| | Popularity score | Unique Picks |
1 | Skidmark | 472 | 0 |
2 | Fivezzz | 457 | 0 |
3 | DevilsElbow | 456 | 0 |
4 | Armchair_Cyclist | 448 | 1 |
5 | Cordi | 445 | 0 |
| | | |
Team similarity
The highest amount of overlap between 2 teams is 14, which happens between 13 pairs of teams.
The weird thing is that 8 of these 13 pairs include Skidmark: with Armchair Cyclist, Devil's Elbow, Fivezzz, Joelsim, Madrazo, Otoxiep87, SafeBet and Zipi Zapismo.
I am glad to learn that my team selection remains extremely on-brand, with first in the main game, 2nd in the Women's game, and first in this game for popularity.
It's so interesting - that has just always been how it is for my teams. But like, those three teams were created extremely differently. In the main game, I'm extremely rigorous - I make a long list of like 130 riders, I slowly go through various rounds of poking and prodding them from different angles (what's their team makeup and role? What kind of races are they riding? What are they/their coaches etc saying in interviews?), and revisit it multiple times until I can whittle it down to 33 eventually. But there's no real mystery or boutique quality to it - I don't ever think that I need a classics guy for balance or that I have too many riders of one nation or anything like that - I just want to pick the collection of individual riders I'm most confident about their probability of being a good pick for the game. And they end up being popular. Does that mean I have my finger on the pulse? That I'm boring? A little of both?
Then for this game, I'm usually squeezed for time with processing the main game so I usually start with the riders on my longlist that I selected for the main game, with the thinking that of course if I was confident in them this year I should also be for the 3-year. Then i fill with a hodgepodge of other riders I had my eyes on and marked as having less than 200 career points. And then for the women's game, I was like 'huh I dunno much about this' and threw together a team in an hour. But it all flows back to the same place in terms of popularity of riders on my teams. Does this mean I should skip the months-long process in the main game and just go with my gut? I bet 30 of my 33 riders would be the same if I did, or something along those lines. But I like the process I guess is really it. Helps me get hyped for the season and learn more about riders.
Anyway, some rambling musing - hope this year (and the next two) is fun for everyone, good luck!