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Olympia's Tour Discussion
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 05-12-2025 20:52
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 02-04-2020 10:29
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.
 Olympia’s Tour
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Preview
The Olympia’s Tour is a ManGame staple. This is its eigth edition, the seventh consecutive one since 2013. It is also a time trialist’s paradise:
Three of the six stages will see the riders on time trialing bikes, two of them individually and one as a team. The remaining three stages are flat, not lending themselves to big (or any) time gaps, which should leave the GC to the TT specialists.
| TT | PR | FL | Team | | TT | PR | FL | Team |  Kittel | 81 | 81 | 75 | **** |  Cornu | 79 | 79 | 73 | ***** |  Durbridge | 81 | 81 | 73 | ***** |  Ignatiev | 78 | 78 | 78 | *** | | Viennet | 80 | 80 | 72 | ***** |  Ligthart | 78 | 78 | 72 | ** |  Dillier | 80 | 79 | 70 | ***** |  Sterobo | 78 | 78 | 70 | * | | Stannard | 79 | 79 | 75 | ***** |  Olman | 78 | 78 | 67 | *** | | Dempster | 79 | 79 | 74 | ***** | Tennant | 78 | 77 | 77 | ***** |
Many of the PCT’s top time trialists are present in the Netherlands, but not all of them. The most notable absence is Jerôme Coppel, as his Carrefour team decided not to participate. Even in his absence, though, there are plenty of strong riders here to fight for the victory.
Kittel and Durbridge are the strongest pure time trialists on paper. The German is a little stronger on the flats, but while Valio is a good team for the TTT, it’s a step below cycleYorkshire.
They bring not one, not two, but you could argue four riders, who are all capable of riding into the Top 5, or Top 10 at the very least. These include Viennet and Stannard, but also Tennant. Notably, all four riders participated last year as well, where they were 2nd (Durbridge), 3rd (Viennet), 5th (Stannard) and 7th (Tennant)
UBS team leader Dillier is also supported by a strong cast of time trialists, as we’re about to see, and the same is true for Dempster and Cornu, the double threat of Duolingo.
The other riders in this group are a little worse off for the TTT and expected to lose a bit more time there. Still, the individual strength of someone like Ignatiev leaves him as a solid GC threat. The same applies to a slightly lesser degree to Ligthart, Sterobo and Olman.
| TT | PR | FL | Team | | TT | PR | FL | Team | | Goncalves | 78 | 66 | 70 | ***** | Fominykh | 77 | 76 | 74 | ***** |  Eaton | 77 | 77 | 75 | ** | Pokälä | 77 | 76 | 70 | **** |  Van Baarle | 77 | 77 | 73 | *** | Archbold | 77 | 67 | 73 | ***** |  Kovalev | 77 | 77 | 73 | **** | Christensen | 76 | 76 | 77 | **** | | Verona | 77 | 77 | 71 | ** | Van Zandbeek | 76 | 76 | 73 | ** | | Ivars | 77 | 77 | 67 | ***** | Ovechkin | 76 | 76 | 72 | ***** |
The field of time trialists is pretty deep here, as you would expect, so we have a bunch more riders who will be aiming for the Top 10 or Top 15 at least.
Most notable among them are those who can count on a boost from the TTT. UBS has three riders in this group: Goncalves, Ivars and Fominykh. The latter is the more complete rider, while the other two have a glaring weakness in the Prologue and Flat stat, respectively.
Desigual duo Eaton and Verona are solid time trialists. Unfortunately, the squad beyond the two is pretty abysmal in time trialing abilities. So it remains to be seen how far the two can carry the team in the TTT.
Amateur team VIP Mobile brings a strong duo as well in Kovalev and Christensen. In contrast to the aforementioned, they are supported by a pretty deep roster of time trialists, which could increase their chances of a good result.
