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Viana do Castelo Discussion
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 19-11-2020 19:52
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Team Leader
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 Viana do Castelo
Hello and welcome to Viana do Castelo for Viana do Castelo. That's right Viana do Castelo is raced in the city Viana do Castelo and is thus named Viana do Castelo, giving it the perk of being the sole race in the calendar with the exact name of the place where it is raced. Located in the Minho region, in northwestern Portugal, it lies at the mouth of the river Lima, right next to the Atlantic coast.
Its route is much more creative than its name though. A cobbled classic with a few minor segments on the way to the main road accident of its profile: the climb to Alto de Santa Luzia, the site of the pictoresque Sanctuary of Santa Luzia, a building inspired in the Sacre CÅ“ur Basilica of Paris, which overlooks the city center.
The ascent is to be made through the tarmac side leaving the cobbled part for the descent. Because of this, numerous complaints regarding rider safety have been mailed to the MGUCI through the years. Fortunately for everyone though, crashes have been prohibited some years ago and everything is fine now!
For those keeping an eye on all fronts it's also interesting to point out the Man-Game peloton just passed here earlier today, where stage 5 of Volta a Portugal has just finished, in this very same climb. Cobbles were removed for this outing and are now being put in place during the night.
Six loops of this will decide the winner, which should come from one of these names:
| Name | HIL | STA | RES | REC | COB | SPR | ACC | DOW |  Altur | 70 | 75 | 70 | 70 | 82 | 72 | 68 | 63 |  Vanspeybrouck | 70 | 77 | 70 | 70 | 81 | 66 | 68 | 78 |  Baugnies | 71 | 79 | 72 | 71 | 79 | 64 | 72 | 64 |  Van Keirsbulck | 71 | 75 | 73 | 63 | 78 | 70 | 68 | 58 |  Van Avermaet | 72 | 72 | 69 | 69 | 78 | 74 | 72 | 57 |  Sinkeldam | 75 | 74 | 70 | 68 | 77 | 68 | 68 | 74 |  Debesay | 74 | 75 | 79 | 70 | 77 | 69 | 78 | 74 |  Naesen | 72 | 77 | 73 | 70 | 76 | 77 | 76 | 60 |  Benoot | 78 | 75 | 74 | 74 | 76 | 69 | 71 | 66 |  Tsatevich | 77 | 74 | 73 | 70 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 69 | | Schoonbroodt | 75 | 75 | 73 | 67 | 74 | 68 | 72 | 74 | | De Vreese | 72 | 72 | 70 | 70 | 74 | 70 | 70 | 64 | | Skala | 71 | 70 | 72 | 65 | 74 | 66 | 71 | 74 |  Bovenhuis | 71 | 74 | 70 | 72 | 74 | 62 | 68 | 65 | | Bester | 72 | 74 | 71 | 70 | 74 | 71 | 71 | 69 |
Altur could be seen as the no.1 candidate, with his PT pedigree and alrounded quality. A flurry of belgian riders will challenge him with prominent names as Vanspeybrouck, Baugnies or last year's winner Van Keirsbulck all combining that HIL and COB quality needed to suceed in races like this. Naesen has to be named as the fastest of this lot, while Benoot could make good use of his uphill credentials. Then tere's even grandpa Van Avermaet looking to spark some fire into his late career. The rest of the candidates all suffer from the same ailment of being Non-Belgians which is definitely going to prove costly
Team-wise I'd say the best depth comes from Strava, Podium Ambition and Carrefour, so look out for these guys to try and control the race.
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 19-11-2020 19:56
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Tour de France Champion
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Definitely got on the right side of the Omloop split for Altur, we need him to at least be contesting victory here. Not a great support cast though, but should be enough from Wolverine, Darren and Jyme.
Lets have some fun in Fake-Spain!
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 19-11-2020 20:05
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World Champion
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Very excited for this one, can't remember if I ended up picking it for the OR goal but although it's a well-suited race for Debesay what excites me just as much is some of the depth we have, with Meurisse (68COB), Bester, Rowe, Schreurs and Jams all possible to get within the points or stick around to help out Debesay. Some super tough guys to beat like Altur and Benoot on the startlist but still happy with how the Omloop split worked out well for us as expected, and quite excited about this one, it's just a cool race in general (I've always either reported or raced in it  ) but now we have a good shot at it too.
