Oh my bad, now I see your message. Was very cool to do that promotion "sillonista" 😁
Only the notification didn't arrive to me as in parlamento my user name is "Cordi3" 😅
But next year I'll try to remember and give it a try : )
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Thanks!
Only the notification didn't arrive to me as in parlamento my user name is "Cordi3" 😅
But next year I'll try to remember and give it a try : )
Late, but still not up to date: most recent download at CQ is to 20th August
Year 3 Months 7-8a (26 June to 20 August)
Top scorers:
Unique picks not evident below: Skjelmose and Burgaudeau are both on JPettersen's team.
Standings
I suppose there could be some uncertainty in the battle for 4th...
Year 3 Months 7-8a (26 June to 20 August)
Top scorers:
| RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos | 400 pts | 13 teams | Stage win and GC 5th in TdF |
| DE LIE Arnaud | 279 | 1 | Polynormande and Jef Scherens wins, 7th in Bemer Classic, stage win in Wallonie |
| SKJELMOSE JENSEN Mattias | 272 | 1 | top 30 in TdF with stage pts, 2nd in Danmark Rundt with stage pts, top 15 in Worlds RR |
| WAERENSKJOLD Søren | 212 | 2 | 13th in Worlds TT, Danmark Rundt 4th with stage win and 2 2nds |
| WILLIAMS Stephen | 203 | 1 | Arctic race win GC and stage |
| VERMAERKE Kevin | 149 | 14 | 3rd in Arctic race |
| DONOVAN Mark | 146 | 16 | Sibiu Tour win |
| VAN WILDER Ilan | 134 | 25 | |
| BURGAUDEAU Mathieu | 134 | 1 | |
| GARCIA PIERNA Raul | 119 | 1 |
| 1 | Leadbelly | 1286 | Rodriguez, De Lie, Garcia |
| 2 | Bminchow | 1199 | Rodriguez, Vermaerke, Donovan, Van Wilder |
| 3 | LosBrolin | 1197 | Rodriguez, Waerenskjold, Vermaerke, Van Wilder |
| 4 | YellowKnight | 1092 | Rodriguez, Vermaerke, Donovan |
| 5 | Blues_in_the_Bottle | 1072 | Rodriguez, Williams, Vermaerke |
| 6 | SafeBet | 1071 | Rodriguez, Vermaerke, Van Wilder |
| 7 | Cordi | 1067 | Rodriguez, Donovan, Van Wilder |
| 8 | Ludwigzgz | 1030 | |
| 9 | Ray10 | 986 | |
| 10 | Greenedge | 978 | |
| 11 | JPettersen | 977 | |
| 12 | Kryvo | 956 | |
| 13 | Squire | 787 | |
| 14 | Koronin | 763 | |
| 15 | Rufs | 739 | |
| 16 | MuddyWaters | 721 | |
| 17 | Fivezzz | 691 | |
| 18 | Otoxiep87 | 677 | |
| 19 | AmisVelo | 665 | |
| 20 | Kazistuta | 579 | |
| 21 | HugoKoblet | 572 | |
| 22 | Madrazo | 558 | |
| 23 | LukasCPH | 552 | |
| 24 | Armchair_Cyclist | 548 | |
| 25 | Scrooll07 | 535 | |
| 26 | Northerner | 529 | |
| 27 | Vladimir | 495 | |
| 28 | Josedin | 492 | |
| 29 | Laarsland | 490 | |
| 30 | Comodoro | 468 | |
| 31 | Jakob747 | 466 | |
| 32 | Karaev | 452 | |
| 33 | Nyssinator | 450 | |
| 34 | JonEzeitza | 446 | |
| 35 | Nakazar | 417 | |
| 36 | RoteLaterne | 404 | |
| 37 | Skidmark | 248 | |
| CollectiveWisdom | 1243 | ||
| CollectiveIgnorance | 1688 | ||
| MainGame2021 | 763 |
Standings
I suppose there could be some uncertainty in the battle for 4th...
1 | SafeBet | 17986 |
2 | Cordi | 16473 |
3 | Greenedge | 15964 |
4 | AmisVelo | 14688 |
5 | Bminchow | 14547 |
6 | RoteLaterne | 14351 |
7 | Leadbelly | 14149 |
8 | LosBrolin | 14135 |
9 | Ludwigzgz | 13989 |
10 | Nakazar | 13584 |
11 | Squire | 13271 |
12 | YellowKnight | 12959 |
13 | JPettersen | 12944 |
14 | Rufs | 12919 |
15 | Kryvo | 12849 |
16 | Ray10 | 12648 |
17 | MuddyWaters | 12452 |
18 | Northerner | 12438 |
19 | Blues_in_the_Bottle | 12088 |
20 | Otoxiep87 | 12013 |
21 | Madrazo | 11878 |
22 | HugoKoblet | 11469 |
23 | Nyssinator | 11464 |
24 | Kazistuta | 11403 |
25 | Karaev | 11295 |
26 | Fivezzz | 11247 |
27 | Laarsland | 11130 |
28 | LukasCPH | 10961 |
29 | JonEzeitza | 10938 |
30 | Skidmark | 10836 |
31 | Jakob747 | 10018 |
32 | Comodoro | 9738 |
33 | Armchair_Cyclist | 9634 |
34 | Vladimir | 8847 |
35 | Scrooll07 | 8773 |
36 | Koronin | 6571 |
37 | Josedin | 6538 |
| CollectiveWisdom | 16258 | |
| CollectiveIgnorance | 18390 | |
| MainGame2021 | 11053 |
Year 3 Month 8b-9 Aug 21 - Oct 1
If only one out of Queen Stagiare and 18 Valve had gone for Kuss in the Vuelta game, Leadbelly might have some competition for the best Unique Pick in the history of CQ games other than JPettersen.
