The 2022 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Most of these teams looks pretty good, though Girmay being picked that much is surprising to me.

 

[laarsland]

That unique Haas-pick

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

here are my 33 friends for the year

a bit wary about leaving out Rivera.

I included him as one of my 12 zero-pointers, but actually debated leaving him out. My cycling knowledge is rather limited compared to most of you all, but other than a good result in Milano - Torino and a few other good showings I wasn't too impressed when going over his past results. Think I remember him being described as a one-dimensial climber a couple year ago. No expectations as far as GCs

But it was strictly just that ...I have no idea how talented this guy is.

I wanted Plapp, too, (he was one of my unique picks last year - or the only one, can't remember) but ultimately left him out because he didn't impress in those Italian races. I'm sure that will come back to bite me in the @$$.

 

[Riverside]

this year's slogan - nice guys finish last
so that is something that I'm expecting - bottom finish. by personalities:

DEMARE Arnaud – pure value pick, I hope he can pick up his form and get back on track, I mean – on the road.

PEDERSEN Mads – that was the last pick I’ve made based on remaining points, his form in Scandinavia was impressing last year and he is just a nice guy to have in the team bringing some chemistry

HIRSCHI Marc – took him few years ago, so welcome back Marc. Please do better this year and recover asap

BENNETT Sam – tricky one but same as Demare – this is a value pick

EWAN Caleb – first time I’m able to pick him – looking forward to root for such a marvelous sprinter

CARTHY Hugh – close to fan pick – looking at his pain face w/o having in my team? Not this time

FUGLSANG Jakob – Jakob is the one who should recuperate his energy after last year struggles and if not, well, at least we tried together

RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos – impressed by his Tour of Britain, Avenir – the Sky (lol) is a limit for him, unfortunately all his points will come in a year when I’ll not pick him

MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe – another man whom I picked few years ago, another prodigal son, really enjoying watching him every time

DUMOULIN Tom – Tom, Tom, Tom…. please give your best this time

KOOIJ Olav – took both young Jumba guns, David and Olav, hope that it would be their year, both, please

JOHANNESSEN Tobias Halland – I want to be part of that hype-train and Uno-X looks like a marvelous team to follow as well

GEOGHEGAN HART Tao – never really bought into him but this is a close to save pick to gain some points

PINOT Thibaut – any comments needed here at all?

LEKNESSUND Andreas – I salute to those 14 people who picked them with me, lets prove that the rest of the managers were wrong

BARONCINI Filippo – so much common with Simmons pick few years ago, hope for a better outcome

AYUSO PESQUERA Juan – one of most popular pick, for a reason

VAN DEN BERG Marijn – I want to follow him this year as close as possible

ROMO OLIVER Javier – that is probably the one pick that is going help in bottom place battle, only 5 people picked him, I wonder if I overvalued his impact

REYNDERS Jens – hooray – I’m the only one who picked him, I’m feeling like a crazy professor who would destroy the world, and nobody is aware of him (and he ends up unknow in his basement after unsuccessful experiment)

HINDLEY Jai – top-5 popular pick

DEKKER David – please see Olav comments

PLAPP Lucas – hoping for some TTT points for him, some individual TT at least, big loss of his current unavailability in AUS national championship

LEEMREIZE Gijs – only 2 people picked this young gun with me, another boom or bust, but seriously, 95 points last year, it can’t be real bust

KÄMNA Lennard – obvious pick

FROOME Chris – not so obvious but lets give it a try

JUNGELS Bob – top10 pick globally, I was picking him last year, hope this year we all will be rewarded

CONCI Nicola – hope he’ll get some points before Gazprom will spoil him

VERNON Ethan – cheep and interesting rider to follow

VANDENABEELE Henri – no-brainer considering his points last year

VERRE Alessandro – another rider I would like to follow this year closely

JONES Taj – some WT finishes would be sufficient

Uijtdebroeks Cian – 50 picks, I can’t stand aside

 

[SafeBet]

I included him as one of my 12 zero-pointers, but actually debated leaving him out. My cycling knowledge is rather limited compared to most of you all, but other than a good result in Milano - Torino and a few other good showings I wasn't too impressed when going over his past results. Think I remember him being described as a one-dimensial climber a couple year ago. No expectations as far as GCs

According to his ex coach the biggest problem with Rivera is that he's got no ability to ride in a group and thus spends a lot of energy before the race kicks off. A few years ago they compared the energy he spent in a flat long section of a race with Sosa (of all people!) and the difference was huge.
Doesn't seem like he has improved.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

I did not pick Ewan, and I’m not sad about it. I feel like he will have a good but not great year. Nobody I’m really regretting, though I could’ve used my last few spots better.(nothing)

 

[will-10]

I wonder how many people sent in revised teams on January 10 with Ayuso in ..and other riders out. Did that happen at all @skidmark ?

