The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Kryvoskyn]

I've just sent my team. Good luck everyone!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Hello everyone, I'm happy to report I am still alive and remembered to send in a team just like in 2021 I followed the cycling season at a more casual level in 2022 and to be honest a lot of the names on CQ ranking I don't think I've ever seen before (cue clown music)
I feel like I am missing a lot of crucial information but hey, I felt the same last year and I think that ended up being my best season in the game yet

 

[Panda Claws]

This year I took out the big spreadsheet comparing all rider's 2021 scores to their 2022 scores

 

[tobydawq]

This year I took out the big spreadsheet comparing all rider's 2021 scores to their 2022 scores

Are you saying your spreadsheet is bigger than mine?

 

[bminchow]

Just entered my first team, also first post
Looking forward to the start of the season

welcome to the game. nice name!

 

[bminchow]

I would personally bring more than 18 riders

i think he means two canadians

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

This year I took out the big spreadsheet comparing all rider's 2021 scores to their 2022 scores

That is the research based tactical approach that secured me a series of highly mediocre performances for many years.

 

[bminchow]

This year I took out the big spreadsheet comparing all rider's 2021 scores to their 2022 scores

I tried that but lost all interest pretty quickly

 

[MADRAZO]

Sent my team in now also a day early, otherwise I would have never be able to sleap tonight thinking about possible changes.

Looking forward to a good battle with everyone.

As many mentions perhaps not that many certain picks this year but on the other hand still many clearly good picks, and I think the proces this year happened quite easily and my team havent really changed that much since my first version of it months ago, unlike some other years. The hardest part was as usual the final cuts to get the puzzle to fit with the points in the end where some sacrifices of clearly good picks had to be made, but in the end I feel pretty good about how the team turned out. Hopefully that will last until the deadline.

 

[bminchow]

Okay I have my team submitted as well. i actually submitted a few days ago. But then changed my mind on my highest priced rider, which then screwed up the rest of my roster. So I just redid the whole thing. Apologies to Skidmark if he had already loaded my roster into the spreadsheet. Although i thought about this a lot, I just dont feel great about my selections. I'm not sure I know enough to predict who will vastly improve from last year. Sure i can look for older guys that have done better previous years, but maybe they are just on the down swing. Maybe a guy was going thru a divorce or had gambling debts hanging over his head. Anyway, its still fun to see the grand reveal and to have guys to pull for as I stream the races. ✌

 

[adamski101]

Team submitted, think my selection will live and die on one particular decision.

look forward to the big reveal and the season getting underway

 

[Panda Claws]

Just saying that Wout Van Aert has only ever improved his score (9 years and counting)

 

[search]

sent my team in a couple of days ago as well. Would probably be wiser to start from scratch again given some recent news, but will leave it as it is now.

Hopefully everyone will have a team at least

 

[tobydawq]

Just saying that Wout Van Aert has only ever improved his score (9 years and counting)

I don't have room for him. Remco and Pogacar take up too much space.

 

[skidmark]

Just under a day to go until the submission deadline, and under 48 hours until publication deadline! We currently have 73 teams, only 18 behind our participation last year. Lots of new and returning faces, which is great to see - hopefully there are still quite a few returnees (and newbies) that are intending on entering, it'd be really cool to get close to 100 again!

Also, I haven't done any formal tallying yet, but the popularity scores should be interesting. Lots of different team-building strategies this year.

 

[laarsland]

I tried that but lost all interest pretty quickly

Am I the only one getting the 2020-scores out as well? #Overthinking

 

[greenedge]

Have just submitted my team, looking forward to following along as the CQ season goes on!

 

[Anderis]

I feel like I am missing a lot of crucial information but hey, I felt the same last year and I think that ended up being my best season in the game yet

Human brain is capable of handling only so much information and sometimes too much knowledge can actually overwhelm it and lead to worse judgement.

I think there was even once a scientific study that showed that casual fans were better at predicting tennis results than hardcore fans.

