The 2019 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[repre]

Second year in the game, hope i made some conclusions from the year 1. Fun picks in Padun and Van Aert, but with great potential too.

NIBALI Vincenzo
VAKOC Petr
EVENEPOEL Remco
ENGER Sondre Holst
CAVENDISH Mark
GAUDU David
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban
RIVERA SERRANO Kevin
BANASZEK Alan
PADUN Mark
HALVORSEN Kristoffer
SWIFT Ben
ROWE Luke
CONTRERAS PINZON Rodrigo
KITTEL Marcel
DE PLUS Laurens
BOOM Lars
MARTIN Tony
VAN AERT Wout
BAUHAUS Phil
NIEUWENHUIS Joris
BETTIOL Alberto
FELLINE Fabio
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
ARU Fabio
GREIPEL André
O'CONNOR Ben
MEINTJES Louis
BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
ZAKARIN Ilnur
MUÑOZ GIRALDO Daniel Felipe
KÄMNA Lennard
BAKELANTS Jan

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

NIBALI Vincenzo
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
BOUHANNI Nacer
SENECHAL Florian
ARU Fabio
PHILIPSEN Jasper
LAMBRECHT Bjorg
GAUDU David
KITTEL Marcel
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban
FELLINE Fabio
DE BUYST Jasper
COSNEFROY Benoit
POWLESS Neilson
TOUZE Damien
KANTER Max
SIVAKOV Pavel
THEUNS Edward
MENTEN Milan
MOSCHETTI Matteo
MEINTJES Louis
CAVENDISH Mark
BAKELANTS Jan
BARBIER Rudy
HONORE Mikkel Frølich
SWIFT Ben
BETTIOL Alberto
CAÑELLAS SANCHEZ Xavier
KÄMNA Lennard
BOOM Lars
EVENEPOEL Remco
VAKOC Petr

 

[skidmark]

Working on the spreadsheet, but a few things plus my own team.

- There are officially 113 teams, although last year I missed one that had PM'd me before the deadline so if that happens again that may change.

- I don't want to publish the popularity quite yet because I have to look over a few things, but the top 10 in popularity look like this: 98 teams was the most picked rider, then a 95, and 92. So 3 riders on >90 teams. Then 89, 87, 86, 82, 79, 79, 73. The names I've seen tossed around are indeed in there. The top rider has been the most picked rider in this game before, which should give it away.

- after the top 10 it starts to drop off, 4 more riders in the 60s, 3 in the 50s, one in the 40s. Not sure how this compares with other years percentage wise.

Okay, here's me:

NIBALI Vincenzo
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
ZAKARIN Ilnur
NIZZOLO Giacomo
BOUHANNI Nacer
COQUARD Bryan
ARU Fabio
LAMBRECHT Bjorg
KITTEL Marcel
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban
FELLINE Fabio
COSNEFROY Benoit
O'CONNOR Ben
PLANCKAERT Baptiste
BAUHAUS Phil
SIVAKOV Pavel
THEUNS Edward
HALVORSEN Kristoffer
MEINTJES Louis
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas
CAVENDISH Mark
VAN ASBROECK Tom
BARBIER Rudy
MCLAY Daniel
SWIFT Ben
ATAPUMA HURTADO Jhon Darwin
BETTIOL Alberto
BOOM Lars
KÄMNA Lennard
MARINI Nicolas
EVENEPOEL Remco
VAKOC Petr

I'll explain later.

 

[Vitapen]

NIBALI Vincenzo
KELDERMAN Wilco
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
HODEG CHAGUI Alvaro Jose
ZAKARIN Ilnur
POLITT Nils
ARU Fabio
POWER Robert
LAMBRECHT Bjorg
GAUDU David
KITTEL Marcel
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban
MARTIN Tony
O'CONNOR Ben
SIVAKOV Pavel
BOUWMAN Koen
PADUN Mark
GANNA Filippo
GARCIA CORTINA Ivan
MEINTJES Louis
PÖSTLBERGER Lukas
BAKELANTS Jan
FABBRO Matteo
HÄNNINEN Jaakko
PARET-PEINTRE Aurélien
AFFINI Edoardo
OSORIO CARVAJAL Alejandro
MUÑOZ LANCHEROS Cristian Camilo
SCOTSON Callum
MUÑOZ GIRALDO Daniel Felipe
EVENEPOEL Remco
VAKOC Petr
KÖNIG Leopold

Had Bettiol until the last points update. Decided to gamble and chose Affini instead of him.

 

[tobydawq]

The top rider has been the most picked rider in this game before, which should give it away.

I don't know if it gives it away (at least not for a debutant like me). But I think it narrows it down to Cavendish, Kittel and Chaves.

 

[Tonton]

Breaking News!!!

Team Tonton - Official Presentation

Key Stats: 25 riders representing 19 pro teams and 13 countries, including 8 Frenchmen (32% of the team), and 6 Italians (24% of the team). 7476 CQ points,

Matteo MONTAGUTI – 73 pts – Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec

Rudy BARBIER – 90 pts – Israel Cycling Academy

Rémy MERTZ – 94 pts - Lotto Soudal

Eduardo SEPULVEDA – 94 pts – Movistar Team

Ian STANNARD – 103 pts – Team Sky

Matteo FABBRO – 116 pts – Team Katusha - Alpecin

Laurent PICHON – 119 pts – Arkéa Samsic

Johan LE BON – 120 pts – Vital Concept - B&B Hotels

Louis MEINTJES – 141 pts – Team Dimension Data

Jan HIRT – 144 pts – Astana Pro Team

Quentin JAUREGUI – 145 pts – AG2R La Mondiale

Moreno MOSER – 157 pts – Nippo Vini Fantini Faizanè

Alexis GOUGEARD – 187 pts – AG2R La Mondiale

Odd Christian EIKING – 197 pts – Wanty - Groupe Gobert

Benoît COSNEFROY – 229 pts – AG2R La Mondiale

Jan POLANC – 233 pts – UAE - Team Emirates

Jacopo MOSCA – 238 pts – Wilier Triestina - Selle Italia

Cees BOL – 240 pts – Team Sunweb

Benjamin (Ben) KING – 299 pts – Team Dimension Data

David GAUDU – 299 pts – Groupama - FDJ

Sacha MODOLO – 391 pts – EF Education First Pro Cycling Team

Fernando GAVIRIA – 612 pts – UAE - Team Emirates

Vincenzo NIBALI – 693 pts - Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team

Caleb EWAN – 776 pts – Lotto Soudal

Thibaut PINOT – 1696 pts – Groupama - FDJ

This lineup should guarantee me a respectable finish when the '19 season comes to an end. For my first participation, all I want is a team that I like: so I have already achieved my main objective .

GT riders: Nibali was a steal, plus I like him. Giro-Tour points guaranteed. And Il Squalo can win one-day races too. Tibopino will ride Le Tour, and I hope La Vuelta. He's ready for a big thing. As the official fanboy, I had to pick Thibaut Pinot, the People's Champion.

