The 2024 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[EvansIsTheBest]

Sprinters generally dissapoint in this game, most points are in GC...

I mean De Lie and Philipsen don't have any problem scoring. Greipel cranked out like 10 straight 1000+ points seasons. So sprinters can score perfectly fine. They might not have the truly high end 3k ceiling of the best all around talents but how many of those guys are there really (let alone available at a reasonable price) ? Plus I could say the same thing of other specialists. You don't see pure TT or pure climbers types drop 2000 points season either.

The problem is which sprinters people go after. For instance, is it really a disappointment when Ewan scores 500-800 points like he does every year of his career (bar an outlier in 2019) or is it people having unrealistic expectations ?

High end sprinters' performances are way more context and team dependent than other world class riders and it makes them much riskier gambles. Sure it helps if Pogacar has good teammates but even if he doesn't, he can just ride away from everybody else whenever there's a climb on the menu. Ganna can do his thing against the clock regardless of what else is going on at Ineos... A sprinter can be faster than all his competitors but he won't score consistently if he doesn't have a train to deliver him in the right spot consistently (or he is Robbie McEwen but he has been retired a while last I checked).

There's plenty of young, up and coming sprinters that are worthwhile picks every year though. Their progress tends to be more one huge jump and then a plateau versus the more gradual progress you see in GC contenders for instance. So if you time it right when they make that jump it can bring in a lot of profit.

 

[repre]

I mean De Lie and Philipsen don't have any problem scoring. Greipel cranked out like 10 straight 1000+ points seasons. So sprinters can score perfectly fine. They might not have the truly high end 3k ceiling of the best all around talents but how many of those guys are there really (let alone available at a reasonable price) ? Plus I could say the same thing of other specialists. You don't see pure TT or pure climbers types drop 2000 points season either.

The problem is which sprinters people go after. For instance, is it really a disappointment when Ewan scores 500-800 points like he does every year of his career (bar an outlier in 2019) or is it people having unrealistic expectations ?

High end sprinters' performances are way more context and team dependent than other world class riders and it makes them much riskier gambles. Sure it helps if Pogacar has good teammates but even if he doesn't, he can just ride away from everybody else whenever there's a climb on the menu. Ganna can do his thing against the clock regardless of what else is going on at Ineos... A sprinter can be faster than all his competitors but he won't score consistently if he doesn't have a train to deliver him in the right spot consistently (or he is Robbie McEwen but he has been retired a while last I checked).

There's plenty of young, up and coming sprinters that are worthwhile picks every year though. Their progress tends to be more one huge jump and then a plateau versus the more gradual progress you see in GC contenders for instance. So if you time it right when they make that jump it can bring in a lot of profit.

We talked about sprinters you can pick for the game. De Lie and Philipsen is not a pure sprinter types, they are all-around guys who score well in one-day races and they score big every year. You don't pick the best riders for this game, u don't pick Pogacar, who can score well too! You pick Ewans and Sam Bennetts and these types suck for CQ generally.

Also you don't aim for 2000 points for every rider, right? And it's easier to score 500 points for climber than 500 points for medium-level pure sprinter IMO. I think there more Gall, Rubio, van Eetveld types that are succesfull picks than sprinter-type who cannot score in belgium classics.

Agree with other points, TT specialist are the worst for this game, but they are picked less.

 

[ingsve]

Not sure how easy it would be to track on the spreadsheet but it would be fun as a side competition to see who is the first in the year to have all their riders score at least 1 point.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Not sure how easy it would be to track on the spreadsheet but it would be fun as a side competition to see who is the first in the year to have all their riders score at least 1 point.

I was gonna say I'm still waiting for Kevin Rivera to score for my 2022 team but he apparently grabbed 16 points in the Vuelta a Costa Rica in December of that year. Those points came after the official end of the game so they don't actually count which is unfortunate because I only needed 15 to pass Total Package 2021 team as the 4th highest total ever. Sucks to be me.

 

[skidmark]

Hey all! Spreadsheet should be updated with the name change for Valgren - it didn't change anything on the displayed tables on the weekly update (ie top 5) or Green Jersey rankings (points shifted around a smidge but top 5 is the same). But DJ Sprtsch does move into 4th overall ahead of repre with the extra 5 points.

Also the issue with the high movers ranking was 'fixed' (ie I noticed the solution was a stupid little thing I should have seen). Here's the top 5 high movers:

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	nbfc1962	(+26)
2	escartin	(+19)
3	Jakob747	(+17)
3	rote_laterne	(+17)
5	ingsve	(+16)
5	Gotland	(+16)
5	Devils_Elbow	(+16)

I see CQ has already got the update out for this week! It's midnight where I am now so I don't have time tonight, but I'll see what I can do tomorrow (got a three hour drive to get back home from the weekend so no promises).

