2025 Spring Classics CQ game

[Samu Cuenca]

I would never mock you for leading a game!
People... do that? Like "Nanananaaa, Samu's leading a game. Neenee."

But you will apparently edit a quote.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Congratulations to Devil's Elbow for winning, and a huge thank you to Armchair for hosting.

I've gotten used to being mocked every time I've lead a game on here, including my own ones, so I naturally expected to also get mugged in the green standings before the end. Some of my riders didn't contribute much, if anything, to my score, but Barré, Ganna and Healy certainly did. I could never have done it without those guys.

By no means meaning to mock: just seemed odd that a team so low on the popularity ranking would have been so high in the overall for so long (and while Collective Wisdom was doing well)

I guess the key to the green rankings s to get rare picks who do well in the races where popular picks don't (Ganna for both of us, Healy and Barre for you, Nys for me) or to have a pair of riders that do well in the same events, that no-one else has picked together (Van Aert and Pidcock for Evans).

Yours (Samu's) was the team with most riders that scored nothing (5 of them), Evans managed second with 4 who drew a blank (but only one retired rider this year), the same as Josedin who ended in a very different part of the table. Only 9 of us picked a team full of scorers, and none of the podium.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Congrats then. Well deserved victory. I wonder if my initial plan of reviving the Van der Poel/Pidcock duo that won me the game in 2023 would have been enough to push me over the top but hindsight is always 20/20.

As a pair, they scored 320 less than last year, but they would have left 310 in the budget that could have purchased popular and successful picks Vermeersch, Bagioli, Tulett and Ballerini, and a few makeweights. Indeed, If Evans had replaced Van Aert and Morgado with Van der Poel and a 58 point makeweight, he would have won by a couple of hundred points.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

The final race in Frankfurt might not have had much impact on the game scores, but actually made a big difference to the combination that turned out to be the best possible selection:

	Price	Points	Popularity
MATTHEWS Michael	865​	506​	0​
POWLESS Neilson	691​	468​	0​
GANNA Filippo	644​	404​	2​
VERMEERSCH Florian	51​	279​	30​
TULETT Ben	27​	251​	14​
BAGIOLI Andrea	106​	245​	10​
EEKHOFF Nils	142​	196​	1​
DE BONDT Dries	147​	164​	1​
BALLERINI Davide	102​	159​	11​
THEUNS Edward	113​	154​	0​
LIVYNS Arjen	95​	135​	1​
PHILIPSEN Albert Withen	0​	73​	8​
	2983​	3034​	​

And while we were all beaten by the Collective Wisdom team, we were totally trounced by Collective Ignorance:

	Price	Points
MATTHEWS Michael	865​	506​
POWLESS Neilson	691​	468​
HOFSTETTER Hugo	275​	196​
MOLANO BENAVIDES Juan Sebastian	233​	185​
THEUNS Edward	113​	154​
BARRENETXEA GOLZARRI Jon	173​	136​
KUBIS Lukas	185​	133​
RUTSCH Jonas	158​	130​
PEDERSEN Casper	87​	123​
MOLENAAR Alex	94​	83​
BLIKRA Erlend Jordbrekk	81​	80​
JOHANNESSEN Anders Halland	40​	69​
	2995​	2263​

 

[Samu Cuenca]

By no means meaning to mock: just seemed odd that a team so low on the popularity ranking would have been so ååhigh in the overall for so long (and while Collective Wisdom was doing well)

I guess the key to the green rankings s to get rare picks who do well in the races where popular picks don't (Ganna for both of us, Healy and Barre for you, Nys for me) or to have a pair of riders that do well in the same events, that no-one else has picked together (Van Aert and Pidcock for Evans).

Yours (Samu's) was the team with most riders that scored nothing (5 of them), Evans managed second with 4 who drew a blank (but only one retired rider this year), the same as Josedin who ended in a very different part of the table. Only 9 of us picked a team full of scorers, and none of the podium.

This is the team I've spent the least amount of time picking. There can't possibly be anything to learn from that, right?

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Official congrats to @Devil's Elbow. Thanks to Armchair for organizing and providing all the fun statistical nuggets. I'll have forgotten by next year (and he might retire by then anyway) but Theuns always does deceptively well in this game.

 

[RedheadDane]

But you will apparently edit a quote.

I would NEVER!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I would NEVER!

