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Tirreno-Adriatico Discussion
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| fjhoekie |
Posted on 29-04-2014 15:34
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Welcome to ‘La corse del due mari’, or if you’d like the race of the two seas. The Tirreno – Adriatico, as it’s officially named, has been a part of the ManGame-calendar since 2007, with only Frank Schleck winning it twice (2007 and 2012). The other winners are Michael Boogerd (2008), Danilo Di Luca (2009), Samuel Sánchez Gonzales (2010), Yuri Trofimov (2011) and last year Damiano Cunego.
This year’s route features a short prologue, 2 flat stages and 4 hilly ones, of which one will uphill, 2 after a downhill and stage 6 features a circuit in L'Aquila, with the finish shortly after a climb. So even though we won’t see any real mountains this race should be entertaining to watch.
This year the race will again have a strong field of riders, all hoping to do well. Let’s have a closer look on every single team, starting with  Lotto – Australian Post who arrive here with the defending champion Damiano Cunego. Chérel will be his most important domestique, and Burghardt and Verbist are here to gain form for the classics later this season.
 Aker – MOT brings their leader, and world champion Edvald Boasson Hagen to Italy. With Levarlet at his side, Hagen surely is one of the big favourites to take the win here.
 Vesuvio – Accumalux is here with Frank Schleck, the only rider who has won this event twice. With a strong support of Medvedev and Paterski, Frank must be considered a candidate, even when he isn’t the strongest rider around anymore.
 Italian hero Riccardo Ricco will lead Festina – Canal+. Caruso and Pichon will be his main helpers, but also Furdi should be a rider who can stay with Ricco for a long time.
 Home favourites Good Energy are here with a team full of Italians, led by Simone Ponzi. Ponzi is one of the best riders when the roads are going up, but he’s also fast. Caruso is a great domestique, and Malori should be able to ride a strong prologue.
 Pokerstars.com also have an Italian leader, Francesco Ginanni. With only Wallays as a strong helper Ginanni could get isolated easily. The team’s also bringing a very strong sprinter, John Degenkolb.
 Volkswagen – Mapei is fielding a rather young team, with veteran Filippo Pozzato leading the team. Guys like Preidler and Brenes will try help him the best way possible.
 Bouygues Telecom is led by Jan Bakelants. It’s very likely the Belgian star will have to fend for himself as he’s getting no real support at this race. But his pure quality could well save him here.
 Tejay Van Garderen has come to Italy to lead his team, Wikipedia. Travis Meyer should be a strong domestique for him, and Summerhill is here to train for his preferred races in Flanders and Northern France.
 Team BPost – Vlaanderen has given Robin van der Hugenhaben the lead over the team in this Tirreno. He has no real strong support on the hillier terrains, but Stallaert could do well in the sprints.
 Pendelton’s has also brought a strong leader here. Philippe Gilbert should do well, and with Siutsou also here the team looks strong enough to fight for a top 5.
 Team B&O may be hoping for a more selective race, as their leader Rasmus Guldhammer is an excellent climber. With Sobota and van der Lijke the team will also try to contest the sprints.
 Team Vueling Airlines is hoping their new star, Alejandro Valverde will be able to do something nice here. Sinkewitz is a great helper and the two of them should be able to do well.
 Becherovka – Kiwibank’s leader Peter Sagan isn’t the strongest rider here, but just like  Jelle Vanendert,  Anthony Roux and  Hassen Ben Nasser, he’ll be hoping for a top 10.
 Simply Red Bull simply doesn’t have a real leader on this terrain, both Prevar and Juul-Jensen should come short. Fabian Cancellara and Elia Viviani are excellent riders to have for the prologue tho.
 ING Pro Cyling and  Prio – Porto have ordered their sprinters, Kip and Avelino to come to Italy. Both should be able to do very well in the 2 flat stages.
 Tinkoff has come with no real leader. Leonid Krasnov is their hope in the sprints, but he might struggle.
 Swisscom – UBS and  Santander really have no leaders here and may ride a very anonymous race.
Also, because a bug (time gaps) occured when I was racing the race (Was upto the final stage) this race had to be re-run, and as I didn't have time to do so roturn is your reporter here. Thanks roturn! 
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game |
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| ember |
Posted on 29-04-2014 15:46
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Team Leader
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It's not the best race for Boasson Hagen, as I suspect the mo/hill-ratio won't be in his favour on stage 4 and 7, and maybe stage 6. But we really need to pick it up now, another bad race, and it's not looking good at all.
Our team should be strong enough to take care of our captain, fingers crossed!
Nice preview, fjhoekie, hopefully roturn won't bring too many surprises in the reports  |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 29-04-2014 15:49
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Team Manager
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Well, Badaling blew away my lack of expectations for Schleck this season so got to hope for a top result here again. Tirreno has been a good race in the past for him, hopefully can still be.
Realistically, a Top 5 would be a good outcome.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 29-04-2014 16:00
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Pretty hopeful I will be able to nail the opening chrono with Cancellara. Viviani actually may not be too far away with only Boom from what I can see the other top chrono man here.
Relatively few sprinters so perhaps Colbrelli can find a decent sprint finish - obviously not in same class as Avelino or Degenkolb.
