The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[tobydawq]

Unexpectedly, this Tour de France turned into some kind of redemption for riders in my team. First Kwiatkowski and now Asgreen got stage wins I had not expected them to get after disappointing seasons so far. Shame Bora didn't take Schachmann, because he would fit in the pattern as well.

Same for me. And with Eenkhoorn 2nd today (and only picked by two others), today was a good day. Simon Yates will also finally give me some good points. I hope he uses his good level to do well in San Sebastián after the Tour.

 

[jon ezeitza]

Finally, my trio of generals (Vingegaard, Rodriguez and Ayuso) have started to deliver results. I hope injuries will spare the latter two, as they have already taken their toll. From now on, it's time to move up the rankings.

 

[Earns1985]

Finally, my trio of generals (Vingegaard, Rodriguez and Ayuso) have started to deliver results. I hope injuries will spare the latter two, as they have already taken their toll. From now on, it's time to move up the rankings.

Yeah, also curious for the update!
In the end the S.Yates owners will receive a bit more GC points than the Rodriguez owners, but there are a lot of players without one of them, so I think I will also move up a few places..

 

[firefly3323]

Crashes really killed my hopes of a good TdF.....it was great that both Rodriguez and Kuss were able to continue and finish but the loss of their positions hurt my team. Plus having a DNF list of Quinn Simmons, Rueben Guerreiro and Matteo Jorgenson ...not what I envisioned. I really thought Guerreiro was going to finish top 25, Jorgenson top 40 and maybe another placing in a stage and Simmons a stage placing as well. Oh well

 

[tobydawq]

Crashes really killed my hopes of a good TdF.....it was great that both Rodriguez and Kuss were able to continue and finish but the loss of their positions hurt my team. Plus having a DNF list of Quinn Simmons, Rueben Guerreiro and Matteo Jorgenson ...not what I envisioned. I really thought Guerreiro was going to finish top 25, Jorgenson top 40 and maybe another placing in a stage and Simmons a stage placing as well. Oh well

Did it cost you 50 points or something like that? Not that much at all.

 

[skidmark]

Update #29: Tour GC sees some shakeup in CQ GC

The biggest race of the year has reached completion, and with the top scoring riders on GC being very rare picks, that meant that a few teams had very good weeks.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Jon_Ezeitza	1195
2	will10	1095
3	bminchow	1088
4	Rufs	1071
5	Armchair cyclist	1052

As the only team to pick repeat Tour champ Jonas Vingegaard (now 311 points in profit), Jon Ezeitza was going to be in a good position to win the week. The wildest thing about their team's total of 1195 points are that they basically come from two riders - aside from Vingegaard (890 points) and Carlos Rodriguez (290 points, 8 teams), only one other rider scored points for their team (Thibau Nys got 15 points for second on the Wallonie stage). will10 finishes 2nd 100 points behind, with a team a bit more spread out headlined by the likes of Simon Yates (421, 7), David Gaudu (196, 12), Kasper Asgreen (160, 82) and Tom Pidcock (121, 76). bminchow comes in just behind in third with a similar makeup to will10 minus Gaudu and including a few more <100 point riders such as Wilco Kelderman (83, 13) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (66, 20).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	Jon_Ezeitza	(+26)
2	bminchow	(+25)
3	Armchair cyclist	(+23)
4	Rufs	(+21)
5	DJW	(+20)

With some rare riders scoring big, there was relatively huge movement for this time of year in the standings. Jon Ezeitza doubles up in first (and bminchow double podiums, landing in second), with Armchair Cyclist ending up in 3rd, jumping 23 spots thanks to Yates/Asgreen/Pidock/Chris Harper (99, 4) and friends.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Blues in the bottle	242.5
2	Jon_Ezeitza	202
3	bminchow	200.3
4	zaka_fan	198.3
5	rote_laterne	184.5

Blues in the bottle holds onto a relatively comfortable lead, but others come into plausible competition, with Jon Ezeitza (45 points this week) and bminchow (30) jumping into the other podium spots to come a weekly win away from the lead. With high scoring rare riders, that's always possible, although it's hard to know what the post-Tour calendar might yield for high scorers in the Tour.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	Blues in the bottle	10848
2	(+8)	will10	10120
3	(+6)	repre	10044
4	(+7)	tobydawq	10001
5	(-1)	Whoops	9870
6	(-4)	Kazistuta	9856
7	(-2)	jsem94	9852
8	(+5)	AlfaLum	9785
9	(-6)	Sneekes	9777
10	(-3)	HoudiniCycling	9760

Similar to the Green Jersey, BITB holds onto a very healthy lead, actually gaining 150+ points on former #2 Kazistuta, but others pop into the picture. With big weeks, will10, repre and tobydawq position themselves best to upset the applecart, joining BITB in the 10000 point club. Aside from tobydawq, AlfaLum vaults into the top 10, while Riverside and oliveira tumble out.

