The 2018 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[repre]

Mamykin!! Nice abandon dude. Jeez.

just another example why you can't rely on russian...i made that mistake too.

 

[skidmark]

Huh, I guess I don't pay enough attention to cycling journalism to have known that.

That interview is only a few days old i think (linked it here), therefore after the deadline. But yeah, bad news for teams with Sivakov.

Right, I knew that interview was recent, I just figured there must have been some knowledge about his condition over the winter from those 'in the know', a group that I don't count myself within. Although maybe this is the first it has come to light. Gawd, I hope he's not another Dombrowki (I will probably pick him three more times even if he is)...

 

[LaFlorecita]

Mamykin!! Nice abandon dude. Jeez.

He's just returned from a very heavy injury

 

[SafeBet]

Mamykin!! Nice abandon dude. Jeez.

Picking up where he left off

On the other hand, nice to see Fabbro up there with the best in his first race as a pro. Just give him a crash-free season and he'll get some very good results.

 

[armchairclimber]

Well, if Valverde stays injury and calamity free, he will be a very big player this year. Assuming he wins the GC tomorrow, he will already be way over 10% of his cost. With Murcia, Andalucia and Abu Dhabi to come this month ... well, I daren't tempt fate.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Well, if Valverde stays injury and calamity free, he will be a very big player this year. Assuming he wins the GC tomorrow, he will already be way over 10% of his cost. With Murcia, Andalucia and Abu Dhabi to come this month ... well, I daren't tempt fate.

I think his performance is an exclamation point on the fact we need to at least believe his friends who train with him and know his abilities very well.

 

[Salvarani]

Gonna be hard to keep up with the teams that have Valverde it seems like


Happy to see him back like this though

 

[Salvarani]

On another note...

My unique pick Joseph Areruya won his second stage race this year at Coupe des Nations de l'Espoir Blue Line following up on his victory at Tropicale Amissa Bongo

 

[vladimir]

Sean De Bie into profit

 

[postmanhat]

Another fairly good week. De Bie's already in profit after Bresges and Moscon's showing all the signs of a great year ahead, Van Poppel did well in Valencia, though there wasn't much competition. Am hoping from he can do something in the classics to become a great pick.

Injuries already mounting up with De Plus, Shivakov and possibly Mamykin(?). While Lambrecht and Halvorsen both missed the TDU. My team ended up a bit light in the cobbled classics, which was the my main reason for finally opting for Moscon over Alaphillipe. So I could do with getting points in these early races to compensate.

Cavendish, Ciccone and Gaudu start their seasons this week. Had Gaudu last year and wasn't going to pick him as I though this might be a development year, doing more WT races. However really struggled to find riders in the 300-500 range, and it was him or Terpstra, who I'm fairly indifferent about as a rider. So I'm looking forward to seeing how Gaudu goes, but am not expecting too much. Maybe 5-600 tops?

 

[repre]

De Bie looks like a great pick. Also he will race two another relatively small races in the February where he can score.

 

[repre]

Re:

Another fairly good week. De Bie's already in profit after Bresges and Moscon's showing all the signs of a great year ahead, Van Poppel did well in Valencia, though there wasn't much competition. Am hoping from he can do something in the classics to become a great pick.

Injuries already mounting up with De Plus, Shivakov and possibly Mamykin(?). While Lambrecht and Halvorsen both missed the TDU. My team ended up a bit light in the cobbled classics, which was the my main reason for finally opting for Moscon over Alaphillipe. So I could do with getting points in these early races to compensate.

Cavendish, Ciccone and Gaudu start their seasons this week. Had Gaudu last year and wasn't going to pick him as I though this might be a development year, doing more WT races. However really struggled to find riders in the 300-500 range, and it was him or Terpstra, who I'm fairly indifferent about as a rider. So I'm looking forward to seeing how Gaudu goes, but am not expecting too much. Maybe 5-600 tops?

Vuelta will be crucial for Gaudu value. Eager to see his true potential as the GC rider there, unless he goes stage hunting only.

