Update #2: Dayer has his day, Petit comes up big as January action heats up
While last week was a lull after the initial thrill that comes with the start of the CQ points season, this week did not disappoint with many big names and popular/unique picks making their season debuts over three continents. The CQ crown jewel was, of course, the Tour Down Under, but with many big riders eschewing that race for the more relaxed and mountainous Tour de San Luis, the points on offer for that 2.1 race are highly valued. And of course the Tropicale Amissa Bongo offered 2.1 race points for riders on French PCT teams against a thinner talent field than many 2.1 races. Uber-popular pick Simon Gerrans got an almost-expected win down under, but some relatively rare riders scored big in the other races - the younger and cheaper Quintana brother (31 teams) took San Luis, while Adrien Petit (22 teams) gave credence to the theory that Cofidis is a horrible career purgatory that has no idea how to develop or use its talent, more than tripling his points from 2015 in his first race with his new team.
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 togo95 991
2 karaev 870
3 LukasCPH 803
4 will10 797
5 The_Instigator 770
Wow! Almost 1000 points in a week in January! (*I know I teased >1000 points upthread but I was mistakenly looking at the 'season' total, oops! Close enough). Team togo95 benefitted from having all 3 GC winners on their team, plus rare pick (6 teams) and TdU podium placer Jay McCarthy, as well as the more popular Columbians Gaviria and Lopez. 2nd place team karaev had the same 3 GC winners but no McCarthy, and 3rd place team LukasCPH (which, you may recall, has no Europeans) went a different route with Gerrans, but also unique pick Sergio Henao, and some decent points from Cam Meyer, Louis Meintjes, Yukiya Arashiro and Mark Renshaw.
This Week's High Movers
Rank Team Up/down
1 karaev (+37)
2 will10 (+35)
3 The_Instigator (+33)
4 the asian (+32)
5 Sasquatch (+30)
This early in the season there is of course a lot of jumbling around the table, and of course the entire top 5 here is in the top 7 points scorers of the week as well. Aside from karaev and will10, The Instigator, the asian and Sasquatch move up the table at this early juncture. I am not going to mention any team by name in an update for an ignominious feat, but there are certainly some teams with extremely precipitous falls this week, due to the unstable nature of the early game.
Top 10 Overall
Rank Team Points
1 togo95 1056
2 karaev 900
3 LukasCPH 893
4 will10 827
5 snccdcno 808
6 The_Instigator 800
7 the asian 795
8 JosephD 792
9 Roar Like A Mouse 777
9 Sasquatch 777
Certainly, with not many points on offer in the opening week, the overall table looks much like the weekly table. Only three teams that were in the top 10 in update 1 are in it for update 2. There will certainly be more bouncing about as the season moves on.
Speaking of which, this week switches it up in that there are several one-day races (the 4 traditional Mallorca stages, as well as the French opener GP Marseillaise and the 1-year-old Cadel race in Oz) but no stage races. Some points will be up for grabs, and then the layering of the season starts with stage races and 1-day races every week in February.
*note: I was hoping to do a green jersey and new KoM jersey update, but I realized I accidentally deleted the new tabs I had made for them, grr. They will follow later this week.
Spreadsheet at dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b20bvbpc1typyvc/CQ%202016%20update%202.xlsx?dl=0
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