The top 6 here are all in the overall top ten
Standings
Cordi pulls back 56 points from the lead, but that isn't going to change much.
Quite plausible that no-one scores another 1457 points with the races that are still on the season's programme for most of our riders.. The likelihood of Cordi doing that while SafeBet gets nothing is vanishingly small.
The battle between SafeBet and the Collective Ignorance will go all the way to the wire though. Just as well Leadbelly and JPettersen kept the two highest scoring riders of this edition out of that team.
If only one out of Queen Stagiare and 18 Valve had gone for Kuss in the Vuelta game, Leadbelly might have some competition for the best Unique Pick in the history of CQ games other than JPettersen.
| DE LIE Arnaud | 589 | 1 (Leadbelly) | Quebec, Franco-Belge and Fammenne Ardennes wins, Euros RR 4th, Renewi Tour stages and Pts jersey, | ||
| AYUSO PESQUERA Juan | 352 | 15 |
| ||
| KOOIJ Olav | 307 | 29 | 4 stages of Tour of Britain, 3rd in Euro RR, 2nd Gooikse Pijl, Renewi Tour stage podiums | ||
| VAN WILDER Ilan | 288 | 25 | Deutschland Tour win, Luxembourg 4th | ||
| STRONG Corbin | 261 | 2(Jakob 747, Leadbelly) | 2nd in Quebec, 3rd in Franco-Belge, stage win in Luxembourg, top 15 in Bretagne | ||
| SKJELMOSE JENSEN Mattias | 228 | 1 (JPettersen) | Maryland win, top ten in Quebec and Montreal. | ||
| CARR Simon | 199 | 6 | Langkawi stage and GC wins | ||
| BURGAUDEAU Mathieu | 170 | 1(JPettersen) | |||
| WAERENSKJOLD Søren | 167 | 2 (JPettersen, Los Brolin) | |||
| SHEFFIELD Magnus | 165 | 11 | |||
| BUITRAGO SANCHEZ Santiago | 164 | 6 |
The top 6 here are all in the overall top ten
| 1 | Cordi | 1658 | Ayuso, Kooij, Van Wilder, Carr, Sheffield | |
| 2 | LosBrolin | 1644 | Ayuso, Kooij, Van Wilder, Waerenskjold, Sheffield | |
| 3 | SafeBet | 1602 |
| |
| 4 | Leadbelly | 1579 | De Lie, Kooij, Strong, Sheffield | |
| 5 | Ludwigzgz | 1491 |
| |
| 6 | AmisVelo | 1458 | Ayuso, Kooij, Van Wilder, Sheffield | |
| 7 | Northerner | 1418 | ||
| 8 | Bminchow | 1413 | ||
| 9 | JPettersen | 1407 | ||
| 10 | Madrazo | 1401 | ||
| 11 | Squire | 1369 | ||
| 12 | RoteLaterne | 1354 | ||
| 13 | Ray10 | 1323 | ||
| 14 | Greenedge | 1239 | ||
| 15 | Nakazar | 1237 | ||
| 16 | Rufs | 1223 | ||
| 17 | YellowKnight | 1136 | ||
| 18 | Jakob747 | 1082 | ||
| 19 | Kryvo | 1036 | ||
| 20 | Laarsland | 1032 | ||
| 21 | Otoxiep87 | 948 | ||
| 22 | HugoKoblet | 938 | ||
| 22 | LukasCPH | 938 | ||
| 24 | Skidmark | 928 | ||
| 25 | MuddyWaters | 903 | ||
| 26 | Karaev | 889 | ||
| 27 | Nyssinator | 871 | ||
| 28 | Comodoro | 864 | ||
| 29 | Kazistuta | 858 | ||
| 30 | Blues_in_the_Bottle | 816 | ||
| 31 | Vladimir | 787 | ||
| 32 | Fivezzz | 745 | ||
| 33 | Armchair_Cyclist | 734 | ||
| 34 | Scrooll07 | 673 | ||
| 35 | JonEzeitza | 538 | ||
| 36 | Koronin | 389 | ||
| 37 | Josedin | 366 | ||
| CollectiveWisdom | 1546 | |||
| CollectiveIgnorance | 1386 | |||
| MainGame2021 | 1088 |
Standings
Cordi pulls back 56 points from the lead, but that isn't going to change much.
