Farfetch and Repsol did fight for the title for a long time with Farfetch having the advantage for most of the year with a great start already. In the end they ended strong as best team in Emelia alongside decent scoring elsewhere and take the title.
Repsol and Mapei follow on the podium and will move up.
Just like Desigual, Xero and due to Volvo`s disband MOL.
That`s 2 new teams to the PT division, that never have been part of the highest division before.
Pluchkin`s desaster in the PCT might go on as Popo4ever sits on the unwanted 7th spot, which for the moment doesn`t guarantee you moving up.
Kraftwerk dropped post Tour of America again and missing promotion just like Bakkafrost and Duolingo.
At the bottom Campari, Adastra and Nordstrom relegate just like Azteca and Aramco DP. Lucky team GCN Racing closely avoided the relegation despite no scoring in the final 2 races.
Pos
Last
Team
Total
1
2
Farfetch Pro Cycling
4447
2
1
Repsol - Netflix
4191
3
3
Mapei
3963
4
4
Desigual
3795
5
7
Xero Racing
3419
6
8
MOL
3300
7
9
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
3264
8
5
Kraftwerk Man Machine
3262
9
6
Bakkafrost
3144
10
10
Duolingo
3098
11
11
Polar
3072
12
12
Valio - Viking Genetics
2929
13
16
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
2832
14
13
Minions
2797
15
14
Berg Cycles
2647
16
15
Podium Ambition
2621
17
18
Fablok - Chocolate Jacques
2595
18
17
DK - SVA Zalgiris
2584
19
19
Swisslion Cycling Team
2260
20
21
Andorra Cycling Project
2105
21
20
GCN Racing
2069
22
23
Aramco DP
1976
23
22
Azteca - NBCSN
1900
24
24
Nordstrom - CA Technologies
1828
25
25
Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling
1600
26
26
Campari Asahi Procycling
1331
Individually Pluchkin with another PCT title. He is simply far better than the rest even though the names Tenorio, Gesink doesn`t sound bad neither and follow on the podium.
Manninen with an impressive season being the best sprinter ahead of Andorra`s cobble star Summerhill.
Guarnieri, Kudus, then Zmorka as best time trialist, Izagirre as puncheur and Wellens follow.
Worst of the rest? Either way we banger, a true showing of INCREDIBLE team building, with 9 riders scoring 100+ and a 99 point scorer. BRILLIANT job by Žalgiris manager
Another promotion for Farfetch. I hope they'll remain for a couple of seasons atleast this time
It sucks to see Azteca going up and down, without ever really settling in the PCT, and I also dislike seeing Nordstrom going down - despite it being obvious for some time by now.
Aramco with another relegation after a huge talent gamble. I wonder how many talents can stay after that. It sucks big time when your gambles doesn't pay off.
Thrilling title fight in the end, after what looked to be a walk in the park for Farfetch during most of the year. Congrats to all the promoting teams, but a bit unlucky for Popo4Ever who probably have missed a great chance this year. If Pluchkin can't lead them to PT, maybe Padun will one day?
Congrats as well to Zalgiris as the strongest of the newly promoted teams, good job! I guess the fate of the other newly promoted teams shows us that it will be incredibly tough for us to stay up next year - but we're still looking forward to the challenge
And hats off also to Andorra, who were the clear favorite for last place across most predictions, but somehow managed to stay up - "Mr. almost 50%" Summerhill definitely did an amazing job there!
Last year we survived with Beltran having a very strong season. This year we survived with Beltran and Saber having bad seasons. So I don't know whether I'm lucky or unlucky
The fact of the matter is we've gotten worse or everyone else is simply better, which is kinda the same anyway. I don't fancy my chances to stave off relegation for a 3rd season next year, but we'll see how renewals/transfers go.
Congrats to all the promoted teams and commiserations to the relegated ones.
Obviously not what we hoped for, 200 points short for the second time in a row in the PCT. Luckily for us we have a solid core of CT leaders next year in Dyrnes, Grmay and GVK which should put us in a decent spot for promotion, if not directly then through disbands. Looking forward watching Farfetch in the PT next year as well as watching LLS trying to figure out the clusterfuck of a transfer season he is going to have as he tries to keep as many of his maxed talents whilst putting up a PCT push again.
Congratulations to all promoting teams, especially Xero did well for a very doomed team!
Of course some extra attention to my own team here. In the end we rose to 13th and only 500-600 points away from promotion depending on how you look at it. Let's start with the good and keep Bonifazio for last.
Oomen with a killer season, he didn't disappoint me in any race. Great stuff from him, but the major downside is a big part of those points were from the youth classifications. He loses those points next year so we'll have to find them elsewhere.
