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Tour de Pologne Discussion
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 06-11-2017 15:51
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The Race
Welcome to the 8th edition of Tour de Pologne, the race dates all the way back to the beginning of MG, may have been lack of funding prevented the race from being run from 2009-2012, now back on the calendar for the 6th. consecutive season.
Alex Dowsett (La Poste p/b Mavic) won the race last season, he is not here this time racing on PT team Wiesenhof – Andritz. Neither is 2015 winner Andrey Zeits now without contract. No one have won this race twice and that will not happen this time either, with no previous winner in the peloton.
So what have we got, 21 PCT teams and just one CT team will take part in the race. Apart from Edvald Boasson Hagen (Grieg – Eftel) and Kinoshita(san) (Meiji - JR East), all the best punchers from PCT will be here. There is many team that could run away with this win if everything turns out right.
The favorites:
 Newton Foundation must the bookmaker favorite to take this one, Tejay is on paper the strongest rider in the race. But compared to some of the other teams, he do not have the strongest backup, with only Acevedo amongst the better riders in the hill's. With sprinter Maksimov they are also likely to take podiums on the flat stages.
 MOL - OMV Petrom, where Newton has the strongest individual, MOL has the strongest squad, Di Maggio as leader, Barrio Sergio, Rovny Ivan, Michely and Favilli to back him up – frightening.
 Fablok - Bank BGZ is here with Chris Froome, he will not have the best backup, interesting to see how he will perform against weaker punchers with stronger backup.
The Sprinters:
The sprint favorite to take the flat stages much be Kraftwerk Man Machine’s  Mark Cavendish, but also Eritel – Sonatrach’s  Van Heerden and previously mentioned Maksimov should be contenders for the flat stages.
| Puncher | H | A | R | M | Sprinter | S | A | F | | Van Garderen | 82 | 79 | 75 | 72 | Cavendish | 83 | 81 | 73 | | Di Maggio | 82 | 75 | 68 | 65 | Van Heerden | 82 | 73 | 73 | | Froome | 82 | 75 | 73 | 70 | Maksimov | 81 | 84 | 72 |  Schreurs | 81 | 74 | 72 | 69 |  Ewan | 81 | 79 | 73 | | Flügel | 81 | 74 | 67 | 72 |  Kupfernagel | 80 | 80 | 74 |  Anuar Aziz | 81 | 71 | 73 | 68 | Lavoine | 80 | 78 | 73 |  Ulissi | 80 | 75 | 71 | 66 | Moser | 80 | 79 | 72 | | Costa | 80 | 72 | 72 | 71 | Vanoverschelde | 80 | 75 | 72 |  Gautier | 80 | 77 | 72 | 68 |  Serebriakov | 80 | 77 | 74 |  Betancourt | 80 | 74 | 71 | 73 | Colbrelli | 79 | 75 | 74 | | Klemme | 80 | 66 | 70 | 74 | Manarelli | 79 | 79 | 72 | | Vogt | 80 | 63 | 71 | 62 | Docker | 79 | 77 | 72 | | Barrio | 79 | 67 | 63 | 70 |  Ranneries | 78 | 82 | 70 |  Levarlet | 79 | 68 | 72 | 74 |  Modolo | 78 | 81 | 74 | | Barbin | 78 | 75 | 73 | 68 | Avila | 78 | 77 | 70 |
To watch:
CT team  VMP - Argon 18 will be a lone dessert mouse in a rattlesnake den, that alone is reason enough to make it interesting to watch if they can do anything here.
Berg Cycles will be racing without the outright favorite to win, but with one of the very best punchers squads Costa, Vogt Paulinho etc. Interesting to see if they can make the numbers count.
Stage 1, has a sort of flat finish, if the pace in the peloton is not too hard might see a puncher/sprinter take, someone like Kreder (Kraftwerk Man Machine) or McEvoy (Berg Cycles)
Spoiler Made before any racing took place, you humble reporter has no idea what will happen at this point.
Startlist:
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 06-11-2017 15:56
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No mention of us in the preview, may become a long race for us...
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:04
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Croatia14 wrote:
No mention of us in the preview, may become a long race for us...
No one have every got any points from being mentioned in the preview.
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:08
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Thanks for the preview Tamijo!
The clash with Eritrea means we can't send a good squad to our home race.  Would have been wonderful to race here with Kwiatkowski but that's just not feasible. Honestly it seems like the clash is hitting one rider very hard. 
We basically sent all of his possible support here though, Sanchez will have a chance to prove he is still quality but honestly, I don't see much magic happening. Otherwise Sobota is here but it seems the sprinters field is way too strong for him (btw, why isn't he in the sprinter's table?)
We also have one rider from our 2015 GC and team classification winning squad for luck, team hero Adam Stachowiak (again, without the clash a few more of our Poles from that squad would be racing here).