Hirt, Polanc, King can win stages in GTs and other big stage races. Meintjes was cheap: after a disappointing '18 campaign, Louis can Zubeldia a bunch of points in '19: cheap gamble. Mosca wins in China, he covers the World map. Matteo Fabbro has been on my radar since '17, he's a very talented young rider: '19 could bring a couple of nice wins for him. Sepulveda should cover San Juan and score points in Spain. Finally, I bet that '19 is when Gaudu gets to the next level.

Demare was too expensive, but with Gaviria, and Ewan, I should get a lot of points. Add Barbier for the French races and Modolo for smaller races across Europe, that's not bad.

Spring classics are my weakness, but old Stannard is a proven commodity. Bol is an interesting prospect with a huge upside. And Rémy Mertz sounds a lot like Eddy Merckx .

Baroudeurs and punchers: Gougeard always is a serious customer, Cosnefroy is fearless, a "Jalabert-Light" if you will, the question is: how good can he be? Jaurégui is a BOD artist, one day it will pay off (TdF stage?). Pichon should bounce back after a mediocre '18. Montaguti will win again. Le Bon can win on the French tour. And last but not least, Eiking is a superb rider due for a breakthrough year.

 

[Squire]

Having finalised my team relatively quickly this year, I had originally settled for Matteo Trentin as my most expensive pick at 581. I really liked the look of my rather equally priced team. But then a few days ago I realised that Richie Porte could quite realistically have 500 points before the end of February and that it would be stupid not to have him. So I begrudgingly changed Trentin and Keukeleire (who I wasn't crazy about anyway) for Porte.

PORTE Richie 868
GALLOPIN Tony 534
ZAKARIN Ilnur 473
VICHOT Arthur 447
BARGUIL Warren 447
NIZZOLO Giacomo 444
BOUHANNI Nacer 441
COQUARD Bryan 415
ARU Fabio 400
GAUDU David 299
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban 263
FELLINE Fabio 257
BONIFAZIO Niccolo 234
O'CONNOR Ben 219
PLANCKAERT Baptiste 206
EIKING Odd Christian 197
THEUNS Edward 191
VENTURINI Clément 183
LAMMERTINK Maurits 169
HALVORSEN Kristoffer 162
PANTANO GOMEZ Jarlinson 157
MEINTJES Louis 141
ATAPUMA HURTADO Jhon Darwin 61
BETTIOL Alberto 50
BRØCHNER NIELSEN Nicolai 48
LIETAER Eliot 43
VALLS FERRI Rafael 43
BOOM Lars 37
VAN STAEYEN Michael 20
OSORIO CARVAJAL Alejandro 17
GULDHAMMER POULSEN Rasmus 12
DE KLEIJN Arvid 5
EVENEPOEL Remco 0

A few ideas for this year:

I'm banking on the 'Greipel effect'. His presence on a team that normally stirs up the French races should increase the likelyhood of a lot of French and Belgian races ending in bunch sprints, hence the pro-conti sprinters. And they all had bad years which are likely to be improved on anyway.

And I'm also trying to cash in on the auto-wildcard system for next year. If the strong pro-conti teams have their wits about them, they'll all employ the Wanty strategy of carpet bombing the calendar with race days, getting as many points as possible. And it'll largely be up to the big hitters like Barguil, Vichot, Bouhanni, Coquard etc to get the job done. Michael Boogerd, DS of Roompot, has actually stated that they'll race more structured this year in order to score as many points as possible. Other DS'es should think likewise.

My omission of Kittel, Cavendish, Bauhaus etc comes down to a few things, among them the extinction of stage races where pure sprinters can score GC points. A lot of the big scoring seasons by pure sprinters have significant contributions from Qatar, Dubai (and Worlds) etc. Their team also plays a major role. Some teams, like Bahrain and Sunweb, just don't race 1.1 races, where all the sprinter points are. Bauhaus could finally find a way to stay healthy and have a great season but score very few CQ points. As for Kittel, nothing has really changed this year: Crap leadout, crap climbing and positioning skills. Sure, he could win quite a few flat stages here and there, but now that he has no Dubai GC points, it's not gonna amount to much. Kittel is not the kind of guy who grits his teeth to hold the wheel of Maxim Vantomme across some windy Flandrian country road in order to sprint for 4th behind the breakaway in GP Jef Scherens. I don't care if he drags his fingers through his perfect hair on the TDF podium a few times; that's not where the points are. I'll be surprised if he reaches 600.

 

[MADRAZO]

My team:

PORTE Richie - Obviously good potential at the price, but he was the rider I was most in doubt about, in the end him starting TDU and getting the easy points there made me pick him with also a interview made me go against one of the alternatives in Gaudu (stating he wanted to race with Pinot a lot). Also its always nice to get a good start in the competition that he should help

NIBALI Vincenzo - obvious

GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando - new team a challenge but still so much potential for points and a WC fitting him

TRENTIN Matteo - Obvious

POELS Wout - Hopes for a Giro chance, that might not come, but was just so very strong last spring and could get many points there, also in TDU, with also the Ardennes comming later, should be a good pick

ZAKARIN Ilnur - Solid pick at the price

BOUHANNI Nacer - A bit sceptical LAporte will take a lot of his potential points, but should improve and usually getting 3x the points

COQUARD Bryan - must improve and I think his team gets the TDF wc this time where he should score well

ARU Fabio - Obvious

KITTEL Marcel - OBvious

LOBATO DEL VALLE Juan Jose - Picked alot with my heart as a old favouite, but I also just think he has a lot of pointspotential with Nippo back in topform and sounding very motivated

CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban - Obvious

FELLINE Fabio - Obvious

PLANCKAERT Baptiste - Boring pick but back in the team he scored 900 points with last time

ANTUNES Amaro Manuel Reposo - Might flop but a lot of potental and CCC sounds like they believe a lot in him

THEUNS Edward - Back with trek, a safe pick

DURBRIDGE Luke - Solid pick that should improve well without bad luck though he might have a 500 limit

MEINTJES Louis - Can't do worse and should do a lot better

CAVENDISH Mark - Obvious even if ageing

SWIFT Ben - Boring pick but back with Sky and motivated

KUMP Marko - Obvious, being back with Adria where he scores well

BETTIOL Alberto - Obvious

LIETAER Eliot - Not a spectacular rider but will improove a lot after missing most of 2018

BOUCHARD Geoffrey - A gamble as a old kind of unknown Neo, but winner of the French Amateur rankings in 2018 and I hope for a Calmejane-kind of pro-start.

BOOM Lars - Obvious

KÄMNA Lennard - was close to cutting him but still huge potential, so he got a chance

RIVERA SERRANO Kevin - A joker but after Bernal and Sosa its hard to ignore his great test-numbers

GULDHAMMER POULSEN Rasmus - Back after injury so will improve for sure but sceptical if the raceprogramme will let him score that much more.

INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA Beñat - Sounds confident and 100% well in his interviews so I gave him a chance with low risk

DE KLEIJN Arvid - Missed most of 2018 but back now so a very safe pick at low cost,

FERASSE Thibault - Back as pro after his team folded before 2018 - a safe pick at low cost to fit the points

VAKOC Petr - Too afraid to not pick him at the price, though its a guess, just like if I had picked König instead.

EVENEPOEL Remco - Considdered a much bigger talent than Julius Johansen (that was 8 months younger when starting as a pro) so given how well he did in 2018, I could not skip Evenepoel that also gets a lot better schedule.


The last riders I cut were Nizzolo (had to go when Porte came in) Gaudu and then Barbier and Atapuma that were 2 clearly good picks sacrificed in the end to fit the team.

 

[Hakkie2]

BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
NIBALI Vincenzo
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
ARU Fabio
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao
KUSS Sepp
GAUDU David
CAVAGNA Rémi
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban
FELLINE Fabio
DE PLUS Laurens
O'CONNOR Ben
THEUNS Edward
PADUN Mark
HALVORSEN Kristoffer
EG Niklas
PANTANO GOMEZ Jarlinson
GARCIA CORTINA Ivan
MEINTJES Louis
CAVENDISH Mark
BAKELANTS Jan
VANTOMME Maxime
VAN ASBROECK Tom
BARBIER Rudy
SWIFT Ben
BETTIOL Alberto
ARENSMAN Thymen
KÄMNA Lennard
ALBANESE Vincenzo
RIVERA SERRANO Kevin
STERBINI Simone
EVENEPOEL Remco

Picked Cavagna over Kittel.
Bernal over Ewan+Zakarin
Sterbini as a fun pick for the Romanian races ;-)

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

As for Kittel, nothing has really changed this year: Crap leadout, crap climbing and positioning skills. Sure, he could win quite a few flat stages here and there, but now that he has no Dubai GC points, it's not gonna amount to much. Kittel is not the kind of guy who grits his teeth to hold the wheel of Maxim Vantomme across some windy Flandrian country road in order to sprint for 4th behind the breakaway in GP Jef Scherens. I don't care if he drags his fingers through his perfect hair on the TDF podium a few times; that's not where the points are. I'll be surprised if he reaches 600.

Good reasoning (although there are more points in consistently sprinting well in the Tour than you make it sound like).

But today I heard an interview with Mads Würtz who had an interesting observation from their training camp where Kittel apparently had been an entirely new person. He had taken initiative and planned training routes (with mountains) and had trained a lot more seriously and seemed much less moody and diva-like than usually. So if something has changed, it's himself.

It's not easy to predict how long this will last, however. But if this is a season where he will fight for results rather than for his hair, he could go above 600 points (especially if he again wins Scheldeprijs).

But your observations about there being fewer races where sprinters can go for GC definitely have their merits and I hadn't thought about that. The ZLM Toer will be back, though.

 

[skidmark]

Re:

Having finalised my team relatively quickly this year, I had originally settled for Matteo Trentin as my most expensive pick at 581. I really liked the look of my rather equally priced team. But then a few days ago I realised that Richie Porte could quite realistically have 500 points before the end of February and that it would be stupid not to have him. So I begrudgingly changed Trentin and Keukeleire (who I wasn't crazy about anyway) for Porte.

A few ideas for this year:

I'm banking on the 'Greipel effect'. His presence on a team that normally stirs up the French races should increase the likelyhood of a lot of French and Belgian races ending in bunch sprints, hence the pro-conti sprinters. And they all had bad years which are likely to be improved on anyway.

And I'm also trying to cash in on the auto-wildcard system for next year. If the strong pro-conti teams have their wits about them, they'll all employ the Wanty strategy of carpet bombing the calendar with race days, getting as many points as possible. And it'll largely be up to the big hitters like Barguil, Vichot, Bouhanni, Coquard etc to get the job done. Michael Boogerd, DS of Roompot, has actually stated that they'll race more structured this year in order to score as many points as possible. Other DS'es should think likewise.

My omission of Kittel, Cavendish, Bauhaus etc comes down to a few things, among them the extinction of stage races where pure sprinters can score GC points. A lot of the big scoring seasons by pure sprinters have significant contributions from Qatar, Dubai (and Worlds) etc. Their team also plays a major role. Some teams, like Bahrain and Sunweb, just don't race 1.1 races, where all the sprinter points are. Bauhaus could finally find a way to stay healthy and have a great season but score very few CQ points. As for Kittel, nothing has really changed this year: Crap leadout, crap climbing and positioning skills. Sure, he could win quite a few flat stages here and there, but now that he has no Dubai GC points, it's not gonna amount to much. Kittel is not the kind of guy who grits his teeth to hold the wheel of Maxim Vantomme across some windy Flandrian country road in order to sprint for 4th behind the breakaway in GP Jef Scherens. I don't care if he drags his fingers through his perfect hair on the TDF podium a few times; that's not where the points are. I'll be surprised if he reaches 600.

Interesting to hear about the construction of your roster. I also had Trentin on my original team (I had 23 of my 33 spots 'locked in' in mid-December, he was the only one I switched out), but I was seduced by MVDP and couldn't afford another expensive guy so swapped him out. When your team came in I saw that we had the middle-priced fast-guy trio of Nizzolo-Bouhanni-Coquard and figured that'd be a common refrain. But Nizzolo is only on 10 teams, Coquard 7! We may be cheering for similar guys in similar races this year.

Your theory re: 'Griepel effect' is interesting, and counter-intuitive in the sense that the first thought that might come to mind would be that he'd hoover up the points in those races. But I see what you're saying and I like it.

I sort of agree with you about Kittel, he was the guy at Giant until he wasn't, then he got petulant and moved to QuickStep, basically falling from strength to strength because he was fast. But Katusha doesn't know how to handle riders (Kristoff comes to mind) and I think his fragility when things don't go his way combined with the lukewarm leadout they have for him could really toxify that relationship. Cav though? He's pretty cheap, and although he's getting older, I've learned not to doubt Cav with a point to prove. Bauhaus - well, I'll talk about my team soon enough.

 

[Gigs_98]

A few thoughts about my picks:

Richie Porte:
My most expansive pick is also one of my riskiest. The main reason I ended up putting him in my team is that I remember some way through last season I was thinking I should have picked him for the last edition of the game. Then his 2nd half of the season was an absolute catastrophe and this year he is even 350 points cheaper. Now he is aging and I'm not overly confident in Trek geting the best out of their riders but still I don't want to be the one who misses him when he finally puts together a 2000 point campaign. Oh, and the tour field will be pretty weak next year, that certainly helps him.

