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2021-23 Emerging Riders CQ Game

We all sit down to watch a race with ideas about who we think or hope will win it, and we look at a new season or a transfer with a view to what will transpire over the next few months.

The challenge here is to look not just a few hours or months ahead, but up to three years: to assume the role, not of the director of a major team who can buy proven talent with short term goals, but that of the leader of a minor team who can identify up and coming talent who might become great in a few years time. But you don't want their progression to be too slow, you need results within three years.

In recent years, we have had two Tour de France winners, a Giro winner, a World champion (TT) and a Road Race bronze medallist, and many WT race winners while in the three year period they were eligible for past editions of the game.
So who will take a place among the major contenders in the sport by the end of the 2023 season? That is your challenge.
For the Emerging Riders game you need to select a team of 18 male riders, who can be of any age, but must each have a lifetime total of fewer than 200 CQ points (not 200: fewer than). There is no upper limit for the team (although logically, it must be no more than 18x199). Their score will be the points they accumulate between 1st Jan 2021 and 31 December 2023, as awarded by CQ.
There are of course, untold thousands of riders who are eligible: even I am, but don't take that as a recommendation or an insight into my selection. I have put together a very long list of riders who have scored CQ points (or are on a WorldTeam or ProTeam squad) in the last three years without reaching 200: it also has a warnings list of those who have passed the threshold in 2020, who you might have thought would still be eligible but are not. I will identify those eligible for this among riders selected for the main annual CQ game when that list is available.

A past ban does not necessarily disqualify a rider from selection, but any points that they had been awarded and have been struck will be considered still in place when considering whether they are eligible for the game. If a rider is banned during the game, then his points will be removed only when CQ remove them from his record. In practice, this tends to be a very slow process (as I know to my cost: I would have won the 2016-18 edition if they had been faster to remove Jaime Roson's points).

Entries should be sent to me by PM on either Cycling News forum or Velorooms by the end of January: if any races do take place before then, I am confident that they will be pretty insignificant in the overall course of the game.
 
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For the moment, not much more than a placeholder, an announcement, and a promise of intent.

The Emerging Riders game is for teams of 18 male riders, who can be of any age, but must have a lifetime total of fewer than 200 CQ points (not 200: fewer than), and scores are gained according to CQ scales until the end of 2023. This year being what it is, I will revert to the end of January as the closing date for entries (but don't send yours too soon, because I haven't thought much about mine yet).

I'll put more into this post soon, hopefully tomorrow.
I've never tried this. Maybe I'll give it a shot. if you are willing to set it up, the least we can do is try right?
 
This is too F#$%ing hard. How the heck am I supposed to know? Maybe i should stick to what my little american brain can handle, like grand tours.
Embarrassing misses are a well established part of the game: some people have not recognised Bernal and Evenepoel as prospects, and there are riders chosen every time that then fail to get a point at all in the following three years. Think about hyped youngsters, decent placings in major U23 races, young signings in major teams or who have performed well in .1 races, etc. The spreadsheet for the game that started a year ago might give you some hints (make sure the last column on the 'Riders' tab is less than 200). You'll come up with more than 18 possibilities in no time: then it is just a matter of editting your shortlist.
 
I have clarified the OP: the 199 point upper limit is for each rider, not for the whole team. Two teams recently looked as though they had tried to make a lifetime total for all 18 riders cumulatively of less than 200: that is not necessary (as both managers in question clearly realised last year!)

4 1/2 days left: don't miss out.
 
Working on my team. Thought it would be difficult to find candidates this year but quite happy with my shortlist of 27 riders. Will probaly wait and do the "legal cheat", and checking the entries for the main game to see if there are anyone I have forgotten, before I submit my team:p
 
Just be aware that the time gap between the release of the main game names and the closing date for this will only be three days: it is usually much longer.

@skidmark, if you have a chance, please could you send me a list of the riders chosen asap after entries close, so that I can identify those available for Vladimir and others to avail of the 'legal cheat' (or before, and I will promise not to change my main game team).
 
Just be aware that the time gap between the release of the main game names and the closing date for this will only be three days: it is usually much longer.

@skidmark, if you have a chance, please could you send me a list of the riders chosen asap after entries close, so that I can identify those available for Vladimir and others to avail of the 'legal cheat' (or before, and I will promise not to change my main game team).

Sure! I'll send you the list after the publication deadline.
 