Final stage looks a real beast - I think Cunego may win this really and hopefully in a less spawny way than last year. If you care to look back at my handiwork from last year
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| SotD |
Posted on 29-04-2014 16:24
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World Champion
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Decided not to play any sprinters out here, which, considering the competition was the wrong thing to do. I can only hope to be in some attacks with some of my decent hilly guys such as Caruso, Pichon or Furdi. Seems more likely that I will send riders with no chance such as Bagot, David or Le Gac though.
In the ideal world Ricco could do well, even in flat stages but there are just too many of those hilly sprinters here.
I really need a good Tirreno here, aswell as a good Paris-Nice when that get's here. The Catalunya is a shit race for us I suspect.
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| beagle |
Posted on 29-04-2014 16:31
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Really tough startlist here. Ginanni still should fight for TOP10 for sure (with sum luck maybe even TOP5), though. Cunego is the biggest favourite here, but with all EBH, Bakelandts, Ricco, Ponzi and some more strong guys presented, he could eventually fail.
Regarding to sprinters, I´m pleased with quite weak competition. Degenkolb with support of Kluge and Maaskant might bring stage win into our account. Everything less would be huge disappointment.
Manager of Polar in Man-Game
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| CountArach |
Posted on 29-04-2014 16:38
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Grand Tour Champion
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I'm going to call an upset and say that Ponzi will win this. There are a couple of great stages for him, like stage 2 and 6 and the nationality bonus won't hurt either.
Van der Hugenhaben is aiming for anywhere in the top 10 here just to keep the points ticking over. Around about 6th/7th would be a nice result. Hopefully with the really weak sprint line-ups Stallaert can manage a couple of good results too.
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| roturn |
Posted on 29-04-2014 17:20
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The triple PT header starts and as written in my HQ I have quite some expectations in those to be honest.
My team might not have the strength to top5 in any of those but different to other teams (that are fighting against relegation) I have the depth to send 3 good squads to each of them.
Here it`s the lead duo Roux in eventually the only chance on his own without LL Sanchez and Boom also in one of the few leader roles.
Also I sent all my 3 sprinters to an own race to lead. Here it`s probably my strongest with Guardini even though the sprinter stages are quite limited so it`s nice to see that just a few much better sprinters are racing here.
My GC goal can`t be very high due to the big amount of puncheurs here. So a top20-25 and top10`s in the sprint would be okay for me.
As Smowz also pointed out, the prologue is not having too many favourites, so a good result there was hoped for as well when deciding to send Boom here.
Big thanks to fjhoekie for spending quite a bit time in this race. Also Happy Birthday. 
Edited by roturn on 29-04-2014 17:24
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| cio93 |
Posted on 29-04-2014 17:24
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World Champion
Posts: 10616
Joined: 29-10-2007
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roturn wrote:
The triple PT header starts and as written in my HQ I have quite some expectations in those to be honest.
My team might not have the strength to top5 in any of those but different to other teams (that are fighting against relegation) I have the depth to send 3 good squads to each of them.
Here it`s the lead duo Roux in eventually the only chance on his own without LL Sanchez and Boom also in one of the few leader roles.
Also I sent all my 3 sprinters to an own race to lead. Here it`s probably my strongest with Guardini even though the sprinter stages are quite limited so it`s nice to see that just a few much better sprinters are racing here.
My GC goal can`t be very high due to the big amount of puncheurs here. So a top20-25 and top10`s in the sprint would be okay for me.
As Smowz also pointed out, the prologue is not having too many favourites, so a good result there was hoped for as well when deciding to send Boom here.
Big thanks to fjhoekie for spending quite a bit time in this race. Also Happy Birthday.
I expect Bongiorno to win the GC in his home race
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 09-12-2025 19:14
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| roturn |
Posted on 29-04-2014 17:31
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This would be quite funny.
But it was a good race for him. Home race and probably my best domestique even. |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 29-04-2014 17:31
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World Champion
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Hmm, Tirreno - go Vanendert?
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| Rin |
Posted on 29-04-2014 17:43
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Small Tour Specialist
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Go Damiano, please win again.
 Team Bianchi - 2012 Man-Game ProContinental Tour Champions
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| Roman |
Posted on 29-04-2014 18:10
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Breakaways are likely my only option to success here. Hopefully Sagan or Kratochvila can make a surprise result.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 29-04-2014 22:19
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Ouch. Massive puncheur-fest here. Catalunya was an obvious choice to send my hill leader so it's good to see I avoided this outrageous startlist. That said, I can only hope for a lucky breakaway or a lucky sprint.
All the ingredients are here for a great race. Ponzi to take this on home soil.
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| niconico |
Posted on 29-04-2014 22:29
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3926
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Hoping Guldhammer can benefit from his climbing abilities in some of the hilly stages and maybe do well in a select bunch sprint.
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 30-04-2014 06:35
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World Champion
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Incredible startlist.
I am rooting for Ponzi here! (and Sagan)
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| Heine |
Posted on 30-04-2014 09:07
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I really hope for a good result from Pippo here, one of the races best suited to him with his sprint/hill combo and being italian. Unfortunatly the startlist is kinda strong...
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 30-04-2014 09:58
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Damn this incredible startlist. I need to start scoring points sooner or later.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 30-04-2014 10:34
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Looks like this is going to be a great race. Fantastic startlist and rather unpredictable profiles. It's gonna be a pleasure to watch
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 30-04-2014 20:00
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Really hoping Ben Nasser can manage something here in our first ever ProTour race. A top ten or a stage top five would be great.
Should be an interesting race. EBH will be hard to stop! |
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