Mikel Landa:
Kinda risky as well. In his most successful campaign ever he only got 550 points more than last year but then I was taking another look at that campaign and it really went anything but perfect. He can certainly be better than he was back then and is at least very safe in terms of not losing points compared to this year.

Vincenzo Nibali:
Yeah, he is declining, his last season wasn't actually catastrophic but he is just low risk huge reward. He can get more points than in the whole last season in the giro alone.

Fernando Gaviria:
This pick isn't actually as safe as it looks. Yeah, he is still young, I don't even think 2017 when he had twice as many points as last year was anywhere near his limit, but, BUT (and capslock cannot make this but big enough) he rides for UAE...and I genuinly think he could have a disastrous season. Still, too good not to pick him for that price

Wout van Aert:
huge question marks behind this pick and more cyclocross knowledge surely would have helped but just watching the guy in a few races last year made me think he has enormous potential and I just can't wait to see what he can do in a WT team with a WT schedule. Might be a horrible pick, I think it has potential to become a superb one though.

Ilnur Zakarin:
No brainer. Still cost a lot, but he is young, has a huge ceiling, I had to pick him.

Nacer Bouhanni:
His personality issues are a problem but just look at his cq graph. there is hardly anyone who scored points as consistently as him and if he returns to that area he have a great return.

Fabio Aru:
Same as with Gaviria, he has a huge potential but is in a horrible team. Still he reached absolute rock bottom last year and even at UAE, he has to get better...right?

David Gaudu:
I often missed young, hyped, and therefore also popular riders because I thought they might be too expensive and often I've been wrong. Now I didn't want that to happen again so I picked Gaudu. I'm still unsure about him as I really heard very little about him last year but then again looking at his age, it's really more his 2017 season being absolutely incredible as you shouldn't have expected more than he showed last year from a guy his age. I now just hope he keeps developing and turns into a pick in the 600 points region.

Marcel Kittel:
If a riders is starting to have catastrophic season every other year that is reason to worry but then again the last time he was this back he was one of the best picks in the cq team the following year.

Esteban Chaves:
Normally I don't want to pick riders who have gone worse for two years in a row, but I made an exception. He was looking like his former self for at least a few race days last year so his top level hasn't disappeared. The question is just will he have it for longer this year.

Fabio Felline:
The guy hasn't had a properly good season in his whole career so I don't think the cq graph shows the potential Felline has. It's probably way beyond 1000 points. Therefore, while he might not be a "safe return" pick, he was a must.

Edward Theuns:
Horrible last season with sunweb. He now returns to his former team which means I also hope for his former points.

Kristoffer Halvorsen:
Like Gaudu I still think the guy has huge potential and only stagnated in his development for a year. Considering sprinters peak rather early he could have an absolute breakout year.

Ivan Garcia:
A bit of a fan pick. I thought about dropping him but also couldn't find a replacement I liked clearly better.

Jarlinson Pantano and Louis Meintjes:
No big thoughts behind those picks. They simply had bad years and will hopefully have a better one this season.

Mark Cavendish:
He is a little like Kittel just with a lower likelihood of getting back to his best again, but in exchange also a clearly lower cost. He clearly is in strong decline but even if he doesn't get back to his former shape, he can surely score better than in 2018.

Oscar Rodriguez:
Now if his La Camperona is anything to go by, he is a must have. I genuinly don't think that's the case and expect him to disappear in the pro conti ranks but I just had around 100 points left, didn't want to make big changes to the team and therefore just took him. At least he has a high ceiling considering he almost got all his points in one freakin stage.

Matthias Brändle:
My patriotic Austrian pick for this year. That said, he really didn't have a good year last season. He will also leave Trek for Israel which I hope means he will get more chances to ride for himself and therefore score points.

Harry Tanfield:
I think some people were hyping him, or was that his brother? Anyway, still young, clearly has potential, will ride his first year in the WT, wasn't very expansive, so hey why not

Ben Swift:
After Aru and Gaviria finally a rider who will leave the hell that is team UAE. Doesn't quite make him an automatic no brainer but it's certainly a factor that makes me believe he will improve from his horrible 72 points in 2018.

Darwin Atapuma:
Copy what I rode about Ben Swift, paste it here, and change the number 72 to 61.

Alberto Bettiol:
In my opinion "most obvious" pick of the year. I mean I even had him in my team last year. He now returns to the enviroment in which he was already good before, basically has the perfect age for a cyclist and costs freakin 50 points. Absolute no brainer.

Vincenzo Albanese:
Honestly don't know what to expect, but hey he is still young, can still massively improve and turn into the rider people expected him to be, and most importantly he just didn't cost that much.

Lars Boom:
Massively declining, but 37 points is so little that I had to pick him anyway.

Lennard Kämna:
One of the most talented young riders out there and only cost 37 points. A year ago I would have said he is an absolute no brainer, but iirc he had some motivation issues or that kind of stuff last season and that obviously could be a problem.

Evan Huffman, Rasmus Poulsen, Arvin de Kleijn:
This years picks in the "no idea who these guys even are, but they were cheap and have scored big before" category.

Leopold König:
Now I didn't pick him because I think he will return to his former self. I just searched for cheap options with single digit points and figured of all the guys I considered he was the most sensible one. Who knows, maybe he can become somewhat decent again, win a smaller stage race and he would already be a good pick.

Petr Vakoc:
I'm really afraid he will become the new Leopold König, the kind of guy who showed huge promise, has a big accident and can just never really recover. After all, if a crash keeps you from racing for a whole year that injury can't have been small. Anyway, the chance of that not happening and him just resuming from where he stopped in 2017 is way too big for not picking him.

Remco Evenepoel:
Boy, am I excited to see what he can do. I don't think he will be great right away at the pro ranks, but hey as a zero pointer, I can't do much wrong by picking him.

 

[skidmark]

Okay, here's the full spreadsheet as of now.

Note: use the 'Rankings' tab to navigate. The 'Update' tab hasn't been edited to reflect this year's teams, nor has the 'Week&Month Data' tab. I'll clean those up as I can in the first couple of weeks.

'Popularity' and 'Popularity Table' are current. Other tables are not yet. If someone really feels like cleaning up the other stuff ('Rank Popularity', etc) you can certainly feel free but if not I'll get to it when I can, just a bit preoccupied and burnt out with this compilation stuff in the last few days.

All teams entered should be on the 'Rankings' tab. There are separate tabs for each team, but there are lots of tabs for former teams that aren't playing this year. I have a template of all the teams that have played in the last few years so I don't have to create new tabs for teams that come back after a few years off. I'll delete those in time, but again it's not central to looking through teams right now.

That's it for now with spreadsheet stuff, lemme know if you have any issues (errors in your team or someone else's etc). And of course, let's talk about everyone's teams!

 

[Squire]

Re: Re:

Nizzolo is only on 10 teams, Coquard 7! We may be cheering for similar guys in similar races this year.

That's great news!

