Czech Tour 2023 preview - second part

 
    Welcome to second half of my Czech Tour 2023 preview, where I am introducing the newest edition of biggest Czech cycling race. In case you’ve missed an earlier article, make sure to check it out! As for today, we will take a look on interesting names in a startlist.

Men to watch

Czech Tour 2021
    Speaking of major stars, there is one above them all. Chris Froome recently raised bit of controversy when he claimed that team did not include him in Tour de France squad despite he felt ready. Now he has opportunity to perform on terrain that should suit him. Stage 3 is definitely on his radar, in his prime era he would destroy the opposition there. Climbs are hard enough to go solo if he will have legs as good, as some might expect after his recent statements.

    Another member of older climbers generations is Rein Taaramäe. He has some good experience with Czech Tour, speciall thanks to his overall 3rd place in 2021. Once again he comes to Czech Republic on his path to Vuelta, however there is bigger gap between those races in 2023. Stage 2 and 3 is field for him to update his already interesting palmares.

    With third man to watch, we are approaching completely opposite side of peloton agewise. Johannes Staune-Mittet is another young Norwegian with seemingly awesome future in world of cycling. He already fought for stage win last year, when he arrived at Dlouhé Stráně with stage winner Kamiel Bonneu, ending up 3rd on a day and 5th in overall. He is promoted from Jumbo development team for this edition, and will be acompanied by his compatriot Per Strand Hagenes. Another promising rider, not going for GC, but might focus Šternberk stage after his performance at 4 Jours de Dunkerque.

    List of my picked favourites is finished by Ben Zwiehoff. Bora's man, who has some grand tour experience, yet never won a professional race. After 7th place at Tour of Slovenia and 8th position in UAE Tour, he is coming to finally get reason to celebrate.

Clash of the Czechs

    In my pre-season article, I have pointed out that ATT and Elkov will clash with each other fiercely this season. ATT already dethroned Elkov at the Czech ITT National championships and has good way to become better rated team after the season for the first time ever. Now they also have opportunity to beat their local rival at Czech Tour. Jakub Otruba performed well at Tour of Sibiu and seems to be in hist best climbing form so far. We can naturally expect, that Czech Tour is among his main goals and he will get support of Márton Dina, who was leader at his home race in exchange.

    Elkov lacks climbing strength specially for stages 2 and 3 and most likely will try to be in breakaways during those days. Michael Boroš and Adam Ťoupalík will be for sure seen in Šternberk on last stage, as this final circuit seems like tailor-made for them. Even if they propably can't match ATT purely by climbing quality, they can still have pretty succesful tour.

    Among other home riders, Karel Vacek is the one who can perform GC-wise. He however often suffers from form drops and endured some ilness after Giro aswell. Michael Kukrle is another man, who needs to show some consistency (after leaving Elkov) and we can just hope that he will make race interesting by one of his breakaway attempts. 

Who will sprint?

    As parcours of Czech Tour kept getting harder over years, we saw less and less sprinters in the field. There is no major change in this trend for 2023. With just two potential chances on opening and closing day, there is lack of really fast men once more. I am looking forward to see how Trinitys Luke Lamperti can perform against World Tour riders, after he gained himself bit of name in past two years. 
    There was last minute appearance of Niccoló Bonifazio in official startlist and if he takes the part, he might be just the biggest favourit for win on first stage. He might get some opposition in Karl Patrick Lauk, Milan Fretin or Nicolás German Tivani. Matúš Štoček and Dominik Neuman should be the dark horses attempting to gain some fame for home teams.

(Not so bold) predictions

Stage 1: Bonifazzio - Fretin - Lauk

Stage 2: Staune-Mittet - Taaramäe - Zwiehoff

Stage 3: Zwiehoff - Froome - Otruba

Stage 4: Ťoupalík - Bonifazio - Hagenes

GC: Zwiehoff - Staune-Mittet - Froome (somehow)


Startlist: https://www.czechtour.com/cs/tymy

 

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