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Tour d'Algerie - Discussion
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 22-01-2013 15:38
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World Champion
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Tour d'Algerie route can be described in two parts. The first four stages should be for the sprinters. Meanwhile the last stage should decide who wins the Overall Classification.
Stage 1 & 2 are carbon copies of each other. With decent length climb in the middle of the stage, but not hard enough to really cause many problems for the sprinters.
Stage 3 looks like the toughest one out of the four for the pure sprinters with quite bit of climbing. We might see pure sprinters dropped, but even here anything else than mass sprint would come as surprise. Stage 4 follows with a climb in the middle and a downhill and a flat to the finish. Last stage for the sprinters too shine.
Stage 5 is the key one. Easy enough until the last 20km where the race will be decided. There'll be lots of nervous riding as everyone will try to amass on the front to be in best positions which may lead to chaotic finale to this first stage race of the Continental Divison.
 | Die Berg Komt Er come into the race as huge favoruites for overall. David Arroyo is the best climber in the division and hence will be under huge pressure to perform and win the Overall GC, especially with this race being team's win goal. He'll have decent support in Giogieri, Ibarguren and De Weert. The team also brings two capable spritners, Rizza & Duque who'll be on a look-out for stage wins in the first 4 days. |
 | Kappa - ENI look to be the biggest rivals with Marco Marzano present against Arroyo. He'll have similar support to Arroyo with Kiserlovski, Maisto & Wellens all look to help him as far as possible. Dalto & Appollonio are not the best sprinters in the field, but capable of good result on a good day. |
 | Iberia is another team that will fight on all terrains here in Algeria. Dani Moreno will lead the GC charge, he's not a climber of Arroyo or Marzano calibre, but he can stand well on his own and if the climb isn't selective, we can expect him to be very dangerous with great sprint on him. He'll have a great team supporting him with Perez Sanchez, Oliveira & Gallego well capable of results on their own. Anton Martin might be bit isolated in a team full of climbers, but he should definitely sneak good result here or there. |
 | Allianz brings another great team to fight on all stages here. Hans Dekkers in terms of speed is the fastest sprinter on the field and you'd expect a win from him here. On the GC front, Yannick Talabaradon will lead the team, with good support of Matteo Carrara & Marconi Durán. Kim Kirchen will also be important helper in flat stages, as well as the mountain one. |
 | The Ukrainian team is lead by two riders. Oleksandr Polivoda who's one of the better sprinters here and as many others will at least target a stage win. Meanwhile the GC fight is lead by Ricardo Mestre, who'll be looking for around Top 5 result here, however his support is pretty non existent. |
 | MTN has a Top 5 goal here and their rider to try and achieve this will be Julian Rodas, there are 3 stand-out climbers in this field, but rest is pretty close together, so there's definite chance they can achieve their goal here. Their sprint train looks slightly more impressive than the mountain train, with Uwimama, Ben Youcef and Abdallah looking like a dangerous trio. Expect them to be present in all sprints here. |
 | Kenya Airways brings two riders capable of getting good result here. First, for the first stages is Nico Schinker, Luxembourgian should have nice support with Brammeier & Chaoufi and definitely is a candidate for stage wins here. Yasmani Martinez is their GC hope. He's not a favourite for overall win, but as many other climbers, he'll be fighting for Top 5 or even possibly a podium at the end. |
 | Alstom RBC comes here with clear intention of focus on the first 4 stages here. Geoffrey Soupe & Georgos Tzortzakis are very similar sprinters and with Boivin and Houle as support they may well be dark horses in the sprints. Sebastian Salas is their best climber, but is not expected to fight for highest places in GC. They also bring one of biggest stars of the future, Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier loaned from Festina to experience first taste of pro cycling. |
 | FC Barcelona is one of few teams focusing mainly on the GC here. Mikel Nieve is leading the team and has good support available to him. Calazati and future star De La Cruz will be his main helpers when it comes to Stage 5. There's many similar climbers of Nieve type and he can achieve anything from podium to being on edges of Top 10 in the GC. Their small hope for sprints is Marocan Soufianne Haddi. Adel Barbari is the fan's favoruite, and we should definitely see him attack over the five days. |
