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Tour of the Middle East Discussion
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 23-06-2015 17:59
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 Tour of the Middle East
Something like the CT's very own (semi) Grand Tour, the Tour of the Middle East goes into it's third edition: featuring 12 stages with a colorful mix of hilly, mountain and flat stages (plus one long timetrial), it's definitely an exciting trip for those, who take part here.
Thomas Rohregger (2013) and last year's CT-superstar Vitor Rodrigues (2014) as the previos race winners: obviously, anyone aiming for the GC victory needs to be a decent allrounder. That said, with three hilly stages right at the beginning, also stronger puncheurs may fancy their chances to grab an early race-lead to hang on for a while.
17 teams at the start, so let's take a look, at who may follow into Rodrigues' footsteps here..
The Startlist
The Contenders | Climber | Mo | Hi | TT | Allrounder | Mo | Hi | TT |  Signorini | 78 | 69 | 65 |  Ochoa Quintero | 77 | 73 | 66 |  Berard | 76 | 68 | 61 |  Gilanipoor | 77 | 71 | 68 |  Ndbri | 76 | 68 | 62 | Dyachenko | 76 | 74 | 70 |  Orozco | 76 | 66 | 61 | Soler | 76 | 74 | 66 |  Løvik | 75 | 72 | 61 |  Novak | 76 | 73 | 76 |  Baz | 75 | 71 | 62 | Lowe | 76 | 73 | 71 |  Hirt | 75 | 70 | 69 | Bagot | 76 | 73 | 65 |  Peterson | 75 | 68 | 73 | Nieve | 76 | 73 | 67 |  Esquivel | 75 | 66 | 59 |  Nakane | 76 | 70 | 63 | | Puncheurs | | | |  Brandt | 76 | 69 | 73 | | Lejman | 65 | 77 | 58 | Weber | 75 | 74 | 71 | | Acevedo | 72 | 76 | 64 | Hardy | 75 | 73 | 59 | | Zielinski | 70 | 74 | 60 |  Koep | 75 | 73 | 72 | | Proni | 70 | 74 | 65 | Godoy | 74 | 75 | 65 | | Khalilikhosroshani | 67 | 75 | 67 | Ikibe | 74 | 73 | 70 | | Bauer | 65 | 73 | 76 | Rosskopf | 71 | 74 | 74 |
Hard to say, which stages will become the ultimate key. But it's pretty clear, that you need to climb very well not lose big time on the hard mountain stages here. Last year's 3rd here - Ochoa Quintero - has to be considered a top favorite for sure. One of the best climbers and allrounders, even though lacking some TT-skills compared to some others.
Gilanippor, Dyachenko, Soler, Novak (as also the best against the clock amongst all favorites), Lowe, Weber and some more may become his biggest contenders.
A few strong pure climbers like Signorini, Peterson or Hirt can do some damage, too. Lejman may only aim for the early hilly stages, but guys like Acevedo, a strong finisher like Zielinski or veteran Bauer will be promising riders amongst the better puncheurs here.
The Stage-Hunters | Chronomen | TT | | | Sprinter | Sp | Acc | | AramendÃa | 77 | | | Thorsen | 82 | 85 | | Sebright | 77 | | | Kankovský | 80 | 83 |  Hofer | 76 | | | Vanderaerden | 79 | 75 | | Sagan | 75 | | | Sonnery | 78 | 73 | | | | | Drujon | 78 | 78 | | | | | Jørgensen | 78 | 73 | | | | | Rasmussen | 77 | 79 | | | | |  Giacoppo | 77 | 75 | | | | | Nateghi | 77 | 75 |
Both sprinters and pure TT-specialists will need to recover well from the first four (or ten) days here. We've seen chronomen suffering in such late TTs before, so it may be questioned, whether Aramendia or Sebright will be in the mix for a stage-win in this 11th stage.
The sprinters though will get their chances earlier: Thorsen/Kankovský is a Grand Tour-proven train (Tour of America 2013), capable of grabbing stage-wins in such a tour. A few quite notable names will be true challengers though: Vanderaerden and Drujon as the most promising. Also Drujon had a quite good ToA last year and so we have a nice "battle" here.
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| roturn |
Posted on 23-06-2015 18:06
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No question I hope for a good race by Koep here. I hope the TT will move him up quite a bit for a decent GC.
Novak for the overall win. Another former loanie from me so I hope he gets it. Ochoa Quintero obviously a strong opponent. |
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 23-06-2015 18:07
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Great preview  Goal is 5 stage wins or just around that number 
I have no GC man here and instead I have bought material for a Top 10 each stage
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 23-06-2015 18:21
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Disappointed Jiriakov didn't get a mention in the preview considering he's returning for the third year straight as part of my team and finished 3rd in the opening edition. I doubt he'll hit anywhere near those heights again in this edition as the Climber field is far stronger but I think he could hit the lower reaches of the top 10 or a top 15 here.
We've not brought that strong a squad here but we are hoping to get into breaks and stage hunt a little with the majority of my squad being here for some XP and to get a rare free role.
I think Novak should gain enough in the TT to cover any losses in the Mountains to Ochoa Quintero, especially as it's almost 50km long and I'd name him as my favourite.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 23-06-2015 18:29
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sammyt93 wrote:
Disappointed Jiriakov didn't get a mention in the preview considering he's returning for the third year straight as part of my team and finished 3rd in the opening edition.
