The 2024 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[bminchow]

Well another crap week for me. Only some minor placings in Great Ocean Road Race. And like most, i have a very few riders going this week. Maybe i can get some cheap points in Alula .Here is my coming week.

AlUla Tour
LECERF William Junior - very curious to see if he will be good for me this year. A nice spot to get some points with this competition level.
SVRCEK Martin - He's on all three of my Emerging Rider teams too. Time to show his stuff.
WRIGHT Fred - I really hope he is coming here to win and not just "work his way into the season". Second place is up for grabs after Simon.

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
COVI Alessandro - I've honestly already given up on him.

Etoile de Bessèges - Two of my risky difference makers. Didnt show much in their first race, but I think there are three stages that they could do something in.
LAURANCE Axel
SEGAERT Alec

Ecuador Nationals
Richard Carapaz - Stud. I pity the fools who don't have him on their team

 

[ingsve]

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

It's easy to underestimate the impact of popular riders though. It's still important that they score really well. For example there are still 6 people in this weeks top 20 who do not have Carapaz so for those people it can really hurt if and when many other people get lots of points and you yourself miss out.

The popular picks won't win you the game but not having a popular pick who ends up returning an amazing score can effectively lose you the game.

For me so far that popular rider I don't have is Plapp so if he was to suddenly manage a 2000 point season that would be somewhat disasterous.

 

[Earns1985]

It's easy to underestimate the impact of popular riders though. It's still important that they score really well. For example there are still 6 people in this weeks top 20 who do not have Carapaz so for those people it can really hurt if and when many other people get lots of points and you yourself miss out.

The popular picks won't win you the game but not having a popular pick who ends up returning an amazing score can effectively lose you the game.

For me so far that popular rider I don't have is Plapp so if he was to suddenly manage a 2000 point season that would be somewhat disasterous.

Yes, it´s true. He is the second most popular rider this year, but it´s still only 69 players out of 94 players who have him. So as you said, it´s still important for everyone who has him. It´s unlike Alaphilippe last year who had been in 98% of all teams, where it really didn´t matter at all..

 

[armchairclimber]

Yes, it´s true. He is the second most popular rider this year, but it´s still only 69 players out of 94 players who have him. So as you said, it´s still important for everyone who has him. It´s unlike Alaphilippe last year who had been in 98% of all teams, where it really didn´t matter at all..

Yep, I don't have Carapaz, and it's one that worries me a bit. Another that I binned late in the day. But I am pretty happy with my team.

 

[RedheadDane]

AlUla
Bendixen
Changizi
Norsgaard

Valenciana*
Salby
Wandahl

Bessèges*
Cort

*Startlists still provisional.

 

[Nevs]

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.

Well... one of my riders died last year so...
(and I had Onley this year as well)

 

[will-10]

You guys always know how to lighten the mood

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Not many points scored since the last update. I believe that my highest scorer besides Girmay is Lamperti with 40 points.

Next up is AlUla Tour where I have:

Fisher-Black
Van Uden

Valenciana:

Christen
Covi
Berhe

And Etoile de Bessèges:

Rafferty
Laurance

I'm not exactly expecting to climb up the ladder the next few updates...

 

[repre]

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

Chose Milesi despite relatively high cost, because i thought he is just great talent. Now i am reconsidering that pick, cause i really don't know where he can score points outside of ITTs. What was your thoughts for this pick? Where he can score?

 

[SafeBet]

Choose Milesi despite relatively high cost, because i thought he is just great talent. Now i am reconsidering that pick, cause i really don't know where he can score points outside of ITTs. What was your thoughts for this pick? Where he can score?

Milesi is more than a TT specialist. He's quite explosive, he won on Mont Saint Aubert (2km @ 5,6%) in front of Fredheim, Segaert, Hagenes in 2022.
Moreover, being a late starter to the sport he might have more upside than other riders his age.

That being said, I haven't selected him because a) he tends to crash a little too much and b) I'm not sure Movistar is the right team to develop him properly, unless he turns out being more of a puncheur than a TTer.

 

[repre]

Milesi is more than a TT specialist. He's quite explosive, he won on Mont Saint Aubert (2km @ 5,6%) in front of Fredheim, Segaert, Hagenes in 2022.
Moreover, being a late starter to the sport he might have more upside than other riders his age.

That being said, I haven't selected him because a) he tends to crash a little too much and b) I'm not sure Movistar is the right team to develop him properly, unless he turns out being more of a puncheur than a TTer.

