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Balkans International - Discussion
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 04-05-2024 04:53
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 3914
Joined: 02-11-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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 Balkans International
It is that time of year when the mangame peloton returns to the Balkans for the appropriately named Balkans International. The route winds its way south from Slovenia to Greece. As with last year the peloton will take 6 stages to do that with 5 of them rated hilly (stage 5 being for the sprinters).
This is the 6th edition of the race.  Lopez. winner of the last two editions, is back to try for the threepeat, if he succeeds he will have won half the editions of the race.
But that isn’t going to be an easy feat as last year’s 4th place  Areruya leads a strong field of competitors. A very important subtext to the race will be the battle for the Pro Tour title. Lopez can help Evonik's cause with a dominant performance but two of their competitors in that battle also have strong riders here in  Amezawa and  Valter.
Since this race has favored hybrids in recent years the favorites are selected on MT+HI greater than 154.
| Rider | FL | MT | HI | RS | SP | AC | | Lopez | 70 | 79 | 84 | 74 | 66 | 78 | | Areruya | 72 | 81 | 81 | 78 | 68 | 76 |  Gidich | 72 | 76 | 83 | 77 | 62 | 75 |  Formolo | 72 | 79 | 80 | 76 | 69 | 71 |  Buchmann | 71 | 76 | 81 | 74 | 65 | 73 | | Valter | 72 | 77 | 80 | 75 | 69 | 78 |  Olivier | 72 | 81 | 76 | 80 | 64 | 71 |  Lutsenko | 69 | 73 | 83 | 73 | 72 | 81 |  Benoot | 71 | 75 | 81 | 74 | 69 | 71 | | Sosa | 66 | 78 | 78 | 79 | 59 | 74 | | Amezawa | 68 | 79 | 77 | 78 | 68 | 75 | | Preidler | 67 | 79 | 77 | 76 | 50 | 68 |  Kinoshita | 73 | 72 | 83 | 77 | 68 | 77 |  Van Niekerk | 69 | 75 | 79 | 75 | 64 | 74 | | Van Poucke | 68 | 77 | 77 | 72 | 67 | 75 | | Blums | 72 | 77 | 77 | 73 | 64 | 70 |  Roson | 67 | 78 | 76 | 70 | 54 | 74 |
In addition to Areruya, Amezawa and Valter, Lopez will have to deal with a number of other top hybrids like Gidich, Formolo, and Buchmann. Olivier is the standard bearer for the climbers and the only traditional GC rider among the favorites. Sicard finished 3rd with a similar skill set last year.  Carapaz is the other strong climber on the start list but he is much weaker in the hills and doesn’t make our favorites list.
The more traditional puncheurs are led by Lutsenko, who finished 4th here back in 2021, and is the fastest finisher among the favorites. The punchier contenders also include Kinoshita,  Skujins and  Kelderman. The latter two don’t quite make this list but will be contenders if ability on the short climbs turns out to be important. Skujins has a tortured history with this race, he has never finished better than 16th even though he competed in the first two editions which favored the punchy riders. He did win a stage back in 2018.
Other interesting names on the startlist include Pidcock and  Calmejane. Pidcock’s focus will be support for Areruya but he is certainly capable of competing for himself on many stages and is great is a small group finish. Calmejane won the GC in 2019 after being in a successful break on stage 1, he is a tough man to drop, although his only other top finish was 29th in 2020.
There is one stage for the sprinters and given that lack of opportunities there is a respectable selection of sprinters. Banaszek is the top name. Kalaba will hope to compete in some of the hilly stages as well as the sprint stage. He won Stage 4 of this race back in 2019 when he rode for Isostar.
| Rider | FL | SP | AC | RS | | Banaszek | 74 | 79 | 81 | 73 | | Kalaba | 74 | 79 | 79 | 72 | | Contreras | 72 | 78 | 80 | 75 |  Page | 75 | 78 | 79 | 72 |  Bennett | 70 | 78 | 78 | 67 | | Van der Kooij | 73 | 78 | 77 | 74 | | Matthews | 75 | 78 | 77 | 65 |  Bogdanovics | 73 | 78 | 77 | 69 | | Zhao | 74 | 77 | 81 | 74 | | Feiereisen | 74 | 77 | 78 | 68 | | Alaphilippe | 72 | 77 | 77 | 69 |  Boivin | 72 | 77 | 77 | 67 |
Almost the maximum number of possible riders here with 24 teams and 188 riders.
