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E3 Prijs Discussion Thread
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| roturn |
Posted on 03-04-2013 17:24
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With the E3 Prijs in and around Harelbeke in Belgium we have the biggest PCT cobbled classic this season. It`s HC rated and so all the best puncheurs will fight for the win.
The weather conditions could be better as it is raining quite a lot but also worse as it`s not that windy. But definitely the riders need to be concentrated all the time as the cobbled sections will become very glitchy today and a crash can ruin all your chances.
The two strongest teams are probably the two home teams.
 Team Bpost with Bahir Dar winner Vanspeybrouck and Albert. The team also collected experience in the Pro Tour classics this season and should do very well controlling the peloton.
Last season the team had 3 riders in the top 5 but couldn`t win the race.
 HTC Nieuwsblad. Their star is Jerome Baugnies, a high quality cobbler. With two 5th places in Bahir Dar and Dwars Doors Vlaanderen he surely expects a bit more from this race.
Both teams should do most work and are strong enough in deep to control the attacks.
 Allianz-BMW is one of 5 CT teams here as the list of PCT teams willing to participate was pretty short.
But nevertheless the small team from Germany belongs to the biggest favourites. Nikolas Maes, last years Runner Up for Bpost is their leader and belongs to the biggest contenders. In especially Coyot will be a great helper for him.
 Amex Pro Cycling is another very interesting team, even though they still need to find the right rhytm to get more points. Eisel and Breschel are their new leaders and have both the advantage of a good sprint. But before they need to follow the better cobblers.
 Bouygues Telecom wants to be as soon as possible back in the Pro Tour and definitely need some points from the HC races here. Pieter Jacobs doesn`t belong to the very best in comparison with the earlier mentioned but could surprise the favourites. A top 7 should be a goal for him and he might be able to deliver.
 Team UPC will ride for Tom Veelers. The Dutch is a similar rider to the Amex sprinters. If he can survive with the best he might have good chances. But otherwise a top7 should be possible nevertheless.
Coming to some outside favourites:
 Rothaus - Aegon sends World Champion Lars Boom into this race. It`s his only cobbled race but it was a duty as defending champion. He won`t have much support as only Maxime Vantomme is a decent cobbler next to him.
 Prio-Porte sends Marc Machado. He might not be strong enough for the PCT due to his backup stats, but his advantage is, that he can still ride in the smaller C2 races. Today it will be hard for him to perform with the best but due to the smaller field a top 15 could be possible.
 Team Gazelle with Vangenechten is another better CT team in this race. One of the few chances for the team to shine in HC races.
 airbaltic - Endura has an interesting duo here. Vaitkus and Cavendish are good sprinters but will they be able to get over all the climbs and cobbles?
Same problem for  Evian-MIAT with top sprinter Napolitano. But probably due to the shorter startlist and the hope for some big points in a HC race they took the risk.
Only a very small chance to do well here have the 3 remaining CT teams:
 Sys,  Laengen and  Criel.
Thanks to Daniano, who gave me his E3 Prijs zcts file, so I was able to edit all narrow roads to level 2 roads instead. So this surely won`t have any influence on the gameplay.
That said I haven`t played it yet with that version. 
Edited by roturn on 03-04-2013 17:28
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| roturn |
Posted on 03-04-2013 17:26
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As written above, Lars Boom will ride his own cobbled race here and the dream is to repeat his 2012 performance obviously. I didn`t remembered to send Vantomme here until seeing the start list. But so it will at least be a bit support for him.
Top 10 is the goal even though it might be difficult with the top cobblers here.
Edited by roturn on 03-04-2013 17:26
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| CountArach |
Posted on 04-04-2013 00:14
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Grand Tour Champion
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If there is a race for Baugnies it is this one but he will have to arrive solo to win it, as we have seen his terrible sprint in action. I have the win goal here but a podium would be fine.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 04-04-2013 00:38
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Small Tour Specialist
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We are nowhere near being favorites here, so I hope to see my riders spice up this race Ludo Dierckxsens style.
I can't blame the game for naming Vangenechten my leader here instead of Sentjens. So far the former has been doing much better than his captain and he also has a better hill stat, which probably does matter on this terrain.
Also I hope for a monstrous battle between Vanspeybrouck and Baugnies. They are my favorites for the win.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 07:57
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 04-04-2013 01:01
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Tour de France Champion
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This should be great to watch. Don't know why we prioritize this as a wildcard but anyway...
A belgian to win, but i could not call which... gonna go with.... Baugnies for the win.
