CQ ranking

[Hugo Koblet]

Isn't the RR on this weekend too?

Yeah it is, I just thought you were referring to the ITT comment by auscyclefan

 

[Rocksteady]

Come On Bauer, Get me my first points of the year!!! ( I need all I can get with my team)

 

[auscyclefan94]

I have 9 riders in the Tour Down under and 4 in the australian nationals as well. I should start well.

 

[The Hitch]

Kevin, ill coment on your game once the deadline passes though i dont want to give anything away.

why not just play some of the free-to-enter established fantasy games already available on the net and compete against some of the best gamers in the world ?
Try your luck over at CyclingFever's Tour Down Under 2011 game, where you will be competing with about 500 other gamers from around 40 countries.
A warm welcome to all !
http://tdu.cyclingfever.com/

lucybears, may i ask which races throughout the year are covered in this game?

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I have 9 riders in the Tour Down under and 4 in the australian nationals as well. I should start well.

As far as I can see, I've only got 4 riders in the Tour Down Under: Gerrans, Kristoff, Madrazo and Galimzyanov.

 

[roundabout]

Apparently i have zero. Meh.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Anyone get points today? The Kiwis will actually be on top of the countries leaderboard for once on CQ!

 

[theyoungest]

With Gerrans and Matthews on my team, I hope to have the Aussie championship sewn up

For the TDU my squad will be those two guys plus Madrazo, who probably won't do very well because he'll be ridiculed on every street corner.

 

[will10]

For Tour Down Under I have Cavendish, Renshaw, Goddaert, and Moinard.

 

[The Hitch]

One of the few riders that i support, that i chose is the one jose. I chose him because with the Schlecks and Cancellara gone im hoping hell get more opportunities. Im also hoping that with Cav doing Giro hell get those Cali sprints which he usually does but not last year.

He is my only real hope for the TDU. I dont see him beating Greipel Cav and Farrar in the sprints but even if he comes 4th once or twice, or 5th in these sprints, theres still CQ points there.

Dont have too high hopes though because last year he was totaly off form coming 135th overall.

As for those of us with MAdrazo, i dont expect much from him, but bare in mind that if he simply, finishes thats 1 quarter of his points reagained already.

If he were through some miracle to win a stage then that alone doubles his points.

 

[theyoungest]

As for those of us with MAdrazo, i dont expect much from him, but bare in mind that if he simply, finishes thats 1 quarter of his points reagained already.

If he were through some miracle to win a stage then that alone doubles his points.

When I picked him, I didn't do so with the Tour Down Under in mind

 

[The Hitch]

When I picked him, I didn't do so with the Tour Down Under in mind

Neither did I.

But we are talking about the Tour Down under here. If you are not talking about the Tour Down Under I sugest you go elsewhere.

 

[theyoungest]

Neither did I.

But we are talking about the Tour Down under here. If you are not talking about the Tour Down Under I sugest you go elsewhere.

I think you got the wrong thread

 

[kurtinsc]

My TDU starters:

Ben Swift
Gerald Ciolek
Francesco Chicchi
Ben Hermans

Maybe I can pick up a few points... kind of hate having Ciolek and Chicchi in the same race, only one can be the sprinter for quickstep.

 

[Tuarts]

Oh ****. I've only just remembered that Koos Moorenhout has retired. I cant change him can I?

 

[theyoungest]

Oh ****. I've only just remembered that Koos Moorenhout has retired. I cant change him can I?

He hasn't retired yet, though. Two hours from now

 

[will10]

Just for some discussion - what do you guys think about having Cavendish for your team? I picked him as if he wins a big classic - MSR again or the Worlds - then he should definitely increase his score. Quite a big gamble if he breaks a leg in June but could pay off with a 30-40% increase?

Same applies to Pozzato in that respect

 

[ingsve]

Just for some discussion - what do you guys think about having Cavendish for your team? I picked him as if he wins a big classic - MSR again or the Worlds - then he should definitely increase his score. Quite a big gamble if he breaks a leg in June but could pay off with a 30-40% increase?

Same applies to Pozzato in that respect

I think he's too expensive. Even if he has another season like 2009 or even better he would make more that say 600 more points more than he costs and I think those points are better spent on riders that have a chance of having better improvements.

 

[The Hitch]

Just for some discussion - what do you guys think about having Cavendish for your team? I picked him as if he wins a big classic - MSR again or the Worlds - then he should definitely increase his score. Quite a big gamble if he breaks a leg in June but could pay off with a 30-40% increase?

Same applies to Pozzato in that respect

Cavendish has great potential and i would have picked him but for my no rider over 1000 rule.

He could potentially have a Boonen 2006 season

Boonen got 2559 points which would be double what Cav got last year, and that would make Cav the most succesful buy.

Its actually not that diffcult to fathom

Boonen won RVV and got 2nd in PR but you can substitute that for Worlds and MSR. Boonen got 9th in MSR so you can take away but Worlds are worth more points so Cav already has made up the difference. Boonen came 9th in worlds though.

Boonen won TOur of Quatar leading all the way, and if Cav is on form he can do exactly this at TDU. So swap Quatar for TDU. Only TDU is worth more points so Cav gets back the points Boonen won at worlds.

