2014 Tour de France CQ game

[Armchair Cyclist]

Today's scorers:
KITTEL Marcel 100 21 teams
SAGAN Peter 50 1 teams
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas 35 3 teams
COQUARD Bryan 25 2 teams
ROGERS Michael 15 0 teams
FROOME Chris 10 6 teams
KRISTOFF Alexander 5 0 teams
VANMARCKE Sep 3 0 teams
ROJAS GIL Jose Joaquin 2 1 teams
ALBASINI Michael 1 0 teams


One team combines Kittel with Sagan, one with Navardauskas, and one with Froome. They lead the way.
So today's scores:
1 GeraintTooFast 150
2 Fus87 135
3 JustSomeGuy 110
4 18Valve 100
4 Akuryo 100
4 BikeRacer33 100
4 Crevaison 100
4 DBCoop 100
4 ItalianGigolo 100
4 Josedin 100
4 Kazistuta 100
4 L29205 100
4 Leadbelly 100
4 LosBrolin 100
4 Martyfulu 100
4 Minessa 100
4 NairoQ 100
4 Oli 100
4 Somar13 100
4 Tigerion 100
4 Vladimir 100
22 Diggercuz 35
22 Search 35
24 AlPacino 25
24 Roubaix 25
26 Armchair_Cyclist 10
26 BicycleBoy 10
26 JosephD 10
26 Oliveira 10
26 the_fool_on_the_hill 10
31 Mellow_Velo 2
32 Everyone else, including Collective Wisdom 0

Edit: My spreadsheet, for some reason, didn't credit Navardauskas with his points. I've now updated manually after an hour or more of trying to debug the spreadsheet, but this does not augur well for being able to add projected scores.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Only me and Evans is best took Contador and Nibali. The Spaniard and Italian duo will go 1-2 and bring us much success!

That unfortunately means I'm not the only one to have picked the winning strategy
It's crazy how much our team look alike actually We have 7 riders in common. The difference between us will come from which duo of Pate/Schillinger and Bideau/Ji will score more, so we are going to be pretty close throughout. I'll be cheering Pate and Schillinger to make the time limit everyday from now on.

 

[murali]

Rogers was my first choice(even before Contador)


has an ineligible rider ever scored tons of points in a CQ game?

 

[jaylew]

That unfortunately means I'm not the only one to have picked the winning strategy
It's crazy how much our team look alike actually We have 7 riders in common. The difference between us will come from which duo of Pate/Schillinger and Bideau/Ji will score more, so we are going to be pretty close throughout. I'll be cheering Pate and Schillinger to make the time limit everyday from now on.

I toyed around with that team build but would have had Visconti in there instead of Schlecklet as my #4.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Spending tactics

4000 points and 9 riders gave a budget of 444 points per riider, so let's define anyone costing twice that as a major spend. Who chose who as a major spend?

In order of the most expensive rider:
Sagan and Kittel GeraintTooFast

Froome & Kittel Just Some Guy
Froome & Cavendish the_fool_on_the_hill
Froome only Armchair_Cyclist, BicycleBoy, JosephD, Oliveira

Contador & Nibali Afrank, Evans is the Best
Contador & Kittel 18Valve, L29205, Martyfulu, Somar13, Tigerion
Contador & Cavendish Blues_in_the_Bottle, Del 1962, Mkind07, Murali, Patrick767, Shalgo, YellowKnight
Contador & Chavanel Simple
Contador only AG, AlPacino, Flo, HilltopFinisher, Hugo87, Jaylew, Jorik112, Karlboss, LaVelocipide, LiamP, LugHugger, Mutschi, PeterB, Pricey Sky, Rote-lanterne, The Sceptic, Trudgin, Tuart

Costa BigMac

Nibali & Kittel Kazistuta, Vladimir
Nibali & Bardet Comodoro
Nibali only BeagRigh, Dazed_and_Confused, Handbrake, Simple

Demare & Cavendish LightBing

Greipel Search

Mollema, Kittel and Cavendish BikeRacer33
Mollema & Kittel Minessa

Frank Jancouver, Manafana

Gerrans & Kittel Oli

Horner & Kittel DBCoop
Horner USPostal

Kittel and Bardet Crevaison, LosBrolin
Kittel only Fus87, ItalianGigolo, Josedin, Leadbelly, NairoQ


Cavendish and Bardet asdfgh101
Cavendish only Diggercuz, MCMountain, Mix

Bardet only Roubaix

And two of our teams are missing from the list: Gotland and Mellow Velo, who each have Van Garderen as their most expensive pick.

