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The 2018 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

Page 41 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
I was feeling pleased with myself having picked Thomas. Then I clicked into Squire's team to see how much ground I would make on the current leader of the game.

Squire has Alaphilippe and Thomas.
So do the teams placed second and third.

Holy jaysus!
 
Update #28: Boy! What a week for the top contenders in the game

After a few relatively slow weeks for the field at large (apart from those with Sagan and Gaviria), there was a bit of an uptick at the Tour in terms of the top of the leaderboard in the CQ game - many of the top teams have already tasted some success from picking riders such as Alaphilippe and Thomas, and this was their week to go at the Tour, with stage placing and yellow jersey points. As always, one needs that and a bit more to take the honors for the week, and this week's winner certainly had the stars align.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 Bicycle_Boy 605
2 AupaPyama 477
3 Squire 464
4 LosBrolin 394
4 Pantani1 394

A resounding win this week from Bicycle Boy, who had 4 riders score over 100 points for the week (and then single digit points from a couple of others), most notably the aforementioned Thomas (261 points) and Alaphilippe (130). Throw in Sagan and Ion Izagirre and that'll get you 600 points in a non-GC week! Nice work. AupaPyama slides into second with a none-too-shabby 477 points -without Geraint Thomas! - on the strength of Alaphilippe, Izagirre, and stage winners Fraile and Cort (with lesser points from Taaramae and Brenton Jones). And don't look now, folks with hopes of winning this year, but Squire, who was already leading the overall and Green Jersey coming into this week, rounds out the weekly top 3. Spoiler alert - he's still leading both of those competitions after this week.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 Bicycle_Boy (+17)
2 AupaPyama (+13)
3 DJ Sprtsch (+12)
3 PremierAndrew (+12)
5 Pantani1 (+11)

This is one that Squire isn't going to win, as there is nowhere to move up from top spot, and unsurprisingly Bicycle_Boy takes this as well as the Top Scorers title (their team is, however, in the upper echelons of the overall so a 17 place jump is pretty impressive in that context). AupaPyama repeats in second, and DJ Sprtsch & PremierAndrew tie for 3rd, each jumping a dozen places.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 Squire 208
2 Eric10 162
3 greenedge 157
4 LightBing 150
5 Kryvo 147

The rich got a bit richer in this competition, with Squire moving 30 points more clear in the lead, and greenedge picking up 12 points to move up to the podium. A little further down off the displayed chart, weekly winner Bicycle Boy moved into the top 10 after a 3rd scoring week in a row.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) Squire 9975
2 (-) ruvu75 9796
3 (-) TheArt 9543
4 (-) Eyeballs Out 9275
5 (-) Wallenquist 9103
6 (+3) Gigs_98 9003
7 (-) trackstand 8896
8 (-2) Total Package 8820
9 (-1) GP Blanco 8758
10 (+1) MADRAZO 8747

As mentioned earlier, Squire extends the lead, given that their team was the top point-scorer of the overall contenders. But, second and third placed ruvu75 and TheArt also were in the top 10 of the week, and so they consolidate their positions relative to the other overall leaders. Not a ton of movement in the top 10, although MADRAZO return, swapping places at the expense of Kryvo, who falls to #11.

Spreadsheet at dropbox
 
Okay, now that the Tour is out of the way (pretty much), I can focus on my team's recovery up the standings trying to catch all those folks who picked Thomas. I mean, I got some not-inconsequential GC points for Valverde, Latour, and Kangert, but it was a pretty dry month. This update may not be the prettiest for me. Time for some other races!

Wallonie

Enric Mas
Aliaksandr Riabushenko

This is more a classics/hardman kinda race than a climber's race, so I have my doubts about Mas. Riabushenko will theoretically be good on this, but he's a neo-pro and he hasn't raced since, like, February or something, so who knows about the form. Second half of the season is always a bit of a guessing game.

London Surrey

Ivan Garcia Cortina
Ramunas Navardauskas
Vincenzo Albanese
Andrea Guardini
Jurgen Roelandts
Mark Cavendish
Owain Doull
Kristoffer Halvorsen
Giacomo Nizzolo

Oh good! Time for some of the underachievers on my roster to make it up in the second half... what's that you say? Everyone on my roster save Valverde and three others have underachieved? Well okay, the summer and fall are gonna be big for me then. Right? That's how this works? At least most of these guys are pairs of teammates, so my chances of one of them being the team leader is a bit higher. Seriously though, how many slam dunk pick combos have worked out as poorly as Cav and Nizzolo so far (throw in some Chaves as well)?

