The 2017 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[barmaher]

I had an okay week. Contreras with 42 points and Stuyven with around 50 points were the highlights. I got bits and pieces elsewhere to get 200 or so on the week I think.

Not a bad week in terms of points, but considering how many riders I had riding that had potential to score points, I am disappointed.

 

[vladimir]

Re:

I had an okay week. Contreras with 42 points and Stuyven with around 50 points were the highlights. I got bits and pieces elsewhere to get 200 or so on the week I think.

Not a bad week in terms of points, but considering how many riders I had riding that had potential to score points, I am disappointed.

Well Stuyven scored 130 points last week and not "around 50" so you probably shouldn't be that disappointed
I had hoped for Boom or Oss to do something in Belgium this weekend, but not a single point between them. So I'm disappointed even though I also have Stuyven :sad:

 

[barmaher]

Ha thanks, still not the best week, but okay.

 

[del1962]

Lots of scorers (18) but 10 of them 5 pointers.

Ewan, Aru and Benoot decent if not spectacular returms for popular riders.

Bonfazio, Kung and Pelucci moderate contributions.

Best for points return and relatively low popularity was Eddie Dunbar

Some points from Bernal to come hopefully.

 

[GP Blanco]

I am happy with the two stages Molano took at Alentejo. Further on I had Benoot, Felline, Sepulveda and Aru scoring points plus some minor points by other riders.

 

[SafeBet]

So happy I picked Stuyven. I sense an incoming monster spring campaign.

Malori on the other hand, it breaks my heart to see he can't even finish a stage in Alentejo.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

So happy I picked Stuyven. I sense an incoming monster spring campaign.

Malori on the other hand, it breaks my heart to see he can't even finish a stage in Alentejo.

Don't celebrate too early. He looked even better last year around this time of the year. Actually he even has a deficit compared to last year.

 

[skidmark]

Update #7: greenedge hangs on as DJW wins the week

Phew, that was a busy one, wasn't it? The classics are underway! The weird moved-from-October-to-February-and-now-WorldTour race in Abu Dhabi happened with one mountain in four days! A bunch of other races scored points from Malaysia to Portugal to Colombia! Not too many popular riders scoring big this week, and some big guns scooping up the big points in Belgium (ie Sagan - who I think maybe has the rolling CQ points record right now? - and Van Avermaet), so let's see who had all the cards fall their way this week. (oh wait, I spoiled it in the title)

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 DJW 646
2 ItalianGigolo 618
3 Russell23 554
4 VeloRooms 512
5 Trudgin 511

So, DJW comes out on top with a rare combo of Mollema (2 teams), Zakarin (16 teams), Stuyven (14 teams) and Alaphilippe (12 teams) scoring big this week. Congrats DJW! ItalianGigolo coasts into second with a collection of riders that feels crazy to read out on the same team - Rohan Dennis, Mattia Cattaneo, Fabio Felline, Fabio Aru and Domenico Pozzovivo are the biggest scorers (as someone who has had each of these riders save Pozzovivo at least twice in this game, I love it). Russell23 gets a bunch of points from Carlos Barbero Cuesta, and good solid points spread between Benoot, Ewan, Aru, Contreras, McCabe, and Teunissen. AND - VeloRooms' collective team gets on the leaderboard this week!! The eclectic nature of how the team is put together is clear from their major point-getters - Vanmarcke, Naesen, Vichot, Aru, Logan Owen, Dayer Quintana. Fun week!

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team up/down
1 DJW (+48)
2 Pantani1 (+44)
3 ItalianGigolo (+42)
4 Trudgin (+41)
5 VeloRooms (+39)

Very similar top 5 to top scorers, with Pantani1 the newcomer on the list (their team was 8th in the scoring).

This Month's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points
1 GP Blanco 1377
2 search 1342
3 Squire 1317
4 Eyeballs Out 1280
5 Trudgin 1262

Yep, it's the end of the month... pretty tightly contested race here, with GP Blanco taking the top prize, cashing big on the expensive picks - behind Gaviria (most expensive pick), the next 5 picks on their team (Aru/Felline/Benoot/Degenkolb/Roglic) scored 150+ points this month (okay, Benoot scored 148, but I like round numbers). search and Squire just miss the top prize and end on the podium, but I'm sure they're not complaining as a good February bodes well for the overall. (sidenote: top team overall greenedge was 77th on the month, putting into perspective how competitive this game is, and how great a January their team had).

