• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

Hi all, and welcome to the 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Game! This is the 13th edition of the game! Please see below for some history, basics, and more specific rules related to dates, dopers, etc.

History

The game was launched on December 8th 2010 by cyclingnews forum poster Hugo Koblet. His idea was to have a game where you build a cycling team from the website cqranking.com and its comprehensive numerical rankings of riders. What was originally meant to be a 25-team max competition that Hugo reserved the right to cancel if there was lack of interest became the most successful game in cyclingnews forum history, and has expanded to velorooms forums as well.

Hugo successfully ran the game for 3 years, and it bred various offshoots, such as a youth game, seasonal games (classics and GTs), emerging riders and riders in decline games. I took over organizing the main game for 2014 when Hugo got too busy, and have done so since then. See the second post in this thread for a roll of honour of yearly champions.


That is it for preamble. Let’s go through the more comprehensive set of rules:

Basics

The game is based on the point system developed by the website www.cqranking.com. Based on this system you will have to select a team of between 25 and 33 riders whose combined value doesn’t exceed 7500 points. 7500 points is normally under the mean for the ProTour teams; the median for 2022 is 8070. 7500 is closest to the amount of points team Movistar made this season, the 11th ranked of the 18 WT teams.

Your aim then is to select a team of riders who will increase their 2022 score the most during the 2023 season. The winner of the game is the one who has selected the team with the highest combined value when the game ends.


1. How the game works

1.1. Start & Finish

The season starts when the first major race (.1 or higher) giving CQ points is held and ends when the last major race is held. The winner will be crowned when the next update after the last major race is out.*

*An extension will be granted to the end of season if it is very close at the top. If any teams are within 100 points of the leader after the last major race, the season will be automatically extended until the final race of the year unless all teams within 100 points explicitly concede. As well, anyone in the top 10 can extend the season by PMing me a request to do so before the last major race starts.

(The reason for this second rule is that although minor races go through December, it is rare to have a rider in the game participate in these races, so it is sensible to end the season when people are still generally watching cycling. But if it's a very close race, it's important to crown the person who picked the best team for the year.)

1.2 Updates
Each week we will publish an update with a top 10 and a list of the high scorers and high jumpers. This will sometimes be by me, and sometimes by others – I will be setting a tentative schedule based on volunteers.

2. On doping

2.1. On ex-dopers

All riders are available to choose, except for riders who are provisionally suspended by the UCI (as of their most recent list).

Riders who have been suspended for doping and had that affect their 2022 score will not be available simply for their 2022 score. Instead, a rider’s value will be equivalent to that of his last full season; or, if he has more recently had a (not full, due to suspension) season in which he has earned more points, that season represents his value. Riders who have been suspended by the UCI (ie. Not merely provisionally suspended) are on this list.

Therefore, you can pick any rider you like, but if you want to take Michele Gazzoli, for example (his suspension ends in 2022), he got 20 points in 2022 prior to his suspension. This means his last 'full' season was 2021, in which he scored 45 points, which would be his cost for this game.

Hopefully the lists I've provided and the rules are clear enough, but if you make an error I will try to let you know if any of your submissions fall into this category.

2.2. Riders getting caught during the season
If you include a rider in your team who gets caught with his hands in the cookie jar, nothing happens right away. Your rider keeps his points unless the cqranking.com deletes his results before the end of the game.

Basically, the value of a rider on cqranking.com always stands.

3. Submitting your team

3.1. How do I?

You pick between 25 and 33 riders whose combined value doesn’t exceed 7500 points and send the list to me.

As I will manually have to copy/enter the teams into the Microsoft Excel file which keeps track of the scores, please be careful that you send your team to me based on the correct formula. I don’t take any responsibility for any error you might make. If I spot an error I will do my best to contact you but I can’t guarantee anything. Of course, if you have any questions feel free to ask either here in this thread or by sending a personal message.

The layout you need to use is this:

ROGLIC Primoz
POGACAR Tadej
Etc.

Nothing else. No point scores after the name. Also, be careful that there is no “space” after the name, because I will have to delete it manually, but can't always detect these things in time for the game. If there is an error that isn't discovered until after the game starts, and that error makes your team ineligible (eg. if it puts your team over the limit) the rider will simply be deleted from the team without replacement.

To make things easier for both you and me I will link to a file for you to download in which you can type in your team and it will automatically show you the value of each rider as well as the aggregated value of your team. Then you will just have to copy your team (names only) directly from this file and send it to me.

Hopefully this clears any misunderstandings of a rider’s value as well as reduces the number of errors made in a team sent to me.

3.2. When do I?
The first race of the season will start January 8, so I want to have your team in hand on January 7 at the latest.

