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Olympia's Tour Discussion
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 11-08-2015 19:47
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 Olympia's Tour
The Olympia's Tour is going into it's fourth edition (taking a break in 2012) and even though the general aspects of the race stays the same (flat + TTs), we do have a significant change this year:
The TTT is back on the schedule (after being held in the race's inaugaral edition in 2011)! The 23km parcours through Eindhoven will surely be a key for GC-contenders here. Same goes - of course - for the opening 17km ITT. Last year, we had eight chronomen in the final Top-10 and in 2013, Cornu took the overall primes ahead of Vantomme.
The defending champion is a sprinter though: Dan Holloway took out four stages one year ago - the US boy won't be at the start this time though. Opposing to Cornu and Vantomme, who may find themselves back in a thrilling fight between sprinters and TT-beasts here!
The Startlist
The TT-specialists | Rider | FL | TT | | Rider | FL | TT |  Fiedler | 79 | 83 | |  Boom | 75 | 78 |  Cornu | 75 | 81 | | Balloni | 73 | 78 |  Van Winden | 74 | 80 | |  Flens | 72 | 78 | | Schädlich | 70 | 80 | | Dumoulin | 71 | 78 | | Reus | 77 | 79 | |  Gonzalez Salas | 68 | 78 |  Stannard | 75 | 79 | |  Christensen | 78 | 77 | | Dempster | 74 | 79 | |  Gretsch | 71 | 77 |  Haugard | 72 | 79 | | Grabovski | 74 | 77 |
The TTT | Team | TTT-setup | | RBC Pro Cycling | 79-78-77-77-76-75-74-72 | | Aegon – Lavazza | 80-78-78-76-75-74-74-63 | | Risa – Ergon | 79-77-77-75-74-74-71-71 | | Swedbank – PEAB | 79-77-75-75-72-64-60-57 | | Team TomTom | 80-76-76-76-68-65-64-64 | | Karcher-Adira | 83-78-77-72-66-65-59-58 | | Team Bpost | 81-76-75-73-62-60-58-58 | | cycleYorkshire | 79-76-75-75-67-66-63-61 |
Let's begin with the chronomen, who will again fancy their chances for the GC here: we see four riders, who have podium'd this race in the past two years. Cornu, Van Winden (2013) and Stannard, Reus (2014). They should be all threats for the GC-podium again.
Obviously, the man to beat here is Fiedler. Lacking the depth in the TTT, the German needs to deliver on the first day. Schädlich, Dempster, Reus/Flens and maybe Haugard come with the best TTT-lineup here. But also Karcher, BPost and Yorkshire should be capable of avoiding bigger time losses in Eindhoven.
The Sprinters | Rider | TT | SPR | ACC | Rider | TT | SPR | ACC |  Ciolek | 61 | 83 | 79 |  Peeters | 64 | 79 | 77 | | Vantomme | 64 | 82 | 78 |  Mezgec | 60 | 79 | 77 | | Ahlstrand | 60 | 81 | 80 |  Uugunbayar | 58 | 77 | 75 | | Guillén | 56 | 81 | 82 | Veelers | 70 | 76 | 77 |  Nelson | 56 | 81 | 81 | Leadouts | | | | | Rowe | 67 | 80 | 70 | Vanoverschelde | 59 | 80 | 75 | | Groenewegen | 63 | 80 | 79 | Greipel | 64 | 79 | 76 | | Kupfernagel | 59 | 80 | 80 | Vingerling | 65 | 79 | 79 | | Keukeleire | 58 | 80 | 79 | Stallaert | 58 | 79 | 76 |  Nizzolo | 57 | 80 | 79 | Giaux | 68 | 77 | 75 |
Holloway (4 stage-wins) and Vantomme (3) pretty much dominated the sprints when they podium'd this event in the past two years. Given the amount of TT-kilometres this year, it's pretty clear that someone needs to gain bonifications consistently. That said, the TTT surely adds an interesting factor/bonus for those sprinters, who do know a decent support behind them.
Vantomme, Groenewegen and Ahlstrand certainly do - also Rowe, Kupfernagel and Keukeleire ride for teams, that will be Top-5 contenders in the TTT.
Top-sprinter Ciolek with a bit more pressure then. He will be top motivated to beat FDB Eire-winner Kupfernagel though. Guillén, Nelson and Nizzolo complete this selection of 80+ sprinters. Lulu with the strongest train and so TMM will hope for Nelson "being allowed" to build one.
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 11-08-2015 19:55
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Time for Peeters to do something! Anything really..
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| tastasol |
Posted on 11-08-2015 20:06
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This will either be a good race, with several riders in the top, or a horrible race. ITT and TTT's seems to be a gamble this season, hopefully we'll be good.