Gaviria just finishing above his rivals Ewan and Swift, which would be a great success if we can ignore Guarnieri and especially Manninen for a moment. I already made the comparisson Manninen-Bonifazio, but even Manninen-Gaviria is a 350 point gap. Stunning.
Vanbilsen with probably his worst season so far. He's really suffering with his mountain stat and then Andorra came in and broke the game to secure their PCT spot. Can't blame him, but would be nice if he can win another classic next year.
After that it's Senni, does what he always does, some good results and then some results where you can just see his low main stats hurt him. Can definitely stay.
Next is De Plus who definitely needs some training to get more competitive. He will also lose the U25 points next season, but he may have also been used as a domestique too often.
So at this point you might start to wonder if we'll ever reach Bonifazio, no, he's still further down the list. First we have Bolivar who outscores the 80 sprint guy with just some minor point scoring in the classics. Excellent work for a minimum wage guy!
And then there's Bonifazio. I know he's not the most complete sprinter. As people have pointed out, he can't get over a speedbump. But here's the thing, I used Gaviria in the hillier and longer profiles. Bonifazio has all the flat profiles for himself. He had every chance to score points.
Was he going to win every race like Manninen? Of course not, but more often than not he wasn't even sprinting. His flat and resistance always should've kept him in the front of the peloton and his SPR/ACC combo is good enough for PCT level. Only 76 points, he gets beaten by Stanislau Bazhkou whoever that is.
So onto next year. Oomen's wage is worrying me. Even though he'll lose the U25 points, they will probably still be included in the wage calculation. Gaviria surely can't go much higher (yes, screenshot this and come mock me in few months). Bonifazio should drop a lot so there should be a little wage cap available. But with Fiat coming up, Italian riders will be taken and if Pollos goes up as well the Belgian market will also be tricky.
Another year in which the team is away from all the fights. If on the one hand this is positive because it means that we have always been far from relegation, on the other hand it means that we are not improving at all because we cannot walk near the front seats.
Swift was the only rider in the team that did well throughout the season, all the others disappointed especially Montoya who failed a lot in many of the races he entered.
congratulations to all the promoted teams and best of luck for the next season for all the relegated
Ollfardh wrote:
Only 76 points, he gets beaten by Stanislau Bazhkou whoever that is.
DO NOT disrespect Stan the Man, one of the most amazing riders of Isostar beginnings
Apart from that, it's a shame you couldn't promote. But you have the perfect set-up to make it happen (if you choose to go that way rather than going for talents). And you also have a great team to work on that in the future.
Altur definitely confirmed as the worst training spend in MG history! AC held a Top50 spot (shame there is just no value in training him with our current cost system). And Ewan is looking at a healthy wage drop.
In the end a very mediocre season. Alturs best result was in a Time Trial, Lawless almost won a Hilly Stage Race, Ewan is the MG's best lead-out man, and AC continues to show he's got a couple of big races in his legs and a few complete blow-outs.
Ricki and Kek contributed some nice points ahead of declines and departures. Wolvering i felt should have had more points (ugh, if only we could have spent Alturs training money on him) but is well placed going forwards.
Time to re-group and go again with a healthy amount of cap space to use
Congrats jph, brilliant season by one of the teams with the most consistant approach in targeting riders. Seems like a group of strong energy stat riders is definitely worth a lot ;)
Repsol, Mapei, Farfetch at the top is similar to what could be expected before the season and Desigual, Xero, Mol and Pluchi4ever were all possible/likely top ten teams too.
To me it's particularly cool to see fellow Conglomerate previewer jandal in the PT next season. Maybe we were right for once to call us experts since planning must have been very good for him too and the decision to overpay for Meurisse was no bad one either ;)
Kraftclub by far the biggest surprise. I thought they had solid chances to avoid relegation but they ended up avoiding promotion by such a narrow margin. Very cool to see that. And certainly seems like the decision to go for insane depth paid off for multiple teams. Valio the other big surprise - comfortably midseason.
Zalgiris finishes on a solid 18th place. They say it's the best lithuanian team in the world - maybe ever. Congrats for this magnificient and tremoundously historic result.
Swisslion with a pretty disappointing season. They werent a promotion contender before the season and didnt relegate so not a lot of harm done but i hope they come back stronger again.
The relegation zone includes a few too many recently promoted teams for my taste. Probably a big part of that are the measures to start a stat deflation which cause the newer teams to suffer.
It's a deja deja vu, as for the last three seasons we seem to be stuck in mid table. Comfortable enough to not worry about relegation but never close enough to even consider thinking about promotion.
