The 2024 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Squire]

Magnus Sheffield, 573 points, 22 picks
Picked by roughly 1/5 of the managers he can become a game-changer, if he has a breakout type of season. Tarling, when interviewed, said he reckons Sheffield could win a classic this season and as Sheffield can also score points in stage-races he has great potential for this game.

I thought he would be a lot more exciting to pick and root for this year, than the one whose name shall not be spoken but costed just about the same. Some has managed to fit him in as well by the looks of it.

He is probably the pick that I find most exciting, too. That excitement certainly played a part in picking him over the possibly safer options of Cian, Jakobsen or Vine. Sheffield is a major wildcard as we don't really know what kind of rider he is yet, but for this game I love the potential in riders who can score in all sorts of races. Sometimes they end up not scoring enough in any of the races, but I consider Sheffield to be an S tier talent. There is a universe where he develops into a 2000 point rider, and it's fun having two of those high ceiling/high uncertainty riders as my two top picks. All the crashes are Sheffield's biggest risk.

Max Poole, 382 points, 16 picks
I think he has great potential but was probably too expensive for teams who went with Ayuso, C Rod, he-who-shall-not-be-named and so on... but since I didnt pick the latter two I had the space.

Antonio Tiberi, 347 points, 15 picks
I thought he would be picked more after his absence in the season and how good he was in the Vuelta, but also good performances in the Italian races after it. He was one of the first names on my team.

Maybe it was a case of not being able to fit him in for many?

For me as well, these are the kind of guys who need to deliver if I'm gonna beat the Ayuso/C-Rod teams. You somehow managed to fit all of Sheffield, Poole and Tiberi in while still having Ayuso, but I guess my Pidcock pick can be considered a bit of like-for-like with Ayuso cost wise. I'll have to hope your Tarling becomes your weakness in order to get an edge over you in the expensive department. I share EITB's assessment of him.

Fred Wright, 298 points, 22 picks
I picked him since he has shown very good potential for some of the biggest races and is due a big year now. Little bit of make or break here and he will surely be up for it, I am hoping.

If Wright was at any other team, I'd probably pick him. But Bahrain always have the worst CQ calendar of all the teams. Basically no small races to pad the points tally. Wright needs to show up in the big ones if he's gonna be worth it, which could happen, but I like to spread my eggs across more baskets. Bauhaus is a bit of the same. If he switched teams, I'd pick him in an instant. He's probably the most underappreciated sprinter on the World Tour, just because he doesn't get a chance to have the volume of results that guys like Philipsen, De Lie, Groenewegen etc do.

 

[vladimir]

Well, I am happy with my team after the reveal even though I am as far down as 74th in the popularity ranking. The only popular rider that was not on my radar is Amaury Capiot, which I would probably have picked if had him on my long list. Carapaz and Dani Martinez were two of the first on my watch list, but neither of them made the cut. I will probably not match Bicycle Boy in the classics, but with almost unpicked classic riders like van Baarle, Bettiol, Turgis and Ballerini I really hope to be quite high in the rankings mid April

 

[Salvarani]

I'll have to hope your Tarling becomes your weakness in order to get an edge over you in the expensive department. I share EITB's assessment of him.

We will see.

I think both him and Hagenes could be great and costly to miss out on, but question if it is this season. Anyway, I like the potential with them and dont mind the risk.

What you mention with Wright could be a concern, but as I mentioned in my post where I went through my whole team... I hope he scores more in some of the other races during the spring. Not just in Ronde. He also missed most of the fall because of his broken collarbone. It is how I reasoned at least.

 

[skidmark]

So Izzy Sharp is allowed?

Hey you never know if a rider with that name will get points in CQ men's races...

But yes, in the vein of Air Bud (ie. 'there's no rule that a dog can't play basketball'), technically only riders on the provisionally suspended list are not allowed. So theoretically, you could just make up names on your team as zero pointers. I've always said you can feel free to choose Carlos Sastre or something at zero points, and that also applies to juniors who aren't in the CQ database yet; the logical conclusion of that reasoning would be to allow any combination of names with the understanding that their chances of scoring points would be vanishingly small. Hmm do you think there's an untapped angle of filling out zero pointers once your budget is met with speculative name changes, ie "PIDCOCK Tom", "PARET-PEINTRE Valentin"? That might be a can of worms/thing for CQ obsessives to spend way too much time on. So maybe I'll make a rule next year.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Hey you never know if a rider with that name will get points in CQ men's races...

