2015-17 Emerging Riders CQ game

[rote_laterne]

My sole competitor at
Santos Tour Down Under 2.UWT
EIKING Odd Christian

 

[skidmark]

Well, I'm in 5th place after two years, but only 17 points out of a podium spot (not including January scores of course). Here's my team:

BOUDAT Thomas
CHEVRIER Cl?ment
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian
HNIK Karel
K?NG Stefan
LATOUR Pierre-Roger
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel
LUDVIGSSON Fredrik
MOHORIC Matej
MULLEN Ryan
NAESEN Oliver
POWER Robert
QUINTANA ROJAS Dayer Uberney
RUFFONI Nicola
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
VERVAEKE Louis
ZEPUNTKE Ruben

So far, the only ones to really achieve superstar status are Gaviria, Latour, Lopez (and, points-wise if not profile-wise, Naesen). MADRAZO and Joelsim both have all of these; Hugo is missing Naesen and Jakob doesn't have Latour.

The second tier of guys who I think can still possibly make a breakthrough this year are Kung, Mohoric, Power, Ruffoni and Vervaeke... and maybe I can include Mullen there too, although that is just based on his TT at the Worlds last year. Unfortunately, ahead of me Hugo has ALL of them, Joelsim has all save Mullen and Mohoric and MADRAZO has all save Ruffoni and Vervaeke. Jakob and I have very different teams from this point on, so if I do well I can move up a spot there. That's not much advantage from the guys who are in the tier where I think they've underperformed their talent so far.

So I guess I'm gonna have to depend on guys like Ludvigsson, Hnik and Zepuntke to, uhhh... wait, where are they riding? Hmm, this might not be the game for me to overcome a 1000 point deficit. Oh well, at least I don't have Campbell Flakemore.

 

[MADRAZO]

Well, I'm in 5th place after two years, but only 17 points out of a podium spot (not including January scores of course). Here's my team:

BOUDAT Thomas
CHEVRIER Cl?ment
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian
HNIK Karel
K?NG Stefan
LATOUR Pierre-Roger
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel
LUDVIGSSON Fredrik
MOHORIC Matej
MULLEN Ryan
NAESEN Oliver
POWER Robert
QUINTANA ROJAS Dayer Uberney
RUFFONI Nicola
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
VERVAEKE Louis
ZEPUNTKE Ruben

So far, the only ones to really achieve superstar status are Gaviria, Latour, Lopez (and, points-wise if not profile-wise, Naesen). MADRAZO and Joelsim both have all of these; Hugo is missing Naesen and Jakob doesn't have Latour.

The second tier of guys who I think can still possibly make a breakthrough this year are Kung, Mohoric, Power, Ruffoni and Vervaeke... and maybe I can include Mullen there too, although that is just based on his TT at the Worlds last year. Unfortunately, ahead of me Hugo has ALL of them, Joelsim has all save Mullen and Mohoric and MADRAZO has all save Ruffoni and Vervaeke. Jakob and I have very different teams from this point on, so if I do well I can move up a spot there. That's not much advantage from the guys who are in the tier where I think they've underperformed their talent so far.

So I guess I'm gonna have to depend on guys like Ludvigsson, Hnik and Zepuntke to, uhhh... wait, where are they riding? Hmm, this might not be the game for me to overcome a 1000 point deficit. Oh well, at least I don't have Campbell Flakemore.

You almost got me worried there saying I had Mullen and not Vervaeke, compared to Joelsim. But as I suspected it is the other way around, so with Vervaekes great start to the season, and now even also one of my worst picks Senni starting to show a little of the talent he showed as u23 and getting some points things look pretty good for me. But so much can still happen and for instance the mentioned Mullen could still also be great and help Joelsim threathen me and still its too early to write the rest of you off yet. You also have Chevrier, that used to be a great talent, and who knows if he suddenly explodes too, after his very slow progress so far as a pro. Besides Joelsim Jakob is perhaps the most dangerous though with riders like McLay and maybe Looij that could potentially score high this year.

 

[skidmark]

You almost got me worried there saying I had Mullen and not Vervaeke, compared to Joelsim. But as I suspected it is the other way around, so with Vervaekes great start to the season, and now even also one of my worst picks Senni starting to show a little of the talent he showed as u23 and getting some points things look pretty good for me. But so much can still happen and for instance the mentioned Mullen could still also be great and help Joelsim threathen me and still its too early to write the rest of you off yet. You also have Chevrier, that used to be a great talent, and who knows if he suddenly explodes too, after his very slow progress so far as a pro. Besides Joelsim Jakob is perhaps the most dangerous though with riders like McLay and maybe Looij that could potentially score high this year.

Whoops sorry, yeah I was looking back and forth between tabs and scrolling up and down through teams, my mistake. True that McLay is a real potential threat; Looij I am less sure about, as he was so fast so young two years ago but that seems to have vanished. Either way, even if top spot is out of reach I'll be excited to follow along this year - this was a weird class, it seems like lots of them have gone in fits and starts with injury/illness (Kung, Power) or really stop/start development (Chevrier, Vervaeke, Ruffoni, Mullen, and even Henao and Quintana have shown talent only to have long periods of nothing).

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Into the decisive third year: will some of our picks have a delayed breakthrough?

Year 3, Month 1 to 5th Feb

Rather unimpressive: the riders in the 2017-19 game have scored better this month. Maybe our key picks are established enough now not to be concerned with the early season events, or maybe this edition just has fewer Aussies.

MCLAY Daniel 120pts 4 teams (a win and a third in Majorcan races)
VERVAEKE Louis 84 23 (a second and a fourth in Majorcan races)
SENNI Manuel 77 4 (3rd in Volta a la Comminitat Valenciana)
LATOUR Pierre 61 23 (4th in Bessèges)
MARECZKO Jakub 48 17 (11th and some stage points in Dubai)
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 46 14 (2 stage wins in San Juan)

Points gained
1 GPBlanco 408 (Vervaeke, Senni, Latour, Mareczko, Gaviria)
2 Madrazo 398 (Vervaeke, Senni, Latour, Mareczko, Gaviria)
3 Kazistuta 396 (McLay, Vervaeke, Latour, Mareczko, Gaviria)
4 HugoKoblet 371(Vervaeke, Latour, Mareczko, Gaviria)
5 Joelsim 358
6 Jakob747 354
7 ItalianGigolo 324
8 Josedin 315
9 Mutschi 314
10 Multispeed 305
11 Nuvolablu 284
12 Asdfgh101 280
13 Snccdcno 274
14 GeraintTooFast 273
15 Leadbelly 262
16 Skidmark 261
17 Alykaptan 255
18 Blues_in_the_Bottle 254
19 Karaev 253
20 Ludwigzgz 246
21 Comodoro 236
22 HilltopFinisher 216
23 RoteLaterne 208
24 Vladimir 196
25 Flo 195
26 AlPacino 187
27 Armchair_Cyclist 185
28 Del1962 177
29 MCMountain 175
30 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 166
31 DJSprtsch 163
32 Ruudz0r 149
33 Scrooll07 74
CollectiveWisdom 336


Standings
A slight increase in the leader's margin, and in that between 2nd and the chasers. Only one positional change: Italian Gigolo leapfrogs Leadbelly for 4th.

