The 2019 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

I can say I am a huge mistake with my team.

Rough week indeed .

Yes, very rough week. Worst part I actually have a handful of guys who are doing excellent.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

I can say I am a huge mistake with my team.

Rough week indeed .

Yes, very rough week. Worst part I actually have a handful of guys who are doing excellent.

Maybe it would have been an idea for you to not waste half your budget on two ageing GC riders of which one was the most expensive rider in the game and then buy 28 domestiques alongside Landa, Coquard and Bettiol.

I didn't want to say it but now that you keep reminding us every day how badly it's going for your team, I changed my mind.

 

[SafeBet]

I'm happy with my most expensive picks thus far.
Bernal is looking like the stud I thought he would be. Nibali seems on track for a solid if unspectacular year and WvA/MvdP are incredibly exciting.

I'm just worried about Bernal's schedule, the latest news have him riding Tour after the Giro. There's no way he will score 2000 points with that schedule, while I think it's doable if he takes some time off after the Giro and comes back for the Vuelta and the Italian fall Classics.

 

[Salvarani]

A reflection on my team... I think I made too many picks in the 300-100 point range. I probably would have needed one more real GC threat alongside Landa on my team (now that Landa also missed some races in which he probably would have scored some points). Someone out of Bernal, Quintana and Adam Yates would have probably done it. I think I even may have had Adam on an early draft for my team, smh.

So far some of them 300-100 picks have been really good though. Some picks dont seem amount to much so far. Everyone makes some bad picks though.

I´ll need Trentin and Ewan to have great seasons and Landa tearing it up in Giro/Tour to really stay close to the position Im in, I think. Doing a lot better than last year, so thats good at least.


This week... looking okay. I have 3 riders in the top 10 of Settimana Bartoli (hopefully they will keep these positions), and then Trentin + Bettiol scoring some points in the classics. Gibbons 3rd place on a stage in Catalunya. Hopefully it wont be too far off the players with Bernal, Quintana and so on.

 

[Tonton]

Re: Re:

Maybe it would have been an idea for you to not waste half your budget on two ageing GC riders of which one was the most expensive rider in the game and then buy 28 domestiques alongside Landa, Coquard and Bettiol.

I didn't want to say it but now that you keep reminding us every day how badly it's going for your team, I changed my mind.

. I don't think that Pinot is aging, and The Don has the gift of eternal youth after all.

What's weird is how weeks with little expectations turn out great (last week 529 points), and this one is likely to be horrid.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Maybe it would have been an idea for you to not waste half your budget on two ageing GC riders of which one was the most expensive rider in the game and then buy 28 domestiques alongside Landa, Coquard and Bettiol.

I didn't want to say it but now that you keep reminding us every day how badly it's going for your team, I changed my mind.

. I don't think that Pinot is aging, and The Don has the gift of eternal youth after all.

What's weird is how weeks with little expectations turn out great (last week 529 points), and this one is likely to be horrid.

It was Koronin's team with Nibali and Valverde I was referring to.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Maybe it would have been an idea for you to not waste half your budget on two ageing GC riders of which one was the most expensive rider in the game and then buy 28 domestiques alongside Landa, Coquard and Bettiol.

I didn't want to say it but now that you keep reminding us every day how badly it's going for your team, I changed my mind.

. I don't think that Pinot is aging, and The Don has the gift of eternal youth after all.

What's weird is how weeks with little expectations turn out great (last week 529 points), and this one is likely to be horrid.

It was Koronin's team with Nibali and Valverde I was referring to.

I'm not too worried about Nibali. Knew he'd be a big risk due to his injury. However, I still think he'll end up getting more points that last year as he SHOULD have at least one GT with better results than last year.

My two big problems are Valverde, who for whatever reason has backed off on his racing this year and Kiryienka who's got some health issue that has kept him from racing and likely will for a while longer. Those two were my huge mistakes. I'm not considering Nibali a mistake yet. I'm also not considering Landa a mistake yet either.

