ak-zaaf said:
no doubt
strong for the ttt, improved in the mountains...
so far i'd say:
menchov
gesink
ten dam
clement
garate
flecha
freire
tankink
niermann/posthuma/moerenhout/weening
many people think tankink isn't going to make the selection, but he's a commercial goldmine in holland.
You are probably right about Tankink. He has great entertainment value for the dutch audience, and I think he is quite popular in the team. It's going to be difficult to determine the last rider then, because of team tactics, the compostion of a well balanced team (in and out of the race) as well as preferences of the captains of the team.
From reading Gesink's blog, he seems to be rather close with Nierman the germinator, and who often is his room mate. Niermann also seems to have a good impact on the team's spirit. Moerenhout I think was Landis' lieutenant in 2006, has quite some experience as a superdomestique and is on form (tour of Belgium), especially in the TTs (he mentioned that the Giant TT bikes are amazing, whereas before he often had some problems with the TT material). Posthuma has shown some good things this year (de Panne; Ruta del Sol), although his TT in the dauphine was only OK. Weening is commonly considered to be the better climber, but I always have had my doubts about him.
Menchov seems to have a preference for Spanish speaking team mates, and I heard that in the Giro he requested the support of Ten Dam, Ardila, Kozuntchuk, and Horillo. He could have some say in the compostion of the team as well. I think it is between Moerenhout and Nierman.