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Great Ocean Road Classic Discussion
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 09-09-2013 19:14
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Directeur Sportif
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The Profile/
Formerly known as the "Australian Flat Classic", the organizers finally revealed the name of this new addition to the ProTour-calendar: the Great Ocean Road Classic!
The 201km flat race consists of a loop around Peterborough, following parts of the famous Great Ocean Road, which should make for both beautiful scenery but also possible crosswinds. The profile may look "tougher" than it is, actually. There's no real difficulty, so even the pure flat sprinters don't have to fear any speedbumps or slopes, that might hurt their legs.
So obviously this classic is meant to be a sprinters-festival. The finish in Warrnambool - featuring wide roads - is expected to see a peloton packed with the world's best sprinters battling for line honours, so time to have a look at the startlist and favorites!
The Startlist/
The Favorites/
Before we take a closer look at some interesting and notable questions or matchups, we want to share the list of favorites. Of course, we're only listing the best sprinters here, as this - a mass sprint - is what (most of) the managers expect or even hope for.. any exceptions? We'll find out.
| Name | FL | SP | AC |   Tom Boonen | 82 | 84 | 82 |   Daniele Bennati | 75 | 84 | 78 |   Sam Bewley | 78 | 82 | 83 |  Maxime Vantomme | 73 | 82 | 78 |   Juan Van Heerden | 73 | 82 | 73 |   Matthew Goss | 74 | 82 | 78 |   Romain Vanderbiest | 74 | 81 | 77 |  Claudio Corioni | 74 | 80 | 76 |   Maximiliano Richeze | 73 | 80 | 79 |  Kobe Vanoverschelde | 72 | 80 | 75 |  Anthony Lavoine | 73 | 80 | 78 |  Cameron Meyer | 72 | 80 | 76 |  Lars Croket | 74 | 79 | 71 |   Kristian Sobota | 72 | 78 | 78 |   Jon Aberasturi | 72 | 77 | 76 |  Adam Blythe | 76 | 76 | 73 |
Will it be.. the triple-B?/ We don't need to look at their stats, to know that it may come to a close sprint between Boonen, Bennati and Bewley! With Swift missing in the startlist, those three - with the two first in particular - should be amongst the fastest here. Kiwi Bewley ain't as outstanding as Boonen or Bennati, but he's having a great year.. Bennati needs to score big time for Puma and Boonen needs to prove that he's still the best.
Home glory for PT-crown?/ Local hero Goss is the strongest Australian sprinter featured in list of favorites and this may be the race he was waiting for. With his team Wikipedia fighting for the PT-title, it would be the perfect time to achieve such a big win! And it's a nice matchup with the other promising PT-contender lining up with an Aussie as well: Cameron Meyer will need a very good day, but Meyer beating Goss at the line would be a huge success for Koenigsegg!
'Allez les bleus' for PT-crown? Pearl Adidas just arrived in Australia with a nice points haul from Tour of Norway, keeping them in touch with the leading duo Wiki/Koenigseggs. Vanderbiest is also one of the stronger sprinters here, so any result ahead of Goss/Meyer will do for Pearl!
A wild (card) win?/ Wildcard-team Rothaus finally can rely on Vantomme this year. After his rather disappointing first season for the German squad, the Belgian found his legs and therefore he's a real threat for a good result here.
Simply - the best?/ Van Heerden showed some great positioning and timing in Simply Red Bull's first PT-season and given that he still knows which wheel to catch, he should be a Top-5 contender at least.
Mass sprint? Not in my house!/ Of course we have some teams, which may hope for a break - either early or late in the race - to survive. Most notable name may be  Burghardt: a beast on the flat, the German looks like one of the most dangerous riders for a late attack.
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| roturn |
Posted on 09-09-2013 19:31
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Team Manager
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Totally forgot I was invited here. 
Top5 would be nice but I think there are better sprinters in the PT, but maybe Vantomme can learn for next season eventually. |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 09-09-2013 19:42
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World Champion
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The obvious three B's stand out, and we could really really use a redemption by Bennati for the sub-par TdF. I wouldn't mind to have our train sprint to minor Top10 results either.