Ricardo Otxoa 1.1 race - Matvey Mamykin still exists, apparently, but nothing else to report.

Post Danmark Rundt

Lennard Kamna
Bryan Coquard
Andrea Guardini
Sondre Holst Enger

This would be the type of race I'd expect Kamna to do well in, and he's on the start list, but didn't he pull an Adrien Costa not a month ago? Maybe he figured out his career real quick and if so, great. The other guys can all go for stages for sure, although I don't get what's up with Enger, he had a promising start in Feburary in Mallorca and has done nothing since.

San Sebastian

Pierre Latour
Miguel Angel Lopez
Matvey Mamykin
David Gaudu
Alejandro Valverde
Ruben Fernandez
Enric Mas
Lawson Craddock
Aliaksandr Riabushenko

The startlist for this a week out is always suspect with those coming from the Tour maybe deciding that those 3 weeks were tiring enough (like, uh, Craddock maybe you wanna get some rest?), but I just needs me some Valverde points. Anything else is a bonus.
 
Update #29: Pantani Does the Double - Tour GC shakes up standings, but things remain consolidated at the top

July has been a bit of a slow burn for the CQ game, as stage wins and yellow jersey points were about all that were on offer. But the last week of July always brings massive points, and with some fairly frequently picked riders taking top points (Geraint Thomas, on 24 teams, had 848 points this week alone), it was bound to have a big impact on this game. Let's see how the standings are shaken up.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 Pantani1 1806
2 PeterB 1746
3 Object 1680
4 Bicycle_Boy 1625
5 greenedge 1594

While Froome and Dumoulin had some of the most impressive Giro-Tour attempts in the last 20 years, the namesake of the last rider to achieve the double wins this GC week of the Tour. Of course, the anchor of any winning lineup this week was going to be Thomas, but Pantani1 also had help from Quintana and Alaphilippe (both over 200 points), and the underachieving-but-still-138-points-this-week showing from Warren Barguil. Throw in some other race points from Nizzolo and Kennaugh and you've got a winning formula. PeterB runs an impressive second with Thomas and a few rare picks - Kruijswijk (6 teams, 303 points) and Fuglsang (3 teams, 130 points). Object, with 1680 points, takes third.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 Pantani1 (+44)
2 zaka_fan (+38)
3 Carlo_Algatrensig (+35)
4 l'velo (+32)
5 Josedin (+30)

This should give an indication of how much things are shaken up by such huge points in a week - Pantani1 does the double here, and moves up 44 places in a single week, 2/3 of the way through the cycling season. Wow! The rest of the top 5 all moved up more than 30 spots as well, with zaka_fan emulating their namesake's last week of the Tour by jumping up the standings, and Carlo_Algatrensig rounding out the podium for the week.

This Month's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this Month
1 Bicycle_Boy 2714
2 Pantani1 2266
3 greenedge 2263
4 bort 2138
5 Squire 2114

Whew. This one's not even close. Bicycle_Boy has a huge month, beating everyone else by about 450 points. When your lineup is headlined by Thomas (1123 points) and Sagan (594) and Alaphilippe (396), that is a good start - those 3 alone would be in the top 5 of this month's teams. Add in some Ion Izagirre (165) and it's a first place team with those four, even without the smattering of points from other riders. This week's winner Pantani1 grabs second, while greenedge has a very impressive showing, just being edged out and ending up in third.

This Month's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 Pantani1 (+52)
2 Bicycle_Boy (+42)
3 zaka_fan (+41)
4 Carlo_Algatrensig (+34)
5 PremierAndrew (+30)
5 Josedin (+30)

A very similar look to this table, with the top 2 spots flipped - in fact, Bicycle_Boy being on top of the other chart is the only thing stopping Pantani1 from sweeping the month as well as the week. Betraying how big this GC week was, it's interesting that 5th place for the month (+30) is the same as 5th place for the week.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 Squire 220
2 greenedge 179
3 Eric10 162
4 Bicycle_Boy 160
5 LightBing 150