 

[skidmark]

Three hours until submission deadline - just a reminder that the publication deadline isn't until 24 hours later (to allow teams to make changes etc), so please don't reveal your teams on the thread until 27 hours from when I post this message. Thanks all, let's get a few more submissions!

 

[PremierAndrew]

Hello everyone, I'm happy to report I am still alive and remembered to send in a team just like in 2021 I followed the cycling season at a more casual level in 2022 and to be honest a lot of the names on CQ ranking I don't think I've ever seen before (cue clown music)
I feel like I am missing a lot of crucial information but hey, I felt the same last year and I think that ended up being my best season in the game yet

well ive just thrown a team together in an hour, also only followed v casually in 2022. Looking forward to my best result here hopefully :')

 

[postmanhat]

After sneaking into the top ten in 2021 I probably got a bit arrogant with my picks and last year's team, bar Evenepoel, was a disaster. So have tried to play it a bit safer this time and also overcome a few personal prejudices against riders, teams, or disciplines, particularly sprinters. That said, have always had a preference for one-day races and either subconsciously, or due to the nature of this year's choice, am very light on GC riders. Easily the most balanced team I've submitted in terms of point distribution, with no riders over 600 , and eleven under 100.

Thanks skidmark and looking forward to the reveal on Sunday! This will be the most varied and interesting competition in a while I think?

 

[manafana]

Team sent and my +1s

 

[Squire]

First race winner of 2023 into profit already!

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

I was looking back at previous winners to see how often we got a close race at the end and get an idea of what to expect this edition.

Year	Winner	Score	Winning Margin
2012​	skidmark​	19372​	1266​
2022​	EvansIsTheBest​	18662​	1077​
2016​	skidmark​	15392​	685​
2014​	Pentacycle​	14367​	674​
2015​	Cykeltyven​	16209​	593​
2020​	bminchow​	10010​	490​
2011​	ingsve​	13897​	447​
2018​	ruvu75​	16513​	414​
2019​	fauniera​	14579​	180​
2017​	fauniera​	15867​	169​
2021​	Object​	19129​	114​
2013​	SteelyDan​	13094​	20​

2013 is the only one that truly went down the wire although 2021, 2017 and 2019 were fairly tight as well. It's obviously just noise from the small sample size but odd years have produced tighter races than even ones so this should be a good edition if the trend holds. Skidmark no longer holds the two most dominant wins ever.

Only 3 of 12 winners were already leading the pack after the conclusion of the Giro. One of those instances was bminchow's 2020 team where the Giro was obviously held way later than usual (ruvu and EITB are the other two). So a fast start obviously helps but is hardly a guarantee of success.

5 of the 12 winners were also in the lead after the Tour de France (ingsve, fauniera twice, Object and Pentacycle). Despite having by far the two biggest winning margins neither skidmark's 2012 and EITB's 2022 teams were actually in the lead after the Tour (ironically skidmark was trailing EITB in 2012) which suggests there's plenty of time for a late surge still. Skidmark was also trailing at that point in 2016 so they've made a habit of those comebacks.

11 of the 12 winners were also leading after the Vuelta. Fauniera in 2017 is the only one to have flipped the script this late in the game and they were only 100 points behind the_asian at the time. SteelyDan did momentarily relinquish their lead post-Vuelta in 2013 to both will10 and Geraint Too Fast before securing the win. Still historical data suggests that whomever is in the lead after the Vuelta will go all the way.

 

[skidmark]

Ok, so I've at least initially processed every team I've been sent, so far as I know... if you've sent me a team and haven't gotten a reply message, please let me know.

There are still about 5 or so teams that are over budget - I've alerted you each about this, so please try to fix that by publication deadline.

If you did happen to miss the submission deadline for any reason and are disappointed because you wanted to participate, please still send your team in! So long as I get it in before the teams are published, I think it's fair to include it in the game. The buffer between deadlines is just to clear up issues like the teams that are over budget, and to give me a bit of a chance to get the spreadsheet together before publication.

If I get a couple more submissions we may crack 100 teams - my unofficial count is currently 96, which is a few more than 2022 and 2021. Nice to at least slightly reverse the trend of fewer teams every year since 2015!