2025-27 Emerging Riders CQ game

[Devil's Elbow]

Rondel being three times more popular this year is weird to me, he didn’t really progress much in 2024 and therefore I didn’t include him this year after having him in the previous edition.

 

[MADRAZO]

My most quixotic pick is Wenzel. Selecting him I was 100% sure he will be my rarest pick, I was sure there are safest picks, but I felt like allowing myself to have a wild bet. Still finished 1st in the popularity ranking haha

Shared nr 1 🙂

Funny enough I actually had the same feeling, with my rarest pick Henrik Pedersen. Its always fun to win the popular-ranking, and clearly felt I would have to pick Lorenzo Finn instead if I was to have a chance to win that for the last spots, that I knew would be quite popular. But just felt Finn was too young, with him also starting on the continental team, and also felt like taking one little chance, with a rider I felt could also have a lot of potential.

So I guess us sharing the popularity ranking is a nice compromise 🙂

By the way Wenzel was also in my considderations, as was of course also the other most popular picks I didnt make in Pescador and Sentjens. That were my 2 last cuts, with Gruel the last to get a spot also besides Henrik Pedersen instead.

 

[Cordi333]

Rondel being three times more popular this year is weird to me, he didn’t really progress much in 2024 and therefore I didn’t include him this year after having him in the previous edition.

His spring doing pro calendar (12th at Coppi&Bartali and specially 11th at Alps) felt like an improvement. Then he won Orlen at u23 level and arrived to the Girino as maybe the main favorite. There he did ok-ish finishing 4th but without answer to Widar. But you see later how Widar & Torres performed this season... Alsace was meh and then all it went downhill at Avenir. Bad summer and his september with only DNFs is concerning... but well a bad stretch may rise a question but still his spring was something. And well, last year we knew he was staying at conti/u23 level when now he's starting his pro career with many more options to score big points.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Kicking themselves?

We didn't quite get any universal picks, but we came very close on three accounts:
TORRES ARIAS Pablo was only omitted by Jumbo Visma Fan
NORDHAGEN Jørgen was in every team except that of Manafana
PHILIPSEN Albert Withen would have been ubiquitous but forJon Ezeitza

25 teams out of 42 have all of the top 8 riders in terms of popularity: the exceptions are

Blues in the Bottle BRENNAN Matthew
DJSprtsch BEHRENS Niklas BISIAUX Léo
Houdini SEIXAS Paul
Ingsve BRENNAN Matthew
Jon Ezeitza PHILIPSEN Albert Withen BISIAUX Léo
Josedin BRENNAN Matthew
Jumbo Visma Fan TORRES ARIAS Pablo SEIXAS Paul WIDAR Jarno BEHRENS Niklas BISIAUX Léo
Kazistuta BEHRENS Niklas
Laurens147 BISIAUX Léo
Manafana NORDHAGEN Jørgen WIDAR Jarno BRENNAN Matthew
Nyssinator BISIAUX Léo
Onizuka999 BEHRENS Niklas
Qazaqstan BISIAUX Léo
RedHead Dane WIDAR Jarno BISIAUX Léo
Rufs SEIXAS Paul
Samu Cuenca SEIXAS Paul WIDAR Jarno BRENNAN Matthew
Vladimir BEHRENS Niklas BRENNAN Matthew BISIAUX Léo

 

[Cordi333]

Jumbo Visma Fan TORRES ARIAS Pablo SEIXAS Paul WIDAR Jarno BEHRENS Niklas BISIAUX Léo

Mother of god... look at those climbers, at least he took Nordhagen being at Jumbo... but left out Behrens also at Jumbo.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Mother of god... look at those climbers, at least he took Nordhagen being at Jumbo... but left out Behrens also at Jumbo.