Your theory re: 'Griepel effect' is interesting, and counter-intuitive in the sense that the first thought that might come to mind would be that he'd hoover up the points in those races. But I see what you're saying and I like it.

It's better to come 2nd than 7th behind a six-man breakaway.

Cav though? He's pretty cheap, and although he's getting older, I've learned not to doubt Cav with a point to prove.

He's done. There, I've said it. Even a cat only has nine lives. And even if he's still good, he's also lacking point scoring opportunities. A stage in San Juan? Tirreno? Sure. Definitely not MSR. Maybe Scheldeprijs. A stage in California. A Tour stage? After that he doesn't care. Worlds? Never in a million years. Not a lot of points to be had from only stage wins. He also crashed in almost every race last year. It's a theme I don't like. That was also part of why I omitted Gav. I'll probably make a list of the top 10-20 most popular riders and say why I didn't pick some of them when the popularity ranking is out, so I'll come back to the Colombian later.

 

[skidmark]

Popularity part 1:

KITTEL Marcel 98
ARU Fabio 95
BETTIOL Alberto 92
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban 89
NIBALI Vincenzo 87
EVENEPOEL Remco 86
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 82
MEINTJES Louis 79
CAVENDISH Mark 79
VAKOC Petr 73
ZAKARIN Ilnur 69
BOOM Lars 66
FELLINE Fabio 63
THEUNS Edward 61
GAUDU David 57
SWIFT Ben 53
BOUHANNI Nacer 50
ATAPUMA HURTADO Jhon Darwin 46
BAKELANTS Jan 38
KÄMNA Lennard 38
BAUHAUS Phil 37
BARBIER Rudy 36
O'CONNOR Ben 36
HALVORSEN Kristoffer 34
TRENTIN Matteo 31
Rivera Serrano Kevin 30
PADUN Mark 30
ROWE Luke 28
Moschetti Matteo 27
PLANCKAERT Baptiste 27
INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA Beñat 26
KUMP Marko 26
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley 26
PORTE Richie 25
LANDA MEANA Mikel 24
DE PLUS Laurens 24
KÖNIG Leopold 22
MARTIN Tony 22
MARECZKO Jakub 22
LAMBRECHT Bjorg 22
SIVAKOV Pavel 21
DURBRIDGE Luke 21
PANTANO GOMEZ Jarlinson 20
VAN DER POEL Mathieu 19
VAN ASBROECK Tom 19
HONORE Mikkel Frølich 19
EWAN Caleb 18
McLay Daniel 18
THOMAS Benjamin 17
OSORIO CARVAJAL Alejandro 16
VAN AERT Wout 16
Guldhammer Poulsen Rasmus 15
COSNEFROY Benoit 15
MORTON Lachlan 15
SENNI Manuel 14
GARCIA CORTINA Ivan 14
VACEK Karel 14
STANNARD Robert 14
KÜNG Stefan 14
VAN STAEYEN Michael 14
Cummings Stephen 13
AFFINI Edoardo 13
LIETAER Eliot 13
HINDLEY Jai 12
BARGUIL Warren 12
KANTER Max 12
MUÑOZ GIRALDO Daniel Felipe 11
Ganna Filippo 11
PÖSTLBERGER Lukas 11
SCOTSON Callum 11
HODEG CHAGUI Alvaro Jose 11
CONTRERAS PINZON Rodrigo 11
VLIEGEN Loïc 11
FABBRO Matteo 10
PARET-PEINTRE Aurélien 10
SPILAK Simon 10
HIRSCHI Marc 10
PHILIPSEN Jasper 10
HAMILTON Lucas 10
KNOX James 10
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas 10
Valls Ferri Rafael 10
NIZZOLO Giacomo 10
KUSS Sepp 10
ACEVEDO CALLE Janier Alexis 10
GIBBONS Ryan 9
Stallaert Joeri 9
ALBANESE Vincenzo 9
DEWULF Stan 9
DE DECKER Alfdan 9
Bennett Sean 9
RIABUSHENKO Aliaksandr 9
FROOME Chris 9
HÄNNINEN Jaakko 9
VAN DER HOORN Taco 9
ALMEIDA Joao Pedro Gonçalves 9
DE KLEIJN Arvid 9
BONIFAZIO Niccolo 9
MUÑOZ LANCHEROS Cristian Camilo 9
TOUZE Damien 8
HOFSTEDE Lennard 8
KELDERMAN Wilco 8
EG Niklas 8
Howes Alex 8
QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander 8
CONCI Nicola 8
HIRT Jan 8
BOASSON HAGEN Edvald 8
WILLIAMS Stephen 8
GALLOPIN Tony 8
BANASZEK Alan 8
GREIPEL André 7
CELANO Danilo 7
TANFIELD Harry 7
BYRIEL IVERSEN Rasmus 7
MCNULTY Brandon 7
DUNBAR Eddie 7
VANHOUCKE Harm 7
RODRIGUEZ GARAICOECHEA Oscar 7
HUFFMAN Evan 7
COQUARD Bryan 7
ANTUNES Amaro Manuel Reposo 7
DAINESE Alberto 7
POGACAR Tadej 7
SENECHAL Florian 7
POWLESS Neilson 7
HOFLAND Moreno 7
BJERG Mikkel 7
MARCHETTI Moreno 7
ARMEE Sander 6
KENNAUGH Peter 6
YATES Adam 6
MOSER Moreno 6
WALSCHEID Maximilian 6
ARENSMAN Thymen 6
SCHACHMANN Maximilian 6
DE LA PARTE GONZALEZ Victor 6
TOLHOEK Antwan 6
FERASSE Thibault 6
BRÄNDLE Matthias 6
CIMOLAI Davide 5
CAVAGNA Rémi 5
FOURNIER Marc 5
POWER Robert 5
MÄDER Gino 5
MAS NICOLAU Enric 5
CARBONI Giovanni 5
DE BUYST Jasper 5
MOSCON Gianni 5
ROSA Diego 5
MENTEN Milan 5
CAÑELLAS SANCHEZ Xavier 5
HENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis 5
JARAMILLO DIEZ Daniel Alexander 5
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh 5
SCOTSON Miles 5
KEUKELEIRE Jens 5
ASGREEN Kasper 5
ROELANDTS Jürgen 5
OWEN Logan 4
VENTURINI Clément 4
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe 4
PEDERSEN Casper Phillip 4
CAICEDO CEPEDA Jonathan Klever 4
SCHLEGEL Michal 4
MARCZYNSKI Tomasz 4
BOUCHARD Geoffrey 4
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 4
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao 4
MINALI Riccardo 4
FLOREZ LOPEZ Miguel Eduardo 4
LONARDI Giovanni 4
MEZGEC Luka 4
HAIG Jack 4
POLITT Nils 4
CICCONE Giulio 4
NIEUWENHUIS Joris 4
KUDUS Merhawi Gebremedhin 4
CARDONA TABARES Julian 4
EENKHOORN Pascal 4
BARTA William 4
BOGDANOVICS Maris 4
LOBATO DEL VALLE Juan Jose 4
SAJNOK Szymon 4
GREGAARD WILSLY Jonas 4
MAYRHOFER Marius 4
VANTOMME Maxime 3
PIDCOCK Thomas 3
GESCHKE Simon 3
ROLLAND Pierre 3
JANSE VAN RENSBURG Reinardt 3
NAESEN Lawrence 3
MULLEN Ryan 3
DAVIES Scott 3
JAKOBSEN Fabio 3
KIRYIENKA Vasil 3
LAWLESS Christopher 3
BAGIOLI Andrea 3
GAUTIER Cyril 3
CORT NIELSEN Magnus 3
VERVAEKE Louis 3
OFFREDO Yoann 3
WARBASSE Larry 3
OLIVEIRA Rui Filipe Alves 3
MADOUAS Valentin 3
BOSWELL Ian 3
PHINNEY Taylor 3
CAPIOT Amaury 3
Poels Wout 3
MATHIS Marco 3
CIMA Imerio 3
SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro 3
MODOLO Sacha 3
BARBIER Pierre 3
DE CLERCQ Bart 3
HAYTER Ethan 3
HALLER Marco 3
EIKING Odd Christian 3
VLASOV Alexander 3
PEAK Barnabas 3
BARCELO ARAGON Fernando 3
ARNDT Nikias 3
WEEMAES Sasha 3
TEUNISSEN Mike 3
WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads 3
PELUCCHI Matteo 3
PETILLI Simone 3
LE BON Johan 3