There are two deadlines: a submission deadline and a revision/publication deadline, spaced 24 hours apart. This is to address the issue brought up in recent years about whether it is 'fair' to allow changes after teams have seen the teams of other players, and for 'late' submissions. I would like to make this a game that is accessible to as many people as possible, yet preserve that element of fairness. So, the submission deadline will be when I want to have received all the teams. The revision and publication deadline is to allow a 24-hour period for me to look over the teams and allow a chance to people to change their team in case of error, before having access to a list of riders that other teams picked. If you get mixed up with the time zone or unexpectedly don't have internet access around the submission deadline, I will accept teams up to the revision deadline at my discretion, but if allowed those teams will not have the chance to revise in case of error.

The submission deadline is 23:59 (CET) January 6th, so early January 7th for Aussies and sometime earlier on January 6th for North Americans. The revision and publication deadline is 24 hours later; I would ask that people refrain from posting the riders on their team until after that, so midnight CET on the start of January 7th.

Please note that even though the racing season is over, it is always possible that CQ will adjust points for an earlier season race for whatever reason (eg. readjusting points for suspended dopers) Be mindful of these changes.

cqranking.com usually uploads the final update of the season on December 31, and the values in this update are the ones we’re using. However, the changes are usually very small so there’s no reason why you can’t start selecting your team already today!

Disclaimer: ensuring your team is full of eligible riders and is on budget is your responsibility. If I notice you are over budget or have an ineligible rider I will send you a message, but if you don't get back to me in time, or I don't catch it before the deadline, I will simply remove one rider to make your budget work. Obviously it is to your advantage to be able to choose all your riders, so please be diligent.

Create Your Team


Hugo created a very helpful file in 2012, referred to above, that helps avoid any errors in calculation and helps ensure you are formatting your rider names correctly. I would encourage everyone to use this option, especially if you are not confident in your spreadsheet creating skills. Please use the file attached here to create your team, then copy and paste the rider names to send to me by PM once you have it correct. Thank you.

note: the 'create your team' file has not yet been manually updated to include different scores for dopers as per rule 2.1, so it is currently wholly your responsibility to account for this.

I think that about covers everything. If you have any questions or if I forgot to add or explain anything, please let me know.
 
I'm going to reserve the second post in the thread for a list of teams who have submitted, as they come in, as well as list an honour roll of top finishers throughout the years.

Here are the 73 confirmed teams as of 2:30am CET on January 6th, 2023:

1comodoro
2Bonimenier
3Jumbo Visma Fan
4Lortnoc
5Salvarani
6RedheadDane
7ArmchairCyclist
8AupaPyama
9BlueRoads
10EvansIsTheBest
11zigzag wanderer
12Jpettersen
13DJ Sprtsch
14laarsland
15NielsB
16Sneekes
17firefly3323
18search
19trackstand
20bminchow
21Nakazar
22DJW
23vladimir
24Joelsim
25azazel
26Eddy Evenepoel
27Leadbelly
28scrooll07
29Kazistuta
30zaka fan
31King Of The Wolds
32vickyriso
33Total Package
34R_O_Shipman
35armchairclimber
36LosBrolin
37slow_climber
38Crevaison
39Blues in the Bottle
40ray10
41Berflamand
42Otoxiep87
43SafeBet
44Object
45Eric10
46Earns1985
47AlfaLum
48Anderis
49Fivezzz
50Nevs
51Panda Claws
52escartin
53jon_ezeitza
54del1962
55jsem94
56the asian
57Rufs
58Popchu
59waku waku
60Gotland
61Whoops
62karaev*
63Riverside
64HoudiniCycling
65triley36
66MADRAZO
67Kryvo
68LaFlorecita
69adamski101
7018-Valve(pithy)
71NorthAmericanScum
72Londonpat
73Devil's Elbow

Winners:

2011 – 87 participants: ingsve – 13897 points

2012 – 129 participants: skidmark – 19345 points

2013 – 132 participants: SteelyDan – 13094 points

2014 – 150 participants: Pentacycle – 14367 points

2015 – 155 participants: Cykeltyven – 16209 points

2016 – 144 participants: skidmark – 15392 points

2017 – 131 participants: fauniera – 15867 points

2018 – 129 participants: ruvu75 – 16513 points

2019 - 114 participants: fauniera - 14579 points

2020 - 113 participants: bminchow - 10010 points

2021 - 93 participants: Object - 19129 points

2022 - 91 participants: EvansIsTheBest - 18662 points
 
Last edited:
One question about the file; do we need to use the CQ formula when typing in the names? Probably better if I use the file, rather than add up the numbers myself, even with a calculator, I might mess up.

Yes, I'll be using my "successful" method from the various sub-games the last few years; the trusty Random Number Generator! I've pre-selected 33 riders, and if they're below budget; lucky me. If they're not, I'll just RNG riders away until I go below budget, and hopefully before I go below 25 riders.
 
It could be a fun year, with very different teams I reckon.
Definitely agree on the fun part! Had a bit of extra motivation this time, so I've started earlier than what has been the case over the past few seasons. Thought that would make my life easier. Not the case! Haven't even settled on the major team-defining decisions. Keep changing it up every time I revisit the team.

