• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

The 2018 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

Page 12 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
bminchow said:
My Roster

I wish i knew who Inxausti is, but looks like i missed big on that one. Going higher risk. Top 50 not good enough.


Next year I'll start making an effort to learn pro-conti teams and races if i want a chance to win. I'm American. I'm slow.


Inxausti is at Sky (was at Movistar previously). He didn't race much if at all last year due to illness.

You aren't the only American here. I'm also American and also don't know many of the pro-conti teams very well. The only Pro-Conti teams I have a decent handle on are Cofidis, Direct Engery, Caja Rural, United Health Care and Axeon (which I probably spelled incorrectly). I know there are two Spanish teams that moved up to the pro conti level for 2018 but don't know much about either one other than Landa is involved with one of them.
 
(To Bob) Luca Wackermann is a fairly young Italian sprinter, former Lampre. He was an incredible talent once but has sort of become that mediocre low level sprinter from Italy you see occasionally. He had a really good year in 2016 because he was on the Asia and Africa Tour mainly, so he found himself the best there. In 2017 he moved to Bardiani and therefore was in the Europe Tour so struggled.
 
I didn't pick either Intxausti or Craddock. I had Craddock twice before and like someone else said, I've lost faith. Maybe he'll improve on his score; maybe he won't. Just not confident at all so I passed. Strongly considered Intxausti until I saw an interview a few weeks ago from which it sounded like he didn't really feel there was an end in sight. Of course he's 0 points so can't go wrong, but he does take up a spot.
 
Okay, I spent a few hours on the spreadsheet and the popularity tab should be finished, as well as all the individual pages for teams. Here is the link.

The spreadsheet isn't finished yet, but it has the basics to look at all the teams and popularity of riders. Note that the "Popularity Table" tab doesn't have a current summary - there is an example table there from a couple of years ago (I use a template every year to collect teams) but fiddled around with the pivot table and couldn't get it to work in the few minutes I had. If someone is interested in doing that work and posting the updated spreadsheet here, feel free, otherwise I'll do it after the weekend.

Also note that all the links in the first Rankings page go to the current teams, but if you just tab through the team tabs there will be some empty teams - again, this is because I used a template which has tabs for past teams in case they come back (it's handy to have it already there). I'll clean that up before the updates come out, but didn't have time now and just wanna get this info out because I know it's fun to peruse.

It looks like we have 129 teams this year - I have 128 on my list, so I must have missed one when I was keeping track as they came in. That's great, right on par with last year. We had 28 teams leave this year, which is a pretty good retention rate, although some of the names that left have been with us for a long time. We had 19 new teams, and a handful of returnees who have played before but not last year. There were 32 teams signed up through VeloRooms and 97 through cyclingnews.

That's it for me today - good luck everyone! It's lovely to see that this game continues to have robust participation and appreciation. Thanks for playing all.
 
Finally I have time to write about some riders in detail.
1. riders I picked (I won't write about the obvious picks)
Alaphilippe:
I'm usually not a fan of 1000+ picks but since I struggled to find good riders with 500+ points I decided to take him. The reason why I actually don't like very expensive picks is because I think a rider always needs the potential to double his score. A rider as expensive as Alaphilippe probably doesn't have to achieve quite that but he has to get at least close to that mark to be seen as a very good pick. While I'm not sure other 1000+ riders can do that I think Alaphilippe can. He missed a big part of last season and even in the races where he was really good he didn't get quite as many points as possible. For example he "only" got 80 points for his absolutely dominant performance at the WC. I think he is ready to win his first really big race and become one of the highest scorers of the season.

Thomas:
For sure one of my riskiest picks, but one with huge potential. We still haven't seen what he is capable of at gt's since he crashed out in both he entered last season but if shows similar performances as we've already seen in one week races he could end up being a phenomenal pick. Just think about it, a rider with one of the strongest teams and a schedule perfectly suited to him, while his former team leader might be banned or at least will have the giro in his legs when he rides the tour. My gut feeling tells me I won't regret putting him in my team.

