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Tour of Qatar - Discussion
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 02-10-2023 02:00
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Directeur Sportif
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After only a single day of fun in Tasmania the PT sprinters really get things going with the Tour of Qatar. 24 teams and 191 riders (only 1 rider short of the maximum possible) get to enjoy 5 days of ripping across desert roads in front of tens of spectators in order to savage each other in a desperate sprint. Then they will wrap things up with a 4k race of truth. Matti Mannien won the race last year. It was not a good omen for his team.
Mannien isn’t back but 2021 winner  Coquard and 2019 winner  Grosu headline the kind of deep field you would expect.
| Nat. | Name | FL | RS | SP | AC | PR |  | Coquard | 73 | 74 | 84 | 83 | 79 |  |  Ewan | 75 | 71 | 83 | 81 | 73 |  |  Gaviria | 76 | 76 | 83 | 84 | 71 |  | Grosu | 73 | 70 | 83 | 80 | 70 |  |  Van der Lijke | 73 | 71 | 82 | 79 | 68 | |  Groenewegen | 73 | 71 | 82 | 81 | 72 |  |  Ahlstrand | 73 | 72 | 82 | 81 | 71 |  |  Kragh Andersen | 77 | 74 | 81 | 77 | 75 |  |  Enger | 73 | 73 | 81 | 78 | 77 |  | Farantakis | 74 | 72 | 81 | 80 | 79 |  |  Philipsen | 74 | 70 | 81 | 80 | 67 |  |  Kanter | 75 | 73 | 81 | 80 | 68 |  |  Samolenkov | 74 | 71 | 81 | 79 | 70 |  |  Carsi | 70 | 69 | 80 | 82 | 71 |  |  Cullaigh | 74 | 70 | 80 | 81 | 67 |  |  Hsu | 75 | 70 | 80 | 79 | 69 |  |  Kemboi | 78 | 77 | 80 | 80 | 81 | |  Jakobsen | 74 | 73 | 80 | 80 | 69 |
Coquard has the highest sprint speed and is by far the best prologue rider of the top guns so he must be the favorite for this year. But Gaviria will want to impress for his new team and is a stronger rouleur than Coquard should the stages be hectic, but he will need to take a good lead into the prologue to win the race. Ewan and Grosu are a step below the top two but a step above the rest of the contenders.
Farantakis, and Kemboi are the others with a top end prologue. The former will be working the leadouts for Coquard so might not be a threat to win overall but if he can get some stage placings his strong prologue skills should put ELCO in with the chance of two high scores (the pair finished 4th and 9th last year). Kemboi is in the third tier when it comes to sprinting ability but he has a great all-around skill set and finished 2nd back in 2020, he hasn’t done as well since, but maybe this is the year that changes.
Other sprinters with superior prologue ability are Asbjorn Kragh Andersen and Enger as well as  Keough. Keough makes a big step up from racing in the CT last year and his sprint skills aren’t good enough to make the favorites list, but if can stay close his prologue is better than all the rest of the sprinters except Kemboi. And there is precedent for a Keough win, in 2020 Dan Holloway won this race after riding in CT with McCormick the year before.
Farantakis is the best of the lead out men but all the other top riders also bring a sidekick, including Bogdanovics for Gaviria, Santos for Ewan, and Van der Kooij for Grosu.
The prologue also attracts a number of pure prologue riders, they will be looking for the stage win on stage 6 and should be able to get a solid GC score and a few of them a are good enough sprinters that they might also pick up some bonus seconds. Top riders in this category include:
| Nat. | Name | FL | RS | SP | AC | PR | |  Andersen | 81 | 78 | 76 | 74 | 83 | | Chavanne | 75 | 76 | 76 | 76 | 82 | | Leung | 73 | 77 | 69 | 71 | 82 | | Ganna | 76 | 81 | 69 | 73 | 82 | |  Durbridge | 73 | 74 | 62 | 64 | 81 | |  Larsen | 77 | 73 | 77 | 76 | 80 | | Vlatos | 71 | 70 | 66 | 65 | 80 | | Howson | 71 | 74 | 64 | 68 | 80 | | Dennis | 71 | 73 | 64 | 66 | 80 | | Yatsevich | 70 | 81 | 60 | 63 | 80 | | Viennet | 72 | 75 | 55 | 64 | 80 |
Soren Kragh Andersen won the final stage last year and is the favorite to repeat. Chavanne, Leung and Ganna are his closest competitors.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 02-10-2023 02:44
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Tour de France Champion
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Well, there's a bunch of sprint stages and every sprinter is here. not much to see except may the sprint gods bless us.
