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Tour de France Discussion
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 00:03
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 09-04-2021 13:36
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Great preview cunego! Very much looking forward to your work on the race. The startlist here is exceptional and I'm pruetty surprised how strong it is. I think it will be very tough for Schelling to crack the top 10, but he is prone to a surprise every now and then.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 09-04-2021 16:57
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Looking forward to this one! Some strong GC contestants with strong teams behind them. A Herklotz win is very likely of course, but let's at least make him work hard for it. Hoping for fireworks in week 2 and 3. 
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| cio93 |
Posted on 09-04-2021 17:02
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World Champion
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(first of all HOLY SHIT CUNEGO <3)
This is it.
The best race in the world, finally targeted by the best rider Puma has ever had.
The math is straightforward: We need to replicate how to beat Madrazo, and we need to learn how to beat Spilak.
I start this preview by stating that we have a Top 3 goal for this Tour de France, and that is the absolute minimum I will accept regardless of circumstances.
This was a safe goal pick for its budget value, and after some shortcomings in our previous goal races, we have to achieve this.
Of course, after the win in Switzerland all eyes are on Herklotz, with most predictions naming him as the favorite.
This is a new situation going into a GT, as his Vuelta win came as a surprise to many, and last year's Giro saw the slightly favored Spilak prevail eventually.
All things considered, I cannot deny that Herklotz has the ability to win this race.
The lone ITT is short enough to see his PRL advantage over the opposition be of at least some use, the TTT is one of our strong points of the last few years, and of the 12 non-flat mass start stages, I would consider 8 to have a significant HIL impact.
Stages 3 and 8 are likely MvS material, but ideally we can bag at least one Top 3 there for bonus seconds.
Stage 11 won't see enough separation on the HC climb, and the last rise to the line is too short and flat for MO to be decisive.
Stage 13 likely sees no relevant gaps, and stage 14 is pure HIL.
The Gap stage also needs a good punch to initiate or hang on to attacks, and the finale of stage 18 is also hilly and not mountainous.
That leaves us with "just" four mountaintop finishes where Madrazo has to be kept in check, while on the other hand also being the most obvious opportunities to gap Spilak.
But to manage expectations pre-race, in the off-season my hope for 2020 was to either win Suisse or the TdF, while finishing second in the other race.
So now that Herklotz has bagged a signature win already, I just want to see him fight for the win with the same confidence that he possessed last week. If his best ends up being just not quite enough yet, that's okay.
There are many training years left. 
As we bring the same 8 riders to the Tour de France that just had an extremely productive Tour de Suisse outing, I'll just copy most of the lineup preview from that race.
Our two superdomestiques Colin Stüssi and Yuriy Vasyliv are tasked with the main protection of Herklotz in the mountains.
Both have the perfect allround skillset for GTs, with good FL, MO and TT and only their puncheur skills lacking a bit. That shouldn't come into play much though if we set the pace on the climbs ourselves as we can adjust that to our liking.
Further climbing support comes from our fan favorite Patrick Bevin, who trades a better TT for slightly weaker MO.
That's where the pure climbers end already, and I agree with knockout that it's a risk to only send three climbers alongside Herklotz.
But I do believe that a smart strategy can utilize these few pieces well enough to not have the lack of depth make a significant difference for Herklotz.
As long as there's always one of Vasyliv or Stüssi around him to protect him, that's good enough.
With the strengths Herklotz has, we don't need to form a Sky train to win this race.
We then bring our two best pure TTers in Jasha Sütterlin and Nils Politt, who are present for one stage and one stage only, but have proven themselves over the past years, and in Switzerland, to be the deciding factor in our great TTT results.
And last but not least, our two rising, more allround youngsters Filippo Ganna and Rémi Cavagna add more TT power to the lineup without sacrificing utility on hilly stages and on the early parts of mountain stages.
Furthermore, as pointed out in the preview, both are targeting the white jersey in the opening TT, one of the most prestigious results a young rider can achieve in his early years. With two riders covering that option, I'm hopeful we have good odds to achieve that against similarly strong opposition.
(thank you cunego for even giving that day 1 fight a separate preview category!)
So overall, the team is heavily geared towards the TTT, a concept that worked perfectly in the Tour de Suisse, setting Herklotz up with a nice early buffer over the rest of the favorites that he used to his advantage in the mountains.
And simply put, the logic behind this is that even with the various decisive uses domestiques can have in cycling, there's still only one single day in this race where Herklotz' finishing time is directly dependent on the abilities of his team mates.
