3 teams within 23 points on the podium! In the end though Carrefour being able to remain on the top spot and winning the CT title.
Carlsberg and Philips despite good scoring in the final classics can`t come close enough. Still all 3 had very solid seasons and move up to the PCT division.
They are joined by (at least) Centovally Fiat, Tryg - Ritter Sport and also Project: Africa despite them losing the top5 spot in the very end. They might have won Zuri Mezgete but the Solidarnosc performance by Tryg was even better.
That means, as usual in the CT division some more teams might still have chances, which would be in that order teams like Los Pollos Hermanos, Sauber, Bralirwa or Guave, who complete the top10.
Teams, that might need a proper rebuild are at the bottom such as Trans, Strava, Glanbia, McCormick or Eddie Stobart. Some obviously knew this beforehand and already were talent focussed.
Pos
Last
Team
Total
1
1
Carrefour - ESPN
2138
2
2
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
2120
3
4
Philips
2115
4
3
Centovalli - Fiat
1960
5
6
Tryg - Ritter Sport
1576
6
5
Project: Africa
1514
7
7
Los Pollos Hermanos
1345
8
9
Sauber Petronas Racing
1235
9
8
Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes
1233
10
11
Guave's Sunlight Cycling
1168
11
10
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
1097
12
13
BNZ Cycling Team
1042
13
14
Team Europcar
1021
14
15
Trans Cycling Team
975
15
12
Strava
958
16
16
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
846
17
17
McCormick Pro Cycling
756
18
19
Nordica - Enel
675
19
18
Eddie Stobart
661
20
20
Sotto il sole di Riccione
615
Pinot is already an insitution in the CT division and whenever riding there being one of the best. He takes the individual title but it was close as Kelderman came very close in the end for 2nd.
Reinhardt being the big surprise in 3rd delivering the promotion for Centovalli. Ranaweera in 4th ahead of Baugnies, the ageing cobble star in the CT.
Warbasse, Keinath as 2nd tier stage racers ahead of puncheurs Moscon, Eiking and Juul-Jensen in the top10 ahead of several sprinters such as Coutinho, Kragh-Andersen or Krieger.
Seventh is better than we predicted before the season. Sterbini disappointed a little, but a great Guillén with possibly his last season sealed the (seventh place-) deal for us. Now we'll have to wait and see whether we will promote or not. If we do, we will use the extra funds to probably get us some more Latin American and Belgian talents. If we don't, same story but with less budget
Congratulations to the six promoting managers already
Congrats to the Top 3, really a great fight between the three of you in the end! We lost a bit of momentum after an amazing start, with especially the home races (Lugano & Zürich) being way below expectations. But being less than 200 points behind first and more than 400 ahead of 6th is a great result for us - and the perspectives of getting a maxed Masnada back next year, and both Reinhardt and Moscon already having very strong C1 or even HC results this year really looks great. Looking forward to our first PCT adventure
Congrats as well to Tryg & P:A for promotion, as well as to Los Pollos, Bralirwa and Guave for a great debut season (not as great as P:A, but well...)!
Congratulations to Carrefour - ESPN, Carlsberg - Danske Bank, Centovalli - Fiat ,Tryg - Ritter Sport and Project: Africa. Great to see five honorable teams promoting!!!
Damn, I knew AKA would improve based on his last few performances, but 12th? That's a shock. He scored way more than I figured in the last month. Obviously still wanted more consistency from him, but being the 3rd best sprinter is a lot more tolerable than being the 8th or 9th, like he was a couple of months ago. For all my complaining, he still ended up serviceable at his wage.
Obviously, I'm thrilled to promote. That was the goal all season, quite clearly. It was absolutely necessary to not blow up everything we've built in terms of talents since moving to PCT the first time. And we did it. We take 5/5 goals and we get back to where we want to be for next season. No complaints at all. It feels good to have some unambiguous success for a year.
Losing the title by 18 points should sting, but it really doesn't. I never expected to be in the title fight, especially by the mid way point of the season. I anticipated trying to get 3rd or 4th. So even making it this close was just an exciting side story. Congrats to Carrefour!
Individually, I really couldn't have asked for more, given AKA's late season resurgence. Warbasse had a phenomenal season, not just getting 6th, but accomplishing both goals, including a very unlikely win goal. Juul-Jensen proved himself all year. No wins, but extremely consistent to get top 10 in the rankings. AKA rebounded to 12th. Sinkeldam less consistent but also with some huge performances in 27th. All our top leaders made it into the rankings before the spoiler.