1 | SafeBet | 19588 | 0 |
2 | Cordi | 18131 | 0 |
3 | Greenedge | 17203 | 0 |
4 | AmisVelo | 16146 | 0 |
5 | Bminchow | 15960 | 0 |
6 | LosBrolin | 15779 | 2 |
7 | Leadbelly | 15728 | 0 |
8 | RoteLaterne | 15705 | -2 |
9 | Ludwigzgz | 15480 | 0 |
10 | Nakazar | 14821 | 0 |
11 | Squire | 14640 | 0 |
12 | JPettersen | 14351 | 1 |
13 | Rufs | 14142 | 1 |
14 | YellowKnight | 14095 | -2 |
15 | Ray10 | 13971 | 1 |
16 | Kryvo | 13885 | -1 |
17 | Northerner | 13856 | 1 |
18 | MuddyWaters | 13355 | -1 |
19 | Madrazo | 13279 | 2 |
20 | Otoxiep87 | 12961 | 0 |
21 | Blues_in_the_Bottle | 12904 | -2 |
22 | HugoKoblet | 12407 | 0 |
23 | Nyssinator | 12335 | 0 |
24 | Kazistuta | 12261 | 0 |
25 | Karaev | 12184 | 0 |
26 | Laarsland | 12162 | 1 |
27 | Fivezzz | 11992 | -1 |
28 | LukasCPH | 11899 | 0 |
29 | Skidmark | 11764 | 1 |
30 | JonEzeitza | 11476 | -1 |
31 | Jakob747 | 11100 | 0 |
32 | Comodoro | 10602 | 0 |
33 | Armchair_Cyclist | 10368 | 0 |
34 | Vladimir | 9634 | 0 |
35 | Scrooll07 | 9446 | 0 |
36 | Koronin | 6960 | 0 |
37 | Josedin | 6904 | 0 |
| CollectiveWisdom | 17804 | ||
| CollectiveIgnorance | 19623 | ||
| MainGame2021 | 12141 |
Quite plausible that no-one scores another 1457 points with the races that are still on the season's programme for most of our riders.. The likelihood of Cordi doing that while SafeBet gets nothing is vanishingly small.
The battle between SafeBet and the Collective Ignorance will go all the way to the wire though. Just as well Leadbelly and JPettersen kept the two highest scoring riders of this edition out of that team.
Nice that I won a partial this year too. I'm keeping my own records from every one of your updates @Armchair cyclist, and I can say this is the first edition in which I won a partial each of the 3 years, winning 4 partials so far and thats a record too. Last year I only won 3 partials, all in the last year of the game while making the assault to the top.
But this year I'm doomed to 2nd position in the GC, no chance to catch @SafeBet. This 21/23 will be my 2nd edition finishing 2nd, after the 17/19 (which was my debut in the game). It will be the 4th podium in 5 editions, which is quite nice, but only 1 win and with much suspense and by a very thin margin. I guess I'm paying tribute to my childhood idol Valverde's carrer.
But this year I'm doomed to 2nd position in the GC, no chance to catch @SafeBet. This 21/23 will be my 2nd edition finishing 2nd, after the 17/19 (which was my debut in the game). It will be the 4th podium in 5 editions, which is quite nice, but only 1 win and with much suspense and by a very thin margin. I guess I'm paying tribute to my childhood idol Valverde's carrer.
Year 3 Month 10
So apart from the possibility of a little bit of number adjustment, that is it.
The final fling of the dice:
Standings
And so the game that has been most predictable for longest comes to its inevitable conclusion. SafeBet has been in the lead since June 2021, and has been top on at least 7 of the monthly updates. Cordi, winner of the 2020-22 edition in a very different race, has had almost as clear a grip on second place for almost as long, and Greenedge makes sure that the peloton are a long way clear of the rest.
The real battle for some time has been between SafeBet and the Collective Wisdom team, and despite strong contributions from Zana and Johannessen in the final weeks, SafeBet wins that one narrowly (a puncture for Van Wilder in his late Tre Valli attack, for example, would have been enough to reverse it). Had it not been for unique picks by Leadbelly (De Lie) and JPettersen (Skjelmose and Burgudeau), the CI team would have scored just short of 25000.
Full number crunching when the end of year modifications are done, but congratulations to Safe Bet, Cordi and Greenedge, and thanks to all who competed.
And when one game finishes, it must be time to start shortlisting for the next: how's that going for you all.
So apart from the possibility of a little bit of number adjustment, that is it.
