The 2016 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Jancouver]

Re:

Most picked guess:

Kittel
Phinney
Gaviria
Betancur
Gerrans
Démare
Bos
Cancellara
D Martin
Lopez

I skipped Bos because he said that he is focusing 100% on track and Lopez because he is on Astana.

 

[togo95]

Re: Re:

I skipped Bos because he said that he is focusing 100% on track and Lopez because he is on Astana.

I had Bos in my team, but took him out when I read about that.

 

[skidmark]

Re: Re:

[quote="

That was the plan. Between Rohan Dennis + Tony Martin they should go 1-2 at the WC + Olympics ITT so that should be 800 points and cover 1/2 the cost between them. (Plus MiniPhinney and perhaps even Fabian?)

Although, the last 2 Olympic TT champions didn't do the Worlds. That was never the plan for Wiggins, but Cancellara in 2008 said that after winning the Olys he didn't have motivation. If they get 2 & 3 in the Olys though, they might have plenty of motivation and you can double up in the best way.

 

[Blues in the bottle]

Here is my team

MARTIN Tony 624
VAN GARDEREN Tejay 622
YATES Adam 599
MARTIN Daniel 526
DEMARE Arnaud 464
CANCELLARA Fabian 449
BARGUIL Warren 443
DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd 399
VAN BAARLE Dylan 337
TALANSKY Andrew 330
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 297
GERRANS Simon 244
WIPPERT Wouter 227
ARREDONDO MORENO Julian David 213
BOSWELL Ian 191
PHINNEY Taylor 174
KITTEL Marcel 164
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 151
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 149
HEPBURN Michael 136
BYSTRØM Sven Erik 135
VILLELLA Davide 123
MANZIN Lorrenzo 121
CRADDOCK Lawson 102
MOHORIC Matej 97
HAIG Jack 96
JEANNESSON Arnold 32
VERVAEKE Louis 30
GOSS Matthew 10
RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan 6
VELITS Peter 5
BOS Theo 3
BOUHANNI Rayane 0

points total 7499

 

[ingsve]

Re: Re:

This was definitely a challenge - you never know who's going to win the Oly course. No one would have guessed the Vino/Uran/Kristoff podium in 2012, that's for sure. And even if it goes 'predictably', is it going to be a 2013 Florence kinda selection (ie. Valv, Costa, Purito, Nibali) or will punchy hill guys be able to make it over (Gilbert, Sagan, Kwiat)? And the worlds - hell, I dunno, if it was a trade team race I'd guess QuickStep would take it apart with echelons, but I have no idea.

Ya, the olympics is hard to predict. The way I view an olympic season is that time trial specialists get an extra shot at some easy extra points so picking Tony Martin is even easier at least.

 

[skidmark]

Re: Re:

Most picked guess:

Kittel
Phinney
Gaviria
Betancur
Gerrans
Démare
Bos
Cancellara
D Martin
Lopez

I skipped Bos because he said that he is focusing 100% on track and Lopez because he is on Astana.

I skipped Bos for the same reason, but Lopez I couldn't pass up. I had the same logic last year; whoever was on Astana and not a main GC guy was gonna be limited. It's true with guys like LL Sanchez, Westra, Cataldo, but man, was I ever burned by shying away from Lopez and Landa, two guys I wanted but passed on because I thought they'd be buried in Astana. I actually looked at my list from last year and next to Landa, once I took a second look, my notes said 'no way'. That's it. Oops. I feel like Lopez is an irrepressible talent, and he didn't have many leadership opportunities last year. But he will have to this year, because he's just that good.

 

[Jancouver]

My shortlist that did NOT make the cut. Hardest was to skip Kung and I only left him out because of his health issues and replaced him with Fabian (Obviously, I had to make few more smaller adjustments because of that)

BTW I never even considered Ten Dam, Bos or Goss

THOMAS Geraint 1065
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas 666
VAN GARDEREN Tejay 622
COLBRELLI Sonny 593
JUNGELS Bob 528
BARGUIL Warren 443
BARTA Jan 434
BENNETT Sam 414
SWIFT Ben 389
TALANSKY Andrew 330
KÜNG Stefan 324
HOFLAND Moreno 285
ARREDONDO MORENO Julian David 213
VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen 366
HIRT Jan 176
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao 157
HOOGERLAND Johnny 48
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 297
MOSCON Gianni 120
VLIEGEN Loïc 190

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

Most picked guess:

Kittel
Phinney
Gaviria
Betancur
Gerrans
Démare
Bos
Cancellara
D Martin
Lopez

I skipped Bos because he said that he is focusing 100% on track and Lopez because he is on Astana.

