I decided to come up with a list of my favorites for the title this year. Basically, I skimmed all teams and found the ones I think would do the best. My plan was to find 5, but in the end I couldn’t choose between these 11.
Here’s a list of the 10 most popular riders on these teams:
Gilbert: 11
Schleck: 11
Bobridge: 11
Hushovd: 11
Thomas: 11
Kennaugh: 10
Matthews: 10
Dombrowski: 9
Löfkvist: 9
Taaramäe: 9
The teams:
AAC1983:
AAC1983 has 9 of the 10 most popular riders, omitting Löfkvist. There are a few rare youngsters who will be interesting to follow, most notably McCarthy, Vanbilsen, Arndt and Schnaidt. Besides these there aren’t many big gambles. AAC1983 will have to rely on Evans and Kittel and hope that Slagter, Stannard, Vanmarcke and Meyer score a lot of points.
Armchair cyclist:
Armchair cyclist has 9 of the 10 most popular riders, omitting Dombrowski. Armchair cyclist will have to rely on points from Evans and Gesink while hoping that Guardini, Rojas, Lutsenko, Oss and Gadret have good seasons. Interesting names to follow include Anacona, Aru, Ruijgh, Berhane and Cattaneo.
Housoe:
Who is this mysterious Housoe? One thing’s for sure, he or she has got a very strong team. There’s no Matthews, no Kennaugh and no Dombrowski but other popular picks like Pinot, Breschel, Vanmarcke, Gadret and Roux. Housoe only has one really expensive rider and puts his faith in Farrar, Guardini, Langeveld, Meyer, Majka and Rujano while hoping riders like Felline and Kruijswijk have good season.
ingsve:
Any former champion should be mentioned here and ingsve’s got a very strong team again this year but also some interesting and even controversial choices. ingsve doesn’t have faith in Taaramäe, and instead he gambles on Fuglsang – probably the most controversial pick among these 11 teams. ingsve also has faith in Cancellara and hopes that his sprinter trifecta of Haussler, Rojas and Farrar will earn him a lot of points. Interestingly, ingsve is the only one of the 11 teams that have picked Reimer even though he mentioned him as an important pick.
Kvinto:
Kvinto has already been mentioned as one of the favorites and I agree. Kvinto has got all of the 10 most popular riders in his team which looks very balanced. He has put faith in Pozzato, Rojas, Feillu and Meyer while including rare names like Hardy, Sergent, Delaplace, Geniez and Kocjan. Will these obscurities pay off for Kvinto?
mc_mountain:
Another very strong team and definitely one of the pregame favorites considering his good results in the previous editions. mc_mountain has 9 of the 10 most popular picks only omitting Löfkvist. He’s hoping that Cancellara and Evans have good seasons while gambling on Gallopin and other rare picks like Eisel and Wellens. Millar could prove to be a very good pick.
Netserk:
Like Kvinto, Netserk has got all of the 10 most popular riders and overall a very interesting team. Offredo, Rebellin, Garzelli and Dekker, a notorious foursome, will have to have good seasons for Netserk to be competitive, but they are quite rare which could work in his favor. He’s also relying on Gesink, Pozzato, Anton and Vanmarcke to have good season. Arroyo could be a very good pick.
shalgo:
shalgo really doesn’t have many picks that aren’t popular which also shows in the fact that he also has all of the 10 most popular riders. He’s relying on Evans, Pozzato, Rojas and Breschel to score a lot of points while his only real gamble is on the youngster Groenewegen. Does shalgo know something we don’t?
skidmark:
What has the reigning champion come up with? A very strong team that includes 9 of the 10 most popular picks is the answer. Only Taaramäe isn’t included in skidmarks team that relies on Farrar, Pozzato, Guardini and Rojas while hoping that Kelderman improves on last year’s score and that Rebellin has a good season.
squire:
squire also has all 10 of the most popular riders but he’s also got some interesting names to follow, including Rebellin and Duarte. He hopes that Cancellara has a good season along with Farrar, Pozzato and Anton while cheap guys like Dueñas, Manfredi and Herrada can give him an edge in the game.
The Hitch:
Last but certainly not least, The Hitch who rounds this little review off by picking all 10 of the most popular riders. It’s a very interesting team that hopes Cancellara is at his peak while Offredo, Stybar, Chaves and Ciolek score some points not many else has. Pozzato, Rojas and Breschel are also among The Hitch’s chosen while he also has high hopes for young Haller while other talents like Boswell and Colbrelli can come in handy.
on velorooms we just discussed certain picks in the chatbox.
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