Daniel Lucas 30 SAGASAI (leader?)
Daniel Lucas should not be the leader, AA, he is just a silver 8 star pure climber and not good enough.
Maybe the just 126km of this NT race gives him a (in my opinion) misleading high GV.
It seems to me you have a few better options as teamcaptain in this race, although and of course, I cannot see the stats anymore.
So I could be wrong. And maybe my experiences in the past 2 seasons are misleading.
But maybe I could be right about estimating mountain races.
we have a chance to sneak into the points.
With a better teamcaptain for sure a chance to sneak into the points, but it can be difficult to achieve, there are many better foreign climbers.
The previews of the 2 pure mountain races in seasons 10 and 11 could be interesting :
( of course there are big differences, for example in s10 the race was twice as long ).
AUSTRALIA NT : SEASON 10 PREVIEW
race 2 
Sestriere ; mountains
Australia is not good in the mountains. For example two seasons ago a 16th place in a pure mountain race.
But back in season 6 there was a very surprising good 8th place in this exact same race.
However, this is a rare exception, and the only time in a mountain race that an Australian finished in the top10.
prediction = 80 points
RACE PREVIEW =
https://cyclingforfun.org/smf/index.php?topic=632.msg21562#msg21562RACE AFTERVIEW =
https://cyclingforfun.org/smf/index.php?topic=632.msg21647#msg21647 AUSTRALIA NT : SEASON 11 PREVIEW
race 2 
Bola del Mundo ; mountains
Normally no points because Australia does not even have a golden pure climber.
At the moment I wrote this, I must have overlooked the 2 climbers who just had their 24th birthday.
And I just looked at the golden climbers ranking, and a comment about this later in this post.
First it is interesting to see the race preview and race afterview of the pure climb NT race of season 11.
RACE PREVIEW =
https://cyclingforfun.org/smf/index.php?topic=656.msg22596#msg22596RACE AFTERVIEWS =
https://cyclingforfun.org/smf/index.php?topic=656.msg22645#msg22645https://cyclingforfun.org/smf/index.php?topic=656.msg22655#msg22655Let's highlight a part of the second afterview, to compare it with the current situation :
But what is a better indication than this NT race, that is the golden ranking :
nr 184 = Mount, and nr 195 = R.Henderson.
To me that is too low, although we are Down Under of course happy that we have finally golden pure climbers after 10 seasons. 
I suspect the 22yo Furey will be the Australian future teamcaptain in pure mountain races.
He is not in the u23 DT, no top climber also, but I estimate he will be gold in pure climb and ranked higher than Mount and R.Henderson.
Anyway, the future in pure mountain races looks brighter than the past with these 3 young golden pure climbers.
But still it is better for Australia if there is some flat and/or hills in a mountain NT race.
At the moment Australia has 3 pure climbers in the golden ranking :
(
that they are lower ranked as previous season does not say anything, because the ranking also includes many hillsclimbers and many flatclimbers. )
nr 231 = R.Henderson
nr 264 = Mount
nr 328 = Furey ( 23yo ! )
About Furey, a week later (or so) than my quoted text, he came into the u23 DT. At the end of the season he moved up to the 5th place(or so).
Anyway, my prediction in the quoted text that he will be the future pure mountain teamcaptain seems to come true.
As you can see in my NT race season 11 preview ; I did not even select Daniel Lucas.
He was just the nr5 (or nr4) in my estimated GV percentages and I'm 99% sure his team was not active at that time.
Just the first few races of season 11 his team was active, and I saw that very late in that season that team became active again.
And that team is still active right now.
But at that time not active, and I rather select other cyclists than a low GV silver helper of an in-active team.
Besides this, the one who was just one GV place behind him, had 2 active weather icons.
But also as you can see in my NT race season 10 preview ; Daniel Lucas was 2nd in my estimated GV percentages.
According to me the pure climb situation changed a lot, and even looking at the past and this I mentioned also in the race preview ;
Segovia, Spain ( 68km northwest of Madrid ),
Finally, for the first time Australia has golden pure climbers. Both are 24yo and on a very low position in the golden climb ranking.
And they are just a tiny little bit better than Garza, who was the teamcaptain in the NT mountain races of all previous seasons.
So, Daniel Lucas was never the teamcaptain for Australia, but I guess almost all seasons the nr2 in pure climb and he was always silver.
Garza does have gold, but that golden icon is for flat climb, on pure climb Garza never had gold, in my opinion.
By the way, Daniel Lucas was in my team since CFF 3 started and I sold him 14 months ago.
He can be a good helper and it seems to me you have better options as teamcaptain in this pure climb race of 126 km.
Your NT selection is perfect with the so far 6 selected climbers.
Australia has just these 6 climbers who are "suited" / can try to help in a pure climb race, other Australians are not good enough.
Good luck !
