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U23 races and talents

Page 24 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
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Jun 30, 2014
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About the Girobio, no Habtom on the startlist for Polartec was a bit of a surprise for me, but then I saw that he crashed in the Tour de l'Ain.
Still, this year the field isn't as strong as last year, Robert Stannard should be the favourite, right?
Tirol Cycling Team is bringing the new German climbing prospect Zimmermann.
Some random Sputnik will probably do well and I don't know who'll be the main gc guy at Hagens Berman(João Almeida?).
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
About the Girobio, no Habtom on the startlist for Polartec was a bit of a surprise for me, but then I saw that he crashed in the Tour de l'Ain.
Still, this year the field isn't as strong as last year, Robert Stannard should be the favourite, right?
Tirol Cycling Team is bringing the new German climbing prospect Zimmermann.
Some random Sputnik will probably do well and I don't know who'll be the main gc guy at Hagens Berman(João Almeida?).

I suspect the parcours will be too tough for Stannard who will end up more an Amstel Gold type rider, though he should finish top 10 and probably win a stage - It's a tough route in 2018 - Agree there seems to be a number of unknown riders who may surprise.
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
About the Girobio, no Habtom on the startlist for Polartec was a bit of a surprise for me, but then I saw that he crashed in the Tour de l'Ain.
Still, this year the field isn't as strong as last year, Robert Stannard should be the favourite, right?
Tirol Cycling Team is bringing the new German climbing prospect Zimmermann.
Some random Sputnik will probably do well and I don't know who'll be the main gc guy at Hagens Berman(João Almeida?).

Probably Almeida or Will Barta for HBA. For Russia, Cherkasov was 9th last season here, Vlasov is my preferred leader of the duo. Both should be strong, since they are already pros with Gazprom. For me, even though I agree in the pros Stannard is not a mountain goat and more a puncheur, I think he can win here
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
About the Girobio, no Habtom on the startlist for Polartec was a bit of a surprise for me, but then I saw that he crashed in the Tour de l'Ain.
Still, this year the field isn't as strong as last year, Robert Stannard should be the favourite, right?
Tirol Cycling Team is bringing the new German climbing prospect Zimmermann.
Some random Sputnik will probably do well and I don't know who'll be the main gc guy at Hagens Berman(João Almeida?).
If you'd ask me:
***: Robert Stannard, Aleksandr Vlasov, Stephen Williams
**: João Almeida, Samuele Battistella, Julian Mertens
*: Michel Ries, Mark Donovan, Nicolay Cherkasov, Marlon Gaillard, Francesco Romano

Sprints are likely between Moschetti and Cullaigh.
 
Colombia has a decent team, but nothing too shocking, most of them have next to none experience in Europe. Cristian Muñoz made some noise here last year, when he finished 4th in the last MTF several seconds behind riders like Sivakov and Hamilton. He'll probably be up there in the mountain stages, but as a talent is rather limited and is 'already' 22 years old. Luis Fernando Jimenez will be an interesting watch. No experience in Europe, but he won Colombia's biggest U23 race by putting minutes into everyone in the one and only MTF. Alejandro Osorio was once considered a pretty big talent, but vanished (for me at least) for a bit, before returning this year with some very impressive results. Wilmar Paredes is becoming a very, very good rider for Manzana, and arguably the only one who is actually making noteworthy progress, developing into something decent. Daniel Munoz I honestly know nothing about. Einer Rubio is the only one with a lot of experience in Europe, riding for the Italian team Vejus, but I haven't followed him all that much and as far as I know he's not too special either.
 
Re:

SafeBet said:
Is it too early for Bagioli?
I was surprised to not see him in the startlist.

Me too, massive talent

You can add Philipsen for the sprints too.

I like Mertens, but I think he was too far off the pace in Czech Republic, unless he was sandbagging and only racing for training. Also, with no Goossens, Vanhoucke or Vereecken, very likely to be isolated in the mountains. HBA have Barta and Almeida, Russia have Vlasov, Cherkasov, Stannard has Morey, Williams has Maas. Numbers will count here
 
Also for the record, I think a lot of us have the same sort of idea of the favourites here.

I limited my preview to 10 names but I went with:

3*: Stannard, Williams, Vlasov
2*: Battistella, Almeida, Ries
1*: Mertens, Gaillard, Barta, Donovan
 
Re: Re:

DNP-Old said:
Mayomaniac said:
About the Girobio, no Habtom on the startlist for Polartec was a bit of a surprise for me, but then I saw that he crashed in the Tour de l'Ain.
Still, this year the field isn't as strong as last year, Robert Stannard should be the favourite, right?
Tirol Cycling Team is bringing the new German climbing prospect Zimmermann.
Some random Sputnik will probably do well and I don't know who'll be the main gc guy at Hagens Berman(João Almeida?).
If you'd ask me:
***: Robert Stannard, Aleksandr Vlasov, Stephen Williams
**: João Almeida, Samuele Battistella, Julian Mertens
*: Michel Ries, Mark Donovan, Nicolay Cherkasov, Marlon Gaillard, Francesco Romano

Sprints are likely between Moschetti and Cullaigh.

Don't think Stannard copes that well with real mountains. Luca Covilli should be mentioned as a contender. He didn't race until April this year, so I don't know what's up with his early season, but he seem to be back on track now. And don't forget the Kazakhs! They're very up and down, but especially Ulysbaev and Pronskiy had some great results last year.

As for the sprints, Moschetti does indeed look like a proper talent. But he'll face competition from the quite durable Lonardi, who last year was only beaten by Welten in the stage 1 sprint in this race, and the young Marchetti, who's been on fire this year. Those two also placed 1st and 2nd in arguably the most prestigious sprinters' race on the Italian amateur calendar last month.

Along with Bagioli, climbing talent Andrea Innocenti also has school commitments, so he's not riding. Also Christian Scaroni, who seems to have improved this year, is not on the startlist for the Hoppla team for some reason, although he expressed ambitions of riding a good GC here.
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
I hope Libertine can tell a story or two about that kid Xuban Errazkin (great name), I saw him last month as well in Vuelta a Madrid.

Great 2016, starting in a small basque amateur team, jumping to Baqué during the season and then being a stagiere with Southeast. That year, he also won a stage in Volta do Futuro, opening to him the Portugal continental teams market. He had a decent year in Portugal and last winter there was a rumour about he would go to Fortuneo, but finally stayed in Portugal, changing the team. This year he has improve a lot his climbing performances, surely loosing some explosivity. He was more a puncheur before, good sprinting in small groups. Now he seems a good GC contender. It's going to be interesting to see how he handle the double Portugal-Avenir.
 

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