 

[skidmark]

That was a pretty good week. Valverde holds serve, winning a 2.1 race in February as one would expect. And Chaves, although most have him, at least scores a bunch and takes those points away from anyone else. A stage win from Van Poppel, a stage win from Roelandts, and definitely NOT a stage win from Coquard but some points. The only disappointment was that I dropped De Bie from my team in the final stages after reading what a debacle VWC was last year, I didn't want to touch them with a ten foot pole this year. But you can't hit them all. Good week!

 

[LaFlorecita]

My points this week:
Chaves 136
Pantano 40
Martinez 30
Coquard 27
Lopez 14
Rosa 8
Capiot 3
I'm happy with my points from the Colombian Nats, 30 for Martinez in the TT was unexpected, otoh Pantano scored 110 less than last year due to him not starting the TT and the downgrading of the races compared to last year. It's not a huge worry, as last year his score at the Nats was about as good as it gets and in his best year, 2016, he scored nothing at all. Still, I would have liked to see him start the TT (with a good shot at winning).

Dubai Tour (2.HC)
Cavendish
Minali
Jakobsen
Nizzolo

Colombia Oro y Paz (2.1)
Martinez
Guardini
Pantano

Tour Cycliste International La Provence (2.1)
Gaudu
Coquard?

Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia (1.1)
Mas

Clasica de Almeria (1.HC)
Mas?

Trofeo Laigueglia (1.HC)
Albanese
Brambilla
Moser
No Felline


Hmm.. not too promising

 

[Salvarani]

Dubai Tour (2.HC)
GARCIA CORTINA Ivan
NIZZOLO Giacomo

Colombia Oro y Paz (2.1)
CICCONE Giulio
GUARDINI Andrea

Tour Cycliste International La Provence (2.1)
COQUARD Bryan?

Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia (1.1)
MAS Enric?

Trofeo Laigueglia (1.HC)
ALBANESE Vincenzo
BAGIOLI Nicola
BRAMBILLA Gianluca


I have high hopes for Ciccone to be there in the GC.

 

[skidmark]

Update #4: Kryvo Cleans up as Overall Tightens

This week was a pretty simple one - three 2.1 races held the bulk of riders in this game, and one of them was won by one of the most popular riders in the game, another by one of the most expensive. It would logically follow that the winner had at least Valverde and Chaves to start with, and this turned out to be true.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 Kryvo 449
2 minessa 443
3 scrooll07 428
4 18-Valve. (pithy) 419
5 DJ Sprtsch 418

It was pretty tight at the top this week, with the top 5 being separated by only 31 points. Kryvo indeed had the winning formula of Valverde and Chaves for the biggest points, but also got points from Sean de Bie, Danny van Poppel and Byran Coquard, to eke out the victory. minessa ALMOST gets there, with the same mix of riders, the biggest difference being Jurgen Roelandts' 30 points instead of DvP's 36. So close! Last year's Green Jersey winner scrooll07 rounds out the podium without Valverde, but on top of Chaves and De Bie their team had 66 points each from rare picks Howson and Guerreiro, and some contributions from Mads Pedersen and Roman Kreuziger.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 minessa (+51)
2 Guybrush (+48)
3 del1962 (+44)
4 Object (+43)
5 Total Package (+36)

With a few more points on the board for everyone, it's not quite as nuts as last week's 67 point jump, but points runner up minessa moves up more than a half-century to take top spot. Guybrush rides the success of unique pick Sergio Henao and rare pick Egan Bernal to sweep the Colombian national championships (and get 2nd in the high movers), and del1962 has a none-too-shabby week with points from some riders already mentioned plus Pantano in Colombia and what might turn out to be a good pick on only 5 teams, Kilian Frankiny.

Note: it's the end of the first month of the game, too, and normally every month we have the Monthly Top Scorers and High Movers as well. But, as it's the first month, the Top Scorers are the same as the overall, and the High Movers are just people who moved down from the original tie for first. So, that's not worth summarizing here!