Decisions, decisions ...

And thanks again to skidmark for keeping this awesome game going!
 
Add me to the list of people that started working on their team earlier than usual. I didn't want to follow up last year with a dud. Probably the easiest time I've had when it came to building the general structure of my team (a lot of back and forth on the last few guys on the roster though) but now I'm starting to second guess myself.

I agree that this year should see some diverse team strategies (but we'll have to wait for the team reveals to get to the why there are multiple strategies available). There's three riders' popularity numbers that I'm especially looking forward to because that will define how popular the main strategies are (it would be four but I very much doubt a significant number of players will pay the price for the fourth guy).
 
During the covid-ruined 2020 season I lost a bit of interest in both cycling and anything CQ related, so I stopped updating my aggregate spreadsheet and never picked it up again. Until now, when I've finally found some time and motivation to do it. So here's a look at some game statistics and a bit of trivia!

(here you can read my previous post from the 2019 thread)


Top overall score

RankNameTotal score
1skidmark165940
2MADRAZO159860
3Hugo Koblet158396
4EvansIsTheBest157505
5Kazistuta157059
6Object153156
7Jpettersen150181
8Armchair cyclist146821
9will10146579
10shalgo145209

skidmark's lead stays more or less unassailable, and I think it has been that way since their dominant 2012 win. The rest of the top five is very close. MADRAZO took back 2nd place from Hugo Koblet in 2022, after having relinquished it to the game founder in 2019.

shalgo is the only one in the top ten who hasn't taken part in all 12 editions of the game. Impressively, shalgo is ahead of three of the remaining dozen who have participated in all editions. These being Blues in the bottle, Mellow Velo and Jakob747, who make up 11th, 12th and 13th on this list, respectively.

There is only one instance where a player outscores a competitor who has two more participations. Nyssinator with their 7 participations is 52nd on the overall ranking, outscoring Josedin (56th), who has 9 participations, by 2113 points. This feat is greatly helped by Nyssinator having finished 3rd in the high-scoring 2012 edition, where Josedin didn't take part.


Average placement (3+ participations)

RankNameParticipationsAverage placing
1The Hitch(5)16
2TheArt(3)18
3skidmark(12)20
4SafeBet(6)22
5Kryvo(3)22
6Squire(10)23
7gustienordic(4)24
8tobydawq(4)24
9Hugo Koblet(12)26
10MADRAZO(12)26

If you don't play, you can't mess up. And that's what keeps The Hitch on top of this ranking despite not having taken part since 2015. When I last compiled this list in 2019, Hakkie2 had a very impressive average placing of 11th from their first 4 participations, but they have since tumbled down the list due to some bad years. Special shoutout to the ever-consistent skidmark, who has steadily improved on their average placing each year since 2018.


Top weekly scores

RankNameWeekly scoreAfter which race
1Object2551Vuelta a Espana 2022
2Crevaison2484Vuelta a Espana 2022
3Rakim2377Vuelta a Espana 2022
4skidmark2223Vuelta a Espana 2022
5repre2209Vuelta a Espana 2022
6rote_laterne2160Vuelta a Espana 2022
7Ben13762146Giro d'Italia 2014
8fauniera2101Giro d'Italia 2014
9Bonimenier2100Vuelta a Espana 2022
10CQmanager2063Tour de France 2015

The 2022 season really turned this list on its head! Not only did Object and five other players smash the old weekly record following Evenepoel's Vuelta win, the year also brought another 2000+ week when bminchow got 2032 points after the Giro d'Italia, currently the 13th highest weekly score. bminchow is also to be found among the ten players reaching 2000+ for the Vuelta, making it a year for the record books despite no significant overall success for the 2020 game winner.

So far nobody has managed to reach 1500 points in a non-GT GC week (all the 1500+ weeks make it into my list). I think the one who has come the closest has been myself, scoring 1495 points in a wild Colbrelli-fueled week in September 2021, just before the Worlds, with a bunch of high-scoring Italian, Belgian and German one-day races and some minor stage races to boot.


Top yearly scores

RankNamePointsYear
1skidmark193722012
2Object191292021
3Squire190152021
4Total Package186762021
5EvansIsTheBest186622022
6Northerner182932021
7Kvinto181062012
8Jon_Ezeitza180092021
9Nyssinator177852012
10Otoxiep87176432021

Despite the winning scores edging closer over the past couple of years, skidmark's legendary 2012 still reigns supreme.

Until 2022, skidmark's 2012 team was also the winning team with the lowest 'year-before' score (meaning 2010 rider values in their case), indicating some very good predictions about emerging riders, and not just picking established riders who had an off year. skidmark's 33 trusted men clocked in at a 2010 CQ value of only 12253, as if the record wasn't impressive enough already. For comparison, the winning team with (unsurprisingly) the highest 'year-before' score was Object's 2021 team. Taking advantage of 'artificially' low 2020 scores for a lot of riders, that team had a 2019 score of a staggering 24438 points, indicating just how much talent was available for the 2021 game. Most winning teams have had a 'year-before' score of around 15000-17000.

