deserved Gaviria GC win, and to unbeatable SKA on another stage win. Hopefully he'll experience some defeats later in the season, though
Thanks for the reports!
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 21-10-2024 22:21
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Team Manager
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Well not a good race at all - no TT lucky days to salvage a better GC result than 29th. Nice for Hepburn to have a race as best finisher in his final season of use though. And Van der Lijke did manage to get one good sprint stage out of it, so that was something!
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| knockout |
Posted on 22-10-2024 09:52
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8235
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Morne the highlight of the race as 47th in GC says everything. We needed some more randomness from splits, echelons, break success etc for us to score here and didnt end up getting that and Morne could have finished like 20 places up on a good day (only -2s).
Of course that feels a bit disappointing but it might not be a terrible race in the very end with PCT teams stealing some valuable stage points and the big winners mostly riding for predicted midtable teams (big assumption that the predictions are somwhat accurate lol). Yeah i'm grasping at straws but this was never going to be a good race for us in the first place.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 23-10-2024 08:49
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Totally missed this, but damn Aniolkowski is on some good shit! Best race of the season so far, just a shame we won't take any points that can carry us forwards from here...
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| Roman |
Posted on 23-10-2024 17:37
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Great final sprint stage from Gaviria with solid confirmation in the final epilogue, what a nice surprise to see him taking the race win home. 
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| tastasol |
Posted on 25-10-2024 14:55
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3030
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Quite happy with the result for Korsaeth in the end. Was never going to be an easy race, so good to see him take advantage of the intermediate sprints to land a decent result.
Congrats to Roman on the win!
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| Bikex |
Posted on 17-11-2024 12:39
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Team Leader
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Hsu unfortunately couldn't repeat his strong performances here from the last years. Luckily, in the epilogue my riders showed up securing 3 GC top 25s, the teams classification and the white jersey for Matsuda. Thanks for the nice reports Ulrich and congrats Roman! |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 31-12-2024 13:26
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World Champion
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Kanter reminding me why I loved the Demare times when I could rightfully ignore these kind of races...
Not that he performed badly at all, and he did do enough in the final sprint to have a sufficient buffer to keep most TTers at bay and get a decent GC finish in the end.
It was exhausting though to see him always take a spot towards the end of the "sprinters bubble" in all sprint preparations, which obviously left him without a single serious shot at a surprise podium that would've already been enough to get him into the Top 10 overall.
The two stars did end up on top which is what we all wanted to see from this first test of the season, and I can't help but enjoy seeing AKA doing this well! Thanks UU.
Hey! Apologies for my absence!
Between being busy and basically constantly sick, I feel behind schedule to follow the early races live, and then my ADHD ass kicked in and faltered under that ever-growing backlog again.
I'm back for the Giro and hopefully everything after, and I want to reiterate I'm still very much committed to this game long-term if you want me around.
Happy New Year!
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