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Giro d'Italia Discussion
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 13-02-2020 11:45
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Tour de France Champion

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1-3 for the PCT teams, well done!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 13-02-2020 11:48
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World Champion

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Crazy performances by the PCT sprinters again! If this won't make Atlantius return, nothing will.
That's obviously great news for us, with the maglia ciclamino safely on Herklotz' shoulders for at least another three days, and the sprinters mathematically being out of the equation now.
But especially Aker are really hit hard by their transfer strategy in light of the AI, that's sad to see.
eBuddy the only rival team taking decent points from this stage, I hope for a similar stage and result tomorrow.
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| knockout |
Posted on 13-02-2020 12:04
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Grand Tour Champion

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Liepins looked so strong until the very end. shame he missed the top ten so narrowly after having the right instincts during train hopping.
Love to see Valio doing so great here!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters!
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 13-02-2020 13:10
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Well, around 4 minutes to make back to 4th place, that should be the minimum goal from now to the end of the race, plus maybe a stage win
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 10:42
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| ember |
Posted on 13-02-2020 16:51
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That hurts 
As cio points out, we're really struggling seeing how much we invested in Swift and a team around him. The leadout seemed really good, but it feels like the game just doesn't want to let the leadout last long enough for the main sprinter to keep the pace all the way to the line.
This will at best be a complicated season regarding the fight to avoid relegation, and it doesn't get any better when Swift misses chances like this again and again. |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 13-02-2020 20:12
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Feeling for ember here indeed. While I also love to see Manninen performing so well, it's a shame that Swift doesn't manage to do what is expected from him.
From our point of view, it was good to see us in the break again, even though we didn't get anything out of it. But suddenly luck strikes...
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| ember |
Posted on 15-02-2020 09:37
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That's another page to our book on Swift's miseries. At least we're getting creative and trying something different this time, leaving him all by himself in the sprint 
Congratulations on a surprise win, jph!
Looking forward to see how the GC battle plays out now, and who of the top three will struggle first. |
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 15-02-2020 09:51
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So far Gaviria is the most consistent sprinter of the lot, but I'd really like that stage win.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 15-02-2020 11:16
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I've been somewhat AWOL for the past few months due to myriad real life time pressures - three months of constant uni assessments, moving between countries, and general crap time management - but I did say to Croatia I'd be back at some point soon, so may as well return on a high 
Good Giro for us so far, though I remain convinced that we're probably going to relegate again. Kemboi is punching above his weight, and if Yates can overperform once again (something around 8th-10th would be nice) then I'll be delighted. In the grand scheme of things it'll probably mean nothing other than finishing 21st instead of 22nd, and vindicating my belief that training Kemboi and Yates would be a good future investment, but I'll take any positive right now  |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 15-02-2020 12:39
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Great to see you back jph, and congrats on that win! 
More points to the lower positioned and PCT teams, would be amazing if Demare can similarly use his second tier favorite position against the big guns in the rest of the season.
Now for the first mountain stage! The cat.1 shouldn't result in any meaningful selection, and if it does, it would likely mean a reduced pace on the flat after with not enough domestiques around.
Then, that last little bump looks short enough AND close enough to the finish for the first rider to attack on it to be able to keep everyone at bay over the top and down into the finish, hard to tell where the sprint starts there.
On the other hand, the stage design screams breakaway win to me. If the break is large enough and contains some decent climbers down in the GC, there might not be enough impetus in the peloton to chase and have the bonus seconds decided by the dice roll in the end.
If this was stage 18, it would definitely go to the break, but maybe this one won't.
It might be worth giving it a shot for us to attempt to get the jersey back, but that could also backfire and help Spilak.
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| matt17br |
Posted on 15-02-2020 13:09
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Nice win to come back to jph! Obviously a quiet 2 days for us which was pretty much the best possible outcome, now looking forward to tomorrow's stage hoping to somehow cling onto the jersey. Looking like something that could favour a breakaway win indeed so that's hopefully what ends up happening
Thanks roturn!
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 16-02-2020 15:51
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Not sure why we're not joining breakaways on stages like this. Does the AI really consider Oomen that much of a contender so we all protect him?
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| ember |
Posted on 16-02-2020 16:15
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Really hoped for Lunke and/or Tvetcov to join the breakaway fun here, but it wasn't meant to be. Hopefully us chasing the breakaway early means those two will be interested at a later stage in the race.
Big win for Kolesnikov and Tinkoff, congratulations, Tinkov!
Also thank you for the report, roturn  |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 16-02-2020 16:17
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Would have liked to see us in the break, but anyway another solid ride from Nesset and Iturria. It's been really steady so far from them, so hope they can keep it up and spice it with some breakaways when we enter the mountains.
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 16-02-2020 17:36
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Wow, very pleased with the stage win, really happy that the idea behind our lineup actually works. Thank you roturn for the reports so far!
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 16-02-2020 17:56
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Air France has been completely invisible in this race so far, yet we're somehow 5th in the GC. A lot of racing still to go, though, with pretty much no expectations. |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 16-02-2020 19:36
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Thanks for pointing it out.
We make our third best climber chase early on the flat.
On a mountain stage.
Obviously, as predicted, nobody cared to chase the break after the climb, and looking at the group sprint behind we got lucky with that.
6 7 8 is good enough considering the dice roll, especially with Mager and Stüssi taking points away from Spilak. If the stage isn't about the maglia rosa, at least make it about the ciclamino.
Well, tomorrow it is then! Possibly the hardest climb of the entire race, and we have to aim to take the jersey back.
Congrats Oleg on this one.
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| matt17br |
Posted on 16-02-2020 22:46
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Well the jersey is still on Gesink's back - probably for the last day - the team was strong enough to have 6 riders in the chase at one point, and Teuns is looking like an extremely sharp domestique, so that was a very positive stage for us.
Congrats Oleg!
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| Heine |
Posted on 17-02-2020 11:40
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Quite a boring stage, but at least Henao stays in there
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| knockout |
Posted on 17-02-2020 12:03
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Really hope that the time losses everywhere for Vosekalns means that he is going to attack soon. Otherwise thats a terrible race by him
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters!
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