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Tour de France Discussion
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 27-12-2014 01:45
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Yay Schleck!
Tomorrow will be interesting for the sprinters, we might see a break.
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 27-12-2014 03:35
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trekbmc wrote:
Yay Schleck!
Tomorrow will be interesting for the sprinters, we might see a break.
Doubt it. The AI is bad but not that bad.
(Suddenly remembers EPIC  )
Quick Edit: Although that was on PCM 14. Never saw something like that on 13.
Edited by Cycleman123 on 27-12-2014 03:36
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 27-12-2014 03:37
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Cycleman123 wrote:
trekbmc wrote:
Yay Schleck!
Tomorrow will be interesting for the sprinters, we might see a break.
Doubt it. The AI is bad but not that bad.
(Suddenly remembers EPIC )
Quick Edit: Although that was on PCM 14. Never saw something like that on 13.
I'll support one. 
(EPIC )
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 27-12-2014 05:02
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Well I have to go for Howard/Von Hoff
EDIT: Yeeeaaaaahhhhh
Edited by Cycleman123 on 27-12-2014 08:49
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 27-12-2014 09:03
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World Champion
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Too bad Kreder lost Sinkeldam's wheel.
Congratulations on some fantastic reports, roturn!
In the end, a decent Tour de France. It could have been better, but in the end the goal of a stage win was achieved.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 08-12-2025 01:34
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| dev4ever |
Posted on 27-12-2014 09:10
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Great victory for Schleck in the end, definitely deserved it after dominating the later mountain stages. Was actually rooting for Pluchkin, especially after a unlucky last year. Also good to see Madrazo pick up a stage at last, still a massive dissapointment for him.
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| roturn |
Posted on 27-12-2014 09:17
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Point wise my team is losing against direct opponents but Prio, Bpost. But in the end Santander did not score to much. And also Volkswagen was similar.
Will be a close fight against relegation until the end but the planning gives me some hope.
For this race Keizer fulfilled my expectations. Had some nice fights against Konig, Marquez, Monsalve, which was a nice one to follow.
And then Boom added some nice points as shared 3rd in the KoM. Could have done a bit better there but as second best helper in the mountains he had to help a lot.
Congrats to SN. What a race. Schleck probably more points than the 2nd best team in total. |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 27-12-2014 09:24
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What a dominating win by Howard. 
Congrat's to SN for Andy's incredible win, and to Roturn, for some great reports on what's possibly, the best GT, and PT race, of the season. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 27-12-2014 09:31
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Cool to see Howard (an Aussie) taking line honours on Champs! Great stuff. Only on my mobile, will leave a longer comment tomorrow
Gratz Roman for this win today! And SN for a huge victory by Schleck!
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| CountArach |
Posted on 27-12-2014 10:36
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Thanks again roturn.
Congrats to SN, that is a great win for his team.
Edited by CountArach on 27-12-2014 10:36
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| Crommy |
Posted on 27-12-2014 10:52
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Very entertaining Tour, fantastic reports from roturn, thanks very much!
From a Bouygues perspective, this has been a fantastic race. Rein completes our top 10 goal by coming 6th, and was excellent throughout, Daniel Tekelhaimanot was absolutely sensational, very active in breakaways and rewarded with that stage win. Oscar Solis was also great.
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| rycadinho |
Posted on 27-12-2014 11:03
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First of all what amazing reports Roturn, thanks!
The race had it's hights and downs, where especially Dave Z's brilliant stage win almost made it up for a slightly bad performance by Sicard. Sicard has defiantly not lived up to our expectations, though I'm confident he'll be able with the right training to reach the elite sooner or later.
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 27-12-2014 12:17
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Thanks for the reporting roturn, it was good racing, my team's dull performance notwithstanding.
Congrats to SN
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| jph27 |
Posted on 27-12-2014 12:24
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Thanks for some great reporting roturn. A great race from a neutral perspective, congratulations to SN on an incredibly impressive victory and commiserations to B&O and Festina on coming so close but just missing out in the end. |
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| Smowz |
Posted on 27-12-2014 12:47
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Certainly once again the Tour really delivers in the Mangame - we have had some great clashes over the years and this proved another very exciting and well written edition.
Possibly the most extraordinary reporting achievement was that metronomic rate of one stage a day - which made it a very easy race to follow. This always helps when a reporter reports such a race in advance which probably helped - but there is still the slight faff of posting such a thing. No lack of quality in the reporting either.
Final stage was unique in that dusky light - kind of liked it as a one off - it wasn't as if the action was that thrilling. Surprised to see Howard so dominant, would have expected Phinney to have been closer. But nice to see an actual sprinter take it and Howard is having a nice season now with a good Vuelta performance too.
