Men's U23 races and talents

[nTn]

João Aalmeida dominated in portugal since he was 15. He was like 2 or 3 times both TT and road champion. Maybe this year he will win both again.

 

[May0maniac]

I just realized that there's a Rcop Belarus team (they rode Toscana Terra di Ciclismo Eroica). That's probably the best team name since Vino 4ever.

 

[Groene Patraaf]

I don't think Kämna will turn out to be a GC contender in the future. His results in the hilly stages in Romandie and Catalunya are very promising, but in both races he lost a lot of time in the real mountain stages.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Nice 3rd place for Fernando Barcelo in today's stage of the Vuelta a Asturias

 

[Squire]

Re:

I don't think Kämna will turn out to be a GC contender in the future. His results in the hilly stages in Romandie and Catalunya are very promising, but in both races he lost a lot of time in the real mountain stages.

He's still really young, and could go the way of Dumoulin and potentially Dennis (and a lot of other strong time trialers who have succeded becoming GC riders in the past). Anyway, he's one immense TT talent.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

I don't think Kämna will turn out to be a GC contender in the future. His results in the hilly stages in Romandie and Catalunya are very promising, but in both races he lost a lot of time in the real mountain stages.

He's still really young, and could go the way of Dumoulin and potentially Dennis (and a lot of other strong time trialers who have succeded becoming GC riders in the past). Anyway, he's one immense TT talent.

The guy won a stage and finished 11th in the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta at the age of 18, last year was almost a lost year riding for Stölting who had to step up to pct level at their own when the co-sposor doppeed out at the last moment, but he still dominated the EC u23 ITT and finished 8th on the hardest stage of the Tour de l'Avenir.
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Tour_de_Avenir_2016_Stage_7
Give him some time and we'll se what kind of a rider he really is. Dumoulin for example was never a great climber in the U23 ranks.

 

[Samamba]

I know it's technically not a u23 race, but there was some incredible racing in the Tour de Bretagne (where Costa won last year) frome non-WT neopros and u23 guys this week. Elie Gesbert was insanely strong the last 2 stages with a stage win and a second place, just behind another neopro Andrea Vendrame. I saw good rides from Neilson Powless (who attacked a lot but failed to come close to a win), Bram Welten (who won a sprint stage against Mareczko) and Anders Skaarseth (who came 2nd in the GC - behind Dassonville - and made it 5 times into the top10), but the most remarkable u23 performance for me came from Stan Dewulf who is still only 19 years old. He finished second two times in a row, 3rd in the last stage and 3rd in the GC after an very constant performance. Dewulf came to the u23 ranks last year as one of the biggest Belgian talents, but didn't deliver till the end of last season due to a lot of bad luck. This year he was pretty good in Monts et Chateaux and the ZLM tour where he played an important role in Philipsens second place. In the Ronde van Vlaanderen he crashed and had flats at the wrong time, but this week he proved that he's definitely part of the strong Belgian 1997 generation. I look forward to see what he can do in the rest of the season and I can already predict that he's probably gonna be pro next year with Topsport Vlaanderen and if not next year, then definitely in 2019 (with Lotto Soudal).

 

[Samamba]

Robert Stannard looks pretty interesting. After looking great in L-B-L and some Italian races he won the 3th and hardest stage in the Rhone-Alpes Isere Tour today. He's only 18y old. Can someone tell me why he's riding for the Australian team while he's from New Zealand?

Edit: nvm, apparently he's both and chose to ride for Australia earlier this year cause they have better facilities.

Australia has an incredibly talented team this year. I have a feeling that they're gonna dominate Aosta this year.

 

[yaco]

Re:

Robert Stannard looks pretty interesting. After looking great in L-B-L and some Italian races he won the 3th and hardest stage in the Rhone-Alpes Isere Tour today. He's only 18y old. Can someone tell me why he's riding for the Australian team while he's from New Zealand?

Edit: nvm, apparently he's both and chose to ride for Australia earlier this year cause they have better facilities.

Australia has an incredibly talented team this year. I have a feeling that they're gonna dominate Aosta this year.

Posted in another thread it's an awesome performance for an 18 year old - Especially seeing this is an open race, rather than an under 23 race - Anyway DNF in stage 4.

 

[Samamba]

Harm Vanhoucke won the Flèche Ardennaise. Gonna be interesting to see what he and Lambrecht can do against Axeon in the Ronde de l'Isard.

EDIT: No Axeon in Isard.

 

[jeremydu41]

Who do you think are the most promising riders born in 1996-1998 in the following categories?

Climber
Climber / time trial
Time trial
Sprinter
Puncher
Classic cobblestones

For me :

Climber : Harm VanHoucke, Bjorn Lambrecht, Mark Padun, Jai Hindley
Climber / time trial : Adrien Costa, Michael Storer
Time trial : Edward Dunbar, Brandon Mcnulty, Marc Hirschi
Sprinter : Fabio Jakobsen, Kristoffer Halvorsen
Puncher : Lucas Hamilton, Pavel Sivakov
Classic cobblestones : Jasper Philipsen

 

[Samamba]

Pavel Sivakov won the first mountain stage (Hospice de France) in the Ronde de l'Isard and will probably win the GC.

2. Lambrecht 1'18
3. Cras 1'25
4. Knox 1'25
5. Vanhoucke 1'25

 

[Ricco']

Who do you think are the most promising riders born in 1996-1998 in the following categories?

Climber
Climber / time trial
Time trial
Sprinter
Puncher
Classic cobblestones

For me :

Climber : Harm VanHoucke, Bjorn Lambrecht, Mark Padun, Jai Hindley
Climber / time trial : Adrien Costa, Michael Storer
Time trial : Edward Dunbar, Brandon Mcnulty, Marc Hirschi
Sprinter : Fabio Jakobsen, Kristoffer Halvorsen
Puncher : Lucas Hamilton, Pavel Sivakov
Classic cobblestones : Jasper Philipsen

Bernal must be there.

