Recent content by skidmark

I believe the explanation for his non-picking is in your post. I mean, last year was his 'lets see how he does outside of stacked Visma on a different teams with an explicit focus on his own chances', and the profit was 56 points. Just so many more inspiring choices at around his cost.

Oops yeah poor sentence construction - should have said 'Morgado' instead of 'him' there.

Oh yeah, that's probably right. I definitely don't have an encyclopedic memory of this game and rarely check my notes (occasionally I will open an old spreadsheet when I'm moving files and be shocked I had basically half my team in a given year because I have no memory of choosing those riders)...

I've clipped and bolded a piece of this, just to say that on reflection, I think I meant what you are saying by what I was saying, but probably should have chosen a better word than 'risk', or added context. I just mean risk as in opportunity cost of other riders that you could have picked, who...

Wow, how does he hold the handlebars with those tiny arms?

That makes sense - yeah I always appreciate your team-building approach, as it mixes conventional down-the-middle picks with a risk appetite that accepts big swings, which is why you end up with a unique pick like Buitrago that can really swing things your way if you hit on that risk. That also...

Update #1: Mason07 builds a winning team in Australia The 2026 CQ game is underway, and this year CQ has decided not to wait until the TDU to release it's first download, so we are getting our first update after the Aussie nationals! Between that and the other minor races that have taken place...

That last paragraph was exactly my consideration in taking Remco. My process (I'm sure I've made reference to it in the past) is to make a long list without much thought, then systematically take a closer look at the riders one by one, giving them 1-5 stars based on how convinced I am that they...

I'm a dummy - I had it in my head that the deadline was the 12th (I don't know why), and didn't click that it'd of course be tied to the first race of the season. Well, if the deadline is extended I'd happily work on a team before the TDU, but if not I'll be back next season :)

Your analysis is sound in terms of ceiling, you're right that 800 would be a pretty optimistic stretch. But the Peraud comp was with the level of results in mind - Peraud nearly tripled his score from a higher first year score with better results, for sure. He was a better road rider. But I'm...

I definitely thought about Roglic as a viable choice and I thought getting around 1500 was probably reasonable. But that's a lot of points for someone his age and there were other choices/combos I thought were more enticing. Like AWP and Nys were 870 together, and I think their upside is higher...

Alright as mentioned yesterday, here's the more boring half of my team breakdown, sorry/not sorry: Alan Hatherly (145, 1): Oh! I’m the 1! Cool. I have to confess, I love an unconventional route to road racing. Not only because I find it a rootable story (especially in a sport that starts its...

I didn't take more than a cursory look at Simmons this year, but I think he can be a good pick in this game. I've had him on my team at least twice and it's been frustrating that his engine and talent that were evident from the junior days never seemed to quite come out. But the second half of...

I really wanted to find space on my team for Landa. It's a little stressful to pick a rider on the high side of 35 because performance can drop off a cliff any one of those years, but Landa has just been solid for so long that I have no doubt he can still top 10 stuff. Plus I think Landa is the...

Okay, here’s an attempt to break down my team in earnest (part 1 because I ran out of time and can't stop myself when I'm indulging in rider analysis): Remco Evenepoel (1929 points, 12 teams): Well. It felt like a good year to take a swing to win after last year’s caution got my my worst result...