Running through the GC guys then:
Schleck - simply superb, right up there with with the wins of the last couple of years from Madrazo, Cunego and Spilak. Truly epic stuff from Andy emulating his brother from six years ago. Great slow burning story this race from Schleck. His performance is likely to make him one of the big stars of the year - though like SN I don't think will cover vesuvio for the Protour team title.
Pluchkin - Hard to say this has been a bad year, Pluchkin gave Cunego a good fight in the Giro. But here he really should have won this from midway he was favourite but Pluchkin again couldn't counter Schleck and just did not have that +5 day at the right time.
Spilak - This guy just doesn' t deliever and only makes the podium due to Madrazo only waking up at the end of the race for me. Big disappointment but still solid enough points for Festina but will likely count to cost at the end of the year. Will be back next year but will he go for the tour - I would predict Giro is most likely if the route suits.
Phinney - Nice to see Phinney return to the tour and whilst the route overall was still too mountainous (lets be honest the GT's are a little too mountain based in the ManGame this year) he did get the reward with some days in yellow and good enough for Wikipedia. 2013 Giro winner will hope for nicer routes next year.
Madrazo - 3rd in Giro and 5th here but never ever even in the hunt for the yellow jersey is so disappointing. highlighted how good he can be in stage 20's strongman show. What next for the Spaniard? Will he be like Cunego and crawl back to his homeland with his tail between his legs?
Taaramae - Decent 6th place for the Estonian - though a tier behind the best despite beating Spilak at the Dauphine. Could be encouragement for Bouygues to improve this guy and may well have kept them in the big leagues.
Amador - Another disappointment when you consider Costa Rican has twice finished 6th here rode brilliantly in the early stages and badly faded at the end. UBS would have hoped for top 5 at least. Both stage racers haven't quite delivered.
Dekker - Put his nose out a bit early on with some good finishes but ultimately firmly now amongst the second tier climbers. Suffered from a strong field and now finds himself firmly down the pecking order
Sicard - The much ballyhooed Frenchman finds when he finally comes of age he still has someway to go. ING's doomed first season in the Protour is likely to have its highlights at the Tour but not really with Sicard who battled gamely but behind the 8 ball.
Intxuasti - Like Dekker now firmly in the second rung of stage racers - part of the renewed Bacardi enterprise that came here with dual leaders who just clawed on for as long as they could on most of the big stages rather than try something a bit more enterprising. Rather a shame they had a fairly non descipt tour considering the talent they bought here.
For SRB as said after stage 20 - it would have been a satisfactory tour had I managed to finish with a full complement and Bran would have snatched just a few more KoM points. Still not the worst with a stage win and a couple of podiums from a non GC team.
Many thanks roturn for this one.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 27-12-2014 15:01
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So it has ended.
Congrats SN. I'm quite happy for getting a my pre-race prediction right for once, but Schleck is obviously a rightful winner. Pluchkin would be one as well, but hey there can only be one.
This was a very exciting race. I feel fortunate to have my team taking part in this one, even though we took away very little from this participation. The TdF is always the TdF.
Big thank you for all your hard work roturn. A GT does take a lot of time to report and a lot of patience as well, so thanks for your commitment and dedication
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| Roman |
Posted on 27-12-2014 15:20
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Could be the first victory in Leigh Howard's career any better?! 
Fantastic and dominant effort by my team in the last stage, and especially Howard was so strong. To win with such a big gap, even the field of his competitors wasn't really huge, that was amazing to see. Together with a few of nice results by him earlier in the race and 20th overall place from König, it was definetely a better result for my team than I hoped for before the race. I can't wait to see where this TdF places us in current standings.
Thank you tsmoha for your congratulation, as I have to congratulate to SN, Schleck is a deserved winner. Big thanks to roturn once again as well.
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 27-12-2014 17:45
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Well said Smowz.
This Tour was definitely exceptionally done roturn, thank you for the reporting!
Congratulations to SN, Schleck's comeback was possibly one of the most impressive in man game history.
I'm happy with 7th. It looked like a top 5 was very attainable early on, but Amador simply could not pull it off. The two stage wins make up for any disappointment, however, as we are a team that does not gather many of them through the course of a season.
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 27-12-2014 17:54
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Congrats to SN, a brilliant and deserved victory for Schleck there. Thanks to roturn as well for great reports, making this a great Tour. |
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 27-12-2014 18:00
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Congrats to SN with Schleck's win.He was the strongest and even stupid time loss in stage 2,pucnture in stage to Saint-Florac,an the loss in the Les Bressuires didn't prevent hi from winning.He was the best.Oh and great reports from Roturn
The user formerly known as 'The Schleck Fan'
Gracias Alberto.
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