1 Madrazo 9823
2 Joelsim 9529
3 Multispeed 8293
4 ItalianGigolo 8190
5 Leadbelly 8179
6 Jakob747 8137
7 HugoKoblet 8128
8 Skidmark 7910
9 Nuvolablu 7900
10 Kazistuta 7785
11 Vladimir 7410
12 MCMountain 7263
13 Karaev 7214
14 Alykaptan 7193
15 GPBlanco 7168
16 HilltopFinisher 6961
17 Ruudz0r 6727
18 Blues_in_the_Bottle 6705
19 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 6481
20 Asdfgh101 6453
21 Snccdcno 6247
22 GeraintTooFast 6045
23 Josedin 5825
24 RoteLaterne 5696
25 Ludwigzgz 5670
26 Mutschi 5514
27 AlPacino 5370
28 Comodoro 5263
29 Del1962 5091
30 Flo 4934
31 Armchair_Cyclist 4760
32 Scrooll07 3306
33 DJSprtsch 2350
CollectiveWisdom 8168

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Year 3 Month 2 up to 5th March

Still not really taken off this season:
(Name/points/teams)
ROGLIC Primoz 209 1 (GC win and 2 stage podiums in Volta ao Algarve for MCMountain)
NAESEN Oliver 95 10 (top tens in Omloop and Kuurne)
JARAMILLO DIEZ Daniel Alexander 84 1 (GC 4th in Langkawi for Comodoro)
MARECZKO Jakub 70 17 (1st, 1st, 2nd and 4th in Lagkawi stages)
MOHORIC Matej 53 15 (top ten in Laigueglia)


1 Madrazo 443 (Naesen, Mareczko, Mohoric and 11 other scorers)
2 Joelsim 413 (Naesen, Mareczko and 13 other scorers)
3 MCMountain 402 (Roglic and 9 others)
4 Vladimir 395
5 Blues_in_the_Bottle 394
6 HugoKoblet 379
7 ItalianGigolo 377
8 Armchair_Cyclist 350
9 Skidmark 342
10 Multispeed 341
11 Jakob747 335
12 Nuvolablu 334
13 HilltopFinisher 304
14 Leadbelly 301
15 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 284
16 GPBlanco 282
17 Ruudz0r 269
18 Karaev 266
19 Alykaptan 257
20 Josedin 254
21 Ludwigzgz 253
22 AlPacino 229
23 Kazistuta 226
23 Del1962 226
25 Snccdcno 217
26 RoteLaterne 198
27 Mutschi 183
28 Asdfgh101 175
29 Scrooll07 167
30 DJSprtsch 153
31 Comodoro 148
32 Flo 147
33 GeraintTooFast 134
CollectiveWisdom 377

The top 2 in February were already the top two overall: their stranglehold increases. HugoKoblet moves up 2 places for the only drama in the top ten. At least the race for the last podium spot might have some suspense...
1 Madrazo 10266
2 Joelsim 9942
3 Multispeed 8634
4 ItalianGigolo 8567
5 HugoKoblet 8507
6 Leadbelly 8480
7 Jakob747 8472
8 Skidmark 8252
9 Nuvolablu 8234
10 Kazistuta 8011
11 Vladimir 7805
12 MCMountain 7665
13 Karaev 7480
14 GPBlanco 7450
14 Alykaptan 7450
16 HilltopFinisher 7265
17 Blues_in_the_Bottle 7099
18 Ruudz0r 6996
19 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 6765
20 Asdfgh101 6628
21 Snccdcno 6464
22 GeraintTooFast 6179
23 Josedin 6079
24 Ludwigzgz 5923
25 RoteLaterne 5894
26 Mutschi 5697
27 AlPacino 5599
28 Comodoro 5411
29 Del1962 5317
30 Armchair_Cyclist 5110
31 Flo 5081
32 Scrooll07 3473
33 DJSprtsch 2503
CollectiveWisdom 8538

 

[rote_laterne]

Being one spot behind Ludwigzgz in the first edition would have been incredible ...
Thanks for the update.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Year 3, Month 3 6th March to 2nd April


Those emerging riders from 27 months ago are now being named among the main contenders in major events, but not many of us recognised who would be doing that.

NAESEN Oliver 231pts for 10 teams (3rd in Harelbeke, 6th in Dwars door Vlaanderen, double figure hauls in Paris-Nice, Gent-Wevelgem and Ronde)
SOLER GIMENEZ Marc 227pts (3rd in Catalunya GC, with stage and mountain classification points, 5th in GP Indurain, stage & GC points in Paris-Nice for Asdfgh101 and Blues in the Bottle)
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 226pts 14 teams (5th in Milan-San Remo, 9th in Gent-Wevelgem, stage win in Tirreno-Adriatico)
ROGLIC Primoz 166 (4th in Tirreno-Adriatico and some stage points for MCMountain)
BOUDAT Thomas 108 16 (2nd in Loire Atlantique and Paris Troyes, stage win in Settimana Coppi e Bartali, points from other Coupe de France events)
DE BUYST Jasper 105 9 (3rd in Ronde van Drenthe, 10th in Dreidaagse GC)
DASSONVILLE Flavien 96 4 (winin Tourangelle, 9th in Loire Atlantique)
LOOIJ André 64 10 (top ten in Nomere and Handzame)

but among those that we all overlooked were:
CALMEJANE Lilian 200 (GC win and stage points in Settimana Coppi e Bartali, KoM winner in Paris-Nice)
AVILA VANEGAS Edwin Alcibiades 141 (GC 2nd and stage pts in Tour of Taiwan)
VAN LERBERGHE Bert 107 (5th in Nokere, 12th in Gent-Wevelgem)
PÖSTLBERGER Lukas 106 (5th in Harelbeke, 15th in Dwars door Vlaanderen)