Some movement here; Bicycle_Boy finishes off a torrid July with 113 points over the last four weeks to move into the top 5 overall. greenedge scores 22 points this week to leap into 2nd in the competition, but doesn't do quite as much to close down Squire, who scores 12 more points this week.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) Squire 11501
2 (-) ruvu75 11321
3 (-) TheArt 11065
4 (+2) Gigs_98 10497
5 (+7) PeterB 10395
6 (+10) Bicycle_Boy 10139
7 (-3) Eyeballs Out 10055
8 (-1) trackstand 9936
9 (+12) bort 9929
10 (+12) greenedge 9916

Some real movement here, except at the very top. Which, let's talk about that - not only do the 3 podium holders stay put in their respective places, they remarkably finished 11th, 12th, and 13th on the week, with Squire gaining a mere 1 point on ruvu75 (1526-1525) and 4 on TheArt (1522). They are each separated by a few hundred points, and 4th-5th are over 600 down from there, so it's pretty stratified. But with the Tour over and the back end of the season starting, the question becomes, what has everyone got left? The stage is set for either some exciting flip-flopping or some stable status quo maintenance. We shall see. Some big shakeups in the top 10, as PeterB, Bicycle_Boy, bort and greenedge all power into the top 10, while Wallenquist, Total Package, MADRAZO and GP Blanco tumble out.

spreadsheet at dropbox
 
Okay, finally into profit with my team at 7508 now. But next update will be nice with my quite rare picks of Narvaez and Knox in the top 10 at Wallonie. Now I just hope the injury of Mas is not serious and he can score some points at the Vuelta and my team should cement its place in the middle of the pack :D
 
Thanks for the update! I'm really happy with how my team is doing at the moment.

This week is pretty meh, but luckily it doesn't look like the teams just behind me will make up a lot of ground. I'm annoyed that Eiking lost a lot of time in the beginning of the Tour de Wallonie. Otherwise he could've placed very high in the GC. Hopefully he makes up for it in the Arcitc Race.
 
Update #30: The Post-Tour Blues

This week, the big ticket in terms of points was the Clasica San Sebastian, which was won by a popular pick that many of the top teams have in Alaphilippe. As well, the points on offer paled in comparison to the TdF GC points from last week, so it was a bit quieter in terms of shaking up places, but still some movement in the table.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 Blues in the bottle 564
2 trackstand 498
3 Hakkie2 488
4 rote_laterne 470
5 ansimi 467

The week went decisively to last year's top 10 overall finisher Blues in the bottle. Although their team hasn't quite reached those heights this year, this week will surely help out. Of course any weekly high finisher was likely to have Alaphilippe's 220 points as a centrepiece, but Blues gets some good supporting points from smartly picked supplementary riders - Alvaro Hodeg (104 points this week, 20 teams), James Knox (85 points this week, 5 teams) and Jhonathan Narvaez (82 points, 12 teams) add enough support to take the week (sidenote: notice a theme with these 4 riders? Man, QuickStep is pretty much the best at developing riders). Top 10 overall mainstay trackstand gets bolstered with a second place this week, with points from Alaphilippe, the excellent pick Pascal Ackermann (90 more points, 6 teams) and Ion Izagirre (66 points, 12 teams). Hakkie2 slides into 3rd thanks to Ala, Ackermann and Narvaez.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 Blues in the bottle (+14)
2 Hakkie2 (+11)
3 rote_laterne (+9)
4 ansimi (+8)
4 AupaPyama (+8)

This list is very similar to the other, although trackstand was already high enough in the standings that they couldn't really move up that much farther. rote_laterne snags a podium spot here, with Ala, Narvaez, and unique pick Alex Aranburu continuing a fine second part of the season.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 Squire 220
2 greenedge 179
3 Eric10 162
4 Bicycle_Boy 160
5 LightBing 150

A quiet week here - no one in the top 5 with any points; Guybrush scores 16 points to move into the top 10 overall but other than that it's pretty quiet on the Green Jersey front. Now that popular picks with high returns (eg. Thomas, Alaphilippe) are gonna chill out for awhile, it will be interesting to see if some teams lower in the overall standings might start to creep up the Green Jersey comp.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) Squire 11830
2 (-) ruvu75 11626
3 (-) TheArt 11354
4 (-) Gigs_98 10888
5 (-) PeterB 10599
6 (-) Bicycle_Boy 10485
7 (+1) trackstand 10434
8 (-1) Eyeballs Out 10349
9 (+1) greenedge 10278
10 (-1) bort 10242

Such is the stratification in the top 10 that trackstand gaining a couple of hundred points on most of the rest of the top 10 only nets them one spot. At the top, although no places change, Squire's lead inches out a bit more, as their team outscores ruvu75 by 24 points and TheArt by 40. Fourth place Gigs gains 62 points on Squire but at 1000 points back, it'll require a bit more than that to take the title.