Vakoc:
He is maybe the rider in my team I'm least happy about. I put him in my team quite early and when I finalized my roster I couldn't find anyone in his points range whome I preferred over him, so since I didn't want to put my whole team upside down because of one rider I just kept it as it was. There were a few picks like him who I considered because their last season was way worse than their previous one, but where I wasn't sure whether the good penultimate or the bad last season was the outlier. I therefore kicked guys like Pantano and Atapuma out of my team since I was really surprised about how good they were in 2016. And that's why Vakoc made my final team. Thinking back to 2016, I was never surprised about his performances. For example when he won races like Brabantse Pijl he was my personal favorite. Therefore I think he'll do better than last year although I'm not convinced he'll be a really good pick.

Bettiol:
In a way he is comparable to Vakoc since both are young, both are strong one day racers, both had a great 2016 but a disappointing 2017. I know many people think he won't make that many points because he rides in the same team as GVA, but then again, the same counted for Teuns last year, and Bettiol will in the process also leave the worst WT team. I'm confident.

Terpstra:
A rider where my head told me not to pick him, but I again listened to my gut feeling. I might regret that. The thing is that although his score got clearly worse for two years in a row it never felt like he wasn't good. Remember RVV last year? He looked superb and was clearly the best rider who didn't attack early and he surely did not look like a guy who only scores 400 points in a season. Moreover he crashed out one week later in the race where he is probably even stronger. Now that Boonen has retired he might also get a bit more team support than in previous years (although Gilbert's focus on PR might be a problem for him). Anything but a safe pick, but I'm happy that I took the risk.

Mas:
He is young, there are basically no better climbers in his team, so he'll enter almost every race in a free role, I like him, I just had to pick him.

Bonifazio:
He might be my worst pick and I actually already knew that when making my team. Everything from how his cq graph looks like, to his role in the team and the fact that he isn't the super young talent he used to be anymore tells me that this is not a great rider for this team. But at the end I had one spot in the team left and Bonfiazio fit right in (I now have 7499 points) and a part of me always wanted him in my team. I've now already written this way too often, but it was simply gut feeling that he'll do better next year than in the last two seasons.

Kreuziger:
I understand that people don't want to take him since he is now in the role of the team captain and not the leader who wins a lot of races, but considering his age he just shouldn't already decline as much as he did last year. Maybe he won't turn the time back to the days when he finished seasons with 1000+ points but I think 500 points should still be possible.

Ciccone:
One of my favorite riders in my team. Young, great climber, had health issues early last season but got better at the end. Just like Mas he is the kind of guy I like to root for which is why I took him although me might not be an absolutely rock solid pick. I'm convinced he'll be clearly better than last year anyway.

Rosa:
I'm actually not sure why I even have to explain why I picked him since I expected him to be one of the most popular riders, but turns out he is not. I mean, he is still in lots of teams but in my opinion he is a no brainer. He had two great seasons at Astana, then went to Sky, and as it's always the case with Sky, he had problems in his first season there. But the same happened to Landa and Kwiat and both exploded in their 2nd year in England. Ofc there is never a guarantee that he'll be great but I see riders I'm way less sold on in every team.

Betancur:
If Betancur doesn't return to his former self this year he never will. He looked so great last year and then the stupid Vuelta crash happened. If he gets the same shape again his ceiling is somewhere in the 1000 points region and I simply didn't want to take the risk of leaving him out.

Carthy:
One year ago he seemed like one of the most promising climbing prospects, but somehow all the hype disappeared. I really hope that this was just one bad season and not another great climber lost in the Cannondale factory of sadness. Anyway, with 129 points the risk of taking him was again not as high as the risk of him becoming his former self again.

