The 2024 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[tobydawq]

My team captain - Vauquelin - will get his season going today with a win in Marseille.

 

[RedheadDane]

I feel like I'm going to fall very low in the standings soon.

See, that's an issue I don't have.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Bad news with Onley crashing out in the Cadel race. Hope the injury isn't too bad.

Broken collarbone for Onley, that's a real blow to a not-insignificant number of teams.

 

[Salvarani]

Broken collarbone for Onley, that's a real blow to a not-insignificant number of teams.

The game giveth and the game taketh.

Most likely thats the spring ruined for Onley and then he has to build up form again, but he can come back in the summer and second half of the season.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

The situation with Valgren shows why, imho, a lot of the confusion with Danish names could be avoided if CQ just referred to riders by their most commonly used name.

Anyway, for Marseille tomorrow, I got Cort.

Their presentation of former surnames in brackets also complicated issues: standard fare for those who browse the women's side of that site, but will have caught people out here. Balancing out generations of patriarchy is tricky.

 

[Squire]

It might be that the laws of probability makes it rather inevitable when you have a team of 33 riders, but I really feel that being on a CQ team (and mine in particular! ) is an absolute curse.

One rider crashing out of the Cadel race with broken bones, and of course it's Oscar Onley. One crash (involving five riders) was reported in Marseille, and of course Oldani was involved. One rider got mechanical problems while in a great position in Trofeo Palma, and it's Lamperti. Add to that how Plapp got his Aussie summer somewhat ruined by being one of the few riders crashing out of Tour Down Under, and how Christen has had his start to the season delayed by illness.

But maybe it's like this for everyone, and that any selection of 33 riders would have had the same amount of issues. It just doesn't feel like that.

Has been a bad week for me overall, but at least there hasn't been any major scoring by popular riders that I don't have, so it's been a bit of a write-off for most teams I guess. Girmay getting dropped in the Cadel race was very important for my team.

 

[Anderis]

But maybe it's like this for everyone

Pretty sure it's not identical to everyone and over a short period of time, one player can get significantly more bad luck than another. It would even out over a long period of time but I don't know how long it would need to be, could be somethinng like dozens of years.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Bit of an underwhelming day with none of Dainese, Demare, Magnier and Lamperti making the top-4 in Palma and none of my guys anywhere near in Marseille (plus Oldani crashing). Despite having swept the podium on Thursday, it actually hasn't been that good a week overall, at least none of the popular picks that I don't have popped off this week (which was definitely a risk with Girmay, but him not making this selection makes me think he has every chance to bomb in the classics again).

 

[repre]

It might be that the laws of probability makes it rather inevitable when you have a team of 33 riders, but I really feel that being on a CQ team (and mine in particular! ) is an absolute curse.

One rider crashing out of the Cadel race with broken bones, and of course it's Oscar Onley. One crash (involving five riders) was reported in Marseille, and of course Oldani was involved. One rider got mechanical problems while in a great position in Trofeo Palma, and it's Lamperti. Add to that how Plapp got his Aussie summer somewhat ruined by being one of the few riders crashing out of Tour Down Under, and how Christen has had his start to the season delayed by illness.

But maybe it's like this for everyone, and that any selection of 33 riders would have had the same amount of issues. It just doesn't feel like that.

Has been a bad week for me overall, but at least there hasn't been any major scoring by popular riders that I don't have, so it's been a bit of a write-off for most teams I guess. Girmay getting dropped in the Cadel race was very important for my team.

All it means your riders in good position to battle for success and not riding backwards... So that success will come, but sometimes it's not without bad luck. Keep believing in your guys and yourself!

 

[postmanhat]

My team captain - Vauquelin - will get his season going today with a win in Marseille.

At least he's looking in good form for next month's French calendar. Probably wouldn't have picked himif I hadn't forgotten Barguil had left, so he's likely to be riding a lot of WT GC where I'm a less confident he can score points? Hoping for a decent haul before the end of February.

 

[postmanhat]

It might be that the laws of probability makes it rather inevitable when you have a team of 33 riders, but I really feel that being on a CQ team (and mine in particular! ) is an absolute curse.

One rider crashing out of the Cadel race with broken bones, and of course it's Oscar Onley. One crash (involving five riders) was reported in Marseille, and of course Oldani was involved. One rider got mechanical problems while in a great position in Trofeo Palma, and it's Lamperti. Add to that how Plapp got his Aussie summer somewhat ruined by being one of the few riders crashing out of Tour Down Under, and how Christen has had his start to the season delayed by illness.

But maybe it's like this for everyone, and that any selection of 33 riders would have had the same amount of issues. It just doesn't feel like that.

Has been a bad week for me overall, but at least there hasn't been any major scoring by popular riders that I don't have, so it's been a bit of a write-off for most teams I guess. Girmay getting dropped in the Cadel race was very important for my team.

Damm. Only watched the last 15K and wondered where Oldani was, as he's made easily the most promising start of my team till today. Johannessen looked decent yesterday, so am hoping he can get a good result somewhere before Strade/Tirreno.