 

[murali]

Thank you for that interesting analysis.

18 ppl hav chosen for a single high spend. 1/4th of number of participants.

only two ppl chose 2 GC heavy spends. Afrank and Evans is the best hav bet heavily on Bertie+nibbles combo

2 ppl chose 2 sprinters, the only other person to choose 2 sprinters was the combo demare+cav.
Only one person had 3 heavyweight: cav+kittel+mollema. 2 sprinters + 1 GC.

Pretty interesting.

A small correction:
Comodoro has Nibali and Bardet.

 

[diggercuz]

Yeah firstly well done on not only setting it up but providing some pretty in depth analysis.

I for one went with a rounded GC approach with a top line sprinter.

Yep, Cav.

i think i may have had room for Kittel also, however went with the fact that it was starting in Yorkshire and Cav would be super motivated for a cracker tour after last year.

Oh well, lets hope my middle of the road GC guys come through with some amazing results.

And thanks again, certainly makes the stages that little bit more interesting...

Edit - i had heaps for Kittel.... woe is me

 

[karlboss]

I object, my team has been categorized as only Contador. Which is actually the opposite of how I chose. I looked at value and couldn't go past Porte and Van den Broeck, Ten Dam and Navarro, then started to look down at ridiculous cheap sprinters, and arrived at Haussler and Feillu, then stupid cheap stage hunters in Paolini and Visconti, it was then I looked at how many points I had and went for one of the top 2, I wanted Froome but he wouldn't fit. There's quite a bit of risk in my team.

 

[murali]

OPQS team on twitter:

#OPQS #TDF update: @MarkCavendish will not start Stage 2 today. More information will be provided later.



15 of us are stuck by this lightning

 

[mutschi]

my strategy was basically to pick the winner (Contador) and the cheap GC riders.

I feel like this game favours the GC riders. Especially the cheap ones are much more valuable than cheap sprinters.

I agree and chose only GC riders and fillers, especially with three top sprinters sharing the points. But with Cav out this could change and Kittel or Greipel could become good value picks.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

A small correction:
Comodoro has Nibali and Bardet.

Thanks: that wasn't the only mistake but I hope I have most of it right now.

I object, my team has been categorized as only Contador.

Not really what I said: your only major spend is Contador, but I made no attempt to say who would be your point scorers. Contador cost 433% of the average spend, you only have one other above average spend, and he was 128% of it.

OPQS team on twitter:
#OPQS #TDF update: @MarkCavendish will not start Stage 2 today. More information will be provided later.

15 of us are stuck by this lightning

And those 15 are:
Akuryo
asdfgh101
BikeRacer33
Blues_in_the_Bottle
Del 1962
Diggercuz
LightBing
MCMountain
Mix
Mkind07
Murali
Patrick767
Shalgo
the_fool_on_the_hill
YellowKnight


The spreadsheet for the game as it stood before stage 1 is here at dropbox

 

[karlboss]

Not really what I said: your only major spend is Contador, but I made no attempt to say who would be your point scorers. Contador cost 433% of the average spend, you only have one other above average spend, and he was 128% of it.

That's ok, I don't really object.

 

[Afrank]

Seeing some replays on NBC, LOL at the Garmin riding just knocking random peoples phones out of their hands. Who was that?

 

[Afrank]

OPQS team on twitter:

#OPQS #TDF update: @MarkCavendish will not start Stage 2 today. More information will be provided later.



