The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[armchairclimber]

After such a hectic few days, it seems weird to have a few quiet days (Rwanda aside). I might have to get some work done.

I thought my team might be light on classics riders .... probably is. But there are a few who might scrape a few points here and there.

Camino
KRON
PESCADOR

Omloop
CHAMBERLAIN
MIHKELS
BLACKMORE
KRIJNSEN

KBK
PENHOET
MIHKELS
KRIJNSEN
BITTNER

Faun races
J KRISTEN
UIJTDEBROEKS
NORDHAGEN
WIDAR
LAFAY
BELOKI

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

After such a hectic few days, it seems weird to have a few quiet days (Rwanda aside).

Yeah, I asked the UCI to ease off for a few days so that people would have time to get their teams together for the Spring Classics CQ game.

For as long as I have these photos, I can get such favours from them...

 

[Earns1985]

So even with a disaster in UAE (Gall and Riccitello crashing and missing splits in the wind) still more than 20 places up for me! Despite from Vingegaard and van Aert, especially Lafay, Widar, Staune-Mittet an Geoghegan Hart contributed to a good week.

It's not that I'm totally disappointed by the form of my expensive riders so far. It's more that they haven't yet participated in the races, where they really could score well (Magnier and Lipowitz, van Aert and Demare). Gall showed good form until his crash. Riccitello was ok until he missed the split, but has of course room for improvement..

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Picking Danes with K names (Kamp, Kron, Kasgreen) has not worked out yet, but at least I left out Kragh who's once again been hit by saddle sores.

 

[Earns1985]

Niklas Behrens out with fractured collarbone. Especially bad, because now the races are coming, where he could have potentially scored..

He is right now, one of the picks, which I regret the most. Even without his fracture, he was basically used as lead out rider in the first races, which means pretty limited points. Missing the classic season now means basically, that we have to hope for a good autumn schedule for him now.

 

[Squire]

Niklas Behrens out with fractured collarbone. Especially bad, because now the races are coming, where he could have potentially scored..

He is right now, one of the picks, which I regret the most. Even without his fracture, he was basically used as lead out rider in the first races, which means pretty limited points. Missing the classic season now means basically, that we have to hope for a good autumn schedule for him now.

I don't think it makes such a huge difference. I think the autumn would be his best bet anyway. Just look at Hagenes last year. Maybe Behrens could have snuck a decent result in some lesser spring classic, but there are a lot of people ahead of him in the queue at Visma.

 

[slow_climber]

Happy with how the season started and looking forward to the classics.

Bit annoyed I cut Romeo at the end of the selection process. I had him last year when he didn't really perform, so didn't keep the faith. Govekar was selected instead, so time will tell if that was a good idea

 

[will-10]

Insane that no-one saw Scaroni's 2000pt season coming

 

[ingsve]

Insane that no-one saw Scaroni's 2000pt season coming

Ya, I even had a hunch that Astana would go point hunting just like this which is why I put Kajamini in my team and I initially had Higuita there as well before cutting him but should perhaps have considered their other more expensive riders as well.

 

[skidmark]

Update #5: CQ game is seeing double

It was the busiest early-season week so far, and although the classics don't start in earnest until Het Nieuwsblad, we had a brace of warm-weather stage races in 3 European countries and the UAE. Lots of points on offer and therefore lots of combos of riders that would end up being quite successful. Let's see how it turned out.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Salvarani	601
2	armchairclimber	594
3	Kazistuta	561
4	Squire	547
5	Fivezzz	522

Well, 5 weeks in, and we have our 2nd 2-time weekly winner! After marksi won weeks 2 and 4, Salvarani says 'hold my beer' and takes weeks 3 and 5! As the only team to top 600 points this week, Salvarani has a few riders on their team to thank: perhaps surprisingly, their top scorer is Giulio Ciccone (167 points, 9 teams), who won the 'best of the rest' contest in the middle east. They also got triple digit contributions from two other runners-up in Joao Almeida (125, 4) and Santiago Buitrago (122, 2).

armchairclimber ended in 2nd place thanks to a spread of riders: Oscar Onley (117, 2), Ivan Romeo (109, 9), Lenny Martinez (91, 4), Jan Christen (87, 14) and Joe Blackmore (72, 3) among them. Kazistuta grabs the final podium spot as the top owner of Vingegaard (175, 33) this week, while also having Ciccone.

This Week's High Movers

Team	Up/down
Kazistuta	(+32)
Shakes	(+23)
armchairclimber	(+22)
Earns1985	(+21)
laarsland	(+19)

Kazistuta tops this ranking though, moving up a full third of the table this week, ie 32 places. Shakes moves up 23 spots with Vingegaard and 80 points from Kwiato (3 teams) and 60 from Staune-Mittet (32 teams).

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Salvarani	110
2	marksi	106
3	Jakob747	72
4	peixotini	57
5	Squire	56

Salvarani takes the top spot from marksi this week, as both are well ahead in this competition. Jakob747 keeps some pace by earning 15 points this week, while Squire gets 26 on the week to enter the top 5 overall.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(+1)	Jakob747	1970
2	(-1)	marksi	1962
3	(+2)	Salvarani	1875
4	(-1)	Gotland	1661
5	(+2)	triley36	1567
6	(-2)	DJ Sprtsch	1566
7	(+7)	Squire	1556
8	(-)	peixotini	1545
9	(+2)	skidmark	1506
10	(-4)	Lortnoc	1490

Jakob is back in first, just barely displacing marksi by 8 points. Salvarani was already doing well before this week and moves up 2 to 3rd overall. Squire and skidmark re-enter the top 10 at the expense of DJW and Sneekes.

