The 2019 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Vitapen]

My TDU is

O'CONNOR Ben
PÖSTLBERGER Lukas

Looks massive.

 

[skidmark]

While we're still without a CQ update and with a bit of time before the TdU, I was just curious to get people's thoughts on a particular rider, namely

EVENEPOEL Remco

Obviously he's zero points and he's extremely popular, but because of his zero point status I haven't gotten a sense of what people think he's capable of this year, CQ-wise. I've actually seen a number of team breakdowns on the thread that sort of say 'don't expect much this year' even though he's on the team, but I'm curious what numbers people might imagine? Like, zero pointers are great because they don't increase the cost of your team, but also I think it's much better to take two 50-pointers that are going to each get 250 points than it is to take a 100-pointer that's going to get 300 and a zero pointer that might get <100, you know? So there is a calculus to picking them, and clearly this kid clears that bar for lots of people, but I'm curious by how much.

For me, I think realistically I expect him to clear 200-300, and if he proves to be real good maybe 500-600. There aren't many examples of teenagers doing so well, but QST is as always very smart about the races they're sending him to, and I'm mindful of Adrien Costa's Utah performance a couple of years ago as a realistic benchmark. Costa got a little less than 400 that year I think, but Evenepoel is racing a bunch of races that have more points than the ones Costa was doing. So that's what's informing my thoughts. What do you guys think? Less? More?

 

[DFA123]

While we're still without a CQ update and with a bit of time before the TdU, I was just curious to get people's thoughts on a particular rider, namely

EVENEPOEL Remco

Obviously he's zero points and he's extremely popular, but because of his zero point status I haven't gotten a sense of what people think he's capable of this year, CQ-wise. I've actually seen a number of team breakdowns on the thread that sort of say 'don't expect much this year' even though he's on the team, but I'm curious what numbers people might imagine? Like, zero pointers are great because they don't increase the cost of your team, but also I think it's much better to take two 50-pointers that are going to each get 250 points than it is to take a 100-pointer that's going to get 300 and a zero pointer that might get <100, you know? So there is a calculus to picking them, and clearly this kid clears that bar for lots of people, but I'm curious by how much.

For me, I think realistically I expect him to clear 200-300, and if he proves to be real good maybe 500-600. There aren't many examples of teenagers doing so well, but QST is as always very smart about the races they're sending him to, and I'm mindful of Adrien Costa's Utah performance a couple of years ago as a realistic benchmark. Costa got a little less than 400 that year I think, but Evenepoel is racing a bunch of races that have more points than the ones Costa was doing. So that's what's informing my thoughts. What do you guys think? Less? More?

I think he'll struggle to get more than about 300, but also shouldn't get much less than that as long as he adapts OK to riding in a much faster peloton than he is used to. The stage races he's doing are mostly quite big ones - Catalunya, Algarve, Turkey - where there is going to be pretty strong competition. So he's probably not going to win stages or place really high, but he can still pick up a steady stream of points just by being solid - especially as he probably will have a free role at QST.

I think more interesting from a CQ perspective would have been if he had done loads of the 'minor' Belgian one day races or more minor stage races (like Utah) instead. Then he could have been on for 800+ if he adapted well; or less than 100 if he struggled a bit.

 

[Jakob747]

Never pass the chance to cheer for an odd 25 points on your CQ roster.

In other words, Vuelta al Táchira starts today! 8 stages - 1108 kilometers though Táchira and Mérida with plenty of mountains to boot.

Ivan Sosa and Kevin Rivera both won stages here last year, Sosa eventually turned into the terminator of 018 while Rivera fell into total obscurity.

Rivera (30 teams) is back this year eager to redeem his lackluster 2018 while laying a solid ground-based of kilometers for his europian campaign late on - flanked by Daniel Muñoz (11 teams) and Miguel Florez (4 teams) Androni has a fearsome trio ready to duke it out against the locals.

 

[LaFlorecita]

My TDU lineup

Lucas Hamilton
Alberto Bettiol
Maximilian Walscheid
Kristoffer Halvorsen
Luke Rowe

Not too great

 

[Squire]

While we're still without a CQ update and with a bit of time before the TdU, I was just curious to get people's thoughts on a particular rider, namely

EVENEPOEL Remco

If Evenepoel is a success, I would've looked stupid had I missed out. That was basically my main point of argument.

Costa is the benchmark. Expecting anything from 0-400, with the most realistic outcome closer to zero than 400. Even if he struggles (which he might well do, it's so important being able to ride in a peloton) there are enough points to be had from Hammer series or random top 20 placings in some easy stage races. And hey, unless you're Fabio Sabatini you will score 100+ if you ride for Quickstep.

