The 2015 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[GP Blanco]

I hope you are right, I picked him because I see a lot of potential for those week long races without high mountains and a ITT. Could win quite a few.

I didn't pick him because I feared the World hour record will mean he might burn early this year.

 

[Hugo87]

TDU results for my team
JUUL JENSEN Christopher - 5
PORTE Richie - 223
STANNARD Ian - 5
CRADDOCK Lawson - 0
MOSER Moreno - 17

250 exactly

My Team

DE GENDT Thomas - 7 (5+2)
PORTE Richie - 223
STANNARD Ian - 5
MOSER Moreno - 17

252... I won this H2H.

I'm scared from teams with Dennis+Porte combo.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I hope you are right, I picked him because I see a lot of potential for those week long races without high mountains and a ITT. Could win quite a few.

I think you're right, and I've always believed that he has a lot of potential (I even made an avatar bet once, where I picked Dennis as the neo pro who would score the most CQ points). GP Blanco has a good point though, but Dennis is now off to a good start at least.

 

[skidmark]

A few thoughts on some of the recent posts:

- I agree with the general idea the Jurgen VdB will be better off not going all in on the TdF; I didn't pick, or seriously consider, him because I feel like his ceiling isn't all that high. Even when he had his breakout season (remember when Lotto got all passive-aggressive about Cadel by suggesting VdB might be the protected rider? Hahaha) and did well at the Giro, that was the only race he really performed at. I dunno, his age combined with him not demonstrating a high level year-round makes me shy away from him. Still, could definitely be a handy pick, points-wise.

- that quote about Roelandts is really weird, and really bad editing by CN. I read it several times through the lens of thinking it meant he wasn't racing any classics, and thinking it meant he was, and it just makes no sense whatsoever. Either way, it was enough to tip the scales away from him for me.

- my concern about Dennis and the Hour Record was not that he'd burn out in the summer, but rather that he'd waste a good patch of form in January playing it safe. I don't doubt he can regain a good peak later in the season (or even two). Three years ago he finished top-5 in TdU as an espoir, then 2 years ago he got sick right at the start of the year and got nothing in the Aus summer, then last year he had his crazy wind-gust crash in the Aussie nat TT that scuppered his whole summer. So it's not like he hasn't focused on form in January before, he just didn't get many points out of it. I'm pretty confident he can come back and do well in, say, Romandie (which I think he's slated to lead), and whatever races come his way, and then he'll always be a threat for the Worlds TT. Needless to say, I'm pretty thrilled with this best-case result for his January after picking him the last two years only to see it not come together.

- I only had him in the youth game a couple of years ago and so I have no stake on him in the main game, but from a personal standpoint I was really excited to see how well Grmay did at the TdU. I can't help but cheer for the development of African cycling, just from the perspective of developing the sport in 'new' countries, and also adding a little diversity to a sport that's long been associated with a pretty 'traditional' continental European provincial dictum. Anyway, he's showing solid talent - I know these aren't the high Alps, but to score 50 CQ points in a WT race means you're at a pretty good level.

 

[Roude Leiw]

I didn't pick him because I feared the World hour record will mean he might burn early this year.

I get your point, but he got of to a great start and i hope that he does not put everything into it. He will put some steel into the record, but if cance/ wiggo / tony martin et al want it, they will get it

Was a good week, between dennis, sepulveda and cav pkus some change left and right, should score decently

 

[skidmark]

Teams who have both Dennis and Porte:

ansimi
armchair cyclist
blues in the bottle
Handbrake
npetalactone
Object
PeterB
Roderick
me
theyoungest
tom-jelte
trackstand
Vesica
Yellow Knight

dunno which of these teams has the deepest roster of points scorers from this week, but that'll likely contain the week's top scorer.