Serry:
In hindsight he is probably not a very good pick but one with a very predictable return. He had between 230 and 290 points 5 years in a row and then dropped to 117 points last year. He still isn't very old and I therefore hope for more than 200 points again. I know, that's a very low ceiling but somehow I just wanted to try out it only looking at a rider's graph will turn out being the right tactic.

Formolo, Kennaugh:
Two riders with a disappointing 2017 season, and two riders joining Bora a team without a superstrong leader in stage races. I think they'll get a lot of freedom in stage races


2. riders I almost picked:
Halvorsen:
As I've already written he is the only rider I really regret not picking. That said I'm not as angry about missing him than about missing popular picks in previous years since I at least didn't overlook him. He'll probably turn out being a good pick, but I at least don't expect him to be crucially great.

Guarnieri, Capiot, Brandao:
3 really cheap riders who I all originally had in my team. The reason why I kicked out all three is because I don't really know anything and couldn't find any helpful articles about them. If I had picked them I would have done so only because their cq statistic looked like they had an extraordinarily bad last year and had way better seasons before. But I don't really like that reason. What if they had a bad injury or an illness like Intxausti which might still be problematic this year? I just didn't know and therefore decided to go for riders I knew more about.

Porte:
Of all the expensive picks I didn't take he was the only one where I was really unsure whether I should pick him or not. There were many arguments in his favor like that he couldn't finish a gt, was unlucky before the tour (he could have won both PN and the Dauphine) and that he didn't race in autumn. The main reasons why I didn't take him is that I can't take his shape last year as given for this year. The shape of a rider changes from year to year and it will be incredibly difficult to be as strong as last year again and if he indeed is not as strong, he probably won't get much more points even if he finishes the tour. Moreover even if everything goes perfectly for him, doubling his score, or getting close to that will be very, very hard for him anyway and as long as that doesn't happen it's not extremely bad to miss a rider like him.


3. riders which I think are bad picks:
Sagan:
I get that he didn't have a perfect 2017 season and was often super unlucky, but with what 2018 score can you call him a good pick. Normally a rider needs to get at least 50% more points than in his previous season, said differently Sagan almost has to be as good as in his superb 2016 campaign, and all that without a WC route that suits him (mind you, those are 400 points he won't get this year. 400!!!). Could he still do that? Yeah, but it's not likely. And if he gets injured in this spring your whole team basically goes to waste. That's simply a risk not worth taking.

Valverde:
I think he is a more reasonable pick. But still, when people talk about how many points he'll make they often assume he'll repeat his 2017 spring, but how likely is that? Even if he is back to his 2013 - 2016 shape his spring will probably not be as good as last year when he had a once in a lifetime shape. And we don't even know if he'll be as good again. The man is a dinosaur and at some point he has to start declining. It's absolutely possible next year won't be that year but if it is, he should be happy to get 1500 points. And I haven't even mentioned that he ended last season with a horrible injury. Again there is a decent chance it won't affect him this year, but there is also a chance that it will. If Valverde would be a 1000 points pick you can maybe take that risk, but at 1800 points I think picking him isn't very rational.
 
Great work on the spreadsheet, Skidmark. You have probably seen it, but on the Popularity sheet, I1, which should be the popularity score for Valverde, is the title "count" rather than the formula, so instead of his popularity on the teams that have him, the word 'count' appears (should be 15).
 
May 2, 2016
27
0
0
Visit site
Thanks Skidmark, I have updated your spreadsheet a bit:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b9ew81pre6x0wju/CQ%202018%20final.xlsx?dl=0

Changes I have made:
Fixed the "Rankings tab" so that it has 128 teams (you had accidentally included "the attacking vikings" but this was reading info from "the asian"'s team.
Finished the following tabs: "Popularity table", "Rank popularity" and "All_riders"

Edit - I also fixed the issue Armchair cyclist has raised
 
Fascinating stuff reading through all the teams and comments.
My only regret so far is not picking Chaves. For some reason I thought his injury from Emilia would put him out for the start of the season but I was obviously imagining things...
Four unique picks and three only picked by one other team means that I have a lot of guys who could give me an edge:

Christophe Laporte - A lot more obvious picks in the 300+ region, but I hope he will develop into a very useful spring classics rider. Should also pick up a lot of points in flat races where Bouhanni isn't riding.
Mathias Le Turnier - Very promising in hilly races and also ok in higher mountains. Promising rookie season, and I decided he should be in my team when watching him in the break in Lombardia last fall. Surprised no one else picked him!
Jon Irisarri - Cheap and been in the Spanish worlds U23 team last two season. Didn't do much in his first year at Caja, but should imrove for next season.
Nikolay Cherkasov - I think he has shown class riding for Sivakov in U23 races, and should get plenty of oppurtunities at Gazprom. Another one I expected to be picked by 10+ teams.
Scott Thwaites - Expected a bit more from him last season so gave him a chance to prove himself. Actually last man to get in the team so a bit of fitting points.
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov - Can do well in spring classics. Has done a ton of work for Kristoff over the last few seasons, and with him gone hopefully he will get more chances for himself.
Oliviero Troia - Tough first season with UAE where he rode a very hard spring campaign with a lot of DNF. Possible future spring classics star but will need to work at lot for Kristoff this year so possibly the one pick I would change. Still fingers crossed.
 
My least popular riders:

LUTSENKO Alexey 563 (2) --> Fan pick, although he could battle for victory in classics such as Sanremo and Flanders.
STYBAR Zdenek 503 (12) --> Now or never for him, last year was not good but he certainly can do better than that.
GESINK Robert 318 (14) --> Had him last year, turned out to be a good pick but that crash in the Tour spoilt everything.
ATAPUMA HURTADO Jhon Darwin 307 (6) --> Bit of a mistake to be honest. It was a defensive pick because I thought most teams had him. Wrong. I didn't think about the fact Aru and Martin joined UAE, so he'll have less freedom this year. Could still be a good pick, with all his bad luck last year.
BOUDAT Thomas 238 (7) --> Good to see he's only in seven teams... or did I overlook something? He's fast, rode his first GT last year and nobody to ride for in his team. I wanted some more riders in the French races, so he was an easy choice.
VLIEGEN Loïc 179 (7) --> I didn't want to miss a new Dylan Teuns. He impressed me at some occasions in 2016 so he deserves a chance in my team.
TURGIS Anthony 131 (15) --> Another rider for the French races.
VANSPEYBROUCK Pieter 76 (3) --> Had bad luck during the classics last year. He should take there some points. He's fast too, so that's a bonus.

Also Carlos Betancur is relatively unpopular, I firmly believe he'll be back at his best this year. If that's the case, he will be a gold mine. :)
 
My team, my guys to cheer for this season. Some explanation below.

Lopez & Chaves (Colombian captains)
Obvious picks, doubted for a while about Quintana as well, but couldn't fit him in right and I really don't like the guy. S

Moscon & Van Baarle (Tractor tandem)
My two spring guys from Sky. I know I took a risk with Moscon, but I think he can make an even more impressive season. Van Baarle is a first year Sky rider, which is always a risk, came from Cannondale, so I thought that there was growing potential.

Senechal & Lawrence Naesen (Cobbled classicers)
With Boonen and vdBergh gone, Skybar and Terpstra getting older, I think Senechal got the potential to do right. Naesen will have a good chance to do well at Belgium Lotto.

Konig, Kennaugh & Formolo (Bora boys)
Quite obvious picks, new start, new opportunities.

Cavendish, Nizzolo, Coquard & Danny van Poppel (Sprint squad)
First three are obvious picks, fourth a bit less, but I think he can go back to doing what he's good at: sprinting. Back in a Dutch team, maybe chances in some smaller races.

