The 2022 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[DJ Sprtsch]

Well well, rocket launched into the top ten. Thank you, Tesfatsion. You are also the only one from my team on the startlist for the 59th Trofeo Laigueglia, but I will not be too disappointed if you do not finish in the top ten of the race. I understand fully if you're a bit tired after Tour du Rwanda. It only finished four days ago after all.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

I had a feeling that my team didn't do enough to hold on to the lead. Still it's a bit frustrating that it's McNulty who pushes ray10 and Nyssinator in front when I've picked him a few years in a row, waiting for his breakout which of course happens the second I leave him out.

We'll see how the Strade Bianche go but at least Ayuso and Rodriguez performed well in Laiguelia which has historically been very kind to my team.

 

[postmanhat]

Meanwhile the race to the bottom intensifies with my team dropping another 12 places to 83rd.

Strade
Pidcock
Turner
Calmejane
Moscon
Lopez
Kron
Askey

Pinot out, but Lopez in for the final start-list. At least he's adding more race days to his calendar now. Too early in Moscon's comeback, so mostly hopeful for Pidcock. Anything else would be a nice surprise.

 

[tobydawq]

I feel quite lucky that Pidcock apparently won't deign to sprint for minor (second) placings. That wasn't quite the reason I didn't pick him but a nice thing to know.

 

[SafeBet]

I feel quite unlucky that my whole CQ team has decided to desert Strade Bianche: Bettiol, Kamna, Dumoulin, Pidcock.
Pray for the health of Covi, Kron and Superman.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The weakest side of my team may be fixing itself with the way this spring is going for Pidcock and Bettiol. Otherwise this week has been a mixed bag so far with Jakobsen and Dekker not scoring in Samyn but a good result in Laigueglia thanks to Ayuso and Ciccone.

Still to come:
Strade (assuming nobody else gets sick, fortunately it looks like I've only lost common picks in Dumoulin, Pinot and Kämna)
Miguel Angel Lopez
Edoardo Zambanini
Jai Hindley
Ben Turner
Mauro Schmid

I have some outsiders but likely won't be scoring too much. That will go for most of us though, will probably be the least important Strade for this game in a while.

GP Monseré
Ethan Vernon
Jonas Hvideberg

Unfortunately Ballerini has been added to the startlist (although he's also doing Tirreno, weird...) so probably no points here.

Paris-Nice
Biniam Girmay
Sam Bennett
Daniel Felipe Martinez
Fabio Jakobsen
Tobias Bayer

That's a bit underwhelming in terms of depth. Still a good team for stage points, though, and Martinez should do well on GC provided he doesn't miss any potential echelons.

 

[skidmark]

Well I got not many points from the 2 races so far this week. Time to look ahead to the weekend and the big races next week.

Strade Bianche

Clement Berthet
Miguel Angel Lopez
Lennard Kamna
Jai Hindley
Tom Pidcock
Tom Dumoulin

Whoops, I made this list yesterday and then half my riders are no longer on it. I dunno, MAL seems like a good racer for this, but he doesn't do too many one-days so it's hard to tell.

Paris-Nice

Oliver Naesen
Carl Fredrik Hagen
Jay Vine

Not the biggest contingent here, and also not the deepest field at Paris-Nice, so hopefully Vine can confirm his decent form with some consistency now that he's not sick anymore. Something passing for a decent result would be nice from Hagen too.

Tirenno-Adriatico

Remco Evenepoel
Bob Jungels
Olav Kooij
Thibaut Pinot
Caleb Ewan
Miguel Angel Lopez

I don't wanna speculate too much as this is so far in the future that my entire team might pull out. But in theory, this should be a good one for Remco and MAL overall, also looking forward to seeing how Kooij can do after a good sprint start to the season, and will be looking for signs of returning form from Jungels and Pinot.

 

[armchairclimber]

Far too many of my team are trying their best to self-sabotage. At least with Pidcock, Dumoulin and Kamna everyone is in the same boat.
Ok so far this week with De Lie, Ayuso, Rodriguez, Lafay and Champoussin picking up points. My only real hope at Strade is Higuita. Paris - Nice isn't looking too clever either ... maybe the French lads Paret Peintre and Champoussin will be inspired.

But otherwise, I really don't think my riders appreciate how important this is to me, I really don't.

