The 2018 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[bminchow]

Great week!! Nice to finally get a top 5 again. Really weak for Tour of Romandie. Just hoping repeat from last year gets me a Porte victory. But i doubt it. Oh, and Ruben fernandez was dropped from this race. That is looking like a wasted pick.

CARTHY Hugh
KANGERT Tanel
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas
PORTE Richie
VERVAEKE Louis

 

[Koronin]

Romandia team:

Andrey Amador
Carlos Betancur
Jaime Roson
Hugh Carthy
Stephen Cummings

Not exactly expecting much from this team. Maybe Carthy can surprise and maybe, hopefully Cummings will go stage hunting somewhere.

 

[Koronin]

Great week!! Nice to finally get a top 5 again. Really weak for Tour of Romandie. Just hoping repeat from last year gets me a Porte victory. But i doubt it. Oh, and Ruben fernandez was dropped from this race. That is looking like a wasted pick.

CARTHY Hugh
KANGERT Tanel
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas
PORTE Richie
VERVAEKE Louis

I know what you mean about Fernandez. However, to let you know what's sidelined him for basically the entire first part of the season is he has a stress fracture.

 

[SafeBet]

Barely made the top10.
Which is fine, it's my first top10 in this game

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

We are well ahead of the pace compared to 2017.

The leader after the Ardennes last year (Googolplex) had 5523 points. Our current leader LightBing has 5865.
Last year's 10th place after the Ardennes (Kryvo) had 4905 points. Current 10th (Koronin) has 5335.

We might get further ahead after the Giro. Last year there weren't many significant Giro point scorers in the game. Landa was the only really popular scorer, while some teams had Pozzovivo or Gaviria. This year there's Lopez and Chaves who are almost ubiquitous and will likely create a very strong base of points for the top scoring teams in May. It's also not unthinkable to see some of the popular picks like Oomen, Kangert, Ciccone, Formolo, Betancur, Van Poppel or Brambilla score some decent points.

I feel like we say it every year, but this year might be one of the highest-scoring ones.

TeoSheva had 6976 pts after LBL in 2012 and Geraint Too Fast had 6542 pts in 2015 so I'd say there's a fair amount of work to do in order to compete with 2015 let alone 2012. But you're right that the Giro might close the gap some.

 

[Squire]

We are well ahead of the pace compared to 2017.

The leader after the Ardennes last year (Googolplex) had 5523 points. Our current leader LightBing has 5865.
Last year's 10th place after the Ardennes (Kryvo) had 4905 points. Current 10th (Koronin) has 5335.

We might get further ahead after the Giro. Last year there weren't many significant Giro point scorers in the game. Landa was the only really popular scorer, while some teams had Pozzovivo or Gaviria. This year there's Lopez and Chaves who are almost ubiquitous and will likely create a very strong base of points for the top scoring teams in May. It's also not unthinkable to see some of the popular picks like Oomen, Kangert, Ciccone, Formolo, Betancur, Van Poppel or Brambilla score some decent points.

I feel like we say it every year, but this year might be one of the highest-scoring ones.

TeoSheva had 6976 pts after LBL in 2012 and Geraint Too Fast had 6542 pts in 2015 so I'd say there's a fair amount of work to do in order to compete with 2015 let alone 2012. But you're right that the Giro might close the gap some.

In 2012 there was the small matter of 1500 Boonen points by this time. I'm not counting that year, it was freakish. But 2015 or 2017 levels could be possible. The popular picks are important in this respect. Most of them are doing well, but we could do with some contributions from Cavendish and Coquard, and preferably a König recovery.

 

[HelgeBlendet]

Thanks for the update(s)!

The good thing about being bad is that once you hit a week were your team is acutally decent, you'll be mentioned in the high movers if you are lucky. I more or less gave up on the season once I realized that I really only checked out riders from A to P, ignoring the rest more or less due to bad time management on my part. Restrepo, Van Poppel and Vervaeke were marked on my long list and their prize fit into the team I had drawn up so far, so they are the only Q to Z riders.

