Written by Eric Place of trackstah07
  
  It’s that time of year again: time for the mid-division men to make their way to the mighty Monte Rosa. Last year, Portuguese all-round sprinter Vasco Assis shocked the OCM world by conquering the Alpine giants en route to an emphatic tour victory.
  Assis’ stellar performance one season ago launched redop into Division 2, rendering the team ineligible for this season’s race. As the peloton completes its second historic journey to Geneva, the world will see a new champ etch his name in the record books. The question is: Who will it be?
  With snow in the forecast throughout all of Switzerland, this tour will undoubtedly be decided by will power. The man with the most resolve will wear the crown after five gut-wrenching stages. The race will see many faces, several old and many new.
  
  The Returnees
  
   Flappende Fietsers – 108th in OCM
  Guus Holst, who finished third overall in last year’s Monte Rosa Tour, will play super-chauffer to recent Wonderdee import Max Iwers. Holst had an awful Prologue, finishing 97th, but Iwers is sitting pretty, in 14th position, heading into Stage 2. While Holst and Iwers will try to double-team the competition in the mountains, Canadian sprinter Lyndon Glasco will compete for a sprint victory on Stage 5.
  Tour Prediction – GC Top 6 for Iwers, GC Top 12 for Holst, Stage 5 Top 3 for Glasco
  
   Pink Piyama – 136th in OCM
  Pink Piyama returns to the Monte Rosa Tour with the same diversified objectives we saw in last year’s effort. The team hopes to improve upon Bazyli Ambroziak’s eighth-place finish from a year ago and get Leslie Heaven at least one stage win. The team will look for a big effort from Mauricio Cipriano, Heaven’s young lead-out man.
  GC Top 6 for Ambroziak, Stage 5 Top 3 for Heaven
  
   Planet Bikes – 152nd in OCM
  Ingeman Kloster did everything right last year but finished runner-up to Vasco Assis. Kloster will be a marked man in the second edition of the race after victories on the king stage and final sprint last season. Jason O“O”Hixon, as Kloster’s sidekick, will challenge for a podium spot in the Youth Classification.
  GC Top 6 for Kloster, YC Top 3 for Jason O“O”Hixon
  
   sprint4live – 121st in OCM
  Last season Sherard Soper finished a disappointing 19th overall. This season, sprint4live sold Soper and brought in India’s best rider: Hamza Zaheer Roha. Roha, who has spent time with the likes of Gradient Levellers and Babon, will now show Division 3 what he is capable of. Niels-Jan Olfers will try to win the final sprint for the Dutch team.
  GC Top 9 for Roha
  
   trackstah07 – 150th in OCM
  Erskine Pettis disappointed miserably in his first trip to Switzerland, finishing 23rd overall one season ago. He spent months building his ancillary skill set, he called for management to strengthen the team around him, and he arrives at this year’s tour a new man. Pettis has won four races since last year’s tour and is surrounded by arguably the strongest squad of domestiques in the race, led by Guglielmo Enrico.
  GC Top 3 for Pettis, GC Top 18 for Enrico
  
  The Newcomers
  
   Barrys2 – 137th in OCM
  Mission: Accomplished. Barrys2 came to the Monte Rosa Tour eyeing a Prologue victory at the feet of Tord Dahlkvist, and “Lord Dahlkvist” delivered. The 31-year-old Swede melted the icy streets of Bern with an incredible ride on the tour’s opening day,

edging out his younger counterparts. The team now looks to 30-year-old Didrik Byggmark to put an exclamation point on Tord’s win with a win on Stage 2.
  Stage 2 Top 6 for Byggmark
  
   Budaörsi Lendület
   – 169th in OCM
  Palla Róbert leads a little-known Hungarian team into battle. The 28-year-old is best known for back-to-back third-place finishes in Division 4 Zyte Talents races. A solid climber who relies on toughness rather than technique to get him through his most difficult moments, Róbert will not quit no matter how tough the going gets. He should bring home a respectable overall finish.
  GC Top 24 for Róbert
  
   canutes – 166th in OCM
  canutes had a good Prologue, with sprinter Reinard Ridder finishing sixth and Sigurleifur Lútersson finishing ninth. The team’s outspoken manager, known simply as “The canuTe”, noted in the media that he “expected a bit more” from Lútersson, but ninth place is nothing to be ashamed of. Ridder may be able to surprise people and stay relatively far up in the GC before attempting to win Stage 5.
  Stage 5 Top 6 for Ridder
  
   Crackmasters – 190th in OCM
  American team Crackmasters hopes that 31-year-old Nathaniel Santiago can compete on the climbs with the help of Yourkas Bibis, a young rider who may have tour potential with a broader skill set later in his career. Santiago had a fruitful Season 14, capping Crackmasters’ three-division jump with a win in the highly-contested AC Oporto, but critics argue that he lacks the team support to compete in Division 3.
  GC Top 24 for Santiago
  
