Jumbo-Visma

Nothing defines the Dutch team more than the above photo showing the team taking a 1-2-3 on the opening stage of Paris-Nice.

The only negative of the season for the team in Primoz Roglic. There was no real doubt regarding the latter’s performances but his constant inability to avoid crashes and seriously injuring himself frustrated many.

With no real ambition in the Giro, they still manage to place one of theirs in the best possible team.

The Tour de France was nothing less than a fairy-tale while the Vuelta, usually a redemption for them was one to forget in 2022.

It is no wonder that they dominated all other competition in Velogames, starting with the Superclassico.

Wout Van Aert

He is probably the best man we have ever seen on a bike. His improvements on the mountain came at the cost of his sprints unsurprisingly. The most defining moment of this shift came in his sprint duel lost against Tadej Pogacar.

MVP of the superclassico with a grand total of 4361, he cost 32 credits. 2 wins, 3 second places, one time 3rd, 2 fourth place, and 8th place were his top 10 results in the superclassico. His most disapointing performance was a 12th place in Gent Wevelgem. 10 races for total of 4361 points.

3 velogames stage championship participation and 3 best possible team inclusion, namely Paris-Nice, Criterium du Dauphine and the Tour de France!

Best rider in Paris-Nice infront of Roglic with 1016 points.

Second best behind Roglic (1200) with 1118points.

Best Sprinter and third overall best riders behind Vingegaard (3199) and Pogacar (3412) in the Tour de France with 2917 points

Verdict 2023: He will most probably be at the start of the Giro with its 3 time-trial. His main will be  the world championship.

Christophe Laporte

 The Frenchman was an instant hit with in the team. At a credit of 20, his 2278 brought him nothing less than the 7th best rider of the superclassico series. Day by day, he kept on improving bringing in points for stage placing on 5 occasions and still manage some assists in 4 others.

He was very content with a place a simple domestique in the Tour de France. Impressively, this did not prevent him from snatching a stage win along with the wild card spot in the best possible team.

Best possible @velogames team for Velogame2022:

All Rounders: Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard
Climbers: David Gaudu, Louis Meintjes
Sprinters: Wout Van Aert, Christophe Laporte (Wildcard)
Unclassified: Tom Pidcock, Nathan Van Hooydonck, Benjamin Thomas

14479 points, 100 credits— Calum Lonie 🇮🇪🇨🇵🇪🇺 (@CalumLonie) July 24, 2022

Verdict 2023: Unless Olav Kooij is going to the Tour de France, he will be the team’s sprinter at the Tour de France.

Tiesj Benoot

He brought as much as Laporte to the team if not more. Sacrificing his own chances in the Belgian classics, to allow the duo to have the maximum gap in more than one race, he selflessly worked for Wout Van Aert, Roglic and Vingegaard in the Tour.

His 2000 superclassico proves that he has nothing to envy of the best in season that ended with a severe crash. Strade Bianche and Gent Wevengem were the only races that he failed to finished in the top 15.

Verdict 2023: Too important not to be include in Vingegaard Tour de France’s defence, he will be more than willing to take his chance in a more than impressive classics team that is being set up.

Mike Teunissen

You never know what you have until it is gone. Jumbo-Visma is well aware of that and went very hard at replacing the Teunissen.

Often lost in the shadows of his very able leaders, Mike Teunissen is capable of getting himself in successful break-aways, leading out sprinters or even sprinting for himself. His 779 points, of which came from assist makes him a rather reliable superclassico choice that is very easily discarded due to the 14 points tag that is tied to him

He had a very interesting Vuelta where he brought 590 points making him the 5th best unclassed rider.

Verdict 2023: He will have more freedom at Inter-Marche Wanty Goubert to showcase the talent that he has shown glimpse of.

Nathan Van-Hoojdonk

Jumbo-Visma is a team full of talented riders willing to sacrifice their own chances to help the leaders. The reason behind it is mostly that these riders, one of them being Nathan van Hooijdonk are also given their chances to shine.

Verdict 2023: With so many of victory in 2023 in the classics, he might be a safe cheap assist point.

Olav Kooij:

This kid is going to be the fastest sprinter on the planet. A sure bet when a sprint is expected, he cost only 10 credit points in the super classico.

