You know the drill - thread based on previous season
With the regular season now complete, it is time for the post-season events, which cosist of the World Championships and the subject of this thread - the National Championships.
The format of the 2024 MGUCI National Championships is practically the same as in previous years and while most managers should already be familiar by now, here's how it works:
All teams in the NC races have 8 riders with any gaps being filled with 'Generic Riders' witch each of them having all of their stats of 55. The maximum allowed total number of teams (which also includes the combined NC races with 2 or more nations involved) is 24, meaning that the maximum number of riders allowed is 192. This means that in almost every race there will be teams consisting soley of generic riders.
Of course, some of the bigger nations will have more than 192 riders nomminated by the managers. In this case there will be cuts based on the riders' strength of the selected terrain. For example - a sprinter is more likely to be cut from the startlist for a NC race that will be held on a mountain terrain.
There will also be cases in which a single team has more than 8 riders nomminated from one nation. In this case the riders will be sored in ascending order of their terrain strength with the Top 8 riders will form the main team. Any remaining riders will be allocated to a second team and in rare cases - a third team, to ensure that all riders from the team take part.
The routes have been already selected by the managers - they can be found in the spoiler
Spoiler
ABW
Flat
AIA
Hill
ALB
Flat
DZA
Hill
AND
Mountain
ARG
Flat
AUS
Mountain
AUT
Cobbles
BRB
Flat
BEL
Flat
BHS
Mountain
BIH
Cobbles
BLR
Hill
BOL
Flat
BRA
Hill
BUL
Hill
CAN
Mountain
COL
Mountain
CRC
Flat
CRO
Flat
CUB
Flat
CUW
Hill
CYP
Flat
CZE
Hill
DEN
Hill
ECU
Mountain
ERI
Cobbles
ESP
Mountain
EST
Flat
ETH
Mountain
FRO
Hill
FIN
Mountain
FRA
Flat
GBR
Hill
GEO
Mountain
GER
Cobbles
GRE
Hill
GTM
Flat
HKG
Hill
HUN
Flat
CHL
Hill
CHN
Flat
IDN
Flat
IND
Flat
IRL
Cobbles
ISR
Flat
ITA
Hill
JPN
Hill
KAZ
Hill
KEN
Flat
KOR
Cobbles
KOS
Mountain
LAT
Mountain
LIE
Mountain
LTU
Mountain
LUX
Hill
MAS
Flat
MEX
Flat
MNG
Hill
MLT
Cobbles
MOL
Mountain
MAR
Flat
MUS
Mountain
NED
Flat
NOR
Hill
NZL
Hill
PER
Mountain
PHL
Flat
POL
Cobbles
POR
Hill
PRI
Mountain
ROM
Mountain
SAR
Mountain
RUS
Hill
RWA
Mountain
SER
Flat
SLO
Hill
SLV
Flat
SMR
Cobbles
LAN
Flat
SVK
Flat
SWD
Flat
SWI
Mountain
SWZ
Flat
TZA
Mountain
THA
Hill
TTO
Hill
UKR
Hill
URU
Flat
USA
Hill
UZB
Mountain
VEN
Mountain
And here are the four routes all NC races will be held on:
Formulas for NC winners - 6 or less riders nominated
Spoiler
For each race type a primary stat and two secondaries are set. The primary stat gets a 70% base weight the other two 15% each. Then each is randomized for each country so the primary can go from 50% to 90% then secondary 1 gets half the remainder +/-5% and secondary 2 the rest. The stat matrix is below. Randoms are structured so extreme values are less likely.
Each rider's score is their stat values weighted based on the above for that country. Then the score for each rider can vary randomly by +/- 2.0%. The highest score for that country is the winner.
Time trials are either standard (85%), mountainous (7.5%) or short (7.5%). The primary type determines 90% of the stat value and one of the other two, selected at random, 10%. Each rider has the same +/-2% variation.
It's going to be interesting to see a Greek NC in the hilly department. Not entirely sure we are going to win that one with riders like Spanopoulos and Mavrikakis not in our team currently. Maybe even a rider like Zegklis could take the win.
Regardless it will be fun not necessarily to be so dominant. Still riders like Giannoutsos, Vila, Soulious, Kiriakidis, Ioannidis, Koumpetsos and Boutopoulos should probably be among the top favorites. I'll make a quick guess and say that Soulious will win the RR and Ioannidis will take the TT.
A flat race in Cyprus seems like a lottery tbh. I suppose a rider like Theorpanous or Matsangos should be favorite, but it could go to anyone of the riders really. Christodoulos is obviously the winner of the TT yet again with Agrotis some good minutes back in 2nd.
One NC already secured for Ben Ameur, that's nice! Girmay and Teggart should win on cobbles in Eritrea and Ireland, respectively. Stedman might have a shot on hills in GB, although that's tough against Pidcock. And then Amezawa will have to beat Kinoshita on hills, which isn't easy either, but also possible. Mountain NC in Rwanda against Areruya unfortunately is obviously lost before it started But a decent amount of chances to take some jerseys, which is nice!
No routes really in our favor this year. Aranburu has a tiny chance to repeat I guess just because NC stages are so short. And maybe Forssell is a contender in Sweden, though with no team support for most sprinters, a breakaway win seems very possible.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
AIA
ALB
ALG
AND
ANT
ARG
ARM
ARU
AUS
AUT
BAH
BAR
BEL
BER
BIH
BLR
BOL
BRA
BRN
BUL
BUR
CAN
CHL
CHN
COD
COL
CRC
CRO
CUB
CUR
CYM
CYP
CZE
DEN
DMA
DOM
ECU
ERI
ESA
ESP
EST
ETH
FAR
FIN
FRA
GBR
GEO
GER
GHA
GRE
GUA
HKG
HON
HUN
INA
IND
IRL
IRN
ISR
ITA
JAM
JPN
KAZ
KEN
KOR
KOS
LAT
LCA
LIB
LIE
LTU
LUX
MAD
MAS
MCO
MEX
MGL
MLT
MOL
MOR
MRI
NAM
NED
NGR
NOR
NZL
PAN
PAR
PER
PHI
POL
POR
PUR
ROM
RSA
RUS
RWA
SAM
SER
SEY
SLO
SMR
SRI
SVK
SWD
SWI
SWZ
TAN
THA
TPE
TRI
TUN
UAE
UGA
UKR
URU
USA
UZB
VEN
VIE
These riders won both TT and RR in their countrey
But a decent amount of chances to take some jerseys, which is nice!
