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2022-2024 Emerging Riders CQ Game

Page 2 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Who did you consider, but omit, and you were surprised to see that he is not one of the 115 riders that someone else fancied? On those grounds, I will propose Sam Welsford (and perhaps those 4 from the Good in 2021 team) as likely to feature in Collective Ignorance. Who do you think will be there?
I put forward Niklas Märkl, Samuel Watson, Marco Frigo, Mattia Petrucci and Lennart Van Eetvelt as candidates for the collective ignorance team.
 
Odds and ends

If we were to rank the teams by the number of career points their riders had before the game starts (obviously less than 200 for each of them), we would have:

1RedheadDane
2610​
2LukasCPH
2507​
3Scrooll07
2294​
4RoteLaterne
2113​
5JonEzeitza
2011​
6Rufs
2006​
7Otoxiep87
1995​
8Del1962
1896​
9Repre
1880​
10Armchair_Cyclist
1879​
11Fivezzz
1859​
12Greenedge
1851​
13Salvarani
1846​
14DevilsElbow
1818​
15AmisVelo
1755​
16Madrazo
1752​
17SafeBet
1733​
18EdkDeus
1649​
19Squire
1618​
20Nakazar
1614​
21Bonimenier
1578​
22Kazistuta
1538​
23Bminchow
1513​
24Comodoro
1496​
25Cordi
1494​
26Skidmark
1467​
27Riverside
1447​
28Nathanptz
1392​
29Blues_in_the_Bottle
1386​
30LosBrolin
1385​
31JumboVismaFan
1353​
32Ray10
1272​
33Laarsland
1256​
34Josedin
1235​
35EvansIsTheBest
1227​
36Nyssinator
1111​
37Koronin
1029​
38Vladimir
1015​
39Berflamand
845​
40Leadbelly
731​
CollectiveWisdom
1630​
CollectiveIgnorance
0​
MainGame2022
1118​
Goodin2021
2969​

I'm not sure that that demonstrates much other than propensity to go for riders who have already established themselves a bit. No surprise that the Good in 21 team outscores everyone, something of a surprise that RHD and Lukas get as close to that score as they do. Leadbelly's score reflects his self imposed handicap of only having riders with a maximum pre-game career of 100 rather than 200.

Inter Forum Challenge
Eight of our players represent (by virtue of submitting their teams there) Team VeloRooms: AmisVelo, Cordi, Josedin, Leadbelly, LukasCPH, Otoxiep87, RoteLaterne and Scrooll07
Everyone else (apart from me: strictly neutral of course) is on the CN Forum team (31 of you).
Inter-forum rivalry is determined by mean average score.

Last year we had a group who additionally represented Equipo Parliamento Ciclismo, of whom I think only 4 remain (Cordi, Comodoro, Jon E and Josedin: have I got that right?) I can include them again, but are there any other Spanish/Iberian players who would like that team expanded to include them? Anyone else think they can claim a group identity with a minimum of say 5 from the entrants to put up an average score? Scandis? Anyone other than myself and (I assume) Del old enough for a "Rebellin is a youngster" team? Have we ever identified a large contingent of any particular profession on the boards? And collectivity you care to propose, put it up here and if you can get a group of at least 5 and I'll include them. You will still be on your forum's panel, and you can be in more than one group, but even if your team turns out to be a flop, it will give you something to cheer for.

Team similarity
Obviously the higher popularity teams are the ones most similar to any other team, but the maximum co-incidence in selection is 13 (Amis Velo and Bminchow, the two most popular teams) but also Rufs and Scrool07.
There are also several overlaps of 12 riders:
Amis Velo with Armchair, Bonimenier and Fivezzz
Bminchow with Fivezzz and Skidmark
Devil's Elbow with Squire
Madrazo with Squire

In terms of similarity with Collective Wisdom, Bminchow and Amis Velo each have 15, then Cordi (14), Skidmark (13, also the Main Game selection) and Fivezzz and Squire (12 each).