 

[adamski101]

Line-ups for upcoming races;

Strade Bianche

Lopez
Narvaez
Askey
Brenner

GP Momsere

Van Tricht
Lawless

Paris-Nice

Naesen
Martinez
Rowe
Vliegen
Jacobs
Jakobsen
Andersen
Gallopin

Tirreno-Adriatico

Jungels
Lopez
Geoghegan Hart
Narvaez
Ewan
Evenepoel
Ciccone

 

[tobydawq]

Finally some nice points for Narváez!

 

[Salvarani]

Ayuso and Ciccone scored points in Trofeo Laigueglia. Maybe I would have hoped for a bit better in SB from my team, where Higuita was the best placed rider with 10th and Hindley 18th. The rest only finishing points, at best.

Only an okay week, but onto some more races that are right around the corner!

Paris-Nice
Nicolas Edet
Dani Martinez
Oliver Naesen
Fabio Jakobsen
Campbell Stewart
Gregor Mühlberger
Søren Kragh Andersen
Andreas Leknessund
Carl Fredrik Hagen

Im hopeful about Martinez and Jakobsen scoring some points. Anything would be good from the others.

Grote Prijs Jean-Pierre Monseré
Florian Vermeersch
Gerben Thijssen

This race is more suited to sprinters, right? Hoping Thijssen may have an opportunity if so to score some points.

Tirreno-Adriatico
Bob Jungels
Olav Kooij
Thibaut Pinot
Jakob Fuglsang
Emanuel Buchmann
Giulio Ciccone
MAL
Gianni Moscon
Jai Hindley (added)

Ciccone seems to be in better shape and form out of this lot atm. Top 10 could be possible. Maybe Kooij could get some points in the sprints. The others are good riders but questionable form on most of them.

Still seems to be a pretty provisional startlist. Maybe someone more could be added or removed.

 

[Koronin]

Paris Nice

Kevin Vermaerke
Soren Kragh Anderson
Matteo Jorgenson



A little late my Strade Bianche team:

Alejandro Valverde
Marco Brenner
Marc Soler
Lilian Calmejane

 

[Mayomaniac]

Paris Nice

Kevin Vermaerke
Soren Kragh Anderson
Matteo Jorgenson



A little late my Strade Bianche team:

Alejandro Valverde
Marco Brenner
Marc Soler
Lilian Calmejane

We are the only 2 with Valverde, at least that's something.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

It's a bit of a shame that Rodriguez and Simmons faded toward the end. Not nearly the haul I would have hoped for at one point.

Paris-Nice
GIRMAY HAILU Biniam
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe
BATTISTELLA Samuele
MÜHLBERGER Gregor
KORETZKY Victor

Tirreno Adriatico
EVENEPOEL Remco
EWAN Caleb
VERMEERSCH Florian
KOOIJ Olav
PINOT Thibaut

Not expecting much from Paris-Nice. Remco is riding in Tirreno though and there tends to be a high correlation between the races he enters and the races where my teams scores a lot of points. I don't think I have enough data to conclude there's a casual link yet but it's something worth monitoring.

 

[Koronin]

We are the only 2 with Valverde, at least that's something.

Favorite rider and final season, I had to make sure he was on my team. He's having a normal season which is great. Not sure how much it's going to help my team overall as Gaviria can't figure out how to stay healthy.

 

[postmanhat]

Strade continued the season's disappointing trend with a lot of crashes. mechanicals and under-performance.

Anything from Paris-Nice would be unexpected
Andersen
Hagen
Edet

Monsere doesn't have a great field so hoping for at least one top ten.
F.Vermeersch
Rex
Lawless
Vernon

 

[firefly3323]

Good placings for my guys and none of the 6 in the race DNF'd.

 

[bminchow]

Favorite rider and final season, I had to make sure he was on my team. He's having a normal season which is great. Not sure how much it's going to help my team overall as Gaviria can't figure out how to stay healthy.

I love Valverde. But what he is doing is amazing. I cannot imagine how he keeps doing this! AWesome.

 

[postmanhat]

Seem to have got into a habit of picking GC riders aiming for The Giro, so fairly big line-up for Tirreno, as opposed to P-N.

Evenepoel
Rosa
Ciccone
Lopez
Moscon
Buchmann
Jungels
Calmejane
Ewan
Pinot
Modolo

Hoping for a top-ten for Lopez. Evenepoel and Ciccone, sprints and points jersey for Ewan. A bit of form from the others would be nice. Not sure why Jungels is here and not P-N?

 

[bminchow]

Seem to have got into a habit of picking GC riders aiming for The Giro, so fairly big line-up for Tirreno, as opposed to P-N.

