The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Salvarani]

I guess it would be strange to call it the World Tour, if there werent some races outside of Europe included. Someone many years ago probably thought it was a good way to broaden the sport across the world. Reaching new markets. The organizers likely paying to get their race to have WT-status as well. Securing that all the best teams must participate.

Picking riders that can do well in certain has always been a part of the game, so making a good decision like the teams picking Vine and him delivering... hats off to you guys.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

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

I don't think the UCI actually makes a distinction among one week stage races at the WT level. If I recall correctly CQ added the three layers of WT1, WT2 and WT3 when the UCI added the chinese WT races. There was a real concern at the time that the field at those races would be so substandard for WT events that it would make little sense that those races would award the same amount of points as Tirreno for instance.

I guess it would be strange to call it the World Tour, if there werent some races outside of Europe included. Someone many years ago probably thought it was a good way to broaden the sport across the world. Reaching new markets. The organizers likely paying to get their race to have WT-status as well. Securing that all the best teams must participate.

Picking riders that can do well in certain has always been a part of the game, so making a good decision like the teams picking Vine and him delivering... hats off to you guys.

I agree with everything you are saying. I just question the logic of CQ breaking down the one week WT races into three tiers so that the more prestigious and competitive ones award more points (makes sense) then putting arguably the least prestigious and competitive of the lot in tier 1 (makes no sense). I have zero issue with the TDU being a WT race but having it award more points than say Itzulia ? I'm not a fan.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I don't think the UCI actually makes a distinction among one week stage races at the WT level. If I recall correctly CQ added the three layers of WT1, WT2 and WT3 when the UCI added the chinese WT races. There was a real concern at the time that the field at those races would be so substandard for WT events that it would make little sense that those races would award the same amount of points as Tirreno for instance.

Negative, the CQ subclassification of WT races mirrors that of the UCI - see here. Of course, every man and his dog can see that Down Under, Pologne and Guangxi are the inferior WT races, but CQ is not to blame here.

On another note, I broke out into a minor panic for a second when I saw De Lie had won yet another 1.1 race until I realised it wasn't 2022 anymore and he's barely picked now. I guess CQ induces traumas

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Negative, the CQ subclassification of WT races mirrors that of the UCI - see here. Of course, every man and his dog can see that Down Under, Pologne and Guangxi are the inferior WT races, but CQ is not to blame here.

On another note, I broke out into a minor panic for a second when I saw De Lie had won yet another 1.1 race until I realised it wasn't 2022 anymore and he's barely picked now. I guess CQ induces traumas

Ok that makes more sense thanks.

 

[the asian]

TDU was made Tier 1 One Week Stage Race to make sure that all top teams are participating.
It's true that usually the field is not worthy of its staus.

 

[armchairclimber]

Bennett took advantage of Jakobsen's unfortunate leadout to pick up 33 points. The sprint points really are going to be shared out according to a bit of luck this year. I did well with De Lie last year but couldn't see value in him, but Bennett, if back to his best, was a litte bit of value. I hope, at least. Great lead out man, up there with Morkov.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

I had Bennett, Jakobsen and Ewan last year. All three ended the year in profit, but my expectations were much higher. In other words a frustrating experience, and this year I don't have any of the top sprinters.

 

[Jakob747]

Interested in seeing if Jason Tessons's lead-out train is put into practice today in Amissa Bongo. + How he will fare against forexample the Bingoal duo of Salby and Lauk...

On a flatter run-in, I think Salby is a threat and when the roads tilts a bit uphill Lauk is a know competitor., that's probably where Tesson is the strongest himself .

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

And on the first stage of Amissa Bongo Soupe won and Blouwe was the top Bingoal rider.

 

[BR2]

I had Bennett, Jakobsen and Ewan last year. All three ended the year in profit, but my expectations were much higher. In other words a frustrating experience, and this year I don't have any of the top sprinters.

For me the problem with the sprinters is that you just never know if there will be a big sprinter who will practically win every race he enters - and if so who that will be. So your strategy to take all three of them actually made a lot of sense, but yeah, there's the risk they distribute the points between them pretty evenly and there are other riders like De Lie or Girmay or Philipsen who take points in big sprinter's races as well and you don't get the huge amount of points of which each of them would, in theory, be capable of.
It seems to me that in sprints there is just such a tight margin in performance. Minimal decisions of timing in the team, minimal differences in form can have such a an impact if they go on throughout the season. How is an outsider to know how these things will go in the coming season?
Baseline: I am mostly keeping my fingers off the sprinters. Which probably isn't wise, but I just find it so difficult with them.

 

[escartin]

I thought I had an awful TDU until the only other person who picked Gorka Izagirre pointed out that he finished 9th! I had totally missed that he was racing there, let alone that he was doing well

 

[tobydawq]

TDU was made Tier 1 One Week Stage Race to make sure that all top teams are participating.

What?

