The 2019 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

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529 points, my best week ever, but still very low at 84th (+13). Pinot, Polanc, Nibali GC at TA was good, Bol at Nokere Koerse agreat surprise, and some MSR points: overall I'm happy.

Big week for me with The People's Champion racing Catalunya, Fabbro looked good today and could bring points in the mountain stages plus GC...fingers crossed.

3-Panne, Fernando Gaviria, Cees Bol, Rudy Barbier, and Ian Stannard, I feel cautiously optimistic for a stage win, maybe 100 or so points, hopefully more.

Coppi e Bartali with Mosca, Sepulveda, Montaguti, I have a complete skill-set coverage but little hope, although Mosca is a tough customer.
 
Nice day for me. This morning, Robert Stannard finished 5th in the sprint in Coppi e Bartali, which isn't enough to earn points, but then in the afternoon he and his team won the TTT and he is now also the leader of the race. Worth 11 points total I believe but still nice regardless. I am unsure how well he will go on the tougher stages, but also Hamilton and Cattaneo are in a good position for my team. Looking forward to the hilly stages.

In De Panne, I scored 286 points. But to be honest, with Kittel, Bouhanni, Gaviria, Halvorsen, Walscheid, Moschetti, Barbier and Theuns in the race I would have been disappointed with less than two in the top-10 :p It's a shame the crash took the Trek boys and Barbier out of contention and while I don't really mind Kittel's failure too much as he's on practically every team, it does hurt a bit that Walscheid again didn't/couldn't contest the sprint. I read that he would be the designated sprinter for today, but it looked like he was too far back in the group, like Kittel. He is a rare and pretty expensive pick so it'd have been nice to score more than 8 points with him here.

Catalunya was a bit worse, Zakarin is top-10 on GC but today was too hard for young Fabbro and Barguil also clearly isn't yet at his usual level after his crash, but I didn't expect otherwise. But overall, I can be pretty happy with today.
 
Not quite LaFlo level, but finally a decent day for me too. I even got a 1-2, but that was in a 2.2 stage, so 6 points plus 2 for Brøchner's leader's jersey. At least the Dane and De Kleijn are showing some signs of life.
 
Interesting week going on.

De Panne was satisfactory, especially Bouhanni's 4th place is a bit of a relieve. Halversson doing wel too the last couple of races, happy he is on my team.

As my team is heavily dependent of Bernal and Quintana, it was a pleasure to watch today's stage in Catalunya. Another big haul of points is within reach if they can hold this level the coming days. Zakarin was fine too. My South-American joker Caicedo was 31st today, which is not too bad for his first WorldTour race. Very curious to see what this season brings for him. And I hope to see Atapuma in the breakaway in one of the next stages.

In Coppi e Bartali, I only have Lietaer and Osorio in the race, but they are interesting riders to watch. Maybe some minor GC points are possible for them.

So potentially, another good week is in the making.
 
Well, I have to do the math, but at the Panne I had Gaviria 2nd and Bol 11th. Not sure how TTT works, so maybe a few points there too. In Catalunya, Fabbro sank, Pinot meh. I have a lot at stake tomorrow. Vai Tibopino!!!
 
De Panne gives my my first unequivocally good result of the season, with Gaviria 2nd, Bouhanni 4th (finally doing something!), Halvorsen 6th and Nizzolo 9th. That's 288 for those guys plus some finishing points (could have been more if Theuns, Barbier etc contested the sprint, but then again other guys in the crash could have taken top spots).

Catalunya, not so much. Zakarin looks good and is on the low end of 'really popular picks', but two of my potential game-changers (ie. not too popular with lots of potential) on my team are Lambrecht and O'Connor. The latter seems cursed this year, and the former seems puzzlingly lacking form. I need them to perform at some point, and the season is marching on.

What else is coming up? I've got no one in Coppi e Bartali, only really Zakarin left in Catalunya unless Bauhaus gets a stage, and what else?

E3

Alberto Bettiol
Edward Theuns
Baptiste Planckaert
Tom Van Asbroeck
Lars Boom

Well, not that inspiring. Bettiol looks in good form and this race suits him more than anyone else here... dunno what to expect. Boom's DNF today happened before the big crashes so I dunno what's up with that, but hopefully he's in shape for a respectable showing.

Loire Atlantique

Rudy Barbier

oooookay. Darn. Is Coquard in hiding after not getting selected for the Tour? The second Loire race has an incomplete start list, but I see Bouhanni's name there so I'll keep my fingers crossed that I get a few more guys. Barbier at least can be a consistently good finisher if he's the main guy on the team.

Gent-Wevelgem

Giacomo Nizzolo
Kristoffer Halvorsen
Edward Theuns
Fernando Gaviria
Mathieu van der Poel
Baptiste Planckaert
Lars Boom

It will be interesting to see how vdP fares in his first race with the big boys. Yes he won the nationals last year and podiumed the European championships, but in terms of a field this big with this much quality, this is new. I have good hopes for him in a reduced sprint. If it comes down to a big sprint, Gaviria has a good chance, and while I'd love to see rare pick Nizzolo pick up some points, I'm concerned he's relegated to help for EBH.

