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Giro di Lombardia Discussion
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 26-04-2018 22:39
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Grand Tour Specialist
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La Classica delle foglie morte will be again the final race of the season in the PT calendar, and with the title and the some relegation spots still yet to be decided, it will be an exciting one.
The fifth monument of the year is usually won by the same riders, as in the last 8 years, only 4 different riders have been able to win it. Ponzi has won it the last two seasons, and before that Cunego won it three times between 2009 and 2014, while Frank Schleck, who today will race his last ever MG race, won it in 2011 and 2013.
| Favourites | HIL | MON | STA | ACC | Contenders | HIL | MON | STA | ACC |  Bakelants | 84 | 75 | 81 | 78 |  Herklotz | 75 | 81 | 77 | 75 |  Ponzi | 84 | 73 | 77 | 80 |  Boswell | 80 | 71 | 77 | 76 |  Spilak | 82 | 85 | 80 | 74 |  Borges | 78 | 70 | 75 | 81 |  Trofimov | 82 | 77 | 79 | 75 | Machado | 77 | 84 | 77 | 72 |  Sagan | 82 | 74 | 78 | 76 |  Bellis | 78 | 68 | 80 | 75 |  Skujins | 83 | 70 | 80 | 76 | Arndt | 76 | 79 | 77 | 75 |  Lutsenko | 81 | 73 | 76 | 81 | Vakoc | 80 | 71 | 75 | 74 |  Bobridge | 83 | 69 | 74 | 80 | Pichon | 79 | 70 | 74 | 76 |  Ginanni | 83 | 70 | 78 | 74 |  Jensen | 78 | 70 | 77 | 76 |  De Bie | 82 | 71 | 77 | 75 | Bystrom | 79 | 68 | 75 | 76 | | Kelderman | 82 | 71 | 80 | 72 |  Kump | 76 | 66 | 76 | 80 | | Koretzky | 80 | 71 | 77 | 79 |  Dyrnes | 78 | 72 | 73 | 77 |  Schleck | 75 | 85 | 77 | 79 | Edmondson | 78 | 69 | 75 | 76 | | Gastauer | 82 | 71 | 78 | 76 | Bilbao | 79 | 67 | 77 | 75 | | Beltran | 79 | 79 | 73 | 76 | Slagter | 78 | 78 | 71 | 71 | | McCarthy | 81 | 67 | 80 | 74 | Bibby | 76 | 77 | 77 | 71 |
The main favourite for the win is the two-times defending winner Simone Ponzi, who previously this year won Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and tomorrow will be aiming for the 5th monument of his career.
The other top favourite is Jan Bakelants. The Belgian needs to get here a great result to save Strava from relegation. Strava is only 10 points behind Ayubowan for the last safe spot, but a bad day for Bakelants, and they'll face PCT competition again. Anyway, Bakelants has 3 podiums here and hasn't finishied outside Top6 in the last 5 years
In that relegation fight, Strava is not alone. Tinkoff is 60 points behind Strava, but has another potential race winner in Yuri Trofimov, though the Russian has only finished once in the podium here.
Ayubowan will have to rely on Jay McCarthy to somehow out-perform Bakelants and Trofimov to survive another season in PT, while Porto will trust Bruno Borges to avoid a disaster of losing the category after having a gap over 70 points to anyone else. Although they are the team that is more likely to score the least here, so they are in a big danger.
In the title battle we have Festina vs Moser; Spilak and Koreztky vs Sagan and Vakoc. 179 points is the current gap after Festina dominated in Tasmania with a 1-2 in GC. They are the favourites for the title win, but Sagan's run in the hilly classics this season can't be overlooked, and if Vakoc manages to repeat his top10 performance from last year, and Sagan can win his fourth one-day race of the season, they might turn the tables again. Remember that Spilak has never finished in the Top15 in Lombardia, so Festina might have to rely on Koretzky to give them the title, like when in 2015 he was fourth, just ahead of Sagan that day.
Outside of the title or relegation fight, there are plenty of riders that should perform well here. Skujins will try to secure the third place in the rankings for Evonik, while Aegon and Vesuvio have brought De Bie and the duo Gastauer - Andy Schleck. The Vuelta winner is one of the big ifs of the race, as it might not be montanious enough for him to be in the fight
Lutsenko, Ginanni, Kelderman and Bobridge complete the first line of top puncheurs who are in this race
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 26-04-2018 22:46
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World Champion
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Can't look past a big-name puncheur, but Beltran would be really cool, can't see him staying away even if it suits him  Really hoping for F. Schleck to do something in his last race, in the breakaway or some epic attacking/domestique work would be awesome 
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."
[PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
1x  x1
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 26-04-2018 22:57
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Team Manager
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Farewell then Frank Schleck, last main season MG race. Andy here to see him off, and the Kuroeda brothers too to really drive the theme home.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 26-04-2018 22:58
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Team Leader
Posts: 6177
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At the beginning of the month I was hopeful we could arrive here with a meaningful advantage, but that woeful result in the TTT event really put us off. Looking at the stats we're probably the least favourite team to remain above the red line. And with Lombardia being a monument, therefor heavy on the points, things look grim for us.
Anyway I guess we can hope for a life jacket performance from Borges to save us from drowning on the relegation zone. We've managed to stay clear of it for most (all?) of the season, so dropping in the very last race of the season would be especially tough.
I'm as tense as I could be. I've been refreshing the forum the whole day and we will likely be doing the same tomorrow. Thanks for the comprehensive preview Aquarius.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 27-04-2018 01:41
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Directeur Sportif
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Wild card this year. The last race for Brajkovic in lime. Farewell maestro! All in the shadow of the great big Frank Schleck however, the finale of an awesome career.
We are coming with low expectations as our main squad is in Japan. Kump and Brajkovic still made it here, planning to finish their awesome time this season with Isostar. Go lime!
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| roturn |
Posted on 27-04-2018 07:47
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Team Manager
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De Bie basically can finish from 1st to 20th here on such profile. Really don`t know if it is working out for him or not.
Would need a good result in the fight for 3rd - 5th. But should at least not end lower than that in the PT rankings.
So looking forward to this race and hope all decisions ranking wise are made on a sporty way. |
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| ember |
Posted on 27-04-2018 08:15
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This should on paper be a decent monument for Beltran, but suspecting it comes down to a rather big group, or a rather big group behind the very best, it's kind of a lottery if he does well or not. Fingers crossed he does, as it would be nice to finish the rankings in the top 10, but admittedly I kind of expect us to drop out.
Thank you for the preview, Aquarius97! This reporting this season, and also the pace of the reports, have been amazing. |
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 27-04-2018 08:21
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Tour de France Champion
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First of all my apologies for sending a talent squad to a Monument, but I had a race clash with Japan Cup and I feared I might have needed the points. Then again, how bad can my team be without Waeytens?
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| Heine |
Posted on 27-04-2018 08:26
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Dowsett to win this!
Will be interesting to see if Moser can do anything about Festina, I doubt it.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 27-04-2018 08:37
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Directeur Sportif
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No pressure. No result, probably. Would be cool if Morton shows himself at some point. But I fear we will be quite anonymous here.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 08:58
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| Shonak |
Posted on 27-04-2018 09:33
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Tour de France Champion
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Let's do this, Bakelants!
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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| SotD |
Posted on 27-04-2018 10:09
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World Champion
Posts: 12631
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Well well well. This is it. Can’t wait to see og se can pull the record or have to hand over the trophy to a good friend.
Either way, it has been a great battle!
Good luck to all who need it!
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| beagle |
Posted on 27-04-2018 13:54
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Our farewell PT race is finally here, looking forward to great and entertaining fighting for glory/surviving.
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| cio93 |
Posted on 27-04-2018 14:06
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World Champion
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Well.
Lots of small gaps around us. Lots of depth in our lineup. Lots of potential for disappointment, but I'm hopefuly we can get some riders into the top end of things and catch some teams ahead.
Kelderman should be the leader and could really use a good result to finish a sub-par season, but we have brought Herklotz, Arndt and Bongiorno for additional scoring opportunities.
In a (downhill) group sprint like last year, I hope all of them will be around and get lucky, and if it's a selective race, I hope the mountain stats will help them overperform. Just please position yourselves well.
It's all talk though until we line up at the start, and theory is worth nothing, this season even less than before. A lot depends on how much budget we get for next season, so this is immensely important.
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 27-04-2018 14:13
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4368
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Time for more nothing
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| viking90 |
Posted on 27-04-2018 14:16
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Classics Specialist
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Well, we will not end this season in great style but KHJ have surprised a few Times in the season so maybe a Top 15 by him is possible.
The relegation battle Will be interesting to follow. |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 27-04-2018 15:14
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Our last PT race for a while |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 27-04-2018 22:08
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Team Manager
Posts: 31706
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Spilak's poor results here were always an anomaly, given that it is a race where mountain stat favours, and here he finally delivers it.
Thanks for the shot of Frank Schleck. Nice to see Andy giving it a go, though a pity that Gastauer rode not at all like last season.
Now quickly plugging that result in to the rankings file...
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 27-04-2018 22:21
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World Champion
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Four riders in the main group only to have all of them sit at the back
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 27-04-2018 22:33
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Team Leader
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alexkr00 wrote:
Four riders in the main group only to have all of them sit at the back
Same here...... oh man....
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