Can someone do a break down for me How many riders should I be looking to have to cover the 3 GTs how many do I need to be classic riders, 1 day racers, week tour guys etc
I'd look at having three genuine stage race leaders, probably 10-12 blokes who can climb the high mountains, if they can time trial it's a bonus; you'll want blokes who can TT for the team time trials, I'd look at 4 sprinters as well, perhaps 5 with a total of 8 blokes who can participate in a sprint train - whether that's 4 sprinters and 4 Lancaster-esque leadout men or 6/2. Some sprinters will double up as classics riders and I'd look at assembling a good few cobble riders too - 3/4 or so. If you don't already have a cobbled rider I'd just forget about them unless you nab one of the 2-3 potentially top 10 paris-roubaix finishers left in the pool. I'd also look at 3/4 punchers - the Gerrans/Albasini kind of blokes who can really attack on the small climbs. Really that should leave you at 27 or so blokes so work from that, I guess.
Pick First Name Last Name 1 Sylvain Chavanel 2 Michele Scarponi 3 Daniel Martin 4 Jakob Fuglsang 5 Andrew Talansky 6 Fränk Schleck 7 Thomas Voeckler 8 JJ Rojas 9 Thor Hushovd 10 Giovanni Visconti 11 Romain Bardet 12 Tony Gallopin 13 Greg Henderson 14 Gerald Ciolek 15 Tyler Farrar 16 Janez Brajkovič 17 Ivan Basso 18 Kanstantsin Siutsou 19 Dario Cataldo 20 Laurens ten Dam 21 Maxime Monfort Are any of my riders cobble riders? I understand some are punchers like Visconti and Bardet and alot of my guys can time trial and Climb aswell IIRC
Not really any cobble specialists - Chavanel/Hushovd have had decent results in the past (especially Thor), but best look at guys who've had decent results @ the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Gent-Wevelgem in the last few years.
1. Chris Froome - GC/TT 2. Philip Gilbert - Classics/Puncheur 3. Rigoberto Uran - GC/Climber 4. Tony Martin - TT/Sprint Train 5. Pierre Rolland - Climber 6. Daniel Moreno - Climber/GV 7. Matthew Goss - Sprinter 8. David Millar - TT/Domestique 9. Rein Taaramäe - GC/TT 10. Michael Rogers - Domestique 11. Marco Marcato - Sprinter 12. Nicholas Roche - GC/Climber/Domestique? 13. Alex Dowsett - TT 14. Jens Voigt - Domestique 15. Ben Swift - Sprinter 16. Peter Velits - All roudner/TT 17. Jan Barta - Climber/TT 18. Joe Dombrowski - Climber/Domestique 19. Christian Knees - Domestique 20. Kenny Dehaes - Classics 21. Rinaldo Nocentini - Classics
GT - GC: 2. Alejandro Valverde 5. Carlos Betancur 6. Beñat Intxausti ST - GC: 3. Rui Costa 9. Simon Špilak 4. Luis León Sánchez Sprinters: 1. Peter Sagan 12. Theo Bos 16. Gianni Meersman 24. Michael Matthews Classics: 7. Lieuwe Westra (Hills/TT) 10. Lars Boom (Cobbles/TT) 8. Greg Van Avermaet (Cobbles) 13. Jürgen Roelandts (Cobbles) 15. Zdeněk Štybar (Cobbles) 23. Matti Breschel (Cobbles) Domestiques: 5. Taylor Phinney (TT/Flat) 11. Jonathan Castroviejo (TT/Flat) 14. Mikel Nieve (Climber) 17. Andrey Amador (Climber) 19. Javier Moreno (Climber) 18. Lars Bak (TT/Cobbled Classics) 20. Ramūnas Navardauskas (Breakaways/AR) 21. Maxime Bouet (Breakaways/AR) 22. Luke Durdridge (TT/Flat) 25. Fabio Duarte (Climber) 26. Haimar Zubeldia (Climber) Really not sure what type of riders you'd classify Bouet/Navardauskas as. Same for Westra/Boom -jack of all trades, masters of none?
I'd probably say Westra's a time trialist cross puncher and Boom a time trialist cross cobbler. You're right though, hard to classify.
Gonna copy the KATA format GT-GC Vincenzo Nibali Bradley Wiggins Jurgen Van Den Broeck ST-GC Michal Kwiatkowski Rafal Majka Tanel Kangert Classics Fabian Cancellara (Cobble) (Stage Race TT) Simon Gerrans (Hills) Alessandro Ballan (Cobble) Heinrich Haussler (Cobble) (Stage Race Sprinter) Sebastian Langeveld (Cobble) Jelle Vanendert (Hills) (Stage Race Mountain Domestique) Enrico Gasparotto (Hills) Sprinters Marcel Kittel Arnaud Demare Nacer Bouhanni Domestiques Thomas De Gendt (TT/Mountain/Hills) Rohan Dennis (TT/Hills) Thibaut Pinot (Mountains) Cameron Meyer (TT/Hills) Vasil Kiryienka (TT/Mountains) Mathias Frank (Mountains) Don't have many bona-fide domestiques; Pinot/De Gendt/Meyer/Dennis really haven't played the role much but I'll back them in. Once Pinot learns to TT/descend he's got the leader potential, IMO.
1. Mark Cavendish (Sprinter #1) 2. Joaquim Rodriguez (GC/Climber) 3. Roman Kreuziger (GC) 4. Alexander Kristoff (Sprinter) 5. Tejay van Garderen (GC) 6. John Degenkolb (Sprinter) 7. Robert Gesink (GC/Climber) 8. Mark Renshaw (Lead out train) 9. Geraint Thomas (Domestique) 10. Niki Terpstra (Classics) 11. Wilco Kelderman (NFI) 12. Igor Antón (Climber/Domestique) 13. Chris Anker Sørensen (Climber/Domestique) 14. Ian Stannard (Beast/Domestique) 15. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Domestique/TT?) 16. Juan Antonio Flecha (Classics/Domestique) 17. Andreas Klöden (Old) 18. Kenny van Hummel (Sprinter) 19. Przemysław Niemiec (Climber/Domestique) 20. Adam Blythe (Sprinter) 21. Simon Clarke (NFI) 22. Damiano Cunego (Classics/Climbing) Not sure exactly how good this is, probably lacking a bit in the classics and TT sections. Might make up for it in other facets, I dunno.
Picks so far by Country: Italy - 20 Spain - 15 Netherlands - 14 Belgium - 12 France - 12 Australia - 11 Great Britain - 9 Germany - 8 United States of America - 5 Colombia - 4 Norway - 4 Switzerland - 4 Czech Republic - 3 Denmark - 3 Poland - 3 Slovenia - 3 Belarus - 2 Estonia - 2 Ireland - 2 Luxembourg - 2 Portugal - 2 Slovakia - 2 Austria - 1 Canada - 1 Costa Rica - 1 Croatia - 1 Kazakhstan - 1 Lithuania - 1 New Zealand - 1 South Africa - 1 Ukraine - 1 Sweden - 1 Noble has the most riders from one nation with 7 Italians, followed by myself with 6 Spaniards.
