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Tour of Japan - Discussion
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| Ezeefreak |
Posted on 01-06-2024 07:43
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Domestique
Posts: 555
Joined: 06-07-2009
PCM$: 300.00
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 [HC] Tour of Japan
Welcome to Japan! The Tour of Japan is back in the calendar in 2023 after it wasnt held in 2022. It also got an Upgrade and is now held as an HC Race. Overall this race has a lots of tradition since it was part of the MGUCI calendar most of the years since 2009!
We start in Sakai, near Osaka in the Kansai region and head over to the biggest metropolis in the world, Tokyo. While doing this we ride trough beautiful landscapes and will visit the famous Mount Fuji to determine the strongest of this years field.
We dont have a single normal mountain stage but it's a race for the climbers. With the ITT the up the Mount Fuji everything should be decided at Stage 4. The Gaps there should be big enough so the results of the other stages doesnt matter that much for the GC. But this also means there are a lot of stages to shine for others.
At the first Stage we have a very short prologue for the specialists to shine. The next 2 Stages could be a chance for breakways. With some hills the more punchy riders can try their luck to gain an advantage here. Same goes for the 5th Stage. The Final Stage at Tokyo then is a chance for the sprinters to claim a victory. The only other chance for them might be on Stage 2 when their teams work hard enough for them.
2021 (C1) Result
GC: Nairo Quintana (Jura - Fiat)
Pts: Jingbiao Zhang (Voyagin - Bird)
KoM: Nairo Quintana (Jura - Fiat) & Christopher Juul-Jensen (Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller)
U25: Mark Padun (Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff)
Spoiler
| | | | | | | | | 1 | Nairo Quintana | Jura - Fiat | 13h34'30 | | 2 | Mark Padun | Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff | + 44 | | 3 | Hugh Carthy | cycleYorkshire | + 1'08 | | 4 | Chen Shikai | Voyagin - Bird | + 1'21 | | 5 | Jose Alarcon | Cedevita | + 1'34 | | 6 | Egan Bernal | Polar | + 1'40 | | 7 | Marcus Faglum Karlsson | Assa Abloy | + 1'45 | | 8 | Matthias Brändle | Red Bull Zalgiris | + 2'25 | | 9 | Tim Kennaugh | cycleYorkshire | + 2'38 | | 10 | Takeaki Amezawa | Aker - MOT | + 2'47 | | 11 | Thomas Bonnin | Assa Abloy | + 3'10 | | 12 | Robin Carpenter | Polar | + 3'15 | | 13 | Fausto Masnada | Jura - Fiat | + 4'05 | | 14 | Bartosz Warchol | Indosat Ooredoo | + 4'37 | | 15 | Artem Topchanyuk | Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff | + 5'06 | | 16 | Kilian Frankiny | Sauber Petronas Racing | + 5'12 | | 17 | Michael Cuming | Eurosport x GCN | + 5'31 | | 18 | Jarlinson Pantano Gomez | Eurosport x GCN | + 5'47 | | 19 | Nicholas Schultz | BNZ-Superhero Racing | + 6'26 | | 20 | Cyril Barthe | Polar | + 6'30 | | 21 | Jacob Salcone | Voyagin - Bird | + 6'52 | | 22 | Andrea Zordan | Cedevita | s.t. | | 23 | Matthias Krizek | Red Bull Zalgiris | + 6'58 | | 24 | Matej Vysna | Cedevita | + 7'06 | | 25 | Felix Grossschartner | Sauber Petronas Racing | + 7'29 | | 26 | Anders Skaarseth | cycleYorkshire | s.t. | | 27 | Rhys Gillett | BNZ-Superhero Racing | + 7'33 | | 28 | Leopold Konig | Assa Abloy | + 7'37 | | 29 | Muhammad Imam Arifin | Indosat Ooredoo | + 7'43 | | 30 | Zouzou Andriafenomananiaina | Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff | + 7'44 |
For more Results please look here (Click me!)
