The 2014 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Hugo Koblet]

Who other than Boonen would you say where clear cut bargains this year?

Any of : Kwiatkowski, Contador, Gerrans, Chaves, Swift?
Others?

I never said there were more clear cut bargains this year, but I do think that there were more obvious choices, although many of them never really performed.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I am still in top 50 please let it stay that way

but I'm already looking at my 2015 team

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

aw shiiiit I just realized Lachlan Morton is in the tour of Beijing.

After the Herald Sun Tour, the Tour l'Ain and Milano-Torino, will he be able to finish a 4th race this season and earn 5 points for that amazing performance?! I'm so excited. What a talent; just 22 and he might even be able to finish a WT race already!

/bestpickever

 

[Hugo Koblet]

aw shiiiit I just realized Lachlan Morton is in the tour of Beijing.

After the Herald Sun Tour, the Tour l'Ain and Milano-Torino, will he be able to finish a 4th race this season and earn 5 points for that amazing performance?! I'm so excited. What a talent; just 22 and he might even be able to finish a WT race already!

/bestpickever

Wow, he's even worse than Andy

 

[LaFlorecita]

He is not interested in pro cycling anymore and will retire after this season.

 

[Pentacycle]

He is not interested in pro cycling anymore and will retire after this season.

All things I can find are articles about Lachlan and his brother trying to get on a smaller team together. He won't retire, he'll just step back for now.

 

[LaFlorecita]

All things I can find are articles about Lachlan and his brother trying to get on a smaller team together. He won't retire, he'll just step back for now.

I thought I read he was going to retire from pro cycling.

Not cycling as a whole obviously.

 

[roman law]

well.........

Thank you so much for continuing on with the game.

http://www.soran.edu.iq

 

[Gloin22]

I thought I read he was going to retire from pro cycling.

Not cycling as a whole obviously.

Maybe you read about Oskar Svendsen?

He lost motivation and is indeed retiring at 21.

 

[skidmark]

Hey guys, sorry I didn't realize this week's update wasn't covered and yesterday was a holiday in Canada so I was off the grid spending time with family. I'll do the update in the next 24 hours.

In the meantime, I'm thinking about an end plan for the rest of the season. Here is what the rules say, copied from the opening post:

The season starts when the first race is held (which I believe is the Aussie National TT Championships on January 8th) and ends when the last major race (.1 or higher) is held. The winner will be crowned when the next update after the last major race is out. **New rule: any of the top 15 teams have the right to submit for an extension to the season before the end of the last major race. If no teams do so by that time, the season will end at the time stated above.**

Now, I realize the last major race is, I think, Tour of Taihu Lake, which is November 1st-9th. For all intents and purposes, I think the Japan Cup is a pretty last gasp for most of the riders represented in this game, and it would be nice to have a timely wrap-up, especially given that the final result for 1st place seems at least to be sewn up. I was thinking that maybe we could have a wrap-up summary after this weekend (which will include the GC of Beijing and Japan Cup) and unofficially crown a winner, and then for those who are still invested in placings I can offer a couple of updates until the 'official' end of the season. Does that sound good?

I'd love to hear people's thoughts, especially those in the above-mentioned top 15.

 

[gustienordic]

I am very surprised at my Tour of Beijing haul; with Gilbert, Uran, Barguil, and Hesjedal, I picked up almost 500 points from the final GC

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Hey guys, sorry I didn't realize this week's update wasn't covered and yesterday was a holiday in Canada so I was off the grid spending time with family. I'll do the update in the next 24 hours.

In the meantime, I'm thinking about an end plan for the rest of the season. Here is what the rules say, copied from the opening post:

The season starts when the first race is held (which I believe is the Aussie National TT Championships on January 8th) and ends when the last major race (.1 or higher) is held. The winner will be crowned when the next update after the last major race is out. **New rule: any of the top 15 teams have the right to submit for an extension to the season before the end of the last major race. If no teams do so by that time, the season will end at the time stated above.**

Now, I realize the last major race is, I think, Tour of Taihu Lake, which is November 1st-9th. For all intents and purposes, I think the Japan Cup is a pretty last gasp for most of the riders represented in this game, and it would be nice to have a timely wrap-up, especially given that the final result for 1st place seems at least to be sewn up. I was thinking that maybe we could have a wrap-up summary after this weekend (which will include the GC of Beijing and Japan Cup) and unofficially crown a winner, and then for those who are still invested in placings I can offer a couple of updates until the 'official' end of the season. Does that sound good?

I'd love to hear people's thoughts, especially those in the above-mentioned top 15.

As far as I can see, Japan Cup isn't listed on the cqranking calender. Any idea why that is? For me, having the next update as the last one is fine. AndI think that next year, the last update should be the one after the last WT race (or at least after the last important race if something like Paris-Tours is scheduled after the last WT race).

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

PCS has the Japan Cup listed, with a startlist and proper information and everything, so I think it will be there. After that there's also the Tour of Hainan, a 2.HC stage race with 9 stages and some WT teams participating. So there's still a couple of points to be earned.

Some people picked Guardini right? He's bound to get at least 5 stage wins in Hainan, if it will be anything like last year. That's a decent amount of points in a 2.HC race.

