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Grand Prix de Québec Discussion
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 11-12-2013 19:11
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Welcome to the first of two Canadian classics this year, the GP de Québec, which is a lumpy flat classic held around Québec city in east Canada. It could be a crucial race for the teams participating and could help determine where teams finish as the year comes to a close, so all teams will be extra motivated to do well here.
The route is 201kms long, and covers sixteen circuits of a course which takes the Pro Continental peloton around the city. Despite it being rated as a flat circuit though, there is one climb roe every circuit which is roughly 5kms long, which has a top gradient of above 15%, and is used as the finish so the race will be anything but straightforward for the sprinters.
This is the third edition of the race, which held it's first edition in 2011. Sylvain Chavanel won it that year and returns with his Amex team this year. However, 2012 winner and home favourite Ryder Hesjedal doesn't return to defend his title, with his Metinvest team not attending.
The full allocation of 20 teams make the trip to Canada, a startlist that includes 4 Continental teams. Among these is half-Canadian Boeing-Vivacom, who join Alstom-RBC as teams that are associated with the home nation. These two teams should have the home crowd behind them here.
As for the startlist, considering the profile riders who can sprint and climb hills relatively well should be the best bets, with the finish maybe being a bit too steep for the purer ones.
 Bellis definitely falls into that category and with Geschke also riding for German squad Rothaus-Aegon, the promotion contenders could give their promotion credentials a big boost with a good result here and get ahead of their other
 Ventoso and his Prio team also fall into the same boat, being on the hunt for a surprise promotion after a great couple of months. With their lead Spaniard on top-form after winning the recent Tour of Britain, he is one of the big favourites here as well.
 Wegmann is another one of these riders to a lesser extent, and should be considered a dark horse along with  Anderson and  Kump who could all pull good results out of the bag.
That's not the only type of rider that has travelled to Canada though, far from it. Many of sprinters have made the trip, hoping that they can survive the hills and outsprint the better puncheurs.
 Kennaugh is probably the fastest man here, and should the race suit him he could pull off a great result. However,  Davis and Haussler both follow close behind and can climb a little better, so could beat the Brit if a massed sprint is what decides the race.
 Guarnieri leads a group of other riders who have a fast finish. Also here on the startlist are  Bazayev,  Krasnov,  Nelson,  Andriato,  Belletti and  Bennett who could all be capable of a good result if they can survive the hills. That is a big if though, as the steep gradients near the finish could end their hopes of a result.
Finally, also some puncheurs are on the startlist, hoping for a tough race. Any other scenario and it would be hard to see one of these riders winning. Maybe a solo attack could be an option as well.
Roy,  Gautier, Betancourt,  Taborre and  Barredo all fall into that category, and should the race suit them they could have a chance.
With so many different scenarios possible, this could turn out to be a great race. The full startlist:
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| Smowz |
Posted on 11-12-2013 19:23
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Team Leader
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Hard to say how this will go, having raced it in previous ManGame editions I know the hill is pretty tough. Could be like the protour Lisbon Classic perhaps?
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 11-12-2013 19:27
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Tour de France Champion
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No mention for Boeing  Thomas here as out leader. Frankly not expecting too much but hoping for some points please...
Should be a good race. It's an agressive route that usually throws up something unexpected
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| tyriion |
Posted on 11-12-2013 20:36
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Sprinter
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Mixed feeling about not being here. Could suit Gavazzi/Lorenzetto, but with the big start list or weird attacks might as well be nothing. Would be good for me if the promotion candidates take loads of points.
Check out my ManGame team here
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| roturn |
Posted on 12-12-2013 11:00
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At least the game recognizes Bellis as leader here. So it should work better than the Tour of Britain.
In best case Bellis attacks late and Geschke will sprint out of the peloton in case of being caught again.
Podium I hope. |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 12-12-2013 12:34
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The canadian double-header should be interesting. Lots of fast-finishing puncheurs here which will surely make this race exciting.
Ventoso, Bellis and Haussler to make the podium is my prediction. Hopefully we can secure a good amount of points in the Great White North for the America Tour rank.
Great preview Froomedog. It's good to hear our team being mentioned as a promotion candidate, but it really should be a 2 horse race now. This event should favour Rothaus imo, but if somehow Gautier finds his moment, it could be the beginning of their downfall.