She. But she has Brennan as well, in loyalty to her username.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Team Similarity
I'll let you explore the details on the appropriate tab on the spreadsheet (which I should be uploading fairly soon), but the highlights are that the maximum team overlap is 15, which is found 3 times
Cordi & Nakazar
Cordi & Squire
Nakazar & Ray10

Despite the near unanimity over some riders, Josedin and Jumbo Visma Fam share only 2 riders.

	shares with Coll Wisdom	Max shares with another team	Teams with 14 or 15 shares	Minimum shares
Abbulf	14​	13​	0​	6​
AmisVelo	12​	13​	0​	5​
Anderis	14​	14​	1​	6​
Armchair_Cyclist	14​	14​	6​	5​
Berflamand	13​	13​	0​	6​
Blues_in_the_Bottle	10​	10​	0​	4​
Bminchow	15​	14​	7​	6​
Boris98	12​	13​	0​	3​
Cordi	16​	15​	7​	6​
DevilsElbow	14​	14​	5​	6​
DJSprtsch	14​	14​	1​	4​
DJW	13​	13​	0​	4​
EvansIsTheBest	13​	13​	0​	6​
Fivezzz	14​	14​	3​	7​
Hfgon1	14​	14​	1​	5​
Houdini	13​	14​	2​	6​
Ingsve	12​	13​	0​	6​
JonEzeitza	11​	13​	0​	3​
Josedin	10​	10​	0​	2​
JPettersen	11​	13​	0​	5​
JumboVismaFan	6​	8​	0​	2​
Kazistuta	12​	13​	0​	5​
Laarsland	12​	13​	0​	6​
Laurens147	9​	11​	0​	5​
Leadbelly	13​	14​	2​	5​
LosBrolin	13​	14​	2​	5​
Madrazo	15​	14​	5​	5​
Manafana	9​	10​	0​	3​
Nakazar	14​	15​	4​	5​
Nyssinator	12​	13​	0​	5​
Onizuka999	10​	10​	0​	4​
Pantani4Ever	15​	14​	2​	5​
Peixotini	12​	12​	0​	5​
Qazaqstan	11​	13​	0​	4​
Ray10	13​	15​	3​	4​
RedheadDane	12​	13​	0​	6​
Rufs	12​	13​	0​	5​
SafeBet	14​	14​	5​	5​
SamuCuenca	7​	8​	0​	3​
Skidmark	13​	14​	2​	6​
Squire	16​	15​	6​	6​
Vladimir	9​	11​	0​	4​

 

[Squire]

Surprised Alvarez (11 picks) is so much more popular than Pericas (2 picks). Sure, Alvarez is more of a winner, but with Torres doing what he's doing, I thought people wanted the next Torres, too. I didn't pick any of them though, although in a year of less options I likely would have.

It's probably my most hastily put together CQ team ever. I did it in 30 minutes when I realised the deadline was approaching and I'd been procrastinating on it forever. So it's a bit boring and popular. I did briefly play with the thought of including Adrien Maire, who would have been a unique pick.

I see @JOSEDIN is keeping 'my' tradition alive by picking a final-year junior. I have Seixas in the 24-26 edition and Nordhagen in the 23-25 edition (so he better deliver this year!), but I don't have any this time.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

The spreadsheet is as presentable as it will ever be: here it is.

 

[jon ezeitza]

Being way ahead in the popularity list I don't know if it's good. Because if your competitors have your same riders, they also get the points you earn. Last year I was 26th on the popularity list and I was 1st in the end of season scoring. For example, I found PARET-PEINTRE Valentin (425 points, having cost 135) and LÓPEZ Harold (208 for 103) very profitable, having been chosen by others 4 and 3 teams only. This year I'm almost last in popularity, in 40th place to be precise 😉.
I have included Albert PHILIPSEN in the game “The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread”. For this game I have only included in the team a 19 year old rider, Paul SEIXAS.

 

[Cordi333]

Being way ahead in the popularity list I don't know if it's good. Because if your competitors have your same riders, they also get the points you earn. Last year I was 26th on the popularity list and I was 1st in the end of season scoring. For example, I found PARET-PEINTRE Valentin (425 points, having cost 135) and LÓPEZ Harold (208 for 103) very profitable, having been chosen by others 4 and 3 teams only. This year I'm almost last in popularity, in 40th place to be precise 😉.
I have included Albert PHILIPSEN in the game “The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread”. For this game I have only included in the team a 19 year old rider, Paul SEIXAS.

Imo ususally being high in popularity is a good indicator, while being low is the opposite.
You tend to bet on older riders than the median, so it is natural that after only the first year they will perform better than the younger ones. About those 2 riders you mentioned, I think Valentin is a good hit but I'm still skeptical about Harold.