That was always our strategy this year - do enough with leaders on all terrains. The depth scoring wasn't anything special, but that's fine. Fabbro disappointed as Warbasse's wingman but did better on his own and complemented JJ better than expected. Eg scored less than I hoped but was a good domestique, Gregaard was quite good at level 3. Besides them, it was mostly a matter of fielding enough riders for every race and giving our leaders a chance, and it worked.
Thank you to all the reporters and administrators who made this season possible! I can't wait for next season. Congrats to other promoting teams and good luck next season to those staying in CT!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
We got our goal of automatic promotion and we're happy we could stay in the title fight till the last day. But congrats to Carrefour who led for almost all of the season and are deserved winner of the division. Also congrats to all the teams already guaranteed to promote. It should be a tough PCT next time around with everyone promoting from here and the quality coming down from the PT, not to mention those that are already there. Should be fun
Kelderman ending the season in style after some iffy performances in between. He helps us get one of our goals by achieving the Top 5 individual rider spot. Keinath was the unlikely near-500 pointer who rounds out probably his last season as an out-and-out leader on any team at the very top. Great job there as well. So happy that we could go back to our first season strategy of depth scoring, having another seven riders between positions 30 and 100. Special mention to Paprstka and Boev, who on minimum wage and no wage respectively, gave us massive points throughout the season. Also a great finish to the season by Dumoulin who kept getting closer and closer to the top until finally winning at Herald Sun! Love that he could be useful as a leader for us. Van Lerberghe led the cobbles line very well and we'll always remember him outgunning Summerhill in Benelux. Nothing can even take that away from him
Thank you to Roturn for the final Rankings update of the season and for all the behind the scenes work he keeps putting in to keep this game running. Thanks to all the other admins involved and to everyone contributing in some way to this game, in especially the reporters without whom there is no MG!
Looking forward to the next season and hoping to see most you all back again
quadsas wrote:
Congratulations to Carrefour - ESPN, Carlsberg - Danske Bank, Centovalli - Fiat ,Tryg - Ritter Sport and Project: Africa. Great to see five honorable teams promoting!!!
We hoped for a top 10, but failed ultimately and need to regroup for the next season. I suspect we will try a little different strategy in the next transfer window
Thanks to all reporters and admins that makes this game still running! Amazing!
Well CT season number 4 and Man Game Season number 7 is finally a wrap. Super happy to finish first although the ending was much much closer than I would have expected halfway through the season, so much respect to all the promoting teams, but specifically Carlsberg and Philips for making the end of the season so exciting.
When building out this roster, I definitely thought Tsatevich or Quevedo would score a bit more, but there was such a massive haul of points from guys like Lavoine (on a sub 70k salary!) who put in absolute shifts for us this year. Could not be more happier with Lavoine specifically as picking him up on the low in FA last year openned up some more fun opportunities in the draft.
Next year is definitely going to be difficult, I could even see us potentially going back down given the age of our squad. But I'm excited to finally have somesort of base of a team to build around, as in years previous we've had a massive revolving door as a response to promotions and relegations. Hopefully we can maintain a bit more continuity and nationality focus as we try to pick up some talents as well here and there.
With all that, thanks for the congratulations for the 1st place, maybe I'm just a manager eternally bound to being good in the CT but bad in the PCT, but hopefully we can change that next year
Also, thanks to all the reporters, Roturn, etc. The Man Game is something I, and all of us enjoy so much so big thank you for maintaining such a solid season.
Congrats to Maxime on the win and to all the promoting teams. Leif and Fabianskil are the first to fly the flag for the class of 2019 in the PCT - so will be routing for them.
17th is better than predictions (except for Nemo) but worse than last year. So will call that a win. Our main goals remain in the future.
What a season! Glad our Pinot + TTT tactic paid off. I had expected to finish around 10th, so 6th place is an excellent result. Unfortunate to just miss out on our 5th place rankings goal by a handful of points. Pinot had a good season, but he did have 1 or 2 surprise underperformances which made the difference in the end.
Thanks for the final update and the reports all season long. Strava without a win all season is quite disappointing. Congratulations to the ones promoting!
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
