The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Devil's Elbow]

Good week for me. Plapp getting the absolute best he could in UAE with Tiberi going into profit there to boot, some nice points from Gregoire and Strong (and of course Alaphilippe) in France, and opening weekend didn't do too much for this game with the scoring done by barely-picked riders and the popular Pidcock (who I also have).

 

[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.

Very good week in the end with Plapp also finishing 2nd in the UAE Tour!

Two races coming up midweek before the big one next weekend!

Le Samyn
ASGREEN Kasper
MIHKELS Madis
VAN UDEN Casper
DEKKER David

Would be nice if Mihkels could start showing something. It is a pretty weak field here and a good performance would be welcome. Make me feel a little bit better about the pick. The same goes for Van Uden.

Trofeo Laigueglia
PICCOLO Andrea
HAYTER Leo
MARTINEZ Lenny
GRÉGOIRE Romain

Should be a race very well suited to Piccolo. Question is his form atm. A good performance would be welcome. Grégoire looks like a solid pick. Unless he got too tired in the wind today in France it should be a race thats suits him as well. Martinez looks very capable also. Hayter hasnt showed much yet.

Startlist still missing a lot of names, maybe someone more could still be added.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

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.

Rui Costa definitely is the early contender of the year for best pick nobody saw coming. All time though I still have to give the nod to Marco Canola in 2017. Price: 123, Score: 905. How absurd was his season ? He was 28 years old when the season began, going into his sixth professional season and he had topped out at 221 points previously. In fact even adding all his points up to that point (677) you still fall well short of his 2017 total. Also in 2016, the only races where he got more than 10 CQ points where something called the Philadelphia Cycling Classic and the Winston-Salem Classic. Literally the most WTF season in the history of the game.

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

If someone reminds me at the end of the year I could compute an optimal team of riders no one picked (looking at just highest scoring riders nobody picked you'll get the Pogacars and Van Aerts of this world which isn't super interesting).

 

[tobydawq]

Rui Costa definitely is the early contender of the year for best pick nobody saw coming. All time though I still have to give the nod to Marco Canola in 2017. Price: 123, Score: 905. How absurd was his season ? He was 28 years old when the season began, going into his sixth professional season and he had topped out at 221 points previously. In fact even adding all his points up to that point (677) you still fall well short of his 2017 total. Also in 2016, the only races where he got more than 10 CQ points where something called the Philadelphia Cycling Classic and the Winston-Salem Classic. Literally the most WTF season in the history of the game.

Fair enough, but he is a small name. You can't exactly say that about Rui Costa.

 

[adamski101]

Decent enough week with sizeable contributions from Gaudu, Alaphilippe, Pidcock, Gregoire and Simmons. The two French races worked out well. Pidcock was only rider to pick up serious in OHN. KBK and UAE scored very few, but was not expecting much tbf.

 

[Whoops]

Decent enough week with sizeable contributions from Gaudu, Alaphilippe, Pidcock, Gregoire and Simmons. The two French races worked out well. Pidcock was only rider to pick up serious in OHN. KBK and UAE scored very few, but was not expecting much tbf.

Same for me, but replace pidcock with Politt
Had Ewan and Vine for UAE, so expectations were a bit higher.

Le Samyn:
STUYVEN Jasper - Looked okay this weekend, so could do well against a bit weaker field

Trofeo Laigueglia:

KWIATKOWSKI Michal
GREGOIRE Romain
VAN EETVELT Lennert

Curious to see how the youngsters perform, both had some nice results already.

Trofej Umag:
CHRISTEN Jan - First road race of the season for him, not sure what to expect.

 

[Earns1985]

Hmmm,
first two months are over in this game and I am still waiting for my not so popular picks (popularity under or equal to 25) to breakthrough.

C. Rodriguez - Scored ok in Valencia and Andalucia, but could still be more for his price
Ayuso - Hoping desperately for his start
JOHANNESSEN - Same like Ayuso with the difference that he already started and had to DNF
Tulett - Showed potential in Etoile and scored in Jaén Paraiso Interior, but had been dissapointing in UAE
Storer - first good signs of him in UAE with 12th overall
KWIATKOWSKI - Hmm, rode like a dom a lot in his first races, hopefully he can ride for his own in the upcoming one day races. His schedule is not bad to score..
Padun - seems to become a wasted pick
M. Vacek - showed some promising performances, let´s see how he will score in the rest of the season
VAN UDEN - Seems to need a bit more time to be able to deliver
L. Hamilton - Wasn´t bad in Australia, but it´s possible that he has to ride for Yates in the mayority of his races, which means not many points..
I. Arrieta - Until now not too bad, but last year he scored more in Gran Camino
C. Bol - Seems to be a good pick, ok he has to ride for Cavendish at times, but it seems that he will also get his own chances.
G. Steinhauser - Showed some first good signs in UAE (also scored a few points), so I am looking forward..
E. Herzog - Hasn´t started his season yet

 

[RedheadDane]

If someone reminds me at the end of the year I could compute an optimal team of riders no one picked (looking at just highest scoring riders nobody picked you'll get the Pogacars and Van Aerts of this world which isn't super interesting).