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."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 19-11-2020 20:11
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World Champion
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So, it's that bad eh?
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 19-11-2020 20:17
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Naesen's season starts here. Top 10 has to be the goal, but I'm not super confident. We have a good double punch with Schoonbroodt, wide range of outcomes for us I think. Debesay and Benoot should to do really well here I think. Looking forward to this a lot, thanks for the preview Gustavovskiy!
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| Shonak |
Posted on 19-11-2020 20:22
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Tour de France Champion
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Great preview, thanks..One of my all time fav races with some great memories for Strava. Lets make some good memories, Greg!
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 19-11-2020 20:35
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Classics Specialist
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Probably the most important race of the season for us, honestly. Benoot with tough climbs and cobbles, yes we need him to score big here. Will be telling if he's gonna be a namesake rider in MG or not. So I really hope he can do well here, go Tiesj!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 19-11-2020 21:44
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Nice and weak field here. I have to hope that climbing has a significant impact if we hope to finish near the top. If it does, we have a decent chance to make something of this race. I think mountain stats will have a role here too, so Benoot should be perfect for the win, but it all depends on how it's raced. Could just as easily end up being pure cobbles and the climbing effects are negligible.
Top 10 for Sinkeldam is a must and more would be very appreciated. De Vreese also has looked good so far, so I'm interested to see how he does here.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| liefwarrior |
Posted on 19-11-2020 21:54
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Was chasing Tsatevich in the transfer window for this specific race, but having failed to secure him we've decided to take the radical route of picking our puncheur duo of Hoelgaard and Smirnovs to ride for us here. Neither are very competent on the cobbles, but hopefully their comparatively strong climbing ability is enough to see them in contention. |
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 19-11-2020 22:41
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Time for GVK to run it back, I do fear that field is way too strong for him here but time will tell.
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 19-11-2020 22:56
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Grand Tour Champion
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Best of luck to Altur and Tsatevich!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 02:07
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 20-11-2020 04:51
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Both Van Lerberghe and Paprstka missing from the favourites' list while Bovenhuis is in there both surprises and worries me. Was hoping we can take advantage of the weak field here and get in some good points but not so sure anymore.
Thanks for the preview Gustav 
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| Heine |
Posted on 20-11-2020 06:05
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4116
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I fucked up in this one... Just found all cobble races and didn't realize they crashed... Thats what you get for doing things while at work... Any point here is a good point for us, I'm afraid its wasted racedays
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 20-11-2020 09:12
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Two better cobblers than Baugnies by far, and Sinkeldam and Benoot who should easily leave him behind on the uphill sector. Should be the hardest cobbled race to perform for him this season (not counting HC), but I'm still hoping for a top-5
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| Guave |
Posted on 20-11-2020 09:18
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Stagiare
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We've got one strong cobbleur (Taubel) and some strong puncheurs (Zordan, Le Gac) heading to Portugal, but none combine the hill and cobble skills like the favorites do. This will probably be a difficult one for us to be of any meaning, unless one of our guys has a really strong day. We'll see. The expectations aren't very high, that's for sure.
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| Yellow Jersey |
Posted on 20-11-2020 12:53
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Classics Specialist
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Hoping Vanspeybrouck can net the win here, would be his best and most important chance of the season!
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 20-11-2020 16:34
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Tour de France Champion
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Lets hope for a nice result for once  |
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| Shonak |
Posted on 20-11-2020 20:56
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 15615
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Thanks Gustavo. Genuinely disappointed by this performance, alas the next cobble race has to be better. Gratz to Xero.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 20-11-2020 20:56
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Classics Specialist
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Well, Baugnies didn't like that hill, that's for sure. Top-5 didn't work out but nobody's taking that 36th place away from me  (Nobody wants to, probably  ) Congratz Xero and thanks for the report Gustav!
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 20-11-2020 21:00
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3591
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Ouch so damn close for Tiesj, that was a brilliant effort from him and sad to see him miss out on a maiden win. Proud of the team here too, really made it a tough race for the other favorites. Thanks Gustav
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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