 

[bminchow]

Phew. I've been away for a couple weeks so finally got caught up on all the comments. As usual, I am high on the popularity ranking. I think this is because I don't have the deep knowledge to know who the big names are that are coming up. So I am only aware of the more obvious ones. It looks like I'm putting my money on Alvarez and Donaldson (I'm already down on my Orins pick).

I did try my best to research as many names as possible. Ending up with 57 names. But i still somehow was unaware of the fairly popular picks below. I guess i will now go see what I can learn about them. I am always happy to learn.

SENTJENS Sente

KAJAMINI Florian Samuel

GRUEL Thibaud

 

[Cordi333]

age concerns are probably why Hatherly is far more popular there than here.

Hatherly is starting strong in Arabia... For me the reason to not even consider him seriously, was not age but the recent experience with Koretzky, where he had qualities to do good on the road but didn't really commit with road racing and remained primaly focused on mtb, not even racing at all in the 3rd year of the game (years ago happened the same with Cink, who only raced the first year). So I decided that taking a biker for 3 years without knowing for sure how commited he will be to the road, is a big risk not worth taking.

 

[Squire]

Hatherly is starting strong in Arabia... For me the reason to not even consider him seriously, was not age but the recent experience with Koretzky, where he had qualities to do good on the road but didn't really commit with road racing and remained primaly focused on mtb, not even racing at all in the 3rd year of the game (years ago happened the same with Cink, who only raced the first year). So I decided that taking a biker for 3 years without knowing for sure how commited he will be to the road, is a big risk not worth taking.

Regarding Cink, road cycling caused some physical issues which forced him to stop. He was actually one of the few MTBers who looked decent on the road in recent times.

My reason for not picking Hatherly was quite similar to yours. None of Koretzky, Gaze, Colombo, Schurter have done well when exploring road cycling, so I just thought the current MTB level/characteristics wouldn't transfer that well. But it might turn out to have been a mistake. Hatherly looks great so far.

 

[Cordi333]

Regarding Cink, road cycling caused some physical issues which forced him to stop. He was actually one of the few MTBers who looked decent on the road in recent times.

My reason for not picking Hatherly was quite similar to yours. None of Koretzky, Gaze, Colombo, Schurter have done well when exploring road cycling, so I just thought the current MTB level/characteristics wouldn't transfer that well. But it might turn out to have been a mistake. Hatherly looks great so far.

I see it different... I think the mtb level is quite high and it generally transfers well to the road. But I think most bikers don't have interest in doing anything in the road and those who give it a try usually do it only as a side job but without a serious focus on it. The mtb at the highest level is well paid, it isnt a minor discipline at all.

You can see it with the bikers that have succeded in the road after abandoning the mtb, where they were not amongst the best. I think the transfer from the road to xco is much more difficult due to skill issues and the xco being a more explossive sport. But when going from xco to the road, they just need to train more on the road (which they already do) doing more hours to build more resistance and get used to be racing more hours (and the same happens with cx).

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Year 1 Month 1 (to 2nd Feb)
And they're off.

Rider	Pts this month	Teams	Main results
HATHERLY Alan	60​	2 (Houdini and Skidmark)​	AlUla GC6th, with 2 stage podiums
PHILIPSEN Albert Withen	40​	41​	TDU 17th with 4th on a stage
BRENNAN Matthew	33​	36​	2nd on TDU stage
SEIXAS Paul	32​	38​	5th in Marseillaise
TORRES ARIAS Pablo	16​	41​
VAN DER MEULEN Max	15​	1(Nyssinator)​
QUICK Blake	12​	2 (Kazistuta, Samu Cuenca)​
PESCADOR CASTRO Diego	10​	16​
DE LA CALLE ARANGO Hugo	10​	1 (Samu Cuenca)​
MACKELLAR Alastair	10​	1 (Blues in the Bottle)​

Skidmark overcomes the self-imposed handicap of only having 17 riders to take the first leader's plaudits.