 | Adira continues the trend of teams with strong climber and strong sprinter included in the line-up. Artur Gajek moves down division this year which should help him perform much better this year. He'll not be top favourite on any sprinter stages, but on all of them he can definitely snatch good results. Joáo Cabreira is leading the team in the GC. He's very good climber and he'll target high place at the end of stage 5. He'll have a strong support of his team-mates, all being very decent climbers. |
 | Armavia has been tipped for relegation in many previews, however they can silence the press with good results here. They have a team mostly purely focused on climbers, and very consistent at that. It's hard to point out one or two outstanding climbers in the team here, but they all can produce with bit of luck on last stage. Ying Hon Yeung & Tamayo Martinez look like their best options for stage 5. Mahdi Sohrabi is a decent sprinter, and with attention turned away from Armavia in the sprints, he may well surprise on few of the stages. King of Mountain Jersey looks like a viable option for Armavia to focus on here, Algerian Hichem Chaabane looks like a perfect candidate to do so. |
 | Team WWE comes to the race neither with real GC candidate or any sprinter. Mikel Astarloza is their best climber, however he'll not be favourite even for a Top 10 in a very tough and close field here. They may well rely on breaks for results as they do include few strong roulers like Laurent Didier or Frabrice Jeandesbosz. |
 | Jaguar - Eritel brings very inexperienced and young squad to tackle terrain of Algeria. It will surely be a great race for those talented riders to develop and experience. Daniel Teklehaimanot is the team's best rider and hope for GC. However luck will be needed to achieve great result in GC here. Featuring two Algerians in the squad, Faycal Hamza & Youcef Reguigui - I am very sure we'll see plenty of these two in breaks over the five days. |
GC Favorites
| D. Arroyo | | M.Marzano, D.Moreno | | Y.Martinez, Y.Talabardon, R. Mestre, M.Nieve, J.Rodas, J.Cabreira |
David Arroyo has to take come here as biggest candidate for the win. Marco Marzano is very close to him, however lower climbing and resistance skills tip the balance in favour of Arroyo. Dani Moreno is slightly under two' favourites climbing skills, but he's still the big podium favourite with arguably best team support available.
All the climbers listed with one star are very similar to each other in terms of climbing skills, it's pretty impossible to see which ones will perform better, it will all go too who feels marginally better on the day.
Sprint Favorites
| H.Dekkers, | | O.Polivoda, M.Rizza, G.Soupe, C.Abadallah | | N.Schinker, F.Martin, A.Gajek, G.Tzortzakis, L.Duque, |
The field in sprinters is pretty open I have to say. Hans Dekkers is clearly the fastest, however his low hill stat may prove to be key weakness. There's many similar calibre of sprinters after him, and any can win on a good day. It will be great fight for the sprints here I think.
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 22-01-2013 15:44
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Let's see what we can do in our debut race... Polivoda should survive the hills on the flat stages...
Very nice preview.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| Spilak23 |
Posted on 22-01-2013 15:48
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Moreno is the 3rd best climber here. Clearly worse as Arroyo and Marzano but a step above everyboy else so a podium chould be achievable.
I am more intrested in the sprints. Antom Martin has some good all around stats and I hope they help him to overachieve on these tricky flat stages.
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| tyriion |
Posted on 22-01-2013 15:49
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I'd expect the sprint battles to be pretty unpredictable due to the nature of the course. Wouldn't be surprised if the break manages to stay away on one or two flat days.
Looking forward to the first mountain of the 2013 season.
Check out my ManGame team here
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| Vien |
Posted on 22-01-2013 15:49
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F*ck, Marzano's here 
Well, no matter what people say about the importance of reaching goals, if I don't win here, I'll need a damn good season to call my first year a success. Judging by some comments on Twitter, I should be nervous about that. Hope Arroyo won't attack 1000 times to reach the break and then stop riding.
As for the sprints, I'm pretty sure it'll be a mass sprint like three times and a break in another stage. Having tested Duque+E. Rizza together a lot, I'm confident that they will get me some points.
