Michele Scarponi, Domenico Pozzovivo, Wilco Kelderman, Daniel Martin, Rafal Majka, Przemyslaw Niemiec, Daniel Moreno
★★
Franco Pellizotti, Ivan Basso, Ryder Hesjedal, Damiano Cunego, Igor Anton, Pierre Rolland, Robert Kiserlovski, Julián David Arredondo
Sprinters
Marcel Kittel, Nacer Bouhanni, Elia Viviani, Giacomo Nizzolo, Ben Swift, Roberto Ferrari, Tyler Farrar, Michael Matthews, David Appollonio, Francesco Chicchi
Strong teams from Astana, Katusha and Movistar climbing wise obviosuly. Movistar though with the best squad, we'll be seeing a lot of them in front.
Uran has decent support from OPQS in Poels, De Gendt, Pauwels and Brambilla. Should be fighting for another podium here, but is bit of unknown coming to the race.
Orica to win the TTT here. Should produce a very strong leadout for Matthews.
Pierre Rolland. Right change of sceneary, not too sure what too expect, but if comes in shape I could see him doing a performance ala Anton few years back taking one or two mountain stages from breaks.
Hesjdeal and Martin presents nice duo for Garmin, very interested in how they do.
Sky brining a very interesting team. Cataldo going for GC, Top 10 maybe duoable. Kennaugh is interesting addition, I guess going for stage wins with Siutsou in mountain stages and leaving to prepare for Tour in last week? With EBH they will go stage hunting a lot, and Swift for tougher finishes.
Davide Villela makes his Giro debut since turning pro this year, will be interesting to see how he goes. Another interest is Kelderman. The competition aside Top 3 or 4 isn't that great, so Top 10 should be a target for him and show his talent in Grand Tours.
cio93 wrote:
As Alakagom covered the GC, let me cover the sprints (simply chronological by startlist appearance):
Viviani has a nice potential train with Ratto and Gatto who can both go for own chances in hillier stages.
Duque is not quite what he used to be anymore, but maybe it's enough for a sneaky podium somewhere when others are dropped.
Belletti is always there or thereabouts in the Giro, but he's rather on his own in the climber-heavy Androni squad.
Bouhanni is certainly a good bet for a podium on a standard sprint stage, Soupe proved here and there that he can produce a massive leadout.
Sonny Colbrelli. Period.
Tyler Farrar. Period.
Roberto Ferrari. Period.
Oss is another versatile rider to look out for, although he might have lost a bit of (or at least not improved on) what made him a great leadout for Sagan some years ago.
BMC has another sprinter in Wyss who can be the surprise of the Top 5 in weaker WT races, let's see if he can ride slipstreams here as well.
Kittel is obviously the main favourite for lots of wins and showed good form recently. You only have to wonder how much of that he wants to reserve for the TdF, and whether he makes time cuts.
His support is great in Mezgec and Veelers as two amazing leadout riders/sprinters and De Backer showed he can keep or set a high tempo in PR.
Geschke is the Giant man for when those are dropped.
For Neri Sottoli, Mauro Finetto is on fire this season, Francesco Chicchi is still around (and still going decently), while Colli has some sprint results as well.
Ale-Jet is not getting younger and has probably no support here, but I wouldn't mind him seeing in the mix possibly one last time.
Ben Swift showed great form in Pais Vasco and is certainly one of the guys to bet on for the selective sprint stages. EBH is here, but that could mean anything
Matthews was a stunning 12th for a sprinter in AGR and will challenge Swift, but could win the flat sprints as well. Lots of TTers in the Orica lineup means he should never be badly positioned.
Nizzolo needs a good day to fight Kittel, but is certainly in the second tier right behind him. Van Poppel knows how to navigate him around as well, but Danilo Hondo is the unbeaten living legend of leadout riders present.
