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Tour de France Discussion
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 08-02-2018 09:15
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Cruel. But even with 10 minutes down Taaramae could be strong enough for a podium in the GC imo.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 18:44
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| cio93 |
Posted on 08-02-2018 09:22
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World Champion
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Aw man.....  I'm really sorry Heine.
Personally, it was nice to see Nerz trying again already, but I have to assume he could've won that stage and taken great KoM points had he been a recovered 80 mountain rider, so it's certainly mixed feelings.
But it was worth a shot and I hope he'll continue to heal up and do the same again. Maybe Arndt should take his role tomorrow though.
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| ember |
Posted on 08-02-2018 09:25
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Team Leader
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Ouch, that is terrible for Heine and Wiesenhof A pity to see Taaramäe miss out on the fight for yellow in such a way. Seeing the stage to come, he really needs a quick recovery. If he can start the upcoming stage not injured, he can even fight for a podium, I suspect. Though, that is a big if, and I have no clue if it's even possible in PCM?
Nothing spectacular from Guldhammer. A pity to lose valuable time to Yates, Hirt and Wellens. He really should be a better GC rider than the first two, while Wellens is another story. Looks like we'll be in the mix for a top 10 overall, but there's still a long way to go.
On another note, it's also nice to see Nesset be up there on such a stage. After all he must aim at another 26th place overall, as he was 26th in both the Giro and in the Vuelta. A treble 26th would be great fun  Though, he'll need to join the breakaway fun for that to happen, I suspect, and that case is very worrying, seeing we stayed inactive for another stage.
We really should start to join them, especially on these more difficult stages. That was the only thing I had in mind when picking the team, except for Guldhammer's overall chances, even dropping a sprinter to try to give ourselves better odds at breakaway fun. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-02-2018 09:25
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World Champion
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Yeah, OK, what to think about this...
Obviously we wanted Spilak to finish atleast 2nd on the stage. He did. So we can't be unhappy with the fact that he lost a sprint for the win.
We wanted to beat Taaramäe. We did... But definately not the way we wanted to take time from him. He barely kept up with that +5'45" group where we had both Novak and Vasyliv, so it looks like he might have lost 7-8 stats on this stage in the final. Hopefully he will bounce back. We don't want to take his position in the GC due to a crash, but seeing another difficult mountainstage tomorrow that might be the case. Fingers are crossed that he has recovered well enough to fight tomorrow.
Our attack in itself was good. It was nice to see Spilak actually attacking and also looked the strongest. Obviously pathetic to not see it through as it would have given the leaders jersey and the stage win, but being this close to Phinney is OK. We have the pressure on Phinney and this can hopefully make Spilak attack again to get a more significant time gap - instead of having a slim lead doing nothing for the remaining stages.
Other than that we have to accept that there will be no beating Moser. No matter how well we perform. It doesn't matter which riders they send to the races, they always overperforms. Sagan in the BotD early on should have switched off and lost a significant amount of time. Instead he built on the lead which will now see him as a massive favorite for the top 10 overall IMO. Also Hirt overperformed, so we might see Moser winning KOM, getting top 5 pts, and two riders in/around top 10 aswell as winning the team rankings.
So even if Spilak wins the race, we are likely to be well behind them in the final rankings after this race, while we (on paper) should have put them behind. Can't do anything about that.
It sucks to see riders like Kirsch abandoning, Dekker, Taaramäe, Nerz, Tenorio and Brambilla already quite some behind due to crashing. It makes the GT's even more risky now with the lesser racedays for GC riders, and this season have definately proved that a GT is a HUGE gamble! Iberia will definately relegate because of it. If Taaramäe is injured, the same could apply for Wiesenhof.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 08-02-2018 09:31
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World Champion
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SotD wrote:
It makes the GT's even more risky now with the lesser racedays for GC riders, and this season have definately proved that a GT is a HUGE gamble!
Yeah, while I don't question the change in general just yet, I do feel relieved I decided against any for Herklotz this season. We've again been hit twice this stage as well.
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-02-2018 09:52
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World Champion
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cio93 wrote:
SotD wrote:
It makes the GT's even more risky now with the lesser racedays for GC riders, and this season have definately proved that a GT is a HUGE gamble!
Yeah, while I don't question the change in general just yet, I do feel relieved I decided against any for Herklotz this season. We've again been hit twice this stage as well.
Yeah. I am so fortunate that I have two potential top 5 GT riders, so I can split them up, but I had the possibility of picking 2 GT's for Lecuisinier (would probably have been a wise decision looking at the Giro lineup), but I'm very happy that I didn't...
Some very very strong GC riders have crashed out of contention this season (also worse than last season I think). And it just costs quite a bit less to crash out of Paris-Nice than Tour de France.