This Month's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 GP Blanco (+69)
2 Trudgin (+59)
3 the asian (+55)
4 search (+52)
5 Eric10 (+51)

Well, it's February, so big moves all over. GP Blanco tops things again, moving up almost 70 places to sit just outside the top 20 overall at the end of February. Trudgin had an impressive February, winning a week and finishing in the top 5 this week to jump almost 60 spots for the month, while last week's winner the asian rounds out the podium.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) greenedge 2033
2 (+2) Eyeballs Out 2022
3 (-) jeroenk 1958
4 (-2) LightBing 1921
5 (+6) Total Package 1843
6 (+19) Russell23 1838
7 (-1) Squire 1833
8 (-3) lenissart 1814
9 (-2) HelgeBlendet 1753
10 (-2) Pentacycle 1752

Phew! greenedge holds on by a thread. Eyeballs Out said in this thread about picking Cattaneo 5 years in a row that a stopped clock is right twice a day, but now that stopped clock is in second place in the standings! It would only take 12 more points for the hands of that clock to be moved to the 1 position. Meanwhile, last year's runner-up jeroenk holds steady in third. Top newcomer Russell23 vaults into the top 10 along with Total Package, while karaev slides one spot out of the top 10 and 18-Valve has a week to forget, falling 20 places out of the top 10. This week's a relatively quiet one, with Langkawi continuing and a few smaller races, culminating in Strade Bianche and another sign that the hits are just gonna keep on coming from here, the first stage of Paris-Nice on Sunday.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[skidmark]

shoot, I accidentally pressed 'save' instead of 'save as' so now update 6 got saved over by this one. If anyone has last week's update and wants to post it so I can get it and re-save over the update 6 file for it to be in the thread for posterity's sake, that'd be great.

 

[Martin]

Re: Re:

So happy I picked Stuyven. I sense an incoming monster spring campaign.

Malori on the other hand, it breaks my heart to see he can't even finish a stage in Alentejo.

Don't celebrate too early. He looked even better last year around this time of the year. Actually he even has a deficit compared to last year.

But this time he wont have to work for Fabian for the rest of the campain. I don't beleive he would have to be Dege's domestique.

 

[Jancouver]

Thanks.

Just two points out of Top10, so not too bad. Its pretty packed and 13 teams are within 100 points of the Top10. In my case I'm missing the few points I could have scored if one of my rare picks Schlegel (2 players) didn’t crash out with a broken collar bone at Alentejo.

Good to see one of my top dawgs Rohan Dennis getting a W and scoring some unexpected points. I have nothing at Langkawi so unless I get some unexpected points at SB it will be difficult to stay close to the top10.

 

[ItalianGigolo]

So happy my 75% Italian team is doing so well! And my final move when I selected the team was replacing Finneto with Rebellin... Well let's just hope Grandpa will get better and score in some small races soon....

 

[skidmark]

Re: Re:

So happy I picked Stuyven. I sense an incoming monster spring campaign.

Malori on the other hand, it breaks my heart to see he can't even finish a stage in Alentejo.

Don't celebrate too early. He looked even better last year around this time of the year. Actually he even has a deficit compared to last year.

But this time he wont have to work for Fabian for the rest of the campain. I don't beleive he would have to be Dege's domestique.

Yeah, I think Stuyven's prospects look better this year. I wouldn't say he looked better last year at this time - 9th and 1st in HN and KBK, whereas he got 8th and 2nd this year. His attack was great last year but it was unexpected. This year he plugged off the front of the group and created the winning attack, wearing the #1 bib. That, in my mind, is a more impressive achievement. Plus he has another year of development in him, so I think for the longer classics he'll be afforded protected status. It'll be interesting to see how he does; in the bigger classics he wasn't a huge factor. His result at E3 last year was only because he was burying himself for Fabian and then ended up having a handy turn of speed at the end - he would never have been in the front group if he was riding for himself. But it seems like he's ready for that next step, and as a guy who's fast enough to win a Vuelta bunch sprint, I'm sure he's got lots of opportunities across the calendar.

 

[skidmark]

Well, GVK winning Le Samyn today is my first unambiguously good result of the season. Finally. All my other top results have been from guys that 'everyone' (ie more than half the teams, or in Kwiat's case close enough) has. I'll be happy to get out of the triple digits in the rankings.