Points earned
1 Blues_in_the_Bottle 766 (Soler, Gaviria, Boudat and De Buyst)
2 Madrazo 758 (Naesen, Gaviria, Boudat)
3 Skidmark 672 (Naesen, Gaviria, Boudat, but much less from minor scorers than Madrazo)
4 ItalianGigolo 666(Naesen, Gaviria, Boudat, but much less from minor scorers than Madrazo)
4 Asdfgh101 666(Soler, Gaviria, Boudat)
6 Jakob747 626
7 MCMountain 593
8 HugoKoblet 583
9 Joelsim 553
10 Multispeed 545
11 Josedin 537
12 Ruudz0r 500
13 Leadbelly 488
14 Armchair_Cyclist 454
15 Kazistuta 440
16 GPBlanco 383
17 Nuvolablu 375
18 Karaev 358
19 Vladimir 350
20 Ludwigzgz 349
21 Alykaptan 300
22 GeraintTooFast 289
23 HilltopFinisher 285
24 Del1962 270
25 Scrooll07 254
26 Snccdcno 252
27 RoteLaterne 244
28 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 235
29 Flo 197
30 DJSprtsch 194
31 AlPacino 163
32 Comodoro 141
33 Mutschi 113
CollectiveWisdom 516

Standings
Madrazo stretches out his lead by a couple of hundred more points, Joelsim joins him in crossing the 10,000 point marker, Italian Gigolo makes it onto the podium, and Blues in the Bottle is biggest riser with a 4 place improvement.

1 Madrazo 11024
2 Joelsim 10495
3 ItalianGigolo 9233
4 Multispeed 9179
5 Jakob747 9098
6 HugoKoblet 9090
7 Leadbelly 8968
8 Skidmark 8924
9 Nuvolablu 8609
10 Kazistuta 8451
11 MCMountain 8258
12 Vladimir 8155
13 Blues_in_the_Bottle 7865
14 Karaev 7838
15 GPBlanco 7833
16 Alykaptan 7750
17 HilltopFinisher 7550
18 Ruudz0r 7496
19 Asdfgh101 7294
20 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 7000
21 Snccdcno 6716
22 Josedin 6616
23 GeraintTooFast 6468
24 Ludwigzgz 6272
25 RoteLaterne 6138
26 Mutschi 5810
27 AlPacino 5762
28 Del1962 5587
29 Armchair_Cyclist 5564
30 Comodoro 5552
31 Flo 5278
32 Scrooll07 3727
33 DJSprtsch 2697
CollectiveWisdom 8999

The top two have 11 riders in common, so to make the game competitive Joelsim needs his different 7:
BUCHMANN Emanuel
EIKING Odd Christian
VALLEE Boris
RUFFONI Nicola
SARREAU Marc
FOLIFOROV Alexander
CONTRERAS PINZON Rodrigo


to outscore Madrazo's:
MOSCON Gianni
VLIEGEN Loïc
BOUDAT Thomas
MOHORIC Matej
WACKERMANN Luca
SENNI Manuel
VAN DER POEL Mathieu

by about 75 points per rider over the remainder of the year.


I haven't updated the Collective Ignorance hypothetical team for a while, the top 18 riders who none of us selected. It would have a total score of 10796, so closer to Madrazo than any other manager has accomplished.

TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo Andres 982
CALMEJANE Lilian 870
CLAEYS Dimitri 844
BETTIOL Alberto 743
SMITH Dion 683
CAMPENAERTS Victor 613
BEVIN Patrick 610
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh 602
VAN LERBERGHE Bert 531
MEURISSE Xandro 525
FRAILE MATARRANZ Omar 520
WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads 513
LAPORTE Christophe 512
BRANDAO Joni Silva 475
GERTS Floris 465
MOAZEMI GOUDARZI Arvin 464
BACKAERT Frederik 424
POLITT Nils 420

The top 8 of these are in the top 18 team of eligible riders, which would have a score of 16321:
NAESEN Oliver 1478
ROGLIC Primoz 1385
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 1289
LATOUR Pierre 1203
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 1060
TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo Andres 982
MARECZKO Jakub 978
CALMEJANE Lilian 870
CLAEYS Dimitri 844
MCLAY Daniel 823
MOSCON Gianni 822
BETTIOL Alberto 743
SMITH Dion 683
KÜNG Stefan 632
TURGIS Anthony 614
CAMPENAERTS Victor 613
BEVIN Patrick 610
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh 602

Madrazo's score is 67.5% of this perfection, DJSprtsch's is 16.5%

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Year 3, Month 4 3rd to 30th April (yes, that is a week ago, but it was the most recent update when I went to CQ this evening. I guess it fits the intention of monthly updates...

Spring Classics season, but most of the points came from stage races. Some fairly to very popular riders score well, but a unique pick dominates.
ROGLIC Primoz 408pts 1 team (5th in Pais Vasco, 3rd in Romandie, and 3 stage wins in the process) for MCMountain
BUCHMANN Emanuel 190 (13th in Pais Vasco, 7th in Tour of the Alps, 10th in Romandie) for 6 teams
MOSCON Gianni 127 (5th in Paris-Roubaix) for 3 teams
LATOUR Pierre 116 (3rd in Finistere, 14th in both Fleche and Romandie) for 23 teams
KÜNG Stefan 95 (stage win and points classification in Romandie) for 21 teams
VALLEE Boris 67 (4th in Denain) for 5 teams
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao 55 (8th in Yorkshire plus 4 sets of finisher points) for 9 teams

Points gained
1 MCMountain 775 (Roglic, Latour, Kung and Geoghegan)
2 Joelsim 644 (Buchmann, Latour, Kung and Vallee)
3 Vladimir 523 (Buchmann, Latour, Kung)
4 Nuvolablu 507
5 Madrazo 483
6 AlPacino 430
7 Del1962 426
8 Mutschi 422
9 Ludwigzgz 373
10 Multispeed 369
11 ItalianGigolo 358
12 Skidmark 356
13 Scrooll07 351
14 HilltopFinisher 337
15 HugoKoblet 335
16 Leadbelly 332
17 Alykaptan 326
18 Karaev 311
18 Snccdcno 311
20 GPBlanco 301
20 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 301
22 Kazistuta 263
23 RoteLaterne 259
24 Armchair_Cyclist 250
25 Jakob747 246
26 Asdfgh101 236
27 GeraintTooFast 230
28 Ruudz0r 227
29 Blues_in_the_Bottle 192
30 Josedin 176
31 Comodoro 167
32 Flo 153
33 DJSprtsch 77
CollectiveWisdom 409

