Team popularityIn case anyone is new, the popularity table ranks the teams according to the number of teams each of their riders is on. For example, nearly all of us got 38 points for Ayuso, while any unique picks on your team will have got you just one point. Koronin and Leadbelly are the two that lack Ayuso, Redhead Dane somehow positions herself lower in the popularity table than Leadbelly despite that.
| Team | Popularity pts | Unique picks |
|---|
| 1 | Bminchow | 362 | 0 |
| 2 | AmisVelo | 353 | 1 |
| 3 | Bonimenier | 333 | 0 |
| 4 | Cordi | 332 | 0 |
| 4 | Fivezzz | 332 | 0 |
| 4 | Skidmark | 332 | 1 |
| 7 | Madrazo | 323 | 0 |
| 7 | Squire | 323 | 1 |
| 9 | SafeBet | 321 | 1 |
| 10 | Armchair_Cyclist | 308 | 1 |
| 11 | DevilsElbow | 307 | 1 |
| 12 | Nakazar | 306 | 0 |
| 13 | LosBrolin | 301 | 2 |
| 14 | Laarsland | 296 | 0 |
| 15 | RoteLaterne | 290 | 0 |
| 16 | Rufs | 288 | 1 |
| 17 | Del1962 | 287 | 0 |
| 17 | Nyssinator | 287 | 0 |
| 19 | Kazistuta | 285 | 1 |
| 20 | Scrooll07 | 283 | 0 |
| 21 | JumboVismaFan | 282 | 1 |
| 21 | Salvarani | 282 | 0 |
| 23 | Nathanptz | 277 | 0 |
| 24 | Berflamand | 276 | 0 |
| 25 | Repre | 274 | 1 |
| 26 | EvansIsTheBest | 273 | 1 |
| 27 | Otoxiep87 | 271 | 3 |
| 28 | Comodoro | 257 | 1 |
| 29 | Josedin | 256 | 2 |
| 30 | JonEzeitza | 250 | 2 |
| 31 | Greenedge | 249 | 1 |
| 32 | EdkDeus | 247 | 2 |
| 33 | Vladimir | 238 | 2 |
| 34 | Blues_in_the_Bottle | 237 | 0 |
| 35 | Riverside | 235 | 5 |
| 36 | Ray10 | 231 | 2 |
| 37 | LukasCPH | 222 | 0 |
| 38 | Leadbelly | 143 | 7 |
| 39 | RedheadDane | 126 | 5 |
| 40 | Koronin | 125 | 6 |
| | CollectiveWisdom | 388 | 0 |
| | CollectiveIgnorance | 0 | 18 |
| | MainGame2022 | 344 | 0 |
| | Goodin2021 | 143 | 4 |
Bminchow's team was high, but by no means top, until he sent in three changes that greatly boosted his standings here: whether De Lie, Leemreize and Vernon give a greater boost than Ardila, Drizners and Van Dijke to the final score remains to be seen.
I should have mentioned in the post above that there were some interesting swings in the popularity of riders: Baroncini was as popular as Ayuso for a long time, but later submissions had a far lower rate of inclusion for him; Leemrieze, Vandenabeele and Romo all hung on to the top 18, but were among the top 6 or 8 for a long time, and a few riders were notable for their frequency in the entries of the last couple of days: Sheffield, Gregoire,Nys and Bayer. And although Koretsky was only on 3 teams, they were, if memory serves me well, three of the final five to arrive.
I have already explained above the Collective Wisdom and Ignorance teams, but there are two others in the bottom bit of the list that might need explaining.
The
Main Game 2022 team is made up of the most popular players in the main annual CQ game, hosted by Skidmark, that are still eligible here. There is a difference in player base, but also a difference in pricing priorities, in that game, so there Uitdebroeks is very close to Ayuso, and a long way clear of Baroncini in popularity there as opposed to here. No unique picks here, but Milan
Vader is on 6 teams there and only 1 here: Javier Romo is on 19 teams here, but only 5 there.
Good in 2021 represents, I suppose, the laziest way of selecting a team; they are the top 18 scoring riders in 2021 that are still eligible here. Low in the popularity rankings because it necessarily excludes those coming up from the juniors, and maybe because of a tendency against choosing again riders who didn't perform as we hoped in Year 1 of the previous edition. But no-one thought that Wirtgen, Delettre, Zoccarato or Hocevar had done enough last year to be worth a punt here?
The make up of the CI team will constantly change, and it expect it to lead for about a year and a half, as it cannot contain anyone who has not yet performed well. But who might it contain at the end of 2024? Who did you consider, but omit, and you were surprised to see that he is not one of the 115 riders that someone else fancied? On those grounds, I will propose Sam Welsford (and perhaps those 4 from the Good in 2021 team) as likely to feature in Collective Ignorance. Who do you think will be there?
