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Tour of Beijing Discussion Thread
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| cio93 |
Posted on 05-02-2014 20:09
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World Champion
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The final HC stage race of the season (and the first one in 3 months by the way) welcomes the managers of the 20 starting teams in China and certainly many more colleagues in front of their TVs.
With lots of points up for grabs, this race in and around Beijing will play an important role in deciding the last open spots in Pro Tour and ProContinental tour.
The first stage offers a relatively easy circuit course starting at the world famous Tian An Men Square where hopefully the sprinters won't battle quite as fierce as the Chinese did on that dreaded day 25 years ago.
Stage 2 is the opener to the queen stage 3 featuring a Cat. 1 climb in the middle, but ending with a flat run-in.
The beautiful panorama of the Great Wall will be the background for the second time a pro race finishes at Badaling this season.
This time, the banner is located atop the hill rather than after a descent though!
The GC should be decided here, or at least it requires a lot of strenght to make significant changes to one's GC position in the remaining days.
Nevertheless, stage 4 isn't your standard flat sprint stage either, but any fast man making it over the mid-stage obstacles has a rather lenghty downhill part to recover.
Stage 5 is classified as flat too even though it contains the hardest ascent of the race pretty close to the finish.
It remains to be seen how the peloton tackles this climb.
You obviously cannot look past the top puncheurs when it comes to who takes the overall win back home from Beijing, and the most outstanding
member of the elite group allowed to be named like this is  Francesco Ginanni.
He will try to attract the big managers as it is almost certain his wage and team will be determined by a FA bidding war.
 Chris Froome is interested in increasing his transfer value as well after his manager told the press he should be available in the off-season as well.
In contrary to VW hope  Flügel, he has to rely on his uphill speed, while the German could overperform due to his above-average downhill and sprint abilities.
That is obviously a must if the team wants to keep up with opponents Bouygues, who are on fire in Africa at the moment.
BPost have the same opponent, and Rothaus still could use more points to secure promotion.
These teams rely on  Gautier and  Bellis, especially the Frenchman finally has to prove he was worth the training, while Bellis could get bonus seconds from the sprints after the queen stage to possibly reduce the gap to better puncheurs.
Sram's  Wegmann is a similar rider to Bellis, although quite a bit more rusty already.
Further down the depth chart, Meiji bring their one-trick pony/1.6 million dollar baby  Zaini.
Vueling wants to consolidate their promotion spot with the help of  Schreurs as well.
CSC rely on "only" 1.0 million dollar baby  Barrio and Costa, while Cisco and Lukoil hope for surprises by  Taborre and  Efimkin to put themselves above the cut in the lower third of the rankings.
The sprinters might only have two chances, but that didn't stop Armavia from bringing  Lo Cicero here.
He might struggle with the hills even more than everyone else, but it could pay off as the opposition is clearly weaker.
Voluntarily disbanding team Sram has Mezgec supported by dual-threat Wegmann, and AMEX finally expect some results from  Kupfernagel who can count on a really strong team.
WWE will experience the same fate as Sram, so  Vingerling tries to prove his value here for probably the last time before heading to Free Agency.
UPC needs points, and  Lorenzetto definitely likes the profiles of a lot of stages here. You cannot discount him for podiums and the points jersey!
A multitude of second-tier sprinters are here as well, with surprisingly Feillu the only sprinter from one of the promotion-seeking teams, while nearly every team fighting relegation fields one in this race.
Concerning the huge impact this race might have, here's a shorter breakdown of the promotion and relegation fight, including the rankings as of after Herald Sun Tour and the respective leaders of the teams present here.
| 2 |  | ING Cycling Project | 3684 | --- | --- | | 3 | | Team Vueling Airlines | 3598 | Schreurs | --- | | 4 | | Rothaus - Aegon | 3430 | Bellis | --- | | 5 |  | Hollister Pro Cycling | 3352 | --- | --- | | 6 |  | Prio - Porto | 3300 | --- | --- | | 7 |  | Bouygues Telecom | 3142 | --- | --- | | 8 | | Team Bpost | 3135 | Gautier | Feillu | | 9 | | VolksWagen-Mapei | 3044 | Flügel, Kessler | --- |
| 17 |  | Evian-MIAT | 2102 | Rocchetti | Guardini | | | 18 |  | Pivovarna Laško | 2089 | --- | --- | | 19 |  | Alstom-RBC | 2073 | --- | --- | | 20 | | Meiji - Cannondale | 2063 | Zaini | Modolo | | 21 |  | Oz Cycling Project | 2059 | Visconti | Rasmussen | | 22 | | Amex Pro Cycling | 2030 | Chavanel | Kupfernagel | | 23 |  | Team Bintang | 2030 | --- | --- | | 24 | | Cisco Cycling Team | 1951 | Taborre | --- | | 25 |  | Repsol-Cativen | 1896 | --- | Andriato | | 26 | | Team CSC-Orbea | 1870 | Barrio, Costa | Teruel | | 27 | | Team UPC | 1862 | --- | Lorenzetto | | 28 | | LukOil-Rostelekom | 1809 | Efimkin | --- |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 05-02-2014 20:15
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
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Efimkin for LukOil?  Bad news for Cisco then!