I also hope to get the young rider GC with Ibarguren. Points for the Africa Tour will be really welcome 
Edited by Vien on 22-01-2013 15:49
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 22-01-2013 16:02
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This is a great preview Alakagom. Really liked your GC and sprint-favourites along your in-depth team analysis!
We didn't really give the highest prioritization to this race and there are a lot higher quality of the pack than I had expected, especially GC-wise, but with a bit luck we may get some points here anyhow. Our goal remains the same, we need to get some points on every little stage, even in C2, in order to have a chance of surviving in PCT.
Have waited for this race for several months, let the season (for us) begin!
Edited by Bjartne on 22-01-2013 16:03
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| ggDonovan |
Posted on 22-01-2013 16:10
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Be present in most of the BA and a top 10 is our goal for this race. Let's see if we are lucky
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| roturn |
Posted on 22-01-2013 16:18
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Nice presentation. Weird to see so many sprinters being listed as their team`s leader. Different to PCM 11 I think when always the strongest GC guy had the number 1, 11,...
And most funny to see Gajek having a 1 as well. No matter in what team, he just shouldn`t have this number. But I actually hope he can survive the hills to challenge for a top5 or so.
For the GC I guess Arroyo and Marzano will fight it out with the bonus seconds on the last stage as I think they will arrive within the same time. Behind them it could be a nice fight for the 3rd. |
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 22-01-2013 16:18
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Although I am not represented here, I'll be following closely, wonder how the mountains reallly would be like in MG and PCM12 
Arroyo is clear favourite, he'll need a bad day to lose this.
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| Stevenag |
Posted on 22-01-2013 16:43
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Part one of the Arroyo vs Marzano rivalry. A rivalry that i suspect will end as Armstrong vs Ullrich. Just with a less depressing end.
Algerie is not the best place to travel at the moment, but i still look forward to this. Need a great day to win it, but i think the chance of Marzano beating Arroyo is bigger then the chance of anyone else beating Marzano. |
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| jaxika |
Posted on 22-01-2013 16:46
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Very nice presentation. I wish your prediction about my team will be accomplished. I hope for a stage victory and a top10 place in GC |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 22-01-2013 16:54
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Looking forward to both the sprinting and climbing battles. Good luck!
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 22-01-2013 17:09
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Our debut race so I am hoping for Martinez to get a high finish in the GC possibly a top 5, but anything above that would be great with a strong startlist. I'd also like Nico to get a few top 10's
Also watch out for Chaoufi on the hills, he could spring a surprise |
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| aidanvn13 |
Posted on 22-01-2013 17:11
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Fingers crossed for a top 5 
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| Smowz |
Posted on 22-01-2013 17:21
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Well here goes - the first big mountain showdown following the first big hilly guys showdown in the CT teams.
Absolutely ace preview here Alakagom - follows on well from SN's PT one (roturn's TDU preview good but a bit of a flag headache really).
Last stage will be eagerly awaited, but the sprints are always fun to watch in the meantime.
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| roturn |
Posted on 22-01-2013 17:28
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Smowz wrote:
Absolutely ace preview here Alakagom - follows on well from SN's PT one (roturn's TDU preview good but a bit of a flag headache really).
I will change my design, I promise. It was easier last year with the pixel jerseys. |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 22-01-2013 18:39
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Hope to see an aggressive race from my young Africans. Top 20 for Teklehaimanot may just be possible.
And I really good preview, as others have said
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| kumazan |
Posted on 22-01-2013 18:50
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Hard to looks past Arroyo here. Marzano should be very close, but I think Arroyo's better back up stats (and better mountain stat as well) will make the difference. And the "flat" stages could be quite interesting, probably some sprinters will struggle on some of those climbs, so we could see a couple breaks making it to the finish.
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 22-01-2013 19:28
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Hopefully we can make something in the early stages then Salas can pick up vital points on the last stage(A Top 15). |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 22-01-2013 23:59
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Unless he crashes Arroyo should comfortably take this. Also Dekkers for the sprints because hill stat seems to matter less than it did.
Great preview mate.
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