The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[firefly3323]

Very pleased with my best ever position in the rankings and feeling smug (so far) with Jorgenson and Buitrago.

However, regretting not picking Gloag. How is it that when you don't pick someone he appears to be near the front of every race - it's spoiling my enjoyment!

Yeah, hopefully Matteo continues his solid form....either way I'm destined for the bottom. Having half my team be US riders (955 points so far from my US guys) isn't too smart for season long success.

 

[bminchow]

Very pleased with my best ever position in the rankings and feeling smug (so far) with Jorgenson and Buitrago.

However, regretting not picking Gloag. How is it that when you don't pick someone he appears to be near the front of every race - it's spoiling my enjoyment!

Those are two awesome picks! And to have them be so rare is a big advantage. And you will always miss out on some good picks as well. Thats just the nature of the game. I too get frustrated when i see good picks that i missed out on. You just have to keep looking at the good riders on your team and be happy about that. Whatever you feed, grows!

 

[Salvarani]

Opening weekend is on the horizon!

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Elite/Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne
ASGREEN Kasper
MARIT Arne
MILAN Jonathan
PIDCOCK Thomas (Only Omloop)
GARCÍA CORTINA Iván
MIHKELS Madis (Only K-B-K)
DEKKER David (Only K-B-K)

Keeping my expectations low, right now. I think it could go either way. It would be nice if IGC scored some points, as he is my unique pick.

Faun-Ardèche Classic/Faun Drôme Classic
FISHER-BLACK Finn
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
BAGIOLI Andrea
VAN WILDER Ilan
GRÉGOIRE Romain
MARTINEZ Lenny
SIMMONS Quinn
HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich

Looks promising. Will be pretty disappointed, if this doesnt go well.

 

[RedheadDane]

Look at me, just steadily climbing! I'm almost into the top-20.

 

[slow_climber]

Those are two awesome picks! And to have them be so rare is a big advantage. And you will always miss out on some good picks as well. Thats just the nature of the game. I too get frustrated when i see good picks that i missed out on. You just have to keep looking at the good riders on your team and be happy about that. Whatever you feed, grows!

Thanks.

Sadly human nature to focus on the picks you missed, rather than the good picks you made!

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Elite (1.UWT)
ASGREEN Kasper
PEDERSEN Casper
SYRITSA Gleb
SCHELLING Ide
PIDCOCK Thomas
NARVÁEZ Jhonatan
KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren

Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne (1.Pro)
ASGREEN Kasper
PEDERSEN Casper
SCHELLING Ide
NARVÁEZ Jhonatan
DEKKER David

Faun-Ardèche Classic (1.Pro)
Faun Drôme Classic (1.Pro)
FISHER-BLACK Finn
BUSATTO Francesco (only Ardèche, but still great to see him here)
MARTINEZ Lenny
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
SVRČEK Martin
SKJELMOSE Mattias
HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich
DINHAM Matthew

O Gran Camiño (2.1)
ARDILA Andrés Camilo
HAILEMICHAEL Mulu Kinfe

Guess I can't complain about the line-ups. Ok, Gran Camino could be stronger...

 

[Devil's Elbow]

UAE Tour is going pretty well so far with Plapp sitting in a position from where he really should be making the top-3 and Gloag and Tiberi (both of whom have started this year well) also still in the mix. A lot of other points to play for this week of course, excited to see how my riders will stack up now that the big points really start to be on offer.

Gran Camiño - Moscon
Cheap points in this race for a limited amount of teams, assuming Moscon doesn’t do much, and therefore not for me.

Omloop - Asgreen, Milan, Wright, Schelling, Pidcock, Vacek
Kuurne - same as above but with Baroncini instead of Pidcock and Vacek
This doesn’t feel like a season where the cobbles will be that decisive - Asgreen and Pidcock are too popular and just about everyone else isn’t popular enough - but if things break the right (i.e. Bahrain’s) way, I could get a boost here.

Ardèche - Fisher-Black, Uijtdebroeks, Alaphilippe, Svrček, Van Wilder, Grégoire, Martinez, Hoelgaard, Honoré, Rudy Barbier (lol)
Drôme - same as above but with Strong as well
This double-header may be overshadowed by opening weekend, but not so much in this game - the scoring will probably be heavier here. Expecting to pick up a fair few points, hopefully also from my rarer picks.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Victor de la Parte is about to easily outdo his 2022 performance and could therefore have been a good man for my team, but the final stage of the 2013 Tour d'Algerie haunted me too much to pick him.

Gran Camiño
Pelayo Sanchez
Ion Izagirre
Jonathan Lastra
Igor Arrieta
Xabier Azparren
Carlos Canal
Txomin Juaristi

Omloop/KBK
Iván Romeo

Faun-Ardèche/Drôme
Sergio Higuita
Nans Peters

 

[RedheadDane]

Faun-Ardèche/Drôme
Sergio Higuita

Didn't you put Nans, who's not the next Lance, but has won stages in both the Giro and the Tour de France, on your team because you had to include one of your French darlings?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Didn't you put Nans, who's not the next Lance, but has won stages in both the Giro and the Tour de France, on your team because you had to include one of your French darlings?

It seems FirstCycling has been a bit sloppy here.

 

[armchairclimber]

Slight uptick this week, which should end with decent points for Plapp and maybe Sam Bennett.