The main reason why I'm mentioning all of this, is because of the extreme outlier that is EvansIsTheBest's winning team of 2022. With a 'year-before' score of 7499 points, that could have been a CQ team within budget in 2020! Of course, when the comparison year happens to be 2020, a lot of riders scored less than normal. But I'd argue that it still indicates quite a different approach compared to most other game winners and some very impressive eye for talent from EvansIsTheBest! Even if low 2020 scores across the board accounts for the low number to an extent, the game-winning picks still had to be found with a lot less data to rely on compared to normal years. For reference, my own 2022 team had a 2020 score of 9166, and I'm also someone who doesn't just look at riders' past glory.


Most popular picks

RankNamePercentage of teamsYear
1DUMOULIN Tom96%2020
2BOONEN Tom92%2014
3KITTEL Marcel92%2016
4SCHLECK Andy90%2013
5HUSHOVD Thor89%2013
6BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley89%2021
7CAVENDISH Mark89%2018
8DEGENKOLB John89%2017
9KITTEL Marcel87%2019
10NIZZOLO Giacomo86%2018

Tom Dumoulin is the most popular pick in CQ history, having been chosen by 96% of all the players in 2020. Marcel Kittel has the distinction of placing in the top ten twice. 2022's most popular pick, Lennard Kämna, is all the way down in 23rd place, having been on 81% of all teams this year. Some of the nearly ubiquitous riders have been quite unsuccesful, but the relatively recent entry of Egan Bernal (89% of teams in 2021) has the highest increase in points of all riders who've been picked by more than 70% of teams in any given year, adding 1286 points on his cost. Bernal scored 1736 points at a cost of 450. The highest percentage return among riders picked by more than 70% of teams is the 3990% increase for Joe Dombrowski (scored 399 at a cost of 10) in 2015. Of course the 2019 0-pointer Remco Evenepoel, who scored 952 points, is mathematically unavailable for this comparison. The Evenepoel that came straight from the junior ranks is found in 32nd place on this list, having been picked by 78% of players. He is the most popular 0-pointer in the game's history.


Total overall picks

RankNameTotal picks
1CAVENDISH Mark445
2ARU Fabio433
3CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban375
4PHINNEY Taylor362
5DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd356
6EWAN Caleb353
7BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto351
8MOSER Moreno333
9LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel324
10GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando316

Mark Cavendish is the most-picked rider in CQ game history across all the game editions. He took over the lead from Taylor Phinney in 2020 (where also Aru and Chaves passed Phinney) and extended it in 2021. Nobody picked him for 2022. The most-picked rider who was also picked in 2022 is Jhoan Esteban Chaves. One solitary player put their trust in him for 2022, which, as has been the case for most years, turned out to be a not so good idea.

2020 was the last year where we still had riders who had been picked in every single edition of the game up to that point. Carlos Betancur, Luke Durbridge, Yoann Offredo and Taylor Phinney were the last survivors, having been picked in 2020 and every preceding year. Nobody picked any of them in 2021, so now we unfortunately don't have any more ever-presents. Interestingly though, two riders who had been ever-presents up to and including 2019, but were not picked in 2020, has continued to be picked in 2021 and 2022. These are Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana. When six players took Landa at a cost of 1336 points in 2018, it wouldn't have been inconcievable that someone took him for 967 points when he moved to Bahrain in 2020. But nobody did. In just a slightly alternative reality he'd still be an ever-present in the CQ game. As for Quintana, nobody wanted him anymore when he moved to Arkea in 2020 and cost 1257 points, but he has made a reappearance at a discount in the past two years.
 
Last edited:
Until 2022, skidmark's 2012 team was also the winning team with the lowest 'year-before' score (meaning 2010 rider values in their case), indicating some very good predictions about emerging riders, and not just picking established riders who had an off year. skidmark's 33 trusted men clocked in at a 2010 CQ value of only 12253, as if the record wasn't impressive enough already. For comparison, the winning team with (unsurprisingly) the highest 'year-before' score was Object's 2021 team. Taking advantage of 'artificially' low 2020 scores for a lot of riders, that team had a 2019 score of a staggering 24438 points, indicating just how much talent was available for the 2021 game. Most winning teams have had a 'year-before' score of around 15000-17000.

