Ha, and I thought I was the only one signing riders (on my PCM games) just because I liked their names.
Eiber Mudd is a very nice name indeed, although I could not stop thinking of Elmer Fudd the first time I read it.
Shonak wrote:
Aru hasn't been an FA for a long time but I think his wage bid initally was very high (please correct if wrong). I think it most have went down since then, esp given that he also has ridden in CT for at least two seasons. The same can be said for Barguil btw who was arguably the best rider in 2018 at least. Since both had quite good 2018 and 2019 campaigns, the effect of lowering wages through renewals must be low anyway.
Steal Attempt on Aru made him so expensive last season (someone thought I couldn't keep him because of degradation. Now he is at the absolute minimum for this season.
We have three predictions for the 2020 World Tour, let's compare them, I sorted the teams by the average of the three predictions:
WT 19
D2B
U U
RIP
1
4
Allianz - BMW Cycling Team
1
3
2
2
1
Grupo Argos - Quala
5
1
1
3
new
Ceramica Panaria
2
8
3
3
3
Italo
3
2
8
5
5
Alitalia
10
4
4
6
7
Team BP
9
6
5
7
13
Baku Synergy Plus
7
5
11
8
9
Suntory Lucozade Sport
4
12
10
9
12
Filliers - Mora Pro Cycling Team
14
7
6
10
new
KBC Godiva
8
13
7
11
6
Liberty Seguros
6
14
9
12
14
Deutsche Bahn
13
9
12
12
10
Équipe Cycliste Peugeot
11
10
13
14
11
Sevilla Cycling Team
16
11
14
15
17
CCC Sprandi Polkowice
12
16
15
16
16
Credit Suisse
15
15
16
17
new
Santos Euskadi
17
17
17
18
new
Vegeta Cycling Team
18
18
18
D2B puts Allianz on top and Argos down in 5th, which by average pushes Allianz into the best position, though the other two predictions favour the defending champions. UU isn't quite as bullish about Ceramica as the other two, while my simple formula undervalues Italo, on average the two Italian teams share third place.
The next Italian team, Alitalia, is in a similar situation as Grupo Argos, the two simpler predictions put the team in 4th, D2B only sees them in 10th. I'm happy to see my own team up there, I'd take any of the predictions. Next is Baku, followed by Suntory and Filiers. Filiers again gets a much lower prediction by D2B than the other two formulas, while his own team does suspiciously well.
Ulrich's formula pushes his own team into the lower half of the table, taking Liberty Seguros down with KBC, the other two see both teams doing better. On average Deutsche Bahn and Peugeot share 12th place. UU is most impressed by the raw climbing power of Sevilla. CCC is predicted to survive, Credit Suisse is very close, in fact, two out of three predictions see them surviving, if only barely. No disagreement among the predictions about 17th and 18th.
I don’t know how they did it, but Barbeau did not go past 72 in the offseason, instead he finished exactly on it. Bad training or genius planning? With Wongsa and Susilo this team will dominate the hills, Won can sprint and Koejoe is a top climber. These guys will score a lot and they’re looking really good for a top 5. This team is a perfect example of building a team to a peak year.
It was deliberate, but I wouldn't call it genius since it probably doesn't help their development much overall. I think I actually had more problems keeping Koejoe under the threshold than Barbeau surprisingly. Most seasons Giant Asia have been towards the back of the field, but I could easily see them getting top 10 this year with a bit of luck in the hills.
Filiers has the youngest team around, an average age of just 24.5 per rider, and none with less than pot 5. Peugeot has the oldest WT squad, just three riders are under 29 years old.
Continental Tour 2020
Bosch Cycling Team
24.7
Cadejo - Bike Xpress
26.0
Pedal Africa for Qhubeka
26.0
Tierra del Fuego
26.0
VIP Mobile
26.0
Education First x Palace - Nippo
26.1
Equinor Pro Cycling Team
26.6
VisitUkraine p/b Nemiroff
27.2
Nordea Bank - SAP
27.3
Strava - ANZ
27.3
ICBC Cycling Team
27.4
Millenium - LATAM Airlines
28.2
Team Cymru Wales
28.2
Guinness Cycling p/b BlackBerry
28.3
Trans Cycling Team
28.3
Polestar ProCycling p/b Telenor
28.6
Magnum - Madshus
28.7
Latvijas Balzams - Olainfarm
28.9
Brugse Zot - Trek
29.4
Shell Pro Cycling
31.6
Bosch and Shell stand out. Bosch only has two riders older than 26, while Shell only has two younger than 30.
We're in two races in January and have the riders to perform well in both races. Nerz has already won Indonesia two years ago, it would be nice to see him do that again, while Kreuziger should be a strong domestique and might even finish in the top-10 himself.
Also two top-10 contenders in Christchurch with Rui Costa and Van Avermaet, and hopefully one of them manages to even get a top-5. Thanks for the previews, I like them
Thank you for the previews. I can't wait to get started.
It's good to see Lander on the top riders list of Indonesia and I hope he flexes his muscles with the top dogs in there. But since there are 2 TT stages and on top of that a mountainous one among them the chances are slim he can do that.
Cant wait to get going. Looks like we have favourites in our first two races. Kern is busy in January, hopefully he's been to some training camps, to get into good form to start the year
Great to see the previews. Lots of early action for my two teams. Outside U23 races my dev team only rides CT.2 stage races in the hope of some breakaway action. Probably a record number of U23 teams this season, competition will be brutal.
For the main team I hope the Palm Classic will go well because we expect nothing from Toowoomba. Go Cav!
January is a pretty quiet month for us, as we will only participate in 3 races. No real expectations for Palm and our U23 guys but hopefully Bobby can do something in Toowoomba.
However, I'll have to wait for another month to see the main team in action, as the junior's race in Brazil is the only January race we selected. But it will still be interesting to take a look at our competitors
Thanks for the preview, Bikex, and have fun everyone!
Palm Classic 11.01 
Tour of Toowoomba 23.01 - 27.01 
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo 21.01 - 27.01 
Tour d'Indonesia 14.01 - 19.01 
Christchurch - Akaroa 29.01 
Copa America de Ciclismo 11.01 