Thanks for the preview!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| roturn |
Posted on 02-10-2023 07:46
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Team Manager
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No points here, still Groenewegen sees his chance to repeat what he used to do here in the past. One of the best races for him usually, so ideally he can show consistency again. The team around is decent with 1-2 sprint helpers, 3 cobble roleurs and only 2 talents. |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 02-10-2023 08:12
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Well, I don't see Silvestre doing much in this field. I'll be happy with any Top 10 result he gets, but wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't achieve anything at all. Best case is for our youngsters to show themselves, maybe Habimana can get into the break early and do something in the young riders classification through bonus seconds for a bit. Our other PT appearances should be more fruitful on paper, but still looking forward to this. Thanks for the preview!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 02-10-2023 08:36
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3030
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Larsen probably our main man here, at least if he can get a bonus second or two from the flat stages. The epilogue should at least be a good fit, but not a race with the biggest expectations from our point of view.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 06-12-2025 16:14
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| redordead |
Posted on 02-10-2023 08:54
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Team Leader
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I don't have the same expectations here that I had for Tasmania, but maybe Enger surprises in the sprints or the TTers do a bit better.
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| ember |
Posted on 02-10-2023 09:50
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Team Leader
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Last year Kragh’s epilogue was sensational, which also gave us s good GC. We’re here for the epilogue this year top, hopefully Kragh can give us the stage win! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 02-10-2023 09:50
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World Champion
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As mentioned in the preview we had a very good team result here last season, but given how Tasmania turned out for us - we are all but positive going into this race.
I fear it will be a very long season for us.
Thanks for a nice preview though! 
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 02-10-2023 09:59
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World Champion
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Please let Grosu sprint this year.
I think something happened with the flags in the second table 
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| knockout |
Posted on 02-10-2023 14:58
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Grand Tour Champion
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No big expectations. Would love to see some rouleurs action going on.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 02-10-2023 16:22
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As per usual this is our win goal, which given Kemboi's best performance here came as a wildcard is tempting fate once again
Interested to see if he gets a leadout, with Vermeersch, Dekker and Stewart here for that purpose. I suspect his failure to sprint last season was due to sending Kamberaj and PCM therefore not treating him as a sprinter, so hopefully that is avoided this time around. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 02-10-2023 19:30
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Directeur Sportif
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Just here for Durbridge to fight for stage honours and/or a GC's Top-15 eventually!
Hope to see our roleurs with some active racing, too, though.
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 02-10-2023 20:03
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Grand Tour Champion
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Let's see if Ahlstrand can do something. Hopefully we'll continue the early season form.
Thanks for the preview!
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| seancoll |
Posted on 03-10-2023 03:33
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A very interesting finish to the stage. I had Coquard as my pick and I can't figure out how he navigated the final kilometer. It felt like he had the best leadout position under the flame rouge and then couldn't do anything with it. Not sure if he jumped too early or too late, but clearly it didn't work out for him.
A great win for Grosu, especially after picking such a unique pathway to the line. I thought for sure the win would come from the opposite side of the road.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 03-10-2023 04:12
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16554
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AKA had a great position and screwed it up by going early. Just what I didn't want to happen. Damn.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| redordead |
Posted on 03-10-2023 07:29
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Team Leader
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That's a very good start by Enger. Following Gaviria's wheel was the correct decision. I can't ask for much more than 6-10th finishes, hopefully for as many bonus seconds as possible.
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 03-10-2023 08:21
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World Champion
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I was disappointed to see Grosu alone there with both Pedersen and van der Kooij being here. But it looks like the big sprinters that did try to get a train set up failed. Two of the main favorites in the first two places and the other two way down. We'll probably have a more clear image for the sprints in this edition by the end of the race.
Great to see Grosu bouncing right back with a stage win after last year's disaster.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 03-10-2023 09:47
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Team Manager
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Silvestre was well-positioned but just didn't have the legs to make anything of it. Reasonable in this field, but still somewhat disheartening. Congrats alex, nice win by Grosu!
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| roturn |
Posted on 03-10-2023 09:50
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Team Manager
Posts: 22043
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Groenewegen doing what he usually doing best. Great stage for us, unfortunate for the fun only and no points.
Coquard again not ideal here. While on paper the train looks decent it's not really working out yet while other trains have shown to work well. Very different experience with sprints so far depending what team you are. Hopefully post season it's a lot more balanced. |
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| ember |
Posted on 03-10-2023 11:06
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Team Leader
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Prasad giving it another go is positive. Interesting that he got the nod now that he's also together with Zhao and Wouters. They'll be split almost for all the rest of the season, but fun to have them together here. The reasoning being it gives us triple the chance for a fluke result from one of them 
Grosu with a very impressive win, perfect timing! Gaviria must also be happy with the start in his new home, though, surely he chases the win sooner rather than later...
Thank you for rolling out the race, UU! |
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