The final fling of the dice:
| BERWICK Sebastian | 158 | 6 | Stage win & 3rd, GC 2nd in Hainan |
| KOOIJ Olav | 154 | 29 | 2nd in Elfstedenrace, 2 stage wins and a 2nd in Guangxi |
| VAN WILDER Ilan | 135 | 25 | Tre Valli Varenise win |
| RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos | 118 | 13 | 7th Lombardia, 9th Tre Valli |
| VAN GILS Maxim | 108 | 7 | 14th Lombardia, 4th in Japan Cup |
| TEJADA CANACUE Harold Alfonso | 105 | 21 | 8th in Gran Piemonte, 3rd in Turkey |
| JORGENSON Matteo | 93 | 17 | |
| ZWIEHOFF Ben | 93 | 7 | |
| DE LIE Arnaud | 89 | 1 | |
| STRONG Corbin | 81 | 2 | |
| MILAN Jonathan | 81 | 10 | |
| ASKEY Lewis | 78 | 1 | |
| MONIQUET Sylvain | 77 | 1 |
| 1 | Karaev | 854 | Berwick, Kooij, Van Wilder, Van Gils, Tejada, Milan | |
| 2 | Leadbelly | 828 | Berwick, Kooij, Rodriguez, Jorgenson, Zwiehoff, De Lie, Strong | |
| 3 | YellowKnight | 752 |
| |
| 4 | Squire | 724 | Berwick, Kooij, Van Wilder, Tejada, Zwiehoff | |
| 5 | Northerner | 710 | ||
| 6 | Laarsland | 700 | ||
| 7 | LosBrolin | 675 | ||
| 7 | Ludwigzgz | 675 | ||
| 9 | Greenedge | 658 | ||
| 10 | Cordi | 630 | ||
| 11 | Otoxiep87 | 611 | ||
| 12 | SafeBet | 603 | ||
| 12 | HugoKoblet | 603 | ||
| 14 | Kryvo | 593 | ||
| 15 | Bminchow | 565 | ||
| 16 | Nakazar | 548 | ||
| 17 | Blues_in_the_Bottle | 538 | ||
| 18 | Ray10 | 530 | ||
| 18 | Kazistuta | 530 | ||
| 20 | Vladimir | 521 | ||
| 21 | RoteLaterne | 511 | ||
| 22 | LukasCPH | 492 | ||
| 23 | Skidmark | 477 | ||
| 24 | AmisVelo | 455 | ||
| 25 | Madrazo | 447 | ||
| 26 | Nyssinator | 437 | ||
| 27 | Fivezzz | 433 | ||
| 28 | JonEzeitza | 431 | ||
| 29 | Rufs | 415 | ||
| 30 | Jakob747 | 413 | ||
| 31 | Comodoro | 407 | ||
| 32 | JPettersen | 391 | ||
| 33 | Josedin | 379 | ||
| 34 | Scrooll07 | 351 | ||
| 35 | MuddyWaters | 286 | ||
| 36 | Armchair_Cyclist | 274 | ||
| 37 | Koronin | 229 | ||
| CollectiveWisdom | 708 | |||
| CollectiveIgnorance | 511 | |||
| MainGame2021 | 396 |
Standings
And so the game that has been most predictable for longest comes to its inevitable conclusion. SafeBet has been in the lead since June 2021, and has been top on at least 7 of the monthly updates. Cordi, winner of the 2020-22 edition in a very different race, has had almost as clear a grip on second place for almost as long, and Greenedge makes sure that the peloton are a long way clear of the rest.
1 | SafeBet | 20191 | 0 |
2 | Cordi | 18761 | 0 |
3 | Greenedge | 17861 | 0 |
4 | AmisVelo | 16601 | 0 |
5 | Leadbelly | 16556 | 2 |
6 | Bminchow | 16525 | -1 |
7 | LosBrolin | 16454 | -1 |
8 | RoteLaterne | 16216 | 0 |
9 | Ludwigzgz | 16155 | 0 |
10 | Nakazar | 15369 | 0 |
11 | Squire | 15364 | 0 |
12 | YellowKnight | 14847 | 2 |
13 | JPettersen | 14742 | -1 |
14 | Northerner | 14566 | 3 |
15 | Rufs | 14557 | -2 |
16 | Ray10 | 14501 | -1 |
17 | Kryvo | 14478 | -1 |
18 | Madrazo | 13726 | 1 |
19 | MuddyWaters | 13641 | -1 |
20 | Otoxiep87 | 13572 | 0 |
21 | Blues_in_the_Bottle | 13442 | 0 |
22 | Karaev | 13038 | 3 |
23 | HugoKoblet | 13010 | -1 |
24 | Laarsland | 12862 | 2 |
25 | Kazistuta | 12791 | -1 |
26 | Nyssinator | 12772 | -3 |
27 | Fivezzz | 12425 | 0 |
28 | LukasCPH | 12391 | 0 |
29 | Skidmark | 12241 | 0 |
30 | JonEzeitza | 11907 | 0 |
31 | Jakob747 | 11513 | 0 |
32 | Comodoro | 11009 | 0 |
33 | Armchair_Cyclist | 10642 | 0 |
34 | Vladimir | 10155 | 0 |
35 | Scrooll07 | 9797 | 0 |
36 | Josedin | 7283 | 1 |
37 | Koronin | 7189 | -1 |
| CollectiveWisdom | 18512 | ||
| CollectiveIgnorance | 20089 | ||
| MainGame2021 | 12537 |
The real battle for some time has been between SafeBet and the Collective Wisdom team, and despite strong contributions from Zana and Johannessen in the final weeks, SafeBet wins that one narrowly (a puncture for Van Wilder in his late Tre Valli attack, for example, would have been enough to reverse it). Had it not been for unique picks by Leadbelly (De Lie) and JPettersen (Skjelmose and Burgudeau), the CI team would have scored just short of 25000.
