The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[postmanhat]

Two DNFs and an 80th in GP Denain for me. This is not how I make up ground on the Roglic teams ...

Yes, MSR and the current/upcoming one-day races suddenly seem a lot more important..

Ewan
Honore
Kragh Andersen
Wright
Alaphillipe
Asgreen
Strong

No idea what IPT are doing with Strong this year? He's scored 100 points from his only two one-day race participations, which is why I picked him. Apart from that it's pointlessly tooling round stage races, next up Catalunya.

SKA and Ewan have both done well in MSR recently, but the way my team is going, they'll probably crash into each other on the way up The Poggio.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Yes, MSR and the current/upcoming one-day races suddenly seem a lot more important..

Ewan
Honore
Kragh Andersen
Wright
Alaphillipe
Asgreen
Strong

No idea what IPT are doing with Strong this year? He's scored 100 points from his only two one-day race participations, which is why I picked him. Apart from that it's pointlessly tooling round stage races, next up Catalunya.

SKA and Ewan have both done well in MSR recently, but the way my team is going, they'll probably crash into each other on the way up The Poggio.

Catalunya actually isn't that bad a race for him, quite a few of hilly stages and selective-ish sprints in a field of mostly climbers. But yeah, I would like to see him do more one-day races and am surprised he isn't so far given that Israel need to finish ahead of Total in points this year.

 

[armchairclimber]

Losing Pidcock from MSR was a blow, not for this competition, but from a spectator angle. Thijssen crashing out when in contention earlier in the week really was a blow, but at least he delivered yesterday. He will turn out to be one of my better picks this year I think. I have no chance of troubling the top 20 this year though.

 

[jsem94]

Lmao Ganna gonna get 1500 huh

 

[tobydawq]

That could certainly have gone better for me.

 

[vladimir]

8 riders started MSR for me today, and only Alaphilippe scored more than 5 points...

 

[Anderis]

Only 14 people have Van der Poel, so I guess I'm not losing another 38 places this week. There are not even that many players behind me anymore anyway.

 

[BR2]

I am so angry with you, Filippo. Why did you not do this when I had you last year, hm?

 

[tobydawq]

I am so angry with you, Filippo. Why did you not do this when I had you last year, hm?

I think you put too much pressure on him.

 

[tobydawq]

That could certainly have gone better for me.

Okay, I shouldn't complain, I'll probably take the lead but it's still quite annoying that Bettiol refuses to get any points despite a good shape. And Honoré has really not been the genious pick I thought. Neither has Kwiatkowski.

 

[Salvarani]

Okay, I shouldn't complain, I'll probably take the lead but it's still quite annoying that Bettiol refuses to get any points despite a good shape. And Honoré has really not been the genious pick I thought. Neither has Kwiatkowski.

I was hesitant on Honore and thought he could be hit or miss for EF, but in the end picked him anyway.

Hope he could be better in the Ardennes races, but I see he has hardly ridden them so far in his career. Maybe it was difficult getting a spot in the team for these races, when he rode for QS, but it should be races that suits him. Since he has done well in other hillier/mountainous one-day races in the past couple of seasons.

Still a lot of time left for him to turn into a good pick, but needs to pick up the pace.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Rogla will yo-yo competition this year

I'm not so sure. We might see a similar pattern to last year with Evenepoel. The 3-4 best Remco teams established themselves near the top early on and would see their lead balloon or shrink based on whether Remco was racing that particular week but in terms of position they wouldn't actually move up or down all that much.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Atrocious week for my team, only Alaphilippe in the top-30 in Sanremo and zero top-10s in the smaller races either. Not looking forward to the update...

Catalunya: Uijtdebroeks, Schelling, Roglic, Bernal, Plapp, Van Wilder, Martinez, Haig, Onley, Strong
Immediate opportunity to regain some ground. Roglic should get a big score again, but the support cast needs to perform here too. Just about everyone in this lineup could credibly do a GC and/or fight for stage wins, otoh the team hierarchies don't look great for me.

