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Liege - Bastogne - Liege Discussion
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 02-12-2018 16:20
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It's time to end the Spring Classic season, and what's better than doing it with La Doyenne?
Fourth monument of the year, the only one for pure puncheurs and it comes after a week of racing with similar races that make the Ardennes Week. The Liege-Bastogne-Liege will see its 105th edition this year, and it will see a fantastic startlist with pretty much every top puncheur in the world looking to add a Monument win to his palmares
| Favourites | HIL | ACC | STA | SPR | Contenders | HIL | ACC | STA | SPR |  Hagen | 85 | 79 | 81 | 73 |  Ginanni | 82 | 73 | 77 | 65 |  Ponzi | 84 | 80 | 77 | 76 |  Claeys | 83 | 73 | 74 | 67 |  Bakelants | 84 | 78 | 81 | 73 |  Beltran | 81 | 76 | 73 | 65 |  Van Garderen | 82 | 79 | 78 | 70 |  Boswell | 80 | 76 | 77 | 65 |  Sagan | 82 | 76 | 78 | 73 | Borges | 78 | 81 | 75 | 71 |  Skujins | 83 | 76 | 80 | 68 | Vakoc | 80 | 74 | 75 | 71 |  De Bie | 83 | 75 | 77 | 72 |  Jensen | 78 | 76 | 77 | 66 |  Spilak | 82 | 74 | 80 | 67 |  Felline | 77 | 78 | 75 | 74 | | Mohoric | 81 | 77 | 78 | 67 |  Prevar | 79 | 73 | 77 | 67 | | Kelderman | 82 | 72 | 80 | 67 |  Tsatevich | 77 | 75 | 74 | 75 |  Gastauer | 82 | 76 | 78 | 67 | Smirnovs | 77 | 78 | 74 | 72 |  Koretzky | 80 | 79 | 77 | 71 |  Yates | 76 | 76 | 79 | 67 | | McCarthy | 81 | 74 | 80 | 65 |  McEvoy | 76 | 79 | 75 | 75 |  Trofimov | 81 | 73 | 77 | 72 | Guldhammer | 77 | 76 | 74 | 70 |
Looking for an historic second Ardennes Treble, after the one he did in 2015, Ponzi is the undisputed favourite for the win in Ans. Two-times winner of the race and reigning champion, his season has been amazing so far, so good that losing here wouldn't be a terrible thing for his team
Hagen is the eternal candidate for this race, but until now he's never been able to win it, Second in 2010 and 2013, third in 2014 and Top10 in all editions since 2010. He comes from being second behind Ponzi in Amstel and Fleche, and will be looking to avoid a Ardennes "Losing" Treble.
Bakelants is the other main favourite who knows how to win this race. The Belgian did it in 2014, and has never finished outside the podium in the past seven years!
Spilak finished second last year, as he did also in 2015, and with a lieutenant like Mohoric, his team might be looking for a big show tomorrow
Sagan hasn't been at 2017 level yet, though a podium in Fleche a few days ago showed that he's gaining form ahead of this race. He's never finished in the Top10 of LBL though, but he's been steadily improving his places over the years, and why not make a huge jump to the top of the podium this year?
Van Garderen, Skujins and De Bie will be those riders that are involved in the main events but have never been able to deliver in the key moments. De Bie was fourth last place and Skujins third in 2016, so TVG is the only of the three to not have a big result already in the race
Trofimov is the last former winner that will take part in the race having chances of repeating his win. The age has caught up to him and his season has been all but good. Not what you would expect from a "Millionaire"
Kelderman, Gastauer, Ginanni, Claeys, McCarthy, Beltran and Koretzky form the group of riders that should be fighting for the lower-Top10 places, with maybe some of them stepping up their game and contesting the podium places
So everything is now ready for the race. La Doyenne can't wait to know its 105th winner!
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 02-12-2018 20:28
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Really pumped for this! Would be soo cool if we could steal the win here aswell 
Good luck guys and bring it on!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 02-12-2018 21:54
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Classics Specialist
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Congrats on the victory in advance, dev! Ponzi has taken the role of Bewley in the cobbles classics in the hilly classics, so surely he'll win here?
Or perhaps we can hope that Bakelants have taken inspiration from his countryman Van Avermaet's win in De Ronde? We dare to dream, Go Jan!
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| SotD |
Posted on 03-12-2018 07:08
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I'll go for EBH here, due to the length and hardness of the race. Should suit him well.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 03-12-2018 10:13
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Our main Ardennes Classic sees Simon Spilak giving it a go - and after last year's performance I had to offer him that chance really. If we can work the 2-man game we could even take the win here - or fail massively. Let's see whether the game can handle such 2-leader approach on a level this high. We got a very strong team backing our guys up.
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| viking90 |
Posted on 03-12-2018 10:29
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Sorry fot being a bit off last couple of weeks, been busy,
And Ardennes is not the most exciting stuff for my team  |
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| ember |
Posted on 03-12-2018 13:53
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Another race with Beltran and Vakoc, with Guldhammer as super domestique. Hopefully we're able to profit from that depth, as it could give us some nice extra points. For Beltran, it's another one of those where a top 15 will be decent, and anything more is a bonus.