   CycleMotor – 147th in OCM
  Two words: Élvio Aguiar. Aguiar has recently garnered almost as much attention as Vasco Assis after showing the purest climbing ability that Portugal has ever seen. At just 25 years of age, Aguiar already has three wins under his belt and is the heavy favorite to win the Youth Classification and challenge Erskine Pettis for the GC victory. Aguiar finished fourth in the Prologue and looks very strong.
  GC Top 3 and YC Win for Aguiar
  
   Die Tour Phantome – 129th in OCM
  Pim Schenkhuizen is probably one of the more anonymous talented climbers in Holland; everyone knows de Bode and van Someren, but Schenkhuizen has shown flashes of brilliance on both long climbs and short hills. A very daring rider who is not afraid to attack far from the finish, Schenkhuizen will try to make a more common name for himself and Die Tour Phantome in the Swiss mountains this weekend.
  GC Top 12 for Schenkhuizen
  
   Drapeau Noir – 160th in OCM
  Luan Zhanpeng and Tao Yang met in Hong Kong in their late teens while riding for the Hong Kong Hornets, an amateur climbing team. Who would have thought they would be reunited twelve years later for a chance at OCM glory? The childhood friends, now riding for the French team Drapeau Noir, will look to create magic in the mountains, a memory they can reminisce about for the rest of their lives.
  GC Top 18 for Zhanpeng
  
   EpoTopTeam – 152nd in OCM
  Werner de Bode is in this race for personal glory. The Dutch rider is all too familiar with several of his competitors, including Erskine Pettis and Landon Tolman, and he would love to give these guys nightmares for weeks and months to come. With support from Valentijn Schaars and Nadhir Shafeeq, de Bode is a serious threat for overall victory. Shafeeq will also compete for a Stage

2 win and a YC top 5.
  GC Top 3 for de Bode, YC Top 5 for Shafeeq
  
   Equipe Hollandia – 136th in OCM
  Sprint favorite Cor Ooijer was tragically injured in the Bern Prologue when he somehow managed to hit a poodle who had escaped her owner. The poodle was okay, miraculously, but Ooijer was airlifted to the nearest hospital with facial lacerations and a shattered tibia. Fortunately, Equipe Hollandia is a team with two other very capable sprinters, Bertus Meijerigh and Arnold Carbonese. Time to shine, boys.
  Stage 5 Top 6 for Mijerigh
  
   NECFTW – 167th in OCM
  NECFTW has a climbing duo capable of giving Pettis/Enrico and Iwers/Holst fits, with the proper tactics. Sjaak van Fessum and Staas Boorst may be relative unknowns to the Division 3 world, but Division 4 is painful aware of the carnage they can leave in their collective wake on tough climbs. The two Dutchman are unrelenting on the downhills as well as the uphills, and they will certainly figure into the GC battle.
  GC Top 9 for van Fessum, GC Top 15 for Boorst
  
   paavocz – 124h in OCM
  Landon Tolman and Erskine Pettis have an interesting relationship. They began their careers together with Bolt, got separated and became rivals, then were reunited for the common good of the Canadian National Team. And now a new dynamic: tour competition. With the help of Joop Van Bockorst, Tolman will compete with Pettis for national bragging rights and perhaps the right to National Team captaincy.
  Top 9 GC for Tolman
  
   Peloton Pushers – 133rd in OCM
  Aedan Shutts is an all-rounder perhaps best known for his skills on the cobblestones, but this weekend he will put that aside and concentrate his efforts on climbing with Division 3’s finest. The Peloton Pushers, a team known for escalating the pace at the front of field, will likely look to create chaos on the slopes leading up to the climbs, hoping to break down the favorites and create opportunities for Shutts.
  GC Top 27 for Shutts
  
   sivac – 144th in OCM
  sivac, the number-one-ranked team in Russia, rests its hopes on the shoulders of 31-year-old Colombian climber Aquilino Ordiales. Ordiales is an OCM journeyman who has spent time with FFL, Team Hurricanes, and Babon. Ordiales will ride alongside Stanimir Yevdokimov, a young domestic rider with hopes of success in the Youth Classification.
  GC Top 15 for Ordiales, YC Top 5 for Tevdokimov
  
   Team Skogsfjord – 112th in OCM
  Team Skogsfjord could probably leave the tour right now feeling a sense of accomplishment. 23-year-old Lux rider Robert Uttenberger and 27-year-old Norwegian Asgeir Aas impressed the field by finishing second and third to ‘Lord Tord’ in the Prologue. The team is considerably one-dimensional, perhaps with the slight exception of Kim Madsen, who has shown pretty good top speed early in the season.
  Top 30 GC for Aas
  
   Warriors of highway – 146th in OCM
  Warriors of highway’s captain Estefan Pinedo has shown a well-rounded skill set similar to that of Vasco Assis. Pinedo insists that the media has no right calling him “Baby Vasco”, especially since he is older than Assis, but we all know how the media is. Pinedo will try to live up to the unsolicited hype while 24-year-old Thobias Goorts competes alongside him in the GC and YC. Pinedo finished 15th in the Prologue.
  GC Top 15 for Pinedo, GC Top 18 and YC Top 3 for Goorts