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Vuelta al Tachira Discussion
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 11-06-2015 09:57
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 Vuelta a Tachira
The route remains unchanged from last year so a quick briefing:
The Vuelta al Tachira has a long history in the ManGame and goes into it's 7th edition this year. 10 stages, including 4 mountains and 2 hilly parcours, make for a hopefully thrilling battle between some premium climbers in the PCT/CT.
The first half of the race will give the sprinters (4) and puncheurs (1) a chance to shine. The question is, wether the first hilly stage will be crucial as for the final GC or not. It should be an interesting stage anyway.. the last five days though look like the days, where the GC will be decided. Two MTFs may be the most decisive places to attack each other.. and the concluding hilly circuit may lead to some nice action, when the GC is still close.
| GC favourites | MO | HIL | Sprinters | SPR | ACC |  Rujano | 81 | 73 |  Avelino | 82 | 78 |  Sella | 81 | 74 |  Guillén | 81 | 82 |  Nazaret | 80 | 71 |  Keukeleire | 80 | 79 |  Marquez | 80 | 71 | Kip | 80 | 82 |  Krasnoperov | 80 | 68 |  Bouhanni | 80 | 77 | | Pantano Gómez | 79 | 71 | Drapac | 80 | 79 | | Rodrigues | 78 | 73 |  Krieger | 79 | 79 | | Aru | 78 | 74 |  Avila | 78 | 77 | | Vinhas | 78 | 70 | Rizza | 78 | 73 |  Quintana | 78 | 72 | Nepomnyachsniy | 78 | 76 | | Olivier | 77 | 74 | Brea | 78 | 76 | | Topchanyuk | 77 | 73 | Haidar Anuawar | 78 | 76 | | Agudelo | 77 | 68 | Ventoso | 77 | 76 | | Ardila Cano | 77 | 71 | Polivoda | 77 | 77 | | Gomez Marchante | 77 | 69 | Coutinho | 77 | 78 | | Popovych | 77 | 73 | Cano | 77 | 74 | | RodrÃguez | 76 | 64 | Caldeira | 77 | 79 |  Martinez | 76 | 72 | Reza | 76 | 75 | | Serrano | 76 | 68 | Cardoso | 76 | 75 | | Jaramillo | 76 | 66 | Anton Martin | 76 | 76 | | Briceno | 76 | 70 | Hawkins | 76 | 74 | | Torres | 76 | 62 | Speirs | 76 | 80 | | Raisin | 76 | 67 | | | | | Efimkin | 76 | 71 | | | | | Baltazar | 76 | 71 | | | |
Rujano, the Venezuelan born riding for Mobil will gather most interest as he steps down from Pro Tour. And what cirumstances await, in his first race of the season in his new team he already is put on great pressure with the team setting a goal of winning overall race. Will he handle the pressure? For sure he is the top favourite to win the race.
Emanuele Sella will come as his biggest competitior, statistically speaking there is nothing to split them and it will be daily form that will play crucial factor on many of the stages that could prove crucial. Rujano comes with plenty of pure climbers in support, Raisin, Jaramillo and Torres, but Sella brings with him Rodrigues who could lead few teams here which could prove crucial.
Behind them its Nazaret and Krasnoperov with former winner Florentino Marquez whose mighty acceleration could prove to be crucial in this field. Krasnoperov comes with very strong support, will be interesting if they can utilize it well, mid-stage attacks to put pressure on others sounds a great idea to try for them.
Pantano Gómez, Vinhas, Quintana & Aru
should fight it out for places behind the big five, however this early in the season we could see some surprises!
With 3 pan flat stages to open the race sprinters will be in for a dream start.
Avelino comes in as the big favourite and should be really aiming to open Prio season with a bang. With Coutinho & Caldeira he brings awesome leadout that should put him in great position to finish it off.
His biggest rival, at least in first three stages should be Guillén, a pure sprinter that will enjoy the flatness very much, Cano should prove essential if the team decides to build leadout, however they will lack the power compared to Prio so its interesting how they play it out.