With the Tour in the rearview mirror, we move onto the later summer racing - the Tour de Wallonie is already underway, while a brace of races (1.1, 2.1 and 1.WT) in Spain await this week as well, and the 2.1 Czech Tour sneaks in, and even the first couple of stages of Pologne sneak into the week.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[Earns1985]

Update #29: Tour GC sees some shakeup in CQ GC

The biggest race of the year has reached completion, and with the top scoring riders on GC being very rare picks, that meant that a few teams had very good weeks.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Jon_Ezeitza	1195
2	will10	1095
3	bminchow	1088
4	Rufs	1071
5	Armchair cyclist	1052

As the only team to pick repeat Tour champ Jonas Vingegaard (now 311 points in profit), Jon Ezeitza was going to be in a good position to win the week. The wildest thing about their team's total of 1195 points are that they basically come from two riders - aside from Vingegaard (890 points) and Carlos Rodriguez (290 points, 8 teams), only one other rider scored points for their team (Thibau Nys got 15 points for second on the Wallonie stage). will10 finishes 2nd 100 points behind, with a team a bit more spread out headlined by the likes of Simon Yates (421, 7), David Gaudu (196, 12), Kasper Asgreen (160, 82) and Tom Pidcock (121, 76). bminchow comes in just behind in third with a similar makeup to will10 minus Gaudu and including a few more <100 point riders such as Wilco Kelderman (83, 13) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (66, 20).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	Jon_Ezeitza	(+26)
2	bminchow	(+25)
3	Armchair cyclist	(+23)
4	Rufs	(+21)
5	DJW	(+20)

With some rare riders scoring big, there was relatively huge movement for this time of year in the standings. Jon Ezeitza doubles up in first (and bminchow double podiums, landing in second), with Armchair Cyclist ending up in 3rd, jumping 23 spots thanks to Yates/Asgreen/Pidock/Chris Harper (99, 4) and friends.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Blues in the bottle	242.5
2	Jon_Ezeitza	202
3	bminchow	200.3
4	zaka_fan	198.3
5	rote_laterne	184.5

Blues in the bottle holds onto a relatively comfortable lead, but others come into plausible competition, with Jon Ezeitza (45 points this week) and bminchow (30) jumping into the other podium spots to come a weekly win away from the lead. With high scoring rare riders, that's always possible, although it's hard to know what the post-Tour calendar might yield for high scorers in the Tour.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	Blues in the bottle	10848
2	(+8)	will10	10120
3	(+6)	repre	10044
4	(+7)	tobydawq	10001
5	(-1)	Whoops	9870
6	(-4)	Kazistuta	9856
7	(-2)	jsem94	9852
8	(+5)	AlfaLum	9785
9	(-6)	Sneekes	9777
10	(-3)	HoudiniCycling	9760

Similar to the Green Jersey, BITB holds onto a very healthy lead, actually gaining 150+ points on former #2 Kazistuta, but others pop into the picture. With big weeks, will10, repre and tobydawq position themselves best to upset the applecart, joining BITB in the 10000 point club. Aside from tobydawq, AlfaLum vaults into the top 10, while Riverside and oliveira tumble out.

With the Tour in the rearview mirror, we move onto the later summer racing - the Tour de Wallonie is already underway, while a brace of races (1.1, 2.1 and 1.WT) in Spain await this week as well, and the 2.1 Czech Tour sneaks in, and even the first couple of stages of Pologne sneak into the week.

spreadsheet at dropbox

Thanks for the update! 17 places up for me! Nice to back in the first half of the ranking, coming from nearly last place two month ago...
Let´s hope that Ayuso, Rodriguez and Johannessen use their good form now in the upcoming races and a good autumn! And that Roglic will sacrifice himself for Vingegaard at the vuelta..

 

[will-10]

Pleasantly surprised by that TdF outcome! I'd forgotten Simon was a rare pick.

Comparing with BITB's team he has smoked me on the <100pts picks - I have a few too many fanboy picks or young guys that are perhaps a year early to do more than hope for good points.

 

[bminchow]

Thanks for the update! 17 places up for me! Nice to back in the first half of the ranking, coming from nearly last place two month ago...
Let´s hope that Ayuso, Rodriguez and Johannessen use their good form now in the upcoming races and a good autumn! And that Roglic will sacrifice himself for Vingegaard at the vuelta..

Yes, fun for me also. Finally got some more green points. i think my other ones were from Australia races Glad i had so many riders in the TdF and Simon doing his thing.

 

[jon ezeitza]

I like the fight for the green jersey. I hope to get a better position than in the general classification

 

[jon ezeitza]

And that Roglic will sacrifice himself for Vingegaard at the vuelta..

