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Tour de Suisse Discussion
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 23-11-2014 18:26
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Directeur Sportif
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 Tour de Suisse
The Tour de Suisse has seen 7 different winners in 7 editions, with Andrei Amador taking last year's victory by just 39" on Andy Schleck and Bernhard Kohl completing the podium. Amador will be one of three former race-winners participating in this eigth edition and may so be the first to add a second Suisse-trophy to his palmares.
Four mountain-stages will offer plenty of chances for a thrilling GC-battle, with a 16km-TTT on fourth day to add some spice.. same goes for a not too selective looking hilly stage on the penultimate day.. just one day prior to something, that could well become the queen-stage here: the concluding 24km mountain-timetrial up the Klausenpass.
The "Buchs" on second day (6km, 10% average, 18% max), "Albulapass" on third (19km, 6.6% avg) and "Verbier" on seventh day (17km, 8% avg) will be crucial as well. Especially this seventh stage, with the "Verbier" climbed twice, is a truly challenging stage with 69km cumulated climbing!
The first stage though will be one for the sprinters, followed by two more possible sprint-stages right after the TTT.. let's bring it on!
The Startlist
The Favorites
| Rider | MO | HI | | TTT |  A. Schleck | 85 | 75 | | 81-76-76-74-74-73-69-63 |  Machado | 84 | 77 | | 76-76-74-73-72-72-66-64 |  Amador | 84 | 75 | | 78-78-77-75-75-71-71-71 |  Cunego | 83 | 82 | | 77-76-73-71-71-69-68-62 |  Contador | 83 | 77 | | 75-75-74-74-72-70-68-64 |  Velits | 83 | 76 | | 75-74-74-74-65-64-56-53 |  Kritskiy | 82 | 75 | | 79-77-76-74-72-72-70-69 |  Sella | 82 | 75 | | 78-77-77-72-72-67-64-55 |  Van den Broeck | 81 | 76 | | 78-78-76-76-76-75-75-75 |  Guldhammer | 80 | 77 | | 79-77-77-75-73-71-68-68 |  Kohl | 80 | 74 | | 72-71-71-70-67-66-64-64 |  Ratiy | 80 | 70 | | 78-76-76-74-68-60-59-57 |  Valverde | 79 | 79 | | |  Brambilla | 79 | 76 | | |  Gomez Marchante | 79 | 71 | | |  Costagli | 79 | 71 | | |  Nepomnyachsniy | 77 | 74 | | |
Last year's runner-up Andy Schleck is here to repeat his brother's victory from 2009. Though not lining up with the very best TTT-squad, he at least as some strong mountain-support by Suarez.
And then we have three riders, who already won this race: Cunego (2008), Sella (2010) and Amador (2013). The latter with one of the most powerful TTT-lineups will definitely have good chances to be the first to win the Tour de Suisse twice.. same goes for Cunego and Sella of course.
Machado, Contador and Velits do not have the TTT-lineup like the maybe best teams for Kristkiy (Tinkoff) and Van den Broeck (BPost), but given the rather short length of this timetrial, those premium climbers should all stand a chance to attack the GC-podium later on.
Guldhammer, Kohl and Ratyi may fight for the final Top-10 spots, just like Valverde, Marchante, Costagli or Brambilla.
The Sprinters
 Mohs | Guerao | |  Kip |  Weylandt | Zabel | | Trusov | Pedersen | Nizzolo |
A rather weak list of sprinters is topped by Mohs, who just comes off an impressive La Vuelta, and Guerao, who has yet to convince his manager from being usefull.
This duo is certainly the most promising to take out the opening stage, being challenged by Kip, Weylandt or Zabel on first hand.. while even the final leadouts for Mohs/Guerao (Kluge, Tzortzakis) may be real threats if their captains struggle for any reason!
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| roturn |
Posted on 23-11-2014 19:28
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Team Manager
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I knew it would be a awful competition here. But after Giro and Vuelta, the Suisse continues the Gomez Marchante show I hope.
Top15 is minimum. top10 unlikely but not impossible.
Stage win or KoM would be nice as well.
Nizzolo having chances to top5 in the sprint stages is nice. |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 23-11-2014 19:29
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Team Manager
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Huge race for Vesuvio. It's a win goal so Schleck needs to deliver.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 23-11-2014 19:59
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Team Leader
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Cunego is an interesting selection, thinking back guess this makes sense with not really any better races for him.
Following fellow 85 items Alarcons dominance of the Vuelta it would be nice to see Schleck win here, particularly as he has returned somewhere to which he was close last year.
It was tempting to bring Alarcon here, but his race days fitted Colombia, for which I am hopping to avoid some competition in the usual way.
SRB strictly a breakaway style team here, after stage one there is the territory to make it I think.
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| ember |
Posted on 23-11-2014 20:20
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Team Leader
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Schleck must be the favourite considering his mountain stat and his TTT train.