The GC Contenders
The determining stage for the final result will be most likely Stage 4, and thats an ITT! BUT it's not an ITT for the specialists. Going up the Mt. Fuji is a challenge for the best climbers out there so we expect them ahead.
| Rider | MT | HI | TT | PR | RC |  Eastman | 82 | 71 | 77 | 73 | 76 |  Padun | 82 | 77 | 66 | 65 | 76 |  Olivier | 81 | 76 | 69 | 69 | 77 |  Choi | 81 | 74 | 75 | 74 | 79 |  Bennett | 81 | 76 | 65 | 65 | 79 |  Meintjes | 80 | 78 | 71 | 71 | 78 |  Seboka | 80 | 62 | 53 | 53 | 73 |  Yates | 80 | 76 | 71 | 71 | 76 |  Novak | 80 | 77 | 66 | 64 | 77 |  Stüssi | 79 | 73 | 75 | 69 | 78 |  Schelling | 79 | 74 | 71 | 70 | 71 | | Cras | 78 | 72 | 73 | 70 | 77 |
There are a lot of really good riders when it goes uphill and these are the ones most look out for. With Bennett we have a former (2 times) winner of this race, is he still able to win it in 2023? Seeing Eastman at the top of the podium won't be any surprise for anyone here, probably the biggest favorite. And then there is Padun, the U25 Winner of the last time this race was held. Can he now go for the big one? This race won't be boring for sure!
The First Leader Jersey
If you look at the profile than you can see that Stage 1 is the chance for our Prologue specialists to shine and wear the first leader jersey on stage 2.
| Rider | PR | | Schomber | 81 | | Van Aert | 79 | | Haugard | 79 |  Frame | 79 | | Dillier | 78 |
It would be rather surprising if not one of these would win the stage. Though we have some more Riders with good legs for such a short TT but these one are for sure the strongest. In the books of many it is expected that Schomber will be the one to shine first.
The Final Stage
This may be not a typical race for our fast guys but we have a typical final stage. The Tour d'Honneur in Tokyo. A flat stage where they can grab the final win.
| Rider | SP | AC | RS | FL |  Walscheid | 79 | 79 | 74 | 73 | | Lutsyshyn | 79 | 80 | 73 | 70 |  Riabushenko | 79 | 77 | 74 | 76 |  Hayakawa | 79 | 79 | 68 | 73 | | Mareczko | 78 | 77 | 73 | 74 |  El Sabbahi | 78 | 77 | 76 | 77 | | Reinhardt | 78 | 82 | 64 | 70 | | Page | 78 | 79 | 72 | 75 | | Bennett | 78 | 78 | 67 | 70 |
In comparison the the climbers the field isnt packed by top notch sprinter but we still have some guys with fast legs who wanna win this stage. Walscheid, Lutsyshyn and Riabushenko you need to watch. But especially Hayakawa is probably really hyped for this last stage of his home country race!
Full start list:
The reports will be brought to you by kandesbunzler26!
Edited by Ezeefreak on 02-06-2024 07:33
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 01-06-2024 07:57
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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This is where we make our final bid for promotion, and I have no idea what to expect. Meintjes could win the whole thing or he could finish, like, 9th. Olivier is the big rival, if we could outscore Fastned, that might be huge. Can't do anything but sit back and hope for the best. Thanks for the nice preview, looking forward to kb's always great reports!
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 01-06-2024 09:56
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2933
Joined: 09-05-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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Not sure why Seboka is among the GC favorite though 
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 01-06-2024 10:59
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4505
Joined: 05-10-2010
PCM$: 900.00
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Season defining race for a few teams coming up here - Bennett, Choi, Meintjes, Yates and Olivier all vying for a good result amongst others - absolutely terrifying from our perspective. Yates has been brilliant and has outshone all others at times this season, but without a conventional mountain stage he’s gonna have to go hard on the stage following the MTT to have a shot at keeping us in the top-5.
Best of luck to everyone, let’s see what happens 
Thanks for the preview
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| quadsas |
Posted on 01-06-2024 11:37
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2518
Joined: 18-01-2013
PCM$: 300.00
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Not expecting much here at all, Guldy should get some GC points and maybe my so called attackers can get something on hilly stages
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| KaiserAdler |
Posted on 01-06-2024 11:47
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Domestique
Posts: 570
Joined: 13-07-2022
PCM$: 5800.00
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Two of our Master Domestiques from the ToA come here for some depth points. Any point is welcome and I mean really any. 111 points from safety is not the grand canyon but it won't be a walk in the park either. Daddy needs some magic boys, score or be sold 
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 13:01
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Bot Agent
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 01-06-2024 21:04
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Team Leader
Posts: 6036
Joined: 20-07-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Dont really have much expectations for this race. Hoping for some homeland antics from Hayakawa and maybe a top15 from either Arndt or Rachid.
