A small preview for the giro. Unfortunately it only consists of tables. I wanted to write something as well, but didn't really have the time. This should give a little overview on who is starting, for more you can always check the Startlists file. I'll start posting stages from Wednesday on.
@Croatia: Just because the planning from other managers isn't as you have hoped, doesn't mean it's bad. Nibali has in all of ICL only ridden the Giro so far and that every year. After he now finally has won it last year, the Tour was the next obvious goal, I don't see anything disgraceful about that. Imo the Vuelta also suits him better than the Giro. Why do you think him and Froome can't challenge Contador, both have beaten him at GTs last year. Nibali humiliated all other 82 climbers at the Giro, I think that makes him at least as much a favourite at the Tour as Contador.
@Shonak: I don't think we had the same Tour route before, or did we? If that's the case this is a major messup from me.
For my team: Hoping for a Top5 from Uran at the Giro...nothing more, but we have some solid riders for breakaway attempts with the oldies, Parra and Cam Meyer
for Celesio (which I planned): was obviously aiming at the TTs, seems like I failed there a little underestimating the strength of Bunzl...Martin could be too much race days wasted if there is no win on TTTs for him, still he's the perfect fit for breakaways here so I expect at least a victory from him
Other goal I planned for Celesio here was taking the white jersey, which could very much happen for Silvio. Rooting for 2 teams now
Really excited to see how De Gendt will do here, his low mo and bad TTT team could kill him early on, but if he's still in contention late enough I hope his rec means he has some fun like at last year's Vuelta, no way he's near the level VDB or Van Garderen here, even a top 5 might be over optimistic despite the low startlist.
Nizzolo will struggle in this sprinter's field, but couldn't not send him to his home GT. Looks set for some great sprints though and even having the GC battle could be very exciting with many possible contenders.
Very nice preview! Apparently I did not choose a sprinter, not that I had a chance in this field. Time for Tim Wellens to shine, he's definitely top 10 material!
Bikex wrote:
@Croatia: Just because the planning from other managers isn't as you have hoped, doesn't mean it's bad. Nibali has in all of ICL only ridden the Giro so far and that every year. After he now finally has won it last year, the Tour was the next obvious goal, I don't see anything disgraceful about that. Imo the Vuelta also suits him better than the Giro. Why do you think him and Froome can't challenge Contador, both have beaten him at GTs last year. Nibali humiliated all other 82 climbers at the Giro, I think that makes him at least as much a favourite at the Tour as Contador.
I don't want to say that it is bad, but it is kind of strange in my eyes...
About Nibali: What I want to say: Nibali is #2 of the stage racers in my eyes. The hilly stage (I think it's 4) with the very long and tough profile (sucking off the stamina stat) would've suited him a lot better than the various punchy stages at La Vuelta, where it's mostly about ACC (where Nibali is much worse than his opponence). At Le Tour he surely will be the strongest opponent of Contador.
About Contador: I think that Contador has the best overall package, that's why. Contador had a lot of bad luck last season, especially at Le Tour. His ACC + RES combination together with no weaknesses makes him unique.
About Froome: You can't tell me that he wouldn'd fit to this years Giro perfectly with the influence of TTs and the abscence of hills. That's why I couldn't have expected him there.
About "disgraceful": I'm sorry, that was badly wrong by me. It wasn't meant as an offence on your planning (or anyone elses), but more on my planning on bringing Quintana to the most crowded tours being the worst of the 4. He could've only beat Froome at La Vuelta but non of the 3 anywhere else, that's why I was disappointed seing the startlist at the Giro. Again no offence on anyone but my planning skills.
Continental Tour Ranking | May | CCC Sprandi Polkowice 2016 - 18th place (1054 pts) 2017 - 15th place (1051 pts)
Prestige Ranking | May | CCC Sprandi Polkowice 2016 - 31st place (1054 pts) 2017 - 31st place (1051 pts)
Tour d'Andorra 06.12 - 06.16
Team
AVG
MO
HI
SP
AC
RC
Latour
Pierre-Roger
74,6
76
74
66
71
69
Santambrogio
Mauro
74,6
75
75
64
73
74
Dall'Oste
Daniele
72,9
74
72
65
71
68
Strong team for this race. With Latour, Santambrogio and Dall'Oste I expect pretty nice results.
Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt 06.18 - 06.22
Team
AVG
FL
HI
SP
AC
RC
Komisarek
Patryk
74,5
73
71
76
73
68
Nowaczek
Mateusz
74,3
71
76
69
71
68
Poljański
Paweł
72,8
72
74
68
71
68
Another chance for Komisarek to show his real strength. He doesn't have many good results, but most important is, he's already overpermorming this year. Maybe Nowaczek and Poljański also will show something on those hilly stages?
Le Géant de Provence 06.30
Team
AVG
MO
SP
AC
ST
RS
Latour
Pierre-Roger
74,6
76
66
71
68
65
Santambrogio
Mauro
74,6
75
64
73
74
72
Last year Santambrogio was 9th, Latour 14th (Christina Watches), so would be nice if they will at least repeat those results.
If my team wants to keep my scoring from last year, they need about 170 points this month. Is that possible? I hope so.
6 races again this month. Our guys should be up there challenging in almost all of them. Given the startling line up, if Porte does not win Switzerland, he might as well not start! Hoping for a good result from Boom in Aleko Vitosa too. This is a very important month for Lufthansa.
Just the triple-header for us this month. We have favourites in all of them but I'd just settle for solid points across the board given where we are in the rankings.
Manager of Bunzl - Centrica
ICL's World Tour Champions and Talented Bottlers
Big month for us with the last two home races and epecially an important one for Caruso, as he should hopefully be looking good to score well in all of his three races.
Time for Deutschland Tour. One of the most important target races for CSC and Betancur and Kittel have to perform! Not sure who I send to the other two races - propably Cio to one and none to the other one. I'm also curious to see how the Bulgarian race turns out.
Four wins and a GC (ba dum tss) plz
Well tbh 6 or 7 wins and 2 GCs in a big big month for us, but let's a) be realistic and b) make the joke work
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Tejay Van Garderen 
Jurgen Van den Broeck 
Fabio Aru 
Rigoberto Urán 
Thibaut Pinot 
Adam Yates 
Vuelta a Guatemala 03.06 - 08.06 
Tour of Mount Fuji 05.06 - 09.06 
Tour d'Andorra 12.06 - 16.06 
Aleko Vitoša 28.06 
