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The 2021 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

Page 23 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Normally I forget fairly early in the season who I have selected, and no-one else need worry about who I have. Butmy state of being surprised at the non-mediocrity of my team might extend into the TdF.

ALAPHILIPPE Julian
BUCHMANN Emanuel
FORMOLO Davide
FROOME Chris
GESBERT Elie
IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI Ion
KRUIJSWIJK Steven
LAPORTE Christophe
LATOUR Pierre
MOLLEMA Bauke
POLITT Nils
SAGAN Peter
THOMAS Geraint
VAN AVERMAET Greg
VALGREN HUNDAHL Michael
 
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Last couple of weeks have been good for me, but I'm not expecting too much points in the TdF.

Peter Sagan
Alejandro Valverde
Greg Van Avermaet
Geraint Thomas
Alexey Lutsenko
Sonny Colbrelli
Oliver Naesen
Philippe Gilbert
Mike Teunissen
Emanuel Buchmann
Nils Politt
Steven Kruijswijk
Amund Grondahl Jansen
Chris Froome

Pretty much the same for me. Last couple of weeks have seen me move into the top ten, but the Tour will be damage limitation at best. Most of my big misses are riding (Thomas, Gaudu, Mollema, SK), and It'll need a fairly fortunate combination of circumstances for this team to gain even a few hundred points

S.Yates
Latour
Buchmann
Higuita
Colbrelli
Sagan
Laporte
Jansen
Pollit
Formolo
 
Update #22: Green Jersey switches hands and mineralJ wins a photo finish for the week

The Tour has begun! As mentioned in last week's update, though, that means that most of the rest of the calendar is cleared for the biggest event of the year, so with only the first couple of Tour stages and two 1.1 races this week, there were a lot of teams that didn't score much. Still, a few teams rose to the occasion.

(sidenote: I never really looked into the comparison of Tour stage points with 1.1 points, but it's interesting how they differ, with 80 points for a win in each, but 80-48-40-36-32 for the top 5 in 1 day races, and 80-50-35-25-15 in Tour stages. Anyway, just a tidbit I noticed)

This Week's Top Scorers

RankTeamPoints this week
1mineralJ403
2SafeBet402
3Bicycle_Boy383
4ChrisDK370
5search334

The slimmest of wins this week for mineralJ, ekeing out a victory over SafeBet by 1 point. mineralJ is powered by a great week from unique pick Ben Hermans, who got a win and a placing in the 1.1 races for 120 points total. This was in tandem with 125 points for the more popular Alaphilippe (27 teams) in the Tour's opening weekend, 85 points from the other 1.1 race winner Moscon (39 teams), and some smaller support points. SafeBet had Moscon and Alaphilippe and 145 from the other opening weekend Tour star MvdP (145 points, 9 teams), but had less support from riders scoring fewer points and so couldn't overtake mineralJ. Bicycle Boy nabs third on the week.

This Week's High Movers

RankTeamUp/down
1mineralJ(+9)
2SafeBet(+7)
2Jakob747(+7)
4Crevaison(+6)
4ChrisDK(+6)

mineralJ's high points total converts to a second weekly win here, moving up 9 spots. SafeBet gets second again, although sharing it this time with Jakob747. Interesting that mineralJ's lead in the number of spots moved up on the chart (9 to 7) was greater than their team's lead in points scored (403 to 402).

Green Jersey Competition

RankTeamTotal
1Otoxiep87204
2Hugo Koblet198.67
3Boris98168.67
4Jon_Ezeitza156
5postmanhat146

After many weeks at the top, Hugo Koblet's lead here finally slips. Otoxiep87 scores 14 points this week to leapfrog into first overall, cracking the 200 point barrier in the competition. Hugo drops to second and Boris98 stays in third as neither score on the week, but Jon Ezeitza scores 10 points for the week to break what was formerly a tie for 4th. Lots of action a little further down as well, as mineralJ, Bicycle Boy and Northerner score points on the week to move into 6th, 7th and 9th on the overall standings.