But yes, in the vein of Air Bud (ie. 'there's no rule that a dog can't play basketball'), technically only riders on the provisionally suspended list are not allowed. So theoretically, you could just make up names on your team as zero pointers. I've always said you can feel free to choose Carlos Sastre or something at zero points, and that also applies to juniors who aren't in the CQ database yet; the logical conclusion of that reasoning would be to allow any combination of names with the understanding that their chances of scoring points would be vanishingly small. Hmm do you think there's an untapped angle of filling out zero pointers once your budget is met with speculative name changes, ie "PIDCOCK Tom", "PARET-PEINTRE Valentin"? That might be a can of worms/thing for CQ obsessives to spend way too much time on. So maybe I'll make a rule next year.

No-one tried to include the Tarteletto Ben Hermans as a free pick last year, and then claimed the points of his (then) IPT namesake?

 

[escartin]

my team:

AYUSO PESQUERA Juan 1023
JOHANNESSEN Tobias Halland 737
MAS NICOLAU Enric 736
MARTINEZ Lenny 530
CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio 496
HAYTER Ethan 476
GIRMAY HAILU Biniam 456
DAINESE Alberto 313
NYS Thibau 305
BENNETT Sam 302
ARENSMAN Thymen 283
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe 279
VANSEVENANT Mauri 207
SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro 199
LAMPERTI Luke 176
TURNER Ben 158
DEL TORO ROMERO Isaac 124
PICCOLO Andrea 94
NERURKAR Lukas 83
HAGEN Carl Fredrik 71
MOSCON Gianni 68
PEDRERO LOPEZ Antonio 56
RONDEL Mathys 55
HIRT Jan 52
QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander 50
VUILLERMOZ Alexis 46
HODEG CHAGUI Alvaro Jose 42
MAGNIER Paul 38
BRUTTOMESSO Alberto 30
LE HUITOUZE Eddy 15
AUGUST Andrew 0
BELOKI FERNANDEZ Markel 0
STORM Theodor 0

some comments:

• my left field expensive picks appear to be Johannessen, Martinex L, Dainese (expected) and Mas, Sosa (not expected)
• repeat picks from last year are Vansevenant (a near unique pick last year who I also had in 2022), Turner, Nys, Hodeg, Moscon
• there are a lot of riders I had last year that I did not pick again that have been mentioned and seem to be quite popular in some cases: Bernal, Alaphillipe, Schachmann, Brenner, Ackermann, Leonard, Gautherat (unique pick last year), Svrcek, Tarling. that is a lot more than usual and a bit concerning.
• I picked Del Toro Romero due to the Tour de l'Avenir. it might have been a good idea to look at who finished behind him in that race and also the Giro Next Gen, given some of the popular picks I missed. Staune-Mittet would have been straight into my team if I had seen him.
• the riders over 40 popularity that I missed are the aforementioned Norwegian, Capiot (who I totally missed and would have picked straightaway), Uijtdbroeks (who I regretted missing last year, never thought about him this time) and Plapp
• I know little about the 3 0-pointers apart from 1) they are all 18, 2) one has a famous father and 3) 2 are from IGD and I had Tarling last year so I was immediately drawn to them and 4) they are all pretty popular
• Carl Fredrik Hagen is my only unique pick.
• expensive riders I was tempted by were WVA, Pidcock, Demare and even Trentin(!) ( I seem to have been alone in this temptation) but they soon all dropped out of consideration once I had decided on my 3 expensive picks.

 

[jsem94]

I spent many hours on this, and I can't believe I overlooked Piccolo. Ah well.

Last year I was quite confident in my team, at least to be in the top 25%. This year - not so much. There were TOO many riders to choose from with great potential upside. Not going to go through my entire team and the thought process right now, but I love seeing all of you who did. In the end though, the entire team composition matters too. Who gets to stay in and who gets kicked out? I'd almost love to do a breakdown on the entire process of picking the last eight riders or so, and which super young riders to pick. It's going to be an exciting season either way.

