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Tour de Korea Discussion
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 26-08-2013 11:35
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We've reached the stage of the season where an 8 day race seems to take a larger chunk out of the remaining race days for a team. 6 flat and 2 hill stages await the peloton here in Korea, although both hill stages end with flat, and many flat stages have hills, sometimes with a slight uphill finish too.
This being a C2 stage race, the favourite of course comes from Team Gazelle:  Thiago Nardin. He is good on the hills, but most importantly of all, is the best sprinter of the leading puncheurs. And just look at his last 3 performances: 1st @ Tour of Southland, 2nd + stage win @ Tour de Beauce, 10th + stage win @ Giro del Capo.
 Evaldas Siskevicius has been nowhere near as prominent as Nardin, managing 10th in GC at Southland, but his hill/sprint combination could make him a good contender here.
Tasked with trying to throw off Nardin on the hill stages, where they'll have a slight advantage, are the top puncheurs in the field: Cioban,  Rocchetti, Puusepp,  Firsanov, Jumabekov,  Grau and  Feillu. There is also the team leaders  Pranata,  Ashgarzadeh,  David and local hope  Choi.
Onto the sprinters then, and there is a good quality C2 field here. The fastest is Marco Guillen, with 3 stage wins so far this season, but he will face a big challenge from Kevin Peeters. As well as the Dwars Door Vlaanderen triumph, Peeters has won stages in both Japanese stage races this year. The half Japanese/half Korean team will be looking for him to complete the set!
Jorgensen,  Van Loocke, Renshaw and Friedman are the next best.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 26-08-2013 11:43
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Got the 2 best Puncheurs but missed a trick not sending Sonnery. He would have been perfect for this race. |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 26-08-2013 11:54
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And this is why I should've signed up for this race with Dall'Antonia, he would be perfect for this. Oh well, something to learn for next season. I'll bet on Nardin for this race. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 12:03
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| coutas98 |
Posted on 26-08-2013 12:21
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My bet is on Firsanov or Siskevicius. |
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| fintas |
Posted on 26-08-2013 12:29
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I have no high hopes for the general classification, but hopefully Van Loocke get at least one stage win and several top 10 in the flat stages.
Thiago Nardin is my bet for the final victory, because I think stage 4 will make a dent in the peloton
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 26-08-2013 15:25
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Hopefully we can sprring a surprise or 2 and steal a stage win from somewhere, top 10 GC should be a realistic aim for this one but with only 2 hilly stages I reckon it will only take 1 slice of good luck to take this.
Stage 4 could have suited Schurter but I think that's just a little bit too much flat at the end of the stage for him which is why he's missing.
If any of the sprinters can survive that one then they should be favourites as I reckon the hills on stage 7 are too far from the finish.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 26-08-2013 15:27
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Gazelle will win. Whatever happens, I'm sure of it.
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| tastasol |
Posted on 26-08-2013 15:44
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Seems like a fun race. Hopefully my team can achieve something, but my bet is on Gazelle and Nardin 
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 26-08-2013 16:11
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A good chance for our reserves for the reserve-team to prove their worth. Expext less than zero achievements here though. |
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 27-08-2013 18:14
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Nice first stage for our point of view. Bikienga with some important bonus seconds and manages to stay in the peloton after being catched. Thanks for a good report SN  |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 27-08-2013 18:32
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Ah, Guardini. 9th is the same as 100th in this field. |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 27-08-2013 18:48
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This race looks like it was designed for Nardin, so I sent him here as our absolute leader. Will be interesting to see if he can also deliver while being favorite and leader. Normally he's an outsider with a free role.
Stage 1 he did ok given the circumstances. That little bump wasn't hard enough to tire the real sprinters. Good to see the home team win.
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 27-08-2013 21:07
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Did my team decide to cross teh line holding hands or something? I'm not entirely sure how else they could have managed to finish in order without anyone in between them otherwise.
It was nice to see Mundle in the break today, gaining enough seconds to leave him 5th on GC, but I wish he'd tried going for the KOM points.
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 27-08-2013 21:35
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LOL da fuq was that?  |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 27-08-2013 21:37
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What. A. Joke.
Congrats Sauber, what went on there? |
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 27-08-2013 21:45
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Looks like the race is decided already 
Congrats Sauber, what a win for them! |
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 27-08-2013 21:57
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we're making a habit of this, and SN I don't want to contradict you but I'm fairly sure Scarponi took a stage by half an hour earlier in the season.
Hopefully Hugentobler hasn't wasted too much energy and will still be able to hold on in the hilly stages.
EDIT: Scarponi's 29 minute 25 second victory was in stage 12 of the Tour of the Middle East
which might well be the record Hugentobler was aiming for.
Edited by sammyt93 on 27-08-2013 22:03
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 27-08-2013 22:49
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Wtf...the AI just had a mental breakdown.
Guess we'll be battling for second place then. Good result by Nardin.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 27-08-2013 22:50
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Must have missed that stage at the time! Still, this one is somewhat more significant - and theres a record to be had for biggest GC victory I suspect
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| tastasol |
Posted on 27-08-2013 23:01
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Good start by Jørgensen, but holy mother of... It always kind of annoys me that my team doesn't get in the breaks more often, but hats off to Sauber. What a way to take the win!
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