The 2022 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

After horrible researching on my part, 4,6, and 9th today in Spain alright for me.

 

[skidmark]

Well I did not have a great week, especially with Jay Vine getting sick and dropping out of a race he would have had a great chance of winning in Antalya. Although 44 points from Vandenebeele in his first race is good, and I saw Hindley got 6th in the gravel race in Spain so my week this week is looking better already. What else is there?

Andalucia

Tao Geoghegan Hart
Lennard Kamna
Miguel Angel Lopez
Ivan Sosa
Oliver Naesen

Well, TGH should have a chance to lead alongside Rodriguez, and Sosa looked fine on the mountain in Provence so if he stays safe on flat stages there could be something. Lopez finished top 20 in the gravel race so not looking tip top to start the season but who knows.

Algarve

Tom Pidcock
Tobias Foss
Remco Evenepoel
Filippo Baroncini
Jay Vine
Iuri Leitao

Hmm looks like Olav Kooij was pulled off the startlist since yesterday, not sure why. Well anyway, this race should be Remco's to lose based on the lineup. Aside from that, I'm curious to see if Vine can perform, and how Foss starts the season and how Pidcock transitions to the road season. And hopefully Leitao can start actually contesting some sprints.

Tour du Var

Thibaut Pinot
Anders Halland Johannesen

This list is incomplete, but I'll be looking for signs of progress towards the old Pinot, and my unique pick (the other norwegian brother) will be starting his season.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Last week was... difficult. This one has started with six riders scoring (Kämna and Hindley in Jaén and Schmid in Oman made the top-10 plus minor points for Buchmann, López and Hvideberg) so is likely to be better. Which riders do I have to compensate for an incoming Evenepoel win in the Algarve?

Ruta del Sol
Miguel Angel Lopez
Ben Turner
Mikel Landa
Edoardo Zambanini
Biniam Girmay
Emanuel Buchmann
Lennard Kämna
Pelayo Sanchez

That covers just about everything in terms of terrain, popularity and my expectations for this race. Definitely need the route to turn out to be selective enough as I can't see Girmay surviving on all five stages regardless.

Algarve
Daniel Felipe Martinez
Ben Tulett
Fabio Jakobsen
Filippo Baroncini
Tobias Bayer
Iuri Leitao

Up to 14 starting riders with two (three if you count Rwanda) other stage races overlapping - somehow I don't think next week will be great given what my UAE team will inevitably look like as a result. All the more reason to get results here, the long TT could hold my team back a little though.

Var (so far)
Thibaut Pinot
Michael Storer
Caleb Ewan

Not too happy with Ewan wasting race days here, but the FDJ riders' presence means my interest is piqued. Storer is comfortably the rarest among my more expensive riders and this is the kind of race where I need him to perform. For Pinot, it's less needing, but I'd like to see him do well regardless.

 

[armchairclimber]

Kamna and Gaviria got my week off to an ok start. Now for the big guns. Looking forward to the rest of this week.

 

[escartin]

another happy Kristoff selector here. that said, I doubt I would have chosen him if he had not been in my team last year.

Loic Vliegen has become my first rider into profit this year, not exactly who I was expecting to claim that honour.

 

[BlueRoads]

My teams:

Algarve: Martinez, Pidcock, Tulett, Higuita, I Oliveira
Hopefully no positive in the Ineos camp.

Andalucia: Rubio, Cosnefroy, Buchmann, Kämna
Hopefully Cosnefroy doesn't mainly have to work for van Avermaet.

Alpes Maritime: Vermeersch, Pinot, Vuillermoz
No big expectations, we'll see.

Overall I'm satisfied with the names, but there will be players with stronger teams.