Spreadsheet at dropbox
 
Thanks for the update!

I need all the cushion I can get at the moment, as ruvu's Gasparotto is killing it in Poland and Kragh Andersen is gonna lead Sunweb in the BinckBanck Tour. While at the same time, my equivalent to Kragh Andersen, Pierre Latour, is out for the rest of the season.
 
Serry performing so well is great for me but the next weeks could be pretty bad for me as I don't see anyone making big points for my team for the next weeks. I fear I'll slip down the ranking but that said I'm still super happy so far. My goal of finishing in the top ten still looks good
 
Update #31: comodoro commands the week

A classic summer week this week, with Pologne, Utah, Burgos, the Euros, and a smattering of small races with fields of unpredictable competitiveness with riders on both the up and downswing of form. One team put it all together to command a four-digit point total this week.

This Week’s Top Scorers


Rank Team Points this week
1 comodoro 1045
2 archieboy 818
3 zlev11 811
4 Hakkie2 754
5 HelgeBlendet 743

What a week for comodoro! Between Burgos and Utah, their team garners both winners and both runners up, along with 5 stage wins from those riders. comodoro was one of 2 teams to pick Sepp Kuss this year, and although he only had 15 points this season coming into Utah, his weekly total of 267 is 6 points more than he got all of last year! comodoro was also one of 9 teams that picked Sosa (200 more points), the gift that keeps on giving in Burgos. Lopez was a popular pick with 176 points this week, but only 3 teams picked Hermans, who got 138. Throw in some points from Meintjes, Formolo, and a 1.1 win from Jan-Willem Van Schip, and you’ve got a formula for an 1000 point week! Also a great week for the other owner of Kuss, archieboy, who gets 818 points with the help of Lopez, unique pick de la Cruz, Oomen, Mathieu VdP and a few others. zlev11 slides into third with top help from Simon Yates, Lopez, Priedler, amongst others.

This Week’s High Movers


Rank Team Up/down
1 comodoro (+16)
1 zlev11 (+16)
3 HelgeBlendet (+13)
4 AlyKaptan (+11)
5 Akuryo (+9)
5 archieboy (+9)

Two of the top three from the last ranking share the top spot this week, each moving up 16 places. HelgeBlendet gets a mention on the backs of not only Lopez, but rare picks George Bennett (144 points, 9 teams) and Tao Geogheghan Hart (79 points, 3 teams).

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 Squire 220
2 archieboy 179
2 greenedge 179
4 Eric10 162
5 Bicycle_Boy 160

archieboy moves up the standings, getting 35 points on the week to vault into a tie for 2nd, although still 41 points shy of Squire. No other points scored in the top 10 overall.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) Squire 12316
2 (-) ruvu75 12144
3 (-) TheArt 11893
4 (-) Gigs_98 11300
5 (-) PeterB 10958
6 (+1) trackstand 10940
7 (-1) Bicycle_Boy 10847
8 (+1) greenedge 10754
9 (+3) LosBrolin 10718
10 (-2) Eyeballs Out 10649

No movement in the top 5, but the weekly totals tell of a slight tightening – leader Squire scores 486 on the week, second place ruvu75 scores 518, and third place TheArt scores 539. The gap between 2nd and 3rd is big enough that TheArt will need to make more of a difference, but Squire’s current lead (172 points) is healthy but not out of reach. Still one GT, the worlds, and plenty of small races to go. This week, LosBrolin conveys a weekly top 15 finish into a leap into the top 10, while bort falls out.

Spreadsheet at dropbox
 
Thanks for the update!
First week moving up again after the Giro (I think). Only bummer for me this week was thinking I picked Dombrowski and he finally did something, only to realise I didn't pick him. Looking at his results so far, I'm still kinda ok with my decision not to pick him though.

Bennett being in form and co-leading the Vuelta sounds nice for the next few weeks aswell. I probably won't do a Giro at the Vuelta, but the startlist is shaping up nicely again.
 
Update #32: The top tightens as the Vuelta approaches

This week, there was a typical late-summer slew of races, from the WT-level (Benelux tour, Hamburg race) to HC (Colorado, Arctic Race) on down (Limousin, Hungary, Avenir). Success from a number of places is necessary for winning the week, and in the bigger picture, sustained success on weeks like this is crucial to stay at the top, which as we'll see was shaken up a little this week.