Given that it was reported that he was "flying" in training.

I think enough Ayuso-hype has gone on before Jan 10th that it wouldn't have made a jot of difference

 

[will-10]

That unique Haas-pick

Always good to see one or two people giving the rest of us a head-start with a retired rider pick

Scott Davies is in there too.

 

[laarsland]

I thought I would be unique in the Nairo and Gudmestad-combo, not that it would be a unique combo of unique riders

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

I think enough Ayuso-hype has gone on before Jan 10th that it wouldn't have made a jot of difference

Well, he's not the most picked rider.

RedheadDane said that she had high hopes for him, so she picked him for her ....emerging riders CQ team. That got me wondering.

 

[Earns1985]

Interesting facts:

According to the spreadsheet NOBODY selected:

Roglic
Alaphilippe
Bernal
Colbrelli
Carapaz
Vingegaard

this year.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Here's my voodoo list. If your name is on this list, be afraid, be very afraid. 1 down, 32 to go. By the way, does anyone else think Hirschi plays this game and deliberately only announced his surgery after the deadline?

JAKOBSEN Fabio
PEDERSEN Mads
HIRSCHI Marc
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel
LANDA MEANA Mikel
EWAN Caleb
MCNULTY Brandon
DENNIS Rohan
CICCONE Giulio
BAGIOLI Andrea
VALTER Attila
CONSONNI Simone
SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao
VAN DIJKE Mick
ARENSMAN Thymen
STANNARD Robert
DE BOD Stefan
BEVIN Patrick
HINDLEY Jai
THIJSSEN Gerben
SMITH Dion
PLAPP Lucas
DOULL Owain
VLIEGEN Loïc
KÄMNA Lennard
JANSEN Amund Grøndahl
JUNGELS Bob
BRENNER Marco
ALBA BOLIVAR Juan Diego
HAGEN Carl Fredrik
CAICEDO CEPEDA Jonathan Klever
MALECKI Kamil

 

[repre]

Looking at the popularity statistics, I'm the most surprised that Evenepoel is only picked by 34 teams. To me he's a must have, so I'm very surprised that only roughly 1/3 of the teams agree on that. I'm also kinda surprised that Hirschi was only picked by 32 teams, though his recent surgery might have had a say in this. skidmark, did many managers swap him out last minute? Personally, I don't think he'll ever reach his 2020 level again, but I know many think otherwise. Landa only picked 20 times is also rather surprising to me, as is Fuglsang only picked 15 times and Naesen 14 times.

In the other end of the spectrum, I didn't expect Bettiol, Ciccone, Martinez and Higuita to be this popular. Girmay at a 431 price picked by 17 is also surprising to me - even though I picked him as well.

Hirschi is a very bad pick. Had him last year and in UAE he is not a leader even in his strongest terrain. Pogacar has eaten him and injuries didn't help. With hip surgery his best hope is to reproduce last season's points with downside of maybe 150-200 points... At the Ewan's and Bennet's cost he is not worth it by a mile.

 

[search]

Always good to see one or two people giving the rest of us a head-start with a retired rider pick

Scott Davies is in there too.

I double-checked Impey today when I saw that he was a unique pick .

About Rivera... yeah, if I had a dozen of zero-pointers I'd had picked him as well, of course, he should definitely score some points somewhere. But Gazprom just didn't strike me as a particularly good team to develop a rider so far, and last year there was also some talk about long covid issues, on top of his problems with Androni the year before (positioning, traveling from Costa Rica to Europe, and so on)

 

[repre]

I think enough Ayuso-hype has gone on before Jan 10th that it wouldn't have made a jot of difference

Yep, since august he was my first pick for this game with Remco being close second....

 

[tobydawq]

Hirschi is a very bad pick. Had him last year and in UAE he is not a leader even in his strongest terrain. Pogacar has eaten him and injuries didn't help. With hip surgery his best hope is to reproduce last season's points with downside of maybe 150-200 points... At the Ewan's and Bennet's cost he is not worth it by a mile.

Yeah, you could be right, but even though he didn't have a very good season last year, he still managed to scrape quite a decent amount of points home, so my thinking was that if he returned to his best level, there might be hope for many more. Then he proceeds to announce that he has been having a surgery...

