The 2024 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Kazistuta]

- same as Teuns, who fell into kind of a hole after his divorce (?)

I will refrain from telling you how Peter Sagans career went after his divorce....

 

[Salvarani]

PENHOËT Paul out of competion for about 3 months due to a ligament issue in the knee. Operation next

Long list for the 2025 game begins.

 

[Anderis]

PENHOËT Paul out of competion for about 3 months due to a ligament issue in the knee. Operation next

Damn, I didn't pick him in this game but I had high hopes for him in another game. At least it's not too late to change my team in that game.

 

[vickyriso]

And here we are for my second season here, much depends on WVA and Jakobsen, which I thought could be more popular picks:

VAN AERT Wout

UIJTDEBROEKS Cian

JAKOBSEN Fabio

CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio

HAYTER Ethan

LEKNESSUND Andreas

POOLE Max

TIBERI Antonio

NYS Thibau

TRAEEN Torstein

ARENSMAN Thymen

BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley

GLOAG Thomas

TURNER Ben

MORGADO Antonio Tomas

FRIGO Marco

OOMEN Sam

STAUNE-MITTET Johannes

VERGALLITO Luca

MOSCON Gianni

GELDERS Gil

QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander

MIHOLJEVIC Fran

KRUIJSWIJK Steven

BEVORT Carl-Frederik

LE HUITOUZE Eddy

KULSET Magnus

CAPIOT Amaury

COLNAGHI Andrea

GALIMBERTI Lorenzo

AUGUST Andrew

STORM Theodor

BELOKI Markel

 

[skidmark]

Okay, here's my team.

PIDCOCK Thomas (891 points, 7 picks) - One of seven returnees from my unsuccessful 2023 team. Didn't score a single point post-Tour and his season before that wasn't seen as a resounding success either. Will have a more narrow focus on the things he's actually good at this year, and even if he doesn't do a good Tour GC there are so many Pidcock stages early on in the race. If he just equals his cost by the end of the Tour, he still has the very suitable Olympics (kinda expecting a DNF in the road race after the MTB), he should finally win the Tour of Britain and he'll be an idiot if he doesn't keep it going until Zürich. He might never get a Worlds course that's more suitable for him. At some point he should become a 2000 point rider, let's hope this is the year when it happens.

OLDANI Stefano (136 points, 8 picks) - Really happy that he's so rare. I have a bit of a fetish for riders who can score heavy in the French calendar, and they don't always turn out the way I hope. But Oldani is cheap and has all the tools required.

Just comments on a couple, as we have many the same and I've already shared some thoughts on a few others.

Pidcock - I found him hardest to forecast of the expensive riders I was considering. One the one hand, he's so versatile he should score in a variety of races regardless of what he does. On the other, he sometimes looks so spread thin (see: this cyclocross season) that he doesn't reach his potential. One one hand, he's refining his calendar a bit so he won't waste time with cobbles and focus on hilly classics. On the other, he seems to want to double down on GC at TDF which I'm not confident he can go up more than 5 places or so, which would be 21 race days with not much gain. One one hand, a Worlds/Olys year could be double chance for big points for him. On the other, obviously his love for MTB will have him focusing on defending that one, which - see above re: spread thin.

All that is to say, I agree with you about his upside, but have too many doubts to take that big a swing. Hope you're right, it'd be good to see him do it all.

Oldani - I had the same thought process re: French calendar, and actually had him in my team until I switched him out for one of the last few riders (Staune-Mittet or Piganzoli, can't quite recall). The reason for second thoughts was ironically the same you cited - I couldn't find a good reason why his points total dropped from 434 to 136, so I wasn't sure why I should put a 25 year old who's only cracked 250 once on my team. But also, just from the eye test, he's a rider that's always there, that I sense could really elevate if just a 1% improvement happened. Kinda like a Fred Wright or something. So it was hard to pass. Anyway, we'll see if the top 10s in Giro stages translate to top 5s in 1.1s. Not a bad thought!

