The 2022 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Salvarani]

Pidcock looks terrible atm.

Points from Kanter, Thijssen and Kragh Andersen limits the damage a little bit this week. Only some five-pointers that adds up to a few points as well from MSR.

Some races tomorrow but anything would be a bonus from those.

 

[postmanhat]

Yes, Pidcock was a bit of a luxury pick for me as I like him, but thought his ceiling this year was probably 1,500 max. His terrible start makes that a lot less likely, but it's still possible that he'll peak more effectively in the classics season. And I was also banking on him riding a lot more in the autumn this year, which remains to be seen.

Basically, it was a choice between him or Jakobsen and I was, erroneously, not entirely convinced by Jakobsen's comeback, and also find one-note sprinters pretty boring to follow.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Kragh Andersen was probably the only good thing about my week.

 

[tobydawq]

Hirschi says hello!

 

[Salvarani]

A lot of races coming up!

Catalunya
Ilan Van Wilder
Tom Dumoulin
Juan Ayuso
Jai Hindley
Sergio Higuita
Giulio Ciccone

All have potential to score points here.

Coppi e Bartali
Alberto Bettiol
Jakob Fuglsang
Antonio Tiberi
Amund Grøndahl Jansen
Matthew Walls

A good performance from Fuglsang would be nice. Edit: Not racing...

Minerva Classic Brugge-De Panne
Fabio Jakobsen
Gerben Thijssen
Gianni Moscon
Olav Kooij
Florian Vermeersch
Campbell Stewart
Max Kanter

It is a decent line-up with my two dutch sprinters that hopefully keeps delivering. Edit: No Jakobsen.

Later in the week there is also E3 and GW, looking like this so far.

E3/GW
Oliver Naesen
Bob Jungels
Gianni Moscon
Søren Kragh Andersen
Max Kanter
Campbell Stewart
Fabio Jakobsen
Florian Vermeersch

Kragh Andersen is in good shape and that is promising. Hoping Naesen and especially Moscon will get going here since they are supposed to be differentiators for me in this game.

 

[postmanhat]

Catalunya

Dumoulin
Van Wilder
Ayuso
Nieve
Vernon
Ciccone

Mostly hoping for a bit more progress from Ciccone as he's one of my main differentiators this year.

Couldn't have asked for more from Hirschi on his first race day, and Askey will hopefully continue to convert some of his performances into points.

 

[bminchow]

Hirschi says hello!

Hirschi is back baby!! Time to light this thing up.

 

[bminchow]

A lot of races coming up!

Catalunya
AYUSO PESQUERA Juan
BAGIOLI Andrea
BRENNER Marco
CARTHY Hugh
CICCONE Giulio
DEKKER David
DUMOULIN Tom
GROVES Kaden
HINDLEY Jai
PLAPP Lucas
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos
SIVAKOV Pavel
STRONG Corbin
VAN WILDER Ilan
VANDENABEELE Henri

Jesus Christo!! What a line up. I must watch this race. Really hoping Carthy and Ciccone are motivated. And what will Sivakov be this year? Fingers crossed. Dekker, Groves and Strong for the sprints. Here is hoping.

Coppi e Bartali
Uijtdebroeks Cian
FOSS Tobias
HIRSCHI Marc

Keep it going Hirschi!! He must be healthy if he is winning.

Minerva Classic Brugge-De Panne
Fabio Jakobsen
EWAN Caleb
MODOLO Sacha

Two awesome sprinters, and a wasted pick.

Later in the week there is also E3 and GW, looking like this so far.

E3
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh
EWAN Caleb
JUNGELS Bob
MODOLO Sacha

Big hitter in SKA and Ewan for the sprint. And a wasted pick.

Gent-Wevelgem
ANDERSEN Søren Kragh
EWAN Caleb
JAKOBSEN Fabio

Big hitter in SKA and Ewan and Fabio for the sprint.

 

[armchairclimber]

MSR was an unmitigated disaster for me. Pidcock sick, Sagan mechanical, Bagioli no show, ditto Jungels. Thank goodness for Hirschi ... along with Sagan and Pidcock, my main gamble for the competition. He has already outscored both of them after one day.

