The 2021 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[fuiers]

Strade:

Bernal
Foss
Ala
Pidcock
Buchmann

 

[Karaev1]

Not picking Vansevenant might be the biggest mistake I've done for this season.... He was so cheap and was on my shortlist but somehow I managed to leave him out.

 

[Total Package]

Not picking Vansevenant might be the biggest mistake I've done for this season.... He was so cheap and was on my shortlist but somehow I managed to leave him out.

I took out Vansevenant and Bagioli for Gaviria and someone else when it turned out I was a couple of points over the budget

 

[armchairclimber]

I get the feeling that some of the riders on my team aren't taking their roles seriously and I may have to have stern words with them. Yes Messrs Gaviria and Sagan, I am looking at you. And Julian, what were you thinking with that show of bravado last weekend. Stop showing off, knuckle down and get some points.

There's a good chance for redemption at Strade.

And Peter, you'd better not mess about any more. I'd like to see some points from T-A next week.

On the bright side, I should have the odd bumper week this year when Sagan and Alaphilippe are both going at it. Hopefully the Tirreno Adriatic is where it'll start.

 

[fuiers]

Not bad at Strade. 2nd, 3rd and 5th and maybe some random points with Foss & Buchmann.

 

[postmanhat]

Can't imagine anyone will have a stronger team than that?

Am also missing Sagan, and Evenepoel. And now also Moscon, who's injured. Very annoying as he was looking pretty lively last weekend. So I'm left with..

Pidcock
Bardet
Yates
Bernal
Buchmann
Calmejane
Wellens

A few potential top ten placings there, but nothing more given the strength of the field

Two in the top 5 was the most I could have hoped for. Shame about Wellens. He was in the chasing group, then disappeared. Maybe he got a puncture?

On to tomorrow's three races

Monserre - Just Dupont, but he 'll hopefully go well in a relatively weak field

Artigianato - Ciccone, Vansevant, S.Yates, Lastra, Mareczko. Would hope that the first two make the top ten at least

Paris-Nice - Pollit, De Plus, Trentin, F.Vermeersch, Jansen, Laporte, Latour, Vanmarcke, Van Der Hoorn. Quite a few classics riders getting some miles in, and Latour. Not expecting too much. Especially as nearly all the rest of my team seem to be riding Tirreno

 

[BlueRoads]

Monseré - nobody
Arti... Romo, Vansevenant, Mollema, Ayuso
P-N - Schachmann, Politt, Powless, Kruijswijk, Lutsenko, Lucas Hamilton, Latour.

 

[Northerner]

Vansevenant is looking like a big miss. I had him in an early draft as well, no idea why I went with Postlberger in the end but not him.

 

[BlueRoads]

I suppose there won't be any real misses this year, in the sense of "guy you needed to have to win". There are so many possibilities to get great results, it's going to be about the best mixture, I think.

 

[BlueRoads]

This week went well, but since many people have the riders who brought me the points plus other riders I don't have, I am expecting a mildly okay result.

For Tirreno I am cheering for: Higuita, Bernal, Sivakov, Thomas, Bardet. Those are very good options for the GC points. Unless the race UAEs.

 

[Koronin]

GP Industria & Artigianto

When the heck did Movistar change their line up for this race and put Valverde in this one? He wasn't on the lineup for as of Friday. For points, nice he raced since he managed a top 10. Nice surprise. Should have some semi decent top 10 points from Landa, Rodriguez, and Valverde combined.

 

[postmanhat]

Mollema seems to be on a mission to hammer in the fact that I missed him completely. Tempered slightly by having Vansevant. To be honest, that was a little lucky. It could have been any one of a number of Belgian Van-neo pros this year. In the end it simply came down to him being the only I'd seen on TV, and figuring that he'd probably get quite a few opportunities at DQS. As it is, he's massively exceeded expectations, and not too sure what his points limit might be now?

Dupont continues his steady points haul with a 3rd at Monserre.

 

[fuiers]

Mollema seems to be on a mission to hammer in the fact that I missed him completely. Tempered slightly by having Vansevant. To be honest, that was a little lucky. It could have been any one of a number of Belgian Van-neo pros this year. In the end it simply came down to him being the only I'd seen on TV, and figuring that he'd probably get quite a few opportunities at DQS. As it is, he's massively exceeded expectations, and not too sure what his points limit might be now?

