The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

Page 7 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
I tried to make a team last night, but I ended up being 3000 points over budget at the time of the European deadline, so I gave up. It would most likley only have been in contention for most Basque team anyway, so I doubt it's a huge loss to the game.

Good luck to all of you who do have teams in the competition :D

I accepted shalgo's team and two others since the initial deadline... if anyone is in Samu Cuenca's position and actually wants to make a team, you've got 5 hours! By my math, one more team will put us over 100, which I guess you won't win a prize like you're the millionth customer or something, but you'll get to play in a fun game at least.
 
I tried to make a team last night, but I ended up being 3000 points over budget at the time of the European deadline, so I gave up. It would most likley only have been in contention for most Basque team anyway, so I doubt it's a huge loss to the game.

Good luck to all of you who do have teams in the competition :D
Come'on, still more than 3 hours to go!... and if you actually made an all-basque team, I'm pretty sure you would find it hard to go above the 7500 threshold;)
 
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I'll join the trend.

Nationalities:
7 - UK
5- Italy
4- France
3- Denmark
2- Germany, the Netherlands
1- Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, USA

Points:
Over 1000: 1
600-1000: none
500-599: 2
400-499: 2
300-399: 4
200-299: 5
100-199: 7
1-99: 10
0: 2
 
Come'on, still more than 3 hours to go!... and if you actually made an all-basque team, I'm pretty sure you would find it hard to go above the 7500 threshold;)

It wasn't actually a completely Basque team, cause I tried to fit in all those I have made rider threads for as well, and there are some expensive guys among them.

But I have made some changes to it, and now almost everyone has some kind of Basque connection. I definitely won't win, but I hope I won't Landaluze (by too much) either.
 
It wasn't actually a completely Basque team, cause I tried to fit in all those I have made rider threads for as well, and there are some expensive guys among them.

But I have made some changes to it, and now almost everyone has some kind of Basque connection. I definitely won't win, but I hope I won't Landaluze (by too much) either.

Does "has won a race in the Basque country" count as some kind of Basque connection?

---

I bet I have the sexiest rider on my team! I also have a very quick - but not quickest - rider on my team.
 
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4 French, Italian
3 German, Belgian, Swiss
2 Danish, UK, Eritrean
1 US, Australian, New Zealandish, Slovenian, Slovakian, Colombian, South African, Estonian, Czech

2 riders 1000 plus
1 rider 600-999
4 riders 300-599
14 riders 101-299
9 riders 1-100
3 0-pointers

Also I have a very young team with 15 riders under 23.
 
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Hello to all of you, beautiful people. Another season :)
I bet I'll make my post of moaning and grieve as soon as I'll see some favourite picks that absolutely make sense but not in my team.

Good luck to all of you and surely to your riders as well.
 
I've changed my mind so many times I will need to check: I did something similar at VR the other day, but that was before I lost confidence in a certain deal happening and a number of individuals reviving past glories.

601 +: 2
401-600: 4
201-400: 7
101-200: 6
51-100: 4
11-50: 7
0-10: 3

<22: 7
22-26: 9
27-29: 10
30 +: 7 (probably too many)

4 GBR
3 AUS, BEL, FRA, NED
2 DEN, ITA, NOR
1 AUT, COL, GER, IRL, KAZ, NL, RUS, SLO, SVK, UKR, USA

WT: 30
PT: 3

1 team has 4 representatives (probably not a good tactic)
4 have 3
3 have 2
11 have 1

Edit: software interprets greater than sign as quote: weird
 
Okay everyone, it's 23:59 CET on the 7th so the publication deadline is now! All revisions are done and the game is on! Feel free to reveal your teams.

I'm typing this in a spare moment and won't be able to post for another few hours, but I look forward to engaging in everyone's teams in the next few days. Thanks to all 102 (I think) teams who are participating this year!!!
 