I think Vingegaard will go to the Vuelta replacing Kuus, who has raced Giro and Tour and got injured in the face. If so, I think Vingegaard will work for Roglic to win.

 

[Earns1985]

I think Vingegaard will go to the Vuelta replacing Kuus, who has raced Giro and Tour and got injured in the face. If so, I think Vingegaard will work for Roglic to win.

They will start as co-leaders, so the race will decide I think. Both already won a GT this year, so both should start with the same motivation. Roglic already won here three times, Vingegaard not..

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I'm finally back in the top 100!

Landa was disappointing once again, but Bilbao and especially Castroviejo delivered the goods during the Tour, so I can't be too displeased with the overall result.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

My aberration of a unique pick, Pierre-Luc Perichon, who I had somehow forgot is 36, has gone into 45% profit with 7th on GC in Wallonie. Turns out I'm a genius after all.

 

[adamski101]

First good day in a while. 1st and 2nd on GC in Wallonie.

 

[jon ezeitza]

They will start as co-leaders, so the race will decide I think. Both already won a GT this year, so both should start with the same motivation. Roglic already won here three times, Vingegaard not..

Agreed. I mean, while Roglic has had enough time to prepare properly, Vingegaard will be out of form. So I have the impression that the lead will go to Roglic.

 

[Anderis]

So in Tour de Pologne I had 5 riders in the top8 yesterday.

It could be a wonderful week but not everyone of those 5 is a good TT-ist so I'm still bracing myself for a let down.

 

[Squire]

He's alive! Bouhanni 3rd in the first stage of the Tour de l'Ain! Maybe he can salvage something from his disastrous season after all.

I've also had a good start in Poland with Van Wilder, Onley and Martinez in the first group and Van Eetvelt not far behind. The final GC is hard to predict though, with the time trial coming up.

In most years my CQ teams tend to come alive in the weeks after the Tour de France, and that seems to be the case again. Poland and various other stage races in this period are good hunting grounds for the kind of up-and-coming riders I often select, I guess.

 

[skidmark]

Update 30: Senderos rides Ineos duo to win

The post-Tour week saw a decent amount of action, with Tour of Wallonie, the start of Pologne, and a few races in Spain culminating in San Sebastien on Saturday. Only one team managed to clear 500 points, but there were enough points for some movement in the overall.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Senderos	507
2	adamski101	442
3	R_O_Shipman	424
4	Basque Street Boys	420
5	Riverside	397

Senderos comes out on top this week, largely thanks to a trio of riders in Wallonie: Pippo Ganna (183 points, 7 teams) continues a great CQ season and looks solid going into the Worlds; the young Josh Tarling (125, 45) has a coming out party, and Andrea Bagioli (106, 17) moves into profitability. adamski101 had the first two of those with 1-day winner Lutsenko (85, 23) in place of Bagioli, and RO Shipman just edges out Basque Street Boys for third thanks to Ganna/Lutsenko and unique pick Bauke Mollema (55 points).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	Senderos	(+15)
2	PremierAndrew	(+11)
3	Nyssinator	(+9)
4	Armchair cyclist	(+8)
5	zaka_fan	(+7)

Senderos doubles up here, making a 15-spot gain in the overall standings. Only one other team made a double-digit leap, with PremierAndrew thanking the likes of Tarling, Bagioli and Ayuso (80, 25) for the 11-spot move. Nyssinator rounds out the podium with the same configuration of riders.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Blues in the bottle	242.5
2	zaka_fan	210.3
3	Jon_Ezeitza	202
4	bminchow	200.3
5	rote_laterne	194.5

Some jockeying near the top here, as zaka fan grabs 12 points on the week to leapfrog onto the podium, and rote laterne scores 10 to move into the top 5, but BITB is still in front by over 30 points.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	Blues in the bottle	11073
2	(+1)	repre	10415
3	(-1)	will10	10373
4	(-)	tobydawq	10232
5	(+6)	Riverside	10154
6	(+3)	Sneekes	10110
7	(-2)	Whoops	10074
8	(-2)	Kazistuta	10068
9	(-1)	AlfaLum	9993
10	(-)	HoudiniCycling	9956

Our long-time leader is still comfortably in front, although repre gains about 150 points on BITB to move up into 2nd. Will the post-Tour configuration of races and riders close the gap? With only 6 other teams within 1000 points, things are still looking pretty solid for BITB, but we all know a big week or two can change anything.

This week, we have the rest of the Tour de Pologne, the Tour de l'Ain, and... the World Championships Road Race?!?! Oh right, I mean I knew it was coming up 'in August', but I forgot how early it was, and that it was earlier than the TT this year. Wow! Well the biggest 1-day points of the year may have a pronounced effect on the standings. We will see soon enough!