 

[Squire]

Oldani - I had the same thought process re: French calendar, and actually had him in my team until I switched him out for one of the last few riders (Staune-Mittet or Piganzoli, can't quite recall). The reason for second thoughts was ironically the same you cited - I couldn't find a good reason why his points total dropped from 434 to 136, so I wasn't sure why I should put a 25 year old who's only cracked 250 once on my team. But also, just from the eye test, he's a rider that's always there, that I sense could really elevate if just a 1% improvement happened. Kinda like a Fred Wright or something. So it was hard to pass. Anyway, we'll see if the top 10s in Giro stages translate to top 5s in 1.1s. Not a bad thought!

I think he has a very good excuse for dropping his score. Just look at that schedule! Alpecin obviously have a lot of guys who are good at what Oldani does, and I guess they need to send someone to Andalucia, Catalunya and Itzulia ...

Over the past two years, he has scored good points in virtually every non-WT, non-mountainous one-day race he has done (and was quite impressive in the Giro). So I'm pretty happy with my Oldani gamble.

I will refrain from telling you how Peter Sagans career went after his divorce....

Teuns seems to have found a new gf according to his Insta. Do not think I haven't done my research for this game!

 

[Jakob747]

Really excited for this year and really happy with my Top 3 picks : Pidcock, Bagioli and Rodriguez!

GAUTHERAT Pierre was only picked by 4 other participants and he is another pick that I am curious if you guys thought about. He is very young and last season he got some good results in some 1 day classics and Tour de Pologne showing decent speed. He seems like a guy that could get a lot of points in France if he gets the right races.

My biggest regret is missing Capiot who could score a lot of points this season. Walls is also a regret , but in his case I at least had him in some of my drafts.

I hope I will be able to get in top 10 this year!

I found a small article about Gautherat with some quotes from his old coach in L´Est´´Eclair... I will add them down here below!

Gautherat is a "pépite". 'There's a mix of Nacer Bouhanni and Thibaut Pinot in him, I think he's following in their footsteps... The comparison seems daring, even presumptuous. But it comes from a man who knows what he is talking about. Jacques Decrion, Pierre Gautherat's old coach at VC Dolois, who also mentored the two former stars of French cycling, at Cofidis and La Française des Jeux.'

Pierre is a sprinter who goes well over the hills. He is explosive. He has a high resistance to lactates and is capable of very high intensities over 30''. He has the profile of a rider for the Flemish classics. Pierre rides intelligently, he makes few mistakes. A complete rider that will continue to showcase his talent. adds Decrion.

Oliver Naesen also mentioned Gautherat as a rider beaming with ambition. IDLProcycling!

 

[hayneplane]

And here we are for my second season here, much depends on WVA and Jakobsen, which I thought could be more popular picks:

VAN AERT Wout

UIJTDEBROEKS Cian

JAKOBSEN Fabio

CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio

HAYTER Ethan

LEKNESSUND Andreas

POOLE Max

TIBERI Antonio

NYS Thibau

TRAEEN Torstein

ARENSMAN Thymen

BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley

GLOAG Thomas

TURNER Ben

MORGADO Antonio Tomas

FRIGO Marco

OOMEN Sam

STAUNE-MITTET Johannes

VERGALLITO Luca

MOSCON Gianni

GELDERS Gil

QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander

MIHOLJEVIC Fran

KRUIJSWIJK Steven

BEVORT Carl-Frederik

LE HUITOUZE Eddy

KULSET Magnus

CAPIOT Amaury

COLNAGHI Andrea

GALIMBERTI Lorenzo

AUGUST Andrew

STORM Theodor

BELOKI Markel

I like the look of that time as a fellow WVA picker. I reckon you did a much better job than me at loading up on GC hopefuls and if Cian gets a Giro podium you will be in great shape.

 

[RedheadDane]

Gautherat is a "pépite". 'There's a mix of Nacer Bouhanni and Thibaut Pinot in him, I think he's following in their footsteps...

What exactly would those footsteps be?
Is he a sprinter, or a climber?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

What exactly would those footsteps be?
Is he a sprinter, or a climber?

He's a sprimtber.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

I'm really curious to hearing the reasoning behind picking Sheehan. To most of us, his win in Paris-Tours came out of nowhere, and although he flew on his victory high into a decent placing in Japan, I just think it's a fluke win, like Matthew Hayman in Paris-Roubaix fx. Besides the win he doesn't strike me at all as a rider that should have a 250 points price tag.