Standings
Joelsim takes 160 off the lead, and doing that a few more times would about three more times would make it competitive. Ruffoni has decided that he s not going to help. Hugo Koblet and MCMountain have both moved up by a single place: that's about it.
1 Madrazo 11507
2 Joelsim 11139
3 ItalianGigolo 9591
4 Multispeed 9548
5 HugoKoblet 9425
6 Jakob747 9344
7 Leadbelly 9300
8 Skidmark 9280
9 Nuvolablu 9116
10 MCMountain 9033
11 Kazistuta 8714
12 Vladimir 8678
13 Karaev 8149
14 GPBlanco 8134
15 Alykaptan 8076
16 Blues_in_the_Bottle 8057
17 HilltopFinisher 7887
18 Ruudz0r 7723
19 Asdfgh101 7530
20 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 7301
21 Snccdcno 7027
22 Josedin 6792
23 GeraintTooFast 6698
24 Ludwigzgz 6645
25 RoteLaterne 6397
26 Mutschi 6232
27 AlPacino 6192
28 Del1962 6013
29 Armchair_Cyclist 5814
30 Comodoro 5719
31 Flo 5431
32 Scrooll07 4078
33 DJSprtsch 2774
CollectiveWisdom 9350

 

[mc_mountain]

More points for Tao, Sam and Primoz, but feeling pretty stupid for not putting Gaviria, will miss the podium and a likely chance to win due to his absence. Plenty of deadwood in my team too Flakemore, Bolivar and Ludvigsson.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Year 3, Month 51-28 May

No sooner do I finish the Giro game, then it is time for this update, dominated by a rider who looked like a seasoned pro at that race:

Top scorers:
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 438 pts (4 stage wins, 1 2nd, and maglia ciclamena) for 14 teams
FILOSI Iuri 201 1 team (Lugano win, 8th in 4 (6) Jours de Dunkerque) for Vladimir
VENTURINI Clément 198 (overall win and stage points at 4 Jours de Dunkerque) for Josedin
NAESEN Oliver 171 (3rd in Dunkerque, 8th in Belgium Tou) for 10 teams
BOSWELL Ian 110 (5th in Tour of California) for 4 teams
ROOSEN Timo 104 (stage win and 2nd, 3rd on GC in Tour des Fjords) for 3 teams
EIKING Odd Christian 80pts 10 teams
MARECZKO Jakub 80 17 teams
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao 65 9 teams
ANDERBERG Hampus 61 1 team
OOMEN Sam 60 2 teams
WARBASSE Larry 56 2 teams
KÄMNA Lennard 50 2 teams

Points gained
1 Jakob747 952 (Gaviria, Naesen, Eiking, Mareczko)
2 ItalianGigolo 933 (Gaviria, Naesen, Eiking, Mareczko)
3 Joelsim 926 (Gaviria, Naesen, Eiking, Mareczko)
4 Josedin 859 (Gaviria, Venturini, Mareczko)
5 Madrazo 848 (Gaviria, Naesen, Mareczko)
6 Karaev 784
7 Blues_in_the_Bottle 770
8 Skidmark 743
9 Kazistuta 735
10 HugoKoblet 683
11 Ruudz0r 662
12 Vladimir 638
12 GPBlanco 638
14 GeraintTooFast 615
15 Asdfgh101 585
16 Multispeed 529
17 Leadbelly 495
18 Armchair_Cyclist 364
19 MCMountain 352
20 Alykaptan 306
21 Ludwigzgz 304
22 HilltopFinisher 284
23 Snccdcno 252
23 DJSprtsch 252
25 Scrooll07 251
26 Nuvolablu 247
27 Del1962 245
28 Flo 241
29 Mutschi 235
30 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 211
31 Comodoro 208
32 AlPacino 202
33 RoteLaterne 133
CollectiveWisdom 792

Standings

The monthly top 5 teams include those that were 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th at the beginning of the month: they are now 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Joelsim chips another 78 points off the lead, trying to keep the competition alive.
Kazistuta enters the top ten, and his 2 place rise is matched by Ruudzor, Jakob, Blues in the Bottle and Josedin, but beaten by no-one.

1 Madrazo 12355
2 Joelsim 12065
3 ItalianGigolo 10524
4 Jakob747 10296
5 HugoKoblet 10108
6 Multispeed 10077
7 Skidmark 10023
8 Leadbelly 9795
9 Kazistuta 9449
10 MCMountain 9385
11 Nuvolablu 9363
12 Vladimir 9316
13 Karaev 8933
14 Blues_in_the_Bottle 8827
15 GPBlanco 8772
16 Ruudz0r 8385
17 Alykaptan 8382
18 HilltopFinisher 8171
19 Asdfgh101 8115
20 Josedin 7651
21 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 7512
22 GeraintTooFast 7313
23 Snccdcno 7279
24 Ludwigzgz 6949
25 RoteLaterne 6530
26 Mutschi 6467
27 AlPacino 6394
28 Del1962 6258
29 Armchair_Cyclist 6178
30 Comodoro 5927
31 Flo 5672
32 Scrooll07 4329
33 DJSprtsch 3026
CollectiveWisdom 10074

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Collective Ignorance squad (highest scorers that none of us chose)

TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo Andres 1084
CALMEJANE Lilian 1029
CLAEYS Dimitri 876
BETTIOL Alberto 758
FRAILE MATARRANZ Omar 743
SMITH Dion 713
BEVIN Patrick 688
CAMPENAERTS Victor 653
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh 602
MEURISSE Xandro 590
VAN LERBERGHE Bert 582
ROSON GARCIA Jaime 569
WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads 528
BACKAERT Frederik 519
LAPORTE Christophe 517
GERTS Floris 480
BRANDAO Joni Silva 475
MOAZEMI GOUDARZI Arvin 464
Total 11870

Best possible team:
ROGLIC Primoz 1793pts 1 team
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 1727 14
NAESEN Oliver 1684 10
LATOUR Pierre 1319 23
TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo Andres 1084 0
MARECZKO Jakub 1063 17
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 1060 28
CALMEJANE Lilian 1029 0
MOSCON Gianni 949 3
CLAEYS Dimitri 876 0
MCLAY Daniel 833 4
BUCHMANN Emanuel 765 6
BETTIOL Alberto 758 0
FRAILE MATARRANZ Omar 743 0
KÜNG Stefan 727 21
SMITH Dion 713 0
BEVIN Patrick 688 0
OOMEN Sam 675 2
Total 18486


Dropbox

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Year 3, Month 6 29 May to 2 July

This month (and some pretty hefty scores):
Top Scorers
VAN DER POEL Mathieu 219 21 teams (GC win, 2 stages and 2 podiums in Boucle de la Mayenne and 2nd in Elfstedenronde)
KÜNG Stefan 211 21 teams (2nd places i Tour de Suisse, nat TT title and 2nd in Nat RR)
DE BUYST Jasper 182 9 teams (1st in Heistse Pijl, 7th in Ster ZLM Tour, 4th in Rund um Koln and 10th in Nats RR)
BUCHMANN Emanuel 176 6 teams (7th in Dauphine, 2nd in Nat RR)
MOSCON Gianni 174 3 teams (7th in Route du Sud, 5th in Nat RR, win Nat TT)
SOLER GIMENEZ Marc 163 2 teams (8th in Tour de Suisse, 4th in Nat TT)
NAESEN Oliver 153 10 teams (Nat RR win)
ROGLIC Primoz 135 1 team
WARBASSE Larry 123 2 teams
LATOUR Pierre 118 23 teams
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao 112 9 teams
MULLEN Ryan 106 11 teams