1​	Skidmark	181
2​	Houdini	152
3​	Peixotini	144
4​	RedheadDane	142
5​	Anderis	141
5​	DJW	141
5​	Laarsland	141
5​	Nyssinator	141
5​	Pantani4Ever	141
10​	Kazistuta	138
11​	Abbulf	136
11​	Armchair_Cyclist	136
11​	DJSprtsch	136
11​	Hfgon1	136
15​	Qazaqstan	133
16​	Cordi	131
16​	LosBrolin	131
16​	Nakazar	131
16​	Ray10	131
20​	AmisVelo	126
20​	Berflamand	126
20​	Bminchow	126
20​	Boris98	126
20​	DevilsElbow	126
20​	EvansIsTheBest	126
20​	JPettersen	126
20​	Laurens147	126
20​	Leadbelly	126
20​	Madrazo	126
30​	Onizuka999	124
31​	Blues_in_the_Bottle	123
32​	Fivezzz	121
32​	SafeBet	121
32​	Squire	121
35​	Ingsve	103
35​	Josedin	103
35​	Vladimir	103
38​	Rufs	96
39​	Manafana	93
40​	SamuCuenca	90
41​	JonEzeitza	86
42​	JumboVismaFan	83
	CollectiveWisdom	136
	CollectiveIgnorance	622
	MainGame2025	131
	Goodin2024	54
	PopularLastEdition	61

I should be able to get the other 2 cycles of this updated tomorrow evening.

 

[RedheadDane]

4

RedheadDane

142

That's an... unusual position for me to be in...

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

4

RedheadDane

142

That's an... unusual position for me to be in...

Amazing what you can do when you don't preclude 95% of riders from your consideration in selecting a team.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Year 1, Month 2 to 2nd March

Scores are still very modest, but interestingly distributed.

Rider	Pts this month	Teams	Source
ARAYA Nahom Zeray	71​	1 (Samu Cuenca)​	Oman 12th, Rwanda 13th with stage win
PERICAS CAPDEVILA Adria	66​	2 (Laurens, Nakazar)​	Murcia 9th, Rwanda 5th
SVESTAD-BAARDSENG Embret	65​	1 (Peixotini)​	8th in Oman
LABROSSE Jordan	53​	2 (DJW, Qazaqstan)​	Murcia 10th, Jaén 4th
DALBY Simon	42​	9​
WIDAR Jarno	40​	38​
GRUEL Thibaud	35​	14​
MARTINEZ HUERTAS Juan Guillermo	35​	1 (Josedin)​
TAILLIEU Aldo	26​	1 (Onizuka)​
TONEATTI Davide	24​	1 (Amis Velo)​

Over that month:

1	Qazaqstan	215​
2	Peixotini	190​
3	EvansIsTheBest	166​
4	JonEzeitza	157​
5	Ingsve	145​
6	Houdini	134​
6	Skidmark	134​
8	Laurens147	126​
9	DJW	123​
10	Madrazo	119​
11	Nakazar	116​
12	Vladimir	114​
13	Rufs	113​
14	LosBrolin	100​
15	Leadbelly	99​
16	Boris98	98​
16	DJSprtsch	98​
18	Onizuka999	96​
19	JPettersen	95​
20	SamuCuenca	94​
21	AmisVelo	90​
21	DevilsElbow	90​
23	Josedin	88​
24	Blues_in_the_Bottle	87​
25	Anderis	85​
25	Ray10	85​
27	Cordi	84​
27	Squire	84​
29	SafeBet	83​
30	Bminchow	81​
30	Hfgon1	81​
32	Fivezzz	78​
33	Abbulf	76​
34	RedheadDane	75​
35	JumboVismaFan	71​
35	Kazistuta	71​
35	Pantani4Ever	71​
38	Armchair_Cyclist	65​
38	Berflamand	65​
38	Nyssinator	65​
41	Laarsland	60​
42	Manafana	28​
	CollectiveWisdom	84​
	CollectiveIgnorance	688​
	MainGame2025	73​
	Goodin2024	170​
	PopularLastEdition	74​