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| Mhaley45 |
Posted on 12-12-2013 12:41
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AMEX's season has been a struggle and riding in North American is important for our sponsors. AMEX has placed their hopes on two punchuers - Sylvain Chavanel has won here before and will get the leaders role on the team. Look for Carlos Barredo to attack in the last quarter of the race. His threat will hopefully push the pace past the sprinters range and give Chavanel a chance to get on the podium.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 12-12-2013 18:52
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Gustavovskiy wrote:
This event should favour Rothaus imo, but if somehow Gautier finds his moment, it could be the beginning of their downfall.
I'm not particularly hopeful 
But yeah this, like all other races until the season ends, is crucial. Gautier needs to show something.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 11:00
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| Firefly21 |
Posted on 12-12-2013 20:15
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Domestique
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Anything resembling points will be good for us here. Maybe Ilias can hang on if he has a good day.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 12-12-2013 20:57
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Oh my god. Wow.
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| tyriion |
Posted on 12-12-2013 21:13
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Sprinter
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Big differences in quality in the field and Rothaus couldn't deliver. Surprising result this one, but BPost's 'tactic' paid off.
Check out my ManGame team here
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 12-12-2013 21:50
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Strange outcome as it's typical by now. The favourite teams didn't risk much anyway, so it's sort of fair we didn't get a big result here. Congratulations to ANC. I can't be sure but this must be their biggest win so far. It would have been nice to see Salas take the home win, but it's good to see a small team get the bacon.
Thanks for the report Froomedog. The event wasn't particularly interesting but the report was a step ahead fortunately.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 12-12-2013 22:19
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Thanks for the report. Not always easy when the AI decides to be frustrating like that. A win for the very bottom ranked team! Not an active team, but nice to see one of my former riders taking a big win.
Some interesting rankings impact too with 8 of the current Top 10 PCT in action, including the Top 7 from the projected standings. Rothaus top scored, but that was to be expected given their riders and the route - much more of a bonus was Dufrasne for Bpost. A below standard race for ING and Vueling could also help to open it up if that trend continues.
And at the other end, only 1 ranking point scored between Amex, Cisco, Pivovarna Lasko, Repsol and WWE. How big it could have been if one of those had made the breakaway.
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 12-12-2013 22:21
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ANC, despite being the bottom ranked team, have now won a hell of a lot more races than us at Boeing... wtf?
Races like that are a bit annoying yes, but i quite like having some of them scattered around the season. It shakes things up and adds that bit of random realness that could otherwise be missing.
Now bring on Montreal
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 12-12-2013 22:26
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TheManxMissile wrote:
ANC, despite being the bottom ranked team, have now won a hell of a lot more races than us at Boeing... wtf?
Races like that are a bit annoying yes, but i quite like having some of them scattered around the season. It shakes things up and adds that bit of random realness that could otherwise be missing.
Now bring on Montreal
3 isn't that much higher than 2! (Not counting any jersey wins there) Although of course 2 one day races is much more satisfying than 2 stage wins.
Agreed though that races like that are ultimately a good thing. Would be boring if PCM were always predictable.
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 13-12-2013 01:29
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Classics Specialist
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SportingNonsense wrote:
TheManxMissile wrote:
ANC, despite being the bottom ranked team, have now won a hell of a lot more races than us at Boeing... wtf?
Races like that are a bit annoying yes, but i quite like having some of them scattered around the season. It shakes things up and adds that bit of random realness that could otherwise be missing.
Now bring on Montreal
3 isn't that much higher than 2! (Not counting any jersey wins there) Although of course 2 one day races is much more satisfying than 2 stage wins.
Agreed though that races like that are ultimately a good thing. Would be boring if PCM were always predictable.
I agree, and not just because that's the way we've scored most of our points this year.
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| roturn |
Posted on 13-12-2013 10:35
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5,7,19,21,30 sounds pretty nice. So it`s still a successful race for me.
But seeing that normally I could have won this eventually it`s a bit pity of course.
Still Geschke is awesome. Doing the work for Bellis and still being the strongest. Good to see that having both in the race works well.
I hope that the hillier profile in Montreal will deliver me a win then. 
It also gives me hope for a good Zagreb result with Geschke.
Bpost deserves the surprising result I guess as Gautier once again sucks for them...Still not ideal in the promotion fight. |
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| Mhaley45 |
Posted on 13-12-2013 13:17
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What a miserable effort by AMEX. It looked like we were on a training ride. We need to overhaul the team!
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Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 14-12-2013 20:58
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Salas has twice now been in a break were the peleton just stopped great effort from him with the 3rd place |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 14-12-2013 21:11
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jt1109 wrote:
Salas has twice now been in a break were the peleton just stopped great effort from him with the 3rd place
I wish the same would have happend to me this season, too  Congrats anyway!
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