Lesser Known Race Results 2016

[Samamba]

Re:

I am happy for both of them! They have both been loyal to the Tour of Luxembourg for years and have animated the race in the past. I think it was last year that Greipel really impressed me when he won the last stage with a solo attack from a day-long breakaway.

2 years ago when he was still German champion.

 

[Samamba]

Gilbert wins the third stage of the Tour of Luxembourg. No surprise cause it was a perfect uphill finish for him. Lammertink was second and is the new leader.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Chicci Wins in Boucles de la moyenne (which is also Andronis first succes in a riche higher then 2.2 this year)

 

[Jancouver]

The Peace Race (U23) finish line got cobbles! looks pretty cool

https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/13385720_1235398119828495_485685631_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=MTI2NDU5NDY1ODE4OTEwNzI4Ng%3D%3D.2

 

[BalearicBeats]

Re:

Gilbert wins the third stage of the Tour of Luxembourg. No surprise cause it was a perfect uphill finish for him. Lammertink was second and is the new leader.

Lammertink is getting quite good at these hilly races! I expect him to go to LottoNL or another WT team next year!

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Groenewegen wins "de Heiste pijl" ahead of Wippert and Kruopis

 

[Scarponi]

Re:

Pourseyedi only got 3rd on the classic Mount Fuji stage, 1'10" behind the winner Oscar Pujol (who has raced for an Iranian team before), nowadays he looks like a musketeer.

Marcos Garcia got 2nd, 56" behind, some of you might remember him from his days at Caja Rural.
So 2 Spanish riders who both ride for Japanese teams beat the Iranians, that's a bit of a surprise.

is this the stage where its only a MTF without any other roads?

 

[Brullnux]

It's like a mass start MTT

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

It's like a mass start MTT

Those hill climbs with mass start are really popular in Japan, many amateur races are using the same concept, it's a rather unique thing when it comes to the Japanese cycling culture.
Yukiya Arashiro won the classic Izu circuit stage, the gc leaders arrived in the same group 8 seconds behind and Antonio Nibali slipped out of the top 10.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Meanwhile french succes in France and Luxembourg with Coquard winning in Boucles de la Moyenne outsprinting Vantomme and Anthony Turgis winning in Luxembourg. Lammertink stays in the lead in Luxembourg.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re:

Groenewegen wins "de Heiste pijl" ahead of Wippert and Kruopis

He won it on a flat tire O.O

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

It's like a mass start MTT

Those hill climbs with mass start are really popular in Japan, many amateur races are using the same concept, it's a rather unique thing when it comes to the Japanese cycling culture.
Yukiya Arashiro won the classic Izu circuit stage, the gc leaders arrived in the same group 8 seconds behind and Antonio Nibali slipped out of the top 10.

Noooo baby Squalo

 

[pablohidalgo7]

Re: Re:

Groenewegen wins "de Heiste pijl" ahead of Wippert and Kruopis

He won it on a flat tire O.O

Groenewegen is becoming better and better.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Pourseyedi only got 3rd on the classic Mount Fuji stage, 1'10" behind the winner Oscar Pujol (who has raced for an Iranian team before), nowadays he looks like a musketeer.

Marcos Garcia got 2nd, 56" behind, some of you might remember him from his days at Caja Rural.
So 2 Spanish riders who both ride for Japanese teams beat the Iranians, that's a bit of a surprise.

There's now something of a group of Spanish riders who've gone out to race in Japan following the collapse of several teams in the economic collapse. As has been mentioned, there is something of a love of these mass start hillclimb races in Japan, of which the Fuji stage in the Tour of Japan is by far the most famous, and because there's a decent following for them these riders can make decent money out of it if they're prepared to sacrifice their European ambitions (much like the JGTC has been seen as something of a motor racing retirement home for European drivers at times due to the relative isolation of the Japanese racing scene, though - off topic - it's changing following the Audi program bringing in André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, and the reintroduction of the large Japanese marques to Le Mans).