Hoping for our three/four puncheurs to make the Top-20 somehow. Scoring low with maybe more than two riders would be fine. Our Top-5 goal is a joke though 
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 05-02-2014 20:20
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
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Dang it, I must've looked at the wrong column in the season planner earlier...
Now I'm really worried!
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| cio93 |
Posted on 05-02-2014 20:23
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World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
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Pellizotti2 wrote:
Dang it, I must've looked at the wrong column in the season planner earlier...
Now I'm really worried!
Sorry mate, but that's what you get for that "other" race going on right now... 
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| roturn |
Posted on 05-02-2014 20:23
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Team Manager
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Bellis just needs to secure promotion here as it is my last race.
Hopefully the mistake to send another sprinter won`t have any impact. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 14:12
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| Smowz |
Posted on 05-02-2014 23:01
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Team Leader
Posts: 6479
Joined: 09-04-2009
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A late VW charge? Not sure have this feeling Froome will win this. Don 't know why logic suggest Ginanni really.
Smashing preview cio.
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 05-02-2014 23:09
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World Champion
Posts: 12986
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Hey! Zaini may have cost 1.6mil but his wage was really low, for what has turned out to be a very nice addition, and its allowed me to fit other good riders in the salary cap  I mean it was essentially all extra money spent on him anyway.
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| Heine |
Posted on 05-02-2014 23:45
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4116
Joined: 08-04-2007
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Fly flugel, fly!
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 05-02-2014 23:57
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8059
Joined: 22-06-2009
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Here we go. Don't let me down Costa and "1M Dollar Baby."
Fantastic preview.
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 06-02-2014 00:13
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2907
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Let's see how the Lo Cicero gamble pays. I don't get my hopes up too much |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 06-02-2014 05:56
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8290
Joined: 14-07-2008
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I expect Gautier to lose us a potential promotion spot to VW here.
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 06-02-2014 06:23
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World Champion
Posts: 14236
Joined: 20-06-2011
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Nice preview Cio, i like the history remark (one of the most shameful acts of history on that square) and promotion /relegation breakdown you did.
Good luck to all the teams, have a nice fight.
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| Heine |
Posted on 06-02-2014 06:24
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4116
Joined: 08-04-2007
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CountArach wrote:
I expect Gautier to lose us a potential promotion spot to VW here.
How did you know what I dreamed tonight?
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| tyriion |
Posted on 06-02-2014 06:31
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Sprinter
Posts: 1510
Joined: 29-08-2010
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Not looking good for me here. (That's always the case with rising roads) lorenzetto getting the points jersey would be fantastic, but I don't see that happening. Haven't won a single one of those so far.
That said a couple of stage podiums/a stage win could be enough with a successful Faso.
Check out my ManGame team here
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 06-02-2014 21:10
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
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Nice preview Cio. Looking forward to this last stage race of the season, before the final classics.
Hopefully Froome can put in a strong performance!
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| jph27 |
Posted on 06-02-2014 21:22
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Team Leader
Posts: 7339
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We're due a season's worth of luck. Hopefully here |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 08-02-2014 18:52
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World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
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PS: Salerno, Domene and Zepuntke did abandon.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 08-02-2014 19:09
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Team Leader
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Mwahahaha! Sorry. 
Rocchetti in a great place now, ditto Anuar Aziz. Good to see Koretzky in the break also. |
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 08-02-2014 19:16
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8059
Joined: 22-06-2009
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I'll take it! First win of the year for Teruel!
Barrio loses time but now he has to work for Costa which is what I want anyways. We might not relegate after all.
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| Heine |
Posted on 08-02-2014 19:25
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4116
Joined: 08-04-2007
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Not really sporting to say, but really great that many puncheurs lost time, I need a strong result from Flügel! Pretty perfect stage for me in that regard
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