Update #6: HelgeBlendet Puts it all Together
February continues apace with the appetizer races leading up to Opening Weekend, Paris-Nice and everything after, and we are starting to see some riders really come into their own, taking a good chunk out of or even surpassing totals from last year. One team this week stood above the rest, however.
This Week's Top Scorers
HelgeBlendet scores an even 600 points in a week where no one else even topped 500, the effects of which (spoiler alert) you will see further down the table. This wasn't due to a solitary pick hitting it big, either - this was accomplished by committee, with 9 riders scoring between 40 and 89 points for their team. These are (deep breath): Jonathan Caciedo (89 points, 3 teams), Hugh Carthy (88, 5), Wilco Kelderman (85, 26), Diego Rosa (66, 5), Lennard Kamna (66, 46), George Bennett (54, 9), Esteban Chaves (40, 14) and Louis Meintjes (40, 21). Very impressive! Meanwhile, Hakkie2 wasn't content with the overall lead and wanted another notch in the belt, so their team gets second with 464 points. Danilo Celano (197 points, 3 teams) leads the way there, with unique pick Pierpaolo Ficara (83 points) also contributing a significant amount. Mayomaniac nabs the final podium spot thanks as well to Celano and a fantastic showing from young Biniam Hailu (78 points, 7 teams).
This Week's High Movers
Quite a different top 5 here, as lots of the top scorers were already quite high on the standings. DJ Sprtsch takes the honors here, moving up thirty places thanks to Dani Martinez's 108 points leading the way. Sneekes is close behind (shoutout to the 139 points provided by an opportunistic Xandro Meurisse), while bminchow lands in third (as mentioned upthread, unique pick Ciccone got 130 for winning Laigueglia).
Green Jersey Competition
Hakkie2 isn't crushing absolutely everything in the early season, but is coming close, scoring 35 points in this competition to lesson Jakob747's lead to 1 point. No one else in the top 5 overall scores this week; 69 teams have scored at least a point in this competition so far.
Top 10 Overall
No surprise here, as Hakkie2's lead gets extended to over 200 points overall. HelgeBlendet rockets up the standings after a dominant week, but was starting about 350 points behind, and so must settle for a still quite impressive second. HelgeBlendet and good ol' team skidmark slip into the top 10, while western grebe and Marek tumble out.
The traditional European early season is in full swing this week, with Algarve, Andalucia and Haut Var punctuating a stage-race heavy week, with the newly 2.1 Tour of Antalya offering some good CQ points as well. No Oman, but it's still a pretty big week.
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