Yeah, I read that too but from what I understood, he'll be prioritizing Rio but he'll he be racing on the road as well. Plus, he has to actually make the Olympic team (likely) and he only cost 3 points so it was totally worth it. Not like there were other 3 pointers out there that I felt I was missing out on.

 

[togo95]

I never considered Ten Dam either, don't even remember why. I feel a bit bad that I don't have any top TTer in my team, even though I tried to take into consideration that there are 2 important ITTs this year. Oh well, will hope for some surprises

 

[ingsve]

So, here is my team for the year:

KWIATKOWSKI Michal 1133
MARTIN Tony 624
VAN GARDEREN Tejay 622
MARTIN Daniel 526
DEMARE Arnaud 464
TALANSKY Andrew 330
HOFLAND Moreno 285
MOSER Moreno 269
CLARKE Simon 267
ANTON HERNANDEZ Igor 255
GERRANS Simon 244
ARREDONDO MORENO Julian David 213
CORT NIELSEN Magnus 201
PHINNEY Taylor 174
SENECHAL Florian 165
KITTEL Marcel 164
MEZGEC Luka 161
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 151
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 149
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael 143
BYSTRØM Sven Erik 135
CIOLEK Gerald 128
ZABEL Rick 117
LANGEVELD Sebastian 104
MOHORIC Matej 97
ENGER Sondre Holst 86
HOWARD Leigh 73
BAUHAUS Phil 56
HERKLOTZ Silvio 52
EARLE Nathan 36
VERVAEKE Louis 30
LUDVIGSSON Fredrik 17
GOSS Matthew 10

total : 7481

 

[mc_mountain]

How do you see Howard's season going ingsve? I had him the year he'd scored 160 points by earlier february, but that season or his career have really come to anything.

 

[togo95]

Do you really believe in Anton ingsve?
I like the Bauhaus pick, think he can do well this year.

 

[Jancouver]

Re:

So, here is my team for the year:

KWIATKOWSKI Michal 1133
MARTIN Tony 624
VAN GARDEREN Tejay 622
MARTIN Daniel 526
DEMARE Arnaud 464
TALANSKY Andrew 330
HOFLAND Moreno 285
MOSER Moreno 269
CLARKE Simon 267
ANTON HERNANDEZ Igor 255
GERRANS Simon 244
ARREDONDO MORENO Julian David 213
CORT NIELSEN Magnus 201
PHINNEY Taylor 174
SENECHAL Florian 165
KITTEL Marcel 164
MEZGEC Luka 161
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 151
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 149
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael 143
BYSTRØM Sven Erik 135
CIOLEK Gerald 128
ZABEL Rick 117
LANGEVELD Sebastian 104
MOHORIC Matej 97
ENGER Sondre Holst 86
HOWARD Leigh 73
BAUHAUS Phil 56
HERKLOTZ Silvio 52
EARLE Nathan 36
VERVAEKE Louis 30
LUDVIGSSON Fredrik 17
GOSS Matthew 10

total : 7481

I like the Kwiat pick! He is in the same league with Sagan IMO and can deliver 2000+.

BTW I had Talansky and Zabel just about every year and I gave up on both of them. Talansky is a mental patient but can score 1000+ and Zabel? Who knows what is wrong with that kid. With my luck, he will have a breakout season and may deliver 1000+

 

[Squire]

Re:

Do you really believe in Anton ingsve?
I like the Bauhaus pick, think he can do well this year.

There are plenty of Antons in Ingsve's team. The team of recurring hopeless cases

Talansky, Moser, Anton, Betancur, Zabel, Mohoric, Howard, Ludgvigsson, Goss...
Granted, I have some of them myself, and Moser, who I don't have, I reckon will be an okay pick with a tally of about 500.

 

[skidmark]

okay gotta go make dinner so I'll be back in a bit but here's team skids 2016. If anyone's been paying attention for the last 5 years, you know that I end up picking riders that alot of people end up picking, and that's no different this year. This year, I have two riders who will probably end up being key for me, as they are the only ones I have on less than ten teams. Chavanel and Grosu, fingers crossed!

