55th Tour de l'Avenir, 17/8 - 26/8 (2.Ncup)

[greenedge]

I honestly thought that 35km stage was a time-trial...
The race seems hard, but the action is packed way too late and only has one mountain stage over 100km which seems ridiculous.

 

[Beobachter]

Re: Re:

I read some time ago that Schinnagel, leader of the german team, wants to go tor a Top 10. I can't really see it happening, but Bora seems to value him, giving him their only stagiaire spot. Could ofc be because of his background with their junior team but nontheless I keep an eye on him.

Bora's interest in him has many reasons. First of all, they need to have some German neopros. They didn't take one last year, and only Ackermann two years ago. That's not enough for a German team. Especially one that aims in finding the next German GT winner (or at least contender - which is what they are trying with Buchmann and which is why they want Schachmann in their team).
The problem is that currently no German U23 rider seems to be THE rider. But eventually you have to try to be sure (and anyways even if he's not that good, he'll still be a good teammate, doubt he can be worse than Herklotz who were yet considered as very much promising). That's what Bora does with Schinnagel, first trying him as an intern. And if he's convincing enough, as a neopro.

There were not so many possibilities for Bora anyways. Who else could have they picked up? Zimmermann is the only one of the profile I can think of. And he's too young for now.
If then you think that Schinnagel raced for Denk's youth team earlier (like Zimmermann btw) and he was racing for Tirol (a team (and region) which apparently Bora has some relationships with, at least indirectly for the time being), he was the most obvious choice for Bora.

I tend to agree. Bora’s approach is pretty simple: they want all the best young German or Austrian talents and while they don’t get all of them, they do get most of them. In any given “mini generation” of espoirs they can’t control how good the potential intake is or what they specialize in. Some two or three year periods will see a bumper crop of talents, some not so much. Bora have a lot of good German speaking riders who are 25 or so. They don’t have anything really from the circa 22-23 year old cohort because there’s been less to sign. That means that they will have a good long look at less obvious guys, just in case there’s something there that hasn’t showed up as age group wins.

It’s a good time to be a germanophone cyclist. You won’t get the same opportunities to get a pro ride as a French kid or a Belgian, but there is at least one team that will pay very close attention if you show any potential at all. And they have a good development record.

+1
I would add things are not so easy as it might look at first glance. Bora signs people they know. The young riders that are the most likely to be signed are indeed followed quite closely by Bora (either directly or indirectly), guys from the Austrian-Bavaria region get then a big advantage, because it's easier for the people at Bora to get to know the young riders and know what is their value.
Currently, it looks like if you want to get a spot at Bora, you better have to follow the path Auto Eder Bayern - Tirol Cycling. Which is perfectly fine to me since it means a better way to develop the riders!
However, it might also be harder for other "outsiders" to get in. Look at Rutsch, Rapp or Steimle, both three of them are more than decent riders, and it wouldn't be a shame if they were to become pros. But I'm afraid they won't be chosen since they're less linked to the team that Schinnagel, Zimmermann or Porzner are through Tirol and Auto Eder.

The same also works that way with Sunweb. Go to their development team as a German (or even as an Austrian, i.e. Gall) and you'll get a pretty good shot at becoming pro later with Sunweb. Excepted if you're really good, you won't be taken by Sunweb if you don't come from their farm team.

All of that to say it's not so easy to turn pro. Obviously, if one is insanely good, there will be no problem. But if one is just good, not to say average, things are much harder. Better join Tirol for sure! (or Sunweb Development is the goal of the rider)
But even that might not be enough since Bora takes few neopros

 

[DNP-Old]

Only the last two stages will be televised.

 

[jfazendeiro]

How would you order in terms of favoritism A.Vlasov, J.Almeida, S.Williams, T.Pogacar, M.Inkelaar, J.Vingegaard and M.Hirschi? What are your rankings after I.R.Sosa and B.Mcnulty?

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

How would you order in terms of favoritism A.Vlasov, J.Almeida, S.Williams, T.Pogacar, M.Inkelaar, J.Vingegaard and M.Hirschi? What are your rankings after I.R.Sosa and B.Mcnulty?

It's hard to tell. The line-up is brilliant.

We have the Top 9 riders of the Baby Giro starting this race. Plus a lot of the top riders from GP Priessnitz, Ronde de l'Isard and Valle Aosta. Plus those dark horses like Weldu. I would rate Vlasov and Pogacar a bit higher than the rest. Sosa of course will be extremely hard to beat.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

So many flat stages and such a poor sprinting field. Kanter should beat them on a regular basis with Thijssen, Dainese, Stokbro, Groves and Touzé as the only competitors.

 

[WKA311]

Re:

So many flat stages and such a poor sprinting field. Kanter should beat them on a regular basis with Thijssen, Dainese, Stokbro, Groves and Touzé as the only competitors.

That would require Kanter winning a race that is not the U23 german champs. But I agree with you, he should at least take a stage.

 

[Anderis]

Re:

So many flat stages and such a poor sprinting field. Kanter should beat them on a regular basis with Thijssen, Dainese, Stokbro, Groves and Touzé as the only competitors.

Banaszek was already in the mix last year (2nd only behind Hodeg on one of the stages) so I could see him doing well.

 

[yaco]

Kaden Groves is fast and won the last stage of Qingdao Lake.