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| tyriion |
Posted on 04-04-2013 05:47
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Sprinter
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I expect Traksel to outperform Veelers. Otherwise this should be a fun race.
Check out my ManGame team here
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| Smowz |
Posted on 04-04-2013 07:21
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Team Leader
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CTour's premier cobbled race - the favourites need to get their act together, like right now.
The top teams could get a really decent points haul if they make this selective in the right way - Veelers perhaps to win from a small group sprint?
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 04-04-2013 07:27
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World Champion
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Maybe i can actually score points. |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 04-04-2013 08:07
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Daniel is my leader. Napo just had spare race days |
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| Mhaley45 |
Posted on 04-04-2013 16:57
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Very interesting race and one I have been looking forward to. The two home team are predicted to do well, but both also have season win goals here and that should ramp up the pressure on Vanspeybrouck (Bpost) and Jerome Baugnies (HTC).
AMEXpc Needs to get a rider or two into the final kilometer with the leaders and we could pull off a surprise. Realistically Eisel woul be very happy with a top 5 and Breschel with a top 10.
AMEXpc has three riders who will be working to get into the days breakaway Maher Hasnaoui, Yannick Stoltz and Belgium rider Bart Veyt. Slipping a rider into the break will allow AMEX to ride of the lead and stay as fresh as possible for the final 10k showdown.
=========================================
Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
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| roturn |
Posted on 04-04-2013 18:16
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I plan to report this race within the next 3 hours.
Also I plan to do some updates on twitter.
But just if some of you are interested.
Just in case that you have missed the thread yet. 
Edited by roturn on 04-04-2013 18:17
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| ANFreeman |
Posted on 04-04-2013 18:25
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PCT and CT cobble races are becoming a bit of a battle between the same few teams. We're making a rather rare appearance on the rough stuff, but with the small startlist, a few scraps of points are possible.
Either way, excited for the report Roturn 
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 04-04-2013 20:38
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Criel, oops you. Roturn, by curiosity, when Criel lost contact, he just did 30km/h bug? |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 04-04-2013 20:38
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Team Leader
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10 points better off after a great race and report. Congrats Amex 
Daniel disappointed, but he will win this race one day. And Bolivar was best Colombian  |
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 04-04-2013 20:41
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Happy with that, it was always going be difficult to win with Baugnies sprint and 3rd gives us 1/2 of the points we would had from winning the goal so at least it's worth quite something still.
Great day for Amex as well Well done to them!
4 in Top 15 is great as well.
Edited by Alakagom on 04-04-2013 20:42
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| roturn |
Posted on 04-04-2013 20:41
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Team Manager
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Congrats to AmexPC. Eisel surely was the smartest today and also one of the strongest.
Strongest rider though goes to Maes I think. It was awesome to follow his lonely fight against three top guys in front and he was going faster!!!
Team wise I am taking this. 4th and 7th is more than expected. Vantomme obviously lived from the National bonus and had some luck that Veelers was exhausted and let him come back.
Boom took advantage of the hills I gues. Was surprised to see him being dropped in the end but his sprint was pretty awesome.
@miguel: I actually can`t say. I haven`t followed him after he was dropped. But I guess he was tired and from behind the Machado group came faster. |
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| Crommy |
Posted on 04-04-2013 20:42
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World Champion
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Well, that went disastrously badly
EDIT: I'm so glad I spent money training Pieter Jacobs. It's been money well spent...
Edited by Crommy on 04-04-2013 21:10
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| Smowz |
Posted on 04-04-2013 20:44
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We've had a few dodgy AI races in the cobbles, this happily was not one of them.
Plenty of people will be happy with this and hard to begrudge AMEX a slight upset win, pleased for them but also HTC and Bpost had good if just missing goal performances.
Rothaus continue this momentum they have, I have to give a huge thumbs up to their manager and race reporter who went that extra mile to get wide cobbled roads and with a super report and tweet, bravo.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 04-04-2013 20:53
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Indeed a great race! And of course the report was just as great as the race. Enjoyed this.
Congrats to Amex, a desperately needed result for them.
And just like Smowz mentioned: special thanks for the extra effort you put into this in short time! So Boom's 4th plus Vantomme is definitely deserved .
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| Stevenag |
Posted on 04-04-2013 20:53
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Domestique
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Great result for Klaas Sys, getting a top 10 here. Even with no real support. Every ranking point counts, and a top 10 here is worth the same for our team as a top 3 in our next race. Not bad for a team that cant cobble. |
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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
