The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

Page 14 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
I have two AG2Rs as unique picks this season:

Stan Dewulf: didn't ride until May last season and thus missed out on his best terrain. Had a good season after coming back, underpinning that he's a proper powerhouse of a rider. Should have lots of chances in the classics campaign.

Tord Gudmestad: arrives as the second fastest sprinter in the team, but probably the best combo of endurance and fast finish. Although the team have a lot of riders who can contest a reduced-ish sprint, I think it's probably he'll lead in quite a number of races with the French cup and all.

My perhaps biggest punt is Finn Fisher-Black along with one other manager. Although Bora is almost equally stacked as UAE, I think he'll have a bit more leeway. Taken a while to build on his obvious potential, my roll of the dice here is that he'll have his big breakout season winning a few stage races as well as one day-races.
 
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I swapped Ewan for Mulubrhan in the last hours yesterday, but that probably means he will now score over 1000 points for INEOS.

I considered Durbridge because it was mentioned on here that he had studied the NC course extensively, but since he got effed over by a wrong radio message, I'm glad I left him out.
 
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NORSGAARD JØRGENSEN Mathias – Movi rider for classics I believe this year, he was always under radar but hope he can step-up on WT cobble races where Movi are not so strong to say at least and that leave plenty of opportunities.

I've been keeping an eye on the name situation on CQ. It got updated at the UCI website.

Well, it's possible that RhD's totally-sensible method of calculating her team value combined with her famed aptitude for mathematics caused her to miscalculate by 1000 points.

I was well aware that I had a bunch of points to spare.
If I had dropped someone to squeeze Vingegaard in, it definitely wouldn't have been Cort!
 
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First, he only did 34 racedays last season, and his coach stated that that, combined with his extensive cross program, was already a lot - hence I don't expect him to race much more this season. He's also doing a Grand Tour which doesn't really do him much good as he'll use up a lot of his racedays here. Now, I do think that he'll do more than 34 racedays next season as 21 of those would be in a Grand Tour, but I don't think he'll do a full road season at all.
He is likely starting his season in Itzulia, that's a full month earlier than he started this season, then throw in the Ardennes and a GT with that and you're almost back up to 34 racedays already. I expect him to land at 45-50 racedays for the season, akin to Van der Poel's 2023 season. He also did a pretty bad schedule this year even given those 34 racedays because he wanted to focus on one-week stage races - I don't think 21 racedays in a GT is worse than 14 racedays in unfavourable Romandie and Suisse routes. I think upping the race days and doing more one-day races (even with the GT in mind) pushes him to/a bit past 1000 points and then hopefully he takes another step up on top of that.

I will say that I'm much more bullish on his Ardennes bid than you are - in lieu of a single specialist in this generation (even for Pogacar, it's probably the race where his trackrecord is the worst), he starts the season as one of the favourites, if not the favourite, for Flèche in my books.
 
I was personally weary of picking these types of riders that had a good first season as pros and are now fairly expensive. Last year I took a hit by having Per Strand Hagenes who was a similar pick to what Morgado is now. I preferred to stick with cheaper options that can have a good first year rather than hoping that someone like Morgado can reach 800-1000.

That said I did pick Riccitello who is just slightly cheaper than Morgado but I feel that having gotten most of his points from stage races it shows more consistency than someone who got a lot of points from just 3-4 one day results.
The guy finished 5th in Flanders as a 20 years old and didn't score many points in the 2nd half of the season. I think there's a huge upside in him with the right calendar and right form. Arguably this is a risky pick but he is exactly the type of rider that I can see going from 400 to 1500-ish points, considering his versatility and how UAE was able to develop young riders recently. It's far from guaranteed but if it happens, I don't want to be the one who missed out on picking him.
 
Pretty much every other year i remember to get my CQ team in before the deadline with hopes of possibly reaching mediocrity. Here’s the 2025 crop and why I thought they were good picks…



VAN AERT Wout - must get a clean run and some big wins this year, right?



VINGEGAARD HANSEN Jonas - even half crocked jonas came second at tdf and still looked like a classy rider. Unless he’s hit with big injuries again he should score bigger than last year



GROVES Kaden - is a better sprinter than results showed last year. Only one other manager agrees with me, but that could be good if groves really lights it up this season



HINDLEY Jai - has the ability. Probably needs circumstances to go his way, both within the race and the team orders. Only one other manager agrees with me, so maybe this was a bad choice?