If I can manage a few more results this week and keep moving up the charts, I'll be happy. Then I'll just have to hope for Ben Swift and Fabio Aru to make quick recoveries, for Cavendish and Chaves to get back into racing form soon, for Felline and Meintjes and several other riders who have done nothing to fix whatever's wrong, and... oh boy, it's a long road.
 
At this point I think we can officially call my team a complete and total disaster. A couple of guys doing extremely well, but they are by far the exception. I will be totally shocked if my team doesn't come in dead last.
 
Quite a good update for me, points for all top 5 expensive riders, up 12 places and first rider into positive (BETTIOL Alberto)

Good news mitigated by Durbridge's crash, seemed to be in real good form going into the classics and is now going to miss them all.Was hoping for some good profit from one of my rarer picks
 
skidmark said:
De Panne gives my my first unequivocally good result of the season, with Gaviria 2nd, Bouhanni 4th (finally doing something!), Halvorsen 6th and Nizzolo 9th. That's 288 for those guys plus some finishing points (could have been more if Theuns, Barbier etc contested the sprint, but then again other guys in the crash could have taken top spots).

Catalunya, not so much. Zakarin looks good and is on the low end of 'really popular picks', but two of my potential game-changers (ie. not too popular with lots of potential) on my team are Lambrecht and O'Connor. The latter seems cursed this year, and the former seems puzzlingly lacking form. I need them to perform at some point, and the season is marching on.

What else is coming up? I've got no one in Coppi e Bartali, only really Zakarin left in Catalunya unless Bauhaus gets a stage, and what else?

E3

Alberto Bettiol
Edward Theuns
Baptiste Planckaert
Tom Van Asbroeck
Lars Boom

Well, not that inspiring. Bettiol looks in good form and this race suits him more than anyone else here... dunno what to expect. Boom's DNF today happened before the big crashes so I dunno what's up with that, but hopefully he's in shape for a respectable showing.

Loire Atlantique

Rudy Barbier

oooookay. Darn. Is Coquard in hiding after not getting selected for the Tour? The second Loire race has an incomplete start list, but I see Bouhanni's name there so I'll keep my fingers crossed that I get a few more guys. Barbier at least can be a consistently good finisher if he's the main guy on the team.

Gent-Wevelgem

Giacomo Nizzolo
Kristoffer Halvorsen
Edward Theuns
Fernando Gaviria
Mathieu van der Poel
Baptiste Planckaert
Lars Boom

It will be interesting to see how vdP fares in his first race with the big boys. Yes he won the nationals last year and podiumed the European championships, but in terms of a field this big with this much quality, this is new. I have good hopes for him in a reduced sprint. If it comes down to a big sprint, Gaviria has a good chance, and while I'd love to see rare pick Nizzolo pick up some points, I'm concerned he's relegated to help for EBH.

If I can manage a few more results this week and keep moving up the charts, I'll be happy. Then I'll just have to hope for Ben Swift and Fabio Aru to make quick recoveries, for Cavendish and Chaves to get back into racing form soon, for Felline and Meintjes and several other riders who have done nothing to fix whatever's wrong, and... oh boy, it's a long road.

Lambrecht was on duty shepherding TdeG yesterday. I think his form might not be too bad. There will be some huge scores this week ... I won't be amongst them as my Catalunya hopefuls found the quality of the field too much yesterday (Schachmann, Ciccone, Lambrecht). Should do a bit better in the classics ... and I was hoping for more from Eddie Dunbar, but he dropped off the back of the SKY TTT bus yesterday and has a lot to do if he's going to score big.
 
Dec 31, 2015
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Tigerion said:
Good news mitigated by Durbridge's crash, seemed to be in real good form going into the classics and is now going to miss them all.Was hoping for some good profit from one of my rarer picks

+1 :rolleyes:
 
Sep 19, 2011
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Nice beginning of a week which could allow me to keep on the top of ranking :

Yesterday Gaviria, Halvorsen and my rare pick Mezgec while Adam Yates and Kelderman both rare picks are doing marvelously in Catalunya

Keep going guys!
 
Fabbro dropping away from Catalunya GC battle was bit of meh, I thought he could've been like top 20 or something like that. Durbo I got as well so one of the main guys for the classics is now also gone. LaFlorecita mentioned Walscheid on her last post and I can only agree on that, I expected more from him but this far he has looked just like Kittel, who I of course have as well. Both faded on similar fashion at Driedaagse and it doesn't really look good when your leadout guys are stronger than the selected leader (Bol&Haller on this case)

Wilco Keldermerckx was suppose to be my sneaky pick from the more expensive riders but that doesn't look very good either and he might end up with another 600-700p season. Most expensive pick Landa ofc got injured right away, Swift has been out, iirc Hindley also had some issues, Rowe missed opening weekend, Bjerg focusing mainly to his hour attempt etc etc..

