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Tour of Northern Europe Discussion
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| cio93 |
Posted on 23-03-2018 13:53
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World Champion
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Well, 6th is our best stage result so far, so I am contractually obliged to be satisfied with it.
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| ember |
Posted on 23-03-2018 14:04
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Team Leader
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Good TT by my riders, I think, eventhough the time losses were huge. The GC looks very nice now, eventhough we're not in contention for the overall win, especially Trentin's chances look good before the hilly stage. Hopefully Kristoff dropping down to 4th in the GC means he'll be completely free on that stage, not forced to work for Kristoff.
But Kristoff definitely defended himself well in that TT, making a top 10 at the end, even after the expected time loss on the hilly stage look very doable.
Breen and Gaudin up there in the GC, inside the top 25 is a very nice bonus. Hopefully Breen can defend a decent GC, eventhough it's very close behind him, with Gaudin being one of those.
Boom must be the GC favourite now, but both Gerts and GVA must fancy their chances as well. Gerts winning would be quite sensational, eventhough he looks like a great rider for ToNE when maxed, but that's not already this season  |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 23-03-2018 16:38
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Directeur Sportif
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Had hoped for something better from Saber. But obviously he ain't amongst the best sprinters here. The hilly stage is what counts anyway. Just hoping for him to get dropped rather late into the stage. I'm rooting for a passive AI this time 
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| cio93 |
Posted on 23-03-2018 16:54
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World Champion
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Leads under the kite, gets one point out of the stage. 
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| ember |
Posted on 23-03-2018 17:37
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Congratulations, beagle! Once again a very well done leadout, timing it to perfection, where Ciolek clearly went way too early. Luckily Kristoff took Degenkolb's wheel when Breen was done and avoided the Ciolek option. Second place here is great, even beating Bewley, which is a first
Maybe he could have challenged Degenkolb even more with Trentin present in the leadout, taking over from Breen, but in the end we're lucky Trentin got the same time as the front group, seeing he got dropped. It also means we keep the GC positions to fight another day. I'm really excited for the hilly stage, eventhough it could very well be a terrible one for us, if Trentin is locked to Kristoff, but we shall see! |
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 23-03-2018 18:48
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Strong victory for Degenkolb, while Kristoff also must be happy with this result.
Avelino still looking for his legs.
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| knockout |
Posted on 23-03-2018 18:55
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8236
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Can't wait for stage 7 
Spoiler My money is on obvious gaps not being given to decide the podium
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 24-03-2018 09:00
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Boom with a stunning GC assault there and it paid off, chapeau. Bewls with an epic fight, great performance from himt oo. Loves the Vastaranta story and Bakelants doing decently. Love the podium, plus Gerts, Van Zyl, Baugnies, VDV, and Saber are all lovely top 10 riders - particularly happy for Jayco there with a nice performance from Saber. Another great report Abhi, very clear and entertaining coverage of a great stage!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
1x  x1
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 24-03-2018 09:08
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Directeur Sportif
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Boom! Disappointing for the premium puncheurs. But Boom as the GC winner (if he survives S8) makes just sense.
But boy. What's up with Saber? He's better in the hills than he did in the sprints  not sure on which drugs he is, but I will definitely take it. Now please avoid any stupid stuff on the final stage and finally would celebrate a surprisingly strong GC result after quite some bad few months since Giro/Vuelta maybe.
A pity Vanspeybrouck couldn't hold on to his GC position. But at least there's some depth with him and Feng (who did disappoint me in this S7 though).
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 24-03-2018 09:11
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Mixed feelings about this stage.
Gerts stays in 4th. I guess that's about right since there was no way he was going to overtake Bewley the way the Kiwi rode the stage. Could have been much worse if he didn't make it back to the group after he was initially dropped. So I'm happy with 4th. Next year he will be on the podium or maybe even fighting for the win.
Vermeltfoort didn't join the breakaway and that almost cost him a jersey that seemed secured. At least he gets to keep it but the climb on the final stage has suddenly become very important.
Sinkeldam crashed and lost even more spots in the GC. Even without the crash he has been rather disappointing this race except for the first hilly stage where he led out Gerts. If I think about it, he has been disappointing all season long, actually.