Dupont continues his steady points haul with a 3rd at Monserre.

Only Mollema could go on and get his best results early on to the season and then get nothing at all for the rest of the year.

 

[adamski101]

Ok kind of week with Van der Poel winning and some of my more rare picks like Madouas and Hailu picking up some points. Bernal and Pidcock scored well, but then most have them. Missing out on Mollema and Vansevenant could prove costly.

For Paris-Nice

Jungels
O'Connor
Gaudu
Kruijswijk
De Plus
Politt
Laporte
Vanmarcke
Jacobs
Cavagna

Hopefully Gaudu, Kruijswijk, O'Connor and perhaps Jungels will be up there on GC. Laporte may pick up some points in sprints and Cavagna in the TT.

Tirenno-Adriactico

Van der Poel
Sagan
Madouas
Higuita
Bernal
Thomas
Sivakov
Terpstra
Gaviria
Hodeg

Should be some decent GC points on offer and Van der Poel will no doubt get a good result or two. Hoping that Gaviria and Hodeg can show some signs of life. Sagan, first race, so no expectations, just pleased to see him back.

 

[Koronin]

Tirenno-Adriactico

Landa
Colbrelli
Asgreen
Higuita
Cortina
Soler
Serrano
Arndt
Gaviria


Well, there is hope for some points. Maybe Gaviria, Cortina, or Colbrelli can manage some stage points and Landa and Higuita some good GC points. This is Soler's first race of the season, who knows what kind of shape he's in.

 

[skidmark]

Only Mollema could go on and get his best results early on to the season and then get nothing at all for the rest of the year.

Mollema is one of the most consistently high placing riders of the past 20 years, aside from when he misses time due to injuries. So that statement would apply to almost anyone in the peloton more than him. He does have a higher than average serious crash rate though, so that does add some variance. But the fact that he's starting the season with two wins and a second place is actually quite an overachievement for him historically, I'd have expected some 4th-10th places but this is beyond what I expected when I picked him.

 

[SafeBet]

I suppose there won't be any real misses this year, in the sense of "guy you needed to have to win". There are so many possibilities to get great results, it's going to be about the best mixture, I think.

On paper, I agree with you. I knew from the start there would be a lot of riders I didn't pick having a great season.
But someone like Vansevenant was so cheap that you could fit him in any team regardless of your strategy. If he manages to score 1000 points he will be a game changer.

I salute whoever picked him.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Mollema is one of the most consistently high placing riders of the past 20 years, aside from when he misses time due to injuries. So that statement would apply to almost anyone in the peloton more than him. He does have a higher than average serious crash rate though, so that does add some variance. But the fact that he's starting the season with two wins and a second place is actually quite an overachievement for him historically, I'd have expected some 4th-10th places but this is beyond what I expected when I picked him.

So this got me thinking about a way to evaluate consistency in a CQ context to see how rare Mollema consistency really is. I remember looking at his page when building my team and thinking you just don't see that kind of streak of 4 digit seasons outside of the best dozen or so riders in the world. So I ranked riders based on their lowest annual score for the following periods (no 2020 because covid obviously, and I took three samples so I can't be accused of cherry-picking): 2015-2019, 2013-2019, 2011-2019.

By that measure Mollema is 7th, 6th and 4th (top 10 for each period included below for those that are curious about the results). So upon closer scrutiny, even Mollema's crashes haven't been able to slow him down substantially. Looking at the names around him (with the exception of a random Majka sighting) he really stands out as a tier (or two) below everybody else which in a way is even more impressive. Unlike the other guys on the list he can't just turn it on for two weeks, blitz his way to 500+ points and hide a "down" year, he is truly grinding his way to 1000 points every single year and he's done so for a decade which nobody else can match really.

So hopefully this post will give people a new appreciation for Mollema when they watch him this summer somehow hang on to the last spot in the GC group for about 8 kilometers after he looks cooked and he toils his way to 7th in Paris. It might not be "blow all the best riders of my wheel to win the biggest race in the world" special but it's definitely its own brand of special and it's worth enjoying and saluting too.