Poits gained
1 Nuvolablu 1141 (Van der Poel, Kung, De Buyst, Moscon, Latour, Geoghegan Hart)
2 Armchair_Cyclist 1124 (Van der Poel, Kung, De Buyst, Naesen, Geoghegan Hart)
3 MCMountain 1094 (Van der Poel, Kung, Roglic, Latour, Geoghegan Hart, Mullen)
4 RoteLaterne 1026 (Van der Poel, Kung, De Buyst, Latour, Mullen)
5 Del1962 995
6 Madrazo 991
7 Multispeed 973
8 Skidmark 937
9 Ludwigzgz 925
10 Vladimir 872
11 HilltopFinisher 860
12 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 844
13 Kazistuta 801
14 Asdfgh101 797
15 Joelsim 755
15 HugoKoblet 755
17 AlPacino 702
18 Snccdcno 699
19 Flo 693
20 Blues_in_the_Bottle 661
21 ItalianGigolo 643
22 GPBlanco 642
23 Jakob747 621
24 Alykaptan 597
25 Leadbelly 582
26 Ruudz0r 573
27 Karaev 558
28 DJSprtsch 545
29 GeraintTooFast 457
30 Josedin 440
31 Comodoro 422
32 Mutschi 388
33 Scrooll07 353
CollectiveWisdom 895

Standings
Madrazo has Van der Poel and Moscon: Joesim's only big scorer that the leader lacks in June was Buchmann, so the lead is extended by almost 250 points, beginning to look decisive after a few month of it being clawed back. Multispeed and Skidmark each move up 2 places and into the top 5, poor Rote Laterne gets over 1000 points in the month without any change in position, while Nuvolablu and I each move up 3 spots, the former into the top ten.
1 Madrazo 13346
2 Joelsim 12820
3 ItalianGigolo 11167
4 Multispeed 11050
5 Skidmark 10960
6 Jakob747 10917
7 HugoKoblet 10863
8 Nuvolablu 10504
9 MCMountain 10479
10 Leadbelly 10377
11 Kazistuta 10250
12 Vladimir 10188
13 Karaev 9491
14 Blues_in_the_Bottle 9488
15 GPBlanco 9414
16 HilltopFinisher 9031
17 Alykaptan 8979
18 Ruudz0r 8958
19 Asdfgh101 8912
20 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 8356
21 Josedin 8091
22 Snccdcno 7978
23 Ludwigzgz 7874
24 GeraintTooFast 7770
25 RoteLaterne 7556
26 Armchair_Cyclist 7302
27 Del1962 7253
28 AlPacino 7096
29 Mutschi 6855
30 Flo 6365
31 Comodoro 6349
32 Scrooll07 4682
33 DJSprtsch 3571
CollectiveWisdom 10894

The spreadsheet is here. Not sure when I'll fit in the other 2 ongoing editions of this around Tour de France game updates, but I'll get them up sometime in the next few days.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Year 3 Month 7 3 - 30 July

Only one race with lots of attention in July, and although there were plenty of riders chosen with 20 points for finishing the Tour, there is only one who really exceeded expectations there.

ROGLIC Primoz 203pts (stage win, stage 4th, 2nd in KoM classification and some GC points in the Tour, finish in San Seb) for MCMountain
BUCHMANN Emanuel 117 (15th in Tour, top 20 in San Seb) for 6 teams
ÖRKEN Ahmet 100 (2 stage wins, 2 stage podiums in Qinghai Lake) for DJSprtsch
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 91 (a first, a 2nd and a 3rd, plus 3rd in GC in Tour of Austria) 28 teams
KOSHEVOY Ilia 84 (4th in Qinghai Lake) 3 teams
CHIRICO Luca 71 2 teams
VLIEGEN Loïc 67 3 teams
NAESEN Oliver 56 10 teams
CICCONE Giulio 53 2 teams
LATOUR Pierre 51 23 teams

1 Vladimir 463 (Bochmann, Lopez, Chirico, Naesen, Latour)
2 MCMountain 452 (Roglic, Lopez, Latour)
3 Alykaptan 424 (Lopez, Koshevoy, Naesen, Latour)
4 Joelsim 387 (Buchmann, Koshevoy, Naesen, Latour)
5 RoteLaterne 366 (Lopez, Vliegen, Latour)
6 ItalianGigolo 354
7 Madrazo 352
8 Leadbelly 344
9 Mutschi 341
10 Multispeed 312
10 Nuvolablu 312
12 Ludwigzgz 307
13 Del1962 302
14 Skidmark 300
15 Snccdcno 296
16 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 288
17 AlPacino 285
18 Jakob747 276
18 Comodoro 276
20 HugoKoblet 269
21 GeraintTooFast 259
22 Kazistuta 258
23 Blues_in_the_Bottle 240
24 HilltopFinisher 227
25 Asdfgh101 207
26 Scrooll07 202
27 DJSprtsch 191
28 Ruudz0r 190
29 Karaev 186
30 GPBlanco 179
31 Josedin 164
32 Armchair_Cyclist 161
33 Flo 136
CollectiveWisdom 327


Standings
A 35 point clawback for Joelsim is not going to make a big difference at this stage of the game, and it is hard to see where his picks that differ from Madrazo can pick up the best part f 500 points over the remainder of the season. The engraver is practising his fancy Ms. The only change in the top ten is the Roglic-boosted MC Mountain moving up one place to ninth, and there are no oter bigger jumps anywhere in the table.

1 Madrazo 13698
2 Joelsim 13207
3 ItalianGigolo 11521
4 Multispeed 11362
5 Skidmark 11260
6 Jakob747 11193
7 HugoKoblet 11132
8 MCMountain 10931
9 Nuvolablu 10816
10 Leadbelly 10721
11 Vladimir 10651
12 Kazistuta 10508
13 Blues_in_the_Bottle 9728
14 Karaev 9677
15 GPBlanco 9593
16 Alykaptan 9403
17 HilltopFinisher 9258
18 Ruudz0r 9148
19 Asdfgh101 9119
20 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 8644
21 Snccdcno 8274
22 Josedin 8255
23 Ludwigzgz 8181
24 GeraintTooFast 8029
25 RoteLaterne 7922
26 Del1962 7555
27 Armchair_Cyclist 7463
28 AlPacino 7381
29 Mutschi 7196
30 Comodoro 6625
31 Flo 6501
32 Scrooll07 4884
33 DJSprtsch 3762
CollectiveWisdom 11116