Startlist
 
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| KaiserAdler |
Posted on 04-05-2024 07:16
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Domestique
Posts: 674
Joined: 13-07-2022
PCM$: 5800.00
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Let’s go Wilco!!!
Thanks for the preview UU
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 04-05-2024 08:10
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Team Manager
Posts: 6546
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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Breakaways, breakaways, breakaways, that's all we're here for. Hopefully something tangible comes from it. Thanks for the preview!
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 04-05-2024 08:21
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3219
Joined: 07-08-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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We need magic here especially considering the field.
Thanks for the preview and hopefully MAL wins this!
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 04-05-2024 09:59
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7770
Joined: 04-07-2012
PCM$: 20845.00
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Not the most ideally suited race for Kinoshita but it has to do. He comes off a good result in San Sebastian and would make our season less bleak by having a rider in the top 30 of the rankings.
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 04-05-2024 11:06
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World Champion
Posts: 13560
Joined: 05-08-2008
PCM$: 400.00
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This should be a good race for us. Formolo one of the big favorites and van der Kooij an outsider for the sprint. Interesting how Champoussin will do as well. One of the races made for his current and future abilities.
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| knockout |
Posted on 04-05-2024 11:54
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8235
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 500.00
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Huge race for us. Sponsor win goal, big rankings implications, we need this to be good..
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 05-12-2025 15:07
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| ember |
Posted on 04-05-2024 12:34
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Team Leader
Posts: 7057
Joined: 27-03-2008
PCM$: 900.00
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Monumental race for the title fight, I'd say.
I love that it looks to be between Evonik and us, as knockout is an amazing guy in this MG community. All the best for him and MAL here, though, clearly I cross my fingers we are able to limit our losses in the best way possible. I really hope we are super aggressive and try to score both stage results, but also depth points GC wise with Amezawa, Preidler, Van Poucke, Roman and Johannessen. On paper, our depth is very good here, but we need to make it count  |
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 04-05-2024 22:36
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5234
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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cunego59 wrote:
Breakaways, breakaways, breakaways, that's all we're here for. Hopefully something tangible comes from it. Thanks for the preview!
+1
Page is here for the stage 5 lottery, we have many talents - and then Masnada and Schmid. Both don't quite make the favourites list with a Mt+Hi sum of 153 and 151, but both are definitely capable riders. Not for the GC, they won't be strong enough for that. But they should be perfect for breakaways - especially Schmid with his great kick, as shown recently in San Sebastian.
The good thing is, we don't really need to score here after some great PTHC results lately - so no pressure, which could see our riders perform even better than expected. We'll see...
Really looking forward to that Lopez vs. Areruya clash - the outcome might be pretty decisive on whether we'll see these clashes more often next year or not. And it's obviously a key race for Evonik in the PT title fight.
Good luck to all, and thanks to Ulrich for preview & reports!
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| KaiserAdler |
Posted on 05-05-2024 07:20
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Domestique
Posts: 674
Joined: 13-07-2022
PCM$: 5800.00
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That wasn’t very cash money of you Wilco. Atleast he can go for a stage win now. Fingers crossed.
Congrats to the winner and thanks dor the report!
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 05-05-2024 08:30
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Team Manager
Posts: 6546
Joined: 14-09-2008
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It's been a while since Moise Mugisha has been active in a breakaway, even longer since he's been productive. He chose a very good moment to return to action. 26 points mountain points is a really good haul from one stage; if he manages to get into one or two more breakaways, I think he has a good chance to potentially even win the jersey. With Fastned and Xero looking primed to score well, that could be big for us.
