The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[tobydawq]

Valenciana
Ponomar

San Juan
Bernal
Vacek
Simmons

Am assuming from the startlist that this has a fair amount of TT, which probably doesn't favour the latter two?

Amissa Bongo
Salby

First indication of whether the three who us who picked him haven't wasted a spot. Mostly though, will probably regret not choosing Tesson..

Mallorca races
Walls
Schelling
Ponomar
Piccolo
Asgreen
Alaphillipe
Pedersen
Eetvelt

There is no TT in San Juan this year.

 

[Jakob747]

I had 10 riders here, but had never imagined that Hugo Page should be the one in the top 10 GC after stage four

Page certainly outperformed Thijssen this week and Penhoët showed he belongs.

I think today's stage in Australia will be carnage from the get-go. I mean not because Mt. Lofty is that brutal, but more because the circuit hill-climb style of design almost always delivers when this early in the season.

We have talked a lot about Tesson for example - but for me Hugo Page together with Axel Laurence are the two young fast Frenchmen with the most potential for the future...

I don't know if he can defend himself today- but let's remember Hugo Page is a proper racer and not just a one-dimensional fast man which is also the case with Axel Laurence. Anyway, Hugo was a phenomenon in the youth ranks, won the French U17 ranking 2 years in a row, and recorded 47 victories combined in 2016 and 2017. Also won the Velo d'Or cadets 2017. 19 victories in his two junior years as well.

When he was 15 years of age he recorded a Vo2 of 85, dude's an absolute beast.

Besides his speed I also think he will be a classics man in the future, and thats actually the reason I omitted him from my squad after deep thought, The internal discussion CQ wise concering team hierarchy and how he would fit in since the team also has an abesoutly monster in Girmay.

 

[Jakob747]

I really think it could be a great stage too and am considering whether I really should get up already at 2 AM instead of 3 as I have done all week.

Uphill right from the bat- You cant miss that man . There will be action from the start, Honoré for KOM points i guess, maybe someone like Plapp goes early? He hasent looked too convincing though - Plapp i mean but he could still apply pressure for the overral stage even though he is no threat.

 

[tobydawq]

Uphill right from the bat- You cant miss that man . There will be action from the start, Honoré for KOM points i guess, maybe someone like Plapp goes early? He hasent looked too convincing though - Plapp i mean but he could still apply pressure for the overral stage even though he is no threat.

Yeah, I'm gonna do it (I deleted my post because it was only relevant in regards to one tenth of your post)!

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Uphill right from the bat- You cant miss that man . There will be action from the start, Honoré for KOM points i guess, maybe someone like Plapp goes early? He hasent looked too convincing though - Plapp i mean but he could still apply pressure for the overral stage even though he is no threat.

Ya it should be fun in the start. I’ve been up late this week for just hanging around, so another night to watch this final up untill 11pm EST hopefully won’t be problematic.

 

[skidmark]

well it looks like my TdU team didn't work out even to any minor expectations:

Gianni Moscon
Filippo Baroncini
Martin Svrcek
Paul Penhoet
Leo Hayter
Max Schachmann

Apart from the DNFs, Svrcek is just riding in the pack as expected, Hayter and Schachmann dropped out of any GC contention on the last stage, and the only bright spot so far is really Penhoet. He may not get many points from this race, but 5th on the first bunch sprint (admittedly more by positioning than total finishing speed), 5th from the bunch behind the Dennis group on the next stage), and 4th on the uphill sprint bodes well for his versatility, especially if that translates to 1.1 and 1.Pro races where the points for 5th place add up.

Sunday I have 1 rider in the 1.1 race in Spain, but it's my rarest rider Clement Champoussin (5 teams, 303 points). I didn't manage to do a team rundown, but a few words here are in order as he starts his season. Basically, he's still young and developing at 24, he's good in 1-days and in stage races, he had a worse sophomore year than a rookie year, which although I couldn't find any acute reasons for it (he basically raced the same amount of days), it's basically proof of concept that he can get more. And importantly, he's moving to a team that has lost/fired its biggest point-getter, so he should have a good number of chances.