HAGENES Per Strand - visma have been investing heavily in quality young riders for some time - it’s time for someone to make a big splash. I like Hagenes for their classics squad now that the can dijks have gone (only 10 picks - is he too expensive for the risk of little return?)



MIHKELS Madis - great performance at PR. Has been on my team before and a change of team could see him pick up some bigger results



WELSFORD Sam - a better sprinter than last year’s results showed. A surprisingly rare pick (only 11 teams)



HAYTER Ethan - a move to QS has often resulted in his type of rider making a marked improvement. Things weren’t working at ineos, but he has ability and a decent kick - usually a good combo.



JAKOBSEN Fabio - see groves/welsford, but less rare



UIJTDEBROEKS Cian - poor last year. Maybe he gets a chance to ride as a second guy in GC for visma and puts together some results. Everyone’s got him



GARCIA CORTINA Ivan - now that lazkano has gone he goes back to being the Movistar guy for classics (unique pick)



KOPECKY Matyas - good young sprinter. A bunch of good placings will be enough to turn a profit (only 2 picks)



STAUNE-MITTET Johannes - gets to ride for himself for the first time after a team move



GEOGHEGAN HART Tao - big injury last year - unassuming guy, but if he’s fully fit should do much better



TORRES ARIAS Pablo - future superstar. Could he hit the ground running at UAE?



KÄMNA Lennard - team change could give him the lease of life he needs



DEL GROSSO Tibor - talented youngster



CARTHY Hugh - horrible last year, shouldn’t be as poor again



MASNADA Fausto - there’s always hope, right?



AUGUST Andrew - talented youngster



KRON Andreas Lorentz - a team change could give him opportunity to pick up form again



BISIAUX Léo - talented youngster



SVESTAD-BAARDSENG Embret - talented youngster (unique pick)



VERMEERSCH Florian - could be a big player on cobbles for UAE



KAMP Alexander - small outlay for a decent rider



SKERL Daniel - talented youngster



PESCADOR CASTRO Diego Fernando - talented youngster



VAN BAARLE Dylan - another of visma’s 2024 woes. Can’t be as bad again and absolutely peanuts to pay for a guy this classy



GESBERT Elie - dirt cheap for a capable rider



DHONDT Robbe - talented youngster (unique pick - so maybe that is more in hope than expectation!)



VANDENABEELE Henri - talented youngster (only 5 picks - a few years on from his promising 2022 season, but hopefully he picks up this year)



WITHEN PHILIPSEN Albert - will it be the big points first season? Maybe, maybe not, but he’ll beat 0!



SEIXAS Paul - see above





I forgot ciccone even existed and decided against a few others (Nys, bagioli, gloag etc) that others trusted, but somehow I’d never even heard of Dinham!



Ah well. Thanks Skidmark for organising.
 
He is likely starting his season in Itzulia, that's a full month earlier than he started this season, then throw in the Ardennes and a GT with that and you're almost back up to 34 racedays already. I expect him to land at 45-50 racedays for the season, akin to Van der Poel's 2023 season. He also did a pretty bad schedule this year even given those 34 racedays because he wanted to focus on one-week stage races - I don't think 21 racedays in a GT is worse than 14 racedays in unfavourable Romandie and Suisse routes. I think upping the race days and doing more one-day races (even with the GT in mind) pushes him to/a bit past 1000 points and then hopefully he takes another step up on top of that.

I will say that I'm much more bullish on his Ardennes bid than you are - in lieu of a single specialist in this generation (even for Pogacar, it's probably the race where his trackrecord is the worst), he starts the season as one of the favourites, if not the favourite, for Flèche in my books.
That's a very good take. 21 race days in a GT might not be worse than 14 race days in Romandie and Suisse. But does the Tour race days replace Romandie and Suisse? Or do they replace his race days in, say, Hongrie in which he scored 200+ points? We completely agree that he should - and probably will - do more one-day races instead. From what I've seen - and heard - his two biggest weaknesses seem to be endurance and positioning, which are both crucial skills in the Ardennes - although he did look good in Bretagne, which is a very long race as well. Obviously I don't hope to be proven wrong, but I'm - from a non-CQ game perspective - thrilled to see what he can do next year.
 
