Italy 2022 – Velogames Round Up

Well we knew the Giro was going to be a fair bit of an unpredictable mess, made even more so by four pre-race favourites leaving the race early due to illness or injury. One injury was even picked up before the race even started and his team just hoped it would improve during the race! I digress. Here is the breakdown of the first grand tour of the year. The good picks, the best value, and of course, the complete whiffs. I personally had three or four good hits, and several unfortunate misses. Couple that with ‘oh dear lord, what was I thinking not picking him???’ and that sums up how my Giro went. Anyway, slightly rambling start, but let’s dive in!

All Rounders

1. Richard Carapaz – 2244
2. Pello Bilbao – 1312
3. Wilco Kelderman – 1042
4. João Almeida – 985
5. Thymen Arensman – 975

Well, he was the race favourite, and even though he missed out on the overall win himself, Carapaz top scores in Velogames thanks to three weeks of aggressive racing and a solid all round performance. He could have had more points if ten stages hadn’t gone to the breakaway. Bilbao follows on in 2nd despite me having some doubts about his scoring potential in a domestique role, but he was very keen to be in the mix for a few stages and ended the race in 5th overall. All in all, a nice steady race. Kelderman once again posts a solid score, which would have been higher had he held on to his high GC ranking. Blockhaus was his downfall, but he then proved invaluable for the eventual race winner! It was a case of what could have been for Almeida who still finishes in 4th among the all rounders despite leaving the race with Covid. 985 points is a great total for someone who was on course for a top 5 and missed out on two mountain stages and final classification points. Arensman rounds out the top 5 after two 2nd places and a 5th during the final week. Fairly decent compensation for Team DSM after Bardet went home, but just missing out on that stage win. Valverde and Vansevenant were two other riders here who scored an okay number of points for the price, but the rest of the all rounders were on domestique duties or just weren’t at the races. Pour one out for Tom Dumoulin, really hope to see him back at his best again and he put in a fairly good shift here. It just wasn’t to be.

Climbers

1. Jai Hindley – 2128
2. Mikel Landa – 1432
3. Lennard Kämna – 1274
4. Koen Bouwman – 1256
5. Jan Hirt – 1113

What a strange eclectic mix of climbing talent. Five stage wins; the overall win and 3rd place; and the King of the Mountains winner are all present here. Not present here are Simon Yates, Miguel Ángel López, and Romain Bardet. Yates won two stages, but lost his overall challenge and eventually left the race with knee pain. Bardet was on super form, but left the race with illness when he was in 4th place. López came into the race with a hip injury, which was too severe to overcome. These three stars suffering bad fortune left the door open for Jai Hindley to go one better than his 2nd place in 2020. The emphatic way he clinched victory on the slopes of the Passo Fedaia was a joy to watch. Mikel Landa finally returned to a grand tour podium for the first time since the 2015 Giro and after failing to finish both grand tours he raced last year. Kämna was a breakaway menace, especially early on, spending five days in 2nd place overall and a couple in the lead of the KOM. The man who wrestled the KOM jersey off the shoulders of Kämna was Koen Bouwman who got himself in five breakaways, won two stages, and salvaged a great result for Jumbo-Visma and for the 1% of players who took a chance on him! Jan Hirt also topped off a great race for Intermarché with a brilliant 6th place overall and a stage win. There were many other climbers who recorded very decent scores thanks to the large amount of breakaway success. Honourable mentions to Buitrago, Nibali, Mollema, Ciccone, Carthy, Buchmann and Pozzovivo who all had good races. And let’s not forget the GC yo-yo himself Guillaume Martin!

SPrinters

1. Arnaud Démare – 1437
2. Biniam Girmay – 1119
3. Fernando Gaviria – 1002
4. Mark Cavendish – 941
5. Alberto Dainese – 697

