Update #23: Wout Won't Stop
This week, the Worlds were the main course - normally of course, they'd be about the only thing, but in this pandemic-smushed schedule there were also a couple of 1.1 races in France and, very strangely, the Belgium nationals (with most of the best Belgian riders absent, no shade to Dries de Bondt). Alaphilippe was only picked by one player in this game (congrats to Josedin, who unfortunately only saw the rest of their team score 35 points and finished mid-table), so the top of the weekly table was dominated by those who had the double bridesmaid Wout van Aert. Perhaps unsurprisingly, teams with this fount of CQ points also dominate the top of the overall standings.
This Week's Top Scorers
BlueRoads cracks 1000 this week! As one of the 11 teams with WvA, their team is led with his 390 points, but as one of the 15 who also have Hirschi, there's 210 more, plus 180 from the more popular Kwiatkowski. And the cherry on top, 80 points from unique pick Dorian Godon for winning Paris-Camembert. Nathanptz will have to be content with 866 points on the week, as their team slots into second with the WvA-Hirschi combo accentuated by the 120 points stealthily scored away from the TV cameras by Nacer Bouhanni this week. tom-jelte nabs the final podium spot with the same combo as Nathanptz but subbing out Hirschi for Kwiatkowski and his 30 fewer points for being a tire's width behind.
This Week's High Movers
For once, this ranking is almost entirely different from the Top Scorers, largely due to the fact that most of the teams with WvA are quite high in the overall standings already and don't have far to rise. tom-jelte is the only repeat name on the list, moving up to 1st on this ranking with a 20 place jump. karaev is one slot behind (with an impressively top-heavy team of WvA, Bouhanni and Dumoulin plus 16 other points), and Ferminal takes third as the first team mentioned so far without van Aert, and one of the few with Matthews (128 points) and Geraint Thomas (110).
This Month's Top Scorers
Wallenquist won a week a few weeks back, and was consistent enough over the weeks of September to take the top spot on the week, with a massive 3175 points. Of course, their top scorer by a mile was Wout van Aert (742 on the month), but solid contributions from the ubiquitous Dumoulin (372), the pretty popular Simon Yates (370), and the slightly less popular Kwiatkowski (314) helped as well. Soren Kragh (220), Lennard Kamna (174), Ethan Hayter (170) and Andrea Bagioli (127) were other notable contributors. Londonpat had the same top 4 scorers and some of the others, with Bouhanni (213) and Gaviria (169) subbing in. This week's winner BlueRoads comes very close to 3000 on the month, nabbing 2995 with much of the same lineup swapping Hirschi's 371 on the month for Yates' 370.
This Month's High Movers
This list looks different than the last one as well! Again, as in the weekly ratings, many of the 11 teams with WvA were already somewhat high in the standings, so perhaps there wasn't that much higher to rise. Salvarani doesn't have van Aert, but has many of the other usual suspects in the Top Scorers list, with notable new name Enric Mas, who got 322 points for his 7 owners. Rare picks Kuss (145 points) and Narvaez (147) helped out too. Neither of the two other podium places have WvA either, as flashke (notable unmentioned riders included rare picks Uran with 222 and Alexander Krieger with 185) and Nicosix (Sagan, Sam Bennett, Kelderman, Caruso) make do without the cyclo-crosser as well.
Green Jersey Competition
Jakob's fairly unassailable lead doesn't give up any ground to the closest competition, but it's buzzing below. Nathanptz, BlueRoads and Wallenquist were all in the top 10 scorers of the week and so used it as a springboard into the top 5 of this ranking. 6th overall bminchow also had 26 points on the week.
Top 10 Overall
Jakob747's post-Tour honeymoon was a short one, and the Worlds was a harsh reminder that the honeymoon is over and it's time to go back to work. Their team's 900-point buffer was more than cut in half this week, as places 2-8 overall were all in the top 10 of the week with >700 points (not coincidentally, those are 7 of the 11 owners of WvA), whereas Jakob was 105th with 148 points. Still, they have a 400-point buffer, Pogacar appears to be racing on, Higuita is on the mend, and Simon Yates is one of the few more popular expensive riders Jakob took and he looks like a Giro favourite. So we are gearing up for an interesting finish - if Van Aert can carry his form even further into the classics, it looks good for one of the top 8. Slightly more than 250 points separates places 2-10 so it is still pretty wide open. Last week may have been a massive week with Tour GC points and others, but this week sees almost as much shakeup in the standings at the top. BlueRoads uses the weekly win to skyrocket into the top 10, and Nathanptz enters with a similar flourish, while two teams fall out. Nyssinator slips from 9th to 13th, while EvansIsTheBest finally runs out of gas after being in either 1st or 2nd since before the pandemic, sliding 9 spots to 11th place. Much respect for the long run at the top.
Normally when the Worlds wrap up, we have a few weird end of season races left, some 1.1s in France and Italy ramping up to Lombardia and the shoehorned-in WT race in China. But since it's 2020 and everything is upended, the Worlds is followed by a week with the BinkBank Tour, Fleche and Liege, the Tour of Portugal, and the start of the Giro. A few more breakneck weeks to go! Good luck everyone, hope you're staying safe.
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