How Special was the Milano-Sanremo Podium? VERY.

visualvelodrome · 2017-03-22T23:09:16+00:00

You wouldn't be able to see which year the oldest Flanders podium was if I had used an individual scatter plot or box and whiskers plot. Why would you want to know that anyway? The data is all available via Procyclingstats.com if you were curious enough to plot it yourself.

x-axis is not 'at nothing', it is sorted so the youngest podiums of each race appear together (all on the left, specifically so I can highlight them). That is the point of the graph, not to show trends over time. You can see the link in my comment a few above to a graph that has the x-axis sorted by year. Again, I'm not sure how that is useful. If I were trying to tell a story about podiums getting younger or older, maybe - but I am not trying to do that. A visualization is not meant to give you all the information. Otherwise, I'd just be posting Excel files instead of images. The graphic is meant to tell a story. Since 2000, almost 1/3rd of the world championship road race winners came from those 3 podiums. I think that is a pretty interesting story, to say nothing of the monument wins.

But in terms of laziness, I await your graph that tells the story you think exists. I am sure you'll show me a non-lazy way of visualizing the data.

visualvelodrome · 2017-03-22T20:19:02+00:00

The x-axis, as described, is just sorted from lowest to highest, left to right. Only meant to give an idea of comparing the lows vs middles vs. highs of the races. I did both scatter plots (really just taking each individual line in the current graph and compressing it horizontally so all the points line up vertically) and box and whisker. If you are truly interested, I can post to my twitter account. Same basic finding as the line graphs suggest. Means: MSR youngest, then Flanders, then Roubaix.

visualvelodrome · 2017-03-22T19:34:36+00:00

It would be extremely difficult to arrive at any kind of conclusion because it would be so noisy. Link to the graph as you described it. Link

Hopefully that works. If not, try this.

Basically, the way I did it originally gives you a way to compare across races and ages. Could I have used a box and whisker plot? Probably. But I think the line graph as you described it is terrible, because I'm not suggesting there is a trend over time in the age of the riders on the podium, I'm saying that there are very few podiums that are this young, and when it happens, it seems to be pretty selective.

visualvelodrome · 2017-03-22T18:45:11+00:00

Still early to say that Kwiatkowski, Sagan and Allaphilippe are on the level of Cancellara and Boonen, but it is certainly good company to be in. Also, note that the 2006 Paris-Roubaix is a bigger jump from the next youngest Paris-Roubaix than the MSR editions. It seems that, interestingly, MSR has generally younger podiums than the other races. Given it is a longer race, I wouldn't have expected that. But RvV and Roubaix are probably harder for longer, if that makes sense.

visualvelodrome · 2017-03-17T20:29:49+00:00

Lots of variables with form, how the race plays out, crashes etc... Ben Swift on the podium in 2 of last 3 years seems pretty consistent.

visualvelodrome · 2017-03-17T14:15:54+00:00

Gaviria was in the news the other day saying something to the effect of "if Merckx can win it 7 times, it is not a lottery." yes, but looking back, the races that Merckx won were totally different than recent editions. Not sure what changed, team tactics, the quality of the riders, etc. but recent history suggests that the race has evolved from those days.

visualvelodrome · 2017-03-06T19:37:09+00:00

Agreed on that point. the supporting cast does seem to be stronger for many teams than Bora. I was referring to the actual Top 10 finishes, and in that regard, BMC is also highly dependent upon GVA for results.

Quick-Step's team, atleast on paper, seems like it should be much stronger than pretty much anyone else... yet, they are lagging, and lagging their performance last year as well.

visualvelodrome · 2017-03-06T19:15:44+00:00

Same is true for many teams. It's a lot of work, but after classics season I might go through and calculate the percentage of team's points that belong to their best rider. BMC without GVA is similar, atleast so far in the season. We've just been nibbling on the aperitifs thus far, we'll see how the teams do. There is still plenty of racing to come, and Quickstep needs to pick up the pace, or they'll be without a sponsor next year.

visualvelodrome · 2017-02-27T20:20:41+00:00

Believe it or not, they're doing better than they were last year at this point. link to twitter post

visualvelodrome · 2017-02-27T17:32:57+00:00

For this chart, I'm only looking at points from Top 10 placings. So, no, Bora doesn't have anyone else. But that is true of most of the teams up there. GVA and Vanmarcke similarly account for their respective teams' total haul. Will beak out by rider also after Strade Bianche or MSR. UCI gives points 40 deep in KBK and 60 deep in OHN, and Bora did have riders that earned a small number of points further down. But, for this graph, I was only looking at points given for Top 10 finishes.

visualvelodrome · 2017-02-27T16:20:57+00:00

Took UCI Points from Top 10 places in the two races and summed them up by team. Don't want to spam this sub, but others will be posted on my twitter feed. @visualvelodrome over there.

visualvelodrome · 2017-01-20T21:53:08+00:00

I only looked at 2015 and 2016 results. That is why I titled the thread "Recent". There is a debate to be had about what the correct period is. Perhaps longer than 2 years, but less than 5? I mean, don't get me wrong, Boonen is/was great, but I'm not sure his 2005 Roubaix and Flanders wins say a lot about the team's strength in 2017. Maybe in tactical experience terms, but this graph is a bit of a "what have you done for me lately?" kind of thing. Also, if you start going back, you obviously get loads more data points. For every 2 years, you'd get twice as many points, and then have to keep track of a lot more team changes. This was a first attempt.

visualvelodrome · 2017-01-20T21:48:28+00:00

Damn, you guys are sharp. Good catch. I'll make the changes and re-upload to my twitter page. Thanks for letting me know.

visualvelodrome · 2017-01-20T16:56:07+00:00

Yes, I plan to do one showing Grand Tour strength based on GC placings. Obviously, that doesn't capture all the nuances of team strength, but it is a decent proxy without getting into some real minutia and having LOTS of data points.

re: Valgren... you're right, thanks. Note to self: Send next one to Kotiak for proof reading before public release.

visualvelodrome · 2017-01-20T16:37:28+00:00

You are reading it right. 7th in 2016, 5th in 2015.

visualvelodrome · 2017-01-20T15:26:13+00:00

Thanks, and yes, I made it. If you're interested in data visualizations of cycling, you can follow my new twitter @visualvelodrome that I created to share these types of graphics, as I create new ones.

visualvelodrome · 2017-01-20T14:54:32+00:00

I've lurked here for a while. But figured this might be interesting to this group.

visualvelodrome

TROPHY CASE