Van Baarle has some support from his team, and he is also the final leader mentioned here, as Archbold, Van Zandbeek and Ovechkin mainly provide further depth to their team.
| Top 3 | Top 5 | Top 7 | | cycleYorkshire | 80 | 79 | 75 | | Team UBS | 78 | 77 | 77 | | Duolingo | 78 | 77 | 76 | | Valio - Viking Genetic | 77 | 76 | 74 | | VIP Mobile | 76 | 73 | 70 | | Kofola | 74 | 72 | 70 | | CYBEX Platinum | 74 | 71 | 68 * | | Delveaux | 74 | 70 | 67 |  Berg Cycles | 72 | 70 | 67 | | Desigual | 74 | 69 | 67 ** | | Philips | 73 | 69 | 66 |  Sauber Petronas Racing | 70 | 69 | 67 |  KazMunayGas | 69 | 67 | 65 | | Europcar | 68 | 65 | 63 |
* CYBEX is the only team with 7 riders compared to everyone else’s 8.
** Except for Desigual, who have 6.
Numbers are the AVG TT stat of the respective riders.
Having talked about team strength quite a bit already, let’s take a closer look at the teams and their time trialing qualities. There’s a clear tier one here, with cycleYorkshire, Team UBS and Duolingo. No one holds a candle to cycleYorkshire when it comes to the top riders, but their rivals have slightly deeper TT rosters.
Valio - Viking Genetic is the fourth team, just barely missing out on tier one, though on a good day, they can certainly compete with the Top 3. Meanwhile , VIP Mobile just barely hovers above tier three, which includes a number of pretty similarly strong teams.
While those teams won’t have a say in the stage win or probably even stage podium, they will fight for every valuable second, like Delveaux for Ignatiev and Philips for Ligthart.
The bottom tier includes the last three teams listed. They focus on the sprint stages for the most part and don't have many GC ambitions, except for poor Sterobo, who is among the stronger time trialists but has to expect to lose quite a bit of time in the TTT. Speaking of focusing on sprints:
| Leader | SP | AC | FL | Support | SP | AC | FL | | Lo Cicero | 84 | 78 | 72 | Matthews | 79 | 79 | 76 | | Zabel | 81 | 79 | 74 | | | | | | Silvestre | 80 | 81 | 78 | Coutinho | 79 | 80 | 72 | | Manninen | 80 | 80 | 74 | | | | | | Salleh | 80 | 80 | 70 | Page | 78 | 79 | 75 | | Selig | 79 | 81 | 71 | | | | | | Wippert | 78 | 82 | 70 | Havik | 79 | 76 | 73 | | Suryadi | 79 | 76 | 71 | Bogdanovics | 78 | 77 | 73 | | Jones | 78 | 78 | 72 | | | | | | Chen | 78 | 77 | 73 | | | | | | Tleubayev | 77 | 77 | 72 | | | | | | Bar | 77 | 76 | 77 | | | | | | Jaser | 77 | 75 | 73 | | | | |
There are a few very strong sprinters here, but not in the quantity we’ve seen in many other races. Europcar leads the way with Lo Cicero, but he’s not alone. In addition to Matthews, the team also brings Lay and Aberasturi, all three of them would be leaders in most other teams.
Silvestre might be the second best bet in sprints here, due to his superior flat stat and a strong leadout in Coutinho. It should also be noted that he’s the only sprinter with a solid TT stat (73), so if he limits his losses in those and collects a good amount of bonus seconds, he might end up in a decent GC position.
Other riders with good team support include Salleh, who in addition to Page also has Aregger with him, Havik and Suryadi.
Zabel and Manninen are the top sprinters who are mostly on their own, while the rest of the riders listed above are on their own as well, but also a clear step below those two in pure sprinting ability.
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| fintas |
Posted on 02-04-2020 11:45
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Small Tour Specialist
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Unfortunately I do not have high hopes for this race, the TTT should destroy any possibility of a good final result.
I hope some good results of stages, if possible a victory
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 02-04-2020 12:57
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 12681
Joined: 27-07-2015
PCM$: 1961.50
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If Ligthart and Van Zandbeek can finish where the favourites table says they can, I'll be saitisfied with this race. The sprinters also should be able to squeeze in a performance or two in this field. Despite being our home race, we have done poorly here in the past. Hopefully, we can change that.