Well, at least yesterday Boubou showed signs of life and also Ilnur seems to be going better at every race so who knows, maybe they'll keep my team inside the top 100 :rolleyes:
 
The leader's jersey of Coppi e Bartali remains in my team after an outstanding effort by Hamilton. I am hopeful he can achieve a nice GC result here. Cattaneo finished with the chasing group and is now 9th on the GC. Robert Stannard was dropped, but he didn't finish too far down and perhaps he could still profit from his fast sprinter legs on another stage to score some points and move up a couple positions.
 
I think we got it.

My team for E3 BinckBank Classic:
Lars Boom
Søren Kragh Andersen
Matteo Trentin
Alberto Bettiol
Stefan Küng
Luke Rowe

Certainly six very interesting riders. I'm not sure they'll all finish in the top 6, though. It's a pretty strong field.

I have fewest expectations for Küng but on a good day they all have the potential for a top 10 (not at the same time, unfortunately).

For Gent-Wevelgem it looks like Bettiol will be on the sideline. I have quite an all-right substitue in MvdP, though.

Meanwhile, it's not going well in Catalunya at all. I still hope Gibbons might snatch a stage but he seems to be a lot worse now than earlier in the season. Reichenbach seems to be a complete bust overall. Óscar Rodríguez is set for a spot in the top 25 and a few points that will bring his total into positive territory already. I'm satisfied with him and hope that he will get more points when the smaller Spanish stage races start rolling later in the spring. Chaves is still not getting any points but I remain hopeful about him. Spilak abandoned for some reason, while Bakelants, Atapuma and De Clercq are not doing anything useful - at least not for me (De Clercq was in the break yesterday but it was evident that he is not at his former level yet).
 
Good thing only 6 guys have Adam Yates, He looks like he could well be the best expensive pick this year and be quite important. With Simons explosion last year and the identical-twin-thing many others besides me must have been very tempted to go with him this year, for instance instead of boring and fragile Porte, but in the end luckily not many took the gamble on the genes and gambled on Porte not getting ill or crashing all the time instead. What were we thinking...
 
MADRAZO said:
Good thing only 6 guys have Adam Yates, He looks like he could well be the best expensive pick this year and be quite important.
Yep.

Nicosix (1) Nibali, EBH, Kelderman, Trentin; no Aru
Googolplex (3) Ewan, Nibali, Gaviria, Zakarin
Blues in the bottle (4) Porte, Ewan, Gaviria, Küng
Object (6) Porte, Nibali, Gaviria, MvdP, Zakarin
Carlo Algatrensig (21) Landa, Kelderman, Gaviria, Zakarin, Barguil, Bouhanni
AlyKaptan (56) Groenewegen, Mas, Nibali, Gaviria, van Aert, Zakarin
 
MADRAZO said:
Good thing only 6 guys have Adam Yates, He looks like he could well be the best expensive pick this year and be quite important. With Simons explosion last year and the identical-twin-thing many others besides me must have been very tempted to go with him this year, for instance instead of boring and fragile Porte, but in the end luckily not many took the gamble on the genes and gambled on Porte not getting ill or crashing all the time instead. What were we thinking...

Ended up going with Porte over Yates thinking Adam might end up on dom duty for Simon

Also, fair to say I regret going for EBH over Van Aert right now, but I guess that still has potential to change
 
fauniera said:
MADRAZO said:
Good thing only 6 guys have Adam Yates, He looks like he could well be the best expensive pick this year and be quite important.
Yep.

Nicosix (1) Nibali, EBH, Kelderman, Trentin; no Aru
Googolplex (3) Ewan, Nibali, Gaviria, Zakarin
Blues in the bottle (4) Porte, Ewan, Gaviria, Küng
Object (6) Porte, Nibali, Gaviria, MvdP, Zakarin
Carlo Algatrensig (21) Landa, Kelderman, Gaviria, Zakarin, Barguil, Bouhanni
AlyKaptan (56) Groenewegen, Mas, Nibali, Gaviria, van Aert, Zakarin


None have Bernal or Quintana then
 
Bettiol scored a nice amount of points today, but almost everyone has him. Not many points for me besides that.

My teams for the races this weekend:

G-W:
Venturini
Cortina
Küng
Affini
Halvorsen
Rowe
Walscheid
Theuns
Gaviria
Vliegen

Classic Loire Atlantique:
Gaudu
Rudy Barbier

Cholet - Pays de la Loire:
Bouhanni
Gaudu
Barbier


I'm not expecting many points. I will have to hope for a nice score in Coppi e Bartali!
 
I'm not going to be matching those that have Yates, Bernal, Quintana etc for points, but I can be very happy with the way some of my younger picks are going. Schachmann just keeps giving me more and more reasons to be cheerful, not least because he is a proper racer. What a ride today ... and though he has been out-gunned by the stellar field of climbers for GC, he has managed a 2nd, 4th and a win this week ... and looks set for decent green jersey points.
Van Aert is out-performing my expectations so far ... he's another real racer. Hirschi was very impressive today too.

If I add Philipsen, Pogacar, Oomen and Ciccone (and Dunbar when he recovers) ... I reckon I'm in for an exciting season.