Keukeleire Bouhanni Drapac & Krieger are very similar sprinters, on a good day any one of them can win, especially the one that manages to catch on Avelino's wheel. Kip is also one of the fastest here but with Sella in the team he could be faced with limited support. Sprints are very unpredictable though so who knows, we may even see some of the 78/77 challenging for the stage honours.
Quick mention the two CT teams daring to face the hell of Tachira. One already established team in Chiqiuta who comes with Yasmani Martinez. Not sure that is a very good move considering the competition he is going face here and the 10 race days used..especially for a CT team, however, who knows it could prove to be a master stroke and Martinez do a Maillet of 2014. Kinney, Duggan & Selander are one of best puncheurs here so will look forward to the hillier stages.
And newly established South American team, Sancor. They decided not to send their star rider Richeze here however Tachira lenged  Rodas is present, he'll have a hard time repeating his success from few years but he's still capable climber. Moyano looks another rider that could prove to be very good here, the team should be looking to go in breaks here and maybe fight for the King of Mountain jersey at the end of it.
One to point out at the end, Ventoso with his mighty 75 hill seems rather wasted here however he will cherish stage 10 and if Buff - Polska ensure sprint finish he should be unbeatable.
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:02
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It worries me that, even though it should have no effect, Polivoda has been crowned to be my team's captain... 
Win goal, can only go wrong.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| Kentaurus |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:03
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Excited to get to the first stage race of the season, will be time to see I can scratch out any surprise points (like we got at the Down Under Classic). Hopefully we can find more than a few breakaways, and make them stick.
Sort of curious to see how strong Siam looks coming out of this with a co-favorite for the GC and a top support, along with what is likely the best sprint train as well. Will the team be able to handle both duties?
AZTECA - NBCSN  |
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| roturn |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:06
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Nice!
Was waiting for this one a long time as it`s one of the most thrilling races for my team.
Young talents Olivier and Krieger are riders I signed as level 1 riders. And now seeing that first might even fight for a top10 here and 2nd go for the flat stages, is awesome.
Aru might be stronger than Olivier though. Very similar, so not sure if the game goes for the higher mountain stat of Aru or the better allround skills of Olivier.
Pauwels, Bazzana, Clement are basically the best possible support riders here. All of them hopefully also try to go into breakaways.
Nooytens will get an early season race, while Scheit makes his come back after he was with the team already in 2012.
I had hoped for a slightly weaker startlist of course. Getting a podium here is impossible with Rujano, Sella and Marquez in especially. But then there are another 2-3 better climbers. But Aru might actually have small chances for a top5 even.
Goal though is top10 with the 2nd climber also in top15.
Both are U25 riders and by the look of it, it`s only Nairo Quintana being a bigger threat there. So one of mine must beat him.
Avelino here is a surprise and not ideal of course. Had hoped to avoid him with Krieger here. Ventoso as you say, quite weird. Awful terrain for him with pan flat or too hard. Spending so many race days seems a bit waste. |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:09
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I'm surprised to see Avelino here and that does sort of ruin my plan for Keukeleire to be at the top of the sprints. I'm just here for the stage hunting. Zingle will hopefully be amongst the best puncheurs.
Also this is comfortably the worst startlist that I am putting out this season.
Edited by CountArach on 11-06-2015 10:15
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:12
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Damn, better startlist than I had hoped for 
But no worries, Rodas knows these roads  |
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:17
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Hoping for good results in the sprints from Bouhanni and strong attacks from my climbers.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:17
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At 14 teams this is one of the smallest fields of the entire season so a good opportunity for all teams here.
Must be the first time that Rujano rides in his home race. Will he be the 3rd Venezuelan winnner, or the 3rd Venezuelan runner-up? Be surprised if he finishes any lower. First test of Marquez to see if he can live up to last year against competition from riders dropping down from PT. Hopefully no Maillet-style repeat.
A shame not to be back after Bennett's sprinting glories last year, but no room for 2 big stage races in Eritel's calendar!
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| ember |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:18
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This is just a brilliant race, our 2012 win with Alarcon still feels like one of the most special wins with all the drama including Rodas, which makes it nice to see Rodas back, would be cool if he or someone else riding aggressive could put some extra pressure on the best climbers.