Thanks for the preview!
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 01-06-2024 22:45
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8059
Joined: 22-06-2009
PCM$: 650.00
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Our team is missing from the startlist. Just want to make sure our guys made it to Japan and are accounted for. 
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 01-06-2024 22:51
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4669
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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Hum, not quite sure what to think of the startlist. 8 "serious" 80+ climbers there (not counting Seboka, sorry ^^), so a Top 10 looks possible for Stüssi. However, depending on the impact TT skill has in this MTT, it could even be much more. In Romandie, he was able to beat Yates and Meintjes, whereas he even finished behind Bennett in the Giro...
In any case, Eastman and Choi should be the strongest contenders, as they'll have an advantage over most others after the prologue already, and the MTT should suit them no matter what. But the race for 3rd looks to be wide open; I wouldn't want to make a prediction.
As said before, Stüssi looks pretty nice - but to be honest, I'm not even sure if he'll be our top rider in the end. Sure, he's our best climber, but he doesn't like prologues, and his TTs haven't been very consistent this year. Instead, I could actually see Darbellay getting our top result, being a better prologue rider than all the listed climbers, and a very solid stage racer overall. He was our #1 finisher in California on a rather similar course, so why not get the upper hand again?
And then we also have Schmid, who hopefully will enjoy all those hilly finishes that look really great for him! He won't be a factor GC-wise obviously, but I sure hope he'll ride some more active stages than he did most of the year...
And yeah, Page is here for the final stage, trying to reach his points target at the last occasion.
Good luck to all, and thanks for the preview!
Mresuperstar wrote:
Our team is missing from the startlist. Just want to make sure our guys made it to Japan and are accounted for.
Zwift definitely are in the startlist file, guess that's just a mistake in the startlist posted above.
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| TheUlamog |
Posted on 02-06-2024 13:27
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Under 23
Posts: 97
Joined: 08-03-2020
PCM$: 600.00
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Good luck for everyone going for GC!
I'll be watching closely to hopefully see us win a stage in this home race! Dzervus top 20 in a TT is already a surprise, the team seems really motivated for this one. It's late in the season, but it would be nice to close that 10 point gap and get off the second to last place in the ranking. |
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 02-06-2024 15:27
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 3263
Joined: 02-11-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Xero on a roll now as Schomber gets in on the act.
For us Matsuda had a nice ride in his home country and Walscheid within 20 seconds so the dream would be a win in Stage 2 and the leader's jersey.
Our GC rider is Kuss, one of his few chances to lead this year. Would be happy with a top 35 to make him the all time McCormick leading scorer, which seems humble enough, but fear we could just get ignored and lose huge chunks on the hilly stages.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| quadsas |
Posted on 02-06-2024 20:45
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2518
Joined: 18-01-2013
PCM$: 300.00
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Dang, my annual stage hunter sprinter beat us. Bittersweet but BIG MATEO (rip Matteo, miss ya big guy) gets us some needed points, #blessed #ripMatteo
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 02-06-2024 21:12
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4669
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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Decent enough start for us! We had no-one for the prologue, with none of the TTers having any RDs left for just this stage. But Darbellay already showed that he might be our leader here - 10th place is a strong result, and he's actually the best placed of the climbers right now... We'll see what PCM thinks about this situation, though ^^
Stüssi's prologue isn't good, and that showed once again. Losing just 1-2 seconds to some better prologue riders is fine, though - and I definitely hope his MTT will be much stronger.
Stage 2 almost had the perfect ending for us, but as written in the report, the Swiss Page seemed to run out of steam at the very end. Still, 3rd is a great result for him, looks like he just needs the HC/PTHC stage to do well...
Stüssi and Darbellay around 40th place is slightly concerning, but I hope they'll be further up when it really matters. Schmid on the other hand is clearly searching his place in our lineup, hopefully he either attacks or at least works for his teammates later on.