 

[armchairclimber]

Well, it's safe to say that today could have gone better ... Onley (ouch), Fretin failing to make the final group for the sprint, and Lamperti having issues. Still, picked up a few points thanks to Plapp and Ryan. Ticking over. I presume that a lot of teams will have a few points from Colombia later.

Unfortunately, my team are very quiet now for a week or two.

 

[hayneplane]

I feel like I'm going to fall very low in the standings soon. Apart from Del Toro in TdU and Plapp at Australian nationals, no major results so far.

Gave you a sympathy like as my team did very little all week so I will plummet from 2nd overall to probably outside the top 20.

 

[Salvarani]

Most of the riders I had out in action scored points during the week and weekend.

Maybe 200-300 points that they picked up collectively.

Seems like a pretty low-scoring week in general for many teams, so I am guessing it will be enough to stay in roughly the same place in the rankings.

 

[search]

looks like I shouldn't have lost faith in Osorio this quickly...

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

I had him two years ago. Had forgotten all about that dreadful pick - until now.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Picking Gautherat seems like it would have been a good idea.

For the guys I did pick, it's all about damage limitation for the next couple weeks until the heavy hitters (Ayuso, Rodriguez, Sheffield, Uijtedebroeks) get going.

 

[armchairclimber]

Picking Gautherat seems like it would have been a good idea.

For the guys I did pick, it's all about damage limitation for the next couple weeks until the heavy hitters (Ayuso, Rodriguez, Sheffield, Uijtedebroeks) get going.

Gautherat is looking like a stupid last minute ejection from my team!!

 

[ingsve]

But maybe it's like this for everyone, and that any selection of 33 riders would have had the same amount of issues. It just doesn't feel like that.

For me it's been quite the opposite week in that all of those issues were for riders I don't have and could have hurt me if they hadn't happened. After the first sprinter race in Mallorca I was fearing the likes of Lamperti today but the results seemed to be in my favor by being riders that not many have. Still hoped Girmay would do better however but he is forgiven based on the other results he has gotten already.

On top of that the Colombian nationals were looking dire with the breakaway still having 3 minutes with 30km to go with basically only Bernal and Higuita chasing vs the 7 in the breakaway but they managed to catch all but one in the final climb to get 2nd and 3rd for me. Especially nice with Higuita who is one of my differentials since he is only on 20 teams compared to the other Colombians who are much more popular.

 

[Salvarani]

For me it's been quite the opposite week in that all of those issues were for riders I don't have and could have hurt me if they hadn't happened. After the first sprinter race in Mallorca I was fearing the likes of Lamperti today but the results seemed to be in my favor by being riders that not many have. Still hoped Girmay would do better however but he is forgiven based on the other results he has gotten already.

On top of that the Colombian nationals were looking dire with the breakaway still having 3 minutes with 30km to go with basically only Bernal and Higuita chasing vs the 7 in the breakaway but they managed to catch all but one in the final climb to get 2nd and 3rd for me. Especially nice with Higuita who is one of my differentials since he is only on 20 teams compared to the other Colombians who are much more popular.

Yes, it was good to see. Higuita impressed the most and was the driving force in the chase, especially towards the end of the race.

 

[armchairclimber]

Well, in the latest updated AlULa startlist, it appears that I have Pickering, Schachmann and Waerenskjold taking part, which was a nice surprise. I was expecting a barren week (might still have one mind you).

 

[Salvarani]

A few stage-races this week, but only a couple of riders in action... at least for me.

AlUla Tour
WRIGHT Fred

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
CHRISTEN Jan

Etoile de Bessèges
-

And Carapaz nationals.

Most of my team has the week off by the look of things, but races come thick and fast in the next few weeks so most of them will soon be back in action or starting their seasons Im assuming.

 

[ingsve]

Well, in the latest updated AlULa startlist, it appears that I have Pickering, Schachmann and Waerenskjold taking part, which was a nice surprise. I was expecting a barren week (might still have one mind you).

Ya, slightly more quite than last week at first glance, though most people will likely score a few points since Carapaz has his Nationals this week and he's in 69 teams.

 

[Earns1985]

Yes, also my riders will not be that active this week. I really have no rider in Valencia! But at least I have a few interesting riders for the other races:

AIUla:
LeCerf (I am very curious about his season debut. Could be the GC option from Soudal for this race)
Schachmann (Total blackbox, if he had a good winter and he could come back to his former level, surely a good GC result would be possible. Otherwise not..)

Besseges:
B. Thomas ( He has a GC history in this race and he looked also promsing in one of the Mallorca races. So could be in for GC points)
Rafferty (Don´t accept anything here, points would be a nice surprise)

Ecuador:
Carapaz (Should score here, but he is very popular, so importance for this game is limited)

 

[ingsve]

Here is my coming week.

AlUla Tour
Lorenzo Milesi
William Junior Lecerf

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
Jan Christen
Alexandr Vlasov

Etoile de Bessèges
Darren Rafferty
Alec Segaert
Marcus Hoelgaard
Andreas Leknesund

Ecuador Nationals
Richard Carapaz