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La Tropicale Amissa Bongo discussion
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 03-01-2026 10:17
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World Champion
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There's a bit of climbing in this race, just enough to allow the organizers to award a King of the Mountains jersey, but this is mainly a race for the strong men: prologue specialists and sprinters. If you want to win this race you have to be able to combine both. Not lose much in the time - trials, but also gain bonus seconds in the sprint stages. If you are a sprinter that is not good with prologues you are doomed, but if you are good in prologues but lack the sprint, you still have a good chance of making a good GC here.
Let's have a look at the prologue specialists.  Kopfauf and  Vernon are the first ones to caught your eye, but given how stacked the startlist is in terms of prologue specialits and the unpredictibility of such short races, it's really hard to pin point of is supposed to be the big favorite here. Some of the top prologue speciliasts here also have a decent sprint, but not enough to really contest for the podium and most of them will be on lead-out duty anyway.
| Rider | FL | TT | RS | ST | SP | AC | PR | | Kopfauf | 69 | 65 | 74 | 67 | 74 | 73 | 81 | | Vernon | 75 | 79 | 77 | 73 | 76 | 71 | 80 |  Frame | 71 | 69 | 74 | 69 | 77 | 76 | 79 | | Oka | 73 | 74 | 72 | 71 | 76 | 76 | 79 |  Jiang | 72 | 65 | 73 | 69 | 75 | 75 | 79 | | Thomas | 73 | 78 | 73 | 75 | 74 | 79 | 79 |  Milan | 77 | 77 | 80 | 72 | 74 | 73 | 79 | | Bjerg | 75 | 80 | 77 | 73 | 68 | 70 | 79 |  Van Aert | 75 | 70 | 73 | 72 | 64 | 68 | 79 |  Lammertink | 74 | 80 | 76 | 70 | 63 | 68 | 79 |  Howson | 70 | 79 | 72 | 71 | 63 | 66 | 79 |  Van Moer | 76 | 79 | 78 | 76 | 58 | 65 | 79 |
Once the top dogs in PT, both Coquard and  Ewan are now riding for PCT teams and are here ready to re-enact their legendary battles from the biggest races in the World. While Ewan is a decent prologue rider, but not enough to actually pose a threat for the overall victory, Coquard definitely is strong enough in that discipline to eye the first place in the GC at the end of the race. Enger is another sprinter that has a good sprint/prologue combo, but seems to be one level bellow Coquard in both.
Boudat, Kalaba and Kennett are sprinters who can do really well in prologues, but it's very unlikely that they will be able to get into the places that give bonus seconds in the sprint stages, with Kennett most likely being on lead-out duty for Van Poppel too, who as Ewan, while not a bad prologue rider is not strong enough to really aim for a top spot in the GC here.
| Rider | FL | TT | RS | ST | SP | AC | PR | | Coquard | 72 | 64 | 72 | 69 | 83 | 81 | 78 | | Ewan | 75 | 60 | 71 | 73 | 83 | 81 | 73 | | Enger | 73 | 71 | 73 | 71 | 81 | 78 | 77 | | Van Poppel | 72 | 67 | 71 | 74 | 81 | 78 | 72 |  Abdul Halil | 70 | 60 | 68 | 71 | 81 | 79 | 66 |  Manninen | 73 | 68 | 73 | 69 | 80 | 78 | 75 |  Zariff | 70 | 60 | 67 | 71 | 80 | 80 | 72 |  Walls | 74 | 61 | 71 | 73 | 80 | 78 | 71 |  Jakobsen | 74 | 59 | 73 | 75 | 80 | 80 | 69 |  Einhorn | 74 | 62 | 71 | 71 | 80 | 78 | 64 | | Boudat | 73 | 62 | 74 | 71 | 79 | 78 | 78 | | Kalaba | 74 | 70 | 72 | 70 | 79 | 79 | 78 | | Kennett | 75 | 69 | 76 | 73 | 79 | 78 | 78 |  Van der Lijke | 70 | 63 | 66 | 68 | 79 | 74 | 65 | | Welten | 76 | 58 | 71 | 72 | 79 | 75 | 59 |
While both time-trials are rather short and will probably favor the prologue specialists, it's good to have a look at the time - trial specialists that were not part of the bunch of prologue specialists that we look at at the begining of the preview.  Powless and Conci would definitely be favoring a more mountains terrain, but their versatility could prove to be a factor even in a race like this. Speaking of versatility you can never ignore Cosnefroy when you talk about it.
| Rider | FL | TT | RS | ST | SP | AC | PR | | Powless | 72 | 80 | 74 | 76 | 65 | 71 | 78 | | Knotten | 72 | 79 | 71 | 71 | 59 | 60 | 74 | | Cosnefroy | 76 | 78 | 81 | 78 | 69 | 69 | 78 | | Conci | 71 | 78 | 75 | 76 | 63 | 68 | 77 | | Vandevelde | 75 | 78 | 74 | 72 | 62 | 65 | 78 | | Brunel | 75 | 78 | 78 | 72 | 61 | 65 | 78 | | Paillot | 68 | 78 | 71 | 72 | 61 | 61 | 78 | | Nyoni | 69 | 77 | 72 | 67 | 70 | 68 | 77 | | Cardona | 73 | 77 | 74 | 72 | 64 | 67 | 77 | | Hepburn | 69 | 77 | 74 | 71 | 64 | 66 | 77 |  Kung | 73 | 77 | 72 | 74 | 63 | 71 | 78 | | Akhmaevi | 68 | 77 | 69 | 69 | 61 | 65 | 73 | | Marryatt | 71 | 77 | 74 | 67 | 60 | 58 | 77 |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 28-01-2026 22:02
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 03-01-2026 11:10
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Grand Tour Champion
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Kalaba and Bjerg are a dangerous duo as proven by their 3-8 last season, but this year the form book seems to be thrown out of the window. Nevertheless looking forward to how they perform here.