Full number crunching when the end of year modifications are done, but congratulations to Safe Bet, Cordi and Greenedge, and thanks to all who competed.
And when one game finishes, it must be time to start shortlisting for the next: how's that going for you all.
Gracias for the updates ciclista de sillón
My shortlist is quite done, already have my final 18 lads decided. Although maybe could change something at the bottom of the list between now & sending the team in january.
Congratulations SafeBet, impressive consistency at the top for Cordi333 and as always a big thank you to AC.
Year 3, Months 11 to 12
Last year the game came to a very exciting end, with the lead changing hands several times in the last few events.
This year, not so much.
Laurens Huys got bumped up from 11th to 10th in a Giro stage because of Baudin's Tramadol use, gaining a single point for Leadbelly;
Bryan Obando came 6th in the Vuelta a Costa Rica, and had a stage third in both that race and its Guatemalan equivalent, garnering 9 points for Jakob747
But Juan Alba won that Costa Rican event, and with an additional 2 points from Guatemala brought in a final contribution to the scores of both Josedin and Muddy Waters.
None of these overturned SafeBet's huge lead, or even the gaps between any of these teams and those immediately above them.
So the scoring has finished, the scores are confirmed, and only the post mortems remain.
And 46 of the 121 riders we picked still have a low enough career total of CQ points to be selected again for the 2024-26 game. But you can probably make better picks than that.
Last year the game came to a very exciting end, with the lead changing hands several times in the last few events.
This year, not so much.
Laurens Huys got bumped up from 11th to 10th in a Giro stage because of Baudin's Tramadol use, gaining a single point for Leadbelly;
Bryan Obando came 6th in the Vuelta a Costa Rica, and had a stage third in both that race and its Guatemalan equivalent, garnering 9 points for Jakob747
But Juan Alba won that Costa Rican event, and with an additional 2 points from Guatemala brought in a final contribution to the scores of both Josedin and Muddy Waters.
None of these overturned SafeBet's huge lead, or even the gaps between any of these teams and those immediately above them.
So the scoring has finished, the scores are confirmed, and only the post mortems remain.
And 46 of the 121 riders we picked still have a low enough career total of CQ points to be selected again for the 2024-26 game. But you can probably make better picks than that.
The final analysis
The best team if it were all about year 3
with a total for the year of 17206
Real game managers do not have such perfect future vision though: the points accumulated in 2023 were:
Through the whole three years, the perfect team would have been:
The final spot here could equally have been taken by the unpicked Kevin Vauquelin, but that would have just made our guesswork look worse
The total is hugely higher than any previous iteration of the game, at 31142: there are 26 riders who broke the 1000 points (VANSEVENANT Mauri, LAFAY Victor, LOUVEL Matis, VAN GILS Maxim, COVI Alessandro, BURGAUDEAU Mathieu and WAERENSKJOLD Søren in addition to those already named): the previous high was 20 in a year reaching 4 digits, and the low is 7.
The total for the best possible team is 31142, nearly 10 thousand higher than last year's bunch and over 2 thousand higher than any other year. But that record could be smashed next year: the Year 2 total for that group (which includes some of these riders) is 2700 higher than these were a year ago.
And the record breaking continues in SafeBet's total, with the first score to surpass 20k, an increase of 879 on the highest previously, and a winning margin of 1430 narrowly beating that held by Madrazo in 2017. 64.8% of perfection is a slight improvement of his position at the end of Years 1 and 2, but some way of the historical bests.
And SafeBet saved the ignominy of those none of us picked being the best team of all: of course that team has the advantage of not having any total failures in it (take a bow if you picked zero point scorers Marti Vigo del Arco or Oscar Galvis).
The moral from this edition of the game, if you are preparing for the 2024-26 cycle (and the only valid excuse for not being preparing is that you have already done it) is not to be swung by hype: three riders shared the "honour" of being the most popular pick: Kooij, right up near the top of the scoring, Arensman, a top contributor to any team, but also Marco Brenner, the "Will he be better than Evenepoel" wunderkind who has only just made himself ineligible for the new edition with 220 points. While the two top scorers, De Lie and Skjelmose, were scarcely noticed 3 years ago, became inspired unique picks and are now in the Hall of Fame of the game as the 10th and 11th men to top 3000.
