Honestly I only like four riders on this team and the rest make me as depressed as Jaime Suaza in a flat classic (remember when he rode one of those instead of Tachira?). So let's talk about Travis Meyer, Shaun Lewis, Salvador Moreno, and, yes, Daniel Thorsen.

First off are the climbing duo. Shaun Lewis has been a quiet mainstay of the CT mountain breakaway and KoM fight for a while now, whilst Moreno Hernandez has mastered the breakaway in such a way that he is the greatest artist named Salvador in history. Who cares about some watches painted by a guy who can't make circles properly? Both have the MON-RES-ACC-FTR combo that is required for their task of making people believe that a bottom of the table team, sponsored by an infrastructure company, isn't boring.

The next man on the list is their undisputed leader - if only because he's the only competent rider there - Travis Meyer. The Aussie was a contender for every hilly race in the division anyway before he got juiced up over the break and is now a real beast in CT. Unfortunately the division is crawling with hilly beasts and so he'll have to try and use his sprint to overcome the likes of Gautier, Edmondson, Ben Nasser and Siskevicius to name just a few.

The last man I like in this team is the human equivalent of doing all your homework whilst on speed the night before it's due, only to find out you read the question wrong and still failed, Daniel Thorsen. He is simply hilarious to see in action and I really hope he can get some good placings and even a win. Legends never die - but he is about to decline, which is much the same to us consumers in this society where stars only exist for our entertainment, are intruded upon, idolised, abused and tossed by the wayside when they start to get older. Has anybody ever thought about Daniel Thorsen the human being? Panem et circenses indeed.

But other than those four, it's just like the grey skies of this team's home nations - pretty bleak. And yes, they'll find themselves with a plethora of random breakaway results throughout the season. But this is supposedly a prediction, and I'd feel more confident in myself tightroping across the Grand Canyon, populated by Tottenham-supporting Lions who haven't had a good meal since they last won a trophy, than predicting which riders will win the lottery that is Langkawi after the Highlands stages.

Sorry

You have nothing to be sorry about at all, we like the views of other managers as it gives us a goal to chase

1	Gregory Hugentobler	Sauber Petronas Racing	22'22
2	Eliot Lietaer	Air France - KLM	s.t.
3	Jaroslaw Marycz	Moser - Sygic	+ 23
4	Sergio Barrio	Repsol - Netflix	s.t.
5	Romain Hardy	Eddie Stobart	s.t.
6	Luis Afonso	Porto - Prio	+ 49
7	David Wöhrer	T-Mobile	+ 1'31

Category Rankings

- Riders each receive a rating based on their skills in six categories (Hill, Stage Race. Sprint, TT, Cobbles, Climbs), as also used in the OVL calculations
- Riders within a within-team ranking for each category, which is adjusted to account for realism, and reduce the influence of the strongest riders where appropriate.
- Weighted team ratings for each category calculated, based on the selected three best riders in each team for that category
- Resulting category rankings and scores are then used in four different ways, to create four division ranking lists
- These are combined into an overall division prediction.

It's not a method without it's issues, but the formulas are in place, and it doesn't take too much work to update them - so let's see what they've come up with.

Category Rankings

	Hills	Stage Races	Sprints
1	ENI - MOL	Andorra Project	Delvaux
2	Compal-Merida	Compal-Merida	Rothaus - Aegon
3	Valio - DeLaval	GCN ProTeam	Valio - DeLaval
4	Eddie Stobart	Banco de Bogota	Equinor Pro Cycling
5	BNZ Cycling	Valio - DeLaval	GCN ProTeam
6	Cerveceria Costa Rica	Cerveceria Costa Rica	Telia-Brussels Airlines
7	Campari - Super Dry	BNZ Cycling	Sauber Petronas
8	Delvaux	Oberfranken	Swisslion Cycling
9	DK Žalgiris	Adastra - Argon 18	BNZ Cycling
10	Sauber Petronas	Telia-Brussels Airlines	Eddie Stobart

	Time Trial	Cobbles	Climbs
1	Swisslion Cycling	Delvaux	Compal-Merida
2	Andorra Project	Rothaus - Aegon	Adastra - Argon 18
3	Banco de Bogota	Cerveceria Costa Rica	Banco de Bogota
4	Rothaus - Aegon	Sauber Petronas	ENI - MOL
5	Sauber Petronas	GCN ProTeam	Cerveceria Costa Rica
6	Valio - DeLaval	Swisslion Cycling	Andorra Project
7	Adastra - Argon 18	ENI - MOL	Eddie Stobart
8	Compal-Merida	Campari - Super Dry	Telia-Brussels Airlines
9	Campari - Super Dry	Valio - DeLaval	Oberfranken
10	DK Žalgiris	Oberfranken	GCN ProTeam

		HL	SR	SP	TT	CO	CL
	Adastra - Argon 18	18	9	18	7	11	2
	Andorra Project - InGamba	19	1	19	2	12	6
	Banco de Bogota	16	4	15	3	16	3
	BNZ Cycling Team	5	7	9	15	19	11
	Campari - Super Dry	7	12	17	9	8	12
	Compal-Merida	2	2	16	8	13	1
	Delvaux	8	19	1	18	1	18
	DK Žalgiris	9	15	12	10	17	16
	Eddie Stobart	4	16	10	14	15	7
	ENI - MOL	1	11	11	19	7	4
	Equinor Pro Cycling	11	17	4	17	18	15
	GCN ProTeam	14	3	5	11	5	10
	Oberfranken	17	8	14	16	10	9
	Rothaus - Aegon	15	18	2	4	2	19
	Sauber Petronas Racing	10	14	7	5	4	17
	Swisslion Cycling Team	12	13	8	1	6	13
	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	6	6	13	13	3	5
	Telia-Brussels Airlines	13	10	6	12	14	8
	Valio - DeLaval	3	5	3	6	9	14