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| Laurens147 |
Posted on 03-01-2026 11:38
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Sprinter
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Thanks alex for the preview! 
I’m curious to see how WVA will handle both TT’s. And Wouters is here for the bunch sprints. Every point is welcome!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 03-01-2026 12:11
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Grand Tour Champion
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Come on Vernon, now would be a good time to finally pick up our first win of the season... 
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| hillis91 |
Posted on 03-01-2026 12:31
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One of the races this year, were we actually have hopes. Let's get it.
Good luck everybody and thank you for the preveiw alexkr00!
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 03-01-2026 12:43
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Sprinter
Posts: 1921
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Thanks for the preview, alex!
We have a sprint outsider here with Rajovic and some GC depth options with Küng and Akhmaevi. But our real hopes are on Quispe or Katrasnik going for the KoM jersey in one of the best fitting races for such an attempt by them.
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| Heine |
Posted on 03-01-2026 17:19
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Hoping for some good results from the prolouge here, and then Thomas on the TT for a GC position. Looking forward to this!
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 03-01-2026 19:45
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Directeur Sportif
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Definitely had this race in mind when I signed Zhao but the field is scary strong and I think that 2nd IT will punish the weaker TT guys like him. Also some concern this version weights SPR over ACC in sprint positioning which in this deep field will be a real problem. All I ask is that we actually try and go in breaks if we aren't going to bother sprinting.
I think one of the TTers wins this year - all those sprinters will distribute the bonus seconds and the second TT will be enough for the IT guys to get the win.
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| sammyt93 |
Posted on 03-01-2026 20:02
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We've brought Einhorn here for the sprints, just got to hope the Prologue and Epilogue don't drop him too far out of the GC battle
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 03-01-2026 20:45
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Grand Tour Champion
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This is a really important race for our season. Coquard really could score some amazing points here and thats the goal. I'd love the GC win thanks to his strong prologue stat but I think multiple stages plus a high finish in GC should be the minimum expectation. Ewan might try to foil that plan in the sprint stages though.
Good luck everyone and thanks for the preview!
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| Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 03-01-2026 23:09
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Small Tour Specialist
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Didn’t dare to send Dainese with the amount of TT-kilometers, but lets see what Abdul Halil can do. First time he has Coutinho with him this season, so hopefully that can improve his results.
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| seancoll |
Posted on 03-01-2026 23:47
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Know that we aren't likely to get much in the sprints, but I love sending my prologue guys here and we should be able to grab at least some GC points and stage result placings if things go well.
Sadly, Ganjkhanlou probably won't even find time to sprint, so maybe we can get some guys in the break for bonus seconds or even KOM points (is there even a KOM jersey??)
Either way, some really interesting stages and a star-studded sprint field. Let's see how it all plays out
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| Caspi |
Posted on 04-01-2026 08:19
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Not sure why we didn't sign up for this race. Would have liked to see what Bissegger could manage in the GC.
Good luck to everyone, but especially Zariff who was splendid for us last season.
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| Sykkel_Freak |
Posted on 04-01-2026 10:13
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Small Tour Specialist
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4.5 km was all it took for Abdul Halil to be out of the GC. Hopefully he can grab a stage win on one of the coming stages instead!
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 04-01-2026 10:22
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Classics Specialist
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Not horrible but could have hoped for some stage scoring. Milan should be able to hold onto the white for the entire time now. Thanks for the report!
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 04-01-2026 10:36
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Grand Tour Champion
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Very good opener here! Kalaba with a shot to get up with bonus seconds, Paillot and Jiang slotting in nicely and Bjerg finally doing something he's been paid for all season long. Long may this continue!
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 04-01-2026 12:18
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Grand Tour Champion
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Great start Coquard!! Really good! Keep for stage 2!!!
Congrats minions and thanks for the report!
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| kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 04-01-2026 16:27
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Sprinter
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Congrats marco on yet another win this season! Our TTers were pretty anonymous (as expected), so let's hope Quispe gets into the break tomorrow so we finally get mentioned as well.
And thanks to alex for the report!
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| seancoll |
Posted on 04-01-2026 20:18
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Nothing really to complain about here with how strong the field is. If someone had to do extra well, Cardona would have been our pick!
Congrats Marco! Also looking great for Coquard here, let's see if enough time can be grabbed before the final stage.
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| Heine |
Posted on 05-01-2026 07:50
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Congrats Marco!
Thats just not good enough from Kopfauf...
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