Update #29: bminchow wins the 2020 CQ Game!
This is it folks! The last update, the Vuelta is done, the game is over. It has been the weirdest year of any of our lives, and the cycling season was a strange one too. Definitely a comfort at times in its offer of escape to familiarity, and amazingly they managed to fit in almost all of the post-(first)lockdown races, save for the notable canclelations of Amstel Gold and Paris-Roubaix. The Vuelta went off amazingly well in terms of covid protection, giving some hope that even if there is some time in getting out an effective vaccine, racing next year could proceed in a way close to normal. So, what happened in the last week?
This Week's Top Scorers
Although the season ended with GC points for a grand tour, scores were slightly more depressed than the average GT GC week. Part of that was because nobody picked the already-expensive Primoz Roglic, who nonetheless managed to score 3000 points from the shortened season! Pogacar was the only other rider over 2000; if Roglic hadn't crashed out of the Dauphine he might have been above 3300!
But Roglic isn't a team in this game, so that's enough talking about him, and one team in this game stood head and shoulders above the rest this week. HelgeBlendet ends the year with a bang, taking back-to-back weekly wins, and winning the week by over 170 points. HB was one of 5 teams who got 352 points from Hugh Carthy's big breakout, as well as one of 9 teams that benefitted from 112 points from George Bennett's continuing solid year. Gino Mader came good with 106 points as well, and HB's team got some points chipped in from Soler, Chaves, and Kanter. Sestriere finished behind in 2nd, having both Carthy and Mader over 100 points, and some good results contributed by Cort, Zimmerman, and Valgren as well. Koronin rounds out the podium one point ahead of Salvarani, with 241 from Enric Mas, and 150 points from the unique pick of the 40-year old Alejandro Valverde, who finally seems to be fading but still managed a GT top 10.
This Week's High Movers
This table is also a blowout this week, with CQPlayer7373 jumping a huge 29 spots on the very last week of the competition. Carthy, Bennett, and Soler are the big scorers for that team. Sestriere is twice a bridesmaid, and HelgeBlendet doubles up on the podium as well.
Green Jersey Competition
I mentioned last week that this contest was sealed up, with Jakob747 far enough ahead that nobody could mathematically catch up this week. And in fact, no spots in the top 5 changed around in the final week at all; bminchow got 9 points for tying for 11th on the week, but didn't move up any spots. Congratulations once again to Jakob747!
Top 10 Overall
It looked pretty good for bminchow last week, and indeed their team pulled through, even picking up 208 points on Wallenquist this week. That is almost equal to the 207 points scored by their team's highest scorer on the week, David De La Cruz, owned by 7 teams. And that type of timely point-scoring is key to the win - good picks plus good luck is a good formula to win. And indeed, bminchow had a solid combo of rare picks that panned out - most especially the two must-haves at the very top of the charts in Wout Van Aert (11 teams, 1702 points at a cost of 898) and Joao Almeida (19 teams, 1114 points at a cost of 112). As a counterpoint to show that it's truly a team game with 33 riders, there were misses like bminchow's second-most expensive rider Giulio Ciccone (unique pick, got 352 points at a cost of 686). But those were few and far between, and more than made up for with solid picks that turned out well like Kelderman, Bouhanni, Eekhoff, Simmons, Yates, Kwiatkowski, etc etc. Congratulations to bminchow for joining the winners' roll! As a nice bonus, their team juuuust made it over the round number milestone of 10,000 points, the only team to do so.
Wallenquist had a great year as well, and is rewarded with a solid second place. Their team included Van Aert and Almeida as well (I said they were necessary, didn't I?), and garnered solid contributions from riders like SK Andersen, Lennard Kamna, and Andrea Bagioli. Object overtakes Nyssinator for the last spot on the podium on the final week, thanks to riders like Sepp Kuss and Richie Porte (and of course Almeida, although no WVA).
The lower parts of the top 10 were hotly contested, with every spot moving around on the last week. It was a dogfight in the lower part of the top 10, with 114 points separating 8th from 14th place in the end. As it shakes out, Sneekes, Hugo Koblet, and Northerner enter the top 10 on the final week, while Nathanptz, Londonpat (the two of them tie for 11th!) and team skidmark (sob sob) fall out.
Thanks for playing once again in this wild year, everyone! Hope to see you back for 2021, wishing you the best until then.
spreadsheet at dropbox
ps. I'll continue the discussion of next year's rules and lay out a post with the parameters on this thread in the upcoming days. The new game thread will be up in about a month.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram