The final analysisFirstly, Year 3 months 11b-12 (16th November to the end of the year) changed none of the scores at all, so the final table is exactly as it was last month, so now Squire can be officially congratulated, as can Fauniera and Cordi on their podiums.
The best possible team| Rider | Points | Teams |
|---|
| POGACAR Tadej | 3924 | 16 |
| EVENEPOEL Remco | 1870 | 0 |
| JAKOBSEN Fabio | 1839 | 27 |
| VLASOV Aleksandr | 1802 | 0 |
| PHILIPSEN Jasper | 1757 | 21 |
| HIRSCHI Marc | 1632 | 7 |
| HIGUITA GARCIA Sergio Andres | 1536 | 0 |
| ASGREEN Kasper | 1529 | 2 |
| MADOUAS Valentin | 1488 | 10 |
| GANNA Filippo | 1480 | 23 |
| SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro | 1293 | 12 |
| ALMEIDA Joao Pedro Gonçalves | 1290 | 0 |
| HODEG CHAGUI Alvaro Jose | 1175 | 22 |
| BALLERINI Davide | 1113 | 1 |
| DE GENDT Aimé | 1038 | 1 |
| BOL Cees | 983 | 1 |
| ARANBURU DEBA Alexander | 936 | 0 |
| MCNULTY Brandon | 886 | 18 |
Of riders in the CQ era (emerging 1999 or later), Pogacar comes 4th in the rules of this game: behind Valverde, Sagan and Bernal, but ahead of any of the other 'greats' of this century. I can't help but wonder what position Evenepoel will occupy in a year's time.
That best possible selection would have scored 27571pts: Squire scored 65.1% of this, rather short of Madrazo's record of 69.5% in 2015-17, but still well ahead of anyone here.
Of the top teams, who had who of these top selections?
| Rank | Team | Points | Main riders |
|---|
| 1 | Squire | 17954 | Pogacar/Jakobsen/Philipsen/Hirschi/Madouas/Ganna/Bol/McNulty |
| 2 | Fauniera | 17340 | Pogacar/Philipsen/Hirschi/Madouas/Ganna/Sosa/Hodeg/McNulty |
| 3 | Cordi333 | 16880 | Pogacar/Jakobsen/Philipsen/Hirschi/Ganna/Hodeg/McNulty |
| 4 | HugoKoblet | 16785 | Pogacar/Jakobsen/Philipsen/Madouas/Ganna/Hodeg |
| 5 | Laarsland | 16333 | Pogacar/Jakobsen/Philipsen/Madouas/Ganna/Sosa |
| 6 | Skidmark | 16327 | Pogacar/Jakobsen/Philipsen/Ganna/Hodeg/McNulty |
| 7 | Kazistuta | 15749 | Pogacar/Jakobsen/Philipsen/Madouas/Ganna/McNulty |
| 8 | Nathanptz | 15641 | Pogacar/Philipsen/Madouas/Sosa/Hodeg/McNulty |
| 9 | AlyKaptan | 15356 | Pogacar/Jakobsen/Madouas/Ganna/Sosa/McNulty |
| 10 | Comodoro | 15305 | Pogacar/Jakobsen/Philipsen/Sosa/Hodeg/McNulty |
Other than Bol (who could be said to hold the difference between Squire's win and coming second), the other unique picks to make the best possible team was Madrazo's choice: Ballerini and Aimé De Gendt for North American Scum. Leadbelly and Lukas were the pair who went for Asgreen.
Those were the only teams to finish ahead of the Collective Ignorance team (virtual 11th is the worst performance yet of this anti-selection, which has actually dropped down the table every edition of the game), featuring Evenepoel, Vlasov, Higuita, Almeida and Aranburu.
2020 was not a great year for point scoring in CQ given the number of cancellations: only 31.9% of the games points came in year 3 (28.7 in Yr 1, 39.5 in year 2): in all previous editions year 3 has been the top scoring year by some amount.
