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Hong Kong Challenge - Discussion
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 06-03-2025 09:40
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Protected Rider
Posts: 1350
Joined: 07-07-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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 [C2] Hong Kong Challenge
Welcome to the 7th edition of the Hong Kong Challenge.
The riders start the race with 35 km of short steep climbs, followed by 60 km of flat roads. The last 70 km are up and down again with some bigger hills and a post-descent finish.
The race was not only demoted to C2 for this season, it also was changed from a 3-day stage race to a one-day classic. Despite being only a C1 race prior the list of winners consists of some big names.  Beltran is the only one of them racing here this year.
Previous winners:
Spoiler
| Year | Winner | | | | | | | | | 2023 | Brandon McNulty (McCormick Pro Cycling) | | 2022 | Timofey Kritskiy (Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team) | | 2021 | Eduard Alexander Beltran (Cedevita) | | 2020 | Wilco Kelderman (Philips) | | 2019 | Vincenzo Nibali (Euskaltel - Elior) | | 2018 | Leopold König (Valio - DeLaval) |
2023 results:
Spoiler
| 1 | Brandon McNulty | McCormick Pro Cycling | 7h59'57 | | 2 | Antonio Barbio | Team UBS - Tissot | + 33 | | 3 | Yoann Paillot | Assa Abloy | + 41 | | 4 | Marc Goos | Stela-Vita | + 47 | | 5 | Kent Main | Glanbia | + 55 | | 6 | Stefan Kung | Jura GIANTS | s.t. | | 7 | Romain Sicard | Genii Hyundai N Cycling | + 59 | | 8 | Bonaventure Uwizeyimana | Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes | + 1'03 | | 9 | Ion Izagirre | Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes | + 1'06 | | 10 | William Barta | Genii Hyundai N Cycling | + 1'12 |
The startlist is rather short with only 13 CT teams and one PCT team racing. The list of favourites is long nonetheless with a mix of pure puncheurs like  Eiking,  Moscon,  Bystrom or  Jensen, some hybrids like  Guerreiro,  Lyu or  Raileanu and even some punchy sprinters like Grosser or McCormick.
| | MO | HI | ST | RS | SP | AC | | Eiking | Odd Christian | 69 | 81 | 78 | 74 | 68 | 76 | | Moscon | Gianni | 73 | 80 | 76 | 77 | 60 | 73 | | Bystrom | Sven Erik | 68 | 79 | 75 | 72 | 68 | 76 | | Jensen | Kristian Haugaard | 69 | 79 | 76 | 72 | 65 | 75 | | Waeytens | Zico | 70 | 79 | 70 | 68 | 65 | 71 | | Morin | Emmanuel | 65 | 78 | 75 | 73 | 69 | 76 | | Beltran | Eduard Alexander | 76 | 78 | 68 | 67 | 63 | 71 | | Watson | Calvin | 65 | 78 | 76 | 72 | 62 | 72 | | Yates | Joel | 65 | 78 | 77 | 74 | 62 | 69 |  Budyak | Anatoliy | 74 | 78 | 72 | 67 | 57 | 68 | | Guerreiro | Ruben | 76 | 77 | 73 | 73 | 72 | 72 |  Nikiema | Bachirou | 70 | 77 | 72 | 74 | 70 | 76 |  Serrano | Gonzalo | 72 | 77 | 73 | 75 | 68 | 77 | | Zordan | Andrea | 73 | 77 | 72 | 72 | 65 | 74 | | Prevar | Oleksandr | 68 | 77 | 72 | 65 | 64 | 68 | | Quevedo | Xavier | 70 | 77 | 70 | 70 | 64 | 73 |  Sirironnachai | Sarawut | 66 | 77 | 77 | 74 | 64 | 73 | | Lyu | Xianjing | 75 | 77 | 75 | 76 | 63 | 74 | | Bratashcuk | Andrii | 71 | 77 | 75 | 70 | 62 | 67 | | Mager | Christian | 74 | 77 | 68 | 70 | 60 | 71 | | Carr | Simon | 70 | 77 | 74 | 71 | 59 | 72 | | Raileanu | Cristian | 77 | 77 | 74 | 73 | 59 | 70 | | Izagirre | Ion | 70 | 77 | 67 | 66 | 56 | 58 | | Grosser | Aaron | 64 | 74 | 74 | 72 | 75 | 75 | | McCormick | Hayden | 66 | 76 | 74 | 71 | 73 | 73 |
Full start list:
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 06-03-2025 11:37
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Team Leader
Posts: 7347
Joined: 11-04-2012
PCM$: 200.00
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Really hoping for a strong race here to make up for our disappointing performance in Luxembourg. We have a strong team here so should be able to get some note worthy results.
