Monday, October 12, 2009

Look Who's Back On Top

Last year, the FGBC CX Pool saw only two different leaders over the course of almost 5 months of vicarious racing. Rachel led for a couple of days early on. But Gary grabbed the lead for good on Oct. 19 and never let it go. In the end, he won by over 600 points. So far this year, we've had a little more variation at the top of the standings. Seven different people have found their way to the top of the standings over the first four weeks. And this weekend the lead changed hands no less than four different times. Matt kicked off the weekend by taking the lead back from Dallas on Friday in Cincinnati. But after the first GVA race of the season on Saturday, Olli moved to the front of the pack. By the end of the day on Saturday, however, Matt was back in the lead thanks to another strong showing in Cincy. And that's when Gary made his move. He took over the top spot after the Superprestige race in Ruddervoorde. And he extended it later in the day at the final race in Cincinnati. He now has a 75 point lead over Vic. Matt is in third place, another 105 points back. It's still pretty close at the top, so hopefully Gary will let the rest of us keep dreams about winning the 2009-10 FGBC CX Pool for a little while longer. Last year, he monopolized all our fun.

As for the individual races, Cincinnati saw three-way ties for first place in each of its three races. On Friday, it was Charlene, Mike, and Craig, with 355 points each. Saturday saw Gary, Matt, and Jonah take the top three spots. They had 300 points apiece. And on Sunday, Charlene, Mike, and Craig found their way back to the podium with simultaneous 375 point days. Over in Europe, thing were a little less cozy. Olli took the win at the GVA series opener at the Citadel in Namur. He had 465 points to finish ahead of Darryl (420) and LeAnn (415). At the Superprestige opener on Sunday, Hal's 350 point showing was the best of the day. Jonny B had 325 points for second place. And I rounded out the podium, with 310 points.

Full results here.

Next weekend, the NACT Series resumes in Toronto. And the second World Cup race of the season takes place in the Czech Republic at Pilzen.

8 comments:

co2cycle said...

all 3 Cinci races got counted but no love for the C2 races in Providence? TJ and Nash were unstoppable!

The Dark Lord said...

Yeah, I know. I feel the same way. In retrospect, the calendar probably shouldn't have included Cincy because it split the field with Providence. But that's the way it got set up way back when. So we should probably stick with it even though I'd rather have the points Driscoll and Nash would have picked up in Providence.

Then again, if there's a groundswell of support from the participants, we could easily factor in the results from Providence and treat Cincy/Providence as a single race. Thoughts?

co2cycle said...

the double and triple event weekends in the US are tricky, especially since there are usually at least two C2 races going on somewhere around the country. personally, i'd like to see providence included, partially because i got goose-egged in Cincy and could have received some nice points in Providence, but also for consistency. especially since the contest seems fairly heavily weighted toward the US races, at least so far.

how would you treat Cincy/Providence as a single race? Each series is like a single race, or both get points (two first-place men and women on each day)?

and where the heck is Todd Wells? that's enough recovery from the mtb season, get out on the cx circuit!

The Dark Lord said...

The results from both Cincy and Providence races on Saturday would simply be thrown together. And the same for Sunday. So both Powers and Johnson would get 150 points. And on down the list. Both fields were disappointingly shallow. But so it goes.

I'm willing to do that. But if others are cool with it.

You should have been here for the race on Saturday. North Carolina never gets conditions like that.

The Dark Lord said...

I should perhaps add that it's not like I considered Providence and decided to pass on it. Rather, I simply missed it somehow. I included all the C1 races on the calendar, and then a handful of C2 races if it seemed like some of the bigger names would show up. It's not perfect. But more cx better than less.

The Dark Lord said...

If we were to add Providence, the overall standings would now look like this. Do you want to throw the challenge flag?

Gary 4005
Dallas 3740
Vic 3630
Matt 3525
Jay 3505
David 3325
Chris H 3300
Jonny G 3265
Charlene 3245
Olli 3210
LeAnn 3145
Jonah 3125
Hal 3000
Mike 2995
Craig 2965
Brad 2960
Darryl 2910
Adam 2800
Dan 2760
Miriam 2725
Andy 2685
Chris D 2565
Chris O 2500
Kevin 2450
Paul 2385
Paddy 2365
Ian 2355
Bill 2350
Graham 2330
Jonny B 2100
Rachel 1960
Chris A 1840
Naomi 1700

co2cycle said...

let there be points! let's keep this contest close, especially since some people picked up over 1000 points in cincy.

The Dark Lord said...

Since nobody else has chimed in on this, I think we'll just have to leave it.