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Vuelta a Colombia - Discussion
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 19-12-2020 08:59
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 Vuelta a Colombia
Welcome to Colombia for the 13th edition of the Vuelta a Colombia! In the past, this Latin American stage race used to have up to fifteen stages, but that number has been reduced to six as of 2015. Six interesting stages however, as four of them are in the Colombian mountains, including three uphill finishes! The other two stages are as good as flat and give an opportunity to the sprinters who have made the journey to South America with their teams. 190 riders of 24 PT and PCT teams are present, and some of those riders are former GC winners here in Colombia. Title defender  Pluchkin is back to make it three in a row, but he will have some strong competition, including some other former Vuelta a Colombia winners and others looking to win this race for the first time.
| Name | MTN | HILL | STA | RES | REC | ACC | | Pluchkin | 84 | 74 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 73 |  Dombrowski | 84 | 75 | 80 | 78 | 78 | 75 |  Taaramäe | 84 | 77 | 77 | 76 | 75 | 76 |  Alarcon | 84 | 73 | 71 | 74 | 73 | 78 |  Denifl | 83 | 75 | 73 | 69 | 74 | 63 |  Amador | 82 | 73 | 74 | 71 | 74 | 69 |  Wellens | 82 | 75 | 79 | 80 | 76 | 68 |  Quintana | 82 | 74 | 77 | 76 | 76 | 66 |
So yeah, Pluchkin could complete his hattrick if he wins for the third time in a row, but there are definitely a lot of strong competitors. His main rival could very well be the American Dombrowski. eBuddy’s finest hasn’t won this race yet, but did win the U25 classification twice back in 2015 and 2016. He recently had an interview with local newspaper El PaÃs, stating that he has wanted that yellow jersey in Colombia as soon as he won the white one. He’s a man on a mission, let’s see if he accomplishes his yellow dream.
Taaramäe and Alarcon are two other first-class climbers present in Colombia. The Estonian should be among the top three favourites for the GC, although he would have liked a time trial as well, as he’s the strongest time trialist amongst the climbers here. He won a stage in 2016, and is now looking for his first win in the GC. Alarcon is exactly the opposite of him though, as he is by far the weakest time trialist on the list above. Volvo’s leader has come here exactly for that reason of course, and sees this as an excellent opportunity to score some big points for his team. He will be trying to copy his 2014 performance, when he won three stages in addition to the GC.
Both Denifl and Amador saw the Venezuelan win that 2014 edition. The Austrian of DK – SVA Zalgiris finished 7th back then, but seems to face the same problem as the two Latin American riders by not being the strongest riders looking at their physical abilities. The Austrian has come close though, with a second and third place in 2018 and 2019. Amador on the other hand didn’t just come close, he is the only rider next to Pluchkin to win the Vuelta a Colombia twice! He won it back in 2017 and 2013, winning three stages and two green jerseys as well.
Wellens and Quintana are the last two names on the list. Fablok’s Wellens could become the second Belgian to win it after van den Broeck did so in 2011, and belongs to the strongest riders when looking at their physical capacities. Quintana is a similar rider and will have to perform for Rakuten Pro Cycling. The home rider is the second most expensive rider on the list, only being beaten by Taaramäe.
| Name | MTN | HILL | STA | RES | REC | ACC |  Hirt | 81 | 74 | 77 | 79 | 79 | 76 |  Berhane | 81 | 75 | 77 | 74 | 73 | 68 |  Schleck | 81 | 71 | 71 | 76 | 76 | 73 |  Monsalve | 81 | 76 | 79 | 80 | 77 | 73 |  Uran | 81 | 73 | 74 | 80 | 75 | 70 |  Roglic | 80 | 76 | 75 | 76 | 75 | 74 |  Nerz | 80 | 72 | 75 | 72 | 74 | 68 |  Arndt | 79 | 76 | 77 | 76 | 72 | 75 | | Godoy | 79 | 76 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 75 |  Pantano | 79 | 71 | 73 | 74 | 74 | 68 |
When riders like Hirt, Berhane and Schleck are outsiders, you know the competition is tough. Neither of them have won a stage here in the past, it will be interesting to see if they can do so know. Hirt has already shown multiple times that he has no problem following the best when feeling good, just like he did at the Tour of East Java back in January. Let’s see if he can do so for four mountain stages in one week, I wouldn’t dare to say he couldn’t. Berhane is the Eritrean hope for Colombian home team ISA – Hexacta. Manager Scorchio surely hoped for a weaker competition at maybe the most important race of the season for his team. Schleck is 35 years old already, but still far from a terrible rider. It does seem his old bones won’t be able to follow the favourites uphill though, but let’s not make that conclusion too soon.