Coppi e Bartali (so far): Hayter, Gloag, Tiberi
Not sure whether Trek will actually let Tiberi resume his season, this is a race he can win if so though. Gloag should also at least crack the top-10.

De Panne: Baroncini, Milan, Malucelli
Muted expectations. Milan's form appears to have tailed off and Malucelli doesn't look like scoring in this kind of field right now.

E3: Alaphilippe, Asgreen, Wright, Baroncini
Probably a write-off, unless Wright hits form at the point he really needs to.

Too early to see what I have in Wevelgem and the other Sunday races, but it looks like I need my climbers to put in a big shift this week, otherwise it's going to be a fast descent into the mid-table.

 

[Salvarani]

Ooff. Not a good turn out at all for my team, especially in P-N and T-A. Lost some ground in the rankings. Oh well, thats part of the game sometimes.

One positive thing is that Sivakov looks like a solid pick. Shame with Kelderman who was in such a good position to score many points in his first race for JV, but the inevitable happened and he crashed.

Some upcoming races to look forward to:

Milano - Torino
ALEOTTI Giovanni
HERMANS Ben
VAN UDEN Casper
DE GENDT Aimé

Maybe Van Uden could get something here. He is the one that could be able to score some points in this race, when it will most likely be a sprint in the end (which still feels weird for this race).

Danilith Nokere Koerse
NYS Thibau
MIHKELS Madis

First race for Nys this season and hopefully he will be off to a good start. Mihkels could be there as well, but he is still getting the hang of it seems like.

Grand Prix de Denain - Porte du Hainaut
MARIT Arne
DEKKER David
NYS Thibau

Hopefully someone could have a good race.

Bredene Koksijde Classic
MIHKELS Madis
DEKKER David
NYS Thibau

Nys will have a busy three days it seems like. Wonder if he will really race three days in a row, but if he hits the ground running could be into profit immediately.

Milano-Sanremo
MILAN Jonathan
PICCOLO Andrea
HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich
PIDCOCK Thomas
GARCÍA CORTINA Iván
ASGREEN Kasper
ALAPHILIPPE Julian

There will probably be some more riders added to this list leading up to the weekend. IGC winning a reduced bunch sprint, would be nice. Should I buy my lottery ticket now?

Van Uden finished 3rd in Milano-Torino, which was good to see. Mihkels got some minor points and Ala scored some in MSR. Still a pretty mediocre week and there are surely a few teams that scored more points.

A lot of races coming up!

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian
FISHER-BLACK Finn
BERNAL Egan
PLAPP Luke (DNS, sick)
TULETT Ben
MARIT Arne
VAN WILDER Ilan
CATTANEO Mattia
MARTINEZ Lenny
SIMMONS Quinn
BRENNER Marco
MOSCON Gianni

More than a third of my team is here, but I am not feeling very optimistic. I would have rather seen a few of these riders in the race below instead.

Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali
HAYTER Leo
ALEOTTI Giovanni
GLOAG Thomas
HERMANS Ben

Startlist is still lacking a lot of names with less than 48 hours before the race begins, so maybe someone could still be added. It would be really nice to see Aleotti scoring some points here and make me feel a little bit better about picking him.

Classic Brugge-De Panne
BAGIOLI Andrea
MILAN Jonathan
MIHKELS Madis
DEKKER David
VAN UDEN Casper
NYS Thibau
SCHACHMANN Maximilian

Bagioli feels completely wasted here... oh well, maybe someone of the others can finish in the top 10 or top 20.

E3 Saxo Classic
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
ASGREEN Kasper
DE GENDT Aimé
SCHACHMANN Maximilian
GARCÍA CORTINA Iván

It will be, what it will be.

Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields
DE GENDT Aimé
ASGREEN Kasper
MILAN Jonathan
GARCÍA CORTINA Iván
SIMMONS Quinn
DEKKER David
VAN UDEN Casper

Simmons is in Catalunya, so might be removed, if he doesnt drop out early there. Startlist not completed.