 

[tobydawq]

Kiryienka is also a domestique. Where would he have gotten points without his disease?

How could Valverde have bettered his points total from last season?

I also have Nibali, and he can still come good. Landa looks very promising, hopefully he will be injury free. Bettiol is nice but also a must-have due to his price. I think those are the only three riders we share apart from the free Evenepoel.

 

[Salvarani]

Some very welcome points from Barbier and Bauhaus today. Shaping up to be a good week after all.

 

[Koronin]

He may have gotten some points in some early season races or classics. However, not racing at all is certainly not helping matter.

There were a few places for Valverde to get more points than last year, specifically LBL and Lombardia and a higher GT finish. What I didn't expect was a much lower motivation going into this season.

I think Landa will be fine if he can stop getting hurt.

 

[Simurgh]

With the coming of a classics-heavy month and a lot of riders peaking for Pais Vasco, cobbles or Ardennes, and looking at my chosen ones, I shouldn't really expect any better. Nairo (picked by 7 others besides me) has been the only positive "surprise". Most of my rare or half-rare riders haven't done too well, but that might be more of them being on domestique duty than being bad. Aru is out for 6 months, Chaves is apparently overweight, Diego Rosa still as bad as ever, and Felline/Nizzolo both not quite as good as I had hoped. It was foolish to choose someone like Sivakov (despite doing his dom duties well) and Carl Frederik Hagen, I don't know what I was thinking Oh well, season is still young!

 

[postmanhat]

Fairly terrible week for me. Lambrecht, Kung and Van Der Horn look increasingly like risky failures as picks, whilst Porte is just depressing. Still have some hope for O'Connor though and Atapuma should be a decent pick at worst.

Navardauskas and Moser haven't done anything so far, but both are team leaders for Sicilia, so I'll remain optimistic till the first hilly stage at least.

Van Der Poel a points machine so far

 

[Salvarani]

I think I might have scored 500-600 points this week, if my calculations are correct. So I gotta be happy with that. I wonder how it will stand against teams with Bernal, Quintana or Yates.

 

[armchairclimber]

Well, GW was disappointing for me .... but a cracking race. I enjoyed Catalunya even more. Schachmann is my most expensive pick and I couldn't be happier with him. 500 plus for me this week ... not awesome, but it should keep me in the running.

 

[tobydawq]

I thought my week was awful but I think I got 600 points anyway (my count was at 599 but I'm not sure of the exact amount of fivers throughout the races). It was saved by a good Gent-Wevelgem with MvdP, Trentin, Kragh, Küng and Rowe all in the top 20.

Last week I had a similar feeling but I jumped a lot of places from 32 to 14 anyway. I'm not expecting a similar jump but am prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

 

[skidmark]

Well the update isn't out yet, but I feel like I had my most positive week yet in terms of diversity of results. My stage racers continue to suffer with O'Connor crashing and Lambrecht sucking, but at least Atapuma got off the board with a few dozen (and Zakarin added a few). Bauhaus' second place is both not really enough points and his best showing of the season so far. So I'll take it.

My one day guys shone. Barbier got over 100 points from 2 French races, Coquard got 2nd in one of the races, Bouhanni had 2 okay showings this week, Nizzolo and Halvorsen picked up a few more, Bettiol got 4th in E3 and vdP got 4th and confirmed his classics potential in G-W (his navigation of the sprint was crazy to watch - he basically stopped pedalling for about two seconds, then found a few openings to dive through and passed a bunch of guys in the closing meters). So I've gotta be happy with that, my team was 104th two weeks ago and hopefully this is the start of a long climb.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Looking forward to the next update. I think my week went pretty well with several big scores from popular and less popular picks, and also plenty lesser scores. Would be nice to move up some more places

Tour of Thailand
Imerio Cima

An opportunity to score some sprint points. On the first stage he was a leadout for Lonardi and still finished 4th, hopefully he'll be allowed to sprint for himself as well at some point.