 

[adamski101]

My line ups for this week;

Algarve
MARTINEZ
PIDCOCK
EVENEPOEL
JAKOBSEN
GALLOPIN
VLIEGEN

Andalucia
LOPEZ
LANDA
KAMNA
NARVAEZ
NAESEN

Alpes Maritimes
PETERS
EWAN

UAE Tour
DUMOULIN
DEKKER
VAN WILDER
JUNGELS

9 of my 10 highest value picks on startlists this week so hoping to have some decent results.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Andalucia
Jack Haig
Benoit Cosnefroy
Carlos Rodriguez
Lorenzo Fortunato
Oliver Naesen
Corbin Strong
Lennard Kamna
I don’t have sky high expectations for this group, but I do hope for Cosnefroy and Rodriguez to get a stage or get high in GC, giving the route is hilly.
Algarve
Thomas Pidcock
Filippo Baroncini
Only two riders, but Pidcock can possibly take a stage.
UAE Tour
Jack Haig?(He’s listed for UAE, but Andalucia runs at the same time)
Tom Dumoulin
David Dekker
Ilan Van Wilder
Jai Hindley
Thomas De Gendt
Luke Plapp
An interesting group to be sure, I want to see how Dumo in his first race this season.
Tour Du Var
Mattias Skjelmose
Andreas Kron
Only two, but Skjelmose I expect to compete for first given his form at Tour de Provence.

 

[repre]

Van Wilder out with covid

 

[armchairclimber]

I guess covid is making a mess of a fair few teams in this competition. Bagioli, Ayuso and now Gaviria most notably for me.

Looking for a strong showing from Rodriguez and Pidcock today.

 

[tobydawq]

López, Sosa, Higuita, Martínez, Jakobsen, Kämna seem to be flying the flag quite well for me this week. Too bad Narváez cracked on the hill-top finish today. A bit too long for him, I guess.

I somehow have to overcome the fact that my great, evil enemy, Remco, will get thousands of points. And Pidcock too, probably.

 

[armchairclimber]

Not great today. Higuita hitting the deck wasn't in my script.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

It's been a while since we have had an update of the all time aggregate score so I decided to compute the new totals. The top 10 can be found below. Shalgo is the only member that has participated in every edition of the game. Skidmark is far in front but there is a tight three-way battle for second place.

Team	Score
skidmark​	150547​
Hugo Koblet​	143946​
MADRAZO​	143529​
Kazistuta​	142086​
EvansIsTheBest​	139956​
Object​	137633​
JPettersen​	135218​
Armchair Cyclist​	131401​
will10​	131215​
shalgo​	131034​

Here is the full table

 

[Kazistuta]

It's been a while since we have had an update of the all time aggregate score so I decided to compute the new totals. The top 10 can be found below. Shalgo is the only member that has participated in every edition of the game. Skidmark is far in front but there is a tight three-way battle for second place.

Team	Score
skidmark​	150547​
Hugo Koblet​	143946​
MADRAZO​	143529​
Kazistuta​	142086​
EvansIsTheBest​	139956​
Object​	137633​
JPettersen​	135218​
Armchair Cyclist​	131401​
will10​	131215​
shalgo​	131034​

Here is the full table

Has or hasN'T? I'm pretty sure Skidmark, Hugo and myself at least has participated every time?

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Has or hasN'T? I'm pretty sure Skidmark, Hugo and myself at least has participated every time?

Thanks for catching my mistake. In case anybody is confused, I meant to say that shalgo is the only member of the top 10 that hasn't participated in every edition of the game.

 

[shalgo]

Thanks for catching my mistake. In case anybody is confused, I meant to say that shalgo is the only member of the top 10 that hasn't participated in every edition of the game.

That is certainly a better distinction than the opposite one would be! After missing the first edition but then playing in every one since then, I had wondered how long it would take to move up this high in the overall standings.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

That is certainly a better distinction than the opposite one would be! After missing the first edition but then playing in every one since then, I had wondered how long it would take to move up this high in the overall standings.

Being in the top 10 having missed and edition is a huge accomplishment! Well done! I'm honored to be in second place even if I'm trailing skidmark by half a season's points But hey, if anyone deserves to be in the lead it's skidmark!