I hope for a top 5 from Contador, but it will certainly be tough. Hopefully he can be as aggressive as in the first part of the Vuelta, as attacking and being in front of the greatest climbers might be key to follow them on the biggest climbs here.
And it would be cool to see Holst Enger try his luck in the sprint, but admitedly he shouldn't be anywhere near the front.
Smowz wrote:
Following fellow 85 items Alarcons dominance of the Vuelta it would be nice to see Schleck win here, particularly as he has returned somewhere to which he was close last year.
When did Alarcon become an 85 item? 
Edited by ember on 23-11-2014 20:20
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| Smowz |
Posted on 23-11-2014 21:25
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Team Leader
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Lol wow yes your right, makes Vuelta win all the more impressive and other rides no show the more galling. Machado should have been better there, he has no chance against Schleck!
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| CountArach |
Posted on 23-11-2014 22:07
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Grand Tour Champion
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Top ten is the goal here with great reliance on my TTT squad to pull some time over the other equivalent climbers. I'd also sorely love to win the actual TTT stage... you know, just so that I have a win.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 08-12-2025 04:16
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| SotD |
Posted on 24-11-2014 11:33
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World Champion
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Expectations: None...
Let's make Guerao crash out, so Tzortzakis can try.
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| Roman |
Posted on 24-11-2014 16:27
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Anything less than top 6 from Velits would be a real disappointment.
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 24-11-2014 17:09
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World Champion
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Not many expectations here. Hopefully Brambilla will ride a solid GC.
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 24-11-2014 18:08
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Sprinter
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Here it is! I've been looking forward to this all year. Truly one of the most exciting courses of the week-long races, and I'm thrilled to be going into this as the home team with the defending champion. This is our only goal that I think we have a chance of achieving (to win). But the field looks a bit tougher than Romandie, so I think Amador will have a hard time improving on his 3rd place from earlier in the year. I'm very nervous about this one.
We've got quite a good TTT squad here (if Champion/Chtioui can survive the mountains), and Amador has had some great results in mountain times trials in the past, so I think we've got a decent shot at the win especially if he can mark Schleck in the big mountain stages. So I guess if I couldn't pick Amador for the win, the obvious favorite is Schleck (who I would not mind seeing win either way).
Really looking forward to this one. Good luck to everyone!
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| beagle |
Posted on 24-11-2014 18:25
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Grand Tour Specialist
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After amazing Vuelta it´s time to wake up. My only hope for good result is obviously Mohs, but this time he´s without such strong support here. Opening stage looks like the easiest one, remaining flat stages come after mountains/TT and I´m afraid it can easily twist to successful break festival again.
Thanks for preview tsmoha!
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| Smowz |
Posted on 24-11-2014 19:44
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Team Leader
Posts: 6386
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After being a dud throughout the Vuelta, Guerao finished off a good Festina sprint train. Unfortunately Ratiy loses all GC hopes but surely he was not a huge GC threat anyhow. I've seen comebacks from his position for mountains jersey so it may not be a bad thing.
Pokerstars nearly completely put out of it, but get respectible points there for 4th and 5th.
Tsmoha keeps churning out the reports just incredible!
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 24-11-2014 19:51
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Team Manager
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Well I see Mohs is back to normal again. Promising start for Andy, right at the front to avoid danger.
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| Roman |
Posted on 24-11-2014 19:56
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Well, at least Velits & König are still racing and hopefully are uninjured. Still it is absolutely great to know this race is going to be a real disappointment just after the start. 
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| SotD |
Posted on 24-11-2014 20:28
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World Champion
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Don't know how to feel about this. Guerao with his first stagewin of the entire season is nice, obviously... Having to nurse a leader who have lost 16 minutes, well... Couldn't he have just abandoned instead. Seeing his result in the Vuelta he would probably not even have made the top 15 anyway, so in terms of points it wasn't that horrible. But I really do hope that my team doesn't feel the need to stick with him, when he drops over and over again.
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| ember |
Posted on 24-11-2014 21:17
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Team Leader
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Great to see Guerao finally grab a win after a disappointing Vuelta. And truly nice to see Holst Enger try his luck in the final kilometers, coming away from it with 15th place!
Also a relief to see Contador not being one of the riders caught in the crash, but I feel bad for those managers that got their hopes for the GC ruined. Especially Roman as Velits was a possible outsider for an overall podium. |
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| dave92 |
Posted on 24-11-2014 23:42
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Classics Specialist
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Low expectations further dented by the Talansky crash, just hope for some aggressive riding from here on out.
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| roturn |
Posted on 25-11-2014 08:22
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Team Manager
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Mixed feeling about the first stage.
Gomez Marchante with better chances now obviously but losing time this way is nothing to be very glad of.
And unfortunately Nizzolo was also dropped in the only stage, that suits him a lot as the other 2 flat stages aren`t pure flat in the end. |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 25-11-2014 18:33
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Team Manager
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That could not have gone any better. Perfectly timed attack and climb and important big gaps gained already.
Btw, when did I sign Suarez?
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