Spoiler: 2015-2019

VALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro 1828
VAN AVERMAET Greg 1639
SAGAN Peter 1582
KRISTOFF Alexander 1253
QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander 1118
MATTHEWS Michael 971
MOLLEMA Bauke 958
PINOT Thibaut 861
ALAPHILIPPE Julian 826
THOMAS Geraint 795

Spoiler: 2013-2019

VALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro 1828
SAGAN Peter 1582
VAN AVERMAET Greg 1311
KRISTOFF Alexander 1192
QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander 1118
MOLLEMA Bauke 958
GILBERT Philippe 777
MAJKA Rafal 773
THOMAS Geraint 704
BARDET Romain 703

Spoiler: 2011-2019

SAGAN Peter 1582
VAN AVERMAET Greg 793
GILBERT Philippe 777
MOLLEMA Bauke 724
NIBALI Vincenzo 693
COSTA Rui Alberto Faria 578
MARTIN Daniel 526
DEGENKOLB John 520
ULISSI Diego 483
FUGLSANG Jakob 482

 

[skidmark]

Update #6: When your CQ score's high from that cheap QuickStep guy, that's a Mauri

Another week, another top score approaching 4 digits. While last year's week-to-week updates were unique for combining a grab bag of races that normally are not close in the calendar to each other, this year's updates are whiplash-inspiring by the number of points teams are getting even in relatively 'down' weeks. Strade Bianche is bigger in our hearts than it is in CQ points, and "two 1.PS races in Italy, two 1.1 races in Belgium, and 1 stage of Paris-Nice" is hardly an exceptional backing cast. But the big suspicion going into the year - that the sheer affordability of top riders would mean lots of riders on teams would be snagging top spots every week - is already showing us what that actually looks like. And it looks like some monster weeks.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Otoxiep87	975
2	Bicycle_Boy	921
3	SafeBet	871
4	trackstand	848
5	EvansIsTheBest	841

With two top placings in the non-Strade Bianche Italian races this week, Bauke Mollema scores 222 points for 386 on the season and somehow first place in the year's CQ rankings! Props for a guy who's always there or thereabouts to get his moment in the sun. And with 33 teams owning him, a lot of owners have to be pleased. But similarly highly placing in the Italian races and getting a much higher return on investment is young Belgian Mauri Vansevenant, getting 196 points on the week to get to 246 on the season, for a cost of fifteen points! His 28 owners must be quite pleased, and we are just getting started on the season. Unsurprisingly, the winner of the week has them both. Otoxiep87 rides the success of these two, good points from near unanimous picks Bernal (170 points) and Pidcock (70), and 108 from Julian Alaphilippe (27 teams), to end up at almost 1000 points. CQ included Bol's 45 points from Monday's Paris-Nice stage, but Otoxiep87 would have had the week regardless. Bicycle Boy gets a great haul for second place, and being the owner of the rare combination of Van der Poel, Van Aert, and Alaphilippe (now THAT is a big CQ game swing! Props for that), their team is primed to have some giant weeks, despite being one of the few teams without Bernal. BB also has Mollema, Sam Bennett (61 points), and the other QuickStep guy that cost 15 points, Mark Cavendish (48 points). I just want to take a moment here to recognize the ridiculous of QuickStep, winning two of the races on Sunday and getting 2nd in the other race. SafeBet lands in third place, rounding out the podium.

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	EvansIsTheBest	(+25)
2	Josedin	(+23)
3	Bicycle_Boy	(+22)
4	BlueRoads	(+21)
5	Rebecops	(+18)

A bit of a different list on this ranking. EITB takes the top spot here, moving up 25 spots with a big 3 of Mollema/Vansevenant/Bernal. Josedin lands in second, as one of only 3 teams to benefit from Tim Merlier's two wins this week (160 points), and Bicycle Boy manages both podiums this week.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Hugo Koblet	122.67
2	Otoxiep87	98
3	Jon_Ezeitza	80
4	Devils_Elbow	75
5	Northerner	72