MARTIN Tony
VAN GARDEREN Tejay
MARTIN Daniel
DEMARE Arnaud
CANCELLARA Fabian
CHAVANEL Sylvain
BARGUIL Warren
FORMOLO Davide
TALANSKY Andrew
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel
MEERSMAN Gianni
GROSU Eduard-Michael
GERRANS Simon
VICHOT Arthur
CORT NIELSEN Magnus
PHINNEY Taylor
KITTEL Marcel
STUYVEN Jasper
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael
KUDUS GHEBREMEDHIN Merhawi
CRADDOCK Lawson
MOHORIC Matej
KÄMNA Lennard
ENGER Sondre Holst
MARTIN Guillaume
BAUHAUS Phil
HERKLOTZ Silvio
PETIT Adrien
VERVAEKE Louis
MARTINEZ Yannick
GOSS Matthew

 

[Squire]

okay gotta go make dinner so I'll be back in a bit but here's team skids 2016. If anyone's been paying attention for the last 5 years, you know that I end up picking riders that alot of people end up picking, and that's no different this year. This year, I have two riders who will probably end up being key for me, as they are the only ones I have on less than ten teams. Chavanel and Grosu, fingers crossed!

MARTIN Tony
VAN GARDEREN Tejay
MARTIN Daniel
DEMARE Arnaud
CANCELLARA Fabian
CHAVANEL Sylvain
BARGUIL Warren
FORMOLO Davide
TALANSKY Andrew
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel
MEERSMAN Gianni
GROSU Eduard-Michael
GERRANS Simon
VICHOT Arthur
CORT NIELSEN Magnus
PHINNEY Taylor
KITTEL Marcel
STUYVEN Jasper
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael
KUDUS GHEBREMEDHIN Merhawi
CRADDOCK Lawson
MOHORIC Matej
KÄMNA Lennard
ENGER Sondre Holst
MARTIN Guillaume
BAUHAUS Phil
HERKLOTZ Silvio
PETIT Adrien
VERVAEKE Louis
MARTINEZ Yannick
GOSS Matthew

Of all the teams I've seen so far, this looks to me to be the best. Maybe because it looks very much like mine Except Grosu, Vichot and Craddock, ALL riders were at some point in my team this year (not just on the longlist). In the end, we share 22 riders.

I also like the teams of Armchair_cyclist and murrjt, which are posted in the Velorooms thread.

Will do a presentation of my own team shortly.

 

[torcia_86]

My team! This my first year in the game so i don't have great expectations.... I hope in a great season for vanmarcke....
ARREDONDO MORENO Julian David
BATTAGLIN Enrico
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto
CANCELLARA Fabian
CORT NIELSEN Magnus
DEMARE Arnaud
DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd
FERNANDEZ ANDUJAR Ruben
FRAILE MATARRANZ Omar
GADAY OROZCO Lucas Manuel
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
GERRANS Simon
GOSS Matthew
KAMBERAJ Xhuliano
KITTEL Marcel
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel
LUTSENKO Alexey
MARTIN Daniel
MEINTJES Louis
MEZGEC Luka
NAVARRO GARCIA Daniel
NERZ Dominik
PETILLI Simone
PHINNEY Taylor
RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan
TEUNS Dylan
VANMARCKE Sep
VERVAEKE Louis
WIPPERT Wouter
YATES Simon
ZURLO Federico
POLS Ruben
KEOUGH Luke

 

[skidmark]

I just noticed that I have three riders with the same last name on my team - except none of them are related and they are all from different countries! Here are the other 8 players that have Dan, Tony, and Guillaume Martin:

18-Valve.(pithy)
ansimi
GP Blanco
Jancouver
Joelsim
Lortnoc
mc_mountain
the fool on the hill

 

[Jancouver]

I just noticed that I have three riders with the same last name on my team - except none of them are related and they are all from different countries! Here are the other 8 players that have Dan, Tony, and Guillaume Martin:

18-Valve.(pithy)
ansimi
GP Blanco
Jancouver
Joelsim
Lortnoc
mc_mountain
the fool on the hill

I have noticed that and also I have MARTINELLI Davide so I have 4 guys with last name containing MARTIN

 

[Squire]

Of all the teams I've seen so far, this looks to me to be the best. Maybe because it looks very much like mine Except Grosu, Vichot and Craddock, ALL riders were at some point in my team this year (not just on the longlist). In the end, we share 22 riders.

@skidmark:
Speaking of Grosu, can you please elaborate on why you took him? He's the only rider in your team I don't get. He's never done anything noteworthy, and is consistently beaten by some rather mediocre names. The only good result I can see is the 4th place in Piemonte last autumn, but then he took his apparent good form to Hainan where he got his ass kicked by second and third rate sprinters. Surely Moser or Peraud, who both would have been a straight replacement, are better picks?

