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The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

Page 25 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Saudi Tour
VAN UDEN Casper

Etoile de Bessèges
TARLING Joshua
LAURANCE Axel
PICCOLO Andrea

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
MIHKELS Madis
GLOAG Thomas

Not much going on. That's hardly surprising though since Ayuso and Johannessen are both hurt, Roglic hasn't started his season yet and Pidcock is off doing cyclocross somewhere.
 
About half my team has scored points so far, but not anyone that has scored a lot of points. Slow and steady will be the mantra for my team, I guess. Dont think I will have many "big-weeks", but a steady stream of points instead.

More races starting next week!

Saudi Tour
MILAN Jonathan
VAN UDEN Casper

They should both be up there in the sprints and fight for some stage-wins.

Etoile de Bessèges
SIVAKOV Pavel
TULETT Ben
PICCOLO Andrea

It is a pretty fun race where different type of riders can fight for the overall win. I have three riders that could potentially score points here.

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
MIHKELS Madis
GARCÍA CORTINA Iván
GLOAG Thomas

Startlist not completed, so maybe someone else could still be added. Maybe some points for a stage or something is possible. I will take what I can get here.

We're both in the <600 point rider club, and a very similar philosophy from me. Not anticipating any big GC weeks, or mega-seasons from individuals. Rather hoping for a steady accumulation of points and so far, it's working fairly well. I'll probably be a lot less blase when Roglic and Ayuso start their seasons..
 
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Picked up some points the previous week with Van Eetvelt, Simmons, Ewan, Healy. Hopefully just enough to stay in the top 10.
Not a lot of starters this week:

Saudi Tour
none

Etoile de Bessèges
KWIATKOWSKI Michal
PADUN Mark
HEALY Ben
TARLING Joshua

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
DE PLUS Laurens
MÄDER Gino
 
Update #4: postmanhat delivers

The cycling calendar picked up across the globe this week, with races in Australia, Africa, South America and Europe including WT teams. Many of the teams in the CQ game that didn't have much going on in Oz must have felt excited to get things off the ground this week. With the winners in Gabon and Argentina (and most of the Mallorca races) not picked in the game, and the winner of the Cadel race being a solo pick, the scores overall weren't quite as high as last week. But the breadth of scoring picked up as more riders got their seasons underway.

This Week's Top Scorers

RankTeamPoints this week
1postmanhat561
2triley36501
3Blues in the bottle464
4zigzag_wanderer454
5ray10438

A couple of teams clear 500 points this week, led by postmanhat, who has a set of good solid contributors that total 561 for the week. Namely, their team was led by youngster Hugo Page (108 points, 9 teams), Lennert Van Eetvelt (88 points, 20 teams), Corbin Strong (70, 9), Quinn Simmons (63, 39), and Caleb Ewan (62, 14). With more races going on after the Aussie-centric season start, a balanced portfolio will often be the way to the top. triley36 does quite well in 2nd this week thanks to another youngster excelling in Ethan Vernon (128 points, 12 teams), the aforementioned Page, unique pick Marijn Van Den Berg (99 points), and Simmons among others. Longtime game participant Blues in the Bottle gets a mention for the podium this week with Vernon leading the way, and Gaviria, Vermaerke and Healy some scoring riders not on the top 2 teams.

This Week's High Movers

RankTeamUp/down
1skidmark(+50)
2slow_climber(+39)
3adamski101(+34)
4zigzag_wanderer(+32)
4Yellow Knight(+32)
4del1962(+32)

Sometimes to get your name in lights in this game, you don't have to get the best score, you just have to start low enough to top the High Movers chart! Team skidmark began the week in 90th place thanks to 50ish total points, but with a solid enough week in week 4 of the game (thanks to Vernon/Van Eetvelt/Simmons), their team moves up a nice round 50 places. slow climber (thanks to Jason Tesson/LvE/Simmons) and adamski101 (one of the 7 teams who saw their pick of Ganna pay off well this week) complete an all-lower-case podium for this ranking.

Green Jersey Competition

RankTeamTotal
1bminchow120.3
2Jakob747100.3
3DJW75
4zaka_fan58.3
5Blues in the bottle54.5

The teams that got beefed up on Aussie points finally have a week off scoring but still sit comfortably atop the overall standings in the points ranking, with BitB the only scoring team this week in the top 5 overall. We've already had enough repeat points scorers that a weekly win alone will not get you into the top 5 overall.