Realistically, I probably would have cut him if I had thought harder about it - he was in my initial selection of 20 or so riders that were over budget, but I needed to cut a fair amount of points so I looked at guys like Stuyven, Johannesson, and Haig before I looked down to the 303 points he was at. But hopefully he'll come in at the upper end of my hopes!

Anyway, starting with a race with a 770m climb 20km before the finish and a weak field make me somewhat hopeful for some points.

 

[tobydawq]

Not a bad start to the season with Bettiol, Yates, Ewan and Honoré (who won the KOM competition but didn't seem as strong as I had hoped today). Annoying that Vader crashed today and that Schachmann was caught out yesterday because of a mechanical.

 

[armchairclimber]

Gutted that Vader was brought down on the final climb, more for him than me as he looked strong and a top 10 finish overall and decent stage position both looked on. He still picked up a few points and goes into profit, while showing a lot of promise that he is back in pre-crash shape, which is incredible really. Just Serrano in Valencia , but hopeful of decent points from Sagan and Bennett later.

 

[Salvarani]

Something positive for me is that Aleotti scored points. Maybe he was a victim of the rain in the prologue, I am unsure when he started, but got better and better each day after that. Finished 8th on the last stage and 17th overall. He has now scored more points this season, than he had done by the end of the Giro last year.

Maybe Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race could bring some points. Hopefully Plapp, Honoré and a couple of others will be better there. Points up for grabs, if they can finish in the top 10.

 

[the asian]

Congrats to all the Teams with Vine. Looks like as safe 1000 pointer.

Only Tiberi's performance is encouraging from my Team.

 

[Whoops]

My team is of to a great start. Vine into profit already (if points and mountains GC are counted), also Ewan and cattaneo scoring some points.

Valenciana: no starters

San Juan: Bernal, Simmons and Brenner.

 

[Anderis]

Well, at least I took some points eventually. For riders finishing the race... And for Honore's KOM, CQ gives points for that, right?

Still, to have 0 points for GC with Schachmann and Honore is a disappointment and not a good sign for the rest of the season.

 

[Salvarani]

Well, at least I took some points eventually. For riders finishing the race... And for Honore's KOM, CQ gives points for that, right?

Still, to have 0 points for GC with Schachmann and Honore is a disappointment and not a good sign for the rest of the season.

Schachmann is one of the most picked riders, most teams have him, so whether he scores many points or not kind of means nothing really for the outcome of the game.

Honoré scoring GC points would have been a nice bonus here on this route, which should have suited him pretty good, but it is in one-day races and stages where he should score most of his points. Him winning the mountains classification here kind of makes up for it, I would say.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Not a great start for me. Tiberi did well, Honoré took the KOM, Strong was pretty unlucky and should go well at the Cadel race, but that leaves eight riders who were anonymous. Plapp was especially subpar. It wasn't completely horrible, but only one rider in the top-20 of GC is just disappointing.

Up next:

Valenciana - nothing
La Tropicale - nothing
San Juan - Bernal, M. Vacek
Mallorca - Walls, Uijtdebroeks, Alaphilippe, Van Wilder, Asgreen, Piccolo

Well, this week defied my expectations, if the same goes for this batch of races that would get me back on track. San Juan I'm hoping Vacek can sneak some GC points given that the field isn't that deep, then in Mallorca my hopes mainly rest on Piccolo being in form early as this terrain is good for him. Van Wilder should also be able to pick up some points, although I'd be surprised if he does better than bottom end of the top-10 in any race. Would also be nice to see Walls show a first sign of being back. And that's all my riders who aren't picked by 65% or more of the field.

 

[Anderis]

Schachmann is one of the most picked riders, most teams have him, so whether he scores many points or not kind of means nothing really for the outcome of the game.

It always means something.

Not everybody has picked him, so each time he doesn't deliver, people who have spent these points on other riders will have statistically more succes. Who's to say that how those 17 teams without Schachmann perform won't have a significant impact on your final result in the game.

Honoré scoring GC points would have been a nice bonus here on this route, which should have suited him pretty good, but it is in one-day races and stages where he should score most of his points.

In his best season he scored almost 300 points from stage races' GCs, so if he's going to be a success, I do expect him to be up there in races like TdU.

