We all sit down to watch a race with ideas about who we think or hope will win it, and we look at a new season or a transfer with a view to what will transpire over the next few months.
The challenge here is to look not just a few hours or months ahead, but up to three years: to assume the role, not of the director of a major team who can buy proven talent with short term goals, but that of the leader of a minor team who can identify up and coming talent who might become great in a few years time. But you don't want their progression to be too slow, you need results within three years.
In recent years, we have had two Tour de France winners, a Giro winner, a World champion (TT) and a Road Race bronze medallist, and many WT race winners while in the three year period they were eligible for past editions of the game.
So who will take a place among the major contenders in the sport by the end of the 2023 season? That is your challenge.
For the Emerging Riders game you need to select a team of 18 male riders, who can be of any age, but must each have a lifetime total of fewer than 200 CQ points (not 200: fewer than). There is no upper limit for the team (although logically, it must be no more than 18x199). Their score will be the points they accumulate between 1st Jan 2021 and 31 December 2023, as awarded by CQ.
There are of course, untold thousands of riders who are eligible: even I am, but don't take that as a recommendation or an insight into my selection. I have put together a very long list of riders who have scored CQ points (or are on a WorldTeam or ProTeam squad) in the last three years without reaching 200: it also has a warnings list of those who have passed the threshold in 2020, who you might have thought would still be eligible but are not. I will identify those eligible for this among riders selected for the main annual CQ game when that list is available.
A past ban does not necessarily disqualify a rider from selection, but any points that they had been awarded and have been struck will be considered still in place when considering whether they are eligible for the game. If a rider is banned during the game, then his points will be removed only when CQ remove them from his record. In practice, this tends to be a very slow process (as I know to my cost: I would have won the 2016-18 edition if they had been faster to remove Jaime Roson's points).
Entries should be sent to me by PM on either Cycling News forum or Velorooms by the end of January: if any races do take place before then, I am confident that they will be pretty insignificant in the overall course of the game.
The challenge here is to look not just a few hours or months ahead, but up to three years: to assume the role, not of the director of a major team who can buy proven talent with short term goals, but that of the leader of a minor team who can identify up and coming talent who might become great in a few years time. But you don't want their progression to be too slow, you need results within three years.
In recent years, we have had two Tour de France winners, a Giro winner, a World champion (TT) and a Road Race bronze medallist, and many WT race winners while in the three year period they were eligible for past editions of the game.
So who will take a place among the major contenders in the sport by the end of the 2023 season? That is your challenge.
For the Emerging Riders game you need to select a team of 18 male riders, who can be of any age, but must each have a lifetime total of fewer than 200 CQ points (not 200: fewer than). There is no upper limit for the team (although logically, it must be no more than 18x199). Their score will be the points they accumulate between 1st Jan 2021 and 31 December 2023, as awarded by CQ.
There are of course, untold thousands of riders who are eligible: even I am, but don't take that as a recommendation or an insight into my selection. I have put together a very long list of riders who have scored CQ points (or are on a WorldTeam or ProTeam squad) in the last three years without reaching 200: it also has a warnings list of those who have passed the threshold in 2020, who you might have thought would still be eligible but are not. I will identify those eligible for this among riders selected for the main annual CQ game when that list is available.
A past ban does not necessarily disqualify a rider from selection, but any points that they had been awarded and have been struck will be considered still in place when considering whether they are eligible for the game. If a rider is banned during the game, then his points will be removed only when CQ remove them from his record. In practice, this tends to be a very slow process (as I know to my cost: I would have won the 2016-18 edition if they had been faster to remove Jaime Roson's points).
Entries should be sent to me by PM on either Cycling News forum or Velorooms by the end of January: if any races do take place before then, I am confident that they will be pretty insignificant in the overall course of the game.
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