The main reason why I'm mentioning all of this, is because of the extreme outlier that is EvansIsTheBest's winning team of 2022. With a 'year-before' score of 7499 points, that could have been a CQ team within budget in 2020! Of course, when the comparison year happens to be 2020, a lot of riders scored less than normal. But I'd argue that it still indicates quite a different approach compared to most other game winners and some very impressive eye for talent from EvansIsTheBest! Even if low 2020 scores across the board accounts for the low number to an extent, the game-winning picks still had to be found with a lot less data to rely on compared to normal years. For reference, my own 2022 team had a 2020 score of 9166, and I'm also someone who doesn't just look at riders' past glory.
The 'year before' analysis is interesting but you are giving me far too much credit. It's really just a combination of Covid in 2020 and some obvious young guys performing exceedingly well (Evenepoel, Ayuso, Uijtdebroeks, Girmay). I'd argue that Zingle and Van Gils to a lesser extent are the only obscure young guys on my team to have a breakthrough which hardly explains why my team is such an outlier. I've also had plenty of whiffs like picking Abner Gonzalez and Hugo Toumire and not including Arnaud De Lie or Magnus Sheffield as well.
 
During the covid-ruined 2020 season I lost a bit of interest in both cycling and anything CQ related, so I stopped updating my aggregate spreadsheet and never picked it up again. Until now, when I've finally found some time and motivation to do it. So here's a look at some game statistics and a bit of trivia!

(here you can read my previous post from the 2019 thread)


Top overall score

RankNameTotal score
1skidmark165940
2MADRAZO159860
3Hugo Koblet158396
4EvansIsTheBest157505
5Kazistuta157059
6Object153156
7Jpettersen150181
8Armchair cyclist146821
9will10146579
10shalgo145209

skidmark's lead stays more or less unassailable, and I think it has been that way since their dominant 2012 win. The rest of the top five is very close. MADRAZO took back 2nd place from Hugo Koblet in 2022, after having relinquished it to the game founder in 2019.

shalgo is the only one in the top ten who hasn't taken part in all 12 editions of the game. Impressively, shalgo is ahead of three of the remaining dozen who have participated in all editions. These being Blues in the bottle, Mellow Velo and Jakob747, who make up 11th, 12th and 13th on this list, respectively.

There is only one instance where a player outscores a competitor who has two more participations. Nyssinator with their 7 participations is 52nd on the overall ranking, outscoring Josedin (56th), who has 9 participations, by 2113 points. This feat is greatly helped by Nyssinator having finished 3rd in the high-scoring 2012 edition, where Josedin didn't take part.


Average placement (3+ participations)

RankNameParticipationsAverage placing
1The Hitch(5)16
2TheArt(3)18
3skidmark(12)20
4SafeBet(6)22
5Kryvo(3)22
6Squire(10)23
7gustienordic(4)24
8tobydawq(4)24
9Hugo Koblet(12)26
10MADRAZO(12)26

If you don't play, you can't mess up. And that's what keeps The Hitch on top of this ranking despite not having taken part since 2015. When I last compiled this list in 2019, Hakkie2 had a very impressive average placing of 11th from their first 4 participations, but they have since tumbled down the list due to some bad years. Special shoutout to the ever-consistent skidmark, who has steadily improved on their average placing each year since 2018.


Top weekly scores

RankNameWeekly scoreAfter which race
1Object2551Vuelta a Espana 2022
2Crevaison2484Vuelta a Espana 2022
3Rakim2377Vuelta a Espana 2022
4skidmark2223Vuelta a Espana 2022
5repre2209Vuelta a Espana 2022
6rote_laterne2160Vuelta a Espana 2022
7Ben13762146Giro d'Italia 2014
8fauniera2101Giro d'Italia 2014
9Bonimenier2100Vuelta a Espana 2022
10CQmanager2063Tour de France 2015

The 2022 season really turned this list on its head! Not only did Object and five other players smash the old weekly record following Evenepoel's Vuelta win, the year also brought another 2000+ week when bminchow got 2032 points after the Giro d'Italia, currently the 13th highest weekly score. bminchow is also to be found among the ten players reaching 2000+ for the Vuelta, making it a year for the record books despite no significant overall success for the 2020 game winner.

So far nobody has managed to reach 1500 points in a non-GT GC week (all the 1500+ weeks make it into my list). I think the one who has come the closest has been myself, scoring 1495 points in a wild Colbrelli-fueled week in September 2021, just before the Worlds, with a bunch of high-scoring Italian, Belgian and German one-day races and some minor stage races to boot.


Top yearly scores

RankNamePointsYear
1skidmark193722012
2Object191292021
3Squire190152021
4Total Package186762021
5EvansIsTheBest186622022
6Northerner182932021
7Kvinto181062012
8Jon_Ezeitza180092021
9Nyssinator177852012
10Otoxiep87176432021

Despite the winning scores edging closer over the past couple of years, skidmark's legendary 2012 still reigns supreme.

Until 2022, skidmark's 2012 team was also the winning team with the lowest 'year-before' score (meaning 2010 rider values in their case), indicating some very good predictions about emerging riders, and not just picking established riders who had an off year. skidmark's 33 trusted men clocked in at a 2010 CQ value of only 12253, as if the record wasn't impressive enough already. For comparison, the winning team with (unsurprisingly) the highest 'year-before' score was Object's 2021 team. Taking advantage of 'artificially' low 2020 scores for a lot of riders, that team had a 2019 score of a staggering 24438 points, indicating just how much talent was available for the 2021 game. Most winning teams have had a 'year-before' score of around 15000-17000.

