Time to give this beloved topic a kick. Slowly but surely teams are announcing their line-ups for Wollongong. Belgium was the first to do so, and would you guess, they're stacked to the brim: Vlad Van Mechelen, Jens Verbrugghe*, Maxence Place and two of my personal favorites Duarte Marivoet and Sente Sentjens. They tick all the boxes and should be able to play in every imaginable way. Fast men, classic riders and climbers. More so, many countries would kill to have Steffen De Schuyteneer, Jardo Widar, Aaron Dockx or Robbe Dhondt amongst their riders, but here they are essentially told better luck next year mate.
That being said, I also think this Belgian team is flawed. In one on one situations, I don't think any of them can hang with the big boys such as Christen, Morgado, Herzog, Nordhagen, Kockelmann or Huising & Van der Meulen. They will have to use their strength in numbers and play every card perfectly. I put an asterisk behind Verbrugghe's name because **** knows what he'll be able to do. His limits are unknown to everyone. Despite being the son of Rik, he has only been in the cycling game for a little more than a year. I'm looking at him for a medal in the time trial, but just like everyone else, I don't think he'll come close to beating Josh Tarling.