The 2014 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Nicosix]

This week :

Tour of Dubai
GUARDINI Andrea
CARUSO Damiano
SINKELDAM Ramon
JANSE VAN RENSBURG Reinardt

Etoile de Bessèges
FEILLU Romain
CORBEL Erwann
COPPEL Jérôme

Herald Sun Tour
GOSS Matthew

 

[skidmark]

Well, new week. Who do I pin my hopes on?

Besseges

just Coppel, but he has won it before, so...

Herald Sun Tour

Dennis
Goss
Howson

Not expecting a ton - normally I'd say Dennis would be a good bet but, well, look at January. Howson or Dennis could win a 2.5km prologue, mind you. Goss could - nah, who am I kidding?

Dubai

Brajkovic
Lutsenko
Phinney
Hesjedal
Van Baarle
Craddock

Well, all of these guys bar Lutsenko are good against the clock (although on non-TT bikes? I have no idea how to predict) and all of them (granted I know little about Craddock on non-high climbs) seem like they've got enough punch to get over the only hills in this race, so it could go really well. Or not well. I've gotta get something, I'm sure.

 

[Popchu]

Herald Sun Tour: Simon Gerrans, Matthew Goss
Dubai Tour: Taylor Phinney, Peter Velits, Ryder Hesjedal
Etoile de Bessèges: Rein Taaramae

Every single rider of these should be able to take some points, but I fear that won't happen. At least I expect Gerrans to be in profit after Herald Sun Tour (he needs 42 points, that is possible I think). And maybe Phinney and Velits can earn a lot of points in Dubai with a good time trial in Dubai. Taaramae, Goss and Hesjedal are big question marks. We'll see.

 

[mutschi]

Living the dream - Phinney stage win and leading in Dubai, Nathan Haas stage win and leading in Australia, Goss 2nd. I was always in the wilderness in these games - much more fun when you are at the sharp end of the competition. Just lucky so far, I guess. And early days - but enjoying it.

 

[greenedge]

Phinney and Hansen in Dubai and Goss seems as if he is finally being allowed by OGE to sprint at the finish- only problem is he lost...

 

[shalgo]

This is shaping up to be a good week for me, as long as Phinney and Clarke can hang on to their GC leads.

 

[the sceptic]

I feel like I havent scored any points since the first week.

Contador time soon though. Will be interesting to see what kind of shape he shows up with.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I feel like I havent scored any points since the first week.

Contador time soon though. Will be interesting to see what kind of shape he shows up with.

I wouldn't expect a lot of points from him. 60 max in Algarve.

 

[Netserk]

I wouldn't expect a lot of points from him. 60 max in Algarve.

I miss the old Flo

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Dennis and Morton failing me in Australia.

Jungels looks okay, but not enough to score anything decent in Dubai.

I guess, that I could potentially still score good this week if all of Monfort, Gallopin, Taaramae and Coppel perform strong in the TT in Besseges.........

 

[LaFlorecita]

I miss the old Flo

Top 5 GC and top 3 on Malhao seems reasonable to me.

 

[the sceptic]

Top 5 GC and top 3 on Malhao seems reasonable to me.

Seems pessimistic. He will be the best climber there, aside from Horner I guess. with the ITT being short and another difficult stage I think he should be able to win the GC.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Seems pessimistic. He will be the best climber there, aside from Horner I guess. with the ITT being short and another difficult stage I think he should be able to win the GC.

I hope so. It's possible. But I think Costa and Horner could beat him on Malhao, and although it's a short tt I still don't trust his tt skills enough to say he won't be 20 to 30s slower compared to Martin and Kwiatkowski

 

[Jancouver]

Phinney scored 153 points from Dubai. Not bad.

I was surprised/disappointed he was picked so many times as I was not expecting him to be that "popular" so his points are not as crucial.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Phinney scored 153 points from Dubai. Not bad.

I was surprised/disappointed he was picked so many times as I was not expecting him to be that "popular" so his points are not as crucial.

Only for the winning the TT. Congrats.

Mc_mountain pointed out though, that he'll only be like 50 points ahead of his score last year after Qatar. Hardly decisive.

 

[Cyivel]

50% improvement!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Horrific week for me, 13 points I think. I want to forget about it asap.

Next week:
Tour of Qatar (2.HC)
BOONEN Tom
STUYVEN Jasper
VILLELLA Davide
HEPBURN Michael
BOARO Manuele

Trofeo Palma (1.1)
SÜTTERLIN Jasha
AMADOR Andrey
KENNAUGH Peter
CHAVES Jhoan Esteban
YATES Simon
WELLENS Tim
SANCHEZ Luis Leon
GERDEMANN Linus

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

216 points from Bessèges this week courtesy of Coppel, Taaramäe and Degenkolb. It's kind of ironic that the year I pick the less French riders is the one I have my best start in the French races.

