Update #42: triley36 wins week 42
The points for Guangxi are in, and all 114 participants in the game got some points on this week's update, which I am fairly certain will be the last points for the vast majority of those teams. Let's see how the last major week (and month!) has shaken out.
This Week's Top Scorers
triley36 goes out with a bang, netting over 400 points and winning the week by 115! Impressive haul for late October. Their top two riders on the week - Enric Mas (207 points, 5 teams) and Dani Martinez (149 points, 4 teams) - were enough alone to win the ranking, and on top of that they got points from Gaviria, Bauhaus, and a still-in-existence Louis Meintjes. Londonpat is bridesmaid the second week in a row, thanks to another rare pairing of Diego Rosa (120 points, 5 teams) and Antwan Tolhoek (100 points, 6 teams). Akuryo inches out a few others for the final podium spot thanks largely to Mas, and also smaller contributions from the likes of Marczynski and Kudus.
This Week's High Movers
For the first time that I can remember in this game, there is no overlap in the top 5 of the two weekly rankings. The new podium here is led by HelgeBlendet, who jumps an impressive double digits on the final major week of the competition thanks to Rosa, Gaviria, Trentin and a few helpers with minor points. merengues slots a clear second place with contributions from Tolhoek and Schachmann, while there's a three-way tie for third.
This Month's Top Scorers
The VeloRooms collective team leads all teams this month in an extremely close contest, with just 26 points separating the top 3 teams. Their team had 4 riders score over 100 points on the month, led by Bernal (26 teams) with 383, Mas (5 teams) with 314, Gaudu (57 teams) with 170 and Hodeg (11 teams) with 140. I was going to mention last week that their team had finished in the top 15 (ie. scoring Green Jersey points) for 5 weeks in a row, but I forgot to include that tidbit in the update. Luckily, they did so again this week so the streak is 6 weeks in a row! Congrats on a strong finish, guys, the VeloRooms collective team is a really great touch on this game and I always enjoy reading the thread that creates it in December. Hakkie2 just misses out on the top spot in this ranking but will no doubt be consoled by parlaying this great month into rocketing onto the overall podium. Londonpat puts together a solid October as well to edge out DJW and shalgo for the final podium spot.
This Month's High Movers
Not a ton of room to move around the standings this late in the year, but two teams managed to tie for the top spot in the High Movers ranking. oliveira had a big month from Bernal/Gaviria/Gaudu/Van Asbroeck (the latter quietly racked up 204 points for his 19 owners), while DJW was led by a combo of Bernal/Gaudu/Mas/Ivan Sosa. VeloRooms gets a double podium, sharing the last spot with Nicosix.
Green Jersey Competition
In the end, 15 teams finished within 45 points of the leader, which remains tobydawq! Barring a surprise in a 2.2 race or Fuzhou later in November, the rankings should stay the same as they are... note the added column showing which teams got green jersey points in week 42; ansimi scored to pull within 7 points of the lead, but it's only enough for a podium. Tentative congrats to tobydawq...
Top 10 Overall
...and tentative congrats to fauniera! In the end, no meaningful dent was made in fauniera's lead by Guangxi; although their team's lead was chipped away slightly in the past two weeks, there was a lot of give, and there is still a 180-point gap to karaev in 2nd place. Basically, karaev would have to have an out-of-nowhere starter in Fuzhou that won all the stages and took the overall in order to catch up. The final standings have solidified, with Hakkie2's aforementioned strong October leading to a podium spot, and last year's winner ruvu75 having a strong last week to move into the top 5. Team skidmark also breaks last week's 8th place tie with tobydawq to edge ahead, and the overall top 10 is the same as last week.
To reiterate the closing process of this game - it ends after the last 2.1 race of the year, which is the Tour of Fuzhou on November 23rd. Normally Hainan is in the interim, but it has been moved to next February to accommodate the new ProSeries or whatever it's called, meaning there's a weird gap of sparse 2.2 races until the end. There's a 99% chance the standings will be unchanged at the top end, but I will only have a final update after the last event. If CQ sends out updates before then, I will check them to see if anyone scored, and update here accordingly. But informally, I want to thank everyone for once again participating in this game, which remains (for me at least) fun and engaging for the whole cycling season. Cheers everyone!
spreadsheet at dropbox
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