GP Industria & Artigianato
PICCOLO Andrea

Time for Piccolo to start showing something this season, cmon kid! Startlist not completed.

La Roue Tourangelle Centre Val de Loire - Trophée Groupama Paris Val de Loire
MIHKELS Madis

Maybe some minor points, if lucky.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

As a reference point before the next update, here are all the top scores after MSR since the game's inception.

Year​	Team​	Score​
2011​	microdose​	3377​
2012​	Mellow Velo​	3691​
2013​	Skibby the bush kangaroo​	2734​
2014​	Geraint Too Fast​	3104​
2015​	Geraint Too Fast​	3472​
2016​	Pentacycle​	3601​
2017​	Nicosix​	3451​
2018​	Nathanptz​	3290​
2019​	Nicosix​	2726​
2020​	EITB​	3939*​
2021​	Otoxiep87​	3922​
2022​	Eyeballs Out​	3445​

*August edition due to covid although to be fair there weren't necessarily more races completed prior to MSR than usual.

None of those teams went on to win the competition (at least not the year they were leading post-MSR) so we'll see if that trend holds.

 

[vladimir]

At least I have strenght in numbers in Catalunya. I have no less than 15 riders from my team starting tomorrow.
I think this might the most riders I have had in a race ever, but not 100% sure:
JOHANNESSEN Tobias Halland
FOSS Tobias Svendsen
HAIG Jack
MÄDER Gino
SIMMONS Quinn
VAN WILDER Ilan
ONLEY Oscar
VAN EETVELT Lennert
MARTINEZ Lenny
FELLINE Fabio
CARR Simon
CATTANEO Mattia
MOSCON Gianni
FISHER-BLACK Finn
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley

 

[tobydawq]

As a reference point before the next update, here are all the top scores after MSR since the game's inception.

Year​	Team​	Score​
2011​	microdose​	3377​
2012​	Mellow Velo​	3691​
2013​	Skibby the bush kangaroo​	2734​
2014​	Geraint Too Fast​	3104​
2015​	Geraint Too Fast​	3472​
2016​	Pentacycle​	3601​
2017​	Nicosix​	3451​
2018​	Nathanptz​	3290​
2019​	Nicosix​	2726​
2020​	EITB​	3939*​
2021​	Otoxiep87​	3922​
2022​	Eyeballs Out​	3445​

*August edition due to covid although to be fair there weren't necessarily more races completed prior to MSR than usual.

None of those teams went on to win the competition (at least not the year they were leading post-MSR) so we'll see if that trend holds.

Hopefully not.

Small points for Heiduk, Hayter and Morgado yesterday. Not bad.

For Catalunya, I have Roglic, Haig, Van Wilder, Bernal and Moscon.

A bit of a letdown that Simon Yates sits this one over.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Johannessen losing time on this stage is not what I was hoping for. Well at least Roglic keeps doing his thing.

 

[tobydawq]

Roglic letting me down terribly today.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

He has another more than decent chance at 45 points tomorrow. Which would bring him up to 629 points, more than half his 2022 score. In March.

 

[BR2]

Is it possible to switch my current team with the one I had last year...?

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

He has another more than decent chance at 45 points tomorrow. Which would bring him up to 629 points, more than half his 2022 score. In March.

Not bad for a guy that was supposed to start his season yesterday. He is almost making up for Ayuso, Johannessen and Piccolo by himself.

Uijtdebroeks, Martinez and Van Eetvelt had encouraging rides today.