If he is puncheur then AlUla Tour is good for him. UNLESS he'll work for Formolo there

 

[SafeBet]

If he is puncheur then AlUla Tour is good for him. UNLESS he'll work for Formolo there

Yeah Formolo was second in this race last year so he's very likely the captain.
Plus I've been following Milesi since 2021 and he normally doesn't start his season in top shape, so I wouldn't expect much right now. Later in the season he could surprise though.

 

[Earns1985]

Giro squad from Visma announced:
No Staune-Mittet and also not Gloag in it. Think this is good for me, as they will now therefore ride in smaller races, where they can score better..

 

[laarsland]

Giro squad from Visma announced:
No Staune-Mittet and also not Gloag in it. Think this is good for me, as they will now therefore ride in smaller races, where they can score better..

Unless he goes full Moanhannes Stue-Jittet #anagram

 

[Earns1985]

Ohh damn..

Decision for Andresen Lund and against van Uden (which I had last year) will backfire...

 

[Squire]

Giro squad from Visma announced:
No Staune-Mittet and also not Gloag in it. Think this is good for me, as they will now therefore ride in smaller races, where they can score better..

Yes, this is very good indeed. Hopefully JSM and Gloag go to Hungary and Norway and all sorts of other low-hanging fruit kind of races in May while some other poor Visma riders gets to waste 21 race days for a meagre 15 finishing points in the Giro.

Also, after getting zero wins last season, Van Uden didn't take long to get off the mark this season. Great start!

And a third piece of good news is that CQ has really stepped up after their sub-par start to the season, and has had the update for last week on their website for quite some time already. So I guess there should be a game update in the works soon.

 

[Salvarani]

Ohh damn..

Decision for Andresen Lund and against van Uden (which I had last year) will backfire...

Van Uden looked fast last year in the sprints I saw... but the question is if he can handle some climbs/hills. He was getting dropped early in a lot of races last season.

Today was pancake flat.

 

[armchairclimber]

Well, though I don't have Van Uden, I do have Waerenskjold, and was reasonably pleased to see him duking it out with the super fast guys on a less than ideal finish for him. 3 points is a tiny bonus. If he avoids crashes, I have high hopes for him this year.

 

[Earns1985]

Van Uden looked fast last year in the sprints I saw... but the question is if he can handle some climbs/hills. He was getting dropped early in a lot of races last season.

Today was pancake flat.

The thing is, that it seems that van Uden will receive a lot of more chances to ride on his own, while Andresen Lund will lose a lot of race days being lead-out rider for Jakobsen.
Andresen Lund had the better results last year, so I thought he would get even more chances to ride on his own, while van Uden perhaps would have to settle for a lead-out rider role.
And Andresen Lund was even more expensive then van Uden..

 

[repre]

The thing is, that it seems that van Uden will receive a lot of more chances to ride on his own, while Andresen Lund will lose a lot of race days being lead-out rider for Jakobsen.
Andresen Lund had the better results last year, so I thought he would get even more chances to ride on his own, while van Uden perhaps would have to settle for a lead-out rider role.
And Andresen Lund was even more expensive then van Uden..

We gambled and we lost) it was impossible to know who will be leader and leadout among them...

 

[Squire]

We gambled and we lost) it was impossible to know who will be leader and leadout among them...

It was very clear that Van Uden wasn't gonna be a leadout rider, but I did have a good look at Andresen Lund when picking my team too, and I didn't expect him to become dedicated leadout man for Jakobsen, which seems like it could be the case now. I thought that would be guys like Roosen, Welten, Märkl and Eekhoff. But it does kinda makes sense for DSM to use Andresen Lund, because his results came primarily as a result of excellent positioning (and ability to get over hills) instead of lightning speed. He will probably get quite a lot of opportunities still, though.

 

[RedheadDane]

Obviously, for me picking Lund (Andresen) was a pretty easy choice. Just hoping he'll get a few shots of his own...

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Giro squad from Visma announced:
also not Gloag in it.

That's what Gloag thought last year...

 

[hayneplane]

So near but nothing. I thought 5th for Rajovic might snag me something but 5th not good enough in this lower tier of races.

 

[escartin]

I had Gautherat as a unique pick last year and he did well. I obviously decided that that was sufficient and never thought of re-picking him this year . I am thinking this might have been an error. I did the same with van Wilder last year and that was also a bad idea.

another unique pick last year was Geniets, my thinking was that he would obviously win the Lux Nationals and should do a bit better in the other races than 2022. well, he did not even take part in the nationals and did not perform very well elsewhere. obviously, his first race this year resulted in his first ever victory outside of Luxembourg!