In order of the scores earned in 2020:
| Team | Score at 31/12/19 | rank at 31/12/19 | 2020 points | Final position | Change in year 3 |
|---|
| Squire | 11565 | 1 | 6389 | 1 | 0 |
| Cordi333 | 10506 | 9 | 6374 | 3 | 6 |
| Fauniera | 10985 | 2 | 6355 | 2 | 0 |
| HugoKoblet | 10821 | 6 | 5964 | 4 | 2 |
| Kazistuta | 10059 | 11 | 5690 | 7 | 4 |
| Skidmark | 10647 | 8 | 5680 | 6 | 2 |
| Laarsland | 10678 | 7 | 5655 | 5 | 2 |
| AlyKaptan | 10165 | 10 | 5191 | 9 | 1 |
| Vladimir | 8082 | 20 | 5097 | 17 | 3 |
| RoteLaterne | 9126 | 15 | 4889 | 12 | 3 |
| LukasCPH | 7900 | 23 | 4831 | 18 | 5 |
| Nathanptz | 10829 | 5 | 4812 | 8 | -3 |
| Comodoro | 10857 | 3 | 4448 | 10 | -7 |
| LosBrolin | 9022 | 16 | 4361 | 15 | 1 |
| Leadbelly | 5908 | 32 | 4337 | 29 | 3 |
| Karaev | 10848 | 4 | 4230 | 11 | -7 |
| TheAsian | 9914 | 13 | 3975 | 13 | 0 |
| Kryvo | 9424 | 14 | 3864 | 16 | -2 |
| Armchair_Cyclist | 7940 | 22 | 3578 | 22 | 0 |
| Ludwigzgz | 9916 | 12 | 3521 | 14 | -2 |
| Scrooll07 | 8874 | 18 | 3505 | 19 | -1 |
| Flo | 8305 | 19 | 3475 | 21 | -2 |
| Hakkie2 | 8887 | 17 | 3339 | 20 | -3 |
| JonEzeitza | 7579 | 27 | 3249 | 26 | 1 |
| Blues_in_the_Bottle | 7719 | 25 | 3184 | 25 | 0 |
| Joelsim | 7373 | 29 | 3166 | 28 | 1 |
| Josedin | 7971 | 21 | 3128 | 23 | -2 |
| Madrazo | 7646 | 26 | 3114 | 27 | -1 |
| Shalgo | 7899 | 24 | 3070 | 24 | 0 |
| AmisVelo | 7549 | 28 | 2583 | 30 | -2 |
| Monsieur_Hulot | 7032 | 30 | 2450 | 31 | -1 |
| DJW | 6386 | 31 | 1949 | 32 | -1 |
| NorthAmericanScum | 4022 | 33 | 1713 | 33 | 0 |
| Trudgin | 3151 | 34 | 1218 | 34 | 0 |
| CollectiveWisdom | 11402 | | 5784 | | |
| CollectiveIgnorance | 9381 | | 5790 | | |
Collective WisdomThere were 34 teams, and while 119 different riders were chosen, there were 18 ( a team's worth) who were on 11 or more teams. And they didn't do badly, apart from the perennially popular but disappointing in this game Albanese
| Rider | Points | Teams |
|---|
| POGACAR Tadej | 3924 | 16 |
| JAKOBSEN Fabio | 1839 | 27 |
| PHILIPSEN Jasper | 1757 | 21 |
| GANNA Filippo | 1480 | 23 |
| SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro | 1293 | 12 |
| HODEG CHAGUI Alvaro Jose | 1175 | 22 |
| MCNULTY Brandon | 886 | 18 |
| KNOX James | 820 | 14 |
| NARVAEZ PRADO Jhonatan Manuel | 706 | 26 |
| RIABUSHENKO Aliaksandr | 523 | 28 |
| BJERG Mikkel | 500 | 18 |
| PADUN Mark | 460 | 19 |
| EG Niklas | 454 | 21 |
| PEDERSEN Casper Phillip | 396 | 11 |
| RIVERA SERRANO Kevin | 375 | 20 |
| CRAS Steff | 295 | 13 |
| VANHOUCKE Harm | 201 | 13 |
| ALBANESE Vincenzo | 102 | 18 |
This team would have come third overall, which is a best for the CW team in the 5 completed editions. I'm not sure whether that speaks well of us (many of us chose many successful riders) or if it is a bad reflection on us (for nearly all of us, the ones that should have been fairly obvious that we omitted are better than the ones we picked instead)
All Time listsWell, scarcely all time, but 5 rounds of the game have now been completed. 11 managers entered all of them (and I think have been in the subsequent ones too), and the top ten cumulative scores are:
| 1 | Skidmark | 77902 |
|---|
| 2 | Ludwigzgz | 72713 |
| 3 | Madrazo | 72021 |
| 4 | Kazistuta | 69381 |
| 5 | Vladimir | 66653 |
| 6 | Flo | 66644 |
| 7 | Rote Laterne | 66290 |
| 8 | Comodoro | 65563 |
| 9 | Armchair Cyclist | 64235 |
| 10 | HugoKoblet | 60967 |
Ludwigzgz has moved up one spot since last year, Kazistuta and Vladimir 4 places each. This was Hugo Koblet's 4th participation, but he beats two teams that have had one more go than him to make tenth.
And to give those who have not been quite so consistent in entering, or moissed early editions, the best averages for those who have completed at least three games.
| 1 | Skidmark | 15580 |
|---|
| 2 | HugoKoblet | 15242 |
| 3 | Jakob747 | 14551 |
| 4 | Ludwigzgz | 14543 |
| 5 | Alykaptan | 14519 |
| 6 | AmisVelo | 14449 |
| 7 | GPBlanco | 14409 |
| 8 | Madrazo | 14404 |
| 9 | MC_Mountain | 14337 |
| 10 | Blues_in_the_Bottle | 14295 |
but the Collective Wisdom team has an average of 15698, and the Collective Ignorance team still leads the long term rankings with 16281.
The failed picksIf the presence of Vincenzo Albanese in the Collective Wisdom team is a bit of an embarrassment, that more than half of us picked a rider who has scored just over 100 points in three years, that is not the end of the story. There are 31 riders that we picked who have gained fewer points than Albanese, 11 of them were picked by more than one of us, and one (Logan Owen) very nearly made the Collective Wisdom team. Two of them didn't manage a single point in the three years, and 28 of them are still eligible for
the 2021-23 game.
If that has not exhausted every piece of data you could hope to extract from the spreadsheet, and you still want to explore further,
here it is.