Excited to be on track!

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Between Baudin last year and Bonnamour now, it seems I really have a knack for picking AG2R riders who run into clinic issues...

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

You have my sympathies.
For once I made a good last minute change to my team.

 

[repre]

Between Baudin last year and Bonnamour now, it seems I really have a knack for picking AG2R riders who run into clinic issues...

You should work in WADA then))

 

[Devil's Elbow]

You should work in WADA then))

Vincent Lavenu dislikes this post.

 

[skidmark]

Update #3: To the victor, shalgo, the spoils

Stage races were the order of the day this week, with 2.1 races in France and Saudi Arabia, and a 2.Pro race in Spain, as well as national championships in Ecuador, which involved points for one very popular player in this game.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	shalgo	346
2	Jakob747	326
3	Fivezzz	313
4	vsd88	287
5	Kazistuta	285

shalgo takes the title for this week, getting the winning total of 346 points from a spread of decently scoring riders, namely William Junior Lecerf (90 points, 13 teams), Finn Fisher-Black (71 points, 15 teams), Richard Carapaz (66, 69), and Axel Laurance (44, 31). Last week's winner Jakob747 almost doubles up, but manages 2nd thanks to Kevin Vauquelin (105, 5) on top of Fisher-Black, Carapaz and Laurance, but without a few low scorers that shalgo had. Fivezzz nabs the final spot on the podium with Lecerf, Carapaz, Javier Romo (44, 4) and Hagos Berhe (38, 4).

Sidenote: a real interesting top 15 this week, including 4 former game winners, the game founder, and several long-time players and heavyweights in aggregate rankings.

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	Fivezzz	(+22)
2	vsd88	(+20)
3	Kazistuta	(+19)
4	Yellow Knight	(+15)
5	skidmark	(+13)
5	trackstand	(+13)

Both the top 2 from the other ranking were already fairly highly ranked overall and so had little room to move up, so that opens the door for Fivezzz to improve their podium performance and take the title here! Fivezzz moves up an impressive 22 spots on the overall, while vsd88 moves up 20 and Kazistuta moves up 19.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Jakob747	80
2	HoudiniCycling	48
3	shalgo	45
4	ingsve	40
5	Squire	36

With 1st on week 2 and 2nd on week 3, Jakob is untouchable in this ranking at the moment, tallying 80 points to take out a healthy lead over the other two weekly winners so far, HoudiniCycling and shalgo.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(+2)	Jakob747	1360
2	(-1)	HoudiniCycling	1270
3	(+12)	shalgo	1199
4	(+3)	ingsve	1188
5	(-1)	repre	1158
6	(+6)	Squire	1108
7	(-5)	armchairclimber	1081
8	(+13)	skidmark	1045
9	(-4)	DJ Sprtsch	1034
10	(-4)	del1962	1011

The roll that Jakob is on means their team turfs HoudiniCycling from the top spot this week, although their team remains in 2nd 90 points back. shalgo's weekly win puts their team into third, while initial game winner ingsve is making a fine return in 4th so far. Alongside shalgo, skidmark and Squire also move into the top 10 (a good week for S teams!), while adamski101, Armchair Cyclist and Josedin fall out (a bad week for A teams and one J team?)

This week is going to see points coming from a number of places. There are three stage races on three continents the 2.1 Tour Colombia returns, as well as the 2.1 Tour de Provence and the 2.1 Tour Antalya in Turkey. But there's more - the 1.1 Muscat Classic and the first stage of the 2.HC Tour of Oman are this week too, as well as Vuelta Murcia and Clasica Almeira. Phew! We're getting into the thick of the early season.

spreadsheet at dropbox

 

[armchairclimber]

Thanks, as always, Skidmark.

I knew I was in for a kicking last week, with few contenders and even Waerenskold having "issues". So I'm actually quite happy to be still in the top 10.

This week should be a little more fruitful. Along with everyone else I have Bernal and Quintana in Colombia. Also

Provence:
Sheehan makes his debut

Antalya
Bruttomesso
Pellizzarro (intrigued to see how he goes)
Pickering

Muscat
Van-Sintmaartensdijk
Vandenabeele
Lamperti
Plus others to be confirmed

Oman
Herzog
Lamperti
Vandenabeele
Van-Sintmaartensdijk
Del Toro

Murcia
August (intrigued here as well)
Fretin
Schachmann

Almeria
Schachmann
Waerenskold
Fretin

At least they're not all on vacation this week. Should be fun, even if it isn't fruitful.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I didn't think it was possible to have only 2 riders score at all in a week. So long top ten, enjoy your season...