Here's my attempt at a repeat. Riders ordered by price and pick-by-pick analysis tomorrow probably.
ROGLIC Primoz
AYUSO PESQUERA Juan
PIDCOCK Thomas
PICCOLO Andrea
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
JOHANNESSEN Tobias Halland
LAURANCE Axel
ASGREEN Kasper
TESSON Jason
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian
PAGE Hugo
SCHACHMANN Maximilian
MIHKELS Madis
VACEK Mathias
VAN UDEN Casper
VAN EETVELT Lennert
PENHOËT Paul
MARTINEZ Lenny
ARRIETA LIZARRAGA Igor
GREGOIRE Romain
NYS Thibau
POOLE Max
SYRITSA Gleb
GLOAG Thomas
MOSCON Gianni
VERCHER Mattéo
HALVORSEN Kristoffer
ROMO OLIVER Javier
HERMANS Ben
CONTI Valerio
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
DEKKER David
TARLING Joshua
 
Here's my first team ever:

VAN DER POEL Mathieu
PIDCOCK Thomas
PICCOLO Andrea
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
WRIGHT Fred
HAIG Jack
DUNBAR Eddie
BAGIOLI Andrea
HONORE Mikkel Frølich
KWIATKOWSKI Michal
ASGREEN Kasper
MASNADA Fausto
SIMMONS Quinn
VAN WILDER Ilan
WATSON Samuel
SCHACHMANN Maximilian
WAERENSKJOLD Søren
ONLEY Oscar
MILAN Jonathan
MARTINEZ Lenny
GREGOIRE Romain
HAYTER Leo
SYRITSA Gleb
HESSMANN Michel
GLOAG Thomas
MOSCON Gianni
TRONCHON Bastien
FISHER-BLACK Finn
PEDERSEN Casper Phillip
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
DEKKER David
TARLING Joshua
LEONARD Michael

I have no experience with this game so I have no idea whether my tactics work for this one but we'll see.
 
Haha, does everyone have Piccolo? Here's mine. Some filler at the bottom as per usual.

ROGLIC Primoz
1240​
MAS NICOLAU Enric
1171​
AYUSO PESQUERA Juan
1004​
PIDCOCK Thomas
599​
PICCOLO Andrea
509​
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
489​
PLAPP Lucas
441​
WRIGHT Fred
416​
SAGAN Peter
402​
SCHACHMANN Maximilian
187​
ONLEY Oscar
161​
MARTINEZ Lenny
121​
GREGOIRE Romain
108​
HAYTER Leo
98​
SYRITSA Gleb
96​
PITHIE Laurence
86​
GLOAG Thomas
80​
SEGAERT Alec
67​
MOSCON Gianni
61​
BOL Cees
57​
PLOWRIGHT Jensen
52​
LECERF William Junior
17​
WALLS Matthew
10​
RONDEL Mathys
8​
QUICK Blake
6​
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
5​
VADER Milan
5​
DEKKER David
3​
TARLING Joshua
0​
LEONARD Michael
0​
HERZOG Emil
0​
MORGADO Antonio
0​
HODEG CHAGUI Alvaro Jose
0​
 
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Here's my team this year with some sort of argumentation and expectations - I tried a new approach for me, going top-heavy and splashing big on two riders almost always in the mix, thus also finding a lot of cheap (and young) guys to root for. Sadly I couldn't just leave my one sentimental pick out, so Sagan is on my team for the third time in a row:

ROGLIC Primoz: Still a great rider, was very unlucky last year from the Tour and beyond. Doubling the points to 2500+ should be doable with no major bad luck.

VAN DER POEL Mathieu: Also struck with bad luck in 2022, but such a classy rider. If Van Aert can get 2800 points, Van Der Poel should be able to get to 2200 points as well. Of course his back problems and his MTB focus might deter his season a bit, but still I feel he’s got so much upside, that I went for the “go big or go home” approach this year.

PIDCOCK Thomas: Picked due to potential and ambitions for the road in 2023. Will easily better his season from last year, 1500 points could be on the table, if he takes a leap in stage races, as I expect.

ALAPHILIPPE Julian: The former World Champ got struck by the rainbow curse, and even though Lefevre is picking on him, 6 out of his last 7 seasons went for over 1000 points, so he’s bound to bounce back in a major way. Probably a consensus pick.

SAGAN Peter: Okay, even though I burned my hand on picking Sagan over Evenepoel last year, I just can’t get myself to not picking him at this price. Sagan is still an undisputed leader, and if his long-covid symptoms and divorce are finally behind him, hopefully he’ll show the World he’s not done yet. I expect/hope for a 1000 points season.

GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando: Movistar thinks Gaviria deserves super sprinter status, and even though they never really managed to back up a real sprinter, Gaviria will get a much needed change of scenery and clear leader role in the races he wishes. 800 points should be doable.

BAGIOLI Andrea: There’s plenty of chefs on QuickStep, and Bagioli will definitely fight with Alaphilippe in several races, but the guy is so talented and aggressive in his style. An injury-free season will also allow him at least 600 points, and I’m probably understating here.

