The 2019 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Koronin]

Re:

I read an interview with Beñat Intxausti today. He will make his season debut in Murcia. He feels good and has been able to train properly for many months now and hopes to regain his former level.

If he really does that he could score a bunch of points in the many small Spanish stage races.

For his own sake, I really hope he is healthy and able to race again.

 

[skidmark]

Well, Coquard got some points for his stage win and Bouhanni got a few too; Felline got 30 for the GC. But beyond the smattering of points, it's definitely good for a sprinter to win early in the season, so victories from Coquard, McLay, Halvorsen, Gaviria and Kittel are good news for my team. Felline also didn't do anything in Mallorca so it's good to see him get some placing points in Besseges, even if it's really just a matter of hanging with the pack on easy stages and doing a decent TT - a decent TT is a good indicator of basic shape, so that's encouraging enough as he'll have plenty of races suited to him this year.

More worrying is a DNF in Valencia from Nizzolo and a completely lacklustre Besseges from Navardauskas. I know Nizzolo wasn't the primary guy in Valencia for DD, but finishing minutes behind the pack isn't good. And Navardauskas - well, I picked him because I figure he has the engine such that his base level will do well enough in these French .1 races, but finishing 12 minutes down in a stage and having a poor TT isn't a good start.

All in all, it doesn't look like too much of a big week for anyone, so I'm sure the update will be somewhat muted.

 

[LaFlorecita]

While I agree with you skidmark that a good TT generally points to decent shape, I have to say I had hoped for a little better from Felline. That TT should have suited him perfectly and even when he was struggling during the last 1.5 years he delivered decent TT performances. So we'll have to wait and see. Looks like his next race is Laigueglia, which he won 2 years ago.

 

[LaFlorecita]

This week's riders in action, looks better than I thought but not many points expected:

Vuelta a Colombia
Fernando Gaviria
Imerio Cima

Tour de la Provence
David Gaudu
Rudy Barbier
Warren Barguil
Max Walscheid
Matteo Moschetti
Loic Vliegen

Vuelta a Murcia
Robert Stannard
Harry Tanfield

Tour of Oman
Clement Venturini
Nacer Bouhanni
Matteo Fabbro

Trofeo Laigueglia
Fabio Felline
Vincenzo Albanese

Clasica de Almeria
Edoardo Affini
Harry Tanfield
Marcel Kittel

 

[ThePirate81]

Colombia
Froome
Vakoc
Pelucchi
Jaramillo

Tour de la Provence
Barbier
Navardauskas
Stallaert

Vuelta Murcia
Valls
Trentin
Boom
Spilak
Intxausti

Tour of Oman
Atapuma
Bouhanni
Lietaer
Planckaert

Clasica de Almeria
Trentin
Kittel
Spilak
Valls
Boom
Van Staeyen
Intxausti

Trofeo Laigueglia
Cosnefroy
Felline
Cattaneo
Hardy

 

[Salvarani]

Next week is pretty busy on paper, but dont know how many points it will really be...

Colombia
GAVIRIA Fernando
MUÑOZ Cristian Camilo
VAKOČ Petr
ALMEIDA João
RIVERA Kevin
OSORIO Alejandro

Tour de la Provence
GAUDU David
TOUZE Damien
BARBIER Rudy

Murcia
TRENTIN Matteo
VLASOV Aleksandr

Oman
GIBBONS Ryan
O'CONNOR Ben

Trofeo Laigueglia
FRANKINY Kilian

Clasica de Almeria
TRENTIN Matteo
MARECZKO Jakub
KITTEL Marcel
VLASOV Aleksandr

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Next week is pretty busy on paper, but dont know how many points it will really be...


Clasica de Almeria
TRENTIN Matteo
MARECZKO Jakub
KITTEL Marcel
VLASOV Aleksandr

Looks like you could have 3 in the top-10 in Almeria. That's a start at least!

 

[Squire]

More worrying is a DNF in Valencia from Nizzolo

I'm not saying I'm not worried, I was hoping for him to have more of a flying start. But, he did do some serious work on the front of the peloton for both of the hilly days before he abandoned (which seems to have been somewhat planned). He seems to be in pretty high spirits himself.

I'll start pushing the panic button if he's not competitive around the time of MSR.