All the numbers
The best team if it were all about year 3
| SKJELMOSE JENSEN Mattias | 1723 | 1 |
| DE LIE Arnaud | 1715 | 1 |
| KOOIJ Olav | 1412 | 29 |
| HEALY Ben | 1088 | 0 |
| AYUSO PESQUERA Juan | 1023 | 15 |
| GALL Felix | 967 | 0 |
| JORGENSON Matteo | 936 | 17 |
| VAN WILDER Ilan | 933 | 25 |
| ZINGLE Axel | 880 | 0 |
| RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos | 810 | 13 |
| GREGOIRE Romain | 784 | 0 |
| BUITRAGO SANCHEZ Santiago | 770 | 6 |
| WAERENSKJOLD Søren | 756 | 2 |
| RUBIO REYES Einer Augusto | 754 | 13 |
| JOHANNESSEN Tobias Halland | 737 | 0 |
| SCHMID Mauro | 646 | 0 |
| VAN GILS Maxim | 636 | 7 |
| WELSFORD Sam | 636 | 0 |
with a total for the year of 17206
Real game managers do not have such perfect future vision though: the points accumulated in 2023 were:
| Points during 2023 | Change in rank 2022-23 | |
| SafeBet | 9180 | 0 |
| Cordi | 8649 | 0 |
| LosBrolin | 8185 | 6 |
| Leadbelly | 8166 | 6 |
| Greenedge | 7844 | 0 |
| YellowKnight | 7331 | 11 |
| AmisVelo | 7319 | 1 |
| Bminchow | 7161 | -2 |
| Ludwigzgz | 7098 | -2 |
| Nakazar | 7062 | 2 |
| RoteLaterne | 6984 | -2 |
| Northerner | 6970 | 7 |
| Squire | 6854 | -2 |
| Otoxiep87 | 6727 | 9 |
| Rufs | 6723 | 4 |
| JPettersen | 6524 | 1 |
| Ray10 | 6434 | 1 |
| Laarsland | 6223 | 6 |
| Kryvo | 5965 | -9 |
| Karaev | 5792 | 5 |
| Madrazo | 5578 | -3 |
| Blues_in_the_Bottle | 5434 | -3 |
| Kazistuta | 5411 | 0 |
| HugoKoblet | 5332 | -3 |
| Jakob747 | 5297 | 1 |
| MuddyWaters | 5248 | -9 |
| LukasCPH | 5065 | -2 |
| Skidmark | 5019 | -1 |
| Fivezzz | 4950 | -3 |
| Vladimir | 4919 | 1 |
| Nyssinator | 4671 | -10 |
| Armchair_Cyclist | 4624 | 0 |
| Comodoro | 4446 | -1 |
| JonEzeitza | 4324 | -8 |
| Scrooll07 | 3860 | -1 |
| Josedin | 3186 | 0 |
| Koronin | 3082 | 0 |
| CollectiveWisdom | 8407 | |
| CollectiveIgnorance | 11262 | |
| MainGame2021 | 5775 |
Through the whole three years, the perfect team would have been:
| DE LIE Arnaud | 3211 | 1 team |
| SKJELMOSE JENSEN Mattias | 3011 | 1 |
| KOOIJ Olav | 2629 | 29 |
| AYUSO PESQUERA Juan | 2205 | 15 |
| RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos | 2204 | 13 |
| ZINGLE Axel | 1745 | 0 |
| JORGENSON Matteo | 1475 | 17 |
| BUITRAGO SANCHEZ Santiago | 1461 | 6 |
| ZANA Filippo | 1460 | 0 |
| SCHMID Mauro | 1458 | 0 |
| JOHANNESSEN Tobias Halland | 1436 | 0 |
| ARENSMAN Thymen | 1416 | 29 |
| VAN WILDER Ilan | 1302 | 25 |
| HEALY Ben | 1288 | 0 |
| GALL Felix | 1245 | 0 |
| SHEFFIELD Magnus | 1213 | 11 |
| VINE Jay | 1192 | 0 |
| RUBIO REYES Einer Augusto | 1191 | 13 |
The total is hugely higher than any previous iteration of the game, at 31142: there are 26 riders who broke the 1000 points (VANSEVENANT Mauri, LAFAY Victor, LOUVEL Matis, VAN GILS Maxim, COVI Alessandro, BURGAUDEAU Mathieu and WAERENSKJOLD Søren in addition to those already named): the previous high was 20 in a year reaching 4 digits, and the low is 7.
The total for the best possible team is 31142, nearly 10 thousand higher than last year's bunch and over 2 thousand higher than any other year. But that record could be smashed next year: the Year 2 total for that group (which includes some of these riders) is 2700 higher than these were a year ago.
And the record breaking continues in SafeBet's total, with the first score to surpass 20k, an increase of 879 on the highest previously, and a winning margin of 1430 narrowly beating that held by Madrazo in 2017. 64.8% of perfection is a slight improvement of his position at the end of Years 1 and 2, but some way of the historical bests.
