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Vuelta al Tachira - Discussion Thread
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| CountArach |
Posted on 23-01-2013 23:26
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Grand Tour Champion
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Vuelta al Tachira 2013
And here we are in Venezuela, ready for arguably the premier pure-climber stage race of the season. The course starts off with 4 pan-flat stages which will reward the large number of decent sprinters who have made the trip to South America. Stage 5 brings a medium mountain stage with some relatively light hills before a kick up to end the stage. Stage 6 looks ideal for a breakaway and indeed the rolling medium mountain of stage 7 does as well. Stage 8 may be too hard for most breakaway specialists, though no doubt some will have lost time by this point, but with two hard mountains it is hard to see the race being sedate.
Finally stage 9 brings us to the really key stages. The final climb is long and hard but with a small downhill section to the finish line there is a chance that things could come back together up front. Stage 10 will offer no such relief for the weaker climbers with a steep finish to the end. Stage 11 just gets tougher with the roughest climb of the course finishing off this stint in the mountains. But GC contenders will not rest easily as the hilly course finishes off here on stage 12 – this is where Alarcon won the race last year.
The Teams
| 1 | Kip | Ismaël | | 2 | Aru | Fabio | | 3 | Castaño | Carlos | | 4 | King | Edward | | 5 | Masciarelli | Simone | | 6 | Saldarriaga | Andres | | 7 | Thire | Jonathon |
ING bring a nice, rounded team with Castano to fight it out on GC and Saldarriaga to support him in the mountains. Castano was 4th here last year and is one of the biggest threats on the medium mountain stages and the hilly one which ends it. Kip will be a threat on these unchallenging sprint stages, especially with a decent lead-out train including Thire to act as his final lead-out.
| 11 | Avelino | Óscar | | 12 | Afonso | Luis | | 13 | Baltazar | Carlos | | 14 | Caldeira | Samuel | | 15 | Mendes | Jose | | 16 | Nicácio | Pedro | | 17 | Silva | Bruno |
Prio-Porto seem to be focussed mostly on Avelino in the sprints, with Caldeira here to support him as the ideal lead-out man. Avelino definitely has the fastest finish of any rider here and will be one of the favourites in the first four stages. Nicacio is the team’s hope in the GC but with so many better climbers here the best he will be hoping for is a top 10. Finally Mendes deserves mention as the best puncheur in the race who will hope to go stage-hunting.
| 21 | Krasnoperov | Mikayil | | 22 | De Fauw | Dimitri | | 23 | Montenegro | Fabio | | 24 | Orozco | VÃctor Hugo | | 25 | Raisin | Saul | | 26 | Seledkov | Ivan | | 27 | Van Ooijen | Cornelius |
Krasnoperov leads an incredibly tough Bintang outfit and will be hoping to do better than last year’s 11th place overall. Montenegro, Orozco and Raisin will all be great helpers in the mountain stages and indeed should be capable of decent GC placings too. De Fauw was sent as leader in the sprints, probably hoping to avoid tougher competition, but he may just lack the top end speed to win a stage here.
| 31 | Serebriakov | Aleksandr | | 32 | Brea | Anthony José | | 33 | Broco | Hernâni | | 34 | Monsalve | Yonathan | | 35 | Ochoa Quintero | Richard | | 36 | Pantano Gómez | Jarlinson | | 37 | Rodrigues | Vitor |
Yet another team which has gone for the sprint and GC card, Hollister have Serebriakov as their big card to play here. He will definitely be a threat to take a couple of stages, particularly with Brea to lead him out. Ochoa Quintero won this race in 2011 but this year the competition will just be too stiff and in all likelihood he will be riding for Rodrigues, who spearheads the GC assault.
| 41 | Suaza | Jaime | | 42 | Bablidze | Irakli | | 43 | Camier | Jean-François | | 44 | El Fares | Julien | | 45 | Locatelli | Stefano | | 46 | Solis | Óscar | | 47 | Weylandt | Wouter |
Love him or hate him, Suaza can climb mountains and he will really have to in order to perform well here at the head of this Bouygues Telecom squad. The medium mountain and hilly stages could be a bit questionable for him but if he can hold on during those then he should get a decent GC place. He also has Solis and Camier providing support and Solis in particular should be capable of a good result in his own right. Weylandt is on his own in the sprints.
| 51 | Marquez | Florentino | | 52 | Barbin | Enrico | | 53 | Berard | Julien | | 54 | Goos | Marc | | 55 | Lane | Patrick | | 56 | Morton | Lachlan | | 57 | Van der Schueren | Kenny |
Nieuwsblad are lead by 2010 race winner Marquez and he will come here as the top favourite. He will be tough to shake in the mountains and should be capable of managing the hills okay. The problem may be that his squad is called on to do a lot of chasing and only Berard looks up to the rigours of multiple days in the mountains at the head of the peloton. Still, Marquez could well be capable of doing this alone.