 

[tobydawq]

More worrying is a DNF in Valencia from Nizzolo

I'm not saying I'm not worried, I was hoping for him to have more of a flying start. But, he did do some serious work on the front of the peloton for both of the hilly days before he abandoned (which seems to have been somewhat planned). He seems to be in pretty high spirits himself.

I'll start pushing the panic button if he's not competitive around the time of MSR.

I'm sure he'll do a nice lead-out for Ryan Gibbons there

 

[Salvarani]

Re: Re:

Next week is pretty busy on paper, but dont know how many points it will really be...


Clasica de Almeria
TRENTIN Matteo
MARECZKO Jakub
KITTEL Marcel
VLASOV Aleksandr

Looks like you could have 3 in the top-10 in Almeria. That's a start at least!

One could dream

 

[armchairclimber]

Does anyone read these? I mean, I do ... usually with a sigh.

Colombia: Hodge, Vakoc, Gaviria.
Provence: Gaudu, Castrillo, Dunbar.
Murcia: Tanfield, Morin, Journiaux.
Oman: My team are boycotting Oman because it's an anagram of Moan and they are a cheery bunch.
Trofeo: Vincent, Ciccone, Guernalec.
Almeria: Scotson, Affini, Morin, Mareczko, Kittel, Tanfield, Journiaux, Timmermans.

It seriously couldn't be much worse than last week.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Does anyone read these? I mean, I do ... usually with a sigh.

Colombia: Hodge, Vakoc, Gaviria.
Provence: Gaudu, Castrillo, Dunbar.
Murcia: Tanfield, Morin, Journiaux.
Oman: My team are boycotting Oman because it's an anagram of Moan and they are a cheery bunch.
Trofeo: Vincent, Ciccone, Guernalec.
Almeria: Scotson, Affini, Morin, Mareczko, Kittel, Tanfield, Journiaux, Timmermans.

It seriously couldn't be much worse than last week.

They are probably not the most informative of posts but useful to the posters themselves so they know where they can find an overview of their riders.

Colombia 2.1
Petr Vakoc

Tour de Provence
Sébastien Reichenbach
Matteo Moschetti
Apparently no Jan Bakelants even if I saw him on the start list earlier today
Probably no Mathieu van der Poel even if he is on PCS' start list. But he wants to win all Superprestige cross races of the season and the last one is Saturday.

Vuelta a Murcia
Matteo Trentin
Lars Boom
Simon Spilak
Beñat Intxausti

Tour of Oman
Ryan Gibbons
Darwin Atapuma
Bart De Clercq

Trofeo Laigueglia
Benoît Cosnefroy
Fabio Felline

Clásica de Almería
Matteo Trentin
Marcel Kittel
Óscar Rodríguez
Lars Boom

I think it could be a good week. Colombia is a throw-away but elsewhere, I have good options. Especially in Almería, where I would be disappointed if I don't have the winner in either Kittel or Trentin. Felline could also win Laigueglia again or at least place decently. Spilak should place in Murcia and Gibbons has a lot of opportunities on the lumpy stages in Oman where Atapuma could get a good GC result in a pretty lacklustre climbing field.

 

[Koronin]

Columbia

Cristian Camilo Munoz

Provence:

Jaime Castrillo
Ben Swift
Nicolas Roche

Murcia:

Alejandro Valverde
Jurgen Roelandts
Rafael Valls
Simon Geschke
Aaron Van Poucke
Xavier Canellas
ROMAIN Sicard

Oman:

Andrea Garosio
Bryan Coquard

Trofeo Laigueglia:

Larry Warbasse


Clasica de Almeria:

Marco Mathis
Simon Geschke
Rafael Valls
Jurgen Roelandts
AAron VanPoucke
Romain Secard
Xavier Canellas



I except a podium if not the overall win in Murcia and Coquard should get some decent points at Oman. Hopefully for some decent points from someone else in at least one of these races. (At least my team actually has someone in each of the races.)

 

[Tonton]

I took a beating last week, going from 55th to 100th. Yikes.

La Provence, I'm the only one with Tibopino, I shall raise from my self-inflicted ashes...muhahahahaaaa...

PS: as a first timer, not knowing the rules, I set myself up for a butt-kicking. Thibaut Pinot will make or break my season and that's the way (ah-ah-ha) I like it. And Il Squalo. He's the Phil Collins of cycling: always underrated, and way good (Netserk will like that ). And always on the radio. Vai Vincenzo!