Boonen was leader at TDF and Cav should do the same. Boonen got high places in stages and Cav should win them, so he gets more points at TDF.

Boonen got points from a few stage races - PN, Andalucia, Eneco, and Cav should too including the Giro which he will ride first half.

Where Boonen makes up a bit is that he did a bunch of other cobbled classics winning 2, which gets him 500 extra points. But Cav makes up some of that by winning more stages at stage races.

So comparing the 2 if Cav has his best season, he should get within 200 points of Boonens immense 2006 score. Problem is thats if Cav is absolutely at his best all year and rides all those races - a big if.

Last year he said he was very tired for the worlds and WONT make that mistake this year. Maybe hell take it a bit easy knwoing that this is his best chance ever at a rainbow jersey.

But i dont think Cav will have this perfect season. Farrar aint no Cavendish but hes not that far behind, and Greipel should win his fair share too. Ebh was close despite being off form in TDF.

I think Cav will get 1600 which makes him a good buy but not great. And when your paying 1200 for someone, its a risk.

As for Pipo, whats he going to do that he didnt this year?

Better finishes in PR, RVV, MSR ok but that wont get him too big an increase and he had other good results last year which he has to defend.

 

[kurtinsc]

Just for some discussion - what do you guys think about having Cavendish for your team? I picked him as if he wins a big classic - MSR again or the Worlds - then he should definitely increase his score. Quite a big gamble if he breaks a leg in June but could pay off with a 30-40% increase?

Same applies to Pozzato in that respect

Cavendish is a tough sell for me.

1241 last year with a very successful year. 1733 the year before. 1080 and 774 the two years prior to that. I think that 2009 number is a ceiling. I think there's a lot more risk on moving down then up (due to injury), and his number last year is his average for the last 3 seasons.

I think Pozzato has a bit more room for improvement. He's been over 771 each of the 4 years prior to this past year.

I don't think either will make huge gains or losses barring injury and both could make moderate (10-20%) improvements easily. I think Pozzato is a safer bet.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I really do need a good start especially all the riders I have riding at tour down under and the nationals.

btw, I like all the analysis The Hitch has done. I hope to have a look at his team & him to look at mine!

 

[The Hitch]

I really do need a good start especially all the riders I have riding at tour down under and the nationals.

btw, I like all the analysis The Hitch has done. I hope to have a look at his team & him to look at mine!

Sure.

Ill start with cons cos i always prefer bad news out of the way first

1 Bad buys.

a Obviously Cadel. I know you had to buy him being ACF and all but he had a very good last season and the game is about finding riders who will improve next season. Since he always has a good season we can expect him to match his total or even gain 200 points but thats a lot of money to spend on a 15% gain.

His 2009 total was 1912 but bare in mind 400 of that was from the worlds which he wont do next year. If, like you predict, he wins LBL the Tour and the Vuelta, then his total would be around 2000. But that is highly unlikely.

b The other guy you went big on does have more of a room for improvement, but, well who knows what Anton will do. If he does well at Giro and Vuelta i suppose that could be an increase of about 50%. But Anton as i say is a risk. We dont know if he would be able to perform on top form for 2 gts.

So Anton could be a pro could be a con, but most likely will be a slight improvement.

c Van Armeret at 632 had a pretty good season. I dont see him doubling that. An increase of 300 or so is possible though.




2 Your biggest con is that you didnt tap too much into what one might call into the boulevard of broken talents.

Soler, Duarte, Gerrans, Schumacher, Cobo, Kashechkin, Di Luca, all cheap and good and popular picks which you missed out on. Problem is a lot of other people did, which puts you at a disadvantage if as expected they perform.

3 Another one is that you only picked 29 riders. Thats not to say 29 riders is always worse than 33. Just like having 9 riders finish a ttt is usually better than 7 but Garmin did well with 5 in TDF09. Also 29 isnt that low, since some chose only 29 but as ingsve says its better to spread the risk and the potential for reward.

Pros

1 You did manage to get Vandevelde. Pellizoti Haussler and De La fuente. All from the same boulevard mentioned above. And De la fuente isnt that popular so if he has a good season, you gain on others. Id add Ballan who at 474 has lots of potential.

2 You have a lot of youngsters who could break out. None of them are overly popular so if they succeed you succeed. Most of them should get similar totals to this year at least, if they improve.

3 In fact many of your guys are unique or unpopular, which means that any great season on their part provides a bigger reward to you, since others have not picked them.

 

[will10]

Hope Hugo Koblet doesn't mind But I just spent 5 minutes coming up with the first unofficial standings of the season after the NZ TT champs

No-one had the winner, Westley Gough, but 3 riders did have Jesse Sergeant who took 2nd, Sasquatch, Team Sky Fans and whittashau. Not one team had anyone who placed 4th-10th (no surprise as they'll all NZ domestic riders). However, one team did have Greg Henderson, Team Sky Fans, so are (un)officially the first leaders of the 2011 CQ Game!!

1 Team Sky Fans 32
2 Sasquatch 18
3 whittasau 18

 

[ingsve]

Hmm, with 30 points at a cost of 0 Westley Gough would have been a profitable pick already. I guess not with the same potential as Cobo though.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

i have renshaw and roe tomorrow.

TDU; renshaw, roe, ten dam, van leijen.
i don't think i'll be getting to many points.