| 61 | Ortega | Sergio | | 62 | Acevedo | Janier Alexis | | 63 | Agudelo | Jairo | | 64 | Ardila Cano | Alex | | 65 | Briceno | Jimmi | | 66 | Soler | Mauricio | | 67 | Vasquez | Wilmer |
Unsurprisingly for a South American team, Repsol have gone all-out with climbers. All of these riders apart from Acevedo will be capable of strong GC places, though it is hard to pick just one leader here. Ortega has that role on paper but he may struggle in the hills so I’m going to put Ardila Cano down as their highest GC finisher (and I’d be curious to hear what other people think). Finally, Vasquez can’t be underestimated with three top 10s in this race in his 3 appearances.
| 71 | Damrow | Sascha | | 72 | Diniz | Alex | | 73 | Pellizotti | Franco | | 74 | Pineau | Jérôme | | 75 | Sutherland | Rory | | 76 | Veilleux | David | | 77 | Voeckler | Thomas |
Pellizotti, the man game legend himself, leads this well-rounded WWE side. This should be a good race for him, as the lack of hilly competition could prove decisive and he also has much better support stats than other riders here. Diniz provides him with at least one helper. Damrow will be looking to feature in the sprints but may find the pace on the flat just a bit too much. Finally Pineau can’t be discounted in the hills.
| 81 | Cano | Jose Luis | | 82 | Colex | Bernardo | | 83 | Esquivel | Deiber | | 84 | Mudarra | Pablo | | 85 | Raabe | Henry | | 86 | Rojas Villegas | César | | 87 | Salas | Marco |
The first of the CT teams, BNCR have sought to be competitive in both terrains. Cano may find the finishing speed of his competition just a bit too high to handle and he won’t have a lead-out man of his own to help him. Esquivel and Rojas Villegas will provide a duo who can make an attempt at the top 10 but that may prove difficult. Still, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that one of them manages it as a lot of their competition will be too busy working for someone else.
| 91 | Dyachenko | Aleksandr | | 92 | Battaglin | Enrico | | 93 | Galiev | Ulugbek | | 94 | Manfredi | Andrea | | 95 | Osella | Marco | | 96 | Schelling | Patrick | | 97 | Vesely | Daniel |
Dyachenko will be leading Cisco at this race and was probably thinking that the quality of competition would be lower, as it was in previous editions. He may be able to fight for a top 10, however. Osella will give him a strong support rider in the mountains. Finally, Vesely will be providing the team with a sprinter and may just be aiming for lower placings. Most of the team are here for development purposes and that rather limits their roles. Expect to see these guys in the breaks.
| 101 | Izagirre | Gorka | | 102 | Bogataj | Blaz | | 103 | Khripta | Andriy | | 104 | Klimov | Sergei | | 105 | Lobov | Oleksandr | | 106 | Popov | Evgeni | | 107 | Tondo | Xavier |
The leader in this race for LukOil will be Izagirre but he is likely to just be lacking that extra bit that he needs to be competitive in the mountains. He also has not got much in the way of support, which could hurt him on the longer mountain stages. Popov is the closest that the team has to a sprinter here and as such these guys will have to look to the break for any successes early on. I also wonder if Izagirre could perhaps have a tilt at a long-range attack for a stage and thus become like Rodas last year.
| 111 | Camaño | Iker | | 112 | Casimiro | Henrique Madeira | | 113 | Ghafari | Vahid | | 114 | Ghdamsi | Riadh | | 115 | Kiprotich | Hillary | | 116 | Ndbri | Zakayo | | 117 | Paillot | Yoann |
The last team on the list might actually be capable of doing something here. In Ndbri they have a mountain goat who should be capable of sticking around for a while, though he may fall short of the top ten. That said, he was 9th in 2010 so he is definitely capable. Ghafari can climb better than most sprinters and thus if the in-between stages end up in a reduced bunch sprint he could be a real threat.
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| rycadinho |
Posted on 23-01-2013 23:32
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Nice preview mate, and well it's time to get my season started... I must admit that I expected a stronger startlist, so I hope that Kip can take a stage win and Carlos will provide us a nice result in the overall GC.
Good luck everyone! 
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 23-01-2013 23:37
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8059
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Same as rycadinho, rather weak climbing start list. Maybe I should have tired Tachira again after the success I had here last season. 