Top 10 Overall

RankUp/downTeamPoints
1(-)10591
2(-)Object10497
3(-)Squire10465
4(-)Northerner10302
5(+1)Otoxiep8710275
6(+1)Armchair cyclist10087
7(-2)Boris9810085
8(-)Bonimenier9925
9(+4)MADRAZO9894
10(+2)tobydawq9891

No change at the very top, although Total Package loses about 100 points on 2nd-4th places but still maintains a buffer of almost 100 over Object in second. Some movement further down, with MADRAZO and tobydawq moving into the top 10 and postmanhat and Fivezzz falling out.

This week, it's all Tour all the time! A few riders in the game might get a few points from the first stages of the Sibiu Tour this weekend or some .2 races, but the spotlight is on the biggest event of the calendar.

spreadsheet at dropbox
 
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Thanks skidmark

Looking through and I finally pulled my tour team out and it is better than I had thought
YATES Simon
MATTHEWS Michael
MARTIN Tony
THOMAS Geraint
GAUDU David
HAIG Jack
BOL Cees
FROOME Chris
URAN URAN Rigoberto
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel
SCOTSON Miles
CORT Magnus
MEINTJES Louis
LUTSENKO Alexey

Some potential there
 
Update #23: The lead switches hands as Pogacar dominates

It's the second week of the Tour, with no other major races going on (although the first two stages of the Sibiu Tour are in this update as well), so the scores were fairly subdued this week. But if you've been watching the Tour, you've likely seen that it's basically Pogacar and everyone else. That's great news for the two teams that have Pogacar in this year's game despite his high price.

This Week's Top Scorers


RankTeamPoints this week
118-Valve. (pithy)253
2Londonpat235
3Blues in the bottle230
4Bicycle_Boy226
5Object215

18-Valve takes top spot this week, largely thanks to the previously mentioned Pogacar and his 155 points. Throw in 80 points that Cav got for a stage win and 15 for Sagan for placing points and that was all that was needed! Londonpat gets second without Pogacar but with some well-picked stage winners in Dylan Teuns (80 points, 18 teams) and Ben O'Connor (80, 5), as well as placing points for Sagan, Yates, and even a Fabio Aru sighting (15 points for second on a stage of the Sibiu Tour). Blues in the bottle gets the final podium spot thanks to 100 points for wearing the yellow jersey for MvdP, 80 from Cav and 50 from Philipsen.

This Week's High Movers

RankTeamUp/down
1Sneekes(+4)
1R_O_Shipman(+4)
3Galpedal(+3)
3Nakazar(+3)
3Jon_Ezeitza(+3)

Not much movement with the subdued scores, but Sneekes and R_O_Shipman share the honors (with 97 and 171 points on the week respectively, so they are not on the previous rankings!)

Green Jersey Competition

RankTeamTotal
1Otoxiep87204
2Hugo Koblet198.67
3Boris98168.67
4Jon_Ezeitza156
5Bicycle_Boy150

After a big shakeup last week, the top remains the same this week, with the exception of Bicycle Boy who steps up to the top 5 after 26 points this week.

Top 10 Overall


RankUp/downTeamPoints
1(+1)10712
2(-1)Total Package10696
3(-)Squire10608
4(+1)Otoxiep8710440
5(-1)Northerner10352
6(+1)Boris9810253
7(-1)Armchair cyclist10157
8(-)Bonimenier9991
9(+1)tobydawq9982
10(+3)Jon_Ezeitza9977

Despite the fairly low scores on the week, there was enough differentiation for Object to take over the top spot. Their team outscores Total Package 215-105 on the week, and that's enough to take the lead by 16 points. With Squire just over 100 points out of first as well and the whole top ten within a breath of 10000 points, things are tight at the top. This week is another week of only stage points at the Tour (and Jersey points for those with Pogacar), with the GC of Sibiu for counter-programming. Just as the actual viewing of the Tour has shifted to intrigue as to who gets the minor placings and wins stages, so goes the CQ game.

Spreadsheet at dropbox
 
Thanks for the update Skidmark!
Having a look at CQ I wonder if not Pogacar will become the all time highest scorer this season, and by some margin. Should he hold his yellow jersey until the end, with a handful of top ten finishes and such he will be well above 3000 points in ten days. Incredible.
 
Well he will lose the points for last year's Tour at the point at which he is given the points for this year's: they do not act on a strict calendar year, but remove each race's points as the next edition occurs (or as the anniversary passes without the new date being announced).
 
