Update #3: LightBing revels in Lotto winnings
The first few weeks of the year always give something new - first races in the Aussie Nats, first big points in the TDU, opening of some big riders' seasons in Argentina, and now, the first races in Europe. The always points-rich set of races in Mallorca were a big factor this week, of course with a scattering of other points available from the newly WT Cadel race, San Juan stepping up to replace San Luis, and GP Marseillaise opening things up in France.
This Week's High Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 LightBing 482
2 Nicosix 440
3 Slapshot 402
4 minessa 400
5 Eyeballs Out 398
Not quite as big of a haul as greenedge last week, but LightBing has a convincing week, with rare pick Tim Wellens (2 teams) picking up 160 points from 2 wins in Mallorca, as well as 84 points from both Lotto teammate Louis Vervaeke (almost matching last season's total of 109) and Bora's Matteo Pelucchi (already well in front of last year's points). Restrepo adding to his early season Australian haul was also a boon. Nicosix, a big player in last year's game, gets second place on the strength of unique pick Nikias Arndt winning the Cadel race and rare pick Gerrans getting some points. Slapshot squeezes into third by having a unique pick in the other big Lotto scorer in Mallorca (Greipel), and the overall win in San Juan by rare pick (2 teams) Mollema. So far in the game, rare riders are paying off big time!
This Week's High Movers
Rank Team up/down
1 Slapshot (+63)
2 minessa (+42)
3 zlev11 (+36)
4 Nicosix (+35)
5 bort (+34)
Slapshot takes top spot here, and looking at the team, I think they may be featured on this list more than a few times before the season is up, with the above-mentioned big scoring rare picks... and Contador! Seems like some weeks will be boom or bust, and moving up 63 in a week is certainly on the 'boom' side of things. The other podium finishers, minessa and zlev11, each have a more diverse portfolio of scorers this week, with neither having a single rider that scored more than 90 points this week.
Green Jersey Competition
Rank Team Total
1 LightBing 61
2 greenedge 46.2
3 Nicosix 45
3 archieboy 45
5 Josedin 35
5 Blues in the bottle 35
LightBing got 8th place last week and 1st this week to get out to a relatively comfortable lead in the points competition; it's still very early going and only two teams have scored greater than the single weekly max.
Top 10 Overall
Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) greenedge 1087
2 (+10) LightBing 921
3 (+6) Jancouver 803
4 (+9) karaev 800
5 (+5) Guybrush 773
6 (+2) jeroenk 752
7 (-4) sublimit 748
8 (+6) ansimi 744
9 (+13) Eyeballs Out 742
10 (-4) Total Package 735
It's good to be at the top - greenedge is only one of two teams not to move up or down at all this week (the other is 11th place 18-valve), and although their team's lead is more slender this week, finishing just out of the points for the week (16th place) keeps a relatively healthy margin. The last two week's winners are 1-2, with Jancouver's steady team eking out karaev for the final podium spot.
spreadsheet at dropbox - special thanks to Squire for cleaning up some inconsistencies with the old sheet (making sure all the teams were sorted in scoring order, getting rid of some duplicate riders and spaces after names), and adding some new stuff like bolding returning teams to more easily see top newcomers etc.