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Pro Halstatt Classic Disucssion
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| Heine |
Posted on 10-04-2026 06:13
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KB with the report
Welcome to the 8th edition of the Pro Hallstatt Classic. A unique climbing race. It isn't just one big climb to decide the winner but rather several attempts up the same climb with repetition being the deciding factor. Maybe you could liken it to a far easier version of GP Liechtenstein. The finish comes on top of a 3 km steep hill, which is sure to test the limits of the riders, having already tackled the six previous climbs. While climbing is the main skill, a powerful final punch is also important.
(Intro shamelessly stolen from Redordead last year, just changed 7 to 8. It is my intro now!)
A race who has been both C1, HC and PTHC, but the winners list is really impressive. Twice Simon Spilak, Romain Sicard, Silvio Herklotz, Angel Madrazo and the last 2 years Daan Olivier. Historcially this has been a battle among the best climbers, how will it be this year? Last year Daan Olivier won from a group in front of Daniel Munoz and Louis Meintjes.
| Year | Name | | 2024 | Daan Olivier (Sony - Force India) | | 2023 | Daan Olivier (Fastned) | | 2022 | Angel Madrazo (Bralirwa Stevens) | | 2021 | Silvio Herklotz (Team Puma - SAP) | | 2020 | Romain Sicard (Air France - KLM) | | 2019 | Simon Spilak (Isostar - LimeBike) | | 2018 | Simon Spilak (Isostar - Slovenjie) |
| 1 | Daan Olivier | Sony - Force India | 4h31'04 | | 2 | Daniel Munoz | Euskadi-Murias | s.t. | | 3 | Louis Meintjes | Bralirwa - Cegeka | s.t. | | 4 | Suranga Ranaweera | Ekoi - Le Creuset | s.t. | | 5 | Mark Padun | Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska | s.t. | | 6 | Caio Godoy | Team UBS | s.t. | | 7 | Michal Schlegel | Tryg - Eni | s.t. | | 8 | Laurens De Plus | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | s.t. | | 9 | Juan Pedro Lopez | Newton Foundation p/b Zwift | s.t. | | 10 | Ruben Guerreiro | Team Würth MODYF | s.t. |
While this is a race mainly for the big climbers (and we have a lot of them present!) this is also a race that finishes on a steep hill where a strong finish could be important, that can be the doom of riders like  Galta,  Shikai and  Eastman. They are more pure climbers that would prefer to make this race as hard as possible! Looking at last years second place  Munoz there might be possibilities for them as they are all riders who seem to fit the race better than him! He does deserve to be mentioned though, can he surprise again?
Looking at riders who got that final push  Ardila stands out, but does he have the stamina to last this race? I doubt it and would say that  Sosa,  Jorgenson and Yates might be the biggest favorites. They have the skills to stay with the others on the longer climbs and still have the puncheur skills. They also all got the stamina needed when their legs will hurt!  Novak and  Min deserves to be mentioned here aswell as the same kind of riders that this race fits well for! The last rider who really got this Mountain and Hill combo is  Buitrago, his stamina really concern me here though.
Til now I have not even mentioned  Rodrigues, another strong climber, also  Johannessen,  Lasinis,  Faglum Karlsson,  Arensman,  Bennett and last but not least riding for the home team  Hirt deserves to be mentioned as strong climbers who can surprise if they have the right legs. I refuse to mention Pira (damn I did) as his backup stats are not strong enough for him to do anything.
A last honorable mention to a rider I really wanted to sign this off season Vasyliv who has had a great season, can his stamina once again make him overachieve?
I set Jorgenson as the biggest favorite, his combination of climbing, hill and energy stats makes him the strongest rider here in my opinion
Riders with 78 or higher mountain
| Rider | MO | MM | HI | ST | RS | AC | FG | DH |  Eastman | 81 | 76 | 70 | 75 | 74 | 68 | 72 | 65 |  Rodrigues | 81 | 77 | 73 | 73 | 75 | 72 | 70 | 68 |  Ardila | 81 | 81 | 80 | 69 | 70 | 75 | 76 | 66 |  Novak | 80 | 79 | 77 | 74 | 76 | 76 | 73 | 75 |  Johannessen | 80 | 77 | 74 | 73 | 77 | 75 | 68 | 72 | | Galta | 80 | 76 | 72 | 77 | 78 | 65 | 65 | 69 | | Pira | 80 | 76 | 71 | 68 | 71 | 69 | 68 | 63 | | Sosa | 80 | 79 | 78 | 75 | 79 | 74 | 75 | 66 |  Shikai | 80 | 75 | 70 | 73 | 75 | 66 | 58 | 68 |  Elosegui | 80 | 76 | 71 | 77 | 80 | 71 | 65 | 66 |  Lasinis | 79 | 76 | 72 | 73 | 72 | 68 | 67 | 69 |  Faglum Karlsson | 79 | 76 | 73 | 78 | 75 | 68 | 66 | 74 |  Yates | 79 | 77 | 75 | 78 | 79 | 75 | 70 | 70 |  Hirt | 79 | 76 | 72 | 74 | 76 | 73 | 72 | 65 | | Jorgenson | 79 | 78 | 77 | 79 | 78 | 71 | 65 | 69 |  Min | 79 | 78 | 76 | 75 | 77 | 66 | 69 | 69 |  Arensman | 79 | 76 | 73 | 72 | 77 | 68 | 73 | 70 |  Bennett | 79 | 77 | 74 | 72 | 71 | 70 | 53 | 61 | | Munoz | 79 | 76 | 73 | 72 | 72 | 71 | 70 | 61 |  Johannessen | 78 | 75 | 72 | 72 | 80 | 76 | 76 | 84 | | Buitrago | 78 | 77 | 76 | 70 | 74 | 80 | 76 | 67 |  Brozyna | 78 | 74 | 69 | 76 | 73 | 69 | 63 | 67 |   Natarov | 78 | 75 | 72 | 66 | 70 | 67 | 79 | 57 | | Carretero Millan | 78 | 75 | 72 | 69 | 63 | 61 | 59 | 62 | | Lunke | 78 | 75 | 72 | 76 | 74 | 65 | 68 | 69 |
Good luck and may Galta win
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 10-04-2026 07:23
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Grand Tour Champion
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Throwaway race with neither Reis nor van Niekerk selected. The former wouldn't stand a chance, the latter might have but would be quite risky planning instead of more suited races on paper. We'll see if Rubio/Vosekalns will appear on the scoresheet
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| Heine |
Posted on 10-04-2026 07:54
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This felt as a logical race for me to send Galta with only 2 RD cost for the potential score of HC classics. A bit afraid his hill might be his undoing at the end here but hopefully being one of the guys with best stamina will help a lot on a race I expect/hope will be about survival
As I wrote in the into my main favorite is Jorgenson
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 11-04-2026 22:14
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| Laurens147 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 08:16
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We brought our best climbers here, every point would be welcome 
Thanks Heine for the preview!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
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| Caspi |
Posted on 10-04-2026 09:59
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We moved Carapaz from Pro Hallstatt Classic to Tour of America in the last phase of planning, so we don't have anything close to a favorite here. That means we should aim for at least two guys in the breakaway - one of them preferably being Azman, Carpenter, or McKenna.
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 10-04-2026 13:35
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It's now or never for Novak
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| Dippofix |
Posted on 10-04-2026 13:47
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Hopefully the length of the race won't affect Santi too much, I quite like his MM/ACC combo here otherwise, despite the fierce competition. Will be between Jorgenson and Sosa for the win imo.
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 13:56
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Dippofix wrote:
Hopefully the length of the race won't affect Santi too much, I quite like his MM/ACC combo here otherwise, despite the fierce competition. Will be between Jorgenson and Sosa for the win imo.
Shouldn't be an issue i wouldn't think,
I wonder/expect the game will use MM a lot on this race and as such wouldn't be shocked is Gesbert goes very close with his HI/RES stat on the finish being used.
If like i suspect MM does play a part Ardila suddenly has a strong chance too though ST probably restricts his win possibilities as with Milan Torino. |
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| quadsas |
Posted on 10-04-2026 15:26
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spare some points for us please
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 15:56
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Classics Specialist
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Oh, we let Natarov lead this one, hopefully he can at least hold onto a decent group
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| jph27 |
Posted on 10-04-2026 19:29
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Any points from Burke here would be a bonus. Given the field I don't have particularly high expectations, so have to hope we don't lose too much ground to those of our promotion rivals who have competent climbers  |
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 11-04-2026 02:47
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Not the best sort of race for Shikai but need a performance from him!
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 11-04-2026 03:06
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The last time Yates and Sosa rode together they let the break win on a mountain stage. Hopefully this ends better.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 11-04-2026 08:48
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A solid result for us, and not too much ground lost to Lotto - MOL and Assa Abloy will realistically overtake us soon no matter what so our real fight is for 5th.
Seeing how Gesbert did I wonder if Errazkin would have been a solid choice here, but then given how his performances have been this season probably not.
Congrats to jaxika and thanks for the report kb! |
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| Heine |
Posted on 11-04-2026 09:06
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Congrats Jaxika and thanks for the report
I had a hope for a jackpot from Galta and an even better result, but with Vincent 20 as well it was a good race pprd for us with 22 pprd. Considering that it is well used race days
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 11-04-2026 10:36
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Yeah as expected nothing worth mentioning on our end. Thanks for the report kb, congrats jaxika!
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| Dippofix |
Posted on 11-04-2026 10:57
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Looked like Santi might have a shot at top 5 going into the last km, but can't be too disappointed with a top 10 in a HC race. Congrats Jaxika and thanks for the report!
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 11-04-2026 12:05
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I went back to the DB to check on Gesbert's MO stat. It's 74 for all of you who might be interested.
This being a mountainous one-day race was hoping for Rodrigues to be of some relevance, but a quiet top10 was all he could muster. Not awful given how the race turned out to be, but underwhelming nonetheless.
Congrats on the win, jaxika! Ardila feels like the guy who had the stats to take this home.
Thanks for the concise and informative report, kb!
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| Heine |
Posted on 11-04-2026 12:07
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We shouldve known when jt said it could fit Gesbert…
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| Booker |
Posted on 11-04-2026 12:09
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Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
The last time Yates and Sosa rode together they let the break win on a mountain stage. Hopefully this ends better.
I'd say it ended pretty damn well 
For us, Faglum Karlsson continues his consistency in the latter half of the season, he's been riding inspired in his leadership role and has given us a genuine contender in many of these longer races reliant on stamina. What a godsend he's been and I feel pretty vindicated having let Romo go to get him (rather than rely on the likes of Carapaz, etc. from the free agent pool).
Thanks for the preview Heine and the report kb, and congrats to jaxika, feels like MOL is starting to fire the way everyone expected now as the season is nearing conclusion.
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Pro Hallstatt Classic 