HONORE Mikkel Frølich: If he stayed at QuickStep, I’d never have picked him, and even though EF isn’t exactly masters of one day races, Honoré is on the verge of breaking through with a big win, and a clear leader role will benefit him. 700 points area expected.

ASGREEN Kasper: I’m seeing the QuickStep theme here, but Asgreen had nothing going for him last season, and this guys motor is incredible - just ask Van Der Poel:) 600 points expected. Probably a consensus top10 pick.

UIJTDEBROEKS Cian: Actually young Cian exceeded my expectations for him last year, but after following him race much of the year, it’s clear this guy is the real deal. His ceiling is very high, and though it might take a year or two for him to break the 1000 points barrier, I wouldn’t risk making another mistake by not picking a very young, extremely talented Belgian.

SIMMONS Quinn: Just like Honoré, Simmons is a case of almost-there. He always lights up the races, makes him fun to watch, and he is sure enough in himself to expect his first (big) win to come this year. I’m gunning for a 500 points season.

VAN WILDER Ilan: Young, talented Belgian - and not just Evenepoels sidekick. I’m sure Logic-is-your-friend would tell everyone to pick him, and he couldn’t possibly be anymore unlucky than last year. 500+ points expected.

SCHACHMANN Maximilian: I don’t really know what went wrong with Schachmann last year, he just never was quite there. Three seasons prior all around the 1000 points tells me last season was the outlier. Expecting 750 points at least. Should be a consensus pick.

ONLEY Oscar: Let’s be honest - I didn’t really know the guy before seeing him race against Vingegaard in Croatia, but boy, was he amazing? DSM seem to have a reasonably flat hierarchy, so if Onley is further improving, there should be big things looming. A little daunting, but I’m going talents this year.

MILAN Jonathan: It was him or Van Uden, and in the end I opted for the guy who already showed great promise in the pro peloton last year. Milan is ready to step up to the next level and has a clear path to a leaders role on a Bahrain team void of sprinting competition bar Bauhaus. Expected 500 points.

STYBAR Zdenek: My standard “old cobbles guy”. Change of scenery to Jayco makes him clear leader, and Stybar himself apparently still thinks he has got what it takes. That’s enough for me, since he’s not Froome:) 400 points expected, potentially a consensus pick as well.

WILLIAMS Stephen: I’d liked it better, if his B&B Hotels team hadn’t collapsed, but I guess Israel has to do - a lot of minor races where he could use his punch. The guy has clearly not gotten enough out of his talents so far, and it’s just one of those cases of “I’ve got a feeling” by seeing his wins in Croatia ´21 and Suisse ’22. I expect 400+ points.

GREGOIRE Romain: Most likely picked too soon, but his performance across the U23 scene has been amazing. Hopefully he’ll translate it to the pros rather sooner than later. Picked more from a talent perspective, but these last years have seen more and more young guys breaking through early on. 200 points is an easy estimate.

BRENNER Marco: Rode far better last year than his results suggest. Remember Brenner is still only 20 years old, and with a Vuelta in his bag now, I’m sure he’s ready to step up a notch this year on a DSM team screaming for results. I expect 400 points.

NYS Thibau: Another cyclocrosser-turned road racer. Still very young and learning, but he’s fast and should get his chances this year. Hard to tell if this year is too soon for him, but in the end I opted for him instead of team mate Hellemose, as I think his ceiling is higher. 200 points expected.

MOSCHETTI Matteo: He bossed the Mallorcan races in early 2020, but since then Moschetti has been rather quiet. I’m hoping that his switch to new Q36.5 (Gotta love that name!) will give him lots of opportunities in smaller races, where wins will raise his confidence - he doesn’t seem so confident. Hard to know his racing program yet, but let’s go with 300 expected points.

MOSCON Gianni: Il trattore - lost his 2022 season to a bacterial infection, but should be back on track now. It’s clear what he’s capable of, when he’s healthy. Astana needs him to step up. 500+ points, should be an easy consensus pick, if people don’t shy away from him because of his personality.

DE PLUS Laurens: I lost count of how many years I’ve picked De Plus in this game. He’s been hindered by a viral infection, which he took a long time to regain race fitness from, and even though he’s still a long way down the pecking order at Ineos, even the mules sometimes get their chances. Let’s say a 200 points outcome is a decent floor.

