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Tour of Qatar Discussion
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| CountArach |
Posted on 17-04-2014 16:59
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Wow that was intense!
3 riders in the front group here including Cornu and Bonnet. It is a bit of a pity Flens missed the cut but you can't have everything. I'm also optimistic about a decent result in the team rankings thanks to having 3 strong TT riders here. It should be a decent race for us after all!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 09-12-2025 04:54
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| jph27 |
Posted on 17-04-2014 17:48
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Disappointing but unsurprising from us here. Reus could do a top 10 on GC though which is great  |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 17-04-2014 18:58
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Yay a random win! Thanks for loaning Kuznetsov to us Selwink. With this kind of performance at this level he'll surely be useful for you in future seasons.On the other hand it's a shame Allonca couldn't stay in front, he had a shot at a top15 after last stage.
It'll be interesting to see how the overall will look like behind the first 2 riders. I'm not sure I want to see the first ranking update.
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| Rin |
Posted on 17-04-2014 19:08
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Normally I would just write "......................" but I felt that is irresponsible and so thats the text and the extra comment. I hate this race.
It really makes me hating sprints and thats what I personally (RL) like the most.
Edited by Rin on 17-04-2014 19:09
 Team Bianchi - 2012 Man-Game ProContinental Tour Champions
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 17-04-2014 19:49
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Kittel to save the team goal...
Calendar certainly needs reconsidering though. There needs to at least be some races where sprinters can win, and Qatar doesn't cut it for that.
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| SotD |
Posted on 17-04-2014 20:01
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SportingNonsense wrote:
Kittel to save the team goal...
Calendar certainly needs reconsidering though. There needs to at least be some races where sprinters can win, and Qatar doesn't cut it for that.
Agreed... It's frustrating to spend racedays for the sprint team here. I kinda knew my team would suck, but this is even worse than normal. I don't even have one rider in st. with the big group anymore. Also I have given up on reading the reports to the fullest, as I have no idea where my riders are, and since Guerao is here and it's a sprint stage that is rather frustrating. So I just jump to the resultlist and conclude that everything is fucked up, and wait for the race to end.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 17-04-2014 22:18
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SportingNonsense wrote:
Kittel to save the team goal...
Calendar certainly needs reconsidering though. There needs to at least be some races where sprinters can win, and Qatar doesn't cut it for that.
Boonen and Bewley are sprinters. What's wrong with that? This race clearly suits sprinters with high flat stats, which a true top level sprinter should have. In fact the fantastic thing is that this helps to differentiate the races from sprint classics, where it will not necessarily be decided by the flat stat. There are different types of sprinters out there and this helps to differentiate between those like Swift, Kip and my own Stauff who are just quick and those like Boonen and Bewley who are more strong man sprinters.
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 17-04-2014 22:33
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Please explain how Rowe, Blythe, Ratto and Guarnieri were all distanced in my team then. Not good enough flat stat?
*has a tantrum*
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 17-04-2014 22:59
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As rjc alludes to, this edition of Qatar clearly is not best suited to sprinters with high flat stats. It is quite obvious from the make up of the group that time triallists have benefited most from the wind. Did any of the big TT riders in the race miss out? Some do have high flat stats, but others are no better or actually worse than a lot of the sprinters in the field.
Boonen and Bewley are in a category of their own, which invariably puts them at the top of the individual standings. They have high sprint stats but they are not simply sprinters.
For time triallists who don't climb, this is the one stage race where they can get a high GC placing. For that reason, there is no reason why Qatar cannot remain a PT race. Push the TT out to 5km, further increase the wind strength, and that becomes a strong addition to the calendar.
But on the other hand, it now means that sprinters don't have any stage race where they can place highly. PT may be more about mountains, but with 17 stage races, that is not right. They do have various stage win opportunities but in terms of actual races it just leaves Moscow as a definite, then Koln and Praha as probable.
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| Heine |
Posted on 18-04-2014 07:01
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A split like this one could've given me a good suprise results, if I had had any riders in it...
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| roturn |
Posted on 18-04-2014 10:49
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Boonen with real luck here.
Good to see Schädlich and Boom already moving up into the top10. With a good TT this might become a nice race for me after 5 anonymous stages...
Also Dumoulin more or less secured a top30 already and eventually could finish inside the top20.
Next races though I want a more aggressive Rothaus - Aegon. |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 18-04-2014 10:54
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Interesting stage again with another breakaway winning. Get ready PCT people, this is what's going to happen in Oman! |
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| mb2612 |
Posted on 18-04-2014 11:00
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A top 5, nice, that's 5 bonus points.
 [url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182] Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
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| Smowz |
Posted on 18-04-2014 11:04
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Well gotta be pleased with that 4th from a breakaway. I like Vaugranard because I felt he seems to have the knack of getting in breakaways and nice that we were allowed a chance of getting in one with the likes of the crud that Santander put in these races.
Wonderful pace of reports here Froomedog - I hope you don't find some of the negative comments on here to demotivating. I happen to think your reports are very good indeed and rest assured if my riders are not performing as expected I will still read every word of your report.
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 18-04-2014 11:16
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The only time I've won a top sprinters bunch sprint in two? three? seasons and there's a break in front... typical.
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| niconico |
Posted on 18-04-2014 11:21
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This is turning out to be quite a good race for us, surprisingly enough. Damn shame Sagan couldn't win that one, but he is hardly a sprinter so can't really be that dissapointed.
Only thing I'm sore about is obviously Reckweg. In position to get one of his best GC results ever and then there's 1 abandonee in the entire race. Him. Great.
Still I'm really looking forward to the ITT now and hoping Dempster can squeeze into the Top 10. The way I see it there's like 7 riders fighting for the places 8th-10th.
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| beagle |
Posted on 18-04-2014 12:20
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Seeing picture with sprinting Boonen way behind peloton was quite heart attacking moment, well done Froomedog Luckily only notable lost is point jersey in favour of Bewley. On the other hand advantage of 12s looks more or less safe enough for defending of overall win!
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| Roman |
Posted on 18-04-2014 13:51
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Hmmm, Boonen is really lucky that the break took the stage, otherwise this would have been a really fantastic final time trial - pure Boonen vs Bewley battle with only a couple of seconds gap. But I will take that points jersey as well and 2nd place overall, it is way better than Boonen completly giving us his away because of a puncture. Hopefully Sergent can surprise a little bit in the TT and get a nice top 10 result, Gough and Hepburn should bring home some solid GC place as well. This is a good race for us. 
Congrats to Festina, finally a little bit of a good luck for them here.
Oh and I have to thank for these great and fast reports to Froomedog!
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| beagle |
Posted on 18-04-2014 14:05
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Roman wrote:
Hmmm, Boonen is really lucky that the break took the stage, otherwise this would have been a really fantastic final time trial - pure Boonen vs Bewley battle with only a couple of seconds gap. But I will take that points jersey as well and 2nd place overall, it is way better than Boonen completly giving us his away because of a puncture.
I feel very very offended as you even didn´t take into consideration that Boonen could beat Bewley in the sprint, no matter if break survived or not.
As a punishment, Boonen will score 2 points in final TT and regain his sprint jersey back! 
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| Roman |
Posted on 18-04-2014 14:16
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Yeah, I was lucky, you was unlucky, but this is how it goes... if I should count how many times I was unlucky and lucky in the last season... It is part of this game and it is good for you, you will 99% win this race, you deserve it.
I would hate that scenario, really! Hopefully yellow jersey does not gives so big wings as gives Red Bull to their great time trialists.
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