Welcome to the 12th edition of La Tropicale Amissa Bongo. It's transitioned from being a sprinters race to a race for time time-trial specialists. This year however we might have a hybrid of both. It's still a 5 stage event that now starts and ends with a time-trial. Both are short, starting with 4.5 km and ending with 7.8 km. The three stages in between are well known from previous editions. So sprinters seem to have a decent chance to build a gap before the final stage and those who are good on the TT bike will be even better contenders for the GC.
Time-trial/Prologue Specialists
FL
HI
TT
ST
RS
SP
AC
PR
Schomber
73
58
74
66
76
69
69
81
Kopfauf
69
67
65
67
74
74
73
81
Durbridge
72
66
80
71
72
61
62
80
Howson
71
65
80
73
74
64
68
80
Bjerg
75
68
80
73
77
68
70
79
Kmieliauskas
73
69
79
72
70
63
69
79
Cataford
74
70
79
75
75
60
69
79
Paillot
69
70
79
74
73
62
63
79
Sajnok
74
65
78
70
76
73
72
79
Hamza
74
63
76
74
73
56
68
79
Oka
73
67
74
71
72
76
76
79
Frame
71
62
69
69
74
77
76
79
Jiang
72
66
65
69
73
75
75
79
Schomber and Kopfauf are at the top when it comes to the prologue stat so they'll mainly target stage 1, but the former could potentially also do very well in the final TT. Durbridge and Howson are the best against the clock and general will try to place highly in both TTs and perhaps the overall. Oka, Frame and Jiang are all good sprinters, but since only the top 3 are awarded bonuses it might be too difficult for them to get bonus seconds from the road stages.
Sprinters
FL
HI
TT
ST
RS
SP
AC
PR
Farantakis
74
66
72
75
72
81
80
79
Zariff
70
61
60
71
67
80
80
72
Bonifazio
79
66
55
68
75
80
80
70
Kalaba
74
69
70
70
72
79
79
78
Kennett
75
65
69
73
76
79
78
78
Boudat
73
68
62
71
74
79
78
78
Adomaitis
75
67
67
66
74
79
78
75
Walscheid
73
63
62
71
74
79
79
75
Keough
72
61
57
65
71
78
77
79
Kulikovskiy
73
71
64
70
73
78
79
66
Degenkolb
70
63
61
64
62
78
72
61
Page
75
66
60
72
72
78
79
59
Scott
72
66
56
72
71
78
78
57
On to the sprinters. Farantakis is the best sprinter here and he's also awesome in short TTs. He seems to always find a way to disappoint his manager though, not this time perhaps. Zariff is also a somewhat controversial rider, but he won a very similar CT race (Uppsala) recently so it shouldn't be a surprise if he finds himself another good result. Speaking of controversial, let's complete the trifecta with Bonifazio. He should figure just as highly in the sprints, but will likely lose more time in the time-trials.
Kalaba and Kennett are slightly slower in the sprints, but both very competent against the clock. Adomaitis is just a notch below them. Boudat and Keough should do really well in the opening stage, but might lose more time on stage 5.
Didn't expect quite a strong field, but who knows what I was thinking during planning. This has to be a great race for us and hopefully one of our 4 prologue specialists can find their way to some good results. Keough needs to earn his wage and transfer fee at this race.
This was one of our less-well-planned races, but hopefully Akhmaevi and Cheung can do something GC-wise. Depth scoring would be nice but honestly, any points would be appreciated!
Last chance for the TT unit to do something this season. They've been quite good so far. Hopefully they can close it out well. Last stage race for Kulikovskiy. Hopefully he can pick up some points as well. Not quite sure what to expect with the change in the course. Should be interesting.
On paper it could be a good race for us, with Farantakis being the pre-race favorite sprinter. But this is a position he normally dislikes quite a lot, so I won’t expect anything really.
If he should make a stagewin or two second places, he could have a shot at the win, but it requires atleast one top result, aswell as him being at the top of his game in the TT’s. We have some decent timetriallists among the leadout too, so in case of a split we might have succes in Numbers.
I’ll have to expect almost nothing though, as similar races have been painful to Watch.
Good result from Howson. He did his part. Was hoping for a little better from Cataford. Time for Kuli for the next three stages, and hopefully no funny business.
Pretty anonymous stage for Duvel-Tsingtao, as expected. Hoping for some breakaway involvement as again, a really piss poor job of planning from the team director!
Going almost as well as I could've hoped so far. Great two stages by Keough and lots of GC depth even if it isn't for many points. Should be a very fun final couple of stages
An ok first stage for us. 2nd stage was a bit unlucky with the Boudat puncture that certainly cost some energy to come back. We are still in a good spot though, so I am positive for a good result overall.
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo 
