Congratulations To Our FSA Directeur Sportif Winners!

Hey, you had enjoyable, didn’t you? To start with a minimum of?

Sure, the season is over and we’re deep into the method of wanting again and making an attempt to grasp what occurred. We had some excellent particular person performances, capped by Remco Evenepoel (chosen by voters) and Annemiek van Vleuten (vote pointless) as our high performing riders of the 12 months. We may get right into a debate about which groups have been superior in 2022 (it was Jumbo males and Trek girls).

Or we may start three months of gnashing our tooth over our FSA Directeur Sportif groups.

Sure, let’s try this. However first… let’s congratulate the godverdo… the noble winners of the 2022 FSA DS! As we typically mentioned alongside the best way, it was an interesting competitors, with the same old twists and turns among the many high riders and our share of stunning enhancements and disappointments. It’s a time to mirror not simply on what the highest groups did however by yourself outcomes and methods. Let’s dive in!

Picture by Dario Belingheri/Getty Pictures,

Males’s Groups

Sigh…

Properly earlier than attending to the highest groups, let’s simply say that our year-long pricing dialog, which I defended till I couldn’t, has formally blown up in my face. The Males’s competitors was kind of dominated by groups who chosen Tadej Pogačar, due to his last-month blitz that separated him from the pack and made his 30-point value a bit too low cost. That gained’t be occurring once more.

However if you happen to take a look at the winners… nicely, let’s introduce them.

In first place is Effort Curseur 99, helmed by Elpedacyclo, who rose from the underside to the highest in simply three years of enjoying the FSA DS. Elpeda gained by some 900 factors, a fairly stable win after two years of shut competitors. Effort Curseur 99 rose on the backs of not simply Pogačar however totally 11 riders scoring in extra of 1000 factors, seven of which have been single-digit price pickups. That’s plenty of worth! Undecided if it’s fully apples-to-apples however his ultimate rating of 27,700 is the best season in FSA DS historical past!

[Actually all of the top six teams beat the previous scoring record. Just one of those years.]

Second place went to Greylock and Crew BoPenYang, additionally boasting 11 1000+ scorers, six of whom have been single-digit priced. Greylock has been nicely above common for a number of seasons however that is their first rise to the uppermost echelon. Third went to JoshJackson20 and workforce Pole to win, with ten 1000+ scorers, seven of whom have been nabbed on a budget. JoshJackson20 has put up a pair sturdy seasons of late, together with high 100 final 12 months. With the previous NBA lottery choose’s hoops profession on maintain, he had time to stage up from there to the rostrum this 12 months, a superb use of the spare time!

Now the massive reveal… The highest 8 groups all had Pogs, Arnaud De Lie, and both Alexander Kristoff or Mads Pedersen, or each. That was the successful method this 12 months… together with any variety of different bargains obtainable. And this was a banner 12 months for bargains, not like every other than 2020, which wasn’t a traditional 12 months by any measure. Totally six of the highest 20 and 10 of the highest 30 riders have been single-digit-priced, together with one-pointers De Lie at sixth total and Juan Ayuso at 18th. One-pointers hardly ever present up on web page one of many ultimate standings and the slew of low-priced riders exhibits that a number of of the next issues occurred:

• Lots of riders have been unexpectedly wonderful due to an accelerated improvement curve; or
• Ursula handed off the pricing choices to a poorly-prepared noob who missed out on some in any other case apparent underpricings; or
• No, it in all probability simply needed to do with sudden improvement.

Anyway, let’s not quibble over who underpriced who. Let’s simply benefit from the unpredictable nature of getting me in control of pricing.

Picture by Luc Claessen/Getty Pictures

Girls’s Groups

The general victory went to Citius, altius, fortius, pulcrius, helmed by Salaliittoteoria, a multi-year participant who lastly discovered the pathway to glory, due to a deep workforce that included ten riders scoring in extra of 700 factors, a pair key bargains, and many riders exceeding their 2021 totals — the definition of excellent worth.

Second place went to MacGuyver’s Angels, headed by Googol, who has been hanging across the high half of the competitors for years and beforehand was as excessive as thirty eighth total. The Angels fell 447 factors in need of victory, a considerably decisive unfold in comparison with latest nailbiters. In third, one other 142 factors again, was Is that this even definitely worth the grief? by Mattattackx, final 12 months’s total winner who additionally has a fourth place to his (I feel) identify, thereby answering his query within the affirmative.