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| viking90 |
Posted on 11-08-2015 20:12
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Will hopefully be a fun race, with some nice results for my team! 
Ahlstrand here with leadout help from danish duo Vedel Kvist and Vinther
and a strong TTT line up for us. |
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| roturn |
Posted on 11-08-2015 20:14
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TTT strong squad here. So obviously high GC ambitions.
Though with Groenewegen had to weaken this TTT a bit. So he hopefully gets stage results or even bonus seconds. Is it top3 or top8? |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 04:31
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 11-08-2015 20:14
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Guillen first stage win ever for the team was here. Hopefully he can do it again...
Not being able to expect much here but some sort of result would be nice.
Hard to pick a winner with the random TT's this season.
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| ryant |
Posted on 11-08-2015 20:30
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This is a big unofficial goal for us, mainly because of the success we had here last season... It will be harder to do a great GC because of the TTT, but if we have a good day, like at Duo Differdange, then we may do something special...
Also, is the sprint line up here weaker than last year? Rowe might have a chance of a surprise win as well  (not likely)
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| knockout |
Posted on 11-08-2015 20:32
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Grand Tour Champion
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With the TTT in place this could be a huge, huge race for some teams. If a team can get 5-6 riders into the top 15 in the GC then they can make a big jump in the rankings. RBC, Aegon and Risa are potential candidates for that with the other teams looking significantly weaker for the TTT.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 11-08-2015 20:38
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roturn wrote:
So he hopefully gets stage results or even bonus seconds. Is it top3 or top8?
On my mobile only, but Top-10 iirc 
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| roturn |
Posted on 11-08-2015 20:48
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Thanks. I am pretty afraid now that the team is waiting for Groenewegen in the TTT.  |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 11-08-2015 21:09
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Just out of curiosity, since I doubt the 4th to 10th placed riders in the sprints will challenge for the overall win anyway, where does it say so? Think I've might have seen something about Qatar before (and therefore not unlikely that it would be the same with Olympia), but I don't remember anything about bonifcations from 4th to 10th place in Olympia, and I certainly didn't when I decided to go here.
It wouldn't change my decision to go here, and I wouldn't send Docker, since he at best would be 8-10th place in the sprints, so it would only have been a waste of racedays anyway.
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| Roextro |
Posted on 12-08-2015 07:10
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Mezgec with a few top tens would be great, no chance in the TT or the TTT for that matter. |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 12-08-2015 08:18
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It should only be time bonuses for the Top 3 here.
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| fintas |
Posted on 12-08-2015 13:06
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I really need that Fiedler and Kupfernagel have a good performance in this race..
Fiedler has an obligation to do more and better than it did in Romandie, and Kupfernagel will have the difficult task of doing something similar to what made in FDB Eire...
in addition to these two, also Balloni can get an interesting result
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| cio93 |
Posted on 12-08-2015 13:39
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No GC chances with the amount of TT kilometres, so we need as many sprint podiums as possible to make this race worth the journey.
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| Mhaley45 |
Posted on 12-08-2015 14:09
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Most likely a non-productive race for AMEX-Navigon. We are hoping for some sprint finish results from Nizzolo and maybe some thrills in a breakaway or 2.
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Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 12-08-2015 17:33
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Small Tour Specialist
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Mostly went here because I wanted to do some racing in The Netherlands.
This would've been a waste of racedays for Kangert and Koren, so we're not very strong in the TTT. Conclusion: we're going for breakaway success.
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 12-08-2015 17:35
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Really think we could have a big tour here and score some big points but all depends on how the team individual does on the first day. We've won both TTT we have been in this year so I expect us to lose this one to either Aegeon, Risa or Swedbank and I fear Greonwagen will gain a lot on sprint stages and have a big gap come TTT hopefully though 2-3 top 10 and all riders near the top 30 |
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| roturn |
Posted on 12-08-2015 18:25
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jt1109 wrote:
Really think we could have a big tour here and score some big points but all depends on how the team individual does on the first day. We've won both TTT we have been in this year so I expect us to lose this one to either Aegeon, Risa or Swedbank and I fear Greonwagen will gain a lot on sprint stages and have a big gap come TTT hopefully though 2-3 top 10 and all riders near the top 30
To be honest I would be highly disappointed if the TTT goes to anyone else than RBC, Aegon or Risa.
Swedbank already would be a surprise seeing their 2nd half riders.
This obviously is only when all teams have all riders left.
As you have 2 TTT wins already and I am still looking for one after a disastrous 2014 TTT season, I hope to get this one for obvious reasons. In especially as there is unfortunately no single TTT event all year with my best squad. |
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| roturn |
Posted on 12-08-2015 20:15
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Well ouch...underperformance. |
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