Maths. Like playing the trumpet or resisting the lure of the Friday pint; it's not easy. Yet again the UCI World Cup has come down to the final round at Schladming in Austria this weekend and there are more numbers floating about than there were at Lehman Brothers before it all hit the fan.
The UCI award points for the top 20 qualifiers and all finishers so there are some pretty complex sums out there.
Anyway, here's a quick run down of some hypothetical situations from the MBUK calculus (Ric):
IF Peaty has a minimum qualifying position of 5th and finishes the race in the same spot then that would leave Minnaar needing to qualify a minimum of 16th and to finish first and Hill needing the same win plus a quali of 11th to take title. If Greg finished second he'd have had to have qualified first.
IF Hill wins both quali and the race Peaty would be 169 points behind. A quali of 15th or higher and a 2nd on the day would be enough to give him the World Cup and World Champs double. Alternatively a first place in qualifying and a minimum of 4th in the race would also tie things up nicely.
IF Minnaar were to win the race and second in quali Peaty could do it by qualifying fastest and finishing fourth or higher.
IF the top three were all to qualify outside the points and to DNF come race day then all Gee Atherton would need to do is to qualify a minimum of 20th and finish 4th to take the title. Stranger things have happened. Or have they... I don't know any more.