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 09-09-2013 19:44
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Team Leader
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Flat Classic was a much better name. |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 09-09-2013 19:56
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World Champion
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wackojackohighcliffe wrote:
Flat Classic was a much better name.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 08-12-2025 06:45
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| beagle |
Posted on 09-09-2013 20:17
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Grand Tour Specialist
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I´m looking forward to another "Clash of Titans" here! After abysmal Norway Tour I need strong result to grow my self-confidence 
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| ember |
Posted on 09-09-2013 20:29
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I suspect that overview over the best sprinters might give me some unjustified hope of a surprise top 10 from Vanoverschelde. I strongly doubt it, and a top 20 feels more realistic.
I'm calling Bennati for the win, just because I want to read about a thrilled and relieved cio
It will definitely be an interesting sprint, and I'm looking forward to see who proves strongest in what must be the most sprinter friendly classic this season. |
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| Levi4life |
Posted on 09-09-2013 21:09
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Looking at the team I sent, I hoping for a massive cockup from the sprinters teams and a lucky break for my own.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 09-09-2013 22:27
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As it stands I am looking at ripping up Van Heerden's contract if he does his bpnormal insane 2.5km jump. Cannot see him beating the big guns but have to believe he can go well.
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| roturn |
Posted on 11-09-2013 08:20
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Team Manager
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9th is fine for me. Even though he should have been better placed for sure...
Velits gave the team some TV appearance, which is obviously good for a wild card team.
In total not the worst performance by the team.
Congrats to Puma. Benatti with a big win for them. |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 11-09-2013 08:29
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World Champion
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16th for Trentin. That's way above my expectations for this race.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 11-09-2013 08:33
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Yep usual shyte from Van Heerden.
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| ember |
Posted on 11-09-2013 08:51
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That must have been good from Vanoverschelde. Happy with 10th, especially as he didn't figure in the picture in the sprint 
Congratulations to cio, should make him somewhat relieved thinking of fight to avoid relegation.
And thanks for the report, tsmoha. I enjoyed the tough racing early on! |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 11-09-2013 09:05
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World Champion
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And Bennatti delivers. That's good for cio. Congrat's and thanks for the report tsmoha.  |
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| Roman |
Posted on 11-09-2013 10:07
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Congrats cio, big thanks to tsmoha for the report!
5th is quite decent result with consider of that bad position of Bewley at the start of the sprint.
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| SotD |
Posted on 11-09-2013 11:47
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World Champion
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Had hoped that Lavoine could somehow sneak into the top 10, but 13th is alright. I didn't have much of a team here really, so anything will do.
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| Rin |
Posted on 11-09-2013 11:56
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Small Tour Specialist
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I often wonder about the results of my riders.
Vanaerderen overperformed by a lot and actually I had Croket up for this one for us.
I guess Ciolek would have failed badly here and thats why I haven't sent him here because it was obvious that the top guns would show up. 
 Team Bianchi - 2012 Man-Game ProContinental Tour Champions
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 11-09-2013 15:30
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Sprinter
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Well that was about what I could expect, nothing special though. Glad to see we were all over the breakaways. Thank you for the report tsmoha!
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| cio93 |
Posted on 11-09-2013 15:38
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World Champion
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Oh my god yes! 
I was incredibly worried Bennati wouldn't have anything left after the picture series didn't indicate any acceleration at first.
Well done Boonen, he was easily the fastest in the end. It's a shame there's no picture of the trains, I'd be very interested to see why he had to start from so far behind.
That said, it looks like our train was perfect.
Not really happy Gasparotto couldn't hang on to more than 15th though, and Meersman as third best finisher doesn't seem quite right. Kvist as third man in the train finishing 69th would mean he basically stood still, and Meersman as third guy would be insanely stupid...
Oh well, who cares, back to winning ways!
The gap to B&O is far more manageable now as well with only a bit more than 100 points separating us after my quick calculation.
Let's hope Pluchkin is pretty much done for the season...
Thanks for all the congrats and thanks to tsmoha for the report
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| dave92 |
Posted on 11-09-2013 18:29
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Classics Specialist
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Fantastic result for Puma, that will really put the pressure on B&O, i suspect Keinath will have a large role to play in that battle.
Goss managing 3rd here is better than I expected and should grow our small lead at the top. These last two races have convinced me that my squad has a legitimate shot at the crown, though I still believe Trofimov will come back to snatch it at the death.
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