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Post by kurtinsc on Mar 7, 2013 13:23:55 GMT 1
Well... that's a serious mixed blessing.
Goorts has a great day... wins the stage, gets five and a half minutes on the peloton and moves into the yellow jersey (though his chances of keeping it on the TTT have to be non-existant). Yay!
But Maessen goes down on the last day with mountain points, losing me the SURE mountain jersey. BOOO!
I hope Goorts can hang on to a pretty high finish. 1st is impossible I think with Forza's TT team... but maybe 3rd is possible. 3:38 on 4th and 3:55 on 5th is pretty big, and while both have better TT teams then me they aren't a TON better.
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Post by kurtinsc on Mar 9, 2013 13:40:55 GMT 1
Not too bad. I got crushed by Forza in the TTT (like I expected), but only his riders finished in front of my lead guy. 4th overall... I'll live with that. Just wish Maessen didn't crash out for the mountain jersey.
I think having a TTT at the end of a GT isn't a good idea. While I don't think it would have changed the final result a ton, having it early would at least have given people a better idea about where they really stood in the race for the final standings.
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leor16
U23 Developm. Team
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Post by leor16 on Mar 9, 2013 19:20:39 GMT 1
Not too bad. I got crushed by Forza in the TTT (like I expected), but only his riders finished in front of my lead guy. 4th overall... I'll live with that. Just wish Maessen didn't crash out for the mountain jersey. I think having a TTT at the end of a GT isn't a good idea. While I don't think it would have changed the final result a ton, having it early would at least have given people a better idea about where they really stood in the race for the final standings. It seems like I was a good 2nd today, with a nice gap on the 3th and the rest of the pack, but i'm kind of disappointed in the final results. I felt like I was one of the best during the whole Giro, but with only a 5th place in the GC and none of the other jersey's I can't be happy. I thought my multi skilled riders could have made a difference for the GC, so I'm sad to conclude that this giro the only important skill was TT
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Post by kurtinsc on Mar 9, 2013 21:24:48 GMT 1
It was definitely the most important if you were dominant in it (as Forza was). I'm guessing he had 3+ guys at 5+ TT though, and the rest of us were at 1-3 with only a couple of guys higher then that. When you have double a skill (TT/hill/flat/mountain) and that is represented a fair amount in a race... well you probably are going to make big time in that area.
But if one team had a bunch of lvl 6 climbers and the rest of us were at 3? Probably the same result (if not worse).
There aren't a lot of TT's this season, Forza deserves this one. He's got a Garmin type TT team, the rest of us are Euskaltel-Euskadi.
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leor16
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Post by leor16 on Mar 12, 2013 22:04:09 GMT 1
Hmm, I messed up with my team-management, the rider who goes for the GC had only 85% fitness at the start. I hope he can survive the first total flat week. In the meanwhile Vanlier can try to win a stage in the sprint. (congratz with Garen's stage win today ) Btw, strange that 3 of Bosch's riders fail to follow the pack, i think he made some mistakes as well, or he is aiming high for the mountain/hilly stages with them, but those riders can already forget the GC
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Post by kurtinsc on Mar 13, 2013 3:05:45 GMT 1
Hmm, I messed up with my team-management, the rider who goes for the GC had only 85% fitness at the start. I hope he can survive the first total flat week. In the meanwhile Vanlier can try to win a stage in the sprint. (congratz with Garen's stage win today ) Btw, strange that 3 of Bosch's riders fail to follow the pack, i think he made some mistakes as well, or he is aiming high for the mountain/hilly stages with them, but those riders can already forget the GC It was a bit odd. I actually thought Bustos would be the one from my team competing for the sprint, as it was a hill finish. But he got dropped in the flats. Garen is my guy for the flat sprints... which today proved he likely won't win. He didn't win a single intermediate sprint.. but it appears the other sprinters have even worse hill scores then him (he's only at a 2). Godbout and Baratti won the intermediates... I'm assuming one of them will win the next stage if they make it to the finish with the lead group. Stage 4 looks like my next shot at a stage win (though I expect high finishes from Garen in other stages).
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Post by kurtinsc on Mar 14, 2013 13:29:52 GMT 1
Looks like Godbout will be pretty much unbeatable in flat sprints. People are going to have to have some success with attacks on the flat stages for anyone else to win. Garen's falls (one just before he lost contact) probably cost him a podium spot in stage 2... but with his secondaries those are unavoidable.
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leor16
U23 Developm. Team
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Post by leor16 on Mar 17, 2013 20:02:22 GMT 1
Tomorrow will be a first indication for the GC. I hope Rabner and Sacre are ready for it
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Post by kurtinsc on Mar 18, 2013 14:43:21 GMT 1
Well, congrats to sanjp... a well timed effort to get a stage win.
After the first mountain stage, there are 11 riders at 1:20 or less from the lead.