Among your interesting picks I considered Chavanel in the beginning, as he can potentially rip up the French calendar. But he's old, and stated that he wants to enjoy his last year, and target P-N and the Tour. What "enjoy" means to Chavanel is unclear. It could mean he'll attack like crazy and score loads of points everywhere, but I didn't want to risk it in case it would mean he'd parade around French races waving to the crowd and only try a few breakaways in the Tour.

I don't really believe the Formolo hype, and I don't trust his team to help him live up to it. I'm also not convinced by Cort. I like the look of Guillaume Martin, but his team (weird choice of team actually) will not really do many races that'll suit him, and he might end up having his skinny self bumped around on the cobbles too often.

 

[MADRAZO]

My team:

T Martin 624
Van Garderen 622
D Martin 526
Demare 464
Cancellara 449
S Bennett 414
Talansky 330
Kung 324
M A Lopez 297
Peraud 281
D Teuns 278
Meersman 276
Gerrans 244
Arredondo 213
Vichot 211
A Capiot 187
Phinney 174
Sarreau 166
Kittel 164
Gaviria 151
Betancur 149
Van Lerberghe 144
Valgren 143
B Markus 118
Langeveld 104
J Vanendert 102
Haig 96
Van Rooy 59
Herklotz 52
Hardy 44
Farazijn 39
Vervaeke 30
Y Martinez 25
7500 total

Hardest cut for me was Geschke, that seemed a obvious pick to go from 328 to around 600 points. In the end I chose D Teuns, Hardy and Farazijn over him, L. Gaday and P. Velits (mostly since I felt Velits was too boring a pick, so that was a bit against my own head). As many others Bos was certain on my team (instead of Velits) until the track news some time ago.

Also my heart was very tempted to give another chance to Battaglin (new chance in the WT) and Ratto (wanting too lose weight again and also getting better raceprogram), but they also ended up losing in the pussle. So with me not choosing them they could very well make a Felline next year and finally fullfill the potential when I don't pick them anymore

4 of the more marginal picks on my team comes from Topsport, with me thinking that the better young guys there should have good chance to step up as new leaders of the team with many suiting races and leadership-opportunities. Made that same analysis last season but didn't follow up with the picking (like Theuns and Naesen) and did not want to make that mistake again.

I never considdered Nibali with the many good options between 300-650.

 

[Jspear]

My team:

KITTEL Marcel 164
CANCELLARA Fabian 449
PHINNEY Taylor 174
TALANSKY Andrew 330
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 149
GOSS Matthew 10
RUFFONI Nicola 64
TEN DAM Laurens 65
GERRANS Simon 244
LAMMERTINK Steven 46
KUDUS GHEBREMEDHIN Merhawi 131
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 297
KÄMNA Lennard 89
KOLAR Michael 89
GERTS Floris 241
HAIG Jack 96
MEYER Cameron 229
NIBALI Vincenzo 1496
DE PLUS Laurens 109
OOMEN Sam 185
MARTIN Daniel 526
VANENDERT Jelle 102
ACEVEDO CALLE Janier Alexis 71
BARGUIL Warren 443
SELIG Rüdiger 65
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban 916
YATES Simon 543
NOCENTINI Rinaldo 167
VELITS Peter 5
SULZBERGER Bernard 5
ANDREETTA Simone 0
ARAMENDIA LLORENTE Francisco Javier 0
BOLIVAR HERNANDEZ Isaac 0


IMO Kittel, Lopez, Gerrans, Talanksy, and Cancelllara are my safest picks that should give a pretty good profit. I'm hoping to get a lot from them. Some cheap riders I'm hoping go back to their old glory days: Ten Dam, Bentacur, Goss - I'm hoping Janier Acevedo does better since he's back on the domestic scene. Besides that I have a handful of youngsters that I'm hoping get some chances to shine. Fingers crossed, hoping to do better than last year.

 

[Squire]

Okay, so I'm making my comeback this year.
I played this game for the first three years. In 2011 I was pack fodder in 40th. Next year I was 57th, but apparently I had the curious distinction of being the team with the best "worst pick", as my rider with the lowest return was Bertagnolli at 64%. I would probably have placed a lot higher if I didn't have the biggest fanboy pick of all time, Valverde at his 2009 score. Missing Boonen was also a killer.

