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Vuelta a Espana Discussion
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| ember |
Posted on 29-01-2025 20:39
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Not much to see in the TT for us, which was expected. Novak more than 4 minutes behind the GC lead will make it really difficult to get a top 10 racing passively. It really should give Novak only more motivation to target breakaways and hopefully a stage win. As it is now, with Groenewegen struggling in the sprints, he might be our best chance at a stage win here. |
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 29-01-2025 20:53
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A bit hard to say whether the TT itself for Aular was good or bad, but I assume it's more or less in the range he should be. Looking at the current GC I would say he's on target so far and there are no excuses to not get that top-7, or in an ideal world, 6th or even 5th.
Was nice to see Aguilar Mendez in action 
Thank you for the great tt report, kb!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 29-01-2025 23:01
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Very solid ride for Galta there as one of the better GC guys amongst those with similar skills. Feel pretty good with that. Stussi and Foss ahead right now, but well within range to pass in the mountains. Dombrowski behind but sure to pass Galta. That puts him still in the top 5 hunt and solidly within the top 10 headed towards the mountains. Can't complaint with that.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 30-01-2025 10:12
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Solid ride from Choi to be up there in the Top 5 going into the real Mountains. Would be very happy if he can keep himself in and around the fringes of the Top 5 throughout the next couple of weeks. Although a stage win from one of our riders would be gold, a Top 5 would be even better for our survival chances!
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| Bikex |
Posted on 30-01-2025 13:27
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Yes, Mano! Finally our first victory of the season, it was time.
I sent him to the Vuelta solely for this stage. It's great that he could deliver and the gamble pays off. Nice to have another Thai GC stage winner now! |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 30-01-2025 13:41
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Galta has been alert and solid in the hills given his fairly weak acceleration, which is nice. Another top 10 and only losing time to those who won the stage is a good result on this kind of stage.
Our depth has been a bit strange all race though. Van Trict as our second rider across is peculiar, as he was basically pack/breakaway fodder for us, and he was better climbers and puncheurs well behind. Gregaard and Eg have been well down on a lot of moderately selective stages, which has taken them out of those 20-40 GC places we often like to keep them. But maybe that will come in handy later for a breakaway, or they'll have saved their energy to support Galta. We'll see.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 30-01-2025 13:52
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Given Choi isn't the best in the Hills, every stage that he avoids losing time to his main rivals has to be considered a success.
Dombrowski showing his power which I'd expect we'll see more of! Sivakov also displaying credentials to be competitive.
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 30-01-2025 19:18
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Another strong ride by Pavel Sivakov, which makes the time loss of stage 1 even more annoying! At least the only way is up from now on. Thanks for the consistency of the reports, much appreciated.
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| knockout |
Posted on 30-01-2025 20:11
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Pretty solid stage for us. Blums with a strong 6th place, Foss finishes in the group with most favourites and defends his third place in GC, Ansons defends his youth jersey again. All things that are nice. Would have loved to see Plapp more interested in racing for GC but hopefully that clears him (and Eenkhoorn) up for some soonish breakaway ideas. And who knows - the proper mountains are still to come and other youth riders dont seem overly interested in that classification either so that could still turn towards Plapp...
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| ember |
Posted on 30-01-2025 20:52
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That was a super strong final few hundred meters from Novak, coming from nowhere and climbing all the way to 3rd  Can't help it but think what could have been with better positioning, but also kind of expected due to his bad GC placing after the TT. Nice to see him bounce back in such a way with a stage podium!
Also a nice bonus to have him in the KoM jersey. The GC looks difficult after early time losses and the TT, and if his GC position won't improve much as we move into the final week, I definitely hope he goes for the jersey and joins breakaways and the fight for points. |
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| ryant |
Posted on 30-01-2025 21:38
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TT wasn't too bad but I don't know what the hell happened for us to be so terribly positioned ahead of the last climb and Morton obviously couldn't make up any ground. We were lucky not to lose any more time than we did to Dombrowski which is good but losing almost all our buffer to him before the high mountains really hurts.
Terrible stage but we live to fight another day and we are still just 1'30'' down so it's still wide open...
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 14-03-2025 02:30
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 30-01-2025 22:15
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Good job Dombrowski! Smart to be well positioned and aggressive on such a narrow road. That's some very welcome seconds and points gained.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 31-01-2025 08:38
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Staying in the pack is the most important thing on these kind of stages, so Aular did well enough. Sivakov close to overtaking him now, but with the relative little time behind guys like Stüssi, Karlsson, Foss and Choi he should still have the cards for the 7th place in his own hands in all the upcoming mountain stages.
Thank you for another great report, kandesbunzler!
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| redordead |
Posted on 31-01-2025 08:47
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That looked like a wasted effort in the breakaway. We need to come away with at least something in the coming stages.
"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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| Nemolito |
Posted on 31-01-2025 15:34
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Did not expect that to happen when I saw Halvorsen at the back of the bunch, looking as if he were relaxing and happy to be safe in the final 2 km. I'll definitely take it though! A very bad first sprinting week has been forgotten for a big part now, as it's amazing to see Halvorsen win a race for us for the first time, and complete our GT stage trilogy as a team. Points-wise still quite below what we were hoping for (when I say we, I mean myself and my imaginary fans?), but winning a stage definitely makes up for a lot. Hopefully this isn't the last good result for Halvorsen in this Vuelta with still some sprints to come, hopefully some more managers with subpar performing sprinters in this Vuelta can also enjoy a win like this. Gaviria has had enough fun 
Thank you for the superb report, kb!
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| knockout |
Posted on 31-01-2025 15:51
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Fantastic sprint by Sureda! Much appreciated! These 3rd place sort of results were the reason why i wanted to sign (someone like) him
Super chaotic sprint preparation. Crazy how far back all three podium finishers were with 300m to go.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Laurens147 |
Posted on 31-01-2025 15:58
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Wouters again with a wonderful sprint. Losing to Halvorsen is no shame, although the stage win would have been the icing on the cake Congrats Nemolito!
Thanks KB for the reports!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 31-01-2025 23:38
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This race can't end soon enough.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 31-01-2025 23:59
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Looks like AKA is fully checked out at this point.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 01-02-2025 12:56
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Ouch, losing time to Bernal is far from ideal. It will be hard to catch him if he continues like this. Morton probably should have forced Bernal to do all the chasing.
Many more mountain stages to go though.
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