Fancying Marquez for the overall win if the acceleration stat has similar value as in last season, but that didn't stop me from betting on "another rider", only due to the great memories of the battle between Alarcon and Rodas
It will definitely be great to see the first race where the climbers take on each other this season! Hopefully the AI delivers another beautiful version of the race, looking forward to the reports, Alakagom! |
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| Heine |
Posted on 11-06-2015 10:51
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Rooting for Sella here ofc, should be a good race for him, lots of mountains and no TT 
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 11-06-2015 11:01
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Tour de France Champion
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ember wrote:
This is just a brilliant race, our 2012 win with Alarcon still feels like one of the most special wins with all the drama including Rodas, which makes it nice to see Rodas back, would be cool if he or someone else riding aggressive could put some extra pressure on the best climbers.
Fancying Marquez for the overall win if the acceleration stat has similar value as in last season, but that didn't stop me from betting on "another rider", only due to the great memories of the battle between Alarcon and Rodas
It will definitely be great to see the first race where the climbers take on each other this season! Hopefully the AI delivers another beautiful version of the race, looking forward to the reports, Alakagom!
Just relived some of that drama with Rodas
Here's an interview with Rodas about the upcoming race as well as the fight in the 2012 race!
Edited by Ian Butler on 11-06-2015 11:01
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Posted on 23-11-2024 00:36
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 11-06-2015 11:12
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Our first race of the season, and what a race it could be!! Guillen could easily win a flat stage on good day and Pantano strong candidate for a top 5 atleast! The fight for victory is between Marques, sella and rujano and maybe nazaret, but u never know with this race. Hopefully no repeat of last season. Wouldnt mind a few break-away attempts from Carapaz as long it doesnt hurt pantano GC-chances. First time I've sent a decent startllist to this race so obviously have some pretty good expectations here!
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 11-06-2015 11:14
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SportingNonsense wrote:
At 14 teams this is one of the smallest fields of the entire season so a good opportunity for all teams here.
Good luck to fellow CT teams and will be nice to see some aggressive attempts for a stage victory. You have a good chance of getting key points for being in the top, when the first ranking updates comes out.
Will cheer for Rodas of course and he can't do anythin, but to make a surprising result here ^^
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| ggDonovan |
Posted on 11-06-2015 11:23
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Nazaret to fight for the last spot of the podium.
I don't see Rujano losing it if the nat bonus has any effect.
Regarding Ventoso. I think is possible he can grab 3 stages (3rd, 4th and 10th). At the end it's a gamble, let's see if it's pays off.
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 11-06-2015 11:35
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I think Sella will take this slightly ahead of Rujano.
And Marquez will take the last podium spot slightly ahead of Pedraza I think.
Also,just saw that Jocellin Maillet once again showed his awesomeness
Betted on Sella.So Allez Emanuele!
Edited by Forever the Best on 11-06-2015 11:38
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 11-06-2015 13:46
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Hmmm, strong startlist. Hoping Martinez can show his face in a mountain stage. The small startlist may give some hope at least...
Also looking forward to Kinney's debut 
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 11-06-2015 13:58
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Cheering for Rujano and Aru here. The first still got some tsmoha-love since his days in my Dark Dog story a few years ago. Would be cool to see him winning on home soil (as he did a few times irl, iirc).. Aru I somehow like, too. Podium looks doable, but it won't be easy.
Hoping for some better action than last year, where it turned out to be a rather uneventful race between the big guns.
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| fintas |
Posted on 11-06-2015 14:43
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breakway festival for this race
Edited by fintas on 11-06-2015 14:44
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 12-06-2015 10:49
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Very slow start at our end here. But it was to be expected.
What a sprint victory. Congrats to the winner! Obvious victory |
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| roturn |
Posted on 12-06-2015 10:53
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Euskaltel dominating a sprint? This is something completely new I guess.
Well done by Bouhanni.
Not a bad stage for me. Had hoped Krieger would pass the Euskaltel and Prio leadouts, but 8th is a decent start. At least we finally sprint. 
Bazzana in the break is also nice to see plus Clement, Nooytens and Scheit losing a bit time for future breakaway attempts, while the leaders stay safely in the peloton.
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Jocelin Maillet
David De la Fuente
Andrei Kashechkin
Walter Pedraza
Tyler Brandt