In 2013 I had figured out how to create a good team, and after sitting in 8th place after the Worlds, I ended in a solid 12th place. The year after, I unfortunately missed the deadline by one hour, and consequently lost a bit of interest in the game.

Now in 2016 I'm very motivated and really look forward to this year's edition!

I have put a lot of effort and analysis into strategy and picking the right team. I might elaborate on this later. I'm very confident in my entry, and believe I have a fair shot at winning the whole thing. Anything less than top 5 would disappoint me!

Anyway, here's my team:

MARTIN Tony 624
VAN GARDEREN Tejay 622
KREUZIGER Roman 552
JUNGELS Bob 528
MARTIN Daniel 526
DEMARE Arnaud 464
CANCELLARA Fabian 449
BARGUIL Warren 443
TALANSKY Andrew 330
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 297
PERAUD Jean-Christophe 281
GERRANS Simon 244
PHINNEY Taylor 174
KITTEL Marcel 164
POZZATO Filippo 162
STUYVEN Jasper 160
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 151
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 149
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael 143
FARRAR Tyler 138
CIOLEK Gerald 128
SERGENT Jesse 113
NAVARRO GARCIA Daniel 103
VANENDERT Jelle 102
HAIG Jack 96
KÄMNA Lennard 89
ENGER Sondre Holst 86
BAUHAUS Phil 56
HERKLOTZ Silvio 52
VERVAEKE Louis 30
MARTINEZ Yannick 25
GOSS Matthew 10
VELITS Peter 5

It seems like my jokers will be Kreuziger and Jungels, as they don't appear very popular so far. They also set me apart from skidmark's team, which I believe will be key. I'm surprised not to see Peraud in more teams.

Among riders that may haunt me is Kudus, who looks very promising. What made me not pick him was his focus on the Tour, where he'll waste a lot of race days for very little points. Still, I would have loved to see his full schedule before picking my team. After seeing Mancebo this year, I really wanted Santaromita, but didn't dare to take the risk. I can see Cattaneo finally making some headway this year, after all his bad luck, but he didn't fit the puzzle and would have been more of a risk than I'm comfortable taking. I think Manzin will be a good pick, but I couldn't find room for him.

I don't see the fascination for Mezgec. He's been signed as strictly a lead-out man for Ewan and Cort, and they also have Matthews.

Fun fact: I have eight riders who were in my teams from 2011-2013 (Pozzato, Jungels, Cancellara, Kreuziger, Velits, Gerrans, Phinney, Farrar)

 

[skidmark]

Of all the teams I've seen so far, this looks to me to be the best. Maybe because it looks very much like mine Except Grosu, Vichot and Craddock, ALL riders were at some point in my team this year (not just on the longlist). In the end, we share 22 riders.

@skidmark:
Speaking of Grosu, can you please elaborate on why you took him? He's the only rider in your team I don't get. He's never done anything noteworthy, and is consistently beaten by some rather mediocre names. The only good result I can see is the 4th place in Piemonte last autumn, but then he took his apparent good form to Hainan where he got his ass kicked by second and third rate sprinters. Surely Moser or Peraud, who both would have been a straight replacement, are better picks?

Among your interesting picks I considered Chavanel in the beginning, as he can potentially rip up the French calendar. But he's old, and stated that he wants to enjoy his last year, and target P-N and the Tour. What "enjoy" means to Chavanel is unclear. It could mean he'll attack like crazy and score loads of points everywhere, but I didn't want to risk it in case it would mean he'd parade around French races waving to the crowd and only try a few breakaways in the Tour.

I don't really believe the Formolo hype, and I don't trust his team to help him live up to it. I'm also not convinced by Cort. I like the look of Guillaume Martin, but his team (weird choice of team actually) will not really do many races that'll suit him, and he might end up having his skinny self bumped around on the cobbles too often.

Yeah, for sure, it took a third and fourth look before I decided to take Grosu. Basically, he's the emergent sprinter on a PCT team that's gonna get a ton of invites to smaller races. He got the exact same amount of points in 2015 as 2014 with the move up to harder PCT races, which with linear progress would suggest that next year he'll be better (more than half his points in 2014 came from the Tour of Estonia; 2015 they were spread out, and came toward the end, which shows some progress). How much is the question - a big part of being a neo-pro is learning positioning, and once he had that, he got 3 top 10s in HC races at the end of the season (plus in the early season he was learning the ropes by supporting Colli; I expect him to be the go to guy all season this year). In between those end of season results he had a bunch of DNFs - when he showed up he placed highly. I liked his pattern of results, basically - if he improves and gets more team support and gets an early win and some confidence, he can really fly. I mean, maybe he just makes a modest improvement and ends up with 350 points. But maybe he has a Colbrelli/Drucker/Van Asbroeck kind of year and just cleans up in the second-tier races. That's what I'm hoping for. But if I'm wrong, at least he won't cost me much. Moser has let me down enough that I don't really care to gamble, and I don't see Peraud's ceiling being too high at 38 or whatever he is.