A very quickly compiled favourites list (always happy to receive input of all kinds)
Nice preview! Not often this much work is put in to races, so good job and intiative. I think Kittel will dominate. HE's substantially stronger than the rest of the field in terms of sprinting. I think the GC is a tossup though. Uran and Evans aren't going to be as strong; Evans is fading and Uran doesn't have enough team support or TT ability to actually win. Purito looks good, but I'm not sure Quitana has the form to win. I think--
1) Joaquin Rodriguez
2) Nairo Quintana
3) Michele Scarponi
4) Rigoberto Uran
5) Niemiec
I think Niemiec can pull out the dark horse card on this one. He, and maybe Majka, look strong to me, but again, their form is questionable.
Really though, one attack could be the deciding factor for victory though. If Rolland, or looking way down the favorites list, Hesjedal, gets a minute or two on a climb early on, they could be strong enough to hold off the competition. I think the GC is decided by one or two decisive attacks by the guy with the best form.
"America. Show a nipple on television and the whole country goes ape-shit." -DubbelDekker
Top 10
1. Quintana
2. Rodriguez
3. Uran
4. Scarponi
5. Majka
6. Basso
7. Evans
8. Niemiec
9. Pozzovivo
10. Moreno
(11. Kelderman)
Who will be be the most disappointing rider?
If Evans is being classified as a 5 star favourite, then Evans
Who will be be the most surprising rider?
Someone like Cunego or Basso, one of those riders people think are slightly past it, putting in a good performance and finishing top 5.
Who will win the Maglia azzurra?
Pirazzi
Who will win the Maglia rossa?
Kittel will dominate the sprints, but there are so many uphill finishes that Rodriguez has to take this.
Who will win the Maglia bianca?
Quintana
Should be close between Nairo and Purito, both have good recovery and so shouldn't crack on the final week, but you never know. Personal bias is the only thing making me put Quintana as #1. After the top 2/maybe 3 it's incredibly open, you could reverse the order of the people I put 4-10 and I wouldn't bat an eyelid.
Thnxs 4 ur kind words guys im pleased u liked the post
Top 10
1. Joaquim Rodriguez
2. Nairo Quintana
3. Rigoberto Uran
4. Rafal Majka
5. Michele Scarponi
6. Domenico Pozzovivo
7. Wilco Kelderman
8. Przemyslaw Niemiec
9. Daniel Martin
10. Julián David Arredondo
Who will be be the biggest disappointing rider?
Cadel Evans
Who will be be the biggest surprising rider?
Julián David Arredondo
Who will win the Maglia azzurra?
Stefano Pirazzi
Who will win the Maglia rossa?
Marcel Kittel
Top 20:
1. Joaquim Rodriguez
2. Nairo Quintana
3. Rigoberto Uran
4. Domenico Pozzovivo
5. Michele Scarponi
6. Daniel Martin
7. Rafal Majka
8. Daniel Moreno
9. Robert Kiserlovski
10. Ryder Hesjedal
11. Nicolas Roche
12. Pierre Rolland
13. Ivan Basso
14. Przemyslaw Niemiec
15. Dario Cataldo
16. Samuel Sanchez
17. Cadel Evans
18. Wilco Kelderman
19. Igor Anton
20. Fabio Duarte
Who will be be the biggest disappointing rider?
Evans. Notice I put him behind Sanchez. that's because that's where he will be every mountain stage while Samu paces him up after getting dropped.
Who will be be the biggest surprising rider?
No one really. Hopefully Farrar winning a stage.
Who will win the Maglia azzurra?
Priazzi
Who will win the Maglia rossa?
Purito of course. I know they are trying to make the jersey more sprinter friendly but I still can't see an extreme flat guy like Kittel winning it.
Who will win the Maglia bianca?
Quintana. It's not fair for -25 competitions that he is eligible. Edited by baseballlover312 on 23-04-2014 00:42
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
I'm interested in the next Yellow Fluo rider to win a stage.
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Vincenzo Nibali 2013
Ryder Hesjedal 2012
Denis Menchov 2009
Alberto Contador 2008
I found it pretty informative and decided to post it I hope u dont mind.
