The 2017 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[PeterB]

My TdF team:

GC:
ARU Fabio
YATES Simon

Sprinter:
DEGENKOLB John

TTs:
KÜNG Stefan
MARTIN Tony
PHINNEY Taylor

Stage hunters, helpers:
CIMOLAI Davide
CINK Ondrej
KWIATKOWSKI Michal
LANDA Mikel

I am slightly disappointed I have 10 not 9 riders as now it does not feel like a proper Grand Tour team, but, whatever, the more the merrier!

 

[Gigs_98]

I didn't have access to internet very often last week so I only just realized I was the high scorer in June. Well, a lot went extremely well for me and although I'm very happy about my current high I don't expect things to stay that way. Anyway I'm extremely happy with how the game has gone so far.

 

[Squire]

Update #25: Yellow weekend wins the week

The biggest race of the year starts with one of the slowest CQ game weeks of the year. Geraint Thomas' TdF time trial win and the yellow jersey that went with it netted him 120 points. Thomas is picked twice in the game, and two players scored more than 120 points. You do the math. Actually, only those two Thomas teams scored more than 100 points, and only twelve teams got more than half of the weekly winner's haul. I still wouldn't term it 'domination', though.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 Bicycle_Boy 132
2 CQmanager 126
3 Guigsteam 93
4 scrooll07 92
5 Ludwigzgz 81

Luckily, the Martin/Kwiatkowski/Küng six-way tie was for 6th place and not 5th, so this table doesn't have to be longer than necessary. There's also an 18-way tie for 20th place for those who didn't pick Tony Martin.

Bicycle_Boy rides Thomas' time trial to the weekly win. What separated him from CQmanager, who also has Thomas, was Swift and Bernas, whose 5 and 7 points edged out CQmanager's unique picks of Matthews and Samuel Williams. The latter scored 4 points for being 4th in the national championships of Saint Lucia. Talk about hipster pick! Guigsteam got 3rd on the week mainly due to Kittel and Lopez, plus Mattia Viel's one single point for 10th in Trofeo Citta di Brescia, which separates them from scrooll07 in 4th. Some very obscure picks here that would make The Hitch shudder.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team up/down
1 CQmanager (+11)
2 Joelsim (+6)
2 sodak_za (+6)
4 Ludwigzgz (+5)
4 oliveira (+5)

Because the bottom end of the table has rather large gaps, Bicycle_Boy's 1st place on the week only moves him up one spot. CQmanager therefore runs away with the top mover prize, climbing from 69th to 58th. Not much else going on in terms of big changes this week.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 Blues in the bottle 172
2 the asian 171
3 GP Blanco 161
4 Kazistuta 156
5 Geraint Too Fast 136

Kazistuta scores 15 green points, but the big story here is that Blues in the bottle's Lopez/Kwiat/Küng combo scores 3 green points for the team to move past the asian and into the green jersey! Blues in the bottle has already shared the green jersey with the asian for two weeks earlier in June, but now they have it all to themselves for the first time.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) GP Blanco 8815
2 (-) the asian 8685
3 (+2) Gigs_98 8384
4 (-1) tom_jelte 8380
5 (+1) fauniera 8372
6 (-2) Googolplex 8336
7 (+2) Object 8269
8 (-1) Maaaaaaaarten 8267
9 (-1) Squire 8229
10 (-) Hugo Koblet 8096

Even though they're now firmly ensconced in the top 10, Gigs_98 refuses to stop climbing, now entering the podium on the back of Kwiat/Küng points. Where will this end?

No new faces in the top ten this time, and none of the old ones coming back either. Object makes a nice little Küng-fuelled hop, while Squire has the dubious honour of being the only top ten team with a big fat zero in the points column this week.

Spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[Squire]

Right, that's it for me doing updates. I will now be handing it back to the master. It's been great fun, even though my own team has tumbled down the table on my watch.

 

[shalgo]

Thanks for doing the updates!

 

[Object]

Thank you for the updates. Looking forward to se what the Tour can bring of excitement to the standings.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Aru, Bernal and Lopez should help me continue to creep towards respectability.

Hopefully Latour, Vuillermoz and Benoot can hang on to their decent GC position.

 

[escartin]

Aru, Bernal and Lopez should help me continue to creep towards respectability.

Hopefully Latour, Vuillermoz and Benoot can hang on to their decent GC position.