Well, Démare showed us what he can do with a good leadout train against a slightly weaker sprint field and returns to take the points jersey he won in 2020. I won’t say this has fully convinced me that he’s turned a corner and he’s back to his best, but it’s a brilliant result for him. I want to see him do it against the very best sprinters in the world, but we might have to wait a while for that. Just like Almeida, it was a case of what might have been for the new kid on the block and history maker, Biniam Girmay. He accrued his points total over 10 stages before the infamous cork incident and he still ended up 2nd amongst the sprinters and 9th overall. He’s a new Peter Sagan and Tom Boonen, competitive in the sprints and able to compete on hillier terrain. No Tour for him this year, but he’ll be great to watch in the grand tours to come for many years. Gaviria and Cavendish had solid races, but with only one win for Cavendish between them. Then comes a quartet of sprinters scoring in the 600s with Dainese edging out Bauhaus, Vendrame, and Albanese thanks to his stage win and 5th in the points classification. Points were fairly hard to come by for most of the sprinters and there was nearly always going to be one rider who stood out. I just thought it would be Cavendish and it should have been Girmay. FDJ and Démare just did it better this race. Ewan and Nizzolo are the notable absentees from high up this list. Ewan mostly because of his stage one crash and who knows what was missing for Nizzolo.

Unclassed

1. Mathieu van der Poel – 1325
2. Juan Pedro López – 962
3. Gijs Leemreize – 799
4. Simone Consonni – 630
5. Mauro Schmid – 629

Even at 12 credits, Mathieu van der Poel was picked by over 70% of players and they were rewarded with an exciting display of attacking racing over the whole race. Always pushing the pace, successfully joining the breakaways, and solid in the time trials. Completing this race was the next step for him and I’d be amazed if he doesn’t go to the Tour de France and have a field day with the route that’s planned. López and Leemreize were the random unclassed riders who happened to have amazing races for the 1.4% and 0.2% of players respectively who believed in miracles. What a race for López, 13th in his 2nd Vuelta last year and the 24 year old took his chance this time to break into the top 10. He had a dogged and difficult final week to hang on after his earlier 10 days in the pink jersey, but he managed it, and the team backed him beautifully. Leemreize tried time and again on grand tour debut with five top 10s including a 2nd and a 3rd. He’s never had any flashy results before so this was a real coming of age for him. He’s been racing a mixture of professional and junior races for the past two years so this is a real statement of things to come from the young Dutchman. Consonni proved that pre-race reports that he was the sprinter for Cofidis were accurate. 3rd was his closest result so overall, a pretty successful race for him. Schmid was often competitive, but just missed out on replicating his stage success from last year with 2nd on stage 19. Gabburo was the best placed 4 credit rider who just missed out on this list with Cort, Theuns, and Covi not far behind.

Dream Team

As I mentioned on Twitter, Velogames dream teams for the grand tours are rarely under 100 credits and if they are, it’s only by 2 credits (see last year’s Tour). But there have now been four instances since the start of 2013 where the dream team has come in under 98 credits. The 2013 Vuelta, 2014 Tour, and two of the last three Giro’s d’Italia. George has a hard time deciding values and categories when there are so many unknowns and we can never predict that five of the seven most expensive riders will leave early. The dream team then gets even cheaper when one of the other pricey riders doesn’t even make it in! So here it is, some riders in here were pretty predictable, others, it was almost impossible to see them score so well.

Rider	Category	Price	Points
Richard Carapaz	All Rounder	24	2244
Pello Bilbao	All Rounder	12	1312
Jai Hindley	Climber	10	2128
Lennard Kämna	Climber	8	1274
Arnaud Démare	Sprinter	10	1437
Mathieu van der Poel	Unclassed	12	1325
Juan Pedro López	Unclassed	6	962
Gijs Leemreize	Unclassed	6	799
Koen Bouwman	Wildcard	6	1256

DREAM TEAM – Total Cost = 94 Total Points = 12737
BEST TEAM – Total Cost = 100 Total Points = 11070

As you can see, there’s no place for Mikel Landa with Carapaz, Bilbao, Démare, and van der Poel doing so well, and Kämna and Bouwman being so close behind. So it’s the cheaper climbers and double Bora combo that compliment the more expensive all rounders, sprinter and unclassed. The winning team had the top two all rounders as well as the Bora climbing duo, together with Girmay, van der Poel, and Cort. All in all, a hugely enjoyable opening grand tour of 2022 and only the two minor regrets of not picking either Hindley or van der Poel, but it’s okay, I won’t let it get to me…..too much. Our mini league was won by Don Fabrizio Corbera, il Gattopardo with their team Amici dello Squalo di Messina for 215th overall, congratulations! Hope you all had a successful race, and see you in the next one!