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Year 3 Month 8 31 July to 27 August

SENNI Manuel 196 (Colorado Classic win) for 4 teams
MANNION Gavin 153 (GC 2nd with some stage points in Utah) for Blues in the Bottle
CICCONE Giulio 151 (GC 6th and Stage win in Utah, 3rd in Oztal classic and 13th in Limousin) for Geraint and Jakob
PEDERSEN Mads 146 (stage and GC wins in Tour du Poitou Charentes) for Asdfgh and Comodoro
NAESEN Oliver 117 (5th in BinckBank Tour) 10 teams
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 112 (Stage win and GC 4th in Burgos) 28 teams
OOMEN Sam 97 2 teams
VAN DER POEL Mathieu 96 21 teams
DE BUYST Jasper 90 9 teams
MOHORIC Matej 90 15 teams


1 Madrazo 827 (Senni, Naesen, Lopez, Van Der Poel, Mohoric)
2 Jakob747 676 (Ciccone, Naesen, Lopez, Van der Poel)
3 Blues_in_the_Bottle 652 (Mannion, Lopez, De Buyst, Mohoric)
4 RoteLaterne 622
5 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 613
6 Nuvolablu 611
7 Armchair_Cyclist 604
8 Skidmark 595
9 Ludwigzgz 582
10 GPBlanco 574
11 Multispeed 569
12 HugoKoblet 565
13 MCMountain 548
14 Mutschi 517
15 Leadbelly 516
16 Vladimir 512
17 Josedin 509
18 Joelsim 495
19 Comodoro 487
20 Karaev 486
21 Flo 476
22 GeraintTooFast 465
23 Alykaptan 461
24 HilltopFinisher 460
25 Ruudz0r 446
26 Kazistuta 432
27 Asdfgh101 419
27 Del1962 419
29 Snccdcno 417
30 AlPacino 401
31 ItalianGigolo 321
32 DJSprtsch 298
33 Scrooll07 128
CollectiveWisdom 643

Standings
A dominant monthly win by the leader, adding 332 points to his lead: game over?
3rd place seems to be the nearest there is to a close battle now: a horrible month for Italian Gigolo sees him fall from 3rd to 6th, Multispeed moves forward 1 step to replace him, but Jakob overtook 2 teams (and is thus top riser), and Skidmark is still in the hunt for a podium as well.

1 Madrazo 14525
2 Joelsim 13702
3 Multispeed 11931
4 Jakob747 11869
5 Skidmark 11855
6 ItalianGigolo 11842
7 HugoKoblet 11697
8 MCMountain 11479
9 Nuvolablu 11427
10 Leadbelly 11237
11 Vladimir 11163
12 Kazistuta 10940
13 Blues_in_the_Bottle 10380
14 GPBlanco 10167
15 Karaev 10163
16 Alykaptan 9864
17 HilltopFinisher 9718
18 Ruudz0r 9594
19 Asdfgh101 9538
20 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 9257
21 Josedin 8764
22 Ludwigzgz 8763
23 Snccdcno 8691
24 RoteLaterne 8544
25 GeraintTooFast 8494
26 Armchair_Cyclist 8067
27 Del1962 7974
28 AlPacino 7782
29 Mutschi 7713
30 Comodoro 7112
31 Flo 6977
32 Scrooll07 5012
33 DJSprtsch 4060
CollectiveWisdom 11686

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Year 3 month 9 28th Aug to 24th Sep


LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 415pts (at the Vuelta, 2 stage wins, 2 stage podiums, 8th in GC and 2nd in Mts category) for 28 teams
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 313 (win Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen, 4th in Classic Impanis Van Petegem, 8th in Worlds RR) 14 teams
PEDERSEN Mads 221 (Danmark Rindt GC win and stage pts) for asdfgh101 and Comodoro
MOSCON Gianni 204 (2nd in a Vuelta stage and 27th overall, bronze in the World TTT and 6th in the Road Race) for Jakob747, Madrazo and Nuvolablu
ROGLIC Primoz 177 (2nd in World's TT) for MCMountain
KÜNG Stefan 162 (3rd in Tour of Britain, 2nd in World's TTT) 21
KÄMNA Lennard 101 (World Champs TTT win and U23 silver) for DJSprtsch and Geraint TooFast
SARREAU Marc 100 3
DE BUYST Jasper 93 9
DOULL Owain 82 2

1 Madrazo 1323 (Lopez, Gaviria, Moscon and Kung)
2 Blues_in_the_Bottle 1225 (Lopez, Gaviria, Kung and De Buysst)
3 HugoKoblet 1167 (Lopez, Gaviria, Kung and De Buysst)
4 Jakob747 1138 (Lopez, Gaviria, and Moscon)
5 Joelsim 1130 (Lopez, Gaviria, Kung and Sarreau)
6 Skidmark 1101
7 Ruudz0r 1063
8 Asdfgh101 1062
9 Kazistuta 1042
10 Josedin 1036
11 Nuvolablu 1012
12 MCMountain 1001
13 GPBlanco 998
14 GeraintTooFast 964
15 Karaev 962
16 Ludwigzgz 902
17 AlPacino 823
18 HilltopFinisher 813
19 Comodoro 786
20 RoteLaterne 778
21 Alykaptan 766
22 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 763
23 Multispeed 725
24 Vladimir 711
25 Snccdcno 709
26 Leadbelly 662
27 Flo 660
28 ItalianGigolo 628
29 Mutschi 543
30 Armchair_Cyclist 515
31 DJSprtsch 297
32 Del1962 231
33 Scrooll07 158
CollectiveWisdom 1237

Standings
Many riders have started their off season breaks, and there are few points left to be one, so this is likely to be very close to our final result for this game. Madrazo seals his win with a flourish, being top scorer this month, and the gap that looked contestable a few months ago is over 1000 points. Joelsim's second place is certain, but that battle for third is still very volatile: Multispeed steps down from the podium, to be replaced by Jakob and overtaken by two other contenders. Hugo Kblet, Kazistuta, Ruudzor, Geraint and Al Pacino all share the mention for highest riser: its only two places for each of them, but at this stage of the game, that is surprising enough, and enough to bring Kazistuta into the top ten.