Impressive ride by Degenkolb because he usually is a very bad time trialler

 

[will10]

Degenkolb is an interesting pick. I eventually decided against him instead of Contador, purely because I expected him to get less opportunities now that Kittel is arguably the fastest guy out there with Cav. Sorta like Greipel in his last year with High Road - fast enough to win a lot of "small sh*t races" that aren't worth as many points. My thoughts are that any picks over 1000pts only really need to break even to be worthwhile so considering he's only on six teams he could potentially be a very good pick.

I've finally picked up a few points this week with Coppel, Taaramae and Matthews but I'm sure I'll be chilling in the bottom half for a good while yet.

 

[uspostal]

I had a few guys racing this past week, but they all seem to have taken the race off. Hope next week is better.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

173 points from the GC in Besseges, from Coppel, Gallopin, Taaramae and Monfort. At least I scored some points this week.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Degenkolb is an interesting pick. I eventually decided against him instead of Contador, purely because I expected him to get less opportunities now that Kittel is arguably the fastest guy out there with Cav. Sorta like Greipel in his last year with High Road - fast enough to win a lot of "small sh*t races" that aren't worth as many points. My thoughts are that any picks over 1000pts only really need to break even to be worthwhile so considering he's only on six teams he could potentially be a very good pick.

I agree that 1000+ riders don't necessarily have to bring in a big profit to be good picks, and I can see why somebody would pick Contador over Degenkolb as I fully expect Contador to be the better pick of the two which is why I have both (it's actually a unique combo), however that doesn't mean Degenkolb can't net a nice profit. I feel Kittel's dominance will be a blessing in disguise for Degenkolb. He is too good to waste as a lead out man so I don't expect him to waste his time doing the TDF again. Instead he'll be in races that suit his style of racing more. Sure he might not race the biggest races but the calendar is rich enough for both Kittel and Degenkolb to express themselves to the limit of their abilities (I think their collaboration will be more like Démare/Bouhanni dividing races between them rather than a more frontal Cavendish/Greipel rivalry). Besides, Degenkolb is incredibly consistent, so there is a good chance he'll clean up races where the handful of faster sprinters aren't there (see the Vuelta 12 or last year post TDF season) because they are off getting beaten by Kittel somewhere else.

Degenkolb has one huge advantage compared to Greipel, and it's that he performs much better in one-day races which is key to score lots of points even for a sprinter. For instance, a win in Paris-Bourges (where Degenkolb has finished 4th, 3rd and 1st in his three years as a pro) gives as much points as a TDF stage win despite an unquestionably weaker field. I guess what I'm trying to say is that racing smaller races doesn't really limits Degenkolb scoring potential as it does other riders, such as Greipel who needs a bucketloads of stage wins in 2.1 races to score what Degenkolb can in a single one day Coupe de France race.

Usually Degenkolb pretty much flies under the radar until MSR but this year he is putting in his best time trial in over 2 years in early February. So I have faith he'll increase his score to somewhere around 1800 points, especially as he's bound to have his breakthrough in cobbled classics soon. The only concerns are the change in routes at MSR and RVV who really hurt his chances and the fact that Kittel will probably lead Giant in Hamburg (the only time their schedule might clash). Of course, if he is injured or sick, my chances to perform well in this game are over but it also makes the game much more fun to follow.

 

[del1962]

Not a great week, Calvin Watson got me 5 points to go into profit, nada from Etoile de Bessèges, Martin Velits and Malori combined to give me 47 points from Dubai and none of my riders in Trofeo Palma seemed to want to get involved.

 

[HelgeBlendet]

Thought about picking Degenkolb as well, but chickened out in the end.

Coppel, Gallopin and Monfort in France and Docker Down Under with points for me this weekend. Finally starting the season.

Next week

Qatar
BOONEN Tom
GILBERT Philippe

meh.... but Boonen might score some points

Mallorca
QUINTANA ROJAS Dayer Uberney
BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd
URAN Rigoberto
TRENTIN Matteo
DE GENDT Thomas
ARU Fabio
YATES Adam
YATES Simon
COPPEL Jerome
HUZARSKI Bartosz
TEKLEHAYMANOT Daniel
GERDEMANN Linus

Loads of points or training for everyone. Hard to predict anything.

 

[lenissart]

Good week fot me, with
- Phiney and Guardini in Dubai
- Coppel, Colbrelli and Feillu in France
- Matthews in Majorca
- Gerrans in HST

And next week could be cood too, with Bonnen, swift, matthews, LLS, the Yates brothers, and some others for sure

I realy hope it will be enough to stand conforably in the top10