Update #40: Slapshot scores late
Hey guys. I just want to touch base about the end of the CQ season; obviously with the late Worlds and the Abu Dhabi Tour and the Japan Cup in the bag, it feels like it's over, and most riders' seasons are over. The rules, as per the first page of this thread, are that the game ends after the last major race of the year, which is .1 or higher. In the last couple of years, this has been the Tour of Taihu Lake in early November. Looking at CQ's calendar, there is the HC Hainan on right now, a 2.1 race in the UAE and the 1.1 UAE Cup... and then Taihu Lake is November 5th-13th. And THEN, something called the Tour of Fuzhou is apparently the 15th-20th, which is also 2.1. So the game won't officially end until then, and I'll keep throwing out updates before formally crowning a winner. I know it's mostly decided, but it's something like a GT with a few non-decisive stages at the end, where you know who has won and essentially what the overall looks like, but there are still points for classifications available.
Feel free to use this time to offer any feedback on this or any other part of the game though; it's not like there's a lot of cycling left to discuss. We can look at changes for next year if need be, or if this kind of unofficial wrap followed by a few weeks of minor points is fine, we can keep with it.
Anyway, to the update!
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 Slapshot 348
2 DJ Sprtsch 342
3 Sneekes 332
4 LaVelocipede 328
5 yoyokt 254
Slapshot squeaks out the win this week, their second of the year (winning week 13, as well as a 2nd place and 2 4th places over the season). Their team gets points from a variety of riders, including the rare Contador, but also a collection of rare riders - Juul Jensen, Anacona, Wallays, Ryan Mullen, Martin Toft Madsen. Just the type of assortment to take out a late season win. DJ Sprtsch gets points from Japan Cup winner (and a guy who has FINALLY broken out after three years of not living up to promise) Davide Villella, Vincenzo Nibali and Julien Bernard. Sneekes rounds out the podium with points from Nibali and Villella but also Rob Power. The top 4 were only separated by 20 points this week!
This Week's High Movers
Rank Team Up/down
1 LaVelocipede (+11)
2 Sneekes (+8)
3 Object (+6)
3 Jpettersen (+6)
5 hilltopfinisher (+5)
5 Blues in the bottle (+5)
5 HelgeBlendet (+5)
5 DJ Sprtsch (+5)
5 Slapshot (+5)
5 Jakob747 (+5)
There is a... little bit of a tie for 5th place here. Not surprising for the end of the season when points are few and placings are somewhat cemented. But anyway, LaVelocipede takes the top honors this week, moving up 11 spots. Their team was one of the two this year to have Kangert, who turned out to be a pretty good pick, more than doubling his points in the end. Sneekes, uh, sneaks onto the podium of this one as well, and Object ties with Jpettersen for third.
Green Jersey Competition
Rank Team Total
1 Emericlabordure 308
2 Eric10 221
3 Slapshot 202
4 scrooll07 180
5 togo95 178
6 Jancouver 175
7 Roda_na_Frente 173
7 freshman 173
9 LaVelocipede 170
10 Roubaix 169
Some movement here - with the week's win, Slapshot jumps from outside the top 10 onto the podium! No one is near striking distance of the leader, of course, but togo95 leapfrogs Jancouver into the top 5 with 4 points for 14th on the week, and LaVelocipede's strong showing brings their team into the top 10 as well.
Polka Dot Jersey Competition
Rank Team Points
1 Emericlabordure 155.4
2 scrooll07 130.3
3 the_fool_on_the_hill 118
4 freshman 117
5 Eric10 96
6 Roubaix 94.5
7 ironted 94
8 Sneekes 90
9 hilltopfinisher 88
10 EvansIsTheBest 86.4
Not as much movement here - Sneekes and hilltopfinisher are the only scorers in the top 10 (and both move into the top 10), while weekly winner LaVelocipede moves to only 1.7 points out of 10th place.
Top 10 Overall
Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) skidmark 15212
2 (-) jeroenk 14582
3 (-) abbulf 14431
4 (-) Squire 14340
5 (+2) Hugo Koblet 14206
6 (-1) Eric10 14119
7 (-1) search 14093
8 (+1) togo95 13988
9 (-1) Kazistuta 13881
10 (-) greenedge 13787
Very minor shuffling, with only two of the top 10 teams scoring over 100 points this week (they were the two teams that move up). Our highly respected game founder Hugo Koblet looks to be on track for his best finish in this game, moving up two spots into the top 5. No movement in and out of the top 10, though, and it is unlikely that the bit points on offer for the rest of the season will do much more than shuffle a couple of minor places around.
So, this is the unofficial end of the season. I'll have a formal wrap at the end of it all in about a month, and weekly updates will continue, but I at least want to say now - thank you all for playing the game this year, and year after year. If you're checking out now (or have done so awhile ago), look for next year's game thread by about December 10th. If you feel like some wrapup discussion in this thread, whether it's to go over your team, talk about riders you were surprised by, run through highlights/lowlights of your CQ team season, now is the time to do so!
Spreadsheet at dropbox
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram