Youth CQ Ranking Game 2014

[mc_mountain]

Update 8.3 - May the fourth be with you

Many thanks to Leadbelly for stepping in at the last minute to provide last week's update. I return this week with good news for my team, with 4th places in GC for Villella and Alaphilippe in their respective races, plus the young frenchman's stage victory along with points from Latour and Dayer Quintana enough to leapfrog into the lead. It was a poor week for last week's leader Hilltopfinisher, only mustering Quintana's 12 points to show for the week. Oliviera also dropped a place, but both are still within 120 points of the lead. Taking over in second place skidmark will be grateful for Daan Olivier's strong showing this week.

Elsewhere asdfgh101 matches his leading points score for the week in the main game, with the same honour here, as the best of the teams combining Villella, Alaphilippe and Olivier. Also making a strong surge this week is MADRAZO whose late surge last year saw him/her reach the final podium. Leadbelly's positive karma from doing last week's update, slightly dampened by his gentle ribbing of Fus87 sees him match Fus' 2nd place in the weekly scoring this time around.

Weekly Top Scorers

1. asdfgh101 241
2. Leadbelly 229
3. MADRAZO 228
4. Lortnoc 217
4. CraZyCaLL 217

Weekly High Movers

1. asdfgh101 (+10)
2. vmart77 (C4F) (+7)
2. MADRAZO (+7)
4. Ben1376 (+6)
5. minessa (+5)

Top 20 Overall

Spreadsheet at Dropbox

 

[The Hitch]

How were the plants?

 

[mc_mountain]

How were the plants?

My media advisers have told me not to comment (ie I didnt understand the significance of the reference Leadbelly made).

 

[asdfgh101]

Impossible to win without Adam Yates (at least i have him in emerging riders team) but nice to achieve some respectability.

 

[mc_mountain]

Impossible to win without Adam Yates (at least i have him in emerging riders team) but nice to achieve some respectability.

While the winning team will almost certainly have Yates on their roster (and in all likelihood Formolo too), it would have been possible (with hindsight of 20/20) to select a team for less than a 1000 points that would now be approx 1000 points ahead of the current leading score. And that's only from the riders selected in the game.

 

[skidmark]

Update 8.4 - Leadbelly Sings Happy Theuns Instead of the Blues This Week

Hey there! Long time no update. After a long spell in the wilderness of Canada this summer, I'm back and taking over the youth updates for the next couple.

With the Tour de l'Avenir kicking off, one of the marquee events of youth cycling is underway. However, there were not many points to be had in the opening weekend, although next update should be interesting on that front. Instead, it was little-known Topsport Vlaanderen rider Edward Theuns (pardon the anglicized pronunciation for the sake of the title pun) who was the star of the Youth CQ field, winning the 1.1 Stad Zottegem and five days later finishing 4th in a 1.1 race in France, giving him a weekly total of 116 points. This is especially impressive given that his career total up to this week was 131. Not surprisingly, the 3 teams that had him are the top 3 scorers this week.

This Week's Top Scorers

1. olafjt 168
2. Leadbelly 164
2. Vlaanderen90 164
4. Lupetto 141
5. MADRAZO 127

olafjt takes the week title by a nose, thanks to having Silvan Dillier's 52 points from 9th in the Cyclassics race, on top of Theuns. Those were their only two scorers this week.

This Week's High Movers

1. Leadbelly +7
2. olafjt +5
3. MADRAZO +4
Comodoro +4
Lupetto +4
Vlaanderen90 +4

Not much movement this week, and looks very much the same as the top scorers' list. Leadbelly tops the list, moving up 7 spots to position 44 overall.