Yeah, but the thing is he already has 1878 points in 2021. And he will get 600p for the win and 200p (10x20) for being the leader. And surely he will have two or three more top three finishes with a total of approx. 200p. That's 1000p to the 1878. So maybe not well over 3000 as I wrote, but pretty close.
 
Yeah, but the thing is he already has 1878 points in 2021. And he will get 600p for the win and 200p (10x20) for being the leader. And surely he will have two or three more top three finishes with a total of approx. 200p. That's 1000p to the 1878. So maybe not well over 3000 as I wrote, but pretty close.
The highest I can think of would be the 3,235 of 2019 Roglic.
Valverde is another regular high scorer and his best was around 3,100.

So it will depend on what he does post tour.
 
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Update #24: Stage wins power Bicycle Boy's continued run

Another week of the Tour is down, and with that as the main event, this week's leaderboard involved those who scored points with high placings on stages or wearing the yellow jersey. The GC was also decided in the Sibiu Tour, so let's see how that all threw things into the mix this week.

This Week's Top Scorers

RankTeamPoints this week
1Bicycle_Boy490
2mineralJ431
3rote_laterne424
4Galpedal400
5Nakazar381

Fourth last week, and third the week before, Bicycle Boy continues a torrid run in the game, netting almost 500 points and first place this week. This is thanks almost entirely to five stage wins from 4 riders; Cavendish with 160 points from two more wins, Mollema with 115 from a win and 3rd place, Van Aert with 130 from a 1st and 2nd, and Politt with 80 for the win. A very nice week! mineralJ in second place has also seen some recent success, winning two weeks ago, although this week their team is led by 110 points from Giovanni Aleotti for a win in Romania, as well as 80 from Sepp Kuss and the aforementioned points from Mollema and Politt. rote_laterne picks up the final podium spot with a similar spread of riders.

This Week's High Movers

RankTeamUp/down
1Bicycle_Boy(+10)
2DJ Sprtsch(+8)
3rote_laterne(+6)
3mineralJ(+6)
3Martin(+6)
3Yellow Knight(+6)

Bicycle Boy doubles up here, and there's a similar look to the top, although DJ Sprtsch takes second on this ranking with both 1st and 2nd in Romania with Aleotti and Aru.

Green Jersey Competition

RankTeamTotal
1Otoxiep87216
2Hugo Koblet198.67
3Bicycle_Boy195
4Jon_Ezeitza175
5Boris98168.67

Some real scoring near the top of this ranking this week! Otoxiep87 extends their team's lead after moving into the lead two weeks ago, scoring 12 points for a high placing this week to bring their team's total to 216. Bicycle Boy's 45 points gets their team to a podium spot right behind longtime leader Hugo, whereas Jon Ezeitza moves into the top 5 after scoring 19 points for finishing in a tie for 6th place on the week. Points were also scored by the teams in 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th overall.

Top 10 Overall


RankUp/downTeamPoints
1(-)11083
2(-)Total Package11028
3(+1)Otoxiep8710793
4(-1)Squire10755
5(-)Northerner10592
6(+1)Armchair cyclist10396
7(-1)Boris9810357
8(+2)Jon_Ezeitza10352
9(+3)Galpedal10341
10(-2)Bonimenier10207

It was a good week for most teams at the top, with 5 of the top 10 overall in the top 12 this week. Object gains 39 more points over Total Package after taking the lead last week, while Squire has an off week to fall off the podium. Lower down, we see Galpedal enter the top 10 at the expense of tobydawq.

This week sees GC points for the Tour, so there should be some big scores and some significant disparities between teams. That will mark a significant milestone in the season, but with the Olympics, Vuelta and fall races still to come, there's still quite a ways to go.

spreadsheet at dropbox
 
Quick check of the last 10 years showed me that Sagan had 3307 in 2016. With the Vuelta on his calender it's not impossible for Pogacar to reach that.
Correct, the best end-of-season score belongs to Sagan. In fact the complete list of 3000 points season in the CQ database is (yes this is just a shameless way to shoehorn a reminder that Purito was really, really good):
Roglic 3022 (2020)
Roglic 3235 (2019)
Sagan 3307 (2016)
Valverde 3152 (2014)
Rodriguez 3118 (2012)
Gilbert 3180 (2011)

Looking at those years, and a couple other that came close to 3000, I tried to find the highest in-season score ever:
Roglic 3729 (post-Basque Country 2021)
Sagan 3512 (post-KBK 2017)
Gilbert 3498 (post-Worlds 2011)
Froome 3498 (post-Giro 2018)
Valverde 3464 (post-Catalunya 2015)
Rodriguez 3429 (post-Catalunya 2013)

Of course, the CQ database only goes back to 1999 so that leaves off most all time great seasons (and like half of Rebellin's career :p). For instance, I'd be curious to see the tally for Jalabert in 1995, Roche in 1987 or any Merckx year.

