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| Vuelta - Most overestimated riders (cendi71 - September 14, 12:31) | ||
| Here's the top-6 of most overestimated riders in this Vuelta (some of them dropped out already), as per number of total stars/votes received from predictors at procyclingstats.com vs their actual points score in all stages (all of them actually scored ZERO): Coquard FRA 4480 De Gendt BEL 879 Higuita COL 868 Mollema 733 Caruso 664 Fraile 488 Some of other clearly underperforming riders (at least vs people's expectations) include: JP.Lopez, Menten, Hofstetter, Tiberi, G.Thomas, Lazkano, Almeida, Gregoire, | ||
| German Darts Open 2023: finished (Prediction game administrator - September 10, 23:17) | ||
| [erased after expiration date] | ||
| Basketball World Cup 2023: finished (Prediction game administrator - September 10, 16:41) | ||
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| Cycling Grand tours (cendi71 - September 07, 16:47) | ||
| An interesting little stat, which shows with certainty what the prime age for a GC rider is. The average age of top-10 finishers in the last 10 years is practically the same for each of the three grand tours. It is: 29 | ||
| Rugby World Cup 2023 (cendi71 - September 05, 09:55) | ||
| Not totally sure if all the rosters I used were up to date but a good exercise even if only for illustratory purposes anyway. Here are the teams with 10-plus World Cup roster players: 19 Leinster 19 Benetton 19 Fijian Drua 18 Moana Pasifika 17 Toulouse 16 Edinburgh 15 Glasgow 13 Saracens 13 Toulon 12 Lyon 11 La Rochelle 10 Munster 10 Crusaders As regards stars and big hopes on the team, I think the numbers are not that representative. I took a quick look at some previews (like top-25 players to watch; best player by national team etc) and fantasy values of players on particular positions. Not a rugby expert by any means but here is how many stars and players to watch I found on the best teams: Teams with 5-plus star-players: 13(!) Leinster, 8 Toulouse, 5 La Rochelle So a question to experts: Do Leinster really stand out as regards the team quality (by these measures)? | ||
| Tour of Britain - On-Form Riders (cendi71 - September 02, 11:17) | ||
| If it helps with a decision re: GC predictions, here is 50days form ranking from pcc.com: pcc points scored over last 50D - Name 480 Van Aert 423 C.Rodriguez 295 D.van Poppel 218 Pidcock 203 S.Williams 200 Johannessen 193 Tillier 168 Kooij 136 Politt 116 Swift It doesn't mean GC points, as points are scored in various categories (eg. sprint) but looking at the list, most of the riders are actually GC favourites for this year's ToB so could be a good guideline, esp. outside the seemingly top-2 clear favourites WVA/Pidcock. Last year's winner and top-6 favourite Serrano only with 20 points but wasn't perhaps riding much (not sure). | ||
| Europe group phase participation stats (cendi71 - September 01, 10:23) | ||
| Looking at the ELO ratings, there seem to be 3 big absentees this year: Tottenham H, Juventus, Chelsea Otherwise, I think the three cups are fully packed with what Europe has to offer. | ||
| Europe group phase participation stats (cendi71 - September 01, 00:38) | ||
| Pts (each CL team scores 3pts, each EL team 2pts, each ECL team 1pt) - Country - no of CL participants, no of EL participants, no of ECL paticipants 19 Spain 5 2 0 19 England 4 3 1 17 Germany 4 2 1 17 Italy 4 2 1 13 France 2 3 1 11 Portugal 3 1 0 9 Netherlands 2 1 1 8 Belgium 1 1 3 7 Austria 1 2 0 7 Greece 0 3 1 6 Switzerland 1 1 1 6 Serbia 1 1 1 6 Scotland 1 1 1 5 Turkey 1 0 2 5 Czech Rep 0 2 1 4 Denmark 1 0 1 4 Ukraine 1 0 1 3 Israel 0 1 1 3 Norway 0 1 1 3 Poland 0 1 1 2 Azerbaijan 0 1 0 2 Cyprus 0 1 0 2 Moldova 0 1 0 2 Sweden 0 1 0 2 Slovakia 0 0 2 1 Bulgaria 0 0 1 1 Bosnia and Herceg 0 0 1 1 Faroe Islands 0 0 1 1 Finland 0 0 1 1 Croatia 0 0 1 1 Hungary 0 0 1 1 Iceland 0 0 1 1 Kosovo 0 0 1 1 Kazakhstan 0 0 1 1 Slovenia 0 0 1 35 countries in total with at least one rep in the group phase of a European cup. | ||
| Grand Tour stats (cendi71 - August 30, 12:48) | ||
| It is very rare that a rider is physically able to race in all three grand tours in one season. This year's there are two such riders: Sepp Kuss and LL.Sanchez and it's been 4 years since it happened previous time (T.de Gendt 2019). In this view, there is one rider in the modern history of cycling that is definitely worth mentioning, not a very big name, he won a stage at Vuelta and one more at Giro. Adam Hansen is his name (age 41 today) and he is an Australian. His big achievement: he was able to repeat the triple GT appearance on as many as 6 ocassions and this came in consecutive years 2012-2017! Not only appeared but finished them all. The best GC place he ever managed was 53rd though. I ran quickly through the names on the list 2000-now. Just one rider made 3 appearances (Farrar 2009-2011) while I think all others were able to to this just once in their career (or 2 max if I missed anyone). So 6 in a row must be a massive physical burden (18 races in 6 years)! On SEPP KUSS, he is a powerhouse and a superdomestique for the Jumbo big guys (Ving, Roglic), could likely shine on its own in some smaller team. So with the massive effort he contributes in every tour (plus stress as expectations in this team are always high), 3x in a row is a big thing too. | ||
| Vuelta Stage 4 (cendi71 - August 29, 17:49) | ||
| A rather scary piece of news from today. Luckily one of the offenders was caught redhanded. https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling/video-spanish-police-arrest-four-men-who-planned-on-sabotaging-vuelta-a-espana-with-400-liters-of-oil I wonder if it might have something to do with a 'Catalunya not Espana' demonstration? Or maybe just a stupid joke. In any case, it might have had very tragic consequences for the ride | ||
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World Series of Darts Finals 2023: started (Prediction game administrator - August 28, 21:43) | ||
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LEN Champions League 2023/24: started (Prediction game administrator - August 28, 16:46) | ||
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| World Athletics Champ. 2023: finished (Prediction game administrator - August 27, 21:56) | ||
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| Vuelta Stage 2 comments (cendi71 - August 27, 17:54) | ||
| In case anyone wondered why none of the highly acclaimed GC contenders made it to top-3 or even top-10 today despite favourable odds, today's stage was neutralised (i.e. time stopped) 1km before the Mont Juic climb and 8km before the finish line following safety concerns from the riders (rainy weather in Barcelona yestarday and today). As a result, there was never a proper GC fight on the punchy finish as originally planned. 8km from the line all GC contenders switched on a tourist ride mode. The podium and Mt Juic intermediate sprint time bonuses still did count. | ||
| Football / Postponed matches (axe - August 27, 12:15) | ||
| A lot of postponed matches at season start across all European leagues this year. As a result we have more skipped Rat Race rounds and postponed Cup rounds. Besides the deliberate attacks of the Russians on civilians in the Ukraine I don't know why matches in Belgium, Bulgaria, Turkey, Czech Republic are postponed this weekend. This makes administration not easier. | ||
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