SCHELLING Ide: Another rider hit with long-covid symptoms last year, so I’m gonna trust his own words and believe he’s better now. Talented Dutchman, expecting a repeat of his 500 points from 2021. Will he be a consensus top15 pick due to his low price?

HOELGAARD Markus: Also Hoelgaard experienced the aftermath of Covid last year, which seems to be a theme for at lot of riders. He’s absolutely more than capable to score 300+ points in a regular season, despite backing up Mads P and Stuyven.

PONOMAR Andriy: Great Ukranian talent, still very young - but has already finished two grand tours. I primarily picked him because of his team change, where I need some guys for the massive amount of French races.

FISHER-BLACK Finn: Massively talented, ended 2022 with a terrible crash, just when he was about to show his big talent. Versatile and highly praised by Mauro Gianetti at UAE. 300+ points this year.

STEINHAUSER Georg: After finishing his studies, we’re now ready to see Steinhauser take on pro cycling full time. With both time trial and climbing skills he should be able to get some chances on a opportunistic EF team. 200 points.

HERMANS Ben: This one is gonna be boom-or-break I think. Also Hermans has been hit hard with long-covid. If he’s not able to return to his old self, he’s not gonna make the 50 points mark, but if healthy there’s 500 points on the table for the taking. I’m taking that odds, hoping for Hermans’ full recovery.

WALLS Matthew: Walls should be completely over that horrific crash in the Commonwealth and will likely resume an important sprinters position again this year. 400+ points expected - curious to see if this is a guy that players find general consensus in, because I just stumbled over him in the last minute.

QUICK Blake: Groves is gone, Blake is Quick. Well, not quite as fast yet, but he will at least get some chances, because of the hole the departure of Groves left at Jayco. Very cheap, let’s say the floor is 200 points.

BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley: Well, nothing to say here. Guaranteed to be the top pick in this years game, most likely unanimous, except for those forgetting about him or not caring about the overall win.

DEKKER David: French racing. Period. Okay, that’s a bit rough. Dekker showed potential in his first season, but he has been unlucky, ridden silly/stupid or been hit by sickness. He would’ve easily gotten 200 points anywhere else, but on Arkea I can see a 400+ points season coming up.

Good luck to all this year, but mainly good luck to my team :)
 
Read 'em and weep boys

Bolded the ones I have in common with the reigning champ

ROGLIC Primoz - 1240
VAN DER POEL Mathieu - 1230 (risky, especially with the back issues that are not entirely gone but the potential is there)
GIRMAY HAILU Biniam - 1048 (gamble but his performance in the Canada classics gives me hope that he will be up there all year and not just in GW)
PIDCOCK Thomas - 599 (Should be able to do better)
ALAPHILIPPE Julian - 489 (obvious imo)

STUYVEN Jasper - 444 (Can and should do better)
SAGAN Peter - 402 (Should be able to do better)
LAMPAERT Yves - 397 (I hope that him wearing yellow gave him a mental edge to play a more prominent role in classics/smaller stage races. Even without that last season was uncharacteristically mediocre)
KWIATKOWSKI Michael - 272 (Just be consistent for one year damn it.)
ASGREEN Kasper - 267 (Should be able to do better)
MASNADA Fausto - 246 (kind of for the meme)
SCHACHMANN Maximilian - 187 (Obvious. I also wanted to go for ACKERMANN but he burned me last year)
DE LA CRUZ MELGAREJO David - 182 (had his worst season of the last 7 years but otherwise a gamble)
CATTANEO Mattia - 101 (had his worst season of the last 6 years but otherwise a gamble)
MOSCON Gianni - 61 (obvious)
VERCHER Mattéo - 57 (Only started riding in august so I hope for more given a full season. Could easily backfire)

DIAZ GALLEGO Jose Manuel - 56 (Went to Gazprom before the Ukraine invasion and subsequent sanctions.)
SCHELLING Ide - 46 (No clue what but something clearly went wrong)
CARBONI Giovanni - 40 (Gazprom victim)
BALDERSTONE ROUMENS Abel - 36 (Only started riding in august.)
HALVORSEN Kristoffer - 25 (no clue what went wrong here but points & age tells me he can do far better)
HERMANS Ben - 20 (long-covid)
CONTI Valerio - 13 (crashed)

