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East Midlands Cicle Classic Discussion
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| cio93 |
Posted on 30-05-2014 14:40
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The East Midlands Cicle Classic follows right after Omloop to keep the cobbles specialists in a good rhythm ahead of the monuments.
17 kilometres of British cobbled streches are ready to be conquered by the best strongmen of the peloton, so for once, there's no home advantage for riders like Boonen and Vanspeybrouck.
For the most part, the cobbles sections come in pairs of two to not give the weaker riders an easy way of returning to the front, so hammering on after leaving #1 can really pay off here.
Especially the last three sectors are rather long and could lead to very select groups or become a springboard for the best rider of the day.
Nevertheless the remote location, the favourites remain the same.
The 3 big B's are back around, and while Bennati gets replaced by Burghardt on this profile, their stand-out position does not change.
 Tom Boonen is slowly declining and will face even tougher opposition in  Sam Bewley trying to snatch the "cobbles king" title from him already before their stats start to become too different.
Boonen can rely on his strong team around super domestique Nolf though while the Kiwi has to hope the important selections will happen without either team mates present and that his bike stays intact throughout the race.
 Marcus Burghardt changed teams this season to team up with Evert Verbist at Lotto trying to get rid of the stronger sprinters before the finish. He's a good bet for a podium, but no way he wins if he remains in a group.
Not to forget is the fourth outstanding cobbles lover in  Fabian Cancellara. He really has to do it on his own with support from Vangheel being of rather questionable quality for a rider of his merits.
Below those four favourites, the field gets diverse.
The only team captain that DOES have a national bonus here for once is Good Energy's  Adam Blythe, who will certainly look to make an impression on home soil, and his helper Fenn will be stronger than usual as well.
 Vanmarcke with the good domestiques Ballan and Boom could try and catch the best off-guard with a good utilisation of those guys.
 Sibilla was a spontaneous transfer by Aker and will be alone rather soon.
 Vanspeybrouck and his ever-consistent team on the other hand have lots of PT experience even as a PCT riders and BPost will look forward to another cobbles race where points are finally important for them.
 Danny Summerhill has to keep the hopes of his team to retain the PT crown alive by perfoming on this terrain, and whether the help of former WC van Garderen will actually be beneficient...
Last season showed that you can never rule out  Pippo Pozzato even when there are cobbles around. If the sectors prove to be less selective, he's one to watch from the second row. It's possible that he works for young gun
Zepuntke though if his chances are too slim.
Another aging rider in  Gusev with another promising talent in Senechal try to keep Pendleton's more out of relegation trouble than last season.
Teams hoping for a Top 15 rather than a Top 5 or 10 are Bouygues with  Jacobs, ProConti wildcard Jaguar with  Lagab, Project 1t4i with  Sinkeldam and Vueling with  Kamyshev.
More making up the numbers than expecting anything valuable from this race are many more teams in  B&O,  Festina,  ING,  Prio,  Santander,  Swisscom,  Tinkoff and  Vesuvio.
Edited by cio93 on 30-05-2014 14:54
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| Heine |
Posted on 30-05-2014 14:46
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Sent pozzatto here, hopeing for a mass-sprint (and had some race days left). Will be interesting to see what he does. Other than that I'm hoping for another acceptable result from Zepuntke
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| roturn |
Posted on 30-05-2014 17:10
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Go go. Top 10 minimum wanted and also needed. Plus more scoring of the helpers.
You missed Nooytens. He should be stronger than Boom normally. But anyway I hope to have one in the first or second reduced group.
Mid stage attack could also work so I hope to see my riders there.
Depth needs to pay out. |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-05-2014 17:13
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Hopefully Sinkeldam will do better than in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, while Broers will keep the form from the Belgian race 
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| Rin |
Posted on 30-05-2014 17:28
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I hope the small wobbles infront of the finish could help Burghardt avoiding a sprint against Fenn, Bewley or Boonen (they won't)
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| Smowz |
Posted on 30-05-2014 17:31
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Well 4th at Omloop was okay but outside of Belgium I am more hopeful for Canc as I am sure Rin is with Burghardt and probably Roman with Bewley.
Really want to hit a couple of podiums and no lack of support really doesn't bother me thank you very much
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| beagle |
Posted on 30-05-2014 19:10
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Regarding to (for me at least) that mystical national bonus: can you, guys, tell me how exactly it is supposed to work? As far as I investigated on base of my own riders, generally influence of NB is a bit overestimated.
Anyway, nice preview, looking for a report.
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| ember |
Posted on 30-05-2014 21:56
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We'll have to be in some kind of a breakaway to have any chance of a good placing, I think. Sibilla shouldn't really feature if it comes down to a sprint.
It's Bewley for me. Looking forward to the report! |
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 31-05-2014 23:02
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Can't really expect much from this race, but should be fun to see how Kennaugh fares on home field.
And Kamyshev did very well in Omloop. He's going to be a star soon enough, might as well show it here  |
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 01-06-2014 15:49
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Kozontchuk and Zubov for another surprising result!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 09-12-2025 04:55
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| CountArach |
Posted on 03-06-2014 08:23
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beagle wrote:
Regarding to (for me at least) that mystical national bonus: can you, guys, tell me how exactly it is supposed to work? As far as I investigated on base of my own riders, generally influence of NB is a bit overestimated.
Anyway, nice preview, looking for a report.
No one knows the exact figure for it but it clearly does have some effect. I usually just think of it as a tie breaker.
We really need a good result here. A top 5 would be ideal though I wonder if the course just isn't selective enough for it. Stallaert might be able to do something though.
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| Rin |
Posted on 03-06-2014 09:02
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I would say either with the day form he will have a better day form or +1 in all stats I guess. But no one knows (just Cyanide).
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| roturn |
Posted on 24-06-2014 19:56
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Decided to finish the race today to speed it up a bit.
Congrats to the winner.
For me this was disappointing. Yet another failed cobbled race and with results like this I won`t stand any chance to stay in the Pro Tour. 3 in top20 is okay but no big points. Had hoped that there is bigger selection. In especially as the pace was pretty high for all the stage. |
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| beagle |
Posted on 24-06-2014 20:19
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2-6-15 is good result for me! Congratz to Roman as Bewley was clearly stronger today and also SN, 3rd place for Lagab must be amazing for Jaguar!
And thanks for report, roturn
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 24-06-2014 20:31
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Not bad. Not bad at all.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 24-06-2014 21:22
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 Lagab
Thanks for getting the race done, roturn
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 24-06-2014 21:40
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Of all those hated cobbled classics, this is the one that turned out to be too tough for my riders... Well, hadn't seen that coming, but on the other hand, it's difficult to be disappointed about not getting a result in a race with cobbles. |
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| ember |
Posted on 24-06-2014 22:17
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Great sprint from Sibilla! He looked like he was flying in the third last picture, but probably faded a bit at the very end.
Anyway a strong result from him. A bit disappointing that Van Heerden couldn't do better in the final sprint, but I guess the cobbles proved too much for him.
Great to see another Boonen vs. Bewley fight, it will certainly be interesting to see what the other top favourites can come up with as the profiles get tougher.
Thanks a lot for the report, roturn! |
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| Smowz |
Posted on 24-06-2014 22:21
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Thanks roturn for the report.
Another top five but again annoyed that really no way of even attempting to isolate the B bum chums. Can see these two lard arses dominating in the proper cobbled races also.
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| CountArach |
Posted on 25-06-2014 08:28
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Why do I even bother?
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