So, riders noboby picked but still within budget? That's actually even better.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

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

See the Collective Ignorance team in the Emerging Riders 20-22 edition.
Winning score 11622, median score 8895, score of a team made up of the top unselected riders 16649 (max possible score 21437)

 

[BR2]

I don't think we are idiots because we didn't see Rui Costa's comeback coming...

 

[Salvarani]

I don't think we are idiots because we didn't see Rui Costa's comeback coming...

Dont think anyone was saying we were

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

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

It might be possible to improve on it, but from last year's game, I can find a "Collective Ignorance" team that would have fallen just outside the top ten fifteen:

	cost	points scored	profit
VAUQUELIN Kévin	54	618	564
VAN GESTEL Dries	133	663	530
ROTA Lorenzo	470	915	445
HIRT Jan	158	587	429
SIMON Julien	268	685	417
DUJARDIN Sandy	3	401	398
TURNER Benjamin LAURANCE Axel	19 20	372 301	353 281
CAPIOT Amaury	299	648	349
LOUVEL Matis	248	594	346
KAMP Alexander	35	352	317
POZZOVIVO Domenico	236	550	314
VERONA QUINTANILLA Carlos	111	423	312
GUERREIRO Ruben Antonio Almeida	236	527	291
HOULE Hugo	185	470	285
ALBANESE Vincenzo	267	546	279
DE BONDT Dries	186	456	270
TEUGELS Lennert	74	343	269
MARCHAND Gianni	138	395	257
PACHER Quentin	189	407	218
MOZZATO Luca	380	595	215
REICHENBACH Sébastien	193	392	199
SKUJINS Toms	309	501	192
ZANA Filippo	358	515	157
BURGAUDEAU Mathieu	225	378	153
CLARKE Simon	238	380	142
SARREAU Marc	236	374	138
THEUNS Edward	302	436	134
BAUHAUS Phil	337	449	112
POLANC Jan	295	406	111
GILBERT Philippe	299	410	111
TRATNIK Jan	326	426	100
ALLEGAERT Piet	374	474	100
BOUWMAN Koen	307	404	97
Total	74889	1609221	8604 8532

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Hmmm: I think Turner was chosen a few time as "TURNER Ben", and subsequently changed to "TURNER Benjamin" by CQ towards the end of the season (they have subsequently changed him back). I hope that his teams weren't deprived of 372 points in last year's game.

So I will edit the table above and put Axel Laurance in his place instead: still a roll of collective shame for us.

 

[SafeBet]

That team is almost entirely made of riders I would discard in 5 seconds while saying "I'll never pick him".

That's how expert I am

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

@Armchair cyclist, I think you missed a couple of the more expensive guys that weren't picked including Vingegaard who had a very decent argument for best pick everybody passed on last year.

VINGEGAARD RASMUSSEN Jonas
LAPORTE Christophe
ROTA Lorenzo
TEUNS Dylan
BARGUIL Warren
HOFSTETTER Hugo
SIMON Julien
VAN GESTEL Dries
CAPIOT Amaury
VAUQUELIN Kévin
LOUVEL Matis
HIRT Jan
POZZOVIVO Domenico
ALBANESE Vincenzo
GUERREIRO Ruben Antonio Almeida
HOULE Hugo
DE BONDT Dries
VERONA QUINTANILLA Carlos
PACHER Quentin
DUJARDIN Sandy
MARCHAND Gianni
CHARMIG Anthon
KAMP Alexander
TEUGELS Lennert
GATE Aaron
LAURANCE Axel
MONIQUET Sylvain
DYBALL Benjamin
PETIT Adrien
NOVAK Domen
PAGE Hugo
KREDER Raymond
SCARONI Christian
Score: 18202
Price: 7483

That team would have finished comfortably in second place. It's still far away from the best optimal team (29036). Only Vauquelin, Kamp, Dujardin and Van Gestel crack that team as well.

 

[Squire]

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

This is why January (post reveal & discussion) and February are the worst months of this game for me. I have usually considered so many riders that some of the ones I didn't pick are bound to have great results in the early season, which makes me feel really bad for leaving them out. Things are getting a bit better now though, as a lot of my actual picks also have started their season. Looking at a pretty decent week, I think.

@Armchair cyclist, I think you missed a couple of the more expensive guys that weren't picked including Vingegaard who had a very decent argument for best pick everybody passed on last year.

VINGEGAARD RASMUSSEN Jonas
LAPORTE Christophe
ROTA Lorenzo
TEUNS Dylan
BARGUIL Warren
HOFSTETTER Hugo
SIMON Julien
VAN GESTEL Dries
CAPIOT Amaury
VAUQUELIN Kévin
LOUVEL Matis
HIRT Jan
POZZOVIVO Domenico
ALBANESE Vincenzo
GUERREIRO Ruben Antonio Almeida
HOULE Hugo
DE BONDT Dries
VERONA QUINTANILLA Carlos
PACHER Quentin
DUJARDIN Sandy
MARCHAND Gianni
CHARMIG Anthon
KAMP Alexander
TEUGELS Lennert
GATE Aaron
LAURANCE Axel
MONIQUET Sylvain
DYBALL Benjamin
PETIT Adrien
NOVAK Domen
PAGE Hugo
KREDER Raymond
SCARONI Christian
Score: 18202
Price: 7483

That team would have finished comfortably in second place. It's still far away from the best optimal team (29036). Only Vauquelin, Kamp, Dujardin and Van Gestel crack that team as well.

