I know very little about cycling talents, but bring on the frenchies and greek riders! Surely there must be a greek talent that I haven't already snatched
Having gone through the World Tour results of this season, including watching a fair bit of the races myself I would make a few suggestions towards riders currently at Free Agent, but performing "well".
I'm sorry if I'm mentioning a lot of riders already mentioned, but I thought I would give it a go, so pick what you agree on, and leave everything else.
Riders already in the DB, but needs tweaking:
Daniele Pietropolli - 1980 Ingame
- Showed that he was a decent finisher at the Tour Down Under with a couple of top 10s, while he showed strength in both finish and upgoing in Tirreno-Adriatico, Amstel Gold Race and a single stage of the Giro d'Italia. 33th of the Amstel Gold Race indicates more than 63 HI and 65+65 END and RES.
Recomended: 70MO -> 72MO. 63HI -> 71HI. 65END -> 70END. 66RES -> 68RES. 59SPR -> 68SPR
Jonathan Cantwell - 1982 Ingame
- Sprinted decently in the Tour Down Under. Also showed last year that he was a pretty good sprinter for Saxo Bank. Not a top sprinter, but a fairly strong rider, that would essentially be a decent leadout.
Recommended: 65FL -> 70FL. 64END -> 68END. 70SPR -> 74SPR. 68ACC - 74ACC.
Juan Jose Lobato del Valle - 1988 Ingame
- Is a decent talent ingame, but he showed that he is a much better sprinter, especially at this years TdF. Atm he will max around 77SPR, 76ACC and 71FL, while I think he could actually be better. 3 times in the top 10 this TdF and also a top 5 Tour of Romandie and a low top 10 Tour Down Under proves that he is there at times. Also he seems decent at going over bumps.
Recommended: 54MO -> 58MO. 64HI -> 67HI. 77SPR -> 79SPR. 76ACC -> 78ACC.
Klaas Lodewijk - 1988 Ingame
- At the start of the season Lodewijk sprinted into top 10 of the TdU twice. He can be 74 SPR, and 73 ACC.
Recommmended: 74SPR -> 76SPR. 73ACC -> 76ACC.
Jésus Herrada - 1990 Ingame
- Have been a decent TT rider this season, first with 12th of the Paris-Nice Prologue and then 30th at the Tour of Switzerland final TT. He is a decent talent ingame, but his TT and prologue is lacking.
Using maxed stats
Recommended: 71TT -> 75TT. 71PRL -> 78PRL.
Cyril Lemoine - 1983 Ingame
- Lemoine did decent in timetrials throughout the season, and with 13th at the Tour de Suisse and Tour de France he showed he is a fairly competitive TTer. He also sprinted well, especially at the Tour de France with 9th, 11th and 14th, but similarly at the Tour of Suisse with 12th and 13th.
Recommended: 73TT -> 75TT. 72SPR -> 76SPR. 71ACC -> 75ACC. Possibly also 70ish flat.
Jens Debusschere - 1989 Ingame.
- Some decent sprintresults in Paris-Nice and Tour de Suisse must give him a better setup than currently. He can be 69SPR and 70ACC, but with 3 WT top 10s already he should improve a bit.
Recommended: 69SPR -> 75SPR. 70ACC -> 76ACC.
Alberto Losada - 1982 Ingame
- Ingame Alberto Losada is a shit rider who is best on the flats. However he climbed very well at the Paris-Nice this year ending in 11th GC.
Recommended: 57MO -> 75MO. 68HI -> 73 HI. 64TT -> 70TT. Possibly slightly better at the End, Res, and Rec.
Luca Paolini - OLDIE
- Don't know if you want to correct decent riders from the past back into decent riders, but Paolini has been riding very well this season, in all kinds of terrains. He should be top 30 cobblers in the world and he is a very nice puncheur aswell - Also around the 30 best in the world.
Yoann Bagot - 1987 Ingame
- Pretty nice talent in the db already, and mostly he's spot on, but with 61 ingame he'll do absolutely nothing. IRL he did quite a lot of nice results, basically finishing around 15-35 in all mountain and semihard stages.
Recommended: 61FL -> 67FL. 65HI -> 71HI. 62END -> 70END.
José Herrada - 1985 Ingame
- Just like Jésus he is basically only decent at the flat, but he is climbing really really well actually. 33th GC Pais Vasco, consistently in top 20 on mountainstages, 24th GC Giro d'Italia with a lot of top 25 placings, even a 9th place on one stage. Also climbing well at the Dauphine with a 2nd place and a 25th or so. Especially 24th Giro overall must surely mean something.
Recommended: 58MO -> 76MO. 66HI -> 71HI. 69END -> 71END. 65REC -> 72REC. 61DH -> 69DH.