The season hasn't been 'bad' so far per se, just a little... invisible. Abu Dhabi was such a frustratingly simple parcours that the one climb had a small chance of seeing the strongest win, as the 'strongest' (ie Quintana Contador Nibali) couldn't drop each other so they played games, and everyone else rolled the dice and we got a result that reflected luck and opportunism as much as climbing strength. Which can work for someone in the CQ game, but it didn't for me (if it was Gesink that went up the road with Zakarin rather than Costa, it could have gone well for me). Hopefully Nibs can start to rise to the top of races starting this weekend in Strade Bianche and continuing in Tirenno.

Other good signs at Abu Dhabi were Consonni placing in a sprint with such top names (beating Viviani), which should turn out good for him over the course of a season, and Bauhaus doing the same in his one sprint. If he can do something in, say, the German nationals or Hamburg later in the season, that'll be a dump of points. Mostly I look for him to win some HC sprints and get better at the bigger ones.

Here's what's coming up:

Strade Bianche

Fabio Aru
Vincenzo Nibali
Ondrej Cink
Stefan Kung
Carlos Betancur (he's on the startlist but I'll believe it when I see it)
Eduard Grosu
Michal Kwiatkowski

I want to see something good from Nibali and Kwiatkowski; Nibali should be able to do well here, although he only has 2 15th places in Strade Bianche in the past. I'm curious to see how Aru does, although he may be supporting someone like Valgren (or former winner Moser). I'm also curious to see how Cink does in one-days, as he's looked great in stage races so far. I don't expect much from anyone else, although obviously the range of outcomes is from 'predictably pack fodder' (Grosu) to 'anything from winning to stepping off the bike in the neutral zone and retiring' (Betancur).

Paris-Nice

Joe Dombrowski
Eduardo Sepulveda
Yves Lampaert
John Degenkolb
Simone Petilli

Well... Sepulveda could challenge for top 10 if he's on form; he's handy on the climbs and in the TTs. Dombrowski could do well depending on form, but then Cannondale has like six guys you could say that for (or, actually, maybe their whole squad save Wippert) so I'm sure they'll support who's on best form. Degenkolb should win a stage, Lampaert could do well in the TT and pick up a couple of points, but I'm not expecting much from this one.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Bernal picked up significantly less points than I hoped for, but Van Keirsbulck winning Samyn is very nice

Don't really know what to think of my team for Strade and PN.

Strade Bianche
VENDRAME, Andrea
CARAPAZ, Richard
ROGLIČ, Primož
KWIATKOWSKI, Michal

Kwiatko looks to be in decent shape. Rogla too obviously but he never really showed anything in one day races before. But hey, got to stay optimistic, Rogla never showed anything in the TT before last Giro either, maybe Rogla can magically be good at another discipline and Froome himself into the top 10 or something

Paris-Nice
DEGENKOLB, John
FRANK, Mathias
BOOM, Lars
BRESCHEL, Matti
DOMBROWSKI, Joe
ROLLAND, Pierre
SEPÚLVEDA, Eduardo
FRAILE, Omar

A decent amount of riders, but most of them aren't going to earn a lot of points. Sepúlveda and Frank could pick up some GC points with a bit of luck, they're both fairly rare so that would be nice.

 

[greenedge]

Very close lead for me, though I'm very glad to still have it! Thanks for the update and hopefully PN goes well for Porte because a lot of my other riders will probably not score very well over the week.

 

[GP Blanco]

Had a decent Strade Bianche with Benoot finishing 8, Jauregui 12, Felline 13 and Küng 15 plus some five pointers.

GP Industria & Artigianato
POWER Robert
GANNA Filippo
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
CARAPAZ Richard
ARREDONDO MORENO Julian

Dwars door West-Vlaanderen Johan Museeuw Classic
DE PLUS Laurens

Paris-Nice
DEGENKOLB John
LAMPAERT Yves
SEPULVEDA Eduardo

No massive point haul expected. Degenkolb some sprint points and Sepulveda some GC points.