Top 10

1. mc_mountain 2570 (-)
2. skidmark 2548 (-)
3. hilltopfinisher 2465 (+1)
4. oliveira 2439 (-1)
5. Kazistuta 2356 (-)
6. gustienordic 2181 (+1)
7. del1962 2173 (-1)
8. Geraint Too Fast 2107 (-)
9. 18-Valve 2062 (-)
10. Armchair Cyclist 2050 (+1)

Despite gaining 29 points this week, thanks largely to Mathieu van der Poel bossing the Baltic Chain Tour, I couldn't close the gap on mc, who remains in first. Minor changes dot the top ten, with Armchair sneaking in and switching places with the departing Ruudz0r. Next week should be a fun one!
spreadsheet is in dropbox

 

[skidmark]

Update 9.1 - Ray of Hope

In a week that, before the season started, one would have thought that the Tour de l'Avenir would have dominated the points for the youth CQ game, it was actually a World Tour event that had by far the greatest impact. In fact, no teams at all selected the top 2 finishers in Avenir, and only 2 teams had the third-placed rider. Instead, it was those teams with Julian Alaphilippe and Andrea Fedi, both of whom finished highly in Plouay, who dominated the week.

Sidenote - as much as I pay attention to cycling, I had NO idea who Andrea Fedi was before seeing that he finished 2nd in Plouay. Way to break out, Andrea!

This Week's Top Scorers

1. Nicosix 239
2. ray200 230
3. vmart77 (C4F) 221
4. rywann 166
5. ---Flo--- 165
5. Zam_Olyas 165

Only the top 3 teams had both Fedi and Alaphilippe. Interestingly, despite what I said above, the difference between Nicosix at the top and ray200 in 2nd was the 14 points Nicosix scored from Pierre-Roger Latour in Avenir. So it did have an impact after all!

This Week's High Movers

1. Nicosix (+11)
2. vmart77 (C4F) (+8)
3. ray200 (+7)
3. olisimpson22 (C4F) (+7)
3. asdfgh101 (+7)

Same names at the top - Nicosix moves up into 16th place with the big week.

This Month's Top Scorers

It's the end of the month so this update is here as well:

1. ray200 785
2. Leadbelly 661
3. vmart77 (C4F) 651
4. -Fus87- 642
5. MADRAZO 628

ray200 dominates this ranking for the month, as well as being right on top for the week, so they get the honour of the title pun this week.

This Month's High Movers

1. ray200 (+23)
2. Leadbelly (+18)
3. -Fus87- (+17)
3. asdfgh101 (+17)
5. MADRAZO (+16)

Again, decisively, ray200's team is at the top of the rankings, moving to the top half of the standings (currently in 22nd). Last week's champ Leadbelly is right up there in the monthly rankings as well.

Top 10

1 (-) mc_mountain 2686
2 (-) skidmark 2559
3 (-) hilltopfinisher 2496
4 (+1) Kazistuta 2490
5 (-1) oliveira 2480
6 (-) gustienordic 2295
7 (-) del1962 2201
8 (+2) Armchair cyclist 2146
9 (-1) Geraint Too Fast 2133
10 (+1) Ruudz0r 2118


Very little movement at the top. It should be an interesting finish to the season, with the U23 Worlds and the stagaire phase of the season for the top pro teams.

File at Dropbox

 

[mc_mountain]

Update 9.2 - skidmark reaps the ben-efit

With Ruben Zepuntke netting a stage win and 3rd place on GC in the Tour of Alberta and Sam Bennett 3rd place in yesterday's Tour of Britain stage (included in the latest update), skidmark takes a 90 point chunk out of his deficit to 1st place, which is now only 37 points. If that wasnt enough skidmark is also the the highest scorer this week. Oliviera gets back into the podium spots thanks in part to a strong showing in the weekend's two 1,HC races from Bonifazio. With Adam Yates' point scoring possibilities limited in the Vuelta we now have two teams in the top 10 without the young Brit in Hugo Koblet (second on the weekly scoring) and former rankings leader Ruudz0r.

