The 2017 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[lenissart]

Re: Re:

Another horrible week, with Aru, Landa, Ewan, Gaviria, Rolland, Impey, Benoot on the road for about .. 0 points !!!

Fact check: Landa scored one bloody point. My week was also not very good with as expected no Paris-Nice GC points. Tirreno is looking better with Roglic, Spilak and Bernal.

Yes, and Rolland 5 points for finishing Paris Nice .... :lol:
But I'm not sure that I can be happy whith that results with these guys on these roads

 

[LaFlorecita]

My points this week
Contador 326
Degenkolb 74
Viviani 28
Küng 11
Spilak 5
Breschel 3
Total 450-ish
Although I am not sure if the Tirreno points will count towards this update

Nice points for Berto although it could have been much better. He is now exactly 150 points ahead of his score at this point last year, that could be just about enough to be even after Catalunya and (a downgraded) Pais Vasco. Then he'll have to improve in the second half of the season
In Tirreno I have Spilak in a good position on the GC, in 10th, not amazing but after Aru's disappointing performance it's better than I expected.

 

[armchairclimber]

It's amazing how fickle the CQ gods can be. The team I had last year, which languished right at the foot of the table for the whole season, would have scored 2087 points so far this year.

Anyway, this week I hope to jump a few places at least, thanks to Alaphilippe. He has the potential to be a mega-pick this season.

 

[skidmark]

Update #9: Paris-Nice points loom large as lead changes again

I don't know about you guys, but my favourite weeks (well, I guess second favourite, other than 'when my team scores lots of points' weeks) of the CQ game are when there are a bunch of little races, and points come from all over the place and you end up having a crazy mix of teams and riders on top of the weekly leaderboard. This week wasn't like that - which is okay, it's still a super fun week! But it's just that with P-N and T-A as the two real events of the weeks (sorry Drenthe, but Jan-Willem Van Schip just ain't the same draw as Contador & co), there isn't much variety at the top. If you are one of the lucky few with some top finishers in P-N, sprinkled with maybe some winning points for stages of T-A so far, then you are doing well this week. If not... there's not much to supplement your team.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 Eric10 676
2 DJW 660
3 Jakob747 595
4 Leadbelly 561
5 18-Valve. (pithy) 545

There are 12 teams with Julian Alaphilippe in this game, and 5 of them are in the top 5 this week. The top 4 teams also are 4 of the 16 teams that have Zakarin, and 3 of the top 4 are among the 18 that have Simon Yates (Jakob747 has Barguil getting lots of points this week instead). DJW is the only team in the top 5 without Gaviria too, which is significant since CQ included his Monday win in the update - if it had been a normal update up until Sunday, DJW would have won the week. But, such are the vagaries of the CQ game. Congratulations to Eric10, who takes the week!

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team up/down
1 Eric10 (+65)
2 DJW (+64)
3 Leadbelly (+44)
4 Jakob747 (+40)
5 kabete (+35)

kabete, who was 6th in the Top Scorers, moves up to 5th in this, while 18-Valve goes from 5th in the other chart to 7th. Not much difference here.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 DJW 102
2 Nicosix 73
3 ItalianGigolo 71.2
4 Trudgin 67
5 the asian 61
5 LightBing 61
5 GP Blanco 61

DJW can gain some consolation over having lost the week, as their team moves into the top spot in the Green Jersey comp. Nicosix gains six points to go into sole possession of 2nd overall, while ItalianGigolo falls from the top to 3rd.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (+6) Nicosix 2654
2 (-1) LightBing 2567
3 (+7) jeroenk 2544
4 (+4) greenedge 2535
5 (-1) tom_jelte 2519
6 (-4) HelgeBlendet 2472
7 (-4) Pentacycle 2459
8 (+26) 18-Valve. (pithy) 2451
9 (-3) Russell23 2421
10 (-1) shalgo 2404

Not quite as dramatic of swings as last week, but still a lot of movement. Including a new leader - Nicosix leaps up from 7th to 1st, and not only that, first by almost 90 points! LightBing moves down to 2nd this week, while the ever-present jeroenk rounds out the podium. The eye-catcher here is 18-Valve's 26 point jump into the top 10 overall (imagine how much more that would've been if unique pick Valverde hadn't been sick and skipped P-N!), but that's the only entry into the top 10, while Total Package falls out for now.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[shalgo]

Thanks for the update! Against my expectations, my team just held on to a place in the top ten (by one point!), but only because Monday's T-A stage was included in the update (with Gaviria's stage win).