 

[Shakes]

First time playing and unfortunately did not look for the people with zero points. Oops! Popularity score of 307 at least ensures trajectory of my score will deviate quite a lot from others. Unfortunately more likely then not that it's at the bottom end but who knows! Just picked riders that rang a bell and I thought were undervalued. No real system to it, just browsing through the list with the constraint of 7500 points.

 

[mirunj]

So looking at the full list of entries, we have 525 riders between us, including one woman (Izzy Sharp) and one fairly high profile announcement of retirement as of last week (Oss)

That's what happens (picking Izzy) when you realize that the submission deadline is just a few hours away. I should have given that news item on 'promising neo-pros' more than just a quick skim, clearly ... I wonder how far into the season I would have figured that out, if at all )

 

[hayneplane]

I share some of the skepticism about Van Wilder's upside, but I had him last year and I believe in his talent so he could spring a surprise. Just think there were a lot of safer picks in his price range.

Speaking of potential, I'm curious to hear what kind of expectations some of the 28 Thibau Nys backers have, considering he starts his season at Romandie.

I briefly touched on Cian when replying to skidmark's team, but I'm also curious to hear predictions from some more of the Cianistas.

Would also be interesting to read the thoughts on Andew August, Emil Herzog, Markel Beloki and Joshua Tarling from some of their many backers.

Romandie start - ouch, I was not aware of this as was expecting him to have a breakthrough in the semi classics this spring when I picked him.

 

[laarsland]

I spent many hours on this, and I can't believe I overlooked Piccolo. Ah well.

Last year I was quite confident in my team, at least to be in the top 25%. This year - not so much. There were TOO many riders to choose from with great potential upside. Not going to go through my entire team and the thought process right now, but I love seeing all of you who did. In the end though, the entire team composition matters too. Who gets to stay in and who gets kicked out? I'd almost love to do a breakdown on the entire process of picking the last eight riders or so, and which super young riders to pick. It's going to be an exciting season either way.

Don't beat yourself up, everyone can make a Piccolo oversight

 

[hayneplane]

1st timer and 84th on the popularity list means I have either been super astute 🫰or missed a lot of obvious picks 🙈.

Got 4 unique picks and 4 more that only 2 others picked so if I hit on those they will be very beneficial.

Gutted to miss out Carapaz and Quintana though I felt conflicted by the idea of picking him off a doping issue.

Genuinely shocked that only 5 others picked Wout as I thought his price could be a steal if he wins a monument this year along with a clutch of Giro stages.

A measure of how knowledgeable this forum is was how half the teams included guys like Archie Ryan and JS-M plus Del Toro who I was hoping to gain an edge from.

Got a few young guns but the big theme of the team is redemption arcs for various reasons eg Simmons, Sam Bennett, Bouhanni, MOSCON, Capiot.

Team is light on GC talent but I just felt the established talent will lock up Tour and Vuelta and Pogacar will dominate the Giro leaving slim pickings for others. Ayuso has been a super popular pick but I was put off by him going to the Tour as his Grand Tour and not being clear leader.

Missing out on the zero pointers is a wasted opportunity but I was short on time to submit.

 

[search]

Don't beat yourself up, everyone can make a Piccolo oversight

...or leave him out on purpose . He obviously has a lot of potential, but with no apparent reason for his total lack of performance in 2023, personally I just found it difficult to pick him.

I actually thought the same about Bernal though, who only got worse and worse over the year, but still ended up with him in the end.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Don't beat yourself up, everyone can make a Piccolo oversight

Does that include the manager who chose Piccoli instead, and nearly twice the price.

 

[laarsland]

Does that include the manager who chose Piccoli instead, and nearly twice the price.

Did they both really have Simone Piccolo in mind with his three wins in 2023, or would that be a too Cesare Picchianti of a mistake to make?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Got a few young guns but the big theme of the team is redemption arcs for various reasons eg Simmons, Sam Bennett, Bouhanni, MOSCON, Capiot.

As already mentioned by others in this thread, there probably won't be a whole lot of redemption for Bouhanni. Still I can assure you that you won't end up in last place.

 

[bminchow]

Okay Then. Found a few minutes to summarize my team. Although i still lack confidence in my knowledge, I have played for a few years now so hopefully my assessments aren't too far off. Interesting reading everyones summaries and making me feel a little stupid. Lets start off with who i didn't pick.