Weekly Top Scorers

1. skidmark 116
2. Hugo Koblet 112
3. Lupetto 96
4. Jakob747 87
5. MADRAZO 72

Weekly High Scorers

1. Hugo Koblet (+5)
2. MADRAZO (+3)
2. allobroges (+3)
2. Jakob747 (+3)
5. 5 teams (+2)

Top 10 Overall

Spreadsheet at Dropbox

 

[BYOP88]

Excellent!!!! Closing the gap to JSG.

 

[skidmark]

So close! I was secretly hoping for this last week, ie. I have a good week but it's not enough to unseat MC, so that I could use the title 'mountain too high' for the update. But alas, I will have to content myself with Zepuntke's breakout. At least I'm doing well in the non-main games this year.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I think we should make two competitions: one for those with Yates, and one for those without

 

[mc_mountain]

I think we should make two competitions: one for those with Yates, and one for those without

It was a similar situation last year with Coquard. But you also have to consider riders like Valgren, Formolo and Bennett.

I wont give you the two competitions, but here is the top 20 if Adam Yates was 500 points worse off.

@skidmark Van Baarle's current GC spot in ToB if maintained would reduce the gap to 3 points. I'll have to rely on Simon Yates and Alaphilippe in Canada (we both have Villella), while I fear Van der Poel could net plenty of points from the 1.1 race on Sunday he's riding for a Netherlands team.

On another note if Villella finishes both Canadian races and Latour can match his placing from last year at Tour Du Doubs I will have 14 riders into profit with only Ewan in deficit.

 

[mc_mountain]

Update 9.3 - skidmark crests the mountain thanks to Victory in Britain for Van Baarle

In an effort to make me use of a variation of his proposed pun a week or two ago, skidmark has been able to work a bit of DS magic to get his rider Dylan Van Baarle in the right race winning break at the Tour of Britain. As a result he now has a 101 point lead and is the top scorer for the second week running. Other teams towards the top of the rankings receiving the Van Baarle boost, are gustienordic up a place to 5th and Geraint Too Fast up 4 places to 7th. While froome19 and Reno both get 2 digit place rises with 10 and 12 respectively.

Weekly Top Scorer

1. skidmark 297
2. --Reno-- 282
3. gustienordic 280
4. froome19 274
5. -tuart- 259

Weekly High Movers

1. --Reno-- (+12)
2. froome19 (+10)
3. ansimi (+5)
4. asdfgh101 (+4)
4. -Tuart- (+4)
4. Geraint Too Fast (+4)

Top 20 Overall

Will Van Baarle go on to pick up more big late season points, will riders that have completed the Vuelta come out of it shattered or in great form. Which neo-pros can make an impact on the Autumn classics or even the World Champs and which u23s and staigieres will really show themselves in the u23 worlds and beyond. The answers to these questions will in part give us the answers to the destiny of the Youth CQ Ranking Game 2014. Bring it on!!!

 

[mc_mountain]

Update 9.4 - skidmark - first member of the 3000 point club

With plenty of points still up for grabs our leader as eclipsed both victory total of last year, Comodoro's 2951, but also smashed through the 3000 point barrier and with it of course a return of over 300%. Skidmark's lead is also extended, while the fight for the podium gets even tighter with a mere 12 points between 3rd and 5th. Oliveira, jumping two place to 4th, and gustienordic both take advantage of Bonifazio's 80 point win at Coppa Agostoni, to close in on hilltopfinisher.

In the weekly standings froome19 follows up 2nd place in the movers list last week, with 1st place in both lists and a further 8 place rise this time around.

Weekly Top Scorers

1. froome19 172
2. Jakob747 145
3. Yellow Knight 136
4. fauniera 135
5. asdfgh101 132

Weekly High Scorers

1. froome19 (+8)
2. Yellow Knight (+6)
3. asdfgh101 (+5)
3. fauniera (+5)
5. 4 teams

Top 20 Overall

Spreadsheet at Dropbox

 

[skidmark]

Hoo boy, good times. The champs are this week, so that should be a fun time. Turns out I have a few fast finishers on my team that are competing:

Ewan (obvs)
Zepuntke
Geoghegan Hart
Van Der Poel

Ewan will likely make up for his 'off' season here, but it's hard to look past VdP, as he kind of just keeps destroying all in his path. If Zepuntke can survive to the finish, he's also pretty handy.