Overall, TVG really is the favourite, but with so many guys biting at his heels it will be a very interesting race to see who takes it in Poland. Rooting for Fablok to make sure we have a Polish winner. 
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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Posted on 22-11-2024 03:47
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:10
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Looking forward to this. We need Gautier to score well here, but I have to admit I'm slightly worried about the length of some of he climbs seeing as he haven't got the highest mountain stat.
Van Garderen the obvious favourite here, but anything can happen with punctures/crashes etc.
We haven't brought a sprinter so getting someone in a break on those stages would be nice.
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| matt17br |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:11
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Ulissi is about to find all the points he lost in the roads of the land down under, right? Because I sure hope so. He's the only notable rider we have here, well hopefully his domestiques won't all crash out this time. ffs.
No mention of us in the preview, may become a long race for us...
lmaoooo Isostar's about to have a 1000 points race
Thanks Tamijo!
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:14
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matt17br wrote:
No mention of us in the preview, may become a long race for us...
lmaoooo Isostar's about to have a 1000 points race
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:23
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Hopefully Juul-Jensen's self esteem isn't very affected by previews and he can put in a nice performance on the hills. It would be fun if Ranneries sprinted now that he's finally maxed but I doubt it.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:27
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This is it! if there is any kind of nationality bonus I sure hope we can find it and execute it to succession. Cause right now Eritrea is a mess in terms of keeping up points wise. Even 2nd place behind TvG would be quite a feat, but my eyes are surely on the top spot. Surprised that neither Kinoshita or EBH are here, but 7 stages are a lot percent wise, so I kinda get it.
As for Lavoine; a few top 10's would be more than great and while I thought about sending our Eritrea sprinting squad here (which again might have been more profitable). We're all in for the hills here; LETS GO!
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:28
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Thanks for the preview Tamijo.
Kraftwerk need to make amends for disappointing Down Under with big performances from Cavendish and Flügel who again has a top 5 goal to deliver here.
Sent my A squad so they have to make up for the points we will not get from Eritrea, no pressure then 
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| tastasol |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:41
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EBH opted for PTHC, so that's why he's not here, sgdanny. Could turn out to be a wrong decision tho, given that there's only one hilly stage in Ukraine.
Anyway, a really strong startlist! Watson did very good in TDU with a 11th place, but can't expect him to copy that. Hoping for breaks and a top 20. TBG the man to beat here.
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| fintas |
Posted on 06-11-2017 16:44
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I'm not sure what to expect from this race, but maybe some top 10 stage and the top 10 overall is the most realistic prespective for this tour..
on a good day, maybe Kupfernagel will be able to fight for a stage victory, but his latest performances are not encouraging at all..
I can not see anyone other than Van Garderen as winner of this race
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| cio93 |
Posted on 06-11-2017 17:05
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Tamijo wrote:
To watch:
CT team VMP - Argon 18 will be a lone dessert mou Sse in a rattlesnake den
Fixed that for you, now I'm hungry
Mohoric to win. 
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 06-11-2017 17:16
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All eyes on TVG, he needs to win. No excuses. Seven race days without EBH and Kinoshita, doesn't get more easy than that.
Nice to Maksimov as one of the top sprinters as well, maybe he can grab a stage. Also, Rui Costa and Sergio Barrio... don't come back to haunt me.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 06-11-2017 17:26
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Yes please 
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 06-11-2017 18:16
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Right, lets see what Yates can do. Probably not much, but i still think he can be a surprise package and bring in some points. Ewan also attending, trying to nick a few points on the flatter days. He's got ok HL for a sprinter, and his support in Docker is good. Need the duo to work. Otherwise it's an attacking and youthfull set-up. No idea how we'll go, but i want to be visible.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 06-11-2017 18:28
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Cool preview!
Let's see if Schreurs can keep on scoring big time. It's obviously TVG's race to lose, I don't think Di Maggio will come close. Froome, Schreurs and just for the fun of it, I placed my money on Betancourt for the GC win.
From my ever Aussieish point of view, I would like to see Ewan take a stage.
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 06-11-2017 19:01
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I hope Betancourt can do better than in Sri Lanka, not expecting the victory but a top ten at least would be nice.
We won a stage in the last two editions each and I hope to continue that trend. Manarelli won stage 7 and is here to defend, but against a stronger field.
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| Spilak23 |
Posted on 06-11-2017 22:01
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Really looking forward to this race. Last year we won 2 stages and finished 2nd in GC in the CT. Doing as good or achieving our win goal will be very hard though.
Still I think we have a nice squad here with all the hill guys. Barbin should go for somewhere around 10th. Modolo for a stage win like in Australia with some other of our guys around 20th and Palini for top 100.
Stage 1 I really hope we are at the front cause it suits us perfectly. Last year Pavarin won in a sprint and Modolo with help from Pavarin and Barbin should repeat that.
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 06-11-2017 22:02
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My team's failiure would be in gigantic proportions.
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[HC]Tour de Pologne 
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
