The 2016 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[skidmark]

Well, I had a week that didn't look too great, but in the end a couple of not insanely popular picks (Craddock especially, but Petit - who is past his best career year already - and Vervaeke as well) got me some points and I ended up moving up a place, which is great.

Here's this week:

Brabantse Pijl

Gianni Meersman
Sondre Holst Enger
Silvio Herklotz
Guillaume Martin

Two sprinters and two neo-pros. Oh dear. Meersman on peak form could maybe place, but not this year. I expect pretty much nothing.

GP de Denain

Yannick Martinez

This is an HC race? I'm screwed.

Finistere

Yannick Martinez
Sylvain Chavanel
Guillaume Martin

I'd like to think Chavanel can win any French race, but boy did he look off in Roubaix.

Amstel

Tony Martin
Gianni Meersman
Simon Gerrans
Warren Barguil
Matej Mohoric
Michael Valgren
Arthur Vichot
Sondre Holst Enger
EM Grosu

A long list of riders but not a great one. Gerrans is the obvious best shot, although Barguil is pretty fast and can probably be up there in the end. Vichot is fast in a select group but I have no idea of his form, Meersman might not be able to make the finale even if he was in top form. If Valgren is going to have a good week, it'll be this one, but I don't expect much from others.

Tro Bro Leon

Yannick Martinez
Sylvain Chavanel

Allez Sylvain!

Castilla y Leon

Carlos Betancur
Lennard Kamna

Betancur can show that he's in shape here, no doubt. The kid will have a real test too, we shall see what this 19-year old can do.

In summary, I need some luck at Amstel to keep my head above water. Lots of riders and races, just not the right riders for the right races.

 

[Jancouver]

Thanks for the update. The first week in a long time that I did not decline.

Today Vakoc scored some points and hopefully Rohan Dennis that disappeared from Earth will find a way to scoring some points soon again.

 

[vladimir]

Only 11 points from Barbanstse Pijl today but at least Vanendert is looking good for the Ardennes.
And I really should score some points in Amstel. If the startlist at PCS is correct I will have no fewer than 14 riders on start on Sunday Must be the most I have had in one single race ever :
KELDERMAN Wilco
VANMARCKE Sep
BOOM Lars
LUTSENKO Alexey
SCHLECK Fränk
GERRANS Simon
GAUTIER Cyril
CHERNETSKIY Sergey
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael
BOUDAT Thomas
VANENDERT Jelle
ENGER Sondre Holst
LIETAER Eliot
CICCONE Giulio

 

[HelgeBlendet]

My team improved once I stopped posting startlists for upcoming races. Let's test this theory.

Denain
SÉNÉCHAL, Florian
VANBILSEN, Kenneth

Castilla y Leon
BETANCUR, Carlos

Finistère
JEANNESSON, Arnold

Tro-Bro Léon
SÉNÉCHAL, Florian
VANBILSEN, Kenneth

Amstel Gold Race
KWIATKOWSKI, Michal
MARTIN, Tony
VANENDERT, Jelle
GERRANS, Simon
LIETAER, Eliot
THURAU, Bjorn

Well, Senechal, Vanbilsen might score in France, maybe Jeannesson as well. AGR is all about Kwiat, Jelle and Gero. Thurau and Lietaer for the break, Martin to catch them. What's wrong with Dan Martin? While I like his chances more at Fleche Wallone and LBL, I was hoping for some points here as well. Not that it matters much with 102 teams sharing him.

 

[Pentacycle]

Only 11 points from Barbanstse Pijl today but at least Vanendert is looking good for the Ardennes.
And I really should score some points in Amstel. If the startlist at PCS is correct I will have no fewer than 14 riders on start on Sunday Must be the most I have had in one single race ever :
KELDERMAN Wilco
VANMARCKE Sep
BOOM Lars
LUTSENKO Alexey
SCHLECK Fränk
GERRANS Simon
GAUTIER Cyril
CHERNETSKIY Sergey
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael
BOUDAT Thomas
VANENDERT Jelle
ENGER Sondre Holst
LIETAER Eliot
CICCONE Giulio

Has Enger started shifting his attention to hilly classics this year? I haven't followed him lately, but he always seemed better suited to cobbles.

 

[Karaev1]

Dehaes gets 72 points and it is in profit right now! If he can score some more points in some 1 day races like this one he mifght prove to be a smart pick for me!