And that's what we need to capitalize on.
Finally, looking at the opposition present.
Madrazo returns for another big battle, and certainly has come up with a plan to make up for his latest defeat.
The opening TT might favor him slightly over Herklotz, as 15km should just about make his +3TT outweigh the -1PRL. Ideally, the gap will be negligible though.
We then need to aim to nullify that gap on stage 3, and gain a slight advantage in the TTT to set us up for week 2.
In Switzerland, we managed to put over half a minute into a slightly weaker Gazelle lineup. It would be brilliant to emulate that here.
After week 1, the strategy has to be the same we utilized in the TdS: gain time in the hilly stages, and hold on in the mountains to either get s.t. or pounce late if there's energy left.
Herklotz vs. Spilak was an incredibly exciting duel last season, and I'm intrigued to see this last big battle between the two.
The old man still has an impressive punch, which will be an issue for our strategy of going for stage wins in the hilly stages to bag bonus seconds over the opposition.
And beyond that, Generali is a known TTT powerhouse and has the ability to interfere with our plan of distancing everyone relevant there.
So we need to find a way to be ahead of Spilak by the time the mountains come regardless to not give him a morale boost. Using Herklotz' PRL advantage on day 1 and keeping that gap steady throughout stages 2-9 will be crucial.
In my opinion, these are the big 3 fighting for the win.
Everyone has varying win conditions:
Madrazo has the brute MO advantage, Herklotz has the first half of the race and the hills, and Spilak has the versatility to be in the mix everywhere and surprise on a good day.
While usually, one would have to put Dombrowski and Morton up there with those three, even trying to stay unbiased I don't see any win conditions remaining for this duo.
Dombrowski has been very consistent ever since he his his prime, but he has never made that extra step through training to become complete enough to win against the best.
He can carry his weight in the mountains, but 71tt will hurt him right from day 1, and the TTT will further complicate his situation before he can make use of his skills even once.
And with all the hills on the route, that's another terrain he cannot make an impact on.
Similarly for Morton, he's currently in a position that sees him competitive in most situations, but never with the punch or the team behind him to gain time in unexpected places, with Bennelong not being the same TTT powerhouse they've become famous for anymore (or at least such a lineup not being suitable for a GT).
So looking at this summary, I reiterate there should be no discussion about our Top 3 sponsor goal being achievable, and every step of the podium is possible.
All in all, I want to end this ridiculously long post - even for the season highlight - by wishing all teams good luck in getting their fair share of results throughout the race, and I hope for an enjoyable battle for the win with our direct opposition.
May the winner be a deserved one!
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 09-04-2021 22:01
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Team Leader
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Looking forward to seeing my loanees here.
Mas in with an outside shot at the white jersey and hopefully he’ll be attacking and aggressive in the mountains. He’s got the hill stat to compete there as well.
Thomas a decent shout for the white jersey after the opening TTs. He’s got a strong team with him and hopefully he’ll be aggressive on the flat stages.
Jakobsen has also done well in other PT sprints so hopefully he puts in a shift in the flats here.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 10-04-2021 10:48
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Morton as to be expected, I guess. Solid enough.
Nice little result for O'Shea though.
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| SotD |
Posted on 10-04-2021 10:59
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World Champion
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Fucking yes! FINALLY a stagewin, and then the most important one of the entire season!
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 10-04-2021 11:16
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World Champion
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Awful start. Both Lammertink and Dombrowski way off the pace.
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 10-04-2021 11:35
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Disappointing performance there from Thomas 
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 10-04-2021 11:39
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Man, how sick is that preview. Jeez that's mindblowing!
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| cio93 |
Posted on 10-04-2021 14:12
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World Champion
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Mixed emotions after this opening time trial here, but one of them certainly prevails! 
Ganna missing out on white by an inch, plus Sütterlin's bad ride, makes for a disappointing result on the TTer side.
But Ganna on s.t. might have a chance to get the jersey at least for a day if he just finishes ahead of Tao tomorrow, and Sütterlin is in the lineup for the TTT and would've been here regardless of his own scoring potential.
And since we're here to wear yellow, not to get stage wins or any other jerseys, I'm absolutely thrilled by the ride Herklotz delivered!
I might've underestimated the PRL relevance here, or simply underestimated Silvio himself, but either way this is a brilliant start to the race.
Certainly Madrazo had a bad day and this 20-second gap isn't down to our effort alone, but nobody will remember the details down the road anyway and we happily take that gap into week 1.
