We all like to think that we are pretty well informed about this sport we follow, and have our ears to the ground about the next big thing to expect.
So who are the riders who are only beginning to announce themselves at this stage, but will get big results (or at least consistent decent results) in the next few seasons? Who still has moderate salary expectations but would be amazing value if a team were to sign him up on a three year deal now?
That is who the Emerging Riders CQ Game challenges you to identify: 18 male riders who thus far have fewer than 200 CQ Ranking points (each) in their career, and will score well between now and the end of the 2024 season.
When to submit my team? By the end of 15th January UK time (I'm willing to run the risk that the competitiveness of the game is spoiled by riders showing that they have the potential for world domination in the NZ Cycling Classic, which I think is the only event before that).
How do I submit my team? By PM to me on Cycling News or VeloRooms (although Amis Velo did put his selection through the door of my house on what I assume was the envelope of one of his Christmas cards last year). Please submit your riders in the CQ format (Surname Givenname) and extra gratitude if you manage to get Spanish, Portuguese, Danish and Eritrean names in the same combination that CQ uses. The huge, but by no means exhaustive, list of names (available, I hope, at Google Doc here) should enable you to get the right format and confirm eligibility.
How do I check that a rider is eligible? At the bottom right of each riders page on CQ is a bold printed (dark red on white) 'Points', and at the bottom right of that is a rider's lifetime score (for example, Valverde is over the limit by 35736. Or, check that he is on the list. If he is straight out of Juniors, or you know he has done very little yet, then he is obviously fine. To give you an idea, you are looking for someone who has achieved less than recent threshold passers Julius Johansen, David Dekker of Emmanuel Morin.
Can I choose female riders? Sorry, no.
Is there an age limit? No, if there is a rider who you think will be a late bloomer over the next three years, pick him. There are many riders on the list who have taken a handful of points over 20 years or so (usually in nat champs of countries that have few cyclists). By the same token, if there is a teenager who you think will do so well in 2024 that he will justify his selection in that year alone, have at it.
Is there a limit to my team's total cost? The 199 point limit is for each rider, not for your team. There is a logical upper limit of 3582, but concentrate on each rider, not on the total.
How expert do I need to be? Not very. The winner of the edition that has just finished missed out on Vingegaard, Higuita, Pidcock and other big scorers, but opted for a rider who had three times as many points before the game than he got in the three years of the game: not one of us took Valter or Bissegger, but nine of us included Karel Vacek, who scored one solitary point in three years.
And if you are really lacking ideas, I have put a list of riders selected for the main 2022 CQ game that are eligible here into the eligible names list file linked above, and repeated it in post #6 below.
Good luck
So who are the riders who are only beginning to announce themselves at this stage, but will get big results (or at least consistent decent results) in the next few seasons? Who still has moderate salary expectations but would be amazing value if a team were to sign him up on a three year deal now?
That is who the Emerging Riders CQ Game challenges you to identify: 18 male riders who thus far have fewer than 200 CQ Ranking points (each) in their career, and will score well between now and the end of the 2024 season.
When to submit my team? By the end of 15th January UK time (I'm willing to run the risk that the competitiveness of the game is spoiled by riders showing that they have the potential for world domination in the NZ Cycling Classic, which I think is the only event before that).
How do I submit my team? By PM to me on Cycling News or VeloRooms (although Amis Velo did put his selection through the door of my house on what I assume was the envelope of one of his Christmas cards last year). Please submit your riders in the CQ format (Surname Givenname) and extra gratitude if you manage to get Spanish, Portuguese, Danish and Eritrean names in the same combination that CQ uses. The huge, but by no means exhaustive, list of names (available, I hope, at Google Doc here) should enable you to get the right format and confirm eligibility.
How do I check that a rider is eligible? At the bottom right of each riders page on CQ is a bold printed (dark red on white) 'Points', and at the bottom right of that is a rider's lifetime score (for example, Valverde is over the limit by 35736. Or, check that he is on the list. If he is straight out of Juniors, or you know he has done very little yet, then he is obviously fine. To give you an idea, you are looking for someone who has achieved less than recent threshold passers Julius Johansen, David Dekker of Emmanuel Morin.
Can I choose female riders? Sorry, no.
Is there an age limit? No, if there is a rider who you think will be a late bloomer over the next three years, pick him. There are many riders on the list who have taken a handful of points over 20 years or so (usually in nat champs of countries that have few cyclists). By the same token, if there is a teenager who you think will do so well in 2024 that he will justify his selection in that year alone, have at it.
Is there a limit to my team's total cost? The 199 point limit is for each rider, not for your team. There is a logical upper limit of 3582, but concentrate on each rider, not on the total.
How expert do I need to be? Not very. The winner of the edition that has just finished missed out on Vingegaard, Higuita, Pidcock and other big scorers, but opted for a rider who had three times as many points before the game than he got in the three years of the game: not one of us took Valter or Bissegger, but nine of us included Karel Vacek, who scored one solitary point in three years.
And if you are really lacking ideas, I have put a list of riders selected for the main 2022 CQ game that are eligible here into the eligible names list file linked above, and repeated it in post #6 below.
Good luck
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