1 Madrazo 15848
2 Joelsim 14832
3 Jakob747 13007
4 Skidmark 12956
5 HugoKoblet 12864
6 Multispeed 12656
7 MCMountain 12480
8 ItalianGigolo 12470
9 Nuvolablu 12439
10 Kazistuta 11982
11 Leadbelly 11899
12 Vladimir 11874
13 Blues_in_the_Bottle 11605
14 GPBlanco 11165
15 Karaev 11125
16 Ruudz0r 10657
17 Alykaptan 10630
18 Asdfgh101 10600
19 HilltopFinisher 10531
20 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 10020
21 Josedin 9800
22 Ludwigzgz 9665
23 GeraintTooFast 9458
24 Snccdcno 9400
25 RoteLaterne 9322
26 AlPacino 8605
27 Armchair_Cyclist 8582
28 Mutschi 8256
29 Del1962 8205
30 Comodoro 7898
31 Flo 7637
32 Scrooll07 5170
33 DJSprtsch 4357
CollectiveWisdom 12801

 

[Armchair cyclist]

The Final Analysis

There will probably be a post script at around New Year with minor tweaks to scores, but I see no point in delaying the presentation


Year 3, Month 10 25th Sept to 5th November (and effectively the end of relevant racing)

The last month of the game sees almost the biggest individual score in a month (Gaviria scored slightly higher in the Giro than Mareczko did in rather lower profile races in this month)
MARECZKO Jakub 423 pts (5 stage wins and the GC in Taihu Lake, then 5 more stage wins in Hainan) for 17 teams
MOSCON Gianni 241 (5th in Giro dell'Emilia, 7th in Tre Valli Varesine, 3rd in Il Lombardia) for Jakob747, Madrazo and Nuvolablu
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 205 (4 stage wins and a 2nd, and the points classification, in Guangxi) for 14 teams
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe 192 (9th in Tre Valli Varesine, 7th in Milano-Torino, 4th GC in Turkey) for Ruudz0r
MOHORIC Matej 161 (Hong Kong Challenge win, Guangxi 6th in GC) 15 teams
DE BUYST Jasper 151 pts 9 teams
MCLAY Daniel 140 4
GODOY Yonder Eduardo 111 1 (Rote Laterne)
NAESEN Oliver 108 10
ARSLANOV Ildar 105 1 (Leadbelly)
OOMEN Sam 102 2 (Leadbelly and MCMountain)


The winner finishes with a flourish, taking the monthly top spot yet again:
1 Madrazo 1310 (Mareczko, Moscon, Gaviria, Mohoric, Naesen)
2 Jakob747 1207 (Mareczko, Moscon, Gaviria, McLay, Naesen)
3 Nuvolablu 1172(Mareczko, Moscon, Mohoric, De Buyst)
4 Blues_in_the_Bottle 1144 (Mareczko, Gaviria, Mohoric, De Buyst)
5 HugoKoblet 1105 (Mareczko, Gaviria, Mohoric, De Buyst)
6 Ruudz0r 1027 (Mareczko, Gaviria, Martinez)
7 ItalianGigolo 960
8 Karaev 956
9 Kazistuta 939
10 Joelsim 917
11 Josedin 880
12 HilltopFinisher 870
13 Vladimir 786
14 GPBlanco 785
15 Multispeed 759
16 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 735
17 Skidmark 634
18 AlPacino 631
19 Armchair_Cyclist 470
20 Leadbelly 455
21 Del1962 416
22 Alykaptan 411
23 Ludwigzgz 394
24 RoteLaterne 375
25 Asdfgh101 367
26 Snccdcno 363
27 GeraintTooFast 309
28 MCMountain 307
29 Scrooll07 292
30 Flo 287
31 DJSprtsch 270
32 Mutschi 203
33 Comodoro 168
CollectiveWisdom 1286

Final Positions
Madrazo and Joelsim have been the top two since the end of year 1, with Madrazo taking the lead at the beginning of May 2016, and never losing that top spot, although Joelsim remained in close contention until the last few months. The third podium spot has been more closely contested, and Jakob defended it with his second place this month. Novalablu manages a late burst of 4 places to get into the top 5, and Hugo Koblet, Italian Gigolo and Kazistuta also managed to rise a bit in the top ten.

1 Madrazo 17158
2 Joelsim 15749
3 Jakob747 14214
4 HugoKoblet 13969
5 Nuvolablu 13611
6 Skidmark 13590
7 ItalianGigolo 13430
8 Multispeed 13415
9 Kazistuta 12921
10 MCMountain 12787
11 Blues_in_the_Bottle 12749
12 Vladimir 12660
13 Leadbelly 12354
14 Karaev 12081
15 GPBlanco 11950
16 Ruudz0r 11684
17 HilltopFinisher 11401
18 Alykaptan 11041
19 Asdfgh101 10967
20 The_Fool_on_the_Hill 10755
21 Josedin 10680
22 Ludwigzgz 10059
23 GeraintTooFast 9767
24 Snccdcno 9763
25 RoteLaterne 9697
26 AlPacino 9236
27 Armchair_Cyclist 9052
28 Del1962 8621
29 Mutschi 8459
30 Comodoro 8066
31 Flo 7924
32 Scrooll07 5462
33 DJSprtsch 4627
CollectiveWisdom 13911

Before we celebrate our successes (well, some teams can), admission of our joint failure in the Collective Ignorance team: the highest scoring 18 riders that none of us picked in January 2015:
CALMEJANE Lilian 1284
TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo Andres 1131
CLAEYS Dimitri 1016
BETTIOL Alberto 1015
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh 983
CAMPENAERTS Victor 967
MEURISSE Xandro 914
VAN AERT Wout 854
MARTIN Guillaume 785
FRAILE MATARRANZ Omar 783
SMITH Dion 779
BEVIN Patrick 775
VAN LERBERGHE Bert 750
LAPORTE Christophe 736
ROSON GARCIA Jaime 735
TRATNIK Jan 714
ALARCON GARCIA Raul 696
JENSEN August 684
Total 15601 and 3rd place in the table.

A significant feature in the game is that Gaviria, the second best scorer, would probably have been on that list if the entries had closed in early or mid-January. None of the teams submitted before his breakthrough in the Tour de San Luis named him, but once he had beaten Cavendish twice in a row he suddenly started being included in most teams that came in. So waiting until nearer the deadline proved to be key: Novulablu, Multispeed and MCMountain were the only ones who made the top ten without him.