BUT on to Catalunya where I have an embarrassment of riches. Surely these can't all fail ...
Plapp
Rodriguez
Higuita
Bagioli
Vernon
Dumoulin
Ayuso
Storer
Verschaeve

And in Italia
Hirschi
Cian

Classics
Jakobsen
De Lie
Gaviria (stay on your bike man!)
Jungels
Sagan
Baroncini

And in Normandie I have Pidcock

 

[tobydawq]

I have a very interesting 10-man team for Catalunya: Plapp, Bagioli, Van Wilder, Dumoulin, Dekker, Ayuso, Ciccone, Hindley, Higuita and Sosa.

Eight riders with a potentially high GC placement and then two stage hunters in Bagioli (I think the weirdly named stage 4 mountain is too tough for him - and I actually hope it, it would be a sad state of affairs if the race is so soft that he has a chance) and Dekker who so far has been quite poor.

 

[SafeBet]

I have a very interesting 10-man team for Catalunya: Plapp, Bagioli, Van Wilder, Dumoulin, Dekker, Ayuso, Ciccone, Hindley, Higuita and Sosa.

Eight riders with a potentially high GC placement and then two stage hunters in Bagioli (I think the weirdly named stage 4 mountain is too tough for him - and I actually hope it, it would be a sad state of affairs if the race is so soft that he has a chance) and Dekker who so far has been quite poor.

I share a lot of your riders for Catalunya. The only two I don't have are Higuita and Sosa, but I have Carlos Rodriguez and Ethan Vernon.
Let's see who will bring more points home.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Ewan chose the least opportune time possible to fall ill for a sprinter... at least he's a popular pick. Who do I have left to hopefully recover from a very poor week?

Catalunya
Luke Plapp
Andrea Bagioli
Ilan Van Wilder
Ethan Vernon
Tom Dumoulin
David Dekker
Jai Hindley
Michael Storer
Giulio Ciccone
Jonas Hvideberg
Tobias Halland Johannessen

GC will be a bit of a crapshoot with lots of contenders and a route that isn't suited for significant gaps, but I have plenty of options and should get some stage points too.

Coppi e Bartali
Mauro Schmid
Laurens De Plus

Incomplete startlist, but on paper this is a race that should suit both if they have the form. Schmid should, De Plus I'm not so sure.

De Panne
Sam Bennett
Fabio Jakobsen
Olav Kooij

Three strong options (if Bennett is recovered) including the main favourite, even with Ewan gone and no De Lie to compensate this should be a good race for my team.

E3 Harelbeke
Biniam Girmay
Bob Jungels
Ben Turner
Tobias Bayer

Not expecting much.

Gent-Wevelgem
Filippo Baroncini
Fabio Jakobsen

Startlist incomplete but I will probably be hoping for a big headwind so we get a sprint.

La Roue Tourangelle
Biniam Girmay

Hopefully time to collect some easy points.

GP Industria
Awaiting a startlist, not expecting anything though.

 

[skidmark]

Update #10: Lortnoc squeaks out a win

After an interesting week with a variety of races, we saw the first Monument of the season taken out by Matej Mohoric, a rider often owned in this game, but after a stellar 2021 nobody had him this year, and therefore his 280 points did not affect this game. The win on the week therefore went to the team that had the best combo from the other races of the week.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Lortnoc	516
2	ray10	514
3	Amis_Velo	446
4	vladimir	422
5	Kazistuta	405