 

[Squire]

And Gaudu, of course. Albanese in the puncher category, as well. Kämna as a time trial talent.

 

[jeremydu41]

Sorry, i would say riders are not in World Tour and Conti Pro

 

[Groene Patraaf]

Re:

Sorry, i would say riders are not in World Tour and Conti Pro

Climber / time trial : Neilson Powless

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The likes of Costa and Dunbar are givens, for sure, if we're excluding those already at the top two levels like Gaudu, Bernal and Albanese.

As well as the likes of Padun, you've got to have Fernando Barcelo in the climbing category, he's the most obvious omission. He was 3rd to Acebo behind only Quintana and Balarcón in the Vuelta a Asturias and is a beast in the amateur/U23 scene. Also Sergio Samitier, who's expected to go pro with Movistar next season and has been tearing it up in the tough Basque-Navarrese races. Jaime Castrillo is the other Lizarte escalador prospect, but I think Samitier is more ready at this point in time. He won the Subida a Gorla last year, a very important one-day mountainous race in País Vasco with an illustrious winner's list including Alberto Fernández, Santi Blanco, Sastre, Gárate, Purito, Contador, Intxausti, Amador, Land, Jesús Herrada and Fraile. Jhonatán Narvaez is a good punchy climber as well, also on Axeon-Hagens Berman like Dunbar, Costa and Powless.

Amine Ahmed Galdoune looks pretty talented as a rouleur too, lots of good results and not just at home in North Africa, he's backed them up in Italy as well, which is good. With the likes of Anass Ait el-Abdia adapting better to pro racing than his predecessors, could we see more North Africans make the step to Europe?

 

[May0maniac]

Another interesting rider from North Africa would be Zahiri Abderrahim who's also getting some decent results at Unieuro.
Speaking of Unieuro riders, João Almeida is also pretty impressive for someone who was born in 1998, he already got a few pretty good results against a decent field.

 

[yaco]

The Baby Giro from June 9 to June 15 may rival the L'Avenir as the premier stage races for the under 23's - There will be lots of talent on display.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

The Baby Giro from June 9 to June 15 may rival the L'Avenir as the premier stage races for the under 23's - There will be lots of talent on display.

Yes but also a spectacularly uneven quality of field. There will be many of the worlds best there and also many, many Italian kids who will one day make quite competent club riders. The invitation system is completely insane. The Avenir field by contrast will have a much higher minimum level but may well be missing more of the biggest talents (any of them from smaller cycling nations).

 

[Samamba]

Interesting thing about Sivakov and today's Isard stage. He was in the breakaway all day and managed to climb only 16 seconds slower than Lambrecht and 8 seconds slower than the Knox-group. It's has probably to do with the fact that BMC is the only really strong team here (still disappointed that Axeon didn't start here) and nobody was controlling the bunch, but still... a great performance from Sivakov. I don't see him losing the yellow jersey this weekend.

 

[Samamba]

Lambrecht won the 3rd stage in the Ronde de l'Isard on Plateau de Beille. Sivakov didn't lose any time and will win the GC if he doesn't have any accidents tomorrow. Lotto Soudal made a big mistake letting Sivakov go in the early break yesterday.

1- Bjorg LAMBRECHT (Lotto-Soudal U23)
2- Pavel SIVAKOV (BMC Development Team) +0'00"
3- Steff CRAS (BMC Development Team) +0'43"
4- Harm VANHOUCKE (Lotto-Soudal U23) +0'45"
5- James KNOX (Team Wiggins) +0'55"
6- Stephen WILLIAMS (SEG Racing Academy) +1'49"
7- Emiel PLANCKAERT (Lotto-Soudal U23) +2'50"
8- Rémy ROCHAS (Chambéry Cyclisme Formation) +3'17"
9- Valentin MADOUAS (UC Nantes Atlantique) +4'33"
10- Jérémy BELLICAUD (Océane Top 16) +5'04"
11- Jan MAAS (SEG Racing Academy) +5'04"
12- Juan Pedro LOPEZ (Polartec-Fundacion Contador) +5'58"
13- Simon GUGLIELMI (CR4C Roanne) +5'58"
14- Gotzon MARTIN SANZ (Fundacion Euskadi-EDP) +5'59"
15- Marlon GAILLARD (Vendée U) +6'35"

These gaps are crazy, says something about the lack of good climbers here. The race misses Axeon.

 

[Samamba]

Looks like Sivakov will get his 2nd stage win and the overall. He was impressive and definitely the strongest this week, but I don't think this means that he's suddenly one of the best climbers in the u23 ranks. I have a feeling nobody of the top 5 here will be close to the Australians, Bernal, Costa, etc. later this year.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Sivakov in beast mode today, just rode away at 50 kilometers to go and brought it home.

Young portuguese talent João Almeida won the final stage of Tour of Ukraine in Kiev.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

The Baby Giro from June 9 to June 15 may rival the L'Avenir as the premier stage races for the under 23's - There will be lots of talent on display.

The foreign teams will be...

SEG Racing
Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels
Team Wiggins
Axeon – Hagens Berman
Gazprom Rusvelo
Team Unieuro
Mitchelton Scott
BMC Development
Lotto Soudal U23
Dimension Data for Qhubeka
Cycling New Zealand
Colombia

Baby Giro shares the date with Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc (with BMC Devo, Lotto also being there). So Lotto might seperate their two top talents. They also invited Androni and Fortuneo. And those guys put the whole Iseran climb into stage 1. The Tour hasn't done it from Bourg-Saint-Maurice since 1992.