Welcome to the twenty fourth edition of the most prestigious sprinters tour in the game, Nederlandse Tour!
  
  Team Preview
  
   Fissa
  The first team to sign this season was Fissa, with sprint captains Gilles Rouge and Florentin Escalier. The later looks best suited to the tour though, so expect to see him captain. Also signed up is Fleming Lloyd. He’s a more than decent hill sprinter, so maybe the manager will decide to go for stage results instead of a general classification result with one of the pure sprinters.
  
   Team WonderDee
  Christian, the team manager, has made his intentions in this tour clear. Knud Øgendahl will captain the team in top form, with five lead outs to help him. His average time trial stat will help him a lot in the prologue and his hill ability isn’t bad at all. He’s certainly one the other teams should watch!
  
   Kingstowm
  Captaining this team is Russel Springbok and he’s a very unique sprinter. He specializes in technical sprints and pure sprints. The team that’ll be going to the Netherlands with him are all trained riders, two of them hill sprinters, two sprinters and a lead out one. Thirty eight year old Timo Sanders, who’s racing in his home tour, is one of the most experienced riders on the peloton.
  
   Red Star
  Bart?omiej Tokarz has top form and looks like he’ll be captaining this team. But there are other riders who are better than him, like Sixten Moberg, who will apparently be a luxury lead out. Saying this, I can’t blame the manager if he goes with his top formed rider, I would pick him any day of the week. He’s been trained to do well in sprinting tours, so now’s his chance to shine!
  
   fc barca
  A close comparison to Russel Springbok is the captain of this team Japke Pruischer. With incredible sprinting and technical ability he should be able to do well in the final few stages of this tour, but will struggle in the overall classifications as he isn’t time trial centered yet. Filling the rest of the squad are a couple of time trial riders and lead outs.
  
   Stroopwafel
  American sprinter Coby Witherspoon enters the tour with two previous captains here as lead outs. Menno van Dalen and Gerrit Grasmaaijer will be helping the American whose realistic target will be stages five and six. The other three riders are all lead outs of course, so in top form, Coby should be able to do well in the sprint stages.
  
   English Sprinting Team
  I’ve entered Ely Henault as captain with five lead outs to help him. He’ll

have top form and team spirit, without any injuries, should be over 92 percent. I’m hoping that Ely can get top nine’s in the sprint stages and a result in the hill sprint.
  
   Team airik
  César Zelda has had a decent season and is now in top form to show what he’s worth in the sprint stages. There might be one weak link within the lead out train, Kristoffer Korneliussen, but we’ll have to see how much that effects the captains performance. Zelda managed to get fourth in the general classification here last season, so maybe he might manage it again.
  
   Rigana
  Brazilian captain Durval Longo is in top form and ready to go. The only problem with him is that he’s unproven at twenty eight years old. But who’s to say what he might achieve here. The inclusion of cobblestone rider Carmine Damiano was strange to me, because of the lack of technical stages in this tour, so we’ll have to see how the Brazilian performes.
  
   Cremtec
  Another team, with another cobblestone rider Max Ballette, has joined the tour. Their captain will be Belgic hill sprinter Laurens Bruaene. He’s also currently in top form and should have a decent chance in the overall classification if he does well in the prologue. Tommie Van den Bergh a hill helper, will do his best to protect his captain in stage four.
  
   rooney17
  This Danish team have entered a mix of riders into this tour. Abelardo Rabal is a time trial rider, Thorsten Roberts is a prologuer and Kennet Bendixen is an incredible hill sprinter. He’ll be looking to win stage four, but with all the top formed riders in the peloton, he might find it a bit tough.
  
   Yuri SuperTeam
  Manager Yuri has one of the best sprinting teams in the game, but will his captain, Øystein Ottesen, be able to get into the top nine’s in the sprint stages without top form? That’s the question on all the managers without top formed captains this season. Tadaki Ko will be Ottesens right hand man and with four other lead outs, Yuri has given his team the best possible chance of doing well.
  
   Vientiane Cycling
  Another top formed rider is here! Ivo Lida is a very good technical sprinter and has what it takes to win individual sprint stages here. His hill stat is what will let him down in the general classification unfortunately. With a compliment of lead outs, Ivo should be able to impress on the sprint stages.
  
   NightmareChaos
  All round Swedish sprinter Conny Runkvist, is in top form (thanks Finz), and looks ready to conquer all. With his ultra-high

DP I wouldn’t put it past him winning the prologue and taking an early advantage. He’s got the best possible help from his team, so he should do well. Only time will tell now….
  
   Lusitano
  Well, guess what, another top formed captain. Jean Dauwe is the latest one to be bitten by the bug which is going around the Netherlands at the moment. He’s another all-round sprinter that looks well suited for the prologue. But with weak lead outs compared to the others and low team spirit because of injuries, will he be able to get top nines in this star packed field?
  
   1 2 Cycle
  Flat road sprinter Lambert Van Der Gijp will try his best, in front of his home country, and he’s surprisingly in top form (yes that’s the eleventh captain in top form!). Personally, Jamie Witting was a weird inclusion, but he’ll help a lot in hill sprint. I think that the margins for error in this tour are going to be tiny, so maybe missing a lead out might be the deciding factor for this team.
  
   Legia
  Artur Radomski is one of the rare riders in the peloton that won’t be in top form. He’s a decent enough sprinter and has more than decent hill ability. He should be okay in the hill sprint, but not having top form might just be down fall. And with Scottish lead out Hanley Zimbelman out through injury, he’ll find it really tough.
  
   Team AEK
  Last season’s runner up enters with rider Wim Lowik, but he won’t be captaining this tour now. Englishman Kevin Surface, whose the twelfth captain in top form, will be the one and his stats are close to perfect for the tour. He won for his county in the sprinting race Rotterdam – Amsterdam today and has two other results at international level. Can he perform as well for his team as he does for his country? Let’s find out!
  
   YCO
  Now, defending champion Alton Train is here, but he’s not in good form. He won’t have top form and he won’t have discipline or race shape above ninety at the start. This is going to make his life hell, especially considering the competition. Plus, his support isn’t great. I don’t think he’ll win again this season.
  
   Nairobi City Cycling Club
  Finally, this team needs no introduction. And neither does their captain. Frederick Longosiwa is the thirteenth and final captain in top form and has already won the Germany Tour sprinting classification and the Volta ao Porto sprinting classification. And now he’s here and I bet you he’ll do well. He has one of the best lead out squads and he’s currently on fire, in a good way, so expect to see his name at the top of the list.
  
  Well, all I can say is thanks a lot to all those top formed captains!