The Danes:
This race is the stated season goal for
Soeren Kragh, the route is pretty much tailormade for him, and we all saw his form in the Tour and Binckbank, my money is on him.
Mads Pedersen will find the climbs a little too hard with the favorites, and will not be given leeway to get away early, like when he was a nobody (those days are over
), but then having been primed for Roubaix, his dream race, and seeing it get cancelled, I would not put it past him to do the impossible again (again, again), by sheer power of determination.
Casper Pedersen is a normally too heavy for the Flanders hills, but he climbed excellently at the Tour, and won when Kragh crashed out of contention at Paris-Tours, so he is a dark hose. - Unfortunately he crashed out of Scheldeprijs today, condition unknown.
(UPDATE: Casper Pedersen was in a full speed crash and landed hard on his head, so is probably out of the Sunweb squad).
Asgreen is an unknown quantity, the race should suit him very well indeed, but he has not looked great after the Tour, he has seemed fatigued. If he is on one of his best days, he can take it from a long range attack, but it is much more probable he will work for Alaphilippe.
Valgren is another totally unknown quantity. He rode a terrible Tour, but has actually looked good since, albeit having missed the crucial moves at every race. The Ronde is a race that should suit him, when he is at his best, and there is an added motivation of riding for a new contract, in a shrinking World Tour, but the probable outcome is another disappointment.
Chris Juul is in an interesting situation. Under normal circumstances, he would be pegged for working as a dom all day. But on a Mitchelton squad completely devoid of classics results, it may be a wolfpack kind of scenario, and he does thrive in long, hard races. Likely he is a dom though.
Norsgaard is a neo-pro, coming back from a broken leg, but one Movistar has pegged as a future profile in their classics squad, because of his big engine, He will be there to learn, quite possibly in the early break.