Van der Velde back in the top 10. It's not last year's 5th place, but it's definitely another fine fine performance by the Dutchman.
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| roturn |
Posted on 24-03-2018 09:11
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At age 32 Boom finally being in pole position in the TONE.
Come on. 1 more stage!
Having De Bie here surely was key for Boom I think. Really nice. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 12:56
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 24-03-2018 09:13
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Boom is an awesome rider, really glad that he won that, also nice to see GVA on the podium. 
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| viking90 |
Posted on 24-03-2018 09:26
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Classics Specialist
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Another bad performance by Haugaard Jensen here. We never believed we would do great results here but hoped to do a bit better then we done so far... |
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 24-03-2018 09:40
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If only Vastaranta would have raced as well in PCT as in WT races things would have looked a lot brighter for us!
Hoping for a nice battle at the single climb on the final stage. A jersey for Jukka would be very nice.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 24-03-2018 10:33
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Despite leading into this stage, it never really felt like Bewley had performed close to his best. He saved that for Stage 7, but it's not enough, with that huge performance from Boom.
Bewley will have more chances to win this race, Boom maybe not, so really great to see that he looks set to finally take that win - after previous GC finishes of 2nd, 3rd, 3rd and 4th.
Always really interesting to see who else has made it into a good GC position too, the unique race offering opportunities to different riders. Feel like Eritel's Debesay would do well here, if ever given the chance to. 2 Africans in the Top 10 this year is pretty great.
Meh stage for Gastauer today. Looked awfully like he was to pointlessly wait for Vanmarcke. He didnt in the end, but also didnt do anything aggressive either.
Thanks for the report!
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| SotD |
Posted on 24-03-2018 10:46
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Nice to see Boom finally getting that GC win (fingers crossed for nothing bad to happen).
Uninteresting to see Jacobs attack and not claim a single KOM point. That could have been a good salvation for us, but instead of climbing to 1st or 2nd, he dropped to 5th, effectively throwing away 10 points.
Really not what we need in a race where Tom David crashes out of top 5 contention, Jérémy Roy crashing out of the race from 11th in GC and Coppel fucking up getting 16th in the TT. On top of that we managed to go from 4th (10 point) to 6th (nothing) in the opening TT.
Except for the lucky David stagewin on stage 3 we have managed to fuck up everything in this race.
And meanwhile Sam Bewley get's 3rd on a difficult hilly stage easily beating the likes of Kelderman, De Bie and McCarthy.
No riders in top 50 GC for us here. What a letdown!
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 24-03-2018 11:16
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Adding my voice to the general acceptance of Boom's victory. A nice triumph by a very likable MG rider in a golden moment for him. Congrats roturn.
Crazy results though with all those puncheurs being beaten by those classic's all-rounders.
LEt's just finish this shall we?
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| knockout |
Posted on 24-03-2018 11:21
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8236
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At least the stage was selective
GVA with a bad day - with the amount of action on this stage he should have been able to drop Bewley to finish second. Boom simply was too strong.
Nice to see Bakelandts finish 2nd on the stage - at least some points for Strava.
I'm still awaiting the final stage but it's cool to see Boom in the lead right now. It is his race and he shows that once again
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| jt1109 |
Posted on 24-03-2018 11:34
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What a stage congrats Boom and Roturn amazing result!
With RBC two in the top 10 is fantastic more then I could of asked for At the start with Summerhill having an amazing stage here to hopefully finish top 5 with one stage to go and Van Zyl hanging on to the main group for 9th going into the last stage if we can hold these it's going to have been a great tour |
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| ember |
Posted on 24-03-2018 13:42
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What a ride by Boom! Congratulations, roturn And assuming nothing happens on the final stage, he'll finally claim the race that has looked perfect for him for years.
For my own team, I'm disappointed. Kristoff did okayish compared to similar riders, but especially Trentin, but also Breen was kind of a let down there. Both even dropped by the peloton/big group with Kristoff, meaning Trentin fell from a safe 8th in the GC to outside the top 10. Assume Trentin was restricted due to Kristoff's GC position, but it still doesn't make sense to see him dropped by the peloton group. Hopefully he learns from this, because we will of course be back! |
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