Despite omitting Ayuso, Leadbelly and Koronin manage to find some common ground with everyone else, even each other (they share Akessandro Verre, also picked by Riverside) except that Leadbelly and Redhead Dane find no common interest at all: their teams are totally mutually exclusive.

Amis Velo, Cordi and Squire draw equally on the Main game team, with 12: Redhead Dane has just 1.
Lukas has 9 of the 'Good in 2021' team: no-one else has more than 6 of them (Leadbelly, for reasons already pointed out, has none).

There is a tab on the spreadsheet to show your similarity to other teams.

Current standings
Other than new Aussie champ Plapp (100 pts, 30 teams), I believe the only other selected rider off the mark is Laurence Pithie (17 points from NZ Classic, 5 teams), which would mean that we have 4 joint leaders (Devil's Elbow, Los Brolin, Nakazar and SafeBet), with Comodoro in 31st place.

Spreadsheet
Unless Google does something unexpected, the spreadsheet should remain here indefinitely. See what else you can discover in it!

I aim to do updates early each month, life (and other CQ games) sometimes interferes with that. I don't always include the link to the spreadsheet when I post them, but you know where to find it now.

You are locked in for three long years now: enjoy the unveiling of heroes and the dismemberment of dreams.
 
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Im mostly surpriced Vernon has been getting picked so much. Surely he is a solid talent, but for me I just quickly cut him, feeling he would be used as a helper/leadoutrider with Quick-Step, with so many faster than him, and with his skills well suited for leadouts (someone similar but still a bit better, like Steimle had not been getting that much points with them for instance, but perhaps I underestimate him. Quick Step surely has had good succes with many young guys, so its always a danger to leave out their Neos in this game, even if someone like Garison was a flop.
With Bennett and Hodeg gone, and Cavendish likely at the tail end of his career, it seems that there will be more opportunities for the young sprinters at the team. Vernon has been really impressive on the track. It wouldn't surprise me if by the end of the season he'll already get his chances in the smaller Belgian 1 day races or so.
 
Charmig seems very promising.

He used to be very good at the juniors level beating and racing against riders that have since established themselves as pros, but he hasnt managed to take the next step. Mainly because he suffered health problems and was even out of the sport for 1,5 year. Finished 2nd in the European U23 RR in 2020 coming back.

Hopefully he will be a late bloomer. 6th in Turkey, 2nd Alpes Isere Tour and 7th in Tour of Denmark were some good results last season. Now stepping up to UNO-X pro team after having spent a year with their development team.
 
It seems I majorly *** up and managed to put Stan van Tricht twice. Can I please change the second of those to Umba instead? Sorry and no hard feelings if not.
I should have spotted that, although there is nothing in the spreadsheet to draw my attention to it if it happens. Maybe someone who knows Excel other than by trial and error can direct me to such an instruction. Found it: in future I will post entry submissions into a page formatted with conditional formatting to highlight duplicates.

But I have no objection, and have made the change. Any appeals against it?
 
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I should have spotted that, although there is nothing in the spreadsheet to draw my attention to it if it happens. Maybe someone who knows Excel other than by trial and error can direct me to such an instruction. Found it: in future I will post entry submissions into a page formatted with conditional formatting to highlight duplicates.

But I have no objection, and have made the change. Any appeals against it?

i have a batch of spreadsheets I re-use every year for this, the main CQ-game, FirstCycling, Rivals Managers etc. Each and every of these have conditional formatting to highlight duplicates, but apparently not this one.
 
Thank you for helping me discover it: there are other things I'll use it for now that I have found it (beats listing everything alphabetically in column A, and having =if(a2=a3, "ERROR","") all the way down column B like I have elsewhere)

Could you (or someone) please confirm that the spreadsheet opens: I am told that it was not on the "Anyone with the link can view" setting? I know it's not editable (other than by me) as it is, but can others download it and edit it locally on their own devices?
 