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Using EitB's spreadsheet, the top ten averages (ignoring the few points in the 2022 edition and anyone who has fewer than three participations)

Pos		Av	Participations
1	Cykeltyven	13972.0	3
2	kabete	13721.8	4
3	skidmark	13635.2	11
4	Kryvo	13555.7	3
5	merengues	13443.0	5
6	nuvolablu	13380.3	4
7	The Hitch	13365.2	5
8	snccdcno	13352.7	3
9	TeoSheva	13337.3	3
10	gustienordic	13265.8	4

Perhaps disappointingly, of this ten only Kabete (back after a few years' break) and of course Skidmark are playing this year. Only Skidmark makes the top ten with the handicap of having taken part in the 2020 edition, while Merengues, like Skidmark, benefited from the higher scores of 2021.

Or we could grade historical performances by position each year. Using the same points scheme as Skidmark uses for the Green jersey (45-35-30-26-22-20 then down in 2s until 2 for 15th) for the end of year positions, we get a top 10 (or 12) of:

Pos		Pts	participations
1	skidmark	161	11
2	Squire	114	9
3	fauniera	104	7
4	Hugo Koblet	84	11
5	Cykeltyven	80	3
6	Object	79	11
7	Ruvu75	67	6
8	Wallenquist	61	8
9	Nyssinator	54	6
10	MADRAZO	50	11
10	Hakkie2	50	6
10	GP Blanco	50	8

 

[will-10]

Just seems like a sophisticated way to kick me out of the top 10. I prefer the first table

 

[postmanhat]

López, Sosa, Higuita, Martínez, Jakobsen, Kämna seem to be flying the flag quite well for me this week. Too bad Narváez cracked on the hill-top finish today. A bit too long for him, I guess.

I somehow have to overcome the fact that my great, evil enemy, Remco, will get thousands of points. And Pidcock too, probably.

Am the opposite. I don't have any of the riders you mention except for Lopez and Evenepoel. Most of them I excluded for largely illogical reasons so I hoping they don't punish my stupidity too early in the season.

Evenpoel is pretty much a one-man team for me at the moment. Lopez has such a ridiculously light schedule that he needs to score big every time he races, so 3rd overall is a bit disappointing. And too many of my riders are MIA at the moment. Baroncini has a fractured radius apparently., Moscon with Bronchitis, Ciccone skipping races to train instead.

Only Dumoulin, Vernon and Jungels at UAE, so that could be an expensive race for me.

 

[Salvarani]

Various amounts of points from Kämna, Buchmann, Lopez, Martinez, Higuita, Jakobsen and Pinot. It adds up to a decent week, I think.

Got a few riders in UAE, now that the race is in progress, so I am hoping to get some points there:
Bob Jungels
Jai Hindley
Tom Dumoulin
Olav Kooij
Max Kanter
Campbell Stewart
Andreas Leknesssund

Kanter 7th and Kooij 8th in the first stage. 1 point for Kanter.

Didnt sound too good for Moscon having bronchitis. I have kind of gambled a bit on him having a good classics season, with in mind that he will be leader for Astana in those races. We will see.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Think I scored slightly above average this week despite not having Evenepoel but then again I had a lot of riders racing. Doesn't help when my rarer expensive picks in Storer, Landa and Ghirmay don't score in a week where they're racing, it will be a mid-table season at best if that doesn't change... Anyway, on to new opportunities:

UAE
Bob Jungels
Jai Hindley
Sam Bennett
Luke Plapp
Tom Dumoulin
Olav Kooij
Ethan Vernon

Reassuring to see Bennett immediately up there after his season start got messed up. Otherwise I don't see too many key riders for this game on the startlist so unless Plapp can already do a GC here it should be a fairly average score for me (and almost everyone else).

Gran Camino
Pelayo Sanchez

Any points would be a bonus.