It was very very close at the top this week, but ultimately Lortnoc came out on top by 2 points over ray10, getting 516 on the week. The star scorer for Lortnoc was Pascal Ackermann, back to his winning ways and bringing home 158 points for his 4 team owners. Also doing well for Lortnoc were a pair of Intermarche-Wanty guys in Kristoff (78 points, 5 teams) and Girmay (70 points, 17 teams), and Marc Hirschi getting the win and 80 point in his first race day of the season for his 33 teams. ray10, who has been up in these rankings a fair bit, ends up in second two points behind, with a different group of riders (only Girmay is in common). ray10 got another strong showing from Arnaud De Lie (94 points, 18 teams), Soren Kragh (90 points, 39 teams) and Lewis Askey (64 points, 12 teams). Amis Velo is a little ways back in third with 446 points thanks to Pierre Barbier (108 points, 3 teams) as well as De Lie and Askey.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	ray10	137
2	Eyeballs Out	108
3	Nyssinator	83
4	repre	79
5	Jakob747	76
5	EvansIsTheBest	76

ray10's 35 points this week comes on top of an already-solid season, and they're enough to leapfrog Eyeballs Out (who nevertheless scores 8 points this week) for first place in this ranking. No other scoring in the top 5, although weekly winner Lortnoc sits only a point outside the top 5 after this week.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	Eyeballs Out	3445
2	(+3)	MADRAZO	3383
3	(-)	Squire	3354
4	(+8)	ray10	3305
5	(+1)	search	3242
6	(-4)	EvansIsTheBest	3240
7	(+1)	laarsland	3187
8	(-4)	Nyssinator	3173
9	(-2)	repre	3128
10	(+3)	tobydawq	3007

Eyeballs Out has a top 15 week to extend their lead, although it's still only about 60 points, and the top 10 are all over 3000 total on the season. ray10 continues a yo-yo few weeks and gets back into the top 10, as does tobydawq, while Earns1985 and comodoro fall out.

This week we've got a full on spring week of treats, with Catalunya, Coppi e Bartali, De Panne, E3, and Gent Wevelgem, wow! Let's get to it.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[escartin]

I seem to have snuck up to just outside the top 20 without me really realising it.

This week's climb was mainly due to Pedersen and Kristoff, I can't say I was expecting either of them, let alone both, to be already at 50% of last year's score before the Flanders Classics have even really started.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Really didn't have much going this week. Uijtdebroeks and Koretzky into profit, but it's rather less impressive when you only need to surpass 0 points. 7 down, 26 to go.

Catalunya
HIGUITA GARCIA Sergio Andres
SKJELMOSE JENSEN Mattias
BAGIOLI Andrea
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos
DUMOULIN Tom
BUITRAGO SANCHEZ Santiago
AYUSO PESQUERA Juan
VAN WILDER Ilan
HINDLEY Jai
GROVES Kaden
TOUMIRE Hugo
BRENNER Marco
I need a bunch of points from this race as the rest of my team is pretty much taking the week off. Even Vermeersch isn't on the startlist of E3 (but he's listed as riding Gent Wevelgem the next day WTF?).

 

[tobydawq]

Huh, I thought my week was bad but some cheap points for Kanter in Milano-Torino made me break even. Up to 11th now, without having been mentioned in an update so far this season.

For Coppi e Bartali I have FROOME, Hirschi, Bettiol, Uijtdebroeks and Mick van Dijke (whose twin, whom I also have on my team, apparently has a serious knee injury and doesn't know when he will be back in competition).

 

[skidmark]

Oof it's been a tough start to the season, with Pidcock's spring looking in danger, and half of the rest of the team getting sick. Plus marginal calls that I decided to leave off my team in the final stages (Kragh, Higuita, De Lie, Martinez) are looking great. Well, onwards!

Catalunya

Andrea Bagioli
Ilan Van Wilder
Tom Dumoulin
Juan Ayuso
Jai Hindley
Clement Berthet
Ivan Sosa
Giulio Ciccone
Kaden Groves
Henri Vandenebeele

Well, that's almost a third of my team, many of them popular, but some that can be difference makers. Aside from Groves, Bagioli and Berthet, I'm hoping for something from GC from the rest - will be curious to see how Vandenebeele is doing after a top 10 in his first pro race and then no racing for a month.

Coppi e Bartali

Tobias Foss
Matt Walls
Cian Uijtdebroeks
Amund Jansen
Antonio Tiberi

Not a bad lineup here, a mix of riders who haven't ridden in a bit or haven't done anything yet.

