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Cartago - Irazu Discussion
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 26-12-2013 17:17
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Welcome to Costa Rica for one of the toughest classics on the calendar, the Cartago - Irazu classic! This is the inaugural edition of the race, which takes the Continental peloton up the Irazu volcano nine times. Only the mountain goats will be able to handle this one.
The profile really speaks for itself, with almost half of the race being uphill! This includes climbing to an altitude of over 3300m which is where the race finishes. With gradients of up to 19%, only the strongest climbers in the continental peloton will stand a chance here.
The home fans will have plenty to cheer, with Banco Costa Rica riding on home turf and fielding four home riders, who will want to make a mark on their home race here.
Talking of riders attending, there is one big standalone favourite for the race. That is  Arroyo! The Spanish rider has had a tough season so far, but with nemesis Marzano not making the trip to South America, he is the overwhelming favourite to take the spoils for his Die Berg team.
Something he doesn't have though is great support. The same can't be said though for the next big rider here - fellow Spaniard  Moreno leads an impressive Iberia squad, with Rodriguez Oliver, Perez Sanchez and Sanchez Gonzalez all being great riders on their own and providing a strong backing.
Another strong team here is another Spanish one. Futbol Club Barcelona also should be able to get good results here in Costa Rica. Lead by  Menchov, they have a capable and strong leader, who is backed up well by Nieve and Calzati.
Those are probably the strongest climbers here, but plenty of others will be queuing up to try and overtake them if they falter. Boeing duo  Colorado and Parra Bustamante, home favourites  Esquivel and Rojas Villegas,  Delgado and  Cabreira all are strong on the high mountains and could pull off great results.
Behind them,  Monsalve,  Rudsakov,  Naibo and  Astarloza all lead their respective teams, and are all capable of decent results. However, they will need to have a great day to overtake some of the stronger climbers, as they may not have the same strength as others.
The full startlist:
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| fintas |
Posted on 26-12-2013 17:38
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Small Tour Specialist
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Arroyo is the favorite but I think we will not win, as to my team, I hope at least the top10 by the Cabreira.
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 26-12-2013 17:41
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
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Nothing on for Boeing here... Neither of the Duo have had a good season and in such a field i doubt theyll get up to much.
Arroyo will be fun to watch in action and should take home the bacon on an incredible race route
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| Smowz |
Posted on 27-12-2013 07:12
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Team Leader
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A lot of teams seem to be here for Xp, meanwhile Arroyo, Iberia and Barca are taking it seriously and will cash in on he booty!
Arroyo has been pretty disappointing, caused some headlines with his big drop down but hasn't dominated like he may have done in previous PCM editions.
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| Dippofix |
Posted on 27-12-2013 13:12
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Classics Specialist
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Wow, looks like a really hard and interesting race. Wonder what Banco can do in front of a home crowd? 
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| ggDonovan |
Posted on 27-12-2013 13:50
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Breakaway Specialist
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A top 3 should be our goal. If Arroyo doesn't take the 1st spot it will be a surprise so 2nd is a good result and 3rd is the expected.
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| Heine |
Posted on 27-12-2013 14:38
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Will be interesting to see if my climbing domestiques can do something, just picked some random races when I was out of racedays for my main riders
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 11:01
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| Firefly21 |
Posted on 28-12-2013 05:05
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Domestique
Posts: 506
Joined: 15-09-2012
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Tough race for Naibo. Some points would be nice, but I don't expect much
I'd say Arroyo wins, but he tends to disappoint this year!
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 28-12-2013 19:08
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World Champion
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And we'll stay CT in 2014.  |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 28-12-2013 19:13
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
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Holy Crap! A podium finish!!!! And both of the Duo finished in the top 10... Incredible stuff from the both of them. Such an important result and much needed points.
But it's too little too late in terms of a promotion push...
Arroyo was awesome as well though. Great ride and he was clearly the strongest
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| Dippofix |
Posted on 28-12-2013 19:52
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Classics Specialist
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TheManxMissile wrote:
Holy Crap! A podium finish!!!! And both of the Duo finished in the top 10... Incredible stuff from the both of them. Such an important result and much needed points.
But it's too little too late in terms of a promotion push...
Arroyo was awesome as well though. Great ride and he was clearly the strongest
Congrats to Boeing, that was definitely a much needed good result for the boys in green.
And Arroyo was outstanding, though not surprising. 
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 28-12-2013 20:07
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Small Tour Specialist
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Been waiting for this race like forever.
Awesome race, and an awesome result for us, with two top ten and completing our second goal of the season!
And nice to see Arroyo finally win aswell.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 28-12-2013 22:21
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2633
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Succesful race for Boeing and BNCR. Grats!
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| jph27 |
Posted on 29-12-2013 10:35
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Team Leader
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Shame we have two inactive teams 1 and 2 here, but good to see Boeing doing well. Great report Smowz |
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 29-12-2013 10:38
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Erm.. |
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| fintas |
Posted on 29-12-2013 12:47
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Small Tour Specialist
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The top5 turns out to be a good result, pity that rest of the team failed to score..
Thanks for the report FroomeDog99
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| ggDonovan |
Posted on 03-01-2014 12:27
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 897
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Terrible result for us. We've been underachieving for all year...
The morale in the team is abysmal.
Thanks FroomeDog99 for the report.
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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)