 

[LaFlorecita]

My points this week:

Brabantse Pijl
Hardy 5

GP de Denain
Venturini 48 - the little pocket rocket is into profit now just 9 race days so far so not too shabby

Castilla y Léon
Bananito 62

Amstel Gold Race
Valgren 132 - well done kid! into profit
Gerrans 40
Vichot 17
Rosa 14
Meersman 5

Total for the week 323, not great but I hope to stay in the top 10 LBL should be better for Rosa

 

[LaFlorecita]

Next week's startlist:
Giro del Trentino
CAPECCHI Eros
NERZ Dominik

Tour of Croatia
RUFFONI Nicola
Goooo Ruffoooo miticooooooo

Flèche Wallonne
ROSA Diego
CRADDOCK Lawson
HARDY Romain
JEANNESSON Arnold
MARTINEZ Yannick
MARTIN Daniel
VICHOT Arthur
ZAUGG Oliver
VERMEULEN Alexey
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael

Liège-Bastogne-Liège
ROSA Diego
NERZ Dominik
CRADDOCK Lawson
JEANNESSON Arnold
MARTIN Daniel
VICHOT Arthur
ZAUGG Oliver
GERRANS Simon
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael

La Roue Tourangelle
OFFREDO Yohan
VENTURINI Clément
MARTINEZ Yannick
DASSONVILLE Flavien

 

[mc_mountain]

Re:

My points this week:

Brabantse Pijl
Hardy 5

GP de Denain
Venturini 48 - the little pocket rocket is into profit now just 9 race days so far so not too shabby

Castilla y Léon
Bananito 62

Amstel Gold Race
Valgren 132 - well done kid! into profit
Gerrans 40
Vichot 17
Rosa 14
Meersman 5

Total for the week 323, not great but I hope to stay in the top 10 LBL should be better for Rosa

Compared to what others have scored this week, you should do fine, maybe even creep up to 2nd!

 

[TheGreenMonkey]

I am way, way down so need some points.
This coming week

Giro del Trentino
Nibali, Capecchi,

Tour of Croatia
Goss

La Flèche Wallonne
Gautier, De Marchi, Kung, Teuns, Hardy, Jeannesson, Zaugg, Valgren

Liège - Bastogne - Liège
Gautier, Nibali, De Marchi, Teuns, Jeannesson, Zaugg, Gerrans, Valgren.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Compared to what others have scored this week, you should do fine, maybe even creep up to 2nd!

Yeah, I guess both moving up and moving down is quite a bit harder this high in the ranking, I'm not really used to that it really depends on how well others scored

 

[Gigs_98]

I really hope yesterday was only a bad day for Kwiatkowski, if he wont get better for Liege it would already make him a really bad pick.

 

[the asian]

Hoping Nibali delievers this week, in Trentino and LBL.

Still mad at Sky for using up Swift at AGR.

He would have easily got a top 10 otherwise.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Pretty happy with Valgren and Betancur showing signs of life this week.

 

[GP Blanco]

Valgren Andersen, Betancur, Roson, Barguil and Gerrans scored my most important points last week.

Giro del Trentino
PERAUD Jean Christophe
NERZ Dominik

Nerz for GC points. Dunno what to expect from Péraud.

La Flèche Wallonne
LUTSENKO Alexey
DE MARCHI Alessandro
DE PLUS Laurens
MARTIN Daniel
HAIG Jack
YATES Adam
BETANCUR Carlos
BARGUIL Warren
KELDERMAN Wilco
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael
MARTIN Guillaume

Martin for the win. Yates, Barguil and Kelderman for a top-10.

Liège - Bastogne - Liège
PERAUD Jean Christophe
DE MARCHI Alessandro
NERZ Dominik
KUDUS GHEBREMEDHIN Merhawi
MARTIN Daniel
GERRANS Simon
YATES Adam
BARGUIL Warren
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael
MARTIN Guillaume

Martin, Yates, Gerrans and Barguil for the top-10.

 

[skidmark]

Update #14: ooh la la! une bonne semaine pour les equipes francaises

A relatively quiet week with Amstel Gold the main highlight, a 1.HC race, 2.1 race and a smattering of smaller races. As such, you just needed a combo of the right few riders to come out on top this week. The three high movers of the week, all in the top 5 of the top scorers as well, are coincidentally very French sounding team names (can you tell I'm stretching for a theme this week?)

