We're closing in on the 2011 World Championships in Croatia, and the hilly course that it entials. Frank Schleck will hope to make that step up to the top step of the World Championship podium, but plenty of challenges will arise as the startlists are revealed. Defending champion Valverde is one, with Schumacher, Trofimov, Ginanni, Hagen and Gesink all highly tipped by bookmakers it seemed.
Yes, that includes Ginanni. He doesnt seem particularly suited to continental races this season, but can he shine amongst a controversial Italian team selection? 3 rounds of selection were required to finalise the squad, which is missing top rider Riccardo Ricco. A number of Italian selectors having snubbed him during the selection process.
In the Under 23 Road Race, its hard to look past Taylor Phinney. Tour de l'Avenir winner Justo Tenorio will do his best as will the likes of Zaini, Dowsett, Guldhammer and Sagan - but the odds favour Phinney. As they will in the U23 RR - and maybe, he could be the one to beat in the Elite TT aswell?
Its hard to tell just how the nature of the course willl effect things, and alter whether Zabriskie can win once again. Rogers is missing, but rivals will include Phinney, Coppel and Cancellara. The likes of Frank Schleck and EB Hagen could maybe pull of a huge shock, but the dark horses are more likely to be riders like Gesink, Fothen, Pluchkin and Uran.
And starting the race is the TTT. Spain edged Netherlands last year, and these 2 are the top favourites once again.
Nice to see a lot of EL AL riders up there. Calzati, Chavanel, Rollin, Rast, Raisin, Bar, Konovalovas, the Israelis for the U23 RR (and the TTT control).
Rly? Ricco is the best Italian rider behind Cunego and D. Caruso got picked above him in a selection round? RIcco is in every way superior, and is even a big favorite for the win. I fucking picked the 9 best riders in my first selection, which were those 9 - D. Caruso, but + R. Ricco. How egoistic can you be, rly.
If you something in personal against me, then please send me a pm. But otherwise, i see no reason why not to take Ricco. In the back of my head, he is the only one who has actually won hilly classics on PT lvl, even when looking at this season he is still the best choice when it comes to hills.
Edited by Kami on 23-02-2011 06:34
The intriguing squads should make for fascinating viewing. That hill looks almost mountainous so I will go with a surprise winner in Robert Gesink over Valverde and Schleck for the main event - I will be rooting for Rigoberto Uran.
I would place riders like Gesink and Pluichkin quite highly on the Worlds TT course but after seeing Phinney in action at the tour I am convinced he can double up for the Time Trial. Perhaps the American can take the U23 road race as well - he has a Tour of America - Pellizotti like domination in stats on the rest of the field.
The team test - its is surely Spain vs Holland, though I am hopeful for a decent performance from the Colombians.
The Italian selection controversy: I must admit on the way to the meeting for the Colombia selections I did see some DS's with some fat brown envelopes. Looking at the facts:
Seems like some Protour snobbery perhaps? Still it looks like a fairly interesting squad full of equals. But could possibly the real life Ricco idiocy have cost his Man Game World Championship non inclusion? I am sure the Cobra will be devastated but will be reeking havoc on the Protour rides next year!
On a serious note - I think some of the selectors will justify their selections based on Protour results. I believe Ponzi, Ulissi, Sella and Caruso have all won Italian Protour stages. The selection I would query based on results though is Ginanni
Might be that some of the managers wanted a single leader (if that can be said for the Italian team) and not 2 equals, so they went with Ginanni and decided to leave Ricco at home. Dunno
I actually guess he will win (for once), but I want a real outsider, like Løvkvist. So I root for him for the main event. For the TT I belive that Coppel can copy the TdF TT and win, tough he need some luck.
The Italian selection merely simulates the Italian real life selection. Completely and utterly biased.
Plus I hate Ricco, hence my non-vote for him. And, you can have too many leaders if you're not careful. I think we're fine as we are.
I'd love to see Ginanni take the win, purely just to annoy fenian. It'd mean his wage would be silly high (still) even though he continues to fail in the continental tour!
I'm quite surprised that there haven't been room for Bernaudeau here, as Ladagnous is significantly worse, while also Vaugrenard and Champion debatably is worse. So a bit sorry with that selection.
The same goes for Roger Kluge in Germany, where Patrick Gretsch and Lucas Schädlich have been overlooked, having in mind that they are MUCH stronger in a TT race imo.
I assume they can be selected for the Senior race, eventhough they are able to ride U23. Phinney is the the senior race I believe.
Also seing how Castaño has performed all season, I would've like him to be selected in the Spanish RR, but I could just have picked him as higher priority myself I guess. I just tried to pick the best suited riders, so just too bad, that the others didn't agree with him being there. On paper I find him much better suited than David Arroyo and Koldo Gil here, but doesn't matter too much, as I already have 2 riders there.
