VALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro 1.828
He can easily gain 500 points, if not (a lot) more. I don't see how he should suddenly get old one year after his strongest spring ever. Word from the training camp is that he is killing them again.
ALAPHILIPPE Julian 1.011
Even more obvious pick. Has huge potential, missed the spring last year and can podium in Innsbruck.
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 629
Can he stay on his bike? If yes, he can podium at least one Grand Tour, maybe even win it. No more crashing please.
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban 505
Obvious pick.
BETTIOL Alberto 354
Was extremely strong last year, which didn't always convert into points cause he was riding for others like Rigo or Trentin. Could be similar next year with van Avermaet, but i hope he will get a few chances. Said he wanted to work on his time trialling more, which was completely neglected at Cannondale. Bettiol was junior european time trial champion after all, and BMC is the right place to work on that. If he adds a strong time trial to his skills (strong on the flat, good at shorter hills, decent sprint), he could be a threat at many one week stage races. I picked him in his neo pro year for a game similar to the youth game, and he had a terrible year. Let's hope that doesn't happen again.
GAUDU David 352
Obvious pick.
MAS NICOLAU Enric 285
Seems to have had a
knee injury, but i couldn't find anything about it. Seems to be fine though.
CICCONE Giulio 264
I'm a fan of Giulio since his U23 days and have picked him every year since he turned pro. Last season was a bit of a mess because of an operation he had, but 2018 should be fine, hopefully very fine. The worry here is on the team side, Bardiani might not get invited to the Giro and the influx of American ProConti teams could mean no Utah as well.
CAVENDISH Mark 257
Obvious pick.
COQUARD Bryan 220
Obvious pick.
FORMOLO Davide 217
Boy has a lot of talent and just has to do better than in the last few years. He spent too many years with Vaughters, but at least he is finally outta there.
BRAMBILLA Gianluca 195
Should do better than last year, but not as good as in 2016. I don't like his focus on the gc of the Giro and i nearly dumped him after i read that. But he also talked about classics and stages, so we're fine.
TAARAMÄE Rein 175
One of the weirdest guys out there. On some days he is super strong, the next day he is nowhere. Last year there was a lot of nowhere. He is on a French ProConti team now, maybe that helps him. He was a very good rider while riding for Cofidis a few years back.
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 159
Obvious pick. Ha!
HALVORSEN Kristoffer 151
I'm not really sure how good he is, but being the only sprinter of the team and Sky sending Doull, Dibben and Lawless as a train for his first race, i better have him in my team. Also he could be pretty good at the cobbled semi classics.
SIVAKOV Pavel 142
60 picks for Halvorsen and only 23 for Sivakov? I'm surprised by that. Sivakov is such a classy rider, i didn't want to miss him. I hope he gets a similar program as Geoghegan Hart last year and think he can do very well in some of these races already, like Coppi e Bartali or California. He will have to work for others, but not too much, i guess.
POGACAR Tadej 135
My unique pick, as expected.
Let me explain. He is a fanboy pick, but i like to think that it's a reasonable pick as well. As a junior Tadej won the Giro della Lunigiana, the most important junior stage race in Italy. That was in 2016. In 2017 he rode for the Continental team Rog Ljubljana and finished fifth in the Tour of Slovenia, ahead of guys like Pernsteiner, Cattaneo or Cunego. He was 18 years old at that time (now he is 19). He did that while going to school. As far as i know his education is finished now, so he should have more time for training (not sure if he has to do military training). Tadej is an excellent climber, has a good time trial (junior national champion) and a decent sprint. His team will ride the Tour of Croatia next year and should have a good calendar for him.
RODRIGUEZ MARTIN Cristian 106
Turned pro quite young and spent two years at Wilier. Showed a bit of climbing talent here and there. He could prosper at Caja Rural, at least that is my hope. Can't say i'm really convinced.
RIABUSHENKO Aliaksandr 96
Class act. I'm so curious what he will do this year. Maybe not much, riders who are good at basically everything often have problems in the pro scene. But i do think he is simply too good not to shine.
PADUN Mark 73
I've been mightily impressed with Paduns U23 career. He was one the first riders on my team.
NIZZOLO Giacomo 66
Obvious pick.
KANGERT Tanel 58
Obvious pick.
GANNA Filippo 42
Squire asks where the points should come from? I have no idea. But Ganna is talented and cheap, i picked him last year (profit: 2 points) and give him another chance.
GUARDINI Andrea 39
UAE was a mess with their collection of sprinters. At Bardiani Guardini will be the clear leader for the very flat races, should have good support and a decent calendar. He still is damn fast.
CIMA Imerio 35
Hmmm, only 4 picks, i had expected a bit more. Cima is an Italian sprinter, not a pocket rocket like Kuba or Guardini, but a big and strong guy who dreams of Roubaix. He is very young, just turned 20 in October, and had a good season last year. 4 wins on the Italian calender against mostly older guys plus two podium finishes at the Tour de l'Avenir, where he beat guys like Halvorsen, Hodeg or Jakobsen (and got beaten by them in other stages). Nippo have dumped their sprinter Marini, gave Imerio a three year contract and hired his brother, too. They seem to believe in him. Also they tend to take part in these nice East Asian races, where the points are super cheap.
ALBANESE Vincenzo 31
I still think he is a super talent. Let's see what he can do with a good winter and no injuries.
TROFIMOV Yury 31
Only three picks. I can understand that, who knows if these legal problems are over or not. But i'm ready to risk that. If he is allowed to ride, he should score nicely on the hillier races in Portugal and Spain.
MOSER Moreno 25
No idea what to expect. But at least a return to the standard of 2015 and 2016 should be possible. I don't ask for more.
KÖNIG Leopold 10
If healthy a must pick. I have avoided quite a few riders who had serious health issues last year (like Navardauskas or Haussler), but i don't think you can avoid König.
DUARTE AREVALO Fabio Andres 9
Has Fabio wasted his talent? Maybe, but now he is back with Saldarriaga, the best coach in Colombia, and the coach Fabio had his biggest success with. It's probably his last chance and he has to know that. He sounds very motivated in interviews, and Salda won't put him into a training camp in freezing Europe in January like the idiot Corti did. Manzana-Postobon will try to get an invite for races like Trentino or Dauphine, that would be mighty fine. Saldatraining for the win! (In case you didn't sense it, this is a fanboy pick.)
ENGER Sondre Holst 0
Maybe the most solid of all the zero pointers. But maybe not, of the last three years two were bad, so who knows. There are quite a few sprinters at ICA, too many in my opinion, no idea what the pecking order will be.
INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA Benat 0
Not sure if he gets healthy and fit again. He doesn't sound too optimistic in interviews, but Sky gave him a new contract, so they must be hopeful the he can return to racing.
SAMITIER SAMITIER Sergio 0
Picked him over Haddi. Had an excellent year at the Spanish U23 scene, but so had Aristi in 2015, who then turned pro with Delko and managed zero points in 2016 (i had picked him in the youth game, geat success). Samitier should be a bigger talent than Aristi, winning Bidasoa certainly ain't easy, but his international results are lackluster. He managed only 70th overall in Aosta, for instance. So i can't say i'm sure about this guy, but he should have a good calendar and a relatively free role at Euskadi Murias.
But curiously, no winner has ever done well the year after they won.
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