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Roma Maxima Discussion
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 22-12-2022 13:14
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Roma Maxima
The history
Welcome back to Italy! No Giro stage for you today, but we do have the Roma Maxima cobbled classic to entertain you. For its 5th edition, the race got a well-deserved upgrade to PTHC. Roma Maxima started off as a C1 race in 2018, and was famous for the big cobble clash with Viana do Castelo.
The first two editions were won by Kenneth Vanbilsen riding for the Lierse - Pizza Ullo team. In 2020 Danny Summerhill won the race for Andorra. Last year, Joeri Stallaert won in a small group sprint. All four of them are back this year, but only Stallaert is here for the same team. The addition of Pro Tour riders will make it a lot harder for him though.
The route
The race will bring us through the beautiful landscape of Lazio. After some sightseeing, the riders will tackle a big climb to Rocca Massima. It’s probably too far from the finish to drop riders for good, but inevitably some riders will be more tired than others.
After the descent, we start the first cobbles of the race as we go up and down the Campi di Annibale. Unfortunately there are no Tunisian riders or elephants to cause total chaos in Italy this time around, but there definitely will be some action as the race will have to be decided here.
As we enter the city of Rome, we come off the final cobbled section, take a right at the Colosseum with 1K to go and end it with a very slight uphill finish. It will be a matter of having enough left in the tank to tackle this finale.
The startlist
As this used to be a PCT race, it is only fitting we start with them. There are some very good teams and some very bad ones, let’s go through them one by one.
Assa Abloy has Lars van der Haar as the team leader, which pretty means that they have no real ambition here. Bralirwa on the other hand brings the big man, Joeri Stallaert. Last year’s winner and up until recently unbeatable in the PCT. But he’s facing some tougher opposition here, so he will have to race smarter.
Carlsberg brings Matteo Trentin and there’s actually points for grab here! Definitely an outsider for the win with his great alround skill package. The next team makes me a bit sad, as Crabbe dominated the CT cobbles last year, but can’t really do the same in the PCT, let alone with PT around as well. Minor points at best for the Crabpack.
Indosat, go home and rethink your life. Kraftwerk brings the De Buyst / Zhupa combo, but that also ins’t good enough for anything more than minor points. The same has to be said for the Minions with Sweeck and De Witte. Red Bull added too much Wodka and should probably go home as well. Strava, come on man, you used to be a cobbled legend! Lindeman is the best you have?
Finaly we have the Looney Tunes with race legend Kenneth Vanbilsen and excellent support. Could this be Vanbilsen’s first win for them? But in all honesty, only 3 contenders from the PCT is a bit disappointing, as Zara isn't adding much either.
On to the Pro Tour then, where I do see a lot of big names. We start with Aker and a top favourite, Lukasz Wisniowski. Top cobble stat and no real weaknesses, it will be hard to beat him. Danny Summerhill from cycleYorkshire will try though. Although he started to decline, he’s still amongst the best riders.
Duolingo brings Mekseb Debesay, who is just a very solid rider, but not that much of a winner. Top 10 material for sure though. EA makes me sad, and it’s not because they’re a company of moneygrabbers but because they bring no real cobblers. ELKO brings the best cobblers in all of Greece, but that sounds more impressive than it actually is.
Then we have Grieg with Mads Pedersen. Great season for him so far and he definitely has everything needed for this race, another top favourite. King Power has Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz, who really needs to finish solo to win this race. There’s a lot we can say about Pollos’ Ruben Zepunkte, but to keep it short we’ll just say he’s not always getting the desired results.
Up next is Marcos Altur for Polar. Well, see above. Puma’s Lukas Meiler will be looking for minor points only. Finaly there’s the Tinkoff duo of Florian Senechal and Arman Kamyshev. In theory they should be dominating every race with smart tactics, but in reality we often see different things happening.
Three names, you say? The Wisard, Pedersen and Stallaert.
The report will be done by Imladrik in a few days, I'm just posting the preview well in advance so I can safely start on the eggnog.
Edited by Ollfardh on 23-12-2022 15:01
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Posted on 06-12-2025 21:40
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 22-12-2022 14:57
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Damn, I should have brought Khederi. Channeling that Carthaginian spirit, he might have upended the whole race 
Thank you for the very nice preview Ollfardh, I enjoyed reading that a lot! We have this as a win goal, which will be very tough, especially against Pedersen and Wisniowski, as you noted. But it's doable, and we really need Stallaert to keep up his incredible performances given that Silvestre and Madrazo are underperforming quite significantly. Looking forward to this race very much!
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 22-12-2022 19:06
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Trentin has done well here in the past, and we're hoping for more of that. With PT names here, it's always a crapshoot just because the field is so deep, but a good result here would offer a great haul, it being PTHC. Some depth from any of Resell, Mestric, Lander, would be nice too. Trentin has been pretty consistent all year, and his race day opportunities are dwindling. A result here would go a long way to ending his career as a leader strong and setting us up for the rest of the season.
