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Lesser known races 2023 edition

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Yeah De Lie was pretty much unbeatable here if he survived the long climb, definitely with Lotto still having 4 guys to support him in the end too.

Barré was really strong tho, probably strongest in the race.

I noticed Barré last year a bit in a few races and was not shocked to see him get picked up by one of the bigger French teams. He is strong but the question is if he can translate it into some results this season.
 
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Sure, it's the UCI's fault because it's a points system that's counterproductive to development of the sport. 2.1 races shouldn't be events where top level teams are scrambling for points.
But, in this case, TotalEnergies and it's incarnations usually rode in Amissa Bongo. It's just that this year the usual France Pro teams and random solid Italian team didn't go.
 
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Sure, it's the UCI's fault because it's a points system that's counterproductive to development of the sport. 2.1 races shouldn't be events where top level teams are scrambling for points.
But, in this case, TotalEnergies and it's incarnations usually rode in Amissa Bongo. It's just that this year the usual France Pro teams and random solid Italian team didn't go.

Well, but it's nice for the organizers and fans that such a team and such riders are there. I also think that it's good for other riders there to see the differences, and if they are able to compete they will get interesting for good teams very fast. So I don't really think that it's counterproductive. In my opinion it's just sad that other great teams don't participate. Total Energies are only a UCI Pro Team, not even a World Tour Team, it's completely normal that they ride .1 races. I heard no one screaming that EF (Van den Berg) won Ses Salines today or Rui Costa yesterday Calvia. In Europe it's completely normal to have great teams while being a .1 race. It shouldn't be different on other continents and the point system at least let teams think about starting there.
 
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Surprise win for Miguel Ángel Fernández in Gabon. I guess these crazy climbs were simply too hard for Tesson.

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