 

[skidmark]

Well, my week was... wow. Dombrowski finished almost lanterne rouge for every stage until he dropped out of P-N; Sepulveda made a nice show in a break once, but nothing that got him points. My high finisher was noted mountain climber and GC contender Yves Lampaert, oof. Tirenno was... awful. I said coming in that a podium from Nibali would be ok, but the only podium he would have a shot at would be most aggressive rider, the classic prize they give to a rider who attacks lots in completely futile ways. No CQ points for that one. Aru was sick, Gesink was pretty anonymous (but annoyingly good enough that I could see him struggling in the back of the pack on the mountains), and even Julian 'you only need 5 points to break even at your cost of 17' Arredondo DNFd real early. Grosu made the crazy split of 9 riders in the last km today and sprinted to 8th place.

At least the racing has been super fun to watch!

Seriously though, I think a team needs a bigger foundation at this point than around 100th place in order to be able to end up in the top 5-10 in a season. Sometimes things just don't roll your way. Nibali still has 2 Grand Tours left in him, and he's maybe the best rider of his generation at looking absolutely terrible and making you lose faith in him, only to come back on a tear when it counts (see July 2014, October 2015, May 2016 among others). Maybe Phil Bauhaus/Lasse Norman Hansen/Kris Boeckmans will podium Nokere Korese this week. Maybe Kwiatkowski and Nibali will get away on the Poggio and get me loads of points. You never know with this game.

This is the point of the season where you need to be building up a good foundation, though. I've had a lot of good luck supplementing good teams the last couple of years. This might not be a good year for it.

 

[SafeBet]

Is Intxausti gonna ride at any point this season?

 

[fauniera]

Still top 20 is not bad considering that four of my riders have not raced at all this year: Albanese (first the knee, then a virus), Ciccone (operation in December), Trofimov (problems with the work permit apparently) and Intxausti (???). König has done one race and is now in politics??? Anyway, my rare pick Uran will get me a few points this week but more importantly he is looking really good this season.

 

[Jancouver]

Lost two more spots and outside the TOP40. At least Rohan Dennis finished high in T-A. Now I need these guys to deliver at MSR

GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando - big hopes for a Podium
EWAN Caleb - no idea - either big surprise or no points
DEGENKOLB John - big hopes for Top 5
BONIFAZIO Niccolo - small hopes for Top 10
VIVIANI Elia - Top 10?

 

[greenedge]

Re:

Is Intxausti gonna ride at any point this season?

I'm wondering the same with Konig...
Thanks for the update Skidmark!

 

[barmaher]

Boeckmans was one of the first names on the team sheet. I really thought he would be back to the level he showed before his Vuelta crash.

Now I can see why he wasn't in every team. Still hope, but he seems to be rolling in miles back in every race so far.

 

[vladimir]

Startlist for MSR seems to be almost finalized, and at the moment I will start with 11 riders:

KWIATKOWSKI Michal - In good form but needs a hard race
DEGENKOLB John - Obviously one of the favourites
LOBATO DEL VALLE Juan Jose - Unique pick, a repeat of 4th place in 2014 would be welcome
STUYVEN Jasper - One of many outsiders
BONIFAZIO Niccolo - has been 5th before, so should not be underestimated
SPILAK Simon - will work for Kristoff
VIVIANI Elia - race should suit him, but has an awful record
OSS Daniel - will try to make the race hard for GVA so probably only 5 points
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh - good season so far, top 20 would feel like a victory
GOUGEARD Alexis - another long breakaway?
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe - no chance for more than 5 points

All in all happy with my team :razz:

 

[skidmark]

Well, Bauhaus got 4th in Nokere Korese, and the difference between that and 2nd was half a wheel. Good showing from one of my rarest picks; I picked him because he got results dotted from all kinds of races last year, so it's good to see him powering through a cobbled race like that. Hopefully more 1.HC finishes in his near future. Boeckmans decided to police Justin Jules rather than go for the finish, which seems a bit odd since he was up there, he's fast (he won that race two years ago), and their top finisher ended up being De Buyst in 20th. But oh well.

What's coming up?

Handzame Classic

Yves Lampaert
Kris Boeckmans
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Lasse Norman Hansen

I could see any of these guys in a small winning move that tries to anticipate the sprinters. In a straight up sprint I think Boeckmans and Lampaert would be handy, but it seems like Martinelli might be the guy for Qst. We will see.

MSR

Alexis Gougeard
Carlos Betancur
EM Grosu
Elia Viviani
Michal Kwiatkowski
John Degenkolb

Well, Degenkolb will undoubtedly be a factor, but it's not like he'll get me ahead in the game. Viviani too, although I'd put his chances of being there for a sprint at 20%. Won't even consider the first three guys - really, my best-case scenario is Kwiatko getting away on the Poggio.

Loire Atlantique

Edward Planckaert
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck

Planckaert is still learning how to ride with the pros, but GVK could certainly pull a strong attack.

