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Paris-Nice 2023, March 5-12

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I haven’t seen a ton of team TTs but with drafting being a solid 30% boost I can’t see how a single rider would benefit from going off the front and dropping the rest, unless I’m missing something.

How does strategy change when TT goes by 1st rider’s time vs 4th?

Also, I think this will be a battle for stage wins rather than GC because of the TTT. The 16k climb on stage 7 will be the most meaningful data point and I expect it to be raced hard.
 
I haven’t seen a ton of team TTs but with drafting being a solid 30% boost I can’t see how a single rider would benefit from going off the front and dropping the rest, unless I’m missing something.

How does strategy change when TT goes by 1st rider’s time vs 4th?

Also, I think this will be a battle for stage wins rather than GC because of the TTT. The 16k climb on stage 7 will be the most meaningful data point and I expect it to be raced hard.

I also think this is too flat to benefit reducing the team to fewer riders. If there had been some steep climbs, it could have been quite fun.

It's also way too long.
 
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I also think this is too flat to benefit reducing the team to fewer riders. If there had been some steep climbs, it could have been quite fun.

It's also way too long.
Sometimes you see people dropping very early in TTs. It's probably not all that great to keep riders around if they're considerably weaker. So this probably gives a little bit more freedom to drop your weaker riders.

For the rest, this mainly affects the final few kms, you don't need to have that 5th guy who can barely hang on and is of no use. He can just do one more turn and drop off.

That said, if you need your GC leader to finish in first, and he's actually not a great TTer, I think this isn't the greatest idea either.
 
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I wish the TTT started with a steep(ish) climb and then flat.
What does Pog/UAE do? Does he go berserk on the climb and ITT's the flat or he waits for the team?

Sadly, on this course we'd probably see a typical TTT for 30 kilometers and bit of a different strategies for the last 2.
 
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I do imagine that the teams will try to stay together for majority of the stage. Due to the rules at the finale i can imagine some tactical moves to be made. Maybe up to three best TT cyclists to finish. Will the difference be big enough to seal the deal in regards to GC? Normally it could be. But the whole point i guess is for Pogi to try to put Jonas in some difficulty on other stages. As this is where feedback is needed the most. For both. So for now i am not 100% convinced TTT will seal the GC deal.
 
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Cant wait for this one

Expect Pog to try someting to try and drop Vinge from far out on one of the stages ....

Very cold weather going to play a big part

He might even try something crazy tomorrow with 6-7 degrees of temperature but total elevation gain is probably not enough to weaken the peleton and chasing groups. His attack in the last 10-20 km is not that far fetched though.