The Fruits of our Thoughts team are the best of those that we did pick, even if it was only by virtue of one inspired participant as in the case of the best scorer in the game:

ROGLIC Primoz 2313pts 1 team (MCMountain)
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 2252 14 teams
NAESEN Oliver 2168 10
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 1689 28
MOSCON Gianni 1606 3 (Jakob747, Madrazo and Nuvolablu)
LATOUR Pierre 1551 23
MARECZKO Jakub 1489 17
KÜNG Stefan 1209 21
BUCHMANN Emanuel 1080 6
MCLAY Daniel 1007 4 (Alykaptan, Comodoro, Jakob747, Kazistuta)
OOMEN Sam 992 2 (Leadbelly and MCMountain)
PEDERSEN Mads 848 2 (asdfgh101, Comodoro)
DE BUYST Jasper 835 9
MOHORIC Matej 759 15
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao 748 9
SOLER GIMENEZ Marc 738 2 (Asdfgh101 and Blues in the Bottle)
TURGIS Anthony 727 1 (Novulablu)
VENTURINI Clément 678 1 (Josedin)

Total 22,689

And combining these, we see the best possible team:
ROGLIC Primoz 2313
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 2252
NAESEN Oliver 2168
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 1689
MOSCON Gianni 1606
LATOUR Pierre 1551
MARECZKO Jakub 1489
CALMEJANE Lilian 1284
KÜNG Stefan 1209
TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo Andres 1131
BUCHMANN Emanuel 1080
CLAEYS Dimitri 1016
BETTIOL Alberto 1015
MCLAY Daniel 1007
OOMEN Sam 992
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh 983
CAMPENAERTS Victor 967
MEURISSE Xandro 914
Total 24666

Madrazo's winning score is, therefore, 69.6% of the maximum possible, an improvement on the previous winning performance, and ahead of the leading score in the other in-progress games. Only 13 of us managed more than half of what was possible.


Madrazo's team has 7 of those best possible picks: his full winning selection was:
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 2252
NAESEN Oliver 2168
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 1689
MOSCON Gianni 1606
LATOUR Pierre 1551
MARECZKO Jakub 1489
KÜNG Stefan 1209
MOHORIC Matej 759
HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian 615
VLIEGEN Loïc 610
BOUDAT Thomas 563
SENNI Manuel 509
VAN DER POEL Mathieu 471
MANZIN Lorrenzo 425
WACKERMANN Luca 354
QUINTANA ROJAS Dayer Uberney 331
POWER Robert 299
VERVAEKE Louis 258

Although the margin looks large, it would only have taken Joelsim to replace his poorest scorer (Contreras) with Moscon (not as well regarded, or as contentious, then as he is now) to give a different winner.


Other riders who you could have been reasonably satisfied with as picks (500 pts +)
BACKAERT Frederik 660pts 0 teams
EIKING Odd Christian 639 10
GIDICH Yevgeniy 634 0
POLITT Nils 621 0
HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian 615 24
VLIEGEN Loïc 610 3
WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads 589 0
SPRENGERS Thomas 588 3
RÄIM Mihkel 579 0
CONSONNI Simone 570 0
PÖSTLBERGER Lukas 566 0
ORTEGA RAMIREZ Mauricio 564 0
BOUDAT Thomas 563 16
SARREAU Marc 562 3
AVILA VANEGAS Edwin Alcibiades 557 0
BAZHKOU Stanislau 552 0
MARINI Nicolas 551 1
GAUDU David 550 0
HUFFMAN Evan 544 0
ANTUNES Amaro Manuel Reposo 539 0
GERTS Floris 531 0
ROOSEN Timo 529 3
CAPIOT Amaury 528 1
GARCIA DE MATEOS RUBIO Vicente 528 0
WALSCHEID Maximilian 527 0
MOAZEMI GOUDARZI Arvin 524 0
JARAMILLO DIEZ Daniel Alexander 513 1
WARBASSE Larry 512 2
SENNI Manuel 509 4
KAMP Alexander 504 0


And those who some of us chose, but really shouldn't have (<50 points):
LECUISINIER Pierre-Henri 47pts 3 teams
BARTA William 46 1
CAM Maxime 35 1
WATSON Calvin 35 1
HOLOWESKO Liam 24 1
MCEVOY Jonathan 21 1
KERRISON Jesse 21 2
KLARIS Magnus Bak 15 1
HAVIK Piotr 15 1
AFFINI Edoardo 13 1
BOUHANNI Rayane 5 3
GIBSON Matthew 5 1
BOLIVAR HERNANDEZ Isaac 0 4
ZORDAN Andrea 0 3
OWSIAN Arkadiusz 0 1


And the annual top tens:

Year 1 (2015, 23% of total)
1 Joelsim 3777
2 Madrazo 3501
3 Multispeed 3492
4 ItalianGigolo 3217
5 Leadbelly 3151
6 MCMountain 3064
7 Vladimir 3034
8 HilltopFinisher 2997
9 Nuvolablu 2992
10 Jakob747 2893


Year 2 (2016, 34%)
1 Madrazo 5924
2 Joelsim 5394
3 Jakob747 4890
4 HugoKoblet 4890
5 Skidmark 4873
6 Leadbelly 4766
7 ItalianGigolo 4649
8 Kazistuta 4636
9 Nuvolablu 4624
10 Multispeed 4496


Year 3 (2017, 43%)
1 Madrazo 7733
2 Joelsim 6578
3 Jakob747 6431
4 Blues_in_the_Bottle 6298
5 HugoKoblet 6212
6 Nuvolablu 5995
7 Skidmark 5941
8 MCMountain 5699
9 ItalianGigolo 5564
10 Kazistuta 5532


So, well done to Madrazo, to the rest of the podium, and to all who found some gems 3 years ago. And to anyone who can work out what went wrong with all the other riders we had so much hope in at the beginning of the game. And thanks to all who have taken part.

All the stats are here.

 

[MADRAZO]

Weeee finally a victory in one of these games. Thanks for organising it !

 

[rote_laterne]

Thanks for the final analysis Armchair cyclist. It as again been 3 years of fun following young riders. Congratulations to Madrazo, well done.

 

[skidmark]

Way to go MADRAZO!! Thanks so much for organizing AC, this is such a great game to follow even if it is a bit more of a slow burn and therefore less hotly debated on the message boards. Really appreciate you pulling it together. And after my disaster of a main game this year, it's good to have a respectable finish here. Whoops about that Ruffoni pick, though.

 

[Squire]

Hey, Armchair cyclist! Did you leave out Bernal from your analysis because he didn't have a CQ profile in 2015?

He's surely the only rider who was a junior at the start of one of these games to make it into the best possible team.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Yep; well spotted. I updated the list of riders from the CQ updates during year 1, but not subsequently, and Bernal wasn't on the CQ database last time I did. I'll try to keep an eye out for that in future.

With 925 points, he comes in at 7th in the Collective Ignorance team, pushing that team higher than Joelsim, and nudges Meurisse out of the best possible team, taking the 18th and final spot.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

In the interest of completeness, since the 5th November update, the following riders selected in the game scored points:

CHIRICO Luca 7pts (I think from Santoro's disqualification from Qinghai Lake) for ItalianGigolo and Vladimir
PUTT Tanner 5 (Pozdnyakov's DQ from Tour du Maroc) for Mutschi
ARSLANOV Ildar 3 (Pozdnyakov's DQ from Azerbaijan) for Leadbelly
BARTA William 1 (Kvasina's DQ from Flecghe du Sud) for DJSprtsch

None of which changes the final standings at all.