Assuming Pogacar wins the ITT saturday (and obviously that he wins the TDF), he'll have 3023 points at the end of the Tour. Sagan's end of season record seems very doable. Beating Roglic's in season record would probaly require winning the Vuelta but who would bet against him right now ?
 
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So I ran the numbers for Merckx in 1972 (his best year in my opinion) and I got a very conservative estimate (bunch of races where we don't have the full results ie potential placings lost, races that no longer exist that I ranked as .1 even though they were probably much more prestigous back then) of over 6400 points.

That's basically the two best seasons of the last 20 years stacked on top of each other and that doesn't even include a legendary hour record and all his other work on the track.
 
Just went through the riders for the Olympics, my guys:
Sivakov, Lutsenko, Mollema, Vansevenant, Higuita, Schachmann, Buchmann, Thomas, Hirschi, Hamilton.

I have some hopes for Higuita, who started to look better during the Tour, and Schachmann, who should be fresh.
 
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Wallonie:
Stewart
Hermans
Simmons
Covi

Nice selection of rarer picks, but the Olympics might nullify it. My team there consists of:
Neilands
Sivakov
Mollema
Van Avermaet
Gaudu
Buchmann
Thomas

Pretty mediocre. Last week will have been difficult with Gaudu being my highest finisher on the Tour GC and I'm not sure this will be enough to start bouncing back.
 
Update #24: Tour GC consolidates the lead of the top teams

Well, the Tour is over. There's still the Olympics, the summer races, the Vuelta and Worlds, so there's a lot of racing left, but this is a big marker in the season. And unlike the Giro (where the most popular rider in the game won), lots of the top riders in the Tour were pretty rare picks in this game. Correspondingly, scores are of a wide range this week and there is a fair amount of movement on the table. Let's dive in!

This Week's Top Scorers

RankTeamPoints this week
1Object1550
2Otoxiep871448
3Rebecops1337
4BlueRoads1304
518-Valve. (pithy)1287

You may recognize the names at the top of this list from the top of last week's overall rankings - more on that below. After top 10 placings in the last two weeks, Object continues a fantastic run, scoring 1550 points on the week. The biggest chunk of those came from a rider that cost 107 points and was chosen by 9 teams. Former fish-icer Jonas Vingegaard continues his jaw-dropping season with second on the Tour, and with stage placings etc this week that translates to a huge 621 points on the week. Beyond that, Object sees a quietly excellent top 10 from Alexey Lutsenko, whose 230 points this week continue a good run of form that must be satisfying for his 31 owners after his early season struggles. And perhaps the best investment for the 19 teams that decided to take a chance yet again, Mark Cavendish gets another 135 points for 808 on the season. Object had several other riders score <100 points on the week but those are the big ones. Otoxiep87 had only one rider score more than 100 this week, but it was Tadej Pogacar and he scored 946, which would be good enough for 22nd on this week's ranking even if the 32 other riders scored zero. Otoxiep87 also had a handful of riders score between 50-100 points including Alaphilippe, Laporte, Mollema and Sep Vanmarcke who slid under the radar with 2nd place in an Italian 2.1 race. Rebecops rounds out the podium this week with main points from Vingegaard and Lutsenko, as well as 169 points from David Gaudu.

This Week's High Movers

RankTeamUp/down
1Rebecops(+15)
2AlyKaptan(+13)
318-Valve. (pithy)(+12)
4Tigerion(+11)
5del1962(+10)
5Koronin(+10)
5ChrisDK(+10)

As the top 2 in the Top Scorers ranking were already 1st and 3rd overall going into the week, there was nowhere for them to move, so they're off this ranking, and so Rebecops moves to the top of this one, moving up 15 places. AlyKaptan (another Vingegaard owner) and 18-Valve.(pithy) (the other Pogacar owner) round out the podium here.