The main reason why I'm mentioning all of this, is because of the extreme outlier that is EvansIsTheBest's winning team of 2022. With a 'year-before' score of 7499 points, that could have been a CQ team within budget in 2020! Of course, when the comparison year happens to be 2020, a lot of riders scored less than normal. But I'd argue that it still indicates quite a different approach compared to most other game winners and some very impressive eye for talent from EvansIsTheBest! Even if low 2020 scores across the board accounts for the low number to an extent, the game-winning picks still had to be found with a lot less data to rely on compared to normal years. For reference, my own 2022 team had a 2020 score of 9166, and I'm also someone who doesn't just look at riders' past glory.


Most popular picks

RankNamePercentage of teamsYear
1DUMOULIN Tom96%2020
2BOONEN Tom92%2014
3KITTEL Marcel92%2016
4SCHLECK Andy90%2013
5HUSHOVD Thor89%2013
6BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley89%2021
7CAVENDISH Mark89%2018
8DEGENKOLB John89%2017
9KITTEL Marcel87%2019
10NIZZOLO Giacomo86%2018

Tom Dumoulin is the most popular pick in CQ history, having been chosen by 96% of all the players in 2020. Marcel Kittel has the distinction of placing in the top ten twice. 2022's most popular pick, Lennard Kämna, is all the way down in 23rd place, having been on 81% of all teams this year. Some of the nearly ubiquitous riders have been quite unsuccesful, but the relatively recent entry of Egan Bernal (89% of teams in 2021) has the highest increase in points of all riders who've been picked by more than 70% of teams in any given year, adding 1286 points on his cost. Bernal scored 1736 points at a cost of 450. The highest percentage return among riders picked by more than 70% of teams is the 3990% increase for Joe Dombrowski (scored 399 at a cost of 10) in 2015. Of course the 2019 0-pointer Remco Evenepoel, who scored 952 points, is mathematically unavailable for this comparison. The Evenepoel that came straight from the junior ranks is found in 32nd place on this list, having been picked by 78% of players. He is the most popular 0-pointer in the game's history.


Total overall picks

RankNameTotal picks
1CAVENDISH Mark445
2ARU Fabio433
3CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban375
4PHINNEY Taylor362
5DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd356
6EWAN Caleb353
7BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto351
8MOSER Moreno333
9LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel324
10GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando316

Mark Cavendish is the most-picked rider in CQ game history across all the game editions. He took over the lead from Taylor Phinney in 2020 (where also Aru and Chaves passed Phinney) and extended it in 2021. Nobody picked him for 2022. The most-picked rider who was also picked in 2022 is Jhoan Esteban Chaves. One solitary player put their trust in him for 2022, which, as has been the case for most years, turned out to be a not so good idea.

2020 was the last year where we still had riders who had been picked in every single edition of the game up to that point. Carlos Betancur, Luke Durbridge, Yoann Offredo and Taylor Phinney were the last survivors, having been picked in 2020 and every preceding year. Nobody picked any of them in 2021, so now we unfortunately don't have any more ever-presents. Interestingly though, two riders who had been ever-presents up to and including 2019, but were not picked in 2020, has continued to be picked in 2021 and 2022. These are Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana. When six players took Landa at a cost of 1336 points in 2018, it wouldn't have been inconcievable that someone took him for 967 points when he moved to Bahrain in 2020. But nobody did. In just a slightly alternative reality he'd still be an ever-present in the CQ game. As for Quintana, nobody wanted him anymore when he moved to Arkea in 2020 and cost 1257 points, but he has made a reappearance at a discount in the past two years.
Loving all the stats!! Great work
 
One question about the file; do we need to use the CQ formula when typing in the names? Probably better if I use the file, rather than add up the numbers myself, even with a calculator, I might mess up.

Yes, I'll be using my "successful" method from the various sub-games the last few years; the trusty Random Number Generator! I've pre-selected 33 riders, and if they're below budget; lucky me. If they're not, I'll just RNG riders away until I go below budget, and hopefully before I go below 25 riders.

Why not just pick 33 riders you think will do well?
 
Awesome stuff, Squire! That's really fun and interesting to read. Unfortunately, I won't be participating this year for the first time ever. I love the game but I have a lot of other obligations this winter which is gonna be very busy for me, so I've decided to spend the little cycling time I'll have on another cycling game (we all know how time consuming trying to create the perfect CQ team is).

I'll definitely keep checking in on this thread though. Good luck to everyone and thanks once again to skidmark for keeping the game going!
 
Awesome stuff, Squire! That's really fun and interesting to read. Unfortunately, I won't be participating this year for the first time ever. I love the game but I have a lot of other obligations this winter which is gonna be very busy for me, so I've decided to spend the little cycling time I'll have on another cycling game (we all know how time consuming trying to create the perfect CQ team is).