I knew I wasn't going to pick Valverde and it might bite me, but I still missed some obvious picks (even from A to P). The other strange thing about my team is that contrary to the races I enjoy I seemed to have focused quite heavily on stage races. So i'm kinda left with a team that isn't really that bad looking at the individual riders, but lacks the big punches and guys I actually enjoy watching. Looking forward to the rest of the season, though.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Hey uhhh Skiddy is off grid already, isn't he? I'm down for doing the updates in May, but I'd asked Skidmark for some explanation as to how to do the updates, because I don't have an awful lot of experience working with excel, and he said he had some detailed instructions lying around and he'd be in touch again in April, but I haven't heard of him so far.

I don't imagine it's awfully difficult, but if anybody could tell me how to do the update, it will be much appreciated and the chance of getting updates in May will be much increased.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Hey uhhh Skiddy is off grid already, isn't he? I'm down for doing the updates in May, but I'd asked Skidmark for some explanation as to how to do the updates, because I don't have an awful lot of experience working with excel, and he said he had some detailed instructions lying around and he'd be in touch again in April, but I haven't heard of him so far.

I don't imagine it's awfully difficult, but if anybody could tell me how to do the update, it will be much appreciated and the chance of getting updates in May will be much increased.

I'll do the April 30th update and get the monthly update out of the way so you don't have to handle the most difficult update first. I'll send you skidmark PM's with the detailed instructions (if you have any questions don't hesitate to send me a PM).

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Thanks!

 

[Koronin]

Here's my Giro squad:

Alberto Bettiol
Davide Formolo
Carlos Betancur
Ruben Fernandez
Maximilian Schaachmann
Zdenek Stybar
Ben O'Connor
Hugh Carthy
Gianluca Brambilla

Not sure how good this team is, but at least they could be entertaining.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Update: Guybrush(es) away the competition

A relatively quiet week with the Tour de Romandie and the Vuelta a Asturias providing the bulk of the scoring during my last update. I now leave you in the hands of Maaaaaaaarten for the month of may which hopefully means no more bad puns as the update's title.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 Guybrush 622
2 karaev 545
2 zaka_fan 545
4 ChrisDK 523
5 Josedin 431

GuyBrush has a very unique team and his rare picks came through big time this week. Bernal (picked 3 times), Carapaz (Martinez (13), Sepulveda (8) and the star of the show Tivani (1) combined for more than 600 points. Karaev and zaka_fan tied for 2nd with completely different approaches (Roglic, Fernandez vs. Porte, Fuglsang and Kruijswijk). ChrisDK used big weeks by Bernal and Kruijswijk as well as a nice showing by Morkov to crack 500 points. Josedin is the only other team with Roglic and he was responsible for a mere 416 of their 431 points this week.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 karaev (+27)
2 HelgeBlendet (+17)
3 Nicosix (+12)
4 ChrisDK (+11)
4 PeterB (+11)

Less points scored means less opportunity to move up which explains why karaev's team is the only one jumping more than 20 places. HelgeBlendet gets a nice boost courtesy of Latour, Carapaz and Bohli. NicoSix will probably hope Porte, Nieve and Sepulveda can build on their performance of the past week for the rest of what has been a frustrating season so far for the three riders. ChrisDK and PeterB both jump 11 spots on the back of Kruijswijk's big week (with help from Bernal and Figlsang respectively).

Green Jersey Competition

1 LightBing 150
2 Kryvo 108
3 Roubaix 102
4 ChrisDK 98
5 fauniera 95

ChrisDK gets a 3rd top-4 finish this year to move up to 4th. PeterB also moved up into the top 10 but the rest of the leaderboard is otherwise exceptionnally calm.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team
1 LightBing 6078
2 Eyeballs Out 5836
3 trackstand 5799
4 ruvu75 5791
5 TheArt 5732
6 GP Blanco 5626
7 escartin 5566
8 Gigs_98 5561
9 scrooll07 5547
10 Kryvo 5543

LightBing strecth their lead out to 240 points (Latour, Fernandez, J. Silva). Most teams in the top 10 rise or fall a couple spots but nothing really noteworthy besides Koronin (113 points, -2 spots) and MADRAZO (101, -4) exiting the top of the leaderboard. But they are still close enough to follow the example of the two teams replacing them : scrooll07 (Carapaz, Fernandez) and Kryvo (Latour, I. Izaguirre) hovered around the top 10 after leaving it and have now made their comeback.