Monsalve is outstanding physically and knows how to climb a mountain properly, he’s Bakkafrost’s hope at a top-10 and maybe higher. If he manages to surprise and win the Vuelta a Colombia though, he will be the second Venezuelan winner, as Alarcon won it in 2014 as mentioned above. Home rider Uran definitely feels the pressure, as the objective of his team is to win this race! The Minions will definitely have hoped for some lesser competition as well, but sources report they have thousands of minions ready to throw bananas at Uran’s contenders. Who is going to tell them Chiquita is Colombia’s main banana brand? Roglic is representing Isostar and is definitely a top 10-contender as well. No Phinney means he can do his own thing, let’s see if he grabs the chance manager Croatia has given him. Nerz is the first of two Germans on the list. His goal will probably also be to finish in the top-10 or close to that. Let’s see if the Kraftwerk rider performs in this strong field.
We immediately go to the second German on the list, Arndt. He won’t be the one to win this edition of the Vuelta a Colombia, but has a very decent acceleration which might lead him to a stage win if the GC favourites are looking at eachother. We find a very similar rider in Godoy. The Brazilian of EA Vesuvio is the clear favourite for the white jersey, with his biggest challengers probably the Novak-Roman duo of Isostar – Specialized. Pantano is the last name on the list and has manager the_hoyle of GCN Racing hoping he could overperform a bit on home soil.
ISA – Hexacta have two strong domestiques with Ji and Anacona and will hope to score some extra depth points. Another strong domestique in Colombia will be Costagli for Rakuten. Some other teams that haven’t been mentioned also brought one or more riders who they hope will like the race profile and deliver them those important;  Grieg-Maersk brought Nesset,  Diaz for Nordstrom – CA Technologies,  Air France – KLM brought the trio of Koch, Salinas and Rosch,  Panayotov doing the honours for Adastra, Topchanyuk for Popo4Ever and Team Tinkoff – La Datcha with Mamykin.
Let us not forget there are also two relatively easy flat stages though. Most teams did indeed not forget about this, and brought a sprinter with them.
| Name | FLA | STA | RES | REC | SPR | ACC |  Samolenkov | 74 | 75 | 71 | 78 | 81 | 79 | | Haller | 72 | 72 | 71 | 76 | 80 | 79 | | Mohs | 72 | 68 | 59 | 71 | 80 | 77 | | Soupe | 72 | 72 | 69 | 76 | 79 | 77 | | Hayakawa | 73 | 75 | 68 | 76 | 79 | 79 | | Afewerki | 73 | 77 | 70 | 81 | 79 | 80 | | Boivin | 74 | 74 | 70 | 79 | 79 | 80 |  Lay | 73 | 68 | 66 | 77 | 79 | 81 | | Vingerling | 71 | 72 | 66 | 76 | 79 | 79 | | Lutsyshyn | 70 | 69 | 73 | 74 | 79 | 80 | | Contreras | 72 | 73 | 75 | 77 | 78 | 80 | | Liu | 72 | 75 | 67 | 79 | 78 | 78 | | Canelon | 77 | 65 | 69 | 70 | 78 | 83 |
Those sprinters should have the biggest chance of winning a stage. There are definitely some outsiders, such as Hodeg, Nepomnyachsniy and Van der Kooij. One team that has zero riders mentioned in any of the lists is  Podium Ambition. Let’s hope we do see something of the men in pink though, and they try to attack regularly.
The only thing left for me today is to share the startlist with you, the only thing left for the riders is to win a stage and/or the GC of the Vuelta a Colombia for their team.
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 19-12-2020 10:11
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First race of the season for Wellens. Tough field for our Top 5 goal, but not outside the realm of possibility. Let's do this!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 19-12-2020 10:12
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Tough field, as expected. Hope we will be on the attack and that Nesset can be in the top 20.