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There seems to be a lot of common picks this year. Seventeen of my picks are shared with more than 30 teams, so I won’t add any more comments for them (Uijdebroeks, Van Baarle, Vermeersh, Tao, Albert Philipsen, Kron, Seixas, Gloag, Hayter, Bagioili, Tullet, Cavagna, Behrens, Bisiaux, Magnier, Brennan, Staune-Mittet)

However, my six most expensive picks were all relatively rare (which is either exciting or worrying)

Thibau Nys (popularity 20) – with so many races/stages seeming to have an uphill sprint finish he seemed a no brainer to me

Neilson Powless (5) – so versatile, consistent in one day races and also able to perform in stage races.

Laurence Pithie (15) – like Nys, seems on the verge of being a top 20 rider and can score in so many races

Mathias Vacek (1) – surprised he is a unique pick. He was expensive and lacks a fast finish, but he should be able to score across a range of hard one day races and still time trial well.

Filippo Ganna (25) – poor year last year and without distraction of the track and Ineos needing some performances on the road, think he might be best value of anyone

I also have;

Samuel Watson (3) – Ineos don’t have a sprinter so hope he will be used in a range of races this year

Matevz Govekar (3) – versatile sprinter in team with limited sprint options

Tom Donnenwirth (5) – picked ahead of LaFay as my team was very tight on points. FDJ has limited GC guys for smaller GC races and Donnenwirth was pretty good last year in .Pro and lower level races

Simon Carr (5) – moved to Cofidis where he might get more chances for GC

Arne Marit (3) – why not

I didn’t pick

Vingegaard – didn’t want to pick such an expensive rider as it would limit the rest of my team. Hoping 3 x 600pt riders will be better than Vingegaard and 2 low scorers.

Van Aert – maybe missed out on him, but not sure where he is now in terms of level in terms of the really big wins. He will focus on the most competitive races so might limit his overall scoring.

LaFay – nearly picked him, but so inconsistent I went with others

Plapp – again close, but don’t think his climbing is good enough to allow him to finish high up in one week races (but just watch him win TDU!)

Good luck to everyone. In the end I like this competition as it gives me a reason to watch more races. It is also fun to follow some lesser known riders.
 
When it comes to Nys I have to say that I just don't trust a Belgian that bleaches his hair to continue peforming for much longer.

See Gilbert 2011 and Vandenbroucke 1999.
Haha. Good pun.
However, in contrast to the earlier two, Nys' hair bleaching stunt can be linked more to a popcultural hype. Which doesn't mean I like it, but at least it worries me less.
 
my team:

VAN AERT Wout 1259
MOHORIC Matej 734
NYS Thibau 702
LAMPERTI Luke 495
GALL Felix 459
LUTSENKO Alexey 345
DEMARE Arnaud 316
TILLER Rasmus Fossum 269
HAYTER Ethan 263
LAMPAERT Yves 220
GLIVAR Gal 220
SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro 177
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian 176
NORDHAGEN Jørgen 165
GELDERS Gil 165
BRENNAN Matthew 146
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao 137
RONDEL Mathys 131
DE SCHUYTENEER Steffen 125
DALBY Simon 125
TORRES ARIAS Pablo 122
CARUSO Damiano 120
KÄMNA Lennard 108
BAGIOLI Andrea 106
CAVAGNA Rémi 80
KRON Andreas Lorentz 68
BISIAUX Léo 63
VERMEERSCH Florian 51
PESCADOR CASTRO Diego Fernando 41
VAN BAARLE Dylan 35
PEDRERO Antonio 30
TULETT Ben 27
ERZEN Zak 20


the usual mix of:

Riders I had last year - they either disappointed (Hayter, Pedrero, Sosa) or I think they still have potential to score lots more (Nys (year 3 in my team), Lamperti, Rondel). I fear that not picking Magnier may be a similar issue to the one I had when I picked van Wilder in 2022 but not in 2023. It is also unlikely I would have picked many of these if they had not been on my team last year
Riders I shortlisted during the season - a surprising number made it this year, normally I have no idea why several are on this list when I get around to building my team and discard them
Riders who had poor seasons - all those mentioned by several others already but with added Mohoric, Lutsenko, Caruso and Tiller
The kids - I basically checked the Avenir and Giro Next Gen results and picked a few riders. who seem very promising are on pro teams this year (which is why I did not pick Widar). This seems to have worked as my picks in this category seem very popular (apart from Dalby)

no 0 score riders this year which, with hindsight, could be a mistake. I wanted to reach 7,500 exactly and Pedrero (my only unique pick) made that possible. picking Philipsen and being 30 points short might have been a better strategy. I also totally missed Dinham and Vliegen in this category.
other riders I totally missed (I also missed Capiot last year) are Senechal and Gesbert.