With Bennett and Hodeg gone, and Cavendish likely at the tail end of his career, it seems that there will be more opportunities for the young sprinters at the team. Vernon has been really impressive on the track. It wouldn't surprise me if by the end of the season he'll already get his chances in the smaller Belgian 1 day races or so.

Its definetly not impossible that he will get such chances and I must also admit I havent followed his track-results much so I have likely rated him too low.

Still when Cavendish likely leaves next year, Jakobsen and Ballerini should fill the 2 topspots, so the interesting thing will be what role he will get compared to riders like Steimle and Senechal, where I would think they have the best chance now, but he could definetly end up as the third choise then. Mostly I just compared him a lot with Steimle in his skillset and felt he would likely get a similar role as he has had the last years and that he would also start behind him in the hierachy now, but he can definetly surprise and even if he just does as Steimle has done, he wouldn't be a bad pick, just a bit mediocre, so he is a solid pick with a chance to be quite good .
 
He used to be very good at the juniors level beating and racing against riders that have since established themselves as pros, but he hasnt managed to take the next step. Mainly because he suffered health problems and was even out of the sport for 1,5 year. Finished 2nd in the European U23 RR in 2020 coming back.

Hopefully he will be a late bloomer. 6th in Turkey, 2nd Alpes Isere Tour and 7th in Tour of Denmark were some good results last season. Now stepping up to UNO-X pro team after having spent a year with their development team.

Yes I was quite impressed with him in both Turkey and also in the Tour Of Denmark, and he seems like a rider with a huge unforfilled potential also. But it will also be interesting to see how good a team UnoX will be for a rider like him CQ-wise.
 
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I did consider Ayuso and will likely regret leaving him off my team. Why am I not surprised that RedHeadDane and I have the most unique picks.

As a note with one of my unique picks: One of the main reasons I included Iñigo Elosegui on both this and the main team besides believing in him, is that I've gotten to know him a bit through social media. During the Covid lock down he engaged everyone following (most of whom at that time were his real life friends, but he knew he also had some fans following him) in a quest for everyone to get to know each other better. Since then he tries to engage those who respond to posts he makes. Last year he had a tough year with illness and injury and is really looking forward to this season. He has a passion for the sport. So in that sense he's a heart pick for this game.
 
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Its definetly not impossible that he will get such chances and I must also admit I havent followed his track-results much so I have likely rated him too low.

Still when Cavendish likely leaves next year, Jakobsen and Ballerini should fill the 2 topspots, so the interesting thing will be what role he will get compared to riders like Steimle and Senechal, where I would think they have the best chance now, but he could definetly end up as the third choise then. Mostly I just compared him a lot with Steimle in his skillset and felt he would likely get a similar role as he has had the last years and that he would also start behind him in the hierachy now, but he can definetly surprise and even if he just does as Steimle has done, he wouldn't be a bad pick, just a bit mediocre, so he is a solid pick with a chance to be quite good .


Imo Vernon isn't similar to Steimle. He's much faster. He's not going to Quick Step as a lead out man but as a future main sprinter. He'll learn the ropes and quickly will go for victories. He's unseen by some because of little road schedule due to track and covid, but I believe he's one of the best sprinters of his generation.

Other in which I believe a lot is Campbell Stewart, coming from the track with a great record.
 
Imo Vernon isn't similar to Steimle. He's much faster. He's not going to Quick Step as a lead out man but as a future main sprinter. He'll learn the ropes and quickly will go for victories. He's unseen by some because of little road schedule due to track and covid, but I believe he's one of the best sprinters of his generation.

Other in which I believe a lot is Campbell Stewart, coming from the track with a great record.
Campbell Stewart was signed specifically to be part of Kaden Groves' sprint train, don't think he'll get many chances to race for himself the next seasons.
 
Campbell Stewart was signed specifically to be part of Kaden Groves' sprint train, don't think he'll get many chances to race for himself the next seasons.