Good luck to those participating in the game even if I don't enter. I usually only find at most half a dozen neo pros I like for the main game (and a big reason I usually like them is that they tend to already have more than 200 points) so I wouldn't know how to fill a 18 rider roster. I mean I could take random guys I guess but I don't really see the point of doing that. Anyway, I'm in awe of the posters that know enough about these riders to make a somewhat informed decision (the knowledge gap with those posters probably explains why my team usually goes nowhere in the main game).

With that being said I stil enjoy looking at the tables to keep track of the progress of the set of prospects associated with a given year. It's also fun to see how guys can come out of nowhere in year 2 or 3 to completely flip the game. Keep up the good work Armchair cyclist.
 
Now that Skidmark has released the main CQ list, I can present what Vladimir has described on CN forum as the cheat list: those who have been picked for the main game, and are also eligible for this one. So if you are stuck, simply choose any 18 names from this list: you will know that at least one other person thinks they were worth a punt.


Of the 95 names here, 65 have been selected among the 24 teams already in for the Emerging Riders game. That means that there are 30 on this list that could be your game making unique pick.


It also means that there are 37 riders who have already been picked for the three year game, but who nobody considered worth a place on their team when only looking at one year. Including 6 riders who are on more than 2 Emerging Rider teams already, and one of them is on seven out of twenty four Emerging Rider teams, but none of the ninety one Main game teams. That'll have you guessing as to who it is.

I'll put this list in the longlist doc as I said I would, but it isn't desparately long: I'll put it here for greater ease.
And, of course, these are the CQ versions of names that will earn you my eternal gratitude:

ALBA BOLIVAR Juan Diego
ALEOTTI Giovanni
ARCHIBALD John
ARDILA ORDOÑEZ Andres Camilo
ARENSMAN Thymen
ARROYAVE CAÑAS Daniel
AYUSO PESQUERA Juan
BALMER Alexandre
BEN MOSHE Yuval
BERWICK Sebastian
BOUCEK Jakub
BRENNER Marco
BROWN Connor
BRUNEL Alexys
BUITRAGO SANCHEZ Santiago
CAMARGO PINEDA Diego Andres
CAMPOS LUCENA Roniel
CARVALHO Andre Rodrigues
CEPEDA ORTIZ Jefferson Alexander
CHAMPION Thomas
COLLEONI Kevin
COVI Alessandro
CULLAIGH Gabriel
DE PLUS Jasper
DEBESAY Yakob Abraha
DEKKER David
DELACROIX Théo
DLAMINI Nicholas
DONOVAN Mark
EGHOLM Jakob
ELOSEGUI MOMEÑE Iñigo
EVANS Alexander
FANCELLU Alessandro
GALL Felix
GARCIA PIERNA Raul
GARRISON Ian
GOLDSTEIN Edo
GONZALEZ RIVERA Abner
HÄNNINEN Jaakko
HERREGODTS Rune
JACOBS Johan
JONES Taj
JORGENSON Matteo
KOOIJ Olav
LEEMREIZE Gijs
LOPEZ PEREZ Juan Pedro
MARIT Arne
MÄRKL Niklas
MENDEZ NOREÑA Daniel Alejandro
MILAN Jonathan
MUÑOZ LANCHEROS Cristian Camilo
OLDANI Stefano
OSORIO CARVAJAL Alejandro
PAJUR Markus
PALZER Anton
PEAK Barnabas
PEÑALVER ANIORTE Manuel
PICCOLO Andrea
PLAPP Lucas
PRODHOMME Nicolas
QUINN Sean
RENARD Alexis
REPA Vojtech
REYNDERS Jens
RIES Michel
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos
ROMO OLIVER Javier
RUBIO REYES Einer Augusto
SAEZ BENITO Hector
SCOTSON Callum
SHEFFIELD Magnus
SILLANKORVA Jaakko
STORK Florian
SWEENY Harrison
TEJADA CANACUE Harold Alfonso
TIBERI Antonio
TULETT Ben
UMBA LOPEZ Abner Santiago
VACEK Karel
VACEK Mathias
VAN GILS Maxim
VAN WILDER Ilan
VANSEVENANT Mauri
VERMAERKE Kevin
VERSCHAEVE Viktor
VERVLOESEM Xandres
VIGO DEL ARCO Marti
VIVIANI Attilio
WALLS Matthew
WANDAHL Frederik
WEEMAES Sasha
WILLIAMS Stephen
WRIGHT Fred
ZOCCARATO Samuele
ZWIEHOFF Ben
 
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