I made a last day change to my roster which caused me to move several guys. Like another on this forum, Lantern Rouge convinced me that Baroncini was awesome and maybe just had too many injuries to succeed so far. So i had to bring him in, which meant moving 5-6 people around to make it work.

TRAEEN Torstein - I really like what I saw last year and was thinking the team change and recovery from injury would give him some upside. Since nobody else picked him, maybe i dodged a bullet there.
CAMPENAERTS Victor - Another i was really impressed with that did lose some racing time last year. Since only two people picked him, I guess he was not that popular. I think I also saw a pretty flat line on his CQ ranking over the years.
SCHELLING Ide - i think this guy has the potential to really improve his results. But didnt like the move to Astana. Was on 3 of my 5 itrrations, but had to drop to make budget work.
HUBY Antoine - I really liked what i read about this guy and one pundit listed him as his most exciting rider to follow this year. But you can only have so many neo-pros eh?
ARRIETA LIZARRAGA Igor - was on 4 of 5 of my iterations, and way too early to give up on him. Didn;t he miss some racing time last year as well. May not see many chances this year though so felt safe dropping him.
ROMEO ABAD Ivan - Was on all 5 of my drafts as I liked him last year. Could see a big boost this year so risky leaving him off, but this isn't the Emerging Riders league .
WALLS Matthew - This one hurts. One of the first guys i chose for all 5 of my drafts. Like many here, saw great potential for a big leap in his new role. Somehow, when making my last day changes, I decided no thank you. I have no idea why. His popularity in your picks is making me really nervous.

So, I'll start my team with the 7 guys i put in at last minute in place of the above:
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe - I watched a lot of duds last year when he was racing. Really didn't seem to have it. But his history before that was really good. So this is the first of many many picks that goes against the theory "Pick nobody that didn't have a good reason for a bad last year".
LUND ANDRESEN Tobias - Wasn't on any of my 5 drafts. Price seemed too high. But for some reason I grabbed him at the last moment. I think I just like him as a rider. If given a chance (fabio!) I think he can get a few more points.
VANSEVENANT Mauri - Another guy that was on zero of my 5 drafts. I always liked him but doesn't seem really consistent. But if any of you have ADHD, you'll know that impulsive decisions are our forte. Like ordering the burrito when the waiter comes, when all you talked about for 5 minutes was getting a juicy burger.
BARONCINI Filippo - The reason i made all the last minute changes. I try to get people in this price range that can potentially triple their points. Thats not Filippo. But what Lantern Rouge says, Bob does. Even though they burned me last year (Madhis Mikels!).
VALGREN HUNDAHL (ANDERSEN) Michael - What the heck. Won;t get back to his best but his words say he could triple his points.
LEONARD Michael - I'm going with a year at Ineos should get him experience and confidence for this year. Did he even race last year? Mostly a budget fill in.
AUGUST Andrew - I'm going with who needs a year to gain experience, I'm ready now (a la Tarling). Took him because i didn;t have quite enough points to keep Walls on the roster.