 

[skidmark]

Popularity part 2:

WOUTERS Enzo 2
VAN TRIJP Maarten 2
GAROSIO Andrea 2
REICHENBACH Sébastien 2
VINGEGAARD RASMUSSEN Jonas 2
RESTREPO VALENCIA Jhonatan 2
ZURLO Federico 2
BOL Jetse 2
COSTA Rui Alberto Faria 2
RIOU Alan 2
CHERNETSKIY Sergey 2
JANSEN Amund Grøndahl 2
DE BOD Stefan 2
GROENEWEGEN Dylan 2
LANGEVELD Sebastian 2
RODRIGUEZ MARTIN Cristian 2
VALTER Attila 2
JOURNIAUX Axel 2
VAN DEN BERG Julius 2
CARVALHO Antonio Ferreira 2
VAN POUCKE Aaron 2
HABTOM Awet Tekle 2
ARERUYA Joseph 2
HAGEN Carl Fredrik 2
VILLALOBOS HERNANDEZ Luis Ricardo 2
MONTAGUTI Matteo 2
MARINI Nicolas 2
SAMITIER SAMITIER Sergio 2
MASNADA Fausto 2
CASTRILLO ZAPATER Jaime 2
ALAFACI Eugenio 2
CATTANEO Mattia 2
BONGIORNO Francesco Manuel 2
FRAPPORTI Marco 2
HIGUITA GARCIA Sergio Andres 2
HAMILTON Chris 2
LIEPINS Emils 2
KONIG Leopold 2
VAN BAARLE Dylan 2
ASSELMAN Jesper 2
GATTO Oscar 2
SEPULVEDA Eduardo 2
VAN MOER Brent 2
KRISTOFF Alexander 2
BICO Nuno Miguel Alves Matos 2
NARVAEZ PRADO Jhonatan Manuel 2
PETIT Adrien 2
ANACONA GOMEZ Winner Andrew 2
VAUBOURZEIX Thomas 2
CALMEJANE Lilian 2
GESBERT Elie 2
STANNARD Ian 2
VINCENT Léo 2
HAUSSLER Heinrich 2
CHIA BERMUDEZ Luis Carlos 2
ALLEGAERT Piet 2
ACOSTA OSPINA Ruben Dario 2
KWIATKOWSKI Michal 2
GIBSON Matthew 2
OLIVEIRA Ivo Emanuel Alves 2
WISNIOWSKI Lukasz 2
LAMMERTINK Maurits 2
QUINN Sean 2
THURAU Björn 2
QUINTERO NOREÑA Carlos Julian 2
OOMEN Sam 2
LEKNESSUND Andreas 2
MÄRKL Niklas 2
GHIRMAY Biniyam 1
WIPPERT Wouter 1
DENZ Nico 1
MÜHLBERGER Gregor 1
STERBINI Simone 1
HANSEN Jesper 1
BAZHKOU Stanislau 1
MÜLLER Patrick 1
VERVLOESEM Xandres 1
HARDY Romain 1
BADILATTI Matteo 1
CAMPOS Francisco Joaquim Brito 1
SWIFT Connor 1
ALARCON GARCIA Raul 1
TRATNIK Jan 1
BOU COMPANY Joan 1
BENOOT Tiesj 1
HERKLOTZ Silvio 1
VANMARCKE Sep 1
NEILANDS Krists 1
WALLIN Rasmus Bøgh 1
HERRADA LOPEZ Jose 1
ZHUPA Eugert 1
CONSONNI Simone 1
GAZZOLI Michele 1
NISHIMURA Hiroki 1
STRAKHOV Dmitry 1
EISEL Bernhard 1
TESHOME Meron Hagos 1
BANZER Gordian 1
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 1
ELISSONDE Kenny 1
Turgis Jimmy 1
ENGER Sondre Holst 1
VALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro 1
EVANS Alexander 1
VAN ENGELEN Adne 1
CONTI Valerio 1
GUARNIERI Jacopo 1
ÖRKEN Ahmet 1
VENDRAME Andrea 1
EVENEPOEL Remco  1
DOMONT Axel 1
OSS Daniel 1
MORA VEDRI Sebastian 1
HOLOWESKO Liam 1
BALMER Alexandre 1
PAASSCHENS Mathijs 1
MUGERLI Matej 1
EVENPOEL Remco 1
BUTS Vitaliy 1
PAGE Dylan 1
STEELS Stijn 1
CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio 1
STORER Michael 1
BOL Cees 1
SUTHERLAND Rory 1
PARRA ARIAS Jordan Arley 1
CHAVES RUBIO Brayan 1
PAUWELS Serge 1
BATTAGLIN Enrico 1
INTXAUSTI Beñat 1
TILLER Rasmus Fossum 1
ALBASINI Michael 1
TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo Andres 1
PEDERSEN Mads 1
TROFIMOV Yury 1
CARVALHO Andre Rodrigues 1
ULISSI Diego 1
PER David 1
MAMYKIN Matvey 1
PETERS Nans 1
GONZALEZ SALAS Mario 1
FERNANDES Jose Carlos Prates Neves 1
DE VRIES Hartthijs 1
BOUHANNI Rayane 1
VAN HOECKE Gijs 1
FLØTTEN Audun Brekke 1
VAN POPPEL Boy 1
JAUREGUI Quentin 1
VAN WILDER Ilan 1
PIBERNIK Luka 1
VASYLYUK Andriy 1
PICHON Laurent 1
DIMA Emil 1
JONES Brenton 1
HADDI Soufiane 1
PINOT Thibaut 1
DOWSETT Alex 1
ADAMS Jens 1
WANG Meiyin 1
PLANCKAERT Edward 1
WHITEHOUSE Daniel 1
JONES Seth 1
CIMA Damiano 1
FOSS Tobias Svendsen 1
BENNETT Sam 1
POLANC Jan 1
DUNNE Conor 1
KACZMAREK Jakub 1
SLAGTER Tom-Jelte 1
POLJANSKI Pawel 1
SOTO MARTINEZ Nelson Andres 1
BARBIO Antonio Andre Pereira 1
LAVERICK Joseph 1
AASHEIM Ludvig 1
GENE Yohann 1
POURSEYEDI GOLAKHOUR Mirsamad 1
STEIMLE Jannik 1
COVI Alessandro 1
STEWART Jake 1
FRAILE MATARRANZ Omar 1
STOSZ Patryk 1
PRONSKIY Vadim 1
STYBAR Zdenek 1
QUEMENEUR Perrig 1
CERNY Josef 1
FRANKINY Kilian 1
TANFIELD Charlie 1
QUINTANA ROJAS Dayer Uberney 1
TEKLEHAIMANOT Daniel Girmazion 1
COVILI Luca 1
BOOKWALTER Brent 1
KING Benjamin 1
THIJSSEN Gerben 1
RASTELLI Luca 1
BODNAR Maciej 1
RAVASI Edward 1
TIMMERMANS Justin 1
KIPKEMBOI Salim 1
TONELLI Alessandro 1
REIJNEN Kiel 1
LUTSENKO Alexey 1
KIRSCH Alex 1
BOSTOCK Matthew 1
REYES ORTEGA Aldemar 1
TUFT Svein 1
REZA Kévin 1
UKINIWABO René Jean Paul 1
CULLAIGH Gabriel 1
GIDICH Yevgeniy 1
RICHARDSON Alexandar 1
VALGREN ANDERSEN Michael 1
GALL Felix 1
GOMEZ JARAMILLO Nicholas David 1
BOUWMAN Koen 1
GONÇALVES Jose Isidro Maciel 1
ROCHAS Rémy 1
GOUGEARD Alexis 1
ROCHE Nicolas 1
DE VREESE Laurens 1
RODRIGUES Joao Pedro Lourenço 1
VAN DER SANDE Tosh 1
KOLAHDOUZ HAGH Amir 1
VAN GARDEREN Tejay 1
BOUWMANS Dylan 1
VAN KEIRSBULCK Guillaume 1
DASSONVILLE Flavien 1
VAN NIEKERK Morne 1
KONOVALOVAS Ignatas 1
GROSU Eduard-Michael 1
GARCIA SOSA Jhojan Orlando 1
MAWDITT Lionel 1
ROUILLER Loris 1
GUERNALEC Thibault 1
KRON Andreas Lorentz 1
MCCARTHY Jay 1
SAGAN Peter 1
CAMPENAERTS Victor 1
BONNET William 1
VENTOSO ALBERDI Francisco Jose 1
KUKRLE Michael 1
BALLABIO Giacomo 1
KULIKOVSKIY Alexandr 1
VICHOT Arthur 1
GASPAROTTO Enrico 1
MERTZ Rémy 1
SCHREURS Hamish 1
DONOVAN Mark 1
SCHULTZ Nicholas 1
WAERENSKJOLD Soren 1
DAVIS Cole 1
MONFORT Maxime 1
GAUDIN Damien 1
DUMOULIN Tom 1
SCOTT Cameron 1
WELTEN Bram 1
SELIG Rüdiger 1
MORIN Emmanuel 1
KUSZTOR Peter 1
MØRKØV CHRISTENSEN Michael 1
DAVY Clément 1
MOSCA Jacopo 1
AALRUST Haakon Lunder 1
ZABEL Rick 1
SHALUNOV Evgeny 1
ZARIFF Nur Aiman Muhammad 1
SHEEHAN Riley 1
ZUKOWSKY Nickolas 1
SICARD Romain 1
DUPONT Hubert 1
SILVA Daniel Eduardo Moreira 1
BRØCHNER NIELSEN Nicolai 1

