Hello managers,
World Cup 1 never, ever, ever disappoints. After a
full summer of changes and a fall of quickly-building anticipation, we were finally
rewarded with a classic World Cup 1 story – the clashing of the old guard with a
new wave of up-and-comers. We all have those young and unproven skaters that we
think will swing into the World Cup circuit like a wrecking ball, turning the
world rankings on their head. Sometimes we’re right, sometimes we’re wrong. Though
success at WC1 doesn’t always carry throughout the year, it’s still fun and
exciting to see all the crazy results from the early World Cups.
We’ll start today with a quick look at the best and
worst of World Cup 1. This is followed by some fatherly advice on picking up
free agents. Further down we’ll also get to the usual Free Agent and Injury
Trackers.
World Cup 1
The first World Cup is always a bit chaotic. A few top
skaters are stuck in B Group. A few shitters get to start in A Group if one of their
compatriots recently retired. A long off-season of training and another year of
development can mean a big step forward for a lot of skaters. Others regress
after a solid season. With skaters heading in every direction, it’s always hard
to guess how things will start off.
Rather that doing a full WC1 summary, I think for
today I’m just going to quickly go through some of the best and worst
performances of the weekend – with our fantasy lens fully in place.
The Best of World Cup 1
10. Jenning de Boo – Ranked 8
th
– He was
picked up across the board in the second round after a breakout season last
year and a blistering pair of 500s at Dutch trials. He didn’t disappoint this
weekend, finishing as a first-round pick despite a massive slip in the second 500m.
9. Kaja Ziomek-Nogal – Ranked 52
nd
– She got
DQ’d in the second 500m, which is reflected in her relatively poor ranking and
she will also now be headed to B Group… but I think her first 500m was enough
to prove that the Kaja we all remember from 2 years ago is
back.
8. Brittany Bowe – Ranked T-10
th
– Like
wine, some things are better with age. Skaters are not one of those things,
though Bowe somehow keeps quieting the haters with season after season of podium
finishes. A great World Cup 1 has her cracking the top 10 of the skater
rankings already.
7. Dione Voskamp – Ranked T-17
th
– Her first
ever World Cup podium? Check. Drafted relatively late in most pools? Check. A
classic recipe for fantasy speed skating success.
6. Andzelika “The Woj” Wojcik – Ranked T-17
th
– After a down season, the Woj is back in action. Her first 500m showed flashes
of the sprinter who is one of only six women to ever break 36.8 in a 500m.
5. Angel Daleman – Ranked 29
th
– I honestly
didn’t really know what to expect from Daleman. She’s obviously a generational
talent for her age, but World Cups don’t give brownie points just cause you’re
a kid. 20 points and two very solid A Group races has shown Daleman is already
a World Cup calibre skater.
4. Timothy Loubineaud – Ranked 22
nd
– He’s ahead
of Ning, Wiklund, and Nuis in the rankings already, and he was stuck in B Group
for one of his two races. Things are looking promising for the Frenchman who
doesn’t usually put together two good weekends of racing over a 5-year period.
Can he break that trend at WC 2?
3. Cooper McLeod – Ranked T-20
th
– He
smashed his B Group 500m, hit his first-ever podium, and then collected a few
extra points in the second 500m, solidifying himself as an A Group skater. Big
moves for the young American sprinter.
2. Ivanie Blondin – Ranked 2
nd
– Usually the
big guns don’t make it this far down these lists, but Blondin’s showing at WC1
was reminiscent of her 2019-2020 season. For those of us who remember that
season, she finished the season ranked numero uno. The only skater in her path
this year is Jordan Stolz, who is only in the skater rankings for fun.
1. Yukino Yoshida – Ranked 9
th
– She clobbered
up a delicious pile of 37 points in the 500m and easily made it out of B Group
in the 1000m. She clocked the fastest lap in the first 500m, set a PB, and
showed she’s capable of putting together three full races in a single weekend.
Out of lots of impressive skaters this weekend, this one narrowly takes the
top spot.
The
Worst of World Cup 1
5. David Bosa – Tied for last place – No one thought
he would be particularly great, but he ended up being horrendously bad. If it
weren’t for some pre-determined scratches for World Cup 2, he would solidly be
a B Group skater with no light at the end of the tunnel.
4. Ayano Sato – Tied for last place – Her trials gave
some evidence she was a shell of her former self, but zero points in two A
Group races is a far cry from the Sato we knew and loved two years ago.
3. Momoka Horikawa – Ranked T-50
th
– She had
a great trials, a great Four Continents Championships, and then managed a measly
11 points across three A Group starts. Tough luck for the teams that justifiably
spent some early draft capital on her.
2. Vanessa Herzog – Ranked 74th – I was shocked to see
the pride of Austria (Sorry Gab) fall to the last round of the draft. Maybe I
spoke too soon, cause the only thing worse than her rankings right now are her openers.
1. Chris Huizinga – Ranked 63
rd
– Chris is
actually right where he should be in the rankings, according to my vibes and
Stepdad’s model. But y’all picked him early as all Hell, so I guess he counts
as a disappointment.
Some Advice on Free Agents
I wanted to include a section today to go over some
concerning moves I’m seeing. Offer you all a little bit of advice, which most
of you would be well-served to heed. A little reward for the managers who
actually bother to read this column.
I see some managers scrambling to make early free
agent pick ups. Sometimes a team needs to make some early adjustments because
you have a skater or two that won’t be around for a few months (like Roest or
Kok) and you need your other 8 skaters to form a respectable active roster. But in
most cases, caution is probably needed. It’s a long season, more uncertain than
most, and it would suck to use one of your two free agent pick ups early only
to find out that there was a much better opportunity down the road.
Let’s start by looking at some examples from last year.