Cool to see Van Niekerk in the Top 10 here, hopefully he can keep it going. Congrats to Gazelle for the stage win, and thanks for the terrific report UU, I really enjoyed that!
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 05-05-2024 09:05
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World Champion
Posts: 13560
Joined: 05-08-2008
PCM$: 400.00
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Not great, not terrible for Formolo. He looked quite invisible today so maybe he didn't have a good day so he was probably limiting his loses there. Hopefully it will be better in the coming days.
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| knockout |
Posted on 05-05-2024 09:31
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8235
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 500.00
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I was very scared for a long time here and we never looked in control. Fine result though. Didnt know what this passive Lopez was up too. Dont really know that side to him yet 
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| ember |
Posted on 05-05-2024 09:47
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Team Leader
Posts: 7057
Joined: 27-03-2008
PCM$: 900.00
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You beauty, Amezawa! Great to have him in contention for a good GC from day 1. That will be vital for us here. That judge call to give him 7 seconds, but only 4 seconds from him back to Van Niekerk feels harsh looking at the pictures, but we'll take that. Having Amezawa ride at the front of the race makes me hopeful he can continue in a similar way going forward.
Preidler also with a good day, even doing workt at the front, and then Van Poucke and Roman also finished inside two minutes of Lutsenko, which makes it a good foundation for some potential minor team placings point at the very end of the race. Though, that feels like a very long way from here, but we'll take anything we can from these days
Congratulations on the stage win, DD. MAL picking up his first podium, I'm expecting the next days to be counting days for MAL's podiums/stage wins |
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 05-05-2024 10:18
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7770
Joined: 04-07-2012
PCM$: 20845.00
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Great start for Kinoshita in one of the harder stages. That elevates my hope for a good GC
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 05-05-2024 13:03
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1120.00
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Areruya is never going to change his spots and I love him for it, though that was very worrying and could have gone so wrong. Not happy with that result going forward, but perhaps lucky to have not lost any time outside of bonuses there.
Obviously a huge race for us, rankings-wise and also a Win Goal. MAL is just too far out of reach on paper but hoping Areruya's MO can make him the 2nd man here and maybe grab a stage or two between him and Pidcock. Pidcock could really be an X-factor for the rest of our season despite no more leadership, between here and Japan he could pull in next to no points or win 4 or 5 stages. He'll surely be a great domestique and depth scorer here, but also got an eye on a couple of stages for sure if the AI breaks for us.
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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| whitejersey |
Posted on 05-05-2024 18:23
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3219
Joined: 07-08-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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Rough stage for us in terms of GC ambitions, time to chase some breaks and hopefully create a bit of havoc on sprint stages!
Thanks for the report and congrats to Gazelle. The combatants for the GC battle seem nicely laid out already and it will be great to follow!
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| tastasol |
Posted on 05-05-2024 21:30
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3030
Joined: 11-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Will be tough for us to score points here, so good to see Van Gestel get up the road and getting some KoM points. Need to create our own luck in this race, so just have to keep it up like that.
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| Fabianski |
Posted on 05-05-2024 21:55
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5234
Joined: 29-09-2018
PCM$: 185.00
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Not much to complain about, except for Masnada's poor positioning going into the final climb. Looks like he gained back a few spots, so he had some energy left - but good news nonetheless that he seems to be fighting for the GC. The final stage should be the most climber-friendly one, and hopefully he shouldn't lose any time on the next couple of stages, so a Top 15 could be on the cards.
Schmid also with a good start - joining the break would probably not have worked, but attacking later on, getting the first couple of KoM points and then lose 3 minutes looks like a good strategy for the next days. More of this, please - and maybe even a stage win could be on the cards?
Congrats to Gazelle, big result for them - and a pretty good start for MAL as well!
Thanks for the report!
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| SotD |
Posted on 06-05-2024 05:24
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World Champion
Posts: 12631
Joined: 29-11-2006
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A very welcome surprise result from Evangelos here. Vi need every bit of luck and fluke we can get in our final PT races. It will take some time for us to get back, I reckon.
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