Maybe you're right, as I didn't find any comments about what idea have the aussies about Stewart. But I believe he eventually can surpass Groves, who I don't see making the difference in his first two seasons as a pro. I think Campebell can become the second card of the team after Groenewegen.
 
Maybe you're right, as I didn't find any comments about what idea have the aussies about Stewart. But I believe he eventually can surpass Groves, who I don't see making the difference in his first two seasons as a pro. I think Campebell can become the second card of the team after Groenewegen.
"We have a mix of young talent and experienced hands coming into the team next year,” White continued. “With two young world class track riders in Kelland O’Brien and Campbell Stewart, we will be transitioning them across to the WorldTour road ranks and they were specifically brought in to work with Kaden Groves, our developing sprint star. To have a young, developing sprint train around Kaden consistently, with riders of a similar age that can learn and win together, it is an area which we see as a great opportunity for us to gain wins in 2022."

Original article
 
I might have done a bit of a mistake in picking the wrong new-comer to the sport: Zwiehoff over Romo.

I think I dismissed Romo's Settimana Coppi e Bartali as a rather random result in a small race, but looking at it, he was up there with some serious names. I was lured by Zwiehoff's consistency in big races in his first season as a road cyclist, like 26th in both UAE Tour and Romandie, along with a completed Vuelta. But to go from that to some serious point scoring positions might be quite a big leap. I now think Romo has way more potential.
 
I might have done a bit of a mistake in picking the wrong new-comer to the sport: Zwiehoff over Romo.

I think I dismissed Romo's Settimana Coppi e Bartali as a rather random result in a small race, but looking at it, he was up there with some serious names. I was lured by Zwiehoff's consistency in big races in his first season as a road cyclist, like 26th in both UAE Tour and Romandie, along with a completed Vuelta. But to go from that to some serious point scoring positions might be quite a big leap. I now think Romo has way more potential.

He is off to a good start at least... Zwiehoff.

In other news, Wandahl becomes the first rider on my team to score 7 points with a 14th place in Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana.
 
Year 1 Month 1 to 30th January

14 of our chosen riders (and 65 others who were eligible) have scored points, led by wins for Plapp (100 pts, 30 teams) and De Lie (80 pts, 24 teams)

Other major early scorers mentioned alongside their pickers:
1​
Greenedge239Gall & Gummestad
2​
Squire208Zwiehoff
3​
Nakazar207Pithie & Hoole
4​
Rufs200Penalver and Hoole
5​
DevilsElbow197Pithie
5​
LosBrolin197 "
5​
SafeBet197 "
8​
Laarsland195Gudmestad
8​
Nyssinator195 "
10​
Berflamand190Hoole
10​
Bonimenier190 "
10​
Kazistuta190 "
10​
Scrooll07190 "
14​
AmisVelo180
14​
Bminchow180
14​
Cordi180
14​
Fivezzz180
14​
JumboVismaFan180
14​
Madrazo180
14​
Nathanptz180
14​
Ray10180
22​
Armchair_Cyclist132Colnaghi
23​
Riverside113
24​
Del1962110
24​
Josedin110
26​
Otoxiep87105
27​
Blues_in_the_Bottle100
27​
LukasCPH100
27​
Repre100
27​
RoteLaterne100
31​
Koronin93
32​
Salvarani87
33​
Skidmark80
34​
Comodoro17
35​
JonEzeitza10
36​
EdkDeus0
36​
EvansIsTheBest0
36​
Leadbelly0
36​
RedheadDane0
36​
Vladimir0
CollectiveWisdom180
CollectiveIgnorance524
MainGame2022180
Goodin20215
Two members of Collective Ignorance (James Whelan and Joel Suter) have already put themselves out of contention for next year's edition.

Flashes in the pan or showing what to expect? We'll see.

At least it gives me a chance to check the spreadsheet
 

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