Top 10 Overall

RankUp/downTeamPoints
1(-)bminchow1300
2(-)Jakob7471239
3(+4)Poles & Co979
4(-1)DJW971
5(-1)zaka_fan913
6(-1)greenedge847
7(+6)ray10837
8(+1)Whoops830
9(-1)tobydawq810
10(-4)karaev786

Things settled down a bit in the overall points ranking as well, with bminchow and Jakob747 still comfortably ahead of everyone else. ray10 is the only entrant into the top 10 this week, at the expense of Houdini Cycling who falls out. Weekly winner postmanhat jumped 24 spots in the overall, but is just out of the top 10 at #12.

This week the fun continues with the first stage races in the Middle East (Saudi Tour) and Europe (Besseges and Valenciana) for the year, packing in the racing before a bit of a down week next week.

spreadsheet at dropbox
 
:)That might the first time I've headed the weekly points tally (maybe the Giro 2 years ago). Mainly down to the Cadel Evan's , but pretty pleased as half my team contributed and the top scorers were all relatively rare picks. Will need a few more weeks like that though before the big mountain races start.

Bresseges
The much discussed Piccolo

Valenciana
Quick
Mikhels
Wright
Battiistella

First race of the year for all them. Am mainly hoping Battistella can get a good start, but it's a strong field.
 
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Well now that I'm finished stabbing my eyes out for begrudingly deciding to re-up on Baroncini after talking myself out of Welsford as the last addition to my team, it's time so take stock and see what's up this week!

Saudi Tour

Jonathan Milan
Casper Van Uden

Looks good today with Milan showing that his October performances in Croatia were no fluke; Van Uden seems like more of a work in progress. Didn't catch today's stage but yesterday DSM controlled as well as possible for Van Uden, but he seemed to just be gassed and unable to participate in the sprint, finishing 9th. Hopefully that's not a sign that he's not quite up to speed for the pro peloton, that can take a bit of time to get there.

Besseges

Michal Kwiatkowski
Josh Tarling
Ben Tulett

Wow lol a real Ineos spread there. I mean, I don't expect anything from the junior in his first race, but it's right up these other two's alley. Tulett I just couldn't let go of on my team, he seems like he can succeed on any terrain in any race, one-day or stage. Kwiato is similar although established enough to be used on dom duty quite often. But there's a lot of potential there. The shock of this game to me remains that Kwiato was chosen so rarely.

Valenciana

Thomas Gloag

Well this lineup looked alot more fun when Ayuso was on it... I guess I'll punt my expectations to future weeks.
 
So today the "Carlos Rodriguez will secure me a top placing here" mission will begin! Hopefully Ayuso and Johannessen will also start their seasons in two weeks...

Also have Kwiatkowski and Tulett riding in Besseges, which hopefully will lead to a few points! Bol´s third place yesterday in the Saudi Tour also seems to be quite promising for the future. (When I made the team, it was still unsure, if he would have a team this year). Although I am a bit worried, that I missed Milan.
 
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I said when discussing my team that I was trying to cut down on picking older riders that I hope to see bounce back, as, to quote the late Paul Sherwen, 'the future has a habit of arriving early' in cycling.

Now, karma has really punished me for the few older guys I actually did pick. Moscon, Bouhanni and Malucelli have all crashed, and Ackermann is ill ...

Most of my other picks look somewhat promising, even though I have the feeling that riders picked for this game (not just mine) have had unreasonably bad luck so far this season compared with all the non-picked guys who have sailed through the start of the season with no issues.

Milan, Ackermann, Malucelli, Van Uden in the Saudi Tour for me. Ackermann and Malucelli are, as mentioned, affected by the 'old rider curse', while Van Uden seems to be extremely off form.

Nobody in Besseges and only Teunissen in Valencia. Will be a meagre week.
 
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Bad day for both the riders in France and those who have them in their teams.

But great for me, since I don't have any of them. TGH's relegation also gave me more points in Spain, and Xabier Azparren in on his way to some in Saudi Arabia, too. I can't complain.
 

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