On a more positive note, I'm extremely pleased with several riders picked. A lot of my TT'ers are riding the TTTs and a couple is even in the TT selections. I have a bunch of RR racers aswell, where I'm very pleased to see Diego Ulissi making it to the Italian team, and that Mauricio Ardila on paper is captain for the Colombian setup, being amongst some very strong riders (Much stronger than him).
On the Italian note I believe I would've picked these 9 in priored order:
I would exclude Francesco Ginanni based on his results this season, but otherwise he could be included instead of Pozzo. I can't see what riders such as Damiano Caruso and Santo Anza can do in a race like this. It seems much to mountanous, so Sella (Who is picked) could perhaps also be a bet.
I the TTT, hopefully Spain can take back to back wins, I'm annoyed that Guiterez got a spot on the team ahead of Sanchez Gil, while Abal ahead of Snachez Gonzalez is also a little frustrating. Hopefully it works anyway.
[url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182]Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
The same goes for Roger Kluge in Germany, where Patrick Gretsch and Lucas Schädlich have been overlooked, having in mind that they are MUCH stronger in a TT race imo.
Kluge can´t be considered as a surprise, since only rjc and me picked out the squad
South Africa
121. I.Stannard
122. S.Cummings
123. T.Diggle
124. C.Froome
125. D.Millar
126. B.Swift
127. A.Tennant
128. B.Wiggins
Damn I knew the South Africans would take revenge for England pouching their cricketers. Now Froome I can live with, Millar has barely lived in the UK in his live time. But Swifty and Wiggo - I demand to see documents of their South African heritage
The same goes for Roger Kluge in Germany, where Patrick Gretsch and Lucas Schädlich have been overlooked, having in mind that they are MUCH stronger in a TT race imo.
Kluge can´t be considered as a surprise, since only rjc and me picked out the squad
Well I reckoned that most managers would pick out the best riders. If a rider was on the 50/50 or so they would pick their own riders. That was why I only wanted to be selector for Spain. But I can see that everyone just wants as many of their own riders in as possible, which I guess is the normal way to react. It seems like it anyway. I have tried to pick upon strength rather than on my own riders - Basically because the WC should feature the best riders in the world to make the race as interesting as possible.
The same goes for Roger Kluge in Germany, where Patrick Gretsch and Lucas Schädlich have been overlooked, having in mind that they are MUCH stronger in a TT race imo.
Kluge can´t be considered as a surprise, since only rjc and me picked out the squad
Well I reckoned that most managers would pick out the best riders. If a rider was on the 50/50 or so they would pick their own riders. That was why I only wanted to be selector for Spain. But I can see that everyone just wants as many of their own riders in as possible, which I guess is the normal way to react. It seems like it anyway. I have tried to pick upon strength rather than on my own riders - Basically because the WC should feature the best riders in the world to make the race as interesting as possible.
1) IRL many of top riders don´t even care about WC...
2) I believe most managers will consider race more interesting with their own riders participating
and if you want to compare your TT-ists with Kluge...look at the profile and lenght
indeed, both have better TT skill (78 resp. 77 > 74), but how about other skills? Gretsch with his 57 HIL, Schadlich with 61HIL but without FLA and STA...I think Kluge can offer more
beagle wrote:
and if you want to compare your TT-ists with Kluge...look at the profile and lenght
indeed, both have better TT skill (78 resp. 77 > 74), but how about other skills? Gretsch with his 57 HIL, Schadlich with 61HIL but without FLA and STA...I think Kluge can offer more
Yep, SotD didn't pick the best examples. That said the exclusion of Kessler and Gerdeman is a very odd decision
[url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182]Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
beagle wrote:
and if you want to compare your TT-ists with Kluge...look at the profile and lenght
indeed, both have better TT skill (78 resp. 77 > 74), but how about other skills? Gretsch with his 57 HIL, Schadlich with 61HIL but without FLA and STA...I think Kluge can offer more
Yep, SotD didn't pick the best examples. That said the exclusion of Kessler and Gerdeman is a very odd decision
neither Kessler nor Gerdemann were nominated
Germany: RR, ITT, TTT
Selectors: rjc_43, beagle
Kittel, Barth (Vesuvio), Martens (Wolfskin) Mehr-Wenige, Sinkewitz(Auber) Burghardt (Wiki) Christian Müller, Stefan Schumacher (UBS) Wegmann (Free) Lucas Schädlich (Festina)
Andreas Klier (Telenor) Schadlich, Gretsch (Festina) Keinath, Klemme (B&O) Kluge (Pokerstars) Lang (Sony Ericsson) Bontenackels (Lipton) Fiedler (Nespresso) Fothen (Pearl)
