A well-known name in 1036th place in the Sporza Cycling Manager: professional footballer Cyriel Dessers.
“I hope I can still dive into the top 1000,” says Team Bidon Collé’s team boss in our Kopman podcast. Dessers also wants to retain his number 1 place in the mini competition with his physiotherapists from Feyenoord.
The secret weapon for his Ardennes offensive? He still has 4 transfers up his sleeve.
“I definitely want to include Benoît Cosnefroy and David Gaudu in my team”, Dessers already gives an insight into his master plan.
“And then I still doubt whether I would dare to go all-in on Remco Evenepoel for Liège-Bastogne-Liège“, Dessers continues. “The monuments still weigh heavily and as a leader he can really deliver there.”
A strategy that also causes doubts among the rest of the Kopman panel. “He is only driving one race, which is a big risk,” says valuer Hannes Tahon. “Something can always go wrong, then you better take a rider who will ride several races.”
“And don’t forget the Pogacar factor. If the Slovenian wins and you have Evenepoel as the leader, your advantage is almost negligible.”
“If you still have a lot of transfers, I would still take the chance”, Gilles van de Lead-out comments. “You will be able to find 2 to 3 riders who will score more points over all races, but Evenepoel still seems to guarantee a cartload of points in Liège.”
Dessers is also still worried about his fourth cutting. “I’m thinking of men like Dylan Teuns, Quinten Hermans or Neilson Powless, but I’ll have to think carefully about my final selection tonight.”
Do you also need an extra tip for your last transfer? In the section “I see, I see what you don’t see” 8 riders passed by who are on the (provisional) list of participants for all 4 upcoming races.