Tirreno-Adriatico
GOUGEARD Alexis
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
ARU Fabio
KÜNG Stefan
BENOOT Tiesj
ARREDONDO MORENO Julian
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
SPILAK Simon
BATTAGLIN Enrico  
BOOM Lars
ROGLIC Primoz
LANDA MEANA Mikel
VIVIANI Elia
FELLINE Fabio
GANNA Filippo

Gaviria and Viviani for the sprints. Aru, Landa and Roglic for the GC. Curious about the performance of Bernal in the mountains.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Go Kwiat! He does look really good this year. Could he be back? On the other hand, he has also been good in the early season the last two years.

 

[Squire]

Just checked if anyone has Gibbons. Then I found shalgo's team: Gibbons, Debesay, Kwiat, GVK, Benoot, Küng... Yikes!
If that team doesn't win the week, I'll eat my CQ hat.

 

[shalgo]

Re:

Just checked if anyone has Gibbons. Then I found shalgo's team: Gibbons, Debesay, Kwiat, GVK, Benoot, Küng... Yikes!
If that team doesn't win the week, I'll eat my CQ hat.

Yes, I am hoping for a good result this week.

 

[Nicosix]

My gosh, What a week for me too even though I dont have Gibbons

GVK, Kwiat, Benoot, Alaf, LNHansen, Carapaz, Banaszek, Boudat,...

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Pretty decent week, with GVK, Kwiatko, Carapaz, Bernal, Dillier
No hope for GC points in PN though, hopefully TA will be good

Tirreno-Adriatico
GOUGEARD, Alexis
BERNAL, Egan Arley
VENDRAME, Andrea
NAVARDAUSKAS, Ramunas
EWAN, Caleb
MAMYKIN, Matvey
ROGLIČ, Primož
LANDA, Mikel
KWIATKOWSKI, Michal
VIVIANI, Elia

I've got some folks in good shape here, but the field is very strong. We'll see.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I picked Gibbons just for my youth team, unfortunately
Most of my points seem to come from Swiss - 48 for Dillier and 20 for Küng. That's pretty sad!
Meanwhile Contador threw away his chances in Paris-Nice

 

[Squire]

Hey skidmark, I think you missed the green jersey competition in the last update.

 

[skidmark]

Well, Kwiat gave my team a bit of a boost, even though he's on just shy of half the teams, I'll take it. GVK with 112 points on the week is nice too. Rare pick Lasse Norman Hansen gets 40 points (and into profit) today; this was what I was hoping for from him, some podiums of 1.1 races and the like. Other encouraging signs from Strade Bianche were Kung finishing top 15 (it's about time he started to be healthy and show form around the classics; I'm hoping he'll be good for stuff like DDV or E3), Cink finishing top 20 (if he's top 20ing stage races and one-days in his first days on the road, hopefully he can ramp it up over the course of the season), and hey, Julian Arredondo almost made his points back with a top 15 today. If he truly has resolved his health issues, he'll have lots of opportunities in Italian one-days.

On the other side of things, I had hoped I'd see a bit more from Nibali this weekend. Not hitting the panic button yet, and I don't need to see him get back to his career high 2700 points or anything, but it would be nice if he started scoring soon. A podium at T-A would be a baseline for me to be happy; a lackluster performance might make me think a bit more about starting to freak out. Also, I can't help but notice riders that I thought long and hard about and then didn't pick, only to see them start to shine. To that end - Carapaz. Whoa, seems like he's for real, which is exciting to see, but just not in the context of this game. And, uh, Paris-Nice - let's not talk about that. My only GC potentials were Sepulveda (105th today) and Dombrowski (like, basically last). What a fun stage though!

This week in Tirenno:

Stefan Kung
Alexis Gougeard
Fabio Aru
Vincenzo Nibali
Taylor Phinney
Julian Arredondo
Eduard Grosu
Matvey Mamykin
Robert Gesink
Mikel Landa
Michal Kwiatkowski
Filippo Ganna

Oh right, this is why I'm not sweating Paris-Nice (which, of the contenders, Yates and Zakarin are on more than ten teams, but I'm not sure if there are many others). Twelve guys lined up here. Aru/Nibali are obvious GC hopes, Landa/Kwiat could definitely top 5 if they're doing well, Gesink will always be there or thereabouts. Arredondo's result today is promising, and Mamykin is definitely talented, but I don't expect anything from either here. I am hoping for Kung to go well in the TT; Gougeard/Phinney/Ganna I can't see much from. This is Phinney's first race of the year, which strikes me as odd if he wants to be good for the classics. Oh well.