My line-up for TDU

HAMILTON Lucas
EWAN Caleb
GIBBONS Ryan
O'CONNOR Ben
BAUHAUS Phil
MCLAY Daniel
BETTIOL Alberto
KANTER Max
FRANKINY Kilian
KNOX James
MARECZKO Jakub

Yeah, Im gonna be pretty disappointed if this dont generate some points for me...

And still, my one rider will probably score double the amount of points your entire team gets during the race.

 

[drebelo]

My team for TDU
PORTE Richie
MORTON Lachlan
HONORE Mikkel Frølich
BETTIOL Alberto
I hope my boy richie starts the year with his homework done.
I wanted to had included Caleb Ewan in my team in order to start 2019 game with a bang but i though that there were less expensive sprinter picks with a higher celling than Ewan. Gaviria for 602 points if is able not to crash as much as last season and trentin that from sprinting point of view may be less capable than Ewan but is versatility for the cobbled classics and other races may give him some chance to score big points in places that Ewan will not even be. Both Gaviria and Trentin were last season away big time due to injury and although I also think that Ewan can really improve this season just by going to one GT I dont think he has a higher return than the other two.

 

[Salvarani]

While we're still without a CQ update and with a bit of time before the TdU, I was just curious to get people's thoughts on a particular rider, namely

EVENEPOEL Remco

If Evenepoel is a success, I would've looked stupid had I missed out. That was basically my main point of argument.

Costa is the benchmark. Expecting anything from 0-400, with the most realistic outcome closer to zero than 400. Even if he struggles (which he might well do, it's so important being able to ride in a peloton) there are enough points to be had from Hammer series or random top 20 placings in some easy stage races. And hey, unless you're Fabio Sabatini you will score 100+ if you ride for Quickstep.

My line-up for TDU

HAMILTON Lucas
EWAN Caleb
GIBBONS Ryan
O'CONNOR Ben
BAUHAUS Phil
MCLAY Daniel
BETTIOL Alberto
KANTER Max
FRANKINY Kilian
KNOX James
MARECZKO Jakub

Yeah, Im gonna be pretty disappointed if this dont generate some points for me...

And still, my one rider will probably score double the amount of points your entire team gets during the race.

Very humble of you

 

[del1962]

TDU Riders

Richie
Luke R
Dan MClay
Bettiol
Valls


We will see how they do

 

[Squire]

And still, my one rider will probably score double the amount of points your entire team gets during the race.

Very humble of you

It was an attempt at some friendly banter, hence the ' '.

I'm actually pretty screwed if Porte doesn't deliver.

 

[Salvarani]

And still, my one rider will probably score double the amount of points your entire team gets during the race.

Very humble of you

It was an attempt at some friendly banter, hence the ' '.

I'm actually pretty screwed if Porte doesn't deliver.

Dont worry. I figured. And maybe you jinxed it now


But Porte should place pretty high on GC and even win it.

I think O´Conner will do pretty good also from my team. I have some hopes Frankiny on my team also (unique pick). Maybe he can do something. Good climber. I will pick up most of my points from the sprints I think though in TDU.

 

[MADRAZO]

My TDU team:

Porte
Poels
Bettiol
Durbridge

Going for quality over quantity with my leadduo, and also a rather important start also for my team with Poels a surpricingly rare pick, that could well get a very good start here. And for Porte it will ofcourse also be a important race if he is to have a strong season.

 

[Koronin]

My TDU team:

Victor De La Parte
Thomasz Marczynski
Rafa Valls
Jaime Castrillo
Kiel Reijnen
Rory Sutherland

 

[laarsland]

All of you should have a gander at this post to see if First Cycling's manager game is something for you. I know of several participants here also submitting teams for every one of the races we have manager for

 

[the asian]

I don't expect much from Evenepoel despite picking him.
I believe he'll struggle to score over 100 points.
Might even turn out to be bad as Albanese.
Picked him for the same reason as squire's
Didn't want to look stupid if he scores big.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

I don't expect much from Evenepoel despite picking him.
I believe he'll struggle to score over 100 points.
Might even turn out to be bad as Albanese.
Picked him for the same reason as squire's
Didn't want to look stupid if he scores big.

Don't forget as he's a 0 pointer it didn't cost any points to take him either, so any points he scores is profit.

 

[PeterB]

Re: Re:

I don't expect much from Evenepoel despite picking him.
I believe he'll struggle to score over 100 points.
Might even turn out to be bad as Albanese.
Picked him for the same reason as squire's
Didn't want to look stupid if he scores big.

Don't forget as he's a 0 pointer it didn't cost any points to take him either, so any points he scores is profit.

But that is not the whole story, is that. He does cost you 1 spot on your team out of 33. I expect Vacek to maybe score 100 points too but did not take him because that was not enough profit potential for me to allow him occupy that spot.

On Evenepoel, it is possible he scores more than 100 although I do not necessarily expect it. But included him for the fun factor and as a pre-caution should he surprise us all. Like Sagan who scored 928 points in his first pro season when he was just 1 year older than Remco will be. By the way, did anyone notice anything striking about their birth dates?

 

[Kazistuta]

Even though I'm sure Evenepoel will turn out great one day, I decided this year I'd rather look wise for not picking him and risk looking stupid for not picking him :razz:

 

[Eyeballs Out]

With Evenepoel, I had no idea really how to assess what some of his junior performances would merit at the top level - it seems to be such a huge step up in class. Or to put it another way I would guess that most low-level pros would be unstoppable if there were riding in junior races. So for this year I'm happy to watch what happens without having him on my team. My guess is that he probably will be on my team in a few years time

Similar for Vakoc, the other popular zero-pointer at QST. That was a really bad accident. At this point I just hope he still has a career racing and a good start would be to get at least half a season of just finishing races - maybe I'll pick him next season

 

[armchairclimber]

Looks like Vakoc is listed for San Juan, so hopefully he's ok. My team for TDU
Philipsen
Pogacar
Ballerini
Castrillo
Vincent
Mareczko
Kanter

Which, numerically at least, is the most promising team I've had in Aus. Mind, Dlamini gave me a surprise handful of points last year.

 

[Jancouver]

Hopefully, Ewan, Bauhaus, McLay, and Mareczko can score some points at the TdU because I don't want to be out of the Top100 again from the very beginning

 

[rote_laterne]

I don't expect Evenepoel to score more than 150 points. I think the will rather be in the 35-80 score range (actually I believe Vacek could score more with races in the US) but he could turn out a great pick. And I don't think too much about rider combinations as skidmark does - that's might be why he's doing better than me in these games. If I have 3 spots and 0 points left I pick 3 zero pointers and Evenepoel was my first choice.

I've never been this successful this early in the season. Durbridges NC performances were a nice surprise, O'Connor scored too. And I never got a bigger team for TDU:

BETTIOL Alberto
DURBRIDGE Luke
HALVORSEN Kristoffer
HONORE Mikkel Frølich
MARECZKO Jakub
O'CONNOR Ben
ROWE Luke

I thought I had Kanter in the main game too ...

 

[bminchow]

Re:

All of you should have a gander at this post to see if First Cycling's manager game is something for you. I know of several participants here also submitting teams for every one of the races we have manager for

Danca Lars

 

[bminchow]

My Line Up for TDU. I usually stack my roster with TDU participants, just to see my name up high before I come crashing down. I say usually though this is only my third year. But in the end I left off Ewan, which i think I might regret. That guy is fast. Just hoping Bauhaus and Halvorson do something in sprints and hope for high overall from Porte and O'Connor. I really like Valgren this week for some reason, even with O'Connor and Slager on the roster. This is the only race Slager does anything though. Bold guys lost time due to injury last year. I really went off that when choosing my roster. It's a strategy to try. Go young guys too!

BAUHAUS Phil
BETTIOL Alberto
DAVIES Scott
HALLER Marco
HALVORSEN Kristoffer
HINDLEY Jai
O'CONNOR Ben
PORTE Richie

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

I don't expect much from Evenepoel despite picking him.
I believe he'll struggle to score over 100 points.
Might even turn out to be bad as Albanese.
Picked him for the same reason as squire's
Didn't want to look stupid if he scores big.

Don't forget as he's a 0 pointer it didn't cost any points to take him either, so any points he scores is profit.

But that is not the whole story, is that. He does cost you 1 spot on your team out of 33. I expect Vacek to maybe score 100 points too but did not take him because that was not enough profit potential for me to allow him occupy that spot.

On Evenepoel, it is possible he scores more than 100 although I do not necessarily expect it. But included him for the fun factor and as a pre-caution should he surprise us all. Like Sagan who scored 928 points in his first pro season when he was just 1 year older than Remco will be. By the way, did anyone notice anything striking about their birth dates?

True, but when you pick a rider who takes up about a third of your point total you need some really cheap riders and being 0 points helps that way. I also have some hope that he can do well with the team he's with as well.