Update #37: Green Jersey standings settle as Pogi continues GOAT season
The Worlds are done and dusted, and we have just a few weeks left in this game! While the overall has not been in doubt for some time, there are still the minor placings and the Green Jersey to sort out, and we took some steps towards settling those this week as well.
This Week's Top Scorers
This should be a predictable result for anyone who's been following the weekly updates - as one of 2 teams to take the incredibly expensive Pogacar as well as the merely very expensive Evenepoel, Amethyst take the top spot on the week for the first time since a 5-week run in the top 5 every week in a period over June-July. Their total was of course bolstered by Pogi's 400 and Evenepoel's 162, with a few smaller contributions (eg Jan Christen got 39 and Markus Hoelgaard 42). Second place has to be the other Pogi-haver, as no other team reached 400 this week, so Googolplex grabs that spot. The race for third was a bit closer with vladimir coming out on top with 380 thanks to Mas (112, 14), Quinn Simmons (96, 15), and a few riders scoring in the 30s on the week (Brenner, Svrcek, Honore).
This Week's High Movers
Amethyst easily doubles up here, moving a massive (for this time of the season) double digit number of spots up in the rankings. The rest of the podium is different than the first ranking, with former winner Object making an appearance in 2nd, and 3 teams including other former winner Blues in the bottle tying for 3rd.
Green Jersey Competition
This week's top 2 are also now the top 2 overall in the Green Jersey rankings. Googolplex scores 35 on the week and Amethyst 45, making it practically likely these two will be the top 2 on the season. With (I think) only 3 weeks left on the season, and a maximum of 45 points each week, technically if 6th place Yellow Knight won the last 3 weeks of the season and Googolplex got 0 points, we'd have a tie. Everyone below is mathematically eliminated. If none of the top teams got any points in the upcoming week, only Jakob747 and Amethyst would be able to catch Googolplex in the remaining two weeks. And practically, Amethyst is the only one really in contention, but the issue is that with both having Pogi, a good week for one is usually a good week for the other. So it's not wrapped, but looking good for Googolplex.
Top 10 Overall
shalgo gains another 100 points this week on EvansIsTheBest, but I'm sure EITB has eyes turned down the standings more, with Squire also gaining 100 points and moving into third. Still, 250 points is a bit to make up (though not close to the 1500 EITB has to make up on shalgo), and the teams behind are fairly close (10th place is closer to Squire than Squire is to EITB). So the final podium spot may provide some excitement in the final weeks. There's some jockeying around but no one enters or leaves the top 10 this week.
The last weeks of the season are always a bit of a wild card, depending on who has anything left in the tank, who has already ended their season, who hits ripping form for several days of consecutive classics in Italy, who gets a late season look at leadership chances, who gets points against weaker fields in Asia, etc etc. This week we will see who gets points in Langkawi, the CRO Race, the 1.Pro Paris-Tours, Giro Dell 'Emilia and Munsterland Giro, as well as a few 1.1 races. Then we're marching to the season's end!
spreadsheet link