 

[Vesica]

Dennis - 327
Porte - 223
Dumoulin - 151
Wippert - 54
Craddock - 0
Moser - 17
De Gendt - 7
Flakemore - 0

total - 779

 

[LaFlorecita]

Teams who have both Dennis and Porte:

ansimi
armchair cyclist
blues in the bottle
Handbrake
npetalactone
Object
PeterB
Roderick
me
theyoungest
tom-jelte
trackstand
Vesica
Yellow Knight

dunno which of these teams has the deepest roster of points scorers from this week, but that'll likely contain the week's top scorer.

vv... I think

Dennis - 327
Porte - 223
Dumoulin - 151
Wippert - 54
Craddock - 0
Moser - 17
De Gendt - 7
Flakemore - 0

total - 779

 

[cineteq]

TDU
PORTE Richie 223
BOBRIDGE Jack 93
CAPECCHI Eros 5
DE GENDT Thomas 7
HAIG Jack 29
KITTEL Marcel 5
MOSER Moreno 17
STETINA Peter 8
WESTRA Lieuwe 27
Total 414

 

[LaFlorecita]

San Luis
DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd - 40 (400% ... )
GATTO Oscar - 0

 

[rote_laterne]

This should be my Tour de San Luis points:

CAVENDISH Mark 40
SEPULVEDA Eduardo 59
DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd 40
QUINTANA ROJAS Dayer Uberney 4

total: 143

Cav beat Bentancur in the GC, otherwise I'm pretty pleased with the outcome of the race.

 

[rote_laterne]

My riders for the next races:

Challenge Mallorca (4x 1.1)
BENITO DIEZ Miguel Angel
BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
FOLIFOROV Alexander
KÖNIG Leopold
ROELANDTS Jürgen

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (1.1)
EWAN Caleb
STANNARD Ian

Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise (1.1)
TURGIS Anthony

 

[skidmark]

TdU points:

Dennis 327
Porte 223
Moser 17 (almost 1/5th of last year's points!)
De Gendt 7 (sigh, he was 'targeting' this race, then 'targeting' the mountains classification, and if you can't take the lofty goal of mountains points at TdU, you might be in for a rough year)
Stannard 5

Total - 579

San Luis points:

Cavendish 40
Dombrowski 40
Brajkovic 12
McLay 0

Total - 92

Tot week 671

 

[Roude Leiw]

San luis

Cav 40
Sepulveda 59
Dombrowski 40
GT 139

TDU
Dennis 327
Stannard 5
De Gendt 7
Moser 17
GT 356

Total 495

Which is pretty good i think but will yield a top 50 at best

 

[Akuryo]

Seems like a lot of people were fooled by De Gendts 3rd place in the Giro a few years back. He did nothing close to it in a very long time. And probably never will again.

 

[GP Blanco]

Next races:

Mallorca
DE CLERCQ Bart
VERVAEKE Louis
BERHANE TEWELDEMEDHIN Natnael
MOHORIC Matej

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
GOSS Matthew Harley
EWAN Caleb
MOSER Moreno
STANNARD Ian

Let's hope Goss will take this, although I wouldn't be surprised if it is Cadel's for the win like a proper criterium.

Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise
JAUREGUI Quentin
LATOUR Pierre-Roger

 

[Roude Leiw]

Seems like a lot of people were fooled by De Gendts 3rd place in the Giro a few years back. He did nothing close to it in a very long time. And probably never will again.

I concur, but he was so cheap i took him anyway. I am hopeful to get my 50 points back, he is ahead compared to last season at the moment

 

[NairoQ]

Seems like a lot of people were fooled by De Gendts 3rd place in the Giro a few years back. He did nothing close to it in a very long time. And probably never will again.

I think it's quite possible he gets a stage win in a GT somewhere, or a couple of wins elsewhere. 50 points really isn't that much to triple. He's at his best as an attacking rider, I think. In the five years before last year he tripled his points, so he was a real obvious pick for me. He can get up to 500 if he gets his shape back, but 150+ should be no problem.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Seems like a lot of people were fooled by De Gendts 3rd place in the Giro a few years back. He did nothing close to it in a very long time. And probably never will again.

I don't think so. I think most realise that he won't come close to finishing 3rd in a GT ever again. But for him to be a good pick, he won't have to. Heck, if he just have a year like 2013, he'll be a - not good - but OK pick.