 

[HelgeBlendet]

I am very surprised at my Tour of Beijing haul; with Gilbert, Uran, Barguil, and Hesjedal, I picked up almost 500 points from the final GC

Had a similar reaction. Gilbert, Chaves, Uran, Hesjedal, EBH and JvR really delivered at the end.

@ End of the Game

I feel we should at least include Hainan. I don't like the race, but there are still lots of points up for grabs as it's a .HC.

 

[Pentacycle]

Had a similar reaction. Gilbert, Chaves, Uran, Hesjedal, EBH and JvR really delivered at the end.

@ End of the Game

I feel we should at least include Hainan. I don't like the race, but there are still lots of points up for grabs as it's a .HC.

+1 No problem for me too. Hainan can idd still have an impact on the outcome.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Maybe you read about Oskar Svendsen?

He lost motivation and is indeed retiring at 21.

No, I read about Lachlan Morton

 

[skidmark]

Update 40: The Epilogue

If last week's update had the rather titular title 'The End', I would certainly not fault it for the feel of the game; in actuality, there is still a WT stage event to process and a few other little things. But indeed, post-Vuelta, post-Worlds, post-Lombardia, we are fully into the period of denouement for the CQ Ranking Game 2014. It has been a lovely ride, and we will be ceremonially entering Paris shortly, some of us happily in a victory lap, some of us happy to make it to the end and thinking already of next year.

This Week's Top Scorers


1 Fus87 436
2 ray200 282
3 freshman 281
4 Zam_Olyas 278
5 lenissart 276

Fus87 had it all come together this week - not only is their team the only one out of 150 teams to have Jelle Wallays*, winner of Paris-Tours (you would have made a whopping amount on that bet even the day of the race), they also have Stybar who won a 1.1 race, and a gaggle of riders (Nizzolo, Villella, Battaglin, Ruffoni, Firsanov, Rosa) who picked up handy results (between 30 and 45 points) this week. In keeping with the 'usernames with numbers' theme, ray200 gets 2nd with a completely different team (Degenkolb and Madrazo and Formolo doing the scoring). Zam's all-Italian team fittingly places in the closing weekend of Italian racing.

*for some reason on the spreadsheet Jelle Wallays shows up as being on Froome19's team in the popularity tab, but is not on the team actually. I don't know if it was a glitch in data entry or a change in riders before the start of the game that wasn't reflected on that tab, but it seems like Wallays is only on Fus' team for real.

This Week's High Movers


1 Fus87 (+14)
2 ray200 (+8)
3 LaFlorecita (+5)
3 ----AG---- (+5)
5 olopaine (+4)
5 LightBing (+4)
5 Sneekes (+4)
5 Hugo Koblet (+4)
5 comodoro (+4)

The top 2 scorers are the top 2 movers, but LaFlo, despite only finishing 17th this week with less than 200 points, maximized those points in a tight area of the rankings and leaps 5 places. AG does this despite finishing 30th on the week on points. Nice work, guys!

Top 10


1 (-) Pentacycle 13754
2 (-) Cykeltyven 13341
3 (+2) Oliveira 13000
4 (-1) The Hitch 12967
5 (+3) Ruudz0r 12906
6 (-2) will10 12894
7 (-) rywann 12891
8 (-2) minessa 12870
9 (+1) freshman 12756
10 (-1) Kazistuta 12651

Top spot aside, there is some tight racing still going on. Most of this has been resolved by the outcome of the Tour of Beijing (GC not reflected in this update), and the dust will be settling after the Japan Cup this weekend. But the final podium place is a see-saw battle, with spots 3-8 separated by 130 points. Besides that, 4 other teams are within 100 points of the top 10. Top spot seems locked up, but beyond that it's anybody's game.

Update at Dropbox

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Wow, he's even worse than Andy

lol he DNF'd the last stage of the Tour of Beijing; a 117km flat circuit. 0 points for him this year.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

12th now with only 52 points to top 10! Luckily, I'm doing next week's update myself, so don't be surprised if I'm entering top 10 then

Edit: I just realised that for some reason, not all of Gilbert's Beijing points are included in this week's update. That bodes well!

 

[vladimir]

Edit: I just realised that for some reason, not all of Gilbert's Beijing points are included in this week's update. That bodes well!

It seems like the GC points from Beijing are missing all together... So there will probably be quite a few changes next update even if there is very limited race programme...

 

[ingsve]

It seems like the GC points from Beijing are missing all together... So there will probably be quite a few changes next update even if there is very limited race programme...

Yes, the race didn't end until tuesday so they'll be part of this weeks update.

 

[Kazistuta]

Sadly enough for me and my top10 spot it seems like Hugo Koblet will overtake me in the next update with Beijing GC points for Chaves and Gilbert and Japan Cup points for at least Boasson Hagen and Moser.

 

[skidmark]

well, 3 in the top 8 of Japan Cup is a decent way to end what is probably my last scoring week in the game. Good to see Boasson Hagen and Moser are finally coming into form, right in time for the off-season.

 

[LaFlorecita]

my 2015 team just got 208 points more expensive

 

[HelgeBlendet]

Yep it's that time of the season were you've already given up on your team and are annoyed at underperforming riders scoring.

That said: Formolo was the pick of the season for me!