Wowsers, my team is off to what I think is my worst start in game history! 96th place... at least I've got some company with former winner ingsve and podium finisher Nyssinator, as well as some other names who always do decently. It's a long season, and a large number of guys I picked I don't expect to score until later in the year, either because of later targets or recovery back into form after injury (Nibali, Aru, van de Poel, Chaves, Meintjes, Cavendish, Marini, Vakoc). But still - lots of early misfires (Lambrecht, O'Connor, Navardauskas, Cosnefroy) which is worrying.
Let's see where my hopes lie this week (aside from Samyn, where Boom got some points and Planckaert and Van Asbroeck got very small points - those are two guys I expect to shine more in the random French/Belgian 1.1 races that dot the calendar all year):
Strade Bianche
Vincenzo Nibali
Petr Vakoc
Alberto Bettiol
Fabio Felline
Fernando Gaviria
Well even though Nibali couldn't hang on the longer climbs in UAE, it's not impossible to imagine him having the punch for a result here. Felline would do well in an ideal world, and this will be a good litmus test of where he's at. The others I don't expect much from.
For the Belgian 1.1 race on Sunday, I have Rudy Barbier and Tom Van Asbroeck... this is exactly the kind of stuff I got them for, though they're on the same team, so although probably not both of them will score, I expect something from one of them.
Can't find a full lineup for the Sunday Italian race yet. Not for Paris-Nice either. So I guess that's mostly it.