The Month's High Scorers

Rank Team Points this Month
1 Wallenquist 2123
2 LightBing 2056
3 Gigs_98 2047
4 karaev 1971
5 Maaaaaaaarten 1913
6 bminchow 1837
7 trackstand 1796
8 ruvu75 1766
9 Yellow Knight 1746
10 fauniera 1724

No really surprise there as the team that dominated the last update also feature highly here. Wallenquist, LightBing and Gigs_98 all crack 2k points. Karaev gets 1300 from his two most expensive riders (Roglic and Alaphilippe) while Maaaaaaaarten spreads the scoring around (7 riders at 100+ points).

The Month's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 karaev (+45)
2 Yellow Knight (+40)
3 Maaaaaaaarten (+37)
4 bminchow (+35)
5 Wallenquist (+33)
6 Gigs_98 (+32)
7 Akuryo (+30)
8 DFA123 (+29)
8 Jakob747 (+29)
10 fauniera (+28)

Seven of the ten teams on the high scoring list return on the high movers' list. The exceptions are Akuryo (Alaphilippe, Latour, Mas, Kreuziger and Jakobsen), DFA123 (Alaphilippe, Mas, Lopez, I. Izaguirre, Gasparotto) and Jakob747 (Alaphilippe, Lopez, Woods, Carapaz, Mas).

Link to the update : https://www.dropbox.com/s/5k6qhvnnu3cnz0m/CQ 2018 update 16.xlsx?dl=0

 

[armchairclimber]

I might have been climbing like a diesel. Suddenly I'm going downhill like Bardet.

 

[HelgeBlendet]

Thanks for the update!

Might have probably mentioned it before, but whining and complaining about my team certainly seems to help.

For the Giro, I'll have
Oomen
Vervaeke
Lopez
Kangert
Formolo
Carapaz
Brambilla
Bennett
Gesink
Chaves
Kreuziger
Ciccone
Van Poppel, (Danny)

Did I base my picks on who's going to ride the Giro? That almost has to end in disappointment...

 

[Koronin]

Well last week could have been worse.

 

[GP Blanco]

Eschborn-Frankfurt
JAKOBSEN Fabio
KENNAUGH Peter
DE BIE Sean
WAEYTENS Zico

Hopefully, Jakobsen will lead Quick-Step.

Tour de Yorkshire
HALVORSEN Kristoffer
CAVENDISH Mark
MOSER Moreno
COQUARD Bryan

The sprint stages will be the most interesting.

Giro d'Italia
VENTURINI Clément
LOPEZ Miguel Angel
CICCONE Giulio
GUARDINI Andrea
FORMOLO Davide
CHAVES Johan Esteban
BETANCUR Carlos
VAN POPPEL Danny

Lopez and Chaves for the podium. Formolo to top-10. Ciccone for the KOM classification. Van Poppel and Guardini for sprint stages, the latter when they are completely flat. Venturini and Betancur as jokers.

 

[Guybrush]

thanks for the update, hope this is the beginning of a recovery

 

[Tigerion]

Well I got all excited in the Romandie finale only to realise I it was the wrong Pascal for me. Would have been meant a good result for the week instead of a bit of a disappointing one

 

[Squire]

So, De Bie and Bol already got me 81 points this week.

What more do I have?

Tour de Yorkshire (2.1)
CAVENDISH Mark
HALVORSEN Kristoffer
MOSER Moreno
COQUARD Bryan

Sprint field too strong for Halvorsen to score any significant points, I fear. Unless he wins the first stage and takes the jersey. The puncheur field is rather weak, but I still can't bring myself to have serious hopes for Moser.