Team Ukyo have 5 Spaniards and 7 Japanese; Pujol and Benjami Prades (who never made it to the top level) are both 32 so have little anticipation of returning to the top level in Europe (and have been out there for a while so seem to like it), while Salvador Guardiola rode on some of the smaller Spanish teams before heading for Asia in his mid-20s, and Ion Aberasturi (who just won stage 1 of the Tour of Korea, which for reasons insane overlaps with the Tour of Japan this year) was left without a team after Euskaltel folded and elected to race in Japan rather than wait for the Murias team to build up in size. Rodrigo Araque is 25 and never went pro, taking his first season out there, so is likely a friend of one of the others trying his luck rather than continue indefinitely in the Spanish amateur season or retire.

Kinan have 2 Aussies (veteran journeyman David Jai Crawford and ex-FDJ and Orica man Wes Sulzberger) along with 2 Spaniards (Marcos García, a 29yo climber formerly of Xacobeo-Galicía and Caja Rural, probably best known for celebrating 4th place in the Valdezcaray MTF in the 2012 Vuelta having forgotten about the breakaway, who moved to Asia in the off-season in the hope of more racing and better money than he can get in Portugal where he was not going to get to race for himself and while prize money is lesser in a lot of Asian races, there are more of them at a decent level; the other is Ricardo García, one of the later-day Euskaltel domestiques, who went to Asia immediately after the collapse of the team when he couldn't find a top tier team).

Matrix-Powertag have 2 Spaniards in their lineup, Airan Fernández (another like Araque who never turned pro and went to Asia in his mid-20s rather than continue on as an amateur in Spain and never get to the next level up, if you're relegated to the amateur scene at 24-25 or so you'd better be spanking the field to all parts to make the step up, like Arkaitz Durán did, otherwise you're likely to stay there) and ex-Andalucía break specialist José Vicente Toribio, who's now in his fourth year in Japan.

Bridgestone-Anchor don't have any Spaniards; their extranjeros are two Frenchmen, Thomas Lebas, who was a stagiare for Cofidis several years ago but never went pro in Europe and is now in his fifth season in Japan, and ex-Cofidis man Damien Monier; both are over 30.

With regards to the Iranians being slower than they have been, it has seemed like that all year to be honest, they haven't had the same kind of domination in the races they tend to, even the ones on home terrain! Part of it I think is that the strongest groups of them are now being split across multiple teams; now it seems overall you would argue Pishgaman Yazd have a stronger overall team unit than Tabriz, but the strongest of them all being Mirsamad Pourseyedi still with Tabriz. Mizbani is now into his 40s and although last season he had a renaissance doesn't seem as strong now, while former Tabriz starlet Amir Kohladouz - age 23 - has continued to progress but moved on to Yazd, while Arvin Moazemi is improving and Rahim Emami - who was busted at the same race as Pourseyedi and made the same dramatic return at a higher level two years later, but not as strong as Mirsamad - continues to rack up results. However, they were beaten by a couple of Avanti Isowhey riders from the Aussie domestic scene, along with Paco Mancebo, in the mountain stage of the Tour of Taiwan, while out-of-town teams (from the Netherlands and even the USA!) took the first three stages of the Tour of Iran, and even on the mountain stages you had Stefan Schumacher coming 4th. It's also worth noting that the formerly dominant Tabriz team has split in two over the last two years, with the Tabriz Shahrdari Team taking most of the big names this year, and the Tabriz Petrochemical Team with a more developmental look (9 of its 13 riders are 25 and under, and its best rider is Hamid Pourhashemi); the Iranian teams had next to no results on the flatter stages of their own race!

In addition, in the Tour of Japan, the important stage for Tabriz has always been the Izu circuit; in the past they've produced gaps on Mount Fuji but then the field has been annihilated by the likes of Sohrabi and Pourseyedi the day after. Here, things stayed much closer together and it resembled a European hilly circuit race much more with small groups fighting out time gaps that seem pretty reasonable for the course rather than two or three teammates riding minutes up the road.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Gilbert wins the last stage of the Tour of Luxemburg just ahead of Lammertink. Lammertink (roompot) wins the GC.