RICKAERT Jonas - 10 (Crashed last year but regularly cleared 200 points before)
WALLS Matthew - 10 (If you can win Gran Piemonte at 23 you deserve more than 10 points)
GARCIA SOSA Jhojan Orlando - 10 (He was good in 2021 so why not this year?)
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley - 5 (obvious)
ANTUNES Amaro Manuel Reposo - 5 (no clue what went wrong here. Managed to win Volta a Portugal multiple times then left his last team in july. If he can ride it again this year I surely expect more than 5 points)
PUPPIO Antonio - 2 (Last minute pick to get exactly 7500. Am not expecting much)
LOPEZ CUESTA Joseba - 0 (absolute gamble)
AZPARREN IRURZUN Enekoitz - 0 (absolute gamble)
HODEG CHAGUI Alvaro Jose - 0 (Absolute horror crash but if he can return I can see him scoring 100s of points)
VAN DER LIJKE Nick - 0 (I liked the idea of picking up 32 year old experienced cyclist for 0 points as he took a break to try out a different job. Before he was able to reach 200 points.)

I once again went for what I expect to be quite a few unique picks but this time around I went all-in on big bets as well.
 
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Thanks so much skidmark, and good luck everyone!

Chastened by last year’s trouncing, am trying to play it a bit safer. No one over 600 and nearly all those above 200 I’m hoping are relatively risk-free. Maybe a mega season, potentially a 200% return and at least, barring injury, not a points vacuum. Have been more adventurous with the lower ranked riders and selected a lot of U-23s as I expect a lot of us will?

Fairly obvious picks

Bernal (5)
Alaphillipe (489)
Schelling (46)
Hermans (Ben) 20
Moscon (61)
Lutsenko (454)
Asgreen (267)
Schachmann (187)

Everyone deserves a second chance?

Returning from last year’s disastrous team:

Pidcock (599) – An illness-free spring should bring a good return to begin with, and he’ll be fun to watch.

Ewan (576) – Really didn’t enjoy having him last year, but thought the Australian races would give him a good base to build on. He’s already ill though apparently, so possibly another season to forget ahead.

Baroncini (191)– If he can stay on his bike this year, he’ll score points.

Kragh Andersen (362)– One of my less certain picks. Not sure being at DSM was the explanation for his underperformance. Am hoping Alpecin can make him a bit more consistent

Still annoyed at stupidly excluding Klooj and De Lie last season

So just to be on the safe side:

Van Uden (160)
Quick (6)
Salby (53)
Walls (10)
Mikhels (173)
Kolze (58)


Time to start winning some races lads?

Simmons (243)
Wright (416

Even if they don’t, I’ll enjoy following them and they’ll still get results.

Great Autumn 2022. Can you follow it up?

Piccolo (509)
Strong (358)

Both these riders made a big impact in the final third of the season. Strong will hopefully continue to participate in the Belgian and French races following IPT’s relegation, while Piccolo could have potential in GC, as well as one-day? Both are already competitive in the Italian Fall which is one of my favourite parts of the season.

Realised at one point I had hardly any GC riders

Haig (364)
Storer (275)
Battistella (447)

The latter could get more GC opportunities due to Lopez’s sacking, and can also compete in the Italian Fall, which he wasn’t able to last year.
Am not entirely convinced about Storer, but he should get a lot of chances at an FDJ team without many alternative options.

Others

Fisher-Black (37) – Promising neo-pro in 2021, whose season ended at the end of May in 2022. Hoping for a 200% return at least :)

Van Eetvelt (139) – Lotto have hardly any GC riders, so even if he finds his neo-pro year difficult, could top 15 his way to a decent return.

Ponomar (37) – The hype never died for me.

Vacek (164) – Have only seen him a couple of times on TV, but was impressed. From his record seems like the sort of versatile rider I like.

Warenskjold (168) – As above, only seen him once but what a palmares already. Really looking forward to seeing what he can do in the Spring.

Pedersen Caspar (24) – Has won Paris-Tours and is joining Quick-Step, from DSM. It would be rude not to pick him.

Honore (320) – Spent most of last season pointlessly tooling around WT stage races, before coming back with some strong results in the autumn one-dayers. Looks like EF are offering him a much better calendar.

Page (230) – Huge potential I think, but can look erratic/dangerous on the bike and was the one clonked on the head by Molano for this reason. Am hoping he’s more interesting to follow for the former rather than the latter.


Was working today so probably won't be awake much longer. Looking forward to seeing everyone's teams and comments tomorrow.
 
