The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[hayneplane]

Most of my GC types are still trying to get warm and dry in Catalunya and most of them have already lost hope of a top tier position.

Hoping for good things in Coppi-Bartali with Nordhagen and Widar with the latter in one of his bigger races of the calendar.

E3 should tell a lot on whether Wout Van Aert can get some results this year or be a drag anchor on the team.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Something that caught my eye this week: the former winners who have entered this year are having a really rough time so far. There are 7 of them, these are their ranks:

35. EvansIsTheBest
44. skidmark
45. Object
47. shalgo
56. Blues in the bottle
57. ingsve
90. bminchow

Nobody in the upper third, and an average rank of 53.4 - overall, they are collectively doing worse than the other 89 of us.

So, if your team is struggling, know that at least you're in good company...

Yes but apparently Matthew Brennan is never going to lose a bike race again in his career so I'll be fine in the long run.

 

[Earns1985]

Yes, busy week ahead!

My riders for this week:

Catalunya:
Gall
Riccitello
Staune-Mittet
Geoghegan Hart
Brennan
Kämna
Torres
Carthy
Gesbert
Schelling

Well, even without Vingegaard a stron line-up, altough I only expect GC points from Gall, Riccitello and Geoghegan Hart and perhaps stage points from Brennan.

From now on I will just stop to have any expectations on Gall. Expectation from my side is always 0 points from now on. Otherwise it's just too frustrating to follow him...

 

[repre]

From now on I will just stop to have any expectations on Gall. Expectation from my side is always 0 points from now on. Otherwise it's just too frustrating to follow him...

it was super fun to have him 2 years ago. Don't know what happened to him since last year

 

[Earns1985]

it was super fun to have him 2 years ago. Don't know what happened to him since last year

It´s not like he didn´t show his potential this year. He was at the first mountain stage and until his crash the second best climber in the UAE and he also showed strong performances the last two mountain stages in Paris-Nice.
The thing is, that it seems, that he does not take the general classification of these stage races serious. He always looses time somewhere like yesterday, just because he doesn´t ride, where a GC contender should ride, if he wants to end up high in the GC in the end.

 

[skidmark]

Update #9: Rufs' Week is Rough Week for Others

The first monument is in the bag, and after a bevy of one-day races, let's see how things shook out this week.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Rufs	666
2	Pantani4ever	605
3	Qazaqstan	580
4	Senderos	569
5	RestInPunk	560

This week belongs to Rufs, who pulls in a sinful number of points - 666 to be precise. This is thanks to some spread out success on their team - Luke Lamperti led the way with 144 points (owned by 6 teams), Matt Brennan brought in 130 (for 33 teams) even before his impressive Catalunya stage which will count for this week, while Ben Tulett (110, 56), Florian Vermeersch (104, 74) and unique pick Mads Pedersen (90) got Rufs on top. Pantani4ever lands in 2nd place, continuing an impressive four week run of finishing 2nd, 2nd, 6th, 2nd on the week. This week it's Filippo Ganna (170, 25) that's the star, with Tulett/Vermeersch helping out as well as Lewis Askey (69, 2), Vito Braet (64, 2) and Ethan Vernon (58, 12). Qazaqstan holds down third spot thanks to a team with a Ganna/Brennan/Vermeersch/Tulett combo.

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	Rufs	(+28)
2	Senderos	(+20)
2	tobydawq	(+20)
4	Shakes	(+13)
5	RestInPunk	(+12)

Rufs doubles up here, rising a big 28 spots in the standings. Since Pantani4ever and Qazaqstan have been on hot streaks recently, they didn't have as far to move up, clearing space in this standings for Senderos (Ganna/Brennan/Vermeersch/Tulett) and tobydawq (same combo) to split 2nd by moving up 20 spots.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Pantani4ever	131
2	Salvarani	124
3	marksi	106
4	Qazaqstan	101
5	adamski101	98

Pantani4ever's aforementioned 4-week heater translates to a change at the top of the Green Jersey standings, with their team nabbing 35 more points to send Salvarani out of top spot. Qazaqstan has finished in the top 12 each of the last 4 weeks as well, and sees a corresponding jump into the top 5 here.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	Jakob747	3243
2	(-)	Salvarani	3119
3	(+3)	Pantani4ever	3104
4	(-1)	postmanhat	3102
5	(-1)	search	3093
6	(+3)	slow_climber	3000
7	(+1)	adamski101	2922
8	(-1)	peixotini	2890
9	(+3)	Qazaqstan	2870
10	(-5)	marksi	2852

Jakob747 remains atop the heap, but Salvarani gains another 80 points to make it relatively close at the top for the first time in several weeks. Pantani4ever continues to climb, although only 26 points separate 2nd-5th in the standings. Qazaqstan is the only newcomer to the top 10 this week, replacing DJW who slides out.