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

First win for Tesson. Looking at the results, I was reminded that due to covid the defending champion is actually Jordan Levasseur who was on my team back then (2020). Having a rider scoring 120 points in his first race of the season against a price of just 4 points remains a highlight of my CQ playing career.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Does anyone know what happened to Levasseur? He has only scored 6 CQ points after his Amissa Bongo win back in 2020.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Does anyone know what happened to Levasseur? He has only scored 6 CQ points after his Amissa Bongo win back in 2020.

From what I've read he struggled to get going again after lockdown. He also broke his collarbone at Bessèges 2021 and that set him back as well. He really hasn't found his form since and he's been riding in the amateur ranks since the start of last season.

 

[skidmark]

Update #3: The Least Expected Jay

The WorldTour is off and underway, and with the first race in the books, the surprisingly excellent January of Jay Vine continues. After securing the overall at the TdU, Vine is now on 452 points for the season, in profit already. Simon Yates got second overall; as both of these riders were picked by only 7 teams in this game, they create an even higher stratification in the early season than was already present.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	bminchow	798
2	Jakob747	750
3	DJW	746
4	tobydawq	557
5	karaev	544

After winning week 1 and tying for 2nd in week 2, bminchow keeps it up with a much higher point total this week. As the owner of both Yates (324 points) and Vine (402 points), as well as 50 points from Mikkel Honore, their team gets quite a boost, and 798 points on the week. Jakob747 has an impressive week as well, with Vine supplemented by Magnus Sheffield (164 points, 13 teams) and Antonio Tiberi (102 points, 8 teams), while DJW comes very close but ends up 4 points behind in third (with Vine/Yates but no Honore).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	HoudiniCycling	(+39)
2	will10	(+37)
3	Basque Street Boys	(+35)
4	tobydawq	(+33)
5	Josedin	(+32)

Still early season fluctuations, with some huge jumps this week. HoudiniCycling moves up almost 40 spots thanks to Yates and Sheffield, while will10 (Yates) and Basque Street Boys (Bilbao and G. Izagirre in Australia, plus Antonio Jesus Soto and Gotzon Martin scoring in Valenciana) see significant enough leaps to land on the podium here as well.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	bminchow	120.3
2	Jakob747	100.3
3	DJW	75
4	zaka_fan	58.3
5	karaev	42
5	greenedge	42

No surprises here as the rich get richer - apart from bminchow's great start, Jakob747 has gotten 2 second places and one tie for 2nd in three weeks, while DJW has a win and a third place.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	bminchow	994
2	(-)	Jakob747	926
3	(+11)	DJW	843
4	(-1)	zaka_fan	681
5	(-1)	greenedge	618
6	(+11)	karaev	594
7	(+8)	Poles & Co	581
8	(+33)	tobydawq	562
9	(+6)	Whoops	519
10	(+39)	HoudiniCycling	518

The top 3 this week scored more than any other teams in 3 weeks, so no shock that they're on top. Lots of turnover this week, as DJW, karaev, Poles & Co, tobydawq, Whoops and HoudiniCycling enter the top 10.

This week the races keep on coming in various places, with the Mallorca races in Spain, Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon, Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina, and the return of the Cadel race in Australia.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[BR2]

Wow. Two weeks and bminchow is almost 1000 points ahead of me already... Thank you Marc Hirschi, for bringing me some points at least. You are my only scorer so far.
I wonder if my guys will get me some points in Gabon. Wouldn't be many anyway, but it would be nice to see them score some since my riders are mostly not riding yet and who knows if they ever will...

 

[RedheadDane]

I'm so used to being *** at these games, I almost couldn't find myself.
Of course, numerically my placing isn't much better than it has been in other games, it's just that we are more people in this game, so just outside top-30 seems like a decent standing.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The good news - I'm still in 16th.
The bad news - I have less than a third of the leading score. The 1% ruins everything

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Eh, not too worried, it’s only January, but hopefully Magnus Sheffield can keep up this run of form.

 

[Anderis]

So I'm 75th out of 103 players, when I expected to be somewhere in the bottom15 after the recent results. Perhaps that KOM jersey for Honore was worth more than I realised.

 

[Nevs]

Just a quick correction on the spreadsheet - the column headers have last year's years (2021 and 2022 instead of 2022 and 2023)

 

[Armchair cyclist]

I can't help feeling that Skidmark is too cautious in refusing to challenge outdated decimo-centric behaviours.

But that might just be because I am 11th.

 

[bminchow]

Now that is what i am talking about. I'm taking a screen shot as it will not last. Love my Vine pick. Lets hope the Giro goes well for him too. I'll crash back to earth this week. Great to see Quinn get the victory today but he's not in it for the overall. I also have no sprinters, so San Juan will benefit others. I'll keep up the battle for the green jersey though.

 

[bminchow]

Now that is what i am talking about. I'm taking a screen shot as it will not last. Love my Vine pick. Lets hope the Giro goes well for him too. I'll crash back to earth this week. Great to see Quinn get the victory today but he's not in it for the overall. I also have no sprinters, so San Juan will benefit others. I'll keep up the battle for the green jersey though.

Oh wait. I still have the great ocean road race (which you should def drive if you havent already). So maybe my Australia centric team can get me a few more points.