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Giro d'Italia Discussion
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| knockout |
Posted on 28-12-2024 21:57
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First really good sprint of the season. Sureda with strong positioning and finishing fast. These sort of performances is what i wanted to see from him
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| ember |
Posted on 29-12-2024 05:59
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Happy to see us join the breakaway again! And what a start to the Giro this has been for Thijssen, but also for Jura  Congratulations, both! |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 06-01-2025 20:21
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 29-12-2024 09:56
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Good sprinting from Hamza to get some stage placings. Enjoy seeing plenty of breakaway action, shoutout to loan-in Bloem for multiple already!
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
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 29-12-2024 10:39
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At least Van Poppel didn't drop out of the top 10 this time.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 29-12-2024 13:46
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Guess it was our time to launch way to early and fall out of contention. Nice to see our team send our flat domestiques like Hugh Carthy to the front to drop Walls off with over a kilometer left. Funny thing is we have Forssell and Krigbaum on the roster who could do leadouts, but the AI prefers to use Carthy and Aranburu. Unless they tired out even earlier.
I'm remembering why I always prefer to have lesser sprinters in these races. Didn't realize Walls would be a top guy here. Much better to be in the 5-8 range.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 29-12-2024 20:19
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Another strong sprint by Lutsenko. This relatively weak sprinter field is a nice bonus to our scoring.
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| ember |
Posted on 29-12-2024 20:28
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Perfekt KoM points hunting by Laporte!  Suddenly he has a very healthy lead, which should see him safe in the jersey at least until the first mountain stage, and maybe Even the second one, not knowing how the points are distributed there. Very happy with this, as it gives us something to celebrate from the race
The Szarka show continues, congratulations again, this time even getting the win, Fabianski |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 29-12-2024 22:44
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Wow, Szarka
And obviously:
Given Gergely's great consistency so far - two podiums out of two bunch sprints, plus a Top 5 in the hills - I was hoping for this exact scenario (stage win + Ciclamino) to happen - but to see it become reality is just amazing! He really got his positioning and timing right every time so far (definitely not complaining about the two near misses), and it's both surprising and satisfying to watch. Surprising because he isn't the best sprinter out there - to be honest, Van Poppel should be almost uncontested. Satisfying, because we decided to give our stagiaire a full-time contract a couple of years back, and even kept him after relegation to CT and subsequent budget cuts. Really glad that he pays us everything back and more!
I don't know what it is that makes him so strong in this race; his great flat stat should definitely help, but otherwise he's not a special rider on paper.
And maybe it's just the Giro as a race that simply suits us - Bol won two stages last year and narrowly missed out on the Ciclamino, and now we're at 4 stage podiums already - amazing! Whatever happens now in terms of stage results and Ciclamino is a bonus, but hopefully our GC leader will be inspired by Gergely's success and not lose focus!
Thanks for the report and the congrats.
By the way, congrats to Gazelle for the huge Lutsenko show so far, looks to be a dangerous outsider for the Ciclamino if he can even compete in pan flat stages now!
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 30-12-2024 03:59
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Well, not our best strategy to go early with a lead-out who lacks the punch and couldn't maintain it for long. Was going to happen eventually so I'm hopeful we don't see the same again in the next stage.
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| knockout |
Posted on 30-12-2024 11:20
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Sureda woke up now. Cool to see and thats what we were hoping for. With the hills and mountains coming up, we really need to start going into breaks. Polanc has shown in Lithuania how its done, the rest of the team has to match his efforts here now.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-12-2024 13:20
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No matter what we try in the sprints, it doesn't seem to work out for us. Glad we are moving back to Formolo's territory for the next stages.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 30-12-2024 13:49
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Walls continues to go too early so the lesser sprinters win. Well, sometimes sprinters don't even win lol, but that's PCM. Doesn't seem like the efforts to keep favorites in front have worked on this course. Lutsenko having quite the race on every terrain right now.
Curious (likely in a bad way) to see what strategy my guys attempt to execute with the mountains hitting soon.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 30-12-2024 16:07
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baseballlover312 wrote:
Walls continues to go too early so the lesser sprinters win. Well, sometimes sprinters don't even win lol, but that's PCM. Doesn't seem like the efforts to keep favorites in front have worked on this course. Lutsenko having quite the race on every terrain right now.