This week doesn't have 4 stage races, but it still has a lot - the under-attended Tour of Rwanda winds up with an opportunity for decent points for rare picks, while O Gran Camino rolls through Spain. But the big attention will be on Opening Weekend, with OHN on Saturday and KBK on Sunday. And for the CQ Game fans, don't forget about the two 1.PS races in France on those same days, Faun Ardeche and Drome.

spreadsheet link

(note: apologies last week for those that couldn't get the link to work. Not sure what happened, but I missed the comments until now as I was travelling and not checking up. Will be more present the next month for sure)

 

[armchairclimber]

Thanks for the update @skidmark . It was a decent week. There is a discrepency between your speadsheet and the one on Shakes' page, which tallies with my own. We have me on 1394 in 16th, whereas I'm 1367 and 18th on the Dropbox sheet.

Edit: just found the anomaly. Clement Izquierdo 27 points. There's an accent on the first "e". Though I am pretty sure I copied and pasted all the names from the CQ site for my entry.

On the up side, he's a unique pick

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Thanks for the update @skidmark . It was a decent week. There is a discrepency between your speadsheet and the one on Shakes' page, which tallies with my own. We have me on 1394 in 16th, whereas I'm 1367 and 18th on the Dropbox sheet.

Edit: just found the anomaly. Clement Izquierdo 27 points. There's an accent on the first "e". Though I am pretty sure I copied and pasted all the names from the CQ site for my entry.

On the up side, he's a unique pick

CQ have removed the accent, but it has been left on the spreadsheet. See what I did there?

 

[armchairclimber]

CQ have removed the accent, but it has been left on the spreadsheet. See what I did there?

Took me a minute or two ..... I left Spain 20 years ago

 

[Earns1985]

Kooij not scheduled anymore for Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne should mean good news for us van Aert owners..

EDIT: Kooij is now in again..

 

[ingsve]

Sören Waerenskjold is getting a tough week in march. According to PCS he's riding both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico at the same time.

 

[zigzag wanderer]

Looks like Matthew Dinham may be ready to start his season.

Listed here as a reserve for Faun Ardeche.

https://cyclingpro.net/spaziociclismo/startlist/ardeche-classic-2025-la-startlist/

The news some of us have been waiting for - unfortunately since last season in my case

 

[Earns1985]

Nordhagen again dropped from startlists of the french races this weekend.

I wonder, what´s up with him. In Oman (2 weeks ago), they said he was sick. Perhaps now, he still lacks form..

 

[ingsve]

Nordhagen again dropped from startlists of the french races this weekend.

I wonder, what´s up with him. In Oman (2 weeks ago), they said he was sick. Perhaps now, he still lacks form..

Ya, it's been a lot of this happening. Last season he dropped several races as well with illness.

At least it's still early season. Last year he didn't start racing on the bike until April since he finished his skiing season in February.

 

[Earns1985]

My line-up for the weekend:

Omloop:
van Aert
Brennan
Magnier
Senechal
Vermeesch
Schelling

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
van Aert
Demare
Senechal
Vermeesch
Schelling

Faun Ardeche:
Uijtdebroeks
Graat
Tulett
Bagioli
Geogeghan Hart
Widar
Lafay
Cavagna
Riccitello

Drome:
van Baarle
Graat
Uijtdebroeks
Tulett
Cavagna
Geogeghan Hart
Bagioli
Lafay
Widar
(perhaps also Riccitello, as Israel didn´t announce their full roster yet)

Gran Camino:
Kron

So big weekend ahead here!

 

[bminchow]

Nordhagen again dropped from startlists of the french races this weekend.

I wonder, what´s up with him. In Oman (2 weeks ago), they said he was sick. Perhaps now, he still lacks form..

This is disappointing. Lets just hope he is behind on training due to sickness.

 

[Earns1985]

Widar for some not mentioned reason also out..

 

[Netserk]

This is disappointing. Lets just hope he is behind on training due to sickness.

Laporte's viral infection was in January, but he has been pulled out of Strade and is doubtful for Sanremo because he still hasn't been able to train properly. So it could take some time for Nordhagen as well.

 

[postmanhat]

Omloop
Brennan
Gelders
Van Gestel
Vermeersch
Louvel
Turner

Mostly looking forward to seeing how Turner goes. He was looking very sharp at Andalucia.

Ardeche
Ayuso
Tullet
Uijtdeberoeks
Cavagna
Simmons
Hart
Riccitello

First race of the season for Ayuso, so not expecting much, especially given UAE's lineup. Maybe Riccitello?

 

[armchairclimber]

I feel a bit remiss now because I failed to mention, in my summation of the week, Juan Martinez, who has been creeping up the GC in Rwanda, currently 9th, with the big climbing stages to come. Go Juan!!

 

[del1962]

Camino

Just Kron

Nobody in Rwanda

Faun-Ardeche

Healy - finally starts
Tullett
Tao
Cavagna

Omloop

Wout VA
Asgreen
Edmondson
Schelling

KBK
Wout
Asgreen
Edmondson
Schelling

Fan Drome

Tullett
Van Baarle apparently returns
Tao
Cavagna
Healy


So I am hopig WVA and Healy get some good points