Evenepoel
Rosa
Ciccone
Lopez
Moscon
Buchmann
Jungels
Calmejane
Ewan
Pinot
Modolo

Hoping for a top-ten for Lopez. Evenepoel and Ciccone, sprints and points jersey for Ewan. A bit of form from the others would be nice. Not sure why Jungels is here and not P-N?

I seem to do the same thing. Only three in Paris Nice but a bunch for Tirreno and the Giro.

 

[skidmark]

Update #8: Pogacar Time

With a bit of a quiet week in the CQ game, the three teams in the game who chose to pick the most expensive rider ever in the game (a 2021 score of 3656 CQ points) were rewarded with Tadej Pogacar taking the biggest prize of the week in Strade Bianche, with a typical 50km escapade like it was no big deal. There were a few other .PS and .1 one-day races, and the start of Paris-Nice, so with the fairly limited points available, was Pogacar ownership enough to come out on top?

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	18-Valve. (pithy)	438
2	armchairclimber	426
3	Fivezzz	412
4	Jon_Ezeitza	367
5	Bonimenier	366

The answer to that previous question is - heck yes! Albeit just barely. 18-Valve takes the top spot on the week with 438 points, 198 of which came from Pog. However, obviously there was a lot of help to get to 438, with some good help from youngsters Arnaud De Lie (92 points, 18 teams), Juan Ayuso (78 points, 57 teams), and 28 points from Remco Evenepoel for 2nd in the first stage of T-A which I guess was included. And yes, you read that right, 18-Vavle has pursued a fascinating team strategy of getting Pogacar, Evenepoel and Pidcock to take up a collective 5689 of their 7500 budget (as you can imagine, the other 30 riders are a bit cheaper). But I guess when you can get two riders who have the potential to both be top 10 of all time, and another that's not far off in their ascendant youth, you might as well take 'em! I'm fascinated to see what kind of weeks this will lead to in the game, starting with this week in T-A.

Second goes to armchairclimber, close behind at 426 points, Pogacar-less but more spread out, with De Lie and Ayuso as high scorers, but also Carlos Rodriguez (63, 16), Victor Lafay (46, unique pick) and Fabio Jakobsen (45, 39). Fivezzz gets third close behind, with a similar lineup, Attila Valter (78 points, 10 teams) being the highlight of riders not already mentioned.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	ray10	102
2	Nyssinator	83
3	Eyeballs Out	78
4	EvansIsTheBest	76
4	Jakob747	76

No changes in this contest this week, as most of the week's top scorers hadn't previously scored too many points in this competition. The only team in the top 12 overall in the Green Jersey that scored points this week was laarsland in 7th, who got 2 points for 15th on the week.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	ray10	2431
2	(-)	Nyssinator	2396
3	(-)	EvansIsTheBest	2391
4	(-)	Eyeballs Out	2246
5	(-)	laarsland	2218
6	(+7)	Squire	2161
7	(+3)	MADRAZO	2135
8	(+1)	repre	2118
9	(+12)	Rakim	2112
10	(-3)	search	2104

No changes in the top 5 overall - ray10 was the lowest scorer in the bunch with 225 on the week, but only lost 19 points to Nyssinator and less than 90 to the rest. Squire parlays some consistency (in the top 15 for the week the last 4 weeks!) into moving into the top 10, and Rakim has a good week to leap into the upper echelon as well. Total Package and Nakazar fall out.

This week, we have the P-N/T-A double-header, overlapping even more than usual to end at the same time. Aside from that, the only counter-programming of note is the 1.1 Drenthe race, taking place only 5 months after the last edition, which some may remember as the last race of the CQ game in 2021.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Last week was fun, this week a disaster. Apparently I have a yo-yo team.
Have to admit not picking Ayuso is worrying at the moment. I tought he wasn't there yet, still only 19 and all that.
Another one is Arnaud de Lie, but here it was a matter of not paying attention.

 

[armchairclimber]

Thanks Skidmark. Starting to look a little more respectable now, although none of my expensive picks are doing anything much at all. It's funny that I had Pogacar for his first couple of seasons and then dropped him because I thought he was too expensive back then ....

 

[Mayomaniac]

Thanks for the update Skidmark.
Without Valverde this week would have been a desaster fo me.

 

[Earns1985]

Hmm, starting a bit to worry about two of my most expensive picks:
Bennett doesn´t seem to be on the same level as 2020 and beginning of 2021. Aleotti also wasn´t in good shape in his first races.

The rest of my team performs quiet good, but the two will decide whether it's enough for one of the top places for me..