This is a perfect illustration of how hard it is to hit those high scorers in French, Belgian and Italian races who can be so profitable. The whole team is full of those riders! But it doesn't keep me from trying every year!

 

[postmanhat]

Awful UAE, with Lutsenko disappearing on the last day after being well-placed for the second race in a row. Probably not going to get too many easier points opportunities this year. And Ewan will be lucky to reach parity if he can't sprint in a bunch anymore.

Could have done without Waerenskjold crashing in Algarve and so missing La Samyn tomorrow. Exactly the type of race I picked him for, but still some chances with:

Kragh Andersen
Van Uden
Page
Vacek
Mikhels
Pedersen

 

[skidmark]

Hey everyone, I'm in transit right now and hope to have the update in the next 24 hours. Just wanted to check in because I know it was a big cycling week! Should be back on track for Monday updates after this.

 

[skidmark]

Update #8: Squire on Fire

Opening weekend has come and gone, with Het Nieuwsblad kicking off the WT season in Europe. And with it (as well as a 1.Pro win for the most popular rider in the game) there was an uptick in scores this week.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Squire	770
2	Blues in the bottle	740
3	zaka_fan	698
4	Rufs	672
5	Jakob747	668

Squire hit big with a few riders this week, and it paid off, leading to 770 points. The biggest contributors to this were Lucas Plapp (164 points, 13 teams), Julian Alaphilippe (140 points, 97 teams) and David Gaudu (136, 12) breaking triple digits, and deep cut pick William Junior Lecerf (94, 3) breaking out in Rwanda. Blues in the bottle has a great week as well which ends up with 2nd place, thanks largely to Plap/Ala as well, but also good support from Sepp Kuss (97, 9), Tom Pidcock (70, 76) and Nils Politt (54, 5). zaka fan rounds out the top 3, not quite cracking 700 thanks to a similar cast at the top.

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	Rufs	(+31)
2	rote_laterne	(+23)
3	Londonpat	(+21)
4	18-Valve. (pithy)	(+20)
5	vsd88	(+19)

A different looking lineup in this ranking, with Rufs the only repeat name going from 4th on the first ranking to 1st on this one, moving up almost a third of the ranking (Alaphilippe/Plapp/Pidcock/Kuss). rote laterne moves up a handsome 23 spots, while Londonpat rounds out the podium by moving up 21 spots.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	bminchow	137.3
2	Jakob747	122.3
3	Blues in the bottle	109.5
4	zaka_fan	88.3
5	DJW	75

Lots of movement at the top this week, with Jakob747 scoring 22 points (5th overall this week) to move within striking distance of first place, Blues in the bottle getting 35 to cross 100 total, and zaka fan scoring 30 to get up to 4th on the ranking.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	bminchow	2530
2	(-)	Jakob747	2262
3	(+1)	zaka_fan	2178
4	(+5)	Blues in the bottle	2079
5	(-2)	firefly3323	2042
6	(-1)	Poles & Co	1991
7	(+11)	Squire	1942
8	(+5)	ray10	1897
9	(+2)	adamski101	1872
10	(-3)	tobydawq	1834

bminchow's lead becomes a little less unassailable this week, finishing 'only' 22nd in points for the week and losing 130-200 points on the closest competitors in the game. Blues in the bottle takes a big step up to just off the podium, and Squire and ray10 move into the top 10 at the expense of DJW and zigzag wanderer who fall out.

This week is a bit quieter on the stage race front, although the first two stages of Paris-Nice are lurking on the weekend, while Laugueglia serves as a mid-week appetizer for Strade Bianche this weekend.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[the asian]

Oh Dear.

Tiberi looks like he's having a good season and then he kills a cat.

Decent middle of the pack position with Roglic yet to start his season but selections like Ackermann and Sagan are looking like really bad.

 

[Anderis]

I somehow managed to gain 5 places last week. I expected to lose places actually. I don't remember any of my riders scoring any big results recently, apart from Alaphilippe, who's on almost everyone's team.

 

[Anderis]

Piccolo has finally scored a few points, hallelujah!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I definitely didn't expect to get 130 points from Trofeo Laigueglia, considering I only had one rider in the race, but Nans Peters proved that quality was more important than quantity.

 

[bminchow]

I definitely didn't expect to get 130 points from Trofeo Laigueglia, considering I only had one rider in the race, but Nans Peters proved that quality was more important than quantity.

Heck of a pick. I had him in Zwheeler. I won a whole 9 dollars!

 

[bminchow]

Phew. Great to see one more week at the top. I am enjoying it. I should have gotten some cigars. But so far I've had to 0 pointers and 2 DNFs in Le samyn, and nobody racing in Trofeo. So I better get a 1,2,3 from Honore, Simmons and Schelling in the Strade or I am an big trouble.