I'll definitely keep checking in on this thread though. Good luck to everyone and thanks once again to skidmark for keeping the game going!

It took me less than an hour to create the team that gave me an 8th place in my first season.

But life has caught a little bit up with me too, so I'm not quite as knowledgeable and up-to-date this year as is usually the case, so that will probably make the process a lot longer.
 
For me it's not really about winning, but to have 33 riders to cheer for during the season.
Of course I want to be in the top ten, but it's not why I'm joining the game.
After spending a long time thinking about who might do good in the season to come, I usually end up picking riders that I want to do good, but that I do not really expect to be part of the winning move.
 
Thanks, cool!

Btw, @skidmark ,apart from having to use the CQ naming formula when sending in teams, do you have any other preferences? Such as riders being listed alphabetically, or by CQ points? Or by height?
There might be some automatic sorting formula in the spreadsheet, but I've seen some teams not be sorted correctly as well. So you'll cause the least amount of trouble if you sort your riders by CQ points, most expensive ones at the top. But submit them to skidmark without the points tally, only a clean list of names (and sometimes if you copy/paste names from a spreadsheet or whatever, a "space" could sneak in at the end. Make sure you avoid that, because that will make the spreadsheet unable to connect the names to the point scoring).
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedheadDane
During the covid-ruined 2020 season I lost a bit of interest in both cycling and anything CQ related, so I stopped updating my aggregate spreadsheet and never picked it up again. Until now, when I've finally found some time and motivation to do it. So here's a look at some game statistics and a bit of trivia!

(here you can read my previous post from the 2019 thread)


Top overall score

RankNameTotal score
1skidmark165940
2MADRAZO159860
3Hugo Koblet158396
4EvansIsTheBest157505
5Kazistuta157059
6Object153156
7Jpettersen150181
8Armchair cyclist146821
9will10146579
10shalgo145209

skidmark's lead stays more or less unassailable, and I think it has been that way since their dominant 2012 win. The rest of the top five is very close. MADRAZO took back 2nd place from Hugo Koblet in 2022, after having relinquished it to the game founder in 2019.

shalgo is the only one in the top ten who hasn't taken part in all 12 editions of the game. Impressively, shalgo is ahead of three of the remaining dozen who have participated in all editions. These being Blues in the bottle, Mellow Velo and Jakob747, who make up 11th, 12th and 13th on this list, respectively.

There is only one instance where a player outscores a competitor who has two more participations. Nyssinator with their 7 participations is 52nd on the overall ranking, outscoring Josedin (56th), who has 9 participations, by 2113 points. This feat is greatly helped by Nyssinator having finished 3rd in the high-scoring 2012 edition, where Josedin didn't take part.


Average placement (3+ participations)

RankNameParticipationsAverage placing
1The Hitch(5)16
2TheArt(3)18
3skidmark(12)20
4SafeBet(6)22
5Kryvo(3)22
6Squire(10)23
7gustienordic(4)24
8tobydawq(4)24
9Hugo Koblet(12)26
10MADRAZO(12)26

If you don't play, you can't mess up. And that's what keeps The Hitch on top of this ranking despite not having taken part since 2015. When I last compiled this list in 2019, Hakkie2 had a very impressive average placing of 11th from their first 4 participations, but they have since tumbled down the list due to some bad years. Special shoutout to the ever-consistent skidmark, who has steadily improved on their average placing each year since 2018.


Top weekly scores

RankNameWeekly scoreAfter which race
1Object2551Vuelta a Espana 2022
2Crevaison2484Vuelta a Espana 2022
3Rakim2377Vuelta a Espana 2022
4skidmark2223Vuelta a Espana 2022
5repre2209Vuelta a Espana 2022
6rote_laterne2160Vuelta a Espana 2022
7Ben13762146Giro d'Italia 2014
8fauniera2101Giro d'Italia 2014
9Bonimenier2100Vuelta a Espana 2022
10CQmanager2063Tour de France 2015

The 2022 season really turned this list on its head! Not only did Object and five other players smash the old weekly record following Evenepoel's Vuelta win, the year also brought another 2000+ week when bminchow got 2032 points after the Giro d'Italia, currently the 13th highest weekly score. bminchow is also to be found among the ten players reaching 2000+ for the Vuelta, making it a year for the record books despite no significant overall success for the 2020 game winner.

So far nobody has managed to reach 1500 points in a non-GT GC week (all the 1500+ weeks make it into my list). I think the one who has come the closest has been myself, scoring 1495 points in a wild Colbrelli-fueled week in September 2021, just before the Worlds, with a bunch of high-scoring Italian, Belgian and German one-day races and some minor stage races to boot.


Top yearly scores

RankNamePointsYear
1skidmark193722012
2Object191292021
3Squire190152021
4Total Package186762021
5EvansIsTheBest186622022
6Northerner182932021
7Kvinto181062012
8Jon_Ezeitza180092021
9Nyssinator177852012
10Otoxiep87176432021

Despite the winning scores edging closer over the past couple of years, skidmark's legendary 2012 still reigns supreme.