Dwars door Vlaanderen
Alberto Bettiol
Edward Theuns
Ivan Garcia Cortina
Fernando Gaviria
Stefan Küng
Edoardo Affini
Robert Stannard
Luke Rowe
Kristoffer Halvorsen
Max Walscheid
Loïc Vliegen

A lot of names but also a lot of uncertainties. With a bit of luck I could score a nice amount of points I guess.

Route Adélie de Vitré and La Roue Tourangelle
Rudy Barbier

Looked good this week, I am hopeful he can score more points here.

Giro di Sicilia
Mattia Cattaneo
Vincenzo Albanese

Not expecting anything here. Etna should be too tough for both and Albanese hasn't shown anything so far anyway.

Tour de Langkawi
TBC but probably no one

GP Miguel Indurain
Lucas Hamilton
Robert Stannard
Alexandr Riabushenko

Hamilton is obviously in good shape and Stannard and Riabushenko have a good sprint and can get over a hill. Races like this one are always a bit of a lottery but I see some opportunities.

Ronde Van Vlaanderen
Alberto Bettiol
Ivan Garcia Cortina
Stefan Küng
Luke Rowe
Edward Theuns
Fernando Gaviria
Loïc Vliegen

It's not a terrible lineup, but obviously, I don't have big expectations. If I have 1 in the top-10 it'd be an excellent result.

 

[fauniera]

Giro di Sicilia
Mattia Cattaneo
Vincenzo Albanese

Not expecting anything here. Etna should be too tough for both and Albanese hasn't shown anything so far anyway.

The field is weak, Cattaneo has to be one of the favorites here.

I have Celano in my team for exactly this sort of races, but he has been a disaster so far.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Giro di Sicilia
Mattia Cattaneo
Vincenzo Albanese

Not expecting anything here. Etna should be too tough for both and Albanese hasn't shown anything so far anyway.

The field is weak, Cattaneo has to be one of the favorites here.

I have Celano in my team for exactly this sort of races, but he has been a disaster so far.

You are right, but even on Androni I can see two or three who could do better. He isn't very strong on longer climbs. Of course , I wouldn't mind a good result

 

[skidmark]

Update #12: Former Winners Make Their Mark

It was a dizzying week of action, with classics season in full swing, Catalunya stages every day, as well as Coppi e Bartali. It's also the end of March, so we're going to recap the monthly leaders. Let's get to it!

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this week
1 ruvu75 946
2 fauniera 897
3 TheArt 894
4 Googolplex 885
5 Lortnoc 880

Last year's winner ruvu75 gets top spot this week with almost 1000 points from the likes of (in descending order of points) Trentin, Gaviria, Barbier, Bouhanni, Bettiol, Landa, Halvorsen and several riders scoring a few dozen. 2017's winner fauniera comes in second place, with 897 from a slightly different makeup to ruvu (including Bernal and van der Poel but not Trentin or Halvorsen from the list above, as well as fewer small scoring riders). TheArt, another high finisher last year, with essentially the same top scorers as ruvu minus Halvorsen.

This Week's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 skidmark (+33)
2 fauniera (+26)
3 NorthAmericanScum (+24)
4 Lortnoc (+23)
4 will10 (+23)

Another former winner tops the charts on this one, as team skidmark rockets up the charts a bit 33 spots. As much as I'm happy to see my name in lights, it could only be there because the team was starting from low down - before a 22-spot jump last week, it was in the bottom 10 overall. fauniera is the bridesmaid here again but likely won't be complaining too much after moving up 26 spots, and NorthAmericanScum rounds out the podium with a 24 spot leap.

This Month's Top Scorers

Rank Team Points this Month
1 Googolplex 2057
2 Popchu 2029
3 AlyKaptan 1951
4 Lortnoc 1863
5 Joelsim 1835

Last week's winner and this week's 4th place, perhaps unsurprisingly Googolplex has the most cumulative points in March. When you're one of 6 owners of Adam Yates and he gets 574 points on the month, it's no wonder. But 2057 points is a whole lot more than just one rider, and Googolplex has Bettiol, Gaviria, Nibali, Barbier and Halvorsen all scoring over 100 on the month. Popchu is close behind on the month, with the Bernal/Quintana combo providing almost 800 points between them, unique pick Lutsenko contributing 193, and some familiar faces like Bettiol/Gaviria/Nibali. AlyKaptan doesn't break the 2000 point barrier, but still scores almost 2000 points(!) with an even more top-heavy lineup; Yates, Van Aert and Groenwegen provide over 1200 this month between the 3 of them.