Giro d'Italia (2.UWT)
OOMEN Sam
LOPEZ Miguel Angel
KANGERT Tanel
CICCONE Giulio
FORMOLO Davide
CHAVES Johan Esteban
BETANCUR Carlos
WOODS Michael
VAN POPPEL Danny

Mostly team leaders. Some points, please? Not a lot coming this week, though.

Flèche Ardennaise (1.2)

BOL Cees

The cesspool has been nothing short of brilliant lately. Just too bad he's only doing .2 races...

 

[PeterB]

Giro team:

For the GC
LOPEZ Miguel Angel
FORMOLO Davide
CHAVES Johan Esteban

Sprinters/puncheurs
GUARDINI Andrea
ROELANDTS Jurgen
DEBUSSCHERE Jens
VAN POPPEL Danny

Hopefully some points for finishing around 20th in the GC
VERVAEKE Louis
KANGERT Tanel
GESINK Robert
BRAMBILLA Gianluca

 

[escartin]

moving up 1 place in the top 10 despite only finishing 71st on the week (and only that high because of Latour) is nice!
I don't think I have scored a single point yet this week which is not encouraging. The Giro should be better though, I have Lopez and Chaves for the high GC, Oomen, Brambilla and Kangert for the lower GC, Betancur for I am not sure what and Guardini and D van Poppel for stages. None of those are particularly rare picks though...

 

[Gigs_98]

My Giro lineup:

LOPEZ Miguel Angel
KANGERT Tanel
BONIFAZIO Niccolo
CICCONE Giulio
FORMOLO Davide
CHAVES Johan Esteban
KREUZIGER Roman
BETANCUR Carlos
FERNÁNDEZ Rubén
CARTHY Hugh
BRAMBILLA Gianluca

In theory this should be a very good team. In Yorkshire I'm mostly hoping for points from Moser although I have no idea how his shape is. Don't know whether Stannard could maybe be good on this route, but I fear it's too hard for him.

 

[LaFlorecita]

My Giro team:
Lopez
Chaves
Formolo
Oomen
Brambilla
Pantano
Kangert
Guardini
Senechal

Not as impressive as some of the teams posted here. My GC riders are quite popular so I'll have to hope for stage wins for my rarer picks.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

I have the same problem as EvansIsTheBest with registering at Velorooms, so if somebody could post the update there I would be much obliged.

I had unexpectedly little time today so the write up was done in a bit of a hurry, and I had some technical issues and am not 100% whether the data is correct, but here it is:

Update: searching for some significant points
A rather quiet week again with few points scored. The Giro hasn't really delivered yet, and while there were some points in Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn, the Tour of Yorkshire and Vuelta Comunidad de Madrid, they didn't really stack up the points either.

This Weeks Top Scorers
1 search 196
2 Squire 195
3 the asian 192
4 Geraint Too Fast 167
5 Wallenquist 165

Interestingly the entire top 5 derives most of their points from Duarte and De Bie (who together scored 156 points) and the (very small) differences are only made by relatively insignificant smaller points.

This week's high movers
1 the asian (+9)
2 Eric10 (+8)
3 search (+7)
3 Jakob747 (+7)
3 tom_jelte (+7)

Like the points scored, the moves are also rather underwhelming. Though the Asian fell short of taking the score this week by four points, he is the highest mover of the week. Furthermore, there is a bit more variety in the picks of the high movers, with tom_jelte having neither Duarte nor De Bie, but rather has Bennett scoring 104 points.

Green Jersey Competition
1 LightBing 150
2 Kryvo 112
3 Wallenquist 109
4 Squire 105
5 Roubaix 102

Some movement here with Wallenquist entering the top 5 and fauniera leaving it.

Top 10 Overall
1 LightBing 6107
2 Eyeballs Out 5940
3 trackstand 5905
4 ruvu75 5895
5 TheArt 5816
6 GP Blanco 5721
7 Wallenquist 5703
8 Kryvo 5679
9 scrooll07 5663
10 Gigs_98 5649

Some minor changes here with Wallenquist popping into the top 10 and escartin popping out of the top 10.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4p6r6d71wndd51/CQ%202018%20update%2017.xls?dl=0

 

[Squire]

One point!!