Overall Prediction

1		Valio - DeLaval
2		Compal-Merida
3		ENI - MOL
4		Team Cerveceria Costa Rica
5		Delvaux
6		GCN ProTeam
7		Swisslion Cycling Team
8		Rothaus - Aegon
9		Andorra Project - InGamba
10		Sauber Petronas Racing
11		Campari - Super Dry
12		BNZ Cycling Team
13		Banco de Bogota
14		Adastra - Argon 18
15		Telia-Brussels Airlines
16		Eddie Stobart
17		Oberfranken
18		DK Žalgiris
19		Equinor Pro Cycling

Valio were the only team to feature in five of the category Top 10s and they are predicted to win the title. And the teams relegated from PCT do seem to be the teams to beat, with Compal, ENI, and Costa Rica all placing next, while GCN are 6th.

New teams are picking up the challenge, with Delvaux the highest placed - and particularly strong in R3 and R4. Swisslion and one-season wonders Rothaus both also are predicted higher than any of our continuing CT squads: Andorra seen as the best of them, just ahead of Sauber and Campari.

Valio of course finished bottom of CT in the past, in the 2014 season, and there are signs of positive moment for Adastra who are now predicted 14th - although having beaten them by 20 points last season, Equinor are now expected to avoid that fate this time around.

	R1	R2	R3	R4	…	OP
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

1. Team Cerveceria Costa Rica
2. GCN ProTeam
3. Adastra - Argon 18
4. Valio - DeLaval
5. Sauber Petronas Racing
6. Campari - Super Dry
7. Swisslion Cycling Team
8. Banco de Bogota
9. Oberfranken
10. Compal-Merida
11. Telia-Brussels Airlines
12. Andorra Project - InGamba
13. BNZ Cycling Team
14. ENI - MOL
15. DK Žalgiris
16. Eddie Stobart
17. Rothaus - Aegon
18. Equinor Pro Cycling
19. Delvaux

Once again there is a no hope sign when it comes to our squad, so all we can do is try our best at proving the doubters wrong.

1 Valio - DeLaval
2 Delvaux
3 ENI - MOL
4 Team who may not be named
5 GCN ProTeam
6 Compal-Merida
7 Campari - Super Dry
8 Swisslion Cycling Team
9 Sauber Petronas Racing
10 Andorra Project - InGamba
11 Banco de Bogota
12 BNZ Cycling Team
13 DK Žalgiris
14 Rothaus - Aegon
15 Equinor Pro Cycling
16 Eddie Stobart
17 Telia - Brussels Airlines
18 Adastra - Argon 18
19 Oberfranken

1 Valio - DeLaval
2 GCN ProTeam
3 _______________
4 Delvaux
5 Campari - Super Dry
6 Compal-Merida
7 ENI - MOL
8 Sauber Petronas Racing
9 Swisslion Cycling Team
10 Banco de Bogota
11 Oberfranken
12 Rothaus - Aegon
13 Adastra - Argon 18
14 Eddie Stobart
15 DK Žalgiris
16 BNZ Cycling Team
17 Andorra Project - InGamba
18 Telia-Brussels Airlines
19 Equinor Pro Cycling

#	Team	Points
1	Delvaux	83
2	Valio - DeLaval	82
3	ENI - MOL	81
4	Sauber Petronas Racing	80
5	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	79
6	Compal - Merida	78
7	GCN ProTeam	77
8	Swisslion Cycling Team	74
9	Banco de Bogota	72
10	Campari - Super Dry	70
11	Telia-Brussels Airlines	67
12	Rothaus - Aegon	63
13	BNZ Cycling Team	60
14	Andorra Cycling Project	56
15	Oberfranken	55
16	DK Žalgiris	53
17	Adastra - Argon 18	52
18	Eddie Stobart	51
19	Equinor Pro Cycling

1	Valio - DeLaval
2	Delvaux
3	ENI - MOL
4	GCN ProTeam
5	Compal-Merida
6	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica
7	Sauber Petronas Racing
8	Swisslion Cycling Team
9	Banco de Bogota
10	Campari - Super Dry
11	Rothaus - Aegon
12	Andorra Project - InGamba
13	Adastra - Argon 18
14	Oberfranken
15	BNZ Cycling Team
16	Eddie Stobart
17	DK Zalgiris
18	Telia-Brussels Airlines
19	Equinor Pro Cycling

1	Tommy Zaini	Compal-Merida	5h23'12
2	Cyril Gautier	Valio - DeLaval	+ 20
3	Joshua Edmondson	BNZ Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Cesare Di Maggio	ENI-MOL	s.t.
5	Hassen Ben Nasser	Campari - Super Dry	s.t.
6	Travis Meyer	Eddie Stobart	s.t.
7	Evaldas Siskevicius	DK Zalgiris	s.t.
8	Tesfar Teklit	Equinor Pro Cycling	s.t.
9	Arthur Vichot	Delvaux	s.t.
10	Blel Kadri	Delvaux	+ 41