Okay, let's get down to business!
As I said earlier, I thought it was really easy picking most of my team this year. The other options in the 500+ range didn't appeal to me at all. Only Gaviria was given a bit more than just brief consideration.
PINOT Thibaut 861
BARDET Romain 734
YATES Simon 668 -- I somewhat disagree with Gigs. I think he's pretty obvious. I do believe 2018 was a fluke, but last year he hardly got any points outside of the GTs. Didn't get paid anything for his good form in Andalucia and Paris-Nice. Should also score much more in the Giro this year, and can hopefully tear up the Aussie summer as an added bonus.
KWIATKOWSKI Michal 645 - No doubts.
MOSCON Gianni 424 - Generational talent who I'm surprised is not picked by more people. Surely he can't mess up his season preparations for the third year running.
KELDERMAN Wilco 402
LATOUR Pierre 352
SOLER Marc 350
DUMOULIN Tom 341
VAN POPPEL Danny 334
ROSA Diego 297 - Last autumn he was back to a level that is good enough to be a force on the Pro Conti level. And his preliminary race schedule is mouth-watering in a CQ perspective.
BOUHANNI Nacer 276 - No Vasseur should mean a happy and succesful Bouhanni. You don't suddenly become slow in one year. Worried about the team recruiting possibly the most positionally weak sprinter ever as his leadout though.
ARU Fabio 194
OOMEN Sam 179 - Very uncertain pick. Fractured hip and iliac artery problems?! But too many opportunities for him to leave him out.
RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan 167 - He's probably not as good as Vendrame, but he looks like Androni's best bet for hilly classics now. His problem has always been that he was a bit lazy, but this winter he's been tearing it up on Strava.
MOSCHETTI Matteo 160 - Unconvinced, but I can't risk it if he has an Ackermann-like breakthrough.
CHERNETSKIY Sergey 126 - A bit like Restrepo, in that he's not on Vlasov's level, but Chernetskiy should be the leader for a team with a very good calendar for point scoring. Always a risk picking Russians late in their carreer though. They seem to fade quickly.
HAAS Nathan 118
WARLOP Jordi 117 - Maybe a unique pick? A bit of a wildcard who might fizzle out at 200 points, but the man's an absolute beast and he had some illness limiting him for the first half of the season. When he recovered in the summer, he showed amazing consistency. Was heading for a top 5 in Münsterland when he went down in a crash near the line, so his cost could easily have been a lot higher. Also, a lot of the strongmen from Sport Vlaanderen have left the team which should open up more opportunities. He's due a 1.1 win or two this season.
MEINTJES Louis 107 - Bad luck instead of bad form was his main problem last year. Still has the level to score quite a few hundred.
FERNANDEZ ANDUJAR Ruben 83
BAGIOLI Andrea 83 - Best U23 climber last year with a fearsome sprint to go with his climbing abilities. Surprised to see him not picked by too many. Only worry is that it could be a year too early. Mas, De Plus, Schachmann etc. were one year older when they went to Quickstep.
FROOME Chris 77 - I had initially decided to leave him off and pick Pacioni instead. But then I broke down a minute before the deadline and put him in, along with Minali for Mäder. skidmark put it well in his reply to the PM: «There's a 15% chance he'll be a good pick and 5% he'll be a backbreaker, so that's a hard risk to take.»
GENIEZ Alexandre 68 - Lottery ticket. I'm worried that his poor season was due to some virus, even though he doesn't think so himself. But there's still a lot of upside in case of a revival.
MODOLO Sacha 67 - Also one of my less certain picks. But surely there's enough Belgian one-day races for him to be worth it even if he's not back to his old level.
POWER Robert 56 - Let's hope one of his three good days this year comes in a 1.HC race with poor competition.
RUBIO REYES Einer Augusto 52 - Disregarding the big breakaway in the sterrato stage, he was really close to Ardila in the U23 Giro. Excellent climber who is proven to be consistent on European roads. Looking for a big breakthrough in smaller Spanish races.
MINALI Riccardo 52
CEPEDA ORTIZ Jefferson Alexander 36 - I trust in Savio.
HOELGAARD Daniel 33 - Surprised not to see him in any teams so far. Did well the very few times he got to sprint with FDJ, and was an excellent leadout for Sarreau. Should pick up results in 1.1 races as the Uno-X leader.
VICHOT Arthur 28 - He very much looks like he is done. That virus has hit him really, really hard. But I read in an interview that he apparently had the same virus in 2015, and that turned out pretty well. So there's always hope, and the upside is too big to miss out on.
KANTER Max 8
DE BIE Sean 5
Guys who were part of the wrestle for the last few spots were Holst Enger (would have really liked him, but didn't fit in), Mäder, Pacioni, Felline, Osorio, Garcia, Vakoc, Dainese and Simmons.
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