Omloop:

Sagan
Pidcock
Asgreen
Wright
Watson
Vacek

KBK:

Asgreen
Dekker
Wright
Sagan

Ardeche and Drome

Uijtdebroeks
Martinez
Alaphilippe
Van Wilder

 

[Earns1985]

Gran Camiño
Pelayo Sanchez
Ion Izagirre
Jonathan Lastra
Igor Arrieta
Xabier Azparren
Carlos Canal
Txomin Juaristi

Probably the strongest line-up for Gran Camino in this game for you here!

 

[Earns1985]

This doesn’t feel like a season where the cobbles will be that decisive - Asgreen and Pidcock are too popular and just about everyone else isn’t popular enough - but if things break the right (i.e. Bahrain’s) way, I could get a boost here.

Well, 15 players have van der Poel, his results will definitely play a role..

 

[BR2]

There's not much in it for me at UAE, I just hope that De Bod can hold on to a good place. At the moment he's 4th, a top10 would be great.
Apart from him I only have Ben Herman somewhere down the line.

Mulubrhan could score some more points in Rwanda.

Gran Camino: forget it.

Omloop:
Asgreen, C Pedersen, Rex, Askey, Vacek, Ackermann
Kuurne:
Asgreen, C Pedersen, Mihkels, Rex, Askey, Ackermann

Fauns: Here they are, my guys! While I've been looking for them they apparently have been hiding in the French faune.
Fisher-Black, Alaphilippe, Svrcek, van Wilder, Grégoire, L Martinez, Simmons
Sounds rather nice, hopefully it will be. Especially Simmons is carrying some of my hopes.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Well, 15 players have van der Poel, his results will definitely play a role..

Van der Poel being a decisive pick hinges mostly on his ability to score a lot of points after Roubaix, IMO - difficult to improve much on what he did in the spring classics last year.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

My 2023 team has 819 points which is kind of surprising because it feels like Vercher's 3rd place in Rwanda yesterday was one of the best results of the season.

For what it's worth (not much considering it would have been 11000 points over budget) my 2022 team would still be first this year with 2029 points (and more to come from Remco).

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Too late to do anything about daft omissions from your team here, but you could reprieve your reputation (or prove that you are a master of this CQ game lark) by entering the Spring Classics CQ game, but make sure you do so before the Omloop starts (mid-morning Eurotime on Saturday)

 

[bminchow]

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Elite (1.UWT)

PEDERSEN Casper
PIDCOCK Thomas
SCHELLING Ide
TURNER Benjamin
WRIGHT Fred

A couple of these guys have a chance. Would love to get a win before WVA and MVDP show up.

Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne (1.Pro)
ASGREEN Kasper
DEKKER David
MIHKELS Madis
PEDERSEN Casper
SCHELLING Ide
TURNER Benjamin
WRIGHT Fred

A couple bottom of the barrel sprinters so likely not much chance here.

Faun-Ardèche Classic (1.Pro)
Faun Drôme Classic (1.Pro)
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
DINHAM Matthew
HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich
SIMMONS Quinn
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian
Van Wilder Ilan

I'm guessing there a better options for the win (Gaudu and Bardet?)

 

[postmanhat]

Van der Poel being a decisive pick hinges mostly on his ability to score a lot of points after Roubaix, IMO - difficult to improve much on what he did in the spring classics last year.

My original plan was to build a team around him, but wasn't too sure how much, or effectively he'd do road racing after The Worlds, given that he has to ride some MTB this year? And he was still looking fairly sub-optimal in CX at the start of January. The latter has since been proved mostly wrong, and probably the first will too

 

[postmanhat]

Here we go. My favourite part of the season and so my picks always have a heavy bias to the classics. The next two months will decide if my team finishes in the top 20, 50 or.... Need a lot of points before the GTs begin. Late withdrawals from Asgreen and Battistella haven't helped on the opening weekend, but have some hopes for:

Omloop
Pidcock
Wright
Kragh Andersen
Pedersen
Page
Schelling
Vacek

KBK
Baroncini
Van Uden
Salby
Pedersen
Schelling
Mikhels
Wright

Fauns
Simmons
Honore
Strong
Fisher-Black
Van Eetvelt

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

My 2023 team has 819 points which is kind of surprising because it feels like Vercher's 3rd place in Rwanda yesterday was one of the best results of the season.

For what it's worth (not much considering it would have been 11000 points over budget) my 2022 team would still be first this year with 2029 points (and more to come from Remco).

Vercher of course proceeds to crash out of the race in the very next stage. I barely have anybody racing and when they do they don't even get to the finish line.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Lecerf 2 seconds away from 110 GC points, but it wasn't meant to be. 66 GC points ain't half bad, though.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Five riders between 10th and 20th in Gran Camiño isn't too bad, but losing Izagirre was still costly for me. Luckily Bizkarra made his way back into the top 10 in Rwanda.
Edit: But I lost Iturria's GC points due to illness

 

[tobydawq]

Rui Costa is probably vying for the honor of the most lol rider in this games' history. By the end of February, he has already all but doubled his not insignificant score from last year, he is up there in every race he rides and gets wins or honorary placings all over the place and tonight he will be just one point short of the overall lead in the CQ ranking, but alas, nobody saw it coming, so exactly 0 players picked him.

 

[RedheadDane]

Rui Costa is probably vying for the honor of the most lol rider in this games' history. By the end of February, he has already all but doubled his not insignificant score from last year, he is up there in every race he rides and gets wins or honorary placings all over the place and tonight he will be just one point short of the overall lead in the CQ ranking, but alas, nobody saw it coming, so exactly 0 players picked him.

That could actually be an interesting idea for a statistic. The "We are all *** idiots!" statistic. The 33 highest scoring riders that nobody picked.