And SafeBet saved the ignominy of those none of us picked being the best team of all: of course that team has the advantage of not having any total failures in it (take a bow if you picked zero point scorers Marti Vigo del Arco or Oscar Galvis).
The moral from this edition of the game, if you are preparing for the 2024-26 cycle (and the only valid excuse for not being preparing is that you have already done it) is not to be swung by hype: three riders shared the "honour" of being the most popular pick: Kooij, right up near the top of the scoring, Arensman, a top contributor to any team, but also Marco Brenner, the "Will he be better than Evenepoel" wunderkind who has only just made himself ineligible for the new edition with 220 points. While the two top scorers, De Lie and Skjelmose, were scarcely noticed 3 years ago, became inspired unique picks and are now in the Hall of Fame of the game as the 10th and 11th men to top 3000.
All the numbers
One final bit of data from my accumulated history of the game file:
Average scores (excluding games still in progress) for those who took part in at least half of the completed editions
There are 9* teams there that have been with me in this from the start: thanks for your loyalty. That means it is 10 years since we first started this experiment of wondering who will break through eventually.
The Collective Wisdom group that year was:
who have had a widely varied career arcs since we invested our hopes in them. Andrea Zordan is still eligible if any of the 18 managers who took a chance on him back then still back their judgement.
Three years later, we discovered that the best 18 we could have picked were
Those with an asterisk were still eligible for the following edition. Interesting to see that even among those who were top breakthroughs, the sustaining of that was another matter. At least two of them saw the peak of their careers within their time in the game.
*: edited to include RL
Average scores (excluding games still in progress) for those who took part in at least half of the completed editions
1 | Cordi | 5 | 15753 |
2 | Squire | 5 | 15280 |
3 | HugoKoblet | 6 | 14708 |
4 | GPBlanco | 4 | 14409 |
5 | Skidmark | 8 | 14143 |
6 | Hilltop_Finisher | 4 | 14090 |
7 | Jakob747 | 5 | 13945 |
8 | Ludwigzgz | 8 | 13831 |
9 | Kryvo | 4 | 13829 |
10 | AmisVelo | 6 | 13791 |
11 | Madrazo | 8 | 13633 |
12 | Flo | 6 | 13597 |
13 | Blues_in_the_Bottle | 7 | 13247 |
14 | Karaev | 7 | 12989 |
15 | Rote_Laterne | 8 | 12759 |
16 | Kazistuta | 8 | 12734 |
17 | Joelsim | 6 | 12720 |
18 | Laarsland | 6 | 12615 |
19 | Del1962 | 6 | 12394 |
20 | Alykaptan | 5 | 12390 |
21 | Armchair_Cyclist | 8 | 11977 |
22 | Vladimir | 8 | 11878 |
23 | Comodoro | 8 | 11724 |
24 | LukasCPH | 6 | 11708 |
25 | DJW | 4 | 11530 |
26 | Jon Ezeitza | 4 | 11133 |
27 | Leadbelly | 8 | 10315 |
28 | Scrooll07 | 7 | 10115 |
29 | Josedin | 8 | 9796 |
| Collective Wisdom | 8 | 15060 | |
| Collective Ignorance | 8 | 16203 |
There are 9* teams there that have been with me in this from the start: thanks for your loyalty. That means it is 10 years since we first started this experiment of wondering who will break through eventually.
The Collective Wisdom group that year was:
| EWAN Caleb |
| YATES Simon |
| MOHORIC Matej |
| STUYVEN Jasper |
| ALAPHILIPPE Julian |
| HERKLOTZ Silvio |
| HOWSON Damien |
| YATES Adam |
| ZABEL Rick |
| SENECHAL Florian |
| HEPBURN Michael |
| EDMONDSON Joshua |
| FORMOLO Davide |
| KUDUS Merhawi Gebremedhin |
| ZORDAN Andrea |
| HANSEN Lasse Norman |
| HENAO GOMEZ Sebastian |
| LUDVIGSSON Fredrik |
who have had a widely varied career arcs since we invested our hopes in them. Andrea Zordan is still eligible if any of the 18 managers who took a chance on him back then still back their judgement.
Three years later, we discovered that the best 18 we could have picked were
| ALAPHILIPPE Julian | 2335 | 35 |
| YATES Adam | 1950 | 27 |
| THEUNS Edward | 1696 | 0 |
| BENOOT Tiesj | 1674 | 0 |
| VUILLERMOZ Alexis | 1493 | 1 |
| LAMPAERT Yves | 1462 | 3 |
| BONIFAZIO Niccolo | 1392 | 4 |
| FORMOLO Davide | 1385 | 18 |
| YATES Simon | 1371 | 42 |
| VAKOC Petr | 1370 | 6 |
| EWAN Caleb | 1363 | 44 |
| NAESEN Oliver* | 1300 | 0 |
| JANS Roy | 1261 | 1 |
| VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael | 1247 | 13 |
| ROGLIC Primoz* | 1174 | 0 |
| LATOUR Pierre* | 1169 | 4 |
| LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel* | 1129 | 0 |
| CORT NIELSEN Magnus | 1101 | 9 |
Those with an asterisk were still eligible for the following edition. Interesting to see that even among those who were top breakthroughs, the sustaining of that was another matter. At least two of them saw the peak of their careers within their time in the game.