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 23-01-2013 23:51
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2907
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Definately rooting for Ghafari here and i'm looking forward to the mountain battles as well! It costs a good haul of racedays, but you could be able to get quite a few points here if lucky |
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| Firefly21 |
Posted on 23-01-2013 23:53
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Domestique
Posts: 506
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Somewhat weak start list considering the relative prestige of this event, but should make for a dynamite race to report as there are several teams that will fancy their chances in this race.
Marquez the slight favourite for me, but there are a host of challengers that will put him under threat.
Going to root for the CT teams here, even though it features teams that will probably be around my level in the final standings.
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| ember |
Posted on 23-01-2013 23:57
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I somehow think Repsol will be last year's CSC, attacking in every mountain stage there is, and prove tough to handle for the real GC riders.
Shame Alarcon isn't here to defend his title, but quite understandable, as 12 stages are a lot. Looking forward to the racing!
Edited by ember on 24-01-2013 00:06
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| fintas |
Posted on 23-01-2013 23:59
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2602
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I'm curious to see what Oscar Avelino is able as well as José Mendes.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 06:53
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| Christer |
Posted on 24-01-2013 00:22
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WHy is Damrow listed as team captain? Or is it made so by CountArach? This worries me a little.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 24-01-2013 00:28
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8290
Joined: 14-07-2008
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Christer wrote:
WHy is Damrow listed as team captain? Or is it made so by CountArach? This worries me a little.
I list it the same way as the game. And I assure you the AI doesn't automatically treat the first rider as GC leader.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 24-01-2013 00:30
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
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One season I hope we can make it all the way through without people overreacting to something that never has had any impact on the gameplay 
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| roturn |
Posted on 24-01-2013 00:30
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Team Manager
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It was the same in Algeria, where the game listed Hans Dekkers as 1. 
I don`t think that PCM12 is careing about the numbers.
On the other hand the mountain stage there wasn`t reported yet.
@SN: It`s Cyanide. And it`s trusting in the AI. How could you expect a season without being worried?
Edited by roturn on 24-01-2013 00:31
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 24-01-2013 00:36
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fintas wrote:
I'm curious to see what Oscar Avelino is able as well as José Mendes.
I'm curious about those two as well. Wait until Avelino wins the KoM jersey
Vitor Rodrigues too, I want to see what kind of rider I'll have in hands for next year.
Interesting field, somehow around what I had expected, except for Alarcon's absence and a couple of other climbers. My team is obviously aiming for stage wins, and possibly a points jersey, which won't be easy obviously.
Great preview as well, Count. It sums up well the probable points of interest of the race.
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| jack888 |
Posted on 24-01-2013 01:08
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Can't wait for this race to get underway! Hoping for top 5 GC and a stage win or two!
Repsol look good here, will probably surprise us a bit.
edit: (had to leave Alarcon out here, hard to spend 1/4 of his race days in a c1 race)
Edited by jack888 on 24-01-2013 01:10
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 24-01-2013 06:09
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World Champion
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Aside from few others, i am happy i did not send my 75climber here to compete, as i was thinking about it, but with multiple 77+ climbers it would be wasted race days, so i will just be a spectator.
Nice preview Count.
Should be a fun race and battle of Marquez and Krasnoperov possibly? I will cheer for Krasnoperov, let him make some nice results Jack888, before you are selling him to me next season.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 24-01-2013 07:34
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Last years startlist was really overloaded with quality, whereas this years looks somewhere in between last years and the previous very weak year.
Should be a good chance for Avelino early on and Marquez must be the favourite for the race. Krasnoperov is quite inconsistent. As another has said Repsol look likely to be the CSC of the race they have a really dangerous looking climbing unit.
There is a danger of those flat stages having a few weak flat stat dudes dropped looks worryingly at Bouygues...
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| jph27 |
Posted on 24-01-2013 07:49
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Could have sent Serpa but thought competition would be higher. Will watch with interest |
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| Heine |
Posted on 24-01-2013 07:57
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Same as many others, thought the competition would be harder (Alarcon...) if not I would've send Ratiy here ;/
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| tyriion |
Posted on 24-01-2013 08:31
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Sprinter
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Not a race for us at all, so I'll be watching the others. Good luck to all those mountain goats.
Check out my ManGame team here
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 24-01-2013 09:58
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Team Manager
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Makes some sense for Bintang not to send Alarcon here. He would probably have won, but instead it gives Krasnoperov a race where he can score quite highly instead. And maybe even still win.
Will be fun to watch - a core part of the early ManGame season, and not always the most predictable race either
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 24-01-2013 10:14
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World Champion
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Such an important race for us. Marquez really need to score as many points possible here to have any chance of survival. Being favourite definitely helps. So hopefully it can go well
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