ROGLIC Primoz (1240) - his 3000-point season days are presumably over, but he’s still far better than he managed last season. Going to the Giro should help with the crash rate too. The delayed season start is the only real risk here.
PIDCOCK Thomas (599) - passed on him last year and was better off for it. There’s more competition within the team now with the rise of Sheffield in particular, yet I sense this could be the year he really makes that next step into the quad-digit seasons we all know he has the potential to get to.
PICCOLO Andrea (509) - similar logic to Girmay last year: barely scored anything in the first half of the season due to team issues, then was on fire in the second half. Hoping for a similar payoff here.
ALAPHILIPPE Julian (489) - one of the most obvious picks in the history of the game.
PLAPP Lucas (441) - I have three riders on my team I picked last year too, he’s the only one who was a good pick that time. However, the big breakthrough is still yet to happen and it may be right around the corner. Could be well on his way before he gets out of Australia.
WRIGHT Fred (416) - hard to believe he’s this cheap after the year he’s had.
HAIG Jack (364) - should do just fine if he doesn’t have as much bad luck crash-wise.
STRONG Corbin (358) - such a good skillset to acquire CQ points with, if he continues where he left off last year he will be a strong (heh) pick.
HONORE Mikkel Frølich (320) - 2022 QS was a team full of riders who had poor seasons masked by Evenepoel going insane. Honoré is still young, has proven to be capable of the season he needs to be a good pick and should be higher up in the hierarchy at EF.
ASGREEN Kasper (267) - I see no reason to believe last year wasn’t an injury-hampered blip.
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian (253) - passed on him everywhere last year, not making that mistake this year.
VAN WILDER Ilan (232) - second re-pick. If he can stay healthy, it really should be time for him to start fulfilling his potential, even if he’ll have to play the domestique role part of the time.
BARONCINI Filippo (191) - third and final re-pick. Couldn’t seem to stay on his bike last year and also seemingly injured himself every time he crashed, yet the potential is still there.
SCHACHMANN Maximilian (187) - another really obvious pick.
TIBERI Antonio (174) - there were four races last year where he went really well on the hard stages and for various reasons he only managed a GC in two of them. Setting that aside, you’d expect him to be a little stronger this year in general.
VACEK Mathias (164) - impressed in both the U23 and pro races last year, excited to see where he can go in his first proper pro season
ONLEY Oscar (161) - was already a certain pick for me after the Tour of Britain, Croatia made him both more obvious and more expensive but I still couldn’t leave him out.
MILAN Jonathan (160) - has had an underwhelming start with Bahrain, but it looked like he was starting to live up to expectations in Croatia. If he can get anywhere near that form on a consistent basis, he will do well.
MARTINEZ Lenny (121) - only went for two of Groupama’s crazy generation in the end, couldn’t pass on someone with Martinez’ climbing pedigree though.
GREGOIRE Romain (108) - arguably the best U23 last year and he’s already shown glimpses of the rider he will probably become in pro races. Impossible to skip.
NYS Thibau (102) - yes, I know I have three other Trek youngsters, but Nys just has too much potential to ignore, I think a lot of us were planning on taking him for his neo-pro season twelve months ago already.
HAYTER Leo (98) - much like his older brother, there seems to be little he can’t do. Much like his older brother, it should be translating to major points fairly soon.
BARBIER Rudy (90) - back at the continental level, it’s time for him to do what he was always best at - farm points in the smaller French races.
MALUCELLI Matteo (82) - Bingoal let go of their two main sprinters last year and they’ll need to make up for it. Considered Salby for similar reasons, but Malucelli showed his speed last year and could do really well provided he can adapt to the Belgian races.
GLOAG Thomas (80) - showed his potential at the U23 level and then impressed as a stagiaire at the end of last year. Definitely one of the more obvious neo-pros.
BAUDIN Alex (76) - great skillset for the semiclassics, which makes AG2R a good team to be on.
MOSCON Gianni (61) - should do well if he doesn’t have another disaster year.
SCHELLING Ide (46) - see above
HOELGAARD Markus (44) - see above
FISHER-BLACK Finn (37) - see above
WALLS Matthew (10) - see above
SVRCEK Martin (10) - probably a year too early, but that isn’t a safe statement to make in this era.
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley (5) - as obvious as a pick this cheap can possibly get, even if there’s no guarantee he will recover to his best.

Riders I was closest to picking - Lampaert, Poole, Thompson, Quick.
Riders I would have loved to pick but couldn’t fit in on a Roglic team - McNulty, Sheffield, Lutsenko
 

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