1. Seabra - WB (95%) 2. Cosson - kleinbikes (89%) - 1:20 3. Trussart - kleinbikes (89%) 4. Lacroux - WB (95%) 5. Rabner - EBH (95%) 6. Sacre - EBH (95%) 7. Blanquet - Forza (85%) 8. Potoms - EBH (94%) 9. Mazilu - Sanjp (90%) 10. Urkens - Forza (90%) 11. Bioret - Ngogo (94%)
I'm hoping that Seabra's stealth attack in stage 5 was the first indication for GC. I took a bit of a risk with some save fitness tactics on stages where I was not at all sure he'd be able to hang on. That allowed me to put on 77% attack on a hilly/flat stage and still be full fitness at the start of this week. Got me a 1:20 edge over the other GC riders... we'll see how that holds up. Seabra doesn't have the highest mountain rating by any shot and he's a bit heavy... but he's probably better then most of the GC guys on hills.
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Post by kurtinsc on Mar 20, 2013 14:16:21 GMT 1
New standings after Sacre's successful attack:
1. Sacre - EBH (65%) 2. Seabra - WB (90%) +51 3. Cosson - kleinbikes (84%) +2:14 4. Trussart - kleinbikes (84%) 5. Lacroux - WB (90%) 6. Rabner - EBH (90%) 7. Bioret - Ngogo (89%) 8. Mazilu - Sanjp (85%) 9. Potoms - EBH (89%) 10. Urkens - Forza (80%) 11. Blanquet - Forza (75%) 12. Mann - WB (85%) 3:04 13. Van den Elzen - Ngogo (75%) 3:17 14. Menschaert - Ngogo (90%) 15. Vie - Bicisintra (90%) 3:45
The attack got him time, but cost a fair amount of fitness with some mountain stages to go. Will one of the top riders answer on Saturday?
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leor16
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Post by leor16 on Mar 20, 2013 20:24:11 GMT 1
New standings after Sacre's successful attack: 1. Sacre - EBH (65%) 2. Seabra - WB (90%) +51 3. Cosson - kleinbikes (84%) +2:14 4. Trussart - kleinbikes (84%) 5. Lacroux - WB (90%) 6. Rabner - EBH (90%) 7. Bioret - Ngogo (89%) 8. Mazilu - Sanjp (85%) 9. Potoms - EBH (89%) 10. Urkens - Forza (80%) 11. Blanquet - Forza (75%) 12. Mann - WB (85%) 3:04 13. Van den Elzen - Ngogo (75%) 3:17 14. Menschaert - Ngogo (90%) 15. Vie - Bicisintra (90%) 3:45 The attack got him time, but cost a fair amount of fitness with some mountain stages to go. Will one of the top riders answer on Saturday? I guess your riders (Lacroux and Seabra in the first place) will try something, I'll just try to keep Sacre in the front group. But I think at least some attackers will jump over him, so the 1st place in the GC will be hard to maintain ...
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Post by kurtinsc on Mar 20, 2013 22:27:42 GMT 1
New standings after Sacre's successful attack: 1. Sacre - EBH (65%) 2. Seabra - WB (90%) +51 3. Cosson - kleinbikes (84%) +2:14 4. Trussart - kleinbikes (84%) 5. Lacroux - WB (90%) 6. Rabner - EBH (90%) 7. Bioret - Ngogo (89%) 8. Mazilu - Sanjp (85%) 9. Potoms - EBH (89%) 10. Urkens - Forza (80%) 11. Blanquet - Forza (75%) 12. Mann - WB (85%) 3:04 13. Van den Elzen - Ngogo (75%) 3:17 14. Menschaert - Ngogo (90%) 15. Vie - Bicisintra (90%) 3:45 The attack got him time, but cost a fair amount of fitness with some mountain stages to go. Will one of the top riders answer on Saturday? I guess your riders (Lacroux and Seabra in the first place) will try something, I'll just try to keep Sacre in the front group. But I think at least some attackers will jump over him, so the 1st place in the GC will be hard to maintain ... I'm torn to be honest. Not sure a low effort attack will work... and it might be better to save a high effort attack until a later stage. Then again... there are only 2-3 stages left to try something (3 if you're high skilled in hill... 2 otherwise).
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leor16
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Post by leor16 on Mar 22, 2013 17:31:23 GMT 1
Qinghai Lake turned out great
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Post by kurtinsc on Mar 22, 2013 19:05:49 GMT 1
Qinghai Lake turned out great Would have ben better (for me) if van der Wal could sprint just a bit better (a bit better then Rosenfeld I mean). Pretty much came down to that one break and Rosenfeld winning every sprint (mountain and flat)... that gave Rosenfeld the stage and all the jerseys. Still... can't be too upset. 3rd on stage 1, 2nd on stage 2, 2nd overall. Another close but no cigar tour for me.
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leor16
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Post by leor16 on Mar 23, 2013 13:42:58 GMT 1
I guess your riders (Lacroux and Seabra in the first place) will try something, I'll just try to keep Sacre in the front group. But I think at least some attackers will jump over him, so the 1st place in the GC will be hard to maintain ... I'm torn to be honest. Not sure a low effort attack will work... and it might be better to save a high effort attack until a later stage. Then again... there are only 2-3 stages left to try something (3 if you're high skilled in hill... 2 otherwise). Seabra tried today a first time with a 75% attack (?), even with 2 falls he was able to get away from the peloton, but my helpers did their job and Sacre had an easy day in the peloton. 1 down, 4 stages to go ..
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