Thanks for the preview!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 22-12-2022 19:20
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Zepuntke has eight extra teammates at his disposal. We have to something to entertain us this race 
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| tastasol |
Posted on 22-12-2022 20:52
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A completely new race for us! The parcours look nice and hopefully Mads P is up to it. Should be a good one for him at least, as long as the hill doesn't get too selective.
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 22-12-2022 21:17
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I do believe we are racing here but, other than breakaway action, I'm not expecting much.
Thank you for the preview and good luck all! Hopefully we get some exciting racing!
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| DaveTwoBob |
Posted on 24-12-2022 23:10
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Zhupa is having his best season in Kraftwerk colours, can he add to his points haul here?
Thanks for the great preview Ollfardh.
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| ember |
Posted on 25-12-2022 19:18
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Curious to see how the climb plays out, and how it affects Wisniowski’s chances.
Fingers crossed he can finally grab that cobbles win here! |
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 25-12-2022 23:31
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Thanks for a great teport, was a fun race to follow! All of the top placements ending up with PT riders is great for us since we were not here. Interesting to see that Debesay paid off some of his insane wage from FA with a second here.
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| tastasol |
Posted on 26-12-2022 00:24
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Superb racing by Pedersen! Really strong towards the end and a great victory as a result. It's been truly awesome to see him stepping up as a leader this season.
Great race by the rest of the team also, with four more guys top 30. The best possible Christmas present this!
Thanks for the report, Imladrik
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 26-12-2022 03:16
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Thanks for another great report and massive congrats to Grieg! Love seeing Pederson fulfilling his promise.
Very solid race for us. Trentin was alert and followed all the right moves. In the end, this is PTHC, and the field is stacked. He clung onto the best as long possible but ended up getting dropped and passed. I'd be very disappointed if the whole group overtook him, but as is, 7th is a really solid result and continues his display of consistency. Another time he's beaten a few of the guys I wanted to trade him for last offseason. He's doing his part this year.
Definitely wanted a little more depth scoring. Lander and Mestric got a couple of points each, but in PTHC, you really wanna sneak a couple of guys into the 20-30 range if possible. Resell's escapades are all getting a little annoying. He attacks mid stage almost every classic and ends up falling entirely out of the scoring positions without helping his leader. Maybe someday his aggression will pay dividends, but it hasn't so far.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 26-12-2022 09:51
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Leandro Marcos, take a bow son
De Witte and Sweeck could have gotten a better result had they not wasted energy but getting a top 10 in a PTHC race (and even ahead of Zepuntke) is beyond expectations.
Thanks for the report Imladrik and congrats tastasol!
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 26-12-2022 13:09
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| ember |
Posted on 26-12-2022 17:49
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Great depth with both Peng and Anderberg well inside the top 20. Wisniowski being the one of the front four to miss the podium was a surprise. He just can’t break the «curse», it seems. We’ll probably need to invest slightly more into domestiques, eventhough he was probably fine in this race, seeing our depth results.
Congratulations, tastasol! Pedersen proves he is the superior cobbles this season. |
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| Bikex |
Posted on 26-12-2022 18:23
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Great result from Ferreira! Very convincing how he dominated the peloton sprint. Kasperkiewicz might not have had the best day himself but in 14th place he contributes to a great depth result, which is completed by Darbinyan also in the top 30 and 3 more riders in the top 50.
Congrats, tastasol! I'm really impressed with how Pedersen stepped up this season.
And finally of course thank you for another great report Imladrik! |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 26-12-2022 22:21
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Ah, that's unfortunate. Stallaert had been free of such misfortunes before, and 6th is much better than I had feared in the moment of the puncture, so I won't complain much. It is somewhat fitting with some of our struggles so far this year, though. Explicitly not Stallaert's struggles, of course, but now he adds at least a short entry to our list of smaller and bigger disappointments. And in a goal race, no less. But of course, given the competition, it is possible that he still only would have finished two or three places higher even without the puncture.
Congrats then to tastasol and Pedersen, and thank you very much for the nice report, Imladrik!
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 26-12-2022 23:02
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Wonderful race from Debesay. Once again giving us some much needed points. In hindsight this race really suited his strengths so I think it doesn't seem that much of an undeserved overachievment. Pedersen, though, such a beast! Congrats tastasol!
And thanks again for another quality report Imladrik!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 27-12-2022 00:13
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Thanks for all the congrats, guys! I enjoy Beast Mads 
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| SotD |
Posted on 03-01-2023 10:47
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For once a pretty decent cobbled race - unfortunately it's a PTHC race so doesn't really make up for the massive amount of blunders by Karatzios and Kortsidakis this far. Still 15th and 20th must be considered a succes looking back on what has happened previously.
Pedersen has become a superstar really.
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