He was also at the helm of  the two velogames stage championship race he was part of:

With 341 points for 10 credits and an astounding 599 points in Poland.

Best possible @velogames team for #TirrenoAdriatico:

Tadej Pogačar
Jonas Vingegaard
Damiano Caruso
Olav Kooij
Phil Bauhaus
Jai Hindley
Thymen Arensman
Xandro Meurisse
Davide Bais

3976 points, 100 credits— Calum Lonie 🇮🇪🇨🇵🇪🇺 (@CalumLonie) March 13, 2022

Best possible team for Tour de Pologne 2022:

Ethan Hayter
Arnaud Démare
Thymen Arensman
Olav Kooij
Phil Bauhaus
Matteo Sobrero
Quinten Hermans
Max Kanter
Jonathan Milan
Score: 4111
Cost: 100— Jeremad (@jeremader) August 6, 2022

Verdict 2023: Cycling is evolving the days of bringing sprint trains to grand tour is gone. To which extent will Jumbo Visma be willing to invest in bringing Kooij to grand tour stage win when they have a handful who could do it on thier own?

Jonas Vingegaard

From the start of the season, he only cared about the Tour de France. His 210 superclassico points is the measure of how much energy he saved for July.

Indeed , the seond part of the Tour de France 2022 was the only time that he did not seems to be on the back foot as compared to Pogacar and even his team-mate Roglic.

While his price tag of 20 and his 6th place failed him in the Itzulia Velogames, he managed to integrate the best possible team in Paris-Nice, Criterium du Dauphine and the Tour de France, without being the MVP on any of the occasions.

Verdict 2023: It takes a whole chunk of preparation to beat Pogacar and the Danish will be hoping to repeat this feat but we will talking about much more significant price

Thomas Gloag:

He had an eye cathing Italiam autumn classics.

Verdict 2023: He will still be riding incognito for the first few races of the season. He is a good bargain choice for 2023.

Koen Bouwman

He was the revelation of the Giro. A typical puncheur who has grown in confidence. Chosen by 1% of Velogames he brought in 1256 points as 6 coins climber. He made it over Landa in the best possible team courtesy of his cheap price even if the Spaniard brought in 1432 points.

Gijs Lemreize

Another youngster that Jumbo-Visma brought out the box in the Giro who intefrated best team courtesy of his 799 points as an unclassed rider.

Best possible @velogames team for the #Giro:

AR: Richard Carapaz, Pello Bilbao
C: Jai Hindley, Lennard Kämna, Koen Bouwman (Wildcard)
S: Arnaud Démare
U: Mathieu Van Der Poel, Juan Pedro López, Gijs Leemreize

12737 points, 94 credits— Calum Lonie 🇮🇪🇨🇵🇪🇺 (@CalumLonie) May 30, 2022

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Rohan Dennis

His main performance of the season came in the Tour de  Romandie where he finished 8th and was in the best possible team

Best possible @velogames team for #TDR22:

Aleksandr Vlasov
Rohan Dennis
Ben O’Connor
Ethan Hayter
Juan Ayuso
Gino Mäder
Steven Kruijswijk
Simon Geschke
Quinten Hermans

4606 points, 100 credits— Calum Lonie 🇮🇪🇨🇵🇪🇺 (@CalumLonie) May 1, 2022

Sepp Kuss

The American has huge fan base  and is an exceptional climber. Unfortunately he is rarely of velogames material.

Tobias Foss

Propelled to the status of team leader after Tom Dumoulin broke down in the Giro, he failed to find any decent form. His surprising world ITT champion will give him wings for another Giro attempts unless someone has other plans.

Primoz Roglic 

You do not keep a good man down.

Talks of him going to the Giro to battle it out with Remco Evenepoel has emerged. It is very unlikely that he will give up his dream of winning the Tour de France so easily even if it means he has to share leadership with Vingegaard.

Considering the season he had, he was never the worst choice someone could make even though he had a high price tag.

Paris-Nice: 26 credits- 1220 points ( best rider)

Itzulia: 28 credits – 679 points (5th best)

Dauphine 24 credit- 932 points (2nd)

Tour de France: 22credit- 677 points (25th) DNS stage 15

Vuelta 26 credits- 1549- DNS stage 17 and still 5th best overall!

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