That said, I was quite surprised not seeing Herklotz here aiming for the U25 competition 
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| Heine |
Posted on 08-02-2018 09:53
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Ok, a bit calmer now.
This sucks, ofc. Even if he is not injured 5 minutes to Spilak and 6 minutes to Phinney should be too much... BUT this is a part of the game, and it was my turn to be unlucky now. I took a risk sending him to a GT, and I would do the same again
Now we just got to see how the other stages turn out, I need him to recover to be sure of staying up in the PT, this is his last race of the season...
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-02-2018 09:57
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World Champion
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Heine wrote:
Ok, a bit calmer now.
This sucks, ofc. Even if he is not injured 5 minutes to Spilak and 6 minutes to Phinney should be too much... BUT this is a part of the game, and it was my turn to be unlucky now. I took a risk sending him to a GT, and I would do the same again
Now we just got to see how the other stages turn out, I need him to recover to be sure of staying up in the PT, this is his last race of the season...
The 5-6 minutes gap isn't worrying IMO. The risk of losing a similar amount on stage 9 is. Taaramäe without injuries should beat Spilak with 5-6 minutes. A long TT, and some very passive hilly stages are behind us, with Taaramäe even winning the one where Spilak put the hammer down. 6 minutes on Phinney should be "easily" taken in the mountains - but 7'30" might be needed.
If Taaramäe is uninjured on stage 9 and forward, I believe he will still win the race. If he is injured, however - that's a HUGE blow!
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 08-02-2018 10:01
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My respect, Sir 
We've seen crashes with bigger time losses. So yeah, there's still hope I guess. He might not been injured after all and an epic comeback looks possible indeed. S9 will already tell the next chapter. Good luck!
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| cio93 |
Posted on 08-02-2018 10:10
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SotD wrote:
That said, I was quite surprised not seeing Herklotz here aiming for the U25 competition
Well first of all, I didn't feel like gambling on Morton's and Lecuisinier's schedules. And then I didn't want Demare to be turned into a domestique by some freak AI.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 08-02-2018 10:23
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cio93 wrote:
SotD wrote:
That said, I was quite surprised not seeing Herklotz here aiming for the U25 competition
Well first of all, I didn't feel like gambling on Morton's and Lecuisinier's schedules. And then I didn't want Demare to be turned into a domestique by some freak AI.
Very wise choice imo.
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 08-02-2018 10:29
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Feeling sorry for Heine, very hard blow.
If not seriously injured will be interesting though to follow Taaramäe’s fight to get back in the race, could provide some interesting and harder mountain stages.
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| knockout |
Posted on 08-02-2018 10:48
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Grand Tour Champion
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Oh shit. The reign wasnt supposed to be over this quickly. I hope he can return from this crash without too severe consequences for the rest of the race.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Shonak |
Posted on 08-02-2018 11:04
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Oh boy, tbh a crash was the only thing that could stop Taaramae. Whilst this is always part of the game, it sucks that it happens to the big favourite and in such a crucial phase. Hope he recovers in time to bounce back. Like Sotd, I wouldn't count out Rein just yet.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 08-02-2018 11:26
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Sprinter
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What a disaster for Taaramae, feeling really sorry for Heine now. Nobody wanted to see that happen. Interesting race otherwise though.
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 08-02-2018 12:04
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God that sucks feel very sorry for you Heine.
2nd stage win is cool but just not the way you want to take it Spilak should win from here but I'm sure we can hold the jersey for a few days first |
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| Heine |
Posted on 08-02-2018 12:11
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Thanks for all the supprt guys, but as I wrote earlier. It is a part of the game. I for one wanted this crash settings (or higher...) and this time I was unlucky.
Hopefully he wont be too hurt and we can still get something out of this. I read trough some old reports a while ago and I seem to remember Cunego winning the Giro after a fall, nothing is impossible
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 08-02-2018 12:21
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Hopefully Taaramae isn't too hurt. It would be a shame if the Tour ends up being decided by who is best at staying on the bike.
Anyway it looks like Tenorio is starting to get over his injury. That could possibly be the catalust of some fun racing towards the end of the race.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 08-02-2018 13:46
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Team Manager
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Very poor from Keinath. From following the minor moves only to vanish, then materialise 3 minutes behind them and in with weaker riders and crash victims.
Not much to enjoy from Vesuvio this race, or in general with crashes dominating. An element of intrigue now with Taaramae, with the extent of injury unclear in how it played out.
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| Heine |
Posted on 09-02-2018 08:10
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Seems like Rein survived, but I really can't see any way he can win this. Crashing again today, loosing another 2:30... This seems to be a real Spilak vs Phinney now, I just hope Rein can get so much better he can get us enough points to ensure survival
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