Oomen, De Plus, Schachmann, Mas, Fernandez, Rodriquez, Rosa (Climbing Clan)
Oomen is on the edge of his full breakthrough, the quickstep youngsters have huge potential, Rodriquez made a good team move I think and Fernandez is a bit risky..hopefully he can find his climbing legs back and score me a decent 300-400 points. Rosa is at his second year at Sky, as said above by Gigs, I think he'll do well, like others in their second year.

Villella, Brambilla & Albanese (Italians)
First two on new teams, could do much better than in 2017. Albanese had a hard first pro year, hopefully he can show us his potential in his second year.

Kangert & Enger (Obvious captains)
Obvious picks

Kamna (TT youngster)
Seems to fit in really well at Sunweb, can grow further this year

Halvorsen (Sprint youngster)
With Viviani and Van Poppel gone, he's actually the only real sprinter at Sky. Hopefully he got his chances in smaller races. Could be having trouble in WT.

Van Aert (X-man)
I think he will be my unique pick. I read that he will be riding in the spring races and is still growing every year on the road. He's doing not so well in the mud this year, but I think (maybe hope now..) that it is because of focussing on the road. Fingers crossed.
Edit: not unique, good to see I'm not the only one.

Bjerg, Philpsen, Costa, Robert Stannard and Callum Scotson (the real youngsters)
Bjerg and Philpsen new at Axeon, with Axeon stepping up to PCT they could do really well. Costa is the big question mark, but I took the risk. He's back on his bike and seems to be back in training. Stannard and Scotson both from the U23 Aussie team. Both showed potential and with Hindley, Hamilton and Storer stepping up, they could be the new potentials.

Edit: I really like someone picking Benjamin Thomas. Picked him almost as well.
 
Collective Wisdom team

The 18 most popular riders (32 picks or more) in order of popularity:
CAVENDISH Mark
NIZZOLO Giacomo
COQUARD Bryan
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel
KÖNIG Leopold
KANGERT Tanel
BRAMBILLA Gianluca
KENNAUGH Peter
FORMOLO Davide
GUARDINI Andrea
ENGER Sondre Holst
GAUDU David
HALVORSEN Kristoffer
INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA Beñat
CRADDOCK Lawson
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
MOSER Moreno
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas
HAUSSLER Heinrich
MAS NICOLAU Enric
Albanese Vincenzo
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto
DE BIE Sean
VAN POPPEL Danny
CAPIOT Amaury
PHINNEY Taylor
FERNANDEZ ANDUJAR Ruben
COSTA Adrien
MAMYKIN Matvey
LATOUR Pierre
ROSA Diego
OOMEN Sam

But that team only has a spend of 6253, and a popularity score of 2071.

To make that team a bit more competitive, one might swap out Costa and Mamykin (the lowest popularity riders in that selection costing <100 points) and replace them with Geraint Thomas and Terpstra (the next most popular riders of more than average spend), you have a popularity that has dropped to 2053, but the spend is a more competitive 7386.
 
In the 'Rank_popularity' table, some of the popularity scores are linked to other teams than the one it says in the B column.

It would also be better if the 'Popularity' tab was sorted alphabetically by rider names, so that it's easy to see who else has a particular rider.
 
I've already listed my team. however will post here why I picked a few riders I picked. This is my first attempt at this game and figure I'll be in the middle of the pack to lower end of the pack. My team should at least be fun to cheer for.

Alejandro Valverde: He's my favorite rider, and has been since 2005. I can't have a team without him. My heart made this pick.

Andrey Amador: I picked him with my heart not my head. He's one of my favorite riders plus if Movistar actually doesn't send one of their 3 main GC riders to the Giro, that will make Amador the race leader for the Giro.

Marc Soler: I just happen to like him and think there is an upside, even on a team with 3 GC riders.

Logan Owen: First year at WT and I think he has potential to improve his points.

Jaime Castrillo and Sergio Samitier: They are 0 pointers and I have some hope for them. Plus they certainly can't hurt the team.