 

[skidmark]

Update #11: The lead changes at last

Former game winner bminchow has been in front of the game since the start, and only came within touching distance of the pack last week as a Roglic-less team had to come back down to earth at that point. This week, the jig was up as Milan-San Remo points saw the lead change for the first time since the beginning.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	escartin	642
2	R_O_Shipman	639
2	Popchu	639
4	rote_laterne	614
5	JumboVismaFan	599

escartin wins for the second week this season, with an impressive 642 points. Of course, this helps when 280 monument-winning points are doled out for your star attraction, and indeed escartin was one of the 15 owners of Mathieu Van Der Poel, who took his third monument in impressive fashion. Also contributing in the smattering of one-day races across Europe were Pascal Ackermann (78 points, 26 teams), Jasper Stuyven (62, 23), Matteo Moschetti (57, 15) and Alaphilippe (54, 97). Amazingly, RO Shipman and Popchu were tied for second, only three points back, and RO Shipman without MvdP to boot! Shipman got it done with Filippo Ganna (170, 7), Soren Kragh (112, 10), Lewis Askey (71, 7), Casper Van Uden (66, 22) and a few others. Popchu had the perhaps more predictable MvdP, with help from Gaviria (83, 12) and a few of the same support riders as Escartin.

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	escartin	(+34)
2	R_O_Shipman	(+30)
3	JumboVismaFan	(+29)
3	rote_laterne	(+29)
5	search	(+20)

The top two here mirror the first ranking, with JumboVismaFan and two weeks ago's winner rote_laterne tying for third, moving up 29 spots each as Van Der Poel-havers.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	bminchow	137.3
2	Jakob747	122.3
3	rote_laterne	121.5
4	Blues in the bottle	109.5
5	ray10	102.5

An interesting mix this week - 9 of the top 15 teams on the week finished in the top 15 for their first week this year, while 3 teams who were already quite high up jumped into the top 6 with big weeks. rote_laterne and ray10 moved into the top 5, while escartin is in 6th with only two weekly wins making up their team's 90 points overall. bminchow holds on atop this ranking, but things are getting quite close.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(+1)	tobydawq	3475
2	(+3)	Blues in the bottle	3432
3	(+3)	adamski101	3379
4	(+3)	DJW	3359
5	(-4)	bminchow	3352
6	(-3)	Whoops	3293
7	(-3)	Crevaison	3264
8	(-)	will10	3259
9	(+3)	Yellow Knight	3257
10	(+7)	repre	3232

However, bminchow couldn't stay atop the main rankings, finally sliding out of the top spot after a season-long run. tobydawq, who was next in line at 2nd place last week, takes over, but things are quite tight, with less than 250 points separating the entire top 10! I believe that level of bunching is quite rare in this game, although I'm admittedly going by feel rather than facts. Blues in the Bottle is closest 43 points back, and adamski101 rounds out the podium within 100 of the top spot.

And if you're asking, dear reader, if there are points this week... well let me tell you, there most certainly are! We are in the heyday of the classics season, with a dizzying amount of high-profile races bringing both excitement for fans and big points for CQ managers. Catalunya and Coppi e Bartali are underway as we speak, and a slate of 1.WT races are coming in rapid succession, from De Panne on Wednesday to E3 on Friday to Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday (oh and a 1.Pro and 1.1 that day to boot). And you know what comes at the end of next week...

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[Panda Claws]

Finally a good week (9th) and now back to 83rd

If Girmay starts performing there is hope

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

De Panne today. Don't think I have any contenders, so will not be disappointed - not like last year when I had Bennet, Ewan and Jakobsen on my team, and only Bennet rode the race and ended up 17th. Maybe Van Uden can do the same this year.
Cataluña - Roglic, Schelling, Cattaneo (hasn't done much this year, has he?), Martinez, Thompson, Hailemichael, Ardila. All about Roglic here of course, but was happy to see Schelling in third place on stage 1.
Coppa e Bartali - Walls, Gloag and Leo Hayter. Young Hater showed promise in the first stage. Had higher hopes for Gloag!
E3 - Now it gets interesting - Alaphilippe, Asgreen, Kragh Andersen, Schachmann, Narvaez
Gent-Wevelgem, No Schachmann and C Pedersen instead of Alaphilippe.