 

[SafeBet]

So my season has been absolutely dreadful thus far and I already regret not going the safe way picking all those high floor riders like Trentin, Porte, Gaviria and Bouhanni (!). Looking at the bright side: my top 4 riders have a total of 2 racing days, so things should improve over the next couple of months, but I'm not very confident.

Colombia
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo Andres
VAKOC Petr
RIVERA SERRANO Kevin

Expecting no less than an overall win from Bernal and possibly a top10 from Torres or Rivera (although the TTT could kill em both). I'll be severely disappointed if my season doesn't take off with this race.

Provence
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
VAN ASBROECK Tom
TOUZE Damien
SWIFT Ben
KÄMNA Lennard

Doesn't look like a very friendly race for any of my riders (IF they actually ride it, I have doubts PCS is right on this).

Oman
MCNULTY Brandon
O'CONNOR Ben
ATAPUMA HURTADO Jhon Darwin
PLANCKAERT Baptiste

Last year McNulty showed some flashes of greatness in the Middle-East, hoping for more in 2019. O'Connor was ok in TDU and looks like a guy with a slow build up to the season, I'd fancy a top10. Atapuma makes his season debut after almost 7 months without racing, can't ask much.

Almeria
KITTEL Marcel
BOOM Lars

As for Colombia 2.1, anything less than a win would be a letdown here.

Laigueglia
FELLINE Fabio

He won this race in 2017 and the field isn't particularly good. A top result is achievable on paper, but I'm not sure the race will be easy to control.

Murcia
BOOM Lars

No expectations.

 

[del1962]

Colombia

Egan Bernal
Nairo Quintana
Alex Howes
Pert Vakoc
Cristain Camilo Munoz
Karel Vacek

Hoping for top 2 plus sprint points for stages, other points would be a bonus

Provence

David Gaudu
Ben Swift
Lennard Kamna

Hoping Gaudu places high and some points for the other two

Murcia

Rafael Valls
Lars Boom

Anything would be a bonus

Oman

Evan Huffman
Bart De Clerq

Hope De Clerq finishes and Huffman to 50

Laigueglia

Aurelien Paret-Peintre
Fabio Felline

Hope Felline is in the mix

Almeria

Callum Scotson
Marcel Kittel
Rafael Valls
Lars Boom

Kittel should get points but most have him

 

[skidmark]

Update #5: MADRAZO Back on Top After Quiet Week

With only two 2.1 races on schedule this week, and very few riders in the top 10 of each affecting this game (for example, nobody had winners Izaguirre and Laporte), it was a somewhat muted week. Let's see who had the best combo of riders!

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 Nicosix 233
2 Carlo_Algatrensig 190
3 MADRAZO 178
4 Kazistuta 171
5 PeterB 155

Nicosix is the only team topping 200 this week, largely coming from being one of 6 teams with Adam Yates (54 points) and one of 9 teams with Edvald Boasson Hagen (68 points), and smaller contributions from Trentin, Meintjes, and Reinhardt JVRensberg. Carlo Algatrensig sits in second on the back of Yates, Felline, Meintjes, Gibbons, and Eliot Lietaer. MADRAZO, who has already featured in a few updates this season, gets third this week.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 Nicosix (+29)
2 Kazistuta (+19)
3 Koronin (+18)
3 PeterB (+18)
5 Carlo_Algatrensig (+16)

Nicosix takes this one as well, moving up almost 30 spots on a 233 point week, reminding us that it's still February and everyone is still close in the standings. Kazistuta moves up almost 20 spots after just missing the podium on the other ranking (on the backs of some of the common picks this week like Yates, Felline, Trentin, Meintjes); Koronin (using some points from unique pick Valverde) and PeterB tie for the last podium spot here.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 just_some_guy 95
2 MADRAZO 73
2 Googolplex 73
4 TheArt 68
5 Nicosix 55

Lots of action on this table once again; last week I noted that jsg had an impressive lead after scoring in 3 of the first 4 weeks, but this week MADRAZO (30 points), Googolplex (17 points) and TheArt (20 points) all score for the third of five weeks to pull close to the top, whereas Nicosix gets 45 for the win on top of 10 prior points. The start of the season has been really lively in this competition - normally a few different teams win weeks and tie near the top with 45 points, but lots of jumping around so far has made this ranking pretty hectic.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (+2) MADRAZO 1057
2 (-1) just_some_guy 1018
3 (+3) TheArt 980
4 (-) Blues in the bottle 949
5 (+2) PremierAndrew 948
6 (+2) Squire 941
7 (-5) yoyokt 921
8 (-3) Amis_Velo 903
9 (-) Londonpat 895
10 (+3) Googolplex 872

After reclaiming the top spot last week and becoming the first team over 1000 points, just some guy gets a big fat zero points on the week, allowing MADRAZO's strong week to vault their team back on top. With the small point totals on the week, not a ton of dramatic leaps, but Googolplex comes into the top 10 at the expense of Otoxiep87.