Yeah, we don't always re-engineer sprint stages in tours because it is too much work but I did edit a lot of these stages so I little disappointing. I think we have an unfortunate negative feedback loop with the mangame structure - sending top sprinters to GTs is already discouraged by the mangame and the AI adds to that discouragement which makes the fields weaker which makes the AI issues worse which discourages sending 2nd tier sprinters. It is a little sad to have a Giro sprint field that is probably of a similar quality to a C2 sprint race (maybe worse).
I think it also adds to the clutter in the GC field because sending a 10-20 quality GC guys is much more likely to be rewarding on a PPrD basis than committing to a sprint team. If we had more teams focused purely on sprinting we might have better sprints and less GC mess. Although given the sprint outcomes it is hard to expect a manager to commit a whole team to sprinting at a GT.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 30-12-2024 20:38
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Hmm... Please, could Abhi post the remaining reports, I liked "his" results better 
Just kidding, huge thanks to kb for the great reports so far!
And I mean, 5th place is by no means a bad result by Szarka - we expected him to take one, maybe two Top 5s in total, netting us a handful points from the sprint stages. We didn't see that extremely weak sprinter field coming, though, and so it's been an amazing show by Szarka so far!
The pressure of the Ciclamino maybe was a tad too much for him, given that it was the first time he really messed up his positioning. Still sprinting to 5th was good, and we'll take that outcome anytime. If he survives the mountains, he could still have a shot at a Top 3 in the Ciclamino standings, which is amazing.
Just a bit suboptimal for us that Lutsenko suddenly has morphed into a top sprinter, but I mean, he's a world-class guy, and it's definitely great news for Gazelle to see that spending more than half of his RDs here is more than worth it. Congrats! Defending the Ciclamino against Herklotz will be tough, but with Lutsenko's form in the last few days, why not?
Now, I have to hope that Stüssi hasn't lost his focus during these three flat stages, and will be up to his task on the next five crucial days. If there's something he doesn't really like, it's short, steep ascents, and I guess we're getting an awful lot of those now. Stüssi holding on and Errazkin getting some Top 5s would be our optimal scenario, but we'll see...
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| ember |
Posted on 31-12-2024 05:44
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We are happy with how this Giro is progressing, Laporte in a jersey is a big plus Really hoping AHJ now also to aggressive and join breakaways on the early mountainous stages. No reason not to, seeing his GC is long gone |
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 31-12-2024 09:18
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First real look at Olivier all season, and it's a good look
Nice podium from Kulikovskiy a couple of stage back.
Thanks for all the great reports so far kb!
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 31-12-2024 12:34
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Awful positioning by Stüssi once again, but at least no gaps once again. Let's hope the mountainous rating tomorrow will get him a bit more love from the AI.
Errazkin on the other hand easily our biggest disappointment so far. Almost no stage results, no breakaway attempts, mostly wasted RDs so far. But the race isn't over, in particular S14 could be nice for him.
Congrats to Herklotz once again, guess Lutsenko's reign is soon over.
Thanks for the report once again!
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 31-12-2024 13:11
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World Champion
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Fouche is doing a superb job hanging around 20th on GC ready for breakaway fun. Bring it on!
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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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 31-12-2024 14:21
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Tour de France Champion
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Well, finally a pretty good stage for us, with both Aranburu and Carthy placing at least. It's not much since they're now in 15th and 17th place on GC and well out of it, but I guess I'm glad they're still mixing it in and haven't been completely forgotten by the AI or anything. Skjelmose hanging onto the front group is also nice. He keeps that nice little trickle point for being 3rd in U25. Gets me excited for the possibility of him taking white in a GT next year (if we stay in PT and ride them).
Thanks for the continued great reports!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| ember |
Posted on 01-01-2025 11:08
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Very surprised to see AHJ dropped from the breakaway on stage 10. Honestly also very worrying for what is to come. Nice to see Laporte have a go on stage 11, or he had managed some points on the first climb it would have been a great effort. Unfortunately not strong enough, but that is how it goes.
Congratulations on the stage and getting the jersey back, cup! Difficult to see him lose it from here |
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