Otoxiep87 narrows Hugo's lead here with the 45 points for the win, although Hugo did pick up 4 points for a top 15 placing. Jon Ezeitza picks up 18 points this week and Northerner picks up 6, tightening things slightly at the top.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(+3)	​ Otoxiep87	2618
2	(-1)	Northerner	2502
3	(-1)	Hugo Koblet	2488
4	(+6)	Object	2270
5	(+5)	Jon_Ezeitza	2266
6	(-3)	manafana	2255
7	(+13)	SafeBet	2227
8	(-1)	Nakazar	2203
9	(+12)	trackstand	2194
10	(+6)	Fivezzz	2185

Hugo Koblet and Northerner were very close at the top last week, and in fact this week they were very close as well, with Northerner edging out Hugo 713-711 for the week. But Otoxiep87's monster week leapfrogs them both, putting their team handily in the lead by over 100 points. Some big shakeup lower down, with teams moving around the top 10, and SafeBet, trackstand and Fivezzz jumping in, and Squire, Total Package, shalgo and skidmark tumbling out (last week had a tie for 10th so we lose 4 and gain 3).

This week is always a treat for cycling fans to watch with overlapping stages of Paris-Nice and Tirenno-Adriatico (and an extra treat for some this year I'm sure, as it's comforting to get back to that annual rhythm after it was interrupted last year). But in fact it's quite a simple week for CQ points, as these are the only points on offer, and T-A doesn't give GC points until next week. I used to feel like Paris-Nice was the start of the cycling season, back before I really understood the significance of Opening Weekend and before the CQ game made me obsessed with every single point and therefore all the smaller opening season races. But however you measure it, by the time Paris-Nice rolls around, the season is truly started.

Spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[BlueRoads]

Skidmark, I have been wondering a bit about the names of some of the youngsters, mostly. Maybe I made some mistakes there. I already suspected that, and since Javier Romo scored his first 5 points this week, I checked... and
he did not score any in your table, probably because I used his PCS name, whereas on cqranking he's Romo Oliver Javier. I also have Juan Ayuso instead of Ayuso Pesquera Juan, Harold Tejada instead of Tejada Canacue Harold Alfonso ... Since according to the pop table 5 people have Juan Ayuso I'm probably not the only one. Is there a way to sort this out?

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Ayuso has no points this year, so that won't make any difference to anyone yet. There are 5 teams (Bicycle Boy, BlueRoads, bminchow, Nakazar and Yellow Knight) that might suffer from it in time.

Romo Oliver has 8 that are missing from BlueRoads and Blues in the Bottle, and BR is also short by 12 from Tejada.
Bonimenier is 5 points light from typing "Laruens" De Plus,as is Scrooll07 from missing the accent in Théo Delacroix. Lortnoc went the other way, and put an accent on the i in Marti Vigo del Arco, which might become relevant if he enters a race.

With all the work Skidmark puts in, though, he might just be justified in penalising the entrants for carelessness in their entry submission.

 

[BlueRoads]

Ayuso has no points this year, so that won't make any difference to anyone yet. There are 5 teams (Bicycle Boy, BlueRoads, bminchow, Nakazar and Yellow Knight) that might suffer from it in time.

Romo Oliver has 8 that are missing from BlueRoads and Blues in the Bottle, and BR is also short by 12 from Tejada.
Bonimenier is 5 points light from typing "Laruens" De Plus,as is Scrooll07 from missing the accent in Théo Delacroix. Lortnoc went the other way, and put an accent on the i in Marti Vigo del Arco, which might become relevant if he enters a race.

With all the work Skidmark puts in, though, he might just be justified in penalising the entrants for carelessness in their entry submission.

Yes, I can understand it's my fault and I'm not applying to get these points that have been scored so far. But I'd love to change the names now.

 

[Kazistuta]

Nice Dean Martin reference, Skidmark!!

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Yes, I can understand it's my fault and I'm not applying to get these points that have been scored so far. But I'd love to change the names now.

The way the spreadsheet works, you'll get all the points for the year when such changes are made. I probably didn't mean to come across as ruthless as I may have done (unless you are one of my pupils, in which case I am an unforgiving ogre).

 

[BlueRoads]

The way the spreadsheet works, you'll get all the points for the year when such changes are made. I probably didn't mean to come across as ruthless as I may have done (unless you are one of my pupils, in which case I am an unforgiving ogre).

No, my pupil days are over. (Although with homeschooling it doesn't feel that way.)