I'm also troubled about not being vary of Oldanis switch to Cofidis. He's the kind of rider that could excel in the smaller French races and get a big return for his backers. Nice pick!

As a Sheehan backer I totally agree that I don't see him replicating a result on the level of a Paris-Tours win. But the guy only got like half a dozen legit race days last season and scored at least a little in almost all of them (1st in Paris Tours, 6th in Japan Cup, 9th in Maryland Classic, made the front group in 2 out of 3 Belgian one day races he did). So even if he doesn't score a big result, over the course of a full season he should be able to pick up a steady trickle of points and improve on last year's score.

 

[RedheadDane]

He's a sprimtber.

Or maybe a clinter...

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

I found a small article about Gautherat with some quotes from his old coach in L´Est´´Eclair... I will add them down here below!

Gautherat is a "pépite". 'There's a mix of Nacer Bouhanni and Thibaut Pinot in him, I think he's following in their footsteps... The comparison seems daring, even presumptuous. But it comes from a man who knows what he is talking about. Jacques Decrion, Pierre Gautherat's old coach at VC Dolois, who also mentored the two former stars of French cycling, at Cofidis and La Française des Jeux.'

Pierre is a sprinter who goes well over the hills. He is explosive. He has a high resistance to lactates and is capable of very high intensities over 30''. He has the profile of a rider for the Flemish classics. Pierre rides intelligently, he makes few mistakes. A complete rider that will continue to showcase his talent. adds Decrion.

Oliver Naesen also mentioned Gautherat as a rider beaming with ambition. IDLProcycling!

Oh. Never heard of him but just had a look at his 2023 results. Impressive. Strong September, but also 7th in Le Samyn and finished Paris - Roubaix.
A complete oversight on my part!

 

[Jakob747]

Oh. Never heard of him but just had a look at his 2023 results. Impressive. Strong September, but also 7th in Le Samyn and finished Paris - Roubaix.
A complete oversight on my part!

Time will tell. At the junior Worlds back in 2021 when Per Hagenes won - Gautherat was also part of that leader's group. With about 5.8km to go, they ride around a corner and Simon Dalby crashes and takes down Gautherat as well just as the Norwegian makes a massive acceleration

Hagenes is a beast and would have won anyway - He killed it. However, Gautherat was in the medal hunt, and his final 39th place doesn't reflect nor indicate how strong he really was that day.

 

[postmanhat]

WAERENSKJOLD Søren - young. Fast. Can TT. Fairly consistent. Potential. Turns out a unique pick. Unexpected.

KRON Andreas Lorentz - just kept noticing him popping up with the best last year.

Had Waerenskjold last year and was one of my few good choices. Spent the first half of the season supporting a declining Kristoff, and so didn't really score in the classics, when he seems like a natural cobbled superstar to me. Showed a lot of versatility once he was allowed to ride for himself and did really well in smaller stage races. If Uno make him at least a co-leader for the spring classics, can see him reaching parity by May. Could be a superb pick.

Really like Kron as well and have picked him twice, except for last year when he was illness/injury free and finally delivered on his potential. My feeling is that he's a 1000 point rider at best, but given his history, who knows?

Am a bit jealous as they will both be really, really fun riders to follow.

 

[Karaev1]

Yeah, that was my only surprise - that I only shared Bagioli with one other forumer. In similar games on other sites Bagioli was way more in demand. Though I will not be surprised if he doesn;t do that much. You always have to be careful when a rider scores big in autumn races only...

As for my team. I figured Gregoire, Penhoet and to a lesser extent, Tarling and Cosnefroy wouldn't be that popular. That was the idea.

Hayter is one rider I ended up dropping to make way for Bagioli. One decision I'm particularly iffy about. Probably a really bad call, haha. Hayter is also missing from your team. Why didn't you pick him?

Hayther was always in consideration for me too but just could not fit him in the end. Basically I decided Tarling , Carapaz and Uijtdebroecks will be better picks . I also have second thoughts now but we will see. Also I could've replaced Bagioli with someone cheaper and fit Hayther but I just like the Italian too much!