And of course, the one race where he got the most points last year, he was beaten by Almeida who is now also on his team, so it does look a bit congested.

 

[Earns1985]

Hirschi is a very bad pick. Had him last year and in UAE he is not a leader even in his strongest terrain. Pogacar has eaten him and injuries didn't help. With hip surgery his best hope is to reproduce last season's points with downside of maybe 150-200 points... At the Ewan's and Bennet's cost he is not worth it by a mile.

Exactly, with Hirschi´s move to UAE one could think that he will become a Kwiatkowski 2.0. But the difference between Froome and Pogacar is, that Pogacar more or less also targets all the races that could suit Hirschi. So even in peak-form he might not get top resultats there, because he could have to work for Pogacar.

 

[repre]

Yeah, you could be right, but even though he didn't have a very good season last year, he still managed to scrape quite a decent amount of points home, so my thinking was that if he returned to his best level, there might be hope for many more. Then he proceeds to announce that he has been having a surgery...

And of course, the one race where he got the most points last year, he was beaten by Almeida who is now also on his team, so it does look a bit congested.

Decent is not enough for this game only if you don't mind being bottom feeder) Level is one thing and opportunity - the other. Hirschi now lacks both...

 

[tobydawq]

Decent is not enough for this game only if you don't mind being bottom feeder) Level is one thing and opportunity - the other. Hirschi now lacks both...

He was 6th in LBL where his teammate won, and they were not allowed to ride FW. So Pogacar's presence does not necessarily make it impossible for him to score points.

Also, a decent amount scored last year is exactly why I picked him, expecting that to be a big amount this year.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

So I think the Collective Wisdom (most popular legal selection) team would be (in price order)

PIDCOCK Thomas

JAKOBSEN Fabio

BENNETT Sam

LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel

EWAN Caleb

CICCONE Giulio

BAGIOLI Andrea

MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe

VERMEERSCH Florian

DUMOULIN Tom

SIMMONS Quinn

BETTIOL Alberto

KOOIJ Olav

SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro

GEOGHEGAN HART Tao

PINOT Thibaut

ANDERSEN Søren Kragh

BUCHMANN Emanuel

BARONCINI Filippo

AYUSO PESQUERA Juan

VAN WILDER Ilan

HINDLEY Jai

DEKKER David

PLAPP Lucas

DE LIE Arnaud

KÄMNA Lennard

JUNGELS Bob

DE PLUS Laurens

BRENNER Marco

VERNON Ethan

HAGEN Carl Fredrik

VANDENABEELE Henri

UIJTDEBROEKS Cian

Evenepoel, Hirschi and Higuita are in the top 33 for popularity, but to fit in the budget they had to make way for Vermeersch, Baroncini and De Lie.

 

[BlueRoads]

Hirschi is a very bad pick. Had him last year and in UAE he is not a leader even in his strongest terrain. Pogacar has eaten him and injuries didn't help. With hip surgery his best hope is to reproduce last season's points with downside of maybe 150-200 points... At the Ewan's and Bennet's cost he is not worth it by a mile.

While I didn't pick him myself and don't think he will have a huge points improvement, it's impossible to say at this point if someone is a bad pick.

 

[repre]

In previous editions i was able to make some awesome picks in the lower half of my roster, but the problem was picking the most expensive riders with Pinots, Hirschies and Cosnefroys.

This year represents new opportunity to botch costly picks, but at least i chose some fellow ukrainians and my favourite riders from previous editions to root for and have fun)

EVENEPOEL Remco 1325 34 - My first rider ever above 1000 points. Can score 3000 easily, but can fall and injure himself again. With my luck it probably would be the latter.

JAKOBSEN Fabio 635 38 - Impressive comeback, QS main sprinter means the best in the world. Expecting 1500+ points.

PEDERSEN Mads 589 9 - Not sure about this one, could've pick Ewan and Caleb probably would be better choice. Only 8 other guys being with me in Mads experiment says a lot about quality of my decision))

BENNETT Sam 566 43 - Going from QS to Bora is a downgrade, but not by much...

LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel 563 51 - Astana know how to use him and he won't be a new guy there. Also their roster is lacking previous strenght and depth, so more results from Lopez will be needed. Obvious pick.

CICCONE Giulio 343 33 - DNF'd two GTs. Not his fan, but without Nibali he is obvious leader in Trek.