That is scarily similar to my wishes
I have all those riders apart from Vuillermoz, I guess I am hoping the same from Betancur...

 

[skidmark]

Hey all! Haven't been very active on this thread while working remotely the last few months. But I'm back on updates as of now - still working long hours, so even though I have frequent internet access, updates might not be on Mondays just yet. This week's will be up in the next 24 hours and then I'll try to make them happen on Mondays regularly. Once I'm back home in early August things should be back to normal. Good luck in the Tour, everyone!

 

[Tigerion]

Welcome back skidmark and thanks to all who did updates these last weeks

 

[Hakkie2]

With the game being halfway, this is the best possible team* so far, with a return of 15065 points already:

CATTANEO Mattia
CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio
GIBBONS Ryan
LOUBET Julien
ROGLIC Primoz
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
SOLER GIMENEZ Marc
CALMEJANE Lilian
DILLIER Silvan
KWIATKOWSKI Michal
HIVERT Jonathan
POZZOVIVO Domenico
GILBERT Philippe
RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
PEREZ Anthony
SPILAK Simon
DEGENKOLB John
FILOSI Iuri
ROSON GARCIA Jaime
POLANC Jan
SIMON Julien
BOSWELL Ian
VIVIANI Elia
KÜNG Stefan
STUYVEN Jasper
DURBRIDGE Luke
HAAS Nathan
HANSEN Lasse Norman
VAN KEIRSBULCK Guillaume
GUERREIRO Ruben Antonio Almeida
FELLINE Fabio
CINK Ondrej

*only taking account riders with at least 1 selection in the game

 

[Hakkie2]

Or even more interesting:

Take the 33 most popular riders of this game.
Remove MALORI Adriano, INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA Beñat, KÖNIG Leopold, MAMYKIN Matvey, BOOM Lars and BOECKMANS Kris from that list.
Replace them with GAUDU David, BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto, DEVOLDER Stijn, VALLS FERRI Rafael, GESINK Robert and MACHADO Tiago Jose Pinto (who are all amongst the 44 most popular riders)
You now have a team that would be in the lead...

 

[skidmark]

Update #26: The Tour takes over as Green Jersey lead changes hands

It's July, and that means that the Tour is center stage once again - the only Grand Tour that doesn't overlap with any other WorldTour events (in non-Olympic years, at least). Certainly there were a couple of smaller races this week, but really, the main points were in France. It's only fitting that the leader for the week is a team that has some of the biggest names at Le Tour.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 scrooll07 532
2 fauniera 511
3 R_O_Shipman 497
4 Schleckamagurky 477
5 freshman 473

scrooll07 takes top honours this week, with an impressive 532 points, most of which are from non-GC Tour points. I guess when you're the only player in the CQ game to have Chris Froome (172 points), you're probably gonna rake come Tour time. Add in Kittel (2 teams, 160 points) and Aru (92 teams, 105 points), and you've got a pretty good week right there, even without the support points from Elia Viviani and Edward Planckaert. Second place fauniera took another route to points, with the fairly popular pick Egan Bernal (162 points, 45 teams) scoring big in Romania, as well as points from Aru, Uran, Giulio Ciccone and Simone Ponzi. R_O_Shipman sneaks into third with Bernal and Aru leading the way, but also some rarer picks like Miguel Angel Lopez, Christopher Lawless and unique pick Jingbiao Zhao.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team up/down
1 freshman (+20)
2 minessa (+13)
3 CraZyCaLL (+12)
4 adamski101 (+11)
5 rote_laterne (+10)

The list of high movers this week has only one overlapping team with the list of top scorers, a pretty rare occurrence in this game. freshman claims top honours this week, while pulling in 5th place in the Top Scorers as well. Aru and Bernal lead the way, with good supporting points from Viviani, Ponzi, the ill-fated Robert Gesink, and Roy Jans. minessa vaults into the top 50 overall with an almost identical set of riders, and CraZyCaLL rounds out the podium with the same big 2 popular picks as well.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 the asian 173
2 Blues in the bottle 172
3 GP Blanco 161
4 Kazistuta 156
5 fauniera 153

The Green Jersey is changing hands for sure this year at the Tour after Sagan's DQ, and it will be changing hands here as well. fauniera sneaks into the top 5 overall with 35 points for 2nd on the week, but the real story is that the asian retakes the lead. Proving the maxim that every point counts, the asian scores the minimum 2 points for 15th place on the week, and reverses the slim one-point lead that Blues in the bottle had held coming into the week. Spots 2-4 scored no points on the week. Also, two teams who had scored no points prior to this week ended up scoring, which means that 126 teams (out of 131 playing) have scored points so far. Still plenty of opportunities to score coming up!

