2014 Vuelta CQ game

[Armchair cyclist]

The last of my games for the year:

Rules
Team of exactly nine riders. Teams with fewer riders will be filled out with cheapest riders available (if two or more riders are the joint cheapest, the rider whose name comes first alphabetically shall be used). If quota of nine cannot be reached in this manner (eg, 8 riders totalling exactly 3500, no free riders starting race) team will be disqualified.

Riders selected who do not start the Tour, or who are excluded from the game because of a ban (see below) will be replaced, if it is possible within budget, by the next most expensive from their own team, otherwise as above.

Where a team has nine riders but is over budget, the cheapest rider whose price is at least equal to the overspend, will be replaced according to the same principle.

Teams with more than 9 riders will have their most expensive pick(s) removed from their squad.

Budget
3500 points (we seem to have slipped into a pattern of 4000 pts for the Tour, 3500 for the other GTs)

Price of riders
CQ current score as at 17th August, with points accumulated over 12 months leading up to that date, for which the update file that CQ released on Monday 18th will be considered definitive.

There is a spreadsheet at dropbox here that might help you compile your team.



Rider eligibility
As previously, any rider who has been under a ban for any part of the period during which their price is calculated is not eligible. I am not immediately aware that any rider due to take part is thus affected: once again I rely on others drawing anyone I have forgotten to my attention.

Submitting your team
By personal message to me.
PLEASE use the CQ format for names (surname then first name, nothing else at all): it makes an enormous difference to the time it takes to log teams.

I havealready submitted my team to Murali (first to send in a legitimate team) so that there can be confidence that I didn't pick from among the best of everyone else's ideas.

Deadline
Saturday 24th August 1800 BST/1900 CET (Start time of the race)

Scoring
Points issued according to the points tables of CQ (column GT2). Note there are no points issued for the young rider category.

Per the precedent set in relation to Di Luca and Santambrogio in the 2013 Giro, riders sanctioned for doping offences shall retain their points for the purposes of this game unless the CQ website removes them before publishing the final result on the final day of the race (which seems most unlikely)


Teams entered
18Valve
Afrank
Akuryo
AlPacino
AmisVelo
Armchair_Cyclist
asdfgh101
BeagRigh
BicycleBoy
BigMac
Blues_in_the_Bottle
Cineteq
Comodoro
Crevaison
Dazed_and_Confused
Del1962
Diggercuz
Fus87
GeraintTooFast
Gotland
Handbrake
Hugo87
Jakob747
Jorik112
Josedin
JosephD
JustSomeGuy
Kazistuta
L29205
LaVelocipide
Leadbelly
LiamP
LightBing
LosBrolin
Maaaaaaaarten
Martyfulu
MC_Mountain
Mellow_Velo
Minessa
Mkind07
Murali
Mutschi
NairoQ
Oliveira
PandaClaws
Roubaix
Roude_Leiw
Ruvu75
Search
Snccdcno
Somar13
The_Sceptic
Trudgin
Tuart
USPostal
Yellow_Knight


If you are part of other cycling forums, feel free to publicise the game there, and invite entrants.
Good luck!

 

[BeagRigh]

Woo hoo,

Thanks again for organising.

Big question is how many can bring themselves to put Froome in their team? (I've not checked yet but he must be cheap!)

 

[del1962]

Woo hoo,

Thanks again for organising.

Big question is how many can bring themselves to put Froome in their team? (I've not checked yet but he must be cheap!)

No problem with having Froome in my team, I quite like the guy

 

[murali]

Thank you for startign the game.

I am waiting for all the CQ points to be updated.
Quintana just got costlier by winning Burgos


AC, rules update:
as per the Tour precedence, any rider like Michael Rogers who was facing only partial suspension can also not be included in the team.

 

[del1962]

I'd already pencilled in Cav, nvm

 

[murali]

Without cav, i dont hav a sprinter. he was pretty cheap at 500 odd.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

And with CQ now having posted the score sheets, I can declare the game open.

The dropbox spreadsheet (see opening post) has all the scores, and likely riders, which I wil tweak as teams confirm their selections.

 

[The Hitch]

Last year's top 10

1 The Hitch 1614
2 Batchuba 1603
3 Hilltop Finisher 1543
4 Mkind07 1495
5 Keith James Mc 1429
6 Tuarts 1426
7 Cyivel 1376
8 Just Some Guy 1283
9 Comodoro 1276
10 Geraint Too Fast 1267

 

[the sceptic]

seems to be a vast amount of good value between 200-300 points. Now just got to figure out who is more likely to do a Horner

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Team submitted.
Cheers.

 

[Jorik112]

Is it me or do the scores from the spreadsheet dont match the ones that are on procyclingstats.com. For instance in the spreadsheet valverde has 3057 points and on procyclingstats he got 2911 points. Sagan aswell in the spreadsheet he got 2145 and on procyclingstats 2085

 

[search]

yep, that's because it is a cq ranking game, and not a pcs ranking game

 

[LosBrolin]

Team submitted.

Spent all available 3500p

 

[Hugo87]

I'm very confident in my team, unless most of my riders DNF (5 on CQ Tour Game), I can contend for a honorable placement.

 

[BigMac]

I'm very confident in my team, unless most of my riders DNF (5 on CQ Tour Game), I can contend for a honorable placement.

Good luck, Hugo. I'll avenge my Giro failure and we will go 1-2.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

15 teams in so far: 65 riders chosen, 3 in more than half of the teams, 40 unique picks. 1 rider named in 2 teams will not, I suspect, make the cut when his team makes its final selection tomorrow.

 

[Hugo87]

Good luck, Hugo. I'll avenge my Giro failure and we will go 1-2.

Let's go for it.

 

[murali]

My tactics this season is to go top-heavy. 2 GTs didnt work out at all. hoping to get 3rd time lucky.
I have added 2 wildcards. if one of them clicks, i might do a top-15 :fingerscrossed:

 

[Akuryo]

I was the second best non-nibalist with a "strength in numbers" tactic during my first participation in those CQ games at the Tour. So I tried it again. Maybe I am lucky again. We'll see.

 

[NairoQ]

I had my team ready to send, but then again i swapped a rider. I really hope it turns out well, instead of leaving me regretting this after the game. I have the combination-classification to defend, so i couldn't gamble too much.

Well, i can guess 2 of the riders in more then half of the teams, but the third one? Not a single clue.

 

[murali]

Horner is out.

(just in case someone had out him in their team.)

there goes a sureshot big winner

 

[Armchair cyclist]

30 hours to go, 35 teams in.

Nobody had chosen Horner, so no-one needs to change their team: his name has been replaced by Conti's in the selection spreadsheet at dropbox

90 different riders have been selected:41 are unique picks, 5 are in at least 40% of the teams, 2 in more than half, including one with an 80% selection rate.

 

[murali]

I know i will be kicking myself for not selecting a few riders. But with the strategy that I have, there is not much i can do.

 

[cineteq]

30 hours to go, 35 teams in.

In the nick of time. You got mail.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

In the nick of time. You got mail.

2 people cut it even finer. A pleasing 56 entrants, including some new names, but a few of our regulars notable by their absence. All teams within the rules at the time of launch, whih might be a first: no forced substitutions.