Stage 21: La Rozas to Madrid

Photo finish for Stage 21 — “Oops! Sorry, Pascal, I forgot to pull over” (credit: lavuelta.es)

Evidently no-one expected the final bunch sprint to be won by Juan Molano of UAE, least of all Juan Molano! The lead-out man for Pascal Ackerman just kept going so that neither his team leader nor Mads Pedersen could get round him. I love it!

Team of the Week

It has to be Team Ciclominaccia, with top points again on Stage 21 in Madrid. That second place for Mads Pedersen contributed to the 5th daily win out of the last 8 stages to compliment the astonishing rise through the ranks!

Chart of the final rankings for teams in the Green Wight Red Velogames minileague

Minileague VELOPOINTS

Nevertheless, it was not enough to overhaul The Pain in Spain, especially when the End-Of-Tour bonus velopoints were added to the totals. The Pain featured Mas, Lopez, Almeida and O’Connor in 2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th respectively on GC. I was chuffed to see that my strategy of selecting riders who were not the overall favourites paid off in the long run. James’ Just eat the dam porridge and Dave’s Dream Catcher also made gains at the last gasp, while Bendey’s Vuelta Siesta were passed by a llama to snooze their way to the wooden spoon.

1st: The Pain in Spain (DS Simon)
2nd: Team Ciclominaccia (DS Stephen)
3rd: Velo Espana (DS Paul)

Chart showing the total points and points for each stage in the Green Wight Red Velogames minileague — I need to confess that errors had crept into my tally of velopoints since the first week, probably due to late corrections on velogames, or the occasional transcription error. I have now found and fixed the discrepancies, but apologies if your team’s points didn’t look right before. All verified now.

Prizes and jerseys

Dave’s Dream Catcher, Linda’s Cuchara de Madera aqui and Stephen’s Team Ciclominaccia each notched up seven stage wins (one every three days!). But Dave’s trophy cabinet is bulging through the efforts of Carapaz (4 days in the blue polkadot jersey), Bennett (6 days in the green), Hayter (4 days in the white) and of course Remco Evenepoel (16 days in both red and white)

1st: 55 Dream Catcher (DS Dave)
2nd: 47 Velo Espana (DS Paul)
3rd: 37 posiblemente el último (DS Callan)

Chart showing the final numbers of jerseys and prizes won by each team in the Green Wight Red Velogames minileague

Team times

This category has never been closer at the finish of a race, with two teams tied in first, through the combined times of Remco Evenepoel, João Almeida and Carlos Rodriguez which added up to 80 hours, 42 minutes and 20 seconds. Second place The Pain in Spain was just one second behind, with Enric Mas, Miguel Angel Lopez and João Almeida.

=1st: Velo Espana (DS Paul) & Just eat the dam porridge (DS Dr James)
3rd: The Pain in Spain (DS Simon)

Chart showing the rankings in the team time competition for each team in the Green Wight Red Velogames minileague — I also prepared a chart showing the relative time delays, but it had to be on a log scale to cover the 4 orders of magnitude between first and last (Sorry, Philippa, but I’ll spare the remnants of your team’s blushes)

Top Tens

And finally, a mention for David’s ThinFatBoys and Stephen’s Team Ciclominaccia both of whom recorded 12 finishers in the top 3. But the Top Ten category looks like this after 21 stages:

1st: 37 The Pain in Spain (DS Simon)
2nd: 33 Engranajes para los miedos (DS Martin)
3rd: 30 Cuchara de Madera aqui (DS Linda)

Chart showing the final number of top ten finishers for each team in in the Green Wight Red Velogames minileague

I’m always amazed how these different categories sort out our teams in different ways. I’m sure with suitably tweaked statistics we should be able to make everyone a winner, but these ones sort of make sense. If you can think of other fairly natural ways to stir the statistical pot, then do let me know. Anyone is free to take a look at the monster workbook behind each of the grand tours – I will gladly e-mail a copy to anyone interested, with a challenge to find the filter or the fix that puts your team at the top!

And finally…

Congratulations to those whose teams did well and commiserations if it all went pear-shaped. Thank you to everyone for playing along. I hope it has enhanced your enjoyment of the Vuelta, at least until your riders started falling off and catching Covid. It was a brilliant open race to follow this year. Now I must get my bike out of the shed…

Photo of the GC podium at the end of the 2022 Vuelta a Espana — One stony-faced spectator is unamused by the Champagne-drinking competition (credit: lavuelta.es)