Chavanel I was going to pass on until I actually looked at what he did last year. I mean, I know he said he didn't have fun, but 63 of his last 65 race days (apart from French national Roads and TT) were Grand Tours! That is in-freaking-sane. IAM is stupid, they were in way over their head with the WT license, and forced their best name to show up instead of do what he wants. But Chavanel is the quintessence of the mercurial French talent - he does well when he has fun, he doesn't when he's miserable - his mood matters as much as his form. Sure he's getting old, but he's one year removed from an 1100 point season with that same awful IAM squad. You know what the difference was between 2014 and 2015? His team let him do what he wanted to in 2014. Well that and he did some easier races. It's certainly easier to win Poitou Charentes and Ouest Plouay than to do the grind of 3 GTs and have expect to be fresh to go hunt stages. Hell, he could top 10 Paris-Nice this year, it seems like an easy enough parcours (the easy P-N parcours factored into me picking Vichot too). But yeah, he's an exceptional TTer and stage attacker, and can hang on any given stage. That's a good formula for some opportunistic placings in small stage races or one-days. And he'll have support at Direct Energie - Bernedeau is grateful I am sure.

I feel your concerns on Formolo and Cort, especially with the team support for Formolo. Rohan Dennis proved that Garmin has no clue what to do with their undercard of riders, and his case isn't helped much by swapping Hesjedal/Martin for Rolland/Uran. BUT - he is just so consistent. He got 7th at Suisse as a freakin' neo-pro (which, so did Lopez, and I got him). He got blooded in the GT game last year, came away with a stage and respectable GC showing for a first try. Every single one of his stage race results is between place 9 and 27 (or 31, if you count the Giro). Inch those up 5 spots and you've got someone who scores well. He's been compared to Basso but has shown much more consistency. Anyway, if he's got a GT top 15 and some other GC top 5s in him, I'll be happy. Cort I kind of feel similar to Grosu - took a year to get battered around and got used to it, showed his engine here and there. If he has learned better positioning and endurance, he'll get some good 1-day results and be in the 400-600 range. We shall see. Guillaume Martin I just kind of took a flier on, I like his results and he's on a team without GC threats, so he'll get more encouragement than, say, Jack Haig, who is maybe more talented but will spend his first year working.

Anyway, thanks for asking, clearly I have a bit to say about this, ha. Oh, and welcome back to the game!

 

[skidmark]

Re:

My team:

Hardest cut for me was Geschke, that seemed a obvious pick to go from 328 to around 600 points. In the end I chose D Teuns, Hardy and Farazijn over him, L. Gaday and P. Velits (mostly since I felt Velits was too boring a pick, so that was a bit against my own head). As many others Bos was certain on my team (instead of Velits) until the track news some time ago.

Also my heart was very tempted to give another chance to Battaglin (new chance in the WT) and Ratto (wanting too lose weight again and also getting better raceprogram), but they also ended up losing in the pussle. So with me not choosing them they could very well make a Felline next year and finally fullfill the potential when I don't pick them anymore

4 of the more marginal picks on my team comes from Topsport, with me thinking that the better young guys there should have good chance to step up as new leaders of the team with many suiting races and leadership-opportunities. Made that same analysis last season but didn't follow up with the picking (like Theuns and Naesen) and did not want to make that mistake again.

I never considdered Nibali with the many good options between 300-650.

I feel you there. I am not 100% sure off the top of my head, but I believe the only riders I've picked 3 years in a row in this game are Dennis, Battaglin, Felline, and Sicard. I may be wrong about 1 of those, I might have just thought about him the third year. But anyway, it's so hard when you see talent and believe in it, but it just doesn't come together, until after you give up (like Felline this year). Battaglin could go either way - he could take a year to figure out the game in the WT, or he could find the structure to be just what he needed. I mean, he's won 2 Giro stages, the second one with an insanely awesome effort, and has featured in the finale of San Remo, so he's got the legs. Oh no, am I regretting not picking him? No, he needs another year. I'll tell myself that.