 

[Panda Claws]

That CATTANEO Mattia pick looking mightily good already. 16 points.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Not a bad TDU for me with Bilbao winning a stage and getting 3rd overall and Gorka Izagirre moving into the top 10 at the very end.

There are a lot of Basque(-ish) riders on the start lists for the upcoming Spanish races, and some of them are in my team.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Not a horrible TDU, Sheffield showing signs of a continuation from his breakout last season.

 

[Squire]

When Paul Penhöet is your best placed rider on GC from a lineup including Plapp, Moscon, Schachmann and Honoré, you know you've had a bad race!

 

[Salvarani]

It always means something.

Not everybody has picked him, so each time he doesn't deliver, people who have spent these points on other riders will have statistically more succes. Who's to say that how those 17 teams without Schachmann perform won't have a significant impact on your final result in the game.



In his best season he scored almost 300 points from stage races' GCs, so if he's going to be a success, I do expect him to be up there in races like TdU.

Was just tryna look at it postively and not so doom and gloom… after one race.

Both also had some bad luck with crashes and mechanicals.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

A bit of a shame that Page got delayed by the Vader crash, I would have liked to see if he could have stayed with the second group like Coquard did.

Congrats to all the Teams with Vine. Looks like as safe 1000 pointer.

Only Tiberi's performance is encouraging from my Team.

Great for Vine that he picked up a gazillion points beating subpar competition (for a WT event) in the GC. However that doesn't necessarily means he'll keep this up.

After Paris-Nice last year, McNulty already had wins in Mallorca, Ardêche and a stage in Paris-Nice. He also had a couple other really nice result including second in Algarve that added up to 542 points and 2nd behind Pogacar in the year to date rankings. He finished the season 54th in the rankings with 731 points. Even with a ton of early season points that indicate great form, we have seen UAE riders completely stall out once those guys have to spend every race being domestique for Pogacar/Ayuso/Almeida...

To that point, the next stage races on his program are Algarve (UAE will ride for Almeida at home), Tirreno (Pogacar and Almeida), Catalunya (Ayuso and Almeida) and the Giro (Almeida). It's hardly a given Vine willl score in any of those.

 

[Salvarani]

That CATTANEO Mattia pick looking mightily good already. 16 points.

Yes, decent start. I wonder if he will go Tour of Oman or UAE Tour next. The latter he finished 8th overall in 2021.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Great for Vine that he picked up a gazillion points beating subpar competition (for a WT event) in the GC.

And the 2023 Jancouver impersonation prize goes to EitB

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

And the 2023 Jancouver impersonation prize goes to EitB

No because I don't whine specifically against the TDU. A big part of this game is having riders pick up cheap points along the way but it bothers me when the scoring is so much higher than what that kind of performance would typically yield. I mean Vine got more points for a decent 5km TT and following Yates on climbs barely hard enough to drop Coquard than someone would for finishing third in the Tour de France . That does leave a bad taste in my mouth. But it's not a TDU specific problem. Winning a random flat 1.1 race or the Champs Elysées stage in the Tour de France yields the same amount of points but it's not really a comparable performance sprint-wise is it ? Put any half decent GC rider in the Tour of Hungary and he'll pick up 150 points, etc. Last year I kept ranting about De Lie picking up a million points in small one day races and it had nothing to do with the TDU. He is a spectacular talent but he had exactly 0 WT podiums last year and in those circumstances it feels a bit over the top that he ended up scoring the same as peak Cancellara typically did.

The TDU is pretty egregious though because it's clearly not in the right category. I don't see how someone can make an argument that it belongs in 2.WT1 (only other races at that level are Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Romandie, Dauphiné, Suisse) when Itzulia or Catalunya are 2.WT2. Heck, the UAE Tour is 2.WT3 and usually has a better field.

 

[RedheadDane]

The TDU is pretty egregious though because it's clearly not in the right category. I don't see how someone can make an argument that it belongs in 2.WT1 (only other races at that level are Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Romandie, Dauphiné, Suisse) when Itzulia or Catalunya are 2.WT2. Heck, the UAE Tour is 2.WT3 and usually has a better field.

See... I wasn't even aware there were multiple levels of WT.