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 Jon_Ezeitza 90
2 18-Valve. (pithy) 52
3 ChrisDK 46
4 Kryvo 45
5 Poles & Co. 42

The hot team of January, Jon Ezeitza, remains untouchable on top, but with 2 4th place finishes in a row (26 points each), 18-Valve.(pithy) slides into second overall, and Kryvo's weekly win moves their team immediately up to 4th. No ties in the top 5 - of the 4 weekly winners, Jon Ezeitza did it twice, ChrisDK got an extra point for a 15th place tie to have 46 overall, and Kryvo got 45.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) Jon_Ezeitza 1074
2 (+8) search 1029
3 (+3) Nathanptz 1016
4 (+3) l'velo 978
5 (-1) bminchow 975
6 (+10) JSpear 967
7 (+4) postmanhat 964
8 (-3) sodak_za 936
9 (-) Giallo 933
10 (-7) Sneekes 928

Jon Ezeitza uses their team's cushion to ride out a rough week (they finished 119th without popular picks Chaves and Coquard) and hang on to first place. search makes a big leap to second, and Nathanptz joins the other 2 above the 1000 point barrier on the podium. Special shout-out to l'velo in 4th place, who I missed due to a formula glitch in last week's update (they should have been 7th). JSpear and postmanhat slide into the top 10, Salvarani and Poles & Co (2nd last week!) drop out.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[Martin]

Seems like Adrien Costa's farewell to cycling:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/adrien-costa-will-not-return-to-axeon-in-2018/#disqus_thread

Although he was super impressive, massive talent, and I had chosen him to be a part of my team, I must say I am happy for him and his decision.
Good luck, whatever you do in future, Adrien!

 

[Squire]

Thanks for the update!

Let's see what this week brings for me. Looks like a week which will not move me much up or down.

Dubai Tour
JAKOBSEN Fabio
CAVENDISH Mark
NIZZOLO Giacomo

Colombia Oro y Paz
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
DUARTE Fabio
CICCONE Giulio

Hopefully some GC points. Looking forward to seeing what (the severely underrated) Duarte can do.

Tour de Provence
Welten?
Müller?

Startlist not complete.

Vuelta a Murcia
MAS Enric
TAARAMÄE Rein
DE BIE Sean

Taaramäe is a former winner here, but his form is not great at the moment.

Clasica de Almeria
VAN POPPEL Danny
DE BIE Sean (?)

Hopefully DVP can win. De Bie is down to race two races this Sunday. We'll see how that goes.

Trofeo Laigueglia
ALBANESE Vincenzo
MOSER Moreno
DE BIE Sean(?)

Albanese to start his world domination! But I'm worried that Brambilla will run away with this.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Yes, fifth place and 11th overall.
Wonderful. I'm so happy I picked Valverde!

 

[fauniera]

Re:

Albanese to start his world domination!

I would be fine with that, but he did hide his world domination powers quite well in Besseges.

 

[Squire]

Re: Re:

Albanese to start his world domination!

I would be fine with that, but he did hide his world domination powers quite well in Besseges.

It's all part of the plan.

 

[fauniera]

Ok then.

 

[Nathanptz]

Dubai Tour
Mark Cavendish
Robin Carpenter
GIacomo Nizzolo
Oro y Paz
No one
Vuelta a Murcia
Enric Mas
Sean de Bie
Robbert de Greef
Clasica de Almeria
Some lads
Tour de Provence
Some lads
Trofeo Laigueglia
Vincenzo Albanese
Gianluca Brambilla (!)
Niccolo Bonifazio
Sean de Bie

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Last week was kind of mediocre for me. This week has a few races with some potential for me, mainly in Colombia.

Dubai Tour
CAVENDISH Mark
NIZZOLO Giacomo

Colombia Oro y Paz
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
CARTHY Hugh
CICCONE Giulio
GUARDINI Andrea

Tour Cycliste International La Provence
GAUDU David

Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia Costa Calida
MAS Enric
TAARAMÄE Rein

Trofeo Laigueglia
ALBANESE Vincenzo
BRAMBILLA Gianluca

 

[MADRAZO]

I had gotten a little bit worried about my pick of Magnus Cort after he only got picked 3 times, and maybe thought I had underestimated the effect of his broken colorbone in the winter, something that usually does not mean so much since one can often keep training. But what a nice start for him today close to winning in a very strong sprinter-field, and setting himself up for a top GC result in Dubai plus showing a lot of speed that will be very useful later this season where he will have a great calender full of his own chances at Astana, instead of his weird role on Orica where sprinting was often not allowed to fight for top 10 GC spots and so on and where he also was second to Ewan in many races that could have suited him. So I am back thinking he will be a great pick instead of a weakness.