15 of us are stuck by this lightning

That's the big problem with spending a big chunk of points on a big name sprinter. Sprinting is inherently dangerous. Any rider can crash out, but you much more likely to crash out in a chaotic sprint then you are on a MTF. So if you don't pick the right sprinter your risking disaster for your team.

I remember I took Cav this year and while he did get 3 stages, I had expected more. I decided to take a different approach this year and based my team entirely on GC riders.

 

[Afrank]

9 people are very happy.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

9 people are very happy.

Indeed

 

[Hugo87]

9 people are very happy.

I didn't see this Nibali win coming, congratz to those who pick him.

My team flopped hard today, Pinot, Konig, Navarro, Feillu all losing time, but i'm not throwing the towel yet.

 

[murali]

Nibali-ites will rule the roost for 10 days.

Sacha Modolo DNFed. thts another cheaper(838 < the 888 defn) sprinter gone.

 

[del1962]

Nibali-ites will rule the roost for 10 days.

Sacha Modolo DNFed. thts another cheaper(838 < the 888 defn) sprinter gone.

Sagan might hit yellow after stage 5 though.

 

[patrick767]

The worst part is that Cav was one of only two riders I picked in both this game and the velogames.com game. That turns out to have been really, really stupid.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Today's relevant points

NIBALI Vincenzo 100 9 teams
SAGAN Peter 25 1 teams
TALANSKY Andrew 5 32 teams
MOLLEMA Bauke 3 2 teams
VAN GARDEREN Tejay 2 8 teams
BARDET Romain 1 5 teams

So the earnings today are:
1 Comodoro 106
2 Kazistuta 105
2 Vladimir 105
2 Dazed_and_Confused 105
2 Handbrake 105
6 Afrank 100
6 BeagRigh 100
6 Evans_is_the_best 100
9 GeraintTooFast 25
10 Minessa 8
11 ItalianGigolo 7
11 Josedin 7
11 NairoQ 7
11 Mellow_Velo 7
11 Gotland 7
11 USPostal 7
17 Crevaison 6
17 LosBrolin 6
17 asdfgh101 6
20 Fus87 5
20 DBCoop 5
20 Leadbelly 5
20 Oli 5
20 BicycleBoy 5
20 Oliveira 5
20 Jancouver 5
20 Jaylew 5
20 Jorik112 5
20 LaVelocipide 5
20 LightBing 5
20 MC_Mountain 5
20 Mix 5
20 Murali 5
20 Mutschi 5
20 Pricey_Sky 5
36 BikeRacer33 3
37 Diggercuz 2
37 LugHugger 2
39 Roubaix 1
Collective_Wisdom 5

And the current Guaranteed points standings:
2 teams with 2 stage wins and 2 yellow jerseys, no splitting them at the top.
1 Kazistuta 205
1 Vladimir 205
3 GeraintTooFast 175
4 Fus87 140
5 JustSomeGuy 110
6 Minessa 108
7 ItalianGigolo 107
7 Josedin 107
7 NairoQ 107
10 Comodoro 106
10 Crevaison 106
10 LosBrolin 106
13 Dazed_and_Confused 105
13 Handbrake 105
13 DBCoop 105
13 Leadbelly 105
13 Oli 105
18 BikeRacer33 103
19 Afrank 100
19 BeagRigh 100
19 Evans_is_the_best 100
19 18Valve 100
19 Akuryo 100
19 L29205 100
19 Martyfulu 100
19 Somar13 100
19 Tigerion 100
28 Diggercuz 37
29 Search 35
30 Roubaix 26
31 AlPacino 25
32 BicycleBoy 15
32 Oliveira 15
34 Armchair_Cyclist 10
34 JosephD 10
34 the_fool_on_the_hill 10
37 Mellow_Velo 9
38 Gotland 7
38 USPostal 7
40 asdfgh101 6
41 Jancouver 5
41 Jaylew 5
41 Jorik112 5
41 LaVelocipide 5
41 LightBing 5
41 MC_Mountain 5
41 Mix 5
41 Murali 5
41 Mutschi 5
41 Pricey_Sky 5
51 LugHugger 2
52 AG 0
52 BigMac 0
52 Blues_in_the_Bottle 0
52 Del1962 0
52 Flo 0
52 HilltopFinisher 0
52 Hugo87 0
52 Karlboss 0
52 LiamP 0
52 Manafana 0
52 Mkind07 0
52 Patrick767 0
52 PeterB 0
52 Rote_Laterne 0
52 Shalgo 0
52 Simple 0
52 The_Sceptic 0
52 Trudgin 0
52 Tuart 0
52 Yellow_Knight 0
Collective_Wisdom 5

