Update #5: the asian scores a continent of points; trackstand waits for the right moment and sprints to first
February has begun, and things are getting serious, CQ-points-wise. With two of the most popular picks in Cavendish and Ewan scoring some good points in their respective races the points were always going to be high, but the winner scoring almost 700 points in a week in early February is quite impressive. 29 teams had over 500 points this week; to give some perspective, last week's leader had just over 1100 points cumulative. Needless to say, there are some changes.
With five continents hosting races with a decent chunk of CQ points this week (African and Colombian championships, Besseges in Europe, Dubai in Asia, HST in Oz), it's fitting that our weekly leader's name suggests an entire continent unto itself. the asian takes top spot by the nearest of margins - there were several teams who had the big winners from all 3 stage races (Meyer, Cav, Jungels), but the asian decided to pick Uran as well, who scored 90 points from the nationals. Second place Ceramiche_Cauz went a different route with Degenkolb instead of Meyer, and finished a mere 2 points back of the weekly win.
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank	Team	Points this week
1	the asian	674
2	Ceramiche_Cauz	672
3	Tuarts	646
4	Jancouver	629
5	ironted	625
In the realm of High Movers, the top 2 also take the cake, with the asian moving a ludicrous 82 places up the standings. All in all, there was a lot of movement, with 28 teams moving up more than 20 points, and 29 teams moving downward at least that much.
This Week's High Movers
Rank	Team	Up/down
1	the asian	(+82)
2	Ceramiche_Cauz	(+63)
3	uspostal	(+59)
4	ironted	(+56)
5	Tuarts	(+52)
I never came back to the Green Jersey competition last week, sorry guys. In short, the contest is a mix of top overall contenders and opportunists who score high in a given week, which was as I had hoped to begin with. Zam won last week and got 45 points, as the asian did this week. Of our 5 weekly winners, only the week 1 co-winners of kjellus and ingsve have gotten more points since, but it's Object with a 2nd and 5th so far that is in the lead. As of now, there are 72 teams who have scored at least a point.
Points Competition Totals
Rank	Team	Points
1	Object	57
2	ingsve	55
3	trackstand	48
4	Kjellus	47
5	Zam_Olyas	45
5	the asian	45
5	Ferminal	45
5	Vesica	45
9	Ceramiche_Cauz	42
10	jeroenk	41
In the overall, Vesica's reign at the top comes crashing down to earth with the same 'live by the unique pick, die by not having enough popular picks' credo that brought Zam to the top of the weekly charts last week. After reaching the top due to the savvy pick of Dennis but also the unique pick of Dumoulin, Vesica drops to 8th due to not having Cavendish. It's fitting that, on the weekend of Dennis' hour record on the track, one of his beneficiaries in this game is named trackstand. After hanging around the podium for a few weeks, this week was enough to convincingly separate himself from the pack, nursing a lead of nearly 100 points.
Top 10 Overall
Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(+2)	trackstand	1579
2	(+4)	PeterB	1487
3	(+1)	Armchair cyclist	1473
4	(-2)	Object	1456
5	(+5)	theyoungest	1435
6	(+2)	Roderick	1432
7	(+2)	Blues in the bottle	1404
8	(-1)	ansimi	1386
9	(-8)	Vesica	1343
10	(+5)	Geraint Too Fast	1323
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