There was a small hope that yellow might be possible on stage 3, but a deficit of 20 seconds to Dennis, the presumed favorite to take the jersey there if gaps are small to non-existent, means we'd need a stage win or frequent gaps to achieve that.
Regardless of that, the goal is and always has been to be the best GC favorite after the TTT, which now just requires achieving the doable task of staying within 17 seconds of Generali if stage 3 were to bring no changes.
Ideally, we can also increase the gap to Madrazo by a fair bit there, but with today going so well, that's not a necessity anymore.
Heartfelt congrats to SotD on finally getting the maximum out of Vlatos, and on possibly the most important day of the season at that!
Tomorrow's about not messing up, and ideally Ganna is tasked with protecting Herklotz in the finale as has been the case several times in the past, which would improve his position going into the sprint to be ahead of TGH on the line.
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 10-04-2021 15:42
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Sprinter
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Exciting start to the Tour, congrats SotD!
I'm very happy with Fominykh taking 2nd here. Huge overperformance and will get us a few surprise points.
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 10-04-2021 16:01
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Classics Specialist
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Bad start for Madrazo. Geoghegan Hart grabbing white is awesome though
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| knockout |
Posted on 10-04-2021 17:58
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Good stage by Chiarello which could prove useful to counter some of the time losses in the TTT. But in the end this stage doesnt have much impact on Evonik as the race starts tomorrow. Time for Van Stayen to deliver.
Congrats SotD! Huuuuuge stage win for you 
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| aidanvn13 |
Posted on 11-04-2021 07:52
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Great win for Festina! Congrats SotD. I quite like the look of the Festina squad to make quite a few stand-out opportunistic performances.
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| SotD |
Posted on 11-04-2021 09:15
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World Champion
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Thanks for all those congrats! :-)
Nizzolo just really really suck. Not a single good result all year despite very often being in that “perfect place” category. He should atleast get some points in a sprint like this.
Oh well. Vlatos with another good stage keeping the lead and supplementing with 3rd in the points which leaves him
With 132 points from the two opening stages. That is definately something!
Stage 3 is on paper a brilliant one for my team, but with the leaders jersey in House we obviously won’t be allowed to join the break despite Vlatos is going to lose a lot of time.
I guess from here on it will be a matter of waiting to see if we will be aggressive later on or not.
Congrats to Ahlstrand for a strong win!
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| ember |
Posted on 11-04-2021 09:22
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And off we are! Cool to see the big names do well on the first two stages. Vlatos with a big, big win for Festina. Congratulations, SotD!
Ahlstrand coming to life in the Tour is also very, very nice to see. Happy for our Swedish neighbours, especially as he hasn't really been on fire up to this point this season. Van Stayen in second must also be encouraging for Evonik and their quest for green.
I hope we can turn around and start attacking for breakaways starting already on stage 3. Except for Galta, we don't have the riders to do exciting things in the mountains, which made me hope that will see us up front on any of the flat and hilly stages |
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| knockout |
Posted on 11-04-2021 10:12
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Grand Tour Champion
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This might have been one of the best sprints we have seen all season long. Volvo with a perfect leadout for Ahlstrand giving him half a bike length advantage over Van Stayen who had a pretty good leadout himself while EA also got a good result from a promising looking leadout attempt. Particularly Stoltz and Dzamastagic made great turns to get Van Stayen in a great position and 2nd is a result i'm very happy about.
Stages such as the next one are very important to maximize Van Stayen scoring. To get into green we would probably need a 2nd place or a third place while outscoring Ahlstrand at the intermediate sprint. So i guess that must be the goal for tomorrow although the stage win could obviously be within reach too.
Really hope that the mur finishes wont go to the big climbers. That could really mess up the fight for green.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 11-04-2021 10:16
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Sprint unfortunately hindered by the blockage.
Jakobsen still a respectable 8th but I have to think he’d be capable of more!
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| viking90 |
Posted on 11-04-2021 10:39
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Yeah, excellent by Ahlstrand and co! Stage win goal achieved!
Congrats to SotD and the first stage!
I was a bit worried when Ahstrand sprinted for 1 pt that he would be tired in the sprint for the stage but he had top form! |
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| redordead |
Posted on 11-04-2021 13:49
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Awesome to see to young guys animating the race from the breakaway and as is pretty often now, Groselj is the last one reeled in
3rd is a nice way to start for Saber. The first week is basically our race and I hope he can go two better to grab that stage win. Because I have no idea how many of my riders will survive to the final two sprint stages in week 3.
Thanks for the report Cunego
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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