Until 2022, skidmark's 2012 team was also the winning team with the lowest 'year-before' score (meaning 2010 rider values in their case), indicating some very good predictions about emerging riders, and not just picking established riders who had an off year. skidmark's 33 trusted men clocked in at a 2010 CQ value of only 12253, as if the record wasn't impressive enough already. For comparison, the winning team with (unsurprisingly) the highest 'year-before' score was Object's 2021 team. Taking advantage of 'artificially' low 2020 scores for a lot of riders, that team had a 2019 score of a staggering 24438 points, indicating just how much talent was available for the 2021 game. Most winning teams have had a 'year-before' score of around 15000-17000.

The main reason why I'm mentioning all of this, is because of the extreme outlier that is EvansIsTheBest's winning team of 2022. With a 'year-before' score of 7499 points, that could have been a CQ team within budget in 2020! Of course, when the comparison year happens to be 2020, a lot of riders scored less than normal. But I'd argue that it still indicates quite a different approach compared to most other game winners and some very impressive eye for talent from EvansIsTheBest! Even if low 2020 scores across the board accounts for the low number to an extent, the game-winning picks still had to be found with a lot less data to rely on compared to normal years. For reference, my own 2022 team had a 2020 score of 9166, and I'm also someone who doesn't just look at riders' past glory.


Most popular picks

RankNamePercentage of teamsYear
1DUMOULIN Tom96%2020
2BOONEN Tom92%2014
3KITTEL Marcel92%2016
4SCHLECK Andy90%2013
5HUSHOVD Thor89%2013
6BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley89%2021
7CAVENDISH Mark89%2018
8DEGENKOLB John89%2017
9KITTEL Marcel87%2019
10NIZZOLO Giacomo86%2018

Tom Dumoulin is the most popular pick in CQ history, having been chosen by 96% of all the players in 2020. Marcel Kittel has the distinction of placing in the top ten twice. 2022's most popular pick, Lennard Kämna, is all the way down in 23rd place, having been on 81% of all teams this year. Some of the nearly ubiquitous riders have been quite unsuccesful, but the relatively recent entry of Egan Bernal (89% of teams in 2021) has the highest increase in points of all riders who've been picked by more than 70% of teams in any given year, adding 1286 points on his cost. Bernal scored 1736 points at a cost of 450. The highest percentage return among riders picked by more than 70% of teams is the 3990% increase for Joe Dombrowski (scored 399 at a cost of 10) in 2015. Of course the 2019 0-pointer Remco Evenepoel, who scored 952 points, is mathematically unavailable for this comparison. The Evenepoel that came straight from the junior ranks is found in 32nd place on this list, having been picked by 78% of players. He is the most popular 0-pointer in the game's history.


Total overall picks

RankNameTotal picks
1CAVENDISH Mark445
2ARU Fabio433
3CHAVES RUBIO Jhoan Esteban375
4PHINNEY Taylor362
5DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd356
6EWAN Caleb353
7BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto351
8MOSER Moreno333
9LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel324
10GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando316

Mark Cavendish is the most-picked rider in CQ game history across all the game editions. He took over the lead from Taylor Phinney in 2020 (where also Aru and Chaves passed Phinney) and extended it in 2021. Nobody picked him for 2022. The most-picked rider who was also picked in 2022 is Jhoan Esteban Chaves. One solitary player put their trust in him for 2022, which, as has been the case for most years, turned out to be a not so good idea.

2020 was the last year where we still had riders who had been picked in every single edition of the game up to that point. Carlos Betancur, Luke Durbridge, Yoann Offredo and Taylor Phinney were the last survivors, having been picked in 2020 and every preceding year. Nobody picked any of them in 2021, so now we unfortunately don't have any more ever-presents. Interestingly though, two riders who had been ever-presents up to and including 2019, but were not picked in 2020, has continued to be picked in 2021 and 2022. These are Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana. When six players took Landa at a cost of 1336 points in 2018, it wouldn't have been inconcievable that someone took him for 967 points when he moved to Bahrain in 2020. But nobody did. In just a slightly alternative reality he'd still be an ever-present in the CQ game. As for Quintana, nobody wanted him anymore when he moved to Arkea in 2020 and cost 1257 points, but he has made a reappearance at a discount in the past two years.
Great stuff Squire!! I love the numbers. I guess the only thing missing is avg total points/year, which is kind of covered by avg place/entry.
 
Awesome stuff, Squire! That's really fun and interesting to read. Unfortunately, I won't be participating this year for the first time ever. I love the game but I have a lot of other obligations this winter which is gonna be very busy for me, so I've decided to spend the little cycling time I'll have on another cycling game (we all know how time consuming trying to create the perfect CQ team is).

I'll definitely keep checking in on this thread though. Good luck to everyone and thanks once again to skidmark for keeping the game going!
Booo
 

TRENDING THREADS