Update #34: The Contenders Make a Final Push
It was a very busy week, with 1-day races aplenty and the kick off of the Worlds. It is also one week closer to the end of the season, and so for a lot of teams it was now or never.
This Week's Top Scorers
Indeed it was a wild week in the game, with Squire cleanly taking care of the competition with almost 1500 points, a truly "GC week of a grand tour" level of points. The biggest contribution was from Michael Valgren coming alive this week, scoring 210 points after getting less than that for the whole rest of the season for his 18 teams. But that was hardly it for Squire, who had 184 from Christophe Laporte, 158 from the gift that keeps on giving ie Sonny Colbrelli, 151 from Sagan (which I didn't even realize he scored until right now, too many races this week!), 116 from Trentin, and over 50 from Kristoff, Gaudu, Moscon and Latour. Phew! Total Package lands in second with a none-too-shabby 1260 points with the exact same >100 point scorers as Squire but less support. zaka_fan lands in third with a similar group sans Valgren and Colbrelli, but with 166 from a finally-coming-into-form Marc Hirschi. A big week overall, with 17 teams scoring over 1000 points.
This Week's High Movers
A different list here (the top 2 of the leaders of the prior ranking are quite high overall already), with Nyssinator moving the most at 13 places. postmanhat is the only other team to leap double digits, while Salvarani moves up 9 spots for third on this ranking.
Green Jersey Competition
After tightening up significantly at the top last week, none of the top 5 score this week. Total Package moves into 6th just out of this ranking with 35 points on the week, but at 187 overall is still a significant way from the top.
Top 10 Overall
I implied last week that Object looked to have an insurmountable lead, and with 889 points (29th on the week), their team did a decent job of defendnig that lead. But the problem for Object is that #1 and 2 on the week were their team's closest competitors in Squire and Total Package. Squire gained 606 points on Object this week, while Total Package gained 351. Still, Object has a 750 point lead, so Squire would have to have a similarly successful week and then keep gaining in the few remaining weeks in the season to overturn that lead. The Worlds gives 400 CQ points to the winner, the biggest remaining race on the calendar, so the likelihood of such an upheaval will become clearer after this weekend.
Lower down on the rankings, things are solidifying. Team skidmark makes a reentry into the top 10 after several months away from it, and tobydawq moves back in with Boris98 as well, at the expense of Nakazar, Galpedal and laarsland.
This week is quieter in volume than last week, with a 1.PS, two 1.1 races, and a 1.WC, but that last one is definitely the main event.
spreadsheet at dropbox