Which skaters had great a great World Cup 1? Masaya Yamada is the most obvious
example with this double gold performance, but Yukino Yoshida snagged a 4
th
in her first-ever World Cup race, Michele Malfatti proved to the world he was
better than ever after missing a few seasons following a sever neck injury from
a cycling crash, and Qishi Li refused to finish outside the top 5 in any race.
How did these four skaters end up doing by the end of
the year? Yamada only earned another 8 points over the next 5 World Cups, an embarrassment
for a guy with 50 points the first weekend. Yoshida finished 80
th
in
the skater rankings in a league where each pool has 80 skaters. In a perfect
world, this would make her the worst bench skater on the league, but still
better than a free agent. Her 19 points at WC1 was a season high for her, even
beating out her points haul from the 4x World Championships weekend. Malfatti
cracked the 200-point marker, an incredible achievement for a free agent pickup.
Qishi Li crushed out World Cup 2 and then disappeared. To this day, she has yet
to race another international race.
So what lesson did we learn? Hot starts at World Cup 1
don’t guarantee anything. This doesn’t mean you can’t find value this early,
but this is a cautionary tale of how trying to improve your team too early can
actually do a lot of damage. We all remember Christian dropping Mei Han last
season to pick up Masaya Yamada…only to earn 8 points instead of 497.
That might seem like an extreme case (and realistically
it really was), but I think the threat of doing more harm than good is already
visible. The three skaters that were picked up before WC1 even started were
Tingyu Gao, Yukino Yoshida, and Min-Seok Kim. They all look pretty good, right?
But it’s so hard to say if any of these will be this season’s Masaya Yamada,
Michele Malfatti, or Qishi Li. Kim had a good first weekend and I could see him
being a steady points earner. Yoshida had an amazing weekend, but she also started
last season strong and then faded. And Gao, much like Li, is prone to
disappearing for long stretches of the season. For these managers’ sake, let’s
hope these early free agent pickups pay off.
Finally, I can’t help but call out questionable swaps
when I see them. Team MCV, the infamous Molly-Claire-Victoria trio, had to drop
a skater to pick up Gao. That skater was Cooper McLeod, Mr. 1000m Podium himself.
He also skated a blistering B Group 500m followed by a very respectable 5
th
place finish in the second 500m. McLeod already has 26 points, compared to Gao’s
6. So far, this swap is on pace to be the worst of the season. Good job ladies!
Injury Tracker
Joy Beune –
With
a pair of bronze medals at World Cup 1, it’s safe to say she’s over her fever.
The herpes accusations, however, are still awaiting confirmation.
Shomu Sasaki –
After
a pair of dead-last finishes in his two A Group races, Sasaki has been
diagnosed with a serious bout of
last place.
There is no known cure.
Andzelika Wojcik –
Despite
her big silver medal in the 500m, her health issues are allegedly still plaguing
her. Something to do with her gut, I think.
Nil Llop –
This
free agent skated off the line for his A Group 500m and then scratched the rest
of the weekend. Clearly sick, or injured, or both. Not that it matters much –
he’s a free agent in every pool still.
Qishi Li
–
Still dead? Seems like it.
Isabelle Weidemann –
An
uncharacteristic disappearance in the TP is cause for concern for teams with
Weidemann on their roster. I cannot personally remember the last time that the
trio of Weidemann-Blondin-Maltais used a sub in the TP for a World Cup they
were all present at. No details on what Weidemann’s ailment could be.
Free Agent Tracker
Since there are so damn many respectable
free agents left, this list reflects on a sliver of the talent that is still available.
Tingyu Gao –
The
race to pick up Gao has started… and seems to also be on pause after a couple
of pretty unspectacular 500m races. As discussed above, patience can be undervalued.
Gao is still available in some pools.
Min-Seok Kim –
This
“Hungarian” mid-distance skater quickly got scooped up by three managers after
his blistering B Group 1500m race on Friday. Still available in two pools.
Moritz Klein, Gabriel Odor, and Mia
Manganello –
Because three teams picked up Kim, these
three serviceable skaters are now available in at least one pool each.
Cooper McLeod –
Three
great races into the season and yet managers appear to have mixed feelings on
him. One manager dropped him while one picked him up. He is still free in most
pools.
Ted-Jan Bloemen –
He
might be older than your grandpa, but he still puts up points. Ted is available
in one pool.
Yukino Yoshida –
This
speedy Japanese youngster has been claimed in a 5
th
pool and is no
longer available as a free agent.
Bart Hoolwerf –
If
you’re into consistent mass start skaters, few have a track record better than
Hoolwerf. Plus, the Dutch federation appears to love him so he’s probably a
safe bet for the winter World Cups too.
Nadezhda Morozova –
Is
she back? For real this time? It can be hard to trust a Kazakh with a history of
breaking your (ie Dad’s) heart. But if you’re desperate for multi-distance
females, she is one of only a few who remain a free agent in at least one pool.
Jun-Ho Kim –
One
of the steadiest male 500m points-earners over the past few seasons, it’s wild
to see this stacked-up Korean on the Free Agent Tracker.
Elisa Dul –
What
she lacked in her 3000m was made up for in her MS start. Snag her quick before
she’s gone in every pool.
Merijn Scheperkamp –
A
shocking podium finish in a super deep 500m field has some of us rethinking our
opinions on Scheperkamp… is he actually good at speed skating?
That’s it from me today, folks. World Cup racing
resumes this weekend with WC2 in Beijing. Because of the funky time change for
those of us in North America, there is a chance that racing starts at some
ungodly hour on either Thursday evening or Friday morning for most of us. The
roster deadline will be the
earlier
of these two: 11:59 PM Mountain Time
on Thursday
OR
the start of the first race (A or B Group). Best of luck
to all teams and happy World Cup watching!
Cheers,
Dad