Update #39: Top 10 tightens up and excitement atop the Green Jersey standings with one week left
Lombardia is in the books, and most riders' seasons are over. But this week there was still time for the best rider to cap off quite possibly the best season of all time, and some handy results for other riders to buffer (Remco, Mas) or salvage something from (Ciccone) their seasons. Let's see how it shook out.
This Week's Top Scorers
It should be no surprise by now that the team that took the bold swing on Pogacar and Evenepoel takes a handy win this week - Amethyst takes their team's 4th weekly win of the season thanks to 280 more points from Pogi (2 teams, 3602 points cost) and 170 from Remco (2 teams, 2933 cost). That alone would have been enough to almost win the week. But Amethyst also got a nice 100 points overseas from Lukas Nerukar who, at 83 points cost, is somehow incredibly Amethyst's 3rd most expensive rider behind those big 2! Just some truly fabulous team selection there.
Second place goes to Armchair Cyclist, grabbing 479 from the likes of Nerukar (the team's 27th most expensive rider, btw), Xandro Meurisse (114, 2) and Enric Mas (112, 14), while firefly3233 gets the final podium spot thanks to Mas and unique pick Nielson Powless (268 points).
This Week's High Movers
Amethyst doubles up here with a very impressive (at least for the end of the season) 13-spot leap up the standings on week 39. Armchair Cyclist also repeats on the podium, but shares 2nd with Googolplex, who moves up 5 spots overall as the other Pogacar owner.
Green Jersey Competition
Some real action at the top here at the end of the season! Amethyst parlays 45 points on the week into 232 overall, which would have been enough to go into 1st by 3 points if Googolplex hadn't scored any. But of course, if only 2 teams have Pogacar, the other one can't be far behind on a week where Pogi-based scoring wins the week. Googolplex picks up 26 points for 4th on the week to hold onto the lead. Intriguingly, Jakob747 scored 18 points for 7th on the week, and is not far back in 3rd place.
So with one week to go, Amethyst needs 24 points (4th place on the week or better) and Jakob747 needs 32 points (2nd place on the week or better) to take the lead. There's a slim path, but it's still mathematically possible. Without looking at the lineups of each of those teams yet, I'm not sure how feasible it is, but the end of season China and Italy races are definitely opportunities for rare CQ picks to get surprising results for end-of-season points. So we shall see!
Top 10 Overall
Topline news here of course is that Squire gains 15 points on shalgo, meaning that there are only 1677 to make up in the final week. I'm sure that might be mathematically possible if one got the top 10 spots in China, Japan, and both Italy races, but in the world of reality it's a done deal that we'll fete next week.
For real though, Squire does outscore EvansIsTheBest to move into 2nd by 44 points with one week left. EITB does have a 120 point lead on Earns1985, but like I said in the Green Jersey section, there are often weird results with rare riders in the final week. Even more intriguing is that less than 80 points separate 4th from 8th, so there could be some mixup in the final week.
Nobody moves in and out of the top 10, and 11th place Hugo Koblet is 168 out of 10th so will need a good week to break in.
The last week of the season is upon us! All that is left is the Tour of Guangxi, Japan Cup, Giro de Veneto and Veneto Classic, and that's it for the year! Thanks everyone, enjoy the last week.
spreadsheet link