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Nibali-ites will rule the roost for 10 days.

Sacha Modolo DNFed. thts another cheaper(838 < the 888 defn) sprinter gone.

Not that cheap: 2nd most expensive pick on all three of his teams (BigMac, MellowVelo and Roubaix)

 

[vladimir]

Thanks for the update, first time I'm leading a game here even if it's only tied.
Kazistuta and I have in fact six riders in common, so if this trend continues it might come down to Haussler, Voigt, Ji vs. Valls, Bonnet, Kadri Very early days yet but still...

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Damn. I was relying on Sagan getting yellow today.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

We have a major GC contender in yellow (and I think I have an efficient spreadsheet). Let's start the projected scores now.

For new followers, that means allocating points for GC, and for the Points and Mountains classifications, as though the current rankings were final. That means that these rankings can change very suddenly, and can go down as well as up. hI'll also publish each day the Guaranteed Points total, which is only the points allocated for stage positions and holding the yellow jersey. That can only increase, but tends to exaggerate the contribution of sprinters to your team. (Witness Kittel: level with Nibali on guaranteed points, but 510 behind him on projected points)
For example, 57 teams are currently benefiting from 230 points from Van Den Broeck in the projected rankings, as he is 7th in GC, but he offers no points in the guaranteed points ranking, as he has not managed a top ten placing yet. If he loses time tomorrow, he could drop 210 of those projected points.

That said, here it is:
1 Vladimir 1402
2 Kazistuta 1387
3 Afrank 1350
3 Evans_is_the_best 1350
5 Comodoro 1308
6 Handbrake 1276
7 Dazed_and_Confused 1272
8 GeraintTooFast 1240
9 BeagRigh 1016
10 JustSomeGuy 936
11 Minessa 897
12 Tigerion 883
13 Somar13 870
14 Oliveira 852
15 Armchair_Cyclist 825
16 the_fool_on_the_hill 816
17 NairoQ 805
18 Gotland 800
19 Crevaison 783
20 Martyfulu 778
21 LosBrolin 768
22 The_Sceptic 755
23 LiamP 745
24 18Valve 740
25 Josedin 739
26 HilltopFinisher 735
27 L29205 732
28 Patrick767 713
29 Jorik112 702
30 Rote_Laterne 701
31 Leadbelly 698
32 Tuart 694
33 Fus87 692
33 BicycleBoy 692
35 Mutschi 689
35 PeterB 689
37 Jancouver 688
38 Yellow_Knight 683
39 Mellow_Velo 679
40 Flo 676
40 Karlboss 676
42 Del1962 674
43 Diggercuz 666
44 ItalianGigolo 659
44 Hugo87 659
46 Oli 657
46 Shalgo 657
48 Pricey_Sky 654
49 AlPacino 647
50 Search 635
51 Jaylew 627
52 BikeRacer33 623
52 AG 623
54 USPostal 612
55 LugHugger 596
56 LaVelocipide 593
57 Blues_in_the_Bottle 585
57 Mkind07 585
59 Roubaix 563
60 Manafana 549
61 Mix 538
62 MC_Mountain 537
63 asdfgh101 536
64 JosephD 514
65 Akuryo 497
66 LightBing 469
67 Murali 427
68 Trudgin 401
69 DBCoop 399
70 Simple 360
71 BigMac 351
Collective_Wisdom 792