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 Emericlabordure 585
2 Roubaix 533
3 Armchair cyclist 474
4 Pentacycle 455
5 Crevaison 453

They're quiet and then they pounce - Emericlabordure wins the week, their team's second week victory this year, but with no other weeks in the top 15. Similar is team Roubaix, with their second time in the runner-up position for a week without any other weeks in the top 15. They got there different ways though, with Emericlabordure harnessing the combined might of Coquard, McLay, Boudat, Manzin and Betancur, and Roubaix taking points from Vakoc, McLay (the only shared rider), Valgren and Vliegen. Other teams in the top 5 dipped into the Vakoc and Valgren well too, with notable unique points coming from Crevaison with Colbrelli.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 Roubaix (+24)
2 Emericlabordure (+20)
3 Crevaison (+18)
4 Eric10 (+16)
4 Jancouver (+16)
4 togo95 (+16)

With a relatively sedate week in terms of pure points, it is no surprise that movement in the table is modest. And it is also not surprising that the high movers are very similar to the top scorers.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 Pentacycle 116
2 Nicosix 100
3 tom_jelte 93
4 Emericlabordure 90
5 LaFlorecita 87
5 ironted 87

Some movement in the top 5! You may be aware that the Green Jersey competition adds 45 points for a weekly win, and I mentioned above that Emericlabordure won their second week. Deductively, that gives them 90 points, which is good enough for 4th overall. And if that total rings a bell, it's because we had another team before now that had won two weeks and scored no other points, which was Pentacycle winning back to back and leading the overall standings last month. However, now Pentacycle gets 26 points for 4th this week, giving their team 116 overall and moving into the lead of the competition! Congrats to Pentacycle.

Polka Dot Jersey Competition

Rank Team Points
1 tom_jelte 49
2 Emericlabordure 45
2 LosBrolin 45
4 RoudeLeiw 44
5 the_fool_on_the_hill 39
5 ironted 39

Well! tom-jelte hangs onto the top spot, but the rest of the podium is shaken up! Emericlabordure couldn't quite copy the double green/polka dot deal this week, but did so the other week their team scored, so now has 45 points for the two weeks (25 for 1st, 20 for 2nd this week). LosBrolin adds 3 points this week to leapfrog RoudeLeiw and move into a tie for 2nd, whereas the_fool_on_the_hill jumps into a tie for 5th.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) Nicosix 6042
2 (+1) LaFlorecita 5732
3 (-1) Falze 5655
4 (-) jeroenk 5550
5 (+1) skidmark 5519
6 (-1) Geraint Too Fast 5485
7 (+7) shalgo 5429
8 (-) Hugo Koblet 5385
9 (+1) greenedge 5383
10 (+2) karaev 5374

Some minor movements in the top ten, other than shalgo's impressive leap in. Nicosix stays on top, and actually a bit more firmly than last week, losing ground to new 2nd place LaFlorecita, but gaining ground on last week's 2nd place Falze. As I mentioned shalgo jumps into the top 10, and Ferminal falls out. There are a lot of popular riders contending for the latter Ardennes races - Dan Martin, Betancur, Gerrans, Valgren, with guys like Barguil or even Kwiatkowski being picked by a handy few. So depending on which combo of riders is best, it could be a big week. Next week we have Romandie and then the Giro! So the game keeps rolling along.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[HelgeBlendet]

Thanks for the update skidmark!

Well, the two riders I didn't mention in my preview for the week were the ones scoring the most. Good to see Betancur alive and great AGR by Valgren. Didn't expect that one. Here's hope Kwiat will bounce back this week and score a lot. Still, nice to climb a place up to 19th this week. Going better than expected so far.

 

[Popchu]

Happy with my 29th place, that's a good starting position for the next weeks with Vincenzo Nibali in my team. A lot of points to score for Nibali in Trentino and LBL, so I hope it works out for him. Another rider to watch for me is Jelle Vanendert. With la Flèche and LBL in mind, he should be able to break even this week.

Too bad Lutsenko crashed in the last kilometer in the Amstel Gold Race when he was battling for third position, so there I lost probably some points, but at least I had Valgren.

 

[skidmark]

This week I thought I had a bad week, but Valgren pulled me out of the fire. I got some points for Gerrans, Barguil and Vichot in the top 20, but 47th on the week is good to keep my head above water. I don't want to be 47th the week of the Giro GC though, because that'll be a bigger points stratification. I'm hoping I can maintain my high place until then.

This week:

Trentino

NO ONE

uh oh. That's not a good start.

Croatia

Sondre Holst Enger

This would be an exciting prospect if he wasn't sharing the team with their #1 sprinter Pelucchi. I really, really don't understand IAM's development strategy, putting their developing sprinters always with their established sprinter.