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Thanks for the update, as always highly appreciated.
But there is some kind of error in the spreadsheet this week as there seems to be a mis-match between the Rankings and Update tabs. Think the Rankings tab is the correct one (especially since it puts me up in fifth). Well, not only that, a quick check on some other teams also supports this.

 

[RedheadDane]

Antalya:
Sander Hansen

Provence:
Salby (as confirmed by the man himself)

Muscat:
Blume Levy (according to Feltet.dk)
Charmig
Lund
Possibly Wallin

Figueira:
Honoré
Valgren

Oman:
Blume Levy (according to Feltet.dk)
Charmig
Lund
Wallin

Murcia:
Norsgaard

Almeria:
Cort
Norsgaard

 

[skidmark]

Thanks for the update, as always highly appreciated.
But there is some kind of error in the spreadsheet this week as there seems to be a mis-match between the Rankings and Update tabs. Think the Rankings tab is the correct one (especially since it puts me up in fifth). Well, not only that, a quick check on some other teams also supports this.

Whoa very confusing - the update tab seems to have transposed a couple of teams' formulas, aside from the team name cell. Yours and repre, Earns and trackstand of the top ones I checked. I was tweaking some issues with formulas earlier this week so I'll have to look into it when I get a chance later today and see what's up.

 

[repre]

Whoa very confusing - the update tab seems to have transposed a couple of teams' formulas, aside from the team name cell. Yours and repre, Earns and trackstand of the top ones I checked. I was tweaking some issues with formulas earlier this week so I'll have to look into it when I get a chance later today and see what's up.

Count me 1158 points pls)

 

[postmanhat]

Having no one at the Alula tour was only going to hurt, but it could have tried to be less painful. Fisher-Black adds to the great start for my 2023 team, and Lecerf just fell victim to my new policy of having less young riders than usual, as did Gelders, Pellizzari, Morgado, Christen and August, who were all in my team at one stage. Del Toro was on my longlist, but can't honestly say was ever going to pick him. Fair play to those who did and have had a great start to the season.

Colombia
Quintana
Carapaz
Piccolo

Looking at today's result, is the latter back on form again?

Provence
Walls

Muscat/Oman
Schelling
Charmig
Vandenabeele
Capiot

Figueira
Valgren
Louvel

Spanish weekend
Tronchon
Gachingnard
Turner
Martinez

Love these February weeks when half your team is riding across multiple races. Too early for most to have any sort of form, so any result is a bonus.

 

[hayneplane]

Hoping to score well with Lamperti and Del Toro in Oman.

 

[Squire]

Hoping to score well with Lamperti and Del Toro in Oman.

And Masnada. And Busatto. And Faure Prost.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Whoa very confusing - the update tab seems to have transposed a couple of teams' formulas, aside from the team name cell. Yours and repre, Earns and trackstand of the top ones I checked. I was tweaking some issues with formulas earlier this week so I'll have to look into it when I get a chance later today and see what's up.

Also, I have dropped dramatically down the table, so if you can fix that please...

 

[Devil's Elbow]

And Masnada. And Busatto. And Faure Prost.

And Vansevenant. And Magnier. And Capiot. And Meintjes.

 

[ingsve]

Annoying that the start lists for Muscat and Oman are not complete yet or has anyone found any full start lists for those races yet?

 

[Salvarani]

Only had a couple of riders racing last week so a drop-off was expected, but being in the 19th position so far is a good start. The real racing starts around T-A and P-N imo and everything before that is a nice bonus or a frustrating time if you have missed out on a rider with great potential. We will see what most teams are made of in March-April.

Anyway... more races and riders riding this week.

 

[Squire]

And Vansevenant. And Magnier. And Capiot. And Meintjes.

Was gonna reply with a thanks for cheering on mine and hayneplane's riders as well, considering that you just continued the list. But now I see that you actually have all of the riders in our combined posts! Yikes!

Anyway, I need all the points I can get to create a buffer before Ayuso absolutely beasts the weak field of the very profitable Ruta del Sol (and yes, I noticed you have Ayuso too!).

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Was gonna reply with a thanks for cheering on mine and hayneplane's riders as well, considering that you just continued the list. But now I see that you actually have all of the riders in our combined posts! Yikes!

Anyway, I need all the points I can get to create a buffer before Ayuso absolutely beasts the weak field of the very profitable Ruta del Sol (and yes, I noticed you have Ayuso too!).

Good thing you're nearly 300 points up on me and that I have nobody but Quintana and Carapaz in action before the weekend