Standings

1​	Qazaqstan	348	(+14)
2​	Peixotini	334	(+1)
3​	Skidmark	315	(-2)
4​	EvansIsTheBest	292	(+16)
5​	Houdini	286	(-3)
6​	DJW	264	(-1)
7​	Laurens147	252	(+13)
8​	Ingsve	248	(+27)
9​	Nakazar	247	(+7)
10​	Madrazo	245	(+10)
11​	JonEzeitza	243	(+30)
12​	DJSprtsch	234	(-1)
13​	LosBrolin	231	(+3)
14​	Anderis	226	(-9)
15​	Leadbelly	225	(+5)
16​	Boris98	224	(+4)
17​	JPettersen	221	(+3)
18​	Onizuka999	220	(+12)
19​	Hfgon1	217	(-8)
19​	RedheadDane	217	(-15)
19​	Vladimir	217	(+16)
22​	AmisVelo	216	(-2)
22​	DevilsElbow	216	(-2)
22​	Ray10	216	(-6)
25​	Cordi	215	(-9)
26​	Abbulf	212	(-15)
26​	Pantani4Ever	212	(-21)
28​	Blues_in_the_Bottle	210	(+3)
29​	Kazistuta	209	(-19)
29​	Rufs	209	(+9)
31​	Bminchow	207	(-11)
32​	Nyssinator	206	(-27)
33​	Squire	205	(-1)
34​	SafeBet	204	(-2)
35​	Armchair_Cyclist	201	(-24)
35​	Laarsland	201	(-30)
37​	Fivezzz	199	(-5)
38​	Berflamand	191	(-18)
38​	Josedin	191	(-3)
40​	SamuCuenca	184	(-)
41​	JumboVismaFan	154	(+1)
42​	Manafana	121	(-3)
	CollectiveWisdom	220
	CollectiveIgnorance	1073
	MainGame2025	204
	Goodin2024	224
	PopularLastEdition	135

 

[manafana]

Kicking themselves?

We didn't quite get any universal picks, but we came very close on three accounts:
TORRES ARIAS Pablo was only omitted by Jumbo Visma Fan
NORDHAGEN Jørgen was in every team except that of Manafana
PHILIPSEN Albert Withen would have been ubiquitous but forJon Ezeitza

25 teams out of 42 have all of the top 8 riders in terms of popularity: the exceptions are

Blues in the Bottle BRENNAN Matthew
DJSprtsch BEHRENS Niklas BISIAUX Léo
Houdini SEIXAS Paul
Ingsve BRENNAN Matthew
Jon Ezeitza PHILIPSEN Albert Withen BISIAUX Léo
Josedin BRENNAN Matthew
Jumbo Visma Fan TORRES ARIAS Pablo SEIXAS Paul WIDAR Jarno BEHRENS Niklas BISIAUX Léo
Kazistuta BEHRENS Niklas
Laurens147 BISIAUX Léo
Manafana NORDHAGEN Jørgen WIDAR Jarno BRENNAN Matthew
Nyssinator BISIAUX Léo
Onizuka999 BEHRENS Niklas
Qazaqstan BISIAUX Léo
RedHead Dane WIDAR Jarno BISIAUX Léo
Rufs SEIXAS Paul
Samu Cuenca SEIXAS Paul WIDAR Jarno BRENNAN Matthew
Vladimir BEHRENS Niklas BRENNAN Matthew BISIAUX Léo

For some reason I think i thought Widar was over budget for this as i'd considered him in proper game

 

[RedheadDane]

25 teams out of 42 have all of the top 8 riders in terms of popularity: the exceptions are

...
RedHead Dane WIDAR Jarno BISIAUX Léo

You might wanna go check the PM I sent with the team again.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

You might wanna go check the PM I sent with the team again.

Being spoken to so rudely is not the reason I put untold hours into running these games.

 

[RedheadDane]

Being spoken to so rudely is not the reason I put untold hours into running these games.

I was actually wondering if it was - yet another - case of a name being written in slightly different ways.

 

[jon ezeitza]

Good progression of my team. My exclusive rider -Jorge Gutierrez- has started to score and that's good. I also got a lot of points from riders who are in a few teams, such as Simon Dalby (9 teams) and Alessandro Romele (5 teams). I started in the penultimate place and we have already overcome the “trauma” by moving up to 11th 🙂.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Good progression of my team.

A thirty place jump is not bad indeed. the early positions here tell very little.