The rest of my team in order of popularity:
QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander - Obvious. Even if he is a domestique. He says he's not at his same level but he is here to get them some points.
CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio - Couldn't leave him off. finish a grand tour and we are all set!
ARENSMAN Thymen - Like many of us, i see him as a leader at multiple races this year for Ineos. Plus he still has great talent. Maybe better for 1 week races?
RYAN Archie - I guess he is everyones favorite neopro. i know nothing about his knees, but my knees would hurt too with all those miles.
TURNER Ben - Had him last year but got burned. Tullett is gone so less confusion for some of us less knowledgeable. So much bad luck last year that cannot happen again. Ineos will have him ready.
STAUNE-MITTET Johannes - May be a year early, but i doubt it. Read to many good things to wait on him.
GIRMAY HAILU Biniam - I really thought I wasn't going to take him. I dont think he had any really good excuses for last year. But you need to find 500 pointers that have the potential to go 1000+. He is one of them.
PICCOLO Andrea - Did not pick him last year (Thank Zeus) but at this budget point, well worth the risk. The talent still has to be there. Right?
HAYTER Ethan - Same as Girmay. 500 pointer who has gone 1000 in the past (those looking for a breakout? It already happened dude. See 2021 an 2022). I didnt see any excuses for last year so another guess.
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian - I just like the guy and see no reason why he couldnt improve with his focus and attention to detail. Don't like contract jumpers but I'll ignore the business side of things. Sign a contract, ride hard until the very last day of your contract. None of this "he already signed with EF for next year so we can't take him to the Vuelta because he might not try very hard".
PLAPP Lucas - New team, multiple chances for good points Down Under. Still room to get even better. Had to take him.
GLOAG Thomas - This guy is a good looking climber. And another guy that lost time to injury. Those are the best guys to get.
LAURANCE Axel - Based solely on his performance at the worlds. He has another level in him and hopefully ready for full time WT.
NYS Thibau - I did not see that he is waiting for Romandie to start his road season. That hurts quite a bit. Stop wasting time on XC. I don't watch it so it shouldn't be important to anybody else either . But great sprint action on this guy. You should always bet on talent winning out.
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos - First guy on my team. Great talent and top of the heap at Ineos (sorry G) and still young enough to get better. Cheaper than Ayuso. I really wanted both but i am a cheap basturd.
COVI Alessandro - I dont know why he performed like shite last year, but one good race and he equals his total. Then its all gravy from there. A stage in the Giro maybe?
SHEFFIELD Magnus - Another must have. So talented and lost race days due to injury last year. It's still him over Tarling in the one-day races. Plus, I like my Americans.
WRIGHT Fred - He was in and out of my line up all month. Thought last year was the year but it just didn't happen. Is he not going to get chances in multi stage races? he can climb and small group sprint so there has to be a win or two this year.
RICCITELLO Matthew - Another American. Superb climber. I think there are a lot of races where young climber can do well. He may not be Lenny but he is also a lot cheaper.
LEEMREIZE Gijs - Last minute budget filler, but also potential for huge gains. I forget what team he went to but there has to be more chances for him there.\
SEGAERT Alec - Didnt really know the name, but liked what I saw in the PCS race summaries. And young and will likely be in some easier races.
SIMMONS Quinn - Another American. I know, I know, he has flat lined for three years. But there is still potential for maturity and chances to win a race or two.
HODEG CHAGUI Alvaro Jose - Budget filler. Not excited at all. But at 42 points it is either him or a young buck and i have enough of those (and no, I didnt know Capiot had injuries last year. Totally missed out on him).
LECERF William Junior - High price for this youngster but he seems really talented and on a team that i think will give him chances. He was my highest rated Neopro.
SVRCEK Martin - I've been on his side for four years. Now is the time. Stay healthy and see 300 points this year.
KRUIJSWIJK Steven - Thought maybe he'd be a unique pick. yes he is GT domestique, but he'll get points just by accident at this low price. He didnt suck last year, he just wiped out. So he is not done (like some bird song dude i know).

That's it gang. I feel a top ten coming on, unless Ayuso puts up 2500. good luck!

 

[RedheadDane]

Got a few young guns but the big theme of the team is redemption arcs for various reasons eg Simmons, Sam Bennett, Bouhanni, MOSCON, Capiot.

Unfortunately for you, Bouhanni's redemption ain't gonna on the bike.

 

[skidmark]

Magnus Sheffield - 573
I think he is an extremely promising rider, and like Ayuso, he missed a portion of the season through injury. That injury was of course not sustained before June, so if you subscribe to a linear understanding of time, that would not be the reason for his underwhelming spring. I hope he can do better there (like in 2022) and at still just 21 years, he should be able to take another step forward this season.

Kévin Vauquelin - 519
I already considered him last year (where he was 100 points more expensive). Then he had a marvelous spring (at least pointswise) until he had an accident in Romandie (a race I honestly thought he was among the favourites to win, going in) from which he never really recovered and the rest of his season was very underwhelming. But if he can keep his February-April level for a whole season, he should be able to score tons of points. He is also likely to continue racing a lot of the smaller French events because Arkéa desperately need the points.

Antonio Tiberi - 347
Another rider of my team who was sidelined for a while last season - albeit for quite different reasons than Ayuso, Sheffield and Vauquelin. He showed a good level in the Vuelta without it being reflected in his points, and I think he should easily double next year. Don't forget he is also only 22.

Per Strand Hagenes - 308
He was annoyingly expensive which might make him less popular and thus potentially more important for my team. Three wins in European pro races (two of which were even one-day races) in a season before turning pro is mightily impressive, and especially his win in the Münsterland Giro was insane. Jumbo is a stacked team but let's not forget that they managed to win cobbled classics with four different riders last year. If you're good enough, you'll get the chance. And Per certainly seems good enough.