Fleche Wallone

Lawson Craddock
Yannick Martinez
Dan Martin
Arthur Vichot
Carlos Betancur
Warren Barguil
Michael Valgren
Guillaume Martin

well it's really Betancur and Martin in with the best chance of a top placing. Craddock has shown well this year but I don't really have a good idea how he is on this type of steep incline. Barguil maybe too, but I think it's too tough for Vichot and Valgren. Valgren is perfectly suited to Amstel, so I'm glad he got the best result possible there, but this is different.

Liege

Same plaus Merhawi Kudus and Simon Gerrans, and minus Betancur

Well obviously Gerrans has won this, and my outlook for the rest stays the same. I think Barguil has a much better chance in this than Fleche.

In short, I guess I have to hope for a Valgren-like savior for my team, because it's not the deepest. Dan Martin can be that guy, as can Barguil. We shall see.

 

[shalgo]

Wow! I'm pleasantly surprised to be back in the top 10. I wasn't expecting it, as I had somehow missed McLay's win.

 

[Squire]

Croatia

Sondre Holst Enger

This would be an exciting prospect if he wasn't sharing the team with their #1 sprinter Pelucchi. I really, really don't understand IAM's development strategy, putting their developing sprinters always with their established sprinter.

I'm starting to share in your dislike of IAM Cycling.

The teams doing Tour of Norway are out, and although they have two Norwegians, one of them being one of the country's brightest young prospects, the Swiss geniuses are not doing the race. Let's hope Enger shows up in the national team for the tour, which currently has Eiking and Bystrøm listed, and isn't forced to do more work for Pelucchi, who makes Kittel look like Pantani.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Not a brilliant week for me, FW and LBL were okay
Trentino
Capecchi 11

Croatia
Ruffoni had a couple of sprint top-10s but no points, it was to be expected in this field I guess. Arredondo was 12th in GC but DNF'ed on the final day it would have earned him "only" 18 points, but still, it's something

Flèche Wallonne
Martin 112
Jeannesson 21
Rosa 16
Hardy 5
Zaugg 5
Vichot 5
Valgren 5
Betancur 5
Craddock 5
Vermeulen 5
Martinez 5

Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Rosa 62
Valgren 38
Jeannesson 28
Gerrans 5
Craddock 5
Martin 5
Betancur 5
Zaugg 5

Roue Tourangelle
Venturini 28 woohoo little Clem another top 10

//Edit:
And....
Joe Martin Stage Race
Acevedo 24
That's a nice surprise! //

400 total
Satisfied with the Ardennes results for Rosa, Martin (although had expected more), Valgren and Jeannesson. Gerrans disappointing, Vichot too but he abandoned today with illness. Betancur showed form today. Jeannesson looks like a great pick.

Next week looks a bit iffy

Turkey
No one

Romandie
VAN GARDEREN Tejay
KITTEL Marcel
ZAUGG Oliver
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto
GERRANS Simon
VERMEULEN Alexey
ARREDONDO MORENO Julian David
VELITS Peter
Go Tejay - and Zaugg spent a lot of time in breaks the last two weeks, hopefully he is getting into shape for his home race

Yorkshire
No one as yet, I hope Venturini will be added for Cofidis

Rund um den Finalplatz
MARTIN Tony
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
MEERSMAN Gianni
NERZ Dominik
MARTINEZ Yannick

 

[LaFlorecita]

Croatia

Sondre Holst Enger

This would be an exciting prospect if he wasn't sharing the team with their #1 sprinter Pelucchi. I really, really don't understand IAM's development strategy, putting their developing sprinters always with their established sprinter.

I'm starting to share in your dislike of IAM Cycling.

The teams doing Tour of Norway are out, and although they have two Norwegians, one of them being one of the country's brightest young prospects, the Swiss geniuses are not doing the race. Let's hope Enger shows up in the national team for the tour, which currently has Eiking and Bystrøm listed, and isn't forced to do more work for Pelucchi, who makes Kittel look like Pantani.

You two should be happy after today

 

[HelgeBlendet]

Valgren and Jeannesson as my "big points" in LBL. Would never have thought that...

 

[laarsland]

Croatia
Let's hope Enger shows up in the national team for the tour, which currently has Eiking and Bystrøm listed, and isn't forced to do more work for Pelucchi, who makes Kittel look like Pantani.

He's confirmed he'll be riding as part of the national team.