 

[Tonton]

Are we getting points for presentation ?

 

[Gigs_98]

Interestingly I have the whole first 18 riders in the popularity table but after that only 2 of the next 15. I'm actually not that unhappy about this as some of the riders in that region are in my opinion overrated. Like Trentin, who this season was basically just back to his normal level which he had for the majority of his career with the one huge outlier of 2017.
The only rider I've noticed so far I'm really angry about not picking is Luke Rowe, who I just completely overlooked.

 

[Squire]

Re:

@ Kazistuta, an interesting read!

CAPIOT Amaury: Had the unlucky Capiot last year, when yet another injury forced him to miss a big part of the season. I feared he might’ve retired, but he returned to action late season, which convinced me he’s ready to take another stab at the Belgian Calendar as Topsports designated sprinter. Potential 600 points.

I've had Capiot for the last two years. He's like the ultimate CQ guy. But even though I was close to picking him this year as well, I've finally lost faith in a Theuns-like year. His placings in the races he did before his injury weren't too convincing, and some young guys on his team are starting to show some promise in the sprints. A little too risky for me, unfortunately.

LONARDI Giovanni: When one of the most talented Italian sprinters chose Nippo, it did stink a bit at first. But then, at second thought, now he will get a chance in many of the odd Asian races, where sprinters like Guardini and Mareczko get a lot of points. Count me in! Potential 500 points.

I like Lonardi too, and has kept an eye on him for a few years now. But they have so many sprinters! Canola, Lobato, big brother Cima and the very talented younger Cima (who's now more experienced than the one year older Lonardi). I think Lonardi is fast, but I fear he might not even be their China guy. Now, Dainese, that's the real Italian sprint talent!

Are we getting points for presentation ?

Your presentation scores 400 CQ points, worthy of a World champ I'm sorry to be a party pooper, but unfortunately I don't quite believe in a high finish for your team. I love the romanticism though!

 

[skidmark]

Are we getting points for presentation ?

Haha, your presentation was great! It is definitely risky to have so many unique picks, but of course the flip side of that is that when those picks have a big week you will have one too. Picking someone like Pinot after a career year is bold, and I am excited for you for the weeks when he scores big and you are the only one to benefit from it in this game. Overall team construction you definitely have a few good riders, and possibly some relatively unique diamonds in the rough, but it's the riders you haven't picked that I'm more worried about.