Good luck everyone and thanks for the preview!
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| Caspi |
Posted on 06-03-2025 14:35
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Domestique
Posts: 475
Joined: 22-09-2022
PCM$: 12200.00
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After numerous poor performances in May and June, highlighted by the dismal Tour of Luxembourg, our expectations are now minimal.
Thanks for the preview 
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| Caspi |
Posted on 08-03-2025 09:09
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Domestique
Posts: 475
Joined: 22-09-2022
PCM$: 12200.00
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Wth, some success in a hilly race again!?
Nikiema 5th plus some depth scoring from Laas and Manfredi Moreover, it seemed like the team was very active throughout the race with De Comarmond and Smit playing a role as well.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 08-03-2025 09:12
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3536
Joined: 20-04-2020
PCM$: 425.00
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Nice to see cervelo win a hilly race! And good to see Nikiema doing relatively well as well, he's been underperforming so far, so I'm glad for Caspi.
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 08-03-2025 09:35
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2970
Joined: 09-05-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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KHJ floped unfortunately, but fortunately enough we've had an insurance policy in case it all goes wrong for him in Julien Bernard + solid domestique role from Barta. Bernard so far has had a decent season even though he came up short once again. This result will give us a boost in the rankings, but this may be our last best race for a while.
Congrats to jt1109 and thanks kandesbunzler26 for the report
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 08-03-2025 10:07
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Team Leader
Posts: 7347
Joined: 11-04-2012
PCM$: 200.00
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Not too bad for us. 8th place and Svab in the points as well. I still think we could have performed better but happy with that result.
Congrats to the winner and thanks for the great report!
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| Ezeefreak |
Posted on 08-03-2025 11:07
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Domestique
Posts: 589
Joined: 06-07-2009
PCM$: 300.00
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Podium would hav been great but surely Guerreiro is a big W for us this season in almost every race he delivers.
Thanks for the report and congrats to Cervelo!
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| seancoll |
Posted on 09-03-2025 00:22
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Domestique
Posts: 554
Joined: 20-12-2022
PCM$: 500.00
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Very well deserved from Moscon and Cervelo! They're just so good on the hills and they deserved some good luck here!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 02-04-2025 12:27
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 09-03-2025 04:40
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World Champion
Posts: 11456
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1120.00
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Neat result from Nikiema, enjoy seeing it
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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| TinxiaS |
Posted on 09-03-2025 09:55
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Domestique
Posts: 513
Joined: 17-08-2020
PCM$: 400.00
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I was a bit expecting this result as Govekar is still don't have his full stats but I hope next year he can be in top 10.
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| TinxiaS |
Posted on 09-03-2025 09:55
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Domestique
Posts: 513
Joined: 17-08-2020
PCM$: 400.00
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I was a bit expecting this result as Govekar is still don't have his full stats but I hope next year he can be in top 10.
Congrats to winners and thanks for report
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 09-03-2025 18:10
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World Champion
Posts: 14764
Joined: 08-08-2011
PCM$: 10500.00
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Moscon!!!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 09-03-2025 20:56
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4869
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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Guess that must be Moscon's 2nd classic win only after Placci in 2020? Nice to see
And pretty impressive to see the impact of the change from a stage race to a classic! When it was a stage race, Moscon never finished Top 50 in this exact same stage. Meaning that despite not being awful against the clock, he got simply 100% ignored by the AI on a stage being perfectly to his liking, just because he wasn't a top GC favo... Learning something about PCM's game (un)logic ^^
Congrats jt, was about time Moscon finally delivered for you!
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| Caspi |
Posted on 10-03-2025 18:43
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Domestique
Posts: 475
Joined: 22-09-2022
PCM$: 12200.00
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Looking back, I was a bit harsh on Nikiema. The hill-department has actually performed close to my expectations (with the exception of Luxembourg). Nevertheless, it's nice with a top 5, and congrats to Cervelo with the win.
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