 

[WillemS]

Re:

Gilbert wins the last stage of the Tour of Luxemburg just ahead of Lammertink. Lammertink (roompot) wins the GC.

Lammertink is outgrowing Roompot I think; he could be a decent WT-rider.

 

[TMP402]

Lovely writeup, LS.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Coquard wins Boucles de la moyenne, Scully (Drapac) the final stage.
It's his 11th victory this year! (Coquard not Scully )

 

[Christian]

Nice result also for Alex Kirsch, a young Luxembourg rider in his second year at ProConti level with Stölting. He is the same age as Bob Jungels, and they started out at Leopard Continental Team together. Of course he is far from Jungels' level, but he is an agressive rider who can get results in a variety of terrains - cobbles, sprints, uphill finishes and prologues for example. He was able to kick Turgis off the podium by winning an intermediate sprint, and finished 3rd on the uphill finish of the 2nd stage, and 6th on the uphill finish of the last stage (both won by Gilbert). This is by far his best result since turning professional last year with Cult, and I am optimistic that he has the talent and motivation to make it on ProContinental level and maybe move up to a bigger ProConti or even WT team.

http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/rider.asp?riderid=19545

 

[TMP402]

Chris Opie (ONE), wins Stage 2 Tour de Korea.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re:

Chris Opie (ONE), wins Stage 2 Tour de Korea.

And teammate Karol Domagalski wins the 3rd stage from a lone break. He was 'caught' just after the finish line.

Jon Aberasturi keeps the lead in GC.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Coquard wins Boucles de la moyenne, Scully (Drapac) the final stage.
It's his 11th victory this year! (Coquard not Scully )

Impressive in terms of bulk, but not in terms of quality. I don't just mean that they are all little races, although they are. More particularly they are all little French races and nearly all little French races of the sort that end in a sprint but only include one sprinter.

Given the glut of such races, any French sprinter who doesn't manage at least eight wins should be sold for glue. A case in point: to win his most recent sprint stage he had to defeat the mighty Maxime Vantomme.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re: Re:

Coquard wins Boucles de la moyenne, Scully (Drapac) the final stage.
It's his 11th victory this year! (Coquard not Scully )

Impressive in terms of bulk, but not in terms of quality. I don't just mean that they are all little races, although they are. More particularly they are all little French races and nearly all little French races of the sort that end in a sprint but only include one sprinter.

Given the glut of such races, any French sprinter who doesn't manage at least eight wins should be sold for glue. A case in point: to win his most recent sprint stage he had to defeat the mighty Maxime Vantomme.

I know just pointing out

 

[BalearicBeats]

Re: Re:

Coquard wins Boucles de la moyenne, Scully (Drapac) the final stage.
It's his 11th victory this year! (Coquard not Scully )

Impressive in terms of bulk, but not in terms of quality. I don't just mean that they are all little races, although they are. More particularly they are all little French races and nearly all little French races of the sort that end in a sprint but only include one sprinter.

Given the glut of such races, any French sprinter who doesn't manage at least eight wins should be sold for glue. A case in point: to win his most recent sprint stage he had to defeat the mighty Maxime Vantomme.

I am nostalgic when I remember Vantomme's Samyn sprint a few years ago though!

I'd love to see Coquard win some larger races, but his team doesn't often send him to these races it seems. I was impressed by his Brabantse Pijl and Amstel performances though, if he would be on a WT team he would be a great bet for the kind of hilly stages in GT's that Matthews has won.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Coquard wins Boucles de la moyenne, Scully (Drapac) the final stage.
It's his 11th victory this year! (Coquard not Scully )

Impressive in terms of bulk, but not in terms of quality. I don't just mean that they are all little races, although they are. More particularly they are all little French races and nearly all little French races of the sort that end in a sprint but only include one sprinter.

Given the glut of such races, any French sprinter who doesn't manage at least eight wins should be sold for glue. A case in point: to win his most recent sprint stage he had to defeat the mighty Maxime Vantomme.

You mean the legendary 2008 La Tropicale Amissa Bongo stage winner? Boy oh boy!