I have not followed the off-season so I have little clue about injury and schedule updates, which lots of people take into acocunt.

I am a bit surprised how popular Hayter is whilst I am a bit surprised / concerned about the lack of popularity of riders like Lampaert, Mohoric, Lamperti and Tiller. On the other side of things I am in no way surprised about the lack of popularity of Damiano Caruso!
 
Among all the revelations of thoughts and philosophies behind the teams, the one I'm really looking to hear from is @Tricycles : 21 unique picks; only 2 riders that are on more than 10 teams; Caleb Ewan as the most popular pick; bang on budget, but only 188 points difference between the most expensive and the cheapest rider.

Huh?
now that what I call an effort in attempt to beat Collective Ignorance team :)
 
Also can u tell me why this neo-pros was picked a lot less than others? Seemed like good talents to me, but again, i don't know much about youngsters, so it will be great to pick up your brain on them.

ISIDORE Noa

SENTJENS Sente

VAN DER MEULEN Max

VAN MECHELEN Vlad
Sente Sentjens is an exellent young procpect! He could do sprints, TTs, and Classics among the juniors. He maxed out 1500 watts in the sprint at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, which he won easily. Honestly there is so much potential in that kid!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmZM0xDXPgg


His father (Roy) is former professonal with Rabobank and Lotto and winner of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in 2003. His mother Inn Stevens, won the national Belgian champioships in the junior category back in 1998.

His price tag was 89 points I see. I found that a little too high for a development squad rider, but depending on your narrative for success, I guess it could work out. If your OK with a smaller profit at least- Personally there were other options in that price range I found more reliable at least in 2025.

Noa Isidore is a puncher/fast man type rider who theoretically could vacuum some good points if Decathlon knit together a solid French calendar for him! I am a bit more skeptical about how he matches up against international talent though - by all means, he is a good prospect, I'm just not quite sold on him yet.

Admittedly I do have a weakness for riders who power up the climb to Motuvun. + His rider repertoire is CQ-friendly, so I can see the signs of a potentially solid pick in 2025.
 
I'm top of the table!


If the table is the cost of your team last year: it identifies how much we rely (too much, as ever, for me) on picking up riders on the evidence of previous seasons as identifying potential for what they might do this year.

Top 10 and bottom ten:
1Armchair cyclist20842
2Boris9820485
3NorthAmericanScum19593
4Total Package18925
5Samu Cuenca18735
6PandaClaws18429
7MADRAZO18034
8Shakes17877
9ingsve16614
10del196216589
...
87Mushroom7854
88Nevs7831
89Tricycles7551
90JumboVismaFan7149
91RedheadDane6939
92LosBrolin6836
93Josedin6776
94DJW6117
95AlTarf_ua5955
96armchairclimber5600

A neat symmetry in my near namesake being at the other end of the table.
 
no ne picked Oscar Sevilla?! That's a bit disappointing!

Personally I didn't really invest much time this year, so obviously missed some of the popular youngsters. But as most of you missed Nizzolo instead, I guess I should be fine. Can't see much reason why he wouldn't score 500+ points.

I did consider Sevilla, but he was up against the likes of Roglič, Carr, Van Lerberghe and Goosens.

Nizzolo will most likely improve, but I'm not sure he's able to score more than 500 points anymore. He lost out to TGH on my team.

She's probably not going to win.

At this point, I'm not sure Tricycles is a woman (or even an actual human), unlike Tricycle Rider.
 