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) GP Blanco 9163
2 (-) the asian 9095
3 (+2) fauniera 8883
4 (-) tom_jelte 8800
5 (-2) Gigs_98 8700
6 (-) Googolplex 8542
7 (+1) Maaaaaaaarten 8541
8 (+1) Squire 8486
9 (-2) Object 8479
10 (-) Hugo Koblet 8428

Not the most eventful week in terms of movement, but things got tighter at the top, with 2nd place scoring more than 1st, and 3rd scoring more than 2nd. fauniera jumps onto the podium with 2nd on the week, but most of the rest of the leaderboard is in a holding pattern, with no one moving in or out of the top 10.

Spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[Tigerion]

Re:

With the game being halfway, this is the best possible team* so far, with a return of 15065 points already:
*only taking account riders with at least 1 selection in the game

Man, I have had half of those riders in different teams over the years

 

[greenedge]

Thanks for the update @skidmark and the teams @Hakkie2! Currently I stand no chance of rising back into the top 15 (as i was hoping before Porte's injury) but good to see some riders continuing to score well.

 

[Gigs_98]

Bernal's success is staring to get a problem for me. With his points I'd be 4th of the week but instead I'm only 42nd and lost two places. Still the relatively rare pick denifl and his österreichrundfahrt win absolutely rescued my week.
Now I'm just thankful to have aru otherwise this tour could end up being pretty catastrophic

 

[the asian]

Pleased to close the gap to GP Blanco but obviously Fauniera will be in the lead at the end of the Tour as he's only one with Uran.

 

[del1962]

Re:

Pleased to close the gap to GP Blanco but obviously Fauniera will be in the lead at the end of the Tour as he's only one with Uran.

4th placed tom_jelte also has Uran

 

[skidmark]

Update #27: scrooll07 repeats as Tour continues to dominate

Week 2 of the Tour and once again, not much to compete with it - an Italian 1.1 race and the first stage of a 2.HC Chinese race were the only pro events on the calendar. As such, it's hardly a surprise that last week's Tour-fuelled winner repeats in the weekly standings.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 scrooll07 430
2 al_pacino 289
3 CQmanager 282
4 LightBing 277
5 adamski101 273

scrooll07 dominates in a repeat week; points come from Froome (unique pick), Kittel (2 teams), and the popular trio of Landa, Degenkolb and Aru. That's it - 5 riders each scoring over 50 points win the week. Second place was a closer race; al pacino takes a close one with the above-mentioned popular trio, plus rarer picks Barguil and Simon Yates adding the rest. CQmanager lives up to his name with points again from the popular trio, with the only other scoring from unique pick Michael Matthews.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team up/down
1 adamski101 (+8)
2 CQmanager (+7)
2 al_pacino (+7)
4 LightBing (+6)
5 scrooll07 (+5)

Not many points this week, and so not much movement; in fact, the entire top 5 is the same as the first list, just in different order. adamski101 tops the podium here, with (perhaps predictably by now) the popular trio that everyone had above, plus Barguil and a single point from Benoot.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 fauniera 173
1 the asian 173
3 Blues in the bottle 172
4 scrooll07 161
4 GP Blanco 161

Whoa! The green jersey competition is tighter than the Tour GC right now! If you recall last week, the asian turned a meagre 2 points into a first place overall. This week, fauniera has a second good week in a row, and their team's 20 points move them into a tie for first. The top 3 are separated by a single point, and there's a tie for 4th just 12 points off the lead. scrooll's amazing run has their team in the top 5 (116 of their 161 points are from the 3 Tour updates of the last 3 weeks). And 6th place Kazistuta is only 14 points (or a 9th place on a given week) out of the lead. This is tighter than I've ever seen it!

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) GP Blanco 9366
2 (-) the asian 9302
3 (-) fauniera 9119
4 (-) tom_jelte 8986
5 (-) Gigs_98 8892
6 (-) Googolplex 8709
7 (-) Maaaaaaaarten 8693
8 (-) Squire 8688
8 (+1) Object 8688
10 (-) Hugo Koblet 8611

While the green jersey standings are jumping around, the overall lead is stable as a rock. The top 10 overall ranged from 6th to 78th place on the weekly scoring, but that's only a difference of 84 points in reality. There's as close to no movement as possible - Object moves up 1 into a tie for 8th, and no one moves in or out of the top 10.