 

[theyoungest]

Seems like a lot of people were fooled by De Gendts 3rd place in the Giro a few years back. He did nothing close to it in a very long time. And probably never will again.

Up until that Giro he was always good for a couple of wins and good placings every year, in bigger races. He's certainly worth the gamble... it's not even a gamble, he was that cheap.

 

[Jancouver]

After seeing how many people picked Brajko, I was questioning my reasons to remove him from my team.

Now, after seeing his early season performance at SL, and getting the confirmation that UHC will not race Giro, I dont regret that move especially having Schumacher and Hirt from CCC. I dont think Hirt will make the Giro team, but Schumi should deliver points what Brajko would if not more at 1/3 of the cost.

Edit: Brajko still be a good pick, but it will be much harder getting load of points racing mostly the US/America circuit

 

[skidmark]

CQ spreadsheet is still not up yet, so I want to take a second to encourage you guys to play Armchair Cyclist's Emerging Riders Game - it's over a three-year rolling period and there is no points budget, it's just 18 riders who have never scored 200 points cumulatively in their career. Anyway, it launched last year and it takes a slightly different skill set to pick riders than the main game, as you're guessing long-term. I'm very excited to see how last year's edition will turn out, as it's heading into year 2. And this year's edition will cover 2015-17.

Deadline is the 31st, so you have 5 days to pick a team. If you like CQ games or you're already second-guessing this team enough that you need something else to put your hope in, this is a pretty good option!

 

[skidmark]

Update 3: You Don't Mess With the Rohan

If last week's CQ results called to mind a bad movie sequel title, this week's suggested a sequel title to a bad movie. But it all played out according to script for those who picked Rohan Dennis, the winner of the first WT event this season and leader of the overall standings. The 16 CQ Managers who picked him are taking a break from working on their letters petitioning CQ to include the Hour Record as a points-scoring event long enough to celebrate the victory. A mere 3 Managers are celebrating a different success in Dani Diaz, who convincingly took the 2.1 ranked San Luis. Although, given the lack of CQ points in South American races, this may be the high point of his year. After the first 2 weeks of the game, the leading team had 272 points - Dennis alone got 327 this week, so obviously this leads to a big shakeup in the standings. Chief amongst the beneficiaries is newcomer Vesica, who with Dennis, Porte, and unique pick Dumoulin, had a leg up on everyone else, and as a result takes the top spot for both the week and overall.

Weekly Top Scorers:

1. Vesica 823
2. Object 747
3. Armchair Cyclist 745
4. nepetalactone 729
5. trackstand 715

Weekly High Movers:

1. RoudeLeiw +81
2. asdfgh101 +74
3. will10 +67
4. Jakob747 +50
5. DJ Sprtsch +46

Like I said, quite a bit of movement. At the other end of the spectrum, in the 'live by the unique picks, die by the unique picks' vein of things, badbrainaj drops 97 places after getting some points at Aussie nats but having no insanely popular picks like Porte or Dombro or Cav to keep pace at a time before most of his lineup has even begun their season. Also, DJ Sprtsch appears on the weekly high movers list for the second week in a row, a feat that can't be too common in the history of this game, given that big movement one week will usually put you high enough that you don't have that much further to go.

Top 10:

Rank Team Points
1 Vesica 1017
2 Object 998
3 trackstand 972
4 PeterB 938
5 nepetalactone 924
6 Armchair cyclist 906
7 ansimi 871
8 Blues in the bottle 862
9 Roderick 855
10 Handbrake 853

File at dropbox

 

[Roude Leiw]

Thanks a lot for the update

High Mover of the week



Shows how far from the top I was before

 

[shalgo]

i
Also, DJ Sprtsch appears on the weekly high movers list for the second week in a row, a feat that can't be too common in the history of this game, given that big movement one week will usually put you high enough that you don't have that much further to go.

It can't be very common for the reason you mention, but I remember that when I was doing the updates last September, greenedge was in the high movers in three out of the four weeks.