Everyone is doing crazy predictions now, it's too funny. (I am still the only one who predicted Kozuka though I think!)
The unimportant stuff first
DANCE
1. those French World Champions, which is just a favourite pick and has nothing to do with objective factors - they are French, they are creative, they were underdogs for a long time: Delobel/Schoenfelder
2. the Scottish ones, because they are Scottish, because they are crazy and because they are very good and creative: Kerr/Kerr
3. Carron/Jost, because they are French and creative and seem really nice
I really don't know anything about Ice dance, that's why I always make my very subjective predictions here....
LADIES
1. Mao Asada, because she is Mao Asada (and I can't wait to see if 1 - she got the Triple Axel to the beginning of the season, 2 - she really fixed that flutz, 3 - she really can do that 3 Salchow in competitions and 4- she really will be able to be the first lady with a 8 Triple performance)
2. Joannie Rochette, because she seems stable right now, though I am not enthralled by her skating, she is clean, she is proper - she is like a Canadian version of Sarah Meier, just with better jumps, or like the female version of Jeff Buttle, whose musicality I always admired but who never thrilled me
3. Elene Gedevanishvili, because her jumps have gotten bigger, she didn't have catastrophic outings in the preseason and I think that she has one of the best skating personalities and presentation out there
I am really excited to see how Asada is doing. And I hope for Gedevanishvilli, she has great potential and it would be great to see a girl to overcome the kind of growth spurt she had.
PAIRS
1. Duhamel/Buntin - because they are very athletic, they are powerful and I think that they can do great things, they also don't seem to be somehow stagnant in their development (*cough* Dube/Davison *cough*)
2. Savchenko/Szolkowy - they'll mess up their sbs jumps and because D/C have a very perfect outing, S/S will have to settle for the silver
3. Mukhortova/Trankov - nerves! They won't have a good SP this time, but a decent LP
Am I the only one who kind of loses track of all those Chinese couples flying around? At every competition there is a Chinese couple besides P/T and Z/Z - but I can't memorise who is who, and who was how good... They should be colour-coded. Wait, they are. I'll just learn their costumes by heart!
MEN
Such an exciting competition! And I am going to be there! Live! I can't wait till next week. And I am too afraid to make my prediction here. Ahhh... Well, let's see. I think I'll go for... I went for Kozuka at SA, but we got a Joubert here, that's just someone so much bigger to predict against than against a Lysacek or a Weir. Alright, here I go
1. Brain Joubert, yes - he can do it, and I want a Quad, at least as pretty as Verner's today - make that two Quads. And a non-scary 3A. Brian can do them nearly as scary as Lysacek and Lambiel.
2. Takahiko Kozuka - the little one will be good again, but I don't think he will be good enough for the maître
3. Alban Préaubert - he was brilliant once in the preseason, horrific the competition after that - should be another brilliant outing this time
. IMO, Kozuka's SP transitions have been the best among all the skaters who skated so far.)
This GP season has been pretty insane so far; ANYTHING can happen wth the guys! I'm half expecting that they will all be abducted by UFOs. 
)