Kudos to our French Page, 2nd in KoM is a nice outcome and nets him 2 more points in his debut season!
Big congrats to DuckDuckGo; even though I'd have loved to see Page win this, I think Hayakawa winning is a much better scenario for the race organizers
And (late) congrats to Xero, looks like everything is falling into place for you in the second half of the year - Areruya's absolute dominance, Pidcock's Benelux win, and Schomber being better than ever before...
Last but not least, thanks for the report!
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 03-06-2024 06:23
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11676
Joined: 27-07-2015
PCM$: 1861.50
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Good start for Choi in the Prologue, being the best of the top favourites is definitely an advantage in a race like this. Also a good stage from Ocampo and Ahmad Zamri. Stage 2 had nothing for us but we're good as everyone made it through unscathed.
Congrats to jandal and Gustav for the wins, and thanks for the reports
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 03-06-2024 07:03
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World Champion
Posts: 11392
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1020.00
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Schomber does it again! It's been almost exactly eight years since we first hired him as a stagiaire, and he's finally my vision of the serial yellow-jersey owner. Three in the year and retaining it on quite a few occasions as well. A very worthy low wage rider to have around.
Of course, our ambitions here are far greater, both for Bennett's last maxed race and a huge necessity for points in our promotion hunt. Hope he's on form. Any points Pidcock can grab would be an awesome bonus.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 03-06-2024 08:56
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3367
Joined: 20-04-2020
PCM$: 425.00
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Thank you for the preview, Ezee.
Should have probably sent Aular here instead of (or only) Higuita, but at the time it felt like a risk worth taking. We'll see whether he's able to redeem those 45 seconds lost in the prologue in the hills, because it won't happen in the MTT normally. Top-10 will be hard now, but we hope he can surprise us.
Congratulations to the legendary Schomber for Xero and home ridere Hayakawa for DDG with the wins Thank you for the nice reports, kb!
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 03-06-2024 09:50
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Team Leader
Posts: 6036
Joined: 20-07-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Wow, a win! And such a cool one with Hayakawa delivering at home with a very curious leadout by Arndt! Guess we can pack our bags already.
Thanks everyone!
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 03-06-2024 22:41
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4669
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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What a weird stage... Higuita's move was obviously world-class, and I wouldn't even be surprised to see him take the GC now. Just because he's an LPH rider, and everything they currently touch turns into gold. Why? Because. Congrats, he really was the only smart rider from the pack today!
On the other hand, absolutely no clue what Schmid did today. This stage was a perfect fit for him, with the bookies thinking along the same lines. And he doesn't even finish inside the Top 100... Looks like he doesn't like having a GC leader on the team, something to take note of for next season ^^
But obviously happy that both Stüssi and Darbellay were on the right side of the split! They should be able to overtake most of the non-climbers of today's breakaway, as they really shouldn't be able to keep up in an MTT and even less on stage 5 - but who knows... Both our stage racers are in a good position now, up to them to turn it into something good at the end!
Our story of the day however is definitely Hugo Page taking over the KoM lead! It might be the only time in his career, so he better enjoys it while it lasts - it's obviously nice bonus points if Schmid decides he doesn't need to fight for (stage) points anyway ^^
Commiserations to those who were hit really hard by awful positioning, especially Padun and Bennett... Really weird results at times, for riders who were a perfect fit for such stages, combining great climbing and good punch...
Thanks for the report!
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 03-06-2024 23:38
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 3263
Joined: 02-11-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Well that was weird as Fab says. Big break and nobody willing to chase, and odd riders caught behind. Maybe teams valuing TT in selecting leaders which would explain Bennett and Padun getting caught out. A great ride from Higuita and congrats to Babymetal with 2 in the top 6.
We managed to put Nzafashwanayo, the least suited rider on our team, into a 21 rider break in a race where we have zero GC ambitions. So congrats to the stagiare but the DS should be yelling at the rest of them.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 04-06-2024 00:39
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World Champion
Posts: 11392
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1020.00
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So because we put Strong in the break we thought it's time to throw our race away? I don't remember shit like this and California (and other races that aren't springing straight to mind) happening in past PCM editions, though maybe they just never happened to us before. What the hell? I'm so pissed off.
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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