Steve Chainel - 1983 Ingame
- Not a lot of WT results, but 17th overall at Paris-Roubaix indicates that he's not too shabby. Atleast on cobbles.
Recommended: 68FL -> 71FL. 65HI -> 68HI. 66END -> 74END. 69COB -> 73COB. 64FIG -> 68FIG.
Mads Christensen - 1984 Ingame
- A pretty useless "talent" ingame, but in real he is a pretty consistent TT'er and also a pretty good rider to make the BotD. He got a few top 25 TTs this season, best was 8th at Tour de Suisse TT.
Recommended: 66FL -> 72FL. 62HI -> 67HI. 68TT ->75TT. 63RES -> 71RES. 58SPR -> 64SPR. 64ACC -> 68ACC. 66FIG -> 72FIG.
Maxime Mederel - 1980 Ingame
- Did decent at the Tour de France and Tour de Suisse, atleast in the mountains. No top results, but very consistent in the region of 30-45.
Recommended: 65MO -> 73MO. 61HI -> 70HI. 60RES -> 66RES. 62REC -> 69REC. 63DH -> 72DH.
And now for riders I don't think exist in the DB, but probably should:
Davide Malacarne - 1987 IRL
- Consistent climbing throughout the year, also with some decent punchy stuff. He got home with the favorites of stage 3 in the Paris-Nice. A couple of top 35 stages at the TdF (Hard mountainstages). 26th Milano-San Remo. 49th GC Tour de France. In 2010 he won a fairly tough stage at the Volta a Catalunya and in 2011 he won the Mountains Jersey at Tirreno-Adriatico.
Recommended:
- Somewhere in the region of 73-75MO, 72-74HI, ~70FIG, ~70REC and END. 71-75DH. 71-74ACC. Or the possibility for him to get to that level in a year or so.
Bart de Clercq - 1986 IRL
- Very nice mountain rider. Not much else I suspect though. Won a stage at the 2011 Giro d'Italia and did quite some nice results in lower races GC wise this season. 5th Andalucia, 7th Tramuntana, 9th San Luis. Also climbing fairly well throughout the season with some highlights in Paris-Nice, Pais Vasco, Dauphine and of course Tour de France, where he lid up in the final stages of the race.
Recommended:
- 75-77MO, 72-74HI. Don't know much else. He could potentially be lvl. 4.00 with potential to 77MO.
Egoitz Garcia Echeguibel - 1986 IRL
- 15-20 like sprinter at this years TdF, also a single pop-up at Pais Vasco (7th) at a semitough sprint. According to Wikipedia he seems to be getting significantly better also performing at subtop races like Haut Var and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Recommended: Dunno. Probably some decent allrounder with a reasonable kick.
Alessandro de Marchi - 1986 IRL
- Climbing very well, and should definately be in this game. 25th Liege-Bastogne-Liege, 25th GC Tour of Romandie, Stagewin at Dauphine (Mountain)+30th GC, Two top 20 Mountaintop finishes at Tour de France
Recommended:
- Should already be a good rider, but in the future perhaps something like 76-77MO, 75-76HI or so. Don't know his potential, but he seems very promising.
Manuele Boaro - 1987 IRL
- Nice Timetriallist, who can also survive the first bounce of hills/mountains. 8th at the Giro TT this season, and 17th at the prologue of Romandie. Last year he finished 3rd at Danmark Rundt, and in 2011 he finished 2nd in the Italian TT Nationals. He won the mountains classification of Ao Algarve this season.
Recommended:
- Something like 69-70 MO and hills. 76-77TT and 74-75PRL.
Diego Rosa - 1989 IRL
- Nice little italian climbing talent. 23th at this years Giro d'Italia GC is a nice result and stagefinishes in the range of 14th to 28th on the mountains bodes well for his future, and also indicates he is a stabile rider. Rute du Sud for 5th overall is a nice little bonus.
Recommended:
- Don't know his actual talent, but a rider from 1989 who is 23th at his first Giro must be better... So I estimate that he should be 76MO this season with potential to become 78-79MO.
These riders I know very little about, but their names popped up with a decent WT result:
Maurits Lammertink - 7th at a stage in Volta a Catalunya, mass sprint.
Gaeten Bille - Sprinted subtop at Tour of Romandie.
Jorge Azanza - 33th overall Giro d'Italia. Decent climbing underway.
Marco Canola - 3 top 15 sprints at the Giro.
Luis Angel Mate Mardones - Climbed well at the TdF, and seems reasonably fast at the line.
Gorka Verdugo - 5th at prologue Tour de Suisse
Reto Hollenstein - 6th at prologue Tour de Suisse