Picture by Dario Belingheri/Getty Pictures

The commonest menace was Lorena Wiebes, who led the entire high eight scoring groups, steadily together with Elisa Balsamo. Annemiek van Vleuten, the #1 scoring rider, wasn’t on any of the highest seven squads, though she was on the eighth positioned workforce, Monkey Saddle Sore Collective, together with each Wiebes and Balsamo, but by some means seven different groups climbed over them.

One other key rider was Silvia Persico, who at two factors price was by far the 12 months’s finest worth acquisition, scoring 2,340 factors. She was on ten groups, together with mine, and possibly 9 different individuals who watched the Cyclocross World Championships the place she floor out a spot on the rostrum and in (a few of) our hearts. The lesson, as all the time: watch cyclocross. Anyway, from her gritty efficiency in Fayetteville, Persico made a meteoric leap to prominence on the highway, the place she had beforehand bided her time working for others (scoring 170 factors final 12 months). She gained a Vuelta stage and the factors comp, plus two smaller Italian one-day occasions, whereas additionally taking ten podium locations, together with third total within the Elsy Jacobs race and highway Worlds, plus fifth total on the Tour de France Femmes and seventh on the Giro Donne. She is the primary two-point rider to put within the high ten total since Lisa Brennauer in 2013.

Picture by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Pictures

Mixed Rating

Chapeau to DS Manuel8, whose groups KabindaPower and Couldn’t Consider a Good Title completed third and ninth, respectively, to clinch first total within the mixed competitors! Manuel8 rode Pogs, De Lie, Lotte Kopecky and Cecile Uttrup Ludwig to this one-off (non podiumed) class. Good job, and a nice response to final 12 months’s close to miss in second place. Manuel8 defeated former winner Crooked Rain, amongst others (cough!).

Editors’ League

I assume I’m a glutton for punishment in reporting that Crew Drewd took our PdC Previous Of us draft league, thanks largely to the Kristoffaissance that no person noticed coming (Drewd nabbed the Norwegian in spherical 3), together with shrewd picks like Dani Martinez within the seventh, Fabio Jakobsen in spherical 1, and Magnus Sheffield within the final spherical (#12 in our draft comp). He defeated former winner Majope by simply north of 200 factors, in addition to Clydesdale (one of many conceptual founding fathers of the FSA DS), together with your humble scribe locked in mediocrity (sixth of twenty-two).

Strategery

Properly, on the threat of repeating myself, I attempted and virtually bought someplace with a tactic that I’ve used loads, not taking the highest man within the hopes that I can get two riders from the higher echelon and nonetheless have a couple of dollars left over for later to make up the distinction, and extra. I constructed a workforce round Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Vlasov, costing 18, 24 and 16 factors, a form of committee strategy. And it virtually labored… besides it didn’t. I completed exterior the highest 100, regardless that Vingegaard and Evenepoel have been two of the 12 months’s greatest stars and all three blew previous their 2021 factors.

The issue was first that Pogačar was underpriced contemplating he gained the scoring crown by 1000 factors. However my different drawback was that I didn’t have sufficient of the large bargains. I did have Ayuso, however lacking on De Lie was a game-ender, and hitting on Kristoff, Pello Bilbao or Sergio Higuita would have made up some floor too. So whereas the non-Pogs technique was defensible given how nicely Evenepoel ended up doing, it nonetheless required one to nail numerous cut price picks to even sniff the highest rung of this 12 months’s competitors.

Get Prepared for 2023!

Ah nicely, hope springs everlasting in about 4 months. Due to everybody who made this 12 months’s competitors potential, together with our sponsors Full Velocity Forward a/ok/a FSA, makers of so many nice elements and wheels that you just see on TV all season lengthy. Click on on the hyperlink to buy vacation concepts for the intense bike owner in your vacation circle! Thanks vastly to SuperTed, with out whom we actually couldn’t do any of this. Due to Jens, UMWolverine, and Ursula for keying in outcomes, giving recommendation on pricing, and serving to put together the inputs for SuperTed’s work. It’s a workforce effort behind the scenes, for positive! Oh and because of the oldsters who spent a bunch of time tinkering with race rankings. I feel it made the competitors slightly extra correct, and although I misplaced steam with that effort late in summer time (child off to varsity, little or no relaxation), I’ll look ahead to extra assist subsequent season.

Cheers all!