 

[Panda Claws]

Ever since there was this story about Uijtdebroeks of a Bora staff member apparently talking to a journalist at some sort of event and telling them that Uijtdebroeks wouldn't ever get a better GT result than he did in the Vuelta I became unsure of picking him.

Of course such a story can very easily be nonsense but that's still quite something if true unless Cian personally peed in that staff member's coffee cup.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Ever since there was this story about Uijtdebroeks of a Bora staff member apparently talking to a journalist at some sort of event and telling them that Uijtdebroeks wouldn't ever get a better GT result than he did in the Vuelta I became unsure of picking him.

Ha ha, good I never heard that story before now, as Uijtdebroeks was the last key change to my team.
I'm pretty happy with it. Tao is a gamble of course. As is Vermaerke!

GEOGHEGAN HART Tao	696
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian	574
EWAN Caleb	542
CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio	496
GIRMAY HAILU Biniam	456
COSNEFROY Benoît	452
VAN EETVELT Lennert	437
VERMAERKE Kevin	400
NARVAEZ PRADO Jhonatan Manuel	353
PLAPP Lucas	341
BENNETT Sam	302
ARENSMAN Thymen	283
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe	279
HERMANS Quinten	242
BUSATTO Francesco	186
LAMPERTI Luke	176
GLOAG Thomas	171
MILESI Lorenzo	137
MORGADO Antonio Tomas	132
AMARI Hamza	120
RAFFERTY Darren	103
VALGREN HUNDAHL (ANDERSEN) Michael	89
VANHOUCKE Harm	98
ROMO OLIVER Javier	70
SÖDERQVIST Jakob	54
PESENTI Thomas	50
QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander	50
RYAN Archie	45
NIYONKURU Samuel	35
CHRISTEN Fabio	98
WALLS Matthew	18
CAPIOT Amaury	10
VANDENABEELE Henri	5

 

[tobydawq]

I found a small article about Gautherat with some quotes from his old coach in L´Est´´Eclair... I will add them down here below!

Gautherat is a "pépite". 'There's a mix of Nacer Bouhanni and Thibaut Pinot in him, I think he's following in their footsteps... The comparison seems daring, even presumptuous. But it comes from a man who knows what he is talking about. Jacques Decrion, Pierre Gautherat's old coach at VC Dolois, who also mentored the two former stars of French cycling, at Cofidis and La Française des Jeux.'

Pierre is a sprinter who goes well over the hills. He is explosive. He has a high resistance to lactates and is capable of very high intensities over 30''. He has the profile of a rider for the Flemish classics. Pierre rides intelligently, he makes few mistakes. A complete rider that will continue to showcase his talent. adds Decrion.

Oliver Naesen also mentioned Gautherat as a rider beaming with ambition. IDLProcycling!

A mix of Bouhanni and Pinot, what does that even mean? An aggressive boxer who punches people at hotels and relaxes with his goats in his freetime when not drinking beer at PSG matches or with Richard Plugge?

 

[Kazistuta]

Ever since there was this story about Uijtdebroeks of a Bora staff member apparently talking to a journalist at some sort of event and telling them that Uijtdebroeks wouldn't ever get a better GT result than he did in the Vuelta I became unsure of picking him.

Of course such a story can very easily be nonsense but that's still quite something if true unless Cian personally peed in that staff member's coffee cup.

Probably just a revengeful mechanic after Uijtdebroeks' post-Chrono Des Nations statements reg. Boras equipment. That rumour definitely seems wack. I didn't pick Cian because I don't feel he will take such a big step already this season, since he actually surpassed my expectations last year. He will definitely be a top3 GT contender at some point, but my guess is he levels out this season and will be a 1000+ scorer next year or the year after. But I really like him and wish that he does well (just not THAT well this year

 

[skidmark]

I didn't realize going in that there is a green and polka dot competition (though I vaguely thought there might be from following previous versions of the competition). Do any teams just go for those jersey? That's interesting to me because whereas the overall is obviously entirely about improvement- those two competitions are more about just getting the best riders for those categories.

