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Tour of Southland Discussion Thread
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| roturn |
Posted on 22-05-2013 16:29
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After its debut in 2012 with race winner Chris Froome, the Tour of Southland is back in 2013. It`s a C2 race this season but kept the route identically.
The race starts with a short TTT in Invercargill, which will be the obvious centrum of this race.
Directly on the 2nd stage we have the first of two uphill finishes on the Bluff Hill. Both are not very long but definitely not easy to ride, so the puncheurs will have to try something here.
Stages 3-5 are flat just like the stages 7-9. Most interesting is the short lengths of 4/6 stages with a length of less than 100km. Plus the pretty flat terrain we should expect quite a few fresh sprinters in the finale.
Stage 6 is surely the queens stage. With a length of 136km it`s longer than the Bluff Hill stage and also the final climb is longer. So best chances for the puncheurs to win the race with a nice attack.
Coming to the favourites it`s actually hard to find a real top favourite as the level in the CT is pretty equal.
 Allianz will try to bring Kim Kirchen in a good position. He already was here last season and knows the route better than most others. For the sprints it`s up to Daniel Thorsen. A positive factor for him are the short stages, so we might expect something from him.
 Privatbank with a similar duo. Vorganov might want to remember on his 2012 performance, where he won the hard 6th stage. The Russian definitely counts to the favourites as also Roman Maksimov for the sprints.
 Banco Nacional de Costa Rica also has a former stage winner in their squad. Sprinter Guillén counts to the fastest riders here and surely hopes to repeat it this season. For the GC another Russian rider in Firsanov.
 Sauber Petronas without a real GC rider here. Their focus will be on the breakaways and sprinter Awang.
 Die Berg Komt Er also concentrates on the sprints and have sent their strong duo Hochmann/Chavanel to this race. Also Rick Flens might hope to be able to push the team to the win in the TTT.
 Oz Cycling Team is here for obvious reasons. The Aussie PCT team is focussing on the races in Oceania the most and sent a nice young squad including some Kiwis as well. Drapac might be their leader here in the sprints.
 Ekspla Cision might have one of the strongest squads here. With Friedman, Gavazzi aand Porsev they have solid sprinters and Cioban and Siskevicius are good puncheurs.
 Risa - Ergon starts with Olsson for the GC and Giacoppo for the sprints. Could be a good race for them if both have good legs.
 Evian MIAT is the 2nd PCT team here and sents a strong squad. Rocchetti definitely belongs to the best puncheurs and is supported by Anuar Aziz. Petit might surprise in some sprints even though he is not on the level of the others yet.
 Team Gazelle has a nice combo guy here in Nardin, who is pretty good in sprinting and climbing. He surely is their leader here and looks like a good rider for that course.
 Cadbury`s went for a similar tactic and even have a home rider in Torckler, who recently showed a good form. Being in his home race he surely wants to show something.
 Japanese Korean Cycling Project only have a 4 rider squad here, which will destroy their GC chances more or less due to the TTT. So Hatsuyama might try something on the hilly stages at least and Jang for the sprints.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 22-05-2013 16:40
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Got the best puncheur here and a sprinter who should go well on the tougher stages. We will struggle in the TTT, but this could go well for us. Shame I couldn't send Sonnery  |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 22-05-2013 16:42
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Should be a fun race. Really hope that Cadburys do something, really like the team and interested in Torckler. |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 22-05-2013 16:46
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Looking like a nice race. Need a good race now..
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 22-05-2013 16:49
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This race was quite a gamble for me, but i couldn't resist racing in New zealand.
Thought i had sent a better TTT-squad. Hoping for Olman to lead us there. Drapac needs a lot of luck to do well, but maybe it's time for him to have some. Scully needs to show something as well. And last but not least i'm counting on both Delgerbayar and young gun Phelan to join some breaks. We need to get points out of such a long stage-race!
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 22-05-2013 16:53
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Expecting atleast 5 stage wins...
Not going to happen 
My Russian duo should do well tho...
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| Firefly21 |
Posted on 22-05-2013 19:02
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I kind of wanted to go to this race but then I looked at my provisional TTT squad and thought better of it.
I think Ekspla might continue their good form here, as long as they do okay on the TTT
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 22-05-2013 19:40
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Hoping for a stage win here, and we are letting Hugentobler have a go at the GC as the hilly stages didn't look too hard and I was expecting a really strong TTT lineup from OZ and didn't think we'd be anywhere near them after it.
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 23-05-2013 13:54
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Also in their team another Russian with Maksimov. He really needs to deliver slowly as their actual manager starts to lose confidence in him.
Thanks for the mention  If Maksimov doesn't break his non-winning streak here it's going to be very hard to see any reason to keep him for next season. But it will all depending on what version of PCM we use and if PCM13 favors his type of sprinting more or less. Either way he is making this a harder decision then I wanted... 
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| tastasol |
Posted on 23-05-2013 14:15
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Decent start that. Congratz to Oz
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 23-05-2013 14:23
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We've lost alot less time then I thought we would so we're very happy with that.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 23-05-2013 16:01
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Nice  had hoped for Drapac to cross the line first, but maybe a bit unrealistic with him being too weak in TTs.
The gaps were not on our side in the last stage-races we had, so i better do not expect anything from now on
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 23-05-2013 16:28
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Maksimov already fails by dropping and losing 2 extra seconds
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 23-05-2013 17:34
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That was a good start! I don't dare to hope for gaps in such hilly stages anymore though. So that pretty much kills my GC expectations for Nardin, because his sprint isn't good enough.
I think some top sprinters will take a lot of bonification seconds at the finish lines, consolidate on the hills and then take the top positions in GC.
I do want Nardin to perform well in stages 2 and 6.
A good GC position would be a great bonus.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 24-05-2013 02:32
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Congrats to Oz. Not really surprising that they won. They are pretty much the Jack Wolfskin of the PCT.
I enjoy this race. New Zealand has a great terrain for cycling, particularly the South Island.
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| roturn |
Posted on 24-05-2013 07:34
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CountArach wrote:
Congrats to Oz. Not really surprising that they won. They are pretty much the Jack Wolfskin of the PCT.
I enjoy this race. New Zealand has a great terrain for cycling, particularly the South Island.
Absolutely agree in both points. Even though the Invercargill area is one of the flattest there.
Stage 2 will be up soon.
And then I won`t be at home this weekend. But I PM`ed my reports to Smowz, who will post them on the next two days instead. Thanks to him. |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 24-05-2013 07:38
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23 seconds is about what I expected. Now for Petit to put his Stamina and Resistance advantage to good use while the others get into breaks. |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 24-05-2013 07:44
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jph27 wrote:
Now for Petit to put his Stamina and Resistance advantage to good use while the others get into breaks.
Too bad this is probably the race where stamina matters the least all season: not in the slightest.
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 24-05-2013 07:45
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Gomenyuk
Why on earth did I ever loan in Maksimov? The guy can't do anything, why not limit his losses to go for a top 10 GC? He has to win 5 sprints now to make me somewhat happy...
Vorganov on the other hand did really well
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| jaxika |
Posted on 24-05-2013 07:49
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Nice place by Kirchen |
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