 

[DNP-Old]

Kanter wins.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Alan Riou (France) wins stage 2 from the breakaway.

 

[DNP-Old]

Areruya is going to ride the team time trial on his own at this rate. Every rider from Rwanda but Areruya crashed yesterday, as they finished in 143rd, 152nd, 153rd, 154th and 155th position, all 15 minutes back or more. Today, one of them got dropped after 8 kilometers and has DNFed, while two others just got dropped with 160k to go.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Damien Touzé (France) wins stage 3 from a strong breakaway.

 

[DNP-Old]

Hirschi and Stannard gained five seconds on the rest of the favourites.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

Areruya is going to ride the team time trial on his own at this rate. Every rider from Rwanda but Areruya crashed yesterday, as they finished in 143rd, 152nd, 153rd, 154th and 155th position, all 15 minutes back or more. Today, one of them got dropped after 8 kilometers and has DNFed, while two others just got dropped with 160k to go.

Only 2 Rwanda riders left, Areruya and Mugisha.

 

[DNP-Old]

TTT today. It's not exactly technical (read: there's 5 turns of significance). It's nice to see them change things up every now and then, but a team time trial with country teams is something I can't follow. It's a discipline that requires practice, and most of these guys never ride with each other, only against. In addition, I just saw a video of the Colombian team training: six riders on six different bikes. The difference in materials is huge, could be a problem. Anyhow, it's here:

14H30 RWANDA
14H33 JAPON
14H36 PAYS DE LA LOIRE
14H39 AUVERGNE-RHONE-ALPES
14H42 EQUATEUR
14H45 POLOGNE
14H48 ETATS-UNIS
14H51 AUTRICHE
14H54 COLOMBIE
14H57 RUSSIE
15H00 CENTRE MONDIAL DU CYCLISME
15H03 ESPAGNE
15H06 GRANDE BRETAGNE
15H09 SLOVENIE
15H12 AUSTRALIE
15H15 BELGIQUE
15H18 ALLEMAGNE
15H21 SUISSE
15H24 LUXEMBOURG
15H27 PORTUGAL
15H30 PAYS-BAS
15H33 ITALIE
15H36 IRLANDE
15H39 NORVEGE
15H42 DANEMARK
15H45 FRANCE

 

[WKA311]

Denmark wins as expected. Belgium 2nd and Norway 3rd. Good one from the Belgians.

 

[jfazendeiro]

Favourites order after St.4:

J.W.Gregaard, J.Vingegaard
H.Vanhoucke +13s
A.Leknessund +16s
K.Inkelaar +19s
B.McNulty +24s
T.Pogacar +32s
A.Vlasov +36s
M.Hirschi +38s
R.Stannard +46s
F.Gall +51s
S.Williams +1:00
J.Almeida +1:03
I.R.Sosa, C.C.Muñoz +1:39

Edited to add H.Vanhoucke to the list.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

1 DANEMARK 22'11'49'
2 BELGIQUE 22'24''74
3 NORVEGE 22'27''37''
4 PAYS-BAS 22'30''32''
5 ITALIE 22'33''48
6 ETATS-UNIS 22'36''20''
7 FRANCE 22'39''16''
8 SLOVENIE 22'43''81
9 ALLEMAGNE 22'44'73''
10 RUSSIE 22'47''74
11 CENTRE MONDIAL DU CYCLISME 22'53''48
12 SUISSE 22'54''14
13 IRLANDE 22'56''06''
14 AUSTRALIE 22'57''39
15 AUTRICHE 23'02''59''
16 GRANDE BRETAGNE 23'11''42
17 PORTUGAL 23'14'97''
18 LUXEMBOURG 23'18'90''
19 POLOGNE 23'19''44
20 PAYS DE LA LOIRE 23'32''77
21 ESPAGNE 23'47''97''
22 COLOMBIE 23'50''31''
23 AUVERGNE-RHONE-ALPES 23'57''25
24 JAPON 24'29''00
25 EQUATEUR 24'37''51
26 RWANDA 24'42'' (non-officiel)

 

[yaco]

Australian team crashed at the first corner - Otherwise would have been in the top 5.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Wait... Colombia barely better than a 2 team Rwanda?

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

Favourites order after St.4:

J.W.Gregaard, J.Vingegaard
K.Inkelaar +19s
B.McNulty +24s
A.Leknessund +26s
T.Pogacar +32s
A.Vlasov +36s
M.Hirschi +38s
R.Stannard +46s
F.Gall +51s
S.Williams +1:00
J.Almeida +1:03
I.R.Sosa, C.C.Muñoz +1:39

I'd add Vanhoucke, 2nd with the Belgium team. He only just returned after being out for a while with anemia and the only race he's ridden between May and today is the Tour of Poland, but he could be dangerous. After all, he was the only U23 to beat Bernal on a climb in a H2H last year (1st stage of Savoie).

 

[RedheadDane]

Who has the jersey?

 

[WKA311]

Re:

Wait... Colombia barely better than a 2 team Rwanda?

Sosa is horrible on a TT bike. And with horrible I mean even compard to a Purito he is bad. He is lucky there is no ITT this year.

 

[LaFlorecita]

What is with the non-official Rwandan time? Were they just awarded a certain deficit as they were only with two? I notice they're the only ones with a time with no hundredths of a second.