Thanks for the preview cunego 
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 02-04-2020 13:00
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
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Not a race we will ever even enter, let alone be competitive in  Go Ligthart!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
1x  x1
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 02-04-2020 14:47
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16552
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Another race with a small startlist that we avoided, apparently like a lot of others. We don't have a good TTist, so hard to say it was a missed opportunity, but it always makes you question yourself for a second.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 02-04-2020 15:50
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Team Leader
Posts: 6174
Joined: 20-07-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Decided to leave Avelino out of this. We've done really well on TTT's this season, with a couple of strong lead riders in Cornu and Dempster. Chen will never be a real stage contender, but he's less likely to disrupt the TTT train. Avelino would probably be worth nothing anyway so I'm sure this was a good call.
cycleyorkshire and Europcar the teams to beat depending on the stages. It should be an interesting race with a lot of unpredictability.
Outstanding preview, thanks cunego!
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| ryant |
Posted on 02-04-2020 20:51
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2388
Joined: 15-08-2012
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So this is the race where we bank on scoring a nice haul of points every year and this time I actually hope to win it! The startlist isn't that big tbh and something we hope we can take advantage of. No other expectations apart from the TTs as we decided not to go with our "top tier" sprinter for this one.
Good luck with this one
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 02-04-2020 21:05
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3800
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Hopefully Gabby can put up a good result in the Epilogue although I fear it may be a touch too long for him.
And it would be nice to see Salleh take advantage of the reduced field to try and nab a good stage result or 2
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 02-04-2020 22:57
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3059
Joined: 15-07-2007
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What a fantastic preview, thank you very much, enjoyable to read!
We're focusing 100% on the sprints and the points jersey here. This should be a fun race to follow! |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 04-04-2020 11:43
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Team Leader
Posts: 6174
Joined: 20-07-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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What a great start for us! 2nd just 2 seconds behind the leader + white jersey in the first day of racing is a pretty weet start. Hopefully we can use this for a good week of racing for us.
Congrats on the victory ryant! Well deserved. 3 riders in the top10 and 5 in the top15. Now that's domination!
Beautiful report cunego, thanks a lot!
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| roturn |
Posted on 04-04-2020 11:54
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Team Manager
Posts: 22043
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5 cycleYorkshire in top5 with another ITT and in especially TTT left. Couldn`t look much brighter. Quite impressive.
Unfortunately such suiting races are rare and won`t reward them too many points over the full season. |
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 04-04-2020 16:06
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 12681
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PCM$: 1961.50
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Disappointing from our TT guys once again. Hopefully things improve.
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| ryant |
Posted on 04-04-2020 19:18
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2388
Joined: 15-08-2012
PCM$: 200.00
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I like races like this!
John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25
Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 05-04-2020 17:23
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Team Leader
Posts: 6174
Joined: 20-07-2008
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Nice and quiet GC stage, just like we like it.
Thanks for another report cunego!
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 05-04-2020 21:59
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3800
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Interesting sprint stage there. Our loaned out rider Olei got in the mix and shook things up but unfortunately we couldn't quite capitalise. I think Salleh ended up closing the gap to the leadouts, including Page, for everyone else.
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 06-04-2020 11:51
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 12681
Joined: 27-07-2015
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Very good Stage 2 for us with Boudat in the break and Wippert sprinting to 3rd.
Stage 3 was decent with Wippert's 7th place.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 06-04-2020 12:06
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Directeur Sportif
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Nice to see two former Ozzies doing fine. Durbridge with a stage win and a good shot at the GC, too. And Wippert sprinting well!
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| Bjartne |
Posted on 06-04-2020 13:10
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3059
Joined: 15-07-2007
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This Europcar-tactic is obviously not working as planned
Great to see many green shirts close to the finish line, but the reward is very limited. We had hopes for the point jersey, but it seems lost now.
Congrats Manninen for back to back victories! And thanks for the report |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 06-04-2020 16:36
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Team Leader
Posts: 6174
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Manninen going like this is definitely a surprise. Congrats to Valio!
Time for the TTT. cycleyorkshire won't be easy to beat, but I'm hoping we can honour our colours tomorrow.
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| ryant |
Posted on 06-04-2020 19:13
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2388
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Shame Bar hasn't done too well in the sprints here, gambled on there being a little wind and he'd over perform but this obviously hasnt happened. Big day tomorrow for us with the TTT, obviously we are going for the win but even a podium with little timeloss would obviously suit us as well!
John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25
Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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