Edit: didn't mean to imply that Geoghegan Hart was a fast finisher, he's just also on my team so I included him. I have no idea frankly, but I haven't really seen evidence of him having a finishing kick.

 

[skidmark]

Update 9.5 - Worlds fail to produce earth-shattering changes

The U23 Worlds are the biggest stage on which aspiring cycling talents get to shine; CQ points, however, are rather limited, with the winner of the road race claiming 60 points and the winner of the TT claiming 30. Given that a grand total of zero participants had winner Sven Erik Bystrom, the actual greatest amount you could claim from a single rider was 36 points for Caleb Ewan's second place, equivalent to a 4th place finish in a 1.1 race. And given that neo-pros generally need a year or more in their legs before being able to handle the distance of an elite Worlds course (Michael Valgren Andersen aside, holy crap was that guy impressive), it's perhaps no surprise that only one person broke 100 points this week, and the highest mover was 3 spots.

This week's top scorers

1. JeroenK 114
2. hilltopfinisher 98
3. the asian 88
4. Yellow Knight 75
5. Pentacycle 74

JeroenK, with Ewan, Flakemore, Mullen (1 of only 3 to pick him), Enger and a couple of 5-pointers in Mohoric and Hansen, gets the nod this week.

This week's high movers

1. just some guy (+3)
1. ingsve
1. MADRAZO
1. The Amateur
1. Pentacycle

Yup. Not a lot of movement this week.

Top 10:

1. skidmark 3083
2. mc mountain 2921
3. hilltopfinisher 2835
4. oliveira 2772
5. gustienordic 2769
6. Kazistuta 2731
7. Geraint Too Fast 2444
8. Hugo Koblet 2429
9. ---Flo--- 2364
10. Ruudz0r 2360

The only movement in the top 10 in terms of places is that Flo jumps 2 from 11th while del1962 falls 2 to 11th. The rest stay the same. As hilltopfinisher was a high scorer this week, the gap to the top 2 is closed a bit. My lead over mc is extended by a whopping 6 points, as we both had Ewan but I got van der Poel in 9th (but he looked pretty impressive covering the attacks for an 18-year-old, didn't he?).

The end of the season should be interesting, it's usually a time when bigger teams let their young talents fly a bit more, or even by default as they line them up at races the big guns don't want to do as they want to start their off-season. We will see how it turns out.

Spreadsheet at Dropbox

 

[mc_mountain]

Update 10.1 - No Change at the Top

No changes in the top 10 places this week, so not much of an update (apologies for its lateness)

Weekly Top Scorers

1. olafjt 89
2. EvansisTheBest 86
3. JeroenK 85
3. Trudgin 85
3. al_pacino 85

Weekly High Movers

1. al_pacino (+5)
1. Leadbelly (+5)

Monthly Top Scorers

1. --Reno-- 614
2. gustienordic 596
3. asdfgh101 575
3. skidmark 575
5. froome19 567

Monthly High Movers


1. --Reno-- (+15)
2. asdfgh101 (+14)
3. froome19 (+13)
3. vmart77 (C4F) (+13)
5. Nicosix (+9)
5. ray200 (+9)

Dropbox link to Spreadsheet

 

[roman law]

good

i like it............

http://www.soran.edu.iq

 

[mc_mountain]

Update 10.2 - Skidmark out of reach?

In a great week for a few teams with Valerio Conti whose 140 point victory at GP Bruno Beghelli, our leader may now be out of reach. With Simon Yates outside the top 10 on GC, I have no realistic prospect of overtaking Skidmark, but with podium places still to be settled there are still races and riders to keep an eye on.