Oh, you're right. When I looked back on my post, I only noticed I had written mugged the second time. You're allowed to Rees-Mogg me now.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Top scoring riders:

	picks	points	cost
POGACAR Tadej	0​	1447​	5332​
VAN DER POEL Mathieu	0​	925​	1614​
PEDERSEN Mads	0​	827​	1496​
VAN AERT Wout	19​	586​	1259​
MATTHEWS Michael	0​	506​	865​
POWLESS Neilson	0​	468​	691​
GANNA Filippo	2​	404​	644​
PIDCOCK Thomas	6​	396​	996​
HEALY Ben	1​	378​	637​
BENOOT Tiesj	3​	372​	578​
PHILIPSEN Jasper	0​	369​	2272​
SKJELMOSE JENSEN Mattias	0​	349​	1230​
NYS Thibau	2​	340​	702​
EVENEPOEL Remco	0​	299​	2843​
GREGOIRE Romain	0​	299​	840​
CORT NIELSEN Magnus	0​	289​	882​
AYUSO PESQUERA Juan	0​	284​	1276​
MERLIER Tim	0​	284​	1403​
VERMEERSCH Florian	30​	279​	51​
MILAN Jonathan	0​	276​	1204​
TULETT Ben	14​	251​	27​
BAGIOLI Andrea	10​	245​	106​
STUYVEN Jasper	1​	245​	486​
ARANBURU DEVA Alexander	0​	230​	906​
TEUNISSEN Mike	1​	226​	464​
VELASCO Simone	0​	220​	413​
KÜNG Stefan	0​	216​	940​
VERMEERSCH Gianni	0​	209​	418​

Riders with ten points or more profit: That's a selection of 24 races giving more than the whole of 2024.

	Points	Cost	teams	%age return
VERMEERSCH Florian	279​	51​	30​	547.1​
TULETT Ben	251​	27​	14​	929.6​
BAGIOLI Andrea	245​	106​	10​	231.1​
PHILIPSEN Albert Withen	73​	0​	8​	#DIV/0!​
BALLERINI Davide	159​	102​	11​	155.9​
EEKHOFF Nils	196​	142​	1​	138.0​
THEUNS Edward	154​	113​	0​	136.3​
LIVYNS Arjen	135​	95​	1​	142.1​
PEDERSEN Casper	123​	87​	0​	141.4​
JOHANNESSEN Anders Halland	69​	40​	0​	172.5​
GHYS Robbe	50​	30​	0​	166.7​
CHAMBERLAIN Oscar	20​	1​	3​	2000.0​
EPIS Giosué	25​	6​	1​	416.7​
DE BONDT Dries	164​	147​	1​	111.6​
TJØTTA Martin	17​	0​	0​	#DIV/0!​
DEMAN Brem	15​	0​	0​	#DIV/0!​
LOZOUET Léandre	20​	6​	0​	333.3​
RESELL Erik Nordsaeter	41​	29​	0​	141.4​
GIDDINGS Joshua	20​	9​	0​	222.2​
RENARD-HAQUIN Henri-François	15​	4​	0​	375.0​
RICKAERT Jonas	26​	15​	0​	173.3​
BRUNEL Alexys	10​	0​	2​	#DIV/0!​
GEENS Jonas	15​	5​	0​	300.0​

The 'Ooops List' (cost at least 500, yielded less than 100, and were selected)

	points	cost	teams
LAZKANO LOPEZ Oier	15​	503​	1​
CHRISTEN Jan	30​	547​	4​
PITHIE Laurence	73​	689​	1​
VACEK Mathias	28​	658​	4​
MOHORIC Matej	42​	734​	1​
NARVAEZ PRADO Jhonatan Manuel	20​	854​	2​

Impeccable picks (nobody cheaper scored more points)

VAN DER POEL Mathieu

PEDERSEN Mads

VAN AERT Wout

MATTHEWS Michael

POWLESS Neilson

GANNA Filippo

HEALY Ben

BENOOT Tiesj

VERMEERSCH Florian

TULETT Ben

PHILIPSEN Albert Withen

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Points yield from each race

PR	6921​	14.8 % of the total​
Ronde	4704​	10.1​
Omloop	3221​	6.9​
Brabantse	3172​	6.8​
Dwars	3037​	6.5​
Amstel	2971​	6.4​
LBL	2581​	5.5​
Denain	2207​	4.7​
Gent-Wev	1980​	4.2​
E3	1821​	3.9​
Strade	1760​	3.8​
Fleche	1610​	3.4​
Drome	1604​	3.4​
Koksijde	1551​	3.3​
MSR	1404​	3.0​
Mil-Tor	1108​	2.4​
Frankfurt	1035​	2.2​
GP Indurain	968​	2.1​
Laig	957​	2.1​
De Panne	809​	1.7​
Ardeche	770​	1.6​
Nokere	322​	0.7​
KBK	154​	0.3​
Schelde	15​	0.0*​

*: to 2 SF, 0.032%


Here's the spreadsheet Let us know if you find anything interesting.

 

[del1962]

I know he couldn’t pe picked but wouldn’t pog be an impeccable pick 😀

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I know he couldn’t pe picked but wouldn’t pog be an impeccable pick 😀

I didn't list him, because he couldn't be a pick. Impeccable pick means that there was nobody who scored more that you could have picked without paying more: Pogacar simply couldn't be a pick.