Catalunya

Mikel Landa
Taylor Phinney
Robert Gesink
Ondrej Cink
Phil Bauhaus

Oh boy. I wish I could say that Ondrej Cink wasn't my best bet for points, but that's where I'm at. Landa and Gesink could theoretically challenge, but they both looked a bit off their best in Tirenno (plus Landa has Froome there). Bauhaus looks like he'll be the second option to Walscheid, and Phinney was supposed to be in Tirenno but didn't start for whatever reason. Definitely looking like he's not being used for the classics, huh.

Looks like it'll be at least another week before I'm looking at anything too good.

 

[ThePirate81]

My riders for the upcoming races:
- Handzame Classic (1.1)
none

- Milano-Sanremo (1.WT1)
Degenkolb
Viviani
Bonifazio
Filosi

- Classic Loire Atlantique (1.1)
Peters

- Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (2.WT2)
De Marchi
Adam Yates
De Plus
Mas Nicolau
Rolland
Woods
Ludvigsson
Gaudu
Vincent
Kruijswijk
Gesink
Geniez
Vuillermoz
Vervaeke
Haas
Conti

Waiting for Catalunya to boost my score. Will my 2 GT captains bounce back after sickness marred their last week?

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

With Roglic in TA this week should be decent, but there are many other points to be earned and in Nokere Koerse I've earned none.

Handzame Classic
VAN KEIRSBULCK, Guillaume

Probably no points for me given it is likely to end in a sprint.

Milano-Sanremo
FRANK, Mathias
GOUGEARD, Alexis
BERNAL, Egan Arley
BRESCHEL, Matti
DILLIER, Silvan
EWAN, Caleb
ROGLIČ, Primož
VIVIANI, Elia
KWIATKOWSKI, Michal
DEGENKOLB, John
MARTINEZ, Daniel Felipe

Many riders but most of them either unlikely to earn points or so common that it won't be that significant. If Ewan can make it into the finale, that will be nice.

Classic Loire Atlantique
VENDRAME, Andrea

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
LANDA, Mikel
DE PLUS, Laurens
ROLLAND, Pierre
CARTHY, Hugh
VALLS, Rafael
KÄMNA, Lennard
MEINTJES, Louis

Valls, Meintjes and maybe even Carthy could earn some GC points and are quite rare. Only problem is the 40km TTT and all of them not being in good TTT squads.

 

[bminchow]

Also have 11 riders for MSR. 3-4 could even compete for a win. Damn, sometimes I wish i didn't have a life so i could spend 291km watching the race.

FRANK, Mathias
GOUGEARD, Alexis
SKOUJINS, Toms
BENOOT, Tiesj
BERNAL, Egan Arley (wait, is bernal in this? i don't think so)
DILLIER, Silvan
EWAN, Caleb
SPILAK, Simon
VIVIANI, Elia
DEGENKOLB, John
ANDERSEN, Soren Kragh
Stuyven, Jasper

 

[bminchow]

Crap. And 11 guys riding at Catalunya. Now this is getting fun. My one-bedroom apartment for a european cycling channel!

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Kwiat into profit

 

[the asian]

So happy to have selected Kiwat ! Was a initially a little hesistant due to the SKY factor.

 

[Netserk]

He should podium Itzulia, so even if he flukes the Ardennes, there's still plenty of points to score this spring.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

A lot of popular riders in that top 10 - Kwiat, Gaviria, Degenkolb, Viviani, Ewan. Anybody got all of them?

 

[the asian]

Re:

A lot of popular riders in that top 10 - Kwiat, Gaviria, Degenkolb, Viviani, Ewan. Anybody got all of them?

Have got 4 of them except Ewan. Offset for this week due to having Roglic (only two others have).

Expecting another good week !

 

[skidmark]

Well, Kwiat's win keeps my head above water this week - he's popular, but still fewer than half the teams, so getting 280 points on most of the field always helps. Degenkolb and Viviani getting top 10 points too, and hey, even Betancur finished! Gaviria, who is popular and who I don't have, got 5th place, which is about as low a result as I'd have put him if I had had to guess. I'll reserve judgement until after, say, Gent-Wevelgem, but so far he is doing well but not outperforming where I thought he'd be. Ewan, however, surprised me by making it to the finale and finishing 10th. Yikes, he is my regret of the year so far.

Elsewhere, Edward Planckaert picked up a handy 4th place in France for 36 points, only 10 points away from profit. With rare pick Bauhaus' points for Nokere Korese this week, I should be doing okay.

 

[armchairclimber]

I think that's one of my best ever races points-wise with Kwiat, Alaphilippe, Gaviria and Degenkolb ... plus a couple of finishers.

 

[del1962]

Re:

A lot of popular riders in that top 10 - Kwiat, Gaviria, Degenkolb, Viviani, Ewan. Anybody got all of them?

all except Gaviria,

How many have Alaphilippe?