Sam Bennett - 302
Another chance for me to wince at a pick. I would have preferred Ackermann but I couldn't make the puzzle work with him and his 21 extra points... So now I'm stuck with a rider who seems to not be able to sprint anymore and who has transferred to a team with no leadout men. Oh, dear. Hopefully, there will be some Coupe de France races on his calendar (they also need points after a very poor 2023 season).

Fred Wright - 298
It confuses me a bit that he managed to score less than 300 points last year. But okay, he crashed on his way to a top 5 of the Renewi Tour, and that was the end of his season. He should be able to score a lot more next year.

Riley Sheehan - 251
It's not often a rider whose name I had never heard of goes ahead and wins one of the biggest races in cycling. Okay, Paris-Tous might not be that anymore, but still. What a shock. Still, is that enough to be picked for this game? Maybe not, but then he showed he was still good in the Japan Cup. So I went with him. If that is his real level, he is certainly good enough at that price but it's definitely a bit of a gamble.

Johannes Kulset - 123
The Norwegians are coming! And this fellow more so than most. Already top 15 in the Tour of the Alps last year, and later he was allegedly unlucky with crashes in Tour de l'Avenir. He is a little expensive for my taste and I only stumbled upon him because I randomly saw that he had signed a 4-year contract (actually 5 as it was signed in 2022) with Uno-X. That's not that usual for a junior unless the potential is huge.

I figured before I went through my team evaluation, I'd catch up on the thread and reply to things that caught my eye. Since this was the first detailed reveal, I wanna say a couple of things about riders I strongly considered but didn't end up taking:

Sheffield & Vauquelin - both have a pretty solid floor and decent upside... Sheffield can do well in 1-day and stage races, and if he has the rest of his season from last year with a good performance in the classics, he could reach 1000. The road for Vauquelin to that level probably lies in moving up a level more than more race days, but he'll have no shortage of opportunities at his team and his bad luck leading up to the Vuelta does make his 3-week pedigree a bit of an unknown (read: theoretical upside). Definitely would have taken either/both if Ayuso didn't exist at his price.

Tiberi - he's finally figured it out it seems, and I had him in my team until I realized I needed like 8 riders for 250 points, and I figured instead of taking him a third year in a row (I think) I'd drop him and get some decent 100-level riders to fill the gaps (as I had more faith in them to deliver than the closer-to-zero pointers that would have been the options had I left him). But he could definitely double his score.

Hagenes - as a few others have said here, I had 'another Gregoire?' in my notes on him. But Jumbo is not FDJ... his variance was a bit too high for me, he won a couple of impressive wins but also was pretty anonymous in a few races and also didn't come close to winning a stage or anything in either of the premier U23 races he was in (Giro/Avenir), which is always a bit of a worry. And that variance carries forwards - will he get a big win because he's strong enough to attack and has a strong enough team that no one is gonna pull his teammates back to him, or will he attack in a race with talent that's big enough to pull him back easily enough and therefore not get the win points he got this year? Always tricky with newcomers in a talent-stocked team.

Bennett - I really wanted to take him, and tried to make an optimistic take on the leadout he'd have with the lineup at AG2R... and then I remembered selecting GVA and Naesen when they moved to AG2R and am still too wounded from that, lol.

Wright - I've wanted to take him for a few years as he's been looking like a rider ready for some big wins, and this is his best price in a while. Ultimately didn't fit and I reverted to riders at that price who've shown they can actually score big (Arensman, Martinez and yes, Bernal) rather than one who's shown that promise but not done it 3 years in a row.

Sheehan - came out of nowhere and so was a fun upside pick and would be enjoyable to cheer on. He was in my first 20 confirmed riders, but ultimately I mentioned somewhere else on the thread yesterday that I decided I wanted to fit Rodriguez so I ended up turfing him and Tarling as less sure bets to make room.

