Sure but the GTs are held at the same time every year so you would expect that phenomenom to repeat itself every season. We went from having shalgo outscore every team in the history of the game by at least 600 points post Giro and having like half a dozen team ahead of every single 2023 team at the same stage to probably ending up with a single 15k+ team at the end of the season. For context, there's 10 teams on average that clear the 15000 points barrier (7 if you filter out the pandemic affected 2020/2021) and we had 4 in 2023. It's especially notable since we have extra points on offer from the Olympics this season. There's clearly something else going on that explains that drastic drop off and no I don't know what it is.
Just a coincidence I think. A lot of the popular picks who scored heavily in the spring have fallen off a cliff for various reasons. Ayuso issues, Plapp injury, the Giro guys (Martinez, Arensman) not following up later in the season, Bernal injury, Morgado and Del Toro out of steam, Capiot injury, Rodriguez meh in the GTs.
And as has been pointed out, there was no Roglic/Remco/Boonen etc. who you could really rely on keeping the points rolling in all through the season.
And for shalgo, even the rare-ish picks that have made their team so successful are having issues. Cosnefroy injured, Bennett really only had that one race, Laurance no form anymore, Fisher-Black became a domestique after Lutsenkoing the first couple of months and same for Lecerf really.
Just think it's bad luck coupled with some good luck in that all those not-so-established riders scored so well in the beginning.
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