A few other riders are on my team simply because I really like them: Roson, Sutterlin, Brambilla, Stybar, Fernandez, Powless, Lluis Mas, and Fromolo.
 
The high stake bets:
Choosing the correct 1000pt+ picks might not win you the game, but getting the wrong one can certainly lose it.

Sagan, Valverde and Alaphilppe; Giallo
Sagan, Quintana and Alaphilppe; Oliveira
Sagan and Landa: killike, Salvarani
Sagan and Gaviria: triley36
Sagan and Porte: repre
Sagan and Alaphilippe: Bicycle_Boy, Brullnux, Yellow Knight
Sagan: Armchair cyclist, ChrisDK, del1962, Jancouver, Shawnm4747

Valverde, Gaviria and Alaphilippe: armchairclimber
Valverde and Gaviria: minessa, Valv.Piti
Valverde, Porte and Alaphilippe: search
Valverde and Porte: JSpear, Leadbelly
Valverde and Alaphilippe: fauniera
Valverde: 18-Valve. (pithy), DJ Sprtsch, Koronin, Kryvo, Object, skidmark, yoyokt

Quintana, Landa and Porte: Tigerion
Quintana and Porte: Amis Velo
Quintana and Alaphilippe: Pantani1
Quintana: adamski101, NairoQ, vladimir

Kwiatkowski and Alaphilippe: Akuryo , Krokro

Landa and Zakarin: Trudgin
Landa, Gaviria and Alaphilippe: Slapshot
Landa, Porte and Alaphilippe: Riverside

Roglic and Alaphilippe: karaev
Roglic: Josedin

Aru and Teuns: Guilherme Ribero
Aru and Alaphilippe: Googolplex, Jakob747
Aru: laarsland

Gaviria, Bardet and Alaphilippe: EvansIsTheBest
Gaviria and Alaphilippe: AupaPyama, Crevaison, Hugo Koblet, tom_jelte, Wallenquist
Gaviria: CQmanager, Guybrush, sodak_za, the asian, the attacking vikings

Porte and Alaphilippe: abbulf, bminchow, Ferminal, Nicosix, Poles & Co.
Porte: kiszol, Martin, postmanhat, Sneekes, zaka_fan

Bardet and Alaphilippe: Geraint Too Fast

Alaphilippe: ansimi, Blues in the bottle, bort, DFA123, escartin, Eyeballs Out, freshman, Gigs_98, GP Blanco, greenedge, Hakkie2, JPettersen, kabete, Kazistuta, Kjellus, LightBing, LosBrolin, Maaaaaaaarten, MADRAZO, nuvolablu, Popchu, PremierAndrew, rote_laterne, ruvu75, SafeBet, Squire, TheArt, torcia_86, trackstand, WKA311

Trudgin's pick of Zakarin is the most expensive unique pick.

Meanwhile, we have what must surely be the most egalitarian team ever entered: Jon_Ezeitza's squad has nobody costing more than 400 points.
 
my team:

ALAPHILIPPE Julian 1011
BENOOT Tiesj 813
Lopez Moreno Miguel Angel 629
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban 505
OOMEN Sam 471
Latour Pierre 453
TERPSTRA Niki 417
Gaudu David 352
VAN BAARLE Dylan 347
VAN POPPEL Danny 287
MAS NICOLAU Enric 285
Cavendish Mark 257
Coquard Bryan 220
Brambilla Gianluca 195
COSNEFROY Benoit 191
Betancur Gomez Carlos Alberto 159
Rivera Serrano Kevin 155
HALVORSEN Kristoffer 151
NAESEN Lawrence 125
GASPAROTTO Enrico 93
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas 77
NIZZOLO Giacomo 66
KANGERT Tanel 58
SAMOILAU Branislau 50
GUARDINI Andrea 39
Moser Moreno 25
Wackermann Luca 23
CRADDOCK Lawson 15
PLANCKAERT Emiel 11
GUARNIERI Jacopo 10
KÖNIG Leopold 10
Intxausti Elloriaga Beñat 0
ENGER Sondre Holst 0