This week - whew! Things really kick off. Tour of Colombia, Provence and Murcia (all 2.1) roll out over the next 3 days, followed by Oman (HC) starting Saturday, and the two 1.HC races Almeria and Laigueglia on Sunday. We shall see where the dust settles.

Spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[skidmark]

More worrying is a DNF in Valencia from Nizzolo

I'm not saying I'm not worried, I was hoping for him to have more of a flying start. But, he did do some serious work on the front of the peloton for both of the hilly days before he abandoned (which seems to have been somewhat planned). He seems to be in pretty high spirits himself.

I'll start pushing the panic button if he's not competitive around the time of MSR.

It's true, I didn't have time to go into any deeper sources before writing that reflection, but his twitter and teammates seem to be all 'whatever' about it. I also didn't really watch and see how much work he was doing. So you're right, he's a guy that can excel in virtually any race, and so the first race of the year working for his teammate isn't make or break. Just overreacting to small sample size as one is wont to do at this time of year.

 

[jon ezeitza]

I've taken a round donut like Saturn's rings, wow! But next week I will take revenge in Colombia with Bernal, Sosa, Narvaez, Hodeg and Vacek. Points will fall to my pout as in the Universal Flood .

 

[skidmark]

Alright, what's in store for team skids on this busy week?

Colombia

Petr Vakoc
Fernando Gaviria

Well presumably Vakoc already has his first 2 points for the season for 2nd in the TTT (though CQ still hasn't put it up yet), and I'm hoping Gav can take a stage or two.

Provence

Ben Swift
Lennard Kamna
Rudy Barbier
Tom Van Asbroeck
Mathieu van der Poel
Ramunas Navardauskas

The big question is how tough the climbs are and how hard they'll be raced. They last climbs are all like 3km stingers, but far enough from the end to open up some possibilities. If I squint I can see VDP winning every stage and the overall, and it's likely at least one of the stages could be a reduced sprint where Swift has a chance, but I'm not too sure what to expect from this one.

Murcia

uhhh.... Lars Boom?

Dammit. Go Valverde, I guess.

Oman

Giacomo Nizzolo
Ben O'Connor
Darwin Atapuma
Nacer Bouhanni
Bryan Coquard
Baptiste Planckaert

Well... I'd love if O'Connor could top 10, and it's Atapuma's first race of the year so who knows but he could be decent... Bouhanni and Coquard should feature, and fingers crossed that Nizzolo starts to mix it up too. Dunno what WB is doing putting Planckaert in 2. races, I picked him because I thought he'd do like 50 1-day races and score a handful of points in all of them. This better be it, Wallonie Brussels, I mean it!

Laigueglia

Benoit Cosnefroy
Fabio Felline

Hells yeah, I'm hopeful for something from these two.

Almeria

Marcel Kittel
Lars Boom

Well, the main climb is like 100km from the end, so I'm hopeful Katusha has the firepower to bring it back, which it seems like they're stocked for such a task. We shall see.

 

[tobydawq]

Van der Poel is a confirmed non-starter for Provence.

The cross season is not done yet.

 

[Falze]

2 weeks in a row sitting in 11th, just out of the limelight and all the mentions.

Flying under the radar.

Nothing special yet, just totting up small points here and there.

 

[del1962]

Well presumably Vakoc already has his first 2 points for the season for 2nd in the TTT (though CQ still hasn't put it up yet), and I'm hoping Gav can take a stage or two.

Vakoc was a delayed finisher so no points

Unless CQ have changed the way they give out TTT points

 

[jon ezeitza]

Bravo, Hodeg! It has rewarded me the confidence in young cyclists

 

[armchairclimber]

Yep, Hodge gets his win and I better last week's total with one race. Shame Gaviria went awol.