Placing, Team, points, Deficit to 3rd, Active Riders
3., oliveira, 2989,,Bonifazio
4., Kazistuta, 2976, (-23), Conti
5., hilltopfinisher, 2973, (-26), Valgren Gaimon Gonclaves

I don't feel entirely secure in 2nd but third place looks to be the real battle.

Weekly Top Scorers

1. JeroenK 271
2. --Reno-- 261
3. Kazistuta 232
4. al_pacino 203
5. fauniera 193

Dominated by teams with Conti, Kazistuta makes a late charge for the podium.

Weekly High Movers

1. --Reno-- (+11)
2. al_pacino (+8)
2. fauniera (+8)
4. Zam_Olyas (+6)
4. JeroenK (+6)

Top 20 Overall

Spreadsheet at Dropbox

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Looking at the teams, skidmark has done a really good job picking his riders. Well done!

 

[mc_mountain]

Update 10.3 - Japan Cup overshadows Tour of Beijing

With Simon Yates rolling in last on the final stage of the Tour of Beijing there were no major points from the GC. However there were 4 youth game riders in the top 10 of the Japan Cup with Valgren in 4th, Italians Conti and Formolo in 6th and 7th and Polanc in 9th. Valgren's scoring helps hilltopfinisher into 3rd place, but will that team be able to hold off Oliviera and the points Bonifazio has already scored and will hope to continue to score at the Tour of Hainan. With the Tour of Taihu Lake startlist not as yet released skidmark must wait a little longer before being crowned champion.

Weekly High Scorers

1. al_pacino 154
2. hilltopfinisher 136
3. ray200 130
4. Kazistuta 113
5. Cyivel 104

Weekly High Movers

1. ray200 (+7)
2. al_pacino (+5)
3. just some guy (+4)
4. The Arbiter (+3)

Top 20 Overall

Placing, Team, points, Deficit to 3rd, Active Riders
3., hilltopfinisher, 3109,,Gonclaves
4., Kazistuta, 3089, (-30),
5., oliveira , 3043, (-66), Bonifazio

Dropbox Spreadsheet link

 

[mc_mountain]

Update 10.4 - Skidmark by the Skin of his Teeth

When Niccolo Bonifazio rolled in mid-peloton on the last stage of the Tour of Hainan, after what most of been one of his most successful weeks as a cyclist, he most surely have been oblivious to the drama unfolding on then fantasy section of a couple of cycling forums or the massive sense of relief for one person in particular.

With a deficit of 253 points Oliviera managed to get 251 all from Bonifazio and a tantalising 2 points short of a dramatic overhaul of the leader and now officially the winner of the Youth CQ Game 2014 - skidmark. Oliviera has conceded his chances of victory and has offered his congratulations. Bonifazio points were also good enough to catapult gustienordic onto the podium, there were also massive jumps for the likes of froome19 and fauniera with both jumping 15 places and into the top 20. One of the teams missing out on the podium hilltopfinisher will regret that the wrong Goncalves brother finished high on the GC at Hainan and that Domingos has already dropped out of Taihu Lake.

Weekly Top Scorers

1. froome19 256
2. 9 teams 251

Weekly High Movers

1. froome19 (+15)
1. fauniera (+15)
3. JeroenK (+14)
4. Mellow Velo (+13)
5. asdfgh101 (+12)

Monthly Top Scorers

1. JeroenK 599
2. --Reno-- 588
3. fauniera 539
4. oliveira 485
5. gustienordic 473

Monthly High Movers

1. fauniera (+23)
2. --Reno-- (+22)
2. JeroenK (+22)
4. Mellow Velo (+17)
5. froome19 (+15)

Top 20 Overall

Dropbox link to Spreadsheet

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Only 2 points between first and second! That's pretty crazy!