I'm still a couple of pages behind in catching up on this thread so maybe someone else responded to this, but generally no, I don't think anyone goes for the green jersey (we stopped the polka dot a couple of years back because there was too much overlap so they were a bit redundant). But it was created as a fun side competition - sometimes it mirrors the overall as the best teams tend to have the best weeks, but sometimes it's a bit more out of the blue and fun with highly skewed teams with rare riders doing well in the competition despite not being in it for the overall.

 

[skidmark]

I am really excited that Bagioli was only selected by only 1 more guy and I believe he could be a huge difference maker. The talent is clearly there and hopefully he can replicate his autumn form in the first part of the season. He was in my team last year too and I must say he became one of my favorite riders and I really enjoy to watch him. Really curious if any of you guys considered him and what your opinion is on this pick.

My thoughts on Bagioli: I also think he's a big talent, and have picked him I think twice in this game (once to my benefit and another not)... the worry I have is colored well by what you say: "hopefully he can replicate his autumn form in the first part of the season". I think the possibility of that isn't too bad. But what would give me pause is that even if he does that, he also has to replicate his autumn form once again in the autumn, if he's to be of value in this game.

He scored 366 points, almost half of his season total, in 3 race days at the end of the year. I suppose that could be a harbinger of a new level he can match with some consistency, but on the other side is the risk that this was simply the form of his life. If he can pull that level out once a season and be decent the rest of the way, he can definitely match his score from this year, but he'll have to have taken a permanent step up for him to be a competitive advantage to have on your team. I shied away because 4.5 years of being a pro at the 300-400 point level of form weighs more in my mind than a torrid 5 days in October.

In favour of the 'he's actually gotten better permanently' hypothesis is his 2nd place in Lombardy... he hasn't shown anything in a race of that length, ever, and that's where the big points are. So if he can carry that over to Liege/Lombardy plus dual Worlds/Olys this year, there'll be good chances for big points. Ultimately I went what I thought was a safer route, but risk works both ways so if you're right he'll be a game changer.

 

[ingsve]

Had Waerenskjold last year and was one of my few good choices. Spent the first half of the season supporting a declining Kristoff, and so didn't really score in the classics, when he seems like a natural cobbled superstar to me. Showed a lot of versatility once he was allowed to ride for himself and did really well in smaller stage races. If Uno make him at least a co-leader for the spring classics, can see him reaching parity by May. Could be a superb pick.

Ya, I was looking at Wärenskjold as well along with the other norwegians but in the end I felt that he, Tobias Halland Johannessen and Rasmus Tiller all scored too many points to be comfortable picks for next season. It just left like too much of a gamble to know whether they would be able to take such a big leap into the mid 1000s in order to be good picks. It sort of feels safer to pick riders in that price range who have been at the higher points scores before and then use the lower brackets for riders on an uphill trajectory. Still hoping they all do well though. Will be a really exciting season to follow.

 

[laarsland]

Ya, I was looking at Wärenskjold as well along with the other norwegians but in the end I felt that he, Tobias Halland Johannessen and Rasmus Tiller all scored too many points to be comfortable picks for next season. It just left like too much of a gamble to know whether they would be able to take such a big leap into the mid 1000s in order to be good picks. It sort of feels safer to pick riders in that price range who have been at the higher points scores before and then use the lower brackets for riders on an uphill trajectory. Still hoping they all do well though. Will be a really exciting season to follow.

Wærenskjold has all the hallmarks of a rider who can kick on and become a proper star/big-scoring rider with his powerhouse-TTs as well. My reason for not picking is how stacked Uno-X are with fastish finishers now with Cort, Kristoff, Wærenskjold, Tiller, Blikra, Dversnes, Gudmestad and Løland plus Hoelgaard back and possibly also contending in classics.

 

[Salvarani]

I thought about Bagioli, because I have picked him for several years and finally got rewarded for it last season. It didnt do much for me since my team sucked, but that was still one good thing to see.

However, he doesnt offer much in stage-races (except for a stage-win) or able to score points from the GC. He would have to be very good in the one-day races and other big races to score a decent profit. Possible, if he turns into one of the best one-day racers in the peloton, but there are some other very good riders around atm.

He costs 765 points and would need to score over +1250 points to be considered a good pick, imo.

I like the guy, but my mind say that you have to bet against that he doesnt.