Kulset - impressive consistency and results for his age, definitely had a hard look. I think he might need another year. I also am unsure if his long contract is as much a reflection of his massive potential as it is possibly also influenced by the fact that he's the son of the CEO of Uno-X

 

[tobydawq]

Hagenes - as a few others have said here, I had 'another Gregoire?' in my notes on him. But Jumbo is not FDJ... his variance was a bit too high for me, he won a couple of impressive wins but also was pretty anonymous in a few races and also didn't come close to winning a stage or anything in either of the premier U23 races he was in (Giro/Avenir), which is always a bit of a worry. And that variance carries forwards - will he get a big win because he's strong enough to attack and has a strong enough team that no one is gonna pull his teammates back to him, or will he attack in a race with talent that's big enough to pull him back easily enough and therefore not get the win points he got this year? Always tricky with newcomers in a talent-stocked team.

Kulset - impressive consistency and results for his age, definitely had a hard look. I think he might need another year. I also am unsure if his long contract is as much a reflection of his massive potential as it is possibly also influenced by the fact that he's the son of the CEO of Uno-X

I didn't know about that connection with Kulset :O

Regarding your last point with Hagenes, the group he attacked in Münster included Mads Pedersen, Groves, Wærenskjold (and admittedly Laporte and Affini who could cover for him). I wouldn't say that group was lacking talent and he just flew away and didn't even realise he had finished the race when he crossed the line, so presumably he had more left in the tank. That was a massive performance by a guy yet to turn pro.

 

[hayneplane]

Unfortunately for you, Bouhanni's redemption ain't gonna on the bike.

Just read up on it. Ah we’ll never mind only 61 points wasted so hardly a team killer.

 

[Anderis]

Genuinely shocked that only 5 others picked Wout as I thought his price could be a steal if he wins a monument this year along with a clutch of Giro stages.

I generally never consider riders above 1500 points. It's really difficult to move significantly upwards from that level.

 

[pman]

Looking at my team versus many of the other teams you could tell I haven't done this before. I spent a few hours on my team but I clearly missed some obvious picks- chiefly Nairo Quintana. I honestly just forgot about him. Overall I am happy with my team. I knew going in I probably wasn't going to field a team that could win or get top 10 but wanted to pick a bunch of guys I could see myself rooting for. I think I did that. I kind of wish I went in the other direction- knowing how hard it is to field that perfect team of 100-500 point riders, I kind of wish I I just went with Remco whom I greatly enjoy watching and would have loved to have on my team. I do think my wife and I will have a spirited competition on with regard to who finishes above who. Unlike me, she got her favorite rider on her team. I put some comments on individual riders but mostly I picked guys I felt could have a bounce back year and wanted to balance my team between sprinters, climbers, young riders and vets. If anything I probably slanted towards sprinters but that'll make those stages more enjoyable for me to watch.

VAN AERT Wout - I just thought of the top riders, he has the best chance to gain a 1000 points or so on what he did last year.
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian - I picked him before the move away from Bora but kept him even after Jumbo
EWAN Caleb - So fast when he's on, coming back from a bad year
MILAN Jonathan - I really like Lidl-Trek and wanted one of their riders and I enjoy him
GIRMAY HAILU Biniam - Bounce back sprinter
KELDERMAN Wilco
HAGENES Per Strand
BENNETT Sam- bounce back sprinter
ARENSMAN Thymen
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
FOSS Tobias Svendsen - Just seems better than he showed last year
LECERF William Junior
TURNER Ben
REX Laurenz
DEL TORO ROMERO Isaac
OOMEN Sam- I just like his move to the new team
STEWART Jake
VANHOUCKE Harm
PICCOLO Andrea
MOSCON Gianni
BAYER Tobias
ROMEO ABAD Ivan
MØRKØV CHRISTENSEN Michael - Seemed like a cheap way of getting into the Cav train
HIRT Jan
DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd- Would really enjoy seeing him win in a breakaway
TRONCHON Bastien
OSS Daniel
RYAN Archie
MAGNIER Paul - Talented young rider
KRUIJSWIJK Steven
AZPARREN IRURZUN Enekoitz
SERRANO RODRIGUEZ Javier
TOUMIRE Hugo

 

[pman]

I didn't realize going in that there is a green and polka dot competition (though I vaguely thought there might be from following previous versions of the competition). Do any teams just go for those jersey? That's interesting to me because whereas the overall is obviously entirely about improvement- those two competitions are more about just getting the best riders for those categories.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd- Would really enjoy seeing him win in a breakaway

He would enjoy simply seeing himself in a race: no contract

OSS Daniel

Whereas he seems very happy not seeing himself in a race: has retired.