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[tobydawq]

Update 30: Senderos rides Ineos duo to win

The post-Tour week saw a decent amount of action, with Tour of Wallonie, the start of Pologne, and a few races in Spain culminating in San Sebastien on Saturday. Only one team managed to clear 500 points, but there were enough points for some movement in the overall.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Senderos	507
2	adamski101	442
3	R_O_Shipman	424
4	Basque Street Boys	420
5	Riverside	397

Senderos comes out on top this week, largely thanks to a trio of riders in Wallonie: Pippo Ganna (183 points, 7 teams) continues a great CQ season and looks solid going into the Worlds; the young Josh Tarling (125, 45) has a coming out party, and Andrea Bagioli (106, 17) moves into profitability. adamski101 had the first two of those with 1-day winner Lutsenko (85, 23) in place of Bagioli, and RO Shipman just edges out Basque Street Boys for third thanks to Ganna/Lutsenko and unique pick Bauke Mollema (55 points).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	Senderos	(+15)
2	PremierAndrew	(+11)
3	Nyssinator	(+9)
4	Armchair cyclist	(+8)
5	zaka_fan	(+7)

Senderos doubles up here, making a 15-spot gain in the overall standings. Only one other team made a double-digit leap, with PremierAndrew thanking the likes of Tarling, Bagioli and Ayuso (80, 25) for the 11-spot move. Nyssinator rounds out the podium with the same configuration of riders.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Blues in the bottle	242.5
2	zaka_fan	210.3
3	Jon_Ezeitza	202
4	bminchow	200.3
5	rote_laterne	194.5

Some jockeying near the top here, as zaka fan grabs 12 points on the week to leapfrog onto the podium, and rote laterne scores 10 to move into the top 5, but BITB is still in front by over 30 points.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	Blues in the bottle	11073
2	(+1)	repre	10415
3	(-1)	will10	10373
4	(-)	tobydawq	10232
5	(+6)	Riverside	10154
6	(+3)	Sneekes	10110
7	(-2)	Whoops	10074
8	(-2)	Kazistuta	10068
9	(-1)	AlfaLum	9993
10	(-)	HoudiniCycling	9956

Our long-time leader is still comfortably in front, although repre gains about 150 points on BITB to move up into 2nd. Will the post-Tour configuration of races and riders close the gap? With only 6 other teams within 1000 points, things are still looking pretty solid for BITB, but we all know a big week or two can change anything.

This week, we have the rest of the Tour de Pologne, the Tour de l'Ain, and... the World Championships Road Race?!?! Oh right, I mean I knew it was coming up 'in August', but I forgot how early it was, and that it was earlier than the TT this year. Wow! Well the biggest 1-day points of the year may have a pronounced effect on the standings. We will see soon enough!

spreadsheet at dropbox

I have had the same feeling the last couple of days. I'm on holiday and can't really believe that the biggest one-day race of them all is just around the corner.

And in other news; is Kwiatkowski finally turning himself into a decent pick?

Also, how annoying that Bettiol faltered that much in San Sebastián and couldn't even do a decent sprint. Hopefully, his shape is there, and he can do something on Sunday.

 

[Anderis]

Also, how annoying that Bettiol faltered that much in San Sebastián and couldn't even do a decent sprint

I don't remember the last time he did a decent sprint.

In Tour de France on stage 2 he finished last out of the group of 24 riders, mostly climbers, despite the fact that he just hid in the wheels all the time and some of those other riders tried to attack or pulled for their team mates.

He must be one of the worst sprinters among riders who are good on the flat.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I don't remember the last time he did a decent sprint.

In Tour de France on stage 2 he finished last out of the group of 24 riders, mostly climbers, despite the fact that he just hid in the wheels all the time and some of those other riders tried to attack or pulled for their team mates.

He must be one of the worst sprinters among riders who are good on the flat.

Bettiol was relegated on that stage, not sure where he originally finished but it was somewhere between 11th and 15th.

 

[Anderis]

Bettiol was relegated on that stage, not sure where he originally finished but it was somewhere between 11th and 15th.

Right.

But I still remember how the commentators considered him a threat to Van Aert for a stage win when they saw him in the first group (as one of the few non-climbers), yet he went backwards in the sprint.

 

[tobydawq]

Right.

But I still remember how the commentators considered him a threat to Van Aert for a stage win when they saw him in the first group (as one of the few non-climbers), yet he went backwards in the sprint.

Tour de Suisse last year, he won the sprint for second behind Leknessund where he thought he had won the stage.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Tour de Suisse last year, he won the sprint for second behind Leknessund where he thought he had won the stage.

I've always felt like Bettiol is the kind of guy that can put up a decent sprint but only when he can be bothered. It just doesn't happen often because he doesn't seem to care about fighting for minor places at the end of stages. I find that type of rider to be incredibly frustrating to follow in CQ games so I tend to stay away (especially in the main game where there's enough good options that you can always structure your team to avoid those guys).