This Month's High Movers

Rank Team Up/down
1 AlyKaptan (+71)
2 Lortnoc (+56)
3 karaev (+52)
4 Joelsim (+51)
5 SafeBet (+49)

The aforementioned AlyKaptan makes a huge move up the charts in March, rising 71 of a possible 109 spots. Lortnoc and karaev do pretty well as well to claim the other spots on the podium and a mention in this update.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank Team Total
1 Googolplex 144
2 Popchu 118
3 TheArt 104
4 Nicosix 103
5 MADRAZO 95
5 just_some_guy 95

Googolplex breaks a short-lived tie for 1st overall with Popchu by having another outstanding week, their team's 4th week in the top 4 scorers this season. Elsewhere on the chart, TheArt uses 30 points this week to leapfrog several teams into 3rd overall. No other points in the top 5 overall this week.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (+1) Popchu 3514
2 (+1) Googolplex 3473
3 (-2) Nicosix 3463
4 (+5) TheArt 3365
5 (+1) Object 3253
6 (+5) Salvarani 3213
7 (-2) MADRAZO 3208
8 (+15) ruvu75 3202
9 (-2) shalgo 3179
10 (-) bminchow 3157

Some shuffling around on the overall leaderboard this week, and in the end that shuffling sees Popchu emerge on top by 41 points over Googolplex, and by 51 over last week's leader Nicosix. Salvarani and ruvu75 enter the top 10, while Blues in the bottle and Amis Velo fall out.
Spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[armchairclimber]

Thanks Skidmark. Quite a week when you score nigh on 500 points and drop over 20 places. Not worried though. Early days.

 

[Salvarani]

Re:

I think I might have scored 500-600 points this week, if my calculations are correct. So I gotta be happy with that. I wonder how it will stand against teams with Bernal, Quintana or Yates.

My calculations were off a bit... I scored 835 points last week

Thanks for the update!

 

[Koronin]

Thanks for the update.

My unique pick of Nicholas Schultz is having a fabulous season. My two very low popularity picks of Simone Petilli and Marco Mathis are having very nice seasons as well.

 

[Tigerion]

Well that week was better than expected, only dropped 2 places. Langeveld into profit and more points for my expensive picks

 

[SafeBet]

Gained 49 spots in the month of March, when my top picks finally started racing (and delivering).
What's concerning about my team is the lack of points from the 200-400 range picks.

Zakarin has been ok, but I sure was expecting a big leap in performance from last year, which didn't happen. I can't see him going above 600 points, unless he improves dramatically during the GTs.
Aru won't race for at least 3 months and who knows if he'll ever be a pro again.
Lambrecht and McNulty are performing below my expectations, but they're very young and could possibly turn it around in the next few weeks already.
Chaves, Kittel and Felline were risky picks to begin with and they look very far from their best years.

Next week might be interesting though.

Dwars Door Vlaanderen
Van der Poel
Bettiol
Theuns
Cortina
Van Asbroeck
I have a feeling DQS will destroy this race and finish with 3 in the top5 or something like that. Hopefully MvdP and/or Bettiol can keep up and get a podium spot.

Ronde
Same lineup + Van Aert. I wouldn't complain about one of my CX sensations winning this race

Giro di Sicilia
McNulty
This is a weak field, McNulty didn't look particularly good in Oman but he should be among the best here.

French .1 one day races
Touze
Banaszek
Touze should be working for Hofstetter and Banaszek has been a train wreck, so no expectations whatsoever.

Tour of Thailand
Torres
One of those races I had in mind when picking this guy. Hopefully he's healthy.