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GANNA Filippo
644​
(25)
HEALY Ben
637​
(15)
POOLE Max
603​
(8)
JOHANNESSEN Tobias Halland
559​
(10)
GALL Felix
459​
(22)
SCHMID Mauro
420​
(10)
PENHOËT Paul
415​
(15)
MORGADO Antonio Tomas
411​
(16)
MAGNIER Paul
405​
(37)
DEMARE Arnaud
316​
(14)
BRAET Vito
268​
(3)
HAYTER Ethan
263​
(58)
TEUTENBERG Tim Torn
253​
(17)
ROMEO ABAD Ivan
219​
(9)
JAKOBSEN Fabio
189​
(31)
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian
176​
(80)
NORDHAGEN Jørgen
165​
(52)
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao
137​
(71)
DE SCHUYTENEER Steffen
125​
(20)
TORRES ARIAS Pablo
122​
(70)
MILESI Lorenzo
116​
(2)
BEHRENS Niklas
115​
(46)
KAJAMINI Florian Samuel
96​
(11)
BAX Sjoerd
86​
(8)
KRON Andreas Lorentz
68​
(70)
BISIAUX Léo
63​
(37)
BRUTTOMESSO Alberto
54​
(7)
CALZONI Walter
45​
(4)
VAN BAARLE Dylan
35​
(75)
PICKERING Finlay
34​
(4)
SEIXAS Paul
0​
(66)
DINHAM Matthew
0​
(40)
PHILIPSEN Albert Withen
0​
(70)

I think this is the first time I've not had a unique pick.

I had a shortlist of 75 riders. Tried to make a team with Ving or Wout but I couldn't squeeze in the riders I really wanted so gave that up and I wasn't confident enough about either to make them "must-haves". So in the end I've gone down my usual (unsuccessful) route of stacking with mid-price picks.

My last (most likely worst) picks were Jakobsen, Gall and Uijtdebroeks (although it looks like everyone has him). Also starting to regret Demare. With all of these, when they flop it's going to be a case of "well, duh".

I'll pick out a few riders to talk about including my holdovers from last year's team.

Poole - ticks a lot of boxes for me. Young, improving, missed a chunk of last season but then got a GT under his belt where he showed well in breaks but didn't quite manage a win.

Penhoet - I think it was this day last year (after I'd already picked him) that his team announced he'd miss the first few months of the season with a knee injury. When he did come back he was decent straight away and fairly consistent but his season was a bit of a crashfest to the point of watching from behind the sofa. He was quite resilient and kept bouncing back a few weeks later so hoping for better luck this time.

Morgado - I thought I had to get him because I thought (wrongly) that everyone would have him. I guess a big factor this year is (with Hirschi and Ulissi leaving) who are UAE going to farm the smaller races with ? I think Morgado is one possibility although there are others. I had Baroncini on my shortlist and wouldn't be surprised to see him do well.

Milesi - no question he was disappointing for me last year but I had renewed enthusiasm when he got a 2nd place in a reduced bunch sprint in one of the end of season Italian races. That's something I didn't think he had and he did enough to hint at a breakout now that he's had a year to settle in at Movistar.

Pickering - cheap pick last year who didn't race much but hinted at some talent. Had a horror crash in Italy which didn't help but looked like he belonged at this level a couple of months later in Tour de Suisse. Hoping to see a lot more of him this season.

Dinham - considering I picked him last year it would have been difficult to overlook him for 0 this year. Don't think I've ever picked a rider before who just completely disappeared without much explanation despite weekly google searches. Was it clinic issues? Well apparently not since he managed a few DNFs at some point. His absence appeared to be something to do with a foot injury but since then he's signed a new contract so he must have at least convinced the team that it's not more money down the drain.
 
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Collective Wisdom team

The most popular 32 riders fit comfortably within the budget, to the extent that the most expensive of the riders on 22 teams can be included to round out the team.

Could I ask @skidmark to include that group in the spreadsheet (I usually put them at the bottom of the results page so that they don't interfere with the rankings.

UIJTDEBROEKS Cian
VAN BAARLE Dylan
VERMEERSCH Florian
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao
TORRES ARIAS Pablo
PHILIPSEN Albert Withen
KRON Andreas Lorentz
SEIXAS Paul
KÄMNA Lennard
GLOAG Thomas
VAN AERT Wout
HAYTER Ethan
BAGIOLI Andrea
TULETT Ben
NORDHAGEN Jørgen
CAVAGNA Rémi
BEHRENS Niklas
DINHAM Matthew
SENECHAL Florian
BISIAUX Léo
WIDAR Jarno
MAGNIER Paul
LAFAY Victor
VINGEGAARD HANSEN Jonas
BRENNAN Matthew
GESBERT Elie
STAUNE-MITTET Johannes
JAKOBSEN Fabio
CARTHY Hugh
VADER Milan
GANNA Filippo
AUGUST Andrew
GALL Felix


Those who have most, and least, of those 33 (obviously a high correlation to the popularity rankings:


And those who have spent most (or least) on riders among the Collective Wisdom group: