The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Shakes]

Great feature - thanks for all the work you do

I did notice that I had a 3 rider overlap with the Danes team and knew I had 6 Danish riders on my team.
I wondered which 3 Danes I picked which were obviously the wrong Danes.

But when I compared we shared four riders Lund, Kron, Kamp and Philipsen.

Is it possible your code doesn't count zero-point riders (in this case Albert Withen

(and the wrong riders if any wonders were Per Hagenes and Jorgen Noordhagen)

Not behind PC now but will check Monday. I think because 0 riders effectively did not exist as of end of year 2024 they are excluded in the code indeed. Since Albert Withen was not in the data for 2024 he is excluded. I need to manually insert a 0 score for all riders at end of year if they did not have points. Then feature will work correctly.

 

[Kazistuta]

That would be way premature for Ineos. The race to stay in the WT is in it's final year for this cycle and they are in 5th place so they are nowhere near at risk of getting relegated so it would be utterly pointless to go chase points just for the hell of it. Best to just focus on developing their riders well.

I guess it's almost impossible to be pointless when chasing points...? /RedheadDane mode

 

[hayneplane]

Considering Pogacar is in his own tier, that would mean hanging with guys like Van Eetvelt or Gall. Surely it's too early for that.

Maybe not literally so. Was thinking more if he can be similar to Remco 2019 in his neo pro year who was 56 seconds down on Valverde/Roglic/Gaudu, only 12 seconds behind Tom Dumoulin and beating the likes of Kwiatkowski and Nibali. That effort put him at 15th on the summit finish of Jebel Hafeet.

Something like that would be a strong performance.

 

[RedheadDane]

I guess it's almost impossible to be pointless when chasing points...? /RedheadDane mode

If you're pointless, that would be a very good reason to be chasing points, so you can become pointhaving.
I'm currently pointless, I hope that has been fixed by the end of TDU, preferably before.

 

[Nevs]

I hope you mean they were the wrong Danes, because they are in fact Norwegians.

I was disappointed that @RedheadDane didn't have Niklas Larsen, but that means I'll have a chance of victory in the game if he and Taaramäe suddenly start winning everything.

oh - you're thinking of Danes in the modern sense rather than the greater Dane law which extends from the shores of North America to the Rus... <stumbles in embarrassment>

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Nys is also doing GP Indurain and Eschborn-Frankfurt, it might be a really explosive first month of his season for everyone who has him.

 

[abbulf]

Nys is also doing GP Indurain and Eschborn-Frankfurt, it might be a really explosive first month of his season for everyone who has him.

That sounds like good news for me. I picked him based on his obvious potential, but I have been a bit worried based on what has been known of his race program so far. I was hoping he would be doing some smaller one day races.

 

[Shakes]

Great feature - thanks for all the work you do

I did notice that I had a 3 rider overlap with the Danes team and knew I had 6 Danish riders on my team.
I wondered which 3 Danes I picked which were obviously the wrong Danes.

But when I compared we shared four riders Lund, Kron, Kamp and Philipsen.

Is it possible your code doesn't count zero-point riders (in this case Albert Withen

(and the wrong riders if any wonders were Per Hagenes and Jorgen Noordhagen)

Fixed (I think)!

https://www.savius.at/CQGame/cqgame.php?page=Team&TeamId=58&Ranking=74

Now correctly states four.

 

[RedheadDane]

My guys for the TDU:

Johansen
Lund
Norsgaard
Pedersen
Withen

 

[postmanhat]

That would be way premature for Ineos. The race to stay in the WT is in it's final year for this cycle and they are in 5th place so they are nowhere near at risk of getting relegated so it would be utterly pointless to go chase points just for the hell of it. Best to just focus on developing their riders well.

Didn't word that very well, and was thinking more that they need to diversify their calendar from one that was basically just WT, and very little else. They're not a team that can afford to do that any more, and won't be for a long while. New signings Laurance and Watson would be much more succesful for them in lower-ranked races, and riders like Turner always would have been.

 

[ingsve]

Didn't word that very well, and was thinking more that they need to diversify their calendar from one was basically just WT, and very little else. They're not a team that can afford to do that any more, and won't be for a long while. New signings Laurance and Watson would be much more succesful for them in lower-ranked races, and riders like Turner always would have been.

Ya, having a white jersey calender like Visma now has changed their calender to include would probably be a good idea. They surely haven't been the best place for younger riders to go and develop. Now they have the development team though. But they still have riders that need to develop at the right level.

 

[Earns1985]

Fixed (I think)!

https://www.savius.at/CQGame/cqgame.php?page=Team&TeamId=58&Ranking=74

Now correctly states four.

Ok, so I have 22 riders in common with both @MADRAZO and @Devil's Elbow now.

 

[Earns1985]

Nys is also doing GP Indurain and Eschborn-Frankfurt, it might be a really explosive first month of his season for everyone who has him.

Question is still also, which grand tour he will ride. I think he will surely ride one this year.
With Pedersen not riding the tour, the likelihood of Nys doing the tour has increased in my eyes.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Question is still also, which grand tour he will ride. I think he will surely ride one this year.
With Pedersen not riding the tour, the likelihood of Nys doing the tour has increased in my eyes.

I always expected Nys to do the Tour. Thus Pedersen not doing it is good news for him because it means he should be the protected rider in any stage where Milan has been dropped. In light of these developments it's likely he would have been picked more than 20 times if the deadline had been the night of the TDU (ie today) rather than the night of the Aussie nats.

 

[Earns1985]

So the day has come, that the season really starts to kick-off.

While my expensive riders are not Down Under, I don´t have high expectations. But it will still be interesting, how a lot of popular picks will start the season.

My team Down under:

Brennan
Torres
Bagioli
Graat
Gloag
Schelling
van Baarle
A. Philipsen

Interesting will be, who the GC rider from Visma will be. While I think, that Brennan will be the man for the sprints, I am not that sure about the GC rider. Best thing for me would be, if Graat (9 picks) will get a chance to ride on his own, because Gloag (62 picks) and van Baarle (75 picks) are way more popular..

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Interesting will be, who the GC rider from Visma will be. While I think, that Brennan will be the man for the sprints, I am not that sure about the GC rider. Best thing for me would be, if Graat (9 picks) will get a chance to ride on his own, because Gloag (62 picks) and van Baarle (75 picks) are way more popular..

Visma have said Gloag is their plan A for this race. The Valencia 2023 Gloag could podium here, but I don't want to get my hopes up that much.

 

[Squire]

Interesting will be, who the GC rider from Visma will be. While I think, that Brennan will be the man for the sprints, I am not that sure about the GC rider. Best thing for me would be, if Graat (9 picks) will get a chance to ride on his own, because Gloag (62 picks) and van Baarle (75 picks) are way more popular..

Team tactics won't matter much, I think. What matters is what riders are in shape and motivated to ride for GC. It won't be up to Visma to make the race, so it's not like Graat is going to throw away GC chances he would otherwise have by pulling for Gloag (unless Gloag by some miracle ends up as race leader). They will probably both try to hang on as long as possible.

For most teams in most stage races, team hierarchy doesn't really matter that much for who scores how many GC points. Most teams won't be riding at the front. Which is part of why GC riders are often quite safe and preditctable picks for this game.

 

[abbulf]

Gloag is the one cheap rider that I completely missed. As such - even if I of course do not wish bad luck on anyone, it would not mind me if he decided to ride for his colleagues this week 😅

 

[ingsve]

For most teams in most stage races, team hierarchy doesn't really matter that much for who scores how many GC points. Most teams won't be riding at the front. Which is part of why GC riders are often quite safe and preditctable picks for this game.

Ya, unlike sprinters where it matters a lot more whether a pick gets to sprint or whether they are in the lead out train.

 

[postmanhat]

Belatedly, my team with a little analysis, but there probably isn't much to discuss as my heart invariably wins out over my head, particularly when it comes to the big decisions, and so I have a lot of rare, expensive riders;

AYUSO PESQUERA Juan
POWLESS Neilson
GANNA Filippo
CICCONE Giulio
GALL Felix
PLAPP Lucas
RICCITELLO Matthew
TILLER Rasmus Fossum
SIMMONS Quinn
VAN GESTEL Dries
TURNER Ben
SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian
BUCHMANN Emanuel
GELDERS Gil
STAUNE-MITTET Johannes
BRENNAN Matthew
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao
ENGELHARDT Felix
TORRES ARIAS Pablo
KÄMNA Lennard
LOUVEL Matîs
VAN DER HOORN Taco
DEL GROSSO Tibor
CAVAGNA Rémi
KRON Andreas Lorentz
FERRON Valentin
VERMEERSCH Florian
GLOAG Thomas
VAN BAARLE Dylan
TULETT Ben
SEIXAS Paul
PHILIPSEN Albert Withen


Ayuso v WVA. Would love to have included the latter, but too many doubts. Not sure the GTs will be the usual points-fests for him, his recovery from injury, and seeming increasing tendency to crash. Ayuso isn't much less risky perhaps, but couldn't get past the fact that he had 1000 points by the end of April last year, and could easily be on parity at least after the Giro.

Powless - Am choosing to assume that 2023 was the start of a meteoric rise, which was supported by his results after coming back from injury at the end of 2024. Seems competitive over nearly all terrains. Surprised he isn't more popular?

Ganna - Bit of a risk as he'll probably need a very good classics season to become a good pick. However, I like him more as a rider and person than the other options that were available.

Ciccone - If there's even a half-decent reason to select Ciccone, I'll take it. Hoping he'll ride a lot more one-day races this year, and focus less on GC. Whatever happens, there's always times throughout the season when you're glad he's on your team. See also Van Der Hoorn, Tiller, and Louvel

Gall - Probably should have thought a bit more about what being the GC leader for Decathlon would mean for his schedule., and points return. Not sure about this pick now tbh.

Plapp - Yes I got greedy for those early points, assuming he stays on his bike, could be at parity by the end of the Australian summer. After that, much less convinced, but he might begin developing as a rider.

Riccitello - Had him last year and was really impressed in the few races he showed his potential. Little bit crashy/naive, so hopefully he comes back stronger and wiser. Could be this year's Van Eetvelt and should have lots of opportunities to prove it at IPT

Simmons - Always have at least one rider who anonymously stays in the team until the final analysis, then can't be bothered to remove them. Last year it was Lopez, who was surprisingly successful. Hoping Simmons gets over his various psychological and physical issues to fulfil his promise.

Van Gestel v Hayter. Almost complete opposites. The potential upside for Hayter is obviously much bigger, but couldn't bear the thought of another season watching him hang around at the back of the peleton waiting to crash. Van Gestel is always to the fore, aggressive and can surely only improve at Soudal with those qualities? Plus he'll be easy to spot with his Meerkat style.

Sosa - Have never really had a rider for the Asian tour, so hoping he's still good enough for those unipuerto stage races, and a few others on Kein-Pharma's calendar.

Turner - Understandable that so few people still believe in him, but his performances at the end of last year were his best for a long while. He'll be given co-leadership at least in the classics given the departures from Ineos.

Most of the rest of are fairly common, with a couple of exceptions;

Gil Gelders - Was really impressed by some of his support riding last year, and hoping he gets a few more opportunities to show what he's capable of.

Englehardt/Ferron - both were very impressive in 2023 where I came to close to picking them. Being honest, not sure why they had such mediocre seasons last year, but don't want to miss out again if they return to form.

Completely missed a lot of popular riders - Senechal, Dinham, Behrens, Gesbert, Magnier. Don't mind if these do well as they were never part of the selection process.

These though will probably annoy me throughout the season as considered them, but couldn't quite fit them in due to the points combination, or my personal preference/ignorance - Bagioli, Nordhagen, Lafay, Widar, Bisiaux, Carthy, Vader.

Good luck everyone, Have loved reading all the comments.

TDU

Plapp
Brennan
Gloag
Van Baarle
Withen
Van Der Hoorn

 

[armchairclimber]

So maybe leaving Brennan out (too many Vismas already) was a mistake.

Bring on the hilly stuff

 

[Kazistuta]

We all knew he would be half-decent already. Especially in this weak field. You're not regretting not picking Walls (who's already almost on par with last season) either, are you?

 

[armchairclimber]

We all knew he would be half-decent already. Especially in this weak field. You're not regretting not picking Walls (who's already almost on par with last season) either, are you?

I' sure there'll be a few regrets, But I have some fun to look forward to with others.

 

[tobydawq]

We all knew he would be half-decent already. Especially in this weak field. You're not regretting not picking Walls (who's already almost on par with last season) either, are you?

While Walls almost already has broken even, he didn't look fast at all. But a good piece of positioning.

 

[Earns1985]

Dylan van Baarle with broken collar bone.