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 19-12-2020 10:39
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It's Uran's home race, and putting a PTHC goal was mandatory, so why not but one with the biggest cost which you're not going to achieve anyway.
Still hoping Uran will do better than the sh*tshow of East Java, at least I brought out the full Minion force to throw bananas of an unspecified brand.
Thanks for the preview Nemolito!
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| quadsas |
Posted on 19-12-2020 11:49
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Top 10 and several top 10 stage finishes should be satisfactory for us
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 19-12-2020 11:50
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World Champion
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Tough startlist and given Dombrowski's performance in Paris-Nice, I'm not particularly confident ahead of this race.
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| viking90 |
Posted on 19-12-2020 12:55
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Shit, we sent rather weak backup team for Alarcon. Anyway the single most important race for Alarcon this season I guess we need great amount of points from him here!
Much mountains no ITT/TT and just a week race it sounds perfect for him atleast! |
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| Kentaurus |
Posted on 19-12-2020 13:08
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Not sad to miss this one, assumed it would get a monster startlist so intentionally avoided it, and looks like that was a good choice. Brutal race, that should be incredibly fun to watch.
AZTECA - NBCSN  |
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 19-12-2020 18:01
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Actually think we have one of the stronger teams here. Lack of TT and obvious MO, rather than HILL stat climbs make it the perfect race for Quintana imo. As the home favourite I'm hoping for an overperformance, but iirc PCM doesn't have nationality bonus anymore so podium is probably out of the question. I need a big race here after the disappointing SAA and triple headers though.
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 19-12-2020 18:45
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Should I regret not sending Preidler? Or did I made the right call by not picking him in an already stacked overall lineup? No one will know, so I don't expect much (the PTHC don't give much hope for us TBF) - Canelon at least could have a crack at the sprints, Higuita will be racing on home soil and who knows what Pana can do.
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| ember |
Posted on 20-12-2020 07:58
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Potential season defining race for Taaramäe. Must say I like his chances here, considering how he raced the Vuelta last year against Pluchkin. The overall win must be our goal and objective, eventhough both Pluchkin and maybe especially Dombrowski will be tough opponents.
Thank you for the preview, Nemolito! Looking forward to the racing  |
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| knockout |
Posted on 20-12-2020 09:38
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Grand Tour Champion
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Always cool to see former riders take a stage win and eventhough it is a while since we were in CT with Boivin as a loanee, i still enjoyed his victory here.
Im gonna be cheering for Taaramae here like in almost any race he enters. The overall win would be awesome for him and his team ...
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 20-12-2020 10:12
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Well, all of the riders finished with the peloton, so is this a plus?
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 20-12-2020 10:16
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World Champion
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Maybe I should have brought Van Poppel here instead of wasting his race days in Qatar where he made no attempts in helping Grosu. Oh well.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 20-12-2020 10:19
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Ah, so close for Afewerki! 3rd, but so nearly 1st.
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 20-12-2020 10:28
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alexkr00 wrote:
Maybe I should have brought Van Poppel here instead of wasting his race days in Qatar where he made no attempts in helping Grosu. Oh well.
Well, everyone makes mistakes that soon regrets - I regret not sending Preidler here since there are no TT stages and he's let's just say terrible in those type of stages
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 20-12-2020 10:43
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Grand Tour Champion
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Champoussin our lead sprinter? That was unexpected...
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| Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 20-12-2020 11:27
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Looking forward to see Monsalve in some proper mountains for the first time this season! Top 5 will be incredibly difficult, but I'm hoping we can fight for one of the following positions.
Shame to see Uwizeyimana and Bonnin losing time on the first stage. Would think especially the former could provide some decent depth points, but that's looking difficult now.
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 20-12-2020 11:39
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Awesome preview and nice report Nemo.
Had high hopes for Haller to grab some points and it was looking good until 100m to go, drat! Very happy to see Gough doing a lead out as that was a rare thing last season.
Nerz mucking in with chase duties, with such a stacked field he must have felt the sprints are Kraftwerk's best chance of points, maybe he can manage a high top 20.
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| quadsas |
Posted on 20-12-2020 12:29
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What a disastrous stage 1. But maybe it will open up breakaway possibilities
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