PADUN Mark 314 17 - Fellow ukrainian! Fanpick, but has potential to be a killer with more leadership in EF, who talked him up in offseason.

BAGIOLI Andrea 314 35 - One of my favourite young riders, who can score in bunches. Young Alaphilippe was injured last season, fortunately for me.

MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe 311 32 - Also one of my boys from the first year in this game. Awesome rider, can score everywhere even in domestic role.

DUMOULIN Tom 307 66 - Obv pick. Also i am a fan of Tom.

SIMMONS Quinn 288 26 - My guy from the past editions, i see a lot of potential.

STEWART Jake 264 12 - Missed him last year, won't miss again. Also needed some guys for cobbled season.

BETTIOL Alberto 257 34 - Again my guy, very strong and balanced rider, who can score 1000 points easily.

PINOT Thibaut 207 61 - My favourite rider and person in peloton. Will root for him till the end.

ANDERSEN Søren Kragh 203 39 - Picked him in 2020 and don't mind going this route again. Another balanced guy, who can score anywhere, but need to do better on cobbles.
Also he is not a real star, so DSM won't f**k him up.

AYUSO PESQUERA Juan 178 57 - Cornerstone of my team. Missed him last year, but the talent is so huge, that even Pogacar won't be a problem.

HINDLEY Jai 137 62 - Not a fan of Jai, but fresh start and healthy season make him obv choice.

TIBERI Antonio 111 15 - Continuing my preference for cheap young riders this year with heavy top selections... A lot of opportunity at Trek.

PLAPP Lucas 97 34 - Not sure about him, could score only in TTs and Ineos doesn't help. But he is a huge talent, so didn't want to miss on him. Also Ineos paid him 500k , so they had to know smth.

VAN TRICHT Stan 94 8 - Picking QS neo-pros have become no-brainer for me in this game. Young guy to cheer for in 1 cat belgium classics.

QUINN Sean 93 5 - Only 5 guys picked him??? Thought he was a huge talent...

PONOMAR Andriy 64 10 - Another fellow ukrainian and huge talent as well. Hope for no GT and more diverse calendar this year from Savio.

KÄMNA Lennard 53 72 - Obv pick.
MÜHLBERGER Gregor 45 16 - Even Movistar won't make him worse...
JUNGELS Bob 42 61 - Is he healthy?
TOUMIRE Hugo 35 5 - Upside: top-5 l'Avenir guy and french small races calendar. Downside: Cofidis will f**k him up...

BRENNER Marco 31 30 - Huge talent, may be more ready to make an impact this year.
PARET-PEINTRE Valentin 18 8 - Huge talent, french calendar. May not be ready, but not much needed from him.
VANDENABEELE Henri 15 30 - Great talent, busy early calendar, where he may score some points.
MEENS Johan 1 2 - Needed some cheap riders at this point. Bingoal also need some young guys to step up and Meens had couple of good results last year.
LAWLESS Christopher 0 14 - Is he healthy? His IG says so!
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian 0 50 - Obv pick
NABERMAN Tim 0 2 - Already matched last season points total, so is a better pick, than Hirschi))

 

[vladimir]

Yeah, you could be right, but even though he didn't have a very good season last year, he still managed to scrape quite a decent amount of points home, so my thinking was that if he returned to his best level, there might be hope for many more. Then he proceeds to announce that he has been having a surgery...

And of course, the one race where he got the most points last year, he was beaten by Almeida who is now also on his team, so it does look a bit congested.

Well, I re-watched stage 9 of the Tour 2020 a few days before I started to pick my team, so I simply could not leave out Hirschi

 

[SafeBet]

I wasn't expecting Uijtdebroeks to be so popular. I mean, he was good among the juniors but far from dominant. Aren't Gregoire and Hagenes at least as promising?

I'm also kinda surprised at so many mangers picking Baroncini. I'm pretty sure he's going to be a stud but Trek isn't known to develop its youngsters quickly and he wasn't cheap.

 

[repre]

He was 6th in LBL where his teammate won, and they were not allowed to ride FW. So Pogacar's presence does not necessarily make it impossible for him to score points.

Also, a decent amount scored last year is exactly why I picked him, expecting that to be a big amount this year.

Thought the same last year, but 6th place in LBL nowadays is his upside instead of being the winner. Also he is not quite as strong in other terrains and being a star eliminates participation in smaller races. Not much opportunity to score points besides Ardennes... At least Pogacar and now Almeida and Ayuso being in front of him in pecking order in UAE makes things horrific for this game.