We will see how the mega-points on offer for Tour GC affects things this week...

Spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[bminchow]

Man, I love the Tour de France but my team was NOT built for this. Lets end this thing and get some of my guys racing again!! Good job to those who picked Uran in any of these fantasy games. Great value.

 

[Squire]

Excited about the post TDF shuffle. My Tour was half decent, with Landa, Aru, Yates and Benoot, but I don't think I'll move up that much, when there are several Uran teams in the top10.

Anybody got any idea why Vorganov was disqualified from the Tour of Qinghai Lake after stage 4 along with three teammates? Was hoping he'd get me some cheap China points. That's primarily why I picked him.

 

[Gigs_98]

I think this tour ended up pretty catastrophic for me. No Roglic, no Uran, no Benoot,... At least I have Landa and Aru but still I expect to lose many places

 

[HelgeBlendet]

Landa, Aru, Buchmann and Benoot were my "big" scoreres for the GC, but missing guys like Uran, Yates, Roglic could hurt. Dege, Kwiatkowski, Küng and McCarthy added points on some stages, so I shouldn't sink too far. Plus, Teuns might keep me afloat in Wallonie.

 

[escartin]

not too bad with Landa, Aru, Betancur and Benoot in the top 20. had hoped Latour would keep his form into the 3rd week but alas it was not to be.

 

[skidmark]

Update #28: Big points and upheaval at the top as scooll remains on a roll

The biggest single points of a CQ race in a year is the GC of the Tour de France, and that was this week. Although there aren't a huge amount of races this week, those GC points really add up if you have a few contenders. And, much like the entire 4 updates involving the Tour, the top of the weekly standings is dominated by a few teams with high-rolling rare picks.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 scrooll07 1549
2 fauniera 1398
3 al_pacino 1356
4 Crevaison 1198
5 Sneekes 1196

For the third week in a row, scrooll07 nabs first place on the back of unique pick Chris Froome, who, despite only being at 54% of his total last year, picks up 813 points this week alone. If you've been reading these updates the last few weeks, you know that scrooll also has popular picks Landa, Aru and Degenkolb, all of whom got a few points this week too. Ever-present top dweller fauniera nets a solid second place as one of the 6 teams with surprise second-place finisher Uran, as well as the Landa/Aru/Degenkolb trio. al_pacino also scores another week near the top, nabbing the final spot on the podium.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team up/down
1 scrooll07 (+35)
2 al_pacino (+24)
3 Crevaison (+21)
4 nuvolablu (+18)
5 Gotland (+16)

The top two are carry-overs from the previous list, but the rest of the top 5 are new. Crevaison sneaks into third, one of the other teams who boldly picked Uran.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 fauniera 208
2 scrooll07 206
3 the asian 179
4 Blues in the bottle 172
5 GP Blanco 161
6 Kazistuta 157
7 Kryvo 143
8 CQmanager 140.2
9 Geraint Too Fast 136
10 Gigs_98 129

After an unprecedentedly tight battle in the top 4 spots last week, things spread out a bit more this week. A third weekly victory in a row doesn't quite net scrooll07 top spot (although wait for the Vuelta when Froome is scoring points left and right again), as fauniera ekes out top spot with two 2nds and a 6th place in the last 3 weeks. the asian nets 6 points for 13th this week, getting a bit of a buffer on former leader Blues in the bottle for the final podium spot. No other scoring in the top 10 this week.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (+2) fauniera 10517
2 (-) the asian 10426
3 (-2) GP Blanco 10357
4 (-) tom_jelte 10100
5 (-) Gigs_98 9928
6 (+2) Object 9831
7 (+1) Squire 9817
8 (-1) Maaaaaaaarten 9642
9 (+4) Kazistuta 9638
10 (+2) HelgeBlendet 9635

And we have a new leader! The points from Uran add to an already impressive team performance from fauniera to finally overtake GP Blanco for first place. And a handy lead it is, almost 100 points over 2nd place the asian. Minor movement around the top 10, with Kazistuta and HelgeBlendet jumping into the top 10, and game founder Hugo Koblet falling out alongside the precipitous fall of Googolplex, who fell from 6th to 20th after only having Aru from the high GC finishers.

Spreadsheet at dropbox