I am pretty high on the popularity table for the first time (admittedly only my 3rd attempt), guess that shows that I spent a bit more time on my team than I normally do! that was more going through the list of players rather searching out everyone's aim or injuries though.
nearly all my picks have been discussed in detail but here are my rarer ones:

BENOOT Tiesj - this might be a good pick if he actually wins some races (yeah, I know! :lol: )
VAN BAARLE Dylan - I was liking this pick more until someone above mentioned that 1st season Sky syndrome, let's see, I had neglected this aspect combined with the more positive 2nd season Sky syndrome when dismissing Rosa (who I actually had the previous 2 years)
COSNEFROY Benoit - always good to have as many people as possible for all those French races, young and a lot of potential
RIVERA SERRANO Kevin - very young but seems mighty promising, started his career great last season hopefully continues this year
NAESEN Lawrence - don't know much about him but anything close to his brother will do and promising last year and he should get his chance in a lot of races
SAMOILAU Branislau - my one unique pick, I remember someone mentioning that you should always look at the Minsk Cycling Team as they have a lot of high scorers, recognised this guy, saw he was dropping down from Pro-Conti and had had his worst season for 10 years, either a continued decline or a bounce-back against worse opposition, for 50 points it is worth the chance
WACKERMANN Luca - my stupid pick last year hoping his Africa / Asia exploits could transfer back to Europe, they did not :redface: , but he scored so few points last year that I had to pick him this year
PLANCKAERT Emiel - I know literally nothing about him apart from his family, but he cost the exact amount remaining to get to 7,500

my original team had Aranburu, Barcelo, Sessler and Samitier (all picked by at least one other) but they got replaced by Navardauskas, Planckaert, Guarnieri and Enger. I found Enger when finding riders for the Zero Points Game along with Navardauskas who I had totally forgotten about, I fitted the other 2 in for price reasons.

popular riders I dismissed that may come back to haunt me include the aforementioned Rosa plus Carthy, Kennaugh, De Bie, Mamykin and Phinney.
I never even looked at Moscon, Formolo, Costa, Albanese, Stannard or Jacobsen who all seem relatively popular.
 
Only one unique pick : William Bonnet. Not exactly gonna light the world on fire here. Even Jelloul and Howard of all people were picked by somebody else.

With that being said, I gladly welcome Geraint Too Fast on the two wagon hype train of AG2R overlord and 2018 Tour de France winner Romain Bardet.
 
Got two unique picks - Antonio Pedrero and Jacob Egholm who I frankly have no idea how has fared since Qatar. Pedrero is relatively new on the scene, but isn't young and will do lots of domestique work apart from minor spanish races, so thats pretty understandable. I saw glimpses of him climbing pretty well on occasions in Tour de Suisse, Burgos and Vuelta a Espana, so theres that.
 
I've got 5 unique picks....2 because they are low points and I like the riders. 3 because they are 0 or 2 points and I needed people in that points range to fill out my roster. No idea if they'll do anything at all, but the worst they can do is cost me 2 total points as far as those 3 go.
 
Those eccentric players with most unique picks:

4: armchairclimber, DFA123, greenedge, Josedin, vladimir, will10
5: ChrisDK, Koronin, Poles & Co, sodak_za
6: Archieboy, Guilherme Ribero, Jon_Ezeitza, monsieur_hulot, Tigerion
7: VeloRooms
8: Salvarani
9: Leadbelly, Slapshot
10: kiilike
12: kiszol
13: Trudgin
15: Guybrush
 
Not sure what happened to my team, but Beñat Intxausti has popularity = 1 only on my teamsheet, and thus shows up twice in the list of all riders. See to this issue please so I don't lose out on points later.

Edit: yeah, there's a space at the end of his name. If it doesn't get fixed for next update I'll PM skidmark
 

TRENDING THREADS