The spring keeps coming along and this week we've got alot of World Tour action with the Volta Catalunya, the cobbles triple threat of De Panne-E3-Gent-Wevelgem, and the lower-ranked Coppi e Bartali.

spreadsheet link

 

[bminchow]

Well done to the podium this week. A few nice, less popular picks there. And not sure how Pantani can be so good four weeks in a row. What depth! Alas, I have nowhere to go but up, and I am not sure I will be making much progress. I obviously overthought it this year.

 

[skidmark]

Okay is it finally time for my team to bounce back and start scoring? Let's see who I've got:

Catalunya

Pablo Torres
Ethan Hayter
Tao Geoghegan Hart (DNF'd already)
Lennard Kamna
Johannes Staune-Mittet
Tibor Del Grosso
Darren Van Bekkum

A representative vignette of how my year has been going since January: after the first stage, I had my heart broken by my relatively rare pick (Del Grosso) getting beaten by a monster performance from one of the last riders I decided to leave off my team (Brennan), but figured I had a few riders in the race and thought I'd check down the standings. And then I kept scrolling, and scrolling. TGH was sick and dropped out after. JS-M was my only other real kinda top 15 hope, but lost a fair bit too. I figured the finish was the type that a good Hayter would eat up, and thought maybe his positioning had once again doomed him. Nope, dead last, 15 minutes down. Ugh. At least Kamna is back on the road!

Coppi e Bartali

Thomas Gloag
Jorgen Nordhagen
Ben Tulett
Alan Hatherly
Milan Vader
Jarno Widar

I was hopeful for this lineup, and after the first uphill finish at least my two popular picks Widar and Tulett are up there. Vader is only a bit down but if he's actually as good as his Guangxi form in 2023 suggested, this should be his jam, so that's disappointing. Bummer to see Hatherly anonymous.

De Panne

Niklas Behrens
Sam Welsford
Fabio Jakobsen

Good lord! I thought beforehand that if there was one race Jakobsen could finish and contest it'd be this one, but it turns out basically no one could finish this race! 10th from Welsford is fine given the circumstances, honestly mostly glad I didn't have more riders in this race as it definitely has ruined a few spring seasons.

E3

Wout Van Aert
Josh Tarling

It's put up or shut up time for Van Aert. If he can get 2nd behind MVDP I'll be satisfied. Tarling has been resilient on the hills this year for his size, but I'm not expecting much so anything there would be a bonus.

Gent-Wevelgem

Josh Tarling

Okay then. Guess I'm hoping for him to get into a key move and the favourites don't chase because they have teammates up there, and then shows a strong sprint like he did in Paris-Nice. Otherwise I'm cheering defensively for a non-picked rider to win.

Doesn't look like my team will be moving up too far this week. Gotta hold my breath until the Ardennes...

 

[RedheadDane]

Gotta hold my breath until the Ardennes...

I'm not a medical expert. But... I'd advice against it.







(Meanwhile, Asgreen is missing all the spring classics....)

 

[armchairclimber]

Good news. Mihkels showed.
Bad News: probs aided by a gazillion crashes.

 

[search]

10th from Welsford is fine given the circumstances, honestly mostly glad I didn't have more riders in this race as it definitely has ruined a few spring seasons.

he stayed upright, at least, but 10th in a field of 6 sprinters left isn't exactly promising, of course. Can't say I'm too hopeful about him turning into a good pick.

Generally, another good week for me though, mostly due to Ayuso and Ganna of course. But the next weeks, Pithie and particularly Stuyven need to show up.

 

[zigzag wanderer]

I was in the exact same boat as you - I was intrigued because I had no memory of ever hearing about this rider before until I was making my longlist, I couldn't find anything about him, but the pattern of results seemed promising and Lotto is generally pretty good at a) developing talents and b) maximizing any chance they have to score UCI points, which meant if he's healthy they'll put him in a position to win. So I was like, why did he only ride 24 days in 2024? Why nothing really after May aside from a few DNFs? But I couldn't find anything, which made me even more intrigued. In the end, I needed someone about that price, and figured I'd take a flier because he probably wouldn't be popular and no one else spoke to me at that price really.