This season we finally had another reliable points scorer alongside Uran in Vesely, who definitely hit expectations. Urans decline however meant he cannot score the same points as before, so we didnt actually gain or lose anything compared to last year. Now that Uran is going to decline even further he is no longer the vocal point of the team.
Claeys hasn't done anything of note this season, and Zepuntke is never going to be a big point scorer. Haga as our third-best scorer from the hill/TT races, but is now also going into decline. A new leader is desparately leader to at least status quo.
Congratulations jph! Farfetch was really a strong team this year. Also congrats to Aquarius, Heine, MrE, jandal and jaxika for their promotions! Commiserations to LLS, Kentaurus, whitejersey, ivaneurope and Tamijo, hopefully you'll be able to bounce back up quickly!
Thanks roturn for the organizational work, all the reports for the great work, everyone else who plays part behind the scenes and of course every fellow manager. Nice to see the ManGame still going strong!
Ah well, a rather bittersweet moment and kinda underwhelming result to end on, but yeah this is the end of my ManGame journey. Its honestly been so fun, but the way my calendar got set up, basically meant there were about 2 months of no racing and I lost interest.
Near perfect season for Wellens though in my opinion, he was fighting for wins and thats what I wanted from him. Hope someone will continue his training hence forth. Thats really all I can say about this season.
Anyways it has been an adventure and from the 1st season of getting Lavoine for 75k and absolutely destroying the CT field with him, honestly was amazing. Then we worked our way up to the PT for one season, which was a milestone for sure. A lot of good memories from Transfer season overall and even helping contributing a bit by doing a little reporting, mainly doing the Giro dItalia was fun.
A really exciting season for me, personally. Was thinking before the season that a top-half spot would be a realistic target. Somehow, we managed to get involved in the promotion fight and stay in it nearly all the way until the end, which was awesome. Obviously a little bit disappointed that we couldn’t keep our form up all the way until the end, but looking at the bigger picture, 9th place is something to be happy about.
Guarnieri with a ridiculous season, nothing else to say. Good season from Monsalve as well, but a lot more variable in his performances. I think some improvements can be made with regards too planning to raise his point haul for next year. Breen started the season well, but couldn’t quite keep it going. An alright season for him, but not spectacular. Gallopin is probably the only rider that I’m a little bit disappointed about. Didn’t quite live up to his 2019 season despite having more freedom. Other than that, great to have 7 riders crossing the 100 point threshold. Hindley not far off either, which is amazing by the young loanee.
Congratulations to jph on the win! Expected Farfetch to be up there, but didn’t quite anticipate that they would be so consistently great. Congratulations to the other promotees as well. Xero is the only slight surprise to me, but it’s certainly an awesome team, and jandal has a great foundation to build on for the PT. Meanwhile, commiseration’s to the relegating managers. Hope to see many of you bounce back quickly!
Thanks to all the reporters, Roturn and all the other people helping out behind the scenes. Your work is truly appreciated A special thanks to Nemolito for the enormous workload you took upon this season and yet delivered with such quality. I think I have a favorite for reporter of the year in the next awards Edited by Sykkel_Freak on 03-08-2021 08:37
sgdanny wrote:
Ah well, a rather bittersweet moment and kinda underwhelming result to end on, but yeah this is the end of my ManGame journey. Its honestly been so fun, but the way my calendar got set up, basically meant there were about 2 months of no racing and I lost interest.
Near perfect season for Wellens though in my opinion, he was fighting for wins and thats what I wanted from him. Hope someone will continue his training hence forth. Thats really all I can say about this season.
Anyways it has been an adventure and from the 1st season of getting Lavoine for 75k and absolutely destroying the CT field with him, honestly was amazing. Then we worked our way up to the PT for one season, which was a milestone for sure. A lot of good memories from Transfer season overall and even helping contributing a bit by doing a little reporting, mainly doing the Giro dItalia was fun.
sgdanny out
Can I have your Wellens?
Always sad to see people leave, especialy after racing togther for so many years.
I kinda knew going into it that we’d need 1 or 2 big performances to really keep us up but we just didn’t get them from Martin or an underperforming Ulissi.
Relegation by less than 100 points hurts but we were on track to relegate from the first few updates so it’s surprising we got as close as we did to staying up.
The real challenge will be holding onto what the team now has. The older guys will be released, that’s for sure. Borisavljevic had a poor scoring season now that he’s not U25 so his wage should drop and then we’ll see what happens with all my talents come renewals.
Congrats to those who are moving up and to those joining me in CT next season, good luck!
Hope you'll join again later, and wish you all the best.