De Panne

Olav Kooij
Sacha Modolo

Okay then. Kooij can do some things if he sticks around until the end. Modolo is looking like his win at the end of last year was a fluke rather than a return to form.

E3

Oliver Naesen
Bob Jungels

Lol. And looks like Gent-Wevelgem is just Naesen. Alright, all in for the stage races this week then!

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Between Hvideberg and Schmid, this would be a very opportune moment for all stage races this week to get UAE Tour 2020'd for my team

 

[tobydawq]

While my team is generally bossing it in Catalonia (three guys in the GC top 5) and three more still within reasonable distance, it was really frustrating to see Ewan and Jakobsen being pulled from the start list of the Brugge race that just ended up being completely useless (at least I guess that Merlier and Groenewegen are not very popular picks, so the result could have been worse there).

Hirschi and Uijtdebroeks are doing alright in Italy but Bettiol seems to be back to square 1, unfortunately.

For the Flemish classics I seem only to have Narváez and Kanter but at least it seems like a common issue. And Narváez is not without options but he'll probably be caught in the final kilometre Friday and Sunday.

Edit: Oh, I also have Owain Doull for the Flemish classics. He should be a sure winner of most of them.

 

[adamski101]

Couple more riders into profit today, Ayuso and Vermote.

Brugge-De Panne was a let down after Jakobsen and Ewan pulled out. Don't have that strong a team in Catalunya but have got 3 guys near the top of GC.

Uijtdebroeks is flying the flag for me in Italy.

For the classics;

E3
NAESEN
JUNGELS
NARVAEZ
ROWE
JACOBS
ASKEY
ANDERSEN

GW
NAESEN
NARVAEZ
ROWE
JACOBS
ASKEY
ANDERSEN
JAKOBSEN

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Ben Tulett is trying to go from zero point to break-even in a single race and I don't mind it at all. Baroncini and Rivera are my only remaining riders stuck on zero.

Uijdtdebroeks is also going strong in Italy so I'm going to get more points than I expected from that race. It should allow me to keep the pace with all the Hirschi teams out there.

Catalunya is going fine, it would have been better if like half my riders hadn't dropped half a minute for no reason on a flat stage but it happens.

Kooij is going to insure that the flemish races aren't a complete waste of time. But please De Lie, I get it I messed up when I didn't pick you and you are really good. Can you now stop trying so hard thanks ?

 

[postmanhat]

And so this awful year continues with Ciccone and Van Wilder dropping out of contention at Catalunya.

Always a heavy bias to the spring and autumn one-day races in my teams, but really only the B team are left. No Pidcock, Ewan, Baroncini, Jansen, Lawless. And Moscon and Bettiol don't look anything like recovered from their enforced absences. So for the Flemish classics it's just;

Andersen
Askey
F.Vermeersch
Turner
Rex
Jungels

My favourite part of the season and one where I hope to gain a significant advantage. But that looks next to impossible now, especially how my GC riders are failing. Will probably be a couple of additions for The Ardennes.

 

[armchairclimber]

What a strange year ... almost weirder than last. We really are at the mercy of the bugs ... covid/flu/gastroentiritis. One minute you're confident, the next your rider is out the back looking for the team car to get him to the nearest loo.
For this reason, I should view the pleasing displays of Marc Hirschi, Ben Tulett, Cian Whatsisname, Higuita and Rodriguez with some caution.
What I really need now for a good push is some semblance of form from Sagan, ditto Bagioli ... and Gaviria to get the UCI to approve the use of stabilisers on the world tour.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

E3 Harelbeke
Biniam Girmay
Bob Jungels
Ben Turner
Tobias Bayer

Not expecting much.

Expectations exceeded. Ridiculous to be moving up in cobbled races with my team but when the handful of common picks collectively falls ill...

 

[tobydawq]

Okay, a lot of riders ended up abandoning in Catalunya but awesome GC win for Higuita, good points for Ayuso and nice bonus with a stage win for Bagioli today.