Green Jersey Competition

RankTeamTotal
1Otoxiep87251
2Hugo Koblet198.67
3Bicycle_Boy195
4Object180
5Jon_Ezeitza175

Otoxiep87 squeaked into the lead of this competition in week 22, but with 12 points last week and another 35 this week, their team is starting to run away with it. They are now more than a weekly win (45 points) ahead of anyone else. Object's weekly win (and third week in a row scoring points) vaults them into the top 5, and there is some scoring in 7th and 10th a bit further down.

Top 10 Overall

RankUp/downTeamPoints
1(-)12633
2(+1)Otoxiep8712241
3(-1)Total Package11995
4(-)Squire11875
5(+4)Galpedal11542
6(+6)Nakazar11300
7(-)Boris9811282
8(+8)tobydawq11281
9(-4)Northerner11221
10(+1)MADRAZO11144

As you might expect, the top teams overall topping the weekly rankings creates some stratification at the top. Object now has a healthy 392 point lead over Otoxiep87, who in turn has 246 points over third place. Of course there's a lot of racing left, but the fact that only 4 other teams are within 1000 of Object bodes well for their team's overall chances. Despite the high scores on the week there's not much movement at the very top, but lower down in the top 10 we see some jumbling around. Nakazar, tobydawq and MADRAZO enter the top 10 this week, while Armchair Cyclist, Jon Ezeitza and Bonimenier fall out.

Okay! So the biggest race of the year is done, and coming right up is the biggest one-day race in 4 (errr, 5) years, the Olympic Games road race! Also happening this week is the Tour de Wallonie.

spreadsheet at dropbox
 
So I ran the numbers for Merckx in 1972 (his best year in my opinion) and I got a very conservative estimate (bunch of races where we don't have the full results ie potential placings lost, races that no longer exist that I ranked as .1 even though they were probably much more prestigous back then) of over 6400 points.

That's basically the two best seasons of the last 20 years stacked on top of each other and that doesn't even include a legendary hour record and all his other work on the track.
PCS has a different scoring system, but has applied it, presumably with some consistency, back into previous years. Points are in the same range as CQ.

The highest end of year CQ score (Sagan 2016, 3307 CQ points) is 3315 PCS points
Roche '87 is 3681
Jalabert '95 is 4714
Hinault had 4223 in 1979
but in the 6 seasons 1970-75, the worst score Merckx had was 5411 (1971) and the best was 6263 (1972). Cavendish won't be equalling that...

Fondriest (3711 in 1993) also merits a mention.
 
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PCS has a different scoring system, but has applied it, presumably with some consistency, back into previous years. Points are in the same range as CQ.

The highest end of year CQ score (Sagan 2016, 3307 CQ points) is 3315 PCS points
Roche '87 is 3681
Jalabert '95 is 4714
Hinault had 4223 in 1979
but in the 6 seasons 1970-75, the worst score Merckx had was 5411 (1971) and the best was 6263 (1972). Cavendish won't be equalling that...

Fondriest (3711 in 1993) also merits a mention.

Sean Kelly 1984-1986 is pretty good too.
 
Now that the Tour is over, I wanna look ahead (or to the present, for the already-underway Wallonie)...

Wallonie

Marc Sarreau
Alexander Kristoff
Timothy Dupont
Chris Lawless

Some underachievers in this list! Dupont has had a decent season but as one of my rarest picks, I could really benefit from some late-season form from Kristoff. Lawless I just want a sign of life!

Olympics

Pavel Sivakov
Bauke Mollema
Remco Evenepoel
Greg Van Avermaet
Sergio Higuita
Ion Izagirre
Emanuel Buchmann
Andreas Leknessund

That's not a bad lineup! But there would have to be a few surprises for it to work out... Mollema has the capacity to get in the right break if it's a cagey race, and it's not unimaginable for Remco to get a gap when everyone is looking around and get away for good. Dunno where Sivakov is at in terms of form, GvA and Higuita did not seem like they'd have the condition for this judging by their TdF, Izagirre could maybe hang on to a group and sprint for some minor places. We shall see. Alot hinges on Remco for my team, especially since he basically has the Olympics and Worlds and Lombardia left.

Ideal scenario is that Remco gets away with a small group including some of my guys and no one wants to drag Van Aert so they stay away.
 
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