Did a quick 'group' analysis of my team on Saturday, but here it is in traditional points order format, and some thoughts in light of all the other team selections and popularity rankings;
PIDCOCK Thomas |
EWAN Caleb |
PICCOLO Andrea |
ALAPHILIPPE Julian |
LUTSENKO Alexey |
BATTISTELLA Samuele |
WRIGHT Fred |
HAIG Jack |
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh |
STRONG Corbin |
HONORE Mikkel Frølich |
STORER Michael |
ASGREEN Kasper |
SIMMONS Quinn |
PAGE Hugo |
BARONCINI Filippo |
SCHACHMANN Maximilian |
MIHKELS Madis |
WAERENSKJOLD Søren |
VACEK Mathias |
VAN UDEN Casper |
VAN EETVELT Lennert |
MOSCON Gianni |
KOLZE CHANGIZI Sebastian |
SALBY Alexander |
SCHELLING Ide |
FISHER-BLACK Finn |
PONOMAR Andriy |
PEDERSEN Casper Phillip |
HERMANS Ben |
WALLS Matthew |
QUICK Blake |
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley |
One of the main differences seems to be having no one over 600 points, particularly Roglic. This was mostly a heart decision as with apologies to his fans (he seems like a nice guy off the bike) I find him a little boring, and a 1000+ rider has to be someone I'm interested in following, like Evenepoel last year, or potentialy MVDP this. EITB has made an excellent case for Ayuso in that range and he could end up being a big miss. Simon Yates was the only other one I really considered, but there was just too much emotional baggage from having had him at least twice before.
Uijtdebroeks - This was just stupidity as had him last year and thought about him a lot, but never put his name on the list. Probably subconsciously, was just fed up of trying to spell his name so will at least be spared that.
Then there's all the young British and French Neo-Pros - Gloag, Tarling, Hayter, Onley, Gregoire, Martinez. Would normally be all over these and had Gregoire last year, but ended up not including any of them for various reasons, all of which I might regret. Particularly Martinez and Onley, as really should have thought more about how many opportunities they'll get at their teams.
Instead have gone for young riders who might a more reliable source of points in .1 and Pro - Van Uden, Mikhels, Kolze, Salby, Ponomar, Waerenskjold. Again, a bit of emotion coming into play here, as these are the sort of races I like watching.
Then there's my unique pick - Samuele Battistella
Can't really make an elaborate case for him. Was simply at the point near the end of the selection process where I needed a c450 GC+ rider, and it was a toss up between him and Foss. Remembered he was decent in the Italian Fall in 2021, and in GC last year, so was hoping he could improve and combine the two, particularly in the absence of Lopez.
As a result, am about midway in the popularity rankings and sharing 16 riders with only three other teams (Devils Elbow, JPettersen and triley36). Overall, reasonably happy with the balance of the team in terms of personal preference (riders/races), some solid bets. and a few punts. In light of the reveal would definitely swap Storer for Uijtdeberoeks , and possibly Ewan/Andersen for some other combination. But they both have pretty good potential upsides..
Last riders to get cut from the team, and who easily could have been it 24 hours either way:
Tesson
Nys
Romo
Halvorsen
Johannessen (knees)
Martinez
Padun
Vader
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