the preliminary start list has been released

Out of my head:
Gesink, Basso and Anton for the GC.
Cobo for the dope
Iglinsky for the coolness factor
Cunego, Gerdemann and Gaspa for the grey hairs from frustration
Boom for the prologue
Martens for 5 stage wins
and Ciolek, Breschel for the sprints

Igor Anton: Mr Cutest Smile in Euskadi hasn’t garnered me a single point this year but he WILL do better here. he won the Subida Urkiola a couple of weeks ago so things are on the up. And I’ve threatened him with a fate worse than majope’s ‘second team’ if he fails.
Fedrigo: a stage please
Intxausti: I shouldn’t keep picking cute Basques. No points yet but supposedly he’s promising. It’s time to show it!
Bennati: No comment….at least he’ll look beautiful
Kreuziger: I expected more of him at the Tour. Time to step up!
Barredo: riding the San Sebastian high
Boom: a point or two please
Gilbert: attack!
Breschel: stage please

if I remember correctly, I have,

Puppy, prep for worlds probably.
Igor Anton, aaaggghhh.
J Rod, I dunno…he should finish high on GC?
Zeke, better get onto the podium!
Kreuziger, time to challenge Ivan Basso for leadership?
Greipel , stages!
Boom/Iglinsky/Hernandez, whatever…

Well, almost. Barredo, Chavanel, Ballan and Weening.

I think 40 VDS teams have Large Bomb, so we should probably devote some time to discussing his chances. How about no points at all?

So far he’s won the Tour of Belgium, done OK in the Suisse prologue and finished that race, came in seventh in Saschen, and finished San Sebastian.

In the Tour of Belgium he crushed such competition as Thomas “Oops” Dekker, Dominque Cornu, Greg Van Avermaet, and Neils Albert (ha!). The Saschen Tour was won by Sinking Joke. In the TdS prologue he was 12" shy of third-place finisher Andreas Kloden over 7.8km, and a full 34" shy of Spartacus.

Based on these results, Boom has nice results for a 23-year-old making the transition from cross superstar to road warrior. I think he’ll be a standout time triallist in a couple of years. But I think Boom will exceed expectations if he finishes the Vuelta, does OK in his time trialling, and gets into a couple of breakaways.

(And in VDS smack, I have both Andy and Bobo Gesink, so I’m loaded for bear.)

Gesink
Fuglsang
Rodriguez
Sanchez
Ciolek
Kloden
Horner
Hammond
Pasamontes
Large Bomb

Schlecklet, Jesus H., Ciolek, Gerdemann, Peterson, Tuft, Boom, and Gilbert, with Lovkvist, Meier, Vansummeren, and Weylandt on reserves.

This being Spain, they are all going to crash out in the first 3 stages, or perhaps dawdle in the gruppetto while getting some miles in before the Worlds.