Omloop
Jonas Hvideberg

Aside from Pidcock, Kragh and Bettiol, none of whom I have, there aren't really any popular cobbles riders in the game this year, so given that my team is almost nonexistent in this department I'll have to root against them/for reduced bunch sprints for much of the next two months.

Kuurne
Fabio Jakobsen
Caleb Ewan
Olav Kooij (that can't be right as he's in UAE)
Jonas Hvideberg

Sprint please!

Ardèche (so far)
Lennard Kämna
Biniam Girmay
Mauro Schmid
Juan Ayuso

Drôme
Same as above minus Schmid

Far from a complete startlist but this looks reasonably good so far.

Doesn't look too great all in all, really could have used a little more from this week to compensate but it is what it is.

 

[adamski101]

Decent enough week with Evenepoel, Martinez, Lopez, Jakobsen, Ewan,, Kaman and Gallopin all scoring quite well. Only got 3 riders in UAE and two of those, Jungels and Dumouling are very popular picks.

Looking towards next week, provisionally, got quite strong line ups for Omloop, Kuurne and French races.

 

[BlueRoads]

Think I scored slightly above average this week despite not having Evenepoel but then again I had a lot of riders racing. Doesn't help when my rarer expensive picks in Storer, Landa and Ghirmay don't score in a week where they're racing, it will be a mid-table season at best if that doesn't change... Anyway, on to new opportunities:

UAE
Bob Jungels
Jai Hindley
Sam Bennett
Luke Plapp
Tom Dumoulin
Olav Kooij
Ethan Vernon

Reassuring to see Bennett immediately up there after his season start got messed up. Otherwise I don't see too many key riders for this game on the startlist so unless Plapp can already do a GC here it should be a fairly average score for me (and almost everyone else).

Gran Camino
Pelayo Sanchez

Any points would be a bonus.

Omloop
Jonas Hvideberg

Aside from Pidcock, Kragh and Bettiol, none of whom I have, there aren't really any popular cobbles riders in the game this year, so given that my team is almost nonexistent in this department I'll have to root against them/for reduced bunch sprints for much of the next two months.

Kuurne
Fabio Jakobsen
Caleb Ewan
Olav Kooij (that can't be right as he's in UAE)
Jonas Hvideberg

Sprint please!

Ardèche (so far)
Lennard Kämna
Biniam Girmay
Mauro Schmid
Juan Ayuso

Drôme
Same as above minus Schmid

Far from a complete startlist but this looks reasonably good so far.

Doesn't look too great all in all, really could have used a little more from this week to compensate but it is what it is.

Basically, that could have been my post (minus the riders for the next races).

For next week:

UAE
Jungels, Milan, Osorio, Hindley, Ganna, Dumoulin, van Tricht

Gran Camino
Bettiol, Umba

Omloop (and Kuurne)
Benoot, Vermeersch, Pidcock, Hvideberg, Askey (van Tricht)

Faun and Drome so far
Cosnefroy, Kämna

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Just seems like a sophisticated way to kick me out of the top 10. I prefer the first table

As someone who only included the 2022 scores in the aggregate because I'm currently leading, I approve twisting stats to get the result you want

While I appreciate the stats provided by Armchair cyclist, I wonder if there is a better way of sorting out the best players. Using averages just doesn't sit well with me. To use an extreme example getting 10 000 points when everybody else gets 5 000 is more impressive than getting 11 000 when everybody else gets 12 000 yet you will score worse when computing your average score. There are big swings in the average score depending on the year so it's almost a matter of playing in the right year when everybody is scoring well rather than actually overperforming versus the field. I'd venture a guess and bet that most of the top 10 average score played in 2012 and few other editions (thus not diluting their super high 2012 scores as much). Maybe points above average would be a better metric.

Remco did Remco things. Carlos Rodriguez, Daniel Martinez, Sergio Higuita, Caleb Ewan and Lennard Kamna pitched in. I hope that's enough to hang on to the lead.

The next few weeks are going to be painful considering my only cobbles specialist is Vermeersch. This is fine.