VDS Draft League Post-Draft-Pre-Anything-Else Power Rankings
We survived. Through a week of staring at a comment thread and 7 bottles of Night Train and only like one or two mentions of the Eagles, we made it through yet another draft. To add to the excitement, I compiled a power rankings, based on how well everyone drafted. Before we go any farther, we should clarify that in the absence of any results these power rankings are based on nothing more than my own intuition and are therefore wrong. You should consider it a complete omen if you find yourself atop this nonsense. Here's the spreadsheet, to refresh your memory. Anyway, here's the list:
Honorable Mentions: TH Whistler (of course), Luctor, Pruzsynski
5. Pruz's Kid (unnamed)
Strength: Usually the first pick struggles later in the draft, but Pruz's kid managed to compile a pretty well rounded team. Assuming Pogacar mops up, there's enough strong riders in other disciplines, like Asgreen, Senechal and Jungels, to keep the points coming in.
Weakness: The DQS lottery. For Asgreen and Senechal to bring home some points will depend largely on what their teammates are up to at any given race. A bad roll of the dice could bring a shutout.
Ace in the hole: Eddy Boss. Hey, he's due, right?
4. Kurt Stoebel (General Vlasov quarantined: Push becomes shove, days become month!)
Strength: Benoot, Naesen and Politt I predict are in for a solid spring. Ackermann should bring buckets of points from the early season sprints. Kurt will be strong out of the gate.
Weakness: Grand tours will be tough. Vlasov should do alright, but who knows where Sivakov is on the Ineos food chain. He'll have to struggle with some opportunists to show at the GTs.
Ace in the hole: Danny van Poppel is always good for points at races no one else shows up to.
3. Loosehorse (Tenchi Muyo!)Strength: The spring. Loosehorse will be in first place from Mid-March through June.
Weakness: The rest of the season. Here's hoping MVDP is entertained enough to keep scoring him points.
Ace in the hole: I don't have an answer here.
2. MOUA (Knox Knox? Theuns there? Meeus!)
Strength: Nondescript tiny French stage races. The kinds where Christoph Laporte wins the bunch sprints, Filippo Ganna casually wins the TT, Alexys Brunel does a Tarzan impression and wins a stage and G-mart wins the overall.
Weakness: MOUA suffered from the limited star power that comes from a low pick.
Ace in the hole: You haven't heard of him yet, but by the end of the year Alejandro Valverde will be a household name.
1. Jimmyjackjill (Primoz and the vermicios knids)
Strength: Very well rounded. He's gonna have serious opportunities in every race. Anchored by the best sprint staff (Ewan, Philipsen and Groany when he comes back) in the draft.
Weakness: I guess he doesn't have a serious classics guy? A lot of weight on Senechal's shoulders.
Ace in the hole: Sepp Kuss. Not that he's a well kept secret, but we're starting to see some daylight near the top of the Jumbo pecking order.
Okay, argue about this.