Ironically based on our last discussion about risk, I guess I wasn't risk-averse in this situation. I guess its easier at 200 points than 800+. Honestly I kind of do this every year, like there's someone I just decide to throw on at the end because they're a bit of a mystery and I'm just sick of combing through the list of riders trying to make a decision so I decide to go with something novel. Last year it was Zeb Kyffin and that worked out horribly (and Thomas Gloag, who I couldn't find any info on). So, probably not the worst choice of yours to not take him.

Any idea what's happening with Van de Paar? He keeps getting added to startlists, then just gets removed again. I had him last year, and it was incredibly frustrating.

He hasn't raced since July, and currently has nothing scheduled. I can't find any info about why he's not racing.

 

[manafana]

Any idea what's happening with Van de Paar? He keeps getting added to startlists, then just gets removed again. I had him last year, and it was incredibly frustrating.

He hasn't raced since July, and currently has nothing scheduled. I can't find any info about why he's not racing.

Yeah stranger not great when in March and nothing from team or rider to announce plans

 

[Earns1985]

It´s not like he didn´t show his potential this year. He was at the first mountain stage and until his crash the second best climber in the UAE and he also showed strong performances the last two mountain stages in Paris-Nice.
The thing is, that it seems, that he does not take the general classification of these stage races serious. He always looses time somewhere like yesterday, just because he doesn´t ride, where a GC contender should ride, if he wants to end up high in the GC in the end.

And again Gall up there with the best climbers of the race only to climb up to 12 fantastic virtual GC points right now.

 

[postmanhat]

And again Gall up there with the best climbers of the race only to climb up to 12 fantastic virtual GC points right now.

Apparently there's a bit of wind tomorrow, so expect him to disappear again, then finish 3rd on the Queen stage

E3
Ganna
Turner
Vermeersch
Louvel
Van Der Hoorn
Tiller
Powless

Ganna withdrawing from G-W means that good result here becomes important. Powless looked decent again at MSR, but he's never ridden this race before I think.

 

[hayneplane]

Catalunya was looking good at the foot of the final climb with 2 of my team alone together up the road.

Riccitello rescued the day and can hopefully climb further up the top 10 in GC by the end of the week.

 

[RedheadDane]

Well, all my riders stayed upright in De Panne. Well... stayed upright enough to finish.

And then Salby's been doing his thing over in Thailand, which is quite nice.

 

[Earns1985]

Apparently there's a bit of wind tomorrow, so expect him to disappear again, then finish 3rd on the Queen stage

Nahh,, too optimistic. He will lose today 20 minutes in the crosswinds. Tomorrow a 20 man break will go without Gall in it. He will than at the end of the stage attack and gains one minute to the best climbers in the race. He catches 13 riders out of the break in the end, but he lets the last rider he overtook pass again, because he knows, that for a 8th place he will get one CQ stage point and this is definitely too much.

This is the standard we must set for Gall to not be dissapointed afterwards..

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I will only really be disappointed, if Gall fails to finish 18th for the third stage race in a row.

My decision to take Van der Hoorn over Salby seems to have worked out splendidly.

 

[RedheadDane]

Oh, hello. Pedersen into profit.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

The lesser spotted Matthew Dinham is on the PCS provisional startlist for the Tour of the Basque Country. Leo Bisiaux also scheduled to start his season next week. My team could use some added help because (Ganna apart) it's showing early signs of hitting the wall after a promising start.

I'm probably not the only player cursing their choice of Visma riders. My four have < 100 pts between them while Brennan and Tulett are game changers.

 

[RedheadDane]

The lesser spotted Matthew Dinham...

Didn't realise he was spotted.

 

[RedheadDane]

And Salby into profit!

Though, not by as much as he could have been if he'd bothered winning the last stage.

 

[will-10]

And again Gall up there with the best climbers of the race only to climb up to 12 fantastic virtual GC points right now.

That's why the Vines and Galls of the world were so cheap though, they've done this their whole careers (so far)

 

[armchairclimber]

Shame for Bittner (and me) today. Good effort though.