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Herald Sun Tour Discussion
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 29-01-2014 19:30
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Soon starting in Australia is a potentially crucial stage race as the battles for promotion and relegation reach their climax. The Herald Sun Tour provides those in the Pro Continental and Continental Tours a chance to win yet more ranking points at this late stage in the season, which could be the difference in the end-of-year standings.
Six stages make up the race, which are held around Melbourne and Provincal Victoria. Five of those are flat and the majority should provide the sprinters no problems with short, flat stages likely to see massed sprints decide the victors. The 164 kilometre stage 3 provides the only substantial obstacles to the fastmen, with a couple of climbs in the second half of the race.
Stage 5 is a 10 kilometre ITT held around Geelong, providing the rouleurs that have traveled to the race an opportunity to grab a stage victory, while also providing a springboard to finish high up in the GC. If the bonus seconds of the flat stages are shared around, this stage could be a deciding one.
This is the fifth edition of the race, with the race being held annually since 2009, which saw the inaugural edition won by Adam Hansen. He is one of two Aussie winners, with Cadel Evans also triumphing in 2010. Could we see another one of these in 2013?
If we are, then there will have to be an upset as the big favourites are all foreign and also big sprinters. Leading that list is  Napolitano, who is probably the fastest man in the division right now. He should be up there on the flat stages, and with a strong leadout train he is the favourite.
Behind him there are lots of others who could walk away from here with the victory. Riders like  Cavendish,  Davis,  Haussler,  Kupfernagel and  Guarnieri all have a chance, being in the top tier of sprinters in this division. The sprint stages should be very open with all these battling for the stage wins and bonus seconds.
Other fastmen of note who have traveled to Australia are guys like Mezgec,  Peeters,  Awang,  Rasmussen,  Manan,  Feillu,  Bazayev,  Sutton,  Van Poppel and  Dall'Antonia who should all provide tough competition for anyone wanting to do well here. The sprints will be heavily contested, that's for sure.
Also, some Time Trial specialists are on the startlist, hoping to be benefactors of stage 5's ITT. They're not small ones either; Rogers and Zabriskie are both here! If the ITT proves to be decisive in the GC, the battle between these two could be great to watch.
The full startlist:
 
Edited by FroomeDog99 on 29-01-2014 19:31
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 29-01-2014 19:39
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World Champion
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Hum... Well, this is going to suck... hard. |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 29-01-2014 19:49
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Team Leader
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This is a huge race for us. We can take loads of points off Meiji in Asia and cast any lingering doubts about safety aside. Davis is the one to watch in my opinion. |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 29-01-2014 20:05
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World Champion
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Interesting to see that no promotion-seeking team is here with a sprinter, ING the only ones able to make any sort of impact on the rankings with Zabriskie here.
On the other hand, the bottom part of the rankings could be shaken up a fair bit.
Also, it's borderline ridiculous how fast those discussion threads appear recently, great work! 
Edited by cio93 on 29-01-2014 20:05
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| CountArach |
Posted on 29-01-2014 23:40
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Grand Tour Champion
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I'm here with Feillu cio.
He should be able to hold on but the main issue will be picking up bonus time.
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| tyriion |
Posted on 29-01-2014 23:44
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Sprinter
Posts: 1510
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One of several bad choices/line ups to close out the year. No TTist here and v Poppel won't be able to really compete for bonus seconds. Our only hope is a break.
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 29-01-2014 23:51
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3634
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I love the games optimism for Awang, even the timetrial looks like it has too many speedbumps for him.
EDIT: adn why are Evian suddenly albanian?
btw tehre is a delete this post checkbox under disable smilies in this post when you edit so you can delete your double post yourself.
Edited by sammyt93 on 29-01-2014 23:53
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| cio93 |
Posted on 29-01-2014 23:58
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World Champion
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sammyt93 wrote:
btw tehre is a delete this post checkbox under disable smilies in this post when you edit so you can delete your double post yourself.
Indeed there is, but luckily all reporters have admin rights in the ManGame forums, so there you go 
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| tyriion |
Posted on 30-01-2014 08:11
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Sprinter
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sammyt93 wrote:
I love the games optimism for Awang, even the timetrial looks like it has too many speedbumps for him.
EDIT: adn why are Evian suddenly albanian?
btw tehre is a delete this post checkbox under disable smilies in this post when you edit so you can delete your double post yourself.
You always keep learning 
And Metinvest being Albanian must have to do with tax evasion. How else will they pay Hoffman next year?
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| jph27 |
Posted on 30-01-2014 08:28
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tyriion wrote:
sammyt93 wrote:
I love the games optimism for Awang, even the timetrial looks like it has too many speedbumps for him.
EDIT: adn why are Evian suddenly albanian?
btw tehre is a delete this post checkbox under disable smilies in this post when you edit so you can delete your double post yourself.
You always keep learning
And Metinvest being Albanian must have to do with tax evasion. How else will they pay Hoffman next year?
We're not Metinvest and that looks like Morocco to me. Napolitano will be able to correct you next year when you sign him, right? |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 30-01-2014 08:52
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Directeur Sportif
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Now that's the race.. Win the chance to stay in PCT or lose it all. So far in the season Rogers managed to fail in such races though. Ain't too optimistic right now.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 28-11-2024 07:03
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| jph27 |
Posted on 30-01-2014 17:11
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Seriously Evian?  |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 30-01-2014 17:17
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Seriously Oz? Rasmussen doing great as 46th though.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 30-01-2014 17:24
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This has to be the 100th race report that misspells "Hugentobler" 
And probably the first one ever to depict the sprint trains as if watched from the side of the road, interesting!
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 30-01-2014 17:38
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World Champion
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11th and Di Gregório in the BOTD. Let's improve shall we? |
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| tyriion |
Posted on 30-01-2014 17:38
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Sprinter
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20th by van Poppel won't help us, can only get better (hopefully)
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 30-01-2014 22:34
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3634
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nice to see "Greogry Hutegobler" in the break again, I'm surprised we manged to salvage a top 10 out of that stage considering I couldn't see any of our sprinters on the screenshots, hopefully they'll have better positioning on future stages as it seems they had enough speed to recover.
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 30-01-2014 23:03
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4573
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sammyt93 wrote:
'Greogry Hugentobler'
Even you can't spell it Sammy |
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 30-01-2014 23:07
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3634
Joined: 03-07-2012
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FroomeDog99 wrote:
sammyt93 wrote:
'Greogry Hugentobler'
Even you can't spell it Sammy
I love the fact you corrected his surname for me but forgot to correct his first name
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| jph27 |
Posted on 31-01-2014 17:01
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God I love the AI. |
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