Fair point, I usually try to cover all who did well in previous editions of a race. Though, to be fair (to me), he ain't amongst the biggest GC-contenders, stat-wise. Maybe he will prove me wrong 
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 23-06-2015 18:31
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With the TT, I'm hoping Koep can pull out a top 15. Top 10 would be amazing. I'm also looking for breakaways. Maybe we can pull a win from that.
And of course, Razzie needs another two stage wins for his Mid East record. I brought some leadout men, and the start list seems to think he's good, so we'll see. 
Edited by baseballlover312 on 23-06-2015 18:33
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 07:40
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| matt17br |
Posted on 23-06-2015 18:35
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I think it was a wise choice not to send any team after all: although the climbers' field is weaker than expected, neither Rolland, Girardi or Malacarne could have done anything very decent for the GC, even though they all can climb and do very well in the time trials.
Probably Rolland would have done well in the 50 kms tt but wouldn't have probably won it either because of his flat.
Could have been interesting to send a punchy/sprinty/stage hunty team but then again why would I waste 11 rds?
We don't even have proper stage hunters 
I predict a battle between Signorini (who will suffer his flat and hill stats though!) and Novak for the GC, but I see the latter succeeding most likely. Surely neither Ochoa nor Gilanipoor can be underestimated though.
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| the_hoyle |
Posted on 23-06-2015 18:50
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Baz is our only hope in the race, and a strong performance would make me happy. A stage win would be nice as well
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| The Rider |
Posted on 23-06-2015 18:58
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Cleberson Weber for the win.
Don't see Signorini doing much damage, he might podium a mountainous stage but I feel a top 15 in GC will be a massive ride by him.
Compal - Merida and Alpina - Avianca both have 3+ riders who could podium this race, combine this with the fact that there is no outright favourite for the mountains means they could feasibly win the race in the mountains as one of their riders attacks and no one else commits to the chase. That said Novak starts as the favourite! |
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 23-06-2015 20:15
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I think it's possible to do well here, in our third try in ToME.
I hope the fact that we have more than one candidate for a good GC placement, will help us. Really looking forward to this race! |
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| Cavendish-Fan |
Posted on 23-06-2015 21:36
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Domestique
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Looking forward to see akzonobel but aswell the leaders |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 23-06-2015 22:51
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Finally a race that we're involved in, been a long while since Cuba!
Gambled on sending pretty much my A-team minus Forero to this race which could turn out very well or it could turn out as a waste of race days for someone like Godoy who I guess isn't really needed considering the presence of both Weber and Soler, in addition to Orozco and Acevedo.
Anyway, considering the team strength have fairly high expectations from this race. Acevedo should do well on the early hilly stages and the climbers should hopefully be able to swarm the mountains. I'm just concerned about the long TT, though, only Weber has slight TTing skills, so GC could be a slight problem there. Nevertheless top 5 overall plus some good stage performances should be the goal here. Looking forward to the racing muchly!
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| Scorchio |
Posted on 24-06-2015 00:21
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Really enjoyed ToTME last season, particularly the 3 late mountain stages turned out to be pretty epic! Will be interesting to follow Ochoa Quintero's progress here; as an ex-Nutresa rider we wish him good luck. Also think that our Colombian neighbours have the potential to play a big hand in this race, so fingers crossed for Alpina as well. The racing in the mountains was hard enough last year such that the importance of the TT was diminished - with Novak present, it may have a bigger bearing on the overall if his competitors can't distance him sufficiently on the 3 monster mountain stages.
Manager of ISA - Hexacta in the MG |
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 24-06-2015 00:44
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I'm looking forward to this race. Hopefully we can get a stage win.
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| Silvio Herklotz |
Posted on 24-06-2015 02:15
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Yay, we haven't been involved in racing for quite some time, so really looking forward to Middle East.
I hope Bole can do something in the hilly stages, but a bit disappointed he wasn't mentioned at all.
Don't really believe in any GC chance for Hirt, but maybe the guys will go stage hunting.
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 24-06-2015 03:58
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Looking forward to this one
Hard to look past any rider with 76 MO and 70+ TT. We have a very strong climbing team here, so here's hoping we can try and put those guys in difficulty in the mountains. And please oh greatefull PCM AI, use Nieve as my default leader, please!
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| maxime86 |
Posted on 24-06-2015 08:19
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Excited for Novaks debut! Hopefully he and rossokpf do well in the tt! |
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| Ste117 |
Posted on 24-06-2015 15:04
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It would have been silly not to send Kankovsky and Thorsen together here after last season Tour of America. But for the first time ever we are battling on two fronts, the sprints and the mountains with our new signing Ochoa Quintero. I am expecting some decent results from him here. He has a tiny bit of support around him.
MG Team manager Team Ticos Air Costa Rica
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 24-06-2015 15:26
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The team continues where they left and Zielinski with his second stage win of the season Don't really care about Berard and the GC here, we're primarily here for stages and we already got our first
Zielinski is a true breakaway beast
Edited by sgdanny on 24-06-2015 15:26
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 24-06-2015 15:40
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Well, there goes my hope.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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