To no one's surprise in a race called Tour d'Andorra you have to be a really good climber if you want to do well.
Almeida is the the clear favorite of the race and it's his race to lose looking at the others. Former winner, Padun seems to be his main rival. The Ukrainian has been doing well against the big boys in the Tour de France and will look to bring some of that momentum into Andorra.
Last year's winner, Reis is the only other former winner to be present on the startlist. But even getting on the podium seems to be a complicated matter for the Minion, with defending the title being a sweet sweet dream.
Rodrigues and Eastman are two other interesting names for the overall win, but with so many good climbers in this race they could just as easily find themselves outside the podium or even top 5 at the end of the race.
Favorites
Rider
MT
MM
HI
TT
ST
RS
AC
Almeida
83
77
71
73
76
78
71
Padun
82
80
77
66
72
74
75
Rodrigues
81
77
73
74
73
75
72
Eastman
81
76
70
76
75
74
68
Amezawa
80
79
77
64
76
78
75
Novak
80
79
77
66
74
76
76
Sosa
80
79
78
67
75
79
74
Ranaweera
80
77
73
76
75
75
65
Johannessen
80
77
74
70
73
77
75
Reis
80
76
72
75
77
75
63
Galta
80
76
72
72
77
78
65
Pira
80
76
71
64
68
71
69
Carapaz
80
76
71
72
71
76
65
Elosegui
80
76
71
72
77
80
71
Inkelaar
80
75
70
64
75
76
74
Shikai
80
75
70
75
73
75
66
There are also plenty of good quality climbers that don't make the favorites list that if this was a GT they'd be all over breakaways fighting for stage wins once they'd be out of the GC battle. But in such a short race, it's unlikely we'll see such scenarios and they will most likely come out empty handed. Unless they find some fantastic form and can challenge for a good GC with no breakaway shenanigans.
Well really hard startlist but I am really hoping for Bennett and Rodriguez to get some nice points here. Carlos could have a chance to get the U25 jersey.
A great startlist! I hope Galta can do well here and score us some strong points. The race fits him well, but it fits all the other guys well too.... Just hope his energy stats can help him beat some of the other good climbers
We're back on the road again! Quite a strong start list so it's going to be a challenge to score well but hopefully Shikai can get us something, he's due an over performance.
If Carapaz rides like in Liechtenstein, then he might get into the top 10.
If Carapaz performs according to the startlist, then we should aim for a top 20.
If Carapaz does what he usually does, then we should be happy with a top 30.
With how our season has been going so far, top 30 would be satisfactory.
We would also like to see the team active in breakaways. Preferably Azman but McKenna could also do well in stage 2 under the right circumstances.
Really happy that we couldn't participate due to oversubscriptions, Buitrago would've been eaten alive here. Good luck to all and I'll be enjoying the action from afar.