*: edited to include RL
Last edited:
I was not aware I missed an editon?
MVDP was a pretty bad pick too (for both years he was eligible).
MVDP was a pretty bad pick too (for both years he was eligible).
Apologies for that: I hadn't put this year's number in for you. Which was your best total, so moved you up 5 places in the average score table. Now corrected.
471 points in the 2015-17 cycle. I know he wasn't in the collective wisdom team, but otherwise couldn't tell you from the spreadsheet I have in front of me how popular a ick he was. He did come through later on though.
And because I looked one of them up... Van Aert was worth 1395 in the 2016-18 edition, the 6th highest scorer in that edition, but nobody had chosen him.
Having not taken part in the first few games, I think my 2nd on the average scores list is greatly helped by the youth revolution in recent years! I'd probably be lower down if you made a list where you averaged percentage of winning score per year or something similar.
Overall I'm loving the stats you churn out around these games. The 'slow' nature of them is probably one of the reasons why there isn't much frantic discussion happening in these threads, but your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Overall I'm loving the stats you churn out around these games. The 'slow' nature of them is probably one of the reasons why there isn't much frantic discussion happening in these threads, but your efforts are greatly appreciated.
I started competing here just the next year, but I think is understandable that Van der Poel & Van Aert weren't popular as - although nobody doubted their potential - they were focused on the cross back then and no one knew for sure when they were going to transition to the road (or even if they were going to do it at all).
Agree on the praises to the game, although I want to add that I think there was more "live" commenting in the VeloRooms forum (which now is lost) and now hopefully there will be more people commenting things here.
But about your first paragraph... I don't really see the trend you suggest, and also the covid didn't do any favours to the newcomers aggregate... Let's say simply that you and me are the best so far
, although it is true that the more difficult thing is always to keep consistency over the years and the more games you play, the more chances of having a bad year (in my case I don't think for a moment I'll keep in the future the record of 80% editions in the podium haha).By the way, as facts say more than words, here is the data of the podiums:
2014-16:
1 Ludwigzgz 16758
2 Skidmark 15657
3 MC_Mountain 15270
2015-17:
1 Madrazo 17158
2 Joelsim 15749
3 Jakob747 14214
2016-18:
1 Alykaptan 17160
2 Armchair_Cyclist 16273
3 Murrjt 16058
2017-19:
1 AmisVelo 19312
2 Cordi333 19224
3 Vladimir 19158
2018-20:
2019-21:
| 1 | Flo | 14938 | |||
| 2 | HugoKoblet | 14271 | |||
| 3 | Squire | 13845 |
| 1 | Cordi | 11624 | |
| 2 | JonEzeitza | 11576 | |
| 3 | SafeBet | 10773 |
Whether there has been a youth revolutionis probably better illiustrated by the best possible 18, rather than the best 18 that were picked:
The final year scores in 2020 (edition V) were not as suppressed by covid as might be thought, because there was a big effort to keep the bigger events, and by then the bigger scorers were focused on those events. It probably had more of a detrimental effect on cycle VI, when decent year 2 hauls were impacted.
The big difference between cohorts was comparing VII to VIII: the slightly older group didn't really get a rookie year of their own, so shared it with those following them. Of the 14 riders that had more than 1000 points at the end of 2022, seven were still in the game the following year. And the huge 2023 total benefits from De Lie and Skjelmose: no other year has had 2 as good as that.
So is there a youth revolution? I'd say the jury is out.
| I | 2014-16 | 25872 | |
| II | 2015-17 | 24677 | |
| III | 2016-18 | 26012 | |
| IV | 2017-19 | 29064 | |
| V | 2018-20 | 27571 | covid year 2020 was 3rd year |
| VI | 2019-21 | 21938 | covid year 2020 was 2nd year |
| VII | 2020-22 | 21437 | covid year 2020 was 1st year |
| VIII | 2021-23 | 31142 |
The final year scores in 2020 (edition V) were not as suppressed by covid as might be thought, because there was a big effort to keep the bigger events, and by then the bigger scorers were focused on those events. It probably had more of a detrimental effect on cycle VI, when decent year 2 hauls were impacted.
The big difference between cohorts was comparing VII to VIII: the slightly older group didn't really get a rookie year of their own, so shared it with those following them. Of the 14 riders that had more than 1000 points at the end of 2022, seven were still in the game the following year. And the huge 2023 total benefits from De Lie and Skjelmose: no other year has had 2 as good as that.
So is there a youth revolution? I'd say the jury is out.
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