Looking forward to the racing. Ponzi has been unbeatable so far this Ardennes campaign, and his completeness as a puncheur surely is to no disadvantage here. He's the obvious favourite, but it will be interesting to see especially how Isostar challenge him, having both Spilak and Mohoric. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 03-12-2018 14:12
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Croatia14 wrote:
Our main Ardennes Classic sees Simon Spilak giving it a go - and after last year's performance I had to offer him that chance really. If we can work the 2-man game we could even take the win here - or fail massively. Let's see whether the game can handle such 2-leader approach on a level this high. We got a very strong team backing our guys up.
My guess is that Spilak is just the leader, and Mohoric will do decently when he's done helping. Spilak has had Ricco and Koretzky as his lieutenaints in the past couple of seasons. It has worked pretty well 
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 02:23
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 03-12-2018 16:48
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Pretty much the same picture as in the last couple of races. A decisive move in the last couple of hills and Ponzi to bore us all to death. Aqua to keep his outstanding level of reports. SotD and cio to complain despite more than reasonable performances from their teams. Claeys and Borges to (justly) find themselves in a top 20-30.
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| tastasol |
Posted on 03-12-2018 19:35
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At least we beat Ponzi this time... Very steady racing from Bakelants through this entire week. Can't be unhappy with 3x4th place, but would indeed have been sweet to get a podium.
Good racing again by the team (though would have loved to see Olsson staying with them for a while) and Bakelants, so that's always good to see.
Congrats to Roman!
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| SotD |
Posted on 03-12-2018 20:03
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Gustavovskiy wrote:
SotD and cio to complain despite more than reasonable performances from their teams. Claeys and Borges to (justly) find themselves in a top 20-30.
When did I last complain despite a more than reasonable performance?
Borges is a rider who should end around 30th in races like this looking at his stats, and Claeys is a hugely one-dimensional puncheurtype who really shouldn’t be expected in the top 10 too often. He is relying on a slowly ridden race or great daily form to break into the top 10.
On the race:
Great to see Sagan win again! Also 8th from Koretzky is a very good result. We wanted to break into the top 10 once, and to do so in LBL is just great! Especially when also doing a very decent 11 in FW. A good amount of riders in the top 50 too, is just what we needed here to keep up a decent gap in the top 5. No chance of us looking upwards though with Vesuvio leading and all of Moser, Evonik and Puma outclassing us. That Said, it was never expected for us to be this high in the rankings, so being 5th (I think) going into the Vuelta is a massive achievememt for us. Now to cross fingers that Coquard turns up in shape!
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 04-12-2018 03:52
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Congratulations to Roman for Sagan's win. Skujins almost with an upset, very good result for him nonetheless. Great report! Our best being Trofimov in 37th is a disaster, but I'm becoming used to these kinds of results from him.
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 04-12-2018 13:19
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Our great run had to end at last! Just a shame to finish 4th in a win goal
Big congratz to Roman, this race played right to the hands of sagan.
On the bright side, the team effort was much better here than the rest of the ardennes combined, in terms of points minor placings atleast.
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| ember |
Posted on 04-12-2018 16:36
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Congratulations, Roman! Seems like Sagan has found his way back to his 2017 level, big, big win by him, doing it in a perfect way, having saved just enough for the sprint.
Beltran in 13th is decent, and so is definitely Vakoc in 16th as well, which is by far his best result so far this season. Hopefully he can build on that and perform accordingly when he gets the chance to lead moving forward, with no Beltran around. |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 04-12-2018 22:36
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SotD wrote:
Gustavovskiy wrote:
SotD and cio to complain despite more than reasonable performances from their teams. Claeys and Borges to (justly) find themselves in a top 20-30.
When did I last complain despite a more than reasonable performance?
You kind of never get fully satisfied that's more the case. Nothing wrong with it. cio is a bit more loud in that regard
Ponzi decided to break his amazing streak just to annoy me... Anyway it's pretty cool to see Sagan back to last year's form in time to give Moser a 2nd wind at the season title. Congrats, Roman!
Another stupendous report as expected. Thanks, Aquarius!
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| Heine |
Posted on 05-12-2018 10:22
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Congrats on the win Roman, I really does not like Sagan winning something like this...
An ok result from my team, around where I would expect TVG to finish
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 10-12-2018 19:26
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Tour de France Champion
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Arh, damn it. Finally somewhat rid of Ponzi and still miss out on the win.
But overall, good performances by EBH in the Ardennes. Much needed points! |
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 12-12-2018 00:27
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Ok this was probably our worse result ever, I've no idea what happened, but we have to score big at the Vuelta otherwise we are going to the PCT without a doubt.
| 88 | Aleksey Rybalkin | Team Tinkoff | More time | | 91 | Sergey Chernetskiy | Team Tinkoff | More time | | 103 | Ilnur Zakarin | Team Tinkoff | More time | | 133 | Artem Samolenkov | Team Tinkoff | More time | | 157 | Dmitry Trakhov | Team Tinkoff | More time | | 158 | Alexander Sulimov | Team Tinkoff | More time | | 169 | Matvei Mamykin | Team Tinkoff | More time | | 187 | Viktor Manakov | Team Tinkoff | More time |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 15-12-2018 13:37
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No complaints from me either this time Gustav
(although Arndt could have.....)
9th and 11th add up to great points, Declerq somehow ahead of guys like Slagter and Pluchkin is also interesting, to say the least!
Congrats to ZzzZZZzzsSagan and Moser, who should run away with this now.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 18-12-2018 19:31
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Pretty underwhelming ride by Ginanni. His age is definitely starting to show.
Congrats to Sagan and his team.
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