I really like your goals. Uppsala will be very tough, but all five can potentially be reached with some luck.
I think you'll achieve success in Monterrey and either Olympia or La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, leaving you with two or three goals in the bag end-of-season, depending on the final team standings.
@Caspi I was really hoping when I sent in my goals that I could catch some teams off guard in Uppsala if people didn't notice the parcours change. I think that I've missed the mark there, but we shall see. It's unlikely for a win, but I should still be able to get some top results. Plus, I knew my win goal would be the least likely of my race goals, as I think the others are all relatively achievable.
@TheManxMissile Oh I'm ready for the frustrations. I've avoided a lot of uphills, but you can't avoid them all so hoping to just get a few breakaway appearances TTT successes in the other races I had to fill the calendar with. Otherwise, I feel like this was worth the risk this year. Nothing wrong with being a mid-table team, at least because I think I've avoided the bottom with this strategy.
@DarkWolf I think sprint will definitely matter, especially if you're planning on bringing Coquard (please don't). I knew it was a huge risk going for this one, but I think the PR will make more of a difference than last year even. Given there's no long ITT, it should mostly be sprinters with PRL stats at the top, followed by the specialists would be my guess. I'm totally fine if we both find success.
This endeavor is a new one for us this year, with nothing other than the a year of experience under our belt. As I indicated in my "semi-lazy, semi-flawed" preview, I think this prediction is very aggressive, but I do feel achievable. Even if the results come out a few hundred points below, we think this team is set up for success!
Time Trial Specialists
Name
2023 Points
Projected Points
Atsushi Oka
170
134
Faycal Hamza
196
181
Julian Cardona
80
176
Similo Nyoni
10
175
The point totals here rely on a few assumptions - 1) Our top 5 TTTers are the first 5 to cross the line in our TTT races; 2) Our TTT strategy from 2023 holds strong; 3) Unnecessary splits don't hurt us on flat stages. Just like last season, we are hoping for major point hauls in a couple of TT specific races - Olympia's Tour, Herald Sun Tour, C1+C2 TTT classics, Post Danmark Rundt, and La Tropicale Amissa Bongo. While we haven't predicted quite the success we had last year there, we do think those will be major factors for us and be the determining factor of the season.
Sprinters
Name
2023 Points
Projected Points
German Nicolas Tivani
182
208
Luke Keough
170
312
Alex Frame
40
134
Keough is our predicted top scorer, and he better be for the fee we paid this year. Keough's scoring relies on races like Uppsala Classic, Baltic Chain Tour, and La Tropicale Amissa Bongo more than anywhere else. His combination of sprint and prologue needs to carry him through this year. Tivani also sees an increase this year based on race allocation. He will see a huge number of flat classics and even just averaging 15th in a C1/HC field and 7th in C2 fields should bring him an increased total. A win or two somewhere doesn't seem out of the question. Frame also looks for GC results in our prologue races and an occasional sprint point.
Cobblers
Name
2023 Points
Projected Points
German Anibal Orue
51
154
Jimmy Muhindo
16
22
Chequan Richardson
42
89
Robert Bush
109
5
Leandro Marcos
90
1
With only Richardson competing in CT last season and the SEE Turtles completely avoiding anything that even looks like a cobble, we had no idea what should happen here. Still, we are hoping that Orue and Richardson mainly get depth results - somewhere 10-15th by making the final group in most races and occasionally breaking through otherwise. With no finishing points, Marcos, Bush and Muhindo won't rack up points much, but maybe with some even weaker CT cobble fields they'll earn more than expected.
Domestiques
Name
2023 Points
Projected Points
Kashyapa Siriwardena
33
16
Ahmad Arissol
9
0
Bryan Raul Obando
3
0
Harold Martin Lopez
1
0
Joshua Kelly
88
60
Franklin Joel Revelo
--
0
Finn Fisher-Black
7
10
Magnus Sheffield
--
5
Kelly has to sit here as a domestique, but major points are expected due to the TTT. Siriwardena also expects to benefit from the TTT setup and find some lower level GC results throughout the season when they can figure out not to lose time in the mountains - like in Tour de Vineyards last year. No major expectations for our other domestiques, but hopefully they score in a breakaway or manage a nice result somewhere.
Official Total Prediction: 1722 points
It would take a fantastic season to hit this prediction, but we think we can find the points to at least challenge this. The increase challenge of TTers in the division will certainly be a hurdle, but we're ready to face it.
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Many thanks to those who inspired this post