 

[Koronin]

Official presentation for Team Koronin
My team consists of riders from 12 countries and 21 pro teams. Spaniards are the most represented with 9 riders, the next two are Americans with 5 and Italians with 4. The most represented team is Movistar with 6. The total points comes to exactly 7500

Alejandro Valverde Belmonte 2884
Vincenzo Nibali 693
Sep Kuss 314
Remco Evenepeol 0
Bernhard Eisel 10
Larry Warbasse 139
Logan Owen 20
Andrea Garosio 6
Albert Bettiol 50
Sergio Semitier Samitier 9
Marco Mathis 11
Juan Jose Lobato Del Valle 284
Nicholas Schultz 112
Kiel Reijnen 75
Victor De La Parte Gonzalez 77
Jaime Castrillo Zapater 40
Rory Sutherland 35
Simone Petilli 72
Romain Sicard 72
Tomasz Marczynski 49
Xavier Canellas Sanchez 40
Jake Stewart 28
Aaron Van Poucke 21
Rafael (Rafa) Valls Ferri 43
Neilson Powless 227
Bryan Coquard 415
Mikel Landa Meana 779
Nicolas Roche 292
Simon Geschke 172
Vasil Kiryienka 140
Ben Swift 72
Jurgen Roelandts 330
Cristian Camilo Munoz Lancheres 13



I choose to stay away from both Cavendish and Kittel simply because I don't trust them.

Obviously Valverde is my heart pick, plus even at 38 he's still extremely consistent. Lobato due to being on a smaller team he has a chance to go to races he can actually get points at. Plus he's someone I like. Kuss, I'm just hoping what we saw last year was just the beginning of his potential that we hopefully see more of this year. Landa usually does better in his second year with a team than his first and I'm banking on that with this pick. Hoping that Nibali will not get hurt and thus should get more points than he did last year. Some other young riders who I'm hoping will do well this season. Some like Sutherland are more filler picks who should be able to at least break even with the points they had last season.

 

[Koronin]

Are we getting points for presentation ?

Nice presentation. We have two of the highest points picks. I guess we get to find out how smart those choices were. We're both taking risks with our teams.

 

[ingsve]

Here is my team for the year:

I'll put them into categories:

The nordics:

BOASSON HAGEN Edvald 686
EIKING Odd Christian 197
ENGER Sondre Holst 183
HALVORSEN Kristoffer 162
BJERG Mikkel 152
TILLER Rasmus Fossum 106
HÄNNINEN Jaakko 48
GULDHAMMER POULSEN Rasmus 12

I have to have some nordic riders on the team eventhough it often doesn't pay off like I hope it will. But several of the norwegians have had bad years recently and should be capable of a lot better so I have hopes that not all will let me down.

The traditional CQ manager riders:

GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando 602
HENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis 561
BOUHANNI Nacer 441
ARU Fabio 400
KITTEL Marcel 296
CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban 263
CAVENDISH Mark 125
HOFLAND Moreno 120
SWIFT Ben 72
KUMP Marko 54
BOOM Lars 37
VAKOC Petr 0

These are the riders that had a 2018 that was worse than their normal standard and that should have a chance of getting a profit by getting back to their previous selves.

Up-and-comers and neo-pros looking for a breakthrough:

VAN AERT Wout 597
VAN DER POEL Mathieu 539
VAN DER HOORN Taco 396
LAMBRECHT Bjorg 337
GEBREIGZABHIER Amanuel Werkilul 279
DE BUYST Jasper 233
O'CONNOR Ben 219
MOSCHETTI Matteo 144
DEWULF Stan 101
WILLIAMS Stephen 63
KÄMNA Lennard 37
MARCHETTI Moreno 33
EVENEPOEL Remco 0

Since I haven't followed the sport as closely the past couple of years I'm not really that familiar with the young talents out there. I have mainly gone by various sites that have talked about riders to look out for in 2019 or supertalents that people expect will make it big this year. I've perhaps been a little too optimistic with both Van Aert, Van der Poel and Van der Hoorn but it should make for an interesting season at least.

Two riders I had in my original list were Nairo Quintana and Diego Ulissi but those were cut for budget reasons to afford a full team. It will be interesting to see how those picks would have ended up as well. I see that they were not super popular.

Also @Skidmark it seems that GEBREIGZABHIER Amanuel Werkilul is such a unique pick for me that he has a popularity of 0 and is missing from your popularity list.

 

[skidmark]

Re: Re:

Cav though? He's pretty cheap, and although he's getting older, I've learned not to doubt Cav with a point to prove.

He's done. There, I've said it. Even a cat only has nine lives. And even if he's still good, he's also lacking point scoring opportunities. A stage in San Juan? Tirreno? Sure. Definitely not MSR. Maybe Scheldeprijs. A stage in California. A Tour stage? After that he doesn't care. Worlds? Never in a million years. Not a lot of points to be had from only stage wins. He also crashed in almost every race last year. It's a theme I don't like. That was also part of why I omitted Gav. I'll probably make a list of the top 10-20 most popular riders and say why I didn't pick some of them when the popularity ranking is out, so I'll come back to the Colombian later.

Indeed, I believe you have omitted 5 of the top 10 most popular picks. I totally get Vakoc (I would have left him off if I hadn't painted myself into a corner with expensive riders), and I hear what you're saying about Kittel. But I'm interested in hearing what you have to say about Gav, and very especially about Nibali. You must have some very specific thoughts about Nibali, because I can't think why you wouldn't have included him otherwise. And if it was like Gav in terms of 'has crashes that derail his season', or if it was 'he's 34', that doesn't track with you picking Porte as your most expensive pick. So I'm curious.

For Cav, yeah fair enough to put it together that a) he's getting (a lot) older, b) the sprinters' GC races that he's won before are gone, c) Cav with a point to prove at 32 with Qst is different than Cav with a point to prove at 35 with DDD. But even if he's done, I don't think he's done enough that he's not a better pick than almost anyone else in his price range. 400-600? That'd be fine. All it would take would be 2nd in Scheldeprijs, 3-5 GT podiums, a handful of stage wins in *** small races, and a smattering here and there to clear 400. But I often fall into a line of thinking where I'd rather have a young or potentially rare rider who I'm excited about that could get 500 but might get 200 than an uninspiring choice that will probably get me 400. So it becomes a bit to-may-to to-mah-to at some point.

 

[fauniera]

1. Hats off to zaka_fan for picking Sagan. That could work out, Sagan can easily gain 1.000 points. He has a much stronger classics team than last year and a worlds course to his liking.

2. Leaving Kittel off the team needs balls, no doubt about that. So hats off to you, Squire. I do think it's a mistake though. In my opinion Kittel was simply lazy last year, and that will change in the contract year 2019.

3. I already regret throwing Zakarin out of my team at the end of december. I like the guy and he obviously has huge potential to gain points compared to the lackluster 2018 season. But i didn't want to worry at every descent, plus the Giro field is really crowded this year.

4. If Porte has a great season i am toast.