Update #33: Big week(s) sees Emericlabordure solidly claim leads in Green and Polka Dot Jersey comps
This update was a bit of a long time coming. First off, there was no Aug. 28 update from CQ so no game update came last week; then, this week they put up both Sept. 4th and Aug. 28th, but the Aug 28th update contained the same data as September 4th, even with races that took place afterwards! I didn't notice until I was writing an update, thought I made a mistake, then didn't have time to check it to make sure for a few days. So, pardon the long delay.
At any rate, this week's update covers 2 weeks of the Vuelta, the GP Plouay, and a few other HC races. Not a ton of shakeup in the overall, but the supplementary competitions get some solidification at the top.
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 Emericlabordure 785
2 Roubaix 690
3 jsem94 660
4 Geraint Too Fast 650
5 LosBrolin 644
You may be familiar with the name at the top of this list. For the fifth time this year, Emericlabordure gets the most points for a week of this game. With the three fastest French sprinters out there (Bouhanni, Coquard, Demare), this team was always bound to get points in clumps, and it has definitely shown over the course of this game. Throw in the ever-present, ever-popular Kittel, as well as Meersman, McLay and a few others, and it is no surprise this team is tops once again. Second place Roubaix goes a slightly different route, with Kittel and Demare and Meersman but also less popular picks like Simon Yates and David De La Cruz picking up solid points in the Vuelta - watch out for this team in the next update, as both are quite high on GC and quite rare picks. Third place jsem94 also has those 3 popular picks but gets big points from Sylvain Chavanel (who won a 2.1 race way back in August) to round out this week's podium.
This Week's High Movers
Rank Team Up/down
1 Emericlabordure (+16)
2 Roubaix (+14)
3 LosBrolin (+13)
4 vernakular (+10)
5 jsem94 (+9)
5 uspostal (+9)
5 Martin (+9)
A similar group to the above list; just like their team was constructed to score points in clumps, Emericlabordure's team has also gone down the standings in quiet moments, and rocketed up them during weeks like this. Three weeks winning and three weeks finishing second in the Highest Movers competition this year, on top of the 5 Top Scorer titles. The top 2 teams are the same as above, with LosBrolin making the podium on the back of a stellar performance from unique pick Alexander Kristoff, who despite being almost 1000 points behind last year, can certainly pick them up in clumps on a given week.
This Month's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this month
1 hilltopfinisher 1820
2 Roubaix 1742
3 StephenC2020 1673
4 the_fool_on_the_hill 1650
5 jsem94 1631
6 Vesica 1610
7 ansimi 1571
8 Hakkie2 1568
9 Josedin 1560
10 shalgo 1558
It is also the end of the month, and so time to look back on a relatively quiet August, at least compared to the heady days of spring and leading up to the Tour. hilltopfinisher has had a good go of it, with Cancellara, Ewan, Moscon, Meersman, Demare and Oomen all picking up more than 150 points in August. The rest of the top 10 clear 1500 points for the month as well.
This Month's High Movers
Rank Team Up/down
1 hilltopfinisher (+32)
2 the_fool_on_the_hill (+25)
2 Roubaix (+25)
4 Lortnoc (+23)
4 jsem94 (+23)
6 ansimi (+19)
7 Team_X (+18)
8 Vesica (+17)
8 simple (+17)
10 LightBing (+16)
Again, hilltopfinisher does finish on top of this particular hill, using a good month to move into the top 30 overall.
Green Jersey Competition
Rank Team Total
1 Emericlabordure 274
2 Eric10 190
3 Jancouver 175
4 freshman 173
5 Pentacycle 161
Emericlabordure had a good lead going into this week at 229 points total, but others were catching up; this win makes it much more likely that the top of these standings will be the same at the end of this game. There is only one team within TWO weekly wins (or 90 points) of Emericlabordure as it stands now, so this is a Sagan-like lead.
Polka Dot Jersey Competition
Rank Team Points
1 Emericlabordure 143
2 freshman 117
3 the_fool_on_the_hill 111
4 Eric10 96
5 ironted 94
This one was getting even closer - in recent weeks, freshman had pulled to within one point of Emericlabordure, but again, this week's victory really pulls their team away in that regard. This one isn't quite as done as the Green Jersey, but more than a weekly win of a lead is pretty good at this point.
Top 10 Overall
Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) skidmark 12587
2 (-) jeroenk 12375
3 (+1) abbulf 11937
4 (-1) Kjellus 11897
5 (-) Squire 11854
6 (-) togo95 11685
7 (-) Eric10 11602
8 (+2) search 11488
9 (-) vladimir 11473
10 (-2) greenedge 11471
And finally, despite this update covering two weeks, the area with perhaps the least amount of movement is the top 10 overall. The top 10 is stretched out over 1000 points, although there are some clumps and individual battles to be had, and there is still alot of racing to go, including the Canadian races, the Vuelta GC, the Italian one-day races, and of course the Worlds. No teams enter or leave the top 10 this week, and the space between 1st and 2nd increases slightly as team skidmark benefitted from a strong performance from Chavanel to end up in 10th place on the week for points.
Spreadsheet at Dropbox