This Week's Top Scorers


Rank Team Points this week
1 kabete 633
2 ChrisDK 570
3 archieboy 558
4 Roubaix 543
5 Koronin 513

kabete makes an impressive showing to take the week, pulling in some big points from Benelux (Stybar, Schachmann both over 100 this week), Colorado (Carthy, Dombrowski get almost 200 between them), Hamburg (Nizzolo is starting to look like his old self with high placings) and a few scraps here and there (Gesbert takes 30 in Limousin). ChrisDK grabs second place with some similar riders (Carthy/Dombro/Nizzolo) and some different ones (SK Andersen, Campenaerts, Sagan, Ewan). archieboy slots into third with a big week from unique pick(!) Matej Mohoric and rare pick (5 teams) Mathieu van der Poel.

This Week's High Movers


Rank Team Up/down
1 Roubaix (+11)
1 scrooll07 (+11)
3 Koronin (+9)
4 PremierAndrew (+8)
5 Mellow Velo (+7)
5 ChrisDK (+7)

A different look on this crew than the last listings, which is not a common sight (although the 1-2-3 here was 4-5-6 on the last rankings). There's a tie at the top - Roubaix and scrooll07 both move up double digits, and Koronin gets a mention on the last step of the podium, moving up 9 spots.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 Squire 220
2 archieboy 209
3 greenedge 179
4 ChrisDK 173
5 Eric10 162

Things got closer at the top here - Squire holds onto the lead, but archieboy scores 30 points on the week to jump out of a tie for second and comes within 11 points of the lead. ChrisDK's 35 points on the week move their team into the top 5, while there is no other scoring or movement in the top 10.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (+1) ruvu75 12496
2 (-1) Squire 12442
3 (-) TheArt 12239
4 (-) Gigs_98 11673
5 (+1) trackstand 11321
6 (-1) PeterB 11193
7 (+2) LosBrolin 11022
8 (-) greenedge 11019
9 (-2) Bicycle_Boy 11010
10 (+2) Manafana 11005

After a good solid while of the top 3 positions remaining static, we have a change at the top! Squire, the leader of the game for many weeks now, has an off week, scoring 126 points while ruvu75 and TheArt score 352 and 346 respectively. Those 3 are still head and shoulders above the rest in the overall, but the distance between first and second is now just 54 points. Any given week could shake things up, and there's still a fair bit of racing to do. This week isn't so crazy, with some 1.1 and 2.1 races on the calendar (including the revamped Deutschland Tour!), but looming in the distance (and starting this weekend) is the Vuelta. Manafana moves into the top 10 while Eyeballs Out drops down to 11th.

spreadsheet at dropbox
 
Thanks for the update. Nice to see my name on the report as that way I know I had a good week instead of looking to see how bad the week was.
Nice to see Stybar finally get into positive points and as great as it's been to have Terpstra on my team this year, he's going to be too expensive to consider for next year.

Besides la Vuelta there is a race in Germany which I know I've got at least a couple of riders going to.
 
Re:

HelgeBlendet said:
Thanks for the update!
First week moving up again after the Giro (I think). Only bummer for me this week was thinking I picked Dombrowski and he finally did something, only to realise I didn't pick him. Looking at his results so far, I'm still kinda ok with my decision not to pick him though.

Bennett being in form and co-leading the Vuelta sounds nice for the next few weeks aswell. I probably won't do a Giro at the Vuelta, but the startlist is shaping up nicely again.

Join the club did the same
 
So Vuelta is here and this seems to be my team:

KRUIJSWIJK Steven
LÓPEZ Miguel Ángel
BRAMBILLA Gianluca
FORMOLO Davide
VAN POPPEL Danny
NIZZOLO Giacomo
WALLAYS Jelle

Most of these riders are on everyones' teams so my only difference-maker would be Kruijswijk...
 
Vuelta for me:

Padun, Mark
Boswell, Ian
Restrepo, Jhonatan
Geoghen Hart, Tao
Van Poppel, Danny
Lambrecht, Bjorg
Nizzolo, Giacomo
Brambilla, Gianluca
Formolo, Davide
Carapaz, Richard
Bennett, George
Lopez, Miguel Angel

I'm looking forward to it, but it could also end in everyone underperforming or working for someone else.
 

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